Square Peg, Round Hole

David:... I throw a rock at him with my slingshot

DM: are you sure? This is a fig-

David: I throw a rock at him with my slingshot.

David: *rolls a 20*

DM:...

req'd by @bisexualcrabking

saaaaaame bestie :)c

It’s funny enough with Ev, but I’m just imagining the reactions if a proper Sith took that trooper up on his offer.

The coalition camp is raucous tonight.  Spirits are high, everyone’s excited for the big push tomorrow, and for the first time in a long time the general attitude is one of we can win this.  An impromptu cantina has been set up in the center of camp, courtesy of the smugglers that have come to contribute to the cause, though it’s still divided by faction.  

Darth Tenax, neé Linaera, Emperor’s Wrath - in title at least, though she’s sure the Hand won’t keep her that way for long, not after Rishi - pauses on the top step, hood resting against her back instead of up around her face.  She searches the crowd until she finds a familiar face, picking her way through the tables of Republic troops and the odd Jedi, ignoring how the tables go silent as she passes.

At a back table, Corporal Basar nudges the woman next to him.  “Hey, Sergeant Torsen, why the hell is a Sith headed this way?”

Torsen looks up, eyebrow rising in surprise.  “That’s the Sith that got me out of the Massassi cage.  I, uh, told her I’d buy her a drink when we were back at camp.  Looks like she’s taking me up on it.  Sergeant Scrater, grab another chair.”

“You can’t be serious!” Scrater whispers furiously.  “You want to have a friendly drink with a Sith?”

Torsen’s jaw takes on a familiar stubborn set.  “Last I checked, it was the Jedi that had that longstanding grudge, not us.  The woman did me a solid.  I owe her one.”  She stands as Linaera approaches.  “I, uh … look, I’m not calling you my lord or anything, but I said I’d buy you a drink and I’m a woman of my word.  Have a seat?”

Linaera tries to stay straightfaced.  “I wouldn’t expect you to.”  She drops into the vacant chair.  “Honestly, I wasn’t sure you meant what you said, but I thought I’d come find out.”  Silence spins out, turning awkward as she considers what to say.  “So … I suppose an introduction is in order.  It’s probably best if you just call me Linaera.”  She extends her hand.

Torsen nods, takes Linaera’s hand.  “Fair enough.  I’m Dara Torsen.  These are my guys, who can introduce themselves when they relax,” she says, beckoning to the rest of the troopers sitting rather stiffly at the table.  “They’re a little … well.  This is a bit outside the realm of ordinary procedure.”

Linaera can’t contain her amusement this time.  “Both my lieutenant and my captain vociferously protested this meeting.  Vociferously.  Listening to them, you’d think you were all lying in wait to ambush me.  Honestly, I’d have thought my lieutenant would happy someone else was buying my booze this time, instead of him as he loses hand after hand of pazaak.”  She orders a round for the table, then settles back into her chair.  “So, Yavin Four is kind of a shithole.  Not that I’m surprised, since that seems to be the only kind of place I go these days.”

“Ugh, the damn stonerays!” Corporal Basar exclaims.  “And the lurkers!  Why is all the wildlife here such a pain in the ass?”  

The table erupts into heated commentary on the state of Yavin Four, none of it complimentary, and by the third round of drinks the atmosphere has relaxed considerably.

“So I know since you’re Sith and all you probably don’t have to deal with it, but is your bureaucracy as ass-backwards as ours?” Sergeant Scrater asks.  “If it isn’t politicians meddling in our missions, it’s politicians demanding impossible missions, or, or ….”  He searches for something to amply demonstrate his ire.  “Or Hoth.  Ugh, who even wants that planet?  Can you guys just take that iceball?”

“Are you kidding?  You can’t make a move without wondering which Darth’s toes you’re stepping on,” Linaera says.  “I mean, my new job gets rid of some of that, but even the Dark Councilors have to deal with it.  Bureaucracy is crap everywhere.  Piss off a random moff without knowing who he reports to, and wake up to an angry holocall from Darth Ravage because how dare you talk to his underling’s underling’s underling like that.  And no, don’t make me take Hoth, I still don’t think I have all the feeling back in my toes.  You guys keep it.”

