Private Almost Like Fighting Fires

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun

​

In the days after the arrival of a fairly...suspicious package to the temple on Coruscant, one that he'd had the misfortune to be the first to handle, Tel had tried to devote himself back to practicing and learning as well as he was able. Coming suddenly face-to-face with the Grandmaster of the Order in such ignominious circumstances was nearly as uncomfortable as handling the box itself had been, not to mention the presence of a temple guard that made it clear just how far behind he was compared to many of the others of his generation within the Jedi. Taking the masters that had been handling him since he was a youngling at face value, always following along, staying out of the way of danger, getting what little snippets of knowledge and training he could, when by now he should've at least joined some of the other Padawans in his age to try and step forward as part of the Order's next generation.

Zeffo had proved that, too, when he'd barely been able to do anything but run from the Sith monster he'd run into.

Now he stood in the courtyard, off by himself, practicing at deflecting blaster bolts with a remote droid. Eyes closed—as close as the droid was, and knowing that the stun bolts it fired could come from nearly any point on its spherical body, relying on his normal senses wouldn't help him at all. Sound itself wasn't even enough with the pattern the droid was set to. He could only rely on the Force telling him when and where to place his blade to keep from getting shocked. His blue training blade flashed through the air after a moment of stillness, the unmistakable sizzle of the low-power bolts dissipating against the lightsaber's magnetic field filling the air for a few moments.

He was getting faster, at least. He'd gotten a message from some other Jedi earlier in the day, telling him to meet down in the courtyard; without anything better to do, he'd decided to come early, claiming the remote for the day and using it to fill in the time. Hopefully he wasn't running out of time before whoever it was was supposed to meet with him.

"Again," he commanded the droid, raising his training saber once more. "Faster. Random pattern." The droid beeped out an acknowledgement, and started to float around him once again.

 

[Anthony Gray Sun]

Tag: Tel Ahren​

Since Woostri, Anthony had taken the chance to refamiliarize himself with the Jedi Temple. Coruscant was a big place, and yet he couldn't help but notice how things had changed.

The new biodomes were nice, but it felt weird to have a forest in the middle of Coruscant.

Wandering had become a normal habit of Anthony, and today he wandered into the Courtyard, eyeing a padawan that seemed to be practicing by himself. Did he not have a master? Hmmm...

Something felt off. He couldn't tell what, but he felt compelled to at least look into it.

"You know, it'd be better if you learned to dodge. I always go right first, throws people off." He added as he walked up, letting out a chuckle.

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun

​

Tel started at the sudden voice behind him, stepping aside and turning to see who it was. Coincidentally, that led to him doing just as had been suggested—dodging the next stun blast, where it dissipated harmlessly into the ground. The remote, however, recognized this sudden change and the newcomer to be outside of its programming, so it paused the routine, floating dormant. Tel squinted at the taller man as his suddenly-reopened eyes had to readjust to the sunlight, taking into account the fireman's jacket rather than any normal robes. The size that likely lent itself to such work.

And yet, the Force within the man was as noticeable as with any Jedi.

"You must not fight the same person twice," he replied drily. He wasn't entirely certain who this was; a break wasn't a bad idea, though. And he was supposed to be meeting some Knight soon anyways. Actually, what time was that...

He glanced at his datapad and noticed that the time was, in fact, then.

"Oh. Uh. Are you the one that sent me that message saying to meet out here earlier?" It didn't seem like it. Somehow it didn't seem like this tall firefighter type had really meant to run into him so much as just had been there at the right time. Nobody else was around to be coming up, either, so he wasn't sure either way. "Nice to meet you, either way. Name's Tel."

 

[Jo'Han Felcado]

"You must not fight the same person twice,"

"Yup, third time's the charm. Can't stop at two"

 

[Anthony Gray Sun]

Tag: Tel Ahren
Spooky Ghost: Jo'Han Felcado​

Oh, right. He was that guy.

"I was actually. Just got a bit distracted wandering around. It's meditative for me, and a jedi can easily get lost in this place." Excuses, Excuses. "As for fighting someone more than once, you'd be surprised how unavoidable that can be in this day and age. I'm Anthony Gray Sun. I take it you're without a master? That seems to be a running problem lately. Seen a lot of paddies without guidance."

All it did was remind him of the Hyperspace War. Too many padawans without masters.

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun Jo'Han Felcado

​

"If you fight them more than once, how can the same trick work on them multiple times...?"

