Ariel's Meditation Grove (training thread)

Learning:

The day had begun just like any other for the youngest child of the Chromatica triplets. She’d awoken at the crack of down like a bubbly little critter, acting as the personal alarm clock to her two brothers in her usual playful way; levitating and dropping things on their sleeping bodies. Today she’d gone a little more ‘mean’ and dropped a bucket of ice water on the two of them in revenge for the night before when the triplets had been planning their big outing to craft their first sabers and they’d poked a little fun at Ariel. At first she hadn’t any idea how to respond to them, just making the mental note to get them back in the morning. Likewise it was mostly Azazel she was sure, but she didn’t want Azreal to be left out, so gave him equal treatment in her revenge. Ariel would also however make a swift getaway as she knew that they would be rather upset with her for doing that and she didn’t exactly blame them. But it was oh so worth it.

She made her way to her usual secluded spot in a clearing. She held confidence in not being interrupted, nobody ever had in the past at least before now so she believed nobody even really knew where it was. Azreal maybe knew, but he’d made attempt in showing his little sister that he knew where she went to be alone. Not that it ever really came to much, as pranks or not, this was her meditation spot. The one place she felt she could truly envelop herself in the clans teachings, and as such was left alone for that exact purpose.

Ariel had to prepared. That was her first and only purpose for being where she was. In fact, all three of the triplets had to prepare. They were preparing to get their names out there. Right now they were the bottom of the barrel warriors of the Shogunate. Ok maybe not that ‘low class’, but they didn’t have much in the way of standing. Nor did they have their signature weapons yet. But that was coming soon. Or Ariel hoped anyway. She had been training herself in her private spot with makeshift swords, finding the style that proved to be her most useful. She had studied every form of combat, every weapon style, to find what would be her best. Her easiest to work with. And what would set her out from her brothers. The unorthodox reverse grip single blade was her choice. She enjoyed the feel of a staff, but the reverse grip felt like it suited her personality more. Less predictable, but just as strong in the right hands.

As she closed her eyes, she focused inwards, drawing the Force to her, pulling her deeper into the meditation. With the last of her conscious mind, she crossed her legs and rested her hands in her lap. From there she felt the disconnect of her body and soul. Not literally of course, but Ariel never knew a better way to describe the feeling of the meditation. For her senses, time slowed to a crawl whilst her mind focused on what she wanted to know. She had her goals in mind. She wanted to be a master of the Force, let her brothers focus on the strengths of the saber. And this left her with lesser options when it came to combat. And she hoped in that moment to find her answer. With the second form of combat, she had less of her powers focus, but had a more defensive approach with combat which when added to her unorthodox style, could make her a defensive force to deal with. But then there was the trio to think about. They had promised some time ago to advance together, to get their sabers together, and if that were the case, they would be masters of the sword long before she. This brought her to her other option, the sixth form of combat. The form that was near secluded to the Light Side beliefs, like the seventh form was to the Dark Side that Azazel was studying under. It held its focus upon the use of the Force during saber combat. Ariel knew she would learn to master this form eventually, but they had to devote their training carefully to be that master of the form.

The soft glow of the Force, invisible to all but Ariel in that moment, swirled in her mind. As much as she tried to think it all over, she could not make her mind up. It was the sensations she felt in the back of her mind that was whispering to her. The sixth path. It was her path to take. The path of the Diplomat.

Slowly her eyes flickered open as her subconscious was reconnecting with her conscious mind. She had her answers, whether she realised as it happened or not. The sixth path was the logical choice. She needed that edge over her brothers, and she didn’t believe that either was following the same path as she. The sixth path granted her Force powers strength, giving them that edge to go further, to let her push her abilities further. If anything, following the sixth path might just give her an edge over her siblings if she could fight from  a distance whilst those two were held up in their close quarters saber combat. Azazel might have a few more range techniques, but she had the more combative streak with him, she’d go a little easier on Azreal without even meaning to.

When she realised this, the atmosphere had already drastically changed. She wasn’t even sure just how long she had been in her meditation, but it was certainly not a short time. If there was one thing she needed to work on it was to get through her meditation faster, or at least not lose time to nothing. No action was better than a void at least. Unfolding her legs they creaked, only further giving her that evidence that hours had passed since she sat, and as far as she was aware she had yet to levitate items in her surroundings again like the first time in the area when the head sized boulder was lifted and dropped. But it hadn’t moved since. She couldn’t deny it was a little off putting.

