Enjoy the Silence (Sparrow)

[Dire Wolf]

((Sorry for the crap post, Sparrow, but I couldn't bare to let the thread go not started any longer))

Ryn sighed as he walked down the long hallways of the Jedi temple. It hadn't been that long since Korriban, since he lost his natural sight. He just got out of the medical wing of the temple... he nearly became one with the Force from that fight with Grawn. He came within a breath of death many times on the return trip, he even came close once when he was in the kolto tank. Since then his lightsaber skills were beginning to dull and the council outright refused to send him on a mission so soon after the events on Korriban... maybe the feared that he was not as anchored to the light as he once was? Maybe that much was true... in all honesty he wasn't sure.

He again sighed, the one guy that he knew he could count on to spar with was Jeh'rad... and he was still back on Korriban, probably still in that force induced coma. He turned into an unused training room and walked over to a row of training remotes. He picked one up, almost instantly it shot up in the air and flew around until he activated both ends of his lightsaber. He needed to work on his Soresu, while Juyo might be great for the attack that sole form just wasn't enough.

Anyone that came into the room would find him training on this remote.

[sparrow]

Elsie Therin adjusted her snowy white robe as she walked through the Jedi Temple hallways. She had not been assigned a mission in quite some time, and not wanting to be idle, she had for the most part keeping herself occupied with training. Lots and lots of training. It had gotten to the point where some of the other Jedi began referring to the one particular that she used most often as "Elsie's Quarters."

She had only recently began learning Makashi, a form especially suited for lightsaber dueling. And of course, one could never spend too much time practicing Niman. That form, despite being one of the easiest to gain proficiency in, making it a favorite among consulars and more diplomatic types, was at the same time one of the more difficult to actually master. Since finishing her lightsaber basics, Elsie had practiced that form almost exclusively.

She opened the door of the room without checking if it was occupied, and was slightly surprised to see someone already inside. He had just activated a double-bladed lightsaber and appeared to be about to do some basic training remote exercises. His back was turned towards her, so she could not immediately tell who he was.

[Dire Wolf]

Ryn's ears perked when the door to his room whooshed open, he honestly did not expect to have a fellow Jedi come into his room and interrupt his training. He let out a "huh", it was probably for the better, training remotes might have been good. For younglings. He flipped both of the igintion switches on the hilt, both of the blue lines of plasma slowly retracted back into the hilt. The training remote emitted a few mournful beeps before turning around and floating back to its place, it wasn't programmed to "attack" people that didn't have their lightsaber activated.

He slowly turned to meet the woman, she would probably be taken aback at his eyes at first. Maybe she would think that he was a Miraluka without the usual eye covering his mind mused. He would greet her like any other Jedi who was most likely older than him; a slight bow, curt words, and warm emotions through the force.

"I'm Ryn Sundar, and you are..."

He trailed off before snaking a tendril of thought towards the woman and sending her a few warm emotions to back up his friendly tone.

[sparrow]

The first thing about him that she noticed were the eyes. Solid, milky white. And then there was the saber-staff, quite an uncommon weapon amongst Jedi. A strange man, to say the least.

She realized that she was staring and quickly snapped out of it. That was rude. She should have known better. She bowed forward slightly, touching fist to palm and pushing out her arms in a quick salute. "I'm Elsie Therin," she said, adding a smile and returning the warm emotions that he had sent.

Ryn Sundar... she wondered if she had heard that name before. There had been that Jedi mission to Korriban some time ago. She had wanted to go but never made it onto the final list. Yes, that was it!

A million questions swam through her head. What had happened there? What was it like? What had they found? Were there Dark Jedi there? Elsie had devoted her life to being a Jedi Guardian and fighting the Dark Side. She needed to know these things. Yet he had most likely only recently returned, and it would have been improper to bring that subject up so soon, so she held her tongue.

[Dire Wolf]

He noticed that she was staring at his face, he was used to it by now... which was surprising considering that he was barely released from the custody of MedCorps not a day before. He sighed. He tilted his head slightly.

"Elsie, is there something you wanted? Questions? Comments? Sparring? I am bored to tears right now... everyone is treating me like a black sheep because I am "blind" now."

