Post by Roku on Aug 28, 2011 19:06:32 GMT -5
Name: Vanessa Leblanc
Species: Epicanthix/Chiss Halfbreed
Age: 14
Sex: Female
Height/Weight: 5'7", 130 lbs
Appearance: Vanessa looks just like her Chiss mother, except that her skin is a paler blue and she has epicanthix's "human" eyes with an auburn red hue instead of just straight up red glowing eyes. Her hair is black and up in a military stick bun, as many as 6 wooden sticks adorn it at all wakeful hours. Her body is curvy, and she has a mid sized bust and an acrobatic build.
Personality: Vanessa is extremely logical, sometimes to the point where it conflicts with her duties. She has a deep understanding of the real world, and sometimes you need to punch a point into someone's skull instead of trying to reason with them. That's her soldier side...her dark side, if you will. Vanessa tries not to kill or injure her enemies too badly, but she can be really mean and to the point. She realized at a young age that certain attributes of the force weren't going to come easy to her, and as such, she tends to struggle with moving things around and conjuring up barriers. She can do it, but it exhausts a lot of focus and keeps her occupied. Knowing she'd never be an adept, she smartly focused on training her sensors and body. She trains with the lightsaber masters, and is very quick at learning. When on military duty, she trains as an infantry soldier with the republic, and in exchange she charges in on the front lines with them - with the understanding that she will not participate in anything that compromises the Jedi Code she has sworn to protect. Her missions generally include liberation of refugees, planets under imperial remnant control, and dark jedi acolytes, so that they do not have to grow up into that corrupt world. The jedi sometimes question her ways, but she is a good hearted person at the core. When it comes to boys she likes, she puts the order first and has yet to indulge.
Character Rank: Padawan - Jedi Infantry
Special Skills:
Guns
Grenades
Basic Piloting
Various Musical Instruments
Academics
Lightsaber Forms:
I - Advanced in theory and in practice
II - Proficient in theory, Proficient in Practice
III - Proficient in theory, unpracticed
IV - proficient in theory, unpracticed
V - proficient in theory, unpracticed
Physical Attributes
Strength: 71
Speed: 71
Intelligence: 95
Force Proficiency
Telekinesis: 8
Telepathy: 23
Body: 26
Sense: 47
Channel: 8
Alignment: 75 Lightside
Bio:
Age 0 - Vanessa was born to a Chiss mother, nar'sa'kova who died in childbirth, and ended up being named by her Epicanthix father, Jordan Leblanc. Finding that he was financially unstable to raise a child on his own, he reluctantly gave Vanessa to a Jedi-Friendly adoption agency.
Age 1 - Her new "parents", a family of humans, were rather elderly. But they did everything they could for her, changing diapers, making sure she was well fed and able to learn how to crawl and eventually walk. Vanessa was very smart, and could identify letters and some small words by the age of one and a half.
Age 2 - Unlike most toddlers, Nessie was a very quiet baby. She liked to look at picture books, and play with magnet letters on the fridge. Her adoptive mother would sing nursery rhymes to her to help her fall asleep, and by the time her third birthday was coming up, Vanessa could partially sing along. She also liked to mash keys on the piano, and to the educated listener, she was very talented for her age, even if a lot of it was a jumbled mess.
Age 3 - Vanessa was able to competently play basic songs on the piano, paint smudgy pictures that looked kinda like stick figures, although her rainbows looks great. And she could read at a primary schooler's level, picking up story books and announcing what the words inside entailed to her parents. The older couple didn't know what to do with such a smart little girl, they were getting old, and there never was very much money. She cried about it, but they returned her back to the agency and requested that they find parents who could be more engaged to her. This turned out to be bad, because no one wanted a little chiss at that time, and she ended up in an agency orphanage instead.
At the orphanage, a lot of the older kids were rather impressed when she was playing the skeleton of what seemed to be a beethoven symphony with one hand. It was a pretty messy piece, but hey, she's three.
Age 4 - Another orphan started to bang paint cans behind her to give a rhythm to her piano playing, to which she smiled and continued playing. The place was a hard place to live, limited housing, no seconds at meal time, but the important thing was, she was fed and warm.
She found an old math textbook, and thanks to her early ability to read, she was able to understand it. She found the questions in it funny, things like, if Greg has one baked potato, and Larry cooks up nine more, how many potatoes are there now. "Who sits down and eats five potatoes..." She chuckled to herself, at the thought of them sharing the ten potatoes.
