Pastor Rebecca Meyer sat alone in her study, a small room at the back of the church where she had spent so many years preparing sermons, writing letters to parishioners, and managing the small but tight-knit congregation that had grown up around her. Once a passionate advocate for Christian unity, Rebecca was now tired—exhausted by the weight of seeing everything she had worked for crumble before her eyes.

  She had always been a fighter. She had always stood firm in her faith, believing that the gospel would guide her and her people through any storm. But three months after the Velvet Exodus network took hold in Northern Michigan, it was clear that the storm had arrived—and it was not going away. It was spreading southward, sweeping through Central Michigan and even beginning to ripple across Western Michigan. And it seemed that no one had the strength to resist it anymore.

  Rebecca, once a beacon of hope for her community, was now simply trying to survive in a world where the gospel had been distorted and twisted to serve a political machine. The Velvet Exodus, aided by 6C’s ever-expanding influence, had begun infiltrating every aspect of life in Michigan, from church congregations to family structures, reshaping communities in ways that were both insidious and irreversible.

  When the Velvet Exodus had first appeared in Central Michigan, Rebecca had hoped it would stay at the fringes, just another underground movement among many. But as time passed, it became clear that it was growing in influence. Young women she had once counseled for their spiritual journeys were disappearing, joining the Velvet Exodus to “seek a better life.” At first, it had been whispered rumors—women who had found safety in exchange for “adjusting” to the new 6C ws.

  At the heart of it all, Pastor Rebecca’s church was slowly losing its relevance. Where once there had been vibrant, passionate discussions about the Scriptures, now there were murmurs of survival. Her sermons, which had once inspired change, were now filled with resignation.

  Rebecca had heard the reports from her colleagues in Western Michigan. The situation was even worse there. The powerful influence of 6C had not only taken over towns and cities, but it had also dismantled the very fabric of religious identity. The Lutheran and Catholic churches had been weakened, overtaken by converts and co-opted leaders who had bent to the will of 6C.

  In one of her rare moments of strength, Rebecca reached out to Pastor Karl Mueller from the LCMS in Northern Michigan, who had once been a staunch critic of 6C. But the letter she received in response chilled her to the core. Pastor Mueller, once a voice of resistance, had succumbed to the pressure, now ciming that the changes were “necessary for survival.” His church had been absorbed by the Velvet Exodus as a satellite location, and he had been pced in charge of administering the “faithful” in his region. It was clear that the battle for spiritual autonomy had been lost.

  It was after a long day of preparing a sermon that Rebecca finally broke. The evening had been long, the sun setting behind the hills of Central Michigan as she sat in her study, eyes bloodshot from hours of reading Scripture and analyzing the reports that had come in from various underground sources. The once-strong network of resistance she had helped foster in her community had dwindled, with many members having either fled or been silenced.

  Then, came the knock.

  She opened the door to find one of her former parishioners—Anna—a young woman who had once been an active part of the church. Anna had returned after a long absence, but Rebecca could see the change in her eyes. Her once-sharp gaze was now dulled, her posture resigned. She was wearing the mark of the Velvet Exodus—a small, subtle symbol etched onto her wrist, marking her as a part of the new order.

  "Rebecca," Anna said, her voice low. "I'm sorry. I didn't want this to happen, but I had no choice. You know what it's like now, don't you? We either join, or we perish."

  Rebecca’s heart sank as she realized the depth of Anna’s submission. The young woman, once so full of hope, had given herself to the Velvet Exodus. She had been broken, turned into another piece of the machinery that was taking over the region.

  Anna continued, her voice quieter now. "They promised me protection. A future. A pce in this new world. I thought I could resist, but it feels like the world is changing so fast. I couldn’t hold out any longer, Rebecca. We don’t have a pce in this world anymore—not without them."

  Rebecca felt a lump form in her throat. She knew the situation was dire, but hearing Anna's words drove the point home more powerfully than anything else. This wasn’t just about survival—it was about losing everything. The church, her community, her beliefs, and her very identity. The Velvet Exodus wasn’t just offering shelter; it was offering a complete redefinition of life as they knew it.

  Rebecca’s Decision

  As Anna left, Rebecca stood at the window, staring out into the twilight. It was hard to see the road ahead. Her community was crumbling, and the weight of 6C’s expansion loomed rger with each passing day. She had tried to fight, tried to resist, but it felt like trying to hold back an avanche with nothing but her hands.

  She reached for her Bible, but as she flipped through the pages, they felt strangely distant—like a world that was slipping further and further away. The teachings of Jesus, once the cornerstone of everything she had known, now felt like the words of a bygone era. How could she reconcile these teachings with the brutal reality unfolding around her? How could she justify standing in defiance when it seemed as though the entire world was aligning itself with 6C’s ws?

