Troubles with Tutaminis

[Mereel Vaun]

Kashyyyk, Low Orbit

Spoiler

img source, as always:

Spoiler

https://www.deviantart.com/aaronburr/art/Kashyyyk-61775964https://www.deviantart.com/aaronburr/art/Kashyyyk-61775964

Through some odd twist of fate, the hyperdrive attached to the Death Bucket somehow managed to get Mereel and Lilla into the Kashyyyk system before the Iviin'yc had arrived. At least that seemed to be the case, Mereel certainly hadn't detected the vessel on sensors when they first fell out of hyperspace.

It wasn't like he had the time to perform a full sensor sweep of the system however. As soon as the Death Bucket had fallen out of hyperspace, her console began throwing off warning lights like a Life Day tree.

"Osik.."

Mereel let out a heavy sigh and began guiding the starfighter through the planet's upper atmosphere. The ship rocked slightly and a whirring noise could be heard from both the port and starboard wings as the ship's thrusters gave out.

He thought he had adequately prepared for their voyage before they had left Orenda, but he hadn't accounted for the more mechanical aspect of their journey. Namely the fact that the Death Bucket was a piece of junk starfighter - it had been nice when he first procured it, but after crashing the starfighter into the middle of fields and slamming it against hangar bay walls time and time again, the repairs could only get her so far.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Mereel had dealt with this issue enough times that he thought he could land the ship relatively safely so long as he didn't push her to his original landing destination: the Silver's Rest.

There was a divider between the pilot and copilot seats of the starfighter, but he was still able to give Lilla a very last-minute warning by hitting a speaker button in his cockpit, "Lilla, if you're awake you might want to grab on to something for just a second."

A handful of seconds later, the underbelly of the starfighter was borrowing its way across the sands of one of Kashyyyk's many beaches.

Mereel waited for the ship to stop moving and his cockpit to stop quaking before he thumbed a button to open all three of the Death Bucket's cockpit hatches. Since he was still wearing his full armor, and since he hadn't gotten the blood flowing to his legs in a while, he greeted the Kashyyyk night with a slow clamber out of his cockpit. "Sorry about that, you alright?"


[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The journey was uneventful – but Lilla could not help but sense that Mereel was surprised that they made such good time. And the lack of space did not bother her.

Lilla did not panic at the volume or frequency of the warnings that the ship shared the moment they exited hyperspace. The Force gave no such sense of alarm, and so she was entirely relaxed about the situation and gave her Padawan free reign in managing the ship’s descent.

To the trained ear, the engine sounds were not positive. In fact, even to a complete novice, the sounds the ship shared as they negotiated the upper atmosphere were not encouraging. But Lilla had experience of crashing due to mechanical failure – at times it was an occupational hazard. And she knew that if Mereel wanted a hand – well, he would ask for one.

Lilla smiled at his warning and dutifully braced herself for a less than smooth landing – and for the second time in quick succession, she experienced a beach landing. The last time led to a Sith encounter – she presumed it would not be so this time around. Except…the last time she visited this planet, she encountered a Sith too.

It was a good thing she did not believe in omens, or fate.

But at least she had arrived in one piece – and there did not appear to be any broken bones. Once the hatch popped open, she carefully climbed out. Stretching her legs, she took in the nearby surroundings. At least there were no Sith this time. At least, not yet.

“Don’t apologise – and I’m fine, thanks. How about you?”

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

He began stomping his boots and the feeling slowly returned to his legs as he glanced over at Lilla, "Slighty embarrassed, but otherwise unscathed."

He stopped kicking around in the sand and turned his attention to the now partially buried starfighter. "Thought I had covered all of my bases before we left.."

He ambled his way back over to the pilot cockpit and gave the plethora of warning lights a quick look over. "Nope, forgot to mention that my ship's a hot mess."

While he was hardly a certified mechanic, he knew his ship well enough to gleam some knowledge from the console lights and sometimes perform the quick fixes required during his travels.

