Game Over. Try Again?

Kilim rubbed her eyes and placed the lanyard she was holding around her neck. Like every morning, she was waiting for the elevator that would bring her to her division. Her expression betrayed the exhaustion she was feeling, but despite the dark blue bags underneath her eyes, she held herself straight, pride and determination visible in her gaze. As she waited there, it was obvious she was on route to accomplish something important.

As the large mechanical doors of the elevator opened with a grinding sound, Kilim sighed, she desperately needed her morning coffee. It was a drink her division had become absolutely obsessed with a couple hundred years ago when humans had first roasted and brewed it. As she squeezed into the lift with the other operatives, Kilim tapped her foot rhythmically as the doors closed, her badge swinging back and forth against her chest. The reflection of it was visible on the elevator doors. It read:

Operative K14

Earth - Human Race Division

Souls 1000000004-1001000004

*Ding* Floor 15 was announced by a deep masculine voice and the elevator doors slowly opened. Pushing past the remaining occupants in the lift, Kilim made her way onto the floor’s landing. As the doors closed behind her, she walked confidently along the long hallway. This hallway was not like any other. On the left side it was lined with beautiful tropical plants and imagery of animals. On the right side of the hallway, pictures of the most influential humans and inventions to have ever existed lined the walls. Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Ruth Bader Gainsburg, Celine Dion and Jennifer Aniston amongst others. The inventions portrayed ranged from coffee to the first design of an airplane.

Kilim hardly ever noticed the hallway anymore. She walked by it everyday, and by now, she knew every inch of it by heart. It was only during rare inaugurations of new influential people or inventions that she paid more attention. Lately, there had been fewer inaugurations and more removals. It had been the extinction of certain plant and animal species that had forced the Earth Flora & Fauna division to redesign their side.

As Kilim arrived at the end of the hallway she nodded to the receptionist who had already begun sipping her morning coffee. The receptionist kindly acknowledged her and closed her eyes as she took another sip. Kilim smiled, she knew that would be her in just a few minutes.

To the left of the reception desk was a doorway with the sign Earth Flora & Fauna Division. Mechanically, Kilim turned right and walked through the doorway adorned with a large neon sign which read: Earth Human Race Division.

Once she passed the door, an electric energy radiated from everyone already there. Large bursts of laughter and excited conversations were underway across the division. Kilim could see some operatives already deep into their work, heads down within their cubicles among the sea of tropical plants surrounding them. It was like a breath of fresh air and Kilim was already starting to feel recharged. Now all she needed to be at 100% was her morning coffee. It was as she stood there that a loud gong resonated throughout the division. Ah here we go, thought Kilim as a Runner zoomed by holding an impressively thick dossier for the first password reset of the day. Whoever gets that one is gonna have their work cut out for them, she thought.

Before going to her desk and beginning her work day, Kilim only had one thing on her mind - coffee. Lined up on a table in the back sat a row of the freshly brewed beverage. She was not the only one in her department who had the idea to start her day with this drink. A couple of her colleagues were already lined up picking up their morning elixir. Her eyes were glued to the cups until it was finally her turn to pick one up.

With coffee in hand, Kilim stood still and closed her eyes as she took a gulp. The dark liquid burned her tongue as it traveled down her throat. She let out a deep sigh and felt her body relax. Perfect, let’s start the day, she thought. Picking up her pace she made her way to her cubicle. As she walked in, she could hear the gong go off in the background, but her attention was now fully focused on what she saw lying on her desk. The large file that the Runner had been transporting earlier was there with the note: Rest Your Password on the cover.

Kilim sighed and let herself sink into her work chair. She took another swing of coffee before she had the courage to open the file.

Soul number: 10000911117

As she read through the file, she quickly sized up who Soul #10000911117 was. He had been called Greg during this life, and the size of the file was not a collection of all the positive advancements his soul had made during its time on earth. No, it was a collection of what seemed to be countless mistakes and his purely selfish behaviour. Kilim was an experienced operative and she didn’t need to look up any of Greg’s past lives. Just by the looks of the file, she knew his soul was a young one. All the inexperienced souls tended to go through a selfish and arrogant phase, and as much as she despised dealing with these souls, Greg was not out of the ordinary or irredeemable, he just needed more experience as Kilim would always say.

