Anniversary Event: Defying Fate

[eternitymods]

Who: Everyone
When: April 8th-11th
Where: Vaikuntha
What: The Heroes of Light relive the three days leading to the Apocalypse, again and again. With this come the chance for them to save the world, but also to explore opportunities otherwise out of reach. Will they find a way to save the world and prevent this terrible fate from coming true?
Warnings/Notes: Depends on the threads.

Comments

Group Chat

[peace_through_empathy]

Ah. Yes, I see now.

I'll preface this by saying that while Starscream and I do know versions of each other in our own universes, we do not come from the same one. The Starscream you spoke to is not the same one from my universe.

That said, he isn't wrong.

My homeworld was not a pleasant place to live for the most part. I thought I could change the system by publishing writings about non-violent protests. Change the system peacefully through social activism. My writings earned me numerous followers, mostly amongst the lower classes who were the most oppressed. As I wrote about how the system was used to deceive us and pull thee wool over our eyes, I termed my movement "Decepticonism", and my followers became known as the Decepticons.

Then...things changed. I decided non-violent social change was no solution at all. My writings became radicalized, my positions became more hardline and extremist. Anti-organic rhetoric and the superiority of the mechanical became a large part of my writings as well. I was no longer setting out to change the system but overthrow it entirely, replace it with something new. I deluded myself into thinking it would be a newer, better social order. In reality I planned to replace one tyranny with another; my own. My followers responded even more to this and...so began the war. My Decepticons against those who sought to quell our violent uprising, and called themselves the Autobots.

Four million years of conflict across the galaxy. Worlds burned, civilizations died when my Decepticons fell out of the sky to claim their resources for our war effort. It took me far, far too long to realize just how far I'd fallen and what I needed to do to...atone isn't the right word. I can't atone. I can never atone for the things I've done. But I can leave the galaxy in a better shape than it was in when I found it. I can do some good before the end. I can try to actually be the 'bot I wanted to be all those millennia ago before my story ends.

So yes, Asriel. I think I will stay in this group. I think it will be good for all of us.

Re: Group Chat

[bleating_heart]

holy s you're 4 million years old?

damn

i did not expect that

sorry. i know there's more important stuff in what you just said.

Asriel is typing...

being a leader and having good intentions go bad

i dunno if it's the same. but that kind of reminds me of my dad.

he wanted to kill all humans

not really

i don't think he's ever wanted to kill anyone in his entire life.

but

Asriel is typing...

he put the policy in after the humans sealed us underground and killed chara

uh and me

to make people feel better i guess


[Apparently he just glossed over the whole "and then I died" thing.]

Group Chat

[peace_through_empathy]

Over five million, actually. The first million I was just an Energon miner who dreamed of being a medic. That sort thing wasn't allowed though, changing your Primus-given job. Functionism, you see, the pseudo religious/political philosophy that shaped pre-War Cybertron and what gave rise to the Decepticons. The idea was insidiously simple; every Cybertonian's altmode is determined when they are first created. If forged, it happens naturally as the sentio metallico forms around the Spark and becomes the chassis of the Cybertronian to be; information on the altmode is deep-coded into the Spark and helps shape the metal. If constructed cold, however, a Spark is inserted into a pre-made body with an altmode already determined. Either way, your form is decided for you at the moment of your creation, and your form determines your function. The reasoning was couched as simple common sense; if you needed medical attention you wouldn't go to a medic who had a dump truck for an altmode, would you? If you needed a soldier, you wouldn't want someone with a microscope for an altmode. The other reasoning was religious; if you turned into a drill, it was because Primus-our founding god, at least according to our mythology-had determined that there was a need for drills. That you should take pride in your altmode, be happy and content with your place in society, and not seek ideas above your station. An insidious form of control that allowed Cybertron's ruling body, the Senate and the Primes it controlled, to abuse their authority and lord their status over everyone else.

The Decepticons were formed out of a desire for equality, for self-determination. To not let our births determine the course of our entire lives. But as the war raged on and Cybertron eventually left behind-we destroyed our own homeworld fighting the Autobots over it-we so quickly forgot those ideals...except, of course, when we needed an excuse. When I needed an excuse.

