A calm place to rest (open)

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin passes the guards, hunching his shoulders and unclasping the sheathed sword from his belt. Many who enter are reluctant to hand over their weaponry, but Shrin is all too eager to be rid of his. The young man stretches his shoulders back, wincing at the stinging, throbbing, burning pains in his upper back. That sword has given him more trouble than he bargained for. The young man slips through the tables to the bar, leaning heavily on it and trying to position himself so that his coat won't touch his back too much. The barkeep tosses him a damp cloth.

"Ya gonna order somethin'? Ya look like yer could use a drink."

Shrin takes the cloth and wipes the sweat and grime from his face, sighing heavily as he puts it in a rumpled heap on the countertop.

"Anything, I guess...so long as there's no alcohol in it."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Could not help but notice how eagerly you handed over your sword."

Wei was about to pat Shrin on the back for being such a good sport, but stopped short.

"And you're hurt too. Almost tagged you on the back there. Best way to make it stop hurting is to take that coat off and get something cool to put on your back."

The guy was sunburned at the very least. Wei recognized his fidgety actions as being slow and careful, not quick and jittery like someone on a sugar high.

"Now what on earth has happened to you?" Wei asked.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin nods a bit, though he doesn't seem to want to take his coat off.

"That blade has caused me much trouble. Its one of those timeless relics that families pass down with their bloodline...the sort of thing that belonged to my father and his father and his father..."

Shrin finally just gives in to the pain on his back, shucking his coat off with a quick shrug of his shoulders. Beneath he wears a long, loose blue shirt, tinged slightly red across the back of his shoulders.

"Most recently it brought me into conflict with a pair of thugs, and during the struggle I was dealt several blows across my back with a chain and lead pipe. I think I'm bleeding...my shirt is sticking to me."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Yeah, you most certainly are bleeding. Hold on a second, I'll help you out."

Wei reached over and placed a hand on Shrin's back. Wei found Shrin's chi and fell into synch with it and slowly the bleeding began to stop and the cuts on his back began to heal. When Wei pulled his hand away it was tinged a little red.

Wei looked at his hand then wiped it on a napkin. Seeing that his hand was still red, Wei spit on it, and wiped it with another napkin. "There," the Knight said, "Much better."

"So why does having that sword get you into fights? Is it worth a lot of money, or does it have some sort of special ability?"

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin winces with a hissing breath as Wei touches the injuries, but soon relaxes as the cuts heal and the pain fades. His drink arrives--orange juice--and the young swordsman takes a sip as Wei asks his next question. It's an effort to keep from laughing with his drink in his mouth, but he maintains his composure well enough.

"There's nothing at all special about it!" he laughs. "It's not worth enough money to hold someone's interest, and it's only ability is to cut things, though its been doing a poor job of that lately. It needs to be sharpened, but its rare to find a shop that deals much with metal blades anymore."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei shrugged. "There's a few Jedi around here that I've seen carrying metal blades. One of my students, Neyasha carries two katana around with her, as well as a pair of metal daggers, and then a pair of sai...that girl is armed to the teeth. Maybe you could talk to her about getting your blade sharpened. Or I'll talk to her for you. It really doesn't matter."

Wei ordered a glass of milk, then raised the glass in the air toward Shrin. "Here's to breakfast drinks!" He said with a smile.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin grins and raises his own glass, tapping Wei's before throwing back the entire contents and slamming the glass to the countertop in a mockery of the heavy drinkers five stools down.

"A girl armed with six blades? Yes, I think I've encountered her already. A man was bullying a young girl, and I stepped in stop him. I was in the process of wrapping up the matter when she attacked him from behind."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "I see."

Wei drank down his milk just as quickly as Shrin had chugged his orange juice, but set his glass down more gently than Shrin had.

Wei felt disappointed at the thought of his Padawan diving right in with fisticuffs, but Wei didn;t know how long ago Shrin had met her. For all he knew, it could have been from before she started learning under him.

"I make an effort to teach all my Padawans to seek the non-violent solution first," Wei said. Wei adjusted his glasses on his face, then changed the subject. "Would you like somthing to eat? My treat."

