2008-01-16 - Using the Dark Side

Continued from Cantina Standoff.
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Tatooine: Mos Eisley - Cantina
A darkened alcove opens up into the notorious Mos Eisley Cantina and it is easy to see where it got its seedy reputation. In the centre of the main room squats a circular bar, behind which stands a gruff looking human; presumably the bartender. He is lightly silhouetted by bright and gaudy lighting behind him that masked his features somewhat, which perhaps is intentional owing to the nature of most of the patrons. Around the rest of the bar area can be seen odd devices which are used to make a variety of alien beverages.
The sound of lively, if rather laboured music comes from a stage to the left of the entrance, where a small band of aliens are plying their trade. Beside them a board informs patrons of the upcoming entertainment schedule for the week, though more than one of the names have been hastily crossed out.
The rest of the main room is a series of booths and tables that are cut into the ringing wall, and there the light seems dim indeed. No lamps shine upon the alcoves, and except for the smokey second-hand light that seeps into them they are quite ark and dingy. At the door a large sign reads: NO DROIDS, and nearby a tall, shadowed figure seems to watch the entrance as if reay to enforce that rule.
Players: Things:
Vaal Hirah Very Small Container[structure] 
A'den Boothful of Smugglers 
Gean Gorn Wanabi 
Obvious exits:
[Exit] towards Mos Eisley. 
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This is the continuation of a scene already in progress, in which Tuil Lindo and Aure Kaia were also present. A standoff had ensued when Lindo approached Gean, demanding the return of a lightsaber, and ended when the Jedi had been persuaded to leave. As they did... this happened:
Gean remains besides Vaal looking onto A'den, he offers the man a nod. He watches him, for the first time sensing A'den's true potential. His gaze carries onto Vaal.
Vaal Hirah merely smiles, and nods.
FORCE: You establish telepathic contact with Gean and transmit a hopeful feeling and a vision: A'den standing with Gean and Vaal, all three of them holding a lightsaber..
A'den watches Aure and the other Jedi leave. Then slowly he turns to face the two men. Remaining silent he looks between Vaal and then Gean meeting their looks. Then silently he nods his head slowly.
Vaal Hirah says, "You spoke well, Mr Jax.. you are starting to realise the truths that Gean and I were shown."
A'den merely shrugs as his gaze turns towards the door again just staring off. "I spoke what I know. The way I have learned things to be." His voice trails off now. Then suddenly he turns to look at the men again, "Can you teach me how to master this side of myself? The part of me that links my self to this force."
Gean nods gently, "Very impressive A'den." Gean says softly. He looks onto Vaal as he asks the question.
Who nods softly, and answers: "We can, A'den. We can show you how to turn all the turmoil you feel into armour, and if needs be... a weapon also. All that you feel is what gives you strength.. it is what enables you to grow. Where the Jedi suppress it, and lose their humanity... we can show you how to blend your feelings to the Force's Will."
Gean nods to this, "They call the natural emotions such as anger the darkside. Anger is something which can be honed and directed. This is something they fail to realize, and such flaws them." Gean says softly. He lifts his gaze to Vaal. "I will get back to my mission master. Thank you once again, I owe much of my life to you." Gean says. "I will return to my mission." With that Gean heads for the exit.
A'den nods smirking looking between the two. Then his gaze finally falls upon Vaal. Setting his shoulders back he finally says, "Then I would like to devote myself to your teachings and your leadership, President Hirah. I want to better myself, refine myself to a point where I can help the galaxy. There is so much corruption that plagues the Republic and eats at it from the inside. Perhaps this force can help me in my quest." He fall silent again and looks to the door, "And my quest for a conclusion for the search for my brother's killer." Turning back his eyes burn with hate, "I want Agrippa Junik before this is all over."
"Good, good," nods Vaal then, approvingly. "Hatred and vengeance are nothing to be feared... and they arise for a reason. A good reason.. your heart knows Right from Wrong, and thus it knows Justice. So use what you feel... hone it and harden it, until you can almost feel it resting in your palm... free it from your mind and use it as you would a blaster."
He sniffs. "Shall I show you how?"
His right eyebrow quirks up as he listens. Nodding along he smirks, "So, this force is a tool? A means to an end?" Shaking his head his eyes go wide, "Amazing...you can show me how?"
Watching A'den then for a few long moments, Vaal smiles and nods, before gesturing to a seating booth. He moves to sit in it, and waves over the bartender.
A'den remains quiet as he moves to sit down across from the man. His mind keeps racing as he tries to process all the information he is taking in.
The bartender comes over, and looks between the two of them, before grunting and bowing his head to Vaal. "What today, Headman? On the house, of course.."
But Vaal shakes his head and waves dismissively, his eyes never once leaving A'den. "Simply a glass, if you please, Hron."
"Well, if yer insist, Headman. I have one right here..." Plucking a drinks glass from one of the racks he slides it onto the table of the booth, and shuffles away.
