A Study in Telekinesis (open to 1 [one] knight or master)

[James Prent]

James sat in the gardens, crosslegged in the grass, staring at a few rocks she'd nicked from the decorative edging along the walkways. They were ordinary enough rocks, sitting in a row a few feet in front of her.

They were behaving perfectly normal as well, sitting as still as...stones.

The small padawan frowned mightily at them, willing them to move towards her. But no matter what she did, they were obstinately sitting still. A butterfly fluttered by and rested on the largest of the four, and she paused in her efforts, trying to relax again as she studied the unusual insect. Was she ever going to master anything?

Dasquian Belargic and Sage Hazzard had both helped her with her combat abilities. She was far from an expert with the saber, but she knew how to defend herself now. Her master, Salemn Lysce, had assigned her meditation and now telekinesis studies, but had offered very little in the way of real help. She was busy with ...other things. James didn't ask, not wanting to get in the way.

James was fairly accomplished with relaxation meditation, and figured that if she could somehow use that technique to help her with her telekinesis... It was all seeming impossible again. She'd lashed out reflexively a few times, in frustration and anger, breaking plates, and sending a Cizerack female across Yog's a few nights previously. It seemed the Dark side was constantly lurking behind all her efforts.

The butterfly flew away, and she sighed, flopping over backwards to stare at the cloudless sky. Above the Greater Jedi Order was one of the few 'no fly' zones on Coruscant.

[Marcus Telcontar]

There was the sound of footsteps on grass, as a being, concealed in a cloak with a hood over his head came out into the sunshine.

And pollution. His nose wrinkled at the smell. Coruscant had no natural pollution cleansers so the taste of chemicals was always, to him, in the air. Still, better than inside and all that hateful stone. Unnatural in the extreme. What he wouldn't give to step on the grass of Ukio again - or hell, be on Dagobah, even it was wet and cold most of the time. Better than this inhuman place. But, this is where the Jedi were, so this is where he tended to be as well.

Marcus noted a lone Jedi sitting on the gorund, a small woman whom he had spoken to twice before. Feeling somewhat more sociable than usual, he decided to find out...

"Good day. What'er up to, Padawan Prent?"

[James Prent]

At the sound of the voice she jerked upright, and scrambled to her feet in front of the Jedi Master. James' hands plucked at her rumpled robes as she stammered, "I-I was j-just trying to move those rocks." She looked down unhappily at the obstinate objects, and gave one a kick with her foot. It landed a few feet away.

James flushed, "Well, not like that, Master Jedi, but with my mind. Y'know."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Oh, I see. Do you want some help and instruction?"

[James Prent]

She nodded, "Oh yes I would indeed. I've moved things through the Force before this, but it's always happened when I was upset of frustrated...more like a reflex than on purpose. I can't seem to do it when I'm relaxed."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Oh, right. I find that happens a fair bit actually. A lot of things in the Force are easier when your being emotional. To be calm and controlled... yes that is somethign different"

He decided to take a seat next to the diminuative Jedi Padawan.

"The first step in this is always to believe you can do it. Un-belief is a killer. So, I take it you have done this before, correct?"

[James Prent]

She felt a little uncomfortable when the Jedi Master sat on the grass next to her, but tried not to show it. "Uh, yeah, I've tried before. I've managed to call a practice saber to my hand before..."

James gestured helplessly at the stubborn stones. "But these frelling things are impossible. Oops, sorry, didn't mean t' swear."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Hmph"

He reached out his hand and in ablink one of the rocks leapt into his hand. a small one, not impressive looking or anything. Turning his hand palm upards, he had the little rock sitting on his plam.

"Do this for me. Look at the stone. Memorise it. Then, close your eyes. I want you to see it in your mind"

[James Prent]

James looked at the stone, reaching out and touching his hand, turning it slightly from side to side as she looked at it from all angles. It was mostly round, slightly bigger on one side, and had a chunk missing from it. Almost a crack. It was grey...slightly mottled with black and white flecks.

The padawan pursed her lips, and then sat back and closed her eyes, trying to picture the rock in her head. After a few seconds she shook her head from side to side as if to clear it, and then settled down once more.

Her breathing came deeply as she concentrated on the object. Small... no bigger than the little hollow in the middle of her palm, the side facing away from her bumping out slightly even as there was a slice or a crack in it, giving a slightly sharp edge to part of the stone. Grey...black and white specks...

It was just a frellin' rock.

"I see it...?" James squeezed her eyes shut tighter to avoid the temptation of opening them.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"The trick is to firstly find how the rock is conencted to you via The Force. everything is conncted in some way and everything has it's effect and echoes in The Force. Now. Once you have that, think about moving the rock's position in the Force. Think about it being somewhere else. Concentrate on The Force, not on anythign else around you"

[James Prent]

She tried not to ask the obvious, burning question of how one was to concentrate on an energy field, but instead held her tongue and kept her eyes closed too. The rock was connected to the Force. It was connected to her through the Force.

