Wake up [Corvus Raaf]

[Kana Truden]

“You’re an idiot, Corvus!” Kana yelled at her friend. “You are a foolish and stupid little girl but most of all you are an idiot!”

She paced back and forth in front of the bacta tank. Why had she jumped out that building like a mad woman? Why did she do this? She may have saved the damn senator but at what cost? Broken ribs, cuts all over her stupid body, a fractured arm and collarbone. None of it could compare to the urge to slap her friend in the face, again.

When was even the last time she slept? Most of the time since they left Anaxes had been spent walking back and forth in front of her friend’s unconscious body as it floated around in this stupid tank that this stupid girl had managed to get herself stuck into.

“I am supposed to be the idiot! I am supposed to do these stupid things!” She was angry. Angry and incredibly worried. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to convince them not to keep you on Anaxes?”

There was no point in working yourself up like this and Kana knew it. She took a few deep breaths - or quite possibly yawned - as she leaned against the wall. The wall which for some reason felt really good. For a brief moment her eyes wanted to close themselves from the exhaustion and no longer could Kana’s legs resist. She slumped to the ground and hugged her legs in desperation.

“Please wake up.”

Attachments sucked.

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

One of the side-effects of having drawn so much power from the Force as she plummeted to her expected death was that Corvus had been numb to the Force ever since. OK, it was days not weeks but as she was held in an induced state of unconsciousness by the droid masquerading as a doctor, she has drifted int the land of the living occasionally and every time it was the same. It was...odd. No, it was scary. What if this was a permanent outcome?

Once more Corvus was lucid enough to contemplate ths fact and to hear the ranting of a mad woman. No, ot a mad woman, Kana. But she was angry with someone - and when Kana's angry with you, you know all about it. Corvus was pleased it wasn't her! Oh...it was her.

She wanted to say she was OK. That her friend shouldn't worry. And then it started. Slowly at first, but she recognised the sensation. She could connect to the Force. She knew Kana hadn't been formally trained in telepathy, but she needed to contact her.

So she pulled as much of the Force to her as she could and sent tendrils of her thoughts outside of the tank. Finding an emotion was easy. Not anger. The overwhelming feeling was desperation. So she latched on to it and followe it, as Kian had taught her. And the emotion linked to a thought - of possibly losing her friend. Her. And switching to this, she followed the thought back to Kana's mind.

And she slowed right down. They'd never linked before and Corvus was worried she might hurt her friend. So she sent a gentle though along the route the thought had come from - in Corvus' application of the process it was like travelling upstream.

'I'm OK.'

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

‘Not when you get out of this tank you’re not.’

Of all the ways of communications available to her she picked telepathy, as if the oh-so-great [member="Kian Karr"] was here to make it less exhausting on Kana! He wasn’t! It was just Kana, her stupid friend and the hum of her stupid ship as it jumped through hyperspace toward Ossus.

‘I haven’t slept in two days.’

Kana shakily got herself up from the floor and calmly approached the tank. She wanted to punch something. Had it not been for the fragility of glass she would most likely have punched the tank. Not that she actually had the energy to do as such but it was the thought that mattered.

‘Of all the stupid things you’ve-...’ Kana had to yawn. Hopefully those didn’t transmit through telepathy. ‘You’re an idiot.’

​

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus was sure Kana had received her message but at the moment her friend was like a radio – able to receive but not transmit. Had Corvus probed deeper, she could have read her friend’s thoughts but she hadn’t pushed that far.

But the situation had given Corvus an idea. Never one to let any circumstances get in the way of learning, being in an induced semi-coma wasn’t going to stop her either.

So she kept the connection open. ‘I cannot hear your thoughts at present, and I’ll not try to fully link yet, but this predicament has given me an idea. If we’re to communicate I need to help you master your already decent knowledge of Telepathy.’

‘There must have been times with a Jedi has sent messages into your mind. I just did. Think about these times. Think about how you felt. What were the circumstances. When you’re happy to proceed, think a very happy thought and I’ll know we can continue.’

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Of course, Kian shouldn’t have been there to make things less exhausting. He should have been there to make her know how to get through to her. Still, Corvus was being her same old self. Maybe bacta didn’t turn you into a brain dead slug after all, or maybe, just maybe she was getting better. It was certainly a comfortable thought.