  After a long pause, Rebecca closed the Bible. The weight of the decision before her pressed down on her chest. There was no room for defiance anymore—not in the world that 6C had created. The only question left was how to survive in this new reality, and that survival now meant aligning with the very forces she had once fought against.

  Three days ter, Rebecca found herself in a meeting with one of the Velvet Exodus recruiters. The recruiter, a woman who had once been a member of Rebecca’s church, expined the new rules clearly. Joining Velvet Exodus was the only way to secure her pce in the new world. Resistance was no longer an option.

  Rebecca’s heart was heavy with the weight of her decision, but as the recruiter spoke, she realized something. The decision had already been made for her—by the world around her. There was no escaping the reality that 6C had crafted a new order, and to survive, she would have to find her pce within it.

  With a trembling hand, Rebecca signed the agreement.

  By the end of the week, Pastor Rebecca Meyer was no longer leading her church. Her once proud position as a religious leader had been repced by her new role within Velvet Exodus. She was a small cog in the massive machine, yet she knew this was the price of survival.

  The church she had once led was now a converted sanctuary for women seeking refuge under the protection of 6C, and Rebecca was tasked with overseeing their integration into the new social order.

  The journey had begun, but it wasn’t the path she had imagined.

  ***

  CNN SPECIAL REPORT

  Title: “Three States, One Theocracy: Life Under 6C in Michigan, West Virginia, and Indiana”

  Anchor: Anderson Wills

  Air Date: April 12, 2025

  INTRO SEGMENT

  Anderson Wills (Anchor):

  “Good evening. It’s been three months since the 6 Commandments, or 6C, enforced its revolutionary family doctrine: the Polygamy Law, the Polyandry Ban Cuse, and the controversial Wife Femme Cuse. Tonight, we focus our lens on three battleground states—Michigan, West Virginia, and Indiana—where the theocratic transformation is not only legal, but cultural.”

  MICHIGAN: A FAITH FUSION STATE

  Correspondent: Naomi Toussaint – Grand Rapids, MI

  “Once known for its religious pluralism and progressive urban centers, Michigan is now the heart of 6C’s religious revival. The theocratic capital is Dearborn, where Imam Hassan Qazwini and Rev. Deon Carter lead a fusion of Ismic and Bck Protestant ideology under the 6C banner.

  Polygamy is widely visible—especially in Detroit’s east side, where marriage centers operate six days a week. But perhaps the most surprising development is the explosion of ‘femme communes’—residences where women live and sleep with each other under the protection of the Wife Femme Cuse.

  Interview – Commune Member, alias ‘Sister Peaches’:

  “Look, we’re not dumb. The w still belongs to men. But if they want to give us this cuse, we’re going to build something out of it. We call it holy queer survival.”

  The resistance? Mostly driven underground. The Lutheran bishop in Northern Michigan remains defiant, but his network is shrinking. The Velvet Exodus, once a safe haven for non-compliant women, was recently taken over by 6C in a silent coup.”

  WEST VIRGINIA: TRADITION TURNED THEOCRACY

  Correspondent: Caleb Park – Charleston, WV

  “West Virginia embraced 6C as a ‘return to biblical order,’ but not everyone agrees with what that order has become. The Polygamy Law is enforced with enthusiasm in rural counties, where pastors preach that ‘God gave Adam four Eves, not one.’

  Meanwhile, enforcement of the Polyandry Ban Cuse has already led to three executions in Logan and Mingo Counties—two of them via public stoning, livestreamed on 6C’s state-run media ptform ‘PureStream.’

  But there’s another story here—the rise of female-run homesteads taking advantage of the Wife Femme Cuse. These are often located in mountainous areas, where queer women retreat together to live beyond male control.

  Interview – Former Trinitarian Pastor, now hiding:

  “They gave women a loophole. Not out of kindness, but control. Still—some of us are using it as sanctuary.”

  INDIANA: FEMME CLAUSE UNLEASHED

  Correspondent: Aisha Patel – Indianapolis, IN

  “In what many analysts are calling an ‘unintended revolution,’ Indiana—once expected to become the quiet enforcer of 6C’s patriarchal vision—has become the epicenter of a new kind of female agency, thanks to the Wife Femme Cuse.

  Originally inserted into the 6C’s Polygamy Law as a strategic concession, the cuse allows any married or unmarried woman to have unlimited female sexual partners, so long as she formally decres her ‘femme bonds’ to her local registrar. What 6C leaders did not predict was how seriously women would embrace this freedom—and how quickly it would alter household power dynamics.

