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Cybernet377
Aug Member 2008

Cybernet377

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“Orly! I brought tea!” A singsong voice rang through the museum.

A young woman in a bright pink dress runs through the Varrock museum, a large cup of tea sloshing precariously. Her hair is held into an elegant bun, and her forehead is adorned by a small tiara. The young man that she called out to paused, stopping in the middle of his lecture to a group of small schoolchildren with a slightly exasperated sigh. Used to this sort of thing occurring every once in a while, the natural historian near the exhibit took over temporarily.

“Lady Alessandra, managed to slip your minders again?” Orlando Smith took the now half empty tea cup and sipped at the now lukewarm tea.

“Don’t act like you aren’t happy to see me,” She huffed, “And don’t call me Lady Alessandra! Only my parents call me that, ‘ Lady Alessandra, you need to act more dignified ’, ‘ Lady Alessandra, it would reflect poorly if you were to not attend this ball ’, ‘ Lady Alessandra, stop fraternizing with that ruggedly handsome fellow at the museum, you have to marry that dreadful portly man who we arranged to marry you when you were eight. ’”

Orlando laughed, "I doubt your parents would have called me ‘that ruggedly handsome fellow’, even if it cost their lives for them not to.”

“Well of course not openly, but remember when I brought you to the Capulets’ ball and that witch Rosalin ‘accidentally’ spilled her drink on you, and you had to clean yourself up at my house?”

“Yes, of course I remember. You told the servants to take my clothes and wash them so I had to wear nothing but a towel until they were done, and your parents were glaring disapprovingly at me the whole time.”

“Father was, but my mother was rather approving of you being shirtless.” Alessandra stuck her tongue out.

06-Feb-2014 23:24:02 - Last edited on 06-Feb-2014 23:27:43 by Cybernet377

Cybernet377
Aug Member 2008

Cybernet377

Posts: 2,725 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Great, that’s definitely something that I wanted to know.” Orlando finished the tea and set the cup down on a small table. “So, I’m assuming you want to go adventure some?” Adventure was what they called their short excursions out of the city, mainly following along the roads and poorly cooking food on small fires.

The wide grin on her face was telling.

---

“So, obviously, we ought to go adventuring for real someday"

Hm?”

“Well, I’m not going to wait until after I get married to Sir Blubberous the Unpleasant to start adventuring, that just doesn’t make sense.”

Orlando poked at the fire with a stick, the last shred of light remaining as the sun finished setting. They had made camp, which ended up just being a small fire while they sat on some large rocks near the east Varrock wall. A downcast expression was on his face.

“Yeah, we should go adventuring. I’d make a great discovery, and my name would go down in the museum’s history. Something that would change the world, so big that no one would even remember my father’s name in comparison.”

“Your Dad?” Alessandra asked.

“Yeah, every day, the curator comments on how my work is great, but not what he expects ‘from the son of the great Asgarnia Smith’. It’s infuriating.”

“You want to make a discovery just to show up your father? That’s a bit petty, Orly.”

06-Feb-2014 23:24:31 - Last edited on 06-Feb-2014 23:28:03 by Cybernet377

Cybernet377
Aug Member 2008

Cybernet377

Posts: 2,725 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“That’s not it. It’s infuriating that he’s right. The museum is unfinished. Huge chunks of history are blank, and what we do know is sketchy at best. Our prized exhibit was stolen before I was born and we only managed to get it back because of a wandering adventurer. Every find that I make would be another piece of history that’s uncovered, another mystery dispelled by the truth. In the past, most people would never even see the outside of the city’s gates, but now we have exhibits of animals from Morytania to Karamja. If everyone who can contributes, then maybe our discoveries could truly help people.” Sparks flew as Orlando tossed another piece of wood onto the fire.

“I’d just want to find treasure,” Alessandra replied, “Like a long lost treasure from the third age, with mountains of coins and gems, as far as the eye could see, in an ancient temple dedicated to a lost god. And there’d be deadly traps all over the place, but that wouldn’t stop me! I’d dodge all of them and claim it as my own.”

“Why would someone set traps in their temple? They need to get around themselves, and the traps would just get inconvenient. They’d probably get injured often just from people forgetting to dodge a trap.”

“Because adventurers have to go through traps to get to the treasure, that’s how it works. It wouldn’t make sense for the adventurer just to walk through with no problem.” Alessandra spoke in a flat voice, as if she were explaining something obvious.

“…I’m leaving tomorrow.” Orlando spoke after a long pause. “I need to find something, and building campfires outside of the city walls isn’t going to help me find anything that’s worth bringing back to the museum. I’m tired of explaining over and over why swamp snakes don’t prey on snails, and I’m tired of waking up every day and telling myself that I can wait to do what I’m meant to.”

06-Feb-2014 23:25:10

Cybernet377
Aug Member 2008

Cybernet377

Posts: 2,725 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Alessandra was fuming, “You tell me the night beforehand? What if I hadn’t visited you today? Would you just have been missing tomorrow, off to go search for something that you have no clue where to find it, or even what you’re looking for?”

“I would’ve left a note explaining everything. You’re too young to come with me anyways.”

“To the Abyss what my age is, you’re only two years older than me! I can't stand the pompous attitude of the nobles that I’m forced to deal with, I need to get away!” Shoulders shaking, she slumped and sobbed, “…How could you leave without me? We promised that we’d go adventuring together.”

