Random One-shots (Complete)

ESO: Who are you? (we?)

You stand before Sotha Sil the second time, in a beautiful garden that reminded you of those tranquil places used for meditation. The man, er, elf, of the hour standing, or rather looming over you dispite looking in a completely different direction.
You had always wondered what he would look like, well, obviously he was going to be a dark elf, but seeing him in the flesh now, your imagination paled in comparison to what he really look like, a metal left arm in the design of the Dwemer, a real right hand, signiture red eyes and grey ash skin with a robe/tunic that held some imperial and Dwemer design to it.
In short, he looked regal, beautiful, and his voice held a tone that would wipe away the nightmares that sometimes plagued you. Like a parent, friend, or partner trying to wrap around you like a safety blanket.

"Do you like this place? It took me the better part of a decade to perfect it. Every stone and flower tells a story. Tales of how things were... how they ought to be." he had stated calmly as he gestured to the place around him "I thought about destroying it on more than one occasion. I'm glad I didn't."
Me too. You wanted to say.
"I have questions"
He obviously expected this answer "I know. Ask, and I will answer truthfully. Just know that the truth often fails to satisfy."
It never does, no matter the circumstances.
"Who are you really?"
"You expect something grand, but I promised you the truth."
Considering Vivec and Almelexia did something similar? Yes I do.
"I am only what time and circumstances made me. Son of a lost house. Friend to a fallen king. Some will tell you that we are the product of our choices. I've never found that to be the case."
House of Sil? Didn't know you had a king before the ascension, and don't you mean product of our parents choices?
"But your supposed to be a god, right?"
"I don't. But my companions, Vivec and Almalexia see their divinity as essential. Godhood brings them joy and purpose. They find meaning in the theatrical. Who am I to deprive them of that?"
Essential my foot. They crave attention.
"What are your feelings on Almelexia?"
"Almalexia defies simple analysis. I doubt she could even describe herself accurately. To understand Almalexia, you must first understand the value of fiction. Vivec fancies himself the poet, but in truth, Ayem is the greater storyteller."
She's delusional and is like a cat trying to catch the mouse.
"How so?"
"Vivec knows the boundaries that separate fact from fiction. He knows them so well that's he's learned how to break them. He exists inside his verse, but recognizes the lies. The contradictions. He both does, and does not believe his own tales."
He sees the chains but uses them to his advantage. He's a hypocrite.
"What do you think of Vivec?"
"Vivec is my brother. He knows my struggles and I know his. That knowledge makes our relationship... complicated. To truly know someone is as much a curse as it is a blessing."
Relationships are always complicated no matter the circumstances, yours is no different.
"What are his struggles?"
"Regret. We are bound by that at least. He also suffers a kind of enslavement. Not unlike my own, in fact. Beauty holds the keys to his shackles."
So they are both capable of regret, who would have thought?
"Beauty, and a love of great works. Great heights. His appetites are insatiable, thus his despair."
He's trying to reach the sun to achieve true godhood, he'll only burn himself in the process. And to achieve true art will only lead you down to a path of madness and insanity.
"Despair?"
"Yes. A poet's despair. Vivec craves radical freedom - the death of all limits and restrictions. He wishes to be all things at all times. Every race, every gender, every hero, both divine and finite... but in the end, he can only be Vivec."
Choose your race. How do you play? Hero or Villian?
"And that's not enough? To be a god hero?"
Sotha Sil shakes his head "not even remotely"
Enough is never enough, even for us mortals.
"What is all this for? The Clockwork City"
"I sometimes ask myself the same thing. May I confess something to you?"
Oh THIS should be interesting.
"Of course"
"I suffer from a peculiar ailment. Shall I describe it? I bear the cruel weight of certainty. Total, absolute, relentless certainty. People rarely comprehend the luxury of doubt... the freedom that comes with indecision."
So your basically the Elder Scroll version of The Doctor?
"I envy you."
Why envy those who are capable of doubting? Isn't it better to know everything? Hypocrite.
"Didn't you just say that you question whether the City is worth the effort?"
"Indeed. But such questions are flaccid - cursory indulgences that come and go in an instant. The truth is that my actions, both good and evil, are inevitable. Locked in time. Determined by chains of action and consequence."
Instinct. Locked. Set. Delayed. Time locked? MAKE UP YOUR BLOODY MIND!
"So... you were forced to build the Clockwork City?"
"Compelled. This city serves a noble goal. The redemption of Tamriel. The unification of competing forces. The destruction of the Daedra. Unfortunately, it is an endeavor built upon a lattice of corpses. Betrayal. Untold horrors. Do you understand?"
Stopping the Dwemer from creating the machine god. The fallen king. Betrayal to Nerevar. Betrayal to Azura.Fallen comrades, friends, and family. The end to the daedres for taking away his family.
"Yes"
"Then I pity you"
No. It is you who should be pitied, you twisted logical fool.

Throughout the entire conversation, his voice did not once change from its melancholy tone, until you answered yes to his last question. It sounded like sadness, but why was the question in your mind.
You changed the subject to the daedric attack, Sotha Sil seemed to have a plan already on what he needed to do, and he wanted you to run towards the danger, not from it.
"The Prisoner wields great power, making reality of metaphor. We will need you before the end." he stated calmly, as if it was the simple solution.
The prisoner without a soul. The prisoner shipped east to Morrowind. The prisoner who saw the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one. The prisoner, with a soul of something bigger, who would save the end of life as they knew it.
"Why do you keep calling me prisoner?"
"A fool's hope, perhaps. I should explain. Look around you. All of this exists because it must exist. I stand here, in this place, in this moment, not because I wish to, but because I have to. A result of action and consequence."
This all started because of a betrayal that never should have happened. But it did. But not by your hand. But of someone else's.
"So wouldn't that make you the prisoner?"
"Clever... but incorrect. The Prisoner must apprehend two critical insights. First, they must face the reality of their imprisonment. They must see the determinative walls - the chains of causality that bind them to their course."
Prison and walls. Nirn, Mundas. Chains. A journal of quests that never seem to end, along with two odd-looking contraptions that bind them to their course.
"You haven't done that?"
"I have. But I fall short of the second insight. The Prisoner must see the door to their cell. They must gaze through the bars and perceive that which exists beyond causality. Beyond time. Only then can they escape."
Door cell. A window or screen that sees the world, an X in the top right corner is their only escape from this world.
"You don't see the door?"
"I see only unsteady walls. If the people of Tamriel must exist inside this cell. I will make sure that the walls are stable, the gaps are sealed, and all who remain stay safe within it."
Not even your walls can hold forever old man, they can still fade, like all castles.
"I have no further questions"
"I've met few heroes like you. Very few. I take this matter of the Triad upon myself, but in truth, you may be the one that saves us. The Prisoner who frees the world. We shall see. Farewell."
Farewell Sotha Sil, for after Summerset, we shall not meet again.
And. I'm sorry.