damned_institute | Day 30: Patient Library (Fourth Shift)

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Day 30: Patient Library (Fourth Shift)

While he waited for his bulletin board correspondant, Farfarello perused the library's offerings once more. There was no sign of any of the books he'd requested in the suggestion box but he wasn't very suprised that this was the case--even if, by some chance, the Head Doctor actually intended to grant any of the reasonable requests it still would probably take more than a day for anything to happen. The wheels turned slowly, in institutions, and there was no reason for a fake institution to be any speedier than a real one.

For lack of anything better, Farfarello pulled down the Histories volume of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. A little Richard III would keep him diverted for a short while, anyway.

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"And she said specifically she was a Jedi herself?" Qui-Gon asked. "What exactly did she tell you about the Republic, Jedi and the Force?"

It wasn't easy to make a Jedi break down. For one to be "babbling"...well, it was rather worrying just thinking about it. There were probably a number of factors, like just time overall, or the possibility that she hadn't been able to adjust to her disappearing connection with the Force. But being a Jedi wasn't simply defined by a strong connection to the Force. It was also knowing that it would be there regardless. It was about understanding one's place in the universe and knowing that you would always be a part of the greater Force even if you couldn't reach it anymore.

Something that Qui-Gon thought he was better understanding the longer he stayed in Landels.

"No, she didn't."

She'd gone off on that tangent about the Jedi and Republic, and said just about everything but something on herself. Now that he thought back to it, she'd just about said jackshit about that subject.

"I'm guessing that knowledge of the Jedi isn't exactly hidden, so her knowing about it wouldn't be anything that special." Sanzo said. "But she said that she could see I was 'glowing', and that she could see it."

If he'd been anything but a Sanzo priest, it might have sounded like a load of bull...if Goku hadn't already made similar claims. Retard or not at times, there was always something different about him, but considering the origins, it wasn't nearly that surprising that he could sense something like that.

But having a complete stranger like Chusa sensing it? It was something worth noting.

Qui-Gon looked thoughtful for a moment, absently stroking his beard with one hand. "It's possible she was a Force Sensitive, if not an actual Jedi."

So what exactly had she seen? It was common for almost all beings to exude a little glow in the Force. Those strong in the Force tended to have a stronger presence, which is what she might have sensed...which would indicate then that Sanzo might be a Force Sensitive himself. Qui-Gon glanced at Sanzo, stretching out with his senses.

Yes, there was indeed a "glow" about the man, a pulsing aura in the Force that was fairly strong. It reminded him of a Jedi, and yet was different. There were emotions coloring it that certainly weren't very Jedi-like.

What was the difference between a "sensitive" and a Jedi? It sounded like there was some sort of ranking to the belief system, but not one he was familiar with - at least, not like the ones back in China.

Qui-Gon had fallen silent, probably thinking over what Sanzo had told him. The presence of someone from the same world could be comforting, but unless it was an ally, Sanzo didn't see how it would do much good.

The other patient was looking at him: not quite a stare, but it damn well felt like it. Qui-Gon wasn't just staring at his face or the chakra like most people did: it almost felt like he was looking right past that and right inside him.

"What are you looking at?" Sanzo asked warily.

There was no sense skipping around the question:

"I was looking at this 'glow' she mentioned," Qui-Gon said frankly. "I can see why she might have mistaken you for a Jedi: you appear to share qualities with one, in some aspects."

Well, in that Sanzo seemed to have a strong Force signature. Not the emotions coloring it. But, to use Renji's comparison earlier, he did seem rather strong in "spirit", to use the Earthian term for the Force. As far as Qui-Gon could tell, whatever powers Martin Landel had as a living hole in the Force, Sanzo here didn't share them. The Force around him wasn't being corrupted, but was instead vibrant like Obi-Wan's.

But where Obi-Wan was deliberate and reigned in his emotions, Sanzo didn't seem to bother: he embraced his, a thread of open impatience and anger running through the Earthian. It wasn't aimed necessarily at Qui-Gon. That much he could tell; it was something else, something possibly personal.

