Private Sandstone Symphony

[Aveline Cuiléin]

Tag: Briana Sal-Soren​

Black boots sunk into coarse sand, and Aveline held up her arm to shield her eyes from the sun. It was funny, in a way, how her early training years had been spent in the luscious jungles of Kashyyyk, and now she found herself in the middle of nowhere, deep within the desert of Jakku. At least the beads of sweat the heat drew from her pores were the same. Yet the air here was crisp, and to give away water so freely underneath Jakku's burning sun seemed the shadow of a mistake.

Aveline, dressed in loose pants and white tunics, had brought nothing but the hilt of her lightsaber. She did not know what to expect, only that it wouldn’t be easy. That was a good thing, she told herself, as smooth seas did not make skilled sailors. She would brave the storm of these dunes yet.

Aveline knew Briana only by reputation. She was by all accounts an excellent duellist and Djem So practitioner, just the sort of person she as a youngling had envisoned herself becoming. Today was about more than just a test to her. She felt ready to pass her trials, true, but did she have any idea what it meant to be a Jedi Knight? Briana embodied that, and Aveline would look to the more experienced woman to set the standard going forward.

But she was getting ahead of herself.

Her mind was wandering, and she needed it to be clear. The young Padawan took a deep breath. The Force was the cool water with which she washed herself of her troubles.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

 

[Briana Sal-Soren]

Wearing: XoXo | Equipment: Lightsaber | Location: | Tag:​

Briana watched from a distance atop a craggy dune, her presence carefully cloaked in the Force so as to avoid detection by Aveline. The vast, open desert of Jakku stretched around them for miles, a rippling tide of golden dunes under the merciless sun. It was here, amidst this barren landscape, that she had chosen to conduct Aveline's Trial of Skill.

The harsh environment was not just a backdrop; it was an integral part of the test, designed to push Aveline's limits, to see how well she could adapt and maintain her focus when faced with the extreme — when the constant shifting from loosened grains of sand beneath your feet made your back ache and legs cramp from the unstable ground, but you had to find a way to press through the pain, through the thirst, and keep going anyways.

When one had to learn how to harness the Force in order to find your balance and strength.

To Briana, the true test of skill was not just about ones mastery over a blade, but a mastery over oneself – mind, body, and spirit.

The Second Galactic Hyperspace War had been her crucible, her own tests conducted on the battlefield rather than in the confines of an academy, where there had been no room for error or second chances. If you failed, you died.

Those experiences had shaped her, honed her in ways that the traditional methods could not. And while the battles she had faced were irreplaceable teachers, Briana hoped to offer Aveline a glimpse of that intensity, to replicate a taste of real-world challenge without the lethal stakes.

Thus, various droids laid in wait beneath hidden panels in the sand, droids that Briana had personally taken the time to program in preparation for this day; their advanced algorithms designed to replicate the unpredictable nature of a live adversary, each droid possessing extensive knowledge on the blade styles and tactics that'd been employed by sundry Sith Briana had faced during her own apprenticeship — from the aggressive onslaught of a Marauder, to the cunning and precision of an Assassin.

A deep inhale was pulled into her chest, her heartbeat accelerating in anticipation as she watched Aveline unknowingly step into the arena she'd constructed. Without revealing herself, she reached out through the Force, a whisper across the expanse that separated them, sending a telepathic message.

Your test begins now.

With a tap on her wrist-mounted device, the previously still desert sand began to move, shifting aside just before the would-be-Knight. A droid, hunched over, emerged from beneath the surface, its components groaning as it rose to its full, imposing stature—an HK-series assassin droid humming to life and slicing through the desert's stillness.

A singular beat passed, a tense calmness before the storm, and then...

With the suddenness of that storm breaking, the droid surged forward, closing the distance faster than anything of that size had any right to as a lightsaber hummed to life in each mechanical grip, swinging both blades down in a powerful overhead arc.

Would she recognize the form of Jar'kai and respond accordingly?

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

Tag: Briana Sal-Soren

Your test begins now.​

The voice sailed atop the dunes, like a gentle breeze signalling the dawn of a storm. It was everywhere and nowhere at once. Aveline had no time to ponder its origin, because the sands in front of her began to shift and part.

"Hello there"

The droid did not respond. It wasn't here to chat. There were times when Jedi were called upon to be diplomats, to resolve things peacefully. Today was not that kind of day.

Aveline's own blue blade snapped to life as she moved to meet the droid. Her blade lifted to parry the overhead strike. She didn't so much want her blade to touch the droid's, as she wanted it there to keep its location under control. The main way she evaded was through quick footwork, stepping to the side and following up around the droid. Or, she had meant to swiftly move around the droid, but the sand ate at her feet, and made her footwork less 'snappy'.

As soon as the Padawan had moved clear of the blades, she brought her own blade back up again, making sure it was in an arc that would tap against the head of the droid, before bringing it back down in a flurry of quick, diagonal strikes at its torso, one, two, three.

A wise Master might've stepped back to assess its opponent, let it reveal its weaknesses and then strike. Thankfully, the young Padawan had time to grow wise yet. She had capacity for patience, outside of battle, but in the heat of the moment she sought to set the pace and achieve swift domination. In this case, to turn quickly to the counter-attack and maintain offensive pressure.