[Shrin Safserim]

"No thank you, I'll be ok for a while. Just a bit thirsty from my last little skirmish."

He gets a refill on his juice before continuing.

"That's admirable that you avoid violence as much as you can. Many times you see where a Jedi simply jumped in with a drawn lightsaber when a Sith attacked, or when someone comes under attack and their first move is to draw a weapon. I don't like that. I'd rather no one was hurt."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Me too. Me too."

Wei got another glass of milk, this time chocolate milk. "What kinds of things do you like to do for fun?" Wei asked.

[Shrin Safserim]

"Well...I draw. ALOT. I used to have a big pile of sketchbooks full of little nothings...drawings of people, droids, buildings, plants...anything. I write a little, but I'm not very good at it. My spelling and grammar are usually dead on, but the content always seems cheesy or uninspired to me. I've also got a routine of exercises I do every other day."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Sounds to me like you are pretty well rounded."

Wei wondered. "I daydream alot, but I never can seem to put them on paper, or draw them."

Wei thought a little more. "Why does your subject matter seem cheesy? Or Uninspired, whatever that means?"

[Shrin Safserim]

"It feels...overdone. Like it's been done hundreds of times, or has been done poorly. I always feel I could've done it better somehow, but can't think of how I could do it better."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Well, let me ask you something. What sort of messages have you been trying to convey through your stories? And what sorts of things are you expressing in your art? Art and writing are both forms of communication. And all communication expresses some sort of message or feeling. Even babies, though they cannot speak, communicate their feelings very well. Don't you think so?"

[Shrin Safserim]

"Yeah, actually. In my art I'm always trying to capture the feel of whatever it is I'm drawing. If I'm drawing a droid, I try to keep the pose stiff and measured, like the droid...or if I'm drawing a person sleeping under a tree, I try to capture that relaxation. In my writing...well...it all depends on how I'm feeling. If I'm happy, I write a fiction or something to convey it. If I feel saddened or angry, its the same. It makes for some plot-hole ridden stories, but its okay for poetry and other prose."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Plot holes..." Wei repeated the words to himself and rubbed his chin as he motioned for the bartender to get him some more milk. "Now why do you suppose your stories are full of plot holes?"

[Shrin Safserim]

"Because it's all major events. There's no filler or in-between stuff. It's like making an animated cartoon using only keyframes. The motion is there, but its disjointed and clumsy."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Now, let's go back to what I said before, about art and writing being forms of communication. Now, look at what you've written, and what you have drawn. What do those writings and drawings say about you?"

Wei ordred a cookie to go with his milk.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin stops to think for a moment, staring down the bottom of his glass.

"Well..." he begins, "My writing shows that I am a fighter, but not in the way people would normally think, I suppose...many of my written fights end without anyone getting hurt, and no one ever dies. My drawings usually are of people or animals that appear happy or relaxed. I guess that means they say that I'm a peaceful, laid back kinda guy."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "But what about the plot holes? What do they say about you?"

[Shrin Safserim]

"That I don't transition well, and have a tendency to overlook little things."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei took a bit of his cookie, and chewed, thinking about what Shrin had said. "Now when you say transition," Wei said around the cookie in his cheek, "What do you mean?"

[Shrin Safserim]

"It means I have a hard time making a shift from one event to the next, at least in the context of my writing."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei swallowed, and sipped his milk. "What about in the context of your life? How well do you switch from one event to the next in your everyday life?"

[Shrin Safserim]

"I...guess that would vary. But...if I use the encounter with your warrior woman as an example, I would think the answer is the same. I went from fighting a guy with a staff to fighting that same guy with a lightsaber, to helping a girl get away and then to arguing with said warrior woman about life and killing. I stumbled from one thing to the next clumsily, but once I reached the next point, I was able to work with it well."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "I see. Sometimes strange things happen in very strange ways and the next thing we know, we're wondering how in the heck we got to where we were. Some people get very tense when things happen too fast."

[Shrin Safserim]

"Yeah..."