Sanzo snorted. "I don't know about that. Where I come from, priests might have some powers, but we don't have the ability to just drain an emotion out of a person, for starters."

Freeze a person in their tracks was do-able. So was summoning the powers of heaven and hell through a sutra. It just required some chanting, a lot of control and will.

But he'd never heard of any monk possessing a hint of the abilities that Qui-Gon had displayed. He hadn't even heard the other man chant or even whisper it; it had been almost instant, and silent. Whatever he was doing, he was using a different method, and possibly a far different mindset to even achieve it.

So it did appear that there was possibly a kind of Force-Sensitive order here on Earth; the way that Sanzo spoke of it, the priests were gifted with other than human "powers".

"Jedi are capable of using the Force to sometimes influence others," Qui-Gon said. "It's possible to directly influence the weak-willed. In your case, I merely used the Force to try to siphon off that anger."

Sanzo wasn't weak-willed and Qui-Gon hadn't actively tried to influence him; not in the traditional sense, anyway. He was curious as to what kind of powers the Earthian priests had; it was entirely possible they too used the Force, approaching it differently than a Jedi would. If that was the case, then there was possibly something he could learn here. One of his goals was to learn more about the Force in order to try to better re-connect to it. Perhaps an "alien" look at it was just what they needed.

That was enough to get Sanzo back on edge, no matter that tranquil air about Qui-Gon.

Even if he was of the opinion that most of the population were bumbling idiots (and that was when he was in a charitable mood), using abilities to influence like that was out of the question. For one, most people did enough damage to themselves and karma had a way of coming back on that, but on the other hand...

It sounded like an abuse of power, plain and simple. What would Qui-Gon's powers have done if the monk had been any less stubborn.

"So you can influence the 'weak-willed'..." Sanzo leaned back. "Chusa had suggested you Jedi were guardians, but that doesn't sound very fitting at all, if that's what your kind do."

Qui-Gon didn't deny that the idea alone of influencing others wasn't exactly ethically sound - one could always argue that some circumstances did call for it, but to invade another being's privacy, no matter the reasons, was always treading in dangerous territory.

"We rarely do it," Qui-Gon said, conceding Sanzo's point. "Sometimes we must. But a proper Jedi won't abuse this ability; if he or she uses it, it will be because there was no other choice. It is not about any kind of personal gain or for power."

Obi-Wan would argue that Qui-Gon himself was walking that line about Force persuasion, although Qui-Gon didn't quite agree. That time in the bongo-bongo with Jar-Jar? Had been similar to what he'd done with Sanzo. Only where Jar-Jar probably would've broken something in his panicked flailing, Sanzo might have angered the radio-man enough to get that feline on them. Or, at the very least, they would have gone weaponless.

Qui-Gon glanced out across the library as he recited the Jedi Code: "There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is the Force. That is the Code of the Order."

So basically it was like a loaded gun. You didn't go threatening innocents (Gojyo and the chimp didn't necessarily count as that; they deserved it the majority of the time) just because you had the power to do it. Guns were protection, and like these abilities, not brandished about for shits and giggles.

It made sense. Qui-Gon didn't dance around the issue either, just acknowledged that there was a potential for good and harm from the ability. That in itself spoke of maturity, and a sense that there might be something beyond black and white.

Sanzo straightened at the apparent code. There was something very familiar about it, even if it was the first time he'd ever heard those exact words.

The core, if he interpreted it correctly, was non-attachment.

"Muchimotsu". Sanzo said. "Maybe we do actually have something in common."

"What is 'michimotsu'?" Qui-Gon asked. To Sanzo, it appeared to be something similar to the Jedi Code.

We. So he probably was a priest, if that "we" was anything to go by. It would explain his abnormally strong Force signature, like and yet unlike a Jedi at the same time. It wasn't that uncommon in the galaxy for there to be civilizations to have their own groups similar to the Jedi - Force Sensitives that carried out a certain purpose, fitting in a special niche reserved for them in society. Some were neutral, like the Jedi. Others were decidedly more specialized, some even occupying positions of power.

