sheets all on the floor just like an ocean ...

[headandhand]

WHO: All y’all!
WHAT: Your regularly scheduled NAPs event for the month
WHERE: Fort Pillowtown
WHEN: Oct. 7-10
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 - 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 a new, super-comfy all-ages establishment called Fort Pillowtown. As the name suggests, it’s a large indoor space filled wall to wall with permanent pillowforts. There are a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, with each individual fort constructed of gauzy hanging sheets, strings of soft lights, warm blankets, plush toys, a mini television with on-screen menu for choosing movies to watch and video games to play, and yes, lots and lots of pillows. Snacks and drinks of all sorts are available for purchase, as are whimsical onesies and comfy slippers to wear. Board and card game sets are also available to borrow or buy. Sounds like a dream, right?

So pull up a pillow pile, get to know your new neighbors, and enjoy a well-earned and comfy chill-out session. And hey, if you end up napping at NAPs, rest assured that it’s absolutely allowed.

Comments

Drifter | Destiny | OTA

[be_notorious]

1.) Pillowfort Adventure

Drifter's from a place where he's no stranger to sleeping in the cold corpses of Hydras or two Phalanx shields propped together. He's accustomed to cold sinking into his bones or searing heat from machinery in his face. He's used to hard cots or cold tins of food, long past expiration and good by luck.

This? This is extravagant. This is the poshest he's felt in a goddamn millennium, and he knows gluttonous Emporers.

So he's sitting in his pillow fort with a mountain of snacks beside of him, eating as if this might be his last chance to eat. In fact, he treats every chance to eat as if that might be it. He's used to eating fucking alien jerky, that here he is stuffing his face with real food, actual food, potato chips and jerky and candy and about five different kinds of soda he's halfway through plus a few more unopened.

At least he's not in his armor. Not in a onesie, but he's removed the hulking shoulder pads and boots and his gauntlets, so he looks like a more reasonable person perched in front of the TV watching an old comedy and biting into a large soft pretzel. His mouth as full as he gestures at the space next to him.

He's enjoying it. It's about a couple of rich old douchebags setting up two other average guys for the sake of a one-dollar bet. He's gonna enjoy when it turns around on 'em. He likes it when fiction gives you the relief the real world doesn't.

2.) NAPS

"So what would scare you more, a rhino runnin' at you? Or a whole hornet's nest fallin' down beside you. Go." Drifter points both hands at his conversation, finger-gunning. Come on.

He's not really much in the traditional way of questions, he's completely discarded the prompts for the sake of making his own fun. But fuck it! If they're gonna have him here, he's gonna talk about what he wants to. He pretty much expects everyone else does the same.

2

[ferrokinetically]

Well, that's a question she hasn't been asked before. Ever. It's actually pretty creative and she lets out an amused light laugh. "Hornet's nest. Rhino could be dodged easily," she responds without much hesitation. As long as she's got her boots on she could just go up and over the rhino. The hornets nest though...

"How do you avoid angry hornets though? They'd probably drop and immediately assume the nearest person knocked them down."

[be_notorious]

"Water usually does the trick. Cain't smoke 'em once they're already riled up, they'll tear you right up. Or grab the nearest sheet and put over your head til they get bored."

He's tried to sleep in places that turned out to have hornets. Of all the things to survive the collapse, he doesn't know why it had to be those guys. Made rooting out places to rest uncomfortable. Made aliens unfamiliar with the wildlife finding a nest funny.

"Alright, you go."

[ferrokinetically]

"Do you just carry sheets with you everywhere you go outside?" She laughs and shakes her head. "Evidently you're more prepared for anything than I would be." Maybe she needs to work on that. Develop a backpack of supplies for emergency hornet attacks.

She leans back and tries to think about something creative to come up with to ask. "Would you rather be famous or live a normal calm secluded life?"

[be_notorious]

"There used to be a lot of bombed out houses. Broken buildings and stuff. I forget not a lotta places have those. Or, you know, the occasional big ass alien you can run by yellin' 'Sting him not me!'"

He picks up a mug of hot chocolate he put to the side.

"Kinda weird how you start gettin' used to that kinda thing."

The cup starts steaming after he's held it for a few good solid seconds, and then he takes a drink before putting it down.

[ferrokinetically]

That's interesting to hear about. "Sounds like you come from a charming world. Aliens. That's one thing I haven't seen yet." At least as far as she's aware of. Then again she's just become aware of clones being a thing, so who really knows anymore.

