Is this what it’s like when I’m not around? Is this really what you all do?

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Valerio Stamp
Race: Halfling – Elf (tinker) / Human
Age: 43, physically about 29
Current residence: Atheria City, Eresiel
Final Word Count: 806 words
 

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At times, it’s a little strange, the things you’ll find when you’re looking for something else. When I look at this little box of treasure, I have to ask myself, where was that all of these years? I’d like to think that I’m a fairly clean person. I’d like to state that we do a good bit of spring cleaning every, well, spring. We deal with what we find in nooks and crannies at that point, so I’m not sure as to why I might not have found this little box of souvenirs up until now.

It’s not a very big box, by looking at it, I suppose that it might be the size of a shoebox. Not that shoe boxes have ever been common in my life, but I’ve seen them while growing up. My parents had a few around the house, being used exactly for the purpose that this one was. It was in a drawer, so maybe that’s why I didn’t really pay much attention to it or find it until now. While we do deep clean; some areas don’t really need it and drawers are one of those.

Every few years, I’d like to think that we actually do a deeper clean, however, and I feel as though we should have found it by now. In this box are drawings that date back some thirty years. I know it was with my parents up until I moved out but moving out happened some two decades ago at this point, I just really don’t know where it was hiding all of this time.

Well, no. It was in that drawer, hiding away like a few other things, I just don’t know how we both missed it. Or maybe we did find it, we cracked it open, saw scribbles and notes and just let it be. I just don’t know.

In this box are most things that relate to my younger years when I would let my mind take me away on hours and hours of fantasy living. My imagination was such a strong part of my life that I was swept away into these other worlds easier than anyone might have ever managed, and I often had to be brought out of them by my brother or my parents. I had mostly stopped going onto these little escapades by the time I started to really spend time with my delightful partner though I have hidden nothing of these.

There are notes in there, some of them illegible. There are scribbles worthy of a young child still learning to put together pieces and colours that go well together. Proportions were off but I don’t think I ever was interested in my drawings being realistic, I just wanted to draw and be done with it, if you would. These were drawings of the places I visited in my mind, of the few, rare friends I made while on these fantastical trips.

If I think back and try to focus a little, I can honestly say that there was only one particular place in all of my little mind trips like these where I had friends. The others were mostly just filled with my own laughter and adventure. I remember when I first met these fantasy friends of mine, they were a handful, full of energy and never sitting still. I had fun with them, I’m not going to deny it.

On my second visit to them, I became possibly a little disenchanted with them and, thinking back, I wonder if it wasn’t my way of distancing myself from them. I was never much of a social bug, but friends were friends. Mind you, all that ever happened in these fantasy worlds were things that I was making up on the spot, not that I really gave that particular part a whole lot of thought when I slipped into a world for some play time.

That visit, though, I faintly remember finding them surrounded by this big mess of things and while I wasn’t all that focused on keeping everything neat and clean around myself at that point, I still liked to have everything in its place, so the sight of that mess made things a little sour. It was so many years ago, but I still remember being exasperated with them and how they behaved when I wasn’t around. I recall asking them if this whole mess really was all they did. I was young, certainly, but, well yes, my imagination was boundless.

I do recall spending time with them a bit more time still, maybe two or three other visits but after that, I stopped imagining myself in that particular place and I focused on others. I haven’t done any of that in years and I think this is for the better.

Wow, look at that eyebrow go. It’s takin’ lift-off, towards your hairline. A new record has been set.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Valerio Stamp
Race: Halfling – Elf (tinker) / Human
Age: 41, physically about 29
Final Word Count: 658 words
 

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Lorenzo used to tease me when I spent hours lost in my own world and imagination. I don’t think he really understood how it ‘worked’, not at first. He was so much more interested in learning things from books and being more grown-up than he had any right to be—so said my child brain back then—that he just couldn’t wrap his mind around what I saw and where my imagination took me.

