#npc dynamics talks

[tiredassmage]

@frauleiiin​ Re: your tags, yES. They are! And since I said I should eventually do a post on Tyr & Keeper/the Minister anyway, we’ll just add this to my collection of dynamics posts, lol.

I’m sure I will get more/better pictures of them together on this run, but this will serve us well for now.

Officially, Cipher Nine’s files list him as an orphan adopted into the Deckard family following the death of his parents in Imperial fleet action by a friend of the family and a fellow officer. Tyr is never particularly close with the family; his relationship with adoptive sister Mavis is borderline antagonistic and his mother, a successful, it not overwhelming Sith who married her husband for reasons more political than emotional, barely tolerates the adoption of a non-Force sensitive into their house when they have a daughter to-be-Sith.

Unofficially and buried well within redacted parts of Nine’s files that ultimately require clearance from the highest authorities of Intelligence, Tyr Deckard is the son of the former Keeper-turned-Minister of Intelligence, from a time when the elder man still operated in the field as a Cipher. In a bid to limit potential operational risks and in hopes he could protect the boy from the trappings of life in the field of shadows, he sent the boy away, entrusted to a distant family association to be raised.

Unfortunately, it seemed fate had other plans.

Tyr does end up in Intelligence willingly. Initially, he enlisted for the Imperial military in his would-be father’s footsteps. When Tyr’s files cross Keeper’s desk for approval to complete recruitment into Intelligence, his hands are rather bound by duty. There’s no logical reason to deny a recruit that performed so well during preliminary training, particularly with the military ramping up operations to probe the Republic for weaknesses. Operations cannot afford to be understaffed, particularly of good talent. Begrudgingly, Keeper cedes he’s been outplayed, and everything Keeper could have wanted to spare him from and more ends up squarely on that boy’s shoulders as he takes on the moniker of Cipher Nine. There’s a fic about it that still hurts my feelings.

Deckard is, also unfortunately, somewhat of an idealistic officer. When he joins Intelligence, he is proper, takes direction well, but thinks on his feet. He strikes a fine balance between independence and loyalty that makes Keeper worry. He’d worry seeing it any operative. Not that it’s helped by looking at his own son.

But Nine is, perhaps thankfully, rather mission-oriented. While Keeper is a mentor to him in a lot of ways, Nine doesn’t dig far enough during their tenure of service to ever quite get to the deepest truth. He’s busy wrangling his entanglement with Jadus, trying to deal with the fallout of the Castellan Restraints, and tearing down the Star Cabal for tearing apart Intelligence.

Tyr would never quite entirely express his full respect for the Minister to his face out of a professional respect for their chain of command. To Nine, he’s the leader that takes risks for them, that is always precariously balancing his duties as Keeper and eventually Minister with an intrinsic level of care for his operatives that sees them all just as much as people as resources for the Empire. It’s why Tyr has such a hard time ceding that the Minister has any real responsibility in his Castellans. Tyr reasons this away as the man’s hands being tied. When the alternative was his permanent retirement for doing his job, Tyr sees the Minister did what he could. How could he not respect that?

Ultimately, Tyr’s loyalty, in the end, wasn’t even so much to Imperial Intelligence as a whole, as an agency, as it was to the Minister, Keeper - formerly Watcher Two. If the Minister called, Nine answered, in full faith that he would not ask something of him without a full assessment of the risks.

When they cross paths again on Rishi, Tyr’s just glad to see the old man’s alive, that he survived the fallout of how things ended. Because even in his bone-deep loyalty to the “old paradigm” of their Intelligence crew, Tyr couldn’t swallow everything he had been subjected to. He struck a deal with Ardun Kothe and told the Minister and the Empire that the Black Codex had been destroyed. In a way, it felt like betraying all that faith they had ever placed in each other, a direct elbow to the nose to that discussion they’d had about ideals and goals and how to balance them, but the old man was the one that was always advocating for and teaching Nine how to look out for himself, at the end of the day.

That was how he chose to do it.

In the end, the old man manages to take his secrets with him quietly into his elusive retirement. After everything Nine goes through, he fears the revelation of their exact relation and all that it had allowed for would’ve been too much on an already incredibly strained operative that had given him nothing but his all during his service.

Nine was a fine agent. And most importantly, he managed to be a fine man beneath it all, even if it wasn’t always easy to manage or keep in perspective. If the Empire had more like him, perhaps they’d all be in a better place.

Perhaps the only two other people with any solid knowledge of this relation are Lana Beniko, as the later Minister of Sith Intelligence and inheriting the appropriate levels of clearance to access such restricted information, and Eckard Lokin, given his long history with the former Minister. Out of respect for his old friend’s wishes and agreeing with the assessment that perhaps it was for the better this truth lay quietly, Lokin makes no mention of this, though I’m sure he has it figured out swiftly by the time he’s settled as part of Cipher Nine’s crew.

Tyr did always see the man more like a father-figure and a mentor than he ever did his relations at home. He’s one of the few Tyr would have reconsidered staying more true to the Empire for, if only because they shared sentiments of reform and change. Tyr would say he owes him a lot for the man and agent he ever became. He hopes, perhaps a bit naively, that the old man’s retirement remained peaceful.

Perhaps at least one of them, then, would have made it out of this whole mess relatively unscathed.

[tiredassmage]

Tyr and Arcann. Arcann and Tyr. @eorzeashan​ you asked me about this like a month or two ago and I ???? Have been trying to figure it out ever since. And then apparently it sort of slotted together last night at 12:18 am while I rambled in @captainderyn​‘s dms sO. I FINALLY HAVE SOMETHING COHESIVE. Kind of. We’ll see how competently I can string together sentences in this post.

