Ask Ifrane In The Membrane

[Sace Vsil]

The Praxeum from afar looked menacing, though now as they stood face to face with the large castle walls, the detail was nothing short of astonishing. The dark baroque etchings on the structure led the eyes all along the sides. The colors and how it all shown clear signs of its age gave it character, though not one that was welcoming.

Sace followed the words of the Jedi Master. Master and apprentice... The junior Padawan only hoped that the three of them was not too many, however he trusted in Alex's guidance more than he cared to linger on his own blind thoughts. The snake stood beside the others, opening himself to the Force and letting himself be guided by the lightside embrace that soon washed over him that was Alex's strength. It was astounding feeling her presence and knowing that that was the potential of any Force sensitive. Peak strength guiding mere initial Force knowledge. His determination grew.

Sace let himself succumb to the guidance of the stronger force sensitive, opening his abilities for her to use. Hoping to see the entrance of the Praxeum begin to open so that they could see what this incredible structure had to offer.

@Valen Pelora @Nefieslab

 

[Alexandria Voran]

The Force sang. Life was balance and the Force found harmony in balance. The Light was that harmony. The Praxeum felt that song for the first time in ages. It rang through the Jedi, vibrating in their very souls. Perfect, unmistakable, balance. The smile on Alex’s face grew wider. She had been fighting so hard. The losses grinding against her spirit. She almost forgot what this felt like. The Darkness held at bay, pushed aside by the Light…the Force was it was meant to be. How had the Praxeum survived this long? What did this mean for the Order? They could not heal Ifrane alone. Not even Alex, possessed that strength. There was only one way to find out.

Alex tuned herself to the harmonies of the Praxeum. It was ready for them. Recognizing the three as Master and students. Light furled out from the side of the building, curling in the air and script danced on the stone. Blazing white light seemed melt the stone, creating a doorway into the Praxeum. The Force hummed with finality. They were welcome inside but what they would find remained a mystery.

“I do not know how much time we have before the Darkness seeks us again. The Praxeum has stood this long but been abandoned. We are a much more enticing target.” Alex began to walk towards the opening. “We must find what has kept the Light beating here…quickly, young ones.” Her heart quickened. The Morellian Councilor could push down the excitement. They were stepping into the past. She could hardly wait. Decades of restraint were all the stopped her from running into the Praxeum. Still, she barely looked back as she crossed the threshold. Alex stepped into the dark of the Praxeum, something tugged at her mind. A request. Her hand reached out instinctively, the Force flowing from her. Accepted. Lights began to grow within the Praxeum. Another word hit her mind. Home.

@Nefieslab @Just Matt Now

 

[Crix Aran]

Crix stared at the doorway.

"... the Force is such bullshit." he declared at length, laughing with a wide smile on his face even as he said it, "How in the nine Corellian hells does any of that actually work within the accepted laws of physics? Literal bloody magic, swear to the Gods... suck it professors of science, we have magic."

The Force had always been felt rather than truly understood and that was just... right. It made sense that the Force, in it's odd state as an almost living being, was something that needed to be felt, experienced, rather than understood in the most scientific manner. That the Force was beckoning them inside the Door (he could feel the capital letter right there) was both comforting and concerning - the Light was there but the Light didn't beckon Jedi for easy missions.

No, the call that the Jedi answered was to help the Light push back the Darkness in each and every form that it took. Sometimes that was easy but, well, that was the minority of cases at the best of times. Crix took a second to fall into stretches - actually physically stretching to limber himself up. Either this would be physical and he would need to be limber or it wouldn't be and he would have to just content himself with using some of the nervous energy up during the actions.

"Roger, boss." he agreed as he took a deep breath, "Once more unto the breach and all that. Right. Let's go!"

Whereas Alex was calm and poised as she stepped through the Door, Crix basically launching himself through the Doorway with a wide grin and a leap. As he moved through the Doorway he felt the Force tugging at his mind as everything went dark for a moment that was both a second and a century.

Longer and shorter.

Eventually he realized the darkness was now because his eyes were closed so he opened them, staring around at... the inside of the Praxeum. It seemed... cleaner. Newer? He tilted his head to one side slightly as he looked around for his fellow Jedi.

"Master? Sace? Ya dead?"

