Post by kaera on Jun 9, 2011 20:27:43 GMT -5
So yeah, I made this character on a Star Wars RP site and ended up quitting less than a month later, so haha to me v.v
Too epic not to share:
Name: Fara Teran
-Alias: The Jester
Species: Zabrak
-Gender: Female
-Age: 53
Homeworld: Irridonia
Personality: The Jester is a cold, silent being. Tortured by its past, The Jester takes no pleasure in the killing it does. In fact, every death makes it feel even more dispicable, yet it is driven to continue persuing its greatest talent by the past that causes it to stay awake many nights in utter tearful despair. All the while The Jester years for acceptance and will perform for anyone, even her victems, for a few moments of that feeling.
Strengths: The Jester is a mentally cunning and physically agile assassin, strong in body, will, and the Force. Decades of hunting Sith and Jedi have honed The Jester into an efficiently lethal predatorl
Weaknesses: The haunting past of The Jester has left it emotionally unbalanced to a severe degree where even a phrase might bring up terrible memories and set The Jester on a rampage of fury or set it in a deluge of self pity and grief. As an added 'bonus' to this near-psychosis, The Jester is given to fits of whimsy where it might do something highly erratic, unpredictable, and utterly meaninglys, such as cartwheel down a corridor instead of simply walking.
-Clothing: The seemingly rediculous costume worn by The Jester serves a dual purpose. For one thing, it casts The Jester in a rather harmless light, giving it the edge for a sneak attack, And secondarily, the outfit masks the physical monstrocity that was once Fara Teran but now would likely even cause the most battle hardened soldier to get squeemish. Despite its solid woven appearence, the costume has many slits and pockets hidden throughout its baggy facade, giving The Jester access to its holstered blasters and knives and even its hidden lightsaber. The mask is merely a reshaping of a modern combat visor, giving The Jester various alternate spectrums of light to view the world in, the ability to see in the dark, and constant data access.
Bio:
"All beautiful and noble qualities have been united in me... I shall be the fruit which will leave eternal vitality behind even after its decay. How great must be your joy, therefore, to have given birth to me."
~Egon Schiele[/center]
It was a springtime afternoon on Iridonia when a grunt of pain and a scream of discomfort announced for all to hear the healthy birth of a young female Zabrak. The doctor immediately gave the newborn to one of the nurses who took the baby away from parents to clean it up and perform nearly two dozen preliminary health screenings. It did not take long for the procedures to be completed- childbirth was a highly efficient practice- and as the child was carried back to the parents, the test results were displayed and sorted through the hospital records where anomalys were sorted out and sent to the proper individuals.
Only two anomolys were present in the newborn. The brain activity scans were sent to neurologist of the hospital while the other anomoly was beamed off planet entirely, bouncing its way through the galaxy to the appropriate organization. While the results were examined and scrutinized, the neurologist examined his own papers and was interested at the level of awareness the child's brain displayed- most newborns were the mental equivalent of a thumbtack so shortly out of the room, but this one was recognizing shapes, sounds and images to the degree of a toddler. An anomoly yes, but nothing to be worried over. The neurologist tucked the file away and put a copy in with the other birthing records that would be given to the parents in due time.
The child, named Fara Teran after the her maternal Grandmother Fara Kritirk, was raised by the Iridonian equivalent of the noble class. While far from being the wealthiest family on the planet, the Age of Strife did sting the majority of the galaxy afterall, Fara wanted for nothing and was fed by the metaphorical silver spoon. By her first birthday she was already speaking and solving puzzles that even children two years ahead of her had difficulties tackling.
Fara was placed into advanced tutelage during her second year of life and taught some of the basic academics that one would learn during their first year of school. Simple mathematics, reading, and basic history lessons. Though barely two years old, Fara absorbed the information greedily, however over time began to yearn for the freedoms she had several months earlier in her normal preschool life, playing games with her friends and just simply goofing around.
