#i don’t know enough about swtor to say what the hell was going on there

[roseaesynstylae]

One of the better things about TROS is that Revan was sort of recanonized. During Rey’s confrontation with Palpatine, the Sith cultists can be heard chanting the name ‘Revan.’

Despite the context, it’s possible that Revan was still redeemed. In Legends, both the Brotherhood of the Darkness and Darth Bane respected them, in spite of knowing that they returned to the light. In fact, one of the Sith Lords called himself Darth Rivan in an accidental misspelling of their name, and Bane used their teachings as inspiration for the Rule of Two.

[queen-scribbles]

Kina Smooches*  Arn vs Rass time GO

Pardon me while I work through the pros(there are no cons) of the two final contenders for my girl flirting. 👀👀👀 

[For new SWtOR followers, bc I know there’s a few of you(hi and welcome!) this is Kina-- Taldine, as in daughter of Pak Taldine, the gangster/guard from Jedi Knight Belsavis arc. Condensed backstory here]

It really boils down to whether I want to play up a more “opposites attract” or “two of a kind” type of relationship. (and, disclaimer, I’ve seen the Rass flirts but not Arn’s) 

Arn: I pretty much had settled on her flirting with Arn before Showdown on Ruhnuk came out.  I wasn’t really feeling a vibe with any of the other options(Corso or the expac ones. I’d headcanon a long-standing Thing with Numen in a hot second). But I really love the mental image of this snarky smuggler, whose main focus tends to be looking out for herself and then her crew, very jaded and cynical, whose worldview is something like this:

finding herself caring about the emotional and physical wellbeing of an earnest, eager, do-gooder Jedi. Like, this was not the plan. Why does it matter to her that he’s struggling to believe in himself?? Why does she care?? Other people’s soul-searching has never been a concern of hers before, so why does she worry about Arn and want to make sure he a)is safe and b)believes in himself?? She wants to protect him and encourage him, that’s not like her, she lets people solve their own problems, and yet here she is standing on the slaver docks assuring him he’s a good Jedi and he made the right choice and what is her life now!?!

And just the slow development of actual care and romantic feelings would be really cute and and her “oh. OH. well shit” moment would be amazing. Kina is basically a good person, she’s just more flippant and less altruistic and tends to not get attached. She cares about people, sure. In the “would feel bad if they got hurt” sense, and obviously cares enough to wanna stop the Eternal Empire (she’s very “uuuuugghhhhh fINE” and maybe a tad personal-revenge motivated about it tho) But I don’t think she has anyone in her life that, say, you could threaten to manipulate her into doing things for you. She’d probably shoot you in the face instead. Arn would, potentially, become that for her, and I find that delicious. It would wind up deep and scary and exhilarating and be really fun to watch play out. (Corso and Risha are sitting on Odessen watching with matching grins and mugs of liquored-up hot chocolate bc one thing they can agree on is this crisis of hers as she falls in love is entertaining as hell.) 

Rass is the opposite; his general attitude is very much in line with hers and she would vibe with him immediately.  The sarcasm, the needling her crashing a shuttle, the focused drive to find and rescue his brother, all very much like her. (She has a soft spot for family-related distress calls that she will deny strenuously if anyone points it out. But it’s 100% there). And what I’ve seen of the flirts, they’re definitely things she would say. Flirting with Rass would be more for fun that has an 85-90% chance to turn into “whoops I slipped and caught feelings” and a lot more levity and playfully heckling each other. 

It would progress more along lines of realizing they work well together, little bit of worry about each others’ safety while simultaneously “ppsh s/he’s a badass, it’s fine” about danger. “Kick his ass, babe, I’ll hold your flower” type couple, for sure, in both directions. And that is also really fun to watch. I think her falling for Rass would be more subtle and one day someone would say something and it would hit her like a ton of bricks and she’d just go “Well, SHIT.”

I am fully aware I could have her flirt with both, that would vibe especially well with a smuggler since they’re portrayed a bit more flirty and all than most of the other classes. But then I would live in fear of the day BioWare made us pick. xD And also, my OCs tend to be monogamous. (Except Xander, apparently, who is pushing REAL HARD for an OT3 with Lana and Anri that totally won’t end in tears since he’s a saboteur 😅😅) I like to pick one RO, maybe flirt a teeny bit with someone else if it’s in character, but actually only pursue the one I want. 

Basically, tl;dr, Rass would be fun, Arn would be character growth and both are really fucking tempting and she’ll be sitting at the start of Onslaught until I get this worked out. xD

 *I’m aware there’s no smooches yet, that both are just flirting. And that’s all it might ever be. But in case it goes somewhere.

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: On "too easy"

I keep seeing posts elsewhere from "serious gamers" saying "waaah, they nerfed the game, IT'S TOO EASY NOW." I keep seeing posts from people who seem to think the only way to "save" SWTOR is to make it really difficult. And posts that cast judgment on those who prefer a more laid-back approach. 

I can't stand that. Truly, one of the worst things about gaming is some of the playerbase. 

I fully believe that where possible, content should have story/veteran/NiM modes available, the way KOTFE, KOTET and the non-story flashpoints do. If someone's idea of fun is to run every single thing with extreme difficulty, and that's what they get a charge from, let them at it...as long as it doesn't mean everyone else has to play that way too. That's where these discussions usually go off the rails, since these folks seem to think that everyone should play at an arbitrary high standard they deem acceptable. 

A lot of different types of players love SWTOR. Some really do want NiM all the time. Others want to decorate strongholds or dress their characters. Some are all about story. Some love the group aspect and always want to play with guildies or friends; others steer clear of all interaction with other players. Some do a mix of all of the above. Some avoid certain activities at all costs. 

I'm a solo story player. For me, extreme challenge isn't fun. It's usually enough to get me to quit. It's not fun for me to die over and over in a game or to struggle with complicated mechanics where one misstep means death. I hate things like the Onderon datacrons. I felt that Spirit of Vengeance was originally tuned way too high and had way too many mobs, even though I was fully able to finish it. 

I've gone in and done some more difficult things like Dread Seeds and veteran flashpoints solo because I wanted to see the content and complete those missions. If the entire game was tuned like the last Dread Seeds mission or those veteran flashpoints, I'd likely leave in about two seconds. In the longterm, it's not pleasant for me. It's physically painful, it's boring and I don't find it relaxing or fun.

No one playstyle is "correct" or "normal." They all are. What's abnormal is when someone insists everyone has to play a certain way. What would I say to those gatekeepers whining about content being too easy? 

The story content isn't getting people ready for endgame. 

So? 

You're assuming everyone wants to play endgame content. They don't. There's nothing Bioware could do, say or bribe me with that would get me into things like Ops, ranked PvP, PvP at all, PUGs or Master Mode flashpoints. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I am here for the story. Period. 

A training ground for endgame content exists in the form of flashpoints. The flashpoints in the game do get progressively tougher. If someone's truly interested in getting raid-worthy skills they're likely going to be doing solo flashpoints. And using groupfinder or joining a guild that works to help players progress. There are options, and those who are interested in raids will seek them out. 

But the story is so easy. It's a faceroll. Games are about challenge.  

Challenge means different things to different people.

Everyone has different abilities. You might roll through every flashpoint. The next player might die seven times just getting through the first tomb on Korriban. By the way, I'm "next player." I think my first toon may have kicked the bucket before even getting into Ajunta Pall's tomb. The word "easy" is very, very relative. 

Also, for some of us, easier content is relaxing and fun. The same way some people like a leisurely bicycle ride along the bike path and others train for the Tour de France. 

If challenge for you involves very difficult gameplay, it does exist. Go join a NiM guild for raids. Go play ranked PvP. Play another game. Why does everyone else need to play the way you play? 

People aren't grouping. They should be forced to group. 

Because you think they should? What gives you any right to dictate how other people play or who they play the game with? Are you the National Gaming Czar and nobody told us? 

This "grouping should be compulsory!" belief is bullshit. People who want to group WILL group. That's always been the case. Hell, I remember being a kid and playing single player console games with friends. We'd take turns, cheer each other on, and yell out advice to the person playing. We found a way to play in a group because we wanted to. 

Right now, the people in SWTOR there are guilds and healthy incentives to join them. Right now, the people in SWTOR who want to play with a friend or friends can do that. Even in things like class stories or KOTFE where it only progresses for one person, they can still come along and help. There are multiple opportunities in the game for players to meet each other. There are social media sites where they can do the same. There's group finder. There are people who look for groups on the fleet. There are PvP and GSF where they can play against others. 

Bottom line? Anyone who wants to group has multiple ways to accomplish that at this very moment. 

Those who aren't grouping likely do not want to group. They don't have to explain why. If you force them to group one of two things will probably happen: they will do it and hate every second of it and not want to be there, or they will stop playing. Which is more likely? Well, I'm sure we've all finished Oricon, Iokath and Macrobinoculars, right? Oh wait...

This is a game. It's not supposed to be like a job where you have coworkers you detest and still have to interact with them. It's not some life skill. It's. A. Game. Get over it if people don't want to play with you.   There should always be open world PvP. Sure, if you want a mass exodus from the game in about a day. The minute they make open world PvP non-optional or make PvP content compulsory is the day I stop playing. And I don't think I'm alone there. I feel like this comment usually comes from people who are frustrated that others don't accept their duel requests and that there isn't a huge pool of players for PVP matches. They can't get people to play with them voluntarily so they want to force it. And you should be able to tag a mob someone else is working on. I keep seeing this brought up as an ideal in other games. It seems to be a way to force people to group with you even if they've said no to an invite. You know what will happen with this? You'll have players hitting the mob once and getting credit/loot without any effort. Or you will have players following around other players to "share mobs" with them even when that other player wants to be left alone. I'm of the opinion that any type of group play should be consensual in all cases, not forced on players because they happen to be in open world.

*sigh* It's an MMO. 

And? MMO doesn't mean "group all the time" or even some of the time. It means a lot of players are co-existing in a shared online world. It means the ability to group should exist - and it does. 

People come into group content and don't know what to do. 

#1: Everyone starts somewhere. We all know that you were so miraculously gifted that you came out of the womb knowing advanced mechanisms for every boss fight, but most of us didn't. 

#2. If you want to play strictly with a team of veteran players, join a guild, make some friends in the game and have fun. That's a lot more realistic than expecting random players in a PUG or groupfinder to meet whatever your exacting specifications are. 

#3. Blame the devs for forcing players into Groupfinder to complete Galactic Seasons and other objectives. There are plenty of people who wouldn't be there if that weren't the case. 

People come into flashpoints and want to watch the cut scenes. 

Hang on. Let me process this. In a story based game, players want to watch the cut scenes? For real? That's completely unreasonable! /sarcasm

In the latest flashpoints, they've more or less removed all the cut scenes. You have your wish granted. For the older flashpoints, there are still many that don't have solo/story mode. The only way people can see those cut scenes is in veteran or master. If you have an issue with this, start advocating to the devs to make solo story versions of those flashpoints.  I feel like the bottom line is that everyone has the right to ask for the type of gaming experience they want, but they don't have the right to insist everyone else should share that experience.

[dragonheart-swtor]

Sith Inquisitor Storyline: Drunk History Version

Y’all, and by y’all I mean one person (@sith-shenanigans thank you very much), asked for it, and I live to repeat this over and over for others’ amusement, so here it is. Have my summary of the pinball machine that is the Sith Inquisitor storyline, from memory, originally drafted a while back in DMs with a friend who’s never played SWTOR. Spoilers for the Sith Inquisitor storyline, obviously.

Without further ado: Let us begin.

- So your story begins as a recently sort-of-freed slave walking off a ship and onto Hell: The Planet. (The nonhuman Inquisitor immediately experiences 2483947 microaggressions.)

- You have to compete with a bunch of other people! Only one of you is not going to die and the overseer has already picked his favorite, seemingly purely because he happens to have red skin. They will both (the overseer and Teacher’s Pet) proceed to be as annoying as possible for the rest of the Korriban story.

- multiple people try to kill you, but you’re the protagonist, so fuck them

- “Teacher’s Pet, you go to the library and translate these texts. Protagonist, you go to this ancient tomb and figure out how to retrieve an artifact from a lock that no one has been able to open in ten thousand years.” “Libraries are boring anyway. Yawn.”

- You finally get to smackdown with Teacher’s Pet, which is satisfying as hell. Unfortunately the overseer gets pissy about it. Fortunately, the Sith you’ve been competing to be the apprentice of decided she liked you early on and has also been playing favorites, so you don’t die immediately.

- your master is great! much more into positive reinforcement than most Sith.

- at some point you semi-accidentally steal someone else's cult on Nar Shaddaa and now they worship you as a nigh-on god. whoops. you just kind of... leave and let them run their own business. you pay them visits later in the storyline.

- you also become part bug so you can go skinny dipping in radioactive waste. it’s fine, we promise.

- your master is trying to steal your body because turns out she's actually really old and kind of dying so she plans on kicking you out of your body, transplanting her own soul in your place, killing her old body, and assuming your identity after "you" "killed" "your master"! that's not great, better not let her do that.

