#my sith warrior would kill for them

[burn-for-me-baby]

My most recent brainrot:

Naomi Scott as Jaesa Willsaam

and Rosamund Pike as Lana Beniko

#swtor #lana beniko #jaesa willsaam #rosamund pike #naomi scott #swtor kotfe #my sith warrior would kill for them #(he’s done so already) #women in stem #ls!jaesa #oc: Nyemro Fakhar #sith marauder #sith warrior #clowning hours

[vadersassistant]

Hiiii

wo dering if you could do an enemies to lover anakin imagine. kind of like friends to enemies to lovers or something like that and it ends in them making out o whatever you are comfortable with.

Anyways thank youuu

Denial One Shot (Darth Vader x Reader)

Summary: After venturing into a Sith Temple to try and find an edge on the current war, (Y/N) meets her enemy, Lord Vader, the man who killed her best friend and secret lover. He has been hunting both her and her alias down for months, following her across the galaxy, but little does she know, he has no plans to kill her. Takes place in the temple seen in the Star Wars Rebels season two finale. Reader was previously a Jedi and is in hiding due to order 66.

Warnings: Make out session

A/N: (Y/N) does not know Vader is Anakin, and Vader does not know (Y/N) is the Fugitive he has been searching for. This is once again a mix of suited Vader and nightfall Vader. In which, Vader wears the suit and mask, but he can take it off and looks like the Anakin we know and love.

The temple was eerie, an odd feeling passing by with each step you took. It was the opposite of the one I grew up in, representing everything I was told to dislike, and yet I was here anyways. I had made up my mind to fight instead of continuing to run from the problem. I wasn’t a rebel, but I wasn’t an imperial either. I was the middle ground, a former Jedi with a new identity, a mask to shield my face so that I could live freely, but the saber still gave it away. I was good, too good to be a civilian having fun with an old relic, even though some still used them publicly. Some, as in him.

The Jedi fell and Lord Vader rose out of thin air. There was no preface, no foreshadowing, he just came, and everyone bowed their heads.

To outsiders he was a military leader trained in combat, who happened to use an imaginary power. To force users, like Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and I, he was a Sith. We all knew it the second he began hunting us down. He wanted the Jedi dead and made it clear when he began searching for my alias as well. Everyone knew who she was, I was put on every single imperial security watch available, but I evaded it all I could. I forged a new saber, so that they couldn’t track me that way, and told people about how the female jedi on the Holonets from the clone wars died. The only people who truly knew were Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, since they too had done something similar. He was Ben, she was Ashla, and I gained the name Fugitive, a mask being the only way to keep track of my identity.

I couldn’t count how many storm-troopers I had killed by now, just that I did. I was forced to, to keep myself alive, because he wanted me turned in. I was always told to run, to flee from Vader because of what he’s done, but all I wanted was for the man to wind up dead. A lust for revenge had developed ever since I learned what he did to my best friend, Anakin Skywalker.

I don’t even know how he could have killed a warrior like him, but he did and now he’s gone. Slaughtered like any other while trying to save people in the temple, something someone with his character would have done naturally. The worst part is that everyone he was trying to save is dead too, and that he could have escaped with us, had he not done what he did. He had a wife, Senator Amidala, a good friend of mine, who also died that night, although I wasn’t sure if they ended on good terms.

The two had been arguing for a while, he believed she was cheating on him with Obi Wan, although she continued to deny it along with everyone else. I was the only one who he talked to about his problems willingly, even Kenobi would have to go through reading his mind to talk about personal issues. It was only when Anakin died that the truth came out, that being that Anakin was right, and she was seeing Kenobi.

I hadn’t recognized him after that point. I knew he was afraid he would be kicked out of the Jedi order if we found out he was dating another woman. Even further, the fact he knowingly was allowing the affair to happen, but it occurred anyways, and he lost everything with it. That was consequence enough, he didn’t need me to yell at him any further for going that far.

Still, I was angry, because I cared about Anakin.

And also loved him.

I denied it for years, the helpless prodding’s from Ahsoka when the two of us would spend hours upon hours with each other. We carried out the entire war effort, working extremely close together on missions. It was no surprise that I liked him, he had even mentioned subtly what things would be like if he hadn’t met her. It sounded like he regretted it, but I had no clue, due to us being force users.

I now stood in front of the man who took him away, the one that gutted him in the chest like a fish with no care whatsoever. The man that had been hunting me down under both my names since the night of the fall, the one that was known for murdering everyone in his path. I don’t know how he found me, I had a feeling we were being followed, but I didn’t care. We needed the Holocron inside of the temple, and Ahsoka now had it in hand. I could sense their distraught, both behind me looking at the Sith in front of us. They didn’t want to fight him; they were afraid to fight him. I felt differently, looking at his mask through the visors of my own.

“It was foretold that you would be here, our long-awaited meeting has come at last."

“This meeting is over,” Ahsoka said.

“Are you so sure?” the Sith questioned through the modulated voice his mask provided him, as I stepped forward.

“What are you doing?” Obi-Wan asked me, his breath becoming short.

“Leave."

“No," he shook his head. "Don’t do this."

“Leave. Now.”

I looked up at the temple’s ceiling as the walls started to drop down. It was collapsing on itself, since the Holocron had been taken from the Obelisk. There wasn’t much to do, but I knew I didn’t want to pull them into this. I turned around and outstretched a hand.  

Ahsoka screamed as I force pushed both her and Obi-Wan back while the temple’s walls crashed down. I saw her figure fly back just before the drop and felt her gently land. There was a ship, they could leave, I would worry about myself after I killed him.

“We’re finishing this here,” I said. "I know you've been hunting me for the past months."

“You are courageous, unlike your friends,” the Sith mused. “Hateful.”

“You killed my best friend," I pointed out. "I want you to experience that same pain."

“Revenge is not the Jedi way,” he reminded. "Your confidence dilutes your ability to make rational decisions."

“I am no Jedi.”

“Then who are you? Your saber is unlike any I have ever seen, an identity successfully hidden behind a helm.”

“That’s none of your business, why have you been hunting me?” I asked. I felt the pressure of the Dark Side creeping against my mind's barriers, he was trying to invade.

“You would make a wonderful apprentice in the dark side,” Vader said. "You have already abandoned your training as a Jedi."

“I don’t side with murderers.”

“And yet you are one. I have seen your way of fighting Fugitive; you have killed countless of our troops and inquisitors.”

“Your Inquisitorious is an embarrassment, and I will never join you, not after what you did,” I called my saber to my hand, igniting it.

“Then you will die.”

There was this feeling of fear that attempted to wash over me, like he was attempting to throw me off, but I wasn't thinking about it anymore.

I ran full speed at him, force pushing myself up off the ground and into the air to try and put myself on the offensive. My blade met his right over his helmet, as he angled me back and I landed behind him. My automatic response was to try and swing for his legs, a move he evaded but had been surprised by. I knew I needed to be careful with how I played things. He would try and tire me out by just playing the defensive, but I also didn’t get that tired frow much stamina I built up during the war. Vader was also bigger, and stronger, meaning I’d need to use his weight to my advantage. I was quick, less stable, and grounded, and more agile in my movements.

We continued to take shots at each other, as he seemingly began to test me. It was a constant switch from the right to the left, bashing at each other from different angles and walking along with it. It was something Anakin and I always did, and it almost felt familiar. For whatever reason, I could feel myself getting into the rhythm Skywalker and I got into when we would train every day. After a certain point I would always switch my grip and force him to back off, and I did it purely out of muscle memory, shoving the Sith back.

“Your anger focuses you,” he commented. “Join me and I can enhance that power.”

“You killed him, the man I loved, do you truly believe I would ever consider that?”

“He is gone for a reason,” Vader said.

“He was the chosen one!” I shouted, interlocking lightsabers in a pursuit for power over the other. "You know why he lost his life?! Because he was trying to save everyone else, instead of actually caring for himself for once."

“(Y/N)."

I stumbled back immediately, hearing that name leave his mouth,

"What?"

My eyes widened beneath the visors, letting my guard down for just a moment.

It was all he needed.

I felt his immense force break through my walls and invade my mind, clawing through my memories and thoughts like a file. Not only that, but he immediately took me to the ground. It was quick, as he now straddled me, muscular thighs resting over my lower waist. Both my arms were pinned to either side with by the force, my saber in his hand.

I grunted, struggling under him and thrusting against his cod piece hoping it would make him budge but it barely made a difference. I couldn’t do a thing, as the Sith reached for my mask and pressed down on the sides. I felt it depressurize, as his gloved digits lifted it off my head, and I looked into his mask with my own eyes.

"How do you know my name?" I asked angrily as I fought underneath him to free myself.

There was no way of telling what he truly felt in that moment, holding the helm silently, breathing being the only indication he was still alive. I continued to try and do everything to get out of his grasp, but the Sith only sat there and took me in, his body heat lingering over my own. I felt like a mess, wondering where Ahsoka and Obi-Wan might be right now, realizing why Anakin lost his life to this man. I didn’t know how he knew my name, my real name, the one that no one had called me in months. I was fully pinned down, not giving up until I saw him reach for his own helmet.

"What are you do—"

My throat ran dry, amber eyes piercing through my body like a blade.

"Anakin."

It was him, with brown hair that held golden streaks just above his armor.

"(Y/N)."

Hearing his voice sent a shiver down my entire back, as I shuddered underneath him.

“I thought you died—they said Vader killed you—" there were tears welling up in my eyes, looking up at him.

“I am alive."

“Why did you turn?"

“The Jedi council was using us, Obi-Wan lied to me about Padme (Y/N), they were having an affair. But you know that already.”

“Obi Wan told us,” I trailed off.

“I know.”

“Do you plan to kill me?”

“No, that was never my intent," he emphasized lowly.

“So, what will you do?” I questioned.

“After separating myself from the order, I reflected much upon it,” Anakin started. "And came to terms with several of my mistakes."

“What mistakes?”

Still straddling me Anakin leaned down, placing his hands by either sides of my head and lowering himself to my ear.

“I was blindly dating filthy senator, when I had the love of my life right next to me the entire time."

"What do you mean?" I emphasized each word, my abdomen tensing as he got so close to me.

"There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think of my future and imagine you by my side. I told myself it was our strong bond causing me to think of you constantly, due to the amount of time we spent together, but now, I feel completely different."

"Anakin," my heart was racing, as he continued to whisper into my ear.

"Maker, I missed you so much."

He was just trying to be friendly, that's all this was.

"Now, I know you are not that naive," he let out a deep chuckle, reading my mind.

"Is this your way of coercing me into joining the dark side?" I said softly, trying to play it off.

"There is no need to coerce you (Y/N), your heart is already doing all the work," Anakin told me. "All there is to do is to make up for lost time."

"No.."

"Continuing to deny it is only stalling the inevitable," he spoke in a playful way. "Your hatred towards the one you believed to be my killer only proves it more."

"I—" I cut myself off, as Anakin moved his head, now right over mine.

"What is it?" he asked me, his golden eyes flicking from my lips up to my eyes in quick fashion.

I gave in, nodding to his silent question and feeling the force lift off my hands.

Anakin pressed his lips to mine as I lifted my head up and met him midway. His robotic hand came down to my waist, the other combing through my hair as he helped hold my head steady. It was delicate and prepared, goosebumps crawling over my skin as his weight pressed me onto the cold temple floors. He was an expert in the way he worked around my mouth, the first time I had ever kissed anyone to begin with.

To think such a sacred place would be ruined due to our own shenanigans.

A Jedi and a Sith, making out in a temple with no care for sentiment.

His lips were chapped yet soft, and the more breaths we took between kissing the more swollen they became. Anakin didn’t seem to care though, continuing to go down on my neck allowing me to breath. He wasn’t going too far, but it was enough for the occasion, leaving marks I that wouldn’t leave for days.

It was madness.

Everything around us screamed in pleasure, the force happily chiming along with the two sides agreeing on something, even if it wasn’t an argument. Anakin had changed, and I couldn’t decide if it was for better or for worse.

