Private Bob and Weave

[Loomi]

Bob and Weave
Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

Loomi had spent a lot of time recently trying to remedy her amnesia situation, spending hours in the archives looking for any bizarre force ability that may help her put her mind back together. Unfortunately, very few revelations came from this, the most prominent of these being that the Godoan struggled to read very large words. Something did catch her eye, however. It was a guide detailing something called mist weaving, left behind by a Jedi named Auteme. The guide was... complex, to say the least. Or maybe it wasn't and Loomi was just struggling to comprehend strange words again. Still, it very much caught her interest, and almost immediately the young padawan's focus shifted to finding this Auteme character.

If she could find this person, maybe she'd be able to do what the guide was explaining. It was certainly a tantalizing prospect, one that tugged at the back of Loomi's mind as she searched.

For starters, it turned out that she was the Chancellor of the Galactic Alliance. That was still a concept that Loomi was trying to wrap her head around. The political world was alien to her, and she had no knowledge of what it was that a Chancellor did aside from be the person that was in charge of everything. Still, she got the idea that it was a pretty big deal. That alone may have deterred anyone from seeking someone out further. The power gap was far too great have any hope in meeting to ask for guidance. That wasn't a mindset that Loomi had been exposed to yet. As soon as she found an address, she started writing, making a nicely worded (but admittedly rather crude) letter that she spent an hour struggling to write. It was off, and before long the Godoan had a response, though it was in digital form rather than her more traditional means of communication.

She had agreed, though the Chancellor laid out very specific stipulations for such a meeting. Auteme made it very clear that they were to meet at night in the Jedi Temple's training grounds, something about making her departure discrete? Loomi didn't exactly understand why, but it was probably important. That's what she assumed with most things she found to be confusing. So, in the dead of night, the teen eagerly made her way to the training grounds to await her arrival.

 

[Auteme]

Loomi ​

Auteme descended silently from the ceiling, suspended by a razor-thin wire of impossibly strong thread. She stopped just behind Loomi -- as in, a few feet behind. Auteme realized she'd miscalculated her prank a little when she tried to touch the padawan's shoulder but couldn't quite reach.

She sighed mentally, then just decided to go ahead with it anyway.

"Boo."

Excited as she was at the prospect of teaching another Jedi Mist-Weaving, she was more here for the fun of it. Her days were dour and serious; so many issues, so little time. Rarely did she find time to escape.

A hand-written letter was often a security risk; poison in the paper, diseases in the envelope's dust, any myriad of ways physical items could smuggle certain evils straight to the Chancellor. Going out alone at night was just as risky. But (with the clearance of her security team) she'd done both. Holding the paper in her hands, she could feel the pen scraping across the page, and read the echoes of the time spent composing the words. She almost felt rude, returning with a digital response, but she didn't have time to pen a letter herself, nor did she wish to do the padawan a disservice by having someone else write it for her.

Nonetheless, tonight would be a short time where she could find her joy. Often she went through the ruins of the Jedi Temple, when she had a spare hour, or several. She'd dance around its grounds just because. To feel connected again -- so high up in her office, it never felt as though she were touching the ground. With the war over, she wished to reconnect once more.

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

"Boo."

Loomi jumped at the sudden voice behind her, squeaking ever so slightly. Clutching her chest, she turned to see the individual who had reached out and touched her was hanging upside down.

"Golly," Loomi muttered, "You scared the life outta me..."

What was the woman even hanging from? It seemed to be a thin strand of tread. Incredibly thin at that, so much so that one might assume that it may snap under the weight of a small droid, let alone an adult human. Yet it held firm. That thought quickly left the Godoan's mind. This had to be the person she had come here to meet.

"Miss... Auteme, right?"

The teen silently prayed that she hadn't pronounced it wrong. Her interest in this mist weaving was too great now. Blowing everything would completely crush her.

 

[Auteme]

Loomi ​

Auteme snorted at the "golly" so hard she almost lost her grip on her thread. Instead, she managed to lower herself safely, mentally noting that hanging upside-down was not as fun as it looked.

"That's right," she said, smiling. "And you must be Loomi. Nice to finally meet you."

She looked the padawan up and down. The girl was a bundle of excitement and fear, wound up tight and ready to spring. Auteme found that state not especially conducive to learning, so she looked for a way to diffuse that energy. She didn't have to look far.

"Who's your friend?" she asked, bending down slightly to look at the large... container? Gourd? Canteen? Whatever it was, there was a creature inside.

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

Loomi's nerves calmed as her assumption was met with a very warm greeting. That was good. Curiously, the politician's focus shifted to the gourd at her side, asking about her companion, after she had gotten firmly onto the ground that is. The Godoan drew the hilt that her familiar attached itself too, pulling it out in a flowing state. It moved to shape itself into a blade, but remained more liquid.

