maskormenacelogs | a duck walked up to a lemonade stand

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a duck walked up to a lemonade stand

WHO: Lapis Lazuli & Kidou "these are not gemcutter's goggles" Yuuto
WHERE: Nonah Aquarium
WHEN: 4/15
WHAT: Lapis continues to ruin the zoo experience for athletic children near and far.
WARNINGS: A great test of patience, probably.

[Lapis doesn't generally wander very far from the sea lion exhibit when she's on the clock. it's not that the rest of the zoo holds no interest for her, or that the animals in her care are particularly needy - she simply approaches her responsibility with a single-minded dedication that is both admirable and disconcerting enough that none of her superiors have seen fit to mention it during her time here. if she wanted to spend twenty minutes staring at the exhibit after finishing all her (and some of the other keepers') tasks, well, she's probably earned it.

but there are always exceptions, and today is one of them. the public feeding at the sea lion enclosure has finished up perhaps ten minutes ago, and the bucket once overflowing with fish must be returned to food services. normally Lapis would meander through the labyrinth of Employees Only hallways to reach it...but it's such a nice day out. she can't help running her errand through the zoo proper, just as an excuse to have a bit more exciting scenery.

her gait slows as she passes by the penguins. although she stands out almost comically amongst the other zoogoers with her blue everything, Lapis seems to have almost no regard for any of the people who may be milling about nearby. she just watches the little birds and their antics, head canted gently to the side as an expression of thoughtfulness crosses her face. it's a strange sort of feeling for penguins to elicit, but who's going to tell her otherwise?

whatever thoughts coaxed out such a look, they're quickly chased away. soon enough Lapis is extending her hand like a maestro calling for a crescendo, eyes still on the penguin habitat. without any apparent provocation a segment of the water rises up of its own accord in the general shape of what could be a fun, curvy slide. it hangs there for a moment or two as she evaluates it - and then closes her fist sharply. just like that the slide freezes in total defiance of the current weather, leaving a more thrilling way for the penguins to get into the water.

Lapis seems totally oblivious to the spectacle she's caused. a faint look of contentment rests on her face instead as she watches the first little bird climb up for a go.]

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[While Nonah is not an uncommon haunt for Kidou, he's got no official excuse to be there on a Saturday. In this case, it's to somewhere he's got an oddly nostalgic attachment to - the Nonah aquarium. He's been here before, more than a few times but never enough. It's honestly been a long while.

Kidou's been standing here for about half an hour now, simply watching penguins waddle about or be lumps on the rock. Now and then one of them brays or trumpets, then continues waddling around. Visitors come and go; eventually Kidou stopped taking note of them in favor of avian escapism. He always wonders if they're happy in enclosures like this; despite their activity, they should be masters of the open ocean, or wandering across the vast Antarctic landscape instead of meandering in a chilled enclosure. It's large, but is it really large enough?

Sadly, he can't speak penguin. He can only watch and wonder.

He's always found it easy to empathize with them, but now moreso than ever. Both of them have been transplanted in practically another world far from home, and both of them have no chance of escaping their created habitats. Even so, he's selfishly glad that they're here; it's close to impossible to truly slip into melancholy when close to penguins.

Kidou continues musing over them, watching the birds stretch necks out and trumpet at each other, when suddenly the water itself rises up like a great sea snake. Kidou's eyebrows shoot up, staring at it in open surprise as the water hangs suspended in the air, then suddenly freezes. It's not just Kidou and the small crowd that notice; curiosity demands that a handful of penguins dutifully waddle over to investigate this new ice toy. But as much as he wants to, Kidou can't stand here and watch them enjoy it. There isn't a doubt in his mind - that had to be a power. And where there's powers, there's ImPorts.

He rips his attention away from the birds, his narrowed vision scanning the crowd suspiciously. One of these people could do something like that. But who? Kidou does some meandering himself, his long cloak making even the slightest walk seem overly dramatic.

His surprise doubles as he catches sight of someone blue inbetween a few guests. He hastens his pace, stalking around the wall to get a better look. Blue...? Water? It had to be that person, who else- and then it hits him that he's heard of someone who may fit those categories. Someone alien. Someone who was willing to attack one of his own.

Kidou doesn't approach her, now that he's behind her enough to get a good look. Instead, he'll raise his voice, seeing if his suspicion about who this is is correct.]

