Back from the Gates of Tartarus

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Because laying siege to the capital of Tartarus, the Machine, was taking longer than expected, she couldn't provide any support to the Silver forces engaging the Sith Empire on Mirial. Then again, perhaps her curious strategical choice in engaging the Contingency on Tartarus was part of the big reasons for why they couldn't attack Kol Huro instead of Mirial. However, if any intelligence about the Sith Empire was correct, they tended to keep any significant forces to a handful of planets, such as Serenno, Kol Huro, Muunilinst and, of course, Bastion. Their main weakness was that qualified command-level personnel was in very short supply. Yet none of those operational considerations was going to be important, as she was to meet with one [member="Paige Blossom"] for the first time. I guess, Taygeta wanted some independence in her training, and I trusted her enough for that. I hope Paige will be a diligent padawan, she thought, while seeing Paige making her approach towards Jaminere's polar landscape in the Force. New to the Silver Jedi, Paige could probably learn a thing or two from her. Exactly what Paige would learn remains unclear; she would need to know exactly what she knows and her learning objectives. She began to look at Paige prior to introducing herself, while this new refugee camp was being built in the north polar region of Jaminere to accommodate those refugees from Ossus as well as Kulthis to a lesser extent (Odacer-Faustin was unaffected by war):

"Hello, dear padawan. My name is Jessica Med-Beq, and I'm going to be your trainer today, with potentially an option for me to become your titular master. I have a few questions for you before we begin: first, do you have any idea what sort of Jedi you wish to become? Second, what did you already learn about the Force?"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

Paige ran her hands through her hair, fresh faced and ready for anything. While nothing was clear to her currently, it soon would be as her trainer, master, whatever you want to call it, [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] arrived to her temporary residence. The only thing she had heard about the force was the persecution currently happening to force users in the Mandalorian civil war at the hands of the usurper, although she was fearless in the sense that planet was what...? 100 million miles away? Paige was never good at geography, and that's saying something considering the rest of her subjects she was almost flawless at.

"Hello. You're... Jessica? Paige, Paige Blossom. Well to answer your questions, I'm not really sure.. I suppose most of all I want to assist on the battlefield and heal wounds, rather than cause them. Onto your second question, I know absolutely nothing. I've only been told about my force sensitivity recently, I really didn't know what it was prior to doing some basic research on the holonet."

"Also, what do you want me to call you? Jessica, Miss, Ma'am?"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Force-sense is an item that you might have been implicitly using, under the form of heightened intuition, luck, ability to see through items, often without realizing it, or in ways that might otherwise escape detection by other people. As for etiquette, you may want to call me by name"

And the Death Watch did a number on Mandalore, too... her memories from the last Mando civil war are replete with Mando Jedi coming to SJ-land to learn mechu-deru from her. She needed not be reminded about how important the Force is in today's security matters. But she wasn't surprised in the slightest that [member="Paige Blossom"] didn't realize her Force-sensitivity until recently: she herself only found out about it later in life. By now, the duo was in some floor of the shopping mall under construction, where refugees were not only trickling in from Ossus, Belderone or Kulthis, fleeing the First Order, but Mando-land as well. There was a rivet that needed placing into a hole so that it could be welded into place. Hopefully with Paige doing it: she had an idea of how Paige's brain was going to glow in the Force once she gets into the thick of the drills. Soon I will get to appreciate Paige, much as I had Taygeta for the brief time I had her as an apprentice, she thought, while eagerly awaiting the attempt by Paige to get the rivet in the hole, using telekinesis.

"There are many skills that could be useful to you: I myself use a lot of the powers I do know for more mundane uses. Like telekinesis: picture you using the Force as an invisible hand to place that rivet into the hole"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Oh, well.. alright."

Closing her eyes, all she could see was... darkness. Absolutely nothing was in sight. Perhaps a speckle of light, but that's only because her eyes weren't fully closed. In fact, she was starting to question if she was force sensitive at all, because she didn't, well, feel anything. Although in saying that, she didn't know what you were supposed to feel, and if that feeling was feeling crowded and pressured in a shopping mall, then she was almost certainly a master five minutes into her training. Regardless, she tried her hardest. Knowing that the key to using the force was patience, based on what she had read, she didn't make a sound with her eyelids shut tight.

"With all due respect.. Jessica, I don't think anything's happening." muttering to herself, becoming rather frustrated with her lack of performance.

