[OPEN] A Tale Told By an Idiot

[therevanchist]

Who: Revan and Whoever
What: Misled by the badass title, Revan attempts to read The Sound and the Fury
Where: Philly library
When: Towards the end of the Philly stay
Warnings/Notes: The Sound and the Fury is basically a nonstop parade of awful, so if you want, we can just stick to Revan not knowing what golf is or whatever to avoid dealing with early/mid-20th century race and gender issues and horrid people being horrid to each other.

[Anyone less stubborn would have given up days ago. Revan, on the other hand, is seated at a table in the reference section, surrounded by books pulled from all over the library, none of which seem to have any relationship to each other. A copy of the Concise Oxford, still large enough to brain livestock. A single-volume history of Germany and another one about the state of Mississippi. The official rules of golf. A biography of Thomas Jefferson and a history of Cambridge, England, both pushed off to one side. Harvard Observed: An Illustrated History of the University in the Twentieth Century, published of course by Harvard University Press. Several slim books about Easter, all obviously for children. And so forth.

Directly in front of her, stuffed full of flimsy paper bookmarks printed with the library's hours pilfered from the circulation desk, lies the cause of all the trouble: an unassuming paperback copy of The Sound and the Fury, with all the terrible stock photo cover design a cheap reprint of a classic entails. Revan herself is scribbling something in a spiral-bound notebook with a ballpoint, her surprise at the sheer amount of paper in the city long subsumed by irritation over this maddeningly incomprehensible book she's found.]

Why does it even matter?

Comments

[greyerrant]

Ah, makes sense. Fairly deadly, in the right hands. [ He takes the blade and gives it an appraising look. ]

I prefer things with a bit more heft, but I can see the artistry of it. This wasn't mass-produced, was it?

[therevanchist]

A Jedi crafts their own at the end of their apprenticeship. The focusing crystals alone are rare enough to kill over.

[Another snort.]

Very artistic, very valuable deadweight.

[Still, telling Revan her lightsaber is awesome (she knows, thank you) is an excellent way to get into her good graces.]

[greyerrant]

Well, a thing still has value, even if it doesn't serve the purpose it once did. I kept a length of wire I used to slay an opponent I fought over the course of a week in my quarters, simply because it was the best and hardest fight I ever fought. I wouldn't use it as a wire, or a garrotte anymore, but it was a reminder of a well-earned victory.

[ Aren't all of his tales just lovely? ]

But what is a Jedi?

[therevanchist]

[Revan, always good at picking up a cue, reacts with the same degree of casualness with which he tells the story. That's...charming, Loken.]

We're a monastic order, mediators and peacekeepers. Warriors when we have to be.

[Which is basically always, if she's being honest.]

We take in children who're...I'd say Force-sensitive, but you called me a "psyker" when you saw me use telekinesis.

[And he didn't seem happy about it.

She holds out a hand, levitating The Sound and the Fury above her upturned palm.]

[greyerrant]

I am familiar with such things. They are not unknown to the Imperium of man, though they were strictly regulated and forbidden amongst the rank and file of the Adeptus Astartes. In fact, there was a large trial of sorts and those that manifested such abilities within our ranks were ordered to experiment no further with it. It was enforced. For a time.

[ He sighs, still uncertain of the wisdom of the judgement of Nikea. ]


Which was also a monastic order of a sort, though a far more militant one. We were warriors first and foremost, the tip of the Emperor's spear as he carried the light of enlightenment into a benighted galaxy that had nearly destroyed humanity.

I shall be honest, such things stand close to sorcery to me, and it was sorcery that has set my galaxy afire. So I am... upset by it. Forgive me.

[therevanchist]

[This Emperor guy doesn't sound all that nice, sorry to say.

Revan lets the book drop into her hand and then sets it back down on the table, shaking her head.]

Nothing to forgive. When one of us goes bad, it's ugly. I don't blame you for being wary, especially if you've seen something similar firsthand.

[Loken's going to look back on this conversation in a few months when she comes clean and be very annoyed, isn't he.]

[greyerrant]

[ So annoyed. Also, how dare! Big E is clearly the best and certain not an overly ambitious jerkass who made a lot of foolish mistakes that ended up biting him in the ass. }

It turned sons against fathers, and fathers against sons. I still bear the scars of that war. And once my time is done here, I hope to return and finish it.

[therevanchist]

I left in the middle of a war, too. This...whatever it is has bad timing.

[She slouches down in her chair, not really wanting to think about home and her own fate, but unable to avoid it given the direction the conversation has taken.]

[greyerrant]

[ Loken actually touches Revan. Putting a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of peculiarly human solidarity. ]

It rankles to leave things half done. To know that the people you are defending and who depend on you are.. without you for the moment. It weighs on me as well. If you wish to unburden yourself, I will listen.

[therevanchist]

[Revan doesn't realize how unusual that is, and just smiles up at him tiredly.]

Civil war. If my mission fails, the fallen members of my Order are going to take over the galaxy.

