Mara Jade (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
redhanding) wrote2013-09-03 12:53 am
redhanding) wrote2013-09-03 12:53 am
App | Ataraxion
P L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Jill
OOC Journal:ironjill
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: No I’m over 18
Email + IM: braneinthebulk@gmail.com | IM: Comeherehand
Characters Played at Ataraxion: n/a
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Mara Jade(-Skywalker)
Canon: Star Wars EU
Original or Alternate Universe: Canon
Canon Point: Post-the shitty Union comic, so about 20 years after the battle of Yavin (the end of star wars: a new hope)
Number: 096
Setting:
Ok, let’s start at the beginning, and it goes like this: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
Which says a lot, at least we know it’s not the planet Earth, and the story doesn’t really take place on one planet, either. Now, a crash course into Star Wars history starts a long, long, long, long time ago. You see, the Galaxy is nothing like what we know of ours. The galaxy has a multitude of planets, and each one is unique, and many of them have fostered life. Many millions of years before what’s considered the Star Wars equivalent of the “common era”. Hyperspace travel is what brought the galaxy together, just like in most civilizations, once travel is easier, things come together. The first people to discover hyperspace were an ancient race called the Rakata, but others followed, and then the galaxy opened wide. Which meant civilization followed. Within this civilization, many quirks formed. Eventually, there was a Galactic Republic, formed of all the different species and people of the galaxy, and within the republic was a contingent of defenders, who would uphold its laws, and also uphold their own rules. The Jedi Knights used a powerful tool, or ability, called the Force. This was an energy field that was generated from all living things, although only certain people seemed to have the ability to touch this mystic Force. (This was due to something in the bloodstream called midicholorians, which I’ll mention here once and then never again because wow George Lucas, you are weird.)
Although there were Jedi, who were the paragons, for the most part, there were also people who used the force for selfish reasons as well. To gain power, to hold power, to control and destroy, a more selfish use of the force. They called themselves sith, even though they really stole the name from another species and took it as their own. It’s not important, this is literally ancient history. ANYWAY, the Jedi and the Sith have a long, long history of being on opposite sides, and a long time ago, the Sith were plentiful and strong, and even though they stuck to the shadows, they eventually dwindled in number, thanks to several issues, including the loss of one of their greats, Darth Revan. While the Jedi flourished, the Sith became something less known, and eventually, thanks to another great leader, named Darth Bane, they found a new rule, called the Rule of two. This was an important tipping point, because the Sith all but disappeared after this point for a long, long time. Thousands of years, until we get to the point of the decay of the Galactic Republic. This was a tipping point, and an important one, and it started on a planet called Naboo, where a fourteen year old elected queen (don’t ask me, this is fucking Star Wars) was seeing her planet threatened in a trade blockade, where these jedi were trying to negotiate a stop. All that’s really important to take from this is that eventually, eventually the Queen had to leave and see her senator, and get to the heart of the galaxy named Coruscant (after taking this weird detour on the outer rim for some reason. She met a kid there, it’s not important) where she was persuaded by her senator to get him to run for chancellor after everyone thought the current one sucked.
All well and good, right? The chancellor helped break the blockade after a fight, and all this stuff was happy, and nothing bad could ever happen, right? Except that the chancellor set the whole thing up, and nobody knew about it, and then there were more fights, and this time the queen was a senator (and that’s a move up somehow??) and that kid she met on Tatooine was an adult and a Jedi trainee, which was cool maybe. Except the end result of the Chancellor’s manipulations was that he had a clone army thanks to this weird war with these guys who were trying to declare independence (It’s totally about states rights!!) and it was eventually called the Clone Wars. With the Jedi none the wiser, and that queen was the senator in his pocket, the Chancellor’s time was going pretty good.
Except the Chancellor was named Palpatine, and he had his clone army start eradicating the jedi in the middle of the clone wars, and then he declared himself (you guessed it) Emperor Palpatine, and (gasp!!) he was a Sith Lord. And he also manipulated this totally unimportant person named Anakin Skywalker (Jedi Jesus figure) to join him on the Dark Side, which means that he had his sidekick who was burned and mechanical at this point named Darth Vader.