By her third birthday she was moved back into preschool with the rest of her friends. Her months under the tutor had given her a greater capacity to understand things, but her test taking abilities were still highly underdeveloped. It was both disappointing yet rather unsurprising- she was only three years old after all and could hardly be expected to be able to take a test like a child five years older than her.
Fara met two other children in preschool who became her best friends. Her fourth birthday was small and she only had those two friends over where, when her parents were in the room, they stacked every pillow and blanket in the house into a two story fort using a couple of kitchen chairs to support the second floor. Fara's parents got back in time to stop them from installing electrical wiring fortuntely.
It was a sad day the week after she turned five. She bid a tearful farewell to her friends when the Jedi came for her. Her parents explained to her that at birth she had a high midichlorian count and that the Jedi had come for her then, but they had refused to hand their infant child over. They did, however, promise the Jedi that the Order could have her when she had enjoyed a bit of her childhood. Now that she was five, the Jedi had returned for her. Fara left Zabrak, never to return, and was taken to the Jedi Headquarters on Coruscant. Years later she would inquire why she was taken there when there were other enclaves so much closer and was told that her midichlorian count was unusually high and for special cases they would take them to the core of the Order for more focused training.
Her first year as a Jedi youngling led her to the Reek Clan where the best of the younglings were supposedly congregated. Kinan Dunwir was another youngling in the clan, having been placed there some years earlier when he was brought into the Order. The odd aloof youngster and Fara took to each other like fish to water and became close friends quickly.
Training in remedial Force abilities was where Fara excelled. Learning how to connect through the force through calming herself and reaching a state of tranquility came easily to her, and her mind could become as calm as an underground lake without anything to disturb the surface and as smooth as a brand new mirror fresh from manufacturing and still in its packaging.
Once she reached the age of lightsaber training did she first begin to know how hard it was for some of the other students in the academy. Channeling her mind and body to the saber and making it as one with her body was a struggle for her- she had difficulty viewing it as an extension of herself.
Kinan tried to help Fara through her lightsaber difficulties. She appreciated the help and for months they worked at it. Still, Fara wasn't up to the instructions. That is, however, until she disobeyed the instructions and instead of viewing the lightsaber as an extension of herself, she viewed it as a weapon, a tool to enforce...something. She was too young and naive to know that she believed it to be a tool to enforce her will.
It seemed a small thing- a personal improvement to a group instruction. Not something one would normally bat an eye over, right? Well it was this first tiny step of secret disobedience that would begin to escalate. While action-wise, she could do all that the Jedi demanded of the Reek Clan, internally and feeling-wise she began to make adjustments to suite herself.
She did not rid herself of attachments, as she found that attaching herself to something gave her focus- a mental foundation that would give her something to visualize 'defending'. She also did not feel compassion for all life- organizations such as the Sith and even the common criminals on the streets earned only her contempt and desire to put away. She knew that Kinan knew about her secret adjustments to their lessons, but never let on nor said anything about them aside from a few little warnings that the way they were learning things was the best way, having been honed by generations of noble Jedi Masters.
Her aptitude with the Force only grew over the years, as did her skills with a lightsaber and other self defense techniques taught to the younglings that were approaching Padawan age. During the rounds of training, she quickly rose to one of the top hand-to-hand combatants in the Reek Clan and quite clearly the stealthiest- able to sneak up on virtually all of her Clanmates with frightening ease.
Like all beings in that tender stage between the blissful naivety of childhood and the closed-minded understanding of adulthood, Fara was subject to the chemical imbalances of the adolescent stage of her teenage years. Early signs of these stages were the physical changes in changing from a girl to a women, as well as the more-than-friend feelings she began to develop towards her good friend Kinan. He began to 'shine' in her eyes, his movements so graceful and his presence so soothing. Whenever Fara was with Kinan she felt both intimidated and nervous while at the same time confident and unbeatable.
