[closed] The will to protect I

[Taruna]

The "Galactic Evolution"

>> Training room 2
>> Reserved for: Taruna Eskarian, Kheera Fii
>> 03:31 Board time

*Fweeen* *Fweeen* *Fweeen*

Three practice drones were about to unleash the full extend of their massively downgraded lasers onto the Jedi Knight being in the middle of the three spheric training droids. They were not exactly big or impressive, but fast and linked for better coordination. They actually were set to an infinite training time and to increase the firing frequency whenever they would register a hit.

The blue lady standing in the middle was aware of that, and thus did her best to keep the firing frequency as low as possible, but she had a bad start at the first five minutes. Her mind needed some time to get her in the Zen-like state it was now. The Jedi will go to war was the thought that steadily went through her mind since the day Jedi Master Gil announced it. So she stopped sleeping normally, used the Jedi Meditation skill to refresh as much as neccessary and thus had more time to train. Also, a certain Jedi Padawan got her attention in this meeting. The young Diathim asked openly about some defensive training and thus Taruna dropped a note for her with the things she knew and was able to teach. Her planned
scheduled for that was included, but so far she did not hear from her. She just hoped there was someone more capable teaching this to her already as she seemed to be more of a supportive type of Jedi. Something she as someone who really did not love fights really appreciated.

Right now, she stood in the standard stance of the Soresu form, but doing so without her lightsabers, keeping them on her belt. She also was clad in her sweat drenched standard training dress, thus sporting a armorweave Sarashi, a very flexible transpariflex trousers and nothing else beside her utility belt. The Armor was recharging and she felt more comfortable with this less restraining outfit. The Force barriers she built a centimeter away from her hand palms were only strong enough to withstand the shots and created long enough to be placed to defend against the attacks. This way, she was able to preserve her energys and the blindfold helped her to also train her Force induced senses and kept the wet hair out of her eyes. Sometimes, she also had to add some speed, since three drones where exactly more than she had hands.

 

[LilyNion]

The rather tall Diathim just stood there in one of the hallways of the Galactic Evolution. Her eyes looked dull, tiredness could've been noticed in them. Resting wasn't a common thing at this point. With the upcoming war, rest sounded more like a myth, a legend. Everybody was training their bodies over their own limits, training to get ready for the big fight. The fight that nobody could avoid. It was now or never, once and for all. The Sith had to be stopped. The pressure of the oncoming war has been felt in the ship. Many Jedi looked rather stressed, exhausted and burned out. It also hit Kheera badly. Ever since Jedi Master Gil announced the war, fear overcame her emotions. A war was her biggest nightmare, and it was about to come reality. Yet the fear didn't stop her, she decided that she had to keep training. For the sake of the Galaxy.

At the day of the announcement, Kheera asked openly for help and training. This caught a blue lady's attention. She looked rather unique and outstanding, especially with her red eyes. They didn't talk, in fact, the blue lady only handed over a paper with some information written on it and walked off afterward. Kheera slid her pale hand in one of the build in pockets inside her robe and gently took that piece of paper out of it. She unfolded the paper once again and carefully read it all over again. There wasn't anything too special written on it, the woman's abilities and her schedule. One of the abilities was the Force Barrier, an ability that Kheera had yet to learn. Kheera decided to follow the blue lady's schedule and began her 'journey' in the Galactic Evolution. She wasn't the best at finding her ways in temples and ships, even if it was a little ship. 'Luckily' for her, this was a Star Destroyer.

After wandering around in the ship for a couple of minutes and walking in circles a couple of times, she found the Training room 2. While walking closer towards the door, the Diathim heard shots bouncing around in the room. After listening closer, she heard two, no wait, three droids, flying around and making their recognizing humming sound. At first, Kheera wanted to walk away again as the lady seemed to be busy with her own training. She turned her back towards the door and corrected her robes, so she could continue her 'journey' in the ship, yet a voice inside her, a hyperactive little voice without an actual voice nor sound told her to turn around and knock on that door. She followed that little voice and span graceful back towards the door. While molding a fist with her hand, she stepped closer towards the door and knocked against it with our knuckles.

"Hello?" Her soft and light voice like bells could've been heard in the training room.

 

[Taruna]

Taruna's routine was interrupted by the ripples of a known voice, but managed to keep concentrated on the droids for now. She did not have to look or even use her eyes to recognize her as she stood there, the Force was telling her everything she needed to know. With a sharp "Program end" she deactivated the droids and they immediately stopped and would remain in place, waiting for more commands.

