Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing

[Janick Beauchamp]

While [member="Vilka Pharro"] was, in fact, absorbing as many fears as she could, prior to projecting them onto the person in front of her, Janick didn't attempt to do more about the fears. But she was lucky that she could do that precisely at that moment: by the person being turned away by their fears, there was now enough room for the two of them to fit in the last wagon of the Daimanite Cavern, at the rear of the eight-wagon train that had two rows capable of seating two guests each. And the artificial fog, which came out right at the exit, began to induce in Janick some bad memories of flying this combat sortie on Utapau, where even victory could not offset the horrors. Poodoo: this roller coaster is very similar to how I flew on Utapau with a vomit-covered windshield that turned my flying into a fight into artificially-induced IFR conditions, albeit slower than a starfighter's attack speed, she thought, while seeing a few people in the wagons in front of her vomiting in a high-speed loop. And she was very close to vomiting herself, too, especially since there aren't any inertial compensators - it's more frightening, according to the operators, not to install them on the park's two flagship roller coasters, and also less expensive to service.

 

[Vilka Pharro]

For all the fear she'd projected onto that hapless bystander, Vilka could not have prepared for the Daimanite Cavern. Perhaps it had proved unwise to channel her deepest, most affecting fears shortly before embarking on the first of the three high-speed deathtraps of the day.

"Janick, perhaps this wasn't such a good-" With a bang, Vilka's head shot back, the whole world spinning out of her grasp as the cart shot away and into the darkness with what felt like all the speed of a starship erupting into hyperspace. Perhaps it was wise Janick had taught her metabolism all of five minutes ago- it was all that kept her innards inward as they rocketed away through all three-hundred-and-sixty degrees at breakneck speed, her face locked in permanent fear. Why in the world did she have to teach me fear first?

With a groan she staggered off the ride, gathering her robes and glancing back to the witch with tired eyes. "Was that-" Her eyes widened for a second, gagging for a moment before regaining her composure against a wall. "Was that really neccesary?" She finished with a cough and a groan.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Now that your deepest fears have been superseded by something much worse that you have actually experienced, it will be a lot easier to get Force-fear done in the future"

Historically, people who wanted to groom Force-users into being capable of using Force-users wanted to have their students face the mirror. Much like a pre-Clone-Wars-era Jedi would undertake a Trial of the Spirit: facing their deepest fears, or even making them face even scarier stuff. [member="Vilka Pharro"] would not realize anything, by the time they got out of the first of the three rides of the day. May as well relent on those. it's not going to make her any good whatsoever to have her ride: she won't be getting anything extra from the other two rides that she didn't already get from the Daimanite Cavern, she thought.

"Enough of those scary rides: I'll ride the other two alone once the psychometry lesson ends, and then you can go ride whatever rides you want, so long as you get to the exit by this planet's midnight"

 

[Vilka Pharro]

Vilka saw the truth in Janick's words. Where the Jedi so often sought to purge all that lay within the individual, in some far-fetched quest for 'balance', or 'peace', and so intentionally destroyed all that made them human, the undying wisdom of Sith knowledge understood that true power came from nurturing the spirit, fueling its vices, its passions, even its fears, as she had today, so that it might burn as brightly as possible. What match, after all, was a harmonious spirit for one consumed by infernal fury?

Alas, speaking of harmony- Janick had at last relinquished her insistence upon rides. In the wake of their Force Fear practice, this seemed like a fitting move on her part.

"What is it that separates psychometry and precognition?" She raised an eyebrow.

"And speaking of precognition, what happens if we don't get out at midnight?"

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"As you may have realized, while a Force-user can defeat another one in single combat, they could be undone by much more mundane means, such as a common thief. Before we move onto psychometry, midnight is just the park's closing hour. Psychometry is about looking at an object's past, while precognition is about looking into the future"

I never quite understood why Sith tended to shy away from piloting, except perhaps by their dark-side training lowering their resistance to G-forces. From what I could tell, Sith could become formidable opponents in a dogfight if they have proper training, assuming of course they have a decent craft, plus they would have thought of engaging Jedi in a dogfight while already engaging Jedi in other areas, she thought, before the psychometry lesson started. One Force-power that would be useful if [member="Vilka Pharro"] was more of an inquisitrix type. Janick would even be led to learn the basics of electronic manipulation by psychometric means. And yet, psychometry was still, by and large, associated with tracking and forensic policing. Now, Janick won't claim to be a criminal law expert, so she won't go into that much detail about the legal implications of psychometry. All that she did know about those, beyond it varying wildly from a legal system to another, was that it was, more often than not, considered the same as one would any other forensic evidence by the courts. And yet, how a court system treated forensic evidence was, in fact, highly variable from a legal system to another. Now that they were closer to a dead skeleton that could be readily accessible to any guest, near the waiting line of the Odionate Valley but not quite at the entrance of that waiting line, the lesson could begin in earnest.

