An Impulsive Decision
Flash fiction for the first Romanticism Pan-Fandom week (@romantic-army)
“But I wanted to play the bard!” Victor and George glared at each other in unison.
Not for the last time, you reflect that agreeing to GM for this particular group may have been (read: was) not your best decision. You try a gambit.
“Can't one of you be a fighter? It'd make a more balanced party--”
“Can a fighter speak with the soul of a poet!?”/ “I am uniquely qualified to play a charismatic leader--”
Mary rolled her eyes. “We all know you both just want to seduce NPCs.”
“Why don't one of you play a paladin?” Alexander cut in. “They have charisma, and fighting ability, and we don’t have a healer.”
He must have been waiting for this moment, offering a reassuring smile towards the doubtlessly-grateful gamemaster along with his character sheet.
You take it and sigh. “Your ranger can't take 'clerics' as a favored enemy. You have to pick a type of monster or humanoid, not a class.”
“But my rangers' taking a principled stance against religious dogma and a powerful enemy from my backstory, not being bigoted against sentient beings.”
“Fair,” you concede, “but it still breaks the game mechanics. Pick 'undead' or 'plants' if sentience bothers you. And the leadership feat gets you one follower, not three.”
“But it's very important for the backstory. They're all friends--”
Skimming is a generous word for what you do to the seven closely-typed pages of character backstory appended to Alexander's character sheet (from the number of sword fights you notice, it'll definitely be worth revisiting before the next session), but you mange to find the thread
“Look, just start with this 'Athos' character who specialized in swords and his sidekick D'Artagnan, and we can revisit the others when you've leveled up a bit.”
Mary, at least, had a playable character. Necromancer wizard, neutral alignment, fresh out of college and adventuring because he's --- “on the run from both his tormented ideals and his own despised creation?”
She nods. “I think it'll be a fun conflict to play. To really amp up the drama, I made this list of beloved friends and relatives for the nameless monster to kill while Victor's out on quests.”
“You named your character after one of the other players?”
Across the table, the real-life Victor shifted his murderous glare off of George and onto you. You'd never before considered just how an impressive forehead could amplify a stern glower of disapproval.
“Which is fine,” you amend. “Maybe give him a surname to avoid unnecessary confusion?”
“I have decided to play the paladin,” George announced. “My great quest will be to liberate all peoples from their oppressors, and on all sides our party will be hailed as heroes. Bards shall commemorate our noble deeds in song and verse, while in every village grateful maidens will strew flowers at our horses feet.”
“I think he's on to something”, Victor-of-the-high-forehead conceded. “Can we have two courageous paladins in the party?”
You are, you realized, going to need a lot more coffee.
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Kind of want to write Ed and Victor Hugo meeting solely because Vicky would have an amazing reaction to the octopus tattoo...
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A long (spoilers included) review of Dunki.
Because I think I should just write it all out.
Starts with classic Hirani flavour. A main character on a wheelchair plotting an escape. And they succeed. Mannu runs away to meet her lawyer to ask about her visa condition. The answer is negative but she's desperate to be back home now. So comes the names of Hardy, a guy who she hasn't met in 25 years now.
Cue Hardayal Singh Dhillon, in all his greys and old age cramps running a race and also winning it but well a call from Mannu, who cares about a damn race. He answers no I'm not coming to get you and she smiles saying 'kand' ho gaya hai. And how can the 'Banda' refuse.
This was the introduction of a tale so simple, yet so real. Why do people leave their homes? The homes even with the poverty still has the warmth and love. But what could be more glaring than poverty for unemployed youth. Sometimes it's heartbreaking love, a love so powerful that people decide to end themselves instead of trying to survive through. That's Sukhi and Jassi's subplot, which only propels Hardy to decide on the donkey route, a decision that'll change all their lives forever.
And so starts the dunki, shown very aesthetically if I might say the horrors and the dangers. But you know your leads survive so you hold on. They wade underwater, scared and tired. They hide in freezers, cold. They walk through the desert among skeletons and evilness. Mannu has a cathartic experience here. And you wonder what exactly is the point of going through all this trouble without any guarantee. But they manage to reach their destination.
