Students
APOTHECARY'S PERSONAL LOG BEGIN AUDIO PLAYBACK So people tell me to put my foot down ... and then there is trouble when I do. Honestly, I do not think there is any chance in the galaxy that I will ever become any better at this 'social' ... thing. I have largely been locked in the lab the last few days. I imagine Rilus is not entirely pleased about this. At least the stealth sandwiches have stopped (which just proves who was responsible for them; Arbiter Alasha has been a little preoccupied, and understandably so, with injuries that Kanth and the Archon sustained in a battle with Jettak, the Garhoon 'heretic' responsible for this 'undead monster' issue we are facing at the moment), so I feel a little less guilt about putting anyone to any trouble. Still, beyond time spent in the kitchen and some stealth feeding of my own - because I may be busy with various bits and pieces but I'm nerfed to the Outer Rim and back if I will let Rilus subsist on mess hall food - there really has not been time for much else. I imagine that part of this is Ozakif, my maybe-padawan. When I asked advice about his apparent contempt for any sort of discipline, a problem I had already anticipated was highlighted beyond my ability to work around it; a padawan's training is a highly time-consuming endeavour, a way of life being learned, and there was no way that Ozakif could devote adequate time to it if he continued with the Third Marines. So I had to offer him the choice - train as my padawan, or remain with the Third. I knew it was going to be a difficult decision for him, but that is the life of a Jedi. Difficult decisions have to be made, preferably without an emotional meltdown being involved. ...Which means that it is not particularly heartening that his first reaction was to flee for Coruscant, where he feels 'safe'. He has told me that he had trained under masters before, but I honestly do not see it. Did their training go by the wayside so quickly? He did, to his credit, apologise for leaving without saying a word to me, but spent that credit early by informing me that having to choose was not 'fair'. Given some of his experience in the field, I am a little curious as to where he got the impression that life was 'fair'. Any warrior - Jedi, marine, or other - has to make difficult decisions. And in terms of being Jedi ... we are the ones who have to be fair, even when it means that the world is less fair to us than it is to anyone else. That is our burden. It is different for Ozakif, I know this. Most of us began on that path so young that we know no other way. He is starting late, for all he talks about being 'only' nineteen. He is six months or so younger than I am, no more. Chronological age has nothing to do with mental or emotional maturity. Look at Lynai ... Kadin ... Nake. In any case, if I know anything about Ozakif, he is currently on Nar Shaddaa, indulging the gabaki habit I told him to start breaking. He may return, and he may even decide that he is ready to devote his life to the path he said he wanted when he asked that I take him as padawan. But ... honestly, I am not sure he's ready. I'm not sure he'll ever be ready. However, I will keep an open mind and evaluate him very carefully when he comes back. And I will not commit to anything until that evaluation is complete, and ensure that he does not burn bridges with the Third until I am satisfied that he truly is ready to undertake this responsibility. Beyond that ... there has been a great deal of work to do. I am still trying to work on my own branch of research involving Gara - or GARA - and that is taxing in the extreme and currently not going anywhere. There was curing Master Othone, which worked well but apparently must be kept a secret because to make it known that I cured what was deemed incurable would tip Master Othone's hand and put me in more danger than I find myself in already. There is training with Raiyden, who I think is nearly ready to start learning to channel the Flames into compounds for the Aegis cores and so forth. Beyond even that, there was updating the various notes I have been keeping on Force-severance, since Sedryn came to me feeling 'sick' and it was clear that his disorientation was due to his Force connection coming back. Apparently the black substance destroyed the immediate capacity for using the Force but the core of his potential remained, nearly dormant and helped by a Force-bond to his unborn son. Given Tython's state of war, I recommended Alpherides as a place for him to go to retrain himself in the basics. And then there was Caer. I did not mean to hurt her feelings. I just ... do not do well with social situations. I have spent one wedding, one cantina night and more conversations than I can count backed up against a wall because too many people ... I still find it overwhelming in a number of ways. But she kept pressing and pressing for this 'girl's night out' thing and seemed set to bully me into it 'for my own good' and while I appreciate that some progress can be made by throwing someone into a social situation at the deep end ... Arbiter Nyomi and Tomuraan are right; I have to draw a line somewhere. But 'no' was not working. What was left but flagging up the fact that she was trying to impose her ideas on how to live onto me? I tried to soften it with explaining that I am not a particularly social person and get awkward in large groups, and that frankly I am not a 'fun' person in that way. It didn't work. She is still upset about it. So I stay in the lab and hope that Rilus is not going to request that the med droids remove me bodily. I have things to do. Things that do not inadvertently hurt my friends or end up with me fretting unduly over a maybe-padawan roaming nerf-knows-where doing nerf-knows-what and leaving me entirely at a loss for how I will schedule my own life around his non-decision.








