Things Are Different Here (group training, open to Levantines, Jedi)

[Arage Bao]

Rooftops
Nar Shaddaa
Neutral Territory

------------​

Can’t say a lot of good ‘bout Nar Shaddaa, filthy planet filled with the worst humanity has to offer. But as always, when ya were in the fringes of society you could find the rare proper individual. The Nar Shaddaa enclave was a public secret, scores of safe houses scattered across the surface of Little Coruscant, and that is how it would always be.

Today Khaleel was standing on the rooftop of a not so random building in the yellow district, there was an informal class planned of sorts. Ain’t no real invitations, just the notice through the grapevine that something was gonna go down.

So he waited, to see how many would show up.

...the suggestion had been made not to arrive in full armour or heavy restrictive robes, something that would make it easy to move around and all that. Would probably give a few hints on what the training would be about.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Chestnut strands of hair were pulled back into a tight braid. She stepped close to the edge of the building and leaned over. Unlike with flying, there was no timidness in heights for the clone.

She had on loose clothes, clothes that would be easy to move in and some lightweight shoes - nothing pretty.

Pulling back from the edge, she began to jog in place, warming up. She caught Khaleel's eye.

"Mister Malvern."

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Taheera Sollo"]

Vaudin sat on an old shipping crate. His grey eyes closed and his hands folded over his abdomen. He had been over to Beela's bath house the night before and to say he didn't get much sleep was probably as accurate as you could get without a breach of decency.

He shifted his shoulders as he leaned on the wall behind the crate while his shotgun rested on his shoulder. This was the kid's show anyway. Five more minutes wouldn't hurt.

 

[OriginsoftheJedi]

Mark Sage had no clue where to go. He'd never set foot on Nar Shaddaa before. His usual mentor, jedi knight Avi Merron had sent him all the way out from Yavin IV to get training from a "different perspective" as she'd called it. There wasn't much out here to see, but he'd been told to find some old safe house type buildings and he'd find what he was looking for. He kept his hand on his lightsaber hilt nervously. Who knew how many people were mugged on Nar Shaddaa a year? He started to notice people sitting on rooftops. "I think this is it." He thought.
He wore the usual jedi robes a 15 year old padawan might wear, though with some color changes; shades of dark brown and dull green. He kept his brown robe's hood on just in case though.
"Let's see how this goes." He thought.

 

[Eun]

The roof access door swung open with a resentful creak. Gravel crunched beneath Kate's boots. Suspicious eyes the color of arctic ponds swept across the rooftop. Up here the air felt cooler, far from the sweaty streets of Nar Shaddaa below. She crossed her arms, sleeves of her grey flight suit rolled up to her elbows, looking more like an aircrewman than a pirate captain.

The teenager looked at the barrage of neon from the surrounding buildings. Purple, blue, green, yellow, red, everything was lit in strobes of color or soft persistent glows. Nar Shaddaa housed the worst sort of scum, slavers and sex traffickers. Any who were under the delusion that it was some bastion of true freedom had forgotten about the Hutts.

The icy-blue gaze settled at last on the blond urban hick, [member="Khaleel Malvern"], ignoring the rest.

"What's up, Huckleberry."


[member="Vaudin Miir"] | [member="The Mesozoic"] | [member="Taheera Sollo"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

Nar Shaddaa was about as far from her homeplanet of Hapes as it was possible to get. Dirty, smelly, and full of all manner of vices, it made Olivia feel even more distinctly out of place than she’d felt lately. She supposed it was actually a blessi—

A door flew open, so fast it would have smacked her square in the face had she not been paying such close attention to her surroundings. “Fething hell!” roared an enormous…well, she didn’t really know what he was, just that he had a lot of noses and he was impressively rotund. In her twenty-one years of life she’d only spent three weeks off Hapes, a homebody quality that made identifying species difficult. The…gentleman (was he male?) swung through the street after exiting the doorway, seemingly unable to get his bearings due to how mid-day drunk he was.

