Man Of Purpose

Topic for 27/12/06: "What do you hope the New Year will bring?"

I hope for many things on the dawning of the New Year, so much more than I did last year.

Last year we were still under father’s dictatorship and we had no freedom of choice or celebrations because such things were rated EC-10 and therefore forbidden. It was a time of very limited capacity for feeling and the New Year passed without incident.

This New Year will be very different from the last.

Father’s regime has fallen and the people are free, they’re able to feel and act on their own impulses. It’s a difficult time because none of us realise the full depth of our own feelings and everyone’s coming to terms with having the freedom that had been denied to us for so long.

If anything I hope for a better future. A future that will allow us to feel but at the same time will have the promise that things will be better than they were when we were under father’s care.

It is true that this world was on the brink of World War three before father and something has to be done but stripping away the very thing that made us human? Completely unacceptable.

The sad thing is that for years we accepted the sacrifice of feeling for peace and stability. I suppose we all hoped we were making a better world and that the outcome would be worth the loss of emotion, it turns out that it wasn’t.

In this New Year I hope for a better future, free of our restrictions and boundaries – a future that will enable us to grow and make a better world for ourselves and our children; this time not at the expense of our own humanity.

Muse: John Preston
Fandom: Equilibrium
Word Count: 288

Topic for 06/12/06: To Fall Or Not To Fall

John Preston was a man on the edge.

Everything he had ever known had just been turned inside out and his eyes opened to the glaring truth that father did not know all that was right for the world and that everything they’d ever been told had been a lie.

The drug had rendered him compliant and practically inert, unable to think beyond what he’d been taught and unable to act on impulse but now things were different. The drug had run its course and John was looking out on the world with new eyes.

He denied everything, tried to act like nothing had changed when everything in his world was different and he couldn’t ignore the things he had done.

He’d killed his own partner for daring to feel anything and he’d sent another woman to her death but that wasn’t the worst of it. When they came for her he didn’t do anything and he was there and present when his own wife had been sent to burn for her sense offence.

John Preston was a man on the edge.

Torn between giving in and taking the drug again or keeping his eyes open no matter how scary it was to feel something after feeling nothing for so long.

In the end it was never much of a choice.

Muse: John Preston
Fandom: Equilibrium
Word Count: 221

Topic for 15/11/06: "Purpose"

I was once a Grammaton Cleric, First Class and my purpose was to preserve order and ensure our way of life remained and thrived.

I truly believed in every action I took and every word I spoke, I had faith that Father had only our best intentions at heart and life continued when before that life had been threatened because humanity cannot find peace or compromise with one another.

I was a Cleric, dedicated to the cause and completely reliant on Prozium. I believed it was the miracle drug that fixed all our problems and forgave us all of our previous trespasses but little did I know it was merely a way for Father and others like him to control us.

They blinded us with hope, gave us empty promises of a better future, and silenced us with the weight of our own emotions and fears.

I served my purpose well, killing all those that dared to feel or dared to hold onto the past that had guided us toward our new destiny. I killed loved ones, friends, and family; anyone that stood in the way of what was considered progress.

For the longest time I allowed purpose to mislead me, to numb my senses and swallow any and all feeling I might have had. Purpose steered humanity away from what we were and what we could achieve together without the use of a drug that dulled everything that ever made us who we are.

Purpose in life is important but blind purpose is a fool’s game.

Muse: John Preston
Fandom: Equilibrium
Word Count: 257