A little out of breath, she grabbed her water flask and poured it over her head to cool down a little, letting the water run down her body and produce a very very faint mist at the places she have been hit recently. Then she removed the blindfold and looked at the Diathim, her red glowing eyes and mouth corner showing small wrinkles of amusement, more of joy really "Oh, hello there. You're the one I gave the invitation, right?" she turned to face Kheera completely "Did you already decide? Are you here to learn?" proceeding, she raised an eyebrow "Or did you come here for another reason?"

There were a lot of reasons, among them the message that she was needed in the SCC, for example. Or a mission. Or the impending attack. Or.. at this point she stopped herself. It was bad to make assumptions, the girl would tell her sooner or later, Taruna just had to give her the opportunity to even talk.

 

[LilyNion]

A known voice spoke sharply from the outside of the door. "Program end." Directly after those two words, the loud humming of the droids stopped. Kheera took this as a 'welcome' sign and opened the door slowly. In front of her, in the middle of the room, was the Chiss that handed over the piece of paper. Her bright blue skin contained little sweat drops that reflected one of the many sun's light. Yet before Kheera could care, the Chiss poured a flask filled with water all over her body. The sweat drops made place for clean water as they rolled over her body shapes.

The Diathim blinked for a second and shook her head, to stop with staring. "Excuse me for the staring. Fear of water!" A shiver ran over her body. While she took showers on a daily base, it wasn't pleasant experience. She couldn't grasp the idea of people, throwing willingly water on themselves. The Diathim laughed a bit awkward and stepped towards the Chiss. The Chiss began to smile, which caused Kheera to smile back from ear to ear. It was always lovely to see someone smile. While keeping a polite distance between the two, Kheera shook out her hand for a handshake. "Yups! That's me. The name's Kheera Fii by the way! It's a pleasure for me to meet you! Well we already met before, but that wasn't really with talking!" A lighthearted laugh escaped Kheera's mouth.

"Ah, yes! The training! You have quite alot of skills. But I'm rather interested in the Force Barrier! That is, if you don't mind teaching me it!" She began to speak her words faster, showing that she felt on ease with the lady's presence.

 

[Taruna]

"Huh," was the immediate response of the Chiss who listened to the Padawan attentively throughout the introduction, and used her towel to dry her hand. She did not fail to notice that the Diathim offered her hand despite just declaring her fear of water and thus took the diathims hand with a water free blue hand of her own. No need to worsen things for her.

With a smile that changed from polite to cheery, she answered in a calm voice "My name's Taruna. You can also call me Taru, if you wish." and then she looked at the training droids floating about. "I was just training this very technique myself. And yes, I can teach you the basics and if you wish we can start training together later on. I need to warn you that this is not easy, and will not be impenetrable. But it may save lives one day."

This offer was sincere. Taruna knew very well that she would not have the time to teach this PadaWan to master levels, but she would be damned if she could not show her how to block a few hits at least. As she did not seem to be a fighter, she thought of her more like a scholar or healer. Something that needed to be cleared.

"So.. before I teach you, would you tell me why you want to learn this?"

 

[LilyNion]

The Diathim laughed gently as the Chiss whipped her hand dry. There were enough Jedi who wouldn't think about drying their hands before accepting a handshake. Kheera couldn't help herself to look at the blue hand that looked even brighter than before, caused by her pale skin which gave the Chiss's hand a white underground. As if her eyes were glued in spot, she kept staring at the blue pigment. That was, until the handshake was over and the Chiss removed her hand.

"Mh. Taruna, Taru.. Taruna it is! It rolls nicer over the tongue. Ta-rrrrrruuu-naa!" Her face became rather goofy looking as she rolled the 'r' over her tongue, followed up with a bubbly laughter. The young winged Diathim followed Taruna's gaze, causing her to look at the training droids that were floating in place. As the Chiss continued with talking, she returned her eyes back towards the blue woman and listened closely. "You see, I'm fine with not being to master it completely. I'm aware that mastering a Force ability can take over years, one training won't do. But as you said yourself, it may save lives one day and that's the most important! And it not being easy, a challenge won't hurt a soul!"

