Private Old Friends and New Faces

[Vulpesen]

Hearing Matsu's analysis caused Vulpesen to cock his head a bit to the side. The force, as he had grown up with it, was a mystical power. It couldn't always be explained, and while its effects could be noted and observed, its mechanisms were often mysterious. Still, seeing her take such a scientific approach to what his people called the spirit of the wilds was a unique perspective that he had to admit was worth looking at. He had always dissected the force in a similar way, albeit from a philosophical point of view, rather than a scientific one. "I'm fairly certain sterilization would have been an early warning if it was a problem. As for slime... I think I'm rather happy with not taking such forms. Major shifting requires that the practitioner study his shapes. I need to know, what I'm doing and turning into. Its quite difficult to put into words the level of familiarity that's needed."

"I've heard you say before that politicians can be slimy, Dad." Daella beamed innocently up at her father, withstanding his response by way of a withering look for several moemnts before finding herself forced to concede. "But not you of course... Nope. No slime on you."

"Yep. Completely dry as a bone." This time, it was Vallen's mischievous grin which brought the father's minor glare. In truth, it was moments like this that Vulpesen saw himself most in his children, especially when Vallen turned his face into that all too familiar lopsided grin. It seemed he was finally getting his payback for his younger snarkier days.

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

"If I recall didn't you once say birthrates on Veradune were lower?" She said it and was thinking back to some of the conversations but she had met a lot of people and it could blend together at times after several decades but she would almost swear he had said it was harder for the conception of children among the zorren... or something she could add to the notes if she was wrong. Still looking at the children for a moment when she spoke. "You have been teaching them well at least." She snickered a little to herself with a nod of her head in approval before motioning and they could walk back towards the edge of the platform.

 

[Vulpesen]

"Our birthrates are fine. It was our general numbers that were the problem. Being hunted down has a tendency to increase the mortality rates. But that problem has been remedied." Hearing Matsu's comment and snicker over his children's behavior, Vulpesen simply rolled his eyes and turned to follow her. "I suppose not all of my lessons have been in the ways of the force. Speaking of which, have you by chance picked up any new skills? Or have you already amassed ever known force technique into your arsenal?" Truth was, he would be in no way surprised if her answer came back as the later.

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow but... didn't say no as she finally spoke and motioned with her hand. "Well there is a couple of things but it is harder to explain if you do not know some history." She said it and looked at the children with a raised eyebrow. "So tell me, what do you know of this world?" She said it and was walking before they were continuing but not towards the library... instead towards one of the smaller bridges that went from carefully shaped rocks near the ocean and she walked across it as the stones responded to her movements and wre rising up out of the ocean itself to lead towards a cave.

 

[Vulpesen]

Continuing after Matsu, Vulpesen joined her across the newly formed bridge. "I've heard some tales that it was involved in early jedi history. But much of the information conflicts with other things that I had read. It only showed up in a few texts." While they walked, Vulpesen's kids started to shift their bodies back to normal, Vallen shrinking back his claws, and Daella allowing her ears to become rounded and normal once more.

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

She raised an eyebrow to see if the kids would add anything but spoke. "It was supposedly the first jedi temple... key word jedi. With the je'daii and tython it can be questionable but we do know that the prime jedi came here and created this temple as well as what would become the columbarium. A burial ground for jedi that has slowly become a vergence in the lightside of the force." She was looking at them and brought a hand up when the caves entrance was before her the rocks shifted and it went down. "From what we have learned of the prime jedi it is mostly ballads, stories and poems about his glory... about his power. So a real depiction is not there but we do know it involved the extinction cataclysm." She waited and going into the cave walked as the crystals from the kyber cave started to illuminate the way. "You fought with me against some of the things banished in the extinction, beyond the barrier around the galaxy and far away from anything living only to be brought back when people decide to do really dumb moves for power.... well according to the jedi texts that was the last of several that had come before with one creating the force if the murals we found are to be believed."

