dualislogs | i've been bitten by the bug ...

i've been bitten by the bug ...

WHO: Open to all residents
WHAT: Inoculation Season, plus your regular monthly NAPs session
WHERE: Throughout the city, with NAPs held at The Ax Hole.
WHEN: Sept. 10-30 for plague shots and associated side effects; Sept. 10-14 for NAPs
WARNINGS: Please use if applicable!

So tell me, what do you prescribe for these symptoms?

Remember that awful plague that wiped out the city's entire original population? You know, the entire reason you've been brought here? Well, the medical science community of Dualis has been hard at work concocting a cure for as long as anyone can remember, with minimal results. But during the morning of the 10th, news of a breakthrough is announced is a special city-wide bulletin. All media channels are overtaken with this message, and alerts hit every citizen's phone. The best part? Science needs your help!

There's no formal approval process for new vaccines and medications, just a series of volunteer trials before it's determined whether what's being tested is effective. All residents are invited to participate in these trials, with a bonus of 200 extra duos as compensation for their time and possible suffering. Simply head down to your nearest MedDualis clinic and inform the MedDroids supervising that you're reporting for your civic duty. Participants will be given a quick, easy, and practically painless inoculation shot in the arm, and will walk out the door 200 duos richer. Neat, huh?

Participants will be warned that like all experimental drugs, there may be side effects. A non-comprehensive list of those possible side effects includes: minor appearance changes (hair/skin/eye color), enhancing or reducing senses (smell, taste, hearing, sight, etc.), sudden mild development of extranormal abilities (telepathy, super strength, super speed, etc.), the ability to share dreams (if you're not tired of that sorta thing after last month), and/or loss of control over abilities you already possess, or those abilities misfiring. Hey, at least death isn't included on this list!

Any intrepid Dualizen who comes down with a case of weirdness as a result of doing their civic duty will find that weirdness will wear off by the end of the month. The Head thanks you for your sacrifice!

Don't you feel the fever like I do?

Look at all of these bright, shining new faces! There’s even a few less bright, less shining faces - maybe even a few folks without 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 an exciting new establishment called The Ax Hole! The 'Hole is an indoor ax-throwing range plus bar plus mid-price grill-type restaurant, the first of its kind to find a home here in Dualis. You must be at least 18 to drink and/or throw axes, and if you are throwing axes, there is a limit of one drink per hour. The bartenders are very strict about enforcing this rule, and employees are available to give safety instructions on proper ax-throwing technique and supervise activities.

This is a family-friendly establishment, so anyone under 18 is welcome in the restaurant section and the viewing room between the restaurant and range to watch the ax-throwing action, but they are absolutely not allowed inside the range, even just to watch. In fact, anyone who wishes admittance to the range must sign a waiver stating that they understand the risks of participating and agree to hold the Ax Hole free of liability in the event of any accidents that cause injury or death.

If that hasn't scared you off yet, come on down and meet your new neighbors! Oh, and do try to exit with at least as many fingers and limbs as when you entered, OK?

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Steve has pressed the square button! The challenge has been accepted.

Squall straightens more and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a black leather case and the cards inside. His eyes are bright as he fans them out upon the table to show Steve. Not even a head injury will deter him.

"This is Triple Triad." He places one card in the center to show Steve. "The goal is to take as many of your opponent's cards as you can. We play on a 3 by 3 board. The four numbers on the top left corner shows how strong each side of the card is." He takes another card and places it next to the first. "We take turns placing a card. If the number on my card on the side facing yours is higher, your card is mine."

Edited (retconning bandage! derp) 2019-10-02 12:37 (UTC)

The best thing David can think of as a comparison is tapping on the napkin.

"Skating in a managed indoor rink and skating outside are likely as different as a sketch on proper paper and on a napkin. In a rink things are smooth, managed, the bring out Zambonis to smooth the ice as it gets scuffed and worn and chipped. Outside? The ice is only as smooth as nature freezes it. You have to learn to read it, have to anticipate bumps. Have to be thinking ahead and far more attentive."

It's a mental challenge. And it seems o much more forbidden, because there is a dangerous edge to it.

Yeah, she wasn't great in my world. She was the White Queen of a group called the Hellfire Club. And there were more than a few people who had a problem with that.