-  you successfully didn't let her do that! wait, now she's sharing a body with one of your companions, an ancient monster who you kind of forced into submission and who serves you rather unwillingly now. there is apparently nothing that can be done about this so sometimes your eight-foot-tall monster not-friend talks in a high, unnervingly smooth feminine voice and tries to convince you she's on your side now that she's forced by this new body to not harm you. this is also not great but what are you gonna do. he is also Not Pleased about this by the way, and really who can blame him.

- some darth on the dark council named Thanaton decides to get pissy with you for reasons I don't remember and now he's trying to kill you. what the fuck.

-  he actually almost does kill you but your old master's other apprentices, who are now your apprentices, save you from the brink of death.

- (the apprentices, by the way, are very sweet and I love them. they’re murdered by thanaton almost immediately.)

-  your solution to "I need more power, fast", for some godforsaken reason, is "I'm going to learn to walk the line between life and death and EAT GHOSTS" and I wish I were exaggerating this

- you go out and eat a bunch of ghosts of old Sith on various planets

- subpoint to this: on one of these planets, you accomplish this by coercing the ghost's descendant, a Jedi padawan named Ashara, to get the ghost to appear so you can eat him. You end up murdering her masters in the process because one way or another they find out about your plan. She is understandably horrified by this turn of events and, feeling she has no chance of returning to the Jedi, reluctantly joins your crew and either (Light Side Quizzy) learns to balance light and dark sides of the Force and becomes ultimately stronger for it, or (Dark Side Quizzy) lives in abject terror of you for the rest of the storyline. I love her dearly as well. fortunately she is not murdered by thanaton.

- congrats! you ate enough ghosts to have enough power to beat thanaton up!

- unfortunately, you have Ate Too Many Ghosts Disease now and need immediate medical attention.

- your mind kind of just Shatters and you may or may not have hallucinations for a while iirc. either way you need help or you're just gonna disintegrate slowly until the ghosts overwhelm you and take over. you go to Voss and participate in some wild Force ritual they've got to take care of that. it's a fun time

- your body is also having a bad time and that also needs fixing; I don't remember where you go for this (Belsavis, I think?) but you end up checking out a machine made by a long-dead alien civilization and the machine turns out to a) be sentient and b) be responsible for CREATING A GOOD PORTION OF THE GALAXY'S NEAR-HUMAN SPECIES, IF NOT ALL OF THEM, AND DISSEMINATING THEM TO THE GALAXY AS PART OF THE RAKATA'S EXPERIMENTS ON CREATING FORCE-SENSITIVE LIFEFORMS IN HOPES OF KEEPING THEIR OWN SPECIES FROM DYING OUT BECAUSE THEY WERE SUPER RACIST AND EVENTUALLY THAT RACISM KICKED THEM IN THE ASS IN THE FORM OF A MASS REVOLUTION THAT WIPED THEM OUT COMPLETELY BUT THE MACHINE IS STILL HERE

- all right I’m calm sorry I derailed for a moment

- I have a lot of thoughts about things

-  anyway the machine bUILDS YOU A NEW FUCKING BODY and you're good to go now

-  (by the way, depending what species you're playing, it's entirely possible you learn at this point that your entire species only exists because of this machine!)

- (anyway.)

- okay, mind fixed, body fixed, ghosts consumed, we're good to go! time to murder a dark councilor!

- "we do that"

- except you don't because you're on corellia and this dipshit challenges you to a kaggath without really ever explaining in detail what a kaggath is or what the rules (if any) are, we just know it seems to be the ancient and very formal Sith way of saying "meet me in the denny's parking lot at 3am if you want an ass-kicking", and then hE RUNS OFF TO DROMUND KAAS WHICH DEPENDING ON WHAT GALAXY MAP YOU BELIEVE IS UP TO FIVE DAYS' TRAVEL AWAY

- YOU'RE CANONICALLY JUST CHASING THIS LITTLE BITCH THROUGH SPACE FOR FIVE DAYS AFTER HE CHALLENGED YOU

-  he then goes to the Dark Council to try to convince them to help him kill you and you literally have to just go to the Dark Council chambers too and kick in the door and go "HEARD YOU WERE TALKIN SHIT" in front of everyone

- (which to be fair is basically Sith philosophy in a nutshell)

-  Ravage and Marr spend this entire council meeting just exchanging tired glances and going "no, fuck you, why can't you kill them, they're your problem. fight for our entertainment now. fuck you"

- (Darth Baras did this exact same shit earlier the same day, by the way, with the Sith Warrior. and by “earlier the same day” I mean “like fifteen minutes prior to this.”)

- you fight Thanaton. to no one's surprise, because you're the protagonist and because he's being a little bitch about it, you kick his ass and slaughter him in front of everyone

- half the Council stands up and you just kind of go "oh shit I'm gonna die"

- but no

- you're being promoted

- congration you done it you're a dark councilor now

- someone complains because wait, they're not even a darth, you can't be a dark councilor if you're not even a darth

- first person responds with "well fuck you then, we'll make them a darth. hey you. your name is Darth Nox (dark side)/Imperius (light side)/Occulus (neutral) now. take a seat"

- "but - what?"

- "take a fuckin seat, babe"

- "o- okay" 

- "you run the entire Ancient Knowledge sector now, by the way, despite the fact that you may or may not be illiterate due to having been raised a slave, because that was what Thanaton ran and we only have the one job opening since the Warrior just killed Baras"

- (the Warrior, freshly coined the Emperor's Wrath officially, waves from their corner where they're cleaning Baras's blood off their boots)

- "I - okay, I guess"

and that’s the Sith Inquisitor storyline. That’s a wrap, folks, roll credits. if this gets enough notes and/or if literally anyone says they’d like to see it I may also post the Imperial Agent and/or do other class stories, I enjoy these way too much

[sullustangin]

Not a disaster spy.

Note:  I speak in lawful/neutral/chaotic alignments as seen in D&D.  I’m not getting into good, evil, or neutral, nor “Dark Side” or “Light Side” activities. 

There were more than a few reasons why I commissioned a piece of art that depicted some pretty gnarly scars on Theron Shan (and on my smug, Eva, but you don’t care as much about her, let’s be real). It’s part of a story I’m telling.  It’s part of my headcanon.  Also, it’s my own sort of protest against the habit of writing Theron off as a hot but inept spy.  He’s an impulsive fool despite being intelligent, which is why he ends up in bizarre situations. He always gets hurt because of this (but he’s always magically healed up in time for any smut). 

To be clear: Theron totally has issues due to his early life and an inability to play well with others; you can label him with attachment issues, intimacy issues, whatever keeps him a bit of a lonely character (which he admits).  Personal life -- disaster.  That’s canon, explicit and implicit.

What I object to are his skills and abilities being discounted because of that.  His professional life is far from being a disaster.  Director SIS Marcus Trant brands him as one of the best field agents, and long term, he ends up being operations manager for a covert base for an upstart independent government.

Reasons:

In the book Annihilation, Theron runs around in his boots and briefs trying to destroy the Ascendant Spear.   Hot, funny, and strangely effective.

But why?

Because Jace Malcom and Marcus Trant were ok with sacrificing a few planets of people “for the greater good.”  They let Ruan be attacked.  They planned on letting Duro be attacked, because they wanted the Pub fleet to focus on the Ascendant Spear, the Empire superweapon.  They watched a planet get wrecked and planned on doing it again.  It’s war.  It’s a lawful action, for the greater good.  It complies with society’s expectations -- the Republic leadership’s expectations -- in a time of war. Lawful neutral, probably.  Maybe lawful good if you squint and do the math about the Spear’s potential fatality rate, galaxy wide.

But Theron isn’t a lawful character -- he doesn’t just do stuff because society says it’s ok.  That’s why he goes off and does impulsive stuff because sometimes, society is wrong.  Theron is a neutral, leaning chaotic character -- he mostly follows the law, but also relies on his own intuition and gut feeling about what is right. Neutral characters balance what society says is right and what a person internally thinks is right.   Chaotic characters -- like my oc smuggler -- don’t rely on society’s views at all; it’s all about her gut and moral compass.  Theron at least considers lawfulness and order in his response, which is why he is (mostly) not a chaotic character.  He has his moments, though - no character is pure.  In contrast, Lana is a Lawful character in the context of the Sith Empire.  She does things that her society approves of.  She does like to think of herself as ‘her own woman’, but her behavior patterns are heavily informed by the Sith upbringing and training - she is Lawful but leaning Neutral on occasion due to her own sense of pragmatism.  She does not go by her gut alone. 

(Please remember I’m not addressing good/evil, Light/Dark side in this post.)

That’s why Theron ends up dehydrated with cramped leg and half naked.  He didn’t want people to die "for the greater good” when he personally could stop it.  So he and Gnost Dural fool Darth Karrid into participating at Duro, which means the Republic Fleet has to defend the planet, since its target is the Ascendant Spear.  The only way that happens is that Gnost-Dural is tortured, and Theron has to manually slice into the nearly uninhabitable bowels of the ship.  Hence the whole strip tease by the end of the incident.  

Consequences: 

In the example above, it’s mostly situational embarrassment for Theron, and the Jedi gets tortured. 

In an earlier part of the book, Theron is beaten up to keep his cover and acquire important information (and loses a few teeth in the process) and leaps off a building and probably fractures a few things -- he dislocated a shoulder too.  Still didn’t blow cover, and he is able get off Ziost with Gnost Dural. 

Every SWTOR player knows about Rishi -- it’s easy to argue that Theron doesn’t give up Lana because that could burn his Republic ally.  But if  you’re playing Imp side, what’s stopping him?  Flirting is nothing to this point.  Why not burn all the Imps down?  He could save his own skin, infiltrate the Revanites that way and save the Republic Fleet -- to hell with Darth Marr.

Because it’s not just “ooo rah Republic” informing his choices -it’s not Republic society saying it’s ok and lawful that makes him sit there.  It’s his own moral compass that says it’s wrong to burn Jakarro and the operative, even if Lana did give him up.  So he holds out under torture, even as Revan tries to make his descendant his ally. 

Theron had been in SIS for about 12-13 years by the time we get to Rishi.  We know he’s fallen from high heights and survived worse falls than leaping between buildings on Nar Shaddaa -- survived, not gotten out unscathed. He was a swoop racer for awhile -- that’s a risky hobby.  As an agent, It’s reasonable to assume he’s been shot at with blasters and possibly slugthrowers (if he came across a Mando), stabbed with traditional blades or vibro-blades, got burned if he was in an industrial area or a hot engine room or a chemical lab -- the list goes on.  After Yavin, we know that the one agent possibly more chaotic than he is, Jonas Balkar, ends up giving him a few broken ribs in the name of busting up an implants ring. 

So Theron does have very real consequences for his decisions, in all likelihood.  That’s what I wanted to reflect in the recent commission; although it happens shortly before the torture session on Rishi, it shows the viewer that this is a path he’s been on before, and not by accident. 

Cutting here because boy, did I have a lot to say about what happens AFTER SoR in terms of alignment/characterization.

The KotFE and Beyond: Consistency Issues

Theron registers his approval and disapproval on certain decisions in later xpacs, and he often takes the more benevolent “light side” end of things -- whether that’s based upon his societal expectations or personal moral compass is not as clear.  But he still does disagree with the Commander (one of the more obvious examples being  storming out of the room if there are too many Pub casualties on Corellia when the player is Imp side).  While it remains a touchy topic, the Traitor Arc does reflect his neutral-chaotic tendencies. He goes with his internal moral compass.

Electrocuting the Commander on Iokath was part of Theron gaining the Order of Zildrog’s trust. Theron’s smart enough and probably familiar enough with the Commander’s bio data to know how to make it happen and look bad enough without serious ill-effects. This is part of what he does as a spy, and there’s likely a guide on double agent sabotage somewhere in SIS -- how to look like you’re doing bad stuff without actually doing as bad stuff as requested.  This is also part of what he personally believes to be a better path -- certainly not by Alliance “what to do when bad things happen” book, which was to tell his Commander.   

Does Theron fail at Nathema?  Yes; there is a major loss of war materiel (the Gravestone and the Eternal Fleet).  But what would he have considered more important?  The loss of the fleet or the loss of the Commander and others if the Fleet was unleashed?  The loss of life or the loss of stuff? That’s where Theron’s neutral-chaotic alignment comes in. 

It also does matter how the player views the entire situation -- Theron’s boss also has a say in ‘success,’ which is why Trant matters in judging Theron’s previous actions. At the end of KotET, some people had been miserable that they HAD to either be a ruler or a peacekeeper instead of just getting on their ship and riding off into the sunset for more class-specific adventures. By the end of Nathema, some people were mad about losing the weapons and the power.  Some people were relieved that they weren’t so OP anymore; the writers had written story/character development into a corner, and ending the whole Throne/Fleet thing had to happen. (It’s still not fully out of a corner, in my personal opinion.)  

