Week 4 Story: Project HADES
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| A.I. Cerebro. Source: Pixabay |
Annoyed, Azriel walk toward the break room to get a cup of coffee. "Let's get on with it. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home and enjoy the rest of our day."
"Alright, alright! We got three new prisoners today. I'm excited to see what their punishments will be!"
"Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be befitting of their crimes." said Azriel.
"By the way, it's been exactly a week since I worked here. You swore to me that you would tell me about the history of this place. How did it all started?" said Jace.
"Alright, alright...just give me a moment to enjoy my coffee."
"Have you heard of Greek mythology?"
"Not really. What is it?" reply Jace.
"A long time ago, there was this civilization that was advanced in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. In order to explain the natural world, they created stories about supernatural beings. Thus, gods and goddesses were born. The god that governs the underworld was named Hades."
"What does that have to do with this?" said Jace.
Azriel sigh. "Long story short, the gods were creative in the punishments of their enemies. Here we are in 2120, we have the technology to replicate these punishments. You following me?"
"Ah, I see! So this is what Project HADES is all about! We hook up the prisoners' brain into a simulation so they can serve their sentences based on the severity of their crime."
"Exactly!" said Azriel. "Time moves differently in the simulation. A life sentence is equal to an hour in real life. Sometimes, the prisoner can serve their full sentence and be release within the same day. Isn't it neat?"
"I understand now!" exclamed Jace.
"Ok, enough of this, let's put these three prisoners in the simulation so we can enjoy the day off." said Azriel.
"Let's see here...first up is Prisoner TTL852 who is serving three life sentences for cannibalism."
"What is the punishment?" said Jace.
Azriel flip through the Punishments Manual. "For cannibalism, his punishment would be to never be full or be quench of thirst no matter how much he eats or drinks."
"Next up is Prisoner SSP934 who is serving five life sentences for grand larcency. His punishment would be meaningless hard labor."
"Five life sentences!?" questioned Jace. "That seems a little bit harsh for just theft."
"That's true, but he crossed one of the most powerful man in the city. His money is what keeps this place running. Anyways, last one is Prisoner PMT316 and he is serving ten life sentences."
"For what?"
"For leaking information about this great nation of Athana."
Jace's smile fade and his eyes look like it is filled with anger.
"No," said Jace. "It is because he exposed the truth to the world about this evil country."
Jace shoved Azriel and hook him up into the simulation.
"Maybe spending some time in the simulation will open your mind about how messed up this punishment system is."
Author's Note: I used "Homer's Odyssey" translated to English by Tony Kline for my storytelling. I was inspired by the part of the story where Odysseus traveled to the underworld and see all the tortured souls in there. Prisoner TTL852 was based on Tantalus who served his son for the gods and was punished for it. Prisoner SSP934 was based on Sisyphus who was famous for trickery and escaped death twice. Prisoner PMT316 was based on Prometheus who gave fire to mankind and was punish for it. The technology was based on the show Black Mirror from the episode "White Christmas." In the episode, people get their consciousness transfer into a device and years in the device is minutes to hours in real life. I don't really have an idea on the ending so I made it as a betrayal and the start of a revolution.
Bibliography: "Homer's Odyssey." Written by Homer and translated to English by Tony Kline (2004). Web source.
Hi Tony! You were not kidding when you said you love sci-fi stuff! I absolutely loved your twist on this story. This futuristic spin on the Odyssey is refreshing. Are you going to elaborate on how we got to this current situation? What led up to us punishing prisoners like this? Just the gods? I think you have many different outlets that you can go with this story! Be creative and I can't wait to see what you end up doing!
ReplyDeleteHi Tony,
ReplyDeleteThat was a really fun take on Odysseus's journey through the Underworld. I loved the use of the prisoner name codes to reference the infamous mythological punishments. I enjoyed trying to guess who they were based on using the codes (I guessed Tantalus and Sisyphus, but Prometheus stumped me). This "powerful man" who funds most of the project intrigues me. Who is he? Why is he funding the project? If you wanted to add some fantasy elements to the sci-fi, he could be one of the Greek gods. The name Azriel (I assume referencing Azrael, angel of death) could already lead toward that direction if you wanted. Either way this story intrigues me, and I haven't even gotten into how interesting Jace is. Was their revolt planned from the start, or spur of the moment? Will they free the prisoners? What if they know who this mysterious person is and know of their motives, and that's why they want to stop the project. This is a neat concept and it would be nice to see more of it.
Hi Tony,
ReplyDeleteI really loved this version of Odysseus' journey through the Underworld, the futuristic spin was super interesting! I actually didn't recognize the use of prisoner name codes as easter eggs referencing those who were punished in the original tale of the Underworld. The use of Tantalus, Sisyphus, and Prometheus' role in Greek mythology as reasons for their punishment in this new system makes perfect sense in this dystopic future representative of the Underworld. I wonder if there was a way for you to show what would happen once prisoners finished their sentences, and what they would be like after the fact when trying to reintegrate into the world. Would they be shell-shocked and traumatized? Or would they be changed for the better like the system intended? There's a lot of ways this story could continue being fleshed out which I really like. What if Jace had been stopped and thrown into the punishment machine himself? Or what if Jace was the mysterious donator that wanted to see how the whole system operated? Your story overall was very interesting and enjoyable to read though!
Hey Tony,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this take on Underworld punishments! It took me a minute to figure out what the story was about, and I absolutely loved it! I kept trying to figure out how the title Hades played into the larger story and I was not disappointed. I liked how Azriel was so cut-and-dry about the insanely brutal punishments that were put on people and Jace was so clueless as to what was going on. As the story progressed I found myself more like I was in Jace's shoes. I went from confused to very interested/kinda impressed with the system to mad that a system such as that could be so easily abused. The futuristic spin on such an old tale was really refreshing and I can't wait to see how you can continue bringing reader's into the viewpoint of a character!