A little breather

A little breather
Date of Scene:	28 January 2024
Location:	Coruscant - Jedi Temple - Atrium
Synopsis:	Annelia and Cayde discuss the events on Jedha.
Cast of Characters:	Annelia Belask, Cayde Alexis

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Annelia Belask has posed:
    It's not long after returning to Coruscant that Annelia Belask is found walking out of the medical center- she's done her usual, just stitching herself up, long before getting on the ship back from Jedha.

    That said, her prior Master did manage to curb this habit somewhat- she at least stopped by to get the work *checked* and handled with more modern tech. She hasn't quite replaced the overcoat of her robe, and a tear in it is still ringed in a crimson stain after her fight the other day- a fact that seemed to annoy her more than anything on the way back to the Temple. There was... quite a bit of lightsaber drilling in quiet moments on the ship.

    At the moment she crosses the main hall at a brisk pace, making for the quarters kept for the jedi with a mostly-restrained irritation on her face.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    The following morning after Master Trassa had spoken to him back on Jedha, reminding him of something he'd be thinking about for a while yet, Cayde had hurried to the markets to purchase the trinket the Kel Dor Jedi had recommended as a token of appreciation.

    He'd intended to give it to her on the way back, but they'd somehow ended up on different ships so he hadn't gotten the chance. But once they arrived back home on Coruscant, he went to search for Annelia near medical, knowing she'd sustained some injuries from the fight. She'd spot him approaching as she's heading out.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Annelia doesn't really pause or break stride as she moves, robes swirling around her in the not-quite-still air of the main hall.

    She looks at Cayde as he approaches, offering a slight nod. She doesn't stop for the boy, so much as just adjust slightly in her 'lane' of walking and very slightly in her pace, to allow the lad to step in alongside moreso than pause and talk.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde falls into pace with her, walking alongside her and wondering where she is going in such a hurry. She doesn't look like she's in a very good mood...

    He tugs on the end of her sleeve gently, and takes a small package out, handing it to her.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    There's the slight sound of her robe's sleeve ripping further- oops. That much doesn't seem to move the needle on her mood, however. Probably a good thing?

    She looks down at the offered item, brow raising as she shifts from irritability to confusion. She takes the thing in hand, turning it over and holding it upward with brow raised- silently questioning the purpose of the item for the moment.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde flinches a little when her robe rips a bit more. He sighs...could he touch -anything- without ruining it?

    [I am sorry] he signs, presumably referring to the his behavior on Jedha earlier.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann's pace slows a little, and she nods more slowly than that at his signage, looking to the side a moment.

    "Don't take my mood as regarding you. I'm annoyed that that colicoid so much as touched me. Some petty thief, dangerous stinger be damned," she explains, exhaling slowly. She waves it off for the time being.

    "Apologize as you will, but. Remember what I said before. You can feel concerned over these things... or you can work to develop control. The tenets of the code are interlinked, Cayde. Much like it's better for me to channel this frustration and anger into more practice..." she trails off, looking down at the package a moment. "You don't owe me anything, Alexis, just to be clear."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde shakes his head. [Not owe...but just to thank you...] he signs. Not many were prone to find it in their schedules to spend time with him, to be perfectly honest.

    What was a good word? [...appreciation] Yeah, that.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann looks down again, nodding slightly... then lets out a breath of a chuckle as she considers the package. "Did you hear that Master Trassa Volk assumed you were my padawan? I'm hardly a couple of weeks a knight myself."

    "I didn't see much of what happened outside of my scuffle in the darkness of the vault, but it was a far more chaotic situation than I think any of us expected. No?"

    She pauses, and even as she walks begins opening the small package.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    That didn't surprise him. [You are wise and skilled] Cayde points out.

    He nods at her question about how chaotic the situation had become, his expression become downcast. [I...stabbed a man] he admits. [Not sure he will recover]

    The package contains a refocusing amulet, often used during meditation. The pendant is made out of a green crystal with a silver housing shaped in different patterns. Nothing expensive, but it looks nice.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "I cut a Colicoid's stinger in half. What of it?" asks Ann, picking the amulet up and letting it dangle and spin from her hand for a moment. "Well, I do appreciate this, Cayde."

