#kotor gift exchange 2023

[oonaluna-art]

This is the second part of my holiday exchange gift for Queen_Scribbles for this year's @kotorgiftexchange event.

I had never thought of Visas and Bao Dur as a couple, but the more thought I put into it, the more I felt compelled by the idea! The two deserve the best.

—

[My Ko-Fi] [Patreon]

[hnnny]

Surprise!! I made both of your requests @stellorc !! I could not resist making you a cozy scene that I've always envisioned for Juhani. You may notice she's in different clothing too. That's based on this design I made for her when I first got into Kotor. At last, she has returned home to Dantooine after long journey around the galaxy. I hope you enjoy! And btw, this was for the @kotorgiftexchange .

[queen-scribbles]

Girls' Night In

Creators were revealed for the @kotorgiftexchange, so I can share my piece I wrote! Female Revan, Bastila, and Mission buddyfic, set post-game bc they deserve nice things.

----

The hotel façade looming above them reeked of stately opulence, hardly the place you would expect to find a Jedi, let alone two.

And yet, that's precisely where Revan and Bastila found themselves, dragged on a 'girls only' excursion by a very enthusiastic Mission Vao. She did have a point that they deserved a chance to catch their breath after saving the galaxy. And she had managed to sneak them away from all the attention of those who wanted to praise Revan or babysit Bastila. (Despite the latter's protests that close watch was warranted, given her fall and too-recent redemption.) That level of skill deserved some reward.

"Look at that view," Mission gushed, gesturing broadly toward the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city and the sky beyond.

"So, what sort of activities or attractions are there around here?" Revan asked as she joined Mission. It was quite the view, she had to agree.

"Oh. I dunno." Mission shrugged, still staring out the window in awe.

"You don't know?" Bastila parroted from near the door.

"Yeah, I didn't pick this place for the 'local activities." Mission pivoted from the window and flung herself on one of the cushy beds. "I picked it b'cause it's fancy an' I like the idea of bein' pampered a little." She wiggled down in the duvet. "Or a lot."

Revan and Bastila exchanged a look.

"But if you don't know things to do in the area-"

"We don't need to do things in the area." Mission sat up and flipped a lekku back over her shoulder. "There's a pool in the hotel. There's a spa an' fancy restaurant--with room service--in the hotel. There's a theater and arcade and massage parlor in the hotel. This isn't girls' night out, it's girls night in. We're only out in the sense of being out of the Ebon Hawk and out from under the eye of various Republic watchdogs. We can have fun here an' never worry about catching a speeder or getting lost or anything."

"Alright, that does sound fun," Revan said with a small smile at her enthusiasm. "And I can see you put some thought into this."

"Enough to know we have plenty to do without setting foot outside the hotel doors," Mission gloated.

Bastila was quiet, moving off to examine the rest of the suite, and Revan joined Mission sitting on the bed.

"So, how long did it take you to find this place?" she asked, tucking hair behind her ear as she looked around the room. The bed was very comfortable.

"Oh, I actually heard about it before we were done the whole 'savin' the galaxy' thing, it was the using it to relax that came later. Figured we could benefit after... everything." Something flickered in Mission's eyes and she glanced at where Bastila had disappeared, then out the window, before looking back at Revan. "Tell me we didn't need something like this."

"It will be... nice." Pampered opulence was not something usually associated with Jedi, but the thought of a good meal and a massage to deal with the tension of everything that happened on the Star Forge was a tantalizing prospect. "Makes it all the more regretful Juhani didn't come along."

"Hey, I asked!" Mission protested, flopping back on the bed. "She very politely declined, and I got the sense it wasn't a good idea to push." She snorted. "Her loss."

"I hope Bastila manages to enjoy herself..."

"Yeah, I'm kinda surprised she agreed."

As if summoned by the talk of her, Bastila emerged from her exploration and perched in one of the plush chairs near the window. "Mission, these rooms are enormous. Why was... all of this necessary?" She gestured to the whole space.

