Faction [NJO] When The Waters Still

[Issar Rae’Velis]

When did you last feel the Force before you tried to use it?​

That was the only line written on the notice posted in the Temple hall. No lightsaber techniques promised. No flashy Force powers. Just a strange question, and a time and place.

Now the courtyard of Tython's temple breathed in the wind. Moss clung to the edges of cracked stones. Trees ringed the clearing in quiet watchfulness, and dew shimmered where the morning sun found its way through.

At the centre of it all, a towering, pale-blue form. Issar Rae'Velis. Jedi Master. Serpent of the Spiral Way. He stood in perfect stillness, four arms lowered at his sides, robes marked in soft spirals much like his scales. His face was calm, his gaze unreadable, four black eyes watching without expectation.

He didn't greet them.

He simply began.

One arm rose, not in greeting or command, but as if pulling light from the air. A second followed in counter-motion, curving like wind around stone. The others mirrored and diverged in flowing rhythm. It was not a kata. It was not a form. It was listening made visible.

Then his voice came, low and deep, words chosen like stones placed carefully in water, each shaped by the slow cadence of his kind, touched with the distant lilt of a Hysalrian tongue.

"You came to move. But before movement, there is stillness. Before stillness... awareness."

He let silence stretch for a moment, then offered them three steps; clear, strange, and quietly demanding.

Step One: Stillness.

"Do not sit. Do not kneel. Stand. Let your weight settle. Let your thoughts run like birds; watch them, but do not chase. The Force does not speak above you. It waits beneath you."

Step Two: Breath.

"Breathe until the noise behind your eyes fades. Then breathe again. If you hear your heartbeat, let it guide your rhythm. If you hear the wind, count its turns. If you hear nothing... then the lesson is beneath that silence. The Force does not answer voices. It answers those who listen first."

Step Three: Movement.

Issar began again, arms slow, shifting like tidewater over stone.

"Move only when your breath tells you to. Allow the Force to guide your action, let it move through your limbs. Do not copy. Do not anticipate. Feel, and respond. Walk if you must, if that is what guides you, but do so with intent. You are not the one moving the Force. It moves through you. If you force such balance... it breaks."

Then he said no more. He moved among them, not to direct their path, but to soften the space they moved through, with quiet, deliberate care. A low, unplaceable hum rose from his throat, ancient, spiralling, almost a part of the wind itself.

OOC:
A slow paced, taiji-inspired lesson on Force awareness and movement meditation, designed to inspire internal reflection, give personal insights, and deepen connection to the body and the Light. Have your charries struggle, get bored, ease into it well, get frustrated with it, whatever. Open to all NJO but probably most suited to paddies!

 

[Raphael Gallustrade]

Raphael walked the halls of the Temple of Tython; it was a strange feeling, but he preferred it to the Temple on Coruscant. Despite his love of starships, Coruscant felt more like a place he wanted to go when he wanted to be busy... Tython, however, was a different place. A place of quiet chaos. Not too difficult to walk through, thankfully. And yet, as he patrolled the halls, as was his want for the time that he had time, he noticed a rather peculiar note.

His curiosity and interest more than piqued, Raphael decided to enter and join in on... whatever was being planned. When he entered, he noticed a Jedi he'd not seen before, not that that was necessarily a new or "surprising" thing. There were lots of Jedi he'd never met. Despite this, he was quite interested in what was going on.

He tilted his head, watching, interested and fascinated in the movements that the master was going through. The voice of the Jedi gave him a bit of pause.

Stillness before movement and awareness before stillness... He didn't quite understand, truth be told. Perhaps that was because he was moving more than being still and being aware? Quite posssibly. The silence was longer than the last time.

He listened carefully and did not sit or kneel, but stood and tilted his heads. Let his thoughts go but don't linger on them...?

Breathe? Raphael paused, for a moment and let that thought turn in his head, for a few seconds. He stopped and simply began to breathe, feeling and listening, growing all too keenly aware of his heart, hammering in his chest. The more that he concentrated on that rhythm, that beating, the more easily he could feel and hear it... But where was this all leading...?

That was when the master began to move, and the lesson, the final part of it seemed... odd... Move when your breath tells you? Allow the Force to guide your action...? Do not anticipate but... feel...

He'd always been able to feel the Force, to see the world around him as something more akin to an ocean that he was wading through, not just walking... The stillness, and awareness... the breathing... These things were easy but... how... to allow the Force to guide him, he wasn't entirely certain. Raphael, for all of his abilities with precognition, was not as used to this. Whenever he had the desire to move, it wasn't the right time, the right moment. Every moment was wrong...

It was starting to get frustrating...

 

[Jin Kimura]

When the Waters Still
Weapons: Lightsabers & Sidearm
Gear: Jumpsuit w/ Utility Belt
Assets: Starfighter

Jin was enjoying Tython. So far, he had made numerous unadvised forays into the planets wilderness to commune with its Light and Dark sides. Something he was warned about for its dangers and unpredictable effects on young padawans such as himself. Or at least that is what the Masters said.

Jin, for once, knew a bit better in that regard. He has had to balance the Light and Dark within himself all his life. He was not afraid of either like most were.