And that is a brief rundown of the history of Star Wars to get us to where we can pick up into the star of the show. (not really)
History:
Mara Jade never knew her parents. In fact, the name she was born with may not have even been Mara Jade. Before the time she was taken away does not really matter in the scope of her personal history. She was taken at an extremely young age by Emperor Palpatine, and was born approximately one year after the fall of the Galactic Republic and the emergence of the Galactic Empire. She was then trained from a young age to be the hand of Emperor Palpatine. This meant that she would become an extension of his will, and was trained to be an efficient killer and enforcer for his Imperial Highness. When she was 16, her training had been completed, and Mara Jade had learned to use any weapon, trick any fool, and kill anybody. She was then unleashed as a secret hand for the Emperor, and was given several missions throughout her life, until approximately 3 years after the battle of Yavin, in which she was given the mission of a lifetime. She was assigned to assassinate Luke Skywalker. (Spoilers: He’s Darth Vader’s son.)
Mara infiltrated Jabba the Hutt's palace as a dancer with the alias Arica. Unfortunately, she was stopped by a member of Jabba's security guards under the suspicion that she was working for an enemy of Jabba's, Lady Valarian. This kept her from coming to Jabba's sail barge, where she planned to kill Luke. Because of this failure she was unable to reunite with her master, and following the events of Return of the Jedi, she was given a final message from her master as he died; to Kill Luke Skywalker, since he’d done the courtesy of ending his life. However, this plan was not easily executed, since after the fall of the Emperor, Mara Jade was immediately imprisoned by the warlord Ysanne Isard (Actually, there were many people who were powerful in the Empire who became warlords as they fought over the scraps of Palpatine’s holdings). She managed to escape, but not without permanently severing all ties with the current Imperial administration. After that, Mara performed a number of odd jobs, until she landed a position as a mechanic, and impressed a ‘rich gentleman’ when he was in trouble on a game hunting expedition. The man was named Talon Karrde, and he offered her a job as a mechanic in his smuggling empire. However, Mara was far more than just a mechanic, and she rose through the ranks of his group, until she was his second in command.
While she was working for Karrde, the Grand Admiral Thrawn began his acclimation of Imperial territory (Remember what I said about Warlords). When this happened, Luke Skywalker was left stranded in his X-Wing when Mara sensed his presence through the Force, and managed to stop Karrde's ship and pick him up. Of course, Mara had her own reasons for this. Since Palpatine's death and message to her, she had been plagued by his dying wish with increasing severity. She saw this as an opportunity for revenge. Unfortunately, Talon saw it as an opportunity for business, and they continued to their hideout on Mykyr. However, Luke eventually managed to escape, and Mara chased after them, meaning that they had to work together to escape Imperial forces invading the planet and get out. It was here that Luke discovered why Mara hated him so much, and that he needed to die. However, he wasn't ready to be killed (who would be?), and soon after they escaped the planet. During the Thrawn uprising, Mara enlisted in Luke's help a few times, until it came to taking on the mad clone of Joruus C'boath. They took him on, along the clone of Luke, named Luuke. Mara killed this clone, and ended Palpatine's voice calling for revenge. Luke gave her the lightsaber his clone had used (Which had been the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker, and Luke’s that he’d lost several years ago when he’d lost a hand), and begged her to come to Yavin IV to train as a Jedi.
However, Mara was stubborn, and preferred the life of a smuggler. She attempted to go to Luke's Jedi academy, but found the training techniques lacking. She was also very put off by his wavering relationship with the dark side, and felt that the darkness hanging over him was poisoning everything around him. When she was at the Jedi Academy, it was right before the ghost of Exar Kun took possession of Luke’s body, rendering him in a coma for quite some time. While she was there, she trained with Corran Horn, and although they were originally off to a rocky start, Mara and Corran became friends, and Mara became very involved in the campaign to end Exar Kun’s control over the Jedi Academy. However, after this incident, Mara left. She felt that the temptation for the dark side was too great, and she would not be a part of that again, especially after Palpatine.
After this, Mara became a leading figure in the Smugglers Alliance -- which was exactly what it sounded like, and went through several incidents, before she started a legitimate trading company, to give her the experience needed to become the leader of Karrde’s organization. It was during a large conference on Corellia that Mara was brought back to association with many of the head figures in her galaxy. During this incident, a xenophobic group called the Human league attempted to take over the Corellian system by eliminating the Selonians and the Drall (Two species that also lived in the same solar system) from the triad (the governing body in the system) as well as overtake Centerpoint Station, which had the power to completely destroy planets across the galaxy. Mara and Leia rendezvoused with each other, and Mara was drawn into the battle for Centerpoint, eventually helping Leia, Han, and Luke to defeat the Human League.