Theron doesn’t get out of the Traitor Arc completely clean, no matter how many stans we write about it -- the writing is what it is.  He assuredly gains a new scar.  But it is player choice as to the severity of the failure -- and the consequences: Theron can end up married, still in love with the Commander, dumped by the Commander but in the Alliance, exiled, or dead. Those were the consequences for what he believed was the right thing to do -- this was probably his biggest leap into the chaotic alignment in terms of decision making, and this was the most dramatic spectrum of consequences.

As a side bar, the latter xpacs suffer from writing issues; there’s a lack of nuance compared to the vanilla stories and even Hutts and SOR.  Although the writers did promise that characters would leave if there were enough negative actions, only Koth actually left because of something we did; Lana never leaves, and Theron leaves regardless of prior actions -- because he’s doing the  double agent thing. (I thought the opening speech on Umbara was ill-fit for most classes, frankly -- the writing got better as we got closer to Nathema, but there are plotholes that make me fume.)  Lana and Theron never leave because the player makes too many LS or DS decisions. I honestly wish that was a consequence, because not having a consequence for decisions hallows out both characters and makes them lackeys rather than the stronger, distinct characters they were prior to Popsicle Time. Lana never leaves no matter what. Theron ultimately remains gone by player decision, not by his own.  Koth was at least granted that autonomy, for which I respect the writing for Koth. 

Theron Shan is a good spy that accepts consequences.

Theron is good at his job -- the best at his job, around the time of SoR. Because of how Theron approaches the world, he takes risks so others don’t -- so others don’t get tortured, so other planets don’t get blown up.  It doesn’t mean that he’s some inept idiot that fumbles his way toward mission success. He  knowingly suffers for his choices that are a combination of by-the-book training and his instincts. He doesn’t complain about it, even when the player points it out on Rishi.  It is the job.  Spies do really, really strange stuff to keep their covers. He also doesn’t complain as he’s limping around after Nathema, nor does he object if he’s exiled or dumped.  He knows what he did.  He can live with it (if the player lets him). 

Spies that remain alive and get back to their home nations without giving anything important up to the enemy are successful spies.  We see this in pre-SWTOR media.  Rishi is a success for Theron -- although he is exposed, he remains alive and uncooperative.  The temporary Alliance between Marr and Satele gain massive amounts of intel, including Revan’s base on Yavin.  Later, Theron is able to keep the Odessen base functional and secret.  We even get to do some infiltration work on Zakuul -- the Alliance’s spies don’t give anything up while surviving and making it home with gains.  He succeeds overall at Odessen.  He fails at Nathema, though that failure is mostly interpreted by the player in terms of severity. 

Few spies are perfect and survive to become old men.  Even if Theron is killed at the end of Nathema, he did make it further than many; if we consider that Theron was about 37 or 38 at Nathema and he started SIS at 16, that’s upwards of 20 years in the field.  That’s a long lifespan for an active field agent, even in real world estimates. 

For those of us who let Theron live, then he still has potential for more spy escapades, though probably with some serious oversight.  We can leave that to headcanons, since Lana and Theron have taken a step back in prominence since Onslaught.  Theron will never be orderly like Lana; if you favor lawful characters, you will rarely see eye to eye with Theron.  He is not a by the book spy, and even Trant complains about that.  At the same time, the instinct, the skills, and personal conscience is there, which is why Theron is successful all the way up to Nathema -- and depending on the player, arguably still is. 

Personal life -- sure, a disaster. No doubt. But as a spy?  I don’t think disaster is an accurate assessment.

[synoxshots]

The Master KOTET Adventure

Well at last, my journey is complete. This was some of the most frustrating, and at times hilariously so, content I’ve ever done - but at the same time there were some parts that felt really rewarding and, dare I say it, even enjoyable. 

So as with my Master KOTFE adventure, I’ve written it all up in case you should ever find yourself wanting a go. As with before, I play a Rage Jugg, 306 gear, Descent of the Fearless set, fully augmented but not min-maxed. Here’s how it went, and warning, it gets long:

Chapter I

I was hopeful about this chapter as it's the only one I'd completed on veteran,  and I was already much more prepared. On master though, it still caused me problems. The first death was an unexpected attack from a Knight that dealt like 140,000 damage, which, ouch... The first boss was the main cause of difficulty in this chapter for me, which was the PA-717 droid. The best tactic was basically just stay as close as possible to it, stay out of its blue conal and hope you don't get shoved into mines, and just hit it as hard as you can. Took a few attempts and the successful one was itself a close call, with Lana dying with probably around 15% health left (didn't get to check exactly because, you know, fighting for my life). After that there's quite a few mobs already engaged in battles with Mandos, I just ran through them, also ignored the bonus objectives which I don't think made any difference.

You have a cutscene where you catch up with Theron and then face swarms of Skytroopers in a building. It is probably beneficial to have range here as there are kolto stations which I didn't manage to use a lot because I was always chasing after the droids. It does give you a checkpoint before the Knights come along, and even if you die then the battle carries on around you (and I had to file a bug report as my heroic moment wasn't working properly, so actually kind of cheesed the boss a bit by letting others deal with it ha). Once revived though, it wasn't so bad.

The walker is everyone's nightmare in this chapter. I follow this guide every time now and it does save a lot of hassle. The final walker fight actually went the best it's ever gone for me, I found the mobs a lot harder than the Big Droid at the end which didn't really touch me that much. No real difficulties after that.

Chapter II

This is the one I'd been fearing from the start, as it's regarded as one of the most difficult things to do in the game solo. I remember trying it on vet mode with my PT and not even being able to get past the jungle creatures, i.e. the very first mob. The only slice of hope was that I've heard the difference between vet mode and master mode isn't massive, but. It was still horrible. Died once on the jungle creatures but it wasn't a big problem really, and that was a fight that didn't reset progress so I got it on the second attempt. Not easy, but manageable. The first big challenge is the Genoharadan Scout camp, and honestly several attempts with a few different tactics didn't seem to get me anywhere (though on one I did get reasonably close) - so I called in a friend and we got through it quickly. No problems from then onwards until we got to the last boss, the Genoharadan Leader plus two hunters. And that was a Time.

As 2 dps with 2 healing companions, we went for targeting the hunters first, and generally we managed to get both of them down, but our companions would either be dead or very close to it. I'm not great at micromanaging companions anyway, and that was something that was definitely needed with Acina to pull her out of the fire and on the ground and all that. So we called in a tank to join us, and we made progress but still struggled. We did discover that with the people you call in, if they die it's alright to go to the med centre and then run back to the room and rejoin the fight without it resetting - but for the phase owner if they die, they can't leave the room (leaving the room will exit the battle, and on this fight it does reset progress). So we decided the best course of action was to get a Real Person Healer to join us rather than Acina, who will stand in everything. Funnily enough, having an actual person proved much more effective and we got it first time! It's a very chaotic fight overall, you get chucked around a lot, there's lots of ridiculously high damage abilities, lots of things to stand in and die, and so on. I definitely wouldn't recommend going alone. Acina will stay with you, doesn't seem to matter what the group size is - she stayed with us when we had a group of four - her influence level is also at the start of the chapter though I raised it to 50 (she's another who likes delicacy gifts which is always good). It was brutal, but it's done.

Chapter III

A nice breather, no deaths at all. I even managed the mouse droid on the first attempt! Stealth squads of troopers bring health down a bit but nothing to worry about, was always in control. Vaylin fight doesn't matter so much as it cuts out early. No real boss fight.

Chapter IV

This one caused me more problems than I thought it would, as though there's no real boss fight there is a swarm near the end and after many attempts on my own, trying to raise Vette's influence further to see if it would help (it did, but not enough), I had to call in a friend. Still took a few attempts with the two of us. Initially we went for having both comps on heals, then we found it was better to have one healing and one dps to nuke it a bit, and eventually we got through it - though I only had 6% health left. It was another of those fights where it resets completely on dying, though your friend can go to medcenter and jump back into the fight. Jugg just wasn't the ideal class for that one I think. After that there were no problems, beforehand it was just the odd Compactor Droid causing me issues, though as long as I used my defensives efficiently it was fine as they lose health quickly too.

Chapter V

This one wasn't too bad. Quite a lot of waves of droid mobs again, they do take your health down quite a bit, but by this stage I'm used to that! It's just a chapter where staying out of red things is key really. When you face the giant droid you don't get hit too much, just watch out when it's the time the repair droids come along because being caught in the big attacks will hurt. The droid does lose health at a good pace though. When you go in the droid it's a pretty simple fight, just have to make sure you regen your health regularly (one time I did not and guess what happened?).

I didn't die on the fight against ARIES. From what I'd read, the key seemed to be staying out of melee range...not ideal for a Jugg. So I decided on keeping mobile and utilising my attacks that did have a bit of range as much as possible. (ARIES also tells you to stand still if you want to die, a good reminder if you still needed one!). It was a bit grindy but my health was never really a concern, I ran around a lot and stayed out of the red and all was well.

Chapter VI

So this one was another Experience. Half of it is a puzzle which is a nice change of pace, and no different from story. I would recommend at this stage doing the Bergola bonus mission - I'd never actually done it before, but it does mean you don't need to fight the extra pups when the beast pit starts, and instead have them on your side. Which is definitely a help of sorts, but that fight in the beast pit is definitely something. The best tactic seemed to be getting as many stuns in as possible, as he can be stunned and interrupted - I put Theron onto damage as well to use his stun, used heroic moments for the extra stuns as well. The beast casts a big circle around itself that takes out nearly all of your health, and he has a habit of hitting you as soon as you get out of it and killing you as well, in short it wasn't fun on melee and involved lots of screaming and running away. The other thing is kite him away from Indo Zal, just take him the opposite direction to keep him alive.

And then the very interesting thing. Because it was Hell I invited a friend to come along. HOWEVER, they were stuck in the Zakuulan Knight armour that you wear at the start of the chapter and couldn't do any abilities apart from a bit of companion micromanagement and a lot of emotional support. They also put their companion onto attack for the extra stun, then heal later in the chapter to try and throw some heals at me during the Arcann fight.

That Arcann fight...I chose the light side options in chapter II so I had him on my side, but that didn't make the chapter easier. You're not able to heal Arcann so I just tried to taunt things off him if his health was getting low. I focused on the Captain and tried to ignore the adds as much as possible, used Arcann's reflect to take them out, starting the fight with his taunt and then praying I hit the guard break in time so I could do damage...I had Theron on damage here as well as the plan was basically burn as quickly as possible. It may be better on a character that has some ability to heal Arcann as companions won't...or it may be better to take the dark side option earlier in the story so you're fighting against him rather than with him (though that's a trade-off with the final chapter fights).

This chapter was certainly a trial but we got there in the end. It's best to keep a level head and not panic, skills that I did not pick up from my class trainer and instead ran around in fear and at times forgot how to swtor.

Chapter VII

This is an interesting chapter without masses of fighting, there's 3 boss fights but not masses of trash in-between. First up is the Horizon Guard, which took three or four attempts but really the best strategy for me was nuke him with a heroic moment, stuns, and interrupts. The main challenge I had on this chapter was the two Twisted Experiments. They cast corrosive goo, which you see as a green circle. It can be interrupted, they can be stunned, so it was just a matter of managing that. It was difficult with the two of them there - with a Jugg I used intimidating roar to give me some time to blast just one, it may help to use a stealth class that can stun better, or a sorc/sage that can whirlwind. The good thing is that it was finally a fight in KotET that doesn't reset your progress, so if you take one down you don't have to restart the whole thing. It does bug when you die though - you end up behind a locked door and have to leave and re-enter the phase. That was only the case on the first death though. Or else I would have done it a lot.

Last up is the Corrupted Vault Guardian. Didn't die on this fight, though I did on the two elites before - mostly because I lost Lana early and couldn't use a heroic moment. I ran around the room, stunning/slowing and interrupting as I could, nearly got through without dying anyway and again it's not a fight that resets. The Guardian boss covers the floor in red stuff called morass, it doesn't go away, so manoeuvre him well or blast him fast. Or don't, like me. I just kind of kited him round the room, he doesn't move fast. Lost Lana at the end because she couldn't avoid the morass but I could, and by then he was nearly dead. Because I didn't die on this I didn't really read up on the mechanics, because on reading my go-to guide it looks like there's more - so er, that's probably a good thing to do if you have trouble! Overall though, this was a chapter with challenges but I found it had a better balance between being challenging and enjoyable.

Chapter VIII

One of the easiest chapters of the bunch. There's lots of trash, and quite a bit of it skippable - either as it is already in combat, or my manoeuvring around it. The walker is a pain but was never at risk of dying. Some interesting bits though. You face a guy called Tyrall Jerikko where the Gravestone is dry-docked, he has two droids with him so I yeeted one off - it disappeared but didn't die, I got through the fight...Tyrall and the droids then respawned so I had to do it again. Hmm. I still yeeted the droid again though, it also didn't die but the fight mostly worked properly at least, I lost Lana (not sure why) but I was never in much danger. The other minor issue I had was in the fight with the Knight just before rescuing Vette, not entirely sure what happened, the adds just seemed to overwhelm me. Used a heroic moment and the cannon you're given on my second go and it took a matter of seconds.

