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skyrimkinkmeme) wrote2011-10-29 12:36 pm
skyrimkinkmeme) wrote2011-10-29 12:36 pm
Meme Announcements!
ANNOUNCEMENTS: UPDATED 12/16/2017
Happy Holidays, fellow Kinkmemers! I have returned and have no reasonable excuse for my absence except LIFE. I will be working on updating the archives. If anyone sees anything amiss, please let me know.
I am also hoping to find another Mod and an Archivist.
The more dedicated people we have in this Meme the less chance of it dying. I admit that being the sole keeper of the Meme is not great for the fandom. If something were to happen to me, for good, this place would go the way of the Fallout Kink Meme. Let's not let that happen! If anyone would be interested in Modding/Archiving, please drop me a line. Thanks! <3
Re: The Wolf Queen Awakens 16.6
(Anonymous) 2013-12-01 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)“He stabbed five people in twenty four hours,” Madanach put in cheerfully. Eola was patting Cicero on the back and Cicero had gone bright red, all coy embarrassment. Delphine just closed her eyes, not really wanting to contemplate this any longer than she had to, and wondering, not for the first time, if taking Cicero in had been a good idea.
“Five?” Aela said, her voice a mixture of being appalled and yet also strangely impressed. “Who were they?”
“Gabriella of the Dark Brotherhood, a witness to Gabriella's death, Thongvor Silver-Blood, a thief called Grisvar in Cidhna Mine and Thonar Silver-Blood,” Cicero giggled, still blushing. “Also a number of Markarth guards during the jail break but Cicero lost count of them. Er... Cicero doesn't think he's allowed in Markarth any more.”
“I'm not entirely sure you're allowed outside the Temple any more,” Delphine sighed. “Get inside and wait just inside the Temple – come back if you hear fighting, but otherwise just stay put, you hear? We'll be in shortly.”
Cicero scampered off, still flushed with pride, and how someone as sweet and ethical as Elisif kept attracting murderers like she did was a mystery to Delphine. She turned her attention from the undisputed psychopath to the fanatical insurrectionist.
“So, you wanted to talk to me. You have my attention.” Delphine folded her arms, waiting to hear what Madanach had to say. He'd watched Cicero go, seeming rather fond of the man, but as soon as he'd gone, he'd turned sombre again.
“So you're a Blade. Acting Grand Master. Not that senior then, not when there were still Blades operating anyway. You'd be the last of them.”
Damn the man for being so perceptive.
“Being persecuted by the Thalmor wasn't great for recruitment.”
“No one likes the Thalmor, Delphine, even other Altmer don't like them,” Madanach growled. “We've been persecuted by the Nords for decades too, it's been great for recruitment. Don't tell me there was no one willing to join the fight.”
“You were in a Nord prison for two decades, the Forsworn were still operating all that time, and yet Thonar never had you quietly silenced,” said Delphine, refusing to rise to the bait. “And here you are on the outside, able to pull together a fighting force at short notice and have them all here awaiting you, willing to obey your every command. You're still a man very much in charge, so why did the Nords let you get away with it for so long? I'd love to know the story behind that one.”
Madanach looked a little awkward and swiftly changed the subject. Delphine couldn't help but smile and file this away to discuss with Elisif later. Definitely a sore point and she knew she'd won that bout.
“So, the Dragonborn,” Madanach said firmly. “Chosen to fight dragons and has to destroy their leader or the world ends. You know, for a mighty dragonslayer, she doesn't seem that bothered about destroying dragons.”
“What are you talking about?” Delphine sighed. “She's killed three that I've seen, is learning the Thu'um, wants to save her country. She's doing her job well enough.”
“She's learning the Thu'um but not to kill dragons.” Madanach took a step forward, and she couldn't tell if he was angry or afraid, but he definitely was feeling something. “Ulfric, Delphine. She wants to kill Ulfric. Avenge her husband. Be better than him at Shouting, she might already be better. That's what she wants, Delphine. And I think she's going to go it alone. Walk right into Windhelm, challenge Ulfric and kill him.”
Re: The Wolf Queen Awakens 16.7
(Anonymous) 2013-12-01 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)Madanach's eyes were boring into hers, and he did indeed have opinions and feelings on this topic, very strong ones and that wasn't anger, it was heartbreak and desperation.
“When we first met, we argued and I got up to... I don't know, I just wanted to intimidate her a bit,” Madanach said softly. “She must have thought I was going to attack, and she was unarmed. She didn't beg or plead or run. She just closed her eyes and told me to get on with it. Like she wanted to die and get it over with. When I asked her about it, she just said Sovngarde would await if she died bravely. Delphine, you do not have a fearless warrior on your hands, you have a grieving widow who lost a husband and miscarried a baby she'd only just found out about because of Ulfric. Honestly, if Nords didn't think suicides were cursed to roam Oblivion for eternity, I think she'd have taken her own life.”
Aela's hand on her shoulder, Eola looking pale and worried and it wasn't true, Elisif wasn't suicidal, she was sane and calm a lot of the time, she wasn't crazy, surely? And yet, and yet...
“She can't die,” Delphine said, fighting off the panic. “We only just found her – the world needs her! We need our Dragonborn!” What are the Blades without a Dragonborn?? Nothing, that's what, that's why we crumbled so easily, we didn't have a purpose. If we'd still had a Dragonborn, we'd have done like the Forsworn have – formed a resistance. But they hadn't, and if Elisif died, Delphine wasn't really sure the new Blades would hold on. Aela would go back to Jorrvaskr, Brynjolf to the Thieves, Cicero who knew where and Eola with him, that was if he didn't lose it completely and have to be put down, and Erandur she barely knew. They needed their Dragonborn alive.