Everything was. She just had to find where, and give it a little push.

Ha!

Okay, enough of that. Pushing aside her cynical doubt for a few moments, James opened herself up to the Force, trying to relax as she felt the gardens around her. And the Jedi Master as well. He was glaringly obvious in the Force, close enough to her that his presence seemed to seep into the ground underneath her.

The rock was on his hand. The rock should be on the other side of the garden. Or, at the very least, off his hand. James breathed deeply, sighing a little as she exhaled, and drew in around her the calmness of meditation. It was just as she'd been practicing all these months, with a vital difference. She didn't allow herself to slip away completely, instead, she left a few conscious thoughts to float around on the surface. Mainly 'move that frelling rock.'

Then she faintly realized that wasn't very...Jedi of her, and she amended her mental statement to include a please.

Ah..there was the rock. Sitting on the hand of the other Jedi. His presence seemed to glow just beyond the edge of her consciousness. She could almost see how the Force interacted with his body, flowing around and through it. And...through the rock, as well!

Her eyebrow quirked unconsciously, and the rock wobbled in Marcus' hand. Then it rose into the air, a few inches above his palm, and started moving away.

A few padawans running between classes in a nearby covered walkway were talking loudly, and James jumped, startled. The rock tumbled down to the grass. She opened her eyes, looking disappointed. "I didn't move it at all, did I."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Well..... yes it did actually"

He used the force to pick the rock up, placed his hand out where it had been, then put the rock in the postiion it had been before it fell.

"Right there it was. I also liked how you added the please too, there. Now you have the idea, you should remember to concentrate and dont let any distractions put you off. This does come much easier over time to the point where you can just do it without thinking about it. The other thing to know is that int he force all things are equal, which is one reason size matters not. A Jedi really can lift incredible things with just their mind, by knowing and understanding that fact. Now, liek to try again?"

[James Prent]

James flushed when she realized he was reading her thoughts. Maybe someday I'll learn how to mask them. She closed her eyes to concentrate. Someday...soon.

This time it was slightly easier to slip into the quiet spot in the Force. It was like returning to a shop in the Lower City...getting there the first time was horrid, but every time after that you learned new shortcuts. The auras of the Master and the rock were in front of her, and she felt the grasses underneath her and the trees beside her. It would be easy to get lost in this meditative state, but she focused in quickly on the rock.

It moved erratically to the edge of the Jedi's palm, and then tumbled off the edge. James exhaled sharply, and the rock paused just above the tips of the grass. Unconsciously her hand moved, palm outward, mirroring the movement of the stone as it ascended higher.

James opened her eyes, and saw the rock floating in the air a few inches away from her open hand. Instead of saying anything, she merely fought down a grin.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Good. Now, make it float over to the chair over there and balace it so it does not fall"

[James Prent]

She frowned in concentration, and squeezed her eyes shut, breathing deeply as she saw...and moved. The stone jiggered away from her open palm, hesitated, and then began an orderly descent right into the grass by the chair leg.

James opened her eyes, and frowned some more. "I have a hard time sensing that chair through the Force. It isn't...a living thing..."

[imported_Marcus]

"it doesnt matter - al things are connected to the Force"

He leaned forward, to bring emphsis to his point.

"I spent a year blinded. I can tell you that there is no difference.... except living things arent deceptive and try to fool you. It's not how strong or how weak a being is - it's how they are linked in the Force. You see me easier as I am linked, but if I wished, I could disappear from your sight in the Force - except if you how to look at the connection. Understand?"

[imported_Marcus]

&^&*(^&*(&*%^!!!! Hate being logged intot he wrong account!

[James Prent]

"S-sort of." James closed her eyes once more, trying to get a feel for her surroundings once more.

It would pay to approach this logially, she thought. If all things were connected through the Force, even things that appeared to be non-living, that would mean that even though she couldn't see it, there was a connection there. Master Elessar was right, it depended on how you looked at things.

The chair, for instance, was actually a park bench constructed out of real wood. Wood came from trees, and trees used to be alive at some point. She'd had great successes of late with feeling the Force running through trees, feeling the sap being sucked around through the arteries of the enormous plants. How different was it finding a tree, than finding something made out of a tree?

However, if it were made of synthwood, or permacrete... well rocks were like that too. Not made of anything that had been living. James' face crinkled up with thought as she pictured the bench in her mind, and then the rock as well. And size didn't matter, right? So ...

She exhaled quietly, slowly blowing the air out of her lungs, and the bench rose from its spot near a flowerbed, albeit a bit lopsidedly as James unconsciously concentrated on only the side facing her.