As Ariel left her little clearing she had to double check along the way that her brothers hadn’t planned something in retaliation for her wake up call, feeling relief that she found no such thing. Something was likely to happen at some point soon, she hoped, as little as she enjoyed the thought still, that it was going to be something as simple as taking one of her stuffed animals and levitating it out of her natural reach. Again. Or hopefully at least there wasn’t the same little stunt done the few months prior, when one of the two had gotten another stuffed doll and tore it apart leaving the stuffing lying around, making her think that one of her own was ripped it. She wouldn’t deny she got more upset than she should have, but it was a pretty mean prank.

Making her way back to the home it was already approaching mid-afternoon, far too much of the day had passed in discovering a simple answer that she had far too many of her chores to get done. She was beginning to regret going to her meditation for the answer, she probably could have found her answer long ago whilst doing said chores. But alas, she did not. She was likely to get in trouble; neither of her brothers would have stepped in to cover for her. And especially with how she woke them that morning, she was beginning to wonder if their ‘retaliation’ was to increase her workload. It seemed closer to Azreal’s style against his little sister at least anyway. She would just have to see what came out of it. It couldn’t be too bad, right?

Words Needed: 1300
Words done: over 1300

Approved

Character Slot Spec 1,000/1,000

It was just another day for Ariel without her two brothers around, and having injured herself with her new ‘toys’ during her last meditation session, she was left without too much to do and was on house arrest by Azreal. This had meant that each and every time her younger older brother appeared before her, she would just puff out her cheeks and pout at him. Constantly. Usually until Azreal did something to stop her doing just yet. The latest of which seemed the most effective which  was to pinch nose. She was holding her breath after all. And Azreal was a bit of a meanie at times. But whilst her arm was healing her brothers had seemed to be almost avoiding her somehow, or that was at least how it felt. Without them around however it did mean she had a little ‘play time’ as she liked to call it.

Leaving the house she carefully crept her way to her private meditation spot, making sure neither brother was around as they had each told her off for ‘lifting more than she should’ with her levitation. But all she knew was that she needed to get better with it and it really helped. Still in the middle was the two large metal boxes Azreal had fashioned from her. Until her little accident at least neither brother really knew what she wanted those big boxes for, especially as it required both brothers to carry them. Getting them directly into the grove however had been pretty damn difficult by herself though. Lots of time and struggle. But it was still great training.

Standing in front of the trio of boxes, she sighed and focused on the one that was beneath the others, buried half into the ground from when she had dropped it. Taking a deep breath she found her calm centre, letting loose her abilities and letting her hands guide the Force to do what she wished. The best way she could ever describe the art of levitation, or at least through her own experiences with it at least, was that it was like throwing an invisible lasso. The casting was smooth, like throwing air. Then there was the invisible but physical pulled, the response from the object being grabbed that told Ari that she had it. As far as Ariel was concerned, she was holding a physical robe tied to her wrist in that moment as she began to pull. In her mind the invisible rope pulled by slowly coiling around her wrist like a snake. And this only led to her further imagining the Force was secretly just a snake. Every movement was just a snake’s tail coiling, every barrier was a snake coiling around to make an arm shield. Then there was the thought of the clan’s lightning abilities, not that Ariel herself was all too taught up on those arts yet, as like a snake striking. Then there was the thought that made her drop the cube. Instead, the lightning was the tails tongue flicking about. The idea of Azazel making some super huge lightning technique, and out pops from his hand a baby snake wiggling its tongue. That thought alone brought her into the childish giggling fit she was earning a name for in her classes. With a loud bang the block sunk right back into the perfectly square corner crater that it had caused the first time she’d dropped it. Normally she’d have just kept on with her laughing fit, but this once she froze up and listened out. She completely expected that the bang alone would alert one of her brothers and they’d come running now they knew where her grove was after she’d done her arm in last time.

Ariel was a statue, just waiting one of her brothers to appear in a flash to yell at her for being careless once again. She even however knew that they were away at the moment and there was next to no chance that either of them would appear. Yet she still froze as if expecting Azreal to appear with that same disappointed look, or Azazel to roll his eyes at her and levitate the box himself. She wasn’t honestly sure how much he’d trained in it, but she still imagined that would be what he’d do. She was also fairly sure what he’d tell her too however. He’d actually tell her she’d made an improvement because she hadn’t hurt herself but that she still needed to improve in every way. In her imagination she also put together that she was certain he would use the phrase ‘note worthy’ when speaking about her not hurting herself this time.

