@nostalgic-breton-girl Thank you for the prompt! Sorry for taking a few days with it.
Prompt: “sweetroll,” from these prompts
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After receiving orders from Thane Oda to get the necessary components to help King Jorunn, Vaynerii decided to take the long way to Darkwater Crossing, stopping first in Deldwine's Inn. She ordered two sweetrolls and a mug of mead and brought them to a table in the corner where another Dunmer was sitting with her own drink.
"May I join you?" she asked.
"Well, hey, hero," Naryu said, kicking out the chair across from her so that Vaynerii could sit. "I thought you had a king to save."
"I do," Vaynerii said as she sat down. She set her drink and one sweetroll down in front of herself and pushed the other over to Naryu. "But I'll need some energy if I'm to parley with trolls and vampires, so I figured I'd pick up a local delicacy."
That was part of the reason, anyway. The rest was that she had noticed Naryu heading for the tavern, and was hoping to spend a moment with her before they parted ways again.
"And you thought of me," Naryu said, picking up the sweetroll in front of her.
Vaynerii shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance, though her heart raced to be making such a bold move toward this mer she was interested in. "I felt bad for stealing your kill. Again."
Naryu let out an exasperated laugh and said in hushed Dunmeris, "You sure you want to be a reconnaissance agent? Sure seems like you'd make a good assassin. I was half expecting the Tong to promote you in my place."
"Very sure," she said. "Killing people with active hostile intent is hard enough."
"You get used to it quickly enough," Naryu said, though she had lost her joking expression.
That was a darker turn than intended—this was just sweetrolls and mead, after all. She tore off a bit of her sweetroll and ate it to hide her own serious expression. There was no need for such a heavy mood.
Naryu seemed to agree. "So, have you heard from the grandmaster?" she asked.
Vaynerii had to focus hard in order to not lose track of what she was saying in favor of watching her fingers as she tore off her own bit of sweetroll and brought it to her lips. Her gaze did slip once, and she thought she noticed the tiniest smirk at her misstep before she returned to Naryu's eyes.
"Not recently."
"Really?" Naryu looked delighted at the possibility of knowing something that Vaynerii did not. "So you don't know about a certain rival faction causing trouble? Or has your web of whispers filled you in?"
She shook her head. "Whispers from inside the Tong seem to stay within the Tong, and I'm not all the way 'in' yet."
"Hm. I guess it's privileged information for us full-fledged foresters." Vaynerii could swear Naryu was making a show of taking her next bite of sweetroll. She distracted herself with a sip of mead. "But here's a whisper to hold you over: there's talk that you're almost ready for your qualifying writ."
Vaynerii set down her mug and tilted her head in interest.
"And I might know who they're thinking of sending as your babysitter."
"Do you?" Vaynerii leaned in. "Anyone I know?"
"Maybe," Naryu said with an innocent shrug. "Maybe even someone you've shared sweetrolls with."
That was reassuring, she had to admit. She was not especially looking forward to her first kill, but it was Tong policy, even for simple reconnaissance agents. It would be nice to have someone she knew with her. As long as she didn't get distracted.
"I hope this 'babysitter' doesn't try to steal my kill as revenge for anything."
"Oh, why ever would you expect that to happen?" Naryu asked with a flowery, dramatic tone, though her face showed that she was teasing. "Just stop back home when you get a break from all your hero-ing and we'll see. But first, go save the king. And, hey—thanks for the sweetroll."
@wind-guide-us :D Thank you! I did the Vaynerii one. The Dreveni one is coming!
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Prompt: willpower (from these prompts)
Rating: T for murder and alcohol
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Just one assassination. Just one, and then she’d be in. Vaynerii had found the base easily—she already had a network of whispers, so it was no trouble at all to find a den of assassins. They had trained her for a while in preparation for her proving. They had all agreed, to her relief, that she would make a promising reconnaissance agent, but it was still Morag Tong policy to complete one Writ of Honorable Execution before one could be accepted as a full member. And so here she was, on the verge of acceptance. Just one Writ.
It was an easy one, they had all said. Not that she had a sense of the range of difficulty when it came to assassinations, but it was comforting to hear. And of course she wasn’t going on her own. She would have Naryu—an assassin who had just graduated to solo missions and was now on her first “babysitting” mission—with her, always lurking just out of view, ready to step in if things went sideways. Supposedly.
The target was some petty Hlaalu. He’d roped someone into a bad deal and they wanted out. Simple enough, though it was curious. Writs weren’t exactly cheap. Vaynerii wondered just how bad of a deal it was that paying for a Writ was the better solution. She was almost impressed, almost wanted to hear the mark’s side of the story and how he’d managed, but that wasn’t why she was here. Well, maybe during the trust-gaining phase…
Vaynerii entered The Flaming Nix; Naryu followed right behind her and quickly found a table and blended into the shadows. Vaynerii found her mark at the bar, sat down leaving one empty seat between them, and ordered a drink. This was the easy part. A bit of Telvanni bug musk in her hair, an expression of boredom and loneliness, glancing around and catching his eyes for just long enough, and then he was beside her and offering to buy her another drink. And another. Of course, she had taken an antidote before she arrived to prevent the alcohol from affecting her, but she was acting the part. Soon enough, he agreed to go somewhere quiet. She noticed Naryu get up and cast an invisibility spell. Vay waited just long enough for Naryu to slip into the room behind her and give her a small nudge of acknowledgment before she closed the door.