Vaylin is actually an easy fight, though it took 3 attempts - the first I didn't plan for her adds properly, the second I was yeeted. Having Arcann with me meant I got his abilities from chapter 6 again - the taunt and reflect - which took the adds out. Heroic moment also does the trick, though I didn't have it on my successful run. Stay at melee range - in her purple circle she keeps close and you're fine. If you're wiser than me, look for when she's about to do the explosion with the knockback and get yourself against a wall so you don't get thrown off. Or be like me, and don't.

Chapter IX

So the final chapter. It's in two halves basically - with the first there's no boss, buy there is a lot of trash. I had Arcann and Senya has my companions, which meant I had Arcann's abilities again which are brilliant for dealing with trash, and I was getting better at managing them as well. Use his taunt and reflect, it speeds things up. There's two major waves that end with two Knights coming along and it was on those where I had the trouble - it just got a bit too much at the end and with things on cooldown. But the fights don't reset, I put heroic moment on just in case, the Knights were blasted in seconds. It may be more tricky if you have Lana and Theron, but I think these are fights more of annoyance rather than being impossible.

The second half, then. First you fight Vaylin, it's the same mechanics from the previous chapter and not too difficult to deal with. I had Dramath with me so I had the healing, it may be a bit more difficult if you take the light sided decision in chapter 7. He's auto-boosted up to level 45. Again, watch out for the knockbacks.

If you saved Arcann, he's your companion in the final fight. After a quick death I ran to fleet and gave him a compendium so he went up to level 50 influence. Fighting Valkorion is very challenging, and involves lots of running around to get out of line of sight of his attacks - things like Project and Force Storm that will take two thirds or so of your health and leave you desperate to find a memory of healing, at which point you'll inevitably get slowed down by his Dark Ritual and not make it and die (this can be interrupted, but I was rarely within range to do so because...kiting).

The basic idea on this one is when he shifts to the light/dark, you follow suit - it seems to be random as to which one he goes to. When you're shifting make sure you hide behind rocks or something (under the stairs is the best bet I found) - so none of those nasty abilities wipe chunks of your health again. It became a bit of a game of hide and seek from there. The light side abilities seem to have faster cast times than the dark, where often he'd get me with a dark ritual whilst I was trying to hit him. You need to survive one of these phases, switch back to normal, use the holocron ability again, and on the second light/dark phase is when he dies. This took many attempts, though it doesn't seem to affect your repair bills too badly which is a plus.

Some final notes:

Going Commando once again proved a valuable resource, with plenty of tips and general experiences of doing it. My experience didn't always match up to theirs, in part due to the classes we used, but there's a wealth of information there.

I think experiences will vary depending on your choice with Arcann in the first chapter. He was a pain to use in chapter 6, but his abilities were very useful in chapters 8 and 9.

On average I'd say it's more difficult than KotFE - the hardest chapters are very hard, and I brought a friend along three times (well, two and a half, given the chapter 6 experience) because I was just not making progress - whereas I only had help once in KotFE.

As with KotFE, different classes are probably better suited to different chapters, and if you’re just seeking the achievement and have the options available - you might want to try different things accordingly. I think Jugg/Guardian is a decent all-round bet though, plus I made myself a Grit Teeth which gives me even more survivability. 

I think this has made me a better player! That may be up for debate, and I’m still prone to wild panic a lot of the time, but there were also lots of times I really found myself better at studying mechanics and finding the best strategies for me to beat them. 

Completing a master chapter completes the achievement for veteran (and story) as well, so it’s a great way to rack up cheevos - and now my KotET completion is at 100% which is incredibly satisfying. But it doesn’t grant a title, sadly.

Another shoutout to @sparkles-and-rust​ as my go to when I needed a helping hand or just some emotional support! 

[therandlegacy]

Ch. 31: Distorted

Title: Distorted Fandom: SWTOR/Star Wars The Old Republic Characters: Zandromeda Kenobi (Republic Trooper) Word Count: 1,568 words Synopsis: Zandi faces off with her most difficult opponent yet, only the battlefield isn't one she is used to, not grounded in physical reality. Warnings: This is the 31st chapter and pretty much in the endgame of the Wraiths of the Past fic for my Trooper. If you wish to be unspoiled and read the other 30 chapters, the fic is located here on Ao3

under a cut for length!

Everything was…distorted. Weirdly distorted. Zandi recognized the cityscape of Coruscant…her home. Her real home. The Coruscant sunset with amber and golden hues falling in soft painted strokes over the buildings. But it wasn’t her home…It wasn’t actually Coruscant. Not really. She could feel it as much as see it. There were too many bits of Nar Shaddaa-esque bits littering the area around her. Strangely placed holos, signs, and even architecture in the same bold and gaudy colors of the Smuggler’s Moon. It was as if someone had taken both planets and very meticulously blended them together. Turning around, however, the difference became utterly stark. The Senate Plaza ended with a dramatic flair as the Nar Shaddaa Promenade began. Complete with the ostentatious Golden Statues of a Hutt. She’d long forgotten the name but… it was definitely something she recalled from her early childhood on Nar Shaddaa. Still, the statue was so utterly and ridiculously out of place in the otherwise well-blended cityscape that Zandi finally frowned. The confusion she was feeling finally showing. “What the…” She murmured. “Do you not recognize your own mind?” Came the deep, gravelly voice of The Terentatek. Zandi’s eyes darted about, searching every shadow as she whirled around. There was no sign of the large cyborg…save his low voice. “What is this?” Zandi demanded, fed up with whatever game this man was trying to play. She scanned the area around her, searching for him. “Don’t ask me, Zandomeda,” He replied, sounding amused by her confusion. “Only you can really know the answer to that. This is your mind, after all.” Zandi had to temper the panic that was trying to rise, induced by her state of confusion, uncertainty as well as the fact that she could hear this bastard but not see him. Her frown deepened as his words echoed about… Your mind… An image, distorted just like that of their surroundings took shape in front of her. It was strange and…rather unsettling to see the very memory she was recalling actually appear and play out before her. It even winked out of existence before the cables that were meant to connect to her cybernetic implants actually reached her. Unsettling and…terrifying as the pieces continued to click into place for her. “What the kriff did you do?” Zandi nearly shouted, glaring at everything she glanced at. “Stop hiding and show yourself!” Her anger laced through her words as it surged through her causing the sky and the sunset to shift in response to her emotions. Dark, heavy clouds rolled through the sky at a rapid pace on a low rumble of thunder. Streaks of lightning could be seen flashing in the distance. Her attention, however, was on the dark towering figure rather than the way the cityscape was responding to her. The Terentatek had stepped out of the shadows from behind the large Hutt statue and into her view. The smile he was giving her was one of malicious intent clearly born of whatever insanity it was that plagued him. The twisted metal and cybernetic shifted to pull at the skin hidden. A grotesque smile… There was no hint of the father she once knew.  He was worse. Zandromeda couldn’t really say she had good memories of him. Her mother had left him when Zandi had been very young. What she did remember was…not this man. Not this level of monster.  “Come now, you are smart enough to figure out what we need to do,” The Terentatek said, chiding her as if he was expecting better. “We must remind you just who you are, where you come from…And it is not Coruscant…” “Oh, I know who I am,” Zandi said, her voice level but cold as her eyes narrowed. “Forcibly brainwashing me to suddenly calling you dear ol’ dad and going on your crazy picnics sure as hell isn’t going to change a damn thing.” His smile vanished, leaving cold, icy anger in its place.  “Choosing the hardest path isn’t always the wisest course of action, Zandromeda,” He warned. “Must run in the family,” She sneered.  “You have-“ “Get out of my head and kriff off!” There was a feeling of

unbridled rage that rolled through the sudden rush of air she felt. It wasn’t her rage…She blinked and suddenly found him merely a few inches in front of her, towering over. He reached out and before she could react, pull away, his hand wrapped around her neck and lifted. “You will not speak to your father in such a disrespectful tone!” The Terentatek snarled, his rage barely contained in his voice. Her hands gripped his wrist for leverage and an attempt to get him to release her. His grip tightened just enough to make it difficult to breathe but not completely cutting her oxygen off. “Discipline will go a long way with you.” Despite trying to drag in more air than he was allowing her, Zandi narrowed her ice-cold glare on him, defiance sparkling like flames in the emerald depths just as more lightning flashed in the sky. “You’re not…my father…” She snarled right back, though it was hoarse. The Terentatek roared in his rage and with strength, she hadn’t expected he bodily threw her into the duracrete wall of a nearby building. The force behind the throw and her own impact was such the wall gave way. Pain exploded over her back and shoulders, making her see stars. Tumbling through the ruined wall and landing with a hard thunk on solid ground didn’t do much to stave off the dazed feeling. Moving on ingrained instinct, she pulled herself backward, trying to shake her head clear. She needed to move, and fast. She needed to get a weapon, find suitable cover, or simply a damn good place to hide so she could figure out some way to get him out of her head. Not to mention some way for her to wake up.  Heavy booted footsteps sounded from beyond the ruined wall, snapping her attention from her thoughts. A cruel, angry laugh sounded, rumbling along with the thunder snapping in the sky. “Foolish,” The Terentatek said. “I can hear your thoughts, Zandromeda. Your mind is an open book to me now.” She rolled away, instead of saying anything. Spying a doorway, she hauled herself to her feet and moved towards it, stumbling slightly. If he could hear her then anything she planned would be pretty much on broadcast. Just like now. Of course, she didn’t really trust anything he said but it wouldn’t surprise her. Pushing the door open, she entered the room that looked like a mix of a Nar Shaddaa Cantina and General Garza’s office. Ignoring the weird melded room, she pushed forward, looking for another door.  How in the Force was she going to do anything if this man was- That was it.  They were in her mind. Not his. She wasn’t sure what she could really do but this wasn’t a physical battlefield…It was mental. Despite her current situation and the way she was moving through doors of whatever bizarrely melded building she was in, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the use of the word mental. It was both literal and well… this whole situation was… Shut up and move, Zandi, she told herself.  He was moving, his footsteps and the whirring, clicking, and such from his mostly cybernetic limbs sounded almost too loud than what should have been normal. Even the crash that sounded, was much too loud. She guessed he was forcing his way through the walls and doors between them.  Fear lanced through her as she pushed through more doors, even climbing out of a window and back onto a random side street she could barely recognize. The lighting of everything, even the darkened stormy sky took on a tinge of violet. The hue shifting back and forth in time with her own heartbeat. Not that she noticed this, just like the weather. She was much too focused on getting the kriff away from the man that haunted her…quite literally. The fear danced along her spine as she took off down the side street, then taking the first turn she could see. She’d faced down the worst the war had thrown at her, she commanded the most elite squad in the Republic… She’d survived battle after battle, from imperial grunts to Sith Lords… But this was not like anything she’d ever faced before. This was all in her head. In some twisted attempt

to “take back” what was “his”… Pain erupted around and from her implants, causing her to wince and nearly stumble into a wall. The pain was brief but it was enough it sent her vision blurring for a moment. Taking a very quick moment to pause in her running, she took a deep breath. The Terentatek was not close enough to have touched her but…she wasn’t sure what he was capable of in a…mindscape or whatever the kriff this was supposed to be called.  His footsteps were farther away…She continued running again, taking any direction that took her away from him. She had no idea how she would fight him… Hells, she had no idea how she would survive this. Zandi needed help… And she couldn’t even scream out for it.

[sheyshen]

Fictober Day 8

Prompt: “I’m not doing that again.” Fandom: Swtor (Star wars the old republic) Rating: T Pairing: Sith Inquisitor/Andronikos, Bounty Hunter/Torian

-

"Look, I'm just saying, you Mandos are cool and all but I could take you in a fight." Andronikos put his hands up in a placating gesture as he spoke.

Torian glared at him, arms crossed fully across his chest. "You're so confident about it." He replied flatly.

He shrugged, "it's true. I mean, I've traveled the galaxy with a woman who was on the dark council. We hunted ghosts together. Hell, I married her. A mando? Nothing compared to that."

"My daughter is a Jedi. And I doubt you did more than tag along while I was side by side with the champions of the great hunt, faced down crazed sith, and killed a Darth as well."

"Stepdaughter. And one of those champions can use the force so it's not like you were in a better position than me." Andronikos taunted.

Shey and Kurana glanced at their bickering spouses, the sith shaking her head and returning her attention back to the work she had been doing. Shey was the one who laughed and shouted at them "why don't you guys stop comparing dick sizes and just fight already. We got stuff to do."

Torian barked a laugh, "You heard the lady. What do you say, pirate?"

"You and me? Right now?" Andronikos raised an eyebrow. When the mando nodded he snorted a laugh. "Bring it on kid." He brought his fists up the action mirrored by Torian.

Kurana watched them, letting out a sigh. "You had to instigate it didn't you…"

"They would've been like this the rest of the day if I hadn't." Shey shrugged. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious to see if he could back up all that talk."

