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Lesson 7: Part 1

Being apprenticed had been a massive step, he felt, but this... staring at an discourse on lightsabres, and with books on stones scattered around him. This was like trying to build a monument with your hands. Where did you even get started? Did he start trying to figure out how to build the shell first, or did he try and figure out the stone?
Or would that be like putting the skin on something without first making sure it had a circulatory system and organs?
He rested a hand on his knee and sighed, rubbing his forehead. He had a vague idea germinating in his mind on what he wanted, but...
He let his eyes wander around the stacks of holo's around him, things that seemed like they might need to be read before he would have anything like a functional idea of how one put together a lightsaber without hurting yourself or a bystander.
This was going to be quite a piece of work.
What kind of stone did he even want?
Orange Prompted something inside him, certainly.
Thats a huge help He answered himself back, sarcastically, putting down the guide on light sabers and reaching to pick up the guide to stones. massive.
It was half tempting to see if he could use telemetry to try and learn from the tools others had used to construct theirs, but somehow he had the niggling feeling someone might well consider that the wrong way to get started.
Besides he was supposed to be building his own light saber, not learning to copy someone else's.
And what if they had done it wrong. That wouldn't be much help would it?
This was going to be a massive, massive project. But when it was done.........
Well. He had to get started before he could get to that towering moment of relief. Releif AND pride.

Lesson 7 part 3

Aquiring the stones had been...an experience. Especially since he hadn't quite managed to sit on the squirming desire to ask questions, and had caught on quickly that the same question could get five different answers if asked five different times, which had been an enormous distraction, but he had eventually gotten around to requesting the stones, and then there'd been another round of questioning when they'd arrived. He was sort of curious both to find out the real answers to things like Riddick's real name, although he got the sense that the man could EASILY have told it to someone once or twice and they'd never know it, because they'd be expecting another untruth, but he was also curious to know how many times the man could be questioned on the subject without repeating himself.
Still, he really needed to focus on this project for now.
He sat down on his floor now, eyeing the unpackaged stones. One glowing faintly, flickering with internal, unburning sparks common to the Heart of Fire, the other delicate and slimmer, much more a common lightsabre stone.
The Heart of Fire was more traditionally a gift, and was supposed to contain memories of both the giver and the recipient, but in this case, the recipient was the force, so to speak, with the second stone to help make it actually function as a lightsabre.
Concentrate He folded his legs and sighed, taking a moment to get into an meditative state. It had been quite difficult early in training, but it was getting slowly easier. Not perfect yet, but he was getting there, and with it came some greater measure of control over his otherwise erratic telemetry, and the force opened up to him like a window, making the stones light up even more to his eyes, each particularly open to the force in their own ways. He could almost see the blade they would produce, firey and bright, but it's color would be coming from a stone that represented a bond. He wanted to become good with the Lightsabres, but the color and the choice of the stone was also to remind him of the promises he'd made to himself about becoming a Jedi. Never to take it lightly, and maybe at some level to prove to himself that there was nothing wrong with the Vos clan at large, that their telemetry wouldn't ultimately doom them in the Jedi order.
We'll do good together. He promised the stones, imagining how they would fut together in his blade, one was meant for this and the other wasn't, he couldn't get that picture entirely out of his head, which for a moment made him think ridiculously of Jiri, both of them soaking wet in the fountain from their fight. He'd felt like he'd reached the peak of some impossible mountain beating her in a fight.
We'll do good together. He repeated to himself, before drawing out of mediation, feeling somehow sheepish, and wondering if they'd be able to work together again.

