someday
BACKGROUND STATEMENT AND RECOMMENDATION FOR KNIGHTHOOD OF JASEM VA'QUICKSTEP
SUBMITTED BY: Jedi Master Kalv Larkavo
STATUS: KNIGHTHOOD TRIALS COMPLETED
RECOMMENDATION: Conferment of the rank of Jedi Knight
INTRODUCTION
High Councilors,
I have been asked to provide a summary of Jasem va'Quickstep's background, training, conduct, and readiness for knighthood along with the enclosed records documenting his successful completion of the Knighthood trials. I was responsible for bringing him into the Order and served as his Master throughout his apprenticeship. As noted, Jasem has completed the trials. I recommend he be be Knighted. That recommendation is made in full knowledge and acknowledgement of his strengths and shortcomings, as I will discuss in further detail.
EARLY HISTORY
The earliest we know of Jasem was that he was located in an empty ship birth on Kwenn Station in deep space near to the Melida/Daan System. As an infant, he had no official travel documentation or identification. His intake record therefore had no information regarding his place of birth, family or legal guardian, or even his full name. The vessel associated with his arrival was listed as the Quickstep, though no reliable registration for this vessel has ever been found. A surviving notation on his entry paperwork (found affixed to his clothing): VA QUICKSTEP. This VA is an acronym, I am informed by sources on Kwenn station, is an indicator for 'Vessel of Arrival,' but by the time I made Jasem's acquaintance, he was Jasem va'Quickstep and had no interested in being renamed.
Jase was raised by Nerin Holt, a former transit worker and experiences spacer who had assumed responsibility for him without the benefit of official support or paperwork. The station's records are inconsistent int heir descriptions of the arrangement, but my understanding is that Holt was his parent in every meaningful respect. He was loved, fed, educated where possible. The upbringing was not what you'd describe as comfortable or neglect. Holt, I believe, did the best he could with limited resources.
FIRST CONTACT
I met Jasem on Kwenn Station when he was approximately twelve years old. The records, as I'm sure you can understand, do not provide a clear picture. I was on the station in connection with an unrelated investigation. Jasem became involved through a scheme concerning transit credentials, berth assignments, and several passengers who had paid for privileges that did not rightly belong to them. Station security described the matter as uttering forged transit documents, while Jasem called it a correction to the local distribution system. Jasem attempted to use me as part of his plan and, when that failed, pickpocketing an item from my person. I did recover it some days later.
During the incident, the boy demonstrated an awareness of movement and intent that couldn't be explained by observation alone, no matter how shrewd. He anticipated the actions of security officers he could not see, avoided routes that proved unsafe. At the time he described it as instinct, which he had been relying upon for years.
Recognizing his potential, and after a thorough discussion of his understanding of morality, and discussions with Nerin Holt and others that knew him, I explained to Jasem that his intuition was really the Force, and invited him to be trained in its use. He did not agree to leave at once. He visited with me on my ship, met the other Jedi Knight I was working with, and asked many, many, many questions. He changed his mind on several occasions. Holt required that we explain what training would involve, plainly and without embellishment.
Jasem was provided the details, told what life in the Order would require: service, travel, discipline, limitations of personal possessions, submitting to forms of authority he had mainly interacted with by evading. Eventually, he chose to come. Before our departure, Holt gave me a written note concerning the boy's habits and temperament, including instructions regarding food, sleep, unexpected touch, etc. The final lines in the note make it clear that he was not sent away as punishment, or because he needed too much, or that Holt had grown tired of the responsibility. Eventually I gave him the note, which I believe he keeps in his possession.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Jase's formal education was irregular but stronger than early assessments indicated. He read well, learned languages quickly, and possessed an excellent working facility with maths when applied to cargo, prices, accounts, and wagers. He had little patience for abstractions and exercises that appeared to have no practical purpose, but this improved over time.
Meditation was difficult for him, at first. He had spent his life treating stillness as an opportunity for someone else to gain the upper hand. Sitting with his eyes closed in an unfamiliar room was, for him, not a sensible thing to request or perform. Eventually he did develop sound meditative practice. He still prefers to secure entrances before beginning.
