ExtraPenguin

I have been going through my All-Purpose Notes Document, and on line 350 (after deleting like 50 lines of accidental duplicates and irrelevant shit) I found my SWTOR storyline tier list! Behold.

( I'm correct and I do make the rules actually )

I've told you lot that I'm doing progression raiding in SWTOR, but not really what I've been doing.

(Quick aside on SWTOR raids: There are three difficulty levels, Story, Hard (officially Veteran), and Nightmare (officially Master). All raids come in story and hard difficulties for 8-man groups, and all except one in story and hard for 16-man. Most come in NiM for 8 and 16. There are two ez raids available in SM and HM – Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace – then 5 "legacy NiMs" available in all difficulty levels – Explosive Conflict, Terror from Beyond, Scum and Villainy, Dread Fortress, and Dread Palace – and then there are the hardmares of Ravagers, Temple of Sacrifice, Valley of the Machine Gods, The Nature of Progress (Dxun), and R-4 Anomaly, named because their hard modes are tuned to be harder than for the legacy raids. Gods and Dxun also have NiM difficulty; R4 is the one only available in 8m groups.)

My main group finished up the last of the hardmares earlier this year, after spending way too long on Revan (last boss of ToS). Like, we spent 3 months on him – partly because of group turnover, plus we took a break to look at R4 when that dropped – but still. We did three NiM clears with timers in the same time we took to kill the fucker. Before that, we did Dxun HM and then we did Gods HM; we've now cleared all 5 legacy NiMs and have the timer on all but one. We'll spend a few weeks there (one dps not available next week, so we'll have to redo it regardless) and then do R4 HM (and gear farm) into Dxun NiM. Looking forward to it! I really like it.

My other group is a 16-person group for the 16m raids, made by smooshing the guild's two prog teams together and adding some extra people to cover the overlap. We did Ravagers and now we're on Revan. The fight's slightly less traumatic, due to there being less of a dps check and the fact that I don't need to play PT* anymore (0/10, most boring tank spec ever) (love you Ballast Point) but half the dps keep getting flung off the platform during the core burn. We made it to sub-5% a few times today but urgh. I really want to be done with this boss forever. Especially since we're heading off to Dxun next, and I like Dxun! Mutant Trandoshans is a good fight and I like the sense of flow to the place. Fingers crossed we do it next week so I can be freeeeee

(Why PT? Well, when Revan is up you can't turn your back to him or he will backstab you for a shitton of damage. Second and third floors you also have the arena doing a push/pull on a timer so you have to be careful not to be flung off the edges or into the core of death. And the third floor has aberrations that you have to look at when they explode. It's perfectly possible to do two out of three. Three out of three is just not going to happen. And on third floor there's a moment where all three are happening. PTs have Hydraulic Overrides and can just ignore the timed pull. With an implant, assassin tanks can use Deflection to do the same.)

idk ask me about my favorite raids and raid bosses?

February might be almost over, but I figured I should see if I can make something for Femslash February in the remaining days. I also sort of want to do something for SWTOR, even if I know posting SWTOR femslash will get a grand total of zero comments outside an exchange. (The fandom is 99% het and canon retellings.) As I didn't have any ideas already, I went looking for prompts and found this actually useful Femslash February prompts list. Usually they're all useless one-word stuff like "happiness" and "kisses", so I immediately reblogged and have copied it here:

Prompt list

1. First time meeting


2. Accidentally touched your hand


3. “I like hearing your thoughts”


4. “One more word on this topic and I’ll kill you”


5. Came to the rescue!


6. Oh My God They Were Roommates


7. So we meet again


8. “Damn, dude, you live like this?”


9. It’s Time For Crime


10. Making music together


11. “Girl help”


12. “Get in loser we’re going shopping”


13. Sharing secrets


14. Hit me with your best shot!


15. “Haha get pranked bro”


16. You’re gonna wish we never met


17. Pep talk


18. “Go to sleep!”


