Ask Lost to Grief and the Dead of Space

[Eyvone Usoara]

Somewhere deep in empty space, away from any hyperlane route or planetary system, was a ship. Its engines were dead, and it was littered with the black marks of laser fire and broken shelling. If not for the faintest red color of a life support system glowing inside, it might appear as nothing but trash abandoned to the cold of space. A dull signal pinged from the vessel every few minutes, but it was faint and barely registerable. It would go unnoticed by nearly every passerby. Despite the weakness of the signal, there was something much more noticeable radiating from the ship. The Force sat heavy in the area. Anyone in tune with the Force would be able to feel its presence; it reached much further than the weak distress signal.

Inside the ship, the damage was less severe. There were skids on the floor and scuffs on the walls from the quick removal of what one might assume would be heavy boxes, but other than that it appeared as if a family had once lived here. The walls had various child-like drawings pasted to the walls, and a framed holopicture of a family was laid on a table in the main living area. The kitchen was empty of any food, though dishes laid strewn about as if it once had. Despite all this evidence of life, there didn't seem to be anyone living here anymore, but the Force still remained strong.

The Force grew stronger the closer one got to a room in the back, just before the storage area. Behind the door, in the dim light of the ship, was a teenage girl. If not for the Force which blanketed her body, she would appear to lie in cold death. She laid on a small cot on the side of the room, surrounded by drawings on the walls similar to those found in other parts of the ship, and holobooks littered about the room. A small, worn plushie of a bearded jax had fallen to the floor, just centimeters from her limp hand. She was thin and cold, but not dead.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

"You're wasting your time, Jedi."

Crix waved a hand.

"And you're a real killjoy, Sebby."

A growl of mild frustration tinged with just a hint of fondness.

"It's Sebastian. As you well know, Aran."

Again Crix waved him off and refocused on the sensors that he had in front of him while Red Lancer actually focused on flying the damned ship. Crix wasn't a good pilot by any stretch of the imagination and Sebastian was a recovering Dark Side user that Crix kept around as a way of redeeming him - Crix didn't really want him to take the controls and his new spider-like legs didn't really let him sit in the cockpit very easily anyway.

A beep on the sensors.

"... a lucky find."

Sebastian was prickly like that when the Force guided Crix to places where he could actually do some good. Rather than give the recovering Dark Side much in the way of a response (he flipped him off, of course) he sent the course to Red Lancer and the pilot droid dutifully began it's approach. Crix himself moved out of the cockpit, Sebastian following him as he watched the Jedi Knight kit himself out with a spacesuit.

Scans showed there was atmo on the other ship but he didn't like to take chances when it came to space. Space could kriff you up faster than anything else in the Galaxy in his experience.

His freighter latched onto the damaged ship with a docking tube and Crix started to make his way aboard, Sebastian following behind him. Rather than speak, Crix reached out with the Force to 'listen' to it for guidance. He gestured for Sebastian to head up toward the cockpit, to check for any logs, while he followed his instincts and made his way deeper into the ship. No... no that wasn't quite right was it?

He made his way deeper into the ship that had been a home.

A home torn asunder... now didn't that feel familiar?

When he first stepped into the small room with the even smaller woman, he thought she was dead. There was a paleness to her that made him think she was a human, dead from the cold or something similar. It was only as he listened to the Force that he realized her paleness was more natural and she was, albeit shallowly, breathing. Reaching out, Crix placed a hand gently against her shoulder and sent a pulse of warmth through the Force to her.

She seemed to be sleeping, hibernating, using the Force though not in a very controlled manner. That same pulse was accompanied by another, this time trying to form a connection to her own connection to the Force, to guide her own energy into undoing the effect on herself.

"Come on... time to wake up, kid..."

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

She had been lying there for so long, and yet she had not fallen into death's cold hands. Eyvone had no choice but to wait, but with each shallow breath she never got any colder. She breathed in... and out... and in... and out... and in... and out.

Realistically, Eyvone had laid in hibernation for no more than a week and maybe only for a few days. Every moment had been felt as a moment, and every minute a minute, but it felt like she had been waiting for eternity. Her mind kept wandering back to the memory of her parents' death, shot square in their chests by men in armor wielding blasters. It hurt, but she kept doing it. She thought of how her father would help her patiently with her mathematics homework, or how her mother would gently guide her hands as she landed their ship in a docking bay. Her favorite memory of them was her eleventh birthday when she helped her father bake her birthday cake. Eyvone accidentally switched salt with sugar, and the cake had been ruined. She remembered how her mother's face scrunched up in disgust after tasting it, sending her and her father into a fit of laughter.

