The Ultra Stressed Jedi Students, Part IV

I kinda have to disagree with ya Jane.

In all my reading of star wars fic in general, I've come to a sorta conclusion about it. Some people think of bacta as a cure-all, but from what I've read and seen, for example in the JA books, it takes time to heal, even with bacta.

In one JA book Qui-Gon gets shot by a blaster, and there is some remark in there that even with bacta it takes a while to heal because it goes deep into the muscle tissue.

So if Alex has a deep wound, which it is, isn't it? A pike of some sort? A puncture wound then? Well then the bacta would probably have done a pretty good job on the outside, but deeper it probably wasn't healed completely. So I think it's plausible that he injured it during the climb, or rather reinjured it. Especially if he threw his full weight on that one shoulder at any time. It could've tore the healed flesh at his size and weight.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Hope to see more soon.

 

It doesn't matter. Forget I mentioned it.

Would anybody be against the idea of offering up the first three USJS threads to be pruned? There's a thread for volunteers over in the Writer's Resource Forum that explains the server space crunch and expresses the hope that voluntarily pruning old fics from the back pages will fend off involuntary pruning of fics that people are actually still working on. I thought about USJS because

Daphne archived the first half of Part 1 on her site

I helped edit the second half of Part 1, the repost of Part 2, and the first half of Part 3, preparatory to them being archived (though they never were) and I still have them on my hard disc, if anybody wants them.

Most of the people who posted on USJS are no longer active on the board, and

Besides the small handful of people that are still reading this thread, I don't think anybody cares anymore.

What does everybody think? If anybody's lurking out there, this is your chance to speak up.

 

It seems I have a knack for offending people. sigh Humbly sorry if I did. I've had a really hard day/week and didn't mean to come across as cross or worse a know-it-all.

Um what's pruned mean? I'm afraid I don't quite "get" it. Ooo Jane, do you still have the part of USJS that dealt with the first and middle part of that whole dance thing?

I get a curious urge to read that every now and again, but it was eaten.

 

I was mistaken, I only have the repost of Part 2 (which deals with most of the dance, but not the beginning) and the first half of Part 3, everything that was on the UBB thread. But Part 1 of the UBB thread should still be available if somebody wanted to copy it to their hard drive. Wasn't the link on page 10 or so? But anyway, if you want the edited version of Part 2, I can send it to you per attachment. It's 102 pages in Word.

Pruned means deleted, as in gone forever. See Herman Snerd's explanation here:

Feeding the Server Beast


And I know that Part 3 was pretty badly mangled when they switched forums; posts being cut off in mid-word, and posts from another thread being mixed in with it. I think Part 1 was affected, too.

I wasn't offended by your post, JKOW. I do tend to get into critical moods, especially when I've been working on my own stories, and I shouldn't have said anything in the first place.

And yet another edit: The links are on page 8, and the UBB stuff is still safe and sound.

 

No no no, Jane!!! Critical commentary is *good*, at least where Derisa is concerned!

She specifically mentioned to me how thrilled she was to see such detailed, analytical, and critically honest feedback of her work! It proves to her that people are actually reading her posts very, very carefully, and there are few higher compliments to a writer than that!

Derisa said (as I'm sure she's willing to confirm when she reads this) that yours and JKOW's comments above represented some of the "*best* feedback she has received *ever*", so don't hold back, she loves it!

- Rani

 

I believe that Derisa was talking about perhaps tweaking the USJS saga and making it into a real story... not just the rather ramdom posting we did. I would not mind having a copy of it for my own enjoyment. Too bad we can't acquire an unmangled edition, but such is life sometimes.

As for the great bacta debate, I don't know enough about it either way to be that critical.

 

Do you mean tweaking what was already written, or taking characters and situations and writing new stuff with them? That could be interesting ...

I've just realised I don't know all that much about bacta, either, after checking the Unofficial Encyclopedia and some of the references in Michael Stackpole's books. *sigh* It's all so vague! (This is me being frustrated because of -my- story, by the way.)

