I knooooow, it was awesome. We decided that "tarro" is going to enter the Mandalorian lexicon as their new word for "tryhard." We also got our characters up to level 10, but didn't get even a third of the way through the class stories on Hutta, so if anyone wants to join us (maybe with a Sith?) there's still plenty of time to close the gap!
Also Theron may or may not use blackmarket caffeine-equivalent stims to stay awake because he makes healthy life choices For The Cause and sleep is for the weak. The Alliance has given him open access to several high-end subdermal stim injector implants he's had his eye on for years and he's consistently having a crisis of conscience over it. Lana flipped pale solely on grounds of "Well I initially wanted to put your head through a wall, but clearly far too many people already do that on a regular basis, including you. Please go take a nap."
The only way I've got to do it is have a screen capture method ready to go, and get the shots once the conversation's wrapped up. I do that for cutsene dialog I want to share, mostly.
Lana "why am I the only sane and reasonable adult with basic self-care skills in this community" Beniko Senya "You're not, I just think it's funnier to let our comrades run wild" Tirall alternately, Senya "Call me the mom-friend one more time and your head's going through a wall" Tirall
Theron "If you'd just told me you wanted me to get tortured by pirates to gather information I'd have volunteered" Shan Lana "But secret plans are secret and can't be tortured out of you" Beniko Koth "I barely know this guy and I can tell you you're severely underestimating his pain tolerance and how few fucks he gives about his personal well-being" Vortena Koth "I sincerely regret signing on with these lunatics" Vortena HK "Forever playing soundbites of popcorn crunching while marvelling at the constant meatbag soap opera drama with T7 'And I thought Jedi were crazy' 01" 47
Another reason I regret the lack of an easy way to log convos is the loss of all the vaguely-IC trash talk. Vashti is totally the kind of person who would advice her friend and traveling companion to "butch up, buttercup :)" before they enter the smelly, polluted swamp. Also, the "jiggy with it" joke? Totally IC. XD
Isilta is the kind of person that will butcher a room full of people with a blade and stop to adjust her perfectly tailored, gore-soaked uniform before sauntering out with a level "We're done here, yes?" to her partner. While carefully wiping a smear of viscera off her cheek with a handkerchief, she'll realize she lost a cufflink and immediately scramble around the room to find it because you don't understand they're antiques you can't just buy a new fossilized red krayt pearl cufflink they're a matched set stop laughing and help me find it.
Was Isilta always this prissy, or is it a side-effect of enlisting? XD That's what Vashti would like to know. Also, where do you think they grew up? You called Isilta "Huttese" while we were playing, but that accent sounds pretty well-ground in. Was she schooled to talk that way after joining Imperial Intelligence, or is it her natural accent? Personally I could see Vashti growing up as gutter trash somewhere on the edge of Imperial space, maybe in one of their space ports where they've been trying to establish trade with the Hutts and neutral systems? Her accent was always a bit of a mixed bag, but she schooled herself out of talking like an Imperial completely sometime in her mid-teens. Her full name -- Vashti'stateira -- is pronounced Twi'lek-fashion, and is also a gesture of defiance. Just because she takes Imperial credits doesn't mean she's one of them. I bet they had one hell of an argument when Isiltra decided to enlist. Suuuure, try to fix the problem from within. Or get yourself BRAINWASHED.
I think her "real" accent is actually the non-Imperial one, not that anyone but Vashti and maybe Keeper knows. Maybe she taught herself to talk real posh well before enlisting by hanging out near the garrison on the spaceport? Because it's obvious the Empire is full of snobs and she'd get farther if she walked in sounding like an Officer rather than trash, and a sweet little Imperial orphan gets more credits and food from begging than a Huttese guttersnipe. Besides, if you can't forge a decent birth certificate from a middling-to-upper urbanite Kaas family you really don't belong in Intelligence anyway. The brainwashing thing will be just another nail in the coffin for all Sith. She's utterly loyal to the Empire. She just thinks Sith are entitled, pigheaded loose cannons who should not be in charge but she will follow the chain of command. Forcing that freely given devotion is an unimaginable insult that sets her on the warpath. I think it's a nice mirrored set, yeah? Also brainwashed agents can't say they've been brainwashed but I'm betting Vashti sees some kind of tell. Probably something like, "Hey, you lost a lapel pin back there." "Oh, damn," she mutters, fiddling with the offending lapel. "I'll just add that to requisition form with the new overshirt, I suppose." Like, all of her Effects were regulation, but they were jewelry-grade or antiques and she was really proud of them because it meant she had moved up in the world. Someone who'd brainwash a loyal asset just because they occasionally sassed you would definitely strip that kind of pride out of said asset and laugh about it. More rambling: She doesn't have a problem with getting her hands dirty, and her style of wetwork tends to be very wet if surgically precise (she is medically trained, after all), so it's not that she's prissy, she's just concerned with Appearance because she's better than all that now. She'll lapse back into street cant and ragged clothes and rough brawling for a cover, but given her options she'd prefer a starched uniform, sleek hair and a stiletto coated anticoagulants, heavy-duty local anesthetic and bacta so the external injury painlessly seals. The mark thinks he's been bumped rather hard by the charming young soldier who apologizes so prettily. He dies of internal bleeding several minutes later, thinking he's overindulged a bit, while she's on her second glass of imported champagne across the room. (It took a long time to figure out the ratios, she's very proud of herself.) Additional, additional rambling: The only thing she keeps from the old days is a taste for the cheap, tar-laden military-issue cigarettes she used to bum off soldiers in the garrison.
