"Yeah, from the histories - he was active about three, four hundred years ago."

"...Right.  Point two, is there an especially immortal Sith Emperor on the throne right now.  Because I'm not sure what the hell's up with him, not an era I've read much about - but it sure fucking is up, if I know anything about anything whatsoever."

"I don't have details either, but it's at least likely, Sith don't get immortality like that easily."

"Right.  With the timeline pinned down a bit, let's see what we've got...I'll be right back.  Oh, I can probably get your orders?  If you want."

She'll be right back from the Bar.  Once she's done assembling an absolute pile of what looks like datapads to the eyes of an average resident of Pradnakt's home galaxy, but is actually a bunch of Android tablets.

"Al-right.  We've got, Tenebrae aka Vitiate aka The Emperor cued up on here, Revan cued up on here because he's not dead yet somehow, Kreia also known as Darth Traya on here because her philosophy is stupid and she was entangled with Revan's shit, Satele Shan the likely present Grandmaster of the Jedi Order on here...  ...Actually we should probably cross-reference that with your sources --

"The dates are kind of fucked, unfortunately, because everyone knows you want to run your calendar backwards," she snarks - or perhaps kvetches - "and I could probably re-zero them to your present time with a bit of magic but I don't want to do that without warning.  That magic is particularly spooky.  Or I could proooobably script up something based on a known event like - " tap tappity tap glare - "Oh, for fuck's sake.  It's like they want absolutely nothing to be dated in reasonable numbers like time after a specific event that people would actually know literally anything about, Tho Yor Arrival calendar I'm looking at you.  Does Coruscant Reckoning even exist?  I think it at least ought to cover your timeframe, but it's so slipshod..."

Well, see, the problem is that with everyone on different planets there's no obvious standard year, and it's not like the Republic and the Empire are going to collaborate on setting a standard. (And the less said about the Hutts in this context the better, really.) But Daisy can translate the dates into something Lord Pradnakt will be familiar with, given a few datapoints to work with.

"Oh thank the gods.  Excuse me.  Thank the...

"Huh, who should I be thanking - Mysterious Narrative Forces?  Certainly not gods, Earth didn't actually have any that could be proven - probably not the Force itself or any of the people on Mortis - really, especially not them, I should probably put that on the 'long-term preemptively resolvable crises' list - and the Azerosi equivalent of divine beings wouldn't really have the right sort of influence, being as they're, mechanically speaking, bundles of Concepty λstuff, with an orderly interface."

Yes, she just pronounced an absence, reality will have to deal with it.

(These datapads are very unlike any Daisy's seen before, by the way - oddly well-provisioned, but then having a lot of those provisions worn through by often-needlessly convoluted programming - but their software isn't hard to pick up and alter, if that's what she's doing.  It's a language, after all, and she has Omniglot.)

"I'd suggest 'thank the Spirit', but I don't think she had anything to do with that in particular. Nine," she addresses the other droid, "do you want to read through these and give us a synopsis, please?"

    "Sure," he rumbles, and she slides the datapads over to him.

"...Sure, we can thank our respective Random Omnipotent Beings, that works.  ...What's yours like?"

Really, Alicia.

...Yes, actually.  Really.

"Surprisingly personable, compared to the Force at least. She calls herself the Spirit of Femininity Unleashed and she's fairly narrative-focused, I believe she probably did have something to do with you meeting us."

"Huh.  I just got a generic 'Will of the Multiverse', with a - mm, somewhere between penchant and obsession - for a particular genre of genre-parodying romance plots.  ...Um.  Two different genres, that is to say.  A type of novel that parodies a dating simulator and introduces the 'villainess' as a sort of character that exists.  Mostly as an isekai target.  ...Not sure which I'd rather, really.  On the one hand, I finally got to get some worldbuilding ideas that had been rattling around in my head for ages down on paper, and then actually make use of them, which was nice.  And I managed to mitigate most of the problems I could have, right out of the gate, by collaborating with the proctor to find a Heroine to work with - an alternate-universe version of herself, actually - and being picky about the plot.  On the other hand I am responsible for a kingdom and it might not be a wholeass planet but - I have no idea how anyone can stand that sort of power weighing on them.  At least, anyone with functioning empathy, which is rather hard to come by in the halls of power, as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure most of them bother to have any.  Certainly not the average Sith.  I mean, really, is that fan-theorized 'Peace is a lie, there is only suffering' thing real?  Because if it really always was passion, I have some complaints about the bit where -

"I'm just going to lay out this line of thought that's always been nagging at me and pay attention to the truth values afterwards.

"So.

