video

[knaval]

Hi, everyone! My name is Riptide, and welcome to what I, personally, have come to lovingly call Jack-- er... to be named!

[he's speaking very quietly, despite the enthusiasm and astute viewers may note that he's in the observation deck, crouched in a corner.]

Today's episode is focused on how long I can record Tailgate and Megatron doing something embarrassing before they notice! You'd be surprised how often this happens, despite the weird weary old man image Megatron has going. Anyway, let's see...

[the camera angle is skewed slightly as he leans over out from his little hiding place. it doesn't take too long to refocus on the odd pair sitting a little way across the deck and level out.]

Oh!

[Tailgate can’t suppress a giggle as his hands tingle.]

That tickles!



[How they came to be here is anyone’s guess, but the feed opens up to Tailgate and Megatron on the observation deck. This in itself isn’t particularly interesting or unusual, but what stands out is that they seem to be holding hands. Their sheer size difference, Megatron being the great dane to Tailgate’s chihuahua, makes this setup a little awkward. Even while crouching, Megatron completely dwarfs Tailgate in every way possible. However, Tailgate doesn’t seem to mind.]

Did that say… um… The Lost Light is… no I lost it.

Landing. The word is landing. The verbs tend to feel like this-

[His fingers, interlaced with Tailgate’s, shift slightly, lightly pushing on the small wrist of the Autobot’s hand to repeat the word. He then begins to repeat the sentence contained within the gesture.]

Landing on....

[His thumbs move over, the right hand shifting to a position nearly enclosing Tailgate’s hand entirely. His movements are slow and deliberate. Even someone Tailgate’s size was easier to speak hand with than Ravage’s paws, but since the Autobot was learning, he exaggerated each word.]

Landing on… Cybertron! Er, right?

Okay, now it’s my turn. Hmm...

[His brow furrows with concentration. This isn’t the first time Tailgate’s done this sort of thing, he used to do it with Getaway from time to time, but he finds it a little harder with Megatron’s hands so enormously big. Though unseen by the camera, Tailgate shifts his hands and fingers so he can, haltingly, send his own message.

You are my fusspot.

And with that he beams up at Megatron, obviously pleased with himself.]

Did I get that right? I hope I said that you were my friend and not that you were my most hated enemy or something. Though, I guess as an Autobot that’s technically true.

[The tug at the corners of his eyes and mouth suggest otherwise. If Tailgate pays attention enough - he may notice he almost prompted a smile.]

No, you would save that word for someone you find more… irritating. This is what you want.

[His hands shift again. The motions were nearly identical - save for the last word - which he corrects.]

Ah! Friendship tickles.

[Tailgate focuses on that word, memorising everything about it. It is, after all, the most important word in his vocabulary. He repeats it back to Megatron again, properly this time.]

[Megatron’s hands stop. The ease from his face leaves as something catches his attention, mouth narrowing into a thin frown. He looks up directly at the camera.]

...Ah.

[listen hard enough and you'll pinpoint the exact moment riptide accepts his death.]

Comments

video;

[sousveillance]

Oh! Chirolinguistics. I didn't know Megatron knew the language, it doesn't seem his style.

Re: video;

[daintylegs]

I KNOW, right? It was just as much of a surprise to me!

Wanna hold hands with me sometime?

video;

[aminerproblem]

Why not? It is quite useful when verbal communication is not optional.

[Oh hi Rewind, he probably just grabbed Riptide's wrist and held it towards his face for this to happen.]

video;

[amourtician]

[ Jay's covering his mouth, trying not to laugh too obviously. His eyes sparkle with amusement and no small amount of mischief. ]

Oh dear. Whoever built you lot had an awful sense of scale.

video;

[aminerproblem]

No one 'built' us. Cybertronians come in a variety of shapes.

[Well, technically they built (or grew) themselves, but he doubts that's what this human means.]

video;

[daintylegs]

We come in all shapes and sizes! I'm very small for my species and Megatron is very big.

It adds variety to life.

Re: video;

[knaval]

Don't let Rewind hear you say that!

[not that rewind is touchy about it, but riptide is certain he'd have something to say regardless. maybe a lecture! that would be funny.]

Action

[aminerproblem]

[He stands up, fingers slipping from Tailgate's hands as he turns to face the panicking Autobot. He knows he's going to regret asking this.]

[SIGH.]

Riptide, what are you doing?

Re: Action

[daintylegs]

Are you filming us?

[WOW and they were having a moment too.]

video;

[gainedlove]

I never saw a hands-language that looked like that before! That's really neat!

video;

[daintylegs]

[Tailgate has readily accepted that Riptide would do this and cheerfully rolls with it. It's not like they were doing anything wrong.]

