Tag Archives: Devil’s Due

Devil’s Due: Part 18: Dance with the Devil

Hey are you ready for some tooth-rotting fluffy fluff? I’m ready for some tooth-rotting fluffy fluff! : D Does it count as dancing with the devil if the devil can’t dance?

I made a picture using the Rinmaru couple’s dollmaker of their date outfits, lol. (Had to photoshop it a little to get the colours right.) I mean, I was kind of thinking more like this in red for Ashara’s top, but close enough, right?

Date night soundtrack!! Someone put the lyrics in the comments somewhere and they’re weirdly appropriate! <3

EDIT: Ashara was weirdly okay with murder in the previous version of this chapter, so I changed that.

Part 17: Apogee

 

Part 18: Dance with the Devil in the Pale Moonlight

He found himself nervous as the time they’d set to go out drew nearer, and he had no idea why. It wasn’t logical, he’d watched all of Lightning Strikes My Heart and half a dozen other holodramas that had at least a romantic subplot, he knew what to do and how to act. And it was Ashara, who… was actually intimidating in her mysterious femininity, or feminine mysteriousness, or something, was that the problem? He knew how women in holodramas acted, he knew how Ashara acted, but he didn’t know how Ashara-as-a-woman acted. And… he… wanted things to go ‘well’, whatever that meant. He guessed it meant Ashara enjoying herself, and him successfully carrying off the role. Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 17: Apogee

Lots of game dialogue in this one; Hoth actually isn’t so terrible, story-wise, and there’s really only two complaints I have about it. One is that there aren’t enough dialogue options that let the Inquisitor look smart, and the other is just that the planet is so long and empty.

Also, did you know Zabrak have two hearts? I did not until I was doing research a couple days ago, so I guess I have to go back and see if I need to edit earlier chapters now!

Random soundtrack of the day: Joe Hisaishi’s Sonatine seems somehow fitting for Hoth (used for traveling to the Star of Coruscant), even if it’s not quite the usual mood for Murlesson (would probably work better for Coerthas, come to think of it). (also a relevant track from Corpse Party, used for exploring tombs and being grouchy)

Part 16: Out of the Cooler and Into the Freezer

 

Part 17: Apogee

Days passed, and no sign of the Starrunner appeared. He even went back to visit the Ortolan clan that Horak-Mul had used to speak to him, but the ghost refused to talk to him, and any evidence they’d recovered from the beacon was gone, probably destroyed. And Thanaton was sending out another apprentice or three on an ‘unknown mission’… but surely his paranoia on hearing it was justified. Thanaton sent out apprentices all the time, on random mysterious missions, but not three at once. He had another week and a half before the fastest ship could get to Hoth, but after that it would be a race for survival. It already was a race for survival. Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 16: Out of the Cooler and Into the Freezer

Murlesson works in Celcius because the Empire uses metric. And hey, I managed to recycle something from Tatooine (even though I replayed that months ago so I don’t have any of the actual dialogue). I just thought it would be more interesting to do it this way than to blandly exposit ‘rumours’.

Next chapter is slowly taking shape but it’s still taking some time to sand the less-good corners off everything.

Part 15: Insignificant Haircut

 

Part 16: Out of the Cooler and Into the Freezer

Belsavis was the weirdest planet he’d been on yet. As Revel had described to him, massive three-to-four-hundred-metres-high glaciers blanketed most of the planet, thanks to its orbit on the outer side of its star’s habitable zone. But the planet’s huge, hot core had, via volcanic activity, melted giant gaps in the ice, leaving them free to be filled with rich, thermal-powered jungles. From space, the planet looked like it had green acne. Charming. Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 15: Insignificant Haircut

Gave Murlesson some nice loot from that side-quest. Might mean I ramble less about logistics and base management. A little bit. Yes, we are going to Belsavis next. It won’t take long, I’m starting to get impatient about Hoth.

For anyone wondering what Murlesson looks like in-game, I believe his appearance is:
Body Type 2
Head 2
Scars 1 (none)
Complexion ??? (probably 1?)
Eye colour 1
Tattoos 3 (although I’m not sure how canonical that is; supposedly the facial markings are applied at a coming-of-age ceremony, but given how he’s been a slave all his life, how could he have a coming-of-age ceremony? There’s a strong chance he doesn’t have tattoos, and I’m not sure how important he would consider them to get them just to match his character model) (EDIT: he got them in Part 4)
Horns and Hair 2 (15 before it grows out)
Hair colour 5
Skin colour 2
Before the above-mentioned Insignificant Haircut, his hair probably looks something like this. But with Zabrak horns of course. Although, that’s probably too much hair – he’s only had a few months to grow it out – but you get the idea. Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 14: The Trouble with Hutts

Threw in a bit of episodic ‘monster of the week’ adventure; I edited a bit of last chapter to smooth out the set-up. It’s maybe a bit on the cheesy side, but at least it’s original cheese? Nanowrimo has been good so far; I’m almost done the next chapter as well.