"Psychometry is useful for policing, in that sometimes clues can be left by the Force about significant uses of the item, or significant owners, and what they did with it, and they are stored in tactile imprints; that's why you have to touch the item to access the object's Force-memories. You have to be delicate with the objects though, and sometimes using it on a dead body will open you up to the strong emotions of a person's final moments if they, in fact, exist"

 

[Vilka Pharro]

"A Force-user can be undone by anything, if they're foolish enough." Vilka stared to the distance for a moment. Looking into the past of an object did seem rather limited in utility compared to precognition, she had to admit; most people, never-mind objects, would never come even close to a brush with true greatness. Merely having the ability to affirm this truth seemed somewhat tautological, but Vilka supposed there was no harm in one more. Not after the the rest of the day, at least.

She stepped forward to the Daimanite skeleton, one unimpressed eyebrow raised, and placed a palm flat to the ridge of its skull. For some time, she felt nothing; cold bone, the wind, the chatter of voices. No, this came slowly, like water just brimming at the edge of some great dam. All the colours of another life, another place, another time, circling at the borders of her mind. Her eyes lolled back as she dared even began to perceive such a thing. First were episodes, events, and then procedures, the skills of this fallen soldier. Last came semantics, the deeper understandings of his time. Then it hit her like a rush, a storm of foreign emotions clawing at her heart- fear, despair, anguish. Too much to comprehend, and yet more than she wished to say. Then nothing.

Vilka staggered back with an empty heart, hands over her eyes as she recuperated. Finally, she gazed with sad eyes upon the body before her. "Perhaps... we've done enough for today, Janick."

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"It may be, in fact, enough for today so this session is over. Yes, the Force is limitless, but, light or dark, it really is limitless only if a person had a limitless ability to use and understand it, and often mental bottlenecks can be significant. Plus it would do you no good for today to keep learning more, not when you had your deepest fears superseded"

Now, if [member="Vilka Pharro"] didn't see much use to psychometry, then Janick would likely be made to feel that Vilka preferred to function in another capacity that didn't involve forensics. Plus the Force, while useful for mental data transfers and telepathy, couldn't do much for one's ability to absorb memories, since Short/Long-term Memory Enhancement instead enhanced the retrieval of memories. It was precisely absorption that was the girl's main mental bottleneck at this stage. I'm paying this trip on my own; there was no real need for reimbursement so I'm not collecting receipts as would be the case should reimbursements become an issue, she thought, while realizing that the Navy had strict rules about reimbursing expenses of personnel on shore leave. And if Vilka didn't want to ride more rides, then she could go ride the Odionate Valley and the Kinetic Corruptor before she would be to ride any other ride, and ride as many as she can before this planet's midnight comes. So, while it was still day, well, as much as it could be daytime among this desolate landscape with fog being common....

"I won't retain you here any longer than absolutely necessary. Do you still wish to leave the park? If not, is there a specific ride you wish to ride?"

 

[Vilka Pharro]

"Perhaps ascribing such limits to people is why you see them, Janick, where I do not. The Force is convoluted; sometimes a barrier, a limit, is just a temporary delay. All will become clear in time, alas."

She smiled coldly, struggling to take her eyes from the skeletons. "But that is another matter- I think we can both say with some certainty that if nothing else, today has been productive." She'd need a few days to sleep this one off. More still to forget some of it. "I suspect we've both learned a lot. I must commend your talents, and I'd hate to end the day of on a... less pleasant note." She glanced nervously at the bag in her hand, and back to the Kinetic Corruptor. Her eyebrows furrowed. "Perhaps another time, hm?" Her smile was still distant. The opening and closing of the mind, of the spirit, so many times- it was was a melancholy and wearying thing indeed.

"No doubt our paths will cross again, in this form or the next. Do take care of yourself, Beauchamp. Try to keep your mind as open as it is full." With empty eyes, Vilka turned away and walked for the horizon. A return visit to Chelloa could wait quite some time.

If nothing else, she had left with an experience.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"It's time to say goodbye"

True, Vilka and I actually did learn a lot, just that, as learning, it's just not the same depending on which side of the teacher-student relationship one is at. I, for example, learned about how to supersede one's deepest fears; for this reason, I'm not pushing the money back on Vilka's ticket, since she clearly got the guaranteed thrills, she thought, before standing in line for the Odionate Valley, which was a ride that was considered by management to be one of the park's three flagship roller coasters. Now, the question was: how much is the warranty expense, knowing that the park's warranty liability is typically settled on a very short order, when promising guaranteed thrills or money back in an amusement park, even by current liability standards? It's just not the same as an allowance for sales returns, since you can't return an amusement park ticket the way you could return a book to a bookstore. Regardless of how to account for the guaranteed thrills or money back warranty, hoping that the park would, in fact, actually deliver on the thrills in the Odionate Valley or the Kinetic Corruptor. Just that there was more to the Kinetic Massacre than the three roller coasters: there was a haunted mansion, a merry-go-round, a ferris wheel as well as other typical fixtures of horror-themed amusement parks, so she rode as many of the auxiliaries as she did after riding the roller coaster.