If only those two could see me now, making love to the man that we had been running from for months. The copious amounts of rage had turned to attraction in a blink of an eye, rejoicing in his presence as my hand pressed against his tunic and I felt his abdomen underneath the fabric. He was such light and yet the darkness itself, drowning me in it as we sunk into a pool of ecstasy.

The cold stone floors were soon heated, as the temple grew humid and we both simultaneously agreed to take our tops off. It was the definition of multitasking, as I took off his armor and tunic, leaving behind a black pair of pants, and his boots. With the force he slipped my top off, gaining access to my collar bone and gracing it with his mouth. There was a possessive feeling in the air, as he took in my body for the first time with his own eyes as I did to him.

"You are so beautiful, it is intoxicating."

I felt myself smiling, sitting up and wrapping my arms around his neck, the both of us kissing deeply. This was it, holding our breath as we enjoyed one another, but the force was warning the both of us.

The temple shook, I almost forgot it was collapsing.

"We need to escape before we become trapped inside," Anakin said. "My ship is outside."

"And you assume I'm coming?"

"I know you are."

I laughed, acknowledging his foresight. We put on our clothes hurriedly yet thoroughly, as someone trained to handle life or death would. In truth, that was what we stood for, as Jedi and Sith both came together as one, in ways that would be frowned upon.

Except we didn't care.

We weren't denying it any longer.

Back in business since the recent Ahsoka episode. Hope you all enjoyed!

#darth vader x reader #darth vader imagine #darth vader x y/n #darth vader x you #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker x you #anakin skywalker x y/n #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin x reader #suitless darth vader x reader

[persephoneggsy]

went down a deep rabbithole of thinking about blorbos, and my SWTOR blorbo is Quinn, so... I made him a little family :3 I like to think about them interacting with my Sith Warrior, Nes'ria, who also has a decently-sized family, so when she and Quinn get married it's just a huge clan now lmao

All of them except for Rymar are OCs; Rymar we know the name + rank + death of from the SWTOR Encyclopedia under Quinn's entry. I did make up what I think he looks like, though.

miscellaneous facts about the Quinn clan that I couldn't fit in the headshots:

Solesta has a dislike of droids, finding them creepy. She also dislikes cybernetics and cyborgs. Ironically, and unbeknownst to her, her grandson Malavai will eventually end up with a woman whose family owns a large cybernetics company.

Solesta disappeared during a top secret mission when Malavai was around 15 years old. She and her crew were declared officially dead a year after her ship disappeared.

Solesta's husband passed when their kids were young. I imagine he was on track to being a rising star in the Imperial military, but he was cut down by a Jedi or something.

Rymar and Ridal are twins (Rymar is the older one).

Ridal disapproved of Rymar’s marriage to Mianna, believing she was too fragile for him. Despite this, she helps her son care for Mianna.

Ridal is lowkey disappointed that neither her son nor her nephew followed her footsteps into Imperial Intelligence. She doesn't know Halic refused to, given what happened to his father (murdered by a petulant Sith Lord). At least in the medical corps, any Sith he deals with are unconscious or too weak to threaten him.

Halic calls Malavai his baby cousin, despite only being a few months older than him. It annoys Malavai, who nonetheless reciprocates Halic's familial affection.

Halic jokingly complains that Malavai slept with a Sith before he could. He privately thinks Malavai is insane for falling for a Sith in the first place, and worries about his cousin (he later learns he doesn't have to, given Nes'ria's equal devotion to Malavai).

Halic has flirted with every member of Nes'ria's crew. Vette thinks he's a riot, Jaesa was flattered but embarrassed, and Pierce is debating sleeping with him to piss off Malavai.

Mianna witnessed her husband's death at the hands of the Republic force, and the trauma of that, plus her subsequent injury, rendered her largely nonverbal. She has only spoken Rymar or Malavai's name since being admitted to the hospital. The rest of the time, she communicates via either writing or signing.

Many Imperials view Mianna's situation with disdain, describing her as weak-willed and a drain on resources. It's only the lingering prestige of the Quinn family name, combined with threats from her sister-in-law Ridal, that keep such whispers behind closed doors.

There was a brief period after the Battle of Druckenwell that the family feared Malavai had been killed in action. It wasn't until a few weeks after the battle that he contacted them from Balmorra, informing them that he'd been court-martialed and demoted by Moff Broysc.

Ridal assists Malavai in bringing down Moff Broysc, using her old Inteligence contacts to help him abduct the Moff.

My personal headcanon is that Malavai knew Baras would go after his family if he didn't follow his orders, hence the betrayal. After Nes'ria spared him, he reached out to Halic and Ridal, warning them to watch out for any signs of retaliation from Baras. Nes'ria used her family's connections to have Malavai's family taken to a safe place until Baras was defeated.

#my art #swtor #malavai quinn #quinn family #sith warrior x malavai quinn #star wars: the old republic #most of this was me wanting to give Quinn a fucking break bc the fandom is so mean to him lol #so he gets a family that loves him! yay

[lanabenikosdoormat]

JED MASTERPOST

Fast on his feet with an even sharper mind, Jed worked as a cipher agent for the Galactic Empire. Under the alias Cipher Nine - he was a prodigal secret weapon for the Empire's goals. As time passed, so did the stakes. When Imperial Intelligence disbanded, Jed found himself pursuing more independent ventures, outsourcing his work to broader horizons. He garnered quite a lofty reputation.

Through his extraordinary acts, Jed rose through the ranks, becoming a leading figure in the war that later broke out between the two superpowers. He would eventually become known as the Outlander and later, The Alliance Commander and serves as my main OC, not just for SWTOR - but my artist career as a whole.

MOST OF THIS IS PULLED DIRECTLY FROM HIS TOYHOUSE, WHICH CAN BE FOUND BELOW AND IS MORE COMPREHESIVE

BIO BELOW THE CUT!

Overview:

Full Name: Jedidiah Solaris

Alias: Cipher Nine, Commander Solaris, The Outlander, "The Ginger" (belovingly by friends)

Age: 35 around Onslaught

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay, Biromantic

Mental Conditions: OCD, PTSD

Birthday: March 20th, 11 BTC

Birthplace: Sacorria,  Corellian Sector

Species/Race: Human - Augmented with cybernetics

Occupation: Alliance Commander

Status: Engaged (Theron Shan)

-

Design:

Height: 6'0

Weight: 168 lbs

Body Type: Athletic, inverted triangle

Eye Color: Medium Brown (right eye is a prosthetic and is red)

Cybernetics: Mostly internal but there are two peaking out from the side of his head, just above the top of his ears.

Features: High cheekbones, scar through right eyebrow, clean shaven, well groomed, handsome. Personal hygiene is a high priority.

Markings: Various scars, faint freckles in summer seasons, bruised knuckles

-

Relationships:

Family: Deceased. KIA on Sacorria during the skirmish.

Love Interests: Hunter ✞ (Enemies to lovers, enemies with benefits type situationship), Theron Shan (Fiancé)

Friends/Allies: Closest friend is Lana Beniko. Additionally close with various others including Vector Hyllus, Koth Vortena, Arcann Tiral and the Them Group (OC group consisting of four of my irl friends ocs and my own sith warrior as follows: Verity Dante, Exxus Gun, LIX, and Obi-Two)

-

Personality:

He is both practical and visionary as well as a staunch realist. He is imaginative and eloquent, able to problem solve and get himself and his team out of tight situations.

As a leader, he is disciplined and thorough, leaving no stone unturned. Jed is strongly independent and is opposed to authority that he doesn't respect.

-

Background (pre-imp agent campaign and expacs):

As a young child, Jedidiah came from a tiny community of modest agriculturalists. For the first seven years of his life, he lived fair off. However, war struck and their little slice of the galaxy was caught in the crossfire. Jed was struck by blaster fire, directly in his right side of his skull. The wound was lethal and desperately his mother took a final stand to carry him to the Imperial outpost stationed on the planet. Because of his late uncle's contributions to the Empire, Jed was able to be taken into Imperial custody on one condition: he was never to return home again.

For the next 12 or so years, Jed was stationed on Ziost and Dromound Kaas interchangeably as he completed his initiation and mandatory military training. His superiors noticed he had a natural affinity for sneaking around in the shadows, as well as persuasion and ruthlessness. As such, at the age of just 14, he was transferred to the Imperial Intelligence division where he would begin training as an agent of the Empire.

-

Other Information:

Likes:

Killing Time

Sharpshooting

Revenge

Physical Touch

Dislikes:

Sucking Up

Unwarranted violence

The Sith

Helplessness

Hobbies:

Dejarik

Target Practice

Reading

Binge watching holo-dramas

Gambling

Social Drinking

Habits: Finger flexing, Pacing

Trivia:

He is ambidextrous, and uses a variety of different weapons depending on the given scenario.

Jed is excellent with kids and animals, he gets very soft and sweet and knows just what to say to them, especially in times of distress.

His favorite color used to be navy, and he'd wear it a lot in his downtime. However, these days its the red color of Theron's jacket as seeing it always reminds Jed of him.

#star wars the old republic #swtor #imperial agent #jed solaris #oc: jed solaris #swtor art #swtor imperial agent #character template ib my mootie vexa-legacy

[autismmydearwatson]

Love Thrawn: Alliances so far

Vader: *ahem* does this have anything to do with Kanan Jarrus, the Jedi who gave Thrawn the slip? Or maybe the Bendu, which I might remind you Thrawn ran away screaming from?

Thrawn, whispering: I'll kill you.

So many had died. So very, very many.

But Padmé wouldn't be one of them. Anakin had promised himself that.

Ahaha. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH. Anidala on the brain tonight 🫠

Vader: GET YO FUCKING DOG BITCH

Thrawn: he don't bite

Vader: YES IT DO

Thrawn: his NAME is Rukh.

Karyn: sir can I make a suggestion

Vader: you can listen to your commanding officer

Karyn: sir can I please make a suggestion

Thrawn: of course honey it's okay go right ahead.

THE FUCKING. ITS PRONOUNCED MITTH'RAW'NURUODO 😭😭😭😭😭

But the texture of his mind was unlike anything Anakin had ever touched before. It was neat and well-ordered, the patterns of thought flowing smoothly and precisely in ways not unlike those of scientists or mathematicians. But the content of that flow, and the muted emotions accompanying it, were completely opaque. It was like a neat and precise array of unfamiliar numbers.

AUTISTIC 🫵

Darth Vader: (a black medieval dragon space rasputin cyborg with metal hands)

Thrawn: surely they won't recognize you.

"Our myths of the Republic speak of two groups of beings with such powers: the Jedi, and the Sith. But the Sith are reputed to be clever and capable warriors."

Can't believe Thrawn just killed Darth Vader with one blow

Did Thrawn just get shot??? In the chest??? Twelve times???

Anakin: DUDE ARE YOU OKAY

Thrawn: relax my armor is better than yours... sometimes

Anakin: yeah but are you okay??

Maybe one day, if the war ever ended, Padmé might find that kind of peaceful life for herself. If so, she would dedicate the first of her firstborns creations to Duja's memory.

Thrawn: I'm fine. I shall walk it off (crying skdgthfhtjj he would fucking say that)

Thrawn watching Anakin Skywalker puppet around a corpse with the Force: 😐

AUGGGGHHHH. OWWW. FUCK.

Thrawn was silent for a moment. "Just remember that the goal in war is victory, not revenge."

Oh sorry what were you saying? Yeah lemme just whoops uh---

What is happening right now is why the Clone Wars were fought in the first place. It is their reason for existence. The Clone Wars have always been, in and of themselves, from their very inception, the revenge of the Sith.

-Matthew Stover, The Revenge of the Sith

#star wars #thrawn alliances #thrawn

[solokabuto]

So what are your Fate yuri rarepairs?

