Beginning to See the Light

[Sakadi Marathi Sinvala]

The Knightess shifted a little on her seat when she sensed the confidence of the clawdite. Did she have a plan? Was she prepared to handle the younglings? If so, how? Oddi had truly managed to spark Sakadi's curiosity. With no further delay, Sakadi rose from her seat and guided her two guests through the temple complex again, back to the main area.

Sakadi glanced at the hidden younglings with a smile. They did not know how to hide their presence yet, which meant that she knew where all of them where hiding. When Oddi mentioned her plan B, however, Sakadi was caught off guard. It had been a long time since she had last seen or heard a kloo horn. Luckily, she didn't have to dwell on the past, for Funani came with a suggestion. Technology that would talk for her? That was intriguing.

"You can make something like that?" the Sephi asked, while she watched the younglings surrounding Oddi. She was a master of what Funani called "Mind talking", but she had noticed how others responded to the sudden voice popping up in their minds. How fantastic would it be if she could circumnavigate those akward situations?

 

[Oddi Xon]

Oddi took a peak over at Funani and Sakadi, who seemed to be involved in their own conversation. I’m glad they’re gettin’ a chance t’ catch up on things… she thought as she approached the end of her tune. She wrapped up her song with an improvised flurry of notes, and placed the horn on her lap.

“Did you like that?” she asked the younglings.

“Are you famous?” a nautolan youngling innocently asked, forcing Oddi to suppress a chuckle.

“Not at the moment,” she told him, giving a playful wink. “Are y’all… um… she corrected herself, fearing that they would not understand her with her thick accent. “Are you all students here? Padawans?” she strained.

“Yeeeeessss…” they all answered together, as if in a classroom.

“My teacher is Master Ulvax!” a little human announced. Quite proudly, in fact.

“Um… MY teacher is… um… Master… um… Master Gil-un-dral-ly,” the youngest of them, a ryn, sounded out. She couldn’t have been more than six years old. Oddi found her absolutely charming.

She slipped down off of the rock and sat among the kids. “So that means that y’all… that you all… are learnin’ ‘bout th’ Force? What do you know ‘bout th’ Force?”

One could see the gears moving in their youthful heads as they tried to think of a way to surmise their own interpretations of the Force. “It’s… um… an energy that surrounds us and is within us…”[/color] the human, whose teacher was Master Ulvax, said. “…a-and we use it like it’s a part of us.”

“It is a part of us!” piped up a blue twi’lek child, as if to correct her peer.

Oddi felt a gentle tug on her sleeve. It was the youngest. “We…we all make the Force together,” she whispered in Oddi’s ear, “and the Force guides us in return.”

Oddi smiled as her eyes twinkled. That was the most beautiful sentence that she had ever heard. She knew that she would always remember it for the rest of her days. She looked at Funani and Sakadi, then back at the younglings. “Yer wonderful. All of you. I hope we get more opportunities to talk together. I really do.” She stood on her feet.

“Will you bring back your kloo horn?” asked the nautolan.

She thought for a moment. “Ya know what? I think no matter what path I walk, I’m gonna make sure I come back with my kloo horn!” she grinned. Then she made her way back to Funani and Sakadi.

“From th’ mouth of babes…” she told Sakadi. “We all make th’ Force together… an’ th’ Force guides us in return. I reckon I like that.”

@Caught in Strangereal
@Powerfulhorus

 

[Funani Avanti]

Seeing Sakadi perk up so much to his proposal was both heart warming and a massive oh kark moment for Funani. The idea sounded great, but now Sakadi was practically green lighting the idea. The Sephi may not have explicitly said it but Funani knew the look, a tempting life altering deal came into someone's life and they had to just stop and mull it over. It was both gratifying and yet pressuring for the Jawa and well he felt like he needed to ground the Sephi before her imagination ran too wild. The last thing he wanted to do was promise the moon and massively disappoint her.

"I'm going to be frank with you. I literally came up with this idea like 20 minutes ago while we were all talking about the Force... but in theory, vocabulator's just take speech requests along with informational tags for things like tone and inflection. Instead of having those request come from a droid brain it might be possible to use some other way for you to give it commands. Now the easiest way would be to use a text program along with some simple coding for you to be able to mark certain emotions in case you want to be more expressive. I just don't know if I could make it work without trying" Funani's mind was now back to engineering land as it seemed like mathematical equations, code and blueprints and rough sketches were hovering right before his eyes as he started to stare off his brain entering hyperfocus. He just didn't know what was the best way to store the vocabulator. Should it be like a specialized all-in-one datapad, that was all one unit. A modular unit with the vocabulator, a wireless receiver and the datapad connecting to it? Heck what about it's own little droid? Or disguising it as like a hat or piece of Jewelry. Ideas ideas ideas. So many but he had choose one at least for now.

The Jawa then realized that hey Oddi had come back and said something, he seemed to be so lost in thought that he completely didn't notice. Funani was quicky trying to remember the words Oddi said that his ears must of heard. What was it? What was it? Uh oh we make the force and the force guides us... atleast he thought he heard that. What was with this day and making his brain melt? Still he now felt a need to share this idea with someone else who was as technically minded. Oddi was easily the best candidate in the room.

"Hey Oddi. I now this must sound completely random after what you just said. If you were to manually tell a droid vocabulator what to say how would you do it? I got this idea that might help Sakadi out... I think." The Jawa almost abruptly blurted out at as the words almost blurred together his mind was racing faster than any pod racer right now.