It was hard to forget the sensation of having your mind probed by Kian. It had been uncomfortable to say the least. It had tickled her mind, almost quite literally. It had been as if someone was carefully poking at her mind with a long stick.

Kana leaned on the railing in front of the tank and buried her face in the palm of her hands. She let her head rest gently on glass of the tank. Her cheeks were dry, they didn’t seem to have been only a few hours ago. She sighed and kept pushing through her memories of times when she had been truly happy. Most of them were related to training at this point and nothing from before the order could really count as a happy memory. It was kind of pathetic when she truly thought of it. Though maybe it was simply her mind’s current state that clouded it all.

There was of course one memory but it felt strange to bring that up. However, it was the one memory she could think of. She went with it; thought on the details from the memory.

She thought of the sun, she wanted to remember it as a rather warm day. A woman was stumbling around looking lost. She had no idea where she was or what she had gotten herself into. Everything was alien, strange and new and she wanted to take in as much as possible but most of all she wanted to find her back to her room.

Kana chuckled. It was just about to begin.

The woman stumbled into another person. They both gave their excuses as to what had happened or rather why. Violet eyes, padawan braid, younger than her yet just a slight bit taller. It felt like ages ago yet that was the first person Kana had ever truly befriended. The same person was now inside a bacta tank in front of her and she had no way of knowing what was going to happen. Of course she was desperate for answers.

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus sensed the emotion. There was happiness - and then it was replaced by an even happier thought. She didn't seek the reason - that would be prying - but she at least knew they could begin. She reflected on the training Kian had given her and did her best to replicate it.

'Telepathy isn't a difficult task, at least not at its most basic level and I am confident you'll pick this up quickly. Images, simple words and even instincts can be conferred to someone by touching their mind with your own. But it's a one on one relationship. It's not like someone turning a radio on and everyone in the room can hear. It's more like having buds in your ears."

"I know you're tired but we must begin with meditation. Centre yourself. Seek the calm of the Force. Feel the motion of the water in the fish-tank.' Why did so many medical facilities think that having fish swimming about was therapeutic? But no matter, they would be useful now. 'Feel the movement of the fish. Stretch out with your senses. See how the water is chaotic and turbulent where the fish has swum, and yet soon becomes calm and still. Be that stillness.'

Corvus waited until the emotion of serenity was the dominant one.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana back away from the tank. Mood slightly brighter at the thought of her first day on Ossus. She didn’t open her eyes, they would spot her unconscious body and all would be lost again. Kana turned away from the tank to face the wall before sitting down. If there came a time when she had to open her eyes then at least it wouldn’t be as discomforting as a bacta tank.

Closing her eyes she felt herself almost drift off. It wasn’t anything a slap or two, or five to the face couldn’t fix but only barely so. Focusing on clearing her mind and letting the force flow freely through her felt like dreaming. Kana had forgotten about how meditation rejuvenates like that. While not exactly up to a hundred it provided enough energy to at least keep going.

Kana tried to find the calm in the water. She suspected it was more of a hypothetical thing but there was no need to say that. Not that it would matter, who would hear her? She tried to envision the waters as it found harmony in the chaos, just like the code told of. Maybe it was intentional of Corvus? One could never truly know.

Kana’s mind raced back to what Tora had said. A jedi finds harmony through the chaos. It happens to everyone yet it’s something a sith would never understand. Now there was another good memory. Her very first padawan and how proud she was of her.

Achieving calm at last Kana waited for Corvus to give further instructions.

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

'Good. Listen Kana, most Force sensitives could easily use telepathy if only they could come to accept that they could. We've talked about trusting the Force before.'

'You are calm and relaxed and that is good. Now single out one of the fish in the tank here and take your concentration solely to it. Once you are focused only that fish, you will feel its mind calling to you. You will sense emotions, desires, needs, instincts....follow the flow of those feelings back to its source....back to its mind. Pick the one that feels strongest to you. And go slowly. Speed is never a good thing in these matters.'

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana had belief in the force and not herself. Just as usual. She reached out with her mind for the Aquarium. There were several signatures inside of it, all of them just blissfully swimming around. Simple minded creatures with only one thing on their mind: Survival. Well, that and eat, sleep and whatever else needs they had.

