Don't Bat an Eyelash (Tal)

[Fromikeable]

Darkness...

More darkness...

Further darkness...

Wait... a shape... a... person?

The sound of footsteps interrupted the young padawan. Vance sighed, and opened his eyes. He had hoped secluding himself to the balconies of the Temple might yield silence, but between the usual hum of Coruscant and the comings and goings of Jedi, it would seem he had no such condition.

One more time. The large padawan closed his eyes again, settling back into his silent, psychological niche. First he focused on the his sense, one by one. The speeders zoomed and hummed, zipping by. The hall-goers chatted and stepped. Next were the smells of the near-by garden. After that was the touch of the stone that made up the balcony. One by one, Vance focused in on each sense, ignoring the rest, and identifying it.

That was the easy part. As the padawan began to feel each sense more clearly defined, he began slowly to try and shut them off, so to speak. As the minutes ticked by, he slowly began to hear less, and feel less, and smell less, and taste less, until the world around him seemed little more than a giant, blank void.

Vance hung in this suspension for a few moments, making sure it was truly the emptiness he was seeking. Satisfied, the padawan, rather than dwelling inward as in meditation, dwelt outward with the Force, allowing it to begin slowly from his mind and, bit by bit, crawl outward.

The first thing to reappear was the balcony. Next was the door way, then the rug in hall just beyond. Inching along ever so cautiously, Vance tried his best to form a bubble of detection around him, encompassing all things.

Slowly, faint presences faded into view. As they grew stronger, Vance could tell what they were; one, passing through very quickly and being very large, was a speeder. Another, very slow and far smaller, was a person. Still another, smaller than both of the others, seemed to be a knat.

Vance again paused, trying to examine everything from a far view. Without focusing in, each presence was blurry and shapeless, like looking directly into a dim light. They moved about as their holders did, and as they faded in and out of the padawan's reach, each and every one could only be identified by their size and speed.

Once more. Vance picked one target in particular; a presence about his size walking nearby. The padawan shifted his focus away from maintaining his bubble of general sense, and instead directed his energies toward this one woman. As the bubble began to collapse, Vance tried to split his workload, attempting to keep up both the bubble and the special focus on the presence.

Alas, his control was too little. The bubble began to crumble faster, and in a last-ditch attempt, Vance tried to identify the presence.

... Female... The bubble shrank half its size.

... Young... The bubble became disformed, with parts collapsing inward toward their originator.

... She's... uh... It was too late. The bubble gave out, and Vance snapped out of his void. Opening his eyes again, Vance looked around, hoping he hadn't been too strong in his pressing to examine the woman.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Hallways, long familiar to the woman traversing them, stretched out before, behind, below and above her in an intricate latticework of flowing sentience and stone. Truthfully, this was simply more of a remembered fact, felt only on the edges of her senses, than anything she was directly aware of. No, her attention was focused most directly on the datapad in her hands, containing information about a small site on Kuat that had earned the attention of some of the local populace and that was of some concern to the council. The 'local' Kuati information system that fed the Investigators directly involved in that Sector had hinted at the fact that whatever this place was had ties to the dark side...and several objects of interest were held within.

Where there was the possibility of dark artifacts there was the possibility of darkside users trying to get their hands on them...

That's why she'd been given this information, after all.

What portion of her mind wasn't combing through the details of her next mission was focused on guiding her through the scattered flow of fellow jedi milling about in this particular hall. Vaguely she could 'see' the dozens of shimmering 'auras' that indicated the presences of others around her, allowing the woman to weave between them nearly effortlessly without ever glancing up.

Stopping short of her next step, Talau allowed a pair of rambunctious younglings dart past, only offering them a passing glance and a ghost of a smile. Ah, to be that age again...playing tag and hide-and-seek with Ryn and Latus in the halls and earning the consternation of all the elders. Giving a bit of a sigh, she wondered where her friend and brother had gone. Shaking her head a bit, the young Rilan simply started on her way once more. It was only a minute or two later that she was going to turn down another hall, when she felt...something...prickling around her own senses.

Pausing, she pulled her eyes away from the datapad in her hands fully and looked around. The feeling was light, but not passive, therefore it couldn't be another one of the jedi walking through the halls. She didn't feel any sort of threat from the area around her, and the sensation hadn't even reached her mental defenses, getting caught up in her person instead, as it attempted to cling on and discover more. Furrowing her brow slightly, Talau reached back, brown and green threaded eyes searching the threads of force leading back to her for one with intent. Finally finding something, her eyes followed the 'thread' back toward a near by balcony, her own senses prickling along that tie to try and discern more...

...before it vanished.

Well, that had been fairly fruitless, but at least the lack of control had made it obvious that whoever it was could not have been more than a padawan. Glancing back at the datapad in her hand, she sighed slightly and decided that curiosity was eventually going to win over anyway...that, or eat at her mind for hours on end if she decided to ignore it. Shutting th device off, one gloved hand slipped it into one of the pouches on her belt and started walking once more.

Thick-soled boots carried her silently across the stone floor, her outer robe swaying around her lightly, her movement only signaled by the slight tinkling of metal beads in her hair. Finally stopping in the archway of the balcony, she was...fairly surprised by the sight that met her eyes. The emotion didn't seep out into the force, but it was visible in the barely perceptible lifting of one brow, and slender rays of pale orange that appeared in her eyes. Even so, a gentle upturn of the corners of her mouth was visible on her face as she nodded toward the...very tall...padawan.

