Been to the year 2200 (for guesswho)

[justmedk]

In truth, lunch was a welcome distraction from the depressive state of nature she'd just discovered. She hadn't made the connection that it might be possible to do the impossible down the line, just as time-travel was supposed to be impossible.
The distraction worked, though, as she giggled at his dad-joke.

"Daaad!", she exclaimed slightly embarassed, but a smile was back on her face.

Lunch was good, though. She didn't ask what the patty in her burger was made of. She wasn't sure she wanted to know; as long as it was safe to eat, and tasted as good as it did, she couldn't care less.



While they ate, she also took in the surroundings. Places like this hadn't changed in 250 years - a restaurant was a restaurant, no matter which year it was, and what planet they were on. There were people calling for waiters, kids being rowdy, generic music playing through speakers, and general conversations going on.



"Places like this haven't changed" she sent, so that only he would be able to know what she was talking about. The emotion associated with the statement seemed to be that of relief, in a way. It was recognizable.


"Sure, the music is a little different, and we didn't have those screens either...or that view....but otherwise it's the exact same", she finished as she took a bite of her burger and took a sip of her drink.


She'd just finished the last bit of burger and fries, before she picked up a bit of drama.


"Alright young lady, that's it" a woman's voice said right behind them. She got up and dragged her daughter - maybe a year older than Deena - towards the back of the restaurant, heading for the ladies' room. The girl realized her mistake instantly and the hand she wasn't being dragged by went right toi her rear.


"Mom please! Not here!" she pleaded, before they went out of sight as the door to the ladies' bathroom closed hard.

What came next was audible to everyone in the restaurant, and Deena wished that she could unhear it as she tried to pretend that something extremely interesting was going right outside the window.


"Anyway, I guess...I'm done", she said to Harlan. "Wanna go on? I bet there's much more crazy stuff here!", she suggested, wanting to be away from that awkwardness as fast as possible.

[guesswho]

He nods at Deena's message. Some things never change and restaurants seem to be remarkably resistant to change, no matter the planet. He's about to open his mouth to suggest moving on, when the drama starts and girl gets dragged to the restrooms by her mother. Somewhat annoying, but at least Deena's got a reminder to behave.



"Ugh, peasants...there's time and place..." Harlan growls quietly, but there's nothing he can do about it. Or at least nothing he's willing to do. He finishes his own food rather more quickly than he planned, but since Deena clearly wants to fuck off as soon as possible, he can oblige her. Being in that spot many times before, it's clear Deena isn't comfortable with this. Who can blame her.



"Okay, let's go. Wanna go and take look at small animals?" He gets up and pays for their lunch. "There's also snail racing, but I always thought that's a sport requiring a very specific mindset. Or a mutant section, but that might not be for today. It's where the unique and man made animals live." Considering her reaction to Mars cats, this might not be a good idea right at the moment. Outside, though the difference is somewhat diminished here, Harlan looks around and starts walking towards rat enclosure. During the intervening centuries, rats became even smarter than they used to be, even forming societies when possible. One such society is housed in this zoo, carefully contained. There have been outbreaks and it always took months to recontain mischievous rodents.



"I bet you've never seen this. How'd you like semi sapient rats forming a society?" He asks and doesn't even wait for Deena. It's been years since he last visited them, and is very eager to see how they progressed.

[justmedk]

Grateful for the change of subject, Deena instantly agrees when he suggests the smaller animals. Right now, she'd choose anything to get away from this.
Anything, that was, except for sapient rats. She stared at him for a moment as if trying to figure out if he was truly serious, and when she found out he was, she nodded, but slowly.


"I...guess", she said. "I mean....it's a thing...apparently. And...the more I know, right?", she tried a nervous chuckle that didn't even convince herself. She WAS determined to go see it, that part was legit, but the attempt ata jocularity failed. Horror was more what she felt.

"I can't say that it doesn't freak me out something major, though...", Deena added as they headed over towards the rats' section.
When they got there, she scanned the code printed on the enclosure's out, reenforced, wall. Notorious even in her time for being able to gnaw through virtually anything, and squeeze in almost anywhere, she was relieved to find that a high-level forcefield had been erected between the inner wall facing the rats, and the outer wall facing the guests. There was no way the rats could get out now, which, at least, was something. Apparently, this had been a problem previously.

Having read that, Deena looked through the enclosure, and her jaw dropped. The rats had created what she could only describe as a giant city. Nanoprobe-sized cameras that had been inserted through the air filtration systeme allowed the guests of the park detailed views of the goings-on in the city.