All in the training of the Jedi wasn't simply how to use the Force and how to fight and defend. The natural ways of the world had to also be taught to the young ladies and gentlemen that were to be sent out into the large universe. Mathematics, reading, history, all of the basic academics were covered, as well as the proverbial 'birds and the bees'.
Naturally, this caused discomfort and nervous laughter among the now teenage younglings, but the lessons taught Fara the word that had eluded her for quite some time. She was in love with Kinan. When she felt ready to tell him this, the lessons about love and attachment followed before she could do so, and the feeling of taboo settled in over her, preventing her from coming out with her feelings.
Kinan passed the tests to become a Padawan learner to a Jedi Knight earlier than most. This greatly upset Fara, who knew that as a Padwan Kinan would be away more often than not on missions. She would laps into states of an uncharacteristic introvertedness during his absences, and when he was present he would scarcely leave him be. She did everything that she could think of to try and earn his affection but it all seemed for naught.
It had been a year since Kinan became a Padawan and a year of hard work by Fara to win him over. His lack of interest began to worry her. Did he have another love? Was she doing something wrong? Was there something wrong with him? Was there something wrong with her? The questions were maddening and the haunted her, causing great frustrations and severely hampering her training. She was forced into some counciling where she learned how to hide her emotions- it wasn't the point of the counciling, its just what her inner tutor changed the lessons into.
After a year of emotional torture Fara began to vent her frustrations in miniscule, steady amounts while combat training and meditating. While she was still viewed as a little 'touchy'- a nice word for unstable- she was allowed to participate in group trainings again. Though she began to become rather cold towards Kinan, secretly hoping that his concern would produce the results that warmth had failed to garner, she returned to her normal jovial self around others.
Kinan's master had to recoup after a rather serious injury on one of their excursions, leaving Kinan in the Temple with Fara for quite some time. During that time the two got to talking and Fara's feelings came pouring out. As she became more emotional and frantic, Kinan became more calm and passive, trying to dissuade her rage. It did not work and she merely became further enraged. She drew her lightsaber and lunged at him.
Kinan, always the superior fighter, attempted to disarm her but it wasn't working. He couldn't let loose against her since she was still his friend. When Fara got lucky and perced his stomach with the lightsaber she stared down at his body in horror. Without a sound, she sprinted away, leaving only seconds before a pair of Jedi Knights who ahd sensed the violence occurring showed up. The two were more concerned with Kinan's injury than with finding Fara just yet, giving Fara the time to hop aboard the next outbound flight from Coruscant and vanish.
Fara eluded the Jedi pursuing her easily enough. She convinced herself that she was being hunted to be punished for her crime when in fact they were trying to find her to help her and prevent her from turning to the Dark Side. Moving from planet to planet rapidly, never staying on one for more than a few hours and sleeping only on between destinations, Fara spoke to no one for several months. During her silence and solitude- while surrounded by people she was still alone- she was highly introspective, her mind leaping from one thought to the next, regardless of how much they made sense.
It was the Jedi who made Kinan into a cold, unloving statue. It was the Jedi who made Fara into the emotional wreck she became by repressing her feelings. It was the Sith who made the Jedi as strict as they were, the Sith who made the Jedi fear emotion and attatchment. The two organizations would pay dearly for killing Kinan. She vowed it. That day, she stopped running.
The first Jedi Kinan encountered was a Padawan who was on a task for her Master- a simple 'fetch this person' job that Padawan frequently do. The Padawan recognized Fara, but Fara didn't bother to 'see' the Padawan, instead just painting her target red with her mind and attacking the surprised teen. Panicking, the Padwan did his best to defend against Fara's assault, but the Padawan was not of Fara's caliber, and not ready for the fight.
It took three minutes for the emotionally stricken Zabrak to overpower the Jedi and remove the upper-left half of his body, slicing from his right shoulder down to his left hip. Fara didn't stand around to gloat over the corps of her victim. She deactivated her weapon and continued her hunt.
