Private Form, function, balance. Repeat.

[Varin Mortifer]

Nyara Dakhan

Varin made his way out of the academy towards the gym. It wasn’t for lifting weights for this run. He would rather have a lifting partner for that. Today was for a different exercise. He needed space to practice his forms, several times already he had almost destroyed his room while practicing and he had decided it was time to actually get out and stop being recluse. “Touch grass” as the kids call it. He didn’t bring music so he could pay attention to his surroundings more during his practices. He was bound and determined to start making his own style melding the three styles he had mastered already before crashing into this planet. He would meld Djem so with soresu and Vaapad. Patience with overwhelming aggression. Not always a typical sith style but Varin could not deny its effectiveness.

Leaving his sith blade in his workout bag it would be his main tool for the day. A few hours with a familiar friend, probably his closest friend he will ever have. He stopped in front of the building studying the front, inside he could see several individuals getting their exercises in, some are more distracted with mirrors than others. He could see a lot of people wore more form fitting attire, It caused Varin to look at his own dress up and wonder if he underdressed or even overdressed in his loose fitting sweatshirt and lounge pants tucked into his combat boots.

“Eh, it shouldn’t matter.” He spoke to himself as he made his way into the building. Everything was electric in the air. The scent, the energy and the people all doing what they could for various improvements, it was infectious, and Varin welcomed it as he made his way to the back in a more open room with a practice dummy.

He sat his bag down and knelt beside it pulling out his weapon of choice. Sure they might have practice weapons, but the familiarity of your own weapons feel, weight and balance mean everything. He held the sheath in both hands in vertical fashion admiring the art and its origin. Giving a soft sigh he says a soft prayer in Ur-Kittat and slowly unsheathes the blade, admiring its runic inscriptions.

He takes up his form breathing deep and slowly with his eyes closed and begins his fluid form practices of each style he had mastered, one at a time.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

​

Tag: Varin Mortifer ​

Nyara checked her schedule, and saw that she had a free period before her next class. It was the perfect time to hit the training dojo, she thought to herself, and she spent some time getting herself ready for the gym. It was important for her to remain in peak physical shape - not that it was difficult for her to do so. As a Pureblood, she maintained muscle mass fairly well, even for a female of her species.

Dressed down in her workout attire and her light red hair pulled back to stay out of her face, Nyara made her way through the maze of halls of Kor’ethyr Sith Academy, and smirked slightly to herself as others moved aside to make way for her. She carried herself as most Sith Purebloods did - with an air of pride and importance, and she made sure that those not of her kind knew of Pureblood superiority.

These Sith acolytes, pretenders, were only adherents of the ancient ways because of her people. Though she felt herself their better in pretty much every way, she did not lord over them like others of her kind. She expected respect and deference wherever she went - but she returned respect when it was given.

After several minutes of traversing the ever shifting Academy halls, Nyara of Clan Dakhan found the place she was looking for - the Academy gym. The space was massive, one side filled with every kind of exercise machinery one could think of, the other half was a dedicated dojo where one could practice their hand to hand and weapons combat skills.

It was this dojo that captured the young Sith woman’s attention.

Upon entering the gym, Nyara could feel eyes upon her almost instantly. She slightly puffed herself up, feeling good under the attention and looks she received. Golden, haughty eyes slid over those present; most were males of various races, but there were a few other females present too. Nyara noticed at least one or two other Sith Purebloods, males from other Clans that were attending the Sith Academy as well. Her eyes flickered over their muscled forms, but she turned her attention away from them.

Stepping into the dojo, Nyara noticed someone else seemed to have the same idea as her - a young man, from the looks of it. She eyed his loose fitting sweatshirt and lounge pants, tucked into combat boots. She, on the other hand, had more skin exposed; she wore a sport bra-wrap around her chest and her pants were closer fitting, to allow for ease of movement as she went through her forms.

