![](http://cobalt-company.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/writing:2021-06-15-a-legacy-and-what-we-leave-behind/style="margin:/medium.jpg) |
| Details |
| Author: | Athena |
| Summary: | Tadget has a very strange dream, and turns to Oranna for advice on what it might mean. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
Logging started on 06/15/2021
Tadget greets Oranna with a hearty hello!
Oranna waves and smiles brightly at Tadget. "Lord Springblade! Good ta see ye." She looks around like she still can't believe she's just suddenly in Theramore.
[Tadget]: “Wanna come for a little walk and possibly a swim with me? I'm looking for Nat Pagle.”
[Oranna]: “Oh, the fisher lad? Ah, I was told tha' he has some o' th' best bait. I ne'er did get around ta talkin' with him. It'd be good ta finally ta do tha'.”
[Tadget]: “Any idea where to find him? All I've got's a name. But yeah, I have some fishing related matters to attend to as well.”
[Oranna]: “I remember they said…west, on an island, an'…somethin' about a ship? I…I'm no' exactly sure…which way west is from here…”She looks around as though trying to figure it out from the sun, which is setting in the…she squints…some direction. “If ye know which way west is from here, I can see if Befound an' I can track 'im down.
[Tadget]: “West is thataway.” Tadget points West. “I have an extremely unerring sense of direction. Many gnomes do.”
[Oranna]: “All righ'. Let's see if we cannae figure this out together then.” She smiles warmly at Tadget, and starts off in the right direction.
[Tadget]: “So uh, how've you been?”
Oranna sighs happily, her face going a little pink. "I've been doin' righ' well." She glances at Tadget and smiles wider. "Ye seem ta be feelin' more yerself."
[Tadget]: “Oh sure, sure, whoever that is.” Tadget glides effortlessly through the water, seemingly a practiced swimmer despite growing up underground.
Oranna's eyebrows go up, which are visible, even as they swim. "Well, ah, I mean. Ye seem more…ye again, less…no'…like ye usually are? Are ye no' yerself, then?"
[Tadget]: “Well, I don't know? Who's to say?” Tadget dispatches the giant thresher with glee.
Oranna helpfully fires the last shot, which is not kill stealing, it's kill helping. “Well, dinna ye say, who ye are?”
[Tadget]: “I suppose. I am a work in progress, though.”
[Oranna]: “Well, who else would do it? I mean, yer th' one in yer head, an' tha' seems ta be th' only real…way o' knowin' who y'are.”
[Tadget]: “I keep discovering really, really weird things about myself.”
[Oranna]: “Weird…how?”
[Tadget]: “Do you believe that dreams have any meaning? Do you think they can be prophetic? Or are they just chewed up bits of our own wants and fears regurgitated in random patterns?”
[Oranna]: “Oh, ah…well. I dinna know. I…honestly, I rarely dream. An' I ne'er really get nightmares. I know a lot who do, who ha' ta worry e'ery nigh' wha' their mind's will spit out. But, I do think tha' some people feel like, well, things like the Light reach out ta them tha' way.”
[Tadget]: “I don't really have nightmares that often. But I had a dream last night that was… really… I don't know the word.”
[Oranna]: “No' like ye?”
[Tadget]: “I'd never had a dream like it. It was… super vivid. Stuck with me all day.”
[Oranna]: “Well, ye dinna ha' ta tell me, but…wha' happened?”
[Tadget]: “A lot of it's too personal to go into, but…the bit that's really bugging me was at the very end. In the dream I had um… a um… a kid? I don't mean, I gave birth in the dream or whatever. He was just…there.”
[Oranna]: “Hm. Well, d'ye wan' children?” Her face is a little pink and she's smiling a little at some thought.
[Tadget]: “I — “She huffs a sigh. “It's complicated. Like, obviously I'd be a terrible mother. But… also my people are… I mean there aren't a lot of us left. I feel really strongly that any of us who could have babies should probably be doing that.”
