kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

[headandhand]

WHO: Open to all residents
WHAT: Your regularly scheduled NAPs event for the month
WHERE: The RoCocoa Cat Cafe
WHEN: Aug. 10-14
WARNINGS: Please use these if applicable!


Look at all of these bright, shining new faces! There’s even a few less bright, less shining faces, but hey, this city welcomes all types. Chances are, if you’ve just arrived, you're seeing some pretty crazy things, unless you're used to an eye-blinding amount of neon, robots, weird-ass technology, magic, and an omnipresent police force...and hey, if you are, congrats, you're gonna settle in juuuuust fine. But for the rest of you, the Head knows this has gotta be pretty overwhelming, right?

Well, since your quaint individual processing units are probably having a hard time, why not link up with another one? By which the Head means...

Hello, new citizens of Dualis,
and welcome to your monthly Network Adjacency Protocol~!

NAPs are a monthly community networking event similar to the Earth concept of speed dating! Two citizens (new arrivals and old hands alike) are placed at a table together with a handy cue card of queries to help break the proverbial ice. Ask queries and receive results, or ignore the card and yeet yourself straight into a brand new friendship! But don't be too shy, you've only got ten minutes together, and if you just sit in silence for the whole ten, the Network Admins are likely to come supervise and try to repair the uplink through a mild shock to the ol' central nervous system. You might find yourself saying all sorts of unintended facts about yourself if that happens...probably better to just make friends, right? Who doesn’t like friends?!

This month’s event is held at the brand new RoCocoa Cat Cafe, a sparkly new establishment that caters to children and the young at heart with iced and hot cocoa drinks of all kinds, delicious pastries, age-appropriate live music, and of course many friendly kitties who love to lounge in laps. The cats are of all shapes, sizes, and colors, including some who may look a little different from what you expect, or may look like an ordinary cat but are actually anything but ordinary underneath that adorable fur coat. All cats in the cafe are adoptable, too, if you meet a new furry friend and just can’t bear to go home without them!

So pull up a chair, get to know your new neighbors, and enjoy a sugary treat or two with the resident furbabies. You might just meet your new two- or four-legged best friend!

Comments

[etherealsage]

Rinoa pauses for several moments. This seems like a really strange place to actually go looking for someone. "Wait, do you mean like here at... whatever this is—" And by 'this' Rinoa means NAPs. "Or do you mean here as in the... town?" Because if Heather says the latter, then it means it's possible for someone to come voluntarily. And that... Well. That's going to shake Rinoa's world up a bit.

Nothing she can't handle, though.

Her head tilts and she nods slowly. "I mean... For the sake of not being on your own, I wanna say I hope you find your dad. But at the same time, it'd be better for those we know not to be here, right?" Unless Heather's world is worse than whatever is going on here. Maybe it's just the idea that Rinoa, while thrilled to have friends in the same area, isn't thrilled they're all there for something they didn't sign up for. It's no better than conscription and they're more like science experiments.

[merged]

"Here as in the NAPs." She confirms with a nod. As grand as the city liked to seem, Heather can't see anyone willingly coming to this place unless they had nothing else. She knows she'd have come here at one point if she'd been give the choice but that was a long time ago—now, the only thing that mattered was Chris.

"The place he's in is a thousand times worse than this shitty city," The town of Silent Hill, at its very best, was a death trap, the coal mine still burning beneath it's asphalt roads and rows of ash covered bus stops. At it's worse, it was hell; literal hell,"but it doesn't really matter where is worse. As long as we're apart, it's worse. I'd be just as happy to go home to him as I'd be to have him end up here."

"You're not wrong, though. Most people probably don't deserve to wind up here." The city has rung all her alarm bells since her arrival but it doesn't help that the day she arrived the park was bombed by terrorists with similar feelings of unease. It's all Not Good in her honest opinion.

[etherealsage]

Rinoa listens intently unable to keep her expression from growing the slightest bit sombre. Being apart from someone one is close to is never easy. She isn't sure whether it's better to be apart or if someone's in a worse world to be brought to this one. It'd make for an interesting topic of discussion and she makes a note to bring it up to Squall and Nida later to hear their various thoughts.

Her head tips and she taps at her chin thoughtfully, unsure of how to respond initially. "That's a tough one," she concludes. "I think 'worse' does make a difference. But the downside is if he comes from a worse place even here, it'd only be temporary. Which means eventually, he—and you—are gonna have to go back where you came from. Maybe this place makes it the lesser of two evils." It still doesn't sound good, no matter how she tries to spin it.

[merged]

"Really, as long as we're together, it doesn't matter which place is worse." As long as she can protect him the way he's always protected her, she'll accept whatever is thrown her way. Her heart stings. This is far from her favorite thing to speak on. She swallows a newly formed lump in her throat. Fuck, she misses her dad.

"Uh, I'm Heather, by the way," she finally introduces herself, shifting the conversation's focus,"Heather Mason."

[etherealsage]

It's a sweet, but sad thing to hear. Rinoa feels a slight twinge of envy because she's not sure she's close enough to anyone to feel that way. Like no matter what, the pair could overcome odds. It sounds like something out of a book, honestly. The idea's an appealing one, even if Rinoa, ever caught up in her optimism, realises it's not exactly realistic.

She gives Heather an apologetic smile. To the best of her ability.

Then she lifts a hand and waves. "Rinoa! It's nice to officially meet you."

Guess it's kind of too late to say sorry for asking uncomfortable questions, right? Yet again, another good first impression. And by 'good,' we mean not at all.

[merged]

"Nice meeting you, too" Heather tries to mimic the smile but it simply falls flat, her mood having sunken—not that it was in a great place to begin with,"I think I'm going to head back to the dorms, got my fill of cats, I think."

She turns towards the exit with a small wave,"Good luck with the rest of the NAPs, try not to run into anyone."

Her mood may be a little more dour than it was when she first came in but it's clear she's still capable of a little ribbing (don't worry, she knows she's just as much at fault).

[etherealsage]

Rinoa cannot help but chuckle. Heather is trying and she can appreciate that. Considering it's the least she can do since she kind of put Heather in the wrong place. "I don't blame you. Come visit again when I'm working and you can laugh at me. And I'll treat you to some cocoa without... the rest of this..." She gestures around absentmindedly, indicating the whole high energy atmosphere.

"And no promises. See, now I have to treat everyone the same way otherwise someone's gonna think you're getting special treatment." But perhaps much like Heather, Rinoa is teasing. Her features soften into something more sincere and she sends her new-found friend off with a wiggle of her fingers. "Take care, okay?"