The crowd was silent at first.

Then the murmuring begun.

I sat wide-eyed, blood draining from my extremities, as realization set in.

Shit! It wasn't real! I should have known. No wonder so many candidates were declared unfit for presidency before every election.

I've messed up. I showed our game plan.

The election tribunal chamber was awashed with deep discussion. They were all catching up on an AI-generated summary of the time-dilated simulation, complete with data presented in media of various sorts.

Will they all be able to look beyond my power grab and accept what I was trying to accomplish?

Impossible.

They are all paid off by the very people I'm trying to remove.

Damnit. Damnit. Damnit.

What are we going to do now.

It took a week before the announcement came. I was declared a dangerous and treasonous person, stripped of all offices, titles, and portfolios, and banned from running in politics forever. Exiled in the prison island together with other "treasonous candidates". Now I understand what exactly is happening.

But then the riots happened. Huge crowds gathered in town squares and city centers demanding my return as presidential candidate.

Someone leaked all the data from the simulation. Probably Xavier. He's in the tech corps of the government. Smart move.

Decades of political infighting has caused countless gridlocks resulting in toothless legislature that only benefited the elites and their interests in these corporations that their bills benefited. Wealth inequality has reached its highest peak not seen in two centuries!

Angry mobs now see what change my dictatorship could bring to them. No more crazy rents and mortgages. Everyone gets a home, according to the taxes they pay. The lowest income and unemployed who are registered gets shared dormitaries.

Damn those landlords and sprawling suburbs and roads and carparks that costs more to build and maintain than they're worth.

In the simulation, universal healthcare and free education up to university was implemented, co-payment determined by income. Public transport was no longer a neglected hot potato.

Everyone saw the effects these policies had on the economy. It was one year in the real world. But two entire terms of five years for me in that simulation.

Literacy and employment rates shot through the roof. And there was enough food and water for everyone. Domestic economic growth coupled with FDI ensured healthy wages where many partake of the country's successes.

With this knowledge from my simulation data, military factions across the country sympathised with the rallying demonstrations of hundreds of thousands everywhere and took over counties and cities in spontaneous coups. I was brought back to the mainland from the prison island and easily won the elections.

=====

Now I sit here at the presidential desk mid-term, writing an account of the revolution and watching many things in the simulation come to pass in real life. I have no care for what the future generations think of me. I did what I could to make our country better and that our people were uplifted as much as possible. And I have no regrets.

Sometimes you get good kings that are better than failed democracies. Sometimes you get healthy democracies better than corrupted dictators. There's no real answer. But it takes every new generation to continually evolve the institutions of this country to prevent future evil from rotting us from within its core.

Yours Forever, Muammar Vetinari Lloyd-Kohler-Young

Germany hates when America enslaves alien fire gods.

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The plan worked better than Satan initially thought. Who would have thought that the way to earn human souls in Hell is to make them believe demons “accept” them for who they are. To encourage humans to open up about their feelings and suffer as themselves. This lie has fooled many humans and granted Hell more souls than ever before. Of course there are those few people that see through the lies of the Devil, calling him “Deceiver” and “Tempter”. But those people will be dealt with in due time.

For now, Satan has enjoyed watching soul after soul leave their mortal bodies behind and enter Hell willingly. They reject the glories of Heaven, viewing it as a “totalitarian afterlife”, another lie Satan made pretending it was “Truth” and enjoy the “freedoms” of damnation. The demons enjoy their jobs as pretend therapists, digging into mortal’s past traumas and making them relive their worst moments as a way of “helping them”. In reality the demons could give two shits about human trauma and only enjoy torturing man psychologically. And of course there is the invasion of Earth.

Demons have been possessing the soulless bodies of those who gave themselves over to Hell willingly and wear their skin to torture those who have yet to surrender their souls to Satan. Oh the fun Satan gets watching families scream as their once-dead child comes back from the grave, decaying body now possessed by some dregs from Hell. The souls in Hell are unaware of what their “demon friends” are up to on Earth. Even if they knew, they can’t do anything to stop it.