Shrin throws back the rest of his juice and skids the glass aside, suddenly not thirsty anymore.

"What do you think of human life?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Depends on what you're referring to when you say the word 'life.' Life, as far as humans living and breathing is a beautiful thing. I mean, look at all the wonderful and interesting people around you that you wouldn't meet if it were not for the Life Force that keeps them the way they are."

Wei took another bite of his cookie before continuing. "But, if you mean life as in the social settings that people create for themselves, as well as ups and downs created by those social settings, life is a very confusing and depressing thing. However, life, as far as this definition is concerned, can be a lot of fun. I seek to preserve both. As flawed as they may be."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin pauses a minute, fixated on the patterns in the faux wood bartop, then finally says what's been bugging him for a long time.

"That warrior person said the most efficient way to solve suffering is to kill the people responsible for it. She said that the repercussions of those deaths on others, such as their loved ones, were 'unfortunate side effects' to be dealt with by those people...she didn't care at all."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "Well, that's an efficient way to do things, to be sure, but sometimes the most efficient way is not the best way. Killing the people that cause suffering may be one way to end the suffering of one group, but by killing that person, you have achieved the goal the person you killed was trying to achieve. So you really haven't prevented suffering at all. You've only caused a different set of people to suffer. Therefore, in order to truly stop suffering, you have to make it so no one has to suffer."

Wei finished his milk, and looked at his half-eaten cookie, suddenly not interested in it. He'd save it for later.

[Shrin Safserim]

"It's hypocrisy. A horrible form of it. But...she seems not to care at all. It seems that so long as she's not the one that's hurt, it's fine. She said that she killed a man who was torturing her, but in doing so she caused others grief, and tried to justify it in ways that made no sense at all."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei nodded. "No, that does not make much sense at all. Most parents, when they have children, try to give their children a better life than they had when they were kids, because they do not want their children to experience the pains and the hardships that they did. If you try to help a group of people who are starving to death by taking away another group's food, then you don't solve the problem of starvation because people are still starving. Instead, you must find other food to give the starving people that doesn't belong to anybody."

[Shrin Safserim]

"Yeah! If someone is torturing people to the point of death, killing them still makes killing, even if it was quick and painless. There's other means...there always is."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha walks into the B&G, and hands her weapons over to the gaurds at the door...

She sees her master Wei talking to the man that see met after stopping a sith lord from harming a young lady futher....

She walks over to the bar and order a Scotch... as she waits for her scotch to arrive, she turns to her Master and says in her normal, emotionless tone...

"Good day Master Wei....I hope you are doing well to day"

Neyasha nods to Shrin...

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin gets his coat off the floor, looking up to see...that warrior woman. He throws his coat on, casting a distrustful glance at Neyasha.

"Hey."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei gave a small wave to his Padawan, and noticed that she also acknowledged Shrin as well. Wei didn't think Neyasha had acknowledged Shrin just so that she would not appear rude. If Neyasha was as efficient as she said she was, then she would only acknowledge him because she knew him from somewhere.

"Have you met Shrin before, Neyasha? He and I were just having a talk about ethics. I wish you could have been here for it. It would have served you well."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha nods to her master's question

"If it was about ethics, I beleave I have already heard his opition on that matter... If he was also refering to an argument with a warrior woman, That woman was me."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin says nothing, sliding the glass back to the bartender for another juice. He doesn't drink it though, but simply stares down the bottom of the cup, unsure of what to say and trying to quell the lump rising in his throat.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Shrin, what's the matter? I suppose you are angry, or maybe anxious?" Wei asked, concern lining his voice.

Then he turned to Neyasha. "So, since it seems that our topic of conversation has been you this whole time, it would be a shame for us not to include you in it. Neyasha, surely you must have overheard the last part of our conversation. What do you think about it? It is a Jedi's task to eliminate suffering from the universe, but if killing a person who makes people suffering causes others to suffer, then are we no better than the person we exterminated? And killing that person wouldn't really be efficient, because suffering wasn't really eliminated. Do you agree, or disagree?"

[Neyasha]

Neyasha looks at Shrin then back to Wei, giving in to her programed need to report situations to her commander...