Lesson 7 part 5

He returned from the food run feeling more content than before, stopping just inside his room to cross his arms and stare blankly at the work in front of him. He felt more content now, but now he had to get back into a mediative state and keep working. He stood for a few moments, half closing his eyes to try and shut out the clamor of excitement that arose at the partially assembled blade.
So close!
But getting excited again would only break his concentration, and then he'd break something, and he could almost taste the disappointment and upset he'd feel if he failed now, as clearly as he could imagine the exhilaration of completing it, but before he'd know which way it would turn out, he'd have to finish.
He glanced away from the partially completed blade and walked over to eye the schematics he'd loaded again. OK... so....
He used the technical illustrations to help calm down his urge to jump around the room, to rush in in excitement. Nothing like something as intensely boring as a technical guide to throw ice water on feverish enthusiasm, at least for him. It was probably different for some of the others. Somewhere out there was a trainee who probably was overwhelmed with glee looking at something so dry.
He paged through it for a while longer, looking back and forth between what he'd already done before he started to carefully move parts again.
On some level, he could see where this would seem far less difficult if you were more familiar with the inner workings, and considered in the back of his thoughts, perhaps trying to study it more. If he ever had to do it again, it would make it feel a lot easier, maybe he could even adjust it.
He had to pause for a moment to get his wandering concentration back, and then clicked a piece into place, reaching for another before realizing there weren't anymore.
He was holding a finished light sabre in his hands....

Assuming it worked.

He closed it almost breathlessly, staring at it in his hands for several moments before cautiously hitting the switch, and almost unexpectedly, the blade flared to life in his hands. A vivid fiery orange color like the Heart of Fire.

He'd actually succeeded. Really. Really succeeded. It hadn't failed. It hadn't blown up and taken his fingers off.

It worked.

Deliberately and silently he turned it back off...looked around the room for a moment....and then let out a noisy whoop of glee, jumping up and nearly sending the holopad flying as he charged for the door to find someone to show.

He could still hear Master Svarsika's description of the obstacle course in his ears as he studied the arrangement again. Also the phrase 'difficult or impossible without the use of the force'. That was the little sticking point that kept poking around kicking up little dust clouds of uncertainty in the back of his mind, though he knew at this point that was stupid. He'd been training for some time now, it wasn't exactly as though he didn't know how to use the force. He guessed it was just the pressure of going through another new lesson, and such a relatively complicated one.
This is stupid. He chastised himself. He'd come this far in his lessons, he wasn't bad at them, and some of the skills required he thought he was actually pretty good at. It was, possibly, opening himself to the force that made him on the edgy side, since it, in his mind, was fairly similar to his telemetry, and the surprises involving lingering memories on things could really throw you off.
I guess I'll just have to be careful then. He sighed slightly. If they weren't so distracting, some memories might even be helpful, if there were memories of other peoples paths, successes, failures, and it would be good practice anyway. Just because there were other peoples memories on something didn't always make them that strong, and didn't mean he had to pay attention to them.
He stared at the wall with one eyebrow raised, heaving another, heavier sigh. It wasn't so much a climbing wall as it was a 'jump for everything you're worth and hope you can summon enough force to boost you to the hand waayyyyyy at the top' wall.
Well then again it -was- training for being an full Jedi, so you probably really couldn't reasonably expect anything lest mind blowing. These were the sort of feats that really made Jedi and Sith into beings of legend.
OK then, lets get started... However miraculously, he had beat Jiri by a point, that had to count for something, he reminded himself, which did settle his troubled sense of self confidence a little more.
--
It was one hell of a jump, but then, it was also the part he was the least worried about. He liked the physical parts of the training increasingly, enjoying being able to keep up with students he never thought he would be able to even approach. He felt a moment of something between exhilaration and fear from adrenaline, wondering if he was going to make the incredible handholds, and then triumph as he felt them under his fingers. It was almost depressing to loose that moment of flight and feel gravity take back over.
He pulled himself up somewhat more slowly than he had ascended most of the wall face, looking back briefly to see how far he'd come.
Wow. I'll have to do that again.

Of course he was going to have plenty of opportunity, since there were still the platforms to go, and he had to think about finishing the course before he could think about doing the course a second time. He took a few breaths to buy himself time to think, and then made for the platforms. Jump again. A little more confident this time. A little easier.
He sighed again, considering the ropes and chewing his lip. Svarsika's cryptic comment made him a little uncertain about what to do next. Someday maybe he wouldn't have these kind of doubts, or at least he'd be able to think through them a little faster.