Ready, Set, Dodge (Closed)

[Audren Sykes]

[member="Sarianna Misarr"]

Personally, Audren wondered if the colors had any significance. Would someone hostile to Sarianna be a different color than he was, or would his color change with his emotions? Trickery was one tactic when it came to a fight, and being able to trick a teacher was the first step towards being able to trick an opponent. That said, he didn't know how to trick a teacher yet. She had revealed a shortcoming in her power though: it couldn't fully replace normal sight. She hadn't been able to see the painted boxes on the ground.

More important a point, however, was that he was now expected to use the Force. This was not something he'd willfully done at any point in his life. Frell, he'd just learned he might have the capability to do so a couple days ago based on a medical test of all things. Why he and his parents had even believed the stranger enough to perform the test, he'd never know. But he had, they did, and now here he was.

"Question. How does one access the Force?"

Saecha, who was taking his place at one of the boxes, looked over at Audren questioningly. It was almost like the blue alien couldn't tell if the Sephi was asking a legitimate question or making a bad joke. He wasn't, but he could understand the sentiment. After all, this was one of the Jedi Academies, and he was a mite bit older than the children in a corner making objects hover.

 

[Sarianna]

[member="Audren Sykes"]

Sarianna barely looked at him funny for a heartbeat but it showed. Then she was ready and moving while speaking. "Apoligies, the first and best way to call upon the force is through meditation. Some sit in a room for hours, other can find a harmony within themselves by dueling or practicing alone. For you we'll start with the most basic, your breathing." Sarianna stood there and instead of touching the padawan placed a hand on her stomach. "Every inhale of air bring the force into your body, each exhale pushes it out. When you breathe in feel it fill your lungs and push the energy out not through your mouth but your pimbs. Along the sinew of your muscles down to the marrow of your bones allow the energy to travel as you exhale. THere is no wrong way just your way on how you find that connection."

 

[Audren Sykes]

[member="Sarianna Misarr"]

Sarianna looked at him in similar manner to Saecha, but her look was much shorter. Presumably, she had some form of experience in dealing with students who didn't understand how to use what the rest of them thought of as basic. Her initial explanation didn't sound so fun: sitting in a room for hours, finding harmony within one's self. Even using dueling or practice to find harmony didn't sound right, as much as he enjoyed dueling. He wasn't here for fun though, he was here to learn how to be a Jedi. If it took a special kind of breathing to do so, he'd do it.

"Every inhale of air bring the force into your body, each exhale pushes it out. When you breathe in feel it fill your lungs and push the energy out not through your mouth but your limbs. Along the sinew of your muscles down to the marrow of your bones allow the energy to travel as you exhale. There is no wrong way just your way on how you find that connection."

Did that mean when he exhaled he lost power? When he had the breath knocked out of him, did he lose his connection to the Force? If he was in a space suit, was he breathing in recycled Force power? Something to mull on later, now it was time to try. He took a breath, concentrating on the air. As he released it, he pictured rivulets of glowing energy running throughout his body. In his mind, the energy reached its dimmest when he started bringing another breath in. Again it brightened as he released it. The only problem was that nothing had changed. There was no sudden boost, no extra energy. Maybe he'd always had it and never used it. If that were the case, maybe he could channel it. Instead of picturing the energy flowing equally to all limbs, he shifted the majority of it to his legs. Logically, the energy started accumulating, growing faster than it was lost.

With one final breath, he turned in place and jumped. Fifty-nine centimeters was almost two-thirds of a meter, and he was aiming for the one and a half meter-high platform. As his feet left the ground, he imagined all the energy that had gathered there extending, providing him some lift or propulsion. His legs were bent up, then a bit forward so his feet could catch the edge of the platform. Except...

They didn't.

Audren's feet contacted the vertical wall at the front of the platform and slid down. He ended up on his rear with a explosive whoosh of his remaining breath leaving his body. Several agonizing seconds were spent regaining his breath, and then the embarrassment set in. It was made all the worse by the glimpse of a child, not twelve years old and having paid no attention to the blond Sephi, hopping up the six-meter platform like it was nothing at all.

 

[Sarianna]

[member="Audren Sykes"]

Sarianna didn't make a face, she didn'nt and wasn't judging him. Everyone was different and older padawans were common just as much as the ones trained since they could understand and be tested as babies. The real question as she moved over and stood there offering a hand was. "A first try, are you going to keep sitting there or try again?" There was no real emotion going over her face or rolling off of her more she was a teacher or trying to be. Hard to explain something that everyone could use but had to find their own way to connect to. "We all fall the first time, never know how to really gauge how much energy we need."

