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By Jove

  “Woah, where am I?” said President Baxter. Smoke puffed from the corners of the room, smelling of opium, though the President felt unaffected.
  “You should know,” said God.
  The room was pure white. President Baxter was alone, in this cube of a room, but the voice was quite clearly that of God. It was in the accent.
  “Why am I here?”
  “You're dead. I thought that was a given.”
  President Baxter examined himself. He was in no way faint, and he was dressed in the clothes he had put on in the morning.
  God spoke. “Actually, can you stop referring to yourself as 'President'. That ended as soon as you died. Along with that, you're not 'Baxter' now either, you're '#3641'.”
  “But I'm Tyler-”
  “No you're not. What your parents called you is neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned.”
  #3641 sat in silence. He did not know for how long. If he was dead, then it could have been an aeon. He was going to spend eternity here, in its immeasurableness. What was to say the moment he spent silent was a moment at all, that this whole conversation did not take place in one instant?
  “Can I ask you something, God?”
  “No, I'm busy.”
  “Pretty please?”
  “Oh, alright then. What is it?”
  “How did I die?”
  “You mean you don't know?” God paused. “That's quite a thing to miss out on.”
  #3641 waited.
  God spoke. “Well, you died through being assassinated. To cut a long story short, you annoyed the wrong people.”
  “I annoyed a gang?”
  “You annoyed the oil barons.”
  “Ah.” That explained it.
  Some more time elapsed.
  “I like this place. It's so nondescript. It's as if the only thing here is my voice.”
  “There are questions you still haven't asked.”
  “Like what?”
  “Like, 'Why did they kill me?'”
  “Well I know that.”
  “Do you want to tell me?”
  “You already know. You're God.”
  “That's true. But from a narrative perspective.”
  “Alright. I died because I tried to make things better for the people, which involved more tax on the oil companies. Therefore, they tried to bribe me, and when I refused in an effort to be a better politician, I expect I was knocked off to protect the oil companies.”
  “Was this fair?”
  “I don't think so. Why didn't you stop them killing me?”
  “Because.. Because.”
  “That's not a reason.”
  “Nor is 'because Osama might possibly be hiding there,' when he's not.”
  “I'm human. I'm allowed errors.”
  “I am too. I made a pretty big one by making humans in the first place.”
  “True.”
  “Please don't judge me on it.”
  “I'm not judging you.”
  “Yes you are. I can tell. After all, I know everything.”
  “Didn't you know humans were going to sin?”
  “No, or you wouldn't have free will. I had faith in you.”
  “So you don't know everything, because you don't know what we're gonna do next.”
  “But I know everything. Don't contradict me.”
  “The contradictions are the fallacies though! You can't exist if you break the laws you apply to yourself.”
  God poofed out of existence.
  “God? Where are you?” said #3641. The space suddenly felt empty. The room's blankness struck #3641 immediately, and boredom caved in. Blank blank boredom boredom.
  This is the atheists' death, replied his own subconscious.
©2008-2009 ~fudging
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Submitted: July 27, 2008
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Author's Comments

One of the many things I wrote on my residency, over the last 2 weeks. I'll stagger the uploading a bit, so I don't flood inboxes.
This was bizarre to write; I just had to get on and write it, in an hour and a bit, and I wasn't particularly stunned by it. But then everyone else liked it! So I read it out in front of an audience (40+ people?) which was fun - made all the better by getting a friend to do God's voice from the background while being out of sight. I've never felt prouder of something I've written, making everyone laugh like that. That sort of joy-bringing is what I do my writing for.

And I'll do hello earthling again... Tomorrow =P
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Comments


An intriguing piece of writing although it feels somewhat one-sided against God here (Probably intentional though, or at least it gives that impression)

It has a nice flow for a conversation between the all-mighty and Baxter although the "pretty please" felt a little out of character (considering its a short piece assumptions and thoughts are formed quickly about the characters involved). As the piece winds through the topic is kept interesting by a kind of reversal of powers as Baxter begins questioning God and God begins to falter, it's a nice touch and keeps the conversation interesting, without the role reversal I think God would have become a little bit too (dare I say it) arrogant, or at least pompous.

Nice piece and possibly the longest critique I've ever written thus far in devart history (my personal one) Also, kudos on the reading in public and the planning with a friend for God's part, that sounds very cool.

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In the quiet of the world my thoughts do roam, for it's there in the quiet that they feel at home...

- Me
Well, the Christian friend specifically said he liked how even I was with my mocking, as I knock the atheists just as much at the end :D "Even handed humor" he called it, particularly noticable in another piece that I ought to upload... Which was about people on the camp, and I was really rather rude to everyone. One was unemployed, another was poked for his obvious crush on someone, and a friend and I were the biggest "douchebags" in the whole story, happily being evil oil barons making life a misery for everyone else.
Actually, I'll upload that now.

And thankyou very much for the middle and later stuff. The piece is fixed now, having been sent off to get into a small print run for the camp (~50, I believe), but I do appreciate your comments. Next time you submit some writing I am going to write such an epic comment the writing will look like a sentence in comparison to the novel of a comment.

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5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian roulette.
Never click random links! :typerhappy:
lol sounds like some excellent stuff and yeah I can see the kind of power change would make it a little less one sided, it wasn't something I noticed straight away but with more reading it certainly can identified.

Sounds good on the new piece I look forward to it mate and if I ever manage a piece worth commenting (lately I've not had much writing drive) I'll look forward to your critique :D

Also gratz on the short print run! :highfive: (best icon I could think of =p)

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In the quiet of the world my thoughts do roam, for it's there in the quiet that they feel at home...

- Me
Well, if ever... Wait, you haven't sent your Nano novel around, have you? Do you intend to?
Because I was going to suggest reading your next Nano, when I suddenly realised I haven't read your last ;)

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5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian roulette.
Never click random links! :typerhappy:
Ah my last one was rather poor, I have much higher hopes this year round, I should dig out your one I think I still have it lodged in email (since it was on my last PC which died :( I haven't been able to jury rig the old Hdd on many occasions and no where to store 200+ gig of stuff).

Have you been planning your upcoming Nano novel yet? I remember you mentioning the overview of it last I saw you.

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In the quiet of the world my thoughts do roam, for it's there in the quiet that they feel at home...

- Me
I have been planning! I have much higher hopes now as well, particularly as the ideas this round are immense. If my writing is good enough to support those ideas, and everything clicks, then it'll be brillig.

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5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian roulette.
Never click random links! :typerhappy:
Ah sounds good, nothing wrong with an ambitious story. It kind of give you a target to reach for so hand in hand both your writing improve and you get to realize your idea how you like :) at least that is how I feel it can go :)

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In the quiet of the world my thoughts do roam, for it's there in the quiet that they feel at home...

- Me
Have you started planning? Do you intend to?

(I'd love to write plot free, but I can never construct my ideas clearly enough without a preplanned structure...)

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5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian roulette.
Never click random links! :typerhappy:
I've started a plan for this one (my last was completely off the top of my head writing) I'm hoping to build a proper breakdown of how I want the story to go so that I can just get down to the writing and not thinking about what comes next all the time.

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In the quiet of the world my thoughts do roam, for it's there in the quiet that they feel at home...

- Me

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