Post by CaptainBonkers on Aug 2, 2015 13:08:11 GMT -5
Name: Alec Jaldaan
Race: Human
Age: 35
Birthplace: Kuat
Allegiance: Galactic Republic, The Jedi Order
Status: Sentinel
Rank: Knight
Height/Weight: 6' / 189,5 lbs
Appearance: Standing at six feet tall with excellent posture, Alec can come off as looking either regal or pompous. This image is usually reinforced by his otherwise neat appearance: catching Alec looking unkempt or disheveled usually requires some special circumstances.
His dark hair is usually well groomed and kept relatively short, while his beard is either completely shaved or kept in a tidy and well trimmed goatee and mustache connected at the sides of his mouth. His face, which can be best described as symmetric with strong features, usually has a trace of a smile fixed on it which comes off as either friendly and reassuring or patronizing, depending on the onlooker.
When it comes to clothing, Alec's a big believer in mobility. He generally doesn't wear anything heavier than the traditional robes of the order or normal clothing if the situation calls for not standing out from the crowd. In very hostile or hazardous environments he might concede to wearing adequate protective gear, though generally only if donning them is an absolute must for survival.
Personality: To complete strangers Alec can come off as a dry and humorless but otherwise polite man. Those closer to him know that he does actually have a sense of humor, it's just a dry one with a slight sarcastic streak. Otherwise Alec is a highly adaptable person when it comes getting along with other people. He can get along almost anyone, though sometimes he accomplishes this by just biting his tongue and smiling and nodding. His primary virtue could be said to be patience, which he has been given a great deal of. As a result he comes off as calm and collected, very rarely making rash decisions and able to maintain his cool even in severe circumstances.
Ships/Vehicles: N/A
Equipment: Green lightsaber, communicator, slicing kit
Stats:
Strength - Above Average
Agility - Above Average
Intelligence - Above Average
Charisma - Average
Force Stats:
Telekinetic- Adept
Telepathic- Adept
Body- Apprentice
Sense- Adept
Protection- Novice
Healing:– Unskilled
Destruction– Unskilled
Combat Training:
Sokan - Expert
Unarmed Combat - Adept
Blasters - Apprentice
Force Training:
Force Stealth - Adept
Droid Disable - Adept
Other Training:
Stealth - Adept
Subterfuge - Expert
Slicing - Apprentice
Lightsaber Training:
Shii-Cho- Adept
Makashi- Adept
Soresu- Expert
Ataru- Novice
Shien/Djem So- Untrained
>>Sub-form Backhanded-
Niman- Untrained
>>Sub-form Jar-kai-
Juyo- Untrained
Double Bladed Combat- Untrained
Biography: Alec was born into old money. His parents came from a long line of shipyard owners and an easy life of wealth and prosperity would have been his lot in life if not for his connection to the Force. His force sensivity was discovered a bit later than was usual for children born on Republic worlds since his birth happened in a private hospital that considered midchlorian testing to be a violation on the privacy of their patients. Alec's sensitivity to the Force was thus discovered by a visiting Knight of the order, an old friend of his parents, few months after his first birthday. As both of his parents were ardent supporters of the Order and considered giving their son to the Jedi Order to be both a duty and an honor, if a painful one, they gave him away with little hesitation. So Alec departed with the Jedi to begin his life in the service of the Jedi Order and the Republic with only the faintest of memory of his parents.
The first complete memories Alec has are from his time as one of the younglings in the Temple on Coruscant. Playing in the gardens, first lessons, listening the nurses tell stories before bedtime. Things like that. It was a good childhood. As time progressed and Alec grew the first lessons began. Normal things like writing and reading, math, history and many other things any child could expect to learn in any school. However, along normal things the younglings were taught things that were quite unique for Jedi training: meditation, basic philosophy, concentration practice and other things that either helped the younglings to develop on their path to become Jedi or developed their understanding and connection to the Force.
Learning soon filled up the life of the younglings. Alec personally enjoyed all of it. He liked learning all of the teacher had to teach, though personally preferred learning things that came with practical application like geography of the various planets of the galaxy or anything to do with computers. His fascination with computers actually continued well into adulthood, leading him to become a decently skilled at slicing.
However, no matter how much Alec enjoyed learning new things there was one thing, and almost every other youngling, anxiously awaited. Lightsaber classes. So far the younglings had only handled training lightsabers during some concentration exercises, under very strict supervision and with a limited scope of what they were allowed to do with the weapons. So when the classes where they would actually learn to fight with the iconic weapon of the Order finally began Alec was ecstatic.
Alec's first teacher was a tall and powerfully built Zabrak by the name of Arat. He was a good teacher, though he had a single falling that kept him from being a great one. He believed strongly in the importance of offence in combat and largely considered defense something that happened when you couldn't be on the offensive. In the impressionable minds of the younglings he had to be right. After all, to them it seemed as if Master Arat was invincible in a fight: he hadn't lost a single practice match against other knights and masters while his students had been watching. Thus, everyone tried to emulate Master Arat's style.
