10th Oration // Voice

[dun_moch]

I have a task available for any imPorts looking for work. A simple retrieval, quite legitimate.

[An image of the item in question is attached.]

Something was taken from me earlier this year. A weapon I crafted with my own hands, long ago: my lightsaber. A curved hilt, which emits a red blade of energy when activated. Powerful and elegant, if wielded by the proper hands. It is past time that it returned to my care, and I am prepared to offer a most handsome reward to anyone who assists me in this task. Should we be unable to agree on a fitting financial compensation, I am quite prepared to trade in favours or information instead.

[Dooku is kinda broke right now.]

Rest assured that I desire this item for no sinister purpose. It is my own creation and rightful possession, and I have keenly regretted its absence during recent perils.

I encourage all of you who don't have some manner of weapon or suitable powers to think carefully of how you, too, can defend yourselves. We live in dangerous times, and our enemies are many. Tell me, are you prepared to protect your own life and the lives of those around you when danger threatens? The time may come for you, if it hasn't already, when you will have to answer this question in ways beyond the hypothetical.

[OOC note: Characters tagging the Count for the first time are encouraged to check out his permissions post!]

Comments

voice; no probs!

[kanyounot]

You still have the ability to choose. We all serve the Force. But we can choose how. We use the gifts the Force has given us - but it is so much bigger than any of us can ever comprehend.

I'm not speaking in dogmas. I'm speaking from my own experiences. And it speaks to how far you've fallen, that you think my own destruction is what I should fear most.

[dun_moch]

I suppose you are happy to lay down your life on the altar of Jedi ideals. All a part of serving the Force, is it not?

Such a willingness to follow and be sacrificed is easily exploited by your enemies... as I know from experience.

[As a Jedi? As an enemy of the Jedi? Both?]

[kanyounot]

I don't choose to risk myself for ideals. I risk myself for people. But then, you can't imagine anyone or anything being more important than yourself, can you?

[dun_moch]

I imagine the fate of the entire Galaxy, Jedi. It is for that purpose that I have directed my work. Your petty aims betray a limited perspective.

[kanyounot]

And you're deceived by your own arrogance. The fate of the galaxy isn't yours to direct. Never has been, never will be.

[dun_moch]

And yet that fate was changed, by my design. You cannot deny that my involvement in the Clone Wars altered the shape of the Galaxy forever.

[kanyounot]

I can, actually. I mean, first of all, no one in their right mind should ever be proud of having a hand in a war that resulted in billions of deaths.

But also, nothing lasts forever. Many of the changes you set in motion are already changing again within one lifetime.

[dun_moch]

You participated in that war yourself, as I recall. Only in a much smaller way.

I assume you refer to the foretold victory of the Rebellion against Palpatine's rule. While this was hardly what was foreseen, the fact remains: the Old Republic has been swept away forever. Whatever the Rebels establish will be something new, not a return to what was before.

[kanyounot]

Yeah, I fought in the Clone Wars. And I'm not proud of it.

And whatever the Rebellion establishes will have nothing to do with you. If it hadn't been you, change would've come from some other person or event. You didn't do anything the Force didn't will.

[dun_moch]

[Dooku snorts softly.]

We have returned to where we began. If toppling the Republic and the Jedi were truly the will of the Force that you serve, then how can you condemn it? It was all destiny, as though in prophecy- a notion my apprentice believed in, to his downfall.

[Qui-Gon's embrace of the 'Chosen One' myth had led to two great disappointments. One was his death. The other was named Anakin Skywalker.]

[kanyounot]

For someone supposedly as wise as you are, you sure don't have a very good grasp of nuance.

But then, a Sith wouldn't.