“At least you only have a few Councilors,” Torsen chimes in.  “We have to deal with a building full of hundreds of idiot Senators, none of whom can manage to work together on anything, and then we ended up with Saresh, who seems to think that a post on Taris qualifies her to run an expanding war.”

Linaera snorts.  “Taris?  That’s the planet we kicked you off of, right?  How does she think qualifications work?  See, this is why executions in the face of failure are occasionally a good idea.”  She finishes her ale, beckons for another round.  “All right: worst planet you’ve been stationed on that isn’t Hoth.”

–

They are well and thoroughly shitfaced, taking requests from the remaining crowd for impromptu vocal performances by the time Pierce finally comes looking for his wayward Sith, .

“See, this is what happens when I let you wander around unsupervised, my lord,” he says when they finish their latest song, trying to sound angry.

“Oh, good!” Linaera exclaims, wide drunken smile on her face.  “Piiiiiiierce!  This is Lieutenan’ Pierce, everyone!”

As the assorted troopers greet him in more or less in a chorus, Torsen grins.  “I’ve heard you’re terrible at p’zaak,” she slurs.  “Wanna play?”

Pierce gives Linaera a dirty look.  “Really, my lord?  Gossiping about me?”

“Ain’t gossip, it’s jus’ the truth.”  Linaera staggers to the side a step.  “Well, Dara, it’s been fun, but now that the Imperial Army’s here t’ collect me,” she makes a face at Pierce, “I guess I haveta go.”

“Come by tom’rrow once we kick the Revanites’ collective ass, Linaera,” Torsen says.  “Migh’ be the last time we get to share drinks.”  

“You’re on.”  There’s a round of inebriated farewells, including an inordinate amount of backslapping, and Linaera turns to head back to her ship.

Pierce catches her arm as she starts to trip down the steps.  “Oh, for- we’re over here, my lord, and I thought you were going for one drink, not throwing a raging party with Pubs.”

“One drink,” she says mockingly, leaning against him.  “Who has one drink?  Those smugglers have good booze!  I’m scared to check my account, but whatever, it was fun.”  She slaps his arm, gasping as she has a great idea.  “Give me a piggyback ride back to the ship!”

He really has to work to not laugh this time, and is almost tempted to take her up it; he could blackmail her for weeks with that.  “No.”  

She makes a disgusted noise.  “Ugh, fine.  Spoilsport.  You’re just mad you missed out cause you sat on the ship with Quinn and threw a temper tantrum.”

Thanks to Quinn’s immpecible need for detail and consistancy, he informs a SW Outlander that its been 6 years, 8 months, and 12 days since they seperated, thus I presume he counts starting from the day that Marr’s ship went down.

That helps frame the length of time over which KotFE/KotET occur, about a year and a half, allowing for several months of slow rebuilding before the War for Iokath.

With a year and a half to play with, Im inclined to say KotFE took a significant chunk of that because they needed to literally and metaphorically build the Alliance, along with the month it must have been for 3 people and a droid to fix/clean the Gravestone enough so it was spaceflight-worthy. Vaylin’s reign was likely short and brutal, only a few months, cause unlike with Arcaan, the Alliance could go head to head with her basically from the get-go.

The canon dates we have are (per Wookiepedia): ▪The Sith Empire returns and sparks galactic War - 3681 BBY (28 BTC) ▪Treaty of Coruscant - 3653 BBY (0 ATC) ▪The start of the class missions 3643 (10 ATC) ▪End of the Cold War, return to open warfare - 3642 BBY (11 ATC) ▪Invasion by the Eternal Empire - 3637 BBY (16 ATC) ▪Outlander freed, beginings of the Alliance - 3632 BBY (21 ATC) ▪Ending Arcann’s and subsequently Vaylin’s reigns - 3631 BBY (22 ATC)

Which gives us a 12 year time frame from story start to end.

