First off, I love the stream of consciousness going on in your first post about Ann - the diversion of looking up clouds. I do that too!

Second, have you considered posting this in the fan fic forum? Here or over at http://chorrol.com/forums/index.php?showforum=4?

West is considered to symbolize death and the afterlife in many cultures because that is the direction that the sun sets in. Many ancient societies believed that the sun descended into the Underworld, only to rise again in the east in the morning. It became a symbol of the natural cycle of death and rebirth, and just as the sun made its journey through the Underworld and back to our world, so too would the soul.

In any case, lots of fun writing, as Ann deals with the strange and somewhat mad denizens of the Imperial City, who are over-preoccupied with the Fighters Guild, stones, and orcs. I love how you capture Ann's mood, that so often is dragged back to the horror of Kvatch by the simplest things.

To avoid the problem of the forum eating posts, do your writing in a regular word processing program, like Word, Wordpad, etc... Then copy and paste it here. You will have to manually add in special characters like italics and coloring, but it is worth it. Besides, that way you will always have a copy of what you have written, even if the forum gets hacked tomorrow and is down.

Subrosa, wow, I didn't know all that about the sun setting means that it runs thru the underworld. Amazing. Makes sense, though. i wonder what I did in my past lives. did I fear such a thing as Ann is doing now? Perhaps Ann is something to do with another of my realities

I see. Carry on then.

Ann Thraxx is now in the center of the I.C., more or less. She finds some more red & white mushrooms and eats another. She realizes this portion of the city is fillled with DOZENS and dozens of gravestones. Citizens who lived and died fair lives and deaths, without having a giant mechanical monster crash thru their city's gate. Ann feels momentarily jealous of all these dead strangers, and moves on...looking for the exit to the Market District. A guard told her earlier this town does have its own market area.


As she walks, picking more and more mushrooms, she takes a pause and stares up at the White Gold Tower, that ancient masterpiece built by the Ayleids impressivly. She's seen this tower all her life from a distance, but seeing it up close is simply amazing.

She walks past a door. Arena District. Nope, not going there. She keeps walking. Next door is the Markets. Good.

"How do you do?" asks Rochelle Bantien. Ann and Rochelle met earlier (in that block of text that got erased!) and Ann feels a little queasy about just the general casualness of the City's peoples. They KNOW something happened in Anvil (a guard told Ann of "Anvils priests and priestesses....murdered") yet nobody wants to discuss it. Nobody seems to want to make a plan...

Ann had already grown weary. Shes trying to inform the people, to keep them safe, but nobody seems to want to hear it, even if some of them do know something is going on out there. Those that know seem to be in denial.

Ann walks forward. A bookstore is on her right, and a place called "The Copious Coinpurse" is on her left. Ann currently has 22 mushrooms + that Nirnroot for sale.

She walks into the Copious Coinpurse where a wood elf named Thoronir greets

"What kind of deal can I make for you todaaaaay?"

"Well. I've got plenty of mushrooms for sale."

"I offer the finest goods and lowest prices in all Cyrodiil".

Ann sold the mushrooms. 22 gold. Now she's got 27 in total.

"That's more than I'd usually pay" Thoronir says, obviously trying to imply she's getting a good deal for selling a bunch of mushrooms for one gold apiece.

"You've been a great help. I needed this gold, sir."

"Thank you, come again!"

Ann now decides she might find more things for sale. There's dozens of barrels, crates, and sacks in the district. She starts looking (like a homeless lady) for things to sell, wear, and eat. As the afternoon wears on, she sells numerous items: shoes, clogs, shirts, gold pieces, wheat stalks, all sorts of stuff. She winds up with lots of things. Uriel Septim had at some point devised a sort of "finders/keepers" rule. It was official on the rulebooks: if a citizen found an item located in a public area, that item was okay to take and use, as long as nobody claimed it. As Ann did her looting, nobody raised a fuss.

/At some point, she overheard a conversation about the "death of Uriel Septim and his heirs". WHAT? URIEL SEPTTIM DIED???

Ann runs up to the lady she overheard...a high elf.

"I'm Mandil. I do training in Security. Just a hobby, of course".

"WHAT ABOUT URIEL SEPTIM? OUR EMPEROR HAS BEEN MURDERED?"

"It pays to know about locks and lockpicks. It's just a hobby of course, but the average citizen feels more secure when he understands his own locks"..