Orlando ran his hand through his hair, and then put his hands on Alessandra’s shoulders. “Tell you what, one year from now, I’ll come back, and take you with me. We could find my discovery, and your treasure.”

Alessandra beamed, although her eyes were still wet, “You better not be late!”

---

The next morning, both of them were at the gates, Orlando carrying a comically large backpack. The sun beginning to rise bathed the land in a golden glow, and footsteps above echoed through the silent streets as the guards changed to the first shift.

“Orly, remember to stay on the main roads, and even if it’s raining, don’t go into any caves that you aren’t sure about. If someone suspicious comes towards you, run away as fast as you can, and throw out any food that’s too old. I’ve heard of some adventurers who eat meat weeks after they cook it without salting it just because they don’t want to go hungry, but you’re better off not eating rancid food.” Alessandra blabbered rapidly.

Orlando burst out laughing “Did you forget who first told you that? I’m tough; it’ll take more than one of those things to make me die.”

06-Feb-2014 23:25:36 - Last edited on 06-Feb-2014 23:28:30 by Cybernet377

Cybernet377
Aug Member 2008

Cybernet377

Posts: 2,725 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“You better not! I’ll never forgive you if you die on me, and don’t forget about everyone that your discovery would help. If you die out there, then they won’t be helped by it, and I’d have to start giving away parts of my treasure to help them out.”

Orlando’s head sank into his palm, “You mean you weren’t planning to help them out to begin with?”

“Of course I would, but I’d still like to have nice things. And come to think of it, Alessandra the treasure hunter sounds a bit silly. I think I should call myself Alice instead.”

“Your family might have a problem with that, Alice doesn’t sound as high class as Alessandra.”

“Well the Fateburns can deal with having a daughter with a less pompous name, they’ve already accepted by now that I’d rather converse with the servants than nobles.”

By now, the sun was fully risen, and doors opened and closed as the bustle of citizens moving about filled the area.

“Well,” Orlando began nervously, “It’s about time I set out. I’ve had a few leads in the Kandarin area after looking through a few books in the library the past week, and I think that it’ll lead to something huge.”

“Kandarin, that’s really far away. Are you sure you’ll be able to make it back in only a year?” After hearing his plans, one year sounded almost ridiculously short for the journey.

“Yeah, it’s far faster by sea, so I was planning on scrounging up some coin and trying to find a short job on the way to recoup the fare. I overheard two adventurers talking about how the banana plantation is always shorthanded, and pays enough for a ticket if you run out of coin while on Karamja.”

As Orladno headed out the gates, Alice yelled after him, “Remember, you promised to come back, so I’ll be waiting for you at the gate one year from now. You better not be late!”

“Don’t worry,” Orlando smiled at her over his shoulder, “I wouldn’t miss it even if the gods themselves came back down to Gielinor to stop me.”

06-Feb-2014 23:26:07

Cybernet377
Aug Member 2008

Cybernet377

Posts: 2,725 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
---

Exactly one year later, on the sixth of Pentember, Alice stood waiting at the gate, staring off into the distance, jumping at the tiniest speck on the horizon. Two robed figures stood in the shade of the wall off to her left, conversing.

As evening came, her hopes sinking like the sun did out in front of her, one of the robed figures moved towards the gate, stopped a few feet from her, and gave her the worst news of her life.

But that news, and the events afterwards, are a story for another time.

06-Feb-2014 23:26:19

William Witt
Aug Member 2023

William Witt

Posts: 12,465 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I enjoyed the story, but I'm not sure I agree with Alice's characterisation—and also, did you disregard the princess thing simply because it was inconvenient for your story? Or were you intending to address this in a sequel?
The Asgarnian ale must flow.

07-Feb-2014 08:39:04

Cybernet377
Aug Member 2008

Cybernet377

Posts: 2,725 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
William Witt said :
I enjoyed the story, but I'm not sure I agree with Alice's characterisation—and also, did you disregard the princess thing simply because it was inconvenient for your story? Or were you intending to address this in a sequel?

I wasn't sure exactly where she'd be a princess, most of the royal families are fairly well defined, and I'm fairly certain that if an actual princess had run away, then we'd have had a quest about it by now, even if she didn't need rescuing.

I ended up just deciding on her being the heiress to a Varrockian Noble's family that ended up being unseen due to scale theory, maybe one with distant ties to the Remanis royal family.

I'm also a bit iffy on Alice's personality being as I wrote it, but at this point we have little actual characterization other than that she's disdainful of other upper class individuals, and she wants to help people. It probably would have worked better if I made the two of them younger, since Alice came off a lot more childish than I had originally planned.

07-Feb-2014 15:54:00 - Last edited on 07-Feb-2014 15:59:32 by Cybernet377

William Witt
Aug Member 2023

William Witt

Posts: 12,465 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Cybernet377 said :
most of the royal families are fairly well defined

Not necessarily. Kandarin's royal family, for instance, may be sufficiently 'out of the story-spotlight'. She could be Lathas's daughter.

And while Asgarnia is iffier due to certain factors, we do have Miazrqa, who is King Vallance's great-niece (and a princess). This suggests Asgarnia's royal family may consist of more than just Vallance and Anlaf.

Misthalin may be iffy too, but potentially functional.

Then there's the 'distant lands' ruled by the Queen from the Diamond Jubilee event...
The Asgarnian ale must flow.

07-Feb-2014 16:30:09 - Last edited on 07-Feb-2014 16:30:36 by William Witt

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