Private The Dancer's Reprise

[Lief]

How did one fight without telegraphing? That was the question on young Dune's mind as Val danced away from his slash. Not much time to ponder it though, because no sooner had the words been uttered and the attack avoided than Eliphas found himself knocked to the ground by a stray leg.​

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He landed with a thud on his backside, with some of the air knocked from his lugs. He huffed, then he forced himself back up to his feet. Okay, so cheating. Although were this a real fight he wondered if it could even truly be counted as such. People didn't fight fair, right? Not when it was life or death...​

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The boy had to resist the urge to brush himself down, having dirtied the back of his trousers, and instead returned to a neutral stance. Val wasn't leading the attack, so Eliphas slipped forward once more and this time sent a series of different slashes the man's way. Up to the shoulder, sweeping down toward his knee, pulling back slightly to put a little space between them before lunging forward with a shiak centered on his chest.​

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Val batted each aside effortlessly, but Eliphas kept going all the same. Mostly he stuck to the Shii-Cho basics, targeting zones, but every now and then he'd slip in something different...​

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Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

“You know how to feint?” Val asked. “That’s how you avoid telegraphing every move. The prescience granted by the Force allows most of our kind to sense incoming danger, so the only option to score a truly unexpected blow is to deceive the Force itself. Think one way, act in another.”

Val sliced toward Eli’s neck. Their blades momentarily locked as Eli moved to block the strike—and Val lashed out, his free hand grabbing the boy by the throat.

“My master did this to me,” he said. His gaze was both vacant and focused as he tried to leverage his grip and push Eli to the ground. “When I asked her why, she told me I had a long neck, like a swan. Plenty to strangle…”

If Eli couldn’t manage to break free, he’d release him before the boy blacked out. But it was not a pleasant position to be in—and definitely “cheating”, to say nothing of the dangers of crushing another person's airways.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Feint. Fake projections. Start to do one thing, then proceed to do another.​

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"No, I don't know..." He'd been raised in more honorable combat scenarios, among non-Force Users, the idea that everyone he'd encounter had some sort of precognition was foreign and new and strange, but it was something he'd have to adjust to and account for going forward. He listened to what was said, taking it onboard, and when the strike came he moved to block it.​

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The last thing Eliphas had been expecting was to be grabbed by the throat. His free hand lifted, moving to try and clutch at Val's wrist to tug and pull and try to break the grasp. He was being lowered back toward the ground with the pushing, vice-like grip, and his vision began to blur as a result. His lightsaber was dropped at some point, and now both hands were prying at Val's fingertips.​

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Words were uttered, as the man reminisced about having similar done to him, but the boy was barely paying enough attention to make sense of it.​

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Then, before he could actually lose consciousness and before Val saw fit to release him, Eliphas lashed out through the Force in an unexpected telekinetic wave and sought to throw the man back. It wasn't something he'd ever even seen done before, but his body fought back all the same.​

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Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

The world tilted suddenly. Val was knocked backwards by the telekinetic blast, thrown several feet across the roof. He quickly regained control over his body, landing on his feet.

“There it is!” He grinned. “I knew you had some fight in you.”

He drew his lightsaber back. "Here’s one of your master’s favorite moves. He throws his lightsaber, manipulating its path with telekinesis. It’s a powerful ability, but leaves him vulnerable to attack.”

He flung his lightsaber at Eli, using the Force to control its arc as it spun toward the boy.

"Think fast!"

