Let me try this again [Staff-edition]

[Jairus Starvald]

Unknown Regions​

Fringe Space​

The Lab​

The lab has become my home, my own personal fortress of solitude. I spent most of my days experimenting on different subjects of Sith Alchemy, Valik teaches me a lot. A harsh teacher, but just in his own strange way. Outside of the lessons I have free reign over the lab, I can do whatever I want. They probably think I can’t do any damage with the lack of experience.

Probably right about that. The other day I was able to give a rat wings, so proud of myself and went straight to Rave with it. Well, figurally, I set up a holovid and showed off my creation. She only gave me a wary smile, probably gave a thousand wings to rats in her time.

Still, she gave me a thumbs-up and told me to continue the good work. Good work! I am trying something else now though. Merrill taught me the basics of metallurgy, the very basics mind. I am thinking about making a new sabre staff resistant to lightsabres.

That must come in handy, right?

I mean, it probably won’t be durable for more than four or five hits, but that would give her enough time to come up with a viable alternative.

Maybe I am just kidding myself, and trying to figure out how I can be of use to my creator. Maybe I just want her to be proud of me, I don’t know. But I know I need this, if I am able to create this?

It’s going to be proof that I can learn, that I am worth all of this.

So I started gathering the material which I would need for this operation. This was going to be fun..

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Truth to be told there were many roads to the same goal, when considering creating the item I was planning to. It was the first thing that was pressed into my understanding, there was no -one- way of doing things. Not a correct way, not a single way.

Instead there were multiple paths and roads which ultimately came to the same goal, only the process was different. Some applications were more suitable for one thing, and others.. well you catch my drift.

The lab was outfitted with the basics of alchemy, most notably a simple forge and a variety of other apparati which wouldn’t be used today. This was going to be my first major project, and I wanted it to be special.

I didn’t have any illusions about the kind of gear Rave had access to, a woman with her power and position? There ain’t anything in the world that she can’t get her hands on.

So I kept it simple, hoping she would be happy with it nonetheless. I wanted to make her a cane. Someone had left me a book in my chamber, and it had talked about appearing weak when strong and vice versa.

Seemed a prudent lesson, though I am not sure how I can pretend to be strong.

Anyway, if Rave used the cane, people might think she isn’t in a position to defend herself. Then when they start swinging with a lightsabre, she can use the cane to deflect them!

At least that was the plan.

I didn’t have any trees here, stations would do that to you and I didn’t want to ask Valik for ingredients. He would probably admonish me for relying upon him too much, when I could be more resourceful.

My eyes spotted a nearby table which wasn’t in use, Valik’s corpse had been on it and for some reason it still gave me the chills. So I did the only thing that seemed rational, I broke apart the table and took one of the legs.

I would alchemize it to withstand a couple of hits with a sabre, and after maybe.. decorate it a bit?

Rave might like that.. hmm.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

The very first thing you need to do before starting the alchemy process, is polish the wood. This can be done through the Force, or by using your own hands to even out the impurities of the surface. Strictly speaking using the Force for the entire job was better, the results were smoother and more richer in color.

But I wasn’t Rave or Valik, I didn’t have the energy to do everything with Space Magic. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, so I took a bunch of sandpaper and started polishing the surface with my hands. There was something soothing about the whole process.

Going back and forth, back and forth, back and-- well you get the point. The longer you were at it, the more you started to concentrate on it. Troubles and doubts moved to the background, and you were at peace; at least for a couple of moments.

There were a lot of splinters and irregularities in the wood, probably because of the way I acquired the pole. I am guessing kicking the table, until something comes out of it isn’t the best option. I will have to come up with a more efficient method, maybe even buy a screwdriver.

I hear Santhe Corporation produces a pretty sweet product, and Force knows Ovmar can use the money. What with all that cash he is spending back and forth to keep his lavish lifestyle. But I am not here to giggle about that man, I am here to make something cool.

Eventually, after maybe ten or twenty minutes, the surface was as smooth as it would get with just the bare hands. I sighed, time to bring out the bigger guns.

My mind reached out towards the source of Power that fueled creation itself. The energy which held all links and molecules together. The Living Force. It filled my mind, and suddenly I could see things more clearly.

Discrepancies in the wood, which I hadn’t been able to spot before, were as clear as.. well I don’t have a good analogy. But it was obvious now, again I took hold of the sandpaper and started polishing.