So Id be inclined to break it fully down as:

▪10 ATC: Prologue thru end of Chp 1 ▪11 ATC: Chp 2 (Including the Revan-related FPs) *Note: the War is reignited by the SW destroying the War Trust and Baras’ ascension to the Dark Council ▪12 ATC: Chp 3 thru Ilum ▪13 ATC: RotHC, Oricon ▪14 ATC: Forged Alliances ▪15 ATC: Rishi thru Ziost ▪16-21 ATC: Outlander Frozen, Arcann invades and subjugates the galaxy ▪21 ATC: Building the Alliance thru taking down Arcann ▪22 ATC: Taking down Vaylin thru the War for Iokath

The Sith classes and getting fucked over and over and over again and being stepped on and blamed for things out of your control, forcing you to become the bigger dog in any way possible just so everyone else will leave you the fuck alone

Consular vs Inquisitor and being a symbol to something that was never your fight in the first place. Warrior vs Knight and being sent as a living weapon to every corner of the galaxy.

Bounty Hunter vs Smuggler and getting wrapped up in a fight that was never your own, forces bigger than you forcing it to become personal just because you were the one there. Trooper vs Agent and laying your life and honour bare for a system that would betray you as soon as it's done using you.

It somehow makes the struggle all the more horrible; people who are so good that even being hunted just for the crime of being alive, turn to a widow and ask her if she has a safe place to spend the night.

People who have no reason to be kind looking at their slave (Vette) and making her their baby sister purely because they wanted to, not wanting to own a slave but unable to escape the system beating them down. People who befriend a pirate and manage to earn the respect of a Dashade, even when that Dashade doesn’t agree with them, purely because they are noble and strong and they have earned it regardless.

People who earn a place on the Dark Council not because they wanted it but because people kept trying to kill them, until there was no one left wanting them dead between them and the seat of power, who suddenly have a chance to quietly express kindness and mercy in the power base they have unwittingly inherited.

Don’t even get me started on LS Bounty Hunters and Agents. The LS Agent who thought that they were on the side of good, who find their worldview destroyed and their unwavering loyalty called into question, and the Hunter who was just another gun until they were given a chance at something greater for the sake of honor and dignity.

People who had every opportunity to be evil in a system designed by oppressors who choose every day to be kind, their own form of rebellion against oppression and the only true freedom they can express

Jedi who do the right thing not because it is expected but because they are simply kind when the Galaxy is full of murderers and thieves, choosing to be brave by looking for the best in people anyway.

Troopers who do what is right even if that means getting in trouble with their superiors, to the point where said superiors try to be better people not because they should be but because the Troopers make them want to do better.

Smugglers who come from humble beginnings and jump at the chance to be part of something greater not for profit but because it is the right thing to do…

(The Operative who knew that at least his twin survived the cluster fuck that separated the 3 of them and ended up in Republic space, THRILLED that his supervisors want him to "defect". Please let me defect to where the only member of my family that I know is still living is. Only to get tangled up in the whole *Operative storyline*)

(The Smuggler who is the only one doing what was expected of him. Except his brother is supposed to be his co-pilot not this backwater dingus. Who knows his little sister is alive and safe but that he'll never get to see her again because Jedi rules.)

“I would have settled for ‘not a slave’.” - the Sith Inquisitor

While submerging myself in spoilers, reading about the Ashara(did I spell it right?) Romance, I came across this. She asks you what would you be if you weren’t a Sith. You can say that you always wanted to be a pirate or trader, but this answer just makes the Inquisitor so human it hurts. A hammy, slightly mad sarcastic asshole, all of that is stripped in that line, spoken so plainly, barely more than a whisper.

Earlier panels had their own posts but I’m combining them all here just cuz

It's early in the war and Barriss is still adjusting. Gree can't help but relate, and he is not one to let his family suffer alone, so naturally he took one look at his young commander and went "this one's mine, she is my lil' sis, must protec"

Vaylin as Dark Phoenix (2019 movie version) by @fleeting-sanity, with thanks.

No particular story so far for this, though it's so lovely I might have to do something with my dimension traveling Vaylin. I just got this image in my head and I needed it drawn.

Please?