The Machinist and the Alchemist (Hephaestus)

[Phylis Alince]

It was the night after young Padawan @Hephaestus’ induction to the Jedi Order. After bidding him goodnight the Jedi Master had returned to her room and completed the necessary paperwork. Even in the Jedi Order there was a need for bureaucracy and data collection.
Being a librarian and historian herself, Phylis was happy to oblige. It was usually not the records of wars and conquest which told you most about an era, but the mundane records which people took for granted.
That filed, she tinkered in her workshop for a while before going to bed.

Early the next morning, for Phylis was something of an early bird, she rose and got changed into one of her many brown robes. It did help not having to decide what to wear in the morning!

Heading downstairs she went to her new Padawan’s room and knocked. She hoped he’d be awake by now. If not…well…he soon would be.
Other Masters were collecting their charges for the day’s activities. Phylis though had something different planned. The Jedi Master was something of an unconventional teacher, mainly because she found rigid plans to be too inflexible. She preferred it when things were able to adapt.

 

[Kyla Foy]

Hephaestus was still highly asleep. He had been up for quiet some time actually instead of sleeping early it became rather late. His door just opened when his master had appeared and knocked. The Padawan quarter doors were never actually closed. When she would get into his room, she would see some finished arms lying around the place and under his bed were actual legs. They were for a project, which was creating his own assistent protocol droid and having had the force by his side allowed him to do it, at a quicker phase and with a bucket load of confidence.

When he saw the light entering the room he quickly pulled his blanket over his face, "Five more minutes" He said in his sleep as he turned on his back and tried to continue on sleeping.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]

Phylis closed the door. As her Padawan rolled over she ‘Hmmphed’ a bit.

However, she caught sight of the droid pieces created in only a single night. Leaning over, she picked up one of the arms. Not much of a mechanic herself, she looked them over with vague interest. It was rough, but it seemed like it would work.

Since it was his first day, Phylis went and fetched some breakfast, bringing it back and starting to eat herself. With the Padawan’s five minutes well and truly up, Phylis reached out her hand and the blanket yanked off him.

“Up you get, Padawan. The morning is still young,” Phylis said as nicely as possible.

 

[Kyla Foy]

He kept on sleeping like an angel! His bed was soft and not as rock hard as his bed before. His night had started well in some way of having now been working on his droids. When the time kept on going and going [member="Phylis Alince"] decided to wake him up the old fashioned way as she pulled away his blankets, he quickly put his hands in front of his eyes, "Aaah! The light..." It took around five seconds till it became less, "Ooh uhm, Miss...I mean Master Phylis..." He had to think a moment again about her name. He sat down on his bed and said, "Uhm...which one of those Padawan suits do you think were good for me?", He asked her while he was still in the clothes of yesterday.

He rubbed his eyes and stretched himself out, he was pretty calmly waking up in the early morning.

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
Phylis went to the closet and produced a set which she figured would fit the boy well. She handed them over.
“Go and get yourself dressed and then come get breakfast. You’ve got a busy day ahead of you. Hmm, busy, but not overly so. They’ll be plenty of time for you to work on your own projects. We like our Padawans to grow into their specialities naturally. However, there will be times when you need to learn how to be a Jedi first.”

When he returned, Phylis had finished her breakfast and was tinkering with a device of her own that she’d brought with her. It was a data crystal reader, though modified for a specific type of crystal. As befitting her usual work, it had a cobbled-together look.

“Ah, welcome to the land of the wakeful, Padawan. ‘Fresher work well?” she asked jovially.

 

[Kyla Foy]

Nick looked over towards master Phylis while she was looking into his closet and in a few moments she had found the suitable clothing which she gave to him at the end. He quickly started to toss his other clothes outside, being pretty sloppy about all of that and went into his Padawan robes and slipped off to quickly get his breakfast, within a minute or so he returned, he had five breads all placed onto each other and at it as a huge sandwich, taking big bites one after the other.

He came back inside and saw she was using a certain device. He didn't know what it was, but seemed interesting about it. He hesitated to ask her for the moment as it was only the morning early. He said, "I am back, master!" With a bright voice still finishing his sandwich. He smiled bright and heard his master very cheerful and happy, this affected him as well as he smiled, "Yea, that breakfast was great..though the clothes are something I have to get used too." He told her, but it didn't seem to matter too much for him as he still adjusted his suit to be neat, straightening out his sleeve as he asked, "What are today plan, Master Phylis?"

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
“Hmm, yes, robes are rather unusual. Took me a while to get used to them, that’s for sure.”

