Looking for the Truth ( Ajoc Laynerir's training )

[Horizon]

Walking up the steps of the temple, ajoc was amazed at the Jedi's numbers.
There were so many that were integrated into their order. They all wore hoods over their heads and spoke with such knowledge. This was what Ajoc was looking for. And now he was nearing the top of the temple steps, it would be quite difficult to depict his Master in the mass of fully robed individuals.

 

[Gambler]

Asheron sat atop the marble stairway, legs crossed and eyes closed in meditation. His face seemed serene even in the crowd that mulled about beneath him. He was easily distinguishable from the rest though. His ears were tipped and rose slightly back out of short cropped raven hair that held a lustrous sheen not unlike the glow of a crystal in the dark of a cave. As he opened his eyes, he seemed even more angelic. His face was smooth and slightly pale, unblemished and perfect. And his eyes... they were delicious cyan orbs that shone with bioluminescent drops of silver like the moon over the ocean. He didn't look real. More like a picture in an icon rather than an actual person. But he was a person. A young Sephi Jedi Knight who seemed almost emotionless to most.

The mid afternoon breeze that flitted peacefully around the temple was serene and gentle like a trickle of water flowing into a fresh water stream. It was peaceful and barely touched the man sitting down. The wind was only one factor in life. It was the essence of nature. The other factor in life was humanity. Nature and humanity together made the imperfection of life. But in that imperfection, true beauty and perfection was found. That paradox was why there was great evil in the galaxy to balance out the good. Why no one was truly perfect in any one way. But it was also why there were those who wished to do good. Not because of balance or desire to do good in itself, but the desire to help others. The inclination that some had to stoop down no matter the circumstance to aid others.

Sitting there on the step of the temple, Ash felt that desire to help the man walking below him. He could tell, sitting there, that the man was lost. He was seeking something but he did not know the face of what he sought. Ash knew who he was. Ajoc Laynerir. The man who called himself the Abbot. It was a curious title that could hold many meanings, but in Ash's eyes it meant that he sought knowledge and the preservation of it. It was why he accepted the man as his padawan. A possibly kindred soul to teach the ways of the Force to. Quite a pleasant goal in Ash's mind. He stood up with poise and grace unworldly and descended the steps down to the man.

"Greetings, young Abbot. I am Asheronicasius Chalerius though you may refer to me as 'Ash' or 'Asheron' if you wish. Most people do for my name is quite difficult to pronounce," he said in a voice that matched his appearance to perfection. He blinked those luscious eyes of silver and blue before continuing. "You are here to learn, are you not? I am here to teach you. Be welcomed into the Jedi Temple as a student. May you soon enter these halls as a member of our Order," his voice held a melodic quality even with his words that should have carried a measure of gravity in them. "Is there anything you wish to say before we begin your training into the ranks of the Order?"

 

[Horizon]

Asheronicasius Chalerius. That was quite difficult to pronounce. But this "Ash" character would be his teacher and he could already tell that this man stemmed his personality from his teachings and of his own accord. He was polite and straight to the point of why he was here. To learn.
"No kind sir. Only that you would pass on the full extent of each less on to me." Their morals and knowledge was all that Ajoc wanted and any other pieces that they could spare.

 

[Gambler]

Ash took a deep breath, shutting his eyes for a moment while Ajoc spoke. He absorbed not the words that were spoken but the meaning behind them. After a few moments he opened his eyes, looking down at the man who called himself the Abbot. "Tell me why you wish to become a Jedi. What about our Order appeals to you? Is it the drive to do good? The passion to help others? What makes you want to become a Jedi?" He asked when his eyes were opened. He folded his arms across his chest in a comfortable manner. Not the stern mentor manner, but rather one that was comfortable in the loose mahogany robes that clung to his lithe form.

 

[Horizon]

Ajoc raised his hand slowly up to his chin and rubbed it for a moment. There were many things that appealed to him about the Jedi Order. The way they teach their apprentices was one. And the way they viewed themselves at the same level as any other regular being. Yes the last one was a good explanation. "You view yourselves just like anyother regular person. You hold yourself to a higher code in which you follow to a great extent."

Ajoc paused as the next question was slightly difficult. What made him want to be a Jedi? The reasons flowed into his mind. But only a phrase of them could explain his reasoning. "To show others that we all could show kindness and peace. And to create a safer place for everyone to live. One without the strife and discord." The question was quite harder to answer than he thought.

 

[Gambler]

"Your answer seems a bit generic," Ash replied honestly to his apprentice. It was the response he had expected almost to the mark, but it was still just like everyone else's response. He sighed and looked down, letting his long, dark lashes brush against his smooth skin as he inhaled deeply. Something about him seemed detached and distant as if he was holding himself apart from Ajoc and yet at the same time he seemed to be sympathizing with the hardship of becoming a padawan.

"Every night you lay down to go to sleep. Every day you walk along the streets. As you do those things, do you ever wonder what you are hurting while you do? If you buy a room in a cantina for the night you may be putting someone out of a bed. As you walk along the street you step on countless insects and other minute life-forms. Do you ever think about that? Do you ever put yourself in their place and feel their pain?" He asked sagely. He knew that those questions were philosophical in nature, but they led up to something more.

