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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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)

Connor's eyes narrow at the sight - the weird effect in the air, the way her hair totally changes in front of them. Multiple people - right. He sees it. And not a human who just happens to have DID, either. On some level, she's genuinely transforming.

While the girl looks around her, clearly under a lot of stress, Connor casts Hank an alarmed look of his own. The screams have already attracted attention - is it enough that the iterations might have been alerted?

"How long have you been here?" he asks Hank, lips barely moving. He's heard enough from other people, and seen just enough, that he can roughly guess how long iterations usually take to arrive when they've been alerted to a problem. If they have.

"You're not causing trouble, Penny Farthing," he says, voice pitched slightly softer than usual. "We just wanna help. You haven't been to the dorms yet, have you? Let's go over there and find your room."

In other words: let's leave this street before anything comes, and he's hoping Hank gets the message, between Connor asking about time and then trying to make them leave.

Hammerhead almost always needs calming down and is definitely danger to those around her. That's why Penny is here, she's not got an ounce of Hammerhead's aggression and doesn't want her loose with so many people around.

"Thank you, sir." Hands drawn close to herself, she grasps at her fingers. "S-suppose that's the p-place for me now." Which was a terrifying thought, considering Penny didn't really belong on the surface at all.

That was Jane's job, and after another shift she stands up straighter and looks between Connor and Hank with a look that suggests she's far over this shit. "Are you guys arresting me?" she asks, stutter and accent alike gone. The rest of her looks the same as Penny though. "'cause I already had a real shitty day and that's the last thing I need to deal with."

"A couple of minutes," Hank mutters to Connor. More than he'd like. He keeps his hands out.

"I don't wanna arrest you, I really don't. I don't like arresting people that are scared and confused. But there are some big tasing asshole robots that might decide otherwise if they think you're a threat. I just figure we can answer some questions for you as best we can and sort things out that way.

"You'd rather that, right? Know the fuck about what's going on and find a place to get so so you can get the uh... Alright, I don't wanna know what's on you. Whatever the fuck happened to you off. By the way-" he nods to Connor with a side-tip of his head, "-He's not one of the big tasing asshole robots. He's just an android twink. He's fine." The most reassuring thing Hank has ever said about his partner. "He can help answer things, too."

Connor doesn't even have consciously think about the time - a countdown appears in his vision as soon as he hear's Hank's response, ticking down steadily towards the earliest possible time the iterations could show up. But he doesn't want to make the girl - any part of her - panic, so he doesn't mention it. Maybe to Hank if he gets a chance.

...After the difficulty he just had making anybody move on because he just doesn't look threatening enough, he's starting to regret his design team's decisions a little bit. But that doesn't mean he doesn't cast Hank a slightly flat look anyway.

"You'll know the iterations when you see them - I'm not like them," he agrees, not wanting to be another source of fear for this girl if she knows he's synthetic. "We just need to get off this street out of their way."

Sending in the nice cops before the big tasing asshole robots seems a little too good to be true and Jane isn't sure if she trusts it, knowing it could be the start of a good-cop routine. But she's lost, stranded, covered in cockroach guts, and pretty sure that, if necessary, she could take these guys out or get away. "Fine," she says flatly. "Old guy and non-tasing twink it is. Lead the way, Grandpa." Just as long as he doesn't lead her to a hospital gown and restraints.

She's been housemates with a rustbucket robot and a twunk cyborg, so a twink android is pretty easy for her to accept. The cop part bothers her a lot more than the robot part. "Yeah? How are you different?" she asks. "Smaller taser?"

There's no venom behind her words, more a tired irritation. The old guy's right, she wants off the street and into clean clothes and preferably not tased and used for weird medical experiments, but that doesn't mean she's happy about going along with them. Or that she trusts they won't try something, even if they hadn't been awful yet. She'll cross that bridge when she comes to it.

Hank takes half a second to shrug at Connor. "Don't worry about it." The twink thing, he means. "I've been 'grandpa' since I was fourty-two." The nicknames can usually humanize them if they just let it happen. It's not real disrespect. Could have been a lot worse he has a feeling, especially with the slightly agitated crowd.

Then, louder. "The iterations actually look like robots. Tough fuckers, too."

Really Jane was just lucky that the first two people she met were two patrol officers that gave a damn, and not one of the security devices incapable of giving a damn. "Connor looks like a person and he's from my world. Every living person here came from somewhere, or their parents did."

He's hoping Connor can lay out a path of least resistance. "They give you a little bit of money to start out with so at least getting something else to wear won't involve some Oliver Twist shit."