But now, they were gone. She would never make another precious memory with her family. All Eyvone wanted to do was to sink deeper and deeper into cold and disappear into the world. She wanted to leave, but something was pulling her away from that. Something warm and familiar. It came from her shoulder and spread through the rest of her. "Come on... time to wake up, kid..."

Wake up? Perhaps out of curiosity more than want, Eyvone felt herself being lifted from the sleep she'd fallen into. Crix would only need to wait a few moments longer before she began to stir. Her chest began to rise and fall as her breathing returned to normal, and her fingers began to twitch. Eventually her eyes slowly opened, and the girl's sage green gaze focused on the zabrak standing to the side of her.

He, in that moment, frightened her. Once she fully realized that he was a stranger, Eyvone bolted straight up and preceded to hit her head. Her hands lifted to her face as a reaction to the pain, and her body was flooded with pins and needles as her dormancy ended abruptly. "Ow..." Evyone removed her hand from her face and cautious looked back at Crix. Nothing about him screamed 'danger' now that she got a second look.

Her eyes moved left to right across the room, as if she wasn't sure where she was. Her room looked exactly as she'd left it before. Eyvone's eyes widened in realization--she'd been found. Returning her gaze back to Crix, she would ask him, "How did you find me?" Her voice was incredibly hoarse from disuse, but there was a subtle melodic tone underneath the roughness. A hand moved to her stomach as she spoke. Now that she had awoken from her hibernation, her body was beginning to ache from a lack of natural sustenance.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Well.

He had experienced worse first impressions but he struggled to remember them truth be told. Having someone scramble away from him with enough speed and urgency to almost injure themselves was a memorable experience after all. Blinking once, he pulled both hands back and held them up in a placating gesture, showing her both of his palms to assure her that he was unarmed.

As unarmed as a Jedi Knight ever, truly, could be all things considered of course.

Thankfully her panic seemed short-lived and the more she stared at him the more she seemed to realize that he was not some kind of space-borne monster here to scare her into wakefulness. Instead he was just a regular person here to help her - because boy did she look like she needed help. She reminded him of a half-starved Lothcat and, judging by how long she seemed to have been in the stasis-like state, it might not even be far from the truth.

How?

Taking off the helmet of the spacesuit he wore, he stowed it under the crook of one arm and gave her a smile. It was a slightly lop-sided expression, somewhat similar to a smirk despite himself. That? That he blamed on his mother and the incredibly cheekbones she had passed down to him.

"The Force." he told her, his smile widening ever so slightly, "I felt you calling out through the Force and, well, the ship's sensors helped too."

A lot, all things considered.

He held one of his hands out toward her.

"My name is Crix Aran and I'm a Jedi Knight - I'm here to help."

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

The Force... Eyvone could remember a story her mother once told her of the Nagai telepaths from Nagi. The telepaths used the Force. Had she done the very same without even knowing? "I felt you calling out through the Force..." She had. Eyvone's eyes widened in surprise for a moment before her face fell back to caution. She reached out to take his hand when he offered it after introducing himself, and she used it to pull herself to her feet. She stumbled as a rush filled her head, but she recovered quickly.

"Jedi?" The word was familiar. She'd heard it before, probably mixed in amongst politics and the like. "You're a Jedi?"

Eyvone glanced about her room. Nothing's changed. Her eyes settled on a drawing of her mother, father, and her. Grief welled up in her throat, and she turned her head to cough to hide her pained expression. Someone had finally come, but now she would be forced to grieve for her parents all over again.

"Eyvone," she would murmur after a minute of looking at the drawing. "Eyvone Usoara." She reached out a hand and steadied herself on the wall of her room as her vision blurred out of nowhere. She suddenly felt very faint.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Usually people knew what a Jedi was though, these days, that often came with a reaction that was slightly less positive than it might have been in the past. The Galaxy had, in some ways, seen enough of lightsabers held both by Jedi and Sith alike and that was having an effect on just how much they seemed to care. But, hell, Crix had been trained by Hans. He didn't care what people thought about him and his people on the macro scale.