@Just Matt Now @Valen Pelora

 

[Alexandria Voran]

Alex turned to smile at Crix and Sace, her eyes found nothing. The Padawan’s were gone as was the doorway. She strong in the Force but not infallible. Her excitement had clouded her judgment. The Praxeum reminded her of Lothal and like Lothal it was steeped in the Force. It was impossible to deny while she looked around the room. Despite being surrounded by Darkness the Praxeum was a blazing beacon of Light. Alex slowly took in the growing Light. The Force had taken her here, she could only hope Crix and Sace were safe. That feeling of home had not left her.

“Alex?” Her head whipped around. That voice. The Praxeum hummed in her senses, her eyes focusing on the hallways. It could not be. A familiar figure resolved in the doorway. A Jedi she had not seen in decades. Her Master. “Oh, my dear, it has been so long.” The kindly shape of Master Thadus walked into the center of the room. He was just as she remembered. Those kind eyes met hers and his smile widened. “You’ve gotten old.” Alex rushed forward. She was twenty years old, terrified, and running from the police all over again. That girl Alloran Thadus had plucked from trash heap of Corellia. “Master, is it really you?”

A laugh vibrated the room. “Of course, it is me. The Force works in mysterious ways…and you’ve had a hard life since I left.” He released her and walked to a side room, gesturing for her to join him. “Come, why don’t you tell me about it?” This was real. She knew that. It was a test, and she knew that too. Master Thadus’ spirit was the soul the Praxeum plucked from the Force. The gatekeeper specific to Alex. “Yes, Master.”

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[Crix Aran]

Unlike Alex, Crix wasn't old enough to really remember people who were long gone. He didn't remember a time when the Jedi Order wasn't what it had been remade into within the last century or so - hell, he didn't remember what it was like even a couple of decades ago whereas the Master could. So whereas she knew what to expect from looking through the veil of the Force into the past, Crix didn't.

So the Force showed him something different.

Rather than showing him a vision of the past and a gatekeeper who would mean something to him, Crix found himself wandering through repaired but empty hallways and corridors. He eyed the statues of Jedi long dead and long since made one with the Force without really much comprehension.

"... I think this was supposed to be something of a moment, right?" he asked the Temple itself aloud, feeling the Force reacting to his words in something akin to amusement, "Yeah that makes sense. Sorry I'm too much of a youngblood to really have a connection to a Jedi who's died I guess?"

He ascended the stairs, heading toward the center of the Praxeum from what he could tell, what was probably some kind of Council chamber if Jedi Temples and Praxeum's were built along the same lines.

"Would this form suit you?"

Stopping halfway up the stairs, Crix stared at the Jedi who had stepped up to meet him. It wasn't a Jedi he recognized from the past - it was someone he recognized from a vision he had once had of the future. Crix Aran stood halfway up the staircase as a teenager and at the top of the staircase as a middle aged man.

"That's just weird."

"Ready for it to get weirder?"

"I need an adult?"

"I am an adult."

@Valen Pelora

 

[Alexandria Voran]

She sat on a bench next to a man long gone from her life. Alloran Thadus simply looked at her. The old twi’lek Jedi annoyingly patient, even in death. He had always known how to pry the secrets from her lips. “I need access to the Praxeum, to understand how it has survived so long in such darkness.” Alloran laughed. “Ah, I see you haven’t changed much. Always avoiding the difficult subjects.” Alex shook her head slowly. “I am happy to see you, Master, but time is not on our side.” The image of her first Jedi Master gestured around the room in which they sat. “Does it look like the walls are caving in, young one? This Praxeum has stood for ages and will continue to stand for ages. I’ve been dead for decades and this is the welcome I get? I taught you better.” She did not frown. He’d always admonished her frowns.

“It has not been easy since you’ve been gone. I hid from the Order for too long, afraid to let anyone in, and when I did…he was taken from me. The war has taken so much. I look in the mirror and I don’t know who I am or what I hope to be, but the Order looks to me for guidance. Who do I look to?” Master Thadus scooted closer, placing his hand on her shoulder. “A hundred years old and you still make the mistakes of your youth. You are never alone, Alex. When I died you closed yourself off…where did that get you? Hmmm? The joy you felt you finally returned and remembered your family, do you wish to never feel that again? Foolish. You don’t have to keep carrying these burdens alone.”

Alex looked down at her feet. “I don’t trust myself.” Alloran laugh. A big booming laugh. “Of course not! No one does, that is what we have family for. To lift us up when those doubts creep in. I am here because you’ve forgotten that. You walk your path alone again and that is no way to live.” She looked up to meet her Masters’ eyes. “Am I strong enough?”

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Apparently what the apparition dressed up as himself meant by 'weirder' was that the two of them were going to have a lovely conversation and walk together. It was, admittedly, pretty damn weird but he was beginning to think that it wasn't too bad. Did that say something about his capacity for weird?