"Practicing, are you?" she asked, with some degree of amusement.

[Fromikeable]

Vance turned around to look at the doorway, hoping to glimpse the poor soul he had just pressed up against in presence. Instead of a sight, the padawan instead encountered a quiet clip-clopping of boots. The padawan stared for a moment, listening, before a Jedi woman walked up with a small grin and striking eyes. Vance took a second to process what he was seeing; she was shorter than him (an unsurprising occurrence, as it seemed to be happening more and more as the years went on), and in her smooth face was a look of contained curiosity, with one eyebrow raised.

"Practicing, are you?"

Vance turned back to the city-scape to stand up, jumping up onto his feet in a small crouch before unbending his legs, raising to his full height. As the padawan's eye-level began to rise as well, he found himself literally looking down slightly to meet his interloper.

"Uh, yeah..." Vance rubbed his arm, sorry to have impressed upon a fellow Jedi, and a stranger at that. This lady so far didn't seem angry or even emotional, let alone invaded upon.

It's a good thing I'm so bad at this.

"Sorry about that master," the padawan apologized, adding in the customary title casually. "I'm just not great at this yet."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Quietly she watched him take in her appearance before standing, her own senses taking the time to sweep through the force benignly. She didn't bother probing him exactly, but rather the area in general, gleaning as much information as possible as she could that way. Still, Talau had to admit that she wasn't expecting a padawan of this...size. For a moment she vaguely considered the fact that he may have some Epicanthix blood in him somewhere, but she just couldn't tell without further probing...if she would be able to make the distinction at all. The two races were so similar that even for as good as she was there wasn't a clear distinction except through the thoughts of those raised in their respective cultures.

"Uh, yeah...Sorry about that master. I'm just not great at this yet."

That earned a soft chuckle and a further softening of her features, hints of green replacing the previous orange of surprise. Shaking her head slightly, some of her hair (along with a long feather of...odd...coloration) slipping over her shoulder as she held up a hand to stop him.

"The title isn't necessary, or applicable. I'm simply a knight, and my name is Talau," she replied simply, stepping out onto the balcony with him. Looking past him to the traffic of Coruscant, she smirked slightly. "I don't think this would be a very good place to practice, however...too much noise from the traffic and nothing really still enough to get a good grip on." Finally she'd look up at the young man, gazing at him from the corners of her eyes.

"...Unless, of course, you're interested in tracking."

Shrugging slightly, she'd turn to face him fully once more, ignoring the press of sentience that came from the city-planet at large. "Not that practicing tracking a person or object is bad, it simply seems like you could do with better control before moving on to something like that."

[Fromikeable]

The Jedi seemed to relax a little as Vance apologized, uttering a soft laugh and allowing her features to become softer. At a second glance, Vance thought she was actually rather pretty as she shook her hair, in which rested an odd feather. Vance was about to continue, but the Jedi, who seemed to be a bit older than he, halted his speech with a wave of her hand.

She spoke very simply and plainly, as if the words were the most ordinary things in the galaxy. "The title isn't necessary, or applicable. I'm simply a knight, and my name is Talau."

Vance began his customary bow, but decided against it as Talau stepped onto the balcony, observing the city. She didn't seem much like one for formalities; a trait Vance could respect. The young woman continued, "I don't think this would be a very good place to practice, however...too much noise from the traffic and nothing really still enough to get a good grip on..." she looked at him from the corners of her eyes, glancing almost inquisitively, ...unless, of course, you're interested in tracking."

Vance smiled, half considering the statement a joke and half seeing it as a playful challenge. He had a hard enough time focusing on stones and plants, let alone fast-moving objects and faint remnants of people past. Still, the woman had a point; he had really chosen a bad spot for his practice. Now fully aware, the humming, zipping speeders were actually quite a noise.

Talau continued. "Not that practicing tracking a person or object is bad, it simply seems like you could do with better control before moving on to something like that."

"You can say that again," Vance responded, adopting a more casual manner as well. The padawan leaned back, resting his back on the railing behind him, allowing his body to go slantwise. He looked around again, trying to envision his little bubble and compare it to the world it was showing.

Vance let out a brief sigh, thinking of Tem. Once again his master had left his padawan in the Temple and told him to stick to the training. Vance had, of course, and had done his laps, practiced his stances, and mediated. The rest of the morning had been devoted to trying to become better at sensing things with the Force.

Had he actually improved? That was another story.

Vance rubbed his hands, trying to envision the Force flowing through them. "I'm Vance, Padawan. I guess you could say I'm merely a blind man with eyes," he joked.


((OOC: For the sake of consistency in our color spectrum, what color are you using?))

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Leaning with one hand against the railing of the balcony, she regarded the padawan quietly, sensing the feelings of doubt and mild confusion before those seemed to vanish. Well, he seemed to have a fairly good grasp, or acceptance, of his emotions which was a good sign for working on developing one’s sense. Nodding slightly to his introduction, she smiled a bit…finding his addition quite amusing.

”Well, Vance…it seems you happened to try and study the correct person. I see far more than I would like…so perhaps I can help you develop your skills with some guidance?”