“Ah, poodoo!” he yelled, tripping and falling in the middle of the street while other passer-by walked over him like nothing had happened. Olivia had to slap a hand over her mouth to stop from laughing.

Climbing the dirty, cramped fire escape she’d pulled her way up to she thought just getting to the lesson would be a success.

When she arrived she noted the few that had gotten there before her, a fair mix. Dressed as had been suggested, she joined the others, unsure what to say or do but sufficiently warmed up from the eventful walk to the rooftop.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Taheera Sollo"] | [member="Vaudin Miir"] | [member="The Mesozoic"] | [member="Katya Shorn"]​

 

[OriginsoftheJedi]

The people on the roof tops looked down curiously at Mark. There were at least 4 of them; 2 humans, an Iktotchi, and an Icarrii. A fairly diverse group.
The Icarriii looked to be the leader of the training. His face revealed that in a heartbeat. The way he held himself, looking down upon Mark, Mark able to tell that he was definitely the leader here.
The Iktotchi man sitting on a shipping crate seemed to be a rougher type, possibly even having a history with the law.
One of the two humans was 21 years old woman with chestnut hair warming up near the edge of the roof.
The other of the two was a girl not much older than Mark himself with long, dark hair, probably 16 at most. She seemed almost resentful of everything, with an icy glare that one couldn't look at for too long. Mark wondered what could possibly have happened to her. This brought back unwanted flashbacks of the worst mission of his life that he'd until now been able to control. He shook them out of his head and, with a disturbed face, Mark went up the flight of stairs to the roof level of the building.

 

[Jsc]

A black armored rogue arrived to the yellow district by jetbike. A feminine swagger accompanied her titanium footfalls. Her bike to the shadows and her helm to the sky, she smiled at the safe house. Clever. A school here? Who would have thunk it. Lies amongst secrets. Secrets amongst the lies. This moon had it all. Making her way to the rooftops she discarded a long black trench coat for a disguise. She would play the part of the dark wanderer no more.

The roof access was already open wide as her gloves ascended to the roof. Quite the crowd too. What a fantastic place to be a Jedi. This was going in her datacron logbook for sure. She slipped off her ornate helm and left her blue hair pinned high. Ah yes. Introductions first,

"Corellian Master Karen Roberts. Requesting access to the Enclave. Hehe. ...Oh my?"

She bowed low in her silvered breastplate and smirked. What a fine rogues gallery this was shaping up to be. She had to be careful too. Otherwise she might just end up having some fun. *wink*

 

[OriginsoftheJedi]

The crowd was getting bigger by the minute. What surprised Mark the most was that most of the jedi that had come for training were actually rogue jedi, not necessarily part of the order, but not in any way part of the dark side.
Now a 20 year old woman had beaten a hasty retreat away from a drunken alien creature, up a ladder, and onto the roof on which the group was gathering. Not too far behind was a woman in her late 30's with blue hair wearing black armor. Though there wasn't any direct dark side presence here, Mark realized that, if he was going to roll with this crowd, he'd just have to stay quiet and keep his head down.
"Don't try to start any conversation, just let them do whatever they end up doing." Mark thought. "That's probably my best bet."

 

[Arage Bao]

There were several enclaves scattered across the Galaxy, most of ‘em were specialized in a specific field or way of thinking. Nar Shaddaa wasn’t different from this approach, its status was… scrutinized to a degree, few of the more orthodox Masters enjoyed the idea of minimal reliance on the Force and a focus on the more mundane skills.

​

‘Welcome.’ some of ‘em got a nod, a smile. But this wasn’t happy hour, they weren’t here to socialize, because whatever they were thinking? Well, let’s not get into that right now. ‘We ain’t gonna be learning how to zip through space and time, crash buildings into each other or shet like that. Instead…’

​

He started grinning. ‘Who has heard of the term parkour?’

