Progenitor: Augustus

Contents

Introduction: A History of America from Troy

Where the narrator describes in short, the entire history of the American people. He starts with Troy as they relate to the Britons, Franks, and Romans. Then he chronicles the history of Rome, her unification of the descendants of Troy. Then her chronicles the fall and division of Rome that inspired the exploration that caused Britain to settle America. An earnest the history of the United States of America is given. The divisions and unifications of the United States are described in detail, as is the present setting for this suburban tale relating to the Augustus Julian Washington, a descendant of George Washington, America’s founder. The tale takes place during one of America’s period of division, and concerns the matter of August’s final year of school. Can be included before Act 1 as a replacement for it or ignored.

AUGUST

So much as we concern ourselves with the story of the United States of America, here our tale begins: the empire long united, divided; long divided, united. Such is the way with all kingdoms. Before Christ, Troy the great kingdom felled by Grecian bands saw her people dispersed across the land. These became the Britons who settled on the island Albion, the Franks who settled along the Rhine, and the Romans who settled in Italy, among others who settled elsewhere. The descendants of Troy inherited her valor, but it was decreed by heaven for the Romans to unite the children of Troy, and Rome did as she grew into her empire. Generations passed, and Rome fulfilled her destiny in uniting the children of Troy. The Britons, Franks, all the lands where Trojans once ran, where Trojan blood did land, were under Rome’s command. Her destiny fulfilled, so began Rome’s end.

The west of Rome remained until Rome left her sister country Brittania, inhabited by the Britons, to the mercy of the pagans. The west, ten generations earlier than the east, divided into several kingdoms which became the nations of Europe known today. One of these nations was England, also known as Brittania or Britain, that same Britain abandoned by Rome. England sailed ships to every corner of the world and attained to her bosom the parts of the continents of North America, Asia, and Africa. Britain having claim to every corner of the world, saw the sun always rising upon her shores. However, it would be thirteen of those settlements around the middle part of the eastern coast of North America, who having attained the rank of colonies by name of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia, would by the permission of God become the United States of America in the year one thousand seventy six after Christ.

These colonies of America, perceiving a lack of virtue or respect of their interests from their king, broke away in war. By heaven, she was born through a great war. Sea to sea, shore to shore, the boats took 8 weeks to cross from Britain to the rebel country. George Washington, a General of the rebels, contested with King George III who commanded his armies from the home country. King George never saw the rebel shores. Washington meanwhile won the independence of the land after eight years of war and he was made sovereign of the United States; except he took it as a Republic rather than as a kingship. He ruled for eight years before giving it to his successor. His successors did the same, and elections for head of state, the President, were set in the manner of Athens, where noble men, owners of the land, cast their ballots for the good of their posterity.

So the United States of America, also known as America, US, USA, and United States, went on to fulfill its own destiny according to the manner of all kingdoms. She accrued more territory from the east shore to the west shore of her part of North America. In a hundred years the country divided into civil war between the southern and northern states. For four years they warred until the country united once more. The country united, then, grew very prosperous for many years. From that prosperity after the first division, it was thought that the United States would remain united forever, but heaven has her way for all kingdoms, and the United States was one of the kingdoms of the world. This is where the trouble for America began. And, the author knows not whether he shall live long or short, so forgive him for speaking in generalities as this also is a part of the trouble.

About the years turning from the twenty first to the twenty second century after Christ, the country under the excess of its republican government grew displeasing to heaven. Her rulers and rich gave themselves to debauchery. The common people also copied the example of the rich in their desire, least what they could see. It was the secret practice then for America’s rulers to take virgins for their blood in sorceries and for their lusts. Meanwhile, the common people suffered heaven with regular fornications, children born outside of wedlock, children never born, and gluttony so portent that silk the width of bedsheets were their clothes. So, heaven sent her signs. In the lakes and waters, frogs turned from male to female. Then some men changed to women and some women changed to men. These were even found among the rulers, rich, and common people, and though a number of the people recognized these signs under heaven, more people had no thought to the will of heaven or having thought of heaven’s will saw the signs of displeasure as signs of blessing. Then it happened that a plague destroyed the land so that many crops fell and the animals of the field were diseased, unfit to eat. Here, fearing a rebellion from the people, the rulers of America assembled; her President Mayer, her Congress, her rich and mighty men. With the guide of an oracle besought the answer for the calamity.

