Of Taking and Reshaping

[Omnis]

Participants: Ark

---

Deep within the gut of a Korriban mountain, connected to the expansive Sith Academy, a new complex awaited the students of Crusader Nox's next class. The complex was tall, wide, and held many rooms and chambers. Each training room was dynamic, varied from all of the others. Some were multi-layered, others were one floor. The Noghri had built the complex himself, all to his design, with the help of some droid labor.

Nox waited for his sole student, Ark, within the atrium of his complex. The atrium was a very tall and wide circular room with a domed ceiling. The chamber was bedecked in earthen colors and lit brightly enough to see in great detail without causing any glare. Standing facing the entrance to his complex, Nox waited with his arms folded behind his back.

 

[Flamjetxx]

Ark wanted to arrive early to beat out the rest of the students he anticipates sharing this class with. When he arrives, his teacher stands waiting his presence. As always, Ark stands in attention to announce his arrival, despite knowing the Crusader no doubt felt his presence long before Ark even entered the hallway outside of the room, "Arkteleus Krayzen."

A quick glance allow him to admire the room. It was a good change of location for a class than the tunnel beneath the complex. It is a magnificent structure, and it is certainly something to be admired, though Ark isn't in the habit of filling his mouth with sh*t by kissing *ss, so his lips remain closed until acknowledged by his teacher. One of the most beneficial force abilities one can use is the power of tutaminis.

Ark has looked forward to the class for a long time coming now. The utilization of tutaminis can help to expand his ever growing knowledge and utilization of the force. This power has the most potential though, and thus he takes care in how he approaches learning the is ability. He wants to learn the power for the ability to eliminate blaster bolts without having to even draw his lightsaber. Though he brings it with him, he never expects to need it during force oriented classes. Ark has high expectations as to how his teacher will go about teaching him the ability, but he hasn't a clue of how this will even be done. Only waiting will tell him. Waiting for the rest of his peers.

After introducing himself though, he realizes that there is actually not going to be any more students. He would have kelt to meditate, but the situation informs him that Crusader Nox doesn't expect anyone but Ark. Ark couldn't say how he knows it, but it was that feeling that made him stay standing instead of meditating. Ark won't need the gift of patience it seems. Ark's anticipations will soon be answered with action.

 

[Omnis]

"Acolyte." Nox said with a nod, acknowledging Ark with some brief formality.

With all of the ado out of the way, Nox drew a blaster pistol from within the folds of his robe. Still standing some distance away, Nox offered it out grip first to the Acolyte. The blaster slid from his palm and through the air between them.

"What is your proficiency with firearms and how precise is your aim, Arkteleus Krayzen?"

 

[Flamjetxx]

Ark actually grimaced to his surprise at the question while taking the blaster out of the air from the Crusader.

"With all due respect, I cannot stand the blaster, and I cannot say that I am as precise as more practiced shooters. Though this isn't exactly my first time wielding a blaster, and I have full confident in my ability to hit a target with some level of simple precision. I wouldn't ordinarily touch such a crude device. I prefer the lightsaber as the superior weapon, though for the purposes of the class I will take the blaster," Ark's words were true in every sense, and though he hasn't shot a blaster more than once, he knows that it isn't difficult to point and shoot a blaster.

Perhaps it's is simplicity he has such a distaste for, though it could easily be because of just how simple it is to negate the effects of a blaster. Ark has a good idea of what comes next, though out of respect he will let the teacher tach and he will play the part of the student and learn. After all, he very much enjoys the demonstrations given by the Crusader. Ark is as much a visual learner than any other type, and he knows just how beneficial and motivating a successful demonstration can be.

Ark checks the safety for the blaster while keeping it pointed away from his teacher for now. His finger rests just outside of the trigger, and he waits for the instructions he knows the Crusader is bound to give him.

 

[Omnis]

Nox let out a soft hiss as he listened to the Acolyte, nothing more than expelling his breath a bit forcefully through his nose. The answer was not as reassuring as he had hoped, and too long winded for what he had in mind. But, on reflection, Nox could not blame the Acolyte. Specifics were ever important, and Nox had not told the Acolyte to refrain from going in depth on an explanation.

"So then," Nox said, taking a few back steps away from Ark. "You will shoot for the foot. One blast, three full seconds after you have taken aim, no vocal warning. Understood?"

Nox was glad that his student at least showed the good sense of weapon safety. While the galaxy at large was mostly educated with firearms such as the blaster, there were still a monstrous amount of novices, amateurs, and wildmen who were unversed in the specifics or importance of weapon safety. Growing up, Nox had been raised with the principles of weapon safety until it became nearly instinct.

