11 Aoife Completes His Challenge, End Of The Third Challenge
Aoife stood still, brain working in overdrive to come up with an answer for the question in front of him. This questions was the only one so far to have him stumped for a majority of its time.
The question gave him a time-limit of five minutes, and he had already spent three of those trying to come up with an answer.
'What would you do if you found out that your view of morality had been flawed the whole time. You condemned thousands to a life of suffering or even death all based on your moral framework, but later in life you realize that your thought process was wrong, how do you react?'
This question truly had Aoife stumped, spending the majority of his time shutting down the ideas he came up with rather than actually coming up with ideas.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up, he had found the answer he was searching for.
"While my answer isn't perfect, this is the best one I could come up with." Taking a deep breath, Aoife continued, "I believe that such a situation occurring has no resolution, the only thing you can do is act to prevent it. This is because the damage has been done, and on such a large scale that admitting to your wrongdoing may actually cause more harm than good. So, all you can truly do is prevent the situation from happening."
At this point a confident smirk appeared on Aoife's face, he was sure that this part of his answer would be great at least. "The way to do this is rather simple, you have to surround yourself with others of differing viewpoints and constantly challenge one another's opinions. This will lead to the solution you settle on one that always ends up somewhere in the middle, neither too extreme nor too lenient."
"This is more than likely the reason for the existence of governments, though this showcases that even these systems are flawed. There truly is no perfect solution to this question, at least not one that any human could come up with." Aoife stated this with confidence, while he didn't believe himself to be the smartest person alive, he didn't believe there was another who could give an answer to this question that would leave all parties satisfied.
After Aoife finished, he sat in silence, waiting for the next question to appear on the screen, having no confidence in his ability to correctly answer it.
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~~Philosophers~~
The group of philosophers sat in stunned silence, contemplative looks on their faces.
They had been eagerly awaiting Aoife's answer to this question since they had started reviewing his answers. Yet, they didn't his answer to come in such a way, admitting to not having a solution to the problem but instead a prevention for it.
Suddenly, one of them began to laugh, his laughter coming out hollow and brittle. "I can't believe we missed such a solution to the question, we've been bested by a young man half our age." The man continued to let out his laugh, now sounding incredulous, before he carried on.
"Not only that, but it appears that this question has long been thought about, this solution not being proposed for the first time! Just like he said, the founder's of our governing bodies have long thought about this moral conundrum and found a solution to it, maybe we've been blinded by our old age and inflexible way of thinking." As he finished saying this, the old man seemed drained, as if admitting this mistake had sapped the last bit of life from him.
Around him, the other philosophers had mixed reactions, some coming to the same conclusion as him while others stubbornly refused it, not believing their way of thinking to be flawed.
"So!" The voice appeared all of sudden, coming from a direction away from the group of philosophers, causing them to turn their heads in the direction the sound originated from.
There, Chris could be seen, an awkward expression on his face. He waited for all of their attention to gather on him before continuing on, pushing through the awkward atmosphere.
"Should I give him the final point or not?" Chris asked, his tone one of confusion. He was an actor, not a philosopher, he obviously couldn't tell the deep nuances contained within Aoife's answer.
This sentence seemed to instantly spark chaos among the philosophers, the once deadly silent atmosphere becoming fiery in intensity.
It seemed the philosophers couldn't come to an agreement, some wishing to give Aoife the point with others vehemently refusing, claiming his answer as invalid seeing as he didn't directly answer the question.
Eventually, the decision came down to a vote, one in which was narrowly won on the side of Aoife gaining the point. So, to much grumbling and silent complaints, Aoife finished his arduous third task with an amazing perfect score.
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~~Aoife~~
Aoife continued to sit in silence, finally assuming no more questions to be coming after the screen stayed black for a solid 3 minutes.
Still, Aoife began to get annoyed at the lack of anything happening, feeling that it was a waste of his time to sit in silence, time that he could spend on much better things.