Age 5 - She was enrolled in a public school near the orphan facility, and this is where she really took off. While the math teachers were teaching the other five year olds basical addition and subtraction, Vanessa was doing times tables and graphs. And thanks to her ability to draw, they looked almost as good as the prints in the text book. In music class, she made her teacher's draw drop when she could already play the piano, drums, and sing better than he could. He showed her other instruments, and she just picked them up and played them.
In gym class, her superior intelligence once again gave her an edge. In dodgeball, she would hoard a ball in her left hand and deflect the horribly thrown other balls by the other children, while using her right hand to return fire. The thing she didn't understand was, how there were people far more athletic than her but she was still deflecting their attacks... In art class, her drawing skill was coming along, but at this early age art class was more like arts and crafts, with silly kids glueing their noses to paper and such. She was the only one in her entire class to make the paper penguin adequately, and attach the googly eyes appropriately.
Age 6 - it became very obvious in gym class that a little girl her size shouldn't be as good at sports as the boys, and yet she was making baskets from half court, knocking out people in dodgeball from the same distance, and avoiding...every...single...ball...thrown at her. Mind you, six-year olds don't throw too well, but you'd think one of the little idiots would be able to tag her. No sir. Something was up, and when a note was sent back to the orphanage from the school, the Jedi's began to watch from afar.
Her reading was now at a grade three level, and she was written into file as one of the few children who would skip grade 2. Her math was on par with her reading, she understood fractions and percentages, and although it did her no good since she was broke, the teachers were in awe. She drew a near perfect chiss woman, telling her teacher it was what she wanted to be when she grew up. The woman in the picture was holding a birthday cake and smiling brightly. The jedi's were getting very itchy now - this girl was something special.
Age 7 - She spent four weeks in grade three, and then they pulled her out after they found out she was already doing algebra and trigonometry in her spare time. They enrolled her in highschool with students twice her age, and many of the kids laughed when she entered the gym class. They certainly weren't laughing when they left. Even though the throws were much more accurate and powerful, she was able to...understand where each one was coming from and deflect/dodge and then counter with a perfect throw. The 3'8" little seven year old got mvp of the year on the school's basketball team, football team, and she still kicked ass at dodgeball. She graduated the same year, was valedictorian, president of the chess club, school president, and actually tutored teenagers who were struggling with math in summer school. Anything to stay away from the orphanage.
Age 8 - Although she got accepted to prestigious college with a scolarship, she was approached by a man from the order. "Vanessa?" he asked.
"No-no...you have the wrong person...I'm just waiting for my brother to get out of class..."
"It's eight in the morning, Vanessa... you are preparing for your first day, aren't you?"
She pointed up at him angerly, and glared at him. "How do you even know that!? What do you want, stalker?"
"I want to offer you a new life, as a guardian."
"Hmm?"
"I am a Jedi Vanessa. Charged with encouraging young talented individuals such as yourself..."
"I know what they do..." She cut him off, having already predicted what the rest of his sentence was. "I already read up on you self-appointed guardian fools...You want me in the order because you think I possess that ridiculous force power you idiots preach about... Well I don't, ok? I'm just smart... I earned this scholarship...I finally have a way out!"
"Here me out Miss Leblanc... The Jedi have a school as well. We will pay to have you trained... You already know everything this school can offer you...I guarantee it...I offer something much more. And if you're not satisfied, you can leave, and I will personally guarantee that you'll never have to go back to that orphanage again..."
"Wait...how do you know..." She started.
"It's run by the Jedi, kid... look, not everyone is force sensitive, but the Jedi care about all the children. That is why we have fed you and kept you warm. We are an organization of charity and honor... However. If a talent like your does emerge, we do seek to offer a little bit more...The other kids will have a chance too...but only you share the gift of the jedi." he explained.
The girl was extremely flustered, and she paused. "I'll go there myself and prove to you and the rest of you wackos that there IS NO FORCE!"
"Then come... Maybe you will end up schooling the teacher."
"Fine, I'll do it... And after I make a fool of you, I'm cashing in on you..."
"You are quite a remarkably gifted girl..." was his only comment.
Age 9 - Vanessa suffered from culture shock at the Jedi temple, as all the force sensitive people freaked her out a little bit. So much to the point that she was brought before the council of the time.
"I didn't sign up for this...I-I'm not some great person...I can't do those things. You people, you're all...dressed in fancy robes, wielding swords of light... I was told this was a school, not a barracks for psychics..." She told them. "I want to go home..."
"We would, Nessie...but the orphanage shut down."