The blonde man turns to look at the bartender as he speak with Vaal Hirah. As he departs, A'den turns to face the other man again. He remains silent, watching and waiting. Just a glass, well this should be interesting.
With a sniff, Vaal smiles and indicates the glass with his hand. "Now, A'den... what you see before you is a simple thing, a small thing.. something very uninteresting, right? But... that is because you are looking at it with just your eyes. Try something for me... try closing your eyes, and see if you can sense the glass with your feelings... the glass itself will be nothing, but by what forms around it, it's shape may be discerned...."
Looking skeptical A'den inclines his head and slowly closes his eyes. Raising his hands he places them face down on the table before him. With some effort he slows his breathing. Focusing on letting go he reaches out with his mind. He can picture the glass but he shakes his head as he cannot feel it.
Grunting his brow furrows as he pushes harder. Then as his mind blanks he can see a flow...he can feel something that is attached to him. He can't see the glass but he can sense it's location on the table. His heart starts pounding as a smile crawls onto his face. "I can...I can feel it there."
As if sensing A'den's struggle, Vaal repeats his words: "Do not try to feel the glass, my friend. Try instead to feel the space around it... sense the place of the glass by the hole it forms in the Force..."
A'den nods slowly. His eyes moving behind his closed eyelids. Bowing his head slightly he frowns, "I can feel...something. It, it looks like a flow around the cup, like a river around a log."
With a smile, Vaal nods and says, "Yes, A'den... that is exactly it. Now, without opening your eyes, watch how the river flows; watch where it bends, where it ebbs and flows, where the centers of power in its path are... can you see them?"
A'den nod slowly. "I can. I feel the flow. The..I can't describe it."
"Now, my friend..." says the other, "reach out to those currents... send a finger of feeling to stroke them, tease them, disturb them and guide their flow.."
Vaal Hirah watches the other intently as he speaks, and nods as he adds, "Then.. reach out a whole hand of feeling.. cup it under the space of the glass, let the currents flow into that hand, feeding it, caressing it... now push upwards with those currents, into the space of the glass... lift it in your mind's eye with that hand..."
A'den's brow creases again as he concentrates. He sees the flow as it is and the bending around the glass. He follows it down over the glass then it's bending to either side to travel down the sides of the glass. There on each side it bends again to flow and meet under the bottom of the glass. Concentrating on that point, that spot where the two flows meet he smiles. His jaw sets as he imagines his hand reaching out under the cup and raising it upward into the air.
There is a pause, a smile, and then Vaal says: "Open your eyes, A'den."
Slowly his eyes open to stare across the table. He is still focusing his thoughts on lifting up the glass but his eyes are towards the other man. His expression is one of calmness and pride at what he has done so far.
And then, his eyes are drawn to the glass that is now hovering between the two of them. His eyes widen as his mouth opens in a gape. A'den looks from it to the man, "Which one of us is doing that?"
"You are, A'den," says Vaal then, still smiling. "Your feelings make it possible.. your feelings are what bind with the Force to help guide its power... you are full of emotion right now.. which is what gives you your power... can you not feel it?"
A'den turns his eyes to look at the glass again, staring at it. He nods, "I feel my emotions. My hatred burns in me all the time, threatening to overrun the walls I have constructed to hold it at bay, to control myself. It fuels my anger and rage, but I know I must control it if I am to live among others." His blue eyes remain on the glass, "This is amazing. I'd never realized what the power of the Jedi was really like."
At this Vaal shakes his head, and sniffs. "The Jedi pervert this union with the Force... supressing their feelings under their supposed flag of Peace. But, where they claim Peace and Justice they simply look to political concerns... and in dealing with crises. They do not seek to end strife itself, or nip troubles in the bud... they refuse to reach out and move the glass..."
His eyes harden then as he looks to the object itself, and adds, "Without the emotion to guide and fuel you... you become little more than a slave to whatever a Master tells you. You have no Willpower, because they teach you to have none. Whereas you, A'den, have a great deal of Willpower..."
Nodding, A'den smiles as he contrates on pushing the glass hanging there with the force causing it to twirl above the table. He listens to Vaal and continues to nod, "What you say is how I have come to see the Jedi. They could have prevented this war. They could have stopped the corruption within the Republic if only they had acted. But now their self serving ways have allowed the wrot to infest just about every level of government." The glass begins to twirl faster.
There is a brief pause before A'den continues, his blue eyes narrowing but seeming to burn even brighter, "They have allowed people like Agrippa Junik to weasel their way into the highest offices, they have become 'friends' with men like this who claim to fight for a greater good when they simply use their followers to kill others for their own vanity, their own ego." The barriers in A'den start to drop as his anger wells up. The glass begins to crack for some reason, as if under some pressure
And this is when the glass shatters falling to the table. His blue eyes follow the shards as they land on the table. "And this is why men like that must learn the error of their ways and be brought to justice. Their must be a balance. Their must be consiquences." He raises his head to look Vaal Hirah in the eye, falling silent.
