Private Coruscant's #1 Tourist Destination, According To Some Reviewers...

[Lief]

Water.​

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Water made sense. When they headed inside he paused at the first water fountain they came across, and drank a solid few mouthfuls of it. Refreshing, rejuvenating, he felt heaps better. Then on to the training area they wandered.​

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The idea of so many training sabers just being sat there, waiting for someone to grab and make use of them, was surprising at first. Then he remembered that they weren't intense, they weren't the real deal, they mostly just mimicked the sight and weight. A tiny bit of burniness, but no ripping through limbs or skin.​

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"Yeah, I was raised with a traditional sword," he explained, as he picked out a random lightsaber hilt and felt its weight in his hand. It was.. weird. He didn't ignite it yet, of course, instead he shrugged out of his outer layers until he had just the white shirt on top. Then he ventured out into the training room, knowing that Kai was close at hand.​

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Kai Bamarri ​

 

[Kai Bamarri]

Kai had his own lightsaber, but in some ways it felt unfair to use it against an inexperienced opponent. So rather than dial down the intensity of his personal weapon, he plucked up a training lightsaber as well.

<It's a little like that in basic principle, but without the weight...> He activated the weapon. <...and the blade can burn through anything. Well, there's more to it than that, but... yeah.>

He gave it a few experimental swings, and it was obvious by the look on his face that he was utterly spellbound by it. Then he faced Eli, his childlike delight replaced by good-natured competition. <Go ahead and try to hit me.>

Lief​

 

[Lief]

He watched as Kai plucked a training saber from the locker too, intrigued about that decision given that the other student had a saber of his own. Then again... Yeah, Eliphas did not want to be cut in two. Nosiree. He was glad that he was going up against a training variant.​

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"Without the weight?" he asked, though he supposed he already knew the answer to that in essence. The hilt was what held all of the mechanisms, the core of the weapon, the rest was, well, energy plasma. It would take some getting used to.​

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Following suit, he thumbed the ignition, a clumsy act that spoke to zero experience with the thing, and watched as a blue blade thrummed into existence. He was taken aback by it, looking visibly startled by how suddenly it appeared. He turned it in his grasp, and couldn't quite adjust to its weightlessness, to the lack of weighted balance he'd come to know from a well honed blade.​

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"Wow... this is.... odd. It feels so wrong..." He grimaced, making a few small motions with the weapon that cut x's into the air, unknowingly akin to a Makashi flourish. It had a fencer's flare, though it had been quite some time since he'd brandished a blade.​

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Something told him he'd have to throw most of what he knew out the window. Learn from scratch.​

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"Will it hurt you, if the blade touches?" He inquired. For a moment he seemed uncertain.​

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But then, throwing caution to the wind, he aimed a slash toward the other boy's right arm.​

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Kai Bamarri ​

 

[Kai Bamarri]

<A little. Not that much.>

Kai parried the blow with relative ease. He was used to fighting with a weightless weapon, and it showed. Since he was dealing with someone who was inexperienced, he didn't strike back, only blocked any further blows Eli aimed at him... at least, not initially.

Eventually, when Eli struck, Kai would not merely parry it, but catch his blade in a bind and try to push the other boy back.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

A little. Not much. Eliphas thought back to his days sparring on Teta, to the wooden swords which acted in place of the real thing, then the blunted blades which came after. Yes, they hurt, they left welts upon his skin, and could do a real number if swung with too much force, but they did not rend flesh, or cause blood loss, or maim, or kill. Well, maybe if you hit someone especially hard on the head. Otherwise?​

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Yeah. No more hesitation.​

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All at once the boy was transported back in time, and instincts he'd thought long forgotten rose back up. He'd never been the greatest, of course, he was still barely out of being a child in the present state, but it was clear he had training, the best sort of training money could buy, his only real hinderance was the blade itself.​

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That weightlessness really threw him through a loop.​

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Blow after blow was blocked, though Kai did not parry. He held him off, waited for the next swing, and did more of the same. Then, by some miracle, one of Eliphas' blows struck true; he found his blade caught by the other's in a lock, and then pressure was applied. Eliphas pushed back.​

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Kai Bamarri ​

 

[Kai Bamarri]

Kai increased the pressure. He wasn’t human—that much was obvious, given how he had transported Eli to the Temple—and his physical strength reflected that.