It took time for Fara to track down Jedi and Sith. Even more time to find them alone. In the months it took to find the active and elusive members of the two opposing Orders of the Force, she had yet to find an individual that she could deliver justice upon. One day she did detect a dark figure traveling alone. Eager to slay a Sith, she waited for the individual to go someplace hidden and alone and then she attacked. Little did she know that this individual was not a Sith, nor was he an average independent user of the Force. He was a doctor. A Good Doctor.
Before Fara knew what had happened she was pinned against a wall with her own lightsaber's blade close enough to her forehead that her skin was burning slowly. The amused Phage liked what he sensed within her and with a simple injection rendered her immobile and unconscious for safe transport to one of his laboratories. Fara regained consciousness minutes before the cutting began. Through her screams of pain and howls of agony as Phage worked his magic upon her body, his soft voice still seemed louder than her, and his words pierced her mind just like the knife that was slicing through her tendons. "The pain will serve as a reminder..."
Fara didn't know when she finally dipped into the tranquil depths of non-consciousness. She knew it was after she had seen the bones of her own hand being delicately removed. Upon waking up, she felt incredible pain once more, but the memory of the surgery was still fresh enough to make the agony of laying in a soft bed under bright lights with bandages wrapping her entire body seem almost pleasant by comparison.
For the next several months Fara was educated by Phage, her mind probed by his psychological wordcraft, and her body slowly and painfully rehabilitated from the augmentations he made. Her joints were stronger, her body now able to transfer oxygen and other vital nutrients to her extremities more efficiently, and a stealth unit implanted within her connected to her mind via neural implants.
It took the better part of a year for Fara to return to her physical condition she had been in before the forced surgery. Once Phage deemed her ready, Fara was tasked with a series of increasingly difficult challenges. Escape a building undetected, kill someone in an office building without being seen, kill a trained soldier, and capture a mercenary hired by Phage to kill her.
Fara was finished. A completed experiment in Phage's eyes. Her body was honed and perfected, her skills were sharpened and ready for the large Galaxy. Her mind was set, Phage's words over the past two years focusing it and clearing the debris that was decency and morals. The two parted company after Phage granted her a gift- combat armor that would hide her body so that the unnatural appearence of her flesh wouldn't alert her quarry to her presence.
Phage had done more than just change her body. He had introduced her to the concept of hiding herself from the Force senses of others that she may be more able to sneak upon her quarry. The next time she encountered a Jedi, however, she only saw red as she rushed into the fight. The pair dueled for what seemed like hours before Fara was able to deal the final blow. Her recklessness had cost her the functionality of her armor, however, and she was forced to disguard it, taking the Jedi's robes to cover herself and stealing a breath mask to cover her face. She was dissapointed in herself for her recklessness, and all through the fight she kept picturing the Padawan she'd killed, and about Kinan.
Fara spent over half a year in solitude. Hiding in the tropic jungles of Cularin, she ate and drank only enough to survive, and spent the rest of her time in deep, deep meditation, focusing on the Living Force around her and throughout the Galaxy, washing herself of the past and focusing entirely on the present. She would never allow the memories of Kinan to haunt her again.
She used this time also to practice Force Concealment and Stealth, hiding her physical and Force presence from others as she crept among the smugglers to steal provisions she needed. Her first few excursions always ended with her being caught and fighting her way out, but each time she was able to get further and further into their midsts.
Fara felt her abilities had peaked for the time being. She did not feel that her creeping among the busy smugglers would be adequate practice for her anymore now that she was able to spend hours among them without being seen or heard. Between her sharpened Force Concealment and Stealth abilities, the stealth units installed in her body by Phage, and her natural stealthiness from childhood, she was virtually invisible to the men and women and other genders that passed through the smuggling operation. She decided that she was ready to renew her vendetta.
