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Lehon - Jedi Temple


Kakuto Ryu

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Ads made his way back to his room. It was getting late and they would train early tomorrow. Turning off the lights as he entered, he headed straight for his room. He immediately crawled into bed and went to sleep. He woke up very refreshed; sleeping in a Jedi temple always helped him sleep. He got up and got ready for the day. He made his way through the lobby to the training room in time to follow behind Joreel.

 

"Hello, Master," he said, putting an unintentional emphasis on the word, "master," due to his excitement, as he entered the training room, a moment after Joreel.

 

((Thank God that this is a fantasy world, because at least Ads can get enough sleep, even if I can't ))

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Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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The bacta never came, however Adrian did offer to help. "Let me help you with that..." He had what appeared to be a small amount of ligquid substance- perhaps kolto. At any rate, the teen simply sought alleviation from the pain emanating from her forehead, therefore when the offer did come, she willingly accepted it.

 

Shortly after Adrian administered the medicine, Haloburner offered short words of appreciation, and a wryly smile. The teen then thanked Knight Joreel, gave him a short bow, sent a dismissive wave towards Ads’ direction and then exited the room.

 

Upon locating her chamber door, Haloburner retried to her bed- completely skipping out on dinner. The following morning, as though on cue, the Nabooian Padawan woke up. Thankfully, the pain that emanated from her forehead had completely vanished. Quickly moving out of bed, the blonde spent time in meditation, cleaned up and then headed to the training room.

 

Moments after entering the training room Halo bowed at the sight of Knight Joreel, and sent a wave towards Ads’ direction. The teen had nearly lost her equanimity the day before, and was rather perplexed about it. Today, however, she remained demur- hesitant to speak. A quick glance at the room revealed the third Padawan’s absence. The teen remained silent as she stood, awaiting her master's instructions.

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Sig courtesy of Sasori!

 

 

unless you're married you're never "stuck". Now, if you're married you can get divorced but,my friends, it's cheaper to keep her.
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Carefully and deliberately, Adrian extracted some of that precious kolto fluid into an eyedropper. It could not have been more than half a milliliter--when a medkit had run that low on supplies, every molecule that constituted the medicine was far too precious to be wasted.

 

It would be enough. Dr. Makaryk would make sure of that.

 

Most doctors, from wealthier systems where basic medical supplies existed in more abundance, would have slathered such a bruise in at least a few milliliters of solution before bandaging it. Adrian, however, never had the luxury of knowing how long limited medical supplies must be made to last, nor of predicting the demand that would be placed upon them days, weeks, or months from the moment. Even now, with a patient before him, Adrian could not be sure whether another person in his sight would also require medical attention because of some other unforeseen injury. With his supplies chronically beyond critically low, the doctor had no choice but to conserve them. As a result, overuse of anything seemed a foreign concept to him; he administered the fraction of a milliliter of kolto to Haloburner with unparalleled precision (unconsciously honed by the Force); the patient's skin immediately absorbed the tiny amount of liquid dropped upon it, as Adrian had carefully spread out that tiny dose across Halo's entire wound. Though the doctor was poorly equipped to do much more than dress and bandage the bruise, and lacked the knowledge and experience to heal it directly through the Force, even the small amount of medicine he had would accelerate the natural healing of the bruise by two to four days.

 

After he had finished bandaging Halo's bruise (with one of three bandages he had remaining), the newly-accepted padawan took the standard-issue supplies and credit chip his new master had just issued to his students. The comlink was obviously a far more powerful model than the hospital where he previously worked had been able to issue to him; instead of having a range confined to a couple hundred kilometers, his new com could broadcast a signal powerful enough to reach off-planet. Though an upgrade, the new issue caused Adrian to sigh. If only the Jedi who had first met him had loaned him that for a couple of weeks, he would have had no need to sacrifice his own ability to eat for two weeks, just to send a simple transmission...

 

He couldn't dwell on that, however. The nominal value loaded onto the credit chip was worth four months' of his old salary, so depressed had his home planet's economy been. Of course, things wouldn't be quite so dirt cheap here, prices being a bit more in line with the developed galaxy, but still, perhaps, the surgeon might be able to replace some of his exhausted medical supplies with it.

 

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At last, as Adrian went to his room, he could have some time free from distractions. At last, he could try meditation for himself. Earlier, the instructor had asked him to try to sense a bird's connection to the Force--and more indirectly, the energy inherent in such a connection. Adrian had vaguely sensed the bird's metabolism. Could he then troubleshoot his own, so that he might recover from the ravages of starvation more quickly?

 

He directed his attention inward and sought to attune himself to his body's biorhythms. Like the earlier meditation with the bird, the obvious vital signs such as heart rate and breathing stood out immediately, but those obvious indicators did not indicate what Adrian sought. What was his metabolic rate? Why was he so kriffin' exhausted even after rest, and how did he get exhausted so quickly after receiving nourishment from the tube feeding?

 

At the moment, the surgeon had no access to blood testing supplies, though glucose test strips might well have been of interest to him. But his metabolism certainly seemed depressed and sluggish. It had for most of the day, and this did not surprise him. His old home of Onderon had seen plenty of malnourishment cases; Adrian had never thought he would become one of them. But his experience did give him some idea of what to look for, as he attempted to utilize the Force to glean information on his body for the first time, largely repeating the exercise to 'sense' the bird earlier, only upon himself this time.

 

In any case of starvation, the body would ration the supply of glucose heavily. All available glucose would be consumed by the brain, as the brain could only use glucose under normal conditions, and the rest of the body would have to use other sources of energy, principally stored fats and protein from catabolized muscle tissue. Perhaps Adrian could have used a seer or healer right now, to guide him through this for the first time; Joreel's chosen specialty as a Guardian was probably ill-suited to the lessons Adrian sought at the moment. But Adrian didn't have those resources; he had only himself and his connection to the Force, not yet developed enough to pick out specific types of molecules as his body metabolized them. Nevertheless, the doctor could draw upon experience that other padawans in his situation did not have to help fill in the gaps.

 

That experience told him to focus on his brain--not necessarily the ephemeral 'mind' as Jedi would typically describe it, but the actual, physical structure of the brain, and how it used energy. Though Adrian had yet to learn to identify specific molecular structures (such as that of glucose) through the Force--such lessons, and such precision in the use of Force sensing, might well only be known by Jedi Masters--he could tell that his brain was metabolizing two different substances. That was not a surprise, either, for Adrian's knowledge informed him that in the condition of starvation, the brain adapted to utilize acetoacetate and its reduction byproducts for energy as well as the very limited supply of glucose. That could explain his persistent lethargy--that was far from an optimal condition of metabolism, but necessary to preserve the body's scarce resources in time of famine. But in what proportion did his brain utilize the two fuels? How severe was his starvation, and how much had he had the time to recover?

 

Though he could not identify the specific substances his brain consumed through the Force alone, and instead drew upon outside knowledge, Adrian could sense their presence and their consumption as the nature of the Force as an energy field flowing through all living things, or the presence of metabolism, was one of the first things Jedi learned. Most early lessons, however, did not attempt to quantify it as Adrian now did. The Force did not really lend itself to precision in such things, however, especially not to a beginner, but Adrian could distinctly tell that the brain used one of the fuels it consumed more than the other. It was the proportion Adrian wanted to know.

