"Woah cool!  Were you engineered for combat?!  That'd be awesome!  Never met a gene soldier before.  I thought all that stuff was stopped after the Clone Wars.  Heh, I guess you can't keep a good technology down."

Pyrus shrugs.  "You look, taste, smell, and feel like a normal human to me, Liberty.  I think I'm a test tube baby too.  Natural birth is overrated."

Nathan can't hide his excitement.  "I'll really appreciate that, Liberty.  As for the library, the staff is comparatively small.  Their job is to teach you how to do your own searches.  Then it's up to you to find that needle in the hey stack.  Which takes time.  I figured since there weren't any teachers alive today, there was no sense in trying to find historical data on the topic.  Glad to hear I was wrong!"

  Regular clones are easy (Well, TECHNICALLY).  Force sensitive clones are straight up plot device territory however.  So Blake is more curious if whoever made Liberty are all dead, or if they are desperately scrambling for ways to claim everything is going according to plan.

  "Pay attention to which Jedi actually ask about your welfare before they ask 'where were you made? Like Nathan.  Also, Nathan, it will be cheating if you warn your co-workers about good first impressions they don't quite grasp compared to you."

  Force using Test Tube baby? Nathan's too busy gushing about libraries to line up with bad stereotypes.  Just another reason somebody smart (or lucky) stuck him with Mittens.

Liberty says to Blake, "Thanks for the advice... I'll keep it in mind."

Lib looks at Pyrus. "Thanks. I hope you were not hurt like I was."

Liberty looks back at Mittens. "Ever kill anyone?"

Bethany says, "That's an odd question."

Mittens reminds herself why she won't allow herself to get annoyed with being answered with a question.  Come to think of it, she's probably been inoculated against a lot of little annoyances thanks to Evil Dad flying off the handle at every little thing.  But this is probably a case of, "No, I've never killed anyone," answered with, "Thought so.  You wouldn't have been excited about me being a gene soldier if you had," so all the more reason not to get impatient.

"Sort of.  I've killed a lot of training droids, if that counts.  And I was 'partner' to my Evil Dad in a lot of murders, which counts in a lot of courts.  But he never trusted me with a real weapon on any of those missions.  So I'm happy to say I've never directly killed any biological people.  Not for a lack of wanting to in some cases."

Nathan's a few kills to his name.  Kinda hard to make it to Knight without killing.  But that's not something he's going to offer without being asked.  Still, he can't help but inwardly frown on the fact that a girl who spent years as a Dark Jedi's apprentice has less blood on her hands than he does.

Pyrus shrugs.  "Thanks.  I'm OK now.  And so are you.  'cause you're with me.  And I'll protect ya.  Mittens and Nathan too."

Nathan looks quizzically to Blake.  "I take it, then, that yours was not a good first impression?"

Considering that all the Jedi masters keep insisting he should be stoic, he's wondering how any Jedi can give a rude first impression.  Mittens doesn't count.  She started her Jedi training way late.

  "Oh, nothing major Nathan. It's not like they mind tricked me into giving them my parking space or anything. That would be crazy"  Now, if a Jedi decided to  mind trick people to get out of tickets for parking in a handicapped space? Blake had to leave that to his imagination.

Liberty says, "I am engineered for combat, to answer your question. They were trying to narrow down some psychic genes. Reading minds, affecting minds... those are very useful. But they also narrowed down other genes like strength, speed, dexterity, toughness... The people who made me were not nice. I'm just glad I escaped and then wound up with a kind teacher."

Liberty then looks at Joe. "If you remember who that was, then you should report what they did."

Bethany looks at Liberty and says, "But he said that wasn't what happened and it would be crazy..."

Liberty blankly stares at Bethany before saying, "She's... honestly lost on sarcasm."

"Of all the petty..."

Nathan calms himself.  He doesn't know the full story.  Perhaps they had some life-or-death reason.  Like they were on an urgent mission to smuggle secret weapon plans away from dangerous pursuers and didn't have time to... find a parking space.  Nope.  That's far less likely than a master convinced of his own self importance, already well on his way to falling to the Darkside.