 

feedback: Rani's exactly right: I was thrilled to read your question last night Jane, and JKOW's reply. From the author of the post: bacta was originally supposed to be a bacteria that assisted/boosted the immune response and healing times. It has varying effects on different species (Ooryl regenerated a limb in bacta...) but for the most part, the authors over-use it, to bring characters back from the brink of death: it makes a great angst generator.

I think the Jedi in particular (and you have to recall of course that we haven't read all that much of this time period in the GFFA) use a combination of Force-healing and medicines when one of them is injured. Some injuries are easily treatable with one or the other, (in the earlier days of this story, Rani and Lina both healed other Padawans of minor owies with a hand on the injury and a Force touch of some kind,) others take longer: Rani was unable to walk after her fall, and only recovered with a long slow process of therapies and exercises.

Alex's injury was a combination burn/puncture wound: the energy pike being basically a long staff with a short coherent light blade on the end. He was stabbed in the shoulder while lying face down, searing through skin, muscle, and bone. I think the bone would take the longest to heal, and Alex is likely sleeping nights in the Infirmary for treatment to continue.

As for facing Trials when he is stull injured, keep in mind, he's already passed them. He's taking them again to help remind himself that he is a Knight. More on that in the third Trial post.

Thanks for the critique Jane: I really do appreciate it.

As for the USJS saga: I had wanted to take on the editing and archiving of the *whole* saga as a summer project (being as I have a free site on my cable server, and not much to put there...) and I have been teaching myself html to that purpose. I had planned to save the lot to Word and then edit for continuity (moving posts to where they belong, I mean, so that the whole story can be read in sequence) spelling and grammar, but not doing anything to the story as it stands.

I planned to archive the original as is, and the editted versions, of all the chapters, and even, if the authors were willing, all the various spi-off stories as well: Meri and Alex, Lina and Cassel, et cetera. Additional items for the site would be author profiles and links, public feedback, and individual counters on the stories to see how often they were being accessed.

None of the peple I've mentioned this to have had any problem with my doing so, but I confess I haven't asked permission of everyone yet. I was going to take a few sample pages from one of the chapters and edit and put up at a sample site, so people could get an idea of what it was I was doing. (I haven't quite figured out how to publish to the Web yet, but I've just acquired a mac edition of MS FrontPage, which should help. ) Those authors who object could have their work edited from the site of course, but if the thread is to be permanently pruned from the JC, I don't expect there to be too many of those. I was also ready to offer authors the chance to edit their own work if they later took their character a different direction... If anyone who wrote for the thread wants to discuss this further, to log a protest or volunteer to help, my email is briana-k@shaw.ca, I'd love to hear from you.

I would like the chance to save the lot to Word before it's pruned, and that's a days full work... is there any chance that can be done? Assistance in capturing and saving to Word or a text format would be greatly appreciated, as would help with the editting process, but I will do it regardless, as I think it is something quite unique in the fanfic world, and I'd like to see it saved for posterity.

*Derisa*

 

So you think bacta helps broken bones to heal, too? Grr. I've just edited my new fic to include bone knitters instead of bacta tanks. I think bone knitters must be a fan fic invention, though, as they weren't mentioned in the Unofficial Encyclopedia. It said "wounds", which made me think of flesh, not bone. It was also hard for me to imagine how bacta would get to the bone to help it heal, if there weren't any wounds for the bacta to penetrate whereby the bacteria could infiltrate the blood stream.

About the pruning, it was a question of volunteering the threads to be pruned, not an announcement of the inevitability of them being deleted forever. In other words, unless we request it specifically, the USJS saga will remain safe and sound. If you really want to do something with the saga, then of course I would not dream of suggesting that again.

