Satan's Last Stand (the Connor series) - Dirk B. (Page 45 of 52)

Connor's views on straight vs gay sex goes something like:

In  other words, I doubt many gay men were procreating with straight women in the past. To me, that suggests they would be bisexual men, not gay. Few people, if any, would be thinking about the survival of the human race if they didn't procreate. People had kids for personal reasons: kids worked long hours, whether on a farm or elsewhere, to provide cheap labor to support their families; they were also expected to help support their parents in their old age (still true in many countries); and they were a bit of insurance in case disease killed some of them, which was common. My grandfather was one of 16 siblings (yikes!), only 14 of whom lived to adulthood (I have a billion second cousins in Germany, most of whom I don't even know).

Connor's question r.e. whether the kid is a virgin will be forgotten as soon as the reader gets a look at Connor's (aka Christ's) views on homosexuality. Some people's heads will no doubt explode. I do have the kid ask whether Connor is the Antichrist "as some people claim," but Connor bats that away easily. The purpose of the kid's question is to remind the reader that Connor's views are those of the Antichrist, not Christ. There won't be anyone to give an opposing point of view, though, since the seduction happens in secret behind (conquered) Vatican walls.

You should see his views on the inevitable death of Christianity had He (Connor) not returned to save it. He blames Christian leaders for not doing enough to tackle it, which shows that "they've already been seduced by Satan. Christians are so busy guarding the front door that they didn't even notice he snuck in the back door. The Unholy Trinity would have conquered the Catholic Church by now were it not for my early return."

I'm still waffling over whether Connor's seduced teen is 16 (like Connor) or 18. I originally intended him to be 16 since it might help explain how come he's fairly easily seduced even though he's the son of a Protestant minister, whereas it might be less objectionable to some readers if he's an adult (not sure about that). I'm leaning back toward 16. Connor seducing a minor would probably ruffle a lot of feathers even though he's the AC. But from the story's perspective, Connor seducing a minor is exactly what the AC should do. Naturally, sex in the story, whether gay or straight, is implied, never shown.

I think hetero prisoners having gay relationships is the rare exception, not the norm, otherwise it would come up all the time. There are a considerable number of Americans who still think homosexuality is a choice, and they would seize on every opportunity to make their case, just as they used to point to men who, following conversion therapy, declared themselves straight. Problem was, some of those shining examples blew up spectacularly, when they went back to being gay. I remember one of them, a very vocal convert, was caught inside a gay bar (or club), and he wasn't there preaching the joys of conversion. :-)  There's a reason why conversion therapy is increasingly banned for minors.

Given how shameful it was to be gay in centuries past, it doesn't surprise me that some married, perhaps had kids, and "dabbled" on the side. I have to wonder, though, how many of them were actually bisexual instead of homosexual. Either way, I'm betting some of their spouses weren't thrilled with the sex life. :)  Another common alternative was to move away from home.

I remember hearing (reading?) a quote from a gay activist who said that if straight people want to know what gay people think of straight sex, those straight people should try to picture themselves having gay sex. I may have Connor say something like that, although the scene with Connor's homosexual views in the book are already likely to be too long and need trimming. As usual, he's also trying to piss Satan off. :)

Connor expresses fairly liberal opinions on homosexuality which isn't surprising since he's bisexual. His willingness to push his lover, whom he's grooming as a young leader to gather other young people as converts, to adopt less conservative views is an attempt to cast a wide, inclusive net to appeal to not just gays, who are a small minority of the population, but to the many young people who strongly support gay rights because they consider the bigoted views of older generations incomprehensible.

Christ (Connor) is woke!

One of the details I'm still working through is Satan's reactions to all this. He's repeatedly having to explain away Connor's reckless behavior toward visiting dignitaries, including many Protestants, who come to the Vatican to see for themselves whether Connor is Christ. They make the mistake of asking Connor to show them a miracle once too often. As a result, he chooses a Protestant minister's two sons as volunteers for the demonstration. He offers the sons a drink, which Connor also consumes, containing a relatively minor, short-acting poison.

