The Eternal Garden (Solan Charr)

[NightSister]

At last, Scarlett had completed all her missions, tied up all her nightclub contracts and been given a few days away from the Order of Nyx. A year ago, she would have celebrated her free time by visiting Nar Shadaa for a shopping trip and a few parties, but not only was she less invested in her hedonism as she was back then, she was incredibly tired of excitement - a feeling which even after working as a spy and spending her free time as a party girl had never arisen. Instead, she had flown to Kesh to see if the Eternal Garden could offer her a peaceful moment of meditation.

She felt awkward as she entered the Garden beneath the stars - she felt like a Jedi, and an old Jedi at that. But several among the witches of the Awoken had promised that meditation, if done correctly, could be enlightening and stress-relieving and she'd also heard that there was no better place to do it than the Eternal Garden. So there she was, cloaked in a deep purple robe that made her look especially witchy in the moonlight, standing a respectful distance away from the statue in the middle and contemplating the past year of her life.

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Scarlett Orion"]

Solan in contrast to the woman who he had yet to recognize as being there, was in the garden in order to simple do as he always did and that was bring life and tend to the gardens as best he could. It was a practice that he prefered to anything else and as he drew the petals of a flower out and letting it stay as such and leaning back to admire the emerald colored flower. It was only then when he noticed the footsteps of the new arrival and her eyes were drawn to the girl off to his right with a raised brow.

She was someone he did not recognize, and certainly not a Jedi that for some reason loved to stop in around here. So that fact made his head turn before he spoke up with his hands being wiped off with a cloth. "Hello there miss, how can i help you?" He walked slowly as he himself looked up toward's kesh's moon and then onto the stars that surrounded it. "I must say that you are not someone that i have seen before, and your presence, while welcome, is an interesting sight for me." He smiled at her before resting on the statue, putting the cloth in his lap and watching her while he waited for her to return his words, or continue what she was doing.

 

[NightSister]

After a few moments, Scarlett found herself slipping into a meditative trance and was reflecting when she was pulled back into a conscious state by a friendly offer of help. Turning around, Scarlett saw that the offer had come from a man who appeared to have been tending to the garden. Doing the scan that years of spying had made second nature, she decided that he was a complicated mix between Dark and Light but at any rate didn't seem like a threat.

"I came to meditate," she replied with only a hint of caution in her voice. "It's not my usual choice of pastime, but it's quite effective." She quickly returned his smile. "And you? Are you...the garden's owner?"

[member="Solan Charr"]​

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Scarlett Orion"]

Solan's hands were still working at cleaning the dirt from his hands while she spoke and for a few seconds he merely listened before she posed the last question to him. "Actually, the Garden is property of the Government of Kesh. I enjoy showing up here and tending to the plant life, especially the flowers that call this place home." He wasn't lying, he just left out that he was essentially the government anyways. IT was something that he didn't telegraph all the time as it were and for a few seconds he considered why she had chosen the Circle Eternal to meditate in.

"This is a wonderful place for that, i must apologize for interrupting your meditation though. I had not considered that you would be here doing such, its normally Jedi that i find here doing that if anyone." His body lifted itself from the statue and instead took a seat some distance from her and it both, near a number of flowers which he reached out to and started to manipulate. Them while he spoke to her. "If you want, im a bit experienced with Meditation and linked into the garden itself. Perhaps i can help you?"

 

[NightSister]

Scarlett smiled at the man's explanation and took a moment to scan her eyes across the garden, instantly appreciating his talent with plants. "It's alright, I don't suppose I look much like one of your usual visitors." That was an understatement. With her crimson eyes glowing slightly in sharp contrast to the moonlight as it cascaded down on her grand attire, she couldn't have looked less like a Jedi if she'd been a Sith Lord. "And yes, thank you, I don't have a great deal of experience with meditation." She decided that was slightly better than admitting she had never once meditated before or even considered the idea. "I'm Scarlett, by the way."

[member="Solan Charr"]​

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Scarlett Orion"]

Solan looked at her and raised a brow as she introduced herself, and without a hint of deceit to her words which was a little surprise. "You know, my Midnight friend." The nickname already was chosen for this one based on her appearance and the clothing she stood there in. "Giving your name away without them letting you know theirs first can get you into trouble if you make enemies in the future. Do try to be more careful... I'm Solan, though, a pleasure to meet you Midnight." With that, his eyes closed and his head turned to the plants in front of him, reaching out with both his hands and the force to tend to them once more, though his offer was still standing to help her. She nearly need to sit down and begin, he would let the rest be presented to her in a short amount of time.

For him, teaching was still pretty foreign, in fact he would rather a good conversation accompanying a drink or two, chased down by the food. But when it came too late night meetings like this, those things were rather difficult to attain without returning to his home. And considering the last visitor tried to kill him, he would be a little more careful with this one. She didn't strike him as dangerous, mind you. No in fact she had been completely honest so far and that was a thing he was more than happy with. But she was still a stranger to him for now.

 

[NightSister]

It was impossible not to smile when he warned her about giving away her name so quickly. Scarlett was not the closely guarded name between the two she went by; all traces of Scarlett were tied to the thrill-seeking dancer. Her other name, however, was deadly secret, because it belonged to the deadly secret agent that had been left behind for the night but could resurface at any time. However, he didn't need to know that; they would both be better off if Solan was left under the impression that she was a naive, harmless woman that liked to meditate.

"I knew you'd return the favour," she said with a small laugh, using flirtation to excuse her slightly smug smile. "But it's nice to meet you too." She sat down and returned to her meditative state, waiting for his instruction.