Lief​

 

[Lief]

In the aftermath of the blast, Eliphas - who was by this point sat on the ground - stared stunned at what he'd just done. Of course, he was also in pure relief at having his throat released. Both hands reached up to gently rub at the sore spots which were forming, and he was gasping for air.​

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Still, the man's triumphant response was somewhat infectious. In the same way Starlin's whooping and hollering had begun to rub off on him.​

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He began to push back up to his feet, glancing around for his fallen saber, when Val's warning came. The lightsaber whizzed toward him, and Eliphas dropped into a sudden roll that put him off to the right of where he'd previously been standing.​

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"Woah!"​

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He'd never thought to use his saber in such a way. Then again, he was a pretty subpar telekinetic user. And saber user. Go figure.​

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Finally spying his saber, he hastily moved to pick it up from the ground and rose in the same motion, raising his saber in defense just in case the floating saber whirled back toward him like some haywire boomerang.​

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Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

In truth, Val was just glad the boy didn’t start crying. He’d heard some rumors through the grapevine that Eliphas Dune was a bit of a wet noodle, springing a leak at the slightest provocation. When no tears appeared on the Padawan’s cheeks, Val proceeded as normal.

Which was to say, in an utterly insane manner.

“Drat! I wish I had more lightsabers. Then I could throw them all at you!”

He was doing a fine job of chasing Eli around with the one, though. His blade stopped spinning and began to duel Eli as if it had a mind of its own, controlled remotely by Val with the Force.

“It requires intense concentration, but at least the body gets to rest.” Accordingly, Val now lay on his back with his hands behind his head. “Try it yourself.”

The disembodied lightsaber stopped harassing him and instead levitated patiently in place.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Hounded by an out of control saber, Eliphas felt more like he was in a cardio class than a saber training session. He ran around the rooftop garden evading the blade, and every now and then clashing it with his own. It was crazy, it was exhilarating, and up there he felt like he was on top of the world.​

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Then the saber halted and began to fight him. The worst part was, incorporeal things didn't exactly project their thoughts into their actions, so he had limited ways to really tell where it was going to strike. Each block was made last second and hastily, though they'd begun to be a little less sloppy over time.​

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And then Val paused it, and made his next instruction known.​

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"I uh..." Eliphas glanced from his saber, to Val's, to the man himself, "I'm not very good with telekinesis" he admitted, with a slightly pink blush.​

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Val Drutin​

 

[Val Drutin]

“You blasted me when I was choking you!” Val shot back. But apparently Eli was being serious about not being “good” at telekinesis.

“Well, figure it out!” With a wave of his hand, he lifted Eli into the air. “Or I’ll throw you off the roof. Then you’ll definitely have to figure it out, or grow wings!”

While Eli was presumably floundering in midair, Val continued on with the lesson as if nothing was amiss, his irritation forgotten.

“Your lightsaber should be the easiest thing in the world to use. You made it yourself, Eli, choosing each part and assembling it. You know how it works, and you should be able to picture it all in your head and will it to move as you wish.”

Val rolled over on his stomach, propping his chin on his hands. “Maybe it’s that crystal you put in it. I knew it must have some kind of sentimental value—people don’t just carry around random gemstones unless it means something to them.” Despite his madness, Val could be quite observant of others. He squinted at Eli. “Are you afraid of it? What's stopping you?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"I don't know how I did that!" he pleaded, a little too late given that he was soon hanging in the air like a poorly tethered balloon which would float free from its bindings at a moments notice with just the slightest gust of wind.​

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Suffice to say, he didn't much like that feeling of weightlessness.​

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Wait, was he really going to throw him off the roof? Oh feth... He wouldn't put it past Val. The guy was unhinged.​

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The mans observations left him gawping like a fish caught on a hook, but the questions soon snapped him out of it. "I'm not afraid of it" he replied as hastily as he could, "I just... Get too caught up in the specifics..." It had been a continual issue he'd found when it came to using the Force. He felt as though he had to know every little thing about what he was doing and how it worked before he could actually put it into practice.​

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Yet here he was floating around in the air, and if he didn't do something about it he'd end up over the edge of the hotel.​

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No time for thinking, Eli, just move the damned saber.​

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Inhale, exhale, then he dropped his lightsaber to the ground where it briefly clattered. The Force began to flow around him, bridged out toward the saber, and slowly but surely it began to rise up. He probed around, trying to thumb the ignition without, well, his thumb, and after a few more moments of intense concentration the amber blade ignited itself.​

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But hovering it around and moving it in a way which resembled lightsaber combat was an entirely different thing.​

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It flailed wildly this way and that in his attempts to control it, and a deeper blush set over the boys cheeks. "See?!" he said, exasperated by the whole ordeal.​

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Val Drutin ​

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[Val Drutin]

“Well, figure it out!” Val replied, imitating Eli’s pleading tone. The boy complained that he got too caught up in the specifics. “Then stop doing that!”