And then he inwardly kicks himself for getting so riled over his image of the Jedi Order being challenged sooner than confessions of little girls forced to live with heartless monsters.  He'll just tell himself that it was the shock of hearing of such a petty Jedi master that broke the camel's back.  He's always been more one to challenge the self-contradictions of the Order's teachings than to seek out hypocrites.

Mits is amused to hear of the petty Jedi master.  "Heh.  Clearly wasn't a Darksider, or he'd've sooner flipped your speeder instead.  Outside Nathan, sounds about right for a lotta Jedi I've met."

A Jedi master action figure appears and lectures, "'The Force is srs bzns.  You should never use it like a toy.  But my using it for my personal convenience is perfectly fine.  Especially when reading the minds of catgir-what is wrong with you, youngling?!  How in the world did you advance so far in the Order with such a cluttered mind?!'"

Mits answers the action figure, pretending to be wise, "'Ask not about things which, if made plain to you, may cause you trouble.'  Nor should you peer into the mind of a Mittens when unprepared for the puppets within."

Fortunately, Master Antiquity was fully prepared for what he found inside her skull* and was able to skillfully repair most of the damage Evil Dad did in there.  But in spite of his best efforts, he couldn't get her to see the difference between using The Force for personal amusement and using it to grab a Space Ensure from the fridge rather than trouble your old bones with getting up from the couch.

Unable to find a counter to Mittens, Nathan nods to Liberty then looks to Blake.  "I agree.  It sounds like that Jedi is walking a very dangerous self-destructive path, and is in need of guidance."

Pyrus raspberries.  "That dumb old Jedi should get a taste of his own medicine!"

*(( Couldn't decide between Pon Pon Song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzC4hFK5P3g
Tooth Ache Muppets, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJDlMOxXo-o
Or scene from Pigs in Space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PidZ3amIrB4 ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:56, Thu 09 Jan 2020.

  "See Liberty, The mere idea of abusing parking options makes this guy upset, even when it's a joke." Yes, tooootally Joking... Or at least, unless the GM thinks it's funnier for it to have been true.  "That's why I won't be surprised if he ends up with several more troubled youths under his wing in spite of his protests he's unqualified."

Liberty glances at Pyrus, then back to Mittens. "My teacher told me that everything has a time and a place. A time to be serious and a time to have fun. A time to use the force casually and a time to refrain from using the force. He also told me that a lot of times, people who experience something bad will go full-throttle in the opposite direction to avoid that bad thing. So the guy who told you the force isn't to be used as a toy probably had a bad thing happen when he used it that way. Or someone else before him did and so they made sure he never did. In the same way, if you only ever treat it like a toy and never respect how serious it can be, you will hurt yourself or someone you care about."

Bethany says, "Wow you seem to know a lot about this."

Liberty says, "Just quoting my teacher... and this was one of the things he repeated. He said he didn't want me making the same mistakes as those who follow only the light or only the dark."

Nathan blushes from Blake's compliment and gives him a bow.  To Liberty he says, "I'm intrigued by your teacher.  Do you think he's safe?  Do you have a place where the two of you can meet up when separated?"

Mits chuckles.  "Maybe?  Maybe the old masters let the Force using toddlers toy with the Force and make sure they wind up hurt from it so they wind up with a deeply ingrained phobia of toying with the Force.  Erm, Ashla.  'cause I keep hearing, 'The least little glance in the direction of Bogan and forever will it dominate your destiny.  Devour you, it will.'  But from all appearances they just use scare tactics about Bogan."

Nathan asks Mits, "And what does your own experience with the Dark Side tell you?"

Mits skews her lips, "That it's the most frustrating existence ever to be a Dark Jedi.  Which is why I let Master Raisinlips reprogram me.  Figured anything's gotta be better than ending up like Evil Dad.  Even if it means being some stoic monk.  But Lib here is offering an option 3 that I'd really like to check out."

Pyrus looks deep in thought and eventually asks, "So... that was a joke?  There wasn't really a rude Jedi?"

  Perhaps even four options, Mittens... Nah, probably not. Non-existent Option #4 would be way too boring for Mittens even compared to Stoic Monk Life anyways.

  "There are as many rude jedi as there are rude everything else, Pyrus.  I'm constantly rude myself, anyways.  Though the part about resorting to the Force over a parking space was an exaggeration." Unless it wasn't.