 

[Audren Sykes]

[member="Sarianna Misarr"]

"A first try, are you going to keep sitting there or try again?"

Audren's first reaction was anger. Not the subtle sting of annoyance, the quick burn of anger. A retort rose in his mind, a scathing remark about first day and not perfect. He kept his mouth shut though, one of the quickest lessons taught to new outriders was that talking back earned you more thumps. That said, the purely logical portion of his mind understood that her words were simply to motivate him. They weren't said with anger or derision like past instructors he'd had. The flash of anger he'd felt melted away when he returned his gaze to her. She wasn't standing there smiling or laughing, or even impassive. No, she was holding out a hand to help him up. There was a sliver of shame at how he'd reacted as he reached out and grasped her wrist to leverage himself to his feet.

"We all fall the first time, never know how to really gauge how much energy we need."

"Perhaps, but knowing how much energy is needed is for naught unless the energy is available."

The comment was made in a matter-of-fact, almost absent tone. His mind was already on the root problem: how to access the Force. Without the Force he couldn't jump as high as he needed to or move fast enough to keep up with a Jedi or Sith blade. Unconscious use of the Force - that little hint that said duck now - didn't begin to compare with conscious use. His eyes watched the various groups in the courtyard, flicking from group to group. For all his observation efforts though, he couldn't see a commonality that said 'this is how to access the Force'. Obviously, pure imagination did nothing. There was no obvious external stimulus to it. That meant it was internal. So he closed his eyes and did a mental search, looking for some source of energy, some center he'd never noticed before.

As it turned out, he had noticed it before. He just thought of it was pure willpower. Inside him was a highly-compressed sphere, one he accessed when he was beyond tired and needed to keep on going. It only worked for a while, wasn't a magic battery, but even though he was more tired later he could keep going when he pulled from it. It was this sphere that he pulled from as he turned back to the wall, opened his eyes, and jumped without a word. His feet cleared the lip by by a couple centimeters and his landing was solid. He straightened up partway - he'd ended up looking like he was crouched at the edge of the wall - but used that to draw his feet back and land on the ground standing up. All of the sudden he was hit with a wave of exhaustion and staggered back a step before regaining himself. He'd only ever been this exhausted after accepting a ten-kilometer challenge run after a full patrol through the forest. That had been stupid, but this...this was just confusing.

Spoiler

The sphere is his imaginative description of his internal Force energy, he has no means of tapping into the external Force just yet.

 

[Sarianna]

[member="Audren Sykes"]

She did make a pass towards his anger, a reaction she knew many had at first. Frustration with yourself could be a thing but mow then that as he rose up she was watching and feeling him as he was feeling the force. Letting it flow before he was leaping up and doing it. She moved a little while he came down and seemed more tired, watching the sight of it before she offered her arm. "It can be exhausting as well, you'll learn in time how to control it. FOr now relax and catch your breathe. Tell me when you are ready to continue."

 

[Audren Sykes]

"It can be exhausting as well, you'll learn in time how to control it. For now relax and catch your breathe. Tell me when you are ready to continue."

The Master offered her arm as she spoke, but Audren held up his hand in response, a sort of 'got this' gesture. He was fine, it had just been a momentary lapse. Then again, if she was expecting him to do it again, maybe it wasn't so momentary. Even though portions of his body were almost thrumming with the energy he'd just tapped into, for whatever reason he could tell that doing so to such a degree again would not end pleasantly for him. Probably with a boneless collapse to the pavement. Messy and attention-grabbing, neither of which he wanted. It was up to him to let the Master know that while still passing on that he was willing to keep training.

"Good to go, but trying that again probably won't go well."



[member="Sarianna Misarr"]

 

[Sarianna]

[member="Audren Sykes"]

She was watching him and gave a nod, it could be tiring and it could make for many things. "DOn't worry we aren't going to push until you collapse. Just do what you can and when you are able to try again." She moved the short hair from her face while backing away a little bit to lean on her staff. All the things made up and ready for when he was ready to continue.

 

[Audren Sykes]

"Don't worry we aren't going to push until you collapse. Just do what you can and when you are able to try again."

A grimace was carefully kept from his face, though it occurred to him that he might not need to do so. The teacher was blind after all, even if she could see after a fashion. Facing the wall, Audren once again delved into that sphere, that extra battery. For whatever reason, he had the impression that instead of emptying like a container of liquid would - some left over but the vessel remaining the same size - the entire sphere itself had shrunk. It was just as tightly-packed as before, but was much smaller. Pulling on the "battery" was more difficult now too, almost as if the smaller size made it more difficult to grasp.

