Private So if I win, you buy me dinner right? (Duel)

[Darth Strosius]

His head tilted in confusion, silent for a long few moments as he stared at Alina Tremiru before he spoke. "What about it?" Alisteri had no idea what lightning had to do with the Force. Perhaps it was some sort of ability maybe? Lightning manipulation? "Can Force users manipulate lightning? That sounds amazing!" Then another thought struck him and his shoulders sagged. "...it isn't a thunderstorm though..."

Maybe there was a room somewhere in the academy for lightning training? That was a thing surely, the Sith had odder rooms for weirder things. "Is there a specific room for that sort of thing or...?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

For the first time since Darth Strosius and Alina started hanging out the young woman fell silent, staring at him in disbelief. "I.. No. No? I don't know, I've never been able to do it myself, but you can use the Force to make lightning. It's like, the signature Sith thing to do. Shoot lightning from your fingertips. I.." She paused and took a breath. No wonder he couldn't do much. He didn't even have basic training. The fact he didn't know about Force Lightning said a lot about where he came from.

A soft smile formed as she nodded to one of the targets. "So, here's what I know. Force Lightning, that's the term for it, can be used by.. Anyone technically. But you need to use your emotion. Hate. Anger. Feel that want to destroy, and let go. Let it loose on the target. Uh, with your real hand. Not the robotic one."

 

[Darth Strosius]

"The Sith can do what?!" He looked down at his hands in surprise, almost as if he was concerned that he would start shooting lightning at that very moment. If he thought back to it, he supposed that he had heard once or twice amidst the various tales that he had learned of the Sith that they could indeed shoot lightning from their fingertips. He had always assumed such things were just nonsense, like those tales of Sith creating life or choking people without laying a hand on them.

Alisteri idly clenched his right hand at the mention of it and nodded, snapped out of his little reverie of surprise by Alina Tremiru 's voice. "Right I see...I suppose channeling lightning through a metal hand would be rather disastrous." He offered a small, nervous chuckle before he tried to focus. With bated breath, he raised his left hand towards the target.

His eye closed as he steadied his breathing and focused on the emotions welling up inside of him, trying to get them flowing towards the target instead of fermenting inside of him like usual. After a brief moment, a small spark was emitted from his hand. Said spark caught him off guard and he nearly fell over in surprise.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"You realize I come from a family of Sorcerers. Lightning like this is literally child's play." She shook her head in disbelief as she watched Darth Strosius . It really was quite the shock to see such a difference between him and her. She, born in a family where all this was common knowledge but no ability to use it. Him, born in a world where it was myth, but all the ability to use it. They made quite a pair, in their own unique way.

It never grew old, seeing that sort of power spark. She laughed, reaching over to punch his shoulder. "No kiddin! You can do it. Man, all that's limiting you is yourself. It's.." She tapped the side of head. "If you don't think you can do it, you won't. Stop thinking you're nothing. You're a Sith. Your master trained you for a reason. Prove you were worth it. To her, and yourself."

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Child's play? Alina we're talking about shooting lightning from your hands!" He was a bit surprised that he had been able to do it, even having doubted that Alina Tremiru made up the whole lightning thing right until that little spark. The mention of her family, even though it was a brief and offhanded remark, surprised him as well. Sorcerers? He guessed that they were just really good at shooting lightning maybe? It was certainly an interesting word choice, one that he would have to look into later.

Alisteri was silent for a moment after she spoke, but his gaze rested on his left hand curiously. She did have a point, if his master returned and saw that he hadn't developed at all... Well he didn't want to think about that. "Right okay I got it. Lightning from my hand..." It sounded odd to say. Yet again he raised his hand towards the target and focused, his fingers curling slightly as he channeled his inner demons. And then...

In a flash of blue lightning, a quick yet thin strand leapt from his fingers and scorched the target with a lash of energy; the masked acolyte recoiling slightly in surprise and ending the stream as a result. "...woah..."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"If you think that's that impressive, you're gonna be horrified by what sorcerers can do. Kark, now I'm curious if you have an aptitude for Sorcery." That was an interesting thought, but it was better to focus on what they were doing now. Last thing she wanted to do was distract him when he was literally sparking electricity from his fingers. A bright smile spread across her face as Darth Strosius let loose another blast of lightning. "How does that feel? Is there a rush? Can you feel it crackling in your hands?"

