Mittens is ever so pleased her puppet show was well received.  Nathan is more surprised by Beth's reaction to boring Jedi exposition than Serenity's.

"Sounds great!" Pyrus says of Atollon.

Mits chuckles.  "Your kinda place, huh?"

Pyrus nods with a happy flappa-flap and tail-wag.

Nathan mouths Beth's words.  "Wow.  That just rolls of the tongue.  And you made that poetry on the fly?"

He gives a helpless smile and shrug to Serenity.  "Humor, yes.  Sarcasm: not that I've seen.

"So now that you know our story, care to share with us yours?"

"Yoursey," Mittens corrects.

Nathan chuckles.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:41, Sat 15 Feb 2020.

  Blake is fairly certain that Bethany is selectively understanding. A handy tool for making people suffer deep self reflection on their morals, or just because you thought it was funny.

  "If the spiders try to eat us, how many people will act sad if we shoot them." some moral reflections are not very deep.

Bethany grins at Nathan. "Yes! But don't get used to it.. I'm no poet."

Liberty says to Blake, "That depends. If you consider the spiders people, then their colony will be sad. Other than that, well, what few who live there won't cry any tears over dead spiders. But keep in mind they are resistant to laser fire. So maybe use a different kind of weapon on them if you find yourself facing one. Like a sonic weapon or a cryo weapon or a shock weapon or... well you get the idea. Anything besides lasers against them."

Serenity says, "Eh. Not much of a story to tell. I grew up in a family of adorable bunnies. I'm a little bit of a rebel, so I made friends with rebellious types. So I'm a punk who hangs out with punks. The end."

Bethany starts examining Pyrus' wings as if wanting to know more about them.

"Bite back," Mittens answers Blake, "Who cares if anyone acts sad?"

"Laser-proof giant spiders..." Pyrus muses, half grossed out, half nervous, "We don't have those weapons.  We should all just stay inside the ship and stay in the air.  Liberty can use her mind-talk to find and meet up with her teacher."

He likes Beth's attention and smiles at her, wagging his tail.

Nathan chuckles and nods to Beth.

To Serenity he gives an impish smile.  He takes out a mini karaoke machine and begins to sing to the music it plays:

♬ "One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead
I met a girl there
And she almost knocked me dead
Punk rock girl please look at me
Punk rock girl what do you see?
Let's travel round the world
Just you and me punk rock girl." ♬

(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip7opUfjL7Q ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:34, Mon 17 Feb 2020.

  Blake is once again justified for his hobby project, Galaxy's Most Over-engineered Holdout Slugthrower.  As cool as blasters are, they can't shoot James Bond Junior tracking ammo, among other things.

  "Pyrus, in spite of many similarities, blaster proof is not the same thing as fireproof." That's why monsters list both separately! ESPECIALLY the ones claimed to be scary to Jedi, thus are vulnerable to lightsabers and force senses while immune to blasters and scanners.

  Not that the guy with cybernetic eyes and in no way force sensitive would know anything about that. That would be crazy.

Serenity taps her foot to the rhythm of the song Nathan sings, bobbing her head from side to side, making her ears sway. "I have heard that one. Old, but good. Surprised you know it."

Bethany says, "Oh! Don't worry, Pyrus. I have a blaster for each kind of method of doing damage." she hasn't bothered inventing custom blasters, though. So Blake's custom slugthrower will likely really make Beth happy if/when she sees it. Possibly inspire her to try inventing a gun or two.

Soon, the group arrives at their destination. Liberty points out where to land and as they approach, the group can see a man standing there waiting for the group.

Nathan grins proudly at Serenity.

Pyrus smiles at Beth.  "Yay!"

Nathan addresses the ship, "Please land us a polite distance from the man so he's not blasted with thrust wind, Levi.  And keep us informed if anything potentially dangerous is approaching."

Once safe to do so, he'll open the door and exit the ship.

"Mittens wants to look cool for Lib's teacher, so she rides on Pyrus' back.  Epic entrance of magic wand girl on dragon-back accompanied by angel, grey forcerer, inventor, gang bunny, talking ship, aaaand...  What is Blake, anyway?  Mercenary?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:22, Sun 23 Feb 2020.

