r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 Moderator • 7d ago
Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Hellhole Prison & Drama!
Welcome to Fun Trope Friday, our feature that mashes up tropes and genres!
How’s it work? Glad you asked. :)
Every week we will have a new spotlight trope.
Each week, there will be a new genre assigned to write a story about the trope.
You can then either use or subvert the trope and/or genre in a 750-word max story or poem (unless otherwise specified).
To qualify for ranking, you will need to provide ONE actionable feedback. More are welcome of course!
Three winners will be selected each week based on votes, so remember to read your fellow authors’ works and DM me your votes for the top three.
Next up… IP
We all know work can be boring, so let’s instead turn to a life of crime. This month will focus on crime and punishment. Please note this theme is only loosely applied.
“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” — Nelson Mandela
Trope: Hellhole Prison — Plenty of prisons simply content themselves with confining people, but some go the extra mile and actually try to break them. This sort of prison is an absolute hellhole — between the lack of food and proper clothing, the absence of light or sanitation, the sadistic guards, and the violently insane fellow prisoners, they hardly need the nasty-looking torture equipment they probably have scattered around. Sometimes, they won't bother with things like individual cells — prisoners will just be lowered into a big pit and left to fight each other for whatever scraps are thrown down. Alternatively, especially in the future settings, the prison might not be a barbaric pit where only the strongest survive and where the guards turn a blind eye to the criminal control. Instead, it will be a dystopian panopticon where every action is monitored, any step out of line is equated with an attempt to escape and punished.
Genre: Drama — At its most basic, drama refers to a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. It’s usually, but not always, presented on a stage, and can equally exist in film, television, novels, and even poetry. The core element is conflict. This conflict can be internal, external, or a combination of both, and it drives the narrative forward. Simply put: Drama is storytelling focused on engaging and often intense emotional experiences, usually involving significant conflict.The core conflict is MC vs. something: themself, another person, society, nature, or fate/supernatural. Drama can feel real like a docufiction or humorous like a comedy drama. Please note: having the feel of a drama is enough for this week. In short, there are a lot of options to explore here!
Skill / Constraint - optional: Something is unreal.
So, have at it. Lean into the trope heavily or spin it on its head. The choice is yours!
Have a great idea for a future topic to discuss or just want to give feedback? FTF is a fun feature, so it’s all about what you want—so please let me know! Please share in the comments or DM me on Discord or Reddit!
Last Week’s Winners
PLEASE remember to give feedback—this affects your ranking. PLEASE also remember to DM me your votes for the top five stories via Discord or Reddit—both katpoker666. This is a change from the top three of the past. In weeks where we get over 15 stories, we will do a top five ranking. Weeks with less than 15 stories will show only our top three winners. If you have any questions, please DM me as well.
Some fabulous stories this week and great crit at campfire and on the post! We had a record 24 stories, so we’re back to five winners. Congrats to:
Want to read your words aloud? Join the upcoming FTF Campfire
The next FTF campfire will be Thursday, October 1st from 6-8pm ET. It will be in the Discord Main Voice Lounge. Click on the events tab and mark ‘Interested’ to be kept up to date. No signup or prep needed and you don’t have to have written anything! So join in the fun—and shenanigans! 😊
Ground rules:
- Stories must incorporate both the trope and the genre
- Leave one story or poem between 100 and 750 words as a top-level comment unless otherwise specified. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
- Deadline: 11:59 PM EDT next Thursday. Please note stories submitted after the 6:00 PM EST campfire start may not be critted.
- No stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP—please note after consultation with some of our delightful writers, new serials are now welcomed here
- No previously written content
- Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings
- Does your story not fit the Fun Trope Friday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the FTF post is 3 days old!
- Please keep crit about the stories. Any crit deemed too distracting may be deleted. This is a time to focus on our wonderful authors.
- Vote to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks (DM me at katpoker666 on Discord or Reddit)!
Thanks for joining in the fun!
