Visiting the five brothers…

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus laughed. "I am more than happy to accept your challenge and see if I can have some fun, but a decision to join the Order is not to be taken lightly or be the outcome of a wager. Let's do whatever you'd like to do and the moment I'm not having fun, we can stop."

"Fun or no fun, then you can decide if the Order is for you. Agreed?"

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

"Deal... also, so you don't know how to actually play Pazaak right?" He smiled, he made sure to use the word actually because on this planet the chances of finding an honest pazaak player was like trying to survive a super nova that then turned into a black hole. "Well, first, hide your saber and try to look less... jedi like. Smugg- i mean... specialty traders tend to not appreciate the presence of a Jedi... oh and don't worry, i do this for good reasons, your moral code won't be in danger."

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus stood and held her hands wide before doing a 360-degree turn. She was dressed in standard Jedi robes. Even without the sabers, there would be no mistaking she was a Jedi. "And before you ask, I own no other clothes." She smiled, this might prove a little harder than her escort had intended.

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

"You Jedi, really need to learn to look less obvious when in public...." He sighed and looked her over for a moment before rubbing his chin. "Any chance of acting like a Sith for an hour or two, don't worry i wont have you go and kill some random innocent to prove it... you just have to look a bit more menacing." He rubbed his chin, knowing it was almost assured that the jedi would not be able to pull it off, but it was worth a try.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus chuckled. "You're missing the point. We're supposed to look obvious. And when I put my hood up," she raises her hood as she speaks, "This means Jedi on business."

"You'd be amazed how crime goes down when we simply walk around. And," she chuckled again, "A true Sith doesn't kill random innocents. They kill the weak and they kill for purpose. Most of the One Sith are not true Sith in my opinion. Not that it really matters."

"So what do you suggest?"

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

He laughed and shook his head. "My oh my you sure do love correcting me... well lets see if you can pretend to be a Sith for a hour. Smugglers tend to not clear out as quickly when its a sith, thinking they can bribe the person with their cargo... of course, that doesn't really work as well as they think but its still a possibility." He rubbed his chin and looked at the place he was refering too. "Well, some will probably clear out before we get there, but a decent amount of 'respectable' players should remain." He started up and towards the building smiling as he pulled out the deck he had on himself.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus nodded. She wasn't purposefully being awkward - it just seemed to happen that way.

"Sorry," she offered and followed Alexander. "I'll do my best to me more accommodating from now on." And she smiled at him as he took the deck of cards from his pocket.

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

"First you don't have to say sorry, and loosen up. What lets you relax, and no i don't mean centering yourself with the meditation thing. I mean what allows you to simply relax and enjoy what happens around you?" He smiled at her and spoke again. "Most people find that thing that allows them to relax, for me its music which ive had playing in my ear this whole time..." He reached up and pushed the hair out of the way of his right ear, taking out a earpiece quick to show her before putting it back on. "For other's its a book, a drink, a game, or whatever it is that one finds. Ever felt that way about something where you can just sit there and enjoy it without needing any effort." He thought for a moment before opening the door. "Oh, and trust me, the men in here won't understand you if you use large words." He was joking, mostly, its probable a few will be drunk enough... or stupid enough, to think she was insulting them by stating something they did not understand.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus glanced at Alexander. He was talking a foreign language now – but she’d been around enough diplomats and dignitaries to know when to smile and nod as if you did understand them.

He was asking her what she did to relax. Well she meditated. But she wasn’t allowed to say that. So he’d asked it a different way. What did she enjoy? She enjoyed being a Jedi and meditating and training and teaching.

“Um…” She felt the need to respond. “I like Corellian Whiskey.” Like many Jedi, she could metabolise the alcohol so it had limited effect on her – but she enjoyed the taste. And she enjoyed drinking it. Especially when she was talking about Jedi Lore. Thinking about it, that probably didn’t count.

She smiled and stepped through the door first – trying to look a little less Jedi-like.

