#korriban has like

[arkhavens]

ok but i CANNOT fucking get over the fact that there was literally an active sith academy on thule before+during the clone wars.

[shark-wrangler]

Kalarros's mother is starting to develop into an OC in her own right but in like, the exact opposite way Mavihra did. Mavihra got promoted to OC because she's great and I love her. Lady Oraya is just Insufferable and I get way too much joy out of her snobbery and general bullshit.

(his father is the one who's an Oraya by birth and as a consequence is somewhat less insufferable, so I haven't developed him much yet)

[sovonight]

.

[animatedjen]

Which already canon planet (appeared in films/series/games) would you love to see in the next Jedi game? Also, is there any lesser known planet in the lore you'd explore?

Ah anon I'm so sorry, you've outed me as a fraud 😭 I actually don't know many of the different Star Wars planets - but I've loved exploring both familiar and new places throughout the Jedi series. Each game has included two well-known locations (Kashyyyk and Dathomir, Coruscant and Jedha) balanced by brand new places (Bogano and Zeffo, Koboh and its moon) so it's possible that pattern will continue for Jedi 3.

There's a few Reddit threads out there with a similar question: Dantooine, Korriban/Moriband, Nar Shaddaa, Naboo, Onderon, and Umbara pop up pretty often. I could see Jedi 3 balancing its planets between Empire-controlled territories inside the known galaxy and other places inside the Koboh abyss besides Tanalorr. Like previous games, there's a focus on an ancient culture and uncovering secrets from the past that help shape the present.

What I really want to explore is the final chapter of this Sorc Tormo/Haxion Brood storyline. They've been chasing Cal since his escape from Ordo Eris and I don't think the Mantis Crew wants bounty hunters tracking down their new Hidden Path sanctuary. Whether that means going back to the space station or confronting Sorc somewhere else, I'd love to take down the Brood once and for all. Running into Caij and freeing her in exchange for rocket boots wouldn't be a bad deal either 👀

[sith-shenanigans]

For the ask game where we send you an NPC, Talos Drellik? (I am totally not jumping up and down at the thought of following up on some tags/replies you left a while ago about Ahene and Talos, not at all)

aaaa it makes me so happy that you liked the tags and were not annoyed by the tags (let me put this under a readmore because it’s going to be extremely long)

Okay! So! Bearing in mind that this is a living work and Hoth is a long way away and I don’t know all of what will change—

There is a very not-entirely-normal dynamic here because it doesn’t progress in intensity so much as progress in what, precisely, the intensity is made up of.

Ahene’s first introduction to Talos is along the lines of “do you really want to talk to that guy? He’s strange,” and this endears him to her immediately. Ahene’s second introduction to Talos is walking into a Reclamation Service camp and not feeling like she’s home.

(She does, in fact, think of the camp outside the Rakatan ruin where she largely grew up as being “home.” She also often thinks of herself as not having a home. Or of the ruin itself being home, and the camp not.)

It is important to know, here, that Ahene’s relationship to her trauma is much more in the “continues to be attracted back to it and to things that remind her of it” category rather than the “avoid all reminders forever on pain of flashbacks” category. She actively enforces these reminders on herself whenever she feels she’s acting too much like she’s free—early on, it’s because she believes she isn’t, even if she and her master are the only ones who know that. Later on, it’s because a lot of her self-image is tied up in not being a “typical Sith,” and in her mind, her ability to treat herself harshly is proof she isn’t one (isn’t Like The Others). She hasn’t forgotten who—or what—she really is.

By and large, she feels safer in unsafe situations. She understands hierarchical relationships better than equal ones. She doesn’t know how to be a person, and she’s terrified she’ll forget how to not be. Obviously, this makes her kind of hate being a Sith, but it also makes her kind of prefer being a Sith—the social dynamics are very, very easy for her, even if she doesn’t feel she deserves the loyalty she gets for it.

Back on Tatooine, she worked with a Reclamation Service crew, and it was the most familiar thing she’s done since Korriban, except that this time she was a Sith to them. Which was simultaneously awful and “hey, the terrible thing that happened to you? You’re going to exist in proximity to it forever but it can’t hurt you anymore.” (Which, to someone who keeps trying to yank on her own trauma to prove it can’t hurt her…) Then everything went terribly wrong and Silthar got very badly injured, and they were depending on her, and she has never been able to avoid feeling responsible under those circumstances.

But there’s still this given hanging over it that the responsibility is unrequited. People will be grateful to her as a Sith that helps and protects them—more grateful than she thinks she deserves for doing what she perceives as bare-minimum decency towards anyone she has power over—but if she had been below them, they wouldn’t have treated her the way she treats those below her. She wouldn’t have been one of their people. She would have been one of their tools.

(The greatest exercise in loyalty, in her mind, is to give it without caring if it’s returned. She still loathes the Empire for not returning it towards its people, almost as much or even more than she hates it for what it did to her planet, because if it took care of them then she wouldn’t have to do it—but that’s because Imperials believe they’re doing something good. She doesn’t. She just takes care of them anyway, because it may not be the right thing to do, but it still makes the galaxy a little more just.)

By the time she gets to Hoth, though, she’s just having an awful time. The inquisitor story in the game only has things get really bad at the start of Act III, and before that you’re kind of fine? But Ahene is not fine. Ahene is also aware that she’s not fine. It might have started subtly, but at this point she’s just trying to sell herself on the idea that she can handle it until Thanaton is dealt with and then she can let the ghosts go and everything will be, if not fine, relatively fixed enough that she can spend about a week curled into a little ball in the corner of her ship until she can function normally again.

But, you know, for the most part, the ways she’s Not Fine aren’t externally visible yet. There was an incident on Quesh where she used the ghosts’ power and kind of halfway lost control and partly life-drained Cineratus, but because she didn’t stop at the station to get anybody inoculated, the only one who actually saw that was Khem. And she didn’t really… explain that. She hasn’t told anyone that she feels hollow all the time and barely gets physically hungry and hears the ghosts talking to her even when she isn’t alone. She can hide it. She can handle it. She doesn’t have enough of an advantage yet. This is enough this will be enough she can still put a stop to it.

So she arrives on Hoth, and she shows up at a Reclamation Service camp expecting for it to feel normal again—enough that it’s easy to slot into the proper role, that she doesn’t have to think about it. She knows the responsibility and the resentment, the fact that something about it always seems safer than anywhere else she’s been.

It doesn’t feel normal. It feels just a little bit like she hates everyone there.

(Or, more accurately, like somebody does. Ahene hates like hell freezes over—rarely, slowly, and with a sort of cold contempt that burns mostly in how impersonal it can be. But the spirits in the back of her mind know how to hate, and they’re much too happy to share.)

Talos looks at this Sith Lord, who appears to be unusually scruffy and looks like she’s developed dark side corruption without the glowing eyes, and—unlike Andronikos, unlike Silthar, unlike Sarnova, unlike Zaril—doesn’t come to the conclusion that someone needs to parent her. She’s moved a bit past giving off that energy. Instead he comes to the conclusion that she’s about to deliver the most fascinating problem he’s encountered this year, which is (because Talos is Talos) really what he finds ideal in a Sith.

Ahene looks at this strange, mostly fearless little archaeologist, and discovers that she is not immune to being treated like a totally reasonable and decent individual who is here for the love of history despite every indication otherwise. Many people make this discovery around Talos.

Their early interactions are still… fascinating. His aura of “everyone I talk to is fundamentally a decent fellow” can only do so much, especially since his version of “rationalizing” all the terrible things about the Empire is sweeping them all into a bucket of “things I can’t do anything about” to hyperfixate on archaeology. Ahene keeps him at arm’s length like she’s learned to do with most people. Ahene gets sucked into talking shop with him. They discover, to Talos’s delight and Ahene’s pleased-despite-herself annoyance, that they share a sense of humor. He treats his probe droids better than some people treated her, and exactly the same way that other people treated her. She gets attached to them too.

Somewhere in there—either before they find Horak-Mul or after, though I’m leaning towards before—he asks about her first dig.

She tells him it was the Verios ruin. The face he makes tells her everything she would have needed to know about Darth Kelshrin’s reputation with the Service, if she hadn’t already been aware.

Delicately, like someone trying to thread a conversational needle with as few actual words as possible, Talos suggests that you hear things about that dig, and they aren’t very good. People don’t like to talk about it, if they manage to get reassigned.

She says that she’s one of the reasons that people don’t like to talk about it, and watches him struggle to reconcile that with her entire demeanor for a moment, then clarifies that she was one of the children they had—probably still have—doing probe-work.

Because of course it does, this horrifies him. She shrugs and comments that she hadn’t realized Kelshrin was that much of an outlier; haven’t there ever been slaves on any of your digs? Talos starts to protest that yes, but none of them were children, and comes to the mid-sentence conclusion that actually, she doesn’t care.

His mouth clicks shut. They sit in silence for a little bit.

When he next speaks, he tells her that he’s sorry he wasn’t there.