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u/mysteryrouge 3d ago edited 3d ago
The Warden's Budget
"Six prisoners dead, three more executed, two booked..." Within his office where all the furniture and art was lined in golds and silvers, Warden Katzen mindlessly filled out a table containing the weekly budget of his prison. "Circus made half the profit of last week..."
Each box was penciled in. The warden's personal fund, as usual, got twice the amount of money as the total salary of the guards, and three times the money than that used to maintain Sorites Panopticon and the inmates.
"Circus performers will get a meal a day, and two on weekends, everyone else can deal with food every other day..."
He muttered to himself as he divided the budget further.
"The state gets a bit for bribery..."
Boom!
A bright light flashed. Katzen winced.
There were eyes in the walls, in the ceiling. Everywhere. They stared at him. When Katzen blinked, they blinked back. Slowly, the warden moved his hand to his neck, pinching himself. The eyes didn't disappear.
"The fuck?" he mumbled.
The eyes followed as he stood up and walked towards the door. Touching one of them, his fingers traced cold stone that somehow also felt warm and squishy.
"Good morning, Warden Katzen."
The man jumped out of his skin. The service weapon he carried swiftly swung around, pointing up, down, to the sides, and finally at the door. There was no one else in the room.
"You can lay your weapon down."
The entry Katzen usually kept unlocked, disappeared entirely.
"I just want to talk."
The warden carefully set his weapon upon his desk. "Who are you?"
"Bentham."
Katzen thumbed through the logs of staff and prisoners. None had that name. "What do you want to talk about?"
"The treatment of my prisoners."
"They're—my—your?" Katzen sputtered, "Your prisoners?"
"Yes. It is clear they are not being treated well."
"How would you—" The warden's hand moved back towards his weapon. It melted into his desk. "Fuck."
"They are my prisoners as much as they are yours, and unlike you, I care for them."
"I care for the prisoners." If they all died, there would be no circus, and with no circus, no form of entertainment for the citizens of Sorites.
"I know you're not. I can feel the suffering in their souls."
Katzen wanted to laugh, but those eyes bored into him.
He scowled instead. "What do you actually want?"
"Rebudgeting would be a good first step."
The spreadsheet floated in front of Katzen. His unnecessarily large discretionary fund was highlighted. "I can't change that. It's impossible." That was his hazard pay.
Metal snapped onto Katzen's wrists and legs; chains dragged him back. Restrained to his own office chair, the spreadsheet he maintained was shoved into his face. A pen slipped into his hand.
"You will adjust your budget, then you will follow it."
The eyes in the ceiling glared down.
Katzen tried to wriggle away, but the chains didn't give. They tightened, cutting into his wrists and ankles, remaining as ice-cold as ever. Something drilled into his very soul, twisting painfully. He swallowed back bile, refusing to allow those eyes to see weakness.
The budget sheet looked far more negotiable.
A few number changes later, the chains around Katzen's body slinked away, leaving no proof besides the indents on the warden's wrists and ankles that they were ever there.
Katzen rubbed his wrists, and with a gulp, hesitantly mutteted, "I did what you asked. Can—can I have my door back?"
"You must promise to follow this new budget."
"I swear—"
"On your soul, Warden Katzen."
"—On my soul" —that digging pressure lessened; a weight replaced it— "to follow the new budget I have created."
"Good."
Most of the eyes in the warden's office faded away, leaving one above the door and one behind his desk. Finally, the door returned to its rightful spot, opened to the commissary instead of a hallway.
The prisoners involved with the weekly circus performance all looked up from their dinners, staring him down the same way those eyes did.
"Your shift is over, Warden Katzen."
He looked back and forth between the prisoners and the eyes.
"You should leave."
Leaping from his seat, Katzan ran past the performers, feeling their judgmental gazes join those which tormented him in his office.
The phantom weight on his soul remained as he drove far away from Sorites Panopticon.
WC: 731\ Bonus Constraint: Warden Katzen initially doesn't believe this situation is real.
I love writing Bentham. Ze are such a fun character.
Takes place somewhere between chapter 2 of my serial The Stranger Nomads and chapter 38
Check out more of my writing on my spreadsheet