Chat Thread 19: In the Beginning Was the Chat

For Tasha, it's the means to fix all the problems she sees with society. For Morgan, it's having control over her life. For both of them, I give background as to why they've come to feel this way. Khull, however, doesn't get a background reason. I explain his life of being a CEO and having everything most people want, but that it's not enough because he still lives the same life as an ordinary person - living, eating, sleeping, working, reproducing, and dying. So for him, power is a means to feel special and separate from the pointlessness of life. What I'm wondering is what might have happened in his past to make him feel this way. I suppose it could just be a matter of being ruthless in business to get to the top, then realizing it didn't satisfy the emptiness inside.

"What do you get out of all of this?"

Khull looked surprised at being addressed.

"I mean, Tasha I get," Aiden continued. "Even Morgan. But you..."

Khull smiled and took a seat. Aiden took that as a hint that this might take some time. Reluctantly, he sank into one of the expensive chairs surrounding the table.

"You know, Tasha really is a noble person," he said quietly. "She honestly believes this will fix society."

The way he talked so dismissively of Tasha made him feel ill at ease. He had to remind himself that Tasha was no longer his concern.

"Personally, I think it's more likely to collapse society altogether. Possibly bring humanity to extinction."

Jessie gasped at this ominous prediction. Aiden could see why.

"Then why? Why would you do this?" she asked. Khull gave her a fleeting glance, then shifted his gaze back to Aiden.

"I was groomed from a young age to take over my father's business. I grew up my whole life believing it was my rightful inheritance. But once my father died, I discovered that his will had made provisions to prevent me from taking control of it. Imagine my... surprise."

Aiden shook his head. He couldn't imagine the shock of realizing you'd been cheated out of your inheritance and left with nothing.

"I was still a young man. I hadn't realized the important truth that my father had long known," Khull went on. "But I did. It took me forming my own business, ruthlessly crushing competition, resorting to any means necessary, to finally reach the top. I then realized that being handed that business - being given anything without a struggle - is meaningless. It was only by destroying my father's empire and taking it for myself that I found meaning."

The ticking of the ornate clock on the wall was only took noticeable in the silence of the room as Aiden tried to wrap his mind around this.

"You think the struggle of this new world will help you find meaning?" he asked.

"Of course," Khull replied. "My life is stagnant. I've already amassed all I can in this life - power, prestige, wealth, success, and fame. But those things are meaningless in themselves. It was what I had to do to achieve them that mattered. And now there is no struggle, no climb, no challenge."

His eyes glistened with excitement, an almost childlike wonder at the idea.

"But a world where the strongest survive is a world of struggle without end. No obligations, no morals, no rules. Just the struggle. That is the purest reality we can reach."