#subterfugeverse oneshot

[chaoticspacefam]

all their words for glory, they always sounded EMPTY

You make me laugh until I die, can you think of any better way to choke? 

And all their words for glory

Well they always sounded empty

[....] 

Way down here upon the ground

When we're lying in the dirt

There's no looking up for heaven ~ Bastille - Glory

CW: Sith Inquisitor (Alderaan) spoilers, Angst, Character Death and some Hurt/Comfort kinda-sorta-I guess at the end there XD, Below the cut!

Ni’kasi had feared the worst when Elana Thul had holo’d her to give her the news of the ambush at House Organa and that Urtel hadn’t reported back. Although they still had to travel to the Elysium and find the artifact that Zash was near-rabid about her tracking down, she felt compelled to take a momentary detour and help a fellow Sith - after all, Urtel had been nothing but kind to her, in more ways than one. As expected, they had arrived at the House Organa building to find the place in shambles, and any of the rest of Urtel’s party were far too close to death’s door to be of much use in telling her where he was. Ni’kasi’s stomach twisted into an uncomfortable knot, and with a quick glance back at Andronikos to ensure the pirate was still at her side, the Pureblood took off at a run, purple bolts of electricity streaming from her fingertips to mow down any Jedi that dared try and block her path. The dull thrum of Andronikos’ blaster rifle behind her told the Pureblood that he kept close pace with her, firing at anything that she missed as she frantically searched the halls for the other Sith.

“Urtel!” she kept calling out every few paces, but never received an answer. “Urtel?!” 

Ni’kasi skidded to a stop as she rounded the corner and this time came upon a sealed blast door, hissing through her teeth in frustration. The pirate pulled up next to her, letting out a quiet, confused grunt of his own. The yelp of pain in a familiar voice on the other side of the security door launched both of them out of their adrenaline-induced stupor and back into action. Andronikos, despite his apparent earlier protests of jealousy, quickly raised his blaster and fired twice at the controls to deactivate the lockdown, barking. “Go, GO!” at her. Ni’kasi didn’t need to be told twice, the Pureblood launching forward and flying through the half-opened doorway just in time to watch the Jedi run the young Sith through with his saber.

“No!”

Ni’kasi only vaguely heard the pirate behind her curse, her vision turned red, she simply closed the distance between herself and the Jedi at alarming speed. Before the fool could so much as blink the Pureblood had extended her own hands, lightning engulfing him and streaming in a torrent around the man’s body until whatever tension was left in the muscles of his legs could no longer hold him up and the corpse dropped to the ground in front of her with a dull thump. 

Andronikos put a blaster bolt between the bastard’s eyes for good measure while Ni’kasi was more preoccupied with running to Urtel. She dropped to her knees next to him, yanking her visor up with one hand whilst the other tucked behind his head to try and hold it up. It was a solid, through-and-through stab, and the singe of burnt flesh filled the air. Urtel coughed, his eyes glassy and unfocused, but as he sensed the other Force presence beside him he did try to look in Ni’kasi’s direction. “....Y-You came back.”

“Of course I came back, silly.” she croaked, her voice cracking as she stared down at him in disbelief, knowing full well there was nothing that she could do that would save him now…but she couldn’t bear to leave him. “I couldn’t let you have all the fun now, could I?” 

Urtel tried to laugh, but the sound came out as more of a strangled wheeze than anything else. 

“...Wh-Where do…you think…we go when we die?” he choked out, voice strained. She could smell the fear radiating off of him, it settled around her like a snake, constricting tighter and tighter as he continued. “I have never…been afraid, before-” Glancing upwards to make sure they weren’t about to be set upon, she found Andronikos had taken up a post by the door, glancing over his shoulder at her to flash the Sith inquisitor a faint, but reassuring smile. I’ve got this. Stay with him.

Ni’kasi shushed Urtel softly, settling next to him and cradling his head the best she could. She couldn’t save him. But at least he wouldn’t have to die alone and afraid. “Shhh, shh shh. Hey. Look at me, it’s okay.” she promised, willing herself not to cry. “Urtel. Look at me, it’s okay. I’m here. I’m right here.” the Pureblood whispered, her own breath leaving her in a shuddering gasp as she leaned down to press a soft kiss to the other Sith’s forehead. “I’m not leaving you. I’ll be right here…”

She felt some of the tension in his muscles relax at her assurances, and her heart broke all over again.

“...Th-Thank you.”

“I’m so sorry.” she murmured back, with all sincerity. “I should have been quicker-”

“You are here. That’s all that m-matters.” Urtel managed to give her a final, weak smile, reaching up with a shaky hand to try and brush aside the stray lock of hair that had fallen past her visor.

His fingers never touched her hair before the Sith went limp in her arms. 

***

The rest of the report to Elana Thul went by as a blur, Ni’kasi couldn’t say she remembered much of it at all, but one sentence in particular kept buzzing around her skull like an angry hornet as she went through the motions of fetching the stupid artefact for Zash and came back to the ship to deliver the report to her master. 

Asset.

He was an asset. 

Zash, too, described the fallen Sith Lord in similar terms, when Ni’kasi had brought up the news of his death her master had waved it off in a very nonchalant fashion, as if it didn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things (and realistically, to Sith it didn’t).

“Oh, that is most unfortunate, apprentice. But nothing you need concern yourself with. We will find other Sith to replace the posts so that House Thul will remain safe - and more importantly, indebted to us.” 

Asset. Just an asset.

Years of holding her tongue in the slave pits of Dromund Kaas served Ni’kasi well, but she was immensely glad for her oversight of not removing her visor when they’d returned to the ship. It meant Zash wouldn’t be able to see the look in her eyes as she bristled at the blasé tone in the Darth’s voice and instead forced out an agreement of: “Of course, my Lord. It wouldn’t do to lose their favour now.”

“No indeed. Elana Thul invited you to a little celebration, I hear?” Zash continued, shaking Ni’kasi back into the present and forcing her to put her own emotions at bay for the time being.

“Y-Yes, my Lord. Though I’m of half mind to decline.”

Zash beamed at her, suspiciously cheerful. It unsettled her.

“No, by all means, you two go and enjoy yourselves for a few hours! You’ve earned it!” the Darth insisted. “I’ll see you back on Dromund Kaas immediately afterward, but what is life without a few of the indulgences, mhm?” 

“If you insist, Master.” the Pureblood dipped her chin, leaning her hands against the edge of the projector as Zash disconnected the call. The hologram of the Darth blinked out of existence, and Ni’kasi finally exhaled the breath she hadn’t even realised she had been holding in, her head drooping in defeat.

“You alright, Sith?”

The Pureblood said nothing, but the way that she wordlessly reached up with one hand, all but ripped the mask from her face and threw it across the main hold, said everything. 

“Okay. Yeah. Stupid question, I know.” she heard Andronikos’ footsteps behind her as the pirate slowly approached her from where he had been leaning on the bulkhead, just out of view of the projection lens. 

Ni’kasi said nothing at first, a low snarl slipping from between her teeth as she braced the hand back against the projector. “You…wanna talk about it?” Andronikos offered, a little wary, but apparently trying his best to be supportive regardless.

She had no words to tell him how much she appreciated it. For several long moments, they stand in silence, the pirate staring at her, and the Sith staring at the grain of the metal beneath her. Her fingers trembled as they curled against the surface they were pressed against, as if imagining something else beneath them instead. 

Asset. Asset. Replaceable.

“They don’t even care.” she spat, words laced with contempt, without looking up at Andronikos. “None of them care that he’s dead. All they care about is the fucking war.” 

Maybe the Empire was far more broken than she had first thought.

“Yeah. Not so great of ‘em, is it? Seems to be a regular thing for…other Sith.”

“He was a person.” Ni’kasi growled in protest, before Andronikos could imply she should be lumped in with Zash’s ilk, the threat of angry tears stinging in her eyes though none fell. “He was a person, not an asset.” she might not have had feelings for Urtel. But she had liked him, and he didn’t deserve to die. Not like that. He deserved to have someone care about the fact that he was gone, not just brush over it like he was another karking statistic and rush to find his next replacement.

“I know.” Andronikos nodded, sighing deeply as he propped his hip against the projector next to her. “And I get that you’re angry…just, don’t start swingin’ at me for it, yeah?”

The Pureblood barked out a dry laugh, finally lifting her head. “I would never.” she promised, trying to soften her tone. “I wouldn’t want to scare you off.” the ghost of a smile flickered across her lips as she studied him, then. “I would miss you.”

Andronikos smiled back at her, gently. “I’d miss ya too, Sith.” he promised, spreading his arms out in a silent question. She couldn’t recall the last time she had gotten a hug. The concept seemed almost…foreign, to the inquisitor now. But something about the gesture soothed some of the hurt she felt in that moment and so, equally as silent, she stepped into his arms with a sigh.