They occupy a weird dynamic as far as current storyline goes where I’m not quite certain still where they stand... Perhaps it’s more still that they don’t have anywhere else to go that keeps them together over anything else.

But the short answer is that they’re not really... friends. That’s a lot of ground to cover for both of them and I’m not quite certain Tyr would ever be willing to close that much between them, given everything.

Tyr’s decision to bring him into the Alliance is driven more by the tactical advantage of having insider knowledge on Zakuul and Vaylin, and also by a respect and loyalty developed to Senya. Senya believes too much in Arcann for Tyr to accept her as collateral. And Tyr’s... kind of a result of people taking a wild chance that shouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in a Belsavis volcano of working out to begin with, anyway.

So, Arcann’s gotta work to earn his respect and trust just as much as with the rest of the Alliance. And the common ground allowed for that primarily? Tyr picks him up as a sparring partner.

Arcann’s still one of the most formidable Force-users Tyr’s ever had to wrangle with and it is very true that Valkorian’s intercession is one of the few reasons he was able to survive the first couple of encounters. Nobody wants that. And Vaylin is a force of nature. If Tyr can’t at least hold ground with Arcann, they’re going to have a much bigger problem.

It’s the one place Arcann sees Tyr in almost brutal honesty. They scare the living daylights out of the Alliance when they spar together. Lana, Theron, Arcann, several others repeatedly question how much of a good idea this course of action is.

Tyr keeps going back. Again. Arcann gets the upper hand several times. Again. Tyr puts everything he has into these spars. He’s not meaning to push Arcann, though I have to imagine that’s a part of the discomfort of the whole affair, but Tyr’s pushing himself. A little too far a little too often. Several times it ends because Arcann refuses to let him lunge into another duel because he’s visibly exhausted and, Commander? Are you certain? Lokin has to get involved and threaten to detain Tyr in medical physically several times before he and Arcann actually get anywhere talking about why.

For Tyr, it’s about the pressure, about everyone counting on him, about how failure isn’t an option. That close and personal, Arcann can’t help but see how much of himself Tyr puts into the Alliance. No matter what is or isn’t actually spoken, Arcann gains an understanding of what Tyr values.

They’re not... really the right people for each other to heal from their respective traumas. They’re not particularly capable of doing it on their own and some of their issues are so similar or related to the actions the other has taken that the kind of honesty and support that’d be beneficial to healing just... can’t come from each other. But they can at least understand. They can at least respect what they’re struggling with.

Arcann struggles a bit too much with guilt for putting Tyr in this position that he’s not really the right person to share the burden of why Tyr struggles with being the Commander. See: the “it’s not about you” and Tyr’s bitter laughter that of course it isn’t - it never is and never has been. He’s always been someone else’s tool or weapon as a Cipher. Which swings us back around to Arcann seeing, whether Tyr intends to show or not, just how much he has sacrificed for this all when they spar because Tyr can’t help but put everything into it because look at everything they could still stand to lose. Arcann’s... not the first person to try to kill him. That’s not the part that really weighs on Tyr’s chest. He’s not special for trying to kill him. What aches is the very real burden of being backed into a corner of a situation exponentially beyond his control (again) and having to swing for the fences again anyway because there is no other choice. Failure is not an option. Again.

It was never about Tyr. It just happened to him. Pawn again, Cipher.

That all said, Arcann is one of the few people that never questions his unwavering dedication to Theron in the entirety of the Nathema Conspiracy. And that means... a lot. Because Theron is everything to him. Theron is one of the few people to ever see him, wholly. To accept him. To believe there’s something more than a jaded ex-Cipher to it all. And Tyr was never ready to wrangle with the idea that he might’ve been wrong, that he might’ve finally fucked up and let his feelings get in the way of one of the most obvious betrayals to exist in the game - to be used by someone you thought you loved.

It wasn’t Theron. Tyr would’ve been ready to die for that belief. Thank the stars it wasn’t Theron because I’m not sure he would’ve ever really recovered from that otherwise.

So, yeah... Arcann and Tyr. Tyr and Arcann. They are... interesting. The short version is they have too much baggage between them to ever really be friends and they are not the right people for each other to deal with that baggage, but they do make fair progress towards genuine cooperation. They do see some sort of understanding in one another. It’s not forgiveness. There’s too much between them and what happened in the war for that to ever really work. But Tyr won’t stand in his way if he wants to try to be different. They surely both know that road is not easy to walk. You need all the allies you can get on that one.

[tiredassmage]

I realized I had a lot of fun doing the Arcann & Tyr post and that it’s not the only npc dynamic that fascinates me that I don’t often exactly write about, so!! I may or may not be doing a little series of these kinds of post now, lol, because there’s a few others I’d like to explore more on!

Today I bring you... Lana and Tyr! Whom I’ve talked about before in a few answers and whom I’ve even written something about as far as the progression of their dynamic, but we do love centralized information, so I’m gonna put it in a post! : D Because they still fascinate me constantly.

In short, Lana and Tyr’s relationship spends a lot of time in relatively rocky territory. Part of what I enjoy so much about their dynamic is that it’s utterly different than any other character I’ve played this far; even my Republic characters take to her faster than Tyr ultimately does - which at one point I found interesting because you’d think being on the same side would help, but there’s a lot of Tyr’s experience specifically as Cipher Nine that goes a long way into altering their relationship.

She was a superior to report to, another Sith to keep a careful watch on, long before Tyr could ever feel comfortable calling her a friend. It isn’t really until they’re in the Alliance together that they find more even ground and, even then, Tyr’s guard isn’t completely down all of the time. But they are on better terms than they are when they first met.