 

[Vulpesen]

Continuing into the cave, Vulpesen glanced back to Vallen and Daella who simply marvelled at the crystals around them, though their ears remained towards their elders to listen on the conversation. "Glory and power... doesn't sound very jedi like. I remember my time in the temples being all about humility and sacrifice. Sure power was given through the force but it was never really empathized. As for ancient banished things, I assume we add those to the list of truly weird moments in my life. But what does any of that have to do with this cave or what you've learned?" Once more practicing his skills with shifting, Vulpesen focused on his eyes, changing their shape just enough to allow more passage of light. True the crystals worked to illuminate the area, but a little extra sight wouldn't hurt.

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

"You are attributing modern jedi ethcs and tenets onto the first ones?" She said it and looked at him for a moment as the cave narrowed and the crystal went from shards and gleaming into a chute heading down more and tisting into the ancient Temple of the Precept. She stopped there. "Oh it has to do with encountering more of these things." She pointed up and at something that looked like the eye from Ossus. "It resembles the eye of Ashlanae but looked at the mural. It is a scene depicting the fourth precept... a poem about the battle between two beings. One light... one dark at the beginning and for the amusement of ancient things. I learned something from one of them... specifically how to flow walk back."

 

[Vulpesen]

"The jedi of old weren't exactly known for their ability to change." Hearing Matsu's further explanation, Vulpesen and his children waited patiently for her to get to the main subject. Then finally, she told them what she had learned. It was a technique he had heard about, and seen before in his youth. After explaining it, its possible he had even given one of his old students the building blocks to start on using that ability for herself. Still, he had never seen fit to study its techniques for actual use.

"Isn't that the time travelling one you told us about?" Vallen asked. While their father had gotten them to focus on their studies as wilders, there was still room in their education for other force traditions. Such varied teachings had after all, helped him in the past. It was only right that he pass down his knowledge to his prodigy.

"To put it simply. Did you see anything important?" Murals, poems, and ancient texts were certainly worth study. But there was only so much that such things could do to give one a glimpse of the past. But to actually go there and see what happened before the present times was an opportunity for great amounts of studying.

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

Now she was grinning at that and looked at him for a moment before holding her hands up and revealing her wrists... then she focused on it... it could be felt for a moment before she flicked her wrist and with the rotation two pieces of candy formed. She was using art of the small on a level more akin to healing acceleration techniques which could heal almost in an instant. IN this case knowing how to stack and change molecules at the speed of thought over having to spend hours even days. It did give the look of more godlike manifestations and as she held them she focused a little more and opened the sweets as it came out with small birds that fluttered around transforming into snall figurines as they got closer to land in their hands. "YOu could say I learned a thing or two but there is something to be said about letting some think it is more mystical."

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen rose a brow as the candy formed at her fingertips. Whether by creation or enlargement, even he found difficult to tell, and looking back to his kids, he could see their eyes were wide as saucers. "How is it that even after all the stories and all our meetings, you still find ways to impress me every time we meet? he asked, a wonder filled grin on his face. To say the least, she certainly had a habit of amazing displays.

"Dad, when are you going to be able to pull candy out of thin air?" Vallen asked, only to have another inquiry posed by his sister.

"More importantly, when are you going to teach us how to do it?"

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

The jedi master looked at the two of them and she moved over to stand next to them crossing ehr arms as if expecting him to answer with a smaller grin on her face. "That is a very good question children." She looked over at Vulps and raised an eyebrow though. "Oh my daughters would enjoy them... granted Hanna is a little overprotective now that she doesn't have a senate to try and convince... though does mean she has more time for being home and she is still..." She stopped talking while looking at the two kids for a moment. "Ahhh anyways. How would the two of you like to see the repository?"

 

[Vulpesen]

"How about you practice on your current studies. I'm certain you'll get there eventually, kids," Vulpesen stated, casting a withering towards Matsu. "My skills were always focused on ways to avoid getting shot, stabbed, slashed, or otherwise maimed." Matsu's mention of her own descendants brought a small smile to Vulpesen's face. It wasn't often he heard about his friends personal life, though that also meant he was slightly confused when she trailed off. "I'll have to meet them some day." As for her suggestion on where to go next, it was met by eager nods. She had certainly made an impression on the Valkiter who were now eager to see more of what the jedi had to offer.

