9 Comments
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Nick Winney's avatar

nice work! really clever take. didnt quite see rhe twist coming. humourous too! perfect length. the anti growth/ pro stability position is one i very much agree with.

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Johnathan Reid's avatar

Thanks for reading my story, Nick, and so pleased you enjoyed it!

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Brian Reindel 👾⚔️'s avatar

Nice! This was really well done. I was going to take a similar route regarding the type of person to be chosen. Now you've forced me to consider alternatives. 😬

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Johnathan Reid's avatar

Whoops, sorry about that – clearly a case of great minds thinking alike! And I've honestly no idea how one character got their name... 😉. Thanks for reading the story and so pleased you enjoyed it.

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Brian Reindel 👾⚔️'s avatar

I'm excited to read this! Thanks for joining us again on this adventure.

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Jun 12, 2024
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Johnathan Reid's avatar

This is probably giving too much away for those who haven't yet read the story! Is it OK to delete the comment and then I DM you privately?

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Caitriana NicNeacail's avatar

If you like - I kind of assume that people have already read the story by the time they get to the comments, but feel free!

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Johnathan Reid's avatar

I might be weird, but I often read the comments first to check how well a story is received before reading it - like reading the reviews before buying a book. Just didn't want any twist to be easy to find. But I will DM you my thoughts as another reader has privately asked the same question!

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Jun 12, 2024
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Johnathan Reid's avatar

Thank you, Sam, especially for performing such a close reading. I was always asking "why" as a child and I'm not sure I ever stopped. I think writers should always ask themselves this question - and sometimes have their characters do the same!

I was also fascinated with chaos theory in my 20s and the later field of complex dynamic systems. Leaders often pretend to know more and have a bigger influence than they do in reality. It takes a lucky tyrant to drastically change the world within a short time-frame. Or an innocent butterfly... 😉

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