How to Save a Life (open to all padawans)

[Serena Laran]

On board the Gaoth, some of the padawans of the Wheel were gathering for a lesson on using the Force to heal. Serena welcomed them, and the young people arranged themselves in a loose circle in the main living area. There were pillows on the floor for comfort, and the lighting was moderate.

Serena walked slowly around the circle. "Please tell me what you know about healing with the Force."

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

Tall and lithe, she settled onto a cushion with her legs crossed, as if preparing to meditate. But as that had never been one of her strong points, the blonde padawan took a moment to look at each of the others around her.

Her swirling black gaze settled on the Knight striding gracefully around them. Kala had never had the occasion to meet Serena before, but upon hearing that she was a healer, had secured permission from Ilias to attend her class. Silver-tipped fingers gently toyed with one of her numerous silver head-tresses, while the slender extensions looked like so many silver highlights amidst her curls.

No one else spoke up, and after waiting a moment longer to be sure, Kala smiled and nodded as she did.

"It's...complicated, I guess is the best way to put it. The more extensive the damage, the more concentration and energy is needed to...to..." Kala blinked and paused, trying to come up with the right word "...knit everything back together properly. Most of it seems to be instinct, and guided by the Force, though. We're just the hands that wield it, as if it were a scalpel or needle and thread."

Try as she might, she couldn't remember just how she'd Healed Akasha, only that she had done enough to save her life.

[Serena Laran]

Serena smiled. "Thank you. Kala'ndryl, is it?" The girl nodded.

"It can be driven by instinct, if one has a true gift in the area of healing. Not all do." She stopped walking behind the Orryxian padawan, and looked around the quiet circle. "Anyone else?"

[Yolie Devix]

Yolie had remained silent, hands folded in her lap as she perched carefully on a cushion. Healing wasn't a gift she possessed, or at least, not one she knew about yet. She doubted it, however...something of it would have showed in her lessons thus far with Inyos.

She gently shook her head, sending her crimson locks tumbling from behind her ears. "I know nothing about it at all, I'm afraid. Its not a gift I possess."

[Serena Laran]

"Do not worry too much about it," Serena said. "Nearly everyone can be taught."

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha sat with her tail curled up into her lap so it wouldn't disturb any of the other padawans around her. Perhaps more than in any other Force discipline she'd learned about, she felt out of her league here. Things like empathy and sacrifice came about as naturally to her as opera to a duck.

But something Kala had said stirred a memory of her training among the Mando'ade on Onderon.

"I... I have heard of people who have great control over their own bodies," she said. "Enough control that they can slow their heartrate or resist poisons. Is that related to healing, Master Laran?"

If she could learn healing, she'd sure as hells want to make sure she could do it on herself as well as others.

[Serena Laran]

"Yes, it is." Serena nodded. "Resisting poisons is a form of self healing. Using these healing techniques on yourself is easier than performing them on others. Not everyone can stitch a bone together with the Force, but nearly all Jedi are able to stave off the effects of sleep deprivation. Controlling your bodily functions is certainly in the same skill set as a healing meditation." She smiled at the black furred padawan and continued a slow walk.

"Anyone else?"

[Halajiin Rabeak]

A light knock on the doorframe was followed by Hal's head sticking around the corner. "Uh, hi. I know this is for padawans, but, uh... was wondering if I might sit in?"

Oh yes, because that didn't make you look pathetic. His higher functions mocked him.

Come on, seriously. I'd rather look pathetic here than actually be pathetic when I might actually need to heal something. Or myself. His lower functions shot back.

Still, you're a knight. You shouldn't be in a class for padawans. It makes us look stupid.

And which one of us doesn't know about healing because they weren't paying attention in that class? I remember being there, but you were... off somewhere else doing your own thing.

Okay, okay, you got me there. I'll try harder this time.

You better. I'm not gonna get a sore backside from sitting down for nothing.