After this, Mara was drawn into something called the Caamas Document crisis: which was a leak of information that could have led to all-out war, but only marginally. She managed to rescue her boss, Talon Karrde, from a Pirate base, and they caught sight of a Chiss ship, and when Mara and Karrde returned to his own ship, the Errant Venture, they caught sight of the ships again. This time they managed to track their destination to the Nirauan system in the outer rim, far on the edges of the galaxy, where Mara planned to go in one of Karrde’s ships, the Starry Ice to investigate. She kept the Ice in her own ship, and took to Niraaun, to investigate the word’s she’d heard. What she found was a new contingent of the Emperor’s shadow, this time a group called the Hand of Thrawn. Their mission? Clone the now-deceased Grand Admiral Thrawn. Mara, unfortunately, got caught on a dumb mistake, which meant that other people who were having weird dreams about her decided to go figure out what was happening with her.
Surprise, it was Luke Skywalker. Again. He always seemed to show up, but this time, it was a good thing. He managed to save her skin, or at least get her away from her captors, and then they worked together to not only destroy the clone of Thrawn (because this is Star Wars and clones are a thing) but also almost get drowned in ice water, where they finally decided that maybe they should Talk about their Feelings. And then Luke proposed to her, and they decided to get married.
Which happened later, when they got back, and some old Imperials tried to stop it (surprise) but it actually didn’t end out too bad. Surprisingly. Which is where she’ll be showing up here.
Personality:
Mara's greatest strengths come from her spirit. She is commanding, confident, cool, but also able to soften, if the moment is right. She has a strong will, and can command the force very well, when she wishes to. However, Mara does not rely on her command of the force, as she believes it will make her weak. Instead, she avoids it almost altogether, and uses her quick thinking, sharp tongue, and quick trigger-finger to get her through any situation. However, she cannot cut herself off from the force so readily, and is prone to experiencing visions and using it when the need is there. She doesn’t rely on it, but she is pragmatic, and understands that a tool is a tool and when it’s the best one for the job, she’ll use it.
However, her biggest weakness is her inability to depend on anyone or anything. She has begun to learn to trust again, but it has been a long journey to get to this point, and it doesn’t come easily. After the control that Palpatine held over her life, she has thus begun to reject anything that could have control over her. Perhaps this is why she chose to work for Talon Karrde, who is a leader, but also a man that greatly respects each member of his crew a great amount. Another weakness she has is to the Dark Side. Since Mara is still not fully trained (Her former teacher, Kyle Katarn did not complete her training, and in fact fell to the dark side himself for a time) she is very susceptible to the dark side, but her spirit and stubborn attitude have kept her from ever actually falling, and she has even lectured the Jedi Grand Master, Luke Skywalker, on this subject several times.
With that, comes the way that Mara interacts with people. She is snarky and hot-headed. She does not let others come close to her, and makes sure that they only even marginally like her. The exception to this is Luke and his family. She has helped them out a number of times, but she wasn’t always the kindest to them, until recent years. You can’t be an in-law and be that mean. Luke, however is very persistent, and does put up with her increasingly snarky attacks. It seems that the closer she gets to someone, the harsher she becomes, and the less willing she is to relinquish any control to that person. However, Mara is respectful when the time is called for, and those that she has gained a respect for she will die trying to protect and fight for. Which is why Luke was able to chip through her armor, and find a way in. The harder she fought, the worse it got, until she finally accepted this as a reality. At the same time, while strong, she finds it hard to believe, and hard to have faith, which is why she struggles with the force sometimes as well. While now a Jedi, Mara should still rely on the power she has, but she doesn’t, and is instead cautious not to latch onto anything too much.
She worries about being reliant, about giving anyone or anything too much power, because she’d once had her entire world be someone else, the Emperor, and she knows the folly of what could happen if she let that happen again. Even now, even when Mara’s finally begun to trust someone else and let someone into her life, she’s still struggling to keep from becoming that person again, and she always will.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Mara’s abilities are grounded in the Force. This means that she has a way to use telekinesis, put herself into a healing trance, put others into a healing trance, minor empathic abilities, if she is extremely close to a person, they will hold something of a telepathic link. (By close, I mean that she has felt this to both Emperor Palpatine and Luke Skywalker. We’re talking close close.) Most canon Jedi abilities apply, although she is not as good at force suggestion, but her danger sense is Very keen. She can pick up readings from the force far better than even Luke Skywalker can, but don’t ask her to get people to believe everything she says, unless they are extremely weak-willed. Her abilities with the force, while decent, are not always used to the best of their ability. She’s not willing to rely on the force, and like with most things, that means she isn’t well integrated or used to using it all the time.
