† JOHN AND PAULA – A Discussion †

JOHN: Storytelling has been dead for six years. And it has nothing to do with AI – actually, in 2026, AI is trying to save the old-school storytelling. Storytelling was murdered by COVID. It was murdered by the jerks who let the Coronavirus loose. The vaccines and the booster doses destroyed the brains of those Americans who took the shots. They are soft in the head. Everything’s upside down. People don’t even seem to comprehend simple sentences. If I’m in the library and I say, "I’m ok," the blue-haired librarian interprets it, "If you don’t find the book, I’m gonna burn this place down!" It’s insane! The only books they should be allowed to read – My Little Pony books! If you give them a Stephen King book, for example, they’ll turn violent. They’ll think it’s true crime, not just a story to give you a tiny break from your work or something.
PAULA: Now, there’s hantavirus.
JOHN: The foggy brains shall become foggier!
PAULA: We’re not foggy.
JOHN: No, but Phileas Fogg is livin' rent-free in my head.
PAULA: Oh, Jules Verne’s "Around the World in Eighty Days." The gentleman who has everything figured out.
JOHN: Except Love.
PAULA: I can’t stop talking about love…
JOHN: Nothin' to talk about, really! I can talk about my Baby, but Love… If we’re talkin' about Romance and Sex, it’s simple. You either wanna fuck the girl or you don’t wanna fuck the girl. And when it’s True Love, your knob doesn’t have to visit the lion’s den: that’s actually the highest act of True Love in the Material World. You’re not gonna ruin her life, vomit your seed inside her lagoon, for the sake of 10 selfish minutes.
PAULA: John the Noble.
JOHN: I am! Think about it! I never ruined some poor American Woman’s life!
PAULA: John…
JOHN: And I saved you! True or false?! True. So, I’m a hero.
PAULA: I can feel your heart getting all expanded and excited, all the way to Helsinki, Finland…
JOHN: Wanna fuck you, right now! Pause!
 

JOHN: People outside our continent don’t understand that the mountains are alive. Hell, many of my countrymen, outside NC and the neighboring states, don’t get it – they’ve only seen the barley fields or concrete! You wrote about the energy fields, didn’t you?
PAULA: That’s nothing, John. In Finland, it’s weak. It’s different.
JOHN: Tell me! Please…
PAULA: OK… In Helsinki, there used to be hills, surrounded by massive trees. Those hills were the energy portals. However, in 1915, the Russians brought 3000 Chinese to cut the trees down, and the Russians built a WWI fortress line where the hills used to be. I have visited one of the most noticeable hill sites, and it’s almost invisible to the eye, in 2026. It’s in the armpit of Hämeenlinnanväylä, which is a heavy traffic route in Helsinki. One can’t even stop and walk on the hill, not really. Literally, a part of the massive road is just resting on the hill, and people have tossed empties and trash on it from the moving cars.
JOHN: Oh my G’d… That’s sad. You can’t block and destroy the energy portals without causing the so-called Butterfly Effect. We – here – are this strong because the Russians, earlier the Swedes, too, I guess, and, also, the independent Finns fucked up that landscape. The pressure has to be released. And we have the mountains. Super charged, when this world was created, but now a super massive volcano, pouring and spitting out invisible energy! Scary shit, really.
PAULA: Are you eating peanuts? I can hear a cracking sound.
JOHN: I was hungry. Yes.
PAULA: I’m gonna have an ice cream.
JOHN: You can do whatever you want, sweetie!
PAULA: Do you feel like a superman?
JOHN: No. What is that, in this context?
PAULA: I have seen books, written by your fellow Americans, and those who acknowledge the force are acting like they’re supermen or -women, and they are writing about it like they’re a part of this big conspiracy. Extremely political stuff.
JOHN: Fuck them. They sound like assholes. I don’t wanna know them. G’d Almighty… Supermen…
PAULA: What are you, then?
JOHN: Seriously, woman! Are you askin' me that?! Seriously?!
PAULA: [Laughter]
JOHN: I’m a guy! I’m a guy who senses a lot! I’m outside my body but I’m inside my body. I’m grabbing your tits right now.
PAULA: Stop it! [Laughing.]
JOHN: What are you, then?
PAULA: The Master of the Universe.
JOHN: Pause!
 

