kestrel

kestrel
2019-08-17 22:03:03 (UTC)

Prompt 038: Rolling the Dice

38. A voodoo shaman approaches you with a proposition. You can either roll a pair of dice to potentially earn an amazing future or you can let your life play out as it would have if you had never met him. What do you decide to do and why? What happens next?

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Go Big Or Go Home, as I always say.

But first, I have to address a minor issue... Based on the prompt, it appears that there's no down-side to rolling the dice. It mentions nothing about any consequences for not-rolling successfully. In this case, of course I would roll the dice. Why not?

So here are some reasons that a typical writer would throw in as "the catch" to going along with this shaman's proposition:
- I owe the shaman one. They come back later to collect the debt at a personally inopportune moment, and I have to sacrifice something dear to me (which they would say, of course, would never have made it into my life had I not agreed to the deal). It wouldn't be something as simple as paying a bunch of money. It would be something intense, likely mystical, and definitely dear to my heart. Maybe my eternal soul (if it actually exists, of which I'm personally in doubt), or maybe the hand of my One True Love.
- Maybe they want to possess my body - even if just for a little bit. I wouldn't want to have kids, because that won't change regardless of my circumstances. But maybe my One True Love would be forced to breed with some crazy demon that would sire the antichrist or something outlandish like that. Maybe I'd be turned into a lycanthrope, transforming, into some sort of monster during the full moon and doing all manner of beastly behaviours.
- Maybe good luck is a tangible, limited resource, and my run of good luck is the result of someone else being deprived of it. The shaman might strike a deal with them to hunt me down and take back their lost luck. Or maybe the good luck eventually "runs out," as the saying goes, and life steadily becomes worse until I help the shaman with a substantial task, or enter into some other desperate bargain. Maybe all my good luck was used in that one dice throw, and the other pivotal moments or choices in my life will always be shit.
- Maybe all the major decisions of my life require outcomes derived by the result of the dice. The shaman mysteriously shows up forevermore during pivotal moments of my life, and forces me to throw the dice again, letting their result guide the procession of events. The dice become "bonded" to me and my future.

All those consequences seem like they'd make life a lot more interesting and dramatic, at least.




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