A lot of Tyr’s reticence with her is based on having first met her as a superior to report to. When they are first introduced to work together on the assault on Tython and the corresponding defense of the Korriban Sith Academy, Lana still outranks him as a Sith Lord and Tyr’s still suffering a rather precarious job security predicament in the nebulous space between the shutdown of Imperial Intelligence’s Operations Division and the restructuring of the department to serve Sith Intelligence. Tyr’s modus operandi here then is trust no one. In his experience, the Sith are unpredictable and fickle creatures. In short, he keeps his head down and serves his assigned purpose as infiltrator, scout, and combat support in the blooming hunt for the Revanites, but they have a distinct power imbalance that Tyr’s far more painfully aware of than Lana. This does, however, go unaddressed by both parties because Lana doesn’t think of it as keenly as Tyr and Tyr isn’t about to risk his position to bring it up when it’s not particularly bothersome at the time.

Lana, at the time, is focused on the job at hand, and Nine, for this purpose, is a tool in her kit to complete that job. She’d be remiss to refuse the assistance of one of Intelligence’s surviving assets and, for his part, Tyr raises little complaint in being handled like a weapon more than a comrade, for now. The less close she is, the less likely he is to get burnt, after all.

Interestingly, Nine bonds with Theron Shan rather rapidly in comparison. As a fellow agent also trapped sort of between a rock and a hard place of doing what is necessary even when the odds are stacked against them all, Tyr sees him more as an equal, despite the faction lines between them - but that’s a whole post itself, lol.

But Theron is a catching point for them several times in their history. In the hunt for the Revanites, Tyr begins to see Lana as pragmatic. She’s involved in the process and shows a willingness to learn that he doesn’t see in most of his other Sith contacts. He’s still far more loose with Shan than he is with her, but they build a decent professional rapport by the time they hit Rishi.

And then Theron Shan gets captured. On her watch. By her design.

It brings what respect he’d been forming for her to a screeching halt. He almost shuts down again, back to reporting to her as Nine more than Tyr. For Tyr, it’s the kind of behavior that reminds him alarmingly of the Dark Council’s desire to execute him that the Minister of Intelligence only very narrowly muzzles into the Castellan Restraints. It’s a reminder of Corellia. It’s a stark reminder that Imperials are pawns to Sith games. He pushes her for an apology. Still, they don’t alter the ‘terms’ of their particular relationship, but Lana does learn one of his non-negotiable lines: operatives are not disposable. (That fic is here)

Tyr’s worked with her long enough to know he can voice his opinions and she will consider them. Where Lana may have considered them friends by Rishi, Tyr still sees a more professional-only relationship. And they maintain this weird balance into their collaborations during Sith Intelligence. As Commander and one of the prides of Imperial Intelligence absorbed into the new agency, I imagine Tyr helps her run operations somewhat from the shadows, acting still both as a field operative and a somewhat unofficial right hand man. She learns quickly, but Tyr has the experience on the ground and from the Citadel that helps smooth out the finer wrinkles of operations and managing agents. At the very least, they’re not afraid of handling candid conversations about the way the agency is being run, even if it’s in a locked office away from the eyes of their operatives, even if sometimes voices get heated because of their differences in opinion.

And then comes Zakuul. There is a lot about Zakuul Tyr never particularly anticipated. Surviving the destruction of Marr’s fleet is one, for sure, but that it’s Lana Beniko of all people seeking to rescue him to fight for the fate of the galaxy sure makes a run for the top of the list. In the Endless Swamps, Tyr finally gives her his name. His name. Sure, she had his files as Minister, but this is his symbolic trust. It renegotiates the terms, so to speak, at last. Tyr makes the active decision to trust her. He recognizes she’s someone he can rely on. (Annd that fic is here!)

It’s still odd through much of the Alliance. Their roles have essentially reversed. Lana is relying heavily on his judgement for decisions and offering relatively unconditional support. A tinge of their professionalism remains. Theron may give him space and come to understand when it involves managing his struggles with the transition. Lana is who he can rely on to be almost brutally honest with him. She still pushes him in ways neither of them really name - even now. The pressure to fill a role for her still goes largely unaddressed - it’s Commander of the Alliance instead of Cipher Nine now, but the weight settles similarly.

Still, they’re as close to equal as they ever get.

Lana is strong-willed, determined on a path once she has set herself upon it. Again, they butt heads over the matter of Theron Shan when pursuing the Order of Zildrog. Lana’s displeasure at being fooled, at not being able to protect her Commander and their Alliance, drive her closer to sharp edges. They get short with each other at times over not driving their operatives to their breaking points. Tyr never gives up on Theron. Lana presses him about doing what is necessary, when the time comes, about the risks, and Tyr balks. Had she not backed down when he asked, they absolutely ran the risk of getting into a fight about it.

And yet again they play a precarious game over their allegiance. Lana, ever-pragmatic, still reasons for the benefits of an Imperial alliance, but doesn’t walk away when Tyr resumes the mantle of double agent. He doesn’t entirely understand her loyalty to him, but he’s grateful, nonetheless, for her support.

In short, I suppose they continue to suffer because they never quite clear away all of their communication holds. In a way, the distance that’s established at their first meeting never entirely closes, but the gap’s much shorter than it was. They’ve both had their reasons for their actions and it’s something they have developed a respectful understanding for. In the end, after all of this time, they are at least certain the other will watch their back when they ask. That kind of loyalty is hard to find.

