xx49.07.26 | 21:23 | Still Saturday
FUN evening with C2. When I went in she was watching Mr Falchion's UTTERLY famous 'unspeakable blessing' speech, I've seen it about fifty times before but I still got sucked into watching it with her—I'll link to a transcript in this entry, since it is DEFINITELY one of my inspirations. Mr Falchion is really amazing, I've never actually met him but he's one of Mum and Dad's oldest and best friends and definitely one of their greatest allies—it's because of him that they're as rich as they are, because of him that we have this secret volcano moonbase, plus he's just about the only super to be in the 'public eye', I mean sure it wasn't like he was zipping through the skies to work every day or anything but still. Nobody even suspected he was a super—aside from people who knew, like Mum and Dad, and they weren't going to tell—until that stupid reporter 'Mz Miserre' did that exposé. The joke was definitely on her, though, I mean he's so lovely and smart and cool that nobody could think bad of him, I even read that his public approval went UP because of what she wrote—but I'm letting myself ramble on, I'll just go to the speech:
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Ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lawrence Falchion, and I suffer from an unspeakable blessing. I doubt that I need to say what this 'blessing' is, I would be surprised if any of you present here today, or indeed any of the millions watching or listening to this broadcast, did not know what I'm talking about. I'll state it clearly anyway: I can fly. I am one of those who was, through no choice of my own, 'scientifically promoted' during that period of time now commonly referred to as the manifestation singularity. Let me repeat one part of that last sentence, for clarity and for emphasis, 'through no choice of my own'. Nobody chose to be promoted—I dislike that term, let me use another, 'altered'. Nobody chose to be altered in the way that we were. Nobody sought it out. Nobody asked for it and there is, to the best of my knowledge—and you can believe that I've poured considerable resources into this very subject—no 'cure', no way to reverse the process, no way to remove 'powers' from those who have them.
I want to ask you something, all of you. Is it fair to judge someone for something over which they have no control? Would you judge me by the colour of my eyes, or the shade of my skin? Would you judge a blind man for his lack of sight, or a deaf man for his inability to hear?
I can hear the cries now, "How dare you! How dare you compare your perverted 'powers' with serious disabilities!" Perhaps to do so is wrong, I cannot say. After all, I'm not here to moralise. Consider this, though. What do those people who live with disabilities want? What is it that they desire above all else? Of course, they would like to be free of the disabilities that plague them, but in most cases that is not an option—just as it is not an option for me to be rid of my own 'condition'. Realistically, then, what do they want? I don't believe I am speaking out of turn nor do I believe that I am making any wild leap of assumption when I say that many of those who live with disabilities want simply to be treated normally—to be treated with the same dignity and respect due any of us, able, disabled, or ... 'altered'. After all, isn't that what we ALL want? To be judged by the same standards as others are judged? I am fortunate enough not to suffer from any kind of disability, what I 'suffer' from is what many would call a gift; I can fly. But if I were able to then I would give this 'gift' to the first person who stepped forward to claim it, and I would expect nothing in return, not even thanks.
I am a businessman; the founder and CEO of Falchion Extragenics. I started with nothing, or as near to nothing as makes no odds, but through hard work and perseverance—some would say stubbornness, I know of one person in particular who would call it perverse bloody-mindedness—I have built my little company into something great. Today, Falchion Extragenics stands as one of the most successful independent companies in the world. I'm extraordinarily proud to be competing with such established and proud names as BTH Bionetics, NeuroStack.Net, NeoTerra, ImaTech—the list goes on. That my humble company is even comparable to these great names is an extraordinary achievement, not just for myself, but for everyone at Falchion Extragenics.
Now let me ask you. Did the ability to fly help me to do this? Was it my 'alteration' that gave me the advantages necessary to succeed in this, let's face it, harsh and unforgiving market? Of course not. I have never used my ability in public, I have consciously avoided sports and other physical pursuits exactly because I knew that my ability would give me an unfair advantage. I don't even play golf, to the disapproval of many of my peers. My achievements are not 'physical' in nature—I have built my company, I treat my employees well, I support many fine charities, and I do my very best to give back to the communities that have helped me become such an individual success.