Watching the glass smash, Vaal shrugs and replies, "There will be, my friend. That is why we struggle. There is much that you have not been told, about the Jedi.. and another Order. But there will be time for that later... for now, I wish to show you one more thing before we leave the bar. Something to give you an idea of just what kind of weapons you can make use of..."
Another glass lifts from the rack and floats across the room to land gently upon the table. Vaal steeples his fingers and looks to A'den. "Close your eyes again, A'den. Close them... and let your anger start to boil behind your eyes..."
A'den nods and closes his eyes. His anger is always present always just below the surface, most of the time it is in check. To allow it to consume him is not a stretch. He simply thinks of everything that has shaped him. From his early life on Yidri not knowing who is father was, to the beatings he took from the man that would eventually become his stepfather. Then to the most recent, the death of his adoptive brother, the one who had taken him into his clan from the streets and the only person he considered family. He had actually been friendly to the man who had killed his brother, had agreed to work with him. All he wanted to do was take his blaster and put one shot into the man's head....no, that wasn't true. What he wanted was to make the man hurt the way A'den hurt, to cause him the pain that A'den felt every day.&r 
The anger rolls beneath the surface. Rage fills mind as his heart becomes cold. The hands he had placed on the table now roll back over the table until they are clenching, his nails driving into his skin almost enough to draw blood.
"Good, good," says the other man then, watching A'den carefully. "But be careful... remember, you must master your feelings, put them to use not be uttlerly ruled by them. So stir your hate, yes, let it build, but know why you are doing so..."
"Envisage your hatred and anger as a dark mass in your mind... like dough or clay. Use the hand.. the same hand you used to lift the glass, to mould and sculpt that mass. Twist it, compact it, smooth it down, until you have made a club..."
A'den remains motionless, the weight of his hatred weighing down on his heart. But he does as he hears. He pushes the wrath away from his heart, funnels it into one central place. It grows and grows and grows in that hollow spot of his mind. It changes in shape as it grows. Taking on a distinct shape, it is the shape of a bat he used on Yidri when he was a child to play a local game. It becomes a blunt instrument, all the rage and hatred he feels focused in that one spot.
"Now," says Vaal, leaning forward to gaze intently as A'den. "Here is the crucial moment... grasp that club with the hand, and in doing so, detach from it. Let it rest there in the palm of your mind, removed from your inner body, seperate, yet within touch of it..."
The blonde man's eyebrow raises but he keeps his eyes closed. Imagining his hand grasping the the hilt of the bat he takes it. In his mind he can see himself holding the bat out to the side of his body. It is there at his disposal, ready to be used.
As if sensing the movements behind A'den's eyes, Vaal nods, and speaks softly. "Find the glass, A'den. Find it as you found the first one; seek its hole within the Force, find that place where the flow does not go... focus on it..."
He sniffs, and pauses a moment to let this happen. "And then.. smash it with the club."
Reaching out again for the flow of the force around them, A'den follows it. He feels it's flow over the top of the table and then as it wraps around the glass. That void is his target. Smiling he imagines himself raising the bat in his hand. Raising it above his head brings it down towards the empty spot in the force on the table. He feels the impact through the force as the glass shatters into countless tiny pieces. His eyes still closed he cannot see it, but he can feel the force flowing through the empty spot again, the 'log' no longer obstructing the flow.
FORCE: A'den hatefully calls upon the Dark Side of the Force.
Vaal breaths out a loose sigh, and leans back into his seat. "There, my friend... you have learned the rudiments of how the Force can become your ally..."
Slowly opening his eyes, his blue eyes seem to shine as he looks down at the shattered glass. Raising his gaze to Vaal a smile spreads across his face, "It...feels amazing. The power at your disposal, the ability to be so in control of your emotions, bending it to your will."
"That is the true power of the Force," nods Vaal, pleased and grinning. "It is what the Jedi, in their cowardice, name the Dark Side, yet it is far from that, as you can see. It is brilliantly lit by emotion, and grants you a union with the Force."
FORCE: You establish telepathic contact with A'den and transmit a proud feeling and a vision: A'den standing straight, taller than before by a few inches..
Nodding A'den smiles, "I understand. I look forward to learning from you." His eyes turn back to the table to stare at the shards.
Vaal Hirah rises then, and nods to A'den as he smiles softly. "I look forward to teaching you, my new pupil. I should leave you now, to think on what you have learned, and practise it if you wish. Is there anything you wish to ask, before I do so?"
Shaking his head he looks up to the man, "No....master. I believe I have taken in all that I can right now. I must process this and come to terms before I dive so far into this."
"Then, you know where to find me, when you wish to know more..."
With these parting words Vaal leaves the booth, not abruptly or unkindly, and moves away to the Cantina doors. His passage is noted only by the barman, who steals a forlorn glances at the broken stock upon the table.
A'den rises and ignores the barman as he continues after to exit.
Category:January 2008 RP Logs