Lapis Lazuli.

[For a name difficult to pronounce with his accent, he does a fairly passable job at it.]

[the zoo may as well have been completely empty, for all that Lapis cared about the reactions of the people around her. she'd spiced up the exhibit to see the penguins enjoy it, and give herself a little additional happiness through watching them do so - anyone in the crowd maneuvering to locate her in particular goes completely beyond her notice.

hearing her name doesn't, though. the teardrop-shaped gemstone embedded between her shoulder blades rises and falls as she stiffens momentarily, a habit that not even the self-enforced etiquette of her job can completely erase. it's not a voice that she recognizes, and that is the cause for her subsequent relaxation. she's become something of a fixture at the zoo by now, and strangers did commonly know her name.

there's no anxiety in her expression when she turns, then, pinning down the origin of the call with a quick scan of the people behind her.]

That's me.

[there's no lilt of inquiry in her response, nothing to indicate curiosity. indeed, after confirming the person's statement, she's already making to turn back around and continue watching the penguins. if it were urgent they would've sought her out a little more forcefully, after all; it was probably just someone interested in the blue girl they'd heard about.]

[So. His intel proved correct. And with it, Kidou talks things over with his best and most trusted adviser: himself.

As I suspected, that could only be her. Sakuma's warned me that she's unpredictable. There's no telling what could cause her to become aggressive. I'll have to handle this cautiously. But, I have to know...

This silent conference costs him a few precious seconds as he stares intently at her from behind, folding his arms again to consider his next move. There's some people here, so they're not alone. He'll have to risk it, taking the fact that they're in public as the only assurance he'll get that he's not directly walking into a fight that he really doesn't want. Allowing none of his concern to show in his posture, Kidou takes a confident step forward, and then another. He keeps his pace slow and measured, and consciously aims to step beside her instead of walking up directly behind, allowing for about five feet of distance. Despite the fact he clearly has no peripheral vision, he doesn't look over to her at all as he manages to stop at a direct parallel to her.]

My name is Kidou.

[By American name standards, that would be 'Yuuto Kidou', but after dealing with enough people determined to call him by his first name he's dropped any mention of ever having had a given name at all. He'll just hide his unease by staying cold and calmly distant in this meeting. That ~~never~~ always works.]

I've been looking for a chance to speak with you.

[Dreading. Dreading is closer to the accurate word.]

[she blinks once in surprise when the conversation proves itself to not actually have ended, and then again when he says something as strange as that. it's enough to get her brow furrowed, albeit only in mild consternation.]

Why? It's not hard to figure out my communicator number.

[even for someone who wasn't an imPort, the phone allowed general purpose calls. she was hardly an elusive creature between that and being a completely different hue from the rest of the general population; if anyone was struggling for a chance to reach her, that was on them.

Kidou's name goes completely unremarked on in all this. she's noted it, after all, and there's nothing else to say about the matter. the proper courtesies of human introduction are just something that no one ever sees fit to mention to her in terms of improvement.]

Edited 2017-04-08 05:33 (UTC)

[Somewhat fortunate for Lapis, Kidou has a far way to go in terms of 'interacts with people like a normal human being'. He may not be the alien in his world, but he might as well be.]

No, I wanted to meet you in person.

[To show he's not afraid, and ... this didn't seem right to do over the phone. He would have less chance to get a read on her over the phone. And if he wasn't going to try to get a measure of who she was, then what was the point of talking to her?]

Is this a bad time?

[that's even stranger. but humans are the weirdest species in the galaxy, it seemed, and she's accepted that no matter how long she was stuck on this planet she was never really going to understand them. thus Kidou's explanation earns him a bemused shrug of acceptance. sure, man. whatever made you happy.]

No, the bucket's empty.

[what the metal bucket in her hands had to do with her ability to converse is a total mystery, but the serious way in which she's delivered her answer doesn't leave much room for effective questioning. does it really matter, anyway? the mystery receptacle has cleared them for talking.]

[Kidou's head lifts a bit, and he finally relents, looking over to her. When staring at the alien... rock? person gives no added context to what meaning that has, he files that away as 'you were warned she was alien' and tries to continue this without getting derailed.

It's harder than it sounds.]

... okay.

[Moving on. Except now he has absolutely no idea how to continue this conversation. This can only go downhill from here.]

That was you, wasn't it? The water.

