💤 SLEEPING - do they fall asleep easily? what helps them sleep?
Kato falls asleep very easily. A lifetime on the road and sleeping in weird places taught him that skill. He sleeps better if hes sharing a room or bed with others- sleeping in company means you're with people you trust.
🌹 ROSE - have they been confessed to before? have they confessed to anyone before?
Kato speaks his mind very easily when he has feelings to share. He's the one that made the first romantic move with Tal.
🌏 EARTH - will they give up the world for someone they love? is this decision easy for them?
It's a very easy choice for him. For Tal and Eivør he'd throw everything else away. Only, Tal would never want to be placed above the world and he's very aware of that.
🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?
He'd follow Tal and Eivør anywhere, they're always running headlong into the fray, but Kato's got plenty of curiosity of his own to get him into trouble. Treasure, exploring, hunting, traveling. You never know what's around the corner.
💧 DROPLET - random angst headcanon
Kato's never going to stop wandering. He'll return home for winters, for occasions, he enjoys Skyrim, but he's never truly happy and completely at ease until he's on the road. Luckily, at one point, he does persuade them to travel with him.
💙 BLUE HEART - do they miss their s/o easily? how do they act when their s/o isn't around?
Kato gets very heartsick when he's away from Tal and Eivør! He doesn't get to be truly himself when he's not with them, he's constantly alone or else trying to squish himself to fit in wherever he's passing through.
🍃 FALLING LEAF - do they enjoy being in nature? what is their favourite outdoor activity?
Kato loves being outdoors, travelling, seeing new places. His favourite thing to do out in the wild is to camp and sleep under the stars.
🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?
Kato code-switches between being more orcish around orcs, and more dunmer around everyone else. Personally for him dunmer stand-offish nature helps protect him (even if by vvardenfell standards he's downright friendly) and when he's with orcs there's a lot more physicality and lot less worrying about taking up space. When he's home with Tal and Eivør, he's just himself. Calm, caring, tactile and affectionate!
✂️ SCISSORS - what is the "last straw" for them to cut someone out of their life? how easily do they let go of people?
Racists, bullies, bigots get instantly shut out, he'll just get up and leave rather than suffer them-- occasionally he'll put them back in their place. For people he's called friends, he's not sure what it'd take to cut them out. He's chosen his companions far too carefully.
🔪 KNIFE - how do they react to injury / misfortune befalling their loved ones (significant other, family, friends)? do they put themselves at blame?
Kato is the most reflexively caring of the trio! Comfort is his go-to. He knows a little healing magic, he knows how to get problems fixed, his priority is always to make sure his loved one is ok.
❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?
Words! Communication. Kato speaks half a dozen languages and he puts them to use. He can carry conversations for hours and never shies from speaking his mind or his heart.
☁️ CLOUD - a soft headcanon
Kato realises he's fallen in love with Eivør as much as Tal has when he can't find her in the house one day. Eventually he discovers she's sitting on the roof of the house, having a very frank conversation with a pair of hawks about Kato's good qualities. She's ridiculous and he's very soft for ridiculous people.
Fiction ft my dragonborn, Talos Stormshield, in which he builds a house. These parts begin before the events of TES: V and will weave throughout it.
Act 1, How to build a home in Skyrim.
Parts 1 & 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Part 5, Company
"Do you know what day it is today, my boy?" Kjarten could still bellow plenty loud enough to be heard from halfway down the track. His sturdy walking stick beat out a swift rhythm and his voice scattered birds minding their own business in the early morning air. All around them, snows had settled but the pines around their houses had kept the paths clear enough for Kjarten to hastily trudge over.
"Oh, gods," Tal muttered. He sank back down into the icy lake water, submerged up to his nose, but it was no use. His grandfather would find him long before he froze to death. More was the pity.
"It's the eighteenth day of Sun's Dusk! Rise and shine!" Kjarten appeared through the frosted undergrowth, bundled up in his fur cloak with a stick in one gnarled old hand and a cloth-wrapped parcel in the other. From Tal's hiding place in the shallows of the lake, he watched his grandfather make a beeline for the house.
The door of that house opened suddenly, Tal heard, and Kato met the frosty morning with a string of dunmeri curses.
"It's an hour past dawn." The dunmer strode out to meet the wizened nord, hands on his hips. His hair was ruffled from sleep and he'd only just managed to pull on a coat of his own. The Skyrim winter wasn't agreeing with Kato. Tal had persuaded him to try a dip in the lake to bathe once, and only once. He laughed as he recalled the dunmer getting ankle-deep in the water only to splutter out more of those elvish curses and glare at Tal all the way back into the house. Tal's chuckle made a bubble appear in the water, the sound glugging up to break the surface. He clamped numb fingers over his mouth.
