7th- overnight lockdown. pls threadjack

[bearshermark]

Sweet Lily of the Hidden Valley:

I used to travel with a lot of companions. It took awhile to grow used to each other, but since we're stuck down here tonight, I've thought of a few things we could talk about to pass the time and maybe help us work together better. Whatever anyone is comfortable with answering of course.

What is your home world like?

What kind of skills or abilities do you have?

Good ways to make money here, or unique supplies we might need?

Who isn't expecting to get a weapon and needs one? I have a few lumps of ore now if ever I can get to the forges..

Comments

[darkeststars]

I was born from my mother, like most humans, I hope.

The Force has

[ There's a concerningly long pause, but eventually some more text appears to Eleven's quartz piece again. ]

The Force, the power that binds all the galaxy, has two sides to it. The Light and the Dark. The Jedi call themselves champions of the Light Side. Their idea of 'balance' is beating back the Dark throughout known space.

The Sith Order, however, doesn't believe in restraining ourselves so. A Sith does what he must to follow his passions. And the Dark Side answers to our fervor.

[ Another pause. ]

Both sides are distressingly fond of foisting off their feud on people who didn't ask for any of it.

[bearshermark]

[He's human at least, so there is that]

What is it that you fight for then?

[darkeststars]

[ Well now, isn't that a loaded question. The Empire, the Sith? A laughable thought. Home and family? As if he could make any difference for them now. His friends? Naive. Peace? Order? Nebulous ideals that ignore the suffering of real beings on the ground.

There's a long pause again. Eleven might start to wonder if Arche isn't going to answer, or if he's run into some sort of trouble after all. ]

Survival.

[ Whose, he doesn't specify.

He stares at the word for a second after he's written it. Too honest. These things should come with a remote-delete command. ]

I hope you're not about to tell me you proudly defend your world in the name of some lofty ideal.

[bearshermark]

No, I understand.

I think I was just fighting because I had to, before. But now I know Erdrea can't survive under the darkness it's fallen to. I might not be the hero I'm supposed to be anymore, but I have to try.

[darkeststars]

That's reason enough, I think. Because you must. Because there is no one else. [ He seems to recall hearing something along those lines, anyway. And stars only know he's had his own fair share of that. ]

But what do you mean exactly? Has someone decided you're not full of light enough or something tedious like that? [ He could imagine the Jedi eating their own that way, back home. ]

[bearshermark]

No it's not that. Everyone has faith in me.

But I lost the power they think is going to save them.

[darkeststars]

Well, that sounds...exciting.

2/2 actually

[darkeststars]

I thought you said you had power? 'Magic', if you like?

[bearshermark]

I do, but it's possible for anyone to have magic.

It's the spirit of the Luminary that marks me as Yggdrasil's chosen. But that power was stolen by the Lord of Shadows. I'm not powerless, only... diminished.

[darkeststars]

[ Hm, this is... a little more difficult than it has been previously to map onto things he understands. Sounds like religious nonsense, mostly, but if there's some sort of real power attached to it-- ]

What, this Lord just... ripped it out of you? People can do that?

[bearshermark]

He could, anyway. It almost killed me.

[You've seen the injury]

He wasn't human, though. He resembled a demon before, and now that's definitely true.

[darkeststars]

Hm, all right. That tracks.

[ He may or may not have some amount of experience with stealing other people's power, but he wouldn't expect to be able to do it to one of the living without swiftly rendering them not-living. ]

Well, you're going to go after this Lord, yes? Take back what's yours? Obviously there's been a bit of a wrench thrown in that, but regardless.

[bearshermark]

I'm going to try.

[darkeststars]

Oh, good. Here I had my sarcasm bucket all full up ready to respond to some terribly noble return message about valiantly enduring this extra hardship even through near certain death for the sake of the world, or something along those lines. You have more sense than the Jedi at least.

[bearshermark]

I might have said something like that if I hadn't already failed so terribly at the role I was given. But now I just need to focus on doing what I can.

And for now, that's working together with everyone to get out of here.

[Including Sith lords]

[darkeststars]

There is something to be said for failure. Teaches you what not to do twice.

[bearshermark]

I suppose it does.

[He's lucky enough as it is to have lived to have a second try]

But I don't think we're enemies here.

[darkeststars]

Who, you and I? As a rule I prefer not to work against those who've been good to me. Unless they subsequently stab me in the back, of course. [ A common hazard in this line of work. ]

If I considered you my enemy, believe me, you would know.

[bearshermark]

That sounds like a good policy to have.

[He should probably be more cautious himself given his recent experience, but there are better reasons to hold onto an alliance. After all, his former hunter has become his most ardent protector]

[darkeststars]

Besides which, if you don't make it home to go save your planet and all that, then I suppose our gracious host here might derive some amusement out of having thwarted your plans. And I'm really not about that at all.

[ Funny what sorts of things two people from across universes can have in common. ]

[bearshermark]

[He laughs to himself, lingering wariness soothed by that pettiest of reasons]

I am curious though. How is balance meant to work between the Light and Dark sides of your Force ideally?

[darkeststars]

That depends on who you ask. Considering that it suffuses all of creation and every lifeform in the galaxy, there are certainly many opinions about it.

As I said, I've heard among the Jedi there is some propaganda that the Dark is a sickness of sorts, an anomaly to be purged for there to be 'balance'. To tap into the Dark Side one must unleash their most powerful emotions, and the Jedi don't believe in such things. They teach their little cult to suppress strong feelings, to never grow attached to other beings, lest they be tempted into the darkness.

The Sith believe that the Force frees us all to pursue our passions, and that balance is unimportant, that what matters is only the path to power. Anything is permitted...theoretically. The Dark Side is a quicker way to victory for some, so many of our order favor it. But any power wielded unwisely corrupts. The worst of us well deserve to be hunted.

As for me, however, well. I have my own ideas.

[bearshermark]

Put like that, they seem a little extreme from my view. Is there no middle ground?

[darkeststars]

Many would say no. There is no discipline devoted to a middle path, that I am aware of. But that is the line I try to walk. The Force calls to me in its rage and its serenity. It is the whole universe, after all. Strange to think that most listen to only one voice or the other.

[ Usually, Ashara is the only person he can safely discuss this sort of thing with, and even then certainly only in private. His other apprentices were never exactly receptive, and not even Theron wanted to sit around listening to him ramble about the Force. It's a bit odd to speak of it so openly. ]

I take it this sort of philosophy is unknown to your world?

[bearshermark]

Not in ways that restrict or encourage one's decisions that I'm aware of. Certainly, magic can be used to harm or heal but it isn't a moral debate.

Still, Light is aligned with life in Erdrea, as is the case with Yggdrasil, with the Darkness aligned with death and the Dark One. Yet even for me, Yggdrasil hasn't demanded I make any vows or live in a certain fashion. So long as the cycle of rebirth continues, I believe She is content.

Though I confess I'm not certain now if that cycle of rebirth is Her way of working around death, reincarnating people in spirit, if not in body. But without Her, it's certainly true that souls are doomed to be lost in the Void.

All I know about the forces of Darkness is a craving for power and destruction. I know it can corrupt those it touches, though it doesn't always. Certainly, those I've fought against seem to wield it without regard for life.

So far as I understand it, there is a cycle of Light and Darkness that plagues Erdrea once every millennia.