[Serena Laran]

"Of course, come in and join us, Knight Rabeak." Serena smiled, waving him in. She looked around the circle as there was some shuffling to make room for the Nehantite Jedi, and asked, "Anyone else have a question or comment before we get started?"

[Siyndacha Aerin]

It hadn't taken all that long for Sindy to acquaint herself with where she supposed she would be stuck for an indeterminate length of time. The Whaladon wasn't massive but it was of a suitable enough size, she gathered, what with the still-limited number of Jedi (compared with her learned knowledge of the vast numbers of the 'old order') and all. It hadn't taken much longer than that still, to meet with the Jedi who handled how things worked for their small gathering of Force-capable individuals. And at that knighting ceremony, it had become readily apparent who was a padawan and who wasn't. More or less.

What impressed her was that she was quickly whisked into the stream of learning with other padawans who, she soon figured out, had individual masters assigned to them. Papa Marezius had taught her some small things, but most of her learning from him had been a great deal of history and theoretical knowledge, as he had somehow known, in his way, that it would not be his place to make a true Jedi of her. In any case, she knew to a large degree how things worked.

"Anyone else have a question or comment before we get started?"

Sindy had been listening to what the other gathered padawans had to say and it all sounded applicable and correct. She didn't really know any of their names (admittedly, she had kept mostly to herself in this new place) but there would be a time and a place for that. Already she felt horridly remiss in not seeking them out and introducing herself.. but again, there would be time for that. Upon Knight Laran's question and the absence of words from anyone further, Sindy thought it in her best interests to pipe up. Good thing, too. It wasn't often she had questions instead of answers and it gave her the often disliked air of someone who was a smartypants knowitall.

"Um... So, though I know that healing tends to mean living beings, you know, ones with a heartbeat and lungs or something similar, wouldn't it... I mean, it is possible to apply healing knowledge, the basic concept of how it works, to other organic constructs, like, say, aiding an ailing plant, right?"

Fortunately for Hal, and for the sake of actually being appropriate, she swallowed any quips she would have used to adress him and simply waved with a smile, patting the space right next to her, insistently.

[Serena Laran]

"Yes, yes it is, Sindy," Serena beamed. "It is a small stretch only to use these techniques on, as you put it, other organic constructs." She nodded at the perky blonde padawan, and walked carefully to the middle of the circle.

She sat cross-legged on the floor, arranging her robes carefully. "First," she said, looking at Hal with a small smile, "We will meditate. To heal you must be aware of your own body, as well as those around you." Oh dear. Hal's face split in an unrestrained grin, but he managed to compose himself.

Serena continued, "Close your eyes. Feel the living Force flowing through you... in your surroundings. It is all around you, on your skin, in your muscles. Traveling through your veins. Every particle of your body is infused with the Force, and every particle of your body can be touched with it."

She breathed slowly and deeply, and the opened her eyes to survey the room. The padawans, and Hal, were sitting obediently with their eyes closed, and she could feel the swirls of the Force around them as each meditated on the Force within their bodies in their own ways.

[Akasha Khan]

A good Orryxian was always aware of her body. Hunger was to be sated, itches to be scratched, pleasures won and pain assuaged. When a planet's dominant religion was all about worshipping the divinity of your own self, body and will, you tended to take notice of such things. Akasha would have preferred to meditate on her body while it was soaking in a hot bath, or perhaps being massaged by that Twi'lek male on the starliner to Oseon. But, as usual, the Jedi insisted on doing things in the most boring way possible.

Akasha sat like a sphinx, focusing all her senses inward. Could she feel the Force flowing through her muscles and her veins? She wasn't certain. She could feel a knot of tension binding up near the base of her spine. She tried to shift her hips to work it out, but it lingered like a burr.

At last she braced her paws against her knees and twisted, turning her spine a full one hundred eighty degrees, and the knot in her back unraveled, and several of her vertebrae gave in with immensely satisfying and audible pops.

She unwound herself and then twisted the other way, and then she noticed Master Laran's eyes on her. "Sorry," she muttered, and she straightened up again with her tail curled into her lap.

