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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I was noticing that. Not really sure what's going on here yet, but it seems like some of us don't exactly fit in as well as others." She pauses for a moment, "I doubt anyone in charge cares much. It's not like we were given a grand invitation. At least, I wasn't."

When he picks a place for them to sit, she follows after with their cocoa. It's only once he actually claims a chair that she puts his cup down on the table before him to claim the chair's partner. Sitting back, she holds her cup between her hands.

"They wouldn't answer this for me when I arrived, but is there a way to go home? I think we get to eventually? Even being a temporary prisoner isn't something that sounds like a good time to me." Although she supposes she has a lot of freedoms for being a caged lark.

"You're telling me," He grumbled dryly, already distinctly aware that his particular skill set wasn't exactly useful in an environment outside of warfare. Normal lives? What the hell are those? Regardless, he was doing his best to learn some useful skills outside of combat. "Unless that invitation was the arrival itself, I don't think any of us were."

No, they were all kidnapped. Strange, he found it less offensive this time around. Probably because it already happened once and the first time turned out to be a good thing for him. Weird how that worked out. With the cat settled safely in his lap he was able to finally claim his cocoa to hold until it cooled enough to drink.

At her question he shook his head. "Ain't heard anything you haven't. We're here 'til the year's up. 'Least it's a nice cage."

Simply content to hold her cocoa, she mulls over his words thoughtfully. She supposes it's a fruitless endeavour to expect anything more than what she already knows. Why would anyone else be different? They've likely all heard the same thing at the end of the day. After all, they're all here in this foreign place together.

Idly she wonders how likely it is that more will show up from their world. Nida, Squall, and now Seifer...

"I think you're the first person I've heard describe it as 'nice,'" she replies thoughtfully. "A gilded cage remains a cage."

What's that saying—misery loves company?

"If I have to be here, then I'd prefer to be here with people I know. While I'm not happy you guys have to endure it too, I'm happy that we're all here together."

People who have been here longer, perhaps those who chose to stay rather than going home, might have a better idea of what's up. Seifer tried to wheedle some information out of one such individual with limited success. Nothing they could use to get home came from that conversation, interesting as it was.

Her observation earns a shrug, along with a sip of cocoa. Mm, tasty. A nice way to make this slightly tense situation maybe a little less so.

"When all you've known is cages, what's wrong with a bigger one?" After all, Garden was a cage. She can't deny that. He did huff in amusement at her sentiment. Yeah, it was much better with friends. "Hey, at least we get outta the troubles we gotta deal with at home for a while." Think of it as a vacation, and then it doesn't feel as bad.

"When all you've known is cages, what's wrong with a bigger one?"

That hits home. Of course it does. Not just for her either. She understands where he's going with it, too. She might not be a student at Garden, but not unlike the SeeDs, she too has been in her own kind of cage. Life with her father has been a cage since the passing of her mother. She's still not old enough to realise that her father had good intentions, even if his methods were questionable.

Seifer continues and she finds herself issuing something of a half-smile. "Yeah. I guess that's true." She's not sure what kind of troubles will await them back home when they all return. A year of being away. Plenty can happen in a year. What happens in their worlds when they are all here, anyway...?

"Somehow I get the feeling that you're just going to find new trouble to jump headfirst into, right? You never were very good at standing still." Even with her. But that's part of the reason she's always liked him so much. When everyone else is too afraid to take action, she is.

Of course he's talking about Garden, but he's fully aware of how it would apply to her as well. Seifer's no stranger to the strained relationship Rinoa has with her father. Probably wasn't much easier growing up as the daughter of a military man as it was growing up as a Garden student.

If they were lucky it would be like no time had passed at all. Then again, perhaps they'd be more fortunate if they simply disappeared for a while. Then whatever stories they had upon return might sound slightly less crazy. No one will believe them about this.

He put on a mock insulted display, really playing it up. "What? Me? Never. I'm a saint." Yes he almost managed to say all that with a straight face too! She's right, of course, he'll be in trouble in no time. For now he's keeping busy, it helps.