She says that most people would have put an ‘and’ in the middle of that sentence. They would have found it absolving, that they weren’t there. And he makes a face, and says that yes, that’s true, but still—he wishes he’d been there. That perhaps he could have done something, if he had been. That at least he could have been—better than the others.

I’m sure you would have been, she says, touching his shoulder, in a voice that would be a threat if any of the bitterness were directed at him. It isn’t a threat. It’s just that half of her doesn’t believe him, and doesn’t blame him, and the other half wants to believe him—and hates so very much that someone like him existed this whole time, and never came for her.

They don’t talk very much about that part of her background, after that. She never makes a secret of what she was—it’s the first thing anyone knows about her anyway, the trash apprentice who brought back the Dark Temple expedition—but while she’ll talk about the ruin like it’s simultaneously a deathtrap and a lost home, she doesn’t tell him about the Service camp. It’s their armistice; it wouldn’t be fair.

She doesn’t blame him for what happened to her childhood. He doesn’t look at her like he’s afraid of her when she loses control of the ghosts’ power, when he walks in on her having snapping arguments with thin air, when the ghosts’ memories and personalities start leaking in and she reacts to something he said about the Great Hyperspace War like she was there.

It’s difficult not to care deeply about someone who sees you at your absolute, utter worst—half-dead, half-possessed, still suffering from a Horror Hunger despite knowing that there are few things she needs less than other people’s life energy—and treats it like it’s simply something that’s happening, and no more terrifying than any other serious illness.

He’s the one she goes to one night, when she needs to tell someone how terrified she is to die. He’s the only member of her crew she doesn’t feel some need to be strong for.

(He is, maybe, the person she tells that she thinks she could exorcise the ghosts. That she hasn’t tried, because she’s scared that it would work.)

It’s important that—by this point—he doesn’t feel like he has to be strong with her, either. He doesn’t have to pretend that he doesn’t notice how bad things are, or keep up a cheerful front through it, the way he nearly always does. It’s not that his cheerful front is insincere—it’s not that he’s lying—but that’s how he’s always dealt with his emotions, the same as Ahene deals with them by scrunching them up into a little ball and taking another step no matter what. They aren’t people who know how to seek comfort in other people, most of the time. Talos doesn’t have childhood trauma the way she has childhood trauma, but he did very much grow up in an abusive environment that he generally dismisses as “not so bad as all that” with a wave of his hand. So it’s… something, that they can be scared together of what’s going to come.

(This could so easily be read as romantic. It is not remotely. It’s also not remotely parental on Talos’s part. It’s just a very unlikely bordering-on-queerplatonic friendship.)

When Ahene walks out of the Dark Council chambers on Korriban with Thanaton’s body (Teneb Kel’s body) in her arms and a title she didn’t ask for or want, Talos makes sure the body ends up in a cryostasis tube until it can be properly entombed. When they head for Dromund Kaas right after, because the planet is being invaded, when she makes for the Dark Temple immediately when they arrive in the aftermath—Talos waits for her at the Dark Temple approach.

When she calls him and asks him to get another stasis chamber and never breathe a word of it to anyone, he does it, because they would trust each other with anything.

Up to and including the body of the Emperor’s Voice.

(The next couple months, she barely remembers, because she was under so much pressure and so much of the same kind of pressure that her dissociative memory issues cropped up again and turned it into a soup of events that 2V had to record and summarize for her. But Talos quite frequently knew what she was doing better than she did, at least when it came to the fact that she suddenly had to run the Reclamation Service. This has always been a team effort. Between her and all her crew, but still especially between the two of them.)

[npc opinions]

[notapaladin]

I was inspired by an old "your OCs as companions" meme template I found and decided to combine it with an official-encyclopedia-style blurb. Highly recommend it tbh.

(Font: Liberation Sans 9 pt)

Text below the readmore:

Sidebar

SPECIES: Human

HOMEWORLD: Dromund Kaas

AGE: 22

HOBBIES: Historical research, gardening, archaeology

PREFERRED WEAPONS: Matched set of single-blade sabers with ornate golden details; they are family heirlooms given to her by her father upon her acceptance to the Sith Academy on Korriban YAELLIA IVROS

A BRAVE AND HONORABLE SITH WARRIOR, Lady Yaellia – just Yaellia, to her friends – is the only child and heir of the noble Imperial House Ivros, which was founded by a freed slave and therefore has some...unorthodox views of Imperial policy. The family history which was instilled in Yaellia from a young age granted her a sense of cooperation and fairness unheard of in many other members of the Sith hierarchy. Unfortunately, this has not made her or her family popular among their peers. House Ivros is under constant threat from its many enemies, and before Yaellia was ten years old she’d already survived numerous attempts on her life.

When Yaellia was accepted into the Korriban Academy, she became determined to uplift her family at any cost, barring the sacrifice of her principles. Though these principles successfully prevented the poisoning of her entire dorm suite by a rival class, they also nearly got her Force-choked to death by one of her teachers; she was only saved by the timely intervention of Lord Alanais Venditor, and has looked up to him ever since. Though he wanted to mentor her, Darth Baras made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.

Being chosen as Darth Baras’s apprentice was the highest honor she or her family could have ever hoped for. Even though she loathes him personally, her personal opinions don’t matter next to her family’s status and safety. Accordingly, she has set out aboard the ship he gave her, a Fury-class Interceptor she has dubbed Zhasanai’s Grace, to do as little of his dark bidding as she can get away with. Rumors of her involvement with the Revanite cult remain unsubstantiated.

Likes: Honor, mercy, preserving historical sites, loyalty, animals Dislikes: Cruelty, collateral damage, dishonesty, eye contact

AS A COMPANION

Selection lines:

“My sabers are yours.”

“Can I help you?”

“Leave it to me.”

“It is an honor to fight by your side.”

Battle lines:

“I am your end!”

“For the Empire!”

“Come, face me!”

Exiting battle:

“I didn’t even break a sweat.”

“What a shame. What a waste.”

“They died well.”

“Where’s our next target?”

KO’ed/Low health:

“A little help?!”

“Ah...I’ve miscalculated...”

“Can’t...breathe...!”

“I don’t like bleeding my own blood.”

Resurrected:

“That was a fluke.”

“Time to reenter the fray!”

“One day I will die, but not this day. Thanks to you.”

Misc. click lines:

“Are you quite alright?”

“Remind me to catch up on my reading.”

(on Dromund Kaas or other wet planets) “Ahh, the scent of home!...lake water and rotting vegetation. Lovely.”

“The Empire cannot rise to greatness on the backs of slaves.”

“Oh! Did I tell you about the holocron I found the other day?”

“Take a holo, it lasts longer.”

Gifts:

Cultural Artifacts, Imperial Memorabilia [favorite]: “This is wonderful! Thank you, I’ll treasure it.”

Courting, Luxury, Delicacy [love]: “Oh, you’re terribly kind to think of me.”

Military Gear, Weapon, Republic Memorabilia [like]: “Thank you.”

Underworld Good, Technology, Maintenance [indifferent]: “...I...thank you. Truly.”

[lavampira]

OCKISS24 — DAY 2

prompt: rain [@ockissweek] pair: swtor ocs; cadrien x minaiph [belongs to @hythlodaes] word count: 1050

The first morning back on Dromund Kaas, it rains.

And not just a simple shower, but a downpour that spatters heavily across the balcony, thunder rumbling through his bare feet as Cadrien stands beneath the awning. He’s heard others complain of it endlessly over the years. Too dreary with all the rain, too humid with its untamed, sprawling jungles, too dangerous should the spires fail, but to him, it’s home.

A home where Min and he have finally returned.

Cadrien sips from a steaming mug of tea, taking in the rhythmic sound and flits of energy through the Force as a crack of lightning strikes a distant spire. It reminds him of a conversation with Jaesa as an apprentice years ago, how beauty can be found in the Force, too, that it isn’t all that the Sith say. That the manner he perceives as a Miraluka is no less than the way others may see and experience awe.

But none of the morning’s beauty comes close to capturing his attention like the vibrant figure that materializes behind him.

Familiar hands easily wind around his bare waist, palms rough from a life honed in battle yet gentle as they slip across his skin. Equally familiar lips press to his nape with a breath that ghosts down his spine, and he tilts his neck in anticipation of another kiss there, but instead, those same lips meet the gnarled scar of his shoulder.

“You know, it’s much too early,” Min says, his deep voice still thick with sleep. “We could still be in bed for another few hours.”

Cadrien resists the urge to laugh. “You could’ve stayed if you wanted, Min.”

“The problem with that is you weren’t there to keep me warm. You left me, cold and alone, to brood in the rain.”

“I’m not brooding,” Cadrien grumbles.

A quiet breath huffs against him as Min shifts, draping a soft fabric around both of them. A blanket, Cadrien thinks distantly, one that he must’ve dragged off of the bed in his drowsy search for him. The idea threatens to pull his lips into a hint of a smile, and he can’t suppress it once Min hooks his chin over his shoulder to rest, comfortably fitted as if he belongs there, always, like every slope of Cadrien has been shaped for him and him alone.

