12-19-2012, 10:56 PM
The Imperfect Adventure
The Ongoing Tales of A Gnome's Journey for Self-Fulfillment
The Ongoing Tales of A Gnome's Journey for Self-Fulfillment
The Farthest Star
We live in times when all seems lost,
But time will come when we'll look back
Upon ourselves and on our failings.
~
We live in times when all seems lost,
But time will come when we'll look back
Upon ourselves and on our failings.
~
"I keep having this...really weird dream. And I don't...I dunno. I don't really like thinking that things like that are left up to fate, because there is always an answer to everything, but...maybe it's a sign.
...
...Well, it goes like this.
When I open my eyes in the dream, I can't see anything. I can't hear anything. It feels like I'm in a very small, closed space. Alone. But...then a light flicks on, underneath me. And it illuminates the ground in such a way - I could only imagine it was something like a cluster of floodlights. It's almost too bright for me to see, but I can see a pattern on the ground. It's--...mmgh. It's like a really big, vast, labyrinthian pattern, but then I realize that it's connected to me, on me in some sort of way. The lines - they're actually wires, and they're attached to all eight of my fingers, and they all lead to different places, when I follow them."
The right thumb.
"There's one attached to Gnomeregan. Just before it fell. And I assume that's some sort of...past thing. Like...I don't know. A lot of that has been bothering me lately. Ever since that lady gave me that letter about joining her, uhm...her band of misfits, or whatever. For going to Northrend to look for something that'll reclaim the city? You gotta be kidding me. Gnomeregan is dead, and...it's better that way."
The right index.
"This one goes to Northrend - or, I guess what I percieve Northrend to be like. It's like Dun Morogh, but it's a lot colder, and crueler, all that I can see for miles and miles is snow and mountains. But for all of that ominous feeling, I also felt...accomplished, somehow. Like I'd actually made it there. I did something right."
The right middle.
"This one's for the airship. Whitney & Pratt, I mean. I've been traveling on one of their repair ships in exchange for doing some odd-jobs for them. I'm thinking that this one is the middle because...well, being in the middle means being balanced, right? And I've been out in the wilderness for so long, sometimes it's hard to integrate back into Gnomish culture. Or, well...culture itself, I guess. Maybe I'm trying to find the right balance between that and...whatever the Fel it is I've been doing for the past decade."
The right pinky.
"Eheh...the pinky was actually Stranglethorn. When I lived in Booty Bay for a couple of months. Or, well, in the mountains near it. Sometimes I'd drop down there and...I dunno. It was always nice to see that I wasn't the only defective prototype in the factory, if you know what I mean. I felt like the only Gnome who'd ever felt like they'd just lost all meaning in their life, but I was never the only person in the world to feel like that. I'm sure I won't be the last. And as sad as that is, there's...some sort of comfort to it."
The left pinky.
"...I haven't gone to the left pinky, yet. I'm...maybe I'm sort of scared of what will be on the other end."
The left middle.
"The left middle is actually, uhm...the hills around Gnomeregan, back in Dun Morogh. And they're from way back when I used to go sledding, when I was just a little sneeze. Maybe that one's for me trying to fall into just being happy with my life, again. But I guess once you're knowlegeable about certain things, and when you've seen enough in your life, it's impossible to be happy the same way."
The left index.
"...Ironically, the left index is somewhere else I've always wanted to go - the Barrens. I've been in Ratchet before, briefly, but I never really got to go out onto the savanah and hunt or see if there are any old, abandoned huts that might have useful stuff left behind. And part of me has always been a little bit envious of the people who live there, in some strange way. Maybe I'll have to go there someday, too..."
The left thumb.
"The, uh...the left thumb? It's...uhm. It's the airship, again. But, uh...it's not just me on it, this time. There's a lot of people. People I've met, 'n all of them are glad to see me...kind of like it's m-...my new home. You know...? A-And then, uhm...actually, the very end of that wire is actually attached to someone else, which is, uhm. Kind of weird.
...But, let's not get into that."
She talked to no one but herself, pacing above deck as most of the crew slept below. Pacing helped her sort things out. Pacing helped her not to feel completely lost. She might've been a Gnome who didn't know where she was going, but at least her feet were still moving.
"The point is, either I'm losing my mind, or these dreams are trying to get me to think about things, for some reason. Statistically, it's really impossible to have the same scenario in a dream as if one were in the waking world, unless something's bothering them a lot and they're thinking about it constantly. Maybe it's trying to tell me that I need to sort out my priorities and reflect on certain things...
...Nngh.
Guess I'll have to go to that last place on the left pinky and see what waits for me, there."