There are people who are born great and there are those that have greatness thrust upon them. Most of the times people who have greatness thrust upon them fail. Epically. You see those who are born with greatness have time to deal with it, they learn how to live with greatness. Those who aren't born with it usually have heart attacks and die young. For some reason I have had greatness thrust upon me and will probably fall in with the statistics and have a heart attack. To be honest it is a comforting thought since heart attacks are something I am well prepared for. Our family has a history of heart disease.
Hi, my name is Alessia Medici. I have coffee coloured straight hair that goes down to my shoulder blades, blue eyes that have been laser surgery-ed to give me twenty-twenty vision (an upgrade from the previous blurriness) and according to my ex-boyfriend, I am emotionally unavailable and a frigid bitch.
Oh and did I mention that I am burdened with Great Purpose? Because I kind of am.
That wasn't always the case. Well it was because even before Greatness was thrust upon me, I had a great job to do. It just wasn't great with a capital G. But it was tough.
You see, I am my brother's keeper. Not in that sappy Cameron Diaz movie kind of way but quite literally I am his keeper. He is the equivalent of a giant Great Dane gone rampant and I am the poor woman you see trying to hold on to the leash but is destined run after him for the rest of her life with the pooper scooper in hand.
It's quite sad really. Most people don't even know my name. The people who call me mostly address me as Alex's sister.
That's my brother, Alexander Medici. Boy genius, emphasis on the boy. He is smart, ridiculously so and has the emotional development, understanding of rules and self control of the usual teenage boy (see also: non-existent).
Alex is fifteen, I'm twenty two. Our parents were scientists, brilliant ones in fact, so brilliant that they went to the sun. And never returned, most likely burnt to a crisp. Ironically their space ship was named Icarus. Apparently they saw it coming. That happened back when I was eight and Alex was a bouncing bonny baby of one year. We've been raised by our grandmother who is the most amazing remarkable woman ever. Well, most of the times. The other times she forgot we were there. I learnt responsibility very early on. Alex has been inventing since he was five years old and his experiments blew up even back then. I got good at apologies. Really good.
So good, in fact, that I have a very stable job in PR management that I like quite a lot.
Every cloud has its silver lining you see.
That was my great purpose. But now let's move on to my Great purpose.
My brother is a physicist. Don't ask me which type of physicist though. It's not that I don't know, despite not having inherited the same genius level of intellect that my brother boasts of, my IQ is still quite high but it is simply that he dabbles in so many different categories of physics I don't bother classifying it.
Personally I call his batch of science Mad Science because only a lunatic could think of doing what he tries to do. And only a successful lunatic would manage to make those crazy experiments work.
He's a successful lunatic by the way.
His successful lunacy is what led me to my Great Purpose.
Because it landed me in the company of Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain and grandson of Thror, King under the mountain and Leader of the Quest to reclaim Erebor from the clutches of Smaug, the dragon.
You see, Great Purpose with a capital G. And highly possible heart attack.