[Oranna]: “Oh? Well. I mean…would ye be? A terrible mother. But, e'en if maybe ye didnae want ta be…I can see tha', how tha'd be hard ta no' want ta do, after e'erythin'. So, ye think yer dream was part o' tha'? O' thinkin'…wha' if I ye had a kid?”
[Tadget]: “I mean obviously intellectually it makes sense. I'm young and healthy and everything works as far as I know. But it's more than that. There's something… very…” She sighs, frustrated at her lack of words.
[Oranna]: “Oh, well, aye. It'd be good ta ha' more people like ye in th' world, I think.”
[Tadget]: “Oh, well, pffft. It's not about that, it's about…we need genetic diversity. Every gnome who can have kids should. Unless they like, REALLY don't want to. I think it would be interesting. I mean, the way my people work, it could be twenty years even if I started now.”
Oranna looks over at the sound with a smile. "Well, aye. But it sounds like, ye'd like th' idea o'…bein' part o' things. Contributin' somethin', e'en if well. I know tha' no' everyone can raise a child they birth."
[Tadget]: “Yeah. Plenty of people would be willing to help out with that I'm sure. Lots of people love little gnome babies. And you know, there might be some mom who already has a few and wouldn't notice one more, or whatever.”
[Oranna]: “My…my great-aunt Nettie had a daughter. It was…no' somethin' she chose fer herself, but she didna want ta lose tha' part o' herself. My cousin Topa was raised by family, an'…a' th' same time, a little piece of my great-aunt got ta stay in th' world.”
Tadget nods, nods, nods, her gaze distant.
[Oranna]: “So, e'en if ye didna want ta be a mother, ye could still ha' tha'…ye sound…verra amiable ta it. So, why did th' dream bother ye?”
Tadget looks like that wasn't a question she was prepared to answer. “Well I mean it was just…intellectual before. And the dream made it… I feel like I need it somehow. Like, it's this almost… animal kind of thing. And I think it's why I've been…” Tadget sighs again.
Oranna shrugs a little, and looks over at Tadget sympathetically. "Like now tha' ye've thought it, ye want ta rush towards it? An' tha' feels less…like yer jus' thinkin' about it an' now suddenly yer supposed ta start plannin' fer it?"
[Tadget]: “Well, there's no rushing involved. We're like dwarves, it can take a decade or two, easily. But…I would have to at least start trying, yeah.”
Oranna smiles and huffs a little laugh, her cheeks going pink. "I do know wha' tha' feels like."
She pauses. "Bargrimm wants children. With me. We've talked about it. An'…some part o' me already has started thinkin', well, I want them ta be here soon enough" ta meet Cobalt Company an' know these people. But, tha' means…gettin' started righ' quick. Cannae take twenty or thirty years fer it. An' I went from thinkin', 'oh, someday' ta 'should I be thinkin' about next year?'
Tadget shifts her weight. “It's different. Your race isn't going extinct. For you it's, do you want it, or don't you. It's just a nice thing to think about, or not.”
[Oranna]: “Oh, aye. Yer no' jus' wantin' this fer yerself. But, aye, I feel like…there's a clock tickin', with how humans live. It's no' the same, but I can understand how strange tha' can feel, ta shift so suddenly.”
[Tadget]: “Sure, sure, I gotcha. But it's — there's more to it, even. There's… this intense pressure, this… urgency I'm feeling…But in order for me to relieve that pressure by taking action, I have to… I'd have to stop doing some stuff that means a lot to me.”
[Oranna]: “Wha' would change fer ye, if ye started now?”
[Tadget]: “Well for one I'd have to um, stop drinking this… tea I've been drinking. You know, to stop that exact thing.”
Oranna laughs a little. "Well, unless tha's yer favorite drink, I think tha's probably no' a problem."
Tadget sighs exasperatedly. “No it is a problem. Would I have written you to come out to Theramore if it weren't a problem?! Sorry.”
[Oranna]: “I meant more, in yer life, tha' would make it so tha' this isna jus' a thing ye doin', but somethin' tha' would alter who ye are righ' now.”
[Tadget]: “I… honestly have no idea what you're talking about.”
