Ask Crown of Thorns

[Kieran Nomar]

Iridonia, Mid Rim​

By the time the shuttle set down on outskirts of a city that was half built into a mountain, Kieran was irritated. The datapad he had been given had the details of his mission — his first as an apprenticed Padawan learner — recorded on it. Most of it was the usual Council dreck. Large elements of Iridonia wanted to join the Jedi Order, but there was an equally vocal minority that did not want Jedi involvement. And they were willing to resort to violence.

Kieran fixated on none of that. His eyes and ire were drawn to the words bolded at the bottom of the dispatch: "No lightsabers," he read aloud, as if speaking the thing made it somehow more ridiculous. "The people who want us here the least are willing to resort to violence and we're not to use our lightsabers?"

The runt of a human looked to his newly assigned Master, an Annfyn woman who looked every bit as regal as the Jedi of legend across the galaxy. He barely knew the woman, save that she was a member of the Jedi Council, so naturally he expected she would have the answers he could not find written on this datapad. "What if they start shooting at us?"

These were the pressing things pondered upon by eighteen-year olds with supernatural abilities, a sword that could cut through anything, and no outlet for either of them. @Logan

 

[Kaisa Vanloa]

No lightsabers. Kaisa replied, the ghost of a smirk pulling at the corners of her lips as she heard the evident frustration in Kieran's voice.

There were probably a lot of Jedi Masters that would have accosted the boy for being so short sighted in his approach, or even worse given him some sort of lecture about how lightsabers were only tools and true Jedi shouldn't tackle problems with a snap-hiss first ask questions later approach.

Of course, Kaisa wasn't really one of those Jedi. She saw herself mirrored just a little bit in Kieran's annoyance. In her opinion, adversity was kind of like a lock. As there were a million different kinds of adversity out in the galaxy, there were a million different kinds of locks, and a lightsaber was a skeleton key that could open just about any of them. It was foolhardy to toss away such a universal tool in favor of something as mind numbing as diplomacy.

But that kind of thinking was, unfortunately, probably below her station now. Not really the attitude a Jedi Councilor should have. So, with a heavy sigh, Kaisa would turn to look at Kieran as they headed off the ship and made their way to the exit ramp and onto Iridonia.

You mean to tell me they stopped teaching padawans how to block blaster bolts with just their hands? She asked, that same smirk from before returning and her tone somewhat light hearted. Well isn't that a shame.

As they walked the dusty streets of the city, Kaisa pondered Kieran's last question. There were short answers and long answers to it but she was mostly rattling her brain for the most honest answer. There were a lot of things they could do if the opposition cells decided to simply open fire, though most of them probably weren't going to get them the results the Jedi wanted.

The answers to our problems are not always as straightforward as we might hope, She said, doing her best impression of the mystical vagaries people expected from Jedi Councilors. Approach the situation from an different angle and you will see alternate paths to a solution.

Spotting a food cart that also sold coffee, Kaisa would jut her head towards it for Kieran to follow. Kaisa was starving and needed a little bit of a pick me up. Something something, most important meal of the day. She'd pass the cart tender enough credits to cover herself and whatever Kieran would want. No sense in making a kid pay for his own food.

The Iridonian Zabrak are a very proud and self reliant people, She said to Kieran after taking a long drink of her iced coffee. Sometimes people just want to be heard. And when they feel like they are being ignored, violence is often the result.

Looking around, Kaisa took an overall stock of the city and their situation. Nothing with Jedi outreach was ever straight forward. Many paths, all of them different, but all leading to the same center of the shrubbery maze. Whether that center was on fire or not, well, that was still up in the air.

Looking to Kieran, Kaisa would let him take the lead here. It was important for young padawans to learn things, and her just telling him where to go and what to do wouldn't instill the lessons that Kaisa thought were important.

Where do you think we should start?

@Malon

 

[Kieran Nomar]

The answers to our problems are not always as straightforward as we might hope. Approach the situation from a different angle and you will see alternate paths to a solution.

Kieran soaked those words of wisdom in and promptly spat them out. Jedi Masters were always fond of saying a lot of words that really meant nothing at all, so he should have expected this sort of 'answer' from his own master. He ordered a caf of his own, hoping the bitter taste would cancel out his own bitterness, sipping it down as quickly as his tolerance for its heat would allow.

As he drank, he surveyed their surroundings. His eyes were promptly drawn to a series of holographic billboards hanging from a nearby building. They depicted the local news, an anchor promising to cover the government's impending decision to vote on membership in the Jedi Order. A crowd was gathering, some of them silent onlookers, others grumbling loudly about the upcoming vote.

