November Open Log

[drawsghosts]

Who: Darth Imperius and YOU
What: Catch-all log
When: November
Where: Various places
Content Warning: Slavery mention


Studying
The Archive has become on of Talwyn's usual haunts. He's a scholar, so seeing him with his nose buried in a book isn't an unusual sight. Right now, he's reading up on old rituals, and there's a book about the deities that inhabit the Trench nearby too. Next to him is his Sith holocron, in case he needs to meditate over something familiar.

Shopping
Even if it's not the clothing stores of Dromund Kaas or Nar Shaddaa, Talwyn still likes to treat himself to a new piece of clothing sometimes. He should also think about commissioning a new set of robes from the local tailors. He browses the scarfs, eyeing the different patterns and colors, before selecting a plain knitted one made from soft purple yarn.

"I swear, the good tailors can only be found with the Sith Empire. It's why we have so much better fashion."

Working Out
A Sith mustn't get rusty or let oneself get lazy, and thus Talwyn is on the beach, double-bladed lightsaber in hand, purple blades blazing. He pivots and twirls, spinning the weapon in his hand, battling imaginary enemies. Normally he'd do this with droids or dummies. One of the blades sweeps the sand, sending up a cloud of fine granules. He borders between aggressive and graceful, powerful and agile, changing up his style every once in a while.

He stops to take a break, closing the weapon and reaching for his canteen to take a quick drink.

Wildcard
[OOC: Feel free to ask for a prompt via PM or plurk arwingyoshi, or write your own.]

Comments

working out

[hopesparks]

Anakin has been even more restless than usual after spending a month in a cocoon. He finds himself going from place to place in the Trench. He doesn't mean to end up on the beach but the winding streets that are now the norm in the Trench have spat him out nearby.

He's instantly taken by the display of swordsmanship. He hadn't known there were other Jedi here he didn't know about, though perhaps assuming he's a Jedi is a bit premature.

He doesn't approach until Talwyn has finished his training and, even then, he doesn't get too close.

"How long have you been training?"

He could be polite and introduce himself, but he's a bit distracted.

[drawsghosts]

Talwyn senses the Jedi approaching him before he makes himself known. He's assuming Jedi, because Sith tend to have a certain aura about them. He takes a sip of water before replying.

"About a half an hour." He gazes around the beach, seeing the evidence of his routine in his footprints. He's also pretty sure that some of the sand fused together into tiny glass bits when he ran his blade across it.

[hopesparks]

Anakin follows Talwyn's gaze, noticing the small shards of glass. He rather hopes everyone has the common sense not to walk along the shore without shoes on-- this isn't exactly a summer resort, after all.

He flashes a small smile.

"I meant overall."

How many years did it take to get that level of precision, he wonders.

[drawsghosts]

"Oh," Talwyn goes over to the glass and starts kicking more sand over them, even pressing them deeper into the sand with his foot. "About five years." About a year before he started any formal training. Something he did in secret, with a simple piece of wood, away from the eyes of his slave master.

"Much of it came from formal training, studying others, and finding myself in life or death situations."

Studying

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra doesn't take his own holocron everywhere he goes, but sometimes he does when he's visiting the Archives.

And then he spots Talwyn in the Archives. He stands quietly, watching for a moment, and then comes to sit in the chair across the study table from the Sith.

Sets the cube in front of Talwyn, and just settle back in his chair, a pensive mood hanging over him.

[drawsghosts]

Talwyn looks up from the tome he's reading, eyes going from the cube to Ezra, taking a moment to sense the Jedi's mood. Talwyn's used to feeling a certain amount of energy from him, that this mood makes him raise an eye-ridge.

He holds the Jedi holocron in his palm, assuming that Ezra set it before him for a reason. He's never tried to open one of these before, since the Jedi guard their holocrons like a Hutt guards their credits.

Closing his eyes, Talwyn focuses on the holocron. A second later, it hovers above his palm and opens. He takes a moment to scan its contents, before closing it again and opening his eyes.