Staying to her side of the training dojo, Nyara couldn’t help but cast her eyes towards the Acolyte; he appeared to have brought his own weapon to train with, as it certainly wasn’t a practice weapon and it wasn’t anything granted by the Academy. Stepping over to the practice weapons rack, she ran her gaze over the training weapons offered, and decided upon a bo staff.

Giving the weapon a flourish, she stepped back over to her side and began to move through a series of more basic combat forms for a saber staff wielder. Nyara had made it a point to learn how to use several different types of weapons, and learn how to dual-wield, since she was ambidextrous. But the sensation of moving through her practice forms with a long staff was pleasing to her, and it helped warm her muscles.

While moving through her repetitions, the young Sith Pureblood woman couldn’t help but notice her eye straying back over to the other young man, watching him from the corner of her eye from time to time. He seemed intent on practicing several forms at once, blending them together. He was a bit choppy, and stiff in his movements, from what she could tell and she wondered if perhaps he could improve with a sparring partner. It was an idea, a thought, that rolled around in her mind, as she continued to move through her movements while also keeping an eye on him.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Varin continued his practices, before long he could almost sense someone else had entered the quiet room, it almost felt as if the air around him was interrupted by another presence. For a split second Varin opened his eyes while practicing his flourishes to get a better look at the new face. She was around his height crimson skinned with golden eyes, hair pulled and tied back. Varin paused for a moment in his practices making sure he had given her enough room for her practices as well. He always tried to remain respectful of others' improvements. He noticed she was selecting her weapon of choice. He never knew why but watching someone pick a weapon always fascinated him, maybe it's a way of getting to know someone via their choice of offence and defense, but something told Varin that this visitor was certainly not a first timer with handling weapons. Maybe it was the look of familiarity in her eyes as she made her choice.

After finishing his warm up he began to meld his styles, doing some slight experimentation. Some techniques molded effortlessly, some took a few more attempts and others downright did not blend, but what is knowledge without failure? After a little bit of time he started to grow a little more comfortable in his movements, he was a very fast learner with a blade, but he noticed the sweatshirt was hindering some of his movements. In an attempt to rectify the situation he rolled up his sleeves past his forearms. He looked back at the visitor to give an offer.

“If you need more space let me know, Bo staffs can take quite a bit of it.”

Watching her, he noticed she held an air of confidence with herself, pride. It was certainly encouraging to the young man, he wasn’t one to boast about himself, he was more of a man of action, but he couldn’t help but question himself, Why was he so distracted by this student? He was always a being of focus when it came to training with his weapon. He suddenly noticed he was just standing in position and finally resumed his forms.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Tag: Varin Mortifer ​

Nyara glanced over at the young man upon hearing him speak to her, and her expression was cool and measured.

“I wouldn’t have picked a bo staff if I felt there wouldn’t be enough room for the two of us.” she replied bluntly, her voice clear and confident and she returned her attention back to her form. Indeed, there was plenty of space for the two of them, even with the wide reach of the staff as she whirled it and shifted it around in various offensive and defensive maneuvers.

She could feel him watching her, but she didn’t let the attention pull her focus away from the task at hand. She was used to being stared at, anyway. After a few moments, he seemed to remember why he was in the dojo, and returned to his own practice.

For several long minutes, the two were seemingly focused on their individual practice and forms, but Nyara was watching him from the side. He had rolled up his sleeves, and his movements were becoming more fluid. He seemed somewhat familiar with his weapon, and his forms suggested that he had prior knowledge and training.

Yet…she couldn’t recall seeing him around the Academy until now. And she was rather familiar with nearly all the older Academy students. Sith training had a way of weeding out the weak amongst their ranks; those that made it to the higher echelons of the Academy, had proven themselves as capable warriors, sorcerers, or generalists.

Nyara’s spidey senses told her that something was different about this Acolyte.

After finishing her last repetition, the Pureblood stepped back towards the weapons rack to replace the bo staff in its rightful place, before she eyed the other weapons - settling upon a traditional Sith blade with a dulled edge. Taking it up, she stepped back around the young man and turned to face him, watching him with a sharper gaze.

