#oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

I don’t think I could have made Ahene a more off-model inquisitor if I’d tried, and that’s very funny to me.

#io's rambling #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

So I’ve been playing post-Onslaught content, finally…

Ahene is having a terrible time, and originally when the post-Zildrog arc kicked off I was very depressed about it, but I’m actually enjoying it. Possibly my tolerance has increased for Putting That Character In Some Situations over the time I’ve spent writing Liminality. Probably it helps that I’ve been editing certain things in my head.

(For one thing, while she’s taking the saboteur plotline in-game, her actual goal is revolution in the Empire—and I’ve been playing to that as much as I can, so there were a fair number of times she hasn’t taken the saboteur options. I’d call out the speech, but I feel like it’s a given she didn’t do the saboteur speech. I’ve also been chewing on the thought of the Fleet not being totally destroyed, but stranded in Odessen unable to make hyperjumps without extensive retrofitting the Alliance doesn’t have the components for… but recently I’ve been feeling like “get the superweapon fleet back” is not the goal that aligns with the narrative themes here, and Ahene is not actually having the mental breakdown I was originally projecting on her, so I’m also kind of interested to see how the narrative where it’s actually gone goes.)

Anyway, having Rivix around has been fascinating, because I really see why people say that the Commander no longer gets “proper respect”—but I’m kind of into it, because the Watsonian explanation is that it’s deliberate. And that is such a dynamic with Ahene.

She hates Rivix, of course. It doesn’t help that he’s an insufferable flatterer, since she respects that not at all when it comes from someone who expects you to be taken in; she’s always considered that an insult to her common sense. (She can appreciate a well-placed compliment, but she doesn’t think anyone in the galaxy appreciates fawning—unless they’re forcing people to fawn over them for the power trip, which is odious but unfortunately comprehensible—and she’s not sure why people ever try it.) But it’s an extremely impersonal kind of hatred, because it’s not really about Rivix. It’s about the Empire seeing the Alliance’s current situation as the kind of fall from power that can’t actually be recovered from, and her as someone who reached beyond what her capabilities could hold. The ex-Councilor, the disgraced Commander, who could have had the galaxy in her grasp if she hadn’t choked.

The way Acina is treating her—partly by proxy of Rivix, but by policy as well—isn’t the way the game is played. You watch your important vassals with spies and “liaisons,” yes. (Rivix was never the problem on his own.) You do not station your troops all over their powerbase. It’s notable, there, that there’s no option to refuse the extra; all you can do is set conditions. Normal for a client state—but Sith are expected to give their vassals a degree of independence corresponding to their rank. Which means that, paradoxically, the insistently independent Alliance is given less leeway (at least in some directions) than Acina’s Council.

She has seen how the Empire treats minor planets’ leaders: as having some kind of status, but no respect, and no real say in the decisions made about them. Negotiations are a foregone conclusion, deals are worth only what you can enforce from them. And Rivix is a deliberate insult, meant to remind her that she is in that place.

Rivix shows up on her base unannounced and makes demands (that she only indulged because it might actually have been a crisis, and if it was, she would have been very foolish to make him wait to salve her ego). Rivix landed a Councilor on her base, also unannounced, and then tried to hustle her away before she actually told her command staff where specifically she was going. (Okay, the person she actually wanted—for a value of wanted—to call was Jonas, but that’s beside the point. Notifying her people would have been the proper thing to do even if she weren’t using it as a cover for her extracurricular activities.)

Rivix uses her briefing room to call Acina. Minor in the grand scheme of things, maybe, but it’s acting like he has as much of a right to the place as she does.

Of course, Rivix’s zeltron pheromones thing is probably part of all this, at least in that he’s likely used to people putting up with behavior they wouldn’t otherwise. But taken together, the political insult seems… deliberate.

