Wololo

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You understand the implications of knowledge leaks, as to when such a leak of knowledge is a good thing and when it is a bad thing. However, it is very strange, come to think of it. But you realize that the weakest link in that chain of logic is whether or not there even is such a leak in the first place, in which case I realize that I'm actually more vulnerable than I previously thought I was, either to my mind playing tricks on me, or to leaking sensitive information by Force-powered means"

Then again, Paige knew that there is a reason why she seemed to find it much easier to learn from me. But I'm not using battle meditation, nor am I using Force-valor, she thought. While, of course, they both knew that some cognitive processes, part of what made them the brains they were, happened at the subconscious level, she couldn't exactly blame Paige for not knowing where they came into play, nor how does subconscious learning occur. Yet, however she looked at it, subconscious learning of the variety they both underwent required 1) the use of the Force and 2) a lot of computational power. And it's not simply a matter of making the right observations at the right time, even though that was by far the most common variety of self-learning or even subconscious learning. Just that leaks of knowledge would be rather unusual to experience. Then again it might just be her mind playing tricks with her. Also, maybe [member="Paige Blossom"] was familiar with geometric optics, that is, Xi=Xf, when one talks about a Force-mirror, which is what tutaminis does to energy bolts.

"As for tutaminis, not only the Force-shield absorbs the energy of a hit, it also reflects it, although not necessarily back from whence it came. Sometimes if you angle a bolt, you can bounce it back in another direction"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Sometimes being vulnerable is good, it shows you have humanity. Just try to plug those leaks when you can, don't get stressed over it."

Paige joking went to nudge [member="Jessica Med-Beq"], not understanding how sensitive it could be to leak knowledge, possibly even memories. She certainly wouldn't want people knowing everything about her. Kind of a hint of irony, intelligent people don't want others to know their knowledge. Whether that be for better or for worst, she was happy to continue the training onto tutaminis. Strange name.

The prospect of reflecting energy bolts excited her a tad, simply absorbing them was good in of itself, but reflecting them portrayed a certain power that she hadn't thought of. The threat of harm while actually doing no harm. Inevitably though, that ethos would need to be dropped. This galaxy is full of bad people, you can't assume the best in each and everyone of them.

"Sounds a bit complicated, how exactly would I go about doing that in a thinking manner?"

She pondered the idea slightly and could only logically compare it to a regular lightsaber.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The Force-barrier then becomes a Force-mirror"

That was the whole point of finding out whether or not I even had knowledge leaks to plug to begin with, she thought, realizing that she is going nowhere with the whole story of knowledge leaks with [member="Paige Blossom"], no more than she had control over her Force-leaks, if any. The big question, as far as tutaminis is concerned, is: what makes it so difficult for people to turn a Force-barrier into a Force-mirror? It just cannot be a thing of geometric optics... but it is definitely more energy-consuming than Force-barrier, and Paige will soon find that out. With that said, the remote's blaster was temporarily shut off, until Paige had a clear idea of how to go around using tutaminis. She could feel that she was confused, but once the tutaminis lesson was over, Paige could now go back to the temple and hone these new skills. She knew that life with Jessica was a little intensive on the Force-training, but at some point she ought to be doing something out on the field. Perhaps by the stage where she feels Paige is up to take advantage of more autonomy, which is edging closer by the day.

"Here, hand position is important: it determines in which direction the bolt is going to be reflected"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"I had a thing for shapes."

It seemed easy enough, sort of like that game... argh forget it. Angles and all of that, she was usually good at those things... but most of the time it was dependent on her losing a leg or an arm as apart of the failure. Though she was somehow reassured that even if she failed to deflect the bolt, it would still be absorbed similar to her previous two attempts. She went for something simple, flat palm. Assuming Jessica didn't want to have to organise for a replacement, and hoping not to actually hit her in the process while deflecting.

