[SUBMITTED] Alistair's Diner

[Altmer Dominion]

It's nearing that time of year again. Started with one draft, but ended up with two.

Issue 1 Draft 2:

[Name] The Crime of the Century

[validity:] Must have cars, prisons

[description] Folk singer Arlo @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@ is no stranger to interesting stories, but a recent favor for a small-town diner may take the prize. Unable to find an open garbage dump to dispose of accumulated garbage from his long-time friend Alistair's business for over a week, Arlo decided to make a statement by finally chucking the load over a nearby cliff. The resulting (rather large) garbage mound took the newscycle by storm, with local papers proudly proclaiming it 'The Crime of The Century'.

[option] "See -- protest works!" proclaims Arlo, speaking from inside a holding cell at the local police station. "I know you get a lotta requests, @@LEADER@@, but what I'm asking here is relatively simple. Although the media's all outraged over this 'garbage bomb', just think what might accumulate over the days of other landfill closures. Hire more laborers, give the workers a raise to keep up with inflation, etcetera, but c'mon man -- the bottom line is that landfills need to be open all hours of the day, every day of the year. That's only common sense, right?"
[effect] sanitation workers are primarily foreign-born

[option] "You're not dragging me away from family during my day off," snarls local sanitation worker @@RANDOMNAME@@, driving onto the scene in a large bulldozer. "It's bad enough I had to take this job to make ends meet, don't make me spend more time here than I have to. We're already overworked, underpaid, and taken for granted. If you don't make tidy up our benefits, my team'll be out on the picket line by next morning."
[effect] garbage dumps are closed more often than open

[option] "Not so fast," exclaims Patrol Officer Obie, handing you a large stack of 8 x 10 colored glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. "Look at this evidence. I don't really give a hoot what happens with the garbage dumps, but don't think for a second you're letting Arlo here off the hook. Rather than reward his intentions, we've got to increase the punishment for litterers. Arlo could use a good year behind bars to think about what he did, especially considering the size of that damn trash heap."
[effect] disheveled car interiors are cited for "drivin' garbage around in the vicinity"

[Name] Glossy Photographs

validity: Must have cars, prisons

[description] Folk singer Arlo @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@ is no stranger to interesting stories, but a recent favor for a small-town diner may take the prize. Unable to find an open landfill during the past holiday to dispose of some accumulated garbage from his long-time friend Alistair's business, Arlo decided to make a statement by chucking the load over a nearby cliff. The resulting (rather large) garbage mound took the newscycle by storm, with local papers proudly proclaiming it 'The Crime of The Century'.

[option] "See -- protest works!" proclaims Arlo, speaking from inside a holding cell at the local police station. "I know you get a lotta requests, @@LEADER@@, but what I'm asking here is relatively simple. Although the media's all outraged over this 'garbage bomb', just think what might accumulate over the days of other landfill closures. Hire more laborers, give the workers a raise to keep up with inflation, etcetera, but c'mon man -- the bottom line is that landfills need to be open all hours of the day, every day of the year. That's only common sense, right?"
[effect] sanitation workers are primarily foreign-born

[option] "You're not dragging me away from my family during holiday," snarls local sanitation worker @@RANDOMNAME@@, driving onto the scene in a large bulldozer. "It's bad enough I had to take this job to make ends meet, don't make me spend more time here than I have to. We're already overworked, underpaid, and taken for granted. If you don't fix the stink here, my team'll be out on the picket line by next morning."
[effect] garbage dumps are closed more often than open

[option] "Not so fast," exclaims Patrol Officer Obie, handing you a large stack of 8 x 10 colored glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. "Look at this evidence. I don't really give a hoot what happens with the garbage dumps, but don't think for a second you're letting Arlo here off the hook. Rather than reward his intentions, we've got to increase the punishment for litterers. Arlo could use a good year behind bars to think about what he did, especially considering the size of that damn trash heap."
[effect] disheveled car interiors are cited for "drivin' garbage around in the vicinity"

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Issue 2 Draft 1:

[Name] Alistair's Diner

[validity] consequence for nations with conscription, options 1 and 2 of previous issue

[description] The newest folk anthem from Arlo @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@ has proven to be a black eye for the military, after the singer noted that his conscription paperwork was held up due to a prior arrest for littering. A number of @@DEMONYMPLURAL@@ appear to have taken this to heart, turning a blind eye to many an intentional mess across @@NAME@@.

