Private Looking Ahead | Merrick

[Auteme]

C O R U S C A N T
Tag: Merrick Sato ​

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Reviewing her notes was Auteme's favorite thing in the galaxy.

There was nothing more satisfying than reading her own neatly-written notes, then making them more concise and reviewing what she'd learned. Last night she'd started to go over her notes from the day's lesson. Master Morga had taught theory, history, and guided her through a meditative precognition exercise.

Reviewing notes was fun, but practicing stuff? Less so.

When she'd first tried to see into the future with the Force, nothing had come of it, and even after reviewing and trying again she'd seen nothing. It was frustrating. Of all the powers she could hit a roadblock with, precognition, one of the essential knowledge powers, was the one that was out of reach? She was desperate to know about all things. This could've been her gateway into things that might happen in the future, and to have it out of reach was terrible.

Master Morga had left early this morning, so a follow-up lesson from the Grandmaster himself was a little out of the question. Thankfully she'd managed to get into contact with a Jedi who knew a little about the power of foresight.

Auteme had booked a meditation room in the half-built Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and waited patiently for Jedi Knight Merrick Sato to arrive. When he eventually did, she stood up and gave a friendly smile. "Hi! Merrick, right?" They'd met on Peace Station a while ago, but they hadn't exactly gotten to know each other. Today wasn't for socializing, either, as Auteme needed the knowledge of precognition she so desired.

Hopefully this Jedi Knight had it.

 

[Merrick Sato]

"Stalwart, I will stand, until mountains turn to sand."

After his impromptu lesson on Peace Station, Merrick was left with more of a curiosity towards teaching. So much of his time since leaving Naboo with Chiara Viren had been spent throwing himself into the work of being a Jedi, but not into lending a hand in the tasks that made that work possible; with his progress in leaving behind the very grief that sent him out amongst the stars in the first place, he has room in his heart and mind to do more for the cause. So, when Auteme requested a meeting with him to pick his brain about one of the varied ways to peek into possible futures, he elected to indulge her. He'd been impressed with how she handled the situation with the refugees; she seemed bright.

"Yes, that's me," he confirmed, shortly after entering the designated meditation room, shrugging off his jacket, and tossing it on a wall hook with long-practised precision he'd nailed as an older child, despite his master's reiteration to not depend too wholly on the Force. He knew, and he heeded the words, but there were many small ways to keep his skills fresh and he was going to take advantage of that. Even training others could be one of those things, and it wasn't like he was using telekinesis to stir milk and sugar into his caf every morning.

That taken care of, he turned and looked at the studious padawan with a firm smile, hooking his thumbs into trouser pockets, and reclining with a measure of control to lean against the same wall he had just tossed his jacket on.

"Precog, then? Tell me what you know."

​

 

[Auteme]

C O R U S C A N T
Tag: Merrick Sato ​

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It wasn't exactly an issue of not knowing, but rather not being able. To be fair she was sure that if she actually practiced doing something regularly she'd get it and get better. Asking Knight Merrick to help her out was a bit of a shortcut. She'd read the full paper yesterday, and today was more a summary of what'd been in there and the important takeaways.

Auteme took a seat on one of the round meditation chairs, and nodded to Merrick's question. "Well, there are two main types of precognition using the Force. The first is more common among all Jedi; danger sense, battle precognition. When you're fighting, and there's danger... well, the Force will tell you," she said, refraining from going any further than that out of fear of revealing her own inexperience with the power. She'd been alerted to danger before, but she was very rarely fighting in comparison to most Jedi. The second part of precognition interested her much more than the first.

"Then there's true foresight. Visions of the future, the like. That's more what I'd like to focus on I think, but I'm sure that the two are interconnected, so really anything you teach me will be useful." Of course, she wanted to have visions. But however Merrick decided to teach, she was sure she would learn something useful, even if it wasn't exactly what she wanted.

 

[Merrick Sato]

"Stalwart, I will stand, until mountains turn to sand."