A few seconds later, the frustration did manifest in the slight wobbling of the pipe, causing it to move a few meters to the left; though, she couldn't see it for obvious reasons and was too far away to hear the metallic clanking. Her frustration grew a tad more, and it moved more, though nothing spectacular. Then, she remembered to picture a hand moving the object, and it became much easier, this time successfully placing the pipe in the hole.

"I just don't think I'm cu-.." opening her eyes to reveal the success of her work. "Oh.. I did it" smiling to herself with glee.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I was willing to give you a chance, but be mindful of frustration in the future. Frustration leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, and suffering leads to the dark side. That being said, you have to distinguish between Force-alignment and morality: so many seem to conflate the two. But more on that later"

She knew that the very early stages of one's Force-training would often make somebody feel like they are pressured in a crowded shopping mall, and [member="Paige Blossom"] was no different. In the end, that place is to become a crowded shopping mall, and they are inside the area earmarked for a Pizza Hutt location, next to a supermarket. And it was remarkable that Paige somehow managed to fit a somewhat bent rivet into a precision-engineered hole for welding. But there are two holes for such rivets next to each other, to piece together two durasteel beams. Before she could move on to pyrokinesis, and from there weld the rivets in place, the student would need to place the second rivet. And, if they are lucky, there may be a patient to try using Force-healing on. For the time being, anyway, she could understand why would someone confuse a rivet with a pipe, especially if one talks about HVAC pipes or other small-time piping. And the second rivet was placed right in front of the padawan:

"Before we move on to the next topic, I want you to place the second rivet into the second hole"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

Anger? Suffering? Dark side? She had no intention of doing that. If anything, she was just looking to help people not... hurt people. That's the exact opposite of what she wanted to do. Although, the force was a slipper slope and a see-saw if you will, go too far over your ideal spot and you'll come toppling out on the other side, and she knew that the dark side was especially strong. Knowing that there was a thin line between protecting those you love and hurting to protect them.

"Alright" replying calmly, closing her eyes once more.

This time, it came more naturally, though there was still difficulty in lifting it. Once again, her eyes were shut and she pictured her own hand lifting the rivet up, this time though, it definitely took longer. Some one or two minutes elongation because she was no longer relying on her anger and frustration for power. This time, she looked somewhere deeper, seeing what good this would do, even if it would help an inter-galactic conglomerate in their spree of tor-... enough of that.

Eventually, the metallic clang went into place and she opened her eyes once more, looking to [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] on what her next technique would be.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Much better. Later down the road, you will grow in power, you will be able to perform more with what powers you know, to perform more complex powers"

Anger and frustration are staples of the dark side, and Jessica knew it. Jaminere was one of those worlds due to house Xi Charrian refugees as well as Stenax and whatever people survived Ossus, including but not limited to both Bimm species; she couldn't give up on them. Not after what she did for them in the past months. And yet she could sense that [member="Paige Blossom"]'s brain was glowing more intensively as she used the Force, just that it wasn't the same variety of mental activity as Jessica usually engaged in. Sure, using the Force could feel unnatural to a neophyte, but if Paige could withstand the mental effort required of the next one, all the better. And yet, she knows better than to assume recalling thermodynamics will not cause unsustainable headaches on Paige, nor that Paige would even know that much about how temperature relates to molecular speed (vibrational, rotational or translational depending on the phase) in the first place.

"There's a reason why I made you fit rivets in place: pyrokinesis is the next power on the agenda. With pyrokinesis you can use it for cooking, welding, cauterizing or, in an emergency, heat up a weapon to the point of unusability. If you can visualize the rivets molecules in the Force, try to make the rivet's molecules dance, with the molecular dancing tempo being the temperature"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"So we're building something...? Seems simple enough" nodding to [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] with an assured smile which had the backing of extreme confidence, perhaps too much? But for now, time to make some molecules dance.

Paige indeed had no clue about the exact temperature required to weld the rivets into its place, although she assumed a spicy song would fit perfectly. She visualized the molecules as some sort of exotic dancer, carrying maracas and moving them very slowly. While she did study chemistry, it was at a very basic level though she did understand the principal of the three states; solid, liquid and gas. Too hot and it would condense into steam of some kind, though that was rarely an issue with such heavy industrial material, though I guess with the force anything is possible. Too cold and it would just stay as a solid.

