Private Bonding, Bruises and Beatings

[Eira Dyn]

Location: Lasan
Attire: Assassin Gear
Equipment: Vibro-daggers, Vibro-sword, blaster pistol, Mask
Tag: Alana Calloway

Lasan was a place away from Sith eyes that allowed Eira to feel comfortable in training and spending time with Alana. It was a place where they could not fret about getting reported back. At least that had been the views of Eira. She was wanting to work on developing this connection, testing what their bond could be without prying eyes. Without questions about whether this Eira's attempt to cut down Quinn prematurely. For Eira, this was merely a chance to know someone new more, but also a chance to become a better fighter. A stronger fighter. Developing her hand to hand combat skills. It was clear that if she was going to be a weapon, a blade to slice the throats of those who were considered dangerous then Eira needed to demonstrate skills that matched that persona.

Which was why she was training with Alana, wishing to learn more on Echani fighting styles beside what Quinn was teaching her.

Arriving at the usual training spot for the two, Eira had ensured there was a spot that they could regularly meet and train, they had fought a few times already and Alana was putting Eira through the ringer. The Dantooinian realised just how capable all Echani were in fighting very quickly. It was never an easy match for Eira but she was learning more each time. She was improving her techniques and Eira was determined to fight better every time she fought. The tricky part was learning how to read Alana and understand what that meant. What was coming next and how to counter those movements. Eira was getting some idea but she knew that no one would consider her fluent in the Echani language.

Not yet at least.

Stretching her limbs, she placed her mask to the side with her many weapons, preparing for another day of fighting. Eira's body was getting used to the beatings and bruises that she would often leave the fights with. Especially since Eira was too stubborn to surrender without her life endanger or her body screaming for her to stop due to pain or risk of breakages.

 

[Alana Calloway]

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Bonding, Bruises, and Beatings​

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Location: Lasan​

Tag: Eira Dyn​

Gear: HG-88 Big Iron, SD-L1 Long Blaster, Slicing Glove, Wrist Mounted Weapons (Hekler'Kok WMMW-01), DS-102 "Aegis" Personal Energy Shield.​

​

Alana remained still in the center of the training space, legs folded beneath her, hands resting loosely on her knees, palms up. The quiet hum of her breath moved in rhythm with her heart, a slow, steady current meant to ground her. Her eyes remained shut, but her senses were wide open—listening not just for movement, but for intention.

She ached, certainly so, but that was part of the process. Learning the body and where it faltered, how to move when tired, hurt; all part of the learning experience.

She could already feel Eira's presence approaching. Not just the weight of her steps or the rustle of her gear, but the distinct pressure of her will—sharp, focused, hungry. This wasn’t the force, it was merely, learning to feel the pressing of another being.

It was that same pressure Alana had come to expect from someone determined not just to win, but to evolve. That mattered more than skill. You could teach form and technique, but grit? That, you had to work for.

She exhaled slowly and opened one eye, letting it fall lazily on the familiar figure. "You're early,“ She said, voice low, calm. "Either you're eager to get bruised again… or you're finally ready to stop thinking and start feeling."

Her tone wasn't mocking—if anything, it was a dry kind of encouragement. The kind that challenged without pushing, just enough to provoke focus.

Alana shifted, rising smoothly to her feet in one motion. Her body was relaxed, but there was tension underneath, coiled and waiting. She pulled off her poncho and gloves, revealing the old scars and slowly fading ink that danced across her arms—stories from a past she didn't speak of, but wore openly.

"You are improving," She added, circling Eira slowly now, as if measuring her all over again. "But you're still watching my hands too much. Echani fighting's not about limbs, it's about intent. Emotion. You have to read me, not my strikes. Read my very being, some say it’s intimate, others that it is life or death. I think it’s a mix of both."

She stepped closer, not striking yet, just a breath away. "So tell me, Eira—what do you see when you look at me? Not with your eyes. With your instincts."

There was no smirk, no superiority. Just challenge. A call to rise.