Thank you so much for asking!!! I treat fate women like immensely complicate barbie dolls i can roll around in my mind until they slot together in ways that make the deeply ill recovering catholic lesbian in me squeal so you may or may not notice some general themes, I’ll be including hcs and fic ideas in here because my brainrot is terrible rn so have fun with this:

Dobrynya Nikitich x Morgan Le Fay

Now this is largely due to the fact that i noticed similarities in them (white haired mothers that are more than they seem and definitely not who they seem with fucked up daughters that have pink hair and pent up rage) and admittedly I’m not in Tungsuka sanctuary so I don’t have a vantage point on Dobrynya’s personality like at all outside of adorable fanart but they seem like they’d be cute. They’re one of those couples that would largely only exist in au’s where Dobrynya runs the daycare that Morgan drops Baobhan at or something. And the entire story is just Baobhan being terrorized while Dobrynya and Morgan make out in the background.

Okita Souji x Nitocris

That moment when you (living vessel for your brother’s vengeance who immediately committed suicide upon fulfilling your goal due to perceiving the cold embrace of death as warmer than the cruel clutches of your fellow man) come across another girl (a hollow mockery of a human being born and bred to slaughter without a care who relates better to broken bones, sinew, and blood than she does to living beings and can kill her friends at a simple order)and link up (have intense homoerotic discussions about death dying and purpose) over tea and wine (cups of literal blood) and fuck nasty (memento memori style)

Olga Marie Animusphere x Ereshkigal

If you haven’t read Afterlife by nd7878 and you have any form of attachment to Olga or Ereshkigal or see the similarities between the two please read it, it’s amazing and I love it so much it fulfills my Olga Marie cravings very well. Anyways i think these two are cute, like super cute like insanely cute and I’d like to imagine Olga would bring out the more forward and irritable side of Ereshkigal and the two would clash in a way that’s still friendly. I dunno she’d make eresh more lively and make Olga feel more loved. I really love afterlife, please read it.

Jeanne D’ Arc x Barghest

I just think the idea of a woman who already sees herself as an offering, offering herself up to a worthy warrior who desperately wishes to stop destroying things she loves to be incredibly interesting. Especially because in my mind Jeanne would probably have little issue with letting Barghest eat her regularly as long as she recovers decently enough. They’re interesting i have fic ideas for them i think Jeanne would enjoy being devoured gruesomely. The knowledge of having a set place for your body to go rather than being burned and desecrated just to be tossed into the river and washed away. I am far too invested in Jeanne D’ Arc. A part of me thinks she would enjoy having something resembling a proper corpse since she was torched to ash and thrown into a river rather than properly being laid to rest. I have vivid images of their entire routine can you tell u have been plagued by yuri visions for far too long?

Baobhan Sith x Galatea

You know how popular girls in hs always have that one girl that isn’t popular or important or really much of anything to a majority of the student body that they don’t play about? Yeah that’s Galatea to her. They hit it off over sculpting because Baobhan has a general affinity for art that includes her love of fashion and eventually they become friends which is incredibly strange to Baobhan because she is deeply unused to being cared for and loved by anyone that isn’t her mother and even then the way she goes about it is very much not like her mother (it’s okay Morgan you tried sweetie). I just think it would be nice to see Galatea slowly help Baobhan build a healthy relationship with love, loving and being loved. They’d be cute. I also think Galatea would find having her blood sucked to be an interesting experience considering she probably finds the fact she has blood to be quite novel.

Merlin (Prototype) x Morgan Le Fay

With benefits. I don’t know what to call their relationship so they’re just with benefits. Morgan would just vent out her frustration on her while Merlin just takes it because why the hell not, being half-succubus has its perks. Additionally, she’d rely on Merlin to have a few moments of complete thoughtlessness and freedom from the stress and general fuckery of Faerie Britain by just allowing herself to fall for the effects of her beauty. Honestly it’s more so method of relaxation for Morgan then a genuine relationship but I think it’s interesting. They probably have insane conversations about the world that usually end in Morgan forcing her to shut up because she says something she doesn’t want to hear but isn’t untrue. Occasionally in moments of weakness Merlin will ask Morgan if she wants her to take her away to Avalon and leave this place for the faeries she hates so much, and Morgan will always refuse dispute herself.

#there are more #many more #by my brain is currently knee deep in Jeanne/Barghest bloody yuri so I can’t think of them #I hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoy being plagued by visions of them #fgo #fate grand order #baobhan sith #barghest #morgan le fay #dobrynya nikitich #jeanne d'arc #okita souji #nitocris #galatea #um are there more #olga marie animusphere #omg I’m so sorry for forgetting you pookie #I have delivered the Yuri #merlin (prototype)

[feralkwe]

whenever you're ready: what the FUCK did Terry Goodkind do to you 😭😭

*cracks knuckles*

hoo boy. are you ready? because the things i am about to say are objective fact and not up for dispute. some of them are mean, but rest assured i mean every word.

terry goodkind created a sweeping and gorgeous world full of magic, ruled by incredible, complex, powerful women. some of the women remain to this day some of my favorite characters in all of fiction. the confessors could compel the truth with a power based in utter love. the mord-sith, could turn pain into power, making them fierce warriors (first antagonists, later allies). sisters of the light, powerful sorceresses who train young wizards and protect sacred prophecies, and their evil counterparts, sisters of the dark. it's just layered with so many amazing women. good. evil. everything in between.

and then he shits all over them.

he brutalizes them with all sorts of sexual abuse. the second book features an evil wizard who uses nipple magic to defile and control women who he deems impure. it's implied, if not outright stated, that the mord-sith are all sexually abused. in book three, kahlan amnell, the mother confessor, is forced to marry and sleep with a man who is not richard, and then richard spends forever punishing her for it, even though it was against her will. he kills one of the only two lesbians in the series, which was my first "bury your gays" experience. richard has a sister who is "pristinely ungifted" (immune to all magic, which i ate up with a fucking spoon as a concept) and she, too, was manipulated and brutalized to further richard's narrative. nicci becomes the most powerful sorceress in the entire world, but spends most of the story being abused, sexually and physically, and the rest in unrequited love with richard in the most egregiously shitty love triangle ever. the last two books are just brutalization porn, detailing every horrific way kahlan is beaten and tortured. every single powerful woman is brought violently down, often through rape. always through violence.

and as if this wasn't bad enough, the entire series is a libertarian allegory. it's not subtle. it's filled with self-aggrandizing conservative-lite morals entrenched in purity bullshit. goodkind was a huge fan of ayn rand, and his penchant for writing richard giving three page monologues that could have all been summed up as "hey idiots, i am right and you are wrong" demonstrate that with astonishing deftness. magic becomes some metaphor for everything that is wrong with the world and society in the clumsiest way possible, until the world must literally be split in two in order to create a libertarian non-magical utopia.

if that wasn't enough, he was so insufferable about everything. he created a rich and detailed fantasy world then constant bemoaned being called a fantasy author. he felt it was beneath him and his talents. he remained pretentious about speculative fiction while profiting from it.

oh, he also famously threw a massive tantrum about one of his later book covers, insulting the cover artist openly and publicly. if you know anything about publishing, you know that authors getting any input over their cover is a huge privilege. so he was a massive asshole, too.

never in my life have i had such a complex relationship with a book series. it has so many spectacular things going for it, but goodkind couldn't step off his own dick. he took himself way too seriously, overused lazy tropes (richard was the most powerful wizard ever but only ever used his powers at the most convenient moment when only a deus ex could save his hole-ridden plot), and can't write a sympathetic protagonist to save his life. idk how you write such amazing women while obviously having disdain for them. some kind of asshole magic, i guess.

anyway, this just scratches the surface. any single thing here would be annoying on its own, and combined it is just exhausting. idk how i suffered through the whole series apart from my commitment to these characters i loved despite his every effort to make the rest of the story unbearable. my one life's regret is that he died never knowing what a hack i think he was. he probably wouldn't have cared because obviously i am inferior to him in every way, but i lament he will never know.

anyway, fuck him.

#from the annals of my askholebox #asks #kidspawn #god i hate him so fucking much #terry fucking goodkind

[m1ckeyb3rry]

SitH thoughts under the cut for the roughly two people that have read that story:

- why is Y/N so shippable with EVERY character EXCEPT FOR COLT (literally the main love interest)

- like the conversation with reiner on the bridge??? so romantic and for what…wdym you wished you knew each other in a world where you weren’t both terrible people. wdym you’ll meet each other in another life some time. WDYM YOU’LL FIND HER IN THAT NEXT LIFE HUH REINER 🤨🤨🤨🤨

- her and hadrian have a narrative reason to be shipped so ig i can’t complain about that but i still can’t get over the impact that he has had on everyone reading the story. bro was there for 1.5 chapters max and he’s still on everyone’s minds even now. those pseudo-italian genetics are strong i suppose

- i have actually tried to figure out why it is that friedrich seems like more of a love interest than colt at times though (besides me being the BIGGEST victim of second lead syndrome) and i think i’ve finally got it!!

- the story is essentially Y/N’s life story, and while it was inspired out of a love for colt, the story more so focuses on the effects of things like war on a person (in this case Y/N), and how “cool girl boss beating up and killing people and getting no trauma from it” is a trope that just doesn’t make sense. so Y/N was created first and foremost to be a way to depict these impacts and to be a character that does questionable things and is faced with real consequences for them instead of just being hailed as a hero

- meanwhile colt is a character i’ve borrowed from isayama, so i can’t do much about his base characterization (although i’ve certainly pushed the limits on that), but i was the person to make friedrich, and as his writer, i can say that he was quite literally created just to love Y/N. of course he does other things and has other relationships and (hopefully) seems like a character that has more to him than just ‘being in love with Y/N’, but that doesn’t change the fact that at his core, being in love with Y/N is his narrative purpose, just like showing Y/N the other sides of war is hadrian’s. this is especially hard for me to navigate when writing because i have to show that while also trying to make sure that he doesn’t take over the story (which is after all a colt fic).

- i would say that in the beginning, her and colt were closer due to their more compatible personalities, but her during (and post) war personality is much more in line with friedrich’s just because he’s a lot more cynical and blunt. i’m somewhat limited by the canon in terms of how things like athyae affect colt because he does have a generally kind and almost naive?? personality in the small crumbs we get of him in the show, so i have to balance that with also making sure that everything he goes through does have an effect on who he is as a person the way it does on friedrich and Y/N

- this story is going to be so sad in the end. like it’s already probably my least happy work just because of the grim stuff that it covers, but i would like to reemphasize that Y/N’s life…is not that great. i think she’s my most tragic Y/N because everything that happened to her was brought about by a choice she made — to be a warrior candidate, which is not something she was forced to do. the L/Ns were decently well off, her parents loved her, and she was generally happy if not bored with her life pre-candidacy. but then she made that one fatal mistake and now she’s become what she is and she can never really leave and it leads to a general life of pain anguish and suffering (although i will say that my best friend heard my plans for the ending and said that it was relatively happy compared to what i normally write, so take that as you will)

- i forgot how self-aware the characters are at some points. there’s this one scene where friedrich and colt literally make fun of how many guys like Y/N (because at the end of the day she’s still Y/N duh ofc she’s beautiful everyone likes her) and it’s so unserious…even despite how heavy the fic can get there is some levity here and there which i forgot about tbh. but the story will literally go from Y/N having a crisis about something to friedrich and colt saying some bs like “i really admire [him] for not being one of the many men to instantly fall in love with you” “true seems like he really had remarkable self-restraint” “what a commendable fellow”

- i love marek and i am very sorry for what i put him through but would i do it again?? yes. also he and Y/N are rlly cute together

- at this point i’ve gotten so attached to these characters that i could genuinely write fics about them. like fanfics about a literal fanfic. fanfiception.

