Creativity: Epilogue

I write things in strange orders sometimes.

Anyway, this is the epilogue to the unwritten epic novel that's contained mostly in my head. It spans three books and thousands of years. One day I may actually write it.

Right now it's about 1:45 AM, so I may have to proofread this tomorrow when I'm awake. At any rate, enjoy. Criticism - constructive criticism - is, of course, welcomed.

Epilogue

It was summer.

A gentle breeze blew across the lawn, neatly cut grass waving softly. The leaves of the great oak trees that shaded the garden rustled gently, the flowerbeds rippled softly, every plant, every petal enjoying the fresh air and warm sunlight.

There was a statue in the middle of the garden, she noticed. It was large and grey, and very worn, as if it had been there for a very long time. Six figures – three men and three women – stood or sat on a long block of stone, each of them intently watching something that she could not see. Beneath them, on the long side of the block, was a small metal plaque.

She crossed to the statue, enjoying the feeling of the grass between her toes, and knelt down in front of it. She ran her hands over the plaque - it had words written on it, just nine lines, but she had long since forgotten how to read. She carefully traced each letter with her fingers, then sighed and stood up, reaching for the hand of one of the stone figures. It crumbled to dust at her touch.

"It must have been very old," she said, drawing her thin cloak closer about her shoulders. "Older than me. Maybe older than the whole world." She knelt down again and caressed the earth; it failed to crumble to dust at her touch. "Maybe even older than the sun and the moon and all the stars."

She stared for a spell at her hand, wondering at how the warm earth clung to her fingers.

Behind her came a little noise; a little peeping sound, the sound of something very small. She turned, and then smiled, for a tiny yellow baby bird had come up to her, twittering inquisitively.

"Hello there," she said, reaching out to it. It hopped into her hand and chirped, turning its head to look at her in the manner that birds had. She reached out and gently tickled its chin with her other hand.

"You know," she said to the bird, standing up and starting to walk. "I think I used to love this place." She cut her feet on a sharp, rocky outcropping as she crossed the lawn, but she had long since forgotten how to bleed.

"But I forgot." She stood under a tree and looked up, searching for the sun between the leaves. "I think that was a long time ago. A time that I don't remember any more."

Looking down at her hand, she realised she was talking to a shard of rock and sighed. "It's cold," she said, forgetting it was summer. She turned her back to the tree and leant against it, staring at the statue again.

"I think... that I knew those people," she said. "A man with a sword, and a girl in white." She picked them out from their fellows with her finger. "But they couldn't stay here, so they had to build a statue so we wouldn't forget them."

"I think I forgot them."

Sadness rippled through her, but she had long since forgotten how to cry.

"...It's so cold."

She lay against the tree for a while, staring at the bleak sky.

"Do you think that the clouds will ever come back?" she asked the bird, forgetting that it wasn't. "I miss the way they caught the sunset. Pink and gold and orange, too many shades to name them all, and every one of them beautiful." She looked to the horizon, searching for the sun – but it was dark and cold now, and she had long since forgotten how to see.

She shifted, trying to get comfortable on the cold, hard ground. "I wonder how long it's been since I last ate." Though she didn't know, it had been millions of years – she had long since forgotten how to eat. "I miss eating. I miss the wind, too."

She moved her hand through the space in front of her, feeling nothing but cold numbness – there was no air here, but she had long since forgotten how to breathe.

"...I'm so cold. Cold and tired." She slid down the rock she was leaning against, tearing her cloak and her back in the process, until she was lying on her side. "Perhaps I'll go to sleep here."

Her eyes slowly drifted shut, and the last speck of warmth in the universe winked out.

And that is how the world ended, with a woman who had only dust and forgotten memories to see her through her final hours.

Getting ever closer

Shockwave Truncheon [x]
Rod of the Blazing Light [ ]
Shard of the Virtuous [x]
Nightstaff of the Everliving [ ]
Exodar Life-Staff [ ]
Light's Justice [x]
Crystalheart Pulse-Staff [x]
Ethereum Life-Staff [ ]
Staff of Dark Mending [x]
Dark Blessing [x]
Lightfathom Scepter [ ]
Gavel of Naaru Blessings [x]
Hammer of Atonement [ ]
Staff of Immaculate Recovery [ ]
Crystal Spire of Karabor [ ]
Apostle of Argus [ ]
Archon's Gavel [ ]
Hammer of Sanctification [ ]
Golden Staff of the Sin'dorei [ ]

In this context, my collection seems pretty small. But I'll get there eventually.

...maybe.

News from the front

Browsing the internets in boredom, I come across this.

Though whoever mocked that up did it a little shoddily, it's a pretty cool idea, especially if it's dropped rather than bought. Perhaps from hUtgarde80, a rare drop from the last boss - seeing as Valkyries go with vikings, which is sorta what the Vyrkul are.

I think properly it'd read something like this:

Reins of the Valkyrie's Steed
Binds when picked up
Requires Riding (150)
Use: Summons and dismisses a ridable spectral horse. This is a very fast mount. Only usable while in ghost form.

I'd pay it.

Also:

"imo if you want to pay the $25 you should be allowed. not allowing pve->pvp xfers is an outdated idea from the first era of wow, where people actually cared about the horde/alliance division and so sought out pvp for the purpose of fighting the other faction, rather than for honor, points, or fun. the people who arena for the sake of arena don't care about killing the other faction, they care about beating the other teams - sportsmen rather than patriots, I guess.

since then, 60s and later 70s have found better things to do with their time. ganking is mostly a thing of the past." - me on the Oceanic Alliance PvE realms -> Thaurissian thing, taken from a thread in the Cael forums

Funny how the game's evolved over time, eh.

Homogenization

from http://wotlk.wikidot.com/patch-notes

# Hit Rating, Critical Strike Rating, and Haste Rating now modify both melee attacks and spells.
# Spellpower: All items and effects which grant bonuses to spell damage and spell healing are being consolidated into a single stat, Spellpower. This stat will appear with the same values found on items which grant “increased spell damage and healing” such as on typical Mage and Warlock itemization. For classes which do not heal, they should see no change in the character sheet other than new tooltip wording. Healing characters will see their bonus healing numbers on the character sheet decrease, however, all healing spells have been modified to receive more benefit from spellpower than they received from bonus healing, with a net effect of no change to the amount healed by their spells. Some talents have had to be rebalanced to accommodate this change, but the amount healed will remain roughly the same. In addition, some talents will provide only healing spell power.

wtf. blizzard can stop wrecking my game now kthx

Best Idea Ever

A sandwich that's bigger on the inside. Like the TARDIS. Just imagine... you could bite into it and have an UNLIKELY amount of food pour into your mouth. Just think of all the tomato, onion and mayonnaise you could eat at once!

*salivates*

Illidan down.

Woot.

Looking forward to SWP, but apparently we're gonna focus on clearing T6 weekly for loot before progression for a while. Even so, I can practically taste the Kalecgos.

Three things

One, Enchanted was an awesome movie (we rented it on the weekend). Brilliant dialogue, stunning acting. Highlights include the line "You were made / To finish your duet," anything the evil stepmother/queen/witch did, and the musical parts. The way the animated and live action worlds intersected was absolutely fantastic. Top marks.

Two, last night my sister told me that my dress would be bright yellow, because "yellow is the colour of self-confidence." *makes funny hand motion expressing helpless confusion*

Three, today is the first day of winter! That's right, six weeks until the coldest day of the year! *huddles in a jacket in a heated room and grumbles at Melbourne's weather*