#oc: nosta

[eorzeashan]

Happy Mother's Day to the worst chilf- I mean milf- I mean mom I've ever written, Nosta!

It's hard talking about her because she's so many things besides being retired, and I could go on forever about how she ultimately fucked up as a spy forming connections she never should've while being too ambitious and wanting it all at the same time. She's a mean one with a personality like an atomic bomb and very, very messy. Her exterior facade was that of a seductress all the way through, but she was top marks in everything else as well-- which made her utterly brilliant. Her standards were notoriously high and backbreaking; so much so no one could reach her.

They called her the castle crasher, for how she'd seduce a prominent Lord and then have their entire powerbase undone in a week without a single tear. In other words, she played fast and loose with hearts. Many knew her as flamboyant and charmingly sweet in direct opposition to chiss stereotypes, but she saw those who fell for something as paltry as attraction and sex as beneath her and foolish for falling for such ploys, indicating some serious issues beneath that smile that lit up the room.

The one person who knew her true nature was Eight, who inherited her Cipher designation after her retirement. He knew her as a rather sloppy person who'd make a mess of any safehouse they shacked up in and then complain about the people she'd just slept with-- and then he'd find out she killed them as well, and they'd share an experience of draining the body in the fresher and concealing it with a dubious mix of chemicals. Fun bonding times for a young child and half-drunk bachelorette! Sometimes she'd fall asleep during it and he'd have to finish cleaning by himself while making sure she didn't choke on her own spit while taking an inpromptu nap after a long day of murder and masked mayhem.

Long story short, his childhood apprenticeship with her was hardly positive... if not spartan given how blatant murder and her many issues were just another day for them, but even the hardest of circumstances under her wing were times he viewed with fondness, so his relationship with her is "complicated". She was the pinnacle of espionage to him and a harsh if not cruel teacher who never once softened her blows or her words in training, as the world she knew was too harsh to let anyone weaker than her standards survive, so she beat the mastery of being a spy into Eight until it was his life.

He knew she only wanted him to succeed the way she did, but neither of them realized it was simply the cyclic continuation of their own suffering as agents and weapons who'd gone beyond being people until it was far too late to reconcile. Even then, Eight could never blame her or hate her for what had happened or for what they had done to each other; after all, she granted him the ability to survive above all else. How could he be anything but grateful to the woman that saved his life, who he had given his life for?

Yet, he too feels guilt. Guilt for killing all the people she'd known as a spy in order to save her life. Guilt for at one point, thinking her soft for wanting to return to her family when she'd taught him never to wish for such things. Perhaps there was some disconnect, some pity towards her that made him think she'd failed as a spy when she revealed that weakness to him out of fondness. That fatal flaw that made him see her as a person for the first time rather than the unfeeling, detached, gunmetal spy she'd lied about being.

A weakness that meant their days together were over. She'd taught him such a person could not survive in the world of Intelligence. So there was but one thing left to do: get her out of it.

Even if that meant leaving him behind in the process.

Nosta only realized her mistakes and regret once she was back in the Ascendancy and out of Imperial Intelligence's clutches, unable to forget the harsh upbringing and bloodstained life she'd foisted on another now that she was living one in the luxury and comfort Eight would never have. Initially she was in denial that he'd do such a thing, until Saganu himself told her Eight had remained in the Empire for her sake. Had killed her dear Watcher who tried to strike her down in the night to spare her from being memory-wiped or sent to Shadow Town. Had murdered everyone who'd been assigned to bring her in. Had signed his death warrant just to let her live, with no intention of going with her.

Still, she held out. No boy of hers would kick the bucket so easily. Any day now he'd walk through her door and announce he'd succeeded at his mission. Distance made her heart grow fonder, as did facing the truth-- that the operative she'd trained was not just some weapon she'd built nor a liability, but someone she cared for and who had cared for her when there had been no one else in their little world made out of espionage and lies. The one person who had made her long for a life outside of the job, all because he'd kept her from drowning in loneliness.

Then the news broke that there was a new Cipher Eight-- a young man fitting his description, carrying on exactly where she left off, and her heart splintered in two. He was never coming home. She had fed him to the machine. There would be no body to mourn, and they would never see each other again.

Ultimately, Nosta and Eight are a cautionary tale about the trauma mothers can pass down and how horrible parents who didn't realize at the time what they were doing can also be someone you love very much, but are still those who will never be able to amend for what they've done to you even if they spent the rest of their life doing so. There's a bridge they could rebuild if either of them tried, but there's so much personal pain involved that if they sat down to talk, it would be completely silent. Things we can't talk about is the name of their game. I'm grateful I met you. I'm happy you were my family. But we can't fix this. Not even I know what's wrong with me still. You gave that to me.

Her and Keeper failed in similar yet opposite ways, with her forcing him to become the best to live, while Keeper wanted him to forget how to be the best in order to escape this life. Both were too late. Both were saved by him. Both of them regret what he is.

