Back in Session (Force Training)

[Jacobi Wylcott]

Darth Tormentous eyed the Neti inquisitively. He had just proven that he was indeed capable not only feeling the Force but tapping into it as well and for how brief a moment in which he knew this Neti to be on its quest for the Force’s knowledge - it was quite impressive by its progress. Especially since he suspected that this creature was far older than most normal pupils which typically was something to take into account when choosing as an Apprentice. Too old and the capacity to learn and grow was limited - but here with this Neti it seemed that age and the wrinkles of time held no sway here. Fascinating.

The Dark One could sense the accomplishment, he did not need Sa’ato Mors to reflect this in words. He could feel the rise in prospective potential. How the Force seemed to mesh better with the flow that surrounded the Neti’s own energy field. It was now more of an actual flow rather than a musty haze that seemed to drift about. He nodded to himself and silently mused that this Neti was anything but a waste of his time.

Perhaps then another demonstration to show Tormentous that this creature could not only just feel the Force - but could he actually manipulate it? Tormentous extended a hand out to the nearby trees within the glade and a few thunderous cracks of branches later a large portion of tree slapped into the palm of his gauntlet. He cradled it in both hands and inspected it briefly. Comfortable that this was how he would proceed he began the next lesson. Part of him also wished to view the reactions. Were Neti inclined to be protective of nature’s bounty? If so then damaging mother earth’s production would be an interesting twist to help him toy and break the bonds and chains that held Sa’ato Mors.

“There are three disciplines or tenants that we study in order to grow and perfect our skills. Control, sense and alteration. They are basic enough yet form the core of everything we do. Control is the cornerstone discipline in that it is where and how we command the Force inside of us. A Sith must be ruthless in everything that they do and demanding that the Force be bent to our will as a tool and more so as a weapon is crucial to our existence. Sense - you have already touched upon this aspect. It is the outward perception of our minds through the Force. Then there is Alteration. The means of affecting that which is beyond our physical reach.”

Finally he turned over the wooden branch and running the length of the branch was an old wound. Possibly from lightning or an ursa. Whatever it was the tree had bled over the wound and it had solidified to create rock hard amber. Portions of the branch were quite taken with the substance in its density. Tormentous offered his words further to deliver images to his speech. “The act of alteration is affecting the Force surrounding, and within an object.” He gripped a portion of the hardened amber and broke it from the branch, crushing it in his huge hand and into a powdery white dust. “To physically affect something is simple. But to reach,” he pointed to his temple, “into something and unmake it. To churn the stuff that comprises it. To affect something at its core. This is alteration.” He offered the branch to Mors.

“Seek the Force within this branch. You will have to study the patterns. How the Force acts within it and around it. Then through alteration. Touch the Force matter. The element of the Force that resides in the heart of this amber, and bend it to your will. There is no need to focus on the amber’s physical nature, instead focus on the Force within the amber. Accelerate the flow of the Force, create movement and just like solid matter should you heat the element of the Force then it too shall respond.”


He paused a moment and gave the Neti plenty of time to prepare himself. “Unmake this amber. Bring it to its liquid state. Defy reality and make that reality your own. Nature flows at its own steady pace and direction - you must learn that nature’s choice is not always akin to your own. Force your will upon it if you must. Show the Force itself that you are not a lesser pawn. The grain in which the Force shall flow will be of your choosing - and yours alone.”

---Alteration 1 - 400 Words

[Professor Mors]