Outside of the force, she’s technologically savvy, a great businesswoman, skilled in a wide range of combat and sharpshooting techniques, and also a fantastic pilot. Her weaknesses, other than the obvious with the force are grounded more in emotional stability and how she interacts with people, and that she’s unable to rely or ask for help from anyone.
Inventory: On her at the time of her arrival will be:
Her standard clothing (which is stealth clothing (inexplicably) made out of leather, which include the catsuit and black combat boots)
One Cream hood and a pair of goggles
One Lightsaber
One Blaster pistol
One Vibro-shiv
Appearance:
[Canon Appearance]
Mara Jade is a standard sized woman with a dancer’s frame. She’s lean, but built for power. Years of training and making sure she was appropriately equipped means she shows the traits of someone you would expect to be made to fight.
Other than that, she has mid-length red-gold hair and green eyes. A slightly upturned nose, and the kind of face that’s often hard, but definitely looks like it would be beautiful if softened.
Age: Approximately 37. There’s no real canon date of birth, so only conjecture and word of Timothy Zahn that she’s about 2 years younger than Luke is all we really have.
AU Clarification: n/a
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
Waking with a start, in a place she didn’t recognize was not a situation she was normally shoved into. She excelled at many things, but simply because she did so, finding herself in a situation she hadn’t arranged meant there was something wrong. The checklist came next. Breathing, check. Sight, she checked as she opened her eyes, check. Moving through her senses, wiggling her fingers and toes, listening for trouble, but she didn’t move to pull out of the -- she assumed it was crash webbing -- restraints. Not yet. Not until she listened, and heard nothing, and then, tentatively, she reached out with the force. Limited senses, she didn’t move far, and she didn’t reach much, but the one thing Mara Jade would use was her danger senses. Nothing pinged, nothing hit her head like a brick wall, demanding her to duck, telling her with the subtle cues and prickled hairs on the back of her neck, that she needed to wait.
And so she peeled out, and followed along, eyes scanning, mouth tight in a line. Her hands gripped whatever she could find, and her mind raced to make sense of this. It raced, but she found nothing. No answers. This wasn’t standard, nothing about the ship matched any models she could recall. The parts didn’t look familiar, and even the way the metal deck felt beneath her feet wasn’t the same. And even when she was met with the familiar, her things, clothing and items, it wasn’t the same. It still didn’t feel right.
But she could make this work, couldn’t she? She’d met adversaries and troubles before, and this? This was nothing. She had her senses, she had her weapons. Who would kidnap her and leave her with her weapons? The suicidal, apparently -- obviously. They gave her the weapons she needed, they didn't restrain her, what did they expect to happen? Her senses sharp, and awake, she didn't so much as walk her way down the halls, once she changed, but instead, she slunk, her eyes sharp, her steps slow, and her every sense ready to alert her at a moment's notice. A pang hit her, when she remembered that she hadn't woken up at home, and she would have offered a thought to her husband, who was likely in just as much trouble as she was, but she knew he would be fine, just like she would be. She'd been through worse, she'd fought through worse, and she'd persevered through worse. If they thought they could stop her, if they thought they could confuse her, or hold her here, the were wrong. She'd show them just how wrong they were, too. She shifted, a slight movement, feeling the familiar presence of her weapons, and knowing they were a comfort. She didn't need them, but they helped.
And they'd harm, too. Just not her.
Comms Sample:
Alright, I don’t have time to deal with stupid questions. I’ve listened and done my research, so don’t fill me in on the basics. I want stats and specifics. Who knows anything about the Tranquility itself? I want specs if at all possible.
As for the people, if my voice is familiar, I want to know. If not, then tell me who you are, and what you’ve found new, so far. Consider it research purposes. [ A pause. It’s obvious, she wants the scope of the land, not the ‘who you are’ breakdown. ]
I noticed they gave us access to these things, after kidnapping us, and giving us our items, and leaving us intact, whoever’s in charge of this place, are you listening too? I have to tell you, you're bad at this kriffing kidnapping thing.
