002 - Audio

[gift_of_earth]

I'm getting tired of people asking after the hawks. If you really want to know, myself and a friend released them. Chaining birds up so you can use them is a travesty and I won't allow it while I'm here. They deserve to fly free and hunt as they will.

You're welcome for the taste of freedom in this dreary place.

Comments

[audio]

[angleofscience]

[What was the point? Not that allowing creatures made to fly to do that freely was wrong on its own, or anything, but some part of that reasoning didn't add up.]

... How would releasing the birds, no matter the inherent ethics in such an action, give others who cannot fly a taste of freedom?

[Not to mention there's a ceiling and walls to this 'freedom'. Jetfire hit his helm (okay, no it was his boosters, they stick up above his helm) on it earlier.]

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

You honestly don't feel it? Not even a little when you look on wild things? There's something beautiful in it.

[Your attitude is so weird.]

[audio]

[angleofscience]

... Mmmh... I'm unsure what reaction you're asking for. Beings merely performing the function they were born for and into isn't, in itself, worth of any feeling of awe, and I assume the hawks were kept where they were for a reason?

[The hawks were beautiful, yes, but anything living was, no matter if it was 'wild' or not, and he's facinated by organic creatures, but at the same time... so fragile.]

I can fly for myself, and as I understand it there's animals kept in other parts of the Keep that you haven't released. Is the point that the hawks can fly, or that they aren't... domesticated?

[That was the concept, and not just word, yes?]

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

What I don't understand is how people can look at an animal that has had all its spirit taken from it - caged and leashed and forced to work or serve - and think it good or still think themselves free while they do it.

[Hmm.]

I suppose I am against all domestication. It iks me. It goes counter to my nature. It is... an ugly thing. So I will get to the others, eventually.

[audio]

[angleofscience]

[Interesting viewpoint, but he can't say he understands it. Considering there's never been anything like such on his home planet. But on its own... every sentient being, at least, held freedom insofar as it didn't infringe upon someone else's.]

I suppose... I assume humans care for the animals they domesticate and harness in such a way? Looking at it purely from the point of view of the freedom any being exercises, it would, of course, be a restriction of such an inherent part... unless the care still allowed the animal to be itself.

[A pause, something coming up... he needs to learn more about the human species, having discussions like this is kind of hard otherwise.]

I can't say I've studied human culture enough to be certain, but aren't some animals so used to being cared for they can no longer return to the wild?

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

[He can hear her spit.]

Bah! Yes. Humans tend to corral some for so long they no longer know what to do with themselves. It's a blight. A ridiculous custom.

[audio]

[angleofscience]

[He wonders, quietly, why she feels such resentment at the idea.]

As long as they are cared for as they need, does it truly matter? It's not as if they aren't still themselves even if certain needs are provided for by humans.

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

It destroys their spirit. That is why it matters.

[audio]

[angleofscience]

... [hear that? That's some stunned, perhaps confused silence.]

I, ah, thought humans, even less other organic creatures did not have a physical object that could be likened to a soul or a spirit... as I understand the word can be used as something innate, being the... er, individual?

[The fact that humans doesn't have this seems very... strange.]

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

The soul is not tangible, but it exists.

...you are not human? What are you?

[audio -> video]

[angleofscience]

I've wondered... if it's not tangible, how can you be sure that it does exist?

[There's a pause, and then he finally switches to video, so here, have a giant white robot.]

... As you can see, I'm not. Our... er, well. Souls, I suppose you'd call them, are very much a physical - as much as energy can be said to be physical, though it is a particular state of matter - object, I suppose you could say.

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

Because I'm a goddess!

[She laughs, as if that should be obvious. And then she trails off as the video shows up in her book.]

...you're-

[Her voice drops to an angry hiss.]

I want nothing to do with man-made beings of metal and steel. You're not of my domain, you're not of my earth.

[audio]

[angleofscience]

[A goddess? Colour Jetfire... disbelieveing, and this is with having pretty definite proof of his own deity and creator existing! Jetfire frowns at the explamation, but leaves that disbelief aside for now as she... well, he supposes it's logical she assumes he's man-made, but still.

The suggestion is... impossible. Absurd, really.]

Firstly, while I apologize for my very existence offending you, no human have ever created any of my species. If I was religious - which I'm not, merely... open to certain proof - I would offer up the fact that what usually is given the honour of having created our species it a deity.

[A pause, and Jetfire frowns.]

I would also point out that metal comes from earth too, being merely refined from it. Not that it's the same in my case; Cybertron is a planet made purely of metal, reflecting us... or we it, perhaps.

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

Metal is soulless. Metal is a tool, shaped by human hands. It is a part of the earth, but it is not alive. You are nothing but a mockery of life!

[The very idea that a being made of metal and gears might actually live feels like a slap in the face. How can that be called life when they aren't even flesh and blood?]

[audio]

[angleofscience]

Not us. [That's as close as Jetfire as ever gotten to snarling; talking of slaps in the face, her words act much like that, but he reigns in his reaction (or attempts to), releasing a slow, measured vent.]

Where I'm from, I've lived for longer than humans have existed. And I'd be curious how you can claim soullessness on my part when, compared to my species, humans have no physical evidence of anything of the concept they call 'soul' being in their possession.

[Okay, maybe that was a bit aggressive, too.]

There are many forms of life. Who are you to claim - goddess or no - that I am not alive? I am more than my basic programming... things which organic creatures possess in the form of instincts. My individuality doesn't come from something as simple as basic programs, but my spark. I would never claim organic creatures, by not possessing a spark, aren't alive and aren't individuals.

[audio]

[gift_of_earth]

Because I have changed them in my people! I have given them long life, made them something better then what they were! I am Iramaat and I am a goddess!That is why I know of their soul - I have shaped it, I have felt it, I am shaped by it, as I shape them!

[She's rather upset, judging by the tone of her voice.]

I claim it, because I speak the truth. Metal has no life! You are something, you exist, but you do not have life. Life is reserved for beings that have flesh and blood and a hear to go with it. Life is reserved for growing things and the earth, not metal and gears.