Jorgen Weight

Jorgen Weight, callsign Jerkface, is a pilot in the Defiant Defense Force and Skyward Flight's flight leader. After graduating flight school, he initially joins Riptide Flight before taking back the flight leader role when Skyward Flight is reformed. 
== Appearance and Personality ==
Jorgen is tall, has brown skin and short curly hair, and according to Spensa, looks "distinctive in a kind of baby-faced, pretty-boy way." He has eyes that are deep brown with hints of light gray at the centers.
He is smart and has prepared for military all his life and is very diligent and hard working for it. Jorgen is still learning how to become a natural leader but does care for his team and doing the right thing.
He feels trapped with the life choices that have been drawn for him by his family and is so responsible he will follow them even if it is not what he personally wants.
== Attributes and Abilities ==
=== Flying ===
Jorgen is a very good pilot. Not only because he has trained since being fourteen, but because he does like it and is very diligent in his training. He proves himself since their first flight at school.
He is also savvy in battle, and thinks through the moves before acting. He doesn’t have a problem saying what he thinks for the course of battle, but will do as commanded.
He is able to keep calm and assess situations even under very tense battles, he does care and try to push his team to victory and safety. He has studied the Krell and is curious and concerned on the military strategy of both sides.
=== Cytonics ===
Jorgen is a Cytonic. Originally he was unable to use his abilities, lacking skill and precision. He is able to communicate, after a little practice, with the taynix and convince them to use their abilities. He is able to sense other cytonics with precision, and discovers the taynix colonies in the caverns of Detritus by hearing their cytonic vibrations. Gran-Gran and Alanik help him learn to meditate and deepen his connection to the nowhere. Juno, reading from old texts that the kitsen cytonics left, helps Jorgen control mindblades. He becomes capable enough with them to destroy other ships while flying, a dangerous technique that requires skill. He can control individual mindblades with great precision, able to curve a mindblade to kill an opponent behind cover. He also is able to use his cytonic powers to communicate telepathically with anyone, regardless of their cytonic ability. According to the kitsen records, the ability was very advanced and very few cytonics achieved it. Though he is able to use these abilities he is less practiced when moving in the nowhere, and Spensa describes his cytonic projection as loud and unrefined, though powerful.
== History ==
Jorgen’s family owned three private fighters, and Jorgen had been training on them since he was fourteen. He had nearly a thousand hours in the cockpit. Because of this, not only did he have direct pass to Flight School, but he was made flightleader.
Since the first day, Jorgen took their training very seriously and tried to bully the team around, wanting them to follow his orders. It was not well received by the team and brought Spensa to a defensive aggressive attitude. She gave him the Callsign of “Jerkface” which gained traction with the rest of the team.
During his first days and battles, Jorgen led the team with a cool head, however he was very frustrated with the lack of respect he received from his team, especially Spensa, and refused to accept the Callsign of Jerkface. He tried to comfort the team by giving a speech after Bim and Morningtide died, which was not a very good one and taken off a book.
After the battle, Spensa found him going over and over through the simulation of that battle, where he tried several times to find a way he could’ve saved Morningtide. He continued to give advice to all his flight, even if they didn’t always take it the right way.
In a later flight, Spensa's wingmate, Hurl, dies. She crashes because she was unwilling to eject. Spensa announced she would give her a proper pilot’s burial and is followed by Jorgen who takes her in his hover-car. He brought the materials for a funeral pyre. They recovered Hurl's pin to give to her parents and burned Hurl's body. Jorgen also helped Spensa with taking the booster for her ship. Spin told the rest of the crew about what they did for Hurl and Jorgen was better respected after that.
As their flight numbers lowered, with the departure of Arturo, Nedd and Kimmalyn, they were asked to join with other flights. This was the first time he had to use his callsign of Jerkface. After the other crews tried to call him out for being “smug”, he received the support from both FM and Spin who called him a great flightleader.
Only Jorgen and FM from Skyward flight graduated. After a very short graduation, they were sent with the rest of the pilots to secure a falling shipyard which, if rescued, could give enough parts to build a winning fleet. This however was a trap and not only were they outnumbered in battle, but the city of Alta and Igneous Cavern were unprotected, targeted for destruction.
He tried to return on time to save Spensa but he was too far away. He managed to survive the fight and became a full pilot of the DDF.