As silly as it may seem, she imagined physical moving the maracas with her hands, of course she didn't do any physical actions. Eventually, the rivets began to slowly become hotter and hotter, and eventually the rivets became more liquidized in the areas needed and it formed a strong bond between the two metals.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Do you have headaches from using your brain? I feel that you have a lot of computational power, and use your brain a lot, but remember that it will be harder for you to use the Force if your mind is impaired"

Chemistry... solids, liquids and gases were elementary-school level, late elementary, perhaps, but to each educational system their own. [member="Paige Blossom"]'s home planet might have had a different curriculum where chemistry is optional starting in middle school, or whatever equivalent there is at what middle school is on Loronar. Perhaps it was more like Eraton's where little emphasis on the more secular topics was made past a certain point, perhaps it was more like Omwat where people specialized early on. What exactly is Paige using her computational power for? she thought, while she increased the use of her own computational power in an attempt to detect what progress Paige is making. And it took a while for Paige to weld the first rivet into place. Meanwhile, a few Devlikk refugees from Livien Magnus, on Ord Radama, continued working on the adjacent sections of the shopping mall. Probably a bar or something given that the Devlikks have already started with the foundations and plumbing of the bar counter.

"Try welding the second rivet"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Headaches would be the wrong word it's just... difficult for me to do. Also, with all due respect I don't appreciate being called a droid. I'm living, breathing. Not running on battery power" smiling gently after saying this.

While she wasn't offended per say, she found droids unusual. Why anyone would want to produce them, speak them, or even consider them on the same level of importance as a human was just a mystery to Paige. And those freaks who create entire companies based around droids? Well, she already described them. Freaks. None the less, [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] probably wouldn't have known about her hatred for mechanical beings, so she wouldn't hold it against her.

Given Jessica's high levels of intelligence, she would easily be able to access Paige's mind. It would in essence be her thinking about the death of her grandmother, the first image burned into her head when she was born. The sound of a very loud blaster bolt and then a thud into snow. Pretty clear and simple. She didn't know why she was thinking of it, probably the intense mental concentration causing her some difficult evoked this type of thing within her.

Although back on task, she did the exact same with the second rivet. Making the molecules dance and heating it to the correct temperature to weld it into place.

"This is getting pretty simple" putting on a straight face while secretly having heavy thoughts.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You're very smart, too. You're just different in how you use your brain. I know you're a sentient, after all"

Yes, [member="Paige Blossom"] could sense just how much intellect Jessica had. Also, her telepathic skill would allow to access the surface thoughts of the padawan, especially the image of Paige's grandmother being shot at in the snow. But Paige did have a point of telepathy being cognition-intensive. Perhaps preventing that sort of things from happening to other people might be part of why Paige was drawn to the Jedi. As for calling you a droid, I was called a droid, too, at roughly the same stage of training. It's not obvious at first glance that a person's fluid intelligence can be likened to a droid's computational power, just that you seem to have a lot of intellectual flexibility, and your brain is very fast, too, she thought, hoping that she would be able to access Jessica's mind, too. In fact, it's a very, very dense agenda that Paige was following in her training, since telepathy was also part of what she was to learn, also realizing that Paige could sense just how smart she is. Now that the rivets were in place, she could let the Devlikks and the other worker crews take over in what is to become the dining room of a Pizza Hutt, and go to the kitchen. Said kitchen was built, and finished, before the dining room was. They were going inside the kitchen and take seats...

"I think that I would probably like to expand on the Jedi Code and also what could lead someone to fall to the dark side before we continue. I just think it's best to let your Force-energy recharge for a bit before continuing"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"I know, everyone I speak to tells me. Right after pointing out my obnoxious hair colour, but I digress."

While not concentrating specifically, she wondered what being a droid would be like. It seemed like an obvious step to take, after feeling her own mind being probed to look into Jessica's, and using her visualization technique she imagined picking a lock to a door with her eyes closed. Don't ask why she knew how to do it, it was for completely legal purposes... I'm sure. Eventually, the lock came off, surprisingly easy, almost like she wanted Paige to do it. It was like being hit with compliment after compliment.

"Well.. you're very intelligent too." Smiling to Jessica.