As the calm brought on by her Force channeling began to wear off the strain on her arm only returned. An odd pain deep within the muscle. It wasn’t like any normal muscle pull either, it felt nowhere near any actual joint.  Thankfully however she didn’t feel any of that extra pain, so she hadn’t pushed herself too much she could say for certain. Looking back at the boxes she realised that she just had to leave them behind again for the moment. It wasn’t like anybody else knew where her grove was, or even if her brothers could find their way back without knowing exactly which direction to head towards. And even then … it still took a lot of work moving them without some form of aid alone. They weren’t going anywhere.

Ariel made her way back home nursing her sore arm, trying to think over just what to do with the rest of her day. Her meditation training didn’t work, with her arm injured she couldn’t practise her saber work with her boken. She’d already filled her wall with drawings of what she hoped to make her saber look like when she and her brothers built them. Thinking of her brothers, with them out for the day but planned to be back, she made her decision. Cookies. Maybe cupcakes.

Approved

Learning: 2 B-rank techs (Force Push and Force Flash), Speed tiers of B and A rank. All require 2k word count.
Side bar says word count is 2063

“Break time, break time, so much of a break time that this little lady needs~” Ariel strolled along just singing to herself as she intended to spend the day having just one long break. She was still nursing a bruise or two from a spar with Azazel, one that had actually been that much closer, and yet she truly still lost to her brother. Again. The score was getting closer since their enrolment, with Ariel getting stronger to get on par with him, whilst Azreal had helped along with a few improvements to her boken in preparation for the trip actually getting their sabers that would solidify them as true warriors of their clan. But for that day, Ariel was by herself to enjoy some ‘girl time’ as one of her classmates had suggested she need. When she really thought about it though, Ariel had begun to feel herself getting more and more tomboyish surrounded by her brothers. Whilst she knew there was no problem with that at all, she couldn’t help but want to try and re-establish that little bit of femininity. Of course her brothers had told her she didn’t really need it, anything tomboyish was exceptionally brief if it ever showed, but there was still the tiny thought that made her believe otherwise. “Break time, break time, gonna soak my bum,” She continued to sing to herself, giggling childishly to herself at her final comment in her ‘song’. Only to right away bump in to one of the girls she grew up with and since had a large falling out with staring back at her at the entrance.
Through her mind flashed the final conversation that they had ever had, the moments that had sent Ariel towards Azazel’s profession rather than to Azreal’s. Those years ago Ariel was leaving home as usual, carrying the broken boken that she played with as a child, still mounting on her bedroom wall at home, and heading to the park to meet Maya. At that point in time Ariel cared much less for her appearance, short pixie cut hair and overalls for clothing, and Maya wasn’t too different until that day. Ariel expected the brunette girl in the pants and ratty tank top she always wore to get dirty in, and yet to see Maya waiting for her then in a poofy white dress and pig tails caught Ariel off guard. From there everything had become a blur in Ariel’s memory. Maya had tried to convince Ariel to go with her to an outdoor theatre, to watch some silly production of some silly old play. Ariel truly didn’t remember, nor still care. She still had that ironic trait wherein she couldn’t sit still easily at all, silence often irritating her, and yet when it came down to her Force empowering meditation, she felt completely in her element to be in silence and unmoving. But especially at that point in time before she took up the meditation arts, the idea of sitting still somewhere fancy just did not resinate with her. And whilst Ariel didn’t recall the exact words shared, the emotions certainly were not. There was hurtful words thrown from both sides, none of which Ariel was all too proud of in hindsight.
It didn’t even really dawn upon her until she thought back that she was perhaps being unfair to Azreal. Seeing her old ‘best friend’ again for the first time in years, she realised that whilst she still saw Azreal every day, she questioned how often she would if they weren’t siblings, if they didn’t live together. That thought alone brought a pit opening up in her stomach, to think she was neglecting one of her brothers, let alone the whole who openly admitted to enjoying her company. She knew inside Azazel loved her just as much, he was just a grump and wouldn’t admit he loved his little sister. As she pulled from her thoughts she was still meeting gaze with Maya, and would sheepishly smile. Maya would just huff and dramatically twist her head away. Ariel gulped as she reached out her hand, “H-Hey Maya,” Her voice shook, a rare moment from the impulsive girl to truly think through what she was doing.

“Yeah, what Ariel?” She spoke with such malice in her voice that Ari didn’t know how to respond at first. Maya had always been so sweet talking, like every the thought of being upset with someone would make her violently ill.

“I just haven’t seen you for a while. It’s… nice to see you’re well,”

“Yes well… I got to school now. A school for ladies. Not like you would know how to be one from the way you parade around with those creeps you call brothers,” Ariel instantly began to scowl at the way Maya was speaking about Azreal and Azazel.