After discussing his cytonic abilities with Spensa's Gran-Gran, Jorgan traveled below the deep caverns with Nedd Strong and Arturo Mendez, as he heard a faint music from them with his cytonic senses. After searching for several days, he found a hidden cavern full of taynix.
=== Experimentation ===
After Jorgen found the colony of taynix, he collected them in crates and brought them to Platform Prime. Cobb relayed information from Spensa, and told Jorgen that the slugs were hyperdrives. Jorgen, FM, and Rig were set to the task of figuring out how to make them work. The yellow and blue taynix routinely escaped from their crates, using their Cytonic abilities to teleport out. Jorgen was initially not gentle with the taynix, and made the mistake of squeezing one of the red and black ones to hard. The taynix, later named Boomslug, slashed him with what was likely a mindblade and inflicting Jorgen with dozens of shallow cuts across his face and arms. 
After visiting the infirmary and giving a report to Cobb, Jorgen and FM were sent to talk with Alanik when she was woken up by the doctors. FM did most of the talking, and made progress, though Jorgen’s mother, Jeshua, came in and ruined the negotiations with her harsh demands. Alanik used her cytonic abilities to teleport away, but speaking into Jorgen’s mind as she left. She told Jorgen that he was powerful and that he shouldn’t let others control him.
Jorgen conducted furthur experiments with his cytonic abilities, but drew the attention of the Superiority, who decided to wipe out Detritus now that they could potentially escape. They moved their biggest battleship into position, armed with a cannon for planetary bombardment. Jorgen, Rig, FM, and several other flights engaged the Krell, and Jorgen communicated with the taynix in FM’s starfighter to allow her to teleport close to the cannon. She was soon swarmed by Krell however, and was forced to retreat. Jorgen teleported her too far away, leaving her far from the battle. Cobb called the retreat as the cannon began to fire. The Engineering Corps managed to get Detritus’ shield up, keeping them safe from the Superiority’s battleship. Jorgen and the rest of Skyward Flight met up with FM far from the battle, unable to get through the shield using ordinary methods. After the taynix had calmed down, Skyward Flight touched wings with each other and Jorgen teleported them inside the shield to safety.
=== Sunreach ===
After Rig got the FTL communicator to work, Jorgen uses his ability to get the taynix to open up a communication to Cuna. They and Cobb talked, Cuna saying that they were trapped on the research outpost of Sunreach. They gave the DDF coordinates, which appeared in Jorgen’s mind. The communication ended, and Joshua wanted to discuss with the National Assembly. The coordinates were fading from Jorgen’s mind however, and Cobb told him and Skyward Flight to leave immediately for Sunreach.
After prepping their ships, Skyward Flight touched wings, and Jorgen teleported them to Sunreach using Cuna's coordinates. They were greeted by an enourmous space monster which Cuna identified as a mammoth starpod. It was a huge beast attached to a enourmous chunk of rock, with long tentacles extending outward. Krell ships came around the starpod, and engaged Skyward Flight. After using his IMP, Jorgen teleported away using one of the taynix, which caused the Krell to identify him as the cytonic and target him. He tried to teleport again, but accidentally ended up close to the starpod’s mouth. He managed to teleport out of his ship and into the station just as his ship was blown up. Though he was safe, the rest of the flight thought him to be dead. 
Gill teleported FM into the station, and she and Jorgen had a joyful reunion. The station’s life support systems began to fail, and Cuna and Jorgen said they would have to flee back to Detritus and come back for the others later. FM insisted they couldn’t abandon them, and told Jorgen to send images of Skyward Flight’s members to the taynix. Jorgen did so, and each slug teleported away and returned with a member of the flight. As the life support system failed, they all huddled together and Jorgen teleported them away.
They arrived back at Detritus, and were greeted by a very surprised Cobb. Afterward, Jorgen went up to the command room with Cobb for a debriefing.
=== Helping Alanik ===
When Alanik reached out to him cytonically, Jorgen’s and her mind connected, giving Alanik the cytonic key and letting her hyperjump to Detritus. Jorgen and FM met with her, inadvertently revealing to her that the taynix are hyperdrives. Jorgen convinced Alanik that she needed to meet with Jeshua and Cobb, since Jorgen didn’t have the authority to help her properly. Once in the meeting room, Cobb and Jeshua couldn’t agree on who had command over an alliance with Alanik and her political faction. Jorgen was grateful when Alanik pretended she already knew about the taynix, instead of learning about them from him.. When Alanik was given quarters to await the decision, Jorgen and other members of 
Skyward Flight came to visit her. They chatted amiably, and Cobb came in to tell them that Alanik’s request had been denied. He said that his hands were tied. He told them that he couldn’t officially order them to leave, but heavily hinted that he wanted them to anyway. Jorgen didn’t immediately catch on, frustrating Cobb. They went to the hangar, Jorgen getting them past the maintenance who tried to stop them. They scrambled their fighters and flew out into the sky. Jeshua radioed them that they would be considered deserters if they left, but they left anyway, Alanik hyperjumping them to ReDawn.
