#razvan

@narrativefoiltrope tagged me to make some oc’s in this picrew! ♥ Thanks babe, I needed that akjsdhajklshda

So anyway, here's my druid Calliandra from BG3 and my bard Răzvan from a Curse of Strahd campaign I'm playing with friends! Look at their smiles!

Since the story took place in contemporary times even the first time around, I decided to place it in Romania because placing it anywhere else felt arbitrary (ie served no """worldbuilding""" purpose at all).

The action begins sometime in 2014/2015 and ends in late 2019 (again, I decided upon this year because that's the year when I wrote the first version)

Close-ups and details

Laurențiu

(RO)

Data nașterii: 26 feb 1991

Ocupație: programator, designer web

Hobby-uri: jocurile video (mai ales cele cu împușcături), creerea de mod-uri pentru respectivele jocuri, arhivarea digitală, muzica rock și metal, filmele horror clasice, "dezbaterile" pe diverse forumuri și secțiuni de comentarii

(EN)

Date of birth: 26th February 1991

Occupation: programmer, Web designer

Hobbies: video games (especially shooters), creating mods for the respective games, digital archiving, rock and metal music, classic horror movies, "debates" on various forums and comment sections

Mădălina

(RO)

Data nașterii: 7 sep 1991

Ocupație: contabilă

Hobby-uri: colecționarea de antichități și obiecte de kitsch, moda (gotică, punk, vintage, etc), istoria comunismului, muzica rock și punk, filmele de epocă și documentarele despre criminali, romanele gotice și detective

(EN)

Date of birth: 7th of September 1991

Occupation: accountant

Hobbies: collecting antiques and kitsch objects, fashion (goth, punk, vintage, etc), the history of communism, rock and punk music, period dramas and true crime documentaries, gothic and crime novels

Andriy (Андрiй)

(RO)

Data nașterii: 9 nov 1990

Ocupație: brutar

Hobby-uri: cântatul la vioară, muzica clasică (dar și ce mai aude la radio), festivalurile și competițiile culturale și muzicale, filmele de acțiune și comedie, jocurile video (mai ales multiplayer), plimbatul prin oraș și călătoria

(EN)

Date of birth: 9th of November 1990

Occupation: Baker

Hobbies: playing the violin, classical music (but also whatever he hears on the radio), culture and music festivals and competitions, action and comedy movies, video games (especially multiplayer), walking around town and travelling

Teodora

(RO)

Data nașterii: 30 aug 1989

Ocupație: logoped, consilier școlar

Hobby-uri: grădinăritul (la bloc fiind, se rezumă la plante în ghiveci, mai ales flori), gătitul, plimbatul prin oraș cu bicicleta, ieșirile și excursiile, romanele și filmele romantice, teatru radiofonic

(EN)

Date of birth: 30th of August 1989

Occupation: speech therapist, school counsellor

Hobbies: gardening (living in a flat, she only keeps potted plants, especially flowers), cooking, cycling, strolling through the city, outings and trips, romance movies and novels, audio plays on the radio

Tiberiu

(RO)

Data nașterii: 7 sep 1991

Ocupație: om de afaceri

Hobby-uri: petrecerile de orice fel (în cluburi, acasă, la grătar etc), mersul la meciuri, concerte etc împreună cu prietenii, muzica pop, de petrecere, electronică, ieșirile în natură, pescuitul, înotul

(EN)

Date of birth: 7th September 1991

Occupation: businessman

Hobbies: parties of any kind (in the club, home, at a barbecue, etc), going to see sports matches, concerts etc with his friends, pop, "party" and electronic music, trips in nature, fishing, swimming

Răzvan

(RO)

Data nașterii: 13 mar 2001

Ocupație: elev (ulterior student)

Hobby-uri: istoria antică (mai ales a Egiptului), construirea de machete și rezolvarea puzzle-urilor, colecționarea de pietre, călătoria, cărțile de non-ficțiune (dar și romane fantasy și benzi desenate)

(EN)