He cared on the micro scale and right now? All he wanted to do was make sure that this scared little kid knew that "Jedi Knight" meant he was here to keep her safe.

"I am." he confirmed with his bright smile, "Real and honest to whatever gods you wanna ask."

Though he was unable to truly read her thoughts, he didn't really need to. She was damned near projecting her grief and her anguish out into the Galaxy through the Force - to someone who had not felt the same things it might have been near suffocating but Crix had felt them himself. Reaching out, he placed a hand on her shoulder, holding her steady but not gripping her shoulder very tightly.

He wanted her to know, instinctively, that he wasn't trying to hold her in place so much as he was there for her to lean on. The combination of her physical state and her emotional one was having a heavy toll on her. Eyvone Usoara huh? Well he couldn't say he'd heard of her family but that didn't mean much - he didn't get out socially much these days.

"Alright Eyvone, my ship is docked to this one. It's warmer and I've got some nutrient bars. They taste stale but, hey, they beat my scrambled eggs." he tried to be both supportive and light with his tone, smiling softly as he picked up the toy from the floor, "We can take whatever you want from here too, okay?"

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

Whilst steading herself against the gray wall of her room, Eyvone felt Crix's hand rest on her shoulder. She could feel the warmth of his hand through her t-shirt, and to some degree, it made her feel a tad bit better. He may be a stranger to her, but he was all she had.

"We can take whatever you want from here too, okay?" Eyvone nodded and dropped her hand from the wall. Slowly she turned around to search her room, sage green eyes looking for anything she cared to take with her. The girl eventually moved, picked up a backpack in a corner near her desk, and began to shove various things inside. A dusty datapad, the bearded jax plushie, a necklace, and a bit of clothing were picked up and put inside. Once she had what she wanted from the room, Eyvone would face Crix and murmur, "I'm ready."

When they made their way back through the ship, Eyvone would stop in the living area and approach the table. She reached for the picture of her and her family and held it in both hands, then just stared at it.

-----
​

"Eyvone! Come here!" "Coming!" The little girl rolled off her bed and quickly made her way to the living area, where her mother, father, and a strange woman sat together. The young Eyvone looked to her parents in confusion, but they quickly explained. "Eyvone, this is Ms. Lorren. She's going to take our pictures today, so go put on your dress, sweetie."

Ms. Lorren led them all outside, where Eyvone and her parents posed for pictures. They took serious ones, silly ones, and one where Eyvone stood between her parents with the biggest grin Ms. Lorren told her she'd ever seen.

-----
​

She stayed like that for a minute, not moving, just staring at the images as her thumb tapped through the library of holopictures. After that minute, she finally swung her backpack down and put the picture inside. The girl would murmur, "Sorry," to Crix as she rejoined him to continue to his ship.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Attachment had been the 'enemy' of the Jedi teachings for a long time but Rey and her particular brand of the Jedi philosophy didn't demand it be entirely removed from the hearts and minds of the Jedi who followed the Order. Instead there was a general feeling that emotional connections could be used for good or bad - and it was up to each individual to figure out how to live with their attachments in a healthy way.

Crix just did not find it in himself to deny her the chance to take as much, or as little, as she wanted from the ship. It was clear that there were some strong emotional connections to the ship and they were important.

For good or bad.

She needed the time to think on what she wanted to bring and Crix would not dare intrude upon that time - not when he had something else to do as well. While she was gathering some of her meagre possessions, he reached to a small comlink and called up Sebastian.

"Sebastian, we're taking on a passenger." he 'warned' his crew member over the comlink, loud enough that Eyvone would be able to hear him clearly, "Do your best to not be a dick, yeah?"

There was silence from the comlink for a moment before he heard the sigh.

"... another stray... alright I'll play nice."

As nice as Sebastian could ever be.

Crix gave Eyvone a small shrug when she apologized, letting her know that he didn't mind. Taking their time was hardly going to be the end of the Galaxy after all. As they stepped on board his own ship, Sebastian would be 'sat' in the cargo hold in full view of Eyvone. Crix placed a hand on her shoulder, well aware that it was not everyday that someone met a pale human man with robotic spider legs from the waist down.

"Eyvone, this is Sebastian. Seb, this is Eyvone." he introduced the two of them, "She's going to be travelling with us. If she's interested, I'll be teaching her about the Force as well."

Sebastian stared down at Eyvone silently before snorting.

