Private Fire is a tool, not a weapon

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Eloise Dinn

Afternoons were a fickle thing for Jonyna these days. Between meetings, planning reconstruction, and her own training, Jonyna rarely had moments to herself. Today though, she had a chance to do some one on one training. A padawan by the name of Eloise had asked to see her personally, and Jonyna wasn't one to turn a new student down.

"Welcome." Jonyna smiled as she walked into the training dojo. "I take it you're Padawan Dinn then? You're Amani's padawan, yeah?"

 

[Eloise Dinn]

It had taken Eloise a while just to find the dojo. The Jedi Temple on Fondor was unfamiliar to her, and it seemed like every face she passed was a stranger. She lumbered around for a while before opening herself to the Force and letting it guide her to where she needed to be.

For all her ignorance of the temple grounds, she was no greenhorn. She'd spent the majority of her time as a Jedi at the Vonnuvi Jedi Enclave, where Amani Serys was the Grandmaster. Recently Amani had suggested she seek out other teachers to round out her education. Eloise was reluctant. She hadn't forgotten what happened when she first joined the Order. But enough time had passed that she was willing to give it a try.

Mere moments after she arrived at the empty dojo, someone else showed up. She sensed that this was the person she was supposed to meet: Master Jonyna Si.

"Welcome. I take it you're Padawan Dinn then? You're Amani's padawan, yeah?"

Jonyna was a furry alien with a long tail and feline eyes, but otherwise she looked rather humanoid. Her fashion sense seemed a bit... odd. Eloise met her gaze head on. "That's me. Are you Master Si?" she asked, arms crossed over her chest.

Eloise was a bit strange looking herself. At six foot two she towered over most human women, her physique defined by the rigors of Jedi training, though much of her form was hidden underneath bohemian-style robes. Her purple hair was braided to keep it out of her face, and she wore quite a bit of jewelry fashioned from strips of leather, carved wood or metal, and stone beads.

"I was told you could teach me healing techniques outside the orthodox tradition," she continued.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Eloise Dinn

Jonyna eyed the woman, standing an inch taller than her, but still younger. She was started to feel small nowadays, with both this padawan and her own in Aris Noble now towering over here. Was this just a thing nowadays, giants walking around like it was normal?!

She shook her head of the thought, before offering a smile. "Well, I'm not exactly a healer, but I am a master of the elemental powers of the Force, and a survivalist. Have you done any training in the elements?" She asked, bringing a hand up, and snapping her fingers to demonstrate, a flicker of flame forming above her snap.

 

[Eloise Dinn]

"Well, I'm not exactly a healer, but I am a master of the elemental powers of the Force, and a survivalist. Have you done any training in the elements?"

Jonyna produced a small flame that hovered above her fingers. Eloise stiffened almost imperceptibly, recalling a day in her childhood when her mother had tried to teach her the art of pyrokinesis. Later she had nursed her blistered fingers under the cool water of the stream, the smell of smoke from the cooking fires in her nostrils. Her father made nerf burgers for dinner. Her favorite.

"I'm out of practice," she replied. The Jedi hadn't included it in their curriculum. "I was better at hydrokinesis. Fire is difficult to control."

She had learned to survive from the Shaal back home. Which plants were safe to eat and which could be used to heal, how to find clean freshwater, how to hunt and shoot the wild game in the desert and the jungle. Much of that knowledge didn't apply beyond the clear blue atmosphere of Zaathru, where the plants and animals were alien and the land unfamiliar. Only the Force was constant, giving water and fire and reaching the high places even she, with her great size, could not reach.

"Can you remind me how to do it?" she asked.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Eloise Dinn

Jonyna nodded, sitting down and offering a soft smile. "Fire is an element of need. Of passion. To create it, you need to communicate with the Force what you need. I need to teach you how it works, I need to get from one tree to the next. The first time I used it, I was chasing after a speeder that was being driven by an Imperial, trying to escape with a scientist the Rebellion needed. I couldn't catch the Speeder on foot, but I trusted the Force to let me catch it anyways. Controlling the Elements is, at least in my experience, all about being in tune with the Living Force through your emotions."

She pulled a small piece of paper from one of her many pockets, igniting it in her hand. "Fire requires you to understand the difference between a want and a need. A need is that of survival, of necessity. A want is trying to force something that doesn't have to happen. The sith deal in wants, we deal in needs."

 

[Eloise Dinn]

What Jonyna went on to describe wasn't what Eloise had been taught by her mother, though that was no surprise. The Padawan listened carefully, yet her brow was furrowed by the end. In a truly dire situation, no one was going to perfectly delineate between wants versus needs like that. Nor was it inherently Sith-like to want to burn. But she knew better than to try and argue over this. It only drew negative attention to herself and her background.

"Do you need to produce a flame right now?" she asked with a faint smirk. Perhaps it could be argued that Jonyna needed to make fire in order to teach the technique to another, and Eloise needed to create fire in order to ensure she learned correctly...