I think Nosta would accost Keeper out of rage and grief and having the hope that he took care of Eight or at the very least, granted him the same chance to get out of Intelligence as he did the others, but Eight has never wanted to be saved, and she'd only be lashing out in that explosive way of hers that still comes from a place of her own self-loathing. Then they'd just be two failed guardians hanging their heads in shame.

It's a lot to bear, even together.

[eorzeashan]

Nosta has a Vulptilla pup that is a miniature of the normal Vulptillas one might see used as mounts, but most just mistake it for a puppy. Due to its rarity and illegal breeding, it costs a fortune-- one that Nosta was happy to derive an underworld smuggling ring of.

It has an ill temper and hates anyone who isn't Nosta, a discovery that Eight learned very quickly. Its name is incredibly long in addition to being in Cheunh but he's shortened its name to Poo Poo out of hatred for the little demon, and not because it used his boots as a toilet or anything.

Which OC of yours has the most interesting pet?

Do you have a picture of it?

Chrysander, we already know about your grophet obsession, let someone else speak! 😄😄

[dreamybrains]

my sona nosta and a friends sona, mars! ♥

[esbruja]

LA PATRONA DE LAS BRUJAS. writing blog for an oc, paloma sánchez. latine, argentinean in miami, witch, sex worker. written by nosta.

exploring rioplatense paganism and witchcraft, sex work, living in another country, latine culture and religion and the stigmatization of witchcraft and paganism in society.

please do not follow if you are under the age of 21. heavy mentions of paganism and witchcraft ahead.

born maría paloma sánchez on april 3rd, 1994.

raised by her grandmother in barrio ejercito de los andes, also known as fuerte apache.

became interested in witchcraft and tarot reading at the age of ten, learned everything she knows from her grandmother and her youngest aunt, who is just eight years older.

started charging for her work as a witch, doing cleansing rituals and love spells (known as amarres) for people at age fourteen. she also started doing tarot readings.

adopted san la muerte as her patron saint at age 16.

became a full service sex worker at age eighteen, and met her later husband pablo corrales, a 32 y/o uruguayan with citizenship in the usa at age 19. moved to miami with him and got married at age 20.

divorced pablo at age 23 because she didn't want children and he did. he moved back to los angeles and she stayed in miami.

still works as a tarot reader and sex worker. and practices witchcraft regularly. paloma has a small statue of san la muerte in her altar inside her apartment.

she regularly sends money back home to her grandmother and nieces/nephews.

[brulae-a]

                         𝐆𝐎𝐃   𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏   𝐓𝐇𝐄   𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐒   ;

                       𝚂𝙷𝙾𝚆                𝚃𝙷𝙴𝙼                𝚃𝙷𝙴                𝙼𝙴𝚁𝙲𝚈

selective     descendants     original     character     :     daughter     of     esmeralda     and     phoebus.     sung     by     tas.

[thisisthegay]

ramblings on Padrosa and Nosta because I should probably explain their history a bit:

Their mother died when Padrosa was 17 and Nosta was 11, and their father basically decided ‘fuck that, I can’t care for two kids’ and skedaddled. Padrosa took care of the pair of them for a while, a little under a year, but between her abrasive personality and escapist nature, it wasn’t a good life.

The sisters were found by a small Mandalorian tribe, and both were offered the chance to join as foundlings. Padrosa rejected the offer, but she posited Nosta on then eagerly. The Mandalorians would give her sister a good life, she reasoned, but her eagerness was mostly borne from the desire to be free of the burden of her sister.

So Padrosa left Nosta behind and went off into the galaxy, where she was found and mentored by a smuggler, and the rest is history.

It was 14 years before the pair finally met again in a chance meeting.

[theblckheir-a]

love  me    ;    @helear

[groovit]

STARLIGHT EYES     .     descendants oc, one of the children of kuzco, as told by nosta.

[hellcures]

WE ARE IN CELEBRATION!

both me and my hunting angel right here are turning one year older, and hasn’t it been a wild ride.  i am about to finish my first semester at college, have been a member of a dream come true contemporary singing choir for months now, lived through graduation, and found amazing new friends to share the journey’s beautiful highs and necessary lows with.

lana, on the other hand, has found a new life here, coming back to the fandom, getting back into gear with new verses, new stories and new partners in her adventures, which is why i feel like doing something special for her this year. for the first time ever i’ll be taking birthday starters for lana from jan. 9th to jan. 16th, so if you wanna show us some love, i’ll prioritize and post those as i queue other drafts before my finals start in a couple weeks. now, i’ll take this chance to spread some well-deserved love and do a little follow forever under the cut for the people without whom this wouldn’t have been the same for us, but for those leaving here, thank you for the ride and another wonderful year.   ©

@helllore​​.  my ride or die kate, you know i’ll never find a writing partner like you. you were the first person since i revamped my lana that made us feel cherished important, like we really had found a place here, and ever since you’ve remained my absolute main.  every word you write and every dynamic we’ve developed with these two feels canon to me, you’ve given me priceless memories and shipping rants, and just like lana will always be sam’s, i’ll always be here, waiting impatiently for us to keep making magic together. i love you.