- atm i think writing one of those otome isekai stories (they are my guilty pleasure) with Y/N from this fic specifically would be so fucking funny and honestly i might do it just for personal enjoyment but idk if i would ever post it because it would be such a derivative work that anyone going into it expecting an aot fic would be angry and disappointed because the only aot character in it would be colt and idek if Y/N would end up with him in such an au

- okay most of these were about Y/N’s relationships with every character BESIDES colt but her and colt honestly are really sweet together

- he cares about her so much and honestly there are many times where i’ll be writing and i’m like “nah colt deserves better” because he is SO patient with her it’s insane

- on a similar note i think it’s crazy how we’re almost at 150k words and there’s been ONE kiss (which barely even counts because it WASN’T WITH COLT)

- but at the same time the lack of romance is kind of on purpose because Y/N is NOT in a mental state to be in a relationship atm and i hate that whole trope of ‘getting a romantic partner and getting over your trauma immediately’ as that’s just not realistic. colt and friedrich are there to love and support Y/N but all three of them know that the way they are currently is not conducive to being with someone long term. there’s a lot of trauma there that needs to be resolved and spoiler alert it will not be for a very very long time

- there’s so many interesting dynamics that Y/N will have with future characters that i’m excited to write but they’re all like 200k-300k words away which is killinggg me

- ship in the harbor will definitely be my longest story and i’ve changed a lot both as a writer and a person since beginning it, so it’s super special to me. thank you so much to everyone who reads it and comes up with theories about it and falls in love with its characters — i know it’s such a niche fic and it’s been rough at times and i’m so spotty with updating it, but i really do love this little version of the warrior candidacy program and what was going on in marley while the scouts were busy doing their own thing. here’s to many more chapters (but hopefully not too many more years) of me stealing what i want from isayama and filling in the rest as i please, so that this entire mess of a story comes together into something that’s somewhat comprehensible and makes at least one person cry

#ship in the harbor #m’s thoughts

[marvelstars]

The Sith´ari and the Chosen One

"It really has to do with learning. Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally. Anakin can’t be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he’s caused. He doesn’t right the wrongs, but he stops the horror.

The end of the Saga is simply Anakin saying, ‘I care about this person, regardless of what it means to me. I will throw away everything that I have, everything that I have grown to love - primarily the Emperor - and throw away my life, to save this person.

And I’m doing this because he has faith in me, loves me despite all the horrible things I’ve done. I broke his mother’s heart, but he still cares about me, and I can’t let that die.’

Anakin is very different in the end. The thing of it: The prophecy was right. Anakin was the Chosen One, and he does bring balance to the Force. He takes the ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son."

George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith; page 221

So I have been thinking on Palpatine and Anakin´s relationship in terms of prophecy and what each of them are to their respective orders and I believe this is one of the reasons why their bond is so interesting to me.

Given how Palpatine destiny in the story was to make a reality 1000 years of Sith Grand Plans and rebuilt the Sith Empire, I believe he truly was meant to be the Sith'ari, a sort of King figure in the old sith Empire, there was a prophecy about him, about how he was going to bring back the sith order to their former glory so his connection to Anakin as a person and as the chosen one was predestined imo. Their fate was to destroy each other from the very beggining and in a way both prophecies completement each other and both became true in the end.

Palpatine is the only one aware of this reality, his master was afraid of Anakin and wanted to kill him before he could ruin their plans but Palpatine, in his pride and sense of ownership over Anakin, thought that it was possible to harness Anakin´s future, just like the Sith always sought to harness the force power in the benefit of the sith and this is how their story begins with Anakin being an innocent child who grew to respect and actually love Palpatine as a friend and father figure before he discovered the truth and Palpatine being the serpent in Anakin´s life ready to pounce and destroy Anakin emotionally and psychologically so he could take him for the sith under the wise of his well intentioned and nice mentor.

What I guess neither Palpatine or Anakin expected was for Palpatine to develop actual feelings of ownership that could be taken as a kind of slight care, that keep him from letting die young Vader on Mustafar, something he would not have done for Dooku or Maul and not only this but to do everything in his power, using his own force strenght to keep Anakin alive. This after years of knowing him as a child, seeing him grow and become a strong warrior but also years of listening to each other and just being there for each other, which was done by desing on Palpatine´s part, he wanted Anakin to become emotionally dependent only on him, what he didn´t expect was Anakin to also have an effect in his decisions.

This small moment of mercy from the Sith Master towards someone he saw as his slave but who he saw grow up and involved himself in his life in a way he didn´t do for any of his apprentices, lead him to keep alive Vader, who served him faithfully and blindly for 20 years, this was the reason why years after Vader would be in the precise place and moment to destroy Palpatine to save his Son, not out of hate and thrist for power as the sith do but out of love, because even while Vader is stopping Palpatine, his intention was to protect Luke from both of them and even when he did this he didn´t stop loving Palpatine but he wasn´t going to let him kill his Son, in fact in the ROTJ novel Vader considered if he had to go down the reactor shaft as well and with this action, Anakin saved the galaxy from 10,000 years of Sith Empire, making a reality the old chosen one prophecy.

imgur.com

Palpatine was controlling the imperial soldiers under his command in the Death Star and of course he was using the force to turn the stakes in his favor during Luke and Vader´s duel, just like he did years before in the prequel trilogy to keep the Jedi Order blind of his presence, it isn´t a coincidence the rebel alliance was able to fire at the death star just moments after Palpatine died. This is how Lucas symbolized the relationship between the force and the actual events happening in the war on the physical plane, if the darkside is strong, the sith have the advantage, if the light side is stronger, the sith are defeated. Vader killing Palpatine to protect his Son definitely counted as a light side win which lead towards the return of the Jedi and in Anakin´s case, the return of the Jedi/Person he used to be.

Palpatine: "Vader! I am your master!" Darth Vader: "Darth Vader's master! But not Anakin Skywalker's!" ―Darth Vader, to Emperor Palpatine before casting him down the Death Star II's reactor core shaft

And all this would not have happened without that small moment of mercy from Palpatine and that small stubborn light who refused to die inside of Vader´s heart which Luke called and brought back to life.

#anakin skywalker #Emperor palpatine #star wars #return of the jedi #Sith´ari & the chosen one #long post #anakin meta #Palpatine & Anakin #Luke made Vader remember compassion is unlimited love #The Emperor learned mercy from Anakin #Fathers and Sons #Anakin &Luke #Palpatine and Anakin #star wars meta #sw meta #padme amidala #luke skywalker #George Lucas #prequel trilogy #original trilogy

[a-master-procrastinator]

So, I have a headcanon regarding Outlander and Valkorion

Spoiler territory for pretty much the whole game (mostly Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior class stories and all expansions from Shadows of Revan).

How does Outlander (especially non Force user) defeat Valkorion in KotET? This question bothered me (and I'm sure all of you) for quite some time. And frankly, the game doesn't answer it very well. So I did some thinking, searching and theorizing, and found a solution that I will bring in my personal stories. Just thought it would be interesting for others to see as well.

Explanations offered in the game:

Valkorion's power had become weaker at some point (as noted by Arcann in chapter 8 "Taking Flight", and indicated by events on Ziost, since Theron wasn't possessed, and by Valkorion in chapter 9 "Eternal Throne", when he said that he needed Vaylin's power to destroy Outlander's mind);

Arcann and Vaylin helped defeat him;

The holocron was the instrument of Valkorion's defeat (but it's never properly explained how exactly);

The "kneel before the dragon of Zakuul" phrase worked on Valkorion because the Outlander said so.

It doesn't sound too bad, but when I tried to go into details, it didn't make much sense. "My mind, my rules" was really out of nowhere, also kinda goes against the previous experience of Outlander not being able to do anything about Valkorion before that. And Arcann and Vaylin being on your side isn't the key either because even the three of them were still losing, it only changed after the main character said the key phrase. And why the heck does it even work like that? Because they said so? Gee, should've thought about it a few chapters before, no?

Now, what I came up with doesn't really go much different from that, I just made some adjustments to make it flow better (at least for myself). I'll talk through my thoughts in chronological order, so bear with me (I tried to summarize it at the end, so scroll if you want the short version).

Vitiate learned to transfer his spirit as one of the ways to be immortal. It can happen either through a ritual, which is preferable since it's easier, doesn't weaken him, and he doesn't need time to adjust, but it does require consent from a person, or killing the previous host, which does weaken him for some time. The longer he has possessed a host, the greater the loss of power will be upon the transfer. It's not to say that he isn't dangerous, quite the opposite, but perhaps he can't do some 'impossible' things (like consume a planet or shatter a mind) just like that.

He was at his full power before the events on Belsavis and Voss, timeline wise. Remember how easily he possessed the minds of the Jedi on the strike team? Yeah, Jedi Knight broke free, but that's bc they're super strong (and the main character in their storyline).

But because of Baras Vitiate had to be released from the body on Voss by being killed, which made him slightly weaker, just enough for the Hero of Tython to kill him again on Dromund Kaas. That made him lose more power (because he possessed this body for much longer than that Voss), and Vitiate tried to find a new host and regain his power (either by Revan reviving him or consuming all life on Ziost). His attempts were not successful, so he retreated to Zakuul.

That would explain why after being 'killed' yet again on Zakuul (thus losing two of his main hosts) Valkorion wasn't powerful enough to possess the Outlander's mind (regardless of their class). He was in a pretty vulnerable position, so he came up with a plan. We'll get to it. For now, Valkorion understands that if the Outlander dies, he'll be even weaker and probably won't be able to get a new host, so he protects the Outlander while pushing them to use his power.

Every time the Outlander agrees to do so gives Valkorion more control over their body, and even if they never agree, the bond grows stronger as time passes, it's just faster when Outlander uses his power. Eventually it would be just strong enough for Valkorion to use the main character's body without their permission (like in chapter 16). But he's still not powerful enough to break their mind, so he goes to the next part of the plan.

Valkorion manipulated the main character into killing Vaylin (and Arcann, if applicable) because he needed to consume her power to destroy Outlander's mind (which is what happens in chapter 9). But he made a couple mistakes in doing so. First, he underestimated how smart Commander is, and how the bond allowed them to take his form to survive. Second, by consuming Vaylin's spirit, Valkorion gained not just her strength, but also her weakness, which is the conditioning.

But wait, didn't Vaylin free herself from it? Sort of. I saw a suggestion from another player that Vaylin didn't get rid of conditioning itself, but rather the lever that triggers it. It's possible because the process on Nathema didn't exactly according to the plan. And because of that, Valkorion also gained her conditioning after consuming her spirit.

So, what does that mean? What does it do? Well, I think that when the key phrase is said in presence of Vaylin, she temporarily loses her connection to the Force (or it becomes so weak that she can't use it), thus isn't a threat. And the same happens to Valkorion when the main character attempts to use it on him in KotET chapter 9, at least for long enough for the Outlander to kill him. This way the victory isn't dependent on one's power in the Force, and it fits a non Force sensitive Commander as well.

What about the holocron? I explain this as it only binds, commands and releases spirits, as we see with lord Dramath. It's not the key to Valkorion's destruction, but it is still important because it is used to free Vaylin's spirit from Valkorion after her death (and Arcann's, if applicable), which gives Outlander a potential powerful ally.

[Just a little addition that has very little to do with my explanation, but wanted to mention - in the throne room, when Valkorion breaks Outlander's mind, he takes over the body and attacks your companions. They hold off long enough for Commander to put their mind back, and at that moment Valky loses control, and the body is unconscious.]

So, to sum it up:

Valkorion is weaker after being killed on Voss, Dromund Kaas and Zakuul, hence why the Outlander can resist him, regardless of theirconnection to the Force;

the holocron found on Nathema can bind, command and release spirits, which allows Outlander to free Vaylin (and Arcann, if applicable) from Valkorion;

the bond formed between Valkorion and Commander allowed the latter to survive after having their mind destroyed;

Vaylin didn't completely get rid of the conditioning on Nathema because the process didn't go as it should've, it just removed the trigger;

by consuming Vaylin's spirit Valkorion gained both her strength and her weakness - her conditioning, that's why it worked on him, and it temporarily weakened his connection to the Force.

I know this isn't perfect, there are probably plot holes that I haven't noticed or poorly explained, but I like it much more. Why do I even bother with this explanation?

I just love doing mental gymnastics around KotFE-ET, and this particular part was difficult yet entertaining to figure out.