 

Due to his inexperience with using the Force as a measuring tool, Adrian could only estimate that proportion to one significant digit. But it was enough to come up with a 0.6 to 0.4 ratio, where the total of the two fuels equaled 1. Again drawing upon his medical experience, Adrian determined that after two weeks of starvation, his brain used six parts glucose to four parts acetoacetate.

 

That knowledge might well have caused Joreel's eyes to glaze over, let alone Halo's or Ads'. But with his brain continuing to demand all available glucose to restore a normal state, the rest of his body would remain hopelessly depleted. The rest of his body would receive vitamins and minerals, but little energy that did not come directly from existing stores of fat or muscle. It would take far more than a few hours of a feeding tube to recover that deficit, let alone when the instructor had promised a grueling day of training tomorrow that did not seem to take Adrian's condition into account.

 

Though Adrian had no idea how to call upon the Force to force a change to his metabolism--such ability again likely being the province of Jedi Masters--he had nonetheless obtained a very potent piece of information therefrom. Though he couldn't yet call upon the Force to alter his metabolism, the Force nevertheless provided him with information he could use to alter it indirectly, through his diet. He need not worry--for the time being--too much about consuming adequate fatty acids or proteins; the brain must recover before the body (and indeed, the 'food' he had received through the feeding tube had taken care of that anyway). He would need carbohydrates, and a lot of them, and ideally he would be consuming them in small amounts, but quite frequently, so as not to spike blood sugar out of limits even as he sought to restore normal equilibrium within his brain's metabolism as rapidly as possible. Normally, a starved patient would be treated somewhat more gradually, so as not to cause abrupt shifts in metabolism with undesired side effects, but Adrian, on the threshold of initiating Jedi training, had a vested interest in recovering his full capacity as quickly as possible.

 

The next morning, Adrian Makaryk showed up to class bearing more than ten pounds of colorful fruits from the cafeteria in his bag--as well as some glucose testing strips.

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Joreel was offput by the sudden appearance of Ads, but even more so by his greeting. While the Mandalorian was no stranger to people with various sexual preferences, Ads seemed to be a bit too obvious with his adoration of calling Joreel master. Hopefully this would not result in the Jedi Knight having to instruct the young padawan that the Jedi are not known to be involved in such things.

 

Soon thereafter, Haloburner has arrived into the room, and was quite animated, making a formal bow to Joreel, but waving like an enthused schoolgirl at Ads. Joreel wondered how he was going to keep them focusing on training if they continue to flirt and goggle at each other, especially when he was not the greatest example of such in his own past, given he was now engaged to his former padawan.

 

Joreel stood there with the two other padawans came in and Adrian had arrived to class, not looking in great health, but better than yesterday, probably due to the amount of native fruit he held in his arms. The colors seemed to brighten up the man, and Joreel was glad to see he was doing far better than he had seen from him the day before.

 

With all of them now ready for instruction, Joreel began to instruct his second through fourth padawans under his tutelage.

 

"You have all come here to become Jedi, and each of you has the strength and companionship of the Force within you to do so. It has been a part of you all your life, aiding you in life threatening situations. Making you more deft when needed. Improving your skills in everything you do. The Force ensured your survival so that one day you could be here, with people like yourself, learnign how to use the Force to benefit the galaxy at large.

 

"I know not all of us began this way, myself included. I am a Mandalorian. Born to the former Mandalore himself. I have killed people, I have waged war, I have done what many people fear from Mandalorians. But I was gifted, with something that my people knew in their enemies and rarely in their allies. I became attuned to the Force, I knew I had it, and I left my people to learn it. Thus, I have become the Jedi Knight in front of you today. A true story of someone who can forge a new identity out of the marred past. You all have that within you, should your lives have been as filled with shades of grey and dark as I had.

 

“I want you each to share your story. Who you are, where you come from, and why you decided to come to the Jedi Order and become Jedi yourselves. Do not reserve anything, what happened in your past does not determine your future, and we will not judge you for anything you had done. You are in the company of friends and allies.”

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Joreel seemed to be weirded out by Ads' greeting, based on the way he contorted his face after Ads called him, "master." Strange, Ads thought, I guess he doesn't like being called 'master'? Oh, I did say that kind of strange I guess...maybe...

 

Ads' thought was interrupted by Halo's entrance. After bowing to Joreel, she gave a wave to Ads. Figuring this was his chance to display his sexual proclivity to Joreel, he gave Halo an almost flirtatious wave. That way he would be sure to know how Ads felt.

 

Right?

V4yWwXl.png

Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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Adrian Makaryk, though not quite late, seemed the last person to arrive. The blood-glucose testing strips he'd sought had proven needlessly difficult to find for some reason, a strange reminder of his home hospital back on Onderon. Nevertheless, he had found them, and such testing strips would doubtlessly see frequent use today as the doctor sought to maintain his blood glucose level near an absorptive-state (of digestion) constant.

 

Accordingly, he gnawed on a piece of bright lime-green fruit (and there was plenty more where that came from) as he glanced in Halo's direction, to quickly determine the condition of her injury from the day before at a glance. Had the training been back home, he almost certainly would've been swamped with so many critical cases that a bruise from the day before would completely escape notice, but now he could pay more attention to injuries he could not have had the chance to treat before. From what he could tell, Halo's bruise seemed to be healing well enough. He gave a friendly nod in her direction.

 

The instructor asked for introductions. Hadn't he done this yesterday? Adrian finished munching his piece of fruit and then answered the question, though as he felt he would mostly repeat himself, he did so with a bit more brevity than normal.

 

"I am Dr. Adrian Makaryk. I hail from Onderon, and I seem to remember describing conditions there, and how the Jedi found me, yesterday. Although I might need to mention that the civil war I mentioned yesterday--the one that destroyed the civilian infrastructure and economy of my home so--was instigated by the Mandalorians. Nevertheless, I triaged them like anyone else, with neither fear nor favoritism. Perhaps that is why they didn't execute me, but that is in the past now--what matters is the detachment of Jedi now stationed there to try to rebuild a shattered healthcare system while I am trained. Otherwise, I would not have been persuaded to leave."

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A mischievous smile formed on Haloburner’s face, shortly after Ads gave her an almost theatrical wave. Shortly thereafter Adrian joined the group- with an assortment of fruits in tow. A nod was sent Halo’s way by him, and she in turn acknowledged the nod with a theatrical wave- albeit cautiously. Class was after all in session, and she didn’t want to interrupt or appear disrespectful.

 

Finally when Knight Joreel’s instructions to the class came Haloburner turned her full attention to the class. Listening as the doctor introduced himself to the class.

 

When the teen’s turn came, she repeated the same introductions she gave during the Jedi initiate class. Her hands, however, kept migrating to her forehead….If only she knew how to tap into the Force to heal her ailment.

 

“Haloburner L. is the name, but feel free to call me Halo. This is my second encounter within a Jedi class setting, but I have a feeling it will not be my last. Originally from Naboo, but I had the misfortune of spending my early teen years on streets of Coruscant's Undercity. I look forward to learning, and exploring the many facets of the Force/ the Jedi Order with you.”

 

The Nabooian suddenly felt a terrible urge- one that required a visit to the refresher. She will wait until proper introductions conclude and then excuse herself. On her way back from the refresher, the blonde will call for one of the Temple's droids to take a DNA sample, and then promptly return to the class. Perhaps if the class was not entirely made up of the opposite sex she’d feel much comfortable sharing her current situation...

