"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
Why do I have the feeling that Joe Steele offers Billy Sunday to keep his post but in return he's going to be violently castrated, now he won't ever have anymore affairs with women and it'll be traumatizing enough to keep him quiet.
Edit: In a fit of horrific irony, Sunday is also sodomized with a poker or something given the church's position of sodomy. Pics taken of course and used as blackmail. If Sunday speaks out well then it would be a shame of such embarrassing photos to make it to the news.
Edit: In a fit of horrific irony, Sunday is also sodomized with a poker or something given the church's position of sodomy. Pics taken of course and used as blackmail. If Sunday speaks out well then it would be a shame of such embarrassing photos to make it to the news.
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Alongside most of the RU's government.
Steele's purges are probably going to be even worse than OTL
Also, in another example of me plotting something weird for an absurdly long time, @Flashman posted this non-canonical (for now) gem months ago:
Andddd I posted this in chapter way back in chapter 42:
*PAPA STALIN INTENSIFIES*
By having Richardson be Steele's mama figure, everything falls into place. It is exactly as I have foreseen. It might be twenty years away, but MATILDA is coming. I'd guess that Oswald sees the birth of the ORRACLE. I'd say it might be safe to assume Ryan Hendrick is involved with ORRACLE, as it would relate well to the future Union "Space Force."
In other weird matters, there are multiple popculture references in the last chapter. I love hiding Stanley Kubrick references everywhere, as the "world of shit" line is actually from Full Metal Jacket.
THE ANGLO-AMERICAN CYCLOPAEDIA: ELECTRONIC EDITION
Anglo-American Cyclopedia: The Better's Cyclopedia
ORRACLE
DELPHI-1, ORRA's first Megatabulator.
ORRACLE (Office of Racial and Religious Affairs's Computational Logistics Electronics) is a bureau within ORRA. Originally a purely military bureau concerned with military electronics, ORRACLE successfully lobbied for NUSA to lift its ban on consumer electronics by arguing that they could design a system that simultaneously allowed the Betters of Society connect to one another and educate themselves towards the goal of becoming Pinnacle Men while avoiding the subversive effects of consumer electronics that had been observed in other nations. ORRACLE has become the largest produce of electronics in NUSA, military and civilian alike. Major products of ORRACLE include ORRACLE 1000 (the first personal tabulator), the DELPHI Line (the world's most powerful Megatabutors), PYTHIA (NUSA's first SmartBox), and the PatriNet (NUSA's first Inter-Network).
Major competitors to ORRACLE include Kinderhook Computing, Goodyear Tabulatics, and Heuristic Algorithmics.
Would You Like To Know More?
Andddd I posted this in chapter way back in chapter 42:
*PAPA STALIN INTENSIFIES*
By having Richardson be Steele's mama figure, everything falls into place. It is exactly as I have foreseen. It might be twenty years away, but MATILDA is coming. I'd guess that Oswald sees the birth of the ORRACLE. I'd say it might be safe to assume Ryan Hendrick is involved with ORRACLE, as it would relate well to the future Union "Space Force."
In other weird matters, there are multiple popculture references in the last chapter. I love hiding Stanley Kubrick references everywhere, as the "world of shit" line is actually from Full Metal Jacket.
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And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you create a damn fine mess. The RU government and the Church at each other's throat, people backstabbing and blackmailing each other. The RU is essentially going to become Steele's playground, descending even more into an abyss of madness. But that's why I love this TL so much. Just when you start thinking "well, things can't get any worse", something happens that proves you wrong.
SuperZtar64
Banned
What can I say, this house is falling apart
What can I say, this house is falling apart
we got no money but we got hea-a-a-a-a-art
What can I say, this house is falling apart
we got no money but we got hea-a-a-a-a-art
In a choice between Steele and the Council of Jehovah, I'll pick Steele. At least he could probably be reasoned with.
YES! YES! Death of Stalin!
I could almost taste a Germanic movie called "Death of Custer" or "Death of Steele" that immediately gets banned in the RU. Cleansing Month will be awesome in a fucked up, schadenfreude sort of way. Father Abe is turning in his grave, ALL HAIL
YES! YES! Death of Stalin!