While Talau hardly considered herself a mentor or instructor in any sense, she couldn’t deny that she was more than willing to make the attempt to help others in that respect. There was no point in having talents like hers if she didn’t try to help others learn to develop their own as well, after all, and then there was the fact of her…tasks…that lay ahead. Pushing those thoughts away, she stood up from against the railing, the lithe young Rilan smiled, setting her mind and not planning on taking no for an answer.

”Let’s begin, then. First, close your eyes…I will drop my concealment, and that will help you sense me. When you have a good sense of me, I want you to walk with me. I will guide you, but you must trust me and keep your eyes closed. All I want you to do is to feel. Don’t attempt to stretch or reach, just allow information to come to you as we move. Do you understand?”

With that, she let the minimal concealment she used around the temple fall away, exposing the rest of her talent in the force and become a bright beacon for his senses to wrap around. While she wasn’t as refined a presence in the force as the masters or older knights, Talau was quite the talented jedi and her drive to excel, coupled with her heart and determination to grow strong enough to help her people, had allowed her to grow quite obvious to others senses if she didn’t keep some of it dulled.

As rich violet and gold streaked through her eyes, she’d smile warmly and extend one gloved hand toward him.

[Fromikeable]

"Some guidance? I could us-"

"”Let’s begin, then." The shorter Rilan got right to it, not even waiting for a response. Before Vance could blink, he was instructed to close his eyes and follow his new companion.

Vance considered it an honor to have Tal be so willing to share her knowledge, but to say the least the tutoring had come as a surprise. He had only ever expected a piece of wisdom or a a helpful tip; now he was going to walk around using an under-developed skill to follow a Jedi he had known for minutes.

What have I gotten myself into?

"I do..." Vance responded, his voice trailing off in uncertainty. To say the least, this would be interesting.

Pushing off the banister, the padawan again erected to his full height. Taking one last breath and a slight look around, as if to kiss the world as he could see it goodbye, Vance lowered his eyelids and, one by one, tried to shut off each of his senses. He made it a point to keep in mind that he was standing, trying to avoid any involuntary collapses due to him relaxing his legs too much.

After a few moments, the world was again a hollow void; a mere shell filled with darkness and emptiness. Vance took a moment to take in the solitude, enjoying the feeling of the void.

Okay... let's try this again. Vance took another breath before allowing his presence to leak of out his body. Inch by inch, the world reappeared; the stones, the banister, the doorway, and the hall beyond. The padawan kept from pushing outward, under counsel of Tal, and instead simply let his presence wander and absorb knowledge of the surroundings.

The first person the padawan found was of course the Knight. Her presence felt the same as it did before, only this time it shined more brightly, as if she had truly allowed it to be completely expressed. She was a beacon, to be perfectly honest.

As the rest of the balcony and Temple slowly came into view, Vance stopped to view it, trying not to liken it again to being a bubble. The hall was still filled with the occasional meandering Jedi, but ultimately the immediate vicinity was rather quiet.

Reaching out with his right hand, Vance grasped around, trying to find the Jedi's hand. Probably shoulda' done that first... He grasped the air a few times before patting her shoulder, then he forearm, and finally her outstretched hand.

"Sorry... Okay, I think I'm good."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

As Vance closed his eyes, she kept an intent ‘eye’ on him in the force. Why in the galaxy was he withdrawing? Well, something would have to be done about that following some questioning, but first…she had a good idea of where to take him. Slowly, she could feel him return to the world at large, his presence uncertain and awkward, but willing…another good sign.

Not a muscle was moved as she stood aside from her breathing, the shorter woman all but a statue as she waited for him. Reaching out with her own senses, she’d let them wrap around the arm that he was using to reach out for her and slowly encompass all of him until he was enveloped in the reassurance of her own emotions. ”Be confident, Vance, and have faith in your natural abilities,” she thought to him quietly after he apologized and let her know that he was ready, the words more like tangible impressions than something audible, though there was no mistaking the meaning behind them.

…She wouldn’t invade his ‘personal space’ enough to speak directly like that unless she garnered his permission…or it was vital. In this setting such a thing would not be vital. Still, Talau wasn’t going to speak outwardly and draw his attention overmuch to the physical aspects of the world. That would be counterproductive.

Using the physical connection, as well as her senses that twined around both their arms, to help guide him, she’d begin to lead him slowly back into the hall and along it toward the lifts. The area was relatively quiet for the moment, which was good as it would give Vance some time to adjust. Here and there a jedi or two stood talking, or reading, or moved along the pathway toward their respective destinations, each a unique and vibrant sensation against her senses…each surrounded by a unique aura in her physical vision.

More often than not, they simply moved around the two, perhaps giving a mildly confused or amused glance to them, but the majority seemed to understand that a lesson was being given and so simply went along their way. A few younglings paused, at one point, to watch the two with some degree of wonder and amusement at the sight, but she paid them little attention as she led the young man with her around a conferring group of knights that stood in the middle of the hall.

Talau, herself, took the opportunity to delve deeper into the force as they walked, allowing her senses to unfold into a more natural state, prickling inquisitively around the comfortingly familiar pathway and bringing her a sense of inner peace. Gently she brushed the statues that marked the offshoots of new hallways, took in the warmth of the light from the sun, reveled in the richness of life that filled the temple around them...she hardly cared to identify them or overanalyze them, but simply accepted that they were there and real.