19. Let’s mess this town up, babe! <3


20. Get you a girl that can do both


21. “This reminded me of you”


22. “There is something deeply wrong with you”


23. Rats! Foiled Again!


24. “Got into your nerd activity because I love you”


25. Planning a future together


26. “Regrettably, that’s the love of my life”


27. Did it for you


28. Parting gift

I'm not going to try matching prompt to day of posting, but there's some cool stuff there. Might try looking at them later, even. But! SWTOR. I would default to doing something with Acina and Nox, but I'm running empty on interesting places to send them. Any recs on interesting-looking locations that would lend themselves to Sith archaeology or equivalent? Alternatively, I could do Acina/Jedi Consular that began with Acina watching the surveillance footage of the Barsen'thor of the Jedi Order break into her secret Sith space station full of scary stuff to try and stop someone from stealing the things, but that's more of a comedy fic idea and I have no idea how to end it. Or I could go to Oricon and write something about Dread Master Brontes if I wanted to write tentacle porn. Probably Brontes/Maiya Vix bad ending noncon.

So. Comments? Thoughts? Ideas?

Star Wars: The Old Republic, Jedi Consular storyline (and massive spoilers thereof). I made this one for vid_bingo's 2023 same song challenge. The song of choice was Level Up by Vienna Teng. Despite the temptation, I did not actually use any footage of my Consular leveling up. *g*

AO3.



( process thoughts )

( what the bits were trying to accomplish )

I made a new Consular just to record all this on Ultra graphics with the UI hidden. With a constant XP boost on, max exploration & class mission XP bonuses, and a subscription, I finished the story at level 47. I was playing Serenity, which gets the ball rolling at level 15 and is enjoyable from 23 onwards, and had Qyzen on DPS the whole time. :D I had to do a few heroics to stay on level, but as a stealther, those weren't a problem. More of an issue was getting to level 10 before starting the recording (due to wanting clothes that required level 10 to wear), but I managed that as well.

Vexercises round-up post

The 2022 round of vexercises – an annual intro to vidding bash that also attracts a bunch of more experienced people looking to try out something new, either in source, software, or technique – just came to a close! I completed each of the 7 rounds, and figured out I might as well make a final post on the matter, explaining my stuff!

( tl;dr and many, many embedded videos )

Vids I put on AO3:
Open up the Gates | High and Low (SWTOR)
Leave This Place Alive (SWTOR)
Die Like a God (SWPT)
Common People (SWPT)

We have reached the first +1 of the 5+1+1 Times fic I am writing for sunshinechallenge!

( I realized these are like 1k+ so have a cut oops )

sunshine_challenge, day 5: Bloodstone. Darth Nox and Empress Acina's adventure continues! In the meanwhile, Star Wars people here through the challenge, dreamwars exists.

Bloodstone (with bonus peridot)


Nox burst through the door of Acina's office. "You must come with me at once," she exclaimed, vibrating out of her skin. Acina wondered what had possessed her to give the other woman access.

"What is it? I have an audience in the evening."

"The Reclamation Service uncovered Rakatan ruins on Dromund Fels."

Acina set down her datapad. Dromund Fels was the next world out, arid but still marginally inhabitable. That the Old Sith Empire had settled there was common knowledge. Rakata? This was big. "I suppose I have the time."

Nox grinned and marched out the door. Acina had to almost run to catch up with her.

"Where did they discover the ruins?"

"The Reclamation Service cracked open a new dig in the northern hemisphere, a few thousand kilometers from the others, based on gravitational data. They'd uncovered a few things in a style different from the Sith ruins already excavated, but only when they found the remnants of a Rakatan console did they realize what they were looking at." They arrived at Nox's space ship. "Talos called me the moment they confirmed it. Get in, it should only be a short hop."

The official Reclamation Service report would be coming to her desk by the end of the day. Under regular circumstances she would probably only skim it. With Nox bringing her over – well, she'd probably only skim it, but that would be because she'd hopefully know all they had to say already.

The ship took off with a steady rumble. This time, they wouldn't be heading off to a faraway star, but doing a short intra-system jump from Dromund Kaas to Dromund Fels. With a shudder, the stars changed place. The system's sun was smaller. A red planet, eerily reminiscient of Korriban, though more quiescent, loomed large in the viewport.

Nox handled the landing permissions and piloted the ship down herself. Acina was perhaps the better pilot, but Nox was more than good enough.

They were greeted by a short, pale-skinned human man in Imperial Reclamation Service uniform. "My Lord! And the Empress! Welcome to the dig site. Oh, we would've prepared a better reception if we'd known you were coming; please forgive us."

"It's all right, Talos," Nox replied, confirming Acina's guess of who the man was. "I'll show Acina what we've already uncovered and make our way over to you."