"Step aside, lodger, I'm here to see your landlord," Kjarten said merrily. The dunmer towered a good two feet over the hunched nord, but Kjarten wouldn't be stopped. He knocked Kato on the shoulder with his stick and pushed the elf aside. "It's not a day to be wasted!"
"What are you shouting about?" Kato asked. He watched Kjarten peer into the house, bang on the door frame, clatter and make a ruckus all to summon Tal from the house. Tal, who was beginning to feel the tingle of cold in the tips of his fingers and toes. He hugged his arms close to his chest and scrunched up beneath the water. He'd have to give up soon. Very soon.
"It's the eighteenth day of Sun's Dusk," Kjarten repeated as though it should be obvious.
Kato stared, his mouth open dumbly as he waited for Kjarten to say more.
"Shor's balls, man, hasn't he told you?"
"Told me what!"
They both turned their heads sharply when Tal broke from his hiding place, his skin gone bright pink from the cold mountain water and his whole body shivering as he rushed to grab his blanket and cover himself, drenched and dressed as he was in nothing but his smallcloth. Seeing the looks on their faces, one exuberant and one thunderous, Tal thought about throwing himself back into the lake without delay.
"It's his birthday!" Kjarten exclaimed with delight. "There you are, my lad! Come on inside now, I've brought you breakfast!"
Without any further ado, the old man limped into the house and out of sight. Just a moment later, as Tal made his way back up from the shore, he heard pots and pans begin to clatter around inside. Before he could join his grandfather, though, he had to get past the enormous dunmer standing between him and the door.
"An hour past dawn," Kato said again. Lowly, almost a growl. "Does he do this every year?"
Tal pressed his lips together in an awkward smile, keenly aware they were standing out in the snow and he had nothing on but a blanket. He winced and peered up at Kato. "Every year."
"Thank you for the warning. Happy birthday, s'wit." Kato grumbled. He took Tal by the shoulder, turned him, and shoved the man inside the house.
Tal hadn't meant to keep it a secret, not exactly, but the last thing in the world he ever wanted was fuss made of him. Still, he was loved dearly by his grandfather and fuss was a trial he could survive. This year it was made a little easier by watching the feeble old nord order around a mighty dunmer with tusks as big Kjarten's thumbs. A sight he doubted would ever lose its charm.
Tal dressed, stoked the hearthfire with a few more logs and settled into a seat at the table. They'd placed it in the middle of the hall after Tal fashioned it from a single broad slice of oak that was too irregular and knotty for any other work. Now it was laden with candles, bowls, a bottle or two and dried fruits. Empty shelves had steadily filled over the season and now the three of them were surrounded by most of the trappings a house could ever need. Clutter, Kato had called it. Tal hadn't argued. It was his clutter.
The breakfast was snowberry pies from the first harvest of the season and cured hams Kjarten had managed to bring all the way home without the aid of his able-bodied grandson. Hot mead was pressed into his hand before he could protest that it was too early for hard drink. The men toasted and drank, laughed at Kato's sour face when he bit into the tart pies, and talked without taking notice of the sun making steady tracks across the pale, cold sky.
They stopped Tal from finishing just a little bit of work, wrestling tools out of his hands. They talked of birthdays, of ages, of how unfair it was that Kjarten's knees were withered at eighty years old while Kato had gotten almost two hundred and fifty out of his, with plenty more time ahead. He could still hold his ale, though, and the old nord proved it tidily as they drank and ate and drank more through the day. The moons rose early, it was winter after all, and Kjarten argued every moment they spent walking the man back to his own small cabin house across the frozen stream. He looped an arm through Tal and Kato's either side of him and sang half a travelling song all the way back to his bed. They bundled the old man up in furs and left him a pitch of water for the morning, and closed the door securely on their way out.
"Curse your country," Kato laughed bitterly as they began the short walk back to Tal's house. He rubbed his hands together and breathed between them to guard against the cold.
"That's why we drink so much," Tal said with a rosy smirk. "Keeps us warm. It never snows in Morrowind, then?"
"Not like this, except on an island your kings gave us," Kato replied. He dragged his cloak tighter around his shoulders. "Solstheim had its charms when I saw it, though."
Tal was intrigued, but he didn't ask more. He wanted plenty to talk about once they reached the warmth of the house and could settle in for the night.
They did their best to keep their feet as the sun faded completely and let in a true chill. A spell of silence fell over the lakeside pines, the snow cushioning every sound in the forest. They needed no torches to find their way back, even if the night was settling in it didn't become truly dark- the snow reflected every speck of light and the forest was frozen in twilight.
The house was a beacon in the blue night; light from the windows bathed the snow in orange while the clear sky above began to dance with a winter aurora. They paused at the door, gazing up at the blue and green cascade amongst the stars and moons.
"You've not said," Kato began quietly. "How old are you now?"
Tal kept his eyes on the sky, hoping the swirling light would disguise the reticent look on his face. He took his time before he answered, "Twenty-two."