@huntmyth​​. jay.  you’ve been here since the very beginning, and i remember being so starstruck that you digged my little female oc and ended up being mutuals together.  despite my hiatus and losing track of each other for a bit of time, i’ll never not be excited about a meme of yours in my inbox, or plotting crazy au’s, or anything really.  i’m so happy you made this list years later, and i hope you know how much you and your deano still mean to me.

@prophetduty​. SARA, MY GIRL, OUR PROPHET BESTIE!!!  y’know, it’s very likely that we wouldn’t have come back from that hiatus if i hadn’t seen you and angie still around.  you’ve been this breath of fresh air both on my dash and in lana’s life, and i couldn’t imagine writing her without acknowledging your babe and the fluff, angst and action she shoots into her person.  you are the ying to her yang, so do not ever make me find out what this blue hellsite is without you or we’ll hunt you down.  literally.

@tobeblamed​.  lou!!  my crazy excited, keyboard-smashing, rocket-speed reply fangirl, lou.  you’re tobeloved ( see what i did there )  'till the end of time.  in a few weeks you’ve given me not only an amazing, wholesome, pre-series universe that feels like the only truth to lana’s rookie days, but you’ve been my friend, standing me and my pointless exams anxiety, always believing in me.  i’m so happy that after being mutuals forever we grew so close so fast, and it fills my heart to think of all we still got yet to do and live through together.  you reminded me why i fell in love with dean back in the early seasons in the first place. so, bottom line?  i just think you’re adorable.

@destinedgreat​. louise.  the angel behind the hotel reception i always envisioned as a kid.  you’ve gifted us a precious familial dynamic lana thought she’d never be able to have, and she’s thriving helping someone shape their own destiny the way no one helped her.  plus, she’s def the cool aunt, let’s admit it.  you are a ray of sunshine and we wouldn’t give you up for the world, hon.  can’t wait to keep writing together.

@damnedtm​.  kiki!!  i told you this just a few days ago, but you’re the real mvp, honestly.  you’ve forever been doing teen!lana threads with me, and don’t think for a second i forgot about that new years kiss meme. these two cute dumbass idjits need to smooch already.  you’re so original with your sam, you blow me away all the time, and i can’t wait for that seals plot we discussed.  seeing you around is always such a treat, you’re such a talented writer and such a pure human, i send you the best of vibes. thank you for giving my girl a chance back in the day, hon, truthfully.

@compaession​.  anna.  the kickstarter for my newfound passion on my tvd verse.  your elena is so clean and pure and perfectly flawed in the most human way — one could think that’s because of the muse, but despite not having a doubt in my mind that you portray her so well on purpose, i think she takes after the mun.  you’ve been an amazing new addition to my fam here and i look forward to having you on more follow forever’s like this one.

@unrepent​​.  kat.  unironically, my dream katherine.  ever since i conceived lana into the tvd universe, i’ve looked for a katherine to develop this complex, layered dynamic with.  it’s founded in circumstance and manipulation, but rooted in empathy, vulnerability and depending on one another in the end.  so i looked for a katherine whose dialogue would give me chills, whose mannerisms and motivation weren’t watered down at all, and with her wounded heart and sass intact. and depite having admired you from afar for years, now that we’re mutuals, it’s clear as water. there’s no one better for that one woman job than you.  you’re also such a welcoming sweetheart with such a genius mind, and your interpretation of brooke? top-notch.  i hold very high hopes for us in the future and i can’t wait to know you better and better with each passing plotting rant, if you’ll let us. 

@fatalhell​.  NOSTA!! our hell queen, honestly.  never in a million years would i have imagined ruby’s to be one of my fave dynamics, but you’re just that special.  you balance her out so exquisitely, it’s impossible not to love hating her.  it’d break my heart to ever watch such a one in a million portrayal leave, and such a dedicated, welcoming soul too. we love you way too much for our own good.

@downspiral​​.  raz.  i know, we’ve only been mutuals for a few days, but just like i’d been looking for forever for a main katherine to develop that tvd dynamic with, a damon blog who’d take a chance on us was my wish for ages.  and then you came out of nowhere, followed us back and lightened up our hearts making perfect carbon copies of his snarky, spot-on one-liners and his complicated psyche. despite the fact we still have a lot to do and have only interacted through im’s and memes and such, i just had to let you know how much i appreciate you and that your blog is one i check very often ‘cause i know the content is quality, ‘kay. 

@holykissed​​​.  jessi.  you and i go way back, to when i saw @sulfurbraved​ on my dash and drooled over all your amazing female spn muses, including some dope oc’s.  so imagine my content when i saw you’d revamped and kept a lot of those amazing muses. i was THRILLED, and i still am.  we haven’t missed a beat and it’s so nice to be interacting with you again, so just know i’m super excited to follow through on all those plots we never had the chance to write back in the day.

some special mentions are @ichorimbrued​, @seesgood​, @unfamiliarties​ /  @spitfcre​, @streetcop​, @gaebrel​, @graveburns​, plus all my mutuals ‘cause i love you all to the moon and back ( this is not a drill ).

