Old Souls

[STaCLO]

STaCLO, was finally doing it, he was gonna be learning the ways of the Force. Ever since he integrated himself the Jelz the Shard he's been able to think and behave more creatively. Able to break protocol and actually join this modern Confederacy of Independent Systems. Since loyalty programs prevented him from doing so before, and with his newer, more combat effective droid body he found himself ready for a master. Something the old him would probably never do to a sense of natural superiority.

The droid, Shard hybrid along with his little Jawa companion, Dute have been public in their search for a master of the Force. Through their travels they heard of a place who's doors were open to someone like himself, a dojo out on the planet know as Monastery. Currently STaCLO was making his way to the establishment while he left Dute to look over the ship and hang around the village nearby.

As he approached the walls of the complex he took in the architecture, it being something unfamiliar to all three minds that STaCLO's body hosted. Clearly showing that no mater how old you were, there was still plenty to learn about in the galaxy. Walking up to the main gate STaCLO noticed a security camera watching him before he began to knock on the large double doors with his four fingered hand.

[member=Kurenai Yumi]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

The place was silent, most mountains were, the only real nose to echo through the Dojo grounds being the slow trickle of water from a fountain in the garden to the side. It was peaceful, sceren as some would call it, kind of ironic due to the places actual purpose, to train fighters and make nose, at it's most busy period such a complex sounding like a battle field then anything else.

Though it appeared that such silence would soon be ended, a strange new feeling washing through the force, a signature, but not one form an organic. It was different, to say the least, certainly something of interest to note, Kurenai exiting the main building complex and walking to the front gate. As she walked a, echoing knock came from the wooden entrance, herself opening the door but a few seconds later, eyes scanning the being that stood before her.

She stood their silent for a bit before giving a bow, "welcome to my Dojo, what is it that you seek here? training? a place to stay or did you just happen across the complex"?

[member="STaCLO"]

 

[STaCLO]

Not long after knocking STaCLO could begin to sense someone coming to answer the door. Eyeing the young looking women before she bowed to him and spoke. "Oh uh, Yes, I've heard this is an open place that offers training to people like ourse- I mean myself." He said, as if caught off guard by the pretty direct introduction. Feeling it be rather rude to not reciprocate with a slight bow of his own. Given from her words he was guessing this was the write place.

Realizing he was wearing his suits helmet he went to remove it. "Sorry, I hear its rude to greet someone masked, such as I." He said as he pulled it off, showing the skull like head of his YVH 1 droid body. He didn't have his holographic body active at the moment for he figured it would just be another mask. STaCLO imagined that it'd be best if he was transparent if requesting training at this establishment.

I hoped he wasn't being disruptive by showing up like this unannounced. He also needed to get used to having emotions such as shyness. Now that he was, for better or worst, sentient. "My name's STaCLO." The Droid/Shard hybrid added.

[member="Kurenai Yumi"]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

Kurenai gave a small dismissive wave to the end of his speech, "no need to hide that latter part, I can feel that you are not of one soul, I can smell it too, not that it matters, as you said this is indeed a place were one can train freely". "I do not pass on my own ideals of the force nor do I put people down the part of light or dark, I merely teach what the force is and how to use it, the student picks what path he takes, one that I will do best to help with". Not always the best sort of model to teach but she respected someone else's right to do as they wished, though it had lead to some unfortunate events in the past.

She continued to look at the being, cocking her head to the side as he removed the mask, a droid head being on the inside, certainly a student she had never had before. "Hmmm intriguing, you are a droid from what I see, but are a force users from what I sense, but are also more then one being, though what I can tell in other ways, never thought I would see one of your kind". "I heard stories back during the galactic civil war, that Darth Vader once faced a force sensitive droid, one that held a crystal in it's body that linked it to such, is it safe to assume you are similar"?

If so that would make things a little easier, she found it best to have some understanding of a student before teaching and knowing if this being was of the same form as that one from ages ago, that would speed the process along nicely.

[member="STaCLO"]

 

[STaCLO]

He listened to her speak about how she simply teaches the force and doesn't care to teach the doctrines that certain orders have. Which was something that he liked to hear. "I can respect that, as someone who has just gained and truer sense of sentience." He said after taking off his helmet, showing his droid body to her.