The Jedi restriction on possessions caused limited problems, because Jasem owned very little. In fact, before leaving Kwenn Station, he distributed most of his things to other children similarly situated: some clothing, a few maps, and more food vouchers and credits than a boy of that age had any claim to. He attaches considerable importance to a small number of inexpensive personal objects, and in his early days, reacted poorly to their handling without his express permission.
Jedi teachings on attachment were a little more complicated. They aligned easily with the habits he formed before joining the Order; he was already accustomed to expecting departures, limiting dependency, and keeping part of himself ready to flee at a moment's notice. He has had to learn -- and has learned, I believe -- that detachment does not justify secrecy, or relieve a Jed from the responsibility of bonds that he does form. Truthfully -- as with most Jedi I know -- this is an area in which he could exhibit improvement.
TEMPERAMENT
Jasem appears reserved in new company. His bearing is controlled and his speech measured. His first response to uncertainty and unfamiliarity is typically observation. The reserve is a learned behavior since he joined the Order. His natural temperament is warm, curious, and sociable. He likes people and takes an interest in lives that many overlook. He remembers names, trades, family details, and minor complaints. He is particularly effective at building rapport with children, frightened civilians, vulnerable travelers, and those at the margins of space travel.
His charm is genuine, but also highly trained. He has honed this as a skill since childhood. He understands how appearance, tone, posture, and attention can alter another person's response, so he can seem less threatening, less observant, more respectable, or more agreeable than he really is. This has proven useful in the field, but also requires restraint.
HONESTY & JUDGMENT
The primary difficulty I've experienced with Jase's training is his often flexible relationship with the truth. He doesn't lie for cruelty or amusement, but he doesn't hesitate to do so to preserve options, avoid exposure, and control a situation. When cornered, he may deny, redirect, answer a narrower question, or provide an answer that is technically accurate while meant to encourage a false conclusion. Though he has improved substantially, he is not what I would call transparent. Jedi work requires discretion often, so complete forthrightness is not to be expected. The more important lesson he has had to learn the difference between protecting information and controlling other people by using the absence of information.
Jasem still prefers to resolve a problem before telling anyone that there is a problem, a withholding of information he classifies as avoiding unnecessary alarm and stress. The problem is that sometimes he is completely correct. Other times, the rest of us discover he has developed a complete plan without consulting with his colleagues. This, also, is something where he is improving. I suspect that with the greater responsibility of Knighthood, he will come to understand this as less of an abstraction.
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FORCE
Jasem's first understanding of the Force was instinctive. He experienced it as timing, unease, anticipation, and certainty. Formal training has given him greater control, though his abilities remain strongest in immediate and changing circumstances. He reads movement and emotion quickly. He can often sense anger, fear, or impending violence before it becomes apparent.
He must remain cautious about assigning motives to what he senses. Knowing that someone is afraid doesn't explain the cause of the fear, and though Jase's experiences can be informative, they also can lead him to interpret secrecy as betrayal, or to read uncertainty as a threat. He has learned this lesson more than once, each time deepening his understanding of it.
FIELD APTITUDE
Jasem is particularly suited to work involving investigation and fieldwork. He has done well with investigating missing persons, criminal networks, relief work, hostage recovery, and interfacing with communities that distrust formal authority, including Jedi. That he was not templeborn, that he joined the Order comparatively late, and that his early life was one of dubious legality and, at times, privation, gives him credibility with those that distrust institutions and particularly the Jedi.
Unlike some of our Order, Jase does not require a person to be respectable before interacting with them. He is willing to work with smugglers, petty criminals, fugitives, and unofficial community leaders when the mission requires it. He understand how people live outside formal systems because he has seen it and lived it. He doesn't assume that reluctance to cooperate with authority is always an indication of guilt. He is also willing to perform ordinary, unglamorous work: he carries supplies, assists mechanics, sits with injured civilians, etc.
In combat, his style is fluid, reflecting speed, misdirection, awareness, and use of surroundings. He prefers his own fighting style to any of the lightsaber forms, although he has reached proficiency with several. Jase does not seek combat, but does not shy from it, either. He is difficult to corner and quick to recognize changes in position or intent. Confined spaces suit him well.
His greatest danger under pressure isn't a loss of control, particularly. When he gets angry, he becomes quiet and more precise. He may convince himself that he understands exactly what has to be done to stop the danger of the person in front of him, but during these times he must take particular care to distinguish necessity from punishment. We have discussed this matter, and he is aware of mechanisms he can employ to ensure he is able to resist the impulse.