"What! All those kids are going to suffer..." She told them.
"The Master who funded it has died, and the order is broke...All we can do now, is individual aid. We'll try to find somewhere for you...if you truly do not wish to be here..." One Master told her.
She paused, but her thought process was quick and decisive. "I decided I have to stay here. You people say I'm special... maybe I can give back..." She told them, softly. "I'm willing to learn...how to control this...force..." She told them.
The kind master smiled brightly at her. "Vanessa, you are...so very selfless. You don't have to do this for the jedi sake..."
"The Jedi gave me all the love they could, my whole life...they did it from afar...I can change the world too, for the better. No one needs to know I'm doing it. I will learn everything there is to know, use my knowledge to earn money, use that money to help people...I might as well put this brain to use..." She said, flicking her head with her finger.
This year, Vanessa underwent a lot of physical changes, turning into a teenager like all ten-year-old Chiss do. She had the appearance of a fifteen year old soon before her tenth birthday, and would remain more or less this youthful looking up to her present age of forty four.
Age 10 - Most girls her age were learning how to make sandcastles, and even her fellow jedi were at best learning basic lightsaber techniques on the side served with a main dish of education. Seeing as Vanessa had already graduated from public school with honors, this was unnecessary for her. Her transition from child to young adult was finished, and she looked like most of the teenage padawans. Her maturity was catching up to her intelligence now, and she was accepted as a padawan.
Shii Cho was on the menu. Most younglings start to learn it at age five, she never had the chance until age nine, and she was already ahead of them. Shii Cho was like chess to her, try to out maneuver her opponent and cut off their angles. It came very easy to her, and she learned and became competent at it in no time at all.
Much harder than sword play was learning to control the force she'd come to admit existed inside her, and every other organism. At first she couldn't do it. She'd meditate for hours after lessons, and then try and form some energy from it. One time in a chamber, a chandelier fell and crashed next to her and she instinctively tried to put up a weak barrier she'd seen, in an attempt to stop the glass from cutting her up. It didn't work, the barrier she managed to conjure stopped the glass from hitting her face, but the larger metal managed to get through. It would be a long time coming before she could consciously control it. It was hard for her. Vanessa was always top of her class in school, she expected to get everything right the first time, every time. In force class, she was falling behind the other students for...really, the first time in her life.
Age 11 - Vanessa spent four days straight in meditation after a long lecture on barriers, she was struggling so badly. There was a small wrinkle forming above her left eyebrow that was never there before, just from the stress of force training. A single concerned master showed up with some food for the padawan, and set it down next to her. But he noticed some irregular movement from her. She was shaking and murmuring a bit.
"Padawan?" he asked. "I brought you some dinner...listen, training is a fasting state can clear the mind. But you have to come out and eat at some point, young one..."
The girl hadn't gotten up to so much as use the bathroom in over 100 hours... She sniffled a bit, and when she looked up at the Master, tears were streaming down her face. "I've been trying to learn how to put up a barrier for over a year, Master..." She sniffled, wiping her face with her hand.
"You will learn it, Nessie... It's true, you're probably not the best force user here...but I've never seen anyone learn shii cho faster than you." he lied a bit. She was pretty damn good at it, but she wasn't the absolute fastest learner he'd ever seen. Still, she was pretty quick.
"Why don't you have some supper dear..."
"Yeah...ok..." She said, turning to her dinner plate.
Age 12 - Vanessa found that healing came a bit easier to her than barriers and moving stuff around. She took a general healing lesson with a class of padawans and learned the basics about accelerating the natural multiplication of cells. They also taught her that, no matter how well she could heal a flesh wound, that some injuries required more extensive treatment such as stitches, bandaging, a cast in some cases, and medi gel to stop the pain and help quicken the process. A lot of the children were doing better at this than her, but at least she wasn't failing.
At swordplay class however, she was kicking some serious butt. Her Shii Cho training was nearly complete, she acquired the nickname "queen of defense" after a knight ten years her senior challenged her to block his training saber. It was pretty immature, because it was obvious he was hitting on her. "Leave me alone..." She told him. "I'll leave you alone if you can disarm me..." he said with a smirk. He moved in closer and made her feel very uncomfortable. "You moron...this is a Jedi Temple. Fraternization isn't even allowed...besides...I'm only twelve...I'd never go out with an incompetent old geezer like you..."
The man scratched his head. 12 he thought. "Twelve?!"
"Yeah, you dumbass pedophile...twelve...You should be ashamed. I'm telling the council that you are giving me a hard time..."