"Alright... uh, does this look good?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"It does. Now that you have an idea of how to position your hand to reflect the bolt where you want it to, let's have an attempt or two at rebounding the blaster bolt"

Unlike Force-healing, or even Electric Judgment, Force-barrier or tutaminis were safe to learn at any step in one's Force-training. In her mind there were powers that were best taught early, Force-healing being at the very top of that list in her mind, and others that were best taught later (like battle meditation, Force-light), and others still that it did not matter when one learned them. It was all too tempting to Jessica to just teach techniques that are advanced enough on the curve that she would make [member="Paige Blossom"] look like some high-skill, low-power girl at this point, which was the case of a few of the more recent Force-using geniuses she might have come across. Now the drone was being re-activated so that Paige could actually get the chance to practice tutaminis, preparing to fire an additional light shot at the young Ming Po. Which, if Paige actually learned her lesson, would see the blast of light being bounced back, even though she hoped it was not in her master's direction.

"Ready in 3...2...1... go!"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Sure."

Moving back a bit from the droid and trying to guess where the bolt was going to refract. From her current position, it all looked set. Flat palm should just send it directly back at the droid. The hand probably has nothing to do with this. Though just to be sure she positioned her head to make it as straight as possible, and if she had a ruler she would have been more inclined to measure it. Even if the angle of her hand did indeed have nothing to do with how the bolt would be reflected, she found it easier to visualize the force by using physical objects.

"3... 2... 1... go!"

Paige couldn't help but jump a little at the sudden rush of excitement, but it was milliseconds later that the light shot came speeding towards her. Trying to remember that she is attempting to deflect this rather than simply absorb it. Time seemed to slow down slightly for Paige as it came towards her, though similar to previously the shot fizzled into her hand, being absorbed. At the very least she wouldn't have to cover it up.

The droid shot again in mere moments and she attempted the same again. Time slowed once more, or at least she perceived it to be slower than what [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] or indeed anybody else in the temple would be feeling it as. This time, she imagined a similar force barrier but instead, this time a glossy mirror presenting itself. Well, she said it was like a mirror. In this attempt, the bolt was absorbed but then refracted back, though nowhere in the way Paige thought it would go and luckily not towards her teacher. It went spiraling up to the ceiling and then fizzled, leaving a black mark.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

So, after the training drone was reactivated for the training session, she was looking patiently at the student using tutaminis for the first time, with some nervousness because sometimes first-time users can't always control where the beam is going to land. Understandably, [member="Paige Blossom"] didn't get it on her first try, but at least she wouldn't need to worry about getting hit. On the second try, she was lucky that the hit didn't bounce on her, or she would feel the sting, too. A black mark on the ceiling was apparent where the first successful attempt at tutaminis on Paige's part actually landed. She was lucky to be training with a drone on light sting level of power; a stun hit would leave a much larger scorch mark on the ceiling. But it was not about smoke and mirrors here anymore. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, she thought, and it was precisely where these two powers fit in how Paige could use it for defense that she would so readily train the Ming Po in these two skills.

"Much better now. You have made so much skill progress in these past few months that you may as well be one of those people with more skill than power to act on it"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"I suppose that will be all for now?"

Paige inquired, feeling quite tired. While she was always eager to learn, she was even more eager to rest after what seemed like hours of training and learning. One could only learn so much in one day. Looking upwards to the burn mark, she giggled a bit in glee of successfully performing tutaminis, something she expected to be more difficult than that. Though, she didn't really pay attention to the fact that it literally went 90 degrees in the wrong direction and in a real combat situation that probably would have resulted in the death of one of her colleagues, not that she planned on being involved in combat anyway. Speaking of which.