I remember, on one of the last days before I stopped letting my mind drift away while I was at school, I told him about the adventure I’d gone on and I could see his eyebrow just go up, up and away. I grinned at him and, even now, I remember teasing him right back about how his eyebrow had just clearly turned into a rocket and it had had a nice, neat lift-off to his hairline. Saying that only made that brow go higher and I laughed harder than I probably had any right to, it still was hilarious.

I know why I had to stop letting myself be swept away into these fantasy worlds while on break at school—while at school altogether—but it still made me sad. I felt like it was my only escape from the tedium of daily school life but after Lorenzo had to drag me out of that one ‘trip’ so that I wouldn’t be late getting back to my classroom, I knew I wasn’t really in a safe spot for me to do these things.

Over the course of several years, while I still was at school, I learned that there are only a few methods to draw me out of my mind trips without tripping me up completely. You have to understand that it’s almost like lucid dreaming, in a way. If you just jar me out of it, I’ll be more than a little lost; I need to be eased from it. I learned that my best option was through a timer and a particular chime; both help to draw me back to the surface smoothly.

Of course, I haven’t really let my mind wander off to these fantasy worlds in years now; after that one near-miss with Lorenzo just barely managing to drag me back to the surface before the bell rang made me turn my attention to more physical puzzles and those were the ones I had with me during my school years and I’ve mostly been sticking to those during my free time.

These puzzles are no longer the small, portable ones I could carry around in school, they’re far more complex but they still are more than enough to give me mind the workout it needs.

My biggest project ever has been to try and create an ‘unsolvable’ puzzle of my own. So far, I’ve managed a few different blueprints but there’s always a snag somewhere or it turns out to be easy once you figure out that one switch and I haven’t had much luck in that particular regard but that’s okay. I have my whole life still ahead of me to figure this out and there just are so many more puzzles out there to get my hands on and figure out that I’m not going to run out of material any time soon.

There was one particular blueprint that I’d been certain would turn out to be perfect but as it did turn out, it was a near-exact copy of one of the earlier puzzles I’d worked my way through in my teen years. That one was a bit of a slap in the face because I’d been so proud of making it that far in my planning.

That’s all right too. I didn’t scrap it. It’s been archived for the time being and maybe, one day, I’ll change it just enough to be an original piece all on its own.

After a lot of confusion, I think I’ve finally figured this out.

 
Timeline/World: Atheria – 3rd Generation
Characters: Valerio Stamp
Race: Halfling – Elf (tinker) / Human
Age: 40, physically about 29
Final Word Count: 667 words
 

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For as much time as I spent wandering about in my own imagined worlds while I was a child, I spend a lot of time working my mind and my fingers on puzzles that the world has deemed impossible to solve, now. There always are new puzzles to be found and while most are certainly not originals, so long as I can find blueprints of sorts, drawing of it or a model, the system can usually create one though I’ve been lucky enough to find quite a few of them in our archives.

Not all of the puzzles are physical ones; quite a few are simply mental puzzles that only need my brain or a pad of paper and a pencil. They’re not as engrossing as the ones where I can literally twist, turn, push and pull at them but they’re still interesting enough.

The most recent puzzle I got my hands on was a wooden item that was classed, or so old videos claim, as one of the world’s hardest puzzles, and it was in the shape of a cute little—well, it was about a foot tall—vending machine.

I’m not going to lie, it stumped me. It stumped me enough that I spent four months working on it. On and off, of course, but that’s the longest I’ve ever spent trying to figure out a puzzle. I’m pretty sure that I was really close at times but I’d move one small item or just nudge it when I was trying to avoid it and I’d have to start it all over again.

I remember getting odd looks while at school now and again when I’d bring in a few puzzles with me. Usually, they were small ones that only had a few pieces to them and didn’t need much thought—at least to me—to undo, but they kept me occupied during the lunch breaks and the morning and afternoon breaks between classes. While others would read, run, or play with their friends, I was content to mind my own business and take the puzzles apart and put them back together.

