#(potential. nothing concrete. 1 potential plot point spoiler that might be indicated here)

[flow2024]

a continuation of frame-by-frame trailer deep divin, which does get into potential spoiler territory (and also very long) so i'll leave it under a readmore:

henry golding's here it seems, probably takes place during a climactic showdown setup or whatever. joe is also here (behind nile) you can see his sword. booker appears later in the sequence. interestingly tho nicky is nowhere to be seen ? dunno whats up with that unless they're going for the 'gets fucked up by the car and gets picked up by akasha' bit. which would be funny bc king cannot escape being damsel in distressed. i'm firm in my belief hes not perma-dying tho, if that helps. it also might just be edited weirdly and he's just not really in any of the clips of this bit

in the scene with the fire and andy screaming in the mud there seems to be a second person here but this location isnt anywhere we see elsewhere in the trailer i dont think unless its tuah's hideout.

she's definitely outside, but its tough to tell When this takes place. in my heart its a post quynh flashback but i dont know how likely that is.

could be what she's wearing here?? in that case i hope she's killing that priest

what is it with these people and hanging out in churches

'with a power you can't even imagine yet' (fails to blow out match)

the editing of this clip suggests she's in paris (plays right after a shot of the arc de triomphe) but i dont think thats true

they've gone full Ominous Evil Lair on this one, including Evil Red Books

andy now seems to be in the same place

maybe whatever secret library villain thing this is is actually just where akasha/discord/whatever the fuck her name is stores all her diaries

i thought andy and tuah were in the same place as akasha there and they still might be but a) andy's clothes are different b) they're at least in a different room. why are all the books so grey. if tuah wasn't in clips which i am assuming take place later in the movie (but i have no real evidence for this) id guess that he's getting killed in the clip from earlier with andy

this is fully a Different Area. than anywhere we've seen so far. unless its the bit with andy screaming which i dont think it is

she's literally Right There lmao. we've all said this but a major girl what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament. also means there may be more flashbacks for this movie if they've already filmed one (andy killing priest please. Please. please. please plea)

real water <3

uma thurman's henchman squad? maybe? also i swear to god the coffin is smaller?

not much to say here just an interesting look at how fucked up the coffin is

kind of a Whomst the Fuck are You to the guy to her left look, neither of the guys here are people we've seen before it doesnt seem

apparent outside look at the home of the most unhinged interior decorator in the world (is it uma thurman?)

nothing i have to say here just wanted you all to look at her. welcome back beloved <3

i fear the color grading isn't getting better it's just getting brighter guys. thought this was quynh from a distance but surprise! uma thurman

joe again! tuah also! it is very difficult to tell who's behind joe, this shot cuts before they come into focus

best i got. doesn't look like booker i dont think, might be nicky, might not be

obsessed with blurry background nile watching andromaquynh toxic yuri reunion like Did I Miss Something

not sure where they are. holes in andy's shirt tho

first shot we get of cars getting fucked up, seems to be going into the water - might be the 2 cars that almost roadkill nicky but i'll have to check when we get there. would be interesting if they gave andy's getting stuck in the trunk of a car underwater thing to someone else (ideally nile but who knows). it's one of my favourite bits of force multiplied for sure

another church, uma thurman and nile having a chat (we have this scene? perhaps?

not to read too much into facial expressions but its interesting that this is tuah's reaction to andy's 'do you think she knows i've lost my immortality' line

my beloved wife experiencing the horrors (action movie protagonist stare at bathroom mirror moment)

seems to take place during their raid on whatever (akasha lair?) interesting that it's booker who gets the nothing that lives lives forever line echo. also andy's axe is holding the door open which is what prompted me to go through this trailer like this in the first place

we hit image limit folks stay tuned for further deep diving. we havent even gotten to the car thing yet

[greyias]

FIC: Smoke and Mirrors - Chapter 17

Title: Smoke and Mirrors Fandom: SWTOR Pairing: Theron Shan/f!Jedi Knight Rating: T Genre: Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn Synopsis: Something’s rotten on Carrick Station, and Theron won’t rest until he finds out what. But picking at the frayed threads of suspicion quickly unravels a conspiracy much larger than even the Republic’s top spy can handle on his own. (A mostly canon-compliant retelling of the Forged Alliances storyline, as seen through the eyes of Theron Shan.) Author’s Notes and Spoilers: See Chapter 1.

