Old Friend: Difference between revisions

Someone knocks on the door of your [[Friends Rent Control|overly spacious apartment]]. It's an Old Friend from childhood, or an old college roommate -- someoneroommate—someone you knew long ago but lost touch with. Maybe he just stopped to say hi, or maybe he needs to bunk down at your place, or maybe he wants to share a holiday with you. He is more wild and crazy than you. You may be reluctant to join his hijinks at first, but now that he's around, you start joining in.

If the [['''Old Friend]]''' messing with your life isn't part of the premise, then [[Status Quo Is God]] will eventually have your friend leave, or you give him the boot. You will likely be unhappy; there's more than even odds he will be, too. The visit of the [['''Old Friend]]''' will leave you wondering how little he's changed and how much you have. Or, on occasion, vice versa.

In sufficiently recent works, the [['''Old Friend]]''' is likely to be a [[New Age Retro Hippie]].

* A darker example occurs in ''[[The Third Man]]'' -- the—the main character, Holly Martins, goes to post-WWII Vienna to meet up with an old friend, who {{spoiler|ends up having become a child-killing criminal, and whose actions turn Holly from a jovial and semi-innocent guy into a severely depressed one}}.

* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''Blood Pact'', an old friend of Gaunt's from school is a major character -- althoughcharacter—although it is inverted, with Gaunt turning his life upside down.