“Well that’s a bit much don’t you think,”

“Not at all. I learned well my place in this world. As a Lady of the Shogunate, I am to marry in to wealth for my family. To bring fame to my family as they are absorbed in to the high class as a young woman should,” Something with the way she continued speaking only further proved to Ariel just how much her friend had changed, how different the two were now. As they had spoken, they had been stepping closer to the onsen, with Maya stopping short. “… but listen to me. To think… I’ve been coming here once a week. Bathing my future royal skin in peasant waters. And with someone else here… it would be improper to undress in front of you. But I’ll be on my way. If I ever need someone to walk my dogs or maybe even a very proud footstool, I’ll be sure to remember you Ariel. Perhaps I’ll even free you of the filth of your brothers. A little lie about a break in will go a long way,” And Ariel snapped. She could take any sort of abuse thrown her way directed to her. But she was threatening her brothers, threatening something that could potentially ruin them if the wrong hands took control of the situation. And yet Ariel reacted on impulse. As usual. Raising her hand she snarled and let loose with a strong pulse. Maya caught completely off guard, the last time having met Ariel she hadn’t chosen to learn any of her clan techniques, and to be blasted so suddenly by a Force Push, even if she were expecting it she could do little. The blonde was thrown off her feet and in to the waters of the onsen, soaking her and her obviously specially tailored clothing.

Ariel tuned out everything after that point, nothing but the ringing in her ears from the anger she felt kept her going. She turned her back to Maya as she climbed out, screaming at Ariel about something or the other. In the end Ariel couldn’t actually have been happier with her actions. It felt strange, she’d done all she had learned over the last year or so to be with her brothers, to join her clan in bringing them forever forwards. Eventually Maya was done throwing a tantrum and stormed off, Ariel didn’t even truthfully realise she had done so until she was ready to step in to the onsen waters herself.

In just minutes, Ariel was settling in to the hot water, sinking herself down to leave only her nose and up of her body outside of the water. The rest was being massaged by the gentle lapping of the water caused by slow waving of her hands, aided by manipulations from her Force Push, if only to give herself true massage like sensations. She was only thankful that nobody else was actually around to interrupt her private session. Taking a deep inhale from her nose she kicked her leg forwards, the momentum pulling her body down with it so she was completely submerged in the water. Her eyes remained open, watching the bending light from the water’s surface distorting the ceiling.

She thought back to the little talk she had with Azreal, the whole idea of manipulating plasma in their hands to create a strong wave of that very energy, more powerful, or at least focused, than their shared Force capabilities. She didn’t know exactly how she would make it work, but of the three siblings she felt she just might have been the one to be capable due to her range focus. No matter how she looked at it the whole process would not be done easily. Just bending Plasma Chakra alone was not that easy for her, there was just so much control, especially for what Azreal intended for the technique that they craft together. Ariel’s Plasma was strong, but she still had very little staying power with her control. Any attempt to do so fizzled out in an instance. All she could really do was for a brief second make a strong ball of Plasma, but could do little with it. As she often did when thinking, she lifted her hands up in front of her, in this case above the surface of the water, when inspiration would hit her. With her hands moved, fingers interlocking in front of a light source directly above her, the light would bend perfectly so that for a brief fraction of a second she would be hit by a direct stream of light that made her flinch. But… if she could do the same with her Plasma Chakra, she could potentially create that great source of energy, channelled completely into light energy, and simply make an attack to blind. With that sudden source of excitement, and truthfully a lack of oxygen as she approached her lungs limit on holding her under, she burst up out of the water, startling an attendant who had come to investigate the girl who had been submerged for some time. “Taiyoken!” She would suddenly short, forming the chakra ball in her hands that would suddenly light up the entire area. “Ah no!” She would then continue on as she didn’t shield her eyes in time and found herself briefly blinded, as did the attendant. Thankfully she didn’t have too much power within the attack, enough that after a few seconds the effects wore off.

And immediately after she was asked to leave.

After collecting her things and saying a hefty amount of apologies to the worker who had gotten caught up in her little flash of light, she was preparing to make her way home back to her brothers. Even if the relaxing had not really gone on for too long, just the few minutes in the water, and of course the chance to blow off a little steam at Maya badmouthing her brothers, and she felt more than ready to tackle their next challenges. Now she just had to work with Azreal in perfecting this new technique she would label as the Force Flash, although she knew in her head that Azreal would call it something over the top and nonsensical, and to be fair the sudden outburst from herself was very much inspired by Azreal’s fondness of naming her techniques something strange. She would have to make sure to omit that part when telling her brothers about this later. Or telling Azreal about this later at least, she thought Azazel would listen and tell her she was being annoying or something and that he wasn’t listening. But she knew he cared. Of course he cared, she was his little sister after all.

