Private Light calls, Sand answers

[Romi Jade]

Jend-Ro Quill | Prior to GA/NJO/NIO Talks | Theme
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Leaning over the holo-projector -- her head was nearly tucked into her shoulders just as her arms were sprawled along the edge of the table device.

Sigh

She straightened the arch in her back as she stood upright. Now swaying a bit in her stance, she shifted her weight to one leg and leaned into folded arms. Just across from Quill at this point, the project he created ended and she was momentarily speechless.

"And your certain all of this took place?" Not that she doubted him, she'd been working closely with him thus far and she trusted his judgement. "I-I'm just a bit shocked? I wasn't aware these things were happening."

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"Certain as I can be. You know I'm very good with memory - I saw it all firsthand in the child's mind. A vision filled in peripheral details. I shared it all with Auteme and she knew the faces."

Quill shrugged.

"I can share it with you and you can judge for yourself. It's grim. Runs the gamut from hard choices to unconscionable ones. And none of it could happen without rottenness bottom to top. The alliance with the New Order is cancer. I'm going to blow the whistle on these talks, Romi. There's no other choice for me."

 

[Romi Jade]

Her face began to slowly screw up.

"And Auteme identified them huh?" she glanced off. Poking her lips and molding the bottom for the impending bite down. War is just..."I'd like to see it." She responded.

"I'm not the hugest fan of Imperials, I've seen this all before. I'd been feeling like something was stirring deep under the surface, and now... it's welling up. I just wouldn't have assumed it would be this."

A beat.

"War is--it can breed atrocities whether you want it to or not. It can be blinding. It's the price we pay."

This was drawing major parallels.

They'd worked hard to establish a system of accountability as of late. And whether is was a misguided decision or not, it was something that should be addressed. And in her roles, not something she'd be able to turn a blind eye to.

"You'll have my full support. What's next?"

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

" I sent the signal ten minutes ago to put things in motion. You had nothing to do with it - and you don't have to lie about that. Now I sit back and wait to see if they'll arrest me. If they do, you might be the best voice to make some kind of change happen. Auteme will need your help. Even if there's no arrest, of course, doing this discredits me to the hardliners, so my voice won't be worth as much that way either."

Quill sighed and slumped into his chair, deflated almost.

"I can see it now. It's going to accomplish next to nothing. Am I so far off the mark to believe that you should use, or at least bring, nonlethal options if your target is a high school?"

 

[Romi Jade]

“Quill...” she shot back, “They won’t arrest you, and if they did it’d only make them seem guilty.”

She turned and pressed her lower back into the edge of the holoproject — leaning.

Sigh

“This is drawing major parallels...to the previous Alliance and NJO. They may truly believe this path is new and unexplored.”

She whipped around.

“War is blinding...when you’re in it you don’t see much beyond what’s just a foot or so in front of you. I was young, reckless and quick to man the front lines myself...but I knew restraint. And when my orders were chit I made my own...”

She exhaled.

“So no...you’re not far off the mark. You’re right. It was poor decision making. I’m sure they’ll find a way to rationalize...but every decision has consequences that affect the person making the decision as well as others involved. The consequences of decisions can be positive, negative, or a combination of both. Look at what happen to the Alliance and the NJO before.”

A beat.

“I just...there has to be a way to address this...”

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"Only two ways to fix a lack of institutional will in your leaders, and that's being charitable. Best-case scenario." He looped the parenthetical back in with a wave of his hand. "Two ways. Get new leaders, which could easily get a lot of folks killed during this war - or create public awareness and let the people decide, let public pressure make change. I'm naive, Romi. I believe in democracy - not the hidebound institutions, but the people. Just because I can't be around them doesn't mean I don't love them."

 

[Romi Jade]

Her eyebrow rose -- charitable?

She swiveled her frame and he continued. Then he struck another chord -- public pressure?

She had ideas sprinting through her mind, the physical appearance of her being lost in thought riddled her face.

But she was present. "N-no no I hear you. I agree. It just seems they've lost sight of that. Did you say, public pressure?" She probed.

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"Sure. Only thing a democratic leader really truly fears is losing the next election. That means most of them live and die for polling data and campaign funding. Get enough people talking about a coverup this explosive, and it might just sway the folks who make the decisions."

Romi Jade

 

[Romi Jade]

Her lips started to curl, she inhaled.

"Heh." on the exhaled she bit down. "Interesting, and it gives me ideas..."

Hmmph

"It'll just be a matter of how we'd present this to people in order to convince them. Now all we have is the shared memory. And they'd need to see in its true form, words won't mean anything."

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"Heh. In better days, with institutions and leaders we could trust, with peace, we'd be talking about how to share memory with a whole population. Perspective stones writ large. We'd be talking about a radical foundation for mass empathy. We wouldn't need to fear how the Force would be abused."

A lopsided smile and a shrug.

"Someday."

 

[Romi Jade]

She smiled.

“I have an idea.” Her eyes worked through an upward arc.

“A big idea. Probably a long shot, and may even be borderline impossible...but that’s never stopped me from exploring anyway...”

She shot him a stray sly look...

“I’ll have to plot it out...and you’ll tell me if its possible or not like you usually do.”

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Quill's eyes lit up for the first time in a goodly while. He unslouched.

"Talk at me."

 

[Romi Jade]

"Theorize with me for a sec...say this was all possible right?"

She slinked her way to a seat, crossing her legs while hanging an arm over the backend, "What if we gifted them an arch? Or a monument of some kind...something that drew the public to it?" She kept on that trail.

"I feel like I recall hearing or reading about similar structures made of Kyber crystals before, to comemorate the fallen, kept within the Jedi Temples. Now--"

Her finger rose.

"--You crafted the perspective stones...out of what exactly? And what if said monument was made in similar fashion? Would I then be able to use the Crown of Verity to broadcast these memories with that as the conduit?"

She immediately followed, "This would be the last resort, and we'd have be very careful with psychic intrusion...but it'd be something to fall back on if talking goes south. If our hands we're forced."

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"Runs the risk of backfiring, looking like it's in bad faith...but..."

He slapped his knees and got up from the chair to pace around the table and back again. The room offered little room for agitation..

"Say we do exactly that - and it's extremely feasible. And say we tell the public that it's a place where they can experience Force visions of their own - and it could be. It's just slanted toward seeing things that we need them to see, the memories. Yes. It's doable."

 

[Romi Jade]

She nodded along, he was right it was riddled with personal gain..and the risk of using their powers on the public against their will even if for their own benefit was entirely the pit in her stomach.

"Plausible-esque. Slanted memories..."

She took a moment, tapping her fingers in a wave pattern along her knee.

"Indulge me further, what if we had them convinced that this was exactly the plan. That we were somehow plotting to share memories with the public via these monument stones..." She motioned with her hands, "Could we use the idea, the anxiety associated with it, to negotiate and pressure them into telling the truth themselves?"

Jend-Ro Quill