"Hm." Kurana hummed in reply.

Andronikos waited for Torian to make the first strike, redirecting the blow and returning with his own punch, catching the younger man in the ribs before turning to try and dodge the next blow. Shifting his weight Torian moved his leg, catching the pirate and turning and grabbing his arm, yanking him forward and kneeing him in the gut.

“Niko, are you two done?” Kurana sighed holding up a datapad. “I could really use your help here.”

“Hang on a bit, we’re just getting started.” He huffed a laugh, charging at the mando and trying to catch him around the middle.

Torian sidestepped, caught him by the shoulder, and tried to grab him by the jacket. Twisting out of it Andronikos spun around to face his friend, a grin on his face, charged him again feigning a punch and instead shifting his weight and grabbing Torian by the shoulders and headbutted him. Stumbling back the blonde shook his head and narrowed his eyes.

He didn’t try to attack, just stood and waited, watching carefully. Impatience getting the better of him Andronikos charged again attempting another feign but following it up by stepping on Torian’s foot, kicking him hard, and then punching him in the jaw. He got another two hits in before Torian caught his arm, shifting his weight and twisting so the pirate’s shoulders were braced well enough that he could kick his legs out from under him and drop him, following it up with another kick that was enough to knock the wind out of the older man. Coughing Andronikos thumped his head back on the floor.

“I win.” Torian grinned.

The pirate huffed, staying where he was, “went easy on you kid.”

“Sure,” the mando laughed, offering him a hand up.

He waved him off, “Think I’m going to stay here for a minute.” He let out a heavy breath.

Nodding Torian strode away to join where his wife was sitting, to see if there was anything he could help with. A pair of heavy boots stopped by the top of Andronikos’s head and he opened his eyes to look up at Kurana.

“You alright?” She asked.

“Just more out of shape than I thought I was.” He laughed, “I’m not doing that again, at least not anytime soon.”

She chuckled and sat down next to him. “He has been training with the commander and helping train the new recruits, while you’ve…”

“I’ve done more than sit on my ass, Rana.”

“Mhm.” She grinned as he pushed himself up so he was sitting. She reached over and wrapped her arm around his waist and leaned on him. “I know you’ve been the one keeping Hylo’s ships in peak shape.”

“Some of those pilots wouldn’t know a wrench from a toothpick.” He grumbled, earning a laugh. Grinning, he continued. “I’ll get him next time.”

“I’m sure you will, love.” She dropped a datapad on his lap. “In the meantime…”

“Right, right. Back to work.”

[themerriweathermage]

Author Interview

I was tagged by @sleepswithvillains . I’ve never been tagged much before so this is kind of new for me, but I love it! Tag me all the time! Also you did it again, where I got the Tumblr notification like right as I went to bed, but my sleep schedule is so wack right now.

Tagging: @guardianofrivendell @moriamithril @sunflower1000 and really whoever wants to do it. Drop me a tag if you decide to do it because I definitely want to see what you have to say!

I have a lot of unfinished fics and not a lot of published works in comparison. 

1. Name: The Merriweather Mage (Tumblr)/ RinzlersGhost (AO3)

2. Fandoms: LOTR/The Hobbit, The Witcher (TV), SWTOR/Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Twilight, Underworld (though I’m not active in most of them unless I’m hyper-fixating)

3. Where you post: AO3, Tumblr, and I have an inactive FF.NET account

4. Most popular oneshot: People seem to have a real affinity for Meleth-nin/My Love. I actually hated writing it, because I was in such a bad place after receiving news that my childhood dog had died, but I don’t hate the fic itself.

5. Most popular multichapter: Every Kitten Has Claws which is a Geralt X Druid Fem!Reader. 25 Kudos, 3 bookmarks, 517 hits. Followed by Turuhalme in the Greenwood which is Thranduil X Fem!Reader. 9 Kudos, 1 bookmark, 270 hits. Both contain 18+ Content.

6. Actual worst part of writing: I legitimately hate writing fight scenes. I’m horrible at them and most of my fics contain some sort of fight scene obnoxiously enough. Although the best advice I ever saw on here was to keep your fight scenes short because not very many people are interested in a long drawn out detailed fight scene. 

7. Favorite story you wrote: Bards & Beans Coffee Co. Elrond X Fem!Reader. Was the first time I’d ever written anything in the second person. I based it off of a dream I had about meeting Elrond in a coffee shop. I planned it, wrote it, and posted it in the span of four days. It’s basically as if Middle Earth exists on the other side of meridian locks, and it’s set during the War of the Ring but with some of the characters from the Hobbit so the timelines are pretty pushed together. Your side of the meridian locks has a Earth that is basically a continuous strip of land that varies from high-tech futuristic ports all the way down to medieval ports. Basically the farther North you go, the more high tech and futuristic the land becomes. Quite a shock for those who would have never been to the other side of the locks. 18+ Content.

8. Story you were nervous to post: Most likely all of them. Any of my Twilight work though, I always hesitate about publishing. Sometimes it’s because the stories are close to my heart, but I also know that the fandom can be rabid. Most of the interactions I’ve ever had with Twilight blogs are fine, but there’s a lot of discourse about Twilight right now, and while I appreciate that most people are in the right (the issue with the Quileute tribe, the Cullen’s as villains, Jasper and the Confederacy, the actual legitimacy of the Volturi as a ruling body, etc), this is actually one of the reasons I left the fandom from a writing/following POV. (There are many, many things that are wrong with Twilight and not from a literature point of view. For example, Meyers took a real life Native American tribe and treated them highly unfairly in the books, to the point of calling them dogs which isn’t very fair at all, and they have received no compensation for being used and they are risk in the place they live in now. If you have some time and money, I would recommend checking out the Quileute Move to Higher Ground project.)

9. How you choose your titles: For story titles, I like to choose the main theme or a main phrase that is used. For chapter titles, I either don’t title or I will chose something that is a main part of the chapter.

10. Complete works: Out of the 21 works I have on AO3, 18 of them are completed, although one is an open ended and may be reopened after I get some of the larger works out of my way. As for fics in general that I haven’t published or have published on other platforms, there is 2 of 5 complete works on FF.NET. Some of those stories I will be pulling and deleting. The two complete works will be migrating to AO3.

11. Incomplete works: Actively: Sadril-nin/My Loyal One, A Hunter’s Circlet, and Beauty in Brokenness (unpublished for now). I have a few other inactive LOTR/The Hobbit based fics that I might try to finish after the main two are finished. Inactive: Literally too many to count. I mean, when I wrote my goodbye to the Twilight fandom, I said that I had been writing for the fandom for nearly nine years. I have so many unfinished Twilight fics, well over 100.

12. Do you outline: Not usually. I’m at the point with Sadril-nin right now where I’m literally following a map of Middle Earth and cataloguing the journey across the map, so I guess that could be considered an outline. Mostly if I’m writing for LOTR/The Hobbit, I want to follow the timeline of progression for the story that’s already been written. I do have a little bit of leeway in that gap between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings though.

13. Coming soon ideas, maybe? I’ve been giving you a taste of Beauty in Brokenness. I do intend to publish it, but it’s a constant struggle to rework it. I have ideas that I want to cement in the story that don’t always come out the way I want them to, so I am consistently reworking parts of it all the time. I will also be rewriting (eventually) Crown of Thorns, which is Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic, Lord Beckett X Siren!OFC. I also appreciate the idea of Nestadion X Centaur Fem!Reader, but instead of being a centaur all the time, you’re actually a shifter who can turn into a centaur. Really confuses a warrior elf to see what amounts to a small human carrying this massive two handed sword around and calling him “princess” all the time.

14. Ask me anything: Is there anything you miss in fanfic? In comparison to the actual book/movie? Not really. I appreciate the original works, but I recognize that they can be flawed and so can their authors/writers. Which is why fanfic is so appealing-- everyone has a different spin on the original; everyone has a different take on the characters, everyone writes differently, and that’s the fascinating part to me. The only downside, of course with any fanfic, is the fandom and it can be hit or miss with people. It is what it is, and the liberty of fanfic is that not everyone is going to like or enjoy your works, and the same goes for your tastes. Are there right or wrong opinions? I don’t know; I’ve both read and written some morally ambiguous fics, and some I would like to forget that I very much haven’t.

15. Best writing traits: Same as the worst writing traits. I’m a sucker for detail. I love it. I want my readers to see it like I do. When I read books or play D&D or play video games, I see it like I’m in a movie. When I write, I want you to see it like you’re on set and the cameras are rolling and you are perfectly prepared. I want you to feel like you are in the story, which is why my oneshots turn into series, and my multi-chapter fics turn into novel length stories. I find it obnoxious at times, because I feel like I can’t ever turn it off, but by the feedback I get, some of y’all really enjoy it, so let’s get this show on the road.

16. Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: Uhhhh, let me go browse my WIP folder. I’ve put quite a bit of research into rewriting Crown of Thorns and making it slightly more historically accurate. I know that there will be a Part 2 to Sadril-nin, because I’m not going to time skip a seventy/eighty year gap between the timelines of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. And I really don’t want to submit y’all to this absolutely massive story all jam-packed into one fic. Other than that, I’m also sitting on Through Hellfire and High Waters, which is another Elrond X Reader fic that follows the premise of a modern/medieval world all smashed into one. The Queen of Eryn Galen also needs a proper ending and to be published, a Thranduil X OFC fic; this one will also have a Part 2.

17. Spicy Tangential Opinion: I don’t care if my writing makes the characters out of character. I try to tag that if I can, but let’s be real here. Either I’m writing a character that originally has a limited backstory and a very real chance at an open-ended future, or I didn’t like the canon character and I’m rejecting that reality and replacing it with my own. Does it mean that I don’t or am refusing to recognize character flaws? No, and that’s the beauty of fanfic. You can do whatever you want. You might get hate for it or you might not. For example, I am a fan of Severus Snape (RIP Alan Rickman). Does his character have flaws? Yes. Do I like the way he was canonically written? No. Are his actions justifiable? Hell no. Is that going to stop me from being a fan? Again, no. He is arguably one of the most disagreed upon character of that series. I don’t see a need to defend why I write him the way I do. I don’t see a need to defend him in discourse, and I’m certainly not going to be hateful about it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about it. Yes, there was probably some underlying intent when the character was written. I’m not here (unless you’re specifically asking my opinion on it) I’m not here to read in between the lines with characters like Snape. I do not care enough to lose friends over opinions like that.

[a-master-procrastinator]

I got nothing better to do (no), so have a list of things I’d like to change or add in BH story

This list more likely isn’t going to cover everything, but I may add some things later. These will be related to plot, characters and maybe something else.

Also, these things can easily be headcanons (which they are for me), but I’d just like to see them in game (though it is not possible, i know), unlike some my other hcs for this storyline.

And remember, this is just my stupid opinion.

And definitely spoilers are ahead.

1. I’d like to have a “why did you sign up for the Great Hunt?” talk earlier, on one of starter planets.

Okay, hear me out. I know that this is the kind of thing you make up yourself rather than being given to you by game, but if we have this question asked somewhere in chapter 2 (and there’s a good chance of not getting it at all on female characters), when it’s not exactly relevant, why not to add it, idk, maybe on Dromund Kaas from Mako. Don’t tell me she wouldn’t ask. She would, and you know it. Why? Because, in my opinion, it would make winning the Great Hunt more satisfying.

2. Make rivals in chapter 1 have more importance than just being guys to kill. 

First, we’ll need to know more, or, in this case, know anything at all about our rival on Alderaan. Does anyone know who he was (without going to other sources)? Neither do I. Second, what do I mean by “have more importance”? Have you ever had a feeling that the only important or interesting parts of the Great Hunt are the beginning (mostly Tarro killing Braden and Jory), the end (killing Tarro and winning), and maybe a few lines from Mako? Because I sure had this feeling. 

But I see a potential for something more in rivals we’ll need to kill to get to the next round. They can be reflections of our character’s flaws as a bounty hunter (and it could make them think or even change their way if you’re not playing an honorable warrior from the start). Or they may represent what our BH could become if they follow an easy path of hiding behind a droid instead of proving your own strength (remember Nar Shadaa), making others do your job for you (Balmorra), or just doing things purely for money (Tatooine) (that is for more Mando-like BH). Or these rivals can be examples of how out BH can do things (if we have a very young BH who will learn some things from the Great Hunt).

In other words, make them affect the main character in a meaningful way.

3. Give more info on our main rival.

Speaking of rivals, you know what would make the ending of chapter 1 even better? Actually giving Tarro more background and characterization because, you know, he’s our main rival throughout the whole hunt, while still making us want to kill the guy without a second thought (well, this part is already here). Hell, Jun Seros, while still not having his friendship with Kelian Jarro shown, which drove him to get revenge on us, is given more characterization in less time. Yes, we do know a few things about Tarro, but is it enough to understand his character? Stories are often defined by its villains (not my saying), and it definitely is the case here. I know SWTOR is a mmorpg and cannot always afford detailed stories (especially when there are at least 8 of them), but it has potential, it’s just often not used properly. Not going to write the whole essay here, I have another thing planned for this, but I couldn’t miss it here.

