Log:Up Stream

Up Stream

OOC Date: March 21, 2020
Location: Droalder Bay, D'Qar
Participants: Finn, Aryn Cole

The Rainstorm, Aryn's vessel, was left back at the large estate and vineyard of Aryn's noble family. It had been about a half hour of walking before they arrived at Droalder bay. Droalder bay was massive and nearly surrounded by tall pine and cedar trees. In the distance, the towering ice capped mountains loomed high in the sky, with puffy clouds gently drifting by.

Spring had arrived, the air was warmer with a hint of humidity, and the water was no longer AS chilled as it had been during the winter time.

Droalder bay's water was nearly as blue as the sky. It flowed with a firm current out to the freshwater sea, and Bastion (the city) could be seen with its tall palace towers and waving banners.

Aryn sits by a fire she's started and pulls her boots off with a groan, revealing her small feet. She rolls her pant legs up and turns toward the shoreline to look out over the water. "You could live a thousand lifetimes, and still never see this place. What with the vastness of all the galaxy, and the hundreds of thousands of other worlds to see; New Alderaan sits like a hidden jewel." She grins.

"I saw a holo of Alderaan, once," Finn offers, lowering his shoulder to drop a duffle bag full of supplies onto the ground and stretching out taut muscles, "We were meant to confiscate it and destroy it, but I watched it instead. I always wondered how a place like that could be so pretty given how traitorous they told us the people were."

There's a faint smile and an apologetic look in Aryn's direction, followed by a shrug: "I guess we know they were all full of it, I guess, huh?"

Finn immediately begins to wander towards the shoreline, the beaten-but-serviceable jacket that's been with him longer than he's been in the Resistance worn over his general's uniform.

"I ought to warn you I've never fished before."

"I've only seend Alderaan in the stories my parents share. What Leia spoke of it, and what Winter has said. It was a beautiful world, dangerous, but full of life. New Alderaan is not unlike it. Leia often came here with me to fish." Aryn stands up unsteady at first, careful about her steps as she moved to the water.

Stepping in, she slows a bit, realizing she had forgotten the spear. She lifts her hand, calling upon her command of the force to draw the obsidian weapon to her hand. It came to her in an instant and she slowly flipped it about to free the speared end from its sheath.

"We're /kinda/ fishing today. What do you know of the living Force, Finn?" Setting the staff into the water, Aryn leans.

"Only what Rey's told me," Finn admits, tilting his head to look at the staff and the ripples emanating away from it in the water, "And what Leia said, I guess. That it's everywhere. Made by life. Or it is life? I'm not sure."

The lightsaber part? Finn understood that. It just followed into his training as a soldier and warrior. Trusting his gut? He knew all about that, too. Combat required action before thought a lot of the time. But the more nuanced aspects of the Force seemed to escape him, hard as he might try.

"Yeah, it's kind of those things, and a little bit more. To feel the Force at first is like searching for a cool wind while standing in the desert. It is a faint thing, elusive, and if you're frustrated, it only seems to get further away." Aryn smiles. "But when you find it, and you feel its current around you.. you'll feel whole. Some equate it to like.. water flowing around you.. like you're standing against a current." She leans against her spear again. "For me, it was a fleeting thing. I didn't understand how to feel it, or draw upon it, until I came back home where I felt most comfortable. Where the things around me were familiar, and I could focus. The living Force is what effects the environment around us. It can enhance our senses, grant us pre-cognitive abilities, and can even allow us to move things with our mind."

"I bring it up because fishing is a great way to train that skill. Either by dropping a line into the water and waiting for a bite, or by standing out here and spearing one when you can't see anything but the green and blue of the water! Which type of fishing do you want to do? Spear fishing? Or just tossing in a line and relaxing?"

"The spear fishing does look kind of fun," Finn admits, glancing towards the staff, "But I'm not all that excited to overshoot and end up face-first in the lake. Pretty as it looks, I wouldn't want to disturb it by flailing around in it."

He moves towards the shoreline, stepping out of his own boots and placing them together with military precision. The cuffs of his pants are rolled up and he steps into the water gingerly, as though unused to it. He sort of is, in many ways. He stands there for a moment, hand slack at his side, and closes his eyes. He reaches out, taking the notion of letting water flow around him to a more practical end.

"Good. When you are 'one with the Force', meaning.. when you feel it; it is like you are now. Stepping into the water. Establishing this feeling is the toughest first step, but it's the most important." Aryn takes a moment to draw in a deep breath, and she draws the Force to her too. The action for her is a bit more practiced.

"Now that you feel it, focus on it. Imagine that it, like your feet in the water, is connected to everything around you. Things that you hear, like the birds.. the buzz of the insects, the small splash of a fish.. they become more than just a sound. You can /feel/ them. Each sense you have, you can focus upon it, until it becomes all that you feel."

Aryn closes her eyes, and leans on the spear. "Many Jedi use this enhancement to understand their surroundings. Have you ever noticed that you can't sneak up on Rey? It's because she's attuned to her surroundings.. just like we're doing! When you focus enough.. your surroundings become an extension of yourself. When the breeze flows, you not only feel the cool breeze.. but you feel the leaves move, the lazy sway of the trees, the bend of the grass. It's easy to be lost in such feelings of immersion; but that's where fishing comes into play."