 

[Horizon]

Ajoc looked down for a moment and knew that Ash was correct. Events like these occur everyday. And that was the sad truth. He looked up once more and nodded his head. "I have. My small order meditates of these things. Yet sometimes there is no way to avoid such things. There is always another question for what you speak" Ajoc believed in what he said. You cannot always help things such as these yet you can try. And that is what matters in the end most of the time.

 

[Gambler]

There was a pause -- a hiatus in the conversation -- as Ash pondered the answer given to him by the Abbot. He did not nod at first, but when he did it was not in acceptance. He shook his head at the answer, not accepting it as it was. "Then you are saying that their deaths are meaningless? By condoning those deaths you are saying that you are more important than them. Worth more. It is not a conscious decision to kill them, but that makes it worse. Picture it on a larger scale. All beings are equal; all life is precious. Your words say that your life is worth more than theirs. That carelessness can lead to the Dark Side. To an insidious fall," the weight of his words filled the air, dampening the already distanced mood.

"So, what can you do to prevent that life from being snuffed out from carelessness? It is action without thought that causes you to destroy life that could easily be saved. Even an ant has worth. Stepping on it is easy, but it is also wrong. Taking the time to think about your steps before you take them is key to understanding our Order. Rash action ends up with unwanted injury and death. Eventually it leads to anger and then the dark side if one allows it to continue for long enough," he continued, his tone unreadable, but his displeasure obvious. "All life has equal value. Position does not make one more important."

 

[Horizon]

Ajoc listend to Ash's words and they all spoke a bitter truth once more. Indeed Ajoc now felt how his anser did on the ears of Ash.
"As I said before, you treat others with the same equal. And that is a lesson that I desire." He lifted his head up to Ash with eyes torward him. Truly spending time in an isolated village did not give him the most experience in the world.

 

[Gambler]

"If you desire it, then prove it," said the Sephi Jedi Knight without hesitation. He looked down to his apprentice ever so slightly, a teacher looking down on his pupil. His next words were not heavy or full of wisdom. They were instruction. "Tell me what you know of the Jedi. Recite to me the Jedi Code and what you believe it means. And then prove to me that you desire instruction in the ways of the Jedi. If you can do that, then I will further your instruction. If you cannot then you must go to the archives and learn that which you seek alone before returning to me for teaching. Do you understand that which I ask of you?" Perhaps there was some weight to his words. The weight of consequence and the price of failure?

 

[Horizon]

"Emotion, yet peace
Ignorance, yet knowledge
Passion, yet serenity
Chaos, yet harmony
Death, yet the force."

"These are tenets in which your order abides by. The first line refers to emotions of course. Yet to have a control over these. If not they could cloud judgement. The second that no matter what we as beings are prone to be ignorant. The third line regards to control ones self. You must understand yourself and the reason as to why you are losing control. In return you allow yourself control, only you decide whether or not you will adhere to your passion. And the fourth I believe points itsself to the conversation we had about the insects."

Opening his hand, Ajoc let a small bug flutter away from his hand once he spoke the word insect. He now had some what of a better understanding on what ash had said before. But now he must explain the final line of the code.

"Death, yet the force. When anyone dies it is not because some one simply wronged another. And simply snuffed out another life. It is apart of an ever persistent cycle. Simply I was wrong in what I said Master Ash. Your words held a knowledge that took some time to see for myself. And simply I can not give you a reason as to why I should be a Jedi. It is your descision that you must make on your own, as you already must know."


Ajoc simply bowed himself before Ash and awaited his next response.

 

[Gambler]

"Very well," Ash said, his tone neutral. It was impossible to tell what he thought of Ajoc's response outwardly. Inwardly, however, he was slightly pleased by the way his apprentice answered such a question. "Come, let us remove ourselves from the chill of the afternoon day and find a room for you to learn the ways of the Force," his tone was considerably warmer now, but just as distanced as before. He opened himself up slightly to his apprentice, allowing himself to feel some facsimile of an emotion.

"Do you wish to learn how to spar with a blade or use the many paths of the Force?" He asked as he turned, walking into the temple. His footsteps touched lightly against the marble stairs and he appeared to be gliding rather than walking, his robe barely shifting with his long, graceful strides. "Unless, of course, you would wish for me to lecture you on the tenants of our Order," he smiled a phantom of a smile, knowing that Ajoc would have had enough lecturing for a while. Action was a better way to teach the young mind. Even if it went against his personal preference.

 

[Horizon]

Ajoc followed along with his new master as they walked the steps of the temple. The temple was marvelous. It has lasted through so many years. So much knowledge was stored here. Then Ajoc's thoughts of the temple were quickly put away as his master asked of how his training would proceed. And yes another lecture would not be as tasteful as learning more of the force.
He had lectured his order on subjects so he could now sympathize with what some would call their anguish. "I would like to learn the many paths of the Force. The idea of the Force period intrigues me so please let us."
The Force meant by now, some things. It was a way to understand things.
To control things if you give into the desire. All things pointed to the fact the Force is something you must be careful when using.