The nord looked down with a start when he felt something brush his neck. Tal froze, suddenly feeling the beat of his heart like a drum as Kato's fingers dipped under his collar and found the string that held the amulet Tal rarely ever took off. The dunmer retrieved it and held it on his fingertips. The symbol of Mara, goddess of home and hearth, of love and protection, shone in the aurora light.
"Only twenty-two and I've never seen you without this," Kato said. His voice was barely above a murmur but the rich, deep lilt of it was all Tal could hear.
"It's…" Tal swallowed the sentence and tried again. "I don't really expect– it just means–"
"I know what it means," Kato interrupted him gently. He set the amulet back against Tal's chest, outside his tunic this time.
For half a minute that felt like half an hour, Kato looked down at the nord. And Tal looked up at him too. His dark blue skin caught the colourful lights of the sky and soaked them in like a painting, tusks framing Kato's smile brightly. In the dark, his crimson eyes seemed to be a hundred colours and none, greyed out by the green light and reflecting everything around them. That expression was back– the one Tal didn't know what to call. He'd been seeing it all day.
Kato lifted a hand to take hold of the nord's chin. He angled Tal's face towards him and Tal put his palm out to the door to keep himself steady. His head swam and he felt dizzy as Kato leaned down. Tal's vision swam and he fought to keep his eyes open when the dunmer's tusks pressed to either side of his mouth. His beard was thick and brushed Tal's lip in a way that almost tickled. Both of them took a breath- Kato's slow, Tal's shuddering.
The kiss was light. Careful. Kato held the nord still as their lips met between sharp tusks and Tal finally let his eyes close even as his expression turned to one of surprise. He had kissed before; Tal thought his heart might leap from him the first time too. This felt different. He trembled but he held fast. He even found the will to lean in towards the dunmer and curl his free hand against Kato's cheek.
He gasped softly. When he turned his head to return the kiss in earnest, he felt the blunt side of Kato's tusk in the way. It wasn't as sharp as it looked, but the reality pushed between them and broke the warm kiss. Tal looked up, embarrassed, but Kato only smiled.
"Men," he said, in a slow whisper that made Tal shiver. "Always in such a rush."
Fiction ft my dragonborn, Talos Stormshield, in which he builds a house. These parts begin before the events of TES: V and will weave throughout it.
Act 1, How to build a home in Skyrim.
Parts 1 & 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Part 4, Hearth
Without either of them noticing, three days became three weeks. Weather turned and the mornings grew colder. What few birch trees were scattered amongst the pines turned gold, then brown, then lost their colour entirely. Three weeks unfolded into three months. Autumn balanced on the cusp of true winter and Tal could scarcely imagine a day he didn't wake and greet the dunmer as they met on the way to the lake.
"I think the hearth will be set today," Tal said, breaking the easy silence as they trudged towards the larger house. The mortar had been defeated for a full week by the hard frosts, come early this year, but last night there had been no ice on the grass.
"Ever the optimist," Kato answered with a huff that Tal had come to learn meant the dunmer agreed. "You can light your first fire."
They kept pace easily with one another, an unspoken haste growing in their strides at the thought of a warm start to the morning. Work hadn't been slow, but neither had they hurried to beat the season's turn. Stepping the familiar track to his soon-to-be home, Tal had begun to wonder why. He always knew he would enjoy building a place to live with his own hands. He hadn't counted on sharing the work to be such a thing to savour.
And by now, Kato had plenty of arrows hand-made by the young nord to last him the year.
"I surely hope so," Tal mused with a gentle smile. "I want breakfast."
The two men reached the house with hours of the morning still ahead. Tal produced his key, a heavy iron thing with an elegant fishtail bow at its end- Kato's idea after they caught a fat salmon for supper the day before he fashioned it. It turned smoothly in the matching lock engraved with ripples like the lake beyond. He pushed open the door. Though the place was dark and cool, it smelled clean and dry. They had done good work.
Perhaps he shouldn't have thought their progress was leisurely when Tal could step forward into the hall and glance off to three other rooms, and stairs up to two more. Thatched roofing, wattle and daub walls, stained oak beams and a generous hearth made that first drawn plan on a borrowed piece of parchment feel like a very long time ago. Two years of earning gold, hauling timber and working alone had worn his hands and emptied his pockets, but now Tal stood in his own house where soon he'd put his own bed, and there was another small abode just across the stream to boot.
"Not too shabby," Kato said over his shoulder, leaning down a little so his voice could stay low and not jolt Tal from his thoughts. He seemed to read them easily. They both took stock, Kato's fingerprints as much on the place now as the blacksmith's. "Has the masonry set?"
Tal looked to the hearth and bent down to it, swallowing his held breath. He gripped the grey stonework that formed the rectangular hearth and gave it an experimental wiggle. It didn't budge.
