For some reason I've never really considered the dynamic that Talos and Duserra have until very recently, and it's just... the thing is that Talos is so completely nonthreatening to Duserra that he can weasel right through her armor and befriend her without her noticing. He's simultaneously extremely friendly and chipper while also being very respectful and deferential, so he managed to make friends with her without her ever feeling like she was being disrespected.
As a result, he's one of the only people she'll actually express genuine fondness for, if quietly, and she's very "if anything happens to him I'm killing everyone in this room" about him.
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Tumblr’s letting me post images again! Have a sad.
Duserra decided to hand me some new backstory information; nothing that hadn’t been implied already, but it’s still upsetting to have the specifics confirmed.
Thanks to @shabre-legacy and their post about Sith parties: have Duserra in a suit. She hates Fancy Sith Parties, but she also looks damn good when attending them. In theory there’s a second piece I also intend to finish, but given how much effort this one was and it’s not even shaded, who knows how long that’ll take me. Stay tuned for that.
(I am Actually Begging You to click this one open and zoom in on the details. I spent an ungodly amount of time on the damn vest pattern and gold tailcoat embroidery. The gold detailing is all on a separate layer so it could be made Shiny easily; the vest pattern is one I hand-drew and then copy-pasted and manipulated to turn into a pattern. The texturing on her tailcoat is the flower brush that I believe comes with FireAplaca, for anyone who’s curious.)
I did it! I finished it! I spent all morning drawing the thumbnail so I could put it on YouTube! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
This isn't the first animatic/lyricstuck I've drawn, but it is the first one I've actually figured out how to put to music! More details on what’s going on/the background for this story are in the description of the video.
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Summary: In which Erisine reacts understandably poorly to learning Vaylin is under a kind of mind control very similar to what she was once subjected to and forbids Garen from using it, and a disapproving Valkorion has no meaningful sense of boundaries and no qualms about outing Eris’s trauma to Garen without her consent to try and convince Garen she’s being irrational and making a mistake.
Tags: No Archive warnings apply, mind control aftermath/recovery, implied/referenced mind control, hurt/comfort but it’s pretty light this time, KOTET spoilers
Find me on AO3 at Dragonheart37!
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Reactions to Garen describing the events aboard the Gravestone and the news about Vaylin's keyword varied.
Nox recoiled, eyes wide and brow furrowed as if she wasn't sure how she felt about this revelation, only that it wasn't a good feeling. Zashiil startled almost as much, glancing across at the rest of the council like she was looking for reactions too. Theron swore under his breath and pushed himself away from the table to pace across the back wall, shaking his head. Lana rubbed a hand over her face, thoughts flickering behind her eyes too fast to read.
The Commander, whose opinion on this development mattered most of all, did not startle, or pace. A split second of shock flickered across her face, and she went very, very still, lowering her gaze to stare at the holotable. Her fingers might have been a fraction tighter on its edge than they had been a moment ago, but Garen had been watching her face, not her hands, so she couldn't be sure.
Lana was the first to speak. “We could use that to stop Vaylin. If we can just get close to her – we can stop her.”
“I don't like it,” Zashiil muttered. “Taking someone's free will from them. Separating them from the Force. It's wrong.”
“So is massacring a hundred thousand people to catch three fugitives, but Vaylin hasn't had any problems doing that,” Lana countered.
“Zashiil's right,” Theron said, turning back to the table and running a hand through his hair. “We can't justify everything with what our enemies are willing to do, or we're no better than them.”
“Lana might be right about this one,” Koth added, though he didn't sound certain. “Vaylin has to be stopped somehow. She's a monster.”
Zashiil glanced at Nox, as if expecting support, but Nox was staring at the table, fingers clenched around her own biceps as she crossed her arms, silent. The Barsen'thor hissed between her teeth. “I hate Vaylin as much as anyone, but it's not right. You know that.”
“Enough,” said the Commander. The word wasn't loud, but it drew the whole room's attention back to her somehow. She was still staring at the holotable, face carefully neutral, but her voice was sure when she spoke. “This isn't an argument worth having. It's not an option.”
The collective shock at the decisiveness of that rippled through the Force. Lana blinked, clearly taken aback. “Commander?”
She looked up now, green eyes hard as chips of jade. “I'm not arguing about this, Lana. I'm taking it off the table. Zashiil and Theron are right.”
