The Diego Diaries: Lo-Lo and Otis Part Two (dd8 66)
=0=Chat
:You've gone through a war of annihilation. Its almost beyond my ability to conceptualize this calamity for myself let alone anyone else and I've been on Cybertron. Its a divide between sides that's unimaginable to believe can be mended but its happened. How do you do that? There are so many divisions everywhere. How did you manage it?:
Optimus leaned back and considered the question. This was an important one, one that could help, or not, others facing the same future. "We were never truly one. There was never real equality though we talked about our culture like it was so. We said a lot of things about ourselves, good things that matter, but in practice it was never so. What we did not have across the board was a common vision about ourselves, a deep awareness that we were from one species and that diversity was a strength, not a weakness. Nothing that was posed as deficient or problematic about us was ever true but it created ideas about who was 'good' and who was not through the persistent use of propaganda and manipulation.
"I remember as a youth growing up in extreme poverty but everyone with me had the same life so nothing seemed odd about it. It was our life. No one really knew or expected better or different and it was not going to be allowed anyway. We took care of each other and shared the common enemy, if you will … the ruling class. It was not about our differences where I grew up. There are many different subcultures among our people, yet that was not a source of friction or divisiveness. It was not about what we looked like or not. We did not have the sense of disliking the nuances of what and who we were regarding our physical aspects. It was about the depth of inequality and the depth to which those in power would never surrender any no matter how badly things went that underpinned everything.
"There were many fundamental agreements we had that were only in the late stages exploited by those in charge and by Megatron to create enough differences that the focus turned from just the ruling class to each other. It helped what happened to come upon us because we stopped seeing the value in each other and the need to honor that so it makes it easier to kill each other. When the other side becomes the enemy for whatever reason, then what comes next is inevitable.
"Here in this moment, we have made a decision to a set of principles that are designed to protect everyone from exploitation, to give them access to all of society's opportunities and as much education as anyone wants. Its not to be underestimated the value of an educated populace that can think and make conclusions based on facts rather then emotions. The people get to have councils and speak up to their own ideas and needs. That is part of coming together for the common good. Anyone can be a part of that body through the democratic process of elections.
"Having Starscream and the Great Elder here to help the Decepticons and Seekers see a new path helps immeasurably. We offer a lot of counseling and no one sees it as weakness. We have decided to ameliorate the ills that create conflict by making a fair and just society with access to all levels for all individuals for all purposes and dreams."
:There's almost no friction between Decepticons and Autobots, former ones, that is, that I can see: -LHB
Prime nodded. "There is if you can see it but its small and growing smaller. We have a lot of counselors and social workers attached to our law enforcement and legal arms. They do a lot of work to help our people find their way. The Former Decepticon Association is key to the help that our returning brothers and sisters receive. Understand, we have come from millions of years of war and desperation. We have found our way. Everyone can if they commit to doing so as important.
"It is profound how little crime there is here given our tumult. We allow our people to have what they need and want through our cashless society. They do not have any doors closed to them. You cannot discount the slavery of a caste system to break down an individual's soul or to make despair a cancer within that can destroy even the greatest civilization.
"We carry the marks of it, some of us, on our own bodies," he said as he turned his face to the side. "This mark," he said touching a glyph near his left optic, "tells the world that I am a low caste mech. This simple mark determined the path for my entire life. This is the closed door that dictated my life and everyone in my family since the beginning. Every Cybertronian who came into being on Cybertron and the Empire up to The Fall bears one. It tells anyone who looks with a simple glance what your societal rank is and what you can and cannot do.
"Its a slave mark. You see the children now and they usually do not have them. Some still do it in defiance of the past. My own children but for the oldest three do not have them because we wish it. Rambler, T-Bar and Spirit have them because they are orphans and apparently where they lived they had to mark them. Even though they are marked low caste, they are anything but. It makes me want to fight anyone who would think so. The caste system is something that never truly goes away if you ever lived through it."
:Ironhide is the highest caste, he and his family. Apparently there are now 35 Praxian Elite individuals on world. What about them and the other two castes? Did you ever see an Elite take on high castes? I hear even Primes have to bend a knee to them if they say so: she said with a grin.
Prime grinned in spite of himself. "I have. Its rather a remarkable thing to watch the most high have to kowtow to someone else. Ironhide's family is remarkable and because they are elites, they have a high burden of service to The People. There have been times that they were the only thing between peace and war.
