ForceCon 850, Cosplay Encouraged (Outer Rim Coalition, especially Forcers)

[Janick Beauchamp]

"As Mira and Sanya both said, the dark side is not inherently evil, no more than the light side is inherently good; many of the dark-siders in that room do not perceive themselves as evil, no more than I would. However, not only it is situational, it is also subjective as to exactly what kind of person would be beyond redemption or not, or where one would place the proverbial line. We might not agree on where the line is, but there are times where collateral damage will be inevitable, and yet intentionally harming innocents is a point on where I could potentially place the line - any psychometric test that meet reliability standards for determining whether someone is lost or not might prove cumbersome to use out on the field, so there might be mistakes we could make"

Yes, she knew about how people used the light side for evil, for committing the irreparable, and yes, she heard about how [member="Sanya Val Swift"] saw firsthand one Darth Praelior (also known as Balaya) do alchemy on a grand scale on Demonsgate and Sekalus, alongside one Darth Venefica, rendering the two of them criminals wanted galaxy-wide. Like that one Sith responsible for Directive 12, too. [member="Mira Rekali"] also raised an issue as to what to do to the truly out of redemption. [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"], [member="Jorus Merrill"], [member="Dax Fyre"] and even [member="Bryce Bantam"] brought up valid points, but [member="Garith Darkhold"] might have missed the lead-up to these points being put forward, being among the last to arrive. As for [member="Leo Vandermolen"], [member="Davin Skirata"] and [member="Kira Vaal"], they didn't say anything since Janick last took the floor, and [member="B'kik"] remained silent as well, even after [member="Joza Perl"] disclosed the reasons as to why she wouldn't attend.

 

[Kira Vaal]

Kira listened to those intently as they each spoke.Points were put forward with validity, and they all seemed to agree on a level of what is unspoken is unseen. However the openness of the subject matter was far beyond Kira’s comfortability on the topic. She had seen what the Dark Side was capable of through the acts of war by the One Sith, the First Order and other darker plottings within the galaxy and what worried her is that to them, those factions that allowed such hate to control them and pollute their actions they were in the right. They were the ones making the correct decisions. How much would be accepted with the Coalition before it too became another pawn to the dark side and all that they had hoped and dreamed was no more then a twisted shadow of its former identity.

She remained quiet however, for in her mind an opinion on the Force was no hers to give. She had only really started delving into the powers that she had discovered. While talented and strong within it’s embrace her understanding was lacking. Yet some things had to be said and it was in the matters of galactic stability that she would lend her voice.

“…And what of our alliances.” She knew her first words would be over spoken by someone, for she was rarely taken as a figure of authority within the Coalition, her days as a General within the Underground and Rebellion behind her as both faded into the annuals of history. “What if the Galactic Alliance garners intelligence that judges within the Coalition are open practitioners of the Dark Side. We are close partners with Sullust are we not? Surely some form of understanding needs to be implemented within our own ranks to not hinder our relationship with a faction that openly and very effectively hunts down traces of Dark Side users.” She rubbed her arm, she held close ties with the Alliance and was, despite not checking in for many months probably still registered within the SIS.

“I agree with Mira. We cannot turn a blind eye to its practice, for it is a shadow we should always be cautious of lest it consumes us all.” Kira gave the girl with the crimson eyes a small nod. “We should be prepared that the darkness we allow into our lives may need to be removed…with extreme method.”

[member="Mira Rekali"] | [member="Garith Darkhold"] |[member="Sanya Val Swift"] | [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] | [member="Bryce Bantam"] | [member="Joza Perl"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"] | [member="Dax Fyre"] | @B'kik | [member="Leo Vandermolen"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Andorreth Vikar]

I'd been pulling odd jobs out around the mid rim recently and now I was heading into a forum to discuss matters of the Dark Side. Dressed in my combat armor that doubled as an EVA suit with my duster on I made my way towards the conference room. My sword Serenity sat tied to my left hip sheathed. Twin DC-15s blasters in holsters on either thigh, making my way inside I was slightly surprised to see someone Bryce had mentioned I get in touch with. Mira Rekali, the description of her I'd been given matched up perfectly and rather than immediately comment on anything I instead leaned against the back wall and tried to gauge the mood of everyone....

Hearing them all speak of limiting people's use of power I couldn't help but smile. Limiting people's use of power wasn't the problem. Not teaching them to wield their power correctly was. "Folly to limit people's use of power I say. Better to teach them how to use their power responsibly I mean let's all be real here out this far into the black we're all rebels and constricting our use of things only makes us more inventive. I mean I've got enough use of the Force to win with chance cubes but if someone takes my gun then I just get creative for weaponry."


