Overdue Learning

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Athough she never had much of a chance to interact with [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] beyond perhaps a few formalities, she must have realized that maybe there could be a Force-power or two she could teach him, or the same in reverse. Now, even though it was all too tempting to her to just either have Josh use Drain Knowledge to learn whatever he wanted out of her, or use Memory Rub to infuse the knowledge into his mind, she lacked the darkness necessary to engage in those activities. Not that she didn't have an idea, she had one: it was akin to slicing someody's mind for the purpose of stealing mental memory files or to install, edit or removing files from somebody's mind respectively. But she had a training sphere at the ready as well as other materials ready to requisition depending on the lessons desired, while she awaited him in one of the training chambers. Yes, she knew about him as a trainer, relentlessly jumping from a padawan to another, but she knew well enough that there was still room to grow even in Masters. Now, how would somebody go around using it depended on their needs.

"Welcome, Josh. I'm Jessica; I'm sure you heard about me on a few occasions. Now, what do you want to learn from me?"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

The invitation to come learn had been sketchy, and he was skeptical at best. He didn't know this Med-Beq, but she had offered to teach him a few things that he did not know, to better help him as a Jedi and to better help him train his own students. He did not know her, he had not heard of her, he only heard her offer. But he would welcome the help, even if it was done so with suspicion. Her intent had never been truly indicated... So all he could do was ensure to remain on his guard. Even if she was a Jedi Master that was a part of the Silver Jedi, he was always on guard.

As he would find himself in the meeting place, he would respectfully bow his head toward her.

"I believe we discussed the ideas in the holomessages, Master Med-Beq" He would respond to her question. "Something about barriers, yes?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Force-barrier and tutaminis, actually. They are related to each other so this is why I'm teaching both in the same session"

Yes, [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] probably had good reason to be cautious around her: while Jedi were to use the Force for knowledge and defense, it was entirely possible, for what he knew, that Jessica could teach him poodoo. Even then she had the remote activated but not yet firing anything: she still had to explain why she wanted to teach both abilities in the same session. For sure, Josh isn't someone for whom sustain would be a pressing issue, so with him training the burst is the way to go, she thought, while recalling what she knew about Force-barrier. It was, in essence, a Force-powered deflector shield, with more advanced users being capable of choosing to use the ray shield portion or the particle shield portion, and more advanced users still being able to use it like a molecular shield. And also that students for whom sustain could be an issue are usually padawans because their Force-batteries' capacity are rather low. It was entirely possible that he could already know battle precognition, in which case it will make the lesson that much easier.

"There are usually two markers of skill when it came to Force-barrier and tutaminis: the burst, which is how much of a blow your Force-barrier can absorb at a point in time and the sustain, which is how long you can keep the barrier up. The only real difference between Force-barrier and tutaminis was that tutaminis involved deflecting energy, rather than simply absorbing it. With that said, first thing with Force-barrier is to visualize the shield being formed where you expect the blow to hit. So I suppose ray shields and particle shields are nothing new to you?"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh still couldn't get a read on this woman, nor her motivations. He knew not of her, besides that she was a Jedi Master, and had no clue why she wanted to teach him all of a sudden. But perhaps he was just stuck in his old habits. He had been untrusting for a very long time. He would nod his head and listen as Jessica would explain the process behind Force-barrier and tutaminis, two very similar Force Powers but also quite different as well. He listened as she would talk about the different methods such as "burst" and "sustain", and the two would start first with Force Barrier. Jessica would first ask about if he knew about ray shields and particle shields.

