Niamh's Adventures in Nirn..., This is a thread featuring a digest of stories about... Options

[Colonel Mustard]

Mainly the rude ones, including a certain word used to describe a female dog. One of the admins decided it would be funny to take it a step further than simply censor it by instead having it replaced with a rather random selection of words, so Niamh gets called 'umbrella seller' at some point in that vignette.

I've got a story with a bunch of characters who are basically gangsters and writing dialogue for them that should really be rather sweary but doesn't actually include any swearing is an interesting challenge.

[McBadgere]

"Where are ye? Little umbrella seller. Come 'ere and fight me!"

I tend to use the tried and tested "Insert blank character here." method...B*tch...a$s...ar$e...etc... ...

As long as it's not over the top, no taking the pi$s, eh?... ... ...

[PhonAntiPhon]

Ah ok. Now I understand.
I'll bear that in mind.
Inn of Ill Omen - Full Version.

This post has been edited by PhonAntiPhon: Feb 17 2013, 11:14 PM

[Lady Saga]

Hey Phon, what's new with you? I am digging the bit where Niamh wound up at the Inn of Ill Omen, especially this sod...

"'Ere." He said at length, his voice made heavy with ale. "'Ere, you're an elf. We don't like your sort here."

Such a sod!

And yeah, as folks have noted above, this site replaces certain "adult" words with other words. I also caught the "umbrella seller" bit and was gonna comment on it.

This post has been edited by Lady Saga: Feb 18 2013, 05:03 PM

[PhonAntiPhon]

Hey Phon, what's new with you? I am digging the bit where Niamh wound up at the Inn of Ill Omen, especially this sod...

"'Ere." He said at length, his voice made heavy with ale. "'Ere, you're an elf. We don't like your sort here."

Such a sod!

And yeah, as folks have noted above, this site replaces certain "adult" words with other words. I also caught the "umbrella seller" bit and was gonna comment on it.

Hi there!
Yeah I figured a bit of all-out badassery was the order of the day...

"Umbrella seller", tchah; comedians!

[ghastley]

The odd thing is that the auto-censor seems to be blind to plurals, and mother of mine will become mother of mine, but whores will be left alone. (I'm not sure I could handle more than one at a time, but that's no excuse for a machine. )


This post has been edited by ghastley: Feb 19 2013, 10:02 PM

[PhonAntiPhon]

The odd thing is that the auto-censor seems to be blind to plurals, and mother of mine will become mother of mine, but whores will be left alone. (I'm not sure I could handle more than one at a time, but that's no excuse for a machine. )

[PhonAntiPhon]

Very quick...

"
Knowledge, as gained from books, is largely outside of Niamh's frame of reference. Sure, she'll take what she can get but the actual *pursuit* of knowledge and the reading required so to do pretty much escapes her.
In the old days it was always Vilja who did that, and then summarized it for her partner in short, easily digestible, fragments.
That said, Niamh has been - for her - applying herself judiciously if irregularly to the Mages' Guilds, if only because she's curious about the inside of the university and hasn't found a way in, and also because setting light to bandits with increasingly powerful fire spells never gets boring.
(the odd charm spell on the occasional waitress, immune to her natural talents, doesn't go amiss either. <Ahem>).

So far the path to the Mages' Guild has been strewn with little favours that need doing and games that need playing, most of which have only served to shore up Niamh's belief that membership of these little guilds is for kiddies and the more puerile adults.
Bruma's little guild has so far proven to be the worst...

...It was a little after 10 of the clock in the morning when Niamh arrived, and met one Jean Frasoric in the entry hall, the not-unattractive Head of the chapter, the usual pleasantries were exchanged and the inevitable "Perhaps you can do a favour for me" conversation ensued.
To cut a long story short, our heroine found herself in conversation with one Volanaro, an oily associate who had information, he said, regarding the whereabouts of the Kat who Jean wanted Niamh to locate.
The conversation descended rapidly to the level of the playground as she found herself having to carry out an act of petty thievery for Volanaro. He seemed surprised when she returned with the manual five minutes later.
"Well ok, you meet me in the living quarters just after 10 tonight, and I will help you with your little problem..." He winked patronisingly at her and grinned. He did, she thought, need to work on his technique, since all of this last should perhaps have been directed at her face, but there you go.

This gave her some time to kill, so she headed to Olav's for a few ales, stopping on the way to practice a different kind of magic on one Edla Darkheart, a rather sour-faced woman she'd seen in Bruma from time-to-time.
She does like a challenge, does Niamh...

