Social The One where Ishy Drags Sarge through some Basic Jedi stuff as punishment.....

Serapis landed his vessel at the appointed spot on the appointed planet. That's when he received his communique. He needed to "help" people. He looked at his brother, @Sarge, the Jedi. "This is your realm, Sir Bonaventure. You're the bleeding heart. What do you think?" He didn't have to wait. The lack of response told him what he needed to know. His brother was still out cold.

He read through the missive again. He could either help the orphans for ten years or help two families for one year. Then it goes on to encourage him to "be creative." How can anyone "be creative" with two options?!?

Fine. An ancient philosopher once posited, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." So my creativity will be to teach these people to fish. So, how is the best way to do so? He would need to help them establish some kind of industry for the village. Some way of being able to support themselves.

He could interview the families. Find out which ones were best suited to establish some kind of industry. Though he would only have a year to be able to do it. He discarded that idea.

He would need to work with the orphans as a resource. He checked his brothers harness to be sure he was still secure. Then he went to the desk to draw up a plan. This planet must have some sort of resource, even if it's just the people. Serapis would use his own resources to start a study of the planet. This would likely take about six months to finish completely. In the meantime he would start working with the orphans. Yes, they would be fed. But, also they would be educated. That education would be the key to the programs success. He considered engaging his sister, Hekate, for this part of the plan. He put that possibility in his back pocket to consider later.

From the dozens of orphans, presumably six or ten would prove intelligent enough to go on to secondary education on Coruscant. The loan program Seraps set up would promise them that education. It would be completely forgiven if, and only if, they came back to help build up their community. If they didn't, they would repay that loan back into the program so that the next recipient of the loan could help the community.

Presumably, within five years or so, he would have his first graduates, ready with the resource and environmental studies to start employing people. Since nobody had utilized the resources yet, it should fuel some strong growth. Within ten years, there would be about twenty or so graduates to continue that growth. At that ten-year point it should be self-sustaining.

Even with those growth estimates, though, this would not be a short-run plan. It may take twenty years or more to build up an industrial base for this poor community so it could be considered a success. Especially since the plan would mandate consideration of environmental concerns. But it would be a long-term success, since these people would finally "learn to fish" and feed themselves permanently.

Tags: @Adalia-Durron @darthbernael @Sarge @Nehru_Amidala

 

Serapis was working on the finishing touches for the scholarship program. When figures didn't work out exactly, it tended to get under his skin. A knock came at the door. Serapis pressed the button to open it revealing Elijar Cullben, the headmaster of the orphanage central to the plans. Because of the size of the community, he was also on the city council. Serapis nodded in his direction, "What can I do for you Mr. Cullben?

"Yes, Mr. uhhh... Serapis. I wanted to thank you for agreeing to help us. We'd put in a requisition with the Jedi Council several years ago. Frankly, I was beginning to give up hope that the Jedi would ever help us."

The Ithorian flashed him a smile. He tried to make it more or less amused. "Well, yes. The Jedi are certainly coming through for you, finally, aren't they?"

"Yes, ummm... indeed." He glanced over at the cot in the corner of the room. Sarge was napping peacefully. "Uh, is he OK?"

"Oh, yes, Mr. Cullben. One of my Jedi friends. Seems like a brother to me at times." Serapis paused thoughtfully. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Ah, yes." he took a seat, "I wanted to thank you, personally, in all my capacities, for your assistance getting our community back on its feet."

Serapis nodded. "Glad to be of assistance. I'll let you know if there's anything you can help with, certainly. Plans are coming through quite well. I expect the resource reports any day now. I do have a question for you, though." Cullben nodded his head. Serapis continued, "This flooding issue. Have you looked into it? Pardon me. I'm sure you have. What solutions have you found?"

Cullben nodded again. This time in thought. "We, the council, have commissioned several studies. Unfortunately most have been well beyond our budget. I'm confident that this program you have will eventually allow us to fix it permanently. Meantime, though, we're going to have a problem every year or so." He scoffed, then covered his mouth to hide it. "We've put in requisitions with the Jedi on this, too.

"Yes, I was asked to look into this too, if I could. What kind of plans have been proposed?"

"Ah. OK, well, then, the... (Sarge chose that moment to snore loudly, causing Cullben to lose his thought momentarily) uhhh... the most cost effective one was to construct a levee. There were others, such as elevating all the houses up on stilts and such, too. One study even suggested we move the moon of all things. Still, all those are quite expensive."

"And, what have you done in the meantime?" Serapis encouraged.

Cullben cleared his throat and fumbled with his tie, "We really haven't been able to do much. Evacuate when we know somthing's coming. Encourage people to keep precious items on upper levels of houses. There wasn't much."

Serapis shook his head. "We'll see if we can fast-track some of those things. The Imperia- uh... Republic Corps of Engineers might be able to help. After this is all done, we'll put in a request for study there."

"Excellent! I was hoping for that outcome. In the meantime, we'll keep working with what we have. Thank you, Jedi Serapis!"

Serapis darkened, his eyes flashing yellow very briefly. "MISTER Serapis will do just fine. Off you go, then."