"Seems like people can get used to just about anything." She watches the cup steam with clear curiosity but doesn't make a comment.

[be_notorious]

"I'd say it grows on you. But it really doesn't. Weren't exactly the friendly sort." Now, according to most people, the Traveller was actually a good extraterrestrial influence. But it was a little like bringing a wanted criminal into your house, chased by everything it pissed off.

"Some of 'em you can talk to, if you can figure out each other's language. And humans kinda split off into different sorts. A couple of directions here and there. So there's all kindsa people you can get to know now. But as far as aliens go, the Fallen are probably most personable. Not a lot of 'em, but a few of them bug lookin' fellas can be good company."

He looks into his cup. "Man, I never thought I'd run into this again. I think I even saw some marshmallows over there."

[ferrokinetically]

"You know, I find it hard to believe a group called the Fallen are the most personable. Just doesn't make it sound very promising for the rest of them." A smirk accompanies the comment. She's brought a plane down with her own natural abilities but somehow aliens just seem like an entirely different playing field.

"So you can talk to aliens but not get hot chocolate?" See? That right there makes it all hard to believe. How does someone live in a vast universe without hot chocolate?

2

[le_chevalier]

Having just sat down, Haji blinked a bit, recogizing the man who helped him with the work machines, but instead of saying anything about that he simply replied.

"Neither, both will hurt, but unless you have upset the Rhinoceros, it will probably run past you, and Hornet's stings heal eventually."

The finger gunning, did earn the fainest smile from the other.

[be_notorious]

"Alright, alright. Fair enough. How about this for scary. Government or work bein' mad at ya. Or family or lover bein' mad at ya."

He makes a so so motion with his hand.

"Personally, it's been the former that's been more willin' to kill ya. Like hornet stings, the other trouble wears off quicker, either on your part or theirs." Not that he has family or loved ones left. But that's the point; easy to mourn the losses than being involved in a shoot out with your crew.

[le_chevalier]

"Government or work." He replied just as passively, his eyes shifting from the ignored cards, to the other's face. "They are outside factors, they can be ignored at home... a loved ones anger is harder to ignore." His beloved had smacked the taste out of his mouth more than once. He tries hard to never piss her off like that again. "Yes, exactly that."

[be_notorious]

"Back home, we got these different types of aliens paradin' around our solar system, thinkin' they're entitled to some of the things our world's got. Some of 'em will crowd you on mass, clawin' at ya, screechin'. Some will come barrellin' at you with their big shields and armor, ready to mow you down.

"So it got me thinkin'. Rhino? Or hornet's nest?"

"But back to the analogy. It still stands to reason, though, you'd go all out to protect people you care about from the Rhino or the hornet's next, but work? Your leaders? I bet you're the type o' guy that'd let 'em take care of themselves if it came down to one or the other. Nothin' wrong with that. Just seems that way from my admittedly scant observation."

He pulls out a coin and rolls it skillfully over his fingers as he talks idly. A jade thing, with snakes on either side.

[le_chevalier]

"Aliens? Like John Carter of Mars?" He had read those books while Saya was in her first great sleep before she woke up in the great war. He never ventured much for modern alien movies and books. Still, he enjoyed the old pulps to kill time. "A fine reason to, if any." He replued after a second.

"Sadly no." He admitted with a small sigh that spoke volumes to an eternally tired soul. He was so done, but he had to keep going. "Even those who employ me and my mistress are under our protection. Every death that happens under my watch is on my hands... I try my best but, it is often not enough. I wish I could avoid it, but Saya get's quite cross as well when casulties happen on the battlefield." He used to fancy himself more of a lover than a fighter, but a century of battle made that questionable.

His steel blue eyes following the coin as the other moved it.

[be_notorious]

"I've actually been to Mars, you know? There aren't any natives, though. Just damned dicks."

Drifter gives the coin another pass before he flashes an empty hand at Haji.

"Who's the mistress?"

He can enjoy a good story. Seems like he thinks real high of her.

naptime!

[notalive]

That...is a new question. Having never before seen a rhino or a hornet, he has to consider this in a very abstract sense, and though he's frowning in thought, a vaguely bemused grin playing across his mouth, his LED's gone yellow with the effort of putting together so many elements he's got no experience in, and which of those elements he would prefer.

