Don't Bat an Eyelash (Tal)

[Fromikeable]

Tal seemed to take a minute before describing these quirks the Rilan had. Between the look of mischief she donned and that unmistakable smirk, Vance could tell he wasn't the only one feeling playful. They might be Jedi, but after all was said and done, they needed a little fun then and again to keep it together, just like everyone else.

"I’ll start with the physical first, shall I? It would be considerably easier to explain…”

Now, Vance was never much one for being sexually minded. Even then, he was never one to be perverted in his thinking. Even then, he tried not to be a gutter brain.

But alas, no one was perfect, and neither was he.

The padawan chuckled softly, half at his own awful line of thought, and half at Tal's teasing. "Alright then," Vance brought up his legs, leaned forward, and spun on the ground to directly face Talau. "Lay it on me."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

For a long moment Talau couldn’t help but wonder what it was Vance was chuckling at. Her brain just didn’t grasp the concept that, at that point in time, he’d had a very ‘male’ moment, though perhaps she should have been more surprised that it had simply taken this long for him to have one. Either way, the young knight mentally shrugged her mild confusion off, nodding to him instead.

”It starts with our bone density, as a matter of fact. There is quite a specific reason for our having thicker bones than most.” For a moment she paused, attempting to find a decent way to explain what she wanted to say. It was…difficult…to say the least. ”We…have a sort of secondary form, though we consider it (and call it) our true form. It is a sort of fight or flight activated change that gives us quite a different appearance. It hollows out our bones much like the bones of a bird, and we form wings. While we can’t fly, we can glide if we’re at a decent enough height, or use them to propel ourselves upward further with a jump, or forward more swiftly. To describe it all would be rather lengthy….I could if you wanted me to, however.”

[Fromikeable]

Vance did his best to imagine going through the process, imaginably over the course of a minute or so the way Tal was describing it, of hollowing out your own bones, sprouting wings either from your back or under your arms, and using them the way a flightless bird might. It sounded painful during and odd after. Nevertheless, it seemed incredibly cool. The idea of having wings was something everyone dreamed of, even in the days of hyperspace and speeders, and Vance actually sort of wished he could see a Rilan in this aviatory state despite the dangerous conditions it demanded.

"It almost sounds like adrenaline in humans." Vance considered the parallels; adrenaline was perfect for elevating human abilities for "fight or flight". By the sound of it, this Rilan characteristic was just a little more literal about it.

"So it's an actual transmutation? How long does it last?"

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Finally posting x.x sorry it’s taken so dang long

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”It is actually caused, more or less, by adrenaline. From what I understand our race has a sort of…limit…on adrenaline before it begins to sense a need to shift. Those with the ability to keep calm under extreme pressure would likely shift less than those who don’t…but that’s a theory on my part, since I don’t know all of the details myself since there isn’t much information to be had anywhere outside of Rilia from my knowledge. As for how long…”

Talau shook her head a little, thinking a long moment before shrugging slightly. ”The only thing I have to base off of is my own experience. Neither my Remiel, nor my brother, had shifted previously, and as I said…it may be dependant upon the person. Mine lasted…hmm…likely twenty minutes? Twenty five? Long enough for me to survive a fight, completely realize that my master was dead and gather the feathers that had been pulled…or otherwise separated...from me.”

Sighing a little, the woman’s thoughts turned toward one of those feathers…and the man who had held it. Ryn. Where was he? Was he even still alive? She’d brought him back here, but…there hadn’t been a word from him in several months. While not entirely uncommon for a jedi, the very fact that he hadn’t even said goodbye…Shaking her head a little, she stubbornly pushed the thought (and the pain) aside.

”Some of us can learn to shift through our own will…to control it…but how I understand it, it is difficult to learn to do such things…and sometimes dangerous.”

[Fromikeable]

((In the words of a wise man, "Ain't no matta' no thang"))

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Vance listened to the theory with earnest, doing his best to follow the idea mentally. The explanation did well in putting to rest his questions about the transformation, but like everything else Tal seemed to be saying, a million more inquiries popped up to replace them. For starters, what were these feathers like? Where were they now? Why did she collect them? Who was this master that had died?

"What exactly do you mean by 'otherwise separated'?"

I can imagine feathers being yanked and forced off during battle, but the way she said that... The tone seemed to imply that there was more to the loss of some of those feathers than simple battle or some natural process like molting. Talau also seemed to pang a little at the mention of collecting her lost appendages, almost as if some memory was tied to them...

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

For a moment she looked quietly at the padawan after his question before smiling slightly. ”Well, some of them were burned off by my opponents lightsabers…others got caught on things as we fought and were pulled or broken off that way. Others were pulled off by the combat itself.”

Shaking her head a little, she shrugged slightly, not really sure how else to explain to the padawan. ”It was a hectic situation, so I’m not certain how many I lost exactly, nor how,” she explained. ”They were a master and padawan…former friends of myself and Ryn, another friend of mine. He was closer to them than I was, but that didn’t make it any easier and…the fight was only more difficult and confused once I had no further help from my master.”

Glancing away to a pair of jedi moving along the pathway near by, Talau was quiet for a long moment as her mind worked. It was churning over the fact that she both wanted to move past the way the topic had turned as well as answer his other questions. In order to do both she had to anticipate his curiosities…the questions he might have and steer them in the direction she wanted. The topic, in the beginning, had been the shift, but it had evolved past that so…where to now? Well, chances were he would be curious about Shoal, but she didn’t want to touch that subject further if she could help it…not right now, anyway. Perhaps shifting further toward the feathers themselves would be a good option.