[tiredassmage]

back at it again at the krispy kreme. I, unsurprisingly, caught "miss my boy [the fictional guy that lives in my head 24/7]" disease again, so I went back to [we've lost count of which playthru I'm on] and I think. Tyr and Kaliyo are just kinda neat. So I'm gonna subject everyone to chewing on it on main, lol.

There's elements of them that maybe shouldn't work out, but in the end, I find them so damn interesting because despite appearances on the surface, something about them works out for one another. They have their differences, but in the long-run, they find some kind of... understanding, I suppose I'd call it?

And neither of them will usually really say it directly - Tyr is used to having to veil his feelings between the lines and Kaliyo would at least feign some repulsed feelings about getting too damn sappy, in turn - but that's... really valuable to them, especially later on.

Now, I think it'd be fair to say that there's a part of him that isn't exactly thrilled Keeper suggests her as an asset on Hutta, and he's not particularly convinced she's worth the risk long-term, but his respect for Keeper trumps his personal hesitations. He sees what Keeper's getting at: she has some sort of potential value, and Intelligence isn't in the business of being wasteful of potential resources.

They very quickly establish some sort of quick impressions that aren't the most flattering. She says she's bound to learn something about him at Fa'athra's palace (and, to be frank, she does - and she's not even wrong) and Kaliyo does leave herself open to Tyr's tactical assessment after they leave Hutta that does leave him bluntly telling her he thinks she's the type to get herself killed if the job doesn't do it first.

So they're by no means fast friends. But they see use for each other. I don't think there's ever a time where he's convinced or entirely oblivious to the likelihood of Kaliyo using her new relationship with Imperial Intelligence to make herself funds or what have you on the side, as comes up later in her companion quests. But I'll also say he does discourage Lokin from meddling too deeply with the crew's affairs. Which I suppose sort of jumps around on the idea of there being any trust between these two, but if you can stick with me, I'm... trying to paint a broad picture. Hopefully.

I think... what Tyr finds is that, at face value, she's "unpredictable." It's easy to write her off as such. Easy to write her off as arrogant and self-interested. There are times where she is these things, but... there's something to be said for the fact that Kaliyo... never tries (successfully, at any rate) to sell him on the idea that she's anything but that. She tries a game a time or two, sure, but Tyr never plays into it as far as her exes. I think what happens is more that they realize the other's sort of... core values. And it's not about convincing the other that they should change, so... he entertains her big talks about taking the galaxy by storm at times. And slips in the bites that keep them honest: when is he going to be on her list of ex-partners that have too much baggage?

And I think what it is is that... out of that... weird flavor of honesty about who they are in their working relationship comes something that can be labeled trust, between them. Tyr's not afraid to tell her when he disagrees with her, but at the end of the day, they'd show up for each other because it's, generally, mutually beneficial. And I think, by the end of the class story, they'd do it even if it didn't exactly net them clear benefits.

Tyr certainly would because Tyr ends up trusting her, in their weird kind of roundabout way. It's not a trust like he has with Vector, or Shara, or later Theron. It's not trust in the warm, we trade our hearts openly and freely between us sort of sense. But it's trust in the sense that I know what to expect when I deal with you. In what I suppose you could really only call ironic, her "unpredictability" is what makes her predictable and reliable to him.

And I think... it is very telling, what she learns of him at Fa'athra's: that he isn't reckless. He has a conscious that will affect his decisions on the job in the kind of work that generally isn't too forgiving to that kind of disposition. Something that generally makes her inclined to scoff at him a bit for being soft. And then he proves consistent throughout their time working together in the fact that Tyr shows up for the people he brings into his circle.

Kaliyo is one of those people, despite the areas where they disagree. And sometimes they clash. Tyr's a brand of loyal that maybe isn't surface-level compatible with her. She's thought him foolish for his loyalty to the Empire, and maybe even more of a fool when I think she figured out his loyalty wasn't, exactly, to the Empire as a whole, but to his masters, to Imperial Intelligence. That his sense of ideals and morals is stronger than a paper-level patriotism he claims brought him to enlisting with Intelligence.

It's foolish. It's soft. It's gonna get him killed one day. They bark about what goes down when they return to Hutta. He means it when he says he can't tolerate her working against what he's given his life to. He doesn't directly say they're talking about Imperial Intelligence's reputation, specifically, but she knows enough about him by then, I think, to know that's what he's really bothered about. He's not some young, bootlicking spaceport officer fishing for a promotion. As fuckin' foolish as it is, he's got his heart and soul behind what he does.

And he genuinely asks her why? Why pick a side? Why'd she pick him? I don't think they get a clear answer in the conversation.

But I do think they both already know the answer. Because for whatever else they are, they've stuck with each other this long. It's not purely transactional at this point. Yes, there's... still probably something mutually beneficial about tolerating each other still going forward, but.

Look, neither of them probably exactly use the word "friend" to each other's face. At least not a lot. They bicker. But I think, at the end of the day, they're two people that have very few people that do see them for who they are, really, and have actually stuck around. For better or worse, they stick.

And he'll... defend that decision, ultimately. When she gets caught up in all that transpires as Intelligence is torn down around them, he simply tells her to look for her opening, and do what she does best. Because grand declarations of devotion don't do it for her. That's not their relationship. She's self-reliant and she'll do what she thinks is best... largely regardless of what Tyr's input is. (Except him understanding and accepting that is why he has any clout to argue with her about morality at all. This is important later in KOTXX.)

And KOTXX is... not what I ever expected to be The Clearest Show of their kind of relationship, but I did clip together that video of one run through Anarchy in Paradise because it... is a really good show of how they get along. Why they work for each other.

