Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Private First Impressions

Coruscant
Jedi Temple
Gardens of Remembrance


"Good idea." Lao-ta had expected to simply talk about his fears, but this would be a much deeper experience. Immersive. He would face them in ways she hadn't anticipated, but he had done it before and was ready to do it again. He showed bravery in the face of it. He would make a fine knight someday.

"It's this way." She turned and continued leading them to the alcove where Master Shamba was enshrined. Niynx knew about the tree, he must have visited it before. It of course wasn't a full tree. A true wroshyr would grow to dominate the temple and someday overshadow it. This was instead a clipping from the great origin tree of Kashyyk a trimmed branch, hardly a twig compared to the enormity of the sacred tree but large enough that it would seem a normal size without the context of it's origin. The cutting would never grow to the full majesty of it's siblings on the wookiee homeworld, but it served as a monument to the sacred wilds that Shamba had held so dear.

Niynx Ioune Niynx Ioune
 
Temple_gardens.png
  • Coruscant
  • Jedi Temple || Temple Gardens
  • Gardens of Remembrance
As the pair entered Shamba's glade, a sense of isolated serenity enveloped them. Soft rays of Coruscanti synthetic sunlight filtered through the leaves overhead, casting a dappled glow upon the ground. The air was filled with the subtle fragrances of blooming flowers and the soothing melody of distant bird song was replicated through cleverly hidden speakers amidst their surroundings.

At the heart of the glade, guided by a pathway of speckled stepping stones, a small marble pedestal was adorned with intricate carvings which depicted scenes from Shamba's life story. Housed within that pedestal was their funerary holoprojector, its gentle hum resonating through the stillness, faithfully displaying Wookiee Jedi Master with kind eyes and a noble countenance.

Shielded from prying eyes by the reach of a tall, verdant tree at the glade's far corner, this little haven held a unique presence within the Force. Almost it seemed that the timeless teachings of Master Shamba could resonate and be felt within the stirring grasses, bolstered harmoniously by the beauty of the natural world.

Niynx took solace in the tranquil ambiance, bowing before entering and then using the stepping stones as intended to reach the glade's center. From there, he offered his respects and then tread upon the durable grasses to rest beneath the mighty tree's grand canopy. Removing his baggy cloak and folding it neatly with both arms, he placed it beneath himself like a cushion and assumed a cross legged seated position within a soft spot between roots. Meditations had always been challenging for Ioune at the best of times, and he found that eliminating even the most minor ailments and inconveniences to comfort beforehand often had a positive impact on his overall experience.
"I do not fear a thing, Master Lao-ta, so much as a circumstance or a feeling, a dark place I've been and do not wish to return."

Lao-ta Lao-ta
 
Coruscant
Jedi Temple
Gardens of Remembrance


As the two entered the glade Lao-ta could feel the vibrance of life emanating from the wroshyr clipping as it sheltered the area. She remembered when it was first put in. It had needed a nutrient system to keep it alive. Now it had taken root and was growing strong all on it's own. Shamba would be happy to see this green haven on a world so dominated by artifice. After briefly paying her respects to her master she turned and took her cues from Niynx who was folding his robe to take a seat. She moved to join him.

"I do not fear a thing, Master Lao-ta, so much as a circumstance or a feeling, a dark place I've been and do not wish to return."
Lao-ta sat across from the padawan watching him carefully. She extended her hands palms up.
"Come. Show me. I will be with you as you face it."

Niynx Ioune Niynx Ioune
 
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Temple_gardens.png
  • Coruscant
  • Jedi Temple || Temple Gardens
  • Gardens of Remembrance
Niynx grimaced, then nodded. Slowly at first, reverently, he unclipped one of the three lightsabers from his belt and placed it within Lao-ta's dominant hand. It was a worn and bandage-wrapped hilt, engraved with little etchings and complete with wooden panels and a clunky looking blade-length adjustment dial. Compared against most other lightsabers within the Order, the blade of Master La T'vil had so much character and accessory as to be almost impractical as a weapon.
"By the time she reached for this, I fear it was all already too late. We were surrounded aboard an enemy gunboat, in deep cover for a local weapons smuggling ring off Mon Gazza, collecting our payment for a job well done. Somehow though, we never saw it coming." Forlorn, Niynx retrieved a second lightsaber from his belt-clip and placed it, too, in Lao-ta's other hand. Unlike the first, this was clearly the weapon of an experienced killer. It was smooth and well balanced, built of lightweight composite materials and sleek in its design. Niynx imagined that, even to one unpossessed the talents of precognition or psychometry, it carried with it the cold wonder of a weapon which had taken many lives merely because it could. A chill passed over him, raising the hair at the back of his neck.
"When our true enemy struck, he did so with this. An emerald blade, like that of a Consular, built by a Jedi's hands. But it was no Jedi that took my Master's life."

