Faction Thinking Outside the Box: Jedi Philosophy Class [Tython]

[Jobbi Chantin]

Pet (hair): Fuzzy (Sha'rellian toop)

The others seemed to already have an idea of how this thing is supposed to work. She rotated the box in her hand, not seeing any clear seams that weren't decorative.

"Chut chut.."

Well... The white hair droid guy didn't say they couldn't work together.

"Do any of you know how this opens?"

She asked in heavily accented basic. Surely pooling knowledge and working together would be the best approach - after all, no Hutt works alone.

Braze Tel Ahren Roten Dezorath Barcu Gem-in-Trash Sienna​

 

[Braze]

"Chuba, uh... Could you show me how to open it?"

"Do any of you know how this opens?"

TAGS: Sienna Jobbi Chantin Tel Ahren Dezorath Barcu Gem-in-Trash Roten

Braze might have smiled at her if he could have. Instead, he simply turned those pale green eyes on her and slowly raised a single finger to where his lips would be, if not for the cloth mask concealing the unnerving prosthetic beneath. The gesture was soft 'Shhhh.'

That finger then shifted, pointing to his eyes in a silent cue. He flicked his gaze toward a few of her classmates who had already begun progressing through the puzzle box's sequence.

Then, he turned his head fully, fixing a long, unblinking stare on Tel Ahren as if he had sensed his attention... Those eerie green eyes locked onto the student's, holding the contact for an uncomfortably long few moments before moving on.

Braze glanced to Sienna next, something curious in his posture. Did she have an eidetic memory? Fifteen steps was a lot to retain, even with psychometry.

"Some challenges are solved with strength. Others with instinct.... or patience, awareness, and adaptability. The lesson isn't in how fast you open the box; it's in how you approach it."

He trailed looking about.
"It seems a few of you have found that certain panels slide,"

he finally said, tone mild but clearly pleased. "Very good."

He made no move to stop them from sharing hints or strategies. That, too, was part of the lesson. The boxes all looked nearly identical, with the same size, same shape, same faint etchings and patterns, but each one had a unique pattern of steps to open. No two were truly the same.

Inside, for any student who managed to unlock theirs, rested a handcrafted Carved Kyberite Pendant.

" They all look the same... and that's the trick. Like many things in this galaxy, appearances are often a lie. Look deeper, and they'll tell you exactly what you need; if you're listening.."

​

 

[Gem-in-Trash]

Gem's ears perked up when Braze spoke about the boxes. She had wanted to help Jobbi Chantin with hers without simply doing it for her, and learning that the boxes were different gave Gem an idea.

"Okay, Jobbi, watch me. Your box is going to be different from my box, but if you watch, you should be able to get started. It's about feeling the box, sort of listening to it. It's okay to not understand right away, and it's okay to learn from someone else first. But you will have to figure out your box, you're the only one who can open it."

Gem focused on her box, showing her stages and trying to mumble through her thought processes to her Hutt friend. While Gem was smart and usually good at helping other Padawans, she became too engrossed in her puzzle box to effectively walk Jobbi through the steps.

Gem gave a sigh after a bit, "Sorry, Jobbi. I guess that wasn't that helpful. But see, I made progress on it! You just gotta...I dunno, focus on the box and really give it a try. It's like, uh...What's your favorite toy? Or game? Something you hold in your hands. You get used to how it's shaped, how much it weighs. That's kind of what you're looking for. I think."

Gem's progress: 4/15 stages
0 Critical Failures
0 Critical Successes

 

[Roten]

Tython
Tags: Braze , Jobbi Chantin , Gem-in-Trash , Dezorath Barcu , Tel Ahren , Sienna

Kiba no Shimai​

Roten's surroundings vanished. He was fixated on the task at hand, remembering sequences in his head. His claws input combination after combination, as though his actions were clockwork. There was almost a mindless commitment to the completion of this task. After all, the more the box seemed to crack open, the more something powerful seemed to call out from within. It wasn't the dark kind of call like the old man's artifacts either.

It was warm. Comforting.

Inside, for any student who managed to unlock theirs, rested a handcrafted Carved Kyberite Pendant.

