Tempting fate [Tirdarius]

[NightSister]

Interesting as it was to note the reactions to her words, Aria's focus was further from the reception to her arguments than on finding any to counter the Sith Lord. It hardly came as a surprise that he argued so well the superiority of the Sith - after all, even by apparent rank she was far outweighed in experience - but that didn't mean she wouldn't try to defend the Jedi way until she was all out of words. Of course, his utterly reasonable manner still seemed a little strange, but not in the way that he was hiding something - just in that it was greatly unfamiliar to her. Not in a bad way, obviously.

But it was getting tricky. Truly, the things that might make a person Jedi or Sith relied far less on logic and reason than on person and circumstance - in fact, had Aria been raised into a Sith family the way she had been with a Jedi family, the possibility that she would be on the other side of the opposites was far greater, though she liked to think she was strong-minded enough a person that she'd have eventually become a Jedi regardless. If she'd been abducted into the Sith, then her desire to join or not join would probably have made little difference, too. But that wasn't the premise being debated over, and seemed a weak way to counter such well-posed arguments.

"There's a difference between no adversity and adversity where there need be none," Aria said after a notably long pause. "There's some competition among Padawans and Knights, but it's never hostile because hostility, even with the purpose of improvement, doesn't improve one as a Jedi. We're peacekeepers, after all; we aim for peace." And Sith aimed for...well, on that matter she was ever unclear, but it revolved around a slightly more ruthless improvement of the galaxy, at least as far as she was aware.

"It's truly not one or the other. A world without risk is bland, and a world without calm is uninhabitable. Yes, Jedi lean towards the former, but the wars and acts of terrorism that we try to prevent are not, I don't think, the type of danger that makes one feel alive. There's danger in everything; chaos is in no short supply. We're not trying to stamp out everything that makes life exciting, only that which actually worsens the galaxy."

Though none of her words were untrue, finding them was getting to be a challenge. Aria herself had become a Jedi partly through upbringing, but what part was her actual personality had simply wanted to make the galaxy a better place and improve individual lives. It hadn't been a case of weighing comparative pros and cons: that had been what she wanted and she had always believed that it would be best achieved through being a Jedi. Was it possible that the opposite was true? Maybe, but Aria liked being a Jedi. So long as their aims weren't malevolent, what cause was there to leave?

"We don't encourage chaos, no. Perhaps that makes our lifestyle less purposeful, but it's not as if chaos isn't present all the same. That we don't incite it doesn't mean we can prevent it, and sometimes it makes one a stronger person, sometimes not. Conflict is inevitable - we simply don't make the effort to create it."

[member="Tirdarius"]

 

[Teynara Jeralyr]

| [member="Aria Vale"] |​

She was good, very good, but very evidently steeped too deeply in the Jedi way for his words to be convincing. The girl recognised the chaos inherent in the Galaxy, but seemed to be labouring under the delusion that the role of the Jedi Order was to stop the Chaos. Do you not see that the fool that stands in the way of the storm dies in futility, their own arrogance killing them as easily as the storm did? Doubtful that she could: the Jedi endeavoured to create a galaxy where the chaos was pushed to one side, where peace and prosperity might reign in ignorance of the darkness in the shadows, eternally naive.

The Sith had long recognised the chaos, but they had not sought to stem the tide - such would be impossible, in any case. Sentience created the darkness: our thoughts, emotions, desires, ambitions, all these feed it, make it grow. The Jedi believed selfless action would push aside the darkness, take the ego out of the equation and thus lead them to starve the dark of what it craved. But we are all sentient, in any case. What we repress simply lurks, waiting to stab at us at an inconvenient moment. The Jedi knew that, surely? How could they not? To be a Jedi was to constantly be at war with the self: to assert that absurd asceticism upon a mind that wanted so very much to be free of it.

