entrancelogs | [Thread] Mara and Aang

[Thread] Mara and Aang

Who: Mara and Aang
Where Outside by the Forest
When: This Afternoon
Rating: Mild, PG at best
Summary: Mara and Aang work to Control Aang's visions using awesome Jedi Powers

Mara sat in a standard meditation pose, legs crossed and feet stacked upon her own knees, arms at a lax, relaxed position on her legs, eyes closed, chin up. It was thought that in this position, one could find a true unity with the force.

Mara had never believed that, not since she had become a Jedi. No, Mara believed that in action, that was when the force flowed freely...but her and Luke never did see eye-to-eye on all the workings of the force...not that they needed to.

No, they worked together perfectly because they had different ideas.

Right now though, Mara knew the best idea was to calm herself, and make sure that she would certainly have a calm demeanor to aid Aang. She knew the boy would need help, and the kind of help he needed was the calm kind of help, the kind that Luke had always specialized in.

Well, she would just have to make sure that she did his job, since he wasn't here to do it.

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Aang soared through the air on his glider, trying to ignore the fact that the air felt different here, that there were no birds to startle or bugs to swallow. Not...that he liked swallowing bugs.

"Seifu Mara!" he greeted her by folding his glider with a flick of his wrist and bowing to show his respect. She was wise and where he was filled with fear, his teacher always seemed collected. The way a real Avatar should be.

Mara tipped her head upwards, and greeted Aang with a bright smile, patting the ground next to her before opening herself to the force, immediately feeling the troubled waves that rushed from Aang's psyche.

"It doesn't take a genius to see that this has really bothered you," she mentioned with a small smile, and unfolded her legs quickly, eyeing the boy with worry.

Afterall, the poor boy was filled with all sorts of worries and visions, she would be a mess too if she had seen Luke in trouble...just like he always was...like on Niruaun.

He shifted awkwardly. He should be used to people being able to read him as though all of his thoughts were on the outside; Katara did it all the time. Was it something that all girls were able to do? Or just benders?

"Thank you for your wisdom, Seifu Mara," he responded quietly. As much as he was worried about his visions, he knew that Mara must be equally worried for her family; her world was not at peace either. It wasn't fair that they, working to fight the destruction of balance, should be taken away and not those that threatened the balance.

Perhaps that was the lesson. Aang sat down, took up his standard meditation position and tried to clear his mind.

Mara shook her head. "No, not in that position," she said calmly, standing upwards. "Lets try something that my husbad always said helped..." she shook her head, and flashed a wry smile. "I always thought it was the blood rushing to his head..." she mentioned, before demonstrating to Aang what she wanted him to do.

"Stand on your arms, let everything go, just become one with the ground beneath you," she mentioned, remaining in the position herself.

Perhaps there was more to this position than she had thought.

Aang nodded and airbended himself into the position as Mara instructed. He had seen Ty Lee do this before she tried to kill them once. Was it the source of her power? Swaying dangerously, he stopped his train of thought and concentrated on the feeling of the grass beneath his fingers.

The earth was slightly damp; it must have rained recently. Weird. He hadn't seen any rain.

Mara nodded, and secured herself with both hands into the ground. "Let your fingers take root, Aang, as if you are a part of the ground beneath us," she explained, digging her fingers into the ground gently, legs erect into the air.

"You must use the pull of gravity to your advantage. Let it pull at you, and find the place where you are not pulled anymore. Do not fight it, dodge it," she added, doing the same herself, before she finally found the spot rather quickly.

Regardless, she was out of practice.

So less airbender, more earthbender. Taking a deep breath, Aang sank his fingers into the earth, finding that he could feel the weak vibrations of rambunctious behavior occuring somewhere in the mansion.

He found his center and took another deep breath. He would be steady. He would be like the rock. Toph would be proud.

Mara smiled, and nodded, before closing her eyes. "Now, Aang, open yourself up..." she murmured, pulling one arm back to only hold herself up with one arm.

"You must let energy flow through you...whatever sort you seem to use. The force...energy...is always there, ready to be accepted. Simply...let it flow, especially through your mind," she smiled.

"Let it seep through, and open yourself to the messages that it brings," she mentioned.

Had she been aware that his energy had been blocked? Was he ready to unblock it? Did it matter? The Guru in his vision had said that he needed to leave fear behind. Now Seifu Mara was reiterating the same concept. Though he wasn't sure if the wisdom his vision offered was credible, he believed in Mara. In her wisdom.

Slowly, he released his fears. Toph's capture, the Fire Lord...his own death. He took a deep breath and felt the energy course through him, rushing as though it was late and had somewhere more important to be.

Mara smiled, as she felt him release a hold on his energy, and it filled him ever so slightly.

"Good," she murmured, and smiled to the boy. "Now, for a Jedi, the trick is to let it flow through you completely, from one end to another, you've only opened up the first step, there are several more boundaries to break down before you are completely ready," she explained simply, quickly switching hands.

Not only did the release of his fears let his energy flow more readily, he found that he believed that Toph could take care of herself. She would find a way to help herself. And he would find a way to overcome both the Fire Lord and his vision death. If he had, in fact, died.

If this was the sort of thing Mara felt--believed--then it was no wonder that she was a protector in her world. Aang nodded, meeting her gaze.

Mara smiled to him, feeling the courage in the boy surge exponentially. That was what she liked to feel in her students...as few as she had. Mara rarely took apprentices...her skills were better left for the few than the many.

Afterall, the skills of an assassin were rarely needed anymore.

She took a deep breath, and lowered her arm so that both were deeply rooted into the ground, before she let herself be absorbed into the stream of the force.

Aang resisted the urge to vault into the air and let out a whoop of joy. Now was the time to focus, to act like every one of his hundred and twelve years. He felt her energy flow through the earth and loosed his own.

