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SMNTY Fiction: Terminus (Prologue) · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Andy and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Never told you protection of I Heart Radio, and it
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is time for another edition of Smindy Fiction. Fiction. I
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: like adding those effects. I love it. I love it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I you know, this one's kind of a solitary one.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I'll talk about it more in a second. But maybe
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: we can get some parts for you. Maybe we can
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: get this one. I'm here for you, so you tell
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: me what you Thank you, thank you. I might need
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: your support because I'm actually nervous about this. Yeah, okay,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: So Sminty Fiction is a once a month segment where
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: we read a piece of fiction and discuss So far
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: it has been stuff that I have written. But I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: would love, Samantha, for you to contribute something or to
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: do something in the public domain. Yeah, it'd be cool. Yeah.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: And they're more uh not always, but they are usually
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: more sound effects heavy, not too much, because Christina is
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the best, and she's she knows like the perfect amount.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: She's a pro. She is a pro. Uh and these
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: would not happen without her, So as always, thank you, Christina. Also,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: we will be discussing in fertility throughout this, so if
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that's something that's triggering for you totally understand that as well.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So we are starting something new, and this is one
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of the reasons I'm a little nervous about this. A
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: couple of reasons, and I will break them all down.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: We are embarking on a journey with this one, because
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: we're going to be reading a chapter a month from
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a book I wrote in college called It's alternately called
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Terminus Are the Depopulation Event. Terminus is like the series
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: name because it's the first of three. This one's called
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the Depopulation Event. If the title gives you any warning,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: this brings us to a very heavy content warning I'm
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: gonna put in here because this book I'm just gonna
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: spoil some of it, all right, because I don't want
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: anybody to get upset. Is about a virus uh and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: women and people not having control over their bodies. I
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: often describe it as the Last of Us meets the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Road meets the Handmaid's Tail. Damn yeah, I will say,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: as my voice cracks a little. I think it's more
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: cheery than those. The combo is a rough combo. Annie,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: it's a combo. It's a rough combo. And believe me,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I asked Samantha. I was like, given what's going on,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure that it is the best so heavy
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: content warning. But if you are much like Annie who
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: likes in the darkness of times to dwell in more
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: dark things, care you go here? You? Oh uh? And
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: I literally have two friends playing the last pilos two
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: right now and texting me their updates and it's bringing
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: me great joy. Um, so perhaps you are like me
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and it does give you some relief. Um, it's definitely
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: got kind of removed from like by the time this
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: story takes place sort of too late. I don't know
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: if that's all right. I am messing this up. The
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: ending is good, so I'm definitely if you're going to
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: start it, stick with it correct, stick with it, Yes,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: stick with it. I'm definitely digging myself a deeper hole.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I would love to hear people's reactions to this. Other chapters,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: I will say, will come with additional content warnings and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: perhaps different ratings. We might actually have to bump up
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: our everyone rating on this one. And I totally understand.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I given, yeah, everything that is going on, that is
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: not something you want to hear right now. Also, haven't
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: revisited this in a hot minute. I did kind of
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: revamp it probably four or five years ago. Uh. But
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: all that being said, I'm sure some of the terminology
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: needs updating, so that's going to be a group exercise.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to do it as I as I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: read it, but I'm sure we'll have discussions about it
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: because it is sort of a complicated plot. Um. One
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of the reasons I was hesitant to ever share this
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: one was because I was worried and I believe we've
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: talked about this before that it would reveal some internal
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: misogyny or that it wasn't feminist enough. So well, there
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: will be plenty to discuss with this story. There will
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: be plenty to discuss, Maridam, I'm building it up too much.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we're gonna go chapter by chapter. We're gonna
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: start with the prologue, which is very exposition heavy. Um.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And this is a pretty, as I said, solitary tail,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: So it might be a bit on the quieter side
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: actually for lot of it. But there's there's some action,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: I promise, and we'll see where it goes. But this
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: one's gonna be a bit shorter of an episode and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: sort of just setting the stage and so with all
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: of that, if I have not scared you away, let
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: us get into the prologue of the depopulation of it p.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: HSB five the sterility virus sexpox population control among the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: more cynical all terms for a virus that rendered those
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: infected unable to conceive and left marked for life with
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: painful sores and blistered faces, ranging from angry red to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: dull purple hues, sometimes weeping a colorless pus, other times
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: leaking blood from sufferers who scratched too hard. HSB five's
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: real trick, however, a light and how quickly it caused
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: infertility the first time was now the only chance of
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: conception one and done, as they say, After that, both
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: men and women were sterile, and within a week sores
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: would appear on their faces, a permanent reminder of what
