LOCATION: training area
TAGS: @open
As he stood on the slackline, blindfolded, he could feel every subtle shift in his balance, every minute vibration of the webbing beneath his feet. The room around him was silent except for the occasional flicker of the candles and his own steady breathing.
He raised his lightsaber, feeling the familiar weight and balance of the weapon in his hand. He closed his eyes behind the blindfold, centering himself, reaching out with his senses to feel the presence of the ball bearings atop the candles. The Force flowed through him, a guiding presence that connected him to his surroundings.
With a deep breath, Braze began the first cadence. His movements were slow at first, cautious as he adjusted to the added difficulty of balancing on the slackline. Each strike was deliberate, guided more by his connection to the Force than by sight. The soft hum of his lightsaber was a constant companion as he moved through the sequence, striking each ball bearing with precision. Initially he had some trouble adjusting to the minute shifts but he honed in with each mark of failure being used to adjust and focus down.
As he progressed, his confidence grew. His movements became more fluid, more assured. He could feel the slackline beneath him, but it no longer seemed an obstacle. It was just another part of the environment he was connected to through the Force.
Over the course of a month, Braze dedicated himself to mastering Faalo's first and second cadences, a series of intricate lightsaber maneuvers that required not only physical dexterity but also a deep connection with the Force. His journey through these stages was marked by struggle, perseverance, and gradual progress.
‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙
Week 1: Initial Attempts
In the first week, Braze began with the basic movements of the first cadence. His initial attempts were clumsy, often resulting in the ball bearings being knocked off the candles. Each failure was teaching him the importance of precision and control. He spent hours repeating the movements, slowly improving his accuracy. Despite the frustration of repeated failures, he persisted, driven by a deep desire to master the technique.
Week 2: Gaining Confidence
By the second week, Braze's movements became more fluid, and his strikes more accurate. He could now consistently hit the ball bearings without disturbing the candles. However, when he attempted to increase his speed, his accuracy faltered. The challenge was to find the balance between speed and precision. He spent this week focusing on this aspect, gradually increasing his pace while maintaining control.
Week 3: Blindfolded Trials
The third week brought a new challenge: performing the cadence blindfolded. This required Braze to rely solely on his connection to the Force, a task that proved to be incredibly difficult. His initial attempts were met with failure, as he struggled to sense the bearings without the aid of sight. Each day, he spent hours blindfolded, using the Force to guide his movements. Slowly, he began to improve, but the task remained daunting.
Week 4: The Slackline Challenge
In the final week, Braze introduced the slackline into his training, adding the element of balance to the already complex task. The first few days were marked by numerous falls and failures. Balancing on the slackline while blindfolded and performing the cadences seemed almost impossible. However, Braze refused to give up. Each fall was followed by a quick return to the slackline, each failure a motivation to try again.
As the days passed, his balance improved, and he began to complete parts of the cadence while on the slackline. But mastering the entire sequence in these conditions remained beyond his reach as the month concluded.
He worked on this with obsessive discipline until he could replicate a sucessful pass thrice over.
Braze, having mastered the first and second cadences of Vo'ren Faalo's series, approached the third cadence with apprehension. The third cadence was a significant step up in complexity and required a heightened level of sensory awareness and control.
The second cadence, with its seventy-two candles set in a full circle around him, had been challenging, but Braze had gradually mastered it. He had learned to strike each ball bearing without turning to face each candle, a feat that honed his body control and spatial awareness. Now, able to perform the first and second cadences blindfolded and on a slackline, Braze felt confident in his abilities on that step now.
However, the third cadence presented a new level of difficulty. It involved 180 candles set at two-degree intervals in a full circle, a significant increase in the number of targets compared to the previous cadences. The objective was to strike every fifth ball bearing without turning, preparing him for irregular attack patterns from all sides.
As Braze began the third cadence, he immediately noticed the difference. The sheer number of candles and the requirement to hit every fifth ball bearing without turning demanded an exceptional level of precision and foresight. His initial attempts were marked by frequent mistakes; he either missed the bearings or accidentally struck the candles.
The rhythm of the third cadence was different from the previous ones. It required a different approach, one that Braze struggled to adapt to in the beginning. He had to recalibrate his sense of timing and spatial awareness, learning to anticipate the position of the bearings without the need to physically see them.
Despite the initial setbacks, Braze was determined to master this new challenge. He spent hours practicing, slowly getting accustomed to the rhythm and pattern of the third cadence.
Braze's journey through the third cadence of Vo'ren Faalo's series was markedly different from his experiences with the first two. The complexity of the third cadence, with its 180 candles and the requirement to strike every fifth ball bearing without turning, presented a challenge that Braze found increasingly difficult to overcome. Unlike the previous cadences, where he could quickly learn from his mistakes and adjust, the third cadence seemed to amplify his errors, leading to mounting frustration.
As days turned into weeks, Braze's usual resilience began to wane. Each session ended with more mistakes than successes, and the sense of accomplishment he once felt was replaced by a growing sense of defeat. He began to overthink each movement, his mind clouded with doubt and uncertainty. The fluidity and grace he had mastered in the first two cadences seemed just out of reach in the third.
One evening, after yet another grueling practice session, Braze's emotions finally caught up with him. Exhausted, both physically and mentally, he deactivated his lightsaber and let it drop to the ground. He sank to his knees amidst the circle of candles, the weight of his perceived failures pressing down on him. Tears welled up in his eyes, a rare occurrence for the usually stoic Jedi.
For a moment, Braze allowed himself to feel the full extent of his frustration and disappointment. He cried quietly, the tears streaming down his face as he consodered the intense pressure he had placed on himself.
