This story hits pretty squarely on several of my hot buttons. I can't really walk away from it at this point; I am preoccupied with it, the way I get when anything hits me hard. It's hitting on governmental control issues, taking away a person's rights and freedoms for the good of the state, forced pregnancy by sanctioned rape, which is a huge issue for me emotionally because it *does* happen, stripping of identity and arbitrary by-the-state redefining of an individual's status, class, ability to work, forge relationships, have personal choices in things as minor as dress, diet, or any sort of free choice. It's like all those Big Brother societies where everything is regimented and the masses are conditioned to obey, and certain individuals are selected for even more stringent control. It's doing a real number on my head.


I can handle it, it's not that. I usually don't address stuff like this in public fb, partly because I'm pretty sure I'm the only one reacting this way. Most of the fb you've been getting is, "Oh, poor baby, well at least he has Jared. Can't wait to see what happens next!" so I feel like the only one the story is having this serious an effect on. And that's fine. The fact remains, it is hitting me hard. So hard I'm having to write bridging snippets for some resolution between installments, which, you know, are perfect rubbish, but they let me sleep at night. Seriously, I kept dreaming about it and snapping awake the night I read Chapter 1, panicked and fighting for breath. So yeah, I'm sure the tenderness and the smexin' will be all good and stuff, but there's evidently more in this story than that, for me.