“It’s… peaceful,” Cadrien adds, leaning into the taller man. “I’ve missed mornings like this.”

Min hums. “It has been a long time.”

“Too long.”

Bitterness seeps into the low rumble of his own voice, more than he intends. Min assuages him with a sweep of his thumb on his abdomen, still holding the blanket around them, careful not to jostle his tea, but a comfort all the same. Cadrien reaches for the arm around him, giving a grateful squeeze before threading their fingers.

At least when Korriban had fallen, when even the remnants of the Dark Council had bowed to Zakuul’s reign, they still had each other. The Claws had stood in defiance and were hunted across the expanse of stars both charted and uncharted, so much time wasted to the pride and foolishness of others, but their partnership has always been their greatest strength, and so they still live.

Min draws him from his thoughts with a kiss that finally meets the slope of his neck, his lips curling in a smirk against his tender skin. “Now you’re brooding, Cade.”

“Perhaps,” Cadrien concedes.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. We’re home now. That’s all that matters.”

“Then tell me about home,” Min says, slipping into that genuine curiosity that always brings him back to two boys among Korriban’s sands, one trailing after the other with an endless supply of questions. Once it had pestered him, but Cadrien has grown to love it more with each day. “What is the rain like to you?”

Yet another familiarity, this one. A habit they’ve forged in seeking the galaxy in each other’s view. Cadrien pauses with his mug halfway to his lips, considering the words to paint the visual for him. Min is patient, rubbing small circles into his skin with his thumb, as he grants him that time. Rarely so patient with others, but always with him.

“Faint, but… flickering. Brief flashes of the Force with each drop. The lightning is brighter, but more distant.” Cadrien ducks his chin, the dangling jewel on his mask brushing his temple with the motion. “You drown it out, though.”

“Me?” Min blurts with a startled laugh.

“You’re the brightest, most vibrant part of everything, Min.”

It’s ridiculous, really, how his heart races in his chest. Cadrien has sworn his love to this man a million times over by now, and the same in turn, but still, his admission leaves him raw, so exposed under the gaze he knows has found him, even if he can’t see it. And yet, never has he felt more safe than he does with Min’s arms around him and his heart in his hands.

“Get rid of this,” Min demands as he reaches for his mug, leaning away only briefly to set it aside somewhere, anywhere. “I need to kiss you now.”

Cadrien fully laughs this time, low and rough, but turns to face him more fully. A moment barely passes before Min crashes into him, palms cupping his face as their lips meet. The blanket flutters away from them, faint from their residual touch on it before it vanishes, his entire perception nothing but the glowing man in front of him. His own hands reach for Min’s hips for purchase, letting one slide beneath the hem of his shirt and up his warm torso to feel for the jagged scar that once saved his life.

Min’s urgency melts with the touch. It’s a simple understanding, their mutual devotion and how far each would go to ensure that the other continues to breathe, and the fact that they can savor this moment on the world where they built their names together is a reminder of the worth. There’s no need for rush when they have the rainfall and thunder crashing around them, and their languid touch with each kiss, and the promise of more mornings like this one, an entire future ahead of them together.

[blackkatmagic]

hi kat! just wanna say i just binge read when the dead tree flowers & arcana, and thank you for introducing me to one granta omega!! i can't believe he's not more well known in sw fandom although his character is just so cool?? alao his background: a force blank person who's the son of qui gonn's former padawan?? like cmon people, the fic potential alone is massive. so once again thank you for writing about him 💕 looking forward to whatever plot he plans next!

I'm so glad you've been enjoying my new fixation lol. Granta is so much fun, and not as obscure as a lot of characters I latch onto, so it's surprising to me too that he's not used more in fandom, even as just an antagonist.

From something entirely different but still Granta-focused:

There's a wild thing bleeding out in the sands of Korriban, collapsed at the feet of the towering statue of a long-dead Sith Lord like some sort of offering.

Myles stops, even though he shouldn’t. Even though there's on a timetable and up against a deadline, and Jaster will definitely do something stupid if he’s left alone for more than thirty minutes. Something catches his eye, though, pulls his feet to a stop in the deep red sand, and he turns and looks despite all the stories, despite all the good sense he likes to think he has.

There's a wild thing bleeding out in the sand, and it takes Myles a long second of looking to be able to tell whether it’s man or beast.

It’s a man, probably. A man in dark leather and dark cloth and steel, the sand around him turned from scarlet to rust with how much blood he’s already lost, his dark hair like a tangled web of shadow spilling over his face and across the dune.

 “Myles?” Montross asks, impatient, but something keeps Myles from being able to pull his gaze away from the crumpled figure. Maybe it’s the boneless sprawl of his body, or maybe it’s the way one hand is stretched out, reaching for something Myles can't see. Maybe it’s the face Myles can half-see, fine-boned and handsome, with a scruff of stubble that tries for roguish and falls flat at absentminded.

Maybe it’s the fact that, even to Myles's stunted Force-sense, there's something overwhelmingly strange about the man, absent and shadowed and halfway to gone, even when Myles is looking right at him.

“Keep going,” he tells Montross, waving the squad on. “I’ll catch up.”

Montross doesn’t argue, just tips his head and keeps going, calling the warriors around him onward with a gesture. Myles watches them trudge up the next dune, then turns, picking his way through the deep sand as he approaches the base of the statue. It’s a grand one, even if it’s half-buried, the face cracked away into smooth and featureless stone. There are markings around the base, a wide swath of pedestal that’s deeply carved and inlaid with metal. Not gold or treasure hunters would have ripped it up long ago, Myles thinks critically, but enough to catch the sunlight and burn.

The dying man is sprawled across the inlays, one hand reaching towards the base of the statue, one hand pressed against a wound in his chest. There are scorch marks in his light armor, just a breastplate of interlocking scales, but—the fact that he’s even wearing it is interesting. Most people who aren’t Mandalorians don’t tend to bother.

“Still hanging on?” Myles asks, crouching down over him as blood smears across inlayed stone, though he can see the heartbeat flickering on his HUD. Living doesn’t always mean alive, where wounds like that are concerned.

Through a tangle of black hair, lashes flutter, rise. There's a rasping breath, and dark blue eyes fix on Myles with all the ferocity of a nexu caught in a hunter’s trap, brutal and vicious and terrified.

Man or beast, Myles thinks, amused despite himself. Maybe the line isn't quite as definitive as he’d thought.

“I guess you are,” he says, and pulls his helmet off. Korriban is ferociously hot with the sun up, and it feels like being trapped in a vast mirror that reflects the heat and light back on them, turning the desert into a land of mirages and tricks of the eye all around them. It bleeds a shine of red and gold into the air, something that flickers and burns. The man is cold to the touch when Myles reaches for him, though, skin clammy from blood loss, and he can't fight it when Myles rolls him over onto his back.

There's a lightsaber wound burned into his chest, right through his armor, and the metal is melted and warped and fused to his skin.

Myles cocks his head, some edge of awareness that a Jedi is probably nearby twisting itself through a much sharper sort of assessment. The lightsaber wound isn't bleeding; that’s from what looks like the shrapnel of an exploded blaster, buried in the man’s side where his jacket and breastplate didn’t provide quite as much protection as they should have. Survivable, Myles thinks, calculating times, the man’s size, how much blood he must have lost already. It’s the wound that’s killing him, not the lightsaber burn. Maybe exposure, too; his lips are dry and cracked, and with the heat what it is, he won't survive the trek back to civilization even if his wound miraculously patches itself up.

The Jedi that tried to kill him left him to die slowly. That’s a hell of an act of mercy from a righteous and compassionate monastic order.

A little amused, Myles drags his fingers through tangled hair, shoves it out of the man’s face, and jerks his hand up just before he gets bitten for his troubles. There's a full-body wrench, like the man is trying his level best to move, but he collapses again a moment later with a ragged, desperate sound, fingers scrabbling futilely at the sand.

“What are you, an animal?” Myles asks, raising a brow, and catches the man’s jaw, tipping his head. He’s breathing hard, exhausted and fading, fine spasms shaking him, and Myles cocks his head. “I can save you,” he says, and dark eyes flicker to him, narrow. “But I'm Mandalorian. Once I do, your life belongs to me. No matter what I want to do with it.”

There's a pause, so long that Myles almost thinks the man can't hear him—

A laugh, raspy, wild, that shakes through the man like a spasm. One blood-soaked hand rises, wavering, and Myles almost thinks it’s going to fall bonelessly to the sand again.

Instead, it lands on Myles's breastplate, a smear of crimson against the blue and gold of the metal. The man stares at him through his tangled hair, bloody teeth bared, eyes burning, and rasps out, “Please.”

[vodika-vibes]

Delta Squad doesn’t like it when Rynn is injured, Rynn doesn’t like it when they get injured. 5 idiots in love indeed 😚

They just love each other so much, lol. And then only thing they bicker about is Rynn's refusal to wear proper armor.