 

Hopefully, Knight Joreel wouldn’t ask what took her so long. She’ll have to tell a long tale; something she was not very comfortable doing!

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Sig courtesy of Sasori!

 

 

unless you're married you're never "stuck". Now, if you're married you can get divorced but,my friends, it's cheaper to keep her.
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Halo looked unsure of herself even before she spoke. She was fidgeting, feeling the bruise that Ads had given her. Serves her right.

 

Oh crap, quickly flashed through his head when he realized that Halo had already finished. That meant it was Ads' turn. While he wasn't exactly unsure of himself--he knew his story better than anyone, after all--he wasn't exactly sure of all the details. Chronologically, it didn't fit. He seemed to remember training with the Jedi ten years prior, but he also remembered being 22 at the time, which was odd, because he was only 21 currently. He had to start speaking either way, and so he did.

 

"Uh, yeah, I'm called Ads-Gop Flif, but most people shorten it to just Ads. I've begun training a few times before, but each time my master...seemed to become catatonic. We would train for a while, and then they would simply stop. It was as if their brains had just quit controlling them. It was rather eerie. Although, I guess there was one time that didn't happen. That time, my master turned out to be a Sith Lord, who then took me to their emporer, who tortured and murdered me. That was pretty tough.

 

"I was a Captain in the Republic fleet a while back, I was there at the Battle of Ossus when the Republic, Black Sun, Hutts, and New Dawn clashed. That was a rough battle. Not long before that, I was captured by a bounty hunter and turned over to the Hutts because they thought I was a leader of a Jedi splinter group (which I wasn't: I was training to be a mainline Jedi). Oh, I was murdered by a Jedi Master once. I never really got an explanation for that one, although I do believe that he was a former member of that splinter Jedi group. And, uh, around that time, despite being merely a Jedi hopeful, I went to Coruscant's aid when its skyline was destroyed by its own planetary shields in a massive invasion. Along with a high-ranking Jedi, I fought a very powerful Mandalorian. After he incapacitated the other Jedi, I was forced to fight him one-on-one. I almost killed him, but in the end, he got the best of me.

 

"But perhaps the biggest thing in my life is the many times that I have blacked out for years at a time, usually waking up in the Last Call, on Coruscant. Each of those occurrences have also marked apparent, um, anachronisms in my life. My timeline seems to be off. Still haven't been able to figure that out, but I won't let it affect us!"

 

Ads did not continue from there, but there was a bit of an awkward pause, as though the others were expecting him to say more, so he mumbled a conclusive, "So, yeah..."

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Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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Joreel watched as Ads tried to wave at Halo as much as he could, trying to garner attention or something, the Jedi Knight could not tell. Perhaps he was just trying to get attention and his previous thoughts about the man were incorrect, time would tell, and for now, it seemed inconsequential to the greater instruction he was attempting to create for the three of them. The Jedi Knight's mind focusing back to the present he saw some preoccupation with the Padawans broke by Adrian.

 

When Adrian had finished his story Ordo felt a tinge of guilt at the words. He had recalled the world of Onderon when the clans were more united under his father's rule as Mandalore. On a trip to Dxun, he heard stories about how the Mandalorians once conquered that world and another time when they aided a Jedi to stop the Sith from attempting to dominate the galaxy. His father had never considered devastation of Onderon again. Joreel had at one point, seeign their resourcefulness as something that could be added to the Mandalorian culture. Still, he had changed and did not war to touch their planet, to hear it was being ripped apart again made the Mandalorian side of Joreel swell up and desire to take down whoever had done this travesty his father had worked to prevent. Perhaps this is why the Force had drawn him to instruct Adrian.

Soon thereafter Haloburner had spoken up about her past, but what she gave was scarce. Joreel now had a nickname to call her however, regardless of the few details on how she went from opulent Naboo to the undercity of Coruscant. She was still here, ready for instruction, and her desire to learn would take her far.

 

Ads, who had a full name Joreel thought was well more than a mouthful and Joreel thought he was quite right to shorten it. Then came his story, and it was one of the oddest and weirdest tales Joreel had yet heard in his life, however it was remarkably common sounding with all the rebirths and the like. It nearly took all of what the Jedi Knight had to keep his composure and keep from laughing and the dark humor of Ads' past.

 

"You each seem to have had quite interesting and unique backgrounds. I appreciate the honesty of all of you when talking about this. We need to trust each other in the Jedi Order, keeping no secrets harbored, only then can we work as a unit and truly know each other causing an ability for us to work together in a way no Force could hope to defeat the three of you."

 

Joreel paused and then sat down with his legs crossed and his hands resting on his knees and gestured for his students to do the same.

 

"Now, I know you all have had instruction before now, each ending suddenly without any reason and I believe, short of death itself and even beyond that, that I will complete your training and make you all Jedi Knights. You have my word on that. That said, all of you have had different levels of instruction. Ads has probably had the most, but based on your timeline issues, how much you retain is a mystery, proabbly even to yourself. Adrian, I saw you concentrating the Force upon yourself, a quite advanced skill, very useful, though how you have fared in other areas remains to be seen. And Halo...I have no idea what you have covered aside the fact you have covered some things.

 

"That said, I believe it is best we start from the ground up, covering all the basics before we move forward to the more advanced paces of the training and finally your trials. I know much of this will seem remedial to those of you who recall it, so please be paitent while we go over these things."

 

Joreel easily called the Force to him, closing his eyes and breathing in deep allowing himself to feel full, at peace, ever muscle in his body, every organ, every bit of him could be felt, and then the world around him, the room, the plants and shrubery, and the Padawans themselves.

 

"The Force is the most versatile and powerful living thing in the universe. It connects everything in the universe together, and to those who can live with it in a symbiotic nature, like the Jedi, we can accomplish great things through the Force. I remember the first time I felt the Force, the first time I could feel the breeze and realize there was no cloud in sight, I felt the wildlife near me fear the sight of me, and the plants encouraged by the light of the sun above. Nothing in the world felt quite so incredible up to that point in my life, and I am sure you all could have said the same. The Force is a blessing, and we must use this ally as it was meant to be used for the Light, the Good, to do what is right so that the galaxy may be better for our protection of it."

 

Joreel opened his eyes and looked over the Padawan's, feeling the Force flow slightly through them, that open connection that is always there and ties them to the Force itself.

 

"Tell me, how many of you can feel my presence right now?

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Halo returned to the class to a rather interesting tale from Ads. She wasn't quite certain what to do with what was said or even how to respond. Though her eyes roamed in the general direction of where the voice(s) emerged, her hands moved carelessly over her forehead. Oh to think that she could have avoided the kriffin inquiry...

 

When Knight Joreel finally moved on to an actual lesson, the teen sighed a breath of fresh air. Haloburner telekinetically beckoned a cushion to her hand and then sat on it. Closing her eyes, she essentially mimicked Knight Joreel's actions. A quick glance at the blonde will reveal her chest huffing and puffing as she slowly inhaled and exhaled- allowing herself to be united one with the Force.

 

Finally when the male knight's poignant question came: ["Tell me, how many of you can feel my presence right now?"] Haloburner felt obligated to be the first responder.

 

"I feel a strong presence" came Halo's unequivocal yes response to Joreel's inquiry. Of course it was done through the Force, as she preferred to show Knight Joreel what she knew, rather than give a telling.

