Text | Evening of August 2nd

[rollstoseduce]

[It's finally time for the fantasy trio to leave for Kanto and start a new badge journey, and like last time, they're taking a night train to sleep through it. Or that's the idea anyway - because also like last time, Jaskier wants to take the chance to chat a bit with the network. And after a little misunderstanding from the steward regarding Kiri, there's a topic that won't leave his mind.]

Many a similarity I've found among the realms us otherworlders hail from, yet there's one thing from mine (besides witchers!) I haven't found anywhere else: the Law of Surprise.

It's a custom as old as humanity itself, the granting of a seemingly impossible wish, the price a man who saves another can demand:

"Give me that which you already have but do not know yet".

It is a request for something which neither the savior nor the saved knows the nature of, until the saved man returns home. It could be a cute little pup or a mere crop, mayhap a new pair of shoes... or even a baby. So many heroic stories from my world were starred by a Child Surprise, often known as the Children of Destiny.

So imagine yourselves, if you will, in front of a powerful king or queen that asks you what reward you'd like for your service. What is your answer?

Do you ask for gold? A lady's hand in marriage?

Or do you dare to ask for the Law of Surprise to see what Destiny has in store in for you?



((As always, Jaskier needs to be super extra with his font. Lmk if you need me to drop it!))

Comments

[rollstoseduce]

All very good points, but I must admit that as someone who has worked for years trying to rewrite history, I've become quite skeptical of what does and doesn't reach tale status being proof of anything.

Something you said has my attention, however, and that is the idea of the specific trigger deteriorating over time. That sounds extremely possible and also circles back to the idea of humans arriving from other worlds in the past - who says the cause of our presence didn't exist centuries ago and faded away, only to return a decade ago again when whatever triggered it happened again? A portal that got closed and then reopened, so to speak.

[dreamsofahero]

It is true you can, with effort, mislead people, publish false information, and so on, to the point where it becomes widely accepted as the truth. However, do you have it within your power to reach every isolated hamlet in the world? To find and alter or destroy every text, every monument, every buried ruin that might attest to another version of events?

In my experience, not even the gods, with the power to force people to believe what they wished, could completely eradicate all traces of such information.

So while an interesting theory, at present I am inclined to believe there isn't nearly sufficient evidence for it. To the contrary, there are tales that at least certain of the pokémon themselves are of origins not of this world, in some form or another.

[rollstoseduce]

You are right, I do not have that power. But those isolated hamlets do not have the power to reach the rest of the world either. So skeptical I shall remain.

Oh, you are right about the theory lacking evidence, that much it's true! This is why it's called a "theory" in the first place. I've also heard about certain Pokémon coming from other worlds, which is peculiar to say the least - these creatures have such specific physiology, after all. For other "species" to adapt so seemingly... or mayhap things were different when they arrived and they all evolved together?