Toetally Training

[Reuben Azari]

Location: The Valhala, Space

His master could sure make training out of anything, though he was unsure what to expect yet, he only knew that he had been summoned to Ashlyna's room with the prospect of a training opportunity which struck him as odd given that it was in her own personal room which didn't give the appearance of the most professional environments, however he didn't feel awkward to meet her there, he felt comfortable enough with her for it to not be weird and clearly she was comfortable enough with him too to invite him there. They had grown closer through the time they had spent together and Reuben had begun to treat Ash like surrogate family after Avan's exile.

Once he reached her room, he knocked on the door and walked in, she was expecting him anyhow. He however, wasn't expecting to see her on her bed which immediately concerned him, it was still a reasonable hour and she was always up and about except when it wasn't a reasonable hour, there must've been something wrong. "Are you injured?" He asked as he walked over and sat at the foot of her bed, trying to assess her to see if she had any visible injuries. The pair were preparing for a mission so the last thing they needed was for Ash to be injured.

@Algarus

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

Ash had spent most of the morning limping around the room, cleaning up the mess that was last night, least her padawan get an idea of what went down her last night; else she might die of embarrassment. So when Reuben arrived outside of the room, the knight was still clad in her evening robes, sitting on her bed while she made absolutely sure nothing specious was to be seen; the broken blinds and table were well on their way to waste disposal by now. Reuben was a sweet boy after all, she didn't want to destroy that innocence with things he need not concern himself with. Glancing down at her toe, Ash rehearsed the cover story she had come up with this morning, she tripped over her table and broke her toe. Yep. That was it. But what if he realized this wasn't her room? Tycho's name was literally on the wall outside. No, she would keep calm. If Reuben put the pieces together, she would manage it as they went.

When Reuben entered the room, Ash would smile to him, waving him over to her. "Well hey there Reuben. Yea, tripped over the table while I was stumbling about and broke my toe. On the plus side, we can use this as a training opportunity!" She winced as she bumped her broken toe against the floor. Reuben would only see his master had something wrong with her toe.

@Sunfrog

 

[Reuben Azari]

Reuben had noticed someone else's name on the wall outside but said nothing, he didn't want to risk striking a nerve with Ash or making the situation awkward for her. He wasn't bothered by it, she didn't have to explain anything to him but if she wanted to then she could do so on her own accord, he wouldn't push her.

"Oh." He almost sounded disappointed, or at least underwhelmed. So it wasn't a great battle injury, it was a broken toe induced by a clumsy Jedi. He was glad that she wasn't hurt but couldn't help but wonder if she was being a tiny bit dramatic by still being in bed, having not even gotten dressed yet. "I did wonder why you wanted me here..." He said thoughtfully before putting two and two together, realising exactly what training opportunity she was implying. "You want me to heal your toe?" He asked, sounding less than pleased at the prospect as he looked down at her foot.

@Algarus

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

Ash smiled to her padawan, pulling her robe a tad tighter as her padawan came closer. There was no real nerve to push with Ash, but that was working in her favor for the time being. The less he asked the better. He might pick up on the fact she was just a tad nervous, but other than that she seemed to be the same old Ash. She could sense a small bit of disappointment from him.

Maybe she'd have to throw in another lesson later on, maybe something really good just for him being such a good sport. "Yea, clumsy me. Even masters make their mistakes you know?" She smiled, nodding down to her right foot. The big toe on it was purple and swollen around the knuckle, where it was pretty clear she had broken it at. Other than that, her feet looked fine, and no other injuries were seen on his master. "But yea, just need you to heal this up. Broken bones are a bit of a pain as you can imagine." She smiled nervously, knowing this was probably awkward for both of them. "Do you know how to do that Reuben?" She asked, trying to relax, as there wasn't any reason for him to think something was off.

@Sunfrog

 

[Reuben Azari]

Ash was still her cheery self and even though the situation was more informal than what Jedi would usually expect but then again Ash was never one for formalities, their relationship had been pretty lax since they had met, something Reuben found unusual at first but had come to welcome, it was a relief to have some normality in the hectic life that was the life of a Jedi.