[Fromikeable]

At first, it felt awkward. Vance could see everything, and yet it was not eye-sight. He could feel everything, yet it was not touch. It was almost like the world, normally incredibly , was simply feeding the padawan what it knew about itself, almost giving freely its own features. It was strange; the world became an open book.

Vance still couldn't sense very far; he could see a ways down the hallway and he could sense the ceiling, but beyond that the world was still just an empty void. The padawan considered reaching out further in attempts to rectify this, but decided against it, hoping to master the basics before the advanced.

Slowly, Tal began to envelope him, almost cushioning around him in gentle prods. Vance welcomed them, prodding back in equally gentle force, and slowly learning about his new mentor. She was young indeed, but older than he. Her presence was very strong, and the way she moved about the void ensured to Vance that she was very experienced at this sort of thing. Her emotions, though rather subdued, were warm and encouraging, making the padawan smile. He tried his best not to rub up against her too much.

Suddenly the world shook a little. Vance panicked slightly, diverting his attention to stabilize his presence. The shaking proved only to be a slight burst, however, and soon the padawan could feel the epicenter of his senses moving, as he knew Tal was beginning to guide him. His legs stepped almost without command, as his mind was in a state beyond physicality, and before he knew it, the duo were moving through the hallway.

Other presences faded in to view and faded out, and Vance, rather than intensely examining each, tried his best to simply look at the broad scheme of things. It worked surprisingly well; from the point the Jedi faded into view to the point they faded out, Vance developed and received a pretty good idea of what each looked, sounded, and even felt like. Being Jedi, their emotions were not prominent, but some displayed some of the milder feelings like annoyance, boredom, excitement, and even worry.

How little we see with our eyes!

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

As the two reached the lifts, Talau paused, putting her other hand on his shoulder lightly to stop his movement before pressing the button to take them down. As they waited, a few other jedi would gather, waiting for the same lift, or one going further up in the temple. Their chatter meant little to Talau, but she was aware of it anyway, a few words from each conversation catching her attention now and again. Talk of the Mandalorians, of the Empire….of the Sith. One or two mentioned an ongoing hunt for traitors to the Republic, a story that had been in the news quite a bit a couple of months back and continued to have some mild attention.

She sighed slightly and shook her head imperceptibly.

There was still a lot of trouble in the galaxy, and she wondered when its tide would bring her to the point of leaving. Ah well, no point in over thinking that now…when the time is right, I’ll know, she mused before noticing that the feeling of one or two more presences moving swiftly upward meant that the lift was arriving soon. As the doors dinged open, she nodded to one of the knights who motioned for her and Vance to enter first. Leading him in, she’d take them to the back of the lift and settle there. ”We’ll be there shortly after going down,” she informed the young man with her as the lift started to close once more.

“Wait! Wait for me! Phew…thanks!”

At the last possible moment a familiar form slid into the lift and inserted himself between the knights before her. A bubbling of happiness echoed out through her presence as she fully recognized the person there.

“Talau! Force help me it’s been a while! Did you ever find your brother? Was he on Cerea?”

She smiled a bit, that happiness fading slightly.

”Yes, though…it’s complicated to explain it all,” she admitted quietly. ”I heard you were deep under, Kir’va…does this mean you’re back for a while?”

The Cerean nodded slightly and smiled. “I believe it would be. You’re hardly anything but complicated, my friend, I doubt anything you or your brother would do is any less so.”

The doors opened again and several of the jedi around the three left, no more entering on this level of the temple, and allowing Kir’va to move closer to them…an air of amused conspiracy around him. Talau couldn’t help but smirk a bit at his playfulness and open curiosity about the young man with her. “As for your question…yes, for a little while, but not long. They believe I’m reporting to my master back on Dxun. Of course, I can’t take too long, but I think we could take a day to catch up and have some fun.”

There was a pregnant silence, then, as he looked between the two leaning against the wall of the lift, and it made Talau smirk in amusement, not willing to give in and offer the information she knew he wanted. Finally, after several moments, he shifted around and huffed a soft chuckle, shaking his head.

”So…does this mean you’ve finally taken a padawan?”

Ah, there it was.

”No…Kir’va, this is Vance…Vance, keep your eyes closed…this is Kir’va. I have only met the padawan today, but he needed a bit of help with his sense, so I’m doing what I can to assist.”

“Ah, I see…well, at least you have a good mentor, Vance. Talau here might as well have been a tracking hound in another life for her ability in that departme--….Oh! This is my floor! Ah, it was good to meet you, Vance! Talau, I’ll contact you later!”

And like that, the shadow was gone in a flash out the door…

[Fromikeable]

Vance continued to observe the hall until he noticed a break in the structure of the hall. The protrusion was round, and judging by the various moving parts and small crowd of people around it, the padawan concluded it must have been the Temple lift. Vance felt a slight feeling on his shoulder and realized Tal was signaling him to stop. It seemed they were changing levels.

As the parts of the lift silently shifted, Vance took a moment to observe the people gathered about it waiting. Some people's presences were dimmer than others, as if they were more withdrawn. Vance would have to ask about that later. Others presences were close together and from what he could detect, Vance could tell they were having conversations. He couldn't tell what their topics were, but some presences seemed very solemn as they whispered, while others seemed far more relaxed and open to the world beyond. Vance slowly spread about these presences, lightly tapping each one, and by the time the lift arrived, he had a mental image of each of the Jedi there.