“You seem like you’ve had training with that weapon - yet I don’t recognize you from amongst the older, more experienced, students. I take it you are new here, to the Academy?”

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Nyara Dakhan

The words reached his ears.

“You seem like you’ve had training with that weapon - yet I don’t recognize you from amongst the older, more experienced, students. I take it you are new here, to the Academy?”

Causing Varin to pause for a moment and relax his form and point the sharpened blade towards the floor in a neutral position.

“You could certainly say that. This sword and I go a long way back, it's the only sword I will train with, to choose another sword would be a betrayal of myself.”

He let out a small smirk. “It’s quite a story, but the short version is yes, I'm relatively new here. My training started on my home planet. Then I wound up here, been here less than a month. I’ve also mainly just been in my dorm room, meditating, it's only recently I really started to come out of my shell you could say.”

He looked over to her, almost studying her. She was certainly a veteran to the academy as a student, that much was clear. She certainly looked like she knew her way around the complex.

“What about you? How long have you been in the academy?” Listening to her answer he resumed his form work, the dojo however was very warm, as was by design, and the sticking sweatshirt was not helping. So he removed it so he was now in a short sleeve training shirt that hugged his form.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Tag: Varin Mortifer ​

Nyara held her own practice blade in a relaxed position as she listened to the young man respond to her, confirming that yes, he was rather familiar with his weapon of choice, saying further that to use something different would feel like a betrayal of himself.

A weapon of significance then.

The Sith woman shifted her weight to one hip and quirked an eyebrow when the boy further confirmed her suspicions that he was indeed new, but that he had been trained prior to coming to Kor’ethyr. He looked over at her, and she caught his gaze with her own as she studied him in the same manner he was studying her.

“What about you? How long have you been in the academy?” He asked as returned to his form practice. Nyara didn’t bother returning to her practice, but instead continued to watch him, golden eyes watching him intently and spotting any weaknesses that may be present in his form. He was trained, that was for sure. But he had some work to do, she felt.

“I started at the academy when I was twelve, though I received training from my family Clan before coming here. I am seventeen now, and have achieved the Academy rank of Apprentice. I am currently on track to rank up to Adept at the end of the Academy year.” she responded back, puffing up a bit in pride with the announcement. She was hoping that by the time she was fully matured, that she would be a Sith Shadow and on her way to achieving her Darth rank.

She returned to silence, watching as the boy paused to remove his sweatshirt to reveal a form fitting shirt underneath.

Feeling a sudden urge of competitiveness, the Pureblood stepped back a pace or two and took a ready stance before lifting her own Sith blade and leveling it at him in a challenge.

“Spar me, Acolyte. I feel like fighting someone who may be worth my time.” Nyara said, smirking at him. “Besides, you might do better at your forms with a spar partner, than by yourself.”

 

[Varin Mortifer]

The new face mentioned something about a clan, and curiosity peaked.

Clan? Sounds a lot like a house. I wonder what her banner is

As the thought processed a blade was leveled at him in challenge.

“Spar me, Acolyte. I feel like fighting someone who may be worth my time. Besides, you might do better at your forms with a spar partner, than by yourself.”

Varin eyed the blade and reached in his bag pulling out a small leather sheath and strapped it just above the guard where the blade meets, then grasped the leathered section in his hand and pointed the hilt towards her.

“....as you wish.” He smirked. Varin takes his defensive stance, studying his opponent, how she stands, how she wields her weapon, her eyes and her footwork.

“Form, function, balance. Repeat.” The words of his father boomed in his head. Soon his heart elevated like a war drum, his warrior instincts have now kicked in.

“Form, function, balance. Repeat.”

Varin took a deep breath, patiently waiting.

“Form, function, balance. Repeat.”