[Corell Capstan]

It was all Loki's fault. It usually was, but this time it was doubly so.

He hadn't given Corell the shiner of a black eye, but it had been his training methods that had resulted in her crashing face-first into a bulkhead in the first place. Similarly, it was under Loki's strict instruction that Corell had been denied access to any medical supplies. The Wheel did not have bacta to spare, he said, for so-called Jedi who went charging like bull rancors, head first into whatever stood in front of them. If she wanted to heal herself, she would have to do it Master Laran's way.

Corell frowned at the thought of Loki's pompous little face, though to anyone observing her it would have simply looked as if she were in a state of thoughtful concentration.

[Halajiin Rabeak]

Despite his many attempts at it in the past, Hal had found that he was never much good at this meditation stuff. It seemed to come so easily to all the other Jedi, and even to the padawans, but for him, well, it just seemed impossible to turn his mind off. But still he sat, eyes closed, doing his very best to clear his mind and reach both inwards and outwards with the force.

The succession of pops in Akasha's spine, jarred him out of it all, and he opened one eye to see her turned halfway around.

Ooh, she's flexible!

And she's eight, so paws off!

I didn't mean it like that! I meant I thought that's pretty cool, you sick-o!

Oh, heh, oops. Well, you do rather have a track record, and stuff.

Yeah, as do you for not focusing on the task at hand. Now quit stalling and get back to focusing.

His eye closing once more, Hal took a deep breath and straightened his posture. Slowly, so slowly he could feel a stirring within him, though it seemed faint and frightened. Relaxing further, he allowed it to explore him more, knowing he was on the right track. While he'd never actually succeeded in truly feeling himself through the Force, the Nehantite knew that it wasn't actually impossible, an with that thought he pressed on, letting himself follow the faint sensations of the Force out of his own body to see the others in the room.

Immediately it retracted as he began to feel a form of sensory overload, and so he redoubled his efforts to focus and follow instruction. If he could learn to manipulate and control the balances of his own body, that meant he stood a better chance of not embarrassing himself in the future.

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy was almost into it, almost there when Akasha’s spine-popping made her eyes snap open and seek out the source of the disturbance and the Orryxian sheepishly and abruptly apologized. Sindy closed her eyes once again, her hands relaxing in her lap and began to breathe in and breathe out, the tendrils of her consciousness feeling out and her consciousness feeling down to the roots of its tendrils, coursing through her body. There was the outer, the inner, the them, the her, all connected in a way. It felt good to do this again, after a great void of time from the limited opportunities under Papa’s cautious, wary instruction. Her connection with the Force, her awareness of self, was all that he had imparted to her, outside of the vast stores of theoretical knowledge and in-depth history of the defunct Order.

This was practically culture shock when taking into consideration all the tales of the Jedi of old and the way things had been queued up in her psyche upon her arrival and initial days – but she had known that it could not possibly be the same as the stories. Not with everything she had been so endowed with the knowledge of that had occurred. But that had no place in the here and now.

She needed to focus.

But there were so many questions now.

But… still, focus.

She began to feel inklings of various bits of emotion from the other occupants of the room, a strangely tangible and ultimately awkward cachet of information that she didn’t like to handle if she didn’t have to. Emotions were sometimes tricky. Other people’s emotions were just plain messy.

Breathe in long, breathe out longer and put it out of mind. Focus on the Force within the self. It was the strangest pool she had ever had the pleasure of swimming in.

[Yolie Devix]

Breathe in...

Breathe out...

Breathe in...

She settled into a slow, steady pattern, mindful of her lessons with Inyos. Dark eyes fluttered closed, hands clasped loosely together in her lap as she shifted the tiniest bit on the cushion she'd claimed.

Breathe out...

Breathe in...

Something warm curled its way through her mind, a gentle pulse that spoke of life. Of energy, and of awareness. It trailed down the length of her spine before branching out to each of her slender limbs, inducing Yolie to stretch out before resuming her cross-legged position.

Breathe out...

Breathe in...

