Epilogue - Penny Lane
-
((Before you read, this is completely IC, from Penny's perspective. :)))
My journey out of Norwick and up the Pass toward Peltarch was filled with enough memories to last a lifetime. And to think, I'd only been here for twenty-some odd years.
In Norwick, there were many memories from the early years. Singing songs around the south fire with Lilly and Mirkali. The Defiler War. Meeting Fadia for the first time and making her the first and only graduate from my "Women's Survival 101" class. Tontou. Plotting and scheming with Ikurus only to be caught red-handed. Fight Night. Helping to rescue the White Stag. The Ministry of Fashion. And Lucidious. I hope he always remembers what I told him as I left Friar Fred's.
The Nars is practically its own plane of memories too. Fighting Easlanders with Lilly and being struck down by one of her errant swings. Watching Rick the Swift and company keg Sam's Hill to try to kill Rass. Nights with Sam on that hill looking over the Nars. The Royal Empire of Pendragon. Riding on Rass's back high over her cave. The Eastlander War. The aftermath of the War.
As I pass the Crossroads, memories of Jiyyd flood my brain as well. The neverending Orc confict. Sam's knighting ceremony. Scavenger hunts. Dwin's farm and the Caravan. Frost giants. Pink. Marrying Eo.
The Gypsy Camp too is full of memories. Klaz's circus. Cotton and Kaona. The gnolls. Damn those gnolls. And their demons. The most heroic struggle I've ever witnessed to recover that camp. Cowpies. Laughing around the fires like I've never laughed before. Endless hours mining.
As I enter Peltarch, I find even more memories waiting for me around every corner. The College. My incredible scholastic laziness. Vanity Plates. The birth of the Ministry of Fashion. Adam Bromley saving my life, both literally and figuratively. The Far Scouts. And the first day I stepped foot off the ship from Damara to come retrieve Lillie's body. Gods, I hated that day. Who knew I'd still be here this many years later? Who knew she'd be alive and well now that I'm leaving?
As I stand here on the docks, getting ready to board another ship toward Damara, I have no idea where I'll go next. Maybe I'll work my way down to Amn. Maybe Calimshan. Or Silverymoon. I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter, though. I just need someplace fresh. Someplace where Penny Lane doesn't exist anymore. Someplace where I can start again from the beginning, and hopefully not make the same mistakes I made here. I'll send word to Lilly and Fadia and my sister whenever I find another place in the world as someone new. My sister has been there for me through it all, each and every time I ran away from a life that I'd fouled up somehow and started a new one, in a new land. Lilly and Fadia are the only parts of Penny Lane that I really feel compelled to keep, as cold as that may sound. Them, and Eo. Hopefully I'll find her again as well.
Everyplace else I've gone I've managed to sabotage any chance I had at peace by resorting back to the impulsiveness that cost me my innocence back in Waterdeep so many years ago. But this time will be different. I know it will. Cassandra will definitely be the magic persona. Cassandra of Silverymoon, I'm thinking. Quiet girl. Teacher - of Draconic, and Elven. That's a simple enough part to play. I can pull it off.
Third time's a charm, afterall.
-
Finally. No more pouncing. Gooood riddance.
-
What?! Thats…horrible! agh... My gosh all the fun times. And here i was hoping you were going to bring her back after a bit. Well then, goodbye Queen Pendragon. The Order of the Colorful Knights will miss you, and Juster's gonna cry.
-
Pshh, wait to not even say goodbye to Gears, Pinky. Always getting shafted by the tallies and their drama.
It was a blast messing around with Penny. Sad to see her go.
-
Well, the few weird adventures I had with Penny were a blast. Bye bye pink pally! :hug:
-
Will is definitely going to miss Penny.
-
Dwin will seriously miss his tenant.
-
Pfeh… she's gone from Narfell for good? That's horrible. >:/ She was a great character, RoundHere. I enjoyed all interactions with her--There was never a dull moment.
-
grumps and growls at RH and then heads off to muttering about RH's kneecaps
-
//OOC on
I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has RP'ed with Penny in the nearly 3 years that she existed as a character in this world. I'd try to list everyone, but my brain doesn't work well enough these days to possibly name them all. So suffice it to say, every last interaction was terrific, and they all helped shape her in a way that was (and still is) truly amazing to me.
So… why'd she go? In the simplest terms, I wanted her story to close at some point rather than be left open indefinitely into the future. She was never intended to be a "live happily ever after" type character. She was crass, impulsive, funny, friendly - she was almost real, and certainly not a fairy tale.
The only thing Penny ever wanted was a simple life where she could live innocent and free. The tragedy of the character was that she was too impulsive to ever achieve that goal. The moment she would make headway in that direction, she would once again do something impulsive, make a series of bad decisions, and find herself sucked back into a life where she was beholden to too many people (both good and bad) and totally unable to free herself again to chase her dream. Of course, you can argue that once a person loses that innocence and witnesses too much of how the world really works, then recapturing it is altogether impossible. I would completely agree, which makes Penny's story even more tragic, since she can never succeed. Her manner of dealing with this essential problem throughout her life was always to run away, to start her life anew someplace else as someone else, hoping that she could avoid making the same impulsive mistakes again. She, of course, cannot, since in the end she cannot escape the way she truly is. Her departure from Narfell was just another time through her cycle of change. She left unassumingly, just as she arrived.
Truthfully, I can't think of a more fitting end to her story.
Enough rambling from me, and thanks once again to everyone who made her possible. I owe you all a beer someday.