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Tag: Varin Mortifer ​

Nyara felt a tremor of satisfaction pass through her as the Acolyte accepted her challenge to a spar. She observed him take his defensive stance, and her golden orbs trailed over his figure and his, studying him - how he stood, how he gripped his weapon, how his face settled itself and what his eyes told her. His smirk told her that he held a certain pride or confidence about his skill or abilities, and she mirrored his smirk with one of her own.

Unlike most other young Sith who were out to prove their mettle, Nyara initiated their spar in silence - uttering not a single cry or growl as she moved in on him, a testing strike towards his midsection. She curiously opted to use the familiar Form One, though her movements were powerful and precise - well honed from many years of practice. The clash of blades echoed through the dojo, drawing the attention of others on the other side of the gym - several who stopped what they were doing to watch the spar with intense eyes, studying the movements of two warriors who seemed to know what they were doing with a blade.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Varin kept his poker face as she struck toward him deflecting the first blow with his hilt, palming the flat of his blade with his other hand he opted for a quick shove with his weapon followed by a quick shoulder check towards her sternum to try and knock her off balance. He could feel the eyes all around on them, but he didnt care, he was in his element, this was what he was born for, the thrill of the fight and the moment within, and from the looks of it his opponent had the exact same thoughts.

“Basic blade form? Interesting choice. I was never a fan of that form, but it has its uses.” His brown eyes slowly bled into a golden color as he prepared for a counter offensive.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Tag: Varin Mortifer ​

Once the duel was initiated, the two moved quickly, both with experience born from years of training - though both of them clearly had more to learn in the art of sword fighting.

The young man deflected her initial thrust, then did something she wasn’t expecting but adjusted for within a moment’s notice - he palmed his blade and stepped into her personal space, opting for a shove that that he no doubt hoped would knock her off balance - followed with a shoulder check that would have connected, had she not adjusted her footing and sidestepped to allow his momentum to carry him forward and off balance himself, though she fully expected him to catch himself and not be caught off balance so easily.

In her same movement of sidestepping, she brought the blade around her hand to make a swipe at his legs, another movement in order to further unbalance him or force him to block or move away from her space - lest he get hit across the shins.

She registered his spoken words, but she ignored them - though it was a bit harder to ignore the gold that had started to bleed into his brown eyes. The sight of it brought a faint but dark smirk to the Pureblood woman’s face; to her, it was a welcome sight. She always enjoyed a dance with a fellow warrior of the dark side.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Nyara Dakhan

His momentum carried a bit further than what he was used to as his shoulder found zero purchase into his quarry, opting for quick recovery he leapt into a shoulder roll to avoid the incoming swipe. Hearing the whistle of the blade pass him by, he recovers his stance into a guard position expecting pursuit, as it would have been something Varin would have done with such an opening.

Noticing his opponent makes no advancement he decides to take things up a bit, flicking his wrist towards himself he quickly jerks the Sith towards him and brings his blade up for a strike.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Tag: Varin Mortifer ​

As she expected, the boy seemed caught a bit off balance - though he countered it well with a shoulder roll to the ground. There was the briefest of moments where she contemplated rushing up on him while he was down - but she chose to remain back and allow him the opportunity to get back to his feet.

It seemed that he too expected her to rush up on him, for he immediately positioned himself into a guard - only to find that she wasn’t in his face.

The next thing she knew, she felt a slight tug on her through the Force - drawing her towards him. She wasn’t expecting it and so it did catch her off guard and slid her closer and slightly off balance - just as he was swinging his sword towards her in a strike.

Clever boy, she thought to herself as she quickly blocked the strike, then shifted her wrist in such a manner so as to twist and parry his own blade in an attempt to break his grip on it and force it out of his hand.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Countered. A crafty thought he had hoped would break her defense and it did for a moment, but this lady was vigilant with a blade. As she countered his strike she parried his blade causing it to loose from his grip and to the floor. Varin for a slight moment was surprised, he had never been disarmed before, but something about her was slightly distracting.