Alec was no different in that regard. He too tried to constantly go on the offensive once time came to spar with other younglings. Problem was that he was the runt of the pack and would quickly end up on the defensive without a clear idea what to do. Thus he quickly became familiar with the sting of defeat. No matter how well he would learn the forms and stances during dry practice, he'd still suffer defeats at the hands of his fellow students because he couldn't match their reach and/or strength effectively. The only time he had any success was when he completely gave up trying to go on the offensive and just concentrated on either just trying to outlast his opponents or avoiding them altogether. However, at master Arat's insistence he would try to go offensive and end up beaten again. But soon things changed.
The class had once again gathered to watch master Arat's practice match against another master, a wiry little Twi'lek, in the gardens. Everyone expected this to be just like the other sparring matches they had seen master Arat partake: he and the other master would go at it for a while until Arat would break through the opponents defense and finish the fight. They were in for a shock. The other master gave Arat a complete thrashing and did it without ever really attacking apart from a number of well placed counter attacks. She was constantly moving, steering the fight by retreating to ground where she had an advantage and forcing Arat to exert himself if he wanted to control the direction of the fight. In the end she let Arat defeat himself by wearing him down to a point where he could no longer keep up with her.
Witnessing the fight left a lasting impact in Alec. The outcome shattered his image of master Arat's invincibility and convinced him to concentrate mastering defense instead of always trying to attack like Arat kept insisting. With him refusing to follow Arat's instructions during training, it soon became apparent that the Zabrak wasn't the right teacher for him and he was transferred to another class. The teacher in this class had a far more balanced attitude towards combat with a strong emphasis on the use of one's surroundings to gain a tactical advantage over one's opponent, the principles of Sokan. This sparked an interest in Alec which continues to this day.
Under the new tutelage Alec fared much better. He was hardly the best student in the class but no longer was he the absolute worst. There wasn't a student in the class that he couldn't hold off for at least a while. His defensive focus would later blossom into a practice of Soresu and Makashi, during his period as a Padawan.
Around the time Alec was twelve years old he became a Padawan to Erran Qiis, a master well respected for his ability as an investigator. Alec first met him during a class the master was holding for the older children at the Temple. Alec managed to pique the master's interest by asking a number of good questions during the class. Master Qiis had been looking for a new Padawan and after doing some research on Alec and talking with him on several occasions he was convinced.
Alec quickly grew to admire and respect his master, even if Qiis wasn't the easiest master for a padawan to have. He placed high expectations on Alec and never praised anything that wasn't deserving of praise. Getting a simple 'good work' out of Master Qiis required clear progress and effort on Alec's part but the sparse use of praise motivated Alec strive harder in his studies to earn them. It sometimes felt to Alec that Qiis didn't accept anything short of perfection, though that was not an accurate assessment; Qiis never expected perfection, just a strive towards perfection.
High expectations did not end at training alone. Qiis expected Alec to behave in manner befitting a member of the Order and as a result would sometimes stop to correct very minor things such as bad posture or unclear articulation. This was occasionally annoying but Alec could easily bear it, especially when he was already striving to emulate his master's mannerism, which was very polite and formal.
The fact that his master was a Jedi Investigator saw Alec travel a lot during his time as a padawan. Master Qiis spent long stretches of time away from the Jedi Temple, either on official business for the Order or assisting Republic authorities in cases that they believed required assistance from the Jedi. Alec accompanied him most of the time. Only few times was the investigation deemed too dangerous for Alec to accompany his master while he investigated them. During the travels Alec learned much; about being a Jedi, solving cases and the seedier side of the galaxy in general. The things he saw shattered many of the preconceptions he had held about how things were in the galaxy, but he never grew cynical. Rather, thanks to in large part of Qiis' guidance, he resolved to do his best to correct as many injustices he could without ever expecting a final victory over the forces that caused misery and injustice in the galaxy.
Many of the cases required Alec and master Qiis going unseen by the suspects or persons of interest. As a result Alec found himself developing skills that allowed him to follow his master into places he would at first glance considered unreachable or move quickly and quietly in the shadows. He also learnt the true meaning of patience during stakeouts; master Qiis could stare at something for days on in pouring rain just because something significant was expected to happen at the location he was observing.
Qiis was also a good combat instructor. His own style was a strong all-round mix of styles which allowed him to find Alec's strengths and weaknesses and work on them. Under his training Soresu became Alec's favored form, with Makashi coming in a as a close second. He never quite shed his defensive focus, though under Qiis' instruction he learned how to go on the offensive without being immediately defeated. Despite this, he still remains a mediocre attacker at best.
Around the time Alec was 25, master Qiis came to the conclusion that there was very little remaining he could teach his padawan and as a result the next several months were spent polishing what rough edges Alec's master still perceived in him and applying other final touches on his training. Master Qiis had already held Alec back a little, just to be absolutely sure that his Padawan truly ready for the trials. The last thing Qiis master truly taught Alec were two force techniques he had always found useful and believed would serve his apprentice well in the future: how to use the Force to disable droids and how to mask or at least minimize one's presence in the Force. Once Alec had learned them well enough, Qiis informed that the time had come for him to undergo his Trials.
