Jedi Academy on Yavin IV (open to the Jedi Order, regardless of faction)

[Elijah Black]

[member="Des Kovak"] | [member="Kaia Vullen"]

Zylah's eyes were glued on the interaction between Kaia and Des, and she laughed light heartedly. In a sense, they were kind of cute together. It hadn't looked like it from her angle as it happened, but she saw that Kaia looked like it had hurt. Wait, was he actually putting strength into that grip? That was unnecessary, she thought. She was quickly losing an interest in Des. Zylah was social and enjoyed the company of others, Kaia in particular. But unlike Kaia, Zylah would not go through extreme lengths to accommodate disagreeable people. Though Kaia's devotion to her quest of befriending Des was amusing to watch, Zylah was about to suggest that they leave him be and go elsewhere.

Laughter faded quickly, as did any resemblance of a smile. She stood there, mouth open in gasp, watching what happened. She had not expected violence in place of discussion from her fellow Jedi Padawan. It was so unexpected. Zylah was caught off guard, and even after the fact she was trying to process what had just happened. He.... punched her? He punched her? HE PUNCHED HER?!

There were so many things that upset her about this. One, Des was bigger and older. He should know better. He was picking on someone weaker. More importantly, he was picking on Kaia. Zylah didn't ask questions. She didn't ask him what he was thinking, how he could do such a thing, nor did she try to calm them and call for peace, like a Jedi mediator might've. Zylah was a woman of action. As Des turned to her, he'd see a fist flying his way. Zylah was enraged, furious. She snapped, and lashed out with a powerful punch towards his face, putting her entire body weight into it. Big guy or not, if that one landed, it would hurt. And she was not done. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And kark was she scorned.

 

[Des Kovak]

[member=Kaia Vullen] | [member=Zylah Dvale]

The albino's reaction was exactly what Des had expected it to be. The bigger, clearlier brawnier of the two acted just as he would. These two were Dôshalo, that much was clear.

He turned away from the small one, pivoting one foot over the grass while giving some ground with the other, and kept his arm up open handed. He caught her fist in his open palm, wrapping his fingers around hers and straining with effort to stop her punch. Their hands were now locked in place, each straining to push back the other as Des gritted his teeth and dug his heels into the ground. He didn't say a word, but his eyes bored into Zylah's and spoke plenty.

This is more like it, he thought. This is what I know. Let's see what you are made of, Zylah.

 

[Kaia Vullen]

[member="Zylah Dvale"] | [member="Des Kovak"]

[SIZE=10pt]Kaia flinched, her face contorting into a grimace to greet Des’ incoming fist. She gave no resistance; she had no resistance to give. His fist connected closer to her mouth, and knocked her backwards and into a 180 degree spin with a nice splatter of blood and saliva lashing from the inside of her mouth into the grassy field. Des had successfully wiped the grin off her face. [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]She stumbled a few steps before regaining her feet. Tears streamed from her eyes, blood reddened her lower lip and a childish bubble of snot grew in her left nostril as she exhaled through the pain [/SIZE]‘Accept the pain.'[SIZE=10pt].[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]Kaia turned sharply towards Des and Zylah and rushed against them. Her arms extended, gripped the backs of their tunics and pulled the two of them into a tight embrace with surprising strength for someone of such petite stature. She didn’t say any words, but drew a shaky breath while burrowing her face between them. Her arms tightened and she turned her face up to each of them in turn, smiling that brilliant smile with reddened teeth. Kaia held on to them for a little, her spindly fingers gripping the backs of their tunics before her consciousness slipped and she fell to her knees then toppled on her side in the grass. Her lips were still curled in a small smirk.[/SIZE]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"Mm-hm," he said, offhanded. "Raised to it, more or less. It was a long time ago, when there were plenty of Sith but no Jedi worth the name. Limits your options, you might say, so I signed up and got the tattoos. I was a terrible Sith. Reprimanded constantly, and my immortality experiments backfired about as hard as they can."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Shule Windspeaker"]
Jacen raised both eyebrows before he'd realised it. And then he was nodding along to the story. The older Padawan was glad he sought out Master Windspeaker. For once it felt like he wasn't being handled with kid gloves by someone who would, in the next breath, send a child into danger.