The image in Deena's mind had been one of rats walking on their backpaws and speaking English to eachother and holding tiny cell phones in their tiny paws. Logically, of course, she knew that was not likely, but the image in her head had been that, all the same.
What she saw was, naturally, completely different. The "Rat King's" palace stood atop the city which gave its inhabitant a complete view of his subjects. The sheer scale of the city took her breath away. They would have had to set aside an absolutely enormous area underground for this project. Naturally it was smaller than a human city, because its inhabitants were smaller. But it still easily had an area of several kilometers. There were things that appeared to be something like warehouses where workers - or so she figured - brought foodstuff and other materials to and from constantly in a steady stream. There were "parks" with nothing functional at all, only recreational activities - puzzled that clearly had not been designed by humans, but eeriely enough just as obviously inspired by human experiments with rats she'd heard of back in her own day: Mazes, puzzles resulting in food, etc. There were something akin to factories, where many rats together processed some of the raw materials brought in by workers. There was a building that she'd describe as a hospital where injured rats were brought in.

She'd be lying if she said that the hairs in the back of her neck didn't stand on end.


"We've spend so much time wondering if we could, that we didn't stop to think about whether or not we SHOULD", she muttered quietly enough so that only Harlan would be able to hear her.

[guesswho]

The guided evolution of less advanced beings, so natural and common thing to Harlan clearly unnerves Deena a great deal, ancient fears of technology showing their ugly heads again. He likes to visit this place, generally he does it as a VIP and even comes in direct contact with the rats in a place at the outskirts of their city where a group of human scientists and philosophers live to guide the rising rat civilisation. In all honesty, for some reason, he feels slightly offended by her remark, though he wouldn't be able to explain why, at least not easily and in a way she'd readily understand.



"This is not our doing. We helped, obviously, but the will to form a society came from the rats themselves. We only provided tools and guidance. This is not some experiment for human amusement. By now, they have their own thinkers, philosophers and books. I suggest reading some of them, but it does require quite a lot of preparation. Their thinking is a lot different to ours. Much more...direct and materialistic, I'd say." He swallows what he wanted to say next, that current rat civilization is slightly more advanced than humans from her time. It's the sort of remark that causes unnecessary arguments and shouting, and is not productive in anyway.


"Anyway, let's move on. There are other animals, most of which didn't manage to start their own civilization by now. Capybaras are just as cute as they used to be, I believe." The next enclosure they move to is much more traditional, the large rodents are enjoying their pool, somehow making Harlan feel like joining them, as always when he sees the majestic animals.



"Aren't they just the chillest animal ever? Oh...sorry, I have a call. I'll be right back with you, okay? I swear, if I reincarnate, I want to be a cat..." An urgent calls from one of his associates disturbs the nice capybara idyll. Of course it's just some boring business decision to make, one that could be done by a computer, or, for that matter, a coin toss, but someone just needs an approval. Harlan spends next ten minutes on the call, barely aware of his surroundings, once he moves himself out of the way of other people. It's one of those super urgent calls that could have been an email sent with low priority, but rules are rules, and the process does state he's the one to make decision. Annoyed supremely, he makes it, ends the call and goes looking for Deena.

[justmedk]

Deena looked up at him incredulously?

"Books?", she asked. "What do rats have to write about? Except maybe the humidity level of sewers?", she finished, thinking the play on a Lord of the Rings-quote funnier than it would likely appear to him. But she followed him nonetheless, and the capybaras were, indeed adorable. She fawned over one of them in particular, who seemed very to just enjoy life as it lounged around in the artificially enhanced sunlight being the most chill she'd seen an animal be since she visited a friend with a cat a few days before being pulled 250 years into the future..


She hadn't even heard that he'd left, so when she had seen all there was to see there, she went back to the civilized rats, expecting him to be right behind her. When she got there, she noticed a sign she'd missed the first time:

"Meet a rat philosopher!" the code read as, and it elaborated: "Today, you have the chance to meet one of the most accomplished philosophers of the rodent colony you see before you. Of course he has a name, but we can't pronounce it anyway. 200 meters further down this way and to the right.", and an arrow on a map indicated the direction one had to go to get there.
Yes, Deena was freaked out by this. But the same kind of morbid fascination that caused people in her time to stop and look at accidents, caused her to want to know more. Still thinking Harlan was behind her, she moved in the direction indicated, ever so slightly faster than she needed to, in order to not have to stand in line for hours.