“We don’t gotta go to that party if you don’t want.” he mumbled into her hair as she pressed her forehead into his jacket and took a deep, but shaky breath. “We can just…sit here for a bit, I guess, if Zash is so insistent on giving us “time off”.”

She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head into his shoulder. “No. I…think it’d be good to take my mind off things, the wine will help with that.” 

Not that she would need much of it. But still. It would help. 

“Can’t say I wouldn’t look forward to seein’ you done up in an evening gown.” Ni’kasi could hear the grin in the pirate’s voice. “Alright, then. We’re all set for travelling to Kaas when we’re done, so…” whenever she was ready, essentially.

“Then far be it from me to disappoint.” she joked back. The Pureblood closed her eyes for a moment, soaking in the comforting, familiar contact for just a moment longer before she finally wiggled out of the pirate’s grip and stepped back. “Okay. But meet me in the cargo hold first.” 

Andronikos’ expression is one of equal parts confusion and hopefulness as he tilted his head at her and asked. “What for…?”

“I’m going out on a limb and I’m going to assume you don’t know how to dance.” the Sith grinned back at him. “We’re going to have to fix that before we leave, can’t have you embarrassing me can I~”

#swtor #swtor fanfiction #elven's writing #by the stars #subterfugeverse #subterfugeverse oneshot #swtor oc: ni'kasi ahaszaai #sith inquisitor #sith inquisitor spoilers #(i mean...this part has been out for a decade now but *just in case* lmfao) #andronikos revel #urtel moren #ni'kasi/andronikos #hi hello i am working on other things i owe people i SWEAR #but i had an uncontrollable urge to write this this evening. so i did. #listen urtel always gives me *FEELINGS* #and while i do agree that thematically it makes *sense* that the thuls and the others don't *care* #it upsets me immensely that *even if you have a fling with him*; the only responses your inq can give are super flippant and nonchalant too #so have a oneshot of kas's *ACTUAL* reaction to the urtel thing ;;-;; #good thing andronikos gives good hugs huh 🥺 #listen he can be very somft when he wants to be and she really needed that hug this time lmao #also yes the end *IS* a reference to the dance scene/oneshot i posted wips of before #its still in WIP hell atm cause i had no idea where to slot it in in the story #but *NOW* i do so i will 100% be editing/finishing that up too #consider that the fill in the gaps oneshot(s) of how kas and andronikos got serious <3 #oh and pls excuse any borked/weird formatting; i did the vast majority of the formatting via mobile so i may have missed some italics etc #sjejjdkdjd #but other than that pls enjoy the angst #i do plan to post this & the other ask oneshots on AO3 sometime soon #when i can get enough PC time to do the formatting hahaha

[chaoticspacefam]

[Oneshot] How To Pacify A Sith

Author’s Notes

Alt title: Angy Sith (Pureblood) Survival Class 101 /jk

I wrote this one like a couple months ago and then totally forgot to post it anywhere outside of discord oopsie! So here, have this! I wanted to try out “present tense” writing for this piece cause it’s not a style I often use, but if there are mistakes esp. with the verbs/adverbs, this is why and I apologise and will correct any mistakes as they are pointed out to me! XD

TMW a Force sensitive gets so mad that even Force-blind people around them can ✨feel it✨ and you know if you don’t de-escalate that shit right now it’s gonna end badly jsgdjkgdjkdg Good thing Koth knows his girlfriend well enough to talk her out of it tho! 💖

Obligatory disclaimer that Rai is very highly emotional in the first place to start with, even before we take the whole Umbara thing into account, and she’s even MORE emotional/defensive when it comes to her partners. She doesn’t mean the things she’s saying right now, she’s reacting (knee-jerk style), out of anger and fear and that’s the entire point of this oneshot. She does care about Theron as a friend and she would absolutely not say these things about/to him if she was thinking straight. She is not thinking straight. That’s 👏 the 👏 point. 👏 Saarai’s reaction to the whole Umbara situation are not a word for word representation of my opinion of Theron Shan as a character and should not be treated as such. I like him (as a friend for my characters), but he messed up here and now he’s gotta deal with the consequences of his actions. I shouldn’t have to say that but to avoid any potential dust-ups with that side of the fandom, I am doing so (and will not be putting this in the theron tag out of courtesy for theron fans, I will be tagging as “theron critical” just to avoid potentially upsetting any mutuals/friends who I know like the character and might have that tag blocked so pls use your own discretion if you choose to go on and read this anyway! 🤗 ❤️), I cannot believe that I have to specify this for some of you people but in the interest of saving my time and sanity here it is in clear black & white for you 🙄

CW: Spoilers for the Crisis on Umbara flashpoint, violence/death threats towards a pretty popular character in the fandom, and swear words below the cut. Do not read on if you might be sensitive to any of the themes/content mentioned in this warning. I am not liable if you ignore this warning and/or choose to not read it and click through anyway. Use your braincells and do not willingly expose yourself to triggers so you can start a fight with me, thank you <3

Everyone's staring.

...the Empress' muscles are wound tight as coils, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Her sulfur-yellow eyes are glowing, and fixed on the blast door that Koth and Lady Occulus are currently standing in front of, blocking the way. He takes another step towards the Pureblood and fights every instinct that tells him to turn tail and run away as she bares her fangs and snarls like an enraged tuk'ata. "Saarai-"

"Koth. Move!" she booms, it's an order, not a request. He stands firm, hands out, palms up. "I said MOVE!" there's an unnatural, almost ethereal echo to her voice, and even a Force-blind individual like Koth can feel the sheer power radiating off her in waves. She's dangerously close to going over the edge, and if it had been two years ago, when they had first met, maybe he would be afraid that she would. But not this time. He knows Saarai, he can get through to her. Lady Occulus does not share the pilot's optimism.

"Vortena." the Darth's voice is sharp-edged between worry and warning, and he knows she too is poised to lunge across the small gap separating them, to pull him back and take his place instead...because if anyone currently standing in that hallway has the physical strength to withstand the full brunt of a rampaging adult Pureblood hitting them with all the force of a Star Destroyer, it's Saarai's twin sister.

Koth freezes, turns his head to glance at the other Sith out of the corner of his eye and insists, firm but gentle. "I've got this." Occulus grunts and eyes him with trepidation, but doesn't move an inch....for now. 

"I know you're mad." Okay, that's an understatement; she's raging, exuding enough "Pissed Off Homicidal Sith" energy that the whole damn corridor is crackling with it, with the Pureblood at the epicenter. His words earn him another deep, guttural growl: "I'm gonna gut that bastard!" "You're not. You said that about me last year on the Gravestone, and I'm still here." the pilot counters, taking another, bigger, stride forwards. Saarai's eyes zero in on him. Good. He's got her off the door, theoretically off Theron and onto him, and that's a start. Another step lands him right in front of the Empress, and when she stoops down closer to his height Koth chuckles internally. Even if Saarai thinks she's doing it to get in his face and be intimidating, she keeps making this so much easier for him.

Koth continues speaking slowly, using his words to distract Saarai from the movements his hands make at the same time. He carefully reaches up to cup her face in his palms, and ignores the panicked huff of breath from Occulus as the other Pureblood realises what he's trying to do, too.

Saarai won't hurt him. Koth knows that, and he wishes Occulus would acknowledge that because he knows that deep down she knows it too.

"Easy. Shhh-shhh, shh. It's me." He shushes her soothingly as the Empress flinches when his hands touch her skin, and for a moment he blinks, having forgotten just how hot it could get when she got into a state like this. Her spurs continue to rattle, but she doesn't rip herself from his grasp, or fling him away, though she does grind out through clenched teeth: "He hurt Lana-"

"I know, yeah." Koth croons in agreement. But they both knew their partner had survived far worse than a single blaster bolt to the stomach before. She'd be fine. Probably pissed to all hells at Theron too, but that was a problem for them to tackle together after Lana was allowed to leave the medbay. "And that's like the button, I know, honey...I know."

Someone shuffles nervously and Koth doesn't dare look back to find out who, but he has to pull her attention back to him before she gets distracted or this is going to go really wrong, really quick. "Hey, look at me. Don't look at them, Rai, look at me. Easy..." he exhales a quiet breath of relief as the glow emanating from her irises flickers, then starts to fade. "H-He could have killed her, killed Vano!"

"He didn't. He didn't. I'll take you to see her just now." Koth promises, and once he's sure she's calm enough not to bite his nose off, leans in to press his forehead to the Pureblood's. "I'm not exactly happy with the lunkhead, either. I'm gonna punch him in the nose for you, cause I can do it without rolling his head onto the floor." "Koth..." it's half a growl, this time, but the echo is dissipating, even if her face is still dour. He has to pay for this. "We'll deal with it. But you and I both know if you go in there and kill him now, you're gonna hate yourself for it later, love." the pilot whispers, finally lifting his head again as the Empress exhales a shuddering breath....