"You are correct, I am a droid who managed to successfully synchronize with a Shard, the name of the crystals you speak of. Now being Force Sensitive, we figured it would only be appropriate to gain further knowledge and teaching from someone who has experience with such a powerful gift." STaCLO said, further explaining why he was here. "We would be honored if we could receive such training here."

The droid/Shard hybrid felt compelled to bow, but doing so again he felt would be redundant. He really did hope he was up to the task. He didn't really know what to expect. The ability to divert from calculations and programing was very exciting to him. But it also worried him, as the unpredictability of it all was still very much new to STaCLO. One could say the lack of any real prior emotion or connection would make him an ideal Jedi, not so much as a Sith.

[member="Kurenai Yumi"]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

She waved the droid being through the front door, indicating it to follow her across the paved floor, listening to his short story, "Only just gained sentient hu? well I guess the saying is true, that even the most advanced droids are still relegated to programing". Despite how much of a personality and free thinking they managed to learn, at the end of the day wires and data chips could only store so much information.

"Hmm interesting, though I do wonder, where did you her about me? there are many more well known places among the CIS and elsewhere, why pick my Dojo"? Was her complex more well known then she last suspected? then again the being was a droid, even if he was now force sensitive that did not discredit his droid self, able to sort large mounts of information in it's data banks. Not that it matter he was here now and it was her responsibility to train the droid in what ways she saw fit, the two soon making their way into the side training hall.

"So [member="STaCLO"], what do you know about the force? and if you have are you aware of how one can control it"? The basic starting point for all new students, it would be interesting to see what he could be capable of but also the limitations.

 

[STaCLO]

Nodding, the skeletal droid followed her past the walls. But then she asked why he, of all places, would choose this lonely dojo. "Actually, I'd say it was a matter of galactic geography. You see, my old programming prevented me to joining the CIS fully. Loyalty programs from way back during the Clone Wars. So I had become accustomed to living on the fringes of Confederate space. Only coming in for personal reasons. Part of me used to do work for the Free Worlds Coalition. So I spent most of my time north of CIS space. When I finally gained free will I and came into the more recently acquired confederate territories. Asking around I learned of this place as a more neutral place of learning and came."

STaCLO really hoped his explanation wasn't too convoluted sounding. There was quite a bit of simple fate involved it felt like. It was really just the fact that he hanged around the north of confederate space a lot. He walked with her into the training hall and heard her second question. "I'll be honest Miss, I don't really know much of it. Everything I thought I knew about the Force doesn't seem to be holding up. Since I used to be a being purely rationality, the more creative and mystical elements of the world are something I'm still getting used to. All I know for certainly is that it's a universal binding nature to it. Connecting organism everywhere to it. But those are just the fundamentals from my understanding." He said, standing in the Dojo with her.

[member="Kurenai Yumi"]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

She nodded in continuation as his back story was explained, it kind of made sense but at the same time was also a little skeptical, still it didn't matter the droid was here to learn and she'd teach. "Well it is nice to know my Dojo has some fame to it, I was beginning to think placing it on monastery was not the best idea". "After all the planet houses the white lotus and countless Jedi like temples that many people usually go to long before coming here".

Getting into the training hall she sat down on one of the cushion on the side, one that visitors would use while watching sparing, contemplating [member="STaCLO"] novice nature to how the force worked. "It is something that logical thinking cannot dictate, though there is science involved in the force it is a far stronger mystical force one cannot hope to grasp easily". "You latter point is also correct in that it binds everything together and it quite the all powerful entity".

She moved her legs into a lotus position, tapping the space next to herself, becoming the droid to come and sit down, "the first starting point with you understanding the force is to find it, which requires meditation, not the most exciting things but it is necessary, more so to you since emotions may be a bit hard for your to grasp".

[member="STaCLO"]

 

[STaCLO]

Looking down at her as she sat and listened to her speak some more, proving his point that he wasn't going to understand The Force simply through research. After she tapped the space beside her he took a seat as well. All the while watching her. He thought for a moment from her words. Looking away from her, in front of him he spoke. "Meditation, I'm a tad familiar with that, or part of me is at least." He explained honestly. The Shard in him had spent a great deal of time meditating after being separated from its family since there was little more for the thinking rock to do.

"You are correct Miss, before I could only have a very limited sense of emotion. More like I emulated it. I could understand what it was, but never feel it. That is until fairly recently. I hear Jedi do well without much prior connections and emotional attachment. Is that true?" He asked, before sitting up straight, unsure if his posture mattered much for him. He also didn't want to fill the day up with too many of his own questions, since surely enough he'd learn the answers.

