Unlimited Immersive (lol) Gameplay 3 (DC Universe with Modded Skyrim SI)
"-countless battles against our kin have prepared me for such a desperate manoeuvre. At the very moment I let loose Dragonrend once more, Alduin released me from his maw, intending to let me fall to my death from the skies of Sovngarde… just as I intended. Deliberately misfiring my Whirlwind Cloak spell, I used the powerful wind to propel my weary body at the dark dragon! The ancient shadow's arrogance was his undoing, Alduin let his guard down and only realized his folly just as my daedric blade tore into his eye, the last charge of my enchanted weapon destroying the dragon's weakened body from the inside out!"
Thank Akatosh that I had a much more cinematic battle from my time as a Dragonborn compared to the final battle powered by a limited game engine!
I recounted my survival of the fall down to Sovngarde and the main quest's ending to my children who were enraptured by my tale. They had been looking forward to the end of the questline ever since I began telling them bedtime stories based on my adventures, when they had become old enough to understand what it meant.
"And with that, Alduin, Bane of Kings, was silenced forevermore. The purpose of the Last Dragonborn was completed with the fulfilment of the prophecy… The End."
"NOOOO! There's no way that's the end!" Layla was tugging on my arm, swinging her head back and forth like a madwoman (girl).
"Well…"
My response was cut off by my son's desperate desire for a sequel.
Josh's mouth was wide-open for most of the last part of tonight's story, only for him to put both his hands on his head in utter disbelief, "... That's the ending!? What happened to the Civil War? How could you reveal a long and complex backstory involving war and political intrigue between many nations and factions leading to it and then not finish it!? That's a waste of a perfectly good plot! You can't just end it like that!"
As expected, I had spoiled him, his taste for stories had developed far beyond what a human child his age would be satisfied with. I patiently took in his childish frustration with amusement.
"B-but it can't end there. I don't want the story to end! If the story ends… doesn't that mean daddy died?" My triumphant ending has been misinterpreted by my darling Gabriel as a tragic one!
Hugging her closely as she tried, I made sure to comfort her and tell her that everything was alright, and that I was in fact, not some undead ghost of the Last Dragonborn.
"Well, as I was about to say, daddy still went on many adventures after that. I even saved Nirn a couple more times. Though, of course, those were quests that I elected to go on, fate did not see fit to deliberately guide my path towards a predestined result."
Reminiscing on the life experiences etched into my being tended to make me speak more like the proud Dovah rather than the humble human.
"There's more?" My children chorused excitedly.
"Of course there is. In fact, daddy's adventures are still continuing. After all, I have chosen to be the universe's best father, and by my honor, I will see that I will do right by you three, my precious children."
It was a grander, worthier Quest than to seek violent world conquest.
The more I draw on my "real" experiences, the more "real" the need to dominate grows in me. After all, the will to power is in a Dovah's blood. A dragon's very soul.
I can keep it at bay by always living by the "gamer's" experience and only taking my life as a Dragonborn in small doses.
That was how I had been living throughout my time at Krypton and the other planet, and it nearly drove me insane. Questing, attempting to fulfill my wishes and keeping on the move was my only reprieve to satisfy my urge to "dominate" by replacing it with "progression", and even that was tiresome...
Living like a game character, as advantageous as it was, denied me the fullness of life and enjoyment of engaging the world in a realistic way. It threatened my sanity and ability to care for lives.
If I ever wanted a legacy I could be proud of, I had to go beyond my baser instincts.
Raising these children with the potential to be better than me, to surpass me in both strength and spirit, to do great works that will fill me with fatherly pride, was a purpose that I felt was worthy to be fulfilled.
I cuddled together with my children as we sat around the artificial fireplace that emitted yellow sunlight radiation, and took out some chocolate from my Inventory as a treat for them, before I would remind them all to brush their teeth before heading to their bedrooms.
Not like there were any other places suitable for them to sleep in. The only completed rooms of the house was my children's bedroom, bathroom and as for the living room, I had only just finished with this "fireplace", for the sake of cultivation their powers constantly.
I had deemed those rooms and appliances the most essential. Most of the house was still a work-in-progress that I would devote my focus on for the next week or so.
"Um, father… I was wondering something…"
"Yes Josh?"
"Honor is attached to social standing, but if one doesn't require anything from society and is entirely self-sufficient, would that mean that there is no good reason to have honor?"
He was likely reflecting on the Dragonborn song lyrics, specifically "Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honor is sworn, To keep evil forever at bay," and was applying it to how reliable my word actually was.
I see. Behind all that confidence, Josh was feeling somewhat insecure.
