Tin Man | R.N.A. + Jack | The Station Car

Roadie 🪶Jack

Jack loved forests, if he ever would’ve claimed to love anything. But this eerily silent one? Did it even count as a forest? He attempted a few bird calls in case anyone out there just needed some prompting, but there was no reply. Hm. Not a forest at all, then, in his opinion.

But it was still trees. So he was, naturally, up in the branches when he heard the least sneaky approach possible. Presumably a side effect of being made of metal. He wouldn’t say he was jealous.

Wouldn’t say he was interested, either—he only glanced over at the oncoming robot before resuming… whatever he was doing up here. Seeing how hard it was to snap the branches, it seemed like.

R.N.A.

Roadie 🪶Jack
Ah, what a lovely forest. R.N.A. would be walking through it, enjoying the scenery of the nice trees. Beautiful leaves… Beautiful branches… beautiful Jack… beautiful rustl-

Wait. Jack?

Jack!?

“GASP.” It was spoken loudly and in an incredibly robotic tone. An onomatopoeia spoken aloud, as the robot could not gasp itself.

The robot’s screen changed to show a shocked “O O” on the screen.

“Jack… what are you doing? It is… unsafe to be up so high unattended. You could be gravely injured if… you feel. Please be… careful.” R.N.A. warned. “Or perhaps… come down from the tree.”

Roadie 🪶Jack

R.N.A.

Gasp? Wow. That was worth making fun of, but Jack couldn’t come up with anything good at the moment.

R.N.A. Jack… what are you doing?

“Being unsafe!”

This robot would’ve been annoying if they weren’t clearly gonna be so easy to annoy in return. Well, “annoy” if you were being nice about it. Which Jack had no plan to be.

“Soooo, carefully coming down is the ideal here?”

He shoved his current handful of snapped branch tips into his hoodie pocket and took a look at the nearest branches. After a moment’s observation, he decided the northern ones looked the least sturdy. Time to go out on a limb!

He stepped out cautiously, standing as tall as he could without getting a faceful of leaves, and continued onto a branch that clearly wouldn’t sustain his weight for long like this. He made sure to exert a little uneven pressure to make it bounce, just for good measure.

“How’m I doing?”

R.N.A.

Roadie 🪶Jack

Roadie 🪶Jack “Being unsafe!”

“What are you… thinking? You may get… seriously injured.” Now the robot had a “T T” expression. Being defiant was one thing, but putting yourself directly at risk to do so? That was… unreasonable. All it would take is a branch slightly too weak and Jack would very quickly learn of the concept of gravity.

Roadie 🪶Jack “Soooo, carefully coming down is the ideal here?”

Of course it was the ideal, R.N.A. thought. As much as climbing up carefully is the ideal way to get up into a tree, if you ever needed to climb one at all.

Roadie 🪶Jack “How’m I doing?”

“Do you really… hate being told what to do… that much? That you would put yourself… in more danger?” R.N.A. wasn’t sure how to interpret Jack’s actions. It defied all logical sense. They knew humans had emotions, but generally those emotions didn’t make people choose dangerous decisions.

R.N.A. was tempted to tell Jack to jump off of the tree, in the hopes that his inability to follow instructions would kick in and he would make his way down in a boring and safe manner. But they also feared that Jack might take it as a challenge. Those numerous scars certainly implied that Jack had no issue with getting hurt.

What kind of nurturing assistant would they be if they drove someone to hurt themselves? Even the thought of it made their circuits buzz.

“I can’t… treat you if… you fall.” Band-aids and bandages wouldn’t be enough.

Roadie 🪶Jack

R.N.A.

“Oh, I’m not thinking!” Jack replied cheerfully, bouncing in place for a moment. The wood creaked.

“Just like you, right? Robots don’t think? ’s basically the same thing, I just got different…” He waved unhelpfully, only vaguely aware of the concept of software and not including the term. “…motherchips, or whatever.”

R.N.A. “Do you really… hate being told what to do… that much? That you would put yourself… in more danger?”

“Oh, I’m happy to take a couple good risks without anybody telling me anything. But I was wondering if I could give a robot a heart attack. That’d probably break a world record or somethin’.”

The branch was making some concerning sounds now, but while Jack stayed poised, he hadn’t made a move toward safety yet.

R.N.A. “I can’t… treat you if… you fall.”

“Then don’t. I can take care of myself.”

He’d made it this far, after all.

R.N.A.

Roadie 🪶Jack

Roadie 🪶Jack “Oh, I’m not thinking!”

Roadie 🪶Jack “Just like you, right? Robots don’t think? ’s basically the same thing, I just got different… …motherchips, or whatever.”

“Yes, exactly… we are not so… different from each other!” R.N.A. replied, trying to put a positive spin on this. Their screen’s expression was one of happiness. The two were both, in essence, thinking machines. Whether human or robot. Jack and R.N.A. would surely be able to understand each other eventually. “So you must… understand my point… Jack.”

Roadie 🪶Jack But I was wondering if I could give a robot a heart attack.

“I possess no… heart, so that… is impossible.” R.N.A. explains. “Therefore… you may as well… stop this attempt now. World records must… be verified by… an organization also.” Hopefully if Jack saw that there was no world record to be gained from it, then maybe, just maybe, he’d stop putting himself in danger for no reason?

Then again, he seemed to enjoy taking risks. But R.N.A. did not understand why a risk would be enjoyable if it carried the weight of personal harm as a potential consequence. Surely there was a better risk for him to take somewhere. Like a board game. Or a video game. Or… something else.

Roadie 🪶Jack “Then don’t. I can take care of myself.”

Jack seemed to lack proper medical skills, judging by the numerous large scars he sported. If he wanted to take care of himself, he may need to learn a little more about first aid, first.

“Please… move away from the branch. It sounds like… it is going to break soon.” Right now, this was about prevention, rather than worrying about the aftermath. “I will not have to treat you… if you do not get injured.” That way, Jack would be happy too, right?

Roadie 🪶Jack

R.N.A.

R.N.A. “I possess no… heart, so that… is impossible.”

“But if ya don’t got a heart, then why d’you care if I fall?” Checkmate, binch. Though Jack’s face did screw up a little at the verification thing. That probably made sense or something, he didn’t know. Sucked if true.

R.N.A. “I will not have to treat you… if you do not get injured.”

And despite him apparently making this into a battle of wits(?), he couldn’t figure a way to win that one. Fine. Reverse checkmate, or… whatever that was called. Monopoly? He was not a board game kinda guy.

Wouldn’t be any kinda guy for long if he stayed put, so he’d go ahead and sidestep to a thicker—

He flinched just as he grabbed the next branch and reflexively let go—just as the branch beneath him finally gave. Swearing, he threw his whole arm over the other branch, slapping his other hand down on the splintery nub that remained of the other. His former foothold continued downward, hitting the ground with enough of a crash to completely drown out whatever he was muttering to himself. He sure didn’t look happy, though.