4. What about Mandalore?

Ok, that’s a pretty well-known complaint, but I’m still gonna place it here. If BH chooses to join the clans, it’s a big deal. You’re not just a lone merc (with a small crew, but lone merc nonetheless), but a part of not just a gang or something, but a whole new culture. Yet we don’t get enough of this culture actually affecting BH life. Who knows, maybe being a Mando not having a noticeable impact on Champion’s life is the point, but I really don’t think so.

5. Have more time between being put to Republic’s most wanted list and agreeing to see Tormen.

Oh, this is a heavily personal headcanon, but I have reasons. Was anyone bothered by how quickly Hunter accepted Tormen’s request (well, we’re not given a choice in this matter)? I thought that working for a Sith isn’t always a good idea, and not giving us time to think makes it look like Hunter hasn’t even thought this through without trying other options. Yes, they are in great danger because of a huge bounty on their head, have almost no help or no help at all, and doing nothing won’t help. But. They didn’t even try to do something else than to immediately go to a Sith who seems pretty trustworthy and definitely not going to set a trap (sarcasm). I know we can have at least two offers from Blizz and Gault, but we can’t even consider them bc the game sends us to Tormen. Giving the crew some time to actually consider other courses of action, and only after failing at them travel to Tormen’s ship would show that there's no holding back, there are no options left. It doesn’t need to be a long period of time, maybe a few weeks (or even less) would be enough.

6. Get rid of Skadge. Really. 

Do I even have to say any more?

7. Mako’s quest - so, what happened next?

This was spoken about before, but I’m going to say something different here (or maybe not, maybe people already know this). Her side quest is not ended properly IMO. It would be better if we either had a continuation of this, learning more about Mako’s whereabouts. Or, what I like even more, if we had Mako admitting that any further research about project 32 won’t give her anything she doesn’t already have. The rest of the girls from the project are dead, Coral is in custody (or dead, your choice), and really, what is learning about the project will give Mako? It definitely not going to bring her family back, and at this point, she doesn’t care about Coral. Besides, she has our little space family now, so moving on seems like a logical decision.

8. Just add more conversations between all members of the crew (but it goes to all classes, really).

Just as title says.

And also some little things that I personally would love to have:

- give Blizz a rocket launcher!

- hey, let me have Mando’a lessons without having to flirt;

- I remember Gault promising to give Hunter a few lessons about compliments, where are they?

- why is there only one punchable Alderaanian face?

- same goes to Pirell;

- putting fucking slave collars on selonian. get rid of this, right now.

[greyias]

FIC: Smoke and Mirrors - Chapter 17

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To: Greyias Highwind From: Theron Shan Subject: Interesting

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

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

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

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

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

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

[hydrospanners]

a little help from a friend

the one where theron must choose between death or sharing body heat with his friend/nemesis. theron will wonder what he did to deserve this punishment. emotions will be tossed back and forth like a hot potato no one wants. friendships will be affirmed. nipples will be flicked. everyone will (probably) make it out alive. 

swtor; post-jedi under siege. slight spoilers. genfic; humor with a dash of friendship fluff. mostly f!jedi knight & theron friendship; f!jedi knight x doc discussed. 1800 words. ao3.

“This,” Theron says, shimmying out of his soaked trousers, “is your fault.”

  Rea’s top hits him in the face. “You’re welcome for your life.”

  “My life wouldn’t have even been in danger if you hadn’t--”

  “You have to take those off.”

  Theron, holding open the cover of the sleeping bag to step in, blinks at her. He only has one thing left to take off.

  “No,” he says.

  “You can’t warm up in wet fucking clothes, Theron. Don’t they teach you anything in SIS?” She gives him a look that tells him just how much she thinks of SIS training before throwing her wet bra in his face. Being that it’s at least as saturated with her blood as melted snow, it’s slightly warmer than her top was.

  “I’m not doing it, Rea.”

  “Stop being a little bitch and get naked with me.”

She strips out of her underwear and this time, he catches it before it slaps him across the face. “You’re a starsdamned menace,” he says. “Don’t look.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Like you’ve got anything I want to see.”

  Still, she keeps her eyes on the sleeping bag as she peels it open and slips inside. Theron keeps his eyes on literally anything else. Objectively attractive though she might be—and he’s gone through the personal messages of enough Alliance personnel to know she is—the idea of looking at her naked body turns his stomach. It would be like… looking at Satele. Like looking at a sister, he supposes, if he had one.

  It just feels wrong.

  “Will you get in the fucking bag already? I promise I’m not gonna look at your shriveled dick. And if I see it by accident, I promise not to laugh. It’s cold. It’s not your fault.”

  “I’m not—“ Theron stops himself. She’s just trying to provoke him and he’s not going to let her. After the shit she’s put him through today, he refuses to give her the pleasure of seeing him annoyed. “Scooch over,” he grumbles, and dives into the bag next to her.

  It is not, at first, very warm.

  Rea’s skin is cold as ice and slick with half-frozen blood and sweat.

  He forgot about blood loss.

  This is the thing about Rea that makes her so completely unbearable. Every single time you get angry with her, it turns out she was just pissing you off to distract you from your own hopeless misery, and that she did it while she was bleeding out from a blaster wound you didn’t even know she had. It turns out you’re the one being a fucking toddler while she’s over there sucking up a life-threatening injury like a champ.

  It’s hard to stay mad at her after that. Even if she is being an ass.

  So Theron grits his teeth and does the most he can for her: he wraps her in his arms.

  He’s petulantly satisfied when Rea goes rigid in his grip, clearly as uncomfortable with this arrangement as he is, no matter what she pretends. Blood loss or no blood loss, hypothermia or no hypothermia, this is just as fucking weird for her as it is for him.

  He wonders sometimes if he should be more offended that Rea, a woman who would put the moves on a lamppost in the right lighting, is so totally uninterested in him. But mostly, he’s too busy being relieved. The idea of her being attracted to him is nearly as repellent as the idea of him being attracted to her.

  It takes hardly a second for Rea to recover, to relax back into the bravado she wears like armor. Her tension releases and she snuggles into Theron’s embrace like they do this every day.

  It doesn’t bother him as much as he expected.

  He isn’t what you’d call an affectionate person. He can’t remember the last time he touched someone outside of trying to either save their life or take it. Or sex, but sex isn’t the same as this. Not the way Theron does it anyway.

  He can’t remember the last time he touched someone for comfort. For closeness.

  Rea wouldn’t mind it, he knows. She’s already touchy feely as hell with everyone else. She might not even give him shit for it. Terrible as she is, she seems to know which of his boundaries can be pushed and which can’t. She might spend twenty out of the twenty-four hours in a day giving him shit, but she almost never puts her hands on him if she doesn’t have to.

  He’s halfway to considering the possibility of allowing himself the smallest sliver of affection from this, the unlikeliest of sources, when she opens her mouth and fucks it all up.

  “Your nipples are like fucking knives.”

  It’s one of the worst sentences he’s ever heard. And then, one of her ice-cold fingertips pokes at his frigid nipple and that is easily one of the worst things he’s ever felt, which altogether makes this possibly the worst day he’s ever had.

  He hisses, and arches away from her as far as the sleeping bag they’re zipped into together will allow.

  It’s not very far.

  “Don’t touch my nipples,” he snaps.

  “You ever heard of moisturizer?” Rea asks, totally ignoring him and flicking his nipple with her finger.

  He would fight her if he wasn’t absolutely sure he’d lose, blaster burns and all.

  “You might have a condition,” she goes on, blithely. “When we get back to base, I’m sending you to Doc. He can at least give you a cream.”

  “I am not letting your husband touch my nipples,” Theron says. “And I’m done talking about it. Keep your hands to yourself.”

  He feels her shrug--she’s one to talk about sharp nipples, isn’t she?--and says, “Your loss. Most people don’t complain when I touch their nipples.”

  “If you say the word nipple one more time, I will kill you.”

  “You can try.”

  “We should’ve left you in carbonite,” he grumbles.

  His words are answered with silence. It lingers between them, the moment drawing out for endless seconds, growing heavier with every quiet breath, until finally Rea sighs. Until she whispers into the space between them, so quiet he almost doesn’t hear her say, “Probably.”

  And again he’s the asshole.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” Theron tells her, a little gruffer than he means to be.

  He’s not good at comfort at the best of times, and having to get naked with the woman he reluctantly considers his best friend to combat hypothermia in the galaxy’s tiniest sleeping bag is not what he’d call the best of times.

  “I don’t know any other way to be,” Rea says. “Ask anyone.”

  “Rea…”

  “RonRon.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “SIS.”

  “Rea.”

  “Doc is so much more fun to get hypothermia with,” she whines, trying to snuggle closer. Like there’s any closer she could get without unzipping him and climbing into his skin.

  “Trust me, we would all be happier if he was here instead,” Theron agrees.

  What wouldn’t he give to be toasty warm and fully clothed in the medwing on Odessen right now? It sounds like a dream.

  “I almost brought him with us,” Rea says.

  Theron raises a brow. “To do recon?”

  “Stupid right? Best doctor in the galaxy and I’m gonna drag him away from the lab to the frozen asshole of space for what? So I can look at him?” She shivers, and Theron doesn’t think it’s from the cold. “I just keep thinking… What if he’s not there when I get back? What if he’s finally done waiting on me? Every single time I leave him behind, I get so scared about it I almost can’t breathe.”

  It’s not something he thinks she would ever admit in the light of day. But there’s something about the night, something about the yawning, too-quiet darkness of it that has a way of drawing truths out of people.

  Or maybe it was their shared brush with death.

  “Have you, uh, talked to him? About it?” Theron can’t imagine a worse person to be giving relationship advice, but there’s no one else here. And he has a sneaking suspicion he’s the person she’d talk to even if there was. He has a sneaking suspicion Rea reluctantly considers him her best friend, too.

  “Kind of? We always get distracted.”

  If Theron is translating right, ‘get distracted’ is Rea-nese for ‘feelings are complicated so we fucked instead’.

  “I’m not really an expert, Rea, but it seems like if he was going to run out of patience, he would’ve done it years ago.” If he was going to run out of patience, he probably never would’ve married Rea in the first place, but Theron doesn’t say that part.

  “I know,” she sighs. “Archiban said the same thing. That’s what’s so fucking annoying!” She knocks her forehead against his shoulder in frustration. “He says he wants to be here. He says he wants to be with me. And I believe him! He wouldn’t lie about it, and it’s not like he’s one of those people who don’t really know what they want. But none of that stops me from freaking out every time I get on a transport without him. It’s totally irrational and I just… I have no fucking clue how to stop it.”

  If Theron were a good best friend, he’d come up with something comforting to say. He’d tell her it’s going to be okay, tell her it’s normal, tell her it’ll all work out in the end.

  Theron laughs at her instead.

  “Hey,” Rea scowls, poking him hard in the gut. “I’m trying to talk about real shit like a normal fucking person, you asshole. Stop laughing.”

  “I’m sorry,” Theron says, not meaning it. “It’s just… You’re mad cause you can’t control your feelings.”

  “So?”

  “It’s a pretty Jedi thing to be mad about.”

  “You are such a dick.” Rea kicks him as well as she can with both their legs trapped together in the narrow taper of the bag, but it isn’t long before she’s laughing too.

  It’s nice to be on the other side of this equation for once. To be the asshole for a good cause. He understands, a little, why she works so hard to put herself here.

  “I hate you,” she grumbles at him, once their laughter fades.

  “Sure.”

  “You’re supposed to be nice to your friends, RonRon. Don’t they teach you anything at SIS?”

  Unbidden, Theron’s mind drifts to Jonas. He shudders. “The SIS isn’t big on friendship,” he says.

  “Well fuck the SIS,” Rea says. “You’re Alliance now.”

  “Yeah,” Theron says. “I am.”

  “You know what else you are?”

  “A dick?” He guesses.

  Theron can feel Rea’s smile against his shoulder. “Yeah, but you’re my dick.”

  “I wish you hadn’t said that.”

  She just laughs, that stupid deep belly laugh she does when she isn’t laughing to cover something else. It feels good to hear it. Feels like a win.

  He might not be so bad at this friendship stuff after all.

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Seven

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Wherein we... talk to the crew. I didn’t quite make it off the ship.

Still, a lot of words.

Aka the nearly All-Gif update.

Didn’t get a chance to play ME at all this week, so I’m going to spend a few hours this weekend (double-checking to make sure screenshotting works :p) and have some real updates later.

So making it back to the ship from Therum, it’s time to talk to the crew.  I maybe could have gone and talked to them after getting on the ship after the Citadel, but they don’t really have any unique lines then so, I usually wait til now to go chat.

First, let’s talk to Liara.

