Stop Baking Things Please

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

"No anesthetic, no sedation."

"Miss Varanin," said the medical droid patiently, "I cannot guarantee your safety or the effectiveness of the procedure if you move or shift at all."

She was already clothed in a medical gown, lying inside a Spaarti appearance reconstruction unit. "Then I won't move. If I'm going to become someone else, I'm going to know the difference intimately. Besides. I've gotten soft."

"Your body mass index is within recommended-"

"Thank you. I'm well aware of my body's condition." There was, Ashin had discovered, a fundamental difference between levels of fitness, levels of readiness. 'I train every day' didn't really match 'I kill people every day.' Her Grand Admiral's uniform fit much differently than what she'd worn as Empress ten years back, and neither one fit quite like the simple things she wore now. Her right knee had taken repeated injuries, she had a good deal of scar tissue to contend with, Spencer liked to bake too much, Ravening and her long-fought Force Drain addiction had aged her considerably...

And in the end, she was just too recognizable. There were too many worlds she couldn't visit, places where she'd killed people who might or might not have deserved it. Places where she'd ordered interventions or occupations, even the occasional purge. Places where she couldn't so much as have a drink without being accosted. She was, she recognized, the definition of baggage, a has-been whose actions had walled her off from much of the galaxy. Well, no longer. The Sith code might be puerile, but she retained Lumiya's principle: overcome all obstructions to get exactly what you want.

"I cannot recommend this procedure if you do not submit to sedation, Miss Varanin."

She set her jaw, staring up at the surgical machinery. "I've made a life and several careers on the premise that I can overcome my fears and endure what nobody else can."

The medical droid whirred as -- at a guess -- its psychiatric programming came online. "You realize, Miss Varanin, that people do not often speak like that, with that sort of intent?"

"I do."

"Do you consider yourself a masochist?"

"Only when my wife's nails are involved. Start the procedure."

"The parameters you've chosen-"

"They're not extreme. You've admitted as much."

"They are not objectively extreme, but in relation to your current form, I feel compelled to remind you that -- pardon? I didn't catch that."

Ashin repressed a snort, eyes tracking the needles, blades, and beam projectors above her. "You felt compelled."

"Irresistibly," said the medical droid without irony. "To remind you that some patients have experienced dissociative episodes after a change as drastic as the one you've chosen. Some humanoids experience social and psychological difficulties based on appearance, including sub-racial indicators."

"You have no idea. The amount of grief I'm likely to get for this is considerable. I expect the most charitable will see it as vanity. But at my age...well, if vanity wasn't on the menu, you wouldn't be in business. Start it up. That's my final word."

***​

​

Snap-hiss -- no sweeter sound. She flicked her sabre up in a Makashi salute. The odds of actually going blade-to-blade were minimal, but a good deal of what she did involved the sabre. That, and it took a lot more focus to tank a lightsabre than to swing it, no matter how good you got at it. Even at this level, the sabre was an essential. For her, anyway.

Recuperation had involved retraining, getting used to her new mass, balance, and physical limits. She'd taken advantage of kolcta, myostim, and Spencer's healing expertise. She'd even acclimated herself to the mirror.

They stood in some kind of ancient subterranean audience chamber, a carved stone pit scattered with the rubble of its ornate ceiling. A broad ray of sun angled down through what had been the roof, casting hard shadows on the fallen stone. There were regions of good footing and places where walking just wasn't an option. Ashin had left her armor elsewhere. It didn't fit her new form.

Past her lightsabre, she eyed the woman who'd been her First Apprentice and then her Master. "Whenever you're ready."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Sexual activity sometimes wasn’t enough. Especially when your partner was starting to feel the effects of aging. During the time of their untimely retirement, Spencer just had that for her physical exercise. Her frustrations were easily handled with baking items, cakes, pies, croissants, among other things. She started to feel the effects of the sugar and her slowing metabolism. Looking in the mirror once, she put on an old dress and noticed that her bottom was a bit too full and her thighs a bit to thunderous. It was time to stop eating the baked goods and doing something physical beyond her current activities. Slowly but surely, Spencer began cutting things out – it killed her, but she managed for the time being. Still because of boredom she continued to bake and her taste tester became Ashin, who also was starting to fill out.

Ashin got her make over and Spencer got her wrinkles removed – she didn’t have that many just around the corner of her eyes and forehead (mostly because of Ibaris). Running nearly every morning and physically conditioning herself with her tutaminis and other defenses has helped melt away the added pounds and provided Spencer, probably for the first time in her life a little bit of muscle. The woman was still slender and looked nothing like a fighter, even more so now that she looked as if she was nineteen all over again.

It was how it usually went, Ashin was the perfect training partner for Spencer. The woman knew the ins and outs of her abilities, knew the counters for them and could probably figure her out before she figured herself out. They had been partners for a while now, ever since Spencer was seventeen. You learn a lot about someone in that time span. She remained kneeling as she meditated gathering her thoughts and getting a feel for the area. Despite all of Ashin’s faces, the one thing that stayed the same was how she felt. Spencer could feel the woman shift and move in the Force, it was a comforting feeling especially during the times that Ashin had been away. As she meditated Spencer connected with the bloodtrails she had set, especially her daughter. Feeling the girl once again in the Force relaxed Spencer. Her life had changed from having Ashin as her centralized focus to including Ibaris and even then the child became the centeral focus. When she decided to leave especially at such a young age, Spencer felt her heart break – was this how her own mother felt? Guilt started to poison the meditation, but catching it quickly Spencer quickly pushed it away and relaxed once again.

