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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"Thank you." Naminé smiled warmly, genuinely excited in the wake of the compliment. She wasn't accustomed to kindness and was still adjusting to it.

Her fingers rose to her lips as if to hide the smile there. "Oh. You don't have to be still." She laughed softly. "But you can if you'd like." Naminé liked seeing Arkady happy. It was infectious in a way and it made her smile just a little wider without meaning too.

"Oh. I um... do not have friends here." She didn't actually have a lot of friends. "I um..." Naminé flushed a light rosy pink. "My friends are... Riku and... I am sure others too... I hope." She didn't know. She hadn't thought that she had friends, not the way that Sora in the others had. She hadn't thought anyone missed her but then she'd woken up in that lab and Riku had been there to come get her.

Pietro leans back in his chair and gives Steve a look somewhere between wary and disbelieving. Is this a real question he’s being asked? Maybe Steve doesn’t know Pietro and his sister yet. He’s aware that people are brought here from different points in time - just look at Wanda.

“Don’t you have that in my file?” Absently, Pietro drums his fingers along the surface of the table. Eyebrow raised, he adds: “You do have a file on us, right?” Us meaning him and Wanda, of course.

No matter what, any RK800 models that exist besides him won't be him, and it's important to remember that. It's something almost every other android must know automatically, but comes to Connor a little slower. He's used to being a prototype - the only one.

The finger to his chest makes him twitch, a tiny movement neither into nor away from Hank (does Hank know that's where his thirium pump is or was it a coincidence?), but he gets the point. He's learned very well since his activation - not all pain is physical.

But it reminds him of what he was, as a machine. That he didn't go through anything that should cause him pain, he just saw it in others - inflicted it on others. He has no right to that pain himself - but as he's also learning, a person can't stop feeling pain any more than they can stop gravity pushing them into the ground.

"I'm not so sure about family reunions," he mutters as he takes the axe, a little subdued as he takes his place in front of the target. His throw is one-handed, perfectly functional without a single motion wasted, and hits the target dead-centre.

Hank would assure him that feeling pain for others is a part of empathy. It's not that he has no right to it, but rather an understanding of where their pain might be coming from. Connor is an empathetic being; he's allowed to feel for other people. It's a motivator to help them.

"Yeah, well. You'd be the best one there." Is what he ends up saying, putting his free hand on Connor's shoulder as he takes a drink.

"Do you wanna get out of here?" He puts down his near-empty mug then, and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

"He's not here. He was in the last place I was. A village, old style," Nida admits, and then he starts to worry at his lip with his teeth. What was the exact wording? Something tells Nida that it matters a lot.

And he doesn't want to get this wrong. Because Fern was his friend, and even this delayed, maybe his message should get to Finn.

"He said you stole his life. Or I did. He thought I was you, there was something messing with people's heads then. Making them paranoid and seeing things. "He almost took my head off, and we were friends. He said something about someone, some girl or woman who you took from him, making it so she barely even knew he existed. Someone he loved I think."

"Stole his life?"

There's a lot to unpack here, and most of it doesn't make sense. He really does see Fern as a brother, and this all feels like it's coming out of left field. He puts a hand to his head, which is starting to hurt.

"I didn't even know there was someone he liked! Unless he was talking about Princess Bubblegum... But she doesn't see me like that at all! He should know that, if he has my memories..."

Oh. He's heard that name before! Nida nods, that makes sense. Fern had talked a lot about her that one time.

"He liked her. Smiled as he called her smart and stuff. And maybe he came from a different time than you?"

"Well, if this Loki is anything like myself..." He left the thought to dangle, trusting this David was sharp enough to know what he'd meant.

He did nod, though. "And odd profession. And what is it you've been tasked with here?"

If his Loki is anything like this Loki, then David might actually like the guy. Something tells him that this Loki probably takes more after the adults of his own. Fun.

"No, I'm in the medical field. I help people who are hurt. But perceptive comes with that."

"They're exceptionally quick to reproduce. All they have to prove is how they aren't a hindrance." It was spoken without much malice, but certainly a belittlement. The god doesn't think much of humanity, then again, he's always been the villain in their tales, too. It's hard to like a people who demonize you before they've met you.

His lips curled in a slow smile at Thane's admission. He wasn't the most subtle, no, but then again, the most obvious of people make the keenest spies. "Perhaps not, but there's value in deniability. Who would suspect you? There's no way you could be so stupid as to do anything suspicious, with how singular you appear."

[Actually, yes, he has seen speedsters try to sit still. In order of skill, he's put Northstar as the best at it, Surge good, Quicksilver as merely okay, and Speed as atrocious in some situations. Better if there was food.

But that doesn't mean he puts the speedster thing together until, as he's approaching the table for the next round, he catches how fast those eyes move over the cards. That's a bit more than just an attention or anxiety 'disorder'. He sits just before the man leans in and offers a brief shrug at the bluntness of the question.]