The thing that sucks about talking to Liara (or Kaidan, or Ashley, if you don’t want to romance them) is, you know, the accidental romance.  Making “picking the Paragon-place choices = romance by default with NO WARNING” design was very Not Good.  They fixed this in later games, well moreso in Dragon Age games than ME, (and Andromeda is done very well for this) but still.  In ME3, the BackOff mod does a great job of making romance dialog more obvious and intentional.  

Liara’s dialog choices I feel like are even LESS obviously flirting I feel like than Ash and Kaidan’s.  Honestly with Liara’s most of the lines can be read and even said aloud as friendship then BOOM, all of a sudden she wants a threesome.  I choose middle dialog options whenever possible with Liara just to avoid this.  I’m not interested, never have been, don’t want Kaidan to think he has any competition.  But seriously, it’s poor game design here that you literally have to be a jerk to a companion at some points to avoid having them think you want to bang.   God, half of the reason I’d love a remaster would be to hopefully fix shit like this to avoid some of the pitfalls.  

I hate that some people use this as a reason to dislike these characters more.  And I’ll admit, in my early days as a ME fan, I held it against Liara, too, until I realized how dumb that is.  I especially hate it when you get to the “confrontation scene” and people use Kaidan not wanting to be in a threesome as a reason to dislike him more?  It’s not a bad thing to want to be monogamous?  (And of course, it’s not a bad thing to NOT want to be, assuming everyone is open and OK about it.)

I just prefer to not get that scene at all now, and to avoid “leading anyone on” accidentally etc.  My Shepard knows early on what she wants, and sticks with him all the way through.

I was going to talk more here about my feelings about Liara in general but uh, I guess I’ll do that later.  This is already really long.

Here’s a great post about how to avoid romancing Kaidan while being rude as little as possible to him.  

Well since he’s right outside the medbay anyway, let’s go talk to the LT.  

Have I mentioned how much I hate the orange glow?  

So anyway, I thought maybe I’d talk here a little bit about Why Kaidan?

I will point out here that I am mostly a hetero woman, so my choices in video game romances lean towards men first, though I’m also very cool with doing non-m/f romances in games, and often do on subsequent playthroughs of games I love, but that’s almost never gonna be my primary romance.

I’d already mentioned my love for Carth Onasi, one of the most hated companions in video games, If You’re A Guy.

By today’s standards, even the Carth romance isn’t that great.  But at the time, it was the greatest romance I’d experienced in video games.  There were a few others that were really good -- Valen Shadowbreath in Neverwinter Nights: Horde of the Underdark was the other really great one, but we also got nightmare fuel like Anomen in Baldur’s Gate (though that gets better with mods + the final BG expansion) or just under-written characters or romances like Casavir in NWN2 (who was much better with mods) or hell, either of your choices in KotOR2 imho.  But I used to play KotOR over and over for many reasons, such as holy shit a Star Wars game(!!) and one where you can actually be a female main character AND has that great Bioware storytelling... but a big reason was Carth.  

A funny thing about Carth Onasi... if you play a male main character, you have a very different experience with Carth than if you play a woman.  And even I can agree that hoo boy Carth gets tiresome quick if you play a male, as a female you at least get to flirt and that calms him down and evens him out a lot. But the one time I tried playing as a male, I didn’t make it off Taris because.. yeouch I could actually see what the guys playing were so mad about.

But hey, that voice.  Raphael Sbarge, I love that voice.  So like I said early on in these posts, I immediately knew I was going to romance Kaidan the very second I confirmed he was romancable, before I even ran back into the ship and met anyone on the crew aside from Joker and Kaidan.

And... that only got confirmed more and more as I went through ME for the first time.  The character is smart, and capable, and respected you, and never questioned your command, but made his feelings pretty clear along the way.  He could be a little doofy but in an adorable way with some of the things he said, honestly there was almost never anything I didn’t love about this character.

I realized some time ago that I have a thing for the Paladin archetype personally. 

This is Casavir, from Neverwinter Nights 2, and in NWN2, there are two romance options for women.  An under-written Lawful Good Paladin in his late 30′s who is willing to buck his superiors to do what he thinks is right but also places you on a pedestal and holds back all his emotions.  He’s a romance option. Or....

Bishop, a chaotic evil ranger who insults you a lot, threatens to rape an NPC under your protection, and ultimately betrays you.  

Most people who played NWN2 seemed to prefer the CE Ranger.  I loved the paladin so much I wrote fix-it fic that I never have gotten around to publishing anywhere to retcon his terrible dumb ending.

There’s a fan-made romance mod that helps with the romances in this game, though I dislike a lot of what they did, ultimately I always use it.

In Dragon Age?

Ah yeah, the Templar-Warden.  Love him.  He does have that “Oh I’m so young and experienced tee-hee” thing going on that isn’t my favorite, (at this point mostly because I’m actually in my mid-40′s so uh, I’m just Old) but otherwise, yeah, love Alistair.

Dragon Age 2, I mean I usually romance Anders but... I’m not real excited about either him or Fenris, or even either of the ladies, though I have done Isabella’s romance (as well as Fenris’) and enjoyed it.  I’d probably romance Avaline (or Varric!), if she were an option.  But yeah, Anders mostly because he IS trying to do what’s right, even if he... well.  You know.  

But Dragon Age Inquisition?

Give me that Blackwall-angst.  That stoic guy trying to be a Warden who comes undone for you.  You’d think I’d go for Cullen, but hey this game gave us two paladin archetypes, though one is merely pretending, he still atones and becomes what he was trying to be, one way or another, if you let him.  I picked this paladin archtype first because I did not like Cullen based on interactions with him in DA1 & 2.  I like him well enough in DA:I but Blackwall is my guy here.

Out of all the many, many companions in SWTOR, who’s my fave?

If Aric Jorgan isn’t a Paladin-type I don’t know who is, especially since any romanceable Jedi are uh, all your female padawans (don’t get me started) until Lana (also female) comes along. 

Hell, in a very long-running 4e D&D game I played from around 2009 to 2014 where my character fell in love with our party leader’s son, married him and fought the final boss 4 months pregnant with our twins.  That character’s husband... was a paladin.  I mean look at this art my friend picked out for his character’s son:

I mean dang, who (of those who are attracted to men of this type) wouldn’t?

I always pick the Paladin.  The guy who is gonna Do What’s Right no matter what it costs him, the guy who’s gonna be loyal, the guy who may bottle up his emotions or keep them under control all the time but ultimately does what it takes to get the girl... that’s my fave.  And that’s Kaidan.

I will also say my second fave archetype is rogue-with-a-heart-of-gold, and that’s more of a Garrus or Varric (if only he were a choice!!! :( ) type.. aka my second choice in these games.

Well that was a lot more words on that subject than I meant to do, so I’m going to just say real quick here that what I love about this first conversation with Kaidan is that he’s already no dummy, he knows something is up, and warns you about it.

We’ll save talk about his backstory for another day.

Let’s head downstairs.

Yay for sped-up elevators!  What used to take like 20 seconds now takes like, four.

URDNOT WREX.

This another place where Shepard starts out just sticking their foot in their mouths completely.  I feel like this is something the game definitely has problems with here.  Shepard should know a lot more about the Genophage, like they should have about say, Spectres, even if the player doesn’t. So basically every response you can give to Wrex about the genophage and what his people are going through sounds really insensitive.  Comparing the relatively minor First Contact War with the entire galaxy more or less uniting to keep the Krogan from taking over after the Rachni war seems pretty dumb, and also like something Shepard should already know.

Loredumping on the Krogans a bunch with Wrex is necessary, but  I think it could have been done better.  Though I think there are a lot of questions about the Krogan and the Genophage that ultimately are important but go unanswered. I’m going to be honest, because generally I want my companions to be happy and ultimately I want the happiest ending I can get, I usually cure the genophage and leave Wrex in charge.  But also I don’t think that ends up with the happiest ending for the galaxy.  Everything about the genophage is terrible, how it works, how it was administered, what it’s done to the Krogan as a people, but let’s be honest, the galaxy will also be in huge trouble just from a resources perspective if each krogan woman can have hundreds (or even just dozens) of babies a year, who are gonna all live a thousand years.  There’s got to be a compromise that, eventually, hopefully Wrex works out if he’s alive at the end of ME3 or the council figures out with Wreav or whoever.  

It is kinda funny though that here, I basically met Wrex at C-Sec, told him I’d help him with Fist, sent him to my ship, and basically just kidnapped him to go help with the rest of the mission.  He wanted to be here, right?  I can only assume I’m paying him a lot.

Ashley!

I do love Ashley Williams.

I’m not going to turn this into a “Is Ashley Racist” thinkpiece.  I’ve read a lot of both sides of this argument and no, I don’t think she is.  Some pieces of her attitude do need to be kicked up a bit, for sure.  She’s got about the same issues with aliens as most of the species of the galaxy have with each other, which sometimes isn’t great, but she’s far from supporting Terra Firma.

She’s smart, she’s funny, a hell of a shot, she’s being held back due to her family name.  I would love for if someday a Wilshenko OT3 were possible.  I’d do that in an instant.  I despise the fact that you can only keep Kaidan forever if you lose Ashley forever, though I don’t see that changing even in a remaster.  Please Bioware, for the super ultra remaster?

I know I need to do another run through the game with Ashley alive. I don’t remember too much of what happens in ME3 when she’s there.

I also love that her story is so much one of family.  From her stories of her sisters, to the point that it’s her own grandfather’s legacy that’s holding her back.  She’s so grounded, she reminds us that there are civilians out there we’re keeping safe, a whole world we rarely see, up in space and in the middle of so much military conflict.

GARRUS.

First of all, whew Garrus looks amazing in the lighting and with the textures with ALOT/MEUITM.  Very handsome.

Interestingly, Garrus does not really loredump on the turians.  We absorb a lot of what we find out about the turians more naturally.  Garrus is more all about C-Sec and the general politics of the Council, of Spectres, of C-Sec.  Gonna be honest, I expected C-sec to play into the game as a whole a lot more than it did based on Garrus’ talks about it.  I mean it was always there, but Bailey ends up being the face of C-Sec 

Garrus’ Law vs. I Do What I Want attitude is a nice way to do a non-goody-two-shoes companion story without having to go evil.  I love that Garrus’ story kinda mirrors our own as players, how are we going to get things done?  Shove a blaster in people’s faces, accept collateral damage, and do whatever it takes to get it done?  OR play by the rules, compromise, and see if that fixes things.

The thing is though, Mass Effect actually is great at giving us the illusion of choice without making a huge difference in the end.  Like I mentioned before... not bringing Garrus to ME1 makes little difference in how he acts in ME2 outside of a few lines of dialog.  Lots of things are like that, like pick Ash or Kaidan on Virmire, and yes one is always gone, but 80% of the content is basically the same from there on out for either character.

There are games out now that do that choice better.  Pathfinder: Kingmaker is one I can think of.  Or Tyranny.  Things you choose can alter the endings of those games drastically, locking entire paths out of the game.  

I used to think that was what I wanted.  Until I played Kingmaker and locked myself out of things I really wanted without realizing it.  I stopped playing the game, sad that my LI dumped me and wouldn’t come back without reloading many, many hours worth of game.  Despite enjoying the game overall, I still haven’t gone back.  When I do play again, I’ll probably keep a lot of tabs open of walkthroughs and tips on how to keep things going how I want.  Kind of defeating the purpose of the game.

Anyway, I got super off track again.  The point is, Garrus is the companion that gives us the most Choice in who he is.  Which is cool.  He illustrates our Paragon vs Renegade dilemma.  And it’s neat that it does make changes in some of the things he says in the future, but overall, his story doesn’t change much no matter what you do (Unless you, ya know, get him killed in ME2).

And therein lies a problem with Mass Effect, and video games as a whole.  It’s neat to see the little changes, but it’s rare for anything to be an actual Big Change, because... that’s a loooot of work for a developer and how much more money is all that going to cost him.

At some point in the future I’ll point out how lucky we are for what we did get, though.

Heeeey it’s Chief Engineer Greg Adams!  I wonder how many people don’t even know he has a first name?  Anyway, thank you for your one short conversation in which you explain how the Normandy works (honestly, great job with explaining this, Bioware, even if the science is ???) and like three sentences on who you are.  Wasted opportunity to give you an actual character.  Glad you like Tali, though!  See you in ME3.

TALI!

Okay, I will totally accept that Shepard doesn’t know much past the basics of quarian society.  That makes a lot more sense than Shepards not knowing much about asari.  

The quarians are so much more of an original creation I feel like than a lot of what we’ve seen in the galaxy so far.  Krogan?  Basically Klingons.  Turians?  Space Romans. Asari?  Twilek/Space Elves but ALL Hot Ladies.  Qarians feel like something new though.

I mean, I guess before they had to live in suits they were pretty normal, but their entire culture doesn’t feel like something we’ve seen everyplace before.  I mean I’ve seen space (g-slur)  but, eh not really.  

