Collan: Control of the Physical

[Collan]

It was a day or so later after Collan had talked to Ch'lana during his tea ceremony. Collan was still working through how to prepare his quartz jewel for the training saber. When Ch'lana's voice popped into his head.

Come to the galley.

As Collan entered, he noted several things. Ch'lana sat a table with two thin cups, both held water that looked near to boiling with all the steam coming off it. Ch'lana held one in his hand. The other was in front of the seat across from the Jedi while off to the side was a large pouring pot that had little wisp of steam emanating from the top. Collan must have given Ch'lana a confused look because the old man waved Collan over to sit opposite.

"Try to pick up the glass, Collan," Ch'lana said outloud. Collan reached out but felt the cup's heat even before he touched it. He was able to hold the cup for just a moment before he let go because of the pain.

"It's a little too hot to hold," Collan noted as he registered the steam coming off Ch'lana's held cup, which the older man set down.

"I know," Ch'lana said, his hand red from the heat of the cup, "It can hurt...it's not quite hot enough to burn you but it hot enough to cause pain, which is why you are here. A Jedi Knight must learn to ignore the pain of injury. You know how to concentrate and put your body into a trance to preserve it. Today, you will learn how to control your perception of pain."

Collan nodded as Ch'lana voice entered his mind again, offering guidance. It is similar to but different from both. Instead of concentrating to focus, you must concentrate to separate. Instead of a whole body trance, you numb part of your physical senses. Clear your mind and begin by holding the glass. Practice and then come to me when you feel you have it.

Ch'lana voice withdrew.

The younger man did as instructed. He closed his eyes and began the process of focusing. He heard and felt Ch'lana leave, but he'd expected that. Ch'lana had other tasks and Collan was capable of figuring out things once the instructions had been received.

The Dark Side always delighted in trying to distract him, especially during times where he wanted to concentrate and focus. Training in the force was not any different, but Collan was getting better at shutting it out. It took less and less time to shift his mind away from the pinpricks and needling.

His hand could feel the heat of the cup and so felt his way towards it by fingertip. The heat was not painful at first but it started to hurt after just a few seconds. It quickly broke Collan's concentration. He let go of the cup and let his hand rest a moment to bleed off the heat. Maybe he should prepare himself first, he thought.

A trance was too deep; concentration was about focus. Collan put his hand back on the cup and experimented with feeling his body's reaction to the heat and how the Force felt inside himself at that point. He meditated and stilled his mind to concentrate on his hand. This had the effect of amplifying the pain but it also let Collan feel how the pain flowed against the Force...or rather how pain receptors firing affected the flow of the Force in his hand. However, it took several attempts to get there as he could only touch the cup for a few seconds at a time. Concentrating on the pain was not smart...but it was helpful.

Meditating on this, Collan focused inward and tried to play with how the Force flowed through his body. At first, it did nothing; Collan was trying to put part of his body into a trance-like state, but it wasn't quite right. It didn't feel like that was the solution. So he focused on his hand, working again to get a feel for how the Force flowed.

At first, the young man tried to slow the Force throughout his whole hand. After several minutes of focusing on slowing the Force, Collan felt his hand go numb and floppy like he'd been sleeping on it. He stopped. The pins and needles feeling of sensation returning took another few minutes to get over. A different tactic perhaps was needed?

Collan touched the cup; its heat fading but not by much. It would need more water. Collan opened his eyes and refilled the cup with fressh, piping hot water from the pouring vessel. Yes...it was definitely too hot to touch for long again.

After another minute or two of focusing, Collan placed his hand against hot cup again. This time he tried to slow the Force as it flowed through where he felt the pain. His hand numbed a little bit this time as he controlled the flow of the Force...still much. He had to wait a couple minutes for feeling to return.

Collan went through multiple repeated steps of this nature. Each time, the numbness lessened and the still feeling without pain grow more prominent. However as he did it, Collan noticed his hand hurt even without touching the glass. Opening his eyes, he saw his hand was bright red, like he'd burned it. It stung badly.