Kaliyo was never going to be the type to be the first one looking for him if he disappeared, or sticking through a long search. And that's... just fine. Tyr never would've expected her to. Frankly, she probably does understand that a part of him was just... waiting for that kind of day. That he ended up surviving taking a blaster to a semi-immortal planet-consuming Force-entity is... Well, no one was betting on that, yeah?

Tyr, I think, is one of the only characters I've gotten that far into KOTXX that has felt he's got any ground to argue with her on - because he has experience with her priorities, and how she thinks. Sort of... natural when you work with someone that long, right? So, he knows how she operates, he knows how to reason with her, knows what she needs to be offered to take an opportunity. And, in the end, there's that...

"Agent?"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad you're alive."

Which... I think is where I'll wrap because I feel like I just sort of keep repeating the same point, which boils down to... they took an assessment of each other's motivations and... accepted that about each other. I'd even probably say Tyr would never expect her to defend him, to show up without at least some sort of token protest about compensation and what's it worth to her, but I also think, for all of Kaliyo's eyerolling about him, it's exactly that kind of stubborn candle-burning attitude about him that keeps her around, at times. Something... authentic in them both amidst a profession built on masks, deceit, and betrayal.

It's not even quite "someone's gotta make sure you don't get yourself killed, agent" as it is more likely she'd poke that at least being around when it happens would maybe be interesting or entertaining. It's a kind of friendship where they'd still say they'd sell each other to satan for a corn chip.

Except Tyr never would. And, sure, Kaliyo essentially tried. And it didn't work out. So it's just a lot of work for probably little payoff to try again.

So, in the end... Friends? Yeah... Sort of. She's not writing any speeches for a funeral or anything, but she'd maybe have a drink for him. Tyr's the one for remarks about deserving better, or whatever sentimental crap he fills his head with when he's waiting on sniper shots to line up. (And it just... sorta works.)

[tiredassmage]

Okay. I teased it. So I'm gonna post about it. Shae Vizla was kinda the last person I would've actively expected to be drawing parallels to Tyr with, but with the buzz of the new teaser going around and picking another character through the Darvannis arc in KOTXX too, I'm thinking about how those two have interacted again. And I already have a tag for these kind of things, so I might as well!

This post will likely heavily feature around 7.2 Showdown On Ruhnuk, so if that's not a story beat you've made it through yet, you might wanna save this one for later.

The short version is more or less... two specialized dogs. Who perhaps on a surface glance don't seem to have a lot in common. But Tyr, at least, thought they might've been working on something like professional courtesy acknowledging what common ground they might have for a while. Until.... well, recently.

But it is sort of Ruhnuk in particular that I think highlights those similarities in the way that made me say hmm. Parallels. Because on their good days, they can think in ways that keep up with one another. They can be good leaders.

And on their bad ones, they're both hunters with the kind of skills and capabilities that make the path of vengeance potentially quite dangerous and blinding.

So, credit where credit's due, I think to set them up fully I have to start closer to the beginning. And that's not really Rishi, despite that being the first time Shae makes an appearance. Their meaningful working relationship starts in the era of the Alliance against Zakuul. It stars on Darvannis, with conversations about what it means to be a leader of something greater than you might've ever imagined, of being a symbol that maybe doesn't seem to fit all that right with who you thought yourself to be. An ex-Cipher at the head of a galactic alliance between people from both major players of the known galaxy's wars and a bounty hunter turned Mandalore.

They're an odd crowd, aren't they?

And a lot of it I think is, at least for Tyr, importantly founded on this idea of... Tyr's not particularly fluent in the politics of the Mandalorians, if you will. He doesn't know their history very well, and what their concept of victory in this galaxy's day and age looks like is a bit beyond him. But they're allies on Darvannis, and he'd like to keep them that way. But to Tyr, an ally is someone you make an agreement with. You don't go into an operation where both of you are looking to work towards the same success hiding information.

And so Shae's Mandalorians are allies to call upon, but Shae's to lead and command and handle as she sees fit. He thought that was a professional courtesy they both understood well. He thought Shae believed that counted for something, too.

And Ruhnuk's... kind of where threads start to unravel in that alliance.

Ruhnuk is... about the point that Shae's methodology starts to test his patience. There's a certain way she goes about things even on Ruhnuk that Tyr would call unprofessional, but doesn't directly confront her about out of attempting to hold respect for Shae handling Mandalorian business how she feels it needs to be handled.

But he does agree with the encroaching concerns that Shae's on a warpath, and it's starting to make her see nothing but red in a way that's blinkering her to what's right in front of her - and potentially the collateral damage that might fall on her allies - rather than pushing her to success.

They both could've stood to gain something from Sa'har Kateen's presence there, but Shae decided to push aggressively, and neither of them got what they wanted - the holocron for the Alliance and information on Heta Kol for Shae.

And there's the small detail that I think Tyr feels like it might've been slightly less insulting for Shae to punch him in the face herself rather than feel almost like he got walked into a trap with Heta Kol with very little in the way of concern about how that'd shake out, again, for... not only him, but her other allies as well.

But it's not something worth lingering over because Tyr can, on his good days, take care of himself, and one of the few things he does understand of the Mandalorians is that it's generally not their way to worry about whether or not you can. He didn't expect an apology, but... it doesn't do a whole lot for his impression of what she's getting herself into hunting Heta, y'know?

And that's where the parallels really start to come into focus. Because Shae being so dogged in her hunt for Heta Kol is something I think he didn't try to overly worry about not only to keep himself and the Alliance from getting too involved in Mandalorian affairs, but because he understands that sort of instinct of a hunter in Shae.

There's a part of him that really, really did practically enjoy the outing to Ruhnuk. What can he say? He's an ex-Cipher, and he liked his job. He liked putting together the clues, the investigation, the tracking, the pursuit. There's certainly far more dull things he's been asked to do.

