Ballista-say-what? (For anyone really)

[Jeela Tillian]

Ballistakinesis. One of the techniques that characterized the Jensaarai. The ability to take multiple small objects, coin sized or less, and use the Force to catapult them towards a target at lethal speeds. She had seen some of those who had mastered the technique throw small pebbles that caused more damage than a slug thrower.

Herself? She could launch a handful of pebbles with decent speed. Nothing lethal, and only marginally faster than throwing them with her arm. She intended to fix that though.

So she sat cross legged in the gardens with a small pyramid of pebbles before her, clad in a Jedi kimono and her hair loose. Night insects chirped quietly. Birds settled into their nests. He stars wheeled and danced above her head. The Force sang in her ears.

She closed her eyes and let herself settle into the currents of the Force, finding the stillness in the center of all things, where the universe expanded outwards from where she sat and the constellations pivoted around her. She was completely still, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, grammatically.

She reached out with the Force and lifted one of the pebbles. It hung there, bobbing quietly. Then she lifted another. And then two more. Then a final one, so that five in total bobbed in front of her. She moved them, face tightening in concentration, into a circle around her. The pn she began them spinning, lazily first, as if they were vacationers in a relaxing river. Then faster, as if the current increased.

Brows furrowed, she tried to keep them in orbit, but to no avail and they flung outwards in all directions, bouncing off of tree trunks and scattering. She sighed.

 

[Uther Weiss]

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

((Hiya, I haven't RP'd since my hiatus a few months ago, so I may be a little rusty. ^^: ))

So far, his experience with the Silver Jedi had been a pleasant one, more so with the Templars weeks before (now calling themselves something else, whatever), however, he found the proximity to so many Jedi a little overbearing. Not that he had any problem with them personally, it was probably just a natural reaction of being around people attuned to the Light Side of the Force. It came at odds with his personal aura, something grey on the spectrum, but with darker undertones he tried to suppress. They were not his own.

On top of that, he wasn't a fan of crowds, so he found solace in taking a night stroll through the temple. As an Echani, he found it to be a little too muggy for his liking, so he was without his jacket. He picked out a few people here and there doing their own thing outside, and he tried his best to avoid intruding, up until he ran across a women that made him stop. He could feel the Force pooling around her in a twisting well. Now focused on her, he could pick out the rock that orbited around her, their rotations steadily picking up speed until she pushed them away from her in a blur. One rock zipped toward his general direction, so he made a slight alteration to the trajectory so that it looped right into his hand. Then he began rolling the smooth pebble between his fingers.

​((Outfit.))

 

[Jeela Tillian]

Jeela let out a long sigh and bent her head forwards. That had not been working as well as she would liked. She had meant to keep them orbiting and then send them off all at once. But that clearly had not worked. She reached out for the pebbles again, one by one, and pulled them back to herself, resettling them on the pyramid.

Then she sensed the other person nearby, and she raised her head. "Greetings, friend. What business brings you here?"

[member="Uther Weiss"]

 

[Uther Weiss]

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

"Just trying to get some fresh air."

He launched the pebble in her direction, aiming just in front of her chest so that he didn't hit her in case she failed to catch it. While he didn't put much force behind the pebble, it still traveled significantly faster than when she had pushed it originally.

"How about you?"

 

[Jeela Tillian]

[member="Uther Weiss"]

Jeela nodded to the response. It was reasonable, and it was good to get fresh air. SHe caught the pebble with the Force, causing it to hover for a moment, before settling it back on the pyramid. She paused, taking a deep breath.

"Practicing skills which I have foolishly allowed to lapse."

 

[Uther Weiss]

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

"Don't I know I know the feel."

Up until a few weeks ago, he had avoided using the Force for fear of leaving himself open to possession. However, since Roon, he had been actively practicing on his own on his way through the Republic to the stronghold of the Silver Order. He could always feel the presence of the Sith ghost in the periphery of his mind as a constant pressure, but he had gotten better with keeping it from invading his mind again. Gradual exercise abilities seemed to be helping a lot more than trying to suppress it all.

"So, what are you working on right now?"

 

[Jeela Tillian]

Jeela nodded and leaned back against the tree, pushing her hair away from her face. Strain was evident on her face, and there were shadows beneath her eyes. Should she answer? Or should she not? Were skills proprietary to specific Force traditions or were they open source? It wasn't like she could teach it anyways, so it probably didn't matter.

"It is a technique called ballistakinesis. It is an advanced subskill of telekinesis that focuses on many small objects rather than one large object and uses them in a manner that brings to mind slugthrowers."

[member="Uther Weiss"]

 

[Uther Weiss]

"So, you're trying to use to TK launch a these rocks with the equivalent force of a slug? Didn't realize there was a name for that. You Jedi seem to have a name for everything."