" They all look the same... and that's the trick. Like many things in this galaxy, appearances are often a lie. Look deeper, and they'll tell you exactly what you need; if you're listening.."

The Bursantian's box popped open about as Braze stated this. The purple-furred young man slowly peeled the top open, gazing in at the pendant that lie within. It was only then that he realized that what he had felt had not come from the pendant itself. It was taking energy in, as though it were a piece of iron in an ion charged bath.

A conductor. It had been drawing in the Force energy that Roten had utilized to help him keep track of combinations to open the box.

Roten gently scooped the blue stone up onto his hands, running a clawed finger over the surface.

"Odd..." Roten remarked with a frown.

He didn't know if he should be thrilled or not. Roten had enough experience with the Force, even as Kalrath refused to train him beyond a year's worth of material, to recognize the value here. This was something that could bring your own power to the next level as opposed to granting it from another source.

Perhaps that was the biggest issue. It was him. Roten wasn't sure how he felt about using his own power now.

He knew what it had done.

 

[Jackie Rosso]

Location: Tython
Tags: Braze | Roten | Jobbi Chantin | Gem-in-Trash | Dezorath Barcu | Tel Ahren | Sienna

---

Jackie had always wanted to travel. To see what the galaxy actually looked like past the smoggy sky veiled in light pollution. Or depicted through screens and holograms. After Bonadan took everything from him he would refuse to let it take his life as well. Promising himself that he wouldn’t die there.

Now, although the grass was quite literally greener on the other side, such as here on tython, it didn’t really feel like it. Traveling for the Jedi in his mind had somewhat cheapened the experience for him. Even though he was getting to do what he wanted to do, there was no agency from him. It was chosen for him.

For the punkish zeltron if he couldn’t control where he had to be, he could at least have some control in influencing when. People like his master were powerful Jedi, but even he couldn’t control time. No amount of lectures and discipline could undo his tardiness. A juvenile way for Jackie to express some sense of self determination. However, for some reason he always had the feeling that even when tardy he arrived when he was supposed to…

Eventually Jackie made it. His hands snuggly set within the pockets of his leather jacket as he looked around the garden and other students. Braze was now a knight, which was surprising to the pink teen. Wondering perhaps if he had misjudged the age of the echani. Perhaps they were older than they seemed. Or perhaps that wasn’t really something that determined rising the ranks of the Jedi.

Without saying anything Jackie noticed how the others around had boxes. Looking like they were trying to open them. A puzzle? Jackie stepped over to where one of the spares. Withdrawing a hand from his pocket he leaned down and picked it up. Feeling and hearing a slight rattle from something inside. He looked over at the young instructor with a raised brow, silently questioning what he was supposed to do with it now.​

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Roten Jobbi Chantin Gem-in-Trash Dezorath Barcu Tel Ahren Sienna Jackie Rosso

Braze looked over to Jackie and, without the ability to smile, offered a bow of his head. He was doing this much more often now, as he had no idea how to be approachable or acknowledging without simple facial gestures he clearly took for granted.

"Welcome. I'm glad to see you've made it, and I'm happy you've decided to join us. Feel free to take a box and join in. There's a prize within if you can open it. But the box is part of the gift, so don't try brute-forcing it. The item inside is also fragile, so doing so might break what's within," Braze advised. If anything, this might serve as a good lesson for Jackie Rosso too.

The whole setup was designed to let the students decide how and when they reached their goal. Each one was different by design, yet they looked similar on the outside. Whether or not any of them realized this nuanced bit of philosophical exercise in relativity, to each of them and their own journeys through the Force...was hard to say.

Braze notably didn't scold the Zeltron for being late. He himself was often late to many of his own classes for a multitude of reasons. He was just happy that Jackie came and seemed interested in participating.

He looked to Gem-in-Trash .

"Yes, it can become like a game if you memorize all your steps for the box. Fifteen is a big number of steps to keep in mind, but once you have it, it becomes easy. Learning something for the first time on your own can feel like a monumentally difficult task as well. But little by little, if you keep trying, things do eventually become easier… eventually, you might be able to open a box with a better and better time each time."


He turned to look at Roten .
"Ah… very good. Have you ever seen kyberite before?" Braze asked, seeing that one of the students had opened their box.

