#honestly if it wasn't for zakuul later him and cee would have fucked off very happily to the edges of known space very peacefully

[tiredassmage]

You mentioned slugging Darmas (with enthusiasm!) on Tyr's playthrough as a post-Imp smuggler. Given that Darmas was part of Imperial Intelligence like Tyr, how did that whole dynamic between Tyr, the smuggler he worked for, and Darmas work?

This is DELICIOUS, thank you so, so much for finally giving me the nudge to go off about this on main, lol.

This is truly part of what made the Imperial Agent to Smuggler pipeline hit me like a speeding semi-truck on the interstate highway, for real. It was an incredibly cathartic experience, lol.

I'm still rotating an idea or two or three about the exact specifics because each of them have their own merits, but the universal beat is Cee lets Tyr make the choice here; Darmas and Dodonna used them both, ultimately, but she gets that it's far more personal for Tyr given his history with Intelligence.

(Also, I'd like to shake Bioware by the shoulders. Give me a consistent timeline on Intelligence challenge! Its in the process of being cut at the knees according to the Agent's trip to Corellia!!! But that's... for another time, lol).

There'd definitely be something very crunchy about keeping a lid on Tyr's history as an ex-Cipher for Darmas to let the cat out of the bag as a part of the bit to throw the Smuggler off, but since I've started to develop Cee as his Captain for want of a consistent trail of events to follow and they ultimately end up catching feelings for each other... and also partially because Dorne's deal with her defection during her companion quest series is also one of my favorites, I've been leaning towards it coming up beforehand - though, again, I haven't quite hammered out specifically how or when.

Being manipulated and sort of falling into things by circumstance is something Cee and him ultimately share experience in, so it's kind of important to me and to them that they're able to share that on their terms - or as much of their own terms as possible. It's still more by accident and situationally that his history comes up at all - I imagine its not even something the SIS readily passes around as part of operational security, but as of the moment, I imagine Tyr just figures it's easier (and better) to explain it himself rather than let her try to piece it together from whatever opinionated tales begin to unravel it in the first place. (She'd figure it out either way and he'd prefer someone he cares about not feel lied to, y'know?)

He comes to respect Cee a great deal rather quickly because she's trying her best to hold her own ground in the midst of... everything she's kinda stumbled into from the reputation chasing down Nok Drayen's treasure to a deal with the Republic, so it's quite important to him that he maintains open communication with her.

But, yes, Darmas, whether he recognizes the ex-Cipher or not, is an incredibly personal encounter for Tyr. While he's not Cipher Nine in this particular tale, his reasons for leaving Imperial Intelligence and the Empire behind are largely consistent with those he chooses as Nine: he's not interested in being a statistic, the battered instrument and disposable cog in some Sith's machinery. And beneath under all of that calculation, beneath the facade of realism tempered by an agent's experience and training, ideals are important to Tyr and they always have been, even if he hasn't exactly realized it. To find out he traded the Empire for the Republic (that was meant to be an improvement on the ideals front) and still fell into those trappings, that he was so close to the problem and didn't even see any warning signs, that this threatened the very real unexpected found family and belonging he found in Cee and the crew... It's a lot. And he knows Darmas's type too well to trust that the snake wouldn't slip away given half the chance.

I imagine he does take a swing first, emotions getting the better of him for a moment, at least, before he deferred to Cee's judgement. She was the one they really sent after the pair, after all. But, in the end, Cee left the decision up to him, so Darmas got no deals that day. xD Just a very angry swinging SIS operative and ultimately a blaster bolt to that pretty face of his.

For Cee's part, she was never particularly interested in Darmas's charms from the beginning, though I imagine she trusted him enough as an ally by the time this all comes out. Her main wound in all of this is having found out the opportunity to genuinely work for the greater good for once was all an orchestration to actually serve the enemy. In broad strokes, Cee ended up smuggling in an attempt to pay off inherited debts from her father, so very little of being a starship captain smuggling goods had ever been her choice, let alone her ideal choice. She's not particularly pleased that her wariness of the offer to privateer in the first place was perhaps not entirely misplaced given the company, but she doesn't hesitate to take the offer again from Sumalee. She's far more confident in the authenticity of the arrangement and its truly what she'd generally prefer to put her acquired talents to use for.

Truly though. This gave being able to clock Saresh a run for credits as far as satisfying decisions, lol! It's very important to me and my cause (this au) xD