[member="Jorus Merrill"] - [member="Mira Rekali"] -[member="Garith Darkhold"] - [member="Sanya Val Swift"] - [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] -[member="Bryce Bantam"] - [member="Dax Fyre"] - [member="Kira Vaal"] @Everyone Else

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Mira Rekali"] [member="Kira Vaal"] [member="Andorreth Vikar"] [member="Garith Darkhold"] [member="Sanya Val Swift"] @B'kik [member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Dax Fyre"] [member="Joza Perl"]

"Not gonna lie, I'm kind of siding with the Darksiders on this one. Live and let live. I'm not really comfortable setting out to kill Darksiders that go off the rails, not unless there's no other choice. Heck, I've seen folks that call themselves Lightsiders do worse.

"Here's where I stand. If I'm sent after someone as a Judge or if someone needs protecting, yeah, anything's on the table. Laws can get loose around these parts, but I think we've all got that standard in common. I hear of any of you trying to hunt each other down over differences of opinion, we will most definitely have some words.

"The only limits your rights have is where they bump up against other folks' rights. Not getting injured, not having their property taken or their minds messed with. That's the line, far as I'm concerned. Keep yourself to yourself and neither I nor the Coalition have any say what you believe. Mess with others and your Force philosophy doesn't make a bit of difference to the Judge sent to bring you in.

"Next question. What resources do you need to grow? Collaboration? Holocrons? Training space? Mentors? What works best for all of you, and how can we make that happen?"

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Collaboration is an important ingredient to make the mentor part of it work, and, although opinions differ as to whether holocrons are safer when scattered in different locations or in one place with a secure vault, I'm probably going with the decentralized option, since, even though today's FUs in ORC service come in many different shapes and specialties, the ORC may not have the pool of Force-users among its population to justify a network of temples" she spoke, while answering [member="Jorus Merrill"]'s question.

Even though today's Mandalorian dark-siders are mostly training on Dxun, light-siders used to be scattered all over the place, with Hapes and Onderon being apparent centers of light-sided activity in Mando-land. There was one place that is off-limits for Mandalorian Force-users in training: Myrkr, due to the ubiquitous ysalamiri. But she realized that the economics of centralized temples was highly dependent on how many Force-users there were to service: [member="Andorreth Vikar"], [member="Kira Vaal"], [member="Dax Fyre"], [member="Mira Rekali"], [member="Bryce Bantam"] or even [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] may not necessarily be familiar with economies of scale, or diseconomies of scale, much less in the context of Force-user training. The First Order operates several facilities, the main ones being on Virgillia 7 and on Mustafar, while the Alliance has several of them: Sullust, Seltos, Dulvoyinn, Coruscant being the best-known ones. But the difference here is that they have a much larger base of FUs to draw from. And of course, who could forget about the Ascendancy's temple on Bastion, or the Silver Jedi temples on Ossus and Voss?

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax listened to carefully to the arguments given, each with its own merits. Obviously, genocide was off the table. When the use of Force Drain was mentioned by Bryce however, Dax tossed a glance at both [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] and [member="Joza Perl"]. They both knew of his...extensive...use of the ability. He'd have to be careful n the future, or find a way to suppress his ever present hunger.

"Mentors, and the space." Dax said, finally speaking up. "Experience can trump just about everything out there. Practice and people to lend the experience are both very valuable assets. But now that yuo mentioned it Jorus...holocrons. Extremely useful, but extremely dangerous. I don't need to explain what could happen if someone came across one of the stronger darkside holocrons." The dark haired Master leaned back against the wall and dusted off his hands from some left over pastry crumbs. "Now I usually dont agree with the regulation of artifacts, but holocrons carry a piece of its creator's spirit. I don't want anyone accidently unleashing old Sheev again."

 

[Ja'Rod]

Staying away from the table, and main group, Kaguya leaned against the wall and just listened. The gathered bunch were definitely getting down to some business with a very interesting topic. But, as she were still relatively new, the girl kept her distance. Her gaze darted from one speaker to the next, taking in all the information they would divulge.

Kaguya's eyes, and senses, inspected each character in the best detail she could. This could most likely be the oddest assortment one had ever seen. It especially amused her that one [member="Bryce Bantam"] had decided to play dress-up as Revan himself.

A soft chuckle.