​

 

[Jobbi Chantin]

Pet (hair): Fuzzy (Sha'rellian toop)

"Okay, Jobbi, watch me. Your box is going to be different from my box, but if you watch, you should be able to get started. It's about feeling the box, sort of listening to it. It's okay to not understand right away, and it's okay to learn from someone else first. But you will have to figure out your box, you're the only one who can open it."

Job I nodded along at first, but as Gem kept talking they spoke faster and faster and Jobbi couldn't keep up with translating from Basic to Huttese in her head.

The Cathar' movements also sped up, as they fiddled with the box faster than Jobbi could actually follow along with.

"Jee hagwa tinka Jee kava wata it lik da..." The Huttlet muttered.

"Sorry, Jobbi. I guess that wasn't that helpful. But see, I made progress on it! You just gotta...I dunno, focus on the box and really give it a try. It's like, uh...What's your favorite toy? Or game? Something you hold in your hands. You get used to how it's shaped, how much it weighs. That's kind of what you're looking for. I think."

Jobbi tried as Gem suggested. She closed her eyes and imagined the box was an oddly stiff, cubic, Jawa plushie.

She just sort of sat there like that for a few minutes.

She grew frustrated.

She tossed aside any notion of solving this in any sort of "right or "intended" way. She began to think like her father would. Strip down the requirements to the barest truths, then find your own way through.

The important thing is that the box was intact by the end - and that the instructor couldn't tell that it had been broken. Perception was everything. The object inside was fragile.

"Eniki Jobbi, vota da hotshuh banka fo uba."

She pulled on the Force and tried to feel around the box and inside... It felt like a box.

Instead, she slithered over to a nearby pond and dunked the box inside, watching for where air bubbles emerged from as she rotated it, making note of each of the gaps that weren't watertight until the box was full and no more bubbles emerged.

Then she pulled the box from the pond, sliding the decorative pieces that leaked water the most, noting which changes increased the rate at which water flowed out.

She dunked the box back in and repeated this process until the time to fill and time to drain had become shorter and shorter.

By the end, she had nothing but one frustrating sliding square piece that connected the two unhinged sides and prevented it from opening.

Jobbi glanced left. The instructor was talking to a Zeltron who showed up late.

Jobbi glanced right. The others were busy with their own boxes, save for the one observing the amulet.

Jobbi pries the last square free from the box, weakened by the repeated dunking, it bent and only slightly cracked, but it was enough to free the hook from the locking mechanism. She opened the box, snatched the amulet from inside, and put the square back in place, bending it back into place and smudging a little bit of slime to make the frayed wood fibers stick to each other again as they dried.

She returned to the group with the crystal in one hand and the seemingly unbroken, unopened box in the other.

She did not boast - she knew enough to lay low until any chance of suspicioun passed.

Braze | Gem-in-Trash | Jackie Rosso | Roten | Dezorath Barcu | Tel Ahren | Sienna​

 

[Tel Ahren]

The lid slid over slightly.

He had tried to make the opposite end of the box move from where he'd started, expecting that the pattern would be more or less mirrored, only to find that it wouldn't budge at all until he moved the lid itself one step. Then he returned to his initial target, and, sure enough, the steps repeated just like those on the other end. Thirteen steps. He frowned, turning the nearly-opened box around in his hands.

Braze had just said fifteen steps. Likely, that meant for all the boxes, different though each may be from the rest. With opening it as the last step, that meant there was one intermediary he wasn't sure of.

He tugged on the lid a bit, feeling how it locked up, feeling the slightest amount of play in it...lifted it up to eye level, and pushed and pulled again, observing from both sides. The smallest deformation of the wood at the center of one of the geometric designs caught his eye. "Clever," he muttered, tilting the box over and wiggling the lid a bit more; once freed to move, a captive pin suddenly protruded from the side of the box.

With it out of the way, the lid slid free without trouble, revealing the carved mineral pendant within. Tel lifted it up, looking at it in the sunlight. "Neat," he observed. As someone that had relied on books and puzzles to occupy most of his time when he wasn't called to the minimal training he'd been getting before, he was almost sad he'd already finished with his box. Not the first to do so, though based on what he'd sensed from the others, he was likely the first to manage it without using the Force to help him figure it out—

His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked up to the rest, and saw the Hutt sliding back into place, pendant in one hand, closed-up box in the other. Somehow, he doubted that she'd really figured out all the steps to the box, given how he'd heard her struggling with it earlier...But, if creative solutions were the goal, however she'd managed it without breaking the thing a second time would likely earn the instructor's amusement at least.