"The encounter that he was most likely describing was not long ago. I saw The Sith that kidnaped my daughter, harming a young lady. When I got up there I saw that The Sith was attacking Shrin, and his back was facing me, so I drew my swords, charged, and slashed at the Sith's back, disarming him. He called his lightsaber to his hand with the force, but as the lightsaber whent past me, I cut it in two. I kicked The sith in the face trying to knock him out so I could question him later, but he escaped.

After the fact, I found that the young lady that was being attacked, is the daughter if the lead scienctist that turned me into the heartless killer, with no morals, that I was before I found my husband.

The lady brought up the topic of her father's death and I placed out the facts of that event... She twisted my words so that is sounded like I enjoyed killing her father and that all I wanted to do was destroy her family. I pointed out that I was only trying to stop the military from transforming hundreds of children into heartless killers that will only follow the military's orders, and saving the lives of the milions of people that would have been killed by the others that would have been modified, and that all other events that transpired because of me killing the five lab workers were unfortunate side effects.

The conversation went down hill from there, resulting in me being told by Shrin to 'Shut up,' and to 'Get lost. Don't come near this girl again'. I expressed my opinion about him judging me based on events that happend Ten years ago, Then I walk away. "

After Thinking on Wei's question Neyasha says

"I Would disagree in some cases.."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei tilted his head to one side, then the other.

"You could have just as easily captured them and revelaed what they were doing to the public. That would have also shut them down pretty fast."

Wei rested his elbows on the bar and knitted his fingerst together. He then rested his chin on his hands.

"Of course, if that hadn't worked I suppose you would have had no choice but to kill them, but I think that referring to the pain inflicted on those men's families as 'side effects' is putting it a little lightly. Bear in mind, while what those men were doing was indeed wrong, the families of those scientists relied on them for income, which paid for food, clothing, and shelter. That little girl depended on her father for her very survival. And you took that away."

Wei shifted his face to push his glasses onto the bridge of his nose with his thumbs. "Tell me, Neyasha. Since you hold the view that sometimes killing other people to prevent suffering won't cause suffering for a different set of people, give me an example of a case in which killing someone to prevent suffering won't cause suffering for someone else."

Wei turned back to Shrin. "Feel free to speak up with your own thoughts when you feel comfortable in doing so."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin simply nods, looking at Neyasha with a challenging glare. He's convinced, absolutely convinced, that Wei's task is impossible. He wants to see her fail.

[Neyasha]

"You must keep in mind that at the time of killing those lab worker, I had only partly broken the moral programing they put into my to the point that I detected their work as a threat to the people that I was programed to protect. I took the most efective approch in dealing with the threat, which is exactly what they programed me to do.... I know now that there were other ways of dealing with the problem, but I can not change the past. So it is best to let the past go, and not dwell on it."

Neyasha pick up her scotch as it is placed in on the bar for her, and takes a sip.

"It all depends of your defenition of suffer... I do not consider self-inflicted pain as suffering, and that is all that emotional pain is. A person will only 'suffer' from emotional pain if they want to. Nobody forces it on to them, and the defenition of suffer states that it is 'prolonged pain that is inflicted by an outside force'. To kill to stop a person from starving hundreds, or to stop them from killing large quanties, I beleave is worthy of doing. As for the loved ones of the people killed, they bring the pain apon themself by not excepting the fact that people die."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"You're scientists programmed you to kill, not find the most efficient solution. I'm absolutely convinced of this. There are people in this world that find that the best way to deal with someone who might get in the way is to kill them. That way there is not a chance that the person will actually get in the way. They call that being efficient. I call it being paranoid."

Wei released a quick breath out through his nose and continued on. "I agree with you that people ought not to dwell on the past. However, a oerson's emotions, and how they feel are often times a reflex reaction caused by the tihngs going on around him or her and that cannot be helped. You, having no idea what it is like to feel emotions, cannot begin to guess what it is like for the rest of us. As you regain your emotions, you will find that they cannot be turned on and off like flicking a light switch."