"Sentinel Prime never liked to see General Hard Drive because Hard Drive made a practice of reminding Sentinel that he had rank on him. He would make Sentinel fetch things for him. It also irked Sentinel and the others to have to stand when they walked into the room. They are formidable individuals, all of the mechs of Ironhide's family. I love and respect them greatly. All of them including General Ironhide the Elder and General Blackjack the Elder are on my general staff. They and the rest of our remarkable armed forces keep us safe. I am terribly proud of them and all of our people."
:You've had trouble with high caste resentment when they returned here. They want, some of them to keep The System of Exception going. How hard was that to overtake and is it still a problem?: -LHB
"It has been a greater problem in the past than it is now. Usually, we manage to convince them from the moment they arrive that the System has sailed into history. I have made a Primal Decree that the System of Exception is over now and forever, that nothing that is part of it has standing among The People and that there are dire consequences if they persist."
:I heard that they have to do an honor fight with you: -LHB
Prime grinned. "They do. I am not going to allow that cancer to exist among us ever again. It is the root of all the evil that has ever befallen us and it will not happen again."
=0=Up there
"You are rather awesome, Only One."
(grin and small preen) "I am, aren't I."
=0=Over somewhere else
"I do remember that you always had Sentinel get ice for your drink," Delphi said as he sat with a cat on his lap. Their new kitten, Hobo was purring.
Hard Drive grinned. "It was rather fun doing that. He used to rage later on about it. Serves him right." He glanced at Delphi. "I hope that he has to bring Prima the same thing."
"I'll ask Turbine to ask during the prayer cycle tomorrow," Delphi said with a chuckle.
"Good," Hardie said with a grin. "A little humility never harmed anyone."
=0=Chat
:There's still a segment of the Earth's population, Optimus, that would love to see you and your people exit this system. What do you think about that?: -LHB
"You are new to this as a people. We are not the kind of alien that you have speculated in your fiction and science. Many of your people have confused our ability to take vehicular forms with who we are otherwise. We are a species with a fluid metallic form that is built around an interior skeleton with devices that function as our interior organs. We can assume forms in the environment around us and almost all of us have been large and small devices at some point in the war.
"We are not vehicles. We form them through our bio-metalogical capacity. We are not obviously like you in many aspects but we are in others. We have a culture, a set of beliefs that comfort us, a societal point of view and the capacity to love, experience things and learn. We are physically different from you and there are this and that attributes that are not the same but the commonalities overwhelm the differences. We feel, create and love," Optimus said.
"Any humans who find us strange are allowed. We do not make demands on you to accept us. We would like you to try to understand us, to watch what we do and how we live. We share a lot with Earth knowing how different we seem to be. I would hope that this will help people come to understand that its the contents of the package, not the wrapping itself that matters in the end. We have seen many things in this universe and I tell you that from experience."
Leonora nodded, then grinned. "Tell me about the Reapers then."
Prime grinned back. "Ah, an easy one."
=0=Around Up Theres all over the place
"Good on you, Leonora. I want to hear this," Niall Graham said.
Everyone there nodded.
"What are the Reapers?" Thelma Lennox asked.
"Cover your ears, Mom," Will Lennox said as he stared riveted at the screen.
=0=Elsewhere up there
"Oh frag," Sun said as he lounged in the living room of the home he shared with Jack. "Those fraggers."
"Its an educational opportunity for the humans to hear about them," Jack said as he sipped his beer.
"Have you ever seen them, Abba?" Lon asked as he sat watching the show with a dozen other young Watchmen and Bezel. Sitting with them as well were dozen or more 'elders' amongst the ranks. The roving Platoon Watch party had arrived here.
"Tell 'em, Sun," Hercy said as he grinned at the image of Prime's grin.
Sun began before Prime cut him off.
=0=Chat
"The Reapers. How did you find out about them?" Prime asked as he relaxed in his chair.
:They're a hot topic like the Decepticon Justice Division. I heard that they were the apocalypse made real: Leonora said. "I also heard that you faced them once as well as a number of the elders in your army."
Prime considered that, then leaned forward to yarn with a friend. "We were following a trail of annihilation …"
=0=TBC 01-15-2021
ESL:
yarn: to tell tales and stories with friends. Old American slang.
ameliorate: (uh-mee-lee-oh-rate) to make better, to lessen