She doesn't say anything.

Yeah, he didn't think so.

He cycles through a few more emotions, slowly, then returns to his neutral calm from the start.

Brin catches the larger changes but seems unable to detect subtler gradations.

"I did it."

"You did! That was really good! Congrats."

"Thank you."

"So, Jedi are all about finding peace with the universe and not having attachments and being a tool through which the Light Side of the Force can do good. That's mystic bullpoop. The Sith aren't the only alternative, either, with their intemperate lack of control and explosive natures. I met a species that did the Force differently, so it must be possible, right? I've been trying to find something like that, but it's hard. Lord Occlus's presence here doesn't make it easy, either, 'cause she's very Sith, and if I'm not very careful I slip into her—environment, field, whatever, the thing she does with the Force around her."

"So anyway. What I've been doing in my meditation sessions is starting with what I just told you to do, and then getting on my feet and doing some standing exercises. Nothing fixed or specific, no one-pose-after-another like the Jedi, something more fluid, moving my body according to my emotions and according to the—ebb and flow of the Force, the eddies and stuff? I try to do something halfway between Jedi and Sith, not quite a tool that the Force uses for whatever inscrutable reasons, but not treating the Force like a weapon I wield, either. I... don't actually know how Sith really do it, but I figure it's something like that."

"Why do you care about that?"

"It's 'cause... because...

"I've been Jedi, and I've been that other thing, and now Sith, and the Force—I think—influences my brain. I'm more impulsive, here, and less likely to listen to myself—I used the mind trick on a guy once and only remembered that was actually wrong the next day. Maybe I'm wrong, but... I don't wanna be Sith. I don't want to be a killing machine and helpless to my emotions. I also don't wanna be Jedi, I don't want to be a mindless tool to some big unknowable thing. I wanna be me. The Force has goals for me? Fine. I'll help it, if it helps me. It's not a tool, but neither am I, and that's important."

"That seems... complicated."

"Yeah but complicated is better than..." He waves vaguely. "The thing Sith become. The mindless murder machines with wrinkled faces. I wonder if they even have sex or if it all just becomes power power power paranoia paranoia paranoia."

"...I don't think I want to think about Sith and sex."

"But. They're not all mindless."

"Not all, no. Lord Occlus—almost was, when I met her. She had ghosts in her head or something and they were driving her crazy. Then we did this cool ritual and now she's alright. But like—it's really really common? And when you get powerful enough to become a Darth it's almost guaranteed? And there's also the thing where they simply cannot cooperate—with each other or with Jedi—and they must have power over everyone around them, and taking apprentices is always a risk because of the high rate of apprentice-murders-master rate and I know it's not that simple but it's a pattern."

"Is it okay for you to be saying this out loud?"

"Lord Occlus is chill, and she knows Sith go crazy," he shrugs. "I don't know if she expects one of us to try to kill her. Maybe she knows I won't? Think I'm gonna ask her that later."

"I don't think I would want to try to kill her."

"I kinda like her? She's really not bad for a Sith, and if she kills Thanaton then she becomes a Darth and having someone like her in the council can't do them harm. Maybe there'll even be infighting and more people will be replaced with sensible people!"

"Sith infighting usually means a lot of military people die."

"...oh right they do that, don't they. Ugh."

"A lot of them don't think about that."

"But well, I think you can see why I kinda want nothing to do with this system? I think I was really lucky to meet Lord Occlus rather than literally anyone else."

"Yeah."

"Anyway! We got distracted. Do you wanna do more Force things?"