Simple Basics (Liu and Jason)

[Sage Hazzard]

He had two Padawans, this Jedi Master named Hazzard. One was polite, patient, noble, one armed, and fully willing to commit.... the other one was Jason. He was Sage's newest Padawan and he could see early on that he'd be a hard task. His own father had asked Sage to take him in. Some pressure there... Jason was like a proud stallion that couldn't be broken. If you could ever get the horse to ride, he'd be the best stead of them all.

Maybe, in this Jason's first training session and Liu's second, some of Liu's well noted qualities would rub off on Jason. Regardless, both Padawans would learn to tap into the Force. Liu would have the head start and Sage was happy for that. Knowing Jason's personality, he pondered if a bit of friendly competition might spur Jason on. A good a motivator as any. Though deep down Sage knew Jason was comitted. He just needed something to break the facade. Competition will quickly break any masks you're putting on about indifference. Though the Jedi Master would never admit to the fact that Sage expected the two to compete. He just knew on some level it might happen.

"I hope the boy isn't late again," Sage refered to Jason, staring at his chronometer. It was rapidly nearing the time training would begin.

Both had recieved messages. Liu's was delivered verbally, instead of through a written form. The man only had one arm. Otherwise it was cruelty to force him to go through the process of opening a letter.

[Liu Fong]

Liu takes his time, walking at a leisurely place towards the designated training room. He stretches his one arm, rolling out both his shoulders. It's a lazy day today, the kind he likes to spend out in GJO's garden. But training calls. The garden can wait.

"Master Hazzard."

He bows low.

"What's on the menu for today?"

[Sage Hazzard]

"You will learn to trust your 6th sense today, Liu. One of many training sessions you will need to complete your grip on it. For the moment however..."

It was on the dot now. Jason was on the edge of becoming tardy.

"We are waiting for my other student to arrive."

[Jason Utylln]

Oh, he'd read the message of course. He couldn't use that as an excuse. Which is what Jason was trying to think of as he lay in his bed, haveing a leisurely cigarette. He could always say he got lost, however unlikely that was. Or better yet, not say anything. Why should he have to excuse the fact that he didn't want to start this now? Right. Then it was settled.

As the smoke grew close to the filter, Jason got up. He always slept in his clothes, a habit grown from the hassle of trying to get dressed while still buzzed from parties. Tossing the butt into a garbage bin, the young man sauntered out into the corridor of the living quarters and stretched noisily.

"Mmmmhaaaerrgh..."

Yawning, despite his more than adequate ammount of sleep, Jason strolled carelessly towards the training grounds. It seemed as if he were out for a Sunday stroll, not heading to meet Hazzard for his first training session. But that was how it was with Jason.

Eventually, he came upon the appointed area and sighted the two waiting for him. He neither hurried over or gave notice that he had finally made it. Instead, he reserved a casual nod until he came upon them.

[Sage Hazzard]

"How nice of you to honor us with your presence," Sage sacasticlly growled. "Sit."

Sage sat, legs crossed, expecting his Padawans to do the same.

[Liu Fong]

Liu sits with Sage, eyeing Jason warily. This newcomer must be the other Padawan. Liu chooses not to say anything. For now, he will observe the other.

[Jason Utylln]

Jaosn rolled his eyes and sat down, stifling a yawn. It was amazing that he was still tired.

"Yeah, not a problem. Bit too early for my liking though."

[Sage Hazzard]

"Ah, then you won't mind closing your eyes."

Sage cracks a smile out of the corner of his mouth as he himself closes his eyes.

"Liu, why don't you tell Jason here in your own words, how to go withen yourself."

It'd be educational to see how Liu described it, if he was on the right track or not.

[Liu Fong]

Liu falters. He has to explain?

"Very well...to go within yourself and find the Force, you must elude your senses. Feel nothing, hear nothing, see nothing, taste nothing, smell nothing." When you are with only yourself, you will find the Force in your mind's eye...at least that's how it is with me," he explains sheepishly. He feels silly talking about it, but that's how it goes.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage nods approvingly.

"What should Jason do to aid in his blocking of other senses. Is there a method to maintain focus on your inner thoughts?"

Sage asked Liu, wanting him to explain about the imaginary object.

[Liu Fong]

"Um...wait, yes there is. Focus on the Force as being an object or a shape to help you focus."