​

[member="Taheera Sollo"] | [member="Mark Sage"] | [member="Karen Roberts"] | [member="Olivia Durant"] | [member="Katya Shorn"] | [member="Vaudin Miir"]​

 

[OriginsoftheJedi]

"Ah," Mark thought, "so it's parkour then. I can do that."
Now, Mark felt a bit more relaxed. He'd had always been good at climbing and jumping. It was a skill that he'd learned back on Generis before the academy and he'd continue to hone until the present. By now he was used to the feeling of bark against his rough hands, but he'd really have to focus the force to adjust to concrete buildings and the like.

 

[Kana Truden]

“It’s not really parkour if you use the force to do it, Blasto.” Kana emerged from the shadows. “It’d be kinda like telekinetically playing keepie uppie with a thermal detonator.”

She nodded at the others. “Kana Truden, at your service.”

It had been a long time since she last saw [member="Khaleel Malvern"]. In fact the last time had seen him was on that beach where she had busted nuts. Coconuts, of course. Shatterpoint was kinda nifty for things like that.

“Sorry to be late and all; had to chase this young Corellian woman who tried to snatch my wallet.”

 

[Arage Bao]

‘And that, Mouse.’ his grin widened, as if he had been waiting, hoping that someone would bring exactly this point up. And he hadn’t been disappointed, in fact a Jedi Master herself brought it up immediately. ‘...is why using the Force will not be allowed during this exercise.’

A shrug.

‘We have all seen what happens when those reliant on the Force suddenly lose their ability to use it, or at least use it reliably. Force Gods turn into nothing and I doubt anyone here wants a repeat of that, no?’ pointed look at each and every one of ‘em. ‘I don’t want to see huge leaps, triple jumps or whatever you guys have learned on Tython, Ossus or Yavin. Minimal dependence. If ya can’t handle that, feel free to take your bags and leave now.’

Throughout the course there would be subtle stationed sentries, they would make sure that it was minimal dependence. Which was exactly how it sounded, a little boost here and there? Ain’t nothing wrong with that, but they had to learn, experience what it meant to carry themselves during the trip.

‘Any more questions, before we get into the thick of this?’

[member="Taheera Sollo"] | [member="Mark Sage"] | [member="Karen Roberts"] | [member="Olivia Durant"] | [member="Katya Shorn"] | [member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Kana Truden"]​

 

[Eun]

Shorn snorted impudently, nose wrinkling. Tython, Ossus, Yavin? Cute. She wondered if they'd last a week in the Kathol Outback, or out in the Varada Sector. She'd heard about this [member="Khaleel Malvern"]. Some hotshot Jedi operating in LS space. Permafrost eyes flicked across the gathered group. An Iktochi she didn't know, a Jedi Council member, a blue-haired chick, some nerdy guy, and then a smoky-eyed woman with a bob-cut.

The teenager tapped her fingers restlessly on her bicep, arms still crossed. Most of the people here were women.... she swore if this was some sort of harem-scheme she would throw this Kel-el punk off the building.

 

[OriginsoftheJedi]

Maybe Mark was a little less sure now, though he wasn't deterred. He could still parkour through the trees and rocks back on Generis before he ever even knew of the jedi or even the force, and he was only 6 or 7 back then. Now, he was fifteen and stronger than he was before, though still no less skinny. He could still do this.
Mark decided that now was a safe enough time to remove his cloak. Leaving it on would just restrict his movement, and nothing would look inconspicuous about a teenager jumping through the air and climbing up buildings. So, there was really no point in leaving it on to keep himself away from the public eye.
"Right then. Shall we begin?" Mark murmered to himself slowly.

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

Parkour.

If she didn't have impeccable self-control cultivated through years of practice she might have breathed a loud and embarrassing sigh of relief. She'd been worried this lesson would require more of the Force, something she didn't feel entirely confident using yet. But a physical challenge? This she could throw herself in to without fear of accidentally blasting a fellow student off the roof with an ill-timed force-push. She'd never tried something quite like parkour, but she had the reach and grace for it.

