86 - THE GRAND RETURN!

[buywithme]

Is this--

...

Comrades? Are we--

[There's a long pause.]


I have-- cons--


Comrades!

Consumers!

Allow me to extend my fondest and most sincere greetings to you from the end of history! I’m quite sure you know my name: Prefect. Are we not the most highly favored of all our kinds to be here? In this, our new chance? Our new and open doorway? The compilation of not only millennia of history and experience, but worlds upon worlds of variety and flavor, all compressed into one microcosmic existence? Lain out for us on a platter? Let us not mourn our misfortune or dream of escape, but rather, let us combine and create and expand in our scope and diversity! Once more unto the breach my friends once more! Let us immanentize the eschation!

Brothers, sisters, comrades, buy with me.



[Ooc: Okay, so Prefect is back, and where he was that week lasted a lot longer than it did here. As such, he's worried that the people he knew will have all either graduated or just vanished off. Instead of being sensible and asking, he's re-written his original greeting post in case he's just surrounded by strangers.]

Comments

[spam]

[themostdashing.livejournal.com]

[Pavi sets down what he's brought with him and offers Prefect a broad if slightly bemused smile. He was looking dangerously close to breaking his 'absolutely no physical contact ever' rule there for a moment, and Pavi wonders exactly how long he spent in wherever it was he'd gone.]

Of course. The Pavi is very happy to see you as well.

OOC: 2/2 Studies show that 97.6% of registered nurses under the age of 24 LOVE antitoxidant B!

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

he'll just take it as proof that my party is better than your factory.

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

It seems you and I have more in common than simply the use of 'comrade', comrade.

My Party is all and everything. We maintain absolute power and control, even over thought. Nobody can oppose us. Nobody ever will because the collective Party will live on forever. Can your 'Factory' do that?

I'm curious. How did you kill history, comrade? We have our own...peculiarities when it comes to history, so I am curious.

[unbiasedchance.livejournal.com]

You need some new slogans. I know I've heard these before.

Harvey, your continued presence on the barge has just made him the happiest little Prefect ever!

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

Harvey!

I thought I was gone for longer than I was.

[spam]

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

[Prefect hovvers wordlessly for a couple of seconds, before reaching forward to carefully smack his hand across the Pavi's shoulder. It's an artless imitation of the kind of casual companionable contact which Kirk forces onto him, but Prefect has to just make absolutely sure that Pavi was actual, physical mass.]

[spam]

[themostdashing.livejournal.com]

[Pavi stares at Prefect for a second, because that was so awkward and unexpected he's not sure if it was a friendly gesture or some sort of minor attack. He decides it's the former, because he feels like if anyone's earnt the right to give out slaps it's him.

He inclines his head.] Are you...all right?

Oh Prefect. <3 You are too adorable.

[unbiasedchance.livejournal.com]

I can tell that. Where were you?

THERE ARE NO FAMOUS BOOKS THAT EVERYONE ON THE BARGE HAS READ ABOUT THE FACTORY BEING SHIT :|

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

The Factory will exist for as long as humanity does. Without it we would whither and die.

We killed history by coming to the end of it. We arrived at the ultimate apex of human development and we marked it with a full stop, and then we began working backwards, we took whatever we wanted from whenever we wanted and we made it fashion or entertainment and it lasted a moment and meant exactly the same thing as every other moment from any other time. We painted it's bones and chopped them up and made fashionable mobile phone covers out of them and sold them and no one knew or cared what they were before we took them.

[spam]

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

[Prefect nods earnestly.]

Yes! Comrade, I'm... I'm good. I was just being friendly.

[He nods again, then looks down a little guiltily, then looks back up and smiles, changing the subject]

So, what's your warden done to you?

No u Harv, No u <3

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure. It was just like being locked in a waiting room for a very long time. There were magazines about horses...

How was your week?

O'BRIEN DENIES THE EXISTENCE OF SUCH BOOKS.

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

But was there no sense of objective or progress? Even we carefully developed the sense that there was progress. That there was more chocolate today than there was last week, that there was the potential for the war to end, that the Party would overcome its enemies, even though those subversive elements, those Eastasians were always, always necessary. To make them love you and fear you all at the same time.

I am beginning to think you are the most normal and sane person I have come across in this entire place, though, comrade.

[bythe_books]

You seem to be well, Prefect. I was getting worried about you.

[spam]

[themostdashing.livejournal.com]

Ugh. [Pavi frowns and goes about pouring them both a drink.] He is being...he wants me to have surgery - for my scars, si? But the last time the Pavi had surgery on my face...this is how I was scarred to begin with. And I do not want this to happen again. Is this unreasonable?

PREFECT KNOWS THEY EXIST. EVERYONE DOES. O'BRIEN'S PROPAGANDA SUCKS.

