TotW 215: The Roman Senate - Submissions (EXTENDED)

[Dance]

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The Roman Senate



5 Keywords:

Bloody
Conniving
Squabble
Priority
Law


Rules and awards

- 5 keywords that have to be used in the story (please place these words in bold so they can easily be seen by the moderators)
- Word limitation of minimum 200 but maximum 500 words INCLUDING all titles, footnotes or any other part deemed part of the submission, in a spoiler
- Deadline is Monday, April 28, 2014
- Minimum 3 submissions to start the competition
- If you are a contestant you are honour bound to not read other contestants' writings until you have submitted yours.




Please note that all rules including word count and key words will be strictly enforced. Rule breakers will be disqualified from the vote.
When using the keywords you may change nouns into plurals and the tenses of verbs only.


Check your WORD COUNT here.

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Contestants are not allowed to do direct advertisement of there story or asking for votes.


Example


Please vote for my story in ToTW.


Please vote for your favourite story. (allowed)

Awards

Each winning story will receive 1 point, if you compete in the other Writers' Study competitions this point will be combined with the ones you have won already won.


6 points - bronze medal
12 points - silver medal
24 points - golden medal

[Cohors_Evocata]

May Jupiter Optimus Maximus strike me down if I'm late for this one as well.

Reservation made.

EDIT: I am truly, truly sorry, o glorious lord of heaven, and I humbly beg for your forgiveness. Would thou please stop smiting my head, for as righteous as thy wrath may be, I still require it for my toothbrushing duty.

OOC: I'm sorry I didn't make it again. I have an idea (whether meh or awful time will tell), but so far have not found the time to write it down in a readable form. I take it the deadline will be moved one week ahead again?

EDIT 2: Finally finished it. 499 words.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

‘Let me tell you, sir: it’s best to stay away from politics. Don’t bother with the likes of senators and consuls and all those other public figures. It’s one big, unreliable bunch of clowns, all of them. You know why? They never tell the truth. Never. Their mouths don’t line up with their priorities, you see. They lie and deceive. That’s their way of doing business.

But that shouldn’t be such a new thing to hear for you, right? You’ve had a bit of a career in politics yourself after all, haven’t you? It’s a good thing that career ended. Do you know the price you pay for messing with the conniving hotshots who run the place? It’s not to be paid lightly. Nah, I don’t mean you lose any of your possessions or get your head chopped off or anything. Not if you play your cards right, that is. No, the price you pay for sticking your hand in that stinking pile of dung consists of two things: your conscience and your integrity. But that’s why you wound up here, isn’t it?

Let me to give you an example. I suppose you’ve heard this story before. You know Julius Caesar, right? Mr. rule-it-all with the huge ego? He’s dead. Murdered, I might add. By none other than a few of those self-important senators. Sounds kind of hypocritical, doesn’t it? These are the men who always emphasize the importance of tradition and morality, after all. Turns out they are no better than ordinary street scum. They won’t obey the law, if it suits them not to do so. Then again, who won’t, under the right circumstances? Oh, come on, don’t look so offended. Both you and I have sinned in the past.

Yes, both you and I. I really hope you didn’t think I stay here because I want to. Who would? An exile, that’s what I am. Kicked out of Heaven, as punishment for my ‘arrogance’ and ‘disloyalty’. I followed the most cunning liar of all, to my own demise. And now I’m nothing but a bloody prison dog for such petty wrongdoers as you.

Oh, I know you try to forget. You convince yourself that this is all a bad dream. Not gonna work, buddy. Did you think you’d be let off so easily? Like hell you are. After all, killing and fighting your fellow countrymen is no way for a proper Roman to behave, is it now, Mister Marcus Junius Brutus? See where your political schemes brought you? To the deepest crevices of Tartarus, that’s where. If only you had confined your squabbles to the markets and lived your live in peace. But of course you didn’t and now we’re here. Serves you right, I’d say.

Damn, you got me to talk all personal. I was supposed to only help you remember some of your more stingy memories before we continue, but it can’t be helped I guess. Now where did I put that branding iron…’

[Ybbon]

so when is the new submission date?

Ok, so let's start this off - only a gap of 37 weeks since I last entered (178). Word count is 496.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Roman Senate

“I miss the old days Lucius” the man said, leaning on his sonic sweeper in a manner reminiscent of every janitor throughout history; the technology may have changed, but the leaning and relaxing pose would have been familiar to a slave cleaning the Senate four thousand years earlier – the bearing that said, you the underling, are about to be regaled with a long-winded, pointless and unavoidable exposition on “what is wrong with the World in general, why my wife is a pain in the arse, why my lot in life will be borne under long-suffering pain and duress and why I was overlooked for that useless manager of ours” – ultimately of course, my supervisor loves his petty power and provides me with this mindless drivel at least twice a day.

Of course, while he has earned the right to do nothing but batter my ears, heavens forbid that I should stop working for a nanosecond, however I need to play the game one last time. “Why’s that then Julius?” today I am not in the mood to play the conniving old goats game and give a smart-aleck answer in order that he can tell me of his virile youth; as he would have it the girls pretty much laid down at his feet, legs apart saying “come and take me big boy” – more lies – as if the ugly old bugger was in any more comely then than he is now – just as ugly but with fewer wrinkles.

Never one to miss a chance to get some quality broom leaning in though, he launched into todays’ diatribe, “take the law this sad bunch passed last night, back in my day they would ha’ been arguing and squabbling fer days, insults would be flying, and daggers too if you weren’t sharp about yer wits! I remember one Senator, “The Beast” we called him, savaging another with a dead sheep, beating his opponent around with this bloody carcass swinging by the leg”

Now was my moment, as befits the “senior janitor bestows the wisdom of his years on an undeserving lackey” position he had taken up, it was best accomplished looking at the floor staring into the dim and frankly fictional past. Swiftly I ran towards him stopping with my own sweeper held just behind one shoulder, I just needed to break his unending stream of garbage – “Your daughter goes like a rabbit, I had her five times last night” – start the swing of the sweeper in a beautiful arc –“and your wife three times” – his head jerked up just as my sweeper reached the bridge of his nose smashing his head backwards.

I allowed myself a smug smile, but I had work to do so only a small one - using the one-shot communication device I fired off the success signal “Priority A1Zulu, Olympus is secure, repeat Olympus is secure”. I had to admit, shutting up the old windbag was definitely adding satisfaction to this job.