"W-wait...I didn't know...I'm sorry, it's just...You Chiss become so pretty so early, and I forgot that you mature so fast..." he said, blushing sheepishly.
"Lets just have that lightsaber battle you freaking wanted, pervert...it's the closest you'll ever get to putting your disgusting hands on me..."
She told him, and she drew her training saber.
The knight pulled his out awkwardly, and took a makashi stance. he set his lightsaber to "training" and began to swing it around with his left hand.
"A lefty, huh? This should be interesting..." She observed.
She came in with a typical sweeping motion, which he deflected. "Amateur?" he asked. "We'll see..." She said, rolling her eyes.
He became a bit annoying as she ducked under one of his swings and rolled behind him, forcing him to think fast. She took a big vertical swing at him, which he awkwardly pushed to his left side. "T-that's not shii cho..." he commented. "When I'm dealing with someone like you, I like to make it up as I go along..." She told him, following up with a taunting guesture with her other hand. Teeth gritted, he starting to swing wildly at her. She retained a calm disposition, casually deflecting his strikes, more awkwardly each time. His lightsaber was flopping around in his hand hand and he was losing his grip on it. "Wait...slow down..." he told her.
"What!?" She asked, stopping and holding her blade out in front of her with both hands, at a forty-five. She stumbled back awkwardly as he pushed forward suddenly, smashing her training saber aside with his left hand/ "Hey...get away from me... She growled, and she punched him in the face. Vanessa completely decked him right in the side of the head, and the big bastard fell right over woosy.
The girl sighed, realizing she went a bit too far. She used the force and tried to heal the bruised area of his head with her new medic skills, and after that was done she shook him to wake him up. It took about fifteen minutes, thanks in no small part to her healing, and the idiot oaf rolled over and looked at her.
"Sorry...I did say no though. Jeese..." She commented. "Look...you show me how to do form II, and I won't tell the council about how much of a creeper you are..." She suggested. She then pulled a training glove out of her pocket, slipped it on her hand, and used it to offer him a hand standing up. He took it, and she pulled him up.
"And I'm throwing this glove out the moment I get a chance..."
Age 13 - She learned the Knight's name, Kevin and she grew a bit fonder of him. This surprised her. he became her lightsaber mentor, despite being more of a force adept in his own career. She became a master of Shii Cho by the end of the year, and as witnessed, already had a knack for some spunky offensive moves. Kevin understood the basics of Makashi in practice, but due to medical reasons was never going to master any lightsaber form. But thew knight had read up on it extensively.
"It didn't come to me very easily..." he told her. "I broke my right wrist a few times as a child, and I'm right handed...using a sword with my left hand is awkward." he explained.
"It's ok...I'm not very good with the force barriers. I bet you're a lot better at those." She told him. He smiled, Vanessa had cheered him up. "Yeah... we're all on the same side, we gotta fill in where we're needed. Thank you Nessie..." They both smiled at each other, gazing into each other's eyes.
Age 14: Having reached full adulthood by Chiss standards, Vanessa asked for permission to assist the innocents in the horrific war that was going on. They had no problem with that so long as she was aware of and prepared for what she was getting into. The Jedi Council suggested that a federation ship train her so that she would be ready for the guerilla type combat she would be experiencing on places like Byss. A large federate ship arrived on Ilum to pick her up. But she wasn't going to be allowed to just grab a gun and march off. That was suicide for a teenager, according to the admiral of the ship. Despite being a fairly experienced jedi, she would have to undergo basic military training like everyone else.
It came easy to her. Running laps for hours at a time, doing the same thing but with 95 pound pack on her back... Push-ups, squats, obstical courses. The military also had a very extreme form of something she'd become quite excellent at back in her school days... Dodgeball. The other soldiers were much older than she was, five years at minimum, some as old as thirty, and a couple old farts. It didn't matter which one came at her with a ball, her Jedi training made her untouchable at the sport. She used the ball to block attacks the same way she used her lightsaber to protect herself. This was in her blood now. The military was a very exciting and fitting career choice for her. She learned the history of military battles, especially Cain's campaign to form the empire. After a few weeks of indoctrination, they were teaching her fire arm training and how to use grenades strategically. All of it came like clockwork, and she aced the written tests and end of basic exam with flying colors. But she would not forget why she joined. This was not a pleasure cruise. She was going to keep her promise to the jedi and help as many people as possible. The military gave her a salary, and she donated almost all of it to rebuild the orphanage she had grown up in. The rest went back to the defense of Corbenic. The military provided food and a place to sleep, what more did she require?