[Oranna]: “If ye suddenly chased after this dream o' yers, havin' a kid, bein' part o' th' next generation o' gnomes, wha' would ye be givin' up righ' now? One of yer jobs? All of yer jobs?”
[Tadget]: “No, no, it's… it's… I'm trying to say something very immediate and practical here. Not… philosophical. I have to stop drinking the tea that lets me… do stuff without… you know. That happening.”
[Oranna]: “A relationship, ye mean?”
[Tadget]: “Ugh do you not know where babies come from? They do not come from relationships.”
[Oranna]: “Oh, fine. Ye want ta be able to do some sheet wrestlin' an' ye willna be able ta.” She rolls her eyes. “Tryin' ta ha' a bit o' tact. Ye said ye dinna like ta hear about those kinds o' things, in yer letter, afore, when I got too personal.”
[Tadget]: “I'm sorry. I'm — not good at communicating at the best of times. I'm — this is hard to talk about, and you and I don't… think along the same frequency, but I have literally no one else to talk about this with. But… okay, ‘sheet wrestling.’ Yes. I've been doing… a TON of that recently. Like… a TON. With the person who gave me that tea to begin with. Do you see the problem here?”
[Oranna]: “So, ye'd ha' ta give up th' sheets, an' tha's important ta ye, an' while yer tryin', ye'd ha' ta stop.” She nods a little and seems to be thinking very hard about something “…….is this….someone ye feel like if ye didna…go along with…tha' he'd leave? Because ye stopped doin' somethin'?”
[Tadget]: “Maybe. Like, I want both. But I can't have both.”
[Oranna]: “An' now ye feel like yer in a rush. An' it's goin' ta make ye pick one?”
[Tadget]: “I mean I guess I could just wait till he gets tired of me, I guess I don't have to rush. I just… the dream… I don't know, it made me feel like… it was about to slip away if I didn't do something soon. But it was just a dream. I… you're right.”
[Oranna]: “Well…wha' if he wanted tha' too? Ta be th' one who…helped tha' dream along?”
[Tadget]: “Oh, no no no no nononononono. Ahahahaha, no. No.”
[Oranna]: “Or would ye no' want him ta be tha' person? I'm sorry, I know tha' jus' because ye enjoy wrestlin' doesna mean ye'd want ta…mix genes.”
Tadget gives a weird little shiver. “I mean it's not up to me.”
Oranna raises her brows. "Well, aye, ye could ask him. An' I know ye hate bein' direct like tha', but ye could jus' bring it up, as a gnome. Jus'…th' concept o' it."
[Tadget]: “Or I could just ignore the dumb way the dream made me feel and not be in a rush about it. Wait for him to get bored of me, for it to run its course anyway. Then, no conflict. He's too polite to tell me I'm not good enough for his genes, but sending me that tea is message enough, right?”
[Oranna]: “Or he sent it ta ye ta give ye th' power ta choose, aye? After all, unless he sent it with a note sayin', take this or else we're no' goin' anywhere, maybe he jus' was bein' helpful.”
[Tadget]: “Um, I don't remember exactly what the note said, but we talked about it and it was pretty clear he didn't see it as like, an optional thing. It was like, ‘You're doing this already right? Oh you're not? My goodness, we'll fix that right away.’ And then the next day, package in the mail.”
[Oranna]: “How d'ye know he's no' o'er there havin' his own dreams, an' thinkin' about things changin'? Or maybe if it wasna somethin' ye two were doin' as a family, but as part o' yer…race? rebuildin'.”
[Tadget]: “Well we are not a family in any sense of the word, and neither of us wants that kind of thing.” She makes a face of distaste at the very thought. “But like, if he wanted to continue the race he's got way more options than me.”
[Oranna]: “It sounds like things changed fer ye, in tha'. It jus' seems…like yer decidin' it's one side or th' other, without seein' if ye can ha' both.”
[Tadget]: “I can't have both! I just told you that! Grrrrr.”
[Oranna]: “Ye canna ha' both because yer assumin' he'd leave if ye stopped. An' ye dinna know tha' he would. Tha's all I'm sayin', Lord Springblade.”
