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

[helpdesk_hero]

[Wow. Like dealing with Noh-Varr. For half a second he seems distressed but her conclusion, and then he was quickly shaking his head.]

No, ma’am, I am sorry, that is not accurate. This is for civilian recreation. Fun during shore leave as it were.

[cadiastands]

[Cadians are not unlike the Kree, really.

Mira snorts, but it's friendly. This fellow seems tolerable for a civilian, and she's willing to overlook the implication that she's a useless ship jockey.]

Guard, not Navy. [Some inter-service rivalry there, it seems.] Well, better than what civilians usually get up to, I suppose.

[Mira's not real clear on what civilians usually get up to, but it's probably nothing worthwhile. She either hasn't noticed she's being insulting, or she doesn't care.]

[helpdesk_hero]

[Spend enough time not as a civilian and you make a better one. He can provide details. Numbers even. Provided you push past he PTSD and other traumas of fighting men and women.]

I’ll admit I don’t think I know what ‘guard’ you are talking about, but I get it. Sort of. Gro-pro, special ops, marine? Anything in that classification I can use to fit you into my neat little brain boxes? Perhaps even a rank or name to address you by? I’m David, by the way.

[He says so much while saying so little. Buys him more time to consider her. To study how she moves, how she holds herself, if it hints at any military training he might recognize.]

[cadiastands]

[Cadians never get PTSD because the trauma is ongoing.

Mira doesn't notice that David's stalling for time, since she expects civilians to be kind of on the useless side. Her eyes periodically flick from him to scan the room, and it's probably not coincidence that she's standing where she can see all the doors. Still, even if she's not perfectly at ease, she's not abnormally tense, just a soldier in unfamiliar territory and without backup.

She's accustomed to more armor than she's wearing and habitually carries a sword, or a weapon worn and drawn similarly, and a sidearm, neither of which are in evidence.]

The Imperial Guard. [She's so unimpressed he didn't figure that out on his own.] 2nd Lieutenant [in keeping with her upper-class English accent, she pronounces it "lef-tenant"] Miranda Nero, Cadian 203rd Infantry.

[What training that got her David won't be able to place, but what hints there are from her posture (perfect) and her balance (also perfect) suggest that whatever else it may have been, it was really damn good.]

[helpdesk_hero]

Ah, I see. Where and I suppose when I am from doesn’t have a human Empire. So no imperial guards. Except in movies of course.

[He won’t point out that Empires are typically evil, and the ones Humanity has encountered tend to be... well, difficult. Especially the Kree and Skrull. As it is he can tell it is a massive point of pride and doesn’t wish to provoke her. That could be bad for his health and he tries to avoid those situations.]

It is a pleasure, Sexond Lieutenant.

I'm assuming that's a (hilarious) typo

[cadiastands]

[How dare you, the Imperium of Man is a shining light of civilization and decency and not at all a fascist nightmare of a boot stomping a human face forever.

Fortunately for David's sanity, Mira has a concept of worlds outside the Imperium. Unfortunately for the tenor of the conversation, it's of those worlds as bad, or at best unfortunate and in need of salvation, and she looks at him as though really seeing him for the first time, her eyes narrowing as she tries to decide what to do with this new information. At least she hasn't shut down into platitudes about the Emperor. Yet.]

"When" you're from?

[Go easy on her, David. There isn't nearly as much time travel in her canon. Granted, that's true of everything that isn't an X-Men title.]

dammit my response was eaten. and yes, typo

[helpdesk_hero]

[David tended to operate under his world's first and most important rule about time-travel. By all methods available to you, avoid time travel at absolutely all costs. Which he'd been pretty successful at, might he add. But the thing was, he had suspicions about this place. About the idea that people weren't just drawn from wheres, but from whens. There was just a vibe to it, and he knew that it took a serious amount of power as it was to breach the divide between realms of the multiverse or across distances in an instant. Who was to say there wasn't some easy use of time travel as well in there. If Kang could do it, why not this AI?

Still, he is left a little leery of narrowing of eyes. Something told him that Mira wasn't exactly going to be enjoy what he had to say.]

I'm from Earth in the early 21st century, specifically it turned 2014 just a short while before I arrived here.

[cadiastands]

[If David had thought that would clarify matters, he's about to be disappointed. At least Mira's frown has shifted from a whiff of suspicion to one of confusion.]

21st...century?

[The way she stresses the words puts the weight of the question on "century," which she repeats like she's not sure she's heard him properly. That's not how you express dates, David.]

[helpdesk_hero]

Twenty-first century AD?

[Oh dear, she might not be from earth. Which will make explaining the when a lot harder.]

[cadiastands]

You really expect me to believe you're from the second millennium?

[Mira folds her arms, expression twisted into that of someone not enjoying the joke. Pull the other one, it's got bells on.]

[helpdesk_hero]

Feel free to believe it or not. Doesn’t change that I am. Though to be fair that is hardly a suitable categorization. Second millennium AD yes, but human history is more than two millennium old.

[Oh dear, very far in the future then.]

[cadiastands]

And what, pray tell, does "AD" stand for?

[Fine, she'll play along with this incredibly stupid joke, and once he's delivered the punchline, she can get a real answer.]

[helpdesk_hero]

The Latin phrase 'Anno Domini', meaning 'in the year of our Lord'. Traditionally it is held that AD starts after the death of Jesus, but research indicates that the Gregorian calendar sure messed that up quite a bit.

[His face is absolutely deadpan. This is no joke, Mira.]

[cadiastands]

I speak High Gothic.

[Which is what the translation is turning Latin into for Mira, since it's a language that holds the same cultural connotations for her as Latin does for an English speaker.]

Anno Domini is the only part of that I understood. Who's Jesus and what does his or her death have to do with anything?

[Maybe David's from a lost world that measures time from the death of a local warlord or something. That would make more sense than being from the second bloody millennium.]

[helpdesk_hero]

If you have no frame of reference for Christianity, I don’t think I can really communicate a good explanation of Jesus Christ.

[Because it would have to sound ridiculous.]

But I assure you I am from Earth, from the second millennium as we measure it.