 

[Eira Dyn]

Location: Lasan
Attire: Assassin Gear
Equipment: Vibro-daggers, Vibro-sword, blaster pistol, Mask
Tag: Alana Calloway

Spotting Alana, Eira wondered if the Echani was just living here, waiting for Eira's return. It would be amusing if that was the case but she knew that there was other work that Alana did. Other lives that the soldier worked. She just didn't pry into them yet, they were not for her to know. At least not for the moment. If things grew more intense between them, then Eira might have to discuss these things, for now, she was focused on the training and what was developing there.

"Better to be early than late." Eira stated. "As for getting bruised, I would argue last time was some cheap shots that caught me off guard." Eira smirked, she always suggested some form of underhanded technique from Alana, but it was a front that she knew Alana would see through. The woman removed the armour pieces from her gear, leaving herself in just loose cloth to fight in the more traditional manner of an Echani.

Eira held the upmost respect for the aspect of fighting like this, not doing this part half heartedly, it was either Eira fully committed or they stopped. And she was not ready to stop. Far from ready to do that.

"Improvement is always a good step. All too often people expect to jump from bad to master." Eira pointed out, "I know this will involve a steady climb and I am climbing." Eira mentioned as she moved into position for the first bout of the day. "Just be sure that you will be ready to face the intensity of Sith training." Eira winked teasingly to Alana.

"Should I tell you or show you like a true Echani?" Eira countered the question with her own while still maintaining a confident grin. No matter how many times she walked away losing every fight, Eira still maintained her confidence and her natural smirk in the face of likely defeat. Nothing could steal that away.

 

[Alana Calloway]

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Bonding, Bruises, and Beatings​

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Location: Lasan​

Tag: Eira Dyn​

Gear: HG-88 Big Iron, SD-L1 Long Blaster, Slicing Glove, Wrist Mounted Weapons (Hekler'Kok WMMW-01), DS-102 "Aegis" Personal Energy Shield.​

​

Alana tilted her head slightly, that slow, appraising glance settling on Eira again as she stepped into the space. Her expression remained unreadable for a moment—quiet, thoughtful—but there was a flicker of something amused in her eyes as Eira spoke.

"Cheap shots?" She echoed dryly, letting the corner of her mouth tug into the faintest hint of a smirk. "I don't throw cheap shots, Eira. You just don't guard your ribs well when you're trying to read my footwork."

Her tone was flat, but warm beneath the cool delivery—just enough challenge laced in to keep the air between them alive with tension. Watching Eira remove her armor and step in with that same bold energy, Alana gave a slow nod of approval. No hesitation. That it was a good sign, suggested she was eager to begin.

She stepped forward and adjusted her stance, loose but firm, shoulders fluid, hands half-raised. "You're climbing," She agreed quietly. "And you're doing it the right way. Not skipping rungs. Not asking for shortcuts. That's the only way it ever matters."

At Eira's wink and teasing remark, Alana's gaze narrowed just a little, though the faint edge of a grin still lingered. "You think this isn't intense already?" she asked, voice lowering just a shade. "You haven't seen what I grew up with."

But she didn't linger on it. Didn't open that door. Instead, she stepped into the circle again, facing Eira fully now.

"I’d prefer if you show me," She said evenly. "Speak the Echani way. But don't hold back, I’ll consider that a speech impediment and gently tease you."

There was a sudden shift in her presence—not aggression, not threat, but clarity. Focus. She was inviting the fight, the dialogue of movement and instinct. Testing Eira. Reading her. Teaching her, not with words, but with the language only their bodies could speak.

Some people called it violence, but it was a bit more nuanced than that. It was speaking with one’s pure self, action and thought combined into a beautiful dance.

Her foot slid forward, disturbing the earth and drawing her own line in the sand in the process. "Let's begin."

 

[Eira Dyn]

Location: Lasan
Attire: Assassin Gear
Equipment: Vibro-daggers, Vibro-sword, blaster pistol, Mask
Tag: Alana Calloway

"Uh huh, sounds like excuses for cheap shots." Eira smirked as she continued to tease, not a woman who would just surrender without a little fight and backtalk. "I told you that I would be approaching this the right way. That I will win the correct manner and I will ensure you are beaten by me, following your cultural ways to fight." There was a tone of pride in Eira's voice about the fact she believed that to be possible and that she would ensure that future was seen. That she would demonstrate an ability in Echani fighting that few outsiders could demonstrate.