Returning home however her brothers were in for a surprise. She did nothing out of the ordinary as soon as she was home, dropping her bag off in her room before going to find what her brothers were up to. Floating around the house she was able to sneak up on them even for her usual surprising hug that she called ‘backpacking’ as she clung on to them from behind with her arms around their necks and her legs at their sides. Of course, she forgot she had just come from the onsen and was asked to leave rather quickly. This of course meant that Azazel, being the first brother she found, got the brunt of the assault from her soaking wet long twin-tails, slapped by two thick wet locks of hair from either side. Same ol’ family life.

Approved

Saber Style Mastery: 818 / 750

Ariel had been given a few days to recover from the journey across the islands to assemble the plasma saber, albeit it seemed to be needed more as the siblings had returned… different. Ariel wasn’t as lively as she usually was, and her sensei could easily see just that with how she attended practise the following day. What should have been a regular training session was left alone, and instead left as more of a therapy session. The young girl broke down crying whilst telling of the events that led to Azrael’s decision to leave the other two siblings to their combat teachings. She was told over and over again that it was likely something he had been thinking of for some time, that she was not the cause of such a life choice. But Ariel was still worried. She simply didn’t want to lose either of her brothers, and after their journey together things were… different for sure. Her bond felt stronger with Azazel, feeling almost as if he actually felt of her a challenge now and he had been a lot more open to the siblings during the trial. But of course there was also Azrael and his falling out with them both over a misunderstanding, and Ariel’s paranoia over losing Azazel. It was still something she was coming to terms with.

“Ariel, today we will spar for our final time. You have already begun to best me nine times out of ten. I want today to be that tenth win.” Ariel’s teacher was old, blind in one eye even, but like her held his focus on the Light Side, and used those abilities and beliefs to guide his hand in combat. It had taken a lot of work, but Ariel found by learning those same techniques she could find the foothold she needed. She could train with him, spar with her brother to fight someone with a different fighting style than her, and she got strong enough to fight her brother. Ariel expected him to retrieve his practise sabers, but instead he knelt down, for the first time revealing the prosthetic leg, and retrieving what she quickly realised to be a plasma saber from the hidden compartment. With a flick of his wrist he igniting the saber, as yellow as his blind eye. “Come Ariel!” He yelled with a ferocity that Ariel had never seen from him before, dashing forwards ready to swing.

“Hai!” Ariel answered on reflex, drawing her saber from her waist, her own purple blade stretching out along the length of her arm just as she liked it. She focused her busy mind with the meditation techniques she was taught. All the ideas of ‘serenity’ and ‘little emotion’ was never something she could do well. The serenity part she found a way to achieve without problem, and as she met the eyes of her teacher she let her own idea of serenity take over. The thought of her brothers, the care she felt for them, and the desire to keep them safe, to keep them happy, the love for them both, it gave her mind clarity. She saw the twitch of his arm, the tell he had, and swung her saber around. She caught the blade along her own, the momentum carrying through and completely disarming him after just one swing. But she grew cocky. Her teacher only held his hand flat, the saber stopping mid-air and flying right back. Ariel barely had a second to react, just barely getting her saber back in place to block. Her teacher took that chance, flat hand pressed against her face. Ariel’s eyes widened as she braced for what was to come. If there was one thing she had learned during the training, was to watch out for the Force Push. With only a second to go, she clenched her saber tight so as not to lose it, and her whole body was bombarded. Her body was frozen in place it felt, assaulted by invisible waves of sheer power.

Then she was sent flying back out of their sparring arena. Ariel had been hit by the Force Push of her sensei so many times before, it was his favourite method of ‘punishment’ for her lack of attention in the early days. But as she skidded across the ground, her saber blade disappearing in to the hilt, she knew he wasn’t holding back. This was the true strength of her sensei, and everything hurt. Ariel had thought she was catching up on him, even potentially surpassing him when they had used practise swords. Now their true weapons were on the table, she realised just how weak she was. She lay sprawled out on the ground just looking up at the sky.

