#meriak

1. The color of their eyes.

Red. She’s a Chiss; alas, there’s not much variation here. I’m sure she’d make them pink if she could, though.

2. How old they are.

Sixty-one Galactic Standard years.

3. One strange thing/quirk/defining characteristic of their body or physical appearance.

Her bright PINK hair. It couldn’t get much more pink if she tried. She adores pink, and wants to stand out amongst not only her own people, but the rest of the rabble as well.

4. One strange thing/quirk/defining characteristic of their personality

She’s a stubborn, somewhat grumpy wench. If she was an elderly human in our time, she’d be the kind who drives straight through crowds on her mobility scooter honking her horn without caring who she hits. She gave them fair warning, right?

5. How their parents met.

Her parents were dutiful people and married when they were commanded to. It was an arranged marriage, and Meriak never wanted to be like them.

6. Who their first love was, and why they loved them

He was a lovely boy from one of their allied families. She loved him because he was awfully pretty, and of course totally unattainable as she was promised to someone else. This ended up the catalyst for her leaving to join an independent crew who shuttled freight around the Ascendency.

7. How/why I came up with the concept for them

I was looking at the Tareg Legacy one night and realised I wanted more Chiss in it. My headcanon is that Gerain’s family is totally Forceblind, so I couldn’t roll a Sith or a Jedi (unlike Harant and Alerak over on Ebon Hawk), and realised that most generations have that black sheep in the family that they don’t like to talk about. In Gerain’s father’s generation, it was Meriak, the woman who didn’t want to stay in such a personally restrictive life. Her personality bacame clearer to me when I changed her hair colour, and when I found a cheap mount on the GTN for her. The “honk honk!” of the Meirm Bullfrog reminded me so much of the above mentioned nasty old person, it became her.

8. Who they eventually end up with

I don’t see Meriak staying with anyone at this point. She’s enjoying life on her terms, and anything more than a brief entanglement would interfere in her life too much. She does have a couple of beaus on different planets, I’m sure.

9. Their favorite animal.

"Have you ever transported livestock? Especially in such a small space as on a freighter? Trust me, it’s none of them - this is the same realisation you’ll come up with once you’ve cleaned up mountains of pudu."

10. Two question of your choice – anything you want!

Is there a significance behind the little red tattoo marks on her face and if so, what do they mean? There is a significance, but it’s not really a galactic wide one or anything. When she first left the Tareg, she was determined to live her life her own way, and made a few interesting choices. The marks on her face are a sign of her wild youth, where she deliberately joined groups her family wouldn’t have agreed with and did things they may not have liked. She may no longer be associated with those people, but she still loves the marks of her life lived her way made obvious on her face.

"I don’t know - they say I’m special but then they don’t let me do anything! I don’t want to go to the Academy. I don’t want to stay on Mirial - why can’t I just do what I want sometimes?"

"I should have been there. They always want girls. Maybe my mom and dad would still be alive. Maybe if I’d have gone with them, they’d have left Errin and my mom and dad alone. I shouldn’t have been away!"

"But why can’t girls be soldiers? That’s stupid! I can shoot better than Grann, and he’s younger and still gets to be in the military! Does he know how to build and prime explosives? No? Then why is he being sent to the Security Force and you’re making me stay in the compound? I don’t want to stay here!"

Now that the serious ones are done, how about this?

"Awww! Come on! It was only a small cake! You were going to give it to me anyway, weren't you? I mean, I've been good, I swear! Can I have another one, then?"

"I love it when it rains on the flowers! It smells so nice, and it makes my lekku all tingly! And I love picking 'em, too. They're all white and sparkly - want to see?"

"Never again."

That was what Temaire had sworn after those last days on Balmorra. Explosions, giant bugs and all the toxic waste she’d waded through had made even the sparse comforts of Mirial’s Light a decadent luxury.

This of course made the grimy cantina on the edge of the sector pure heaven.

There were few drinkers in the dingy little place, but this one had the benefits of having booze, chair cushions that weren’t all flattened and shaped like her ass, and didn’t smell like wet Wookiee.

Most of the clientele moved through the place like shadows, but the boneweary Mirialan beamed as the bright pink hair of the grey Chiss woman attracted her tired eyes like a beacon.

"Hey, Meriak!" Even her boots hurt, but Temaire managed a swagger as the older captain looked up. The Chiss nodded first at her, then the empty side of the booth, and the aching freighter captain gratefully accepted the invitation. "Still running the Barrier?"

"Every chance I get, which is a lot less these days. The Imperial levies are going to kill me." With a flick of the wrist, the Chiss deftly tossed a warra nut from the dish in front of her into her mouth.

