The Shepherd’s Tale | Firefly In the 'Verse

Shepherd Book’s past has long been shrouded in mystery. What happens when we untangle the threads of his memories?
Find out on this week's In the 'Verse podcast #2.5. FireflyDrinkingSongs.com
SHOW TIMES - Upcoming Shows, Marc and Mikey News
- 5-Minute Plot Synopsis / Show Discussion
- This Week’s Songs
SHOW NOTES MARC: Welcome to In The Verse, the podcast that makes music inspired by popular media.  I am Marc Gunn, the creator of the Firefly Drinking Songs show and host of the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast.
MIKEY: And I’m Mikey Mason, creator of the Beer Powered Time Machine Podcast and currently the MIKEYtalks podcast.
MARC: This is episode FIVE of our new 10 episode season of the In The Verse Podcast.
Mikey: Since we ran out of episodes of Firefly to discuss and write about, we’ll be finding inspiration in episodes of other media; TV shows, Comic Books, Cartoons, but probably not video games.
MARC: As always, you can support us in this and other creative endeavors by supporting Mikey athttp://patreon.com/mikeymason/
MIKEY: And by supporting Marc at http://patreon.com/celtfather
UPCOMING SHOWS & NEWS MARC GUNN OCT 14-16: MultiVerse, Atlanta, GA NOV 4-6: Conjuration, Atlanta, GA NOV 19: Three Taverns Brewery, Decatur, GA EVERY WEDS, Coffee with The Celtfather @ 11 AM ET. MIKEY MASON TsunamiCon (thought it likely will have happened before this airs) Oct 21-23 in Wichita, KS. Monthly online shows. October’s monthly online show is set for Saturday, October 29th at 8pm EST at Twitch dot tv slash comedyrockgeek. I joined a band - the Meanies. Our first gig in the new form is the Halloween Party at the Fickle Peach, October 28, 2022 from 8-11 pm. BAND NEWS Marc: Kickstarter reached. Planning Celtic Christmas Podcast. Irish & Celtic Music Pdocast won 4th Podcast Award. Celtic Invasion Vacation for 2023 launched. New Brobdingnagian Bards song. Album Pin successes. Updated Pub Songs & Stories podcast format. Back from ALEP. Mikey: My Patreon patrons are still getting a new song EVERY Monday - that’s 52 songs a year for as little as $1/month (though you’re perfectly welcome to pledge more, if you can afford it and want to!) & MIKEYtalks podcast. Also The Passage: New Album. Dark, pagan-influences faerie tale album. Also Actual play podcasts and RPG worldbuilding content. PLOT SYNOPSIS & DISCUSSION MIKEY - The book opens at Haven Mining Colony moment’s before Shepherd Book’s death, then flashes back 2 years to tin interior of the Serenity, where Book has a conversation with Jayne about whether or not he’ll go to hell, and then walk in on Mal and Zoe roughing up an arms dealer during a deal gone bad, whereupon he returns to his quarters to pray.
MARC - Then the story flashes back 2 more years, to Southdown Abbey, where we witness Book’s discussion with the Abbess about his decision to leave the Abbey and return to the world. As he exits the Abbey, he walks right past Kaylee who says, “You’re coming with us.”
MIKEY - Another ten years earlier, and we watch him get into a drunken brawl with an alliance soldier who recognized him. They fight, and the officer kicks him unconscious in the street. When he wakes, Book is in a shelter and has a spiritual moment over a bowl of chicken soup. He eats the soup and walks the streets, stopping under the neon glow of a cross, presumably over the door to the Abbey.
MARC - Then, six years earlier, we witness Book as an Alliance officer, being harshly reprimanded for organizing an action that cost 4000 lives–the very action mentioned by the Alliance officer ten years later in the street fight. Book asks for investigation powers, to uncover the moles, but is stripped of rank and kicked off the Alliance vessel, an attempt to cover up their embarrassment. He is forced into an escape pod and jettisoned. It crashes on a nearby planet, and he stumbles across the sand, alone.
MIKEY  - Four years earlier, we watch Book as an Alliance cadet, physically beating