And keens in distress, deflating into his arms, and her rage with her. "That's it...easy, I've got you, I've got you..." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she keeps whimpering, over and over again.

The pilot drops with her, half staggering beneath her weight, but he refuses to let her go. He knows she needs him right now, and so he cradles her head against his chest as best he can in that position, running his fingers through her hair in a comforting motion. "I know. Its okay, Rai...I've gotcha. I'm right here, shhh shhh shhh~"

He hears everyone behind him breathe out, half in utter amazement and half in relief.

It’s over. He actually pulled it off.

"You. Are a madman." the Empress' twin grumbles at him as she approaches to help him support Saarai's weight more comfortably - damn, if this was going to be a regular thing he was so gonna have to work out more. "She could have killed you." The Zakuulan scoffs. If he didn't know better, he'd almost think it sounds like Occulus was trying to scold him. Had she been worried about him? "I told you. I've got this."

#swtor #elven's writing #swtor fanfic #subterfugeverse oneshot #crisis on umbara spoilers #theron critical #theron shan critical #swtor oc: saarai ahaszaai #the outlande #LS! eternal empress #(she's not acting like it in this particular oneshot but she *is* i swear skhskhsk) #koth's life flashed before kas's eyes here *FOR SURE* she was standing there like #kas: great now i will *also* have to explain to my sister how she mauled her bf because he won't listen to me and not poke the angry tuk'ata #what kas (and others) often forget is that rai and koth just *get each other* so yes; koth absolutely *can* talk rai down out of shit #that even kas or lana might struggle with. that's just how their vibe/bond works ;3; #also...i love them <3 if that wasn't clear lol) #koth vortena #saarai/koth #tw: threats of violence #tw: violence #tw: death threats #(ICly as said...rai's thoughts here do not reflect a) her rational thoughts/feelings or b) my feelings as the author) #theron absolutely does not deserve to be hurt for what he did but he *does* deserve reprimand for trying to murder his boss *and* his friend #in a really dumb/poorly executed plan. he done goofed and he's gonna be losing clearance priveliges for it for a while #he's got some reflection/apologising to do sjkhsksgs #also yes friendly refresher that as per my headcanons for subterverse; adult purebloods hit HARD and it is HURTY #add ''i am angry asf and not excercising emotional regulation properly like i normally would'' to the mix and it would be like #being hit by a fckn...semi-truck going wayyy over the speed limit or some shit #koth was sorta-kinda stupid here but its ok bc it was an ''i know what i'm doing and am 100% confident she won't hurt *ME* kinda stupid XD #(kas still thinks he's an idiot & was *very* concerned for his wellbeing yes lmao)

[chaoticspacefam]

Strikhedonia - The pleasure of being able to say “to hell with it”. for an oc/pairing that you think would best suit the prompt - KH💙 (p.s. sorry for accidentally unfollowing you when trying to click on the 'ask' button 🤪)

(no worries and likewise I am SO SO SORRY that this took me two years to finish up I am horrified by that 😭🥺 I had a l o t of fun with this one even if it took me 5ever to transfer it from script to actual Prose so I hope it’s worth the wait and y’all enjoy!! <3) A/N:

This one is set just after > Kiss With A Fist <  so if you’re new and/or you don’t remember the kiss they’re arguing about, it’s in that oneshot! :D

Strikhedonia - noun. The pleasure of being able to say “to hell with it”. This one came from the “obscure word/definition” ask game a while back. Sadly far back enough that I do not have the link but ANYWAY its finally here yaaas!! The alternative title for this one is “How much Unresolved Sexual Tension can I fit into one Oneshot?” and the answer, I am happy to report, is “Yes”. XD

Wai Tarar = the official title/rank term for the Ahaszaai royals’ personal bodyguards, each Ahaszaai has a minimum of one, but more commonly between 2-3 ESPECIALLY for the current ruling Emperor(ess) and/or their heir(ess) ;)  It’s literally just High Sith for “Royal Protector” but it sounds so much more fancy in High Sith xP

Falling in love with your bodyguard is a little less scandalous when your father happens to think he Has Very Nice Genes, Actually, and This Could Work In Our Favour so "You know what, go ahead" XD in case anyone is wondering WHY Vastas doesn't care. Kissai's got Massassi blood in his line, and Grampy Ahaszaai thinks it'd be neat to get a little of that in the future grandkids 😉

No specific warnings for this one. Just two idiots very obviously in love, and - oh my god she’s done denying it? D’leah’s not playing hard to get anymore?? /lh XD You can also read on > AO3 < if you’d prefer the formatting there! :D

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D'leah had been rather surprised to catch the eye of her Wai Tarar across the sea of other Sith Lords and Darths, decked out to their nines in glitz and glamour in the manner she would have well expected of the High Sith families that associated with her father. Of course, it was not a problem that he had come, as her principle protector it was almost certainly…encouraged that Kissai attend in order to stand guard for the Ahaszaai line during the festivities, he would not be the only Wai Tarar in the crowd. But the Sith heiress simply couldn't shake the realization that Kissai was not in his red armour, this time, but rather a suit of the more formal kind. It couldn't be….that he was here for her, surely? 

On an impulse, she caught his eye as she wove her way through the crowd and headed for the nearby balcony, the cool night breeze stirring her cheeks as she stepped out of the stuffy palace ballroom. Leaning against the balustrade, she exhaled softly and waited, listening to the lilting notes of the classical music that drifted towards her through the open balcony door. Before long, the sound of carefully measured footfalls reached the heiress' ears, and she calmly turned to face him. She had nothing to fear from this man, she knew that much.

"Dance with me, my Lord?" He inquired, eyes bright with hope as he held a hand out towards her. The heiress' gaze lingered on his outstretched palm for a fraction too long, before finally darting up to meet his, the tips of her jaw spurs trembling. He cleaned up remarkably well, for a commoner…

Somehow, the fact that he had waited until she had beckoned him outside, away from the prying eyes of every kriffing Sith aristocrat in the Empire, to ask for her hand at all only made it *worse* for her. Damn it, his sister's right. You've got it BAD, D'leah.

Besides, nobody would see them out here, so what harm would one dance do? If he cared half as much as she liked to pretend that he did, D'leah knew her father would never have let her leave the palace with her guard in tow - Emperor Ahaszaai had eyes everywhere, and someone watching out for her at all times.

So, the heiress slid her hand delicately into his, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards into a faint half smirk as she purred teasingly. "You have nice manners, for an Outskirter~"

The taller Pureblood scoffed softly as she stepped into his grasp, his fangs flashing in a grin. "Last I checked, my Lord, your father was quite enamoured with my manners."

D'leah raised a browstalk in surprise. "Enamoured", huh? He'd taken to using a lot of big words around her of late…he really was trying to impress her, she was sure of it.

"I can't imagine why he would think that." She smirked back at him, bringing her other hand to rest on his shoulder, though she did have to pivot onto her toes ever so slightly. He was so tall...

They fell into a steady and well-balanced set of steps in time with the tempo of the music from the ballroom, and Kissai guided her into a twirl, humming softly under his breath. "Hmm. You know what I think?" 

D'leah made a curious, prompting noise in the back of her throat, her breath almost catching when he effortlessly caught her out of the spin and dipped her down in time with the swell of the music. His hand was warm against the small of her back, even through the fabric of her evening gown, "you like it." the taller Pureblood breathed, a hint of a query to his tone still.

Kissai was right, she knew he was. But the Sith heiress wasn't quite ready to admit it just yet. She wanted him to work for it. She chuckled as nonchalantly as she could manage, allowing him to pull her upright and sweep her into the next set of steps. "Well, I think you’re a fool who is wholly overconfident in himself~" 

The taller Pureblood's fangs flashed in a grin, and without thinking about it, he retorted cheekily. "That makes two of us, then, doesn't it, my Lord?" 

The realisation dawned on his face as D'leah's arm snapped taut with the next step she took, the heiress' eyes fixing on him as she hissed sharply. 

"And you have grown over comfortable being so casual with me, Izreni." It should have been a warning, and on her first reflex D'leah had meant for it to be one, but when the words actually came out of her mouth they sounded far more like a returning quip than she had intended. The Wai Tarar scoffed, indignant, and raised a browstalk at her as he protested: "You kissed me. If you wished for me to leave you alone, my Lord, you've done a very poor job in telling me so."

“I did.” she nodded, squashing the urge to smirk as he blinked at her in utter surprise that she had admitted to it, like a gizka caught in the headlights. D’leah drew in another deep breath to keep her composure, shutting her eyes for a moment as she reminded him, her voice far more amused than scathing. “And if I saw fit I could kill you where you stand for speaking to me that way.” “I know.” the Wai Tarar answered in much the same tone. She wasn’t quite sure how, but somehow their back-and-forth had deviated from their standard back-and-forth banter to become simply exchanges of facts they were both well aware of already. The heiress was losing, and she knew it. She shifted her weight onto the balls of her feet as they twirled again, and as she returned to his hold, he smirked and asked. “Then why are you out here with me, and not in there with the other High-born brats, my Lord?” 