Mission tipped her head back against the duvet and grinned at her. "The heck of it? B'cause it seemed fun?" She rolled over, nearly knocking Revan off the bed. "Don't tell me you never ever once wanted to stay in a fancy hotel just for the experience."

Bastila's lips twitched, maybe toward a smile. "Not since joining the order; this level of... personal comfort is not something Jedi are meant to aspire to."

"Okay, but you can enjoy it once, if it's dropped in your lap, right? Surely itty bitty Bastila thought about it before joining the Jedi?"

This time there was definitely a hint of a smile. "Perhaps just once..." she allowed, as if in answer to both, then cocked her head. "I am curious how you are affording this."

"Don't worry about that," Mission said dismissively, jumping to her feet. "It's paid for, just enjoy yourself. What should we do first? There's spa, restaurant, theatre, pool, massage..."

"Well, there's a tub nearly the size of a pool in the suite's 'fresher," Bastila said dryly, "so I don't think we need to visit the communal one."

"You're funny, bet you just don't wanna be seen breakin' Jedi dignity to do a cannonball," Mission teased.

Bastila arched a brow, but her eyes were twinkling. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"What I'd like to know," Revan interjected, "is why they have both spa and massage; I was under the impression massage was part of the spa... experience."

"Dunno," Mission shrugged. "Maybe for people who want a massage but not the whole spa shebang, maybe for room service. We can find out; you wanna do spa first?"

Revan and Bastila looked at each other, then back at the twi'lek, practically bouncing with excitement to get this underway. "Sounds like a plan."

"Yes!" She was out of the room like a shot, headed for the lift with a twirl in her step.

---

The spa offered an extensive list of services, and it took fifteen minutes of reviewing the options to settle on the ones the wanted. Apparently a bundle of six was "included" with their suite, which renewed their curiosity how Mission had paid for this.

A few idle questions to the zabrak manning the service showed both Mission's guesses had been correct--massage services were offered separate from the spa as a whole both because some people only wanted that, and as an option that allowed for room servicing. But it was also offered as part of several spa bundles; did the ladies wish it included in their experience?

That one was easy to agree upon. Though it did prompt a spirited debate on which type of massage they wanted before the receptionist intervened to point out all the masseurs on staff were versed in all the variations, so they could each do whichever they wished. That got them unstuck, and they moved through the rest of the process with relative ease, all agreeing they should start with the massage.

The receptionist took their selections with a practiced professional smile and showed them to the room where they could change. "I'll get the rest of these queued up," she said, and left without a further word to give them privacy.

"Wow, these are soft." Mission was already taking one of the provided spa robed from the receptacle and caressing the creamy white fabric as she headed for a changing stall.

Revan and Bastila moved a little more slowly--almost reluctantly in Bastila's case.

Revan stopped after retrieving her robe and stood studying her friend. "Everything alright?"

"...I suppose," Bastila said, fingers tracing the dark orange trim on the robe even though she'd pulled herself out of her reverie.

"That was a fairly significant pause," Revan said gently. "Are you sure?"

"It... it would feel odd enjoying this level of comfort regardless, after so long in the Jedi Order. But with the event that occurred, the things I said and did, it feels like being reward for wickedness."

"Then why agree to come? If you saw it that way," Revan asked, shifting her weight.

"An attempt at rebuilding bridges, I suppose," Bastila said with a ghost of a smile. "Despite the fact of what I did being nearly unforgiveable, you all" --she inclined her head to include Mission-- "seem willing to do just that. It seemed only proper I make an effort rather than wallowing in my guilt. I just was unaware of what Mission meant by this girls' trip."

"I think, as long as we view it as a... special occasion and not something to get used to, it's alright," Revan said. "And we aren't rewarding wickedness, we are celebrating victory. Part of that victory is you returning to the light and aiding the Republic forces in battle." She gave Bastila's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "There's no harm in enjoying time spent with friends, after all."

"I second that!" Mission interjected, bursting out clad in the hotel robe. "We're glad you're here, and that's why you're here, y'know?"

