Bankor

It was a chaotic day, the advance into the new contested area had gone slowly, and word around the camp is that there were a lot of wounded, and a few dead as well. Garth made an effort to look in on one of the wounded that he'd had the opportunity to meet before.

He knocked lightly on the door to Tethys' room and announced himself to the occupants. " 'Ello the room, Garth Wayne lookin' for Jedi Carrack."

"Just a moment." There's some rustling behind the thin door, and then it slides open. Tethys stands barefoot in the doorway in her sleeveless tunic and loose pants. The cloudy-translucent surface of a large synthflesh dressing covers part of her left shoulder, extending under her clothing. A towel is draped over one of the pegs on the wall alongside her concealing outer robe, and her locs still look very slightly damp.

"Garth." Her lips quirk in a half-smile. "Good evening. Did you want to talk?"

Garth stood in the hall, still clad in his flight suit from earlier today, with all the wounded it had been a crazy day and he'd not even given a thought to his own personal appearance. Spotting the towel and the wet hair. he realized he probably needed a shower badly, but couldn't bring himself to spend the water. This was a desert engagement after all...

He points to Tethys' injured shoulder as he explains his presence. "Mos'ly, ah came t' check on ya. Heard y' were among the wounded t'day. Ah'm glad t' see ya up and around though."

"Up enough," she says. "Thank you for being concerned." The half-smile lingers, even though the inviting gesture she makes with her hand is accompanied by a slight wince. "Come inside for a moment? I am trying to run the climate control as little as possible. But since I had to wash anyway, I am hoarding whatever humidity that affords me." She flicks a fingertip at the wet towel and her own damp hair.

Garth steps inside at Tethys' welcoming gesture. "Ah'd offer t' help with yer recovery, but about all the medicine ah know falls into the equipment fetchin' category." He admits with a shrug of apology.

"But if'n ya need anythin fetched." He slides over a chip with his comm details. "Feel free t' gimme a holler."

Outside Garth noticed there was a single flower left by the door with a note that read:

Do take care, master Jedi.

- Draagh

Picking up the thoughtful gift on his way in, Garth passes it on to its intended recipient.

"Lookin' like ahm not alone in m' concern fer yer wellbeing." He states simply as he hands it over.

"Huh." Tethys takes the flower with her good hand, reading the note with a dubious expression. "How... thoughtful." Clearly nonplussed, she nevertheless goes about finding somewhere to put it--a half-empty water bottle, most of its contents hastily dumped into a mug, is the best she can do for a vase. "Where the devil did he find a flower in the middle of this desert?" she mutters, more to herself than to Garth.

She turns back from setting the flower on the small shelf next to her cot. "Well, never mind that. It's good to see another friendly face after today. Kryze and Varad are... uglier fighters than I expected." One corner of her lips quirks up again. "According to Captain Ormont, I am cleared to do my own fetching, but I truly do appreciate the sentiment."

She considers the only two seating options in the small military cubicle--the bed and a folding stool. After thinking about it for a beat, she opts to perch on a corner of the bed nearest a wall so she has something to lean against, opening her hand to indicate Garth should feel free to pick his own spot.

"Glad t' hear it." He responds genuinely as he settles for just leaning against the opposite wall as a position. Having similarly cramped quarters, he knows the pain of lack of comfy spots quite well.

He pays little attention to the flower once it's placed beside her cot, smoothing out his uniform, as his eyes focus on the floor.

"Ah must confess, ah got a question y might be able t' help with. If yer feelin' well, it's about a dream ah had."

"A dream?" She favors him with a searching look. "I am guessing it's significant to you." Which seems like a tacit admission that she's feeling well enough for whatever this is.

Garth nods, confirming Tethys' assumption.

"Significant enough to be concerned 'bout, and from one orphan t' another ahm hoping you'll understand."

His fingers start subconsciously tapping against the wall as he speaks.

"Like you, ah don' remember mah mother. But ah had a dream the other night and somehow...I know it was her. She was blaming me fer her death."

"Blaming you? Why?" Two vertical lines appear between her brows as she considers this. "Perhaps you'd better start from the beginning. Do you often have dreams that seem... significant? Or is this the only one?"

Garth blushes slightly. "Let's jus' say this ain't my...normal sort of dream. Lunda reckoned it's cause ah tapped into some dark source or somethin that day."

He shivers slightly as he recslls the details of the vision or dream or hallucination. Whatever it was.

"Well she had no eyes, and she pointed at me. Shrieking 'You did this to me'. An ah have no idea wut she were on about."

"Hum." Tethys continues to look intently thoughtful. "That sounds..." she trails off and shakes her head. I had rather not remember my mother than dream about her like that.