She didn't have any questions. She was just ready to get started.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Kana Truden"] | [member="Taheera Sollo"]​

 

[Taheera Sollo]

Mouse? Why was he calling a young woman who beamed with the force the name of a furry, small creature? The meaning was lost on the clone. But the meaning of parkour was not. She bumped past a woman with short hair. "Oh, sorry. Name's Taheera Sollo. Just promise me if I die, you won't judge me for what's under the bed in the dorm room."

The clone was more of a jump-all-in kind of person and not a wade-gently into the pool kind of person.

Stepping onto the ledge of the roof, she swayed slightly as she looked down. She gave one last look to Khaleel. "I hope the no using the force thing doesn't go for healing, too." Before losing her nerve, she stepped off and disappeared.





[member="Katya Shorn"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Olivia Durant"] [member="Mark Sage"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Karen Roberts"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Taheera Sollo"] | [member="Mark Sage"] | [member="Karen Roberts"] | [member="Olivia Durant"] | [member="Katya Shorn"] | [member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Kana Truden"]​

‘Heh.’ Khaleel chuckled at the display of mettle. Had to hand it to the girl, she had balls and that was all that mattered in this world, in this particular situation. He pondered for a while on that, before turning around to face his class, most of ‘em were still hanging around.

Raised eyebrow, followed by him waving his hand behind him.

‘Ya heard her, let’s go.’

This wasn’t the Jedi Order, no Tython or Ossus. You wouldn’t be getting special treatment or attention, ya are either in or out. Khal was here to train ‘em, not cuddle ‘em. Because that was the real thing, in the real world? Nobody gave a feth what your status was.

He walked to the ledge, looked over it and then shrugged. ‘Here goes nothing.’

Next moment he was gone, each of ‘em would be expected to traverse the course from point A to point B. There would be sentries alongside the route, watching out for possible foul play, accidents all the like.

If this had been a trial there wouldn’t have been any medics, but this wasn’t a trial, whatever Khaleel thought of the real world… he didn’t want ‘em to get killed in the first training he was hosting.

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

She was only momentarily startled when she was bumped in to, still a little on edge from the trip through the city to get to this rooftop. It quickly turned to a little grin however, the irreverent humor from the other woman striking her just right. Humor had been her savior since she’d come to the Jedi after the loss of her parents. “I’m Olivia – and your secrets are safe with me, but I'm keeping anything good,” she answered before the girl tossed another snappy comment to their instructor and disappeared.

The bar was set pretty high and Olivia had every intention of reaching it.

Taking a deep breath and a leap of faith – both literally and figuratively – she took a running start off the rooftop, jumping across to an awning shading a wide window which she used to catch her fall. She was relatively light in proportion to her height, her estimate that the awning would be able to hold her proving true though she didn’t stay long to test its strength. Jumping up, she caught the lip of the next windowsill between her fingers, pulling herself up and monkeying in much the same way up to the taller roof adjacent to where they’d started. From here she could get a better vantage of possible routes.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Taheera Sollo"]​

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Olivia Durant"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"]

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she fell, hearing Olivia's comment on the way down. Muscles tightened in her arms as she grabbed hold of a flag-pole on the way down. Launching off like a gymnast and wishing she had some chalk to take care of the growing-moisture on her palms, she rolled on top of a lower awning and burst to her feet to fly through the air a second time toward the adjacent building.

Fingers gripped a window ledge as her toes spread against the wall. Shimmying to the side and using her momentum, she dropped and lunged to the next window-ledge diagonal and down, so on and so forth. In each window there was a different scene, one the clone-healer failed to see too deeply into but she heard the protests as she continued her progress: a couple of Rodians playing cards growled, a Wookie child pointed and roared, an old human-man rapped his cane against the window and muttered about 'gorram kids these days.'

Breathing heavily, she finally landed in a crunching, crouch on top of a speeder-hood. She glanced up and caught the end of Olivia's progress. If a straight girl could have a girl-crush on another girl, Olivia would definitely be it for Taheera.