[option] "No, no, no," tuts Arlo, strumming on an acoustic guitar. "It's like they didn't even listen to why that littering charge occurred in the first place. I understand that the army didn't think I was moral enough to join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages -- as a litterer, of course. That don't mean the public oughta make an Alistair's Diner anti-massacre movement about this. Ya'll gotta get a Public Service Announcement going, and stat. Heck, I think I know just the song..."
[effect] military recruiting jingles are oddly subversive

[option] "I thought he was our guy," mutters @@RANDOMNAME@@, the sergeant in charge of the recruiting hall. "You should have seen his session with the psychiatrist; I almost awarded him a medal for his enthusiasm. That said, I guess I can see where you're coming from. Lemme make some calls, and my office will try and loosen some rules here."
[effect] even a four-part harmony ain't enough to convince the military you're not fit for service

[option] "Yeah, that singer was sitting the Group W bench with the rest of us 'troublemakers'," grumbles @@RANDOMMALENAME@@, a burly ex-con whose paperwork was also under review. "Whole bench scooted away from him when he admitted to littering. Between the invasive medical tests, incomprehensible barking from that sergeant, and being forced to fraternize with a litterer, that day was a nightmare. At this point, I'd rather have had you nix the draft and send me back to prison before being forced into a life of that kind of 'service'."
[effect] there ain't nobody moral enough to join the army after all

[Outer Sparta]

Will one of the drafts ultimately be used or are both gonna be submitted as soon as you flesh out the details?

[Altmer Dominion]

Will one of the drafts ultimately be used or are both gonna be submitted as soon as you flesh out the details?

The two are linked. Started with the second one, but realized the backstory was too good not to include as well.

[Fontenais]

[Name] Glossy Photographs

The title seems to be a little separate from the issue. The photographs were only evidence of the littering, and not otherwise related to the littering itself

[description] Folk singer Arlo @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@ is no stranger to interesting stories, but a recent favor for a small-town diner may take the prize. Unable to find an open landfill during the past holiday to dispose of some accumulated garbage from his long-time friend Alistair's business, Arlo decided to make a statement by chucking the load over a nearby cliff. The resulting (rather large) garbage mound took the newscycle by storm, with local papers proudly proclaiming it 'The Crime of The Century'.

I kind of feel like this is a bit of a non-issue. There aren't really any consequences from not being able to dispose of, or have rubbish collected every day. If Arlo wasn't able to dispose of rubbish (general waste) for over a week, that might be an issue (smell, decomposition, etc).

As the rubbish has 'accumulated' over time (I'm guessing it's hard rubbish) why couldn't Arlo just wait another day to dispose of it? At this point, the only issue is that Arlo was very impatient. Even though the media are hamming it up, at the end of the day, Arlo only committed a minor crime. I wouldn't imagine someone littering to be notable enough to appear on Leader's desk.

[Australian rePublic]

Wait, why did the owner of resturant need to hire his friend to dispose of garbage? Couldn't he just wait for garbage for garbage collection?

[Altmer Dominion]

Made some changes to the first issue.

[Fontenais]

[option] "You're not dragging me away from family during my day off," snarls local sanitation worker @@RANDOMNAME@@, driving onto the scene in a large bulldozer. "It's bad enough I had to take this job to make ends meet, don't make me spend more time here than I have to. We're already overworked, underpaid, and taken for granted. If you don't fix the stink here, my team'll be out on the picket line by next morning."

What do you mean by "fix the stink here"? It's a little open-ended, I'm not sure what Leader would be doing

[Altmer Dominion]

[option] "You're not dragging me away from family during my day off," snarls local sanitation worker @@RANDOMNAME@@, driving onto the scene in a large bulldozer. "It's bad enough I had to take this job to make ends meet, don't make me spend more time here than I have to. We're already overworked, underpaid, and taken for granted. If you don't fix the stink here, my team'll be out on the picket line by next morning."

What do you mean by "fix the stink here"? It's a little open-ended, I'm not sure what Leader would be doing

Changed to "tidy up our benefits". Keeps a sanitation pun while clearing up the intention.

[Australian rePublic]

Once again, where were the garbage trucks? Didn't this resturant have dumpsters to keep rubbish in until tge trucks arrive?

[Altmer Dominion]

Once again, where were the garbage trucks? Didn't this resturant have dumpsters to keep rubbish in until tge trucks arrive?

TBH, I'm almost thinking about changing the description back to say the dump was closed on holiday. Sometimes, an accumulated influx just requires a DIY trip -- most landfills will accommodate a personal drop-off for a minor fee, and people take advantage of that all the time. Of course, once you're on the road, it's somewhat of a sunk cost. As the song says:

So we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW Microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the city dump. Well, we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the Dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving". And we had never heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

[Australian rePublic]

Really? Ha! In my council, we have garbage collection even Christmas Day. Every Wednesday, the red bin is collected, and over a two week cycle, the green bin and yellow bin are also collected on alternate weeks. Nothing disrupts that cycle. NOTHING (except maybe a major natural disaster, but we don't have those in this part of the city). Same with my family's beach house in the country (I think), weekly garbage collection. If garbage services miss a day due to public holidays, how does it work in America? Do they collect it the next day, or does the entire neighbourhood miss out for the week? Wouldn't they have had decades to work all these kinks?

If garbos are collecting garbage, obviously the dump is open. Also, why did it need to be disposed of here and now? Why couldn't they just wait till the next day, when the garbos are coming by?

[Altmer Dominion]

American landfills usually close for New Years', Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, while having limited hours on other occasions. And, for some routes, this may alter their regularly-scheduled programs. While circumstances surrounding holiday routes tend to be accepted by most residents, simultaneous drop-off restrictions can still catch people off-guard. And again, when someone's carrying a half-ton of garbage in the back of a truck, there tends to be a modicum of sunk cost about the whole matter.