Private Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

[Colette]

Valery Noble

This was real, this was very real and very much something that she had never seen before. The sound of wildlife that was alien to her filled Colette with a mixture of both dread and marvel while the smells and tastes and sights and sensations gave her cause to glee. This planet was alive, it was a thriving ecosystem of life and chaos; the direct opposite of the lifeless metal ball that she had spent her last two months on.

Sure, she was in a habitat that had been erupted to stave off the dangers of the outside world, but that hardly mattered. She could SEE trees, she could TOUCH grass. Colette was practically skipping across the entire place with happiness from the moment that the transport that she and Valery had arrived on touched the landing pad.

This was real, this was nature and the ingenuity of survival. This was what being alive meant.

But, alas, they were not here just for the trees. Eventually Colette had to calm herself down and focus on the task. Valery had suggested that they come here for the sake of breaking the monotony. The temple was nice but it was clear that Colette kept struggling. This visit was a promise from a while ago, something that Valery had mentioned in passing that Colette had sort of held her to for a while.

So, here they both stood. Colette with her jitters mostly under control, and Valery with… Something. It was time for training but in truth Colette had forgotten herself in the chaos just exactly what it was that they were going to practice.

"I am ready, master. Just tell me what to do." She said and bowed her head for a moment.

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

Valery couldn't stop smiling.

To see Colette enjoy herself this much was impossible not to love, so even though they were here for training, Valery gave her every second she needed to just be happy. New Cov was a special place to her, and ever since Kahlil Noble had arranged for it to be rebuilt, Valery loved coming here. She used it as a place to train Vera, she brought her Padawans there for special training in the jungles, and today, Colette would get that opportunity.

Albeit at the safety of the Temple, for now. Perhaps, if she showed to be ready, the jungles would be waiting for them too.

"I am ready, master. Just tell me what to do."

Valery blinked, snapped out of her own bit of daydreaming, and turned to her Padawan with a smile. "I'd like to train with you at the dueling ring, which we once named the Dragon's Den. I spent a lot of time there when I was younger," Valery said, her smile almost saddening a little as some memories flashed through her mind.

"This whole place is like home to me, so it's something I wanted to show you."

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

"It's spectacular, master." Colette said and shifted from the front from her feet to the back and then to the front again, hands clapping together as she looked to the roof of the biodome and then back at her master. "This is exactly what I wanted to see."

Thinking back to what Colette had said she wanted to do as a Jedi on that day before the two entered into a formal padawan-master relationship, New Cov was a good box to tick. Not the planet itself specifically as much as the environment. It was so widely different from what she had seen growing up that seeing it now was just about one of the coolest things she'd ever witnessed.

The exhilarated teenager withdrew her saber from the belt and held it in her hand. If this was a dueling ring it made full sense that this was another spar. Colette knew better than to turn it on. First time she had ever had a lightsaber in her hands was a moment in which the temple was left with a permanent scorch mark in one of the floors and also a moment in which Colette nearly left herself with one less thumb.

Yes, he was the poster child of learning through error, and she was quite happy to say that she had not once had a misfire since. Fear had a way of instilling respect for equipment like that.

"Are we running the stances again?" She asked and looked back at Valery. "Or are we going for something new?"

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

"I'm... glad to hear it," Valery said, almost with a shy kind of smile. There weren't many things that she felt genuinely proud about. Mostly her family, and the people she got to call friends, but this whole Temple was an important place to her. Few things made her happier than seeing her own Padawan think so highly of it. But they weren't here just to explore and enjoy a day away from Coruscant — she still had training in mind.

So after passing through the main Temple structure and across the bridge, Valery guided her Padawan across Temple grounds and through the gardens, until they reached the dueling ring in the very back, right near the edge of the cliffs that offered an amazing view across the valley.

From out here, none of the New Cov dome cities were visible — it was all nature at its finest. Lethal nature, but the Temple was a safe haven in the middle of it all.

"No, no, we're not doing stances," Valery dismissed the idea as she stepped into the ring. "You've long shown that you're solid on your basics, so I'd like to spar and push you a little further. Perhaps help you figure out what kind of style you might want to focus on." She smirked and ignited the violet blade of her lightsaber, set to low power.

"Or do you have an idea already?"

