[ SECRET POST #2742 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2742 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 094 secrets from Secret Submission Post #392.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

(minor tw for fictional domestic abuse)

[case]

Just randomly brainstorming while bored at work:

Lance is a Paladin who has a rule not to kill. He and his small army of knights are trapped in the last remaining temple of his God, fighting off the the army of the Empire. They're falling, one by one. They can't do this, break their way out of here, without killing the people determined to trap them in, and they're all men of faith, they'd rather die than betray their God. He's watching everyone he loves die around him. And suddenly, he's the last one standing. The leader of the enemy army is approaching him with sword drawn, with smirk on his face and some snide remark about the Peacekeepers. This is the end. There's nothing left to protect, except for an idea. An idea and an ideal that Lance refuses to let die.

Lance tosses away his shield. Fine. Let it end here. He only prays the stories will live on without them.

That's Lance!

Lance is a Paladin who has a rule not to kill. He and his small army of knights are trapped in the last remaining temple of his God, fighting off the the army of the Empire. They're falling, one by one. They can't do this, break their way out of here, without killing the people determined to trap them in, and they're all men of faith, they'd rather die than betray their God. He's watching everyone he loves die around him. But - they're not dead, yet. There are still voices he can hear, holed up in the room behind him.

And there's a hand on his shoulder. It's the squire he's been training with for the past few months, looking to him desperately. There must be something we can do, the kid's expression says. There's got to be something. And he looks at the kid. Remembers how the boy had come up to him tripping over his own overgrown feet like an overexcited puppy, and told him how Lance was always his hero when he was a child, he's honored to be training with him, he really wants to be just like Lance when he grows up, and help people. Be a hero.

This isn't the end, Lance thinks suddenly. It's not about the people, the artifacts, the temples. It's about the idea. About the ideals. As long as some of them survive to carry it on, as long as people like this boy who wants to help the world, keep the peace, do good, exist, his God will never die. He's familiar with the phrase, 'sacrifices must be made, for the faith.' But it had never hit him this particular way before…

He'd never thought of his own soul as a chip.

Lance picks up a sword. He gives the boy one final order. "Don't follow me."

And Lance falls hard.

That's Lance too!

Now if we segue into AU:

It's 1990. Lance is a jaded, 19 year old college student who doesn't know how to connect with people because his parents were always divorced, moving, distant. He's a silent too-serious guy that likes books and doesn't socialize and always feels like he's outside-looking-in at the rest of the world. He has no idea what to do with his life, only that he has to do something. He's currently just eating, sleeping, taking his classes, going for runs, and just… going through the motions. He doesn't know it, but he's desperately searching for inspiration, for duty, for something to believe in. What's the point of it all? Maybe he should drop out and try the police academy instead…?

Still Lance.

It's 1975. Lance is a 29 year old Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD, who is in an abusive relationship with Artie, a flower child militant hippie who he has screaming fights with nearly every night. They've been reported to the police multiple times, and he's been arrested and let go multiple times, when she declined to press charges - mostly because she does it on purpose. She crowds him in and hits him first, riles him up so he lashes out in self-defense, because she LIKES that, because he proves her RIGHT every time he breaks and god it feels GOOD to break sometimes even if he hates himself for that, too. She tells him he deserves everything he's got, that he should have died back there, and the thing is, he agrees with her. Why him and not the others? What the hell were they even fighting for? They're both horrible, broken people.

Still Lance.

It's the Dark Ages. Lance is 40 years old, and a Catholic priest. He doesn't believe in, or like, God very much. What he does believe in is good and evil - or maybe just evil - and he's sworn to protect the innocent from it no matter what the cost. The cost appears to be his immortal soul, because he's forced to break the cardinal rule all the time - thou shalt not kill - because funnily enough, evil doesn't only come in the form of demons and spirits. Humanity is just as capable of summoning that shit up, turning on each other. He's killed a lot of people. He hates himself for it. He's going to Hell, if what everyone says is true. Well, fine, then. Worth it. He's a man with a purpose and he's willing to give everything for it.

Still Lance...

Refuses to kill, kills to save others, has never killed or even thought about it, killed and hates himself for it, kills willingly knowing he's supposedly damned, has ideals, doesn't have ideals, has had his ideals broken and trampled on, etc etc you can come up with a billion variations, have one version act 'OOC' to another version, and still have the character be recognizable and IC to themselves.

It's all in the setup, the backstory, and the circumstances. Everything can feel organic because it can actually BE organic, since organic development stems from somewhere and you can change what that base is. Even if it's something as simple as changing the first scenario from Lance being the last one standing to being the Last one standing with innocents behind him, or having him realize it's not the God/temples he wants to protect, it's the ideas - or as complex as slotting him into different places in history - the world shapes what that results in, what that makes him become.

Could I make Lance a happy go lucky friendly dude who loves his friends and whose life is merry? Yeah, actually. Sure! By changing the backstory so that happy!Lance is what naturally results from how his life goes. It wouldn't make him OOC, it'd just make that particular universe something that's never happened to him before. There's absolutely no reason for Lance to be grumpy and angry and grim if he grew up and professionally played with puppies for a living and was happily married, or something. It doesn't make suddenly him a different character or a different person, it just changes everything else about the world (which the writer has control over) to make it all organically lead to happy puppy Lance.

But you know, giving characters happy perfect fulfilling lives, well… that's no fun.