"Also I don't know if this is on the agenda, but would you recommend me getting to grips with a lightsaber?"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The ages-old question of choosing lightsaber forms. I'm not the best person for lightsaber training, but what I can do is make an attempt to help you choose a lightsaber form"

Unlike the Sith or the Clone Wars, there was more respect among the Silver Jedi that not everybody needed to have some talent with a lightsaber. Yet, most people couldn't imagine Jedi without one, regardless of how good or not they actually were with it. Maybe asking a few questions about agility and defense vs. offense might do the trick. As far as she knew, Makashi and Soresu were more for the people inclined to go on the defensive, the first was good against other lightsaber-wielders, while the second was good against blaster-wielders. Ataru and Juyo were more about agility than Djem-so, Ataru is more defensive than Juyo, Djem-so was for the slow and it was the main reason why it was a favorite of Mandalorian Jedi: it was much better for those who wore those beskar armor suits. She never dared asked [member="Paige Blossom"] about her combat habits, but she would not be able to know who used which form among her fellow Jedi, and hence who to train the chosen form(s) under not at that stage of the game, other than she herself was a Djem-so user and not a very good one.

"Are you more of a person that would rely more on agility in combat? Someone who would favor defense over offense? Offense over defense? Fighting lightsaber-wielders vs. blaster-wielders?"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Oh.. well I don't really know what a form is."

Paige paused to think for a minute concerning [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]'s question. She had never really thought about the question. In those snowball fights she remembered from long ago she always used to remember making small little forts, not big enough to be defended but sizable enough and moving from place to place to avoid being splattered in the face. Though it probably wasn't comparable to what her teacher wanted to know, it was the best comparison she could at that moment in time.

"Uh I guess... defensive and fast, that probably describes me well never had the "pleasure" of fighting a lightsaber or blaster wielder before." Airquoting around the word 'pleasure'

"If you're not going to train me, do you perhaps know of any contacts I could reach out to for training?"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Lightsaber forms are, simply put, lightsaber fighting styles, and some people refer to them as martial arts in their own right"

Shii-cho was mostly known as a tutorial form, but here, Soresu seemed to be a better fit than Makashi. Ataru relied more on acrobatics, but was not that great against blaster-users, she knew as much. But it took her a while to think of people that actually fit the lightsaber style that [member="Paige Blossom"] intended to use. She was not the sort of general that actually cared much about their personnel's lightsaber forms, but perhaps that has to do with most Jedi staying out of the chain of command. She had to conjure every bit of memory she had about any conversation she might have had with Jedi regarding how they used their lightsabers; that, too, returned very few, fragmented results. And it took a while to clear out the noise in that portion of her memories... Paige will realize by now how flawed my memory really is, or at least that it is not perfect, she thought, while taking her sweet time to get the noise out of those memories pertaining to other Jedi, and also realizing that they trusted each other enough for their minds to be almost open books to each other.

"While I do know that Soresu is the best fit for you, Jake Daniels might be one I would recommend if you intend to go down that path"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Jake Daniels..." Looking around for something to write the name down given she knew she wouldn't be able to remember his name, but eventually gave up and looked back at [member="Jessica Med-Beq"].

Martial arts, erk. She wasn't a strong person, physically at least. While she was pretty fast, she was in no means composed and was beginning to worry exactly how the training would go, especially with someone she hadn't met before, but she knew this inevitable. Even with Jessica's vast array of knowledge there were even some things that her master didn't have an extensive guide on how to perform, though this was more surprising that something like lightsabers was her flaw and not a specific force power; though in thinking about it she probably wouldn't have to worry about being confronted face to face in her profession.

"Have you told him that I'll be coming to see him or shall I arrange it myself?"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I think that it might be best for you to arrange it yourself with Jake, but make sure to mention that I sent you"

She has had to shift between ground and naval duties out on the field for a while, and, while boarding was very real, she was confronted with that only once, over Dromund Kaas. Yet it was commonly thought that ground duty was more prone to having to fight face-to-face the way [member="Paige Blossom"] wanted to learn about, especially when one was expecting to fight Sith armies on a ground battlefield. In her experience, Sith cared little about orbital battlefields, and their ground doctrines were pretty easy to counter by anybody with any real competence. But she couldn't exactly blame Paige for wanting pen-and-paper; she had an idea of how flawed people's memories were. Especially since she didn't seem to exhibit the problems she heard about when it came to perfect memories. And her padawan seemed to be functional enough not to be impaired by constantly-rewinding memories, nor does she seem otherwise tortured. May Paige actually get good training in Soresu from Jake, she thought.