And Tali herself is such a good character.  I mean, she does suffer a little from being Very Important with her father being one of five admirals in a population of six million people but, I’ll allow it.  Nobody else on the crew has Very Important Parents.  I mean Garrus’ father is a little high up in the ranks but that’s a non-factor, Ash’s grandfather was but he’s dead and never seen, Wrex’s father is a chieftan but none of those is central to their current story or as big as this one. I mean, Spacer Shep’s own mother is a captain of a ship.  Tali herself in-game isn’t that sexualized -- most of that was the fandom’s doing.  She’s young but also confident and has her shit together.  

She shoulda been a same-sex romance in ME2/3 though, damnit!

Joker. Is. Amazing. And uh, also shoulda been a romance option. 

Hey first of all, how great was it that they put in disabled representation in this game.  I have read a few posts on how it could have been better, and definitely agree, but it’s also been so important to have say, Geordi LaForge as chief engineer of the Enterprise and also Joker here, in space, being awesome on spaceships.  And he really earns his the right to his bravado in calling himself the best pilot in the galaxy.  

Also?  Casting Seth Green was such a great choice.  I couldn’t imagine Joker as anyone else.  I mean this is Bioware so we expect, and definitely got, great voice acting (except for... ugh you know, we’ll get there in ME3) but honestly Seth Green was a particularly good choice.  I don’t care that he’s covered with sixteen layers of plot armor, he deserves it.

He’s the companion that we don’t ever get to take in the squad.  (I mean, except for that brief amazing moment in ME2)

I only wish in ME1 he had as much to say as in ME2/3.  At least he gets cool snarky lines after all the major missions.

One last thing before we get off the ship for awhile, I love that the crew is actually comprised of both men AND women in ME1.  With different hairstyles and faces, and even skin tones.  It’s nice to see they didn’t just reuse the same guy over and over for the nameless NPCs.  

Well, I guess they get names in ME2. :v

Anyway, I would like to point out, that there are seventeen nameless NPCs on the Normandy.

Then there’s Adams, Tali, Garrus, Wrex, Ashley, Kaidan, Chakwas, Liara, Pressley, and Joker.

That’s twenty-seven people and eight sleep pods.  Let’s remove the aliens, who couldn’t fit in a sleep pod (Garrus and Wrex), twenty-five people.  Are there people sleeping in the sleep pods now?  There must be, right?  Everyone can’t be awake when we’re on the ship just because we’re there?  How does that math add up?  Who is sleeping where, HOW DOES IT WORK!?  

Well, that’s their problem. I got my own bed.  Kaidan can share.

Also just... don’t get me started on how stupid this is.  I mean it’s nice having a shop on the ship but... the justification is terrible.  We all know it.  He was counted as one of the 17 nameless, btw.

Okay well, I was going to get off the ship this update but this is already stupid long and honestly I don’t have too much more content to post so, I’m gonna go actually play this game!

[rainofaugustsith]

Rain Plays SWTOR: Seeker Droid!

Canon Viri tackled the Dread Seeds/Seeker Droid quests. Macrobinoculars is still not doable solo, but after seeing some YouTube videos of the Seeker Droid quest endings online, I thought I’d go for it. It’s about the Dread Masters and I’m trying to do as much of their content alone as I can.  Seeker Droid story spoilers In terms of story, I thought it was a good one. At the end, of course Viri took the power for herself. She's the Wrath. Or she was, at this point in the game. And she sure as hell wasn't going to leave it for Acina to loot or take credit for - which is exactly what she would have done. 

I feel like the ending was totally in character for Viri. She was one step ahead of Acina, even though she didn't let on. In canon, once she became the Wrath she knew damned well that Vitiate was gone - it's canon because the Hands sent her an email about it after the class story. So she also knew that anyone telling her "the Emperor told me to do this" was full of shit. Acina wanted her to do all the gruntwork and then take all the credit for reclaiming the Dread Seeds. After seeing the Arcanum that Acina hadn't told her or anyone else about, that contained Patient Zero and all sorts of scary stuff - even more so. She would play along with Acina because the Dread Seeds were a Very Bad Thing, but she was certainly not going to fork over the Dread Masters' tech to her. 

Gameplay: It's bugged at the end. The final heroic on Ilum was decidedly miserable, which is a shame because the rest of the quest line was fun. 

Since the Dread Seeds happened during Viri's years as the Wrath, she brought along Jaesa to at least try to keep some continuity. Before KOTFE, Jaesa and Vette were her seconds all the time, and she would have chosen the former for anything Scary Force Related. Vette jumped in on the Ilum heroic because unfortunately Jaesa was useless there, despite being Level 50. Of course, she was standing there wearing Lana's belt with gold eyes, so she still didn't look 100% like she was from the correct part of her timeline, but I did what I could.  Overall, once I got the hang of it, using the seeker droid was pretty simple. When I was on Corellia I nearly got ninjaed - some asshole Jedi Knight was literally standing behind me and watching what I did with my seeker droid, then putting his down in the direction it was saying. As soon as I noticed it I just went over to Hoth to search for a different Seed. Sorry. Not helping you, Jedi.

On Alderaan and Balmorra Viri found the Seeds with only two or three tries with the seeker droid, which is...well, I'm not complaining. When I got to Voss, the last one Viri had to collect, I finally checked her mail and there was a buff from GSI in an email to make the search easier. Oops. Could have used that on Corellia. 

Somewhere along the way she somehow lost the seeker droid. I logged out and logged back in, and it was back in her mission tools. I also got an email with it. Okay. Glad to see everything's not bugged. 

Going through the Arcanum wasn't the easiest, but I'm really proud I was able to do it. I'm horrible at jumps. That's an understatement. Viri did die a few times as I figured out the first jump, and I got stuck behind some shelves once, but I'm really pleased with myself, and proud of Viri, that she was able to make it through. Rocket boost definitely helped.  The search took her to one of her favorite places, the ancient side of Belsavis. Better yet, she got to explore another Rakatan crypt. And there was a Rakatan transporter. Pure joy. The boss at the end was hilarious. You don't fight him; you just kill all his adds and he eventually gets zapped by his own artifacts and dies. Score. 

And then we went to Ilum.  I don't know if I even want to write a guide for this because the quest is bugged. Very, very bugged. Hellish. It makes me feel better that the difficulties did seem to come largely from the fact that it was bugged and not my own inability to make it through.  Once the bugs were sorted out, Viri didn't have much more difficulty with it than she'd had soloing, say, veteran Athiss or Red Reaper.  Viri spent three hours trying to get through a single room: a hallway where you need to place the power cells in the turret before the hordes of corrupted soldiers swarm in. The turrets refused to fuel past 87% over and over again. I called in different companions, all influence level 50. Vette, Jaesa, Lana and Shae all had turns. I tried them on tank; I tried them on heal. Worse: when Viri died I had the choice of a) reviving her in the room where ALL the cages were open so she was instantly mobbed; b) respawning her just outside the temple and resetting all the mobs in the entire mission. I was in tears of frustration.  After taking a shower, getting lunch and taking a break, I looked for more information online. Turns out it's a bug that can be alleviated by resetting the quest. I did that, and the next time I went in, I was able to solve the room in two or three tries. 

On to the Sithspawn, which was an entirely different level of hell. Viri didn't die here, but neither did the Sithspawn. Again, it was bugged. You're supposed to be able to lure the beast into standing on barrels that explode, but no matter what I did, it it didn't work. I looked online and sure enough, there were reports of this bug, too.  I put Vette on passive and went out into the hallway to take a break when the tentacles reappeared. I have no idea how or why, but after that the barrels worked, and Viri and Vette made short work of the monster. 

After that, the final boss was honestly a piece of cake. I had trouble finding the crystals to click for a moment, but once I did, easy peasy.  Acina was not happy was Viri. Eh. Don’t underestimate the Wrath. She still got some cute armor.  I don't think I'd be in a hurry to go back to this unless they fixed the bugs. But it's done, and I can say I did it. 

[abyss-wolf]

Some thoughts under the cut because I need to complain about swtor.

I really want to finish the JK and do a full run of the JC (And me being burnt out from a rush run of Kotfe/et) I really, don’t find the strength to run said stories as I use to? 

The JK’s little “Well, sorry but we need you to go back into the fight despite the highly stressful and traumatic situation you just went through” at the end of Ch2/start of 3, is just so much worse in my eyes now that I’ve actually studied all of this stuff. I knew it was bad, years ago when I was a 15 y/o fresh to this game, just doing it for fun. It was angst fuel. I liked it. But now? It’s like, trying to move a really heavy rock. And I don’t mind that it is something that happens in a story, conflict is good. Trauma happens. It is not bad to show these situations (As long as, you know is not for Edgy Shock Value or the TW are in place.) I really just hate the fact it is never properly addressed. The JK never gets help. 

And that mission in SoR is not even a “Too Little Too Late” scenario. It’s a “What the fuck are you doing here?!?!?!” Scenario. Because magically erase Bad Memories is not how you fix things! You are not healing the person! People block out bad memories all the time. The brain does that. You “forget” traumatic events for your own safety, but the consequences are still there. And it’s just wtf were the writers thinking?  Let me tell you, in my eyes that give the Jedi a very bad image. It just, makes me question a lot of things. Too many things. Things that I do not have enough space to ramble about in a tumblr post honestly. I will admit I have a bias because too many things about the way the Jedi act reminds me of my Catholic upbringing, due to the fact it involved a lot of “Bear your cross (Just deal with shit and move on), Repression™ (Yeah I know it’s old and tired, but like I said, my bias.) and you’ve to be selfless to the extremes, whatever it costs you.”   And the JC (Aside from that objectively boring and tedious VA you’ve to endure) Is kind of, the same to me? Here you buddy, heal these people even though it might kill you. No, no, don’t teach that Special™ Technique to other more skilled healers. Clearly, that is not how teaching works. We need those Special Space Lamps to teach us. I know Jedi are selfless and light side and yada yada but, at what point is it no longer selfless and it turns into a harmful thing?  I have been there. I’ve thought I was being selfless for pushing myself to extremes for others, and I was not. It was just very self-destructive. So I once again I have to ask, what the hell were the writers thinking? And why am I supposed to root or even care for the Jedi if they will barely acknowledge the suffering of (Possibly Very Young) Jedi and dub it “Heroic Sacrifice.”  And this is (Disclaimer cause I don’t want someone @ me for shit I did not say) Not me saying oh man Jedi Suck, Sith Good. The Sith are FUCKED in a whole lot of different ways. I know this. Pretty well. I have about 3 proper Sith OCs and they’re not even very Sithy. They’re definitely leaning more into Grey/Light Sided alignments. But I feel like it’s wrong to not acknowledge the ways the Jedi Order is Fucked. Because I think we can all agree this Handwaving of Issues is something that just, stays with them up till the Clone Wars Era. We see it clearly with Anakin. We see them be unfair to Ahsoka too.  So yeah, I’ve many issues with the Jedi. I don’t like either order to be completely honest. Not as they are in canon. I don’t really like everything from fanon either. Will I make a ramble like this about the Sith classes? Likely, once I actually play them again. I haven’t picked up the SI in like 3 years. And the SW I did last year but I don’t really remember it cause I was busier shitposting through it.   Am I just very tired of media handwaving away/ignoring the consequences of Trauma and acting like mental health issues are easily healed and/or handwaved? Definitely. Am I asking too much from a BW game? For sure. Will it stop me from yelling at the void that is tumblr? Nah.  

[xivu-arath]

For the writer meta ask meme: 4, 5, 18, 23?

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

taking from “remembering your own name” since it’s the last thing I posted!

“I think,” the stranger says on a different night, standing over another set of corpses, hands still feeling the tug of the void, “I know what I am.” 

this is very satisfying to me for several reasons! the previous sections are all begun with a question, so this is deliberately meant to serve as an answer to all the previous, so it felt very satisfying to write. longer description and establishing of what’s going on than before, so I feel it also reads as more immediately grounded, affirming the answering tone

also writing the entire thing was a bit of a successful experiment in writing a story with the perspective from someone who doesn’t know their name or pronouns or anything yet, and is working that out at a leisurely pace during the apocalypse so like

that’s pretty cool,

5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

hmmm I don’t know that I identify with a lot of my characters! part of the fun of writing them is exploring mindsets that aren’t my own, though many of my original characters have bits of what interests me or parts of flaws I’m aware of. and when I write fanfic or roleplay a canon character, I’m sure I impress parts of myself onto them - xivu, odd as it might sound, carries a lot of my own feelings about love and loyalty, just writ large

personality-wise I suppose my jedi knight from swtor, shenrihn, who has a lot of the same kind of fear and anxieties, but... with more more in-universe justification for having them

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

the boring answer is... not really? I rarely write things long enough to have abandoned plotlines or ideas associated with them, and most of the stuff in wip hell is stuff I’d like to get back to one day so. not properly abandoned

the one au inspired by my own work, of sorts, is the yet unwritten “osmium sibs after the pact infiltrate their home as distant courtiers to get close to taox” idea, since savathun even suggests that in hiraeth i. as you might be able to imagine, things prooobably go awry??

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

probably my novel ideas, the oldest of which both were inspired by dreams I had, though by now probably do not share much common ground with my memories of those dreams!