“You did well. Your style is evolving every day. Go, take a rest, be with your brothers. But come back ready to fight me with all your strength,”

Learning:

The day was coming ever closer, the day that Ariel and her brother Azazel were going to step out in to what the Shogunate called ‘The Pits’, just one great gladiatorial combat arena, and with it they would increase their social standing, be allowed to learn more complicated techniques. All the good stuff. It was a little bit of a shame it seemed Azrael wasn’t going to be taking part, but he had his own new path to follow now. And of course she was going to support her brother as best as she could. But she needed to get stronger, not just for herself, but to help Azrael in getting stronger to help him if he needed some muscle. Not that she would imagine either sibling calling their sweet little sister ‘muscle’. And she needed to keep Azazel on his toes too. Ariel knew that her combat loving brother would get so strong without her input, but she gave him somebody to constantly compete against. Even if he never seemed to back her up on that, it was still how she felt at least.

With their agreement to meet up, Ariel had to make sure she was one hundred percent ready. And that meant she had to get all of her equipment together, and having to perfect her appearance. A girl had to look perfect for the day she hoped to show up her brothers, show them that she had been training her Force Techniques and was ready to take on all challengers. Namely, she needed her new combat dress in pristine condition. It wasn’t too much different than her last, but the sizing had been altered. She was a developing young woman after all. Young as she might be, she was still hitting the heightened years of growth. This was only added to how she wanted her brothers to perceive her. She wasn’t sure if it were just her, but she felt they still seemed to baby her at times. Sure she was extremely light hearted and quite innocent, but she was more than well aware of the world that they lived in. This was the second part of her new wardrobe, making her own little stand that she was just as strong as they. It wasn’t exactly heavily armoured, but it made up for that in free movement, and as the fastest of her siblings she certainly needed that. She was making herself out to be a ranged fighter, but against those of her own skill level she had found that she was just as good at the tried and true hit and run strategies. Especially when she was facing others outside of the clan, as many struggled to keep up when she was just as capable of flying, well really it was levitating but what real difference is there when she could move the way she did.

With her boots on, she did the one thing she hadn’t done for the past two days as she mentally trained herself for combat; levitating again. It felt so liberating to be off of her feet again, feeling as if she was being pulled in every direction for a split second as she was stretching out every muscle, feeling the delightful popping of joints. She had always been told doing so was unladylike, but it just felt so tingly and nice to do that. And it made her feel all the more limber afterwards. Who could blame her.

She floated on over to her make up desk, not needing to fix up anything as she had already taken care of the light make up that wouldn’t be disturbed by hard combat, and from what she was told of The Shogunate Pits, she and her brothers were certainly in for a lot of fight. But what she actually wanted from there, there was to remove the hidden compartment beneath. There shouldn’t have been any huge worry, but she just felt rather protective over her saber. Thus she hid it carefully in her drawer when it was being left for longer than a couple of hours. The feel of the cold metal in her hand just felt right, feeling the rush of both chakra and the Force coursing through the weapon’s hilt and in to her own body. As her fingers slipped off the metal, the saber remained suspended just outside of her grasp, a lovely little effect of the Force gems that were embedded within. With a twitch of her fingers she felt the push and pull of the weight of the saber, no matter how small it was, as she testing her skills over manipulating it. One lovely little thing, if she wasn’t holding the sword, her enemies didn’t actually know her style of combat was so different. After all, who’d expect her to still use a reverse grip style when she wasn’t even gripping it.

WC: 815 / 800

Approved

Learning:

Ariel let out another long groan as she tried time and time again to better understand the teachings that were unique to her alone as the new heir of the clan. She simply could not grasp any of these techniques, any of these old teachings that her mother was forcing her in to reading. She wouldn't even answer any of the questions that she or her brothers had over the mystery assailant. For every curious question she had, there was more demands to shut up and read. She felt a deeper connection to the Force, that was certainly the truth. But besides a deeper pool with which she could draw her powers, she only felt worse over her position. She and Azazel were getting no answers about this 'first born' nor did she even feel she was enjoying being in this role. It was great for her surely? She was getting recognition. The girl who was too sweet hearted, the girl who followed her brothers like a little lost puppy, the girl who would rather sleep in or curl up with her brothers whilst she read a book, whilst Azazel studied his techniques, whilst Azrael tinkered with some old Plasma Saber. That girl was arguably now higher than her brothers in the hierarchy.  She proved to Azazel that she could stand up to him, she had won in a free for all against both of her brothers. So why didn't she feel at ease.