 

[Gambler]

"Very well then, please follow me to the training room," Ash replied. He finished his ascent into the Temple and began to walk with a brisk pace towards a training room. It was nothing special. Just a medium white room with a rack of training swords on one end and a few spheres on the other. "I would like for you to try and lift one of those spheres without using your hands. Focus on the sphere alone and will it off of the rack. If you can do that, impress me with your quick learning and bring it into your hand," he said without pause as he entered the room.

 

[Horizon]

"As you wish Master." He wished for something an average human would not be able to do. Unless they were connected to the Force completely. Yet the task still seemed rather difficult. Ajoc sat himself on the cold marble floor and opend his mind to the world around him. At the same time he was opening his mind to the Force. He could hear the echos becoming ever so quieter yet the could be heared faintly. Now Ajoc concentrated his mind onto the round sphere that sat within Ash's grasp. Slowly he put everything else out of his mind. His master vanished from his view and so did the room. Everything become a white serene open space. Only Ajoc and the sphere exhisted.


Slowly Ajoc began to move the sphere through the Force, it shook slightly but after a couple minutes of Ajoc putting his mind through the danting difficulty task while using the Force to help soothe mind and move the sphere, Ajoc finaly had the sphere off his hand by at least a couple inches.
But then Ajoc let it float down back to its origianl position and returned to a normal state of mind. Slowly he looked back up to his Master and simply nodded his head.

 

[Gambler]

Ash nodded to his apprentice, not minding in the least the length of time it had taken him to complete such a task. "Very good," he said without preamble, moving over next to Ajoc. "The Force generally is mind over matter. If you believe you can lift something, then you can lift it with ease. If you can't make yourself accept your limitations and see beyond them, then lifting even the smallest of spheres can prove to be a difficult task. Each sphere has its own weight and mass. By rational logic one would assume that as you add more spheres the heavier they will be and the harder they will be to lift. Not so. Or at least if you can train your self to feel the sphere and understand that no matter how many are added, the base weight is all you are lifting. This is not true in all cases, but in this one it holds true. Observe."

Lifting a hand, Ash pulsed veins of the Force through his body and grasped onto the spheres with invisible hands. Each sphere was lifted not as an individual, but as one. Twisting his hand, the spheres reacted with synchronization, twisting and turning their way through the air as they slowly made their way to his grasp. And then they paused before looping around him like planets orbiting a star. With a flourish of his hand, the spheres rocketed back across the room, slowing at the very last second and coming to a complete rest on the rack without disturbing anything. "See? Try the same with two spheres and then three. Do as many as you can until you can get five. Once you can lift five, start manipulating them individually and as a single entity. Tell me which is harder."

 

[Horizon]

Ajoc lifted all fives spheres at once. It stressed his mind yet he was sure enough that he could do what he asked. They all progressed in a straight line,while some may have lingered behind for a moment Ajoc would correct this with a flick of his wrist. Now to test his further training with the Force, Ajoc manipulated three of the five spheres to rotate around the two that still drifted alone. At first it was quite easy but then the more they two groups moved Ajoc began to lose control of the spheres. Sure the weight wasint bothering him but trying to control the two groups proved more difficult than he thought.
The three that rotated now fell to the floor as Ajoc placed the last two on the shelf/
His mind was stressed by the multitasking yet he knew their was a reasoning behind this.
Ajoc looked back to his master and awaited his next insightful knowledge.


((OOC: I know this is rather short but I had quite a long one typed out but then I lost it when I had to sign back in.))

 

[Gambler]

With a wave of his hand Ash stopped the falling spheres mid-fall and they slowly drifted back to their rack. With a slight smile he looked back to his apprentice, something between satisfaction and encouragement in his eyes.

"Now, which was easier? Carrying them as one or as individual entities?

"But I think that is enough stress on your mind for today. Would you care to pick up a training sword?"

[OOC: Short post. Ack.]

 

[Horizon]

Ajoc thought for a moment about training with a blade. He had never truly done anything that related with violence. He had spent his life migrating with his family and others searching for knowledge to enlighten themselves. If danger had occured they usualy avoided it. And thats how he liked it, yet this would be the only way to continue with the training.


Ajoc picked up the training sword and examined it for a moment. It was much to dull to cut with yet if some one hit you hard enough, you might have a welt on you. Ajoc turned turned to his master and awaited the next stage of his training. Yet Ajoc couldnt help his hands shake, he was quite nervous with a weapon in his hand. But perhaps through training he could conquer his nervousness with the use of weapons.

 

[Gambler]

"I will not strike at you," Ash said in a tone that would have been like a laugh on anyone else. But being who and what he was, it came out as a melodic monologue. Undeniably musical, but not a chuckle or laugh at all.

"I would like for you to work through the motions of the fifth form. They require a bit of acrobatics, but I believe you can handle them. Worse comes to worse you will at least understand the motions of that form," he continued. With his right hand he gripped a training blade with a tendril of the Force, drawing it towards him slowly.

"And then you can strike me if you wish. But first you need to actually hit me."