Fascinated by sheer sensation of the Force, the padawan forgot herself for several moments, before remembering the task that Serena had bade them begin. Focus. Concentrate.

The Force that had spilled into her conscious awareness pulsed with every beat of her heart, tracing endless paths through her body that she found she could follow with her mind's eye. A faint smile curled her lips as she let herself revel in the sensation, pleases with herself for the small accomplishment.

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

You suck at meditation, you know.

Gee thanks, Rin. I hadn't noticed.

Just sayin'...

Listen, you...we're in a room full of Jedi, two of which are learned enough to be able to hear you.

But I'm not being loud...not like I was when Ilias heard me, anyway.

Rin, please...just...go back to your corner until I'm done. I can't do this with you right there. Please?

Ok, ok...I'm going....sheesh...you never let me have any fun anymore.

You're dead, you idiot.

Minor details, little sis.

Kala sighed audibly, shifting on her cushion as she did. Rin, mercifully, had retreated to the depths of her mind, receding from her awareness until she could barely feel him at all. Thankfully, he didn't pull away entirely...she wouldn't have been able to concentrate at all if he had. Which was strange - but no less true.

Legs crossed and hands resting on her knees, she sat with her back straight and closed her eyes. Deep and rhythmic, her breathing kept a pattern in time with her heart. Slow and steady, she gradually found the inner sense of peace she'd long since come to rely on.

As if sliding into a pool of deep, still water, the young padawan felt the Force slipping in through her senses. Warmth and comfort followed it, while her mind followed its myriad of paths as if they were so many more veins. A deeper, fainter sigh, this time, one of awareness as she let herself float along with the energy coursing through her body.

[Serena Laran]

"Akasha," said Serena softly, kneeling beside the Orryxian, "Feel the Force around you. It surrounds you, and everyone in this room. Not just life, but even inanimate objects are touched by the Force, but how much easier it is to see it's touch on the living. It flows around, and through us all. Through you. You breathe it into your lungs and can feel it dispersing through your body, into the blood vessels. You can even sense an individual blood vessel traveling it's course through your vascular system.

"Concentrate, but let yourself go at the same time..." Serena walked around the circle of learners, continuing to talk softly. "Concentrate on your breathing, not animosity, Corell. Kala, Sindy, good work. Yolie..."

She stopped behind her, and put a hand on the girl's head, delving with the Force gently and traveling along her nervous system. "Be careful as you explore. A wrong touch here, and you can cause damage to yourself. As Healers we must always know that this is a double edged sword. The power to heal, or the power to kill." She withdrew, and smiled. "You are doing very well."

Behind Halajiin she stopped once more, and knelt beside him. "Do not fight it." She put her hand on his arm and expanded her senses into his body, feeling his faint efforts, and showing him the way. Then she tweaked a nerve that caused a reflex in his opposite arm to twitch. "Soothe it to relieve the tick," Serena smiled, entering the circle and sitting near the center.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha's eyes snapped open.

"The power to kill?" she said. "You mean, like, instead of telling someone's heart to beat stronger, you could tell it to stop?"

The Orryxian felt several more pairs of eyes fall on her, and the hair rose on the back of her neck. "Academically speaking, of course."

[Serena Laran]

"Of course," replied Serena, making eye contact with the girl. "The intricacy of the work means that such actions take time and concentration - too much time to be a good option in combat. Additionally, the ethics of such a use of the Force lie very close to the Dark side."

She paused, her green eyes serious. "There are a few healing techniques that do require slowing down bodily functions, however. An experienced healer with the proper resources in hand can put a living body into a coma if need be, or induce a cryogenic-like freezing process to halt a disease from spreading until more resources can be brought to bear against it.

"Learning to heal is more than just learning the individual techniques. A Jedi who wants to become a healer must learn to recognize and treat all kinds of wounds and afflictions. However," Serena smiled, "This is just a first step. If you can sense what Halajiin is doing, try to copy it."

[Halajiin Rabeak]

"This is just a first step. If you can sense what Halajiin is doing, try to copy it."