@Powerfullhorus @Zanna Black

 

[Sakadi Marathi Sinvala]

Sakadi blinked a few times as she tried to comprehend the 'simple' explanation Funani gave her. The Sephi had grown up with music notes, dresses, acting lessons and the Force. Technology was like magic to her, which was funny, considering it was the other way around for Funani. So Sakadi simply nodded in agreement.

When Oddi returned to the Sephi and the Jawa, she had found her answer. It amused Sakadi that she had managed to find her truth thanks to the younglings. It was good to know that the Knightess could entrust the fate of the Order to the next generation, given they were already able to inspire the Clawdite.

As Funani turned to Oddi, Sakadi stepped forward and clapped a few times to attract the younglings' attention. Her telepathic message followed soon after.

"Alright, playtime is over. You're all going to bed early, tomorrow is an important day. Report to Master Isara for curfew please. I don't want any of you wandering through the corridors at night again." The Knightess stated. Immediately after her exclamation, the younglings answered in unison with "Yes Master Sinvala", before they ran off in the general direction of the hallway. The Knightess then turned to her two companions. "If you feel tired, let me know. I'll have rooms prepared for both of you."

 

[Oddi Xon]

Oddi was caught off guard by Funani’s question. “A droid vocabulator?” she repeated, looking puzzled. She found herself mentally switching gears now… droid talk was for a different compartment in her brain. She blinked as her gaze shifted from Funani to Sakadi… then it clicked. “Oh… oh! I know what yer plannin’!” There was a flash of excitement in her eyes. “You’d wanna use Basic, right? If we download a Basic vocabulary database in a cpu…” she stroked her chin, then smiled a little as more ideas came into her brain. “…an’ someone were to wear gloves with sensors wired all throughout th’ fabric… an’ they could have a direct link to th’ droid’s interpretive functions… one could prob’ly type in a few basic phrases as someone signs ‘em. If the droid has learnin’ capacity, over time it could fill in some of th’ blanks on its own, an’ if th’ user has spare moments, they could program more words themselves if th’ program is simple enough. An’ if the droid makes mistakes here and thar, it could be adjusted quite easy, I reckon. After a while, y’all wouldn’t need th’ gloves anymore. Th’ droid could interpret by sight.” She had a giddiness about her simply thinking about the possibilities.

She thought about Sakadi’s offer. “Well… it was a pretty long trip. I don’t mind if he don’t mind.” She motioned toward Funani. “What’ya say, Funi? An’ we can discuss yer idea a little more too!”

The truth was… Oddi wasn’t really that tired at all. She was beyond excited, and despite being on a war-ravaged planet with a nearly destroyed ecosystem, she was quite comfortable in this compound. She had found so many answers, and although they only seemed to lead to more questions, she wasn’t as frustrated about it. Besides… she was seriously thinking about starting a whole new path now, so it was only natural.

Perhaps… in the morning… she would ask about the process of becoming a Jedi.

Perhaps… but perhaps it was better to sleep on it first.

@Caught in Strangereal
@Powerfulhorus

 

[Funani Avanti]

"Now that might require a heuristic processor to have the droid learn but basic vocabulary is practically hard wired into every droid with a vocabulator they're so common. Heck we could jus' copy the database from that protocol droid we dug up a while ago... *gasp* that 2b droid oughta know about sign language we can use the glove, the droid prototype, and the 2b droid to quickly program in the sign language might be a bit of the process or it could be just as simple as having the droid observe Sakadi sign as the 2b droid feeds a live translation, with that glove it would be able to quickly input almost everything. Oddi Xon yer a friggin genius." The short Jawa gave a strong bear hug to Oddi with all his strength as he was pumped from their shared 'eureka' moment.

A part of Funani was practically ready to start scrounging around every junkyard, hobby shop and used parts store to start assembling the parts and then drag that 2B droid out and finally power it up. Funani never really got around to it fixing after the whole debacle on Corellia mainly because of... the nightmares he occasionally got and the minor association with that karking quarren. Though really it was the nightsister that scared him the most heck he could of sworn he was now slightly terrified of any instance of glowing green. Hmm maybe he should tell Sakadi about the fact that there is a rogue murder witch out there who is a complete kriffing psycho, but then would mean having to talk about it... maybe reliving it. The thought of that alone caused Funani to shiver. Nope nope nope not thinking about that, hell no. Suddenly the sound of staying in a nice, secure, psycho-witch-free Jedi temple sounded like the best idea he had heard in years.

Would be nice to stay somewhere I don't have to worry about being attacked, that seems to be happening to us a lot lately. I be game." The Jawa said with what seemed like way too much relief in his comment. He was completely unaware of how much anxiety had suddenly built up in him out of nowhere just thinking about Eithni. Maybe he just needed to sleep.

@Powerfullhorus @Zanna Black

 

[Sakadi Marathi Sinvala]

When the duo approved of her offer, Sakadi, with an amused expression, guided them through the building once again. The maze of corridors they moved through this time was a little busier, as Sakadi occasionally had to greet other Jedi Knights and Masters passing by. Eventually they reached a more quiet corridor, with a few open and a few closed doors. Every room was outfitted with a bed, a side table and a rug for meditation.

"These are our guest quarters." The Knightess stated as she gestured to the many chambers in front of them. "You may pick any room you like. There is a lavatory down the hall in case you need it. I'll come and fetch both of you tomorrow morning." With that said, Sakadi bowed and parted from the duo. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, she had younglings to guide and visitors to take care of.


//END THREAD//