It helped that Quinn was her Master, that she had been training hard with Alana. But it would be a notable feat few could state.

Shaking her head, "it does not matter what you have faced until now. Nothing prepares you for the intensity of the Sith training. The brutality one skilled in the Force will force you to endure." Eira stated in a cold tone that showed she was not exaggerating or attempting to intimidate Alana. Simply prepare her for what is coming. "Sith had had their body changed forcibly, some have died to be revived. Some have had to share their body with spirits of the dead for power. The Sith suffer for power, because their suffering empowers them. It takes a unique mindset to endure, takes something more to seek out suffering."

Eira was someone who sought out punishment and suffering, she was willing to scar herself, to break her body to endure and grow stronger. To claw every crumb of power she could gather, to break those that stand in her way.

"I haven't held back once, don't intend to start today." Eira always gave everything she had in a fight. Often fighting till her body forcibly gave up long before she would mentally surrender. It was dangerous but it was the only way that Eira was and she would continue to fight with every part her that she could.

Watching Alana entering the circle, Eira grinned, readying herself for the fight. She started the fight with a feint of a sweep to the bounty hunter's legs to then spring board herself up and launch a spinning kick at the Echani's head. Using her instinctive deception and trickery in the movements and seeing if she could sell such tactics with her body. To see how well Alana would read her now as she had worked on trying to be trickier to read.

 

[Alana Calloway]

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Bonding, Bruises, and Beatings​

​

Location: Lasan​

Tag: Eira Dyn​

Gear: HG-88 Big Iron, SD-L1 Long Blaster, Slicing Glove, Wrist Mounted Weapons (Hekler'Kok WMMW-01), DS-102 "Aegis" Personal Energy Shield.​

​

Alana didn't flinch at the leg sweep, nor the sudden flare of movement as Eira's kick came swinging toward her head. She shifted fluidly, ducking low beneath the arc of the strike, one hand rising to lightly brush Eira's hip mid-spin—not a counterstrike, just a subtle reminder.

"You're getting clever," She said calmly, stepping away from the follow-through. "Cleaner. More precise. But you're still telegraphing when your intent changes."

Her tone was instructional, but there was a hint of appreciation beneath it. Eira was evolving. Growing sharper.

Alana circled again, resettling her stance as she kept her eyes locked on Eira's form; not just watching movement, but absorbing rhythm, intent, energy. That was the core of Echani fighting; to see the intent through the strike.

"You talk like you've already walked through hell," She added after a beat, her voice quieter, more thoughtful now. "Maybe you have. But don't think I haven't bled for power too, Eira. You talk about scars like they're something I haven't earned."

Her foot slid forward again, a sudden surge of speed as she launched her own attack—a low elbow toward Eira's ribs, followed by a tight knee aimed at her thigh, calculated not just to test Eira's reaction time, but to gauge how well she could flow between reading motion and countering it.

"I don't care if you've walked through fire or danced with dead spirits," She breathed as the fight carried on, eyes sharp. "What matters is what you do here. What you do now."

And then, lower still; just for her, barely a whisper between strikes.

"Show me how badly you want it."

It was more than a challenge. It was an invitation to reach deeper. To fight not just with technique, but with one’s soul.

If Eira could understand this, then, there was hope she could grasp the more complicated fighting techniques.

 

[Eira Dyn]

Location: Lasan
Attire: Assassin Gear
Equipment: Vibro-daggers, Vibro-sword, blaster pistol, Mask
Tag: Alana Calloway

As Alana went to brush her hand against Eira's mid-hip, she would find that Eira's hand was shifted to block a strike to her. Having read the movements from Alana before they happened, Eira smirked. "Seems that you are also getting more predictable as we fight." It was a more obvious move and Eira wouldn't claim this was a demonstration of her mastering the Echani fighting style. It was a clearer sign the step up in Eira's abilities over previous training sessions. That Eira was leaping in skill levels now.

