Faction Phase 2: Issue # 1: A Question of Balance [NJP + Open to All Jedi]

[Lumiya Dara]

The howl of pain immediately drew Lumiya's attention away from the towers. She winced at the sight of the blood as Kuhbee approached, her stomach giving an unpleasant little turn at the sight of the split claw. Blood had never been her favorite thing to look at, and a Wookiee's injured claw was certainly not going to improve matters. Still, she had dealt with worse. She took a quiet breath through her nose and focused on what needed to be done rather than what it looked like.

"Oh, dear," she murmured sympathetically, rising and reaching for her medkit. "Let's have a look at that." She crouched in front of him rather than making him bend down toward her, carefully taking his paw only after giving him a reassuring smile. "You did the right thing coming over. It looks painful, but we'll get it cleaned and dressed."

Lumiya opened her kit and began sorting through the supplies she needed. She deliberately kept her connection to the Force quiet, relying on the more mundane skills she'd learned as a healer. There was no reason to reach for something beyond that when a bandage and a little care would do perfectly well. She certainly didn't want to risk drawing Vendryn's presence any closer to the surface, particularly around a group of Padawans.

She gently cleaned the wound, pausing whenever Kuhbee reacted to the sting. "Sorry," she said softly. "I know that part isn't pleasant." Once the bleeding was under control, she carefully wrapped the injured claw so that it was protected without putting unnecessary pressure on it. Her movements were practiced and gentle, and only once the dressing was secured did she finally relax. "There. Much better." She looked up at him with a small smile. "And before you ask..." Lumiya glanced toward the students and their collection of increasingly precarious towers. "I'm not actually sitting out because I don't know how to do the exercise. I'm here in case someone gets hurt." She gave his newly bandaged paw one last careful look before releasing it. "Which, as it turns out, was probably a very sensible decision."

A small smile then tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Try to be gentle with that paw for a little while. Your tower can wait."

Tag: Kuhbee

 

[Sian Sestoi]

Sian followed a step behind Katarine Ryiah , listening silently as the woman spoke about how challenging being a Jedi really was. Her boots made a dull thud against the stone steps beneath them as they finally left the beating sun behind. Moving under the shade of the archway, the desert heat dropped off her back, replaced by the cool, recirculated air of the Praxeum's main hall.

She didn't care much for the quiet. In her experience, places this peaceful were usually just detached from whatever was actually happening in the galaxy. An enclave here, an enclave there, but none of it seemed to make much difference when you were jumping from system to system to keep a step ahead of a Sith Lord.

"Unity's nice in theory," Sian said, watching her shadow stretch across the stone floor as Katarine asked what she'd been up to. Sian wasn't about to start unpacking the last few years. She had no interest in sharing stories about scraping by on backwater docks, running odd jobs, or keeping her head down. None of that mattered here, so she kept her voice level.

"Nothing worth mentioning." She shifted her satchel and glanced toward the inner hall, turning the focus back on the Master beside her. "How about you? Takes time to build an academy, and I doubt you spent all these years just buried under paperwork trying to get approval from the old Council." She still had a decent relationship with the Jedi High Council, though they were also scattered or dead which didn't really help them here. ​

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

"Never Hide Your Heart"
​

Katarine could sense a quiet pain lingering beneath Sian's words. It wasn't physical, but something deeper, born of loss and the difficult years that had followed the fall of the Galactic Alliance. Those years had not been kind to anyone, least of all the Jedi. There was so much that needed to be rebuilt, so much the galaxy needed from them if they were ever to push back the darkness that had taken hold. Some days, the task seemed almost insurmountable.

"How about you? Takes time to build an academy, and I doubt you spent all these years just buried under paperwork trying to get approval from the old Council."

Katarine shook her head, a faint, rueful smile touching her lips.

"Sadly, I built this place without any input from the Council. The New Jedi Order we once knew is gone, though it seems Jand and a few others have managed to build something new from its ashes. I haven't had much contact with them, so I couldn't tell you what they've accomplished." Her expression grew a little more somber. "But the Council we once looked to for guidance is no more. Truthfully, I don't even know what became of most of its members."