Giving a slight growl to her he quickly recovered and made a jab to her wrist to weaken her grip on her blade, hoping the pressure point in the location would give him the edge. But after they both lose their weapons, it's hard to say if he could brawl this woman fairly. She clearly had the weight advantage and Varin was not willing to go overboard with the force.

He knew that if she dropped her blade after the jab he would make a swift kick to it to get it away from her. Possibly put her in a grapple, but he doubted that would work. She was definitely strong. The next best thing would probably be a quick strike with a follow up.

After quickly running through the process Varin would end his assault with a quick strike towards the bridge of her nose.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Varin Mortifer ​

Nyara’s parry was successful and she felt a sense of satisfaction upon seeing his blade fly from his grip to clatter upon the floor. So intent was she upon their duel that she hadn’t noticed the small gathering of fellow Acolytes that had come to watch the two of them square off. A sudden exclamation pulled her focus away from her opponent, and that slight distraction gave the young man the time he needed to make his own counter against her, striking forward and landing a blow against her sword wrist, and the Pureblood woman snarled as sudden pain and numbness radiated through her fingers, causing her to drop her own blade, which her male opponent swiftly kicked away.

Now they both were on their feet, two warriors face to face but she had a feeling their spar wasn’t done yet. She certainly wasn’t finished with him. Her nostrils flared as he brought up a fist and made a quick jab towards her face - and she reacted with instant speed and grabbed a hold of his fist and stopped the strike dead in its tracks. Her golden eyes locked onto his, glittering with the enjoyment she was feeling in the moment. A faint smirk tugged at her lips, before she whipped her free arm forward with an elbow strike towards his brow.

If it connected, then he would discover that a Sith Pureblood didn’t need to be armed in order to deal damage, for they also had dangerous spines and bladed protrusions along their body - like on the elbow that was aimed for his face.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

His fist was caught mid thrust towards her brow, a momentary pause as their eyes locked. Before Varin could react he felt her spined elbow connect across his right brow. The sudden impact split the skin causing blood to pour down his face causing the young sith to give an animalistic growl fighting through the pain. For a second his vision faded to red as his back began to smoke. Before fully giving into his nature the boy pulled it back. This was not the kind of spar for such actions.

As Varins head reeled back from the elbow he quickly slung his head forward slamming his skull right on his opponents lips busting them open to draw blood as well. If she drew blood, then it was Varin’s turn to do the same.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Varin Mortifer ​

The impact of her elbow on his face sent a jarring sensation through her arm, but the scent and sight of his blood spilling forth took away any discomfort Nyara might have felt in the moment, and her eyes smoldered more brightly as she beheld her handiwork - a decent gash above his brow that poured the crimson liquid freely down his face and into one of his eyes, before dripping onto the floor.

She’d have to clean up the mess afterwards, but that was only fair.

Then, something happened with the young man that both intrigued her and made her wary: she felt the Force shift around him, the dark side take a hold of him…and then it almost appeared as if his back was …smoking?

She saw his incoming headbutt too late, being distracted once again - but she bore the crack against her lips and nose like a champ, even though it made her stumble backwards a step. Pain, sharp and fierce, bloomed across her face and she tasted iron of blood as her darker colored life ichor dripped and ran from her split lip.

Nyara rumbled a growl in return to him, before stepping into his space to twist his arm into an armbar, pivoting her body in such a manner in order to perform a body throw and get him down on the ground where she could hopefully do a pin and force him to surrender to her.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Nyara Dakhan

Distracted by the blood in his eye he felt a tight grip on his arm and before he could react, she had placed him in a ground controlled armbar, pulling his arm taught he could feel his muscle and tendons stretch into discomfort as she began to apply pressure trying to make him submit. But Varin has never submitted to anyone in combat and he would surely not begin submitting today. As the pressure began to build into his elbow he reached with his free arm in desperation and grabbed what felt like her leg draped across his chest trying to pin him down.

This will hurt a lot, but I can fix it later.

