"...?"

"It's just...the same principle of many hands making light work?  I don't understand the objection, honestly...it makes fundamental sense to not reduplicate effort?"

    "That's true if people want the same things as each other, she says, ma'am, but in her experience they generally don't, with obvious exceptions like 'kill the person who's hurting all of them'."

"Not all people want the same things, but most of the things people want aren't things that are directly wanted to not be things by a countervailing force; the person who makes machinery doesn't care if their neighbor is an artist or a holojournalist, and there are ways to resolve, e.g., noise complaints that infringe upon neither's desires, e.g. soundproofing."

    "She says that in her experience most things are more like the kyber crystal - she wants it as backup in case anything happens to her lightsaber, or so that she can make a spare, and you want it for your own purposes, and only one of you can have it, which brings you into conflict."

"Sure, but we can get another crystal if we wait."

    "This time, yes, ma'am, but she says that's not usually the case."

"I will admit that there's sometimes only so much available...but there's often a lot more than anyone actually needs, that's just being distributed poorly."

    "Very few people are satisfied only having what they strictly need, she says, ma'am. Especially when the thing they want is something that no one else strictly needs, either."

Diana wibbles her hand a bit.  "...I mean, yes and no?  But even most wants are reasonably well-provisionable.  Even the kind of absurd ones like 'people who want to be tortured' have some available supply.  It's just when people start hoarding that there's a problem."

Shrug.

    "That hasn't been Master Deskyl's experience, ma'am, but she says maybe it's different for people who aren't Sith."

"...The one thing that almost all Sith want, that is exponentially limited in availability, is power-over.  I think that's why we have such different experiences."

    "She says that's certainly part of it, yes ma'am, though she's fairly sure it isn't specific to Sith."

"Not specific to Sith, no, but unusually selected for, amongst and around them, I think.  Most people want at least most of the people they see, day to day, to - be happy, I suppose?  And Sith philosophy...actively discourages that."

    "She says that it's a dangerous thing to want around Sith, yes ma'am."

"...yeah.  Yeah."  Diana sighs, sadness making a resurgence in her mood.  "I wish there was a better way to change that than the present plan."

    "Well, the two of you will do the best you can, she says. Would you still like to learn some of the meditation exercises she knows, tonight?"

"...I think I would, yes."

    "She says that she has two that she'd like you to try, tonight. The first one is to spend some time thinking about things you want - in any sense, whether that's wanting to gain them, wanting not to lose them, wanting to avoid them, and so on - and noting how they make you feel; try to think of at least five of them. You may want to make a list; Master Deskyl says that you can consider it private if you do, she won't need to see it. The next step, if you feel ready to move on with this exercise, is to notice how the you feel about the emotions those things evoke, paying particular attention to emotions that you tend to avoid or dislike. The second exercise is to consider a few of the things you want, that evoke strong emotions that you aren't inclined to avoid, and think of associations you have with those things; the point of this exercise is to determine how to bring them to mind more easily, to evoke the associated emotions. If one thing from the first exercise is clearly much more important than the rest, you can focus on that; otherwise she'd like you to do this for at least two but no more than four things, and they should evoke emotions that are as different as possible. Do you have any questions, ma'am?"

"That sounds reasonably straightforward."

    "She says 'that's the idea', ma'am."

"That's good.  ...I'll go get started, shall I?"

    "She says 'if you'd like', ma'am."

"Mmmmm."  Would she?  She will, but would she?

She's honestly worried about what she might find, in the end.

She tries so hard, but her judgement is still fallible, still generated in a bundle of synapses made of meat.

So if she's got some deep-seated harmful urge...she almost wants to avoid ever looking too closely, lest it swallow her.

You cannot fight an enemy you are not aware of, however, so she must look.

Perhaps this counts as part of the exercise, for that matter; it's certainly a desire.

She writes it down:

Fear of subconsciously desiring something that would harm others or myself.  Dread, fear, guilt.  Ew.

...And the complement makes sense to add -

Drive to promote sapient flourishing - compassion, reflected joy, sense of deep rightness.

What else does she want?

Sparring: Exhilaration.

Tinkering: Intellectual stimulation, curiosity, light-side version of confusion.

People to *stop being assholes, for Force's sake*: Indignation, justice, revenge?, depression.

Death Is Bad: Fear, worry, determination, yearning, compassion.

Diana muses, for a moment, but there are two clear focuses for things she thinks she could draw upon in most circumstances: Compassion, and - she pauses for a moment, thinks about what would make the right word - perhaps, plausibly, verve.  Perhaps instead the flow state.  Regardless, she knows the feeling; describing it to others is where potential problems can arise.

Righteous indignation is a solid contender, but...she dislikes it.

If she had been mainlining righteous indignation when they met, Deskyl would likely be dead right now.  Diana doesn't like the thought of being like that outside emergencies, where every tool must be on the table to its fullest extent.

The meditation settled...Diana sleeps.

Night passes, and morning follows.