    She places it back in the box for now, closing it for the time being and tucking it into her robe. "People get hurt, in combat. It's the nature of it. Something we need to learn to accept as inevitable, both intentionally and incidentally. What exactly happened?"

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde sighs, shaking his head. [It was not combat...] He pauses, struggling to find the words to properly explain everything that went down. It was all so...complicated.

     [He was in a trance]

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Who was this, then?" Ann asks, brow raising a little as she finally slows to a stop. "Being in a trance in the midst of that situation... it wasn't what I would call a large enough affair to warrant someone guiding via some sort of battle meditation."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde stops walking as well, frowning pensively as he tries to remember from Imoen's memories. [...Akashaya Tomi] he signs, spelling out the full name and it is quite a sequence. [He...wanted to touch forbidden things...dark side relics...]

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Then he was likely to be stuck in a trance or worse sooner or later anyways," Ann notes, frowning at the explanation. She exhales slowly, one hand going to her hip as she considers.

    "Was he part of the group after the vault? Or some other reason for being there?" she questions, a thoughtful cast coming to her eyes as she looks at nothing in particular.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde shrugs. [I do not know....maybe Im knows.] Meaning, Imoen. [She was...angry...]

    [Trying to stop him] he continues. However, there is a heaviness about him, and she can tell he still feels terrible about the whole thing. The man might be as good as dead, and that thought just gave him this awful sinking feeling...

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Then he has been stopped. You think I have not outright killed people in my time with the order, Cayde? We are not doctors. We have no oath against harm. You did not really -betray- anything... but if you did not intend this, well."

    There's a wry sort of smile after that, as Ann shakes her head. "Then I think I end up repeating myself, talking about working on better control. But I doubt you need to listen to that lecture again right this second."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    [I...had to stop him...but not to kill or hurt] Cayde insists. [He was...defenseless]

    Master Volk had told him not to worry about the Arkanian, but he's been having a hard time keeping his mind off of it. Sleep had been even more difficult than usual, as well.

    But she was right in saying that he may well have done himself in and ended up in the same state or worse had no one stopped him.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Are you expecting yourself to be perfect, Cayde?" questions Ann... maybe slightly hypocritically.

    "You made a mistake. Do you intend to spend this time feeling sorry for yourself, or determining how to ensure it's not repeated?"

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde gulps a little at that. She was right, it was no use sitting around despairing about the past, which couldn't be changed.

    Though it's hard to shake the feeling that he just can't get anything right. [I...can get something right]

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann nods slightly, crossing her arms as she considers the teen practically withering before her. Almost amusing, on some level, certain things considered.

    "And, if you continue honing skills at the things that trouble you, then..."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde nods. [I...will work harder] he signs, looking more resolute and determined now.

    [Thank you]

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Just don't let me catch you saying you don't want to engage with these things again, hm?" she says, in a more joking/teasing and lighthearted manner on this one, shrugging slightly. "Not always about harder or lighter, just -doing- it consistently." She said, perhaps the poster child for overtraining among her generation of padawans.

    "Though if I can ask- did you charge this man with a weapon? Or was it telekinetic? That latter can be a trick to control, even I know that."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde watches her speculatively. She seems to be joking about something, but he's not entirely certain exactly what. But he nods when she tells him that being consistent is key.

    When the question is posed, he pauses, unsure of how to explain everything exactly. [You can see it yourself] he signs, then holds out a hand, expecting her to take it.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann waves off her chuckling, shaking her head a moment.

    "Sure, just glad to see you not shying away from the type of thing," she answers simply, taking the hand for the moment.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Upon touching him, Ann's mind will be flooded with Cayde's memories from the last day of the festival.

    At first, he'd been confused, unsure of what exactly was going on, and had reached out into familiar presences that had been nearby attempting to ascertain the situation.

    Imoen's anger had been so distinctive, so strong...it had led him straight to that part of the vault where Ann hadn't been. Master Volk and Imoen of course are there...and there is that Arkanian man she'd seen unconscious once she'd arrived on the scene later. Here, he's sitting in front of a door in a meditative trance--the door to a Bogan Collection. He's attempting to open it.