It took Kilim another two hours to read through the full file to put together a summary of Greg’s life on earth.

Greg

• Straight white male
• Born into a middle class family
• Had 3 wives (2 divorces) and 3 children
• Abused 2 of his wives and spent 2 years in jail
• Essentially abandoned his children and “forgot” to pay child support
• Homophobic, anti-semitic and a misogynist
• Was a Business Consultant
• Liked baseball

Greg is really the whole package, thought Kilim as she shook her head.

It was Kilim who was in charge of deciding what would happen next. She placed her head in her hands and took a moment to think. She knew that souls left unchecked would tend to get worse with time. Closing her eyes she mentally laid out the options before her. She could either “reset her password” or she could decide to “remove from operation”. On rare occasions a soul could be “removed from operation” which essentially meant that they were transferred to another department in order to get rid of their problematic soul. They would either go to the Earth Flora & Fauna division, or in rare cases to a whole new galaxy. Sending a soul to another galaxy division was almost unheard of. One of the most recent case had been Soul #150245778 who had also been known as Adolf Hitler during his time on earth. As per the latest gossip, Kilim had heard that Soul #150245778 had been causing havoc in the galaxy they were currently in. Rumour had it, they were planning on transferring them again to another galaxy division.

Kilim lay her head down onto her desk and looked up at the papers lining her cubicle. A couple cheat sheets were held up with tacks representing the password reset instructions as well as the significance of each letter and number.

PASSWORD Reset Information:

• Gender: M(male)/ F(female)/ O(other)
• Descent: AS(asian)/ W(white)/ BIPOC(black and indigenous people of color)/ H(hispanic)/ ME(Middle Eastern)/ PI(pacific islander)/ MG(m ixed genetics)
• Finances: UP(underprivileged)/ MC(middle class)/ P(privileged)
• Disability : Y(yes)/ N(no)
• IQ: 60-200

Example: F_AS_MC_N_120

As Kilim was contemplating what to do, another operative walked into her cubicle, coffee in hand.

“Tastes divine this morning doesn’t it?” he exclaimed as he arrived. Lifting her head off her desk, Kilim smiled.

“Never tasted better!” she retorted. She made sure to take another sip before he could say another word. Finiicc seemed to catch on to her state of mind as he saw the dossier and papers scattered across the desk.

“What’s going on, you’ve got a hard case this morning?” said Finiicc.

“Yeah, I’m not really sure what to do with this soul. It had a bad life, but it’s not the most horrible thing I’ve seen. They are egocentric and young, and these types of souls always give me headaches when it’s time to reset my password” sighed Kilim.

“You know what I always say, right?” smiled Finiicc. “It’s game over for them. They get to try again thanks to you. It’s similar to those video games humans invented a while back…”

“…Video games are nothing compared to the invention of coffee, I’d say” Interjected Kilim.

“Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with that '' agreed Finiicc before continuing his thought.“...But unlike those video games, YOU get to decide the circumstances in which they get to try again. I say, teach them a lesson, it’s the only way they will learn”. A sly smile radiated across Finiicc’s face. He winked back at Kilim before walking out of the cubicle, satisfied with his words of wisdom.

“Thanks Finiicc” Kilim’s voice trailed off as she faced her monitor.

Game over, try again, she thought.

Glancing one last time at the dossier, she opened her screen to the Reset Your Password page for Soul #10000911117. Steadily she typed:

F_BIPOC_UP_Y_150

As she clicked enter, a pop-up appeared.

Please confirm you want to proceed with this password update for Soul #10000911117.

Confirm / Cancel

As Kilim pressed “Confirm” she whispered to herself.

“Game over, try again. Good luck Soul #10000911117 and see you at the next password reset.” She drained her cup of coffee as another gong went off in the background. Back to work! she thought.