[eorzeashan]

Mirage

“We've been watching you. Learning your techniques. In Mos Ila, at the wind farm, in Exchange territory... syncing our motions with yours.” 

The Old Man paced amidst the gravel sand of his tent, all confidence and experienced swagger. His lackeys hovered in a loose circle around their Cipher mark. Antsy with anticipation– hyenas around the carcass, waiting for their partaking of the meat. He’d trained them well, but they were overeager, drunk on stims, closed to possibility. Vector hovered behind him, nervous. 

“You're fantastically talented. You'll show us everything... and then we'll replace you inside your own organization.”

Eight’s dark eyes watched them dispassionately. He was no such prey. 

He felt the group hesitate. A visible thrum, a shuttering, the tightened reflexive amateur grip of vibroknives. He’d thrown them off their game. It would not last long; if they were as good as they claimed to be, he’d need to change his moves faster than they could adapt.

He felt the group hesitate. A visible thrum, a shuttering, the tightened reflexive amateur grip of vibroknives. He’d thrown them off their game. It would not last long; if they were as good as they claimed to be, he’d need to change his moves faster than they could adapt.

Fortunately for him, he was all but the compiled memory of a thousand and one deaths. This body was made for violence. It held naught else within.

“Cleverness won’t save you now, Cipher.” The Old Man shrugged off his initial hesitation, displaying his trump card in the open as his form took on that of the Cipher’s: leonine, graceful, not a step out of place. Two could play the copycat game. The young blood came with unpredictability, but his years of experience gave him the edge. He would enjoy taking the specimen before him apart. “You’ve been led into my trap.” The spy tracked his motions with those voidpool eyes of his, almost as empty as his companion’s. 

He was unsettling in a beautiful way, and the Old Man could see how it appealed to the base nature of the Sith. “Of course, we'd rather have captured you before you killed so many, but all in all, I'd call the plan a success.”

“Counting your gizka eggs before they hatch? Arrogant.”

His gaze was hypnotic with the hunger of the fight, yet soft with a terrible fondness that spoke of love where there was none to be found. When he spoke next, his voice was smooth and cutting like the tip of a cold knife trailing up a bare spine- and with the same effect. 

Eight beckoned with one free hand to him. 

They unsheathed their weapons simultaneously. 23 and counting blades glinted beneath the harsh spearing rays of the desert sun. Two exact faces, locked on one another. Orradiz inhaled the dust-choked air as if it were sweeter than perfume. He’d always wanted to give himself a second burial.

“Come, Old Man.” He pointed the knife at his own throat. “Let us see who replaces who.”

—----

Eight straddled the Old Man’s bucking body as he pinned all four of his limbs. He hummed a lullaby in Cheunh, one that mothers sang to their sons as they dreamt on her warm bosom. 

“Orradiz. Did you know I have a son around your age?” Nosta asked him, a flush on the blue of her skin as they camped out in the sniper’s nest together. He stared at her, not comprehending, then shook his head. 

“I do. His name is Veldekk. He looks so much like his father…I wonder if he’ll complain about that when he gets older. You know how boys are.” She laughed merrily, more cheery than Orradiz had ever seen her. She blew on her calloused knuckles and rubbed her hands; the chill of Hoth was difficult to bear even for a Chiss hailing from Csilla. 

They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the sounds of their heartbeats and the frigid howling of the arctic wind overhead.

Nosta broke the ice, again. 

“Someday I’ll introduce you. To both of them. Saganu would love you; I know he’s always been fascinated by outsiders, but you’re as Chiss as any of us. You’ve been with me long enough.” She fidgeted with the scope of the planted sniper rifle, readjusting, peering through it to the white expanse and no signs of life. She sat back with a sigh. “I almost wish you were older, so you could have seen Veldekk when he was born. He was so small, Orre. I’ve never seen anything so fragile.”

Orradiz peered at her owlishly above his scarf. He had no idea what she was rambling about, but he could tell the importance it held for the Chiss woman was far more than she could put into his words. Every fiber of her being that she kept locked down for espionage, carefully controlled by years of training was now beaming with affection, and not for him.

She looked at him, not understanding, and smiled. “There’s a song I used to sing him to sleep with. Every night, he’d tug on my hair and look at me with his big eyes and wait for me to sing, or he refused to settle down. Shall I sing it for you?”

Quiet as he was, he could only nod.

“Alright then. Don’t fall asleep, or I’ll make you run laps in your underclothes…”

Eight wrapped his hands around the neck of his carbon-copy, and squeezed. He was reaching the end of the song. The Old Man- or his eyes bulged out of their sockets. Hands clawing, slapping at air. He watched himself die. 

The body went limp, and he let go. 

Funny. He thought he’d feel something, but it was just another corpse in the end.

Guess there really is no killing yourself after the first time, he mused dryly, kicking the dead body with his boot. He cut out the disguise implant from the base of the neck, shook off the fresh blood and bits of flesh. He held up the hunk of metal to the sun. The Old Man had an impressive display of face-changing. 