[He definitely had, because it seemed like Emma had been up to her old trips more than a few times.]

His frown only deepens at the teasing but then the real answer piques his interest. He absently scratches the side of the bandage wrapped around his head as he regards her curiously.

"You couldn't do that before you got here?"

Connor's so thrown by getting an answer to a question he didn't ask or have occur to him that his LED flickers momentarily yellow - and the accompanying look of disgust doesn't help either. He's not seen that directed at him in a while, and not since getting here. But Hank chimes in and gives him a couple of seconds to recover himself, and he jerks his head at Hank: what he said.

"Right. I was asking if somebody owned them," he says, and his voice has hardened just a little. But then, as his LED cycles back round to blue, he adds with just the hint of a grin, "Get your mind out of the gutter."

He's heard a couple times from androids that they find humans disgusting - or at least had them act like they did. What he didn't expect was for Hank to remember, and especially not for him to agree with it.

"Just a warning - you might have a roommate," he tells her as they get to the dorm, although right now he wonders if it's not the unknown roommate who might deserve the warning just as much. "Not many of the rooms are single. And even if they are, they don't always stay that way."

He's absently turning the handle of the axe in his hands so the blade swings like a pendulum, not paying as much attention to its movements as to the conversation.

"I wasn't allowed to carry a weapon back home." That doesn't mean he didn't pick one up a few times - perks of having unstable software that didn't force him to obey laws. "I had to depend on disarming an opponent so I could fight them unarmed."

So if some idiot wanted to try throwing an axe at him, that would work out pretty well for him.

"But they were usually carrying guns."

"I never tried to leave Detroit," he says with a frown. "But I would never have been allowed to. I was owned by a company for most of my life. They gave me my whole purpose."

His frown clears up, Connor shaking it off like so much dust. "I found my own purpose in the end - I was about to leave the city when I was brought here."

A free android, he and his partner had been planning to evacuate the city with everybody else, and go to Canada. It was probably the best thing for him - but also a whole new adventure. But the adventure ended up being Dualis instead.

"Who was stopping you?" he asks, a little hesitantly. He's made more than one faux pas asking the wrong questions already. But he's fascinated - who was Arkady's CyerLife?

[It was entirely intentional - humans wanted to see these things. They weren't given the privacy of hiding their internal processes.

Connor can understand 'Manchurian candidate' by context, even if not by the reference itself. But it's true enough that he nods stiffly - although if his creator hadn't had a touch of the chaotic and unpredictable about him and left what Connor needed to escape right in the CyberLife servers.]

Markus didn't want to kill any humans to win freedom for androids. So they never killed anybody - not even when they were being slaughtered and rounded up into facilities to be destroyed.

[All he can hope to accomplish here is make this man realise that androids in general have never wanted to destroy humanity. And not mention that Connor himself definitely did kill humans - in mostly self-defence.]

The president just agreed to give us human rights when I came here.

"I'd appreciate that," he says, grinning his slightly lop-sided grin as he pushes the contract back to Thane and makes his way back to the target range.

They reach the rows of targets and racks of axes, and Connor reaches for one of them, peering curiously at the edge as he hefts it by the handle.

"I didn't think they'd be sharpened," he comments, "but I guess they have to be to penetrate the targets."

His immediate instinct is to start to swing the axe in his hands, passing it hand to hand and letting it swing like a pendulum - out of Tannor's way in case he miscalculates, but--

"This helps me work out the heft," he says to Tannor, "and calibrate my reactions so I know what I'm dealing with."

It's a perfectly reasonable statement that, as far as Thane is concerned, matters very little. It's obvious he's going to have trouble conveying that. But if he's annoyed or frustrated he's certainly not showing it.

"That was never in doubt. I apologize if I made it seem as such." Was it never in doubt? Well, that's not important. But It's not as if the range of skill in this place isn't incredibly varied. You never knew what you were going to get with the people here. "But signing the waiver is mandatory for participation. It's for the company's sake, not yours."

Perhaps it's a strange battle to be fighting, but Thane was absolutely nothing if not professional.

" It was something new I'd learned back home. I'd only been practicing for a few months. " It had been an exciting discovery for her back home. She scrunched up her eyebrows and frowned. "When I got here something was off. Like... a wall was blocking the way to places."

