[Text]

[4_toteachus]

[Four isn't sure why, but the longer he spends away from home, the harder it is to sleep. Memories of his family, both dead and alive, haunt him until sleeping becomes a near impossibility. He misses them all, though in some weird way he misses the Scientists the most. What would he think of Four's adventures here in a strange world?]

Have you ever missed someone so much that it hurts inside when you think of them? What if this person was someone you have only met once, yet is more a part of you than anyone can hope to be? My home is a sad place, and my family is sad too, but I miss them a lot. I am not used to being alone.

Love and loss are a part of humanity I suppose.

My purpose is to catalogue and eventually understand humanity, and I feel as if the more loss I feel, the closer I come to it, as strange as that is. I am a long way from understanding it however.... so I ask:

What is humanity to you?

What does it mean to love and lose someone?

What is it like to hate?

[Four makes sure not to specify anything in his questions, he wants to see what his answers are.]

Comments

[video]

[heavymetalgenkigirl]

Hey... you asked what it means to love and lose someone?

I... I don't know that he's lost for ever, but the best person I ever isn't here and I-

[She turns a little bit away from the camera, trying to mask as she wipes a tear from her face as grabbing for her phone to show the screen the picture of Bulkhead and Wheeljack.]

He's the big green one.

I think losing him has been... the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with. I try to think of the fun things we've done, and the great times we spent together, but sometimes it's hard.

[Text]

[4_toteachus]

Would you say that how you feel is what makes you human?

If it hurts, do you think it is worth the pain of loving them?

[Video]

[heavymetalgenkigirl]

If you'd asked me that half a year ago, I would have said 'heck yeah it's what makes me human.' but... the Autobots, a lot of the bots here, they feel things too, just like me, or any other human does. So, I don't know, maybe it's what makes the difference between intelligent life or not, more then knowing good and bad, right and wrong.

I would rather hurt, and have the great memories, and know that person, then not at all.

text;

[lightupthenight]

humanity's a mass that needs to wake up and realize that if it doesn't learn to fight then everything is lost
we are not dreamers we are makers
and we need to forge our own path or die
we can't stand in the shadows of our own creations
and we can't let ourselves be content with what we have
we have to strive
we have to reach
and maybe die trying but at least we go out like a fallen star right?

love and loss is something sung more poetically by wiser souls than i
i knew a man once who loved so hard he didn't just lose her, he lost a whole city and every life within it
all dying like the embers of a doused flame
he walked in the shadows of the life he had left and yet her memory still gave him enough
to try to give us another chance

i don't think it worked

and hate?

hate's like poison from the inside out
it burns like fire with no heat
see there's hate and then there's revolution
and all hate does is that it eats you alive
i hated for a good long while before i learned
how to take that fire and burn the world with me
but for a long time it was just killing me slowly
think it killed me anyway to be honest

text;

[4_toteachus]

[Oh Four likes you.]

That was beautiful.

One of humanity's problems is that it fights too often. It sometimes loses sight of what is important, and in the process it destroys itself.

Would you consider

Humanity worth saving and remembering?

text;

[lightupthenight]

if the humanity where i was from was like that
maybe they wouldnt be dying slowly trapped in a glass cage

of course i would
id die to set them free

[Text]

[kingofthetvworld]

aw man why did you have to ask so many sad questions, now i'm all depressed (;(ェ);)

let me tell you, i've been spending a looooong time trying to figure out what humanity means. at first i thought it just meant looking human, but that didn't seem to work. it's weird and confusing and hurts my head and yet at the same time i d rather keep looking for answers than go back to what i had.

i don't even wanna think about those other questions they're just mean

[Look! Periods! He's slowly getting better at texting.]

[Text]

[4_toteachus]

I'm sorry, but I wanted to learn more about what it means to feel humanity.

I used to believe that humanity was limited to humans too. But then I saw humanity in the robots who live here. I think that humanity is bigger than one definition...

What's wrong with my other questions?

Have you ever felt hatred before?

[Text]

[kingofthetvworld]

SEE THERE YOU GO AGAIN

I try not to hate people it's not a good feeling. I don't know a lot of people anyway so hating them just feels like pushing em away. I know there's some people i don t like because theyre BIG JERKWADS though

i think that's different

Audio

[perfavore]

[Oh, you hit a soft spot for Mirage just then, Four.]

I have felt that feeling, little one.

[He's not very up on the whole show-and-tell, but he needs someone to talk to while making his way early-on to the badlands. Best he not do video, so it's only audio.]

It is not physical pain, but it hurts just as atrociously.

Text

[4_toteachus]

I don't have a heart, but my loss hurts inside anyway.

Is it worth feeling the pain?

[Audio]

[perfavore]

Si.