"Honestly, I appreciate the candour. Sometimes I wonder if it's like drugs. If you've already got an addictive personality you'll be hooked, yet many people can try them and put the college experience behind them with ease. The politicians will endless argue over whether education or policing is the answer. Hmm.

"Anyway, would you possibly have any time to take me into some more intermediate defensive blade work please? Completely understand that there could be many reasons not to!"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

Shule nodded and moved to the edge of the garden, where a flat old piece of eroded stone gave barely enough room for two duelists to face each other at relatively close range. He drew his lightsabre and ignited it. "About fifty years back, my project was trying to make Soresu into something new, like Juyo into Vaapad. Arrogant of me, and that was at the most...peaceful and sincere period of my life, you could say. I didn't get much of anywhere, but I sure got a handle on Soresu. Now, some people think this form is about being impregnable, being a tank, stopping any hit no matter how hard -- but it's not. Soresu is about circularity, maneuvering, and being exactly where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there. It's deeply intuitive. With a lot of other forms and styles, you can go one or two moves at a time, but with Soresu, you not only need perfect muscle memory, well-tuned to that circularity, you need subconscious precognitive awareness that reaches five, six, seven moves ahead. You need to be able to run through massed blasterfire or contort your way through security lasers -- both tasks that wouldn't normally be associated with lightsabre training, but both tasks that are intimately connected with Soresu. Remind me -- where do you stand with the seven forms?"

 

[Des Kovak]

[member=Kaia Vullen] | [member=Zylah Dvale]

The pressure of something grabbing at his back made Des start, planning to turn to face this new sudden threat. An instant later he saw that it was the Miraluka he had just struck down, and her actions had him dumbstruck. Des stopped pushing against the albino, letting his fisr go limp and his arm hang at his side. "What-" he managed the start of a question, but got no further. What was he going to ask? What the hell are you doing, weirdo? came pretty close to his wonderment. This was certainly something he'd never seen before. The very concept of 'turning the other cheek' was so foreign to Des, he could not fathom the why or how of it.

He watched, lame and slackjawed, as the small Jedi sagged to the ground, apparently more affected by his treatment of her than he'd thought. These Jedi can be even weaker than I thought, even now this kind of thought crossed his mind, though it seemed mean-spirited now even to himself.

"You, uh... We- Err..." he started hesitantly again, not certain which was more appropriate. He was uncertain what was expected of him now, let alone what the albino woman would do. He settled on leaving it open. "Someone should get her to the infirmary."

 

[Jacen Voidstalker]

[member="Shule Windspeaker"]

Jacen fell in behind the Jedi Master, taking up a position on the opposite side of the flat ground. His eyes scanned his surroundings, noting the way the ground started to angle upwards behind Shule and the crack just to his left.

"I spent a good few years at the academy in my youth, before dropping out. Back then I picked up a good grounding in Shii-Cho, before moving on the Ataru. I think, at the time, I thought the form would be cool," he explained, almost cringing as he explained the last part, his disdain for his wasted years clear.

"Since I've been back I've obviously been working hard on my basic form. I've stuck with Shii-Cho only really. since I've been duelling kids ten to twenty years younger I've adapted the basics really. Been watching footwork carefully, conserving energy, and frustrating them until I get an opening to hit hard. Think I've developed a better strategic mind than saber arm!

"Not a great deal for you to work from eh?" he added with an apologetic smile.

 

[Elijah Black]

[member="Des Kovak"] | [member="Kaia Vullen"]