He approached her little pile of pebbles, drawing five to him in a line. Then one by one, he fired off the pebbles at a tree in front of him, punching through the bark with every one in a tight grouping. It didn't looked like he had exerted much effort, but his method of manipulating the Force to accelerate the pebbles required a lot of concentration. While he found it a neat situational technique, guns were usually the superior solution.

"Look, I'm no Jedi Knight or Master, but I'm good at figuring this stuff out. I watched how you were trying to accelerate the pebbles before. You can't push them like you normally do with objects. Well, I mean you could, but then you're just bruting your way through it, which isn't very efficient or sustainable."

He drew couple more pebbles from the pile and joined her under tree, passing one to her as he plopped on the ground in a crossed legged position. Then he patted the ground for her to join him.

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

 

[Jeela Tillian]

[member="Uther Weiss"]

Jeela nodded, "Yes, that is my intention, although it is more specialized than that, despite not being a Jedi technique. I have seen a master in the art send particles of dirt through a plate of durasteel. He did not reveal the secret to any of the students."

She tilter head slightly as he flicked them into the tree. That made sense, but it wasn't quite what she had been intending to do. That was just telekinesis. She had been trying to move multiple objects in various directions at various speeds. All at the same time. She pursed her lips.

"It was not my intention to accelerate them them in a straight line. I was attempting to increase their speed in a circle while maintaining each individual orbit." She remained sitting where she was, and flicked her finger upwards, sending several pebbles up into the air, bobbing slightly.

"The skill is more about finesse than power." The pebbles began to circle them, drifting out to avoid them both, and then began accelerating in a circle. Her jaw tightened, and brow furrowed. Her back stiffened, attempting to do both at once. "It can be used as a weapon, a distraction, a message, or as a defense against shrapnel. Those more skilled than I can create a virtual tempest of small objects from all directions, many of which break the sound barrier."

 

[Uther Weiss]

"Before you try five or two, start with one." He said, drawing another couple pebbles from her pile, then set them between them without a single wobble.

"The rotations seem counterproductive to me. Firstly, you're trying to mimic a mechanical system when it's not necessary or even beneficial. Say, unlike a centrifuge, you don't have the benefit of a physical container to help you, so you have to expend just as much brainpower maintaining orbit as you do building momentum. Secondly, you're just making things harder when it actually comes to aiming. Now you have to factor the rotation of your projectiles on top of actually tracking your targets, not to mention environmental considerations. In short, you're just making a lot more work for yourself."

"Why don't you experiment with this method? Have you ever seen a ball launcher? Imagine squeezing a pebble between two rotating disks of the Force. The speed and pressure from the disks will launch pebble with great force, easily exceeding what you had been generating from your current technique."

He demonstrated what he had explained, pressing the pebble between two concentrated nodes of the primordial energy.

"I'm not saying this is the 'best' method, but I think it will work fine for your requirements. Still haven't quite got the hang of it myself though, ha ha."

[member="Jeela Tillian "]

 

[Uther Weiss]

*bump*

@Jeela Tillian

 

[Jeela Tillian]

Spoiler

Sorry. I had a post written then my browser crashed and I lost it. Kind of hard to find energy to rewrite it

Jeela took a deep breath and lifted up one pebble, and shot it forward, faster than the eye could follow. She stopped it before it could break anything and drew it back to herself, setting it on the pile. Simply launching one was easy. Launching three was easy. Even up to five. Beyond that, her ability to split her attention and guide each one wavered.

"This is not an exercise in launching or aiming them. This is an exercise mental discipline and splitting one's focus to control each individual object against the increasing natural forces that are trying to resist the movement. The stones are not meant to be aimed and then released. They are all meant to be guided by the launcher."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her datapad and ran through the files and pulled up a file on the skill. She let it play. A figure appeared, surrounded by a cloud of small metal spheres, weaving in and out of each other at incredible speeds, creating a steady hum. She paused it.

"This is one of the masters of the skill. She is controlling and guiding each one of those individually." She hit play again. The figure flicked with her fingers, and the spheres shot forward, curving around her towards a target, making innumerable cracks as they broke the sound barrier. "It is a skill of precision rather than brute force. A small sliver of rock or metal can be guided and accelerated to high enough speeds to puncture weak points in armor or disable a weapon."

[member="Uther Weiss"]

 

[Uther Weiss]

((OOC: That's cool, that's happened to me more time than I can count. >> If you're interested, you can use the Lazarus extension to recover posts. It works on Firefox, Chrome, and Opera (requires the Chrome Framework Extension).

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https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lazarus-form-recovery/))

As he watched her accelerate the pebble to near blinding speeds, he wasn't surprised that she could do that with one, or even a few more as she had told him. He had been trying to address the issue of controlling multiple objects and launching them all in the same manner, but it looked like he had mistaken her intent with the exercise.

"Do you think she's treating each object as a separate entity?" he asked as he watched the recording with her, impressed with the display. "I don't think something like that would be possible by splitting your focus. I think she is treating them all as single entity, maybe even as an extension of herself. Whenever I manipulate multiple objects, I visualize them as all being strung together by the Force as one, like a current. It works for me, but then I falter as I start thinking about the actual amount of the objects I'm manipulating. Are you having the same problem?"

