Private Misery Hates Company

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve cocked her eyebrow. No questions? That was a welcome surprise. She half-expected a tantrum, but Resh seemed to be taking the whole situation in stride, which was good. It meant he was open to change. It meant he was ready.

She swept out a hand and the doors to the training room swished open, revealing a large, dojo-like chamber, manned by droid instructors among several practice dummies and lightsaber training drones. "Starting right now, you learn."

A wave of her hand, and one of the training swords flew towards Resh. If he failed to catch it, the practice blade would smack into his chest.

"It's still morning, so I hope you already ate, because you will be here until the temple cafeteria begins serving lunch—" She snatched a data-pad from one of the nearby droid instructors, "—which is not for the next two hours."

Maeve began to tamper with the data-pad, activating two Marksman-H training remotes in the room. They hovered up into the air, zipping towards where Resh stood, buzzing with excitement. Or bloodlust. She wasn't much for droidspeak.

She handed the data-pad back to the instructor. "Since I have other duties to attend to right now, you will stay and practice your instincts with the Force. Deflect what you can. Good luck."

With that, Maeve turned and left, leaving Resh to what was sure to be his first two hours of complete hell as her new, unfortunate apprentice.

Resh​

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[Resh]

"Oh. Oka-" Resh yelped as he saw the training blade fly towards him, dropping to avoid the hit. Dishing out pain was something of a hurdle for him, but he seemed to be pretty good at avoiding it. He stood back up sheepishly and walked over to retrieve the weapon from the ground. With little else in the way of instruction, Maeve set him up with a training droid, telling him he'd be there for two whole hours while she went off to do something else. "What?" He muttered, but she was already leaving.

One of the training droids gleamed as it charged a shot, hitting him in the shoulder, "Ow!" He raised his sword to block the blast belatedly. The other droid shot him on the hand, making him drop the weapon, "Ow!" He fell to the ground again, scrambling to retrieve the blade and avoid more shots.

Zap. "Ow!"

Zap. "Ow!"

Zap. "Ow!"

Maeve Linahan​

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Two hours later…

Maeve made for the training rooms with hands clasped at her back. She had been spent her morning gathering details for her next mission, which involved a small crime syndicate gaining ground on Chandrila. It was going to take time to get everything together for this one, including waiting on intel reports from their spies, but she'd get to it. Eventually.

First, she had to deal with Resh.

The boy was a thorn in her side now. Another burden to carry, another risk. Although his potential in the Force showed great promise—signs of the next Kahlil, even—his experience and discipline were sorely lacking. That should've been expected for someone like him, but Maeve didn't really care. She wanted only the best, and she would get it.

Reaching the training hall, Maeve sighed and let the doors swish back open. It was time to see what Resh had been up to doing her time away.

Resh​

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[Resh]

Inside, Resh had been clearly worn down. He was sluggish and slow, but also blocking more than he had been at the beginning. The boy had fallen into a strange liminal space between putting in effort and giving up. The growth was clear, but he was still taking hits in the process; Except now when he took a hit he reacted very little. Some combination of numbness and learned helplessness. His deflections were occasionally coupled with swings, as if he were attempting to destroy the droid and cease its pestering altogether. But each time, the droids casually avoided the easily read attack.

Once Resh noticed the door open, he slowed down and stared for a few moments, taking a shot or two in the back that caused only a slight flinch, "Am I done?"

Maeve Linahan​

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve caught Resh's eye, seeing his weary stance, his sagging shoulders. He looked like he'd been dragged through the Netherworld by his ears, like he'd suffered unimaginable pain.

Which was great. That was what she wanted.

"You're done," she said with a nod. "For now. Next time though, I'm raising the stun levels." She offered a thin smile at that—at the implication that this entire time, he'd been fighting against the training droid's lowest difficulty.

With a wave of her hand, she used the Force to disable the drone, letting it drop the floor like a sack of rice. "Come on. The mess hall has been serving lunch for the last half-hour and I would prefer not to eat cold leftovers."

She turned, expecting Resh to follow, no matter how weak he felt. "I would recommend you eat as much as you can as well. You'll need to build strength in the coming weeks, because if you want to be a Jedi Knight someday, it's going to take more than just a strong mind to survive training with me."

Resh​

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