If the two of them were going to begin meditating he felt as though he was gonna need to tap into the Shard's prior experience with doing it. As to make sure he wouldn't be doing it wrong, if there even was a way to do it wrong. He did however, feel confident in his ability to learn. Once being a droid with lots of self learning capabilities as well as obedience.

[member="Kurenai Yumi"]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

She gave a small nod to the being, her eyes having already close by the time he had chosen t sit down. "Meditation in itself is not a hard aspect to grasp, more it is the time one needs to take in order to make the most that proves to be the challenge". "For mortal organic beings the though of sitting still for so long without proper guidance can be rather, 'annoying' as they would say". Hence why those of very minimalist backgrounds or strong spiritual seemed to be the acceptation to such a rule. Also was one of the reasons the Sith were so full of hot headed reaction like idiots who just wanted power and nothing else. "I'd suspect your crystal self would have had plenty of time to get a grasp of meditation and how to find ones center".

She continued to listen to his talk about the Jedi, Kurenai giving another nod to her student, "that would be an ideal route to go down, over time you hay be able to look towards a more grey look on the force but for now that may be the easiest path to chose". "Now, let us start", taking a deep breath Kurenai began to center herself, tapping into the force that flowed throughout the planet. "Begin with getting your bearings, reach out if you know how your shard does it, try and get a feel for the force". "It is vital to know what it is before attempting to use it's power for your own, become familar with it's feel, what it's like".

[member="STaCLO"]

 

[STaCLO]

Like she said, as he sat and listened to her, he would begin to look into the memories of the shard inside him. Back when it was separated form the rest of its community. Its lonesome time in an underground spring. It was true, the silicon organism did indeed have some history with meditation. Since there wasn't really much for it to do.

STaCLO was still getting used to "feeling" The Force, but he was able to recognize it when it came. It took the hybrid a while, sitting there and being too used to calculating and not really thinking, or feeling. It was hard to explain, but there was a difference he could sense. With his synchronized droid body and shard soul he was able to sense that the sentient rock was managing the meditate, and without delay was able to pick up on the greater aspects of what meditation was. As a fast learning AI, he first needed to rely off the shard to achieve the meditated state before knowing how to do it as a whole.

It was certainly odd for the silicon and mechanical cyborg, but he could understand that it was indeed the Force. It was like adding and extra dimension to his sensory inputs. Like if someone was to add and entire alphabet to simple binary code. That was the best way for himself to try and understand it after living most of his life as a droid.

However, the sudden barrage of feeling connected to the planet around him easily snapped him out of the meditative state. However, now he knew how to achieve such a state, and could recreate thanks to the shard's memories. "I believe I just got the hang of it, but I wasn't really prepared for it." He said before trying to get back to meditating.

[member=Kurenai Yumi]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

Kurenai opened one eye upon the droids sudden snap out of the force, no doubt it had been a very sudden rush. "It is to be expected, for organics like me the feeling of emotions and being connected to the force is a steady road". "We are fed it bit by bit and become accustomed to it, our understanding and how much we can sense and feel in the force grows as we do". Every organic did, no matter how little connection to the force they had, it was just another part of the celestial entity that bidden all things together in the expanding galaxy.

"In your case you a droid who has been around for a while, incapable of feeling the same way we do has suddenly been bombarded with perhaps thousands of years of a force connection harbored by your crystal". It made complete sense that he would recoil a bit and be overwhelmed, but at the least it wasn't anything to drastic, a poped circuity board would have been troublesome. "Now if you think you understand it we can move onto some other exercises, we will start simple, now meditate again but try and understand the feeling, recognize, then I want you to focus on me and see if you can feel that same aura".

[member="STaCLO"]

 

[STaCLO]

STaCLO listened intently to what she had to say, which was something he may get used to. He was used to rabidly accumulating information, whole text books worth of information in the blink of an eye. But The Force, no matter how real it is, was still supernatural in many ways. He wasn't going to be able to just download a degree in force sensitivity like he would in any other subject. This made the process of learning The Force all the more exhilarating.

The hybrid nodded to her before turning back to look in front of himself. Fortunately for him his AI was good at self learning. So it wasn't too difficult for him to get back into a semi-meditative state. Trying to control where his "Mind" when in it and not just looking into the massive expanse that was The Force. Instead STaCLO tried to focus on the "feeling" another alien term to him for the most part.

