TheBeast167
In the humid, gas-lit streets of 1920s New Orleans, a boy named Facilier is tired of being the "runt of the litter." He's a silver-tongued street performer with a deck of greasy cards and a chip on his shoulder the size of the Mississippi. While the wealthy elite of the Garden District glide past him in silk and gold, Facilier is busy scraping copper from the gutters, fueled by a burning resentment for the "big men" who never look him in the eye.
The story follows his descent from a desperate, small-time grifter into the legendary Shadow Man. It begins with a gamble gone wrong in a back-alley poker game against men far more dangerous than him. Pushed to the brink of ruin and facing a life of insignificance, Facilier wanders into the dark corners of the Bayou, where the line between the living and the dead wears thin.
There, he doesn't just find magic-he finds a shortcut. He encounters the "Friends on the Other Side," ancient, hungry spirits who recognize his ambition and his flair for the dramatic. They offer him a deal: the power to see the future, to influence the weak, and to command the very shadows at his feet. But as the title suggests, every hand you're dealt has a price.
The narrative tracks the chilling moment his own shadow stops following his movements and starts acting on its own impulses. We see him trade his humanity for a purple suit and a top hat, transforming his anger into a suave, terrifying charisma. "The Hand You're Dealt" is a journey of a boywho realizes that in a world that won't give you a seat at the table, you have to find a way to own the whole damn room-even if it means selling your soul to do it.
Read the story that follows one of the biggest Disney villain's stories to villainhood, and what he lost and gained to become a villain.
A story about Dr Facilier from The Princess and The Frog.
(Book cover was made using Canva)