“Heroes are unaware of the privilege inherent in their worldview and villains lack the luxury of ignorance.” –dls
She had to argue against what she had read. Lila had known plenty of villains who had remained ignorant of how the world worked, though most of those villains either weren’t actually villains (she tried not to think of the one who really just wanted a friend and had one in his nemesis. Maybe that was why the old man never really did anything too nefarious or dastardly…) Those that were real villains likely didn’t even realize that they were villains, because they saw themselves as the heroes of their story.
Like the one Lila had watched take over her planet.
Michael believed that he was helping the denizens of his new world have a better life. If he controlled everything, then there was no crime. Death happened, of course it did, but it wasn’t violent and was, in fact, something that was painless. Everyone who died did so in their sleep.
Mostly because everyone had a cut off age (decided, nominally by themselves for how long they wanted to naturally live, but no one ever knew what someone else’s cut off date was. Only the Officials that Michael put as the Overseers of the River of Styx knew when the cut off date chosen was. How could anyone else know if the cut off date was even what the dead person had chosen then?) You didn’t even have to go to the Officials.
They came to you.
No one knew how they got in your home, because nothing was ever moved. No noises were made to wake anyone else up in your home, whether they were animals or humans.
You just went to bed after wishing those you lived with good night (if you lived with someone) and then you didn’t wake up in the morning.
Everyone knew what had happened. It was covered in detail when you were sixteen solar cycles and asked to communicate your cut off date.
This wasn’t the kind of thing that someone else should be scheduling.
It wasn’t the kind of thing Lila thought anyone should be scheduling, much less actually following through on!
This wasn’t even the worst of things that Michael had set up, it was just always one of the first things that Lila thought about.
Mostly because she knew that the chosen cut off date wasn’t always the one that was honored.
She didn’t know how many others knew. There was no way to find out. You could never be certain who wasn’t a plant from the Overseers and who was genuine. There was really no safe way to find out.
Lila should know.
She’d almost lost her life and her freedom the last time she’d taken a chance.
She’d only lost a few fingers instead, but considering it could have killed her instead…
Lila’s still not certain just how she was able to get away and remain hidden. As far as she’d known up until that point, no one had been able to do such a thing on Michael’s New World Order.
A part of her wonders if it’s the only other lie told to everyone the world over. The practical side of her knows that it doesn’t matter unless she’s able to find others to work with.
Of course, finding others to work with will mean nothing if they don’t have a way to fight back.
And they don’t.
You only get access to anything that can be classed as a weapon if you work for a specific part of the New World Order.