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

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!

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Seifer didn't want to be there either, but he'd also received some odd comments of late that were enough to set him on edge, and decided that it might be best to keep up appearances and not spend all of his free time off in the rubble at the edge of the city. Once he learned it was at a cat cafe, as well as subsequently learning what that was, he was much more excited.

Entirely over the cats. Animals he'd come to greatly miss since leaving the Iteration where there was a whole clan of strays to enjoy the company of at any time. This was like that, only he could bring one home! And some of them glitched like they were holograms, cool!

They were supposed to be meeting new people today, yet he couldn't resist stopping by the table where the blue guy he met early on was sat. "Hey! Been a while, looks like you made a friend," And Seifer, not at all realizing the danger he might be in, would try to scoop up the big orange tabby like one would any normal friendly cat because he wanted to give him some attention. "What's the matter, not a cat guy?"

"I don't know if I'm a friend or a snack. That'n uh... That'n don't need to be here." He gestures generally, motioning that he'd prefer the thing on the ground.

But the 'cat' doesn't seem to want to go. Instead it crosses over to his moving hand and bumps against it, arcs for petting. And Yondu does not pet. He stays stone still, resisting the urge to stand straight up.

"Just trust me on this."

"A snack?" It's a cat, Yondu, what's so worrying? Seifer frowned at the large orange creature, perplexed. Further baffled by Yondu's behavior toward what he can tell is normal friendly cat behavior.

"Hey, buddy, c'mere," Seifer offered, reaching out to try to scritch the offered arched back. Maybe if he can coax the cat over he can set him down. This is strange, the blue guy didn't strike him as someone easily intimidated. Were cats from his world more dangerous maybe?

"Yeah, go on. Go on to him." He gestures with his other hand, hoping to make it vacate. It does, finally, happily strolling up to a cooing voice rather than the man that might teleport up to the ceiling to make an escape if necessary (and teleportation is not one of the abilities that comes natural to Centaurians).

"Thank ya. I'll uh... wait til you got him relocated to explain. Actually, there's some food over there. In that there dish. Mind takin' him to that?"

It would be very interesting to watch Yondu spontaneously learn teleportation. Especially if he used it to escape what, to Seifer, looks to be an ordinary cat. If big, big and hefty, he quickly realized upon moving to scoop the large orange feline into his arms.

"Alright big guy let's see if you're hungry," Still blissfully unaware of the danger he might be in Seifer heads off to go do as requested and set the cat down in front of his food bowl offering. Remarkably without incident. Clearly for all the danger he might pose this particular creature wasn't interested in eating any people. For now.

Soon enough he'll return to the table. "So, what's that all about?"

The "cat" decides to eat the food. As soon as Seifer's had a moment to speak, there's a sort of vaccuum sound, a glorp of cosmic horror before that bowl is empty in one bite.

"That ain't a cat. That's a flerken. An' he knew I knew what he was. I can tell."

And Yondu is super wary of getting close to the maw what just did that. He just digs his arrow against the surface of the table as he watches it eat. "Better someone that wasn't much aware-" read: nervous "-handle 'im."

Hearing that sound Seifer whips around in time to see the bowl drop back to the ground, the cat glancing up at him innocently. He missed the cosmic horror bit, but he sure did hear it. What in the hell..?

"Uh... the hell's a flerken?"

Because it still looks like a cat. A cat that just innocently consumed all of the food, bowl and all, then kindly spit the bowl back out on the floor. How polite. Seifer just nods slowly, turning his attention back to Yondu. That's... an interesting way to start this off.

"They're what's actually gonna finish off this place, 'cause those damn things lay a thousand eggs an' can eat four people at once. So uh.... I ain't worryin' about no diseases or robots anymore."

He is 100% sure that it's going to be the Flerkens that destroy Dualis. But, you know, they made their own fate.

"I think it's distracted for now, though."

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "How tough are they to fight?" Because honestly, a Flerken infestation sounded potentially fun. Although, he's an idiot, so don't listen to him. "...Here's a better question, they reproduce asexually?" Because if not, they might be okay. Might.

Very slim might.

"Maybe this one likes pretendin' to be a house cat." This is horrifying and yet fascinating all at the same time.

"Sure, I guess if you wanna go full tilt in a crazy fit. I hear ya. Number one? Don't get scratched by 'em. At all. They go real deep an' you'll never heal right. They'll aim right for your eyes. Number two? Keep you a good seven or eight meter range from the thing. They can move fast an' swallow somebody damn quick.

"Thirdly, they got the sense of normal cats."