"And do you want to be a Jedi, girl? Do you have any idea what you even want to be at all?"

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

Eyvone regarded Sebastian for a minute, her sage green eyes wandering as she as decided what she thought of the half of a man standing before her and Crix. She'd never seen a man with robotic spider legs replacing his lower half. That, combined with his standoffish attitude, gave her an off feeling about the man. His questions, too, were reason enough for her to pause. Do I want to be a Jedi? It wasn't something she had thought about yet. So little time had passed between when she woke up and where she was now. Becoming a Jedi and learning to use the Force had not even entered her mind a possibility as she'd been a little more focused on being rescued, but now that Sebastian mentioned it, she wasn't sure. What all did being a Jedi entail? Would her parents approve? Not that... they're around to say...

The girl, in response to his questions, just gave a solemn nod of her head. Her throat still hurt, and she didn't have the energy to explain herself to him. The teen set her backpack down on the ground and found a chair or ledge to sit on, feeling weak. She would feel selfish if she asked, but she hoped Crix had at least one of those nutrient bars he mentioned earlier.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Well, Crix hadn't expected Sebastian to be all sunshine and rainbows - but he had expected the dude to be at least a little bit less standoffish than he actually ended up being. Not as bad as the former Dark Side user could have been but bad enough that Crix wasn't going to be in a hurry to leave the man alone with Eyvone in the near future. Especially when she was currently so damned fragile because he was enough of a decent human being to be aware that was a bad idea.

"Head on up and set the course with Red Lancer." he instructed Sebastian, some steel entering his voice, catching Sebastian's attention immediately, "Eyvone and I will be staying in the lounge area for a bit longer."

Sebastian stared him in the eyes and Crix narrowed his own eyes ever so slightly. Almost immediately, Sebastian's own eyes flicked down and he gave a small nod before hurrying away to the cockpit. With that out of the way, Crix smiled at Eyvone in the same warm manner as before.

"Don't mind him - he's still re-learning how to not be such a..." he gestured with a hand as he decided not to swear in front of the teen, settling with a sly wink and an added implication, "Well, you saw."

Moving over to the small kitchenette, he made some tea before setting down two cups near the ledge alongside a trio of the nutrient bars he had promised her. Sitting down a few feet from her with his own cup of tea, he shrugged slightly.

"My Master had a lot of Teas and it kind of rubbed off on me." he half-apologized for the drink, before becoming more serious, "Do you want to tell me what happened on the ship? Can I help?"

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

Perhaps if Eyvone had been paying attention she might have noticed the exchange between Crix and Sebastian, but she didn't. It was only when he addressed her directly that her eyes raised to meet his, indicating her attention. She just shrugged and stared off into space while he disappeared to make tea. Her mind was running all over the place and it jumped from memory to memory. It only served to dampen her mood even more, but Crix returned after long and Eyvone was happily distracted by food.

Eyvone immediately reached for one of the nutrient bars and quickly unwrapped and began to eat it. She finished it just as Crix finished his comment about his master and tea, then listened to his question. What happened? Eyvone averted her gaze and looked anywhere but him. Could he help?

She felt tears well up in her eyes, but she pinched the skin on her thigh between her fingers to try an dry them. There was nothing she wanted to talk about less, but also, there was nothing she wanted to talk about more. So Eyvone was stuck with a choice: open up to a complete stranger, or continue to suffer by herself. The girl's hesitation was likely shown plainly on her features, but after a moment Eyvone was able to make her decision.

"My parents are- um, were, spice dealers. They die-" Eyvone choked on her words. "-died when the Rangers showed up to one of the drop-offs." The girl needed a moment, so she cupped her hands around one of the cups of tea and brought it shakily to her lips. It was hot, but it calmed her nerves a bit. It was good, too. She'd never had tea before.

"I hid while they searched the ship. Once they were gone, I fled. I'd never flown on my own before, so I got kind of... lost," Eyvone continued after she set the cup down. After taking the drink, her throat was not so dry anymore, and it allowed the melodic nature of her Nagian voice to sing again. There was a subtle shift in the tonality of her voice that filled the air with a heavy sorrow. Her sorrow. "I ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere... and I just... gave up."

Her gaze was still avoiding his when she finished her explanation of what had happened. When her gaze finally floated back to his, she looked ashamed. There wasn't anything else I could do, though. She'd sent out a distress signal, but she'd waited days for no one to come. Someone had finally come, yes, but she hadn't been able to hold out that long.

