Judas has found meaning in both structure and chaos within his personal and family life, but as we pull the lens back to a broader view, we see that his understanding of life may not be compatible with the way the world works outside of his domain. Social unrest drops into martial law as the disappearances grow commonplace and more and more people are sent to the frontlines of the ongoing war. Judas resists acknowledging the reality of the situation by focusing on his own world, but he is forced to face it when he leaves his post to save his son from retribution by his neighbor, who catches Judas' son stealing from him. Judas is arrested for leaving his post and sent to the war as punishment for his crimes of misaligned priority and lack of devotion to the state.
lyrics
Part 6 - The World Outside
The world was changing.
I felt the shift,
Saw my neighbors and workers and friends,
All sent to the war.
Only the patriots stayed.
The heroes, the whistleblowers,
The bannermen devoted,
They alone lived without fear,
And kept the rest of us accountable.
We were safe,
As my work was important to the war,
Which was everything,
No matter how little it meant to me.
The machines stopped speaking one day,
As a voice informed me
That my son had stolen food
From a man that I knew.
Knowing it would not go to trial,
I left the machines and saw nothing but blood,
Til I reached my street.
I knew nothing but blood would appease
The man standing over my son.
Neither of us heard the other,
Reasonable, poor, fearful men.
His fist,
Then mine,
My weight,
The ground,
Glass fragments,
Larger then smaller,
Sewage and blood,
The crowd pulling us apart.
In and out of consciousness…
Elena shielded me from a pair of men,
Uniformed, purposeful, family-less men,
Then she was gone.
A shackle replaced her grasp.
My jury held none of my peers.
My crimes were grievous and clear:
Sacrificed production, the war effort compromised
By inconsequential matters.
“Misaligned priority, lack of devotion,
Officially capital offenses.”
I feared for my family.
The unnecessary, the nameless treasonous parts,
We waited to be recycled,
Repurposed for the frontlines.
“Misaligned priority, lack of devotion,
Officially capital offenses.”
Exile of the Moon is a project and a world imagined by Shawn Knabel as a platform for introspective storytelling. The stories revolve around the conflicts between a fictional planet and its moon.
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