Honestly? I want to be here. I've met interesting people at these things before. Though I admit, this time has been a bit more intense than most.

[Captain America, Loki, Magneto? All so very interesting because they weren't from his world, like Wanda. Luckily he was used to her and that made adjusting to these people a touch easier. But this guy? he's another instance of very, very vaguely familiar. But he can't place why. Of course he can't. He hadn't seen this Pietro through Wanda's eyes. Only grieved him as he lived in her memory.]

Are you nervous? You seem to be... shifting around a lot. I promise I don't bite. Usually.

[As before, Tim is here because he's scheduled to be. Apparently dictating your employees' social lives is acceptable and legal around here. He's in a much better mood about it this time than last time, though. Cats are all well and good, and the ones that Cissie adopted are slowly growing on him, but axe-throwing is much more interesting to watch.

He takes a seat across from a guy who looks like has had at least fifteen too many cups of coffee. Hm. Most people have too much coffee to stay awake, but this guy doesn't look all that sleepy. He has more of the look of someone who's just wired this way, and. Well. One of Tim's best friends is Bart Allen, and he's worked with Wally West a few times.

More data required.

He leans in, mirroring Pietro's pose to reply.]

Parkour. You?

Edited 2019-09-18 20:42 (UTC)

He wonders if this is what humans deal with all the time. Self-doubt and guilt and thoughts like shrapnel flying around their heads and sticking into the soft parts. As a machine this would have been pointless nonsense wasting processing power. But it's not like he can tell his brain just not to dedicate power to these particular thoughts.

"I'd be the best one at axe-throwing for at least the first ten minutes." Maybe all humans deflect compliments too, even as hearing them feels like a warm balm soothing the shrapnel wounds. It takes away some of the tension in his body, along with the hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, let's go." He takes the axe out of the target and puts it back where they got it - he's trying to get into the habit of doing that kind of thing, since he doesn't think he tidied up after himself or after anyone in his whole existence as a machine. Learning some new skills is as easy as a few calculations and muscle control; some are a long process of habit learning and repetition.

"I'm done with NAPs for this month." He pronounces it N-A-P, so there's not even a joke about sleeping in there.

Connor's always been hard on himself. He's always been fast enough. Smart enough. Everything enough. But even before he was a deviant, in those moments when Hank would notice how he'd immediately be hard on himself, blame himself for his shortcomings.

So he puts his hands on Connor's shoulders and makes him look at him once he's done putting his fucking ax away (because what is their life).

"Connor. You're perfect. You're weird and goofy and sometimes screw up, but you're perfect. So don't be so hard on yourself, alright? You're tougher on yourself than I am on me. I'm mostly just mad at the world."

He lets go then. "You can always come back later. You're better at talking to people than me. I need to get the fuck out."

"Sorry if it weirded you out. Sometimes it does." Most of the time. People always seemed to be unsure of how to react to things they couldn't understand. She liked things she didn't necessarily understand. They presented puzzles and new things to find out. Like this person. There was definitely a puzzle to him.

"Names aren't nearly as interesting as other things," but his name brings a very bright smile to her face. "I know a Connor. He's a very important person to me. It's a good name." It occurred to her she should offer hers now. "Arkady. My name is Arkady. I know it's kinda weird." Not nearly as weird as one of her friends, but it was up there.

"Okay, but if you do need me to stay completely still let me know! We can," she nodded her head matter-of-factly. "We'll have to do it sometime, it'll be fun." There was a genuine excitement to her voice. Drawing seemed like something this girl was very passionate about and she liked the idea of helping someone to be happy here.

"Oh. Neither do I." Sadness made it's way into her voice as her shoulders slumped. It felt oddly quiet and empty without the others in her head. From their birth she'd always been able to feel them in some way and she'd never realized how lonely it could be. She closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them she smiled again. Nobody needed to see her throwing a pity party for herself. "Riku's an interesting name. I bet he's an interesting friend." Her eyebrows scrunched at Naminé's hesitation. "Are the others people you're not sure are actually your friends?"

Baby Doll buries her face in her knees and starts to cry in earnest. She was already teary, but now she sobs childishly, her body shaking as she cries. Then there's that blurred halo around her again and her pigtails are now loose hair, but when she lifts her face it's still tear-stained, and her eyes get wider as she takes the sight of Connor and Hank.

"I'm s-s-sorry, sirs," she stutters in a Dickensian English accent. "Don't mean to t-trouble you. Just a b-b-b-bit of a shock, being here." Nervously stumbling to her feet, she hugs herself and looks around anxiously. The tattoo has disappeared, and so have all signs of aggression. She awkwardly wipes at her cheeks, then offers a hand and seems to think better of it, withdrawing and clenching it tight. "I'm P-Penny Farthing. Didn't mean to cause any trouble."

Edited 2019-09-19 10:47 (UTC)

Jane noted the young woman across from her -- bald hair, purple eyes, well-worn if pretty badass clothes -- and, in a rare occurance, felt no real annoyance. None beyond that she was there and Jane had to talk to her, at least. She looked like someone who at least knew what it was like to be considered weird.