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: they'd done, of their inability to have a second child,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: or even at first if that first attempt produced no results.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Epidemiologists could not pinpoint the origin of the virus. Why
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: two non infected individuals contracted HSV five. Some speculated a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: latent chromosome or defect. Others theorized that pollutants in the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: air or water led to the plague currently laying waste
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: to the world's birth rate. Perhaps infected mothers passed it
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: on to their children, where it remained dormant until sex.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: But this led to a chicken and egg argument that
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: no longer mattered one transmission rate and no cure. Humanity
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: was dying, a slow, whimpering death. Abandoned houses, collapsing economies,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: crumbling infrastructure, skeletal remains of a society that still knew hope.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: A time before HSV five, when the concern was over
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: your population instead of depopulation. How luxurious a worry it
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: seems now, how affluent sex, at least in the case
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of the virginal had become more science than pleasure. Government
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: law dictated mandatory checkups beginning at the age of sixteen,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: placing those of the coveted birthing age in medical facilities
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: called conception centers, where a strict schedule focused on producing
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the healthiest possible individual was enforced. A typical day included
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: at least four hours of exercising, both cardiovascular and strengthening, meditation,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: and relaxation. The diet of potential wild bearers was determined
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: based on specific vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Nutritional analysts running
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: tests to ascertain the most effective meals, including portion, sizes,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and frequency, that would keep those that could produce the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: most precious commodity, human child in optimum condition. Conception engineers
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: determined those most genetically compatible with each other, like morbid matchmakers,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: determining the window where probability of conception was greatest down
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to the year, month, day hour. As this mythical time approached,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: prospect of parents were taught the best position for child
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: conception and other best case practices. Though arguments existed that
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: the pressure of the entire situation acted against those hoping
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: to conceive, those in powers saw no other options. It
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: worked enough, and with humanity's future in the balance, it
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: was in a necessity, They argued. The last thing we
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: need is our youth screwing around for fun and ruining
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: their chances that producing a child. Because they don't know
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: what they're doing, they would say, gels, quivering, hair graying,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: fatalistic and condescending at once. When the virus first began
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: to spread and in its effects first understood, there was worry,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: but nothing drastic. No one had the tiniest inkling that
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: it would spread, so quickly, that biochemists would be unable
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: to find a cure or even a vaccine. No one
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: predicted that it would not be isolated, that it would
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: not be contained, that science or technology or old of
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: ashion prayer could not solve the problem, that humanity might
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: in fact be slowly, steadily removed from existence by something
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: invisible to the naked eye, fading like a bad dream.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: The birth rate plummeted from around five million a year
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: to just under one million in the United States. The
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: demographics shifted distressingly an upside down triangle, with the oldest
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: making up the most of the population and children making
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: up the smallest fraction. It was the opposite of what
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: population analysts wanted to see, a sharp drop off in
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: infants all around the globe, the smallest generation on record.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: It was called the depopulation event. The use of the
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: word event, which implied a single instance at the beginning
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and end, indicated how confident analysts were that a cure
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: would be found quickly, that this would be a blip
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: in the population chart that humanity would quickly recover from.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: As the population continued to dwindle, years turned into decades
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: without a cure. Some scientists pointed out the inacuracy of
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the term, but depopulation event stuck, whether through habit or desperation.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: To believe that this would be a passing event. To
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: change the name was to admit that the cycle would
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: continue indefinitely. When the seriousness of the situation set in,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: politicians moved quickly to implement sexual education classes, focusing on
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the importance of abstinence, impressing upon the precious youth the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: virus that awaits them should they stray, while at the
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: same time passing laws making sex outside of government a
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: rouval illegal at least for those that still had a
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: chance at producing a child. Instead, all those of childbearing
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: age would be taken to conception facilities. It was against
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the law not to attend, and all able must try
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: to conceive. As fear spread rampantly and infection within itself,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: new laws were put into place requiring hopeful parents to
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: fill out a petition for parenthood. Once approved, a responsible
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: parent application followed. If the Board for Family Preservation deemed
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the advocates worthy, they proceeded to the final stage, a
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: series of rigorous interviews and psychological test. Only then would
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: a couple be trusted with the responsibility of raising a
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: child on the condition that they undergo inspections. Biological parents
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: needed to apply for this process as well. Conceiving a child.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Giving birth to a living being that shared your genes
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: did not guarantee that the biological parents would be allowed
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: to raise it. The board certainly took it into account,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: but children were too limited a resource to take any chances.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Despite all all the science and careful planning behind conception,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: don luck still employed a role. The most intelligent, helpful individuals,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the most promising parents, may be unable to bear children,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: while those with less than desirable traits when it came
