Challenge #03092-H184: Ozymandius Syndrome
“Yes, I was a CEO. Yes, I am, was, the richest person on my home-world. So why am in this cell? I surrendered myself. Why did I do that? After what I saw, how they helped me, I grew something I didn’t know existed. I gained humility. I hurt them. It’s time I faced justice for my crimes. I deserve it. I’m so very sorry.” – Anon Guest
A wise man once wrote that it is often considered criminal to live in slums, it is never considered criminal to own them. Words like that often miss the person they’re aimed at. And yet, there are always the statistical outliers whom the others wish they could not count. They make denying the possibility of change so difficult.
Such as Howell Troyus IV, who encountered a change of mind via a change of fate. When one practices the Faith of Prosperity[1], it’s easy to believe that the poor are naturally evil. After all, they are obviously being punished for the sin of not having money. However, all it takes is one terrible accident to reverse one’s fortunes.
He has encountered such a fate, and not violently. All he had to do was encounter bigger sharks than himself, running a more corrupt enterprise than he had ever dreamed. The next thing he knew, he was spending the last of his ready finances on fees, charges, and fines that he should have been able to skate away from. And then somebody rolled him for his suit.
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Challenge #02899-G342: The Evidence Speaks For Itself
Shortly after their receive a shipment of stolen parrots, alien smugglers learn that pet parrots tend to repeat some of the most common phrases they have heard the hard way. There are some things that should never be heard, and can never be unheard. – Anon Guest
“Captain Fresk is going to panic,” said a voice. It sounded a lot like crewmate Jori, but it came, seemingly, from the cage of brightly-coloured exotic Deathworlder avian that they had successfully stolen from Brightwing Station. They assumed that Crewmate Jori was behind the cage.
“Captain Fresk isn’t going to panic. It’s all under control.” This time, since Haak was facing the bird, she got to witness the avian go into an act. The bird repeated the public address chime and an announcement common to Brightwing Station.
“Bingley bingley beep. Attention all Havenworlder visitors,” the bird recited, “The scheduled bar fight in the Ruined Drum Drink will begin at precisely Four Seventeen in the afternoon, station time. This is your twenty minute warning. Bingley bingley beep.”
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Challenge #02240-F050: A Crucial Flaw
“New Eden Space Station Security Service, I’m listening.”
“HELP ! WE NEED HELP !”
“Please keep calm. What is happening, Sir ?”
“We tried to rob Habitat 39 and there is a angry human inside ! We locked ourselves inside a locker, and the human is waiting for us outside !” – Anon Guest
They tell stories about this kind of thing. People who attempt to be criminal masterminds and end up being criminals missing minds. As in, the right mind not to burgle a Deathworlder habitat zone. As in, one would have to be entirely out of one’s own right mind to even try it. You likely get the idea.
Security Officer Draek couldn’t believe her ears. “Sir, did you just confess to committing a crime?”
“Attempted,” said a voice in the distance. “Attempted crime!” There was a note of urgency in the other speaker’s voice. “Please just get us out of here alive and with our dermal layer intact, I swear I will go into a more honest career…”
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Challenge #01896-E072: The Big Challenge — Steemit
Stopping violence with more violence is easy. It involves very little thought, and a mindset that makes the punishment more brutal than the crime. Stopping violence before it starts is more of a challenge. Especially when you want to avoid looking like a hypocrite.
The kids called him Mr Tough. He could physically lift any kid at Elementary but only if they asked him. He never dropped a one. And what he was opposed to above all other things was violence against others. Physical. Verbal. Passive-aggression. He didn’t tolerate any kind of meanness. He endorsed talking it out. Between the kids. Between the adults. And most importantly, between the kids and the adults around them.
It didn’t go well for lots of the adults, who clung vociferously to the concept that they were the grownups and their decisions had to be final. Or that children existed to be controlled.
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Challenge #01629-D168: Unfortunate For Some
Hell, as they say is other people. Especially when you are a school bus driver. – @knitnan
The chant had started from the back of the bus. “We wanna, we wanna, we wanna wee! If you do not stop for us/ we’ll do it on the bus![1]” The otherwise well-behaved kid in the front seat was singing X-1 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. The crowd of kids sharing music were singing both off key and out of sync. The people in the seat three rows from any given exit were having a screaming row about a pencil case.
All things considered, the heart attack was a welcome respite. Gary still did his duty, though. He pulled into the nearest emergency stopping bay and opened the doors before darkness claimed him and the pain floated away.
GARY FRANCIS BAKER, said a voice like a sepulchure. YOUR TIME HAS ENDED.
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Challenge #01610-D149: Long Live the Leader
A single powerful person who is convinced of their own Rightness with no thought of introspection or means of restraint is dangerous, moreso to others than to themselves. – Anon Guest
Jack didn’t just believe in the Leader. He had a firm and unwavering Belief in the leader. Jack was wont to Believe with all his heart and soul. Though he still prayed to the God of the holy works, the Leader was the next best thing to a foretold coming. The Leader was the greatest man to ever live. The Leader was going to make this nation great. The Leader was going to fix everything.
Jack was so convinced that he convinced his family and friends. Most caught the fever, but some still little-b believed. But that was not a concern because the Leader was now in charge. The Leader was in the best place to fix everything that had gone wrong.
And the Leader certainly got things done.
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Challenge #01608-D147: Repent Now…
[Name] sighed and turned back to their paperwork. In the scant few minutes they’d been talking with the other person, the paper seemed to have multiplied. It was breeding. There was a giant paperwork orgy going on right on their desk, and it was all they could do to fill out forms faster than they were produced. – @recklessprudence
They say paperwork is hell. They don’t have the half of it. Imagine the largest offices in the world. Floor after floor of endless, uniform, windowless cubicles. Floor after floor of grey monotony. Floor after floor of filling out and shuffling paperwork from an inbox into the relevant outbox. And no potty or coffee breaks.
They have no time to look up from their work. They dare not take even a second from one paper to the other. They dare not stretch. There is no time to sigh. Their only hope is to fill in the paperwork before the next page enters their inbox. If they do not, the paper in their inbox doubles.
There is a clever device that takes the page from the bottom of the heap and juts it out to where it can be seized so that the worker can fill it out. It is not that clever, and often jams. Those in the cubicles hit the red button and grab a page from the top. They cannot afford to wait. They cannot afford to stop. They barely have time to suckle from the coffee dribbler or nibble a bite from the treats dispenser. They sit, bare-bottomed, on a hybrid of a toilet and an office chair. There is no rest.