4q1r2v.png

Sig courtesy of Sasori!

 

 

unless you're married you're never "stuck". Now, if you're married you can get divorced but,my friends, it's cheaper to keep her.
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Seeing as no one else had responded, Ads decided to answer first.

 

"I can feel your presence, though I wouldn't be able to identify it as being explicitly your presence," Ads replied, wanting to be honest, but deep down he knew he wanted to impress the other padawans.

V4yWwXl.png

Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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Halo didn't answer Joreel at all. (At least not outwardly, but as the teen had responded through the Force, Adrian could not detect it.) Ads' response came, short and perfunctory.

 

Adrian settled in, nibbling the piece of fruit he held in his hands. All of this was new to him, very new, and he had yet to grow used to it. He hadn't been instructed in the ways of the Force before, really, and yesterday, driven by the lingering aftereffects of his malnourishment, he'd had to apply the barest of instruction in ways that few instructors could expect. That hardly made the exercises he'd practiced yesterday second-nature to him. In fact, his ability to sense his environment through the Force (and it alone) scarcely existed yet at all, even though his occupation had required him to be a very observant person and he had had to eviscerate the Grandmaster himself for not being sufficiently observant. He couldn't 'feel' Joreel's 'presence' at all. At least not as casually as the other students did.

 

Unlike Ads, Adrian would actually have to put some effort into answering the instructor's question.

 

Did the instructor wish for him to 'sense' him like he had 'sensed' the bird the day before? Yes, yes, that must be it. Well, this would take a few minutes, during which time the eldest pupil would remain quiet as he withdrew into himself to meditate in the only way he knew how. It was certainly a clunky type of 'sense,' at least at this early stage of utilization, even though it opened Adrian's mind to something he hadn't quite been able to sense before--at least not quite like this--the biorhythms of other living creatures. Let alone himself.

 

He first focused on himself, for the instructor's question hadn't seemed particularly urgent--and no, he could not sense any difference in his condition now compared to last night. (In reality, his brain had started to recover from its previously famished state, but the change was not yet large enough for his inexperienced and comparatively unattuned senses to quantify.) Well, Adrian found that disappointing, but he couldn't really expect to fully recover in one night, could he? He quickly moved on; it did not take him long to 'find' the others in the room, even with his eyes closed, even when they remained quiet.

 

Adrian could sense three other organisms within the confines of the room, or at least their respective metabolisms. One of them seemed comparatively small, not really on the brink of starvation as Adrian had been, but like it ate as little as possible to get by. That one must be Halo, for Adrian had noticed she seemed a bit thin. The other two both seemed quite similar. Adrian strained to tell Ads and Joreel apart in this little exercise, for they both had similar builds and metabolism, it seemed.

 

But Joreel had been thinking and reflecting. A lot.

 

Adrian couldn't 'read' the thoughts. Not at all. His training in telepathy and mind-reading amounted to exactly zero class hours, zero minutes, and zero seconds. But that little three-pound organ of the brain certainly could use a lot of energy; twenty percent of the energy utilized by the entire body was fairly usual for humans. But if the human brain found itself in heavy use, that proportion of energy used to the rest of the body could go up. By a lot. Up to about half.

 

This difference, Adrian could sense through the Force. One had apparently been thinking, in heavy contemplation. The other had not (at least not much, anyway).

 

Hmm...Adrian wondered which one was which. It probably wasn't difficult to figure out. Who would have reason to contemplate the nature of the universe--experienced Jedi, or young, boyish student? Yes, Adrian could differentiate the two presences alright--if not after a lot of effort and thinking of his own.

 

But he still wouldn't answer Joreel's kriffin' question. At least not directly, for he had a question of his own. No one could ever rightfully accuse Adrian of being unobservant or ignorant.

 

"Master Joreel, did you by chance leave something unsaid?"

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It took a few moments, but he could feel the students reaching out with the Force, using their known talents, or attempting to push them for the First time to connect with Joreel, who sat there, allowing the Force to pass through him and be easy to detect by the students. Each other the students responded in turn showing off both their prowess in the force, and their responses came in turn.

 

He could feel Halo's presence grow in the Force, outstretching across the room, until it met his soon after, She responded in a way that while sounding confident, still didn't give a deifinitve answer of if she felt him, or another strong presence in the area, which given the amount of active plant life surrounding this place, could not be him, but he would assume she meant that she felt him in the Force.

 

Ads simply blurted it out after almost no time at all, given his training with the Force before, this was not unexpected. The way the Force rushed it's connection was akin to a child clutching onto it's father's leg. It was as if he made no effort at all to do so. His previous training must have covered this all too well.

 

The Doctor had a very different response though, while Joreel could feel the Padawan reach out with the Force and connect to the Jedi Knight, it was in a very different way than the other Padawans. While the others were satisfied with broadly reaching and assuming they had managed to find Joreel, Adrian did quite a bit more. He was detailed and tuned his feeling in the force to manage more acute things, as he could feel the Padawan's presence narrow down from the area all around Joreel, to just the areas that would aid him in distinguishing his presence from any others he felt in the area, which Joreel could also see, Adrian had latched to Ads as well. The skill work involved in this sort of sensory was nearly at the level Joreel himself possessed when he took his trials, with a bit of further instruction, he was sure Adrian would be ready for anything that required quick thinking and sensory Force skill, something that would surely come up in his trials.

 

"Master Joreel, did you by chance leave something unsaid?"

 

Joreel was taken aback by the question. Force Sensory was usually not questioned, but Adrian was so inquisitive, which him being a doctor made sense, that he was seeing past the obvious and following orders, and truly trying to understand the Force, and ascertain the next level of knowledge right before Joreel was ready to teach it.

 

"I am surprised you are the only one to think so Adrian. While I didn't leave anything unsaid, I never said what purpose this served, why this matters, why we as Jedi need to train this ability more than any other we possess."The Jedi Knight opened his eyes and stared at his pupils, his eyes darting to each in turn to make sure their attention was on him.

 

"We are at war, a constant state of war, with a group of Force Users that seek to kill us, and in the case of Ads and myself at the very least, had killed us on some occassions, though through the various methods the Jedi have we stand here today. The Sith, and other nefarious enterprises seek to kill each and every one of you regardless of where your skill in the Force lies. You must be ready for them and the only way you ever will be is the feel their presence in the Force before they have a chance to stab you in the back.

 

"What you have done so far, was good, but I don't feel as if you all have it down just yet. It isn't enough to sense someone is there, you need to be able to feel different individual presences, and sort out who is who, recognizing structure, heartbeat, and the many things that make that person that person."

 

Joreel breathed in deeply and looked at his padawans again.

 

"When I reach out my presence to you, you all should feel it, a specific feeling different than if you were to feel each other in the Force. In turn, what I would sense of Adrian of Halo and of Ads would be different as you are each unique in the Force."

 

The Jedi Knight reahced out to each of them, and allowed them to feel how his presence felt. After a few moments he receeded his presence to what it normally is when he wasn't meditiating or focusing on anything. Joreel pressed a few buttons on his wrist communicator, and two more Jedi came in from a nearby room and stood next to where Joreel sat. The Mandalorian stood up as well, and took a wad of fabric from one of the Jedi, which he showed to the Padawans.

 

"You will be blindfolded, shuffled around, spun, until you have no sense of direction, and then, I want you to pick me from the other two Jedi here. When you find me, I will know. Words are not required."