"I know of them, and seen them used, but I've never used them myself" Josh would respond calmly in turn. They weren't things he usually used, no. He wore armor under his robes to protect himself, and the rest was based on his own reflexes and his own physical agility. So a lot of this was about visualization? This... Might take a bit longer than planned.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Now, determining where the blow will hit is a question of reflexes, precognition"

Yes, it was true that [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] was perhaps a little... slow to trust her, and she had to forewarn him before activating the remote. Yes, the remote was set at the lowest power setting. Just that visualizing the ray shield (or particle shield) was perhaps a little harder to do the first time than it would be later. Using the Force as an energy racquet would probably be more appropriate for teaching tutaminis, she thought, however tempting the analogy of the Force-racquet was to use. Doing so, however, would have meant putting the cart before the horse. Then again, maybe Josh would prefer to have a demonstration of the power before trying the power for himself? But she wasn't surprised if Josh didn't know a whole lot about her - his padawans were radically different from hers and he served a different role among the Order. Usually people came to her if they expected to take on a more Force-intensive approach, or a more cognition-intensive one, while Josh's usual padawans were probably more comabt-oriented than hers were. And yet, here they are today.

"With that said, make yourself ready. No lightsabers, the remote will simply shoot beams of light that don't have much power, not enough to stun, much like someone would train in lightsaber combat with it. Now try to absorb the light beam using the Force as a ray shield, but you have to visualize said ray shield at the impact point. Or perhaps you would prefer a demonstration first?"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

It wasn't really her fault that he wasn't trusting of her. She was a complete stranger to him, Jedi Master or not and there hadn't been a whole lot of context to the situation. Hell, hardly even a hello, she'd just gotten straight to business. So it made sense that he was a little bit skeptical. Especially considering the last time he dealt with strange Jedi that only seemed interested in business, he'd been stabbed in the back and it took over a year to recover from the fallout of that.

Regardless, he nodded his head and would listen to her instructions carefully. She would offer two options, either jump right in and try to follow her instructions, or see her doing a demonstration first and go from there. He chose the latter.

"I'm a fairly example and then instruction based learner" He would admit then. "A demonstration would be appreciated, if it's not any bother to you."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Sure"

If only I could actually infuse knowledge into the students... with their permission of course! she thought, while realizing that those few dark-siders who used Memory Rub for teaching by infusion reported that their students' pain levels became much higher after an infusion, so she'd rather not do so. In addition, she had to respect the students' wishes to actually get them to learn anything. Much like how [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] preferred to have a demonstration held before the actual attempt. With that said, she activated the droid remote, visualized the rather diminutive ray shield forming in front of her as the training remote opened fire under the form of a light bolt. And said light bolt didn't impact anywhere on her body, but rather a spot about 10 cm away from her right hand or so, much as she would expect from a ray shield extending that distance away from her. Satisfied with her demonstration of Force-barrier, she now turned her attention to Josh, now that she was to signal the readiness to move to the stage where he will actually attempt the lesson.

"Now that you had a demonstration, it's your turn to attempt it"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

(Mobile)

Everyone learned differently, that was just how it was. That was how it worked for his own students and even a Master had a preferred way to learn things. He took her visualization suggestion to heart and took a mental note to keep that in mind for future lessons in regards to powers of that kind.

Evidently, this particular instruction proved useful later when Josh was to learn weather manipulation and the instructor in that instance was using fairly vague wording and no examples. “Make a whirlwind” didn’t tell him much. Either way, Josh would watch the demonstration carefully, and he watched the positioning carefully while keeping a mental image of what her shield looked like. That just might be what he needed.

“Set it to fire at me, then” He spoke as he would motion toward the training remote. “Any sort of fire you like, whichever part of the body, take your pick. If I set it myself, I might know where it’s going to fire before the battle begins.”