"People want to be heard, huh?" Kieran said, reflecting his master's words back at her. He shrugged. "Guess we might as well go hear what they have to say, then." He was already reaching for the hood of his cloak, draping it over the top of his head. "But from a distance. I don't want to get shot."

A fear I would not have if I could use my lightsaber, he pouted, but began to walk towards the gathering rabble nonetheless.

He hugged the outer circle of the gathering Zabraks, coiling the Force tightly around him and using it to gently nudge the minds of any Zabraks who wandered too close to him. The sensation would only make them uncomfortable enough to avoid standing too close to him. They would avoid him without knowing they were avoiding him — a handy trick he had picked up to avoid drawing attention to himself from his temple days. And from his place there just behind the crowd, he could finally hear what they were grumbling about.

"We elected these people and now they're delivering us right into the arms of the Jedi," a portly Zabrak man was complaining to murmured agreements. "They might as well paint a big red target on our planet. We all remember what happened to Kashyyyk? To Firrerreo?"

Those who agreed with the Zabrak were vocal in their support, but Kieran noticed the way some kept silent, arms folded, thoughts to themselves. As the Council suspected, there were favorable elements to the Jedi here, but they appeared afraid to voice their support for reasons the Padawan could not discern. "Well, Master," he said below his breath to avoid drawing attention. "We're here. We're listening. What are we looking for? It's not like we can make these people like us."

Though, if we had our lightsabers...

But, no, that would probably just make the locals hate them more. @Logan

 

[Kaisa Vanloa]

We don't need everyone to like us, that is a fool's errand. Kaisa replied to Kieran, her tone quite frank. There will always be people who hate you, no matter what you do or how good you are. Fostering the goodwill we already have will probably yield better results.

Kaisa continued to linger around the crowd that was forming, her sensitive ears listening to the chatter. Most of it was just nonsense idle banter between people who would vote against their best interest regardless of any evidence presented to them. Kaisa knew a lot of people like that and it never really made any sense to her. Some minds were just not able to be changed, she supposed.

Before she could say anything else to Kieran, Kaisa's attention was drawn to some commotion happening a few meters away. Two men were getting into a shouting match with another. Taking a few steps toward them, Kaisa would see that the one getting pushed around was wearing a pin with pro-Jedi sentiment.

It would be quite clear that unless someone intervened, this ruckus would quickly turn into violence. Turning her gaze to Kieran, Kaisa would jut her chin towards the shouting.

How would you intervene without violence? She asked, curious to see how the padawan might approach a situation like this.

The work of a Jedi was often complicated and rife with choices, some obvious and some not. Moreso than most, a Jedi's decisions carried with them heavy and often unforeseen consequence. Such was the plight of being the good guy.

What does your instinct tell you to do?

While Kaisa and Kieran were assessing the small scale situation, a much larger problem was beginning to coalesce around them. Though, just what kind of trouble it might bring was still unknown.

@Malon

 

[Kieran Nomar]

Kieran huffed. They were here to broker an alliance with the Iridonians and his master was posing him confusing riddles to solve. He folded his arms, tapping his finger against his bicep. Of course, the answer he wanted to give was to point a lightsaber at the two men and order them to cease. A lightsabers did wonders for getting someone to listen to you; but Master Vanloa was likely to classify that as 'violence' so Kieran took another approach.

"Getting in between them and telling them both to calm down will only make the situation more volatile," he said. "Especially since our authority to do so derives from the fact that we're Jedi, and well—."

The man who had defended the Jedi and their allies to the first, more belligerent man, was squarely punched in the jaw by said belligerent man. And with that first blood, fists started flying all around them.

"That," Kieran said.

But though there was nothing he could do to stop the fight from happening now, he could think of a way to end it. "Hey, you two!" he shouted, stepping away from his master.

The two original fighters eyed him viciously. "Go about your business, boy," the one who had thrown the first punch said. "'nless you want to be next."

Kieran sighed again, waving his hand as he replied, "You don't want to do that. You don't want to fight anymore. You'd rather go home to your families and cool off."

Jedi mind tricks were always a mixed bag. On Zabraks especially. Many were known to have strong minds and were more resistant to suggestion. But these two were idiots. Kieran didn't have a problem. A dazed fog clouded their eyes, and then both rose, repeated Kieran's words back at him almost verbatim, and parted ways as though they had never exchanged blows.

The rest of the assembled stood around, not sure what they had just witnessed; but their confusion meant they were no longer fighting, even if the tension had not completely melted away. Kieran looked back at Master Vanloa. "What can I say," he said, shrugging. "I'm a gifted speaker."

What he didn't know — because his mind was trained on the here and now and not on what was happening around him — was that another, much larger problem had located the Jedi and had slipped into the crowd in the chaos. @Logan