"Done! Finally." Rynn says with a sigh as she leans heavily on Fixer's shoulder, "Can we leave now?" "Sadly, no. We need to report back to Commander Cody." Boss replies, "But then we're done." "Do we have to do it in person?" Rynn asks as she closes her eyes, "My migraine has a migraine." "Sadly, we do." Boss says, sounding like he genuinely means it, "But I can do all the talking if it hurts too much." Rynn just hums, and leans closer to Fixer, who just shifts and presses his hand over her eyes, to try and shield her from the light. "You're amazing, Fixer." She mumbles. "Yes, yes. I know." He doesn't say anything else, as Commander Cody and General Kenobi approach. Cody looks a little singed and exhausted, and General Kenobi isn't much better. "Did you find anything?" Cody asks. "A bunch of dead people, some sith artifacts that we left in place, and that's about it." Boss replies, "This planet seems to be wrecking havoc on our Jedi though." Cody glances at Rynn, who is being coaxed into sipping some water by Scorch, and then over to General Kenobi, who's eyes are darting around, as if worried that something is going to jump out at them. And he sighs. "Reporting in is important, but it's more important to get them somewhere safe. I expect a typed up report before you jump away from Korriban." Tension drains out of Boss' body, and he turns to his brothers, "We're leaving." Rynn is immediately scooped into Fixer's arms, and they head back to their ship, while Boss glances back at Cody, "You'll have your reports as soon as Rynn's migraine goes away." "Deal."

[disastertriowriting]

Disaster Lineage Appreciation Gift Exchange

Fanfics:

A shower a day keeps the self-loathing spirit away by egeria - Obi-Wan gets hurt on a mission and Anakin can't mentally handle it. Snuggles ensue.

A Talk Under the Veil of the Night by StarxRox - Fives was executed in front of his eyes. Anakin can't forget what happened. He has nightmares. He hopes that they are just nightmares. But they aren't. Also Obi-Wan is the inconspicuous casual disaster child everybody believes is perfect.

Acch-To Soul, Korriban Body by Sinvulkt (Wakare) - The hound - for it had no name but hound, beast, mutant - collapsed in the dark alley, its small paws folding underneath it. Its chest felt heavy, and its breath came ragged, pained. Blood sang loudly to its ears, as did the loud men that were after it. Its muzzle was still wet from the time they tried to drown it.

Acolyte by Courtesy Trefflin - The mission to Ringo Vinda spirals downward when Tup tries to kill Luminara and Ahsoka confronts, and is injured by, Dooku's unknown assassin, called the Acolyte. There is a conspiracy involving the clones, and Anakin will do anything to uncover it when it means protecting the only people he has had left since Obi-Wan's death many months ago. (Winter Soldier AU)

Crisis of Faith by Courtesy Trefflin (Tirana Sorki) - Qui-Gon's loss isn't the only thing Obi-Wan struggles with after the battle of Naboo. The entire Order worships him as the Sith killer now, but it means having standards he doesn't know he can reach. He can't forget his master. He used the Dark Side. And he has the Chosen One to train, a padawan who is nothing like what Jedi ought to be.

Do Not Stand at My Grave by ReadingBlueWolf - After saving Naboo, Obi-Wan, and Anakin are kidnapped in broad daylight by Dooku. Frustrated by the Council's lack of response (and the old coot insisting on being called "buir"), Obi-Wan pens a few letters to Qui-Gon about the situation.

Flight Path by Courtesy Trefflin (Amina Gila) - Sidious never let him fly, preferring to keep him chained, and even though Anakin was trapped as a dragon for decades, losing his humanity and memories for a time, he has not lost his love for flying. It’s taken months for him to recover, and now that he and his family are taking a trip to Alderaan, he has the perfect opportunity to test his wings again.

Freefall by InsertSthMeaningful - Rey’s Jedi training on Ahch-To entails many things, like swimming, running, lightsaber duelling – and scaling high cliffs. One day, however she falls, and Master Luke doesn’t catch her. Instead, the Force does.

I dream of water by IceyGemini - For a long time, Luke's dreams nightmares were about heat and fire. This one was different...

Mashaw Bros, Sunset Circus by DragonflyonBreak - Come to the circus and witness what you've never seen before.

Multiples - Leia in ANH by Courtesy Trefflin - On the bridge of the Death Star, moments before Alderaan's destruction, Darth Vader is caught off-guard when a shift in the Force causes four more versions of Leia Organa to appear. Leia, who is... his daughter, apparently, the daughter he never knew he had. And Vader will do anything for his family.

Multiples - Luke in TESB by Courtesy Trefflin (Tirana Sorki) - For months now, Vader has waited for the day when he can tell Luke that he's his father. If Luke will join him, they can make the galaxy a better place. That day has finally arrived, except moments before Vader can reveal the truth, the Force suddenly, and unexpectedly, drops four other versions of Luke in front of him as well.

Multiples - Obi-Wan in ROTS by Courtesy Trefflin - Anakin and Obi-Wan have just landed aboard the Invisible Hand to rescue Chancellor Palpatine when suddenly, four other versions of Obi-Wan appear with them. One Obi-Wan is hard enough sometimes, but five? That is a whole other story. It doesn't help that they're not terribly fond of each other... or that the eldest are hiding things about the future.

Of Lineages and Hope by MiaSirtnev - Obi-Wan Kenobi never had a daughter but did have a very special Grandpadawan in Ahsoka Tano. And in matters large and small, they will always be there for each other. Always.

Ready to Respond (Do Not React) by Kefalion - After the events on Cloud City, Luke has been working on his ability to meditate. In a dream, he reaches the right frame of mind and he speaks with Yoda who shares some wisdom.

Relief by hayam - In retrospect, Dooku probably should have gone to the healers the first time he felt that sore tickle in his throat. Or that slight bit of nausea. It would have saved a lot of trouble..

Skywalker Snared by Writer_Patriot - Verifying Dooku's live capture didn't go as planned. Anakin blames himself.

Successor by Courtesy Trefflin (Tirana Sorki) - Traveling into Wild Space in search of ancient Jedi Temples and holocrons to learn from, in the hopes of rebuilding the Jedi Order, Rey stumbles onto something else entirely: the ancient world of Mortis, except... it's now inhabited by Force ghosts?

Swimming Lessons by Kittona writes (kittona) - Ahsoka plots to get her master to take a vacation; they're going to go to the beach. Sun, sand, relaxation, and most importantly, swimming. There's only one problem, Anakin didn't tell her he never learned to swim

The Time Where Anakin Became Yoda's New Padawan by StarxRox - Basically just another time travel story.

With Me As I Go by Courtesy Trefflin - When Qui-Gon died, becoming one with the Force, he could only watch. Watch as everyone in the lineage mourned him, and as the galaxy fell. But he is not about to let his master die. Or, the five times Qui-Gon tried and failed to help his family, and the one time he succeeded.

Fanart:

Just a Little Family Nap by lulek(szalik)

[relevant-url-incoming]

Planting Seeds

a little introductory snippet of my favourite AU of my ocs: where Ven and Kit are the Sith lords, reluctantly and angrily, but at least they can cling to each other.

This deep into the tomb, Ven’s footsteps echoed. The screams of unlucky acolytes were distant now. Even the ones who were busy going crazy didn’t seem to have ventured this far. Ven kept her mind closed to the Force, refusing to even consider playing Sith any more than she absolutely had to.

Then there was another footfall, just out of time with Ven’s own steps. Ven stopped, her heart in her throat.

Something crackled. Ven whirled and brought her blade up just in time to catch the lightning. The Togruta Sith who’d thrown it clutched his hand to his chest, like he was the one who should be bothered. His lavender skin shone in the strange lighting of the tomb, and his white markings nearly blended with the yellow of his montrals. His lekku were short and a little stubby, and in any other situation Ven might have called his broad, soft features friendly-looking.

“Sorry,” he said. Ven tightened her grip on her blade. Was this a trick?

“Sorry,” he said again. “Are you all right?”

“Excuse me?” Ven said before she could think better of it. “What kind of question is that?”

He pulled a face that was significantly more sheepish than Ven thought a Sith could ever be capable of.

“Sorry,” he said a third time. “I thought you were a k’lor’slug.”

“Flattery gets you nowhere,” Ven said. She lowered her blade at last. “You’re the first Sith I’ve ever met who’d ask if someone’s all right.”

For a moment, his face twisted in anger – far more familiar, especially these days. Then he sighed, looking away.

“No one has ever accused me of being good at this.”

“If you ask me, that’s a good thing,” Ven said. She tensed, preparing to fight if he decided she was being insolent, but all he did was stare at her quizzically.

“You’re an acolyte, too, aren’t you?” he asked finally.

“Under protest,” Ven muttered. “I’m no Sith!”

His face went slack with longing at he stared at her.

“I wish I could say that with any certainty,” he said. “I’m Kitiver.”