He could easily tell this wasn't a quick fix moment.

"Sithspit. Don't think a repair kit will cover this. Unless you know a force technique for repairing starships, best bet's just sending out a distress signal on subspace transceiver."

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

“Unscathed is important,” Lilla replied. “Most important.”

Lilla stood by and took in the scenery, as Mereel made every effort to see if the situation was salvageable. It never did to watch over someone in times like these – it only heightened the pressure to deliver.

“There is no specific ability. Moving meditation would help, if you knew how to repair one, but it does not grant you the prerequisite knowledge I’m afraid.”

She looked around. There was nothing much to do until help arrived – and they were too far from anywhere to consider walking.

“OK, how to make the best of a challenging situation…” She smiled, as she always did. “Tell me, with all of that kit of yours, do you have a blaster. One with a variable power setting that could be set to say, stun?”

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel bit his lip for a second and popped off his helmet as he legitimately considered her moving meditation suggestion. His pondering was quickly cut short by her question.

Letting his helmet fall from his hands and into the pilot's cockpit, he turned to face Lilla with eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"Uh... huh."

Now that she had asked it, he realized that none of the weapons on him had stun settings. He normally just tried to subdue people with the force now days, and before that he typically either intimidated his opponents into submission or beat them up until he could slap stun cuffs on them.

A small frown formed on his face, "Make that embarrassment number two. I don't have one on my person, no. Probably have something buried in the cargo hold though."

Since his current focus was still on the fighter-dilemma, he didn't quite get where she was going with this, but he started the first step in the process of finding a stun gun without any questions. "R9, start sending out Signal-1A on open frequency. Prop open the gunlocker while you're at it."

A low series of chirps came from the astromech droid positioned between the copilot and tailgunner cockpits, followed by the sound of a mound of sand being launched into the air on the other side of the ship.

Mereel sauntered over to the now-unearthed underbelly storage bay and beamed pridefully at the contents within. He had gone through a lot of gear over the years, and not all of it had been destroyed in combat. He was now looking at all of the weapons that had survived their prime time with him. A Verpine shattergun, two long rifles, a hand cannon, a few run of the mill blaster pistols, and an ordnance launcher were all scattered around the storage compartment.

He ignored them all and pulled out a rather dull looking blaster carbine. It turned out that it was the only blaster he owned that had a stun setting, "Got one. Just this one."

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla allowed Mereel to do what needed doing before he searched for an appropriate blaster. It was important they were found, so a suitable distress beacon was vital in getting the mission back on track.

She took the blaster and gave it the once over, checking the stun setting before putting the safety back on and returning it to her Padawan.

“OK…you’re probably wondering what this is all about. I have considered teaching you a variant of the Force Shield, but I have an even better idea.”

“Tell me, what do you know about Tutaminis?” It was Lilla’s preferred style. She invariably preferred to start from a position of where her student was, as opposed to sharing everything she knew, and duplicating what was already known.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel began fiddling around with the carbine's adjustable stock as soon as she gave the blaster back to him.

A small grin formed on his face when she revealed her intent for requesting the weapon, "I think I have a basic understanding of what it is."

Shooting yourself after crashing your ship in the middle of nowhere would normally sound like a pretty bad idea to him, but he trusted Lilla.

Besides, he had already told his astromech droid to start sending out the distress signal. This was the Silver's homeworld, someone friendly would be lead to them eventually whether or not he was conscious when they found them.

"Using the force to absorb the energy of a blaster bolt, right?"

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

LIlla smiled and nodded. “Good, a basic understanding is all you need. For now.”

“What you’ll also need is to pay attention. Now, when I say so, fire the blaster at me. One blast is enough for now. And it’s better if you set it to stun, but it’s not essential. For the longer you practice, the better you become…like most things really.”

Lilla removed her cloak and folded it neatly before placing it atop the crashed ship. Then, facing Mereel, she instructed, “Ready.”