 

The two Jedi and himself each took a blindfold and approached the students. Joreel blindfolded Halo while the other Jedi blindfolded Ads and Adrian. After a few second, Joreel and the other Jedi shuffled them throughout the room each to a differnet place than they were, and spun them around. Once they were thoroughly directionless, Joreel and the other Jedi placed themselves surrounding the Padawans, standing in a triangle around them. He stood there and waited, not allowing his voice, or the command of the Force to speak telepathically to them, to give away his position.

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((Joreel knows about what’s getting ready to transpire….Character arc for Halo…))

 

As Haloburner has come to expect, Ads responded to Knight Joreel’s question. His response, however, sounded a tad overly confident which made the blonde teen wonder about Ads’ story…The one he had just shared with the group.

Adrain, the elder Padawan, on the other hand remained silent. Moments later he broke that silent with a question. One that greatly impressed the instructor; enough to warrant a direct response to the doctor’s inquiry.

 

A lengthy rhetoric followed Adrian’s question, at which point the female padawan opened her eyes and turned her gaze on to Joreel. Try as she may, Halo’s focus was not on the words being uttered by the Jedi Knight. Moments later Halo’s focus returned to the class as Joreel gave further instructions:

"You will be blindfolded, shuffled around, spun, until you have no sense of direction, and then, I want you to pick me from the other two Jedi here. When you find me, I will know. Words are not required."

 

This should be easy, thought Halo as she watched the two new arrivals take a blindfold and then proceeded to blindfold the class. Ads and Adrian were to be blindfolded by the two new arrivals as Joreel worked on the teen padawan. While the male Knight blindfolded Halo, his sheer presence alone overwhelmed the teen. There is no emotion, there is peace- she reminded herself in the words of Odan-Urr. Even so, the feeling remained as she proceeded with the task at hand. She stood confidently while Joreel spun her around. Again, Haloburner felt a keen emotion as the man in front of her continued to spin her around until she lost all sense of direction.

 

Breathing in a deep breath, the Nabooian Jedi paused for a moment beckoned the Force around her, and then proceeded to find Joreel amongst the other Jedi. Like a needle in a banta stack, Halo quickly located Joreel’s position. She didn’t need to tirelessly on that task, as she simply allowed her senses to lead her to that peculiar scent Joreel emanates. Blindfold still intact, Halo softly moved her feet, in the direction of Joreel. When she finally reached close enough sh stopped, leaving a healthy room between them. With a graceful, but yet firm voice the teen broke her silence:

 

“Knight Joreel is standing in front of me.”

 

As for the other Jedi and Padawans, Halo couldn’t tell where they stood, nor was she concerned about that. At least not this very second.

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unless you're married you're never "stuck". Now, if you're married you can get divorced but,my friends, it's cheaper to keep her.
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"What you have done so far, was good, but I don't feel as if you all have it down just yet. It isn't enough to sense someone is there, you need to be able to feel different individual presences, and sort out who is who, recognizing structure, heartbeat, and the many things that make that person that person."

 

Oh, dear, Adrian, completely untrained in and thus incapable of telepathy, thought to himself.

 

The instructor doesn't mean DNA, does he?

 

Heartbeat was scarcely a unique identifier; everyone in the room was within a normal range. The notion of 'structure' seemed oddly vague; humans were more similar to each other than different (otherwise they would not be the same species, and they wouldn't have their own anatomy classes in med school). He very obviously could not yet sense the thoughts of others, for he hadn't been trained in Jedi mind techniques yet. His senses were attuned to metabolism, but when the instructor stopped lecturing and allowed the new surrogates to come in, his brain activity would recede to normal and he would blend in with the crowd. Even when Joreel reached out to the students, Adrian's nascent senses, attuned to something completely different (and more specific) missed what to look for. Therefore, DNA seemed the only obvious "unique" identifier to the doctor-turned-padawan.

 

Only sequencing the DNA of everyone within the room using the Force alone, and comparing and contrasting, would have been a tall order for a Jedi Master, let alone a newbish padawan who had just arrived yesterday.

 

"I'm doomed!" Adrian blurted out, before seeking to finish some final bites of his piece of fruit before the disorientation cycle. The student was correct, too. He was doomed. So very doomed.

 

Two strange hands clamped upon the doctor's shoulders. He spun around of his own accord, acting almost by reflex, as if an Onderon gangster presently attacked him. But he wasn't under attack, and his arm, which had begun to swing to knock his would-be attacker away, suddenly froze as the doctor stayed himself. One of the new Jedi blindfolded him, shoved him, spun him around, and pretty much did everything possible to disorient the student...leaving poor Adrian thoroughly disoriented with a hopelessly impossible task.

 

Deep breaths. The doctor calmed himself, but he didn't know where to begin. He tried to bring his thoughts and senses into focus, but he had hopeless expectations. Second-day padawans weren't supposed to be able to tell molecules apart, let alone simultaneously sequence the genomes of five people (the two other students, the instructor, and the two other Jedi who had entered), compare them, and pick one of them out. By now, the instructor had had the chance to blend his activities in with the others, as he'd helped mix the students up, and Adrian's senses regarding metabolic patterns alone would not provide sufficient differentiation between everyone present.

 

Adrian tried. He really did. He meditated, trying to sharpen his senses well, well below a cellular level--which he should have done when Joreel had earlier reached out with his presence (he hadn't had sufficient time then, before Joreel withdrew it again). The night before, he'd been able to sense his own brain burning two distinct different types of molecules, though he'd had to draw upon outside expertise to identify them. Chromosomes were larger than those molecules, much larger. At least Adrian could identify Halo by her possession of the double X in the twenty-third pair. But beyond that, he completely lacked the precision, or even the processing power, to do what he thought needed to be done. And even what he had done seemed to burn out his meager resources, as his brain tried in vain to refine his senses into something capable of sequencing billions of amino acids per second, a wholly unrealistic expectation that just wasn't happening.

 

The doctor had failed, miserably, and now his senses alerted him to something else. Something far more important. He felt lightheaded. Very lightheaded.

 

Adrian knew when to stop. This exercise was over--the padawan quickly reached up and ripped his blindfold off. He needed to see what he was doing, and he needed that now. Frantically, upon regaining his sight, he reached for his bag and quickly ingested more fruit. So much for the doctor's notion of keeping his blood glucose constant--he had managed to tax his mind so heavily that his brain had exhausted the available supply within a moment.

 

He very obviously hadn't been able to tell which of the other people was Joreel before he'd had to rip his blindfold off. He had failed, and done so quite spectacularly.

 

This was all so kriffing embarrassing...

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Ads was disoriented by all the blind spinning he did. He tried to remember which way was which, but that effort was futile.

 

Well, there's only one way to do this now, he thought.

 

Ads could sense all five people, but it was difficult to tell who was who. He was, actually, quickly able to tell where the presences were. He knew where everyone was, but not who was who. It was almost like he could see where everyone was. Almost. It wasn't a second sight, but it was, perhaps, the visual equivalent of a word being on the tip of the tongue. So close, yet so far.

 

After reflecting on the presences, Ads was able to distinguish between the padawans and the other Jedi. The others were definitely stronger in the force, and felt almost above the padawans. Not that they necessarily thought themselves superior, but they simply were hierarchically superior. Of the three, one felt less instructive, though, and more as though he was dragged into this. He was definitely not Joreel. But the other two...Ads would have to try to dive deeper into sensing them.

