58Arthur Morgan, Earth, December 29, 2016
Arthur sighed, putting down his oil-stained uniform, another day, another shitty job at the restaurant.
He looked around the dirty kitchen, the head cook had already left and since the cleaning boy was sick it was his turn to clean up and close the place.
He went to the storage room, grabbing a mop and basin, and starting cleaning put the place, the smell of soapy water quickly overtaking the fumes of the kitchen.
He groaned, feeling tired but satisfied as he beheld the clean, spotless kitchen "Never again." he muttered putting down the mop back inside the closet.
He went to the employer room, grabbing his stuff letting out a sigh of relief when he noticed no one had moved the bag nor noticed the package hidden inside.
It was probably stupid of him to bring it to work, but it would probably be the last time he could do that, and so extreme situations required extreme solutions.
He went outside grabbing a cab to the graveyard, it would be closed sure, but what was a little break and enter for keeping a promise?
He got out of the cab and looked at the looming, closed, metal gates of the cemetery.
He tried to pry them open, finding them locked too tight, and decided to just jump over them, feeling thankful for the glacial weather forcing people inside their houses, otherwise he was sure the cops would have been called on him a long while ago.
He landed with a groan, taking in a gasp of the icy winter air, getting up on his feet and starting walking towards his destination, passing mausoleums and obituary stones, until he stopped before a lone gravestone, slightly isolated from the ones nearby it.
Gordon Morgan
November 10, 1997- December 29, 2015
Son, Brother and Friend to the bitter end
Arthur closed his eyes, feeling the unshed tears ready to spring fort "Hello brother," he said kneeling before the gravestone holding the small package in his hand "I got you the game you wanted, eh, I guess Todd managed to sell Skyrim even to the dead." he said, choking back a sob, the scar on his chest aching just a bit.
"So, news; Dad and Mom are fine, they are coping as well as anyone can and are fussing on Emily even more than before… Matthew finally managed to complete his thesis and should be able to graduate a little after new year, as for me…" he said, scratching his chest, feeling the hearth that was not his beating under his fingers.
"I'm dealing, moving forward one day at a time, just like you would have wanted, hell I even got a job now." he said with a little chuckle.
"I miss you man, I really do, it has not been the same since you have died," he muttered putting down the package, grabbing the bag on his side, and pulling out a collapsible shovel.
"But still, thank you brother, for giving me the strength to go forward," he said, using his feet to help the shovel dig into the earth, the sound of his heart beating in his chest filling him with warmth.
"Because it's thanks to your heart beating inside of me, that I can move on," he said, removing the first shovel full of earth, immediately digging again in the cold half-frozen ground.
"Because with every beat, it tells me one thing" he muttered, shoveling more and more "I," and more "am not," and more "done yet." he hissed, his shovel scrapping the wooden casket, throwing the shovel to the side and gingerly placing the copy of Skyrim over the casket.
"So, I'm sorry to say but you are going to need to wait a bit more for me, alright?" he asked, putting down the shovel, pulling himself out of the hole and starting to fill it back with earth again.
"FREEZE!" a voice shouted behind him. Arthur dropped the shovel, raising his hands up in the air, squinting at the man that pointed a flashlight and a gun at him.
"Fucking graverobbers, have you no shame!?" he shouted jabbing the gun in his direction.
"Wait, I'm not a grave robber! This is my brother's tomb; I was just leaving a gift! Here! I can prove it" Arthur made to reach for his documents inside his coat's pocket, committing the biggest mistake he ever would in his life.
"I SAID FREEZE." In the end, no one would know what truly happened that night; if what that man did was because of the cold, because of his poor trigger discipline, or for the hatred that he felt towards graverobbers.
But in the end, one thing was certain, Arthur would not live to see the next day.
'what? whatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhatwhat?' those were the baffling thoughts that plagued Arthur's mind as he felt his lungs fill with blood, his heart thundering in his ears 'I can't die… fuck I can't d...i…e...' he thought, focusing on the sound of his heartbeat.