Species: Epicanthix/Chiss Halfbreed
Age: 14
Sex: Female
Height/Weight: 5'7", 130 lbs
Appearance: Vanessa looks just like her Chiss mother, except that her skin is a paler blue and she has epicanthix's "human" eyes with an auburn red hue instead of just straight up red glowing eyes. Her hair is black and up in a military stick bun, as many as 6 wooden sticks adorn it at all wakeful hours. Her body is curvy, and she has a mid sized bust and an acrobatic build.
Personality: Vanessa is extremely logical, sometimes to the point where it conflicts with her duties. She has a deep understanding of the real world, and sometimes you need to punch a point into someone's skull instead of trying to reason with them. That's her soldier side...her dark side, if you will. Vanessa tries not to kill or injure her enemies too badly, but she can be really mean and to the point. She realized at a young age that certain attributes of the force weren't going to come easy to her, and as such, she tends to struggle with moving things around and conjuring up barriers. She can do it, but it exhausts a lot of focus and keeps her occupied. Knowing she'd never be an adept, she smartly focused on training her sensors and body. She trains with the lightsaber masters, and is very quick at learning. When on military duty, she trains as an infantry soldier with the republic, and in exchange she charges in on the front lines with them - with the understanding that she will not participate in anything that compromises the Jedi Code she has sworn to protect. Her missions generally include liberation of refugees, planets under imperial remnant control, and dark jedi acolytes, so that they do not have to grow up into that corrupt world. The jedi sometimes question her ways, but she is a good hearted person at the core. When it comes to boys she likes, she puts the order first and has yet to indulge.
Character Rank: Padawan - Jedi Infantry
Special Skills:
Guns
Grenades
Basic Piloting
Various Musical Instruments
Academics
Lightsaber Forms:
I - Advanced in theory and in practice
II - Proficient in theory, Proficient in Practice
III - Proficient in theory, unpracticed
IV - proficient in theory, unpracticed
V - proficient in theory, unpracticed
Physical Attributes
Strength: 71
Speed: 71
Intelligence: 95
Force Proficiency
Telekinesis: 8
Telepathy: 23
Body: 26
Sense: 47
Channel: 8
Alignment: 75 Lightside
Bio:
Age 0 - Vanessa was born to a Chiss mother, nar'sa'kova who died in childbirth, and ended up being named by her Epicanthix father, Jordan Leblanc. Finding that he was financially unstable to raise a child on his own, he reluctantly gave Vanessa to a Jedi-Friendly adoption agency.
Age 1 - Her new "parents", a family of humans, were rather elderly. But they did everything they could for her, changing diapers, making sure she was well fed and able to learn how to crawl and eventually walk. Vanessa was very smart, and could identify letters and some small words by the age of one and a half.
Age 2 - Unlike most toddlers, Nessie was a very quiet baby. She liked to look at picture books, and play with magnet letters on the fridge. Her adoptive mother would sing nursery rhymes to her to help her fall asleep, and by the time her third birthday was coming up, Vanessa could partially sing along. She also liked to mash keys on the piano, and to the educated listener, she was very talented for her age, even if a lot of it was a jumbled mess.
Age 3 - Vanessa was able to competently play basic songs on the piano, paint smudgy pictures that looked kinda like stick figures, although her rainbows looks great. And she could read at a primary schooler's level, picking up story books and announcing what the words inside entailed to her parents. The older couple didn't know what to do with such a smart little girl, they were getting old, and there never was very much money. She cried about it, but they returned her back to the agency and requested that they find parents who could be more engaged to her. This turned out to be bad, because no one wanted a little chiss at that time, and she ended up in an agency orphanage instead.
At the orphanage, a lot of the older kids were rather impressed when she was playing the skeleton of what seemed to be a beethoven symphony with one hand. It was a pretty messy piece, but hey, she's three.
Age 4 - Another orphan started to bang paint cans behind her to give a rhythm to her piano playing, to which she smiled and continued playing. The place was a hard place to live, limited housing, no seconds at meal time, but the important thing was, she was fed and warm.
She found an old math textbook, and thanks to her early ability to read, she was able to understand it. She found the questions in it funny, things like, if Greg has one baked potato, and Larry cooks up nine more, how many potatoes are there now. "Who sits down and eats five potatoes..." She chuckled to herself, at the thought of them sharing the ten potatoes.