Niynx inhaled, then let his breath out in a steady, long sigh. As he did so, his eyes slowly closed and he moved his hands atop Lao-ta's own, hovering in the spaces above them, inches from the two lightsabers.
"I can feel you so distinctly in the Force, Master," he said to Lao-ta, his voice taking on the airy, almost dreamy quality of one settling into meditation.
"This will only work if we open ourselves to one another completely."

Niynx stretched out with his senses and touched the mind of Lao-ta, brushing against her warmth with his own. His breath became regular and deep, and he focused on the self at his innermost roots. He felt his sadness and his pride and his joy, he felt his gratitude and his fears, and then he let Lao-ta feel them too. He opened himself, letting his feelings become impressions to be passed along from one mind to the other. Time lost all sense of meaning after this, his mind with the Force, his experience entangled with Lao-ta's. Shadows began to shift, the birdsong faded in and out of its various iterations, but only when he was ready did Niynx finally place his palms against the sabers in Lao-ta's hands, his fingertips against the small of her wrists. The vision overtook him.

"For too long, we have lingered in the shadows, biding our time, honing our skills, and waiting for this moment," seethed a cracked and chilly voice. The snap-hiss of a lightsaber's activation glowed a sickly green against the gunboat's inner walls, then a wet sizzle sounded as blade seared flesh and bodies began falling to the floor. Screams abruptly ended and grunts of surprise died before they could finish as pirates became corpses. Master La T'vil only just managed to bring her own weapon to bear before the assailant was upon her, forcing her backwards in a stumbling retreat.
"I have felt the currents of the Force shifting, a tempest of darkness rising to engulf the galaxy. The Force has granted me this opportunity, this destiny, to ascend as the blood tithe, as harbinger, and cast aside the feeble shackles of the weak-minded Jedi ways." Niynx had drawn his lightsaber then, and prepared to aid La T'vil, but the Master sensed his daring and screamed for him to stay back. Too late, and Niynx was slammed by a concussive wall of the dark side and thrown back through the long walkway to the Minnow's inter-station docking module. La T'vil bellowed a shriek of exertion, and the sound of lightsabers crackled back into silence. The vessels shook underfoot and the air throbbed as Master and assailant pulled upon the Force and shaped it against one another in deadly combat. All the while, La T'vil shouted for Niynx to run, run as fast as he could. Something hard hit his chest, clattering to his feet, but in that moment all he could feel was futility and fear. It paralyzed him and made him shake. La T'vil was still struggling when the ultraviolet glow of Force lightning ripped through the chamber beyond, turning her shouts into shrieking pleas, a symphony of pain and death.​
"No longer shall we be hidden," continued their ghastly foe, "no longer shall we be oppressed by your hypocrisy and dogma! Too long have the weak been allowed to infest your Order. It is time now they are culled. We are the rightful harbingers of true power, the chosen few who dare to embrace the full spectrum of the Force. We are the Sith, the embodiment of passion, the epitome of strength, and the living examples of indomitable will."
Run— was all he could think. Save yourself and run! You're useless here! All you can do is get in the way. All you can do is run! And so he had, even as he felt the life of his Master fading away, even as guilt and anger and fear crawled over one another in their struggle for dominance. Stumbling, he found La T'vil's lightsaber resting on the ground before him, and beside it another, one he'd never seen before. When had those...? Must run—
Niynx's eyes fluttered wildly behind closed lids. Absently, almost incomprehensibly, he whispered out in shallow breaths.
"Master... no... I'll come back... I'll come back...!"

"Flee, little Jedi," he'd heard the Sith cry out. "Run while you can. Bring the gifts of my vision back to your vaunted Temple bastion on Coruscant; a new tide is rising and those without strength shall be swept away in it! Soon, I shall come again, and behind me: a new era of darkness."
A foreboding shadow passed across the seated pair, air growing thick with a palpable sense of despair. Finally, the vision concluded with one last, harrowing image— one shared between Lao-ta and Niynx both— a towering inferno consumed the Jedi Temple, its majestic halls reduced to smoldering ruins. The dark assailant's ominous laughter filled their minds.

Trembling, gasping, Niynx pulled himself away from the grip of vision and back into the present moment. His eyes were wide and he was out of breath. The killer's lightsaber fell free of the Jedi's touch and landed in the grass with a soft thud. Sweat covered Ninyx's body, and the garden's gentle breezes felt chilly against his skin. He swallowed and wet his lips, then swallowed again, chest heaving. A single tear streaked down from his left eye and pooled at the bottom of his chin.
"There," he said bravely, once he was able.
"Always I have run," he continued, wiping his chin with a sleeve.
"That is what I fear, Master Lao-ta."

Unbidden and unasked for, Niynx thrust himself forward and into the embrace of Lao-ta's arms, his shoulders shaking as eventually more tears came.
"Forgive me, Master," he whispered.
"I should have been stronger. I should have gone back... can you make me stronger...?"

Lao-ta Lao-ta
 
Coruscant
Jedi Temple
Gardens of Remembrance


Lao-ta shivered as the killer's lightsaber touched her hand. It was steeped in the dark side.