"The rhino," he says slowly. "I don't think the hornets could damage me." Then he grimaces very briefly. "Or maybe they could, I've never seen one. But I don't feel pain and I can run pretty fast."

Would being injected with venom do damage to him? He doesn't know, and doesn't care to find out.

"Similar question." Because this seems to be somebody who wouldn't appreciate something as banal as the same question. "What would scare you more, a nest full of hornet-sized rhinos or one rhino-sized hornet?"

[be_notorious]

"Hell, that should be obvious." He pulls out a jade coin and moves it over his fingers, skillfully walking it (especially for a person that should be made of only flesh and blood).

"Nest fulla rhinos. I mean, big ol' bug you kill one and your done. Exoskeleton is easy enough with the right weapon. Nest of rhinos could be blocked by a short brick wall but is just uncanny valley enough to mess with you. Also'd feel like dice under your feet if you stepped on 'em."

He passes it between his hands, but bounces it off the table to do so.

"Alright. What shitty job would you prefer to have if you knew an emergency was comin'. Food service? Where you could get all the extra food you wanted if you stashed right. Or maintenance work, where you had a bunch of reinforced places to hole up." He does wonder what that yellow light is about.

[notalive]

Connor's already watching that coin walk its way along the man's fingers, but he's listening well enough that the concept of stepping on many, many little mammals, along the description, makes him wince, lip curling in an unexpected grimace. There's something that makes him feel a little revolted, gut squirming oddly, and he's not sure what it is.

"You'd need to have that weapon on you," he says mildly. "For the hornet, I mean. It would have a pretty thick exoskeleton."

Someone who isn't Connor could figure out the force needed, but since Connor doesn't know anything about either of the creatures involved to figure out the exact thickness and hardness of a hornet were it the size of a rhino...he doesn't know. Weirdly, he wishes he did, even though it would literally be the most useless fact he would know.

The coin bounces off the table on its way between the man's hands, and it's got Connor's full interest now.

"I don't eat," he says, and he probably doesn't need to expand on that, but, "So I'll take the maintenance work."

His LED's blue again, although it cycles as he thinks of something.

"Would you rather never have to eat again or never have to sleep again?"

...Connor does neither of these things, but humans are usually pretty attached to both.

[be_notorious]

Drifter wonders about the LED at the side of his head. Doesn't look all that human, whatever he is. It's as bright as an Awoken's eyes. He thinks about scanning the guy, but he doesn't want to get his ghost out where anyone could see it. Especially when it can't speak anymore; he has to rely on the little drone to show him images.

"It's say to get past a chiton exoskeleton you'd need some sorta asault weapon, or three good whacks with a sledgehammer. Flamethrowers an' electric are real good, too, 'cause usually them types are pretty specific about what kinda pressure they can handle. Once they get adjusted to a space they're quicker to get rid of than anything with the skeleton on the inside and the squishy parts on the outside."

He notices Connor watching and then shows him the coin. Then makes it "disappear" with a hand flourish. There's only one place it could have gone, realistically. Up a thick gauntlet with some surprising slight of hand. 'Magic' but not. This sort of stuff often lets people think of him as nothing but a charleton. He thrives off of it.

"Never have to eat again." He says it without a second thought. "Starvin' ain't a pleasant feelin'. Me? I'm hungry all the time because of the times food was scarce." And for other reasons. "And sleep can actually feel pretty good, so long as you ain't got a lot of bad dreams. I hear exos dream. They're uh... a kinda robot. They have a real specific dream. If you had to choose one of your senses to be without but got a new one to replace it, what would they be? Let's say givin' up your sense of taste for readin' thoughts."

[notalive]

Connor grins crookedly, weirdly enjoying these mental exercises that have absolutely zero bearing on reality. He doesn’t get to do this much - think about things that make no sense and don’t need to make sense.

“I guess if I had to give one up…” He would have immediately said touch - until he deviated. Now he wouldn’t give any part of that up. “Smell. I can live without that. And maybe it’s weird, but I’d take being able to feel pain.”

He has to be cautious about his own safety these days, about his own morality, without even much of a warning system about what exactly top be careful about, or how careful to be. Pain would be that warning system. He’s also wondered - would being able to feel pain make pleasure all the more acute?