It was a strange thing to admit aloud. There had been a time when the Jedi Council seemed as permanent a fixture in her life as the Force itself. Now even its whereabouts were a mystery.

She sighed softly as they continued down the hallway. A handful of students wandered between classrooms, some chatting quietly with friends while others hurried toward their next lesson. There was life here, certainly, and the beginnings of something that Katarine hoped would one day flourish. Still, the corridors were a far cry from the bustling halls of the old Coruscant Temple. There had been a time when hundreds of Jedi filled those halls, their presence so familiar that she had scarcely thought to appreciate it.

Now, looking at the comparatively empty academy, she wondered if they would ever see such days again.

"The Jedi Order of the High Republic might be our last hope. Unless enough Jedi could gather together to create something new."


Sian Sestoi

 

[Kuhbee]

​

Location: Chalacta
Equipment: Translation Droid | Lightsaber | Jedi Robes |
Tags: Lumiya Dara

​

Kuhbee whimpered pitifully as Lumiya examined his injured claw. He was trying very hard to be brave, but every little movement sent another sharp sting through his paw. When she began cleaning the wound, he let out a particularly dramatic howl, his free paw flying up to cover his eyes. Surely no Wookiee had ever suffered such a terrible injury before!

Thankfully, the ordeal was over almost as quickly as it had begun. Kuhbee cautiously lowered his paw and inspected Lumiya's handiwork. He turned his bandaged claw this way and that, studying it with great interest. A few experimental wiggles of his fingers confirmed that the worst of the pain had passed.

He gave Lumiya an appreciative rumble before leaning forward and wrapping his enormous, furry arms around her in a grateful hug. Wookiees were not exactly known for their restraint when it came to showing affection, and Kuhbee was certainly no exception.

When he finally released her, he glanced over his shoulder at the other students and their towers. His own creation still stood nearby, unfinished and looking rather sad compared to some of the others. He gave a disappointed little groan. He had been doing so well before his stupid claw decided to betray him!

Still, Lumiya had said he needed to be gentle with his paw, and Kuhbee had every intention of listening to the nice lady who had fixed it.

For approximately three seconds.

His ears perked up as an idea occurred to him. With an excited little bark, he pointed toward the towers, then toward Lumiya, and finally made a series of enthusiastic gestures with his good paw. If she wasn't participating because she was supposed to help people, perhaps she could help him finish his tower!

He flashed her a hopeful, toothy grin, clearly quite pleased with his own cleverness. After all, she had only told him to rest his paw. She hadn't said anything about finding someone else to do the hard work!

 

[Tessari Keln]

OBJECTIVE: A Question of Balance
LOCATION: New Jedi Praxeum
OUTFIT: Jedi attire
TAGS: Daro-Gah Renada | Zanig’lad’evuno | Kuhbee | Open

Tessari tried again. The stone trembled. Rose. Tilted. Clack. Her head tilted with it. Again. This time Tessari rotated the stone before attempting to lift it, presenting what she judged to be the more stable surface toward the ground. Up. Tremble. Rise. Clack. Tessari's eyes narrowed. That was interesting. She exchanged it for another stone, one slightly smaller and considerably lighter. The result was almost identical.

Tessari sat back on her heels. Three attempts. Different weights. Different shapes. Different orientations. Nearly identical failures. Which meant—The stones weren't the common variable. She was. "Oh, that's irritating."

A Wookiee's rather dramatic howl briefly pulled her attention away from the experiment. Tessari looked over toward the large Padawan who had apparently been less fortunate than she had been when Daro's stones went flying. His injured claw was now wrapped in a clean bandage, and the Wookiee appeared to be enthusiastically attempting to convince the young healer of something. He gestured toward the unfinished towers with his uninjured paw, looking rather pleased with himself. At least he seemed to be feeling better.