She had a slew of questions to ask him about this. Once more she was the bright eyed kid trying to figure it out with her father's lessons. She wanted nothing more than to feel that rush herself, but maybe she could live vicariously through Ali for a little bit.

 

[Darth Strosius]

"I highly doubt that I would be able to something 'sorcerous.'" He didn't use finger quotes, but it sounded like he did. Alisteri still had no concept of what that word really meant beyond the lightning ability. However, he wasn't going to lie and say that he wasn't curious, especially if Alina Tremiru wasn't just spouting hyperboles. Which, to be fair, she didn't do often.

"It feels...odd." He idly flexed his hand as he spoke, inspecting it to make sure he didn't somehow shock himself. "Like you're about to be consumed by your anger and then...then your anger is real. Suddenly lightning bursts from your hand towards whatever you're pointing at...it is a strange yet...powerful feeling." A small grin appeared on his face for a moment, but it was thankfully hidden and very quickly replaced by a confused expression. Hm...odd.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"Powerful. It's a good feeling. Right?" She smiled warmly, just watching Darth Strosius 's mask. The smile twitched for a moment, then she reached up to touch his mask. "I bet you're smiling under there. You have power. Now you can tell your master you've learned how to summon lightning from your fingers." Alina was back to smiles now, trying to take the mask off. "We'll work on this. It's not often an acolyte can make lightning like that. You might be able to stand a chance against me next time."

Her smile turned to a grin as she'd step away from him to go over to the target. Singed. "Maybe a chance."

 

[Darth Strosius]

"Good is very relative...but yes." He couldn't deny that feeling like this was certainly a good feeling. Alisteri paused in confusion, jumping slightly when Alina Tremiru touched his mask. "I can indeed. What...what are you doing?" He made no effort to try and stop her from taking off his mask, mostly surprised that she was doing it. She did manage to get it off as well, much to his surprise and confusion.

A small chuckle left him and he rolled his eyes at her remark. "I suppose we are closer to being even now. I'll have to do some more training with the lightning at some point. I highly doubt that i could use it mid-battle just yet." That could be done latee though, he had plenty of time.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"I enjoy seeing your face is all. I get why you hide it, but I'd rather talk to my friend than a metal mask." The fact she could call Darth Strosius a friend still filled her with a childlike joy. Growing up without a friend certainly made her more prone to want to accept this reality, even if they were Sith. "Now you know what to train, at least. A starting point to grow even stronger from. And now I can use you for some of my other training too." There was quite the smirk at that, and she certainly didn't go into what that could actually mean.

"Now we should head to the archives. You should read up all you can on lightning and it's applications."

 

[Darth Strosius]

For a moment, it looked as if Alisteri was going to say something in response. He didn't though, opting to bite his tongue and simply nod instead. There were times where Alina Tremiru proved to be a true friend to him, and this was one of those moments for sure. She taught him how to shoot lightning from his hand, and if that wasn't a true sign of a best friend then he didn't know what was. "...I don't like how vague that remark was..." He noted, narrowing his eye at her for a moment. His bruises from yesterday were still there after all.

"I agree. As fun as shooting lightning is, better that we look into it first before I wind up blowing my other hand off eh?" He smirked and gestured to the doorway. "Lead on then."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

There was only a wink offered before she turned her back on Darth Strosius to again inspect the target. There was a lot to learn from just watching this sort of power. Well, especially when it wasn't targeted at her. Blinding pain did little for the learning system. Once she was satisfied she turned back to her friend, nodding. It wasn't a long walk, especially since they were just going to the place they were planning to originally. "So, what else do you want to do? Now that you know just about anything is possible."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri hummed in response as he thought over the question for a moment. The idea of learning something else that could benefit him was very tempting; the lightning still giving him some effect of power. Said lightning was not too powerful, nowhere near as deadly as it should have been, but he could work on that on his own.

"I suppose I shall bend to your superior knowledge in that matter." He finally responded, nodding at Alina Tremiru respectfully. "You know more about what Sith are capable of after all."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"I can tell you things, but I can't show you what they are. Really, once it was clear I couldn't lift anything or spark any lightning, I stopped reading into everything else. There was no reason to learn advanced techniques if I wasn't able to do the basics." He was giving her too much credit now. If Darth Strosius wanted to learn more and figure out where he wanted to go, she wasn't going to be the one to guide him through it. Maybe help with the basics though.

