Ask Yavin IV Catch Me if You Can!

[Maura Starwalk]

"UUUGGGHHH FINE!" She fell dramatically back onto the ground, her knees bending underneath her to catch herself before she actually hit it. Her groan held out over the course of Laeonas' lecture, purposefully trying to drown it out so she didn't have to listen to it. She sprung back up onto her feet, then stuck her tongue out at him. Her first instinct was to tell him to stop being so bossy when he was still a padawan too, but for once she kept her thoughts to herself.

The girl braced herself, then sprung off into a full sprint around the garden. She would run, but not in place. Aided partially by the Force, the gremlin of a child's hair was almost a rainbow blur as she dashed about. As she made her way back towards Laeonas, she positioned herself to run just a bit too close to him, hoping the force of her running by would knock him off his feet. If it worked, she would run off in a fit of giggles, tickled to see the object of her frustration stumbled to the side.

Surprisingly, maybe, it didn't take long for the girl to tire herself out. She'd only gotten in a little bit of rest between earlier that day and now. So when her limbs began to feel the lingering effects of exhaustion, she stumbled to a halt right behind Laeonas. If he failed to move she would run right into him, probably sending the both of them tumbling over in different directions.

"Okay! What now?" Her voice was alive with excitement but breathy from the exertion she'd just put herself through. The exercise had peeled away any irritation she'd felt for him before, so nothing but a goofy grin covered her face. Plopping herself into a cross-legged position, she would hold her hands out over her tired legs and squeeze her eyes shut. "Like this?" she asked through her concentration, focusing her energy on her leg. Absolutely nothing was being done, other than a small pulse in the Force where she was directing it. Between her age, experience, and the amount of energy she'd just expended running around the garden like a wild animal, she had little chance of even being able to grasp the concept of Force healing. It would not stop her from trying, though.

tag: @Tom

 

[Laeonas Tannaras]

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Thankfully there wasn't a protracted debate over whether or not Maura would follow his instructions. In truth, Laeonas wasn't sure if he could survive such an interaction without having a stroke, so it was nothing short of a miracle that the girl conceded. His mother had always told him that he'd taken after his father when it came to his more... aggressive impulses, and he couldn't imagine anything besides meeting Kayden Skyler again that'd be worse than arguing with her.

Promptly, Maura began to run-- but she didn't just run in place, or even in circles. No, she force-ran, employing it's powers to speed up so she could be unnaturally quick. The blur almost looked like something out of an old children's cartoon, and her speed would distract him from recognizing how... pointlessly fast she was going? "If she's usin' tha force ta speed up, she won't be able ta use it ta 'eal 'er exhaustion." He thought to himself, realizing this, he'd look up, intent on exclaiming that she should stop in her--

T H U D ​

Maura was, compared to Laeonas, tiny. Not even half his weight, almost two feet shorter. Running into him at a normal speed might've caused him to stumble, but nothing more. However, at the elevated speeds that she'd summoned with the force, it was essentially the equivalent of getting hit by a kid on a bicycle-- IE, a lot harder. The man was thrown back, hitting the grass-- and also the pavement of the pathway-- with a sickening thud that'd win anyone's concern.

"...ahhaaaaAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa..." He'd begin to wail, pain hooting through his left shoulderblade, which had hit the pavement the absolute worst. Nothing was broken-- he was well aware of how that felt-- but it was undoubtedly bruised. "Ohmaedeus,ohmaedeus,ohmaedeus,ohmaedeus..." He'd breathily gasp, not daring to move the entire upper left side of his body as he sat up.

Through the entire experience, he hadn't forgotten Maura-- who would've landed on the grass or flower bed. It was half the reason he hadn't started cursing like a spacer. "Maura?" He called, glancing over to where the rainbow haired girl was. "Are ya... are ya okay?" He called, any modulation or enunciation of his accent completely stripped away. He'd crawl over to her, but he wouldn't know if she was alright until she made it obvious or not.

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@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

They made impact, but while Laeonas was sent tumbling off, Maura only stumbled in place before falling to the ground.

"Yeah I'm fine!" The kid plopped down, concentrating the Force around her leg. Her big black eyes looked over at the man who had taken a lot longer to recover from the impact than she had. Yeah, she felt a bit sore, and yeah, she'd had the breath knocked out of her for a second, but she wasn't crawling around wailing. Her brows furrowed, her lips fell into a frown, and her nose scrunched up a bit. "What are you doing?"