Date of birth: 13th March 2001

Occupation: high-school (and later, college) student

Hobbies: ancient history (especially of Egypt), building miniature models, solving puzzles, collecting rocks, travel, reading nonfiction books (but also fantasy novels and comics)

_____

The relationships between characters:

Mădălina, Tiberiu and Teodora are siblings

Laurențiu and Răzvan are brothers

Laurențiu and Andriy are beloved mutuals online friends within relative visiting distance

Laurențiu and Mădălina get into a romantic relationship pretty early into the narrative

Razvan (Bogat)  x Original Female Character

Warnings: Smut (implied), Angst, Mentions of Violence.

A/N: Im so sorry y’all lmao

--------

When she first sees him, he is standing outside the car her little sister hobbles out of after another night of partying. She is drunk and high, and he is helping her up the stairs. She doesn’t get a real good look at him due to the night, but he looked extremely large and intimidating, that much she knew. Her sister makes her way inside and collapses on the couch. She asks who the large man is but she doesn’t get an answer. Her sister is out cold.

________

  The second time she sees him, he is standing outside with Radu, who is explaining that her sister owes the mafia a lot of money and that if he doesn’t get it, her sister will have a hit put out on her. She glances at him while Radu is talking. He is handsome. Very handsome. But he has a scar. It runs straight down from the top of his left eyebrow and underneath his eye. He is scary looking. She can’t stop staring at him. He won’t look at her. She doesn’t know his name.

__________

 The third time is in Radu’s meat shop. Her little sister is dead. She finds her body in her father’s bar. She is furious. She had a plan. Her sister was not supposed to be dead, but she is. She is 6 feet underground and cold. This was wrong. He blocks her path, staring down at her hard. She glares back at him with venom and anger. She wants to hit him but she won’t. He is not who she came here for.

‘’Move,’’ she demands.

‘’No.’’ His voice is deep. It rumbles through her body and she shivers slightly. He smirks.

Radu emerges from the back. He greets her like an old friend. A friend that did not just have her baby sister murdered. She fights back tears as she threatens Radu. She tells him that he will pay. The man with the scar glances at her. She cannot read his expression. She snarls at Radu before storming out of the shop, slamming the door so hard that the glass breaks.

She still doesn’t know his name.

__________

He is standing outside her apartment. He takes up the entire frame of the doorway. He is imposing. She is not scared.

‘’What do you want?’’

‘’Athena.’’

‘’What. Do. You. Want?’’ She asks again, fingers gripping the door so hard that her knuckles begin to turn purple.

He says that he needs to talk to her. About her sister. She lets him in. He takes up the entire half of her couch. She leans against her island and crosses her arms and waits. He begins.

‘’I tried to save her,’’ he starts. ‘’Radu had her in the room downstairs. I got her out and I tried to help her leave but Radu found us. He took her away, screaming. He beat me.’’

He apologizes twice. He starts to do it a third time but Athena holds up her hand to stop him.

‘’I get it. Stop apologizing. What else do you want?’’

‘’I need your help.’’

‘’With what?’’

‘’Getting out of the mob.’’

Athena stares at him like he has three heads. He knows it sounds ridiculous. His big brown eyes stare up at her from the couch. She falters. She agrees. As he gets up to leave, she asks him his name.

‘’Razvan,’’ he answers, staring down at her.

______________

She lets him stay with her. He sleeps on her couch while they formulate a plan. It doesn’t take long. Killing Radu and his goons are the goal and get Razvan to another country. Athena will take care of the rest. She gets to know him in the two months that he stays with her. He talks, she listens. She talks, he listens. Two nights before the plan is supposed to go into motion, they both open up more.

Athena tells him about her older sister, Kate, who lives in London with her twin little girls, and her brother, who is backpacking through Europe with his wife. Her parents are dead. Her little sister is dead. But he knew that already. He listens and stares at her with such sincerity that she almost cries. He has a very intense gaze. Like he is searching her soul. It makes her feel vulnerable, which is something Athena is not accustomed to.