  If Jedi can love their murder swords while proclaiming to love peace, then it is perfectly fair to love guns that were already called 'Deathhammer' before you even got there while claiming to love not having to shoot people in the face with them.

  "Yes Mittens, that would be what to call me. If only because 'A Professional' eludes me"

  OOC: I still love how it went from "Haha look at that name" to "...Oh my god, it's MY meta" realization Deathhammer stats are "We didn't give it better stats, we simply removed all the penalties."

The man greets the group as they approach. "Welcome back, Liberty! Greetings, travelers, and thank you for keeping Liberty company."

Liberty hurries over to the man to hug him. The man pets her and smiles to the group.

Here is what the guy looks like:
https://beagamecharacter.com/w...4/05/Galen-Marek.jpg

The teacher says, "My name is Galen. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Bethany says, "Hi! I'm Bethany! This is Mittens, Pyrus, Blake, Nathan, and Levi!"

She of course, pointed to the ship when she introduced Levi.

Galen looks at the ship, then back to Bethany inquisitively. Liberty explains, "Levi's the ship, Mr Marek."

Galen ohs.

Galen Marek!  The very... NOT famous person.  Who DIDN'T do history-changing things that wound up with his family crest becoming the symbol of the Alliance.

"Mittens knows Evil Dad's perspective on the purpose for mercenaries, but one who hangs out with Jedi kiiinda clashes with that.  So...  I'm guessing the Jedi Order hires you and your fellow mercs to guard backwater facilities that they themselves don't have enough manpower to guard?"

Mittens isn't ignoring Galen.  Just Blake answered Mits first.

Nathan smiles at the cute hug and odd ship introduction.  He's also happy to not be sensing an overwhelming Darkside presence from Galen.  That'd be awkward.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance as well.  The air conditioning inside Levi is quite agreeable if you'd care to join us.  Liberty enlightened us with some on your philosophy, and I'd love to hear more from you in the comfort of the ship."

"I wunna see Beth shoot spiders," Pyrus objects, "And this heat is quite nice."

Mittens chuckles.  "Yeah, I'm particularly interested in your Bogan / Ashlan stuff 'cause I was raised by a Dark Jedi then brainwashed by a regular Jedi.  So I'd love to hear of third option."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:21, Fri 28 Feb 2020.

  "It's more rare than you'd think, at least in my case."  Because if Blake does his job right then there's no reason to call the jedi, thus no reason for the Jedi to turn around and call him.  "Which just means you are extra special to have Yoda ask me 'Around Mittens, Loom sternly you will. It will probably work out'"

  He nods to less than famous no dramatic nickname man.  "She has been good company herself, even if for not very long."

Galen nods. "Thanks. I'll take you up on the offer."

Bethany looks at Pyrus, "I can load up a simulator for spider shooting. And I can give you a radiator coat if you find the inside of my ship too cool."

Bethany leads the way back inside.

Serenity is eyeing Galen. Then Liberty. Then Mittens. Then Nathan. She still isn't sure she believes this wuju stuff is all that, but mostly she is preparing herself for the weirdest version of anti-hero speech from this Galen guy.

Liberty is smiling, as if excited and ready to see her master 'school' everyone.

Pyrus pouts.  "No thanks..."

Its like telling a kid, "We can play duck hunt on the seat screen inside the van," right after arriving at a beach carnival where they hand out giant squirt guns to the attendees.

Still seated on his back, Mits covers Pyrus' eyes and tries to mind-control him to experience what he was wanting to.  Doesn't go quite the way she wanted.

"GAH!"

Pyrus rears back, throwing Mits off.  Easy enough for Blake to catch her before she winds up sprawled on the floor, assuming he chooses to.

"Well I tried..."

Mits looks up at Blake.  "You loom well."

Nathan figures that the experience is lesson enough and he needn't tell her this is why you ask permission first.

To Galen he says, "Thanks for joining.  I kinda get the feeling like your perspective will be key in unraveling the mystery we've been set upon resolving..."