“About the hornet… It depends on whether we’re talking about something that evolved to be the size it is in our gravity, or a normal hornet magically made larger.” He is not a person who can use words like ‘magically’ in a sentence. “The latter probably wouldn’t be able to survive properly at its new size - the sheer weight of the exoskeleton would crush it sooner or later, right? But it would withstand a lot of direct pressure. You can’t even kill a cockroach by stepping on it directly - you’d need to get creative.

“If it evolved to be the size it is, the chitin would have to be a compound of something much lighter to keep it in the air, but it would have to be much faster to avoid people with sledgehammers.”

He leans forward. “Do you have a flamethrower?”

Connor’s officially interested.

He’s also still interested in these coin tricks. Especially since, even though he has the ability to literally look back on the memory in slow motion close-up, he can’t quite see what the man did.

“How did you do that?” Without thinking, he pulls Hank’s dog tag out of his pocket - he’s carried it everywhere with him since he got it - and calibrates his hand with it rapidly, walking the coin across his fingers and spinning it on a fingertip.

[be_notorious]

"I suppose you heat anything up on the inside an' it's probably gonna burst out. Like a bad batch of popcorn."

Magically is a particularly plausible thing, here. And one that Drifter accepts even in the terms of his world. True, science and 'magic' have long since overlapped for them. But to Drifter, 'magic' is being able to change the very physics of the universe with thoughts and words. Written ones. Spoken ones. Brilliant imaginings that can bring forward change; not always for the better or the worse, light or for dark.

So yeah. 'Magically' made larger? He can accept that. The Hive make one of their own species larger all the time. The thin gangly thrall. Frail, long-nailed, fragile. Given enough change and power, they become a massive, fearsome ogre shambling after and obliterating everything in its path.

Giant hornet? Yeah, he'll accept that. Sounds like a Hive thing.

"True. If we ain't talkin' in terms of normal Earth hornets? Things come a lot tougher. Adapted to heat an' cold an' pressure. Especially layers of pressure. But still. Somethin' with an exoskeleton's gonna retain a lotta energy- and well, I ain't got one on me. Technically." He shrugs thoughtfully. "But I can make one."

And look at him handle that... Dog tag? Well, makes about as much sense as anything.

"Look at that. Looks like you got some skills too, Brother." He sounds impressed at the little spin.

"Flickin' your wrist and fingers does a lot to make the coin go where you want it to when you don't want it in your fingers no more. Or when you want it back in 'em."

He flicks his hand forward and starts to walk coins between his own fingers. Four of them. And he's grinning as he does, a playful, nose-wrinkled one. "Catch." One of them he bounces off the table, hitting it just so that it goes towards one of Connor's hands.

1

[sanephiroth]

Oh, well. That's one man who seems to be having a good time. Sephiroth had been looking for an empty fort but seeing as Drifter is inviting him to sit, he sees no reason to decline. So he sweeps in in his new clothes and meticulously rearranges a few pillows for a more comfortable seat.

It's a bit of a hassle keeping his hair out of the way when sitting so low to the ground but he manages.

... He wants to ask about the movie but figures it impolite to talk mid-movie. He'll just quietly try to figure out what the title of the movie even is.

Re: 1

[be_notorious]

It's right prior to the scene in the bathroom. Drifter scoots over, gesturing at the screen. "So them two old fellas just place a bet. That they could make a well-off man go bad, an' they could make a schyster turn responsible. That one said it'd mess up. Well, the well-off man just done lost his mind dressed in some red suit-" it's a Santa suit "-an' the well-off guy just did somethin' kindly. So I reckon they're about to declare the winner."

It's a quick, quick rundown of said plot as he's making that room, and offers an unopened bottle of soda to the more responsible man in the fort while he, the designated schyster, tends to his previous bottle.

He could introduce himself. But he's more about getting to know people through action when he can.

[sanephiroth]

There's a lot to unpack here. What a strange premise for a movie.

"Thank you. I guess we'll see how it plays out." He accepts the soda and scrutinizes it for a moment, trying to discern how unhealthy it is before he opens it and drinks it. He frowns. Too sweet.

Though he has to ask.

"What is a schyster?"

[be_notorious]

"A con man to negligible degrees. Someone who just tries to trick people out of their cash on the street. Only a step above stealin' wallets."

He gestures at the screen. At Eddie Murphy's character.

"At the start he was pretendin' to be paralyzed."

[sanephiroth]

"I see," Sephiroth continues to observe the movie, silent for a moment. "Have you seen this before?"