It was agreed by the masters in charge of observing Alec's Trials that he had passed the Trials of Courage and Flesh few years earlier when he had suffered a number of serious burns while pursuing a dangerous suspect through hostile terrain on foot. Therefore, all that remained were Trials of Skill, Spirit and Insight as master Qiis had convinced Alec to try and pass all of them to see if he was truly ready.
The Trial of Skill was fairly straightforward: Alec was made to face off against three practice droids set on few levels of what he was used to. It took all of what his training had given him and what experience had taught him to come out of the Trial victorious. Much of it was thanks to his study of Sokan, as Alec managed to exploit his surroundings during the Trial in a way that provided him the advantage he needed to defeat his opponents.
Next came the Trial of Spirit. Under the supervision of a master, Alec entered into a deeper meditative trance than he had entered before in order to gaze inwards and face whatever darkness lay inside the dark recesses of his spirit. It wasn't an easy task. Alec had thought that he had come to terms with the fact that he couldn't fix the wrongs of the Galaxy, but as it turned out he had only pushed the thought away and buried it well. During the Trial he had to wrestle with the part of himself that thought that maybe if he was in charge of everything things would be different. It was an alluring thought and one that was hard to fight but eventually Alec managed to overcome it. Alec kept to what he had resolved to do in the past, to keep fighting for a better galaxy, never giving up but never expecting to truly see it. So he emerged from the trance, exhausted but victorious over himself and thus passing this Trial.
The final Trial was the Trial of Insight. Alec was placed in a room with a hundred identical statues and was told to find the one that was different from the others. He got to work, carefully examining each of the statues. However, to his dismay they seemed to be completely identical down to the most minute of details and scratches. They were all made of same stone and none of them was hollow. He repeated the examining the statues several times, spending hours doing so but each time came to the same conclusion: they were identical. Had he been given an impossible task? Was this a trick question, meant to see if he could recognize an impossible task? Or was he expected to make one of them different somehow and prove he could think outside of the box? It couldn't like that, could it?
Alec began going through all the things he had looked for in the statues carefully. There had to be something he had missed. After some time, it dawned to him. The pattern. The Statues were placed in a seemingly symmetrical pattern, ten rows by ten lines with ten statues in each and each exactly the same distance from neighboring statues. If one of them was out of alignment even ever so slightly, it technically would be different from the others. As it turned out, one of the statues was half an inch out of line. Alec called it in and a master arrived to ascertain whether or not Alec had chosen correctly. He had.
As soon as Alec had passed the final Trial, he was taken to a chamber with master Qiis and a number of other masters waiting. He was made to kneel and wait through a short speech about Jedi ideals and how, by passing his trials, he had proven he was ready to become a Knight of the Order. He was then knighted.
Following his Knighting, Alec continued in his master's footsteps and became an investigator. He spent the next few years building experience at working alone and did quite well. Most of the cases he investigated involved interplanetary organized crime, such as smuggling or slaver rings. Infiltrating the ranks of the criminal organizations was often required in order to gather enough evidence to shut down their operations completely. Alec would spent long stretches of time embedded in various criminal groups in order to bust them, spending approximately two years of his post-knighting life in undercover operations. His cover was broken only once during this time and for no fault of his own: the law enforcement agency Alec was assisting at that time had a mole feeding information to the organization Alec had infiltrated.
One of the cases that gained Alec some fame was breaking up a spice smuggling ring on Coruscant that was supplying their desperate customers on lower levels with contaminated stuff that caused serious and lethal side effects. Following months of hard work and waiting for the right moment Alec led a raid to their HQ. The place had been discovered earlier but was allowed to operate because the leader of the smuggling was going to visit it soon. This way they cut off the head of the snake and destroyed its nest with one strike.
During the times Alec was back at the Temple on Coruscant he usually either studied himself (generally subjects like forensics or criminology) or taught youngling classes in lightsaber combat and basic programming. He would also sometimes take time off just to visit his informants, mostly in order to build a solid working relationship with them. As Alecsaw it, making sure his informants were happy and feeling safe and appriciated went a long way of insuring they would keep providing him and the Order with intel.
Roleplay Sample:
The bar probably had many redeeming qualities that warranted the number of customers it managed to draw at this time of the day. Alec just couldn't see any of them. It was a run-down little hole-in-the-wall located so deep in the bowels of the level 876's side streets that it technically counted as hidden. There was no way an outsider could find the place without a guide but then again that was sort of the point of the place, wasn't it. After all, there was no way anyone would come to the place just for the drinks and ambiance. It was a place for the local crooks to converge and converse without having to worry about the cops hearing about it. The place also had the important quality of functioning as a neutral ground where delicate negotiations about territorial and other criminal matters could be held between the local gangs. Every sector on Coruscant had to have at least one of those, though one usually existed only so long as the major players were willing to respect its neutrality. It was also the only place where Nasak would agree to a meet up whenever he felt like providing information to Alec.
The Jedi descended the short flight of stairs past the door and pushed into the crowd with the intention reaching one of the private booths at the back of the place. Well, as private as you could have in a place like this. None of the booths had any actual privacy other than the one provided by the ambient noise and the general indifference of the clientele. As long as Alec or Nasak didn't draw any attention at themselves everything should go without a hitch. He wasn't worried over that possibility too much: Alec had been here plenty of times before and the regulars knew him and thought him just another crook come for a drink with his mates. No one gave him a second look.