 

Just when he began to do so, Halo blurted out, "Knight Joreel is standing in front of me.” Once he heard this, he was able to really tell the difference between the two remaining presences, and it seemed that Halo was correct. But, Ads was disappointed, as he did not have the chance to finish on his own. While he could have postulated that the man near Halo was Joreel (as he had spun her around), it was different to be straight up told where Joreel was.

 

"Thanks for the help," he sighed. He knew that kids her age were prone to blurting out answers when told not to (hell, even people Ads' age did that, and there wasn't really that much of an age gap), so he couldn't really get mad at Halo, but it did serve to illuminate the maturity gap bridged in the few years of the stage of life across which they stood from each other.

 

Ehh, at least she's hot.

 

Crap. She reads minds.

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Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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Joreel rushed over to Adrian when he had ripped off his blindfold, lookng grey tinged as he scoured his bag for resources. The attempt he had made to sense Joreel was far beyond what he should have done, far beyond even Joreel's ability to do. The Doctor had tried to logically diagnose which was Joreel, without using common sense, or even the Force to it's simplest nature and ability. Adrian would need some help overcoming the mind he had so keenly trained all these years to accept the Force, and for that he would require special instruction the others did not.

 

"Ads, Halo, you are dismissed for the afternoon," he called over his shoulder, noticing the time had gone by faster than he had anticipated, "go to the cafeteria and get something to eat and then head outside about a mile east of this place, there should be a clearing with some scattered rubble. Wait there for Adrian and I to arrive."He knelt beside Adrian, who was still downing one of the many fleshy tropical fruits in his bag, regaining his energy as if he just had been in hand to hand combat situation. Instead of waiting for the man to look up at Joreel, the Mandalorian Jedi sat next to Adrian as he ate, the only sound in the room being from Adrian's teeth gnawing into the fruit.

 

"If you are truly looking to regain strength you need some protein," Joreel said kindly as he pulled a wrapped protein bar from his equipment belt and held it in front of Adrian, hoping he would take it, "they taste bad, but they get the job done. I'm sure being a doctor you know all about horrid tasting stuff."

 

Joreel allowed himself to laugh a barking laugh and then spoke again.

 

"I think you are overthinking about the Force, it is a common issue for students who are not children. Trust me, I failed at first as well. I tripped over myself when trying to learn how to run with the Force to aid me in speed, all sorts of injuries hit me when I first became Force Sensitive. You, are not alone. You are just overthinking how to use the Force.

 

"It isn't about trying to find out what my hair looks like with the force, the rigidity of my skin, or for you as a doctor, my specific genetic identifiers. No, we each have a presence in the Force, an aura, a soul. Something unique that identifies us from every other Force User in the universe. It just requires you to have faith in the Force, to use it instead of your mind as a tool, to reach out with it," he said pausing as he reached a hand to place on Adrian's shoulder, and with it a heat, as the will of the Force which Joreel commanded seeped into Adrian, seeping throughout his body, healing what was damaged, and aiding him to feel and view the Force that was strongly present in this room.

 

"I have high hopes for you Adrian. Ads and Halo have some experience in these matters are are taking their skills for granted. But you, you have the potential to truly appreciate the capabilities the Force has given you, and you will become a fantastic Jedi for it."

 

Ordo stood up and offered his hand to his Padawan.

 

"C'mon, let's go meet the others outside."

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By the time Joreel could even reach for a protein bar to give to Adrian, the padawan had already scarfed down a piece of fruit, and he'd started to bite into another. The doctor examined the proffered protein bar with a quizzical look. Of course, Adrian had familiarity with protein bars, and in the medium and long term, Joreel was right. In the short term, however, protein would do little for him. It was almost always slow-digesting, the human brain was incapable of metabolizing it directly (though other organs could), and it took time for the body to break protein down into fuel that the brain could use.

 

But neither would the protein bar harm him, and as long as he waited a few minutes (so as not to interfere with the present uptake of carbohydrates), the mucky-tasting cardboard would still benefit him. The doctor would have to be a fool to turn it down entirely.

 

Slowly, the doctor took it, though he was in no rush. He did, however, have to explain. "In the long-term, you are right; I've lost around ten kilos and it will take ample protein to recover my full strength. In the short term...let's just say my brain experienced a sudden demand for glucose that could not be met by a completely depleted glycogen reserve. The brain, unlike other organs of the body, can only use glucose for its metabolism, or in the case of starvation, it can adapt to use acetoacetate and its byproducts from protein breakdown--but that is a long and highly inefficient process. Otherwise, the brain would do that regularly, instead of as a last resort during starvation. What you saw was something like diabetic shock, when my brain demanded the release of something that just wasn't there--for which immediate treatment is the intake of fast-digesting carbohydrates."

 

After finishing his second piece of fruit--and then starting to patiently nibble upon the protein bar given him, the doctor lightly reflected further upon what his master had told him. Aided by Joreel's soothing intervention through the Force, Adrian gradually recovered from his dizziness.

 

"I will likely be vulnerable to such episodes, much like a diabetic, until my body has the opportunity to rebuild the glycogen reserve necessary to regulate blood glucose on its own," Adrian explained. "Which was why the medical droid advised me to stay put and rest for a few days." At this point, Adrian flashed Joreel a wan smile. "But then I was informed I was missing out on instruction, and no stranger to exhaustion am I."

 

This constituted the first real, concrete attempt of an explanation (that Adrian could identify) of just what, exactly, a Force presence or signature was. Sure, earlier he'd been told that the Force connects everything in an energy field, but that hadn't given him much to go on when trying to identify specific people through it. Though his instructor no doubt thought his student lacked common sense through it, the student had never learned anything else. Adrian had been forced to try to extrapolate from what he knew--and had been caught unprepared trying to put the extrapolation into practice.

 

But Adrian couldn't read that judgement from his instructor's mind; Joreel had merely told him he'd overanalyzed the exercise. But for now, the exercise seemed merely something the instructor wished to teach him. At the moment, Adrian had legitimate medical need to try to divert the lesson elsewhere.

 

"I hate to go off-topic, but given what just happened, I hope you understand. Is there any way to use the Force for energy directly, like the body would metabolize glucose? Might help with these wild swings and shocks until my body recovers its own buffer systems."

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"Ads, Halo, you are dismissed for the afternoon. Go to the cafeteria and get something to eat and then head outside about a mile east of this place, there should be a clearing with some scattered rubble. Wait there for Adrian and I to arrive."

 

Me, Adrian and me. You wouldn't say wait for I. Gosh.

 

When Ads was done being a condescending prick within his head, he turned to Halo.

 

"Well, you figured that out quickly," Ads said. "Want to go grab some food with me?"

 

Ads immediately realized how stupid that question was, seeing as they were already going to go to the same place, anyway. He couldn't really tell if he was blushing, but it was pretty obvious that he was to anyone who looked at him.

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Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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Joreel sat and listened as his Padawan explained his medical diagnosis for his reasons for ingesting tons of fruit, explaining the metabolism of his brain and how it required high levels of glucose for short term recovery. While a good plan, Joreel was not sure how effective it was. Short term is fine, but he would need Adrian healthy long term if he were to even make the attempt to make it through his trials.

 

"I hate to go off-topic, but given what just happened, I hope you understand. Is there any way to use the Force for energy directly, like the body would metabolize glucose? Might help with these wild swings and shocks until my body recovers its own buffer systems."