Stopping in his tracks, he quickly read the note posted on the notice board and titled in head in interest. He was off to meditate somewhere quiet again anyway, maybe it was time he tried socializing for once. The very idea of it giving him the nervous jitters. Though he convinced himself after an internal argument that he needed to do this. He needed to make friends even if it was via classrooms and meditative sessions. He needed to show himself willing to be a Jedi in not just name alone.

Sigh.

Jin carried himself to the session area, almost accidentally bumping into a fellow Padawan on the way in. Raphael Gallustrade Jin's quick reflexes avoided it and as was his Shadow nature he slinked away to the edge of the room after whispering a quick apology.

"Sorry about that."

Following the words of the Jedi Master, who Jin had never met, he quickly stopped himself from kneeling at the words of the instructor. After performing some weird and awkward attempt at covering up the fact he almost messed up, he quickly shut his eyes.

'They can't judge me if I can't see 'em doing it, right? By the Force, I am not socially prepared.'

With his eyes shut, Jin allowed his thoughts to quiet and drift as he passively observed them. Meditation was something he was familiar with and he always found it easy to reach that state of inner calm. Whether because of his society and culture or because of his unique experiences, he did not know. His breathing slowed and became measured as he could feel the duality of this planets energy begin to swirl around and through him. It was easy to attract their attention, utilizing them was another issue though.

Feeling the force energies become partnered with him as they covered him like a warming blanket, Jin slowly fell to his knees and placed his hands within his lap. Repeating the same type of meditative positions and practices as were common back on Kijimi. At least for those not caught up in the gang warfare or underworld activities. As he fell to his knees, Jin let out a quick "Ow!" before he reached down below his left knee and grabbed the rock he fell onto.

Blasted stone.

Jin threw it to the side quickly to be rid of it, only for it to smack something that caused an even louder commotion within the silent class. Jin's scrunched up face tried to hide away the fact it was turning red as he slightly opened one eye to see if anyone had noticed.

Issar Rae’Velis​

 

[Nulgath Zardai]

Nulgath stood among them.

Still.

He did not fidget. He did not shift his weight. He did not tremble with nervous energy like some of the Padawans did. His massive frame loomed unmoving, more statue than being. And yet, they called this stillness a lesson. A first step.

He nearly laughed.

What was more still than death?

He had no breath to settle. No pulse to calm. No racing heartbeat to slow with long exhalations. His organs, what remained of them, were silent. His chest did not rise or fall, not unless he chose to make it appear so. He could mimic a breath, certainly — the illusion of life — but it never fed anything. There was no satisfaction to it. No relief. Because for Nulgath, existence was torment. He felt as if he were suffocating, always — like his lungs were filling with invisible ash, unable to exhale. He was dying of thirst, eternally — though water passed through him like a mockery. He was starving, perpetually — though no food could ever reach the chasm within him. And his five senses, what remained of them, betrayed him. He was numb to all that the world offered — the kiss of wind, the heat of sun, the scent of moss or rot or rain — they registered as distant phantoms, as if behind a wall of rotting glass.

He persisted through it all.
He lived through it all.

But there was no life in it. Only inertia.

So when the lesson moved to breath, he felt nothing. Not clarity. Not calm. Just the echo of a world that had stopped speaking to him. Stillness, for others, was a moment of quiet between thoughts. It was his entire existence.

And then… movement.
The final step. The part meant to be liberating. To let the Force move through them, guiding their limbs in harmony with the current of all things. But what if the Force did not speak to you? What if, when you reached for it, it recoiled?

The undead Epicanthix could feel it, every time he opened himself. The way the Light twisted away. How even the Force seemed to question him. He was not unnatural — no, worse. He was a paradox. A contradiction the Force could not fully reconcile. A walking wound between life and death, rot and bloom. The Sickness had filled the hollows where peace might once have grown. He was still. But not because he chose balance. Because he had been frozen in place by time, loss, and decay.

As he turned his gaze — slow, methodical — over the others gathered in the courtyard, he could feel it. Not anger. Not fear. Discomfort. A shift in the Force here. A glance too quickly averted there. The kind of silence people use to cover the truth, not sit within it. They knew what he was. Or at least, what they thought he was. And worse — he knew that they knew. That was the most crushing part. The collective, silent agreement. That he did not belong here. That stillness in him was something to be watched, not respected. That breathlessness in him was not serenity, but evidence of wrongness. That movement from him would always be seen as violence, not grace. The label had already been applied. Quietly. Firmly.

Tags:
Issar Rae’Velis
Jin Kimura
Raphael Gallustrade

 

[Reina Daival]

Tags Issar Rae’Velis Jin Kimura Raphael Gallustrade Nulgath Zardai
Lightsaber - Pequod
Leg - Anchor

This lesson was the perfect one for Reina. As in the perfect lesson to make her frustrated. To make her boil over and snap at something. This was exactly the kind of thing she hated. Taking something as simple as breathing and moving, and adding a whole bunch of fancy steps to it. It was everything that made her infuriated. But she was going with it anyway. Taking in a steady breath as she tried to still herself and her mind. It was somewhat difficult for her to stand still, as her body wanted to sway from side to side, as if guided by the breeze or the crashing of waves. She had to stay at her centre, ignore the swaying and stand motionless.