Wei picked the rest of his cookie up and finished it. "Everyone accepts the fact that people die, Neyasha. Death is a part of life. However, that does not change the fact that having a loved one die still hurts. My grandfather was very very old when he died. I knew that he would die because he was reaching the end of his life. But even though I already had accepted that fact, it still caused me a great deal of pain when he did indeed die, because I loved him so very much."

[Shrin Safserim]

"When a person feels suffering and loss, it is not by their choice! As Wei says, it is a spontaneous emotion, something that you will never grasp! I still belive my first assessment of you is true; you're a heartless beast."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sat there, staring at the wall behind the bar, and a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. Then his smile grew sider, showing his teeth.

"Beast..." Wei muttered, trying to stifle a laugh. "That reminds me so bad of this..." Wei's body began to shake as he tried harder not to laugh. "this one time..." Then Wei began laughing.

Wei's laughter was loud and long, good hearty belly laughs. Wei eventually collapsed onto the bar andjust let himself laugh. When he finally found the strength to pick his head back up again, his face was red and he found himself wiping a few tears from his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Neyasha. I shouldn't have laughed at that. But beast is such a funny word."

Then he turned his attention to Shrin. "Neyasha is working on recovering her ability to feel like we do. We must give her some time to learn."

[Neyasha]

"I have no problems being refered to as a beast, monster, or thing.... I agree I am what I am and I have had no control over what I have been turned into. Now I can feel some emotion, but only Happiness, Love, Caring, Regret, Consern and Hope. Though unlike most I am able to turn them on and off like flicking a light switch."

Neyasha takes another sip of her scotch...

"As for all the other emotions, I have no understanding about them or the pain they may bring... I can only state thing that I have gained through observation, Logic, and my programing."

[Shrin Safserim]

"No you don't. You cannot feel those emotions without also knowing the others. If you are happy, and something happens to break that happiness, you WILL feel saddened and hurt. You're still fake."

[Neyasha]

"If I am happy, and something happens to break that happiness, I go back to the void that I know all too well, or I go to Regret or Consern depending on what happend. Just because I can't feal the harmful side does not meen I can't feel the the one that I have mentioned."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Some people repress those feelings like sadness and anger. They never seem to get upset. But sooner or later, all those feelings come out. It's like an explosion. You'll find plenty of Sith that seem to explode. Rarely will a person find a Sith that actually can keep their bad feelings in line."

[Shrin Safserim]

"It's what they think makes them 'strong'..." Shrin says. "They believe that by storing it and unleashing it on an opponent at the right time they will have a stronger boost in the Force and in their ability. I think that's wrong. Rage is blinding; it makes people do stupid things and take risks they wouldn't normally take. It's hard to be to focus clearly when your heart and mind are clouded."

[Neyasha]

"I do not alow my mind to get clouded, I am unable to touch those emotions. I always attack with a clear mind calculating the dangers and keeping track of them as the fight progresses."

Netesha sip's her scotch...

"Maybe I should leave this topic... I don't know much about emotions and therefor have no right to speak about them."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei raised an eyebrow. "Speak, no. Listen, yes. And bear in mind that Shrin has just given you a good piece of information about Darksiders. You should not take offense at it. He is not putting you under the scope, so to speak. However, if I find something about your training that needs work, I will bring it up in our lessons."

Wei pushed up his glasses. "Neyasha, I recommend you slow down. You have been taught to size up a situation and come to a conclusion very quickly. While this can help to defuse a situation, it can also serve to make a situation worse. Save your quick evaluations for combat, but for everything else, take your time. There's plenty of time."

Wei ran a hand through his hair and directed his next question at both Shrin and Neyasha. "How would you define defeat?"

The question seemed to have little to do with feelings, but they would soon see where Wei was going with all this.

[Shrin Safserim]

"The metaphor of defeat that I have learned is that its like dying after all your weapons have been drawn."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha nods to her master....

"I will do my best to follow your instructions Master Wei...."

Neyasha doesn't have to think too much on Wei's question...