Age 5 - She was enrolled in a public school near the orphan facility, and this is where she really took off. While the math teachers were teaching the other five year olds basical addition and subtraction, Vanessa was doing times tables and graphs. And thanks to her ability to draw, they looked almost as good as the prints in the text book. In music class, she made her teacher's draw drop when she could already play the piano, drums, and sing better than he could. He showed her other instruments, and she just picked them up and played them.
In gym class, her superior intelligence once again gave her an edge. In dodgeball, she would hoard a ball in her left hand and deflect the horribly thrown other balls by the other children, while using her right hand to return fire. The thing she didn't understand was, how there were people far more athletic than her but she was still deflecting their attacks... In art class, her drawing skill was coming along, but at this early age art class was more like arts and crafts, with silly kids glueing their noses to paper and such. She was the only one in her entire class to make the paper penguin adequately, and attach the googly eyes appropriately.
Age 6 - it became very obvious in gym class that a little girl her size shouldn't be as good at sports as the boys, and yet she was making baskets from half court, knocking out people in dodgeball from the same distance, and avoiding...every...single...ball...thrown at her. Mind you, six-year olds don't throw too well, but you'd think one of the little idiots would be able to tag her. No sir. Something was up, and when a note was sent back to the orphanage from the school, the Jedi's began to watch from afar.
Her reading was now at a grade three level, and she was written into file as one of the few children who would skip grade 2. Her math was on par with her reading, she understood fractions and percentages, and although it did her no good since she was broke, the teachers were in awe. She drew a near perfect chiss woman, telling her teacher it was what she wanted to be when she grew up. The woman in the picture was holding a birthday cake and smiling brightly. The jedi's were getting very itchy now - this girl was something special.
Age 7 - She spent four weeks in grade three, and then they pulled her out after they found out she was already doing algebra and trigonometry in her spare time. They enrolled her in highschool with students twice her age, and many of the kids laughed when she entered the gym class. They certainly weren't laughing when they left. Even though the throws were much more accurate and powerful, she was able to...understand where each one was coming from and deflect/dodge and then counter with a perfect throw. The 3'8" little seven year old got mvp of the year on the school's basketball team, football team, and she still kicked ass at dodgeball. She graduated the same year, was valedictorian, president of the chess club, school president, and actually tutored teenagers who were struggling with math in summer school. Anything to stay away from the orphanage.
Age 8 - Although she got accepted to prestigious college with a scolarship, she was approached by a man from the order. "Vanessa?" he asked.
"No-no...you have the wrong person...I'm just waiting for my brother to get out of class..."
"It's eight in the morning, Vanessa... you are preparing for your first day, aren't you?"
She pointed up at him angerly, and glared at him. "How do you even know that!? What do you want, stalker?"
"I want to offer you a new life, as a guardian."
"Hmm?"
"I am a Jedi Vanessa. Charged with encouraging young talented individuals such as yourself..."
"I know what they do..." She cut him off, having already predicted what the rest of his sentence was. "I already read up on you self-appointed guardian fools...You want me in the order because you think I possess that ridiculous force power you idiots preach about... Well I don't, ok? I'm just smart... I earned this scholarship...I finally have a way out!"
"Here me out Miss Leblanc... The Jedi have a school as well. We will pay to have you trained... You already know everything this school can offer you...I guarantee it...I offer something much more. And if you're not satisfied, you can leave, and I will personally guarantee that you'll never have to go back to that orphanage again..."
"Wait...how do you know..." She started.
"It's run by the Jedi, kid... look, not everyone is force sensitive, but the Jedi care about all the children. That is why we have fed you and kept you warm. We are an organization of charity and honor... However. If a talent like your does emerge, we do seek to offer a little bit more...The other kids will have a chance too...but only you share the gift of the jedi." he explained.
The girl was extremely flustered, and she paused. "I'll go there myself and prove to you and the rest of you wackos that there IS NO FORCE!"
"Then come... Maybe you will end up schooling the teacher."
"Fine, I'll do it... And after I make a fool of you, I'm cashing in on you..."
"You are quite a remarkably gifted girl..." was his only comment.
Age 9 - Vanessa suffered from culture shock at the Jedi temple, as all the force sensitive people freaked her out a little bit. So much to the point that she was brought before the council of the time.
"I didn't sign up for this...I-I'm not some great person...I can't do those things. You people, you're all...dressed in fancy robes, wielding swords of light... I was told this was a school, not a barracks for psychics..." She told them. "I want to go home..."
"We would, Nessie...but the orphanage shut down."
"What! All those kids are going to suffer..." She told them.
