Alice, Meet Katarn. Welcome to the Dark Side...

[Keinushi]

"Right now." Katarn smiled. "I've asked Kel to assist in your training, he's an old friend and sparring partner of mine. I want you to follow him out the the range and do some quick practice with the rifle from earlier while I sign you up at the temple."

 

[Zach]

Alice nodded and said, "Alright. Where can I find him?" She walked back up the ramp and headed to the locker to find the rifle. When she opened the door and picked up the weapon, swinging the strap over her shoulder, she ran back over to Katarn and awaited her response.

 

[Keinushi]

"Right here." Kel said, exiting the ship. "Follow me."

Katarn nodded to the young apprentice and indicated she should follow him.
Kel lead her through almost a mile of straight forest before the reached a clearing with several variations in targets. "We'll start simple, aim for the far right target."

 

[Zach]

Alice nodded and took the rifle from her shoulder. She kneeled down and braced the weapon between her chest and shoulder, her left hand on the underside of the barrel. She leaned her head to the side and closed one eye, taking aim down the end of the barrel and firing as soon as she lined up her target with the red-dot sight. She hit the target just outside the bulls-eye range three times. She frowned and squinted, adjusting her aim a tiny bit and firing again, hitting the center of the target. She raised the weapon and smiled, turning to Kel.

 

[Keinushi]

Kel nodded once without any other outwards acknowledge meant. He instead grabbed a disk that was sitting near him. "Now hit this." And he threw it into the air using the force to keep it moving back and forth in a random pattern at the end of the range.

((this would be a great time to use the force to slow time and allow you to concentrate better proving you do have force abilities.))

 

[Zach]

Alice moved her gaze to the disc when he grabbed it and watched as he threw it into the air. She turned and fired at it, missing every shot. She furrowed her brow and took aim again, bracing the rifle against between her chest and shoulder. She fired another three bursts but missed every time. Now she was getting frustrated and scrunched her nose. When she finally couldn't hit it, she made an angry half-yell and tossed the gun to the side and Force Gripped the disc, crushing it. Even when it fell to the ground in pieces, she stared at where it had been in the air and was breathing lightly harder.

 

[Keinushi]

((Stop doing that! you keep pulling wierd powers out of your ass and its scaring me))

Kel blink, a frown furrowing his face. "I would highly advise you clean the dirt off that rifle before Katarn returns. Also, the idea was to be able to hit a moving target. You never know when a job will go belly up and you need to take someone out who is running away." He grabbed another disc off the ground and threw it in the air, once again using the force to continue its travel, but slowing it this time. "Try again."

 

[Zach]

((Stop doing that! you keep pulling wierd powers out of your ass and its scaring me))

((Weird? It's a basic telekinetic ability though. She's used the Force, she's just not trained in it. And can usually only use it when she's angry))

Alice frowned and nodded, crouching down to pick up the rifle. She balanced it against her shoulder again and aimed. She sighed and closed one eye, focusing on the target. She fired twice and missed, getting angry again. She fired a third time, hitting the very edge and causing it to waver, then firing a burst ahead of where it was going to be, spraying the air. Even though she knew her way around a rifle, it didn't mean that she was disciplined enough to know how to fire it well. When she kept missing the disc she closed her eyes and tried to calm down, but to no avail. She opened her eyes and aimed at the disc again, ready to yell out again and focused entirely on where the rifle was aimed, using the Force to keep in time with the disc's movements. She fired again and shattered the disc just as it moved in a different direction.

 

[Keinushi]

((I merely meant your character at first appeared so innocent, now she's pretty darn scary))

Kel nodded, "It took you a while, but you did ok. You will come out here to practice every morning from now on. I will assign a slave to throw the disks for you. You may cease practice when you can blast one out of the air on your first try 5 times in a row."

Kel turned to leave. "Katarn will be done signing you in by now, follow."

((hehe, I both love and hate kel at the same time, what do you think?))

 

[Zach]

((Ah, ok. Like I said in MSN, she's a bi-polar near schitzo. Very awkward))
((He's a good character, I like him, but thought that he'd be stricter))

Alice furrowed her brow, a little upset that she couldn't hit the target on the first try, and swung the rifle around her shoulder. She remembered the dirt and took it off, brushing off the surface of dirt along one side of the rifle, swinging it back over her shoulder. She realized that it must be a little awkward for those around her, seeing as how she didn't talk much and only communicated with facial expressions and nods, but it was more comfortable for her. She nodded to Kel when he told her that a slave would assist her in her training every morning, throwing discs for target practice. Alice frowned for a moment and thought of something. "Will Katarn still be training me?" she asked, wondering if she'll be able to stay with her. She felt safe around the grey-eyed woman, protected and cared for.