[That was a poor attempt at getting back to this, and he knows it.]

[that's the price you pay for not having memorized the daily activities at the aquarium and knowing exactly when and who is doing the sea lion feedings, Kidou. in a way he's brought this all upon himself.]

Yeah. I don't think anyone else here is even an imPort.

[excluding maybe this kid, but she feels that goes without saying. even he doesn't really look like he's going to be chucking around liquids any time soon - not intentionally, anyway.]

[It's as good a question as any, he supposes. If nothing else, it cuts out the question she might have of how he knew she could control water. He isn't quite ready to show his hand just yet. Just in case.]

Likely not. But ImPorts don't always stand out in a crowd.

[But he's not here to make idle conversation, and if he lets it get to that point he'll lose command of this exchange. Now the real question - he hadn't prepared for this encounter yet. It was by chance. Therefore he hadn't prepared for how to ask 'how likely are you to hurt people' in a way that didn't sound like that was he was asking.

...

Give him a moment. He'll figure that out.]

I guess not in a place like this.

[she means earth rather than the zoo, although in typical Lapis fashion she fails to clarify that. with so many of the imPort population being human...well, unless they acted they were generally as indistinguishable as any other person on the planet.

the silence is familiar and easy for her, and so after responding to his statement she makes absolutely no attempts to further the conversation on her own. he'd wanted to talk with her, and he had - in Lapis' mind that was probably a fulfilled goal for Kidou. she could go back to watching the zoo animals in peace.]

[At first, that sentence makes a little sense. But on second run around, it really doesn't at all. First, he's talking to a blue alien, and he's got his own distinctive style. The two of them stand out. They've also confirmed that they're likely the only two ImPorts.

How is it that by agreeing with his statement - admittedly made in a hasty attempt to buy himself time - she's completely stripped it of all meaning?]

...

[There it goes. Wave goodbye to his controlling the flow of this conversation. It was nice while he could pretend it lasted. Is he actually going to have to come right out and state the reason for his approaching her? He'd rather not. But he can find no way to subtly allude to this.

Has she really no curiosity at all about why he's here? Why he's called her out specifically? Does that really not matter to her? She's giving him so little openings that he's unsure how to wedge one open, and the more he thinks about it, the more she truly does seem alien. So much so that Kidou is at an increasing loss for how to tackle this without being painfully blunt.]

[from Lapis' perspective, there's simply nothing to be curious about. she's been approached so many times by total strangers simply because of her appearance that Kidou's overtures had been completely believable - and so had their seeming conclusion. with no specified length of time, talking was just talking. she has no reason to assume that there should be some additional content to this conversation.

time stretches out, therefore, to the point where she almost forgets that he's still standing nearby. almost. it's a happy sort of coincidence that he himself hasn't wandered off yet, as a thought has struck her that she'd like to run by someone. just as well Kidou as anyone else lingering by the enclosure.]

Do you think that they'd chase some fish if I made a couple? The sea lions always like it.

[yep, there it is. indelible proof that Lapis' conversational riptide has completely pulled her partner under without any real effort on her part. she is in total control of where they're headed now, and where she'd like to steer it is penguin enrichment.]

[Meanwhile, Kidou's been trying to think of a non-confrontational way to move this conversation forward. He refuses to take an aggressive approach. That way cannot lead to good places. But at the same time, trying to get her to give her something to bounce off of has ended in failure.

As he mulls this around, time passes. Penguins have accepted the ice slide as their new favorite toy, a small crowd clamoring and pushing to be the next one to flop on its belly and slide down. Sometimes, their eagerness ends up pushing a penguin off the rock and into the water before it gets a chance.

Classic Adelie penguin behavior. Of course, Kidou prefers emperors, but he hasn't found anywhere in Nonah that has them. Any penguin will always do. Finally, Kidou's object of scrutiny breaks the quiet with a nonsequitor. Startled, Kidou actually voices his first question instead of taking the time to craft a reply.]

You can make fish?

[This is not how he had imagined this encounter to go. And he is not making a good impression. Kidou amends that.]

... I'm sure they would. It's part of what penguins do, after all.

I can make pretty much anything as long as I focus.