As I've already pointed out, I have all of Part 2 saved to Word, and everything from the UBB part of Part 3, and I'll be happy to send it to you if you want it. I edited it for Daphne, which means that I put the posts in chronological order and corrected glaring spelling mistakes. I also erased all the names, however, as she didn't want the individual posts labeled. It's mostly easy enough to guess who wrote what, though. I've just checked the UBB version of Part 1 and it's still there. That could be saved to Word without us having to wade through the mangled version here on Snowboards.

 

Jane, I agree: they must use a bone-knitter of some kind: I can't find where I read the reference to such, but I agree bacta's usefulness would be limited as far as that goes. So a bone-knitter was used on Alex as well, I just didn't state that outright.

Whatcha workin' on, Jane? I can't wait to read another Jane Jinn story!

I would *love* it if you could send me what you have, Jane, as it sounds like you've saved me a whack of work right there! I will need to find the original UBB bits of the saga, if only to link the edited pages to the originals... Word files can be attached to emails, and sometimes they come through clearly, but if you could send it in rich-text format that would guarantee a preservation of the formatting . Let me know, okay?

I would also love the URLs for the originals, such as survive. Thanks!

*Derisa*

 

The links to the UBB threads.

Part 1

Repost of Part 2

Part 3

And, after a bit of searching, I also found these!

Truth or Dare, Part 1

Truth or Dare, Part 2

 

Must be that time of night. Maybe this post will push the thread to the top.

 

Wow. You really manage to uncover people's souls, Derisa... You get to the deep underlying stuff, and phrase it so well -- it RINGS with the truth of it.

I think it was a good thing that Rani realized how much a part fear has played/is playing in her life.

Once you know your enemy, you can fight him.


PS I get to excited about reading your posts to be critical. I also believe ignorance = bliss when it comes to technological details. And so, I plan on continuing to contribute the fluffy, supportive posts that I know how to do. Consider them a pleasing contrast -- a light dessert after a delicious meal....

I'm glad you are feeling better.

 

Wow, the truth or dare rounds... that brings back memories.

 

A blast from the past...Just a quick note to say "Thanks" to Derisa and JKOW, and everyone else who has kept this going. I'm still catching up on my reading (I'm on pg 84...been very busy with a new job and new baby), but I really appreciate how T'lor has lived on. I'll try to catch up as I can, and provide some critique if possible.

Kudos to you all!

-K'Tai

 

Hello, K'Tai! Welcome back! What a surprise!

New baby? Congratulations!

Derisa, I sent you an e-mail to the address you gave above. Did it arrive?

 

OMG!!! K'Tai! Rani is going to to be totally thrilled to see you around and about again!
Thanks for the encouragement, it means a lot!

You have a new baby? That's terrific! That makes at least three of us USJS'ers moms. just in time for mother's day. Well... okay, almost...

Jane: yes, I did get your email, and can't thank you enough for providing those links. I'm going to devote a day next week to grabbing and storing the lot on disk so I can begin the slow process of formatting for html. And your rtf file worked *perfectly*, many many thanks to you for that. I will go back and attach names to posts for the site, but you have saved me so much time and work!!!

Everyone else; the next post is just being cleared by the owner of the character, and will be up when she's given it her stamp of approval. It is so amazingly generous of you all to have loaned me your characters to do this tudying up with. I hope I have done justice to them...

More soon, I hope,

*Derisa*

 

I *am* really thrilled to see K'Tai again, but not surprised...I sent her an e-mail recently telling her what a great job I thought Derisa was doing, and invited her to check it out for herself by sending her a link to the part just before T'lor and Alex fight Selorissa.

K'Tai, I can't tell you how good it is to see your name appear in a post on this thread again! You've been missed. Congratulations on the new addition to the family!

Hugs,

- Rani

 

[grumble] Stupid double posts! [/grumble]

- Rani

 

Welcome back!

 

Congrats, T'Kai!!

 

Many thanks to Lilith for helping me get a better grasp on K'vel's character.