Oh yeah, no pressure, there.

What're you telling me that for? You're the one who's suppose to be focusing on this! And make it quick, my arm is driving me nuts!

Sorry, sorry. Maybe if I to this, here...

As all eyes were on Hal, he searched his nervous system for the source of the tick, and at last he believed he found it. Clearing it, however, seemed very tricky, and he'd never been any good at this sort of thing, to the extent that he'd blown up an Alderian toad once in science class when he was supposed to be dissecting it with the Force.

If you blow my arm up, I swear I will make you pay for it!

Oh, hush! All I have to do is this.

The tick stopped, and Hal began to breathe a sigh of relief, but he was cut short as his right paw suddenly flew up and smacked him in the face, forcing him to grab his wrist with his left paw and keep it under control until he could undo the overdose of correction he'd given his reflexes.

Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself! His higher functions mocked him.

When we get out of here, I am going to drown you in so much booze!

[Serena Laran]

Serena blinked in surprise as Halajiin's arm went out of control, and she quickly moved to his side as he struggled to catch and hold it from hitting him in the face again. An urge to laugh bubbled up inside her, but to her credit she presented only the same calm expression she usually wore.

"Knight Rabeak," she started, then paused. He was frowning mightily at his arm, radiating concentration, and surely he already knew he had overcompensated. Serena put a hand on his offending shoulder and joined him through the Force, checking his progress and standing ready to assist should things go... sideways.

He did the necessary correction and his arm relaxed. Halajiin did not, however, and was staring at his paw as though it would turn against him again. Serena turned to the wide-eyed padawans, and said, "Perhaps you should not copy him entirely. Still, many healing techniques are done using very concentrated telekinesis, as he did just now. Successfully, too," she added, encouragingly.

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy tried and utterly failed to suppress a lilting giggle at Hal, one of the first Jedi she had encountered on her journey to the Wheel. Maybe he did benefit from being in a class full of padawans. On further consideration, she observed that Jedi Knights were like any other person - some things they were good at and some things they weren't.

But under further statistical observation, she gave that it was possible for Hal to have simply futzed around at this part of his own padawan training, many years before. But she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The pixie-girl perked up.

"So... um, very concentrated. Could you, say...

Her brow knitted.

"...um, as an example of delicate, deeply concentrated work, alter basic cells? Rework an injured brain?"

The challenging-sounding stuff always held the greatest interest for the girl. She couldn't help but ask.

[Serena Laran]

Serena nodded, "It would be possible, though very difficult. Such a thing would have to be studied at length before ever attempting it on a living being. Telekinetic surgeries could be done, but then you have to ask if it is worth the effort needed for such an undertaking when medical technologies and droids exist that can do the same work.

"Healing an injured brain, such as... correcting dementia or a mental illness? Is that what you mean?"

[Siyndacha Aerin]

Sindy nodded, chewing briefly on her bottom lip before elaborating further. It made her mind race with possibility when given the answer that yes, it is possible, but... and even with the but, it was still possible. And as far as she was concerned there was little that was genuinely impossible.

"Yes, that. Well, not so much that as..." She thought a moment more then continued. "...well, say you suffer a head injury that affects your brain. That part of the brain is damaged. It might not be possible to heal that well enough, but usually, through therapy, a brain is taught to take on the tasks the injured part of the brain can no longer perform. I wonder if as a healer, you would be able to encourage and strengthen that end result if healing the core issue isn't possible, and get that person back on their feet faster? And yes, I suppose being able to target mental illness would fall under this sphere as well..."

She stopped then, knowing she could go on and on and on and on - but being the speaker meant all the eyes were on you and there was only so much she could take before the blush crept up her cheeks and she began to feel the slightest bit overwhelmed. The platinum blonde padawan swallowed, and smiled.

"...I... I know this is all very theoretical and well beyond the practical applications for this class, so... so I'm sorry if it is more of a distraction than anything else."