Chapter Index: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Crossposted to AO3

As soon as he was inside the door of his apartment, Theron had the chip out of his pocket and inserted it into his datapad. The first file on it wasn’t any official SIS document at all but apparently a note, written especially for him:

So here I am, minding my own business, when this intel request comes across my desk from none other than your old buddy, Rian Darok. I pulled it, but then I asked myself, what does a SpecOps officer need with this information? From what I can tell, cracking down on cargo smuggling isn’t the highest of priorities for him and his team. I pulled a copy for you too, since you’re so interested in “oddities” right now. I don’t know what you think is going on, but you know this guy has clout right? And not just in SpecOps. Watch yourself. — JB

Theron tried not to roll his eyes as he paged to the next file on the chip. Jonas was a good man to have along on a mission, but sometimes he could get hung up on something. Apparently in this case it was the havoc that Rian Darok could cause for an unsuspecting SIS Agent. Which wouldn’t be a problem, because Theron was suspecting everything right now. Which was probably good for his survival chances in the short term, but would probably give him hypertension if he ever lived long enough to see old age.

He scanned over the pulled file, but as Jonas said it was… just odd.

"Known Smugglers: Inner Rim" was just what it said. A giant list of cargo smugglers that operated in the Inner Rim. And by giant, he meant several thousands names. It would take far too long for him to cross-reference every name by hand. He was going to need to get creative on this.

He sat down at the terminal in his apartment, and began to start typing. The programming required to cross-reference the names against what he knew about the Korriban and Tython ops was complex, and he had to be very careful to hide his trail in case it dinged anything classified. The SIS didn’t keep it’s data on the HoloNet, but it definitely had its own hooks into the system. If he needed to do a deeper search on any of the names of the list, he could do that manually, but he needed to narrow this down to something manageable, otherwise he could be chasing a dead lead for months.

The chronometer had already ticked well past midnight, and he was nearing the end of his coding efforts when his implants alerted him to a new message in his inbox. He finished his train of thought, then pulled away from the data terminal, feeling his muscles protest at the motion after being hunched into one position for so long. Scooping up his forgotten datapad, he opened up his inbox to see who had written.

To: Theron Shan From: Greyias Highwind Subject: Late Reply

I must apologize for the delayed reply. Our latest mission hit a slight snag, and I only now have had time to catch up on my correspondence. Barnaba is a very lovely travel spot, as long as you don’t mind the occasional internal spat between royal houses. Kira wants to buy a timeshare here. She says that it would be a fun vacation spot. I tried to remind her we don’t collect a salary (as you accurately pointed out), but Doc nixed the idea before I could, saying this visit gave him too much work already and doesn’t want any more gray hairs. He can be a bit vain at times but is probably right in this case.

It sounds like you have been keeping yourself busy as well, even if it was perhaps less exciting work. Did you ever find what you were looking for in all of that data? I don’t know if it helps, but in a letter about the ongoing reconstruction efforts at the temple, the Grand Master mentioned a missing Rakata artifact. I unfortunately didn’t have much time to spend in the archives during our initial reconstruction efforts, but I didn’t see any artifacts tucked under anyone’s arm while they were leaving. Perhaps it was extracted during the original raid? I must confess, if the Council was hiding a piece of Rakata technology, then they did not want it falling into the wrong hands. In my own experience it is rarely used for benevolent purposes.

If the artifact was included in the SIS’s reports, I wonder if it is mentioned there the exact nature of the device. I could enquire further with Master Satele regarding it, but I am afraid I am not very good at concealing the truth from her in matters such as these. It is probably best if I don’t attempt it unless you think it’s necessary.

I think I hear my self-appointed keeper returning. I must wrap this up before he confiscates this datapad as well. I will continue to wait to see if you discover anything considered “noteworthy”.