Normally, her trances were unable to be broken, but she heard a faint whisper of Ashin calling out to her. Hazel eyes opened and she stared back at the woman who saved her from a life of mediocrity as a Jedi Temple healer. Ashin taught her many things about the Force and herself, if they had never met, if she had never gone with her on that starliner – yep Spencer wouldn’t be who she was today without the mighty former Empress of the Sith. Still, Spencer knew how soft the woman was on the inside, despite the songs and tales of the Conquer of 10 or was it 20 thousand worlds.

Yawning, Spencer stood and stretched. “I’m still sore from last night, I know I’m flexible but you gotta let a girl warm up you know.” Slapping her face a couple of times she shifted her feet into a classic Shii-cho stance. No weapon drawn, but her hands moved out ward prepared to block or attack if necessary. “I’m ready, guess I’ll start this.” As quickly as she finished speaking, her mind went to work weaving through the force and attempting to cause a squeezing strain on Ashin’s mind. “Don’t go easy on me because you wore me out alright.”

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

The mental attack hit fast and hard. Cursory, to be sure, but she'd been the one to teach Spencer mindwar, and they'd fought on that level many, many times. And Spencer was a mentalist, where Ashin absolutely was not -- so Spencer gleaned a disproportionate advantage from that familiarity. So even a cursory mental pressure was closely suited to the blind spots and weaknesses of Ashin's mind, even after a decade of active crosstraining against Spencer's mentalism.

But even though the balance of advantage lay with Spencer, Ashin knew how Spencer fought. A split second after the pressure manifested itself, Ashin began to absorb the energy of the mental assault, repurposing a portion of it and attempting to devour all of it. More, to latch onto Spencer's mind and soul. A ribbon of yellow light slashed out from her sabre hand, attempting to connect her fist with the centre of Spencer's chest. It was a continuation and refinement of the Force drain that she was using to chew away at Spencer's technique.

Lightsabre raised, she began to walk quickly toward Spencer. As quickly as she could manage, anyway, while doing her level best to consume both the mental assault and the mind behind it.

Om freakin nom.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer could feel Ashin absorbing the technique mentally and then she saw the yellow ribbons of the drain on her physical form. So there was no holding back, no sandbagging in this training. This only meant that there was something going on and as excited as she could get in these circumstances, she did. They weren’t meant for the quiet life, they played with fire far too many times to just sit around and wait for something to happen to them. A part of her wondered if they were the type to die on a battlefield, despite her desire to pass quietly and to grow old with her lover. Those were just the roles they were to fill - to fight till there was no longer any fighting to do.

But there will always be fighting.

The drain hit her square in the chest, usually she would combat this by focusing her energy on draining the physical drain, but instead, she allowed it to happen. She fed it though, by changing the effects of her mental attack into a mental drain. She stayed latched on to Ashin’s mind which was absorbing the attack. Pushing forward into the psyche she attempted to drain the woman at the source of her force control.

It hurt, everything hurt and through a wince she smiled. “Still hungry eh? Would have thought…”Spencer pushed forward as she continued to try and drain Ashin mentally.”Would have thought you had enough last night.” [member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

"You only...pillow talk...when you're on...the edge."

They'd matched the strength of their Force drain before, in...various circumstances. It wasn't often, though, that she and Spencer dialed it up to eleven, not with this technique. Ashin staggered as she felt Spencer shift focus, trying to strip away Ashin's connection to the Force. It was almost terrifying how versatile these abilities could be.

But she'd left terror on Arcanix, a long time ago.

Coldly, she considered the possibilities and found an acceptable option. Like a swordswoman accepting a hit to strike one of her own, she dropped her opposition abruptly and felt her Force connection begin to weaken. And in the instant when Spencer's mind would be flooded by a glut of Force energy, Ashin broke into a sprint over the last couple of metres and lashed out with her sabre, a two-handed lateral slash coming up at Spencer's center of mass by way of the left hip.

She knew there was a good chance Spencer would be fast enough to turn that stolen power into tutaminis. Spencer had utterly mastered that part of the tank skillset. But one thing she'd never really seen Spencer do was anchor herself against kinetic force, and Ashin had that in spades. Stopping a lightsabre from burning you was one thing.

Stopping that sabre's impact from putting you on your butt -- that was something else.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Grinning, Spencer couldn’t help it. She knew that the pillow talk never really affected Ashin, unlike when they were in the first couple of years of their relationship. During that time, it was rare for them to keep their hands off each other. Still, very much in love – their relationship blossomed into a companionship. Either way, Spencer did enjoy teasing her wife.