Rinoa laughs and does nothing to hide it. "Oh, yes. If you're a saint, then I'm a goddess." Except... That part isn't really funny because sorceress. Goddess. It's not a far stretch, is it? For a moment, she frowns, reconsidering her words and regretting them.

...Maybe he'll just gloss over it. She... suspects she knows how he feels where her unnatural abilities are concerned. And why shouldn't he feel otherwise?

"I know you've been here longer than me and I understand that things will... take some time to..." Do whatever she wants them to. Improve? Eliminate some of that inevitable complexity between them? Whatever. "You get it." She doesn't need to spell it out for him. He's a smart guy, which seems to be something people have underestimated him on before. "Just, you know. If you're gonna start something, at least let me in on it. I might like a little trouble, too."

He does raise an eyebrow, casting her a knowing, wary look at that comment. In some respects she might very well be. However... now does not seem the time to harp on the point when they've reached a tenuous kind of peace between them. He'd rather not sabotage that right now. Sometimes, once in a while, Seifer could act on restraint! He's been practicing.

Neither of them need that reminder right now anyway.

With all the weight and complexity behind those unspoken words... He nods. Because truly he does understand. Things between them are strange, it'll take work, but they can do it. Especially since he's being far less resistant this time around. Rinoa's a good friend, which is still fresh in his memory though she wouldn't know that. Of course some of the resentment and heartache is as well, he'll just have to get past that.

He chuckles and holds one hand up in a dismissive gesture, though he does offer her a sly smirk and a wink. "I'll think on it." Of course he'll let her in on it.

"You'll think on it."

She looks incredulous after a few moments and then she laughs. "Of course you will. Which better be your way of letting me have my way." But at the same time, she was also sort of teasing him in turn. Every relationship had to start somewhere. She didn't know that they had the preexisting relationship, and likely wouldn't know unless he ever decided to tell her.

But maybe he would be like Nida and keep the details of that other Rinoa from her.

"You heard me."

He quips, wearing a sly smirk. He won't make it easy, that wouldn't be any fun, but she'll eventually get her way. As though he'd dream of leaving her out of the mischief. There was an unusual air about things now, the awkwardness of a reunion after their shared trauma, coupled with the ease and comfort he'd begun to develop with her back in the village. It was hard to separate the two, even if he knew she didn't remember anything from before.

It sucked. They'd been through a lot. Eventually he might tell her, Seifer's not the greatest at keeping secrets. Maybe alongside a gift to smooth things over.

There it is, the curve in his mouth that caught her attention who... knew how long ago. Rinoa simply eyes him for a moment with a silent appreciation and nostalgia wrapped tightly in embrace with one another. If things could have been different, would she have done things differently? Wishes were horses and all of that. It seems unfair to debate time changes when they've all had enough of time, as it were. Still, she can't help being a bit selfish.

She makes a note to contemplate it in solitude, where she won't feel guilty when faced with the guy in question.

"Yeah, yeah," she concedes with a soft little 'pfft.' "I don't wanna keep you. I'm sure you've got stuff you need to get to. I do, too. Don't be a stranger, okay?"

I know things are hard, Seifer, but I hope you'll give me a chance. Even more so, she hopes she can earn that chance and from a girl who's been handed most things in her life, it seems an interesting connection to the value she holds in him.

Who could say? Things had spiraled out of control far too quickly for either of them to predict what might have happened otherwise. Perhaps nothing could have happened differently if their world were to survive.

Seifer finds himself thinking about things along those lines a lot. Tends to keep him up at night.

One of those nonchalant, dismissive gestures of his. "Ain't like I'm hard to find." If she wants to talk she can always hit him up. Though he expects she'll be quite busy with Squall. Maybe there's a bit of jealousy left there.

Rinoa will be surprised to know he's quite willing to give her as much chance as she wants. They already made a lot of progress once, why couldn't they do it a second time? Only time could tell.

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kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it.

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