He could do better.

Mia Hawkins watched him finish his work with dual-parts resignation and wariness; she was always one to accept her own fate, and it drew Eight to her like the stink of lingering rot. But when she forced herself to look at him, there was naught but mercy in his bloodstained hand, and she took it. 

They embraced for a little while. She marveled at how someone so cold could feel so warm.

He put his lips to her ear and whispered, his tongue laden with someone else’s words. “Run. It’ll be hard. Your feet will bleed for all the miles you’ll need to walk. Make it a worthwhile chase, and you might just live to see the end of this war.”

He let her go. She swallowed thickly, then turned and ran. When she had put enough distance between them, she looked over her shoulder. He was still there: an immovable figure standing amidst a ghost village full of nameless bodies. A bead of sweat rolled into her eyes. She blinked.

When she looked again, he was gone– the desert wind rolled over where he had been in a closing curtain of sand, and with its passing, the haunting was over.

[dreamybrains]

>> leave me alone <<

my art instagram ♥ dreamybrains

[eorzeashan]

Feel free to ignore: What are the differences between ex8, 8, & 9 game play vs OC Lore regarding their relationships/feelings with the companions and main NPC? Base game? Whole game-timeline up to you. How do their views differ towards main companion like Kaliyo and NPC like D.Jadus, Watcher X, est.? Like ex8 would have a different relationship with D.Jadus (if any) compare to 8 & 9, and does she have “different” companions? (Unless I’m wrong to assume "first C9", and she’s just a “filler” OC).

OOh, a big and juicy ask! Sorry if this came a little late, I had to ruminate for a while. Buckle up, this might get long (and incoherent since I'm trying to answer this while feeling ill).

ex8 (Nosta):

Nosta's main difference lies in the fact that she's older than Orradiz and counts as a previous generation Cipher that has a closer working relationship to Keeper as a compatriot rather than a junior; this also makes her act more experienced and less open to the base story's companions as opposed to Eight, who doesn't have the luxury of being a superior officer. Though my headcanons for Keeper/Minister vary, something I noticed in the gameplay was that her and Keeper flirted right off the bat in Hutta, and the seductive side of the Female IA suits her quite well.

Compared to the "canon" F!Agent, she is far more hardline and cold, and it could be said that the personality of a DS F!Agent is more her facade--the stereotype of a beautiful Chiss that the Empire favors when the real woman behind that experiences a huge disdain for the cliche that many outsiders project onto the Chiss. Which is that of an always elegant, perfect, dignified and classy individual, hyperfeminine and hypersexual-- an image she has no fondness for, but finds use in because her real rougher nature is frightening and cruel to many who know her true self. Not even in a femme fatale way; there are no limits to the methods she knows, and she is known for using anything to her disposal. No life is off limits. No weapon out of her reach. She is very much like a cartel enforcer/hitman rather than a typical agent, and that is the knowledge she passed down to her student. She's also rather crass.

As a result, she probably overpowered Kaliyo with that "gangster" side in being more rough and older than her, as compared to the polite diplomacy the agent can afford. Vector is someone I considered having Nosta flirt with just to experience his romance, but given her status, she'd find him more of a method to get her rocks off than anything else. Her "canon" backstory implies she has a long romantic history with Aristocra Saganu, but that storyline didn't necessarily need to be told since the son she has with him is my friend's OC from the Nine timeline, so I often retcon it in Eight's timeline.

Nosta, compared to the gameplay, is supposed to not have met any of the base game comps and further on as I see the IA crew as purely attached to the new Nine's story, so I never gave much thought to her relationships with them-- she would have kept them at an exceptional distance and Doctor Lokin carries a similar view on both Eights at all times, and that is extreme wariness of the role they play as that Cipher designation, but TLDR the main difference lies in her closer ties to being an "oldie" of Intelligence with the history to back it up.

Her only companion has always been a young Orradiz; this remains true in both the Nine and Eight timelines, and a huge reason for why she has a complicated relationship with him where she denied herself the right to treat him like her own child, despite the fact that he kept her from succumbing to the loneliness of decades of isolation. She had him as a companion ever since he was a child to young adulthood.

As for her view on Watcher X and Jadus, I actually haven't finished her playthrough (oops) but she absolutely does not hold the same view on Jadus as her apprentice. She did, however, tell Orradiz that as agents they needed to see the bigger picture at all times and that their duty was to play the game right and win, so she had a huge part in laying the foundation for Eight's curiosity and acceptance of Jadus' status as an element outside of the system, since she taught him specifically to look for outliers and unknown elements that could influence the political stage of the galaxy in unexpected ways.

As a Chiss, she holds the same mild bias towards Force-users their society does, but she never lets emotions like that cloud her work and so would view Jadus as the kind of "prize" she would hunt as part of her oath to protect the Ascendancy from outside forces.

Watcher X....he is younger than her but befell a similar fate to Nosta when it was time to retire, so I imagine he monitored her career before and knew her in passing, though Nosta would find him to be a strange and fickle man as well as one that she would never associate with willingly (lol). I'm sure they had the kind of relationship where they scratched each other's backs for information through blackmail.