"I do take your meaning, yes," Bastila said with a smile. She shifted her grip on the robe. "In that case, I believe we should change so we can be moving along with this?"

"I'll wait for you," Mission promised, only bouncing a little as she leaned against a wall while Revan and Bastila stepped into the stalls to change.

---

Meditation was all well and good, definitely helped relax you and reduce stress, but there was something tactile about feeling someone knead the tension out of your muscles that was equally lovely. Revan felt near-boneless when they were done. From the look on Mission's face, she was the same, but though Bastila looked more relaxed there was a lingering sense of... something off to her. It faded as they moved on to other spa activities, however, and was completely gone by the time they got to the mud bath at the end.

"Is it bad I almost don't want to do anything else now?" Revan asked neither of them in particular.

Bastila hummed an agreement.

"Yeah, on second thought, maybe this should've been last," Mission laughed sheepishly. She skimmed one hand over the surface of the mud. "All I wanna do whenever we get out is go lay on the bed and not think about anything."

"We could do the theatre next," Bastila suggested, shifting a little to keep her hair out of the mud. "I caught a glimpse of the marquee; they're performing a Thassian drama known for being... light-hearted and enjoyable. And I believe the timing works out to give us a bit longer here."

"Sounds like a plan," Revan said. "Then dinner after, and we can see where we stand--"

"Stop tryin' to plan every minute of girls' night!" Mission interrupted with a snicker. "Part of the fun is just lettin' it happen and seeing where things go. Plan it too much and it becomes a task."

"But some of the activities run at set times," Bastila pointed out. "Like the theatre. We need to be cognizant of that if we wish to catch a show."

"Eh, we miss one, we can catch the next." Mission wiggled deeper into the mud. "This isn't a battle plan or anything, it's meant to be fun."

"I think Bastila's point is that it's good to have at least a loose schedule in mind," Revan interjected, "And Mission's is to be flexible about the schedule, and both of you are right."

Mollified by her efforts (thank the Force), both settled back. There was silence for a few minutes, aside from the barely-audible music.

"So, how much longer do we have if we wanna catch the next performance of the show?" Mission asked.

"Up to another twenty minutes here before we'd need to clean up and get back in our street clothes," Bastila said after a brief pause. She'd always had the best internal chrono of the group; Revan was inclined to believe her.

"I don't know about you two, but I think I'll be good after another ten," she commented.

"I would also find that sufficient," Bastila agreed.

Mission gave an exaggerated sigh. "I guess that'll be good for me, too."

"If-" Revan began.

"I'm kidding," Mission cut her off. "That's fine. If it wasn't, I'd just stay here an' let you guys go see the show."

"Alright, then. Ten more minutes."

---

The theatre show proved well worth pulling themselves away from the spa. Comfortable seats and an enjoyable performance of a light-hearted tale kept them in a relaxed frame of mind. The dinner that followed was leisurely and did much the same.

The only thing to reintroduce a sliver of tension was Mission dodging yet another attempt to find out how all this was being paid for. And even that was more curiosity than real tension.

"Just enjoy it and stop worrying!" she laughed.

"I'd enjoy it a lot more if I knew we weren't doing something potentially illegal," Revan said with a pointedly arched brow.

"We're not," Mission promised. "Swear by... by my favorite blaster. Just have fun."

Revan sighed but let it go, again. Even if the repeated secrecy was making her increasingly curious. She could try again in the morning; maybe once they were done and checked out Mission would be more forthcoming.

They returned to the room after dinner and lounged around for a while talking before going to bed. All agreed girls' night had been a resounding success.

[kotorgiftexchange]

KOTOR Gift Exchange 2023: Important Dates/Info

Welcome to the TOR exchange, where we celebrate the wonderful world and characters of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (both 1 and 2).