He looks around with the uneasy feeling that there is more than one Flerken and that just isn't going to be good for anybody.

"You ain't gonna sneak up on 'em." He muses, but is more at ease with just the normal cats wandering close. 'Normal', like the one that hops up in his lap that's about as pink as he is blue. This time Yondu doesn't seem like he's about to leave a Yondu shaped hole in the wall.

"Let's just say killin' monsters is one of the few things I'm good at, and this sounds like a hell of an interestin' fight." Although, the advisory against close quarters combat is something to consider. "Any idea how they fare against magic?" That might be an option for the future, if it became necessary.

Right, so, as expected cat-like reflexes, swallow you whole, and don't get scratched. Easy.

"Sounds about like fighting a T-Rexaur, or dragon." Eh, both were close enough.

At least it's not cats in general, nope definitely just seemed to be that one particular cat. Why ever would the Head bring that thing in?

"Krugarr used to use teleportation crap to help keep him outa the way of anything with a Flerken's range." So Yondu is at least familiar with the concept of magic. Just not Seifer's particular brand of magic.

"He'd make these portal's usin' these air drawin' things. Jump in one hole and come out the other. It worked out pretty good most of the time. Except it took a lotta focus an' he could only do one thing at once. Usually took some back-up to keep an eye on' him while he pulled it off."

He had a good crew, and goddamn he misses 'em. It shows in those red eyes of his right then, on his tired, haggard face.

"Teleportation? Yeah, that'd come in real handy. How do they do against fire?" That's one he's more familiar with, not that he's sure he can call it up here in Dualis. Worth practicing at some point.

He hummed thoughtfully, it still sounded cool, but limited. "Ain't exactly fast-paced combat magic, then. Interestin' all the same, ain't ever seen anything but a Sorceress teleport." Of course they could feasibly bend reality however they damn well pleased. Which was a big part of what made them so terrifying and dangerous.

Ah, is that sentiment he spies in that old blue face? It might just be. "Friend of yours, I'm guessin'?" He's never really sure how to deal with emotional stuff.

Right. That crew.

"I... I ain't seen 'em in a while." That sentimental expression turns a little... mournful? Guilty? "Don't think I will be again. I'm one of those people that ain't really got a place to go when my year's up."

He doesn't elaborate, but last he checked he was an ice cube floating in space. Getting what he figures he deserved.

What? Wait... Oh. Confusion faded into surprise, followed by a deep frown. So people were returned from the dead here, too. "Ah..." Well, that's awkward.

He lifts a hand to rub at the back of his neck, trying to think of a good way to respond. "All the more reason to make it count, yeah?" He's not sure that's helpful.

"What'll you do? You can choose to stay, if that's your kinda thing." He met someone who had.

"Never liked staying in one place for too long, but uh..."

Yondu spreads his blue hands in lazy resignation. He doesn't know what the fuck to do. He has no future and he feels like every day he stays here that becomes more apparent to him. He ends up petting one of the cats (the actual cats) that wanders within affection distance.

"Don't even know if you can go somewhere else."

Cats are good distraction and comfort. Unfortunately, these are complicated issues Seifer has no genuine experience with. They're all just trying to find their own way on these strange rocks they keep being whisked away to.

"I was tryin'. To go somewhere else that is, before I got sucked up into this place. Dunno maybe this is the 'somewhere else'. Either way, might be worth askin'. I'm gonna."

He doesn't want to go home. It's not that he can't, or he's dead there or anything like that. He just really doesn't like the place anymore and would very much like to leave it to get hammered by monsters without him.

"Maybe. Had trouble convincin' myself to talk to the thing. It reminds me of uh... somethin' else." He means the Head. And the resemblance to The Supreme Intelligence makes the thing inherently untrustworthy.

"Might be worth askin', yeah. But I don't think I'm set to trust what we're told.

"That said... I figure if it's got the tech, then eventually maybe someone else can make the tech to get the hell out." He's pretty sure the Head is just limiting them.

"You've met something like this before?" It's a far stretch outside of anything he's accustomed to. Reality and time bending Sorceresses? Sure, those are totally normal. Thinking super machines? Nope. Although even Seifer's suspicious of it. Granted he's suspicious of anything that wants his obedience.

He offers a rueful huff and a nod. "Yeah, got a point there." The whole situation was not only strange, but highly suspect. What reason did this highly intelligent machine really have for bringing them there?

"True..." That one was hummed more thoughtfully. "Hey, speakin' of tech, you're pretty handy with a wrench aren't you?" Of course he is, that's how they met.

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kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

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