Fed up of all this stupidity she threw her hands forwards, Force Pushing the many scrolls off of the table before her before she curled up and pulled her knees to her chest. Her head hurt, and her eyes hurt. The scrolls were old, writing so faded. It was dumb! And she couldn't understand anything. She learned the clan kenjutsu techniques, or she was still practising their use with her own unique style thanks to her preference to reverse. Why did she need to learn all these stupid old techniques. She loved the ones she made for herself. She looked outside the tiny window to the training dummy, where she had only recently perfected the use of her techniques she very simply called 'Pew' and 'Pew'. A smile came to her face, raising one hand and pointing it out of the window towards that training dummy. She wasn't dumb enough to actually fire a technique inside the scrolls room, but it still didn't stop her motioning her finger gun at it. "Pew!~"

"Miss Ariel?" The girl turned around to face the voice, one of the younger girls of the clan, a followed to the Void like Azrael, but one that Ariel had seen frequently in the training ground. "You're needed by your mother," She let out another loud groan as she got the news, the young girl flinching at Ariel's sudden shout.

"Alright. Thanks," She said with a sigh. Before she left she went about picking up the thrown about scrolls. As much as she hated all of this work where she wasn't getting anything from it, she still had to respect her family. Most importantly, she respected and loved her father. It was all thanks to him that she had elected to follow the path of the Light side. Even as she thought back to how she first start to learn to spar, she surprised herself that she didn't take on the Dark path and following even more closely after her brother.

"Are you ok Miss Ariel?" She didn't expect the follow up question. Perhaps it was because she was so used to it being zellie or her mother that was the one retrieving her when she was needed. Neither really asked if she was ok after a tantrum. She honestly wasn't too fond of doing these tantrums, too much of a telltale sign of how easily she could fall from the path of Light to Dark. The idea of even skipping any sort of middle ground disturbed her at times.

"Yes. I'm just a little tired. I've had a lot of work to do since we came back from the Pits," Ariel didn't want to exactly say too much. It was quickly shared that the clan had a new heir. But what she had to keep quiet was anything else they had learned. But what exactly had they learned? That there was secrets. Secrets that the triplet's parents were keeping from them. Were they even triplets?! No, they were still triplets. It was impossible for them to have any more or less in their little group of birth mates.

"Well... I don't know what they wanted. But... erm... her words exactly were 'get that flippant daughter of mine and she better have gotten two steps ahead of my sons'." Ariel rolled her eyes, shaking her head and saying so very little. She was being called, and she would answer the summons regardless.

WC: 812 / 800

Learned:

Ariel awoke in the morning the same she had done every day so far since the illustrious fight with her brothers. Before that day she always woke up with a smile on her face, excited to spend time with her brothers, with her family, with her sensei. But for the third day in a row she rolled, quite literally following off of the bed and falling flat on her back on the floor, and stared up at the ceiling. She had moved rooms since she was designated heir, against her choice. This only meant she saw less and less of her brothers to the point that for the last few days she hadn’t seen a hair of either of them. She was assaulted by responsibilities she didn’t want, expectations that she was essentially forced in to upholding. But she didn’t care. She lost the absolute most important thing to her. She lost Azrael after she messed up on the Force islands, and as much as she had tried so far it did not seem that the bonds were being fixed so easily. Her brothers, she felt would never see eye to eye the same way again. But Ariel missed the two of them greatly. She felt like she was imprisoned ever since the heir fight that was forced upon them. And since then she had not spoken with Azazel. He didn’t even answer her calls or anything, nor did he ever turn up when she invited him for lunch with her. Azrael was busy, that was all she got. But what she felt better about, was that the words were his. It seemed any time she got a response from Azazel that it was an altered response to spare her feelings. But that didn’t help. She’d rather hear him telling her to leave him alone than the usual she got from the go betweens. “He says he is very sorry but he cannot attend today,” Ariel would smile, mutter an ‘it’s ok’ and go back to her business, wishing she could at least hear what Azazel had to say.

Getting up from the floor she sat herself back at her desk and looking over the scrolls that she had placed amongst them. Namely the teaching scrolls that her father had given her, along with so, so many notes of how to ‘give yourself to the emotionless self necessary for the Light’. She hated that. He couldn’t see how Ariel saw the world. Nobody could see how she saw life. Even her brothers couldn’t understand just how she felt about some things. How she could be so emotional outside of combat, she did cry much of the first twenty four hours after both the fight with Azrael and thirty six hours after the heir fight, after all. But they never seemed to take note of just why that was, why she felt herself so close to her brothers regardless of what happened between them. Even when she was thinking about everything that happened, she was relaxing. She was finding serenity in knowing that her brothers cared, and that they both knew Ariel would always care for them.