"I don't know what I expected."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra smiles faintly. Yes, that's about what he'd thought would happen.

"It's just materials some nice Jedi Archivists from about 900 years before I was born thought would be helpful for Jedi younglings and padawans cut off from the galaxy, with one lone, grieving master to teach them," he explains, the words feeling like ash in his mouth.

[drawsghosts]

"Useful for any young Jedi who come along, then," He sets the holocron down, halfway between himself and Ezra, on the table. "Mine is much the same; basic Sith teachings passed down by a Lord of the Sith." Makes Talwyn consider putting his life story within a holocron when he returns home, in case anyone tries to repeat his work with Forcewalking.

"I've studied Jedi writings, and my Jedi apprentice taught me a little about them."

[ezra_of_lothal]

The young Jedi nods - he has thought of it was as very useful. Now he's wondering.

"Your apprentice. I know the future is always in motion, but - do you...have any idea when you'd decide how her apprenticeship is over? Would she consider herself a Jedi Knight, then, do you think? Something else?"

[drawsghosts]

"I suppose it ends when I decide there's nothing more to teach her. I have no authority to grand Knighthoods to Jedi, and in the end, she decided that she could continue being a Jedi. Though, she also decided that she could take some Sith teachings into account, mostly in how we Sith allow for more flexibility and rule bending." That's one thing he dislikes about the Jedi of his time, is their utter refusal to evolve and ease up on some of their stricter rules.

[ezra_of_lothal]

He broods over that a moment. So, Jedi in full, but not a Knight, maybe. He knows fully trained Jedi have taken all sort of labels and titles over the ages, sure. Guardian, Sentinel, Healer -

Then he sighs.

"Ok. I may regret asking this, but what kind of rules? I have always been told being a Jedi is about finding my own path."

Even by, especially by, Grand Master Yoda. If anyone was going to be a stickler, it'd be him, right?

He sinks down lower in his chair. "Currently to, like, a sort of distressing degree."

[drawsghosts]

"In my time, the Jedi stuck to a strict code. Strong emotions must be tempered, romantic attachments are forbidden, and don't even think about the Dark Side or any other alternative path in the Force." He's paraphrasing, and mostly going by what he's read and what Ashara told him. "I simply taught her that there's nothing wrong with having a healthy set of emotions, and that there's nothing wrong with getting involved in conflicts that you have the power to solve, Sith or no Sith."

He's read about the Mandalorian War, and how the Jedi refused to aid the Republic, save for one Jedi and some of their followers. He's quite sure that if the galaxy were waging war with anyone but the Sith in his time, then the Jedi would continue to sit on their hands.

[ezra_of_lothal]

He frowns a little.

"I was always taught emotions aren't the issue, exactly. We all have, as you say, a full range of emotions. It's how you work through them and act on them. The Dark Side is dangerous because you can get so focused on your emotions, hold onto them so tightly, they control you."

[drawsghosts]

"Things may have changed since my time, because the Jedi of my era were so tightly wound that you could make them swallow a lump of coal and get a diamond a week later." So many Jedi who were taught to keep a lid on emotions, and yet the Jedi Masters wondered how so many of them went to the Dark Side.

"I can't say that the Sith never have the problems you describe. Many of them let their anger and avarice consume them, letting it dictate how they act. Still others have a good grip on things and are quite pleasant." Darth Vowrawn, for example, and his own master, Zash. "Even my own powers are bolstered by my emotions."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"I can't swear that there wren't Jedi like that a generation or two ago from my time," Ezra says with huff, "But I guess they wouldn't have made it through years of galactic civil war and the Purge."

Then he shrugs. "Internal balances is tricky, and personal. There's no...centralized authority for Jedi in my time. Only survivors of an Emperor bent on killing or brainwashing every Force user in the galaxy."