"Of course, My Lord." Doctor Drellik bowed and scampered off.

"Shall we?" Acina asked.

"Certainly." Nox set out across the dusty rock. Acina followed.

There were taped-off squares everywhere, dinky little holes where the sand and rock had been taken away by diligent Reclamation Service personnel to uncover what might lie beneath. Nox led them over a slight dune to reveal a wide area free of sand, some sort of mostly green platform that might once have been level.

"We aren't sure what this stage was for, but the stone provides some clues." As Nox was walking over it, it must be safe to traverse. "The green jasper has inclusions of red hematite. The resulting stone has many names, but one of the most common is bloodstone."

"Blood sport or executions, then?" Acina asked.

"That is our suspicion as well, especially since we haven't discovered anything else made of the material."

"Are there any audience stands nearby? One would expect some if it were for public entertainment."

"We haven't begun those digs yet – there is more lucrative material." Nox had reached the other end of the bloodstone and stepped off. "Seismic survey data does indicate some sort of fitting structures buried deeper in the sand, though. In addition, we have uncovered some interesting little chambers. Come!"

With that, Nox took off towards another patch of sectioned-off desert with a speed through the sand that required use of the Force. Acina rolled her eyes internally and followed her.

Nox waved her hand to clear off a layer of sand, revealing a trapdoor made of a brown stone. Another wave of Nox's hand, and the trapdoor lifted. "We can prop this open with one of the struts – there." The dark mouth of the passage yawned before them. Nox stepped in without hesitation.

What was there for Acina to do but to follow? She carefully followed Nox down the weathered stairs, slightly shallower than humans might build, to the darkness.

Her eyes soon adjusted. An eerie green glow came from in front.

The stairs ended with a right-angle turn to a room perhaps five meters a side and three high. Each corner had a pillar of some translucent olive green mineral, lit from beneath, casting an odd light on everything. Nox's red skin was rendered an off-black that almost matched her markings, her yellow eyes aglow.

"This chamber's purpose is also unclear, but it is fit for a Sith," Nox quietly explained. "The crystals are peridot, one of the few known minerals that forms in the upper mantle rather than the crust. To get such excellent, unweathered speciments up in quantity..." She glanced sidelong at Acina, something anticipatory in an oddly vulnerable fashion in her mien.

It was at that moment that Acina realized what Nox wanted. A regular Sith might want power, influence, all manner of favors – or a chance to end her and steal her throne. What Nox wanted was her.

"Indeed, it is impressive," Acina temporized. "You mentioned discovering some sort of Rakatan matter transport system on Belsavis. Do you think they'd have used something like that to bring it up?"

Nox perked up. "That is an intriguing idea; I'll have to bring it up with the team excavating the Belsavis transport system."

Acina walked up to one of the pillars in the corner. It, too, had a perfect square cross section, like the room. "If we could duplicate the technology..."

"...the galaxy would be ours."

A bit more ambitious than what Acina had immediately been thinking – transport had been one of her main responsibilities back when she'd headed the Sphere of Technology – but something she desired. She quite liked Nox, as much as one Sith could safely like another; had for some time already. Nox had set things up. Now, the move was Acina's.

"Is there a ruin in this galaxy you have yet to visit?" Acina asked. "It seems you've seen them all."

"I'm sure there are places I have yet to discover," Nox said. "One of Dromund Kaas's continents is forbidden without Imperial permission and I'm sure Vitiate's hidden files contain many treasures."

Temples, then, rather than a reassurance that Acina could bring her wherever, and a desire to crack open as many secrets as possible. Did Nox truly want Acina's company, then, or just the key to her vaults? Or perhaps both? Acina would have to investigate. "I shall keep that in mind when I next have need of bedtime reading." She turned towards the door. "In the meanwhile, my time here is limited, and this but one of the structures. Have you uncovered more of the complex?"

"There's another chamber like this, and Talos's crew is digging up something we have yet to characterize. Come!"

Acina followed Nox to the surface. This time, she didn't pretend her observance was anything other than what it was: interest.

Perhaps even reciprocated.

I didn't know kyanite existed, so congrats on the sunshine_challenge for teaching me something! Also I like kyanite because it's blue. *g* We are now on part 4 out of the 5+1+1 times fic.