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

Solid on the basics felt like code for 'consistently going above and beyond to learn.' That drive to improve never really ran out, she never settled at merely being done, she kept on pushing. A goal reached was but a stepping stone and so on and on and on. Which was not to say Colette didn't rest or take time off, just that she valued the time spent feeling productive towards her own goals to such an extent that it was a joy to do it.

"No I don't, master." She said and shook her head. "I think each lightsaber form has a value of its own, but I really don't know which one would be the most appropriate to focus on."

Her free hand latched onto her chin, Colette gave a thoughtful frown.

"And it also depends on if we are talking about the three forms of the old New Jedi Order or the seven of the old Old Jedi Order." She said jokingly with a silly grin. "I think that the spar is a good idea. Get us a chance to see how I respond to these things."

With that she lowered her hand and got into a ready stance, legs wide for stability, saber behind her and pointed at the ground to keep from accidentally poking an eye out. A blue blade extended from her hilt. Her free hand put itself in front of her as if to ward off an unseen incoming wind.

"Any rules before we begin?"

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

"I look at them the same way," Valery said while she watched Colette, "I once became a Lightsaber Instructor and mastered all the Forms because I believed every single one to be useful, and obviously enjoyed teaching them. I do have my preferences too, but it can only help you to at least familiarize yourself with a variety of them if not all."

Stepping forward, Valery's feet shifted a little further apart, but she didn't adopt any kind of signature stance. She was simply watching her Padawan assume her own stance and flashed a brief smirk.

"Rules? Well, keep your weapon at low power and really focus on your dueling skills."

If Colette stood ready, Valery then decided to engage. With a burst of speed, she suddenly closed the distance, hoping to push her Padawan just beyond her comfort zone. Not too fast, but never too slow to give her time to think either. She then raised her blade and opened up with a quick diagonal sweep across her body, hoping it would draw out a guard so she could test the strength of Colette's block, or provoke some other kind of response.

She wanted to know how the Padawan would fight back.

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

Right, dueling meant no tricks, and that Colette was supposed to play it by the book. That also meant that she was about to face the withheld strength of a trained bull. While she had no problem with that it still felt perhaps just a little bit overwhelming. Valery only had a few decades more of experience with this blade whereas Colette had a month or two, tops.

Well, the spar began and much like anticipated Valery began the attack. Colette raised her blade to intercept and the blades clashed and crashed against one another with a vicious hiss before she began to push the blade back and attempt to step aside from it.

It was clear that there was a difference in strength between them and as much as Colette wanted to keep pushing it there was no point in doing so. Her face scrunched up for a moment as she contemplated what she would do to follow up on Valery’s advance. If strength wasn’t really a factor, then the best she could do was go on agility.

In an effort that was clearly unpracticed at best she extended herself towards Valery’s shoulder with a clear strike at it. Except it switched direction no sooner than it seemed to cross the master’s silhouette and would instead start to reach for her knees.

This was what she had tried to mimic from a projection that she had borrowed from the library once, but there was a very real difference between mimicking something and truly performing it. A feint only really worked when there was something on the other end that could be fooled into believing it.

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

At first, Colette attempted to meet Valery's strength with her own, and after every inch she gained, Valery would push back harder to regain it. Not to force her way through, but to keep pushing Colette either into committing, or to reconsider. She chose the latter and disengaged before throwing a sweeping strike at the Master's shoulder, only not with the intent of actually reaching it. Her true intent was an echo in the Force, and the experienced Jedi Master was calm enough to pick up on it.

Once more, their lightsabers collided, this time in front of her knee, after Valery had quickly altered the angle of her guard. She forced the Padawan into a lock, met her gaze, and shot the younger woman a grin.

"Very clever," she complimented without sarcasm before pushing their blades up to separate herself again. Colette already didn't feel like a very passive fighter, so she wanted to adjust her own tactics and angled her right shoulder to the woman, while she stood like a fencer. With her leading foot and a burst of speed, she closed the distance and thrust the tip of her blade forward, attempting to pierce Colette's guard to strike into her stomach.

But almost immediately after the strike, she stepped back to close her stance.

It was almost like a dance — a struggle of controlling distance.

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

“Thank you, master.” Colette responded with a grunt given the force at which they separated.

