He walked in the many colors of her eyes, thinking over how to formulate it. How to invoke lofty references without getting too high above his actual (simpler, cruder) idea.
"Think of the Guardians of the Whills," he said. "Warrior-monks. …The Jedi. Fighting others was a last resort. It wasn't the reason… they'd have practiced the same skills in peacetime too. Self-control. Learn how to fight to become more able not to. Keep others from having to."
His eyes flickered down to his own hand, which he'd moved to brush across the exposed skin at her collar, come to rest gently on her sternum.
"I could never be one of those," he said drily. "But maybe I don't have to be. To… try to make just a little of that reality for someone else.
"I found a place in Maurtia Falls. Closed, left vacant. Used to be a training center for that sort of thing. The local idiom is martial arts. Includes self-defense, meditation. The neighbors told me it used to draw a lot of kids in the area. Ones with poor families, or no families… the ones others look at first to use for the drug trade or the flesh trade or as cannon fodder… Nobody would say having the training center to go to had solved their problems, but…" His eyes flickered to hers again. Seeming… a little self-conscious, but beneath that… a gleam of the old conviction he'd had in the Alliance. (Before it deserted him. …Though had come back, a bit, when the fleet followed them to Scarif.)
"…but apparently it helped. Them keep more of their own choices. See they had some even when it wasn't obvious. …Gave some hope."
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"Think of the Guardians of the Whills," he said. "Warrior-monks. …The Jedi. Fighting others was a last resort. It wasn't the reason… they'd have practiced the same skills in peacetime too. Self-control. Learn how to fight to become more able not to. Keep others from having to."
His eyes flickered down to his own hand, which he'd moved to brush across the exposed skin at her collar, come to rest gently on her sternum.
"I could never be one of those," he said drily. "But maybe I don't have to be. To… try to make just a little of that reality for someone else.
"I found a place in Maurtia Falls. Closed, left vacant. Used to be a training center for that sort of thing. The local idiom is martial arts. Includes self-defense, meditation. The neighbors told me it used to draw a lot of kids in the area. Ones with poor families, or no families… the ones others look at first to use for the drug trade or the flesh trade or as cannon fodder… Nobody would say having the training center to go to had solved their problems, but…" His eyes flickered to hers again. Seeming… a little self-conscious, but beneath that… a gleam of the old conviction he'd had in the Alliance. (Before it deserted him. …Though had come back, a bit, when the fleet followed them to Scarif.)
"…but apparently it helped. Them keep more of their own choices. See they had some even when it wasn't obvious. …Gave some hope."