Public A Healthy Way to Start Your Day [Character Introduction]

[Acaadi]

Amani Serys

Acaadi smiled, looking aside so he didn't focus on her obvious embarrassment. He took his hand back and curled it into a fist. Whilst he felt a slight tingle in his joints he suspected it was just on his mind now.

"No, I get that. Well, maybe not so existential. When I think too hard on what I'm doing with the Force it goes wrong. I have to try and stay clear headed if I want to life several rocks at once."

Acaadi poked his own fingertips, just so he could feel some regular sensation and convince himself that nothing had changed.

"I'm sorry if I distracted you by asking questions," he said as he realised he might have been the cause of her frustration.

 

[Amani Serys]

"Nah, it's okay. I was starting to lose concentration anyway."

That may not be completely true, but it wasn't all that much of an issue to Amani, so she let it be. She turned around to observe the rest of the class. It was hard to tell just how well anyone was doing without actually being a part of it, but some of the excited looks on others faces gave an indication of success. Master Gylenni began moving in their direction, and Amani quickly shifted back around to look busy.

"Well, I did it. It's your turn now, yeah? Go ahead."

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi was glad that she skirted around it. In hindsight he knew that asking questions as she worked wouldn't have helped, but he had been very curious.

"She must trust you," Acaadi said, "Leaving you with the newest member."

He turned to see that the master was in fact heading their way. Acaadi held his palm out over Amani's hand as she had done to him.

The whole process made him feel a little nervous. Even though he had brushed up against the consciousness of another mind before the idea of using the mystical energy of the Force to probe beneath someone else's skin felt intimate.

Acaadi closed his eyes and started with the familiar. He could feel the shape of Amani's hand underneath his own.

 

[Amani Serys]

Acaadi

"She must trust you," Acaadi said, "Leaving you with the newest member."

Amani shrugged, "I suppose. I don't think it means much. Or maybe she knows you've got the potential, or something". Her words trailed off as she fell silent to let him concentrate.

Amani watched with interest as Acaadi began to intensify his focus on their hands. It was a little different being on the other end of it, as she began to feel a similar faint sensation over her hand. Amani kept silent, she wanted to experience it in full.

 

[Acaadi]

Amani Serys

In one of his first tests Acaadi had been placed in front of three small metal spheres and asked to explain what they each held. He had shaken them, weighed them in his hand and found no clue of what they might have contained.

The point, his assessor had gone on to explain, was to use the Force to see deeper. Each metal sphere had been perfectly weighted to hide its secrets. In fact the spheres had contained a gas, liquid and a wooden core. It had taken him an hour, but he had passed and been admitted to the academy.

This was similar, except that Amani wasn't an object. The Force flowed differently through her. Not even in the same way as other jedi, let alone regular people.

It wasn't a barrier, more like peering through the surface of a moving river.

"I can feel a pulse..."

 

[Amani Serys]

Acaadi

“That’s good!” Amani blurted out. She didn’t even mean to, but she got overexcited. Hoping the sudden announcement didn’t totally break Acaadi’s concentration, she went rigid and shut her lips tight, as if holding back now would suck back in what she already said.

Not wanting to leave them in total silence, she peeps, barely audibly, “...Sorry,” before just as quickly shutting her mouth again. Amani couldn’t help but smirk , it hadn't been intentional, but she found some humor in the accidental payback for when Acaadi distracted her.

She waited, peering out of the sides of her eyes at the rest of the room, partly to see how others were doing, but also to avoid looking at her partner, for doing so might cause her to start laughing at her own faux pas.

 

[Acaadi]

Amani Serys

Unfortunately Acaadi saw the funny side too. A giggle snort turned into losing his focus entirely. His mental sense of that warm, thrumming flow collapsed and he was left with his usual five senses. Acaadi hadn't realised that his perception of the world had shrunk to just the two of them. He could suddenly hear the rest of the class, the collective sound of all of the partners murmuring to one another.