I have a feeling you will know exactly where to find me.

As he finished the letter, Theron couldn’t help the frown. A missing piece of Rakata tech definitely could have been among the missing items. He’d have to check into the official report, but it would take a few extra steps to keep his name from showing up on the logs since they’d closed out the investigation. Surely the Empire wouldn’t have conducted an entire raid in the heart of the Republic for just one artifact. Surely their resources would have been better directed elsewhere. The more he tried to fit the pieces of all of this together, the less this made sense. There was something else going on here, he just wasn’t connecting the right dots.

He glanced back at the data terminal, his back screaming in protest at the thought of returning to the hunched over position so soon. He began to perform a series of exercises to try and stretch out the kinks, carefully balancing the datapad so he could re-read the contents of the letter again as if it might magically answer any of the questions it raised. As he focused on the details to see if he missed anything regarding the artifact, the reason for the delay in reply started to prickle at him. The letter had definitely been written with far more reserve than the previous ones.

As he finally worked free the knot in his lower back, he pulled up the HoloNet and ran a search on news articles for the Tapani sector. He didn’t need to look far to find the buzz about a daring rescue of an entire orphanage from the nefarious plot of a rogue minor house trying to curry favor with the losing house in the Barnabas succession. They apparently took the building as a hideout concealing a hidden stash of weapons and had planted dentonite around the perimeter. All orphans had safely been pulled from the exploding building and while the article didn’t say there was going to be a statue erected in a certain Jedi’s honor, Theron half expected it to. He was already scrubbing a hand across his face by the time he got to the end. Beyond being possibly the most disgustingly cliched do-gooder he’d ever met, the woman was a giant flashing neon sign that attracted attention wherever she went. What the hell had he been thinking bringing her in on this? There was no way they were going to remain under the radar if she stopped what she was doing every five seconds to rescue kath pups and nexu kittens.

He opened up a new message, and stared at it for a few moments before he began writing out his reply:

To: Greyias Highwind From: Theron Shan Subject: Interesting

I’m sure the life of a Jedi Knight is very busy, especially one that seems to wind up on the top of the HoloNet News feed as often as you do. It’s understandable that you can’t always reply to every piece of mail you get right away. Although I do admit I was thinking I’d hear back sooner than a week. 

But your reply, even delayed, is appreciated. I hadn’t gotten far sifting through the data, but I’m going to double-check the report when I get in tomorrow to see if I can find the piece of tech you mentioned in the log. If the Council had it locked up, I doubt they were willing to share with the SIS the exact nature of the device. But hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and everyone will have been in a sharing mood. Hope springs eternal right?

Speaking of the Council, I think you’re right in that we should probably not share anything with the Grand Master right now. All I have right now are threads and suspicions, but nothing concrete. We need to figure out what’s going on before anyone’s going to take us seriously. I’m getting there, but it’s slow going. I’ve gotten some leads on Darok, but they’re just… odd. He’s started requesting intel, like on the weaponization of the Iso-5 on Tython. That makes sense. My other lead is just confusing, and I’ve got no idea what it means. I was actually working on it when your message came. If anything comes from it, I’ll let you know.

Theron stared at the blinking cursor, trying decide if he should end it there, but something was still nagging at him. Rescued orphans aside, there was nothing in the report that indicated why it took her an entire week to check her inbox, seeing as that incident had occurred almost five days ago. It was none of his damn business and he didn’t care. He really didn’t. Not beyond keeping an eye on a potentially valuable asset for his operation. Still, it felt as if he didn’t quite have control over his fingers typing out the last portion of his reply.

Now, it’s not my business or anything, but in my line of work I’m used to reading between the lines. I couldn’t help but notice you mentioning everything but exactly what delayed your reply. If I do find something, are you going to be up to joining my investigation? Or do I need to write your medic for permission first? Hopefully you managed to hide that datapad from him successfully enough so you don’t have to smuggle another one just to check your mail.

I’ve got to finish running down this other lead before I call it a night. If I find anything new, I’ll be in touch. Try not to blow yourself up rescuing another orphanage in the meantime.