Now for the hard part.
She flashed the most enticing smile she could muster, despite using all of her willpower to remain calm and keep herself from shaking. Slowly, carefully, she backed him into the wall. Those who trained her had said that that was an excellent position to get your mark in for situations like this, as it gets them to lower their guard while also making it harder for them to run away, should anything go wrong. But nothing would go wrong, of course, as she had practiced this move a thousand times before they would let her try it on a live target.
She brought herself in close. With one hand, she brushed his cheek, keeping her eyes locked on his face. With the other hand, she drew the dagger at her hip—freshly sharpened and dipped in a lethal poison to ensure a quick, easy kill—and jammed it into his heart.
There was a flash of surprise in his eyes, and then nothing. Emptiness. She lowered him to the floor and sat there, and offered a prayer to Almalexia. Not for forgiveness, since she had done nothing wrong, but for the strength to continue after ending a mer’s life. She supposed this was why they had sent her on this mission. As a reconnaissance agent, it would be easy to dissociate her work from the actual execution that would follow. This way, she had to see plain and simple what they were doing.
There was a whoosh of dispulsion, and then footsteps.
“You all right?” Naryu asked, placing a hand lightly on her shoulder only after announcing herself.
Vay nodded and stood up.
“Don’t forget your dagger.”
Vay retrieved her dagger from the dead mark’s chest and sheathed it on her hip again, ever so careful not to nick herself. That poison was nasty, and while it helped the inexperienced assassin make quick kills, it also helped weed out the clumsy ones.
“You did good. Quick and clean. See? Told you it would be easy.”
Vaynerii managed another nod, trying to keep her face casual, but she could see in Naryu’s eyes that she understood what she was feeling.
“Come on,” Naryu said. “Let’s go turn in your writ.”
@daggerfall hi thank you! sorry for taking Time but here it is!
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(This is post-main quest, so Vaynerii and Naryu are dating and also Vay is a full Tong agent allowed to do recon missions.)
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Vaynerii stood at the market stall that the Morag Tong had rented for her latest reconnaissance mission. Laid out in front of her were a number of largely useless "pawned" goods—enough of a selection to look like she was meant to be there, but boring enough items that few marketgoers spared the stall even a passing glance. She had all the time she needed to simply observe.
All week, she had observed her mark. Yesterday, she had given her report to Naryu, her partner on the writ. (The Tong had decided that they worked well together. She couldn't complain.) Tabeyna Sadran worked across the narrow path in the plaza and three stalls down, close enough for Vaynerii to keep an eye on her, but far enough that her attention was not obvious. She usually stood behind a counter, and her stall was protected from the sides, making it hard to get right up next to her without alarming her and causing a scene. A ranged strike would be dangerous, given the volume of innocents in the area. However, every day in the early afternoon, she went to the stall next to Vay's to get lunch. Vaynerii had told Naryu that the best time to strike would be during that walk.
"Hey, hero." Naryu arrived and joined her in her stall shortly before midday. "Ugh, I know I have to look the part, but why did I let them convince me to wear this boring dress? You'll take it off later, won't you?"
After Vaynerii subtly pointed out the target and they went over the plan, the two of them relaxed into their feigned shopkeeper roles. An hour or two later, Tabeyna left her stall and started making her way over for lunch. Naryu disappeared behind a shelf and, despite her earlier request, changed into her leathers without her girlfriend's help.
"Let me know when she's done at the food stall," Naryu whispered from out of sight. "I'd hate to deprive them of a customer."
"You're going to be depriving them of a customer one way or another," Vaynerii murmured back. "All right, she's leaving."
Naryu cast a cloaking spell and whooshed past Vaynerii, reappearing only when she was right behind the mark, and slitting her throat in one clean cut. Before the Ordinators could even reach her, she pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket and held it up between her fingers.
"I have a writ."
An Ordinator took the writ and looked it over. "Looks to be in order. Come with me to process it if you would, sera."
"Lead on."
As they walked past Vaynerii's stall, Naryu subtly inclined her head to indicate that she should follow. Vaynerii closed up the stall, stepped into the nearest secluded space, and changed into her own leathers, mask and all. No one, not even the guards, needed to make the connection that the simple merchant was an agent of the Morag Tong.