Eight (Orradiz)

Eight for the most part doesn't differ too much from the gameplay save for being far quieter and nonverbal (as well as toned down in boldness/confidence) in KOTXX, but in the class story he is very much the type of agent who takes risks, is unpredictable, and appears both savvy and dangerous on the surface to everyone around him. You could say Nosta's cruelty rubbed off on him, and this time is when he acts the most like her but with his own laidback charm. The agent replay tag tends to cover how he is during the story. Other major differences between the gameplay and his own lore is whether or not he actually experiences the Agent story for the same reasons as Nosta, as he is not Cipher Nine here. His overall vibe can be summed up to working class assassin, who treats killing both as his sacred duty and just another day at the office. As for the "duty" part, I'll have to get into that another time since we'd be here for hours and it deserves its own post.

His relationships with the class comps are also, fickle at best, but he is arguably close to them in his own way. His relationship with Vector becomes strained when he chooses to become Darth Jadus' Hand, though he holds no ill will towards Vector for having such a vehement reaction to his betrayal; they already had opposing opinions on his life of violence, and Vector often found himself unable to understand Eight's perspective of living in such a way as purely a weapon designed to kill and betray. Yet, contrary to Eight's belief that Vector no longer cared for him after the incident, Vector merely felt pity that Eight had resigned to isolating himself further and hopes that they can meet in the middle someday.

His relationship with Kaliyo is touch and go. Eight thinks that she's a test of whether an agent can handle and work with unsavory types such as her in preparation for becoming the next Keeper, but he is also used to working with people who don't like him/are abrasive, so his feelings on her are neutral. Kaliyo thinks he's weird and too quiet, but she knows just how deadly and dirtied he is, so it both earns her admiration and distance. They leave one another be. She's also unable to get a rise out of him, so she finds that part "boring".

Eight treats Raina like a younger sister, given her relationship to Saganu and the Chiss Ascendancy, both of which he owes. He's also just kind to younger and fresh recruits, which Raina is painfully so. Most of her hero worship wears off once she experiences for herself how eccentric and unorthodox Eight is, but that unintentionally brings them closer since she doesn't put him on a pedestal; the only time they experience strife in their relationship is the incident with her father, Cipher Three. Given Eight's role as the chief executioner for the majority of Ciphers and his view on what it means to kill one of them, they butted heads on her decision to kill her father, with Eight saying that pulling a trigger out of fear and the desire for vengeance was a shameful act that would dishonor her more than any past sin of her father. Of course, the game didn't let him say such a thing, but it did put a wrench in their relationship for a while, and as usual, Eight went back to being a loner while Raina didn't speak to him.

SCORPIO is an odd case. She and Eight found unexpected common ground in wishing to change and evolve into better, stronger versions of themselves to understand the world around them while feeling othered by it, and while Eight cared little for keeping her onboard against her will and experienced annoyance at her initial rudeness, they became close over time because of their shared loneliness and desire to be a person in their own definitions. The biggest deviation from canon came from KOTXX, half of what would've been skipped because of SCORPIO's closeness and understanding of his situation; it's my headcanon that Eight took her to Iokath early by himself and set her free. "Goodbye, SCORPIO." 'Goodbye, agent. I hope...you find the answer you seek, as I have.' were her last words to him before she went to sleep. Eight vehemently prevented anyone else from stepping foot on Iokath afterwards, having told SCORPIO to fill it with poison gas so no one could use her ever again. The Alliance was not happy with his decision to go completely rogue, as expected.

Lokin's relationship with him becomes begrudgingly fatherly, even though he experiences a hint of fear knowing this is not just any agent, but the one of whom killed many of your old comrades-- yet his initial wariness soon wears down to fond bewilderment because Eight is a curious soul who turns out not to be as scary as his reputation on his good days. Yet their shared parallel history puts them on more equal ground as twin survivors of a history painted with the blood of countless agents, so Lokin takes on less of a mentor role and more of a tired old grandpa who needs him to stop being so wild on every mission. It's a refreshing situation for him.

Nine (Orradiz)

Orradiz here is the most canon-compliant comparing the gameplay to the lore, with the only major difference between him and the game's mold for Cipher Nine being that he is kind of....a tsundere ice prince. Most of his Echani heritage is forgotten, and he relies on tech far more than his Eight self, as well as being infinitely more charming and well-spoken and much better with people, to the point of being friends with nearly everyone. (My friends often joked he was a Chiss in everything but appearance). As a result, he acts and is much weaker compared to Eight and is far more submissive to Sith, given his mindset that they cannot be defied and it's better to suffer under them than resist and die for nothing. Nosta is still Cipher Eight in his history here and plays the same role as his mentor, with the key difference being that Orradiz does not inherit her designation and becomes Nine instead even after her alleged retirement.

Vector is very close to him this time, with Nine having jumped into his arms on their reunion post-KOTXX and Vector having swung him around in joy. Like most agents, Nine was able to bond with him due to his caring nature amidst a lineup of other companions who appear to not.