[or, in this case, push her zookeeper's pith helmet up a little bit to keep it from sliding down into her eyes. the gesture has no bearing on her powers, but as soon as her hand drops back at her side several portions of water suddenly twist themselves into elegant fish. they're based entirely on what Lapis has seen and read about herself and as such have no real bearing on what a penguin actually eats, but they certainly are gorgeous.

and it isn't as if the birds are picky. those who can't make it onto the slide immediately give merry chase to prey that is completely free of the bounds of piscine physics. they leap and jump past the penguins, occasionally liquidizing back into their original form to dodge straight through a well-placed snap from a beak. it's quite entertaining for all involved.

one even manages to breach onto the ice slide, where it proceeds to elicit an indignant trumpet when it bounces off the head of the penguin currently making use of it in order to 'swim' upwards. that even manages to get a little giggle out of Lapis.

yes, this was definitely a good idea.]

[Out of water. Of course. It all makes sense once the water-fish coalesce into shape, shimmying through the water with the same sort of elegant grace as their instantly interested predators.

A penguin is an acrobat unrivaled in the water. It practically flies through the water, spins and twists in ways that fish can't hope to compete with, and seals and orcas are hard-pressed to outmatch. But these fish were better, aided by the fact that Kidou could swear they're instantly dissolved into water when a penguin finally manages to catch one, reforming to merrily run away just beyond the perplexed bird.

But the penguins don't seem to mind. If anything, it makes them more determined to catch this new, lively prey. Kidou supposes they must get very tired of eating dead fish from buckets - this is what they were born to do. Skipping freely in and out of the water, soaring and darting underneath the waves...

... or skip right onto the ice slide and into a head-on collision with another penguin. Lapis isn't the only one entertained, although Kidou hastily suppresses any sign that he's remotely capable of being amused, hiding the damning evidence behind one hand with a soft huff.

This was supposed to be an interrogation, wasn't it? He's supposed to be finding out just how dangerous this person is! ... but... this happened to take place in the most difficult location for maintaining that kind of attitude. Even briefing Sakuma about what kind of horrible world this was had been made easier by the existence of penguins.]

I just can't get tired of the antics of penguins.

[He grows serious again fairly quickly, though - this is someone who nearly attacked Sakuma. No matter how cute they are, he can't allow himself to be distracted by them. This is when he has to observe and learn about her capabilities .. and evaluate what kind of threat she is for himself. Still, he reasons - this is getting to know her. He supposes he can allow this to unfold for a while. This is not in any way, shape or form justification to continue to enjoy penguins for a while instead of going right back to confronting painful and difficult aspects of life here.]

How many fish could you make at once?

[And control, he's assuming. If she concentrates, she'd mentioned - meaning it took effort to make this, and maintain it. So what kind of limits might she have? What all can she do?]

They're pretty cute. I should really see them more often.

[contrary to what her appearance might lead one to assume, Lapis actually did do a little wandering throughout her workplace after her shift when the mood struck her. there were just as many days that she simply flew straight home, of course, but...earth animals were so much more pleasing to deal with. she could actually understand them.

the cloudy thoughts of Kidou go completely unnoticed by his conversation partner, and so she answers his question with the same sort of faint good cheer that she'd just been watching the penguins with. there was no reason to regard this with any sort of solemnity from her point of view.]

It depends on how much water I had, and how big I needed the fish to be. Why, do you need some?

[she's not entirely certain what a human would need with semi-autonomous water fish, but far be it from her to question their methods. it's been proven time and again that human petkeeping is not her forte.]

[It's Kidou's turn to be cryptic about his meaning.]

Let's say I'm curious.

[As the great penguin traffic jam continues on the ice slide, leaving a multitude of dismayed penguins all braying and trumpeting at each other. The more penguins that build up, the more penguins slide right off the sides of their slide, crashing into the water and joining the chase.

All through this, through immense personal effort and willpower, Kidou keeps a poker face, not daring to let himself slip up again. Plenty of other visitors don't bother keeping any form of pretense, and several have fetched smartphones to record this sequence as it plays out.]

That's kind of a weird thing to be curious about.

[she's fairly certain. pretty sure? it's not something that's come up in conversation with a human before, and she's had a friend beg her to create a water clone of himself just so he could try and see if it really did know all his moves. her odds are good, she feels.

at least the people around them are having fun while Lapis is forced to not focus on the thing she did specifically to let herself have a little enjoyment. another day, another moment of proving why the other keepers put up with her weird quirks. god bless viral advertising.]

