The Gadgetzan Gazette (Warcraft)
Author: Ashynarr
Summary: Moments within and outside the timeline that were, are, might be, or might never have been. Or, in other words, a drabble collection featuring the wide cast and timeline of the Warcraft universe.
Disclaimer: Warcraft's not mine.
Warning: Canon(ish?), Pre-BC
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Your name is Millhouse Manastorm, gnome mage extraordinaire, and you are on a quest to prove yourself as the greatest magic user who ever lived!
...if you can actually find out where the hell you are in this ship, anyways.
It'd been such an easy plan; those alien ships with their strange supertechnology aeons beyond anything seen on Azeroth were just sitting there, completely undefended, like the Naaru had just wanted anyone with the brains and power to realize those things to just stride up and take it for themselves. You had thought nothing of whatever defenses they might have left, because they were beings of 'pure light' who 'had faith in the goodness of everyone' and so clearly wouldn't make them too dangerous, especially for a talented mage like yourself.
Phah, who cared about all that when you had a name to make for yourself? All you needed was a few clues as to their use of Arcane magic, and soon you'd be known across Azeroth as the Greatest Mage Ever, outshining even those hyped up tall ones like Medivh and Proudmoore!
Of course, in hindsight, maybe you should have expected some competition from other would-be looters with more than two braincells to rub together. The fact that it was a bunch of high-and-mighty elves didn't bother you much at first… until they started flinging spells at you.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing!?"
The lead elf, who looks remarkably unimpressed with his underlings' accuracy so far, snaps at them. "For goodness sake, will one of you just kill that lowly thing already so we can continue claiming the ships?"
"Lowly?" You cry in disbelief, your anger far outgrowing your body. "Nobody refers to the mighty Millhouse Manastorm as lowly!"
You build up a fireblast in your hands, sending it shrieking at the elf in question. "I'm gonna light you up, sweet cheeks!"
When the smoke clears, the elf leader is completely unharmed, but looking much more pissed now. The bolt of magic he launches at you is much more potent, and tells you that maybe you need a diversion to regroup and plan your next strike. As such, you blast one of the funny looking orbs on the wall.
It, and the orbs surrounding it, promptly deactivate, spitting out a small horde of demons who look mightily confused but quickly come to focus, and in turn draw the focus of, the elves across from you.
Well, you'll take what you can get. Running like the Burning Legion is on your heels (which considering the room you were just in might not be too far from the truth), you make your way further into the depths of the ship, waiting until you couldn't hear any of the sounds of fighting before beginning to slow down, and only coming to a stop when you ran out of breath… and any idea of where you were.
Well, if you don't know where you are, then those elves (and demons) certainly don't, and with any luck they'll just kill each other off and leave you to your research. It seems that once again, you, Millhouse Manastorm, have cleverly dealt with your enemies through clever tactics and simply being that much smarter than them! Surely it will be a grand tale to gloat over once you return home victorious.
Focus, focus! You still need something to prove your might, and since you're here and not really up for another sprint like that right now, you might as well do it here. The orbs (more prisons?) are bigger, possibly more important or else just holding bigger creatures, and your mind marvels at the idea of how they work exactly. Do they simply contain the creatures inside, or is there some sort of temporal mechanics at work to keep those trapped inside from having the time to plot escape?
The things you could adapt such things to are already crossing your mind, leaving you eager to get to work. All it really is is a matter of which of these cages you want to study first.
...On second thought, maybe you should try to find an empty one, just to be safe - you mean, for comparison's sake with an active one, of course! No need to downplay your reasoning! You are, after all, the mighty Millhouse Manastorm, and you don't fear a few measly demons!
Nodding once you assure yourself you were still awesome, you look around, seeing that indeed, there are a few pods which looks empty, if the lack of glowy purple shields and the 'drooped' look to them meant anything. One of them is even close to the floor, giving you perfect access to it! Truly this was an invitation if you'd ever seen one.
"Alright, let's see what you've got…" You rub your hands together gleefully, already putting together your first chain of inspection spells to determine the composition of the material in question.
When the spell hits, though, it's simply absorbed, leaving you with no feedback asides from a faint glow in the central bit of the structure. Perhaps some sort of anti-tampering mechanism to prevent the prison from being damaged while in use? Of course, such a feature would naturally need a complementary reaction feature in order to discourage further tampering-
That's as far as you're able to go with your train of thought before the structure lights up all at once, blinding you right before what feels like a Power Hammer 4000 slams into your skull and turns everything from purple-white to black.
(Benevolent and all-knowing Naaru your ass!)
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AN: In the process of writing this I decided that a quest for this guy would be a) fucking hilarious and b) just the sort of thing this forum would enjoy, because who doesn't want to run an egotistical gnome mage in his eternal quest for fortune and glory? Sadly, I don't think I could run such a quest all that well right now, considering how much I've slipped on updating my current two, but maybe one day I will take up the challenge.
Speaking of challenges, what characters do you want me to write for? I'm down with pretty much anyone in WoW itself, since I haven't really read the comics/books or played any of the other Warcraft games... I mean, I can obviously read up on them, but it's not quite the same as actually /reading up on them/, ya know? Since I don't really have too many ideas so far, I guess I'll just be tossing whatever comes to mind in the future into here, like AUs or whatever else.