Heavy Risks...but the Prize (Cira) (Training Thread)

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

More time passed, again Siobhan was not exactly counting the minutes. Clamping down on her initial frustration, she breathed in deeply, then sunk back into the Force once more, trying to be more controlled this time.

Her first attempts were clumsy, with the energy dispersing, but slowly as she dove in deeper and relaxed and reached out some of the energy streams were drawn towards as opposed to just flowing past as she moved in unison with them.

She was in deep concentration, to such an extent that she didn't hear Cira's last words, but slowly there was a shift in her signature.

Not a particularly strong one, if one exerted oneself enough with the Force one would still be able to detect enough divergences to pick her out, but still a shift.

 

[Cira]

Pride at Siobhan's success crept over Cira's lips in a warm smile. While she could still see her, she could not 'feel' her. That is, her Force Signature was masked from her.

While she struggled, and yes, while it was a weakened version of Quey'tek mask, with practice she could truly harness the meditation and sustain it with ease.

"Well done Siobhan," her hand came reaching out to gently squeeze Siobhan's right shoulder in praise and encouragement. "Well done."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan's energy signature flickered a bit, small cracks emerging in the force mask, though she concentrated intently and struggled to maintain it for a while longer.

With a further effort she could prolong the effects, finally she was pushed out of the meditative trance when the exertion became too much.

She was sweating and took a deep breath, grinning at Cira and feeling a stab of pride at her success, however brief and taxing it had been. "Thanks, that was intense...and kinda cool."

 

[Cira]

That warm smile that was rare to curve upon Cira's lips came then. "It is."

"It is wearing... I know. But with practice it becomes easier." she said with encouragement, walking over towards the far end of the room to the small bar. Taking a glass, she tossed some ice in, the clinking sound resonating throughout the room before she poured some water in it.

"It will take a while. It did with me. " she said, revealing a bit more than would be expected. "It takes a bit more concentration to be able to do some Force powers along with it. For the longest time, I was unable to do that. I can't do much beyond simple telekinesis... anything stronger than that will unmask me." the glass of water was extended out towards Siobhan.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan was quite curious about Cira, who was still an enigma to, well, everyone as far as the ex-Jedi knew.

Of course, at this stage Siobhan did yet know about her glorious wings. Otherwise, she might have been a lot less focused!

She gratefully accepted the glass of water and downed it. "I understand. For a long time meditation and stuff came real difficult to me. I ain't exactly a calm person, as you might've noticed! But I'll the hang of this."

She wiped some sweat off her face. "So who trained you?" she asked casually. If Cira wanted to be private about she wouldn't push it.

 

[Cira]

There was a faint pause at the question, drawing her hand back after handing her the glass. Slowly, she went ambling back to the bar to pour herself a drink.

"Depends on the skill," she said, leaning over the bar to take another glass. Pouring herself a drink, she continued, "For that particular skill, I learned it from a Disciple of Twilight." She had mentioned them before.

"I've had several different mentors throughout my travels. Each had their own bit of wisdom and philosophy to share." she gave her upper torso a half twist, turning towards Siobhan. "That is why, as a secondary purpose to the contracts, we've been collecting as much as we can in regards from artifacts from several of the lost Force Organizations in the galaxy."

"How about you?"

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan, not having been the scholarly sort, was not familiar with the Disciples of Twilight, but it seemed like they possessed ingenious skills.

Besides, they had a cool name to boot!

"Adril Tythorin," she spoke the name with great reverence. While Siobhan had forged her own path, she still idolised her old master to quite an extent, perhaps a bit more than was warranted.

"Space elf, she saved my life on Nar Shaddaa. She could cast fireballs. Taught me everything I know about the Force. She was a great woman."

She downed some of her water. "She was a Jedi...well, neither of of us were Jedi in the way their Code wants. We got things done." That was one of way putting it. "We joked once if they got fed up with us we'd go private contractor."

 

[Cira]

@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

A smile came to Cira's lips as she took a sip of ice water. The reverence did not go unnoticed. Siobhan fondness for her old master was clear to see.

"Sometimes that is exactly how it is; things needing to get done. " there came the word of caution, as Siobhan had used the past tense for her. She didn't want to pry if that were the case, she knew all too well, how close she held her privacy.

"Being a private contractor does have it's perks." she gave a small pause, "She sounds like a woman that would get along fabulously here."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

For her part Siobhan was grateful that Cira picked up on the past tense and didn't pry too deeply. Talking about Adril's death was...difficult, especially since guilt issues were involved.

On the flip side, unlike a certain whiny Republic pilot who had played a part in saving the Galaxy from a jawless Sith with a penchant for blowing up planets, she did not keep going on about it to Tegs. After all, going on about your old girlfriend and telling your new lover how similar they were was wethennish and annoying!

"Oh, yeah, she would've really loved this," Siobhan responded, a small smile curved her lips. "Might've butted heads with lots of people. She was kinda...dominant. But you gotta be pushy to get anywhere in this world."