He gives a quick recap of the Yoda Prophecy.  "Before he told us about our possible role in preventing a mysterious calamity, I was already quite interested in what Liberty told us about Ashlan and Bogan.  The discussion ended at around the point we were speculating that the Jedi approach to avoiding the Darkside was probably not perfect for every Force Sensitive in history, yet not without merit.  But though that's where I'd like to focus, how the Ashlan Bogan balance philosophy could be applied to make progress toward preventing the calamity, I'll not presume to insist that we start there."

Mits glances at Serenity and tugs on her.  "To get you caught up, The Jedi believe that "The Force" - the mysterious source of their superpowers - comes in two shades of the same coin: Light Side and Dark Side.  They believe that if you use your superpowers while angry even once, you'll start an avalanche inside your mind that'll turn you into a psycho super villain like my Evil Dad did.  So it's best to spend a lifetime practicing being boring.  Learn how to not be mad even when someone laughs at you while shooting your best friend.

"Liberty and her teacher here have a different theory.  That you should keep Ashlan (Light Side) and Bogan (Dark Side) in balance somehow or you'll risk rubber-banding to the Darkside like my Evil Dad did.  Or maybe just certain people should take that approach, not really sure.  But I'll tell ya right now if someone laughed at me while shooting my bunny I'd chop 'em up with my glow-stick faster than they can say, 'But she's just some punk you met today!'"

  While Mittens would deserve to land on her keys, Blake still saves her from this cruel fate anyways.

  "Also apparently time travel is involved somewhere, but that is a headache to deal with later. Or earlier. It's time travel, after all, could be."

Bethany throws some bread into her multi-toaster, then goes to her fridge, doing a dance as she pulls a container out. As the bread comes out toasted, she spreads some tuna salad on them.

Galen briefly looks at Blake with an expression that says he thinks Blake is joking. But the expression fades as he stares off, pondering.

Galen then looks at Nathan. "Indeed. I'll start with my relationship with Liberty. When I found her, she was a toddler and had tapped into the ability to detect surface thoughts. She has a brilliant mind, but not in the way most people view geniuses. She isn't stronger in the force than the average jedi, but her mind seems to figure out the force rather quickly, particularly when it comes to telekinetic or telepathic powers. She also has a tendency to learn physical activities quickly. So I have had her play with other children to observe this. As a result, she appears to be able to master things like chess as well as things like dancing with relative ease. Personality-wise, however, Liberty has a strong sense of fairness. If someone cheats in a game, they should be ejected from the game, automatically losing. If someone hits someone, that person should be hit back and so on. Although those are oversimplifications of her sense of fair play, Liberty's personality is exactly the kind that would slowly lure her to the dark side if she were raised by the jedi. If she were raised by a dark jedi, she most certainly would become completely dark side."

He looks at Mittens. "The jedi ways have merit. It is much like how many cultures will protect their children from violence, drunkenness, and other such things. Just like with those examples, for the *most* part, it protects children and they grow to be normal, functioning adults. However, in some cases, allowing a child to experience being drunk will prevent that child from ever desiring it in their young adult years. Or better still, if they have been tasting alcohol their whole life, it won't be a new, enticing, interesting thing when they become of age. It is kind of like that with the dark side, but probably more specific to the individual. And even then, depending on the individual, it could be more or less exposure to the dark side that helps them."

Bethany approaches the group with tuna on toast for everyone. "Meat paste!"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:58, Wed 04 Mar 2020.

"Now my brain is full of spiders," Pyrus grumbles.

Mits busts out laughing from Beth's outburst.  "That was random!  But thanks, Beth.  Come to think of it, 'meat paste' brings back memories...  That no longer bother me!  Yaay Jedi brainwashing!"

She wolfs down the snack.

Nathan rubs his chin.  "Can you give me an example of how you guide Liberty to correct back to 'balance' when it looks like she's getting too Lightside?  Or does that never happen and you have to always correct back away from the Dark?  And how do you know when she's 'out of balance?'"

"Contact lens effect," Mittens answers with an air of authority, "Going Darkside made Evil Dad's eyes get all creepy looking compared to the pictures of pre-Dark."

  "Pyrus, your brain is full of fire. The spiders won't last long." Unless they are LAVA spiders, but then Pyrus would probably like those.

  'If she were trained by a Sith, she would totally end up a Sith' okay Liberty turning out okay may have little to do with this guy's teaching quality after all.