”We’ll be there shortly after going down."

Vance nodded in her direction, and noted a subtle change in her. She seemed a bit more inwardly drawn as she guided him into the lift, and while he kept from prying or focusing on her, he could identify that she was considering something deeply.

Before the lift door closed, a quick presence dashed in. Vance was a little surprised by the sudden arrival, but he chose discretion over shock; it was another person to study.

Rather suddenly, Tal's presence became far more cheery, as did the new Jedi's, and with a slight divert of attention to his ears, Vance could hear the two strike up a conversation. The new Jedi seemed to know Talau, as he asked about her brother. Vance tried his best to listen closely while still keeping his sense about him, interested to learn more about his new mentor.

The Jedi appeared to be a boy, older than Vance, but incredibly bubbly and cheerful. More than anything he radiated excitement as he spoke to the Rilan, and their conversation quickly came to a subject relating to the Jedi's assignment. Kir'va, as Tal, referred to him, whispered about his being back and chance to cause some mayhem, which made Vance smile.

”So…does this mean you’ve finally taken a padawan?”

Vance uttered a soft chuckle, amused at the Kir'va's assumption. Vance couldn't say that he knew Tal very well, but he was somewhat confident in saying that she didn't seem like the homey-teaching type. That seemed a bit contradictory to her apparent desire to teach Vance something, but no one ever said people were made straight forward and easily understood.

Vance was about to introduce himself, but Tal beat him to the punch, instructing him to maintain his extrasensory practice. Kir'va seemed excited by this, starting about how Tal was a great tracker before ending his comments abruptly and dashing out of the lift. Vance waved in his direction keeping his eyes closed, making it look very awkward. The padawan kept watched his presence until it faded out of his range.

The doors to the lift closed, and silence returned.

"He seems very energetic," Vance commented with a smile, scanning through the presences on the lift again. "I'm guessing you know him rather well?" Vance was curious; if this woman was going to teach to him, then he was going to wonder just who she was.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Talau chuckled softly at the comment Vance made, her amusement bubbling outward softly like a sweetly simmering glaze. Kir’va was indeed energetic, though much of it was worked at to keep off the heavy gloom that their particular job could so easily wrap around them if they weren’t careful. Every Shadow had their own way of dealing with it, and that just happened to be his.

”Yes, he is most of the time, and yes again. We’ve worked together before, and I’ve known him since my padawan days,” she replied simply, watching the counter tick downward toward the level they were going to exit on. ”I enjoy his optimistic attitude and attempt to learn from him every opportunity I get…it helps that he’s one of my friends…..I’m just glad that he’s back for a little while. I was becoming concerned.”

The lift slowed with a feeling of gravity shifting around them, the doors dinging open a moment later. ”Keep close, we’re going into a crowd for a little while,” she added, moving Vance’s hand to her shoulder so that he would have less room to move away from her guidance. As the two of them moved out of the lift, the hall was indeed filled with milling jedi moving through the heart of the temple to their various destinations…most of them likely in less busy sections.

Everywhere the voices and presences of others mingled and overlapped, a constant throbbing of motion and intent and emotion that pressed in on her mind. It was a feeling she had stubbornly learned to press outward against with her mental barriers. For a telepath like herself such a press proved to need constant attention, her mental defenses held tightly against the potentially crushing pressure. Or perhaps, a better phrasing would be that such places needed constant vigilance against the plethora of information that threatened to overload her mind and senses.

There was little doubt that Vance would sense the change in her presence as she closed herself off tightly, becoming a fortress against the waves of sensation crowd they moved through washed against them. She would still be easy to sense, she wasn’t hiding, but the feel of her would change, becoming harder, unyielding and impregnable to those without sufficient training in telepathy. Despite the fact that she closed herself off, Talau had allowed enough of her senses to remain extended outward that it was relatively simple to pick her way through the crowd and to the other side of the hub, leading them into one of the halls that led away from it and away from the throng of jedi.

[Fromikeable]

Vance could sense Tal become rather cheery as she reminisced in memories of Kir'va. Even a blind man could see that she held him in a special part of her heart (literally. Her presence became very warm), and that held him in sweet regard. Vance smiled again; Jedi were really just people, and to see them in such happiness was contagious.

Vance's observation of Tal was cut short as the lift slowed and stopped. The doors opened, and immediately Vance felt as though he had just been hit by a freighter. A huge crowd stood, or rather mingled before them, and as the elevator emptied out, the padawan stood firm trying not to let the sudden amount of presences overwhelm him. Everywhere, presences were large and small, warm and cold, free and conserved, and more than anything, bright and dim. Some nearly totally blocked out their companions, while others retained their presence strongly, yet in very controlled attitudes.

Tal tugged his arm, and Vance recalled again that he still hadn't moved. Shifting his feet somewhat awkwardly, the padawan began to keep pace with the Rilan, focusing the majority of his attention and energy on simply keeping everything from flooding his mind like a tidal wave. It was truly a monumental task; the sheer amount of information and pressures from others was indeed a heavy burden.

Vance also noticed, among the see of presences, that Tal's had changed rather drastically. It was still of a warm mood, and it didn't seem different in terms of feel, but rather than its previous state of simple freedom and outward-orientation, it was now refined, controlled, and withdrawn somewhat, almost as if doing more to shield Tal than to push her being outward. Vance could still feel it, as it had not diminished in strength, but it was certainly not as open as it was prior to the crowd.

