Temple Training Terrible (and other T-words) (lmr)

[Dean]

Ara leaned against the back of her chair and listened with a graceful smile as the woman had her story about the two aliens hunting. It was a funny analogy, on the one hand it said that believing in something wasn’t a good way to survive the wildlife of her planet. On the other it said what ara had said just minutes before that. To survive you need to grab the force and use it rather than let you be used by it. If a Sith died it was his own fault, weakness. If I jedi died it could be said to be the will of the force.

Ara was very amused by all this but didn’t feel the need to make a remark about it. The red skinned woman would eventually come to realize for herself that one needed to study the force and grab the opportunities presented by its awesome currents.

Maybe the horned one was right, she had been spending a lot of time pondering questions like this lately and she had found some answers. Now wise enough to not lose herself in the force it might be time to apply instead of ponder. Her eyes shifted back to the woman and she smiled.

’’The moral isn’t lost on me no. Maybe you could help me with my telekinesis after all. See, I can make powerful waves crack the ground and smash my enemies to nothing, but it is not really the nuke I want it to become yet.’’

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

It didn't surprise the Togruta woman that Ara wasn't utilizing telekinesis for more subtle purposes. Like most Sith, she seemed interested in power and powerful attacks, when her own uses of the Force were much more nuanced and less direct.

Somehow she doubted this woman was patient enough for either Force Flight or plant surge.

"With that approach, I doubt I can teach you," Naraka said apologetically.

"You see," She said softly as she picked up the wine glass again, "I rarely teach something so direct. And you don't strike me as a subtle person. Or a patient one."

It might have been taken as an insult, but Naraka genuinely didn't care how it was received. If the woman was offended, then she needed to reevaluate her own approach.

"So it's rather hard to teach you."

[Dean]

Ara smiled forgivingly as the woman explained that she probably couldn’t teach her, although somewhere in the back of her head she was laughing at the woman, she had told her that she was a teacher. You would almost think she would be able to teach anyone something. But luckily this wasn’t what Ara needed.

Hurling away something with the force was a rather easy task to be totally honest, as a Jedi learning it, the thing you had to take care of was not letting your emotions make the task easier and delve into the easy power. She had done so all those years ago and the results of a Jedi preforming the trick was devastating.

As a Sith you obviously didn’t have this problem at all, you could just let your emotions run free and hurl stuff away. Ara had found a middle ground, she was focused on the ability but she put her emotion behind it to give it more power. She had in fact become quite adapt at it. But she needed more.

’’And that is where you are wrong, well not about everything, but I am patient enough for the right things.’’

She looked at the plate of crackers still in front of them and decided she would visit the cantina tonight. With her next thought she made the plate hit the wall, cracking it and the crackers alike.

’’That was, on scale, devastating. But what I am interested in is not to make the crackers break but rather atomize them. A concentrated wave of force energy if you will and I need someone with a more subtle view teach me how to achieve that. And that impressive flight thing you did back in the training room made me interested in you’’

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Naraka chuckled.

"I can teach you Force Flight if you're patient, and I can teach you to see without your eyes. But I cannot teach you to disintegrate anything with the Force. That task is beyond me."

She was no super-being, blessed with godly powers. The Togruta woman was merely a highly-skilled Force user, with experience and intelligence on her side.

If Ara thought she was capable of disintegrating something with her mind, then she held the Togruta Sith in very high esteem.

"Or perhaps I could interest you in Jar'kai. It's a field I'm rather knowledgable in."

Surprisingly, Naraka hadn't simply turned her down. Yet at least, as there was still plenty of time to back out. She was still interested in having, if not an ally, a valuable and disposable minion. Someone to fetch her wine perhaps?

That prompted an enigmatic smile.

[Dean]

Ara couldn’t say she was impressed by the things the woman said, she might be on a par with her now but the woman didn’t display vision. She didn’t want perfection to be a state of being. Strange enough it seemed that this one was okay with what she had at this very moment. In Ara’s mind it seemed very un-sithlike to be thinking like that.

One thing did interest her, the seeing without eyes. She would have the woman teach her that. It was making minimal use of her but it was better than just discarding a potential future ally. It was even beneficial to have an ally without ambition. She could be discarded later on.

She had unknowingly started to look at the woman intensively and put her elbows on her knees while doing so and thinking. She realized that and relaxed. She leaned back again and smiled a little smile.

’’I would like some help with my sensing, but it sounds to me like you don’t have that much to offer. You accept limits where there are none.’’

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

"You know," Naraka said mock earnestly. "Maybe you have a point."

An incredibly sardonic smile came onto the Togruta woman's features, and she stood, her voice dripping with mockery.