The thing is, especially as he's gotten older, he usually does a pretty good job at not listening to the little sliver in him that takes his ideals and how they've been wronged and hurt in the world and wants to start a pyre about it. Scorched earth usually doesn't change the world in the ways you'd like it to.

But Shae in the pursuit of Heta I think is what Tyr could look like if he ever gave into such goading. There's no denying either of them are skilled and good at what they do. They can get answers if they want them. And Tyr's frankly willing to do worse than charge off on his own into the galaxy hunting leads and dropping communications with people to find his answers.

In at least a vague sense, it's... almost how he took to Hunter and the Star Cabal all those years ago. How they moved through those challenges is different, sure, but... Hunter got to be the figurehead for a lot of Tyr's feelings against the Star Cabal, that lifetime ago when he could still half-answer to Cipher Nine.

Hunter was the one that taunted that they'd taken everything that mattered from him at the time, or that they'd at least damn well tried. (Tyr would hate to admit how right he may have been, in hindsight. How keenly he felt the loss of Imperial Intelligence. How much that'd meant to him, and how deeply it'd damaged his willingness to trust for so long after.)

But I think that's also still going to inform a lot of whatever happens going forward. The fact that he understands what might've driven Shae at the start, and the still firm belief that she's gone too far - and she's going to get a lot of people hurt in what he sees as a short-sighted attempt to get answers.

And all after he thought there was some kind of respect between the two of them, if not even a bit of trust. Throwing in with Malgus is sure one hell of a way to fucking repay it, isn't it?

[tiredassmage]

What about Tyr and Aric Jorgan in the Alliance

[Send me an OC + an NPC and I'll ramble about their dynamic]

The Alliance was really the best place Tyr and Jorgan could've met. They make a perhaps surprisingly effective team when no one's worried about faction lines. Tyr's never exactly been a soldier - not completely, but him and Aric share a very no-nonsense professional attitude that launches both of them easily into the fray and lets them find out rather easily that their goals for this Alliance align rather well - and they share a similar distaste for needless political interference getting in the way of doing the job right. xD

Tyr does pause just long enough to inquire if working with a former Imperial is going to be a problem for Havoc, but it becomes quite clear rather quickly that they're of the same mind: they have a job to do, their goals align, it's better for all of them to collaborate. Other than that, they practically hit the ground running.

Jorgan looks after his people. He's got very clear values that he's not willing to compromise on. These are all qualities that Tyr respects greatly. When Jorgan says Havoc is his, regardless of the Alliance, Tyr has no questions nor qualms. It's something he admires - the drive to look after his own.

Their first experiences together over the wiretap go rather well, all things considered. I'm sure Jorgan is perhaps still keeping an eye on the former Cipher Nine, but thus far, the Commander hasn't given him a reason to not put Havoc with the Alliance. They play off of each other's orders rather well and Tyr doesn't hesitate to commit himself and the Alliance to Havoc's cause. They both get in, get the job done. They're here to fight for what matters, something that Tyr manages to continue delivering on as the Alliance transitions into recovery assistance once Vaylin is off of the throne.

He does send Kaliyo on the GEMINI frequency mission, having well-experienced the effectiveness of a small force infiltrating quietly himself, and he does ask Jorgan to hold Havoc back - not because he doesn't trust them, but because he's trying to reduce the amount of potential casualties. Success will mean little if there's no one left in the end.

If the roles were reversed, Tyr might have made the same choice to ignore that order. Aric's mission-driven and he doesn't give up on his people. Again, these are traits they share.

That Havoc ultimately sacrifices so much in the mission doesn't exactly settle well with him; Tyr will try to take most of the blame for being absent to better command the operation despite matters being out of his control. Jorgan doesn't have to like Kaliyo nor her involvement, but the intention to best aid the mission and the squad are there and felt. Havoc lost enough that day. Dressing down their superior for a choice Tyr can't exactly fault isn't going to benefit anyone. And Tyr doesn't feel they can afford to bench a soldier like Aric and the rest of Havoc. He asks them both to try to learn from the experience and otherwise asks them to not lose sight of what they're fighting for before he dismisses them both back to base.

All in all, Jorgan's an officer he can and would trust without question to watch his six and Havoc's involvement in the Alliance is invaluable. Whatever early reservations may have existed, they work well together. Tyr's adaptable combat specialization paired with Jorgan's sniper range makes them quite a force to be reckoned with when they do pair off for operations. In another life, they might've been one hell of a pair if they were on the same squad.

That all said, I haven't done a lot of figuring out exactly what the saboteur line Ossus and onward does to the Alliance composition outside of what is presented in the game, so all I can really say on the matter is that Jorgan would be an officer he'd hate to lose, though he'd understand if Havoc returned to the Republic, given everything. Should they chose to stay, Jorgan would be among the number Tyr would entrust with the orders to make sure their forces that do wish to depart do so safely without retaliation from Alliance forces. They've undoubtedly been able to spend hours talking tactics and unit deployments and compositions over the years in the Alliance and Tyr will always value his and Havoc's service for whatever time they're willing to give.

[tiredassmage]

Well, I think Friday night attested enough to the fact that I'm back on a swing of Tyr brainrot, so I think it's about time I get back up on my little dynamics soapbox and talk another area of his possibly logic-defying loyalties. I miss Ardun Kothe, dude. I miss that old man.

I was gonna save this until I got far enough in... whichever number playthrough edition I'm on at this point, I've lost count, but. I'm in my feelings too much to wait.