Simply being attuned to the Force didn't mean you were automatically barred from abusing that power. He had to wonder just how this Earthian priest group fitted into things.

"Muchimotsu." Sanzo corrected. The part about Buddha might not have too much relevance for someone who didn't know who he was in relation to Buddhism, but the rest of it would make up for that.

"Embrace nothing. If you meet the Buddha, kill the him. If you meet your father, kill him. Only live your life as it is, not bound to anything."

It sounded pretty fucked up (on the surface), at least compared to the Jedi code, but Buddhism didn't advocate violence either, but right living.

That sounded fine in theory, but Sanzo was willing to bet that the majority of the monks living in their secluded temples didn't have to fight for their life on a daily basis.

"Non-attachment, basically." the monk finished.

Qui-Gon blinked. That was an odd description for denying attachment. It was almost entirely against everything the Jedi stood for, even though the end result was the same.

The Jedi Master was quiet for a moment. He didn't sense the same level of darkness around Sanzo that he had around that mysterious Sith, both on Tatooine and on Naboo. It'd been the strongest right before that lightsaber came at him and he'd felt it burn right through him. But it appeared that these Earthian priests and the Jedi had completely different views on what was attachment.

"It seems that our goals are the same," Qui-Gon said. He frowned a little. "But our methods are different. Our focus on detachment is so that we may be compassionate to all; we are in service to others, never to our own personal, selfish whims."

In theory, any way. A good Jedi would be a servant to the public and to the Force. In reality, however, Qui-Gon was starting to realize that he wasn't exactly the best example of a good Jedi these days. Not when he was beginning to believe he most certainly did have some selfish attachments.

Maybe Sanzo did do most things on selfish whim or reason, but then again, most of his behavior didn't really fit in with the traditional view of Buddhism. Sanzo just viewed it as a different take on it: he was practicing non-attachment by not even being burdened by all of the expectations of the religion.

He could think of a high ranking monk or several that hadn't liked that train of though.

Sanzo shrugged.

"Well, Buddhism doesn't exactly advocate going on selfish whim," he replied. "The reason for non-attachment, even one that may seem so drastic, is because one is trying to gain enlightenment, to break the cycle of reincarnation and suffering."

Living the right way should prevent mindless chaos, but that was going into too much at once. Besides, Sanzo didn't necessarily want to be giving a goddamn sermon, not when there was something he could learn from Qui-Gon.

That was interesting, that the reason for the Jedi detachment was to allow for compassion. Even more interesting was that Qui-Gon didn't see that his service to others was actually still an attachment, even if he wasn't fettered by personal needs, as he claimed.

"Why do the Jedi seem to forbid attachments? Is it for the same reason, that it creates complications, suffering?"

Qui-Gon chose his words carefully. "Attachments can lead to fear, anger, and aggression - all of these can serve to corrupt a Jedi, who can stray from serving the Force and serving others. We seek to gain our own understanding of the universe around us by meditation, not abusing the gift of the Force for selfish reasons."

The Jedi were to be guardians of peace and justice. But he sensed that answer wasn't what Sanzo was looking for. What he was looking for was considerably more spiritual, less concerned with the day-to-day activities of a Jedi or their larger purpose in the Republic. What he wanted, Qui-Gon believed, was to know if the Jedi were like these Earthian priests.

Qui-Gon laced his fingers in his lap as he went on: "A Jedi's life is one of sacrifice. We sacrifice such things as attachment in order to honor life itself: you could say our lives are not our own to live - they are of service to others and to the Force itself."

He'd said something similar to that once. And it still stood as the briefest, most accurate description of what a Jedi stood for that he could think of. A true Jedi, as he understood the Order, was the very opposite of a Sith in that a Jedi would sacrifice all where a Sith would sacrifice none: Sith wanted power over themselves and others, giving into their emotions and viewing the Force as a tool, an asset, and not as the living, breathing thing that it was. The Force to a Sith was only something to be used. A Jedi, on the other hand, would pledge their lives to the Force as a higher power that ran throughout the universe, in every being, every form of life.

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Day 30: Patient Library (Fourth Shift)

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