TDM 001. WELCOME TO THE CITY

[headandhand]

» 01. WELCOME WAGON

Wow, what a bunch of new faces! The city of Dualis hasn't seen anything like this in a long time, and they've seen some pretty crazy things. Chances are you're seeing some pretty crazy things, too, unless you're used to a lot 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 first 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, then 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?

» 02. A BUG IN THE CODE

Remember how the Head mentioned that whole plague thing? Well, don't worry, this isn't that.

It is, however, a really, really terrible flu circulating through the residents of Dualis. Symptoms include fever, chills, vomiting, hallucinations and even in some cases seizures. Bad news, all around. Luckily, this is something the Head knows how to deal with! Time for vaccinations, everyone~

The vaccination process is pretty straightforward: just head to your local clinic and get innoculated! You'll be in and out in less than ten minutes, MedDualis is pretty efficient that way. There isn't even a copay. The MedDroids will tell you, however, that there might be some minor side effects** to watch out for, including physical reactions and odd dreams, but don't worry--those will wear off within forty-eight hours. Nothing to concern yourself about! Of course, if that worries you, you could always run the risk of getting the flu--or passing it on to your loved ones...

**Possible side effects include: Gender or sex change, positive or negative size change, appearance alterations, shared dreams, and mild telepathic links, among others. Please contact your local MedDroid if these symptoms become too severe, or other side effects such as death occur.

» 03. TANSTAAFL

Well, you're settling in just fine, and the basic accommodations and amenities are okay, but maybe you've got a hankering to see that new VR Film: SHARKS IN SPACE 85: BLACK HOLE SHARK DO DO DO DO DO DO DO. Or maybe you want some sweet new duds to wear around town, or even just an actual slab of steak. Sorry, those cost extra, pal, which means it's time for...

JOB HUNTING.

Fortunately, Dualis makes this pretty easy! There's a job fair on this week, down at the Central Hub! Plug your certifications and skills into any of the EmployMe terminals in the Dualis Central Hub, and the computer will auto-generate a currently open job that it feels you'd be best suited for. No resume writing or lengthy application process required! Of course, whether or not this job sounds like the right job for you is another matter...but hey, how could an AI with millions of years of learning be wrong? Time to get started, or try and switch waivers with another unhappy new employee--but be warned, some unforeseen consequences may occur if you try swapping identities with someone else...

Comments

[bravers]

[Technology and control? Yeah. He doesn't need that explained further. His eyes lower to the table slightly as Nida speaks, mostly in agreement. Mostly.]

Seemed to me the Head said something about taking our DNA, and using it to synthesise a cure for some plague. No idea if it can work.

[As well as the fact he knows that whether it worked or not was unimportant. Success or failure, they were stuck. Even if they could get to the Head and force an exception to be made (and hell, he wouldn't be averse to it.) it'd take a year anyway.

But.]

...A god?

[skyward_eyes]

And if you believe that I have a time share on Centra I’d like to show you. Fact is, whoever you are and I am Nida by the way, I trust what I am told here about as far as I can throw a behemoth. Which is saying a lot.

[And does he ever not want to have to explain a behemoth right now. Instead he looks once more at Cloud’s eyes. Too bright, like magic flashing trough the eyes of a sorceress. It’s unnerving so he looks away.]

Since I have you talking, where are you from? Tell me something about your world. [Dodging the fod topic? Maybe. He really shouldn’t have brought it up.]

[bravers]

[He simply allows his shoulders to rise and fall at that. It wasn't as if Nida didn't have a point. The saying was that trust was a two-way street, but even that felt odd in the case of something like this. That was true enough. It's... not exactly trust he feels. It's more the fact he's got enough with him to be able to look after himself if the benefit of the doubt turned out to be a mistake.

He notes Nida's glance to his face and then away as he notes his name. It's unspoken. Just a faint look of acknowledgement at both the introduction (of sorts) and his discomfort.]

Gaia's got behemoths, for a start.

[Although the subject change is indelicate, Nida's probably got enough skill to pull that off. So. The mention of a god is left as a vague question. Nothing more.]

[skyward_eyes]

[Gaia? Nida looks a bit more closely at Cloud when he hears that name. It’s interesting. And his eyebrow goes up a bit at the mention of having behemoths. In fact, he smirks a little at the news.]

And dragons? Do you have dragons?

[What? He wants to stick it to Malik even here.]

[bravers]

Heh. In backwater places, yeah.

[He lowers his eyes to the table again at that, looking some distance away. Something strikes him. It's distant, not quite memory, but having access to it meant that it could only really be memory. Mount Nibel, a trip to a reactor, and dragons. Lots and lots of dragons.]