He shrugged, placed the pendant back within, and started retracing his steps to close the box back up.

 

[Gem-in-Trash]

Gem quickly became engrossed in the puzzle, thoughts of the others working on their puzzles melted away as she began to use all her senses in an attempt to better understand her box. Thoughts of overthinking slid out of her head as there was no lesson, no prize, only box. Her previous indignations at being yelled at for Skimboarding, too, was forgotten.

Despite there being sounds of strain coming from the box as she attempted to force it, Gem did not break her box, or the prize inside, as she came to hold it in the air with the Force, allowing her to better experiment with the box and guide it through the stages.

She spend through the puzzle's stages in short order, until she arrived at the last step. She grew frustrated, eventually losing concentration on her levitation as the last part of the box eluded her for several minutes, long after most everyone had finished there.

Finally, success.

"HAH! I got it! Take THAT, box!" Gem declared, opening and accepting the pendant and holding it over her head, victorious, "Uh...What is it?"

Despite her frustrations and the prize in hand, she was once again focused on the box, going through all the steps in an attempt to better understand how to open it close it.

It was, after all, a pretty neat box.

 

[Roten]

Tython
Tags: Gem-in-Trash , Jobbi Chantin , Braze , Tel Ahren , Jackie Rosso , Sienna

Kiba no Shimai​

"Ah… very good. Have you ever seen kyberite before?" Braze asked, seeing that one of the students had opened their box.

"I've heard of it..." Roten remarked with a frown. "F'raid my... source for this knowledge thought very little of the stuff. If you weren't already powerful it was just putting on a bandage."

He shrugged.

"I never put much stock in any of that garbage," he scoffed. "I'm alive and he's not. I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth."

Was he actually dead? Roten was skeptical. Assuming Kalrath would be a problem he had to deal with in the future it was better to not make any assumptions about his present state of being. He had surely saved bodies to transfer his spirit to.

It was just a matter on if he had succeeded or not.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Gem-in-Trash | Jobbi Chantin | Braze | Tel Ahren | Jackie Rosso | Sienna | Roten | Dezorath Barcu

"Kyberite, which was often dubbed 'false kyber,' is a mineral from which kyber crystals naturally form. Unlike kyber crystals, which are attuned to the Force, kyberite channels and guides the Force without negating it. This unique property made it invaluable in ancient Jedi practices,"

Braze began as he started to walk slowly around the metaphorical 'room', inspecting each student's box and how far they had gotten.

"One of the most significant structures utilizing kyberite was the Martyrium of Frozen Tears on Tython. Built by the earliest Jedi cults, this temple housed a confessional chamber made entirely of solid kyberite."

He paused just in front of Jobbi Chantin , looking down at her glossy, wet-sealed box and the small pendant she had placed atop it. His gaze lingered for a prolonged moment, locking eyes with her in complete silence. Then, saying nothing, he continued on...

"Jedi would enter that chamber to confess their transgressions directly to the Force, seeking clarity and redemption. The kyberite amplified the emotional resonance of those confessions, creating a powerful spiritual experience,"

he explained, perhaps pointedly, or perhaps not. He cast Jobbi Chantin one last glance over his shoulder before moving on to another student.

"The Martyrium of Frozen Tears was a revered Jedi temple buried within the Meridional Ice Cap of Tython. Over time, it became a symbol of the Order's commitment to introspection and redemption. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during the Imperial Era… and with it, the Confessional."

He paused moving to the center of the stone flooring; Braze walked a slow, reflective circuit around the circle again, letting the hum of thought build.

The silence that followed was intentional. Braze began to pace slowly again, hands loosely clasped behind his back, his gaze unreadable as it moved from face to face.

" Roten ,"

he said after a few steps, pausing near the student. "The Confessional didn't forgive. It didn't offer solutions. It simply listened. What would you say, if left alone in a room with nothing but the Force to witness your truth? Would you speak at all?"