Eventually I’d have to start imposing my will on the wood with the Force, but for now I could satisfy myself with using manual labour.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

I don’t know how long I kept on polishing the pole, when I finally seized the motions my hands were aching and my arms were burning. But my mind was finally at peace, or at least as close as it could get at this point. There was some manner of pride, as I looked at the polished wood with the eye of the Force, there were no discrepancies left.

At least, none which could be fixed with the Force, of this I was certain. The thought that my eye wasn’t as good as it could be never became a thought in my mind, but it was a sour truth. I still had a long way to go, before I’d be able to see all the details that were there.

My hand brushed the wood, and no splinters were there to break my skin. That would have to be enough for now, I really gotta consider buying a polishing machine though. That thing would have solved this problem easily.

Maybe I’d check out Santhe Corporation for that too.. a thought worth remembering, and I couldn’t help but grin a little.

Eventually I placed the pole on the table, next to something else. A little patch of Phrik. There were multiple ways of making something resistant towards lightsabres, but the easiest way was to mimic the molecular structure of something that was already resistant to the blades of light.

Enter Phrik, one of the few resistant materials in the Galaxy. A pretty expensive material because of it, but when you were under the employment of Merrill.. well things became easier to procure.

She had her own company dedicated towards the retrieval of Phrik on the planet of Val’Halla. ‘Course, I wouldn’t be able to request a full suit of Phrikian Armor, but a small patch for reference usage?

Ain’t much of a problem.

I closed my eyes, and started to draw upon the mighty river of creation. That which flowed through all of us, and binded every living and non-living thing together.

As I concentrated on that river, I could almost see it. The currents swirling around, I knew then how dangerous this source of power was. One dip made you want more and more, until you would finally couldn’t get enough and drown in it.

A chilling prospect if you ask me.

Finally I got to work.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

The first thing I did was sit down, and firmly press my back against the wall. The last thing I wanted to do was get so lost inside the molecule structure of the wood, that I forgot all about my body. Such things tended to happen, so to minimize the ‘fall and break your neck’-problem, I seated myself.

Of course I was still at the risk of a bruise on my head, if I crashed it against the wall in a possible fall. But let’s not think about that too much, alright? Gotta keep optimistic in situations such as this.

Because, when I say, get to work. I actually mean get to work. I am sure Rave could just wave her hand over a ball and turn it from a glossy surface to matte surface. But I ain’t Rave, my talents aren’t that widely developed and truth to be told I doubt I would ever get on her level of expertise.

Didn’t stop me from trying though, you only get better with practice and a lot of tenacity. So I grabbed all my frustration and anger, and wove it together into a tiny thread.

A tiny thread I used to probe into the wooden pole, trying to disconcern it’s molecular foundation.

This ain’t easy. Like I said, I ain’t Rave, I can’t just wave my hand and change the entire surface of the stuff. I gotta delve deep into it, and take one small step at a time. Because otherwise I’d probably just go crazy, with all the information that was currently being thrown at me.

Yeah, I ain’t kidding here. You gotta understand, all the molecular information of the wood was here, throwing itself at me. It was hard to disconcern the important stuff, from the meaningless drivel.

I released a mental sigh, this was going to be a long day.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

My eye focused itself onto the image of the Phrik patch and to be quite frank.. it was breath taking. There was a simple beauty in the pattern, something so.. natural and symmetrical to it and that made me almost weep in joy. Yeah, you are probably looking funny at that statement, but it was -that- beautiful.

I can’t.. explain it properly, I lack the proper descriptionary words. You have to see it for yourself, and then you will understand. But this reminded me of why I loved this area of expertise.

Let ‘em have the power of the mind, being able to waltz around a battlefield like a tank, or fly around breaking thrones. I will be content studying and learning more about what it means to exist in the Galaxy.

One look at the molecular structure of phrik and I was sold. It was as simple as that.

To this day, that picture has been burned into my mental retina. Whenever I want to, I can conjure it up and even now it makes me weep tears of joy. Maybe I am just a softy, but it does something to me.

So yeah, eventually I finished studying the path of Phrik and my mind retreated from the world of molecules. I didn’t immediately go into the wood, and start waving my hands around to turn into something more resistant.

I needed a moment to collect my thoughts, and accept what I had just seen. File it away into a little corner of my mind, soon I’d have a whole library in there. But that one picture would have a wall dedicated to itself.