She took a seat at one of the terminals, idly turning it on to glance through some of the documents on lightning and it's applications. "So where did you grow up?"

 

[Darth Strosius]

"I suppose that's understandable. No reason to waste effort on something that you can't do." He could find the sense in that. Wasted effort meant wasted opportunities and energy, and in a wartime state like they were such wasted effort could prove fatal. One had to be very decisive to be a Sith. "To be fair, you know more than I do." Alisteri offered helpfully, idly glancing around the archives as he slid into the seat next to Alina Tremiru .

"Oh..." That was the question that he had been dreading to hear since he first joined the ranks of the Sith. "Kessel...I grew up on Kessel." He was kind of surprised by how viciously he had said those words, almost hissing the name of the planet.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"Only book knowledge. You'll learn far more than I ever can now that you have a starting point." It was an idle mused, but try as she might she couldn't hide the envy hidden in her words. Darth Strosius would be able to do great and terrible things, things she could never dream of doing. Such envy was pushed aside as she caught the tone in which her friend spoke of his home world. It was like her speaking of her mother. Wasn't hard to figure out there was something terrible with it.

And given Alisteri's desire to keep the cheap cybernetics he had, the fact he had no ship or room of his own, his lack of knowledge on the Force..

"You were a slave."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri supposed that she made a point, she could only really learn what the Force could do. Whereas he could, theoretically at least, perform a good bit of whatever he could learn. He valued knowledge above all else, coming from having none of it did that to you. The ability to use that knowledge mattered little in his mind.

The masked man froze as she said that, almost as if that simple sentence had been a shot through his chest. So, Alina Tremiru had figured it out. Inevitable, he supposed. "...I was..."

The response was somber, robbed of all the spite with which he had spoken before. He reached up to touch his mask, running his fingers over the grooves of the metal silently for a moment. "This mask...this mask is the face of a Sith Acolyte. Underneath it...is the face of a slave..."

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"That face is your face. You're not a slave anymore. That mask, it's just a chain." Alina muttered slightly, shaking her head. She turned more towards Darth Strosius , reaching to touch his mask again. Her yellow eyes were oddly focused though. The Sith Code was all about breaking chains. Being free. "Until you can break that mask, you will always be a slave. The past gives you strength, but don't let it shackle you." She was tempted just to break the mask herself, but she knew that wouldn't help anything.

If he wanted to be Sith, he needed to break his own chains.

Her hand pulled away as she flicked through the holodisplay. "The Force can be used to do a lot of things. I think you should get tested to see if you can use Sorcery. It's a rare ability that not all Sith have. Otherwise, this has a basis of all the usual tricks Sith have. Let me know if anything speaks out to you."

 

[Darth Strosius]

Alisteri was silent, seeming to give no physical response either, as Alina Tremiru spoke to him. A part of him knew that she was right, knew that so long as he still saw himself as a slave then that was what he would be. Another part was fine with having the mask as a reminder. It was a limiter no doubt, but he had chosen it. He had chosen to wear it, chosen to view himself as what he did. And that part valued the ability to choose above all else, even if those choices could have been better.

Especially if those choices could've been better.

Even amidst his somber mood, he did offer a small laugh as his gaze finally returned to the display. "I was blessed enough to have any level of Force sensitivity, but I doubt that I'd be fortunate enough to have a rare gift like that. I'm not that lucky Alina." His head tilted in confusion as he read over the display before him, too surprised by what the apparent basics were to try and pick some that he thought he could do. Evidently some of the old tales and legends about the Sith were more than just legends and tales.

"By the Force...is this all really possible?"

 

[Alina Tremiru]

​

"Better to learn now than assume you're not that lucky. It's an easy enough test." One that she'd taken a dozen times now. All in a hope she might be a late bloomer. No such luck, however. She laughed a bit at just how bewildered Darth Strosius was with all this information. Did he truly not realize just how powerful the Sith were in the Force? He had to of seen a Lord fighting at some point.

"Every bit of it. Some require more skill than others. Some require a natural affinity, much like Sorcery. There's a lot to learn and master. Anything stand out though? There has to be something you want to do."