"The Master who funded it has died, and the order is broke...All we can do now, is individual aid. We'll try to find somewhere for you...if you truly do not wish to be here..." One Master told her.
She paused, but her thought process was quick and decisive. "I decided I have to stay here. You people say I'm special... maybe I can give back..." She told them, softly. "I'm willing to learn...how to control this...force..." She told them.
The kind master smiled brightly at her. "Vanessa, you are...so very selfless. You don't have to do this for the jedi sake..."
"The Jedi gave me all the love they could, my whole life...they did it from afar...I can change the world too, for the better. No one needs to know I'm doing it. I will learn everything there is to know, use my knowledge to earn money, use that money to help people...I might as well put this brain to use..." She said, flicking her head with her finger.
This year, Vanessa underwent a lot of physical changes, turning into a teenager like all ten-year-old Chiss do. She had the appearance of a fifteen year old soon before her tenth birthday, and would remain more or less this youthful looking up to her present age of forty four.
Age 10 - Most girls her age were learning how to make sandcastles, and even her fellow jedi were at best learning basic lightsaber techniques on the side served with a main dish of education. Seeing as Vanessa had already graduated from public school with honors, this was unnecessary for her. Her transition from child to young adult was finished, and she looked like most of the teenage padawans. Her maturity was catching up to her intelligence now, and she was accepted as a padawan.
Shii Cho was on the menu. Most younglings start to learn it at age five, she never had the chance until age nine, and she was already ahead of them. Shii Cho was like chess to her, try to out maneuver her opponent and cut off their angles. It came very easy to her, and she learned and became competent at it in no time at all.
Much harder than sword play was learning to control the force she'd come to admit existed inside her, and every other organism. At first she couldn't do it. She'd meditate for hours after lessons, and then try and form some energy from it. One time in a chamber, a chandelier fell and crashed next to her and she instinctively tried to put up a weak barrier she'd seen, in an attempt to stop the glass from cutting her up. It didn't work, the barrier she managed to conjure stopped the glass from hitting her face, but the larger metal managed to get through. It would be a long time coming before she could consciously control it. It was hard for her. Vanessa was always top of her class in school, she expected to get everything right the first time, every time. In force class, she was falling behind the other students for...really, the first time in her life.
Age 11 - Vanessa spent four days straight in meditation after a long lecture on barriers, she was struggling so badly. There was a small wrinkle forming above her left eyebrow that was never there before, just from the stress of force training. A single concerned master showed up with some food for the padawan, and set it down next to her. But he noticed some irregular movement from her. She was shaking and murmuring a bit.
"Padawan?" he asked. "I brought you some dinner...listen, training is a fasting state can clear the mind. But you have to come out and eat at some point, young one..."
The girl hadn't gotten up to so much as use the bathroom in over 100 hours... She sniffled a bit, and when she looked up at the Master, tears were streaming down her face. "I've been trying to learn how to put up a barrier for over a year, Master..." She sniffled, wiping her face with her hand.
"You will learn it, Nessie... It's true, you're probably not the best force user here...but I've never seen anyone learn shii cho faster than you." he lied a bit. She was pretty damn good at it, but she wasn't the absolute fastest learner he'd ever seen. Still, she was pretty quick.
"Why don't you have some supper dear..."
"Yeah...ok..." She said, turning to her dinner plate.
Age 12 - Vanessa found that healing came a bit easier to her than barriers and moving stuff around. She took a general healing lesson with a class of padawans and learned the basics about accelerating the natural multiplication of cells. They also taught her that, no matter how well she could heal a flesh wound, that some injuries required more extensive treatment such as stitches, bandaging, a cast in some cases, and medi gel to stop the pain and help quicken the process. A lot of the children were doing better at this than her, but at least she wasn't failing.
At swordplay class however, she was kicking some serious butt. Her Shii Cho training was nearly complete, she acquired the nickname "queen of defense" after a knight ten years her senior challenged her to block his training saber. It was pretty immature, because it was obvious he was hitting on her. "Leave me alone..." She told him. "I'll leave you alone if you can disarm me..." he said with a smirk. He moved in closer and made her feel very uncomfortable. "You moron...this is a Jedi Temple. Fraternization isn't even allowed...besides...I'm only twelve...I'd never go out with an incompetent old geezer like you..."
The man scratched his head. 12 he thought. "Twelve?!"
"Yeah, you dumbass pedophile...twelve...You should be ashamed. I'm telling the council that you are giving me a hard time..."
