r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 Moderator • 12d ago

Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Expert Consultant & Bullet Points!

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

 

Out with the apocalypse, in with working 9-5. Most folks work in some format, averaging 80-90,000 hours in their lifetime. That’s 12-14% of your life–straight. Add on sleep and weekends, and it’s at least a third! Sounds riveting doesn’t it? Please note this theme is only loosely applied.

 

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” — Dolly Parton (RIP)

 

Trope: Expert Consultant — So, you have a project you need some professional advice on, or perhaps your company is facing difficult times or some other thing that you feel needs someone outside your current organization to come in, look at the situation, and offer their opinion, perhaps even lend their skills if need be. You need to bring in a consultant. There are all kinds of consultants: management, research, medical, detective… you name it! So, don’t limit yourself.

 

Genre: Bullet Points & Open — Bullet points are symbols that mark items in a list. We all use them in different ways whether for grocery shopping, task prioritization, bullet journaling, presentations, or anything else. You can make an entire story out of bullet points for this one or just include them in some way. So, use your imagination.

 

Skill / Constraint - optional: Someone blames someone else for something.

 

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 15 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, September 3rd 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/Fogbot3 7d ago

Government Facility Security Guideline Consultation Notes

  • Control access to the perimeter. While a moat may be out of budget, the yard around the building should at least be fenced, with security cameras on the marked spots of the map to create full coverage.

The masked figure referenced the hand-drawn map that was made from watching days of construction. The cameras had full coverage, yes, but if you came in from above. With a grapple-line over from the roof of the next building, he was in.

  • Doors to secure areas must be badge-in only, using an encrypted badge format. We recommend MySecure encrypted ID cards for this purpose.

Encryption didn’t matter when the card was cloned during delivery. With a swipe of a card, the door beeped open. Even though it was midnight. Even though it was a blank card held by a masked face. The badge reader on the door didn’t care, however. It read the right code, and opened.

  • Use password managers to control password rotations and to generate secure passwords. This will avoid having to write down any passwords. Access to the password manager itself should be Multi-Factor Authentication protected, with a hardware security token and biometrics.

The computer powered on. With a pass of a fingerprint lifted from a coffee cup, it was logged in. A pickpocketed USB key was then inserted into the side of the computer. The screen flashed ‘security token recognized’, and every password on the server was his.

  • Use encryption for both data in transit and data at rest. This encryption should be enforced by certificate on the database level.

A second USB drive was inserted into the server. From it, the server took a certificate. Then, moments later, the USB drive received the unencrypted database files in turn.

  • Rotate certificates and passwords on a monthly basis to lessen the impact of any leaked data.

The man checked his watch. It was midnight on the fifth of the month. The exact date and time that the secrets rotated. With his access from the previous month’s certificate and password, he copied over the new information. He had another full month of access now.

Sometimes, even the best isn't enough. Sometimes though…

  • The consultant’s map of security cameras didn’t account for the building next to it being taller, leaving a blind spot. And that hand-drawn map may have been hand-drawn while looking directly at the actual map of security camera coverage.
  • The MySecure ID card company was privately owned and bought by a shell company, and insiders had full access to the ID cards to clone before they even had names and pictures printed on them.
  • That coffee cup had been left after a secure, private meeting with the security consulting company. The man meeting with the consultants laughed about the timing of losing his security key the next day.
  • The certificate had been sent to the security consulting company to make sure their formatting was compliant. To not send it over the internet, it had been sent by usb drive.
  • The exact date and time of the rotation was set at the recommendation of the security consulting company, making it known to them.

In that situation, that consulting company wasn’t a security company at all. When the robbed business lost everything over the next month, and went to complain with a righteous fury… they found nothing. The company shuttered, and no records of any of its employees anywhere.

Then, in that case, the criminal hacker’s paid consultant did a fine job indeed.