Your Name: Jill
OOC Journal:
ironjillUnder 18? If yes, what is your age?: No I’m over 18
Email + IM: braneinthebulk@gmail.com | IM: Comeherehand
Characters Played at Ataraxion: n/a
C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Mara Jade(-Skywalker)
Canon: Star Wars EU
Original or Alternate Universe: Canon
Canon Point: Post-the shitty Union comic, so about 20 years after the battle of Yavin (the end of star wars: a new hope)
Number: 096
Setting:
Ok, let’s start at the beginning, and it goes like this: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
Which says a lot, at least we know it’s not the planet Earth, and the story doesn’t really take place on one planet, either. Now, a crash course into Star Wars history starts a long, long, long, long time ago. You see, the Galaxy is nothing like what we know of ours. The galaxy has a multitude of planets, and each one is unique, and many of them have fostered life. Many millions of years before what’s considered the Star Wars equivalent of the “common era”. Hyperspace travel is what brought the galaxy together, just like in most civilizations, once travel is easier, things come together. The first people to discover hyperspace were an ancient race called the Rakata, but others followed, and then the galaxy opened wide. Which meant civilization followed. Within this civilization, many quirks formed. Eventually, there was a Galactic Republic, formed of all the different species and people of the galaxy, and within the republic was a contingent of defenders, who would uphold its laws, and also uphold their own rules. The Jedi Knights used a powerful tool, or ability, called the Force. This was an energy field that was generated from all living things, although only certain people seemed to have the ability to touch this mystic Force. (This was due to something in the bloodstream called midicholorians, which I’ll mention here once and then never again because wow George Lucas, you are weird.)
Although there were Jedi, who were the paragons, for the most part, there were also people who used the force for selfish reasons as well. To gain power, to hold power, to control and destroy, a more selfish use of the force. They called themselves sith, even though they really stole the name from another species and took it as their own. It’s not important, this is literally ancient history. ANYWAY, the Jedi and the Sith have a long, long history of being on opposite sides, and a long time ago, the Sith were plentiful and strong, and even though they stuck to the shadows, they eventually dwindled in number, thanks to several issues, including the loss of one of their greats, Darth Revan. While the Jedi flourished, the Sith became something less known, and eventually, thanks to another great leader, named Darth Bane, they found a new rule, called the Rule of two. This was an important tipping point, because the Sith all but disappeared after this point for a long, long time. Thousands of years, until we get to the point of the decay of the Galactic Republic. This was a tipping point, and an important one, and it started on a planet called Naboo, where a fourteen year old elected queen (don’t ask me, this is fucking Star Wars) was seeing her planet threatened in a trade blockade, where these jedi were trying to negotiate a stop. All that’s really important to take from this is that eventually, eventually the Queen had to leave and see her senator, and get to the heart of the galaxy named Coruscant (after taking this weird detour on the outer rim for some reason. She met a kid there, it’s not important) where she was persuaded by her senator to get him to run for chancellor after everyone thought the current one sucked.
All well and good, right? The chancellor helped break the blockade after a fight, and all this stuff was happy, and nothing bad could ever happen, right? Except that the chancellor set the whole thing up, and nobody knew about it, and then there were more fights, and this time the queen was a senator (and that’s a move up somehow??) and that kid she met on Tatooine was an adult and a Jedi trainee, which was cool maybe. Except the end result of the Chancellor’s manipulations was that he had a clone army thanks to this weird war with these guys who were trying to declare independence (It’s totally about states rights!!) and it was eventually called the Clone Wars. With the Jedi none the wiser, and that queen was the senator in his pocket, the Chancellor’s time was going pretty good.
Except the Chancellor was named Palpatine, and he had his clone army start eradicating the jedi in the middle of the clone wars, and then he declared himself (you guessed it) Emperor Palpatine, and (gasp!!) he was a Sith Lord. And he also manipulated this totally unimportant person named Anakin Skywalker (Jedi Jesus figure) to join him on the Dark Side, which means that he had his sidekick who was burned and mechanical at this point named Darth Vader.