Kaliyo, strangely enough, was who he relied on the most through his playthrough because he is the type who understands those who work for selfish means more than altruistic means, so he felt reassured having her at his back since he could predict her base nature easily and know what she wanted. In other words, he often traded sexual favors in return for her service, which in his eyes was more trustworthy than simply relying on someone without payment. They got along like a house on fire because he secretly enjoyed causing mayhem with her, though she was often trouble and gave him a headache more times than he could count.

He did not like SCORPIO at all and wanted to scrap her.

Lokin he had a fun relationship with because he liked the back and forth game of insinuating the ways they were going to betray or kill each other, since as previously stated, he lives in a world where there is no one with ulterior motives, so this was just another day for him. They grew quite close, with Nine calling him an old friend.

Raina......he feels awkward with since he initially treated her like his student, but for some reason she fell in love with him and tried to ask him out, to which he told her "I think you should talk about this with someone else". Ouch. Not sure how that happened on my end, since it didn't with Eight. They're not too far apart in age, but because Nine sees her as too young and impressionable, he had zero interest in dating her and found it alarming.

Nine's relationship with Theron and Lana is also irrevocably different, as this was my first and only Theronmancer; Nine fell in love with him during SoR, and it is Theron who manages to crack his cold persona and bring him home with him to the Republic. Infinitely different from Theron and Eight's platonic relationship of.....whatever they have going on. Nine is still Lana's underling in this timeline, but they're far more amicable to each other since he's used to her type of Sith and follows orders well. It should be noted that he was neither Outlander nor Commander in this timeline, and worked alongside Theron as heads of the Alliance's Intelligence division, with the Jedi Knight being the Commander.

His relationship with Jadus is nonexistent; like the typical neutral agent, he shares the same fear of Sith and force-users that abused officers have and practically hates him.

As for Watcher X, Nine chose to set him free in exchange for Intelligence secrets; the offer was too good to pass up and he was not taught to be a naive fool who trusted Intelligence to treat him kindly once his use was up. As always, his every step was a measure working towards his ultimate goal of winning the game of espionage.

[eorzeashan]

Late to WIP party -- tell me about Opia!

And I'm even later to answering this -- forgive me! Holidays are a hectic time.

Haha oh man. Opia is a working title, but it refers to the indescribable feeling you have when you make direct eye contact with another person. I should rename it to something is in my eye, because the premise makes me cry.

It covers the backstory of my Cipher Eight, how he came to inherit the title and what triggered such a drastic change from the person he is as Cipher Nine in a different timeline. Not all of it. Just these final, soul-crushing moments where he realizes that Intelligence wants to scrap his beloved mentor, Nosta, and that he is the only one who can save her from being killed, brainwashed, or sent to Shadow Town. He clings to the memory that she is not just a weapon- that she wished to return home to Csilla, to her family, and thereon thinks my life for hers, because she is capable of love and has a life, while I do not.

This single act of devotion is his only motivation for everything after. He has to stay alive for her, to take her place, or his sacrifice will mean nothing.

But he is barely an adult. He is just a child, and he is scared and alone-- burdened with the knowledge that he must fight off every single person coming to take her away from him and end whoever gave the order to retire Cipher Eight permanently.

There's so many stories about dying to save the ones you love, but this is about forcing yourself to live and endure at the behest of someone else, so that the shadows of your life will never touch them again. It's looking at someone and understanding their happiness comes from something you lack. I just- have so many feelings about this Chiss agent who raised this boy to be disposable and ended up being so loved by him that he gave her the ticket to the happiness she only dreamt of. Spies do not earn happy endings. They are not supposed to dream of families and a life after. He knew this, and was forever changed because of it.

Excerpt:

There's nothing more frightening than staring your own death in the face.

It would be easier if it was about self-sacrifice, to go out in one final blaze of glory, all his enemies gone in one fell sweep-- and him, at the center, satisfied that his death worked as intended.

But the cards had never been stacked in his favor. This was not that story.

Get up!

Orradiz wheezed in labored, choppy breaths, barely able to shove down his urge to scream and cry beneath a slick veneer of oily blood that inked down the entire quadrant of his face. The lights of Kaas City spun in dizzying circles above him, blurred by tears that would not fall. He wanted to let go. To sink into the sea of oblivion that exhaustion granted after hours of hunting and being hunted like less than an animal. He felt the eye not bisected by his new patchwork of wounds carved by an endless night of vibroknives droop closed. Rest...

They're still out there! If you go, she goes!

Get up!

He jolted upright in the shadows of the dank alleyway, panic flooding his veins. No. He could not rest now. She still needed him- he would never rest again if he truly meant to do this. For her. For her, damn you.

He thought of Nosta, fighting her own battle in the solitude of the safehouse, her formerly brilliant blue skin pale and clammy with poison as her features twisted in agony. She had been delirious when he'd found her, scraping by the skin of her teeth to triumph over yet another assassin sent to silence her. He'd always known her as a proud woman. Unbreakable. The best of all her kind.