Dominant was a good word. "You think there's a dark side of the sort that's an independent force that influences people? Way I see it, evil comes from within people. Thinking there's some outside force that'll pounce on naughty force-users and twist them always seemed like an excuse to me."

Of course, Siobhan had issues with voices in her head. Being possessed by an ancient Sith spirit and compelled to murder Jedi would do that to you.

 

[Cira]

She took another sip of her water, mulling over how to reply. Finally, she said, "Same. It's a choice. Not some mystical presence that leads you astray. " she gave her a warm half smile, "Feeling better?" she asked. "The Meditation can take quite a bit out of you."

If she felt up to it, they would continue on to the next part of the training. Ionize.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Great minds do think alike," Siobhan joked, giving Cira a small smile. It felt...good, having someone to talk about issues like this, as much as the ex-Jedi was not the philosophical sort, and to learn from.

She had sought additional training from Jedi instructors here and there after Adril died, but never really clicked with them. Mostly both had already been seen in their ways. They had taught about the Force, but hoped they would "make her a good Jedi", she was too stubborn for that.

She took a sip from her glass of water and then put it down. "Oh, don't worry, I'm good. Ready to continue. So what's next on the list?" the meditation had been taxing, but she was eager.

 

[Cira]

Cira gave Siobhan a grin. "This is where we get to fry droids," she said as she placed her empty glass on the counter. Fingers motioned for the Major to follow.

"Come on, we'll go have a bit of fun with this." she said with a rather mischievous twinkle in her eye.

Once Siobhan was ready, Cira would lead them out of her office towards the War Droid training facility they had. Once there, she wasted no time keying in the first set of protocols for the training session.

"Ionized was originally developed during the Old Sith Wars by the Jedi." she said, fingers flying over the small console that would charge up a small training droid. "It is similiar to using Force Lightning, but the difference is that the energy manifested is a stream of ions. Which is why instead of the normal blue-white arcs of energy, it came often materialize in a purple hue."

"Depending on your level of concentration and expertise, you can stun a droid, disable, or destroy it. " Cira gave a glance over her shoulder to Siobhan, "What you saw me use on Omni's droids was at maximum output capacity."

A pause, then she asked, "Have you ever attempted to spark energy with the Force before?" just so she would know exactly where to begin at.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"You know just how to make your employees have a good time," Siobhan with a glint in her sole remaining flesh eye when Cira mentioned that they would be blasting droids.

When the Prex referred to an 'Omni' Siobhan experienced a momentary paradox in the space-time continuum. After all, the last thing she could remember doing was fighting pirates on Vandelhelm.

However, she was suddenly endowed with profound existentialist knowledge and realised that they had made a time jump. On another note, this also meant that she knew about Cira's wings!

Given all the revelations Siobhan was exposed to in a matter of seconds, she had to be credited for her ability to be able to absorb Cira's words - and not start oggling her again now that she knew about the wings!

"Yeah, I remember. Really devastated them," she said with an eager grin. "While you were...flying. That was really cool as well."

She turned her mind to Cira's query. "Uh, no, never tried that until now. Just been shot at with lightning a lot!"

Which she could block with a lightsabre, as long as it was not an all-out barrage.

 

[Cira]

Well blast. Meh, Cira gave a mental shrug. This is what happened when said writer posts wayyy too early in the morning.

"Mm... sometimes, push comes to shove with certain things," quipped Cira, turning round as the training droid went online. There came another quirk of her lips. "Same concept about altering and control."

She ambled her way over to Siobhan, directing the training droid over to her. "Droids are built with the same sort of electrical components as those of blood and bone. Just we have it a bit different in terms of it being our nervous system instead of circuitry and chips. Ionize basically is the ability to manipulate the atoms and energy around you with the Force, and manipulating them into an ionized charged to be able to disable said droid."

"As with the meditation, try and sense the molecules around you. We are going to the smallest denominator, atoms themselves, to manipulate them, charge them, and then redirect them towards the objective you so desire. Force spark," up went her hand, and with little effort, crackles of energy flickered over her palm, having manipulated the molecules and atoms around her with the Force.

In a second, she sent a small spark out towards a training dummy at the far end of the room. It wasn't lightning, a la typical, streaking of cerulean arcs, but more akin to the sudden jolt of electric current one feels with static electricity.

"Same concept... just ionized particles instead."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan, being a 'good' girl, would not reveal Cira's little secret to anyone. However, she would most certainly fantasise about her wings!

Regardless Siobhan watched with an intrigued, evidently impressed look on her face when Cira harnessed the moecules and atoms through her powers into a spark of energy and shot it out at the training droid.

Unsurprisingly she was eager to try as well and so she sought to clear her mind of distractions, not the easiest thing due to her having these images about wings in her mind, but she stretched out with her Force attuned senses, trying to pinpoint the atoms and molecules that were around her in the room.

As with the meditation required for the utilisation of the Quey'tek this was a finesse job, especially since it required sensing and drawing upon the lowest element, something someone who was more attuned to using the Force as a sledgehammer like Siobhan was unused to.