I could almost taste a Germanic movie called "Death of Custer" or "Death of Steele" that immediately gets banned in the RU. Cleansing Month will be awesome in a fucked up, schadenfreude sort of way. Father Abe is turning in his grave, ALL HAIL
True but the Council can be relyed on to collapse the nation after a while there by getting rid of the ultimate danger of the RU.
SuperZtar64
Banned
There's just going to be one major purge of the government full of insanity but then, once Steele takes absolute control things will get
very
very
very
quiet
very
very
very
quiet
Remembering what happened in 1.0, you'll just get like four little RUs plus a mad Caesar of Europa
well point, but theirs also a option for the Inferiors to actually manage to rise up and break the chains (okay that would not be good at all for any Non Inferior caught in the area, who would at best be forced into Slavery themselves at worst get the Rwandan treatment). maybe California actually managing independence as well,Also if Perrault manages to stay the course well we could see something to limit a mad caeser.
Preview!
SUNDAY COMING DOWN:
THE BILLY SUNDAY STORY
Reverend-Colonel Sunday shares a laugh with the press while being escorted by RUMP officers to the meeting with President Steele
SUNDAY COMING DOWN:
THE BILLY SUNDAY STORY
Reverend-Colonel Sunday shares a laugh with the press while being escorted by RUMP officers to the meeting with President Steele
The rise and fall of Wilhelm "Bible Billy Sunday" Sonntag is a fascinating study in how quickly someone could fall from the cusp of near absolute power. Born November 19, 1862, in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to a Wilhelm and Mary Jane Sonntag. While his mother was born American, his bricklayer father was an immigrant from the Nordreich and a staunch Lutheran. From a young age, Billy's father drilled the Bible and Lutheran dogma into him, but his mother would turn around and teach him American Fundamentalism. At school Billy was a very popular student, often the ring-leader in class projects and always had a girl on each arm. Growing up in the post-Lincoln, post-Great American War Union was tough for some, but not for Billy, and he knew from his earliest days he wanted to be a leader. He would tell his classmates that one day he would be President or a general, but when he officially converted to Fundamentalism after his father died in 1879, when Billy was just 17. His mother would pass the next year from grief. The future "Bible Billy" would write in his diary:
"They are gone. I am alone. I serve God yet these tribulations are wrought upon me. I follow the Word and my parents are taken. This is truly what it feels like to be in darkness. I know not if I shall come out of this situation with my sanity or my faith. God help me."
As Billy mourned the loss of his family and even contemplated suicide, his friends plied him with cocaine lozenges to help him get through the pain, starting a life-long habit. But cocaine was not all there was afoot at this time. The political landscape of America was radically changing. Gideon Claywell, the worst national leader since Adams, was bungling his way through an outbreak of Southron terrorists like the White League and a stagnating economy. The Manifest Destiny Party came to Chambersburg and began distributing revolutionary pamphlets calling for the installation of a "Strong Man" to lead the country to a glorious future. Before he knew it, Billy had left school and an offer of a free ride to Harvard from his wealthy uncle to throw himself into the MDP. Every day, Billy would put on his blue uniform and march around his town, an AFC Bible under one arm and a stack of propaganda posters under the other. He plastered his town with so many posters, such as the famous "JOIN THE MARCH" poster, that people began calling him "Posterboy." In 1881, Custer finally crossed the Rubicon and called for a general overthrow of the Claywell government. This was all Wilhelm Sonntag had to hear to rush to Philadelphia. Though he would see minimal action during the so-called Third Revolution, he would adamantly declare for decades that he had been in the thick of it.
After Custer came to power, Billy moved to Shicagwa in 1882, picking up a job as an accounting clerk at the regional MDP office. It was there that he met Barbara Sue Wilkerson, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed all-American Better girl two years his junior who ran errands at the office and took notes. She was the daughter of wealthy railroad tycoon Fritz Wilkerson, and it was love at first sight. Billy was infatuated with the girl and they went to church together regularly. One morning, as Billy drove her back to her home on his buggy, he began talking about several weak points in the pastor's sermon. After a twenty minute monologue about it, his girlfriend smiled at him and said, "Why, Bill, if you think you can preach better than Pastor Jones, why not go preach yourself? I like to listen to you. Surely others would as well."