Ven wondered if she should brandish her weapon again. Were they friends now? What was that about not wanting to be Sith?

Then again, he was a Togruta. Maybe he’d been a slave, too, before Korriban. Ven sighed and sheathed her blade.

“Ven,” she said. “If you hate this as much as I do, how’d you end up here?”

He shifted, looking uncomfortable.

“It’s a long story,” he said.

“I really don’t want to play the overseers’ stupid games,” Ven said, perching on what had once been a statue. “I have time.”

“They’re going to punish us both,” he warned her.

“Every time a Sith hurts me, they plant the seeds of their own downfall,” Ven swore. “If they want power, they need to realise that keeping slaves and forcing people like us into these hellscapes will only create enemies who are determined to take it back from them.”

He tilted his head, studying her with obvious curiosity.

“What?” Ven snapped.

“I see why they chose you,” he said. Ven bristled, and he held up his hands defensively. “I didn’t mean – you’re strong, at least! Not just in the Force, though you must be. That’s good, isn’t it?”

Ven felt like agreeing with him was as much a trap as arguing would be.

“Just tell me your story, or get out of my tendrils,” she said grudgingly. Kitiver glanced over his shoulder, obviously weighing his options. He must not have wanted to go back any more than Ven did; he sat down on the steps opposite her, casually electrocuting a k’lor’slug that appeared in the doorway as he did. Ven tried to cover her flinch, but she didn’t think she did a good job.

“There are some Imperial families who use children for prestige,” he said. “There are the heirs, of course, but then there are the savage aliens that some of the newer families adopt. To show how wonderful they are to share civilisation, you know. In my case, I was a two for one deal. An alien who should surely end up someone’s sex toy if it wasn’t for them, and a Force sensitive they could bundle off to the Sith for clout without having to worry about their precious blood descendants. Not that that idiot could ever do a damn thing with the Force.”

“Not exactly loving siblings, then,” Ven murmured. Her chest felt cold. She missed her brother.

“No,” Kitiver said. He sighed. “I tried. I thought, if I had one ally – but I was a fool. There are no allies when you’re Sith.”

“Then how do we walk out of here?” Ven asked. He clenched his fist, that same anger from earlier overtaking him once more. He didn’t seem to have an answer, but Ven could tell he wanted to. He wanted a friend, maybe even more badly than Ven did.

There are so many things I’m supposed to give them, Ven’s dad had said once when he thought Ven was in bed. It’s like every day I find out something else a kid is supposed to have. How am I supposed to give them anything when I didn’t even know it was an option?

Uncle Fives hadn’t had an answer. But the moment had stuck with Ven, anyway. There had to be things this Sith had never been given. If Ven didn’t offer, he’d never know anything else was possible.

“Tell you what,” Ven said. “Sith may not have room for real allies. But we don’t have to be Sith. No matter what they say, what they force us to do to survive. Wait for your chance, I’ll wait for mine, and we’ll get out of this alive and ourselves. Not Sith.”

He narrowed his eyes, studying her carefully. There was a thin gloss of yellow to them, flickering in the light, but Ven wasn’t sure how long she’d be one to judge. It was just like the rebellion, she told herself. You did awful things sometimes just to hold out for something better.

“Don’t betray me, I won’t betray you?” Kitiver said finally.

“I know I can trust you, if you don’t let your fear get in the way,” Ven said. The anxiety was palpable, now that she was looking at him properly. She’d thought it was just the lingering fear of the tomb, but no – that was all him. He was as terrified of himself as Ven was of herself, and ten times more doubtful. “I’m good with people like that.”

He pulled back, then laughed under his breath.

“If nothing else, I guess you’d be good to have on my side,” he said. “Shall we get back to our respective masters, Ven?”

“I have no master,” she said, but she stood. “Just don’t tell Zash that.”

“Deal,” he said. He hesitated where he sat, looking nervous. “If you leave Korriban before I do, if we don’t meet again – if you see a human Jedi, dark hair and green eyes, named Kaoja or Kaojacol – don’t hurt her. No matter what they try to make you do.”

“I don’t hurt Jedi if I can help it,” Ven said solemnly. “But I’ll keep an eye out for her, in particular. Were you a Jedi?”

He stood abruptly and stalked out. Ven swallowed hard, reminded of her brother and wishing she wasn’t.

“Take care of yourself, Kitiver,” she said.

[thehylianbatman]

Some Thoughts on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

This post has nothing to do with Disney or their movies.

This post contains minor spoilers.

Hello. I've been playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic recently. I've picked up it again just after the Leviathan Escape, which is where I left it many years ago. I'm working my way through Korriban now, so I'm interacting a lot with Yuthura Ban.

I've heard rumblings in my readings that Yuthura was originally intended to be a companion character. Although I have no sources at all for this and thusly do not truly know if it is true of false, I find it likely; of the three Jedi companions you pick up, none are aligned with the Dark Side, meaning the only way to potentially explore the Dark Side gameplay is with the player character, which has large ramifications on the story. Bastila and Juhani are aligned to the Light, while Jolee is on the light side of neutral, and doesn't read as any kind of Dark Side user, even though he is best-equipped within the game's mechanics to be so. This means that most players will almost never encounter Dark Side elements during gameplay unless they specifically choose to do so, which changes story beats and the ending.

Yuthura as a companion character changes that. Her alignment is neutral, so she's mechanically fine to use the Dark Side (if not optimized), and her story makes sense for using the Dark Side; while Juhani makes sense story-wise, her alignment makes it uncomfortable.

Yuthura also adds to the team dynamic of the party. As it stands, for the Force representation, you have the player character, Bastila, Juhani, and Jolee. If you add Yuthura to the mix, it adds balance and results in a more fully-rounded view of the Force. A larger view, you might say.

Consider this dynamic: you have Bastila, an instructor for the Light Side. Although she's not a Jedi Master (I think), and you are not her padawan (I think), she is the one best-equipped to take that mentor role in the player's story as the leader of the party. You have Juhani, a student, like the player character, who is tempted by the Dark Side. And you have Jolee, representation of that said larger view of the Force.

Adding Yuthura to this dynamic, you'd have three instructors and two students. For the instructors, you get Bastila, a Light Side instructor who falls to the Dark Side; Yuthura, a Dark Side instructor who finds the Light Side; and Jolee, who simply seems to believe in the Force. For the students, you get the player character and Juhani, and, since Juhani can be romanced, this adds even more to the dynamic; Juhani, as a student, is rooted in the Light Side but tempted by the Dark Side. Spoilerific game events show that the player character is rooted in the Dark Side but tempted by the Light Side. The poetry and the balance of this team is simply sensible.

But how could it happen? Assuming the game's cut content were to be magically restored (Unlike KotOR II, KotOR I's cut content was cut very early in development, as far as I know, and so was never really developed at all, and was simply ideas at the conception stage), I imagine it'd go somewhat as follows:

Sleheyron (the only known visit-able planet cut from KotOR I) is added to the planets as the last planet the player visits. This makes the "canonical" order of planets Dantooine, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, Korriban, and Sleheyron. In-game, the party is captured by the Leviathan before the last Star Map is retrieved; as it is, the last Star Map is on Korriban, where you meet Yuthura. In this imaginary scenario, the last Star Map is on Sleheyron.

These are all assumptions on my part.

While on Korriban, in-game, you can convince Yuthura to abandon the Sith cause and Return to the Jedi. If you visit the planets out-of-order and convince her to abandon the Sith before the party is captured by the Leviathan, you can find her at the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. However, if you visit Korriban last, after you do this, Yuthura simply vanishes, since you cannot return to Dantooine at this point.

In this magically-restored version of KotOR, you go through Korriban as normal, but, at the end of the planet's storyline, you ask Yuthura to come with you, and , as in the game, she says no, but you offer to at least take her to the Jedi Enclave. She reluctantly agrees and boards the Ebon Hawk, just in time for the ship to be captured by the Leviathan, Bastila to leave the party, and a whole lot of spoilerific story things to happen.

This changes how the Leviathan rescue occurs; in-game, you can choose Mission, T3-M4, Canderous, Juhani, HK-47, or Jolee to do it. They all sneak around and spring the other characters out. Imagine this rescue if Yuthura is an option. As a high-ranking member of the Sith academy, whose finding of the Light Side has not yet spread to the ship, as it only just happened, choosing Yuthura is an easy option, as she can lie and say that she was captured by the party. While this might paint her as weak and cost her some prestige and respect, the Sith troopers handling the capture won't know any better, "free" her, and let her wander free as one of their own, rather than relying on guile, Jedi mind tricks, or stealth.

This can then become Yuthura's great test of loyalty with the party; while she's being controlled by the player, and thusly won't betray the team for gameplay reasons, narratively, the characters don't know that. Some of them will be disinclined to trust her, most likely Carth. She can use her (now former) position with the Sith Academy to get into locations on the ship that would be locked or barred to other characters, making the rescue easy for her if done right, but really hard for her if done wrong, since one wrong move reveals her hand and turns the entire ship against her. I imagine in this scenario that it would go down similarly to a Juhani/Jolee rescue.