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

He was a little surprised by her response to his answer, but he was relieved that she hadn't gone into a diatribe about how tutaminis was actually.. well, something other than what he had said, he didn't know what else it could be.

His expression was less than relieved as she told him what to do next. "Yeah, I think I'll just stick with the stun setting.."

He slowly lifted the carbine to follow her instruction. Shooting your Jedi Master after crashing your ship in the middle of nowhere also sounded like a bad idea to him, but for all he knew this could have just been normal Jedi business. After all, he hadn't been a Jedi long, and he hadn't had anything resembling a bond with a Master before that time.

He paid particular attention to the force as he thumbed off the safety and took aim at Lilla's torso.

"Alright.. here it comes."

He eased the trigger back, and the carbine fired a single blue ring of low-intensity stun energy towards Lilla.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla smiled. “Stun setting it is. I’m less sure if that means you don’t trust me or yourself.” She waved a hand dismissively. “I’m just kidding. This will be fine, trust me.”

Her smile never left her lips, as she reached out and connected with the Force, her mind relaxed and free of emotion and extraneous thought.

The blue ring came at her – and to the untrained eye, the rest was a blur. But to a Jedi, even a Padawan, the whole process would have looked to have happened in slow motion.

Lilla had joined with the Force, and it filled her body. She focused on the incoming blaster energy and raised her left hand, her fingers close together and pointing at the sky – her palm perpendicular to the ground.

The energy hit her hand and then…well, nothing actually. In truth, the Force absorbed the energy and – given her advanced practice with this ability, she could have redirected the energy through her body and back out – at a foe for example. But for now she was simply demonstrating the art of the possible.

“Now, as you can expect, this is scaleable. Swing your saber at me.”

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

The seconds following the shot played out like a slideshow before his eyes, and almost no detail of the interaction had been lost on him.

He saw how she raised her hand and sensed how she had tapped into the force to take on the energy ring. The stun bolt vanished from the air just as it came into contact with her hand. He made a mental sidenote that she had never broken her smile during the entire process.

And just as quickly as she had dissipated the energy with the force, she dropped her idea for her next demonstration on him.

Despite her show of ability, his eyebrows shot up in alarm, "You're joking, right?"

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla’s smiled remained – if anything there was a slight tugging on the corner of her mouth. “Do I ever joke?” It was clearly a hypothetical question – but the literal answer would have been no. Lilla had a pleasant disposition, but humour was not one of her stock in trade behaviours. Witty responses based upon observation had been known to pass her lips, but she never did it for the gag factor – it was just her way.

“Seriously, I want to demonstrate the scope of the ability. You see, I always comment that using the Force is 100% about trust and belief. You have to trust the Force and you have to believe in yourself. Any doubt and you’ll pay the consequences. So, before I allow you to practice this technique, I want to impress upon you the art of the possible. That should help fuel your trust and belief systems.”

“So…ready when you are.”

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel's eyes trailed to the sand settled at his boots and let out a sigh of resignation. This was a far greater grievance to personal health than a lack of stun gun safety, but he could see that Lilla was clearly confident about going through with her proposal.

He also thought he could see where Lilla was coming from with her argument. He may have stopped shutting himself off to the force on Ilum, but he had yet to put the entirety of his trust into the force during a real fight. If he was going to start being a Jedi and stop being a Mandalorian running around with a lightsaber, it was a hurdle he would have to get over.

"Fine."

Mereel lifted his eyes from the sands and returned Lilla's smile with a small, but still slightly worried, grin, "You trusted me well enough to crash the fighter. Guess it's my turn to trust you a little."

He un-clipped his lightsaber from his belt and thumbed the activator button. The icy blue blade sprung to life with a hiss and a hum, providing a small area around them new light through form of faint glow. His breathing slowed instinctively as he felt the connection between him and the adegan crystal within.

Wanting to televise his attack vector as much as possible, Mereel exaggeratedly prepared the blade for his swing by slowly assuming a Shii-Cho opening stance with blade tilted slightly diagonally in front his chest. After letting the blade rest in its opening position for a full second, he swung the hilt out to the side - launching a relatively clumsy and weak horizontal slash toward Lilla's left side.

