Shoot To Kill by beverly penn
June 13th, 2006 5:41 PMGroup members, you must follow this order, if in the bounds of reason."
This task had great appeal to me. Not because it is worth 125 points (or, at least, not only for that reason). And not because I wished to abuse the boundaries of the task, requiring other Crisis members to perform acts of incogitable stupidity or questionable decency. It appealed to me because I have an odd affinity for confessions. Confessions, admissions and revelations. Having the opportunity to order others to confess would, it seemed to me, yield interesting results.
So, this was the order: the given Crisis member was asked (ordered) to confess feelings they had about a person to said person. As the directive stated, they needn't be feelings of love (anger, awe, disgust, disappointment, admiration...all qualify), but there should be a photo included, or at least a written documentation of the conversation in which the feelings are revealed.
Some of the HCers have requested that I not post the replies that they did send, as the stories involved therein would cause harm and discomfort to some others that may come across this site. This is a request that I wholeheartedly respect. So, with that said, I first share Burn Unit's response; a most touching and worthwhile one:
Yes. I'm attempting to document this--for now let me say that a dear young woman who I have always treated like a... protege? student? but for whom I have always held a great affection (not romantic, except perhaps in the classic understanding of Romantic, in that we are both heroically/artistically inclined and prone to awe in the face of the sublime) sent me an abrupt phone text message the other day "Let there be a God as large as a sunlamp to laugh his heat at you." and I was so moved and surprised (we don't communicate often) that I could only immediately reply "I love you." Which I do, like a younger sister! I have long harbored this great deal of compassion --her father died after protracted illness; and hope-- she is pregnant and fearlessly proceeding, though herself essentially orphaned and young. I further do not recall saying that I love her thus, though I know I have often thought of her much more than someone I know whom I am simply bigger-than and older-than. I had seen your order before I sent my message, which I sent immediately after I saw hers, first thing the morning after she sent it, but it was not on my conscious mind until after the moment of sending that I was complying with the directive. It is not a particularly flashy carrying out of your order, nor proof thereof, but it was pure and unburdened by affectations or second thoughts.
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Another received from Shimmer Lunatic:
Hm...this is a difficult task. Normally when I have something positive to say to someone, I go out of my to tell them as soon as I can. So, the hidden feelings I have about people are generally the negative ones, and there aren't many of those. Furthermore, I'd never tell someone a negative feeling unless it was necessary. I certainly won't do it for the sake of a game (no matter how good the game is).
I've been wracking my brain trying to think of some "hidden" positive feeling that I haven't told someone yet. I've come up with nothing. The only thing I can do is give you something that has happened since I received this task, and the positive comment I made as soon as I could. It's kinda lame, but here it is. Since it was spontaneous, I didn't have a camera on hand to document the experience.
I went in to get a hair and make-up consultation today for my wedding in two weeks. I've not had good luck with hair stylists in the past, and I'm the furthest thing from a girly-girl, but this stylist was extraordinarily good. She's been working in the cosmetology business for quite a while, and her experience and skills are apparent in how she handled my hair. She owns the salon I went to, and frankly, I could see why. She was just that good. I told her so. I told her all of the things I wrote in this paragraph. Her reaction: she beamed with delight and obvious pride, yet was very gracious in her thanks.
--Shimmer.
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Dear Shrewd,
I am so sorry that you are disappointed in my fulfillment of the task. What more would you like me to do?
I think your approach to it is beautiful, and simple even (doesn't require people to do much more than type out a few things), but the instructions do read:
"Issue an order to all members of your group. *Ensure that they follow this order*, and have them report back to you."
I think the reason this task is worth so much is because of the portion that's asterisked.
"Of the 43 Crisis players, I have only received a few replies..." is not ensuring that they all followed your order.
It would be unbelievably cool to have you submit proof of all 43 HC players following your orders, even if you have to censor out some of their replies. Maybe this task should be worth more?
i kind of agree with him.. i think the idea is great, but in my mind, it's not a completed task until everyone does comply. if they haven't yet.. then you need to put the heat on them.. i mean.. what kind of operation is this?
granted, not everyone who has an account plays regularly.. so you can't necessarily expect to get 100% compliance.. but you should be able to get more than just a few replies.
also agree that you could post more and edit out the sticky bits.
I'll ask the SF0 folks to drop the task (and the points I received) and I'll post it again when I get the full 43 replies.
Keep in mind something important that *five said... I'm not sure how likely you are to get all 43 responses (since some people haven't logged on since 2005), but I would feel waaaay more comfortable with you getting these points with 32 out of 43 responses rather than just a few.
OK - I'm going to disaprove this task for the moment. When you get some more responses, just hit the resubmit button. Keep up the good work.
I edited the task so that it says that the task isn't complete until at least 15 group members comply. Sorry for the confusion, Nicole; we should have thought this one out a little more. Still, awesome job so far - I hope all the Humanitarians respond.
FYI, I complied with Nicole's order but don't want my response made public. Sorry all.
I'll do it again with something that's okay to make public, since I was very moved by Burn Unit's.
This is a great deal of points for task technically not completed.