=== ReDawn ===
Arriving outside Hollow, Jorgen learned about ReDawn from Alanik. They chased after the Superiority transport that Alanik’s allies were on, Skyward Flight engaging Unity pilots. With Jorgen and the others holding off the enemy pilots, they were able to take down the transport and bring it to safety with light-lances.
After hyperjumping to a different location so that the Independence prisoners could scramble their fighters, Jorgen and Skyward Flight fought off more Unity ships. Eventually, they retreated to Wandering Leaf, a floating Weaponized platforms. Jorgen and the others used their taynix to teleport themselves and the Independence pilots underneath the turrets. They made it safely to the hangar while Alanik dueled Quilan. Once Alanik made it to the platform, Jorgen and Skyward Flight were introduced to the Independence pilots.
Jorgen tuned his radio to a broadcast from Nanalis to the UrDail population, and Rinakin’s voice came on, allying himself and the Independence faction with Unity. Alanik argued that Rinakin was being forced to say those things, and Jorgen mostly agreed with her. Jorgen and the others explored the Superiority transport, and found a blue and green taynix with the power to inhibit cytonics. Alanik and Jorgen chatted cytonically, talking about Jorgen’s powers and his relationship with Spensa. FM and Alanik went to retrieve Rig, and returned with several taynix after hearing that the National Assembly was going to hand them over to the Superiority. Jorgen was furious, saying that they had stolen valuable DDF assets and had put pilots in risk by stealing a useful tool. After his argument with FM, Jorgen and Rig worked to interface Boomslug with Wandering Leaf’s weapons system, and used Boomslug to shoot giant mindblades.
Jorgen, Rig, and Alanik hyperjumped Wandering Leaf to a point outside Tower, where Rinakin was being held. Jorgen and the other pilots scrambled their ships, using the taynix to hyperjump outside of the range of the platform’s turrets. Quilan and his cytonics arrived with a large force to try and inhibit Wandering Leaf, and Jorgen and Skyward Flight kept them occupied while Alanik and Arturo rescued Rinakin. When they successfully returned and joined the battle, Quilan’s cytonics managed to get the inhibitor up, and a Superiority battleship appeared, weapons aimed at Tower, which was full of civilians. Jorgen and Rinakin started a joined broadcast to the people of ReDawn, informing them of Unity’s deception. After Quilan and a few of the other cytonics were shot down, the inhibitor went down and they teleported Wandering Leaf up to the battleship, destroying it with its turrets. Cobb called them after the Unity retreat, and Jorgen gave him an update. Cobb told him to return to Detritus, and to bring some of the UrDail officials with them. Jorgen thought Cobb was acting strangely, and they realized it was an imposter posing as Cobb, using hologram technology stolen from M-Bot. They ended the call, and contacted Jeshua. Jorgen spoke to his parents, who were going to a meeting aboard a Superiority ship. They didn’t believe him when he warned them of the trap they were walking into. Jorgen ended the communication, and they hyperjumped Wandering Leaf to a point outside Detritus.
=== Back to Detritus ===
Jorgen and Alanik hyperjumped to Detritus’ command center and grabbed the fake Cobb, then teleported to Snide, a slug who was on the Superiority ship where Gran-Gran, Jorgen’s parents, and several other politicians were. Alanik runs off after Gran-Gran, Cobb, and Cuna, and Jorgen chases after his parents with the fake Cobb as evidence of Superiority treachery. Alanik realized that the ship is rigged to blow, and warns Jorgen cytonically. Alanik rescued the others, and Jorgen found his parents and the other politicians in a locked room that was cytonically inhibited.
All the doors were locked and reinforced, and the room was visible through a reinforced pain of glass. Alanik joined Jorgen as they tried to find a way into the room or find the cytonic inhibitor to free them, but failed. Jeshua shouted through the glass to Jorgen, telling him to go. Out of time and realizing that they wouldn’t be able to save the politicians, Alanik hyperjumped herself and Jorgen back to Wandering Leaf, against Jorgen’s will.