Continuing her surveillance from the shadows as the conversation pressed on...waiting to see if she could garner anything useful from being here.

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

Sanya leaned back slightly listening to the others as Sue thought. There was things she needed that was slightly irrelevant, but she could offer back to everyone in return. "I still need resorces to help in the construction efforts. However I don't want to seem like I'm mooching. I do have building plans for a force user academy on Ancora. I'd be happy to open it up to not just the coalition members but the civilians inside it's influence too. I'd gladly teach classes between my schedule."

The woman spoke clearly and at a volume the rest could hear her. "From what I know already is the world has a nexus there so it's a good environment for people like is to nurture our abilities." As she kept speaking she came to realise it sounded like she was trying to do a sales pitch. The thought made her giggle in her head. Like anything anyone does in this universe you have to sell it to make it believable. A smugglers charm is their pitch, a criminals record or even a soldiers skill in combat.

 

[The Great Narrator]

A man under a wide brimmed hat walked into the room and began to look around. Upon his chest he openly wore an obsidian badge with a silver scale carved into it lined in Aurodium. Five stars floated above the scale, showing this was no ordinary judge, but one that carried the rank of Marshall. With purpose he walked over to one in the room, [member="Dax Fyre"] .

"Funny, never figured the council of marshals would select the The Reaper of Won Shasot to lead us. Still it has been decided, with the disappearance of Grand Marshal Sedaire a new leader must take up the mantel."

Reaching into a bag at his side this unnamed judge pulled out a Phink bound tomb and placed it in front of the young dax. It was the book of the law, the most treasured relic of the Judges, and the mark of the Grand Marshal.

"Dax Fyre, the marshals have spoken and the burned of Grand Marshal is your's to bare. Will you accept it, will you become the law and care for its' teaching. Will you embody the law and do its' will. Will you serve the people of the coalition, and ensure their freedom. What say you?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Dax Fyre"] [member="Sanya Val Swift"] @Kaguya [member="Dax Fyre"] [member="Janick Beauchamp"] [member="Andorreth Vikar"] [member="Kira Vaal"] [member="Leo Vandermolen"] [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] [member="Mira Rekali"] [member="Garith Darkhold"] [member="The Great Narrator"]

"Putting all your eggs in one basket's a good way to get'em broken, but you're right, Beauchamp: we don't really have the numbers for a whole bunch of temples. Sanya's building one on Ancora, and that'll be a good resource. There's also the semi-hidden one on Binaros - pretty straightforward to get there if you know the area, and a good spot to train. If some of you don't know about it, haven't been there, I'll make the coordinates available. It's got about five Jedi at any one time, maybe twenty or thirty good Undergrounders, a handful of Antarian Rangers. Great resource, at least if you swing the Jedi way or not too far off. Wouldn't recommend going there if you're a Darksider, though-"

Jorus cut off as the Judge in the wide-brimmed hat entered the room. He'd heard murmurs of this - as a senior Judge, he'd been asked to weigh in - but he hadn't realized this would be happening so soon. "Good on ya, Dax. Well deserved." He half-mumbled that, not wanting to break the solemnity of the moment.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Is the temple under construction on Ancora a light-sided temple or a dark-sided one? We need mentors on both sides of the Force for the whole scheme to work. If the Ancora temple is light-sided, perhaps a more dark-sided one on Won Shasot would be in order: at least one from each side of the Force might be in play"

With the possible candidacy of [member="Dax Fyre"] as Chief Judge, not going unnoticed by [member="The Great Narrator"], Janick believed that [member="Sanya Val Swift"] had too many crimes to atone for to even be eligible for that position. Meanwhile, [member="Kaguya"]'s arrival didn't go unnoticed, although her silence is not much to look at.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

"Ssh," said Jorus quietly, watching Dax and the Judge. "Alignment-agnostic is the best we can do for ya. Build an actual academy of the Dark Side and we'll basically be breeding our own Sith - plus the Galactic Alliance will have words. Probably words like 'hypervelocity gun' and 'magma cell.' No Dark Side academies on our turf."

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] Ξ [member="Janick Beauchamp"]

Sanya kept looking between jorus and the other woman in the room. "Well the academy won't be focused on the dark and light as it's all a load of poodoo. Students will learn about the force as a whole and not some narrow minded conception of it. It also means that those who learn there will be able to control their abilities in a safe environment. That's what the new generation needs and I want to try make this the stand point for change." She spoke quietly in a soft voice. Sanya would admit it was rude to speak when others were but hopefully it would put a hold on a hypothetical conversation.