"W-wait...I didn't know...I'm sorry, it's just...You Chiss become so pretty so early, and I forgot that you mature so fast..." he said, blushing sheepishly.
"Lets just have that lightsaber battle you freaking wanted, pervert...it's the closest you'll ever get to putting your disgusting hands on me..."
She told him, and she drew her training saber.
The knight pulled his out awkwardly, and took a makashi stance. he set his lightsaber to "training" and began to swing it around with his left hand.
"A lefty, huh? This should be interesting..." She observed.
She came in with a typical sweeping motion, which he deflected. "Amateur?" he asked. "We'll see..." She said, rolling her eyes.
He became a bit annoying as she ducked under one of his swings and rolled behind him, forcing him to think fast. She took a big vertical swing at him, which he awkwardly pushed to his left side. "T-that's not shii cho..." he commented. "When I'm dealing with someone like you, I like to make it up as I go along..." She told him, following up with a taunting guesture with her other hand. Teeth gritted, he starting to swing wildly at her. She retained a calm disposition, casually deflecting his strikes, more awkwardly each time. His lightsaber was flopping around in his hand hand and he was losing his grip on it. "Wait...slow down..." he told her.
"What!?" She asked, stopping and holding her blade out in front of her with both hands, at a forty-five. She stumbled back awkwardly as he pushed forward suddenly, smashing her training saber aside with his left hand/ "Hey...get away from me... She growled, and she punched him in the face. Vanessa completely decked him right in the side of the head, and the big bastard fell right over woosy.
The girl sighed, realizing she went a bit too far. She used the force and tried to heal the bruised area of his head with her new medic skills, and after that was done she shook him to wake him up. It took about fifteen minutes, thanks in no small part to her healing, and the idiot oaf rolled over and looked at her.
"Sorry...I did say no though. Jeese..." She commented. "Look...you show me how to do form II, and I won't tell the council about how much of a creeper you are..." She suggested. She then pulled a training glove out of her pocket, slipped it on her hand, and used it to offer him a hand standing up. He took it, and she pulled him up.
"And I'm throwing this glove out the moment I get a chance..."
Age 13 - She learned the Knight's name, Kevin and she grew a bit fonder of him. This surprised her. he became her lightsaber mentor, despite being more of a force adept in his own career. She became a master of Shii Cho by the end of the year, and as witnessed, already had a knack for some spunky offensive moves. Kevin understood the basics of Makashi in practice, but due to medical reasons was never going to master any lightsaber form. But thew knight had read up on it extensively.
"It didn't come to me very easily..." he told her. "I broke my right wrist a few times as a child, and I'm right handed...using a sword with my left hand is awkward." he explained.
"It's ok...I'm not very good with the force barriers. I bet you're a lot better at those." She told him. He smiled, Vanessa had cheered him up. "Yeah... we're all on the same side, we gotta fill in where we're needed. Thank you Nessie..." They both smiled at each other, gazing into each other's eyes.
Age 14: Having reached full adulthood by Chiss standards, Vanessa asked for permission to assist the innocents in the horrific war that was going on. They had no problem with that so long as she was aware of and prepared for what she was getting into. The Jedi Council suggested that a federation ship train her so that she would be ready for the guerilla type combat she would be experiencing on places like Byss. A large federate ship arrived on Ilum to pick her up. But she wasn't going to be allowed to just grab a gun and march off. That was suicide for a teenager, according to the admiral of the ship. Despite being a fairly experienced jedi, she would have to undergo basic military training like everyone else.
It came easy to her. Running laps for hours at a time, doing the same thing but with 95 pound pack on her back... Push-ups, squats, obstical courses. The military also had a very extreme form of something she'd become quite excellent at back in her school days... Dodgeball. The other soldiers were much older than she was, five years at minimum, some as old as thirty, and a couple old farts. It didn't matter which one came at her with a ball, her Jedi training made her untouchable at the sport. She used the ball to block attacks the same way she used her lightsaber to protect herself. This was in her blood now. The military was a very exciting and fitting career choice for her. She learned the history of military battles, especially Cain's campaign to form the empire. After a few weeks of indoctrination, they were teaching her fire arm training and how to use grenades strategically. All of it came like clockwork, and she aced the written tests and end of basic exam with flying colors. But she would not forget why she joined. This was not a pleasure cruise. She was going to keep her promise to the jedi and help as many people as possible. The military gave her a salary, and she donated almost all of it to rebuild the orphanage she had grown up in. The rest went back to the defense of Corbenic. The military provided food and a place to sleep, what more did she require?