"If the Imperials themselves don’t first. I've heard about the blockades." Mauve eyes rolled ceilingward. There was no way Temaire would be caught dead selling to the Imps, but the Chiss was - in her own way - loyal to her people. It had to be difficult to be trapped between needing to help her people trade and running Imperial law.

"Well, you know, you get used to dodging Customs, or running the Chiss lanes. At least there all I have to do is flare my eyes…" The woman’s lined face lit with red fire as her eyes blazed. "…and tell them off in true nuruodo style, and they back off." As the crimson fire faded once more, Meriak shrugged and took a pull of her black ale. "Bribes are going up, though. It’s disgusting.

"Anyway, how’s business for you?"

Temaire couldn’t help the groan that escaped her as she melted into her seat, her bones seeming to lose cohesion as she slumped.

"I have had the worst week." With a thump her foot was on the table, the constricture of the plether boots finally making her fly the white flag. As she picked at the fasteners, she groaned, "Up to my hips in ooze, slime everywhere, and the smell! And that was just in the camps."

Meriak laughed, her pink dreadlocks jiggling in time with her mirth.

"And you want me to work with you?"

"We’d turn a profit, you have to admit." Her groan was near orgasmic as the boot released her foot, her toes wriggling as she pulled them free. "And it’d keep me off holes like where I just was. And you out of the minefields."

"There’s even more of them now." The Chiss grunted as she set the tankard down. "If I were you, I’d keep that Mirial of yours away from the Outer Rim right now.”

"Did you take any damage?" Even the rejoicing toes paused in their revelation of freedom as she looked at her counterpart with concern.

"Enough to keep me here a week over schedule." the Chiss grudgingly admitted. "I tell you now, these last few days…"

"…have kicked my ass." They spoke in unison, two exhausted captains together in the trials of the spacelanes.

"Maybe we should both go trade with the Hutts?" Temaire grinned, and Meriak laughed, slapping Temaire’s foot in agreement.

Meriak, Novar’rae, Temaire

♥ - What does ‘love’ mean to them?

To Meriak, love doesn’t mean that much. She was raised in a place where love was sentimentality, and any exhibition of it other than faint affection was frowned on. She has changed quite a lot over time, but as she hasn’t had a partner other than the odd one night stand, love is something she’s not really into. Love is more about biological family, and that’s hard to show when you’re nigh on an exile from them.

Novar’rae feels that love is a many faceted thing. It’s a distraction from making credits. It’s disgusting to see people openly groping one another in public, but she’s been with the same woman for 30+ years. She isn’t a sentimental type, yet she has been mindlessly driven by the love of her missing brother for all her adult life. This is why those she cares most for and who care for her banter with and insult her, as the rest is useless wastes of air to her.

Temaire has been pondering a lot on the nature of love lately. She is very fond of Vadil’s first mate, and they’ve been seeing one another for quite some time now, when they’re in the same port, but now she knows that damned marriage question is coming up, and she’s torn. She does love him, but he’s a frustratingly old fashioned man, with ideas of settling down and restricting her freedoms. She loves travelling, and so is now in the process of weighing up whether she loves her freedom or her man more.

♪ - Are they musically inclined?

With the exception of ancient Chiss lullabyes and rawdy drinking songs, Meriak isn’t much of a musician. Get her drunk, though, and she might sing at length about the strength of her lover’s blasters.

Novar’rae was once quite talented, but abandoned all her musical instrument training (and anything that didn’t make her credits in order to help find her missing brother) back in childhood. These days her singing is like a rancor on the rampage and her musicality is about as cultured as an untuned hyperdrive - or so Vadil would have her know.

Temaire actually has a good voice, though quite warbly in the higher registers. She is especially good with lower harmony parts in religious chants, but would die if any of her business associates learned that.

✕ - How do they handle rejection?

Meriak was already betrayed by her family when they turned their backs on her choices. She was supposed to have married and had children, but instead went into business for herself. her reaction to it is to flaunt how much she doesn’t need them anyway, to metaphorically stick her finger up and succeed anyway.

Novar’rae gets angry. Very, very angry. And the old street fighter has moves people hasn’t seen yet. She’s got a lot of rage stored up in her heart, and betrayal is the quickest way to access that. You really don’t want that.

Temaire gets cold and will turn her back on betrayers. She will try to get her revenge in the most appropriate ways possible, often involving the authorities.

♔ - Do they value loyalty?

Meriak does, especially when it comes to family ties. She knows how hard it is to break through the norms, and will offer support and care to those who have it from nowhere else. And she really values it in those who offer it to her, as she has been betrayed by those who were closest to her.

Novar’rae acts as though she needs no one and nothing, but she values those who stick with her, no matter what rubbish she hurls their way. She’s not an emotive kind of person, but she really appreciates those who keep with her, even though she tries to manage without them if she can. She doesn’t know how to express appreciation, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.