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Here we go now"

The same would go with tutaminis: demonstration first and then he would be allowed a few attempts, she thought, while [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] made a few requests for the first attempts at performing Force-barrier. The power level would remain the same since she knew he was a beginner, and, at a press of a button, the remote randomized where the beams would fire on Josh's body even though it would still fire beams of light at him. Once he'd successfully do it on beams of light, then Jessica could move on to stun level but for the time being, the beam was on the light beam mode. As for the firing rate, it was more akin to deliberate firing rates than to rapid fire. She thus recalled upon how she would go around training this power: increase the power, then the firing rate, in that order. At later stages he can probably go around training with blaster bolts set to kill mode, but progression was key in that sort of items. So there were in fact three or four stages in the training of the power that ought to be respected in a complete regimen, but usually for moving on to tutaminis, the first two sufficed.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

A small smile crossed his lips at the thought of a new challenge. He was a combatant, a warrior at heart. Someone might joke that was the Echani in him, but... It was part of the culture, not their genetics... He was pretty sure anyway. He was still trying to learn all that he could on them from Jyoti. The beams of light would fire as Josh would get into stance. The first beam of light would hit him.

"Visualize, visualize..." He muttered to himself as he would do his best to visualize what he'd seen from her before.

A barrier would pop up at the last moment as the next beam would fire, blocking it from hitting him. Though the third would hit him as he let his guard down too quickly. The forth though, would also be blocked. And the fifth, and the sixth, the seventh, the eighth and so on before the 16th would hit him as he was having trouble with doing so sustained. Even for a Master, a new ability like this was going to take time to learn.

After a bit more time, Josh took a deep breath as the light beams would stop firing. Sure, they'd been harmless but the energy needed to put the barrier up when one wasn't used to it did take a bit out of him.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Maybe once your energy has recharged somewhat, you could try again. In the meantime you were undertaking a multiple-fold exercise: it allowed you to drill in battle precognition all the same as you would Force-barrier - so perhaps that could explain the sheer amount of Force-energy expended"

So the remote accelerated the firing rate, too? she thought, while there was a clear increase in the firing rate after the first three shots being fired, and, by the time the 16th shot was fired, it was becoming more like rapid-fire. And yet, even for a Jedi Master like [member="Josh DragonsFlame"], there was a learning curve. A recharge time. Make no mistake: battle precognition would force someone to spend more Force-energy to perform actions than one would without it. Even for someone that could possibly have been using battle precognition without actually knowing it was called as such in the first place, maybe that realization would make him realize that he was, in fact, killing two birds with one stone in that drill. And battle precognition is a power that lightsaber jockeys would find useful in battle. But perhaps it would do her student no good to just keep drilling in the power without allowing the knowledge gained from the first drill to sink in first, and that she had no right to assume a given speed for the student's learning ability. For what she knew it might be different from all the other students she had before.

"You have realized that battle precognition is a power that allows to predict an opponent's moves a few seconds into the future, and you were using more Force-energy as a result of doing both that and Force-barrier"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Battle Precognition? He was curious then as she would detail it, and what he had been doing while training with barriers. It was an interesting thing, training a power like that without even knowing it. She was certainly innovative, and resourceful as a teacher. He was taking notes, for sure. It wasn't a rushed method of learning, and it was still good to multitask with if you found the right power to work it with... He'd need to remember this for the future, for sure. While he always took his time with training, perhaps this method would be more effective if he could piece it together...

"Interesting" He spoke as he took a deep breath and nodded his head. "I should be good to go. Shall we start again?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"For this drill, what will change is not the firing rate but the power level, and we will move on to tutaminis afterward"

As Jessica put the remote to, once again, randomize the areas the training blaster bolts are firing at, this time around, it would still be tantamount to a rapid fire, but the bolts would increase in power until it reached stun levels. She may be left wondering whether [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] would, in fact, desire a power that would allow his students to learn faster and better than somebody would with another person devoid of that power. That is, if I actually possessed one such power in the first place. I'm not sure if he possesses enough telepathic throughput to make it work, but I can certainly compare it to a more light-sided knowledge infusion. I'm aware it works differently from Memory Rub, but I would need to sit down and try to run a comparative analysis as to how effective Memory Rub and the suspect power are at helping students learn at some point, she thought, and also realizing that she would be more vulnerable to Drain Knowledge if such a power existed and was active, in the sense that a Drain Knowledge user will likely get more out of her per unit of Force-energy consumed than with someone else. She knew Josh was a rather high-profile Jedi trainer, so that might be something to think about.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"That's fine with me."