Kyanite


Acina felt more than a little relieved when the Fury settled down in the middle of a temperate forest. It wasn't the tropical jungle she preferred, but it wouldn't freeze her or leave her pulmonary passages feeling like someone had gone over them with particularly rough sandpaper. As for what Nox wished to show her here, well, the past few locations had been a mix of intriguing and aesthetically appealing. No doubt this one would be as well.

"I think this one should be a bit more to your speed," Nox said as the landing ramp descended – this time without the need for any protective equipment.

"The climate certainly looks less hostile than the previous two."

"Winters can be harsh, but the planet is in the middle of its summer." Nox set out. "It's a few minutes' hike. Come."

Acina sighed and followed Nox across the clearing. Once they'd gotten to the edge of the trees, the wild hays turned to moss and various sprigs which bore the beginnings of berries. No doubt the forest would feed the local populace once autumn came. Now, it was merely potential, ripe for claiming.

Trees rose tall beside them, orange-brown bark flaking off in layers. Birds sang a myriad songs. It was all a bit too serene; Acina felt like taking a nap.

"So, Nox, who lived here?" Acina asked as they walked. "A Sith Lord? Some Jedi? A heretofore unknown Force sect?"

"A Sith Lord known as Itsukotsât, possibly."

"Possibly."

"This does predate Vitiate and his empire by a significant margin. The dedication on the library is to an Itsukotsât, but whether that is meant to be an individual's name or simply a generic term referring to all who have broken their chains is up for debate."

Itsukotsât did mean chain-breaker in High Sith. "Is the rest of the inscription in High Sith as well?"

"Yes."

That would mean it was thousands of years old, predating the Sith exodus to Ziost and the gradual loss of the language beyond monument inscriptions in favor of Basic. Intriguing. "Is it just the one inscription, or is there more?"

"Only the one that's survived." Nox shrugged. "The weathering has been extreme, as you might imagine, and vegetation has grown over much of it."

"And the library's contents?"

"The stone tablets have survived in part. No evidence of holocrons yet, though it might predate the technology."

One of the first Sith libraries outside Korriban, and Nox was showing this to her. Acina couldn't help but shudder. Usually, at this time, a Sith would start hinting at what they wished for the other to do in exchange. Nox...

"The lock mechanism has eroded, but in its prime, the tablets would've been covered by a structure that's since degraded and some Force artefact."

Would the other shoe drop? Acina would've thought that the other woman was beyond simple currying favor with her, yet here she was, showing her things as if she simply wished to impress her. "Was the lock anything useful or interesting?"

Nox walked over to a rocky outcropping and wiped off the moss. Growing out of the pale gray stone were several blades of a blue mineral, mostly opaque but some translucent and greatly varying in shade. "It seems to have involved the local kyanite. One of the mineral's peculiarities is that it is significantly harder along one axis than the others. The lock involved aligning a blade of the crystal properly."

"Did this Itsukotsât not have other Force-sensitives on the planet, or was this lock only the first of many?" Acina refused to believe that a self-respecting Sith would only have the one lock on their sanctum, especially if it were one so simple.

Nox shrugged. The afternoon light glinted off her horns. "Who knows? Much shall remain lost, even when this site has been properly excavated." She continued looking at Acina, expression moderately open, waiting for something.

Acina decided to push her luck. "I want one of those stone tablets," she said. "Find me one."

Nox grinned and bowed. "Your wish is my command!" She turned her back to Acina like she didn't care a whit about being stabbed in the back and made her way carefully across the forest floor.

Acina felt like she was missing something, like the final piece of the puzzle around which everything revolved would appear at any minute now and let her complete the picture yet stubbornly refused to come. She ran her fingers across a blade of the kyanite, feeling the roughness and the slight echo in the Force that characterized all proper crystals, then observed Nox's form, intently walking over the moss.

As if pulled by an invisible string, she took a step toward Nox, then another. She told herself she was simply ensuring Nox would do the job correctly, but as she approached her fellow Sith, someplace deep in her heart knew this was not the case.

sunshine_challenge continues. Also, minutia_r is hosting a fannish poetry fest! Shall have to check out.

Rose Quartz


The jaunt to the jungle stronghold embedded in amber had been worth it, in the end. Acina was however grateful that when the next time Nox pulled her from her imperial duties, the Fury-class Imperial Interceptor landed next to what the Force told her was an entrance hidden in the mountains.