It rushed from him in torrents before ebbing back, creating the balance he needed.

Mara smiled as the boy worked to overcome his excitable nature, and instead followed her lead, and she nodded. "Good," she murmured.

"Now concentrate on everything around you. Feel the plants growing, the grass shooting upwards. This slow process sitll goes on when we're around...you can't see it, but you can feel it," she murmured, immersing herself in the force...with all of its perception enhancements.

Aang smiled brightly at her praise before settling down again. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of the damp soil. He tuned out the vibrations from the mansion and focused only on the space beneath him.

He felt nothing. No vibrations, no sense of growth.

Exhaling, he tried again. There! So shallow he could barely feel it among the life above ground. The roots, calmly, steadily, slowly burrowing deeper.

Mara nodded when she felt Aang realize the direction of growth, and coiled her line of perception with his, making sure to feel what he felt.

"Now, let your perception spread out, encompass a wide area, and include yourself in that area," she murmured, doing so with her own abilities, hoping he could feel it. "When this happens, burrow inwards, concentrating on the energies within yourself," she explained, doing so, finding her center in the force.

Aang let the sensation of Mara's energy guide him. It was a strange feeling, but not unpleasant. Taking a deep breath, he stretched his perception upwards, until it encompassed as much as he possibly could.

It felt peaceful and Aang found himself wishing that the people of his world could experience this kind of peace as well. Shaking the thought off, focused on the energy within him, finding his center as he had found his balance.

Mara smiled, and sent waves of confidence at the boy, very glad that he picked this up so fast. She wondered if there were any chance that he could ever become a Jedi...

It would be an interesting, yet volatile combination, for certain.

"Now," she instructed carefully. "Feel the strings of the future, the past, let yourself be carried by them, but do not let yourself become overwhelmed," she instructed.

Aang furrowed his brow even as he felt a sense of elation pour over him. He wasn't sure how to go about looking for the past. He took a cleansing breath and thought about the Swamp. All things were connected.

So, if all life was connected, and all life was circular...and time was a part of life-- "Does that make time circular?" he asked.

[ooc: Hawtsome~ ♥ Will have to leave for dinner in a few, but shall be back after!]

Mara shook her head. "In a way...the past always repeats itself...but think of life more as a wheel on a neverending road..." she explained, nodding sagely.

"Time leads life, telling it when to end, but it does not continue like life does, it moreover watches, and when we tap into the life around us, and feel the time passing, we can eventually open ourselves to the force, to percieve both the future and the past," she explained.

Closing his eyes, Aang ignored the thoughts nagging at the back of his mind that said that his second disappearance was fated from the start.

Aside from which, he'd figured out the answer to finding time! If time lead life, then all he had to do was follow the life until it stopped at time. Smiling broadly at his teacher, he allowed his perception and energy to race ahead, winding down the path where things blossomed and grew.

Mara smiled, and let her perceptions follow Aang as he rushed to the place where he thought life would blossom. It was a very good idea, and in his perception, this may be the way to open himself up to the future and past.

At the end of 'life', there seemed to be...nothing. He faltered.

There is no other way around that rock!

He was trying to find a way around the problem. He was thinking like an airbender again. Aang frowned at himself. Had it been so long that he'd forgotten? Flexing his fingers through the grass, he thought that maybe Toph's advice still held some wisdom.

But time was abstract. It wasn't something you could touch. It was...ungraspable. He was focusing on the wrong thing. He took a deep breath and chanted his mantra.

Mara let the force flow, maybe letting the boy see her example would help again. She let the force through her, the passage of time passing about her, and she let the force latch onto it, and pass, either way, letting it go where it needed...

And she stopped as soon as the visions came to her, avoiding such a thing. She couldn't handle that right now...not when she was teaching, afterall.

Frustration was not a feeling that Aang liked or was accustomed to. Most other things were learned with ease--save for earthbending, which had eventually been overcome. So when Aang felt Mara's energy tugging at his own, he followed it.

He wasn't prepared. He was back at the Air Temple, but it was not the place he remembered from his childhood; it was under siege. Choking on a cry that seemed to have lodged in his throat, Aang almost lost his balance.

Mara buffered him with the force, and let her perception slide alongside Aang's, a warm comforting feeling next to the chaos that the boy must feel.

"Now, do not lose control, Aang," she commanded, her voice soothing and calm. "Let it pass. This is the past you see, do not let it consume you," she murmured, her voice echoing loud enough through the torrent of the force.

Aang took a deep breath and pushed the vision aside. It wasn't showing him anything he could control; It was already in the past. And as much as he might wish he would have been there to protect his people, his home...

"Yes, Seifu Mara," Aang murmured, his voice raw.

Mara sent waves of comfort to the boy. "It hurts, I know, but sometimes the things happen in the past for a reason..." she explained, letting the boy feel her emotions of regret as well. "It is sometimes better to release your regret, as you cannot do anything about it anymore," she smiled.

"Instead, take the lesson, and push forward, using that new information to prevent it from happening again," she explained.

Aang took the wisdom of her words to heart. Somehow, her words reminded him of something that Monk Gyatso would have said. He couldn't keep fighting for the ghosts of the past; he could only help create a better tomorrow.

Letting his regrets go, Aang felt his energy pulse through him.

[ooc: And time for sleep for this one. Back spasms are not making it conducive to think straight. Sorrysorry!]

Mara smiled, and nodded as the energy surged through the boy, barriers again broken. "Good, you are on your way to finding the peace that all good Jedi should seek," she explained smiling.

She now let the future pull her forward, and she made the attempt to indicate that Aang should follow her, feeling the pathway to seeing the future.

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[Thread] Mara and Aang

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