This was helped by his current appearance. In order to fit in better with the local shady elements Alec had forgone shave and shower this morning and it showed. His usually neatly trimmed beard was a ruffled mess surrounded by a completely unflattering stubble and his hair looked like he had just woken up after passing out on the engine room floor. His clothes were equally scruffy and worn, with plenty of dirt tacked on. So basically he looked like everyone else here. When he slouched a little and adopted a lazy, slightly hazed, trod and avoided spilling anyone's drink Alec became practically invisible to the people around him.
Navigating the crowd took some quick footwork but Alec managed to cross the floor without stepping on anyone's shoes or spilling anything and arrived at the booths. Spotting Nasak wasn't hard. The Twi'lek had a very distinctive skin shade, bright yellow with some orange mixed in at the lekku's. A wide grin appeared on his face once he spotted Alec and the Jedi couldn't help not to smile back. He liked Nasak even if the Twi'lek was a complete crook, he was a very special kind of crook. A crook you could trust with your life.
Not your money, mind you. Or your speeder. Or possessions of any actual value that could be sold off quickly. But when it came to information, eight times out of ten Nasak's intel was accurate and usually worthwhile. This was a bit of a surprise when you took into consideration the fact that he didn't belong to any gang or criminal family and didn't hold any real position that would have allowed him access to the information he so happily sold to the Jedi Order. Nasak was also blessed with a shipload of easygoing charisma and possessed a relaxed personality that made it easy for him to get along with anyone except the Coruscant Security Forces. Them Nasak hated with a passion and apparently the feeling was quite mutual.
This likable nature of Nasak's went a long way explaining why he had such wonderful information to sell. The Twi'lek was the spider at the middle of a very large network of homeless folk, beggars, petty thieves, friends of friends, people who knew people who knew people who knew things and other folks on very low level of the society. People who were mostly invisible to those in power but had very sharp ears and happy to share what they had heard in exchange for a drink or two or some other rather small favors. Sometimes all it took was asking nicely, or so Nasak liked to boast.
"Alec! Finally! I've been waiting for you here way too long." Nasak complained, though Alec was sure that the informant was just joking. For one his tone didn't sound at all annoyed or even serious and then there was the lack of a pile of empty glasses on the table. Nasak never waited on a dry mouth, so if he had indeed been waiting for a 'long time' as he claimed there should have been at least couple of empty glasses or bottles on the table with maybe one half full drink being drained by Nasak.
"Nice to see you too, Nasak. How have you been lately?" Alec inquired as he sat down opposite of Nasak.
"I've got a roof over my head and food in my belly, so I can't really complain. I'm a bit parched though."
Alec caught on the hint and signaled one of the beat up server droids to come over. He placed an order for two Correlian beers and turned back to Nasak. He wasn't one to drink but could stomach the occasional alcoholic drink, especially when not drinking would have looked suspicious.
"So, you said you had something big. Care to share?" Nasak had sounded excited and somewhat anxious over the commlink. Apparently 'something real big and super interesting to you Jedis' was going to go down soon. The description had naturally piqued the Order's interest since so far Nasak hadn't really let them down. Unfortunately the Twi'lek had refused to share any more details over comm and demanded a face to face meeting. Not the smartest move since the secured channel was far more safe for discussions like this than a crowded bar, but to each his own. Maybe Nasak thought his comm was bugged or something.
"This is going to blow your freaking mind my friend, I'll promise you that." before continuing Nasak snatched a bottle off the tray the returning serving droid had brought and took a big sip. "Great stuff. Oh, right the thing."
"Don't worry, there's no great rush." Alec said in a calmly. Nasak nodded.
"So one of my pals told me that a friend of his heard from his girlfriend who's working at this restaurant near the Hologardens where she overheard this thug telling another that he had heard from his boss that the Exchange had got their hands on some creepy artifact that looks a bit Sithy. Shaped like a pyramid, bunch of glyphs all over, glows red and makes everyone around it nervous. Ring any bells?"
Alec nodded. This definitely sounded something that the Order would like to know about. Recovering any Dark Side artifacts or at least destroying them to make sure they didn't fall in the wrong hands, was a priority during these times. Of course it could turn out to be nothing, but better safe than sorry.
"I hope that you have something more substantial than a word of one of your pals."
Nasak actually looked offended. "What do you take me for, a first year amateur? Once I heard about that thingy I looked into it. The folks at the Exchange are planning on selling the damn thing off to the highest bidder, which I might guess is going to be either some filthy rich snob with a Sith fetish or the Imps. Either way not ideal for you guys, right?"
Alec nodded. Letting the artifact fall into wrong hands could be potentially catastrophic. One never knew what old holocrons held inside. It could contain relatively harmless saber lessons or it could contain something very, very damgerous.
"Allow me to guess; you know where and when this auction is going to happen. How much?"
"My usual rate plus twenty five." Nasak replied, surprising Alec. He had expected at the very least fifty.
"Deal. The usual arrangement?"
"Yup. No need to change a working system."
"Alright then, I'm all ears."