 

The Jedi Knight put his hand to his chin thinking for a moment about his apprentice's question. He was no medic, that was obvious enough, he was a Mandalorian warrior, very few of his people knew anything about medicine, and they were only surgeons, not physicians. However, he did know quite a bit about the Force and it's application in the healing process. He had used it when he arrived here to help recover himself from muscular distrophy after his long comatose. He was sure the Force could be amplified in the same way for Adrian to allow him a speedier recovery from his malnourishment.

 

"Hold still," he said politely to the Doctor, as he sat down crossing his legs as he had done before, and called the Force to him and enveloped it around Adrian overwhelming his body with the Force's essence and power. Joreel concentrated, trying to see the basic structure of the man's body and see where he might be able to use the force to make his body absorb the nutrients and repair what had been damaged at a larger rate.

 

"The Force is more powerful than a diagnosis of pills and supplements, it can heal without the need for long waits and," he paused as he finally found the damage throughout Adrian's taxed body and began to allow the Force to flow through it, working like a magic snake oil cure repairing the damage that years of malnourishment had done to him, "it does not need to target direct cells, or be used as energy to absorb directly into you, it can just heal what is hurt, mend what is broken."

 

Joreel worried that the simple words may not be enough for his padawan, but he felt that he would grasp it when the Jedi Knight withdrew his strength in the Force from Adrian, and his body felt recuperated and soon enough, the Mandalorian Jedi did just that.

 

"You will still have to eat, but your body should be close to what it should be at peak health now. A dip in one of the bacta tanks tonight should do the rest I believe," Joreel said a bit more breathlessly as he wiped some sweat from his forehead, realizing now how exerting the power of healing through the Force had been. Joreel was no master at it, and he grabbed a fruit from Adrian's bagful and took a bite.

 

"How do you feel now Adrian?"

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The elder Padawan’s words rang in Halo’s mind even as she stood in front of Knight Joreel. Though the words were uttered prior to the teen been spun and disoriented- momentarily- the doctor’s voice remained very audible in Halo’s head. Like a broken record "I'm doomed!" kept repeating in the female Jedi mind….

 

Still standing in front of Knight Joreel, the teen Padawan patiently waited for the next set of instructions. Her blindfold, however, remained intact- though she was very intone with her immediate environment.

 

While waiting, Ads’ audible voice filled the room: "Thanks for the help." –Followed by a rather lengthy sigh which confirmed Halo’s suspicions. It was Ad’s thoughts she’d caught earlier… Well, there's only one way to do this now, Smiling, she relished in the short victory she’d won.

 

Unlike Ads, Adrian remained hidden in the Force- save the words he uttered earlier- "I'm doomed!".

 

Moment’s later, Halo heard someone chewing something, followed by the smell of a fruit. It was then that the girl realized she hasn't had anything to eat since her arrival. Must be the doctor- at it again, she thought. That suspicion was confirmed upon Knight Joreel’s dismissal of the class.

 

"Ads, Halo, you are dismissed for the afternoon," …"go to the cafeteria and get something to eat and then head outside about a mile east of this place, there should be a clearing with some scattered rubble. Wait there for Adrian and I to arrive."

 

Disappointment filled the female Jedi face, as she proceeded to remove her blindfold. In the process of doing so, she ripped the bandage covering her injury. Well at least Adrian needs the attention… thought the blonde, as she made the effort to head towards the door. Ads by that time was heading towards Halo. She caught another fleeting thought: Me, Adrian and me. You wouldn't say wait for I. Gosh. This time Halo coughed out loud, as though the cough would distract Ads.

 

It appeared the cough worked as Ads turned to the teen, and then proceeded to speak. "Well, you figured that out quickly,"

“mhm” came the Naboian’s quick response while Ads moved on to ask her to lunch. “Well, truthfully I’m sorta sweet on- ahh never mind. Yes, I’d like that…” came Haloburners response not even hinting to the fact that they were both ordered to eat at the cafeteria. “…lead the way,” she added all the while ignoring the sudden change on Ads’ cheeks.

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unless you're married you're never "stuck". Now, if you're married you can get divorced but,my friends, it's cheaper to keep her.
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"Hmm?" Adrian found himself confused by the sheer simplicity of Joreel's answer, perhaps not surprising for someone with almost no medical background attempting to explain the Force to someone whose understanding of it came almost solely from a medical dictionary. But some things were probably best experienced instead of explained.

 

Joreel reached out to heal his student, trusting the Force to heal the student's injuries. Adrian vaguely sensed his master's soothing energy reverberating through him, and it became clear to the doctor that his master thought him more injured than he really was. He'd suffered from a couple weeks of acute starvation, not years of chronic malnourishment. Though that left him depleted of the reserves his body would normally use to regulate blood sugar and appetite, and about ten kilos of muscle weaker than he had been at his peak, Adrian had not deteriorated to the point of chronic illness for want of vitamins and minerals. But Joreel seemed undeterred, trusting the Force to do whatever it needed to do, even if he didn't necessarily believe the doctor's own words.

 

Strangely, Adrian became even hungrier. That seemed a problem, for he was by now consuming his third piece of fruit since the episode. Why no satiation? If nothing else, the volume should start filing his stomach by now. The apparent contradiction between what was and what should be left the padawan more confused than ever.

 

Adrian, seeking answers (and not sure if Joreel could provide them with much specificity, for healing clearly wasn't his specialty), turned his own nascent senses inward, similar to the meditation he had done before. This time, however, he did not focus his attention narrowly, but instead sought knowledge of his whole body. When the student did this, the meaning of Joreel's words, "It does not need to target direct cells, or be used as energy to absorb directly into you, it can just heal what is hurt, mend what is broken," became much more apparent.

 

Digestion and nutrient absorption had accelerated greatly. The padawan sensed some activity in his liver--the beginnings of glycogenesis. As Adrian had stabilized his brain's access to energy with his quick intake of fruit, his body now attempted to store the remaining sugars absorbed from the fruit as glycogen in the liver, which normally took hours. But whatever the instructor was doing--probably not even fully realizing it, as he seemingly expected the Force to do its own work--accelerated that process to take place in mere moments. Adrian suddenly realized why he'd become hungry...

 

"You mean the Force is a catalyst??" There was no way that the human body could recover glycogen reserves this quickly on its own. And yet...that was precisely what Adrian needed to heal, to restock the buffer that kept a healthy person's blood sugar from falling below acceptable levels. Adrian looked again at his bag of fruit--about fifteen pounds' worth. Somewhere between four and five thousand kilocalories most likely--or put another way, sufficient energy to restore his glycogen levels to about those of a typical human male. He could then worry about eating more protein and the longer-term recovery that his master expected, with his more immediate needs met. The present binge would certainly allow him to stay involved until the next meal break, at least.

 

"Bet you didn't expect the Force to tell me to eat this whole bag at once." Adrian flashed Joreel a cheerful grin as he reached into the bag to extract more juicy delicacies, all the while trying to replicate the instructor's application of the Force to catalyze his digestion, especially after Joreel withdrew from his own efforts.

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Joreel laughed heartily at Adrian's joke and sat down next to him once more, eating away at the pear-like fruit he had taken from Adrian's bagful. It was surprisingly delectable, Joreel hadn't tasted something as sweet as this since he had a vacation as a child to Concord Dawn.