Billy flicked the reigns to speed his horse up as he thought about what she said. Maybe that was it! Maybe, rather than President or a general, he was destined to spread the Word of Jehovah and Prophet to the masses. At first he dismissed the idea, because he had not gone to college. He would not take action immediately, instead pondering over the career move for two years. In 1883, Billy and Barbara were married at the Fundamentalist Church of Shicagwa. In 1884, they would have their first child, Anne Elizabeth, who would become Billy's pride and joy. In 1885, Billy finally decided to enter the ministry, applying for an official license to preach from the Shicagwa City Seminary.
By the winter of 1885, Billy was well and truly on his way. In just a few years, his fiery oratory and showmanship made him well-known all across the Midwest, from Oshkosh to Lewis City. He formed Billy Sonntag's Circuit Riders in 1890, who, despite the name, rode in new-fangled autocarriages rather than horses. Billy cut a dashing figure, cruising and schmoozing from town to town, always wearing a scarf, brown leather trenchcoat, brass goggles, and newsie cap. He was a natural showman, and everywhere he went huge crowds would follow. In some of the backwoods towns he visited there were people who had never even seen an auto before. Now here was a handsome, charismatic, snake-handling, spirit-slaying gentleman rolling through town in a crazy contraption, and this was always sure to draw crowds. As his celebrity grew, people would send word to nearby towns that "Bible Billy Sunday" was on his way. If given enough warning, some towns actually erected polebarns and other buildings to hold him.
Alas, it was during these first few years of celebrity that Billy began to show himself as someone of less than decent morals. In each town, there would be many, many dinners he would be invited to by local families, and he usually picked the ones who had the most attractive wives. The women would obsess over him so much that they would beg for him to "fill them with the Holy Spirit." Billy would rationalize this as a Pinnacle Man spreading his seed. In order to keep up the insane schedule of sometimes three towns a day, he also fell to heavier cocaine use. During this time he was known to have said, "I carry two things with me: my Bible and a carton of Firebreathers. I'm a hell of a lot less entertaining when I have only one and not the other." Really, Sunday was becoming the forerunner for most popular musicians and and celebrities of the next century, exhausting himself and burning himself out on drugs to fight the exhaustion he felt. Despite his low energy, he never showed weakness, always full of fire and vigor at every stop.
"I'm gonna fill ya full of fire, full of vigor, and of the Holy Spirit! Yessir, Reverend Billy has come to town with love in his heart, a snake in his hand, and the Word of God in his mouth. And let me tell ya folks, ooh, there is a real pack of sinners right here. All of us. But with the everlasting promise of sanctification through the Blood of Christ and the Words of the Prophet, I guarantee ya you guys can attain true happiness! This is a fallen world, full of that nasty little creature called sin, but we also live in the New Jerusalem, given to us by God to build his Kingdom! Yessir, sin may get in and crawl right in your soul, but Reverend Billy is gonna crawl in right after 'em and yank him right out and beat the devil out of him with a rounders bat of righteousness, yessir. I'm gonna thrash ya, bash ya, and trash ya, but then I'm gonna build you up because God whispers in my one ear and the Prophet whispers in the other and I just let them take over. Behold this snake in my left hand! If I get bit I am forty minutes away from medical treatment. I just gotta have faith that today isn't my day. But if it is my time, then the Lord will take me, yessir."
- Typical Billy Sunday opening monologue circa 1892
Sunday would deliver his sermons so quickly that it was almost like being at an auction. He rarely rehearsed or planned what he would say, instead preferring to "Let God do the talking." Fired up on Firebreathers, he would prance around the stage, gesturing wildly, his bloodshot eyes feverishly staring down the crowd. The eyes were famous, and many said it seemed as if he was looking into their very souls. His sometimes almost unintelligible sermons would be countered by his magnificently insane rituals he would perform, such as exorcisms and spirit-slaying. In March of 1892, Sunday would draw the largest crowd in Lewis City history with his "Springtime Biblepalooza." Bands and musicians came in from across the region to fiddle and pick and over 40,000 people attended the five-day revival and spiritual music festival, raising well over two million dollars for the Church in donations and offerings. The Council of Jehovah took notice.