Nasak leaned forward. "I hope your getting this down, cause I'm going to say this only once."
Race: Human
Age: 35
Birthplace: Kuat
Allegiance: Galactic Republic, The Jedi Order
Status: Sentinel
Rank: Knight
Height/Weight: 6' / 189,5 lbs
Appearance: Standing at six feet tall with excellent posture, Alec can come off as looking either regal or pompous. This image is usually reinforced by his otherwise neat appearance: catching Alec looking unkempt or disheveled usually requires some special circumstances.
His dark hair is usually well groomed and kept relatively short, while his beard is either completely shaved or kept in a tidy and well trimmed goatee and mustache connected at the sides of his mouth. His face, which can be best described as symmetric with strong features, usually has a trace of a smile fixed on it which comes off as either friendly and reassuring or patronizing, depending on the onlooker.
When it comes to clothing, Alec's a big believer in mobility. He generally doesn't wear anything heavier than the traditional robes of the order or normal clothing if the situation calls for not standing out from the crowd. In very hostile or hazardous environments he might concede to wearing adequate protective gear, though generally only if donning them is an absolute must for survival.
Personality: To complete strangers Alec can come off as a dry and humorless but otherwise polite man. Those closer to him know that he does actually have a sense of humor, it's just a dry one with a slight sarcastic streak. Otherwise Alec is a highly adaptable person when it comes getting along with other people. He can get along almost anyone, though sometimes he accomplishes this by just biting his tongue and smiling and nodding. His primary virtue could be said to be patience, which he has been given a great deal of. As a result he comes off as calm and collected, very rarely making rash decisions and able to maintain his cool even in severe circumstances.
Ships/Vehicles: N/A
Equipment: Green lightsaber, communicator, slicing kit
Stats:
Strength - Above Average
Agility - Above Average
Intelligence - Above Average
Charisma - Average
Force Stats:
Telekinetic- Adept
Telepathic- Adept
Body- Apprentice
Sense- Adept
Protection- Novice
Healing:– Unskilled
Destruction– Unskilled
Combat Training:
Sokan - Expert
Unarmed Combat - Adept
Blasters - Apprentice
Force Training:
Force Stealth - Adept
Droid Disable - Adept
Other Training:
Stealth - Adept
Subterfuge - Expert
Slicing - Apprentice
Lightsaber Training:
Shii-Cho- Adept
Makashi- Adept
Soresu- Expert
Ataru- Novice
Shien/Djem So- Untrained
>>Sub-form Backhanded-
Niman- Untrained
>>Sub-form Jar-kai-
Juyo- Untrained
Double Bladed Combat- Untrained
Biography: Alec was born into old money. His parents came from a long line of shipyard owners and an easy life of wealth and prosperity would have been his lot in life if not for his connection to the Force. His force sensivity was discovered a bit later than was usual for children born on Republic worlds since his birth happened in a private hospital that considered midchlorian testing to be a violation on the privacy of their patients. Alec's sensitivity to the Force was thus discovered by a visiting Knight of the order, an old friend of his parents, few months after his first birthday. As both of his parents were ardent supporters of the Order and considered giving their son to the Jedi Order to be both a duty and an honor, if a painful one, they gave him away with little hesitation. So Alec departed with the Jedi to begin his life in the service of the Jedi Order and the Republic with only the faintest of memory of his parents.
The first complete memories Alec has are from his time as one of the younglings in the Temple on Coruscant. Playing in the gardens, first lessons, listening the nurses tell stories before bedtime. Things like that. It was a good childhood. As time progressed and Alec grew the first lessons began. Normal things like writing and reading, math, history and many other things any child could expect to learn in any school. However, along normal things the younglings were taught things that were quite unique for Jedi training: meditation, basic philosophy, concentration practice and other things that either helped the younglings to develop on their path to become Jedi or developed their understanding and connection to the Force.
Learning soon filled up the life of the younglings. Alec personally enjoyed all of it. He liked learning all of the teacher had to teach, though personally preferred learning things that came with practical application like geography of the various planets of the galaxy or anything to do with computers. His fascination with computers actually continued well into adulthood, leading him to become a decently skilled at slicing.
However, no matter how much Alec enjoyed learning new things there was one thing, and almost every other youngling, anxiously awaited. Lightsaber classes. So far the younglings had only handled training lightsabers during some concentration exercises, under very strict supervision and with a limited scope of what they were allowed to do with the weapons. So when the classes where they would actually learn to fight with the iconic weapon of the Order finally began Alec was ecstatic.
Alec's first teacher was a tall and powerfully built Zabrak by the name of Arat. He was a good teacher, though he had a single falling that kept him from being a great one. He believed strongly in the importance of offence in combat and largely considered defense something that happened when you couldn't be on the offensive. In the impressionable minds of the younglings he had to be right. After all, to them it seemed as if Master Arat was invincible in a fight: he hadn't lost a single practice match against other knights and masters while his students had been watching. Thus, everyone tried to emulate Master Arat's style.