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to raising a child may succeed in conceiving. The biological
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: were often granted visits, at the very least during the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: first year for the mother to feed the child. Once weaned,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: they were discarded unimportant, unable to conceive, even deemed unfit
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: to raise. The backlash against this had been muted and delayed,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: so great was the gnawing fear and confusion, and when
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it came and consisted mostly of angry words and relatively
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: tame protest isolated pockets of rebellion, attempts of child objection
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a quickly squashed invasion of conception facility, hopeless resignation outweighed
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the anger. The bottom line was this humanity was a
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: dying race and no one knew what to do about it.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: What the government was doing was wrong, but was there
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: a right way to solve this? Not that anyone could see,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: not if they wanted to continue to exist as a species.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Failure to conceive a child resulted in desperate need to
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: understand why. The Association for Restoring Our Morals or a
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: r m ARM or the Moral Mafia to their opponents,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: came forward as an answer. Originally a friend religious group,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: their prominence grew alongside the unrest. They put forward that
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: HSP five was God's punishment for humanity's promiscuity and decaying morality.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: God would only offer his forgiveness and thus a cure
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: for the scored humanity brought on itself if as a
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: society we made amends. With no rational explanation forthcoming, more
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: and more turned to ARM. The government commissioned a position
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: entitled Religious Advisor to the State, to be appointed by
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: ARMS leaders. The Religious Advisor released proclamations guidelines for leading
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a more and moral existence and condemned all those who
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: still led lives rife with sin. They took part in
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the trials of those breaking conception and sex laws. Those
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: down guilty in these childs were publicly labeled as enemies
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: of humanity. Their numbers were too few for the death penalty,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: which the religious advisors stress would be no less than
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the guilty deserved, so those convicted were sentenced to menial
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: or dangerous jobs. The last remaining radio frequency broadcasted government
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and our messages big speakers mounted on old telephone polls
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: along the highways in the cities. Most of the remaining
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: population have been relocated to the East Coast for ease
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: of control and logistics the government of the United States.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Although borders and countries had pretty much dissolved, it did
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: comfort many to rely on these names to hold onto
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: them like Talisman's still operated out of d C, and
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a majority of the conception facilities were located along the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: eastern seaboard. New York City, d C, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and Los Angeles were the only outliers. Twenty five years
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: of exponential increase in infertility led the government to relocate
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: its constituents. A lot of grumbling resulted, but festering anxiety
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: fostered by abandoned houses and businesses led to a widespread acquiescence,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: but there was resistance. There always is. Some did not
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: leave their homes, resigned to a childless life, but a
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: peaceful one with the death of their own design. Liberation
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: could be found in the loneliness to grow food, to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: make what was needed, to be entirely self sufficient, to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: sit in the quiet and to think, to write, to
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: so to paint, to do things that they couldn't have
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: done before because of work or social obligations. Some would
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: consider this living, truly living, and away humanity had not
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: in a long time. Weeds blanketed the land, unkempt, creeping
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: up buildings and street lights erupting through cracks in the concrete.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Wildlife flourished, the numbers of their greatest predator dropping more
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: and more. The planet was returned to them, and they
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: wandered dilapidated towns and empty cities, the crumbling buildings, somehow
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: odd an ominus now that they lacked purpose, massive gray graveyards,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the remains of a civilization. Once fast the age of
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: man was ending. Arm directive state sanctioned classified need to
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: know only outstanding case number. Tilda Nohan, aged twenty three
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: see attached picture. Height five five, weight one hundred nine pounds,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: last known skin color white, hair color blonde, eye color brown.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Identifying features in a daughter of Cameron Nohan, Professor and
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: bio engineering specialist and Leona Nohan formerly Yona Phoenix, professor
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: conception and depression psychiatrist, aged forty and thirty six, respectively.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Exemplary parenting record see attached documents and pictures. Mother of
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Madison Nohan, aged seven heightened, weight unknown based assumption on
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: average height and weight of seven year old away. Skin
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: color white, hair color light brown at aged one, eye
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: color hazel. Identifying features earth mark left fore arm. Mission
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: summary conceived outside conception center. Age of mother at time
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: of conception fift premature birth at Conception Center Birthing Unit
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: in Atlanta on September beaklongs an immune system kept in
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: hospital for observation for thirteen months. On day of October four,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: kidnapped by Tilda Nohan. Child missing for six years. Information
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: suggest he remains in the custody of Tilda Nohan, who's
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: on the run from enforcers. Standing orders secure Madison Nohan
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: and ensure his safe return to conception facility in d
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: C post haste. The mother is expendable capture if possible,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: but child is priority Priority Level one. Okay, so you
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: made it through. I hope you're okay. I'm really building
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: it up and to way too much. I have talked