"That just perfectly explains why I'm an instructor here. I'm just so useless at being a teacher that what else can I do?"

The rather tall woman turned and walked off, heading out of the ship and back into the Temple. Her strides were casual, and while she was exiting quickly, it wasn't really a retreat and it definitely wasn't a defeat. It was her deciding that their little discussion was over.

Unilateral disengagement was such a better word.

The Togruta woman meandered over to the mess, feeling the need to eat something besides pathetic saltine crackers. Perhaps a nice piece of meat, raw even...

[Dean]

The torguga was mocking her, well she was pulling the statement Ara had made greatly out of proportion and getting mad over it. What Ara had meant was that it wouldn’t be an apprentice type of situation of doing the woman’s bidding anymore but more like a mutually beneficial pact.

The woman however, was walking away and since Ara had to gain some type of ally or training buddy or she would go crazy eventually. It was really a bitch that there wasn’t an organized invidual training schedule for the people wanting to learn. Mockingly she thought to herself ‘’I should really bring that up at the next ex jedi master meeting’’.

This was all thoughts in the flash of a second while the woman walked away. Ara sighed and gathered the force, she was sure that the woman could be quick and really wanted to talk to her. Inhaling she leapt outside and took a leap, twisting mid-air she landed about 8 feet in front of the woman.

’’I think you may have misunderstood me, I was talking along the lines of our agreement not about you being a bad teacher. Forgive me if it came across like that’’

She mustered up her most playful smile at that last sentence, she knew that no one would buy it if she went on her knees. There is being obvious and being too obvious.

’’ couldn’t we just say, try to reach that perfect state of being we all long for while having some healthy rivalry strengthening us.’’

She was planning to get a yes, she didn’t take no very well.

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Naraka chuckled as she kept walking. This woman was persistent, but the Togruta woman had a rather strong will, and it took more than simple persistence to sway her. Besides, there was something more deeply disagreeable about this Ara.

She held herself in very high esteem, which wasn't necessarily bad, but she was a little too open about it in her tone. Her ambition was also a little excessive in Naraka's opinion, with talk of limitless power and perfection. It was like hearing a brand new Initiate talk. Perfection was not attainable, and all power was limited. You could work hard to be an excellent duelist or to be powerful, but not even the Inner Sanctum were all-powerful or perfect.

True, the Togruta woman did still idolize two figures as perfect in different ways. For Naraka, Ashla Ti had been the quintessential woman of the Light Side, and Adri'van had been the same for the Darkness. Their teachings conflicted, yet didn't conflict. Naraka tried to balance the two in her life now, and a a result she was far from the conventional Sith.

Her ambitions were modest, she was remarkably patient, and she rarely boasted or bragged of her power or abilities. In those respects, she was in complete opposition to this woman.

It was time for a rebuke.

Naraka stopped her march and faced the other woman, a rather disappointed look on her face. Her voice wasn't even angry as she spoke, merely displeased.

"So naive. I've heard so many brand new Initiates who talk the exact same way. You think that using the Dark Side makes you some super-being who can make gods tremble, that using your passions means you can somehow achieve perfection. That's the dream of a child, the talk of someone who doesn't understand. You can become good, or even great, but never perfect. You're flawed, you're weak in some way. You are no god, you are no demi-god. Learn your place in the galaxy before your ambition leads you to a fall."

The Togruta woman resumed walking away, done with her 'wisdom.'

[Dean]

Ara stood still, the reddish stone was hot under the Korriban sun and she could feel the heat radiating. She looked at the woman, the large woman that was so -for the lack of a better word- weird as a sith. She had made it abundantly clear that she didn’t want to be perfect. She wanted to be mediocre. For Ara this flew right in anything she had learned and envisioned the last few months. Sith were supposed to long for power.

They were supposed to achieve victory, this ofcourse didn’t have to be a display of martial prowess but it should prove that you were superior to your adversaries. In her eyes this woman was less than useless if she didn’t think like that. Ara closed her eyes and centered herself and reached outward in the dark flame that she was in the force, her presence was hot. She could feel her power engulf the entrance and even with her for now limited sensing ability she could feel the screaming torment of the stones under the sun and the force pressure on this forsaken planet.

She could also feel the woman, close in proximity she could feel her very well, the others in the temple she could feel too, all little dark spots in the force, some were powerful and others not so much, doing this you could almost feel who would become great and who would drag the others down with them. She didn’t have the power to actually pinpoint that yet, but she was planning to grow.

Making herself the center in the universe that was she. It felt like power, she could also feel that her will was tempted to be dragged away into god knows what and test her soul. Sometimes this was a positive thing but when you needed to focus you had to weed out the right currents and discard the most. In a place with this many dark side users it was near impossible and she wasn’t about to attempt it, she needed focus.