The oracle, with the help of her homunculi, or rather her own mind, did know the cause of the country’s plight, but not wishing to lose her life, said, “It doesn’t matter whether the people can or cannot eat. So you fear the people. Why do you fear the people? Until the crops grow again, and the cattle can be eaten, you must keep control of the people. They can figure it out themselves, but don’t let yourself become the ire of their rage. To avoid that, ration what still remains and set the price so that no man, no woman, no child has too much to eat.” She also jested that some had too much to eat, and may well slim down through the famine.

The President Mayer, satisfied with her advice, for he himself had a rotund belly, enacted her policy. These were dark days for America, and with the expulsion of comfort came many wonders among the common people, questions for a long time seriously considered. Men, assigned to the security of America’s borders, her families, her stores, wondered how the women who had no shared responsibilities in war had votes equal to theirs on matters of war. The people, born from America’s original stock, the Christians to whom their founders built for their posterity, for them, wondered how the people who shared no common ancestry to themselves had votes equal to theirs on all matters. Also, how was it that the country through the plague could continue to honor her agreements to other nations but not feed her own children? The country could feed others. How was it the country failed to feed itself? They also feared the Muslims, who carried their ancestral prejudice against the Christians, and drafted laws unfavorable to the trade of Christians within the country.

It was in the year of the Dragon, some eight years past the turn of the century, nine years after the American government enacted its rationing policy, when a man named Max Law, inspired by the Scriptures, ventured alone into the wilderness of the Black Mesa. He stayed there three days, wandering in prayer, when an old man met him. The old man beckoning him to his tent, gave him the books of the Old Testament up to Kings and said, “These books are the Way of Mercy. They pave the way for Mercy. Now that you have them, you must act in the name of God and save mankind. If you should have evil thoughts, you will surely suffer a terrible punishment.”

Max Law knelt before the man as he took the books and asked his name.

The old man answered, “That is not for you to know. Now I must go from whence I came.” So the old man left the tent and disappeared.

For days and nights Max Law studied the books and came to the conclusion that the Old Way paved the way for the New Way. Therefore, if the New Way were to return, then the Old Way must be obeyed.

So Max Law went among the common people of the citiess of his state of Oklahoma, preaching the law, and with faith in God to restore America under the sight of heaven, offered many cures to the sick. He proclaimed his mission to route the Godless from the seat of Washington, and encouraged all his followers to put on white turbans to model after their Christian fathers who threw on white feathers in defiance against the corrupting taxes of Britain. So Max Law, with his White Turbans, starting from the city of Tulsa, ravaged their way across the America, and many people, seeing his movement online, created their own sects in allegiance with his cause. These White Turbans as they were called, were noted for keeping to the laws of the Old Testament, which carried heaven’s particular brutality and particular mercies, notably with the taking of wives from the cities they conquered and the killing of all the men for those cities who refused surrender.

But the Turbans, Max Law included, took to the taking of more than one wife, and some obeyed not the ordinance to cut the hair off a war bride they wished to keep. Others didn’t even obey the ordinance to give their women a month to mourn before entering them. So it happened during Max Law’s march that he passed away from an illness while getting routed from Washington. The Turbans retreated to Tulsa, and through the efforts of many generals and militias, the White Turbans were quelled after some years, and became a much smaller faction known for starting sporadic purges across the country whenever any particular man in want of women decided to gather other men to satiate their lusts. Therefore, the White Turbans remained feared in the hearts of the American people, and from their first march started in America a period of warring states.

Russia since the previous century, continued her campaigns in Europe to gain the lands of her former empire. China had designs for her rebel country of Taiwan. America, particularly the seat of Washington, suffered treaties with the nations of Europe and Taiwan to aid in their defense. This Washington did while the Max Law’s Turbans ravaged the entire United States. So the defense of the country then was left to local military forces, and when some of those local military forces defected to the Turbans, the remaining warriors rallied with the common people to form militias and the like in service to the destruction of the Turbans. With minimal assistance from the main government, these militias quelled the Turban threat, and, it was with the Turban’s quelling that the government of Washington, in dire straits across the sea in Taiwan and Europe, requested for aid the soldiers of the South, West, and North states. Only the North obeyed. Meanwhile, the South and West, fearing for their security, and wary of their neighbor, disobeyed the federal order.

So China took Taiwan, China was one again, and Russia took back more of her Empire. The government of Washington then, noting the disobedience of the Southern and Western states, made summons to these territories of all the generals and leaders of militias.

If there was one thing about men with evil thoughts,

Confidence in droves they got.

As it pertains to the happenings of this particular tale, the details of how the dastard oligarchs, Congressmen, and President were slain need not be explained. What will be shared is this:

As like attracts like, so the tyrants gathered,

Tyrants slaying tyrants together.