"I don't have any other family. I don't have anywhere to go." She didn't have anyone anymore.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Neither he nor his former Master liked to mince words when it came to helping people, hence why he had gotten down to brass tax and just asked if there was anyway he could help. He wasn't certain if there was anything he could do but he would be damned if he wasn't going to ask. Thankfully, it seemed that the nutrient bar and the tea had given Eyvone something comparable to fuel because she seemed willing to engage a little bit more.

Of course it was a hard for her to talk about because of the subject matter - even before she reacted he could tell that this was not going to be a happy story. Seldom were such tales ever happy and it was his job to see if there was anything he could do to fix that. What he was not quite expecting was for her parents to have been killed by Rangers... it made his own family situation more than slightly awkward.

So he listened.

He didn't interrupt and he didn't do anything other than listen to her as she explained why she was in the situation she found herself in. In the situation he had found her in no less. Placing a hand on the table, he held it out for her to hold if she wanted to - he could feel her causing herself physical pain through the Force and he would much prefer it if she took out that nervous, depressing, energy out on his hand than on herself.

Still.

"There's not much I can say to that, Eyvone. I'm sorry that you've lost your family but I know that doesn't make anything better."

He smiled ever so softly.

"You can come with me if you want." he made the offer quietly, "Or I can leave you with some supplies and a small ship at the next port we stop at. I would understand either way, truly I would."

His smile faded ever so slightly.

"If you decide to come with me, we'll have to trust each other and that means no secrets so... I'll just tell you this now. My mother is a Ranger, far from here but... still." he shook his head ever so slightly, "I'm not a Ranger, I'm a Jedi, but I wanted you to hear that from me and not anyone else."

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

She could go with him or be left on her own with a small ship and supplies. Both options were less than what she wanted, but one spelled out safety for her and the other was terrifying. If she went with him, she was guaranteed a place to stay, food to eat, and whatever purpose she would have to fulfill as a Jedi. Eyvone wasn't at all familiar with the Jedi, but the little she did know about them was that they were supposed to be some force of good in the galaxy. Did she want to be a Jedi? That was debatable, but it was between that or his other offer. A ship and some supplies. After what she had just gone through, the last thing she wanted was that. What if she ended up in the same situation? What if she ran out of supplies? Where would she go to get more? Regardless of her love for her parents, all she knew about how to make money was from them and she hated spice. She never wanted to be around it again.

Her mind was made up, but his next words caused to hesitate once again. "My mother is a Ranger..." Eyvone's expression morphed into a blank slate. 'So this is my reality, huh?' Eyvone couldn't describe the emotion that came over her as he continued to speak. Was it anger? No, it wasn't anger. She wouldn't--couldn't--blame him for who his parents were. Was it grief? As if she could hold more of that than she already was. Disappointment?

That seemed about right. Her stomach dropped and she was filled with the feeling of disappointment. She hated the Rangers for what they did to her parents. 'Why did they have to kill--murder--them?' Here was her rescuer, with a mother who could have very well been one of the women with her mother and father's blood on her hands. Would she resent him for it? Eyvone didn't know, but despite the pit in her stomach her decision remained the same. She would rather find a way to get over her feelings about his mother than set off on her own.

"I want to come with you," she could mutter a few moments after he finished. She didn't acknowledge what he'd told her about his family.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Perhaps it would have been easier to not tell her about his mother, to not press the damned trauma button so quickly after finding out what had caused her trauma. But Crix was a firm believer in the idea that lies of omission were, in fact, lies and they could be just as harmful to others as regular lies - if not more so. At least with a regular lie, there was an active intent to deceive but a lie of omission usually came with all sorts of justification attempts to achieve the exact same thing.

No, Eyvone would find out one way or the other and it would be a poison injected directly into the veins of any bond that they tried to forge. Even telling her now, before they really knew each other, had caused her pain but not the kind that would fester against himself, he believed. There was nothing more he could have done - he hadn't asked his mother's career choice before being born after all and he wouldn't change it even if he could.

Despite what had happened to her parents and despite sympathizing with her, he couldn't help but remain proud of his mother and her career.

He couldn't see them working with Rangers any time soon though...