But she was determined and perhaps the past meditation had taught her something. Her gaze was that of intense concentration as she reached out, she felt the stab of a headache but pressed on, relaxing as she dove into the Force.

Then at last she picked up on them and tried to reach out towards the molecules, but her manipulations were too sudden and crude, not to mention untrained, so instead of having the desired effect she suddenly felt a weak crackle of energy in her robot hand, painfully striking against the circuitry.

It was rather weak here her being untrained worked to her advantage, but it still made her yelp!

 

[Cira]

Cira saw her jerk at the sudden onslaught of current crackle across Siobhan's robotic arm. "Try to focus it on your other hand," she instructed, frowning slightly. "While prosthetics are helpful, it will make it all the more difficult to attempt to do ionized with that particular one, due to the circuitry." There was a faint encouraging smile.

"You'll be your own worst enemy then." She then recited again, extending the hand that matched Siobhan's that was still made of blood, bone, and sinew. "Again. Focus on the area around your palm. Fingertips. "

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"I was thinking of going bionic. Does my health insurance cover that?" Siobhan muttered to herself sardonically with a frown, inspecting her robot arm and experimentally flexing its fingers, then clenching them.

They felt sluggish and slow to respond, the neural interface had been struck and so it was slow to pass on impulses. But since she had just started experimenting with this power, she had not rendered it nonfunctional!

Admittedly, it was a rather crude arm that looked a bit like it had been made of spare droid parts or hacked off a combat robot. But it was good for hitting people!

"Sure. No problem." Nodding at Cira's words she held the prothesis loosely at her side, holding out her flesh and bone hand. Once again she stretched out through the Force, trying to draw the atoms and molecules towards her, this time seeking to will them towards the palm of her organic hand.

Her headache did not have the good manners to leave her, but she did not let this stop her, diving deeper into the great stream that was the Force. It took a great deal more time and effort than for Cira, she was sweating a bit, but then at last a crackle of energy surged across her outstretched palm and to her fingertips.

 

[Cira]

"You didn't get the memo?" came the light quip, "You're health insurance just got bumped up. It does." Cira said as she observed Siobhan concentrating, until finally a small bit of energy went crackling over her fingers.

"Good." her hand turned to a small fist and the energy disappeared. She could tell that the training was wearing on Siobhan, but she trusted that she could handle it. "I know, it's wearing.. but you are doing well. With the basic foundations of knowing how to create energy by manipulating the molecules, you can advanced to attempting to ionize the energy... creating ionization energy, which is the amount of energy required to remove an electron from the atom or molecule in the gaseous state."

"Again, our focus is in the smallest of particles, the atoms... but this time... you are attempting to remove electrons from the atoms around you with the Force to create that ionized energy." Again, she demonstrated, but tried to do it step by step so Siobhan could follow. "It will take a bit of concentration, and it took me a while to focus on it so well, so do not be discouraged."

A glance went to Siobhan, "Now you try."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"It has been? Awesome! Memo must've been buried under all the spam mails."
As of late her email was being flooded with mail, which included message from a variety of people who seemed to think Omega was supposed to solve their more or less relevant problem, scum who didn't get that she'd beat them up and advertisement for products that were of no use for her as a woman. Maybe she needed to update her anti-spam filter.

"Thanks. I ain't too worn out yet." She flashed Cira a smile at her encouraging words. The training was taking its toll on her, but she could carry on so she would.

She concentrated once more, drawing ever more upon the power of the Force and reaching out to harness the molecules. With the basic knowledge of how to sense and manipulate them established, to an extent at least, that was not the difficult part anymore.

Rather the tricky part was removing electrons and creating an ionised current, the next leap before one could zap droids. As Cira had predicted, though the previous exercises should have been a good indicator by now, the attempt was rather taxing, but Siobhan was stubborn, much like her master had been.
The throbbing in her head worsened, making her rub her forehead once before she just blotted it out, sweat dripped down her temples, once a crackle of energy surged across her flesh hand but she was too quick to draw upon it and so she experienced a mild strike into her palm.

But finally she seemed to succeed, drawing out electrons from the atoms. She breathed in from the exertion, smiling a bit as a thin stream of purple energy crackled in her fingertips, surging out.

 

[Cira]

Cira gave a small laugh, the action causing a warmth to her eyes that hadn't been there of late.

"Mmm... that's why I've all the chain letters blocked." she joked, only to nod in praise as she saw the crackle of purple energy around Siobhan's hand. "Well done!... good... just... try to sustain it. That may take a bit more concentration."

She gave a frown, then turned to the training droid. With a wave of her hand, she brought it over. "The next step... is to weaponize it." she instructed, glancing over at Siobhan, noticing the beads of sweat trailing down her temples, causing her hair to stick to her face, the intense concentration. The hard part was over, the weaponizing of it would come easier to the telekinetically apt Major.

"The process is the same as if conducting a force push.... picking a target and sending the energy outward." the training droid began it's small predetermined protocols, weaving back and forth in the air.