[Sage Hazzard]

"Close. Focus on the shape in your mind, to lock out distractions and go withen yourself. There, the Force will find you. Any questions before we begin?"

[Jason Utylln]

Not only did Jason close his eyes, but he lay down as well, hands under his head as a temporary pillow. He tapped his foot on the ground to the beat of a song in his head. Momentarily opening an eye to look at Sage he shook his head.

"Don't expect any questions from me. Too early."

[Sage Hazzard]

"Then do as Liu has explained. Liu, you as well. Try to connect to the Force."

[Liu Fong]

Liu rests his one hand on his knee, folding his legs with a sigh. Jason's idle tapping quickly fades from his senses as he shuts his eyes. Soon, he's aware of nothing around him, save for the cube in his mind's eye. He's been practicing in his room, in the garden, and even in the Bar and Grill. It comes almost naturally to him.

[Jason Utylln]

Saying was easier than doing and Jason really hadn't been listening. He had a hard time paying attention to things that lasted for more than a few minutes. So he jsut tried to realx, not really worrying if he accomplished aything or not.

He began to think about his 'friend' Ashley back home. Mmm, he missed her. A smile crossed his face and he sighed. Within a few moments his breathing levelled out and a soft wheezing could be heard.

Jason was asleep.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage opened his own eyes.

"Liu, continue."

The Jedi Master, if he was more mentally inclined, would shock the Padawan into waking. But he resorted to ignoring him. When Liu started seeing things and doing things, and sensing things that Jason couldn't... then he'd have his attention.

[Liu Fong]

Liu hardly registers Sage's words. The cube before his mind's eye shimmers and flickers, and Liu finds it in himself to speak a little as he maintains his focus on it.

"What am I to do with this power?"

[Sage Hazzard]

Ah, his Padawan had tapped into something.

"You do nothing with the power. You do not have the power and you do not seek it. You guide and use the Force as equal partners. Reach out with the Force. Ask it to aid you. Ask it to tell you the contour of this rock, which I hold in my palm."

Sage reached for a pebble in his pocket. He brought it out and placed it in his open palm.

[Liu Fong]

Liu takes a deep breath. His body itches; he realizes he's sweating. He ignores it as best he can, feeling the Force ebb away at his distraction.

Partners, are we? he thinks at the cube. Well...let's see about this stone.

Slowly he feels a warmth in his body, and reaches his one hand forward, feeling the warmth move in tandem with his actions. The cube that represents the Force dissipates, and he sees five round shapes; Sage's fingertips. The warmth ceases, and Liu sees his master's fingers in his mind. His first reaction is to push it, but knows that is not what he should do. He withdraws instead, relaxing for a moment and preparing to try once more.

[Sage Hazzard]

"Patience Padawan. You are doing well. Try to ask the Force for guidance. After all, it is connected to everything is it not? Ask permission into the Force, sensing your way through it. It is hard and physically taxing but that's all the more reason to practice."

[Liu Fong]

He draws several slow, deep breaths.

Ok...come on partner, let's try again. Whenever you're ready.

He feels like a fool, talking to the Force as if it were sentient, but it helps to shore up the idea of a partnership with the Force. Of an ally, rather than a power to be used. This time, the warmth precedes him, moving seemingly of its own accord to its' previous point, and slightly beyond...

"The stone...it's..."

The Force pushes gently forward, catching a small part of the rock in it's field. He sees it...

"Smooth and flat...not much bigger than a pea."

This is somewhat true, and somewhat false. He's only seeing part of the full picture.

[Sage Hazzard]

"Clear your focus. All that matters is the object. Now that you've found it, you can focus on it only. All other surroundings the Force has shown you do not matter anymore, you've found your target. It is all that exists. It is the shape inside your mind now. What's it's color and age? Is it man crafted or molded by time?"

[Liu Fong]

In his Force-projected vision, Liu sees Sage's fingers flatten out, moving up into the rock and filling out it's form and shape. The Padawan laughs sheepishly.

"It's only smooth on one side...the rest is sort of rough."

But what of Sage's other questions? He sees it as a flat grey, but cannot discern any other factors from it.

"Well...it looks grey..."

How do I tell its age and make?

Again, Liu is tempted to press his luck with the Force. But instead, he backs away once more. Just looking at the stone is taxing, but he's determined to figure this out.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage smiles. The Padawan will figure this out on his own. He is doing well. Even if he can't see the stone clearly enough, or feel it's age, he will in time. This is training and practice will come.