Part 13: Historical Destroyer

 

Part 14: The Trouble with Hutts

Quesh was a disgusting cesspool of poison and smoke, but it was as far as his apprentices had managed to run after being caught stealing. Murlesson was angry, but he supposed it had been bound to happen sooner or later. Especially with a prize like the key to Thanaton’s meditation chamber. What had they been thinking!? And yet their audacity was encouraging. If they survived this, he’d start treating them like actual apprentices. Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 13: Historical Destroyer

Ah, a slow, self-indulgent chapter, considering there is NO main story quest in it at all lol. Hope you like Ashara! I realize they wouldn’t put all this slow resource management and development in an action rpg, but I’m making use of it because I think way too much about logistics in stories. And then, oops, an action scene showed up out of nowhere. Do you think it’s too big? I kind of wanted it to be shorter.

I did a bit of a dumb a few days ago; I stayed up late reading the MOST AMAZING Rurouni Kenshin/Star Wars fanfic ever; but the upshot of it was “I need to consider the Force ambience more” because the author makes it seem so effortless how the Force-users see through the Force as naturally as with their eyes, so I went back and edited all the previous chapters in a tiny way (I don’t have the energy to do a big rework right now).

Listened to a lot of Disturbed writing this! I have two new CDs and they make good background music, though I’m planning to use some of it more thematically later…

Part 12: The Maiden and the Assassins

 

Chapter 13: Historical Destroyer

Maliss’s smirk widened into a smug grin as Murlesson dismounted the speeder bike, Ashara following him. “Excellent. Truly remarkable. My lord, you are utterly clever and resourceful. You turned the Jedi!”

This could get complicated very quickly if he didn’t shut it down. “If this is what it looks like, you should know that you’re not going to live very long.” Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 12: The Maiden and the Assassins

You may already have noticed that I changed the location from Taris to Yavin 4. That’s because I don’t think Taris really fits what the Inquisitor is trying to do, even if I realize the game has to go there for mechanical reasons. So… Yavin 4, which has a decent Legacy trove of lore to draw on. Hopefully this doesn’t clash with the expansion that I’ll probably never ever play, lol. And I have detailed criticisms of basically every part of the Taris missions. I could pick them apart for pages… or I could just post this chapter, and you can see my criticisms in what I decided to change (N.B. not all changes are criticisms, but all criticisms are changes).

I’ve really been looking forward to finally getting Ashara in here! I love her as a character. I don’t know what she’s like Dark Side, but Light Side she’s a bundle of fun.

There’s another scene here that I’ve been looking forward to which is exclusive to Murlesson; I’m sure you’ll know it when you read it. Here’s the music you should be listening to with it muahahahahaha… It’s written as a 1:1 cutscene with the music, so if you read super fast, it will line up if you press play at “He was a brave man to have penetrated these forgotten depths alone…” but I don’t recommend reading it super fast, I spent a lot of time on that part! XD

I was actually going to have this chapter out earlier but I got stuck on the fight scenes. (and lots of life events going on – I moved to a new apartment! Which event promptly kicked the mental stuffing out of me) Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 11: Into the Shadows

Why yes hello I also write about emo Sith bois once in a while (wow it’s been a whole year!)

I’ve been having a rough start to the fall so I figured why not channel my wild mood swings and general depression into something that benefits from negativity? So here we go, let’s crank the Corpse Party OST and plumb the dark depraved depths of BioWare’s garbage writing!

This chapter was one of the most important ones for giving the Inquisitor back some agency. In the game, they just run off at Thanaton’s order, almost get killed, and then Grandpa shows up to save them and yell at them for being stupid when the player isn’t allowed any other choice? I don’t like that. If BioWare’s pretending I’m playing a cunning, scheming character, that’s bad writing. I also don’t like getting scraped off the floor by Kaal and Corrin because the Inquisitor was too dumb to plan any sort of escape route (in b4 anyone complains that there was no time to execute an escape route), even if I do like the part where the Inquisitor straight up dies-but-not (cockroach like). The confrontation wasn’t the worst writing ever, it was just lazy. So I’m adding some proper drama.

Researching ambiance; Thanaton show-down music!

Part 10: Lord Kallig

 

Part 11: Into the Shadows Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 10: Lord Kallig

Right, now I feel like I’ve accomplished something. On to work on other things! Probably back to FFXIV fic, gotta work on my Hallowe’en cosplay some more, etc. etc.

Part 9: A Compendium of Jedi

 

Part 10: Lord Kallig

Aristheron crouched over him. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” Murlesson grunted, though it wasn’t entirely true. “Question, if I might.”

“Ask.” Continue reading

Devil’s Due: Part 9: A Compendium of Jedi

Okay so Tatooine is the most boring planet for Sith Inquisitor; all you do is meet Andronikos. I already covered that, so there’s nothing of importance left. Alderaan is slightly more interesting, I guess; it’s going to leave Murlesson pretty jaded on the topic of romance if nothing else. So… Aristheron gets more screentime! (I promise this is not actually another Sith Warrior story)

I just really want to get to the Zash showdown asap, is that so bad anyway? D:

Part 8: An Arrogant Worm

 

Part 9: A Compendium of Jedi

The detour to Korriban was going to take a lot longer than just going straight to Alderaan. He was half-tempted to search for the artifact on Alderaan first and return to Dromund Kaas by way of Korriban, but by then the situation might have changed. He just needed to get back to Alderaan before Zash reached Tatooine, or else she would be suspicious. Which meant that his infiltration had to go flawlessly. And then there was Khem’s request that he might as well take care of at the same time… Continue reading