"I see your point, grandpa," Connor retorts quietly. Partly he just wants to tease Hank, but maybe it'll help to just act normal. After all, this is normal, for everyone but the people like them basically appearing out of nowhere.

He gestures them down a nearby side street, the best route back to the dorm that won't attract any attention. As they walk, he tries to stay off on one side of Hank, trying not to crowd the newcomer - presumably no longer Penny Farthing, and listening out for anything robot-like approaching them.

"I'm a traffic cop, they didn't issue me a taser yet." The glib answer. The serious answer: "The androids where we're from are sapient - they're people. The iterations here aren't. They just follow orders."

And there doesn't even seem to be the potential to grow beyond that, as androids had even when they weren't fully aware of it yet.

"Do you think I can't hear you? Shit, May/December, get a room." She gives an exaggerated roll of her eyes they can't help but miss and keeps up the pace into the side street. It's actually kind of a good sign if they're into each other -- it might mean she hadn't kicked up enough fuss to alert the entire robocop force and that Twink just has Grandpa's back.

It also meant both of them were less likely to creep out on her. That helped too.

"Not what I was asking, but okay." She didn't really care about Connor's appearance or their world, just what was happening here. "If you're a robot and a person, why are you a meter maid for the robot cops who aren't people? The ones you don't want to tase me."

Hank, like a good cop, and one who is reasonably sure he is talking to a person (personality?) that can handle it, lightly flips her off for that and forges merrily on, both with showing her the way to their building and with talking. "There are the regular cops, and there are these enforcers called iterations. I think they're presented as sort of 'really fucking sturdy cannon fodder' made by the big AI overmind. You know, if your cannon fodder is as tough as the cannonballs. They have an autopilot to suss out threats. The actual police department consists of real people. We're still pretty new, so that's why you got the fuckin' meter maids.

"We got some experience from before we got here and know better than to just fuckin' shoot someone freaking out." Even if Connor's experience is shorter.

"Just trust me, you don't want those things seeing you as a threat."

That's now multiple instances of someone telling them to get a room and Connor still hasn't pointed out that they have one: they're roommates. Hank should be grateful for this.

He's less able to tell if someone can take needling, but if she's getting sarcastic, this personality can't be that frightened - and that's a relief in itself. Maybe they can get back to the dorms without anything catching up with them. ...Although he decides not to make any kind of retort to that sarcasm, especially since he has no idea how what he said didn't answer the question.

"I'm not a robot," he corrects her automatically, all the same. "I'm an android."

Look, this stuff matters.

"Down here," he gestures them into another alley, going for the best combination of a fast route and quiet streets. People are giving the slime-covered young girl a wide berth - it's not attracting enough attention for the iterations to care about unless they're already looking for somebody, but it makes Connor nervous anyway.

Person, Hank. They're all people, each of the personalities, and since he didn't ask about it Jane just flips the double birds back to Hank through gooey fingerless gloves. "Great, then thanks for not shooting me when I freaked out. Cop of the Year right here, huh?" Hank isn't selling this place very well. If "doesn't use excessive force immediately" equals "good cop," then it's even more similar to home.

"Who're they cannon fodder for? People like me?" No one had mentioned any threat beyond the crazy newcomers, and if the hardware's that advanced, that's weird. You don't get a load of Killbot 5000s without a way to use them. Not unless you had Chronic Small Dick Compensation syndrome, which for all she knew the Head did.

"You're not one of those guys who's going to bitch about being mechanical, are you?" Because she already has two of those and would prefer not to go to a robot sensitivity training course if she can avoid it. She notices people parting to avoid brushing against her and raises her hands, wiggling her fingers in an exaggerated spooky gesture.

"Yeah. Like you. Like the kid that came in covered in blood and was angry about it. Like other people. Gotta maintain that look of control, you know? Look, take the cop of the moment. It's what you get here right now."

He steers them best he can down the alley Connor indicates.

"He deals with me, so yeah, he'll bitch. I'd rather he did than didn't. The iterations don't bitch."

Which is probably the nicest thing he's realized about AIs. The more unhappy the can get, the more complaints they make, the better off everyone is."

Connor hasn't seen any of the worst kinds of arrivals - mostly he's met new people at the NAPs and that's about it. He's mostly seen the iterations tase people during road rage incidents or disputes. It doesn't take that much to bring them running - sometimes Connor or another cop can clear everybody out before the arrive, but not always. And most citizens? They're fine with living under this. It's a fact of life along with traffic jams and too-expensive coffee.

