[Video]

[greater_than_zero]

[Hello again, Haveners.  Have this bot on your screens once more.  He seems to be sitting in the middle of the street this time, and has a similar look on his face as the last time he was on the network.]

Ah...if I could ask assistance from anyone with....really small hands, I would greatly appreciate it.

I’m afraid I won’t be able to come to you, but I can send you my coordinates. 

.....Please hurry.

[He shivers just as the video ends.]

Comments

[greater_than_zero]

Perhaps you won't have to. These critters seem quite capable of caring for themselves.

[He thanks Jetstorm and is now able to bend so his left shoulder is more easily reached. Once that's cleared he'll be able to help with the efforts.]

Thank you, so much. I can't tell you how relieved I am none of these guys were hurt.

[still_learning]

[He'll do his part and keep right on helping out as needed. The whole time, that kitten stays on his shoulder, though it gets tired of trying to balance itself after a while and bounds down to go scamper away somewhere. Maybe it'll come back. Jetstorm almost feels bad for having frightened it away.]

I am also relieved. I do not know how to repair an organic.

[greater_than_zero]

Nor do I. I'd not even imagined organic life could get so large, let alone develop any measure of intelligence before finding myself here. It's...amazing, but I'm also seriously lacking in any real information on them yet.

[He finally closes up the last panel and offers the minicon his hand and a smile.] Thank you, Jetstorm. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help.

[still_learning]

[He tilts his head at that comment, but he's not as confused about the hand offered. One considerably smaller hand comes back out to take the other bot's.]

You are most welcome. You... have not seen organic life that is as large as these creatures? They can get much bigger than this. Have you not left Cybertron in your world?

[It's not meant to be offensive by any means. He's genuinely curious and a little astounded. Not many who stayed behind during the war survived, and even he knew about that.]

[greater_than_zero]

[He shakes Jetstorm's hand...and shakes his head.] Never. There are some just starting to talk of space travel, so perhaps one day it'll be possible, but I think that may be a ways off yet.

[Confused yet?]

[still_learning]

[A little, yeah.]

You must come from long before my time. [He needs to hear about this, but first, need to deal with the infestation.]

Are you free of the creatures now?

[greater_than_zero]

[He shrugs] Seems plausible. And yes. I am, now. Thank you again.

[still_learning]

[He nods.] Please, what is Cybertron like where you are from?

[greater_than_zero]

[He grins.] It's beautiful. [He shrugs] Nothing like this place...it's thriving, alive, and...there's certainly nothing organic. I have a house on the edges of Iacon.

[Zero, you need to look up the differences between "house" and "mansion", okay?]

Politically, though, I much prefer how things seem to be here. People are people here, and I like that.

[still_learning]

[He doesn't even know what a house looks like. He's lived in apartments all of his short life. Though the other part of that explanation gets a head tilt out of him.]

I wish I could see that. But I do not understand. What is it that people are not people?

[greater_than_zero]

[Zero pulled a vent, letting it out in a soft huff.]

Right now, on my Cybertron, there is slavery. It’s a large practice, part of society, owning a slave is almost seen as a social status. There’s change coming, it’s clear if you pay attention to the political movements, but it’s hard to say if the changes coming will be for the better or not.

[On one hand they will be, on the other hand they’ll be what leads Cybertron to a civil war that spans the universe and millennia...]

[still_learning]

[Oh, that sounds awful. Maybe he wouldn't like that version of Cybertron as well as he had hoped.]

I think I would like my own time better, then. [Given how minicons are treated in his time, he'd hate to see how they were treated before.] Do you think that it will get better? I know there was war where I am from, but maybe... Maybe your Cybertron will not know it.

[greater_than_zero]

[If Zero knew his thoughts were about his size, he’d assure Jetstorm that size had nothing to do with social standing in his world. But as he’s not a mind reader, he can’t address that.]

I have my hopes. It can be hard to know for sure, but I certainly hope so.

[He hesitates a beat.] War?

[still_learning]

[He'd like to know that, but he's running on assumptions at this point. He's kinda bad about doing that.]

[There's a little nod from him, and he looks up at that question.]

I... Oh, I apologize. I should not have said anything.

[greater_than_zero]

[Maybe one day they’ll clear that up, not that it really matters here.]

No, please...I’d like to know. What kind of war? What about?

[still_learning]

[He... really doesn't want to. Something in him feels like this is him ruining something beautiful, but he'll nod and tell Zero a little about it. What he knows about it, anyway.]

I was not alive to see it, of course, but I am not sure that I any better for it. [He still remembers Drift, how much he expected of his minicons, how high a standard he held them to... How hard it was to try and meet those standards.] There is so much I do not know that I should. Maybe, more experience would make me more useful to everyone. But I do try.

[greater_than_zero]

[A civil war?...A four million year long...civil war....Cybertron dead for much of that?! Primus...]

I’m so sorry to hear that. I...I can’t imagine Cyberton like that... [Even seeing it so strange as it is here....isn’t like the thought of seeing it dead...]

[He gives Jetstorm a little smile.] I’m sure you’re a lot more useful than you realize. Experience wouldn’t necessarily change how useful you are, either. Never think you’re aren’t useful. Everyone is useful, and every life priceless.

[still_learning]

[Yeah, sorry about that. He really didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but, well...]

If it is any consolation at all, there is still hope that your Cybertron will not see this. And if it does, yours may know peace again. [He just has no idea what it means to wait for six million years to see that happen.] And... thank you.

[greater_than_zero]

[He smiles and gives a little nod.] There’s not even a hint of war in our society right now. Surprising, sometimes, but not disappointing at all. Hopefully the political movements starting up will be enough to make sure we don’t head towards war.

....Do you know what started the war in your world?

[still_learning]

[There's a small smile out of him at that, part of it sad, part of it grateful.]

I still hope that it never happens for you. [He'll have to think on that one for a moment.] I do not remember the exact cause, but I remember it had a lot to do with that bots were unhappy with how they were being treated, and some of them finally got tired of it and brought war down upon us.

[greater_than_zero]

So do I.

[He can’t help the disturbed look on his face. That sounds uncomfortably close to the way his world is right now.] I’m sorry it came to that.