She could obviously see that he was hurt, but she couldn't figure out why. Her eyes continued to search for injuries, but he seemed okay. They finally landed on his forearms and hands, where she could see the red of inflammation where his palms had gotten scraped up on the pavement. Her eyes widened to saucers, and she scrambled off her butt and over to him.

"I'm okay! I think my skin hurts but it's okay! Lemme try and do the healing thing on you!" An excited flurry of words left her mouth as she descended on him and reached for his arm. "How do I do it? I concentrate really hard right? Do I have to touch it?" Her face scrunched up in disgust again. "If I have to touch blood then I don't wanna do it anymore."

tag: @Tom

 

[Laeonas Tannaras]

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Laeonas had expected the worst after Maura had slammed into him, fear coloring his expression as he crawled over. Not only was he motivated by the reprisal he could get for getting a younger padawan injured... but also the fact that she was injured. It was an odd concern, all things considered, but it was one he felt all the same. Yet when she plopped back up, the man's fear was washed away almost instantaneously-- and in it's place, he found annoyance. Not only had she done something completely unnecessary, but she'd gotten him hurt.

"What am Ai-- I doing?" He replied, agitation bleeding into his voice even as he started policing his tone again. "Well, I just landed on pavement after getting hit by some eighty poind fourth grader in the chest, so I'm not happy." He retorted, crossing his arms as he finally sat back up. That was when the girl finally seemed to notice his injuries, and he'd watch as her already massive eyes widened to take up an uncomfortably large part of her face. The slightest twinge of unease hit him as he looked back at her, those black disks looking like windows into a bottomless pit.

That was when she asked to heal him, and he snapped out of his momentary vacation to the uncanny valley. "Wha-- I just told you, healing yourself is easier than healing others." He replied, sighing a little in frustration. "Deus, why can't you just listen..." he muttered, before glancing down at his palms. The human would blink a few times, aquamarines trailing up to look at her, than down at himself again. She'd caused this to happen... why not let her try and fix it? It might teach responsibility... or something. At the forefront of his mind was the desire to not return to the medbay to grab gauze.

"...You know what? Nevermind what I said earlier, you'll heal my hands and elbows." He declared, smirking as he extended his palms. As she started barraging him with questions, he couldn't help but let out a laugh at her mention of a reluctance towards blood. "Out of anyone, I didn't think you of all people would be so squeamish." He teased, shaking his head a little. "Give it a couple years, you'll be dealing with blood and lots of it. Part of growing up." He explained, reclining backwards. The man could still vividly remember his first days working with the mob, and the gradual escalation of violence as he worked his way up the hierarchy.

"...alright, so-- no, you don't need to touch it." he immediately clarified, "But you do have to focus. Don't just concentrate on the force randomly though-- focus on the wound itself. More than that though, focus on what it should look like if it wasn't there-- and focus on making it go away." He went on, working off what Ephiny had taught him, and what he had learned about the technique as well. He wasn't a master-- in fact, he was mediocre at best-- but his understanding had come from a woman well versed in the healing arts, so repeating what she'd said with a bit of his own flair was a surefire way to success.

Right?

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@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

She'd be dealing with lots of blood in the coming years? Maura's nose scrunched up at that comment, some form of disgust crossing her features as she thought about what a lot of blood would look like. Like, twice the amount of this blood? Laeonas was surprised she was a bit squeamish, but blood was dirty. It had diseases and all sorts of yucky stuff, plus it came from people and she didn't think that was very cool. Maura didn't think too long about it, though. He was finally going to teach her how to Force Heal!

"Concentrate on the wound through the Force... Focus on making it go away... Concentrate on the..." The girl held her plans over his scraped arms, her eyes squeezed shut as she repeated what he said over and over. She did her best to concentrate the Force on the wound, repeating the mantra in her head now. Maura stayed doing this for about thirty seconds, then opened one eye to peek at her progress. To her disappointment, it looked exactly the same as before.

"It's not working!" she cried, dramatically letting her arms fall to her side as her lips jut out into a pout. The kid felt pretty tired, drained from her excessive use of the Force and exhausted from all the running about she'd done in general. "Why isn't it working? I did what you said!"