The sons become sick (Connor doesn't) at which point Connor explains that he poisoned them, but that he's willing to save one of them, whichever their father picks. Connor quotes from the Bible that you should not put the Lord to the test. Fortunately, one of the sons (his future lover) recognizes the words and is able to name the chapter and verse for each instance where words to that effect appear in the Bible. Connor "cures" both sons in response to that and invites his future lover to stay at the Vatican.

Satan has to sit there throughout all this, on the verge of a stroke. :P  I may have Connor comment to that effect: "Angelo, you don't look well. Are you having a stroke?"

This version of Connor is so much more fun to write than in book one.

I had a neat idea for book three. Since Connor needs a human fighting force at the beginning of the final battle, I thought that Connor, being the result of genetic manipulation based on Satan's millennia-old breeding program, would have had predecessors from the breeding program. Turns out, many of them are still alive, even though Satan had ordered them destroyed once Connor was born. The program was run from a compound in the the jungles of South America, run by a trainer who took pity on the last batch of kids created for the program, so he led them to a local priest, who assumed their care.

In book three, Connor learns of their existence, so he goes there to discover the rescued kids all look very similar to him, he being the culmination of the breeding program. All those kids (now young adults) have powers similar to Connor, just not as powerful. The reason Connor is stronger than expected is because Campagna is his mother.

Satan's zombie body is a dead version of one of the past generation of kids from the program, whose DNA Satan forced into Campagna's body for the birth of the Antichrist. Satan is unaware of how powerful Connor is as a result of being Campagna's son.

The problem with the breeding program is that it eventually runs into a dead end, when the last few batches of kids turn out to be increasingly sterile. Satan's zombie body was created long before the batch of sterile kids, so he can still reproduce using his assumed body.

Connor tells his predecessors from the breeding program the truth about what Satan had been doing with them, and asks for them to fight for him, which they agree to do. The end result is that a batch of super powered young adults become Connor's human army in the battle.

There are some issues with making this work and simplifying the details, but it could be a great way to give Connor an interesting ancestry and a cool fighting force for the final battle, all relatives of Connor through Satan's zombie DNA. And it should be a great addition to the plot. These kids all underwent rigorous training before Satan ordered them destroyed, including knife and sword fighting. Handy, huh? Connor also undergoes similar training in preparation for the battle, probably overseen by Michael the Archangel, an ancient friend of Adam's. Connor is a natural at this, in part because of his enhanced intelligence, strength, and speed and in part because all his ancestors were bred to be good fighters.

I'll have to come up with a reason why Campagna's DNA makes Connor so powerful. Perhaps it's just random luck involving the DNA, although I'd prefer a better explanation. TBD.

The breeding program might completely eliminate the need to have a geneticist in the story. Not sure yet.

Neutral thoughts here. I feel it's a lot to pack into 3 books, but will have to wait to see the execution

A brief history about the compound and breeding program can be related to Connor by one of his genetic relatives, so it doesn't all have to be experienced firsthand by Connor, although I definitely think he should visit the compound. Perhaps that's where the most recent generation of kids still live, hiding away because people fear their powers. That could lead to a coordinated attack by superstitious locals while Connor is there. I think he should also be challenged by one of the kids (alpha male), who wants to see if he can best Connor and take over as leader. They fight physically and Connor seems to lose, pinned to the ground by the other kid. Just when the kid thinks he's stronger and better, Connor surprises him by throwing the kid off and overpowering him. This could be the first reveal that Connor is truly more powerful than any of the others. Another step in revealing his true power to the other characters and the reader could come while Connor is being trained by St. Michael. It might even be a surprise to Connor just how strong he really is. The final step would be during the battle, when Connor holds nothing back when fighting the demons. Heads will fly!