Koth made a shocked noise in the back of his throat. “Commander, you can't just – this is Vaylin we're talking about. I don't like it either, but we need every edge we can get.”
“You will not use Vaylin's programming against her,” the Commander said, turning to look Garen square in the face. It was so small Garen could have imagined it, but she thought she heard a tremor in the Commander's voice. “That's an order, Master Garen'ishta.”
Garen recoiled a little despite herself, startled. An order – the Commander so rarely gave those, or at least rarely said it so bluntly, to her councilors. Lana leaned forward. “Commander, I understand your hesitation, but -”
“But nothing,” the Commander snapped, then paused to take a breath. When she went on, she sounded calm again. “I understand the risks and prices. But I won't allow it. There are depths even I won't stoop to. Let whatever price we may pay be on my head.”
Lana didn't get a chance to respond to that before the scene froze, colors fading.
Valkorion's voice interrupted. “Commander Ganne. Such a brilliant woman. And yet so foolish sometimes.” He circled around behind the Commander, shaking his head. “Such an obvious mistake, and she's walking right into it.”
“She's right,” Garen retorted. “It's wrong to – to manipulate Vaylin like that. Even Vaylin.”
“Vaylin is a danger to herself and everyone else,” Valkorion said, eyes narrow. “Your Commander would agree, were it not for her past. She allows her fear to get the better of her.”
Garen hesitated. “Her – her past? What are you talking about?”
Valkorion smiled grimly. “Vaylin is far from her first experience with such programming. She served my Sith Empire. She knows what it's like to have a leash.” He tilted his head, examining Erisine's frozen face. “She was dangerous, too. In a different way. She killed a Dark Councilor; she could have killed more, perhaps. So she was brought under control.”
Garen's brow furrowed as she turned that over in her mind. She hadn't known this; the Commander had never spoken of it. Which no doubt meant she wasn't supposed to know. “None of this matters.”
“Oh, but it does,” Valkorion disagreed. “She's making a critical mistake, one that might cost thousands of lives, all because she's letting her emotions override the logic that tells her she should know better. She sympathizes with Vaylin because she's been Vaylin. That doesn't mean my reasons for controlling my daughter weren't sound.”
Garen gritted her teeth. “Why are you telling me this? You can't expect it to change my mind.”
“Perhaps not. But I hope it will, and that you won't let the Commander's irrational emotions dictate your actions.”
“You're wrong,” she insisted.
“So be it, then.”
The world came back into focus as Valkorion's presence receded. Garen spoke, aloud this time. “I'm not planning to use Vaylin's keyword, Commander. You have my word.”
The Commander's shoulders relaxed slightly, a little of the tension going out of her, as if she'd been braced for Garen to fight her on this. “Good. Now that that's settled, we should talk about Arcann and how to handle him.”
For a moment, Lana looked like she might still protest, but the tone the Commander spoke in brooked no argument, and after a beat of hesitation Lana sighed. “Very well. If you're sure about this.”
-----
Garen found the Commander standing on the edge of the balcony, leaning against the railing with one foot propped behind the other, staring out over the forests of Odessen. She hesitated a few meters away, not wanting to interrupt the Commander's thoughts.
The Commander nodded slightly without turning around. “Garen.”
Garen blinked, then moved up to the railing next to her. “How did you know it was me?”
Erisine smiled dryly, still looking out toward the horizon. “Footsteps. Yours are the lightest out of anyone on the council. And no one outside the inner circle ever comes to find me out here.” She snorted. “Well. No one who isn't Kaliyo, anyway. But she wouldn't have hesitated to bother me.”
Garen shook her head. “You never cease to amaze me.”
“I have to keep some tricks up my sleeves.”
They stood quietly for a moment, while Garen tried to formulate a way to broach the subject she wanted to gracefully. “So, uh,” she started, hesitantly, ignoring Valkorion's disapproval seeping through the back of her mind. “You seemed... pretty upset about Vaylin.”
Erisine turned to look at her, long enough for Garen to start getting uncomfortable before she spoke. “He's told you something you're not supposed to know about me, hasn't he?”
Garen winced. “I'm sorry. I didn't... I can't always shut him out.”
“Don't apologize. It's not your fault.” Her fingers tightened on the railing. “What did he tell you?”
She could feel him projecting himself standing behind her; she ignored him as best she could. “He said you know what it's like to have a leash. You sympathize with Vaylin because you've been Vaylin. That...” She pulled one lek over her shoulder to fidget with it uncomfortably. “That you're letting your emotions override logic, even though you know we should use Vaylin's programming against her. You – you get the idea.”
