how about more nature than animal planet for a start

[siriusly]

WHO: Boatbot, Minicop
WHERE: a Florida zoo
WHEN: a sunny day week of 6/19
WHAT: come, giant ancient warbot friend-thing, let's go look at penguins and buy overpriced animal-themed swizzle straws
WARNINGS: no animals will be harmed in the making of this log


Manabu sucks in a deep breath, holds it, then lets it out slowly, rocking back on his heels and landing back on flat feet in the process. He shakes out his wrists before stuffing them back in his pockets, trying to exhale excess nerves. Trying to relax in a state of idleness -- a very difficult thing for him to do, given how hard-wired he is to just keep going and going... The longer he stands still with nothing to do, the more he's left open for worrisome doubts and confusing thoughts, and there's been way too many of those lately. Way, waaaay too many.

"Come on," he mumbles, craning his neck to glance over toward the clock mounted on the zoo's entry gate. He'd texted Riptide a meetup time and the place to meet, and was given assurance that was fine. Maybe it wasn't? How much did Riptide know about public transportation? Or was he going to come crashing down from the horizon, giant robot and all? That might just ruin the entire venture...

Another bus rolls up, wheezing to a stop a couple dozen yards away on the side of the road. Manabu perks up, straightening and leaning to peer at each person milling out, hoping the next one is going to be that weirdo...

Comments

[knaval]

Unfortunately, Riptide doesn't get off the bus. He'd decided to walk, because that's how he do.

In robot form. Of course. What can he say, he likes the attention! The crowd parts and people gasp and point, though know by now that he's not a threat. Riptide waves at Manabu, crouching down.

"Heeey!"

[siriusly]

Ah.

For some reason, Manabu thinks he shouldn't have expected anything less than Riptide stomping up like he was. At least most people here at seemed to take his arrival more the way one would react to a giant parade float rather than kaijuu attack: lots of kids on their first days of vacation and all. The delighted shouts quells Manabu's sudden agitation, and while his mouth still twitches, he smiles all the same.

He waves back.

"You made it," he calls up, already starting to feel a little better, if only because Riptide seemed to be in a pleasant mood. "Ready to go in? You'll have to get smaller to do that; I think you'll scare all the animals if you're that big..."

[knaval]

Annnd POOF. Riptide the robot is gone and Riptide the human is Here! He laughs for some reason, apparently delighted at the turn of events.

"It was just quicker to get around like that! Plus I like being able to be in my natural form every now and then, y'know..."

He shrugs.

"Okay! How do we get in?"

[siriusly]

"Follow me."

Manabu had already intended on footing the bill; no sense going into details. He heads to the ticket gate and pays for two wrist bands, one of which he turns and offers to Riptide.

"Hold out your arm," he says, peeling off the paper on the sticky part. "This goes on your wrist so they'll let you in for the day. Then we just go in that gate over there."

[knaval]

Obediently, he holds his arm out and watches as Manabu applies the band.

"That's clever. I'll keep this to reuse it!" he says brightly.

"I looked up some animals before coming here because I don't know what to expect. Can't wait to see a cat."

[siriusly]

"I don't think it'll work more than once," he says, smiling apologetically. He has to finagle to get his own band on himself. "It's just for today, so if you came by again you'd need to buy a new one."

Wallet is pocketed, wrists are banded. Manabu jerks his thumb toward the entrance gate before starting off. Wading through the tide of kids is a little troublesome, but nullifier is working fine, and nobody's going out of their way to punch or shove. Aside from the usual kid antics, anyway, and those are forgivable.

Clearing the entryway bottleneck puts them out in that first big branching of paths, where each direction leads to different 'themes' and enclosures. Manabu's swiped a map from the entry gate and has it pulled open, turning it to properly show the direction they face.

"Cats?" he blurts, pulling from that remark a moment ago. "Well, ah...there's some big cats over in the jungle part. Do you want to go there first?"

He points.

"It's down that way."

cries a lil about how good you write

[knaval]

"Cats!" Riptide repeats, taking off immediately. He doesn't even really know what a cat is, they were just the ones he read the most about.

A couple of (long, lanky legged) steps down the path, Riptide stops and spins on his heel to look back at Manabu.

"Big cats?"

omfg well take solace knowing im only as good as the ppl i write w/!!!

[siriusly]

"Big cats," Manabu repeats, holding the map up and shrugging. "A--probably not as big as you, but maybe like lions and stuff?"

As if Riptide knows what those are. Heck, Manabu doesn't know what this robot-guy knows! But either way, he doesn't mind having a look; he's only seen jungle cats in videos and photos. No tigers out in space.

He walks quickly to catch up, always a couple steps behind the tall weirdo ambling ahead, nodding or pointing on the occasions Riptide glances over for guidance. A few twists and turns in the walking path and a few gaudy information displays later, they arrive in an area where the foliage is now cased up in glass. There's already packs of people pressed up against displays, snapping pictures and yelling over each other.

"A--" Manabu stops, pointing at one once someone moves enough for him to read the signs. "There's tigers over there."

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

[knaval]

"Alright!"

Riptide runs up to the glass, expertly sliding around the people in the way to get a look at whatever is on the other side of the glass.

