Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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You Must Learn to Feel

Veino sat in the gardens of the new temple, having only just recently returned to teach one of their new students about empathy.

Ah, empathy. It was a... challenging skill for most people, even more so for him. Not because he found it difficult. No, he was a true empath. One of the souls who knows how others are feeling as if they felt it themselves.

It could be highly beneficial or a major tripping point, depending on the situation. Hopefully he could add some wisdom to its application and control and what the benefits of it were. It was not a combat skill, nor was it much good at protecting others. In battle, especially for natural empaths such as himself, it was in fact a huge liability that took almost as much effort to keep in check as the actual fighting.

But its greatest strength lay in giving understanding of others, and that was knowledge.
 
[member="Veino Garn"]

Zavzen strode quickly through the Temple towards the gardens. He had recently asked a Master to teach him empathy, he sort the skill to increase his ability to negotiate and detect traitors, especially due to the fact that his trust had been betrayed a lot.

As usual Zavzen was wearing his black tunic with a brown cloak thrown over the top and nothing on his feet. His swords were by his side like they always were, attached to the sash he was wearing by their sheaths.

Stepping into the gardens Zavzen cast his gaze around for a man that would match the description of Veino Garn that he had been given. When he spotted the sitting man he strode over and sat down next to him in silence, waiting for the human to make the first move.
 
[member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"]

Veino nodded as his new student arrived and gestured to an open spot before setting down his trowel and wiping the dirt off of his hands.

"Good to meet, Zavzen, correct? I'm Veino." He took a deep breath and set his thoughts in order. "Might as well set your swords off to the side. You won't need them and they could become a hindrance."

His own lightsaber was in his room beside his bed where he had left most of his gear to come do some more gardening.

"And before we begin, do you have any questions about empathy?"
 
[member="Veino Garn"]

"Yep. I'm Zavzen." He said with a slight smile as Zavzen untied the sheaths from his sash and carefully lowed them to the ground, not wanting to break what were, arguable, his most prized possessions. At the human's question on his curiosity of Empathy, Zavzen tilted his head. "No questions come to mind." He said slowly. "I'm just eager to start learning."
 
[member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"]

Veino nodded again, more cautiously this time. Eagerness was good, but could be dangerous, especially with empathy. It was a dangerous skill and when used improperly, a dangerous of breach of other sentient's privacy.

"First thing to know about empathy is that it should only be done used when necessary, especially this specific technique. Getting into other's heads without their permission is... questionable at best and shows a blatant disregard for their autonomy at worst.

"But in reality, it is a simple skill. Not unlike normal sensing through the Force, except instead of seeking out threats or life forms in the area, you're looking for emotions in someone else. At first, things will be fairly vague and general. As you get better, you'll get flashes of thoughts and memory along with the emotions."

He grimaced slightly, "But too much of it can be overwhelming and drown out your own sense of self."
 
[member="Veino Garn"]

"I understand what your saying." And he did. Zavzen knew before he even set off to learn this skill that it could be used improperly and used as a method to invade privacy, he also understood that being able to feel too much of another emotions would be a bad thing, it made sense that it could potentially consume you.

Sighing, Zavzen decided it was probably best to reveal one of the main reasons behind why he wanted to learn this. "A student of mine is determined to follow the same path as me within the Force. The Grey Path. However, he is someone who struggles with fighting the allure of the Dark. I can understand his desire to try and walk the path of Grey and I will not try to stop him, it is his life and his choice, but I wish to look out for him and I believe that Empathy could help in this endeavour."
 
[member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"]

Now that was interesting, and perhaps a complication. Veino pursed his lips together to consider this.

"Well," He started at last, "You aren't wrong. But in a master-student relationship, you shouldn't need it. You'll develop a bond that will show you much of that, and as part of a relationship, open communication between the two of you will go much farther than empathy. As for the skill itself, treat the same way as any other sensing skill. Stretch out with your awareness and look to touch another's mind."

He dropped his mental barriers a little so there could actually be something to sense and took a deep breath, settling himself into a deep calm. Best to start easy.

"My mind, specifically."
 
Nodding at what Veino had said, Zavzen let himself relax and reached out into the Force. Slowly he extended his sense, looking for Veino's mind among his Force Presence. Reaching out with a tendril of the Force, he cautiously let it brush against the mind of his mentor. He only had a second to feel before he got a sense of whiteness and slipped out of the trance he had gone into before his attempt. The shock of feeling someone's emotions, no matter how diluted they were was a shock to the Zabrak's own mental shields and had caused him some pain before he had to stop.

[member="Veino Garn"]
 
[member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"]

Veino sat and watched his student's face, giving a slight nod at the sensation of their minds touching. Then Zavzen recoiled in pain echoed back to Veino and he grimaced. Marvelous. Have to be more careful in the future.

"Good start," He finally croaked, "You'll get used to the shock eventually. Learn to live with it for the most part."

He brought his own barriers back up for a few moments of silence and then let them back down again, tensing in expectancy for the shock of other's feelings to hit him again.
 
[member="Veino Garn"] (OOC: Sorry for taking longer than I usually would)

This time when Zavzen stretched his awareness out he did so with his mental barriers up, guarding his mind apart from the tiniest of slivers, intending to start small. He slowly brushed up against the mind of his mentor. Slowly he lowered his shield, making sure to take it slow so as to prevent overwhelming his mind and, if his guess was right, sending the pain back along the link. Bit by bit his sense increased and he began to be able to feel something radiating from his mentor. When he reached that point he slowly retreated, wanting to advance slowly and prevent any occurrence of the pain from before.
 
[member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"]

Veino waited for his student to reach out again, staying calm and collected. That was hard enough to deal with. It only got harder with more complex emotions. Depending on how well he progressed, Veino considered pulling out more... challenging emotions. Regret. Love. Anger. Pain.

Those would consume an empath and required a great deal of finesse to handle properly. Veino felt Zavzen's awareness brush his own and he gave a small nudge of acknowledgement.
 
Taking a deep breathe Zavzen slowly established a connection between his mind and Veino's. He took it slow once again but this time did not retreat at the first sign of feeling something. Bit by bit the connection strengthened, until Zavzen suddenly was overcome by a calm feeling, washing away all the little anxiaties he had had wiggling in the back of his mind. It took him a few seconds to realized what he was feeling was not his own and focussed on ignoring it and slowly lifting it from his mind.

A few minuets later he sighed in relief as he was finally feeling his own feelings not the ones of his mentor. Turning to said mentor he asked, "What needs to be done now?"

[member="Veino Garn"]
 
[member="Zavzen Sae'ryx"]

Veino waited, feeling his student's presence in his mind and emotions for several minutes before withdrawing again. He adjusted his seat and considered the question for another few minutes.

"Needs to be done? Nothing needs to be done. How much of this do you want to learn? That will decide the course in the future."


He had a few possible strategies in mind. Practicing with more difficult emotions, specifically.
 
[member="Veino Garn"]

Zavzen sat considering Veino's question for a good minuet, trying to find the answer. He knew that he did want to learn this skill but he also knew that it would, more than likely, become one of his lesser used skill due to the fact he was mainly combat orientated. Did he want to put as much effort as he could into a skill he might not use too much? When he phrased it that way he thought that it answered the question easily.

"I wish to learn as much as I can of this ability. I refuse to devote less than as much effort I can to anything, this in particular. I put myself at your mercy, Master, for the next training strategy."
 

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