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

Hmm it would be interesting to see how he could interact with them from Reiko and Orihime who were now jedi masters within the order to their youngest who were only five so far and mostly learning.... "Perfect then. Aside from the armor developed to fight cosmic force level threats there is not much down here except what we found.... the repository though that is something interestig." She said it and was leading the way back up but also further through reinforced tunnels that were under the ocean as small pools of salt water were around them. "When we discovered itwe realized there was somethig sinister here... kind of... maybe strange. The caretakers reset the island... evertime a group of jedi came here they would help them but once they were gone they would return the island to how it once looked. Removing all traces that people had been here so it always seemed like it was newly discovered. Everything they stored is kept in a massive chamber under another island that was submerged."

 

[Vulpesen]

Vulpesen rose a brow at her casual mention of the cosmic armor. It wasn't exactly something that every jedi had in their closet, and even his own armor while impressive, wasn't created to handle such threats. As they strode down the path, he glanced towards Daella who had reached out a hand to one of the puddles which then streamed into an or which hovered above her palm. "Like a giant warehouse. I wonder why they would remove such improvements rather than let them add to the history. Moreover, I wonder why they allowed you to be the ones to find it. Then again, I doubt you simply stayed put in your temple here."

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

"I imagine when the time comes they will do much the same to me... the repository though isn't entirely hdden it is more just something they do o have directions to." She said it and was leading them through as the heav doors came into view... glow rods replacing he torches and there was a number of droids filling out different inventories. "We started trying to go back but it is not what it seems, there are more vaults deper down... tunnels lined with rooms and it is like a massive hive of history. Far more then we might have thought but it is easier to figureout as they are dedicated to mostly decades or years. Some of the rooms have impossible things." SHe said it but some fo the chambers she had been able to see were painstakingly filled with ships or equipment that would have had to be disassembled and rebuilt piece by piece.

 

[Vulpesen]

Following through the doors, he noted the modernization and looked over the stored materials, items, and oddities. "Well its a good thing they weren't hiding this. Its amazing." History had been his focus as a child. learn the past so that he could control his future. Now, here he was in one of the best preserved museums in a modern focused galaxy. It was truly amazing and looking behind him, he was overjoyed to see that the wonder of the situation was not lost on his kids. "Have you found anything particularly interesting besides some old ships?"

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

She was looking at im. "Yes and no a lot of scrolls and personal items... journals but nothing so far that is galaxy shattering. Musing from some jedi masters on other jedi or the wars or their padawans. Lightsabers and other robes. Some of the jedi who went missing or disappeared in the orders history we managed to learn about some of them. They came here and passed on but no one was able to report it. So a few mysteries solved however it has also opened up a few more things. The information about older machinations that used kyber crystals is interesting... or alien technologies the jedi used and tried to figure out. The orders attitude has changed a lot since the early days it seems and they have some information about areas of Ossus and Tython that the jedi thought lost."

 

[Vulpesen]

Looking around the area, Vulpesen flicked his tail as he thought about what Matsu had discovered. "Lost mysteries... Matsu, I swear you've found the biggest life day present any archeologist or historian could have asked for. Perhaps those lost areas are begging to be paid a visit. See where the bread crumbs lead. That is of course, if you haven't done that already."

"I'd like to see more jedi planets. They seem to have a lot of cool stuff," Daella said, her hand running over her pet's pelt. Like her father, Daella held an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and he had found her raiding the library on more that one occasion when she should have been in bed or going to her instructors for more directed learning.

"That would be up to Master Ike, or whatever Jedi she sends there. The Jedis' history is a jedi matter. The decision to allow any of us on their ventures is completely up to them."

Matsu Ike

 

[Matsu Ike]

Vulpesen

She looked at him and nodded a little. "Oh there are plenty left to search through. We have barely touched the lower vaults here and if anything I would say we have maybe barely ten percent and we have been looking at the contents for almost three years." She said it with a smirk on her face at that.... seeing the girl was as interested in history. "There are a few jedi worlds not many have been able to go to and we found old star charts to find them. We learned about the columbarium on Takodana where the ashes of jedi have been taken for thousands of years and even still. A planet sized temple in the unknown regions that is described like Coruscant meets the jedi temple... can you imagine?"