[He doesn't hesitate in the slightest for that.]

It is because of them that we keep moving on.

audio

[megamind]

[ OH GOD WHAT ARE THESE FEELINGS. Megamind's first instinct is to be a dick, and w....well, he usually runs with his first instinct. ]

No. Of course not. That's being weak, and I am certainly not weak! I don't miss anyone!

[ Not Minion nor Roxanne. Not even Metro Man. None of them. ]

Your quesions are ultimately purposeless. You should probably turn your attentions to a more worthy line of study. Explosives, maybe. Or genetics. Or -- anything, really, is better than humans.

text

[4_toteachus]

So if these feelings are weak

does that make humanity weak?

If humanity is weak

is it worth saving and remembering?

The purpose of my questions is to understand humanity from your points of view. It's sad that you don't miss anyone... does anyone miss you do you think?

AUDIO;

[engrishdetective]

Getting into some heavy questions there, Four.

TEXT;

[4_toteachus]

Questions make my world go round.

Will you be answering any of them Gunmax?

[vandalization]

Tough questions... but. I guess I'm obligated, being human and all.

Humanity is. Ah. I guess in one sense, it's the collective of our species? In the literal sense. If you're looking for the figurative sense it's compassion, love, mercy, learning from our mistakes, adapting and changing... but I'm learning here that those traits are not only human straits. That's stupid to think that we're the only ones who can-

Yeah.

To love and lose someone? I... wouldn't know. I've loved people before, I guess. Romantically, I suppose. My family definitely. Even if we were a little broken and not very good to each other. I haven't lost someone like that.

I almost did, though. That was enough for me. I never want to feel like that again. Ever. Made me sick. It's probably the worst thing I've ever felt.

Worse than hate. And hate is pretty bad. You don't want to know what hate is like.

[4_toteachus]

You and I are learning the same things! It was strange at first to see humanity in non-humans, but after a while it began to make sense. You said that humanity is about compassion, love, mercy, and our mistakes, and deep down I know you're right. I've seen these traits in many robots here, which is fascinating.

Romantically. I wonder what that would feel like.

My family was broken from the start. Our creator, The Scientist gave his life for us, and we're all that's left of him.

[And humanity, in his world anyway.]

We Creations aren't innocent, I have seen one of my family send another to his death.

It would have been easy to hate him I suppose. How do you know when you hate someone?

[organ_pharming]

I see little point in understanding humanity. [Scowl]

I'm guessing you were programmed by them?

[4_toteachus]

Humanity is my sole purpose, and I will not give up on my purpose.

I can't say that I was programmed by them per say... I'm mechanized, but I'm not the same as you.

I take it you don't have a good view on humanity.

[video]

[tearsofsteel]

There's a lot I miss...my friends--I saw them as my family...but there's one person I miss most of all, but she's gone...

[He stiffens at the mention of humanity. Was he human anymore? Sometimes it didn't feel that way.]

Sometimes I wonder if I've forgotten what it's like to be human at all. But for your other questions, I definitely knew what those felt like.

[Text]

[4_toteachus]

She must have been really important to you... I'm sorry.

I'm trying to discover what it means to show humanity. Maybe you can learn from what I know, I can teach you!

[video]

[glacius_passio]

I have a couple of people I miss like that. But I don't know whether they're alive or not, so I try to keep myself busy so I don't dwell on it. Even if they are, I am not, so even if it hurts sometimes, I must persevere and live.

I'm not sure if I should comment about humanity, since I'm not human. Even after protecting them for a hundred years, I'm still not completely sure I understand what it means to be considered human. But hate...that's something I'm familiar with as well. It's not something I would really want anyone to feel if they didn't have to.

[Text]

[4_toteachus]

Persevere and live. Against all odds that's what we must do.

I'm not human either. It's just my purpose to try to understand them from another point of view I suppose. Tell me how you see them, if you don't mind.

Protecting them? Are you a hero too?

private text

[not_halfbaked]

OOC: Small text in brackets are Korra's thoughts, but not in the text she sends.

[She thinks of benders, and nonbenders, the Equalists, Amon.]

...Humanity should be everyone, whether you have something like powers or not. [Thinks about Knock Out, Gunmax, all the other robots and Cybertronians. And Naga.] And even that wording's not exactly super clear--I mean, it should be everyone. Even if you're not human-shaped. It's everyone with feelings and thoughts--a soul.

[She thinks of home. Her parents. Tenzin and his family. Her friends.]

...And that feels like having a hole in your chest all the time. And sometimes it's gaping, huge and wide, like a large bullshark's mouth. And other times it's like a small nibbling. But it's always there.

[She thinks of Tarrlok.]

...And this one's kinda like the above. It's huge, and other times it's small. But it's always there.