Bankor

Baesal was sitting in the corner of one of the smaller common rooms with a few snacks and spare parts layed out on the nearest table. Humming to the rythm of the beats playing in her earbuds, she doing maintenance on her cybernetic arm.

But unlike a normal engineer, she was doing it with strands of blueish-silvery lightning coming out of her right hand

There was a thump at the table and a pile of holo-photography equipment was casually dropped followed by the smell of greasy fast food, definitely not the mess hall special. The man started inspecting his equipment and frowned, “Did I remember...”

He started looking frantically through the pile before he checked under the table and said, “Aha! Must have rolled off the table, you sneaky gundark!” He put a lens cap on the table and said, “Great I got it all.”

He sighed and then sat down to his greasy meal before looking at Baesal and going, “Whoa… wait don’t move!”

And then *click*, another holo-photo was taken. He grinned and said, “That’s an award winner, for sure.”

With the help of the ship’s computer, Tethys locates the person she’d been hoping to talk to. “Jedi Zyn?” She tries to catch Baesal’s eye and opens one long-fingered hand in the direction of a nearby chair. “Is this seat taken?”

She casts a polite nod toward the holographer and his overburdened table.

A lot seemed to happen quite rapidely, perhaps because she had not been paying enough attention to her surrounding while focused on her work. For her there was only the flash of holo-photography and a few mumbled words. Raising her head she looked at the man quizzically before removing her earbuds

''Excuse me?''

Then she noticed someone else was talking to her

''Huh?'' was the reply before everything was put in order ''Oh, yes and no, respectively. I am Baesal Zyn and this seat is currently free.''

"Just catching a Jedi at work, good shot for the folks back home," Vain replied.

"Oh...okay"

She was not too sure...but it seemed to be reasonable

"You do have rather a showy maintenance style," Tethys remarks amiably, swinging her tall form into a seat. "Tethys Carrack. Well, Knight Carrack. I haven't met enough of the other Jedi on this mission yet, but I'd hoped to run in to at least some of you before the drop."

"Whoa two Jedi... and pretty faces to boot, mind if I get a picture of you two?" Vain asked as he looked at both of them.

Tethys shrugs one shoulder. "Fine by me. Provided you are not planning to use it to market breakfast cereal or some other consumer goods, anyway." She glances at Baesal quizzically, curious to discover how the younger Jedi will respond.

Baesal seemed a little uncomfortable but ended up agreeing

"Sure, I guess there is no harm in that"

“Great!”

Vain took some pictures of them and then said, “Vain Taskar, freelance photojournalist, here to document the conflict… not just a creapo with a camera. I’m like soldier paparazzi!”

The togruta glanced over at the other Jedi before returning her attention to the paparazzi.

Soldier paparazzi? They invent new terms for propaganda it seems

''Nice to meet you Mr. Taskar'' she replied with some trained politesse.

“Freelance?” Tethys raises an eyebrow at an angle that conveys detached curiosity. “So you’re not with any of the news services?”

One corner of her lips quirks up a little as she adds to Baesal, “The more I travel, the more I realize how many people on Republic worlds are interested in Jedi. Even those of us who aren’t especially interesting.” Her cool brown eyes seem to say, I know, but try to make the best of it.

“Jedi are cool right now, might as well cash in on the trend,” Vain responded.

''Yeah okay'' she said nodding slowly...likely settling in some quality awkward silence

Vain Taskar wrote:“Jedi are cool right now, might as well cash in on the trend,” Vain responded.

"'Cool.'" Tethys's expression barely shifts, yet somehow manages to convey a certain level of amused skepticism. "I'd venture to say neither of us is much like Vera Hawke. We may disappoint."

She glances at Baesal and says, somewhat more to her than to the photographer, "But it's good the Order is well-represented here. It sounds to me like there are going to be a lot of moving pieces to keep in balance." A Jedi specialty... well, sometimes.

“Well I never bet against the Jedi, I tell you that much, some of my best friends… are… Jedi,” he said trailing off.

“Just mean you’re the good guys we need.”

''Well thanks...but the rest of the republic forces present here deserves just as much praise''

“Well that’s what I hope, but Jedi are the example… or do I have it wrong?” he asked while cleaning a lens.

"I suppose some people think of it that way," Tethys says with a slight shrug, leaning back in her seat. "Most of us, most of the time, are only trying to see what's right and then do it. There's nothing unique about that." Lips quirking just a little, she adds, "It's just that for us the stakes are higher, and the fall is longer. And just like any big collection of sentients, some of us are better role models than others."

“Right, but that means you hold yourselves to a high standard right? Live by the Jedi Code, follow the will of the Force, all that mystical stuff,” he said in response.

“I guess I always wondered how you tell a Sith from a Jedi, because to the layman you both seem like the same thing, just one side is meaner and dresses like a thirteen year old in a dark phase.”

A private smile crosses Tethys's face. This is exactly the sort of question her Master used to kick over to her, then chuckle to himself as she squirmed around trying to articulate an answer that was more instinctive than conscious. That's not Tethys's particular sense of humor, nor is Baesal her Padawan. But if rumors doesn't lie, she has a hunch that Baesal may have a more interesting way of answering the question than Tethys herself could manage.

So she keeps her thoughts to herself, leaving a clear space for the younger Jedi to answer.

Baes could not help but grin

''You have no idea...but while black eyeliner is an easy indicator the main difference between Sith and Jedi is that the Sith use the Force selfishly.''

“So a Jedi never uses the Force selfishly, got it,” Vain responded with a smile.

''We try not to'' she replied honestly