Liberty answers Nathan, "My teacher said that whenever we get separated, he'd wait for me on Planet Atollon in the Lothal sector."

She then looks at Mittens. "Pursuit of the darkness on its own is the problem there. The je'daii are right that it will devour you... if that's all you pursue."

She returns her gaze to Nathan, "What has been your experience with the dark side, Nathan?"

Bethany is in pure listen mode at this point and doesn't want to interrupt this riveting conversation. But she does idly pet Pyrus since she knows he likes it.

Pyrus ohs from Joe's answer and smiles from Beth's pets.

Mits hrms at Lib's point about exclusively chasing Bogan.  "So.  I keep hearing that one can easily fall to The Bogan even while focused exclusively on Ashla.  All it takes is telekinetically tweaking someone's nose to get him to drop his blaster."

Yoda puppet: "Directly do harm with The Force, one must never, or instant Darksider, one will become."

"You telling me that Jedi wisdom is a lie?  That would line up with Evil Dad's mantra.  And if so, exactly how much pursuit of Bogan is OK before one goes over the deep end?  25%?  51.32%?"

Nathan shrugs.  "My experience with The Darkside has been little to none, to be honest.  My master had plenty to say on the topic, but even his experience with it was pretty much non-existent.  According to what I was taught, Mittens' Evil Dad is so extremely rare as to be possibly the first known case of a Dark Jedi in the Galaxy for about a thousand years."

Come to think of it, why have I been taking her word for it that she was raised by a Dark Jedi?  Her word against nobody's.

"So maybe there's something to be said for all the scare tactics if they've worked so well for so long.  Even if it takes over half your focus on The Darkside in order to fall, why devote any focus at all when staying safely focused on the Light Side means you aren't risking getting closer to going bonkers?"

  "That seems to be a very 'exact words' outlook if a direct quote from Yoda, Mittens.  I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of seemingly hypocritical rules are only dressed up as morals because it's easier to convince impressionable students that way, rather than bore them with metaphysical sciences."

  Okay kids, we shove people off cliffs or drop steamrollers on people because that way we can trick the emotional but stupid space magic into thinking gravity is to blame. Because we would need at least an extra weekend training you to resist cosmic blood thirst if you start tearing people in half directly, and then we're to blame if you screw up later.  Can't have that.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:37, Wed 15 Jan 2020.

Liberty says, "I don't have *all* the answers, Mittens; I'm not my teacher. But if what I understand about it is true, the answer to how much bogan is: It depends on the person. Nathan is right; if the jedi wisdom was completely wrong, falling to the dark side would have happened a lot more. Besides, *everyone* is a little wrong in some way. Finding what is wrong, being willing to acknowledge it, and then being willing to correct it... those are what is needed to fix what is wrong. Which can be hard because people have different opinions on what is right and what is wrong."

Just look at all the alignment wars among tabletop gamers.

Liberty looks up at Nathan. "To answer *your* question.. because the darkness has something to offer that the light does not. If people refused to even touch water for fear of drowning, nobody would learn to swim. If nobody picked up crayons for fear of making a mess, art would not exist. And so on. But just like art and swimming are not for everyone, neither is the bogan, ashla or bendu for everyone."

Liberty looks up at Blake. "I wouldn't know. My knowledge of the je'daii is still kinda small."

Bethany says, "What's boring about metaphysical sciences? I wanna learn..."

Mits taps her cheek in thought.  "Science can be made boring.  Like when your Evil Dad can only find a tutor droids that require that you learn physics before it will teach you how to fix your Evil Dad's food processor.  Holovids on Science tend to be way more fun than actually learning it."

To Lib she continues, "But from the sounds of things you and your teacher think the Jedi are wrong in a major way.  You compare learning Bogan to learning to swim.  The Jedi compare it to toying with an extremely addictive psychedelic drug.  Whoever's wrong would be wrong in a big way.  I'm all for learning how to crayon.  So long as I'm not gunna turn into a raving loonie just for looking in the direction of crayons."

Nathan assures Mittens, "I'll be the one doing the looking, then.  I can understand your reluctance after what you experienced.  Nevertheless, because Dark Jedi are so rare, so too is any information on how to cure them of their addiction.  And if there's any wisdom to be learned from Liberty and her teacher on that alone, it is worth me risking myself.  Bethany can supervise to make sure I don't go too far.  But trying to decide on who's right or wrong when we haven't learned enough of both philosophies isn't going do any good."

