Name: Mariah (last name unknown, never shared; OOCly: Mariah Siims)
Species/Sex: Human female
Height: 5?6? (average height)
Weight: 135 lbs.
Birthday: August 13th
Birthplace: Chandrilla
Family Status: Orphaned at the age of 13
Surviving Relatives: None known
Joined the Rebellion: Karvis III
Cause of Death: Imperial Stormtrooper ambush
Place of Death: Coreliia
Age at time of death: three weeks short of 17
Character name: Mariah Simms
Personality / Appearance:
Appearance: Mariah has an innocent air about her that is very difficult not to fall for upon first sight of her. She has blond hair, which she always wears pulled back, away from her face, and she has freckles scattered across her face. Here eyes are a piercing blue, however, and they betray the horrors she has been forced to deal with in her life. She is of average height, and therefore does not stand out in a crowd that often. However, she is female, and as such, a certain amount of attention can only be expected?
Mariah has fairly dark (tan) skin, and quite muscular arms and legs.
Personality: As mentioned above, at first glance, Mariah appears to be the spitting image of childhood innocence. However, once a person gets to know her, they find out that this is not entirely true. Yes, she does hold a certain type of goodness about her, and a moral code which is impeccable?.however, the atrocities committed against her and those she loves have been too much to forgive or ignore. This being said, sometimes she can be down-right viscous if need be. She does not like it, and she draws the line at taking lives of innocents. However, if someone supports the Empire, they better hope that Mariah is not around.
Also, Mariah is a survivor. Her parents both being killed while she was still at a very young age, she had to learn to survive on her own. Either survive, or surrender. That was her motto?She learned quickly to defend herself, and she learned quickly not to let others take advantage of her.
Background:
Mariah was born to an ordinary middle class family of Chandrilla, or so she had thought. She had had some very happy memories of her first few childhood years growing up: her favorite spot in her house to just sit and think, her mother?s loving smile, the many special occasions, her younger brother taking his first baby steps, her childhood best friend, her first crush?..
Her life had been going well. She had led a carefree childhood, and her parents had never let on that they were having any sort of problems ? they had seemed to enjoy life just as much as she, herself, did.
However, all of that changed when Mariah reached her thirteenth birthday. She remembered that day clearly?
She had been walking home from a friend?s house when she saw a boy being beat up further down the street. The boy was a little younger than Mariah, and she could not understand why he deserved such punishment. To make things even worse and more confusing, the kids responsible for giving the beating were cursing the boy as a traitor to the Republic and were wearing uniforms she recognized as those belonging to the COMPNOR youth movement. As she quickly ran past the horrible scene, she heard the cries of the boy ? the claims of innocence and the pleas to be left alone. The pleas reached out and stabbed Mariah in her gut, but were lost on the boys responsible for the beating.
When Mariah got home, she had had a look of sadness and confusion on her face that caused her parents to ask with great concern what had happened. When she told them, they had exchanged a Look and Mariah had felt the atmosphere in the room almost tangibly change.
?Mariah?, her mother had begun softly, ?sit down. Please.? Her mother?s tone of voice took hold of Mariah, and she sat down without uttering a single word.
?What you saw today,? her mother continued, ?is not uncommon. It happens quite frequently. However, your father and I have tried our hardest to shelter you from treachery such as this. But now we feel that it is time that you understand the truth.?
Mariah, at this point, was sitting perfectly still (for a first) and was completely absorbed in her mother?s words. There was nothing but a profound silence for several moments, as inside, Mariah?s mind was going into overdrive: She wasn?t so sure she wanted to hear what her parents were about to say. She wasn?t sure that she minded being na?ve. Yes, she admitted it, she was downright afraid of what she could only imagine that she was about to hear. But the choice was evidently not hers to make; to remain na?ve was not an option.
Her mother and her father had then gone on to describe the changes that were taking place in the Republic. They told her about how innocent people protesting decisions made by the Republic had been mowed down as they peacefully marched through the streets. How some civilians just watching such protests had been shot and killed, the police claiming that they were supporting the rallies by being there. And much more. Mariah found what she was hearing very hard to stomach indeed, but she couldn?t really understand why her parents were telling her all of this. She also couldn?t understand why these people were so determined to protest the government. It didn?t seem that bad to her. And if they were getting killed for protesting, why didn?t they just stop? But something her dad was saying caught Mariah?s attention and brought her back to the here and now.
?Mariah,? her father had begun firmly but gently, ?Your mother and I are involved in these protests.? He shrugged then, almost as if to himself, and Mariah could see his mask of self confidence and self-assuredness drop for a moment. ?We didn?t want to involve you in this before. You were too young, as your brother still is now. But we are playing with fire, and it is getting to be a very dangerous game indeed, and, well?..? he broke off and gulped at the air around him and Mariah watched as his Adam?s apple went up and down. ?Well?? he tried again, ?Things are getting hard and so we decided that it is now necessary for you to know, and to understand. Your brother won?t understand. He can?t. He?s too young. But we believe that you can. You must.? Her father paused for a few moments to regain his composure, and in those few moments Mariah?s head was churning. What did they mean by ?things are getting hard?? Her father had sounded almost as if he felt that his life was in danger. But why would he do something that stupid? Why would either of them do something that stupid as to risk their lives? Maybe she was being selfish, but she had always figured her parents would be around forever. She didn?t think she was quite ready for that to not be the case. Maybe she was too young still to understand. But at the moment she knew only one thing for sure, and that was that she didn?t want to hear anymore about this crazy notion. And much to her own amazement as well as that of her parents, one word managed to escape from Mariah?s lips:
?No?, she found herself saying quite calmly, her head shaking slowly from side to side.
