I need Felucia

Averross laughed. "Oh, please. Like you didn't—"

"This isn't about what happened in my past," Qui-Gon said.

"Oh, no? Guess it's about hypocrisy, then."

"There is a difference," Qui-Gon insisted, righteous as ever, "between falling in love and simply giving oneself license to do as one pleases."

"Yeah, there is." Damn, but Averross wished he had that ale around now. " Falling in love— that's what the Jedi Code forbids. Getting laid? Not so much, not if it's casual, like me and Selbie. That doesn't compromise my emotions, doesn't divide my loyalties, anything like that. I might've broken the letter of the law, but not the spirit. On Felucia, you broke the spirit of that law into a dozen pieces."

Qui-Gon tensed. These words cut deep— or the memories did. The latter, Averross figured.

~

"You know, there've always been a few Jedi— let's be honest, more than a few— who see celibacy as an ideal, not a rule."

"I'm coming to believe that we must all interpret the Code for ourselves," Qui-Gon said, "or it ceases to be a living pact and becomes nothing but a prison cell."

~

"I've heard of Force users before," she said. "But why does that make you monks?" []

"We ground ourselves in a spiritual existence and give up individual attachments in order to focus entirely on greater concerns." []

"So, that means no sex."

Should he give her Master Jora's whole speech about the difference between celibacy of the body and true purity of the heart? It was a very long speech. Reath decided to skip it. "Basically."

~

Elzar suspected they were both thinking about the same thing. Shared moments as Padawans, tolerated and understood and even common— but things to be left behind once one ascended to become an adult in the Order. They hadn't discussed those moments, not in a very long time, and never with more an oblique reference, but they were never very far away from the other's mind, especially when they were together.

Those times, many times in the past, seemed very present just then.

~

Nope.

I never get the whole "no-attachment" argument. And I never will.

And, I need that book about Felucia.

Deeply.

[Photo: A wonderful pin by @ritarussiandoll_pins on a design by @petit_croc_ ]