She could hear the woman have her little speech and she smiled, her feelings circling around and reaching a loop, you could get lost in rage or you could use it to focus, depending on the situation. Focus now, let go later, nowhere near her ship.

With a newfound sense of calm and realizing that she could do whatever she needed to do to achieve her full potential. She opened her eyes and looked at the Togruta.

’’ Nice speech, you are wrong though. Even jedi aim for perfection. Becoming one with the force without losing consciousness, meaning life after dead. We Sith on the other hand go for unlimited power, meaning immortality. It may be unattainable but it is a goal. The power of the individual is key and if you restrict yourself with not aiming for the highest possible you will stay mediocre and with it you drag the sith as a whole down. The true threat of the dark side is its weakest member.’’

She took as step forward in, not threatening but she wouldn’t budge, and put out her hand in an inviting gesture.

’’so could we just make sense and help eachother become great or do you want to keep on pretending?’’

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Naraka didn't stop walking because the woman started to talk. Instead, she forced the human to keep pace with her as she carried on her babbling ideology.

If there was one thing the Togruta woman could point out about herself that made her unique among the Sith, it was that she lacked any ideological purity. As far as Naraka was concerned, philosophy was a complete and utter waste of time that contributed nothing.

This whole Sith obsession with ambition and power was something she had no interest in, and a rather hefty amount of contempt for. It was as if these people had learned absolutely nothing from all the centuries of history to draw on.

"You know the true threat to the Dark Side?" Naraka asked conversationally. It was rhetorical however, as she promptly proceeded to provide the answer.

"Everyone wants to be the most powerful, everyone wants to be the leader. A society without followers crumbles from within with dissent. All this infighting and ambition will topple this Sith Order like every other Sith Order in history. Know your place in the Order of things, and do as you're told. Stop fussing over trying to be the most powerful, and focus on your own problems and weaknesses. The weak ones in the Order will all die off sooner or later, or stop being weak. It's the arrogant fools who overreach who cause the problems."

It was pretty clear from context that the Togruta Master was implying the other woman was just that kind of arrogant fool. However, what would probably infuriate the woman was that Naraka's voice was even and calm, without a hint of anger or impatience. However, in her conclusion, her tone quickly became a little mocking.

"Oh, and I don't really need your 'help' to become great. I'm a respected Sith Master already, and you're, well..." Naraka's dark eyes fixed on the human woman, and she smiled apologetically.

"Not."

The Sith Master continued along on her walk, her pace never slowing and her stride never faltering.

[Dean]

Ara stopped walking along with the woman and decided that it wasn’t worth it. She would have to evaluate her people skills, but this pretender wasn’t worth the hassle. She would be discarded soon enough. It was although, not too late to get one more shot in. Ara was officially agitated and annoyed.

Taking a breath as the woman was lecturing some more about arrogance and the importance of not infighting, in ara’s mind this came off as utter nonsense. Infighting was an essential part to make the sith stronger and ensure survival among the strong. The problem was multiple opponents fighting one master. This was common sense since the sith valued the power of the individual above all else.

’’ I will do as I’m told when someone stronger than me achieves dun möch over me, until I surpassed that master and discard him or her.

The womans tone had dropped at the end and became mocking as she said she was already a respected sith master. Ara let out a snort of derision.

’’Respect is a fools prize. You can’t draw anything out of it but vanity, but sure if you need validation as a reason for existing, good job’’

She clapped her hands in mock praise as she turned around.

’’You owe me wine, pretender’’

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Naraka laughed.

This woman really was pathetic in so many ways, like a caricature drawn by the Republic of a Sith, some trite little figure from a story who was thrown in as an adversary and nothing more. So many Sith were just like that, with their slavish devotion to those ideas.

"I owe you nothing, foolish child," The Togruta said with perfect calm.

And I exist because I must. What's the alternative?

It wasn't as if she had some great reason for existence or some grand destiny, and it wasn't as if she sought those things. Naraka was disinterested in such ideas; her only ambition was to live day to day. If she was flattered, that was good. If she was respected, that was better. But did she want to rule the galaxy? No. Did she want to exterminate the Jedi? No.

What did she want? That was a little harder to answer, because she wanted many different things at many different moments. At her very core though, she wanted just a few simple things.

Food, water, shelter, and intimacy. Admittedly the last was purely physical, but that was it. All she required, and all she truly wanted.

Other things like murder and torture weren't her deep wants, but rather passing whims.

"Goodbye Initiate," Naraka said to the human woman as she kept walking.