Maru Alina

"No wait, please don't tell anyone I'm here or they'll throw me away. Yes, throw me away. That's what everyone does with trash; with people they don't need. They throw them away. I just umm... I liked the conversation we had back at the estate and I wanted to talk to you more so I... Kinda hid in this crate. There was supposed to be food or something in it. Don't tell anyone about that either, I don't want to get beaten. No one will beat me? Are you sure? Well... if you say so. So I couldn't help but notice you're in a bad mood. How can I tell? You're giving off this... aura? I guess that would be the word. Aura. Did something happen? Want to talk about it? I don't much like to talk about my troubles but I will listen to yours." - Maru talking with Angela after she was discovered in a crateMaru Astra-Avalia is the illegitimate daughter of Crimson Astra-Avalia. Maru prefers to go under her recently changed name of Maru Alina. Maru is very timid, often avoiding talking to people or even being in the same room as them if she can at all help it. She easily succumbs to authority due to how her father treated her. Maru is easily intimidated. She has long black hair that reaches to her mid-back and stands at a mere 62 inches tall and weighs just shy of 104 lbs. Her and Angela Orientail become very good friends since they share similar childhood trauma. She actually manages to successfully stow away on the Hyperion by sticking herself in a storage crate that was supposed to have food in it for the crew.
Maru was born on Christmas in 2598 and was conceived after Crimson raped his wife. Being a narcissist that must be in control of everything, Crimson completely denied the possibility that his actions brought his daughter into the world, therefore she couldn't have been his. Not only a narcissist but a complete sadist, Crimson physically and mentally abused Maru and her mother and this treatment got progressively worse after Crimson fled after the Black Dawn during the Corsari Conflict. Ultimately, Crimson ended up killing her mother in a fit of psychotic rage when she interfered with him attempting to rape Maru. This seemed to trigger something in him as he immediately went into a fit of crying hysteria and then disappeared for two weeks. He never attempted that on Maru again. Maru escaped her prison when she was 20 years old during one of Crimson's hell marches with the CEF. She was chanced upon by a patrolling platoon of Corsari soldiers and she was swiftly captured and taken into custody. The Corsari government wasted no time using Maru to attempt to lure Crimson out of hiding to face judgement for his role in the Corsari Conflict. She was plastered across news broadcasts and newspapers for weeks, causing a number of mental breakdowns for Maru. Strangely enough, when word of her exact location got out a couple of times there were rather sizeable Extremist attacks on these locations. It's unsure as to whether they were to retrieve Maru or to kill her and deny the Corsari government her use.
== Personality and Trauma ==
These attacks ultimately were repelled and the government soon ceased using Maru as a political pawn given how it both had no effect on drawing Crimson out and that it was actually costing lives. Maru was kept under government custody where she underwent dozens of tests into her mental wellbeing as well as many deep interrogations as to Crimson's private life and how he not only treated her and her late mother but how he operated on a day to day basis as well as any information they may be able to use to defeat the extremists. This proved slow going as Maru was incredibly hard to interrogate as she would often shutdown when intimidated which resulted in many sessions being wastes of time as she would just stare at interrogators with a blank stare, often responding only to direct, simple commands such as "stand", "sit", "go", "eat", etc. It was never anything more than this as she would only acknowledge the commands but never actually speak.
In an attempt to help repair the trauma Maru received at the hands of Crimson she was turned over to a team of psychologists who became her dedicated care takers. It was quickly discovered that Maru was incredibly resourceful, often fashioning makeshift items such as brushes and combs, toothbrushes, eating utensils and other things out of supplies she found laying around. She was also incredibly intelligent although she repressed any individuality while observed. The psychologists determined that this was because Crimson most likely beat her for any show of anything outside of complete obedience so when confronted with Authority she simply fell in line.
Since she wouldn't open up to her own trauma, her caretakers left her with paints, markers, crayons and other art supplies to see if she would possibly write or illustrate her feelings when she was alone. Surprisingly she did know how to read and write, which was unexpected given what they learned about her up until that point however they didn't take into consideration how much Maru's mother taught her prior to her death. Maru would often scribble things down on note pad pages but a common theme were the words "obedience", "authority", "submission" but on the other side of that coin was "hope", "caring", "love", "new day". The psychologists drew the conclusion that her mother tried to reassure the young woman that better days were on the horizon and that everything would get better.
It took several months but Maru did start to open up to other people. At first it started with her not shutting down as much and eventually moved to her engaging in conversations for limited periods of time unless she felt overwhelmed. She tended to gravitate toward her preferred caretakers and even became friends with some of them. She would open up more to them than others.
Maru is incredibly in-tune to people's feelings, often picking up when something is wrong most likely because her mother hid it so well that she developed an innate sense for this. When she senses something is wrong she will attempt, with anything she has available to make that person feel better. The psychologists determine this to be a coping mechanism in that she wants to fix others so that they don't have to feel what she felt. Maru still has her triggers however as yelling at her will cause her to either seize up or flee, depending on if she's in a closed room or can actually get away.
As she got more comfortable, her personality began to shine through. None of Crimson's negative traits seem to have rubbed off on Maru. She's a very kind, intelligent and altogether pleasant person to be around even though it can be difficult to talk to her sometimes. Car-Lah Guderian visits Maru on regular occasions seeing as how she was indirectly responsible for what happened to Maru both in how Crimson was acting after his loss in the war and for using her as a political pawn. She always brings her gifts and Maru seems to have taken a shine to her, always returning the favor with a painting for Car-Lah. Car-Lah always brings at least 1 book to Maru to read and even quizzes her on it.
Category:Person of Interest
Category:Supporting Character