Kind of the short of it is there's... quite a bit he pulls from his relationship with the Minister that also shows up in his relationship with Ardun. Which does put Tyr in a pretty interesting position at the end of the Agent campaign, so with that said, we're naturally in pretty decently big Agent storyline spoilers for Chapters 2 & 3, so newer friends and wanderers, that will be under a cut if you wish or need to avoid those until a later date.

I almost wish I had some eloquent way to build all of this up, but I don't really feel like I do. Because what I do have is that I think Tyr's forgiveness of Ardun for the entirety of the Castellans starts almost the moment Ardun finalizes his orders.

Of course, in the moment, his entire life's just gotten upended and his priorities are... shaken, to understate. But under Castellan orders or not, Tyr's mission orders from Imperial Intelligence were to find out Kothe's plan and only then eliminate. Standing on Nar Shadaa with a blaster leveled at the man on their first meeting was thus never part of Tyr's plan to begin with.

But Ardun says enough here that will setup the rest of their relationship. "With the lives we've saved.., maybe we'll both find forgiveness."

So, what Tyr learns about Ardun here that then tracks through the rest of his time as part of his SIS team is Ardun's respected and trusted by his team - with the same kind of trust that Tyr affords the Minister of Intelligence [that is, Tyr trusts he'll never be asked to do anything unduly harmful to himself, without very good reasoning]. What Tyr defines as "unduly harmful" is... not exactly the layman, reasonable person's "unduly harmful," as pretty much evidenced by how he responds to the introduction of the Castellan Restraints and why they were used on him, but that's it's own post and more on that with his relationship with the Minister.

More than anything, I think it's that even one second at a glimpse of some sort of remorse that Tyr gets in this initial conversation that makes Ardun Kothe a man Tyr's still willing to trust, despite this being their introduction.

Because Ardun goes on to be the kind of leader Tyr's willing to follow. Kothe trusts his team, and it's hard to trust Tyr as this would-be defector because it would backfire on his team first. One of Ardun's hard-set orders is not being able to harm the team.

Then Chance is pulled off of Taris and looked after. Chance might not be able to rejoin them, but he's getting treatment. He's taken care of. In general, broad strokes, when Tyr offers trust to Ardun, Ardun responds. They've already spoken on I wouldn't trust me, either, so there's no use dwelling on it.

In the end, Tyr's takeaway - his assessment, if you will - of Ardun Kothe is that he's a man with regrets. He's another leader trying to do his best for the people reporting to him when his hands have been bound by undesirable circumstances. Unlike the tensions that develop pretty much from the start between Tyr and Hunter, Tyr never quite finds Kothe delighting in the use of the Castellans, even if he does continue to use them. And that's enough of a difference in handling for Tyr to notice and respect.

So, Ardun Kothe survives the trip to Quesh and the Shadow Arsenal - for a mix of Tyr's respect of his leadership of his team and the absolute harrowing nature and exhaustion of the last several months of work, trying to survive acting as a double agent, trying to unravel the story behind the Castellans and their use on Intelligence operatives... Tyr lets the entire SIS team walk. [Excepting Hunter, in the end, but Tyr's not particular counting the one that was playing them all against each other for bloodsport, and that's, again, not exactly for this post lol.]

And then they run into each other again on Corellia. It's for the best for both of them that Ardun believes his story when he lays out the setup of the Star Cabal. It's one interaction that could've hurt them if Ardun had insisted on taking him in - because Tyr had a job to finish, and no amount of his dissatisfaction with the Sith and the dissolution of Imperial Intelligence was going to change that Tyr believed the Star Cabal was a threat far greater than all of it. Ardun trusting his judgement.

And that leaves us with the Black Codex and the interesting... you could call it 'betrayal' of Tyr caught between his loyalty to the Minister, to Imperial Intelligence specifically, rather than the Empire as a whole, and his loyalty to his ideals, to himself - to everything Ardun is, in essence, offering by suggesting Legate stick around. Especially after the Minister just got done reminding Tyr about the difference between ideals and goals, and how theirs is a society that relies upon authority to make changes - progress.

Because there's a part of Tyr that already knows he risks the people he just spent the last several years fighting for by handing over that Codex to Ardun Kothe. Everything Tyr just spent trying to make the last gasp of Imperial Intelligence mean something, to prove their worth in their final hours is still at risk if this final proof isn't produced. If he doesn't deliver this to "safe hands."

But for all their talk of ideals... What both the Minister and Ardun Kothe have done is shown Tyr to fight for what's important to him and hang onto it with both hands, bloody knuckles and all. Because it's never guaranteed. Because someone else will always find it a risk. There's always the threat of non-conformity. The line between obedience and ingenuity, as Lokin calls it.

In a sense, choosing the Minister or Ardun, if he's able to continue working directly for either, offer him the same kind of protection: the same faith in his abilities. But behind them is still the Empire and the Republic. Neither are perfect. Tyr might be a man who's more fond of his ideals than he may realize, but he isn't naive. But the ideals of those sides on paper are not the same, and so the question becomes just as much about what are you willing to fight for? Who do you really want to be?

Ardun won't be able to magically pull him out of the precarious position Tyr ends up in by accepting Ardun's offer to maintain work as a double agent. Some might've been inclined to argue if Ardun would've ever actually pulled him out of the Empire because that wasn't even part of their original verbal agreement. In the end, the galaxy got far more messy than either of them could've predicted at the time and such musings no longer matter in an era of the Alliance.