They emerged in the hangar of Wandering Leaf, Jorgen watching the ship explode, taking his parents with it. Jorgen told the others that they were going to head down to Platform Prime, as there was things they needed to take care of.
Jorgen and Skyward Flight went down to Platform Prime, and Jorgen goes up to meet with Vice Admiral Stoff. Jorgen explained what happened with the fake Cobb, and Stoff doesn’t fully believe him. Jorgen yelled at Stoff, saying that he was going to finalize their alliance with the UrDail, and then find Cobb and Gran-Gran. Jorgen reasoned that Cobb is still in command, and that he is following Cobb’s last orders. Over the next few days, Alanik and Jorgen both tried searching for Gran-Gran with their powers, Jorgen learning more about how to use his powers but still not finding them. Jorgen received a communication from Kauri, a kitsen who asked to be put in touch with Spensa. After talking with Cuna and Stoff, Jorgen was given authority to try and make an alliance with the kitsen. They held a further meeting with Kauri, who tells them that Cobb and Gran-Gran hyperjumped to the kitsen planet, and are unconscious. Cobb gave his permission, and Jorgen took Skyward Flight, Cuna, and a medical team to Evershore using coordinates Kauri gave him. 
=== Dealings with the Kitsen ===
When they arrived, they were greeted by Kauri and her crew, along with a more aggressive kitsen named Goro who demanded that the humans leave and cease their invasion. Jorgen tried to be diplomatic, but allowed FM to do most of the talking. Kauri took them to the kitsen city of Dreamspring, where Jorgen and Alanik inspected Gran-Gran and Cobb. Neither Jorgen or Alanik could feel any cytonic signal from Gran-Gran, but neither knew why. While having a feast with the kitsen, Jorgen met Juno, a kitsen lorekeeper who had studied cytonics extensively, though there haven’t been kitsen cytonics for a long time. FM tried to talk to Jorgen several times about what happened with his parents, but Jorgen refused to discuss it. 
The kitsen held a senate meeting to decide what to do with the humans’ proposal of an alliance, with Kauri arguing on Jorgen’s behalf. Jorgen asserted that he is sincere, and has no interest in fighting with the kitsen. As the members debated, Jorgen sat in silence, emotions becoming wound up inside of him.
Jorgen grew frustrated, and suddenly shot mindblades everywhere into the senate chamber. Though the blades weren’t fully formed, they caused complete chaos in the room. After Jorgen got everyone’s attention, he tried to save face. He warned of what the Superiority did to the human National Assembly, and reminded them that they have a common enemy. FM talked with Jorgen afterwards, helping him feel better and alleviating some of his guilt for what happened. Juno, the lorekeeper, offered to help Jorgen master his mindblades. Juno took Jorgen to a remote region, and read ancient cytonic meditations, which helped Jorgen relax. With Juno’s advice on visualizing his mindblades forming, Jorgen was able to gain more control with his mindblades. Jorgen heard voices in his mind, pleading for him to help them. Jorgen met with the medtechs, and discovered that when they tried to move the unconscious Gran-Gran and Cobb, their conditions worsened rapidly. Jorgen had Juno take him to where Gran-Gran and Cobb had first appeared, and discovered a nowhere portal in the kitsen library. Jorgen wondered if the kitsen cytonics might be trapped behind there, but was interrupted as a Superiority carrier ship arrived in the atmosphere.
=== The Fight for Evershore ===
Jorgen flew into battle with Skyward Flight, Juno riding along in his cockpit to help Jorgen with his mindblades. When more Superiority reinforcements arrived, Jorgen and FM hyperjumped back to Detritus to speak with Stoff. Stoff loaded all the responsibility onto Jorgen, who decided to bring Wandering Leaf and three DDF flights back to Evershore. He also put Rig on the task of trying to gain control of Detritus’ individual platforms, to send some to Evershore. Jorgen rejoined the fray back at Evershore, directing the DDF pilots to defend Dreamspring. A Superiority cytonic with mindblades attacked Jorgen, destroying his ship, but Jorgen managed to kill the enemy with his own mindblades.
