View source for Immortal (Staren)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2012/08/22
|Location=Staren's Lab
|Synopsis=Staren has his immortality at last. But what will the future bring...?
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=42
|Tinyplot=
}}
A huge underground room, fluorescent-lit and split mostly into aisles by endless shelves of computer equipment and other gadgets. At one wall, Staren sits in front of his console, reviewing the code. He's tested in simulations again and again, run tests on tissue samples... At last, everything is ready. It should work. And if it doesn't, he has checked and added safety measure after safety measure. The odds of a sufficiently catastrophic failure to actually harm him are so minor as to not be worth considering.

And yet it is with some trepidation that he stands and walks to another part of the lab, his long labcoat rustling and the sound of his footsteps the only sound over the distant hum of machines and skittering and rolling maintenance drones. He knows how it works, he knows the probabilities, but his mind can imagine endless nightmare scenarios that couldn't possibly happen.

He walks past the Star Hawk's hangar, to the row of six pods up against one wall. Elongated, vaguely ovoid, mostly metal aside from transparent plastic hatches. He stops at the third one and leans up against it, looking through the window. The tiny fetus inside is visible, like a twisted and distorted human form with too much head and too little arms and legs. It will not be fully-grown for almost two years yet, but one day, Staren and his parents will not need to worry about losing their bodies should the worst happen. Still, it's creepy to look at. With a thought he commands the left three pods to tint their windows, and walks over to an empty one on the other end. It obligingly lowers into a horizontal position, and opens its hatch. Staren looks at the augmented reality status readout -- everything is OK and ready. He knew that already, having checked it before walking over.

Deep breath. This is it, Staren. Just remember how stupid and tragic it would be if you wait longer with cold feet, and then the unthinkable happens tomorrow. The possibility others don't like to think about, that you never see coming. Remember how it felt, when you thought your friends were gone forever. You *must* do this.

The catboy strips down to his briefs, dropping his clothes unceremoniously in a pile next to the pod, and climbs in, laying down inside. The hatch closes, and he watches status readouts until sleep comes...

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Staren gets out of bed, pulling on his usual clothes and stopping to pet the little black bundle of fur hopping about his legs before walking out the door and hopping on his broom, flying away from Lazlo to the warpgate, waving at passing techno-wizards on their wingboards. He emerges from the warpgate in the magitech metropolis of Selendos. Skyscrapers house people living and working, elevated trains and flying cars powered by making the small gods of gravity look away whisk people from place to place. Staren registers his flight with the local net and flies out of the city, landing before the great factory-cathedral. He walks inside and feels a twinge of sadness as he passes the row of portraits of the Dreamers with names and years beneath them. The elevator takes him up to Breeze's office. They talk over breakfast, some multiversal cuisine that's the latest new fad in Selendos. And then breakfast is over, they bid goodbyes, and he walks past the portraits again.

As he makes his way to the gate, he turns on his radio. Unfamiliar voices chatter -- some of the new Unionites are on a mission, somewhere. They sound distressed, until Optimus Prime makes a short but inspiring speech, and they rally with renewed vigor before Staren clicks off. They'll do fine, he's sure. Then Morg calls him on an encrypted frequency. "It's almost ready to turn on. Meet me at the lab later." "Will do, Morg. The Union's probably not going to like this..." "Meh." Morg just grunts before closing the connection.

The next world Staren flies over has idyllic fields stretching into the distance. Ponyville is a growing town, but not really a city, although a continuous stream of businessponies enter and leave the Balman Inc. building. He stops by the library, knocking on the door and pulling some books from his bag. "Hey Spike." He greets the large purple dragon that answers the door. "Hey Staren." "Here are the books you asked for from the magic universities." "Oh, thanks!" "No prob, just remember they're on loan. I gotta go, I'm helping Mortimer with the scouts." "Okay, seeya 'round."

"No waaaaay!" the purple unicorn filly exclaims, surrounded by several other interested and incredulous young foals all gathered in front of Mortimer's front porch. "You can'ta known the Harmony Knights that defeated Nightmare Moon! That was hunnerds a years ago! Only the Queens live that long!" Staren leans over towards her. "It's true! I may not look it, but Bec and I have lived a very long time, and Mortimer here is even older." Mortimer nods sagely. In the background, Falstaff is giving a ride to giggling foals not paying attention to the current conversation, and Rebecca gestures at the air, manipulating AR illusions he can't see for the entertainment of a colt wearing AR glasses that are comically too big for him.

"Alright, then tell us about 'em!" the filly insists in her squeaky voice. Staren sits back in a rocking chair. "Well. You know Spike, at the library? When he was just a baby, he was an assistant to a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. An' she an her friends... Sorry..." The sudden tears make everything blurry. He wipes them off with his sleeve, but the world itself remains a blur. The little purple blur in front of him says something, but he can't make it out as everything fades away...

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Staren opens his eyes. The hatch in front of him is opening, the words 'INSTALLATION SUCCESSFUL' flashing in the center of his vision, followed by a readout of smaller text giving status messages like 'initializing.....success! Making snapshot...' He looks around, and tries to lift his hand only to bump it into the wall of the pod. He carefully pulls it out, looks at it, then out at the lab again. Huh. Being immortal doesn't feel any different. For some reason though, he feels a bit of lingering sadness. Something he dreamed... but he can't remember. And it turns to happiness and wonder as he thinks: He's finally done it. Sure, he always talked about how he'd find a way to live forever, and how he wouldn't let death stop him... But those were words. Now eternity stretches out before him with certainty. Life may continue as it was... but now it will _always_ continue. His span will not be cut short by tragedy or cruel uncaring genetics, he will not be lost to oblivion.

He climbs out of the pod and pulls his clothes back on, finding them cleaned and folded. And then he strides off into the lab, sending commands to pull files from his records and tell the drones to begin gathering materials from the stores. Science to study. Things to build. There is much to do, and he's only got an eternity to do it.

Who _wouldn't_ want to live forever?