The whirr of the landing ramp extending was swallowed by the wind. When the door opened and Acina stepped out into the open air, she instinctively closed her eyes. There was little dust, but the air was biting dry, making her eyes feel like they would shrivel into prunes at any moment. She let out an involuntarily cough at all the moisture leaving her pulmonary passages.

Nox placed a hand on the rock and closed her eyes. A moment later, a slab of granite shuddered to the side. They slipped inside.

"And whose fortress might this be?" Acina asked as Nox waved on crystalline braziers that lit the pinkish rock in an infinity of hues. "Another Sith Lord from Vitiate's court?"

"This one was actually not even a Sith Lord," Nox said. "Before its star went nova and turned into a supergiant, Kathrol was a world of towering peaks poking out of an emerald sea. Its natives had their own sect of Force sensitives who trained in the art of shaping rock. They sheltered from the planet-encompassing thunderstorms deep inside artificial passages."

Acina followed Nox up the spiraling stairs. "Did any of them make it out before their sun exploded?"

"Some did, but very few, and the rock shapers were bound by tradition to their mountains. The escapees shared enough of their lost home to become a minor footnote in the history of the galaxy before their extinction."

"How did you come across this information?"

"One of the people who came across them was Darth Asha, a contemporary of Naga Sadow's who left behind a treasure trove of research on necromancy in her Yavin crypt." Right in Nox's back yard, then. "The utter lack of moisture is oppressive, but this structure from the twilight of Kathrol still demonstrates the main architectural feature."

"Staircases?" Acina hazarded.

"You'll see." Nox was smug. Probably something spectacular, then.

They trod up countless flights of stairs. Rooms branched off the main staircase, some large, some small, some with the remnants of rock furniture, all in the pink rock that dominated here. The staircase's walls were left unfinished; most of the rooms had it polished into a smooth façade. Here and there Acina spotted regions left in the natural crystal state, perhaps for reasons of acoustics.

She was about to rescind her appreciation of Nox parking the spaceship close when the stairs evened out into a landing. "Here," Nox said and waved open a final door.

This led them to a small room. The ceiling and walls had been left rough-cut, save for one, which was smooth and so thin as to be translucent except for the polished, spherical piece of rock suspended within it, easily three meters in diameter, only barely small enough to fit into the wall.

"I suspect this was the rock shaper's room." Nox walked to the center and observed the sphere. "The sun is almost in position."

Zabrak eyes were just as much at risk of sun-blindness as human ones, so Acina didn't feel a need to calculate whether this might all be some elaborate ploy for her life before joining Nox in the center of the room. "I assume this – sphere – will look quite spectacular against the backlit backdrop."

Nox let out a hum, but didn't reply. Acina resigned herself to wait.

The sun soon hit the not-window from behind, lighting up the translucent framing of the giant sphere. Acina hazarded a glance at Nox. The soft pink light did not work with the other woman's red and black coloring, but there was something appealing in the way it smoothed out the marks reality had left on her.

"Look," Nox murmured.

Acina turned back to the sphere. A starburst had appeared on it, a point of light surrounded by six narrow spokes radiating outwards.

For a moment, she did not breathe. The starburst was akin to a giant eye, staring at her, set in the light. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine.

"This mineral is one of the few that demonstrate an asterism with transmitted light," Nox said, drawing Acina back to the present.

Acina shook herself in a manner she hoped was imperceptible. Nox was a fellow Sith; what was she doing, being distracted with her less than an arm's length away? "Was this meant for timekeeping, or just decoration?"

"The surviving records do not tell. Perhaps both."

Acina hummed. It was pretty. She did not often encounter the sublime anymore. The moment was over, but she had enjoyed it. "Indeed. Perhaps both."

Neither of them made a move to leave. Eventually, the asterism would fade as it had appeared. For now, they could observe in companionable silence.

And thus, the journey ends: both for the Bounty Hunter storyline and all the class storylines. I have now completed them all. This is not the end of my SWTOR posting, however – I think I'll make both a "quickstart guide" for getting started (nonspoilery pitches for the class stories, brief overview of combat styles, some quick tips on combat) and an actual spoilery story ranking/comparison, for one, and since I'm doing the MMO stuff and progression raiding, expect continued investment in SWTOR and its storylines.

Anyway! On to the actual topic of this post. And the screencap album.

( Belsavis, Voss, Corellia )


Zahadd Dume & crew, off into the horizon.