"Then welcome to the Jedi Order - Padawan." he smiled ever so slightly, "That means you're a learner and I will be your teacher - your Master - until you're ready to become a Knight yourself. So ah..."

A chirping noise from his datapad caught his eye and he read it quickly - a text message from Sebastian up in the cockpit. Apparently another ship had arrived and they appeared to be following them. He shot a message back to keep him informed before returning his fully attention to Eyvone. He grinned a little bit before taking a sip of the tea he'd kind of, maybe, stolen from his old Master's ship when he left it for his own ship.

"What do you actually know about the Jedi? Or about the Force?"

Gotta start somewhere on this teaching lark.

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

'Padawan...' What a strange title. In a moment's notice, she had been set on an entirely different life path. Crix had dubbed her a learner. She would learn to be a Jedi. How surreal.

"Not...much," replied Eyvone of Crix's question. She had heard of the Jedi, but other than knowing that they were users of the Force, she knew little to nothing. She knew stories of the Nagai telepaths from where her parents came from, but little of what they actually did. The telepaths were certainly not Jedi. Perhaps if she wasn't stricken with grief, she would be excited at this situation. It was rare for someone to have the ability to use the Force, and like Eyvone might've, would never learn they could or how to use it.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Ah basically a blank slate then... right.

Crix himself responded best to learning when he was doing something or when he was shown something. Just being told something was the way it was often didn't fully register with him and he'd need to go over it again himself to fully take it in. There were different "types" of learners but he didn't know enough to say much more about them - only that he was one of those types that didn't learn well through repetition and vocal teaching.

So he wasn't going to teach that way either.

"The Force to start off with I think." he decided as he held his right hand out between the two of them, palm facing up, and called upon the Force to create light, a small ball of light hovering a few inches over his hand, "The Force is a lot of things to a lot of people but it's mostly energy, alright? How it feels is different for everyone. Here, let me show you."

Reaching out, he would take one of her hands in the palm of that same hand. The Force would flow through her hand as it did his own in order to make the light that remained hovering over both of their hands. Some people said the Force felt like a river, others said it was like electricity but for Crix it always felt like memories. To him, the Force felt like the emotions he connected to certain memories he held.

"As Jedi, we use the Force to protect and defend. Others use it to advance their own goals and they can get violent to do this - they're called Sith." he smiled a little bit, "It is the duty of the Jedi to connect to the Force, defend those who need it and to not let our emotions push us towards corrupting the Force for our own goals. Think of it like this..."

He smiled.

"The Force is a Lothcat. A Jedi works together with the Lothcat to teach it tricks so it obeys instructions. A Sith beats the Lothcat until it does what it's told, justifying it however they choose to, and, eventually, the Lothcat will bite them back."

If Hannibal ever found out he'd boiled the difference between a Jedi and a Sith to Lothcat pet ownership versus abuse, his old Master would likely box his ears in.

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

A blank slate indeed. Eyvone wasn't sheltered per say--she had full access to the holonet--but she didn't have experience with anything other than life on the ship or what she learned through her schoolwork. Like Crix, she tended to learn best in an interactive environment. Her father used to help her with her math homework by trying to apply it to something that she could get her hands on. He would set up little models for her and show her how and where what she was learning applied to real life. When her mother taught her to fly a ship, before actually letting her take the wheel, would simulate different situations she would face. So when Crix created the light in his hand, took hers and transferred it over, Eyvone could almost immediately feel the sensation in her hand.

It was heavy. If the Force was like memories, then Eyvone's grief made the Force feel heavy and solemn in her hand. It ran through her arm and through her chest, then throughout the rest of her body. She had never felt anything like this before.

As Crix explained the difference between the Jedi and the Sith, Eyvone focused on moving the ball of light to her other hand. She cupped her one hand and lifted it from Crix's, then tipped it over her other hand. The ball of light dropped into it, then dimmed and disappeared. She furrowed her brows at the disappointment.

"So the Jedi are defenders and the Sith are oppressors?"

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

She was getting it with the Force.

Tossing around a ball of Light made from the Force was something of a control exercise that Crix had been taught at the Temple. It wasn't, strictly speaking, a traditional learning tool but Crix liked to be able to keep his hands busy while he was focusing and it helped. Much better than spending a few hours meditating on the 'nature' of the Light - much better to, quite literally, get his hands on the Light and feel how it interacted with himself and the rest of the Galaxy.

