Fiction Friday - Razor Thin Slices

"Razor thin slices of root beer."

What? Listen, Imagination, you know I love you, but what the Hell am I supposed to do with that?

If you're going to be difficult, I'm going to start leaving you at home....

Okay, hang on... I think I see something...

Fiction Friday

The beautiful writer, Fern Kali, has her own blog, and she posts some really wonderful fiction, and she is a creative story-teller, who brings real life to her creations.

Through a bit of a semantic quirk, let's say Fern and I have jointly "created" Fiction Friday - the idea is post something creative - a character, a game mechanic, or - best of all - a story of some kind.  Even just a couple pages, or a scene from a longer piece, or whatever.  Something with a story, or story hook, that people can relax too, and have a bit of fun.

Razor Thin...

So, here's my outline.  Classic dystopian future - think Blade Runner (the original, with it's crappy budget) - where there is resource scarcity.  There's a weird minimalism to the economy - no one starves, which keeps crime down - but getting "ahead" is a real bitch.  

...Slices of Root Beer

In our modern world, sugar cane is dirt cheap, and loaded into everything as a highly addictive substance.  But, in a dystopian future, where fertile ground for growing healthy crops might be hard to come by, and very nearly everything is synthetic, then something as simple as real root beer becomes a luxury.

Those who have "pleased their masters" might be rewarded with a razor thin slice of root beer - the genuine flavor and real sugar would be hyped as a real prize (and given resource scarcity, might be valued like gold).

I mean, look at gold - except for a few industrial uses, it's mostly just pretty.  People value it primarily because it's 1) pretty, 2) scarce.  If everyone could find gold in the streets, all the time, then everyone would treat it slightly better than lead, right?  Lead not being as pretty, and having the additional side effect of being toxic, but you know what I mean.

People value things that are scarce, especially if the beautiful or privileged people value the same thing.  I mean, Shark Fins as a delicacy?  Caviar?  Beaver tail? Seriously?  As far as I'm concerned, taste like shit, but they're scarce, thus expensive, and therefore people value them.

Therefore - in this dystopian, resource scarce world, filled with disposable humans as common labor  - cogs in the wheel, where middle management delude themselves into believing they have importance by tormenting those beneath them - absurd pleasures become valued treasures.

Razor Thin Slices of Root Beer

It's Fiction Friday, luv, come join in :-)