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

"Hmm..." He could tell in an instant he was confusing her so he dropped trying to explain it and would show her, the bar owner of the cantina they entered looking at her while several others did too. Alexander reacted almost instantly. "Who's up for a game of Pazaak, and ignore my friend, showing her what its like to be a normal person instead of what she normally does." He looked at her and a apology crossed his face just long enough for her to see while he went to go sit down, someone coming over and talking to him softly. "Now now, shes not going to cause trouble, don't worry. So who's first." Alexander waited for someone to take up his offer, and when they didn't he pulled out his credit pouch to tempt them, one of the men getting up and coming over.

Alexander would slide into a booth and motioned for Corvus to sit to the side of the table and watch, Meanwhile sliding his fingers in his off hand up his sleeve and touching the cards he had put in his sleeve. If there's one thing about Pazaak, it was who could cheat more effectively, at least among smugglers that's what the rules were. You just had to make sure you weren't caught. "Now, Corvus, what you do here is there is the main deck and a side deck, the side deck having ten cards you have chosen." He waved to the deck he laid out in the open. "You take up 4 cards you can use to achieve this while the main deck acts to give you the first card..." He motioned to the much larger deck that lay infront of her. "If you don't mind, could you act as the dealer for this round, im sure my friend here knows that you will be fair considering things." He turned his head back to her. "First, you place one card on both sides, so that we have a starting card, when someone says to hit you add another card there, when they say stand that is the last thing they can do for the round... now." He looked at the smuggler. "Buy in at a three hundred?" He smiled at him, waiting for the drunken idiot to say yes while he drew up four cards. The round would start and he smiled as he looked at his cards in his hand and shuffled the ones in his off hand sleeve.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus hung back initially but finally joined Alexander as he slid into a booth. She pulled up a chair at the side of the table and watched.

She listened to the rules – they seemed a simple game of chance but with an advantage to those who understood statistical probability. The gentleman that reeked of cheap gin did not appear to fall into the latter category.

She was tempted to point out the unfairness of challenging a drunk man whilst sober to Alexander but decided to see what would happen first. She had promised to at least make an effort to have fun. Perhaps something else was going to happen that would allow her to do so.

So she dealt the cards and awaited further instruction.

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

"Now we play." He waved, looking down and seeing the drunkard had gotten a five and Alexander a two. "Hit." Each would say, Alexander looking at his cards and watching for the moment when the guy turned to look at the bartender, and even then the motion was barely noticeable as he switched cards from his sleeve and one in his hand, the card he switched with coming down to equal a perfect 20. "Oh, shame, first round to me, no?" He waited to make sure, the guy had 18 as a final and seemed to frown but they still had two more rounds. Sure, Corvus would probably find the cheating immoral, but what he did with the credits and more so these being smugglers in the first place, certainly made up for that fact. "Its a rather simple and fast game, all it normally takes being three to four draws and a set of three rounds, the winner of two rounds being the victor. Unless there is a tie through draws."

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus was now feeling very uncomfortable. Alexander was clearly cheating and being a Jedi she didn't have enough credits to cover the man's losses - or she would have done.

So she shot Alexander a look of indignation and waited for him to explain himself - quickly.

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

HE saw the stare and just smiled at her as if there was nothing wrong. He would continue that smile until he won a second round in which the man grumbled and Alexander looked at her for a few moments. "Follow me..." He said nothing more, not explaining his cheating and taking the credits he had won where he then headed out still wordless and down the street. If Corvus looked at his hands he would be splitting and putting all of the winnings as well as some of his own credits in a pouch before turning down a street towards a building that seemed a bit run down. The place had been an orphanage as he came up the steps his hand came across the door, smiling as the woman opened the door and he handed her the pouch. Without any words he turned and left again, letting her surprise flood her when she opened the bag, though by the time she would say thank you he had turned the corner and only now spoke. "Drunkards don't deserve that money."