But honestly, probably most important reason is that it works for every class (so even non Force-users are fitting here) because strength in the Force is not the key. Valkorion underestimated how observant and clever Outlander is, and I think it works better for their characters.

#let me know if you want a version with low-quality pictures #did i come up with this just to justify jett being the outlander and winning? absolutely #but i do think it fits with my other outlanders #swtor #swtor headcanons #long post #valkorion #kotfe #kotet #kotfe spoilers #kotet spoilers #shadows of revan spoilers #jedi knight spoilers #sith warrior spoilers #oc:jett #tagging her bc this whole thing mostly exists for her #if you have questions about this hmu #i might have left out some details #or maybe there is more stuff i can add here

[captainmortuem]

SWTOR Secret Santa 2023

My giftee was @tiredassmage

I know you said you were in love with the Agent, but I fell in love with the idea of the relationship between your Knight and Warrior. I tried my best to get their personalities based off of the tagged posts and character bios, as well as playing into a bit of that in-between from begrudging alliance to blossoming friendship that (as far as I could tell from all the posts I was reading) would take place right around the time of Shadow of Revan. Not as cold as Ilum may have been, but not yet so devoted as during the KotXX story. Like seriously, I spent three hours looking at their character tags to try and figure them out.

Bonus for some of my own SWTOR OCs thrown in there, and a few of yours who don’t really take to the foreground. I sincerely hope you enjoy all 1,134 words.

The hideout on Rishi had become… crowded. To put it nicely. Barring the fact that four, or more apt would be “three and some broken up metal pieces of a droid” of their group was out galavanting around the planet while the notorious pirate captain of the Red Hulls sat in this one room that had been deemed “safe” by their Imperial and Republic associates. Six of the eight incarnations of this “captain” sat performing various leisurely tasks while the remaining two, Tyr and Evek’fezen, patrolled the outside to make sure nobody got too wise about what this mismatched group of Jedi, Sith, Spies, Troopers, and Criminals were doing boarded up in the same hut as one another. Slumo’cet’lezu and Ipah’fezen were playing a game of Sabaac off to one side, using a crate as a table and discarded baskets as chairs, and only a few times had they drawn blasters on one another with accusations of cheating. Darth Occlus and Satia sat in the corner sharing history and culture with one another, comparing and contrasting the planets they’d been to and the people they’d met in their respective empire’s spheres of influence, each thankful that the other seemed keen to avoid political banter and the usual shortcomings that topic brings. But the most curious of the bunch was the Hero of Tython and the Emperor’s wrath, not bickering or sparring with one another as one would expect with the Shield of the Republic and the Sword of the Empire so close together, instead the two seemed keen on just enjoying one another’s company. There was a kinship to be had between warriors, different banners they may wear, but of a kind all the same. The Knight had Kira standing beside him, strangely tense and the room could feel it, but the proximity to so many Sith was still a bit jarring for the Jedi after having only recently killed the Sith emperor. Plenty of reasons for tensions to be a lot higher than they seemed to be, barring the Sabaac game off to one side, but neither of them seemed to care further than their credits could get them.

“Strange how circumstances keep bringing us back together like this. It was Ilum first, yes?” Rhyst spoke up first, sitting across from Savosta in one of the few intact chairs in the room.

“Correct, Ilum was the first instance of us working together. It was a welcome reprieve when you showed the sense to assist in the destruction of Malgus.”

“It was the best choice any of us had. He was a threat to the Republic and the Empire both. Since then we’ve become… friends?”

“It is perhaps too soon to define our working relationship with words like “friendship.” A partnership, similar to that of our respective selves and the spies from either side.”

“Lana and Theron, you mean. What’s your take on them?” Rhyst asked, sitting up a bit straighter in the chair.

“You wish for a tactical assessment? They exceed where they have trained, subterfuge and deceit. Unsightly skills, but ones they see fit to use for what seems to be a great good. If there is such a thing.” Savosta sat back in his chair, fingering the edges of the lightsaber blade in his palm. The experience on Rishi had been, enlightening, if not clouding his mind further the more he thought of his supposed antithesis sitting across from him. There was a respect; respect for duty, respect for expectations, respect for somebody who has lived through battle after battle, and a strangely begrudging respect for the man that had killed his emperor. Rhystyl was a dangerous man, an oddity, how could Savosta share so much with a man who is ideologically opposed to everything he stands for?

“I don’t mean a tactical assessment, they’re both accomplished spies. I mean their relationship to one another. They are working toward the same goal, but something still doesn’t sit right. I have a feeling something is going to happen soon, something big, and I don’t know if waiting here is the right way to prepare for it. Revan is still alive, and we’ve got six of the ten people in the galaxy who could stop him just sitting in a room playing cards and talking philosophy. Does that seem right to you?”

“It is not a question of right or wrong. The spies are playing their game, let them play. A sword or a blaster is no good without a target. When we know where to go, and who to destroy, then we will go there and destroy them. If you’ll excuse me, I am going to get some air, as fetid as the air in this cove may be.” Savosta stood from his chair, bowing his head ever so slightly as a sign of respect to the Jedi before making his way outside. There was a section of the building they stayed in that was relatively flat up on the roof, and Savosta climbed his way up there to ruminate on all that had happened since Ilum, Manaan, and now the events on Rishi.

It was only a few moments before Savosta could feel another presence, one that made no effort to be hidden from him, his companion and member of the Dark Council, Darth Occlus.

“Tire of philosophy with the Jedi?” He asked, not looking up from his view over the cove and all the people within who went about their piracy and private lives without so much as a thought to what lay outside the walls of their home.

“Quite the opposite, she’s been an unusually engaging partner. But my interests currently lie with you, your conflict is more than apparent to somebody attuned to the force, like both myself and my previous conversation partner.”

“Do not presume to read me, councilman. My thoughts lie on our next steps, where we will go from here.”

“You know as well as I that I do not have a say in whether or not you are “read”, Wrath. I would be executed for saying this, but these Jedi may present an opportunity. Not for scheming and backstabbing, nor conquest and decimation.”

“Then what?”

“Unity. A potential for peace. If nothing else, at least an end to the status quo. The Galaxy cannot war with itself forever, but this small step towards an alliance could be a wind that douses the flame the Empire and Republic seem keen to keep lit. Malgus was right in his thoughts, if not wrong in his actions. The Empire needs to change, the Galaxy needs to change. These companions we make now and the bonds that are being formed, those will be the seeds for a bright and unusual future for everybody.”

“But first Revan.”

“And many more, Wrath. Many, many more after.”

#swtor secret santa 2023 #tiredassmage #swtor #swtor ocs #my writing #Captain's Journal

[illuminatedquill]

Shin Hati vs Sabine Wren:

Sharpen the Blade

So.

Let’s talk about them.

Now, as a disclaimer: I’m firmly in favor for a Sabine and Ezra pairing.

Speaking from my POV as someone who did not ship them during Rebels, watching the trailers for Ahsoka and then seeing the actual show definitely gave me vibes that things had changed for both of them.

So, I am a convert and standing with the good ship Sabezra.

. . . But, I do see the appeal of Sabine and Shin. I’m not blind. I get it.

Filoni loves some good parallels in his Star Wars. I’ve posted before how Sabine is presented as very similar to Anakin in this series; she’s a huge emotional mess, absolutely driven to succeed at her goal, stubborn, loyal to a fault, loves fiercely and fights just the same. She’s a warrior, through and through.

And, also like Anakin, she damned the galaxy for a chance to save a loved one.

So, if Sabine is being set up to be Anakin, then what role will Shin be playing in her life?

Well, let’s look to the past and re-visit another female dark side user that frequently crossed blades with Anakin Skywalker - Asajj Ventress.

A brief history for her: Set up as a rival to Anakin, she gave him that infamous scar on his face. Ventress wasn’t quite a Sith, despite her desire to be one.

She was trained by a Jedi Master, who died at the hands of the criminals he was fighting. She succumbed to the dark side and ended up ruling over them for a time. That went sideways sometime later and then Count Dooku found her and started training Ventress in the dark side of the Force.

Count Dooku was a former Jedi. Baylan Skoll was a former Jedi. Do you see what I’m getting at?

Dooku later abandoned her and she sought revenge on her former master. She spent the rest of the Clone Wars trying to find her place, keeping ahead of Dooku, and sometimes helping Obi-Wan, Anakin, and even Ahsoka when their interests coincided.

Eventually, at the end of the Clone Wars, she met Jedi Master Quinlan Vos. They fell in love but, during an assassination attempt on Dooku, Vos was captured and tortured, resulting in his fall to the dark side. Ventress rescued him and redeemed him, only for Dooku to kill her while doing so.

Her redemption of Quinlan Vos and subsequent sacrifice in doing so led her to being honored by the Jedi as a true friend.

I’m sure after reading some of this, you can see similarities between Ventress and Shin. Both were initially power-hungry but, really, they were just looking for a place to belong.

Despite being a rival to Anakin, Ventress had a more interesting relationship with Obi-Wan. They had to pair up more than a few times during the Clone Wars.

Remember the scene where Ahsoka tells Shin that they can help her? How scared and confused she looks before running off. Baylon had just abandoned her and the enemy was offering her a place to stay.

My personal belief is that Shin is clearly being set up to be a more personal rival to Sabine, but I think if Filoni is really intent on giving a redemptive arc, then it should be the Ahsoka/Shin interactions we should be looking out for.

Not to say that Shin and Sabine wouldn’t be as interesting. Ahsoka replaces Baylon as a mentor, but she also needs a friend. I see them as maintaining the rivalry, but losing the “I want to murder you” edge from their battles.

Rivals are great foils for a protagonist. Ever since Sabine met Shin, her combat skills have improved dramatically. I feel like they could really push each other to greater heights in their abilities and understanding of one another.

Rivals can also teach you things about yourself that a mentor couldn’t. As a dark sided user, maybe Shin could recognize the growing signs of darkness in Sabine and maybe try to point it out to her. Which would be a great step in their journey towards becoming friends.

And . . . maybe something more.

Filoni would have to do it justice, though. It would be great to have a powerful recurring antagonist - not a villain, an antagonist - who slowly realizes over time that they’re fighting for the wrong side.

Or he could have Shin go full fledged dark, which would also be riveting to watch. I’ve already said that she could be an excellent foil for Sabine, but she could also serve as a dark mirror for the young Jedi.

He has to do it right, which means giving it the proper screen-time. Which, I don’t know if he can. He’s already got a lot of spinning plates in the air for a theoretical season two.

One thing’s for sure: Shin is the wild card for this show. Very excited to see what happens next and where she and Sabine take this rivalry.

#sabine wren #shin hati #asajj ventress #wolfwren #ahsoka series #ahsoka show #ahsoka #star wars #star wars rebels #I’m still rooting for Ezra and Sabine #But this would also be cool #Filoni just needs to do the work

[ospreyeamon]

I’ve been trying to tease out reasons why the Inquisitor, who is just trying to get by in a Sith-stab-Sith world, has fewer opportunities for neutral to positive encounters with Jedi than the Warrior, who is there to actively cause problems during Acts One and Two. Doylist-wise, it’s probably because you can’t change faction so there needs to be an implied reason why the Sith Inquisitor doesn’t go skipping off to the Jedi Order as soon as they are permitted to travel to neutral space.

It’s ironic how much less murdery my Warrior’s reputation with the Jedi is than my Inquisitor’s. Especially since one of the things that contribute to them acquiring those reputations is that Lys’trel tries to approach the Jedi she encounters with diplomacy and honesty (her views on the Jedi are ... complicated, but she doesn’t hate them or want them destroyed) while Tsojât is hostile and manipulative (he believes the Jedi Order is rotten to its core and the galaxy would be a better place without it).

Jedi like Nomar Organa and Masters Ryen and Ocera assume Lys’trel is lying when she proposes exchanges of mutual benefit and professes to have no intent to fight because the Empire and Republic are, technically, at peace. She’s a Sith. Obviously she’s lying. Every encounter the Sith have ever had with the Jedi from invading Republic space without making a formal declaration of war to holding the lives of the civilians on the capital hostage while negotiating the Treaty of Coruscant has proven they can’t be trusted.