One of the tigers is laying near the glass, sleeping. Riptide gasps gently, then looks around for Manabu.

"Look! Look, it's a cat!"

IM SAYING IF IM GOOD U MUST BE GOOD TOO! DEAL W IT

[siriusly]

"Hah..."

Weird to see this tall-lanky guy gawking and delighting just as honestly and openly as the kids half his size all puddled around him. Manabu smiles a little at the sight, and startles a little at being hailed.

Well, if he insists... (Oh, please; as if Manabu's not excited to see a real tiger; he doesn't waste time for the sake of putting on any kind of airs, that's for sure.)

Manabu carefully squeezes through a couple people with some apologies so he can lean forward and peer down at the animal dozing, used to this kind of noise.

"Oh, wow," he blurts. "That...is a big cat." Photos didn't really do it justice.

"I've never actually seen one in person before." He blinks, shooting Riptide a glance. "Were there animals like this where you're from?"

NO!!!!!!!!!!!

[knaval]

"Right?!" Riptide almost shrieks as Manabu joins him.

"My pla-- oh. Um. We don't have any... the planet kinda died and hasn't made more yet," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Do you think it's happy in there?"

BUT YES

[siriusly]

Oh.

His eyes wince at that revelation. Million-years long wars and planet-wide destruction is a pretty heavy order; for someone's that been through that much, Riptide seems to handle it pretty well. As far as Manabu can tell or assume, anyway.

He blinks and looks back down at the tiger, tilting his head. Happy?

"Well...it looks pretty content to just be napping there, huh? And all the free meals probably don't hurt it much either..."

Re: BUT YES

[knaval]

Riptide doesn't seem to have been affected, going back to look at the tiger through the glass.

"Yeah, I guess. I just think I wouldn't like to live like that."

[siriusly]

"Ehehe..."

Manabu smiles again. "Well, me neither, but I guess we have different priorities than a tiger."

It does look like a boring life in there, but...maybe boring is okay for some people and things. Who knows what kind of hectic past anyone's had?

He pulls away, stepping around a couple of kids and walking to the other side of the path, the other enclosure. He peers in and spots a pair of lions lounging out on the rocks.

Napping really is a cat thing, he thinks.

[knaval]

"True..." he agrees, though it's clear he's thinking about something unspoken.

Riptide follows Manabu, wanting to see the other animals. He frowns at the lions.

"Are those tigers, too? They look different. Are they alright?"

[siriusly]

"They're fine," he assures. "Those are lions. They're a different species of cat altogether."

He wonders how to better explain it, glancing about, and-- "Ah! See?" He gestures to follow along to a display board pasted on the glass a little further down, showing a large chart of the felidae family, each branch with a picture of the different cats.

He peers at it for a moment until he spots the lions in question. "There's lions here. And...see, tigers are their own. And there's a ton of other kinds of cats..."

[knaval]

Riptide follows, again, and spends a long time looking at the display board. There's a part that details the evolution of the animal, which he traces with a finger.

"Evolution... this is an organic thing, you know. We're meant to go through the same thing to adapt but we never do."

[siriusly]

Eh...?

Manabu blinks, looking over at Riptide at the remark. The pensive, somber delivery of that remark gives him pause.

"You mean...your kind don't change?" Even after millions of years? Was that possible?

Well, he was made of metal...and the whole point of metal bodies was to last forever back in his world.

[knaval]

"Well, like I said. We're meant to. We're supposed to be a race that can adapt, but we never did."

He shrugs.

"Just makes having the same form for a few million years kind of boring, I suppose."

[siriusly]

As he listens, Manabu frowns, trying to follow along and understand. His nose scrunches for a moment before a thought hits him.

"But...wait. It's a different thing, isn't it?" He points from one early, ancient mammal, down to the tiger. "Because this is millions of years...but millions of generations of a thing. Not the same one. Not like you living from year one to one million...it's millions of these things living from one to ten or so years...and then their kids growing up and living different...and so on..."

[knaval]

"Yeah, but we're still meant to be able to change and modify our bodies," he says.

Riptide decides to move on, following the path.

"I don't think I can though. I was made differently."

[siriusly]

Manabu hesitates, watching him go ahead for a beat before walking quickly to catch up, remaining a half-step behind.

"What do you mean by that?" It sounded like a serious topic, but Manabu was curious. And a little concerned.

[knaval]

"Huh? Oh. I'm MTO. Made to order. A good portion of the Cybertronians left are MTOs, now I think about it. We were made in response to a certain campaign during the war. That's why I turn into a boat and most of my friends turn into cars."

He shrugs.

"Changing forms is really hard, but I'm pretty sure it would be impossible for an MTO. We're only alive because our alt-mode had a use, after all."

[siriusly]

"Huh..."

The boat-thing was new. He turns into a boat? (Honestly, it shouldn't be that weird to a guy who drives a train in space that somehow emits steam. In space. But hey, weirdness is relative. In space.)

"So...the other ones--Cybertronians. They could change into different stuff all the time? But you only get to pick one?" Was that how it worked?

[knaval]

"Naw, they don't. But they can change their base forms. Like... their bodies. They can mod them. I could, but it would hurt."

Again, he shrugs. This is just plain fact to Riptide.

"That's just how it is. Hey, can humans mod themselves?"