[While he'd started to suspect, now Kidou is absolutely certain: they are having two entirely separate conversations that just so happen to share the same words. He could try to explain his position, but it'd get him farther on his quest for insight if he could find what her position is instead.]

How so?

There's not really anything you could use them for. [...] Unless you wanted to fight them..?

[except humans can't breathe underwater, as far as she's aware. they couldn't possibly have that dire a need to train against the denizens of the sea.

could they?]

[So, she's focusing entirely on potential use for them. He'll stick to the operating theory that they're never going to be on the same page without him trying to track that page down himself.]

The penguins have more use for them than I would.

[Heck with it. Blunt approach it is, he'll just have to risk it.]

I'm curious about what you can do.

Oh, really? You should have just said so.

[this is probably the easiest way to communicate with her, ultimately - gems have very little use for small talk or abstract language as a general rule, and take a remarkably long time to warm up to the concept in most cases. while Lapis has gained an impressive amount of skill in that arena for how comparatively little time she's spent trying to cultivate it, she can't help what she is. direct speech will always be the most manageable for her.

and while that may be good news for Kidou, her response isn't. she takes a moment to process what he's said, head canted to the side, before shrugging gently.]

I only do that kind of thing for friends.

['that kind of thing' being, in this case, showing off her abilities. while Lapis had no qualms discussing her capabilities with most people, to actually put them on display was a sort of intimate thing that she wouldn't do for just anyone. if there wasn't a bond present, it felt too much like a command performance.]

Edited 2017-04-08 08:40 (UTC)

Fair enough.

[He calmly accepts that answer. In his world, capabilities were kept quiet, away from ~~enemy~~ prying eyes who might want to scope out the competition. Kidou made it a habit to try to get the measure of everyone he could. Most people here were all too eager to show or tell him what they could do, but that didn't mean that he'd forgotten about how it should be. After all, Kidou had barely mentioned anything he could do here, and not even his closest friends knew everything. It was just common sense to keep things unsaid.

The blunt approach was exactly what he'd been hoping to avoid, since it either would net him the information he wanted, or place it out of reach now that she's aware he wants it. That failed, as he always suspected it might.

So she can make ice and water, and she can make other things as well out of water. That was a start, and he's glad at least that she's calmer than he feared she might be. Naturally, he'll assume that's subject to change if things are mishandled.

Case in point, he'll poke at this.]

But, I admit I'm surprised. It's not often I meet someone who knows better than to show off.

People think that they're a lot stronger than they really are. Especially in a place like this, where they can do things they couldn't before.

[it got them intoxicated on their own power, heady with the feeling that the world had suddenly become completely limitless. Lapis knew better. there was hardly anything on this planet that she was afraid of, but she'd faced might far beyond her own prodigious abilities in the form of Homeworld's terrible progress. it was foolish to brag about something that could be used against you.]

Having power alone isn't enough to know how to wield it.

[It's strange, finding he can immediately find something he can agree on with her off the bat. That's a far more ideal thing than he'd thought possible going into this. Common mindset could lead to common ground, which could possibly lead to - no. He's getting ahead of himself. Just because there's one thing they can understand, doesn't mean there might be anything else.

He'll see what he sees. And maybe make one guess.

The great penguin traffic jam by now has sorted itself out; what didn't go down the slide slid off it, and business returns to normal play for them.]

You had abilities before you came here, then?

I'm so sorry I thought I posted this and instead it was left in tabland, lmk if this works

it does! but clearly your browser was trying to protect you from this log

my browser can bite me

your browser knows best tbh

That's a lie

it's not, trust me

it is, though

you'll understand when you're older

mentally or physically older

yes

then I'll never understand

and from this is born acceptance

this thread's true title: socially awkward rock meets socially awkward penguin

subtitle: it goes exactly how you'd think

this is like laser pointer dots but for penguins

she's in charge of sea lion enrichment for a reason

Small wonder Kidou finds it hard to trust her. Sea lions and penguins don't mix well

that's only because no one's ever made half of that equation out of water before

no side of this equation being fake would be able to make Kidou happy about the equation

so clearly this proves that the problem is actually kidou

the problem is sea lions, so says the penguin

this seems unfairly biased

then maybe sea lions should consider not eating penguins

but they're like little overstuffed hot pockets

there's other things swimming around that sea lions can eat