Disregarding all the work her father wanted her to do, she looked at her own little list of information she had picked up to keep track of her brother’s current actions. It felt really wrong doing it like this, essentially spying, but she was only tracking the obvious movements that people saw. Azrael was heading out of town for training with some big shot black smith. And she was over the moon happy for him. She knew very little about this black smith if she were to be honest, but she could easily tell is Miss Jazz was recommending it, that this would be an amazing opportunity for him. And once he was back, she had already sent him a letter as promise to spend some time with him, helping him go and gather any plasma saber gems he might need. She wasn’t sure if it was true, but she felt that being the Chromatica Heir could come in handy, letting her know secrets to where to find the best gems. And since the fight happened, she had been focusing her training inwards on to her Force abilities. The unlocking of the deeper pool of power had felt so exillerating, and with it she had delved in to more of the abilities that her chosen path was allowing her to do. Namely she could now match her siblings in terms of their Force Sensory, something that she was glad her lack of had not caused any issue in combatting Azazel and his invisible saber. Just the thought of having to fight him one on one when she could not see one saber was… terrifying. She didn’t want to fight her brothers then, and she still didn’t want to now. She never wanted to fight them, either at home with their words, or in the arena with their sabers. It just didn’t feel right.

Looking back at her table only reminded her to that, to the reason she had ignored everything her father had sent her way since the fight. She didn’t want to hate him. It just wasn’t in Ariel’s nature to hate anybody. But he, and the siblings’ mother, had actively worked to pit them against each other. If she hated anybody, it was herself. She hated that she had not seen this sooner. That she could have worked to stop the growing divide. She wanted to love her brothers, and by the Gods did she, and she wanted them to love her, and she so wished that deep down they really did. She would do anything for her brothers. Except lose.

It dawned upon Ariel as she thought back to the heir fight, truly letting any information she had overlooked come back to her. Azazel had been taken down first, a combined effort, because Ariel knew he was the bigger threat, and that Azrael and he got along the worst of the triplets. She hated the thought of using her brothers dislike of each other like that, but she also knew this was for the best. Now, now Azazel would be forced to acknowledge that Ariel was as strong as he was, if not more so. And Azrael, he outlasted the combatant focused triplet. No matter how it looked, it was likely that taking things in that order had shifted the balance.

But that was exactly the point. Ariel, the sweet, innocent naive flowerchild, was the one appointed to be the heir of the clan. She gulped, her fist clenching as her nails dug in to the wooden finish of the desk. She would change things. Azazel wanted change too, she knew that. Their parents, they were working against them. And Ariel was going to use that. But she was going to do things her own way. She knew Azazel was going to act out, and when it came to it, no matter what happened between them he was going to overthrow their parents command. But in the sister’s mind, that only meant the cycle would continue. This whole stupid ‘rule of two’. Ariel had never believed in it. She was forced in to it, a parent and daughter, a sensei and a student, it just didn’t work with her loved ones. How could there be a heirarchy between siblings? So she had promised herself, and her brothers, that she would keep fighting. If she could prove herself to be the head. She could demolish the stupid Rule of Two. Or perhaps not. She could create something new and better. With her brothers.

Before she even know it the morning was passing her by. All the self reflection in her thoughts was leading her further down the rabbit hole of plans that she could not enact to for a good long time. Breakfast was waiting, as were her parents. She didn’t expect either brother to be there, but as one of her mother’s handmaidens came to collect the daughter of the Chromatica, she would still send the girl off to find her brothers, if they were both still around. The invitation was out, but as she walked out of her room to the main hall, she already knew she would be the lone offspring to the parents at the table. But she had to perk up. She was Ariel, the sweet, innocent naive flowerchild. Sure she was plotting future plans to take over the clan along side her brothers, but she couldn’t let them see that. Let them see her growing confidence, her growing power and intelligence. She stopped outside the double doors, letting a tiny spark of her mind take over. Goodness, when she would finally make her move, she knew her mother would still feel a spark of pride. And as much as Ariel hated pleasing the woman who could not care less for her before she officially became the heir to the clan, it did bring her some delight that she would make the woman see just who she truly was. Sweet, innocent, and a damned force to be reckoned with when they fuck with her family.

“Good morning~” Ariel swung the door open as she stepped in, letting a hand flick back and sweep under one of her large and long twin tails. Her smile was bright and sweet as she was known for, a skip in her step as she made her way to the table to eat breakfast with her parents, making idle chatter with her father over her studies in to the Light Side techniques. She knew it was fruitless, father was emotionless completely, as much as she tried she would never made him frustrated.

WC: 1625 / 1600

Approved