End Jan and First Feb SWTOR Journal

I may not play quite as much this week. I have to do my taxes sometime this week (have to being "I set a goal to get them done now that January is over") and I will likely be running a new campaign of D&D on Saturday that I need to take some time to prepare for. I also really want to finish the Arkham Horror novel that I was reading at the end of last year which I've really only read a few pages of in January. Last year, I read one hundred and seven books. In January I read... zero. I'm obviously not going to do as well this year, but I don't want to completely fall of the wagon either. But, I also re-upped my subscription, so I have two more months. What do I want to do?

I actually spent much more time than I expected doing Seasonal stuff; thinking that I want to at least unlock the blaster rifle and blaster pistol before it ends. I got the first rifle, and the pistol is only ... well, sometime next week away. I won't get the "advanced" version, because I jumped in when the season was well underway, and it was never my goal to do any of it, honestly. But I started feeling a little FOMO, so I'm doing some of it. I like the blaster rifle and pistol, and if that's all I get, I'll be happy with them. 

I spent quite a bit of time with Phovos Maledict lately. He's completely finished the first half of the story, and is well on his way in the second part; I'm about to finish Taris in the next day or two, and then do the double flashpoint that you do, before going to Quesh and getting turned on by Baras. That's a bit moment in the Sith Warrior story, and I just need to get there and all is good. As I said already, I'm doing this one pretty light-side mostly and I'm romancing Vette. Jaesa is "good Jaesa" again, like she is with M'at Thew. With Goth Severax goes through the story later, he'll be a much meaner Sith Warrior, kill lots more people because he can, and turn Jaesa to the dark side just to see how that goes. I mean, I could watch someone's YouTube of it, but people make boneheaded decisions a lot and they don't look as cool as my characters, so, y'know.

I'm actually quite happy with the progress I've made with him this weekend. Vash Galaide also started on Nar Shaddaa. Saxon Hettar did the Black Talon, but I went back to the Fleet; I may grind it one or two more times just so I can feel empowered to skip faction stories and still stay way ahead on levels if I want to. And his "brother" Vant Galaide, the semi-retired mercenary bounty hunter just went back and retroactively did the Dread Masters faction story on Belsavis, including seeing to Section X while I was at it. I also sent him to Corellia to do the faction story there before doing The Black Hole. And then he'll have Ilum and CZ-198 to do before Rise of the Hutts and Makeb comes along. 

Vant Galaide and Mako in the hangar on Corellia.
I'm sure it's perfectly normal for Mako to run around the galaxy without any pants on, why do you ask?

None of which are, strictly speaking, necessary, since most are daily areas and I've already got max reputation on them. Still, I think the HK quest is fun, even though for a laugh, I should have had him equipped as my companion as I was doing it. Maybe if I do this with Anstal Tane that's exactly what I'll do. 

Still, I feel like a lot of this isn't real "progress" since Vant is in semi-retirement and is already max level. He's not really doing anything that helps him in any way, I'm just doing it to do it. But levels are kind of a structural crock anyway; stories that you read or watch don't have anything like them. Characters just do stuff because the doing is the point, not the "gaining XP or loot" for doing them. I need to let it go. That said, I'm just kind of ambivalent about everything after the main story is over. I don't want to quit, exactly, but I go through the rest of the stuff at a crawl, and only enjoy some of it here and there. Sometime before I end this run of playing, I'll send M'at Thew through the KotFE and KotET expansions, at least, and end up with a base on Odessen. But whether I actually end up doing that with anyone else at all remains to be seen. Quite possibly not. Although maybe having at least one character who doesn't have a "better" girlfriend option can romance Lana and keep her in place of the girlfriend that I got instead. Don't know who if anyone that would be at this point, though.