Absent Minded Theater

Read it here.

Do it now.

Because Absent Minded Theater is a Standard Fantasy Setting Low Fantasy dark comedy about a girl with one arm and no legs and a few other people who are being slowly and tragically (and hilariously) destroyed by all the worst aspects of a standard Renaissance-Europe fantasy setting. You know, like the awful medical care, and the evil forest, and the magic (which-you-can-only-get-by-selling-your-first-born-to-a-witch), and the crops to grow, because you've got crippled kids to feed. Even in fantasy-land.

Tropes used in Absent Minded Theater include:

• Belief Makes You Stupid: Stanford
• Black Comedy Rape: Subverted. Koeb said she deliberately tried to write Wilbur's rape in a way that fit the darkly humorous mood of the comic, but made it clear how devastating it was to the characters involved. The comic showing how utterly broken Wilbur is as a result is a scene she admits she couldn't make funny.
  • Double Standard Rape (Female on Male): Consciously averted. Koeb wrote Wilbur and Daisy's reaction to the rape as a counterpoint to the belief that female-on-male rape isn't "real rape".
• Blue and Orange Morality: Sigmund went to hell not because he "killed" Daisy, but because he killed his own mother and then let her rot without eating her. For dragons, wasting food is the greatest sin.
• Brilliant but Lazy / Refusal of the Call / Somebody Else's Problem: Ray, a perfectly capable soldier, will not bother helping his own uncle from being kidnapped by a witch because, well.... he didn't feel like it.
• Butt Monkey / Chew Toy: Almost everyone, to varying degrees.
• Crapsack World and Standard Fantasy Setting. Who knew they could be one and the same?
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Stanford, after an angel tells him that all suffering in the world exists for the amusement of higher beings.
• Handicapped Badass: Daisy. Duh. She has a VERY mean punch. Ted is pretty cool too, but he hasn't matured enough, so says the author.
• King of All Cosmos: Stanford worships one of these that makes explosions.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Quincy, of all people, is showing shades of this. He started out as a snarky voice of reason amongst his brothers, but once Stan told him how he thought his uncle and Daisy were dead due to being gullible and a lack of communication skills, he became a major playing character.
• Our Fairies Are Different: In this case, 'fairies' are nosy bug-type things that get in your face, and 'Fey' are more like The Fair Folk.
• Prophecy Twist / The Unchosen One / Prophetic Fallacy: The son of Farmer Brown will be a hero. Problem is, he doesn't have a son, but a crippled girl. The other problem is, she might just make herself into a hero through sheer force of will. We're not sure what's going on quite yet.
• The Reliable One: Quincy, in spades.
• The Reveal: Daisy and Quincy are actually siblings
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Garvan shows all the signs of being one to the witch.
• Younger Than They Look: Quincy. Although he looks about 40, he's actually 27.