The Ahaszaai heiress opened her eyes to meet his gaze once more, willing her heart to stop skipping violently against her ribcage when she did. “They bore me.” she admitted at length, stepping closer to Kissai as the tempo of the music that floated out from the ballroom behind them began to slow. “You, on the other hand…” She felt his grip on her tighten, not by much, but enough that D’leah took note of it, and hummed wordlessly in response. It took a moment for the taller Sith’s brain to catch up with the rest of his senses, but when it did she watched the spurs against his jaw flex in anticipation. His voice grew husky as he muttered. “Darindz artsisasi ki, ctarzari…”

D’leah let out a sultry chuckle in retort. “Nu sarjia j’us kaisijas oi…”

His gaze flicked from hers, to the door behind them, reflexive panic written on his features clear as day. “What would your father say?” he floundered, as if forgetting he had just moments ago used an entirely contradictory argument when their dance had started. The Ahaszaai High Lady could no longer contain her own laughter, throwing her head back to cackle aloud and feeling the tips of his claws curl against her spine as she did so. “Do you believe he’d let his heiress wander off with any old vagabond who asked her for her arm? He knows exactly where I am.” D’leah raised a prompting browstalk at him. “If he didn’t like you, Izreni, he would not allow you anywhere near me.” much less anything else. And she knew that Kissai knew that just as well as she did. 

“I see…” the Wai Tarar’s jaw spurs trembled, but still he daren’t move, nor had his hands travelled any lower in spite of her offering him an invitation to do so on a silver platter. Kissai was waiting for her to come to him. His self control was admirable, and oh so attractive....

Deciding to indulge him for the second time, the heiress stretched up on her toes to brush her lips ever so gently against his as she cooed softly. “Or are you scared, Kissai~?” 

She felt, rather than heard, his breath hitch, and after a moment to compose himself he managed to get out the words, low enough that only D’leah would hear them. “Such thoughts are hardly proper in polite company, princess.”

“Ah, of course.” she grinned, a purr rumbling in her throat as she stepped out of his arms to take the taller Pureblood’s hand into hers instead. D’leah did not miss the low chuff of disappointment that he made as she moved away from him, but nonetheless released his grip on her obediently. Ever the gentleman, this one. As if to answer the unspoken question, the Ahaszaai heiress tugged on his hand, holding his gaze as she backed toward the balcony door to head back inside. “Come, let’s go inside. It’s getting cold out here.” To hell with it, doesn’t matter who sees us.

_______________________________________________________ High Sith translations: *canonically there is so little written about High Sith conlang that there aren't even proper contractions (like "I'm", "Don't" etc.) which is just...a huge oversight, to put it blankly. So I made my own contractions. At least it doesn’t sound like an unnecessarily and stupidly clunky language that way skhjslhdh

Darindz artsisasi ki, ctarzari…  - Don’t (from Dari “do” + nindz “not”) tease me, princess..

Nu sarjia j’us kaisijas oi…  - I thought you liked it...

That said, D’leah DOES on occasion not use contractions in Basic, particularly for things like “would not” (as in “would not allow you anywhere near me”) or “do not”. There’s no particular reason for this, she just decided it was a speech quirk of hers and keeps making me write it this way on occasion /lh 😜

#swtor #swtor fanfiction #elven's writing #subterfugeverse #swtor oc: d'leah ahaszaai #swtor oc: kissai ahaszaai #d'leah/kissai #d'leahssai #elven's sith pureblood headcanons #sith pureblood courtship headcanons #crawls out of the woodwork like a rabid rat with this oneshot clutched between my fingies #I FINISHED IT I DID IT GUYS FINALLY OMG #please enjoy i love these dorks so much #i feel like its relevant to mention i listened to Billy Joel's ''Uptown Girl'' on repeat while writing the last half of this :'D #askbox will be officially opened tomorrow afternoon when i get done with real life crap!! #i have a couple more asks to answer but imma draft and queue them tonight #so if you have any q's or are curious about my sith courtship ideas the askbox will soon be at ur disposal again :') #askbox prompts #kindredsembrace #SORRY AGAIN THAT THIS TOOK SO LONG AAAA #hope y'all enjoy it tho bc once i got time to work on it i had a blast writing this one :3

[chaoticspacefam]

Kiss With A Fist

A/N:

quite literally heeheheh ok I’ll see myself out LMAO the rest of this song doesn’t literally apply to these two, they love each other very much and rest assured they’d never actually, deliberately hurt each other. it’s more the general Vibe(tm) of the song that fits their courting process + I really liked the poetic irony of this line used as the quote & the last line of the fic XD Also bear in mind this is from D’leah’s POV and yes, it is semi-ironic on purpose because...it’s D’leah. Any regulars on the blog should be very familiar with mama Sith’s propsensity to be a bully with an overinflated ego at this point *shrugs* XD

OKAY, with that out of the way, here we go! A little oneshot. I haven’t sat down to properly write or edit for a good long while, but this is still one of my favourite oneshots that I’ve ever written tbh, so...enjoy! 😄😄 I’ll leave it up to reader interpretation as to whether they actually finished the mission her brother & dad sent them out on or got sidetracked(tm) 👀😉

I don’t think it needs a particular warning since it’s literally one sentence but there is a mention of killing an assassin in the middle of this (under the cut) so ig be aware of that. It’s not horribly graphic so should be fine but uhhh, just in case?

                                ----------------------------

“A kick in the teeth is good for some, but a kiss with a fist is better than none!” ~Florence & the Machine

Of all the Royal Guards that could have possibly been assigned to accompany her on this mission, it had to be this one. The heiress would be lying if she said she wasn't a tad bitter by the Emperor's insistence on that arrangement; she'd attempted to change his mind in a moment of desperation in the past, but her father would hear nothing of it, patting her on the shoulder and claiming that none of the others had the skill level for this sort of task, or to keep up with her during it. So, once more, she was resigned to the company of the fool who, despite her snapping, always seemed to turn up when he was least wanted and needed. 

(This was, of course, not the case and given that his entire purpose was to protect the heiress from threats, perhaps she should have been more tolerant of his presence, or perhaps her protests stemmed less from annoyance and more from something else than she was willing to admit…)

 And he had been fraying D'leah's nerves ever since they'd landed on Tatooine this morning. Kissai had enough arrogance for the both of them, and he seemed to have gotten the idea into his head that she couldn't take care of herself without him needing to jump in to "rescue" her at the most inopportune moment. It was infuriating. She did not need him charging in to help, she could handle herself just fine.

Everything about this man irritated her to no end: the way he stomped around with his great big feet and woke half the karkin’ planet, his habit of always being right behind her whenever she turned around, the way he kept grabbing her by the shoulder to pull her back and insist he, of all people, went first; his stupid face and that annoying, oaf-ish smile of his…

She’d been so busy internally cursing her Guard that she’d failed to notice the man who had been tailing them since the spaceport; in fact, she only noticed him in the first place when she heard his spine crack as Kissai lifted him into the air with the Force, then flung the body down in front of her almost pointedly.

D’leah let out an agitated hiss as her amber eyes flicked from the corpse at her feet, to his face as he raised both browstalks at her as if to say "I told you so", then back again, and sputtered.

“He wasn’t going to shoot me.” 

“I think you’ll find he was, princess.” Kissai retorted smoothly, plucking the man’s blaster pistol off the ground and waving it at her as he added, “You’re welcome, by the way.” She bristled faintly at the word ‘princess’. Sometimes when she was in a good mood, she’d slip up and let it slide without correcting him. Today, after the morning she’d had, D’leah was in no mood to put up with it.

“I don’t need you following me around like a lost Tuk’ata pup!” she snapped at him, trudging onwards and praying he’d catch his stomping feet in a sinkhole when he tried to follow her.

“Your father seems to think otherwise.” The man simply laughed the comment off, pulling his hood up to protect his face from the sand that whipped into a vortex around them. His voice dropped an octave, to become a more serious growl. “Are you forgetting that my entire job is to protect you?” 

The Ahaszaai High Lady snarled under her breath, checking the locator beacon Duuma had given her as she ducked into the alcove it indicated. The lost artifact should be around here somewhere…

“I don’t need protecting, I can take care of myself just fine!” 

“Mm, of course, D’leahane, because Sith who can take care of themselves usually almost get decapitated by assassins.” Kissai snorted, though she could practically hear the shit-eating grin in his voice, “I think your father’s right to ask me to accompany you. You’d have died three times today if I hadn’t.”

