Life and Times of a Selfish, Shady Dunmer. Part one., The story actually has several. But we focus on just one or two. Options

[lord_wanhoop]

Part 1.1

"Profitable hunting, lads?" asked Arrille as he looked at the two Dunmer before him. The left one was bald, with a scar where his left eye had been, and various other scars besides. He was covered in chitin armor, save helmet and shield, and had a shortsword at his belt. Jiub grinned and nodded to his counterpart, a slightly younger Dunmer. This one also looked shifty, but in a different way. Jiub looked like he'd won, well, survived, countless street fights. The other mer, Dasreth, looked as if he'd managed to trick his way out of them every time, and had something cocky to show for it. Dasreth was less muscular than Jiub, with a face that the poets could be inclined to call 'darkly handsome'. Whatever that meant. His short black hair was dishevelled, and he had three earrings, one in his left ear and two in his right. He was less heavily armored than Jiub, with only a cuirass, greaves, and boots, and also carried an iron shortsword.

"Well enough. Feast your eyes on these assembled pieces of plunder, Arrille. I'd say the lot's worth about hundred drakes total."

The Altmer nodded, his eyes gliding over the pile of items looted from the smuggler cavern of Addamasartus that Dasreth had pulled out of his backpack and onto the table. He did not know about the two bottles of skooma and the thirteen packets of moon sugar that they had also found, and this, Dasreth thought, was for the better. With the Census and Excise Office right under his nose, he likely wouldn't be quite inclined to trade in those things. Arrille shoved the assorted pile of weapons, alcohol, armor scraps and clothing into a crate. "Tolvise, pay these gentlemen, please. I'm going down to sort through this."

A pretty young Dunmer woman nearby nodded, gliding over to the counter and counting down exactly hundred drakes from Arrille's money box, then put them in a pouch and handed it over to Dasreth. Dasreth took it eagerly, putting his hand on hers and caressing it with a finger. While doing this, he said:

"Thank you...Tolvise. If I can ever do anything for you, just tell me. It'd be my pleasure."

Tolvise removed her hand from Dasreth's, and looked him in the eyes. Dasreth, not taking the time to check the expression on her face, gave her a wink and a grin.

PETCH!

And was returned a slap. Tolvise walked away in a huff, muttering darkly. Behind him, Dasreth heard Jiub emit a raspy chuckle. Still rubbing the fiery red spot on his cheek where he'd been hit, the Mer turned around angrily.

"What's so bloody funny, scarface?"

"You are," Jiub replied.

"I don't see you doing any better! Besides. That used to work. I tried it so often. Must've gotten rusty in the clink... happens often, I heard. There weren't a lot of pretty ladies around there, and they put me in a cell with this orc who took male bonding and prisonerly brotherhood a tad too seriously."

"What happened to that one then, Dasreth?"

"Well, Jiub, he got shivved mysteriously after telling me how cute he thought my butt was. End of story."


Post scriptum: this is my new attempt at a story based on Morrowind which I recently resumed playing. Do not expect the protagonist to be a noble good guy. Do not expect him to be completely stark raving evil, either. For the time being these may seem like tales of humorous incompetence, but do bear in mind that this personage is still Level One. My game uses many mods, such as the CM Partners mod which allows me to have Jiub as a companion. By reading this work of fanfiction, skimming it, laying your eyes on its title on the topic list or breathing, lord_wanhoop legally owns all rights to your soul and the soul of your firstborn child. Many NPCs were hurt physically, mentally, and/or emotionally during the making of this fanfiction. Who cares? We sure don't. LaToaSSD is sponsored by Hlaalu Egg Mining Inc. If you are still reading this, comment already. lord_wanhoop's writing efforts are supported purely by positive yet honest feedback and dubious skooma mixtures.

[lord_wanhoop]

I actually have the first 4 or so posts written. Here's the third one, wherein we get violence. Yay.

1.3

Thavere Vedrano, the lighthouse keeper of Seyda Neen, took the news of her lover's death rather poorly, to say the least. Dasreth had not finished his sentence or she broke down in hysterics, sobbing uncontrolably. Not being used to this thing - after all, he was usually the one who left behind a broken heart rather than the one who had to sweep up the pieces - he faintly patted her on the shoulder, muttering "there, there" while Jiub stood off to the side glancing about sheepishly. Finally, Thavere ceased crying for long enough to get out some sobbed words.

"I can't believe it...he was the gentlest man I ever met...he never got angry at anyone...only once or twice...at Foryn Gilnith...it must've been Foryn...he's a brute...please..."

Thavere broke down into sobs for a minute, leaving the two mer to look sheepish. Then she tugged on Dasreth's arm, hard, and whispered.

"I gave Processus...a ring...he cherished it...if it was Foryn, he'd have taken it..and if it really was him..." Thavere paused, and looked up at Dasreth. She stared intensely into his eyes, hers reddened even more than was natural to the Dunmer, and her face wet of tears. Harshly, she whispered. "Kill him. Murder him for me, Dasreth. Make him suffer. And bring back my ring..."

The two mer left. Again asking Indrele (who even batted her eyelashes at Dasreth, as if to ask when he was going to ask for directions to her place... or she could just have blinked.) they soon found out that Gilnith lived in a run-down shack in the poor district of Seyda Neen, which consisted of less than a half-dozen run-down shacks facing the sea. Swinging the door open without knocking, Dasreth and Jiub fingered their shortswords as the former adressed Gilnith threateningly, asking plainly:

"Did you happen to kill Processius Vitellus lately?"

Gilnith looked up, and snickered. He was dressed in the rough rags of a fisherman, and had a pair of arms almost as wide as Dasreth's were long. It wasn't hard to imagine him throttling Imperial tax collectors with them.

"So what've I did? Processius was corrupt! He'd asked far more tax than we could pay! He took the money of honest Dunmer to buy pretty trinkets for himself an' that 'ore Thavere! She's a shame t'our race, letting the greedy Imperial bestr'd into her in exchange for tax exemption! I'm givin' ya a chance here. Don't spill this to anyone and you gets to walk out alive."

"I'm afraid, Foryn, that won't be an option." Dasreth grinned, and he and Jiub simultaneously drew their shortswords with a metallic sound.

"So you're more empire-lovers, then? I'll die before I beg for yer mercy!"

Gilnith lurched at the both thieves. But his main asset was his brute strength, and furthermore his victim had been scrawny, unarmed and unarmored. His current opponents were not: they were swift, deadly, and even with their shortswords had a better reach than Foryn did. They spread out, each picking one of Foryn's sides to stab at. Unable to fight them both at the same time, Foryn decided to focuse on Jiub, seeing him as the more dangerous fighter. This gave Dasreth the time to sidestep around and sink his shortsword in the mer's back. As Foryn dropped to the ground with a gurgle, Dasreth whispered:

"You know, I don't love the empire, per say. It's just that they paid me really well to do that."

While Dasreth picked Processius' ring off Gilnith's corpse, Jiub looked around and said:

"You know, in one way he wasn't lying."

"How so?" Dasreth asked as he wiped the ring against his shirt to get the worst of the bloodstains off it.

"Nothing in this dump is worth the twohundred-twentyfive drakes he owed. Even combined."

The two thieves laughed as they exited the shack.

The management would like to impress upon you that any views regarding the violent murder of murderers are purely the characters' own and do not speak on behalf of the LaToaSSD staff. Furthermore, to the people who demanded a rating change from All Ages to 6+ for the scenes of violence above, nobody's forcing you to read it. Moron.

This post has been edited by lord_wanhoop: Feb 5 2007, 04:52 PM