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Post by fuzzysocks on Jul 6, 2021 10:05:24 GMT -5
Let her enjoy some of the festivities before seeking her out just yet. Don't want to interrupt her fun just so we can apologize and feel better about ourselves. Maybe we can chat it up with a few strangers first? Or watch the races?
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Post by frear on Jul 8, 2021 6:03:23 GMT -5
You want it to look like you bumped into her by chance. Just wander around for a bit and try to enjoy yourself.
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Post by Eversor on Jul 8, 2021 7:38:34 GMT -5
No no, focus! We must find Janice....but how?
This is like Mega-Where's Waldo. Maybe look for a highpoint to look down from? That seems....actually less than ideal. Maybe just hassle drunk people with pushy questions!
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Post by tronntronn on Jul 13, 2021 11:46:12 GMT -5
Let her enjoy some of the festivities before seeking her out just yet. Don't want to interrupt her fun just so we can apologize and feel better about ourselves. Maybe we can chat it up with a few strangers first? Or watch the races? You want it to look like you bumped into her by chance. Just wander around for a bit and try to enjoy yourself. No no, focus! We must find Janice....but how? This is like Mega-Where's Waldo. Maybe look for a highpoint to look down from? That seems....actually less than ideal. Maybe just hassle drunk people with pushy questions! You walk among the bobbing crowd, taking in the throb of the music and people having a good time like a bubbly, fizzing potion. Like the lizard you are, you bask in the glow of body heat and positive emotions as you glide through the sea of people, and you feel your anxious plans for encountering Janice melting away. You’ll find her eventually and it’s going to be alright. You’re going to be alright. Jaan is there providing catering, but you see that he is super busy with the burgers. He still has the time to give you a wave and a grin, and he tells you to catch him when he’s taking his break. You give him a wave back and continue onwards, because you’ll never know who else you’re going to bump- “You’re pretty! I’m awkward--wait, I mean--I’m sorry!” the stranger babbles. “Wh-” “My name’s Ingo! What are your hobbies?” He gives you a desperate grimace to salvage making a good first impression. “I’m, uhhh, my hobbies are…” Wait, do you have hobbies?
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Post by Bob on Jul 13, 2021 11:52:43 GMT -5
Uhh, does smoking count as a hobby??
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Post by fuzzysocks on Jul 14, 2021 15:45:35 GMT -5
We do! Or we used to, at least. We used to really like making original music (none of it good) but now we never really seem to find the time. If we say *that* though they'll expect us to elaborate on that. Just say...casual...drink making? A job kinda counts as a hobby, right?
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Post by Eversor on Jul 16, 2021 7:35:37 GMT -5
My hobbies are bumping into cute people and blathering
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Post by frear on Jul 19, 2021 15:31:36 GMT -5
I collect dead insects in glass containers. Oops. That probably sounded weird, didn't it? Please, please, please, don't back away slowly.
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Post by tronntronn on Jul 21, 2021 14:42:20 GMT -5
Uhh, does smoking count as a hobby?? My hobbies are bumping into cute people and blathering “Well, I smoke a lot,” you say as a joke. He’s dorky but in a kinda cute way, and you might just as well chat with him for a while. “I think smoking counts more as a vice than a hobby?” He helps you back on your feet. You dust off your clothes before looking him straight in the eyes. “The only difference between a vice and a hobby is that vices make you look cool.” He squints at you. “Uh, miss, are you one of those ladies that my mom always warned me about?” You shrug. “Dunno, let’s find out.” Back this morning you would’ve replied with ‘you mean bitter and surly?’, but you just don’t feel like that anymore. You don’t have to feel like that, so you won’t. You wink and tug his hand to make you follow you. We do! Or we used to, at least. We used to really like making original music (none of it good) but now we never really seem to find the time. If we say *that* though they'll expect us to elaborate on that. Just say...casual...drink making? A job kinda counts as a hobby, right? Despite being so flippant about it you still want to impress this stranger. You wrack your brains thinking of what kind things you do could be considered as ‘cool’. While growing up you had a one person band making glitchcore albums, which was a genre you chose because you didn’t know how to play any instruments. It was a lot of fun, but also pretentious nonsense, and you don’t want this person to search for your abandoned, embarrassing projects on Dotify! Eventually you give up. “Seriously though, most of my day is taken up by being a barista and that leaves little time for hobbies.” You scratch your chin. “When I worked at a bar I got into mixing drinks for a while, but that ended when, you know, collateral damage.” You gesture towards a pair of winged lizards swooping in the air and skimming over the water. “Oh no! Did the bar get squashed by a giant monster?” “No-” “Thank goodness!” “-the owner did.” “Oh.” You don’t say anything while you walk, but it still takes him a while to realize that it’s his turn. “Oh, right. I guess you could say that I’m somewhat of a traveler. My home village got...collateral damage, and I’ve been wandering ever since trying to look for my people.” “Whaaaat? That’s insanely cool!” You look at him mouth agape. He looks aside. “It’s not by choice, I can tell you that.” “I’m sorry.” He brightens up. “It’s okay! I won’t lie, I’ve had hard times, but I’ve also had pretty fun adventures and met some cool people.” “What brings you here?” “Free food?” You let out a genuine laugh, and it seems to put him at ease. “No, you doofus. I meant this dump of a rubble pile.”