That didn't make her a friend or anything, but it did mean Jane gave her the benefit of the doubt for now, and her response seemed to confirm her instincts.

"Yeah, they definitely wouldn't." Mr. Nobody hadn't either; after all, he'd called her "Sensible Jane" when she didn't immediately reject that fuckhead excuse for a villain's ideas. She shrugged. "What I meant is, do you hear some obnoxious fuck talking about what you do while you do it?"

Edited (phrasing (boom)) 2019-09-19 09:48 (UTC)

So Jane was talking to a presumably Russian or Slavic semi-blond guy in a light-up track suit (accents are not her strong suit) who appeared to be offended by everything, but at least he answered honestly. All right, fine, she could work with this.

"Yeah, like a storybook." She rolls her eyes. "I'm serious, motherfucker. I need to know this shit."

If only it was a code. Jane was perfectly serious, and she was speaking literally. She really meant Have you heard a disembodied voice describing your actions in a thematically appropriate way, and it is actually not due to her being mentally ill for once. Because interdimensional villains are dickholes.

"It does. You'd know if it happened." Jane looks at the... fish? lizard? man in front of her and frowns. "Hey, weird question, but what the hell are you?" There were a lot of species out there she hadn't heard of, and that seemed like the quickest way to learn.

What the fuck is this even? He looks to Connor and gestures loosely. "They did the fuckin' thing where they don't tell someone what's going on outside of the damn brochure." And didn't offer her clean clothes. Still a problem, in his opinion. "And she seems to multiple people. Some of 'em definitely scared more than angry."

Meaning Hammerhead might actually need calmed the hell down and could be a danger to those around her. He can't tell yet. But there is definitely innocent people in there, and the iterations will be coming.

He gives Penny Farthing the quickest of handshakes.

"Okay, I know you're probably really confused. So if you have any questions, you can go ahead and ask me, alright?"

God he's going to have to take up a fucking donation drive for those fucking clothes to give newbies with gross fuckin' shit all over them.

Edited 2019-09-19 20:17 (UTC)

[Wanda walks to the next table and freezes.

The man, now standing and holding out his hand, looks exactly like her father. It is as if no time has passed though she only had the hazy memory of a ten year old to compare his image too.

She swallows the knot in her chest and reaches for his hand.] Wanda Maximoff. [Her voice soft and round, her accent thickening around the words as she tries to keep her tone steady. Wanda knows that it's just a trick but, after everything that had happened with her son's, her heart was fragile. She hadn't had time to fully recover.]

Excuse me. [She mumbles again, a little calmer this time, her accent less pronounced.] You look a bit like my father. I was surprised. [She doesn't want to get off on the wrong foot and Wanda feels as if honesty is the best way to handle that. Lies traditionally make everything worse and she hadn't been able to hide her reaction from him.]

[Wanda waits for about thirty minutes before finally being paired with her twin brother. He looks bored and frustrated and she wants to save him from the tedium. So, she reaches for his hand and gently pulled him from the seat.]

Something else. [She answers his question with a smirk.] Why don't you take a break? This has been a lot.

[She's used to things like this but she knows that Pietro isn't.]

It isn't required that we stay here and who will catch you. [Her voice is lightly teasing and lowered in order to keep their conversation private.] We can explore the city. I haven't seen a lot of it. [And it'd be more entertaining with Pietro. He always runs in circles around her and has something to report back... or a stolen item to show off.]

Wanda took the seat across from Loki with a polite smile. "Hello."

She recognized him from the files, It was impossible not too, but she hadn't thought to see him here. "My brother enjoyed giving me salt instead of sugar when I made cookies as a child. My parents and I didn't think it was very funny though." It'd only happened a few times before Wanda had stopped making cookies.

"What about you Loki? What is the funniest prank you've ever played or had played on you?" Though she imagined the pranks he played were far more amusing.

Wanda didn't introduce herself just yet. It was like a game, a diversion, and she wondered if Loki would play along. All she knew about him was what she'd read or surmised through the mind stone but none of that compared to truly meeting a person and so far Loki appeared amiable.

"Steve?" She blinked, surprised and uncertainty twisting awkwardly in her chest. "Oh." They had to answer questions. That was part of the game but she couldn't shake the surprise she felt at seeing him. It felt like it's been too long but it's also only been for a moment. Wanda had a lot of memories of Steve and she knew that those in the village were likely foreign to him. It was best to tread lightly.

"I hadn't thought to see you here." She remembered the shock and then quickly added. "I have been doing research about this city. That's all my hobbies so far but I like going on walks and exploring." Mostly because the city looped in on itself and Wanda never really knew where she was going to end up.

"When did you get here?" She looked down at her card and then clumsily added. "And what is your ideal vacation?"

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i've been bitten by the bug ...

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naps!

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NAP; Hope late is okay!

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Let me know if late is okay.

NAPS; I hope late is okay