Sa’ato cast a glance at the mangled twig before closing his eyes once more. Touch certainly helped. With some effort, he sent the wavelength of his own presence in the Force down from his head, through his shoulder, along the forearm, and finally into the tendrils that extended out from the palm of his hand. With another audible exhale, he began to probe the branch itself, seeking out its own natural bonds. At first, the professor could find nothing, thinking only of atoms and covalent bonds. He had to focus, to seek out a new perspective on the matter in his hand. Growling under his breath, the Neti’s momentary frustration drew him from his scholarly preconceptions, and slowly but surely, the roadmap of the tree limb’s matter- no, its bonds with the Force, came into focus. It was unlike any x-ray the retired teacher knew. It was as if the outer skin of the bark had fallen away, and all Sa’ato could trace with his feelings were clusters of nettles held together by stalks no wider than pins. If he concentrated hard enough, the structure of the woodwork as it was bound by the Force appeared faintly in light blue. Squinting harshly, though it did him no physical favor, the Neti redoubled the depth of his mental gaze, and zeroed in on an even smaller helix of icy connections running through the larger maze of the branch’s outline. There was the amber. Microscopic, fragile. A test of strength was in order to gauge the oaken initiate’s output. Lifting his head and the direction of his mind’s eye, Sa’ato began to pour his essence out through his digits, tracking the flow of his own signature in the Force as it climbed up the branch. Steady, focalize on just one point, at the top. The professor continued to flood one spiked cluster of energy at the branch’s jagged peak, before a light flash dazed the Neti, and the sensation of wood dust fell onto his elongated fingers. It was a half-victory, but shattering a link in the energy matrix was not the same as melting it. Sa’ato furled his brow in meditative thought. A centrifuge should do. Now rapidly sending his thoughts down into the stripe of amber, the academic steadied the pace of his breathing and labored to distribute the extension of his field over the entire length of the solidified substance. Carefully, he imagined the twisted spine of the deposit as it existed in the Force spinning round and round. Soon, a metaphysical heat and magnetic repulse tickled along his compressed fingers. The distance lights of the bonds glowed brighter and brighter still as their shape became amorphous, the speed at which the formation was turning growing more and more intense with each passing moment. At last, the Neti could only identify a blur of feverish motion, until the entire tower of invisible links collapsed and sank from view. A stickiness dribbled down onto Sa’ato’s palm, and though he did not bother to open his eyes, he allowed a slight smile in light of his success.

[End Alter One Application, 516 Words]

[Jacobi Wylcott]

“Simple enough.” Tormentous quipped and then he unceremoniously turned around and started walking, it would then be for the Neti to decide to follow or not. Leaving his sword stuck in the dirt, the Dark Lord made away from this place and he made a little trek through the woods. The lush and verdant forest was a solemn place to be within and as he walked through it he found no worries save the ones he brought with him. Aside from this there was nothing to complain or wretch over. It was a simple place in a complicated time. He moved further into the wood until the audible rushing of water caught his ear and he honed in on it easily enough.

Arriving to a gentle creek he looked up and down its length - satisfied that he could deliver his next lesson and see if this Neti was worth its salt. “We’ve been talking about the flow of the Force and how it delivers a current that is ever in motion. This task will be dealing directly with that concept.” He hand opened and he motioned towards the crystal clear water as it ran very gently through the cut depression in the ground. Curving around a tree and speeding onward to the South.

“Begin anew. Find yourself within the Force and set your mind to the task at hand. Prepare yourself to move outward of your own influence and onto that of another.” He referred to the creek in that regard. “Touch this body of water. You must first and always - seek the Force in all things. Observe how it moves and how it plays across the ripples of the water. It is a constant in this place as any other but the threads of the Force are more dense here because the brook is in such motion.” He then fell completely silent and there he waited. Now was time for Sa’ato Mors to delve into the Force and see for himself the things that were described and this would take some time. Tormentous wasn’t at all patient, but he knew how to be patient - he would do so here.

In time once he sensed that Mors was prepared within himself to continue, Tormentous boomed in his bass tones and delivered unto the Neti the next phase of the training. “For this exercise you will be affecting the flow of the Force itself. As this creek already delivers for you an active example it should be easy to draw yourself in on. Search the waters and cling to the Force. Utilize your own energy field to overcome the placid threads of nature. In this instance you’ll be looking to draw more of the current in the same direction it is already flowing. Pull on it and drag it forward. You will notice that the current is not as smooth as it could be which bars the full potential flow. You must alter the flow and turn it to your will. Increase it and let it flow in a greater fashion.”

After a few moments he added, “In this exercise you should also add something that is essential to what we do. Emotion. It is one of the most powerful elements of the Force. If you could harness emotion, you can amplify your power ten fold with ease. For now that is a lesson for tomorrow. Until then I want you to simply allow yourself to get excited, anxious or better yet impatient and angry. Just these feelings alone with cause your energy field to show increase and in its increase you may affect how the Force reacts to you. Use these things, and you will find a greater power within yourself.”

---ALTER FLOW - 100 WORDS

[Professor Mors]

Nodding at his impromptu tutor, Sa’ato carefully stepped into the babbling brook and blew out oxygen-rich breath. Closing his eyes, the Neti extended his fingers down toward the churning waters and forcefully staked his thoughts down below the surface. Slowly but surely the spasming threads of the Force illuminated themselves as they pulsed and lashed forward through dirt and grass. The academic latched onto this stringy torrent of energy easily enough, but attempting to manipulate any cluster of them was met with little success as their momentum literally slid through his imagined fingers.