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"I'm assuming that will be all."

Smiling to [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]. Once more, she looked up at the ceiling. The blackening seemed to fade slightly, though it was still noticeably present. What a long day, she thought. A rest was surely in order after learning what seemed to be a multitude of new skills. Speaking of battles, Paige herself had just thought about that, thinking about growing up, thinking about what she wanted to do in the future. While she could certainly see being a Jedi was in her path, she would have to fund her expenditures somehow, though most Jedi seemed to be employed in armed forces one way or another, whether that be for peaceful means of healing people or to enforce whatever their respective galactic power wanted.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You're the first padawan that seem to have the topic of financing and taxation on its mind"

Taxation was a most taboo subject among Jedi, [member="Paige Blossom"] may have come to suspect as much. But few Jedi would readily question exactly how they were funded, perhaps because they lacked the knowledge (although she knew there definitely were a few more Jedi that might have been able to understand anything about public finances and how government sectors operated) to actually understand the answer. Donations were enough to sustain the Jedi proper, but definitely not to sustain battlefleets or troops. The question is: were the corporate ventures amounting to corporate taxation or not? That bit was subject to debate, but there was no taxation to be collected at the individual level, that much Paige couldn't question. Jessica would be happy to discuss the matter at some point, but she isn't sure whether it was the time: Paige's brain seemed to be dangerously close to burning (in a headache way). But what was for sure was that Paige's brain was glowing much stronger now and hence it was the sign that her mind was much more active.

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"Well, you know I'm thinking about my future. While I do foresee myself being in training for some time, I don't know exactly what I'll do after my training. I've been thinking of going into the millitary - a millitary, but I don't really know what purpose I would serve. I'm a barely trained medic at best."

The issue is, Paige is actually unsure if anybody would want ​to donate towards her endeavors, though she was sure there was somebody out there in the galaxy who could be annoyed with her antics, or possibly even fascinated by her failings to find it amusing to support her lifestyle. If she was a philanthropist, she would much rather donate it towards something which directly benefited other people. It seemed sort of like being parented, surely there would be ground rules and limitations upon what she could do if she was having everything she was doing paid for by somebody else.

Though, in saying that she did miss out on having people pay for everything for her, or if they did, it was usually so small that even she would be fine stealing such small items of food and clothing.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"While it's understandable that you might be worried about your future once your padawan-hood ends, few Jedi are actually inside the military proper. You're correct in saying that your readiness as a Jedi is limited at best, however"

Yes, she heard a few stories about what happened to padawans whose careers fizzled because they were clueless about what to do with their training, even though most FUs were drawn to Jedi-hood for any one in a restricted set of reasons. In fact, it's usually those who have clear motives who want to get out of padawan-hood fastest, even though sometimes such padawans may be well be driven by their own arrogance or hubris. But these were pretty uncommon, much less common than would be the case among NFUs, where some people are made to jump through hoops to obtain credentials (usually an undergraduate degree of some kind or, in some instances, even a high school diploma) but have no idea of what to do with their lives. Usually donations to the SJO were not made towards a specific member, but rather to the order as a whole, unlike what [member="Paige Blossom"] might be left to insinuate. It's often a difficult choice to make when one has a very limited knowledge of themselves, or so many different skillsets at a high enough level to productively use them on the field. Which she can foresee Paige getting in a bind because of that. Intellect has a bearing on the mechanism used to fall to the dark side, but not as much on how vulnerable someone is to answer its call, she thought.