Any questions should be sent to this blog or @commander-krios​​

Exchange Info- AO3 Collection | Tagset | Sign-up Form | FAQ | Exchange Discord

2023 Schedule

Nominations open: September 1, 2023

Nominations close: September 15, 2023

Sign-ups open: September 17, 2023

Sign-ups close: October 8, 2023

Assignments go out: October 9-10, 2023

Works due: December 10, 2023

Works revealed: December 17, 2023

Creators revealed: December 24, 2023

Minimum Requirements:

- 500 word piece of fanfiction of a quality you would be happy to receive   OR - a clean drawing, of good resolution, on unlined paper (or on a white digital background) and of a quality you would be happy to receive.

A Note For This Year: The exchange is an 18+ event (NSFW content IS allowed this year so that means all participants must be over 18 years old).

[eluvisen]

2022 Writing Wrap Up

I was tagged by @commander-krios thank you!

Total Words Published: 84,021

Additional Words Written: 146,062

Grand Total of Words: Since Lower City Blues and half of Heartfire were drafted last year, my actual word count total for this year is 167,559. Which is a wild number to look at when I spent most of this year feeling like I wasn't productive enough and took more breaks than normal to battle burnout.

Fandoms: KOTOR (also wrote for Morrowind this year but nothing published)

Highest Everything (raw kudos, hits, comments): Lower City Blues

Highest Kudos to Hits Ratio: Funnily enough, my work with the best hits to kudos ratio this year is But I Found in You What Was Lost in Me, which is art rather than fic. My fic with the best hits to kudos ratio is Almost So Perfect (closely followed by Of the Starlit Night)

New Things I Tried: I took part in a gift exchange for the first time! Didn't formally sign up, just made a treat for someone, but it was fun

Fic I Spent The Most Time On: Heartfire

Fic I Spent The Least Time On: Anything published has had a ton of time sunk into it, so I’d have to say My Morrowind WIP

Favorite Thing I Wrote: Gosh, it's so hard to choose. They're all my babies. Probably a tie between Heartfire and Almost So Perfect.

Favorite Thing I Read:

Literally everything in will the circle be unbroken?

we rise and we fall and we break (and we keep on living anyway)

With Hope, I Find Strength

the incidence of acquaintance

wherever life takes you

Squid Ink

The Perils of Redemption

Writing Goals for 2023: Publish my other Revani fics and my f!Revastila fic. Revise and post Velire's post-Battle of the Star Forge fic. Get the next installment of Written Across the Stars drafted and hopefully edited. (Some games I'm keeping my eye on in 2023 are Twin Coves, Starfield, and DA4, so if I'm inspired to write anything for those—and no guarantee of that, especially with the current state of AAA games—I'd like my major KOTOR fics wrapped up)

New Works: Of the Starlit Night, Lower City Blues, Almost So Perfect, But I Found in You What Was Lost in Me, Heartfire

Tagging: Pretty sure I'm the last one to do this but if you'd like to do it, consider yourself tagged!

[oonaluna-art]

The first part of my holiday exchange gift for Queen_Scribbles for this year's @kotorgiftexchange event!

—

[My Ko-Fi] [Patreon]

[hnnny]

Surprise @stellorc !! It's your absolute menaces for the @kotorgiftexchange !! I really enjoyed making this for you, and it was such a pleasant surprise to get paired with you for the exchange because you deserve all of my efforts. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my dear friend :)))

[kotorgiftexchange]

Gifts are revealed! Gifters, please remain anonymous until the creator reveal.

[kotorgiftexchange]

KOTOR Gift Exchange Nominations

The KOTOR Gift Exchange is now taking nominations!

So what's a nomination and how do you make them?

A nomination is when you request specific characters or pairings (platonic, romantic, multi-ship, etc) that will be available for use in the exchange's tag set. In other words, it's the pairings that will be available for you to request or offer when you do your signups in a few weeks.

Say you want to request 'Bastila Shan/Revan' for one of your pairings.

When you click on the link I provide to the tag set, you'll see a page that looks like this:

You will see a list of characters, relationships, and fandoms. You are NOT required to fill in the fandom portion of the form. Only the relationship section. The only fandom available for this exchange is KOTOR.