Leeha went “…considering who you’re working for” at her, and it landed that it was not “working with,” but—that’s not a surprise. Ahene knows what people think about what’s happened. She’s playing along with it as much as she can without showing weakness; she’s obligated to put up a fight. And she’s angry with herself too, a bit, for how much this grates on her, when she’s opposed to the whole Sith game on principle—when she’s spent so long telling herself not to be invested in having power, in being treated as powerful. (Even if she outgrew that gnawing anxiety as she came to know herself better, to be more confident in her self-control… sometimes it comes up, when she’s feeling self-castigatory. Some things aren’t linear.) And she certainly doesn’t want people acting like she’s still Darth Occlus, but—

The Empire keeps insisting that she’s Imperial, that she is Sith. And they keep disrespecting her as one. She may have given up her title and her seat, but she had them, and they’re taking every opportunity to remind her that she currently does not. That she doesn’t have the ability, the right to control her own domain. That she would have had more agency if she stayed, and now they consider her another minor power to put on a leash.

Sith or not, it’s not something she can abide.

#yes this is a cleaned and edited version of a discord ramble #io plays swtor #(somehow not a tag i had) #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

Ahene: the galaxy is very strange and terrible but I’m a sensible reasonable kind of person about it. yes I do a lot of strange things but reality started being weird first so this is the appropriate response

Sirue: my girlfriend says so much weird shit and I love her—

#sirue's incessant desire to talk to ahene's memory is making it very clear to any doubters that ahene was always like that #io's rambling #oc: ahene coris #oc: sirue parhen

[sith-shenanigans]

I may fit the story, but I’m up to no good

A commission of Ahene by the lovely @gamma-rae! I knew the moment I saw their style that I really wanted to see Ahene in it, but kept missing it when she opened commissions. But this time I managed to catch a slot! And my horrible daughter came out basically exactly how I imagine her! Thank you for helping me bring my scruffy suspicious feral cat of an inquisitor to life ♥️✨

#swtor #sith inquisitor #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

well, um. I think we know about Vowrawn. Ahene's thoughts on [spins a wheel of blorbo NPCs] Satele? Sirue's on Silthar?

we do know about Vowrawn! many many things about yours, and incomprehensible complicated vibes about mine. however Jenû is an excellent addition to the problematic parental figure collection and this needs to be said anyway <3

Ahene’s opinions on Satele:

Technically, they first met in… professional contexts, which was Something, because Satele certainly got a fascinating kriffing impression from being on the other end of a negotiating table from Ahene and Marr. Ahene’s opinion at that point was mostly that Satele seemed fairly sensible and pragmatic, and was thankfully not convinced that this was all a Sith plot, which is really, really never a given. Later…

Theron’s family situation kind of reminds her of her own, once she’s willing to recognize the situation she has with Zahoin as a family situation. Her thoughts about Satele kind of start there—that she’s Theron’s mother in the ways Zahoin is Ahene’s father, and those aren’t the ways that make parents parents. And there’s a sort of self-recognition through the other, there, but… not entirely in the direction you’d expect. Ahene has spent a lot of time putting duties she didn’t choose ahead of anything and everything she actually wants for herself, sometimes at personal cost and sometimes at a cost to those around her, in the hopes that it will matter in the end.

Sirue’s opinions on Silthar:

Quite unlikely they’ll ever meet, but she’s heard of him (via Ahene, obviously) and she would like to know how Ahene has such a gift for finding these people. Sirue didn’t need like twenty Sith fathers-in-law, okay? She kind of likes him, though. #1 least annoying Darth from the gossip she’s heard in their mutual dreams, aside from screwing over the Implicitly Sexist Survivalist Brigade. Which isn’t great, but by Sith standards, he’s practically unproblematic.

(alas, I don’t think he joined the Alliance, after his injury during Tatooine he tries to avoid fighting and joining a guerrilla resistance movement isn’t really conducive to that.)

[npc opinions]

#asks #oc: ahene coris #oc: sirue parhen

[sith-shenanigans]

the problem is that Ahene is just much too fun to put through The Horrors

#she's so sad and wet #and i keep imagining things to do to her that don't fit the plot #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

The degree to which Ahene cares how she looks or doesn’t care how she looks seems really situational until you realize that she basically always cares how she looks, she just thinks it should be appropriate to the situation. She will definitely pretend she doesn’t care, though.

