There is a city with high walls and well trained guards. If you're a merchant that frequently visits the city on business, the guards will first perform routine inspections, but with time they will recognize and welcome you in. Eventually you don't even need to show paperwork and state your intentions, as you are granted VIP status. You bring good business, you've shown yourself to be trustworthy, and the guards know when to expect your arrival.
But if you begin visiting the city less frequently and maybe your trips are not at regular intervals like they used to be, the guards are going to start checking your paperwork again. If you comply, you will be granted access. If your visits become regular again, the inspections will be relaxed and you'll be granted immediate passage once again.
But if you get frustrated with the guards because they're not immediately letting you in after your period of absence, the guards will grow suspicious of your true intentions for visiting the city. Maybe the next time you visit they'll ask to check the contents of your wagon as well as check your papers. It's been several weeks since your last visit, afterall, and you are no longer recognized with VIP status. The guards never know when to expect your arrival, and often you don't bring the same carriage and wares to sell.
And if your visits get more sporadic and infrequent, pretty soon you'll be back to going through the full inspection before passage is allowed. And if you get angry, refusing the inspection, yelling at the guards “You know me! I've been coming here for years! Don't you trust me? This is ridiculous!” They won't let you in at all. They'll deny you entrance and put you on a Restricted List so that next time you plan on coming to the city, you have to pre-file papers to be reviewed before you even start your trip there. And maybe that's too much hassle for you so you stop going to the city, looking for business elsewhere.
But business used to be so good in the city so one day after a few years you show up at the gates, expecting you were removed from the Restricted List due to the passage of time. You state your intentions that you plan on restarting regular frequent business in the city, expecting a warm welcome. But the guards inform you that because of your previous behavior you are still on the Restricted List and must comply with the appropriate process to be allowed to enter the city, and they turn you away. Furious, you begin demanding entrance, citing the many years you did frequent business in the city and how you were granted passage immediately at one point. Screaming at the guards and trying to push past them, you are restrained and imprisoned for the night. In the morning you are released and informed that because of your aggression, you are permanently banned from the city and labeled a Hostile Threat. You are warned that if you attempt to enter the city again, you will be arrested on sight.
It's silly, really, if you had just been understanding of the process and allowed the guards to do their job, you would still be doing business in the city. The security of the city didn't change. Your attitude and conduct is what changed and security simply responded the way they are supposed to. To protect the city.
The guards didn't forget you. Your paperwork wasn't invalid. You weren't smuggling in weapons or assassins. But your resistance to the system that has successfully protected the city for years, your sense of entitlement and disregard for the process that allows the city to have a robust economy for your business to flourish in, is what ultimately led to your banishment and criminal status. The city is a great place to live and do business in BECAUSE of the security measures, not in spite of them.
Neighboring cities with little to no security bring bad business for you, which is why you come to this city to promote and sell your wares. The city will not make exceptions for you because at one point in time you had a good relationship with the city. Relationships must be maintained or they will shrivel. If you had built that relationship back up, your status as a VIP would have been renewed. But because you decided to fight the guards instead, you are no longer welcome.
The city does not hate you. You made yourself a threat and the guards took appropriate action to keep the city safe. You will not be allowed entrance again, even if you apologize. You had every opportunity to respect the city’s boundaries. You chose to become a Hostile Threat. Find a different city to do business in.
prguitarman
stormborns
annaxmalina
andulkaphoto
2087
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
