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| Details |
| Author: | Luridel |
| Summary: | Birdie's first day on the job with Cobalt Company. Racing thoughts. Too many problems and not enough people. ~600 words. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Arc: EK Newbies
"You rich punks are all the same!"
It's never enough. You thought maybe Birdie, farmer's boy from Elwynn, might be able to blend in among these people, but you still stand out. You've got dirt under your fingernails but you washed your hair last night. Your tabard is too clean. You have a tabard - in fact, all five of you do. You match one another. Is that what does it? The tabard?
"Did you see who–"
The woman's fist collides hard with your jaw.
"I just can't even imagine… knowing there's some in your people that are so much better off, but they don't help you."
Don't say it. Don't say it. Your mother works hard at one of the highest levels of the system, looking at the kingdom's budget and trying to be realistic about its expenses. And you aren't here to defend her, or your father. You're here to do your part, which is different from theirs. Keep your mouth shut.
"Stormwind does not seem to be sending their best out here. Aside from us, obviously."
"Maybe that's why Mr. Lord Elohad sent us."
This must be why Cress joined Cobalt Company. To help people like these. And then the Responsibility Scale hit her.
Here's how it goes. You want to fight to defend people. So you learn to fight. You kill some murlocs by the seashore. You join the army. And you do well, or maybe people look at you and see your older brother, so you get promoted. And you keep doing well, so you keep getting promoted. And each time you get promoted, the higher up you climb in the ranks, the more people are between you and the ground. You can't be spared to help kill murlocs by the seashore because you're being sent to infiltrate the Dread Citadel of Naxxramas. That's where Stormwind is sending its best, because that's where the best are needed.
And then when you finally try to climb back down the ladder, when you retire to marry the love of your life and start a family, this little side job opens up fighting murlocs by the seashore again.
"Yeah, seems like all those soldiers back from Northrend could clear all this out."
All those soldiers back from Northrend. Like you? You're here. You don't want to be here, you want to be learning how to build a little cabin in the woods and then building the little cabin and learning how to set up a proper gnomish plumbing and waste system and electricity and installing large glass-paned windows so that Scilla can get her good natural light to paint by. You want to be sitting on a porch swing in the early evening, holding Scilla's hand. You want to be kissing her– NO NOT YET – writing out invitations for your wedding. You don't know if the 11th EU can make it. You don't know if Zath can make it. But now Amadeus can't make it– STOP.
All those soldiers back from Northrend. The ones that lived. The ones that got to be reunited with their families and not– STOP. Don't they deserve a break? Don't they deserve a break too?
"Seems to me there's just… too many problems and not enough people. Good thing we're around, right?"
That's the heart of it. Too many problems and not enough people.
And maybe you are a little wasted here, killing murlocs by the seashore and cooking stew for the homeless. But at the end of the day, they're hungry and you're here and you know how to cook stew, and sometimes that's all there is to it.