I can't help but feel like I failed him somehow. Perhaps I have been spoiling Gabriel or Layla too much, or he thinks I have simply treated him harshly somehow… I will have to figure that out later.
"Ah, I see, you are already thinking of the worth of honor as a Kryptonian, am I correct?"
"Partly. I am also pondering the matter of father's honor, for what reason does a being that defies the laws of physics and needs nothing from it benefit from having honor?"
To my surprise, the most demure of my two daughters had angrily turned towards Josh, with eyes that were about to burst with solar-charged heat, "Are you saying daddy doesn't love us?! How could you doubt-!"
"Shh, Gabriel, there is no need to get so worked-up. Don't think so little of your brother. There's nothing wrong with asking questions." I managed to calm Gabriel down without the usage of spells, thankfully. "If one does not consider the thoughts of others as valid to a reasonable point, then one becomes closer to that of a traditional Dovah."
I was careful to keep out any accusatory words, it is often a trying effort to keep myself controlled and not just "react" to anything I considered "childish".
I needed to be a good example for my children to follow. I must become a good role model…
"Sorry Josh…"
"It's fine sis! I might have chosen a bad time to ask about it, it's just been bothering me for awhile...
I repeated that sentence in my head a hundred times before the next second had passed, then continued.
"Well Josh, no sense to let that question fester. I will keep this simple. I understand where you are coming from, and agree to a point, there might not be any benefits to living an honorable life by the cultural standards of society that has nothing to give you. But is it all about external benefits? I thought about that myself… and this is purely my own personal path, so don't feel obligated to live exactly like me as your circumstances are different from my own…"
I waffled on for a bit, but eventually I got my point across to my son. What I followed was a "personal" code of honor based on carefully curated values that I had concluded to be… non-limiting to my capability to tackle greater evils in the far future.
For example, "evils" like pickpocketing can be tolerated if there are good intentions, purpose, and that innocents aren't harmed grievously in the short-run and do not suffer in the long-run as a result of my actions. In short, leveling up counts as a "good" thing, as it's needed to better protect oneself, family and the world.
Why even bothering to protect the world? I derive a personal sense of accomplishment from protecting what is good, and keeping evil at bay, as I detested what I considered to be "true evil", or at least the "ugly" and "unpalatable" type of evil.
"Of course, there needs to be a balance in all of this. You can't be a perfectionist and hope to save everyone, you will only be disappointed and frustrated with your results if you did so, for there is no hope in such things… You see, happiness… contentment, comes from both within and from the outside." I paused to give my listeners time to catch-up, as advanced as they were, they still needed time to think about their own feelings.
"For example, if someone loves you but you can't manage to love yourself, then it is unlikely that you will be happy. Conversely… If I fully debased myself to my desire to conquer and enjoy life as a narcissistic megalomaniac, then I could love myself, but my life would be spent hating elements of the world and other individuals or I could be apathetic to everything and miss out on the wonders of life by only focusing inwards. The moment the "spell" is broken, when I reflect on what I had done should I take the latter path, all that I would have amount to is a net zero or a negative number to the entire multiverse. And out of my own self-interest, or from my personal evaluation… that's a net zero or a negative grade score to me."
"So you keep your own honor, and become satisfied with that, by being a force for what you believe is correct in your eyes?" Josh half-asked, half-requested for a confirmation.
"Essentially, yeah. I must stress that you must learn to balance this. Take it too far, and you will end up as some "justice" obsessed self-proclaimed hero, that a lot of people won't necessarily agree with, and this will cause issues down the line, and lead to an unhappy life by-"
"Okay, okay, I think I get it dad!"
"You called me dad! Yay!"
"N-no I didn't, your hearing must be deteriorating father…"
We still spent another hour touching on Paarthunax's teaching on prophecy as all my children became concerned on the importance of prophecy and fate when it came to my life, I decided to focus the discussion on wise dragon-sensei's words, "Prophecy - tells what may be, not what should be. Prophecy is a weak guide. Just because you can do a thing, does not always mean you should. Do you have no better reason for acting than destiny? Are you nothing more than a plaything of fate?"
I hinted that I defied prophecy in some of my later stories (DLC), then wrapped it up with a lesson in having "hope" and "honor" together, in order to have a happy and successful life.
The next day, we went for a walk across the country.
"Dad, what is that animal?" Layla pointed furiously at a mink who was seemingly attempting to steal some farmer's chicken eggs.
Wait, they had chicken farmers in Iceland? Apparently so.
Hmm, Iceland's wild minks are often spotted fishing in the waterways around Reykjavík, hunting for bird-eggs along nesting cliffs, and they have become the bane of chicken farmers across the country.