Jorgen went back to Rig on Detritus. Rig showed Jorgen the hundreds of empty taynix boxes, saying he doesn’t fully know how to operate the platforms, and that they don’t have enough taynix. Jorgen quested out with his cytonic senses, finding many slugs in the caverns and promising them food and friendship. Fine joined in, telling the taynix how well the humans cared for their slugs. Suddenly, hundreds of slugs appeared on the platform, brought by hyperslugs. Snuggles, Boomslug, and Fine helped herd some of the slugs into the correct places, and Jorgen left Rig to figure out how to move the platforms. 
Jorgen went back to Evershore, inspecting the nowhere portal in the kitsen library where the medtechs had moved Cobb and Gran-Gran. After talking with Gran-Gran cytonically through the portal, Jorgen figured out a way to unlock it. Several ancient kitsen cytonics emerged from the portal, and Cobb and Gran-Gran began to stir. The kitsen cytonics had been sucked into the portal years ago, and Gran-Gran and Cobb had gotten stuck when they followed the kitsens’ voices. 
More Superiority ships arrived, including a lifebuster, and Jorgen ordered the evacuation of the kitsen senate members. After Alanik dealt with the lifebuster, Jorgen saw the Superiorty changing their tactics, and targeting many kitsen cities at once in a spread-out attack. 
Jorgen gave orders to many members of his flight, then went back to Rig on Detritus, who was figuring out how to move the platforms. When Rig and his engineers were ready, Jorgen had the slugs hyperjump their platforms to Evershore. To his surprise, he not only brought several platforms with him, but the entire planet of Detritus as well. With the weapons on the platforms, and with Rig and his engineers sending out individual platforms to protect kitsen cities, they quickly began to win. Jorgen sent out a cytonic communication to all their pilots, encouraging them and instilling them with confidence. Several of the commslugs boosted his signal, and the Superiority soon retreated, leaving quickly.
=== Promotion ===
Afterward, Jorgen and FM met with Cobb and Stoff, and FM revealed how Stoff had shoved all responsibility onto Jorgen to avoid any blame if things went wrong. After telling FM and Stoff to leave them, Cobb told Jorgen that he was impressed, and decided to promote Jorgen to vice admiral, which was a shock to Jorgen. After leaving Cobb, Jorgen talked with FM, telling her of his promotion. He asked her if she would leave behind active combat to be in charge of Detritus’ diplomatic program. She agreed, knowing that they both won’t get to fly missions with Skyward Flight anymore. Jorgen decided to put Arturo in charge of Skyward Flight in his place.
== Relationships ==
=== Spensa ===
Jorgen was so eager to get the respect from his crew that he bullied the team around on the first days. Spensa on the other hand resented him for having it “easy”. As a result, there was constant rivalry between them in the beginning. Spensa was responsible for Jorgen’s callsign, Jerkface.
During a “game” ran by Cobb in the simulation, Jorgen’s better flying techniques and strategy was about to earn him a win; however Spensa, who was up in the mark at that moment, crashed herself into him, thereby winning the game. He was so frustrated with her, he revealed to Skyward Flight that Spensa was the daughter of Chaser; this alienated her from other members and provoked Spensa to steal the power source of Jorgen's hovercar.
Spensa continues to challenge Jorgen’s authority and disobeys a direct order of formation. He calls in again on her father’s heritage and she assaults him badly; though he complains about her insubordination again, he doesn’t attack her. Convinced that he would call on her, she goes to the Admiral’s office requesting disciplinary actions from her. Jorgen was there and prevented it from happening, letting her know his flight needed every pilot. After that she becomes more sensible and even ashamed of the treatment he was getting as she knew it was partially her fault.
After Hurl’s death, they give her a proper funeral together and started being friendly to each other. He even helped her with taking the booster to where she asked. He figured out she was building her Poco and encouraged her to be free and defiant.
When Spensa finds out about what really happened in the battle of Alta, the only person she opens to is Jorgen. She asks him not to fix but listen. He is able to comfort her.
After Alanik crash lands on Detritus, Spensa asks Jorgen to "talk her out of doing something incredibly stupid," namely impersonating Alanik and infiltrating Starsight. He then proceeds to walk her through the logistical requirements of her plan, before telling her to go and telling her he "trust her instincts," which makes Spensa jump up and kiss him. He remarkably kisses her back.
After she is gone, he constantly thinks about Spensa and waits for Alanik to wake up so that he can ask her where Spensa went so that he can go and find her.
== Trivia ==
* Brandon came up with his callsign before his name.
* He was both the character Brandon had the hardest time writing and the one he feels is most like him.
== Notes ==
 
category: viewpoint characters