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

[merged]

The way Heather speaks on these subjects is almost always purposefully vague, usually allowing the other person to take of it what they will. Not only is it easier to play off when they express doubt or fear but years of having to hide what she's seen and who she is and where she's from has made her protective of that knowledge, hesitant to share with just anyone.

That's changed some here but not much.

She nods her head very slowly as if admitting it is a touch difficult. She's well-aware just how insane it sounds but what is it in comparison to what they're dealing with now? Or the stories others have told? Hers is just a drop in the bucket; nothing.

"I spent my life running from them, pretending I saw nothing, that they were just nightmares that leaked into my reality somehow," She hates it. She's glad to be away and then that guilt comes in and how dare she be glad. She shrugs her shoulders like it's nothing. No biggie,"It doesn't really matter here now, though."

She seems to realize what sorts of things she's given away, looking away,"It'd sound crazy, wouldn't it, if we all weren't currently here, huh?"

[notalive]

Connor's expression is troubled as he looks at her, but not disbelieving.

"Yeah," he acknowledges, nodding. "It would. If I was at home, I'd think you were disturbed."

It's definitely disturbing enough. He's got protocols for this situation - a suspect showing signs of mental illness and not being fit for questioning or testimony. But protocols and standard programming and even a lot of the empirical data his senses are giving him... He can't trust any of it. He has to rely on feelings.

And those are pretty new to him as it is.

"But we're not there. I can't disbelieve anything. And I have to say, you seem pretty sane."

He glances down at the table again, then back up. "But you don't see anything like that here?"

[merged]

Disturbed, huh? Heather doesn't think that's really too far from factual despite the fact that everything she's said has been the truth. Nobody lives through that kind of hell and comes out with all their marbles in the right place and Heather knows she hasn't. A trip to a psychiatrist would likely do her wonders, then again, they might just send her on a one-way trip to a nuthouse.

Is that something Dualis even has?

The fact Connor thinks she seems sane is oddly comforting. She's never felt sane and, as a social outcast, most people never saw her that way. At his question, she shakes her head,"Not really. In my dreams, sometimes, but not here."

"Not yet." These words are whispered, full of fear. Dread. As if it were some inevitable nightmare. It won't happen here, that's what she likes to tell herself, but that fear. That fear dominates her thoughts some days, like now. Because what will she do, then?