“GO JUMP IN A SARLACC PIT!” she shouted back at him. 

“And there are the creative insults your brother warned me about.” 

D’leah paused in her search to turn her head and give him a dirty look over her shoulder, intoning menacingly. “I’ll kill him when I see him next.” 

Kissai’s expression moulded into one of concern this time, the red-eyed Pureblood blinking at her uncertainly as he reminded her. “...You don’t know which one it was.”

Now it was her turn to grin at him.

“Don’t need to, I have a fifty-fifty shot.”

“No wonder they’re both afraid of you.” he scoffed, rolling his eyes. Truthfully, the High Lady was doing her best to ignore his obvious needling as she ducked through another archway and moved further into the cave system, the words she threw over her shoulder echoing back to him off the empty passageway’s walls.

“You should be afraid of me, too. I could end you.”

She was surprised he was still behind her, he could move rather fast despite his large frame, it would seem. D’leah tried not to be too impressed by that fact, but if she was being honest...

“Does it bother you that I’m not, princess?” 

He wasn’t going to drop this, was he? She’d been about to levitate a pile of rocks out of their path, but stopped and spun around to glare at him instead.

“Don’t you “princess” me, you...you…” just when she needed it the most, her ability to think of an appropriate insult failed her, and instead she trailed off into awkward silence. Kissai took that as an invitation to make her even more irritated that his wit was quicker than hers, and added, grinning the whole while: “If you’re trying to think of something you haven’t called me yet, we’ll be here for a good century or so.”

“Fool.” she hissed in frustration. He had her on the ropes, now, and that wasn’t somewhere the Ahaszaai heiress was used to being.  “Is that the best one you have? Did I wear you out, my Lord~?” he crooned back at her, and that was when D’leah put her foot down. She flung a few bolts of lightning in his direction for good measure. As she had suspected, his reflexes were as good as his saber skills and he easily deflected them off his palm before the electricity did any damage, swatting them aside into the wall as if he were brushing dust off his cloak.

“I knew you were going to do that, too...do you really think I can’t handle you?” he teased fondly. 

“I’ve no time for oafs the likes of you.” D’leah growled.

"Then tell me to leave you alone." he stared back at her seriously, browstalks furrowing as his gaze slid from hers to focus on the rest of her face, as if searching her expression for a nonverbal cue he might have missed. "At your word, my Lord, you'll not hear another thing from me beyond those necessary for my duty." 

Looking into his eyes in that moment, she was forced to admit the reality that perhaps she didn’t want him to leave her alone. He’d figured out she was testing him, and now he was calling her bluff, the kriffing, good-looking bastard.  Her jaw spurs rattled in annoyance, but D'leah's lips remained sealed. He waited a full minute, still studying her carefully, to give her plenty of opportunity to voice her thoughts. 

She didn't. The corners of Kissai's mouth turned upwards into a faint smile. 

"That's what I thought." he stepped away from her again, but not before slipping up and forgetting his station for long enough to murmur fondly, "Your nose scrunches up when you're sulking, you know. It’s cute."

D'leah could let "princess" slide on a good day, as far as his pet names went it was among those she considered tolerable, but she drew the line at "cute"! Annoyed and frustrated in more ways than one, she strode after him to reach up and grab the taller Pureblood's shoulder to stop him in his tracks. The Guard turned towards her again, a small, confused noise rumbling in his throat.

First she punched him in the jaw, then she kissed him. Hard. And that was the end of that.

#swtor #swtor fanfiction #elven's writing #subterfugeverse #swtor oc: d'leah ahaszaai #sith heiress #swtor oc: kissai ahaszaai #d'leah/kissai #d'leahssai #is this classified as a meet cute; a meet-ugly; or some sort of weird in-between version of *BOTH*? you guys decide hahahaha #this *is* a prequel of sorts ;) i'm finally trying to sort out my askbox and clear it so i can open it again in a few months' time #so that oneshot will go out next week; if fanfic/writing gods are with me and i can finally finish writing it 🙏 #d'leah: stop saving me all the time; i can save myself!!! #also d'leah: constantly walks her ass into danger with alarming regularity #emperor ahaszaai: uh; yeah; hey....izreni do you....do you think you could; maybe; stop her from doing that. great; thanks #d'leah likes to blame kissai for saarai's knack of throwing herself into danger like some sort of damage/blaster bolt sponge #but the truth is it's actually *BOTH* their faults; d'leah's just as bad at wandering into dangerous situations #it's just that kissai's whole ass job is to jump in the way before something bad happens *to* her #i really enjoy writing their dynamic it's so much fun #it's a blend of bodyguard/royalty; ''only i get to make fun of/beat them up'' #and later on once they're married: well-meaning idiot/''oh fuck that's *MY* idiot!!'' #it's great XD #i need to find a better title/''name'' for the Royal Guard(s) but atm i'm drawing a blank so generic filler fantasy moniker(tm) it is ! #(for now) #also yes the jaw spurs *are* bone and they *do* emote with them; bioware are cowards and no i will not stop with that headcanon LMAO #i could write a whole ass essay on that point alone #maybe one day when i actually manage to draw the examples like i keep saying i will XD

[chaoticspacefam]

Duende for the pairing of your choice? c:

This was meant to be a drabble and instead it got a little long oops 😬 I had a lot of fun with this though so I hope you all like it! The basic premise of this comes from a headcanon I have that all Force sensitives have the potential to have a sort of “presence” that even Force-blind individuals can pick up on, if they’re powerful enough. This of course leads to both a magnetic sort of allure in some cases, as well as certain things to feel very different in a way that can’t be compared to someone else. Since Jedi don’t tend to get “attached” per the Jedi code, this is more often a problem with Sith, ergo the “don’t fuck Sith, they’ll ruin you [for everyone else]” sentiment being implied here. I imagine that’s a saying that gets passed around Imperial/Sith planets and populations, a lot. 😘

From [Send me a word and a character/pairing and I will write a drabble] prompt list.

Duende - Unusual power to attract or charm.

Pairing: Ni’kasi/Andronikos (F!Sith Inquisitor/Andronikos Revel)

Warnings: for language, mild-moderate implied gore, and mild to moderate suggestiveness, nothing explicit is described but it’s very heavily implied. Some spoilers for the Alderaan arc of the Sith Inquisitor storyline about a side-character you meet there. Alternative title: Andronikos realises he’s got it bad. 😂

They're on Alderaan now, getting ready to take off and leave the planet behind them. They've been travelling together for what the pirate would consider to be a semi-respectable amount of time. This wouldn't be the first woman he's travelled with that Andronikos had considered attractive, only this time...he's pretty sure he's in a fix, because the woman is a Sith. And not just any sort, either. Ni'kasi is a Red Sith, the kind that didn't get any more Sith-like if they tried, and that meant he was in deep shit, because he couldn't take his eyes off her. 

Don't ever fuck Sith, they said; they'll ruin you. they said.

Andronikos isn't entirely sure how true that warning is, but then again he's never fucked a Sith, or wanted to fuck one badly enough to find out. Until now. 

She hadn’t even kissed him yet - only almost - but he was finding thoughts of Ni'kasi would creep into his brain completely uninvited, and usually at the worst time. There was just...something about her, that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. But she was, in a word, enchanting. 

The Sith is a lot more slender than he’d thought she would be, not that he’s met too many Purebloods before, but he’s seen a few, and they’d all been a lot stockier. But then, they hadn’t had the past that she did, she doesn’t talk about it and he had no plans to force it out of her before she was ready to share it with him, but it’s obvious that Ni’kasi has seen some shit, and been through much worse. 

As slight as she was in comparison, he wouldn’t dare presume she was “weak”, far from it, he’s seen this woman fight and it’s quite terrifying, really. He’d watched her crack a man’s bones with a mere thought, and conjure enough lightning to power a tropical storm out of the palms of her hands, Ni’kasi was not the sort of person one wanted to mess with. But he wanted to kiss her so terribly, and if he was honest, that wasn’t where the thoughts stopped.  The mental image of her prancing off with that other Sith man made him indescribably jealous. Not that it mattered, he was dead now, which was a pity...he’d seemed nice, if a little timid. Kind of like a puppy dog. Not the sort he’d have expected a woman like her to go after, but he wondered, from the way she’d grinned at him as she returned to the ship, whether Ni’kasi knew that.

There was a very real possibility that she was toying with him. Logically, he knew that. Normally he was better at controlling his wayward thoughts while on the job, but there was something about this woman - whether it was the way she fought, or the way she spoke, the way she looked, or a combination of all three - that meant he just couldn’t. If he’d not had dealings with other Sith before he would have been amiss to blame it all on some sort of Sithy magic trick to keep him fixated, but the pirate knew better. He’d talked to other Force sensitives before, and while they’d had a clear presence in the room, it had never pulled him in like this. This wasn’t something she was consciously doing to him, he knew he had all the power to resist the allure if he wanted to. The problem was, he was pretty sure he didn’t want to. He wanted her. 