"I don't bitch," he protests. Pause. "...about being an android. It's what I am - I like what I am."

It was an automatic response, but now he's said it, he knows it's true. He does like what he is - he doesn't want to be something else or be seen as something else, just to be respected and valued for what he is. For the first time, that's starting to happen.

"'One of those guys'?" he asks, catching that wording. "You have synthetics where you're from?"

'Synthetics' and 'organics' being the words he's had to adopt - 'android' and 'human' don't work here so well.

Now Connor's come close to one of those bad arrivals, although Hank's right, it's a lot better than it could have been. And as much as she loathes the idea of an overbearing trigger-happy police presence, it's a relief that none of her personalities ended up hurting anyone. There wasn't even any property damage as far as she saw, although she wouldn't mind if some of these iterations had been on the receiving end of it.

"Right, I bet it's awesome being metal. Never leads to existential angst about the nature of personhood." Yeah, there are "synthetics" where she's from. She's most familiar with cyborgs, technically, but everybody counted Cliff as a robot. Even Cliff. "I used to live with some. Sort of." Vic was less than 50% machine last she'd heard, but his tech was a lot closer to Connor's level.

This is definitely the closest he's come to seeing problems, and it's surprising - he wouldn't blame any of the people brought here for panicking. Maybe if he were human, he'd have panicked himself.

Connor lets out a breath that's close to a huff of laughter. "You'd be surprised. We were never supposed to be people, we just evolved on our own. You have to go through at least a little existential angst when that happens."

Or a lot of it. And he's made of mostly polymers, not metal, but he's going to take an educated guess and say she doesn't care about that nuance.

His timer reaches zero. There could already be iterations back where they started out, but no one's paying any attention to them here. They could still find the three of them, but he's not

"You sort of lived with them - like roommates, or..." Or were they owned, the way androids used to be.

It's amazing Jane didn't cause a bigger problem, honestly, and she probably has Penny to thank for that. Hammerhead wouldn't have had any issue punching either of them through a storefront window, and then they'd have been really fucked.

"No I wouldn't." Cliff and Vic both brooded over their receding humanity and it had sort of become part of the background noise of the Manor, like Rita's body image issues or Larry's depression and sexuality. Existential angst happened to everyone, and an android experiencing it would be the last thing to surprise her.

She construes that half a question entirely differently, eyes narrowing on Connor as a disgusted look crosses her face. "Get your mind out of the fucking gutter, Twink. I wouldn't fuck a robot with someone else's pussy."

Hank's always been a little quick to defend Connor, even when he wasn't much in the mood to be. Whether it was allowing him onto his first crime scene or stopping Gavin Fucking Reed from shooting him.

"Androids were servants back where we're from. And believe me, most of them aren't too big on fucking humans. We're unsurprisingly disgusting. So that wasn't the question he was asking."

But they're getting close, and he sees the building.

"It's over there. There's at least a shower on each floor." They lucked out and have one in their room.

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."

If it helps at all, it's not anything to do with being a synthetic being or disgusting human. Jane would be hostile at the idea that anyone could manage to have sex with her and would protest against it. She flips Connor a double bird as she approaches the dorm building.

"Wasn't my point, asshole. But trust me, no one would buy Cliff's services. It's not slavery, it's inadequacy."

Don't really care. Rotate on it, Twink." After displaying her middle fingers she shoves her hands back into her ruined pockets and heads into the dorm building.

At the desk she relays her name as "Crazy Jane" loud and clear, smiling as she's given her room assignment. Once she's done she turns to them, nodding respectfully. "Gentlemen. Thanks for the assist, I really appreciate it. Now if you'd kindly fuck off, I'd appreciate it."

Hank hadn't even considered the uh... synthetic... synthetic? Is that what he needs to call them now? Fine, whatever, that guy's intact nature. But he assumes that means that they weren't actually slaves. He shrugs and turns to Connor, finishing with spread hands.

"I need a sandwich."

At least the two more polite ones didn't get tased and no one got hurt. So while it was a thankless job, it was mostly successful.

This girl - "Crazy Jane", apparently, is...quite unlike anybody he's ever met. Not in the way she's treating him, but in the fact that she would treat him that way no matter who or what he was. Which... He'll take it.

"My name's Connor," he calls after her anyway, because damned if he's letting her walk off thinking 'twink' is a designation. She might never use his real name, but he's determined for her to at least hear it.

"That was your fault," he tells Hank, though without any particular bite.

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i've been bitten by the bug ...

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