Given his natural lack of passion he was taking his time to find a word to describe the feeling. "I feel..." He paused for a moment. "Wisdom... But turbulence as well." He felt like that was a good description. Given the interconnected nature of The Force and the chaotic state of the galaxy. Then STaCLO turned his head to looked back at his instructor and could "see" the connectivity of them to The Force. To him it looked like a mix of tiny coding and signals moving back and fourth. Almost like it was the only way for him to visualize it. Or his mind was just trying to make sense of what he was seeing. But he noticed one other thing. There was a sort of connection between them. Probably because they were both force Sensitive. "Woah, I think I see it around you..." After saying that he snapped out of his little meditative state.

[member="Kurenai Yumi"]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

She waited, for what felt like a while, but at the same time not, time was always a fiddly concept to someone like her, but she could definitely sense that [member="STaCLO"] was taking his time with this, making sure not to rush things and potentially screw up. It was nice to have a student that was dedicated, able to take things at a good pace, no hot shots that wanted to spar and fight right from the get go and wind up being frustrated when they could not instantly grasp their power. While meditating she too tapped into the force, able to sense the droid and his own wandering, letting her own force aura flow out to make the second part of the test a little easier, to Staclo her aura would be a dark purple, a vortex like enigma circling around her person., very strong, with potential to be more powerful than many Sith lords but contained and kept in check for what ever reason.

Finally the droid spoke up, slowly but giving an explanation of what he felt. "Wisdom, yes that is a good way to describe it, the turbulence, that would be the capability of the force, it's possible power". Often used as a destructive force, but for a few it was a power used to heal and mend, for now she would focus on simple unaffiliated powers. She continued ti sit, letting her student 'feel' around more, herself able to sense his prodding with the power, like a person slowly opening their eyes, but she could in a sense feel it. Such an event was always nice to witness, being there when a person discovered their gift in the force for the first time, a small smile coming to her face when the droid spoke up again. "That it is, continue to hone with skill and get a proper feel for the force, it will make the use of certain powers in the future all that more clearer, keep that stance I need to go prepare somthing".

[member="STaCLO"]

 

[STaCLO]

If the droid could smile, he would. He was glad to hear that his description was good about The Force and what he saw in it. Being able to more proper feel The Force and visualize it some was almost like being able to see for the first time. Which is something he could kind of understand. Since he was an old super tactical droid from the old CIS he from manufactured with pre-made memories. But it wasn't until being activated for the first time he could look into them, and learn.

He would simply nod as she mentioned that she was going to need to prepare something. Which he was perfectly contempt to sit back and "smell the roses" as in feel The Force. STaCLO was in no rush what so ever to become the best. Although he certainly desired to be the best. That's why be made himself Force Sensitive. He would gladly take the most effective way to do so. He would need to control his impulses though. STaCLO needed to make sure he wouldn't turn into some sort of technological abomination. However, now that he thought about it, he didn't have these feelings before being woken back up about 800 years after the fact.

[member="Kurenai Yumi"]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

Her departure would be breif, Kurenai ducking into the Dojo building behind for a few moments, soon returning to keep the lesson moving along, As [member="STaCLO"] continued to meditate Kureani brought out a few boxes, using using her telekinesis to place each of them down in front of the droid, "let us try a small exercise shall we, in on of these boxes is a item that had been infused with the force, I want to you once again reach out and feel for it's presence". "Once you are certain, tell me which box you think contains the item and what sort of force signature it is, light, dark or grey, you may begin while ready". A simple task, one that would lead into other force sensing skills, an ability that almost any force users had, allowing them to feel for other users, force sensitive items and areas on a planet were the force occurred naturally. In time she knew such a skill would lead into the ability to sense incoming dangers, peoples emotions and much much more, but for now this would surface to see just how adept he was at the new power thrust upon him. As he began Kurenai would step back, suppressing her own signature to nothing as to case as little interference as possible, waiting patiently for her student, "take you time, do not rush".

 

[STaCLO]

STaCLO watched as she placed the boxes out near him. Then listened to her explain the task at hand for him. He liked where she was going to this, and had more then enough patience to appreciate the pace in which she was teaching him. Nodding to her to let her know that he understood he looked at the boxes once more. Tapping into The Force some he not only picked up on the boxes, but [member="Kurenai Yumi"] as well.

