Emotionally Compromised

[Palara Iscandar]

Baastian's lightsaber swung in, and Palara was not foolish enough to continue trying to use the whip in close-quarters. The whip deactivated and retracted into the hilt, while she dropped to the ground in a split, her own white-bladed saber angled to divert the attack away, though the sheer strength of the swing was enough to require a flourish of her own to the side, else she would have sported a neat burn on her face.

She spun, rolling onto her back into a windmill, pivoting on one hand while her legs struck out at Baastian's own to trip him to the ground, ending in a short hop to her feet with her weight on her back leg and her lightsaber held above her head in one hand, as the other was held out before her holding the whip's hilt at the blond Knight.

She was silent for a moment, and then she stood straight and smiled.

"Zank you," she said. "I appreciate you taking ze time to allow me to practice with ze whip against you. I still 'ave some practice before I can consider it viable against a trained enemy zough."

She turned, noticing her mentor and Vissica standing in the entrance of the training salle.

"Ah, Knight-General. Knight Vissica. Do you wish to make use of ze salle?"

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

"Comrade Iscandar. Comrade Cain."

Vissica stood upright with a deceptively cool demeanor, curling the knuckles of her forepaws underneath the bottom edge of her cuirass. She awaited the Knight General to take the conceptual discussion they'd previously shared and put it towards its first practical end.

As she awaited clarity's arrival, the Selonian focused her attention on the Twi'lek. She had not forgotten Captain Merasska's words in passing. It was a curiosity she'd soon need to satisfy.

[Rossos Atrapes]

"I require your and Cain's cooperation," Atrapes answered, walking further into the salle. "Examples of meditation practices and methods of emotional control. We all require a refresher in such techniques, I believe. After the execution, my control has been weakened."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

Vissica's posture shifted slightly upon hearing the Knight General's admission. She had no inkling he had been so affected. Though her senses were generally attuned, Atrapes had always been a mystery to peer into. No doubt that was by design.

[Baastian Cain]

Baastian lifted a hand to call a white towel from a rack at the edge the platform, which he used to mop the sprinkling of sweat off his brow. The action helped to cover his surprise at the Knight-General's admission. The execution was difficult for all of them, to be sure, but he had a difficult time imagining anything that could weaken Rossos' legendary poise. Certainly nothing Baastian would be able to master himself.

"Certainly. I think we all need to re-center ourselves once in a while."

He laid the towel over the back of his neck as he descended from the platform toward Vissica and Atrapes. "I guess I look at emotion two ways. You've got the ones that come in flashes, in the heat of the moment. Anger, terror, anguish. And then you've got the slow burning ones, the ones that keep you up at night. Doubt. Regret. Resentment. Those are the really dangerous ones. The first ones can cloud your judgment. The other ones can change who you are."

His blue eyes slid from the Knight-General to Vissica. In a lot of ways she was still an enigma to all of them. He wondered how strongly she identified with any of this.

"When something's gnawing at me like that, I have to shake myself up. If I'm brooding in the dark, I'll go sparring with a PROXY unit. If I'm on ship, I'll go to an obs deck, watch the stars or the hyperspace vortex. I either narrow my focus or I blow it wide open. Either way, it helps to put my problems into perspective. But that's just the first step, really."