Bankor

In the gym, Arali proceeded through a sequence of kata with her new saber, though not igniting at the moment. No need to concern people over a simple warmup.

Tethys ducks into the gym area from outdoors--heavy with rainwater, the awning over the entrance is hanging a bit lower than usual--and skins out of her outer robe, draping it on the coat racks with the other rain capes, jackets, energy umbrellas, and so on of the other soldiers and Republic civilians using the space. She leaves her boots in the storage corner as well. Barefoot, in soft pants, a sleeveless tunic, and a plain white scarf for her hair, she begins working on a few stretches and warm-ups, pausing between toe touches to give a quick wave to Arali.

Arali returned the wave, her own cloak hung by the door. She wore a loose white blouse, sleeves tied off halfway up her forearm, and pale brown trousers.

She continued her kata as Tethys warmed up. "I'm glad you seem to be recovering."

"This climate agrees with me much better than Rygor," Tethys says, with a slight shrug before going into a side bend. "I see you've built a new hilt already."

Arali raised a tattooed eyebrow at the idea of liking this rain, but humans generally hailed from less arid worlds.

"It wouldn't do to go unarmed given the circumstances," she pointed out. "Perhaps it was for the best. Verdant was forged for a singular purpose. Perhaps I held myself back by holding onto it for so long."

"Mm." Tethys doesn't seem to disagree, particularly. You named that thing? "It served well enough, but we were lucky it only hurt the animal when it blew."

"Well, let's just say I don't think I'll be forgoing these gloves any time soon." She waved one of the gloves- more like thin gauntlets, really.

"We probably should have made the cage plan Aurek, though. Poor thing was probably just scared and hungry."

Tethys starts the final few twists of her warm-up.

"Perhaps so, though I wonder if it could ever have been returned to the wild after whatever Kryze did to it. If the Mandalorians mistreated it aggressively, or made it prey on sentients in captivity..." She shakes her head slightly.

"And now we will never know," Arali pointed out, the slightest point to her voice as she stood straighter and faced Tethys directly.

"Care for a spar? I've tested this saber quite thoroughly, but a practice bout would be wise before relying on it."

Tethys had started to turn toward one of the running machines, but pivots back at this question. "I could, but... I do not have a practice saber. Do you?" She purses her lips for a moment, thinking. "If you only want to test how it handles in motion and on impact, you might take a few passes at me while I block."

Tethys had started to turn toward one of the running machines, but pivots back at this question. "I could, but... I do not have a practice saber. Do you?" She purses her lips for a moment, thinking. "If you only want to test how it handles in motion and on impact, you might take a few passes at me while I defend."

"Unfortunately, that was where some of the salvage for this came from," she raised her saber. "Which is a shame; I'd hoped to test my defense as well."

She assumed her stance, both hands firmly on her oversized saber, but did not yet ignite. "I warn you; this saber is designed to incapacitate through a strong guard."

"As a fellow Jedi, I trust you," Tethys says somewhat dryly. She unclips her own saber from her hip, where she'd kept it even during her workout. This is a war zone, after all. The sleek, unobtrusive hilt is a good deal less bulky and dramatic-looking than Arali's.

She pats her head scarf to make sure it's still secure--not a necessity in a real fight, but in a gym spar one might as well be comfortable--then assumes a middle guard stance.

((Wielding her lightsaber without any armor, Tethys has Defense 1 and Soak 2.
EDIT: you want to roll a fluff initiative or just go for it? In the unlikely event she won the toss, Tethys would just stand there and take the guard maneuver--which is only one extra setback to you, so pretty small difference.))

Once Tethys settled into her stance, Arali took a moment to size her up, then moved in. An obvious attack; the simple, classical thrust. To anyone classically trained, two possibilities seemed clear. The direct approach; try and bait the target's guard in one direction, then swerve and thrust through the other direction. Or misdirection; the thrust was a feint, for some other technique.

The truth was neither. The straight thrust was a straight thrust, and struck the base of Tethys' blade with precision. A hard strike, but Tethys' guard held easily enough.

Then, Arali's blade rippled. The glass-like structure expanded rapidly, rushing forward around Tethys' blade and slammed into the base of her rib cage, knocking the air out of her lungs.

((I'll just give you the first go to take that maneuver. It'd be rude to go before you have time to assume your stance.
Lightsaber: 3eP+1eA+1eB+2eD+2eS 2 successes
, +1 advantage from my fine-tuned emitter.
11 base damage, 3 from deadly accuracy, 2 from successes, one from converting advantage to damage makes 17 strain damage.))

"Ow," says Tethys with surprising calm, before sitting down heavily on the gym mat and, the next second, flopping sideways to curl up on the floor.

((Soak 2, parrying strain damage is silly because it costs the same either way, take 15 which is 1 over threshold. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ))

Well, that was... effective.

Arali doused her saber, and slung it on her back, then knelt down and held a hand out toward Tethys, connecting to her through the Force to help ease the pain.

((Not gonna roll, 'cuz it doesn't really matter. I can't heal strain, but Imma say Arali can at least make it hurt less.))

Some time later--definitely measured in minutes, not seconds--Tethys blinks open her eyes and squints. "Nngh." Using one arm, she pushes herself back up to seated, still curled around her belly with knees drawn up.

"Good news," she grunts. "Your thing works."

---
D7 ME--mostly fluff Discipline for strain; if flubbed I'll stay down: 2eP+2eA 1 success, 2 advantage

As Tethys got up, Arali broke her Force connection and took a seat next to her. "It's a step, to be sure. But not quite where I want it. The ultimate goal is the ability to incapacitate an armored heavy in a single blow."

A moment passed, before Arali asked, "The other day, why didn't you trust me?"

"Had I known, I'd have worn my armor," she says dryly, straightening her shoulders with another faint grunt.

"Back in Rygor? It's a simple answer. I flinched. Azura was injured and couldn't get away. I was... afraid it would finish her, that she would be a more tempting bait than whatever was in the trap. And I did not know another blow would kill it."

"After a bomb went off in its throat?" Arali rose an eyebrow.

"Though I suppose I was too aggressive, and dragged the rest of you with me," she shook her head.

"We had to act quickly." Tethys shrugs gingerly, then uncurls a bit further to sit crosslegged on the mat. "Each experience is a lesson."

"That's one thing we like to tell ourselves, isn't it?" Arali mused.

"Actually learning it, though? There's the hard part. And harder still is learning the right lesson."

"So what did you learn from this one?" Tethys asks from her seat on the floor. Clearly not 'don't build a grenade when a lightsaber will do,' she thinks, though it's not particularly obvious from her expression.

"One strange walk down memory lane," Arali answered vaguely as she leaned back and placed her weight on her hands.

"Context, mostly. My relationship with my master was... complicated. And then after I washed out of the knighthood program, I spent a decade serving under his master, which gave me a lot of context on why Master Lorne is the way he is. We still don't see eye to eye, but... well, parsing out the wisdom from a man you fundamentally disagree with can be a long road."

"Hm." Tethys rolls her shoulders back, gradually straightening up a little more as the targeted stun wears off. There'll probably be a nice bruise, too. "I've heard much of Master Lorne, but I have never really met him. Only seen him in passing a few times."