[member="Solan Charr"]​

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Scarlett Orion"]

Solan's eyes lingered on her smile as she spoke once more before watching her sit down. With that his own body turned to face her and his hands crossed in his lap, his eyes drifting shut and he smiled as he thouht about the world around him as the force opened up to him in a way that only those who touched the sight of the force would understand. Infront of him was the woman who he had just met, his eyes studying her now through the force rather than trhough the physical world, and even as he did, his words left him. "Good, you are read i assume? The first step might sound a bit weird, but i need for you to forget about where you are, and everything around you. I want you to try and reach out, grasp onto my mind, my being, anything you can through the force and once done tell me."

The process was not as simple as he made it sound. First he was asking her to pretty much forget where she was. Not blot it out, not to ignore it, but to actively force her body to forget where she was sitting, to forget what was around her, to forget the sounds she could still hear with the exception of his voice. It was a strange request but one that had a bit of understanding with after learning how to do such himself. It wasn't that he expected her to succeed at first, infact he fully found himself waiting for her to Fail. It was through Failure that one truly understood what they would have to endure and suffer through. Now of course though, solan was more curious about the true purpose of this test. It was on Patience and Devotion. Someone who gave up was not worth this, but he would not let one sit with their eyes on one spot forever.

That was why he smiled as he told her what to do, he was interested in seeing her either succeed as e hoped, or fail and simply be another pretty face to grace his gardens.

 

[NightSister]

Closing her eyes, Scarlett nodded and took a moment to figure out how exactly she was going to push all recollection of her location out of her conscious memory equipped with nothing but willpower. For over a year of her life she had lived with a hermit ex-witch who seemed to specialise in the spiritual aspects of witchcraft, but they had always bored her. Forcing her mind back to anything the wise old woman had told her, she found something stored in the back of her mind and pushed it to the front, knocking her surroundings out of the way.

It made her feel vulnerable to let each detail of the garden fade away - her career revolved around those little details - but at the same time it made her feel lighter. The weight that espionage and private investigation left on her shoulders might have been a comforting weight, but it was a weight nonetheless and now she'd set it down for the time being. A huge void left in her mind where memories of her surroundings where, she filled it with her being and used it to latch onto his. She hoped he'd realised that she'd managed because if she broke concentration memories of the garden would return in an instant.

[member="Solan Charr"]​

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Scarlett Orion"]


Once she was cleared of her mind, Solan closed off his presence in the force and left Scarlett to be truly alone in silence, even if he sat only a few yards away. IT was this which he was trying to achieve for her, that first sense of true solitude that would make her crave something to latch onto which will cause her to search for something to latch onto. What he was doing was not to be cruel, he hoped she would understand that fact as he watched her now and waited for her to find that one point where she realizes that her form would never be alone as the force was there for her to bask in and take comfort in. The key to meditation was familiarity ad being able to remain calm and focused during it. And that was something no one learned easily.

What Solan hoped he was imparting though is the knowledge to be able to find this place of serenity on her own so that she would be able to be sure of whatever it was she had to focus on. That was the point, though. Focus. There was to be a focus in anything involving the force, and if one could focus on creating a space where nothing could touch then, then they could come to focus on anything. This was not so easily said and done, as she would still find the yearning to draw her focus away from isolating herself. Solan knew this better than most that being alone was terrifying. And only his friend could understand that better than him from how he had come to see ti. Of course, there would be others with the understanding he had come to and maybe more that understood it far better than he did. He could not be sure in the end but it remained on his mind as he looked at her.

 

[NightSister]

OOC: Really sorry for the wait

Scarlett searched for his presence, but she could not find it, which brought her momentarily stirring to the surface before her subconscious pulled her back into her trance. The sense of loneliness was overwhelming, but it also felt...good. The weight of every time she had ever loved or hated or been loved or hated was washed away, leaving nobody there but her. Scarlett's subconscious abandoned its search for another presence and for several long moments she simply sat there with her eyes closed, breathing steadily in and out as she sat and explored her being.

Finally, after what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, Scarlett's eyes flickered open and she had to bite down on her lip to avoid starting when she realised she was no longer alone.

"You're still here," she said.

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

Solan's mind focused in on the girl as she woke from her own trance. His eye slitting open and his brow raising a bit as the pupil slid and focused on the girl. "Never moved, now, how was your meditation?" The movements in his body were non-existent, never even so much as causing a ripple in his clothing as he sat there and looked at her from the side. It was all a reserved motion, one that gave her attention but if one were to look at his face would see nothing but calmness on it. Almost as if he were still in a trance of his own while he conversed with her. It was something he had worked on for years, honing the very basics of controlling one's mind and body... He was forced to after all, being his empathy could get the better of him if he was not careful.

He would wait for her to respond, though, watching her with that one half open eye and waiting to see if she would elaborate on why she had thought he had vanished. Sure he had closed off his presence from her, almost completely so that if she tried to find him in the force, it would be like she saw him with her eyes but could not feel him. He was there though, simply closing himself off from those around him, his disturbance and the strand that connects him to the force remained, but seeing that strand was something only a few could do, nothing this girl would be able to accomplish at this stage in her training or without specialized focus in even looking for the strands, much less knowing they exist.

[member="Scarlett Orion"]

 

[NightSister]

"Unusual," was Scarlett's laconic reply. It was true; never in either of her professions had she been exposed to such an overwhelming sense of solitude. Far from it in fact, they were both jobs that required excessive amounts of social interaction. The closest thing Scarlett had ever experienced to that amount of loneliness was when she'd spent a year with no company but the hermit ex-witch her parents had left her with when work matters had been pressing. After those brief moments of total isolation, Scarlett remembered how lonely she had felt with a sense of irony.

"So, do you have anything else to teach?" she asked, trying to recover the slightly dazed feeling that she was so unaccustomed to.

[member="Solan Charr"]