"I call him little fella," Loomi explained, "But I don't think he's actually a him. More of an it. He doesn't really do much on his own, but he's a real good listener... Well, more so he's connected to my thoughts I think. A force bond. That's what it is."

They had formed a connection of sorts when they had first 'met,' in a sense. She thought about the shape it should take, and the strange organism shifted in suit. It wasn't exactly the most deep relationship, but it was certainly a handy one.

"I don't really know what it is," she frowned, "It's... got a strange energy about it though. A soul, I think..."

The Godoan's curiosity was already starting to drift again. With more focus on the meeting than before, her thoughts were drawn back to the thread that Auteme had used to enter.

"How'd you do that? The... y'know, upside-down swingy thing."

 

[Auteme]

Loomi
​

Auteme studied the creature. Part of her was tempted to touch it, but the half-formed blade still looked razor sharp to her, so she kept her curiosity in check for the time being.

"Well -- maybe I'll teach you," she said. "But first I'd like to see where you're at. My guide -- the katas. Did you practice any? Show me what you can do." She stepped away, and gestured for the padawan to demonstrate.

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

"Right."

Loomi returned her familiar to it's gourd, rubbing her hands together in a slight moment of anticipation. The Godoan pushed aside her anxieties of looking good and simply made an honest attempt, trying to recall what he guide had stated about the philosophy of Mist-Weavers...

Threads permeated from all things... focus on the states of water... everything comes back to light.

She had done what the guide had instructed on getting threads to manifest, meditating next to the fountain in the temple gardens and reflecting on these general concepts, feeling for these threads in the force that permeated from all things. With a bit of concentration, something had indeed manifested, just as it had after her extensive meditation.

To say it was lacking was certainly accurate.

The strand that Loomi had drawn was quite thin, and notably very short. She had only managed to draw an inch, not nearly enough to weave anything with.

"That's... as far as I've gotten," she admitted with a sigh.

 

[Auteme]

Loomi
​

Auteme bent over and looked at the small thread that Loomi had managed to produce. "Hm. What are you pulling on?"

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

"Hm. What are you pulling on?"

"I'm... not quite sure," Loomi admitted with a frown. "They're supposed to 'permeate from all things,' right? I just thought that it was random."

Loomi could certainly feel these threads, but she was having a hard time processing exactly how they worked. Were they like a binding agent? Some sort of biproduct that existed loose in the force? Her inconclusive stance on what they were as well as her poor reading skills made it hard for her to visualize how they should act. It seemed far more complicated than pulling at a string.

"What am I doing wrong?"

 

[Auteme]

Loomi
​

"Oh. I see. Sorry, I probably didn't explain it well in my guide. Yes- the Force permeates all things. But you don't pull from all things, you pull from something. A bunch of things. Even with a really long thread, you're not going to weave much." She glanced around the mostly empty training room, before gesturing for Loomi to follow her.

"This is really just something that'll come with practice. But, ah, perspective-wise... the Force is ethereal, yes, it's beyond us, yes, but is not separate from us. Without us, without things, there is no Force. When you're weaving, you're not weaving with nothing. Thankfully, the threads are everywhere. You just have to look."

To help with said looking, Auteme led Loomi towards the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Even as her visits became more sparse, she still knew the Temple's halls like the back of her hand. When they arrived, Auteme took off her shoes (or rather, they simply retracted into the rest of her outfit) and let her feet sink into the grass as she moved further into the greenhouse.

"Just look first. No need to pull on anything -- things are woven the way they are for a reason." She gestured to the trees and plants; while Loomi focused, she hopped around on the stones placed in a path leading down to a small pond.

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

Loomi followed Auteme to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, listening as she explained the concept of pulling threads far better than in the guide, or at least in words that the Godoan could comprehend far better. So it wasn't random. If they permeated from all things, that meant that they had to be from somewhere. All she had to do was look...

"Just look first. No need to pull on anything -- things are woven the way they are for a reason."

"Right," Loomi nodded, sitting down in the grass.

The teen closed her eyes, assuming a meditative stance. She could feel everything around her pretty easily already. Force tracking was a trait she had grown up with, so she was used to things revealing themselves to her. But this was different. It was like looking beyond the things around her and reaching into the space between. Loomi hadn't understood what she had felt before, but teh Chancellor's description made it a bit more clear.

The room was full of threads, permeating from the abundant vegetation and woven together in an chaotic, though ornate manner. Like a river. Perhaps that's why the guide had said to think of water when weaving.

"I... think I understand now," she stated. "Where they are, I mean... It's beautiful. I wish I had stopped to feel this sooner..."

But something had prevented her. As much as she would've liked to know why, the wall in her memories didn't withdraw.

 

[Auteme]

Loomi
​

While Loomi sat and meditated, Auteme spent a minute remembering how to do a cartwheel. When the padawan finished, Auteme rolled in the grass to sit next to her.