If the character or pairing you want isn't associated with the KOTOR fandom on AO3, you may get an error. In this case, you are required to add the fandom and I will approve the request accordingly.

If you want to request a specific pairing, try to browse the tag set prior to nominations to see if something you want to offer or request is already part of the tag set.

You only have 20 nominations available so use them wisely. Once nominations are open, I will go in once a day to approve or deny requests.

All of your nomination requests must be KOTOR related. Again, they can be platonic, romantic, multi-ship, etc. If the pairing you've chosen does not appear and you can't get it added in, contact me and I will manually add it in.

Once you've chosen your characters or relationships, it should look something like this:

Continue searching for the tags you want to add until you're happy with your nominations list (up to 20 pairings and characters). Scroll to the bottom of the page and click submit.

When you're finished, you should get a list like this:

A green checkmark means that the pairing is approved. The question/exclamation mark needs to be reviewed by the Tag Set owner and approved. Be patient, it will be reviewed and approved as soon as possible.

If you get an error, there is a chance that the ship you chose has an issue being related to the tag set (ex. one of the characters isn't part of the KOTOR fandom tags). If you're having issues, please contact me and I will see if I can fix it.

You can edit your pairings until the cutoff date of September 15th, 2024.

If you have questions, please send an ask and I will clarify what I can.

[kotorgiftexchange]

Your gifts are due today at 8pm EST. If you need an extension, please reach out immediately.

[kotorgiftexchange]

We are now only missing 5 gifts. Reminder that your submissions are due Sun Dec 10th at 8 PM EST. If you need an extension, please reach out. If you need help with posting, message @commander-krios

[kotorgiftexchange]

Posting Your Assignments

Here is a step by step guide on how to correctly post your assignments to the 2023 KOTOR Gift Exchange Collection once you've finished creating.

I used some screenshots to better show you where you would post your finished product.

When you're happy with the finished product and are ready to post, go to your AO3 dashboard and then scroll to the bottom of the menu on the left side of your page.

The final group of choices on your left dashboard involve exchanges, assignments and gifts.

Click on the Assignments Tab:

It will open a page that lists all of the assignments you've been given from any Exchanges you've signed up for. Scroll to where you see the KOTOR Gift Exchange. It will list your giftee and two options. Default or Fulfill.

Do not click on Default unless you intend on backing out of the exchange. If you click Default, your assignment will bounce back to the mods and a pinch hitter will be assigned to your giftee.

To actually submit your gift, click on Fulfill.

If you are familiar with using AO3, the normal screen for posting a fic will appear. Fill out the details as you normally would. Title, pairing, additional tags or warnings, and a summary.

When you scroll down, make sure that it says the TORGiftExchangeSubCollection under "Collections" and that the Assignment listed on the "Open Assignments" matches the person you are gifting to.

If everything looks good, continue to fill out the rest of your work page with the fic/art and any other details that need entering. Once it's complete, hit SUBMIT.

Your work will NOT show up in your stories on your AO3 until after Creator Reveals in December. If you need to go back in and find your gift for edits, additions, etc, go back to your Assignments tab and it should be listed under the KOTOR Gift Exchange 2023 Assignment.

If you are posting art and have never done so before, here is a handy guide to do that.

If you need additional help, feel free to reach out here or on the exchange Discord Server.

Happy creating!

Note: To those who have never participated in an exchange before, you are creating ONE gift for the person you were assigned. If you want to do more than one, feel free. But remember you are only expected to provide one gift. I will post more about "Treats" or extra gifts soon.

[kotorgiftexchange]

Signups end in about 12 hours! Please get them in asap!

[kotorgiftexchange]

One week left until gifts are due! Please contact the blog or @commander-krios if you need to drop out!

[kotorgiftexchange]

Assignments were sent for the 2023 KOTOR Exchange. Please check your emails and AO3 for your giftee. Happy creating!

[kotorgiftexchange]

Gifts are due in just under 2 weeks! Please reach out if you need to drop out or get an extension. Thank you.