NOTED SHORTCOMINGS
Despite what I feel is an accurate and fairly positive report on my Padawan, I am clear-eyed enough to note that he has drawbacks, as well. He can be quite lazy when it comes to tedious, unglamorous follow-through. Excellent at the crisis, but undisciplined at completing the reports, for instance. He has been known to hold a grudge when humiliated -- not that he would seek revenge, necessarily, but that he would remember the insult far longer than is necessary or helpful, and at his worst, is not above using his insights into another person to return the insult with precision. He can be vain about his physical appearance or physical fitness.
Jase has a habit of the occasional selective deafness, almost always when he is instructed not to take an action he has decided is necessary. The rare appearance of 'station street urchin' manifests itself in defiance for its own sake, though less and less as he grows.
I hesitate to classify this as a flaw or shortcoming, but it has undeniably been a cause of instability in the past: his lack of belonging. The Order has given him a structure, colleagues, friends, and I daresay mentors. Before that, Nerin Holt was very like a father to him. But Jasem is keenly aware of the fact that none of these are his family. The apparent rootlessness is distressing to him, particularly in the company of his peers who have families, and particularly around holidays, namedays, etc.
CONCLUSION
Masters, Jasem is capable of independent service. He has demonstrated sound judgment under pressure, compassion without sentimentality, and the ability to work effectively among people who would not readily trust just any representative of the Order. He works well with his peers. He remains secretive, inclined to control information and make decisions alone. He will almost certainly continue to bend procedure when convinced that the circumstances require it. He knows this is a flaw, and that it often necessary as part of our work.
More importantly, he has shown that he recognizes harm caused by his own judgment and changes his conduct accordingly. He does not enjoy being wrong, but he learns the lesson. The Order did not give him his compassion; it was present when I met him on Kwenn Station (alongside hunger, pride, and a frankly considerable talent for fraud in a person of his age). Training has given that compassion discipline and purpose.
Jasem va'Quickstep has completed his trials. He is ready to bear the authority of a Jedi Knight. I commend him to you and encourage you to award him that rank.
Best regards,
Kalv Larkavo, Jedi Master
SUBMITTED BY: Jedi Master Kalv Larkavo
STATUS: KNIGHTHOOD TRIALS COMPLETED
RECOMMENDATION: Conferment of the rank of Jedi Knight
INTRODUCTION
High Councilors,
I have been asked to provide a summary of Jasem va'Quickstep's background, training, conduct, and readiness for knighthood along with the enclosed records documenting his successful completion of the Knighthood trials. I was responsible for bringing him into the Order and served as his Master throughout his apprenticeship. As noted, Jasem has completed the trials. I recommend he be be Knighted. That recommendation is made in full knowledge and acknowledgement of his strengths and shortcomings, as I will discuss in further detail.
EARLY HISTORY
The earliest we know of Jasem was that he was located in an empty ship birth on Kwenn Station in deep space near to the Melida/Daan System. As an infant, he had no official travel documentation or identification. His intake record therefore had no information regarding his place of birth, family or legal guardian, or even his full name. The vessel associated with his arrival was listed as the Quickstep, though no reliable registration for this vessel has ever been found. A surviving notation on his entry paperwork (found affixed to his clothing): VA QUICKSTEP. This VA is an acronym, I am informed by sources on Kwenn station, is an indicator for 'Vessel of Arrival,' but by the time I made Jasem's acquaintance, he was Jasem va'Quickstep and had no interested in being renamed.
Jase was raised by Nerin Holt, a former transit worker and experiences spacer who had assumed responsibility for him without the benefit of official support or paperwork. The station's records are inconsistent int heir descriptions of the arrangement, but my understanding is that Holt was his parent in every meaningful respect. He was loved, fed, educated where possible. The upbringing was not what you'd describe as comfortable or neglect. Holt, I believe, did the best he could with limited resources.
FIRST CONTACT
I met Jasem on Kwenn Station when he was approximately twelve years old. The records, as I'm sure you can understand, do not provide a clear picture. I was on the station in connection with an unrelated investigation. Jasem became involved through a scheme concerning transit credentials, berth assignments, and several passengers who had paid for privileges that did not rightly belong to them. Station security described the matter as uttering forged transit documents, while Jasem called it a correction to the local distribution system. Jasem attempted to use me as part of his plan and, when that failed, pickpocketing an item from my person. I did recover it some days later.