And now awaits another horror. Immigrants are looked down upon. They aren't humans in the eye of the citizens and don't get the dignity to live like humans either. Toiling through odd jobs, sending fake pictures to assure their families and to give them a better life is their only cause now. But Hardy doesn't have any of that. He's there for Mannu, so he starts the point of going back. But necessity is larger than lives for some people.
So they get caught and the rest seek asylum but Hardy can't lie, won't lie that it was his country that's unsafe for him. So he's sent back.
Fascinatingly dark that deported people get to travel safely back to the places they tried so hard to escape. It's along the same line as punishing people attempting suicide. This helps no-one.
Anyway 25 years pass offscreen. We get to know in passing that the families back home are doing well enough but our 3 asylum seekers are not getting the visa to return home. But trust Hardy, he can do it.
And Hardy does, with a bit of cunning and so much old man charm, the old man does it for his Mannu. But Mannu is dying. And ah well. What beats a tragic love story.
What beats a movie with so much heart and love and pain underlying the humour and constant laughter.
You just end up sitting a bit longer in the theatre and hoping to gather your thoughts because there's so much and yet there's this numbness. Is it because you saw the best movie, maybe. There's no best movie as per me honestly. Is it because this topic is way too real but so far from your reality that it shocks you a bit more. Is it because you love the man frontlining these moving images and you can see no fault.
Honestly I don't even want to conclude. If I could I would like to hug Sukhi right after the phone call, and Hardy after the court and at the terrace. But I'm guessing Hardy will be fine. Wo sambhal lega apne ko. Mannu I hope you had happy moments, even if they were the bare minimum.
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Hi 🤗
Saw u mention that Bonnie is not the most mistreated character on tvd and am curious who you think is mistreated the most. Cause a lot of ppl swear it's Bonnie and I wanna know why you think diferently.
That’s such a good question 🤗
I’ll start by saying that I do feel that Bonnie was mistreated to some extent by the writers, especially in terms of deaths but there were so many characters who had such tragic lives that she kind of pales in comparison.
Bonnie was never abused by a partner the same way that Caroline or Elena were. She was never turned into a vampire against her will like Stefan or Vicki were. She always had a stable group of friends unlike Katherine or Rebekah. She originally had at least one parent who cared unlike Nora or Mary Louise or Katherine or Rebekah or Matt and Vicki or Stefan and Damon. But most importantly, at the end of it all, when Elena came back to life, she got her happy ending. She didn’t die or become imprisoned or continue in a toxic relationship. And that’s why I can’t say that she was done the most dirty. Not when characters like Katherine, Vicki and Rebekah exist.
Basically, I’m saying that although Bonnie had some hugely traumatic moments, 90% of the characters on the show did, and it’s more a case of having it less badly rather than better.
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Worlds Apart
Author: @writeyourownlifestory
Rating/Warning: Teen and up audiences, referenced ED, referenced child ab*se
Chapter Count: 19/19 (part 1 of Dead Lovers Society: Remix Edition series)
Description: Eddie shoved Billy’s shoulder, ignoring the fact that Eddie just so happened to be a wizard when it came to mathematics thanks to having to learn portion control, percentages, and everything else that went into selling pot.
“This is a lifetime opportunity, Bill!”
“Sounds great, Eddie but there’s one tiny problem. We don’t have a band.”
--
Two dudes stuck in a small town enter the Battle of the Bands in hopes of making it big, making it rich, and making it known that they're better than anybody thought they were. Oh, and they sort of find love along the way. Go figure.
Tags: Alternate Universe- no vecna, battle of the bands AU, besties Eddie and Billy, Robin just wants to pick up chicks (IE. Vickie), Eddie is gone for Chrissy, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, strangers to friends to lovers, wrongful first impressions, Chrissy needs a hug, alternating POV, multiple chapters, part of a series, status: Completed
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