Maybe that's the idea. Vance decided that if he should be following anyone's leadership here, it was Tal's. Reigning in his soft-prodding feelers of the Force, Vance did his best to, while still struggling with the vastness of information bombarding him, begin to exert more control over his presence. Slowly, as Tal lead him closely, the padawan began to withdraw more and more. As he did so, he noticed that the world failed to diminish in detail. Shouldn't it if I'm not so open? Perhaps the world was simply so outreaching itself, it required little on his part to absorb its information. He would have to ask his mentor about this later as well.

"It's all quite a cascade," he commented just loud enough to be heard over the crowd.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

As they walked, she felt the padawan with her begin to control…to withdraw his outward reaching senses and allow the information to come to him. That had her smiling, glad that she had decided to take him this direction rather than any of the other, less crowded, paths that could have been taken. ’I wonder where his master is, that Vance is having to learn this lesson through another?’ Her subconscious responded to the thought with several possibilities: perhaps the master was not very skilled with sense and so Vance would need a tutor…like she had needed one, or perhaps the master simply did not have a good method of instructing his padawan…or at least one that Vance could identify with easily, or…perhaps the master simply hadn’t gotten there yet in training. Lastly, she wondered where Vance’s master actually was at this moment in time.

’I suppose I should just ask him a bit later.’

“It’s all quite a cascade…”

The sound of something akin to wonder from the padawan earned a knowing little chuckle from the woman leading him along. ”It can get worse with training, as your senses develop and refine, but you also learn ways to defend against the press of it all.” That was the truth, anyway…at least in her experience. ”Those with stronger talent in this area are especially bothered by it, but we also develop a knack for ignoring how bad it really is.” She paused in her words, momentarily, thoughtful.

”Here, we’ll be in a calmer place soon, but let me help you a bit so it isn’t quite so much,” she continued, extending her senses toward the activity she could feel from his mind and wrapping herself around him in that way, shunting some of the information away from him by taking it on herself instead. It wouldn’t do much, but it would help at least a little. After all…no one could block out the whole world from another’s senses.

Turning down another hallway and out of the more heavily trafficked one they had been in, it didn’t take long to come to one of her favorite places to meditate: the Room of a Thousand Fountains. No doubt the young man had been there before, but she doubted he would have ever utilized the large room as she intended. As the sound of water filled the air with the hushed tones of jedi speaking, the air felt immensely more calm than the rush of the temple outside.

Allowing her presence to relax once more, ebbing away from Vance once more, she pressed it outward…silky tendrils of her being flitting along the pathways and seeking out the more highly populated areas of the vast room. One by one she would retract them, narrowing her options down until she was set on a destination. Following that singular, glistening, tendril of her mind the woman was at ease…at one with the tranquility of the place they had entered. Her leading of the youth with her came to an end at a small grassy patch near one of the smaller fountains. Removing his hand from her shoulder, she would turn and face him, standing quietly and allowing him some few short moments to take in the atmosphere of the area after what they had just moved through.

Finally, she spoke.

”You may open your eyes now, if you want, Vance…and come sit on the grass with me for a few minutes.”

With that she would move away to do just that, settling herself lightly on the soft, cool, grass and waiting to see what he chose to do.

[Fromikeable]

Vance continued to withdraw until the world actually started to become harder to see. Bringing himself outward a few notches, the padawan sighed as he hit an equilibrium; a perfect point of seeking and receiving information from the outside world. He reexamined his own presence; it turned out to be, while somewhat cruder and less polished, of the same manner of Tal's, confirming that his practice was of correct technique. The padawan sighed; he was glad to have a teacher so adept.

Tal described the increased pain that came with being more sensitive, almost making Vance hope to never become better at it. Still, she noted that there was always techniques to help with the sheer volume of sensation.

”Here, we’ll be in a calmer place soon, but let me help you a bit so it isn’t quite so much.” As she spoke, the world became slightly less jagged as her presence enveloped Vance, acting less as a plate of armor and more as a sort of cushion, softening the impact of everything. It wasn't much, but Vance felt relieved anyway; he had just noticed just how tiring this activity was.

Tal began to lead him away from the crowd, and as the avalanche of people began to subside, Vance began to lose his focus on the world. Readjusting, the padawan began once more to reach out, and quickly discovered another imperative rule about Force sense; at all times, the amount of information being sent must be supplemented with an amount of energy to seek it. In the crowd, little energy was needed. In the halls, however, the world was not so giving of its secrets, and demanded searching on the part of the seeker.

Slowly, the world began to change however. Vance withdrew a little as the world suddenly reverted to its giving ways. The sense of the Temple shifted; the usual lingering sensations of Jedi past was replaced as lifeforms began to emanate the Force once more. The Temple was always sensational, but it itself didn't not create these presences; after all, it was not alive. This new location, however, spewed forth its presence like a calm ocean, providing a steady, calm, and more than anything peaceful sensation.

Vance didn't stay withdrawn very long, however. This new place failed to press upon him like the crowd. Instead of forceful and outreaching presences, this new spot stretched outward slowly and calmly, choosing to envelope rather than intrude. The padawan adored the feeling; it was similar to Tal's embrace, but far stronger and larger.

”You may open your eyes now, if you want, Vance…and come sit on the grass with me for a few minutes.”

