Desiderius Price

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@BronxWench Sad to see a friend go, many condolences & sympathies.

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Jefferey #9 (Moon Festival) has been posted, enjoy.

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Even worse, this main story is technically backstory to the PWP smut tale I had originally started writing… eight years ago. Set about two centuries past this story—America being very theocratic, I realized the history of how those settings came to be would be very interesting. So, I began writing the origin-story, trying to toe the line somewhere between full-on theocracy and democracy it is today, and it’s proven richer in content and potential than I had originally envisioned. As noted, had to branch out the origin-story into more stories, backstories, and it’s definitely an interesting premise. I came to this verse after having written in Potter fanfiction. After getting fatigue, three years ago, I went back, started rereading and realized I needed to rewrite to get my groove going on the story, and armed with the original writing experience, think I’ve made it way better. Even added a very fleshed out new set of characters, especially in the first years, to that story set in Harry’s sixth year. And now I alternate between that and originals a bit as I feel burnout creeping in. Last year, I rewrote Alaska Trekkers, right now, it’s Jefferey. And more that I think about it, might be good to move the presidential scene, the scandal that gave the opportunity, into a small separate novella. Start fiends off with Jaimie’s speech in the library. No apologies needed. It’s good to jog the memory, otherwise details are forgotten. I’m trying to consolidate/track them into a database, which helps, but that’s an ongoing task. Intriguing question, when could you predict the Nazi holocaust if you were paying attention and believing the reports... 1910? 1915? 1920? 1925? 1930? 1935? 1940? 1945 (before we liberated the concentration camps)? First, need to state for the record, this is the hypothesis for my stories, not a desire for the US to head in this direction! I simply recognize history, the dominant superpower inevitably falls in the end, though I personally hope this to last as long as possible. So, I’ve more or less been playing with…. WW III – US gets arses handed to them. (Sure, US has the nice tech, but has been outsourcing manufacturing to other countries. The US advantage in WWII was in manufacturing, it easily outstripped Germany & Japan capability.) A good portion of this fight was muslim vs Christianity. Due to the loss, politics shift right, so central ideas become “liberal”. Realize, this shift has already been happening today, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Abortion Law in 1967. The loss of WW III accelerated it, with televangelism happily asserting that it was because we’ve been a nation of sinners, the loss was God’s wrath. While Muslims do suffer, due to the loss and to the occasional military/terrorist action, it’s the non-believers that also suffer. After all, “doubt is a tool of the devil to lure people away from faith” (from the Jehovah Witness propaganda). Muslims, Judaism, and Christianity all have words about unbelievers, and a history of persecution for heresy/blasphemy. WW IV – US stirs the pot again, and gets trounced. Domestic cities get attacked (Boston in particular is leveled). I’m figuring over ten million – a hundred million is too high, but it’s big. During this time, enemy sympathizers are rounded up, interred (like Japanese-Americans during WWII), and perfect time for neighbors to settle old scores through this; liberals, atheists are included in this. Bombing of Boston triggers the US surrender, the Kremlin Armistice (& accords) are designed to keep the US in its place. Under the terms, the US constitution gets amended, the department of homeland morality becomes a formal thing, their space/rocket launches are capped to one per month. For most citizens, life returns to normal, however, the government now has a mandate to ensure their spiritual welfare, which they take with their usual efficiency. However, many in the society will now be under the impression that their ticket to salvation depends on full participation, no holdouts, no unbelievers. One thing I’ll be portraying in Dolbourne Chronicles is groups of “concerned citizens” helping to encourage/enforce adherence to biblical principles. These vigilantes started forming before WW IV, became a thing during the war, and grew into a common past-time post war. Commonly these groups will have local law enforcement, clergy, etc, as part of their members, which more or less give the groups blanket cover for petty transgressions that may be committed in the pursuit of the loftier goals. (To the skeptics, it’s these WASPs that can be more scary than any agent from the DHM.) Jefferey illustrates the prejudice against atheists in the divorce proceeding of Jeff’s parents, where the mother was able to out the father’s atheism to get control of everything in the initial hearing, and the father only manages to get one thing thing at the end of the long, drawn out, bitter divorce, and that’s Jeff, one of their two children. She got everything else, his architecture firm, the house, the assets, the daughter, etc. Jeff’s story is mainly about how the skeptics (the liberals, the thinkers, the atheists) survive and reach out in this hostile environment. No bad memories, not really. Wasn’t particularly shoved down the throat outside of sunday school/service. Eventually realized I was playing lip service, simply didn’t believe. LOL. Few reviews (the tags/nudity turn a lot of readers away), and mostly “good job” – those are nice, don’t get me wrong. It’s rare to actually discuss my verse! (My pet peeve, the forum software that keeps auto-changing “th” into th and leaves me typing in superscript.)

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I’ll shorten the above to keep the “replied” tag, but not swampthis reply. First, I appreciate the discussion … it’s great to have one! Second, this is the first work in the verse, despite it being listed where it is; it had started as a kludge, where I started to add in flashbacks, tales of some of the side-characters. Once I had realized that I was getting confused, I realized the readers had to be lost. Thus, I split it apart, spinning off the Alaska Trekkers and Dolbourne Chronicles as separate, and posted this afresh – though I see it’s been five years. Alaska Trekkers is quite solid at this point, finished, though I might visit it again with an editor if I decide to self-publish it. Anyways, trying to remember what I was thinking five years ago… I do plan to address the religious slide in Dolbourne Chronicles because Jaimie’s the history buff. I’m trying to avoid a deep dive in Jefferey so I can leave this to Jaimie. Suffice it to say, the world wars the US lost, pushed for some level of theological change, making Westboro seem closer to “normal”. Though, I do admit getting the denominations mixed up (I was raised Lutheran). But, you can assume an amendment or three were made, allowing for the government to stick its nose into everybody’s spiritual welfare – roll back on LGBT rights included. Politicians of this era will be clergy or theological (nothing illegal, yet, to being a used-car-salesman applying, but such a candidate wouldn’t get the votes). Had to reread for the baptism scene (and noticed I got the televangelist’s name wrong, it’ll be Aubley Wurtz when I revise to be in line with the other stories). The minister’s comment was more a reminder of the loss, which was more relevant when the stories were crammed together, it might get nixed on the revision. (Dolbourne Chronicles needs to be finished before I can really work on Fiends, it’s about the chronology.) But, yep, this story will be mainly from Jaimie’s POV. (Joe’s POV will likely be #2 here.) The POTUS is given a scene so the reader knows something is up, the government is interested in Jaimie’s affairs, even if Jaimie’s unaware of it – this goes to the plausibility of what gets offered to Jaimie. Sure, I’ll take credit for the St. James Bible … trying to find any notes on it anywhere else. Going with it because, as you said, I can massage the theology Janitorial actions are best kept… under wraps. As in, it’s hush-hush. This is what the Alaska Trekkers teenagers run into, the beauty of that operation is people simply “vanishing” without a trace. As to techniques – vanishing is great, an accident is fine, them being an idiot is okay, suicide is...borderline. Depending on the denomination, the person might have already been shunned & disfellowshipped, so family & friends might not really care, too. And they can justify this action in Matthew 5:29-30; Mark 9:43-47, where cutting off a part of a person to save the whole, applied to a whole society, ie, cutting out the rot. Anyways, thanks for the debate, always makes my day

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