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Post by Veren Gal on Jun 16, 2013 17:19:43 GMT -5
The next day Veren rose and did some morning exercises to loosen up. He then dressed in a black suit much like the one from the previous day. He went out to the main room and found himself in an odd mood. Ship's rations were normally fine, he bought good quality ones and made sure there was a good variety. But today he found himself cooking up a traditional breakfast from his home region on Alderaan. Eggs with butter, crusty bread, a hunk of a rich sausage nearly bursting from its skin, cheeses, and some vegetables. It won't keep anyway. Best to eat well while it's fresh, there will be enough time for rations later.
He made enough for another person and wondered which of his two students would make it out first. It's a petty thing, but it was the little things like this that could slowly build resentment between two people. It could inspire one to try harder while the other works to keep their superior position. Then again, these are not normal apprentices. So perhaps I will simply learn how they will react in difference to my expectations. They weren't terribly...vicious apprentices so he braced himself to watch them share the breakfast.
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Post by Saskira Shimazu on Jun 18, 2013 22:02:27 GMT -5
Saskira woke the next day somewhat sore, and worse for wear. While yesterday had been an educational day, and what she hoped to be a common occurrence, it was still Sith training, and brutal. When she had been practicing with Master Gal, he hadn't been pulling any of his punches, so to speak.
Groaning as she sat up in her bed, she started to take a mental count of what she needed to do. Change out of sleep wear, shower, dress in training clothes, breakfast, then....finding Master Gal? Yes, that's probably the best course of action. Also finding out what where Talward is.
Saskira glanced around the room, but couldn't find a trace of Talward being in the same room.
Odd, this ship isn't very large, you'd think he'd be somewhere, where he could easily be found. Oh well.
Going into the bathroom, using the sanistream as well as changing, Saskira then went off to the galley. There, she found Master Gal there, eating breakfast, and a good one at that, not some crummy ship rations. He was sitting at the dining area, seemingly bracing himself for the worse, like ass if he was going to be attacked. Oddly there seemed to be another breakfast, already made, sitting on the counter.
Is that Talward's? That would explain why he wasn't in the crew quarters. Except...this hasn't been touched at all. Peering at it, Saskira slowly walked closer, not quite sure what to make of it. It hasn't been touched at all....I don't THINK that its Talward's...I think it would be gone by now. Saskira still didn't quite know what to make of it. To her it seemed like some kind of odd trap. Except it wasn't. If it isn't Talward's, that would mean, unless I didn't quite remember who all is on board, it's Master Gal's. Except he already has a plate of food. Maybe he already made a second course for himself? No that wouldn't make sense, since he left it on the counter, away from where he is sitting....so would that mean its for me?
That thought really puzzled Saskira. Walking towards it, her nerves were a little on edge as she picked it up and went over to eat in the dining area, where Master Gal was. Taking a tentative bite of the sausage, almost expecting something to be wrong with it, she found that she was incredibly wrong. In fact, it was delicious.
Digging into it, she looked over to Master Gal, and he still seemed to be....waiting..for something to go wrong. Well, it sure isn't the food, because this is not wrong at all! Far better then the gruel they feed us hopefuls at the academy.
Finally voicing her thoughts, Saskira said; "Thank you for the meal, Master". She had almost added 'is there something wrong?', but that would of been inappropriate given what the Sith were like.
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Post by Veren Gal on Jun 19, 2013 20:06:17 GMT -5
Veren watched Saskira come in, then stare at him and the plate. Cautious one, good. She eventually took the plate and started eating. At least he needn't be concerned about a breakdown in traditional Sith self interest. Though she seems a bit trusting, to eat something she didn't see prepared. He made a mental note to find out what poisons might not work on Arkanians, if she became a problem that might be useful to know.
"Thank you for the meal, Master," she said and he nodded back. And she has manners.
"An apprentice should keep up her strength. I hope you enjoyed our little workout yesterday, because it only gets harder from here. We'll start with basic exercises to build strength and endurance and then when we're warmed up, a little more saber practice."
There is little else to do on the ship and she wouldn't be any good until she had the basics down to instinct. He brought her through the beginners forms, speeding up as needed. Eventually she would have to do them with the blinding speed people associated with force users. Lacking a sparring partner for Saskira, he took on the duty himself and worked up a sweat.
He began putting the sabers away, "Meditation, then the ball again."
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Post by Saskira Shimazu on Jun 22, 2013 22:07:20 GMT -5
Master Gal nodded back to Saskira after she thanked him for the food, before going on about training for the rest of the day.
After the meal, they went through some basic sparring, working up quite a sweat, and a new set of bruises for Saskira. She had a goal now, or at least something to strive towards, lowering the number of bruises obtained from sparring with Msater Gal. While she had worked up something of a sweat and was breathing quite heavy by the end of it, he was barely sweating...although it was hard for her to tell.
Finishing the sparring, Master Gal gave her new instructions, namely to do more meditation followed by the ball.
Giving a slight bow to Master Gal, she went back to her quarters. Supposedly Talward was there, but she had rarely seen him there. She had originally thought he was going to be a major rival of her's but, it was turning out he was not.
Sitting down on her bed, after briefly washing her face to get off the sweat, she started to meditate.
The focus of her meditation this time was the ball.
I got so close to getting it done last time around. I was at eight or nine minutes! There has to be some reason why I couldn't get it to ten minutes...maybe I have some kind of mental block?
