Writing Prompt #18: Have you ever gambled and lost?

[Crystal Dragon]

Credits to Suplex for this one.

 

I suppose that depends on who you talk to. Many could say that Crys gambled and lost with sticking to her duties but I see it from a different point of view. As someone that has experienced parenthood and raising children, it's a tiring, but very rewarding experience for both myself and my children. But juggling work on top if it all? That can be vastly overwhelming. 

 

With Villyenta, I suppose you could say she had. She was once an arena fighter, even as a daywalking vampire and had competed with some of the best in the world she came from, but she gambled her trust with someone that had been admired as a well known guild leader and a battle commander, whom ended up exploiting her, her abilities, and her very life(/unlife, if you prefer to term it such.). She lost her freedom, her right of choice, and was used in a way that was both extremely humiliating to her as a daywalker and had left her lacking in self confidence in the time since. 

 

Firya Phoenix, came from the same world that Villyenta had gambled and lost. She was a tribeswoman, a shaman with the ability to commune and invoke the power of the sun goddess but she ended up falling into the same hands at play, the same guild leader had she, and Villyenta bound by the same spell and they were coerced to turn against people that were fighting to buck the chains of the individual that was trying to take over all of that world. She eventually ended up merging spiritually with another that was a mirror soul. In the fashion, she gambled her identity and her individuality to help someone else and basically ended up becoming something completely different from what she started out her ritual journey as.

 

 

[huang3721]

Lukas gambled that his mother was too old and too far away to care about his wrongdoing. Even if she did, she couldn't do anything about it. That's what he thought. Familiarity breeds contempt, which his mother would swiftly redress.

Lukas' mother holds a very traditional view of marriage. For example, living with a woman out of wedlock is a big no-no. That was the rule she drilled into Lukas when he left for the US more than a decade ago.

Did I mention that Lukas' mother is a powerful sorceress? Aside from magical powers, she commands a horde of mystical servants. When the Rikti came, she unleashed her minions on the invaders, kicked them out, and kept them out of her village until the war ended years later. Lukas is very aware of this: If his mother has enough to repel an invasion, she likely can spare a few to keep an eye on her son. Probably, that is the reason some cultists flee from him.

Lukas' trouble started when his girlfriend called yesterday. She wanted to move into his apartment after a freak accident had destroyed her house/lab. A woman of science herself, she tried a scaled-up (it involved a 5,000-gallon container) baking soda experiment for fun. It went as well as you expected.

As his girlfriend is sleeping on his bed, Lukas rationalizes his decision. At this point, his mother should have learned about his transgression. She said she would disown him if he broke her rule. Well, he makes a living here. What's the worst his mother would do? Fly to the US? Scold him for helping a woman in need of shelter? Not to mention said woman is his girlfriend.

That night, Lukas realized that he had made a poor choice. He had no idea his old mother could teleport across the Pacific Ocean. Also, he should not worry about being disowned. The sorceress has already prepared something else for him.

 

Spoiler

Damage type: Emotional

Difficulty: Asian mom

 

No worries. Lukas got better, eventually.