  "Mittens, this is meat paste designed for taste, not a profit margin bragging about it's nutritional value."

  Not that Blake's own True Facts sound any more eloquent.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:24, Fri 06 Mar 2020.

Bethany giggles along with Mittens. To Pyrus, she thinks Blake's comment is the BEST comment! So she leaves that be!

Galen answers Nathan, "Liberty's sense of fairness is such that she actually applies it to herself, so the only reason I could see her drifting too far to the dark without me is if she also grew up without friends or loved ones. Which would drive people without the force to darkness anyways, so... I feel she is an amazingly balanced being to begin with. I do sometimes remind her of the facts of life; that sometimes speaking the truth aloud is not the wise thing to do. Mostly, when she wants to learn a lesson, and I fail to persuade her, I ask her if she wants to learn through experience. Past experience has taught her to be more selective with which lessons she wants to learn through experience and she has been opting for that option less often as she grows older."

He then looks at Mittens. "When the eyecolor changes, that is usually a sign that the person has already gone completely to the darkside. So if Liberty goes that far, I have waited entirely too long."

Galen looks back at Nathan. "The key is moderation. There are times where a Jedi's calm is precisely what you need. And there are times that call for a darksider's passion."

Liberty makes her fingers wiggle around like her hand is a spider and has it crawl on Pyrus.

Beth is correct.  Blake's words were precicely what Pyrus needed to hear.

"Really?  Alright!"

Liberty's tease makes Pyrus giggle and nomf her fingers.  n.n

Nathan kinda feels for Serenity being so out of her depth in this conversation.  So he unfolds his transforming portable electric guitar* and picks a few punk jams for her, leaving it on acoustic sound so it doesn't overwhelm the conversation.

Mits chimes in and says, "Hmm.  Probably right about the eyes.

"But what I'm hearing from your philosophy is, 'Liberty is a one-of-a-kind superhero of the Force (and everything else), so all I have to do is remind her of things she already knows from time to time.  Only the most epic self-correcting Mary Sues need apply to my approach.  (Which isn't really an approach at all.  It's more of a, "Don't be an Evil Dad and she'll be fine.")'"

Nathan shakes his head, still strumming away.  "Nah.  I've been taking a similar approach to teaching you Mittens.  It's quite deliberate and structured, I assure you.  But you're right that it takes a special kind of student for it to work.  I wouldn't use this approach if you were a spoiled brat, for example."

Mittens looks at Nathan skeptically.

*(( Envisioning this: https://playjammy.com/ ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:58, Sat 07 Mar 2020.

  "Mittens, you may be eccentric bordering on insane, but you are not spoiled... That said, you've already given plenty of examples for why not being spoiled is hardly a virtue of upbringing."

  Refer back to 'ONLY THE STRONG GET SLICES'

  "On the bright side, you are safe from 'sit back and take credit for my Student teaching themselves' with Nathan."

Galen nods to Nathan. "Thanks."

Galen says, "My approach is moderation. Some people need more of one thing. Others need less of that same thing. Liberty in particular makes it easy on me, but the trick is to know not to push one's dark or light aspects too far. Anyone can apply, just that Liberty is a natural."

Liberty wrestles Pyrus and noms his paws in retaliation, growling and giggling.

Serenity bobs her head to the music and comments, "Do any or all of the beliefs share certain things? Such as how to tell if someone is able to learn magical powers?"

Galen says, "Well... yes, actually. Though there are a few different methods for doing the same thing, there are many things that all three approaches to The Force have in common."

Bethany goes to hug Mittens. "Hug! Spoil!" she goes to stuff cake in Mitts' mouth.

Mits blushes, ragdolling from the Beth hug, then gulps down the bite of cake.  "Mittens is not used to this level of affirmation.  Thank you, everyone."

Pyrus happily plays with Liberty, having a ton of fun.  If he can get his paws on some cake, he'll stuff Lib's mouth with a bite.

Nathan smiles that Serenity digs the music, "What you can do with The Force is apparently universal.  Telepathy and telekinesis."

Mits was about to correct Nathan, but thinks better of it.  Brats correct their teachers.  Good students phrase it as a question.  "So...  When Evil Dad did stuff I've never seen or heard of Jedi doing...  it's not because the Jedi can't light people on fire with magic, just that they choose not to?"

