This is either junk, or... well, junk [D7, LM]

[Verse Aura]

"Well, I believe everyone will feel *something* in a powerful vergence. Maybe not as powerfully as Force Sensitives do, but I believe you'd feel a sense of being at peace there as well, yes."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya looked thoughtful, and felt slightly faint. Ever practical, she adjusted her headscarf, pulled out her canteen, and drank deeply to ward off heat exhaustion. "That sounds nice," she said tonelessly, staring off into the middle distance, or perhaps a mountain of wreckage suggestive of a star cruiser.

[Verse Aura]

"Are you alright?" She asked, picking up on a certain distance in Vaya's tone. "Did I say something wrong?"

Maybe it's just the heat.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya gave her a wan smirk. "No, you're fine, kid. Peace just sounds nice." Hell, I'm talking like I'm older than very old dirt.

[Verse Aura]

"Don't need to be force sensitive to feel that, you know. You ever try meditating?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"Badly," said Vaya. "Petrus showed me. I still don't have the hang of it." Oh, no, I'm going get lessons on inner peace from a hyperactive teenager.

[Verse Aura]

"Well, maybe you need a different teacher," she said, smiling. "Besides, it's really simple so long as you can figure out how to let go. Want to try? Or well, maybe this place isn't the best for it. Or maybe that *makes* it the best. If you can figure out how to meditate under harsher conditions, it'll be real easy back home."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"I guess I've mostly tried in in my old Rygor apartment. That place was a dump." She started moving them back towards the ship, but as she looked around her eyes idly started looking for a shady, flat spot. "Or the TBD, I guess."

[Verse Aura]

"Well, then why not right here?" Verse completely ignored Vaya's attempts to move toward either the ship or a shady spot, and sat down on the ground.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya tugged the headscarf she was using to keep the sun off down over her face, and looked over the wasteland.

The remnants of some city sprawling for hundreds of kilometers now is a bleak wasteland inhabited by the mad and the desperate unwilling or unable to exist elsewhere. This is a dangerous place and avoided by anyone that enjoys living.

"Are you sure?" she said, doubt coming through every possible avenue of her affect -- stance, arms, voice, eyes, antennapalps.

[Verse Aura]

"Sit down," she said, closing her eyes and adopting her zen position by way of example. "And stop thinking."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya, taken aback and slightly amused by the suddenly authoritative Verse, did as she was told. She sat cross-legged (she wasn't flexible enough for anything more fancy) and adjusted her themal cloak around her. "The second part is the hard part. Haven't gotten the hang of it like you Academy types." It was a jibe, but half at her own expense.

[Verse Aura]

"Well, there's different ways of meditating. One is not thinking of anything at all..."

She opened herself up to the Force, with any luck letting her sense Vaya's emotions.

"..the other is thinking of everything, in a sense. First you empty yourself of any stubborn thoughts, feelings, and doubts. Focus on your breathing. Then let yourself become aware of everything around you. The wind. The warmth of the sand. The centipede crawling across your foot. As you become aware of these things, let the thoughts come. Don't try to take control of the process; just let them come freely... and let them go just as freely."

She exhaled deeply.

"Don't judge the thoughts. They are just thoughts. They have no meaning. They are not bad. Or good. They just are. As you are. Here. In the moment."

Sense Emotions: 2eF 2 Light Side, 1 Dark Side


Opposed discipline, 1 purple!: 2eP+1eA+1eD 4 successes, 1 advantage

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya, as usual, found her thoughts difficult to quiet. The Petrus-promoted technique of trying not to get frustrated at thinking thoughts, but to instead try to recognize, acknowledge, and let them go, mostly resulted in a string of thoughts happening and being acknowledged and being let go, to be replaced by another, and then another.

This place smells like hot metal. I'm glad I have my thermal cloak. Verse senses discomfort, boredom.

I really hope we're not about to get eaten or robbed well we sit here with our eyes closed. Verse senses slight anxiety, boredom.

Surely it won't hurt to peek, just to be safe. Verse senses slight guilt, and the anxiety fades.

My back hurts. The Jedi must have great posture to do this all the time. Verse senses discomfort, boredom.

I wonder what I'd feel if I tried this on Autera. Verse gets a flash of deep longing.

I don't know how I'd feel if it didn't work there, of all the places in the galaxy. Verse senses the longing, still there but tapering off, now with keener anxiety.

D7LM Fluff meditation (average discipline): 1eA+2eD 1 failure

[Verse Aura]

Verse sat there quietly, sensing Vaya's emotions shift and change, until they solidified into what she could only assume was longing.

"You know," Verse said after a long while had passed, "Whenever Master Yoda sensed I was bored with the meditating, he'd whack me with his stick. You're lucky not all green people carry sticks."

There was a brief pause. "You want it to work, don't you? I can feel it. You want to experience that peace and tranquility. But because you want it to work so much, you don't let it happen on its own time, because you want it now. And because of that, it can't work."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya let out a sharp "Hah!"

"Petrus hasn't tried threatening corporal punishment yet. Maybe that's what I've been needing." She shook her head, trying for mock-sadly but maybe just ending up with sadly. "That's a puzzler, though. It's not like I'm trying to quit drinking or lay off the Biscuit Baron. How do you stop wanting peace?"

[Verse Aura]

"Sometimes to get what we want, means we must first be willing to let go of the *want*," she said, very zen-like.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya gave Verse and her wisdom a very skeptical half-squint, and uncrossed her legs with a groan. "You Jedi are lucky you don't all end up calcified below the waist."

[Verse Aura]

"Well, nobody said you *had* to sit in that position," she said with a smile, "whatever's most comfortable for you is best."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"Well, Petrus always told me I couldn't take his favorite comfy holo-watching chair when we did it. And when I tried doing it while lying on my bed, I just fell asleep."

[Verse Aura]

"Okay... maybe not *that* comfortable," she said, a little uncertain.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya laughed, and held out her hand to take slightly more of the unevenly-distributed load. "Well, thanks for the lesson, Master."

[Verse Aura]

"Any time, Padawan. If you need some more lessons, just let me know."