Commentary for Cascade (including Spoilers)
(also known as “The Parting of the Ways” and “The End of the World”.)
This was a strange one for me. I don’t usually write Oneshots, I have to be in the mood to do it, as I prefer more complex and laired plots. This was written more or less straight in one go, and the only editing I did was adding a little continuity when I’d finished. Another thing I wanted to try out was adding details by “allusion” rather than straight fact. I know that shipping in D&D has a wide variety of viewpoints, so I wanted to blur the relationships, letting people see what they wanted to see. True, I wrote it with something specific in mind, but what the reader saw was up to them!
I had been reading a few ficts that I had to catch up on - “The End of it all” by Gabi Web; “Zeitgeist” by ChanceSaver and also the final version of “Journey to Darkness” by JulieJordan. All of those have the common theme of life “after” the Realm (and life in parallel with the Realm), and so this was just a natural extension of that idea. The kids would go on, and grow up and have “real” lives to live.
But they would always have some sort of tie to the Realm, and the most obvious link is the ride itself. Even if you invoke the “Narnia Option” and go for no time passing while they’ve gone, a number of strange things must have happened in the Amusement Park, and it is easy enough to see that it could be closed down. Obviously the only one with enough money to buy it was Eric.
As you probably all know, I’ve very keen on “consequences” for actions, and since there is (almost) never any continuity in the cartoon, there is always scope for fanfics there! One of the most obvious is in “The Day of the Dungeonmaster”, Eric is changed back, and you get the line “Once you are touched by power, you are never again quite the same”. There are many ways this can manifest, but the most straightforward is that he’s been apprentice Dungeonmaster, and eventually, he will be the real one. I think, in this story, Eric had always known what would happen, and he was prepared for it when it did. He was the last one, and he was going to leave Earth forever.
With those ideas in mind, I started off with the last one of the kids, coming back to have a last look around. That the others have died was just the effect of time, I wanted them to have lived their lives, and the feeling that life “back home” was coming to an end.
There has to be an explanation of where the others are – I admit I picked Sheila popping off first at random (Hank would have been interesting too). One of the bits I would chance is the “she’d been killed”; that’s too direct. The “brought up by their father” was a direct allusion to Eric, it would have been a strange line to put if it had been anyone else – why not name them? So if Eric and Sheila were together, why not pair up Diana and Hank too, hence the “He didn’t last long after…”
The next allusion to Eric/Sheila is obviously the name of his firstborn, Robert. Then you have the information that Eric, too, has four children, which is an unusual number, and you also can’t really imagine that the Eric from the cartoon, esp the start of series 1, would have wanted ANY children!
The line “They were his legacy…” refers to the Rummi fic “Legacy” and I couldn’t resist the link!
One of the parts I’m most pleased with is the reaction of Eric to the new children in the Realm. He has been there, and he’s seen what they will see, and done what they have done. He always was the one to challenge Dungeonmaster and Hank, and now he is in the position of authority!
Also in there is the idea that the weapons themselves are eternal, or at least very long lived, and that they have been used before, and will be again.
And there is a line missing, that I’ve not got round to adding that goes at the start of the last paragraph – “He was just in time. But then, he always would be.”
Finally, it comes full circle when he says the words that Dungeonmaster says in the cartoon – “Fear not…”