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: about this story before on an episode I did back
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: when I was sort of hostless. I was it was
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: before Samantha and I was all alone and I was
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: bringing out a bunch of the guests and I brought
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: on Julie Douglas, who used to do stuff to blow
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: your mind, to talk about motherhood. She was talking about
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: motherhood and um specifically like horror, which we've talked about
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: before too. And she asked me about this because she
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: had heard that I wrote this, and I wrote this
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to college again and it's about motherhood. And it's just
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: interesting to me why I this just came naturally, like
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I did this for UM. We've talked about Nano Raimo,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: which is a national write a novel November month. You know, UM,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about. And it just like
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the the words just poured out and this is what happened,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and it was about motherhood. And I do find that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: very very interesting because even at the time, I don't.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: I think I had already decided I was probably not
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: going to have kids. And you and I have also
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: talked about again going back to that horror thing of
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: how motherhood is often portrayed in these situations as something
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: that is used as sort of a tool of horror,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: a tool of devastation, or what have you. I think
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: given the conversations we've had around trauma on here and
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: my own trauma, which I have come a long way
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and understanding since writing this, I think I have a
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: better idea of why I wrote it, UM, because it
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: is very much about protecting like a younger person, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: even I think even coming up there's a section of
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: like feeling not like a mother, but like an older
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: sister to somebody. So I think this was definitely me
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: trying to deal with trauma in a way that I
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: didn't completely understand, and I'm still trying to understand in
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of ways. By writing this, UM, I'm kind
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: of feeling that responsibility and all the societal messages around
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: having kids than having if you have them, to be
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the perfect mother and to protect them and all of
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that stuff, right, yeah. So one thing I really struggled
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: with when I wrote this um was that it's obviously
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: very uh heteronormative, and kind of the whole plot sort
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: of relies on it, uh, not necessarily being heteronormative, but
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: because of that, because the idea is once you have
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: like vaginal and penis sex, then you become infertile, then
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I had to I struggled with, well, what does that
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: mean for any sex that is not that uh, and
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: how this virus work? And I'm not a scientist, so
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: I really really grappled with that, and I tried to
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: handle it here. I think that I could have done
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a better job, and you know, maybe I'm planning on
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: rewriting some of this some day and making it better,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and I did. I asked one of my scientific friends
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: about this. Scientific friends sounds so funny. She works in
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the science field, and she works specifically and like medicine, uh,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and she tried to give me some pointers. But obviously
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: this is a fictional worlds um, so I think if
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: you look at it too closely, it might fall apart.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: But I just wanted to put in there that I
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: did grapple with that, and we also have talked to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: before about how infertility has been used, especially against women,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: as some kind of source of horror. For this, I
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: was trying specifically to make it like sort of a
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: pressure to have children, like an examination of that pressure
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to have children or else and the or else in
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: this case as humanity goes extinct. Um. But I also
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: want to put out there that I understand that that
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: that messaging too can be harmful. Yeah, So as this
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: unfolds again, this was just the just the beginning, and
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna go through it and it's all
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: More will be revealed and more trauma will be revealed
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and answers will come. Uh, what a strange time to
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: be doing this one. I hope that it was enjoyed.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I hope that you continue to enjoy it. And I
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: would love all listeners. I would love if you would
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: write in if you have theories our thoughts of what's
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: gonna happen, Because when you write something, you know, you're like,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: is it obvious what's gonna happen? Did I put in
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: enough clues? Not too many clues? Like? So I would
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: love that. And also just a final note, I would
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: love to come I can talk about this someday, but
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: this I definitely wrote this too when young adult novels
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: were just leaning so hard into dystopian stuff, and a
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: lot of those young adult novels did have a young
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: woman or young girl at least the ones I was
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: reading um as the main character. So this was certainly
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: part of that, and I would love to revisit that
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: in a future episode. Alright, but for now, let's let's
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: close it out before I dig my grave deeper on this.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Uh and yes, listeners, if there are any stories in
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the public domain you would like us to read for
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: one of these segments, that would be great. You can
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: send any suggestions are a way at Stephanie and Mom
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: stuff at I heeart meta dot com. You can find
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: us on Twitter, I'm most the podcast or Instagram and
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: stuff I Never told you thinks. It's always to our
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: super producer Christie Yes. Thank you, Christina Yes, and thanks
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: to you for listening stuff I Never told you this
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio for more podcasts for my
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Because if you I Heart radio app, Apple
• 23:58
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