"The things which worsen the galaxy strengthen it, too," he informed her, knowing she would probably disagree, but that was only natural in an adversarial but civilised conversation. "A disease that wipes out millions leaves a handful immune to it, and they can thus withstand it in the future. A war that may kill many will also strengthen them, push them out of their ennui and teach them what they might be capable of when faced with true adversity." He shrugged slightly: his was a cold analysis, one that ignored the pain and suffering of such circumstances, but pain and death were inevitable, unavoidable. Death will find you no matter where you try to hide.

"Perhaps you've heard of the term 'resistance' in medicine?", Tirdarius asked, still observing the books that lined the shelves rather than turning to face the young Jedi. "Certain medications are used to wipe out bacteria and viruses, but as they were used more and more, those pathogens started to become resistant, neutralising the effectiveness of the disease." Of course, there was Bacta and other more effective medicines available in the modern era, but it hadn't always been so. "Faced with conflict, they became stronger, and eventually, utterly immune to the danger those medicines posed. The chaos this caused encouraged scientists to find stronger medicines, more effective ways to fight the diseases."

That was the way of the galaxy: chaos and conflict were the prompts used to provoke change, shove a species out of apathy, to push them towards becoming stronger, smarter, more resourceful. Resilience does not develop from a lack of adversity. The Jedi sought to stem the tide: they wanted people to live peacefully, able to exist without conflict or harm. The Jedi seek to make us all an evolutionary dead end. They never recognised that conflict was a natural means by which life grew.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion. For where conflict existed, the will to best it became dominant. And from such passion comes power: the ability to defeat our fears, to overcome the obstacles before us and emerge better than we were before. That was the Sith way, was it not?

"This is where our paths divurge, young Jedi," the Sith Lord remarked calmly, turning once more to face her. "My order believes in the inevitability and necessity of conflict as a means of seeing us rise above the chains that bind us. Yours ever believes that conflict is a cankor which must be removed, though they cannot escape it themselves." He sighed softly, knowing well enough that this was ever the source of the war between them: the two could not truly compromise on such a point. "And so we have war between us. Ironic, isn't it?"

 

[NightSister]

He had a point, Aria thought grudgingly. Still a Sith - still the bad guy - but he had a point. It was true; good could come out of conflict, she supposed, now and again. Not always, of course, that would be pushing it. Momentarily, reluctant agreement showed on her face, but cleared just as quickly as she focused on his next words.

Following his gaze as he scanned the bookshelves, she considered his analogy. Medicine was far from being her forte - she was barely competent in the art of Healing - but she understood the point being made well enough. When conflict arose, growth was required in order to overcome it. Like any system, it had its flaws and the potential not to work as intended, but it made sense. It was true that the Jedi did stay very much in the same place when they could afford to - arguably, one could call them traditionalists - it wasn't a bad thing. Well, not most of the time, anyways.

Anyone who understood people would be able to sense that an underlying distress was beginning to form in Aria's mind: she might as well be debating with a Sith holocron, for how well he knew his stuff. Aria did her research like any good Jedi, but like any who followed something that could be characterized as a religion, a great part of it was faith. She had faith in the Order's good intentions, and so didn't look into the means quite as much as she perhaps ought to. Wait, what was she saying? Oops.

Well, too late now to start disagreeing. Aria certainly wasn't a zealot, but she wasn't so utterly humble as to change her mind during a debate.

"I suppose, in a way," she conceded. "Though our solution is to try and evade conflict, rather than remove or escape it. We don't incite wars, but we don't run from those who challenge us, either." That Aria was aware of, anyway. Despite having been raised in what was more or less the Jedi fashion, she'd only been part of the Order for...coming up to five years, now. It wasn't unlikely that they'd made their mistakes, but this was easier when she cited their principles instead of appealing to how often they were actually accomplished.

"Anyway, I think much longer and people may start to worry." It wasn't an outright lie; much longer and there would be concern. A little longer, even as much as a number of hours, and she'd attract little worry, but these things were relative. If the Sith was capable of working out why she was suddenly in a hurry, he'd have guessed a while ago. If not, it was hardly an unreasonable lie. "This was...enlightening. Thanks for taking the time."

She rose hesitantly, starting towards the door with one last glance over the room - almost apprehensive, but mostly curious.

[member="Tirdarius"]