Paige paused as Jessica mentioned the Jedi code. She had heard that it had been passed on for generations and was the basic principals that most lightsiders adhered to, and in complete opposition to the dark side, which focused on selfishness, the light side focused on empathy, or at least that's what she read about it. Looking over it before, she actually thought it meant the complete opposite to, ironically, turn people into mindless help bots, but that's not what she thought the Jedi believed in.

"Sure, I am getting a bit tired."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"There is no emotion, there is peace, there is no ignorance, there is knowledge, there is no passion, there is serenity, there is no chaos, there is harmony, there is no death, there is the Force: I'm sure you heard it at some point"

There was telepathy and there was Drain Knowledge, the latter being more invasive than telepathy was. She was subjected to Drain Knowledge so many times that she could tell the difference between the two. [member="Paige Blossom"] realized that Jessica's mental conditioning was superb, and they got a feel for each other's respective brains in the process. She knew that a fast brain was usually pretty well-trained, rather than big, and hence she preferred to talk about one's mental conditioning, knowing that Paige's was really good, too. Perhaps Jessica took Paige as a padawan knowing that it would be difficult for other Jedi to keep up with her intellectually. The two ladies were now seated inside the partially-furnished kitchen, where they were arrayed to recharge their Force-energy. It was tiring to learn three Force-powers in such a short span of time, and there were two more in the pipeline. So she would hold off opening the bag of powdered ice cream for a while, until she knew there would be enough Force-energy in her student to perform the drill.

"One could talk for hours, or even days, about the many implications of the Jedi Code; Jedi use the Force for knowledge and defense. The remaining items on today's agenda are for enhancing your self-reliance. You might be intrigued by exactly what I mean when I say that Force-alignment is not the same as a moral compass"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Yeah, I've heard that before. I think it wa-.. argh can't remember." Shrugging her shoulers.

Paige was tired. She only started to feel the effects of forcing molecules to dance and creating invisible hands. Now it was time to get serious. Paige knew that she was smart, but smart enough to use the force? Not something that she had imagined doing, even in her wildest dreams. Furthermore, she could immediately tell that [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] was at the very least on the same level of intellectual ability as her, if not even smarter. The two had very similar ways of working out problems and communicating, that much she could tell.

"Are the two not the same? Surely if you're a Sith, you can't simultaneously want to help others, and if you're a Jedi you surely can't be evil, or at the very least, use the force for evil? It seems like a moral paradox to me."

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"There are so many methods in using the Force to achieve different effects, some methods requiring more intellect than others. On average, and I really mean it in a statistical sense, Force-users are not much different intellectually from their respective species' population. But, for each person that one could say is very smart, sometimes they are very strong in one area and weaker in another; you might be very smart, all right, just that it's possible your intellectual composition might be quite different from mine. It's much easier to make out the magnitude of one's intelligence in the Force than its components, but I digress"

She knew some species were reputed to be difficult to train in the Force, because of their intellectual composition. Like Ewoks, Geonosians and Vulptereen. Yes, [member="Paige Blossom"]'s thought processes were similar to hers. Just that the moral paradox was not quite what Jessica had in mind. She might have encountered a Light Sith once or twice, and they seemed to be more thoughtful than the average Sith. The stereotypical picture people had of Sith was that of the monster that wore black robes, with a red lightsaber and Force-lightning (if Mandalorian, replace the black robes with a suit of beskar armor). As for Jedi, it was instead that of a Force-using bounty hunter using the light side to fight crime, whereby law enforcement was the main way for Jedi to protect innocents. In the Tingel Arm, however, it was more about shock troopers that were rather independent. She regained her composure and then she was to explain exactly what the moral paradox of Force-alignment vs. morality is.

"As for the difference between Force-alignment and morality, and, likewise, how titles can mislead, there are those people called Dark Jedi and Light Sith. Dark Jedi are often characterized as people using the dark side of the Force for good, and Light Sith, which are much, much less common than Dark Jedi, instead use the light side for selfish ends, if not outright evil. The reason is that the Jedi and the Sith Codes are more about how one should conduct themselves without any explicit reference to a Force-alignment, so denomination is more a function of morality, that is, why one is using the Force, while Force-alignment is more about how one uses the Force"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Oh well Ming Po are very similar to baseline humans, actually I'm pretty sure they're exactly the same bar a few skin pigmentation differences given that we grow up on a planet where the majority of the astral calendar there is little to no light."