He probably came off a little less Jedi-like than was expected, but to tell the truth he didn't feel as Jedi-like anymore. Something changed inside him... he just didn't feel like he had as much conviction in the religion anymore. That was probably why the council didn't want to send him on a mission yet... they feared that he would fall or go grey.

[sparrow]

Questions... she wanted to ask them, but she had just met him, and he had only recently returned. Quite likely he was here partly to take his mind off of whatever had happened on Korriban. Perhaps she could open up that subject later, but not now.

She nodded and smiled. "A spar... would be nice." She had come here with the intention of training after all. She undid her cloak and floated it over to one of the hangers on the wall. Her lightsaber detached itself from her belt and flew into her hand as she slowly assumed a basic cat stance. "Ready when you are."

[Dire Wolf]

Ryn nodded, a spar, he honestly proffered that over speaking on and on about the fight he had with that blasted Dark Jedi, Grawn. He smiled a little bit when she summoned her lightsaber and dropped into a stance... she looked almost like a coiled up feline. He activated end of his lightsaber and dropped into the Way of the Vornskr, it was strange for a Jedi to know the form... it was very aggressive. Knowing the form probably saved his life while he was fighting Grawn... it did a good job at keeping one's adversary suppressed and thinking more of your angry blade then his own.

He moved his body so that his left shoulder was pointing at the woman, he bent his knees, and he dropped his lightsaber to about waist level. Ryn shifted most of his weight to his left foot, preparing to launch himself at the woman. When the young man moved he did so with the celerity of a serpent, he swung his lightsaber at her shoulder, it was mostly a distraction for the next move, which was activating the other end and swiping at the area just below the opposite arm. If this attack succeeded he obviously would stop short of touching her robe, really short, but he didn't count on it succeeding.

[sparrow]

He had activated his lightsaber and launched immediately into an attack. His style was fast and aggressive. In order to match him, she would need to be just as fast. No, that wouldn't do. She'd have to be faster.

Having all her weight on her back leg, Elsie was able to quickly skip back a few steps out of range of the first slice. A feint, she realized, as he quickly transitioned into a second slash from the opposite side with the other end of the saber.

She dropped to a low bow stance, she swung her saber upwards to deflect his slice. Ducking quickly underneath the two blades, she disengaged her saber from his, spinning her silver blade in a horizontal circle over her head before skipping forward with a quick downward slice aimed towards his wrists.

[Dire Wolf]

Ryn withdrew his wrists as quickly as he could in an attempt to miss the searing line of silver plasma, he only moved his limbs back far enough so that her blade would hit his. Just as he did to Grawn he would do to this woman... the maneuver.... NOT the de-arming and throwing off of a cliff. Definitely not that. He let the momentum of her blade striking on end fling the other blade around his hand and lash out at her shoulder. He pulled back before the maneuver could be completed, however, he wouldn't risk her being harmed.

Ryn took a step back and cut off his attack, dropping into the more docile and recognizable stance of Soresu. He moved the weight to his heels as he deactivated one of the ends of his lightsaber. He moved the active end to waist level and pointed up in the air at a 45 degree angle. This just screamed Soresu. He snaked a tendril of thought over to the woman and sent a short message through the temporary connection.

--Your move--

[sparrow]

Elsie frowned. Ryn was not completing his attacks, holding back. No, that wouldn't do.

Along the walls of the training rooms were racks holding various types of training equipment. The standards remotes, a pair of lightsaber sparring droids, and a number of training lightsabers. Elsie returned her silver saber to her belt as two of the training sabers, one single-bladed, the other double, flew from the wall into her hands. Usually used by the practice droids, the saber were set to a low power, unable to cut through flesh, though still quite able to leave painful burn.

The activated the single saber, green blade extending with a snap-hiss, and toss the other towards Ryn. "Don't hold back, Ryn," she said with a slight smile as the cylindrical handle of the double-ended saber rolled off her fingers. "I want to see what you can do."

[Dire Wolf]

Ryn smirked when he saw Elsie de-activate her lightsaber. At first he thought that this was the beginning of some play... he was quickly proved wrong when she suddenly grabbed a pair of training sabers from the wall and gave him one. Again he smirked. In one smooth and fast motion Ryn deactivated his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt. As he spun the hilt around one yellow lines of plasma erupted from the saber. Any doubt of his prowess with the lightsaber were now gone. He no longer had to worry about going a little too far and chopping off her arm.

