First Reply Find Your Footing

[Aliris Tremiru]

Aliris let out a deep breath.

This was a different training than she was used to. Drones flitted about around her, hissing and popping this way and that. Defense training. She was pretty sure that's what it was called. Though, usually it was for a lightsaber. She didn't bother with one of those. Instead it was the seeming liquid that was floating around her. Koboh Matter. A metal that was as much crystal as it was metal and liquid, constantly shifting between it's form. And currently, she was trying to use it as a shield.

There was a blast from one of the droids, and immediately she reacted. The liquid shifted, forming a barrier between her and the drone to deflect it. Then another. And another. She was decently keeping up here and there, but the intensity pretty quickly picked up. At first they were shooting at random intervals, but one at a time. The moment they started to shoot together, she wasn't standing still any longer. She moved, practically ran really, trying to dodge what she couldn't bring her barrier around to defend. It wasn't unconscious. She had to feel the shot, then move the matter. Too many shots made it too much, too quickly.

She was hit more than once in rapid succession.

Aliris hissed in annoyance before flexing her fingers. What was a shield turned to a blade, that she used to cut through the various droids as they continued to fire at her. She ignored the pain just to make sure she took them out. Once they were all gone though she frowned. Deeply. She wasn't supposed to let her emotions take over like that. Frustration.

".. I really hope they don't make me pay for repairs."

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aliris Tremiru

​

".. I really hope they don't make me pay for repairs."

"Most people aren't mindful of that sort of stuff."

Jalen had been on the other end of the training hall, practicing his Soresu. He had been going at it for a while now, so much so that the training droid was beginning to run out of power. The boy was, much to his own detriment, a perfectionist. He had to be the best if lives were to be saved.

He could do healing. It was lightsaber combat he was worried about.

'Seeing' through auras (though it was really more feeling) made it hard to miss Aliris. Her frustration had been palpable, but more concerning was that there was another aura within her, one which was not her own. He figured that this was the Sith girl Jasper had spoken about. Not that he'd press about it. He wasn't rude after all.

"Thankfully training droids don't have the same kind of thinking brains that others do," he shrugged. "As for payment, padawans don't generally have a means of tossing around cash anyways. They'll probably just stick you on library duty for an hour and call it a day."

Jalen frowned, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"Jalen," he introduced. "You are..."

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

A voice.

Metal whipped around her, but not violently at least. Just, back to her, back to it's floating, almost liquid state just behind her back. Ready for defense if she needed it. But a quick breath reminded her that no, she didn't need to be so defensive. And he didn't seem like a threat, yet. So she listened. Frowned. An hour in the library didn't seem too bad, but the idea she'd get punished wasn't something she wanted to think about.

".. Oh. Aliris. Uh. Good to meet you, I guess."

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aliris Tremiru

​

"Don't worry," Jalen assured, trying to be the good senior padawan. "It really isn't that bad. The archive staff really just end up pampering the students that get sent to them."

The boredom was the only real thing you had to deal with, and an hour was really not that bad. He had taken note of her defensive shift, which he wasn't bothered by. Jalen knew all too well what it was like to live constantly on edge. It really wasn't an issue, even if he didn't fully understand the strange force-charged material she had with her.

A frown did come to his face though. Her emotions were all over the place. It made it more difficult for the blind boy to discern her true form.

"It's not that good to meet me," he remarked. "I usually end up making people sad... Or scared."

He'd lift up his blindfold, showing the empty grey eyes that lay behind it. Before long though he had put it back.

"But it's good to be polite I guess," Jalen shrugged. "Sorry about the pessimism..."

He really needed to work on that. This conversation definately needed a transition.

"So, you're trying to learn defense?"

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

"You're very depressing."

Aliris frowned at that. Not good to meet him? Why? Because he had scars on his eyes? She just shook her head. So there were people like this in the Jedi too? She wasn't much of a fan of it, but she could see why. It was also not a topic she wanted to linger on in the slightest. Instead she nodded, glancing towards the metal around her before shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, kinda. .. I don't wanna have to kill people, y'know?"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aliris Tremiru

​

"You're very depressing."

"Yeah, I'm... working on that," he assured.

He couldn't keep assuming that people were just gonna feel sorry for him all the time. That was a problem of his own creation. He did give a faint smile when the girl said she didn't want to kill people.

"Well I'm an expert in... not killing people," Jalen noted, though his confidence trailed off. "That... didn't sound right... Anyways, I've been training to be a healer, so I've taken a vow of non-violence. I've never liked death and all anyways..."

Jalen stepped towards her strange metal, assessing it with a rather blank looking expression, though his eyes being under a vail certainly didn't help in that regard. He'd begin to scratch at his chin, eerily similar to the manner in which Jasper scratched the scruff on his face when thinking. It was charged with the force, no doubt about it. Was it bonded to her mind in some manner? Regardless, it could change shape. This was something he could work with. Jalen was quite experienced with matters of the mind more than the flesh.

"A part of the problem might be the mindset of approach," he informed Aliris. "Defense becomes more difficult when your actions are influenced by thought. Calculating all that stuff bogs down your mind, stresses you out. In lightsaber combat we call the form Soresu, but it's more a course of action than a form of attack. Your instincts are naturally heightened by the force, so the idea is to sort of let them do their thing... but..."

Jalen retrieved his blindfold, untying it and handing it to the girl.

"You can't do that if you trust your eyes first. Take away your sight and you'll find that there are other ways to see."

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

Don't use her eyes?

Aliris stared at him. Part of her just wanted to say how impossible that actually sounded, but her eyes pretty quickly glanced again to the blindfold he had on. It was how he lived, right? She grumbled in annoyance before glancing around at the destroyed targets. She knew she could feel danger and react to it, but.. She did always look for it first. Make sure she knew how to react by what she saw.

If that was the problem, then..

".. How do I even start trying that?"

Jalen Kai'el

 

[Jalen Kai'el]

Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Tags: Aliris Tremiru

​

"I... can't recommend you do it the way I did," Jalen remarked, grinning a little.

That was a joke, right? Maybe he should just stop.

"...But I do have something that might help," he continued, brushing aside the rather dark joke he had just made. "Here."

Jalen pulled something out of his pocket, a radiant gemstone about the size of his hand. It had been an item he had received from his brother back when he was first learning how to see with the force. Now Jalen just carried the stone for sentimental reasons. He didn't get to see his brother often, so it was like having him there. Sort of.

"It's a Force Crystal," Jalen told Aliris. "They help focus your connection to the force, enhances your reflexes. Pilots use it all the time. I used this one to learn how to... well, see, I guess."

 

[Aliris Tremiru]

Aliris stared at the gem, then back to Jalen. There was quite the unbelievable expression on her face. He was just.. Giving her a Force Crystal? To help her? Why did Jedi have to be so startlingly weird. The only saving grace was she knew he couldn't see her expression, so she quietly cleared her throat to at least calm herself down. This was fine. This would have to be fine. She could make use of it, that much was for sure. And yet.

".. Are you sure?"

Jalen Kai'el