[Tadget]: “Talking to you can be SO frustrating. But at least you did say something that helped, making me realize I was rushing it for no reason. Like, if it's gonna take ten or twenty years anyway, what does it matter if I wait a few more weeks or months or whatever, for this to run its course? It seems like it might be about hitting its peak, maybe it won't be much longer.”
[Oranna]: “I'm sorry. I dinna mean ta upset ye. I jus'…I dinna see tha' same…black an' white yer seein' there. Tha' surety ye ha' tha' he'd leave, or tha' he'd ne'er want ta be part o' havin' a child ta be raised by someone else, or all o' tha'.”
[Tadget]: “You're not a gnome; you wouldn't understand that part. How important stuff like genetics is. I mean, everyone has a duty to reproduce right now, I think, but you don't want to throw good genes after bad. You have to pick somebody whose offspring you'd be proud to claim, even if they turned out mostly like that person and not you.”
Oranna frowns a little. "Ye think his genes arena good enough?" She looks sidelong at Tadget. "Or are ye sayin' you're no' good enough?"
[Tadget]: “His genes are…” Her eyes go a bit dreamy “Absolute perfection.”
Oranna shakes her head a little. "So, ye'll make th' choice fer him, then, because yer no' good enough fer his perfect genes? Lord Springblade, tha's no' fair ta ye, no' fair at all."
[Tadget]: “I'm not making a choice for him. I'd never do that. He already made his choice. He said no in the most polite way you can.”
[Oranna]: “He migh' think tha' ye two would make an excellent match. An' yer no' askin' him if things have changed from when ye first started wrestlin', but, aye. It's also true tha'…if ye didna want ta test it, ye could wait.” She looks off at the water. “But…these are no' exactly safe times. An'…I'm no' sayin' ye should plan ta do somethin' tha' ye dinna want, but…we don't all get all the chances we should. We may no' ha' nearly as much time as we're used ta thinkin'.”
Tadget goes pale. “That's why… that's why I asked about the Prophetic Dream business. Because the dream made it feel like it had to be soon or I'd miss my chance. Or is that just my stupid brain trying to complicate things? And I love the way things have been with us lately; it's perfect. I keep thinking it's the best it's gonna get and then it just gets better.”
[Oranna]: “I understand it. I do, really. I worry, a lot. An' th' though' tha' I could wait jus' a little too long, an' miss my chance a' havin' a family…it's hard ta no' want ta rush it. Ta grab it while ye can.”
[Tadget]: “Now, I guess there's an argument for just talking to him about it. There's also a good argument for just putting it off more.”
[Oranna]: “Well. Aye. An' see if there's…also maybe a timeline ye want fer yerself. Maybe ye give yerself a few months ta think on it. Ye jus' had th' thought, aye? An' th' dream. Maybe if ye give it distance, it willna be so strong.”
Tadget nods.
[Oranna]: “But, maybe ye'll find tha' time isna makin' it go away. An' then ye'll know what ye want more, in th' long run.”
[Tadget]: “I think if I hadn't talked to you I might've done something stupid. Ruined it. Hearing you talk about it as rushing… it put things in perspective. Like, I've got it so good right now. Maybe this is just me trying to sabotage things. Like I always do. I am a Grandmaster of self-sabotage.”
[Oranna]: “I still think ye should talk ta him. Jus' in case, but aye. It's…I've been tryin' no' ta rush my own. Bein' around humans all th' time has made it hard no' ta want ta live like tha'. Like, think ye only ha' maybe twenty years left.”
[Tadget]: “Can you imagine? But he does live a dangerous life. And so do I.”
[Oranna]: “Ta ha' ta live with jus' 80 years? No. I'm 92. I…I would ha' been dead ten years ago.”
[Tadget]: “And… I'd hate for him to just… wink out of existence forever, leave nothing. I don't — if he has any kids; he hasn't said.”
“[Oranna]: Oh aye. An' with things like Dark Portals and strange cults…maybe he's thought on it, too. How little time he migh' ha' ta leave somethin' of himself here.”