Place of Birth: Deshaan, probably greater Mournhold region
Sexual Orientation: I think she's gay. she might be bi but ehhh I think she's probably gay
Current relationship status: she has a crush on Naryu (I think they Kiss after she gets back from chopping Molag Bal in half)
Criminal Record: She has to keep it pretty clean for Tong reasons. And she has her Connections that can make her less likely to actually get in trouble if she gets caught doing anything illegal. But mostly I don't think she does a whole ton of illegal stuff.
Political Views: She generally just likes to help people.
Places of Residence: "Velothi Reverie" house in Narsis.
Titles: Vestige, I like to headcanon that Morag Tong agents are called "foresters" so that
Hobbies: Collecting information, probably stuff like strategy games
Interested in Magic? Which schools?: Restoration and some destruction, illusion and whatever else nightblades have going on.
Interested in weapon or hand to hand combat?: She can handle herself with daggers when necessary, even if she's mostly a magic user.
Interested in robbing Tamriel blind?: Only a little.
Earliest Memory: (always the hardest question sorry i have no idea)
Most positive memories in their life?: This is surprisingly hard, maybe because she's relatively young compared to most of my other kids. Meeting any/all of her gods was probably pretty cool.
Most negative memories in their life?: Getting killed by Mannimarco wasn't cool.
Do they idolize anyone?: I don't think so.
Go ahead and ramble off about anything in particular about them you want to share!: Okay Vaynerii is complicated and I don't talk about her much. Her biggest thing is that she likes to help people and she's good at learning things about people, and so she puts that to use. She has an information network that she uses to her liking to learn things about people and politics and House business and whatever might interest someone or herself. She understands people and can basically figure out how to talk to anyone and work with them in the right way to achieve whatever goal she has in mind, and usually theirs as well.
She's a healer because she likes to help people, but she's also a Morag Tong agent because she understands how easy it would be for the Houses to end up in an all-out civil war and wants to help prevent that. But she's not so much an assassin (though she has had to carry out at least one writ) as a reconnaissance agent, infiltrating a mark's surroundings and gathering as much information as possible on them to give to the "real" assassins to make their job simple. Because she likes to help people.
She worships the Tribunal—Almalexia is her patron, because she likes healing and mercy, and because she grew up in the Mournhold region—but she also serves Mephala by being part of the Morag Tong. She's in every House's business, but I don't think she actually belongs to any Great House. She has a lot of "buts," but they all have some logical justification, and I think that's part of what makes her so fun.
Hii! You wanted some prompts, so how about Vaynerii and 8; Dreveni and 30? :3 Cheers! ~Wind-Guide-Us
Hi! I know I already half-replied to this with the first response, but I finished the second one now.
8: Willpower, for Vaynerii
and 30: Meeting, for Dreveni
(prompt source)
Thank you for these prompts! I never write about these characters so it was really fun to get a chance to. I’ve been thinking a lot about Vaynerii especially since writing that first one, lol.
for the in-depth tes oc questions: 6, 7, and 8 for am oc of your choice!
Hi I’m sorry this took forever! I decided to answer about a few OCs (not not all for each question): the Vestiges Talvini, Milia, and Vaynerii, and the Nerevarine/HoK Ildari.
(link to the questions)
6. Does your oc have a family of origin? How many members of their FoO are still living? Do they have a good relationship? How much contact does your oc have with their FoO? How in-the-loop is your oc’s FoO about your oc’s being Dragonborn/HoK/Nerevarine?
Milia’s family of origin is still around, and they get along fine and stuff. I think she downplays the extent of her adventures a bit so as not to worry them, but it’s mostly because she worries herself. She definitely hasn’t told them about the whole having-been-sacrificed-to-moldy-balls incident because it still freaks her out to even think about it and she doesn’t want to leave that weight on them too.
Vaynerii carefully constructs the persona that her FoO sees (as she does with everyone), and so I don’t think they really know anything about her adventuring.
Ildari’s parents “disappeared” (were either arrested or killed for alleged anti-imperial activities) when she was a baby and she was raised by their friend (who she basically considered her mother). She didn’t really tell her adopted mother anything about what was going on in Morrowind, but I think she planned to see her when she got back to Cyrodiil (where she grew up) after Akavir until she got pulled into the whole Oblivion Crisis ordeal.
7. What social class was your oc born into? Did they change classes at all? How?
I think they’re all pretty much “common,” and Ildari moves up because of the whole hortator thing but the rest of them stay about where they are. Actually Vay probably makes use of some of her connections from adventuring to get a bit more power over time.
8. How politically active is your oc? Are they obviously influential, or is their influence more subtle?
Talvini wants absolutely nothing to do with politics because she’s part of House Telvanni and she doesn’t want to get murdered (again).
Vaynerii is subtle and likes to learn about people and place breadcrumbs toward her goals and stuff.
People have a weird tendency to follow Ildari’s suggestions and she has mixed feelings about it. Before she regained her Nerevar memories, it made her super uncomfortable. Once she got her memories back it made more sense, but she’s still kind of “ehhh” about it and mostly tries to stay out of situations where people might rely on her decision-making.
