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

Connor | Detroit: Become Human

[notalive]

There's a cat in his face. Standing on the table he's trying to sit at, getting in his face. Not a normal one - it has two tails, something he's pretty sure isn't common in cats, and it's making sure he appreciates them fully by rubbing both of them on his face before sniffing the LED on his temple. It has no eyes, so he's not sure how it's getting around so well or how it can tell his LED is even there.

But that's the least of what's confusing him about...everything, so he's not going to focus on that.

...And now there's cat hair in his nose. Androids don't have allergies, but he huffs air sharply out through his nose to get rid of it anyway, shaking his head. The cat jumps almost imperceptibly, and Connor jerks back in turn, blue light spinning in his LED.

Whoever's coming to sit across from him is seeing someone thoroughly distracted by their very first time meeting a cat - let alone an eyeless two-tailed one.

[skyward_eyes]

Oh, yeah, that's some grade-A distraction Nida notes as he sits down across form a strange looking man with a strange light at his temple. He doesn't even mind as another cat, a simple looking orange tabby, alights in his lap and he starts stroking behind the ears.

"Not used to cats?" he asks.

[notalive]

"I've never been this close to one," he says to the newcomer, bringing one hand up to stroke the cat - the cat stops to enjoy this, arching under his hand before nosing at his face again. "They're friendlier than I thought." Beat, and he adds, half-serious, "And have more tails."

And then it decides it's done with Connor's face and climbs off the table entirely onto his lap, where it starts to knead at his leg with its front paws in a very determined fashion. Connor frowns down at it for a moment.

"My name's Connor, by the way," he says, looking back up. "This was supposed to be a networking event, right?"

Not a 'pet cats and be confused about it' event.

[skyward_eyes]

"You're definitely at the networking event, Connor," Nida promises as he settles in with his drink. He's very comfortable here, and he doesn't mind what he's got going on.

"Nice to meet you, Connor. I'm Nida. Where are you from?"

[notalive]

"Detroit," he answers easily enough, trying to gently discourage the clawing his thigh - he doesn't feel pain, per se, but it's a weird sensation. "This is actually my first time leaving the city."

And then, a full few seconds after he's answered, he remembers the situation they're in.

"Uh, that's in the United States." He frowns. "I'm not sure what the best answer is anymore."

If there are aliens and other worlds and if half of what he's already heard is true, some of the people here won't have heard of Detroit, maybe not even the USA.

[skyward_eyes]

“I’ve heard of it, from a man who was a Detective there. I don’t know how this place compares to what Hank remembers of your Earth, but I can say for sure there is at least one reason in this city who can talk about his Detroit place with you.”

Nida offers it with a smile. No reason to assume This Connor is that Connor. At all. But he is trying to comfort the new arrival

[notalive]

"Oh, you've met Hank," Connor says, looking up from the cat and perking up in recognition. "Right, I was his partner on a case. Same Detroit."

It was only a few days, even though it feels like a lot longer - just because so much ended up happening. And maybe because when you've only been alive for three months and only truly alive for two or three days, a few days is already a lot.

"Where did you come here from?"

[skyward_eyes]

Oh, it was that Connor. Nida's eyes are almost dancing with delight to hear that, a smile actually curving his lips. There was no chance in hell that he wasn't going to harass Hank over this.

"So you're that Connor. The partner. The one who got left at home. Well, I suppose he's not alone anymore."

Clearly this other man is delighting in Connor's presence too much. Enough to even overwhelm Nida's strange deja vu from seeing this man.

"Oh, where I come from isn't very important. I wanna ask you questions about Hank. We're friends, you see, but he doesn't open up about himself much."

[notalive]

Nida looks pretty happy to hear this - and Connor tilts his head minutely, a little catlike himself to match the one purring like some kind of engine on his lap. It seems to have given up on clawing him - instead it's curled up with both tails wrapped around its body, and petting it like this is oddly pleasant. And it gives him something to occupy his hands instead of fidgeting.

"That Connor," he repeats dryly. "Yeah, I guess I am."

He's going to make a wild stab in the dark and say Hank's talked about him a bit. It's a bit weird to find himself the subject of conversation - in a context that's not 'fucking androids taking our jobs/ruining the city/demanding freedom'. He likes it - sort of.

"Did he also tell you we've only known each other for less than a week?" Connor says, leaning back a little in his chair with the ghost of a grin. "I don't know how much more I could tell you."

That's true! But also Connor snooped through Hank's personal record, explored his house and went through the kind of intense experiences with him that made opening up almost inevitable...so maybe he does know more than most. If he wants to tell it.