Attachments
And then it turns out Steele makes all of his underlings watch it everytime they have dinner together, in a nod to his love of "cowboy movies" and TTL dislike of his adoptive father.
"Are you wearing pajamas?" Lyndon Johnson asks Chuckie Oswald.
Then Richard Nixon storms in. "Out of my way you nutters!"
Then Richard Nixon storms in. "Out of my way you nutters!"
Lyndon Johnson (Beria), Chuckie Oswald (Khrushchev), and Nelson Rockefeller (Malenkov) are all bored while Herbert Hoover (Molotov) is asleep
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
In 2013 there was an independent radio station that played this a few times a day. It was just one of my jams. And how relevant this excerpt is for this world
It'll be like the USSR of OTL but just as counter-revolutionary (sorry tankies) and filled with paranoia. Who will get extended Vacations to the Far North ITTL? Only Jehovah and Joe Steele know.
Something something Pinnacle Man... uhhh, fluids and more disgusting euphemisms. I imagine this is going to be a theme here if it isn't already.
The last full update about George Dewey was freakin awesome! I absolutely loved reading about the intrigue and the different schemings of ORRA chief George Dewey, as well as the rivalry between the de-facto Dewey/Richardson/Steele triumvirate and the ORRA and Billy Sunday and the AFCC. I also thought it was interesting that Dewey didn't really believe in the AFC religion and just pretended to believe in it as a means to gain power.
I await to see what happens next. I can hardly wait.
I await to see what happens next. I can hardly wait.
Working on the next chapter and listening to music. Lots of times I write with music playing and I think these songs, for instance, would be in a hypothetical Madness tv show/movie. I don't know, they got a feeling to them.
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Holy hell I loved that chapter! Reading about all the cynical Pinnacle Men manipulating with clinical precision was amazing and terrifying at the same time.
This alone makes me likes Dewey as a character. It's one of the funniest scenes in the TL in my opinion.
Dewey struck me as being more of an Atheist. He seems to deny the existence of God, where as Deists believe in a Grand Creator who no longer influences the world, at least not directly.
First of all, this gave me the mental image of Billy Sunday as Emperor Palpatine saying via hologram "REVEREND BILLY HAS A YEARNIN FOR A PURGIN Y'ALL HERE ME? PURGE AND PURIFY!"
Second, are at least some of the powerful going to catch on? I feel like if inordinate numbers of disgraced Ser's wind up dead in their beds we could see a movement by some of the Union's elite to build their own Wolf Pack style teams. Which will in no way jeopardize stability.
This is, for right now, the part of the TL I find the most squicky, even if it isn't that horrifying in the grand scheme. I mean Jesus Christ it's just repulsive to think about. If Steele castrates him, I'll unfortunately have to give his Presidency credit for that.
I have to say, all the internal drama in the Union seems like it's going to be one of the most interesting parts of TTL for awhile. I can't wait to see what happens next!
This alone makes me likes Dewey as a character. It's one of the funniest scenes in the TL in my opinion.
Dewey struck me as being more of an Atheist. He seems to deny the existence of God, where as Deists believe in a Grand Creator who no longer influences the world, at least not directly.
First of all, this gave me the mental image of Billy Sunday as Emperor Palpatine saying via hologram "REVEREND BILLY HAS A YEARNIN FOR A PURGIN Y'ALL HERE ME? PURGE AND PURIFY!"
Second, are at least some of the powerful going to catch on? I feel like if inordinate numbers of disgraced Ser's wind up dead in their beds we could see a movement by some of the Union's elite to build their own Wolf Pack style teams. Which will in no way jeopardize stability.
This is, for right now, the part of the TL I find the most squicky, even if it isn't that horrifying in the grand scheme. I mean Jesus Christ it's just repulsive to think about. If Steele castrates him, I'll unfortunately have to give his Presidency credit for that.
I have to say, all the internal drama in the Union seems like it's going to be one of the most interesting parts of TTL for awhile. I can't wait to see what happens next!