"Defeat is when you have failed to complete a task, and there is nothing you can do to fix the problem.... There for the only time a person can be defeated is when they are killed, or a critical component of your assignment is killed or distroyed."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei thought over both answers. "Well, suppose for a second that defeat no longer means that you lose. Whic would mean that success no longer means you win. So, if we can no longer define success and failure by the ends, when what do we use to define success and failure?"

[Shrin Safserim]

"The means. That's all that's left to judge."

[Neyasha]

"As it stands, there is no way to define success and failure. It is all based on the opinion of those involved. Success to one person is Falure to another, same as Failure to one person is Success to another. All that a person can judge about success and failure is the state of mind the person who defined it."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Both of you are correct. Success and failure is indeed a state of mind, Neyasha. And, as far as we are concerned the only way for us to create such a state of mind is to judge the means."

Wei pushed his glass away. He was finished with it. The Knight stood and motioned for Shrin and Neyasha to follow him. "Come along. I have an example to illustrate this point. I think you will both gain much from it. But first we must go outside. I know of a nice out of the way vacant lot we can use to practice."

Wei headed out the door, stepping briskly with his hands folded behind his back.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin gets up, draining the glass and leaving payment, taking his sword back and hitching it to his belt while on the move. He can't help but wonder what Wei has up his billowy sleeves.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha walks out the door picking up her weapons as she leaves the Bar, straping two katana blades to her back , her daggers to her arms, her pair of sai at her belt, as she follows Wei and Shrin.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei walked for about two blocks, turned left and walked for another block before he at last reached the long abandoned lot he had discovered on accident one day on his way back to the Living Quarters.

"Come along, you two."

Wei drew his saber and set it to its forcefield mode, effectively turning it into a practice weapon of the deadly lightsaber. His weapon wouldn't cut through butter, but Wei didn't have his saber out so he could cut someone.

Wei looked around the lot and saw some metal rods that had been left lying around. "Hmmm....let's use those instead."

Wei deactivated his saber and retrieved 3 of the rods. Each was about the size of an average sized sword. Wei threw one to Shin, and another one to his Padawan.

"Now that we are properly equipped, we can begin. This drill is called 'Push Hands,' but in this case we will be using these metal rods for swords. This is a two person drill, so I will lead each of you in the drill for a while and if you like, you can face each other. We start with the rods touching each other and then we try to create an open gate, so to speak, in our opponent and strike him. Or her. The key to this drill is to remain relaxed at all times. So, who wants to begin?"

[Neyasha]

Neyasha catches the metel rod and steps forward...

"if there is no problem, I will."

[Wei Wu Wei]

"All right, then."

Wei walked over to Neyasha and stood ready. He held up his pole so that it touched his Padawan's.

"For now we will begin the drill in this way. Try to create an open gate and move through it."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha moves her pole to a ready position, keeping her eyes focused on her master and his movements. Not exactly understanding what she has to do, she thinks it best to follow her master's lead.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei starts by pushing Neyasha's pole to the outside in a wide circle. Wei makes two or three circles to the outside, then just as he is about to make another full rotation Wei steps forward and thrusts the pole at Neyasha's chest.

By pushing his Padawan's weapon to the outside Wei had opened one of his proverbial gates, this time the open gate being her suddenly vulnerable chest.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha lets her arm swing high, and quickly sidesteps the thrust. she then brings the pole in her hand down at Wei's shoulder hard and fast.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei shifts to one side, catches the pole with his own and guides it off to the side in a large arc, ending with the tip of his pole touching Neyasha's leg, and Neyasha's pole touching his leg.

"So, Shrin. Who here has the advantage?"

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin stops for a moment, sizing the situation up. He wants to say that the person with the most speed wins, as that person can react fastest. However, if this were with real weapons, each would have a cored leg and...

"Neither of you have the advantage."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei raised an eyebrow and gave a sly grin. "Well, I wouldn't say that. It all depends on what happens next, you see."

Wei spun, and swung at Neyasha's head.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha ducks the pipe and brings her pipe up under Wei's arm, into his arm pit. While advancing forward under Wei's attack, she also brings her foot up to kick Wei in the leg.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei clamped down on the pipe that was under his arm and caught Neyasha's heel in the palm of his other hand.