Hearing Alana talk, Eira sighed and gave a knowing smirk to the other woman, rolling her shoulders. "If you haven't realised the scars I own by now, perhaps it is not just me that needs to be focusing on reading the conversation of our fights." Eira stated in a cool tone, it was not like the Sith had been holding back the things she had faced. The death that she had to overcome to achieve the power that she currently wields and the death she would face in the future in order to wield more.

"I have seen the fact you have faced much, overcome a lot in life. I never denied you that. I merely stated, there is nothing like Sith training in how brutal and aggressive it can get." Eira stated, "does not mean people can't suffer in life or have to push through challenges that many would never experience. It is just there is a level of suffering that only a Sith knows."

Eira matched the speed with ease, parrying the strikes and deflecting away from her body. Fighting people with speed and rapid movements were not things that Eira was not unused to. She found this slower than the rapid movements that a person fought when using the Force to speed up their strikes. Eira countered with strikes that were made to weaken the arms of Alana, sap away the strength of the other woman as she continued to fight and give her all to each strike.

It was not Eira was unable to share her soul in this fight, the longer it moved on, the clearer to Alana it would be that Eira was purposefully holding that aspect of her fighting ability back. That she was seeking to see if Alana would share her soul first. To force the Echani to make the first move, to be the one who was most vulnerable.

 

[Alana Calloway]

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Bonding, Bruises, and Beatings​

​

Location: Lasan​

Tag: Eira Dyn​

Gear: HG-88 Big Iron, SD-L1 Long Blaster, Slicing Glove, Wrist Mounted Weapons (Hekler'Kok WMMW-01), DS-102 "Aegis" Personal Energy Shield.​

​

Alana let out a quiet chuckle, low and knowing. The movement of the pair as they fought, each blow, connection, brought with it more of a connection. A piece of a puzzle. The way Eira spoke, the way she fought, she was eager to succeed.

Predictable She mused, shifting her stance to absorb the impact of Eira's counterstrikes rather than resisting outright. Letting the force of the blows pass through her, redirecting them with an ease that came from years of practice. Eira was starting to read her attacks, which was good.

And bad.

Eira's strikes poured on, the speed behind them more than what Alana could anticipate, struggling to keep up. She blows got through, her arms starting to go numb from the repeated strikes.

She met Eira's gaze then, her crimson eyes sharp, measuring. Had Eira been holding back this whole time? A deliberate withholding of something deeper? It wasn't that Eira couldn't share herself in the fight; she wouldn't. Not yet. She was waiting. Testing. Demanding that Alana rise to her level.

Stiffness coursed through her body, strung at her muscles, but she felt the drive to keep going. Keep pushing. She decided upon a new tactic as she narrowly parried a strike from Eira.

Without warning, Alana shifted—no longer just matching Eira's rhythm, she sought to upset it. She pressed in, moving for grapples, the force enhancing her strength, trying to mitigate Eira's speed by trying to knock her off balance. Her muscles tightened, feeling the stiffness start to fade, the numbness dissipating.

When Alana threw strikes now, they contained more power to them. Harder to simply avoid and parry now.

You want to see my soul?

Alana breathed, her internal voice barely above a whisper at the back of her mind, her movements relentless as she attempted to break through Eira's defenses. There was a bubbling frustration coming to the surface of her movements. Trained as Alana was, a skilled practiciner of the Force she was not. Eventually, Eira would outpace her.

Then stop hiding yours.

If Eira had learned how to read her movements by now, perhaps part of the message would come through.

 

[Eira Dyn]

Location: Lasan
Attire: Assassin Gear
Equipment: Vibro-daggers, Vibro-sword, blaster pistol, Mask
Tag: Alana Calloway

Eira had suffered a couple of the early blows from Alana as the hunter started to use the Force to speed up her movements, the young Sith hadn't expected to be fighting with the Force. From what she knew, the Force was not allowed in traditional Echani fighting, it had to be based purely on skill. Therefore, Eira had been using just her natural reflexes but feeling the punches and strikes from Alana. Eira could tell that the hunter was using the Force. It felt like cheating and there was some indignation from Eira on this since the rules were being changed in the middle of a fight. Or at least the perceived rules she had were being changed.