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus shook her head but followed Alexander. A promise is a promise, after all. And so she saw him hand over the gambler's money to the orphanage and was genuinely shocked - but not in the way that she suspected Alexander thought she would be.

When it was clear the 'fun' was over, Corvus looked at Alexander. "To gift your own money to that orphanage would have been something I would have been glad to witness. I cannot donate as I have no money. No worldly goods. I own...precisely nothing. I am a Jedi."

"Jedi protect. We respect all life forms. A Jedi that thinks he is more important than others only demonstrates his opinion is to be ignored. It is not our role to reposition wealth or decide who deserves help the most. What if that drunkard had that money to pay for a life-saving operation of a loved one? What if he was drinking to numb the pain of the situation?"

"We do not judge. If he was a criminal, we arrest him. We allow the courts to decide his fate. We do not. And a Jedi found cheating like you did would be arrested the same as any common criminal. We are not and never will be above the law."

She was aware she was preaching now. "I am sorry if I have come across as uncaring of your desire to do good. That is an honourable aspect of your personality. But a Jedi would find a different way to accomplish it. That is all."

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

He smiled at her the entire time she had been 'preaching'. This jedi sure was a curious one, most of the 'jedi' he had met were very different in their thought process then her and it interested him as that was. "You know, you are very curious, most Jedi ive met do not actually follow the words that you have spoken, which does make me wonder if the Jedi are as split as you make it to seem... Tell me Corvus, how come you cut yourself off, and i know about your empathy being a reason but is there more reason or just that." He looked at her, walking through the street and looking around as he decided what it could be next he should attempt to show the woman. "Hmm... perhaps im just ovr thinking it, how about you decide the next thing, ever think about wanting to do something but never getting to when you were with the jedi?"

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus shrugged. “A lot of people call themselves Jedi even though they’re not. It matters little to me. If they are from our Order, then it tends to become of interest however.”

“And as to your next question, it’s simple really. I’m a Jedi. That’s what we do. We do…Jedi stuff and act in a Jedi way.”

His next question stumped her though and she thought long and hard before responding. “You’re not going to like this, but no – there is nothing I want to do but can’t do because I’m a Jedi. And what I mean is that I love being a Jedi as well as taking it as a responsibility. If I wasn’t a Jedi, I have absolutely no ideas what I’d do. Read books on ancient history I guess?” She pulled a face. “Go running and keep fit? Um…no I can’t think of anything. Sorry!”

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

"Then how about this, you show me what you find fun and i will see if i can compare it to something, maybe i can't or i can but atleast you get to teach me something while were at it?" He smiled and decided forcing her to do things was not going to get them anywhere at all, so it would be better just for her to show him what she enjoyed.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus took them back to the open grassy area they'd sat at before. "OK, this is something I enjoy tremendously. It is a form of Moving Meditation."

Corvus removed her robe and folded it carefully before placing in the nearby bench. She then performed the Alchaka meditations. They were a rigorous series of highly personal, highly repetitive exercises using both physical and Force skills.

As Alexander watched he would have seen her, eyes closed, perform a high number of repetitions performed in complex positions and dizzying movements spaced between the positions. By the end of it, it was clear Corvus was on the brink of exhaustion.

Breathing hard she explained, "The purpose of the...technique is to...clear the mind and...attune the body to...the strength of the Force. I...now feel....closer to the...Force." Despite her exhaustion, her smile was as wide as he'd seen it in the time they'd been together and it was clear she had really enjoyed the meditation. And she looked at him, expectantly.

[member="Alexander Sannes"]

 

[Alexander Sannes]

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

Alexander kinda just stood there, half paying attention half not knowing what in the world was going off. And then she was done like that and seemed to be trying to catch her breath as he blinked again and looked around at the area around him to make sure he wasnt being watched like the two of them were crazy. "Uh... do you need to sit down or something... and im sorry but i don't really see how that works to allow for meditation. But i did say i would partake so uh, can you run me through it again." He would wait, focused this time on what she showed him and trying to do it at the same pace she had, but failed several times over.