2nd Glass, Brightly
[The timestamp on this video is actually yesterday, the 8th, sometime during the day. If you look at the code on this post, Starscream rigged it to post automatically on the 9th unless he stopped it.]
[Starscream is standing in, of all places, the top floor of StarWave. You can see an impressive vista of the city behind him. He looks extremely tired, but he's still smiling. When you think about it, you realize that actually, he hasn't slept more than four hours each night. He's probably suffering, but he wanted to see all he could.]
To my dear friends in the City:
If you're seeing this video, I am, in all likelihood, gone. My counterpart has taken my place, and all is as it was. According to my calculations, that should happen sometime near 0000 hours on the 9th of March. I may be wrong, but given previous data gathered concerning the Porter's activities, this seems likely.
I wanted first to thank you all for your wonderful welcome. Bakura, Captain America, the Autobots, Quatre, and the person I knew only as 'Rumble'... all of you are shining examples of your respective species, and it has been an honor to know you. I only wish I could have been here for a longer period of time.
[He wipes absently at his eyes and looks at his fingers oddly, like he's not sure he quite understands what's going on there]
I've done a few things with StarWave INC. While this was hardly enough time to do anything drastic, I've made a few donations to various places that I felt needed it. Primarily, I've made a large donation to the NASA for the purposes of establishing a research grant to low income students interested in aerospace engineering. I've also donated to a number of flight schools for students who wish to become pilots, and, finally, a large sum to the Smithsonian Institution to assist them in their efforts at preserving the history of your species' efforts to touch the skies. I hope that this, in part, makes up for some of the things my counterpart has done; and, if not, that it at least does a little something for your people.
Furthermore, I have donated approximately $500,000 to this city's police force to help them in their efforts at keeping the peace in this place. I know you are understaffed, and this isn't as much as I'd like to give, but hopefully it will help you.
I imagine that the other me will be quite angry when he finds out, but... [a small smile] he'll live.
To conclude... I wish I could have stayed longer. There is so much to learn here, and while my own people need me, this was a welcome respite from the war I fight at home. Your world...
Your world is beautiful, and green, and so very alive, as are your people. It isn't too late to save it. And it isn't too late to reach for the stars. You are a young species but you are so full of life - in the space of my own lifetime you've accomplished more than my entire race has in its nine billion years of existence. And to see it all from your eyes, to see it as one of you, that is a rare experience indeed, and one I will cherish for the rest of my life.
I will miss you all. So very much. I...
[and he's managed to get himself choked up. And is trying so hard not to cry.]
Goodbye.
[Private to Trowa]
I wanted you to know... if Soundwave called you Rumble, then he thinks of you as family. Even if you don't remember that, it still rings true. You... can't even imagine how special you must be, for him to have chosen that name.
If you are Soundwave's family, then you are my family as well. And no matter what happens, though we may walk in distant universes... across that expanse of time and space, I will always think of you as such.
You are not alone, and never will be.
[Private to Starscream//Encrypted]
Hello.
If everything I've heard of you is true, you must hate me right now. I understand why, and I won't ask you to change your mind. But I will ask you to listen to me.
I've read your journals. And I know what is in your spark. You're...
You frighten me, I admit. I now know what Cliffjumper must have felt, staring into that dark mirror. But...
At the same time, I can't believe that you are truly evil. People in this city believe in you, at least a little. And once, when you were young, you were like me. It was circumstance and choice which has led us down such vastly different paths. Where I learned humility and patience, you only grew resentful.
You want so badly to be recognized. To rule. I can't say I share your ambitions, but I will say that I think I know how you could achieve them. You want, more than anything, to be great, do you not?
So learn humility. Learn grace. Learn to bend in the wind, learn to listen to what your officers tell you rather than resenting their presence. But more than this, learn that you attract more scraplets with energon than water. Show kindness, Starscream. Show respect. Take that love you share with that one individual and learn to share it with many. Show compassion, see wonder in life rather than simple opportunity.
I think if you gained focus, if you learned these things, if you just... slowed down. Thought. Considered the feelings of others, you might, maybe, perhaps, become that thing you so desperately wish to be.
But you are going to have to change.
Please. Skyfire believes in you. I, too, may allow myself the luxury of hope. But do not go down the path of breaking this world to remake the one you lost. Such an act...
If conquest is made of the ashes of your enemies, then ashes will be all you will rule.
