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In the City of St Peter and Elsewhere in the Land of the Serboves

Serbovia

Establishing Nation
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
9,357
Location
Helsinki
Capital
Petrovgrad
Nick
Perkele
PROLOGUE

One of the things that Zeljko Vukanovic remembered of his father before the latter had passed away due to a cancer of the liver - an unfortunately major cause of death among male Serboves - was how he had used to say that as a young man he had had no goals, and that he had found his goals only at a later date in life. Zeljko's father had probably meant that as an advice against the stupidity of youth, but Zeljko had always seen its meaning in the fact that when his father had reached that later date in life, he had chosen to concentrate on his work rather than his wife and Zeljko and his siblings.

For him, everything had gone the other way round. When Zeljko had entered the Petrograd University of Finance and Administration, it had been 1988, two years after the Royals had been driven into exile. The speed at which the Social-Nationalists had seemingly resolved Serbovia's political turmoil and instability had impressed him, and like many of his age he had been full of enthusiasm towards the Social-Nationalist People's Party, becoming a full member of the party in the April of 1989 - two months before the government had instituted compulsory party membership for university students.

During his later years, the ideological zeal that had led him to become an active member of the University's section of Social-Nationalist Youth and Students had faded, being replaced by quiet confidence in how the system worked and by unwillingness to question the workings of the said system. As a young man, he'd studied for the sole purpose of obtaining a position in the party hierarchy and eventually entering politics, but that ideological zeal had faded by the time of his graduation. Instead, he had chosen a bureucratic position in the Ministry of State Finances despite knowing even then that few members of the party's inner circle came from civil Ministries. The inner circle always consisted of either established party officials or those who came from the "key" ministries - External Affairs, State Security and Defense.

Zeljko himself believed that after he had reached his desired management position within the Ministry and established a family with Anastasia Vukanovic, a woman he had met while at the University together, he had no goals left to fulfill. In many ways, he was right. He had a stable, respected occupation, a family, an owned apartment in a upper middle-class section of Petrograd and a car - Sokol Jarac 1000. All that a man like him could aspire to have, with the possible exception of the full retirement seventeen years away.

OOC:Short stories...GO! Writing this felt kinda forced, so pardon any wooden writing in this thread. Writing about relatively average people's lives isn't exactly the cup of tea of a Tom Clancy wannabe like me. :think:
 

Serbovia

Establishing Nation
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
9,357
Location
Helsinki
Capital
Petrovgrad
Nick
Perkele
132 Vrabac Ulica,
Petrograd-Prijan District,
Petrograd, Greater Petrograd SAA


Zeljko firmly believed that anyone whose working day did not begin with a hot shower immediately followed by a big cup of hot, black coffee was likely to be a pervert of some kind. His morning routine was one of the many things that he'd picked up from his father despite the little time that Zeljko had spent with him, in addition to certain aphorisms and a penchant for Serbovia's national drink.

Another part of his every-morning coffee routine was reading the four newspapers that the mailman from the Serbovian Federal Post:Istina was the Social-Nationalist People's Party newspaper delivered to every party member, Federalne Vesti was the official Serbovian newspaper delivered to every employee of the Federal government, Časopis Crkve was a newspaper of the Patriarchate of Serbovia distributed to all households with an Orthodox resident and Petrogradu Vesti was a newspaper that he'd ordered on his own.

In fact, the last one was the only one that he took the time to read in full, for the rest to him contained articles interesting to him only on occasion. His wife Anastasia and his son Ivan, on the other hand, both took the time to read Istina: Anastasia Vukanovic was a loyal supporter of the party, and Ivan the student head of his school's chapter of Social-Nationalist Youth. Zeljko had never bothered with Istina, finding it to be blatantly obvious political material for the plebs and whatnot. Federalne Vesti as mainly a bureucratic publication and Petrogradu Vesti as a regular newspaper were more to his taste. Not that it made a difference since most of the Serbovian newspapers got their material from SCNA and the Ministry of Education and Civil Enlightement in any case.

Zeljko had secured a part-time job for his wife in an administrative position in a state company after Ivan had turned 15, an age where he considered that a boy should begin his process of transformation into a real man and thus should not receive as much motherly care as he had used to. With Anastasia working and Ivan old enough to go to school and other activities on his own, Zeljko could enjoy his mornings entirely on his own, with a cup of coffee and a newspaper to read.

Still, he mused as he emptied his cup of coffee and took a look at the clock on the wall of the kitchen of their 80-foot flat, he couldn't stretch this moment forever. Alas, the clock was 7:20, and his day at the State Finances Building in downtown would begin at eight. And the Ministry of State Finances did not wait.
 
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