Probably.

"Not that I mind the company so much Crix of Future Past, but what are you actually here for?" he gestured around the two of them as they approached the Council chambers, "Visions usually, you know, involve showing some kind of visual aide right? Guessing it's got to do with the Council of Future Past up in the room."

Older Crix chuckled.

... did his chuckle sound that annoying to other people? Because the chuckle Older Crix gave kind of grated on his nerves - he was definitely going to try and stop himself from chuckling like that.

"Ah those old days. Always rushing ahead, thinking that someone above me had all the hard answers so all I needed to do was push forward and never look back. Well here's a hard question for you; when was the last time you called your mother?"

Was... was the vision of his own future guilt tripping him for not calling his mom recently? It was an annoyingly good point actually given that he honestly couldn't remember the last time he called his mother. That actually brought him up short for a moment before he hurried to catch up as Older Crix had kept walking.

"Alright good point well made on that last part but what was that first bit? I don't wait around and ask people to guide me - I can guide myself."

The Older Crix didn't say a word for a moment as they stood in front of the council chamber doors.

"But, I wonder, can you guide others? Answer the hard questions they need to know?"

@Valen Pelora

 

[Alexandria Voran]

“It has never been about strength.” Master Thadus clucked his tongue. “You know that…come on now…show me the woman you have become. The Force set you on this path to forge the leader the Order needs.” His gaze was intense, his voice the familiar tone was he was teaching her a lesson. “Your failures, your heartbreak, your lowest moments, they made you ready. Show me who you are.” Alex’s eyes hardened. She was not the frightened girl Alloran had rescued nor the uncertain Padawan he trained. She was Alexandria Thayless Voran. Her forced sacrifice upon sacrifice on her. It made her the woman she was today. Master Thadus was right. This was never about strength, but weakness.

“I have walled myself off from others so that I cannot feel the pain of loss again. I am strong. Strong enough to withstand all the Force has placed in my path, but I have forgotten that strength is not all we are. I must find balance between strength and vulnerability. The courage to let others in, the courage to risk loss. Otherwise, I will repeat the mistakes of the past. I will repeat our failures.” Alex stood. She could feel the Force shaking on around her. Master Thadus smiled. “Yes, you are the woman I thought you’d become. I loved you like a daughter, Alex, and I am proud of you.” The tears that came to her eyes were real as Alloran stood to embrace her. He poked her in the chest. “Don’t forget this is what makes you who you are…and others need to see that.” The vision began to fade, Master Thadus shimmering in the Light. “Crix will join you soon.” One last booming laugh. “I like that one, watch out for him will you?” And with that he was gone.

Alex found herself in the middle of the abandoned Praxeum the lights slowing starting to turn on. The Force hummed in the back of her mind. She smiled, waiting for Crix. "Goodbye, Master."

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

Damn vision of Crix-mas future had given him a roasting over not calling his mother often enough and was now asking him questions like this? If he ever became this deliberately vague-sounding in the future he would gladly arrange for someone to slap him round the back of the head. Was this what it was like talking to him? It was exhausting on several levels and he'd barely begun.

"I don't really know what you expect me to say to that - kind of a dumb couple of questions if you ask me."

The older version of himself seemed to be a little bit taken aback by his response, tilting it's head to one side silently for a moment before shrugging and gesturing with a hand.

"Alright; I'm intrigued. Show your working out, smartass."

Wow, now he was beginning to sound like one of his university professors and wasn't that a scary thought? Crix teaching at some university. Hard pass on being a professor from this guy. Gathering his thoughts slightly, he decided to entertain the whole thing and explained his reasoning.

"People don't need guides - they need people to walk with them and help them if they stumble. People don't need someone reading the answers to them like life's some kind of exam they can pass or fail - they need to learn it themselves and be happy someone is there to help them when they inevitably kark it up."

The older Crix raised an eyebrow.

"Kark it up?"

Crix shrugged.

"Everyone karks it up once in awhile. What matters most is how you un-kark it."

There was a beat of silence before the vision of his older self just started laughing, tilting his head back and full on belly laughing. Blinking at the spectre in confusion, the feeling only grew as the older version of himself faded from view and the surroundings began to dull and darken. What had once been a bright, clean, corridor was replaced by reality; one dark and dusty from neglect. Emergency lighting began to engage and the door to the center of the Praxeum lit up, allowing him to open the door to reveal Alex just standing there.