?I beg your pardon?? Her father asked, a bit annoyed. And from somewhere deep within her, Mariah seemed to find a new confidence in herself, for, she answered again, more determinedly this time,
?I said ?no??. Her father raised his eyebrows, and turned to exchange another Look with Mariah?s mother. This was obviously not the way they had expected things to go. After a long pause, her mother said calmly but firmly,
?Mariah, we are not asking you to support what we are doing. That would be wrong. You are your own person. You are free to do and think as you please. We are, however, asking you to think about what we are telling you.? She gave her daughter a sympathetic look and added softly, ?Please understand that this is hurting us just as much as it is hurting you. But it must be done. Now, we need you to be brave for us, ok?? Again, not trusting her voice, Mariah simply nodded, trying valiantly to keep back the tears that were threatening to roll down her cheeks.
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Two weeks later, Mariah had been walking home from school. She had had a good day in her classes, and had even scored top marks on her Mech 101 test! So as she was walking, a big smile of contentment and happiness stretched across her face. However, her good mood turned quickly and utterly gray when she came within sight of her house. There were no longer any flames ? the fire police had gotten there already. But a thick and heavy smoke covered everything around the area in which her house used to stand. Fire patrol cars sat in front of her house, and men and women in fire retardant suits were still swarming through every door visible. Mariah fought the urge to cry out, and she resisted the tears that burned at her eyes. She wanted to turn away and run forever. She wanted to get away from this horrible day. She knew what she would find inside, should she remain around: nothing. Absolutely, positively nothing at all. Worse, thinking back to that conversation from two weeks ago, she knew why. Or, rather, in her mind she knew, at any rate. Yes, she was afraid. Inside she felt sick with fear. She had no idea what to do. She was only thirteen years old, for goodness sake! She wasn?t supposed to have to deal with things like this! But as was often repeated to her, life is not fair, and to some it is downright cruel at times.
And such it was being to Mariah, for, one of the fire police had finally spotted the young girl standing all alone, and with a sad and tired look on his face, he had headed in her direction. When he reached her, he knelt down and looked Mariah in the eyes. Then he told her the sad news: They had not found any trace of her parents, he had said. However, they had found the body of a four year old boy trapped inside. He said that they needed her to identify the body. And with this news the tears and anger and fear that Mariah had managed to control up to this point all were freed at once, as if a dam inside of her had just suddenly burst, letting the torrent of emotions it was holding back explode outward. And just as suddenly, Mariah found her feet taking off with a mind of their own. Carrying her body along, her feet pounded along the street. She did not know where she was going. She just knew she was going away. Somewhere. Anywhere. She didn?t care. It was surely better than where she had been.
When she finally grew too tired to take another step, Mariah dropped to the ground and just lay there. There was a vast emptiness inside of her, as if someone had ripped her insides out. Her parents, she was sure, were both dead now. Her brother was dead. Her home was destroyed?she could not think. Her mind was numb with despair by this point. She just lay there, staring up at the sky, silently cursing the galaxy until her mind, too tired to stay awake any longer, finally drifted into a fitful sleep.
When she finally awoke, Mariah felt totally lost and forlorn. She knew she had to do something, but she didn?t know what. She didn?t want to be around people. She was afraid to let anyone else into her life. She didn?t want more hurt. For a while she had hated her parents for causing her so much pain and hurt. She had hated the fact that they had risked their lives with children who were so young. And above all else she had hated them for getting her little brother killed when he had barely begun to live yet. She had not wanted to have anything to do with the resistance group her parents had been a part of. She did not understand yet why they had done what they had done. She was still too young and had too innocent a mind. Later she would understand and regret her earlier hate. But it would take time and the maturity gained through age and experience to forge this comprehension.
But for the moment Mariah despised the Empire as well and wanted nothing to do with it either. This left her very much on her own, with survival needs first and foremost on her mind. But after a while she found she needed to escape the world. It had too many bad memories associated with it now, and she couldn?t find any work. She needed to get away to start a new life. She had headed for the Outer rim, thinking that its remoteness would do her good and had ended up in the Bruanii Sector. But instead she found it too remote, and decided to head a bit more rim-ward. She became interested in the world called Karvis III, which was directly located along various trade routes out of the Bruanii Sector. She found their simple society extremely comforting to her overly tired mind and had relocated there, trying her best to fit in and start a new life for herself.
Although the Karvans were cold to her at first ? they were wary of off-worlders, fearing that they would seek to change a way of life that the Karvans were perfectly happy with ? they gradually warmed up to her and took her in, helping her to get past the deaths of her parents and start over again. To make money to afford basic necessities such as food and clothing, Mariah worked as a kind of handywoman. She would repair whatever was thrown in front of her and would take whatever they would give in return. She fixed weapons on occasion (although these were not greatly present on such a simple world), armor, pots, pans, land-speeders, and she even had a little experience with computer programming and slicing. She found a strange contentment in her work. The things she worked with, they made sense to her. If there was something wrong with an item, it was visible, or, at least, real and tangible. It did not evade her at every turn, and it did not bring with it the confusion that real life seemed to carry with it every second of every minute of every day.
Unfortunately, as political unrest grew on this world, the Empire quickly moved in. One day all was fine. The next day the world had been flattened beneath her. Again she was forced to live through the pain and suffering the military wrought so casually. Again she was forced to go into hiding, fearing for her life and her sanity. And again she had to watch as those she cared about disappeared forever. She didn?t think it could happen again. But it did. This time, however, she knew what she had to do.
There was talk going around about resistance cells forming around the planet. Resolutely, the young girl made a promise ? a promise to find the rebels and help them in any way possible.. She would have her vengeance this time?.