She focused her everything onto the fish’s presence in an effort to connect to it. Though perhaps a little too rash in her attempt she calmed herself down in time to feel it reach back for her. It was like connecting a chain almost. She was in the fish, whether the fish was inside of her or not was anyone’s guess but she wanted to say no.

There wasn’t much to go on. The fish was relatively simple minded. What she was supposed to tell it was beyond her. The fish was feeling something, but what? Kana followed the chain a little and link by link she dug deeper into it’s mind slowly. Somewhere along the way she must have mistepped. The fish was alerted and she found herself hitting some sort of wall.

‘Hey, little guy. I mean you no harm. Nobody in this tank wants to do you any harm. Not even me.’

The fish calmed down and went back to it’s casual little swim. She had to admit, it felt strange talking to a fish. Maybe the next logical step would be cats. She shook her head and continued on her journey into the mind of a fish. Link by link she eventually reached the root of the need. It was hungry. Stretching out for the fish once more Kana had to make it do something.

‘There is a food dispenser in a small cave near the bottom. If you hurry you might get the food before the others do.’

It was a lie, even though a jedi wasn’t supposed to lie the code probably made exceptions for human-on-fish communications. Still, the fish fell for it as it hurried along toward the cave and to it’s great disappointment - or lack thereof since it’s a fish - there was no food. It went back to it’s idle swimming and Kana went back to waiting for instructions.

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

(OOC - Kana, I embarrassed myself by genuinely LOL whilst reading your last post)

Corvus sensed the fish in the tank. She could feel the one that Kana had connected with and she was already planting ideas in its head. Good, very good.

It was excellent that she was not only able to experience the creature's emotions, but also feeling the basis for the emotion....and had entered its mind and triggered a motivation of her own.

'You're already ahead of me. What you have done is the hardest part. You have entered a mind without damaging it or scaring it off. You were able to overcome its natural resistance. But you were gentle and a telepath's duty is to always be mindful of the damage we can cause by invading a mind violently.'

Corvus remembered the first time she'd consciously entered another's mind and so transmitted a sense of warmth and calmness between them. It should help Kana.

'Now animals or fish are much easier to access then were more advanced species such as humanoids - due to their sophistication. Entering the fish's mind was relatively straightforward.....entering my mind will not be. Take your time. I will try not to fight you, but even a receptive sentient mind will not just let you in - we all have natural defenses that we cannot control.'

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

She took a deep breath. It was time to connect the wires between her and her friend. The deep breath turned into a yawn and then into a few more slaps across the face. She was not going to fall asleep during the one part she had been looking forward to the most.

She reached out for Corvus’ mind. A part of her didn’t know what to do or how to act. What if she did something wrong and something catastrophic happened? She was already in a bacta tank for something stupid and catastrophic, what if Kana just made it worse?

Clearing her mind of the doubt she gave it a go anyway. Corvus had to know how much of an idiot she was. If that meant Kana had to learn something new to do it then so be it.

Making sure her mind was completely blank Kana eventually truly reached out for Corvus. This whole thing was about to reach another level of freaky.

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus focused on her breathing. Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out. She had to keep herself calm and relaxed - although the bacta tank was helping in this regard. She didn't want Kana to meet too much resistance.

It was more difficult to touch an alien brain then one of your own species he had found - but still human to human was no easy feat. But if Kana was patient and relaxed, she was confident she would succeed.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

She had to keep focus on connecting with Corvus. Let the two of them connect, which actually sounded really wrong. It was no time for such nonsense, Kana had a friend to reach who needed to know what was going on.

A small tendril emerged from Corvus and snatched on to Kana just like it had with the fish. Worry shouldn’t play into it but it did. It all felt so strange and the same lingering worry about irreparable damage remained.

She had to find her way… Somewhere in Corvus’ mind. A connection was made, Kana knew that much. She had yet to navigate a maze far more complex than a simpleminded fish.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus felt Kana link to one of her emotions. It was one of hope. So she strengthened it, to make the 'path' easier to follow. Corvus hoped with every fibre of her being that Kana would be able to achieve this task. It may not be the Jedi way not to trust, but for now it was emotions that Kana needed and Corvus slightly lowered the durasteel wall that kept emotions in check to let the burst of hope out to play.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

She felt stuck. While the connection was certainly there Kana found herself at a stand-still. The fish was easy to maneuver yet Corvus was like walking into a three dimensional maze. Not that she wished to discredit the complexity of Corvus’ mind but at this point a small clue would have been nice. Anything to help find the way to what she should do.