But something about the manner in which he shoved Eli was a bit underhanded. No doubt the other boy was unprepared to deal with superhuman force dealt to his body.

The moment Eli gave ground, Kai would be on the offensive. He’d strike fast, pushing the limits of his opponent’s reflexes, coming at him with jarring aggression compared to his earlier defensive posture.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Kai pushed back with far more strength behind the action that the other boy was expecting. In his surprise he stumbled back, lost his footing, and ended up with his butt flat on the ground. ​

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A slight yelp fled his lips before he could do much to rein it in, a stunned sensation rising up his back through where his coccyx struck the training room floor.​

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The other boy had pushed forward almost in that same instance, acting on instinct it no doubt took him a second to realize what had happened. Not sure if he'd stop at all, Eliphas forced himself back into motion and rolled to the right; his hands, face down into the floor, pushed him back up to a stand.​

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Then he turned, not bothering to pause to shake off the pain, and danced forth on light feet to try and stick Kai with a quick jab to the ribs.​

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Kai Bamarri ​

 

[Kai Bamarri]

The jab hit its mark, and Kai felt the first sting of their sparring session. He grit his teeth and knocked Eli’s blade away from his vulnerable torso, swinging at the other boy’s shoulder and head.

The atmosphere of this mock-duel was shifting. Kai’s attitude toward the fight had changed. He was becoming more competitive, more ruthless, more brutal even. No harm could come to either of them, because it wasn’t a real battle—but as Kai tried to sweep Eli’s legs out from under him, and even used the pommel of his hilt as a blunt weapon, the notion might enter one of their heads that they were taking this too far.

Or at least, it might enter Eli’s head. Kai was quite far gone in his own mind, taking out some pent-up frustration on his unfortunate acquaintance.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Boy, Eliphas thought, Kai was really putting him through his paces.​

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Sweat pooled over his skin as he fought to remain toe to toe with the other boy. He'd lost a lot of distance to begin with, been struck by random blows here and there while adjusting to the new weapon in his hand, but slowly but surely his comfort levels grew, and before either of them really knew it they were trading clashing and locks, parrying from blow to blow.​

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Kai was a formidable beast in the eyes of one so untrained, he had such strength and agility behind his form that the ratio of hits was severely off balance.​

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A swing tried to take out his legs, and no sooner had it been made than the other boys hilt was flying toward his face.​

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Eliphas staggered back with a resounding crack, and for a moment the only noise he made was the sharp expelling of breath as it was knocked from inside of him. He just sort of stood there stunned as a warmth trickled from his nose; the lightsaber fell from his grasp with a clatter.​

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Had he still been a child, this would have been the point in time where the waterworks started; even now he could feel the urge to bawl bubbling up within him.​

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Kai Bamarri ​

 

[Kai Bamarri]

Kai saw red.

It took him a moment to realize it was blood.

Eli was bleeding from the nose. Kai froze, his arm still poised in mid-swing, and stared. The other boy didn’t move either, apparently stunned by the blow.

Eyes still wide and fixed on that trickle of blood—fast becoming a gush—Kai finally lowered his arm and dropped the training saber. It clattered to the floor.

<I yield.>

Regret bubbling up in him, Kai fidgeted. He wanted to check the wound, but was afraid Eli would shrink away in fear if he tried to touch him. Had he hit Eli in the nose, or in the head? If he’d hit him in the head, the blood could be a sign of something far more serious. Not that a broken nose wasn’t serious.