"That's a lot harder than it looks isn't it?" Acaadi asked, shaking his head in bemusement. "What else have you done in the class so far?"

 

[Amani Serys]

Almost as soon as Acaadi broke, Amani started laughing out loud in turn. This was exacerbated by the fact that Acaadi's laugh was similar to her own, which made her laugh more. Amani's gigglesnorting began to fill the room, and she put her hand up to her mouth as if covering it. She started scanning the area to see that a couple nearby students had gotten distracted by their antics, and after seeing Master Gylenni turn towards them, Amani turned straight back to Acaadi, staring directly at him, attempting to keep a straight face.

She waited for a reaction, but either Master Gylenni didn't realize it was them, or just didn't care right now. Amani loosed back up, the laughs subsiding and the situation returned to a degree of normalcy.

"You get used to it. Just takes a little work," she shrugged, "Sorry for distracting you."

"What else have you done in the class so far?"

"Oh, a lot of things since I've been in here. We've gone from trying to sense other areas of the body, basic healing - the works. Even some non-Force related stuff, basic biology, medicine, anything that's relevant to what we're practicing."

She leaned in a little closer, they had gotten to talking a lot about what she's been doing, but she was getting more curious to know about who Acaadi was.

"So, today is your first day in this class. What else do you do around here? Do you take a lot of other classes? Or maybe you're already doing a lot in the field?"

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi could sense the masters attention hovering around the pair. She was almost certainly going to come and check on them soon.

"You don't need to worry about that," he replied. "It's nice not to be sat in silence and bored in a class for once. Besides, it's going to take plenty of tries for me to get even the basics down I think."

Acaadi leaned a little closer as well, dropping his tone to avoid being overheard.

"I've mostly being doing more of the Guardian training. Lightsaber, physical training, telekinesis. The basics, you know?" Acaadi replied. He was proud of his record at the academy to date. It was why his failures in the field had cut deep. He wasn't use to failing. He wasn't used to anything but standing out from the crowd. It had all been a stark lesson in how large and dangerous the Galaxy truly was.

"Shall we practise again before she comes over? Can you talk and concentrate?"

 

[Amani Serys]

"Sounds exciting. I've only really just begun diving deeper into some of the more physically intensive aspects of training, myself. I've mostly been keeping to the books, stuff like that. I enjoy it, but there's more to being a Jedi than locking yourself in a temple forever, right?"

For a long time Amani felt that she was quite knowledgeable, more so than many of her fellow Padawans. She was, in a sense, but book-smarts and street-smarts are not the same thing, and Amani had slowly come to the realization that she was quite lacking in the latter.

She returned to proper posture, and held out her hand again like they had been done before.

"Yeah, I should be able to. Maybe just avoid topics that are particularly profound or thought provoking?"

 

[Acaadi]

"Well, there's probably supposed to be more to a jedi than swinging a lightsaber around too..." Acaadi murmured. His recently adventures had taught him that the galaxy was a much larger place than he thought it was. Not in the sense of its sheer size, but in all the ways it moved beyond his comprehension.

There were so many cultures out there and so much politics and war. The swing of a lightsaber seemed a small act in the face all the darkness people faced.

"But like you said, no more thought provoking conversation. Any more tips on this?"

 

[Amani Serys]

"Fair enough," Amani mused. Her mind wandered ever further the more she thought about it, but she set to focusing on the here and now. Once again, she set to sensing her partner's hand, the sensation of it slowly returning as she honed in. She waited a few seconds before answering Acaadi's question just to make sure she had it down.

"Tips... I think it's best when you just, let it happen, if that makes sense. Don't try to Force anything, pun fully intended."

Amani faltered for the briefest moment, bad jokes apparently aren't good for concentration, but she resumed quickly.

"Ahem. Once you've made the connection, it's like your just floating down a current. You just have to let it take you."

 

[Acaadi]

"Oh that one was terrible. You're going to have to pay for that one somehow," Acaadi mused. He didn't really care if it drew her out of her concentration; it had to be said.