As he looked at her toe, he became doubtful and looked back at Ash, expressing the doubt in the look on his face. "No, I've tried before but it didn't work." He replied as he thought back to the time he had attempted to heal Kalanda's broken arm but to no avail, although the circumstances of the situation were a lot more trying than this one, it would be expected that an unrefined skill would be near impossible to achieve in such trying circumstances. If she had wanted to teach him force heal couldn't she have broken a more convenient bone that wouldn't involve her undoubtedly presenting him with her foot in a few moments. This was one of the less glamorous aspects of being a padawan it seemed.

@Algarus

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

"Well that's okay, I can help you with the rest of it." Ash didn't seem to see an issue with asking Reuben to fix her toe, though she was detecting some reluctance from her padawan. Ash frowned at seeing the hesitance of her student, maybe she shouldn't have brought him in for this after all. "Reuben if you don't feel comfortable with doing this, then you don't have to do this." She wasn't going to force him into something he didn't want to do. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. "Sorry, I just thought that maybe this was a good time for this, but it's a little selfish of me isn't it?" She sighed, shrugged as she stroked her chin, trying to think of how to salvage this situation. "Well, I can give you something less...demeaning to do if that'll help." She looked around, trying to think of something she could use to cut herself, would make it a bit easier to fix as well. "Healing isn't that complicated, you just need to learn how to optimize the energy you put into fixing the injury. It's all about technique"

@Sunfrog

 

[Reuben Azari]

Reuben was thankful that his master had thought of him and was giving him the opportunity to learn, even if it was in a slightly unorthodox way and involved the man-handling of her foot. Healing was a useful, no, vital skill to learn, it could save lives and in the midst of a war on all fronts they would need all the help they could get. "No, no, it's ok, I'm comfortable, I just didn't come in here expecting to man-handle your feet." He reassured Ashlyna who had taken note of his apprehension and had become doubtful. It was a bit of an odd situation but he should've expected that from Ash by now and she only wanted to help so he was grateful for it.

"Alright, sit down and give me your foot. It'll only be demeaning if you make me kneel at your feet." He patted the top of one of his thighs to suggest she put her foot on his lap. "Can't it be quite... draining?" He asked her with curiosity. His attempt at force healing hadn't been nearly successful enough to have any negative effects on himself and he doubted a broken toe would be the most challenging of adversaries but he had heard it to be taxing on the user, particularly if they were healing themselves.

@Algarus

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

Ash smiled as her padawan seemed more willing to take on the rather awkward exchange that was going on here. "Well, sometimes when you're a jedi, you never know what you can walk in on." She tried to deflect this as a joke, as she would set her foot in Reuben's lap. She really hoped no one walked in here, but there shouldn't be a reason for that to happen. "And I wouldn't want to do that to you, we aren't Sith after all." She said this, and yet here she was...putting her padawan through this. Maybe she was just an unusual matter.

"It can be a little draining, but like I said, it's all about control and placement of your energy." Ash explained, as she would go into a bit more detail. "Basically, you need to feel the wound in the force, then will it to be put back together. Like finding the cracks in a wall and willing it back together. Make sense?" She smiled and tilted her head, leaning back on her hands, as she tucked her other foot under her leg. "Now you can just pour all the force energy you want into the wound, and it'll heal, but the drain it'll put on you is intense. That's probably what happened the last time you tried to use it." Ash bit her lip as she said the next part, not sure how her padawan would take it. "So, just let me know when you're ready. Put your hand over the area that needs treatment and focus on it." Ash had learned this lesson not so long ago with another jedi, though the way they had learned it was far less awkward than this.

@Sunfrog

 

[Reuben Azari]

"True." Reuben admitted, there was a certain element of surprise that accompanied being a Jedi. "But nowhere in the contract mentioned touching feet." He joked back, clearly at ease in the situation. Over time, he had learned how to retaliate Ashlyna's jokes, he had never been one to joke much before but after spending so much time with her it had started to become second nature. He didn't say anything about the Sith since he didn't feel particularly comfortable insulting them yet so soon after Avan had been exiled and likely joined them.