He tells her about his life. The scar on his face. He touches it as he talks.

‘’Radu gave it to me as an initiation into the gang,’’ He explains.

‘’I thought you were supposed to kill someone for that.’’

‘’I was supposed to. My friend from school. His name was Eric. I was supposed to shoot him, but I couldn’t do it. So I  just beat him up and left him in the street. Radu gave me this as punishment. He deformed me so that even my own mother couldn’t stand the sight of me.’’

Athena’s heart breaks for him. For such a large and imposing man, he folds into himself as he tells his story. His voice gets quiet and his eyes fill with sorrow.

‘’You are the first woman to look at me without fear. Like I am not the monster that Radu tells me I am. Even your sister was scared of me. But I am tired of being feared. I just want to rest.’’

He has a huge scar across his chest. Razvan tells her that Radu gave it to him the night that he tried to save her sister from death. A reminder of who he is supposed to be loyal to. He has more littered across his back. He thinks they’re ugly, Athena does not.

She traces them as they stand in her living room, and she feels the hard muscle of his back under each one. She kisses the ones on his back, and then the one his chest. And then his lips.

They spend that night tangled up in each other in her way too big bed. He tells her in the morning that it was the first time he has had a good night’s sleep in 10 years. She smiles.

-_______________

The plan does not go the way it was supposed to.

He doesn’t listen to what she tells him. He follows her in the building and fights with her even after she told him to wait.

He goes to find Radu while she fights. She doesn’t notice until she hears two gunshots ring from the upstairs office. She shoots the last henchmen in the head before she limps upstairs, dread filling the pit of her stomach. She knows before she gets to the room. Denial is a hell of a thing.

He is leaning against the bottom of the desk. Blood is spreading from the wound in the middle of his chest. His white shirt is being tainted. She drops the gun and runs to his side. Radu is on the floor, his eyes open and brain spilling out of his head. Athena does not glance at him.

‘’I told you to wait for me, asshole.’’

Razvan coughs and smiles at her, blood trickling out of his mouth. ‘’I’m sorry, little lamb. I couldn’t wait. I needed to repay you for what happened to your sister.’’

‘’Goddamnit, Razvan, I told you that wasn’t your fault. ‘’ Athena is trying not to cry, but her voice is cracking. ‘’We need to get you to the hospital.’’

The front of his shirt is completely red now. His eyes are fluttering. He is dying.

‘’No, no, no. It’s okay. Just stay with me, please. I’m tired.’’ His voice is getting weaker and raspier and Athena’s heart is breaking.

She pulls him so that his head is leaning against her chest and his large hand comes up to wrap around her forearm. His breath is getting shallow. Any minute now.

‘’This is not the type of rest that we talked about, Razvan,’’ Athena chokes out as she kisses the top of his head.

‘’I know. I know. But sometimes things don’t work out the way you plan. Like me falling in love with you.’’

Before she can actually register what he said, he stills, his hand dropping from her arm and onto the floor.

Athena cries like she has never cried before.

-------------------------

Two weeks later, another man shows up at her door. He has a silver case in his hand. It is heavy. She places it on her kitchen counter and opens it. There is money inside. A lot of it. At least over 500, 000. On top lays a voice recorder and a note. She presses play.

‘’Hello, little lamb. If you’re listening to this, it means that I’m dead. I prepared this as a back up plan just in case. I’m sorry to leave you on such short notice, we were only in the beginning of our relationship. I wanted to thank you for seeing me through the scars and the violence. For giving me a chance after all I’ve done. I know you’re angry at me for dying but there was no other way. If it makes you feel any better, I’m finally at rest, even though it’s not what you envisioned. I love you.’’

The recording stops and Athena stares at nothing for several seconds. She feels the tears rolling down her face but she cannot make herself move to wipe them away. She picks up the note and opens it. Inside is his chain and two words.

Be strong.

Fin.

________________________

Can we take time to appreciate my hometown.

Timisoara, Romania