Good intentions so quickly turn to ash...I expect your father and I would have things to discuss, Asriel.

Megatron has stopped typing

Megatron is typing...

Ah, you are deceased in your own world, Asriel? Apologies, I don't mean to sound insensitive. Your father's actions make more sense to me now...they were born out of a desire to protect the rest of his people because he could not protect you, or this Chara person. I understand. I too did things I would have never thought myself capable of when I was drilling for Energon reserves beneath Nova Point. And once you discover you are capable...it is very hard to go back. It might even be impossible. I don't know.

But the attempt should still be made, I think.

[bleating_heart]

Asriel is typing...

Asriel has stopped typing.

Asriel is typing...

Asriel has stopped typing.

Asriel is typing...

yeah.

that's pretty much the entire reason i'm still alive.

that and frisk. i don't know what they did. but when the person who took you down and showed you what you became gives you a chance at life

you kind of

have to do your best

for them if anything. right?

Asriel is typing...

for clarification when i died i got

the dust got spread over the garden. then alphys

sorry the royal scientist was doing

Asriel is typing...

sorry this isn't clarifying anything.

I died and I became something else. Power over time. couldn't feel love. or anything else really. kept RESETting over and over again. did everything there was to do in the underground. read every book. saw every vista from every angle. talk to everyone.

Asriel is typing...

killed everyone. every way i could think of. i'm just glad i wasn't very creative. tortured and tormented them.

killed my whole family except my sibling since they were already dead when i took their soul. but i guess i helped kill them too before that all happened anyway.

Asriel is typing...

Asriel has stopped typing.

[acapriciousreaper]