PAULA: What is the reason for us to write these things down? How do you think people are going to react?
JOHN: I don’t give a shit! I’m gonna die, maybe not today or tomorrow, but I’m gonna die. To not write these discussions down… Hmmm… Well… That’s like living a lie. And I ain’t no liar, baby! You know it, everybody knows it. If somebody doesn’t understand this… Then, he or she is not on the same level, and that is the level of the higher beings… New Jerusalem. They’re gonna fall, Pure Nothingness will swallow them, but you and I – we shall enter the new world. And what a shocking and horrible place it is, sugar pie. But because we are the strongest, the most valiant, we are going to do whatever we are meant to do, there. It’s going to be brilliant… Different.
PAULA: I can see you, now… So dry, so rough, nothing but your monk’s robe on… Your white beard is short and smooth, so cute…
JOHN: Yes, have to dress up for the occasion, always!
PAULA: Do you feel tired… of life?
JOHN: No, not really. I feel good, so good… I got you…
PAULA: The cup of life. The cup of water is the woman.
JOHN: It’s not rocket science, but people turned love into something bizarre. True Love is not a game show: love’s not logical but it’s also not a question of your heart flowing around like a balloon. The most obnoxious thing is when some priests talk about the Holy Spirit like it’s a whirl of hot air, creating ants in your pants. No. That’s just spiritual whoring. Now, when I’m completely aware of our connection… Now… Today… I almost want to vomit. Not because it’s bad or something I don’t want to experience, but because my past easily slithers in where only good things should exist… I haven’t done anything grose, not really, but… Y’know… Some abstract ideas visited my head when I was 20, 30… Y’know… Y’know… Should I date, marry, and have sex with that girl or that girl? I’m not a virgin, I lost my virginity when I was 18, and it was my biggest mistake. I’ve told you already. Two minutes with the rubber. Fucking disgusting. And I must be dumb, because I thought that the rubber would feel better with somebody else. It didn’t. My mistake number two. I was 19. I haven’t felt anything… Real. And I turned myself into a grouch…
PAULA: No! You cannot feel guilty, John! I think our thoughts together, now, are randier than the thoughts of the young J. who was full of freaky hormones. It’s the electricity. They’re testing what happens if this or that cable hits the water, and everyone of us is a walking pond. It’s disgusting, the testing. It’s not something we can control. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
JOHN: Says the woman who was runnin' around with ev’ry man in town…
PAULA: John! Jealousy? Now? Please, don’t!
JOHN: I can’t help it.
PAULA: I wasn’t runnin' around with ev’ry man in town! If an unknown guy with no respect approached me like an ungodly king of Bashan and just shoved his index finger inside of me, it wasn’t my decision, and I fought and escaped the scene. I didn’t fuck those random assholes and violators. And when I tried dating, those guys forced themselves on me when I was sleeping. But they didn’t call it rape: they called it an act of passion. I was too beautiful. Was that my fault? That G-d gave me this face? The godless guys, they only think about sticks and holes, John. Sticks… And holes. Nothing matters to them, John. This was Finland, when I was a young adult, and things are worse in 2026, if you happen to be a young woman. Only one guy treated me ok, here, and he died.
JOHN: Oh my G’d… What’s the matter with me?
PAULA: Nothing. Remember, you are the Mechanic. You managed to identify and fix the problem of this vehicle. Disappointed?
JOHN: I saw the vision of you when you were young. And now, you’re the image of what you could’ve been, without the attacks and the abuse.
PAULA: Congratulations!
JOHN: But it’s not me you’re with…
PAULA: I’m sitting on the cloud with the Father.
JOHN: What if I sit next to you?
PAULA: That’s just fine. So, you’re not suitable for me?
JOHN: Hmmm….
PAULA: Who is the purest and the dearest of them all?
JOHN: Oh, gee… Not this, again…
PAULA: Who?
JOHN: John.
PAULA: Right answer.
 

John (born 1960) worked for Shell and Ford before becoming the member and one of the leads of the brotherhood of John the Baptist. He hasn’t written much, but he’s writing, now, after stepping down and becoming Paula’s public protector and defender. He doesn’t like politics, he doesn’t like how most of the individuals are behaving – lacking common sense and insulting the Lord – but he’s keeping his cool (for Paula’s sake.) John is a Healer and a Servant.

Paula (born 1982) earned her Expert status in 2024 (SYO,) upgrading her MA status (History of Science and Ideas, University of Oulu, 2012) and her status as an Academic Writer and a Beat Poet. She, also, became an Expert in Service Design, Manager-Level Customer Service, and Team Work. Later, in 2024, she studied Planetary Well-Being (University of Jyväskylä,) and she became an Expert in Planetary Communication. In 2025/2026, she became the Exorcist of the brotherhood, practicing the methods of the Sun Cross (Christian & Jewish.) However, now, she’s not doing anything: she’s merely enjoying her time with John, studying their relationship and love through poetry, etc.