"I… wasn't… done… yet…" said Arthur with a last gasp, his eyes clouding until he couldn't see anything, slowly losing every sense until all he had left was the sound of his heart beating and a single phrase in his mind 'I wasn't done yet'.
Arthur Morgan
November 10, 1997- December 29, 2016
This would have normally been all that remained of Arthur Morgan, a gravestone near his brother and the end of his story.
But souls are a funny thing you see? Some are just too stubborn, too filled with Ḍ̨̧̨̰̜͕̗͔̩̰͚̣͈̹͉̺͓̘̲͓̝̮͓̱̺͜Ȩ̴̢̧̧̨͕̪̼̟͈̭͚̦̱̭̗̞̮̺̠̠̦̺̙͔͙̹̜̪̎͗̂̅̒̃̎̈́̀̚̕͝͝T̴̨̨̧̧̝̮̖̭̖̣̞͍̩͉͕͓̦̖̘̺͚͕̳̩̳̰̝̦̳̮̗̻͆͐͗͑͜ͅĘ̶͇͍̝͚͚͈̩̄͛̍̐͐̌̅̂̈́̎̆͋͘͝Ŗ̷̰̼̖̟̙̲̯͇̘͎̺̪̖̬̙̤̻͇̺̖̞̫͑̇͂̂͐̾̑̈́̊͛͝M̶̡͉̲̯̬̠͖̻̬̣̳̮̈̈́̄͂̈́́̇̑́̄̈́̂̿͛͂̆͗́̕͘̚̚͝͝Į̴̧̡̛̲̩̬̳̖̤͍̟̺̬̝̼͉̹͉͇̺͒́̀̓̎̾̍̋̀͋̇̿̊̊͊͑͛̀̔͌̄̄́͋͛͆̎͌̕͝Ǹ̨̛͚͇͉͓̪͍̱̼̲͇̫̥̰̹̙̦͎̙̤̠̹̖̮͔̫̰̫̩͙͍̰̄́̀̅͌́̃͆̒̃̏̃̈́́͆̐̔̅͐̆̿͝͝͝͝Ą̛͇͇͚̹̹̉̈̅̐̐̽̎̋̐̿͗̅͋̓͌̑́̚̚͘͘͜͠͝͝ͅT̶̨̢̢͔͎̫͉̱̝͎̼̗͎̩̟̮͎̝̱̳͔͍̬̺͕̳͍̯͈̓̂̈̈́̅͒̈́̐̈́͐͋̚͜͜ͅͅÍ̵̡̨̨̛̪̺̖̙͉̰͖̰̩̗͍̺͎̟͍̻͚̥̬̫̺͔̺̞̰̲͉̞̿̌̏̓̒̄͋̂̀͂͐̈́̓̄̇͌̋́͛̃̇̉̾̐̃͋̚̚͠Ơ̴̛̘̝͈̣͕̲̤̭̹̗͓̗͓͓͒̅̾͆̐͆͛̿̈́̓̈́̆̌̔̈́̿͐̑̽̍Ń̵͔̐̋̄̉́̎̉̉̊̅͐̃͠ to pass on and reincarnate as ordained.
And so it stayed the same, its mantra, born of its last thoughts, proving enough to keep it whole and barely changed by the currents of the void.
It was maybe fate, or maybe it was luck or simple happenstance that nudged that soul to one of the worlds in the omniversal myriad.
And so it fell, past the eternal void of the inbetween, past the walls of Aetherius and Oblivion, before falling into Mundus.
Fortunately for him, his entrance was not noticed; barely even felt in fact by the Aedra and Daedra, for what was a simple mortal soul before them?
Unfortunately for him, he was still a simple mortal soul, his for unprotected by a corporeal body, and so it was, mayhap by fate, mayhap by luck, that it was captured by a necromancer trap, and used as fuel in his experiment.
And it was like so that the newest life of Arthur Morgan started.
4th era, Skyrim, Riften hold, Boulderfall cave.
Osrin sighed, looking at the skeleton before him with disappointment.
Ever since he was kicked from the hold -really, what did they care if he used a corpse or two for his experiments-, none of his undeads had come out right.