"Are you saying the Emperor has been murdered because he didn't understand his locks? Didn't lock his doors?"

"Be seeing you!" Mandil dismisses. Jeez, Ann get a hold of yourself! Maybe you're the one who's being seen as crazy, not everyone else! Calm down and sell your wares.

Ann makes a [censored]load of money now at the Copious Coinpurse. She found a Wolve's pelt, a repair hammer, and other higher-gold items. she now has 77 gold

"Come back and see me again".

Ann smiles, pleased to be doing something as mundane as shopping. She loved selling her wares in Kvatch's district. All of them, she'd find and harvest for sale. It feels good to have a local person to sell stuff to.

Earlier, Ann noticed there are a couple magic shops out in the Market, one of them called "Edgar's Discount Spells". Ann decides it might be a good idea to see if she can learn a simple Destruction spell of some sort. Now's the time to start learning! If the City could wind up being attacked by daedra, she'd better have some sort of protection (notice I'm ignoring her basic default Fire spell here )

Long story longer, Ann meets Edgar Vautrine, proprietor of Edgars Discount Spells. Although Ann hasn't got enough yet to afford his "Fire Touch" spell, he gives some great advice for Ann

"You want to buy or sell? the city is fine. You want cheap? Go down into the holes and kill some monsters."

I kinda am pretending this next part. I saved an hour, and during that hour, I RP'd it that Samuel is the one who informs Ann that there's a "Sewer Patrol" available for those who want to take the job. Nobody wants the job, however. It's dark, dirty work, and many of Cyrodiil's adventurers (Dyan phor a'Cauz, The Grey Wizard, Lady Saga, Lothran, etc.) had already turned it down, all of them being "too busy". Although Ann is more of a gatherer/seller, she finds herself intrigued by the man's information.

She does know how to swing a sword, for instance. All her former friends and family are currently dead, maybe its' she who should somehow avenge their deaths. She's broke and needs the money. She keeps looking for more stuff she can sell...but feels just a little nervous about doing so. She's always held her head high, even as a Kvatchian peasant. Looking thru random barrels and sacks was something she did not do when she lived in Kvatch, but right now she's simply desperate.

It would be nice to have a job, though. Something "official" to do. What's it like down there in the sewers, anyways? Ann is completely naive about this. Surely there'd be rats down there...maybe a few imps? She'd dealt with rats, wolves, imps, and other such nuisance creatures in the past, and usually carried a sword on her belt if she happened to need to get a little far outside of Kvatch as she gathered in the past.

As she's looking, she here's a conversation that goes something like

"Have you heard a word about the other provinces?"

I've heard that Vivec has ...??????.. in Morrowind. The daedra came and got him in his sleep..."

"Ah HA! the daedra! These people DO know, then!" Ann decides she's not going to follow up on this clue for the moment. She's having a small amount of fun searching for goods, and doesn't want to ruin this mood.

Ann keeps searching barrels, sacks and crates, finally finding a bunch of graqes and another apple she could eat before selling her loot. She wants to find somewhere else to go, though. Red Diamond Jewelery? No. The Feed Bag? No. Jensine's "Good as New" Merchandise? Sounds like the place.

"Hello me lady" Ann starts.

"Feel free to browse. It's nice to see a new shopper. I was afraid I'd lost all my business, now that Thoronir has opened shop".

"Thoronir? What about him? I just met him earlier".

"Perhaps you can assist us with a little 'problem' we've been having..."

And so it goes. Ann's first official quest, folks! She's gonna delve into it now...

Oh and THANKS for that Chorrol linky, SubRosa. I forgot about that place...meant to join last time you told me about it.

Ahhh, the paint horse. My first ever Oblivion character back in 2006 or 2007 felt at peace with this horse as well. He wasn't scared of her, even though she was scared of everything around her after witnessing the murder. The horse was her only friend for a long time.

I love Ann's story so far.

Awesome, thanks. there will be more to come. Maybe I should make an official fanfic. it would be my very first one. I can't wait to make a story out of Skyrim, holy [censored]!

I wanted to make a story out of my Skyrim character too. So many crazy things happened that turned his life around.

I've never really been to the fan fic section of these forums, because there was lots of people that I didn't really recognise. You could always make a thread for Ann though. Her story is intriguing.