Focusing his thoughts, Collan worked to let the Force flow slowly through the painful area. His hand didn't numb but the pain went away. He smiled in accomplishment. Ch'lana's voice appeared in his mind.

Remember...the more injured you are the harder it is to control the pain. Go take care of your burn and find me tomorrow morning in the med bay.

[ooc: taking Control Pain and adding a pip to Control]

[Collan]

So Collan went to med bay. There were all manner of analgesics and burn care medicines in the bay. Collan used those to soothe the burning feeling in his hand, but none really fully removed the tender sensation. So, he began to practice controlling the pain of the burn through the Force. It required enough of his attention to be distracting, but not so much that he couldn't go to the machine shop and work on his crystal.

The next morning he woke up with the pain in his hand pretty much the same as it had been the other day. He had a quick breakfast and found his way to the med bay where he found Ch'lana waiting for him.

He asked, "May I see your hand Collan?"

The Jedi took Collan's proffered hand and unwrapped the dressing around the burn. It was still quite red and tender and painful to the touch. Ch'lanna nodded his head as he looked at the large red burn completely covering Collan's palm.

"I thought this might happen," Ch'lana noted, "I asked you here to teach you the next technique a Jedi needs to know. How to use the Force to heal wounds."

[Collan]

Ch'lana's voice sounded inside Collan's head.

Close your eyes and look inside yourself. Injuries cause cause disharmonies in how the Force flows through you. You can use the Force to create harmony within yourself and help your body heal itself.

The voice and presence withdrew from Collan's mind and he found himself alone in the medbay. Ch'lana definitely believed in hands-on experiential learning. Once again, Collan delved into himself to understand the skills he was being asked to learn.

Calm. Focus. The pain was there and he really couldn't spare the cycles to block it. Likewise, the Dark Side nibbled at his concentration. Collan focused on letting them slide past himself. The meditation took longer as he had to move past both obstacles but he did it eventually.

Concentrating on his hand again highlighted the pain like it had yesterday. Though this time, Collan didn't try to block it but rather get a feel for the disharmony of the burn. It was difficult to sense it as it was a very minor injury. Rather than search for it, Collan shifted his senses to his other hand to get its sense in the Force.

A pleasant by-product was that the pain lessened as an artifact of him switching mental foci. He had to switch back though and the pain reasserted itself. It broke his concentration. Collan refocused his mind, letting himself drift off into hibernation...almost. But the near separation helped him. The pain was mostly gone as self-awareness drifted just in reach but only loosely attached.

It took a lot of effort to hold that place between hibernation and awareness. Collan steadiled himself in that state, feeling his whole body relax. Collan wasn't completely aware of time but he knew it was passing, but patience was key. He would work when he was ready to, not before then.

As he felt ready, Collan sent his developing Jedi senses into his body and looked at how the Force flowed. There was symmetry and swirls, patterns that moved and flowed from one to another and back. Even the changes followed a harmony...the pattern of life in Collan's body.

His hand however was different. There were flows of the Force there but they were disjointed in some way. Interrupted. Conflicted. Unsymmettrical was the best he could describe them. The disharmony was small, not terribly large but it was real. In a lot of ways, the flows were like frayed cable, raw edges that leaked out rather than following along.

Collan concentrated to begin smoothing them out. He focused his mind on rolling the frayed ends back into the greater whole. He wasn't sure how long it took but finally the patterns had recovered quite a bit of their harmony, with shifts and flowed that were smooth and fit into the greater whole of his body. He began to bring himself out of the near-trance.

Slowly...ever so slowly, Collan woke himself. He noticed almost immediately that the pain in his hand was gone. Opening his eyes, he saw the redness was gone too. Fingers flexed. No pain. No tightness. It appeared as though the technique worked.

[ooc: adding a pip to Control and taking accelerate healing]