A post for things to happen

[medpacksapunch]

[continuations &c to go here]

Comments

[medpacksapunch]

[closes her eyes, too]

Since it's woven into your body's systems... for now I'd say try focusing on your blood. Try and track its progress through your body-- your heart, the pulse in your throat, your wrists, your fingertips...

[doesnothappen]

[concentrating on his heartbeat and working his awareness out from there]

[medpacksapunch]

[is going to meditate with him, since working on her chakra control is still a thing she needs to do herself]

[doesnothappen]

[focusing on his body is something that comes fairly naturally, although he has to push away the occasional thought of "is this going to work?" so he'll just keep following the thread of his pulse until instructed otherwise]

[medpacksapunch]

[we are probably going to meditate for a while? We are starting from square -1, after all...]

[doesnothappen]

[yes I am pretty sure this is going to be a long process]

[medpacksapunch]

[keeps her voice low, kind of murmury]

When we're really young-- children have to do this...can you imagine trying to get a bunch of five year olds to meditate..?

[doesnothappen]

[...chuckles]

Really well.

[medpacksapunch]

[some other time I will ask you about that ,but it would probably be distracting right now]

Once you have a handle on your pulse, start trying to expand your awareness; think about the energy in your body and how you're carrying it. If it helps, you can move your limbs while you do this. Like-- thinking about pushing energy to your arm [moves her arm out, then back in].

[doesnothappen]

[tries it, then blinks and falls out of concentration]

I've done that before! For real, in a way that worked! I think I know what you mean, now!

[medpacksapunch]

Ah, really? Great, great!

We're going to kind of work inside out, in a way. Since right now we're thinking about the energy and moving as well; eventually, you'll learn to send your chakra to different points in your body without having to move your limbs to compensate. Then you use it to enhance your movements.

[doesnothappen]

[nods, excited]

When I did it before, it was at home -- I was in a fight with a man, a big man, and I was underwater and he was standing on a log that was floating just above me. I had an axe, and I remember thinking of sort of... pushing all the strength I had into my axe-arm, and into the axe, as I came up out of the water. Just focusing everything I had into that arm. Is that... is it the same?

[medpacksapunch]

It's close enough if it isn't.

[doesnothappen]

I've never tried doing it on its own, though... I mean, sitting still, not in a fight or anything...

[medpacksapunch]

Well, most of the practical applications for chakra are combat or action based anyway. But it's harder to focus on controlling your chakra if you're trying to focus on a fight, too, when you're learning.

Eventually the chakra control will become more instinctive.

[doesnothappen]

If I did change the chakra in my body, could you see it happen?

[medpacksapunch]

I can't see it, no. We'd need Neji for that, too. You have to have pretty strong chakra for it to be visible to the eye.

I mean... as a mednin, eventually I'd be able to sense disturbances or abnormalities in your chakra network, but I'd probably have to be touching you.

[doesnothappen]

That'd still work... as long as you could tell if something was going on. I guess that's what you were trying to do before, right?

[medpacksapunch]

Exactly. But I'm not very good at it myself yet, is the problem. I can remember learning it, but...

[doesnothappen]

But you haven't got it as a skill yet. That's always frustrating.

[medpacksapunch]

Mm, it's more that my skills are all tied together. I have the ability, but how good I am at it depends on how good my chakra control is. So while I've gotten back some ability to control my chakra and the skill to heal, I haven't yet won really good chakra control... so my ability to do mednin stuff is limited right now.

[doesnothappen]

Oh... huh.

Well. Should I try again?

[medpacksapunch]

Yeah!

[doesnothappen]

[settles himself down again and takes a few deep breaths. time for more meditation! this time after he's mentally traced his pulses for awhile, he's going to try imagining the fight he was in again, and the feeling of pushing all his energy into one hand]

[medpacksapunch]

[...watches him quietly for a while]

I'm going to see if I can feel your network now, okay?

[very slowly places her hands on his knees]