In fact, she didn't. She wasn't the first by any means, but the line was a lot shorter than it would become only a few minutes after she'd read the message. A series of screens one could attach to via implant recorded teh conversations between the person whose turn it was, and the rat. Stupid and not-serious questions were handled with silence from the philosopher, and park ushers shooing the offender away. But there were plenty of serious questions too, and Deena desperately searched her brain to find a question that hadn't already been asked, and also wasn't openly offensive. She did not mean to cause a scene by any means.


When it was finally her turn she had still not entirely succeeded, and the best she could come up with was.


"So....did you....did you guys just...awaken one day and....like....knew you existed?"

No offense was intended, but it was clear from her body language that she was more than a little freaked out by this whole thing. She was fairly certain she spotted a pattern in the symbols etched on buildings behind the rat in front of her - the same symbol had been etched on other buildings where she'd first observed them. If she didn't know any better, she'd have thought it was something akin to a national flag or the like.

[guesswho]

Harlan finishes his call as quick as possible and looks around. Last he seen Deena was when she was admiring the capybara, the animal radiating calm and good mood like a hairy sun that just happens to chill in a pool. Now the girl's nowhere to be seen. Probably got bored waiting for him to finish the call. Harlan shrugs and enjoys the sight of the animal for a little while longer.



"Oh, capybara of the lake, tell me your wisdom." He mumbles, grinning, as the giant rodent proceeds to give exactly zero fucks about anything other than its pool. Still, no Deena in sight. Not that even Deena with her talent for trouble would be able to get in danger here.



"Yo, where you at? I'm still at capy's, but unless I can become one, looking into it, I guess I'm ready to move on." Harlan sends her a message and waits, well aware that absolute worst thing he could do is go blindly looking for her.



Meanwhile, the 'greatest rat philosopher' in rat circles also known as that guy who lost a bet and now has to entertain dumb humans by answering their questions stares at Deena and replays her question in his mind, but faster. He runs in a circle for a second, then rubs his whiskers, before jumping on a keyboard specially designed for rat to human communication.



"Hello, young human. I do not know. Do you know how your ancestors achieved sapience? Did you just wake up one day and think - hey, I am alive and I am a person?" The 'how' in the sentence for a very short while looks a lot like 'if' but the rat knows it's not a good idea to offend humans too much. The handlers complain and boss makes him play philosopher for longer. "Maybe it was the same way? We were there, but it's many generations. Let me ask you a question, young human, give you something to think about. How would your civilizations look if you befriended us instead of cats?" The philosopher then stands on his hind legs and waves at Deena with his tiny paws while looking into distance. Just a couple more humans and he can get back to his favorite book and the unfinished fruit plate. There might be some extra grapes for him today, this girl being one of very few humans with questions worth answering. Either that, or he has to refer to books written by other rats. Handlers better pay extra today. One more six years old human with question about cheese, and he'll blow the lid on this whole operation...

[justmedk]

Deena considered its response and nodded in appreciation. It was still kinda uncanny-valley-stuff to be having a conversation with a rat, but she was much too polite to say that out loud. She was about to thank him and move on when she got the message from Harlan.


"I'm back at the rats", she messaged. "There's this rat philosopher you can apparently talk with. He's called....", she began, then realized she didn't actually know its name.

"One more, I'm sorry", she said apologetically. "Do you have names as we do? And what's yours in that case?"

If he told her his name, she'd include that in the message to Harlan, but in any case she moved out of the line. She loathed line-cutters herself, and wasn't one to hog time herself either. "I'm right next to him", she sent as she leaned back against the wall and heard a little kid ask about whether the rats made their own cheese, and if it was what they used for money, and she couldn't help but chuckle a bit. When they met, she smiled and nodded over towards the enclosure. "You might have time yourself if you want to try it yourself", she suggested. "I....gotta admit it's still creeping me out slightly, but....yeah.", she finished, not quite knowing how to express the mixture of morbid curiosity with "eerieness" she felt.

[guesswho]

Seeing what's behind the human, rat doesn't mind answering one more question, but it's just name. Humans and their obsession with names. "Can you recognize other humans by scent? No. That's why you need names. Greatest rat philosopher is closest you'll ever get to identifying me. Description is better than a name." Or any other rat of same general shape and color that will have the misfortune of being greatest philosopher tomorrow. This whole thing runs on human incapability of distinguishing between rats unless there are very obvious differences anyway.