"But you can try asking."

[merged]

The NAPs have, thus far, been a distinctively uncomfortable experience for Heather. She wouldn't attend if not for the tiniest possibility of her father's arrival, something she finds herself hoping for every time she attends. It's always just strangers, though. Except this time.

This time, there were cats, too.

Heather considers skipping Connor's table. He seems preoccupied with the odd feline and another has lazily claimed the seat opposite, tail dangling off its edge. She sighs as she presses back her desire to leave, picking up the fluffy fur beast from the chair, dropping it gingerly on the floor with a huffed shoo. Dammit, her leggings will be furry by the time she's done here.

She observes Connor a moment before she speaks. The light on the side of his head catches her eye immediately and so she just blurts out, tapping her own temple,"What's with the light?"

It doesn't look like it's meant to be a fashion accessory, after all.

[notalive]

The cat's captured his attention so thoroughly that for a moment he doesn't look up at the human who's stopped at the table - he's aware of her being there, sitting down after first turfing another cat from the chair opposite, but he wants to get tails and nose and fur out of his face before he says anything.

But he doesn't get the chance.

"My LED?" And as if the cat can hear them both, it pats it with a well-aimed paw. Connor blinks down at it. It...isn't accurate to say it looks back, but it points its head in his direction.

"It's an android marker." He says, trying to sound neutral - but he can't quite keep a grim tone from his voice. Connor's one of the very few members of the resistance movement who didn't take his off - maybe he would have if he'd joined sooner. "It's illegal for an android to impersonate a human, so this identifies us."

She's maybe also noticed the blue LED triangle and armband, as well as a serial and model number on the front of his jacket. They really like to drive it home.

[merged]

Heather feels a flicker of amusement at the cat's reaction, one side of her mouth quirking upwards, but it fades away quickly as he continues. She picks up easily on his tone and her brows furrow as her gaze falls to the armband and then the numbers. Her stomach sinks. History has taught her a few things about armbands and numbers.

"Seems like they shouldn't have made you to look human if they were afraid of that," She mutters with a hint of sharpness as her gaze returns to his face. She wouldn't have thought he wasn't human if he didn't say something, never one to scrutinize the clothes people wear, especially after coming here; lights were a common clothing addition.

"I don't think that's a law here, though." If that offers any comfort. If that's something he's even capable of feeling. She only knows a little about androids, mostly what she's read in books, and heard briefly from Hank. She's smart enough to not apply the things she's learned to him, though.

[notalive]

Connor does look remarkably human; his makers were absolutely going for realism with him - it's really only the LED that gives it away.

"It's weird," he agrees. "The first were made to fool humans into not realising they were androids - that was the ultimate test. A lot of androids are companion models that need to be realistic and we're all the same basic design."

It sounds flimsy and he obviously knows it. He actually just thinks it's a mixture of the creators at the Cyberlife corporation wanting to outdo itself at every turn and the public just being used to it. At some point, humans just got used to having power over something that looked and sounded just like them...but wasn't.

"That's good to hear, though," he says, genuinely sounding pleased to hear it. "Things are changing back where I'm from. I would have hated to miss all that and be trapped somewhere with the laws staying exactly the same."

[merged]

It sounds like the humans in his world are stupid. Or assholes. Probably a good mix of both, just like her own. The fact they worked so hard to make androids look human only to slap on a few lights to distinguish them from themselves just sounds... wrong. Something easily taken advantage of by the shit heaps of society.

Gross.

"Well, at least you got something to look forward to getting back to." More than she's got at least but she's also a pessimist about her own future. She leans back in her chair, curious but not really sure what she should ask him.

Finally,"So, what kind of android are you?"

He'd mentioned companion models which she honestly doesn't like the sound of. She doesn't want to imagine all the unsavory shit his people have probably gone through.

[notalive]

"Yeah." Optimism as a concept is pretty new to him (so is pessimism, in fairness), so he's making a go of that. "Maybe by the time I get back they'll have worked out the big things so I can just...start my life. Whatever it's going to be."

Without having to be in the centre of everything. He's pretty sure that's not who he is - not like the real leaders.

"I'm a detective model." It never occurred to him before to be grateful for what he was - because it could always have been even more menial or degrading labour - but now it does, powerfully, and he pauses for a moment, gaze distant and troubled, before he remembers himself and goes on. "I was designed to assist police with pretty much anything. Evidence gathering, interrogations, combat... My first mission was a hostage negotiation."

He's not proud of how he did it, in retrospect, but he did save the hostage.