#won't admit she likes looking nice unless she has a Good Excuse to look nice #secretly also likes looking extremely disheveled because it's intimidating #every time there's some kind of appearance scene i end up just going… #your desire to control how you are perceived is indistinguishable from a slight vain streak #it's fun to have a 'my appearance is a weapon' character who isn't thinking about desirability though #she doesn't fit the archetype #but it's very much how she feels about her face #she's not into Looking Fancy (at least for its own sake) but she is very into calculating her appearance for the maximum effect on people #her rogue lord phase is disheveled and increasingly ill but she's playing an archetype very effectively #and she takes a surprising amount of pleasure in that #but she also does just like looking her definition of nice. it makes her feel like there's an identity there and not just a body #not ostentatious. just putting effort into looking more like herself than she does on her own #and she'll pretend to be indifferent to her appearance #but no one who is so wrapped up in how she is perceived could be /indifferent/ to her appearance #she just. has some weird criteria for what she likes in herself #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

hi

aaaaa

hi hello I am become dog frantically scuttling trying to grab the peapod

this is a delight and I am delighted and thank you so much—

#she looks PERFECT she looks like an awful tired eldritch disaster #she is an evil tbh creature #acts 2 and early 3 summed up right there #asks #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

1, 12, 14 & 15 for Ahene and Sirue from the character ask meme?

Ahene:

1. What is [character]'s favourite event, & what do they like about it?

Answered here.

12. If they had something named after them, what would they like it to be, and what would it really be?

Ahene: “I don’t want something named after me.” [pause] “…Maybe a museum.”

Yeah, her self-loathing is a little strong for this one. Objectively speaking, there are probably a few things out there that are named for her—or, at least, for her Sith title. She doesn’t like thinking about it, though. It’s unpleasant to know how the Empire sees her—what she’s being remembered for, long before she actually dies. It sits right at that terrible intersection of impressive and banal where the horror of what’s she’s actually doing lives.

14. What's their dream mount, & have they ever ridden it?

She uses the Lhosan Duster, most of the time, in-game. On my first playthrough, she bought it on Tatooine; it was her first mount, and she’d just saved up the credits. (She also didn’t use a saberstaff until Tatooine. We are not repeating that.) She wants the Command Corsair, but I don’t want to spend my cartel coins on that.

She is also weirdly attached to the Vectron Vertica, despite hating those dais things and feeling like, I quote, “very important skeet” in them. She likes a mount that it looks like she grabbed randomly in the middle of an industrial area, I guess.

Secretly, she thinks walkers are fun, but they’re not really… walking-around mounts.

15. If they had a career that wasn't one of the class options, what would it be (e.g. vet or nerf-herder)?

Baby pre-invasion Ahene wanted to be an SIS operative. Everyone knew Verios would join the Republic, and she was convinced that if she worked very, very hard in school, she could get into whatever training program they have. This wasn’t an idle “kids think spies are cool” thing—if Verios had joined the Republic instead of getting invaded, she would have done it. (And Ardun Kothe would have Very Definitely Not Had A Padawan.)

She’s always been a fairly weird kid.

Sirue:

1. What is [character]'s favourite event, & what do they like about it?

She’s not really particularly into any of them. Nar Shaddaa Nightlife is fun, except it gets quite boring quite fast. She’d probably like the pirate one, if I’d ever played it?

12. If they had something named after them, what would they like it to be, and what would it really be?

Sirue: “A starship, obviously. No, wait—a space station. Maybe Port Nowhere needs a new sign…” [little chuckle]

She’s not actually planning on renaming Port Nowhere after herself, she just thinks it’s funny to consider it. Honestly, it wouldn’t be about what got named after her, it would be about the fact that somebody did it at all. It means people are thinking about her and remembering her—that she’s not just going to burn up and be gone.

14. What's their dream mount, & have they ever ridden it?

Tragically, she also insists on the Lhosan Duster. For some kriffing reason.

Sometimes she flirts with getting one of the cartel skiff things, but they’re not actually her style. She just enjoys the idea of hijacking one.