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

Things are better now than they have ever been before, because no one from any time but this has ever had so much stuff as we have! Work hard, buy with me, and live your dreams, and some day you may truly have it all! Thank the great and glorious providence of the Factory that you have a good job, here in the Factory's central processing department, where you can serve the Factory with full access to all of it's wonders! Think of those poor people on the far eastern extremes, working out in the assembly lines, just work hard, fulfill your function, pass your evaluation, and you will want for nothing.

...

I like talking to you, Comrade.

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

Sam! Hello! Sam! Yes, I'm doing okay. How was your week? Is your girlfriend well?

[acid_rayne]

Hey, Comrade...

It's weirdly nice to see you.

[vampish_aleera]

You had vanished?

[spam]

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

[Prefect accepts a glass from the Pavi, but he doesn't actually drink it, listening intently to the story instead. As Pavi concludes it with his question, Prefect frowns and shakes his head.]

No, Comrade. I think if I was in your place then I wouldn't want to have any more surgery either.

[He frowns a little deeper, leaning forward slightly.]

But, if he wants you to be happy with your looks, why won't he give you the mask? Why is he making you have surgery for it?

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

Hello Sister! I'm pleased to see you again as well!

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

I was... temporarily away from my stock, Sister.

EASTASIAN AGENTS. IT'S ALL EASTASIAN AGENTS.

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

Would that not just create love for the items themselves, not those of you providing them? For in my world, we will create a world where there is no loyalty except loyalty to the Party, no love except love for Big Brother. There will be no laughter except that of triumph over a defeated enemy. Omnipotance makes all of that unnecessary. All you require are love, fear, hate, loyalty and self abasement. Do you not see that all competing pleasure must be eradicated, in order to only allow for it to be directed at the party? For all you need is the draw of power, the rush of victory and glory, and an eternal face to stamp that rage upon.

That is all we need to create power. You do seem to understand the need for power, comrade, better than anyone else I can see here, but do not pretend it is for anyone's good except the perpetuation of power. If that is your only ultimate aim. There is no need for such petty pleasures, as love will only be conferred onto them.

I do, however, like talking to you, comrade. You understand.

[bythe_books]

Yeah, she's well. I think What happened?

OH IT IS NOT >:| Also on an unrelated note, I think there's a hideous part of me that now ships it.

[buywithme.livejournal.com]

...

Comrade, I don't think you understand. The Factory loves it's people and it wants to give them everything they need, and it wants them to be happy and have all the things anyone could imagine that they might want. The Id, Comrade, is the most base element of human nature, the desire to have things immediately. You might be able to distract and defer this instinct for decades, but at the end of the day, it will still be there, and eventually if it goes unfulfilled it will rise up and try to take what you've withheld from them, and when that day comes, Comrade, starvation and misery and suffering will not deter it, it will transcend your games with language, and It's loyalty will only be to itself. You will be the hated enemy, and they will tear down your walls and rob you in the name of what they want.

In the arms of the Factory, our people want for nothing. They love what we let them buy, and they know that they only have the things they love because we love them, and the Factory wants what's best for them. It's not about power, we're taking care of them. We're protecting them.

...I have hideous parts of me like that too. O'Brien is disgusted with me.

[equalsfive.livejournal.com]

Comrade, I don't think you quite understand. There is no use in pretending it is about love. What makes you think hate is less self-sustaining than love? If you keep the hate constantly directed outwards, constantly directed at some enemy, both internal and external, an enemy which will never die. The stronger the power we have, the tighter the control becomes, the more we crush those enemies, the harder we stamp on that face. For there were always be a face to stamp on.

They will never hate us, because every instinct we instill in them, every fear and every love will be directed at the Party. They will not know how to do anything but love the Party and Big Brother and hate the agents of Goldstein and Eastasia. That is all they will know. They will not have the words to express such a hate for us, going back to the principle of Newspeak. They will find happiness in the successes of the Party, in the future of the Party, as being part of that collective. And they will hate everything else. If you remove all other attachment, if you entirely prevent that kind of human understanding, the only thing they will ever feel emotion for is the Party.

We are protecting our people too. They have to believe that, because in a society where nobody trusts anybody, the only thing you can trust is the collective. You cannot trust other individuals, you can only trust the Party. And that gives us power. That gives us the power to be loved and feared all at the same time - because they revere you for protecting them, but fear what you may do if they betray the collective, demonstrate unorthodoxy, put a thought out of place. They cannot turn the hatred on us and rob us for 'what they want' because what they want is what we have taught them to think they want.

You can use all those pretty duckspeaking words, comrade, but in the end. In the end, comrade, it all comes down to power. If you have the power to make history and memory what you want, if you have the power to tear minds to pieces and put them back together in shapes of your own choosing, you have true, utter, immortal power. Once you get people not just to think what you want them to think out of silent obedience, but out of devotion, then you have no need to make them love anything. They will love you. They will love Big Brother and the Party and will hate any enemies of theirs. Because that's all they know how to love and that's all they know how to hate.