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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He shot her a half-hearted glare as he tried to shake off the soda from his fingerless gloves. It was his first time wearing them too. He's mostly just grouchy for various reasons, don't mind him.

"Why bother in such a small building?"

"It's fun." A simple answer that comes with a grin. It wasn't exactly the truth though but he seemed so grumpy that a bit of teasing felt needed. "I only realized I could do it a bit ago. Now I have to figure out the limits here." There we go, a much more honest answer.

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?"

" 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."

((OOC: Gently retcons away bandage because I can't keep my ideas straight apparently))

He folds his arms, looking serious (more serious).

"To keep you from escaping. Or going somewhere you shouldn't." He's guessing but it makes sense anyway. "They took my GFs too. Now I can't use magic."

"Probably both. I don't like it. I was just figuring out how far I could go and how many people I could take too." It's a disappointing thing to have found out and her shoulders droop with the admission. "What's a GF?"

He blinks, suddenly interested.

"You can bring people with you?"

But oh, he should answer the question. "Guardian Force. It's a type of summon. Powerful creatures who live in my head and help me in battle when junctioned."

She nods excitedly. "Yes. First I thought I had to hold on to someone to take them with me. But I found out I didn't." And it was a very neat thing to find out. Useful.

She blinks. That's weird. And sounds a tiny bit crazy, and trust her she knows crazy. "What do the creatures look like?"

"So you can take me with you right now?"

Please help him not say anything rebellion-like in this trying time. Her question just makes him frown in annoyance. What does it matter what they look like?

"They all look different. They have different powers and abilities."

"I could back home. I didn't even have to be there anymore!" And she sounds very proud of that. "I'm not so sure about here. I haven't tried taking anyone with me." It's something she wants to try now. If she can maybe that would be helpful to other people here.

"Can you describe any? Have they always lived in your head?"

Squall hesitates for just a moment. Of course the suspicious part of him doubts but...

"You can take me." He volunteers as tribute.

As for the GFs.

"No. I have to bond with them first. They don't accept just anybody. You have to prove you're worthy. Once they're junctioned, they live in my head. We... think they take up space in our memories... That's why we forget things." He frowns at that. That's the only thing he doesn't like about GFs now, even though he still needs their power.

"My first GFs are Quezacotl and Shiva. Quezacotl... kind of looks like a big green bird without feathers. Its element is lightning. Shiva looks like a woman except she's blue and her hair isn't really hair. She has ice powers."

He's great at describing!

"Really?" she blinks at his offer. "Oh. I wish I could see them they sound amazing!" And that gets an excited hand clap from her. They sound very impressive and especially neat looking.

"I understand about forgetting things. I do too. But nothing lives in my head like that." She thinks that might actually be a lot more interesting if that had been the reason.

"Lets try then!" She jumps forward and wraps her arms around his neck and then teleports them both across the room. "Yay!"

She forgets things too? But that question will have to wait because she's suddenly in his space and hugging him and...

"Huh?!" He looks around, unable to immediately process what just happened. Only that his view is different. He looks around in confusion while his mind struggles to catch up until finally he figures out where they were standing before.

"... that was cool," he says quietly, staring at Arkady.

"I should have asked. People always get upset when I don't ask," but she's smiling. They get upset when she doesn't ask, but she still does it. It's easier and they just don't seem to get how much easier it is. At least not back home. Maybe here will be different.

"That's how I felt when I learned it! I don't have to touch people either. At least I didn't back home. I haven't figured out the limitations and everything here."

He gets that, kinda. Can't give people time to process and panic or worry. Squall looks down and pats at his chest to make sure he's whole and present.

"I don't mind helping. You need someone to test it with, right?" Yep. Helping is definitely the reason why. It's not just because it's cool and he wants to go again.

"Yes. I need to figure out the distance and how far I can be." She looks thoughtful for a few seconds and then tilts her head. "There are other things I should test."

"What?" Just don't teleport him into a wall and he'll be okay with this.

"I can see long distances. Sometimes other things too. How people die. Other things." But talking about that usually just upsets people for some reason. "I can also see inside," she taps her head. "But nobody would want to help test that."

He tenses at the last bit. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a great thing to help with. Though with the number of things she just listed...

"Are you a sorceress?"

"No, I'm a..." what was she exactly? "A FreakAngel." Good enough. "And an Arkady." Even better. Really, she has no idea where her powers come from. Nobody does. "That's a very specific thing to ask someone."

"I don't know what those mean." An army? A type of alien?

"Sorceresses are the only ones with powers like yours where I'm from. They use real magic."

"Magic would be fun I think." Though she gets the impression he doesn't seem to think so. "I don't think we do magic." But she really doesn't know what they do or how they do it. Nobody has really figured out how it came to be that they were born with the powers they had.

"A FreakAngel is what we called ourselves. Arkady is me." She points to herself. "My name. I don't know where our powers came from. We were just born that way. Twelve of us on the exact same day with the same color hair, the same color eyes, and the same pale skin. All with freaky powers."

He's watching her with some interest, more curiosity than anything.

"Sorceresses can go mad without a knight. A few already tried to take over the world." He rubs at his arm. "The world doesn't like you, does it?"

It's a guess but considering how sorceresses are treated in his world, he can't imagine he's wrong.

"How did the twelve of you find each other?"

"Everyone has the potential to go mad with the wrong push." There's an ominous edge to the statement. "How do they lose their knights?"

She smiles a little sadly and nods. "People who knew about us didn't like us much. Our parents gave us to the government. I think they thought we'd be useful. Or dangerous. We were." Luckily they eventually got smarter and kept more to themselves.

"We were born in the same place. So we've always just been together." And nobody ever knew why or how those births happened.

His eyes narrow slightly. Everyone, huh. He can't say she's wrong.

He shakes his head. "I've met sorceresses but no one knows much about them. One... forced someone to be her knight and he nearly died for it. I don't think the other ever had a knight. And one..." He pauses, looking a little embarrassed. "I'm her knight."

He shakes off the fleeting emotions.

"Were you still with the government before you came here?" Doesn't sound like a fun life honestly. People in power seem to go mad with some kind of perceived power and stop seeing other people as human.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i've been bitten by the bug ...

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