"Learn to attune yourself with your surroundings, and you'll know where the fish are.. and where they're likely going to bite! Then we won't go hungry. Hahaha."

The corner of Finn's mouth curls up into a smile at the mention of not going hungry. He's reaching out, trying to make that connection, but its slow going. To his credit he isn't frustrated, taking it all in stride as a long and complicated process like many other things he had learned throughout his life.

"I hope you brought some ration packs," he tells Aryn, eyes still closed, "I don't know about how much Jedi wisdom there is in relying on me to master this so we can eat."

Still, he reaches out. He tries to regain his focus, feeling not only the water but what is in the water. Interconnected like a spider's web, stretching out into the lake. The underwater plants. Fish. Insects. An animal of some sort bent to drink from the crystal blue waters. All of it together. All separate but one.

He doesn't open his eyes as he raises a hand, pointing to an innocuous-looking area of the lake's still surface not far from Aryn.

"There."

SCHLOOP!

The sound of the spear going into the water. The muffled thunk noise was indicative of it hitting stone and finding purchase. Aryn angles the spear out of the water revealing a large, 7lb fish wiggling despite being impaled. "Ha! Your first try! And you were worried about ration packs. Haha!"

Aryn moves out of the water, upending the fish from the end to clock it against a large boulder to knock its LIGHTS OUT! She dropped it in the cooler then.

"Well, that's lunch! Want to try again, or are you tired of hearing me talk?" Aryn is wiping the end of the spear blade off.

"Tired of hearing you talk, princess? No way."

Finn's eyes open, no longer fixated on trying to feel the Force through the water. He looks at the fish, smiling wanly as its conked out against the rock and deposited in the cooler.

"I think that'll do us for food," he answers, nodding towards the cooler, "I wouldn't want to take any more than we need." He pauses, glancing around for a moment before adding: "Thanks for bringing me here. It's beautiful."

"You can come here anytime you like. This is a frontier world, untouched by industry. Bastion, and a few other settlements, are spread throughout the planet, but for the most part, it's just land like this. Fresh air, nature,.. balance."

Aryn drags her seat close to the fire and sits on it, tucking one leg beneath her. She takes the fish out from the cooler for a moment, closing the lid and placing it on the top. It was a good measurement, but Aryn was drawing a blank on the type of fish.

An overthinker like Aryn gets hung up on one problem, and often times make it worse. "Well this is embarrassing. I can't recall this fish species to know where I should cut it." She draws the filet knife and sets it on top of the cooler, keeping it in its sheath. "Want to have a go at it?" She gestures to the fish.

"I wonder what's in store for the Jedi now.."

"I don't know it," Finn answers, reaching out to take the fish and the knife, "But you generally just cut across the belly like this."

His survival training comes to good use as he does the job, neatly slicing the fish and using a flick of his wrist to draw out the guts and other parts not for eating. Aryn's question reaches him as he does, though he doesn't answer immediately. A thoughtful look crosses his face, still preparing the fish.

"Who knows? That's the funny thing about history. You can only see the beginnings and ends when you're not standing between them. Maybe there'll be a new Jedi Order? I could see you sitting on a council one day. Wise Master Aryn."

"Me? A Jedi Master. Hahaha!" Aryn shakes her head. "I wish only to be a student. To learn, to teach, and heal. I meantion the Order because it is such a fragile thing. To go down the same path as Luke Skywalker. How can we succeed where he failed? And he /was/ a Jedi Master!"

Aryn helps with preparations by getting the spices together. She had a citrus fruit to squeeze over the prepared meat when the time came, but there were other good spices to add too. "Do you think you will remain with the Resistance?"

"I never met him," Finn admits, shrugging his shoulders, "But he had a lot more working against him. You heard what the Emperor said. He'd been planning for this all along. Luke Skywalker was fighting an enemy he couldn't even see. Now, at least, we don't have that."

"As for the Resistance, I don't know. I know Rey wants me to learn. Become a Jedi. But there's still a war to fight, and like it or not that's where my skills are. Fighting. Being a soldier. As long as they need me there, I'll be there. Though I admit, I could get used to sitting out here and contemplating infinity."

"There's more to life than war and fighting, but I respect your skillset. I'm certainly no soldier. Speaking of soldiers, what became of your friends? The ones who used to serve as you did; as a stormtrooper. Have you heard from them since Exegol?"

Aryn lays out the neatly cut strips of meat, of which there are plenty, and places them upon a skillet. She squeezes the citrus over it, then uses some of the Batuuian spice over it. A second later, the skillet goes over the flames of the fire and begins to sizzle a bit.

Finn shakes his head, sighing: "I think they're out there, doing what they can. Some of them didn't want to fight again, no matter which side they were doing it on. Others, I think, are just trying to work out what to do with themselves. It's difficult. They didn't all have a calling thrust upon them like I did."

"What about you?" he asks, "How have things been going for you beyond everything else. Have you been doing okay?"

Aryn nods, listening to Finn quietly, her own thoughts going out to the displaced Stormtroopers and what their life must look like now. "Me? Well, I've stayed busy for the past month or so. I've been trying to help where I can, find experience where I can so that one day, I'll be useful for the Order. That's not to say I don't already feel of use, I just want to have a broader understanding of the Force. So all things considered, I've been well."