STATU[E]S

VII. THE ENLIGHTENMENT

VII. THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Business at the Homo Natura has grown larger: the staff became busier, and the work hours got longer. At the farthest tip of the receiving end of the extra-workload's whip was the Manager.

Just a month ago, the upper management has decided to hire an assistant manager right after they hired a new bunch of employees. However, the Assistant Manager outdone his functions and started meddling with the Manager's business. Between them, a conflict has risen; and it involved the Assistant Manager's discontentment about how the Manager ran the place and the people. The Assistant Manager coerced the newly-hired personnel to take action against the Manager with the intention of taking the latter's place. However, the Manager was powerful enough to turn the circumstances into his favor, resulting to the termination of the Assistant Manager and his collaborators.

During a season-end inventory, the Manager had to work extra hours during the night. When the mannequins woke up, they were surprised to see a new face – not a stockman receiving a late delivery, not a staff picking up something that he left in the office, not a maintenance worker repairing an aircon, not a construction crew working on a project, and definitely not one of them.

For the few that has seen him that night, he was a curious sight.

The mannequins only snapped out of their frozen poses when they sensed that the Homo Natura has once again became devoid of warm life. Three of the Northerners strolled around and chanced upon a strange object lying on the floor in front of the storage room. It was apparent to them that the one that they have seen before has left it. Out of curiosity, they picked it up and studied its contents.

It was the Manager's planner. When they flipped through its scribble-ridden pages, several sheets of paper fell out; some of which have printed figures that meant nothing to them, but some of them, they recognized instantly.

Inside the hollow cavities of their heads, they saw images that they have never seen in their whole borrowed lives. These images have always been there: memories that were stored from a time where they were merely inanimate objects. Like innate eyes that recorded what they saw, the internal consciousness inside all of them recollected the memories that they had before the breath of life seeped inside them.

They remembered the name of the factory that created them.

Being able to read for reasons that elude them, they picked up the sheets of paper that fell out of The Manager's planner and read the printed texts on them.

They were receipts, and they contained the name of the mannequin factory that shaped them into existence.

To these Northerners, it meant that the man that they have seen before was their creator, for he had with him the name of their place of origin. Equipped with this notion, they danced around The Planner as they chanted thanks to the one whose identity they would later found out to be The Manager. They read the pages and saw that The Planner contains records of the past and visions of the future. They also found passages that declare the 'House Rules' that everyone should follow.

In the following nights, the Enlightened shared the messages of The Manager to the rest of the Northerners. They abided The Planner and lived by its plans, knowing that The Manager would give them blessings, the way that He gave them life. Eventually, all of the Northerners became Enlightened, and they all agreed to share their knowledge and The Manager's message to all of Homo Natura. Little by little, their mission to spread The Manager's words turned into missions that aimed to expand the place of the Enlightened.

The Northerners occupied the Westerner's share of space by turning its inhabitants into the Enlightened. Those who failed to grasp the concept of enlightenment were dubbed Heathens and were soon alienated by their own kind. As the Enlightened swept the store, the Heathens were forced out of their places and into exile.

After a couple of months, the Enlightened have managed to reach the Southerners and the Easterners. However, the Easterners were skeptics while the Enlightened ones from the Southerners kept on modifying The Planner's messages to suit their needs; to the extent that they formed a completely independent group of The Enlightened, whose beliefs gravely differed from the original group.

Much later, new Enlightenment groups were formed. One group claimed that The Manager was not alone, and that they were being guided by other entities such as The Foreman and The Head Housekeeper. Another group insisted that The Manager was not their real creator and was just a messenger sent by a more influential being. Another group imposed that The Manager was never a physical entity, but a representation of an individual's inner state. The only thing that they all have in common was the notion that their group was better than the other, and that the way they view The Manager and His Planner was the only perspective that anybody else should follow.

The Enlightened groups, driven with the goal to reign supreme, became more aggressive in reclaiming each other's territory. They tried to persuade the others to join their own factions to expand their influence, while others forced their Enlightenment onto the hapless Heathens. In time, the competition grew so fierce that they had to wage war against each other.

The events that transpired after the time of Enlightenment would be collectively known inside the Homo Natura as The Longest War.

X            X             X