And that is a brief rundown of the history of Star Wars to get us to where we can pick up into the star of the show. (not really)
History:
Mara Jade never knew her parents. In fact, the name she was born with may not have even been Mara Jade. Before the time she was taken away does not really matter in the scope of her personal history. She was taken at an extremely young age by Emperor Palpatine, and was born approximately one year after the fall of the Galactic Republic and the emergence of the Galactic Empire. She was then trained from a young age to be the hand of Emperor Palpatine. This meant that she would become an extension of his will, and was trained to be an efficient killer and enforcer for his Imperial Highness. When she was 16, her training had been completed, and Mara Jade had learned to use any weapon, trick any fool, and kill anybody. She was then unleashed as a secret hand for the Emperor, and was given several missions throughout her life, until approximately 3 years after the battle of Yavin, in which she was given the mission of a lifetime. She was assigned to assassinate Luke Skywalker. (Spoilers: He’s Darth Vader’s son.)
Mara infiltrated Jabba the Hutt's palace as a dancer with the alias Arica. Unfortunately, she was stopped by a member of Jabba's security guards under the suspicion that she was working for an enemy of Jabba's, Lady Valarian. This kept her from coming to Jabba's sail barge, where she planned to kill Luke. Because of this failure she was unable to reunite with her master, and following the events of Return of the Jedi, she was given a final message from her master as he died; to Kill Luke Skywalker, since he’d done the courtesy of ending his life. However, this plan was not easily executed, since after the fall of the Emperor, Mara Jade was immediately imprisoned by the warlord Ysanne Isard (Actually, there were many people who were powerful in the Empire who became warlords as they fought over the scraps of Palpatine’s holdings). She managed to escape, but not without permanently severing all ties with the current Imperial administration. After that, Mara performed a number of odd jobs, until she landed a position as a mechanic, and impressed a ‘rich gentleman’ when he was in trouble on a game hunting expedition. The man was named Talon Karrde, and he offered her a job as a mechanic in his smuggling empire. However, Mara was far more than just a mechanic, and she rose through the ranks of his group, until she was his second in command.
While she was working for Karrde, the Grand Admiral Thrawn began his acclimation of Imperial territory (Remember what I said about Warlords). When this happened, Luke Skywalker was left stranded in his X-Wing when Mara sensed his presence through the Force, and managed to stop Karrde's ship and pick him up. Of course, Mara had her own reasons for this. Since Palpatine's death and message to her, she had been plagued by his dying wish with increasing severity. She saw this as an opportunity for revenge. Unfortunately, Talon saw it as an opportunity for business, and they continued to their hideout on Mykyr. However, Luke eventually managed to escape, and Mara chased after them, meaning that they had to work together to escape Imperial forces invading the planet and get out. It was here that Luke discovered why Mara hated him so much, and that he needed to die. However, he wasn't ready to be killed (who would be?), and soon after they escaped the planet. During the Thrawn uprising, Mara enlisted in Luke's help a few times, until it came to taking on the mad clone of Joruus C'boath. They took him on, along the clone of Luke, named Luuke. Mara killed this clone, and ended Palpatine's voice calling for revenge. Luke gave her the lightsaber his clone had used (Which had been the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker, and Luke’s that he’d lost several years ago when he’d lost a hand), and begged her to come to Yavin IV to train as a Jedi.
However, Mara was stubborn, and preferred the life of a smuggler. She attempted to go to Luke's Jedi academy, but found the training techniques lacking. She was also very put off by his wavering relationship with the dark side, and felt that the darkness hanging over him was poisoning everything around him. When she was at the Jedi Academy, it was right before the ghost of Exar Kun took possession of Luke’s body, rendering him in a coma for quite some time. While she was there, she trained with Corran Horn, and although they were originally off to a rocky start, Mara and Corran became friends, and Mara became very involved in the campaign to end Exar Kun’s control over the Jedi Academy. However, after this incident, Mara left. She felt that the temptation for the dark side was too great, and she would not be a part of that again, especially after Palpatine.
After this, Mara became a leading figure in the Smugglers Alliance -- which was exactly what it sounded like, and went through several incidents, before she started a legitimate trading company, to give her the experience needed to become the leader of Karrde’s organization. It was during a large conference on Corellia that Mara was brought back to association with many of the head figures in her galaxy. During this incident, a xenophobic group called the Human league attempted to take over the Corellian system by eliminating the Selonians and the Drall (Two species that also lived in the same solar system) from the triad (the governing body in the system) as well as overtake Centerpoint Station, which had the power to completely destroy planets across the galaxy. Mara and Leia rendezvoused with each other, and Mara was drawn into the battle for Centerpoint, eventually helping Leia, Han, and Luke to defeat the Human League.
