driftfleet | all aboard the ss blamless

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all aboard the ss blamless

Who: Crew of the SS Blameless and visitors.
Broadcast: Nope
Action: SS Blameless
When: March, or until we feel like a new one.

[It's a mingle! Get out of the car!

Unique ship notes for new crew and visitors: giant, unmissable scorch marks currently line the walls of several corridors leading from the cargo hold to the bridge!

Also, thanks to Kate, we now have a SWEARS AND ATTITUDES JAR displayed prominently in the kitchen. Whenever someone's being naughty instead of nice, they're compelled to deposit a few credits (or at least an iou) into the awaiting jar.

Also also, we are all still bunking together. HAVE FUN.]

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And what if the right thing to do is be attached? [This isn't a thought experiment, for Luke, but he can hardly tell Ahsoka that. He just speaks with complete conviction and hopes he won't be laughed at.]

[Ahsoka raises one eyebrow, confusion evident on her face and in the Force around her.]

I'm not sure what you mean.

[Luke can't really... tell her all the details, so he switches tactics, so to speak.] Have you ever met a Sith?

You mean, apart from the Chancellor?

I guess I didn't know it at the time, so it doesn't really count anyway...

[She does a small impromptu cartwheel across the cargo hold floor to burn off her flicker of anger thinking about it.]

[Luke prefers not to think about Palpatine, thanks.] What were they like? The Sith you met, I mean.

Oh. The only Sith I ever met apart from the Chancellor was Ventress, I guess.

Though... I'm not really sure if she counts anymore.

Oh? Tell me about her. [Luke smiles softly. Sith continue to be an area of interest for him, not in an academic or even intellectual sense. If you can save one, you may as well try to save them all.]

About Ventress?

[Ahsoka's surprise shows on her face.]

Um. Well. She used to be Dooku's apprentice. Wait-- you know who Count Dooku is, right?

[How much of history is lost in the next twenty years, anyway?]

[Luke shakes his head.] He's a... count? I'm not familiar with the name.

[#YIKES.]

Count Dooku is-- was, in your time, I guess-- the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The secessionist separatist movement that the Republic is fighting against. He also happens to be a Sith Lord, which is part of the reason the Order decided to join the war in the first place.

Oh, I see. Did you ever meet him, or just Ventress?

No, just Ventress. Why all the curiosity, anyway?

Well, I've only met a handful. What was Ventress like? What did she seem to care about?

A handful? As in-- more than one?

[That's worrying.]

Ventress is-- well. Um. I don't know. She's hard to describe. I guess it depends on when you mean...

I really shouldn't tell you too much about the future, Ahsoka. [And that's all he'll say there.]

[More importantly--] what do you mean? She changed over time?

[Grumble grumble.] The more I hear about the future, the less I like it.

[She rubs her head.]

I'm not sure if it would be accurate to say that Ventress changed so much as her loyalties did. I fought against her a handful of times in the war as Dooku's apprentice, but then for some unknown reason Dooku sold her up the river. She's still a Dark Sider, though. She just... isn't actively working against us anymore.

Believe me, I know the feeling. [#skywhiner]

So you'd say she has no true loyalties?

Exactly. Ventress's loyalties are to herself.

She helped me out, once. Just before I came here. But I had to offer her something of equal value in return for her to consider it. That's how she is.

[As innocently as possible:] Then it sounds like she's very good at having no attachments.

Well, sure. But she doesn't have any compassion. [Ahsoka, if only you knew.] A Jedi uses their powers in the service of the Force the the galaxy. Not themselves.

Of course. And the galaxy sometimes rests on the well-being of the individual. Attachment is how we know that individual is worth it, how we know our compassion is especially needed.

[If he were aware this were a serious philosophical discussion, Luke would be less confident. But to him, this is a discussion about family, and that's easy.]

Then why not take that a step further and say all individuals are worth it? You can't place unequal value on people's lives. No one person should be worth more or less than any other.

Of course they are. But sometimes the situation calls for special circumstances. And in my experience, at least, the Force guided my intuition, from compassion to attachment.

[Luke sighs.] I don't want to argue with you, Ahsoka. I just know what's true for me. Maybe it's different for you. [Maybe being taken from your family so young really does have a profound effect on a Jedi. Luke isn't sure, can't assume, but he does wonder.]

[In some ways, Ahsoka is reminded of her argument with Aayla Secura when Anakin was injured on Maridun all those years ago. She'd been in Luke's position then.]

... You feel really strongly about this, don't you?

Yes. [No hesitation there.] But I'm not angry we don't agree. Different perspectives are good for a Jedi, aren't they? [Luke thinks they should be, at least.]

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resnipstance - 2016-03-21 03:10 (UTC) - Expand

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