Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises (Zereth Lancer - completed)

[Je'gan Olra'en]

As one Sith Knight to another, they were going to look into illusion today. Je'gan had sent the invitation in the way he always had during the time Zereth was an Apprentice, and he fully expected this one to be accepted with the same alacrity.

Je'gan was there, in one corner of the grounds, waiting. So was Je'gan, and Je'gan. Three Darth Shules stood in a row, waiting for Zereth to show.

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth walked toward the area where Je'gan had notified for them to meet. Today he did not move through shadows as he normaly did He did not want to use up any energy he might he later, and he just walked toward the indicated spot.

In the daylght Zereth's red eyes didn't appear to glow so bright. but the glow was still visible. His eyes moved and stopped on the three Je'gan's that where standing together. Zereth walked up to them and eyed them all carefuly. Another test I'm sure. I'm guessing I have to figure out which one is the real Je'gan He thought as he watched them carefuly.

Zereth first looked down at the ground. All three had shadows Je'gan's not dumb enough to forget to add shadows. Instead of checking physical appearence, Zereth reached out through the force. Je'gan was good with illusions. But possibly not good enough to make the illusions feel the same way as him through the force.

Zereth senced all three. The all felt Like Je'gan but one felt much stronger so then the others. The one on the right. Zereth Raised his hand and pointed at the one that he thought was Je'gan.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan smiled and let the illusions drop: the middle one, and the one that Zereth had pointed at. Muting Force signatures and creating false ones composed a standard, if higher-level addendum to normal Illusion, something he would be showing Zereth today. Among other things.

"How good are you with Illusion, Zereth? Can you change your face and make it lifelike?"

[Zereth Lancer]

"No, I cannot. I was only tought in very basic illusions by Salem Ave" Zereth spat the name. Salem Ave had been his first master before he had betrayed the order and fled Corellia, leaving Zereth's training incompletely and sparking a hatred inside of Zereth for Salem.

"He mostly tought me how to create small objected" Zereth pulled out a knife and held it in his right hand. He focused his mind and a exact duplicate of the knife appeared in his left hand. He moved his left hand and the illusion moved with it. He then threw the illusioned knife steight at Je'gan. The knife disapeared as it hit him "That is about all I was tought. I've tought myself a few things. Like how I make what I call shadow illusions. Where I create a shadowly illision in which to hide in."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan shrugged.

"Let's do something else. Imagine that you're not there; let the 'not-there-ness' wrap around you three hundred and sixty degrees, closing at top and bottom."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth closed his eyes and viewed the area he was standing in in his mind. He saw himself and Je'gan standing there. He then made himself disapear from his mind and let that feeling of nothingness wrap around him.

He was soon, in his mind, non-existent. In the back of his mind he knew he was there. But to his own sences he was not. He could feel Je'gan, standing alone. He had no idea how this would effect Je'gan. He assumed that he may have disapeared slightly in the force and that was it.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Next step," Je'gan said, staring off into what was ostensibly empty space. "Imagine, if you will, the nexus of twisted and bound cords - conduits of the Force - that comprises your Force signature. Create an illusion of perfect smoothness there. This isn't a visual illusion: it should be formed in another plane.

"Oh, and drop your invisibility to do so. You can try both later."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth dropped the thoughts of nothingness and centered his attention on his next task. He reahced out and felt himself through the force. He then invisioned his force signature as no more then a bunch of wires all twisted together and then he invisioned those wires being straightened out and made smoother, as Je'gan had said. He could feel something changing, but he wasn't sure what it was exactly.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Careful: you don't want to actively decrease your Force presence. That weakens you. What you want to do is project a false presence there, a presence of smoothness. Do not actually even out the lines."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth re-tangled the lines, but made himself think they were straight and smooth instead of actualy doing it. He could feel himself fade in the force. He didn't face much but enough to make it hard to sence him. With time he could perfect this technique and become even more invisible in the force.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"There; good. Let's move on.

"Something reasonably simple: give yourself the face of Darth Vader's mask."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth imagined the face of Darth Vader, the way he'd seen it in holos, and imagined his own face. He put the face of Darth Vader over his own and created an illusion copy that covered his own face and made it look like Darth Vader's mask.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Impatiently, Je'gan led Zereth through the process of refining a few details. Details, he told the older Knight repeatedly, were important.

At last he pronounced the illusion complete. Now they could move on to the more unpredictable, complicated forms of biological entities: more precisely, faces. Faces were extremely difficult to hold steady.

"Now give yourself Southstar's face."

[Zereth Lancer]

It took Zereth a moment to picture Southstars face. He quickly put an illusionary copy over his own face. The illusion was not perfect. A few scars might have been missing but the genereal features were all there. Zereth kind of liked the idea of masquerading as Southstar. Oh the trouble he could stir up with this disquise. He'd only need to sound like Southstar and it would be perfect.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

The Master/Apprentice bond, Je'gan reflected, was good for something besides a general sense of the other's welfare. In this case, it and his knowledge of Zereth's personality conspired to give him a very good idea of what Zereth was thinking.

"I wouldn't recommend using that exact face, of course. Southstar is patient, but not that patient. In times like these, antagonizing someone who could potentially help or hurt you is not the brightest thing to do. Same goes for the faces of just about anyone - there are a great many complications when you impersonate someone real. When you craft an illusory face, it's best to simply make one up.

"Give it a shot."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth thought over what the face should look like for a moment before coming up with one. With a bit of consentration Zereth's face changed. The new face had light colored skin, crystal blue eyes and a scar that ran down his cheek, Zereth quite liked the scar.