I've been meaning to say juwanna, I really appreciate your loyalty and your constant good cheer. You are a mainstay of this story, and I hope you will consider writing in the next, for which we'll be starting a discussion thread in the Writer's support forum soon.

It is so neat to see this thread on page one of the Fan Fic Forum everytime I log in.

*Derisa*

---

K?vel Kaelson did not understand the half-percieved loss he read in Rani?s eyes as she joined him and Alex at the top of the cliff face, their first obstacle in the physical Trial overcome. He coiled their ropes as she bound and supported Alex?s oozing wound with strips torn from his tunic, and then he took point, scouting across the plateau for access to their objective. According to their map, they were at least an hour?s trek from their goal.

Alex was very focused on dealing with the discomfort of his wound, and Rani seemed a thousand klicks away. so K?vel held his peace and kept his thoughts and questions to himself.

Why this for a physical test? he found himself wondering. He felt the easy flow of the Force through him, helping him maintain his internal temperature. There is simply nothing *challenging* about hiking across a sunny plateau!

Indeed, he found himself resenting the ease of this part of the Trial, which he had actually anticipated as a serious test of his physical mastery. Even the climbing of the cliff with Master Arieh?s weight cutting into his shoulders and hips had been a relatively minor strain.

Always a physical youth, K?vel found himself wondering if he weren?t along on this trip more as a nursemaid, a back-up in case one of the others proved unable to rise to the demands of the test. Unfortunately, that meant that he himself would hardly be challenged. he had hoped to please his Master with some notable feat, in this last trial, but it seemed there would be no opportunity-

The thought was cut short as the ground fell out from under his feet, and he was suddenly slipping down a steep scree of small rocks and pebbles. He put out both hands to help maintain his balance, as the almost-liquid flow of rock carried him down into where the fall was channelled into a narrow, steep-sided canyon, and then under an arch of rock, into the belly of the plateau.

?K?vel!? he heard Alex?s voice follow him down into the darkness, but he was too busy casting ahead with his Force-senses, scoping out a place where he could spring free of the tumbling, bouncing rocks. He was glad he had done so, for within a second, he caught a sense of a sudden gaping chasm ahead of him, and the faint hint of a ledge or outcropping to his left, just before the rocks tumbled headlong into the unknowable depths. He threw himself sideways and caught the ledge in capable fingers, using his impetus from the fall to swing himself up onto it. He listened to the distant rattle of the rocks echoing as they bounced off unseen outcroppings in the deep chasm below.

Once he?d caught his breath, K?vel called out to reassure Rani and Alex that he?d survived, but even he could see the rockfall had blocked up the entranceway, and it was likely too hazardous for the injured amnesiac Knight to traverse.

Rani consulted her copy of the map, and informed him that he must have stumbled upon an unmarked entrance to the canyon that housed their objective. ?Can you go on from where you are?? she asked.

The cinnamon-haired padawan got his feet under himself and ignited his sabre, shielding his eyes from the sudden incandescent glare. He surveyed around him, and found the ledge on which he was perched seemed to skirt the black chasm. ?It leads to what looks like a tunnel heading roughly west, Rani, but I can?t see it too clearly from here.? He accompanied the report with a psionic image of what he percieved about him, and Rani concurred.

?That looks like a tunnel, all right,? she said. ?Our target is another kilometre down that way. Alex and I will loo

 

Well done, K'vel! I think you succeeded, catching yourself before you broke the rules. You learned the lesson of self-reliance in time.

And even if you do still feel guilty, even the Master of your Master breaks the rules sometimes.

 

//clap clap clap clap// Very nice. I am enjoying learning about the way the "trials" are organized. Are you making this up or is it in the books?



And thank you, Derisa, for your kind words. Unfortunately, i'm not a writer. I am a reader.... and a happy one at that!

 

Curse these time constraints! I keep falling behind everywhere! Excellent post! You really got right to the heart of K'vel.