Pyrus wants to contribute to the conversation.  "Swimming's fun!  It's like flying in slow motion.  And you don't even need wings!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:20, Thu 16 Jan 2020.

  "Well not like I'm a Jedi either, Liberty.  But 'well technically we're right' mindsets are hardly limited to them either."

  He nods to Mittens's comment about physics before mechanics.  "Required reading is always just somehow worse, even if it's something you would have read eventually."  I read like, thirty books during the summer.  Beep Boop Only two of those were on the summer reading list.

Liberty looks at Nathan and says, "You're willingness to learn and explore is admirable."

Liberty looks at Blake and nods, "Spirit of the law vs Letter of the law has been a thing in all cultures through all time. But we all know Letter of the law is mostly used to cover up looking bad because people think admitting to being incorrect is a bad thing. Sadly, because people put each other down, people are right to be afraid of looking bad."

Liberty turns to Mittens and says, "Even if the je'daii are wrong in a big way, it's much like if a town was wrong about banning fire. They'd be a bit colder in winter, but they are less likely to burn their homes down. I try not to embrace extremes like "wrong in a big way" or "right in a big way" because the darkness loves to embrace absolutes at the exclusion of anything gray. Some things are absolute. But making a habit of dealing in absolutes leads to an imbalance in favor of the dark. And that one in particular is one of the more blinding aspects. For example: The idea of 'you are either for me or against me.' If there is no such thing as a neutral party, then anyone who disagrees with you is against you and thus automatically an enemy. And when you view every disagreement as grounds for being an enemy, the least slight is worthy of death. But then... I'm saying that as much to remind myself. My personality lends itself to the darkness, so my teacher taught me how to temper it with the light without destroying who I am. Which is why I can so freely smile or be angry or suspicious without being homicidal or overly paranoid. Too much light, however, and I would feel imprisoned, the opposite of my namesake, and the more imprisoned I feel, the stronger the desire to break free. Thus, ironically, too much light would lead to too much darkness. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm rambling..."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:28, Sat 18 Jan 2020.

Nathan would like to think that thousands of years of Jedi wisdom amounts to more than just "technically we're right," but last thing in the world he's going to do is argue a point he's not fully convinced of himself.  And yeah.  Lots of boring required reading in Jedi school.  At least 80% of which he's forgotten.

Nathan offers a thank-you bow to Liberty for her compliment and counters, "The use of the letter of the law can be for good as well.  It tends to be how disputes are resolved.  So if the Jedi resolve a conflict on a technicality, being technically right can be a good thing as well."

Mits balks at Nathan snatching away a dangerous quest from her.  But can't deny that she really is scared of looking into Bogan.  But then Liberty's rambling clicks with what she remembers hearing from Evil Dad's rants about the Jedi.

"Rambling beats ranting any day.  Evil Dad was always ranting about, 'Light Side is prison!  Dark Side is freedom!'  So I guess maybe he could be held up as an example of what you're talking about.  Master Sack-of-bones never wanted to talk about what went down with his former student.  But even judging from the only side of the story I got, no amount of leniency would have kept him from going full-on Darkside.  'Crush rejected me, Master held me back, my supremacy was unrecognized because of favoritism, Jedi Order is organized hypocrisy, blahdey blahdey blah.

"I'm guessing that the answer is, 'What works for Liberty may or may not work for the vast majority of Forcerers.'  But Mittens is much like Liberty in the, 'if you forbid a thing, I'm all the more tempted by it' sense.  So maybe the Liberty Way will be what saves Mittens from herself."

Nathan tries to hide his surprise.  His former student?!

  "While it sounds simple Mittens, 'Try not to be an asshole' means you won't be burning down any grocery stores over hypocrisy in the post office.  Just because there are less words doesn't make it any less hard, but it gets the point across.  Edgelord Dad sounds like he would kill the pizza guy for a late delivery and then tell you that you can't have any because only the strong get slices."

Bethany doesn't hide her curiosity. "Former student?"

