First Reply Out of sight, Out of mind

[Colette]

[Anyone welcome. Sith infiltrators, NFU tourists, fellow Jedi, etc. First come, first served.]

The stench of dried sweat and condensation hung heavy in the stale air of the sparring room and was accompanied by the hissing breaths of a dying air conditioner. A few broken staves laid discarded on the floor in one of the corners, ripped up mattresses in another. This jedi enclave hadn’t seen much use in recent years, but that suited Colette just fine as long as it kept her out of the cold dark void of space and provided her with a roof above her head.

The temple was a work in progress given the Coruscant temple’s newfound understanding of gravity’s explosive impact on structural stability and all that. To say Colette hated the fact that they still wanted to rebuild that place was an understatement, but nobody seemed to quite agree with her, at least not to any actionable degree, so what did her opinions matter in the larger scale of things? That was how it worked out there in the bigger galaxy. Grandstanding and posing was more important than staying true to ideals that you allegedly stood for.

She picked up her quarterstaff and drew a quick circle in the sand before she sighed. No, these thoughts were unbecoming of her, and a good spar would do her well. It felt perhaps a little silly that the best way for her to snap out of a mood was to get it knocked out of her, but she had no better solution for situations like this when the unbearable weight of the needlessly complicated greater picture of life got a bit too big for her to bear.

She gave her opponent a few more moments. Given the state of this little enclave there was no faulting anyone who might have gotten a bit lost on the way.

 

[Wulrenkit Claymus]

Wulrenkit tilted his head to the side, enjoying a satisfaction of an audible crack from his neck. The feeling of a stave in his hand felt good. It felt like home. The jedi might have been all for lethal glowsticks, but few wilders carried such technical weapons. Back on Veradune he had been expected to be able to turn anything of nature's bounty into a weapon, even a tree limb. Sure he wasn't very good at molding such items to the shape he desired, but that was no issue when the branch came to him straight and shorn.

Stepping into the training hall, he offered a wave to Collette, a bright smile beaming from his features. "Sorry I'm a bit late. Still trying to get the hang of all these temples and their hall ways." He twirled the staff in his and and stepped into sparring area. He was here for another reason, not to ease his frustrations, but to ensure he could stand their arrival. Combat would come his way eventually, it was inevitable given the path he had chosen and what he was. He needed to make sure he could control himself when that time came.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Wulrenkit Claymus

Eventually her opponent arrived and she gave him a brief nod.

"That's okay." She answered with a quick grunt. "The rebuilding takes time. We'll be stumbling around for a while."

Colette rolled her shoulders and got into stance in the sand with one end of her staff pointed at Wulrenkit like the tip of a spear.

"How much have you trained? I'll be going through the paces to match your ability. Give me what you've got and don't hold back."

Classic point of order. Colette never made the first move.

 

[Wulrenkit Claymus]

"Trained quite a bit back home. My seniors said I had something of a talent, but I've never really been in the field." Slowly, the younger jedi took small measured steps towards his opponent, his staff held in front of him in a similar manner, if not a bit closer to his body. He waited and watched her reactions, his eyes darting between her hands, her every step, and her eyes. Then he struck.

His first strike aimed not at Colette , but at the tip of her stave, attempting to use his strength to bat the weapon to the side and open her up for a swirling secondary attack from the back half of his staff, this one aimed at her midrift. It wasn't a half measure to be certain, and he knew that the planning behind the strikes would give her an idea of how much he had been taught before joining the jedi and since. Now he just hoped she could withstand it so their duel could continue.

 

[Colette]

Wulrenkit Claymus

He went for a tip-strike. An attempt to disarm? Maybe. There was thought put behind it. Their staves met once at the top and then at their sides as she blocked the attack. The ever calming sound of clicking wood accompanied with the push of the staff into the palm of her hands was just as welcome now as it was any other time.

This wasn't a competition per se, but a fight always had a winner and a loser, and Valery had taught her better than to accept anything other than the former. However, now wasn't the time to go all out. A spar wasn't a real fight, and there was a measure of care and respect that needed to be built before they could get there.

Colette gave Wulrenkit an approving nod and backed off into her entry stance again. The kid had grown up with spears and rifles. There was a certain ease in her movements and the way she seemed to control not just herself but her weapon as well - which in fairness weren't necessarily two all that different things since she had joined the order.

For her strike she would stab towards the man's knee before quickly pulling it back to strike at his chest instead.

 

[Wulrenkit Claymus]

Colette wasn't alone in learning to fight from her youth. She had grown up among the jedi. He had grown up zorren, raised to fight for the freedom of the galaxy at a moments notice. His eyes matched her hands as she stabbed at his knee, his own weapon moving to intercept. Her feint was certainly a good one and the Zorren let something of a growl as he threw his weight aside to let the thrust slide past him. But still, he managed to be a step fast enough to keep himself from being instantly skewered. "Close."

He flicked the end of his staff down into the dirt to keep his balance, his eyes keeping a steady watch on her grip as he snapped up a leg beneath her guard and towards her ribs. Weapons were good and all, but what practice he had, he found that his peers relied on them too much. With the exception of a lightsaber, most weapons required some sort of momentum to deal damage and if you were close enough, you could turn most weapons absolutely useless. With Colette's staff currently parallel to his chest, he figured that momentum would be hard to come by as he delivered his kick.

Colette

 

[Colette]

Wulrenkit Claymus

She tilted her head in response: close indeed.

Colette's usual sparring partner was Valery who for being the 'Sword' of the Jedi became rather predictable at times, but she supposed that was kind of the point with sparring in the end. Every now and again she would phase through one of Colette's attacks to keep her on her toes, but more than anything it had become a rhythm of sorts that the two fell into every now and again. Which wasn't to say that things didn't get interesting, or that Valery was her equal by any extent, but it did make for a repetitive challenge none the less.

She knew parts of how Valery operated, how she thought and approached battle. Wulren was a completely new person, a whole new mind.

All of that was to say, when he tried to kick her she felt her legs stumble over as she twisted to try and avoid his attack. If the weapon was running along his side, then all she really could do was to lean into it and try to create some distance. She pushed into the staff to try and force him on his heels before she let it go and simply backed off and tried to call it back into her hands again with the force.

"I see." Was all she managed to say as she nodded. She had seemed determined before, but now she was focused.

 

[Wulrenkit Claymus]

Off balance from his previous avoidance, Wulrenkit let out a growl as her staff pushed agaisnst him, forcing him to stumble back and giver her the distance she was fighting for. Still, the woman's own fumblings did spark a feeling of triumph in his chest as eh retook his stance and lifted his staff off the ground to point once more in her direction. "Good instincts. I'm starting to see why Galaxy has trusted the jedi so much with its defense." Still, he sat unmoving, the tip of his stave pointed at Collette's chest. One hand held the middle, keeping it steady while the other held it near the back end, offering him leverage for a swiftness in any redirection. She had already given him first strike in their previous engagement. Now, he wanted to see ow long she could last before offering such an attack herself.

Colette