    There is a fury...a rage like a boiling volcano. But it isn't his rage. It's...Imoen's. This man, a Sorcerer of Tund named Akashaya Tomi, had wanted to access the dark relics there, for some reason. She'd been trying to stop him, but had failed to convince him.

    Fueled by her anger and frustration, he lifts various weapons and other loose objects dropped by thieves into the air and hurls them at Tomi--which apparently, as Volk had said, had included the Blade of Hibernation. Cayde could feel the man's consciousness slipping away--not dead, but so faded that even with his own gifts he could not reach him.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    A pause from Ann, and a slow nod as she withdraws her hand. "Perhaps remind me to speak to the masters about padawan Imoen as well," she muses aloud, folding her hands together in her sleeves for the moment.

    "But I will point out- I don't see any moment hwen you were given cause to know what that weapon would do. And lulling someone like... -that- back to consciousness is likely for the specialists. Those who help those taking the trials sink deep and return, and the like. The thing to perhaps work on there would be keeping ahead of things like that sheer anger overtaking you."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Yes...it very much seemed to be another episode of him becoming lost in others' heads somehow. In their thoughts, emotions, or memories or a mixture of all. Unfortunately, he was a fair bit more impulsive than Imoen, and it was just...

    Well, it was just a recipe for disaster, all things considered.

    Cayde shakes his head. [Maybe...I read about it before] he signs.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "How many artifacts are in that vault, Cayde? Loose estimate," Ann asks, frowning a little as her arms more fully cross within those sleeves.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde frowns pensively, then shrugs a little. [Must be...hundreds] he signs speculatively.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "And in a great big pile of relics thrown to the floor, you were to identify each individual one and compare them each to the target, and their potential cross-interactions, within the single moment of taking action?" she further questions, eyebrow raising questioningly.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde arches a brow at the question, then smiles a little bit. [No...no I suppose not] he signs. [But I...I became lost] That's the part he needs to work on, really...

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "Exactly," says Ann, nodding and smiling faintly. "Make sure you narrow in on the specific problem. One thing at a time. Trying to fix two to three things at once... liable to simply become lost between them and not find the roots of these things."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    [No surprise he thought you were my master] Cayde remarks, nodding as she imparts some very sound advice to him. It seemed to him that she ought to have been knighted much earlier than she did.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    Ann outright snorts at that, head shaking a little. "One or two small lessons learned from many, many hours in the training chambers. Nothing that grand," she asserts, waving it off as she unfolds her arms.

    "Someday I'll tell you a few stories about the master I had, that will perhaps illuminate more. But for now, get yourself some rest, Cayde. Good to come at that kind of practice fresh and recharged," she says, very much that person who would throw herself into a practice duel in the worst physical shape of her life.

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    [You are too modest] Cayde replies, smiling a little again.

    [Thank you...for everything] he finally signs, when she says he should get some rest. [Few like to spend time with me...]

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "I have simply seen how far there is to go, Cayde. Some of the masters are... better than one could perhaps imagine, I think. And, well. As I'm sure you can tell, I'm not exactly the peak of force sensitivity around this Temple. Just meant I had to work harder, so I got decent at working harder. Bit of a one-trick Neebray, if you will," explains Ann, shrugging it off. "But, no problem at all. Just need to put in the time to gain control, same as a lightsaber or being physically strong."

Cayde Alexis has posed:
    Cayde arches a brow at the comment about Force sensitivity. No, he definitely hadn't much noticed.

    He nods. [I suppose...] Telepathy was different...you had to physically touch something with those to actually do anything. But he doesn't mention it. [I will try to rest] he nods, although he hasn't really been able to very well the past few days. Still, maybe this would have helped.

Annelia Belask has posed:
    "It's a principle thing. Practice makes you improve. That's all I mean. Don't let certain differences put something on an unattainable pedestal," Ann notes at his trailing off and half-hearted agreement.

    With that, she turns to start walking again, patting the teenager's back to get him to send himself off to turn in and rest as noted.