re_alignment | [Video] [Transmitting from: Haven's Hub] It's a Love-in!

[Wing appears on the vid screen, the backdrop an unfamiliar sight to most everyone, but it looks decidedly like a bar. The knight himself is looking worn and haggard but he still stands tall for this, doing his best to radiate warmth and assurance.]

Hello again, people of Haven.

It probably goes without saying by now, that there's a malaise that has fallen over us. Most of you can hear it now. And I think it's affecting us all, subtlety or not.

The bar at Haven's Hub is not open yet due to some setbacks, but it's serviceable enough, and Soundwave and I would like to open its doors to all of you. As a place to find safety and comfort. To remember the lost. To hear a different tune. There won't be a lot of alcohol served, for safety sake and so we don't deplete our stock for the grand opening, but it will be available, as well as standard fuel and food for organics. Feel free to bring your own; or donate to make your ration larger.

So if you feel alone or without comfort...
If you want to remember and honor those we've lost...
If you need security, either to feel safe or to keep from straying...
If you want a voice, a tune, a sound to pit against the one within your mind...

Come to us.

[His hands and arms open, offering, beckoning.]

Each of us carries a light within ourselves, whatever we call the core of our being: hearts and spark and AI chips, alike. If we can pull them all together, we can shed that light on everyone and help us withstand this darkness.

I hope to see you, and if not, please be safe!

[Not-Really-Locked to medics and the injured in medibay.]
We don’t want anyone to feel left out or like they can’t attend, so if any of you want to come I’d like to do whatever it takes to make that possible.

[Locked separately to Vandal, Blurr, Four, Teddie, Slipstream, Starscream, Barricade, Gunmax and Yuuta.]

[Each individual message varies slightly depending on familiarity, but you get the idea. Wing really wants to keep you all safe and happy, but he can only be in one place at a time.]

I'd love to see you there. You don't have to stay but, I'd like to at least know you're safe.

[Locked to Drift]

Will you come please? And do you think Perceptor would like to?

[He'd love for you to come and definitely stay. In fact he's considering tying you up and sitting on you all night if he has to.]

((I'm lazy and not writing all those messages out. :P No need to tag here if you just want to tag the log. Log to follow soon!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's not like I could make it even if I wanted to.

[He knows the list of casualties, though not a lot of details.]

Gunmax... [This mech's lost too many comrades recently, to say Wing is worried is an understatement.]

Not even with assistance?

Like I want to be carried around in public.

That Overlord guy ripped me in half.

[Oh...then you're not much better off than Perceptor.]

I'm simply offering, that if you did want to, we could find a way to make it work.

[And now he feels back about not being around for the Overlord thing. That not a hard thing to do right now though.]

I'm...sorry. [It's not enough.]

Make it work. I'm sorry, he says. Tch.

What the hell do you even care? I'm sure you're just dandy, running around your boyfriend, prancing around about joy and happiness and whatever other pieces of flowery damned sunshine you wanna jam down our throats.

No thank you. There's nothing anyone can do. I've lost enough partners, and I need to get repaired as soon as I can to make sure I don't end up losing Drill Boy or... or so help me, Yuuta too.

[He looks visibly distressed, his voice quavers audibly. His plating is just thinner than usual and his filter a little less reliable of late.]

I don't know what else I can do, what else I can offer... [Other than his own life in exchange for those lost, which he would have gladly done.]

Because it matters to me. Everyone here matters! And I'm...far from dandy. I may have gained a partner and lover but I've lost more friends in the past month than I have in the last 2 million years. And just because I only knew them a short time doesn't make that insignificant! It's all I have here! [He looks rather than he's about to cry, even though he doesn't in the same way humans do.]

[He looks away, voice going quiet after the outburst as he tries to recover himself.]

I don't have any skill in repair... [He's feeling really useless right now. This deal with bar is the best he can do, and it doesn't even feel like it's enough.] Is there anything else you need?

Let me put it simply for you. There's nothing you can do! You can't bring back McCrane and Kagerou from the dead. He-- crushed their heads. We're not like you Cybertronians. Our Super A.I. chips are stored up there. When he crushed them, that's it!

We're just. Robots. We're not even really alive. We don't have a soul or a spark or whatever else powers everyone. We're just machines.

I want my partner back. I want my friends back. Hell, I'll even take Kagerou back. But no one has that ability.

[Gunmax can't see it, but he twitches at the words, as if struck.]

I know.

I went to see them.

[The sound of a shuddering ex-vent and the shiver of pinions.]

Gunmax...do robots feel what you're feeling now?

Then you know that it can't be salvaged. None of them can. No fancy amount of technology can bring them back. They won't be the same.

...It's just programming. My programming is based off of Deckerd's. My personality developed. Everything I feel is just taught. I'm not alive, not like you.

I know I can't help them. I wish I'd been here, to help prevent this...

[There is not enough 'sorry' in the world to cover that.]

Your programming isn't the same as what your creators gave you, you've evolved independently. Don't young humans learn from their elders and peers? Don't their personalities develop independently too?

AIs aren't like that. Not the ones I've seen, and we're one of the most technologically advanced species in this part of the universe.

Call it what you want, you're a thinking, feeling individual. You have free will and are self aware. Your existence is unique and you'd be missed if you were gone. I'm no engineer, but I don't need to be to recognize pain. If you're capable of suffering then you are deserving of compassion, period.

[Video] [Transmitting from: Haven's Hub] It's a Love-in!

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