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You tell me. Is even one of my successes due to my 'superpower'? I have achieved nothing that a 'normal' person could not have, unless you are then to judge me on my business acumen or my skills at personal relations, or even my knack with numbers—but how ridiculous it would be to do so! Tell me, do we deride the skilled athlete for his physical ability? Do we condemn the visionary scientist for her brilliant mind? Do we chastise the artist for his creativity, the nurse for her compassion, the teacher for his patience? Do we say to any of these people, "You have a natural advantage, this is unfair, this is wrong"?
Of course we don't. To do so would be ludicrous, and low-minded—and as a society we are NOT low-minded.
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Lawrence Falchion, and I suffer from an unspeakable blessing. And yet I have never seen it as a 'blessing', and as of this moment I remain silent no longer. I can fly. I can fly! Broadcast it on every net, print it in every newspaper, shout it from the rooftops if that would please you, it is the truth, it is the ridiculous truth. Lawrence Falchion can fly, and that changes nothing. I have kept my ability a secret because I honestly believe that my possessing it has not in any way changed who I am. I would be who I am—and where I am—whether I was 'scientifically promoted' or not.
I can fly. This is but one small part of who I am. Judge me if you must, but judge me on my whole, not on this one tiny unchangeable component.
I thank you for your time. I would like a short break, and then I'll take some of your questions.
"I Suffer From An Unspeakable Blessing", Lawrence Falchion, xx45.02.22
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Amazing, right? Inspiring! Mum and Dad were actually there when he made the speech, along with a lot of other supers from their old adventuring days. I actually don't think Mr Falchion ever did much adventuring himself, if he did he kept it subtle because there's hardly anything about him in the archives we've got here. Mum and Dad always say he was more of a support guy, back then he wasn't super-rich like he is now but he was always smart and always good at, like, talking to people and organising stuff. Dad says that without someone like Mr Falchion backing you up it's hard to tell if you're really doing any good at all. You need someone to see the big picture, so that your small picture makes a real difference.
Anyway, C2 really liked it too, she said she was amazed she'd never seen it before—I guess it was mostly broadcast to Free Paradise since that's where Mr Falchion lived at the time, except he's in Powerstone City in NoZo now. Free Paradise has kind of a reputation for being a little friendlier to supers since they have that giant ant problem and need all the help they can get. NoZo's the opposite, because of, y'know, all the bad stuff that happened there—TOTALLY the fault of supervillains, by the way. I mean, us heroes do our best but it's like Dad says, we can only react. For every nine evil plots we foil one slips through and then you get something like Neon City...
Anyway, after that C2 and I watched some more old videos, mostly fights, she liked my commentary—she said I made it much easier to understand what was going on, since I could tell her the relationships of everyone involved, like how Dr Benzine and the TNT Brothers started off as allies but then had a falling out because of Envy Death and then Envy Death was with Nine'O'Mite for a while but THEN Nine'O'Mite accidentally killed RoToPo who the TNT Brothers HATED because he's the one who half-blinded Triple Bomb (he's the second 'T' of the TNT Brothers) and so then they (the TNT Brothers and Envy Death and Nine'O'Mite) all teamed up against Dr Benzine but THEN all got together as one big supervillain team once Motoplasm and The Force started taking down Dr Benzine's experimental mutant sewer-croc farms—well, I mean, you get the point. Unless you know the basics it can be hard to follow.
Now I'm in bed, writing this. C2's already asleep, we're both pretty tired—I'm still technically recovering from my 'bullet wounds' although they seem a lot better today, just a little achey and itchy. Also I didn't think of this before but NoZo's like four hours behind Seclusion's day-night cycle (we go by the Free Paradise standard, I guess because Mum and Dad come from there originally). Wait, shouldn't she be waking and sleeping late, then?
I just yawned hugely. Too tired to think about these things. Time to stop writing and sleep.