15. If they had a career that wasn't one of the class options, what would it be (e.g. vet or nerf-herder)?

She doesn’t really want to be anything but what she is, career-wise.

In the AU where Verios never gets invaded, though, her dad gets elected to the executive seat and appoints her senator. She hates it. She’s simultaneously terrible at it and much better than she thinks.

[swtor character ask meme]

#asks #oc: ahene coris #oc: sirue parhen

[sith-shenanigans]

SWTOR Character Ask Meme, #8 and 20 for Ahene and Orinara, please :)

Ahene:

8. Is their voice different to the voice of the character in-game, and if so, how?

Yes, though the early-game f!inquisitor sounds much more like her. There’s a very particular progression that Xanthe Elbrick was going for, and it doesn’t actually… fit. So Ahene’s voice is definitely the f!inquisitor’s, but her accent is slightly less Kaasi-Imperial than the f!inquisitor’s, and her intonations mostly range from “blandly subordinate” (think all the times the baby inquisitor goes “As you say.”) to “cool and professional,” to “extraordinarily, exactingly sardonic,” with very occasional forays into “completely non-Imperial-accented and sincere.” She does not do the “no-I’m-dangerous-and-unstable-really” thing that the game’s voice acting is frequently trying to (especially later on), and the times where she actually is trying to convince someone that she’s dangerous and unstable, she tends to get very flat—quiet and intense, not sadistic. (You can predict sadism. You can predict fury and cruelty and all the things most people see as “unpredictable,” because all those things are emotions that can be roused. She wants people to see her as threatening in the way a natural force threatens: implacable, and with no levers at all.)

20. What's happening in their Heroic Moments?

Ghosts, mostly. Less with the orbital strike and such, but it’s not inconceivable that she could call in some close air support…

Orinara:

8. Is their voice different to the voice of the character in-game, and if so, how?

Nnnope. She sounds like the f!warrior. And all f!warriors, unfortunately, sound like her.

20. What's happening in their Heroic Moments?

Honestly… nothing, really, storywise. 99% of the time, she does not have Secret Zap. The Heroic Moment ability isn’t anything but a game mechanic for her.

[swtor character ask meme]

#asks #oc: ahene coris #oc: orinara izarae

[sith-shenanigans]

for ahene, from the interview ask meme: have you ever heard anyone tell you that you're eating the force ghosts? or any other terms to refer to force walking that are mildly incorrect, despite also being amusing?

[This is pre-Ziost Ahene. Post-Ziost Ahene’s answer is just, “Well, the Emperor thought I would,” and that just makes the interview awkward.]

Ahene gives the impression that she’s considering her words carefully, with a gaze that’s just a little too unmoving for a little too long. She probably expected a different question. One that would be more difficult to answer.

After a moment, she shrugs. “Boring answer, I’m afraid—I don’t really talk about it. No one outside my crew knows what, exactly, I do with ghosts.” She pauses, and then makes an equivocating gesture, tipping one hand from side to side. “I’m not sure I’d describe ‘eating’ as entirely inaccurate, anyway. They’re not absorbed, but… there’s something, ah, consumptive about the process. Maybe even on both ends.”

There are things she doesn’t dare tell anyone: that there’s a hunger that can fill you, for those moments, or maybe a satiation as sharp and clear as hollowness. She doesn’t like thinking about it. Not because it makes her feel like some eldritch monster, but because it’s probably the most wretchedly sapien emotion she’s ever felt.

She drums her fingers on the side of her chair, thoughtfully, and adds: “Talos once did call me a travel bag of ghosts, though.”

[interview an oc]

#asks #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

I know.. maybe half of those for Ahene already? But I'm going to ask 1 and 28, because they're two I don't think I do.

1. What is [character]'s favourite event, & what do they like about it?

Relics of the Gree. She just, as they say, thinks that the Gree are neat. And they’re old and weird, which she generally considers a plus.

28. What kind of ambient sound would appear around them?

It’s probably that Dark Temple whispering noise. But [weird wind rustles] is also a good option, and possibly an even more aesthetic one.