Tadget's eyes widen. "But that's it! That's what I tell him! I tell him that the continuation of our race is important, and that I don't want to see his legacy end with him. That he should have kids. Because… I think that's really what it's about.” Tadget considers. “I think…I mean…obviously I want his kids because who doesn't want the absolute best of everything? But… if he had a kid, that'd be neat. Whoever's it was.”
Oranna smiles a little. "It does sound like ye'd like ta know tha' some part o' him stayed in this world, e'en after he leaves it." Her eyes go soft and she's definitely coming to some very odd conclusions about Tadget.
[Tadget]: “Yes, exactly! And my instinct is of course to do that by breeding with him, but it doesn't have to be me of course. It's just… the body does the thinking for you sometimes, I guess.”
Oranna's smile grows even wider. She is very much jumping to conclusions. "Oh aye. Th' body." The way she says it sounds almost like she's saying, the heart.
[Tadget]: “Okay, I think I know what to do now. Thanks for coming all this way. I have literally no one else to talk about it with. Ivri's off doing some important thing I wasn't invited to, I can't talk to Jo about it, that would be incredibly insensitive. And everyone else is either stupid or doesn't care about me.”
Oranna's expression flickers in momentary worry. "I…have ye heard from Ivri, at all?"
[Tadget]: “Oh, she wrote me a letter to gloat about how secret her thing was and how much fun she was having. So, you know, she's Ivri.”
Oranna smiles at Tadget. "Then I'm glad ye believed me when I said I cared about ye." She looks relieved to hear about Ivri. "Well, a' least she's doin' well."
[Tadget]: “I mean, I know you care about who you think I am. And that was enough for my current purposes. But I can't talk to gnomes about our oncoming extinction, it could get really heated really fast.”
[Oranna]: “Well, I'm glad I could be here while ye worked out wha' ye needed. I hope it makes it easier, a' least. she nods I can understand tha'. Or make them think ye were sayin' they should be doin' it, too, an' they migh' no' be ready ta think o' it.”
[Tadget]: “Yeah. Jo especially. Like she does not need to be thinking about that stuff right now. Because, you know, she probably already regrets having nothing left of her guy. I can't think too hard about that or I'm gonna get all urgent again.”
Oranna looks curiously at Tadget. "Is there…is there somethin' I should know about Jo an' babies? I wouldna…oh. Her other spouse." She nods, her brow furrowing. "Her wife sounded righ' lovely."
[Tadget]: “Well, sure, but they couldn't make babies. We don't have that technology yet. Anyway.”
[Oranna]: “I cannae imagine how tha' would be. Well, no' they couldna…genetically,” she says the word very deliberately. “But they migh' ha' adopted someone else's who didna want ta be a mother.”
[Tadget]: “Sure. I thought about her for mine, actually, if she's not too busy setting people on fire by then.”
[Oranna]: “An' if Jo had wanted ta raise a child…maybe she migh' want ta think o' tha' option, eventually.”
[Oranna]: “Ye probably know wha' I'm goin' ta suggest ye eventually do about tha', but, jus' in case it's no' obvious. I think ye should think about talkin' ta Jo. If she did want tha' kind o' thing.”
[Tadget]: “Really depends on where she wants her life to go from here. She might be fighting the Burning Legion single handedly or something.”
[Oranna]: “Oh, no' single handedly, at least.” She laughs. “We'll pitch in a bit, Befound an' I. An' maybe with a baby as well, if she wants tha'.”
[Tadget]: “Anyway. I've probably bent your ear long enough. Uh, thank you. I'm trying to be better at gratitude. You really helped clear things up in my head. I was a mess all day.”
[Oranna]: “I'm glad ta ha' helped. I should get back ta Ironforge anyway. I need ta do a lot o' thing gettin' ready fer th' house.”
[Tadget]: “Okay! Good luck with that!”
Oranna waves at Tadget with a bright smile.
[Tadget]: “Enjoy the rest of your night and thanks again.” Tadget waves at her.
Oranna activates her hearthstone.