Round Two: They askin' "What's new?"

[Jak Sandrow]

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

To him, it felt like he had misstepped on a patch of ice, and, his feet swept sideways, he hurtled off the edge of Lucien's mind.

However, it was only figurative. He was still just fine.

This time he was admitted freely into Lucien's mind. Still keeping his own defences up - he was kinda paranoid that wasy - he gently entered Lucien's mind, pinging him to show he was actually there.

He began to follow the streets, getting into less and less main roads, and more and more little alleyways. Finally, he came to what seemed like the right place.

Ummm.... he said, you had.... a nexu... it was declawed... its name was Mixen.... when she died, you became... quiet... right? he asked, making sure it wasn't just a forged memory.

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"Wrong I'm afraid we lived in an apartment, all be it a large one" He smiled. Lucien had always wanted a Nexu but it would break his mothers ornaments so it wasn't to be. Perhaps he would buy one now but were would he keep it. Jak had stumbled onto one of the many false memories. He should find it easier now that he knew a little about Lucien's childhood. Lucien sighed his mother was far to protective over her rugs.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

He pushed around a moment, finding trailing bits of real information. Now that he knew the 'scent' of a fake memory, it didn't take long to search the place.

He could find no true memory of Lucien with a pet. There were a few other fake memories, to be sure, but he avoided them

Opening his true eyes, he said, with a half-grin, "Trick question, then. You never had a pet."

He chided himself on not considering that possibility beforehand. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"Very good, How did you figure it out?" Lucien said standing up "I just need to collect something" He said before walking out. He returned later with a criminal, he tossed the cuffed form of the prisoner down on the ground "You will be preforming your next two actions on him, The next thing you are going to do is inflict pain using only your mind" He moved to his seat and sat down. "There are multiple ways of doing this but I will teach you only one the simplest way, begin by breaking down his defenses then bombard his mind with stimuli like sounds,images or smells anything will do but stimuli the target has an emotional connection to work best." Lucien sat back in his chair and watched.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

"I guess... once I got the... ahem, 'scent' of a false memory, I just applied that knowledge to the rest. After all, there's only one true memory, no? And the only true one was of no pet."

He waited, hands casually in his pockets, rolling on the heels of his feet, biding his time.

When the prisoner came, he glanced at Lucien with a silent question, but was rewarded an answer.

"Right," he said, keeping a good few meters away from the prisoner. Focusing on the person's mind, he was astonished to realize how easy it was to break the man's so few defenses.

"Can I try my own way on another prisoner?" he asked, beginning to dredge up images, people, places...

"See, I have an idea, and I want to make it work," he said, preparing to 'rush' the guy's mind.

"Is it okay, right after this?"

And he sent the assorted stimuli screaming into the man's mind.

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"Do it on the same one" Lucien shrugged "He will survive a small headache". Lucien lent forward this interested him and he wondered what Jak planned to do. His chin rested on the palm of his hand this would be something ... well at least he hoped. Jak might save him having to teach the third method. any way all that was left was to wait and see.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak rooted around in the man's mind, not 'touching' anything, just probing sensory nerves and motor functions.

"This may be more than a headache," he warned.

Finding where the pain receptors entered the brain, he prevented all motor functions out. Then, with a twist and a poke, he stimulated every pain simulator the man had.

This method of torture made sure the man felt the pain of, say, being sucked into a black hole, but without any sort of motor response or body damage.

It had been used on Jak, once, before, and he was kinda anxious to try it for himself.

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"Ah that is a form of my next Lesson" Lucien smiled slightly speaking into Jaks mind "You can do that with other neuron signals ..." He had now become tired of the mans screaming "... Observe" Lucien said with a flick of his wrist "The vocal cords" The man stopped shouting "the bladder" the man wet himself, then there was a momentary gap, the man dropped cold to the touch "The heart". Then Lucien focused on Jak "The eyes" If he had been successful Jak would currently be blind. "Of course a true master can replace these signals" Jak should now have been seeing in black and white. Then as soon as it had begun it was over and Jak was back to normal, the prisoner however was still dead "Of course that last skill takes incredible focus so don't try it mid duel."

 

[Jak Sandrow]

He inwardly chided himself again. Cordel was a Master! Of course he had already thought of it.

Jak watched in fascination as the man began to spasm, and then die.

"Could you train me to hone my skills?" he asked.

He blinked away the last of the greyscale view. "That's cool," he remarked.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, that would make sense," he said.

He began to describe what he wanted to do with his power. "See, I want to hack. And hack well. And to hack into a ship, you need to turn the other people's gaze. So, can you show me how to make someone see what isn't there? And make them believe it beyond a shadow of a doubt? Multiple people, too."

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien thought the skill to stop signals at that level was rare "I can try it won't be easy and learning this will drain you, it is hard, further more I can't teach you to effect more than one person that comes with experience" He said softly "It will take weeks perhaps even months, you have one hour pack your things and meet me back here if you are not here within an hour I leave without you" He said he had a deep tissue massage booked and he was not willing to miss that.

(This skill is master level and a complete specialism if you take this skill on you will have to come up with a strong reason to know any other non core skills, furthermore until you get master this skill can't be used to it's full extent on even one person and should leave you drained after one attempt. I see you mistreat this power and I stop training you)

 

[Jak Sandrow]

"Well, eventually," he said, trying not to lose something while he had a chance. "Eventually. That's a goal. Right now?" he said. "I suppose it would be like falsificating a memory. Only you're constantly updating it, and keeping it forefront in the person's mind - right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll be back in a jiff."