"Any good, sera?" Kato almost whispered.
He tried another brick. Another spot. His knuckles turned white as he did his best to move the immovable and Tal's smile broke into a grin.
"It's good. It's very good."
"Then strike up a fire already." Kato clapped the blacksmith on the shoulder. "I'm starving."
It took no time at all to build a healthy flame in the bare hearth. Oak logs had been stored for months and venison, caught by Kato a moon ago, was hung and ready to eat. It all seemed to be falling into place, Tal thought, as he watched the lean meat sizzle in the skillet. Already the fire had chased the chill out of the hall. Soon they could bring furniture to the houses, odds and ends, and stock the larder full before winter made the markets sparse. And last of all, he could bring Kjarten out of the city to his new home. Tal smiled to think of the old man back in the wilderness where he longed to be.
He blinked as the toe of a boot knocked lightly against his knee. Tal looked up at the dunmer beside him, a little smirk curled around his tusks, too. Only Kato was looking down at him, not staring off into the distance.
"What?" Tal asked, taking the skillet off the hot coals before the meat could catch.
Kato was quiet. He often was, choosing his words and moments with care, but there was some weight to the silence Tal couldn't place. Some emotion in the dunmer's crimson eyes he didn't recognise. He'd never truly seen it before.
"I was thinking I might stay in Skyrim over winter," Kato said at last. He reached to idly scratch his cheek and chewed around a tusk. "I don't feel like travelling."
Tal quickly looked back to the skillet he held. His cheeks grew warm and not from the coals of the fire. Like he'd missed a step on a flight of stairs, his stomach swooped and his chest grew tight. Busying his hands, he fished the meat out of the pan and onto a smooth oak board to slice it. Kato cut slices of soft sourdough bread and between them they assembled unwieldy venison steak sandwiches. Just before Kato could take a bite, Tal bade him to wait. He'd almost forgotten the herb seasoning.
"You could stay here, if you want. Now the place is done. There's room." Tal made the offer halfway through their breakfast. He chose a moment when Kato's mouth was full and the dunmer couldn't answer right away, but thick brows rose.
He swiftly turned his own eyes down to his meal. He couldn't bear to look back up at the dunmer. If he said no, he didn't want to see that word pass Kato's lips.
"That's true. There's room." The dunmer was guarded.
Suddenly Tal's belly was too full of butterflies to take another bite.
"I'll take that one," Kato gestured and the motion drew Tal's gaze up to see where he was pointing. The room beneath the stairs, the smallest. "Shortest distance the larder. And that way, you can pass me by every time you insist on waking before dawn."
Kato said it so firmly, he could only have already gone through the words. He'd been thinking about it before now, surely. No wonder he'd spent so much time cramming up every possible gap in the daub walls of that room. The dunmer didn't want to sleep with a drought.
"Don't look too pleased about it," Kato chuckled dryly.
Tal had been smiling, brightly and without noticing at all. He wiped a few crumbs from his lip with the back of his hand and looked back to his sandwich. He didn't feel much like eating now; eager energy insisted he fold it up in cloth, save it for later and get to work right away. Tal did so, and Kato arched a brow.
"Where are you going?"
"To get the horses," Tal said hurriedly, though there was no need to hurry at all. "Maybe Skulvar will lend me a wagon from the stable to get everything down here today."
The warm look in Kato's eye returned. When Tal saw it, he didn't know whether to drink it in or shy away. He shuffled back and forth as he stowed his things. When he was packed, he stole an unabashed glance at Kato and found the man smiling.
"Are you coming?"
Kato sighed. He gave the sandwich a longing, heartsick look. "I suppose I am," he conceded, and packed his things away too.
"Men," he sighed as they left all but the necessaries behind. They'd be travelling light and hauling a lot. Kato clapped Tal on the shoulder and let his hand linger as Tal laughed. "Always in a rush."
"Mer," Tal countered, like he had a dozen times before, and broke into a jog out of the front door. "Just can't keep up!"
You definitely don’t need to answer this but if you’d like:
What’s one NSFW fact about each of your Skyrim OCs (or just your favorite ones)?
Mods are asleep post 18+ answers.
Tal: had never had sex before he met Kato and fell in love with him. Not for lack of trying, because he'd certainly had a girlfriend before but her rejection and scorn put him off for a long while. He's not ace, but he wasn't bothered at all by waiting for when (or if) he found the right partner to be physical with. It turned out to be Kato, and Kato's infinite patience suits the chronically reserved Tal extremely well in every respect.
Kato: has trouble using his mouth sometimes (big tusks, very sharp canines) so he's learned to be good with his hands.
Eivør: is a pest. Where Tal is reserved, Kato is patient, and she is fiery. On most occasions she's the instigator of intimacy. To her, sex is the most natural thing in the world and she's not shy about it. She's definitely most dominant out of the three.