Another voice caught Tessari's attention. A translation droid. Are you doing math in your head? Tessari followed the question toward the blue-skinned girl nearby.

"Yes." That single word immediately earned more of Tessari's attention. The Chiss wasn't merely stacking the stones. She was examining them. Calculating. Adjusting. Tessari watched as the girl incorporated one of Daro's runaway rocks into her growing tower, apparently finding a suitable place for it among the others.

Tessari blinked. Then looked at her own collection. Then back at the Chiss's tower. So the analytical approach wasn't the problem. Good. She had been rather attached to that. But there was a difference. Tessari had been deciding where the stone belonged, then trying to dictate every part of getting it there. Position. Orientation. Movement. Stop. She had treated the Force like an invisible manipulator waiting for sufficiently precise instructions. Maybe those were two separate problems.

She selected the broad stone again. The calculations could tell her where it needed to go. She didn't need to abandon those. Tessari studied the surface, chose a position, and fixed the destination clearly in her mind. Then she tried something considerably harder. She stopped telling the stone how to get there. Tessari breathed out. The rock trembled. Her fingers twitched instinctively at her side, but she resisted the temptation to conduct every centimeter of its movement.

The stone rose. One centimeter. Two. Tessari's eyes widened, but after what had happened to Daro she knew better than to celebrate yet. Slowly, awkwardly, the rock drifted into position. It settled. Tessari stared at it. "Huh." Not exactly a tower. But it was precisely where she'd wanted it.

Her gaze slipped toward the Chiss again before returning to her stones. Tessari chose the second piece. She already knew which one she wanted. Its shallow depression should fit against the irregular ridge of the first if she turned it—No. She knew where it belonged. That was enough.

The second stone lifted more reluctantly. It wobbled once, dipped, then rose again. Tessari leaned forward as it approached the first. Almost. Almost. It touched. Wobbled. Tessari's hand shot forward instinctively to steady it—

—and stopped. Her fingers hovered a few centimeters from the stone. Her attention shifted to her hand. Then the rock. Then, slowly, toward Kuhbee, whose injured claw was now wrapped in a clean bandage. Tessari's expression changed. She had picked these things up. With her bare hands. More than once.

Stones that had been sitting outside. In the dirt. Stones other people had presumably handled. Stones currently being thrown around between a collection of people she had never met before. She looked at her fingertips. "Oh." This one carried considerably less enthusiasm than the first.

She had been so engrossed in the problem that she hadn't even considered what she was touching. The realization was almost as unsettling as the fact that she'd managed to forget about it in the first place. Tessari carefully withdrew her hand and wiped her fingertips against a clean portion of her clothing before immediately reconsidering whether transferring whatever had been on the rocks to her clothes had actually improved anything. Probably not. She resisted the urge to reach for the small container of sanitizer she kept tucked away with her belongings.

She would deal with that later. Her gaze returned to the precariously balanced stone. For once, however, the prospect of accomplishing something without physically touching it had become considerably more appealing. A tiny smile returned. "Actually..." The stone shifted. Tessari corrected—not by reaching for it, but by concentrating on where it needed to be. It descended. Wobbled precariously. And stayed.

Two stones. Tessari regarded her thoroughly unimpressive little structure with disproportionate satisfaction. "I may like this method better." Her pale eyes drifted once more toward the Chiss and her considerably more accomplished tower. There was still one question bothering her. Was the other girl using the calculations to control the stones? Or only to decide where they belonged? Tessari suspected there was a difference. And now she wanted to know.

 

[Sian Sestoi]

Sian took a short breath and hooked her thumb under the heavy strap of her satchel, glancing at the few students walking past. It felt strange seeing young people going about their day without a worry when half the galaxy was in flames. Keeping her voice quiet so she wouldn't draw their attention, her eyes followed two padawans carrying a crate of training gear into an adjacent room.