Tel blinked, shaking his head. It probably wasn't good manners to go poking holes in someone else's joke, whether he had a ghost in his ears keeping him distracted enough to start doing that or not. "Yeah, just me for the most part. I barely know anybody as it is. Other Padawans included." An occupational hazard of just letting himself get shuffled around away from the war efforts without putting any real effort into determining things for himself, it turned out. There were some younglings that might still remember him in a few years, at least.

Even compared to the other Padawans 'without guidance,' though, he was growing more and more keenly aware of how far behind that had left him. He'd been raised by the Jedi...and yet he was at nearly the same level of someone the same age that only just joined. Maybe if he was lucky then his passenger might decide to start providing some more outright-helpful commentary, though his hopes weren't the highest. Not yet, anyways.

"So..." He had to stop almost as soon as he started, combing through his memory to try and remember the name of the Knight that stood before him. Knight...Tony? Tony something. Something...

What was it, colour-astronomical object? Black Moon? Darkmoon? No, that doesn't seem quite right...Grey something? Or was it Gray? Oh, wait—

"Master Gray Sun, right?" That sounded right to his ears, at least, and he wasn't going to just call him Tony, that felt way too familiar for a first meeting. "You weren't with Creed's group on New Cov recently, were you?" Now that they were past that initial curiosity, it seemed only reasonable to try to figure out just why this Knight had called on him to come and meet.

 

[Anthony Gray Sun]

Tag: Tel Ahren
Spooky Ghost: Jo'Han Felcado​

"That's me." He chuckled, "And no, I've been poking around Coruscant lately. Last mission I was one was on Zeffo. You a pilot at all? I've been trying to put together a squadron of sorts."

The hope was to put together something like the days of Saber Squadron, but that was a dream and a half.

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun Jo'Han Felcado

​

Zeffo, huh? Maybe that was how this Knight had figured out his name. Not much else to go off of but a list of bodies in transports, though. Something that Knight Gray Sun would find all too apparent, all too quickly:

"Uh, no. I've never flown anything in my life." He'd always been hitching rides, instead, usually at someone else's prompting, more recently of his own volition. "Not too many simulator seats that were ever available where I was, when everybody chomping at the bit to get in them was planning to hop in a starfighter in the next couple weeks and join the fight."

He fell silent for a moment.

"You didn't happen to catch anything I was doing on Zeffo, did you? I'm assuming now that you were flying the whole time." He didn't necessarily want many people who would start remembering him as that-kid-who-ran-away-the-whole-time while that little battle was happening. If this Knight had been there and had a literal birds-eye view of the entire thing...that might be more than a little embarrassing.

 

[Anthony Gray Sun]

Tag: Tel Ahren
Spooky Ghost: Jo'Han Felcado​

"I was a little busy keeping some sith off my rear end." Anthony chuckled, as he looked to Tel. "So, I was thinking, you need a master. I just got back from a stint of soul searching, and..." He paused, letting out a sigh.

"I could train you. If you want. Just be aware, I'm not the most...traditional teacher."

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun Jo'Han Felcado

​

Not the most traditional? What did that even mean? Tel had done quite a bit of reading, he knew what 'traditional' was supposed to look like, and in general the New Jedi Order did not really meet that sort of style. He wasn't sure that many Jedi actually did; given everything that was always happening in the galaxy, everybody seemed forced into some sort of non-traditional arrangement. "Is anybody all that traditional anymore?" he asked, voicing at least part of the thought.

It wasn't like he'd be much of a traditional learner, anyways. If 'tradition' was part of it he'd have been assigned to a Service Corps years ago.

"Look, if you want to train me, I'm not going to say no. I don't want to spend all my time floundering out here alone, typical training or not. Just, uh..." It was a problem that was bound to come up, at some point. He certainly didn't want this new Knight looking at him like he was crazy if he ever heard him talking to himself. He should probably get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

"Did you ever know a Knight named Jo'han Felcado? And on a related note, are you bothered by Force ghosts?"

 

[Jo'Han Felcado]

"Did you ever know a Knight named Jo'han Felcado? And on a related note, are you bothered by Force ghosts?"

"WOAH WOAH! I didn't think you'd snitch me out just like that, kid! Also, I'm not exactly a full Force Ghost. That's kind of an honor reserved for those who managed to give themselves over to the force so fully that their physical form vanishes. Thing is, I didn't exactly get the chance to do that beforehand, so I'm-"

...

"uh"

...

"Something in between. Something that'll fade, given time."

The spirit's voice wasn't entirely ethereal, just incredibly quiet, centered near eardrums of Tel Ahren - if Anthony Gray Sun listened particularly closely, the sound would be audible.