He prepared himself as Ark took aim, channeling the Force intently as the three seconds passed. The blaster bolt ripped the air, drilling a line towards Nox's foot. As the blast nearly came in contact with his foot, a sheen of blue light formed over his foot and caught it like the surface of a lake catching a cast stone. The bolt dissolved over the surface, waving up and down with each ripple it created in the simplistic and ethereal barrier, melting into the blue light and dissipating more quickly than it had fled from the barrel.

"By the end of this class, I will be shooting at you with that same weapon. If you have any questions now, before I begin my lecture, state them quickly."

 

[Flamjetxx]

The last time Ark had wielded a blaster with the intent of shooting it was when he was much younger, and it had been too many years. He honestly hadn't any intention of using a blaster after wielding his first lightsaber, though as he recalls he wasn't a very poor shot. At close distance, the task was rather easy, and would be sorely disappointed would he miss anything at such a distance despite how ling it has been since he's last wielded a blaster.

Ark could tell by the Crusader's reaction and where he ordered the shot that he wasn't nearly as confident with Ark's lack of experience with a blaster as he had, though Ark was bound to get the demonstration regardless, and Ark was relieved for that. He always enjoyed Nox's demonstrations as they were always skillful and rather inspiring. Besides that though, it always gave Ark something to base his own performance on by demonstration, though this time he couldn't quite imagine how such a demonstration could give him any physically visible keys to the ability.

Ark's hand raised as he flicked the safety with his thumb. Ark's sights pointed the crosshairs to line up with the Crusader's foot while he counted to three. When the crosshairs were lined up where he wanted them, his hand was steady and the Crusader's foot was the only target throughout his sight, and finally the finger caressed the trigger as the kickback caused him to quickly remove the finger from the amazingly small hole the trigger was located. Without returning the safety to on, he observed the dispersion of the blaster, and the blue energy that caused it. The skill was unseen by his own eyes directly until this moment, and it was rather impressive no matter what source of energy it was touching.

Only when the energy of the blaster's bolt reached the very perimeter of his shoe did the bolt hit the protective membrane of the Force that finally revealed itself upon reaching him. It was certainly something to strive for, and Ark was now efficiently inspired to reach that point of the class, but he knows all too well how far away it really is form now. For now, Ark's thumb replaces the safety back to its original position as if he had done it every day since he'd learned how to use a blaster, though this was clearly untrue by the way he double checks it as he hands it back to the Crusader using the Force to keep the barrel cautiously pointing away from either of them.

The time to ask questions regarding the class and what he'd be doing at of it was now, and the Crusader made that quite clear, though what Ark could come up with were things that the Crusader was clearly bound to teach him in class, and thus not to insult his teaching ability, Ark respectfully declines his offer with a subtle shake of his head, "I am ready Crusader Nox."

Ark rise hard to ready himself mentally for the class though he doesn't quite know how to prepare himself apart form clearing his mind, and thus is all he can do as he awaits the Crusader's instructions.

 

[Omnis]

Nox watched Ark as much as he paid attention to the blaster bolt trying to rip apart his foot. The Kushari's eyes were always brilliant, shining with interest and curiosity, always moving from one point of interest to the next. Ark was an attentive, curious, and wary Acolyte. Without being rude or annoying, Ark showed his interest for learning in a silent but tangible way that Nox found agreeable. The more he taught the large beast-man, the more he found himself enjoying it.

There was a lot to be said for an agreeable silence shared between two.

Taking back the weapon with a small gesture and a casual effort of will from the Force, Nox launched into his lecture.

"Good. Now, meditate. Focus upon your body again, like you did in the Alter class. Remember the way that energy flows through your body, the image of your veins and arteries. As you feel the power moving through you and the Darkside joining your lifeblood, think of an opening in the top of your head. An intake, of a sort. It is meant to be there. No such thing truly exists, without the Force, but with it you can make it at least somewhat real. Significantly so.

The intake is small. It can only let anything through slowly. Now imagine water pouring into the intake from above your head, slow and steady, like an endless stream from an infinite vase. It keeps pouring, keeps streaming water into the intake. Follow that water down, watching as it travels down. It is creeping along your veins, along your arteries, going along with the natural flows of power in your body. Keep going, until it gets to your feet.

You can see it filling up your feet, rising to your ankles, going up further still into your legs. Keep observing as it fills up towards your head."