So she ended up talking to a rat. Harlan laughs, when he receives the message. Hopefully she didn't ask them about cheese, they absolutely hate it. He now knows where to look for her, so he walks to meet up.



"Eh, no need. I know a bunch of them personally. At least I think, it's not as though I can tell them apart." He shrugs. "Well, they are weird as hell. I'd suggest getting to know them better, but it does require research and preparation, otherwise they'll just be a talking animal to you. Anyway, let's move on? Wanna see kangaroos in low grav?" That enclosure, rather bigger than other to accomodate extremely long jumps, is a bit further, but the walks is well worth it.

[justmedk]

Deena smiled as she saw him, and listened to him telling her about knowing the rats. She chuckled.

"I know a rat personally", she paraphrased him. "I never thought I'd hear that sentence seriously. Hey, are there talking dogs or cats too?", she asked, about a quarter joking and three quarters not. This would make just as much sense in her view, as talking rats. "I mean...their city would be bigger, sure, but...they're smarter than rats to start with, so it should be easier there, right? Anyway, yeah, let's go see the 'roos!", she grinned. "Poor things must be so confused and clumsy like this", she giggled as they headed over to the enclosure.

For some reason, the kangaroos didn't, in fact, seem to be suffering at all. They'd adapted, as animals do to their surroundings. They still got around by jumping, but their jumps were noticeably smaller than their terran cousins. Most of the times, that was. The exceptionally large enclosure meant that what would on Earth be normal length jumps, but here was something else entirely, was very much still possible. Though the creatures did not do it often, for some reason. Deena fancied that there was a part of them which was as creeped out about this new alien world as she was.
But when feeding time came round was where it actually came to use. And it just so happened that they made it to the enclosure around feeding time! The zookeeper entered and the animals IMMEDIATELY started their cartoonishly long jumps to get over to her, knowing from experience that this particular human was = food. Deena couldn't help but giggle as she saw them gathering around the young woman who eagerly poured their meal into the trough.


"The same everywhere", she remarked. "It's like that...that guy with the funny name... Pavel something. The guy with the dogs. He rang a bell and the dogs started drooling because they'd gotten used to that sound meaning dinner", she explained as she grinned when an older kangaroo cub, having finished its meal, came jumping over towards the edge of the enclosure where people were looking. There was a nigh-on impenetrable barrier between them, which was also so tall that there was no chance that even the most ripped 'roo could scale it. But it did somewhat frighten a very little girl who had been standing next to it. When the girl's mother took her away and comforted her, Deena moved closer cautiously, until she was only seperated from the animal by the thick, transparant barrier.


"Who's looking at who?", she asked quietly as she put a hand up against the strange material. The kangaroo sniffed. It could see a hand, but not smell anything, which it obviously found frustrating, as it turned around and jumped back towards its mother.

Denna couldn't help but smile a bit.


"I love animals", she said to Harlan. "Always have".

[guesswho]

Possibly the first generation of kangaroos brought here wasn't exactly happy with the conditions, but these latest one were born on Mars and don't know any other gravity. And he's really glad they arrive just for the feeding time, when the most is going on in this enclosure. Harlan of course seen this before, but it does not reduce his fun in any way, as he admires how older kangaroos make their long jumps, but they're calculated perfectly, to land right where the food is coming from. The younger ones are not so lucky and some minor collisions occur.



"Pavlov. Yeah, that's the guy. But what if instead dogs drooling conditioned him to ring a bell?" Harlan grins, watching the kangaroos feeding. There is...something fascinating in watching animals feed. The way they are completely focused on their meal, it's unheard of in humans of these days.


"They are pretty great, yes. Well, we can come here more often, of course, and, I'm not sure, but I believe they were looking for helpers, in case you don't know what to do with your afternoons? When we come back to Earth, we can talk about a pet. A talking dog, if you wish, but their conversation is rather simple." Anyone can slap vocal chords or a voice synthesizer on a dog and teach it a couple words, but the poor creature doesn't really understand what it's talking about anyway. Best keep them at barking.



"Now that I think about...do these guys have penguins? They didn't last time I was here, but they've been expanding a lot." A quick search confirms there are penguins to be seen. On the other side of this place. "Ugh, they do, but it's quite a walk. Lot to see in between, of course. D'you believe, I've never actually seen a live penguin before? I mean, in VR, of course, but not live..." Harlan trails off, as he looks for easiest way to the funny birds.