However, we'll trust that she plays her cards right, and uses her position in order to quietly and easily free the party. This proves to them that they can trust Yuthura. It can also be a character arc for her; she initially does it for self-serving reasons, since the party could reveal that she had joined up with them and get her in trouble, so if she frees them, she can escape just as she had been planning to do. Just as the party doesn't trust Yuthura, Yuthura probably has trouble trusting the party, and just wants to get to Dantooine. However, the party reveals when they are freed what happened to Dantooine, and let's say this shocks Yuthura, who viewed the Dark Side as ruthless, but nuanced and personal, not flat-out evil (another assumption on my part). With her position at the Sith Academy vacated and no Dantooine to run to, in the party's eyes, she has a choice to make: either betray the party and try and return to the Sith, or join up with the party and continue her climb to the light side. Naturally, she joins up with the party, since there's almost certainly no way the Sith would take her back at this point unless she plays her cards really well, but she still isn't trusted by Carth and other such members.

Everything else on the Leviathan happens as in-game, and then the player goes to Sleheyron, and, just like almost everyone else gets a personal quest, Yuthura gets a personal quest here. She doesn't like being back, but she is, and now she can do what she's always wanted to do: free the slaves and free the planet. This can also tie into the larger story of Czerka Corporation being in the pockets of the Hutts and other such criminals. Sleheyron was intended to be under the control of four Hutt families, and cut content on Tatooine would mean that the player could turn both Tatooine and Kashyyyk against Czerka Corporation, but this aspect of the story lacks a meaningful conclusion. I imagine Sleheyron was intended to be that meaningful conclusion.

So let's say the Hutts are the original financial base of Czerka Corporation; maybe Czerka is a front entirely, or maybe it was founded by the Hutts to legitimize and cover their operations and it got so big that it broke free, or it was still founded by the Hutts but remains under their control while still able to pursue an independent path; they have a business relationship, let's say. Yuthura finds out about this and is particularly outraged, since Czerka has always been painted to her as a flawed but capable and neutral company that can help the Sith Empire, so the player character can go through the gladiator ring and do the combat and best the Hutts and put them in a begging position. This can lead to Yuthura making demands for the "right" option: free the slaves, have them revolt against Czerka Corporation AND the Hutts, reveal the connection between the two to the galaxy at large, and ruin them both (though only for now in the Hutts' case). Yuthura's choice of the "right" option also finally proves her trust and loyalty to the party and completes her character arc, while also adding extra evil to the Sith Empire for working with slavers (I can't remember if the Empire themselves uses slaves in-game, though I would certainly believe it if so). This is also a net positive for Sleheyron, which is changed for the better by the player, just like the other planets. Not only all of that, but it also completes the sub-story of freeing the galaxy from crime, cruelty, and corruption that's not being done by the Sith Empire.

Then you get the last Star Map, as well, fly off to the final location, and the game's story progresses as normal.

Yuthura and the other Force users would also be able to banter in this hypothetical scenario; she can banter with Jolee about using the Dark Side (how he does not feel bound to a Light or Dark Side, but doesn't make people suffer just because he personally views it not only as wrong but also generally inefficient), and speak with Juhani about balancing the temptations of the Dark Side with the faith in the Light Side, as people that both went down the path of the Dark Side but got off it at different times. Although her time with Bastila would likely be short in a canon case, and so they wouldn't have much of a chance for banter, if the player does the planets out of order, they could have an opportunity for banter, and I imagine they'd speak about instructing the Light Side versus instructing the Dark Side, and it's just be kinda funny, as most of Bastila's banters are.

I don't imagine she'd be a romance-able companion, as there is already a lack of such content as-is in the game, but, if she were, she'd be an interesting balance to Bastila, as a Force user not bound to the Light Side. Perhaps she could lead the player down a darker path in an inversion of Bastila's story. I personally feel, however, that she doesn't quite fit for such a role, and besides, Juhani is a better romance option anyways from a narrative standpoint; two Force students pulled in by both the Light and Dark Side, and all they have is each other. Very Star Wars.

Most, if not all of this, is conjecture on my part. I've read that Sleheyron was a cut planet, that it was supposed to be in control of the Hutts, that the planetary gameply would revolve around a gladiatorial combat ring, and that Yuthura, as a companion, would replace a Juhani that is not in the party. I don't have a source for any of that, although the last point I have only seen once, whereas I feel as though I've read multiple sources, some "official" in some way, about the first three points. Of course, I am no expert on the topic, and I suppose the writers at BioWare are the only ones who know for sure.

Please feel free to reach out or add any thoughts or notes. I find this very interesting and would love to talk about it. Primary sources in particular would be excellent, I'd love to read more about the development of this game.

Thanks for reading.

[ospreyeamon]

theron, lana, and double-edged character traits

Theron and Lana have parallel double-edged character traits; different but similar, established in the same timeframe and serving the same purpose in the plot from Korriban Incursion/Assault on Tython to Ziost. Theron is bold and Lana is self-assured or, if you want to put it less charitably, Theron is reckless and Lana is arrogant.

These driving traits shaping their behaviour justifies how the plot unfolds in roughly the same way, regardless of the player character’s choices both before and during the arc. Theron would prefer to head into his unsanctioned mission with some backup, but if you tell him you’re not interested in going along with his plan during the meeting in the Carrick station cantina, he’s fully prepared to go it alone. Lana asks if the player character also smells a rat regarding Arkous and the timing of the strikes on Korriban and Tython but can’t be made to doubt her intuition if you disagree, even though the person telling her she’s wrong is probably either a higher ranked Sith or an actual intelligence agent. It’s possible to refuse the Maanan and Rakata Prime quests and still meet the pair teamed up on Rishi because if the player character doesn’t get involved they both decide they are capable of tackling the conspiracy without them.

This also plays into why they are willing to work with the other’s partner from their enemy faction, regardless of the player character’s class, past choices, or alignment. Lana is confident in her decision to trust Theron, to trust the player, to trust her feelings about both of them like she trusted her feelings about Darth Arkous. Theron is comfortable with putting his safety at risk if he and Lana turn out to be mistaken in their assumption her buddy won’t be interested in hurting him. How big a risk Theron is taking – how far Lana may be trusting her intuition in the face of contradictory evidence – varies with the player character’s history. A Jedi Knight who is buddy buddy with Scourge and Pravan is less of a stretch than a SIS-agent-hating Cipher Nine.

In the earlier part of their plot, Lana’s self-assuredness and Theron’s boldness work out for them. The player character won’t turn on Theron or Lana (if only because they have been machine-welded to the plot rails). Theron and Lana are correct in their assumption that they can take on the Manaan and Rakata Prime missions without additional help from the player character if events play out that way.

Later on, though, we see these qualities trip them up. It is most clear that they have misstepped when you’re playing as the same faction as them. Lana admits to an Imp-Side player that she and Jakarro did have the opportunity to save Theron from capture by the Revanites but decided it might be beneficial to let it happen. The risks are much higher and the benefits lower than Lana seems to think they are; Theron might have been killed instead of captured, and the Revanites know she, Theron, and Jakarro are working together so they can guess that she and Jakarro are on Rishi if they identify Theron. When you compare it to the plan Keeper makes with Cipher Nine on Corellia – actual information they are sure Hunter wants out of Cipher, consenting participant who won’t assume Keeper has betrayed them, pre-agreed false intel to give up, extraction plan – which Keeper acknowledges puts Cipher in serious danger and that she is only resorting to for lack of safer options, it shows how sloppy Lana is by comparison.

There’s nothing strange about Theron not telling an Imp-Side character about his mission on Ziost. Even if Theron wanted to give them a heads up, he can’t continue to collaborate with Imperials without being sanctioned by the SIS (at least not before the situation has gone completely to hell). Failing to keep another Pub who has already demonstrated their willingness to help him out with clandestine missions in the loop is much more questionable. Leaving the Jedi Knight or Consular locked out of the loop regarding your efforts to hunt down the Sith Emperor, especially, when the Knight and Kira have fought free of the Emperor’s possession and the Consular can break possessions affecting other people, since if you are looking for the Sith Emperor you really need a plan for if you find him.

It’s significant that the screw-ups come after the triumphs. Theron’s last secret unsanctioned mission went great, so he goes off on another one. Lana’s instincts on how to approach the Revanite conspiracy have been very much on point since the aftermath of the Tython-Korriban incursions, so she leans on them more heavily to make an impulsive unilateral decision. Even then, Lana’s belief that Theron will be able to make the most of his capture is borne out, though Theron is still justifiably furious with her. Theron’s desire to keep Supreme Chancellor Saresh in the dark is validated by her behaviour when she is informed of the situation on Ziost by Rane Kovach; attempting to hide the mission with the Sixth Line from Saresh required hiding it from everyone who would tell Saresh and everyone who would tell anyone who would tell Saresh, and even restricting the information to just the people involved in the mission turned out not to be enough to prevent a leak.