Cullben shrank. His voice shaky, he stammered "Yes. Uhhh... yes." He stood and walked to the door. "Good day, then." That was when the door shut in his face. Sarge snored, then turned over.

@Adalia-Durron, @Sinrebirth, @Lady_Belligerent, @Sarge

 

Sarge yawned, stretched, smacked dry lips, swished and swallowed a mouthful of canteen water, and squinted at Serapis.

"I got this part, bro. One of the guys in my basic training unit is in charge of a military reservist civil engineer outfit. Word on the NCO grapevine is that his unit is due for some field training and he's looking for a place to do some basic landscaping and construction work. I called in a favor from a paper pusher, and their destination is now here, for a two-week training exercise. They'll get it done."

He rolled over and went back to sleep.

"And if you're wondering how I did all that in my sleep, well, it's an NCO thing, you wouldn't understand."

 

OOC Power has been out for a couple days and I can only post on phone so yeah pretty useless for now

 

Serapis watches the happenings with an impassive expression. So, someone is trying to take you and you don't want to go? There's only one answer. Join together and fight back.

Depending on some outside person is only going to make you dependent on that person. He'd seen holos of some superhero in a community that started taking on the villain of the day. He'd even enjoyed watching some. Some imaginative writers out there. But what happens when that vigilante does that deed? The police have no incentive to improve, so they get careless and lazy. And the people of the community become victims over and over. And then that attracts more villains.

What good would it be to save these people today and invest in their future, if they couldn't protect themselves going forward? How about starting to learn to protect themselves now? The Jedi Durron would see Serapis turn his back and walk away. What he was really doing was walking to his ship. Like anyone sailing the galaxy, he had a respectable cache of weapons aboard. Fortunately, they were in a case that Serapis could wheel out of his ship. He boarded his ship, and, for all intents and purposes, Jedi Durron might think he had abandoned this "lesson" she was trying to impart. This couldn't be farther from the truth. A few minutes later, she would then see him come back out with his armory case.

"Anyone here want to survive? Come get your own weapon!" He was being supremely charitable giving away his weapons to these people. He wondered if anyone would see it that way. One man came up with his wife in tow. The wife was in shock, the husband in a rage, both about a daughter that was in process of being taken. He handed them both small blasters. "Go get 'er. Who's next?" The next person said his fiancee had already been taken aboard the ship. He handed the man a rifle. Serapis instructed him a bit on how it worked and tasked him to get two people out, not just one. He kept going in a similar fashion until he ran out of weapons.

When this was all said and done, he decided he would need to work with the leader of the city board on establishing a police force. In the meantime, he sat back on his mobile armory, waited and watched.

Tags: @Adalia-Durron, @Sarge, @Sinrebirth, @darthbernael, @Lady_Belligerent

 

So, that's how he wants to play this...

Sarge moved among the beings as they handled unfamiliar weapons and spoke in his best-carrying NCO voice. "Everybody watch what you're doing with these arms. Always treat them like they're loaded and about to go off. Always make sure they're not pointed at anything you don't want to shoot. Keep your fingers off the triggers until you're ready to shoot. Always know what you're shooting at, and what's behind that, before you touch the trigger. These weapons have sights, so use them to aim accurately. No shooting from the hip; the spray 'n' pray you see in shows is nothing but a waste of ammo, and likely to kill bystanders with stray rounds. Keep low, stay behind cover, and work in pairs, or more. If you absolutely have to move out of cover, make sure at least one other person is laying down cover fire before you move." His steady stream of instruction and advice continued for as long as anyone was listening.

 

"'Fix this!" she orders," Serapis repeated to himself. She just did not understand his point of view. Serapis did not intend to stay here forever and a day for these people. She's lucky he didn't try to absorb their life force or something else. He was a Sith, after all. They would need to be able to protect themselves. He'd need to explain it to her. Again, he walked back to his ship. This time, he closed the door. He pulled out his pad and composed a message to her.

Madam Jedi, you're asking me to go against my personal philosophy. You're asking me to take on your philosophy as my own. That's not going to happen. Obviously, you don't agree with my methods. I don't agree with yours.

There is a planet on the outer rim of the galaxy, the planets name, R'Jordan, translates from their mother tongue roughly as "Wheel of Time." There's a group of people on that planet named the Tuatha'an, most people call them the Tinkers. They have a philosophy they call The Way of the Leaf. The Way of the Leaf says that they can't raise a weapon for any reason, even to save the life of a loved one. The same philosophy that you're ascribing to these people. If someone came to kill the Tinkers or take the members as slaves, they consider that the will of their god. Most of them even go so far as to decline help from others and shun those that pick up a weapon. It's not my place to convince them that their way is wrong. That's their way.

What I did do here is offer the people on this planet a way to defend themselves. Some of them accepted, some of them didn't. If a people won't defend themselves, they're accepting whatever happens as the will of their god. You're telling me to "fix it." I tried, according to my philosophy. Apparently that wasn't acceptable.

I wish you luck with these people. I can't help them with their choices.​

He pressed "send." Then turned to his cupboard for some lunch.