[merged]

The brief look Connor gives during his response strikes her as more human than she'd thought an android would be capable of, the vast majority of her knowledge coming from what she knows of pop culture in 2011. Not only does he look impressively human, he seems capable of something like emotion—though she's unsure if that's just programming or if it's really something more than that.

He doesn't feel like an imitation of a person.

"That seems like a big first mission," She shifts in her seat, curious, leaning forward. He's not human, she reminds herself. He was probably programmed to deal with these situations without the necessary years of practice,"How'd it go?"

[notalive]

"It was a test mission," he says, thinking back on that mission, really remembering it, for the first time since he went deviant. "Making sure my model worked properly in the field. There was a team ready to take over if I failed."

In retrospect, sending a brand new model was just CyberLife showing they cared more about their product and profit margin far more than about the little girl, Emma.

"I saved her," he says simply. "But her captor was an android. That's why they sent me. He found out his family were going to replace him with a newer model, and he snapped. He killed her father and took the little girl hostage so we wouldn't kill him."

His jaw works. Right now he's using words like 'snapped' and 'kill' - but at the time those weren't the words people were using, or that he used. 'Malfunctioned' and 'destroyed'. Daniel threatened to kill him and Connor can still remember exactly what he said: You can't kill me. I'm not alive.

"He was killed. But the little girl and her mother were fine." Then he adds, only realising it now he's thinking about it as a person, "as fine as you can be after something like that."

But Connor's methods were mechanical. He was a machine, bound to his programming. He was ready to kill Daniel or sacrifice himself to save Emma for the simple reason that Emma being alive was the only thing that mattered. In the end, Daniel let Emma go, because Connor lied and manipulated him into thinking it would all be OK.

But it wasn't.

[ichoosefight]

Steph snorts a laugh as she takes a seat. The many varieties of cat here are pretty weird, but she's seen weirder. She plays with the tails while the cat isn't paying attention.

"I think he likes you."

[notalive]

The cat takes a moment to deign to look around, but when he does, he gives the newcomer a look even the android sees as highly offended, and twitches both tails at the same time. They even move sort of symmetrically. Connor's not sure if his sudden grin is at the sheer how very dare you of that look or the notion of this cat liking him. A bit of a pathetic reason, but when you've been seen as a piece of equipment for most of your existence, you take what you can get.

"I guess he does," he says, and he sounds a bit surprised himself. "I think you might have to work on him a bit, though.

"I'm Connor."

[ichoosefight]

She jerks back for a second when she realizes the cat has no eyes, but another second later she's gently pulling the tail tips up and down in succession.

"Steph," she offers in return. "Honestly, I think I prefer my cats with a bit of peacock to them." She's seen a peacat or two here, but without a job she can't really afford to take in a stray.

[notalive]

"Peacock?" he asks, genuinely confused. He's guessing that's a bird - and he'd look it up if he could look up anything without getting nothing but cosmetic videos and cat pictures - but he can't even begin to picture anything more than that. Are they green? Who knows. What does this have to do with cats? No idea.

The cat finally decides to pay Steph some attention and turns to get in her face, sniffing at her nose. He's amazingly sure of himself for a cat that must be totally blind.

[ichoosefight]

"It's a kind of bird," she explains. It's hard to describe what exactly they look like to somebody who's never seen one before, so instead she turns to look around the room for one of the hybrids.

She points at a male across the room that looks immensely smug as a pair of paying customers admire him.

"That one, with the feathers? I used to have a cat like that, but a girl, so from the bottom of the neck down she was sort of brown and white. Shorter tail-feathers, too."

[notalive]

He follows her gaze, and his eyebrows go up as he sees the sleek creature showing off for customers. Even as he's watching, the cat stands and stretches its tails, much like the one they have at their own table, only this one's tails spread into a fan like shape, feathery tufts rippling under the lights of the cafe.

"You had one?" he asks, looking back. "So you had them at home?

He's pretty sure there's nothing like that where he's from - cats just don't look like that. Bird and cat hybrids definitely don't exist.

[ichoosefight]

"No, just normal cats and peacocks." She watches the cat a moment longer before turning back to her companion. They're certainly pretty animals, even the plainer females.

"But this kind of thing has happened to me before. The 'kidnapped to another world' thing. A bunch of us ended up here, apparently."

[notalive]

"Somebody else mentioned this wasn't his first time..." Connor looks around, but he can't see the man in question from where he's sitting. "Nida, his name was. You know him?"

Maybe once you've been kidnapped from a world once, you're easier to kidnap again? Or maybe this is far more common than he could have expected, but everybody who vanishes is just a missing person, languishing in cold case files the world - or many worlds - over.