However, part of her was considerably impressed. Adapting the rules to gain an upper hand. It was a strategy that tugged at Eira's own heart.

Seeing Alana using the Force, Eira shifted and started to adapt. Matching the pace with the Force, using it to buff her speed and the strength that she had. Eira could also hear the crackling of lightning as the hatred and anger fuelling her Force connection burned strong enough for passive Force Lightning to trigger around her forearms.

Her coaxing of Alana had the intended affect as she saw the stiffening from Alana and the change in movements, in strategy. Eira felt more in charge in the spar than she had before. Forcing Alana to be more aggressive to strike with more confidence. Eira rewarded this direction to be more direct in her strikes, demonstrating the precision and power of her blows as well as her ability to continue to block with her full strength.

If you want my soul, demonstrate your worthiness for it.

Eira's movements were deliberate in attempting to torment and tease Alana, even in fighting, Eira was a constant flirtatious tease. Her movements aimed to incite Alana into an error. Eira knew she could not deceive the Echani, but she could coax a mistake or trick her into opening a spot where Eira could succeed in taking Alana down. She still held pride and desires in beating Alana.

 

[Alana Calloway]

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Bonding, Bruises, and Beatings​

​

Location: Lasan​

Tag: Eira Dyn​

Gear: HG-88 Big Iron, SD-L1 Long Blaster, Slicing Glove, Wrist Mounted Weapons (Hekler'Kok WMMW-01), DS-102 "Aegis" Personal Energy Shield.​

​

As the fight continued on, Alana began to feel the shift. Not simply in Eira's technique, but in control.

Eira was dictating the flow now.

The moment Alana had closed the gap, refusing to play into her bait, Eira had changed. Her movements were sharper, her attacks more precise, her strength pressing against Alana's defenses in ways that began to wear her down. While Alana prided herself on her ability to strike fast, Eira was now outpacing her. What had started as an even match was beginning to tip towards Eira, and Alana knew it.

The bits of lightning sparking off the woman certainly didn’t help things.

She tried to counter, to slip through the gaps in Eira's guard, but the Sith wasn't leaving them open anymore. Every strike Alana threw was met with a forceful parry, her arms feeling the weight of each impact. Every time she tried to regain control, Eira denied her the chance.

Then the real problem set in; fatigue.

The Force could do several things, but to Alana it was still an unfamiliar tool. She lacked the training and knowledge on its prolonged use. She didn't fight from a place of endless rage or sharpened cruelty. She fought on instinct, on training, on reading her opponent. That was exactly where Eira held the advantage now.

Alana had read her wrong.

She had thought Eira was still holding back. That the Sith was still teasing, still playing at control of the math rather than taking it outright. But the moment she had challenged Eira to fight her, truly fight her, something had shifted.

Eira was not playing anymore.

A strike made its way through Alana’s defenses.

Alana barely managed to twist, but the force behind it still sent her staggering. She gritted her teeth, steadying herself, but Eira didn't let up. Another strike, this time a sharp, controlled hit to the ribs, forcing the air from her lungs.

Alana tried to react, but she was too slow.

Eira was overwhelming her now, her presence in the fight like a storm closing in, pressing down with an intensity that Alana hadn't anticipated. Every move she made, Eira already seemed to be moving to match her. Every counter, every adjustment.

Alana knew she was losing ground.

She had been winning in the beginning, forcing Eira to adapt. But now?

Now, Eira had taken that challenge personally. And Alana was paying the price.

She attempted a final maneuver as she felt her lack of air catching up to her. She dropped down, swinging out a kick to try and catch Eira off her feet. She could at least hope to stalemate the conflict. Once she had performed this maneuver, she’d topple back onto the ground, depleted.