None had that spark that the previous ones had "Maybe it's their age?" he mused; he had worked quite well with fresher corpses after all.
"Maybe I… what?" he muttered looking at the skeleton before him, that seemed to swell a bit in power, before dying off "Uh, must have absorbed a Skeever's soul, I knew that the siphon soul trap rune would come useful." he said, scribbling down a note in the diary on his side.
"Grab one of the swords and go guard the entrance, let's hope that the next batch won't be as disappointing as you are." He said, not even rising his eyes from the dairy.
It was a shame that he wasn't as powerful a necromancer as he thought himself of, for if Oscar had looked even a little deeper he'd have noticed that the soul he had captured wasn't the white soul of a Skeever, but the black soul of man.
A bigger shame was the immediate dismissal of the resurrected skeleton because if he had stayed in the room but a moment more, he'd have clearly heard the skeleton say in a clearly foreign language "What the everloving fuck?!".
.
.
.
'Wait, I'm alive?' those were the first thoughts that awaited Arthur as he got up from the table staring at a young man in a very, very, familiar robe who pointed at a couple of familiar swords on a rack before mouthing off something in an intelligible language and storming off.
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO ME" He screamed, looking at his skeletal arms as he made to raise them checking over every inch of his body for flesh but finding none.
"Oh, my fucking god, I'm a skeleton." he thought shocked, feeling nothing but disbelief; this wasn't supposed to happen to him, this was supposed to happen only in the shitty Anime his brother watched!
"Calm down, calm down, you are a skeleton… in Skyrim, apparently" he muttered, feeling creeped out by his new clacking voice.
He looked around at the bare room dimly lit only by the torches on the walls, and it was by looking at the torches on the wall that he had a very, very stupid idea.
"Come on… this can't be fucking real, yeah, it's probably just my brain giving out that's making me hallucinate this," he said casually, grabbing a torch and sticking his hand in it "Yeah it's- FUCK." He screamed throwing down the torch, grasping his hand tightly.
How was he even feeling pain anyway? HE WAS A FUCKING SKELETON! SKELETONS DIDN'T HAVE NERVES TO FEEL THE PAIN TO BEGIN WITH.
It was while cursing like a sailor from the pain that he noticed something that would have cemented his idea that it was all a dream, if it wasn't for the burned hand that is.
There, on the down edge of his gaze, stood honest to god health-bar.
"This is impossible." he thought, and yet, despite how impossible that sounded, it still appeared before him, looking a little less than full, before ever so slowly it started refilling, and as it did so, the pain Arthur felt started to disappear, he watched, as his hand slowly 'healed' its cracks refilling until a healthy bony hand stared back at him.
"Menu" he muttered, looking on at the White on Grey box before him.
Arthur Morgan
Lv 1
Exp: 000/100
Health 100/100
Magika 100/100
Stamina N/A
[Inventory]
[Boons]
[Skills & Perks]
[Magic and Spells]
'Skills and perks' he thought, curious of what he would find
Perk points:1
[Warrior tree perks]
One-Handed 17/100: – One-handed mastery (Locked)
Two-handed 15/100: -Two-handed mastery (Locked)
Blocking 10/100: – Blocking mastery (Locked)
Heavy Armor 15/100: -Heavy Armor Mastery (Locked)
Archery 15/100: -Archery Mastery (Locked)
Smithing 5/100: – Smithing Mastery (Locked)
[Mage tree]
- Illusion 0/100: -Illusion Mastery (Locked)
-Conjuration 0/100: Conjuration Mastery (Locked)
-Destruction 0/100: Destruction mastery (locked)
-Alteration 0/100: Alteration mastery (locked)
-Restoration 0/100: Restoration mastery (locked)
-Enchanting 0/100: Enchanting mastery (locked)
[Thief tree]
-Lockpicking: 05/100: lockpicking mastery (Locked)
-Sneaking: 05/100: sneaking mastery (Locked)
-Speech: 15/100: speech mastery (Locked) (set to Zero due to out of place flaw)
-Alchemy: 10/100: Alchemy mastery (Locked)
-Light Armor: 15/100: Light Armor mastery (Locked)
-Pickpocketing: 05/100: Pickpocketing mastery (Locked)
'Welp so far so Skyrim, wonder why it says locked…wait, please, please don't tell me I can only level the skills I have spent perk points on, please' He thought before letting out a sigh, closing the window to summon [Spells and magic] one.