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla had a method in her approach – she always did. Many Force Sensitives performed well, but to maximise their potential…to truly take full advantage of it…the individual had to trust in the Force completely. And imagination invariably got in the way of that act.

And when it came to grabbing a saber with your bare hand, there was no room for error, no room for doubt. Trying was never an option – you either did it, or you didn’t. And ‘didn’t’ resulted in a loss of fingers.

Lilla nodded once she sensed that Mereel would commit. In truth, if he didn’t trust her to do it, he would have limited belief in his own ability. Sometimes you had to do something for yourself but others…like this time…to see it be done was the catalyst to self-belief.

The Force warned her of the impending strike, but at the pace Mereel was using, even a non-Force Sensitive would have seen it coming. And where instinct would force you to keep away, Lilla stepped into the attack. And instead of the blade continuing in the arc it was travelling on, and digits dropping to the floor, the blade stopped. Or more accurately, the saber halted because Lilla’s fingers were closed around it.

“As well as the benefit of allowing me to use the energy to my own ends, the act has a certain shock factor that is very disconcerting to your opponent.”

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

He had imagined that Lilla would have used the force to dissipate the beam of energy emitted by the lightsaber, dispelling the blade in a similar manner as to when cortosis interacted with the weapon. When the swing of his blade was halted by resistance, his eyes shot wide in surprised fear and his stomach sank. He had assumed that he had just cut into his Master with his lightsaber.

After the split second of panic, his eyes sought out what had caused the cease in momentum: Lilla's uninjured fingers were holding the blade in place.

He deactivated the lightsaber in a heartbeat but his stance didn't change at all, and his eyes remained locked on her hand. His heart was still beating rapidly from the shock, but shock turned into inspired awe. "Fierfek."

He slowly shifted back into his normal posture and clipped the lightsaber back onto his belt, "I can see why it has that effect on people.."

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla’s smile faded briefly. “This is a challenging ability to learn. There is no room for trial and error, although it is logical to work your way up from a stun setting on a blaster, or the training setting on a saber. That way, any accidents are not going to be fatal, and limbs will not be lost.”

“But I know that, with practice and application, you can and will progress in your abilities to perform this as well as I can. And I haven’t stopped learning yet. For its application is well documented to include absorbing Force Lightning and – once you have learned to channel the energy, you can use it – either against your foe, or to a good purpose, such as Force Heal.”

“And now you know the art of the possible, you should be in no doubt as to if you are capable of such actions. You are. Just take your time and use your own experience of the Force.”

“You see, when I sense the Force, it is like water. For some it is like a current and I have heard of other analogies. So, when I connect to the Force, it is like immersing myself in water. It surrounds me. And channelling it uses similar metaphors in my mind. The energy of the blaster is something I receive, like a torrent of water. And I channel it. Initially, I was like a dam – holding it back. And then, with development, I change the flow of the water, sending it wherever I want.”

“How that works?” She shrugged, and her smile returned. “I have no idea. Which is why I trust in the Force. I tell it what I want to achieve and it helps me. It’s as simple as that. Never overcomplicate the Force, it will be your undoing.”

“Now, are you ready? If so, I'll take the blaster.”

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

The surprised awe on his face slowly dissipated as he listened to Lilla. To think he even had the potential to do what she had just demonstrated was baffling. Throwing out force pushes that needed no further concentration to upkeep was one thing, but this was something else entirely. Even though he wasn't entirely convinced he would ever harness the ability to the same level of skill, what she said about the force made about as much sense as anything about the force could.

For him, the force was like an ever present wind, and he was like a tattered sail. Unless his connection to it was temporarily blocked, he could always feel the direction it was blowing, and it constantly blew into him in one way or another, but sometimes he felt like less of the wind sneaked through the holes in the sail.