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

 

[Uther Weiss]

*bump*

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

 

[Jeela Tillian]

Jeela shrugged, still watching the display. It was possible, but she wasn't sure how that was possible. What could allow someone to treat dozens of objects as one object? She frowned slightly, trying to think it through.

"It is a possibility. I do have difficulty with focusing on each one once it begins to get more objects." She leaned back against the tree, and flicked her fingers up, sending several pebbles bouncing up into the air to dangle there. They began to spin around her, slowly this time, and instead of dividing her focus, she pictured them as all part of one object. It was easier, but a few small objects barely made a difference between splitting her focus and this new one.

The key would be with more objects. So, she added a handful more pebbles, picturing them as a mobile, almost, and sent them all spinning around, and picking up speed. They began to hum.

[member="Uther Weiss"]

 

[Uther Weiss]

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

She seemed skeptical to the idea, but she at least she was experimenting. Honestly though, he much rather work with someone that challenged his theories than someone that just went along with them passively. There was no growth to be had without analysis. Now she had him interested in mastering this Ballistikinesis technique himself.

"If you'll have me, I'd like to continue the exercise with you. Maybe I can help you by flinging some pebbles at you that you can deflect with your own? What do you say?"

 

[Jeela Tillian]

[member="Uther Weiss"]

Jeela sat back in surprise. That was unexpected. Most beings left her alone, which was fine. She had gotten used to long ago. She had been expected her entire life to walk the path set before her by her family for generations. Make the council. Become a legendary Defender. Serve Susefvi her life. Some whispered she would make Saarai-Kar some day. Thse expectations erected a barrier between her and the rest. The pressure pushed her further apart as she strive to live up to them, driven further by the seeming indifferent attitude of her uncle. Then Roth had failed his trials and it was up to her to carry her family name. Then her radicalism drove the wedge even wider, and made her a black sheep. Nobody associated with her. Who would dare? Nobody desired to be taken before the council and questioned about their belief. Only Veino stuck with her, but then, he was also a black sheep. Not many other apprentices caused the death of another.

She took a deep breath, trying how to phrase it. She tapped her finger on a pebble.
"You can if you wish, but this is not a Jedi skill. This is from my home Force tradition, the Jensaarai. This is one of our skills closely identified with us. We invented it. There is more to it than simply learning the skill or practicing with it. There is philosophy that must be learned, an oath to be sworn, and code to be lived by. Is that something you wish to take on?"

 

[Uther Weiss]

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

"Thank you, I am honored by your willingness to share your traditions with me."

He stood to give her a bow of respect, then drew a few pebbles in his left palm. Having become a something of a wanderer in his journey to master his abilities in the Force, he had had the Jensaarai on his checklist of organizations to see. However, in meeting this woman, it looked like the party had been brought to him in this case. Suddenly, he was burning with a million different questions to ask her, like if that trademark Jensaarai armor, or maybe if she could help him cleanse his own.

"I am willing. What's your name, anyway? I'm Uther Weiss."

 

[Jeela Tillian]

[member="Uther Weiss"]

Jeela shrugged. It'd also make the council furious, which was worthwhile in its own right. There was nothing they shuddered at more than the thought of sharing their secrets and traditions with outsiders who were not fully loyal to the Jensaarai. That had been one of her main talking points in her campaign. They need to grow and adapt with the times. Not be stuck in the thinking that predates the Gulag plague. Really, then, exile was a poor choice, but the Saarai-Kar's hands had been tied. She couldn't be arrested since she was out of the system and sending the hunters after one of their own, an apprentice even, and one of the Tillian name, was bad for her image.

She stood and gave a slight bow, lifting her own pebbles, shifting them in her hand. They scraped across each other.

"I am Jeela Tillian. After this you must take the code and the oath before I can teach you what basics I know." She shifted stance slightly, falling into the default Kro Var stance, then shook her head slightly at that. She was picking new thugs up more quickly than she thought possible and they were sticking. "Throw when ready."

 

[Uther Weiss]

[member="Jeela Tillian"]

"I'll help you with this exercise, but I'll want to hear the terms of that oath in full before we proceed any further."

As hesitant as he was about being a Jedi aspirant, he wasn't just going to swear to some oath willy nilly with some other group he barely knew about. For he knew the Jensaarai weren't always in sync with the Jedi, having even sided with the Sith for a time. On the other hand...he really wanted to apply some of the Jensaarai crafting techniques to his own piece of alchemic forged armor, not to mention the skill she was sharing with him now. Already, he was imagining scenarios like clearing out entire rooms with just a few needles.

He stepped back away from Jeela to give her some distance, about 10 meters, the proceeded to send a single pebble rocketing toward her sternum. While he wasn't trying to intentionally hurt his partner, he was also going to try to push himself to get something out of the exercise as well.