Liberty looks from Beth to the others. Nathan is personally trying to not look surprised, so Liberty is forced to believe Mittens told him. Blake always looks unsurprised, so Liberty is forced to believe Mittens told him. She forgets that jedi are very practiced in not showing emotion while her own teacher is more expressive.

Liberty nodnods to Blake's explanation of non-assholery. Meanwhile, she ponders Nathan's words about technical correctness. It's not like she is uncharacteristically quiet or anything, Bethany asked a question that Liberty wants to know the answer to also.

How did he know?  Mittens doesn't wunna talk about that one.

"'What goes around comes around,' was something both Evil Dad and Master Fossil agreed on in their teachings.  Only, Evil Dad didn't really live by it.  Mittens would rather live in such a way as to get people to throw smiles and candy at her instead of rotten veggies.

"Oops.  Wasn't supposed to let that slip.  Main thing is that the Jedi bosses don't hear about it.  Master Cadaverous was worried that if word got out about his student going dark that it would hamper the prospects of all his students and tarnish the rep of the Jedi Order as a whole.  So please don't be as blabbermouthed as Mittens."

Nathan thinks on it.  "I dunno.  Could be very important to share what we know.  But timing is important, so we should meditate on when would be a good time to share, if ever."

  "I'll probably keep it secret Mittens.  But I might rub it into anyone's face who tries to pretend the troubles of your life are only one generation deep just because to admit otherwise would hurt their standing." Yet another problem Mittens won't need to worry about from Nathan.

  "Of course, being ready to be treated how you treat others won't keep people from freaking out about such sayings even if you use gentle language.  Your life was clearly full of cliche villain speeches.  But don't forget the awkward horror of realizing your greatest weakness is overestimating people. Mittens."

  Only a stupid drooling idiot can't handle this REAL oldschool sonic gameplay and ask for it to be dumbed down for children.
  You big silly head, REAL sonic games DID have mercy invincibility!
  HOW DARE YOUUUUUUUUUU!

  Not all standards involved the fate of the galaxy or magic powers. Some of them are just dumb.

Outside discussing the societal do's and don'ts alongside the topic of The Force, the trip is pretty much uneventful, the ship makes to to the jedi academy and lands.

Yoda is out front, waiting for the team's arrival. "Welcome."

Bethany says, "Hello, Yoda!" and trots over to him happily before kneeling to shake his little hand.

Liberty raises an eyebrow. "...Yoda? I didn't know this guy could be seen talking to people."

Yoda moves his ears a bit as if hearing Liberty and does that laugh of his. "Personable I am. High and mighty, I am not. Enjoy the air of the outdoors I do... whenever I can."

He smiles and closes his eyes briefly as a breeze passes through the area.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:12, Fri 24 Jan 2020.

Mits gives Blake a thumbs-up.  "Overestimating people?  Meh-uh-eh.  Mittens always figured her greatest weakness was the temptation to make fun of rude people.  And chocolate.  And interesting looking doohickeys that probably do something fun if you fiddle with them.  And...  Yeah.  Come to think of it, Mittens has so many greatest weaknesses that overestimating people is probably among them."

Nathan half chuckles.  "You and me both.  Minus the doohickey one.  Unless it looks like a musical instrument."

During the trip, Pyrus tries get the youngsters to play with him.  Mittens is happy to oblige.

Upon arriving, Nathan was nervous to see Master Yoda waiting for them.  Probably means something terribly serious.  Oh.  Just a "coincidence."  (A word that Jedi always use with air-quotes or an exaggerated wink.)

Never could get used to the casual way Beth treats legends.  Still.  It's very affirming that neither Mittens nor Liberty are causing Yoda to grimace just from being in his presence.  That's a very good sign that there isn't even a whiff of the Darkside on the girls.  But that begs the question about whether what Liberty's been saying is true.  Nathan gives a stoic nod to Yoda and keeps quiet.

"Oh sweet!" Mittens cheers, swinging an invisible lightsaber around while making woob-woob sounds, "Everyone keeps bragging about how tough the Yoda lightsaber lessons are!  Does this mean I get to start now?  I'm pretty good with glowstick dancing, but I've long wanted to know how I measure up to a real Yoda trainee."

An apprentice of her age asking that question would likely be very out of the ordinary.  Yoda lightsaber lessons often start at around the same age as learning the alphabet if episode 3 is to be believed.