Lilla's demonstration had strongly motivated him, but he knew his ability to do what came next depended solely on his own ability to catch the wind. He thumbed the safety of the blaster on and handed it to her, "I'll try not to overthink it."

He turned around and stepped ten paces before turning back to face her. His eyes were glossed over in determined focus as the wind blew against him, "Fire when ready."

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla sensed the conflict within Mereel. On one hand, her natural empathy showed he was impressed – and therefore fully understood the art of the possible. But the surprise she sensed suggested he was less sure of his own capabilities.

Which was entirely normal – but needed to be addressed if he were to progress as a Jedi.

“First of all..do. Do or do not, there is no try, remember?” She smiled broadly at him – it was a well-worn phrase and one she enjoyed using.

“Secondly, I can ask you to put doubt out of your mind, but that may not be effective. So instead, I’ll ask you to think of this in a different way. This is not a test of your abilities – which you might reasonably doubt. It is, rather, a demonstration of the capabilities of the Force, which I suspect you are less inclined to distrust.”

She cocked her head to one side. “Think about it.”

And then she raised the blaster and aimed for the centre of Mereel’s chest – before slowly pulling the trigger.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

The intensity drained out of his eyes a little as he returned her smile following the repetition of the oft used saying. When he had first joined the Order he thought it was the stupidest thing he had ever heard, but there was a pragmatic power in the simplicity of it.

He was calmed slightly further when she said to think of the exercise as a test of the force rather than a trial of his own skill. By the time she tilted her head he could almost say that he felt fully relaxed. As she raised the carbine, his breathing slowed and he closed his eyes.

Miraculously, he was able to empty his thoughts of all but one: wind collecting in shredded sails. He opened his eyes to see the blue ring of energy moving towards him in slow motion as he focused on harnessing the force within himself and around him.

He imitated the movements Lilla had made when she dissipated the stun bolt, but with his right hand. As the bolt drew closer, the speed of the analogical winds increased. As the stun bolt was within an inch of his hand, the winds almost tore down the masts of his sails.He should have let the energy release to ward off the bolt right then, but he didn't.

Instead, a stray thought made its way past his singular focus:

If this hits, it's going to fry my suit's circuits.

The winds ceased and the bolt landed squarely in the palm of his hand. Energy played across his armor's surface as prophecy fulfilled itself, and he was knocked down to kneeling by the paralyzing shot.

He was stuck looking at the ground for a moment as he let out a curse, "Fierfek"

[member="Lilla Syrin"]

 

[Lilla Syrin]

It was one thing to want something, quite another to have it. Especially when it was out of your control.

Lilla hoped Mereel would have success first time out – it would reinforce self-belief if nothing else – but it was not meant to be.

If there was a plus, it was that his suit, not his body, that took the force of the stun.

Lilla remained calm and stood perfectly still, her arm still raised. Her smile remained on her lips and one eyebrow raised slightly, clearly reflecting a thought rattling around in her head.

For Lilla’s life had been simple. And that was to her advantage. Despite any likely genetic pre-disposition to the use of the Force (and there was one, unbeknown to Lilla) – she had lived an existence that lent itself to trusting the Force.

From the moment she had memories, she had been a slave. She had no control over her life. Then she’d run away and lived each day hand to mouth – free of an owner, but no less in command of her destiny. Then she became a slave again before another bout of poverty – and then she became a Jedi.

She was not used to being in change of anything, let alone her own fate. So, to yield to the Force to guide her movements was no leap of faith or behaviour. Others, those who joined the Order later in life, expected to make all of life’s decisions. To simply let the Force dictate things such as life or death? It was beyond most – at least initially.

“I can teach you nothing else. All I have shared with you is all you need. I ask you, therefore to go again. Trust in the Force. Believe in the Force. When will and imagination are in conflict, imagination invariably wins. Want to succeed but suspect you won’t – and you won’t. It’s no more compliacated than that.”

She sighed softly and then began to count down. “5-4-3-2-1…” and on the count of one, she pulled the trigger once more.

[member="Mereel Vaun"]