Ugh. I suppose if we're putting all our cards on the table.
I come from a planet called Terra. I never knew it in its 'glory days'- all I know is that the Terrans used it up. Its Crystal was nearly dead, most if not all natural resources were nearly completely depleted, and the ancient Terrans were going extinct. So they stored their souls away and created a golem named Garland, and gave him the task of preserving and, eventually, resurrecting their society.
I don't know exactly how long Garland was around, either, but after an indeterminate amount of time, he discovered another planet that was inhabitable, called Gaia. It was quite young, even had its own Crystal. And, regardless of the fact that there were already people living on that planet, he decided to move in. The thing to understand about Garland is that he was extremely... passive. He only acted if he had no other choice. He set up a system that would essentially interrupt the flow of Gaian souls and prevent their return to the planet's Crystal, which had a number of side effects but the goal there was eventually inserting Terra's souls into the cycle when there were none left on Gaia, thus allowing the Terran people to be reincarnated.
But things weren't moving quickly enough for him. Five thousand years later with no real end in sight, he decided that what was needed was something to... assist Gaian souls in their journey towards the hereafter. He wanted an 'Angel of Death' to commit mass genocide on the peoples of Gaia. So he made me.
I know that children are a thing that exists- and most species have them. I... there was no point at which I was born, or grew up, or what have you, I was created exactly as I am now. Given a soul so that I could have a semblance of thought, and given the task of reaping Gaia's souls so that the process could be completed. I was the prototype, the test model, and he never let me forget it. I did as he asked, godsdammit, and all I ever got was this utter rubbish about how I was 'becoming too independent' and 'losing sight of the goal'. I had my own way of doing things, but that didn't include 'slavish obedience' so while he was working on creating more like me- empty vessels, receptacles for Terran souls- he tried his hand at creating another Reaper. In the form of an infant this time, so that it would have time to... grow. Not become unstable and undesirable. When I found out, Garland just... calmly informed me that I wasn't to worry, that it was my replacement and that as soon as it was mature, I would be... 'retired', I think was the word he used.
I mean, what the hell did he think was going to happen, that I was just going to calmly sit and let it happen? Let him throw out my soul like yesterday's rubbish? I had to do something. I had to prove to him I was the only Reaper he needed, if only to save myself, didn't I? I took the damn thing and threw it through a portal to Gaia. Garland was... furious. I'd never seen him actually angry before, but he nearly killed me then and there. I only survived because he still needed me, still needed a Reaper. So he banished me to Gaia, never to return, while he worked on replacing what I'd stolen. And I played along, playing my part as the humbled servant, while I formed a plan to kill him.
The years passed, and my war came. A greedy queen with delusions of Empire did most of my work for me- I merely supplied her with weapons, artificial black mages to bolster her forces. All the while I was gathering my secret weapon, my trump card in the fight against Garland. I thought that he feared Eidolons, since he'd worked so hard to see them eliminated. So I sought to capture and utilize the strongest Eidolon...
The short version is that my plan worked. I had Alexander within my grasp, and of course it all was ruined. Garland knew about it the whole time. He used his warship, killed Alexander, nearly killed me in the resultant explosion, and left me scrambling to pick up the pieces. My 'Plan B' failed as well, thanks to the intervention of an enemy I'd never expected to see again, the infant I'd abandoned to Gaia, now fully-grown and willing to protect his adopted home with his life. His name was Zidane.
'Plan C', formed on the fly, was in fairness a stroke of simplistic brilliance. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. Gaian souls have a unique capability, you see. It's called Trance, an incredible surge of emotion that carries with it a boost in power, forged of a connection with Gaia's crystal. I could not Trance, since I was Terran, but perhaps with access to Gaian souls, I could manage it. What I needed was access to a large number of imprisoned Gaian souls, and for that I needed Garland's warship, the Invincible. The solution was obvious: bait Zidane and his friends into believing that Garland was the bigger threat than I was, and get them to undo the seal on the portal to Terra for me. After that, it was simple to follow them through, and sneak aboard the Invincible while Garland was dealing with them. They actually defeated him for me, what a surprise there, but once I'd absorbed the energy from those stolen souls, all that was left was the last trigger for Trance- the pain and adrenaline of battle, and a surge of emotion. It worked. I Tranced for the first time, killed Garland, nearly killed Zidane and his ragtag bunch of misfits, and thought my victory was complete.
It wasn't. Garland had the last laugh- always had the last laugh. I was only built to last until Zidane reached maturity. I had an 'expiration date'. Perhaps two days, perhaps two months, but it was coming, and for all my power, there was nothing I could do about it.
I
I didn't take it well. Trance is like... trying to steer an airship in a tornado. It amplifies everything. Anger becomes a bottomless well of rage. Joy becomes utter elation, beyond any bliss you've ever felt- and despair... Well. Anger and despair were all I had left, at that point. I decided, in that state, that if I was going to die, so was everyone else. The world didn't get to exist without me.
I burned Terra to a cinder, just to spit on the old man's memory, and from there I enacted a plan that would have had much the same consequence as Narayana's Awakening.
I failed, if only because Zidane was there again. I nearly killed them, and still they managed to fight off the beast I awakened and force it back to where it came from.
I didn't understand why, it was just a fleeting thought- but Trance makes you impulsive, and I used... the last of my magic to get them out, before the place collapsed on them. I could have saved myself. I still don't know why I saved them instead.
And there I might have died alone broken and slowly bleeding to death, but Zidane- the absolute moron- came back for me. I'd tried to kill him three times, and nearly succeeded twice, and he came back for me. I asked him why, and he just... smiled.
He thought that, if our positions had been reversed, if I'd been born second, he might have been exactly like I was.
"Wouldn't you have done the same for me?"
He came back for me. Not to save me, I was beyond saving, but just... just so I wouldn't die alone. So I'd have someone with me, at the very end. I thought about a million things, about how I'd been a monster, how I- how I didn't deserve to live after everything I'd done. How I didn't deserve this, didn't deserve Zidane for a brother...
I died. He got out.
And... then I woke up on an airship, bound for Vaikuntha. I don't deserve it- really, I don't. I've killed... thousands, at least, on a personal level. Factor in the effects of the war-gods, and... The survivors of Burmecia numbered less than a thousand, the survivors of Cleyra could be counted on one hand. Lindblum and Alexandria were both massive cities, and they both burned, thanks to me.
I don't deserve this. But if I took the easy way out- it feels... it'd feel like an insult to Zidane.


...

Good gods, I talk too much.