TWIN Now they will have to fight to see which one is the real one I collect dead insects in glass containers. Oops. That probably sounded weird, didn't it? Please, please, please, don't back away slowly. Suddenly he steps in front of you and looks at you intensely. He is about to put his hands on your shoulders to stop you, but then he hesitates and leaves them hovering in the air. “Look, this is going to sound weird and I don't want you to think that I’m a weirdo because I want you to like me because you’re fun and cute and I now realize how weird that sounds when I say it out loud but listen!” He sounds desperate. “Hey, I’m okay with weirdness,” you say in an amused tone. “Like, I always keep a beetle as a pet, but they don’t live long and whenever one perishes I don’t have the heart to toss it out so instead I store them in a glass jar in my closet.” “W-what?” He sounds alarmed and takes a step back. “Okay that sounded too weird please pretend that I didn’t say that and say your weird thing instead so you don’t leave me being the only weirdo!” You sound desperate. He shakes his head and inhales to focus again. He opens his eyes and stares right into yours. “We look really similar, close enough to be relatives. Were your parents born in a small lizard village on the edge of a swamp? Please tell me, this is important to me!” You shake your head. “No, I came out of a cloning vat like everybody else.” “What?” He sounds incredulous. “Is...this a joke?” Well, is it?
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Post by fuzzysocks on Jul 21, 2021 14:56:35 GMT -5
It's...half true I think. People don't come out of cloning vats here, and we certainly weren't cloned, but we were born from a sperm donor. We have no idea who our birth dad is, just that he's an architect. And I know that our mom thought we'd be doing something similar by now, so you were kinda treated as if you were a clone. She's probably disappointed. She always seems to be.
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Post by Eversor on Jul 22, 2021 7:18:46 GMT -5
I mean, it was a really NEAT cloning vat....
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Post by frear on Jul 26, 2021 16:24:25 GMT -5
You're actually not sure. You always assumed you came out of a cloning vat as this is how babies were made before the troubles started (or so you've read in books). But strangely enough your memories of your early childhood, before the monsters showed up, are very fuzzy.
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Post by tronntronn on Jul 31, 2021 5:45:53 GMT -5
Vivian: The details were fuzzy for the most part. But your earliest memory hasn't been with parents so much as caretakers and childcare providers who worked in the government. You don't exactly remember a swamp so much as a sanitized room with a bunch of other kids like you, but maybe one of your parents came from that swamp. You're actually not sure. You always assumed you came out of a cloning vat as this is how babies were made before the troubles started (or so you've read in books). But strangely enough your memories of your early childhood, before the monsters showed up, are very fuzzy. It's...half true I think. People don't come out of cloning vats here, and we certainly weren't cloned, but we were born from a sperm donor. We have no idea who our birth dad is, just that he's an architect. And I know that our mom thought we'd be doing something similar by now, so you were kinda treated as if you were a clone. She's probably disappointed. She always seems to be. “It’s… it’s a joke. A bad one.” You see the grief in his expression, and sigh. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s serious for you.” “It’s okay. I forgive you, but please be honest with me?” You nod, but then bite your lip. “Not here. Follow me.” You walk down the beach to the lakeshore, a little ways off from everyone else. You are not worried that others might overhear you, but you are not comfortable with sharing your story with so many happy people around you. You sit down and sift the gravel between your fingers, tracing meaningless lines between the pebbles. Ingo plops down next to you, and for a while you watch silently the vast body of water glimmering calmly in the sunlight. “My earliest memories are of the hospital, where I grew up with other kids like me. The smell of sanitizer, the white walls, white linen on beds, even the floor tiles were white. No blemishes. I wasn’t even allowed to put a sticker on the frame of my bed.” You sigh, your shoulder sloughing. “They treated any sign of individuality like a speck of dirt. That’s why I sometimes felt like a clone growing up.” He frowns. “Why were they doing that? Did you have some kind of condition as a child?” You shrug. “Not as far as I know. But we were definitely someone’s… project.” You toss a stone across the lake’s surface. It fails to skip and plunks into the water at the first hit. “I didn’t meet my birth mother until I was five years old. It was awkward. Before that I just assumed that nurses make babies in a machine or something and then take care of them.” “I love my mom a lot,” he says quietly. “Mine’s… a demanding person. Very demanding. She told me that I was sired by the Architect, and that it was the most important thing in the world.” You pause. “It’s funny,” you say with a distant look, “I remember how her dress looked that day but not her face.” “Who is this Architect?” Without realizing it he has hugged his knees while listening to you. He doesn’t seem like a guy who likes sad stories. You point towards the black spire dominating the horizon. “That’s where the Architect lives, and looks after the city. Or he’s supposed to. I wouldn’t know, I was failing my mother’s expectations long before the monsters came.” Ingo starts, then turns to you on his hands and knees. “Can you help me get in touch with him? Or your mother, maybe she has his phone number or something?” I mean, it was a really NEAT cloning vat.... You give him a blank stare. “I spent my formative years in the fanciest, neatest cloning vat imaginable. And I turned out to be a punk. Do I look like someone who keeps in touch with people like my parents, to you?” “Please, it’s the only lead I have…” He gives you a pained look. What he could say to make you help him?
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Post by fuzzysocks on Jul 31, 2021 22:11:05 GMT -5
To call our mom? I'm not sure he could say anything to convince us. We're doing better without her in our life and we're trying not to fall back into old habits again. But to do something like, say, break into scope out the Architect's tower? Man, I'd be down to do that for a dollar.
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Post by Eversor on Aug 4, 2021 7:45:13 GMT -5
Honestly, yea I don't think we wanna reach out to mom.
But as a particular boardgame used to always say, "It's Fun Getting Into Trouble!"
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