The teen opened his eyes for the first time in minutes, doing his best to maintain his sense as well. He looked around, greeting the color as if it were a long lost friend. Tal had led him to the Fountains; a spot he knew relatively well. He usually came here to mediate rather than stretch himself outward, but in retrospect it made sense that he would learn here; it was incredibly strong in the Force.

Vance remained silent, watching Tal sit on the grass. Vance ignored her for a moment, feeling rejuvenated by the his new surroundings. Such a calm peace emanated from this place. He had always been able to notice it, but never before in this scope. After all, it was difficult to explore the outside world when mediating.

Without saying anything, Vance came to sit beside Tal on the grass, closing his eyes again in preference of the unseen. It wasn't that the world as he could see it wasn't beautiful or revealing or wonderful; it was simply that the unseen world was just so much more peaceful.

"This is almost enough to make me wish I was Miralukan."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

“This is almost enough to make me wish I was Miralukan.”

The comment made her chuckle softly and shake her head a bit as she settled in on the grass more comfortably.

”I don’t envy the Miraluka…”she replied, honestly. ”They miss out on the true colors and sights and details of the galaxy. Besides, when you get good enough, you see that there is more to sense than just ‘seeing’ the world around you like you do with force sight. Sense and physical vision overlap each other as you develop the skill.”

The young knight allowed one of her hands to brush over the tops of the blades of grass around her lightly, feeling the energy from them as her hand passed. Each one spoke to her quietly, in whispers of life, warmly prickling energies that met the skin of her palm and fingers, the soft scent of greenery. Everything in that large room was a gentle addition to the tapestry that she ‘saw’ and ‘felt’ every day. ”Sense is just what its name implies: an extension of your physical senses. Touch, hearing, sight, taste, smell…all of these things can be heightened, to a degree, with your senses in the force. Further than that, however, you can feel life, the energy the force give all of us, and much more. Do you understand?”

Looking over at him, she would smile gently before looking across the path to one of the larger fountains. It shimmered brightly with the light of the room and she sighed a little. The varying sensations of the other jedi, hidden from view by the winding paths and plants of the room, were soothing beacons but…her thoughts returned to the datapad at her belt. She could feel a gentle ‘calling’ in the force, little more than a whisper against her senses and her mind but it stirred a slight restlessness in her. Shaking it off, Talau brought her mind back to the here and now, drawing her senses closer about herself to keep herself from any…unwanted ‘wandering’.

[Fromikeable]

Vance had never once considered Force Sense to simply be an extension of his own sense. After all, you couldn't see, hear, touch, smell, or even taste life itself. What would life taste like? Vance smiled at the question. It was really stupid.

Even still, the more he considered Force Sense, the more he entertained the possibility of Tal being right. After all, so far he had seen people with the Force; what was to say that, with a little more practice, he couldn't hear or touch or smell or taste with it too? He had always imagined Sense as another sense in and of itself, but perhaps that was only because he had never understood it well enough and tried to simplify it down.

Vance looked over the Fountains again, trying to fully grasp the new idea. "So... the sense of the Force isn't a another sense itself, but... rather an extension of the ones we have." Vance opened his eyes and looked over at his mentor, seeking confirmation.

What he got instead was something he had noticed before as well. For just a moment, Tal's presence shifted, as if it was slightly nudged. It was very faint, almost to the degree where Vance thought it was just the normal spontaneity of the presence of life. However, unlike the randomness of natural presences, this small lapse had already happened once before in the lift.

Vance debated silently. Dare I ask? He truly wanted to learn more about Tal; she was helping him after all, and beyond that she appeared to be a very interesting individual. At the same time, however, the padawan didn't want to be intrusive. Looking at one's presence could be very revealing, and Vance was sure someone so adept at sensing could very well respect the right to privacy.

Vance silently debated, his mind in silent conflict, until, after a moment or two, he simply decided that he refrain, perhaps trying at a later point. Returning to his sensing, it occurred to Vance that his silent mental conflict may have been obvious; a case he hoped was not the truth, as he had payed little attention to his senses in his debate.

Hoping to continue before Tal got the chance to try and mention anything she may have sensed, Vance continued in trying to grasp the concept at hand. "So could one theoretically sense the world as we do with our bodily functions purely with the Force?"

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Whether Vance was debating what he was going to have for dinner, or if he wanted to ask about her, Talau didn’t rightly know...or care. Certainly she felt the conflict, but Sense couldn’t do everything…tell you everything. That was where telepathy would come into play. Of all things, however, the young Rilan was respectful of privacy. “With great power comes an even greater need for responsibility and respect for others,” was what Toth had taught her when she was still a young padawan, anxious to learn and succeed. She didn’t want to have her life pried into, and so she had learned that it wasn’t right for her to pry if at all possible.

Vance’s question had her smiling, chuckling lightly at the thought. ”That’s a good question…but I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, at least, not from my understanding. In my experience it can enhance your other senses, but not replace them. Even force sight cannot completely replace regular sight.”

Looking over at him again, her eyes were tinted slightly with a gentle, happy, blue. ”As you just said, it is an extension of your senses, not a replacement. Sense, however, is also far more than just an extension of your physical senses. It, like any physical sense, brings you information about the world around you…though the information it brings you is not always going to be what our minds consider physical.”