But Tyr ultimately decided to trust the man with his life. A little remorse was enough to tell Tyr there was some recognition of the whole situation. Ardun he trusts did not do what he did out of direct malice. He looks up to him, respects him. A bit of a supportive authority and even parental figure that... Tyr didn't exactly have growing up. In this kind of work, someone like Tyr will hang on to the few people he feels he can trust and respect. There's not a lot of them. I think even just... having a connection where the openly-stated goal was to work together for something better did a lot for Tyr. There was a lot about his career in the wake of Imperial Intelligence's downfall that was isolating - and yes, some was in part because of his position as a double agent, because of that decision made with the Black Codex. But it was a reminder that it was worth it. It was possible to fight for something better. Ardun gave him that chance.

And, of course, they played a fair few hands of Centran Sabacc, by the end. Tyr will never say where he learned, but a fond, nostalgic smile will usually accompany those memories of evenings spent between missions playing cards with the SIS team, checking weapons with Saber and Wheel, wresting with Chance. Those were the kind of memories, the kind of friends worth fighting for.

[tiredassmage]

Okay, eons ago I threatened another npc dynamics post by asking the populace whom they'd like to see next and then I. never got around to the post even though Vector won by a landslide and I do already have that dynamic pretty well-figured out. BUT. Better late than never, right? (Seriously, it's a little embarrassing how long this thing has been sitting in my drafts at this point.)

I still, ideally, would love to get through. everyone on that list and maybe branch through some others, but. For now, let's just set my sights on finishing what I half-promised, lol.

This does, naturally, involve spoilers for the Imperial Agent storyline, which should all be contained underneath the cut. <3

So, Vector is one of Tyr's most consistent and reliable companions and support structures. They're probably the one member of his crew Tyr never feels a particularly strong need to doubt the intentions and motivations of and he's incredibly vital to keeping Tyr grounded to his own ideals.

He's inquisitive and a kind of compassionate that's hard to find in the realm of intelligence work, which also means he's really the only member of Tyr's crew to know anything about the agent's past prior to being a Cipher from his own lips. Vector I think sees him for at least most, if not all elements of what he is: a bit of a bleeding heart in addition to Cipher Nine.

And they worry about him, about how thin the line of balance he treads is. Tyr isn't able to tell him everything about what he goes through - both by inherent design of the Castellans function and the orders he operates under them with and for the way Tyr carries that trauma, but he's comfortable being a kind of honest with Vector that he doesn't really have anywhere else to place. In Vector, he can confide his growing disillusionment with the Empire (though Tyr makes some effort to spare him from the harsher edges of his broken faith, as he still sees something of a patriot in Vector and doesn't want to compromise the budding alliance for the Killiks) as well as personal worries like Shara and the mounting pressures of her operating as Keeper of Operations, of the tempestuous status of Imperial Intelligence going back into the reignited war, about Intelligence as his family. Around him, some of those walls can come down, at least for a time.

Chapter Three is... rough. By the end of it all, there's times Tyr doubts his trust in even Vector - not for any fault or action of Vector's own doing, but because Tyr's painfully stripped of any kind of support and backing he did have and facing a particular precarious position with the Dark Council about his ongoing service as an intelligence asset. Bitterly, this is one of the several elements where Tyr realizes that Hunter kept his promise - the Cabal took everything from him, except his life, in the end. The people he called family in Intelligence are scattered in reassignments, if they survive the fallout at all, whatever faith he had in working inside a system for change and improvement is battered, and Tyr's worried about trusting his own people because he is a defector, all but physically. A traitor. Sometimes, it's really less about trusting any of his crew as it is not wanting to take them down with him. The Empire isn't particularly well-known for leaving survivors and he knows, believes too strongly that all of them would be viewed as complicit regardless of their true feelings about his alliance with Ardun Kothe.

But Vector is ever-reliable and still always one of the first that's really looking out for him - him. One of the few that directly asks him is this what you want? Is Tyr if not happy, at least at peace with his decisions? Are they true to him?

And, yes, even with Tyr's own growing reservations about the Empire, he does hold his tongue when it comes to counsel about allying the Killiks with the Empire. Tyr sees they believe in it, genuinely, and doesn't have the heart to rob that kind of hope from one of the few people he would consider a dear friend. They are of the same mind that the Empire could benefit from different allies, from different perspectives, but Tyr's not particularly certain it's a solid decision for the Killiks in the long-run. Still, he has Vector's back the whole way, and he's never entirely unaware of the agent's thoughts, as much as he tries to soften what words Vector does coax him to use on the matter.

He's got a kind of patience that is extremely soothing and beneficial to Tyr. Truly, if the man ever needed anything, he'd only need to ask and Tyr would move hyperlanes for him to make it happen. Many years later in the Alliance, it's a relief to know one of his best friends is still safe. He regrets that he ended up right in the end about a fate of an Imperial-Killik alliance, but there was never any question to Tyr about working with him again. They remain one of the few that can see through Tyr's colors with relative ease, and one of the few that can slow him down enough to actually talk about and process it all.

And there's... a whole crush Tyr had on Vector (and probably still has) that he's never done anything with that Vector seems largely unaware of, or at least has never mentioned. Neither of them have brought it up and all these years on, Tyr's just glad to have his company as a friend. Most of it likely comes down to Tyr's other relationships - first with Shara and then with Theron Shan, both relationships he was/is happy in. And, of course... Chapter Two made them pretty busy with other problems.

Him and Vector are really fun to write... I really need to do some more with them. They're confidants, they're friends, allies... He's one of the few people Tyr would trust to search the ends of the galaxy for him, if he asked, and they're someone Tyr can trust secrets and confessions to. Vector encourages him to remember himself as something more than just a Cipher and follow his heart, his ideals to what he truly believes is right, and that's a friendship and counsel you can't find just anywhere, especially in intelligence work.