But that was getting too into the weeds, and her question, while prompted by genuine confusion, just made her sound like a smartass. Suppressing a sigh, Eloise joined her in sitting on the floor of the dojo, and tried to create fire. Her first attempt was little more than a spark that swiftly faded. "I'm a little rusty," she muttered, trying again. Her second and third attempts sputtered out.

Finally, the fourth caught flame and continued to burn, consuming the oxygen in the air above her thumb.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Eloise Dinn

Jonyna smiled, watching the padawan try again and again. Doing what she had done the first time, and doing it on command had taken Jonyna quite a while herself, but in the temple like this, Eloise didn't have to worry about stormtroopers shooting at her. "Good. You'll get the hang of doing it regularly eventually, but that'll just come with practice. As for what flame can do..."

Jonyna waved a hand, producing a small wave of flame that followed her hand, "Flame is a tool. A light in the dark, a burst of speed, or in some cases, a way to seal a wound. Figure out how to harness it well enough..." She put two fingers up, the wave of flame connecting into a tiny, but white hot flame. "It can be a scalpel. A blowtorch. A splicing tool." She then stepped back, waving her hand in front of her as a wall of fire formed between them. "A shield, or-" The flame suddenly went back to her hands, firing downward and pushing her up into the air in a light hover. "A tool for movement. The mandalorians aren't the only ones who know how to fly, after all."

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Jonyna offered her praise, then stood up in order to show off a series of complex tricks. Eloise tracked the rapid movements of her flames, fascinated. "How is it a burst of speed?" she asked. "Unless you mean like lighting a fire under somebody's ass..."

Pyrokinesis itself was a very practical skill. But the idea of using it to seal a wound didn't make sense to Eloise. Why create fire when you could use the Force to close a wound directly? If a situation arose where she didn't have access to the Force, she'd have to learn how to make a fire the old-fashioned way, with kindling and friction or a magnifying glass. Not to mention burning someone with fire, while possibly life saving, would be torture unless paired with a strong anesthesia.

"Flame is a tool. A light in the dark, a burst of speed, or in some cases, a way to seal a wound. Figure out how to harness it well enough..." She put two fingers up, the wave of flame connecting into a tiny, but white hot flame. "It can be a scalpel. A blowtorch. A splicing tool." She then stepped back, waving her hand in front of her as a wall of fire formed between them. "A shield, or—" The flame suddenly went back to her hands, firing downward and pushing her up into the air in a light hover. "A tool for movement. The Mandalorians aren't the only ones who know how to fly, after all."

"This shield—can it block blaster bolts? Or does it just prevent people from getting past it?" she asked when the wall of fire appeared. Jonyna then used the fire as a makeshift jet pack. It was a pretty cool display of the versatility of pyrokinesis, even if Eloise didn't fully understand how it all worked.

Jonyna Si​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Eloise Dinn

Jonyna raised an eyebrow. This kid asked a lot of questions, then again, she did the same when she was that age. Still, it was a lot at once. "With enough practice, yes. Flame is more than anything, versatile. Paired with other abilities, it can do a lot more than you think it can. The best friend of a jedi is creativity, and the ability to adapt simple tools to complex problems. The elements around you are just as much your friend as a blaster or a lightsaber."

Jonyna flicked her hand, a ball of water suddenly being pulled out of the air. "Water is another one. Put under enough pressure, it can slice through durasteel, or it can seep into the deepest of electronics and armor."

 

[Eloise Dinn]

"With enough practice, yes. Flame is more than anything, versatile. Paired with other abilities, it can do a lot more than you think it can. The best friend of a Jedi is creativity, and the ability to adapt simple tools to complex problems. The elements around you are just as much your friend as a blaster or a lightsaber."

"I see," Eloise muttered, watching Jonyna switch from fire to water. She kept her tone level, betraying no emotion. Internally she was somewhat annoyed by what she perceived to be a hand-waving and unhelpful answer from the Jedi Master. The idea of using fire to increase one's speed or to shield yourself from blaster bolts sounded absurd to her, yet Jonyna was framing it as if she simply wasn't creative enough.

At any rate, hydrokinesis was a lot easier for her. The Nacrian pearl she wore over her brow was largely to thank for that. Rather than creating a ball of water from nothing, she retrieved her water bottle, opened it and poured some out. She then manipulated the liquid, maneuvering it into various shapes.

"Water is another one. Put under enough pressure, it can slice through durasteel, or it can seep into the deepest of electronics and armor."

"You're talking about, what, a deep ocean's worth of pressure?" It sounded feasible, but again, there were easier and more straightforward ways to accomplish the same goal. She decided to try and shift the subject of the lesson to survivalist techniques. "What if I don't have my lightsaber or access to the Force? How could I accomplish these things then?"

Jonyna Si​