::I don't really know about any of this, yet.  I'm not sure of it.  But...It's what my heart tells me, and I tend to listen to my emotions when they get me monologuing.  It's not something that overrides logic...but it's - I want to challenge the way Sith work.  I want to change the galaxy.  And I think I might be finding a way, depending upon how these experiments turn out.::

::Sure, that's reasonable. It's just - peoples' feelings change; if you're killing people over something that isn't hurting anyone else and might well be temporary for them that sounds like something's gone wrong by your own lights. If they want to kill themselves, fine, but you making that call yourself seems wrong.::

::Oh, no.  No.  No.  Those are things that can be mended.  But I expect that amongst the Sith of the galaxy, there will be many that - no matter how much compassion they might be forced to feel, they will not become a person that cares about not hurting other people.::

::...ah. That, yeah. Compassion's the wrong tool for the job, it's not about that, usually.::

::How would you do it?::

::I haven't exactly put a lot of thought into it. But the problem to solve is that most Sith live most of their lives under regular threat of death, and letting anyone see any kind of softness is a weakness that can absolutely get them killed. Making them want to be soft harder doesn't solve that; you have to make it safe to be soft - even just as soft as they already are - and figure out how to show them that it is safe.::

::Oh, that's not even the sort of problem I was thinking of.  The - the people who have twisted their understanding of compassion so wildly -:: A greasepaint-coated face, a wild shock of green hair, a man too wilfully cruel to ever be 'insane' in a way that's fixed by psychiatry instead of somehow shattering an immutable psychophilosophical touchstone, and that red, leering slasher smile as he hurts so many people ::- that there's nothing in them that would let you change them anymore.::

Pradnakt shrugs. ::I'm sure there'll be a few like that, but mostly Sith are just people.::

::Well.  Here's hoping that you're right, then.  There's so many back home, or perhaps I just see them more frequently.::

::It's also possible that you're misjudging them.:: She shrugs. ::I have no way of knowing.::

::It's possible, but I've tried with so many, and even succeeded with some.  I think, I hope, that I would be better than that.::

::It is legitimately hard. I don't think anyone would have been able to do much for me when I first came out here - I mean short of pinning me down and mind-'healing' me, which isn't exactly help, in my opinion, and it doesn't sound like you have the option anyway.::

::The carceral nature of Earth-modern psychiatry does so much harm to the people it purports to help.  Not to mention the abundance of psychological resources bent around increasing productivity, rather than satisfaction.::

::Sounds like a different problem. Not like an unrelated one, though.::

::Yeah.  I'm just, sure that if Earth's mind-healers had been called in, they likely would have done something stupid like what you mentioned.::

::...but honestly, part of the problem is that if I really tried, I could have something like that option.  And it would be so unethical, so against the core of who I am and who I want to be, but some people have legitimately reformed because of it, and...I don't know.  I feel like if I can't beat that fucker's track record I'm probably failing somebody, I guess, and...this isn't even related to what we were originally talking about.  Sith and their...hardness.  I'm not sure there's a Light I could put to making it feel safe to be soft, but if I had to pick...::

::Hope.  Definitely, definitely Hope.

::...Well.  I think I know what I'm going to start working on, after the kyber.::

Pradnakt gives Diana a bit of a dubious look, but finishes up the last few bites of her breakfast and brings her dishes over to Daisy rather than saying anything further, and then sits by Nine to strike up a signed conversation with him.

::...Hm?  I mean, if the conversation's over, I get it, but - I notice I am confused.::

She signs once more to Nine before replying. ::Seemed done to me, did you have more to say?::

::I don't know, I kind of thought you did.  Although, I suppose getting caught up in reminiscing hardly makes me look like a good conversation partner.  It's just...if any light is most ironically named, it is the light of Hope, because it - it isn't Hope, it's actualization.  At least, when the Blue Lanterns use it.::

::The first use on record was to resurrect a star that was about to go supernova.::

::So I tend to get a bit distracted when I think about it.  Because if there's any other Light I'd want to wield, it would be that one.::

::Huh. And what would you expect it to do to Sith?::

::It's not what it could do to Sith.  It's what it could do for them.  The ones that the system broke.  The ones that are as hopeless as I was when I arrived here.  The ones who have been desperately scrabbling for anything other than misery.::

::Because the Blue Light...::

::It builds on itself.  It compounds.::

::If you have a single spark of it, you can build that spark into a bonfire.::

::And if he whose faith is as big as a mustard seed can move mountains, then what of he whose faith is in what he has stoked from a single shimmering spark to a power enough to shape stars?::

::That doesn't actually answer my question.::

::It doesn't?::  She seems - driftily bemused by that, as if she was touched by something fey and far beyond her, and her brain is only now coming back into focus.

::I suppose it wouldn't...not unless you know of Blues.  Which you don't, which is the whole problem, isn't it?  Silly me.  I don't...think the Blue light has...significant externalities, beyond the mindset one must cultivate - and you'd likely know more than I what that might look like, really.  It's...belief, that...that you can do the right thing.  It's...There's some things that are special about each and every Light color, and Blue Lanterns, they can recharge from being believed in.  It's...I'm having so much trouble describing it because it's - I'm too close.  To the mindset, to the people who inspire it - how do you describe the nature of the Force, to those who know it not?  Because that's the sort of fumbling around I have to do.  It's the light that heroes want to wield.  It's optimism, trust, healing...if I wasn't pretty sure that a hypothetical Life-Itself is joie de vivre, I'd say that was, as well.  It's the belief that better things can be.::

"Ah." ::Yeah, I get it. I'm not sure that that'll work entirely without a hitch, but you're on the right track with it. If you can figure out how to make it happen, anyway.::

::Well, I believe I can, and it all starts there, doesn't it?::  She quirks a tiny smile at her joke, even as the more...normative undercurrent of compassion bleeds back in to the empathic link.  ::I suppose we'll find out, someday.  And hopefully someday soon.::