After 6 hours, a badly lost drinking contest to one Gromm, and a brief scuffle as he tried unsuccessfully to claim his winnings, she walked only a little unsteadily back to the guild, slipped in, and went down to the living quarters.
She hung around in the corner for a little until it was time to meet the kids, observing from the shadows as Jean went from room to room, evidently searching for what Niamh had stolen from her earlier.

At the appointed time she met Volanaro, who produced the Kat. Both of them seemed very proud of their little prank. Both of them needed to grow up.
"Oh, you can tell Jean you've found me." purred the Kitty.
(Niamh has "a bit of a thing" for Khajiits, but this one? Very much the exception...)
Still, job done.

"Ah, little lady..." whispered Volanaro greasily as she turned to leave, "...we'll be in touch with you, there are some other things we might want doing and I'm sure that you would wish this, ah, "relationship" to remain *on the quiet*..."
Niamh just stared at him, her head on one side. "Really...?" She said eventually.
Volanaro looked a little less assured of himself. "We, ah, could be your worst nightmare, you know..." He narrowed his eyes.
She thought for a moment. "No." She said. "You couldn't."

Five minutes later she awoke Jean and told her she had located the Khajiit. A recommendation was secured.
Just before leaving, she moved closer to the Mage, and whispered something else to her.
"Really?" Said Jean. "That's Most Interesting..."
She grinned as Niamh left her quarters.
It wasn't a nice grin.
"

This post has been edited by PhonAntiPhon: Mar 3 2013, 03:54 PM

[Lady Saga]

Hmm...wonder what was whispered. I can chance a guess, but I'll leave it up to you whether or not you want to reveal this, Phon.

[PhonAntiPhon]

Hmm...wonder what was whispered. I can chance a guess, but I'll leave it up to you whether or not you want to reveal this, Phon.

Heh, I would prefer to leave it inferred , but let's just say "Honi soit qui mal y pense"...

[Colonel Mustard]

That was an interesting snippet, but I found the style had me lost. It initially started off like it was somebody talking about Niamh, but then it transititioned to your standard third-person narrative and it was never quite clear where (or if) there was supposed to be a break. Left me kind of confused, in the end...

[PhonAntiPhon]

That was an interesting snippet, but I found the style had me lost. It initially started off like it was somebody talking about Niamh, but then it transititioned to your standard third-person narrative and it was never quite clear where (or if) there was supposed to be a break. Left me kind of confused, in the end...

Ah Well, the reason is that it was originally purely a character update on the "other" forum. I never intended to do anything else with it so it wasn't written to a narrative convention.
Turned out I rather liked it so l decided to just port it warts and all. The transition point should probably be made a little clearer but essentially it's an update with a preamble.
I just thought it had a certain charm was all.

[PhonAntiPhon]

l would like to thank a member of another site for reminding me of this following short piece, I had quite forgotten itwhichisa shame in a way, because I really liked it.
It was written during Niamh's unwilling and unasked-for sojourn in skyrim...
---
AZURA'S STAR

Niamh is far into Ilinalta Deep, in search of Azura's star.
She has followed the trail from the Prince's shrine in the far north, above Winterhold.

Trekking south and west, stopping only briefly for rest and food, she kept herself secret and out of sight. She paused briefly at Whiterun to restock and to barter what meagre goods she had picked up before setting off once again, after a night's brief rest in a proper bed.
Skirting past the giants at their camp not far outside of the city, keeping low to avoid detection by a roving band of Forsworn, she journeyed through the Brittleshin Pass - cautiously, and with good reason as it turned out - before arriving at the sunken fort on the shore of the lake from which it took it's name.

Amidst the wrack and ruin of the once-proud imperial stronghold, amidst fetid death and malevolent necromancy, the dark air that had been on her for some little time previously condenses into a blacker mood of introspection, unwanted thoughts, and perhaps just a touch of sadness. Although faded now, some memory of her former self still lingers in her mind, and occasionally stirs, opening a pale eye to illuminate that part of her where she keeps locked away the thoughts of times that once made her happy, but to which she knows in her heart that she can never return.

