Mara Xiaolong

## History

For someone as young as she is - Tiefling age of adulthood is 20 years old, after all - Mara has had a surprising amount of events happen, at least to her.

To begin with, she was born on an independent trade station based out of an asteroid belt not truly in any 'national' borders, so her citizenship of any specific empire is thrown into question immediately. Of course, as would be expected from a trade-based station, there's quite a large amount of emphasis placed on personal property, which has led Mara to be a bit greedy and selfish. That greediness led her to get into a few fights in her childhood, most of them being started by her in some fashion, and all of them only serving to advance her abilities in hand-to-hand combat, which she's quite proficient in, by now. As such, her selfish has, at least so far, mostly served to aid her, but the future leaves much to question in if that will continue to be the case.

Mara's childhood was uneventful, nothing particularly tragic happening, no loss of her parents or anything, though they were somewhat distant. Her schooling went by without much of import occurring, and she did decently enough, not scoring too high, but not failing. Her true talent developed when she was in her mid-teens, however, and that is that she's fairly good at talking to people, compared to most others. Greedy as she is, there's only really one possibility that she saw on how to use this talent, so she started talking to people, bartering with them for various things - Never breaking the law, or giving people an unfair deal, but usually coming out ahead.

It was around this time that she'd meet her 'partner in crime', so to speak, a rabbit hengeyokai by the name of Lanmei. Between the two, Mara usually acted as the leader, since she was better at talking to people, though Lanmei had a sort of fragile appearance to her, which was occasionally used to the pair's advantage, what with how easily it is to accidentally 'hurt' someone. Regardless, the two developed a sort of ambition, around then - Lanmei was roughly 13, and Mara 16 - And that is to set out on their own, into the blackness of space, and find their own place in the world. The best way to do this is, of course, to learn to pilot a ship of their own, so that was Mara's next goal, while Lanmei opted to hone her skills with ranged weapons, since Mara is skilled in close combat.

From here, as mentioned above, Mara got into learning to pilot ships. Originally just through courses on flying trade routes, as is common for most recent graduates on the station, but she proved to be fairly talented with it rather quickly. That talent led her to begin running proper patrol routes - albeit very safe ones, with little chance of actual trouble - around the station at around 17 years of age, much younger than one would normally be allowed to. In the end, that only truly served to teach her how to pilot a ship in a more hands-on manner, as nothing problematic occurred while she was out and about in such a manner.

In tandem with that, which did earn her a small wage since it was technically work, Mara was striving to save up and earn money for her own ship. Unsurprisingly, she went about this by trading and talking with people, not conning them, but.. She's a merchant, in a sense, so she wasn't entirely honest all the time. Regardless, after a while, she had saved enough credits and was owed enough favors to be able to acquire a small ship, which meant that that part of the plan was taken care of.

After that, all that was left was, mostly, time. Mara needed to come of age before they could actually leave, and the resultant lull is when she ended up getting what is probably the most striking aspect of her current appearance, that being a customized cybernetic arm. The reasoning behind it isn't a violent one, or even really one of necessity - No, Mara simply wanted to be.. Rebellious, perhaps, in a way. To her, it was a means of showing that she doesn't intend to continue being a simple trader forever, since it is, in fact, rather specialized for combat. Regardless of the reason, it was a rather simple operation and happened without issue, not taking much time at all.

Finally, Mara's coming-of-age arrived, and after a brief party, she hurried to leave the station and set out into the vastness of space, to find what it is she's to do. Since then, it's been two years, and most of that has been spent as a mercenary of some sort, usually guarding trade ships or something similar. More interesting than her original prospects, for certain, but not by much, and she's now looking for ways to expand her repertoire.

## Appearance

For a tiefling, Mara's of middling height, and is relatively average, though not unattractive, as a whole. Her attire is somewhat rough, consisting of a slightly worn-in black hoodie, a partially patchwork skirt that was originally part of her school uniform, but has since been modified in appearance and length, though it still reaches just above her knees, and a pair of stockings and black leather engineer's boots.

Her hair is kept tied into uneven pigtails, and when let down reaches the bottom of her neck, though it's only let down while she's sleeping. Otherwise, the only other accessories that are regularly worn are a choker and her goggles - The choker is just a normal mundane thing, while the goggles are worn properly while she's piloting, and aid with navigational data.

## Personality

Mara is usually friendly and sociable, but that's in part because she's a trader at heart, and wants to make as many connections as she can.

Her personal Pride has a habit of getting in the way of other things, and she's prone to be volatile when she feels insulted.

## Friends

Lanmei Naixi - Mara's longtime friend and partner in.. Morally questionable but not quite criminal acts. Lanmei usually acts in tandem with Mara in the field, and helps her with various maintenance otherwise.

## Aspirations

A position on the bridge crew of a ship that's known by name across the stars.