Unsee What You Have Seen (Lissa Solusar)

[Ashin Varanin]

Feth, but it was a long time since he'd taken a Padawan. Had it really been since Aleidis?

He knew little about [member="Lissa Solusar"] except for the fact that she was supposed to be talented in illusions. He could appreciate that. Though he'd lost his edge in some ways, he had acquired a different perspective, and one that might be more conducive to teaching.

She'd find him in the grassy fields outside the Dantooine Enclave, running through velocities with a blue-bladed lightsabre.

 

[Cortana Jade]

It was good in that she had found someone who would be able to bring out her talents...she wasn't one if the greatest initiates among the Jedi, but she knew she could qualify if she focused on her traits.

This...was...however her last hope. Amongst the Jedi it was hard for her to impress someone enough for them to even think of having her as an apprentice. She wasn't an Scholar....and she wasn't an outright warrior so where exactly did she fit in?

While frustrating at most, she had been sent to Dantooine to study at the enclave under [member="Shule Windspeaker"]

She emerged from the shadows of one of the halls that led out into the grassy fields. Only from a distance could she see the trails left behind from a blue bladed lightsaber.

Well...here goes nothing. Taking her time due to the sick feeling she felt from utter nerves she would be within his proximity sooner or later.

"Master Windspeaker?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lissa Solusar"]

Shule's velocity drew to a halt, and his lightsabre deactivated. He clipped it to his belt; today wasn't about the lightsabre. "You must be Padawan Solusar. Welcome to Dantooine; sorry we're so far out of the way."

The field was lying fallow -- grass knee-high, no crops to ruin. A decent spot for training, not too far from town or from the Enclave. "So I'm told you have a talent for illusions. Mind-based, I assume?"

 

[Cortana Jade]

Her eyes widened, and a smirk formed on her face once she was greeted. All was followed by a quick nod.

Dantooine far out? Eh she barely noticed. Her mind was in other places. More importantly the part where she actually wanted to impress the master. Hopefully he saw some form of potential.

"haha, yeah... Funny thing really. Its actually the only thing that I seem to be any good at; though there's room for massive refinement." She said scratching the side of her head sort of to downplay her nervousness.

[member="Shule Windspeaker"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lissa Solusar"]

"All right, well..." Shule shrugged volubly. "Show me what you do. Show me the kinds of illusions you'd use in, say, a combat situation."

 

[Cortana Jade]

She nodded quickly, only a second or two afterwards she looked on at him as if he were going to leave more instructions for her to follow.

To herself she thought, combat eh? Well there's this one that i've been trying to work on for a while now.

She took a step back, and closed her eyes, while bringing her hands up to her chest. She tried to channel her energy. Her hands met at the palms.

Slowly her form began to slowly fad away into the slight breeze that blew past them both, causing her hair to swing with it. With every second a portion of her body became invisible. Given enough time she would have been completely invisible.

Having disappeared to the naked eye, she slowly moved her body around to approach the Master from behind. She crouched down and held out her hilt near his knee cap. This all had to be done in the short amount of time that she could uphold the ability. In time it expiered, and her breathing was slightly noticeable but the weapon was there and ready to pierce the knee if he had been an enemy of course.

[member="Shule Windspeaker"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lissa Solusar"]

"Good," he said, turning to face his invisible student. "Quite good. Be patient with yourself -- making yourself invisible with mentalism is very difficult, largely because in most combat situations you're being actively looked for. It's often better to put something else in your place, something people might expect to see; it makes the effect stronger. One of the classics is to run around a corner into, say, an alley, and make yourself look like a trash can or a wall, something that really fits the setting. In a place like this, you might crouch down and make yourself look like a rock in the tall grass. With mentalist illusion, your best ally is absolutely a matter of guessing what others might expect and then conforming to those expectations.

"What do you know about the other kinds of Force-based illusion? Can you name them?"

 

[Cortana Jade]

She stood up, and by this time she wasn't as fatigued, now she knew why it was taking her a long time to grasp the concept. She was ahead of herself...

She took in his words, because unlike other lessons this one was the most interesting to her. It was more than a lecture, she was keen on learning more about something she knew she could grasp.

"Other Force-based Illusions? Well there are those of the Sith, conjured through ancient magics. Then those that evolve bending light...comes from the sect; Disciples of Twilight. Then there's the Fallanasi Illusions, among other basic aspects of mentalism."

In hopes she gave the right answer.

[member="Shule Windspeaker"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lissa Solusar"]

"Good. Sith Magic illusions are one school; then there are Croke illusions, which are species-based but comprehensive, and like Sith Magic illusions they can become strong enough to be corporeal, a sort of physical impression on the Force. Fallanassi illusions work through the White Current, which is something of a different level of awareness of the Force, or perhaps just an awareness of a different part of the spectrum of the Force; some non-Force-users can be taught the White Current, as it happens. Fallanassi illusions can get strong enough that they have physical effects as well. And photokinetic illusion isn't restricted to cloaking; it can be used for creating illusions that, like the White Current, can fool holocams and droids. Then there's Doppelganger and Force Phantom, which are what you might call long-range telepresence illusions. This is all high-level Master stuff, though. At the Apprentice and Knight levels, the sort of thing you're doing is more than enough.

"Now let's learn to anticipate counters. The absolute best way to find someone who's invisible, or someone who's made illusory duplicates, is with area-of-effect. How good is your telekinesis? How would you go about doing it?"

 

[Cortana Jade]

While she thought she was knowledgable in the subject, it was obvious she had so much to learn still. She nodded her head quickly, also obvious of how interested she was. Hm.

Learning to anticipate counters eh? This should be fun, though it would suck for an illusionist to fall prey to another illusionist. Hehe would be quite funny, that is if you weren't the victim.

"Alright Master..."

Mmm, her telekinesis was...was mild at best. Hot her strong suit. But she was capable.

"Well, its basic at best. I've been working on it. But i'm capable!" She threw that in there at the last minute. "Probably the best way would be to send a wave in all directions. Something strong enough to dissipate the illusion?"

[member="Shule Windspeaker"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Lissa Solusar"]

"Halfway there," he said with approval. "Area-of-effect is definitely your best bet, even if it's just something as a handful of dust blown in all directions. Your goal isn't explicitly to destabilize the illusion, which may or may not happen; your goal is to make change that the illusionist may not be able to compensate for, like with the dust, or to break the illusionist's concentration, even if only for a moment. Your goal is to find the real, and intuition can help with that. Force Sight and related disciplines can get you past mentalism illusions."

He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket, and produced a training remote.

"Here you go. Countermeasures time. I'm going to use a basic mentalism illusion to hide the remote."

 

[Cortana Jade]

(Sorry about the delay)

It made sense. While she was on the right track, her strategy was a little too "rough" she needed to pay closer attention to detail, especially when she was under the influence of an illusion.

She nodded her head quickly as a symbol that she understood where he was getting at. Now all she had to do was apply that concept to show the grasp.

Perhaps this was the easiest way to go about learning this skill. What good was a specialist, if they didn't know how to counter the very thing they used against others. She was about to see, in the few seconds she had remaining before her Master did what he did, she got pretty nervous. She wanted to get this right, she needed to.

"Alright..."

[member="Shule Windspeaker"]