I really wish we could be more proactive about solving the brainwashing thing, though it would be hard to fit that into the way swtor structures missions. My headcanon for Issun is that rather than waiting for the break to make a move, he attempts early on to contact Darth Jadus. Because creepy fear-obsessed critter he may be, but Jadus is actually a remarkably reasonable boss as far as Sith go (which isn't far, admittedly), and would be relatively likely to pick up on something having gone wrong with his Hand. I mean, there's the possibility that a cure from him would be ridiculously unpleasant or he might just decide to stay hands-off and expect you to be creative enough to deal with it yourself, but it would be worth a shot. Same thing goes with the Warrior and Inquisitor plots. Your master is obviously out to screw you over, whyfor no chance to gather some allies if you've acquired any? It was cool to see Lord Rathari turn up again at the end of the sith plot (along with his amazing butt-enhancing coattails), but... could have used a chance to call him up earlier than that.
Yeah, unfortunately the brainwashing subversion has to stay largely headcanon'd. Isilta would definitely be reaching out to select contacts. Hell, two of your companions regularly fuck around with psychoactives and would absolutely catch on. Like, there is no way your pheromone signature wouldn't be altered enough for a Killik joiner (who may or may not be very interested in certain pheromones *wonk*) or the babies to catch on, and didn't Lokin help develop the serum? If nothing else he'd recognize something screwy in your bloodwork.
Oh man, that is EVIL. :D I love it. And yeah, it's a little weird and distressing that your companions never figure it out. They know *something's* up after you collapse on the ship, and disapprove if the brainwashing makes you dismiss their concerns out of hand, but *none* of them think to investigate further? Not even Lokin? Or what about Kaliyo? The two of you have been traveling together for *quite* some time at that point, and she only likes surprises when she's the one springing them on someone else. In a just world the player would have to think pretty quick on their feet to head off a fist-fight without running up against the brainwashing. XD I was also sad, playing my first Agent, that there's apparently no dialogue scene where you come clean about the whole thing? Lokin was there when Tservani finally broke free on Quesh, and she promised to tell him everything later...but she never actually did, at least not on screen? And none of the other companions reference that one time you went a little nuts and started collapsing and running around like a decapitated chicken, either. I play Bioware games specifically for the story and companions, so this was a little disappointing. But at least there's still headcanons and fanfic. Like Isilta, Tservani was PISSED about brainwashed, though I have to note that it actually made a lot more sense when the Dark Council decided to do it to her, because she was very out-spoken in her criticism of the Sith even BEFORE she kicked Darth Jadus' ass and forced him to run away with his tail between his legs. It makes sense that they'd be afraid of her, and angry that a jumped-up twi'lek from a slave bloodline is *making* them afraid. Her parents were freed in their Sith master's will, as thanks for some extraordinary service they'd rendered, and the new head of the household paid for Tservani's education. As a free twi'lek with slave relatives, she knows *exactly* how much worse her life could have been -- and she knows exactly how petty, immature, and capricious Sith can be. Instead of making her more cautious and diplomatic, though, it just made her angry at the world, and whenever she has to talk to Sith she spends most of the conversation consciously determined not to look afraid or impressed. She got electrocuted like five times over the course of the base game (and got Keeper electrocuted once). :D;;; It was a moment of note when she managed to *avoid* mouthing off to the Dread Masters. Tservani's sense of self-preservation is as rare and elusive as a freaking unicorn. She used the Black Codex to erase all record of her own existence at the end of the class story, and is *deeply* annoyed at the way Marr's been trying to reel her back into the fold ever since. Fuck off, Marr. OH, which reminds me of a thing I wanted to mention. Spider, I don't think you got this line, because Issun gave the Black Codex away, but after Tservani took it to Keeper, he mentioned Sith Intelligence! I forget the exact line, but I remember that his tone of voice was very skeptical and contemptuous. I had the impression that at that point it was just a rumor he'd heard about, but since he brought this up while trying to convince her to use the Black Codex to erase herself, I think he wanted to head it off at the pass as best he could. On a different note, it occurs to me that if Vashti was expecting Isilta to get brainwashed from the moment she enlisted, she might actually have *forgotten* to worry about it by the time it actually happens. Plus, if we assume the class plots run more or less in parallel, the point when the Agent realizes they've been brainwashed is also around the point when the Hunter realizes they're being, well, hunted by the SIS. What if Vashti completely misses the signs at first, due to her own shit? We could totally work that for drama if you ever wanted to rp this or write a fanfic or something.