What Valery did then felt telegraphed, or… Predictable? Something about it ‘clicked’ within the expanding confines of Colette’s little mind. And beyond that Colette had feinted with her attack, and then Valery switched to a fencer’s pose? It wasn’t predictable, but it also echoed the stance that Colette should have been in to have landed her strike better. Valery was trying to tell her what a proper use of the different stances would do without actually saying it.

And nothing was quite as effective at doing just that as a practical demonstration.

The strike against her center was effective. Colette’s blade moved to try and shove it aside but it was a struggle that she clearly failed. Her saber clashed against Valery’s only for it to hit fair and square right in her abdomen. The burn lasted for barely a second before Colette was back in it again with another practical execution of something she only had a theoretic grasp on.

Form II — which Colette would potentially rather erroneously assume Valery was using at the moment — relied on deft movements both using the legs as well as her hands. Minimal effort for maximum impact, or something the like, some of the books were old and seemed to stroke the writer’s ego more than anything.

Well…

Colette swung for the master’s hips, a downwards slash at a slight incline to make her raise her guard. Except the strike was never actually meant to land on the body itself as much as it was meant to be an incentive to get Valery into position as the real target was the sword itself. What Colette needed was a solid strike as close to the hilt as possible so that she could wrench the saber out of Valery’s hands and disarm her. Yes, this was playing into her opponent’s stance pretty badly, but the trick — Colette figured — was to apply as much force as she could behind the push and then keep on pushing until Valery relented or pushed back at a disadvantage.

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

There was no comment or disappointment in Valery's eyes when her thrust connected with her Padawan. This was training, so there was no winning, no losing, and taking hits was all part of getting better. She wanted Colette to experiment and not be afraid to fail. She wanted her to give it her all, and be willing to take risks she wouldn't take in actual battle. This was the time and place to try all of her new moves, tricks, and tactics.

With Valery switching into a Makashi stance, she was quick to realize that.

A downward swing came for Valery's weapon, but rather than taking it on in her current stance, she slid back her rear foot and followed its movement with a step of her leading foot — an elegant step-slide to create a bit more distance. At the same time, she raised her weapon into a guard and gripped the hilt with both hands for additional strength. She held the lock for only a second before she pivoted away and moved in retreat some more so that her blade would pass.

"Remember Makashi's history. Developed to counter Shii-Cho, with an emphasis on avoiding disarmament," Valery said calmly before she decided to change her tactics drastically once more. This time, she suddenly lunged forward and jumped up and over the Padawan, before transitioning into a fast-paced spin. The rotational momentum was all she used to sweep her blade towards Colette, with far greater speed and strength than her earlier attack.

She was being aggressive now.

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

Colette gave the reminder a quick nod and made a note to think it over later, now was not the time for thinking but for acting. If the student had just attacked and the master had been on defense, then the roles had quickly turned.

Valery charged at her, blade at the ready before she decided to jump over Colette. The student’s blue blade wasted no time in seizing that particular opportunity. She could feel the way her muscles almost tensed up in a desire to use the force to throw the opponent away, but it would have to settle for a wide arching swing that reached for Valery’s legs.

The master landed and Colette assumed a smaller stance, focused on how she was positioned in regards to what Valery was doing. There was a big emphasis on the whole blocking and parrying thing, Colette figured. But what if the answer was neither? When the attack moved towards her she pivoted back for a moment before she leaned in towards Valery yet again, arm extending her reach to stab straight for her chest.

After that Colette withdrew a few steps further.

“Feels weird not to use the force as a complement.” She mused out loud for her master to hear. “In a fight like this I wouldn’t have relied on my saber alone.”

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

In the air, Valery tucked in to flip over the Padawan to make herself a smaller target. The Force augmented her speed, making her seem like a blur before she landed and attempted her attack. Colette, rather than meeting the strike head-on, pivoted back and used distance to keep herself protected, similarly to how Valery had done it earlier. It brought a smirk to the Master's lips, who angled her left shoulder back and pushed her blade inwards, to guide the incoming thrust away from herself.

But before she had a chance to try and slip into Colette's guard, the young Padawan moved back.

"Who said you can't use the Force to complement your bladework?" Valery asked with a teasing grin. "I'm flattered if you thought I managed that jump without the Force."