Her explanation was to the point, short... perhaps too short, skirting around it, even, but he'd let that rest. Knowledge didn't necessarily breed capability, textbook definition was far from necessary, and he wasn't here to needle her for being human. He thought to how his own master, the Draethos Yalon, had taught him this as a building block to farsight. He considered too his own modest experience with employing it, first on missions as a padawan and in sparring with peers, then as a Knight in his travels with Chiara, but he didn't think too long, lest the silence gained an uncomfortable aspect.

"The inflow of impressions from the Force," he summed in even shorter measure, "with precognition is closer to a constant, than say, farsight, with which it overlaps."

His right hand unhooked from the pocket it anchored on, and he scratched at his jaw. He'd become more lax about shaving, but the stubble itched because it was still unfamiliar to let it grow. He wasn't sure he didn't like the way it looked, wasn't sure he'd take it very far, or let it stay if he did.

"The first is more active, the second is more meditative, but both require an openness to the flow and guidance, the voice of the Force. 'Less mind, more spirit' as my master would say," Merrick looked thoughtful a moment, then gestured towards Auteme, "how are you with meditation?"

That had been his problem as a boy, the brunt of his interest being with the sword, at the time.

Auteme

​

 

[Auteme]

C O R U S C A N T
Tag: Merrick Sato ​

---

Voice of the Force... yes, Master Morga had talked about that as well. But there was so much noise. So many things in the galaxy grasped at her attention and distracted her from the truth. That must've been it. Unless this was the Force's way of telling her she wasn't ready to see the future, or wasn't ready for the future itself. A depressing thought really. No, she thought this was what she needed. Being able to see the future would be invaluable... she didn't think too hard about it, knowing that if she did the doubt and indecision would gnaw at her until she stopped.

Auteme nodded to Merrick. "I think I'm alright at meditation," she replied. She'd spent days in meditation rooms before, back when she'd been trying to find Ryv. Obviously her inexperience in farsight hindered her, but she'd still meditated for long stretches of time. As of late she hadn't done it very often. Her skill was a little in question, but she thought she'd be fine.

"It's not really that. I just feel like something's blocking me from really seeing. And I guess... I want to overcome that obstacle." Quickly, preferably. Hopefully the Jedi Knight could show her a way around it. The sooner she mastered the power, the sooner she could help more people. The sooner she could support her friends. And that was important to being a Jedi, wasn't it?

 

[Merrick Sato]

"Stalwart, I will stand, until mountains turn to sand."

There was an unspoken, almost unnoticeable urgency to her words, subsumed by the careful pace of her last statement, and her clear lack of confidence in her own ability, when it came to this. Of all the ways one could manipulate the Force and act as a conduit of its will, actively asking for its direction was the least instantaneous of all, for results. There was always the chance that she might get no results, but that remained to be seen.

"How have you been meditating?" he queried, pressing the issue, putting up a hand to stall any potential deflection of his question, "Humour me."

He folded his arms over his chest. He would exhaust every possibility, if he had to. He couldn't settle on any conclusions as of yet, without further investigation.

"Better yet, show me."

Auteme

​

 

[Auteme]

Merrick Sato
​

"I... well, okay," she said. They were in a meditation room, after all. Auteme wasn't one to disagree with a teacher -- even if she did, she knew that there was always something to be learned.

She did as he asked, shifting to sit cross-legged on one of the meditation chairs. She placed her hands on her knees and closed her eyes. Meditation was a simple enough thing, but it was often more difficult to do it with real purpose in mind. She'd learned that with Master Quill when they were studying Suerton probability manipulation. It was best to find a flow and accept how things would turn out rather than hope or force a particular outcome.

Maybe that was what was stopping her.

She stayed still and allowed her thoughts to flow, taking deep breaths. Her posture was perfect, her expression serene.

After about a minute, her left eye opened a crack and wandered over to Merrick. "So, um... I mean usually I meditate alone and stuff, but... uh... how am I doing?"