Outlying Lands (General Ossus Thread)

[Jace]

Despite himself he blushed slightly at being called out and the dirty thoughts comment but soon enough those moments had passed. He closed his eyes and began to focus on his breathing and clearing his mind. He’d done this part for so long it was easy to enter a meditative state, once he opened himself fully to the Force things became more chaotic. He was use to meditating in a quiet room with other Jedi whose thoughts were on nothing most of the time, here it was completely different. While Mez had commanded them not to think dirty thoughts some of them were and they were very dirty. He ignored them best he could and allowed the Force to flow over him like a waterfall.

After several minutes everything finally seemed to fall into place. The thoughts of the others no longer intruded on him. Even though his eyes were closed he could see the others in the room via the Force. It took a moment longer to finally focus on the practice from earlier but when he did it was like he was there again. He could see himself and his Master going through the kata and he watched them both intently making mental notes of his mistakes.

[Mez-Jid Fie'r]

She wandered about the room, tapping the foreheads of each person whose attention was wandering - or worse. Wasn't too hard to tell, their stances usually shifted and facial expressions changed. She finally stopped behind Jace and watched his hands twitch slightly, before stepping away to stand in front again.

"Stretch out, see if you can get a sense of who's around you. What they might be thinking."

[Jace]

Her speaking jarred him slightly and brought him out of his thoughts although not completely from his meditative state. “You for one.” He mumbled it at her and stretched himself out further in the Force. He could see the men’s faces on both his left and right and with a bit of concentration. “Man on the left isn’t thinking anything, he’s in a deep state of meditation. The one to our right is worried about his daughter. I don’t know why.”

[Mez-Jid Fie'r]

She just tapped him on the forehead for speaking, but took the moment to tune in on what Jace was sensing, piggy-backing on his own strength in the Force just long enough to hone in on the information before drawing back and sending as much of a 'thank you' as she could now.

"The Force is in everything, sentient and not, animate or not, from every droid to even every Yuuzhan Vong. A rock, a tree, me, you, the dead and the living, the past and the now and the ever-mutable future. It binds the universe together, surrounds us, exists within us and exists apart from us. Trust it, and let it flow through you. Reesa, stay behind, the rest of you are free to go once you've reached your limits of sensing a room's contents, and you know better than I do what those limits are. Jace, you stay where you are."

[Jace]

He ignored the tap on his forehead and went back into his meditative state, reaching out with the Force and feeling those around him. He did his own personal exercise in trying to close in on those with the strongest presence in the Force, besides Mez.

[Mez-Jid Fie'r]

She waited until the rest of the class had filed out, before turning to the one Jace had picked out.

"Go home, and look after the kid, Reesa. The Captain'll either find somebody else to take your shift, or I'll take it myself."

"It's up next cycle."

"So much for the shooting range then. Go home, stop by the office and tell the Captain I've got your shift, and look after the kid. Jace, change of plans. I'm going on patrol. You can either stay here, come with, or make your way back to Temple for the night."

[Jace]

He opened his eyes and instantly brought himself back to reality. Although breaking off meditation was that easy closing one’s self from the Force was not. The world looked strange and a bit frightening when one used both their eyes and Force Sight. Slowly the world turned back to normal and he stood from his sitting position. He walked to where he’d put his cloak and dusted it off before putting it on. Jace walked back over to Mez and popped the muscles in his neck. “I’ve got nothing better to do.”

[Mez-Jid Fie'r]

"Great." She checked out of ingrained habit that her blaster hadn't dislodged from where it was in her holster, that the safety was still on and set to stun, and gestured him out of the room for the corridor leading to the armoury.

"If I say 'go', then I mean it. This should be a routine and quiet patrol, but I do not want you getting hurt. I say 'go', you get back here quick as you can. Got that?"

[Jace]

He wanted to object but it was obvious she saw him as a ‘kid’ first and a Jedi second. He simply nodded and followed her down the corridor to the armory.

[Mez-Jid Fie'r]

She grabbed the smallest size of tactical vest off the wall and held it against Jace, trying to keep her thoughts away from 'under your protection, keep him safe'.