Nox let the Acolyte dwell on the exercise in silence, knowing that the Force was at least doing a little work of its own to help Ark focus on the metaphor, providing a sort of fake structure of power for him to really follow.

"Now you are full, Acolyte. The water, which is nothing other than another form of energy, is resting inside of you peacefully. You can close your intake at the top of your head and open two new ones, one in each foot. Let it drain out. You will have seen the way in which that energy had travel through your body, the paths it naturally had to take.

When a more hostile energy wishes to rip through those paths, destroying them and scattering their boundaries to chaos, it will come charging at you from such an angle that your body cannot disperse it effectively. There will be no time for the energy to slowly follow the natural paths in your body, as it instead breaks apart everything in its way.

However, Acolyte, your body is a natural filter. You can fill your body with obstacles, starting with a layer of small rocks, followed by rough sand, followed by fine sand. As the energy moves through these obstacles, like water moves through a basic filter, it will fray and disperse itself before it can cause any harm. In this way, you can prevent any significant damage to your body. When you are proficient enough, you can move this construct outside of your body and catch the energy even sooner."

Nox abruptly aimed the gun to one side of Ark and fired. In his meditative state, Ark could feel the energy from the blaster as its peripheral forces wallowed through him. The Noghri instructor looked directly at Ark, not remorseful in the least for the quick startle.

"Without even shooting at you directly, you could feel the chaotic energy as the leftover and undirected energy from the blaster bolt vibrated through your body. You saw its path before you were startled out of your inner mind. Now that you know the way it moves, you know your enemy.

Questions?"

 

[Flamjetxx]

The silent understanding of student and teacher that Ark shared with Crusader Nox was serene, and he was able to connect more with the words spoken to him as his body practically performed them upon the Crusader's word. As Nox explained is that much like the first class Ark had taken with the Crusader, he would need to feel the flow of the Force, and in an in depth walk through Ark could feel the Force exactly how it was spoken by the Crusader. It wasn't exactly like so, but his feelings could search the flow of the Force so that his meditative state was exactly on par with the Crusader's instructions.

Ark felt the energy of the Dark Side flowing freely through him as if water though he wasn't empty. Like the Crusader explained, Ark has an intricate maze of paths and filters the Force naturally flows through as it passes through him. Ark felt warm and cold all at the same time. The energy pretended to warm his body as he felt it trickle down to his lowest depths, and likely because of the metaphor the Crusader used, Ark could feel that the energy was fluid and he imagined it literally as water. The demonstrations of Ark shooting the Crusader with the blaster didn't help him let go of the fact that it wasn't actually water flowing through him, though it served its purpose of allowing him to feel just how the Force flows through him.

He feels himself fill up with the not-water, and the energy expands to his every border as it slowly fills him to the brim. At that moment, Ark felt like he's had more energy within him than ever before, though this may have just been the feeling of the energy touching him. Ark could feel that the energy was contained within himself and all of a sudden through the Crusader's instruction, a blaster bolt shot, but he was too deep in the Crusader's instructive meditation to even so much as open his eyes. Besides, he felt no one enter, the Crusader was not worried, and Ark knew he could trust the Crusader.

The metaphor the Crusader used were near exactly how he felt at every point in his instruction and the bolt didn't pierce through him, but it rather filtered into him. The Force flowing within him wasn't nearly as prominent as it once was, and the focus was rather on the new energy that crossed the membrane into his body where the energy of the blaster bolt join in with the rest of the flow of the energy coursing through his body. The energy of the bolt was minuscule, though he felt like he actually expended a good deal of energy in absorbing the energy, as if the energy caused the energy within him to overflow, but a little too much of the not-water leaked out of the not-hole in the top of his head causing a slight deficiency.

When Ark finally was able to exit the trance-like state, he peeked an eye open in a curious trust to see the Crusader holding a smoking blaster, but he looked confident and as though he'd managed a success. The Crusader had managed as much of a success as Ark had, but even more so seeing that Ark had merely followed the orders given to him. Ark realized just how potent that tut minis could be, and he was rather unnerved by the fact that the Crusader had shot at him despite how much trust he had for him, but since it was done, and successful, there was no point in even saying anything. Ark hadn't known that tutaminis could be used in such a manner, at least in a meditative state, and it intrigued him, thgouh he could remember how the energy entered into his body.

Was it tutaminis? It must have been at least some form of tutaminis, otherwise he would have been in a completely different situation. Either way, Ark knew that this was a situation in which he'd have to remember exactly everything about the experience and he was already recalling every detail. Ark lets out a deep breath as he takes in the knowledge as well as dispersing his nerves of the past moment.