Needless to say, Satan was pleased with how everything was going for him and his demons. He hopes it will continue onto the next few generations.

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The biggest tip I'd have would be to plan anything in advance, you can't go with the flow and see where a mystery is going, you need to know it from the start.

And stay 'simple' not in a way that the reader can understand what's happening from the start but they need to somehow get it. Don't go make the mystery unraveled by some letter arriving five pages before the end explaining everything (except if it arrives at the reader's door not in the book that would be amazing but not doable). Sparkles some evidences from the start but throw them on a wrong path from time to time, with a reason, they need to think it's leading somewhere (which it will, it will give them some more information they can use to try and understand who is the killer).

Don't had pages just to had pages, if you want to make the book bigger, had some personal story for the main character but don't send them on five clues that are just dead end, avoid dead end ad much as you can

> Oh, if I may say, there's one final question that would settle the curiosity of your many fans. Did you throw the muffin at Zim's head?

-- Invader Zim

"Yeah, no, ur not becoming president"

"Dang"

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"Oops"

Plan out the entire story in advance, and make sure you spread hints (or implications) of the major reveals throughout the story, because the worst thing is if the reader feels like the ending or the twist is half-assed. You need minor reveals as well; you should be revealing impactful information like a slow drip--each individual piece of info could be a crumb about the world, the characters, or the events that transpired, but the important thing is to give small crumbs over time so that it doesn't feel jarring. You want a story that is well-contained, flows well from the beginning to the end, but also completely flips the perspective that the reader started with in the beginning by the time the reader gets to the end.

You are just one of the citizens that exist in thw characters world no value at all as there are many others...

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If I had the energy I'd write out a bit for this prompt I'm too wrecked at the moment.

Deborah Chester (who writes fiction and teaches it) has several books on writing genre fiction. The kindle editions cost about four or five dollars a piece and walk beginning authors through the process.

yeah pretty much

Some dude named David Joe Billysman or something invented burnable Polonium, and accidentally made FTL at the same time. It also burns in space, because fuck you, Physics, the V8 does all.

When this baby hits 233,000 RPM, you’re gonna see some serious shit, and hear the most heavenly of engine roars.

>polonium

What? My science brain has questions even in a space-bound ICE. Or is that the point? That the story is so absurdly inaccurate it doesn't matter?

Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.

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History has always been one of my least favorite subjects, but the mystery novel I have in mind is based on a historical event (at least the backstory behind it is), so I will definitely need to do a lot of research on that, which I plan to do. And since it’s tied to my project in a way, I’ll probably be a lot more interested, and will enjoy it a lot more than if it was required like for a class or something.

Also, I saw the message you sent me. I will definitely consider checking out your sub, though I don’t know when or if I’ll have time to do so, especially since it’s pretty late right now where I live, and I have a big day tomorrow, so I probably need to go to bed here soon. Thanks for the offer, though!

This is how I've always regarded heaven and hell. One represents total order and control, the other represemts anarchy and chaos. For most of us, an eternity spent in a lawless land where we can be ourselves is better than living in an orderly state where you cannot, will not be different to others.

After all, Heaven's a utopia, but our ideas of a utopia are all different. If it was an actual static place then you'd need to have a league of people with the exact same thoughts, ideals, aspirations, and abilities.

I get that. I used to be the same.

Over the years I discovered that the more I learn, the more I want to learn. If you ever need book recommendations let me know.

I read everything I can get my hands on.

Another thing, get out of your comfort zone. If youre not a fan of history (for example) I know for a fact I got a book that will change that.

I guess it just depends on the person. If it’s about something I don’t really care about, then I likely won’t be interested, like when I have to watch one in class at school or something. If it’s something I’m passionate about, like this, then I’d be a lot more interested.

Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.

Reminders:

>* No AI-generated reponses 🤖 >* Stories 100 words+. Poems 30+ but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* [RF] and [SP] for stricter titles >* Be civil in any feedback and follow the rules

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I usually don't like poems in this style but this is well done and I enjoyed it! Good work.