Alec was no different in that regard. He too tried to constantly go on the offensive once time came to spar with other younglings. Problem was that he was the runt of the pack and would quickly end up on the defensive without a clear idea what to do. Thus he quickly became familiar with the sting of defeat. No matter how well he would learn the forms and stances during dry practice, he'd still suffer defeats at the hands of his fellow students because he couldn't match their reach and/or strength effectively. The only time he had any success was when he completely gave up trying to go on the offensive and just concentrated on either just trying to outlast his opponents or avoiding them altogether. However, at master Arat's insistence he would try to go offensive and end up beaten again. But soon things changed.
The class had once again gathered to watch master Arat's practice match against another master, a wiry little Twi'lek, in the gardens. Everyone expected this to be just like the other sparring matches they had seen master Arat partake: he and the other master would go at it for a while until Arat would break through the opponents defense and finish the fight. They were in for a shock. The other master gave Arat a complete thrashing and did it without ever really attacking apart from a number of well placed counter attacks. She was constantly moving, steering the fight by retreating to ground where she had an advantage and forcing Arat to exert himself if he wanted to control the direction of the fight. In the end she let Arat defeat himself by wearing him down to a point where he could no longer keep up with her.
Witnessing the fight left a lasting impact in Alec. The outcome shattered his image of master Arat's invincibility and convinced him to concentrate mastering defense instead of always trying to attack like Arat kept insisting. With him refusing to follow Arat's instructions during training, it soon became apparent that the Zabrak wasn't the right teacher for him and he was transferred to another class. The teacher in this class had a far more balanced attitude towards combat with a strong emphasis on the use of one's surroundings to gain a tactical advantage over one's opponent, the principles of Sokan. This sparked an interest in Alec which continues to this day.
Under the new tutelage Alec fared much better. He was hardly the best student in the class but no longer was he the absolute worst. There wasn't a student in the class that he couldn't hold off for at least a while. His defensive focus would later blossom into a practice of Soresu and Makashi, during his period as a Padawan.
Around the time Alec was twelve years old he became a Padawan to Erran Qiis, a master well respected for his ability as an investigator. Alec first met him during a class the master was holding for the older children at the Temple. Alec managed to pique the master's interest by asking a number of good questions during the class. Master Qiis had been looking for a new Padawan and after doing some research on Alec and talking with him on several occasions he was convinced.
Alec quickly grew to admire and respect his master, even if Qiis wasn't the easiest master for a padawan to have. He placed high expectations on Alec and never praised anything that wasn't deserving of praise. Getting a simple 'good work' out of Master Qiis required clear progress and effort on Alec's part but the sparse use of praise motivated Alec strive harder in his studies to earn them. It sometimes felt to Alec that Qiis didn't accept anything short of perfection, though that was not an accurate assessment; Qiis never expected perfection, just a strive towards perfection.
High expectations did not end at training alone. Qiis expected Alec to behave in manner befitting a member of the Order and as a result would sometimes stop to correct very minor things such as bad posture or unclear articulation. This was occasionally annoying but Alec could easily bear it, especially when he was already striving to emulate his master's mannerism, which was very polite and formal.
The fact that his master was a Jedi Investigator saw Alec travel a lot during his time as a padawan. Master Qiis spent long stretches of time away from the Jedi Temple, either on official business for the Order or assisting Republic authorities in cases that they believed required assistance from the Jedi. Alec accompanied him most of the time. Only few times was the investigation deemed too dangerous for Alec to accompany his master while he investigated them. During the travels Alec learned much; about being a Jedi, solving cases and the seedier side of the galaxy in general. The things he saw shattered many of the preconceptions he had held about how things were in the galaxy, but he never grew cynical. Rather, thanks to in large part of Qiis' guidance, he resolved to do his best to correct as many injustices he could without ever expecting a final victory over the forces that caused misery and injustice in the galaxy.
Many of the cases required Alec and master Qiis going unseen by the suspects or persons of interest. As a result Alec found himself developing skills that allowed him to follow his master into places he would at first glance considered unreachable or move quickly and quietly in the shadows. He also learnt the true meaning of patience during stakeouts; master Qiis could stare at something for days on in pouring rain just because something significant was expected to happen at the location he was observing.
Qiis was also a good combat instructor. His own style was a strong all-round mix of styles which allowed him to find Alec's strengths and weaknesses and work on them. Under his training Soresu became Alec's favored form, with Makashi coming in a as a close second. He never quite shed his defensive focus, though under Qiis' instruction he learned how to go on the offensive without being immediately defeated. Despite this, he still remains a mediocre attacker at best.
Around the time Alec was 25, master Qiis came to the conclusion that there was very little remaining he could teach his padawan and as a result the next several months were spent polishing what rough edges Alec's master still perceived in him and applying other final touches on his training. Master Qiis had already held Alec back a little, just to be absolutely sure that his Padawan truly ready for the trials. The last thing Qiis master truly taught Alec were two force techniques he had always found useful and believed would serve his apprentice well in the future: how to use the Force to disable droids and how to mask or at least minimize one's presence in the Force. Once Alec had learned them well enough, Qiis informed that the time had come for him to undergo his Trials.
It was agreed by the masters in charge of observing Alec's Trials that he had passed the Trials of Courage and Flesh few years earlier when he had suffered a number of serious burns while pursuing a dangerous suspect through hostile terrain on foot. Therefore, all that remained were Trials of Skill, Spirit and Insight as master Qiis had convinced Alec to try and pass all of them to see if he was truly ready.