He was 100% certain that they hadn't passed each other and he'd just entered through the only door... but the Force was wonderful in it's own way wasn't it? So he did the normal thing.

He waved.

"Hey Master... this place is a trip, right?"

@Valen Pelora

 

[Alexandria Voran]

Crix suddenly appeared through an open doorway. Alex smiled and waved back. The hum in her mind grew louder. The Praxeum was open to them, welcoming them home. “The Force works in mysterious ways.” She shook her head slowly. “I’m out of wise words…” She shrugged. “I’m just as confused as you are which probably means something.” Alex titled her head to look up and around. Had so many others truly failed to past the test? Had the Praxeum found them wanting? Her mind worked furiously through the possibilities.

“A pocket of safety in constant darkness…undetectable from orbit…in the center of a hellscape.” Alex’s voice was quiet, almost as if she was speaking to herself. “They’d never find us here. It’s the last place they would look.” Her eyes tracked down to her feet. The Praxeum seemed to understand what she wanted. She hummed, quickly turning to safe Crix. “What do you think?” The Morellian Councilor let her mask of Jedi perfection drop. She was seeking Crix’s honest opinion. There was no hint of authority in her voice.

“Honest answer, Crix. Good idea or bad?” Her thoughts continued to churn. “The proximity of the Darkside is dangerous but the Praxeum seems capable of keeping that at bay. We would need a Master here at all times and it may not be safe for all Padawans…but safety it could provide…” The Order was so exposed. It was so easy for the Sith to find their homes. Ajan Kloss had been nothing to them. Alex was certain they could make a similar strike on Yavin. They needed a Temple no one could find. This felt like the right choice. The Praxeum even seemed to agree.

@Nefieslab

 

[Crix Aran]

He was beginning to get the beginnings of a headache but, much more importantly, he had a lot to think about after having spoken to the future shade of himself. Did he believe it was a perfect representation of what he would be when he was older? Absolutely not. Did he believe that changed the fact that the older version of himself had made some good points? Also absolutely not and that left him with things to think about.

So he wasn't as quip-happy as he would be otherwise.

"Yeah I... saw some shit I guess." he shook his head, "It's something to think about but that's all I got for now. Check back in with me later and I might have some kinda clue as to what the hell any of that meant."

Listening to Alex's idea for the Praxeum, he moved over to one side of the room before taking a seat with his back leaning against the wall as he listened as she further explained herself. He could see arguments for both sides and while he hadn't been on Ajan Kloss, he could knew what it's loss had meant to the Jedi.

"It's not suitable for the Padawans at all." he agreed, worrying his lip with his teeth slightly before sighing, "But you know who it is perfect for? The Shadows."

The Shadows were something of an odd spot for Crix - they had rejected him for membership having assumed that he would actually want to be one, presumably because of his Master and his training in some of their ways. He didn't agree with them entirely as a concept but they were required.

"Make this the headquarters for the Shadows and a fallback position known only to the Shadows and Council members." he suggested in return, trying to work with her idea and build on it, "It's too dangerous for anyone else to have full-time residency but we keep it open as a last resort."

@Valen Pelora

 

[Alexandria Voran]

“Yeah…some shit.” Councilor Voran was good and gone. Right now, it was just Alex. “You know I’m almost a hundred? My Master who found me on Corellia…he’s been gone for almost sixty years.” She shook her head, trying to understand what she’d seen. “But he stood there as if no time had passed at all.” Her voice was distant. Alex shook the cobwebs away. “Let me know when you figure all this out, you can have my spot on the Council then.” The laugh that followed echoed in the Praxeum. She forced herself to focus on the task at hand.

“You’re absolutely right.” Padawans would be too susceptible to the crush of Darkness waiting outside. The Order as a whole struggled to keep even the most basic secrets, but the Shadows could strike out from Ifrane as the knife they were meant to be. Brilliant. “There must be something magical about this place. Only one thing tried to kill us, and you sound like a responsible Jedi.” She pulled her com from a pocket. A short transmission was sent to the astromech piloting the shuttle. Now that they were inside, the shuttle would be able to find them. “Let’s get out of here. I now have a lot of work to do.” The com buzzed to register the droid’s affirmation.

“And I’m going to make you help.” The Praxeum seemed to hum in satisfaction. It had been waiting for the Order to return home. None had managed to pass the test before Alex and Crix. Too many failed to confront the weaknesses in their soul. She smiled. The Praxeum had spent centuries fighting the Darkness, keeping it at bay, and it was ready to share those lesson.

OOC: Last Alex Post

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