Sa’ato splashed a foot about with irritation. Not unexpectedly, the Neti’s analytic focus was getting him nowhere, and his prehensile approach to the Force was insufficient. The Dark Lord was correct, he was missing something. Clenching fists with a resurgent frustration, the professor allowed his drive for greater knowledge to overcrowd his objective thinking. He wanted more, he needed the pieces to fall into place. Sa’ato’s thoughts became motion, his mark in the Force colored by a sheer hue of excitement and anger. Before he knew it, his hands swayed from side to side, as if of their own prerogative, and the academic could feel the water slosh more freely about.

Silly as it felt, the Neti continued to swing his arms about, his thoughts flying from his limbs and all but pounding the stream with explosive bursts of momentary contentment. In time, that satisfaction became sustained, and the water level climbed steadily. Finally, the academic recalled his previous joy of following the wind. Rather than become the miniaturized river, Sa’ato took the brook in the crook of his mental elbow. Channeling the enthusiastic penumbra of a triumph, the professor forcefully shoved the water forward, his eyes snapping open as the stream reached a white-water peak and forced twigs and rocks from its path.

[End Alter Flow Application, 307 Words]

[Jacobi Wylcott]

Tormentous cross his arms and looked at the Neti appreciatively. Mors had managed to accomplish everything that he had been challenged to do. To Tormentous the tests were over, it was time to put his accomplishments to practical use. “Often times,” he began - extending his hand to the creek - his gauntlet chilled with hoarfrost and the temperature of the surrounding element suddenly cascaded into a gradually dropping degree. Within moments a chilled haze was settling over the area as the moisture in the air was beginning to flash freeze. The resulting fog grew more dense with time, “we find ourselves on the business end of dangerous situations. As Sith, we do not fear these situations - we adapt to them - we overcome regardless of the cost.”

The very brook Sa’ato stood in began to chill and at an unnatural rate it started to freeze over. If he did not extract himself from its depths soon then he would surely be captured in the icy cold. Tormentous almost casually continued despite the natural threats that Mors was now under - vegetation did not do well in cold weather and now with poor and fading visibility the situation was getting strenuous to say the least.

“The Force will do this for us should we learn to harness it and bend it to our will.” Within the now hazy mist the creek began to crack apart and large shards of deadly ice sickles started to levitate into the air. “Do not wait for the Force to speak to you. There is no time for you to ask and be granted foreknowledge of danger. You must reach outwards forcibly - expand your energy field to encompass a broad spectrum perimeter around you and seek out foreign entities. You’ve come accustomed to your own signature in the Force, looking for and seeing things that do not belong should be simple enough.”

One shard turned and aimed to Mors’ foliage and lashed out. Part of Tormentous as disappointed that it missed at first, passing through harmlessly. A taste of what was to come. “As you tune your sense in to your expanded sphere, the Force will alert you to these things. You must not only see them for yourself but learn to recognize what the feeling implores. Then likely the most difficult task - reacting without thinking.” He opened his hand an an ice shard hovered over his palm, “When an attack comes to you, there is no time to think. You must react.”

Not the shard in his hand but two shards behind Mors turned and shot at him. Tormentous wasted no time - the shard in his hand blitzed forward next. He did not stop here as more shards came from the deep of the mist. Either Professor Sa’ato Mors would learn this task quickly and prove his worth once more - or he would fail and be left less than a footnote in history, regarded as just another upstart failure, a waste of time.

---DANGER SENSE - 200

[Professor Mors]

As soon as the Darth lifted the frigid dart aloft, Sa’ato set to work spinning his presence in the Force around himself in a spiral. He hardly had to think about what lay in store for him, and flattened his personal field of energy to form something of a radar screen. The Neti only just barely managed to detect one ping, a flash of malevolent red, that quickly penetrated the first two rings of his sensory cosmos before plugging painfully into his side.

Snarling in anguish, the academic increased the mental rotation of his most primal instincts, and this time caught the second blade of crude ice earlier in its trajectory. Its virulent hue in the Force was prominent, and with each tier of Sa’ato’s web that it pierced, he came to know the object more and more. Size, sharpness, the speed at which it hurtled through the air. Partially immobilized by the rapidly freezing stream, the professor elected- or at least, his subconscious chose to twist his torso to the side and allow the shard to pass harmlessly where his midsection had only just occupied.

With his head turned away from the Dark Lord for that split second, the Neti felt another magnetic pulse reverberate through the jerry-rigged network of his essence. This time however, it was not the flaming crimson from before. This sensation was prescient: the attack had not yet been launched! Smirking, the retired teacher quickly snapped his upper body forward, and handedly caught the last clump of ice between his tendrils. It had traveled along the exact path the Force had told him it would. Listening, it seemed, was half the battle. A small battle, but that which had been won.