“Andronikos.” Ni’kasi’s voice cut through his daydreaming, but his brain didn’t quite register it. What would it take, he wondered, to get her to say his name in a more intimate context? Was that even something she wanted, maybe he was imagining the electricity he thought he’d felt between them during that gala when they’d been looking for that Rist woman... “Revel.” he heard the snap of her fingers, this time, breaking through his reverie, and yet he still couldn’t quite pull himself back to reality just yet. Apparently she’d noticed this, for next came:

“Pirate!” Uh oh. That was a bad sign. He was only ever “pirate” when she was starting to get annoyed. He wished he’d been paying more attention to the words coming out of her mouth, and less time thinking about what it would feel like against his, in the dark, and - Focus, Revel, dammit! “Uhh…” he stammered sheepishly, and Ni’kasi scoffed, clicking her tongue. Her expression is softer than he’d expected it to be when he finally snapped his gaze back to focus on her once more. “Ah. That one always works.” the corner of her lips turned upwards ever so faintly, and he’s sure it’s the start of a smile rather than an annoyed sneer. She’s a difficult woman to read, her tells are very subtle...but Andronikos reckoned he was starting to get the hang of it.

“Sorry,” the pirate coughed in apology, rubbing at the back of his neck and hoping that would shake some sense into himself, “you were saying?” “We’ll be off, soon.” the Pureblood continued, the spurs at her jawline flexing as she spoke, “I need to update the other Sith on what happened with Urtel, they’ll need to send another Lord down to protect Elana Thul now that he’s gone.”

“Oh yeah.” he grunted, feeling another surge of jealousy as his mind conjured up unhelpfully detailed images of what they must have been doing for the Pureblood to have been alone with Urtel for so long. That should have been me. “Him.”

This time, Ni’kasi really did smirk, and it nearly ended him then and there. She quirked a browstalk at him, her voice almost a purr as she asked. “Are you jealous?” “No!” the pirate protested, all too quickly. The Pureblood said nothing for now, but as she got up to head for the holocomm she flashed her fangs at him in a way that made it very clear she knew he was lying. “...Good. Then you can handle getting us en-route to Dromund Kaas while I speak to Zash, can’t you?”

He nodded in confirmation, turning to head back into the cockpit, but not without sparing one last glance at her over his shoulder before he rounded the corner.

Don't fuck Sith, they'll ruin you.  they said.

She could ruin him any time she liked, and he’d thank her for it.

#suggestive #mildly n/sfw #swtor fanfiction #send me a word drabble prompts #swtor oc: ni'kasi ahaszaai #sith inquisitor #sith pureblood #subterfugeverse #andronikos revel #ni'kasi/andronikos #androni'kasi #by the stars #kinda. one of those ''filler'' scenes #and yes it is supposed to have ''WILL YOU TWO JUST K I S S'' energy #you're all welcome ;) #khem val (from the crew quarters) : dear gods would you two get a room #hahahaha #i will be cross-posting this onto AO3 in the next week or so too #i need to figure out how i want to group up these oneshots and whether i want them *all* in one big series or if i want to separate them #by like...character/pairing i guess #and come up with title ideas for the series(es) so there's that #anyway #thank you for asking! :'D #i hope you enjoy #mimabeann #elven's writing

[chaoticspacefam]

Subterfugeverse Headcanons: “Kallig’s” Ghost

I’m in a weird mood where I want to make art and content but also have ARTBLOCK (tm) so take some more random headcanons/worldbuilding instead!!

So, we all know the Kallig ghost introduction, but of course in Subterfugeverse, we’re canon-divergent anarchy SO Ni’kasi doesn’t get Kallig’s Force ghost. She gets her mom, D’leah instead. Sometimes I think Kas lowkey wishes she’d gotten Kallig; mom means well but sometimes she is A Bit Much

And I probably will make a follow-up doodle post type thing of this one day when Artblock Stops Beating Me With A Stick, but it always amuses the heck out of me that the default reaction is to...shoot Force lightning...at the intangible ghost...really, Kas??

And Kallig never really reacts to it, maybe he doesn’t care, but the thing is...D’leah would care. And I can’t help but think how fucking funny it’s going to be for Kas to have that (obvs heavily altered for my own worldbuilding/lore to fit into things) “flesh of my flesh beware of Khem Val and Zash” conversation thing with her mom; because while that will be the main point I’m sure before that there will be a tangent of “I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU TRIED TO SHOOT ME WITH LIGHTNING” “But I didn’t know it was you okay I panicked!!” “[not fully paying attention, off on a Scolding Rant] -the fact that you thought that would work on a spirit is frankly quite concerning, nevermind not paying attention to your surroundings in order to be surprised in the first place, I raised you better than this, you know AND ANOTHER THING how could you do that to me! I am hypothetically wounded” “Mother, please, I said I was sorry ;-;”

And you can bet it comes up again, too. I’m sure D’leah makes much more frequent appearances than Kallig does in a well-meaning attempt to help guide her daughter on the right path of course, but from Kas’s point of view it must be kind of annoying to have your mom there in your head popping up to be like *angry Sith mom muttering* every time something happens.

I imagine “Mother, I love you, but please shut up, for five minutes, and let me s l e e p” becomes a regular request as well. D’leah might even be able to “help” with keeping Horak Mul and the other ghosts “in line” a bit on Kas’s bad days. Ghost Mom was bossy in life and you can bet she’s bossy in the afterlife as well XD

I have some more ramblings (tm) to “fill in the plotholes” of how she’d be hanging around in the Dark Temple as well but y’know this post is long so maybe if it crops up I’ll put them down but for now, trust me, I thought about it and I do have an answer other than “just because” (not that it should matter because it’s my fanfic and I can do what I want but hey, just in case!) :’D

#swtor #star wars: the old republic #subterfugeverse #subterfuge headcanon #elven's swtor headcanons #elven's swtor worldbuilding #swtor oc: ni'kasi ahaszaai #swtor oc: d'leah ahaszaai #sith inquisitor #sith pureblood #it's been pretty fun trying to work in the ideas around d'leah's force ghost #the original first draft (and the zephyrverse au rp) had d'leah as being alive at first #and slated to die later on in the storyline #but the more i tried to work with that the more i realised it clashed a lot and didn't really work out #so it works much better to have her around as a ghost #the twins' relationship with d'leah is very complicated and maybe a bit confusing but that's my fault for Reasons (tm) #idk quite how yet but it will be explored at some stage #either in the fic itself or in some of the Oneshots I Couldn't Fit Into The Main Plot #but yeah #poke my brain with a stick for me and tell artblock to gtfo and maybe i can actually draw some of this shit #instead of babbling about it for ages #and never drawing it #XD

[chaoticspacefam]

2020 In Review: Wordcount Tag

I was tagged for this by @actualanxiousswampwitch​ , thank you! I’m not sure who’s already done or been tagged for this cause I am, once again, late to the party LOL but I shall (no pressure and sorry if you’ve already done it!) tag: @rainofaugustsith​ , @darth-bagel​ , @thatmmolesbian​ , @thelastenvoyyy​ and anybody else who wants to do this. Yes, I promise I mean you!

Words: 45,314

Published: 0 (I’m not counting the couple of Six Sentence tags I’ve gotten, they’re snippets of an unfinished piece & are included below instead :), or roleplay replies, cause that feels like cheating lol.) I actually wrote a lot more than I thought I had, this is a rough guesstimate as well, as my oneshot WIPs tend to be all over the place across something like 6 different documents, some of which have existed since 2018, so I had to guess at how far up to count from the end for some of them, but I think it’s a fair guesstimate XD I also have included lore/worldbuilding docs in this because that was a 3-month long Lockdown 1.0 Boredom/”Canon is a trash fire so I’m ignoring that and making up my own lore” passion project and I’m goddamn proud of how much I wrote for that. It’s the most I’ve written in one stretch (think I finished it over a span of 3 nights or so, once I’d done all the research and made all the notes ofc ^^)

Not Published: 45,314

The Breakdown:

swtor - 45,314

for creeping shadows (my main longfic/part one of the subterfugeverse series) - 1,553  - Aria, stop being difficult! *shakes fists* XD

oneshots - 16,223

lore/worldbuilding (for subterfugeverse naturally) - 23,001 (is this ALL tomato alien lore? pretty much, yes, yes it is :’D ~400 words is “the WIP reworked timeline to correlate my worldbuilding with the canon timeline that was released”, but 98% is just...me thinking way too much about Purebloods and how they deserved way better goddamn lore. I blame @fluffynexu ‘s amazing tomato worldbuilding posts,  reading them when I went looking for “canon” lore one day for the rp is what got me started down that rabbithole (it’s awesome and if you haven’t already you should totally go check hers out too :DD), I had a “fuck you then canon I’ll do it myself too >:L” moment and once I started I couldn’t stop until I’d crapped out literally over 20k words on the subject *whispering* thank you LOL)

zephyrverse au bonus oneshots - 4,537 (stuff I wrote to fill in time gaps or “just cause I had a plot bunny”, relating to mine and k-christine’s zephyrverse au rp. None of these will likely be posted publicly, but they still deserve to be counted as words I wrote this year :’D