The Commander's lips tightened a fraction. “I see.” She looked back out toward the horizon again. “I have to ask you to keep this to yourself, Garen. It's true I know Vaylin's... situation better than almost anyone. But I assure you, it's no longer relevant.” She took a beat to swallow, and Garen tried to pretend she hadn't felt the echoes of old hurt in the Force, too strong to block out completely. “I undid my programming a long time ago. It's not a security threat.”
“I know,” Garen said softly. “You wouldn't let something like that compromise the Alliance.”
Before she could say more, she felt Valkorion step further into the front of her mind. “She's wrong,” he said, circling around into view behind Erisine. “She may no longer be under control of a keyword, but her past is a threat to you. She sympathizes with Vaylin.”
Garen frowned. “I wouldn't use Vaylin's programming against her even if the Commander hadn't ordered me not to,” she replied silently. “It's wrong. No matter how much of a threat Vaylin is.”
“And when innocents die preventable deaths because you wouldn't do what was necessary to stop her?” he challenged, arching one eyebrow. “What will you say then?”
That made her falter. What would she? What could she possibly say?
No. Don't let him break you. He was just looking for weaknesses – things he could exploit to manipulate her. She'd come this far and done this much good without needing to justify horrors; she couldn't start now.
He'd felt the hesitation, though, and Garen felt his satisfaction seep into her mind. She focused for a moment, pushing him back into the background again. Time caught up with her – she hadn't even realized it had stopped this time – and the Commander was looking at her, half a question in her eyes. Before Garen could say anything, Erisine said, “He was talking to you.” Garen nodded. “You get this – look on your face. Like you stop registering everything else for just a second.”
Garen sighed. “Valkorion has this trick he likes to do sometimes where he slows down my perception of time so he can talk without being interrupted. That's probably the look.”
Erisine shook her head. “I'll never understand the Force.” She smiled dryly. “He say anything I should know about?”
Garen flicked a lek dismissively, though even that was half-hearted. “Badgering me about agreeing with you. About Vaylin, I mean. Nothing important.”
Erisine mmed understanding. After a beat of silence, she asked, sounding hesitant, “Does he do that often?”
“Badger me?” Garen shrugged wearily. “Not usually like this. He's always listening, and he likes to give annoying commentary. We disagree on a lot of stuff.”
Erisine laughed. “I can imagine.” She sobered again, then said quietly, “I am sorry you got stuck with this. I don't really understand how it all works, but I've had a voice in my head, even if it wasn't a ghost of the Force or whatever. It's not easy.”
“You've had a voice in your head?”
She waved a hand. “Weird – brain stuff. Side effect of the programming. Turns out the human brain doesn't respond very well to external control being forced on it.” She huffed a half-hearted laugh and added dryly, “Can't imagine how that might apply to Vaylin.”
A vague sense of disapproval from Valkorion floated through Garen's mind. She ignored it, again. “I do wonder how much it was his... choking control on her that turned her into this,” Garen admitted softly. “I wouldn't blame her for rebelling, against that. Even if she's taken it much too far.”
Erisine pursed her lips. “No. I can't blame her for that much either.” She looked down, staring blindly over the railing for a long stretch of silence. “Garen, I don't want you to feel like I don't care that I'm putting you at risk. If I didn't think you could beat her...”
Garen reached out to touch Erisine's elbow lightly, just a brush of fingertips. “I know,” she assured her. “I wouldn't use it even if you'd told me to. It's not right.”
Erisine snorted. “Telling your superior you'd disobey a direct order? Brave.”
Garen let a smile crinkle her face. “A Jedi never lies.”
“I think the Barsen'thor would disagree,” Erisine replied, smiling back. She shrugged her arm away from Garen slightly, and Garen took her cue to withdraw her hand from where it still lay against Erisine's elbow. “It's good, I think. To have people willing to push back against me and tell me when I'm wrong. That's one thing the Empire was never good at. Perhaps the Alliance can do better.”
Garen looked out again over Odessen, over the dock below. “We'll pull it off,” she promised. “We'll beat Vaylin. And we'll set things right. All of us, together.”
Have the thumbnail for that animatic I just posted this morning! Backgrounds are hard, focus on the nice edge lighting on Duserra instead. (Yes, this is a panel from the animatic itself turned into full color, for the record.)