They decide to lure her into traps to kill her under the justification that it’s what she’s trying to do to them and leave messages that are discovered by other Jedi after their deaths saying things like “played along with Sith’s plot to get Rehanna Rist out of the firing line, will intercept before Sith can enter the Elysium to carry out terrible plan” and “Padawan Zavros was tricked into believing Sith had non-threatening reason to be on Taris, will spring trap in the ruined temple when the Sith infiltrates it” because they’ve convinced themselves that’s what’s going on. When she kills them in self-defence it is taken as evidence confirming that version of events.

Another factor in Lys’trel poor reputation with the Order is that many Jedi’s initial impression of her is that she is a fallen Jedi defected to the Sith. Coming from a family enslaved during the Empire’s conquests during Great Galactic War and raised among many native Basic-speakers, Lys’trel speaks Republic Basic with a Rim accent rather than an Imperial one. She’s a very unImperial looking Rutian twi’lek and the Empire’s former policy towards Force-sensitive slaves is that they were to be killed on discovery. Viewing her as a proven traitor is more comfortable than viewing her as evidence of the fate of the Force-sensitives born in the territory lost to the Empire in the Great Galactic War.

She also has what some people perceive to be an unsettlingly erratic death-tinged Force-presence. Other Sith tend to attribute it to Lys’trel being a necromancer. Jedi, being less familiar with necromancy, are left wondering how many people would need to die around you for you to feel like that and why your aura would oscillate like an amateur unicyclist plotting a sine graph.

Tsojât is on a quest to reveal the Jedi as villains with good publicity. All the Jedi and the Republic’s posturing about peace and tolerance and standing against genocide is just that – posturing. He is going to rip off that mask, which means his own and the Empire’s behaviour must contrast favourably to their enemies’.

He was raised to follow the standards of right behaviour that seek to balance honour and obligation. Honour and obligation don’t disappear just because you’re dealing with enemies and inconveniences. He makes no promises he does not intend to keep, attempts negotiation even when he is certain (and maybe would prefer) that there can be no peaceful resolution with the Pubs, and tries to avoid civilian casualties.

Where Lys’trel proposing exchanges of mutual benefit was deemed suspicious, Tsojât’s stark distain is expected. Sith hate Jedi, so a Sith being open about that is a Sith being honest.

Tsojât spared Master Yonlach and Knight Yul-Li (because that was the price Yul-Li asked when he gave up his information), persuaded the Willsaam parents to leave with him and departed Castle Organa without attacking Master Volryder, spared Knight Ulldin (so he could recount how Zylixx snapped after having a Sith quote the Jedi code at him), and delivered Nomen Karr back to the Order alive (that was Jaesa’s decision and Tsojât considered it a mistake he had to respect her right to make).

To the Jedi, this apprentice of the infamous Darth Baras appears an unexpectedly honourable enemy. A Sith showing signs of somehow overcoming the disadvantages of his birth. Many Jedi who know of him imagined that he is struggling against the genetic disadvantage of a “Sith Pureblood” naturally attuned to the dark-side of the Force (the tsissai aren’t), that his childhood must have been brutal and neglected (it wasn’t), and that Tsojât’s disinterest in killing every enemy in his path is a sign that he is subconsciously feeling the call of The Light and The Jedi Path (he’s not).

Ironically, this interpretation of Tsojât has similarities with Tsojât’s own evolving view of the Jedi, softened by studying Jaesa’s life while hunting her. He hadn’t methodically contemplated how deeply a person’s understanding of the universe would be shaped by the dominant narratives of their culture before. Of course most Jedi don’t know the truth about his people and what the Republic did to them when all the histories they were raised on are a mess of propaganda, prejudice, and omission. Of course they don’t understand the Force if their Masters spoon feed them lies about it. Of course the experience of being on the other side of the Great Galactic War gave many people a plethora of bad impressions of the Empire. Succeeding in flipping Jaesa does nothing to disabuse him from this perspective.

While the SIS and Jedi Order do share information, they aren’t always the most efficient about it which leads to an … interesting conversation at the official big-shot Sith dossier swap after the Battle of Corellia as the SIS agents attempted to figure out why the Jedi Order ranked the new Emperor’s Wrath a lower threat than the freshly named Darth Occlus.

#Meanwhile in a Galaxy Far Far Away #oc: Lys'trel Kallig #oc: Tsojât Zihae

[magicallulu7]

Hi! Returning your ask right back at you hehe

So, which companions from the class stories do you dislike the most?

And which ones do you like the most? :)

(Returning the boop, too, of course!)

Ok, so here goes!

The companions I dislike/like the most-

Jedi Knight: I honestly would like Doc more if the devs didn't make him pushy with the flirting, but I dislike Rusk a bit more. At least Doc has a personality and has funny banter with the other companions- Rusk is just there taking up space.

The companion I like in JK: Kira. She mashes well with my JK. Oh and T7! best droid.

Trooper: It's between M1 and Yunn- I'm just not fond of them. Along with Vik. Honestly, both Yunn and Vik are forgettable.

The companion I like in Trooper: Elara. She's just so sweet and her friendship route is great!

Bounty Hunter: Skadge. Just Skadge.

The companion I like in BH: I can't pick one- Maybe Mako or Blizz.

Sith Warrior: The Bloody Murder Mop! I mean Broom- Broonmark! I'm just not fond of him and he's forgettable. I might have killed him without realizing it-

The companion I like in SW: Hmm, I'll say it's between LS Jaesa and Vette.

Jedi Consular: I'm not fond of Zenith. I don't hate him, but I'm more neutral towards him.

The companion I like in JC: Nadia she's a little sister to my JC. Qyzen is a close second.

Smuggler: I'm not fond of Guss with the stant he pulled on Hoth, but my Smuggler punched him so they're even! I might grow more fond of him when I finally beat Smuggler.

The companion I like in Smuggler: Risha. I just like her no nonsense attitude with Skavak.

Imperial Agent: Honestly- I like everyone in the Imp story. If I have to pick one- it's probably SCORPIO.

The companion I like in IA: Vector. He's an interesting character and like a brother to my IA.

Sith Inquisitor: Xalek- He's just blend. He could've been flashed out more.

The companion I like in SI: It's between Ashara and Khem.

#swtor #star wars #star wars the old republic #swtor companions

[serenxanthe]

After Ziost, a SWTOR Story

Part One: In which Theron is thoughtless and self-obsessed after Ziost.

(He will regret it in Part Two, and even more in Part Three)

Quick background note on my OC Jedi Knight; she's a former Sith who defects after her Warrior training on Korriban, tired of hiding her Lightside nature. After dutifully completing her Knight training on Tython, she heads to Coruscant on The Esseles, where she saves the ship with the help of one Theron Shan. They've been together(ish) ever since - well, nobody said she was always a good Jedi!

Seren strode through the Imperial space station orbiting Ziost, her red cloak swirling behind her, Scourge at her side. Scourge was masked to conceal his identity as the former Emperor’s Wrath; he had been a well-known face among the people who now considered him the worst kind of traitor.

Dressed in the Sith armour and wielding the red-bladed lightsabres she had been forced to use during her time as the Emperor’s puppet on his cloaked fortress, her hair braided into a long rope rather than her usual multiple braids, and of course using her real voice rather than her Republic accent, still faked after all these years, Seren hadn’t been recognised as the Hero of Tython, the Jedi Battlemaster. 

She wasn’t happy about the attire or the attitude she was having to project to pass as Sith, but Seren was enjoying not having to fake her accent and adjust her speech patterns. It was surprisingly relaxing. She wondered idly if she could stop once she left the Jedi Order. That was all still up in the air as far as she knew. Seren had been stunned when Satele had named her Battlemaster in the aftermath of Yavin IV. Satele knew that she intended to leave the Order once the situation with the former Sith Emperor’s spirit, or essence, had been dealt with. 

Theron congratulated her publicly of course, as did everyone else, but she saw his eyes slide angrily to his mother’s face. He suspected Satele of trying to manipulate Seren into staying in the Order and giving up their relationship, he’d told her later, when they were alone. Seren didn’t for one second agree with him, but she hadn't known how to go about persuading him when her argument hinged on the fact that she knew his mother substantially better than he did, and they hadn’t had time for the whole can of emotional worms that would open up.

After the defeat of Revan, Seren and Theron had headed off to their Temple and Headquarters respectively to discuss next steps in the fight against what was left of the Emperor, with only a few hours of downtime to spend together on Yavin IV before they did so. Obviously they’d spent most of that time in bed rather than talking, incapable as always of demonstrating any level of self-restraint. And this time Seren was concerned that there had been… unintended consequences. 

They had had even less time alone on Ziost, certainly not enough to discuss what to do about that, so Seren hadn’t said anything, focussing on the fight, and now Theron was gone; he’d headed back to Tython to take Master Surro and the other surviving Sixth Line Jedi, including Masters Onok and Landai, to be healed after their ordeal as the Emperor’s puppets. Seren felt desperately sorry for them of course, and she knew exactly how they felt, their bodily autonomy violated, forced to kill instead of rescue. She hadn’t been able to suppress a stab of hurt however, as Theron walked away from her without a moment’s hesitation after the events at the People’s Tower, supporting Surro.

Why had he even gone to Surro instead of Seren when he wanted to infiltrate Ziost anyway? She was his girlfriend and he’d kept secrets from her, she hadn’t even known about the Sixth Line, let alone the fact that Theron was working with them, had developed such a close, trusting, relationship with their leaders. Her professional pride was wounded too. Had Theron forgotten that she was uniquely suited to this type of mission? Not only could she easily pass as Sith; but also, having broken free of the Emperor’s control once before, she was much less likely to fall under his influence than any Jedi other than perhaps Kira.

Seren felt no satisfaction that his secrecy and reliance on the Sixth Line had been disastrous, only grief for the dead and tortured Jedi. She hadn’t been able to save all the possessed Jedi she’d fought. She’d dragged or lured as many as she could to generators or electricity towers to overload and shock them, but some had attacked her nowhere near anything she could use, and she’d been forced to kill them. 

She wasn’t jealous of Surro exactly, Seren didn’t think for one moment that there was anything romantic or sexual between her and Theron; but the fact he had felt that Surro was better suited to do whatever Theron had been trying to do on Ziost than she was? That hurt. As did the sight of her boyfriend walking away from her without a backward glance, his arm around Surro.

Her thoughts were circling around on themselves, clearly, and Seren sighed audibly. “Is there a problem, J… My Lord?” Scourge asked her, the ‘My Lord’ uttered through gritted teeth. “No problem.” she snapped at him, her tone convincingly imperious. She felt his approval at her shortness and tone of voice, and that made her sigh again. She needed to get off this space station and away from Imperial Space before this charade became way too comfortable.

Lana had gone too, heading back to Dromund Kass to brief the Dark Council on the events on Ziost. Their last interaction had been somewhat acrimonious. Lana had wanted to study Surro and the other surviving Sixth Line to learn more about the Emperor’s connection with his puppets. Seren had refused to even consider it, telling Theron to take them to Tython. Lana had argued, clearly angry, but hadn’t tried to do anything more than that to stop them. Why had the Minister of Sith Intelligence, a powerful Force-user in her own right, deferred to two Republic officials on an Imperial core world? 

Seren thought back to her and Lana’s first meeting, first as adults at any rate.  They had been in the Manaan office suite Theron had hired for them to operate out of while chasing the Revanite conspirators.  That was now well over a year ago, she realised. Back then, their relationship had been more equal. If anything Seren was in effect subordinate to Lana, and, professionally at least, to Theron; just the muscle to get things done as the two spies orchestrated the campaign against the Revanites. When had things changed? When did Lana and Theron start deferring to her? Accepting her decisions as definitive? When had she become the de facto leader in their fight against the former Sith Emperor?

