You have lived 30 days locked in a tiny cell. You have no memory of how you ended up here or whether you deserved it. Only a few things have been explained to you. Firstly, that you would spend the rest of your life here, unallowed to even leave the room. Secondly, you were informed that you are in “The Bresgenzer Labyrinth Prison.” You were told this prison is impossible to escape, and that anyone caught attempting an escape would be killed on-sight.
Your 30 days haven’t been terrible, but have been growing steadily worse. The cell is fairly spacious and nicely furnished. The concrete floor is polished and clean, the walls are colored a warm tan. There’s a toilet, a bed, and a little kitchen with a fridge. There’s books and games and DVDs. The amenities are pretty good as prisons go, but the depression and anxiety of entrapment is only slightly abated.
Your boredom is broken up by visitations from guards and other prison staff. Every 60 minutes on the dot, someone looks through the window on your door and checks up on you. Additionally, someone comes into your cell everyday at 10am. You always get a package of food for your fridge, and often new games or movies.
Only one person ever comes to visit you at a time. It’s usually a guard who visits you, but not always. Even a lone doctor or therapist feels perfectly comfortable sitting in the room with a prisoner, with no security accompanying them!
“Oh, we don’t need to worry about that.” A nutritionist said, answering your queries. “Security here is so massive, you could run right out the door and I know you won’t make it far. Hehe.” She added.
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You put a leftover veggie hot dog in the microwave, and stare at it as it rotates along the plate. Day 30 of imprisonment may be your most miserable yet. You haven’t had the motivation to play any of the games, or read any of the books. You wonder what thoughts you could deploy to comfort yourself. Perhaps, one bright-side is that it wouldn’t be difficult to commit suicide in this facility. The moment you decide you can’t take it, you could just try to escape. They’ll kill you as soon as they see you, apparently.
You pull the hot dog out of the microwave, collapse on your little couch and start to munch away at it, tears rolling down your chin. You start sniffling up, having a hard time breathing while eating.
...OUCH! You bit on something hard!
You investigate the hot dog. You push excess weiner meat out of the way to reveal...a shining silver ring!
You then notice a piece of paper embedded in the hot dog as well. You unfold the paper and read the message written inside.
“Want to escape the Bresgenzer labyrinth prison? Put on this ring! It has the power to transform living things at the molecular level. You can turn any person into any other kind of person. You can turn humans into animals and back again!”
You hastily wipe the tears from your face and suck in your snot. This note has captured your full attention. You continue to read what it says.
“There are a few restrictions, however.
1. You have to be wearing the ring to use it, of course.
2. Only one person at a time can use the ring’s power.
3. You can turn living beings into inanimate objects, but not the other way around.
3a. The only exception is if you turn someone into an object, but allow them to maintain their consciousness from within. As long as they remain self-aware, they can be restored.
4. You cannot transform knowledge into existence. You can make someone highly intelligent, but cannot make them suddenly know the capital of Tanzania, for example.
5. You cannot transform anything more massive than 150 tons (roughly the weight of a blue whale or a commercial airplane.)
6. This is the second most important rule: You can only transform one person or object at a time!
7. THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: You can only make ONE transformation per hour. Once you have performed a transformation, the ring will be unable to do anything for exactly 60 minutes. These charges cannot be saved up. If you wait for 3 hours, you’ll still only have 1 charge!
7a. There is one exception. If you wait an entire week without using the ring, you will be granted a second charge. If you refrain from using the ring for exactly 168 hours, you can stack transformations. You can stack for up to an entire year’s worth: 52 charges, but no more. There is absolutely no way to save up more than that.”
You are scratching your head. What if this is some kind of trick, to see if you’ll attempt to escape? The note continues…
“8. Your transformations cannot change any of these rules. The ring can change in shape and form, but none of its powers can be altered.”
You are growing eager to put the ring on already. Who cares if it’s a trap? Your life is over one way or another! But wait, hold on, there’s a bit of note left to go…
“Finally, a special warning. If you forget to follow the rules of the ring...you may start to hallucinate. You’ll fall into a deep sleep where you live the ultimate fantasy. You’ll be able to use the ring without restrictions, no rules at all! ...until you wake up and realize it was all a dream. You will probably have the ring stolen from you, or worse.”
“I hope you enjoy, and use the ring wisely.
--Sincerely, anonymous benefactor”
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Well that was a lot to take in. You can't wait any longer. You take a deep breath and slip on the ring.
...nothing feels different. It would probably be best to test out the power before you make any plans. You focus on one of the movies on the shelf: Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. You silently wish to yourself…
...the ink on the cover begins to change. Within seconds, the movie has transformed into Homeward Bound 2: Lost in San Francisco! You even put the disc into the DVD player to check and indeed the movie itself has changed to the sequel.
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One hour later, you focus on the movie again and attempt to turn it into Homeward Bound 3. However, nothing happens, because that movie does not exist. You turn your attention to the next movie over: The Land Before Time. With a quick conscious thought, it has been transmogrifies into The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island! Which was kind of the best in the series, really. The Big Water song is a cultural touchstone to be reckoned with.
You attempt to transform more movies, but nothing happens. The one hour limitation was not a lie, clearly. You better be careful to keep it in mind and always keep track of time. You don’t want to fall into a deep sleep and start dreaming!
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Another hour passes. It’s 9:58am. It is only two minutes until a staff member comes to visit you in your cell. You have no idea which staff member it might be.