 

"Premonition is not one of my strong suits," he said honestly, chuckling a bit as he did so, "my abilities into seeing what comes in the future through the Force lingers around the 'something is about to hit me' area. I dunno, perhaps if I was in a galaxy far far away where the Force wasn't present, it could be considered supernatural and fantastic."

 

He completed eating his fruit and tossed the pit across the room into a wastebin and then stood up turning around to Adrian once more.

 

"Oh and the Force being a catalyst, kind of, but it is also the reaction, the reagent, it acts as the medicine and the effects of the medicine simultaneously. Healing what has been harmed. I was in a coma two days ago, now, I am about like I was never hurt at all. The Force allows these things, allows miraculous healing abilities, and I have some perception that this branch of the Force is something you will be most attuned to. Once I finished training you up to the level of Jedi Knight, we will find you a Jedi Master who has the knowledge to set you on that path, and show you how the Force can be even more expertly applied to injuries and sickness."

 

The Jedi Knight offered his hand to Adrian to help him up so they could begin to make their way to the cafeteria and eat something a bit more substantial than fruit.

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It might have taken Joreel a moment or two to realize his new padawan had not been joking.

 

Adrian took his master's hand and got up, but he didn't stop eating the fruit. Not at all. By now, Adrian had indeed figured out how the Force might aid him, though it took him a fair bit of concentration to direct it, just as it had taken Joreel. Unsure of how long he could maintain his state of accelerated digestion, and utilizing the Force to actively mend an imbalance for the first time, the doctor understandably sought to use the effect to the fullest while it lasted.

 

Three pieces of fruit were not enough for the two-meter-tall padawan. He continued to reach into his bag for more fruit, seemingly unconcerned with any notion of "saving room" for future dishes, fully interested in consuming several pounds of the brightly colored sweet and juicy orbs. But for the influence of the Force, the doctor would have stopped by now, and waited an hour or two to digest the food before consuming more. But endowed with the ability to absorb carbohydrates and starches within moments, not hours, at least for a short time anyway, the doctor felt no such inhibitions--and indeed felt pressure to take full advantage while it lasted. He had eaten the night before, he had eaten a relatively normal breakfast, and still it had not been enough to sustain him through heavy mental exertion because he had no readily available reserves for his brain to tap. He simply sought to build such a reserve as quickly as possible.

 

Not that the doctor would turn down other food groups. Joreel was right, if the doctor was to recover his considerable former physical strength. But for now, Adrian seemed more interested in ingesting any available edible materials than he seemed in thinking about finding a new master for advanced training months or years from now after he would have already gone through his trials. Starving men with immediate needs usually did not think ahead by months or years...

 

"Let's go see what the other students are up to in the cafeteria, hmm?" seemed the only bit the padawan had left to ask between bites.

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"Lead the way."

 

Ads started walking back to the cafeteria--or wherever they were going to get food--with Halo beside him.

 

"So," he said, quickly glancing over to her, "when did you figure out you were telepathic?"

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Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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“At age 12 something terrible happened to me. I will fill you in later when folks are not around… But yah, it really made me weigh my options and use whatever I had at my disposal to cope. Of course living on the streets of Coruscant’s undercity will cause any teen to grow up really fast and learn whatever coping mechanism they can....”

 

What Haloburner left out was the story of her abuse. She hated being reminded of those years…..

 

Following right beside Ads, the teen remained silent. Something about being reminded of her past made sucked the life out her. When the pair finally entered the cafeteria, Halo proceeded to do Joreel’s biding- ‘get something to eat’!. Through the Force, the Nabooian Jedi selected a few assortments of fruits, a side salad, blue milk and a glass of water. She made her way to a table on the balcony. She will wait for Ads to find her before eating her first meal at the temple.

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Sig courtesy of Sasori!

 

 

unless you're married you're never "stuck". Now, if you're married you can get divorced but,my friends, it's cheaper to keep her.
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Halo gave Ads a quick response and then became awkwardly silent. Ads wasn't sure what to say, so he didn't say anything at all.

 

When the two of them finally reached the cafeteria some food seemed to make it's way to Halo of its own volition. Obviously, she was using the force to do that. Ads preferred to actually use his hands for trivial things like this, it made him less dependent on the force and honestly felt more natural to him. After he found everything that actually looked appealing to him, he headed toward the tables. As he neared one, he noticed Halo standing, watching him, so he walked over to her.

 

"Where do you want to sit?"

V4yWwXl.png

Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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Joreel nodded his head at Adrian and led the way to the cafeteria wondering if his other student had already eaten and were ready to continue the day's training. He marched himself down the hall, to find that the other two had yet to even sit down, which confused Joreel as he thought the conversaton with Adrian was far longer, but apparently not. Joreel walked past Ads and Halo and asked the cook for a sandwich which he recieved shortly after, sat down at a table near where Halo and Ads were, and began to eat, enjoying the natural veggies from this planet that covered the spread of herb infused nerf cheese.

 

Once he was done eating the Mandalorian stood up and made his way out of the hall calling over his shoulder to his students, Meet me outside in 15 minutes for the continuation of our studies on the basic uses of the Force." And then he marched out of the cafeteria, out of the Temple and soon, out into the clearing he had found earlier, standing there and enjoying the breeze on his face as he awaited the arrival of his students.

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"Where do you want to sit?" Halo repeated Ads’ question. At that moment she spotted their master. He wore a disapproving look, as the teen’s eye caught his. Finally finding a spot, the Nabooian Padawan sat, and ate her food in silence. Poor Ads, he’ll probably think the Halo is strange. Especially considering her sudden recourse of silence.

 

About halfway through with her meal, Knight Joreel’s audible voice called out:

“Meet me outside in 15 minutes for the continuation of our studies on the basic uses of the Force."

 

The female Padawan simply nodded and turned her gaze back to the plate of food. Upon completing her meal, she waited retrieved a small bag from her pocket. Pouring the contents out, the teen begun to observe each pebble as though it was the first time she’d encountered the collection. Sadly, due to her unfortunate predicament, the bag of pebbles were among the few things Halo owned from her home-world. “Let me know when you’re ready to head back,” came the teen’s soft voice as she observed each pebble in her hand.

4q1r2v.png

Sig courtesy of Sasori!

 

 

unless you're married you're never "stuck". Now, if you're married you can get divorced but,my friends, it's cheaper to keep her.
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Halo repeated Ads' question back to him. He wasn't about to play games with her, so as he was about to just take whatever seat he saw first, she silently left him, headed for a nearby table. Ads just stood there for a moment, confused as to whether or not he was supposed to follow her. He quickly made up his mind that he would and he made his way to the seat across from her.

 

Shortly thereafter, Joreel spoke to them, saying, “Meet me outside in 15 minutes for the continuation of our studies on the basic uses of the Force."

 

Ads scarfed down his meal and stood up, ready to head out when he heard Halo speak to him, barely audible.

 

"Let me know when you’re ready to head back.”

 

"Um, I'm not sure if you remember, but we are supposed to meet a mile from here. And we only have maybe ten minutes to get there. I'm going now."

 

Ads set out for the clearing at a light jog, looking over his shoulder to see if Halo was behind him.

V4yWwXl.png

Generally, hitting someone in the head with your weapon kills them regardless of whether they're wearing a life-sustaining mask. I'm pretty sure this is general combat strategy whether your target is Darth Vader or some thug on the street.
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