[End Danger Sense Application, 286 Words]

[Jacobi Wylcott]

The fog and mist had yet to even begin clearing when Tormentous moved right into the next portion of the lesson for the opportunities given were the opportunities needed. But here in this moment was given Mors the opportunity to grow. With the Force there weren’t many moments in which one could not utilize to one’s benefit. Though to Tormentous the best training would come later - this early training was boring. “In this moment you have taken in senses and abilities that have allowed you to grow and survive in this setting. But you do not know how to turn them off. It is as if you were blinded and your alternate senses woke up and in this your mind can easily be overloaded.”

“The Force within us is a chaotic menace. You must harness it and learn to control it so that you can focus it to your own means. So long as you allow it the freedom to continue without the ability to command it. Forever will it avoid your full grasp. In this moment you are weak - in the next moment you shall be so much more.” If Tormentous was one thing, he could be called ruthless but ever an effective teacher. Moving his right arm from right to left he caused his will over the Force to dominate the winds unseen (Alter Flow) the Force changed direction and its flow alone became a wave of tidal force. It came upon Mors’ energy field and crashed against it as wind against rock. In doing this the flow versus the energy field disrupted all form and familiarity. In effect this would cause Sa’ato much discomfort and his senses would likely lose much in control and concentration.

“Simply put, Neti - you need only reform the flow of your own energy field. The threads of the Force constantly move and change. But it is in our minds that we control it and keep it in check. You must learn to command it. Reach out and draw on the Force that surrounds you. Control is all about your influence over the Force that is within you and within the influence of your own personal energy field. This includes as you grow - potency of your techniques and abilities but more so the response of the Force to your willful command.”

---BEGIN CONTROL 1 - 400 WORDS

[Professor Mors]

Sa’ato groaned for breath and blinked desperately in the vain hope of identifying the horrid gale of energy eating away at the edges of his essence. The professor felt the malevolent counterforce of the Darth’s metaphysical assault hew away at his limbs and torso, and while it was agonizing to absorb all at once, the Neti gradually came to recognize a stalk of tingling dynamism within his oaken frame that would not bend to his mentor’s will. A stalk, a needle, a shapeless thread, some core thing at the center of the academic’s body and mind that awoke to the ferocious attack and started to defend itself.

This was not an automatic response however. No, Sa’ato could hear his own voice in his head commanding the psychic thunderstorm to cease its advance. Yes, this frame, this consciousness was his and his alone. With some determination, the professor locked his jaw into a grimace, and forced his eyes to stay open. More than that, looking down, the Neti searched for the chaotic strings of his signature in the Force, and quickly felt a series of feverish vibrations in his limbs.

Growling and funneling potent breaths from his nostrils and pores, Sa’ato silently chanted his name as a mantra. Shivering about from time to time, he steadily inflated the sinews of his ego and sought to fill his own body like a piece of clothing. As the shade of the Living Force colored and reconstituted the Neti’s control over his limbs and motor functions, he readily balled both fists and shut his eyes as he worked to quiet his mind. Yes, quiet, subdue, repossess, command. As with his recent psionic awakening, the professor began to call out prime numbers in sequence, his most favorite and private form of meditation.

Sa’ato Mors was a man of numbers, absolutes, and a curiosity bent on questioning everything and anything. He was a scientist, and science required tight constraints and deliberate action for experiments of all kinds. It was not enough for the Neti to simply sense the viscous chlorophyll coursing through body. He had to lower the sugars running rampant through his system, using the Force- his own Force, to catch the erratic energy like a sieve and reduce his pseudo-adrenal response and calm his raging thoughts. This was beyond feeling or alteration. The retired teacher felt not a inkling of metamorphosis but a sense of equilibrium, an affected oneness with his physical self, and the potent fragment of the cosmos that dwelt within and gave him life.

As he quickly asserted his presence of mind, the professor returned his gaze to his mentor and found the whirlwind of sensory overload had all but vanished. Now but a single task remained. Standing tall and letting frayed hairs of energy sprout from his oaken flesh, the academic commanded his spirit to surge outward in all directions in one swift motion. Clapping open hands together as if to que his mind, the retired teacher’s sphere of mental influence roared to life and encased him once more. Though it required all of his concentration to maintain its shape and density, the Neti took careful steps toward the Sith, content that the trial was at end.

[End Control 1 Application, 537 Words]