Seren was still here on Ziost days after the other two had left. She wasn’t completely sure why. She headed down to the planet from the space station several times a day to coordinate rescue and evacuation efforts, ensuring as many people as possible escaped the Emperor’s control and if possible the planet. People. Imperial people, both civilians and military. Her enemies.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to see the conflict, or rather war, between the Republic and Empire in the black and white terms that had characterised most of her career as a Jedi thus far. She recognised that the Republic had numerous faults and flaws, but she still emphatically believed that it was infinitely better than the Empire. That hadn’t changed. But the cooperation between themselves and Lana, and then eventually between Satele and Marr’s forces, felt better; more right, more comfortable, than endless war. 

On Yavin IV she saw Imperial troops and Sith develop newfound respect for the bravery and professionalism of the Jedi and Republic forces, and in return, she saw Republic troops finally begin to realise that citizens of the Empire were people in the same way that they were; with hopes, dreams and fears of their own. She saw the gratitude on the faces of the Imperial Reclamation Service every time a Republic soldier carefully handed them an ancient Sith relic for study rather than unthinkingly throwing it into a pile as part of a defensive barricade.

Was that why she was still here? Or was it the guilt? Scourge believed that her momentary hesitation over killing the Emperor when she defeated him on Dromund Kass had allowed his spirit, or essence, to escape. Was that true? Had that split second of inaction directly caused the loss of life on Ziost? 

Seren mentally shook herself and tried to focus on the task at hand rather than fruitless introspection over the events of years ago. She and Scourge had their gear repaired by the space station’s resident armourer, then prepared to make their way back down to the planet’s surface. As they headed for a shuttle, there was a sudden power cut. The space station shuddered and groaned alarmingly, before the emergency power kicked in and the lights and stabilisers came back online.

Seren rushed to a console to check the status of Ziost below them, and saw to her horror the inexorable tide of death sweep across the planet; every living thing still on the surface turned to ash in minutes. She and Scourge looked at each other; even with his face masked she could sense his consternation, and something almost like horror. The Emperor may have blunted and dulled Scourge’s emotions, but they were still in there, somewhere, even if he couldn’t access them.

Neither of them had any doubt that this was the Emperor’s doing. What he’d tried to do on Belsavis, Voss, then Corellia; Seren and Scourge thwarting him at every turn, he had finally succeeded at, and on one of his own core worlds. The Emperor had destroyed Ziost, syphoning the life out of it to fuel his own diabolical power. 

Seren thought about the last dead planet she’d seen from orbit, Uphrades; destroyed by Imperial forces at the behest of Darth Angral in revenge for his son’s death. That had been no more her fault than this was. Terrible people making horrifically immoral decisions. She had always done her best to do the right thing, and she stood by her decisions. She could mourn the deaths of innocents and mostly-innocents without feeling guilt. Usually.

Wait. Uphrades. There had, incredibly, been survivors down there. Seren looked at Scourge and told him that she was heading down to the planet’s surface to check for survivors, given that the sensors must have been fried during the event that had just taken place. 

Scourge ground out a token objection, surely the Jedi could sense that there was nobody left alive down there? But he knew it was fruitless, as always, and they headed down on the next departing shuttle.

Seren stood on the surface minutes later, dust and emotion choking her throat. Being down here, the horrible wound in the Force was assaulting her senses; the imprint of the last few terrified seconds of life the inhabitants had had before the cataclysm overtook them. It hadn’t been instantaneous, they had had time to feel fear, to try and run. Billions of people. Seren leant against Scourge, her head against his huge arm as he towered over her. He may have been ‘full of awful’ as Doc had put it back on the cloaked fortress as Scourge helped them flee, but he was comfortingly familiar to her now, nearly three years later. She felt Scourge flinch in surprise, but he let her remain there, his body relaxing.

Seren had a sudden awful realisation; Theron. The space station orbiting Ziost was still fully up and running, and therefore the news of the destruction of Ziost would be all over Imperial channels by now. And she knew that the SIS, and by extension Theron, would have intercepted and analysed their transmissions, encrypted as they were. He must be absolutely beside himself, terrified that she had been on the planet during the cataclysm. She grabbed her communicator; no signal. Of course not, the event had knocked out the transceivers on the surface.

Scourge looked down at Seren, still leaning against him as she clutched her useless communicator, staring at it. “Shall we go, Jedi?” he rumbled at her, “There’s no more we can do here.” Seren nodded at him gratefully and they headed back to the shuttle.

Back on the space station, they headed straight for the Defender’s airlock; there really was nothing more they could do for Ziost now. Before they jumped to lightspeed to head back to Carrick Station, Seren insisted on trying Theron’s frequency, firstly from her own communicator, then from the Defender’s communications array when there was no answer.

T7 informed her that he thought that Theron was on another call from his communicator, which was why Seren’s calls weren’t getting through. Seren nodded with relief; that would make sense. Theron must have tried to get through to her inactive communicator when she’d been down on the surface of Ziost, and was now probably calling all his contacts to see if they could confirm whether she’d made it off the planet before its destruction. He must be frantic with worry, Seren thought, feeling awful that she’d put him through this. Seren couldn’t decide whether to keep trying him, or jump straight to lightspeed; getting back to the Republic Fleet as soon as possible. She eventually decided on the latter.

As soon as the Defender docked after the day’s travel to Carrick Station, Seren rushed to the SIS outpost alone; she knew both she and Theron were going to be emotional and neither of them would want an audience for their reunion. As she arrived in Theron’s office almost at a run, she saw he was on a holocall. With Satele. Of course. He was thanking her for something, his voice heartfelt with gratitude. 

He turned to see her, and Seren expected him to rush across the room, sweep her into his arms with relief, like he had after she’d been in danger on Manaan and Rakata Prime. Instead, Theron told her, “That was Satele, Surro is recovering.” 

Seren stared at him, nonplussed. “That’s great news, Theron.” she eventually found her voice to say. “What about Onok and Landai? And the others?” she asked. 

“I er, I’m not sure. Satele didn’t say.” Theron said awkwardly.

He hadn’t asked Satele about them, Seren realised, even more nonplussed. Belatedly, Theron crossed the room to greet her properly, but his movements were unhurried, and he seemed distracted. He put a casual arm around her shoulder and kissed her forehead briefly, before stepping back to speak to her.

“I lost my job.” he told her. “Saresh forced Director Trant’s hand, I’m sure. He shook his head, “I probably shouldn’t even be here in my office.” He grimaced and corrected himself, “My former office.”

“Theron, I’m so sorry about your job, but about Ziost…” Seren began.

Theron grimaced again, “I know. I heard. We managed to evacuate some of the Republic personnel, but we lost a hell of a lot of people. I know I made a bad situation worse with the Sixth Line, and I’ll never forgive myself for what happened to h… them. But this is on Saresh. Saresh and her snake Kovach.”

Seren said nothing. She didn’t want to have to beg her own boyfriend to care about what had almost happened to her, and she wasn’t great at dealing with Theron when he was like this. Spiky, defensive, and full of wounded pride. It reminded her of how he was with her towards the end of their time together on Coruscant, and when they’d first run into each other again on Taris.

A wave of bone aching fatigue swept over her and she was reminded that she needed to talk to him about that too. She stared at him, not knowing where to start. She wanted to ask him to come with her, be with her, full time; rather than the snatched periods of weeks or occasionally months they’d had together over the years. But the way he was looking at her, or rather through her, made voicing that idea seem ludicrous. 

Instead she said, “Join me on the Defender? I could use your skills on my crew.” As soon as she said it Seren realised she could hardly have put it worse, and she wasn’t surprised when Theron’s facial expression changed from blank introspection to angry reproach. 

“I’m sure you could!” Theron said hotly. “But I’m not your… sidekick!”

Seren opened her mouth to explain what she’d really meant to say, but Theron continued, talking over her. “The SIS is part of my identity, it’s who I am! I’m not giving up on it.”

“I know, Theron, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… Listen, can we talk? The cantina here, or the VIP Lounge?

He shook his head, “I can’t now, I’m sorry, I need to get to Coruscant. Maybe if I can get in to see Trant face to face, I can persuade him…” 

Theron was back inside his own head again, Seren realised; there was no point in trying to push him further, no matter how much it hurt to leave things like this. They weren’t breaking up; he almost certainly still loved her, she just… wasn’t his priority right now, for whatever reason or reasons. Seren swallowed and said, “Ok Theron, another time maybe.” She tried to keep her tone neutral.

Theron suddenly seemed to notice her again and stepped towards her. He bent his head to kiss her with a little bit of his usual affection and passion. As they broke the kiss Seren looked up at him, and his gaze was softer, almost warm as he met her eyes, and her heart lifted with hope that they’d be ok. But then he stepped back, and without another word walked away from her, leaving her behind in his old office.

Seren looked at his retreating back, but said nothing, determined not to beg him for further scraps of affection when his current focus was clearly as far away from her and their relationship as it was possible for it to be.

Unexpectedly he stopped in the doorway, and not fully turning around to look at her said, “But I won’t make the same mistake in future. That I made with Ziost, I mean. Next time something happens you’ll be the first person I come to. I won’t leave it until it’s almost too late ever again.”

He turned again and left before Seren could reply. At least he’d salved her own wounded professional pride a bit, she thought, even if his own was making him behave like an absolutely terrible boyfriend right now. She sighed, she’d have plenty of time to talk to him later no doubt, it wasn’t like her current issue was going away any time soon.

#swtor #theron shan #lord scourge #lana beniko #swtor jedi knight #swtor oc #star wars the old republic #my ocs #fanfic #my writing #angst #established couple #whole can of emotional worms #their relationship is usually much better than this #but Theron is awful after Ziost and I'm tired of pretending he's not

[lune-de-miel-au-paradis]

Thoughts from the shadows - Maul's pow

Summary: The sith Lord had only one job, to look out for the queen and collect information. But his crimson eyes got distracted by a young woman.

Pairing: Darth Maul x OC Nina Cerasus

Warnings: Mention of violence, narcissistic thoughts and alcohol use. (Let me know if I left out something.)

AN: This fic means a lot to me and I worked on it a lot. If you have any advice or comments, please share them with me kindly. I'm posting for the first time in years and I don't want nasty comments to discourage me from posting again. If you don't like it, please go to another blog. I did my best to translate it, so pls forgive me, English is not my first language. Moodboard made by me, pictures from Pinterest. Please enjoy reading!

previous chapter

Maul had only one thing to do, a task that his master entrusted to him. To observe the queen when and where his master cannot. Master was waiting for the right moment to carry out the queen’s kidnapping. Tough Maul thought it would be much easier to kill the woman. He wanted to begin the steps of his grand plan to avenge the Sith as soon as possible. Because of his impatience, his master reprimanded him and warned him against hurting the queen. His job was only to follow her during her activities outside the palace. Paying attention to what might be a threat to the plan and gather information. This task was usually done by a well-trusted droid, but this time it was not possible to implement this solution. The club used strong defenses and used certain kinds of magnetic waves to block the droids that were inside and approaching the building. That's how Maul ended up in the nightclub. He crept in like a shadow in the right place, so he got in unnoticed. He had a perfect view of the target from the decorative pillars of the ceiling. 

As he knows her routine, Padme doesn't usually go to places like this, but because of her relative's birthday, she had to come in person and not to send one of her minion lookalikes. The little princess was so distracted that she didn't even notice when Maul used the force to "help" the dancers away when they got too close to her. She was so pitifully tiny, one wrong step is enough or if she faints, she will be immediately swallowed up by the crowd and flattened. And although Maul liked the idea of massacring the witnesses, he didn't want to carry the princess back to the palace, nor having a punishment from his master. 

He was annoyed that he was given an unworthy task. A droid can also observe, but in this idiotic place, droids were not allowed, nor equipment suitable for photography and filming, so he had to come in person. He was bored while looking at the many pitiful persons down there. 

They were all boringly mundane and stupid, they didn't even realize what a danger he was to them. But at least no Jedi were allowed inside. A sweet shiver ran down his spine when he thought about how easy it would be to end one's pathetic life in this place. 

