Travel log [Video]
[Unencrypted video is broadcast, accompanied by Glyph's voice. The video displays the lofty and intricate Cybertronian architecture of some government-funded institution, the interior of a museum in this case. The display shows what appear to be sacred Cybertronian artifacts: Matrices, physical Allsparks, keys, flames, and the like.]
The museums here display only facsimiles. I should have expected this, given the posted policies throughout the city, but I had hoped.
[The video momentarily shows Glyph in close-up, and then pans back to the museum display.]
When the AllSpark was returned to my Cybertron, there was celebration. I remember. Every bot's emotional subroutines were genuinely affected. Just to have a distant glimpse, to experience the realization that we all stood before the genuine artifact, that all of us were at that moment sharing in a pivotal moment of our race's history...it was highly evocative. It inspired a sense of pride and patriotism. We were living what later bots would study.
I feel nothing like that here. I have visited every museum on this tourist map. It is the same at every one, whether the pieces in question are Cybertronian, or represent the culture of other civilzations; they are reproductions.
It - this entire off-worlder settlement - is alike to a theme park for newly protoformed bots, barely past their primary programming. Facades, fabrications, even characters that appear to provide holo opportunities. There is nothing to learn from these fakes...except that their makers seem to fear the real thing. They are at best reminders, symbols; but they do not hold the power to truly inspire us as the originals do.
It is an offense to scholars that have struggled through the ages to maintain and uncover our cultural heritage...and to learn of other cultures.
[The video pans back to Glyph, and although slightly skewed, shows by her tense expression and body language that the ordinarily timid bot is truly offended by the lack of authenticity in the museums.]
Yet, I have some hope. I met someone, an organic, possibly of an elder status, assigned to guard duty here. He gave me directions to another museum; one not on the tourist map. I have decided to go.
The museums here display only facsimiles. I should have expected this, given the posted policies throughout the city, but I had hoped.
[The video momentarily shows Glyph in close-up, and then pans back to the museum display.]
When the AllSpark was returned to my Cybertron, there was celebration. I remember. Every bot's emotional subroutines were genuinely affected. Just to have a distant glimpse, to experience the realization that we all stood before the genuine artifact, that all of us were at that moment sharing in a pivotal moment of our race's history...it was highly evocative. It inspired a sense of pride and patriotism. We were living what later bots would study.
I feel nothing like that here. I have visited every museum on this tourist map. It is the same at every one, whether the pieces in question are Cybertronian, or represent the culture of other civilzations; they are reproductions.
It - this entire off-worlder settlement - is alike to a theme park for newly protoformed bots, barely past their primary programming. Facades, fabrications, even characters that appear to provide holo opportunities. There is nothing to learn from these fakes...except that their makers seem to fear the real thing. They are at best reminders, symbols; but they do not hold the power to truly inspire us as the originals do.
It is an offense to scholars that have struggled through the ages to maintain and uncover our cultural heritage...and to learn of other cultures.
[The video pans back to Glyph, and although slightly skewed, shows by her tense expression and body language that the ordinarily timid bot is truly offended by the lack of authenticity in the museums.]
Yet, I have some hope. I met someone, an organic, possibly of an elder status, assigned to guard duty here. He gave me directions to another museum; one not on the tourist map. I have decided to go.