"Jason? Are you still with us?"

[Jason Utylln]

OOC: My apologies. :P

IC:

"Hmmm?"

Jason looked up from his sprawled position, irked.

"Oh. Yeah. It's really interesting."

He lay back down again and frowned. As hard as he tried he couldn't conjure anything into his thoughts that would keep him occupied.

"Hey, Sage. How long we gonna be out here?"

[Sage Hazzard]

"As long as it takes I would say. Am I not correct Liu? You are determined to learn are you not? Yes, you are determined to learn... pity Jason isn't..."

Suddenly, Jason was raised off the ground. Sage was raising him through the Force.

"Why don't you perticipate? You'll get out of here much quicker that way. Or you could continue to float. Your choice."

[Jason Utylln]

He hated when Sage used the Force to raise things. Especially if that thing was him.

"Cut it out!"

Jason jerked in the air and glared at the Jedi Master.

"Fine! I'll participate, just let me down! Now!"

He snarled through clenched teeth.

[Liu Fong]

Liu snaps awake, frowning somewhat at Jason.

"Calm down. He's not going to drop you."

[Jason Utylln]

Jason’s annoyance flashed directly into anger and he directed it toward Liu, momentarily forgetting about Sage and his own precariously unbalanced position.

“Hey, Jedi boy, why don’t you just stick to your little Force-huggin’ thing and let me handle myself?”

He returned his attention to Sage.

“Hazzard I swear if you don’t put me down in three bloody seconds…”

OOC: No hard feelings bru, it’s just the character, aye?

[Sage Hazzard]

"Or what, Jason, you'll spit on me? You need to relise there are things in this life better and larger than you. I'm just one of them. There's also the Force and other peaceful citizens who look to use Jedi to save their lives. I could kill you right now without breaking a sweat. The difference between me and a Sith is I 'could' and a Sith 'would'. Understand?"

Sage slowly lowered Jason to the ground.

"Now stop treating this like sunday brunch and get your act together. This is the most valuble training in your life and you will treat it as such."

Sage closed his eyes again, deftly putting Jason full on the ground and releasing his grip on him.

"Now, to show me you care, tell me how to connect to the Force. You were listening, right...?"

OOC - I don't have an excuse for such a late posting. It was sheer dumbness. Please, next time I'm so late, could someone send a reminding PM to me? Sometimes I just forget. I'm really sorry.

[Jason Utylln]

He hated this, but Jason held his tongue. It wouldn't do any good to say anything and besides, what the Jedi had said was true.

Instead the teen ground his teeth and brushed the dirt off his clothes, forcefully.

"I heard. But it sounds like a bunch of bull to me. 'Go within yourself'. 'Close off any distractions'. How the hell are you supposed to do that?"

[Liu Fong]

Liu sighs, putting Jason's comments aside for now. He'll counter them by exceeding him. Liu sits back to watch, and see if he taught it correctly.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage allowed a smile to play on his lips. He'd won a small battle here, getting him to work with him a little. He took away the smile as quickly as it showed, trying not to give it away. If Jason knew Sage was glad he was cooperating, it'd probably make him pull away more from his instruction.

"It is difficult, indeed, especially when one such as yourself has so much anger clouded his thoughts. To help, think of when you go to sleep. You just slept two minutes ago, so it shouldn't be too hard," Sage said stingingly, refering to his Padawan's earlier defiance mid class. "To sleep you clear your mind and focus on going to sleep. Thinking about the day's events, and your surroundings, make it harder to relax. To help though, as I know it to be difficult, we can use material objects as training wheels."

Sage took out a blindfold and ear plugs, pitching them to Jason.

"The Force finds you, not the other way around. You open yourself to it by mentally accepted it to be there. It's like going to a friend's house and knocking on the door. Busting down the door and yelling for your friend would be ridiculous, as he is waiting for you anyway, and simply needs to know you are ready for him to come out of the house."

Sage smiled, closing his eyes again.

"Now, put those on, and try and focus on a fictional shape. Convince yourself this shape is the most important thing in the world. You must know it's color, it's contours, it's peramiters. So, you examine them in your mind to the point you are thinking of nothing but that shape. In that moment, you will be at peace, as you are withen yourself and in emptiness. Then, as you open your heart to the Force, it will come and show you the way."

Sage nodded at Liu, to tell him his next instruction applied to him as well.

"Begin."