Mostly, they stick to places away from cities. Being off the ground helps some, too. They're kind of rare, but they exist.

[He turns his eyes to Nida again, unaware of any intention to stick anything to anyone. And.]

My name's Cloud. You been here a while?

[skyward_eyes]

[Well, dragons. A point for him. Nida grins at that news. And then remembers that it's dragons and yeah, after almost being eaten by them a few times before, his smile slips. Oh well.]

Yeah, that describes some of ours two. We've got a variety of species, of proper and of lesser-dragons. Always a pain, of course. I hated fighting them. But I'm not as used to the idea of proper dragons being in mountainous areas. But I guess there are a lot of cliffs on the two islands of note, so it makes sense some.

[Oh man, those eyes again. But no, asking might be rude, so he really best not, right? So he uses that old trick of looking just barely at the middle of Cloud's forehead. Eye contact without eye contact.]

A few days, but not much more than that. I got lucky, some of the people that arrived in the group I did were friends from the place I was just in. So, Cloud, what do you do?

[bravers]

[The fact he's impressed shows faintly, with the fact his eyebrows raise just so. He couldn't help but be impressed. Nida had to be strong in order to do something like that. Dragons weren't exactly like the mutated things that formed around reactors.]

...Oh.
The way you talk, I thought you'd been around a while.

[Subconciously, his hands have already started to fiddle with the stack of cue cards. It's purely subconscious. He's got no interest in them. They're just something for his hands to do as he considers how to answer the question.]

A mercenary. I was working on a job when I woke up here. Haven't noticed anyone from where I'm from.

[Probably a good thing.]

...What about you?

[skyward_eyes]

Just been through this, and many other strange things, before. Comes with the territory for us mercenaries, doesn't it?

[Apparently this man is a kindred spirit in some ways. But not all of them. Still, his eyes drop down to the fiddling fingers. Interesting. Is that nerves, or... Is that a tell? Because some people, when lying or obfuscating, did that, didn't they? Toyed with things and tried to distract themselves. If they were focusing on that, they didn't have to mentally face the lie.]

I was a mercenary myself, trained to it from a young age. [He raises a hand to halt any potential comment.] Yes that is weird. Yes it's possibly immoral. But it's the world I'm from. We were useful too. SeeDs are elite mercenaries, good for just about any job, including a good bit of monster extermination. Granted I've almost been eaten by a dragon a few times, so you know, hazards of the job. At least Behemoths typically want to swash you before eating you. Dragons just go for the bite first.

[Still, there is a lot to be noticed about this man. He's definitely got the body of a fighter, but for the life of him, Nida can't quite tell what sort of weapon. The way he moves seems to say swordsman, but the strength of his arms seems more heavy weapons, like a bearded axe maybe? Interesting. He can't quite pin it down. But the man is definitely a force to be reckoned with.]

Perhaps you could tell me a bit about your Gaia? I only ask because I met a man once, in the last place, who claimed to be from a world called that, and he was actually from one where there were monsters. That was pretty uncommon in that place. Suppose I am half wondering if there is a connection. Not that there has to be. There were people from at least five different versions of 'Earth' it seemed.

[bravers]

I guess. Didn't expect anything like this, though.

[That was him. Little jobs, for little people. Reclaiming items. bodyguard jobs, even some intimidation jobs. Nothing major. Nothing that'd change anything; mercenary work, sure. But not even a close to the work SeeD undertook, which, had he known of it, would strike him as closer to the military than anything else.

Nida's astute enough to know something's up from his fiddling. It's mostly the nature of the job he came from. Blowing up reactors, or what it led to, was not his usual thing. It was different, a personal request from someone important. The rest? It was for him.

Yet there was something misjudged. No comment comes to mind about the improprietry of going into something like that at a young age. Perhaps that would be indicative of where he was from, a world where every child wanted to be SOLDIER.]

Nothing to say. [The will's there, but how to explain what was normal?] There's towns, one city, the biggest in the world, Midgar. The majority live in the slums, underneath the city. Everything else is towns, spread out in multiple continents, powered by Mako energy harvested by Shinra corporation reactors. They're the defacto power because of that. You don't accept their rule, it's not a case of not getting power. It's worse.

[Like Wutai.]

[skyward_eyes]

[Some if those words are definitely familiar, and Nida nods silently along.]

Have you ever heard of a man named Reeve Tuesti? The more you talk the more certain I am that he was from your world. He talked about a place called Shinra. He was a very sad man.

[And pathetic in a way. Nida hadn’t liked him much. Still, it would give him more context about the man’s world, from what Nida had gleaned from the networks there. Would make him better to talk with.]