I was definitely thinking we need to RP this :D Isilta is one of the templates for my brainwashed Pathfinder assassin, Nix, who I will probably never get to really play, and "trapped in her own head trying to clue allies in" is a beloved plot of mine. I love the thought of "neat, careful, efficient killer has no other way to say 'something is wrong' than to become brutal and sloppy" and such.
Yeeeeee, I'd like that. I should probably warn you that I am kind of a slow writer, and frequently low in spoons, so I prefer to rp long-form with easily accessible logs, such as over private message here on kintsugi or in a forum thread. That way if I run out of spoons *completely* and disappear for a week or two, it's easier to pick up where we left off (this is also why I basically treat my skype and aim accounts like voice mail). I really am sorry in advance about the inconvenience, but this is just how things are with me. :( That's one of my favorite plots too, though, and I'd love to see it play out. I did something similar once with a clone trooper, in an rp with Spider, but with the confounding factor that the clone was also a complete amnesiac (to the point that after the whole story came out, he and his brothers decided to treat him like a totally new individual, not a continuation of the original personality). So he was trying to clue in the other clones that he *wasn't* the person they knew, while the brainwashing forced him to pretend to be that person as best as he could. It was great! Hm...there was other stuff I wanted to talk about...Oh! What do you think of Watcher Two? It blows my mind how different the experience of her character can be, depending on what kind of person the Agent is. She and Tservani were constantly at each other's throats, because Watcher Two's brand of racism really got on Tservani's nerves. But on the other hand, she and my male human Agent, Ceiligh, have been actually having a romance in their off-duty hours! I was so surprised when the option came up to actually sleep with her, especially when up to that point it had seemed like she was deliberately holding Ceiligh at arm's length every time he flirted with her.
I'm good with opening something up in Galley's Turn or a Google doc, I'm long-winded too. Also @CellarSpider is definitely welcome. Sith of some flavor or a Smuggler would be flexible enough. Isilta and Two mostly got along, they have a similar For The Empire outlook. Two was at most exasperated by Isilta's constant snark but let it slide because she got the job done.
Sure! Probably my most appropriate Sith at the moment is Rejalgar (the warrior who solves an unexpected amount of his problems by talking at them). The only other one I've really got is Sericus the inquisitor and while he's fun to mess around with, probably not best for this purpose. No smugglers as of yet, I'm still working on getting around to that.
oh dear GAWD, yes please! Throw Rejalgar our way. Vashti will be SO FRUSTRATED by the way he keeps being reasonable at problems. You're a Sith! You're supposed to have a hair trigger! STOP TALKING ME OUT OF PUNCHING PEOPLE!!!!!! I note that so far Vashti leans towards the Light -- but she got there through intimidation and deceit. Plus she just straight-up killed the Black Death, because screw YOU, dude. >:(
It's decided: a reasonable sith built like a rhino crossed with a smiling fridge, then! They're all going to get along so well. C:
Isilta is usually pretty fine with reasoning things out, and having a Sith around that's not a ridiculous hothead will go a long way with her. I'm tempted to actually write her as Nix, which means completely androgynous NB :D Nix once famously answered the question of "Yeah but like, what's, yannow, in your pants?" with "Three drams of snake venom and shiv, why?" Unfortunately there's no body type that fits Nix so I went with the default for Isilta.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx5s65r-fg47VjR1WGEwNjRCVzQ For reference: Here's Rejalgar! He's got the ridiculously built bodytype, though my and Drake's headcanon is that he's got a bunch more fluff over the muscle, and has on some shapewear for aesthetic purposes.
