Challenge #03036-H113: Where and How to Cut
In a quiet meeting room several met. Each one of them carrying a blade. Each blade were of various conditions of care, or lack thereof. As had became tradition, these blades were exchanged amongst each other, no blood upon them, and then thrust into a soft wooden half-sphere that lay upon the table showing each hand was empty. They discussed why they came to the palace, why they had once wanted to kill the king. What they had learned from the King in their year of sitting at the side of his throne. Some of these individuals were much, much older now, with more than a few battle scars, and some, like Dag, were quite young. The lords were getting restless, it was time to let potential knives know what their lords were really up to.
A spin off of this prompt. https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02971-h048-tools-of-politics – The Knives
There were five of them now. Kris, Dag, Lundi, and the ladies, Pel and Fawn. All of them had created the Council of Knives with the King’s consent. Something was rotten in the realm, and each Knife knew where the fault lay. Their bloodless blades went into the knife block as a sign that they were not a danger to the king.
“The lords under the King want to live by their own rules,” said Kris, the first among them. “I’d wager it won’t be a month before another deluded young soul comes in the night with a blade of their own.”
Pel, who actually got past the guard of Knives, added, “It won’t be a month. These lords think that being a King is all of the benefits and none of the responsibility. Lord Baisingr, Lord Basingbrooke, Lord Felroth… he sent two of us. They lust for power and power alone. And there’s mine… Lord Dreev. He’s insidious.”
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #02971-H048: Tools of Politics
The king’s new “Knife” has been there for several months. At the end of the year, he had absolutely no intention on using his blade. He understood, now, what was really going on, information he made very certain others knew, albeit, subtly as he knew there were those who were still like him out there.
Then in the night, another knife came, but instead of the king, they met the other ‘knife’ living within the palace. It was time for a talk.
I thought it might be fun to have one would-be assassin meet a former would-be assassin?
https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02891-g334-a-precision-instrument – LongTalk
He lived longer than the year he had expected. He had learned far, far more than he had expected in less than a handful of months. Yet, all of this did not cure one thing that Kris had thought was another ailment in his litany of woes. He had trouble sleeping an entire night. Thusly, he took it on himself to guard the King’s hallways in the small hours in which he found sleep impossible.
That was how he met a young lad named Dag. He was a shepherd, if the piebald wool of his clothing was any indicator. Like Kris had once, this spotty teen was sneaking along under the cover of the night with a dagger in hand. The boy froze in the halls, trying to figure out who or what Kris was.
“Let me guess, Your Lord of the land sent you to right a grievous wrong. You think killing the King is going to save your fellows back home and you’re willing to lay down your life for that.”
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Investors are dumping coal!
Sure, it’s going to tank the Aussie economy for the short term, but it’s a step forward for climate change.
Plus it’s going to be fun to watch ScoMo squirm about this.
Riddle Me This:
This week, I’m going off about the right wing and the people who love them.
Challenge #02410-F220: The Visionary
Personally I thought it was a ludicrous idea, but once again we have been shown to never doubt the power of a mad scientist with a blank chequebook. – RecklessPrudence
I’m not crazy, as the song says, I’m just a little unwell. Actually, I’m not mad, either, just… vexed. Like the entire world has this illogic to it that I just can not understand ever and it annoys the living snot out of me. Obviously, if we were not in mixed company, I would be using stronger words. Here, let me give you an example…
The primary reason they give for defunding NASA is this: “Why waste money on space that we could use to fix problems down on the surface?” Well and good… yet when rich people with more money than most nations start working on their own independent space program, they’re suddenly bold visionaries with their hearts and minds on Humanity’s greater good. The fact that they could also be using their vast fortunes to fix the problems at home seems to sail merrily over the heads of literally everyone.
Except for me. That’s why I’m so cross. Pointing this out has done nothing and inventing a few things has helped a little… but in the end, what helped the most was becoming a billionaire myself. Make one cash-generating invention and the world is… well… anything you want, really. It doesn’t have to be an oyster, because oysters are gross. They might be necessary for cleaning water, but they’re gross to eat. Fight me. Anyway, I had a point to make…
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Challenge #02379-F189: For a Thousand Years
“I believe there’s something good in him.”
“That’s childish.”
“So? Children can be right too.” – Anon Guest
“We’re talking about a man who has rounded up millions of people, put them into life-endangering camps when he and his cohort couldn’t outright kill them, denied them basic human rights, denied them humanity, cowed the populace with both his super-loyal adherents and threats of physical and legal violence, and is one hundred percent in favour of eliminating anyone who isn’t a member of a very narrow idyllic model that even he doesn’t adhere to. He’s a hypocrite; a dangerous, demented blowhard of a hypocrite and if someone doesn’t stop him, he could destroy the world as we know it.”
“Oh, he’s not that bad,” dismissed the devils’ advocate, who co-incidentally fit the narrow, idealistic mould to a T. “And he’s not doing any of those things you say he is. He’s just relocating the undesirables to a more appropriate holding facility. The deaths are incidental and accidental. You’re blowing it all out of proportion. This is for the greater good.”
“Everyone’s greater good? What proof have you got?”
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Challenge #02339-F149: Taking Account
Political Hopeful scouting for votes and says “Those Words” - “How can I help?” You can spin this anyway you like. – Anon Guest
There’s two ways to be a Politico of the People. One is to take the vocal majority’s word and run with it all the way to a populist poll… and the other is to actually listen to all of the people. The latter is far more difficult to do and harder to accomplish, so many Politico’s don’t even try.
Not Solomon Grady. Sol absorbed a popular speech about choosing to do the things because they were hard. The difficult things to do were, ultimately, the most rewarding. Science is still ploughing through all the data and samples they got from going to the moon. Therefore, he gathered data from the neighbourhoods where he was running.
Not just a survey, but opinions. The phrase, “How can I help?” became his catch phrase. The data he returned with was phenomenal, but it became a plan. Step one: ignore the racist and sexist trolls with self-entitled whining about how such-and-such group of people ‘stole their job’ or any other like thing. It is the peak of entitlement to claim something as one’s own before it is ever earned.
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