This day in Trinity Universe history
Nov. 6th, 2004 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aberrantangelsAn old codger's grumbling.
He mentions Mercer's general awareness of the future, but (knowing that this is going into his beloved Babel Dossier) refuses to give the details. He also admits, reluctantly, that Mercer's knowledge is not always as specific as could be hoped. Mercer is, after all, only human (though he and their "old friend" Mike Donighal come "a damn sight closer to it than most of us").
And he speaks of all the dreams Mercer had for Æon that aren't being fulfilled. Max wanted Æon to "help humanity reach a higher state — of individuality, technology, culture, society — the whole ball of wax." But once the human race matured to the point where it was taking those steps on its own, and Æon was no longer necessary, the Society was supposed to go away. ("Any man who is doing a job is working to make himself obsolete..." — William S. Burroughs, Nova Express)
The new guard, the ones who've taken over since Mercer dropped off the map in 1950, aren't exactly working hard on that sort of thing. "They want a 'more aggressive Æon,' keeping pace with the times, as it were. Mercer never intended for Æon to intrude where it's not wanted." On the other hand, "if even a handful of people call on Æon for help, in we'd come!"
To Whit, it seems like Æon is now choosing which calls for help it will ignore, and where it will give unwanted help. That strikes him as a betrayal of Æon's tenet of unity, just as the transformation of Proteus Division into a wet-works outfit seems a betrayal of what Max meant by sacrifice. ("As the man himself told me once, 'Whit, my boy, there's never a situation where death is the preferred option.'")
Hope, sacrifice and unity are the guiding principles of Max' own life. "He's the type of guy to say, 'There's got to be another way.' By God, if he hasn't said that very thing to me... and by God again, if he hasn't found another way!"
"Just goes to show what can happen when others carry on a man's dream," Whit concludes. (I suspect that the new guard justified a lot of their secrecy by the fact that one of Æon's founders had turned into one of its most feared monsters; my contributions to the Trinity Storytellers Handbook were written from that viewpoint, where they touched on the larger story of the Trinity Universe. People like that stay with Æon well into the Unity Era of the early 22nd century, but their time will go, believe me.)
1977
[Adventure!/Aberrant] In his private journal, Whitley Styles, the last founding member of Æon still active with the Society, waxes philosophical about what Max Mercer had in mind when he founded Æon versus what the Society's new guard are turning it into.
He mentions Mercer's general awareness of the future, but (knowing that this is going into his beloved Babel Dossier) refuses to give the details. He also admits, reluctantly, that Mercer's knowledge is not always as specific as could be hoped. Mercer is, after all, only human (though he and their "old friend" Mike Donighal come "a damn sight closer to it than most of us").
And he speaks of all the dreams Mercer had for Æon that aren't being fulfilled. Max wanted Æon to "help humanity reach a higher state — of individuality, technology, culture, society — the whole ball of wax." But once the human race matured to the point where it was taking those steps on its own, and Æon was no longer necessary, the Society was supposed to go away. ("Any man who is doing a job is working to make himself obsolete..." — William S. Burroughs, Nova Express)
The new guard, the ones who've taken over since Mercer dropped off the map in 1950, aren't exactly working hard on that sort of thing. "They want a 'more aggressive Æon,' keeping pace with the times, as it were. Mercer never intended for Æon to intrude where it's not wanted." On the other hand, "if even a handful of people call on Æon for help, in we'd come!"
To Whit, it seems like Æon is now choosing which calls for help it will ignore, and where it will give unwanted help. That strikes him as a betrayal of Æon's tenet of unity, just as the transformation of Proteus Division into a wet-works outfit seems a betrayal of what Max meant by sacrifice. ("As the man himself told me once, 'Whit, my boy, there's never a situation where death is the preferred option.'")
Hope, sacrifice and unity are the guiding principles of Max' own life. "He's the type of guy to say, 'There's got to be another way.' By God, if he hasn't said that very thing to me... and by God again, if he hasn't found another way!"
"Just goes to show what can happen when others carry on a man's dream," Whit concludes. (I suspect that the new guard justified a lot of their secrecy by the fact that one of Æon's founders had turned into one of its most feared monsters; my contributions to the Trinity Storytellers Handbook were written from that viewpoint, where they touched on the larger story of the Trinity Universe. People like that stay with Æon well into the Unity Era of the early 22nd century, but their time will go, believe me.)