During the incident, the boy demonstrated an awareness of movement and intent that couldn't be explained by observation alone, no matter how shrewd. He anticipated the actions of security officers he could not see, avoided routes that proved unsafe. At the time he described it as instinct, which he had been relying upon for years.
Recognizing his potential, and after a thorough discussion of his understanding of morality, and discussions with Nerin Holt and others that knew him, I explained to Jasem that his intuition was really the Force, and invited him to be trained in its use. He did not agree to leave at once. He visited with me on my ship, met the other Jedi Knight I was working with, and asked many, many, many questions. He changed his mind on several occasions. Holt required that we explain what training would involve, plainly and without embellishment.
Jasem was provided the details, told what life in the Order would require: service, travel, discipline, limitations of personal possessions, submitting to forms of authority he had mainly interacted with by evading. Eventually, he chose to come. Before our departure, Holt gave me a written note concerning the boy's habits and temperament, including instructions regarding food, sleep, unexpected touch, etc. The final lines in the note make it clear that he was not sent away as punishment, or because he needed too much, or that Holt had grown tired of the responsibility. Eventually I gave him the note, which I believe he keeps in his possession.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Jase's formal education was irregular but stronger than early assessments indicated. He read well, learned languages quickly, and possessed an excellent working facility with maths when applied to cargo, prices, accounts, and wagers. He had little patience for abstractions and exercises that appeared to have no practical purpose, but this improved over time.
Meditation was difficult for him, at first. He had spent his life treating stillness as an opportunity for someone else to gain the upper hand. Sitting with his eyes closed in an unfamiliar room was, for him, not a sensible thing to request or perform. Eventually he did develop sound meditative practice. He still prefers to secure entrances before beginning.
The Jedi restriction on possessions caused limited problems, because Jasem owned very little. In fact, before leaving Kwenn Station, he distributed most of his things to other children similarly situated: some clothing, a few maps, and more food vouchers and credits than a boy of that age had any claim to. He attaches considerable importance to a small number of inexpensive personal objects, and in his early days, reacted poorly to their handling without his express permission.
Jedi teachings on attachment were a little more complicated. They aligned easily with the habits he formed before joining the Order; he was already accustomed to expecting departures, limiting dependency, and keeping part of himself ready to flee at a moment's notice. He has had to learn -- and has learned, I believe -- that detachment does not justify secrecy, or relieve a Jed from the responsibility of bonds that he does form. Truthfully -- as with most Jedi I know -- this is an area in which he could exhibit improvement.
TEMPERAMENT
Jasem appears reserved in new company. His bearing is controlled and his speech measured. His first response to uncertainty and unfamiliarity is typically observation. The reserve is a learned behavior since he joined the Order. His natural temperament is warm, curious, and sociable. He likes people and takes an interest in lives that many overlook. He remembers names, trades, family details, and minor complaints. He is particularly effective at building rapport with children, frightened civilians, vulnerable travelers, and those at the margins of space travel.
His charm is genuine, but also highly trained. He has honed this as a skill since childhood. He understands how appearance, tone, posture, and attention can alter another person's response, so he can seem less threatening, less observant, more respectable, or more agreeable than he really is. This has proven useful in the field, but also requires restraint.
HONESTY & JUDGMENT
The primary difficulty I've experienced with Jase's training is his often flexible relationship with the truth. He doesn't lie for cruelty or amusement, but he doesn't hesitate to do so to preserve options, avoid exposure, and control a situation. When cornered, he may deny, redirect, answer a narrower question, or provide an answer that is technically accurate while meant to encourage a false conclusion. Though he has improved substantially, he is not what I would call transparent. Jedi work requires discretion often, so complete forthrightness is not to be expected. The more important lesson he has had to learn the difference between protecting information and controlling other people by using the absence of information.
Jasem still prefers to resolve a problem before telling anyone that there is a problem, a withholding of information he classifies as avoiding unnecessary alarm and stress. The problem is that sometimes he is completely correct. Other times, the rest of us discover he has developed a complete plan without consulting with his colleagues. This, also, is something where he is improving. I suspect that with the greater responsibility of Knighthood, he will come to understand this as less of an abstraction.