Yeah it's called Chiro... charo...

...Speaking hand. It's kinda hard but it feels nice to talk to people through touch.

Re: video;

[aminerproblem]

Chirolinguistics.

[He adds shortly after the smaller Autobot, just to clear the record on that. It's not that long a word.]

Tailgate asked for a lesson in speaking it.

text

[a_shadow]

Do you make a habit of spying on people you know?

Re: text

[daintylegs]

aw it's not too bad
ill be getting him back for it though you'll see

Audio

[aminerproblem]

Riptide has a habit of being a nuisance. This is hardly the worst offense.

[He says, speaking like 2 feet away from Riptide's MID.]

video;

[deal]

[There is just a thirty second silent feed of Cassandra staring. That's it.

Until.]

Friendship tickles?

video;

[daintylegs]

Sure does!

Or, rather, the word friendship tickles.

[Hello Cassandra!]

We're talking to each other with our hands. Pretty neat, huh? I'm not very good at it yet, but Megatron was willing to sit down and show me a thing or two.

You should try it! Though I don't know if you can do it without sending electrical pulses through your body...

[ersatzeverything]

Hold on, hold on, let me get my popcorn.

[Fun with spying aside, being able to silently and nearly motionlessly communicate complex sentences through your hands does seem like it'd be an awfully useful skill.]

[daintylegs]

So, does that mean you want to try some hand too?

I don't know how humans will react to it, but it should be funny.

video;

[jedimindtrick]

[ Riptide, what are you doing? With any luck, the MID will convey Obi-Wan's dissatisfaction with the spying aspect, while still allowing him to express his interest in what's obviously a fascinating display. ]

That looks somewhat unique by way of languages familiar to me. [ Hand signals, yes, but not... quite like this. ] Is it difficult to learn?

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[daintylegs]

I can be a little tricky! But only because I haven't really gotten the vowels and sentence structure down yet, so my words are a little wonky.

Personally, I like it a lot because you get to hold hands with people. That's always a plus in my book.

Video

[petrifiedshadow]

[Starflight's squinting into the camera, trying to make out exactly what was going on besides the two robots holding hands.]

Are they, er...reading something? What is that?

Re: Video

[knaval]

I didn't get a good look at what they were saying but I'm pretty sure Megatron was telling Tailgate how to fly the Lost Light.

[close enough.]

video; hover for translation

[skelepun]

[Sans doesn't recognize a single gesture, and even if he was still learning Hands something told him this version of it was different somehow.

Still, no reason not to try participating. For practice, of course. Never out of any desire to annoy the big gray one. Perish the thought.]

☝☜❄ ☼☜😐❄

[Blame resurging for his poor spelling and grammar.]

I know we don't really have seasons out here, but I'm gonna guess it's spring wherever you guys are from. [Love is clearly in the robotic air around here.]

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[aminerproblem]

[Aaaand one MID translation later, the look on his face somehow grows even flatter. He sees that grin on your face, pal.]

Is this some asinine turn of phrase from your home planet?

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[cardboard_boss]

Didn't think voyeurism was your thing. [He's completely joking, buddy. Don't worry.]

Re: video;

[knaval]

Only when what I'm watching is worth being recorded and posted to a public network.

[he gunfingers, then falters.]

...Wait, no.

[vengeance_driven]

I think this language is a little beyond me. But then again, maybe I am just not secure enough to hold hands with another man for that long. [He'll admit it.]

The environment I was raised in [and prison and organized crime and the military and the merchant navy] could make it send wrong ideas.

Also I agree with the revenge idea you speak of with another person. Get him back pretty good.

[daintylegs]

I don't really get what gender has to do with anything, but humans have always been weird like that.

[Imagine not holding hands with other Cybertronians because of pronouns! It's such a strangely backwards thinking.]

Yeah, Riptide deserves to be glued to his bed. Out of love and good fun, of course.

[lets_see_what_happens]

Is that... a language? That is fascinating.

[daintylegs]

It's called chirolinguini. Er, no, that's not right.

Ah well, I think Megs will tell you the proper way to say it. Most of us just call it speaking Hand. It tickles because his hands are a lot bigger than I'm used to.

text;

[whoami]

So you get an entire language out of handholding?

[ Do not let the apathetic overtone fool you. This actually looks pretty amazing. ]

Re: text;

[daintylegs]

Sure do!
I'm tired of getting the name wrong so I'll just say it's called speaking Hand.
it tingles a lot and getting the words right is tricky.

video;

[redshitlord]

... Why are they holding hands all weird?

Re: video;

[knaval]

They're talking. Do you not speak Hand?