He had the practice now. He had a good idea of how to use the technique and how to handle bolts being fired at him. The increasing power added on a little bit of extra challenge - and a bit of extra pressure as well. Of course, if she tried to pull some magic bull to make him "learn faster" through the dark side, he'd probably walk out. Part of being a Master was knowing that you could still learn, and to disrespect the climb to learning disrespects the whole idea of learning and neglects the whole lesson itself. He would know a power, but would he know how to use it and know everything he should know about it? Those sorts of powers always had their own little side effects...

The bolts would be randomized then, though this time they began to increase in power. Josh knew they could stun, he could feel their pressure as they came at him. Taking a deep breath, he would wait for the last moment before the barrier would pick up again, and the bolt would disappear. He repeated this again and again, as each blast, regardless of how powerful, would be parried.

Josh knew it was time to try something new. Taking a deep breath, he put more power, more energy, more focus into the barrier as it would begin to form in full, becoming a proper shield... Though as more and more bolts began to rock it, he could feel his concentration beginning to slip. The question was, how did he sustain it?

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Now that's some progress in both Force-barrier and battle precognition. Time to take a break: it was well-earned"

I do realize there isn't much data available either way as to how fast people learned when using Memory Rub, and even less with the suspect power, so it may not hold any scientific value. But said suspect power required opening up one's mental knowledge base to the extent its contents were relevant to a given lesson, she thought, realizing that, just because one is opening its mental knowledge base to people around you, doesn't mean the climb is actually negated. [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] probably had the wrong idea: it wasn't so much an infusion of knowledge the way dark-siders sometimes do it as it was allowing ready access to one's mental knowledge base, with the implication that using what she called the suspect power did, in fact, render her more vulnerable to Drain Knowledge and also, in turn, allow people to infuse poodoo-loads of knowledge into her while the power is active. And possibly cause her big headaches if the speed at which the knowledge is infused/extracted exceeds her brain's ability to process it, but it would most likely require several practitioners at once, in which case it's more about pulling her mind in different directions.

"Maybe a demonstration of tutaminis will be done once you have recovered somewhat"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Honestly, he could have kept going. He was actually planning to keep going too, and had intended to request another round, but Jessica was the one in charge of the lesson. If she felt it took enough out of you to merit the break, he wouldn't complain.

"That's fine with me."

He had the practice now. He had a good idea of how to use the technique and how to handle bolts being fired at him. The increasing power added on a little bit of extra challenge - and a bit of extra pressure as well. So he had made some decent progress, and he might as well take a break to process what he had learned before jumping back onto the train again.


"I suppose that could do. I've heard of tutaminis slightly, but don't know a whole lot about it" He would admit as he would take a breath and sit down, grabbing his canteen from his belt that he'd prepared with fresh, cold water and took a long swig. So he decided to ask a question or two during this break.

"So. First up, Josh DragonsFlame, nice to meet you. Second, was there a reason for all this? You just kinda contacted me and brought this up without too much pre-emptation. No offense, but I don't even think we've met before" He would admit with a light smile. "Or I could have been drunk but I don't usually drink at the temple. Did we... Have a night or something that I don't remember?" He jokingly asked with a squint of an eye.


[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Nice to meet you, I am Jessica Med-Beq. What I knew about you back then, and I must admit it's at least partially hearsay, is that you engaged in dueling in a regular basis, and Force-barrier, as well as tutaminis, would be useful for someone that duels more often than I do"

The only time I could have possibly met him before would be at an Assembly session, but the Assembly is almost never in session. Probably because the Assembly only convened for major faction-wide issues; the Assembly just wasn't like a Senate. However, while it's entirely possible Memory Rub is more effective one-on-one than the suspect power, the suspect power seems to have an advantage in group settings, she thought, while the questions asked by [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] might have disturbed her somewhat. She was ready to get the demonstration of tutaminis underway; for this purpose she would have the power setting of the stuff fired from the remote lowered back to a simple light beam level, but with the randomization of the firing targets still active. For now she would focus on getting the resulting Force-barrier actually reflect the beams of light, also getting some practice in battle precognition at the same time. And there she goes again; she was able to not simply absorb the light bolts fired at rapid-fire rates, but to also reflect them elsewhere in the room, some of those bolts hit the remote in the process.