[commander-krios]

The Realities of War

Fandom: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Pairing: Canderous Ordo/Carth Onasi Rating: Mature Summary: War leaves scars both seen and unseen. Canderous Ordo knows this well, but he isn’t the only one suffering from the echoes of battles fought long ago. Words: 2430 Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Suicide, PTSD, Mentioned m!Revan, War, War Crimes, Weapon Maintenance, Trauma, Referenced Carth/m!Revan, Referenced Canderous/m!Revan

Written for the 2023 KOTOR Exchange, Gift for @sihirbazi

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The durasteel plates felt wrong as he hefted them into his hands, the weight of them too uncomfortably heavy, the steel too weak to keep him safe from a lightsaber hit. It was days like this, when he’d take the armor apart to clean and mend, that Canderous missed the rough feel of beskar beneath his fingertips, the coolness of the iron, the pride at being able to tend to such a beautiful set of armor, to be able to wear it. 

There was nothing better than being a Mandalorian with a reliable set of tools.

But he wasn’t a Mandalorian anymore. Hadn’t been since the War, since Revan had told them to destroy their beskar, for the clans to scatter, leaving his people broken, rudderless, and lost. He’d taken that life for granted. He was left with nothing to show for it except for nasty scars and memories that plagued him during the daytime as well as the night.

Nightmares were a normal occurrence in his life. Any Mandalorian who’d lived as long as he had, that had as many scars and fought as many battles that marked him as a warrior, would have the same. It was expected, welcome even. It meant he lived a life honoring Mandalore, honoring the oaths he swore as a Mandalorian. Even if he wouldn’t ever be able to live like he once had.

None of that mattered when he closed his eyes at night, the fires of war burning behind his eyelids, even when battle rage and adrenaline jolted him back to reality with an intensity that left his heart hammering against his ribs.

The fight against the dark Jedi on Tatooine had reawoken the nightmares, keeping him from rest. But that wasn’t the only thing haunting him in the dim corridors of the Ebon Hawk. 

Jagi.

No matter how much he tried to deny it, he’d failed Jagi. And now all that was left of his former comrade was a body burned to ash amongst the sandy desert.

With a grunt, he reached for his repeater, sliding it closer to inspect. The Tatooine dust had corroded part of the trigger mechanism, the barrel stained with the blood of the Krayt Dragon. It was going to take a lot of work to clean, repair, and test before they arrived at their final destination: Korriban.

Unscrewing the trigger guard from the rest of the weapon, he carefully lifted the piece and set it on the workbench, grabbing a rag and some weapon cleaning solution, taking care not to damage any of the wiring as he wiped away the grime and sand from the trigger mechanism. It was meticulous, irritating work, but it gave him a chance to reflect in the quiet. Time that he didn’t often get with the Sith dogging their heels at every turn.

Setting the rag against the bench, he lifted the rifle and turned it in the overhead light, trying to peer inside to be certain he’d cleaned it free of all dust. With a satisfied grunt, he set it against the table once more when the sound of footsteps signaled the approach of another nighttime ghost.

The door hissed open before Onasi strolled in, pausing on the threshold at the sight of Canderous in the cargo bay, the pilot’s hand hovering in the air as if he regretted following the allure of whatever had pulled him into the room in the first place. “I didn’t realize there was anyone in here.”

Canderous raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed over his broad chest, cigarra hanging out of his mouth as the smoke rose in swirls to the ceiling. His gaze trailed from the top of Carth’s head to his feet, taking in every detail of the man that their leader had taken to his bed over the last few weeks. The strands of hair that stuck up at weird angles from Carth running his hands through it, tired brown eyes that peered out of a worn face, age catching up to the pilot more in the last couple months than it had his entire life. Canderous saw the dark circles, the lines around his eyes, the pallor of his skin. He wasn’t sleeping well, that much was obvious, and it wasn’t from nightly activities either.

Carth stood there awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Biting the cigarra between his teeth, Canderous repressed the eye roll before kicking out the chair across from him. It slid across the floor with a screech in the quiet room, drawing Carth’s eyes back to him. “Sit down, Onasi.”

The shock on the pilot’s face might’ve made him laugh if he was inclined to, but as it was, he was a busy man who really shouldn’t be socializing with the Republic poster boy. But Onasi wasn’t the worst of the Pubs he’d met and maybe he could find common ground with him… they were both attracted to the leader of their merry little band. Vane was a powerful man who commanded attention, loyalty, and trust. There was no one better for Canderous to bed. 

If Carth respected and desired Vane as much as he did, maybe there was something there that could be stoked between them as well.

Onasi approached the table with hesitation, eyes watching Canderous as if he didn’t completely trust him. He wouldn’t hold it against him, their people had tried to wipe each other out.

“I don’t bite. Unless you ask me to.” The corner of his mouth pulled up and Carth shook his head, huffed out a breath and plopped into the chair. “There. Was that so hard?”

Carth met his eyes, mouth twitching with a smile. “How does he put up with you? You’re insufferable.”

“A bastard, for sure.” He agreed, pulling his cigarra from his mouth to blow the smoke from his mouth. White tendrils curled between them, dancing in circles before disappearing into nothing. Canderous glanced at the dark skin beneath Carth’s eyes. “You should be sleeping. Can’t have you dropping your blaster or flying us into a black hole.”

Carth rolled his eyes, mimicking Canderous’s posture and folding his arms over his chest. “That’s unlikely to happen.”

“You say that until it does. Then who’s left alive to deal with your fuck up? Probably me.” Canderous took another puff, before returning to the work he’d abandoned when Carth entered. “I’m always cleaning up Republic messes.”

Carth didn’t respond to his goading, instead glancing at the dented armor that sat in front of him. “We’ve all been through hell, huh?”

“Some of us are still going through it.”

Jagi’s angry face flashed across his thoughts. Canderous shoved it away where it belonged: in the dark recesses of his mind.

Carth’s jaw tensed, but the smallest of nods came from him in response. “Telos, Malachor… Taris. Too much death, too much suffering. When does it end?”

Canderous sighed, fingers buried in the wiring of his repeater. “It doesn’t.”

Carth didn’t say anything, only stared at the armor in front of him, memorizing the blaster burns and dents, close calls, every one of them. Canderous had many brushes with death over his long years, but he was a man well acquainted with war, with destruction. One of many things that he had in common with Vane… and with Onasi.

It was still difficult to come to terms with that fact. That a Mandalorian could have so much in common with a Jedi… with a Republic soldier. They might have been on opposite sides during the war, but it didn’t stop the truth. They were all bloodied to the bone, haunted by horrors that most of the galaxy couldn’t even begin to fathom. And he liked it that way. Canderous wasn’t a particularly gentle or sentimental person, but he could handle the pain, the nightmares, the blood as he washed it away after each battle.

He’d bear that weight willingly and keep moving forward, slightly more scarred each time.

“I know you’re right.” Carth finally said, glancing up to meet his gaze, brown eyes hiding a mind full of the same dark memories: the same horrors plagued him, the same scars marked his soul. Canderous knew that look better than anyone. It met him every time he glanced into a mirror. Onasi sighed, running his hands through his hair. “But I don’t want you to be.”

“What you want matters little.”

Harsh, maybe, but it was true and Canderous wasn’t a liar.

Carth’s shoulders tensed at the words, but he betrayed not a single thought on his face. “I know that too.”

“Then why even talk about it?”

Carth sighed again, dropping his face into his hands and the walls, the facade, crumbled away to reveal the fear beneath. “If I don’t talk about it, I’ll obsess about it. All of it. Telos and Taris and everything during the Mandalorian Wars. To know that it’s someone I trusted that leads Malak’s fleet. To know that despite everything I’ve been through, that the Republic has suffered, none of it mattered. Because people are still suffering.”

Canderous huffed, putting out his cigarra against the metal table. The pungent scent of the tabac filled the air, one last sputter of life before the flame extinguished. His eyes traced the shape of the soot mark on the metal, attempting to collect his thoughts. In the end, he went with the simplest truth. One that even Carth wouldn’t be able to deny. “Suffering is the result of weakness.”

Carth’s eyebrows came together and his face scrunched in frustration. Banging his fist on the table, the deconstructed rifle shifted slightly, but Canderous ignored it, eyes fixed on the angry man across from him. “That’s bullshit! And you know it.”

“That so?” Canderous leaned forward, moving the pieces of his rifles away to rest his arms on the table, hands clasped in front of him. 

“I know Mandalorians live to destroy everything they touch, but in the Republic, we actually care about life. About making communities safe.” Carth pushed away from the table, chair tipping over in his haste to move. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, shoulders shaking with anger as he finally let it boil over. “These people matter to me, even if they don’t to you.”

Canderous bared his teeth in a growl, but didn’t bother to stand. His presence spoke for itself. “You have no idea what the kark you’re talking about.”