To emphasize her point a little further, Valery extended a hand and attempted to telekinetically pull Colette closer, before lashing out with a sweeping strike, aimed at the Padawan's waist. A technique used a lot in Niman, but one that she felt was implemented easily enough in other Forms as well.

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

One blink, two blink, a stumble forward and a firm strike into her side. Colette was taken aback for a moment trying to remember why she even thought the force wasn’t allowed in a spar. She probably thought back to the spars the militiamen in her tribe had, not realizing that they didn’t use the force simply because they couldn’t.

“Well, I did at first, master.” The teenager said and soothed the slight burn in her side with a gentle brush of her hand. When the worst of it was gone she shifted her feet and entered the stance yet again, this time with a cocky grin on her lips. “Must have forgotten what I was training to be for a moment. What with this planet actually being alive and all. Too many impressions at once.”

No point in wasting time. With these renewed parameters for her test she felt a whole world of inspiration wash over her, enough to make her uncertain about what to even do. Valery had gone up and over, right? Struck Colette real good in the side too. There was no point in merely mirroring what she had seen. The kid rushed at her master to push into her and deliberately force her into a lock for a moment, put her on her heel before she quickly stepped back and brought her saber arching down from above her head as the force swept at the master’s feet to push her onto her back.

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

"You'll see more of the planet soon, too," Valery said with a grin of her own before she readied herself in her stance. The Force was flowing around her Padawan once more, and for just a moment, she seemed to be in thought. Likely to plan her next approach, and Valery was going to allow her that time. She was too curious about how the battle-mind of her student would develop in a session like this.

Finally, the attack began.

With greater speed than before, Colette closed the distance and forced herself into a blade block with her Master. Valery pushed back, a faint smirk still on her face, but she made no move to disengage just yet. She wanted to test her Padawan and find out what she had planned. When Colette disengaged and swept her blade down, Valery felt a tremor in the Force that explained it all but made no move to directly try and counter it.

She caught the blade and as the Force swept at her feet, Valery began to fall over but she wasn't going to let herself be completely exposed. While in mid-air, she directed a telekinetic shove towards Colette, meant to push her away while she landed on her back and rolled over to try and get back up to her feet.

Very clever

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

Duck, tuck, and roll. The blast gave Colette reason to fallback for a moment and give pause.

“I can’t wait.” She gave her master a smile before she dashed with a wide sweep to close the distance again. The learner didn’t exactly expect that of all things to land, but it might just give Valery enough of a reason to go on the defense again so that Colette could follow it up with something else.

Another swing for the master’s waist. It was becoming a pattern, but when the practical repertoire of a practitioner was so small as Colette’s was it was probably an inevitability. She had only done this for, what, a few months at best? No more than could be counted on one hand.

But, the sweep for the waist was not the real attack. Hoping to time it just right, Colette extinguished her blade when it should have reached Valery’s own and reignited it when she believed it would have passed her by. Colette had read about this technique, but a stationary dummy wasn’t much of a good target for it. As the hilt passed by Valery she would flip it in her hand to reverse the grip, reignite it and make a stab for the master’s back.

Whether it landed or not hardly mattered to her at this point. All of this was just too much fun to care about anything other than trying new things.

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

Following the exchange of telekinetic attacks, Valery noticed a shift in her Padawan — she went on the offensive and tried to keep applying pressure. With a desire to learn more about what kind of dueling her Padawan preferred, Valery decided to play into it and gave up on her own aggressive methods to fall back into a defensive stance instead. Unlike her husband, she wasn't overly fond of Soresu because of how passive it was, but there were times when it was the most ideal form to use.

Provoking a Padawan certainly was one of them.

The wide sweep that Colette used to chase after her Master collided with Valery's violet blade, and she was more than ready to catch the one that followed as well. But as the Padawan's blade neared, Valery felt a shift in intent similar to the earlier feint attack. Her eyes narrowed, and for the first time this duel, Valery decided to use one of her own signature tricks. She first allowed the blade to pass her guard, but when it was supposed to make contact with Valery's body, it just swept through the air.