"The main difference between Force-barrier and tutaminis is that, with tutaminis, one reflects the energy rather than simply absorbing it. That is the main reason why I want to teach those two items in the same session"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"I don't know about dueling, but I'm more or less the head lightsaber instructor for the Silvers at this point so I'm engaged in lightsaber combat fairly regularly" Josh would respond with a simple shrug in turn. "I do appreciate the help, either way. I apologize for the suspicion, though if you know my history, it's pretty black and white" He would admit, smirking lightly. Though she didn't seem to take kindly to the jokes about drink and sex. He made a mental note on that, that she was all business and not to bother making those jokes with her. It was what it was, some people were just... Like that (sticks in the mud, I mean). She seemed entirely focused on the business at hand, if that was her aim, then at least he could appreciate the help and go along with it.

"Hmm, that makes sense" He remarked when she would explain the difference between the two. "Akin to the difference between using a lightsaber and a blunt weapon. One absorbs and blocks the energy bolt entirely, while a lightsaber can parry it back. Which you use depends on the purpose. You'd want to use Force Barrier is better for rooms where you don't want the blaster fire possibly hitting innocents, while tutaminis is more useful against foes where there is no risk of collateral damage, and thus the more effective combat method overall, just not the most safe. Teaching them hand in hand was a smart move."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"There is a host of other combinations that should be taught hand-in-hand: pyrokinesis/cryokinesis and Force-healing/Detoxify Poison being two combinations I actually taught as such, before Force-barrier and tutaminis"

True, Jessica didn't know much about [member="Josh DragonsFlame"] as a person, but that's just because her Jedi duties took her elsewhere, and she assumed other roles. Plus it's possible he hasn't realized that Jessica wasn't a lightsaber jockey, much less a grounder that led an army from the vanguard. But she smiled when she realized Josh had the right idea as to when to use Force-barrier and when to use tutaminis. She then selected Josh as another target but kept the other setting unchanged for him to perform this drill under. One extra component of this suspect power I might be curious about is the range. If it was more effective in group settings than Memory Rub would ever be, then how many people would benefit from that suspect power being kept up at any given time? But I never seemed to be overly concerned about the Force-energy drain of that suspect power if I actually had it in the first place, she thought, before activating the remote for Josh to train tutaminis with. She wouldn't be worried about the power drain even if he was, in fact, using battle precognition simultaneously with tutaminis: she estimated it would become a problem only by the time the next drill was over.

"Now that you have an idea of when to use Force-barrier over tutaminis, and vice-versa, the tutaminis drill is similar to the first Force-barrier one: randomized beams of light will be fired at you"

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"Pyrokinesis and cyrokinesis, huh? I know pyrokinesis, it's actually my signature ability. But I've never gone and learned cyrokinesis" He would admit in turn. It looked like the break was over though, and it was time to get back to business. He listened as she would give instructions on Tutaminis. He nodded his head then, and allowed her to set up the bolts again. So what he needed to do was use the same tricks, imagining them, visualizing... And try to reflect instead of absorbing, right? It sounded hard... But he could try.

He failed the first few times, as the bolts would strike at his knees and almost ground him down as the stun bolts hit hard, but he endured and before long, the bolts would be fired back toward the machine, likely stunning the machine itself for a short time before it fired again. After some time spent with this, Josh was seeming to get the hang of it, which was funny considering his only instruction was... Well, she'd given him basically none, just that they were similar. He'd guessed the rest on his own.

He took a deep breath as he would try to keep tabs on his stamina. Using it like this without too much experience would drain him quickly, he knew.