One jiff later:

"Ba-ack. Sorry. Am I late?"

(Yeah, yeah, fair enough. It's a goal, right?)

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"Your not" Lucien said A servant walked in to pick up Jak's luggage. Lucien sat back as the yacht took off they were heading for Skye to Lucien's retreat in the mountains. Lucien turned to Jak "As I said before this will be hard and for the first few days if not weeks you will not be taught a single force power they will prepare your mind and body for the task at hand". The trip to Skye did not take all that long they touched down at the Compound.

Lucien's compound on Skye was Miles away from the nearest known civilian area. It was nestled in the mountains of Skye reachable only by aircraft or climbing equipment. The compound was more like a military base than an estate this was an area that Lucien would flee to if things got rough. The main building was Lucien's palace a huge brick and Log lodge. Surrounding this were smaller lodges which served as Barracks and store rooms and other such things.

Before they exited Lucien turned to Jak "Go and unpack and have one of the servants show you around ... Before you go Hot or Cold?" He asked

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak watched the scenery whisk by, still half wary of a surprise lesson. When one did not come, he relaxed his guard - minimally.

He nodded. "Yes, Master," he said. "Pardon me, but what do you mean, Hot or Cold?"

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

"You will see, now hot or Cold?" Lucien said with a slight smile it was a key part of building the first skill of concentration and endurance. Lucien stayed sat down and waited for his answer. It was only fair that Jak got to pick how the discomfort required would be administered.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

"Ummm... Cold," he said, picking at random.

He was curious as to what was supposed to happen.

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien nodded "One of the servants will take you too me to begin training in one hour." Lucien said as he stood up and walked out. After he had left a pair of his servants came onto the ship to collect the two men's Luggage. The butler stationed at this estate was waiting at the base of the ramp down from the yacht poised to show Jak around.
Lucien himself went to the kitchen have a large slab of ice in the pool in an hours time. The kitchen assistant who spoke to him nodded. Then Lucien went to his massage therapist being in the same room as apprentices always made him tense.

 

[Jak Sandrow]

Jak nodded. "Alright then." He followed Lucien off the ship, and was greeted by his butler.

"Sooo... what. You show me 'round the place or something?" he asked, almost itching to look around himself, actually.

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

The butler nodded "Yes Sir" The butler replied "I will show you to your room first then to the other areas of the house, If you would like to follow me" The butler said before Leading Jak off into the house. Jaks rooms was on the opposite side of the house from Lucien's but was reach the same way as his own. The butler Led Jak up the main stairs. Jak's room had everything he should need ... well the normal stuff anyway. Over the course of the hour the butler took Jak through the rooms of the house he would have use for: The Lounge, Library,Dining room, communications room, the spa Lucien butler informed Jak that he would probably need that a lot in the time he was here and finally the pool. This was where his training would begin. " His Lordship is waiting in there, should you require anything as any staff member and they will fulfill your request" Having finished his speech he bowed Jak through the door.

Lucien took one last Look over everything to check all the necessary equipment was in place. Ice slab, Data Pad and projector. Lucien just hoped that Jak would be effected by the Ice in the same way "normal" humans were. Lucien picked up the data pad and walked over to the door "Mr. Sandrow If you are ready to begin remove your foot wear and stand on the ice Please" Lucien said walking towards Jak "Since it is your first day I will be kind we will do one hour only, that is if you can preform the task flawlessly, This task will build your resilience and concentration, on the data pad is a game of sorts the system will create a pattern of the four colored symbols then you need to match it, on top of this the projector will project the name of a colour you must tell me what colour the word is no what colour it describes, every time you get one of the two tasks wrong or fail to answer we go on for an extra ten minutes" He allowed Jak to get into position then handed him the data pad. "Any questions?" Lucien asked taking position behind the projector.

(I obviously do not expect you to sit there and write patterns and say colours just write the actual affect it is having on him unless you want to write up the colours of course.)

 

[Jak Sandrow]

He nodded, said "No, no questions," and, barefoot, stepped onto the block.

It was cold. Very cold.

And plants are far more susceptible to cold than humans.

Chill began to set in within half an hour - this was while using the Force. He began to shiver a minute or so later.

"Green. Red. Pink. Br-no, red. Uhh.... pink," he said, his thought processes getting inhibited by the cold. He shook himself, then continued, able to function normally for a little longer. "Blue. Yellow."

By 45 minutes, however, his toes were a much lighter shade of green, and he was visibly shivering. "P-p-pink. Pur-r-rp-ple. R-red."

55 minutes. His feet were pale, and weren't doing much. Jak was inwardly swearing now, between each word. "R-red." Kriff. "B-b-b-blue." Karknuggets. "Bla-a-ack." FRACK! "Red ag-g-gain." @$&%@!#!!!

And so it continued. Jak lost track of time for the next five minutes - but he didn't mess up once.

@[member="Lucien Cordel"]

 

[Lucien Cordel]

Lucien watched silently adding on time for each mistake, He must confess he was quite worried the Ice was having the desired effect and then some. He would need to think of a way to increase Jaks Pain Tolerance. He was able to concentrate better when Jak stopped making mistakes. Lucien looked down it had been an hour and Jak was obviously suffering "We are done for today do you need anything?" Lucien said offering a hand to help Jak down.