Letting out yet another sigh of disappointment when he found it empty.
'Can't say I am surprised; I have never used magic. Still, even just a flame spell would have been nice' he thought, closing the window with a swipe of his hands, opening up the last section [Boons] and it was there that he found a… surprise, to say the least.
[Boons]
Void Touched: Boon given to those who navigated the Void with their truest essence bare, Negates the corrosive effects of the Void upon one soul.
Outsider: For you are Other, this Boon is given to those who walked into a Kalpa of the Godhead, Chim cannot be achieved by those who wield it, neither can they Zero-Sum.
Mana Affinity 1: Boon gained by those who lived in Mana starved worlds when first imbuing with mana, allows an easier sensing of the energy of the world.
Undead Body: Negates the need for sleeping, breathing and eating. Your body is held together by your soul, be careful of anything disrupting it.
Out of place: You are illiterate in the language of this plane, neither are you capable of speaking it (Learn the local language to lose this Flaw) Speech set to 0
"Fuck" he said, looking at the Outsider perk, while not being in danger from Zero-Summing by just existing was nice that also meant that the dreamer, the fucking dreamer knew that he was there, or at least was somewhat aware of his arrival.
"Calm down, even if he's aware that you exist there is not much that you can do about it." he thought looking around the room for anything that could be used to escape; He was an intelligent skeleton in a cove of necromancers apparently, as soon as they found out about him he'd be re-killed, or worse.
He quickly noticed the rack with a couple of Iron swords in it, near a smallish wardrobe haphazardly shoved against the wall, interior decorators these guys were not.
He took one of the iron swords, grunting as he felt the fairly balanced weight, nothing like the ones he had trained with but still better than nothing.
He looked inside the wardrobe, finding nothing but a tattered brown robe with a hood.
Arthur shrugged picking up the robe; While it would not offer any protection, it would still serve to hide his… condition. And hey, the fewer people could see that he was a skeleton the better.
He quickly put it on and went outside the room he was in, looking around for the necromancer from before, heading upwards when he couldn't see him.
He avoided the other skeletons inside the corridor, unsure if they would attack him or not, before finally reaching the outside world.
He took in the sight before him, a verdant forest of Pines and Oaks spanning as far as the eye could see, with mountains filled with snow on slightly behind them.
It was beautiful.
Ping! Quest Added.
The world is your Oyster:
Go on, explore, see the sights, take and leave as you wish, Conquer all, if you dare.
The only rule is, don't die.
Well, how could anyone refuse a so tempting offer?
And so, Arthur started running towards the forest, wanting to put as much space from the necromancer lair as he could.
Arthur stopped by a river about 1km away from the lair, because despite stamina being, well, non-existent for him he still felt tired, mentally at least.
And yet, it was not even a moment after he stopped that he started to hear the growls of hounds.
From the woods they came, a pack of Hounds led by a man in fur Armor, a hunter most likely.
He calmed seeing as he wasn't one of the necromancers, raising his hand to ask him for help, remembering far too late of his… condition.
"Fuck" he said when the Hunter turned towards him, eyes wide open and arrow nocked, screaming something intelligible to his Hounds, who quickly jumped in to attack him.
He barely had the time to pick his sword out of his sash before the first hour was upon him, gnawing at his left arm.
(-10HP)
He snarled, stabbing the hound with his sword, slamming the but on the other one's head as it lunged at him, getting an arrow on his back for his trouble.
(-5HP)
He stabbed down at the dog, killing him quickly before turning to the owner, who decided to throw down his bow and grab the Axe at his side, launching himself at him with a warcry.
He advanced, parrying the axe, twisting his sword to wrench it from his opponent's hands and hitting him on the nose with his elbow first, then swinging down his arm, using the pommel of his sword to knock him out.