He allowed the question to hang before moving on.

"Some Jedi found peace in that chamber,"

he said quietly, turning his eyes toward @Jackie Rosso now. "Others came out in tears... and some, in silence. What do you think they saw in themselves?"

Then as he passed by Jobbi Chantin again. He didn't speak to her, just offered a long, lingering glance before continuing down the line.

"The Force is said to always be listening,"

Braze said, now addressing the room as a whole. "So why did the ancient Jedi still feel the need to confess?"

His steps slowed beside Tel Ahren , and his voice lowered slightly looking to him specifically. " Tel Ahren ; Is it about being heard... or about hearing yourself?"

He finally stopped near Sienna , saying nothing, but watching her for a moment, as though her answer might already be written on her face.
" Sienna ,"

he said at last, returning his gaze to her. "If confession isn't for absolution… what is it for? What do we gain by reliving the things we'd rather forget?"

Gem-in-Trash
"Gem,"

he said quietly, his tone neutral but curious, "if you stripped away the Force… the robes… the history—what would be left of a Jedi? And would that still be enough?"

He shifted slightly, coming to stand beside Dezorath Barcu . "Dezorath; What's harder for a Jedi... admitting failure... or admitting fear? And when you do admit it… who do you expect to answer?"

Braze turned again, slowly, letting his gaze settle on Jobbi Chantin . His voice softened,

"Jobbi... if you bury something deep enough, under silence... under duty...does it stop being part of you? Or does it just wait... until you're alone?"

And with that, he fell silent, letting the weight of the questions linger, inviting reflection, not resolution.

​

 

[Dezorath Barcu]

Dezorath didn't look up right away. The box clicked softly, and one of its sides shifted. Then another. Slowly. "I cannot answer this. I am Gen'dai" he stated aloud, voice deep and even. " Even if I am learning the jedi way, I will always perceive as my species does. "

He let the box drop into his hand and turned his gaze toward Braze, golden eyes calm. "To my people, fear is a... construct. A concept made by younger beings who believe they can control what happens. Who believe their will alone can shape the stars." He placed the puzzle box down on the moss beside him. "But, we do not fear failure. What can happen... often will. We endure it. We adapt. That is the way. Control is temporary. So we do not fear its illusionary loss or gain."

He paused, his tone quieting with something more personal.

"What we "fear"—if fear exists in us at all—is not pain, or loss, or failure or death. It is the slow unraveling of identity. When a Gen'dai lives long enough, their psyche begins to degenerate. Now we regenerate, but our memories do not. In the end loved ones you once knew become strangers. Paranoia, hyper aggression and violence is destined to claim us into a more primal state of being."

Dezorath's hand curled slightly.

"The Perfection of Permanence, Gen'dai philosophy, teaches us to accept change and endure. But it does not say who we will become in that endurance. We do not fear moments. We fear becoming something that can no longer remember why it continues." He looked back toward the puzzle box's progress.

Tags: Gem-in-Trash Roten Jobbi Chantin Tel Ahren Sienna

 

[Sienna]

With one last push on the box's side, Sienna got the lid off. She sat in awe of the crystal for a moment, simply staring at the way light refracted within its complex structure.

He finally stopped near Sienna saying nothing, but watching her for a moment, as though her answer might already be written on her face.

She held his gaze, a little curious about that arch in his brow that seemed to say he already knew what she would say.

"Sienna," he said at last, returning his gaze to her. "If confession isn't for absolution… what is it for? What do we gain by reliving the things we'd rather forget?"

"Confession is a tool to control pain. Consider: guilt causes pain in the normal individual. If this pain is left to fester, where will it go? Some are strong enough to bear it themselves, but these individuals are then eaten up from the inside and left husks of their former selves. Others are wholly unable to bear it and lash out, perpetuating that pain onto others.

"The guilt and distress we carry from past events remains within us, burrowed and unchanging. If left that way, this pain begins to reshape our behaviour in undermining and corrosive ways. It creates self-destruction within our subconscious. This self-destruction not only causes harm to us, but to all those around us as well. Our actions can never be viewed in isolation.

