text: [Themes: family friendly, science fiction]
  
  You decide to leave things as they are. The risk of upheaval and breaking a system that mostly works - not to mention potentially alienating the other officials you want to impress - is to great. It is better to be a gentle leaf on a big pond than a thrown stone.
  
  Your attention is soon drawn to other matters, some of interest and others not, as you hear complaints for several hours each day. It's not the most uplifting job - you are glad you have a lot of downtime each day to recuperate with pleasant baths, playing music in your room, or partaking of various types of entertainment around the court.
  
  After a few weeks, you pick up on a pattern - many of the complaints have been related to, directly or indirectly, a second tier Official of the Evaluation Guild. While you could draft a proposal specifically in regards to that official, or speak to Key about reassigning the man directly, it would seem more efficient to draft a proposal recommending a process for dealing with these "problem cases" in the future. Sinfonia has several ways one can raise in tier, but short of direct criminal behavior, or reassigning someone who was only in a higher tier temporarily, there are no ways to really 'drop' an official tier.
  
  You see two possible ways that the larger problem could be addressed:
  
  #1. Craft a system to evaluate and reassign someone in a command position, of any type, if more than six formal complaints a year are lodged against them. To minimize the chance of complaints being weaponized, a temporary evaluation committee made up of their peers can drop the social credit of anyone whose complaint proves spurious. The problem officials and commanders will not drop tiers, but they will be moved to a different position that does not involve management.
  
  #2. Propose that every formal complaint lodged against an officer or official goes through a permanent review board. Credible complaints will drop the social credit score of the official in proportion to their severity. The drop will at as a warning to those officials, as their monthly resource allotments will be lowered, and this will warn them to reform their ways. If they continue to rack up complaints, and drop more than 100 points in a six-month period, then they will be demoted to a lower tier.
  
  > propose demotion
  You eventually discard the plan for reassignment, as it doesn't feel like adressing the root of the problem - which is bad managers being given social positions higher than they merit, to begin with. These officials need punished, not moved to a new area where they can create problems. After weeks of fine-tuning the proposal, you think it is ready.
  
  Presenting it is another matter. While the other officials listen politely as you lay out the issue, tension rises as you begin to speak of drops in social credit, warnings, and potential demotion to another tier.
  
  "This is outrageous!"
  
  "Why must we listen to this?"
  
  "This goes against the principles of Sinfonia!"
  
  Officials begin to shout objections over you.
  
  "But if you look on page 34 -" It's no use, no one is listening.
  
  "Come to order, please!" First Official Eridan of Unity raises her hads, her sleeves still trailing on the floor. "Dissonance is new - he may not realize the magnitude of what he asks." She looks down at you, and though her words are soft, you feel she sees you as little more than a bug. "Tell me, First Official Altam, what is the motto of Sinfonia?"
  
  "Ever Upwards, Only Onwards, Climb the Scale and Take your Place," you repeat, as it is among the many things you have had to memorize as an official of the court.
  
  "And what do you think it means?"
  
  "That we should always be striving to better ourselves, to be the best possible citizens for Sinfonia."
  
  "That is part of it," she waves airily. "But it also means there is no going backwards for anyone once they are permanently assigned a place. You say these managers and officials are not performing their duties well, and harm morale.That is indeed a probem. But who would burn their house down to kill a few insects? What you propose would be a blaze that would sweep through our cities, an untamed conflaguration burning the dreams of the people and frightening them that the staircase of Sinfonia goes both ways. Why would our top elite continue to work hard, if the complaints of a few jealous peers can bring them down?"
  
  "I do have contingencies in place to ensure complaints are valid..."
  
  "That misses the point," Eridan continues. "In Sinfonia, it is better to be dead than to drop a tier. Do you believe the alleged crimes of these officials in mismaneagement deserve death?"
  
  "No, I do not," you admit.
  
  "Then let us vote, with that in mind."
  
  Unity is against. Harmony is lost, 2-40, with 3 absentations. Tempo and Key object. You abstain. The proposal fails.
  
  It is a large blow, not just because the proposal failed, but because the other officials almost entirely ignore you. Higher tier omplaints even come past you less often, as it seems society doesn't want to deal with a Dissonance who has no influence. Tangor arranges etiquette and history classes for you, which does help you in proposing minor ideas in the future, but you try nothing society-shaking again. It is better for everyone if you stay unobtrusive and let others handle the bulk of government.
  
  Fortunately, even your minimal effort and work is enouh to gain you social credit at a higher pace than in 8th tier. When the neck lottery winner replaces you as Dissonance, you are lucky to be reassigned as a 6th tier Potter. Your new home even has running water! Getting back to real work helps you get past the disaster your forray into politics turned out to be. Perhaps it is time to get married and start a family, far away from the opressive drama of Palace life.