He created another ball of Light but this time he kept some control over it as he changed its shape, slowly, into a cube before handing it to Eyvone.

"Try and mold it - shape it back into a ball, yeah?" he offered her with a grin, "Light touches. Think of it like trying to poke at a cloud... soft, quick and fluid."

Crix knew he could, really, leave the explanation about the Jedi and the Sith at that most reduced level and some Jedi would be fine with it. He wasn't, however, because he knew that one of the greatest strengths of some of the strongest Sith wasn't their power but, instead, their ability to appear reasonable. To make it seem like the ends would justify their means, that it was okay to take their pains out onto the Galaxy or people they hated because, somehow, they deserved it.

"In the most basic ways, yeah. But the thing is, no one ever thinks of themselves and their friends as being in the wrong. People can convince themselves, and others sometimes, that they are right no matter how wrong they are. The ends will justify their means... that it was okay to hurt those people because they weren't really people... that kind of thing. It sounds wrong but if you truly, desperately, want to believe that you're right? You find justifications."

He poked the Light to keep it active and 'charged' for her while she interacted with it.

"So Jedi think they're in the right and the Sith think they are. It'd be easy for me to say that, yeah, the Sith are tyrannical asshats but that's not for me to decide for you. I made that decision for myself because of what they have done and how I view it." he tapped her gently in the middle of the forehead, "Every person faces a choice, at some point Eyvone, and sometimes more than once. And that is to choose which side they believe in; which side they believe they can follow and still look themselves in the mirror and say what they are doing is Right."

It might be a bit of a heavy subject but Crix was of the opinion that he served no one, least of all Eyvone, well if he declined to admit that the situation was complex. No, he would teach her how to draw on the Force and how to become his Padawan but the path of the Jedi was one she would have to decide to walk on her own and it wasn't Right for her to make the decision to walk that path based on an oversimplification.

Another text message beeped on his datapad but he ignored it.

@lizziie

 

[Eyvone Usoara]

Eyvone accepted the new ball of light with hesitant hands, trying to think of lightness and soft, quick movements as she did. It felt a little less heavy this time, so as Crix continued with his explanation she was able to eventually round it back into a ball.

"That seems complicated," she remarked after he finished his spiel and she finished the task he had given her. The ball of light sat round in her eyes, still glowing. "Have the Sith and the Jedi always been at odds?" she then asked. She couldn't imagine that in all the years and millennia they had existed that they would have hated each other for all this time. Were their philosophies so different than they did? If so, Eyvone imagined, it would be difficult to say that one or the other were not either in the wrong or in the right.

That being said, she understood what he meant when he said that people never think of themselves as being in the wrong. Though painful to think about, again her parents were the first to come to mind. They were spice dealers. They were pretty much criminals. Though they did what they did to provide for her, they said, Eyvone had always been aware of the damage they dealt through their work. She just tried not to think about it. It had been dangerous work, too. They'd been forced to keep Eyvone a secret from all their employers to ensure her safety. The girl had always hoped that one day they would be able to find another job, but they kept getting sucked back into it. It... it sucked.

tag: @Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

He nodded in agreement.

"That's because it is - anything that involves people gets complicated quickly." he admitted with a small shrug, "The Jedi and the Sith tend to be at odds because we tend to be the foil to the other. Sith who want to conquer, know that we can't just sit back and let that happen so we clash. When the Sith are on top we fight hard to bring them down because their rule, more often than not, is tyrannical in the extreme."

It was all relative though - mostly dependent on which side of the argument you fell on. He was sure that there were many civilians on some planets who actually preferred life under the thumb of some Sith Lord or another. Law of averages dictated that someone must enjoy having their choices limited by some kind of overlord and the Galaxy had a lot of people so that average wasn't exactly a tiny number.

"I'd love to say that peace was possible between the two groups, you know? That we could all agree to just kind of... get along or at least stay away... but it doesn't seem feasible to be honest." he admitted at length, "Sith tend to see us as a threat to their power and we see them as a threat to non-Force Sensitives who stand against them. And a threat to ourselves as well considering they attacked our home in an attempt to scatter us to the winds."

He smirked a little bit.

"Hurt like hell but it didn't work - being a Jedi is more than just Temples and meditating, it's an ideal and a path to follow. Those kinds of things hold up well even against turbolaser fire. That said..." he grinned, "What's say I show you our Temple? Our home?"

@lizziie