dualislogs | kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Whoever that Selina is, I don't think this's her fault." The voice is that of a man in middle age who grabs the chair and turns it around, straddling it at the same time as he puts it back on the ground. It's a small tell, but a tell nonetheless, that this is a man who is very familiar with physical activity. His clothing covers up his body so that all that's reasonably seen is the lower portion of his arms and his neck and face, and he looks in good enough shape, but a lot of people look like that without being fit.

He also looks distinctly unimpressed with this whole situation, and is studiously ignoring the slightly weirdly-proportioned tabby cat that's following him, more or less a normal cat but with very short legs. He's heard of munchkin cats before but never seen one in person, and at the moment he seems to be trying to keep it that way. "The words might be kind of fun, though. You'd get to vent some annoyance, at least."

Once Jason's attention is pulled away from the kitten at the back of his neck, he does take note of Clint's appearance and mannerisms - all second nature, at this point, with so much detective training under his belt. There's something else, though - something recognizable about the man.

"I usually don't have any issues with telling people when I'm annoyed." Yes, he's a complainer. No, he's not sorry about it. "You look kinda familiar. Have we - ?"

Jason's question is cut off by the kitten taking a nibble on his ear, which is both rude and unexpected, and Jason lets out a displeased yelp. "OK, enough of that," he grumbles, shooing the kitten out of his hood and down the front of his shirt instead - where it promptly climbs back up and nestles in the crook of his arm. Jason sighs deeply.

Jason's getting a similar examination, and it doesn't pass Clint by that the young man in front of him is performing the usual scan. There's a mannerism to a person's face when they're seeing a lot in just one glance that he's pretty used to by now, and it's actually kind of a relief to see it in someone other than himself. Whatever's going on with them being brought here, the people in charge might have slipped up pretty badly. One person with that training was an isolated incident, two was a coincidence, but with three there were now multiple possible avenues of investigation...

Possibly, at least. At the very least Jason has the training, and while he's young he's not a goddamned child. Clint is very, very sick of finding kids with that particular skill, kids who never got to be kids. (But with how young Jason is, that argues that he acquired that skill even younger, and... nope, no way, he's not thinking about that now.)

"But people might have issues with listening to you talk about how annoyed you are. Most people don't like being bitched at, even if you've got a reason to." The words are true and while they sound like something you'd say to caution someone, the tone is kind of really not. Jason's words about him looking familiar have prompted another go-over of his face, with more attention to detail and a look on his face like he's piecing things together in his mind (which he very much is). After a minute, Clint shakes his head, folding his arms over the back of the chair. "No, but... you look kind of like someone I knew a couple years back." The resemblance between him and Pietro isn't expressly perfect, but they are of similar heights and there's more than a suggestion of a match in the bone structure of their faces. But it's been so long... Not even Nat's memory is that good.

Except for a snort of laughter at the absurdity of it, the kitten's antics get ignored, much as he's ignoring the munchkin tabby butting its head against his leg. "Clint, Clint Barton. If you know Cissie, she dragged me here."

The kitten starts purring loudly a couple seconds after it's comfortably curled in Jason's arm, and as much as he'd hate to admit it, the kitten's antics are charming, and he doesn't have the heart to force the kitten away from him. It won't kill him to let a kitten cuddle with him for a few minutes, he supposes. Animals need love, too.

The mention of Cissie's name softens the scowl Jason's wearing, and he nods. "Yeah, I know Cissie. She's a friend." Maybe a little more than a friend, and maybe that's a lot clearer to Jason, after what happened in the village and how he found Cissie here, but that's something he's been keeping to himself. "How do you know her?"

Finally, the recognition clicks into place in Jason's brain - he met Clint, back in the village. Only once, soon after Jason's arrival there, and only briefly. Then he'd disappeared, and Jason hadn't thought much of it. There's no sign than Clint recognizes Jason, though, just the admission that he reminds Clint of someone he used to know, so Jason figures it's probably not worth mentioning.

"I'm Jason," he adds. Without realizing it, he's begun to slowly and gently stroke along the kitten's back with two fingers. "Jason Todd." Not that his name is likely to mean anything to Clint, unless by some chance Cissie's mentioned him, though Jason can't think of a single reason why she would.

"Nice to meet you, Clint."

kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

welp

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