[So, no pressure or anything.

Loken seems decent enough, but there's no way she's discussing Darth Revan with him.]

[greyerrant]

So the same as me, only it's my father leading the Traitors.

I understand.

[ He looks incredibly sad, when he says that. ]

And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I know what a wrench it is to war with those who you trusted and held close.

[therevanchist]

[Exactly the same except for the part where she's Horus. I'm sure this will not be at all awkward later.]

It started with the best of intentions. A faction of Jedi led the Republic fleets to repel an invasion by the Mandalorian clans and won. They chased the stragglers into the Unknown Regions at the edge of the galaxy, and when they came back they'd turned to the dark side, every last one of them. I wish I knew what happened out there.

[She wishes she knew what happened to her. Revan sighs and looks up at Loken again.]

Do you know why your father made his choice?

[Asking for a friend.]

[greyerrant]

I don't. And it hurts me every day. I only know what he said over propaganda broadcasts, and what I saw myself. The Emperor hurt him by not telling him all his plans, even as he made Horus warmaster. I think he believes his father is corrupt, and intends to set himself up as a God, instead of the secular head of an enlightened humanity. He kept trying to sway me to join his side, even as he murdered my brothers. But I was always a Luna wolf, and despite carrying his gene-code, that meant more to me than being a Son of Horus. It could be ambition, it could be possession. He doesn't seem... like his old noble self, the last time I saw him. Swollen and corrupt with dark energy, still charismatic but utterly rotten, if far more powerful. It was like facing a god. I know his fall began when he was wounded by some tainted blade, after fighting a corrupted man who had once been a staunch ally of ours. But I'll never know if it was him willingly choosing corruption, or if it simply overtook him.

[ He is quiet for a long time, then inhales sharply and continues. ]

He sent two of my best friends to kill me, and slew my dearest companion, Tarik Torgaddon. And then he unleashed an orbital bombardment to finish the job that a Battle Titan and the mournival could not. It might as well have killed me, though it took my memories and sanity away, and I wandered a demon-haunted world where only monsters and the dead were my company. I was pulled back by other loyal sons of the Emperor, and sent again against Horus, where he killed another brother of mine, and offered me a chance to rejoin him. [ He closes his eyes, and says softly. ]

I told him I'd never stop coming after him until I was dead, that even if I died that there would be a price for every step towards our home world paid in the blood of his armies and sons. I told him we'd never surrender, and that he was now and forever our enemy.

But like you, I wish I knew what happened. I'll probably die without knowing why he did what he did, truly. A part of me doesn't want to know.

[therevanchist]

[Revan listens intently, the unfamiliar terms not making it any harder to understand a familiar story. Exar Kun, Ulic Qel-Droma. Her, even if the urge to deny it is so strong it's almost a physical ache.]

Does anyone...corrupted [after an almost imperceptible hesitation she uses Loken's word instead of the Jedi's "fallen"] ever turn back?

[greyerrant]

[ Loken is quiet for a long moment, and says. ]

It's only been a few years since the war started. With the Primarchs of the traitors legions on the side of those that turned, it's hard for even the loyal sons to step away from their fathers. I'd like to think... that there is a way back. At least for those that haven't welcomed demons into their bodies and hearts.

[ His expression grows bitter. ] BUt for the most part, no. They are kinslayers and have worshiped dark things in superstitious ways. They took a path of madness, and the first step was killing their loyal brothers. Even if they have regrets, there's not much of a way back.

[therevanchist]

It's a tenet of the Jedi that there's no one beyond redemption [don't worry--this is not a pep talk] but recently I've started to think the Masters who taught me that don't actually believe it themselves.

[They can be bitter together, albeit for wildly different reasons.]

[greyerrant]

You always have a choice. But if something else takes it away from you...

[ Loken shakes his head. ]

It's a bitter thing to think that your teachers misled you, or don't believe in their onw ideals. I understand.

[therevanchist]

[She sighs.]

I'll ask [more like "confront"] them about it one of these days...assuming they survive the assault the Enclave was under when I was yanked here.

[She has no reason to believe Admiral Karath was lying about the Sith attack on Dantooine, and she's not far enough gone to wish death on the Jedi Council. Severe discomfort, sure, but not death.]

And assuming I survive whatever we've stumbled into.

[Pretending this isn't a lousy situation won't help, but Revan shows no fear, just the calm pragmatism of an experienced campaigner, even if she can't remember those campaigns.]

[greyerrant]

I'll do my best to make sure that you do. Confronting someone that deceived you is something I've had my own issues with. You deserve the same chance I did.

[ He smiles at her, though there's little warmth it in, though it's obviously meant to be reassuring ]

[therevanchist]

[Revan returns the smile, her own tired but truly warm despite it.]

Thank you, Garviel. Your Emperor is lucky to have you.

[greyerrant]

[ Loken smiles back, his own exhaustion showing. }

And thank you. But if you'll... excuse me, my wound is ailing me greatly, now. [ He begins to limp off, clutching at his chest. }