Pausing for a moment in the gloomy, silent corridor through which she has been creeping, she hunkers down, the rough stones of the wall wet against the skin of her back. She rests her head back, staring upwards, her one good eye straining to pick out details on the damp ceiling.
Sometimes, just sometimes, she wishes that it would all just go away and that she could return to Cyrodiil, and pick up from where she once was and with whom she once was with; either that or simply let everything just... drift away.
But she knows the former will never be, and as for the latter; well she has too much life to burn to go like that and, still very young by the standards of her race, plenty of time in which to burn it, and besides...

...Off to her left, from some distance down the corridor, her large ears pick up the sound of quiet footsteps and whispered voices in conversation...

...even if that were a viable option, today is not the day for it. Flicking her head and shoulders forward she stands back up and turns to face the sounds, sinewy muscles working smoothly beneath her tanned and filthy skin.
No, today she has work to do - a mission, a purpose.
Shaking her head as if to clear it, she grips her bow tightly in her left hand and heads off in a crouch, down the corridor.

Tomorrow?
Well, that's a different story...

This post has been edited by PhonAntiPhon: Mar 7 2013, 12:26 AM

[Lady Saga]

Amidst the wrack and ruin of the once-proud imperial stronghold, amidst fetid death and malevolent necromancy, the dark air that had been on her for some little time previously condenses into a blacker mood of introspection, unwanted thoughts, and perhaps just a touch of sadness. Although faded now, some memory of her former self still lingers in her mind, and occasionally stirs, opening a pale eye to illuminate that part of her where she keeps locked away the thoughts of times that once made her happy, but to which she knows in her heart that she can never return.

I love this!

Why does Niamh only have "one good eye", though?

[Colonel Mustard]

That was an interesting snippet, but I found the style had me lost. It initially started off like it was somebody talking about Niamh, but then it transititioned to your standard third-person narrative and it was never quite clear where (or if) there was supposed to be a break. Left me kind of confused, in the end...

Ah Well, the reason is that it was originally purely a character update on the "other" forum. I never intended to do anything else with it so it wasn't written to a narrative convention.
Turned out I rather liked it so l decided to just port it warts and all. The transition point should probably be made a little clearer but essentially it's an update with a preamble.
I just thought it had a certain charm was all.

Ah, right. I guess that makes sense, but was kind of confusing; makes me think a little bit of District 9 where the opening of the film is done like a documentary but when it switches to a normal (albeit awesome) movie style you end up being a bit lost and thinking 'what kind of documentary is this?'

I liked this wee snippet; you did a great job of building atmosphere and hinting at Niamh's past and emotional baggage. And I know that that off eye has been mentioned before; any chance we can get the story behind that one?

[PhonAntiPhon]

@Lady Saga and The Colonel, in Skyrim, Niamh is blind in one eye. There is a story behind it, but like most things that happen to her, its complicated.
I'll pop it up here at some point.

Thank you for your comments I'm glad you are enjoying the stories.

I thought District 9 was an Awesome movie as well!

[Acadian]

You continue to work well with the ‘show a snip and run’ style. I should imagine the style to be quite liberating to write. It’s fun to see glimpses of Niamh as she does things like gather guild recommendations in Cyrodiil or hunts for Azura’s Star in Skyrim.

[PhonAntiPhon]

You continue to work well with the ‘show a snip and run’ style. I should imagine the style to be quite liberating to write. It’s fun to see glimpses of Niamh as she does things like gather guild recommendations in Cyrodiil or hunts for Azura’s Star in Skyrim.

Thank you.
Yeah I am experimenting with a longer style at the moment in a non-Nirn related orignal Niamh story and to be honest it's proving a little heavy going even given my familiarity with it's subject!

If I'm honest I do really prefer the vignette/flash style. It is very liberating and also because it's shorter I always feel you have to be more concise and sharp, which is a good exersize.
I find with longer pieces I have a tendency to waffle!

[mALX]

I have to agree with Acadian on the freedom these shorts give you to hop around and tackle what you wish without the constrictive story line - all while keeping the interesting Niamh's character at the center of the action - I am loving this style, and wish I'd thought of doing that before cranking out a "War and Peace" length storyline!

Despite her lack of hygiene, Niamh's personality is a winner - she is intriguing!

Still catching up, I have been enduring hell in real life along with being sick as a dog for a week - really aggravating! Awesome Write!

[McBadgere]

Excellent stuff matey!...

Just caught up...

Loved that bit in Bruma...

The Honi soit qui mal y pense made me laugh...I just learned about that on BBC4... ...

Aaamywho...Loved both snippets...

Excellent stuff...

Nice one!!...

*Applauds heartily*...