He was a divine figure, watching from above, looking down on the simple and useless souls. Like a demigod looking down from the heavenly heights full of pity and hatred. How fun it would be to cause them a little suffering. A single act of violence in the crowd is enough to fall like dominoes, everyone in the room would quickly sober up and gorgeous panic would break out. Maul liked the idea.

Yet he did nothing. As much as he liked to flaunt his knowledge, he was also proud. His master taught him prudence, planning and patience. All large-scale plans must be carefully considered, steps must be planned, battles must be carefully chosen. He acknowledged with smug satisfaction that as easily as the predator could snap out from him, he could hold himself back just as easily. 

He was not a barbarian, but a skilled sworn warrior. He does not lower himself, not so easily and senselessly. He's much more than that. 

He noticed something, an unusual beam of light scanned his face. It wasn't hard to find its source, a young woman was dancing in the crowd, her dress was made of tiny shiny panels like a mirror ball. Her movements caused light to flash across the room. Maul growled in annoyance. 

For some inexplicable reason, his eyes always easily found the reflection of light on shiny objects. There was something mesmerizing about them, if only for a moment. He continued to watch the Padme with his crimson eyes. However, the woman kept distracting him. That annoying young woman in the mirror dress.

Since Padme was as boring as a bowl of porridge without a topping, he decided to satisfy his curiosity because something was off with the dancing woman. He moved easily, invisibly, in the hall. The unknown lady moved easily, elegantly and sexy, but he still didn't understand why he was wasting his attention on her. This was not typical of him, what's more, the woman was not exactly his typical type either. Though passion was an important part in the sith code, he wasn't particularly interested in women, he was way too goal-oriented. 

But when he needed some relief of this kind, he just went places where they made deals and promised love, but it was clear to everyone that these were just empty promises. Instead, visitors could leave with empty pockets, but mostly satisfied.

He had neither the time, nor the patience, nor the desire to get to know each other, date, and get into a relationship. (He leaves this kind of hell to the stupid average people and to those who believe in childish fairy tales that love is important and stronger than anything else. Such bantha shit!) But when someone caught his attention they were usually shapely, curvy and soft-bodied females and not humans. 

Not that this woman wasn't attractive. She was of average height with an average thin build, long dark brown hair reaching to the middle of her back, her skin was very pale though, her cheeks reddened while dancing. At the same time, he noticed how annoyed the lady was by one of the men's attempts to approach her.

As he approached through the shadows, he could feel her anger trying to spill over the strong wall of inhibition, like a surge of water held back by a dam. He easily slipped the female's mind. He could almost see in front of him how, according to the woman's plan, she pulls the men forward, knocks his face down on the ground and makes her little fists bloody while smashing the idiot's face, with her bare hands. Her pretty face is covered in drops of blood, and she shouts angrily at the dancers, the crowd, and the world.

Maul also senses the power she exerts to fulfill this desire too. 

He can also feel how the waves of anger are being calmed down by her.. And then he is already trapped outside, locked outside of her consciousness. 

"Fast and efficient." he thought with faint appreciation. 

When she danced with two men seductively, she must have sensed that she was being watched because she turned and looked directly at him.Their eyes met, and Maul noticed that her eyes were as light green as the rare gemstone jade. He noticed her freckles, which contrasted across her nose and high cheekbones. There was something in her eyes, at first he didn't know what, he tried to get into her mind again, but he ran into strong high walls. This surprised him, he knew few people who were not force users and resisted the mental approach. But these were generally wiser and more experienced persons. What makes this young lady mentally so strong? She's not a force user, and she doesn't look anything more than the average female in her early twenties. She doesn't pose a threat either, since she hasn't gotten close to anyone important like a shadow girl would. Strange.

And then he felt it, somewhere under the desire and light curiosity, suppressed anger was raging deep. It's not a fatal amount and it's not exploitable enough - because the woman is not a force user - but it's definitely there, sweetly inviting the opportunity to taste it and release it. She intrigued him. Her beauty, her strong mind and her blissful anger. He wanted to touch her, to smell her, even claim her. He suddenly noticed the desire in himself, and felt his blood running faster in his veins, as well as his muscles tensed.

This surprised him. No female had managed to surprise Maul so far. If anyone saw him, they usually took a few steps back and he could feel the fear in them, the humble surrender, like when an apex predator corners its prey. It was almost that they sensed his power and immediately obeyed.  But not her. She didn't show any sign of fear, in fact, he only discovered some excitement and curiosity in her, when he gently stroked the castle wall of her soul.

"Interesting." he thought.

He almost devoured her with his gaze. He liked her, the way she moved, the way she looked, and imagined in countless dirty and passionate ways how he would possess her. He played with the idea of what the lady might want, how to get her. And that's why he observed her carefully physically, but more intensely with his mind. 

“What is your game lady? Which little game makes your brain click and your body reacts? Fast and eager? Like a thirsty person would taste water after a long, hot day? Greedily?Like a pirate would take a treasure? Or more like predator and prey game? Ah! That will be the last one. The lady invited him to play, Maul sees the flaring playfulness in those green orbs of hers. He is available for a little cat and mouse game. So be it.”his thoughts run quickly through his mind.

But Maul didn't miss the girl's funny little thought too. According to her, she think’s that she’s in charge. He couldn't read her thoughts, but read her gestures and detected some self-righteousness in them. This was somewhat amusing and annoying at the same time. He could stand arrogance even a tiny bit of it.. 

“Tsktsk. What a false, but true role falsely believed by the woman. She thinks she's the one in control. There is a penalty for such thoughts. Maybe the lady initiated it, but she definitely didn't control the game. The hunter's job is to observe and corner the prey, making it believe that there is an escape route. He decided to have a little fun and changed the situation. He positioned himself perfectly in seconds, so that the female couldn't see him, but he himself could perfectly watch the disappointment pouring out on that pretty, pale face of hers. 

He moved away, the young woman could no longer see him, but he followed her with his eyes and watched her. He noted with satisfaction that she was trying to drive away the fog caused by fun and alcohol from her mind with water.

"Clever girl! With a clear mind the game won't be so easy, nevertheless it be more enjoyable." 

Maul didn't really like the effect of spice or drinks, he liked being aware of everything around him, constantly observing and processing information, reading from his environment and the people around him. Thus, he was always at an advantage, and he was reluctant to let this power out of his hands. His master had taught him well. As well as his experiences that life threw at him. In addition, the ladies he visited from time to time always tasted of alcohol, which only made them even less attractive to him. Perhaps he was involuntarily longing for some variety, purity, and perhaps instead of burning alcohol, he would rather feel some sweetness on his tongue. Something more... divine. 

When she went back dancing he noticed earlier that the tall vampire girl's mothering around, although friendly, was somewhat annoying to his chosen one. How open a face can be. Like an open book. Every tiny twitch and facial expression revealed what the other person was thinking. No matter how hard they tried to hide it, Maul has already practiced this so much that he knows exactly what it looks like when someone lies or says something other than what they think. Perhaps each person is different due to their personality and cultural upbringing, but the basics work the same for almost everyone.

For example, just now the vampire lady asked, and the other gave a small nod, but her smile was flatter, she pursed her lips a little and a small wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows. And even if the vampire noticed, she was not offended, from which he could conclude that they could be in a close relationship.

"Is it because of me that you are nervous lady? Or is there something else?" The game finally started to get more interesting.

Maul watches as she returns to the dancers. Although she seemed calmer, he felt that she was struggling with something, he sensed her nervousness. 

He returned to his task for a while. Maybe it's better that way, the lady now easily turns her attention to new dance partners in an instant. 

Maybe he thinks it's disrespectful and would like to make it harder for her to breathe, but he can't draw attention to himself. Padmé hardly moved from the table, her lookalike maidens sat around her and her company. 

Maul growled a little grumpily as a disgruntled grimace crossed his exotic features. He couldn't focus on Padme's conversation, what he overheard was a bit of nostalgia and a boring discussion of the economic situation.

He wanted to see those jade green eyes again. Before he could realize what he was doing, he used the shadows of the room again to look for the lady in the now familiar shiny dress. She was fucking lustful, her every move, the way she moved her hips, the way she tossed her hair, the way her hands ran seductively over her own body. The feeling of being near to her intensified as the young woman found his glooming eyes again. In a strange way, she always sensed his closeness quickly. This time, Maul happily acknowledged that the lady intended the dance for him, and the others only tools in a play of seduction that she creates and plays just for him. This pleased Maul’s ego. Taking advantage of a clever moment, Maul stood directly behind her. She was so close. Less than an arm's length away, the opportunity offered for the man to approach. Maul felt that this moment would quickly disappear if he didn't live with it. But for some reason, he still wanted their first touch to happen at a different time and place. Consciously controlling himself, he took the initiative with a soft caress, which surprised the woman, but Maul noted with satisfaction the approach of her body, she leaned closer to his chest. He could see the tattoo under the goosebumps running down her bare back, how much different it was from his. It's such elegant and delicate work, the exact opposite of his. This turned him on, he could feel the velvety skin and silky soft hair that belonged to the woman even through his gloved hands. Her body moves gracefully and seductively just for him. And the smell... it was sweet, fresh but not too intrusive at the same time. The man liked this, he instinctively leaned closer and the blend of fresh notes of dark cherries, bitter almond and a light hint of jasmine hit his senses. Interestingly, her hair had a fresh fruity scent, but Maul knew that if he leaned closer and sniffed the crook of her neck, the scent would be sweet, like the milla flowers bushes blooming on Naboo right now.

The scent only made the young woman even more attractive to him. As he touched her hips and began to dance with her in his own way, he closed his eyes and imagined for a moment what it would be like to taste and touch every part of her. What does she taste like? It must be sweet. Would the bed sheets smell like that in the morning, or would it evaporate like dew on a sunny morning as quickly as if it had never been there? Which of them would wake up first after a night of satisfyingly tangled up in each other and fucking?

Maul didn't understand why he thought such things, why did he overrode his obligations to his Master just to hold this unknown woman in his arms for a few minutes? Why did he feel the urge to pull her closer instead of letting go? He didn't even notice that his grip tightened on her hips, making her moan so sweetly that he forgot all the difficult thoughts and focused only on the now. Here. With her. In their own little dance which felt … strangely intimate. Yes it was strange to be like this with someone who was a stranger.  As she touched his neck softly, Maul had to control his instinct to not fuck her right there, where everyone would see, how he markes her as his. Hard and passionate. No hooker has ever made him feel this way with such intensity. And here is this green-eyed female, who is not so flashy, not so honey-glazed fake, not forcedly seductive. Although he didn't know her, when she turned to face him, he felt a strange feeling of warmth appear deeply in his stomach, a warm shiver running down his spine. It was soothing, comforting, he wanted more, but he didn't kiss her. When their foreheads touched again, he could easily read her. She felt the chemistry too and she wanted more too, to take things further. But could there be more, and further? Maul inhaled a deep breath of her scent and cursed to himself. He had only one task and only one rule. Watch the queen and stay undetected. He disobeyed because he acted on instinct, he listened to his desire and not to his master. He knew that this would not be without consequences. His master somehow always senses and knows the transgressions. He usually didn't ask why, just whether it was worth it. Yes, that's what he asked every time he was punishing.

”Is it worth it my apprentice?”

Really.... Is this green-eyed lady worth being disobedient to? An average person, a weak little human, a woman who can neither understand nor use force, a civilian. No!

Malul took advantage of the opportunity and left the woman's vicinity. With each step he moved further away from her, her body, her scent, he realized he didn't even know her name. With each step, his body signaled his dissatisfaction, but he had to listen to his own mind, because awareness leads to greatness. If there was anything Maul wanted besides revenge, it was the big greatness.

To make sure of this, he followed her home. At least this was the reason he used to calm down the ominous signal that his brain sent to his body. He is convinced that this human woman is truly not worth his attention and the risk to his great future. An average young woman with an average life.

Maul knew he would have disrupted both of their lives by kissing her.

Now he was glad his self-control had won and he hadn't.

But his heart called him a fool.

next chapter

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