Alderaan - Love and Intrigue

After the race Garth and Tethys had wandered off into the wilds of Alderaan to catch up. It had been a few days since they last crossed paths, and there had been a little time since then for both of them to come to terms with how their last meeting had ended.

"It is nice out here, innit." He chatted casually. "Very...city meets country."

"It is lovely," Tethys agrees, tucking a stray loc back behind her shoulder as she tilts her face up to look at the blue sky patched with fluffy white clouds. "I nearly want to say 'almost too lovely,' but that would be such a cliche," she adds with a chuckle.

"Ah would've said th' same a few hours ago. So ah c'n hardly call y' out fer it now." Garth jokes, but he knew Tethys was her own harshest critic.

"Y' getting out here in the fresh air much? Knight Kat seems t' have her hands full, and ah can't help but wonder if it's family drama pulling in the Jedi, or Jedi drama pullin' in the family."

"Jedi Ulgo is in a difficult position, really." Tethys flicks her right hand open, accompanying a one-shoulder shrug. "Family is a strong attachment. I'm learning that nobody really seems to expect Jedi born to the noble houses here to untangle it." A slight frown line appears between her eyebrows in parallel to this thought.

"Ah've seen that look before, Tethys. Makes me think there's more on yer mind than a simple shrug can cover. Y' need a sounding board? Ah'm here for ya."

Garth absently pulls a flower off a bush, plucking off the petals with busy fingers.

Tethys shakes her head. "Thank you, but... well, I don't know. It's nothing too material. Just strange to find so many members of my Order so caught up in familial politics. When Layne Hoshin appears the reliable one..." She shakes her head with a wry smile, trailing her fingertips through the fragrant leaves of a shrub in passing.

"You're neck-deep in it too, I imagine, but it's different. You're not a Jedi."

"Well we already know them brown robes don' flatter me near as much as you." Garth joked.

"But no, ah'm only on th' fringes, th' family's still comin' t' terms with a long lost relative. Ah hope th' familial ties y' see aren't pullin' on yer calm too much." He asks gently, knowing how they bonded over their orphanings before.

"No, I don't think it's--" She starts to brush off the implication about her own family ties, lightly, but then comes up short. "I wasn't thinking about it that way." A reflective, slightly wry frown knits her brows again and pulls at the edges of her mouth. "Now I'm not sure, all of a sudden. Maybe it's partly me. I can't see how one could balance such strong blood ties against duty to the Code. But... well, of course I can't."

She tilts her head a little, looking more intently at Garth. "And you? Never mind what your new family makes of you--how are you finding them?"

"Ah were talking with a Pantoran this morning, Durasay. He were speaking of perspective, how everyone's got one an how they all diff'rent." Garth reflects out loud. "He was referrin' specifically t' force traditions ah think, but it applies to other areas too."

"Ah can't speak t' how it interacts with yer Code, but ah can make a confessiin, that mah family isn't th' one ah've been interacting with th' most. Have y' met Miyi Thul?"

"Durasay... ah. Senator Mixo?" Her brows arch. "He's... an interesting character." There are clearly a lot of layers to that interesting, rather mixed ones at that. "He's right that every person understands the Force on their own terms, in the end. Some perspectives are still clearer than others, depending on how much other concerns cloud the waters... Hm. So you're right, that's a description you could apply to other situations, too." A half-smile flashes.

Miyi Thul? Where have I... oh.

"No, I haven't met Ms. Thul. I've seen her around at some of the royal family's events, that's all. Why?" she asks, sounding a bit... cautious?

"Interesting?" Garth questions Tethys's choice of words. "Las' time ah heard someone use that word with that much weight was my ma, when the town playboy came sniffin' round after mah sister. Th' Senator seems t' lean on a less balck an' white interpretation of th' Force an, ah wonder how much ah c'n trust him."

A pensive look settles on Garth's face. "Ah've felt th' Dark before, but it's never filled me with feelin's of strength, more of depseration an' regret. Ah realise th' Aznuri teach th' Force is all one big thing an sometimes y' draw the Light, 'n sometimes th' Dark, but he ah felt him pull from th' Dark an' he seemed, well, comfy with it."

A shake of his head cleared the unpleasant thoughts and he spoke of something that visibly brightened his mood. "Well we, you an' me, remember how we were talkin' th' other day about finding our happiness. An ah dunno if it's jus' festival fever or somethin', but..." Garth lets out a sigh. Not a sigh of frustration this time, but of contentment.

"Well th' Duke asked me t' spend some time with her, t' clear a path for Yula with th' Prince, an it seems, we enjoy each other's company. Although ah'm apparently a massive dork."

"Ah, she noticed?" Tethys chuckles at that. "Not a bad thing." She waves a hand in vague reassurance.

"I'm glad you're enjoying the festival in the intended spirit. I--" I can't just tell him about Breela's vid. It's not reliable, considering everything else the Cunning Man's had faked. Despite her attempt to keep her tone light, Tethys's expression sobers a bit. "Just be careful, all right?"

She shakes her head at herself. "Tch, I must sound like someone's mother. Awful. 'Be careful of House Thul, be careful of Senator Mixo, don't forget to put on solar protectant spray before you go out.' I know you can make your own choices, I really do. Whenever you've practiced a thing, your instincts are good--about flying, the Dark Side... so why not politics, too?"

Garth snorts in mock indignation. "Well, ah'm told it's an endearing quality, besides what sort of Alderaanian noble would ah be," his chest puffs out a little as he lumps himself into a category he still doesn't believe he belongs in, "if ah didn' throw mahself whole heartedly inta the celebration?"

Garth didn't need to reach into the Force to sense something was wrong with Tethys, that something more was on her mind, but he was distracted from that thought by a more obvious restraint in her movements.
"Maybe you should take yer own advice," He says in a protective tone as he reaches out tentatively towards her. "What HAVE you been up to the last few days?"