<Sorry. I guess I got a little carried away…>

Lief​

 

[Lief]

The sound of Kai's lightsaber hitting the ground knocked the air back into his lungs. All at once, and without any warning for what was coming, a dam broke within him and tears streamed down his cheeks before he could stop them. Where previously the shock of it all had kept the pain numbed, now it flooded in and it felt as though his face was throbbing. Especially his nose.​

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It wasn't a very audible cry, but he cried nonetheless. One hand finally rose, and he held it over his nose where the hilt had struck true. For a moment he felt as though he might be sick again.​

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All at once the other boy had yielded. He was apologizing, and seemed both confused and remorseful about how things had ended up. Eliphas was still struggling to comprehend it for himself, and breathing had become something he had to really focus on, so talking wasn't in the cards for him. Not verbally at least. Thank the Force for telepathy.​

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I... It's okay, he hastily tried to assure him, fighting internally with himself to try and regain control of his bodily functions, to stop the crying at the very least. Accidents happen... ah... how bad is it? When he peeled away his hands he could already see some blood staining his palms. With any luck, it was just bloody. With any luck, his nose wasn't broken.​

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Kai Bamarri ​

 

[Kai Bamarri]

Aaaaaand now he was crying. It looked to be just an automatic response to the pain, but it made Kai feel worse.

What had gotten into him? Why had he taken it this far? He glanced down at the ring on his finger, which obscured his aura from others, and found himself wondering how he would perceive himself if he were to take it off…

Accidents happen... ah... how bad is it?

Kai peered at Eli's nose and shook his head. <You should go to the medbay,> he said. <I’ll show you how to get there.>

Without giving the bleeding boy much time to argue, he led him out of the training room and into the Halls of Healing. They were swiftly intercepted by a medical droid. “What happened?”

Evidently too disturbed to speak, Kai resorted to sign language. The droid processed the info, then gave a mechanical sigh. “You kids shouldn’t be treating lightsabers like they’re toys. Not even the training ones.” Tending to Eli, it’s mediscanner whirred. “Not as bad as the last one I saw today. You’ll be fine as soon as I—“ There was a popping sound as he wrangled Eli’s nose back into place, an act that sent a fresh torrent of blood pouring from his nostrils. “Got it. Can you breathe a little better now?”

In the meantime, his mistake partly remedied, Kai made a hasty escape.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

He found himself led from the room in something of a daze, only to be halted in the hallway by a medical droid who seemed all too familiar with the rambunctiousness of Jedi students. Kai took charge of the situation, but only insofar as making use of GSL, and Eliphas was left to stare on through hazy eyes, oblivious to what was actually gesticulated.​

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"It was an accident," he explained, trying to stick up for the other boy when the droid reprimanded them both. A painful accident, but he knew that there was no way Kai actually meant to bust his nose like that. He was a Jedi, after all, and his personality had been nothing but fun since they'd met atop the roof earlier. Still, how much did he actually know about the other?​

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Know that he killed a man. But that had been at the whims of another. All a grave misunderstanding.​

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Eliphas shook his head of such thoughts. He'd been raised to see the good in people, particularly those who pledged themselves to the betterment of the Galaxy. While he was thinking on this, and the droid was mumbling something about previous encounters, a pop resounded through the hallway - or maybe it was just through his head - and a searing pain started up all over again.​

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"Youch!" he howled, in many ways finding the experience of his nose resetting far worse than the impact of the hilt itself. Instinct bade him to wiggle his nose; he did not. Instead he hastily lifted a hand to try and mitigate the falling blood.​

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"Hard to say through the blood," came his muffled response to the droid. Dangit, where was a handkerchief when you needed one? He turned to look for Kai, even as the droid was trying to usher him along to the medbay to get something to stem the bleeding; Kai was gone. No trace to be seen.​

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Heart in his stomach, Eliphas trudged alongside the droid. He'd seek the other boy out later, once he was cleaned up, make sure he knew there was no bad blood between them...​

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It was just an accident, after all.​

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