Monday March 30th, 2020

The exercise:

Write something: whimsical.

2 comments:

Greg said...

I am glad that the continuation of Iversen and Katya's little tale turned in a direction you like. If it helps put your mind at rest they're in Lord Derby's world and there are no Ilmatu there :)
Whimsical is almost enough of a prompt to return to the Inspectral but my notes are in the office and I'm at home, so instead we'll take a look at yesterday's piece, only a year later.

Whimsical
The Chairwoman was the same, as was Damian Brightbeard the CEO. But the CFO had been replaced by a stern woman with smooth skin and old eyes, hair bleached white to hide its real colour, and a taste for Armani. Manguy sat at one end of the horseshoe and Jeronica sat at the other, and the projector screen at the far end of the room lit up as the laptop sent its electronic messages to the projector.
"Project ARGH," said Manguy, and a picture of the Chairwoman, CEO and new CFO appeared on the screen. They were all holding long-barrelled guns and were wearing business suits. Underneath was a short paragraph of text about them, headlined by "ARGH: hunting for the best healthcare".
"Initial progress has been good, and only 2 percentage points short of excellent," said Jeronica. Manguy tapped the laptop and the screen changed to a selection of charts in the ARG Healthcare corporate colours. "Arkansas responded very well to your message and demonstrated their approval both by voting and by starting a number of grassroots movements."
"We seeded about 80% of them ourselves," said Manguy, who'd spent six weeks in Arkansas dressed in flannel and plaid shooting things. Most of which had been legal. "However we were both surprised and pleased that another 20% were spontaneous in appearance. This bodes quite well for the Dakotas and Virginia."
"Surely you mean the Carolinas," said the CFO. Her voice was smooth and modulated and sounded to Jeronica's ears like she'd had some very expensive elocution and voice coaching lessons.
"The Carolinas, at this stage, are considered a certainty," said Jeronica. "The population likely to vote against forms a set of measure zero. We are considering the possibility of discrediting them altogether by making the alternative on the ballot either 'licence to roast toddlers at sporting events' or 'abortion available up to the ninth trimester."
"Whimsical," said the Chairwoman. "The Zeroes will really vote for that?"
"Those forming the set of measure zero," corrected Manguy. "Yes, the sentiment is so divided that they will vote against you no matter what. This is quite fortunate for us."
"Georgia," said Jeronica, and the screen changed. "We go to the ballot next Tuesday and currently the predictions are that you will take 62% of the vote, which is sufficient to pass the main legislative issues. We anticipate that all nurses in Georgia will be armed and dangerous by the end of the year."
"Armed and deadly," said Damian. "We're reviewing it as a tag-line. As in, they kill all diseases, period."
"No," said Jeronica and Manguy simultaneously. There was a moment of tension in the room, and then Jeronica casually looked at the desk. "We are going to suggest," and the emphasis on 'suggest' was both subtle and unmissable, "that you buy weapons for nurses from a company set up for the explicit purpose. We will call it Caduceus which is the name of the healing staff associated with the medical profession; while not perfect it provides alliteration: we will sloganise with Armed by Caduceus instead of 'Armed and dangerous'. It stresses the healthcare aspect of it."
"We can pivot to the murder aspect later," said Jeronica.

Marc said...

Greg - Derby's world?!?! Well then, heck yes, on with the show! :)

Also, this continues to impress. Love all the details you manage to include, all the while still terrifying me with... all the people in the room.