Valery had phased through the blade, remained still, and spun around to swat aside the stab to the back that followed, before trying to keep the blade in a lock. "Trakata," Valery commented with a smirk. She then hopped back to create some distance and disengaged her lightsaber. "You've picked up on a lot more new things than I thought, Colette. Well done," Valery smiled approvingly and returned the hilt to her belt.

"I'm sure you understand this, but try to minimize your use of tricks like Trakata. I do the same with the trick I just pulled, but your opponent will easily see through it if you try it several times in one fight. With your weapon disengaged, you're also way more exposed, so never forget that. Use it once, and leave them with the fear that it could happen again."

She paused and ran a hand up through her long hair, "I do think I've gotten a decent idea about your fighting style, though. It's awfully similar to my own, though more grounded." As Colette had seen once, Valery could sometimes be quite acrobatic in her duels.

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble

It must have been fun seeing the way Colette’s eyes seemed to have widened for a moment, lips quivering with a queasy shake and her head began to spin before Valery swatted the blade out of her body like it was nothing. When it was clear that she hadn’t just murdered her master, Colette quickly shook herself awake to try and snap out of it. She listened to the lesson but found it hard to focus for a moment longer until eventually the spar came to an end and they both holstered their blades.

“I-...” Colette cleared her throat. “Yes, master.”

“I find that spending too much time in the air leaves you struggling against more forces than if you are on the ground.” She felt her smile return to her, weak as it was. The kid was clearly shaken. “Namely gravity.”

She frowned for a moment before she looked over to where the two had sparred.

“How did you do that?” She asked and exhaled a shaky breath. “I thought—”

“For a second, I thought that I had genuinely stabbed you somehow.”

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

Valery blinked.

She probably should have realized earlier that it could have been weird to have your Master phase through an attack like that. Kahlil Noble had grown used to it and even liked it, as her Shadow side was more mysterious, but most people who saw it the first time responded a little surprised. It was one of her more secretive skills, after all. So rather than focusing on the comments regarding aerial versus grounded combat, Valery focused on what mattered most.

She didn't want Colette to be scared or uncomfortable.

"It's an ability called Phase. Something the Shadows traditionally used to infiltrate or escape, but I've developed a more combative use for it that I sometimes use instead of Trakata."

She stepped forward and placed a hand on her Padawan's shoulder, "I'm alright, and I'm sorry if I scared you," she said while she gently squeezed the shoulder.

"You uh, maybe want to get out of the Temple and see more of the Jungle? They're dangerous but I know my way around them."

 

[Colette]

Valery Noble
It would take a little more than a squeeze on the shoulder to fix that. Colette leaned in against Valery to wrap her arms around her and gave a tight hug as if to truly verify that her master was unharmed and — to some extent — that she was a tangible presence still. Only once that was over, did the two separate.

“I would love to see the jungles, master.” Colette smiled again, this time as bright as usual. “I mean, I saw them from the ship when we were landing, but I want to see them on the ground too.”

And there was no ‘how dangerous could it be’ in there either. Colette had grown up all too aware of the dangers that wildlife posed. She had simply had the luxury of living in a space with a lot of wide open space.

“Do we need to prepare anything like repellant and the likes or do we just head out?”

 

[Valery Noble]

New Cov

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Colette

There was a brief moment of surprise when Colette turned the shoulder squeeze into a hug. It had really messed with her, huh? Valery frowned a little but quickly wrapped her arms around the younger woman to return the embrace. For as long as Colette wanted it to last, Valery held her.

"I'm sorry, I'll warn you better next time, I promise," she said, her tone calm and sincere.

Luckily, Colette's smile returned and she even seemed eager to head into the jungle. This Temple had been Valery's home, but especially after her face was scarred, the jungles felt a lot more comforting to her. So to return there once again with one of her own Padawans was... exciting.

"We just head out. The only repellant we need is the Force, and I'll show you how. Surviving jungles or planets where literally everything is trying to kill you might seem tricky, but you can learn ways to never really get in trouble. Through a combination of your senses, certain basic abilities, and clever thinking, you can avoid most problems."

She paused for a moment and reached out with her hand, "You've learned how to feel other living beings around you, hm? On a planet like this, it might be overwhelming but try to limit your focus to more immediate surroundings. The things that are alive here can kill you, so if you know where they are, you know where you shouldn't be."

"I'd like you to guide us into the Jungle."