"Now then," Wei continued his small lecture. "See here. There is an open gate on me, right here under my other arm that is holding Neyasha's foot. But she can't get to it without falling over.

Last time we both had open gates and stepped through them at the same time. This time, a gate is open, but it cannot be stepped through, so it might as well be closed."

Wei pushed Neyasha's foot to the side and released her pole and pushed it away as well. Then he made a stab at his Padawan's chest.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha listens instead of countering wei's blocks, then dodges to the left of Wei's Pole to avoid the thrust. She then brings her pole quickly down on to the wrist of the hand that is holding the pole.

"Sometimes falling is a vaild option... Had I wanted to I could have droped myself into a backwards role, using the way you were holding me to flip you over top of me, causing you to land rather painfuly on the other side."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei turned his hand to one side, letting Neyasha's pole ride his all the way down to the ground.

"I see that you get the idea about Push Hands, Neyasha," Wei said, bringing his pole out of a fighting stance.

"Shrin, your turn to participate. Neyasha, you will sit and watch."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin holds up his pole, stepping forward to meet Wei as Neyasha had.

"I suppose we begin on your mark?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"We can do that," Wei said and lowered his pole. "Mark!" Wei's strong voice thundered and swung his weapon upwards.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin moves his wrist, deflecting it and stepping aside to flick his own "weapon" toward Wei's midsection.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha Stands back and watches the fight..

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei catches Shrin's pole neatly with his own and makes a wide circle, moving in to strike just at the bottom of the circle. Neyasha had done well, but Wei had found a sense of tenseness in her. No doubt due to her overactive senses. Wei wondered how Shrin would fare.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin flows with Wei's circle, shifting his weapon to continue it into a figure eight and striking at the top of the arc.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei changed hands and angled his pole around just in time. The Jedi Knight began to circle Shrin and attacked low.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin parries, locking up with Wei by pressing their weapon arms close, coming nearly nose to nose with him.

"In this drill, is legal to strike with something other than this pole?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"Of course."

Wei gives Shrin a soft slap on the back of the head.

[Shrin Safserim]

"Wish I'd known."

Shrin feels somewhat chagrinned, but pushes back and gets ready to find another open gate. He makes a diagonal down at Wei's left shoulder.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei drops low to duck under the swing, and reaches out a leg to trip Shrin.

"Not bad. Just a little longer and then you two can practice against each other if you want."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin leaps the sweep and follows his momentum around, flicking his wrist to make a subtle change in his attack arc.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei stops the attack, closes in, and gets an arm around Shrin's back. Wei then placed his feet inside of Shrin's and extended his legs, watching Shrin come up neatly off the ground, balancing precariously on the small of Wei's back.

"Very well then." Wei gently flipped Shrin over and onto his feet.

"Now, what would you two like to do now? You can face each other, or if you would like, you two can go back to taking turns practicing against me. Or if you would like, we can just call it quits and go home."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha looks at Wei

"I would be fine with any of the options... Though I still don't see the point that you are trying to get across."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin tosses his pipe back onto the pile Wei got them from.

"I won't duel with her."

Shrin still sees her as an odious and dishonorable she-beast and wants nothing to do with her.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei turned to Neyasha. "Notice that during the drill I always kept moving. Also, I never resisted him. Nor did I resist you. I just carried on the motion. The point in Push Hands is to deflect your opponent's energy or turn it against them; never to stop it."

Wei set his pole down. "Now, both of you put your weapons down. As you have seen with this drill deflecting or re-directing an opponent's energy is harmful for them, but not for you. Now, I'm going to throw my most solid punch at both of you, and I want you to block it. Stop it cold. Do I have any volunteers?" Wei asked as he rolled up his left sleeve in preparation to throw his punch.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha nods...

"I Will go first again."

Neyasha Readies her muscles to stop a punch like a brick wall. and with her enhancements of droid like muscles and metal infused bone, a hard punch would hurt whoever punches her.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei called on the Force to increase his strength and dealt his most fierce blow to Neyasha's arm. Wei felt a pain in his wrist, but all stopped attacks hurt a little. Wei healed up his wrist.