"You probably understand that failing to find one's purpose can sometimes leave someone more vulnerable to the call of the dark side. I can conceivably imagine somebody giving in to anger, despair or sorrow after searching for a purpose high and low. However, finding oneself a process where taking one's time is recommended"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

"So... you're an exception?" Paige looked at Jessica with curiosity.

In a situation where an degree was an option, she wasn't sure exactly what to do. Medicine? Too long and tedious of a subject. She could already do what most physicians in the galaxy were training to do by simply using her mind. Fashion? Please, she wasn't a horrible sketcher but she wasn't a fantastic one by any standard. Communication and Mass Media? Yawn. She supposed that was the fortunate thing about being gifted with the force. Not only do you not need to jump through said loopholes, but you can basically walk the path without any obstacle at all. Most millitaries probably would accept somebody like her on pure merit of being so smart and intelligent, but most of all take orders while not being so arrogant that she believed she knew best.

At least in fields where she wasn't particularly knowledgeable about.

"Well... I'm young anyway. I can take a few years to find what I am meant to do in life, even if that means being in a state of near poverty, kids around me said I was patient."

Though that didn't ring true to their previous meetings, with Paige most definitely showing signs of frustration and anger at her inability to complete tasks, even holding herself to a perfectionist attitude on her first attempt at some of the things Jessica wanted her to complete.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I... am. The main reason why many Jedi take to bounty hunting to support themselves is that, in many cases, one's desire for independence is great enough to find the military lifestyle, even at the command level, underwhelming, albeit for different reasons depending on where one was seated in the chain of command. At the lower levels, there is little operational freedom to be found. At the upper levels, especially for generals or admirals, bureaucracy is often an unpleasant part of the game"

At the command level, there was a lot more to a commander's job than simply the grand strategy aspect. In a sense, a Force-order was a blessing to a FU. It allowed more occupational freedoms, that much [member="Paige Blossom"] understood. However, after hearing the words state of near-poverty, another bad memory of that-Jedi-healer-that-not-even-Geonosians-trusted surfaced about the relationship of Jedi to material possessions and lifestyles. Yet, only a rather restricted list of specific items seemed to elicit such memories in her, and most frequently, the topic of teaching Force-healing, unlike those people whose memories were even better than hers, where, usually, the more debilitating effects of their memories began with uncontrollable streams being all too easy to trigger, which then overloads the person's brain. That particular person that was at the root of a few of those bad memories often caused Jessica's brain to be affected by more noise when any of the topics on that special bad-memory list was broached by somebody, and hence consuming more computational power. But it didn't paralyze her that much: she was ready to talk about both the topic of material possessions/lifestyle and patience.

"Let's say that the myth of the ascetic Jedi, popularized by the Teyan Apologia, a book that was most influential during the Clone Wars, is really just that: a myth, especially with a few major corporations that had Jedi running them, in a variety of industries. As for patience, it is a virtue, you understand as much, and it often looks like impatience can lead bright, promising padawans to the dark side"

 

[Priscilla Utorna]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"By bounty hunting I'm assuming you don't mean... killing people? That seems to go against the principals of a Jedi.[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt]"[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]What she was talking about was probably not a traditional bounty but rather an alternative form, though the word 'bounty' only had one meaning in Paige's mind, that being to put credits on somebody's head for a kill. Not all bounties entailed that though, but being honest the majority of them were exactly that.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]Ugh... Bureaucracy. Red tape, wasted paper and lots of ink down the train just for the sake of it. While she could deal to a degree with such bureaucrats, she could definitely empathize with anybody in the millitary, not just force users for that matter. If she was stuck doing paper work all day despite possessing such talents she herself would be insulted. Guess it's not all these laser filled fun fests that the news makes them all out to be.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Well I don't doubt that such Jedi don't exist, at all. Everybody makes mistakes, we can't be perfect 100% of the time, though we sometimes want to be. " Perhaps this statement was more reflective on herself than on others, looking back on it. "Uh... anyway." Smiling and turning away from [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]. "Anything else you want to go over?"[/SIZE]