“I was there when the Mandalorians bombarded Serroco!” Carth shouted, spinning on him as if he was the responsible party for the planet’s destruction. “How can you be okay with that?”

“It was war, Onasi.” Canderous brushed a hand over his forehead, trying to prevent a headache from forming from the shouting. “And don’t act like your precious Republic wasn’t doing the same thing in the name of liberation.”

“I can’t believe how casual you are about murder.” Carth turned away, still seething if his form was anything to go by.

Sighing, Canderous rested against the back of his chair, knowing this wasn’t the only thing that Carth was upset about. The betrayal of his former commander was clearly still at the forefront of his mind. “All this time fighting against the clans and you still haven’t learned anything about your enemy.”

“We aren’t enemies, Canderous.” Carth deflated slightly, as if he realized what he was saying. The past was still haunting the pilot, that much was obvious, but at least he was fighting it. The thirst for revenge he’d started their quest with was fizzling out slowly, much thanks to the tender affection he and Vane held for one another.

A tenderness that was foreign to a man like Canderous.

But then again, Vane didn’t end up in his��bed for the affection.

“What do you want, Onasi? To be closer?” Canderous asked, voice gravely as he leaned forward, watching as Carth’s cheeks flushed slightly.

“I…” He cleared his throat, sinking back into the chair as if defeated. “I want you to know that you don’t have to blame yourself for what happened to Jagi. Or on Althir. I think about Serroco every day, but it wasn’t my fault it happened. Yes, it was war, but sometimes, reality doesn’t matter when you feel like you could’ve changed history. Saved more people, made better decisions.”

“I don’t want to talk sentimentality with you, Republic. Or morality. Things like that don’t matter. What matters is what you did at the time and how you move forward. And the honor with which you served.” 

Carth sighed, pinching his nose in irritation. “Fine. But at least listen to what I’m saying to you . I’ve seen the things that war does to a man. Especially ones that survive it. I am one of those men.”

“Jagi isn’t the first man I’ve seen crack under the pressure.” Canderous told him, watching as Carth flinched at what he was saying. “But he’s the first that I’ve directly affected like that. Or that I know of. It’s…”

“Painful?”

“I don’t know.” Canderous grunted at the pain in his back from sitting for so long. There was no way he was sleeping after this. “I’ve never dealt with survivor’s guilt. I’ve never felt it before. I’m not sure what any of this means. For me or for the future of the Mandalorians.”

“At least you have a future.” Carth replied, watching him with soft dark eyes that Canderous swore held some sort of affection before it disappeared. “Not many do anymore.”

“Jagi included.” He muttered, but Onasi spoke the truth. The Mandalorian clans were scattered, lost to the galaxy, but Canderous was alive, a bit scarred and weathered, but alive nonetheless. Maybe it was time he started living. “I have a lot to think about, but… I appreciate the talk, Onasi.”

Carth fought a smile, but his lips still twitched. “Don’t tell Vane that we got along for longer than a minute. His head will explode.”

Canderous snorted, but the image was enough to make him smile slightly. Carth stood, leaving him to his weapon repair, but paused on the way out of the room, glancing back at him. “You're not alone here. I want you to know that.”

Before he could respond, Carth was gone, the room a little darker for his leaving. Eyes on the disassembled repeater, Canderous let out a sharp breath, but for the first time since returning from Tatooine, his soul felt lighter.

[sullustangin]

Spoilers Ahoy: Consular Thoughts

I’m doing a quickie consular story  re-playthrough, and ... I have thoughts, mainly about the companions.

I do like the overall story arc until Chapter 3 when everyone except the Selkath thinks going to Belsavis to make friends is a great idea.  Awakening an imprisoned army is a terrible idea.  This is sort of how I feel about my OC confronting Malgus alone in prison recently: I don’t have a choice not to be stupid, and I HATE that.  LS is “Gonna get new friends for the Republic” and DS is more like “Gonna get new friends to serve me.”  THESE GUYS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS.  It’s a lot of risk and no guarantee of reward. I’d mark this as ‘a jump the shark’ moment. 

The Consular also has the inverse problem of the Bounty Hunter:  BH gets all the lighter companions first (Mako most of all) and then gets DS only at the end (death to Skadge).  Meanwhile, the consular gets a Hunt All The Things Uncle Lizard, Guy Who Literally Lives in the Basement with his Holo Girlfriend, and a politically inclined Murder!Noodle. Consular only gets LS Felix and LS Nadia as the last two companions, which results in some problems -- they’re also the romance options, which gives them the least amount of development in the vanilla game. 

To be fair, I think Felix Iresso is one of the least problematic guys in the SWTOR universe.  He’s so kriffin’ sweet.  He’s perfect for a young Jedi.  I totally think there was an attempt at a Jace/Satele parallel here. It’s not toxic and it’s well-paced... minus the fact that he doesn’t show up until Hoth.  Yes, I know what’s in his head...but he’s still a good person before and after the experience in Vanilla.  (I know how he was done dirty in his return -- poor sweet man.) 

For perspective, Hoth is when the smuggler gets their last companion, Guss Tuno.  Corso (f!smug romance option) was acquired in Chapter 1, and Risha (m!smug romance option 1) was acquired at Chapter 1′s end.  Akaavi was acquired in Chapter 2 after Balmorra (option 2).  Even then, Akaavi’s relationship feels better paced just by having her a whole planet early.  I know @swtorpadawan​ and others have commented on how fast the Nadia Grell romance is.  Pair that with her relative youth -- even with the consular being super young themselves, it still feels ‘yikes’, especially in the context you romance her.

I love and hate Qyzen.  He’s a great first companion, part of a cultural immersion experience for a young Jedi.  His hunting for the Scorekeeper works in contrast to the peace that the consular seeks to establish, and yet it does provide a path to that -- sometimes, you do have to fight for the 'greater good’ end result; compliance works for the enemy.   However, on a personal level, I have my political loyalties to Wookiees, and I would cheer for Bowdaar to kick his ass.

I do like Zenith, and not just because he’s voiced by Troy Baker.   There’s a very gritty, realist element to Zenith. After the hero moves on from a planet, what happens to it?  Great, Balmorra is liberated, but it doesn’t fix everything going on there. Should there be ‘necessary evils’ done in the name of politics and managing power? All of the war, death, and other baggage can screw a person up; I read Zenith as walking PTSD, having lived in a war zone all of his life (he was born 3 years after Jace and Satele reported the fall of Korriban, and Balmorra has been a mess since). Zenith is a great foil to a consular, regardless of alignment.  

...I have a really hard time justifying Tharan’s recruitment so early minus the fact he does fit on Nar Shaddaa better than anyone else.  I know the developers tried to keep all of the Pub and Imp players running on the same sets of planets in each chapter...but if there was ever an exception to be made, it should have been for the consular, because I feel like Tharan is taking up an important space that he really shouldn’t. He’s not actively evil, but he’s not a pleasant or honest person. Super skeevy vibes once Nadia joins the crew too.   I feel like a lot of time is spent on Tharan with not a lot of growth or character development to show for it.  I think I feel that way because there’s this weird ‘affair’ the consular is propositioned with early on -- it felt like filler from the start.  It’s not as well done as the Pierce one-night stand.  Some of his comp convos seem tacked on or “oh no we have to make more content for this guy.” 

Nadia’s acquisition as a companion hinges on certain late stage events, but I feel as if the romance would have felt ‘better’ if her father had let her go to be a padawan as soon as she manifested on Quesh.   Then, she could have grown up a little more before the later events and would have been on more equal footing and more familiar terms with the consular, romance or not. 

In sum, I think the consular’s personal story with the crew has great elements, but I feel like they got put together in the wrong order.  To me, companion order would be:  Qyzen, Felix (set him on Tatooine, the opposite temperature cesspit in the galaxy), Zenith, Nadia (on Quesh), and then... Tharan on Hoth because someone unloaded him there? or Belsavis for crimes related to unethical experiments?  Again, Tharan’s convos seem overstretched; the Vandrayk Generator could have really been done in two or three convos rather than the big thing it was in Chapters 2 and 3. 

[thelearnedsoldiertoo]

Grandmaster of the Dusk, Bari Nas

Commission of my friend Zera's OC Bari Nas by the indefatiguable @cadhla182! Bari is a six-hundred-and-fifty-year-old(Force Weirdness) Iridonian Zabrak and former Jedi who founded her own Force Order in our weekly Saga Edition game; the Dusk, who operate as a sort of 'Balance Police' in the post-Endor world, to prevent the Jedi from doing another Korriban, Galidraan, Kalee, or similar(going along with the political winds of the day and taking part in a genocide/condoning one by not investigating properly), especially given the moral compromise of the Clone Wars, and obviously to keep the worst excesses of the Sith and other Darksiders in line without resorting to Jedi-like Holy Wars. She's a take-no-shit hardass badass who has like five adopted kids and a four-person polycule.

Anyway she came out beautifully, and I am as always grateful! ^-^