Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-10197675-20131128185142/@comment-3293219-20131203001339

(I have three disclaimers:

1. (I hate spoiling the twist here but) Dunlammus isn't actually Dunlammus here, there's something else going on. Incase you noticed something fishy about the way he speaks/acts...

2. This isn't my usual nightmare, I wanted to add a moral choice with some weight, that would be difficult for Nish to make.

3. I added music for suspense.

5. If Anita Sarkeesian ever finds this thread, I made Eilonwyn the better cook, because of her previous works in alchemy so she would have more experience mixing ingredients. That and Nish is uneducated, so he couldn't read the recipes very well. It has nothing to do with her gender, please don't beat me up again!

6. There is no 4!

Enjoy and I hope it was sort of worth the wait, I'll fix errors tomorrow.)

Nish's mind, quickly, snapped back into focuss.

He found himself in an unfamiliar house, a small cottage in the wilderness.

Despite the fact that he had never seen the place before, he could swear that it looked familiar and oddly enough, it was starting to feel like home.

He sat up and tried to look out of the window, his view was obscured by trees and shrubbery and the light blinded him whenever he tried to see past it.

"Morning sleepy." A familiar voice called.

He looked up and noticed that Eilonwyn was stood in the doorway, she looked strange in normal clothes.

She noticed that he wasn't speaking and decided to speak for him, "I trust that you slept well?"

"Y-yeah..." Nish muttered in response, glancing out of the window again.

"Something wrong?"

"Erm..." What was wrong with him? This was his home, it had to be, his wife was stood in the doorway and he could feel the sun shining on his face.

"C'mon, I know that something's wrong, I've been married to you for five years." She ended on a laugh but stopped when Nish looked even more confused.

''Married? Five years? Why don't I remember?''

"Right... yeah, I forgot about that." Nish muttered, still trying to deduce what was real.

Eilonwyn was begining to worry, she sat down beside him and looked somewhat panicked.

"Are you okay? Do you want me to go to the temple?"

"No, I'm fine, this just... I don't know..." He stood up and went to the window, as he reached up to scratch his head, he snagged his beard.

Wait, I have a beard?

Nish went to look in the wash basin and took a look at the beard that he had fashioned.

That thing has to go...

He went to the mirror to try and find a razor, Eilonwyn leant against the bathroom door and looked at him blankly.

"It's under the basin Sally."

"Thanks..."

"You're getting forgetful in your old age." She smirked.

"Cheeky sod, I'm only... thirty."

He then shrugged it off and reached under the basin and found some pleasure in butchering his beard, watching as the hairs fell onto the floor.

"There smooth as a baby's arse..." Nish sighed, dropping the raisor in the basin and watching it sink to the bottom. He then turned, suddenly, "I never got that saying, what if the baby is a Khajit or an argonian?"

Eilonwyn rolled her eyes and went back into living area, she immediately began to tend to the cooking pott.

Nish followed her in, not noticing the room, as if it had always been there.

"Why don't I ever cook?" He smirked, leaning against the wall.

"Because, last time you cooked, it almost killed me." Eilonwyn sighed, putting the lid back on the pott.

"Besides, want something done right? Do it yourself." She turned around and knocked all of the peelings and cuttings into the waste basket.

Nish looked around the large cottage and began to take it in, this cottage must have taken ages to construct. It had multiple stories, a kitchen, dining set and several rooms.

It's perfect...

"You always look at it that way." Eilonwyn reminded him, she approached and put her hands on his shoulders.

"It took us a few years... but you finally built us a home worth living in..."

"Yeah... guess I did, didn't I?"

She sighed and pushed her face into his back, "To think, us of all people, ending up here. Me, a homeless thief and you, the skilled alchemist." She wrapper her hands around his waste and listened to his heartbeat.

Nish's spine shot up, does she realise that what she said was wrong?

"My... memory is starting to come back..." Nish muttered, I remember, yeah. He spun around, a look of joy on his face as he embraced her.

"There's... one thing that I don't remember and it's important that I know." He let go of her and looked her dead in the eye, "Tell me... what happened to your father?"

Eilonwyn stepped away with a pained look on her face, "I don't want to talk about that."

"Please..." Nish pleaded, "it's the only thing I don't remember..."

"Not now, we're..." Eilonwyn sighed and looked away.

"I told you, on our first date... remember? He went to market and he didn't come back."

I knew it...

Nish grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him.

"No... that's my dad..." Nish seethed, grabbing a knife and holding it to her neck. "Funny, that you are confusing the most traumatising moment of your life with someone else's!"

"N-nish! You're hurting me!" The dunmer pulled away, looking distressed and panicked, it seemed so real.

"You can drop the act..."

Eilonwyn did exactly that, she scowled and lowered herself and shrugged.