"The Dark Side can bring dreams and visions, sometimes. It is more usual near places that are strong in the Dark, and I haven't sensed any near here, but..." She taps her long fingers on her knee. "Those visions often come from what the Jedi fears most within themselves--from the darkness inside them."

"M'kay, but if'n it's fear, wouldn't it have come up before now? Or is it this dark side thing that amplified it to where it could happen?"

His tapping fingers shifted to stroke the crystal hanging around his neck.

"All ah know is, ah don't wanna dream like that again."

She nods. "The Dark Side of the Force draws strength from fear, and anger, and selfish passion. If you call on those things for power, they become stronger in turn. Anger becomes stronger, fear takes shape..." She spreads a hand palm-up like a flower opening.

"I have not seen it happen very often, which means I've been fortunate. But I do remember one of my fellow students who became more and more miserable and volatile before he finally deserted the Jedi. He wanted to be the best of us, but, as it turned out, for the wrong reasons--or perhaps the Dark Side corrupted his motives once he began to draw on its power." The memory seems to make her wistful, the planes of her face softening slightly. "I hope he found peace after he left, but I fear his fall continued."

Then she realizes how far she's strayed from the topic. "So... Yes. If you think you used something dark that day, you are probably right. Trust your instincts." She gives Garth a slight, encouraging smile--or she hopes it comes across as encouraging, at least. "If you don't feed that power, it will trouble you less."

"Anger and fear, the never really been vices o' mine." Garth responds softly. "Least not fear fer meself, it was part of why ah joined the Republic though. Fear fer what the Empire might do t' the 'verse. That's not so harmful though right?" He asked hopefully, before he moved over and took the available space on the bed.

"Lunda said that cause I'm not trained, ahm more open to it, the darkness. But she also said there was meditations that could help keep it at bay?" There was an obvious level of desperation in his voice, for all his talk about not being a victim of fear, this had obviously troubled him deeply.

((Ack, sorry! I lost track of this one yesterday. ))

"Fear is fear, even when it doesn't have a selfish cause. Otherwise this would be much easier," she says in a rueful tone, with a small shake of her head. "The Dark Side can twist even well-meaning motives. Like, well, like..." She takes a slow breath in and out, then says tightly, "I am inclined to be very angry at the woman responsible for the killings this morning. But I remember the Code. There is no emotion, there is peace...."

She sighs and shakes her head again. "Mental discipline helps, just as Lunda told you. A calm mind can more easily resist the pull of the Dark Side and touch the Light. Meditation is one way to practice it."

"There's a code too?" Garth adds as he reaches over and places one hand over Tethys' as a gesture of support.

"Mebbe we c'n help each other? Would you show me how to do this meditation?"

Tethys puts her other hand over Garth's reassuringly. "I will be all right. But yes, I think that is a good idea." Her brows draw together for a moment as she considers. My first... student? This is not at all how I pictured it.

"Would you like to..." she bites the inside of her lip for a second, then nods "...to start with the Code? I know you're not a Jedi, but it's a good mantra."

"The theory first? Makes sense." Garth agrees as he takes a few deep breaths to centre himself. He wasn't entirely sure why, but on that horrible Vera Hawke show Lunda had made him watch, she did it a lot. Especially when she was about to undertake something difficult, and Garth had no illusions that this would be easy.

"There is no emotion, there is peace..." He begins with a cocky grin, but that's all he knows and only because Tethys just told him that line a minute ago.

Tethys picks up after him with calm precision:

"...There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force."

Garth repeats the words after Tethys, weighing their meaning in his mind.

"Does that mean.... Cos ah've seen plenty o' chaos out there is the 'verse? Does the Code not acknowledge it's existence? Or y'all saying that even what seems like chaos is part of a greater plan?"

A strangely quizzical look crosses his face as he tries to reconcile the words with a possible meaning.

"Yes, partly," Tethys says, in what she hopes is an encouraging tone, in response to his second guess. "Every line in the code has two sides--about the universe, and about the Jedi. In the larger sense they are really all one, but... it's simpler to think of it as two meanings." She sits up a bit straighter, tucking her legs up on the bed. "That which appears to individual beings to be external chaos is still part of the harmony of the Force. Within, the Jedi does not let her mind and heart become chaotic, but finds harmony in her emotions and thoughts."

"So it's more like....acknowledging there are things in the 'verse that can tempt or drive us to the Dark in the first part," Garth lifts both hands palms up like balancing a set of scales.

"An' the second bit is how we try an' prevent em from takin' hold within ourselves? Like there is Passion out there, but through Serenity we c'n resist it's siren call?"