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FORCE
Jasem's first understanding of the Force was instinctive. He experienced it as timing, unease, anticipation, and certainty. Formal training has given him greater control, though his abilities remain strongest in immediate and changing circumstances. He reads movement and emotion quickly. He can often sense anger, fear, or impending violence before it becomes apparent.
He must remain cautious about assigning motives to what he senses. Knowing that someone is afraid doesn't explain the cause of the fear, and though Jase's experiences can be informative, they also can lead him to interpret secrecy as betrayal, or to read uncertainty as a threat. He has learned this lesson more than once, each time deepening his understanding of it.
FIELD APTITUDE
Jasem is particularly suited to work involving investigation and fieldwork. He has done well with investigating missing persons, criminal networks, relief work, hostage recovery, and interfacing with communities that distrust formal authority, including Jedi. That he was not templeborn, that he joined the Order comparatively late, and that his early life was one of dubious legality and, at times, privation, gives him credibility with those that distrust institutions and particularly the Jedi.
Unlike some of our Order, Jase does not require a person to be respectable before interacting with them. He is willing to work with smugglers, petty criminals, fugitives, and unofficial community leaders when the mission requires it. He understand how people live outside formal systems because he has seen it and lived it. He doesn't assume that reluctance to cooperate with authority is always an indication of guilt. He is also willing to perform ordinary, unglamorous work: he carries supplies, assists mechanics, sits with injured civilians, etc.
In combat, his style is fluid, reflecting speed, misdirection, awareness, and use of surroundings. He prefers his own fighting style to any of the lightsaber forms, although he has reached proficiency with several. Jase does not seek combat, but does not shy from it, either. He is difficult to corner and quick to recognize changes in position or intent. Confined spaces suit him well.
His greatest danger under pressure isn't a loss of control, particularly. When he gets angry, he becomes quiet and more precise. He may convince himself that he understands exactly what has to be done to stop the danger of the person in front of him, but during these times he must take particular care to distinguish necessity from punishment. We have discussed this matter, and he is aware of mechanisms he can employ to ensure he is able to resist the impulse.
NOTED SHORTCOMINGS
Despite what I feel is an accurate and fairly positive report on my Padawan, I am clear-eyed enough to note that he has drawbacks, as well. He can be quite lazy when it comes to tedious, unglamorous follow-through. Excellent at the crisis, but undisciplined at completing the reports, for instance. He has been known to hold a grudge when humiliated -- not that he would seek revenge, necessarily, but that he would remember the insult far longer than is necessary or helpful, and at his worst, is not above using his insights into another person to return the insult with precision. He can be vain about his physical appearance or physical fitness.
Jase has a habit of the occasional selective deafness, almost always when he is instructed not to take an action he has decided is necessary. The rare appearance of 'station street urchin' manifests itself in defiance for its own sake, though less and less as he grows.
I hesitate to classify this as a flaw or shortcoming, but it has undeniably been a cause of instability in the past: his lack of belonging. The Order has given him a structure, colleagues, friends, and I daresay mentors. Before that, Nerin Holt was very like a father to him. But Jasem is keenly aware of the fact that none of these are his family. The apparent rootlessness is distressing to him, particularly in the company of his peers who have families, and particularly around holidays, namedays, etc.
CONCLUSION
Masters, Jasem is capable of independent service. He has demonstrated sound judgment under pressure, compassion without sentimentality, and the ability to work effectively among people who would not readily trust just any representative of the Order. He works well with his peers. He remains secretive, inclined to control information and make decisions alone. He will almost certainly continue to bend procedure when convinced that the circumstances require it. He knows this is a flaw, and that it often necessary as part of our work.
More importantly, he has shown that he recognizes harm caused by his own judgment and changes his conduct accordingly. He does not enjoy being wrong, but he learns the lesson. The Order did not give him his compassion; it was present when I met him on Kwenn Station (alongside hunger, pride, and a frankly considerable talent for fraud in a person of his age). Training has given that compassion discipline and purpose.
Jasem va'Quickstep has completed his trials. He is ready to bear the authority of a Jedi Knight. I commend him to you and encourage you to award him that rank.
Best regards,
Kalv Larkavo, Jedi Master