Civil War while a man’s in them are always a messy affair. Borders, factions, those are cleanly drawn after the war is done. Oh no, the roommate in Minnesota’s a Confederate sympathizer!

In any case, the United States, Washington still claims sovereignty over all fifty states where her federal offices, whether in the capital of those states are not, remain. Trade also, happens freely still between the states. Never mind that the check points could one day be manned by the Feds and later manned by the what-was-their-name-again? The Gadsenites? God, did a friend of a friend got shot by a Jacksonite for being a part of the Gadsenites. Are either group still around? They might either be a part of the West Republic, Confederacy (yes, that old thing), or United States.

Anyhow, never mind the actual bandits, or the odd riot here and there, America still, though quietly split between three kingdoms in the way old Britain was split between England, Scotland, and Wales, has well, become marginally safer than Chicago after the South and West consolidated their roads. They still don’t pay taxes or obey federal orders or keep themselves from placing their troops more near to Washington, but America’s still a good place to live. One of the good dictators, no, Second Advisor to the President, the only one from recent memory, heavily advised, at friendly gunpoint to President Winthrop to enact some new marriage reforms.

Actually, of those reforms, best not to speak of them in detail here. It did make life more enjoyable for young people, in a sense.

Still, for a masked fellow playing as a comic book hero, Second Advisor Two did an alright job. He could have done without razing the Twin Cities to the ground after that race riot. Mean, it’s not like the blacks killed his entire family, did they? He did resign after the incident. Ah well.

Doesn’t change the fact that some people still need to go to school, because even if at any time a man could get drafted to join the ranks as a child soldier, getting a GED was still a thing.

Cast

AUGUST WASHINGTON	A student, wheelchair bound, formerly blind, Anglo-Saxon
DINA WASHINGTON	36 years old, VP of a weapons manufacturer Aesir, Anglo-Saxon
BEN WASHINGTON	Dina’s father, August’s Grandfather, deceased, Anglo-Saxon
DAMIEN LEONE	A student, son of a CEO, August’s friend, Italian
TEAGAN WEAVER	A student, delinquent, takes night classes to graduate, Anglo-Saxon
KARIN WOLF	A student, an influencer, has 50,000 subscribers, Anglo-Saxon
ZOEY GUNN	A student, volleyball player aiming for the Ivy League, German
SARAH CRUZ	A student, top AP student who works at Chipotle part-time, Mexican
RYAN DEAN	A student, a quarterback, head of self-improvement club, Scandinavian
JAY SOMMAPHOUT	A student, member of self-improvement club, Thai
TONY SUMMERS	A student, a student of life, African American (descended from slaves)
SAM ETTLUND	A student, has a crush on Ryan, Scandinavian
EDEL BURNS	A student, blind since birth, German
CAO WEI	Aged man, martial arts master, Dina’s teacher, Han Chinese

ACT 1

Scene 1. A black screen

Enter AUGUST recording on his phone.

AUGUST

My name is August, or if you’re the spat that is my mother, it’s Augustus. She says life is an oyster, that men can sculpt his own shell, that men are made, not born. Bull—t. I didn’t choose to be born. No less to a wench like her who wishes to live her dream of becoming Hokage (President) of America through a relenting son.

Also, I didn’t choose not to see, not to walk. To never see or walk.

But luck let me see, and damn it, I’m still struggling to walk.

Who reads? Who will come to read? If I am going to be President, people of my ilk should be fond of autobiography.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Roosevelt, and more are in stores near you.

Ben wasn’t a President. Still, I mention them because I’d like to share that with force-fed educations comes great, great, great man philosophy.

This man in a wheelchair subscribes to Great Man Theory. What the strong don’t understand is the need for a hero.

And what makes a hero?

Choices.

To kill or not to kill. To be or not to be. Justice and mercy are in his hands.

And in this country called America, they’ll call him a tyrant, this hero, this man.

It’s not for the hero. It’s for regular people. We only have three choices in life that provide any change.

Who to bang, who to bang, and suicide.

Dina thought naming me after a powerful person might make me powerful also.

To that, I can say I can see, but I’m still young. I’ve still got a long time to figure out what I believe.

And if I’m to suffer the plight called the American Education system, then, well, it doesn’t hurt to finish strong, and get to a place where I shake hands with the future killers of our age.

I’m speaking of those east coast colleges, of course, those Ivy Leagues, or maybe West Point or the Citadel or wherever in the United States would teach me to be some hero like Achilles or Theseus, raping my way across the lawless lands. Yeah, it could be fun. Many of my peers might prefer doing it in secret. Personally, I believe such things are better done in the open.