She paused a moment, allowing him a chance to absorb that information before continuing. ”For example: you cannot feel ‘life energy’ physically…not as you would imagine touching a rock or plant with your hand. Some jedi, however, can ‘feel’ it almost as if they the energy were tangible. Others ‘see’ energies…not always with our physical eyes, but vivid enough in our mind that we have that impression.”

“I’m sure that seems about as clear as mud right now, but let me explain a bit further…starting with how our physical senses work,” she continued, knowing how contradictory that must have sounded to the young man. She had certainly thought so as a padawan, and only her own experience previous to explanation had told her that it made some sort of sense.

”Our physical senses are little more than interpretations of the world around us through stimuli…a hot flame against our skin, light reflecting off of a plant that allows us to see it, the aroma of a flower…these pieces of information are brought to our brains through nerves and receptors in our bodies, interpreted in our minds, and (if necessary—as with touch) sent back to the correct part of the body as the corresponding sensation. Sense in the force works very similarly. The midichlorians in our bodies absorb information from the force and relay it back to our minds for interpretation giving us our ability to sense in more ways than the physical. If one is practiced, or strong enough, with sense than sometimes that information can be so compelling in our minds that you get the notion that you are actually seeing, or feeling (or what have you) the information that the force has given you.”

She gave him a little, knowing, smile…watching as he made sense of what she had told him. It was a lot to absorb, certainly, and sense (like telepathy) were such broad (and often vague) schools of thought, even among the jedi, that it could be difficult to grasp the concepts behind them. After a long moment, she continued once more.

”There are races, like my own and the miraluka, that are so well bound with the force that…even if we are not strong enough with it to become jedi…we can garner extra, often physical (seeming), information. Miraluka have full force sight, and my own people see what we call ‘auras’…thin nebulas of light and color around any living being as well as the physical appearance.”

[Fromikeable]

And here I thought I wasn't going to be thinking too much today. Vance brought a hand up to his forehead, trying to appease some of the tinging that had began thanks to the challenging thoughts he was presented with. It was like crunching numbers all day; it didn't hurt, but it took a lot out of you.

As Vance began to return his hand to its former spot at his side, he paused, instead bringing it up to his eyes. He pondered, So I can this hand. I can sense it with my body, or rather my body can tell me about it, and leave it up to me to figure out what it appears to be. Vance then closed his eyes, and recalled his Force Sense; a task that was slowly becoming quicker and slightly easier.

Vance tuned in, ignoring the outside world, to his own being, as if preparing for meditation. Instead of withdrawing completely though, the padawan instead halted his presence just beyond the confines of his body, trying to root out all the details of his own physique. His skin was moderately soft, his hair was especially poofy today, and his feet were a little dry.

Taking in a second to review his own body so closely, Vance then did his best to narrow down his vision to one, small section; his hand. As the world became less and less informative and sensable, the padawan's limp became sharper and sharper, almost like putting it under a microscope.

Once Vance had managed to stabilize his presence again (he still wasn't great at zeroing in like this, least of all on something this small), he observed his hand, moving it slowly. His own Force presence radiated off of each finger, sending out soft pulses reminiscent of a very relaxed man. Vance considered what Tal had told him; were these waves of presence simply his mind's way of showing him the world? Was sensation really nothing more than interpretation?

The padawan brought himself out of this close focus, resting for a moment. "But ultimately Force sense is like any other method of perception. It's all a matter of interpretation." Vance turned again to his mentor, this time without the miniature clash of ideas.

"So what does the galaxy really look like then?"

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Talau reclined back against the grass, settling on her back comfortably and looking up at the faux-sky of the room, taking in the detail of it as Vance thought over her words. Really, it was quite well done (the sky, that was) considering it was little more than light and canvas. Lacing her hands behind her head, she allowed her eyes to drift partially closed as the padawan beside her focused internally, rather than externally.

“But ultimately Force sense is like any other method of perception. It’s all a matter of interpretation.”

”To the best of my knowledge, yes. Why else would different jedi sense the exact same things differently?”

“So what does the galaxy really look like then?”

”Hmmm…”

That was a very good question. What did the galaxy truly look like? Did they only see one facet of it, or could they see the true nature of it through the force? Perhaps even that was only one more facet of the galaxy…after all, there were things…unexplained things even amongst her own people and even among the oldest races of the galaxy. How could she answer such a question?

”I don’t know,” she replied honestly, opening her eyes again to look at him. ”There are many more questions that tie into that one which would determine the true answer, and I’m not old enough, or wise enough to answer them for you.” Pausing, she gazed up at the ‘sky’ again, thinking over the puzzle Vance had presented her with.

”I think that…what we see and what we know of the galaxy – physically - may only be one facet of it, like a great jewel, the way we know it through the force just another facet…but there are too many things still unexplained that I find it difficult to imagine that we know exactly what the galaxy looks like in all of its forms.” She managed a little half-shrug. ”Perhaps no one ever will. After all, no one person can claim to know or see all of the tapestry that is life, except…perhaps…at the instant of death. Think about it a moment…if so many force sensitives experience such different things with the same exact information or stimuli through the force…who are we to choose which is correct or more ‘real’? Why can’t they all be true in some regard? Pieces of the same, very large, tapestry?”

The woman smirked a bit, then, as she glanced over at Vance, an air of impish playfulness about her. "Perhaps nothing we experience is real, and all we are is the very vivid dream of some greater entity..."