“The first thing we’re going to do is I’m going to teach you how to meditate and reach the Force. From that one skill everything else comes. Once you know that the Force opens up to you, slowly at first, but soon greater and greater in strength. After that I will introduce you to the lightsabre, the tool and weapon of the Jedi. Finally, we will go to the archives and I will give you some reading to do to help you understand the Order. Then, after all that, I’ll show you my work room and you can do some work on your droid somewhere which has the proper tools.”

 

[Kyla Foy]

He listened over towards his master and she was the exact same like him. He laughed as he seemed to be quite enjoying himself. They had seemed to be in so much the same yet being very different from each other. "Hehehe, okay master! I promise I will get used to this kind of uniform" He told her after that the planning of the day was being told, he took a mental note of it.

The day looked as the following;

• Learning the arts of the meditation and the force.
• Learning about the lightsaber, the tool of the jedi
• And even more reading material about the order of the Jedi

After that something, what sounded music in his ears, he was allowed to work on his droids within her workspace where she had most likely the proper tools. He made a fist and rose it up in the air excited, "What are we waiting for? Let's go, master Phylis!" He smiled being stoked to start now.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
"It took me many months. Before I was a Padawan I was used to the tighter clothes more normally worn on Naboo. Suddenly these loose robes felt entirely too airy. Still, it doesn't take long before they are what you know, and all is good."

"Come, let's get you started."

Phylis had carefully considered where to start the process. Many Padawans preferred the gardens or fountains as a background, but she figured she had a better place.

So down, down into the depths of the Temple she went until she came to an unused room with some old furniture. However, the rather pokey room was next to the main Temple generator, and the steady hum and thrum of the machine provided a background noise. For Hephaestus, someone in-tune with the Force through machines, it would likely help.

"Come in, sit yourself comfortably. We'll be in here for a while, so make sure you don't cramp up."

 

[Kyla Foy]

​

When he was listening to his master about the clothes, he understood everything and kindly nodded. When following her through-out the Ossus temple, seeing many droids on his way down there he was like learning already! The calmness of the academy and the people around, but the excitement of all the padawans and Initiates were rising more and more. Then they were coming inside a room, it was full of dust. He inhaled and coughed from inhaling the dust from a table.

"It looks pretty old here....." Something seemed off or something surprising it was actually. He kept quiet and his eyes started to shine. He first was looking through the room to find the device which was making such a nice sound. When he actually was done, he was calming down a little bit, when the excitey was slowly wondering away, he would sit down. He didn't sit down though on his ankles but with his legs crossed over each other as he asked, "What will the first thing be...wait!" He made a humming noise, "Learning about this force jedi stuff, right?" The machine indeed had a good influence on him.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
"Yes, that Force Jedi stuff," Phylis said with a smile. It was one way to put it, for sure!

"Relax, Padawan. Close your eyes, relax your body, let your mind drift. Focus on the background him, don't think, feel."

The Jedi Master silently came to stand behind him, observing his progress.

 

[Kyla Foy]

He smiled as the Jedi Master seemed to approve his way of addressing the Jedi techniques as 'Jedi Force stuff' He was sitting on the ground, his eyes slowly closing as he was told to relax. He deeply inhaled and exhaled, his shoulders slowly hanging. He was relaxing his entire body, but drifting his mind away was harder for him. He listened to the beautiful sound of the machine and kept on thinking about it, but how would he be able to feel such a thing. He could only think about the machine and tried to shape it within his head. "Hmm...How would that generator look...How would the force look?"

He kept on thinking as he sometimes smiled for a moment, this was his current level of concentration

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
“That’s it, focus on it. Now, call on that part you use when you assemble machines or create technology. Don’t move, but visualise that process, reach out to that power, isolate it, hold it as your own.”
Phylis remembered her own first exercises, now 15 years in the past. It had been far from simple. How could one understand how to use a new sense they’d never known before? Fortunately her Padawan had an anchor to rely on – his love of tech – which would guide him.

 

[Kyla Foy]

His master [member="Phylis Alince"] was telling him to use the force but that would prove harder than he had hoped. He listened to her, and he had nodded his head. He might've understood it. The information though was completely vague to him. He had to use the force, call it? It was different than creating his droids or at least that's what he thought. He didn't have much knowledge about this force thing and that made it actually hard in his mind.

He thought for a moment in silence. What could she have meant. He always had his eyes opened and a droid in front of him. He had no idea how to do it without one. It was just a strange situation since he never visualised a vision of a droid. It always just came to him. "Master, I really don't understand...I need to see a droid before I can do that."