Grasp it he did though. He pulled from the reserves of energy and once again jumped. He got enough vertical height, but only one foot managed to barely snag the edge of the platform. The other slid down along the wall much like his first attempt, and it was only through judicious shifting of his weight - he bent forward at the waist - that he didn't fall back down to the ground. And he was tired. Crouched on one foot as he was, with hands against the platform on either side of his leg to help balance him, he decided it was simpler to just turn and sit. The leg that had caught the edge joined the one that was hanging, and he rested.

The tiredness wasn't physical, not like it had been after his run. No, this was a mental exhaustion as well as something else. It was as if a tunnel suddenly had all its supports removed and was sagging under its own weight or wood that was burning from the inside out. Nothing, or very little, was left at the core to support him, but various muscles were almost twitching. It was an odd sensation, to say the least.

 

[Sarianna]

[member="Audren Sykes"]

There was a look at him more of curiosity as she listened to him move towards the platform and leap once more. Her head moving to watch him go up and land before she was following suit. One hand touching the platform and the other her staff while she lept up landing on the platform with a crouch standing up while her bangs hung over her sash. "There we go, you are getting good, now look at the rest and take it at your pace. The platforms here move around at various heights over the water sections on the edges. If you fall, you'll get wet but be safe." She was standing there and looking. "It shall teach you to better force and judge your jumps with various distances. It will also teach you how to maintain and stretch the force through your body, a skill for working with a saber blade."

 

[Audren Sykes]

Audren looked up at the teacher, his face inscrutable. Despite his exhaustion, in spite of the issues he'd likely have, she was telling him to keep going. To be fair, he didn't know what would happen if he did keep going and 'ran out of juice', so to say. Maybe he'd just revert back to normal, or maybe he'd collapse to the ground, dead. He strongly doubted that second possibility, the Jedi wouldn't have many recruits were that the case. Sarianna had promised that should he fall, he would get wet but be safe. Might as well.

With a near-inaudible sigh, the Sephi stood up. His legs felt like rubber, muscles twitching out of sync. Despite that, he found his way to the edge of the platform. Once again he delved for that sphere of energy, only this time he couldn't grasp it. It was tiny, large enough to let out a little spark but too small for him to hold. He held its general position in mind, performed the same sort of 'pulling' that he had before, crouched, and jumped. For a split second everything worked like it was supposed to, then it all stopped. Muscles jerked like they'd been shocked, each individually of the other. He literally felt like he was burning...then blackness. His body had already started to rise into the air so instead of collapsing onto the platform it fell.

Down onto the water he fell, a full-on faceplant from two meters up. His nose contacted and broke, his body contacted and bruised. It wasn't the pain that woke him though, it was the water. He managed to sink two feet into the water before coming to with a start. His eyes darted from side to side, then down to the bottom of the pool, and pure panic made him able to put his feet on the solid ground and bring his face to the air. He rose from the water gasping and took the steps needed to get to the edge. Once there he sat on it, facing the water, muscles still jerking at random. His hair stuck wetly to his face and neck and blood ran from his nose, but his eyes looked the water and didn't see. It was like his brain was going through a reset, for a few seconds into that fugue state he jerked again - this time intentionally - and his eyes started taking in information. His hands moved hair off his face and his sleeve was brought up to try and staunch the flow of blood. No matter what the blind Jedi said, he was done for the day. He only hoped that the limits drawing on the Force like this - assuming it was the Force - could expand over time, otherwise he'd amount to nothing within the Order.

[member="Sarianna Misarr"]

 

[Sarianna]

[member="Audren Sykes"]

Sarianna watched it more curious as she was observing in the force and waited until she was down before jumping and landing in a crouch as she stood up tall pulling her hair back out of her face from the sash. She coudln't see the blood. "There are some medics if you need them padawan, I can't see but that was a pretty hard fall." She stood there holding a hand out and pushing at the force energy. "This is what we'll have to work on your endurance, right now at best you might last a round with one of the initiates but a jedi needs to be able to sustain themselves sometimes for hours in battle or weeks during a campaign." She coudln't see his muscles or most body shape but he wasn't overweight so that helped. "If you need it we have heavy gravity rooms to really build muscle and strength.... just be careful and don't use the dark ladies setting she is beyond most of our padawans and masters in that room."