"Oh," she meets his eyes with a sympathetic look. It wasn't a very good thing to relate to him about, but she did. "I'm glad you found your own purpose. When you go back I hope you'll see the world." Everyone deserved the chance to be free and see what they wanted to see.

She bites down on her lower lip and frowns at the question. It's not a wrong one, just a bad memory for her. Still, there isn't a long hesitation before she answers. "The military. Our parents sold us to be weapons and the military didn't want to lose that. Some people like power too much." From what he's said it sounds like he might understand that sort of idea. To the military they weren't kids, they were weapons of mass destruction. Power like theirs couldn't really be controlled though. Especially when they turned out to just be a bunch of angry kids with a lot of issues.

[He leans back, eyes widening slightly before he looks more contemplative. Magic? A sorcerer of some kind?]

No. I'm a mercenary. I need to junction GFs to use magic.

Hey, he can tell when he's being messed with. Even though it takes a few seconds of confused frowning where he has to stop himself from taking it too seriously. He clicks his tongue, sighs and pushes away from the pillar he's leaning again.

"I'm not answering that. Don't waste my time. You're making my head hurt."

"Perhaps, but he doesn't understand how science and magic are one and the same." Humans were still simply that: human. He most certainly did not feel threatened in the least, though he was slightly annoyed he underestimated the magic users on Earth.

"It really is...what in Heaven's name is the Imagination Drive?"

He turned slightly at her explanation, eyebrows raising slightly. The girl had a point, albeit a convoluted one, but it may honestly be explained simply by the strange way she clearly viewed the world.

"And so, you at times accidentally listen with more than your ears?" That, at least, is what he'd taken it to mean. "What would I have to feel guilty for?"

"I honestly couldn't care less whether you believed it was actually beer or not." He smirked, taking a sip from his own, newly arrived beer. "It would be your loss."

Hank observations were troubling, though, and he wondered at what level of consistency things were limited, and how. "It's possible it's dislocation, or...spacial displacement? Heaven knows where we even are in relation to where we were."

He frowned at the thought as well. In his case, it may be something much more organic. "What theories do you have?"

A smile touched his lips then. There it was, their mutually beneficial arrangement. "I am a master of magic, and you are quite adept at security."

He inclined his head in a nod of appreciation. "I believe we may be of use to one another, Tannor."

"Honestly? Considering that he can bring people back from the dead. I think when he brings people in? He can put in whatever limitations then. I don't know that they are, or if they're permanent. So it has to happen when they come in."

He doesn't know if they're clones of their original selves, or if they're actually transferred and fixed, or what.

"Has there been anything in particular you've noticed?" He leans forward, arms folded and brow furrowed with interest, ready to listen 'cause at this point everything is helpful.

There it was indeed. A song and dance Thane is very familiar with. He gives a small nod in return.

"So it would seem." He won't deny the usefulness in working with the other detainees in the city. Contacts were very important, after all. "What did you have in mind?"

"Yes. Not very often anymore. I've practiced a lot." And practice did make perfect in this case. Or getting closer to it. "Oh you know the answer to that better than I would. Right?"

That struck a chord, and it was made obvious by the look of concern that crossed Loki's face before he could conceal it. The Head, it seemed, had returned him from the dead after all. Were the limitations of his magic due to its meddling? He worked his jaw as he processed the implications and nodded slightly at Hank's question.

"Yes. I've been attempted to explore this place, but my range is...limited. Astrally."

"Then... maybe next time?"

Whenever next time would be, Naminé didn't actually know what went into shooting a gun. She'd seen it done in the past though that had been magical in nature.

Hank squints, like he's thinking hard about something.

"About how far as compared to a city block."

He pulls out one of his post-it notes. "The Head has pretty good security. I'm guessing that it doesn't want people to just magic their way in for a face to face convo."

"A little," she smiled at him and gently shook her head. So much has happened to her and she no longer felt like the young woman that Steve had known but it was always nice to see him.

"Maybe I shouldn't be."

Her smile widened and a soft chuckle escaped her lips. "I could go for a walk now. If that's an invition."

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i've been bitten by the bug ...

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want to wrap this up soon?

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<3