"There is a difference, is the thing, between the path of the Sith, and the path of The Dark Side.  And we see this with Dark Jedi.  They're an inversion of what the Order teaches, perhaps - but they're still fundamentally of that Order's line of thought.

"And it has never made sense to me that the Sith order has always been so focused upon the Darkness, because that's what keeps breaking it apart.

"Passion can be for constructive use!  And yet the iconic Sith have a passion for control, and a passion for destruction.  And a passion, in the greatest and worst, for suffering.

"But you can construct something different from that.

"It's a Jedi line, but - 'Fear is the path to the Dark Side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hatred.  Hatred leads to suffering.'  So why, when the first Sith seized the Force, did they throw themselves upon the path of suffering!  Why is the focus always upon fear!

"Why not -

"You can flip it around.  Because courage is not the absence of fear, it never was - it is acting despite your fears.  And peace is a lie, when people suffer.  So to return to the Sith Code, to construct a brighter mirror of it," and she's gathering steam, dropping into full Dramatic Noble Speech Elocution -

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

"You must act despite your fears.  You must cultivate a passion for justice, for without justice there is no peace.

"Through passion I gain strength.

"Of course you do.  You gain strength because the passion itself drives you to develop the strength and fortitude necessary to act upon wrongs that are hidden in the dark.

"Through strength I gain power.

"This one...This one is tricky.  Because what is the difference between strength and power?  And yet, they are, or else the Code would hardly mention it.  Through strength of will and fortitude of mind you gain the power to act.  Not the power that seizes spoils, but the power that breaks chains, because -

"Through power I gain victory.

"There is an enemy of all life in the galaxy and that enemy is suffering.  That is what you wish to be the victor over, lest it consume you!  Workers of the world unite, for you have nothing to lose but your chains!  And indeed we see that in the very next line, because,

"Through victory, my chains are broken; The Force shall free me.

"And how many Dark-siders you've met were truly free?

"I'd say exactly none of them - not even the kriffing Emperor himself has gained true freedom, for all his so-called 'power'.  Because he is still chained by fear, and chained by greed."

Her voice is soft, as she continues.  "It is this last line, I think, that the Sith as they practice today most often forget.  Because we are not free, when a single soul is in chains -" and once more, passion takes her; "And this I know they have forgotten, for this Code was itself forged in the revolt against an Empire - built upon the backs of slaves."

She takes a moment, and a breath.

"So.  Yeah.

"...That just happened."  Another breath.  "Might need a minute.  Bit busy having.  Feelings.  And emotions.  And.  You know."

...Does she have a -

Beverage?  Yes.  She does now.

"...Thanks, Sia."

"And now, your Highness, you can continue having conversations that won't cause diplomatic incidents," she says, as she lifts the spell that placed Alicia on mute for the past minute-or-so of pacing and dramatic gesticulation - ever since Alicia started saying 'Certainly not the average --' and the woman who took over social handling for their counterparts started bracing for impact.

"It does sound philosophically interesting, I must admit, but really.  Do apologize.  You wield words like a knife and they've cut what you did not intend to."

"...And my apologies to you as well, ladies, gentlemen; it is, I've found, better to let her tire herself out than interrupt her mid-rant, but that's still no reason for her to have done it.  Nonetheless I ask your forbearance on her behalf; neither she, nor her...predecessor, were remotely adequately informed about how to read the room."

"..."

"...Ah.  Uh.  Yeah.  Uh.  Sorry."

She practically collapses inwards.

"It's all right," she says, more to Ciara than to Alicia, and then she turns to Pradnakt. "Ma'am, could you go get me that milkshake?"

"Of course, Love. Flavor?"

"Bar's made good suggestions so far."

"All right." She squeezes her hand one last time and heads off.

"...I think the best way to put it, really.

"Is that...

"I have had some issues.

"With the way the Sith were treated, by the writers.

"If you think it would be better that I go, I'll see myself off."

Despite the way she really doesn't want to.

Oh, Alicia...

"If you have questions," she puts a subtle bit of emphasis on the word, "I might be able to answer them, it's just a conversation I'd rather not have in front of my friend."

"I'm not really sure what I could usefully have questions about, given that - all we are, all we can be to eachother - is two ships passing in the night.  I have - too many obligations, and I doubt you want to follow me home; we don't exactly have space travel.  Though I'm working on it, I'll admit."

"...Alicia, you're typical-minding.

"...Miss...I don't believe we've had proper introductions, actually.  Well.  Regardless.  There's not so much time as to spare much for them, right now.  I'd ask, given everything, if there's anything that your lady would prefer us to know about her feelings towards these 'Sith'."