Following that line of thought for the next hour, Saskira eventually ends her meditation.
At some point I am going to need to actually do this, and I could put this off for longer with 'meditation'...but at this point, this 'meditation' has just turned into procrastination.
Going to the lounge, where the metal ball was from the previous attempts, she sits down on the floor.
Reaching out with her mental tendrils, she starts to life the ball up from the ground. The minutes start to tick by as she holds it at eye height. At six minutes, it gains a wobble. at eight minutes it starts to dip further and further down. Finally at nine minutes it hits the ground.
Frustration starts to swell in Saskira, regardless she starts another attempt. Why? Why can't I lift this klarking ball in the air for ten frakking minutes!?! I can do it for nine minutes, but why not ten?! Is another minute too much to ask for?! Is this my limit? The frustration starts to turn into despair, the ball starts dipping far, not that Saskira would even notice it, her mind is a million lightyears away. Talward can do telekinesis like this, with easy...yet I fail miserably at this. Kriffin miserable failure. I can make progress with saber practice, I can learn things like the Code, yet I always fail when it comes to powers, the one thing that sets the Sith apart from normal peons.
It isn't fair. Not at all. IT ISN'T FAIR!! Despair was turning into anger. Seething in anger, Saskira fumed. And fumed. After awhile, she realized something was off. Hasn't the ball fallen already? It has to be more than ten minutes... Opening her eyes, she saw the ball floating in front of her, confirming she still had her hold on it. Behind it, the chrono indicated it had been far more than a few minutes since she had last checked. It had been nearly twenty five minutes.
Glee started to fill Saskira, which was accompanied by a *thud* noise as the ball hit the ground from her concentration breaking.
Its anger that did it, I forgot to hold onto my anger.
With this in mind, she kept at it.
~Six hours later~
Saskira was mentally exhausted from this, but she had accomplished her goal, she had most definitely held the ball up for ten minutes. The twenty five minute run was still the longest of all her attempts, but she had been able to get it to stay up for fifteen minutes, which to her, was a accomplishment.
Putting the ball away, she went over to the galley, to make herself a meal, warming up some of the frozen rations, before sitting at the table to eat the warm food, particularly enjoying, what she assumed to be nerf chunks.
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Post by Veren Gal on Jul 1, 2013 20:50:49 GMT -5
Veren kept his senses attuned to the progress of his student...and occasionally checking to ensure the other one was still alive somewhere on the ship. It wasn't affection, it was guarding an investment. Few trained archaeologists were sold on the market and Veren doubted the Academy would attract many academic sorts. And any that did come would likely be chopped into smoking hunks of meat before they made it through the main hall.
He tracked the progress of Saskira and noted when she started surpassing his set goal. It was nice not to be disappointed. Soon she'd learn to embrace that anger, fear, passion, and made it an ever-present force to draw from.
After giving her enough time to eat and recover from the experience, he returned to the lounge. "You're progressing. Perhaps in a year you'll be competent enough for a knight to dispatch you themselves instead of just having a soldier blast you."
The next few days went quickly, with lots of physical training and practice with the Force. With little else to do on the ship sessions ran long, the better to increase stamina. As her competence grew he introduced more difficult, but more useful lightsaber forms. "As you can see, this is really just a more refined way of stabbing someone with a beam of energy," was a phrase he used when explaining these techniques.
On the final day of the flight there was no training. Instead he brought out some clothes. They were form fitting but flexible, not tight and surprisingly conservative, yet fashionable in an upper-crust minimalist sort of way. As far as Veren was concerned, people that walked around showing off too much flesh were just asking to get nicked with a poisoned nail. Or bitten by something nasty. "I considered giving you a lightsaber, but honestly you're more likely to survive as you are now. Some will think you're military, intelligence, or just rich. Put a lightsaber on you and you become a Sith which can be a great weapon or a terrible weakness. His own lightsaber was hidden and on his belt he wore a blaster. He handed her a belt with one, the belt was low slung to put the weapon's handle near her hand if she held it to her side. "If you don't know how to use one, don't draw it unless in danger. And don't bother even then if your opponent is trained in the Force. At that point, just beg and hope you amuse them enough to spare you. Understood?"
He waited for a response, and then had ED-3 bring the ship into Coruscant orbit.
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Post by Saskira Shimazu on Jul 2, 2013 21:01:06 GMT -5
The trip had been training intense for Saskira, there had been constant training, with Master Gal never letting up on it. Not that she would expect anything other than that occurring, given it was her job to learn as much as possible from him and his current job to provide education.
While he had made some less then positive comments towards her, such as that perhaps in a year they would send jedi after her instead of a simple soldier, they were the Sith way of complimenting, and that was how she took it, although it slightly galled her that he was always talking down to her, as a lowly apprentice. It came as part of her Arkanian heritage.
As she progressed through the training, a few days later, there was no training. Rather, Master Gal showed up with a set of clothing and told her he had considered giving her a lightsaber, but hadn't. Instead, he handed her a belt with a holstered blaster, telling her that if she didn't know how to use it, to not use it and if she was in danger with a Force user, to just beg and hope to amuse them to be spared.
Does he just assume I'm sort of helpless child? Admittedly, he could kill me without me being able to stop him in any way shape or form...but to assume I'm completely helpless?
Trying to not grate her teeth, Saskira said; "I understand Master."
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