Hokey Religions and Ancient Weapons are No Match For a Good Blaster at Your Side,Kid

[Teynara Jeralyr]

@[member="Delila Castillon"]

Slightly odd question there, Teynara thought as she gave some consideration to her answer. As far as she was aware, nearly everybody had different sleep patterns, based on day/night proclivity, since people who had more of a preference for night-time tended to sleep less, and then you also had to throw in the normal daylight cycle of the planet you spent most of your time on - if you were on a planet with a 36-hour standard day, you'd probably spend less time sleeping on average than someone who lived on a world with a 24-hour day cycle. But is there anything specific about a Jedi that means they sleep more or less than average?

As far as she knew, most Jedi kept to a typical 6-10 hour-per-night cycle unless a mission required them to do otherwise - and they tended to be scolded rather severely by the Jedi Healers if they failed to do so, since a good night's sleep was considered restorative for both mind and body, and a Jedi who couldn't stay awake was also one who likely didn't exercise full control over their abilities with the Force, and that was just a disaster waiting to happen. Admittedly, not such a problem in her case, but Teynara was well aware that even her mostly untapped Force talent could manifest at the wrong moment if she wasn't careful. And who is functioning at their best when half asleep?

"There are a few Jedi techniques that let us stave off sleep if we have to," Teynara observed with a faint smile. "We're all taught one of them during basic training, because that way there's less chance we'll take a snooze in the middle of a dull lecture, or during one of our legendary reading sessions on some Jedi Master that's been dead for at least a thousand years," she said in a dry, slightly sarcastic tone, her feelings about the whole thing fairly evident. "Ideally, though, I like a good six or seven hours, if I can get it. Less if I can't, but only if there's a nice hot cup of Stimcaf to improve my mood," the blonde added with a faint grin, wondering if she'd ever shake that Stimcaf addiction.

She wasn't exactly sure when night was likely to descend upon this particular planet - she wasn't overly familiar with Bakura, and she'd forgotten to reset her chronometer before setting out, so it wasn't exactly in tune with local time - for some reason, she had a feeling that knowing what time it was on a planet halfway around the Galaxy wasn't going to be of any use to her here. Oh well. Can't want what you're not going to get, she thought with a wry smile.

"On the upside, at least the forest should provide us with a good bit of cover if that storm does hend in this direction," the blonde woman added with a slightly more cheerful tone. Okay, it probably wouldn't mean that they didn't get wet at all, but the difference between being slightly damp and being soaked to the skin was pretty considerable when a change of clothing and a hot cup of Caf weren't likely to be forthcoming. "I suppose you do stuff like this all the time, right? Must be part-and-parcel of your work in the military, I'd imagine," she observed.

 

[Delila Castillon]

@[member="Teynara Jeralyr"]

Delila arced an eyebrow at the mention of learning about hundred of years old Jedi. She supposed it was similar to studying military history or ancient battles. It was one of those necessary evils designed to teach tactics and wisdom. To be honest, Delila never thought of ancient teachings when blaster bolts were flying near her head or someone had just got their legs blown off. Maybe if they had time to you know....form a strategy.

"The only reason I ask is because we probably won't be getting much if we push through in order to get ahead. Although I'm confident the other teams will have the same idea in mind. At least I hope they would.Sadly no stim-caf"

Teynara was right again, at least they wouldn't be looking like drowned rats once the storm hit. Not that they had much of a choice, it wasn't as if they could pop-up a tent and decide to camp.

"Yeah, its like another day at the office. Although instead of getting shot at by the enemy I merely have to worry about nocturnal predators eating the flesh from our bones"

It was another attempt at her dry, sarcastic and yes dark humor. Delila wasn't so sure Teynara was grasping it though, which wasn't her partners fault. She often forgot how....odd it probably came across to others. Especially Jedi, always so straight laced and serious, even with their jokes. Must be the training, like those old soldiers that were so far gone nothing was funny anymore.

 

[Teynara Jeralyr]

Are there any nasty predators on this planet?, Teynara wondered fleetingly, trying to remember if Bakura had ever been mentioned in any of her lessons at Rudrig. She didn't recall it having come up in any of her private studies, but then again, Bakura wasn't exactly a world she'd ever expected to find herself on, and it wasn't all that distinct as far as biodiversity was concerned. Sure, there are always the Ssi-Ruuk, but they don't exactly live down here, and they certainly wouldn't be classed as predators. That much she did know, but it hardly helped her current line of thought.

"Most nocturnal predators are easily startled anyway," Teynara said in a confident tone. "Part of the reason they hunt at night is because much of their prey lacks the evolutionary development to survive in the darkness, plus the need to sleep." And, yes, we need to do it, too... "It's always easier to hunt prey that's not conscious," she said with a wry smile, though she certainly hoped that they wouldn't find themselves on the wrong end of that particular method by the time the day was over. That'd be an ignoble end to our careers, she thought, still smiling.

Increasing her pace a little now that the hill was startening to even out a little and become less steep, Teynara glanced back at her companion with a touch of curiousity. She wasn't what the Jedi had expected, truth be told, but she'd always envisioned military officers to be no-nonsense, highly methodical, utterly serious killers. Not a polite monniker, true, but that's what they're trained to do. That reality couldn't really be escaped, any more than it could among the Jedi Order: even when your duty is to protect, you ultimately had to face up to the reality of dealing out death. Still, she's got more of a sense of humour than I'd have thought. Less grim, more...embracing of life. It felt like an odd contrast.

She was be unfair, though, she knew that. Not all soldiers are killers, any more than all Jedi are monk-like warriors of legend, Teynara reflected. It was perfectly possible to be in the military and work as a Medic, as a Quartermaster, as a Scout. Maybe combat's a last resort for them, the same way it's supposed to be for us, the blonde mused. It would explain a little about Delila's temperament - she lacked that ice-cold edge of tension that she would have expected from someone always watching for a strategic advantage or seeing life as dancing on the edge of a knife. She's too...relaxed for it.

"You spend much time in the wild, Captain?", Teynara inquired softly, looking around them as the outlying trees at the edge of the forest came more sharply into view. "I suppose you're all taught basic survival skills, know how to track game for good purposes, how to conserve your water supply?" They were, after all, out here to work on just those things, and she was curious to see how much that other woman knew. Probably more than I do, in retrospect, but you never know.

 

[Delila Castillon]

@[member="Teynara Jeralyr"]

Delila smiled at the Jedi trying to explain away vicious creatures that lurked in the night.Maybe not vicious, the Captain did just some base research on the planet, there were large creatures but she surely didn't spend much time bothering with that portion of her information. Perhaps she should have paid more attention to that part-Delila really had been more focused on terrain,weather and natives.

The womans question caught her off guard, bringing her back to her time before the Republic. "Not as much as a I used to,before I joined the Republic. Before I joined, things were bad for my soldiers in my old unit. No resources for food, maybe a meal a day. They would be relieved to go somewhere so we could scavenge..."Delila grew quiet before shaking her head.Those were hard memories.

Suddenly there was a roar behind them. Apparently their walking had disturbed the loose rock on the sloping mountainside. Now the tons of rock threatened to crush the pair if they didnt hurry up. Small rocks skittered past their feet at first, but large ones were certainly not far behind. Delila picked up her pace, grabbing the arm of the Jedi to urge her to match the pace.

"I hope you can run...."