This was actually Paige's first encounter with a proper force wielder, at least so she thought. Growing up in a secluded village and then subsequently being put to hard labour for several years generally means you don't get much contact with the outside world. Even when she was rescued, there were no obvious signs that anybody from the rescue group were using the force regularly. Given that the Galactic Alliance were the ones who rescued her, and now learning years later that a very significant minority of its troopers were force sensitives and practiced the force, perhaps she just wasn't paying close enough attention in between the blaster fire and the drips of blood in the snow.

"I didn't even know that the light side of the force could really be used for selfish acts. All of the powers either look protective or non-damaging to be honest, although I guess people find a use for everything in this galaxy. On top of that, people use the dark side of the force for good? Doesn't really sound possible, but I guess I stand corrected."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Very similar mentally, all right, I'll accept as much. But are Ming Po taller than baseline humans, on average?"

And a little bit like how Hapans were having night vision problems if NFU, she thought. Jessica expected that sort of surprised look on Paige's face, upon hearing about what Dark Jedi and Light Sith are, and how they separated how and why they used the Force. True, NFUs usually did not distinguish the moral compass and the Force-alignment, and often such was the case of people in their early stages of Force-training. She realized that, while still towering over [member="Paige Blossom"], the student was a lot skinnier, too. As to exactly why Light Sith are so uncommon, much more so than the baseline Sith, that is because most Sith tended to use anger or other negative emotions (such as fear for Force-fear or Force-cloak) readily associated with the dark side. By now she feels ready to ask Paige about her readiness to take on additional Force-lessons; it would do her no good to teach her something she might be unable to implement.

"Do you feel rested enough to try using cryokinesis on powdered ice cream?"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"I mean I don't think I'm exceptionally tall..." (OOC note: Mis-typing error in my bio, changed it to something more reasonable)

Sort of a strange comment to make, Paige would never call herself exceptionally tall, although I guess most people. Looking back on it, the reason for Light Sith not existing, at least not in such large numbers as Dark Jedi is probably because to be a Sith by definition requires anger, frustration or other negative emotions, and to use those emotions to call upon the light side of the force was unlikely. In contrast, it was much easier to use. In colloquial terms, Dark Jedi could be Jedi who simply just don't follow a specific organisational structure.

"Sure, I love ice-cream."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Now that [member="Paige Blossom"] signaled her desire to eat ice cream, it was time for the next lesson on the agenda, while the Devlikks, Bimms, Xi Charrians and other refugees continued working on other areas of the food court, welding beams, installing floor tiles, plumbing, power conduits and whatnot. Cryokinesis. Never have Force-training been so sweet, she thought, while holding Paige to the same standard as she had everyone else she trained in that power. She used telekinesis to summon the bowl in front of Paige before the lesson could begin. Would she have enough Force-energy to get up to speed with cryokinesis? That was a dangerous gamble, but powdered ice cream that will become actual ice cream once properly chilled, and she knows from experience that cryokinesis will still allow people to eat ice cream. By and large Paige would still be running on a limited supply of Force-energy, and hopefully the ice cream will allow to keep her brain from overheating, because a high level of mental activity will cause it to heat up.

"Cryokinesis is about calming down molecules to a desired temperature, until it cools down. In essence, it is the reverse of pyrokinesis. With both powers, sometimes you will find that the temperature will plateau for a bit until it starts to rise or lower again; however, when that occurs, usually the object will end up in a different phase. This is because of something called latent energy"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

Paige began to feel sorry for the non force-sensitives who were tasked with manual labour while she was over here using her mind to make things happen. It seemed a lot more efficient than wasting energy, whether that be from humans or from actually creating it by splitting an atom or two, Paige was just over here using her mind for it. But, I guess some people are born with it, and some people aren't. I mean, that's what she thinks anyway.

"Alright so... that seems pretty simple."

Paige closed her eyes once more as she had done with the previous tests and pictured the powdered ice-cream... didn't look as good as the real stuff, nevertheless she would be tasting it... the ooey gooey flavour... actually, what was the flavour? This was Paige's weakness; overthinking things. It was easy for her to make the molecules warm, she was an active person by nature, and her mind even more so. Heating stuff up obviously required more energy than cooling things down, infact, cooling things down required a lack of energy, or in a better way, the removal of heat. Something Paige wasn't sure how to do.

"I don't think I'm doing it right."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]