COMBAT ENDED Calculating rewards…
+52 EXP
One-handed Levelled up 17- 18
Arthur sighed, snapping out from the combat induced fugue to look up to his handy work 'this… is much, much more different than what I did while training' he thought looking at the dead dogs not too far from him and at the stained, ruined robe he now wore.
He shook his head, dispelling any regret he might have had for now, going towards the downed guy's satchel/backpack hybrid hoping to find some strong rope, and lo and behold there it was.
He grabbed the rope using it to quickly tie the hunter to a tree, before continuing searching the satchel, finding a waterskin, a dozen of septims, some jerky, and a map of Skyrim "At least there is something useful." he muttered before cursing, looking over the incomprehensible squiggles of what he knew were the names of the cities.
"Couldn't they have been just font swapped English? I'm in a shitty situation already, I could do with knowing the language at least" he said, closing the map and going back to the guy, waking him by throwing the water from the waterskin in his face.
The hunter sputtered, looking at him with wide eyes before starting to scream what was probably a call for help, probably.
"You done?" he asked, waiting for the hunter to stop screaming, pointing to his chest with one hand "My name is Arthur." he said, saying it again and again until the bound huntsman finally understood what he was trying to say "My name is Taindil." Said the hunter, calming down a little.
Arthur let out a relieved sigh, 'Finally some progress' he thought, starting a long and frustrating chat with the bound man which would end about 2 hours later in a headache for Arthur, who's grasp of the language was now closer to that of a one-year-old than the total lack of understanding of before.
"At least now I know how to say my name, and what the cities are called, that's a plus" he muttered while stretching, letting out a groan as he felt his bones pop "I'm a goddamned -or is it Lorkhan damned now? - Skeleton now. How the fuck am I even able to feel tired?".
Arthur turned, hearing the cords snap, watching as the hunter rose to his feet in his hand the dagger he had used to cut himself free 'That's what I get for not searching him before tying him, I will not make the same mistake again.' he thought with wariness, looking at the hunter and waiting for him to attack.
Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly given his earlier attempt, the hunter put back his weapon with a grimace and eyeing Arthur with suspicious, he backed away, keeping his eyes on him until he disappeared into the forest.
Arthur sighed- he was doing that a lot today wasn't he? - happy that he wouldn't have to fight that hunter again.
While he would have defended himself if it came down to that, he had no wish to take a life, yet.
His eyes went back to the backpack reaching inside and grabbing the map with his bony fingers.
" If the hunter told me the truth then I should be near Riften, if soo..." he muttered, raising his head to gaze at the sun, noticing that it was near midday "The College of Winterhold should be in that direction if there is someone that can help me with my condition then it's them."
He said, gabbing the backpack and stuffing the map into it, putting it on his back and starting his long, long, long trek towards Winterhold.
"Wait, didn't my one-handed skill increase after the fight?" he thought, opening the menu to quickly check.
One-handed Lv18 (Unlock?)
"I... On one hand I should save my perk point for now... on the other hand, discovering what the perk point does could be useful... fuck it, I will need to apply it anyway." he said, pressing his finger on the unlock button.
And suddenly, he felt lighter, his arm surer, the memories of his training coming clearer than before.
he looked at the perk he had unlocked, and at the ones that followed.
One-handed mastery adds 20% more damage to One-Handed Melee attacks.
(Lv30-Blocked)
Bleed like a lamb, Disciplined Fighter, Denting Blows, Clash of Champions, Bitemarks, Ravage, Furious Strength.
Arthur looked on at the branching path of the skill tree, with only one, terrifyingly joyous thought in mind.
"I don't have the normal Skyrim System." he thought, the shadow of a grin on his expressionless face "I have a modded one!" cackling as he walked, step after step towards his destination, whatever that may end up be.
Welp, here it is, yet another fanfic, you guys can thank the Shiro Gaming Omniverse Discord server for this fic, because talking about TES lore gets my mind churning and damn if I don't ramble about it.
Anyway, see you guys next time I guess, oh, also, despite my best attempts I still don't have the writing fluency of a natural speaker, so if you guys find any unexcheptable feel free to tell me in the comments