In her lap, her hands were tightly wound with one another, fidgeting. She had question upon question, theory upon theory, enough that she could effectively overrun the entire class with it and having caused such a scenario more than once before, words ceased to come out of her mouth, and she started working at reining in her focus, once again.

[Kala'ndryl Ryj]

"I think its a fascinating line of questioning, Sindy..." Kala piped up from her cushion at last, having been distracted briefly while Yolie had excused herself and left the lesson. Curiosity threatened to get the better of her for a brief moment, but Sindy's line of questioning had piqued her interest even more.

Hands folded neatly in her lap, Kala gave it a few moment's thought before she continued.

"As Knight Laran mentioned, it would be very intricate work. We're talking repair and regeneration on a cellular level, nevermind trying to rewire the brain to work properly. Aiding another part of the brain to adapt to the functions of the damaged section might be easier."

The swirling black of her eyes glittered in the light as she tilted her head to the side, one hand rising to smooth back an irritated and twitching head-tress. "Intricate cellular repair is possible though. At least, it worked when I Healed Akasha. No idea how I did it...there was a whole lot of instinct, prayer, and just an outpouring of every dreg of energy I could muster. After which I passed out for three days. So such an intricate healing is not only taxing on the patient, but almost doubly so on the healer."

Kala blinked and looked a bit sheepish. "Did that make any sense?"

[Serena Laran]

Prayer. That was an entire different can of worms, and not one that Serena was going to tackle within the scope of this lesson. Kala'ndryl's own master would either broach the subject or not, and that was their choice.

"Yes, I have studied the scans of Padawan Khan. Your Healing was indeed intricate, especially for doing it instinctively. However, when done with preparation and training, it would not be as difficult for a Healer that one would be unconscious for three days afterward. Such a reaction is extreme, and you should not consider it normal. Each case, of course, is different."

Serena sat down in the center of the semi-circle, legs crossed. "But talking of rewiring brains of a sentient species brings us to another point. Such an action would generally be considered extremely unethical, and bordering on the Dark side. Can anyone tell me why?"

[Halajiin Rabeak]

Hal's paw shot up in the air like an eager teacher's pet who relished every bit of extra-credit lavished upon him.

Not waiting to be called out, he stated, "Because if you alter it in a way that isn't strictly for healing, you may run the risk of altering their personality, or corrupting their own way of thinking." When he saw all the eyes in the room on him, he suddenly felt nervous, like he might have said something wrong.

Lowering his paw, he added, "And that's bad."

[Akasha Khan]

"You can do that?" slipped out of Akasha's mouth before she could help herself.

[Halajiin Rabeak]

Don't do it. Don't do it. Hal's higher functions begged him to say silent, but...

"Of course, how do you think I got a date for the Prom?" he blurted.

You asshole. That's not true and you know it.

I had a date!

Yeah, Rightbecca. We know. Now shut up and be serious.

[Siyndacha Aerin]

At Hal's outburst, first Sindy's eyes went wide. And for no particular reason (besides the implications of what he had said) a fair shade of moderate crimson crept up her cheeks to the tips of her ears.

And she burst out laughing - an outburst of her own that lasted for no more than a half-minute before her hands were over her mouth faster than fast.

"Sorry..." she said, the muffled word pushing its way out from behind her fingers.

Hal amused her greatly, though his words had honestly pushed all the will to poke fun at him out of her mind - at least, for a temporary measure of time. Because then she was wondering what a 'prom' was like, amongst all the other things her mind had managed to come up with, from one little blurted statement.

[Serena Laran]

Serena looked at Sindy, and then back to Hal, giving him a nod. "Correct. Just because it is possible to do something does not mean we have the license to do as we please."

She turned her gaze on Akasha, adding, "The person you have 'healed' of a bipolar disorder might develop schizophrenia or hallucinations because of your meddling, or turn into someone completely different. A mind trick, or mental illusion is one thing, but to permanently meddle with the way someone thinks is wrong and of the Dark side of the Force."

She folded her hands in her lap again. "We have gotten a little off topic. Please pair off for our next exercise."