[SIZE=11pt]Her strike was anticipated and caught by Des. This did not give her the satisfaction she was looking for, nor the justice for his unprovoked attack on her friend. Similarly, both aggressively raised their free hand towards the other, which got interlocked as well. Zylah gritted her teeth, struggling for superiority, her eyes giving Des an intense stare. She was not about to back down, but she could tell that neither would he.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Her attention was so heavily focused on Des, that she did not notice that Kaia had gotten back up on her feet and was approaching them. Not until she felt the Miraluka's hand tugging on her tunic did she become aware of her presence, and what the young girl did next amazed her. The shock of it all snapped her out of her anger, and with that wide smile staring up at her, Zylah found it hard to return to it. Like Des, Zylah's arms dropped, remembering something Kaia had said earlier. Don't fight it. Somehow still smiling, she saw her young friend collapse to the ground again, leaving her and Des in a sort of awkward embrace. Kaia had met violence with compassion. It gave Zylah hope for the future. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Her eyes turning to Des, she could see that he shared her bewilderment. He seemed as confused as her, his will to fight seeming to fade away. Had it not been for that, Kaia's move might've been in vain, but it would appear she had calmed the two fighters. She watched him with suspicious caution, though she saw no more of his frustration in his eyes. Zylah took half a step back and crouched down next to Kaia. "I'll take her" she said decidedly, taking the girl into her arms before Zylah got back up on her feet. With no more words, she turned, carrying Kaia in her arms as she walked towards the infirmary. [/SIZE]

 

[Des Kovak]

[member=Zylah Dvale] | [member=Kaia Vullen]

Des only nodded, silently agreeing that that was probably for the best. Both of these Jedi, the Miraluka and the albino, had shown Des something. There were other ways to deal with things. Ways Des saw as weak, but somehow the small Jedi had defeated him, and the albino had turned her back and come away after protecting her Dôshado from the threat that was Des. Yes, he had been the threat, he realised now, not them, and he remember being told that threatening was a very un-Jedi thing to do. He saw why, but it still made little sense. He had a whole lot of thinking to do. If only he could get this meditation to work. For now, sleeping on it would have to suffice.

And perhaps, he thought, as he watched the albino stride away carefully, perhaps he would visit this small thing in the med ward or something.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jacen Voidstalker"]

"No, that's actually plenty. That strategic timing is sort of a prerequisite for learning Soresu -- or for maximizing your defenses with Shii-Cho. Same thing goes for energy conservation. Some people take a lesson in this style or that and call themselves broadly educated. I don't ascribe to that philosophy. If we had a couple of years, I could make you very, very good at Soresu, but we don't. So let's work within Shii-Cho for now and talk about principles."

One little conversation, five or ten minutes with some demonstrations and a spar thrown in, just plain wouldn't cut it. That was how morons trained. Shule's tagline for this principle had something to do with not fearing the man who'd done ten thousand kicks once, but fearing the man who'd done one kick ten thousand times.

A number that Shule took literally.

Introduction to Intermediate Shii-Cho Defense took, for starters, about three hours, with an injunction to come back tomorrow having spent another two hours on self-guided practice. At which point Shule would knock a few more rough edges off Voidstalker's form and start again. The way he taught emphasized breathing and timing, adjustments of stance and economy of motion. No head-bobbing while walking, no tension while moving -- not until the moment of connection. Quick, instinctive transitions between deep or mobile stances. Combinations of carefully selected basic maneuvers, emphasizing Shii-Cho's strengths while compensating for its weaknesses.

 

[Micah Talith]

Yavin IV

A sigh would befall the gangly shoulders of one Micah Draith Shamalain Talith. It wasn't that he wasn't too happy to be here; it was that he didn't know anyone.

Like -- anyone.

The trips to the Jedi Academy with is mother had been few and far in between; most of the time they spent it at home or traveling with his siblings as a group. He was well aware of his mother's upbringing within the Order, their philosophy...

But it was awkward enough being the new kid at the temple who actually.. well... had parents he still lived with. And would go home after visiting.

That is so weird, a scowl crossing his face. For a moment, he looked strikingly like his father -- bright orange eyes, brown hair, and the stubborn curve of his angular jaw.

Training practices and spars would be available on every section of the Yavin Jedi Academy. Honestly, he was more interested on what lay beyond and rumor had it there were some interesting catacombs around.

All legs and arms, Micah would wander here and there, the permanent wisps of his bangs tickling his eyes. It was then that he caught sight of [member="Shule Windspeaker"].

Was it some kind of saber training?

Curiosity hit the Nexu, as it was wont to do with the young male Talith. So needless to say, he would come closer to find out more.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

OOC/ Feel free to continue writing in this one for a few posts if you folks want, but Part II of this thread is located here.