The Trial of Skill was fairly straightforward: Alec was made to face off against three practice droids set on few levels of what he was used to. It took all of what his training had given him and what experience had taught him to come out of the Trial victorious. Much of it was thanks to his study of Sokan, as Alec managed to exploit his surroundings during the Trial in a way that provided him the advantage he needed to defeat his opponents.
Next came the Trial of Spirit. Under the supervision of a master, Alec entered into a deeper meditative trance than he had entered before in order to gaze inwards and face whatever darkness lay inside the dark recesses of his spirit. It wasn't an easy task. Alec had thought that he had come to terms with the fact that he couldn't fix the wrongs of the Galaxy, but as it turned out he had only pushed the thought away and buried it well. During the Trial he had to wrestle with the part of himself that thought that maybe if he was in charge of everything things would be different. It was an alluring thought and one that was hard to fight but eventually Alec managed to overcome it. Alec kept to what he had resolved to do in the past, to keep fighting for a better galaxy, never giving up but never expecting to truly see it. So he emerged from the trance, exhausted but victorious over himself and thus passing this Trial.
The final Trial was the Trial of Insight. Alec was placed in a room with a hundred identical statues and was told to find the one that was different from the others. He got to work, carefully examining each of the statues. However, to his dismay they seemed to be completely identical down to the most minute of details and scratches. They were all made of same stone and none of them was hollow. He repeated the examining the statues several times, spending hours doing so but each time came to the same conclusion: they were identical. Had he been given an impossible task? Was this a trick question, meant to see if he could recognize an impossible task? Or was he expected to make one of them different somehow and prove he could think outside of the box? It couldn't like that, could it?
Alec began going through all the things he had looked for in the statues carefully. There had to be something he had missed. After some time, it dawned to him. The pattern. The Statues were placed in a seemingly symmetrical pattern, ten rows by ten lines with ten statues in each and each exactly the same distance from neighboring statues. If one of them was out of alignment even ever so slightly, it technically would be different from the others. As it turned out, one of the statues was half an inch out of line. Alec called it in and a master arrived to ascertain whether or not Alec had chosen correctly. He had.
As soon as Alec had passed the final Trial, he was taken to a chamber with master Qiis and a number of other masters waiting. He was made to kneel and wait through a short speech about Jedi ideals and how, by passing his trials, he had proven he was ready to become a Knight of the Order. He was then knighted.
Following his Knighting, Alec continued in his master's footsteps and became an investigator. He spent the next few years building experience at working alone and did quite well. Most of the cases he investigated involved interplanetary organized crime, such as smuggling or slaver rings. Infiltrating the ranks of the criminal organizations was often required in order to gather enough evidence to shut down their operations completely. Alec would spent long stretches of time embedded in various criminal groups in order to bust them, spending approximately two years of his post-knighting life in undercover operations. His cover was broken only once during this time and for no fault of his own: the law enforcement agency Alec was assisting at that time had a mole feeding information to the organization Alec had infiltrated.
One of the cases that gained Alec some fame was breaking up a spice smuggling ring on Coruscant that was supplying their desperate customers on lower levels with contaminated stuff that caused serious and lethal side effects. Following months of hard work and waiting for the right moment Alec led a raid to their HQ. The place had been discovered earlier but was allowed to operate because the leader of the smuggling was going to visit it soon. This way they cut off the head of the snake and destroyed its nest with one strike.
During the times Alec was back at the Temple on Coruscant he usually either studied himself (generally subjects like forensics or criminology) or taught youngling classes in lightsaber combat and basic programming. He would also sometimes take time off just to visit his informants, mostly in order to build a solid working relationship with them. As Alecsaw it, making sure his informants were happy and feeling safe and appriciated went a long way of insuring they would keep providing him and the Order with intel.
Roleplay Sample:
The bar probably had many redeeming qualities that warranted the number of customers it managed to draw at this time of the day. Alec just couldn't see any of them. It was a run-down little hole-in-the-wall located so deep in the bowels of the level 876's side streets that it technically counted as hidden. There was no way an outsider could find the place without a guide but then again that was sort of the point of the place, wasn't it. After all, there was no way anyone would come to the place just for the drinks and ambiance. It was a place for the local crooks to converge and converse without having to worry about the cops hearing about it. The place also had the important quality of functioning as a neutral ground where delicate negotiations about territorial and other criminal matters could be held between the local gangs. Every sector on Coruscant had to have at least one of those, though one usually existed only so long as the major players were willing to respect its neutrality. It was also the only place where Nasak would agree to a meet up whenever he felt like providing information to Alec.
The Jedi descended the short flight of stairs past the door and pushed into the crowd with the intention reaching one of the private booths at the back of the place. Well, as private as you could have in a place like this. None of the booths had any actual privacy other than the one provided by the ambient noise and the general indifference of the clientele. As long as Alec or Nasak didn't draw any attention at themselves everything should go without a hitch. He wasn't worried over that possibility too much: Alec had been here plenty of times before and the regulars knew him and thought him just another crook come for a drink with his mates. No one gave him a second look.