With a quick jerk he popped his shoulder out of place with a loud crack giving a slight grunt in pain. Using the extra flexibility he wrapped his free arm around her ankle into a lock of his own applying pressure.

“I can fight with one arm, but can you function with only one leg pureblood?”

He growled as he began to pull and apply pressure.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Varin Mortifer ​

With a thud, both her and her opponent went down to the ground and she held his arm fast in her strong grip, confident that the armbar would be too much for him to handle and he’d give way to her. She continued to stretch and apply pressure, and yet still he didn’t give ground to her; instead, he did something again she wasn’t expecting - he shifted, almost as if in desperation, and then purposefully dislocated his own shoulder to give him more room so he could wrap one of her legs up and fall back, tugging her into an ankle lock.

Nyara grunted with the discomfort brought on by the pressure to her ankle, and she knew that if she didn’t do something quick to break his hold on her, then she would have a dislocated ankle in turn - not something she could afford. Thinking quickly she yanked on his already dislocated shoulder to cause him pain, and the effort paid off when she felt his hold on her loosen enough that she could jerk her leg free.

She disentangled from him a moment later and rolled to her knees, stretching her hand out and bending the Force to her will, recalling her sword blade to her hand, before she made a swift slash towards the young man’s neck - pulling the swing in time so that her blade only kissed the flesh against his throat.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

Nyara Dakhan

Feeling he was starting to get the upper hand he continued applying pressure to her ankle. That is until she jerked his dislocated arm and for a moment Varin released his grip in instinct to recover his arm as she rolled off of him. As the weight lifted off him he rolled backwards calling his blade to his good hand facing away from her, as it reached his grasp he swung his body around for another strike just pulling back as the sharp edge lightly bit into her flesh leaving a small scratch. Feeling confident he slowly began to realize that he too was caught in a finishing blow of a strike from his new opponent and smirked at her in admission. Nearly breathless he spoke to her.

“Looks like a draw to me don't you think?”

Clearly the spar was over from the finishing blows, a draw may be disappointing to most but this was different in Varin's eyes. As if it were the start of something entirely new to him. He slowly lowered his blade as his arm started to pop back in place causing Varin to react just slightly. One of the few things he had been training himself was to learn how to use sith healing. He sheathed his blade and held out his arm in an exchange of respect, something this pureblood certainly earned from him, whether she felt the same or not, this was his culture and his custom.

 

[Nyara Dakhan]

Varin Mortifer ​

Nyara didn’t flinch when his own sword blade came whipping around towards her, though she silently thanked her people’s ancient gods that he had the sense and the equal respect to pull his blow too, for his blade was clearly sharp and easily could have ended her life then and there. She felt the slightest sting as the edge of his Sith blade left a little cut, tiny droplets of dark crimson blood beading up along the very shallow wound.

She watched as he seemed to realize at the same time that he, too, had been caught in the same blow, and he smirked at her in acknowledgement of her success.

Nyara was glad her Father wasn’t present to witness the finality of this duel; he would have been very disappointed in her for allowing another’s blade to touch her neck.

“Looks like a draw to me don't you think?”

Nyara’s golden eyes glittered slightly. “No such thing as a draw on the field of battle. You win, or you die. And we both lost our fight.” She said to him in a low rumble, before she calmly lowered her blade at the same time he did.

“But, all things considered, you fought very well. At least you weren’t a boring dueling partner, unlike most of these wretches.” she said further with her smirk and a glance towards the crowd that was beginning to disperse, before she felt a lance of pain through her lip and remembered that she had a wound to tend to - as did he.

“Better get yourself cleaned up.”

Nyara turned to the weapons rack to return her borrowed blade, before she glanced back at the young warrior. He had impressed her, though she wouldn’t admit it to him. “Oh and next time, unless you are engaging in Dun Möch for your fight, then best not to talk at all.” she added with one final glance at the bloodied young man, before she stepped through what remained of the crowd and began to walk away.