As you can see, most of my “muse” this year came from sporadic oneshots :’D The Ahaszaai twins also properly plot-bunnied their way into my brain in late 2019 and haven’t stopped making a nuisance of themselves the whole fucking year. Every time I tried to carry on with a chapter, one of the two of them would pop up like “Nooo write about ME! pay attention to ME!” - Yes, Ni’kasi, I will get to you this year, I promise XD

New Things I Tried:

Just Writing. Not worrying about whether “it wasn’t part of the next chapter” or “it comes from a part in the story that I’m nowhere near close to posting yet”. If I felt like writing something, or for a specific pairing/feeling/scene, whatever. I wrote until I ran outta muse juice. Yeah, it meant I didn’t technically “finish” anything this year BUT - the important thing is I wrote stuff. and that’s all that really matters, eh? :’D

Polyam ships! May not seem like a big deal but I spent a long time talking myself out of them because of internalised toxic monogamy and finally saying “you know what, fuck it! I can ship three or more people together and it can still be a perfectly wholesome, healthy and loving relationship and that’s okay” was a BIG thing for me this year.

Dialogue Scripts: which I didn’t count as wordcount because really it’s just word vomit of general tone/inflection and dialogue that I came up with right before falling asleep which I didn’t want to lose. Basically, if an exchange or a particularly punchy or moving line of dialogue popped into my brain but I wasn’t ready to write the whole scene that it fit into out, but didn’t want to forget the line(s). I wrote it out in movie script/script-style roleplay fashion e.g. Character’s Name: (emotion, hand gestures etc.) [Dialogue here] and so on. I know this is probably a well known trick of the trade, but I never took it seriously until this year. Seriously, do it. It’s great.

Favorite Thing I Wrote:

Hmmm, a snippet for Andronikos/Ni’kasi that I started this week which isn’t posted yet (saving it for this week’s Six Sentence Sunday so look out for it! :D) was pretty fun to work on, I love their dynamic and Kas is suprisingly fun to write for.

Also the Aria/Vano proposal scene that I posted a snippet for the week before last. I’m having great fun with that scene, and I really enjoy putting a non-serious spin on the classic “proposal scene” tropes. Can’t wait to finish it, though it may be a while before the full one goes up on AO3, as it depends whether it ends up fitting in as part of the mainfic or as an additional oneshot

And I have a D’leah/Kissai oneshot that I need to give another once-over before I finally yeet it onto AO3 and Tumblr for you guys to see :’D

Favorite Fic I Read:

@sleepswithvillains Eleanora/Quinn fic, Helplessly Hoping. I’m horribly behind on chapters and I gotta catch up and read the finale this week, but it’s been a helluva great ride and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the story! <3

Also The Invitation collab with @tishinada featuring Zas and Fiona had me squealing, I can’t wait to catch up on HH and see more of these two, they’re adorable ;-; @a-muirehen​ ‘s Relu/Merkara series of course! I’m a complete sucker for (friends to lovers to in Ariano’s case but yea pfpfpf) enemies to lovers ships and these two are just so good, I am on the edge of my seat every time we get a new snippet for them, ngl (grimace emoji) @darth-bagel ‘s Sylvas/Graz’zt and Sylvas/Liz/Rilfaen snippets which they’ve been spoiling me with on Discord @mercurypilgrim ‘s Ven’fir/Quinn AU oneshots, Cloudbank (Western was a particular favourite, but all are very good!) and of course @rainofaugustsith ‘s Lana/Viri updates are always fantastic, some personal favourites from this year were Almost There & Memory of Healing :3 (I totally still go back to read Commander & Advisor too sometimes, getting to see Viri be a little diabolical and messing with “MiNiSTeR LoRMaN!” was and still is my favourite thing XD)

If I’ve left you out I’m sorry!! These were the ones that stuck out in my memory, but I’ve loved everyone’s writing this year, it’s been great :3

Writing Goals:

to actually finish and post chapter 8 & 9 of Creeping Shadows. Then we’ll get to the meat and potatoes of the story and maybe Aria will stop being a brat and fighting me every time I try to stick to a semi-regular update schedule Get off my butt, finalise the name and get started on Ni’kasi’s part of the Subterfugeverse story. Maybe run the updates in-tandem with Creeping Shadows but idk if I want to wait till after CS is done before I start posting Kas’s side, or do them side-by-side yet, we’ll see ;) Keep writing! I know better than to pressure myself by setting a specific word count goal, that’s never worked well in the past

At least 2 chapters of each of the works mentioned above would be great though, more would be better! We’ll see how I go

Words of Thanks:

honestly, to everybody in the fandom I’ve met this year. Anybody that I follow, thank you for being there and engaging with me and/or posting amazing content for me to look at! I came over from deviantART where the SWTOR fandom is incredibly small and generally quite inactive and the contrast since moving over here has been incredibly uplifting. I very nearly cancelled Creeping Shadows and stopped posting fic for my SWTORverse altogether because I got next to no engagement on dA and it was very disheartening to the point where I felt I could enjoy the game and the rp partners I had, but the solo projects I’d put so much thought, time and love into already weren’t worth continuing. You guys took that spark and kept it going and I really don’t have enough words to say how grateful I am for that. Even if I haven’t published much this year, making posts on this tumblr, interacting with everyone and working on lore, plot points and so on for Subterfugeverse has kept me going through the Hellish Year of Nightmares that was 2020 <3

to the amazing new friends I’ve made in this past year, who have listened to me ramble about headcanons, character backstories, writing snippets (and rambled/sent some back), keep being awesome: @walk-ng-d-saster , @darth-bagel , @kyber-heart , @deepseacritter , @thedinalixlegacy to further friends and meme tag buddies, I get so excited every time I see a mention for a new meme or ask game in my inbox, so thank you!! : @mimabeann , @palepinkycat , @a-master-procrastinator , @raven-of-domain-kwaad , @actualanxiousswampwitch , @thatmmolesbian , @a-muirehen to my regular commentors/rebloggers/likers/askbox lurkers, I see every one of you and every time your users pop up I grin like a kid in a toy shop: @starlightjedi , @sparkles-and-rust , @wilvarin-chan , @sunsetofdoom , @ask-an-andalite , @thelastenvoyyy . @lyrishadow and more because Tumblr only goes so far back and I have the memory of Swiss Cheese. If you regularly comment, like, reblog, or anything, from me, know that I see you, and I love and appreciate you for it! <3

I couldn’t possibly remember to tag everyone and I promise if I missed you out it’s not because I hate you! Anxiety just sometimes be a bitch and I don’t wanna look like a clown calling someone a “friend” if I’m not explicitly sure we are, in fact, friends. I think you’re all awesome and I’m so glad to have moved over here and met you all <3

#long post #wordcount year review tag #elven's writing: stats #repost bc i goofed some links woops sorry everyone #^^; #will i eventually post any of this stuff? yes! #i will. i just...don't know *when* the time will be right for most of it hahaha #the only bits i won't post are the zephyrverse-specific oneshots cause i just don't feel like i want to #but everything else will (eventually) in some capacity be thrown into the void for all of you to read #shameless friend appreciation post #shameless mutual and follower appreciation post #<3 #swtor sort of

[chaoticspacefam]

Six Sentence Sunday Tag

In which Elven ignores the biggest rule and posts 14 sentences because this is the most she’s written for anything in a month and her favourite bit didn’t look as good without the extra “context”. 🤣🤣

I was tagged by @actualanxiousswampwitch (thank you! I know it’s Monday now but I was asleep when the tag came in so shush it counts XD) I’ve been struggling to continue Creeping Shadows, lately. Aria hates the Esseles and she’s fighting me on slugging through that part to finally get to the plot’s “Big break”. So instead...have what will probably be part of a oneshot, but might make it into a later chapter of the Subterfugeverse series if it fits, we’ll see what happens!

It’s super late but uhhh I guess I’ll tag @a-muirehen , @darth-bagel and @sleepswithvillains (no pressure ofc, only if you want to!) and anyone else who sees this and wants to, consider yourself tagged! Yes, I promise I mean you!

She finally proposes! Aria is a love-starved dork and she can’t be romantic if she tries. Ohwell. It’s the thought that counts, right? 👍 Under a read more bc long ish post!