So, Aoife began to do push-ups around the ten minute mark, deciding that if nothing were to happen for a while then he may as well use the time wisely.
Around thirty minutes into Aoife's intense exercises, something finally changed. The screen that had been pitch-black up until that point, blurred to life, an image of Chris appearing on it.
"Hello! This time I'm not a pre-recorded message. Congratulations are in order, not only are you the first contestant done, but you've also finished with a perfect score!" Chris sent Aoife his signature smile, which weirdly enough, seemed to annoy him more than anything else.
"Now that your challenge is complete, you'll be taken back to the camp where you will wait for the other competitors to finish, wherein I will announce the winner of this competition."
As Chris' voice fell, Aoife could hear the screeching of tires, before the black van that had taken him here appeared once again.
This time, no men hopped out to blindfold him, so Aoife assumed it was safe to walk over and hop in.
Upon entering the black van, it wasted no time in speeding off, heading in a winding path back to the camp.
Aoife had found something about the situation strange, he had explored the entire island, and on his entire exploration of the island, he had never found this facility.
Thinking it over for a while, he eventually shrugged his shoulders, choosing to drop the matter for now.
~~
After arriving back at the camp, Aoife wasted no time in heading back to his clearing, wherein he went right back to his physical training.
But not before he took an hour long break to clear his mind, he had just gone through a total of 25 incredibly mentally taxing questions.
Still, improvement waited for no one, and as such, he was back to the monotonous tune of his body rising, then lowering, rising, then lowering.
Before he knew it, an hour passed.
Aoife's ears picked up on a noise, but by that point it was too late. Before he could even turn around, he was tackled to the ground by a figure.
Faster than he could react, he was flipped over before he felt a pair of lips invading his own, soon accompanied by a tongue.
As his eyes opened widely from the jarring events, Aoife was quick to recognize the figure that was currently violating his mouth; it was Izzy.
Upon recognizing her, Aoife returned the kiss with just as much fervor. It could be clearly seen by their reaction that the two had missed each other a lot.
~~
The two spent what felt like hours in each others grasp, before eventually the two were forced to separate for air.
Gasping, Aoife took a while but eventually managed to get out, "I missed you two Izzy, and it seems like a lot has occurred since we last saw each other, if your increased speed is any indicator. But, I need to do what I promised Chris I would."
Aoife finished, his tone one of regret, containing a promise to continue this interaction in the future.
Standing up before his willpower failed him, Aoife headed over to the smaller shed.
~~
Entering the shed-like structure, one could see a near identical replica to the confessionals.
That was right, Chris had allowed the two to move out into the woods on the condition that they would make a confessional in which they'd have to give a confession in at least once a week.
So, Aoife was currently fulfilling that promise, something he immensely regretted as he remembered the hungry look within Izzy's eyes.
Shaking his head, Aoife looked straight ahead at the camera, his confession starting.
"So, I guess that I've completed the third challenge. To be honest, the events feel kind of surreal, as if they hadn't even really occurred. The challenge was so much harder than any previous one, it makes me curious just what challenges the others will have to face, if they're as difficult as mine was, I wonder how well they'll do." Aoife finished, his tone truly curious.
Continuing on, "So, the questions asked of me really pushed me to make hard decisions within a short time-frame. I think this challenge will have huge benefits for me once I've fully digested it. Especially the last question, it's really opened up my eyes to the problems with my current way of viewing life."
Aoife stopped here, a pondering light appearing in his eyes.
Shaking it off, he continued, "I now understand the importance of having other people surrounding me, especially those with completely differing views on life. I feel this challenge has changed me as a person, made me more fit for a role as a decision-maker, someone who determines the fates of thousands; who they rely upon."
Finishing here, Aoife got a far away look in his eyes, his look seeming to turn glassy-eyed, seeming to be thinking deeply of something.
Slowly he got up, leaving the confessionals, no doubt leaving an unsatisfied feeling in the hearts and a bad taste in the mouths of the audience that were listening in.