Kheera rubbed her left upper arm a bit as the Jedi knight asked her why she wanted to learn the Force barrier. She didn't have to think about it for a second, as she responded almost directly. "Well. We all know that the War is almost standing in front of our door, knocking by. And it won't be asking for some cookies! So I've been thinking about what role I could play in this upcoming war. And while fighting isn't my thing.. I choose to become a combat healer who'll protect the fallen ones, in front and in the back of the battlefield. I'm not the best at handling a saber, so I'll go for other options. A rather more.. tanky way. And we both can agree on the fact that a Force barrier will become VERY useful for when I have to jump in front of a fallen one, to block a saber or a bullet." Her voice was joyful at the beginning, yet became more and more filled with sadness and fear the more she spoke. War scared her, the thought of fighting freaked her out. But it was the reality.

She shook her head, recollected her thoughts together and began to smile brightly again. She knew that the fear would become her undoing if she gave into them, that's why she tried her best to not give in. "So that's my story!"

 

[Taruna]

And there it was. The connection the tiger striped Chiss needed to successfully train someone else. In this case, it was the mutual and urgent desire to protect. Something she could work with.

With a smile she nodded. "And a good story it is. I approve of your honesty and your good self-estimation. And I feel honored to support you in this. So, if you are okay with that, we begin straight away." she pointed her finger on one of the drones and straight on the ground, then repeated the same with the second drone. Both slowly went down and landed on the ground, leaving one drone flying and circling the two "I will show you how I do it, explain what I want to achieve and how I do it. All you need to do is listen, stand still and if you feel like it, just try to do as I do. Chirm in whenever you are ready for now"

She then spoke to the remaining idle drone "Standard deflection training" and the drone immediately came back to life and began to circle the two. Tauna remained at her position, facing the Diathim and began to speak "I hope you already had lessons in deflecting, because that would make things way easier. Because the principles of the basics are the same. You need to want to have something between you and the incoming attack. It's just not something as easy to control as a Lightsaber, because this is already there, you need to let your reflexes and our will take over, allow the Force to guide you in what you wish to achieve. I the will to protect takes over.."

She raised her hand to the drone behind her and showed her hand palm to it, creating a blue barrier seeming to be out of a honeycomb-pattern and blocking the attack while keeping her eyes on Kheera "You will be able to allow the force to manifest in what it needs to be. It's basically learning to control yourself by controlling your emotions and actions as well as learning to control yourself in letting go and trust your feelings and the Force to do what's right. The Barrier itself is easy to build. Imagine anything that actually -can- block the attack and just ask the force to give it to you. It's important that you not try to copy me, try to build your own barrier, one that reflect your personality and will to protect."

 

[LilyNion]

Kheera laughed happily as the Chiss approved her story and nodded as she wanted to start directly with the training. "The sooner, the better!"

With crossed arms, Kheera payed attention to what the Chiss had to say and what she was doing. It actually made a lot of sense. "Hm. I've done some deflecting lessons. And that lesson also thought me how to let the Force guide me. So I think that I understand what you are trying to tell me." Her left mouth corner rose up in a little smile. Then the Jedi knight made a honeycomb looking pattern which hovered in front of her hand. Her jaw dropped, as Taruna explained how she did it. "Wait, really?" She moved her eyes up towards the droid, which tried to attack the two of 'em. The beams just bounced off the shield, towards one of the walls. "This looks so.. how to say it in a Jedi way. 'cool'? I mean, just look at you and that shield!" She became more and more excited for this lesson.

"Okay, let me try it. Just in case if I fail, don't remove your barrier! Those beams are nasstyy!" She thought of something else to say. "Oh right, IF I succeed, I have this nasty habit to not being able to control my Force power when I do something the first time. My ever first Force heal caused me to faint, because of how much energy I put into it. Whoopsyyyy?" Her cheeks rose up a bit, she wasn't proud of it yet so far she didn't find a way to stop that habit.

Kheera rose up her hands to the other side, so a new barrier wouldn't cross with Taruna's barrier. Without remembering Taruna's advice, she just thought Make a wall! Make a wall! Come on, make a wall! Yet of course, nothing happened. She puffed up her cheeks with air she looked at her hand. While rethinking about what she did wrong, she thought back of what Taruna said. "You will be able to allow the force to manifest in what it needs to be. It's basically learning to control yourself by controlling your emotions and actions as well as learning to control yourself in letting go and trust your feelings and the Force to do what's right. The Barrier itself is easy to build. Imagine anything that actually -can- block the attack and just ask the force to give it to you. It's important that you not try to copy me, try to build your own barrier, one that reflect your personality and will to protect."

"Oh, wait. It's not just simply thinking that I should make a wall..!"