"Neyasha, tell me something. When you stopped my punch, did your arm hurt at all?"

[Neyasha]

Neyasha's arm holds still as it is punched, and her exprestion does not change. After the punch she forces the posture to be more pasive.

"The punch delivered little pain, though I did regester large quantiy of presure that would have been capable of doing serious harm to a normal person. As for the pain I recived, my arm has already recovered."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin grinds his teeth. This woman is a blatant liar, on top of being a violent, arrogant brute.

"I suppose I'm next?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"That's right."

Wei did not boost his punch this time. The intent was not to break bones, just deliver a small smacking sting. Wei punched, almost aiming at Shrin's forearm.

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin simple turns his arm and takes the blow on his forearm, pushing Wei back with an exasperated sigh.

"Too easy."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha looks to her master

"I am assuming that you will explane the meaning of this symple fighting drill...."

She then looks to Shrin...

"I would also like to know why you dislike me..."

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei grinned at both of them. "Shrin, I'm assuming your arm stung a little bit when you brought my punch to a complete stop. I know it stung my knuckles a little bit when I punched you."

"The point of this drill is to get you to not only notice open places in your opponent, but also to get you to fight your opponent without resisting him. Did you notice that when you gave with the attacks and found a way around my advances that it hurt less than actually halting my attack flat out? It's a much more effective, and I also find it to be a more rewarding way to handle your own energy and the energy of your opponent. In this drill, you are not learning how to halt an opponent's energy, but you are learning to control it. If you can control your opponent, then you have essentially won the battle. Even if you lose."

Wei took up the poles and put them back where he had found them. "This drill is over. Neyasha, if you have any further questions, ask me at a later date."

Wei walked over to Shrin and shook his hand. "It was a pleasure to have met you Shrin. You have much potential. It was nice to have been able to teach you. This drill, I think, is right up your alley. If you would like to practice this drill again and you find yourself lacking a partner, let me know. I'll be happy to help you if I can." Wei handed Shrin his contact information.

"Now then, it's getting rather late. I must go. I think I can trust you two to behave yourselves and get this little problem between you two cleared up. I will see you both later on."

Wei walked out of the lot and headed back to the living quarters at the GJO compound.

[Shrin Safserim]

"You're so fake," he says, spitting his words with palpable contempt. "Dense too."

[Neyasha]

Neyasha nods to Wei, then turns to Shrin.

"I can not help what I was forced to become.... If you think that I am Fake, I asure you that I am very real, And that I am not capable of lying, due to my alterations. Why must you trust the truth about me from the mind of a 3 year old that has never met intill recently? I am much more complex than the symple Beast you see me as."

Neyasha Drops her poll on to the ground, then walks to the the fence that surounds the lot, takes off her weapons and props them aganst the fence. The than walks back to Shrin....

"If you truly think that I am the beast that you discribed of me in the past.... then kill me.... Rid the galaxy this beast... I will not stop you.... releave me from my continuous toture.... Please."

[Shrin Safserim]

Shrin spits at her.

"Shut up. People like you are a drag on those around them. All you do is weigh down others with your idiocy and blathering about emotionlessness. No one is ever emotionless. Not even people who keep a straight face and a flat voice."

Shrin turns on his heel.

"Go learn how to live. I don't need to kill you; you're as good as dead already."

[Neyasha]

"I never said I was emotionless... I said that my emotions were removed. I am learning to get them back, I am learning how to live... Slowly. But I am learning."

Neyasha goes to pick up her weapons....

"You can condem me for being a victim of my people's military, Or you could help me become a person again, instead of the beast that I am."

[Shrin Safserim]

"If they are removed from you, they don't exist within you, and therefore you are emotionless! Spare me your presence and get out of here!"

Even as he's speaking, Shrin is removing himself from the picture, walking away with such finality in his stride that any attempt she makes to chase him will not end well.

[Neyasha]

Neyasha just turns and walks back to the LQ