"Crazy, right? We live in a galaxy that seems to be getting faster and faster. I mean -- you close your eyes, and a year flies by. But stop to look, and things are so different. So beautiful." She smiled. "Now go ahead and grab something. Anything. There's a lot to pull from."

Auteme did a backwards somersault and bounded away again.

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

"Now go ahead and grab something. Anything. There's a lot to pull from."

"Okay," she nodded, maintaining her focus.

There was a new determination in Loomi, one with far less anxiety woven into it. Loomi's hands floated idly for a moment, her antennae tasting the air around her. Then, with a gentle motion, the Godoan grabbed hold of a thread. Gradually, she drew it out, revealing it to the naked eye. Her eye opened, filled with a sudden wave of joyous light. She turned to Auteme, beaming from ear to ear.

"I did it!"

 

[Auteme]

Loomi
​

Auteme stopped mid-cartwheel, before her body remembered she wasn't actually very athletic, and she fell over onto the grass. Then she got up and walked over to the padawan to examine her work.

"Nice," she said. "That's awesome."

Strange as it was, Auteme couldn't remember the first time she wove something, or pulled a thread into the material world. She more remembered the euphoria of understanding, of finding a new way of seeing -- but she saw that same joy in Loomi, and, matching the girl's joyous smile, she shared in the experience with her.

"Now pull some more. Grab a few other things. Then put them together."

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

"R-right."

Loomi picked up two rocks. That could work for now, right? The Godoan looked at the two stones for a moment, pondering how exactly they were to be woven together. What had the guide said?

States of water. Threads could be ice, fluid, or mist. That meant that, if done properly, the thread should pass right through. Loomi concentrated, focusing on the sounds of the fountain next to her. Mist... it was mist. Then, with a gentle hand, the padawan began to slowly weave the two stones together. The thread passed through one into the other repeatedly, and Loomi did this with a few more threads before the stones were woven together tightly.

"Alright," she sighed, letting her nerves spill back in. "I think I did it."

 

[Auteme]

Loomi
​

Auteme watched the padawan with interest. She hadn't meant literally grab things, more just to manifest more threads, but clearly Loomi was grounded in her approach, so Auteme didn't intervene. At the padawan's success, she gave a little clap.

"Looking solid," she said. "Now take it apart. After that... we'll see. I can't teach you everything overnight, but once you have the basics, you can kind of get to the advanced stuff on your own."

She shrugged, then rubbed her chin. "Though... if you want, I could give you a little demonstration. Show you how far you can get."

A grin spread across her face. It wasn't very Jedi of her to want to show off, but in this case it was just harmless fun. Hopefully it would encourage Loomi to be creative, rather than discourage her.

 

[Loomi]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Auteme

"Though... if you want, I could give you a little demonstration. Show you how far you can get."

"Demonstration?" Loomi frowned, already working on unweaving the stones.

This was a moment to really see the upper limits of weaving. Her mind skimmed through the guide in her head as she worked on taking the stones apart, wondering what would be the coolest thing to see. Something that she may never get the chance to whenever the two of them finally departed. As the stones peeled apart, finally unwoven, Loomi got the perfect idea.

"Can you show me the dragon-thing?"

 

[Auteme]

Loomi
​

Auteme, after a brief look of surprise, found herself laughing. "Yeah, I can do the dragon thing."

A joke Ryv had told her shot into her brain, but she decided not to retell it.

Auteme went about her weaving. Unlike that day on Corulag, she hadn't prepared as many threads; it took a while longer to produce enough to weave what she wanted to. She started with the head; a long, rounded snout took shape, filled with sharp teeth. Long whispers gave the creature a look of wisdom.

"There's actually something I didn't mention in my guide, because at the time I didn't fully understand it. But, ah, it might be obvious to you," she said. "Mist-Weaving is an art form. I mean -- you're given the tools to create just about anything. It's dynamic; it's beautiful. To shape the very Force into something tangible and visible is, I think, inherently transcendent, in a similar way to art."

She finished off the head with a scaled, hairy frill, and with a flourish she pulled at the strands from the back. The whole creature seemed to sharpen into focus, suddenly in full-colour, majestic blue scales, red hair, and piercing green eyes.

"Now, I wouldn't call myself a master of my craft, but creating is better than not. It's different than just, say, pushing something telekinetically, or throwing up a barrier. It's creating. It's weaving. The more care you put into your threads, the more it'll show in your work."

The dragon's long neck took shape; the site of her weaving bubbled like boiling water as she breathed life into the creature. It shook its head, sniffing the air and looking around, before its gaze settled on the padawan and it became very still.

"Not to say it can't be functional. You won't always have the time or energy to weave something great. But when you do -- make it magnificent. Take pride in your work."

She'd gotten a rhythm now. In a few more moments she'd finished up the tail. A massive, sprawling serpentine dragon laid before them.

"Mm. What should he do?"