I like not having to have a "formal" compound. If they're deep in the jungle, there's no need for walls around the compound, the conditions would be harsh since Satan wants to toughen the kids up, there's no need to provide food for them, water they can get from a nearby river and rainwater, minimal clothing from the outside world (I'm thinking loin cloths and no shoes; it's always hot and humid there anyway), and if they're stupid enough to get lost foraging for food, then Satan doesn't want them anyway. He's not looking for someone he has to rescue. It's a good thing I never ran an orphanage, huh?

Satan's breeding program seems somewhat like the Bene Gesserit's attempt to create the Kwisatz Haderach, except Satan has the kids on a tight leash when it comes to who breeds with whom (yes, there are girls there too). I now have two potential roles for a geneticist: determine who reproduces with whom to bring about certain desirable characteristics in the offspring, and mess with Connor's DNA prior to insemination to make him even more powerful than the others, while simultaneously creating within him an overwhelming genetic urge to serve his father. FYI, the geneticist is a former disciple of Joseph Mengele, spirited out of Germany after WW2. One of the things the geneticist does early on is to adjust his own DNA to extend his lifespan since it's yet unknown when the end will come, and the breeding program has to continue until the Antichrist has been successfully created.

A third role for the geneticist would be to keep a handwritten journal documenting much of what he has done. That journal makes it into Romano's hands midway through book 2, who shows Connor that his overwhelming urge to serve his father, which Connor mistook for love of his father, is nothing more than genetic manipulation. And it comes with a built-in guarantee: if ever someone were to turn off the gene(s) involved, the carrier of the gene(s) will die, although it takes about two years, which gets us right to the end of trilogy, when Connor will be 18.

One big issue for me is to explain how the geneticist is able to perform/perfect all this research, which is light years ahead of modern genetics. Satan's breeding program will help. Many of the "supernatural" abilities of Connor and his predecessors were developed through the millennia-old breeding program. I'd like a better explanation, though, for why Campagna's genes turn what would be a powerful offspring into a superhuman. Even Connor doesn't know the limits of his powers. He thinks he does, but he's never faced a situation requiring him push himself so hard that his genes turn him from powerful into superhuman, similar to what happens to the Duncan Idaho ghola in one of the later Dune books. Wish me luck trying to explain, even at a rudimentary level, how that is possible. Probably no one will have an actual answer, although the characters can speculate about it.

One possibility is the way long-distance runners are eventually able to run non-stop (until they run out of readily available fuel), far beyond whatever wall previously prevented them from doing so. That happened to me many years ago, and the endorphins were firing on all cylinders, which is probably part of what kept me going.

>> FYI, the geneticist is a former disciple of Joseph Mengele, spirited out of Germany after WW2. One of the things the geneticist does early on is to adjust his own DNA to extend his lifespan since it's yet unknown when the end will come, and the breeding program has to continue until the Antichrist has been successfully created.

Very interesting historical twist. Could you perhaps have the former disciple of Mengele show up as Mengele's son? The Angel of Death's son. Find an appropriate name of course!

The only issue is that some people will state that God limited man's age to 120 years. That is up to interpretation. Apparently, that might have been the time when the flood was to occur 120 years in the future.

I'm a little nervous about breeding in supernatural powers but will comment later.

>I'm a little nervous about breeding in supernatural powers but will comment later.
It's no different than if the powers were the result of artificially editing the human genome. Basically, my story implies that humans can have such powers (i.e., the "potential" to have such powers exists in all humans), whether by editing the genome or breeding the necessary edits into the genome.

Yeah, I'd rather not go there. Although he's 80, if he lives long enough for my books to get finished, any "son' could be seen to be a disguised version of the real one. Highly unlikely, but why go there? Also, my story has a subplot where a group of super-humans has been bred by evil. Remind you of any historical regimes? A daughter I could see using as the geneticist. I'm always looking for good roles for women in this story.

Sorry, I might have missed it but:

Why stop at only one Connor? Why not make backups?

The other option is for someone to explain that once the Antichrist is born, Satan will not receive another soul for another kid.