Luckily, Eli seemed to get with the program, excelling under pressure. Or at the very least, the experience and threat of being thrown off the roof had lit a fire under his ass. Val rolled over on his side, propping himself up on one elbow, and watched the show.

Eli seemed exasperated and frustrated despite his progress. “You literally almost got it,” Val pointed out. He squinted at Eli. “Why does your face keep getting all red whenever I see you? Do you have some type of condition?”

Changing position resulted in him feeling something round and hard in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out to see what it was, and his expression immediately brightened. “Hey, gumballs!” Without bothering to consider how long they had been in his pocket (gum lasts slightly longer than forever), he popped one in his mouth and offered the other to Eli. Should the floating boy accept the offer, Val would throw it at him carelessly, expecting him to catch it.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Great. Now he was being mocked!​

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Maybe chasing Val across the Core had been a mistake. Maybe he should have sought out somebody a little less manic and crazed. But he hadn't, and now he was floating around...​

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The man was right though, he'd almost got it.​

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Another inhale of breath and he finally let go. Resigned himself to whatever fate had in store and instead tried to simply trust in the Force. Whenever he made use of the spells his Master had taught him he had to simply focus on his intent, to know what it was he was trying to do. He didn't need to know why or how it happened, only that it did.​

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So he tried that here, and found that the blade began to move much more freely. He glided it toward where Val was rolling around and chewing on gum, ignoring the question about his blush, and instead his eyes seemed to light up and a grin formed over his expression.​

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"Have at ye, ya scallywag!" Okay maybe that was too silly, either way he chuckled.​

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Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

Setting Eli down, Val rose to his feet and took up his own lightsaber with telekinesis, bringing it up to clash against Eli’s. “Proud and insolent youth,” he said, blowing a bubble and popping it before continuing, “Prepare to meet thy doom.”

He began fencing his lightsaber against Eli’s. The whole scenario felt more like two kids playing video games than a training session, each one trying to get their disembodied lightsaber to “beat” the other. Val tried to force Eli’s lightsaber into retreat, backing it up until he could strike at the boy beyond.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Much to his surprise, Val took the playful bait!​

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With that in mind, Eliphas continued to float his saber against the other man's with the Force, and in response they clashed this way and that in the air between them. The concern had all but waned from him by this point, no doubt aided by the fact that his feet were firmly planted on the ground once more, and instead the pair of them seemed to be in some sort of imagination station, pairing off against one another in what seemed to be an invisible battle wherein only their blades could be seen.​

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Val pushed back against his, hoping to gain ground, and in response Eliphas pushed back.​

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"Nope, no way, I'm not giving you an inch ya scoundrel!"​

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Of course, he knew the duelist probably wasn't even using a fifth of his skill. He'd be able to bypass Eli if he really wanted to.​

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Val Drutin ​

 

[Val Drutin]

The duel went on, Val aggressively chewing his bubble gum all the while striking at Eli and fending off the boy's blows. At some point Tamara, who was still standing off to one side watching, noticed Val's comm was going off. She checked who was calling, and immediately stepped forward to interrupt the battle.

"Val, you've got a call. Something important."

Halting their game, Val took the comm, listened for a minute or so, then seemed electrified by whatever was said. "I've got to go!" he announced. Running toward the nearest exit, he skidded to a halt, turned around to face Eli, and said, "Keep practicing, you're a natural!" Then he barreled down the stairs quite noisily, with Tamara hoisting her skirts up and scurrying along after him.

A few seconds later, he came back up again. "Ask your master about Force Body techniques!"

And then he was finally gone for good.

Lief​