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun Jo'Han Felcado

​

"Yeah, okay, Qui-Gon," Tel replied with a roll of his eyes. "You might not be able to show up all glowy and see-through, but you're still a spirit that's hung on after death and is able to talk to the living. Not being fully mastered in it doesn't mean you're not a ghost."

 

[Anthony Gray Sun]

Tag: Tel Ahren
Spooky Ghost Jo'Han Felcado​

Anthony was about to answer, but then his new padawan began...speaking to himself.

Or was he?

"I'm familiar with the concept, just never had the chance to meet one. I...take it you have?"

This was weird. His padawan was haunted. Great. Great start Anthony. You're first choice was a kid with a ghost acting as a peanut gallery. Best luck. Why couldn't you have picked up one during that disastrous training mission? No, you were busy dealing with that sassy teen who didn't want to get wet.

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun Jo'Han Felcado

​

Tel sighed.

"Right, so, one day I was walking out by the front of the temple, and a mail droid was waiting there with a box. I asked if it was waiting on anybody specific and it dropped it right into my hands. Long story short, it had the head of a guy named Jo'han Felcado in it. Nearly made me throw up while I was holding the thing, it just felt so bad..." He shuddered at the thought. He was very, very glad when the temple guard stepped up close enough that he could pass the box over easily.

"I started hearing him chatting with me right after that. He's pretty irreverent at the best of times...his reaction to that bit about fighting the same person more than once was that the third time was the charm. What for, I'm not sure. Them not getting confused by always dodging right, maybe?"

It really sounded insane as he was trying to explain it.

"I don't think he entirely knew the trick behind it, though, given that his head was still there. So he's more the disembodied voice type than the actually-visually-manifesting type. Might just be holding on because he's stubborn. Might be a last few things he needs to see through, I don't know, I haven't really asked."

He paused, pursed his lips, frowned...

"...I promise, I'm normal."

 

[Jo'Han Felcado]

"I'm familiar with the concept, just never had the chance to meet one. I...take it you have?"

"Sounds like the head's out of the box now."

"I don't think he entirely knew the trick behind it, though, given that his head was still there. So he's more the disembodied voice type than the actually-visually-manifesting type. Might just be holding on because he's stubborn. Might be a last few things he needs to see through, I don't know, I haven't really asked."

...

"... I actually haven't tried manifesting visually. Am I supposed to be able to do that?"

 

[Anthony Gray Sun]

Tag: Tel Ahren
Spooky Ghost: Jo'Han Felcado​

"I threw a fire axe at a Sith Lord on Woostri, and made him scurry away like a scared puppy when I flooded the room with water. No one in this order is normal, kid." Anthony joked, rolling his shoulders. "So....can the ghost talk to me, or is that just gonna be your little distraction for however he sticks around?

 

[Jo'Han Felcado]

"So....can the ghost talk to me, or is that just gonna be your little distraction for however he sticks around?

"Ahem... I haven't tried yet. Test-test, can he hear me, kid?"

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun Jo'Han Felcado

​

"How am I even supposed to know?" Tel asked, his brow furrowing. "Wouldn't you need to try talking to him directly, not to me?" Tel, of course, had not yet had opportunity to test whether or not Jo'han's talking would be audible to anybody else. Force ghosts were usually only supposed to be noticeable by those who were sensitive to the Force, but Anthony was, so that should at least solve that side of the issue. As far as he knew, they didn't necessarily have the ability to only selectively show up to people, but...Once again, he didn't know the specifics of how it worked.

Jo'han was the dead one, not him.

"Maybe try manifesting yourself? Do you think you just need to, like, imagine yourself really hard?"

 

[Anthony Gray Sun]

Tag: Tel Ahren
Spooky Ghost: Jo'Han Felcado​

Anthony couldn't help but jump slightly at the sudden voice.

"...okay, I can definitely hear him. Just try not to be too much of a distraction for my paddie, alright?"

This was gonna be an interesting time, that's for sure.

"...that aside." Anthony coughed. "You have a lightsaber already?"

 

[Tel Ahren]

Anthony Gray Sun Jo'Han Felcado

​

Now it was Tel's moment to look a bit sheepish, again. As far as he was aware, many of the other Padawans his age had actually gone and made their own lightsabers. Him, however...

"I'm working on it. Piecing things together as I go along. The training blade has served me well enough so far for everything else." It was true enough; defensively, the training saber could do just as much as a proper lightsaber. It just couldn't lop off limbs with a lazy swing. Or at all. "Biggest thing I'm needing to find is a crystal...think I missed the last Gathering trip." Not that it was nearly so formal of a thing as the histories made it sound. "You making the move to Tython?"