Only once did I ever get lost in my own imagination and Lorenzo dragged me out of it just seconds before the lunch bell rang. Without him, I probably would have spent several hours sitting where I’d settled, my mind everywhere but on what surrounded me. I learned early on that school was not a good play for imagination games like the ones I played often while at home, so I refrained and turned to more physical puzzles though I’ve had to be pulled away from them as well once or twice because I was so focused on getting them opened or closed again that I’d lose track of time.

This vending machine puzzle, though, was a feat of engineering; I’m not going to lie. Once I’d managed to open it, I studied every little part of it, trying to make heads or tails of what was making it stick in places but slide just fine in others and I still haven’t figured it all out. I’ve put it back together, somewhat regretfully because I’m pretty sure that the next time I’ll be trying to open it up again, it’ll at least take me a couple of weeks at the very least, maybe just a few days at the most but I don’t think it’ll be that short a time.

All in all, though, it’s time well spent. I only turn to puzzles when I know I’ve got nothing else waiting for me for the rest of my day because I just get sucked away completely into the whole thing and time flies by. My mind is made for tinkering and, in a way; this is exactly what it needs to keep vibrant. I’m pretty sure that without my brain, I’m not very interesting so I gotta keep that strong. But nah, not really. I know I’ve got other qualities but you know.

It’s gonna take a lot more to get over that.

Timeline/World: Atheria 3rd Generation
Characters: Valerio Stamp
Race: Halfling – Elf (tinker) / Human
Age: 39, physically about 29
Final Word Count: 553 words

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When I was just a little kid, I think I spent hours upon hours just lost in my imagination. A pile of leaves could be a mountain and a small puddle could be the ocean. I would have great adventures during which I would likely barely even move but oh, in my mind I was going places. Always on foot, always by boat, always by ‘normal’ means. I never flew—not like birds—but I think I did set foot into one plane or two but those were far less likely to happen.

I remember, one autumn adventure, I might have been six or seven. We had this really huge pile of leaves out in the back yard and I had made it my day’s goal to climb onto the summit of this never-before-climbed mountain.

Let me tell you, it was hard work.

Most of my handholds would crumble under my grasps, when I thought I found a nook to settle in and catch my breath, there would usually be another avalanche and I had to start almost all the way back to the bottom. It was near mid-day when I told myself that I would need a lot more than just the basic necessities I’d brought along to make it over that mountain. I found more items to help in my climb and while it was absolutely treacherous and I almost broke my arm—I didn’t, not really but hey, my imagination was quite strong back then—I made it almost, oh almost to the summit.

A gust of wind shoved me right off my perch and along with me came rocks and rocks and rocks! I was buried alive! I was quite certain I was going to perish right there, under debris from the wind’s forceful blow but then there was a hand pulling the rocks away from me, one by one until a face came, staring at me. I couldn’t rightfully tell whom my saviour was, the sun was beginning to set right behind them but as I was pulled from my hole, it turned out to be Lorenzo, come to lend me a hand.

The second climbing of the mountain took much less time—my brother has always humoured me and my imagination—and I did make it to the top. Never mind that the moment I stepped on the very top of the mountain, it decided to not quite crumble but swallow me whole and Lorenzo’s bubbling laughter broke the illusion that I had been following all day. There I was, stuck in a pile of leaves that was about as big as the house and my brother was laughing away at my misfortune.

Of course, being as I am, I forgave him the moment he pulled me out of there because I had no idea how I was supposed to get out, otherwise. I couldn’t quite swim my way through, the pile was so heavily packed that it was surprising I’d fallen in at all.

All in all, I have fond memories of that particular climb up Mount Autumn Leaves. Even if the whole thing almost broke me to pieces and then swallowed me whole. I think that, if not for my brother, I would have believed this mountain a volcano more than a simple mountain.