[ooc: As Starscream will not be ported back in for a month, there will be no responses. Feel free to go WTF?! though! Or baww, as is appropriate.]
[Starscream is standing in, of all places, the top floor of StarWave. You can see an impressive vista of the city behind him. He looks extremely tired, but he's still smiling. When you think about it, you realize that actually, he hasn't slept more than four hours each night. He's probably suffering, but he wanted to see all he could.]
To my dear friends in the City:
If you're seeing this video, I am, in all likelihood, gone. My counterpart has taken my place, and all is as it was. According to my calculations, that should happen sometime near 0000 hours on the 9th of March. I may be wrong, but given previous data gathered concerning the Porter's activities, this seems likely.
I wanted first to thank you all for your wonderful welcome. Bakura, Captain America, the Autobots, Quatre, and the person I knew only as 'Rumble'... all of you are shining examples of your respective species, and it has been an honor to know you. I only wish I could have been here for a longer period of time.
[He wipes absently at his eyes and looks at his fingers oddly, like he's not sure he quite understands what's going on there]
I've done a few things with StarWave INC. While this was hardly enough time to do anything drastic, I've made a few donations to various places that I felt needed it. Primarily, I've made a large donation to the NASA for the purposes of establishing a research grant to low income students interested in aerospace engineering. I've also donated to a number of flight schools for students who wish to become pilots, and, finally, a large sum to the Smithsonian Institution to assist them in their efforts at preserving the history of your species' efforts to touch the skies. I hope that this, in part, makes up for some of the things my counterpart has done; and, if not, that it at least does a little something for your people.
Furthermore, I have donated approximately $500,000 to this city's police force to help them in their efforts at keeping the peace in this place. I know you are understaffed, and this isn't as much as I'd like to give, but hopefully it will help you.
I imagine that the other me will be quite angry when he finds out, but... [a small smile] he'll live.
To conclude... I wish I could have stayed longer. There is so much to learn here, and while my own people need me, this was a welcome respite from the war I fight at home. Your world...
Your world is beautiful, and green, and so very alive, as are your people. It isn't too late to save it. And it isn't too late to reach for the stars. You are a young species but you are so full of life - in the space of my own lifetime you've accomplished more than my entire race has in its nine billion years of existence. And to see it all from your eyes, to see it as one of you, that is a rare experience indeed, and one I will cherish for the rest of my life.
I will miss you all. So very much. I...
[and he's managed to get himself choked up. And is trying so hard not to cry.]
Goodbye.
[Private to Trowa]
I wanted you to know... if Soundwave called you Rumble, then he thinks of you as family. Even if you don't remember that, it still rings true. You... can't even imagine how special you must be, for him to have chosen that name.
If you are Soundwave's family, then you are my family as well. And no matter what happens, though we may walk in distant universes... across that expanse of time and space, I will always think of you as such.
You are not alone, and never will be.
[Private to Starscream//Encrypted]
Hello.
If everything I've heard of you is true, you must hate me right now. I understand why, and I won't ask you to change your mind. But I will ask you to listen to me.
I've read your journals. And I know what is in your spark. You're...
You frighten me, I admit. I now know what Cliffjumper must have felt, staring into that dark mirror. But...
At the same time, I can't believe that you are truly evil. People in this city believe in you, at least a little. And once, when you were young, you were like me. It was circumstance and choice which has led us down such vastly different paths. Where I learned humility and patience, you only grew resentful.
You want so badly to be recognized. To rule. I can't say I share your ambitions, but I will say that I think I know how you could achieve them. You want, more than anything, to be great, do you not?
So learn humility. Learn grace. Learn to bend in the wind, learn to listen to what your officers tell you rather than resenting their presence. But more than this, learn that you attract more scraplets with energon than water. Show kindness, Starscream. Show respect. Take that love you share with that one individual and learn to share it with many. Show compassion, see wonder in life rather than simple opportunity.
I think if you gained focus, if you learned these things, if you just... slowed down. Thought. Considered the feelings of others, you might, maybe, perhaps, become that thing you so desperately wish to be.
But you are going to have to change.
Please. Skyfire believes in you. I, too, may allow myself the luxury of hope. But do not go down the path of breaking this world to remake the one you lost. Such an act...
If conquest is made of the ashes of your enemies, then ashes will be all you will rule.
[ooc: As Starscream will not be ported back in for a month, there will be no responses. Feel free to go WTF?! though! Or baww, as is appropriate.]