"Right." He said to show he was following her train of thought. "Yeah, it makes sense in theory, just depends whether or not I can actually put it into practice." He replied. As with most things, it was all coherent and simple in theory but rarely was when it came to practice. After a few moments of thought and fully taking in what he had just been told, he nodded to Ash to show that he was ready and put his right hand over the end of her foot, careful not to hit it and cause any more damage. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the wound in the force like Ashlyna told him to.


@Algarus

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

"Okay, okay, enough of that. This is already getting too weird." Like Ash was one to talk about being weird, she wondered if anyone else had the misfortune of being as awkward as her. She was just trying to be a good master, and hey, maybe this would show Reuben a little bit of humility. "That's why we are going to practice til you get it. Hopefully I don't need to break another bone for you to get a training session." She joked, though she wasn't sure if Reuben would appreciate it. "Right, now back to training."

Reuben would sense the small crack in the bone with Ash's toe, it was a minor fracture, but it was indeed causing alot of the swelling around the knuckle of the toe. He could sense, if not feel the small thumps of pain being given off by her nerves, though Ash ignored most of the discomfort that had come with the experience. The jedi knight closed her eyes, trying to guide Reuben through this ordeal. "Reuben, do you see the fracture? Just focus on the break, and think about bringing the two pieces together, making them whole. Just focus on that, if you can't well....just picture the two being whole. That is also valid." She hoped he would understand it, it wasn't easy for her the first time she had done this, but then again he wasn't her, in fact he had more promise than she did as a padawan.

@Sunfrog

 

[Reuben Azari]

"I wouldn't put it past you to break a bone on purpose." He replied with a smile before returning his focus on the task at hand. He began to feel the minor wound in a sense, through the force, though he wasn't sure if he was doing it right as nothing was happening so he began to feel doubtful. "I think so..." He replied, frowning as he tried to focus on the less physical aspect of the fracture but rather the force behind it. Once he had established the break and could feel the difference within the force, he attempted to do as he was told by imagining bringing the fracture together while controlling the amount of energy exerted by doing so, it didn't require a lot of energy so there was no point wasting any.

No one said being a Jedi was easy but this seemed to be the most difficult ability he had to learn so far, though only because the concept was so strange and new, once he figured out how to do it successfully he imagined it would get easier. He could feel movement within the force beneath his fingertips but dared not to open his eyes to see if he was having any effect in case he lost concentration.

@Algarus

 

[Ashlyna Talmount]

He seemed to know her so well. She'd toetally (ha! See what I did there?) break a bone to better her padawan. It was the sacrifice teachers were supposed to make. She watched as he tried to will the wound to close, feeling a bit of the force working on the injury, mostly small shifts in the bone around where the swelling was at it's worst. Ash winced, trying to keep herself from moving, not from the pain but because of this unnerving tickly sensation she was now feeling. She just ignored it though, Reuben seemed to be getting it, as the padawan and knight would sense that the fracture was fixing itself little by little. The swelling had begun to decline as well, though it seemed to be taking the padawan more and more of his energy as the seconds ticked on.

"There you go, you're getting it. Just pace yourself, don't try and rush it all at once. Patience is key." Ash mentored, focusing herself on that rather than the now irritating sensations she was feeling around her right foot. He was doing far better than she the first time she had attempted this, but she knew well enough the drain it can have on someone. She'd be ready to step in should he push himself too far.

@Sunfrog

 

[Reuben Azari]

The sooner he could get this done, the better, for the both of them. No doubt this was making Ash uncomfortable as he was fiddling with the bones inside her body but hopefully the relief of having no broken bones would be worth it. He noticed her wince and hesitated for a moment, halting what he was doing before continuing. If she was in genuine pain she would stop him... at least he hoped so, though she would likely downplay it for his own benefit.

Finally, he could feel some definite change in the injury and was about to try and speed up the process when Ash reminded him not to rush. Patience was always key with the Jedi. He continued as he was, drawing the fracture together, slowly but surely, though as time went on it was becoming more taxing, mostly because it was taking him so long rather than due to the severity of the injury. After minutes of silence passed, he opened his eyes and looked at Ash's foot, hoping that there was an improvement and sighed in relief when he saw it looked much better, the experience had tired him out a bit though. "Is that better? Or is it still a bit painful?" He asked.

@Algarus