Again I sighed, but this time it was not a sigh of frustration. But one of acceptance and general pleasure. I still was just a novice, and it would take a lot of work to become better. But now I see what I am working for, and that made me content.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

It took me a while to recollect myself, before I went back into the void of the wood I did some stretches. Like I said many times already, I ain’t Rave. This sort of thing takes time, looking at the clock I have already been spending the better part of an hour trying to capture a firm image of the phrik in my mind.

And truth to be told, it still wasn’t complete. I had the basis, how it looked roughly. But if I wanted to make this any good, it would need to be far better. The reason why I first made a strict outline of the phrik in my mind was simple.

I needed a frame of reference, because when I am actually going to fuel the wood with the Force.. I wouldn’t have the focus and concentration to go back and forth, double checking everything. I’d probably go mad and frustrated, and then end up throwing the cane to be out of the vent.

That was the last thing I wanted to happen.

So with that in mind, I captured the concept of the molecules. How they looked like, how they were roughly behaving and in what position they stood amongst themselves. This would make it easier to start modifying the existing molecules inside the wooden object, and reduces the time spent checking the phrik for any mistakes I might make otherwise.

Anyway, back to the stretches.

I ain’t a machine, spending an hour looking at the molecule base of something.. it ain’t easy. So I needed a short break. Other folks might go recline on a couch and watch some television, but that ain’t me.

There was always work to do, and I wanted to get some exercise while my mind was processing everything it had seen. Because don’t get me wrong, I was still working on this in my head. Going through the conceptual schematics, trying to make sense of it all.

You don’t just go and memorize a whole fekking molecule foundation out of the top of your head. It doesn’t work that way. Which was a pity, I thought, while running laps around the laboratory.

From outside appearances it seemed I was just running and doing nothing else. But looks ain’t everything, I was doing three things at once.

One, churning out what I had just seen.

Two, make sure I don’t trip while running.

Three, keep an eye out for [member="Valik"] and his hijinks, the man loved teaching me a lesson in humility and caution. If he noticed I was running around the place, trying to exercise. He would probably try and turn it into a lesson of ‘Don’t trust your surroundings.’

Maybe he would set loose an army of zombies, just to see how I’d react in such a situation.

Yeah, I was warming up to the guy already.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Took me a while to process everything I had seen, I thought I had it figured out though. Which came as a surprise, because it had been hard to focus completely on the task at hand while running laps and trying to keep an eye out just in case Valik tried to pull something with me again. Even while walking back to the lab I didn’t stop paying very good attention at the environment, my mentor had made sure to impress such vigilance upon me at the first meeting we had. Didn’t want to disappoint him anymore than I had already, looking back at that first time… well it shamed me to say the least.

Then again, was no use in keep reminding myself of the failure. Gotta move on and just improve, at least that was what Valik would probably say to me. Which was good enough for me, as I reached the laboratory I took the time to set out my senses out into it. Looking for anything… off, didn’t seem to be anything though, which was surprising. Usually he took every chance he had to impart some kind of wisdom on me, perhaps he was busy with some kind of experiment and just didn’t have the time. Almost shrugged at that thought, we all had our little side projects.

Which brought a small grin on my face, as I finally entered the room and walked over to the counter with the little phrik tablet and the table leg still at the same spot I had left them in. My hand brushed the leg carefully, I had already made sure there wouldn’t be any splinters or some other poodoo on it. This was just a reminder to myself, it was a beginning to something new. Rave was one of the few people who could truly set me free from… the paste that didn’t belong to me. I would prove her that I was worthy of it, starting with this.

My hand waved and a table rolled over stopping right behind me. I took a seat and closed my eyes, firmly placing the image of the Phrik matrix in my head. I took the leg in my hands, and started to pour energy into it. Coaxing the material of the wood to change its metaphorical shape and properties into something that resembled the phrik more closely. Focus went entirely into the wood, I could practically see the various molecules resisting my attempts with all the energy they had, before relenting at my will.

Somewhere outside of this microvision sweat started to trickle from me, a nosebleed commenced at the same time. I didn’t notice this though, fully immersed into the structure of the wood. So much energy went into this, breathing became labored as I continued to work for what seemed to be just mere seconds, but were more akin to hours in the real world.

Eventually my eyes opened again, the leg rolled out of my hands as I was starting to fall unconscious because of the exertion of power. I had only finished maybe… a fraction of the work I had in mind, but I didn’t have the energy left to continue on which attracted a small snarl from my lips. One day… I would be powerful enough. One da--

Then my body hit the ground with a thunk and night set in for me.