Convocation on Tatooine

[Stacker01]

Thur'hars watched the woman with wary eyes. Her explanation did not feel like an answer to his question but he would accept it, at least for now. As she spoke of Master Daw and the way she was viewed, at least by this Zeltron, he felt that his view changed to reflect much the same. He knew peace was an end result, but perhaps peace was just as much a means to the end those like Master Daw wanted as was the violence. "Perhaps I am naive. To think that the Order will change so easily. Maybe I'll be wasting my time." His words were somber, the same feeling reflected in his eyes which had drifted to the ground. "Perhaps they are set on their path. But someone should be there to at least try."

Despite how somber his words and voice had been there was some kind of determination building up. He had never come to fight someone else's fight but rather to defend those who cannot defend themselves. So he would be there to help the Order stand back up when it falls. There was a lot for him to learn, but he would learn what he could and use his knowledge for the betterment of the entire galaxy. "I have something to ask of you. Whatever you do, whoever you lead, and whatever banner you use, always do it in peace. Do not let chaos sully those you and your friend wish to be an example to. Those who join your cause, let them bring peace, and give them peace." Thur'hars turned towards his speeder and walked slowly, contemplating. "And do not forget that we are all in this together."

 

[Orphen]

Ignis had been sitting in silence for a long time, before moving over to Ebb, looking at her, and placing his hand on her shoulder with his back to the rest of them, she had tried, she had failed, but the grizzled man wearing the long coat and wide brimmed desert hat, had something to say to support the Jedi master, who seemed to stand alone. Though she had always claimed to be a sentinel, Ignis had always thought her much better suited to being a guardian.

Don't worry about it He whispered to Ebb before she had left, though his voice was low hand there was a rasp to it, it was soft and calming. Looking other the others in the area he addressed them, they believed her to be wrong, but they were also blind to the one with the most experience in this room and now she was gone...

I really cannot believe what I am hearing here... though perhaps my silence and position as an observer has served yet another purpose, though perhaps I need to remind the Jedi in this room to whom you are talking to. Ebb, more than most knows the morals behind the Sith, taken by them, lost to us for a time, and returned. I myself have faced horrors in my years, the horrors that only grow when the dark side comes. This argument, has happened not only once before, Revan, Meetra Surric, Anakin Skywalker. They turned on the Jedi council and their wisdom, while even they admit their mistake... an extreme act of wisdom in of itself, and it seems you are content to only further condemn them...

He placed a hand on one of his two blades. Though not to antagonise, but simply to rest it there, where it belongs.

It is the Jedi Guardian's duty to fight the darkness, the Sentinels duty to keep it at bay in our home and the consulars duty to end the war not violently but peacefully, though there seems to have been a breakdown in the three paths of the Jedi, as the three ideals, who once worked in perfect harmony, have turned on each other like rabbid tuk'ata! Igni's Illusion flickered for a moment and his eyes flashed from blue to deep violet.

This war, was going to begin regardless... ever since the attack on the Serendipity, we may have declared war, but only ever in retaliation, what were we to do? Were we to sit back, and watch, as the Sith poked at the alliance, at the Jedi, world for world, Temple for temple like the mandalorians six thousand years ago? I sympathise with the Dark Jedi of the time, without them, without their choices, none of us will be here. The force has a plan for all of us, the High council trust in it... why must, yet again, the followers of the Jedi not trust in them...!

He paused.

Jedi, far wiser than any of us, have already died, believing in this war, protecting those they have a duty to aid as wave after wave the aggressors come... believing in that the threat that overcomes us, that is currently overwhelming us, is darkness, or need I remind you how many innocent Jedi died in the will of the force, Saleucami, the base delta zero of muunilist, or the temple on Corescaunt when they were destroyed...? I think each and every one of you have forgotten...

The only wrong, the Jedi ever commited, was allowing the Jen-Jedai to leave Tython alive.

 

[Teynara]

The more the others talked, the more Teynara felt the impulse to start knocking heads together - an impulse which was rather unlike her to say the least. As it was, it felt like someone had been knocking her head against something solid, given that her temples now just seemed to be throbbing, a dull aching pain which wasn't likely to diminish any time soon. Aside from the fact that the Jedi present were all talking themselves into the middle of an organisational schism (and talking Teynara into the need for a few mild analgesics), there was just the simple feeling that they weren't doing much more than frustrating everyone involved and getting precisely...nowhere.

It didn't help that nobody here actually had the authority to make decisions either way - every single Jedi in the Order had sworn an oath to follow the Will of the Force and to obey the Council, and at present, she couldn't imagine any of this coming to a practical conclusion unless the Council stepped in directly to address the issue. And as long as the rest of us remain conflicted, that seems unlikely. The Jedi Council couldn't choose to withdraw from fighting alongside the Alliance even if they wanted to, more to the point - to do so would be essentially surrendering the fate of trillions to Sith rule. It'd also blow any chance they had of any sort of come-back in the event that the Sith collapsed in on themselves. Who would trust the Jedi to serve and protect them effectively when the Order had let them down and allowed the Alliance to fall?

