Meme Announcements!

[skyrimkinkmeme]

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

Comments

True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

When he was a boy, his mother sang to him: songs of courage, songs of heroes, songs of men with the voices of dragons. He loved to hear them. He dreamed of being one of them.

Skyrim still needs heroes, and instead it has him.

He is not Ysgramor, though he sits on Ysgramor's throne; he is not Wulfharth or Jorunn or Harald, and he is certainly not Talos. He is not even his father, who was beloved of everyone in Windhelm, who commanded affection where Ulfric inspires hate and hero-worship in equally unreliable measure. But he does possess the Thu'um: the ancient weapon of the Nords, the relic of a time when kings ruled by might and not by the whim of a distant and self-interested Empire. The symbol of a Skyrim that was strong, and may be strong again.

He goes to Solitude with years of molten rage hammered into a cold and deadly purpose. Torygg smiles at him. "Jarl Ulfric--"

"Torygg." His voice is glacial. "I do not call you king, because no true High King of Skyrim would be so fearful and blind to his people's suffering. Let all those present witness. In the eyes of gods and men I call you traitor, and challenge you to trial by combat."

Torygg blanches. For a moment he looks dizzy, dumbfounded, and Ulfric wonders if he will refuse. It would serve his purposes just as well if he did, but after a moment the young king stands, a little shakily. "So be it."

"No--"

Torygg folds his fingers around the small hand gripping his sleeve, pushes it gently back toward his queen.

"The High King claims his right to choose the weapons," says Torygg's steward, a little breathlessly. Ulfric nods.

The court wizard shifts. "This is madness--"

"Swords," says Torygg. "And shields."

They have to bring Torygg's things from the armory. Ulfric feels a grim vindication in that - that this so-called defender of Skyrim does not even keep his war-gear close at hand. But he waits silently while Torygg puts on his mail and the members of his court huddle and whisper at the edges of the throne room. When it is done they face each other, there in the center of the palace. Torygg draws his sword.

Ulfric looks at the young man in his ceremonial armor - polished by servants, but never by blood. He does not really look at Torygg's face. If he did, he might see an uncanny resemblance to his long-dead comrades: casualties of the hatreds and the war-wounds of their elders, doomed brave boys who faced down the Dominion's ranks with shaky hands and steady eyes. But he does not. He thinks about symbols, about betrayal, about redemption.

His thu'um is stronger than it has ever been, bursting its banks with all his brutal, intimate knowledge of force, and what it means.

Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

GUTTED. Poor Ulfric. Poor Torygg. Poor Elisif. Poor EVERYONE. *Cries forever*

Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks! The thing I find brilliant about the Civil War is that, regardless of which faction I side with, there's always two or three moments that leave me feeling dirty (and not in a good way!). When I'm a Stormcloak, talking to Torygg's court is one of them.

OP Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

How would you like my heart delivered, now that you've torn it out? This is fantastic. The part about "his people," the parallel between poor Torygg and the soldiers in the Great War, all the repetition in that last part. Thank you for a perfect fill.

Re: OP Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

Thank YOU for your lovely comments, and for a great prompt. This is simply my 4000-odd word way of agreeing with you - the saddest thing about Ulfric is the man he might've been. I'm incredibly glad you enjoyed it.

Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

GAH! I'm still gonna side with the Empire, but GAH! So agonizing!

Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

That's the best compliment I can imagine, thank you. The absolute last thing I wanted - and the thing I was most worried about getting - was a story that felt like it was pushing the reader to AGREE with Ulfric and his choices. It's the motivations behind those choices that I find fascinating, and the fact that at least one person read this and came away feeling for the guy, while still believing he's in the wrong, gives me delightful warm fuzzies.

Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

The Kmeme is amazing. You are all amazing. You think you've read all there is to read and then you stumble upon something like this... This... How do I even begin to define this? Let me just say that you really brought me to tears, and not in the figure of speech kind of way: I have eyeliner streaks on my cheeks.

Skyrim still needs heroes, and instead it has him.

Oh, shit.
I always loved Ulfric, from my first playthrough to my most recent one, and I was never able to explain why. He's so... wrong, and yet I could never get my Dragonborn to hate him, in play or in stories.
Empire or Stormcloak (and I have to admit that I usually go for the latter) unless you play without listening to what the character say, you just know that there's more than what you can actually hear or see, behind the-man-who-killed-the-king.
Thank you for writing all that down.
I'm writing my Ulfric for another fill, and another version of him is in the works for yet another story, and both of them will owe everything to the fantastic way you have with words.
Thank you again, oh wonderful anon!

(PS: captcha says "drink milk"... ok, guys, who the hell is taking the piss at me from behind the screen?! I'M NO MILK DRINKERRRRRR!)

Re: True Need 3d/3

[(Anonymous)]

And just when I think no one's reading this any longer...thank you so, so much for this wonderful comment! I can't really take credit for that line; it's just a twist on Ulfric's dialogue from the game ("We're fighting because Skyrim needs heroes, and there's no one else but us"). The great thing about the character is how much of this story is implied if you read between the lines. Bethesda did a great job with him.

Obviously I like Ulfric too, despite my better judgement. I would love to read the stories you're working on. This one is cleaned up a bit over at ao3.