Story 212: Fantasy Makes Reality More Bearable

            Moderator: Thank you all for joining me today on such short notice.  As indicated in my posting earlier, we have some serious work to do.

     Member 1: Yeah, there’s a ----load of ----ing work indeed to recover from that ----storm last night.

        Moderator: Not to belabor the point, but as mentioned previously that sort of language only gets you flagged and possibly all of us kicked off the system, so cut that stuff out.

     Member 2: Yeah, we’ve got enough to worry about without you messing it up even worse!  And don’t get me kicked off another one of these!

            Member 1: Sorry.

          Moderator: Aside from the wording, I agree with the sentiment: I am absolutely dislodged from my moorings after that appalling display the show put on last night, and I have no idea if they or any of us will ever recover from this.

     Member 3: I call a boycott!

        Moderator: Anyone second that?... Nope, the rest of us are just gluttons for punishment.  If you boycott, you boycott alone.

     Member 3: I withdraw the call.

       Moderator: Now, I have a few proposals that I came up with along with the ones you already submitted, so I will list those that seem to have the highest probability of success.  #1 Flood their inboxes with our complaints.

     Member 1: They never read those unless it’s awards season, and we’re not there yet.

          Moderator: Very well then.  #2 Post our issues all day, every day, everywhere, for the next three years at least.

     Member 3: Doesn’t that become white noise after awhile?

            Moderator: Not to the bots it doesn’t.  And finally, #3 Comfort ourselves with reading and creating new stories in fan fiction.

     Member 2: Ooh, I’m almost done with my new series – spoiler alert, it takes place in a timeline where ------ didn’t die.

       Moderator: Wow, that sounds AMAZING.  Too bad the writers didn’t think of that; it probably would have saved the whole show.

     Member 2: Are you being sarcastic?  I really can’t tell on this.

       Moderator: No, I was being sincere.  The show really jumped when they killed off ------ just because some VERY LOUD PEOPLE liked --- instead.

     Member 1: Ugh, I hate --- so much!  Which is sad, because I love the actor who plays him.  I don’t hate that guy, he’s cool; I just hate his character.  You know, I’ve been getting the odd feeling lately that he hates his character too – think we can enlist him to our cause?

          Moderator: Nah, he’ll be afraid that we’re just crazy and only send us autographed cast photos.  Going back to the fan fiction: let me know when your series is done, I’d like to read it when all else is bleak.

     Member 2: Thanks!  Maybe I’ll even self-publish it, or start a Web series on how this disaster might have been avoided.

        Member 3: What a lovely dream.

         Moderator: Sorry guys, gotta go – meeting starts in five minutes and I need to get this discussion off the screen before the Board sees it ;-).

     Member 1: Why care what they think?  Aren’t you the CEO?

        Moderator: True, but you must admit that this would be a tad embarrassing.