The more she listened to their arguments, the worse the headache got, and the more helpless she honestly felt - something she wasn't really used to, given her choice of vocation. Give me an injury to treat or an alliance to cement over this, any day, she thought, rubbing one hand against her forehead as if such a thing might release the tension in her neck and shoulders and relieve the headache they were causing. Not that I couldn't do that with a touch of Force energy, the blonde noted, but she partly suspected that she deserved it purely for coming along in the first place. Had to anticipate the utter futility of it all.

It took her a moment to realise that someone had spoken to her, instead of just at the room, or rather, everyone within it. She glanced over and to her left, from where the voice had originated, and noted Amilthi standing there, looking at her with an expression that Teynara would only have described as mildly concerned. And that's unusual to begin with. She was surprised, though: not only had she not sensed that Amilthi was there, but she hadn't honestly expected her attendence. Didn't make it any less pleasing to see her, though.

"Think we're all going to have trouble with that one soon, Ami," she said with a tired smile, having quickly wracked her brains to remember what Amilthi had said and that she'd absently almost ignored. "Seems we can't even present a united front to ourselves, much less to the rest of the Galaxy," Teynara observed, gesturing to the rest of the room, keeping her voice low so that only the other woman would be able to hear her, in the absence of any sensory-enhancement techniques. She patted the other woman gently on the shoulder, an affectionate gesture. "I'm glad you're here, if only to share in my misery," she added wryly.

Gesturing for the other Jedi to walk with her, Teynara turned away from the gathering silently, deciding that she had little to contribute but a resigned sense of disgust that they were all allowing tempers to flare and that what should have been a civil discussion had broken down into expressions of disbelief, disdain and condemnation. That, from Jedi trained to be objective and to keep personal feelings aside when important matters come to the fore. She felt just exhausted from having listened to it, and the convoluted emotions she could feel weaving through the Force around them only added to her consternation. Think I'll feel better when I get back to engaging in cleaner activity, she thought.

"I guess it was unwise of any of us to imagine that something productive could come from this," she said to Amilthi as they walked down the corridor away from the meeting hall, though she had the sense that the gathering was now coming to an end, their issues unresolved, their emotions heightened and tensions brought to the fore. "That's the problem of being Jedi, isn't it?", she asked rhetorically. "We always work for the sensible, objective solutions, but hope is at the very core of what we are, so we always end up wanting better than reality allows us," Teynara finished, sighing softly. "But can you credit it? People are thinking about giving up, about losing the war. Where is the hope in that?" She shook her head. It was hard to think that it had been a gathering of Jedi speaking.

 

[Solaris]

Char gaped at Ignis in mingled surprise and horror. He had heard a lot of disturbing statements in his time with the Jedi, but what that 'Jedi' just said might well have topped them all. At the last, Char's jaw clenched shut and started working as he struggled to find the words to express just how wrong those statements were.

"Thank you," Char said curtly to the bloodthirsty 'Jedi', Ignis, "for illustratin' my point."

 

[Amilthi]

Amilthi gladly followed Teynara away from the assembly, folding her hands in front of her stomach, her gaze directed at the ground in front of her, with occasional sideward glances to her friend, a gentle smile on her lips as she listened.

"The problem isn't so much with wanting better. I think the real problem with with expecting better." She paused for a moment, figuring out how to continue and present her point.

"Maybe you're right that there is a problem with the Order's ways - that they don't know how to properly deal with hope." She felt a twinge of guilt at saying that. Teynara hadn't actually said that she thought there was a problem with the Order. She clearly thought there were problems with individual Jedi, and that there were problems inherent in being a Jedi; but Amilthi knew that she had slightly twisted her words. Suggesting to people that they were agreeing with you even when they weren't was, worryingly, a working technique, and it had just been too tempting, especially when you were talking to a friend who you wanted to get to agree with you. She looked away and began to elaborate.

"It's always good to have hope, necessary even. Otherwise you'll just feel like lying down and giving up. But you have to know what to hope for, or you risk being carried away by wishful thinking and wasting your efforts. I have a little theory. After the fall of the Old Republic, everyone agreed that the Old Order's ideal of being emotionally inert wasn't really workable, so they wanted to improve on that. It helped at first, but then the New Order failed to develop systematic wisdom on how to deal with emotions. Mind you, I'm not blaming Master Skywalker or any of the first generation - they were really quite busy as it was with saving the Galaxy. But it's been almost a millenium since then, and what seems to have happened in the meantime is that the Jedi have become very much like ordinary people. There seems to be a certain attitude that you don't have to work on yourself because the Force will make things right. All I can say is, it doesn't look like it. In that way, the Sith may really be ahead of us, they just don't apply it very wisely. Interestingly, when you look at the original code, it suggests that the Jedi of ancient times were aware of this issue. 'Emotion, yet peace' it says."

Amilthi looked thoughtfully at Teynara.