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
Phylis nodded. Everyone found the Force in their own way. For some it was the life of a plant or animal they first sensed as distinct from their normal senses. For Phylis it had been an item from the archives, a holocron, which had let her ‘see’ the Force.

She reached for her commlink. “Six-Nine, come down to room 418 please.” She paused. “Yes, I know I told you to do that, now I am telling you to do this!” She hung up. “Hmmph, no one ever listens to me,” she said sulkily.

Remembering she was in teacher mode, she returned to serious, then, as the little astromech entered, she placed her hands on her Padawan’s shoulders. “Now, perceive the droid through the Force…its true form and shape, not just the physical and mundane aspects.”

 

[Kyla Foy]

When the droid was being called, it had seemed she truly understood him and didn't want him to have any other kind of excuse for him too not be able to do it. He heard what his master said and he answered it with, "But I listen to you, master." e said kindly smiling till he saw her turn back into his teaching mode and she was all serious. It was now the turn for Hephaestus to look towards the droid and try to find his true shape through the force.

His face changed and he nodded. He inhaled and he exhaled, first of all, he had to calm down and get into a deeper phase of focus. His shoulders were relaxing and his heart rate was lowering. His chest was constantly expanding and shrinking down to the normal size as he was inhaling and exhaling. He was slowly trying to focus and listen to the sound of the machine and the droids circuit. His focus had to be greater than this to feel the true shape. He was trying to take away certain sounds and make it focused onto less targets going slowly towards the only droid. After a good three minutes his eyes opened and he tried to use his force technique in order to see into the droid to view it through the force as a blueprint like always, but if that was the correct way, he had yet to hear from his master

His eyes were like a cyan color. His aura was the light side emitting from his body.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
Phylis raised an eyebrow. "We'll see, won't we?" she said.

However, she could feel his connection to the Force. Truly was something unique, something born of the Force itself. The power which suddenly came from him filled the room.
"Yes, that's right! Just like that, Padawan!" Phylis said encouragingly. "What do you see, Hephaestus? Then, look at me, what do you see?"
She stepped into his field of view, but not blocking the droid.

 

[Kyla Foy]

Hephaestus was concentrating on the droid feeling the force flowing throughout the entire area, but unable to explain on how it was all happening. He was only a beginner in the force. The feeling was soothing yet it didn't feel like much. He still had an incredible amount to learn and to practice before, he could truly describe the feeling of being a force user. He showed a slim smile on his face and the force within his droid was to be seen with a slight fade. "I can see...something in my droid...It looks..it feels like..uhm, I can't explain.." The moment he turned his head towards his master a drop of sweat was already appearing. It was not for nothing that his technique was known to be a master rank technique and it was only normal that he couldn't use it to its fullest potential.

He focused onto his master, but it was harder for him to see through a human. He closed and reopened his eyes again, his breathing got slightly deeper as he said, "I see the same but its not as light and easy to see as the droid." He had told his master. [member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Hephaestus"]
Phylis rubbed her chin. "Hmm, very interesting. Most Force users find it the other way around. When I perceive the droid, it is as a dull and lifeless presence. With you though, you have the special gift of making it the other way around."

She went over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Hephaestus, I want you to take the next step, if you can." She produced a sonic wrench from a toolbox and laid it in front of him.

"Concentrate on this item, curl the Force around it...and move it."

 

[Kyla Foy]

He looked towards his master. She told him about the way, she saw droids and the way he saw it. "Ooh really? Uhm, could it not be that droids really can live through that Force thing?" A tap on his shoulder was done and through force pulling a toolbox was laid in front of him. The first thing in his mind was, droid building time. That was a bit too early to celebrate.

The attempt to use force Telekinesis was at hand. He had to try to move the toolkit through the force. He didn't wait for a moment and nodded, "I will try it right now." He extended both his hands over the toolkit and calmly inhaled and exhaled. He listened to the engine that was working it's magic and it was for Hephaestus now to do his. He kept his hands over the box and tried to tighten his muscles a few times as if it was to be a push, nothing had happened. He had to think a step back to the droids.

He focused himself on what he would do when he used to make his droids. He closed his eyes an a tiny movement was done through the force after a few seconds another inch was covered. He had to really think about droids only droids, every part going into the place, but constantly through a pushing movement. He was able to use the force push, but the results were that below par. He didn't know yet that the box was moving so he kept on trying to do it over and over. He was able to focus for an extensive amount of time, till the sweat was coming once again and he stopped.


[member="Phylis Alince"]