Her answer came in the small glimpse of an emotion that seemed to show itself. This one small tendril of… Hope. It was the one small part, that one emotion Kana had never given much thought to. The one emotion she had already convinced herself that there was none of, yet the one person who had needed her to have it was the one who kept it.

Kana grabbed a hold of the thread with all that she could. Even if it wasn’t her own hope it was hope and some hope was better than no hope. Slowly retracing what she did with the fish Kana pulled herself together and followed the lines as carefully as she could. She wanted to know the source of this. She just had to.

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

It took what seemed like hours, but was merely minutes and then she felt Kana in her mind.

'Hello Kana.'

Inside Corvus was smiling although Kana wouldn't be able to see it. But she would be able to 'feel' it now she was in Corvus' mind. She felt no pain, no forcefulness from her friend. She had entered her mind patiently and as unobtrusively as possible.

'Very well done, I didn't feel a thing. Now, let us see what you can do. I'm going to bring a memory closer to the surface of my mind. I want you to bring it forth. I was young...waiting to complete my first trial as a Padawan on Corellia. I was waiting outside a cave at dusk before entering it...see if you can find it.'

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Was that warmth? Was she happy? She was in a tank yet something about the entire thing made it feel like Corvus was smiling at her. The urge to open her eyes and look was great, but the assumed anticlimax would be too great. She would still be a floating vegetable in a jar of conservation fluid. Well, maybe not quite but the similarities would be striking.

At the mention of the memory Kana couldn’t help feel just a little bit confused. Was she actually supposed to find the memory of her trial? It was a strange idea, wouldn’t it be a bad memory? It would certainly be one if she was Kana. Then again, she wasn’t Kana, she was Corvus.

Carefully stepping along the path toward the memory to find that it wasn’t of the death. It was of the moments before. How she had been hopeful of her success in accomplishing the trial. It was strange that she hadn’t let it be tainted by what came next. The image of it all, while not vivid, was certainly enough to provide a better picture of it all. Kana quietly chuckled. Corvus sounded even younger.

‘Well, this is certainly me seeing… Something.’ Kana broadcast her message unknowingly. ‘Does this people can see my memories too? Oh no, no that’s no good. Definitely not good’

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus felt the wave of emotions wash over her as the images of her past come into the forefront of her mind. Kana had succeeded in bringing the memory out. It had taken a little time, which was to be expected, but it had been successful.

'I can hear your thoughts, yes. We are connected. But rest assured it is between only us. You could add others but that would have to be deliberate. And getting this deep into someone's mind cannot be done without you sensing it - fighting it. But I am getting ahead of myself.'

'And do I really look like a vegetable?' Corvus smiled in her mind.

'And yes, once linked, all thoughts are shared - not just the ones you want to show me - and vice versa of course. But this is only when we are linked. Normally you can only sense through Telepathy surface emotions and strong thoughts, not every thought.'

'If I tried to see your memories - even though we are linked - you would feel it. But again, we need to be patient. And yes, we were all younger once!'

'Now take some time to relax. Gather your strength. You've done very well so far....but what we are going to work on next will be very taxing. What we've done so far has been very gentle, very relaxed. It won't always be that way.'

'There are those among the Sith who choose to bend people to their wills. So far I have shown you how to work like a surgeon - with precision and care. This is the correct way. Those with less care will tear through a mind like shrapnel. The Sith are everything we are not. So, what we must work on next is defending your mind from them. Are you ready Kana?'

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

'No, not yet.' Kana sighed. 'Because you're an idiot.'

It had to be said, it really had to.

'I tried to tell you that before, I have for the last few hours. Loudly. I haven't slept in two days and I've never been more worried in my life. You're like the sister I've never had and you jumped out a window. When you get out of this thing you better pray the force has anti-slap measures. Several of them. In rapid succession.'

Kana could finally rest easy knowing that Corvus knew of the dangers outside her tank. Namely Kana herself.

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

'Oh, OK. So we're good then! For a minute I thought you might go all soppy on me. Consider me pre-slap-warned. And don't worry, I don't intend to make a habit of falling from great heights. That would be...crazy!'

'Now...are you ready? Relax and calm yourself.'

[member="Kana Truden"]