Thanks again. The only thing is it takes a LOT of time! That whole set of scenarios (Ann going from Waterfront to stables, to Waterfront, to I.C) would have normally taken me less than an hour. But writing it as a story took like 4 of 5 hours! I like spending this extra time tho...it's worth it in a way. Really gets me into the game in a different way I guess.

It's easy to tell when someone gets that special fire that calls them to tell a story. They each have their own viewpoint; some charming, some gritty, some heroic. It's clear that you have the passion.

It can be discouraging to write in a vacuum as I was doing 3 years ago ( sample http://www.gamesas.com/topic/862718-angel-the-fan-fiction/page__view__findpost__p__12678232.) I wrote the first seven posts before getting any response. My stories were getting lots of views but no comments or encouragement. That changed somewhat when Acadian and mALX1 started writing and encouraged me to start writing again ( sample http://www.gamesas.com/topic/862718-angel-the-fan-fiction/page__view__findpost__p__15177406.} You might want to try that Chorrol link from Subrosa. They are all writers there and appreciate the importance of encouragement.

I definitely think you should give the writing a shot.

Well I'll defininately read your story bobg, especially since it's about Angel. Can you give me a little background on her maybe? I'm unfamiliar with her backstory, even though I've probably read it at some point these past couple years.

Thanks KC. I tried to join Chorrol today but it wouldn't let me post. But SubRosa says Lady Saga (that'll be my name) is nte newest member so I guess I'm on.

One thing I'm noticing is I'm thinking i wanna start to not use emoticons during the story. They're so goofy and they kinda detract from the mood, know what I mean? Like if it's just words and virtual paper, the reader gets to immerse him or herself into the story itself, and can draw his/her own conclusions. The emoticons seem to detract from this. Agree? disagree?

I'd avoid emoticons in the story too. Your tendency to use colored words might be alright though. Get a second opinion though.

Is it letting you log in, but not start a topic? You have to make a few comments in existing topics before the board will allow you to create any new topics. It is one way they discourage spam.

Angel started as sort of a joke. I was looking for a new character after the loss of Sarrah. I rolled a child mage after reading a thread about the lack of children in the game. I started a thread with a title something like "A child found in Cyrodill" and described my new character. Surprisingly, there was a lot of interest. I wasn't actually going to play her but then I began to wonder what a child, alone and frightened would do. I discovered that she steals hearts. At least she stole mine. I play dead-is-dead. I had never played a pure mage before: no armor, no shield, only daggers. I didn't expect her to last very long but again and again she survived those early jeopardies. As I wrote about her exploits, the interest grew. I was talked into starting a fanfiction RPG based on my character. The RPG ran for 2 1/2 threads before sort of fizzling out. By then I was really into the writing so I converted the story into a straight fanfiction.

My game character's backstory;
Angel is the daughter of wealthy parents. Considered a prodigy, she was tutored in magic from an early age by Master Pheng Yun. When her parents mysteriously disappeared, she automatically became a ward of the Emperor because of her youth; she was only twelve years old. The legion trooper sent to bring her to the Imperial city told her nothing and on arriving late at night, anxious to get back to the barracks and his stash of ale, he did what he usually did. He dropped her off at the Imperial prison. She had no idea that the Emperor was awaiting her arrival. During the night she was frightened by a sadistic Dunmer in a nearby cell. By the next morning, she was in a state of terror when events showed her a way to escape. Finding herself frightened and alone in the Market District, she discovered that her training in Alchemy could earn her some money. With a new profession, Angel set out to make a life for herself.

Oh okay, that's ringing a few bells, bobg, and it helps to know she was started as sort of a "joke". I'm gonna start reading that when it gets slower here at work today!

Found a pic of http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/589/athome.jpg, by the way, in my Hot or Not thread. Her face does look pretty youngish.

@SubRosa: thanks. I think I was trying to find a thread where I could introduce myself, but it kept asking for my password over and over again. I'll try again, today.

So. You've had time to read. What do you think?

Honestly, I haven't had time yet, not without distractions, that is. I need to really sit down and not have anybody bugging me for a few hours. this is true for everybody's stories, actually. If I'm gonna read a long, involved storyline, I'm usually trying to just sit there and read it, so I can give it my full attention.

Make sense? I did read a portion of the first couple posts, it looks way-intriguing for sure. But I dont 'wanna read and then get interrupted just as I'm really getting into the story. .