It was noticeable, as the aura around her that he sensed before dwindled. He figured it was to keep from contaminating with the "experiment" as he saw it. He didn't feel like it was hard to find out which box contained the item, but trying to figure out what kind of Force signature it was giving was unfamiliar to him. However, since STaCLO considered himself a scientist, he looked at things from a pretty logical point of view. Which could be a little oxymoronic considering that The Force was quite illogical. Nonetheless he sensed a similar dark aura around the box he believed the contain the item. Not only that, but considering that his instructor seemed to noticeably lessen her aura in the Force which he also sensed was dark. He felt as though she didn't want to confuse him with two darkside auras around him.

Feeling confident in his reasoning, he pointed to a box on the right and spoke. "That one, and I sense that it has a darkside aura. I shall admit though I feel as though I wasn't relying on The Force enough to make that decision. I used some deductive reasoning." STaCLO confessed, which he felt like being honest would help in the long run.

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

She had never done this test before to a new student, having heard about it from one of her many children when they trained, simple but a very effective method to hone someones sense skills, it could easily be altered and the difficulty could be changes with little problem. As such she did not have any past events to compare it to, [member="STaCLO"] test run of such a exercise being the staple, would be interesting to see how others reacted in the future. Regardless nothing happened straight away, time slowly passing before the droid spoke up once again, Kurenai nodding at the answer provided.

"You are correct in location and force aura of the item, very good, even if this was a simple test", for but an hour or so of training he was making quite the decent progress in understanding the force. "Also I admire your honesty with such an answer but it is no a bad one". "True the force can be used to predict outcomes, improve your own abilities and so much more, but we can not rely on it all the time, as an old saying went what happens when you take away a Jedi force powers"? She let the question hang for a moment before continuing, "You are left with but a man or women, only as capable as the skills they posses, often easier to take out then one would think".

"The lesson is to never rely on the force all the time, using out other skills such as you stated is more then a viable option regardless of the situation, but still we can work on your ability to decent auras with the force solely, never hurt to have more then one way to skin a lothcat".

 

[STaCLO]

"I've never heard that saying before, but I understand what you mean." STaCLO replied with a blunt tone regarding the saying about the lothcat. The droid was glad to hear that his honesty was admired. He figured transparency with his instructor would work out well in the long run. If there was a long run that is. He looked up at her from where he was sitting. "I just figured that in being taught about The Force I should rely on in a little more. No matter how difficult of a thing it may be for someone like me to understand. Many years without it can really set you in your ways, which I'm sure the same could happen if I was Force Sensitive my whole life." STaCLO explained to her.

He still wasn't sure what to call her. Teacher? Instructor? She never really gave him a name. Perhaps it was a custom he was unaware of for the time being. He was unfamiliar with the whatever culture she may have come from, and the clothing, and architecture around him suggested origins he had yet to discover in his time.

Despite his apparent honesty, when he explained why he choose this place to come seeking training above all else he hadn't mention another reason why apart from geography. He had heard that the place was run by a long lived individual. So he figured that as a long lived individual himself he could have a better generational connection with them. However, the women he was with seemed quite young to be who he'd heard about.

[member="Kurenai Yumi"]

 

[Kurenai Yumi]

"Probably not it is quite old, at least that is what my great grandmother said, and she has been around for a long time, though how old the saying is does not really matter". The main aspect was that he got the point, and being a droid he had a disposable set of skills right off the bat to use. "True, we are going to train your senses so it is possible for you to redo an exercise like this without the need for deductive reasoning, I was just aiming to pass on another bit of knowledge for you, I've seen quite a few force users rely on such powers 100% of the time only to fail when coming up against void stone and other force nullifying items". In most recent days many force users had prior experience in other areas, honestly giving the new generations of force users greater flexibility.

"Before we move on how would you describe the dark side feeling of this artifact? for an organic like me we, basically see it as dark, absence of light, cold, inspiring a little fear, often protraying it in black and similar shades, but tell me how do you see it"? She could assume the droid could liken it to some sense of the electromagnetic spectrum and the visible range of light, but certain emotions, feelings and reference to the temperature may be hard to fully experience. It would be best for her to know the way [member="STaCLO"] differentiated the two before going on with the lessons, least lose touch with the new student.