________________________

Aria realized she wanted her, forever, no-one else would ever be good enough...no one else would ever be Vano. She went over what she was going to say in her head, changed the words more times than she could count and they still weren’t right, Force damn it all-

Before she could begin rewording number one hundred or who knows what, the Mirialan had made her way back to her and as her arms opened, Aria stepped into them without either having to say a word about what they wanted. They just knew.

Vano’s arms circled around her wordlessly, and as she settled her cheek against the cool durasteel of the Wrath’s chestplate, her grip around Aria tightened and a ripple of anxiety fluttered out from Vano’s Force signature, as if she were afraid the Jedi Shadow in her arms would once more vanish into the air the moment she let her go. 

“So...what now?” the Sith’s strong voice is softer, now, as it always is when she speaks to her lover. Aria knows what she meant by the question, “Where are you going now that this is over? When will I see you again?” and perhaps she should have given her a straight answer, but she didn’t. Instead, she blurted out: “I-I’m sorry. I never really...said it properly, before.”

“You didn’t have to-” Vano tried to insist, but the Jedi cut her off, wiggling one arm free so she could reach up and place a finger over the Mirialan’s lips to guarantee she would keep her mouth shut for five minutes and stop saying “it’s okay” long enough to let her give her the damned apology she deserved. 

“I do. I’m sorry, I was an asshole, I broke your heart...I-I hurt you so much and no matter what I did you kept coming back, even when I thought you shouldn’t and I tried to push you away. You deserve so much better than me.” she heard Vano inhale again and tapped her lips pointedly. “Ah ah, I’m not done! But the truth is...I don’t want you to go to anyone else.” 

“Where are you going with this, Ari?” the Sith mumbled, leaning away from her hand enough to get the words out clearly. And for all of her preparations, all her attempts to come up with something show-stoppingly soppy, instead it came out as:

“Marry me, Va.” 

The Wrath snorted out a laugh, she fucking laughed, and the emotions in their bond are such a confusing cocktail of amusement, confusion and several other things that are harder to pin down that Aria isn’t quite sure what kind of laugh it is, but either way, it was enough to make her indignant.  

“Come on, be serious.” the Mirialan coughed, staring at her in disbelief. Aria stared right back, stepping out of her now-loosened grip just enough to frown and huff indignantly. “You’re laughing. I’ve just proposed to you, and you’re karking laughing at me!”

#swtor #star wars: the old republic #swtor fanfiction #six sentence sunday #subterfugeverse #swtor shipping #swtor oc: aria saal #jedi consular #jedi consular (sith assassin) #dark side jedi consular #swtor oc: vano shenly #mirialan #sith warrior #light side sith warrior #aria/vano #ariano #jedi consular/sith warrior #i could tag them as enemies to lovers but tbh #they're more like friends to enemies to friends with benefits to lovers #they're fucking stupid and a big mess #but i love them your honour #vano says yes eventually #obviously #XD #but still #aria: tries for five minutes to be genuinely romantic #also aria: is useless and fucks that up aswell #also yes before anybody comes for me #the ''you're laughing'' thing IS inspired by that one post/meme that keeps coming around #because i saw it and i couldn't get this idea out of my head so hey

[chaoticspacefam]

Six Sentence Sunday

I was tagged by @sleepswithvillains​ , thank you! Missed this tag yesterday, so I’m like 12 hrs late so, if you see this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged but since I’m late I’m not gonna tag anybody specifically this week, next time maybe! :P

A little more than six sentences cause I couldn’t help myself, but some tooth-rotting fluff because I had a bad week and I wanted to do something nice and cute. If this doesn’t make it into the “final cut” of that part of Subterfugeverse I’ll add it to the growing collection of oneshots that I’m slowly amassing XD

If it’s not obvious, the setting/context is the cantina party at the end of KOTFE :’D

______________________________________________________________

“I’m sure they’ll work it out. Friends do that.” Koth shrugged, picking up an empty glass and rubbing over it with the cloth in his other hand. Saarai nodded absently, glancing up at him as the music changed and jumping to her feet to extend a hand out to him. “Come dance with me!” she beamed, a soft laugh bubbling out of her lips as she added. “This is a good song.” Koth tilted his head at her, half in surprise and half teasing, as he asked.

“Have you been drinking, Red?”

The Pureblood snorted in amusement. “Not nearly that much. I’ve had one glass, I’m still mostly sober.” she bounced from foot to foot impatiently, her eyes still sparkling as she drew the word out. “C’mooooonnn!” 

She both sensed and saw the pilot hesitate as he stretched up to peer around the room in search of their lover. “Can’t you ask Lana...?”

Saarai couldn’t blame him for assuming as such, that was after all how things usually went between the three of them. But lately...there was definitely something else there with him, too. She just wasn’t completely sure what to call it, yet. But she wanted to find out. 

“I’m not asking Lana,” she insisted, her smile broadening as she wiggled her fingers at him expectantly, “I’m asking you.” 

“Ah, no, I’ve got two left feet -” the pilot started, the corners of his mouth twitching as he tried to keep a straight face. It cracked in seconds as Saarai pouted at him and, in her best faux stern voice, huffed.

“Koth.”

Koth laughed good-naturedly, jumping over the bar to join her on the patrons’ side as she stepped back to make some room for him.

#tagged meme #six sentence sunday #swtor #star wars: the old republic #swtor fanfic #subterfugeverse #swtor kotfe #swtor oc: saarai ahaszaai #koth vortena #ot3: sorry i ''stole'' your girlfriend #saarai/koth

[chaoticspacefam]

WIP Titles Meme/Game!

I was tagged by @pauletta-00​, thank you! :D I hope you guys are ready for chaos because that’s basically what my WIPs are LOL

I shall tag: @a-muirehen​, @resol-nare​ , @abyssal-space​ , @deepseacritter​ and @thatmmolesbian​ (if you feel like it, if you’ve already been tagged and I missed it or you don’t have anything/don’t want to, no pressure!)

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and interests you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

Some of them don’t have excerpts done yet and are just word vomits of notes on stuff I want to write, but if that’s the case I’ll just babble about it for a bit instead! Some titles make more sense than others, some are just song lyrics, I’m sorry. I hope they sound interesting enough haha

Grouped by Main vs. Oneshots (AUs are listed as such), I’ll list the characters/pairings/relationships as well just in case people are more interested in certain ships/OCs :3

/  (or x for ships that were “a thing” but not necessarily healthily) = romantic relationship

& = friendship or family relationship

“Main” Storylines

1. Creeping Shadows 9 - The Esseles, pt 1 - Aria & Qyzen and other random NPCs

2. Creeping Shadows 10 - The Esselels, pt 2 - Aria & Roan

3. I Don’t Dance - Ni’kasi/Andronikos

4. Counter Shade - Vano & the Sith Warrior Crew (/Aria, in parts)

5. Kiss: Hello - Aria/Vano

6. Kiss: Comforting - Aria/Vano

7. I Might Like You...A Little - Ni’kasi/Andronikos

8. If She Changes Her Mind - Saarai & Ty (with references to Saarai/Lana)

Bonus Oneshots

1. Roman Holiday - Aria/Vano

2. Ari, Go Home You’re Drunk - Aria/Vano

3. TIE Crash - Aria, Vano & Roan

4. I Am Not A Machine! - Vano & Vette

5. All The Things She Said - Aria/Vano

6. Mending Bridges - Saarai & Koth (and a bit of Saarai/Lana)

7. I Know I’m A Wolf - Saarai, Koth & Lana (feat Vano briefly)

8. Dance With Me - Saarai/Koth (little bit of /Lana as well)

9. Cat Rules, You Can’t Move Me - Saarai/Koth/Lana

10. Are You Purring?! - Saarai/Lana/Koth

11. (Zephyrverse AU) Maybe You’re Better Off This Way - Saarai & D’leah (there’s notes for a version of this in Subterfugeverse with Saarai & Senya instead, lmk if you wanna ask about either/or of these! :))

12. You Love Them, Don’t You? - Saarai & Ni’kasi

13. Downhill, At Such A Steep Incline - D’leah, Saarai & Ni’kasi (little bit of Abaron as well!)

14. Denial’s Always The First Stage - D’leah/Kissai

15. Don’t Take That Sinner From Me - D’leah/Kissai

16. (Reverse!Zephyr AU) Black Velvet, And That Pretty Boy Smile - Saarai/Sash

17. Pureblood Headcanon Lore - Most of the Ahaszaai’s, directly or indirectly. This is my loredump essay on my re-work of Pureblood biology, social structure etc. so if that interests you I’ll throw it down here just in casee ;)

#tagged meme #WIP meme #swtor sort of #ask meme #swtor OCs #swtor shipping #wow I have a lot more WIPs than i realised #goddamn i called myself out #i WILL finish most of these #like....one day lmao #these were all the ones i could find #i'm sure i have like way more somewhere hahaha