[swtor character ask meme]

#asks #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

they’re having a lesson

#i may have posted this already but i forgot #also zash wHY DO YOU HAVE CHAIRS IN FRONT OF YOUR CABINETS #what are you doing #swtor #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

me: *writing*

Ahene: “what if… ship droid.”

me: *heavy sigh*

#io's rambling #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

Recent realization: Ahene really just dislikes the idea of wearing a mask because she doesn’t like the helmet-y ones having neck armor. Her brain interprets it as a collar—if she wears one it will be because she wants the reminder. (Hello, trauma. We are not dealing with you in healthy ways tonight or ever.) She’s fine with face-only masks, she just chooses not to wear them because she’d rather you know she’s staring expressionlessly at you.

(She probably should have worn Kallig’s mask down to Quesh. It would have resulted in less… slamming a rebreather onto her face later.)

#just because you are toxin-adapted doesn't mean that was a good idea #io's rambling #oc: ahene coris

[sith-shenanigans]

@resumbrarum Sorry this took so long, love, I couldn’t decide what snippet to use and then ADHD brain dropped it while I wasn’t looking. >_>;;

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

From The House of the Dead, Part Three:

Khem made a derisive noise. “This creature is not your equal, little Sith. You should not treat him as such.”

Ahene moved her hand in a slow gesture, not looking at him, indicating nothing in particular. “If I’m a Sith,” she said, “I’m a Sith whether or not I treat him like an equal. If I’m not a Sith, acting like one doesn’t accomplish anything.” And were I a ‘proper’ Sith, I wouldn’t tolerate that from you.

A low, rumbling, bitter laugh. “Will that win you respect, little one?”

“Maybe from him.” Ahene’s eyes flicked towards Dorian again; he was understandably quiet, unwilling to interrupt and remind them he was more than a subject of argument. Then she turned to Khem, who stood with one clawed hand flat on a counter. He was probably trying to loom over her. “You cannot expect an apprentice,” she said, “to win allies the same way as an ancient Jen’ari. Even if I had his raw power, even if I had his skill in combat. Khem, I understand you’re grieving, I understand I’m the poorest substitute—but it’s not strength to disregard the allies you can actually get. Just because you served the highest lord, because you had no need to court the other servants…” She stepped towards him, jerking up her chin, meeting his eyes in what she knew was challenge. Her voice dropped to a hiss. “That doesn’t mean the Sith thought of you as a peer.”

The bond twisted and pulled tight, and suddenly—without so much as a shift in expression—something in Khem’s eyes reminded her viscerally of the predator he was. They shone like coals in the dark. Like hunger. It was—was that what she had been hoping for? “Do not speak of my past, little one,” he hissed. “You will not compare me to that sniveling creature. You will not compare me to yourself. The leash you hold on me is not so strong as you imagine.” He lifted a hand towards her, slowly, as if to try again to take her by the throat. “It is a fragile and tenuous thing.”

“All leashes are,” said Ahene, her mouth gone dry from too-still fear. She was terribly, terribly aware that this was the wrong thing to do. But the alternative was backing down. And she wasn’t sure she could stop herself.

“I was the greatest of the Shadow Killers on Urkupp, little Sith, when Tulak Hord came before me. It was not the first time one of the lords of Korriban sought out a member of my order. But none other had still been on my Mistress’s world. The others who found their way to the employ of the Sith left on ships our predecessors had bargained for, seeking to feed their hunger and defer their final price. Yet Tulak Hord came to me, when he was not yet Jen’ari, with only a rebreather to save him from the sapping air. His challenge was an honorable one. Even weakened by the world’s poison sky, he claimed victory.” Khem’s movements were soft enough, fluid enough, that his approach barely seemed like motion. He was simply a pace closer. Within reach to grab her easily, if he wanted to—and if he could. “I served him out of honor. Out of devotion.” His voice dropped further, into a register that felt nearly unsapien. “I was his ally, little one—not his slave.”