Nathan gives her a puzzled look that makes it clear he's never heard of such a Force power.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:04, Wed 25 Mar 2020.

  "Sith powers are about rubbing it in people's faces you are using the force on them.  Jedi powers are about trying to distance yourself from the fact you are using the force on them.  That's why Sith choke you and make a big speech about the darkside.  While Jedi either drop you off a building, or the building onto you, then play it off like it is gravity's fault... Also, lighting people on fire with your mind still rates 'light side'.  I would assume for those reasons I started giving as a joke, but became a reasonable theory over time."

  Both sides agree on 'stop shooting yourself! Stop shooting yourself! I'm not touching you! Stop shooting yourself'.

Liberty's cheeks puff from Pyrus stuffing her mouth with cake and she blinks a few times. "Mm?"

Bethany keeps Mitts in her arms and finds a place to sit so she can sit Mitts on her lap.

Galen shrugs. "Blake is correct. For the most part. Technically, dropping a building on someone is light while shoving someone off a building is dark. Dark side likes to cause harm to people directly through the force. Light side does not."

Bethany says, "Wow that sounds so... hypocritical?"

Galen nods. "When phrased that way, sure. Think of The Force like any natural phenomenon. The Force itself is uncaring. It is the people who wield it who have motives that drive them. Magnetism has a positive side and a negative side and both sides repel or attract different things, yet both sides belong to one force of nature. So too is it with The Force. The 'light side' is repelled by direct destruction of life and attracted to direct aiding of life. The 'dark side' is repelled by direct aiding of life and attracted to direct destruction of life. But because people have attached feelings to the results of both sides, one is seen as evil and the other good. Neither side is good or evil in and of themselves. In fact, the main reason they are called light and dark is because light is equated to life and dark is equated to death."

Serenity says, "I can understand wanting to have super powers and stuff, but with having to keep track of all this baggage, why bother?"

Galen says, "Good question. And honestly, the answer varies from person to person. Me personally; I bother because it was thrust upon me. Liberty bothers for the same reason. But many bother because they don't care about the negative consequences. While still others bother because they don't want others to suffer the negative consequences. I don't know the jedi as well as I should, but I would like to think that most jedi actually desire to protect everyone from the negative."

Pyrus grins that he successfully emulated Beth by feeding Lib.  He'd copy Beth's putting Mits on her lap too, but his legs don't bend the right way to even have a lap.  So instead he just goes for Liberty cuddles.

"Adolescent Mittens is not a small girl that she can be easily placed upon a young woman's lap, so she's impressed that Bethany made that look easy."

Nathan shakes his head with a look on his face that suggests that it was painful to hear what he just did.  "Going to have to disagree with just about everything just said.  There's nothing inherently light about dropping a building on someone with The Force or by any other means, much less lighting someone on fire, and I'm stunned anyone would suggest such a thing.  Not that there's a single Jedi in this entire Galaxy with that kind of power.  Even Master Yoda, the most experienced living Jedi, only ever moves something as big as a tub full of water during the his rare demonstrations.  The fire thing sounds like something someone made up for a comic book or a novel.  I haven't seen any master so much as light a candle with The Force.

"And surrendering to the temptations of the Darkside is most certainly inherently immoral to the core from every historical record on the topic.  Not once have I read of a moral Darksider.  Your own experience is consistent with this, Mittens.  So I'm beginning to see that what is being labeled 'Bogan' isn't Darkside at all, but rather some misunderstanding resulting from an absence of traditional Jedi training.

"'Why bother' is because to not bother is to surrender to death.  Like the reason a mother bothers breathing.  For herself and for her child.

"To your specific question, Mittens, yes.  You, me, and the other Force Sensitives present can all choke a person with The Force just as easily as Blake could shoot them.  But we choose not to do such terrible things."

Mits looks skeptical.  "Um...  I'm guessing Master Yoda must be acting modest.  'cause even Mittens can handle flinging around a tub of water with her mind.  And deny it if you like, but I know I saw Evil Dad light people on fire a number of times.  Just 'cause you've never read of something, doesn't mean it's impossible."
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:01, Mon 01 June 2020.