Force healing seems boring. If it just involved her concentrating really hard and thinking, maybe she didn't want to do it anyways.

tag: @Tom

 

[Laeonas Tannaras]

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In spite of the fact that he'd been dragged along to do as the girl had asked, and in spite of the fact that he hadn't really wanted to teacher her to begin with, the man felt a certain sense of anticipation as Maura began to try and heal him. He'd invested time into this already, and shed a few drops of blood. Her success or failure wouldn't just be reflecting on her talents and understanding as a Jedi, but also his own ability to actually teach her. The man actually felt a twinge of optimism as the force bristled against him, a smirk forming on his lips. Slowly, the irritation on his arm began to sooth-- but that was as far as they got before Maura gave up.

Admittedly, she had... barely made any progress. As soon as she let up her concentration, the irritation returned, and the man would let out a long sigh as she cried out in frustration. Looking down at her, the girl's pouty expression prompted a frown to form on his face, and Laeonas would quickly speak up. "Hey hey, you didn't do all that bad for your first try!" He exclaimed. "It took me a whole year to be able to do what I did in the forest with my limp, but you were doing alright after about a minute-- not even!"

From how she was still breathing so heavily, it was beginning to become obvious that the girl had exhausted herself. "Look, I know that if you really put your mind to it, you can do anything. I don't know many other Padawans that can get a herd of runyips to listen to them." He commented, privately thinking, "Ai couldn't even get one." He let her sit for a moment, before adding, "If ya wanna-- want to try again, feel free. Otherwise... I don't know. We'll do something else-- or you can do something else and I can just go back to my dorm."

He let her sit there in silence for another few seconds, before adding, "...it might help if you try especially hard to visualize it. Don't try and force concentrating either. Just let your thoughts... flow, y'know?" He'd go on, trying his best to give the girl even a modicum of advice. "And don't give up if it doesn't work immediately. You saw that it took me a bit to heal myself back in the forest." He explained, neglecting to go into details about why he struggled so much to properly heal. It took someone exceptionally attuned to the light side to truly master healing-- the best people like Laeonas could hope for was to moderately heal themselves.

Maura, however, was ten, and the worst thing she'd probably done was calling someone a poopyhead, or whatever insults the girl chose to throw at people she didn't like. Her disadvantage came from the fact that she struggled to concentrate... and that she was ten.

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@lizziie

 

[Maura Starwalk]

"But nothing happened!" Maura groaned, her brows pulling forward as she frowned. Her expression lightened a bit when he mentioned the runyips, because yeah, who else could do that? Maybe if she tried harder she would be able to do it! But when she tried to reach out through the Force, she felt another wave of exhaustion rumble through her. Her arms dropped, and a yawn stifled her words. "I cawn't yaw—"

"I'm tired," she finally finished, eyes more droopy than they had been before. Maura no longer wanted to learn how to Force heal; she would much rather take a long nap. So, slowly, the kid rose to her feet and yawned again. "I sleep," she declared, walking off without another word.

tag: @Tom

 

[Laeonas Tannaras]

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It was a wonder how someone so determined and steadfast could buckle so quickly once they hit the first bump on the road. Maura had been ecstatic at the possibility of learning how to force heal, and now she was just... giving up. He didn't know anyone who could swing from such highs to such lows so quickly. "...th'at's a lie." he told himself, a split second after the previous thought had formed. Maura would promptly let out a yawn, and than declare that she was tired.

A moment later, she declared that she would sleep. Laeonas thought about speaking up, but he decided against it. If he'd learned anything about the girl thus far, it was that once she made a decision, nobody else could convince her to change it but her. "...alright." he replied, before adding, "Just uh, talk to your teacher about what happened." He... hadn't actually told Maura's instructor that he'd brought her back. That was something he'd probably need to deal with eventually.

"...not gonna open th'at can o'worms." He told himself, walking back to his own dorm. Ephiny hadn't had any lessons today, so he'd spend the next hour, or two, or four meditating. The Padawan would eventually have to head to the gym-- it was chest day, and he hadn't broken his routine in 2 and a half years. Arriving back, the man would roll out his mat, sit cross legged, and get to meditating. His mind drifted away from all that had happened-- or tried to, anyways.

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@lizziie