Breathing was the next step. This was one of the steps of meditation she struggled with. Finding a rhythm with her heart. She had to breathe in and out at a steady pace. Breathe in when the wind wasn't blowing against her, and then exhale in time with the wind. Reina focused on the breeze around her, letting it calm her mind and steady herself. She could finally feeling herself relaxing, sliding into the sensation of being at peace, sinking further and further into the embrace...

Until someone yelped out in pain, breaking Reina's focus and causing her eyes to jolt open, with a flash of frustration crossing her face. That was the closest she had gotten to actual meditation and it had been ruined. She curled her hands into fists, digging her nails into the palm of her hand as she tried to keep the frustrations inside. Breathe. That was the important thing as she let out a long exhale, practically blowing all of the air out of her lungs to steady herself before taking in a deep breath.

Rinse...and repeat...Stay calm. Breathe.

She had to go over the steps all over again. Reina could feel her frustrations wanting to bubble up to the surface like a container filled with water ready to boil over. It was just a matter of letting her frustrations leave her body as she exhaled, getting rid of the negative whilst trying to breathe in the positive. At the very least, it helped her ignore her surroundings. The two other Padawans, alongside the Undead. It was a good thing she had seen him before, otherwise she'd be struggling to ignore him.

Though she was still aware of their presences through the Force. Glowing pillars for her to avoid as Reina started her movements, letting the Force and wind guide her like a leaf lost in the waves. Swaying from side to side, she felt the Force at her back gently pushing her forward. It might have appeared as if she was unbalanced as the Padawan stumbled and swayed from side to side, but she had never felt more sure in her footing. The placement of her steps, the movements of her body to avoid the others taking part in the class.

The Spirit of the Ocean flows through all...It graces us all with guidance and care...

It was like an oath, a chant that she repeated in her mind to keep her focus on the task at hand. To feel at one with herself, beneath all of the frustrations and the flames laid the gentle sway and pull of the ocean inside of her. ​

 

[Jobbi Chantin]

Pet (hair): Fuzzy (Sha'rellian toop)

Jobbi tried to follow along with the movements without wobbling. Just trying to keep her emotions fluid and graceful — the way the other Jedi were doing it — took up most of her focus.

The breathing and meditative stuff she could focus on once she could actually keep up. The others seemed like they had the movements memorized, but Jobbi repeatedly had to peek open an eye to see what the others were doing, then attempt to replicate.

At least she didn't have to worry about the foot balance stuff, though she tried to rise slightly taller on her abdomen-tail similar to the way the others balanced.

 

[Gem-in-Trash]

Gem had been fascinated by Issar Rae’Velis since their first meeting at the temple, and was eager to learn as much as she could from him. When she found out he was doing a lesson on meditation, she was eager to join. Meditation had always been difficult for Gem-in-Trash, and she routinely skipped out on the mandatory classes whenever she could for fear of missing out. But she had also found it useful at times, in challenges that she had believed she wasn't up to the task for. And in those times, she'd turned to meditation. It worked more often than not, and Gem had put herself on a quest to make up for her weaknesses.

She didn't like the term 'weaknesses,' really. It felt like a judgement of some kind. Deficiencies? No; putting expectations on these things was a kind of ego she was trying to avoid in the first place. She struggled with the word, and gave up on it. There was always more than one solution to a problem, she knew. But that didn't mean you left some tools unsharpened.

And so, she was eager, ironically, to practice meditation. She did not expect his instruction to stand, but the prospect of using her body in meditation intrigued and interested her. She accepted that she did not need a clear mind going into meditation - she'd learned that before the misadventure on Yavin. Her running mind was part of her, she just needed to let her mind flow, and feel, just like Master Rae'velis said.

Stillness was something she could manage. For her, stillness was not the absence of energy, but the coiling of it. Pulling energy and power into herself, readying to pounce and move. It was anticipation. She was well practiced in understanding her weight and position from years of running around and practicing on her Skimboard.

Movement was easier still - she was a creature of movement, of constant motion, and she walked in the familiar pattern in a circle.

But she was off beat with her body, with her heart and breathing. As well as she had readied and set herself into motion, she had not felt. And she went off balance, and had to stop, and try again.

She saw Jobbi Chantin peeking out, looking at others as she reset. Gem gave her a smile, and started from the beginning pose again. Her failure to achieve meditation was temporary, just as the meditation itself would be temporary. Gem stood straight, and waited for Jobbi to follow her movements - and she began again.

Gem had become acquainted with darkness - recently, too. She did not ignore the thing that was watching them, observing and trying to walk among them. But for all its pain and malice, Gem did not regard Nulgath Zardai with fear. She had no reason to believe this thing was here to hurt them. Perhaps someone would consider it an abomination, but fear of darkness was a means of succumbing to it.

Didn't mean it didn't freak her out, though. But until it moved to hurt someone, she just had to accept that it was there.