No fucking way... I stared at her in complete amazement. Paul, is that really you?
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I was living my best life at the University of Texas at Austin. It's crazy to believe that formal end the Second Civil War, happened over 5 years ago. Looking down, even the scars on my left arm from the shrapnel that hit me as my family fled south away from California were beginning to fade.
In 2025, under the guise of openness several states including California, began enforcing fairly extreme new policies: (1) mandating the correct use of pronouns, (2) cross-cultural insemination programs, (3) banning cis-men from holding more than 25% of the positions in businesses, & state and local governments..
Much of the Midwest, Southwest, and Southeastern portions of the United States condemned the new policies. The most vocal of the states was Texas. Texas promised that they will never infringe upon the rights given to every American within the constitution, and vowed to become a safe haven for businesses seeking to leave stringent restrictions.
These factors meant our family was very mobile. At the time my family lived in a small suburb 20 minutes outside of San Diego, CA. Thanks to a global pandemic in 2020, my father worked a remotely. My mother was a ER nurse. My fathers company which manufactured semiconductors had recently opened up a new office and Austin. As soon as the news broke about the enforcement of the new policies, my father got a transfer. He and my mother packed our bags and our family headed for Texas. The day after we crossed the border into Arizona, our car hit an IED placed by a local militia trying to prevent the migration of Californians who were seeking refuge from the new policies.
Weeks after we had fled, California had rallied Oregon, Washington, New York and most of the Northeast in succeeding from the then United States, calling themselves the "Open" country. It was beyond clichΓ©, and sounded more like the name of a "Startup", rather than a country. It was this the kicked off the beginning of the second Civil War in America. After three years of fighting, the war drew to a close as our armies surrounded Los Angeles and New York. The formal surrender happened on August 5th, 2028.
My mother was beyond thrilled, because I had just turned 18 and had been in the queue for a while to be drafted. Now with the war and end, much effort was put into reconstructing the former states who rebelled.
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By this time my mother and father had convinced me that rather than joining the reconstruction I would go to university and I have a normal life. The University of Texas at Austin which had been a war hospital. Finally reopened and I would be among the first students to begin taking classes. Interestingly enough, the university excepted admissions from across the full, former United States. This meant that there would be students from "Open" also taking classes with us.
My first week at the University was an eye-opening experience. Eventually weeks, drew to months and months drew the end of my first year.
Throughout the year, I had the opportunity to talk with many people and learn their level of involvement in the war. My roommate, who grew up in Idaho which was one of the border states, described even more extreme policies that were implemented in "Open". Many of his stories, especially the eugenics ones, I chalked up, to rumor and hearsay.
Like the one, where the cities of Seattle and Portland, believed that they had a disproportionate number of white people and needed to become more culturally diverse. They realize that it would be, way too costly to castrate all of the white men. So they enacted a policy that white men must only have sex with another man or MtF transgender. Additionally, any men of color would be paid $1,000 for every child that they sired, with a white woman.
Or the other story out of California, supposedly first proposed in my old hometown San Diego. They found out that many men struggled with low sperm counts, and under-average penis sizes (sub-6 inches). The problem was that these men were still competing for women with men who had normal sperm counts, and normal penis sizes. They believe that this was artificially pulling down the birth rate. Fertile women were marrying these inadequate men and monogamy prevented the women from finding a more adequate man.
He said that the new policy applied for all men besides for African-American men who were above the age of 18. The state would measure their sperm count, and their penis size. If either of the two were found to be inadequate. Then the state would present the person with a couple options.
If the person was not married, then the state would perform a mandatory surgery to remove both their penis and testicles. If the person was married, their wife was allowed to decide if they could at least keep their penis.In both cases, the person was then provided Estrogen, and encouraged to identify now as a trans woman.
I mean what the fuck. None of these can be true.
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Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was out of the bars just before my sophomore year began. The crew consisted of a few of my friends, including my old roommate from Idaho. Several drinks in, one of my friends, nudges me and says, "that girl over there can't take her eyes off of you!" Trying to be sly, I briefly look over. And there she is, a knockout bombshell. She is about 5'9'', 135lb, and wavy blonde hair down to about her nipples. Underneath her long flowing day dress I could see small-to-medium size perky breasts. "God wouldn't I fucking love to see what's underneath that dress", I think.
She notices me, and smiles. Rather than looking away, she starts walking over! Lol seeing this of my friends scatter to give her a clean open to talk to me. As she comes up, I can now see her much more clearly. She has gorgeous green eyes, with really full lips covered in a bright pink shade of lipgloss. She says, "Are you James?". I'm sure an astounded look took over my face. "Yes,... Wait how did you know that?", I reply. She smiles at me and says, I am a good guesser. At this point I don't think anything of it, she's being playful. I think to myself "No need to push your luck guy" and shrug it off. I offered to buy her a drink. The night is a blur, and fast forwards to her place...