[Liu Fong]

Liu shifts slightly away from Jason and shuts his eyes with a sigh. For the moment, things are quiet, and Liu uses it to help shunt the last of his resentment towards Jason aside. He sees and hears nothing, which is the first step. His other senses quickly follow, being secondary to his sight and hearing, and Liu imagines his Force Cube. He is already familiar with it, and before he has fully resolved it the Force makes itself known to him.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage smiles as he feels Liu's connection in the Force. Sage, a Jedi Master who has mastered connection, can always feel when someone is in the Force beside him.

"Now, Liu, you know where the rock is, as does the Force. Ask it again to take you back. You've seen the rock with your eyes and through the Force, you know how to get there. It grows more easily in time, does it not? As if the Force accepts you as it greets you time and time again... yes...."

Sage smiles.

"Now, when you find the rock again, focus on it as you did before. Nothing else matters, remember. The rock is the universe now. Now that you know the rock intimately, personally, look withen it. Ask the Force if you need it, as it is there to help. Look withen it, focus on it's center and travel between the gaps in the molecules that the Force inhabits and flows through to it. The force sees all and is your guide. To see withen the rock is as easy to it as seeing the outside, and now it's the same to you as you are it's friend as ally as well as vica versa. Ask it to show you around," Sage smiles broadly.

[Liu Fong]

The rock is the world. Show me everything, if you don't mind...

The stone becomes sharp and clear and Liu's mind, up to the point where Liu had stopped when first sensing it. The rest is blurred, projecting from the small point to encompass a large area in his mind.

[Sage Hazzard]

"What do you feel from this rock now? Do you feel a bigger connection to it?"

[Liu Fong]

"Vaguely..." Liu says hesitantly, trying not to split his focus to much. "I see part of it clearly; which is what I--"

The rock fades from his view as he continues to speak. Liu releases it from his vision with a sigh and continues.

"What I saw clearly was what I saw when I first sensed it. The rest appeared as a vague outline."

[Jason Utylln]

Jason ignored Sage and the blindfold and the earplugs. He wasn't going to make a fool of himself. Instead he watched Liu, eyebrows wrinkling in skeptisim. Finally he could no longer contain himself.

"Oh come on! It's a rock! It's not a world, it can't show you anything, it's a chunk of a bigger rock!"

He stood up and whipped the blindfold back at Sage, frustrated.

"This is so idiotic! I might as well go pray to a waterfall!"

[Liu Fong]

"It's a metaphor," Liu explains. "When I say that the rock is the world, I don't mean that it's literally a world. I mean that it is the object of my undivided focus. Also, the point isn't that the rock shows us something. Using the Force to sense the rock's size and placement in space is similar to martial arts training with a punching bag. It's a tool to practice with."

[Sage Hazzard]

"Indeed, Liu is wise beyond his years."

Sage stood up. It seemed Jason needed something to look forward to. A sign that the Force was something he would be well to learn.

"Obsearve what the Force can do, Padawan. Perhaps you'll consider praying to waterfalls to accomplish what it can do."

He clasped his hands in front of him, in a praying position. It was for focus but he knew it'd feed Jason's thoughts on what Jedi were. A load of monks who prayed all day. Perhaps he'd see their praying was useful now.

There was a brick wall set up in the middle of the room. It was for practice in seeing how structures support each other in the Force. However Sage used it for other means. The wall crumbled as the middle rock split out from it. It flew into the air, twisting and turning, before stopping in front of Sage.

It was already taking a toll out of Sage. Not the task of levitation the brick, but what he was preparing to do. He could do it better than most, but that didn't mean much. It was an extremely hard task, even for a Master.

Suddenly, the rock crumbled. It collapsed in on itself, creating a glob resembling a sphere. As the sweat poured from Sage, he pushed on. The brick flattened, then stretched out. It's componants stretched to create a long stick, made of that one brick. Then, as Sage was fighting to keep his concentration, the stick, still made of the components of the brick, seemed to melt in on itself. It shimmered and when it stopped, it resembled a cross between wood and metal. Then, unexplicably, it burst into flames. Finally, the ashes wafted down onto the ground, along with Sage. The Jedi Master collapsed onto the ground.

"Y--you see Jason? How we--we Jedi... do more than pray to rocks?"

The fact he was out of breath was outstanding in it's own right. Sage prided himself in never tiring. Yet he'd just exerted more power than he was ever used to.