It always caught his interest seeing other people manipulate the Force. It never felt quite the same as when he did it. To him, it added to the mystery of the Force. It was different to all people. It was personal.

"It's hard to try and concentrate one one small part of someone without focusing too much I think," Acaadi replied. "I can feel your attention, the Force moving around and through my hand."

 

[Amani Serys]

"Yeah, I'm sorry for that one. I accept whatever consequences I'm sentenced with for my crimes."

As if trying to atone for her atrocious pun, Amani closed everything out and deepened her concentration further, almost too much so. The feeling coursing through Acaadi's hand heightened for both of them. It was as if, for a moment, Amani could sense everything happening all at once; The flow of blood, the most minute twitches of muscle, everything came flooding at once. She dropped it immediately, nearly toppling backwards as the deluge of sensations overloaded her brain.

"Woah...... That was cool! Did you feel that?"

 

[Acaadi]

"Woah, weird. Yes, yes I could," Acaadi replied looking down at his own hand. He flexed his fingers as the sensation slowly faded. It still tingled.

Acaadi had experienced communication through the Force, raw and unfettered. It was very different to feel someone's consciousness moving through your physical mind. Almost unexpectantly intimate. It was something he was going to have to get used to. This was just the first lesson of many.

"Well done though. Shall I try again whilst I plan your punishment for that offensive pun?" he asked.

 

[Amani Serys]

"I don't even know what happened. It's like for just a moment I was able to shut everything else out, and then that happened. I need to test further."
When it came to learning about the Force, Amani was something of a mad scientist. Constatly looking out for her next discovery, and always excited every time anything remotely new happens. An event as strange as this might even keep her up the rest of the night.

But for now, she was content to continue their work. "Be my guest," Amani held her hand out for Acaadi to proceed, a jokingly repentant look on her face.

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi gave a nod and held his hand over hers again. He stretched out with his senses, easily tracing the outline of her hand with his mind. Pushing beyond that still evaded him.

The young mirialan fell into a deep silence, concentration etched into his face. Nearly a whole minute passed before he shook his head with a frustrated sigh.

"I'm going to stop for a bit or else I'll end up squeezing your hand or something."

His lessons on dealing well with failure were still, apparently, ongoing. He didn't like it.

"How about for punishment you come for a caf after the lesson with me?" he asked. "Well, a caf shop, I can't actually stand the stuff, but they have blue milk and cake?"

 

[Amani Serys]

"That's alright! Like I said, it takes time. You know, on my first day in this class, I couldn't sense the hand at all. I practically locked myself in my room after that, I was so frustrated with it."

Amani hoped Acaadi wouldn't interpret this as patronizing, what she said was true, after all. She had a tendency to try and sugarcoat things, even if they weren't that big of a deal to begin with.

Amani chuckled, "You've got an interesting concept of punishment. I'm not complaining, though. Sounds like fun!"

 

[Acaadi]

"No, I understand. I'll take my time with it. I know where impatience leads."

Acaadi had found out the hard way, being thrown into a situation that he had been ill-prepared for. There was that tempting well of power that was tapped so easily through an emotional connection. The dark side of the Force was always there.

"Well if you don't see it as a punishment then that works out fine too," Acaadi chuckled. There was a slight darkening to the shade of green of his cheeks. "And..."

"And we are both concentrating on our lesson or would you like me to come to the 'caf shop' for additional advice?"

Acaadi looked up at the master. She had glided over to them without a sound. Despite the admonishment she was smiling.

"How are you both getting on?"

 

[Amani Serys]

Though Master Gylenni's arrival was unexpected, Amani was not particularly surprised. It seemed to be a trend with the master, and she was used to it by now.

"Apologies, Master. Just helping out the newbie," she teased. "We've been making pretty good progress, I think. If you want we can demonstrate."

Secretly Amani hoped the master would pass up on the offer. Stage fright tended to get the better of her when showing off for others.

"Iiiif not, then we'll just get back to it, no problem. Right, Acaadi?"