The grin faded though when she felt the sudden rush of the Force power being drained, she knew something was changing. Continuing to drain she watched as Ashin made her way towards her. The drain stopped as she shifted the energy towards her defense. The energy absorption would absorb the burning energy of the lightsaber. Still, Ashin was strong and Spencer knew this. There was something though about being around someone constantly helping them get back to where they were beforehand. Spencer picked up something from Ashin though she wasn’t as strong as the woman in it, but the concept would help with the blow.

She felt her weight bear down towards the ground grabbing ahold of the foundation of the building. Spencer didn’t know the technique well enough to pull the center of the planet that was something only Ashin could do. Because of this, Spencer felt the blade push against her and her footing slide slightly. With Ashin close, Spencer reached out and from there pushed Ashin back with a force push. “I’m going to bruise there you know.”

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

With Spencer's attention shifting from the drain to anchoring and a push, the Force flooded back into Ashin, and she surrounded herself with it. As she hunkered down against the blast, right shoulder first, feet set on the stone, a faint nimbus distorted the air around her. Some might call it Force protection or a full-body variant of Force Weapon or a highly specialized Force shield; others might recognize elements of the same grounding that Spencer had just attempted; but in the end, it all boiled down to this:

Against simple telekinetic strength, Ashin Varanin was an immovable object.

And she was still at sabre range.

Despite the buffeting, her blade licked out -- oh, the imagery -- in a backhand, aimed for Spencer's right-side ribs. The motion uncoiled from the shoulder she'd dropped against the brunt of the blast. As the push tore up rubble behind her, she doubled down on her protective abilities, and the air warped around her.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Alright that didn’t work out too well. Spencer gritted her teeth as she saw the force push didn’t do anything against Ashin. The blade attack on her ribs would easily break them if she just absorbed the blade as usual. Instead she tucked her right arm to cushion the blow against her side, but using the blade against Ashin, she absorbed the energy stopping the blade from burning and cutting through her. The energy that was absorbed was quickly transferred to her left leg which she strengthen with the force to give her something to try and combat against the tank of a woman she was up against. She wanted to force drain her, but with the split concentration, Ashin could and would smack her again with the sword.


This was her best bet for the time being. Her knee rose and with a heavy kick of the Force and Spencer’s own strength she aimed for Ashin’s stomach hoping to get some sort of space from her if she crumpled at the blow. Though Spencer was fully aware of Ashin’s potential, especially with this new and rejuvenated body.

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Spencer Jacobs"]

Good thing I doubled down.

The Force-enhanced kick slammed into Ashin's gut, or more precisely into the aura of distortion that she'd just amplified. The Force protection took the brunt of the assault; she bent over with the impact but didn't get driven back. A moment too late to prevent the strike from connecting, the meat of her right forearm crashed down into Spencer's kicking leg, a sweeping block meant to drive it down and off to Ashin's right. That was her sabre hand; the blade was between them, at gut level.

Uncoiling from her half-crouch, Ashin snapped out a punch with her left, a strike made steel-hard by the Force protection that surrounded her. The punch was aimed to knock Spencer's head back and throw off her balance. If it worked, she meant to lash out with her sabre, a backhand strike to bowl Spencer over courtesy of the right ribs and the elbow that protected them.

 

[Allyson Locke]

The kick made contact, but didn’t do what Spencer was hoping for. This wasn’t a good thing, she was extremely close to Ashin and soon became a thing she didn’t want to be. Her leg moved to the side and the woman's saber hand which again was a dangerous place to be. Doing the only thing she could do at this time, Spencer used the force to create some sort of barrier around her something to cushion the blow that Ashin was about to release upon her. The fist made contact with a Spencer’s left arm, being used as a guard. It gave her some momentum to absorb and stumble back slightly, still being aware, she picked up quickly on the next attack.

There was some distance with the step back, but not enough to fully avoid the attack with the saber. Doing something quickly, Spencer pushed out the barrier she had created focusing on getting away. The momentum taken from the blocked head strike allowed her to create some distance just outside of the saber strike. From there, Spencer took a moment to recover and reset her guard. “You haven’t moved that quick in ages, Master”

[member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

As [member="Spencer Jacobs"] used her own barrier to shove herself away, Ashin's backswing caught only air. Her blade slipped back into a one-handed guard, and she kept her weight low. A diagonal, balanced stance, right foot forward, gave her side-to-side mobility and fortified her against a straight-ahead impact. If there was one thing Spencer could do well in a brawl, it was the creation of distance. Ashin gauged Spencer's balance -- ephemeral, mobile, but firm enough when necessary. No simple push or pull would get her out of position for more than a moment. And though the kick had worked out well, and Ashin had landed a solid hit or two beyond that, the idea of bludgeoning her wife had never sat well with her, no matter how dynamic their training. No, she wanted to win this on strategic and tactical grounds, not by a physical contest.

"I can't say as I'm not enjoying the speed." She quarter-turned left and shifted her back foot in behind her right, arch against arch, then blasted a side kick out at extreme range. Flexibility wasn't her strong suit; the kick snapped across the intervening space at waist height. She maintained the aura of Force protection, aiming to shear through whatever shield Spencer might generate. And if Spencer reacted just right, the kick could transition into a stomp easily enough.