"I can feel you so distinctly in the Force, Master,"
"This will only work if we open ourselves to one another completely."
She felt the padawan reaching out to her through the force again and let him in. She felt his emotions as they washed into her and she met them with a practiced calm and a welcoming embrace. When the vision took her it came on swift her senses surrendering to it's flow. When they returned, her thoughts began racing along. Who was the dark being in the vision? Seemingly a jedi turned sith. They spoke as if they would lead a movement. "A new era of darkness." Two things she knew for sure. First, this being loved to talk. Second, this was the darkness she'd felt growing. They called themself harbinger, but of what?

"There,"
"Always I have run,"
"That is what I fear, Master Lao-ta."

Ah. It made sense that he would doubt his bravery, but he had done the right thing. The unfortunate truth was that sometimes survival was the only victory available. Suddenly she was rocked as Niynx crashed into her.

"Forgive me, Master,"
"I should have been stronger. I should have gone back... can you make me stronger...?"

She was somewhat startled by the sudden embrace, but quickly relaxed and wrapped her arms around the boy.
"Niynx. What you did was not weakness. Sometimes victory means survival. La T'vil told you to run and you honored your master's request. Because of this the jedi now know about this threat and you live to continue your training. I believe you are braver than you know, and I believe you can be a great jedi someday." She took him by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "Confronting fear is the destiny of a jedi and you are equal to the task. You want to be stronger? Between you, me, and the force we can make that happen." She scooped up the fallen saber and offered La T'vil's back to Niynx. "But don't seek strength out of fear. Feel it. Breathe in and let it be a part of you, then let it pass. In it's place nurture compassion, and let that guide you to strength."

Niynx Ioune Niynx Ioune
 
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Temple_gardens.png
  • Coruscant
  • Jedi Temple || Temple Gardens
  • Gardens of Remembrance
Niynx let himself cry and be held without rushing the process. Gradually, piecing his composure back together with tremoring whimpers, he wiped his cheeks clean and sat again across from Lao-ta in the trees roots. In his hands, he clutched his Master's lightsaber, massaging its odd contours.
"That is why you've come here, isn't it Master Lao-ta? To teach me strength."

Lao-ta Lao-ta
 
Coruscant
Jedi Temple
Gardens of Remembrance


She worried a bit at this fixation on strength. The dark figure had spoken about strength and washing away those without it. She contemplated the sleek lightsaber in her hand. The temple burning in the vision had the feeling of ambition more than premonition, but the council should know about this if they did not. For the moment her focus should be on the padawan.
"In a way. My responsibility would be to teach you strength and more importantly the wisdom of how to use it. I've told you not to seek strength out of fear. So tell me Niynx, why do you seek strength?" This fallen jedi was concerning. She worried that he may have left a dark mark on Niynx's spirit. It made sense that that kind of trauma would. She thought back to her master's death. A ship crashing in the distance as she led a group of freed slaves on the ground. The feeling of life suddenly gone. The feeling of dark satisfaction from the sith pilot as their craft limped away from the battle, damaged. She had healed, she had had help to heal. She hoped she could be that for this padawan. She did not want to see him succumb to that darkness.

Niynx Ioune Niynx Ioune
 
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Temple_gardens.png
  • Coruscant
  • Jedi Temple || Temple Gardens
  • Gardens of Remembrance
Lao-ta's concern bled into the Force around them, and Niynx answered it with a tender resolve. Pondering the Knight's question, he fiddled with the lightsaber in his hands, considering its artful embellishments.
"To protect the innocent, Master, and to uphold the teachings of the Jedi Order."

Lao-ta Lao-ta
 
Coruscant
Jedi Temple
Gardens of Remembrance


A good answer. Straightforward but good.
"That will do." Keeping that sense of purpose, making it real would be a lifelong pursuit. "Remember that. You will falter. You will stumble, but always remember your purpose. With it in mind and the will to continue you will succeed." She stood and ushered Niynx to do the same. She hefted the fallen jedi's saber. "We need to take this to the library. We might be able to learn something about it's owner by it's construction. If that yielD's no results we should take it to the masters. There are some who might use the force to determine it's wielder." She looked down at the young man. "I want to see this through with you. After that would you do me the honor of becoming my Padawan learner?" She felt it in the force. This was meant to be. Now to see if Niynx agreed.

Niynx Ioune Niynx Ioune
 
Temple_gardens.png
  • Coruscant
  • Jedi Temple || Temple Gardens
  • Gardens of Remembrance

"... would you do me the honor of becoming my Padawan learner?"

Niynx's bow folded him nearly in half, hands plastered formally to each thigh.
"Yes, Master Lao-ta," he said perhaps too quickly, sounding all of a sudden short for breath.
"You do me a great honor. I will not disappoint you!"

And just like that, his life as a Padawan learner began over again, anew.


Lao-ta Lao-ta
 

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