--If you insist--

Ryn smirked as he coiled up like a spring. Without warning the man launched himself at the woman, as he neared the silver haired woman the man swung a quick swipe at Elsie's neck, then her chest, then a quick verticle slash at her arm. No longer would she find him pulling punches.

[sparrow]

She ducked the first slash, and quickly bent her body backwards as the second pass swished through the air less than an inch away from her breasts.

Elsie smiled. Now this was more like it. This was the sort of fight that she spent so much time training for.

Catching herself with her left hand, she rolled to the side to avoid his vertical slash, and launched a quick thrust towards his ankles. The green blade lashed outwards once, then twice, arcing upwards at the end of the third thrust to attack his torso.

[Dire Wolf]

Ryn instinctively threw each of his legs back just as the Echani guardian jabbed at them with her green training saber and quickly fell into a roll, taking care to contort his torso around the emerald green blade. The Guardian hit the ground with a somersault towards his sparring partner and swiped one of his furious yellow blades at her legs.

Just as the Guardian's feet were about to meet the floor he used the Force to power his muscles and execute a super-human leap across the room. The extension of the fight would prove a moment of respite for the two of them, not that they necessarily needed it, but Ryn needed a moment to clear his mind. Mostly of the Dark Jedi that has been plaguing it as of late. After those few moments Ryn opened his blind eyes and gazed at Elsie and deactivated one end of his lightsaber.

The man brought up the activated end to his face so that the searing blade was only a few inches from the tip of his nose, it looked somewhat like a Makashi salute, but wasn't. The man kept both hands on the hilt and the blade locked in place as he slowly walked towards the Echani that stood before him. He was about half-way to her when he suddenly outstretched his lightsaber arm and pointed the golden blade towards her and hunched his back, taking care to bend his knees.

This was a strange hybrid of his two favored forms: The way of the Vornskr and The way of the Hawk-bat, or Juyo and Soresu, respectively. Ryn could both quickly jump back and defend his person if necessary, but he also set himself up in an attacking position.

He would wait for Elsie to act before making a move, but rest assured: His coming counter-attack would be rather... aggressive.

[sparrow]

Although she had not been trained in the traditional Echani manner, Elsie Therin, like most of her species, viewed combat as an art, and over the years, had refined her ability to read body movements and combat stances to the point where she could almost predict the move that her opponent would use next. So as she saw Ryn somersault forward, she gathered the strength in her legs in preparation of the attack that would inevitably follow, backflipping out of the way just before her opponent's blade passed through the area where her legs had been.

But as she landed and readied her saber for the next round of attacks, she found that her opponent had unexpectedly jumped all the way across the room, a most impressive distance, and settled into an unfamiliar stance. It didn't matter what form or stance he was using though. If Elsie was skilled enough, then she would find a way to match and counter it.

Elsie Therin was a practitioner of Niman, the sixth lightsaber form. Though derided by some Guardians as being a less-demanding, jack-of-all-trades form, it was style that suited Elsie quite well. Niman combined many of the best aspects of the older saber forms. Practicing it, Elsie had to make herself proficient in many different tactics and strategies, instead of focusing in just one direction. Because the form relied on the user's intuition and ability to improvise, advanced Niman duelists did not fit one standard mold, instead each adapting aspects of the form into a style of their own that best complemented their abilities.

Elsie herself was very fond of using a one-handed style, utilizing her speed and agility, sacrificing sheer power for greater reach and flexibility, as well as freeing up her other arm for hand-to-hand combat techniques. She had already begun incorporating aspects of Makashi into her fighting style as she studied that form, the elegant form fitting in with her one-handed style quite well.

She ran towards him, almost appearing as if she was gliding across the floor. As she closed the distance between them, she used her wrist to quickly twirl her blade back covering the front of her body and then over to attack in one smooth motion.


(( dunno if I'm doing a good job describing sword movements or not, but it's supposed to be the move at 0:22 www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1laMdNK5Ps ))