This was helped by his current appearance. In order to fit in better with the local shady elements Alec had forgone shave and shower this morning and it showed. His usually neatly trimmed beard was a ruffled mess surrounded by a completely unflattering stubble and his hair looked like he had just woken up after passing out on the engine room floor. His clothes were equally scruffy and worn, with plenty of dirt tacked on. So basically he looked like everyone else here. When he slouched a little and adopted a lazy, slightly hazed, trod and avoided spilling anyone's drink Alec became practically invisible to the people around him.
Navigating the crowd took some quick footwork but Alec managed to cross the floor without stepping on anyone's shoes or spilling anything and arrived at the booths. Spotting Nasak wasn't hard. The Twi'lek had a very distinctive skin shade, bright yellow with some orange mixed in at the lekku's. A wide grin appeared on his face once he spotted Alec and the Jedi couldn't help not to smile back. He liked Nasak even if the Twi'lek was a complete crook, he was a very special kind of crook. A crook you could trust with your life.
Not your money, mind you. Or your speeder. Or possessions of any actual value that could be sold off quickly. But when it came to information, eight times out of ten Nasak's intel was accurate and usually worthwhile. This was a bit of a surprise when you took into consideration the fact that he didn't belong to any gang or criminal family and didn't hold any real position that would have allowed him access to the information he so happily sold to the Jedi Order. Nasak was also blessed with a shipload of easygoing charisma and possessed a relaxed personality that made it easy for him to get along with anyone except the Coruscant Security Forces. Them Nasak hated with a passion and apparently the feeling was quite mutual.
This likable nature of Nasak's went a long way explaining why he had such wonderful information to sell. The Twi'lek was the spider at the middle of a very large network of homeless folk, beggars, petty thieves, friends of friends, people who knew people who knew people who knew things and other folks on very low level of the society. People who were mostly invisible to those in power but had very sharp ears and happy to share what they had heard in exchange for a drink or two or some other rather small favors. Sometimes all it took was asking nicely, or so Nasak liked to boast.
"Alec! Finally! I've been waiting for you here way too long." Nasak complained, though Alec was sure that the informant was just joking. For one his tone didn't sound at all annoyed or even serious and then there was the lack of a pile of empty glasses on the table. Nasak never waited on a dry mouth, so if he had indeed been waiting for a 'long time' as he claimed there should have been at least couple of empty glasses or bottles on the table with maybe one half full drink being drained by Nasak.
"Nice to see you too, Nasak. How have you been lately?" Alec inquired as he sat down opposite of Nasak.
"I've got a roof over my head and food in my belly, so I can't really complain. I'm a bit parched though."
Alec caught on the hint and signaled one of the beat up server droids to come over. He placed an order for two Correlian beers and turned back to Nasak. He wasn't one to drink but could stomach the occasional alcoholic drink, especially when not drinking would have looked suspicious.
"So, you said you had something big. Care to share?" Nasak had sounded excited and somewhat anxious over the commlink. Apparently 'something real big and super interesting to you Jedis' was going to go down soon. The description had naturally piqued the Order's interest since so far Nasak hadn't really let them down. Unfortunately the Twi'lek had refused to share any more details over comm and demanded a face to face meeting. Not the smartest move since the secured channel was far more safe for discussions like this than a crowded bar, but to each his own. Maybe Nasak thought his comm was bugged or something.
"This is going to blow your freaking mind my friend, I'll promise you that." before continuing Nasak snatched a bottle off the tray the returning serving droid had brought and took a big sip. "Great stuff. Oh, right the thing."
"Don't worry, there's no great rush." Alec said in a calmly. Nasak nodded.
"So one of my pals told me that a friend of his heard from his girlfriend who's working at this restaurant near the Hologardens where she overheard this thug telling another that he had heard from his boss that the Exchange had got their hands on some creepy artifact that looks a bit Sithy. Shaped like a pyramid, bunch of glyphs all over, glows red and makes everyone around it nervous. Ring any bells?"
Alec nodded. This definitely sounded something that the Order would like to know about. Recovering any Dark Side artifacts or at least destroying them to make sure they didn't fall in the wrong hands, was a priority during these times. Of course it could turn out to be nothing, but better safe than sorry.
"I hope that you have something more substantial than a word of one of your pals."
Nasak actually looked offended. "What do you take me for, a first year amateur? Once I heard about that thingy I looked into it. The folks at the Exchange are planning on selling the damn thing off to the highest bidder, which I might guess is going to be either some filthy rich snob with a Sith fetish or the Imps. Either way not ideal for you guys, right?"
Alec nodded. Letting the artifact fall into wrong hands could be potentially catastrophic. One never knew what old holocrons held inside. It could contain relatively harmless saber lessons or it could contain something very, very damgerous.
"Allow me to guess; you know where and when this auction is going to happen. How much?"
"My usual rate plus twenty five." Nasak replied, surprising Alec. He had expected at the very least fifty.
"Deal. The usual arrangement?"
"Yup. No need to change a working system."
"Alright then, I'm all ears."
Nasak leaned forward. "I hope your getting this down, cause I'm going to say this only once."