After this, Mara was drawn into something called the Caamas Document crisis: which was a leak of information that could have led to all-out war, but only marginally. She managed to rescue her boss, Talon Karrde, from a Pirate base, and they caught sight of a Chiss ship, and when Mara and Karrde returned to his own ship, the Errant Venture, they caught sight of the ships again. This time they managed to track their destination to the Nirauan system in the outer rim, far on the edges of the galaxy, where Mara planned to go in one of Karrde’s ships, the Starry Ice to investigate. She kept the Ice in her own ship, and took to Niraaun, to investigate the word’s she’d heard. What she found was a new contingent of the Emperor’s shadow, this time a group called the Hand of Thrawn. Their mission? Clone the now-deceased Grand Admiral Thrawn. Mara, unfortunately, got caught on a dumb mistake, which meant that other people who were having weird dreams about her decided to go figure out what was happening with her.
Surprise, it was Luke Skywalker. Again. He always seemed to show up, but this time, it was a good thing. He managed to save her skin, or at least get her away from her captors, and then they worked together to not only destroy the clone of Thrawn (because this is Star Wars and clones are a thing) but also almost get drowned in ice water, where they finally decided that maybe they should Talk about their Feelings. And then Luke proposed to her, and they decided to get married.
Which happened later, when they got back, and some old Imperials tried to stop it (surprise) but it actually didn’t end out too bad. Surprisingly. Which is where she’ll be showing up here.
Personality:
Mara's greatest strengths come from her spirit. She is commanding, confident, cool, but also able to soften, if the moment is right. She has a strong will, and can command the force very well, when she wishes to. However, Mara does not rely on her command of the force, as she believes it will make her weak. Instead, she avoids it almost altogether, and uses her quick thinking, sharp tongue, and quick trigger-finger to get her through any situation. However, she cannot cut herself off from the force so readily, and is prone to experiencing visions and using it when the need is there. She doesn’t rely on it, but she is pragmatic, and understands that a tool is a tool and when it’s the best one for the job, she’ll use it.
However, her biggest weakness is her inability to depend on anyone or anything. She has begun to learn to trust again, but it has been a long journey to get to this point, and it doesn’t come easily. After the control that Palpatine held over her life, she has thus begun to reject anything that could have control over her. Perhaps this is why she chose to work for Talon Karrde, who is a leader, but also a man that greatly respects each member of his crew a great amount. Another weakness she has is to the Dark Side. Since Mara is still not fully trained (Her former teacher, Kyle Katarn did not complete her training, and in fact fell to the dark side himself for a time) she is very susceptible to the dark side, but her spirit and stubborn attitude have kept her from ever actually falling, and she has even lectured the Jedi Grand Master, Luke Skywalker, on this subject several times.
With that, comes the way that Mara interacts with people. She is snarky and hot-headed. She does not let others come close to her, and makes sure that they only even marginally like her. The exception to this is Luke and his family. She has helped them out a number of times, but she wasn’t always the kindest to them, until recent years. You can’t be an in-law and be that mean. Luke, however is very persistent, and does put up with her increasingly snarky attacks. It seems that the closer she gets to someone, the harsher she becomes, and the less willing she is to relinquish any control to that person. However, Mara is respectful when the time is called for, and those that she has gained a respect for she will die trying to protect and fight for. Which is why Luke was able to chip through her armor, and find a way in. The harder she fought, the worse it got, until she finally accepted this as a reality. At the same time, while strong, she finds it hard to believe, and hard to have faith, which is why she struggles with the force sometimes as well. While now a Jedi, Mara should still rely on the power she has, but she doesn’t, and is instead cautious not to latch onto anything too much.
She worries about being reliant, about giving anyone or anything too much power, because she’d once had her entire world be someone else, the Emperor, and she knows the folly of what could happen if she let that happen again. Even now, even when Mara’s finally begun to trust someone else and let someone into her life, she’s still struggling to keep from becoming that person again, and she always will.
Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Mara’s abilities are grounded in the Force. This means that she has a way to use telekinesis, put herself into a healing trance, put others into a healing trance, minor empathic abilities, if she is extremely close to a person, they will hold something of a telepathic link. (By close, I mean that she has felt this to both Emperor Palpatine and Luke Skywalker. We’re talking close close.) Most canon Jedi abilities apply, although she is not as good at force suggestion, but her danger sense is Very keen. She can pick up readings from the force far better than even Luke Skywalker can, but don’t ask her to get people to believe everything she says, unless they are extremely weak-willed. Her abilities with the force, while decent, are not always used to the best of their ability. She’s not willing to rely on the force, and like with most things, that means she isn’t well integrated or used to using it all the time.
Outside of the force, she’s technologically savvy, a great businesswoman, skilled in a wide range of combat and sharpshooting techniques, and also a fantastic pilot. Her weaknesses, other than the obvious with the force are grounded more in emotional stability and how she interacts with people, and that she’s unable to rely or ask for help from anyone.
Inventory: On her at the time of her arrival will be:
Her standard clothing (which is stealth clothing (inexplicably) made out of leather, which include the catsuit and black combat boots)
One Cream hood and a pair of goggles
One Lightsaber
One Blaster pistol
One Vibro-shiv
Appearance:
[Canon Appearance]
Mara Jade is a standard sized woman with a dancer’s frame. She’s lean, but built for power. Years of training and making sure she was appropriately equipped means she shows the traits of someone you would expect to be made to fight.
Other than that, she has mid-length red-gold hair and green eyes. A slightly upturned nose, and the kind of face that’s often hard, but definitely looks like it would be beautiful if softened.
Age: Approximately 37. There’s no real canon date of birth, so only conjecture and word of Timothy Zahn that she’s about 2 years younger than Luke is all we really have.
AU Clarification: n/a
S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
Waking with a start, in a place she didn’t recognize was not a situation she was normally shoved into. She excelled at many things, but simply because she did so, finding herself in a situation she hadn’t arranged meant there was something wrong. The checklist came next. Breathing, check. Sight, she checked as she opened her eyes, check. Moving through her senses, wiggling her fingers and toes, listening for trouble, but she didn’t move to pull out of the -- she assumed it was crash webbing -- restraints. Not yet. Not until she listened, and heard nothing, and then, tentatively, she reached out with the force. Limited senses, she didn’t move far, and she didn’t reach much, but the one thing Mara Jade would use was her danger senses. Nothing pinged, nothing hit her head like a brick wall, demanding her to duck, telling her with the subtle cues and prickled hairs on the back of her neck, that she needed to wait.
And so she peeled out, and followed along, eyes scanning, mouth tight in a line. Her hands gripped whatever she could find, and her mind raced to make sense of this. It raced, but she found nothing. No answers. This wasn’t standard, nothing about the ship matched any models she could recall. The parts didn’t look familiar, and even the way the metal deck felt beneath her feet wasn’t the same. And even when she was met with the familiar, her things, clothing and items, it wasn’t the same. It still didn’t feel right.
But she could make this work, couldn’t she? She’d met adversaries and troubles before, and this? This was nothing. She had her senses, she had her weapons. Who would kidnap her and leave her with her weapons? The suicidal, apparently -- obviously. They gave her the weapons she needed, they didn't restrain her, what did they expect to happen? Her senses sharp, and awake, she didn't so much as walk her way down the halls, once she changed, but instead, she slunk, her eyes sharp, her steps slow, and her every sense ready to alert her at a moment's notice. A pang hit her, when she remembered that she hadn't woken up at home, and she would have offered a thought to her husband, who was likely in just as much trouble as she was, but she knew he would be fine, just like she would be. She'd been through worse, she'd fought through worse, and she'd persevered through worse. If they thought they could stop her, if they thought they could confuse her, or hold her here, the were wrong. She'd show them just how wrong they were, too. She shifted, a slight movement, feeling the familiar presence of her weapons, and knowing they were a comfort. She didn't need them, but they helped.
And they'd harm, too. Just not her.
Comms Sample:
Alright, I don’t have time to deal with stupid questions. I’ve listened and done my research, so don’t fill me in on the basics. I want stats and specifics. Who knows anything about the Tranquility itself? I want specs if at all possible.
As for the people, if my voice is familiar, I want to know. If not, then tell me who you are, and what you’ve found new, so far. Consider it research purposes. [ A pause. It’s obvious, she wants the scope of the land, not the ‘who you are’ breakdown. ]
I noticed they gave us access to these things, after kidnapping us, and giving us our items, and leaving us intact, whoever’s in charge of this place, are you listening too? I have to tell you, you're bad at this kriffing kidnapping thing.