He had strongly implied his homeworld was a resource desert, any self-sufficient path to space closed from the beginning. He probably hadn’t been naive to swear himself. But afterward, what homeworld title would matter? When you had no way to back out and nowhere to go if you did, all you had flowing from another’s power, as bound by your own nature as if it had been unwilling—

“Were you?” said Ahene, quiet but hard-edged. “Not many people lock their allies in stasis for centuries.”

“If not for the cruelties of fate, he would have returned for me.” The bond roiled with deep sorrow, deeper anger. “You, little Sith, would be rid of me forever if you had the power. And you speak of allegiance? Ha.” He brought his hand down, slowly, the tip of a claw coming centimeters from the base of her neck. “You know nothing of its meaning. Only the pull of a chain.”

(The bond straining, straining—)

Ahene took his hand and shoved it aside, her will burning with the effort of holding both of them back. She was shaking, but she was steady. “You attacked me,” she hissed. “You chose the fight, Khem. You simply didn’t expect to lose.” It probably wasn’t a good thing, that fear was giving her confidence. But it was such familiar ground. “Some people would say that you deserved the result.”

“And would you, little one?”

“Would you?” asked Ahene. She tipped her head up and to the side, a critical little motion. “I feel you would,” she told him, “if it was anyone but you.”

Okay, this is very long, but I just couldn’t excerpt it more than this. I am so proud of all of it. Because Ahene is so horribly aware of things Khem very much ignored about his prior service, and she’s not wrong that Khem’s situation is kind of his own fault, but also at the same time she’s lashing out at him because she’s lonely and scared and isolated from anyone she could have a normal kind of relationship with, and she can lash out at him. In ways she isn’t willing to do when it’s anyone else, because the other people she has the ability to lash out at are small and fragile and frequently people she identifies with, and Khem is giant and tough and insults her all the time and used to be a conqueror’s right hand.

He stared levelly back at her, eyes deep embers in the dim-lit room. The flickering glowsticks cast shadows on his skin. “Perhaps it is so,” he eventually admitted, inclining his head and shoulders. “But you still push too far, little Sith, and only in the places you have no right to.”

The victory—if that was what it was—felt suddenly hollow, in exactly the way the bite of adrenaline hadn’t. Ahene shifted her gaze away, glancing back towards Dorian. “Maybe I do,” she muttered. “But…” But she was right, damn it, and she knew she was right. She hadn’t done the best job of beseeching, but no one had forced Khem to draw his sword and rant about eating her. The current situation was no one’s fault but his own.

She wished that made it better. She wished she could justify taking her constant nerve-fraying frustration out on him. The galaxy would be so much simpler. But the sick shock of joy when he’d responded in kind—

Void. Void, no. Nothing could have justified that.

But she still realizes what she’s doing, and that it’s… kind of not okay! Because even if she can be cold and ruthless (and moreso as time goes on), she has very clear ideas about how you’re supposed to treat people. And if something is wrong, it’s wrong. You might have to do it anyway, but you don’t get to wave your hands about trying to convince yourself why it isn’t wrong this time. Especially since the reasons usually boil down to “because I wanted to do it” and “because the person I’m doing it to deserves it.”

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I actually enjoy those self-insert/isekai fics with the overpowered OCs. Not all of them, not ones that aren’t well-written, but “what if we toss a hammer at this carefully constructed universe via a person who Does Not Belong Here?” is a question I always want to see answered.

Here’s one I’ve enjoyed a lot that I’d recommend even to people who don’t usually like the genre, though the world in question is Gor, with all the content warnings that implies: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34575955/chapters/86067589

My writing guilty pleasure is absolutely incomprehensible to anyone that doesn’t live in my brain. It… exists, but begs the question of “what are you trying to say” and “why is this a guilty pleasure” and I have no answers here.

It’s… something like “psychological/social horror where the horror is that despite whatever morals you have you Want It,” for whatever value of it is at hand, and I want to roll around in it like a dog. Yes, I write that frequently. No, I could not tell you why I want to cover my face with my hands every time.

[fanfic ask game]

#asks #oc: ahene coris