The Various Things

It isn't that Whitaker has never seen anyone meditate, Abbot, a proud Mandalorian through and through often would kneel, still in his full armor beskar helmet upon his bowed head and breathe. So he figured it was a Mandalorian thing, some way to decompress after a rough mission that ended in a hard loss of a sort even if there was a win.

This however was quickly debunked as both Parker and Shen both did not seem to partake in this Abbot tradition, turning towards sleep and would create an abhorrent blend of Shig and Caf that Robby referred to as "An affront to the very nature of Mixology on a Galactic scale." To which Shen would stage whisper, "He's just mad his palette is so less refined."

So it had to be an Abbot thing.

Except... Then there was Trinity Santos.

-

The Mirialan had been a youngling off world during the burning of the Jedi Temple, not old enough to hold a lightsaber of her own but old enough to remember the ways of the Jedi through the eyes of a child. So he decided to ask one night. While hiding out on a moon over some backwater mid-rim planet fortunately distanced enough to be close to nothing but not far from anything, that was nightly convenient for the empire, Whitaker sat with Santos in front of the dying flames of a campfire.

"Abbot does that too, sometimes," Dennis blurted out. He had been watching her for a moment, taking in the familiar posture, her eyes closed and her lightsaber in front of her knees.

"Abbot does what sometimes?" She replied plainly, a twitch in his fingers placed upon her knees and a furrow in the brow, as if disturbed by the temporary break in silence.

"He sits all quiet for a bit, and just is," he pauses, " he always seems a lot more settled after, I thought it was a Mandalorian thing and then just an Abbot thing like after things go rough, ya know? But I guess it's not"

Santos opens her eyes, her eyes which he knows to be a dark blue just look black in the light of the dimming embers. "You don't meditate," she states with a hint of accusation. Dennis moves to say something before she carries on, "You don't meditate and Robby hasn't shown you how."

"Robby doesn't meditate." He says it almost like a question. She blinks at him as if coming to some sort of realization, "Well if nobodies told you I guess it's up to me then isn't it Huckleberry?"

She shuffles close to him, pulling his hands into hers. "I'm about to be more genuine than usual with you so I need you just shut up and listen okay?"

"Really?"

"Yes, so shut your bantha sized mouth and close your Kriffing eyes alright?"

"Yes, Master Santos" Even with his now closed eyes he attempt to raise his brows as if to mimic an eye roll. Trinity goes quiet for a moment.

"Just trust in the Force okay?" She sounds younger than he's ever heard her for a moment.

Dennis reopens his eyes, "I trust you," he stares back at her.

"yeah whatever, close your eyes man," She takes a deep breath, "I learned these techniques very young, back in the Jedi Temple since I can first remember the Creche I was raised in with the other younglings. We did everything together. The Jedi do this communal living thing to form bonds in the force and give you some kind of connections to latch onto, a way of communicating to learn empathy from the earliest part in your life to put others before yourself. The meditation puts all of this in perspective. When I am meditating, I feel not just the light in my own self but the light of others around me, people I have loved, people I have helped on my journeys and the millions of people we have passed everyday, candles in the dark all glowing." Whitaker can just vaguely feel it, as if establishing a weak comm connection that just keeps getting thrown off. There's a presence in front of him, shining like the sun, and another in the distance, and another and another which without a really depth of understanding or individuality Dennis can discern is the force imprint of Trinity, Abbot, Robby and, Javadi.

"I can also feel the absence," Trinity speaks again after a moment, " I feel the space between the candles like something is missing. I feel the space where my friends used to be, where the Creche master used to belong, where so many of the Jedi I had come to know as my family used to be and I miss them."

Dennis reopens his eyes to look down at how clenched Santos grip is on him before looking up into tear filled eyes. She looks away, pulling her hands out of his grasp leaving him feeling a bit cold. He clears his throat, "if it makes you feel so bad why do you meditate?"

"To remember them always."

-

Dennis Whitaker supposed that in grief one tended to either cling to the old ways or cast them aside.

Trinity Santos had decided to live for those who had not, carrying on tradition so they too might live on through the force.