"The destruction these actions cause are especially dangerous when delivered by the hands of a Jedi. Our power makes us much more potent than the average being to bring about change, both positive and negative. If we act with guilt and pain clouding our actions, even on a subconscious level, then we are prone to externalizing that pain and causing harm on large scales. Although we may never truly be rid of the pain, of the guilt, we may disarm it from creating more pain through the process of confession.

"We can do so by reliving and reframing those past events which cause us great pain or guilt. By recontextualizing them, integrating them into our identity, and turning them to, if not positive, something tolerable, we prevent ourselves from becoming fractured beings which are prone to use their powers incorrectly."

Braze Tel Ahren Dezorath Barcu Jobbi Chantin Gem-in-Trash Roten Jackie Rosso

 

[Roten]

Tython
Tags: Braze , Jobbi Chantin , Gem-in-Trash , Tel Ahren , Dezorath Barcu , Sienna , Jackie Rosso

Kiba no Shimai​

"The Confessional didn't forgive. It didn't offer solutions. It simply listened. What would you say, if left alone in a room with nothing but the Force to witness your truth? Would you speak at all?"

"I'd rather not have expectations for something I can't experience," Roten remarked.

The question hit a little too close to home. If Roten wasn't certain that this Braze guy had no idea who he was or where he came from he may have assumed it to be an accusation. It wasn't that, of course, it was just a little too close to comfort. Perhaps the only accusations were the ones he had given himself.

He probably wouldn't say anything. He wouldn't have to. His emotions would do the talking.

"What we "fear"—if fear exists in us at all—is not pain, or loss, or failure or death. It is the slow unraveling of identity. When a Gen'dai lives long enough, their psyche begins to degenerate. Now we regenerate, but our memories do not. In the end loved ones you once knew become strangers. Paranoia, hyper aggression and violence is destined to claim us into a more primal state of being."

"Reduced to an animal," the Bursantian muttered. "Death would be a mercy, so there's no reason to fear it..."

Death as a mercy. Kalrath would despise the mere idea.

"So what was this exercise supposed to mean, exactly?" Roten finally asked. "We took an hour to open a box then found something inside that reflects our energy... Forgive me for saying it seems a little on the nose..."

It definitely seemed to be some sort of 'take the time to understand the deeper self' sort of Jedi thing.

 

[Gem-in-Trash]

"Gem,"

he said quietly, his tone neutral but curious, "if you stripped away the Force… the robes… the history—what would be left of a Jedi? And would that still be enough?"

Gem knew that it was a ponderous question, not really meant to have an answer, but she pondered it all the same. After a moment, it seemed fairly obvious to her.

"I mean, discussion about living without the Force aside - the Force is an extension of life itself, so life without the Force is some kind of strange abomination of unlife, and I don't think that's what you mean, I think you just mean without the extra training and increased Force Sensitivity - what you're left with is a person. Someone who has to live with themselves more than anyone...Else has to...Live...With them..."

Gem counted on her fingers, trying to see if her statement made sense. She nodded, accepting the odd phrasing as coherent enough, "So someone who might want to confess might have something about themselves they want absolution for. They want to be able to live with who they are, and they might not like what who they see when they reflect."

@Sienna
"Confession is a tool to control pain. Consider: guilt causes pain in the normal individual."

"If you dig deeper than that, guilt is an extension of expectations on yourself. Expectations of who you should be, and what you should be capable of. When someone confesses something, either to themselves or someone else, aren't they looking for a release from those expectations? The same reason a person might be angry with someone else, and then forgiving them for it. It's kind of the same thing - releasing expectation, and letting go of the past."

@Dezorath Barcu
"We fear becoming something that can no longer remember why it continues."

"Maybe another way of looking at that is a chance to start again, to become something, and someone, new? If an old loved one is forgotten, but they haven't forgotten the forgetter, wouldn't the forgotten still love the forgetter even after they forget? Maybe take the chance to love them again? Just because the Confessional was destroyed in its old form, doesn't mean it isn't there still, in a new way. It might just be carbon marks and rocks, but the location still exists. There's still a residue of what was, and we, as the Jedi, we can love and form Tython as we see fit. We can shape it back into what it was, or into something new. Life continues because it does as long as it can because that's what it is."

She looked over to Roten and gave him a shrug, "Does that make sense?"