She closed her eyes. "So all I have to imagine is something that can block the beams and the Force will create it for me. Right? Not just 'A wall!' Duuuhh, why didn't I do that before." With a deep sigh, she began to trust on a technique that a Jedi master has thought her a while ago. It was her way to guide the Force around and it's been pretty effective so far. In her mind, she began to imagine how she was standing in a river with rushing water. The water was her Force, guiding her to what direction she has to go and so on. She visioned how the water stopped abrupt in front of her body and slowly rose up into the air as a wall of water. It very much looked like an upside down waterfall, as the current of the water raised up to the sky. She had it all in her mind, all she had to do now was to bring this to real life.

She took her time to do this. She knew that rushing a Force power wont do and lead to failure, doing it slow and precise was the key for Kheera's sake. With deep and controlled breathing, she began to push the image out of her mind, towards the real life, right in front of her hand. Vague lines became visible, which flew upwards like a stream of water. The barrier became more and more visible over time, giving the image that she had in her mind all along. As expected, she used too much of her Force, giving the barrier a bright glow which drained her energy rather quickly. But she decided to keep going. After two minutes of sweating as if she was standing in the bright sun, the barrier was completely developed, ready to be used with only one question left, was it strong enough to block a bolt or was it only a visual thing.

 

[Taruna]

Taruna remained silent, but listened attentively. There was not much to respond, but her looks and facial expression were enough to tell her she was on the right track. There was only one way to answer the question about the stability of the wall and so Taruna gently nudged Kheera's hand with her telekinesis to block the next incoming attack. It hit her hand palm with a feelable, but not really painful *Zot*

"Drones, training pause" she ordered and the drones immediately became inert, keeping their routes but no longer firing.

"Sorry about that, but that was a really good start. Keep in mind that not the visible form it takes will determine the strength of your barriers but your own -will- of doing so. Also, I noticed you are not yet trained in letting the force flow through you as free as it should. It's one thing you need to figure out sooner or later. Unfortunately, there are as many ways to train your Force-flow as there are Force sensitives. I for my part found out it helped me to think of the force as a living thing, which actually does want to help and all it needs is me as conduit to do so. For that, I had to train letting the force flow through me lie the Force needs it, not how I want it. Others just need to visualize the desired effect and their body acts in accordance. What helped all of them is meditation, tho."

She took a short breath. "Your barrier was excellent for your first try, tho. I don't know if you felt it, but the laser was actually averted, about fifteen degrees. That means you are on a good way. Let's take a few breaths and try that again, okay? Just tell me when you're ready and we will do the same again. I keep up the barriers until you are ready to take over the protection."

 

[LilyNion]

Out of response, Kheera stepped backwards as the bolt hit her right hand. As any regular training bolt, the pain wasn't too bad. If anything, it was annoyingly sharp. The shield 'blew' up as her concentration got disturbed by the sharp poke in her hand. Kheera lowered her hand and looked at Taruna with a big grin as she explained what Kheera's results were and how she thought about the Force.

"You are right, to be honest! I've been lacking a LOT of Force lessons. I found a way to use my Force, but .. I can't really control it that well. It's so wild, almost like 'em animal that's trying to break out of its cage. So I'll really take your advice in mind, thank you a lot." She bowed thankfully towards Taruna and moves her shoulders up and down to relax her muscles a bit. She took her time to regain a bit of her energy before she gave it another shot.

Kheera followed the same progress as before, this time the shield was less bright yet just as detailed and full of life. She also followed Taruna's new advice and used her own will to actually protect herself and the Chiss against the bullet. This gave the shield a new look, less visible yet more solid. It also gave the shield a little shine. "Okay, let's try this again." She was curious to see if the new advice worked out and if yes, how strong the shield would be. "Let's test this baby!"

 

[Taruna]

Seeing the resole in the Padawan's eyes, the Knight decided to give it a real try. So she ordered the drones to "Start, Level two" and cross her arms, signalling that she was relying on Kheera's will to protect her.

At the end, there were a few blows going through but Taruna did not flinch a bit to not make the Padawan more nervous. On the contrary, she actually helped her with the one or another hint given by the force itself, guiding her to concentrate better.

When she felt that he Padawan would be completely out of tune or at the end of her ability, Taruna would end the program. No need to overly exhaust the Padawan at the first training.

 

[Taruna]

At the end of the training round, Taruna nodded satisfied as Kheera showed that she got the basics down, explained that all what was needed now was regular training and extending an offer for ore training sessions whenever needed and the Knight was available.

[Closing thread for now]