"Layla, Josh, Gabriel. It's time I teach you kids about Radiant Quests, that can appear from completing certain quests or taking specific actions. In this case, what I am about to do may not constitute a Radiant Quest activation, in which case, just think of it as doing a good deed for the day."
I ran up to the mink and kicked the little pest softly.
"NEVER SHOULD HAVE COME HERE!" "What the actual f-" I was promptly assaulted by the chicken farmer's whose chicken eggs I saved…! Why is he carrying an axe!?
""How you could kill Mr. Wriggles! You will pay with your blood!" Why is a teenage girl taking out a dagger and attempting to make me bleed? Fuck this game physics. This is why my sanity is leaking out!
"YOU WON'T LEAVE ICELAND ALIVE!" A random police officer is attempting to beat me with his extendable baton… what?
Oh right, this is Iceland, most aren't equipped with firearms and won't just take out some gun to try shoot you to death. This isn't Gotham.
I kept on dodging the attacks so that I wouldn't give away my nigh-invulnerability to their attacks, I didn't want to use magic publicly either, or my other powers, so that left running away until my bounty was cleared!
"Run kids! And by running, I mean match my speed."
We eventually lost the three shitty AI driven NPC's. I would normally mentally correct myself to refer to them as people, not NPC's, but this kind of insanity really makes it hard to see them as real people at times. Damn these glitchy AI!
"Guess we're staying home with daddy today!" Gabriel seems overjoyed by the prospect. How odd. Weren't we already spending family time outside? Also, the house is incomplete and barely furnished, so I don't see why we would want to stay there all the time.
"At least they won't chase us all the way to our home, like in Grand Theft Starship." Josh made a reference to a stupidly advanced Krypton GTA equivalent game.
Wait a minute.
"Josh! What did I say about tempting fate!?"
And then the police cars surrounded our home.
"Time to cleanse Iceland of it's filth!" What the hell? How does this level of crime warrant GUNS?! In ICELAND of all places!?
"You really thought you could get away with it?" I can literally see snipers taking aim outside.
I quickly ducked down the window, letting their bullets attempt to pierce through my enchanted Ebony walls, futilely, if I might add.
"Come quietly or taste the Prime Minister's justice."
"You would sound a lot more convincing if you weren't shooting your submachine guns at me! It was just a MINK! Gabriel, no, no heat vision. Josh, put that chair down, you're not throwing it at them. Layla, no magic!" I had to quickly get my kids under control.
I used my superior sneaking skills and invisibility potions to sneak out, before we made a run for the other side of Iceland. Over there, we hid out in the wilderness for a few days, and I discovered that my Bear Mounts and Followers mod paid off quite a bit.
I managed to tame a Polar Bear.
"And with this helm, I dub thee, Dovahbear."
We added a new companion to the family.
One bright side of this whole debacle was that we now had a pet polar bear.
Eventually, I road back to the capital city on Dovahbear, which somehow managed to not shock the population (yay game mechanics…. hooray…) and found a policeman, who thankfully, didn't attack me on site.
"Wait, I know you-"
"Here! 45 GOLD COINS! Will that pay my fines and compensate for that stupid mink or not?"
Apparently so. I haven't been so overcharged in my life.
"Hold on, what about the fact that my house was shot up for a minor crime?"
"You should know better than to attack private property."
Okay, sure, I can believe that the mink was a pet. But what are the chances that of all the minks I decided to kick, it just had to be someone else's pet?!
"Haa… think good thoughts Vadim. No killing everyone in town…"
In any case, I made the front-page on several newspapers for being a polar bear riding 'returnee' to Iceland, a single father of three, who had done so much for the community (we were quest takers through and through), only to have been shot at by the police due to a "misunderstanding" that the police department would not elaborate on.
I decided to be the better man and let it go.
Instead, I focused my attention to the new "faction" I accidentally started up several months later...
"Today! We cleanse Iceland of reindeer! These reindeer scum dare to take food away from the grazing lands used by our free-roaming sheep. Will we let that stand?!"
"NO!" "NAY!" "REINDEER SCUM SHOULD DIE!"
Well over two dozen hunters were on horses and "tamed bears" mounts wielding all sorts of medieval weaponry (prepared by yours truly), all here for the seasonal culling of reindeers, gathered by me to perform a new, more traditional hunt.
"That's right. We will not stand for this! Today, we are not defined by our day-to-day occupations, today, we are all children of Iceland! Brothers and sisters! Today, we are the saviors of our country's ecosystem. Let's ride."