Yet the image of her curled in on herself, small, vulnerable, was one he never wished to see again. He had brought her to an empty warehouse. Laid her down on a cot, and wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Saganu..." She whimpered, and Orradiz felt his heart coming undone.

"You'll be with him soon." He'd spoken aloud, his voice unsure in the echo that resounded off the duracrete ventricles of their sanctuary. He rose to leave.

Nosta's hand latched onto his arm, stopping him.

"Don't," She wheezed through trembling teeth, her crimson eyes hazed over in pain. Orradiz's eyes widened imperceptibly.

"Nosta, you have to rest-" He unhooked her lithe fingers from him, a knot in his brow.

"Don't go."

He froze. Nosta was staring at him, the spark of her old resolve returning to her as she held their gazes, refusing to break eye contact. She mustered the last of her strength to cling to him. He felt the weakness of her muscles, how much it hurt to strain with the remnants of toxin in her veins.

She knew.

Thank you for the ask!

[eorzeashan]

it's Eight thinkin hours again

It'll be awhile before I can get to Hoth, but I'm not ready for him to meet Saganu face to face. In-game there's nothing emotionally gut-punchy about it, but in this story...Saganu has to look at the prodigal son man who his wife cries for every other night. He'll try to make him see her, of course. Eight will blow him off. Say things like "our lives don't intersect anymore." ' you have burned a hole in her heart. you are hurting her to this day.' "then tell her to stop caring."

It's even colder than Chiss standards. He'll be enraged. He won't show it, of course, because wolves can smell weakness. He'll narrow his eyes at this young man who once sacrificed everything so his wife could get out of the Intelligence trap and escape into his arms and think, what happened to you?

Then Eight will blow a hazy cloud from the pipe his Nosta used to smoke and one piece of the puzzle will click into place. This is not a stranger; this is the part of his wife she left behind, excised from herself with tears and blood, and somehow, it became its own person.

His habits are all the same as hers. It's frightening to watch. He can't tell if he wants to thank him for saving Nosta's life so long ago in the past or shoot him in the leg for being a very-much alive skeleton in the closet who reduces her to tears on account of simply existing.

Saganu has had enough. "Get in," He demands, forceful yet restrained in his diplomat's way, lips pressed tightly together. He motions to the Ascendancy shuttle that lowers its landing dock then and there. Eight stares at him and blows yet another infuriating cloud of smoke that most would find seductive in the long way he takes a drag of it. Saganu knows very well it's an old tactic Nosta used, to draw attention to her lips and their succulent quality, the way they might suck on her intending target. He bristles.

"You are going to see her whether you like it or not, Agent."

Eight regards him in stoic silence, unmoving from the ice wall he's leaned against. "And here I thought we had an understanding."

[eorzeashan]

Feeling a little down still, so i'll distract myself with OC talk. Ahem.

Nosta's main inspirations besides the typical femme fatale of pulp fiction and spy stories were Kiyoha from Sakuran, Lorraine from Atomic Blonde, Misato from NGE, and O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill.

That last one is especially important since it influenced much of her personality when she had to resort to harder methods, which in turn, was a huge part of the person Eight became since he merely copied her personas. If you've read my latest work where he fills the role of Outlander on the battlefield, he leans even more heavily into that part of her psyche. And of course since i'm too on the nose, his Echani clothing and a lot of other imagery is inspired by O-Ren as well.

Typically, a white furisode like that is for young unmarried women. But the long sleeves are such a baller look that I like the idea that Echani can wear it ceremonially in battle at the loss of a loved one, since white is also a color of death. Atriss wears something a lot closer to this than typical jedi robes in KOTOR 2 and I wonder if they were a gift.

Additionally, leaning back into the side that kills for the sake of others makes Eight happy-- so happy that as the Outlander, he smiles when he faces his foes. This is the persona of someone who is allowed to love, and to finally have a "self" that can engage in the glory of battle as well as reunite with his culture defrosts him a bit from the aloof agent he was as Eight. In a way, it's like the glow that people gain when they are wholly in love-- and the change some have when they have settled down.

His Nine self used to be clad completely in white, actually! To differentiate him from Eight, I color coded them. It's created a Yin and Yang effect that feels very satisfying to look at.

[eorzeashan]

thought about Nosta today and how I added a new layer of suffering because I specifically made her protege a non-Chiss

She thought it would help her sleep better at night if it was an orphan boy not even of her own species who no one would blink an eye for if he disappeared, if she sacrificed him for her mission her right to live a comfortable life after everything she did as a spy. She willingly gave up an innocent child to the greatest evil in the world, so she could have a chance to raise her own flesh and blood. Yet she thinks of how he is the same age as her son, a prince with a thousand enemies and the bearer of all her sins.

Why care? One unrelated soul for all the lives in the world including that of your son and yours as well-

and yet she cries at night for reasons Saganu doesn't understand, because the skeleton in her closet is still alive and out there, wearing her name and her face.

Cipher Eight murdered a child to live.

It'll haunt all those who wear that name to the day they die.