  Interview – Femme Registrar, Fort Wayne:

  “We expected maybe a few discreet decrations. What we got was thousands. Wives walking in hand-in-hand with lovers, filing legal femme contracts, and forming tight-knit alliances stronger than most marriages.”

  Within just three months, thousands of “femme decrations” have been processed, many of them involving multiple partners across households. Once subdued and economically dependent, many wives now wield quiet dominance in their homes—not through defiance, but through state-legal intimacy networks that husbands legally cannot block.

  Interview – Malik Jefferson, Husband of Four Wives:

  “They all get along, but it’s deeper than that. Two of them are femme-bonded. I can’t say no. That’s the w. Sometimes I feel like a guest in my own house.”

  Social scientists say that the Wife Femme Cuse is reshaping Indiana’s domestic culture at warp speed. Femme unions now co-parent children, coordinate household finances, and even run local ‘Sister Courts’—informal gatherings of bonded women who negotiate disputes without male involvement.

  Churches loyal to 6C have tried to limit the influence, warning that femme networks must not repce husbandly authority. But enforcement has proved tricky. Any restriction pced by a husband on a femme partner’s retionships can be contested in local 6C courts—and almost always ruled in favor of the woman, so long as her decration was on record first.

  Interview – Former Social Worker Turned Femme Advocate:

  “This cuse gave us a crack in the wall. And we pushed. Now some husbands ask permission to speak in their own homes.”

  In cities like Bloomington and Lafayette, the term “velvet dynasties” has emerged to describe households run by interconnected femme alliances. And while some men have adapted by forming their own ‘brotherhood councils,’ the shift is undeniable.

  What was once a patriarchal experiment is, in Indiana, quickly mutating into a matriarchal undercurrent—with legal cover.”

  ***

  Velvet Unity: A Femme Alliance in Lafayette, Indiana

  Name of Alliance: Velvet Unity Circle

  Location: South Lafayette, Indiana

  Formed: 6 weeks after Wife Femme Cuse enactment

  Members: 9 women — 4 wives (from different polygamous homes), 3 single femmes, 2 widows

  The Velvet Unity Circle began as a whispered pact between two wives who shared more than household duties—they shared love. With Indiana's legal backing under the Wife Femme Cuse, what began as an emotional lifeline evolved into a formal decration of femme bonding. Today, Velvet Unity is one of the most visible femme alliances in the state.

  The Circle operates from a rge converted farmhouse where decred femmes live communally, though still maintaining legal ties to their respective households. Husbands are not allowed to interfere, and many quietly cooperate, fearing social backsh from the rising femme bloc.

  Key Members:

  Naomi Chavis (37) – First decred femme of the group, wife of a local 6C councilman. She now manages logistics and legal filings for all new femme bonds in Lafayette.

  Jasmin Vega (29) – Unmarried, former youth pastor. Functions as the Circle’s spiritual mentor, blending scripture with queer-positive interpretations of 6C’s doctrine.

  Leigh Anne Morton (41) – A widow of a 6C enforcer. She acts as the group's financial strategist, using her inheritance to fund femme-led projects like childcare co-ops and legal defense for women under threat.

  Kailyn and Bryn (25 & 26) – Two single femmes from Bloomington who joined the Circle after their former roommates were forced into unwanted marriages. They run femme self-defense csses on the weekends.

  Cultural Impact:

  Velvet Unity is credited with coining the phrase “Femme First, Faith Later,” a slogan now printed on posters and whispered in quiet rebellion across Indiana.

  The group hosts “Decration Nights” every Friday, where women come to the farmhouse, publicly decre their femme bonds, and are welcomed in with a traditional kiss and blessing of oil and vender.

  Velvet Unity colborates with other femme houses to create a regional network—a “Velvet Map”—tracking safe homes, femme-friendly doctors, and sympathetic 6C registrars.

  Conflicts:

  While technically legal, the Circle has drawn scrutiny from 6C authorities who worry about the rising influence of femme blocs. There are whispers that men in Lafayette’s conservative circles feel "disempowered" and are petitioning for the "Femme Cuse to be refined."

  One councilman’s aide anonymously shared:

  “The cuse was meant to manage desire, not build matriarchies. But these women— they’re organizing. Quietly, smartly. And they’re winning.”

  Closing Thought:

  Velvet Unity is no mere loophole. It’s a movement. And as more women in Indiana decre femme bonds—protected by the very theocracy meant to control them—an unintended revolution simmers under the velvet surface.

  ***