“I know that, I need her too!” Madanach cried, fingers ghosting across his cheek again, or at least they did until he recollected himself. “She's the only one who can grant me a pardon and make me king, the only one who thinks of me as a friend anyway. I need her to stay alive long enough to do all that, and afterwards things will run a lot smoother if there's a ruler in Skyrim who actually understands us and who I actually like! So she can't die, Delphine, you need to keep her alive, you need to get her out of there afterwards, make sure that when she goes to face Ulfric, she's not alone!”
“This is what you wanted to talk to me about,” Delphine whispered. “You're worried about her!”
“Of course I'm-” Madanach stopped, looking away, still rubbing his cheek. “Look, you people are sworn to guide and guard a Dragonborn, so I'm told. So guard this one. Keep her alive!”
“I can't fight a city full of guards on my own,” Delphine sighed. “I don't have the people, even Cicero's not that good, and I don't think the Legion are going to lay siege to the city for us.”
“I'm not expecting you to take the city, just sneak people in there and cover her escape,” Madanach growled. Sneak people in there – a stealth mission then. But even that would only last until Ulfric was dead – once that happened, any guards with a brain would seal the city. Delphine couldn't rely on there being any Roggvirs in the Windhelm guard who'd do the honourable thing and let them out. No, their best option was to capture the city, but even if Delphine could exploit Windhelm's simmering racial tensions and persuade those dissatisfied with Ulfric's reign to spontaneously rise up in revolt, she couldn't rule it herself and she really didn't have the troops. Damn it, if only she knew someone who'd done this sort of thing before and had troops at his disposal...
Re: The Wolf Queen Awakens 16.8
(Anonymous) 2013-12-01 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)“Around three hundred to rule a peaceful city, likely more if we had to seize it,” Madanach replied, looking very thoughtful as he began to realise just what she was suggesting. “We took Markarth with five hundred of us. But Delphine, that took years to plan, time spent putting people in place, slowly replacing the Nords' servant class with our people and the Nords never noticed because one Reachman's much like another, right? We had a whole slum neighbourhood in place full of disaffected people tired of Nord rule. We still do. But Windhelm?? Ulfric's stronghold? A city full of Nords where my people are going to stick out like a sore thumb? In a few weeks? You ask a lot, Delphine.”
“It's not just Nords live there,” Aela said, speaking up for the first time, eyes aglow. Clearly a topic close to her heart. “There's a whole quarter, used to be the Snow Quarter but they gave it to the Dunmer refugees and never bothered maintaining it again. They call it the Grey Quarter now – it's little better than a slum and it's full of disaffected Dunmer being horribly ill-treated by the Nords. Not to mention the docks – Nord sailors aplenty but the dockers are all Argonians who aren't even allowed in the city. You think Windhelm is all Nords who love Ulfric and Talos? Think again.”
Madanach had gone very still, eyes wide and a smile starting to creep across his face as Skyrim's undisputed expert on exploiting ethnic tensions to spur armed revolution began to process all this.
“If we snuck supplies and people in via the docks, got the Argonians and Dunmer to hide them for us...” Madanach began. “Only we'd need ships, Delphine, the Reach is landlocked, we're not sailors.”
“Now that we might be able to help with,” Delphine said, already plotting the first stages. “The East Empire Company has an office in Windhelm, but it's not doing so well of late. Something to do with pirates strangling the shipping lanes and Ulfric doing nothing because prominent Nord families in the city are doing very well out of it and the last thing he's going to do is help the Empire's traders. Do you know, I think the East Empire might be grateful for a little assistance. Grateful enough to bring in a few extra trading supplies for you – if we tell them you're a covert ops unit from High Rock there on General Tullius' orders to try and unseat Ulfric and administer the place until Tullius can get there.”
Madanach's grin broadened and he burst out laughing.
“All right, I like you, Talos-worshipper. Elisif's adorable and going to be a fine queen, but she's got no head for strategy. You, on the other hand, you're good. My – the Dragon-Queen's in good hands. Listen, keep plotting and I'll do likewise. See if you can send some people to Windhelm and find us a few allies, while I look into the logistics of sorting out five hundred or so Forsworn for a new uprising. I did promise Elisif I'd stop Forsworn attacks on civilians in the Reach while she got us our kingdom. I'll need something to occupy them in the mean time. This will do nicely.”
It would indeed, it just relied on Delphine persuading the Dunmer of Windhelm, Argonians of Windhelm and the Windhelm East Empire Company that everyone could profit from this. Good thing she now had a Dunmer at her disposal, not to mention the best scam artist in Skyrim. As soon as Brynjolf got back, Delphine would need to sit down and start planning this out. Just like old times.
He'd been gone a while. Delphine hoped he was all right out there. Maybe he was a flexibly-moralled charmer obsessed with coin... but he was her amoral charmer. If anything happened to him, they'd have her to deal with, and Delphine had very little forgiveness left to spare.
~~~~~~~~
A/N: And there you have it, the plotting has begun. Speaking of Brynjolf, he'll be back next chapter. You know I said I wasn't going to involve the Guild much? Change of plan. There's going to be a Thieves Guild subplot. Isn't it exciting?