"We're in luck, this one should fit. Stick it on. I'll get you one of the vibroblades as a backup for your practice saber, if you draw it without my say so you will be in big trouble."

She turned around and grabbed her own vest, shrugging it on easily but leaving it unclipped for now, then a pair of vibroblades and two sets of shieldplates.

"You'll need help getting these ones fitted right. Roll up your sleeves once you've finished with the vest and I'll do them."

[Jace]

“We’re not allowed to take the practice lightsabers outside the Temple, Mez.” He took his cloak off and put the vest on then rolled up his sleeves as he was commanded. “How am I supposed to move with this thing on?”

[Mez-Jid Fie'r]

She feels faintly relieved, she'd been worried he was going to argue about the vest, then she blinks as his words catch up to her.

"...You came out here, without even a practice saber? ...Since when don't they let you take those out of Temple? Geez." She managed to keep the rest of her opinions on the matter to herself while tightening his vest so he could actually move, then strapping on the shieldplates.

"I couldn't have been parted from my lightsaber even at blasterpoint when I was your age. Jump up and down, I want to make sure it's not going to shift too far."

[Jace]

He shrugged at her concern. “This is Ossus not Yavin IV, not only do we have all of the Jedi Temple’s defenses at our disposal we also have all of the Ossus’ governments. The Sith are gone and we’re allied with the Galactic Alliance, this is probably the safest place in the galaxy.”

He jumped up and down and didn’t feel the vest move all that much so he assumed it was good. “Why did you think I want to build a lightsaber so badly?”

[Mez-Jid Fie'r]

She gave him a very serious look.

"This is a guard outpost on Ossus. It exists for very good reasons. The guards exist for very good reasons - and despite what some parts of the galaxy may think, not a single one of those reasons is to keep the Jedi in. It's to keep hostiles out. The truly deranged are so much harder to detect and defeat than the careful planners, and history teaches us that there will always be at least one Sith surviving. All it takes is one Sith - or one dark or fallen Jedi. And to that latter possibility, take your pick from any member of the Order as it currently stands, because it's entirely possible for any one of us to fall."

She rolled his sleeves down and picked up his cloak.

"It'll get cold out there tonight. As for your desire to build a full lightsaber, I want to see your kata improve first, as well as your shooting. Until then..." She opened the locked box in the corner of the room with her thumbprint,, withdrew the contents, and handed it to Jace with only a tiny trace of reluctance. "You may use my practice saber."

[Jace]

“A crazy person is easy enough to stop with a well-aimed Force Push and like you said that’s why the guards are here, to stop them. Besides Ossus is controlled by us, do you really think we’d let people live here who we know are dangerous? I bet you a Council member oversees anyone who decides they want to live on this planet. We’re not about to let crazies run around our here.”

He didn’t bother arguing the Sith point as that was very well true but normal citizens were different. “How long have the Jedi held Ossus? Hundreds if not thousands of years? Most of the families that live here can probably date their ancestry back to Luke Skywalker’s time if not further. The people that live here love the Jedi and I’d argue we love them just as much. We keep each other safe. A few deranged maniacs are nothing to be afraid of when you’ve got ninety-nine percent of the population on your side.”

He took the cloak from her and shrugged it on. The extra weight of the vest didn’t make him feel safe in fact it made him feel more vulnerable. He was use to training with just his robes and cloak and being able to move around freely. He took the lightsaber from her and hooked it to his belt, he didn’t know what much good this would do him either. He’d been hit with these before and even turned up to the highest power setting they did nothing more than leave a small burn. If they did come across any crazies he doubted they’d so much as feel the burn, although if they thought it was a real lightsaber they might be more hesitant to attack. Still once they did attack he doubted it’d do much good.

Jace let out a heavy sigh and looked up at her. “You told me to be honest so I’m going to be.” He thumped his fist against his chest. “I don’t like this thing. I feel unsafe with it on. I can already tell I’m not going to be as fast or agile with it on, besides I’m use to training with just my robes and cloak on.” Then he motioned down to the lightsaber. “And while I appreciate the gesture what good is this going to do me? It’s a practice lightsaber, the most it’ll do is make them mad unless I go for their eyes.” He gave her a small grin then. “We both know how difficult it is to hit someone there with a lightsaber.”