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax had zoned out while the other mumbled on about the Force. The young man simply stared at the weathered tome that had been placed before him. The Rogue reached out and lifted the book. It was heavier than he'd expected. He brushed his hand across the cover, dust coming away from the countless Rim worlds the Judges watched over. The metal had tarnished in time.

Looking up the man took a deep breath. He tossed a glance at [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"]. Despite Dax's relationship to the older man, their bond of brotherhood, they both knew of his volatility...something that couldn't be risked here. "Jorus. Leo. If I do this, I need people I know will watch my back. What say you?"

The irony of it all hadn't failed to dawn on the Rogue Master. He had been to prison on multiple occasions...and he had made other kinds of mistakes as well. Not the pillar of society he'd expected to see in the highest seat of the Judges. Yet there he was being asked to lead, once again. The Force had a sense of humor didn't it?

[member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Leo Vandermolen"] | [member="Bryce Bantam"] | @everyone cause I'm too lazy to type stuff...

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Dax Fyre"]

Jorus glanced at [member="Leo Vandermolen"], then back at Dax. "No problem," he said. "Needs to be done, so I'll make it work. Once I check with my wife, anyway."

Wasn't much else he could say. He wasn't about to lay out his long history related to this responsibility, positively and negatively - not in front of this crowd. Some of it had to do with his wife, and like feth was he dragging Alna into this. She'd been fine with him taking on the role of a Judge in addition to their work on the Wretched Hive. After going on fifteen years of marriage, she knew he could let himself get split all kinds of ways, and liked getting involved in divergent directions. He could make this happen without compromising too much. Heck, it might even give him some more tools to rein in Mara and set a better example for her.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"That answers my question to my satisfaction" she told [member="Sanya Val Swift"], glancing at her after the Croa responded.

By now she realizes that a government-sanctioned dark-sided temple in ORC-land can cause diplomatic indicents, and perhaps even invite attacks, and yet she knew there was not enough manpower to justify more than two temples, and that she realized that Sanya was more of an Unifying Force believer. [member="Jorus Merrill"] insinuated that they could not afford to antagonize the Galactic Alliance, but perhaps they already were at war against the First Order. And yet [member="Dax Fyre"] realizes that there are limitations to his own ability to assume the position of Grand Marshal, but the alternatives were Sanya, [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] or [member="Kira Vaal"], about whom she did not possess sufficient information to support any of them without remorse. Among the world of the ORC judiciary or FU worlds, she was but a newcomer and she was in no position to alter policy.

 

[Leo Vandermolen]

Leo had been quiet for most of the proceedings, a silent observer as to the goings on in the meeting. But now his name had been pulled up, and feth did it pique his interest. He snapped out of his trance and focused on Dax, his good friend. "I'm in..." He pondered about in his head about his sudden decision, "I know that it seems like I've jumped the gun a bit here, accepting without further information, but I trust Dax with my life." He addressed the convention. "I'm ready for whatever you've got to throw at me." His hands fidgeted with each other through his finger-less gloves, tapping against each other in a rhythmic beat as he eyed the others in the room. "And feth to the dark and light sides, I agree with Sanya that we should all be free to learn the skills we wish to develop, as long as it's monitored within a safe environment."

| [member="Sanya Val Swift"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Dax Fyre"] | @Anybody else

 

[Dax Perl]

"But how do we decide when montioring becomes an invasion of privacy. Or just outright suppression. That's a mighty thin line we're walking. I agree, once something becomes an obvious threat, we'll need to stop it, but steps can be taken to prevent getting to that point." the Rogue said. He'd seen plenty of instances where someone had read one ancient text too many and completely lost it. These kinds of things were difficult to observe and regulate simply because they were so vastly different from each other.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Leo Vandermolen"] [member="Dax Fyre"]

"You've both got solid points. It's a tricky reality we need to work with, no question. There's a couple of measures come to mind, though. Number one, operate in pairs or teams when we can. Having someone to watch your back is a pretty great way to keep on the straight and narrow. Other thing is... more meetings like this. We gather, we talk, we learn things together, we check in. None of us want monitoring, but collective accountability? That, we can do."

 

[Garith Darkhold]

Garith was still quietly sitting there. Sure he may have had some opinions about how to train Force Users. If he had them he did not share his opinions.


As for the entrance of the man with the hat? Garith watched the exchange between Dax and the hat man.

Garith did not know much about the subject so it was defiantly a good reason not to say anything.