[drawsghosts]

"And yet your Emperor insists on keeping that silly Rule of Two that I've heard about." Perhaps such a rule was needed once, but from the sound of it, this Emperor won and the Sith don't need to hide in the shadows any longer. Talwyn doesn't think much of this Emperor Palpatine. Not that his own Emperor is any better.

"But trust me, the galaxy isn't going to implode if you let yourself feel angry or sad when the situation calls for it."

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ezra lets out a bitter laugh.

"Thanks. Like - honestly, seriously, that's good advice, and I appreciate it. But if the universe were going to implode just because I'm sad or angry, it would have done that a long time ago."

[drawsghosts]

"What can I say, I'm a helpful sort of Sith. I'm also not exactly one to talk when it comes to being a young Force sensitive and feeling strong emotions." Talwyn had his moments of anger and sadness when he was just nineteen. He also can't help but feel that there's a story behind Ezra's words.

"We Sith are encouraged to use our anger and hatred, that it makes us strong, that we can thus reach the full might of what the Force can do, and be stronger than the Jedi. Personally, I've gotten better results when using righteous anger, or a drive to protect my friends."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"I think I mentioned to you before that I've opened a Sith holocron and learned from it. I did it because..."

Ezra sighs. "My master had been blinded Maul - an older version than Maul as he is, here. I thought the Emperor's apprentice had killed another one of my friend and teachers, in that same confrontation. Long story. But I was so scared, so angry - I told myself I'd never let any of my new family, my friends, be hurt, ever again."

He rubs a hand over his face. "I did some things I regret. Ripped apart the mind of some enemy officers, and made them kill their fellow soldiers and themselves, basically. I found myself so angry - I was lashing out when people I cared about questioned me. Made mistakes during missions, because I lost perspective."

[drawsghosts]

Ezra had indeed mentioned it once. At the other revelations, Talwyn's eyes widen. "Well, I can't say I blame you for feeling the way you did, and doing what you did."

The Jedi of old would shame him for it, but Talwyn is Sith, and Sith favor action. He briefly entertains the thought that Ezra would make a good Sith apprentice had he been born in Talwyn's era. Or maybe a Jedi apprenticed to a Sith, like Ashara.

"But, seeing as you aren't going around killing for the fun of it or being a menace just for the sake of it, I'd say you did a good job at not losing yourself in the end."

Working Out

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul watches for a few minutes. He's seen few other Force-wielders use a double-bladed lightsaber before. Generally, one either needs multiple limbs or be a master of the blade in order to wield one effectively. Imperius appears to be the latter.

When the other Sith pauses for a moment, he draws near. "Feel like sparring against an actual opponent?"

[drawsghosts]

Talwyn looks over at Maul, capping his canteen and placing it back down. He activates the weapon again, the blades casting a purple glow on the sand.

"I would welcome that." Sparring with an opponent is much better practice than fighting imaginary enemies or the sand.

[hopesparks]

That gets an amused half-smile out of Anakin. "Life or death situations are good teachers. As long as you make it out alive."

It's not his preferred method of learning, but it tends to be the most common one as of late.

"I'm Anakin, by the way. Anakin Solo." He figures he should tack on his last name, in an attempt to prevent (?) confusion.

[drawsghosts]

"Fortunately, I always made it out alive."

Another Anakin? Must be a common name in the future, he figures. He doesn't recognize the last name.

"Talwyn Kallig, at your service." For now, he holds off on the Darth title for now, not wanting to put this Jedi on edge. He doesn't see or sense any recognition of his species from Anakin, so he must not be from Talwyn's era.

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul pulls out his own hilt and ignites his blades. He spars with his brother quite often and Savage also wields a double-bladed lightsaber, though Savage's skills with the blade have more brute force than artistry behind them given he's only been wielding it a couple of years now.

He adjusts his grip on the hilt to a fighting stance, flips the blades upwards so they're facing vertical, and then strikes out in an opening move designed to test Imperius' skill level. Maul wants to see how well the other Sith can defend himself.