"The old Council always seemed to vanish when things got difficult," Sian said, her tone less than cheerful. "I can't blame them this time, though. Looking for missing masters usually just leaves you with a longer list of dead friends." She stopped near a stone pillar and rested her palm against the rough surface. When Katarine Ryiah brought up the High Republic, Sian simply stared at her in silence, letting the comment hang in the air.

That kind of wistful thinking about the past was risky. Depending on old stories or waiting for some big moment to unite everyone was how Jedi made mistakes and got caught unprepared. "Counting on the High Republic or waiting for a miracle to fix what's broken won't work," Sian said, turning back toward the main hallway.​

 

[Zanig’lad’evuno]

Glade sat on the sand like a monument of her own. Apart from the occasional raising of her arm to place a stone, she was motionless, with only the wind interrupting the fabric of her garment or splitting the strands of her hair peeking over her face. Her gaze was trained on her tower. Her focus was zoned in on a greater power.

Stack the stones. That basic command, the name of this training, was engraved in her brain. She would not be distracted from this objective, not with the toss of a rock from an enraged Wookiee, or the descent of a ship in the distance, or the former Wookiee needing a bandage for his mistake by the resident medic. Nothing would take the Chiss away from this.

So she ran the math, shifted the physics, scanned for heat variations, density differences, weight distribution. It was the same procedure, repeated over and over. Succeed. Fail. Repetition. Again. A stone fell. She tried another. Two stones fell. The third began at that instant and threatened to bring the entire tower down. Fingers caught it in time. Balance restored. Again. Same as before.

However, it wasn’t science that saved her but instinct in the Force. The Force. She had intuition, patience, analysis, vision. These were gifts for a Chiss that she was born with. Tools to utilize for the right occasion. Knowledge was a pool. But I have forgotten to rely on the Force as my guide. It had to be more than a device to lift with.

Just as the Chiss gently sighed into the wind, taking in her realization, a shape caught her eye off to the side. It was the Kuranu. Perhaps it was just a glance at the Chiss when their eyes met but Glade, straight-faced as ever, would not be the first to look away.

Tessari Keln

 

[Lumiya Dara]

Lumiya barely had time to react before Kuhbee's enormous arms wrapped around her. And for a moment, she disappeared into a wall of fur. Then she laughed softly and returned the hug, her arms wrapping as far around him as they could manage. "You're very welcome," she said warmly once he released her.

She watched his enthusiastic gestures with growing amusement as he pointed toward his tower, then toward her, clearly presenting what he believed to be an excellent solution to his problem.

Lumiya followed his gaze toward the unfinished tower. Then she looked back at him. "Oh, I see." A small smile appeared. "No." She said the word gently, without the slightest hint of annoyance.

She gathered her medkit and wandered over with him toward his tower anyway, crouching beside the collection of stones to examine it. She didn't touch any of them. Instead, she glanced at Kuhbee and then at his bandaged paw. "I'll stay with you," she offered. "But I'm not going to build it for you." She could almost see the disappointment coming, so she continued before he could protest. "Your claw hurts. That's true. And you should be careful with it. But being hurt doesn't always mean that you have to stop what you're doing."

Lumiya picked up one of the smaller stones with her hand and turned it over thoughtfully before setting it back down. "Sometimes, especially in a difficult situation, you have to keep your focus on what you're doing even when something hurts. You won't always have the luxury of waiting until you're completely comfortable again." Her expression softened. "Think of it as another part of your training."

She gestured toward his tower. "You don't have to use the injured paw more than you should. But you can learn how to work around it. Carefully. Slowly. And if it becomes too painful, then you stop." She smiled an encouraging smile. "If you learn how to do that now, you may discover you have an advantage that some of the other Padawans don't."

Lumiya shifted slightly so she could watch him work. "Besides, I think your tower deserves to be finished by the person who started it." There was a faint glimmer of amusement in her eyes. "I'll be right here if you need me." And she meant it. She would watch his paw, make sure he didn't push himself too far, and step in if the injury genuinely required it. But she wasn't going to take the lesson away from him by doing the work herself.

Tag: Kuhbee