 

[Keinushi]

"I most certainly won't be doing it." Kel spat. "Training is a woman's job, I'm too busy to deal with you acolytes."

Kel lead her back to the temple where Katarn was waiting by the entrance.

"Everything go ok?" Katarn asked, her usual smile firmly in place.

"No." Kel spat. "She's weak, I'd drop her now if I were you, but if I were you, she wouldn't even be here would she?"

"Nope." Katarn's smile widened as she closed her eyes and shrugged, her head leaning to the side.

Kel stormed into the temple without saying goodbye. "You must be pretty good for Kel to react so strongly." Katarn smiled at Alice. "Normally he's not that mean to people he's just met."

 

[Zach]

Alice had a flare of anger at Kel's words, but realized that there was nothing she could do about it. What the man thought were his own thoughts, and she wasn't strong enough yet to make him think otherwise. She followed Kel back in silence and smiled when she saw Katarn. When she heard Kel's recommendation to drop her, she turned to him with a frightened expression, quickly washed away by her friend's response. She walked over to Katarn and nodded with a smile.

"I didn't mean to make him mad. I just got so frustrated at those damn discs. He kept moving them around and it was hard to hit them," she said, frowning at the ground. "And then he said those things about training being a womans job, like I wasn't worth his time," she scoffed, scrunching her nose. She looked up at Katarn with an ashamed expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, I just..." she said, unable to finish her sentence. She didn't know what she meant, but she knew she shouldn't have said that about him.

 

[Keinushi]

Katarn laughed, not a long laugh, but a short one. "If Kel thought you were unworthy of training he would have killed you in the woods. But your right, he is a bit chauvinistic. I don't think he even respects me, despite the fact I've passed every one of his tests and beaten him in battle. He just hates women. There are many like him in the Bogan, some hate women, some hate Nimoidians. But as anger is what fuels many of the members of our order, it is not unsurprising that so many are so prejudice."

Katarn frowned and sighed. "I fear I am something of a rarity to this place."

 

[Zach]

Alice sighed. "I suppose you're right," she said. Is there anyone else I should meet?" she asked with a faint smile, really asking if there was anyone else she should watch out for. She wondered about Kel, smiling at the fact that he's been mean to her because he thought she was good. It angered her that he disrespected her and Katarn, but it only meant that his thoughts would be clouded and he would underestimate them. Her thoughts drifted to the power of the Force and she began to wonder about something. "Katarn, I wanted to ask you something. About the Force. Is it possible to use it to increase your strength?" she asked, fearing that the answer was yes. If it was indeed possible, she knew that it had been the Force that allowed her to kill those men on the smugglers' ship.

 

[Keinushi]

"Of course." Katarn's demeanor neutralized. "You concentrate on the limb and it performs at twice its usual capability."

 

[Zach]

Alice frowned and looked to the ground. "I think I may have done this before..." she said quietly. She looked up at Katarn and frowned deeper, uncertain if she was ready to talk about what happened yet. "Nevermind," she quickly said.

 

[Keinushi]

Katarn frowned in puzzlement but did not push. "Please, follow me inside."

Katarn began to lead the acolyte through the temple till they reached one of the training rooms Katarn had reserved for the afternoon. Once inside, Katarn went to the center of the room and turned to face Alice. "Now, are you ready to learn?"

 

[Zach]

Alice followed Katarn through the halls, glancing from side to side as they passed other rooms. She saw a few other students and their masters training, but did not see what they were doing precisely. When Katarn turned into one of the rooms, Alice followed her in and smiled when she was asked if she was ready to start her training. She nodded and asked, "What do you think we should start with?"

 

[Keinushi]

"Telekinesis." Katarn said as she lifted a disk from a stack in the corner and launched it at the acolyte. The disk would stop a centimeter from the acolyte's head, but she didn't know that, this would be a great way to test her reflexes with the force.

 

[Zach]

Alice was startled when the disc rose into the air and shot at her. She immediately backed up in response to the object coming at her and she thrust out an arm to knock it away. The only thing she thought about was moving her arm in the way of the disc's path so she wouldn't get hit, and when her fist came into contact with it, it shattered.