”I’m not certain why I collected the feathers I did. I think that part of the reason was to hide the evidence they could turn into…evidence that I wasn’t human…Evidence that could end up being a danger to me…but there was another part of me that just felt as if it was the right thing to do. They were part of me, after all, and they felt meaningful, so I took them with me. I gave some of them as gifts to people I care about since my mentor, one of them anyway, had told me that this is common among my people between those who are close to each other. Supposedly they can be used to strengthen a bond between people when communication is necessary, but…I don’t know if that’s true or just superstition.”

There wasn’t a day that went by that she hoped at least some part of it was true. It would mean that maybe Ryn, or Rem, or her brother would be able to reach her if they needed her…or she would be able to reach them if she needed them. But then…it seemed unlikely since Rem and Ryn had both vanished, one having left the Order completely and the other…he was just…gone. Sort of like Latus. She wasn’t sure which one was more painful, either.

Turning back to look at Vance, the color had seeped from her eyes to leave only threads of blue and violet and orange…the rest a stormy grey. Still, she smiled and shrugged slightly. ”I still have some of them hidden away, in fact…maybe I’ll show you one, one of these days.”

[Fromikeable]

Tal's eyes seemed to be her most interesting feature. They were always enriched with some brilliant hue of color, and even for someone as challenged as Vance at reading emotion, the eyes truly did the reading for them.

Right now, they were as grey as storm clouds, and they made Vance frown a little.

"I'd love to see one of your feathers someday," Vance responded, trying not to think about the oddity of his statement. If her eyes were anything to go by, Tal's feathers sounded as if they could look like anything from curved and neon to minuscule and host to a rainbow of color.

But Vance still frowned ever so slightly. Tal had made it rather clear that her feathers were close to her heart. To him, their powers sounded like fickle superstition. But to her... well, Vance got the feeling they really were a link to something else.

”So tell me…” Vance paused for a moment, trying to think of a new subject. In retrospect, the topic of their conversation had taken a rather drastic turn from a lesson in Force sense to a discussion about this metamorphosis and its feathers. That being said, with the topic finished, it left a dead air of uncertainty as to what to discuss next.

Vance’s thoughts were disturbed by a small growl from his stomach. It seemed attempting to see the world through Force and then getting a bird’s eye view of a person’s past worked up an appetite.

”Wanna’ get some lunch?”

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

The focus on her eyes that she noticed was understandable, not only was it typically polite, but there was no way (that she knew of) that she could control the color shift in them with her emotions. There was no doubt in her mind that he had caught the changes either. It was difficult to miss…it was like wearing your heart on your sleeve. That was, perhaps, one reason why the Rilan were so observant of subtleties. This was one thing that the majority of them she’d met had in common: they paid attention to the little things. Remiel and her brother had both been that way, certainly, and she had a feeling that the man (Kvothe had it been?) was at least fairly detail oriented when it came down to it. Still, maybe she was wrong with that.

“I’d love to see one of your feathers someday.”

That earned a bit of a smile, and even a soft chuckle. Strangely, she couldn’t help but think that it was a shame Vance had a master already. Certainly she’d considered taking a padawan before, but the thought had never truly appealed to her. There was too much potential danger in her life already, she didn’t need to go pulling some innocent padawan into it when they would already be facing the rough years of training on the road to knighthood. Still, there was just something about this young man…if she ever did take a padawan she sincerely hoped that they would be like him.

“So tell me…”

”Hmm?”

The growl of his stomach caught them both by surprise it seemed, earning a bit more of a smirk from Talau and making her stifle another, amused, chuckle.

“Wanna get some lunch?”

Laughing quietly, she nodded. ”Alright.” Truthfully, she wasn’t particularly hungry, but from what she understood of growing boys…well…they were almost always hungry. ”We can always return here later. It isn’t as if this place is going anywhere any time soon.”

She certainly hoped not, anyway.

Getting up, she’d brush herself off and wait for him before offering an impish smile. ”Well then, are you ready? Because you’re leaving the same way you came.”

[Fromikeable]

Vance grinned. "And here I thought I was off the hook." He heaved himself off the grass and stood up, taking a moment to shake out one of his legs; it seemed that the thing had fallen asleep during their chat.

”We can always return here later. It isn’t as if this place is going anywhere any time soon.”

Another interesting statement from an interesting individual. Vance couldn't believe how many quirks and mysteries had been bundled up into the Rilan Jedi standing before him. Between her ancestry and race, family and friends, and even her personal stories and perspectives, the padawan failed to imagine any one person trulu understanding her without years of trying. She was almost a walking hydra; for every question she answered, 2 more grew in its place.

And yet that was what made Tal so incredibly interesting to Vance. He loved seeking out answers, asking questions, trying to jump into a sea of inquiry and touch the all-telling floor long enough to see what made someone tick. With Tal though, it was a challenge; the sea was vast, and yet so deep!

And the best part was that because she interesting, so too was the world around her. If Tal had never walked in on Vance mediating on that overlook, he would have spent the entire day dwelling, wandering, and wondering where his master was...

My master.... It had been a while since Vance had seen hide nor hair of Tem. Honestly it had been weeks. The padawan felt more like a Youngling again, trapped in the halls of the Temple and only ever interacting with his peers or the occasional passing Knight or Master.

But no. Today was too good a day to be spoiled with pessimism and self-pity. Tal was teaching him. He was learning about Tal. They were even going to grab a bite to eat. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and even the tune of humming speeders seemed cheery.

Vance closed his eyes. Then he ignored his ears. Then he ignored that which he touched. Then he ignored his nose. Then he ignored his tongue.

And just like that, the Force was everywhere, waiting to guide him onward.

THE END