"Hows this?" He asked, the illusions lips moved in near perfect sync with Zereth's voice.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Quality-wise, it's quite good. Realism-wise...well, 'eclectic' appearances are all the rage in the Core, as you've probably noticed, but out in the fringes - and often in the Core, too - blending in is usually better. Change the eye colour, and be careful none of the normal red leaks out."

[Zereth Lancer]

The bright blue eyes changed to a dark brown and the light skin turned to a more dark tone. A few more scars and other more rugged features appeared. A thin stubble appeared on the chin.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Good. Now start talking, moving around, making faces. Then...change how the rest of you looks. Create an illusory weapon. If you can, create a lightsaber - visual only."

[Zereth Lancer]

"Very well" Zereth said before saying completely random things until he got used to moving the illusions lips and making them come into complete sync with his voice. He then went through several facial movements. A frown, scowl, smile, wink, and several others. He pulled his Lightsabre from his belt and placed it in his left hand. He studied for a moment before making a illusionary copy of it in his right hand and returned the real one back to his belt.

"Would it be possible to create a illusion of a lightsabre beam?" He asked as he studied the illusion in his hand.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Yes, but with two conditions. A lightsaber beam actually gives off light, and can be used as a glowrod. This won't, and can't. Also, without an auditory illusion it will have no sound."

He shrugged, and a beam of pure white appeared in midair. A blue overlay tinted the core and gave it a vibrant corona.

"Core, then colour."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth tilted his head down and consentrated on the top of the illusionary lightsabre in his hand. After a moment a long white beam appeared at the top of the illusion. A few moment later and a dim red glow appeared around the white. Zereth moved his hand that supposivly was holding the lightsabre hilt illusion. The white beam stood still a second before following the lightsabre hilt and then resting in its proper place above the hilt. "This is going to take me awhile to get the hang of" Zereth said as he moved his hand around some more and watched the beam lag behind.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan shrugged.

"Work on it on your own time; you've got the idea.

"OK...let's work with auditory illusions. You have to picture it as something completely separate - not an 'image', even. You want everyone to think that there is a sound. Imagine the sound - be clear; details here are often more important than details in visual illusions - and make me think there's a cricket chirping somewhere near."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth recalled the chirping of the crickets he had heard just the night before. He then projected the sound through the force. The sound could barely be heard for the first few moments before it started to grow in volume and then stopped at the same volume of a normal cricket chirp.

Zereth listened to the chirping. It sounded so very real, almost as if a cricket was on the ground before him. He even looked down at the ground to make sure there wasn't a cricket there.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan smirked.

"That's the big trick with illusion, isn't it? Split your mind: believe it and don't. Even I get sucked into it at times. Southstar told me once about a training partner of his who was so taken in with his own illusions that he became schizophrenic.

"Now something else: the voice of someone you know well."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth calmed himself and consentrated. He chose the most unlikely person to who's voice he would copy.

"How isss thisss" Came the raspy voice of Salem Ave. Zereth's lips moved along with the words but no sound of his own voice was heard "It isss ssstrange to use hisss voice."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"That'll do."

Without further comment, Je'gan's attention shifted to the side, where a false Force signature began to appear.

"You remember casting an illusion of smoothness? Now do one of complexity, of gathered and woven threads of the Force. The trick here is to give it a personality of sorts, instill it with a presence. Give it a shot."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth imagined the cords and wires but this time instead of thinking they were straight and smooth he made himself think they were twisted and wrapped around each other in total chaos. The illusion sprang forth from that and created a personality within all that.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

OOC/ Apologies: I've spent the last several days scrambling on a pair of projects for school.

IC/ "What kind of presence are you trying to create - dominating, or insignificant? Which comes most immediately to mind? And how would you use both?"

[Zereth Lancer]

"I was trying insignificant" Zereth said plainly "I would project that to make myself seems unimportant but I could make myself dominating to try to scare off a few weaklings or to let people know I'm there, let them know I want to fight or some such thing."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan remained wordless, thinking.

"If you're not too tired," he said at last, "I'd like you to try doing something like that somewhere besides yourself - make a false Force presence, like a Sith is standing right beside you."

[Zereth Lancer]

Zereth's eyes narrowed slightly at Je'gan even thinking he would be tired, it took alot to tire Zereth. "Doesn't sound too difficult" He said before turning his gaze to look apon the area next to him. He pictured those wires and cables of his own presence and made a similar duplicate and placed the presence in the open air next to him.

At first the presence was weak, but it grew. Since he had copied it from his own it was similar to his own forec signature. It reminded him of his clone, Alexander bane,'s force signature, which was close to his own but differered slightly.

An untrained person might have thought there where two Zereth's on the training grounds but anyone who put more consentration into it would tell the difference.

Zereth began to change the signature so it wasn't so close to his own.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"There."

Je'gan's meaning was not immediately obvious until he began to walk away.

"You know pretty much all I can teach you in terms of techniques - how you use illusion in a practical sense is your responsibility. Oh - one last thing."

He turned to face Zereth.

"Make a duplicate of me."

[Zereth Lancer]

"Hmm...." Zereth rubbed his chin for a second as he starred hard to Je'gan, looking at every detail. He then copied the shape and appearence of Je'gan and the used the force to create an illusionary copy next to him.

At first the copy was still, like a picture, but then it started to move. It's hair ruffled slightly in the breeze and it's head turned to look at the real Je'gan. It then took a step forward and lifted an arm and then lowered it.

Zereth was consentrating hard on the illusion. It was harder then he thought. His eyes were narrowed and starring hard at the copy.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Several minutes passed in silence. There was an eerie lack of sound; at last, the quiet was broken by the sound of Je'gan's footsteps on the ground. The Sith Knight was walking away. His words drifted back to Zereth's ears on a slight and sudden wind.

"You have done well..."