"C'mon, I wasn't that bad!" The doppleganger snapped.

"No, you were terrible... now where is she!?" Nish was armed with a knife but he had a greater weapon on his side, the desire to find her.

"She's not being held captive... well, maybe she is, I could care less..."

Eilonwyn stopped as a figure summoned behind him, Nish turned around and let the figure that had taken his lover's form go.

"Dunlammus!?"

[]"I must give you credit, I didn't think you'd evade my trap..."

"Please, you couldn't organise a piss up at a brewery." Nish seethed.

"Such elegant language..." Dunlammus sighed, lowering himself.

"I haven't come to attack you, I am unable to anyway. Even with the corruption of the amulet, her presence is too strong to harm you here."

"Then, you've come to annoy me?"

Dunlammus rolled his eyes. "How droll..."

"Well, I can't think of anything else that would bring you here..."

"Well... I have come to offer you a choice, actually." Dunlammus admitted, taking a seat at the dining table.

"What kind of choice?" Nish mumbled, knowing that he was soon to be placed between a rock and a hard place.

"You've seen the reality that I have built for you... It's familiar, calming... safe. You could do far worse."

"It's also innacurate and fake." Nish pointed out.

"Oh please, all of that is simply embilishment and detail. Any errors can easily be fixed, after all, we are in your mind."

Nish looked around, ''all of this... is in my head?''

"Yes..." Dunlammus replied, sending a shiver down the breton's spine.

"You think that I'd give you the power to read my thoughts?" Nish stammered, stepping back in fear.

Dunlammus just shrugged, "I don't see that it matters, considering that I only want one thing from you."

"That is...?"

"The information in your head, I want it!"

Nish felt that he'd regret hearing this demonic creature out but he wasn't going anywhere.

"Alright, what do I get for the information?"

Dunlammus raised his arms as if he was raising the sea itself.

"This! The house, a wife and whatever else you could possibly desire!"

"It's... not real..."

Dunlammus slammed his fist on the table, causing several things to roll off. "What has reality ever done for you? Bought you pain, suffering? It took your parents from you and bought you to death's door!"

Nish watched as a cabbage rolled off the table and fell onto the floor, "If I accept your offer... the real Eilonwyn would die, she'd never wake up and she'd be left to rott to nothing."

"Wrong... she's actually right here. In your dreams, I could bring her here, to safety."

''How could sh- Oh shit, the amulet! They're using the amulet, of course! It all makes sense now, Eilonwyn must be navigating his dreams and looking for him.''

"I can bring her here... to you." Dunlammus snapped his fingers and destroyed the doppleganger. "Or... I could make a better version, no shame in wanted that, she could do with a trim."

Nish turned around, disgusted at Dunlammus' idea of perfection.

Dunlammus noticed that he'd hit a sore spot. "Don't like that idea? It's okay, she'd never know..."

"That doesn't make it right..." Nish protested, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist.

"I offer you eternal safety, a place where you can do no harm to me... and where no possible harm can come to you."

Nish glanced around, this house was perfect and it offered a way out for both him and Eilonwyn.

"At the expense of everyone else..." Nish muttered.

"You think that half of those cretins wouldn't do the same if they were offered the chance to betray you? I know, that you know, that Eilonwyn would say 'yes' in a heartbeat."

"Then you clearly don't know her..."

"Oh but I do... I know all of you. Your thoughts, memories and ideas helped create the ground you walk on, Eilonwyn, Manja, Tyranil all contributed to this reality."

Nish turned around, "So... you can read anyone's thoughts? In this dreamworld I mean?" This idea scared him, now that it had been confirmed. He wasn't even safe inside his head.

Though... technically, they were inside his head.

"That imperial has proven herself to be a nuisance... she seems to have locked away all of her thoughts."

Like mother like daughter... Nish thought to himself.

"Quite..."

The breton paced back and too, somewhat distressed. This was his chance to get away from all of the evil that had kept Eilonwyn and him apart, this one deal could protect them both from the evil of the outside world. But what of the cost? Not just his close friends, not just Manja and Lilly and Keerava but the many others who had acompanied them on their travels.

C'laro, Ukawi, Marcus, Saak, Daniel, Garvut, Tobius, Corelas... even that orc who helped him escape from prison.

Were they to suffer too? Was J'dharjo to die for nothing?

Tamriel was bristling with people, many of them were honorable folks like the people he had come to know as friends...

He couldn't betray them now.

His trail of thought was interrupted by Dunlammus. "I'm growing impatient breton! What is your verdict?"

"No..." Nish mumbled, grabbing hold of a silver vase.

"What was that?" Dunlammus beakoned, clenching his fist.

"NO!"

He threw the silver vase at Dunlammus, causing him to shatter and the shards to fall to the floor.

Foolish breton... It mocked, somewhat pleased with Nish's choice.