Stealing a ship from the smugglers was easy for her. They were cozy in their safety and secrecy on Cularin and, thus, rather lax with security. It was a lot of mutual trust and distrust, where if one smuggler would screw another over by stealing something, like a ship, the other smugglers would readily know about it and the small economic boost in the theive's life would be short lived as he was ostricized by the rest of the community. Fara didn't give a damn about that of course, and when she found an ideal ship she readily took it. The HT-2200 had plenty of cargo space so she could hold prisoners and plenty of supplies for long excursions and chases. Leaving Cularin, she headed back out to the galaxy thirsting for blood.
Fara began to hunt Jedi and Sith through posted bounties for two reasons. One reason was for the money- she would be doing what she loved and getting paid for it, so she figured she might as well. The second reason was more important- the bounties often included helpful information such as last known whereabouts, known aliases, and an image or holo of the target, making them much easier to find as opposed to her random wanderings through the Galaxy.
A rather lucrative bounty slipped through her hands, unfortunately. She had caught a Jedi Knight off-guard and rendered him unconscious. Tying him to a bed in one of the cargo bays of her ship, she had taken him to be collected. Unfortunately during the travel he managed to escape his bindings and when she checked on him he feigned being trapped still. While going to inform the bounty-setter about the capture, the Jedi escaped the ship, leaving Fara looking quite the fool.
Fara never forgot the humiliation at having her quarry escape. And of the thing's Phage taught her, there was no such thing as 'overdoing it'. She spent a year collecting bounties and saving up a vast sum of money to afford several upgrades to her HT-2200 that would prevent such ease of escapes. She already had a decent amount saved up for some upgrades to assist her in traveling and after the Jedi's escape, she had a few more additions to make.
Of the four large cargo bays in the ship- space which she rarely utilized, and even then only to a minimal extent- she would be using three of them for means other than typical storage. One was rigged to become a massive additional fuel tank that pumped its contents directly into the main tank of the ship. Another of the cargo bays had its spacious interior filled to near capacity with equipment that would render her ship invisible for all intents and purposes, and ever since she has been meticulous at maintaining and upgrading the devices within.
The third cargo bay that would be changed was to become a prison block. Twelve cells in all- two levels of three cells on each side. Each cell would have its own gravity and atmosphere controls which were routed to the main controls in the cabin where not even the most cunning of Force users could access them. Being so close to bankruptcy after the expensive modifications did not concern her, however. She'd stolen to survive before and would have no troubles doing it again. In fact, it would be easier, as every hunt developed her skills at stealth and sneakiness further.
Attempting to capture a Sith alive to earn a handsome reward fore the purpose of offsetting some of her bankruptcy turned out to be a mistake. This particularly tenacious Sith was in the process of crushing Fara's throat before she was able to delimb him with her lightsaber. Delivering the fatal beheading and capturing an image of his demise to transmit to those who would pay- only half price since he was dead- was the last thing she did before immediately returning to her ship.
She returned to where she once was operated on by Phage. Breaking into the secret laboratory, she found it deserted. Out of hope and no longer able to breath, she passed out and awaited death. Death, of course, did not come, but upon awakening she found Phage looming over her and felt a pain she remembered from her past- the indescribable agony of Phage's surgery, this time it was located primarily in her neck.
Phage described the procedure even as he was performing it. He removed the damaged cartilage from her trachea and replaced it with a metal that wouldn't be rejected by the body. Within the metal was also a set of powerful blades that would prevent her from choking on anything she may swallow in the future, and the tube of metal wouldn't be able to be 'crushed' by Force Choke abilities if the user wasn't aware of the pressure needed to crush the metal. However if it were crushed there would be no flexibility as the cartilage had and so she wouldn't have the time to get it fixed. This was essentially a double-edged armor that could end up saving her or killing her in the future and he was rather interested to see which would occur. There was also the unfortunate fact that her voicebox had been beyond repair, but Phage decided that it was unnecessary for a silent killer to speak. He left Fara to recover on her own.
For the next two years Fara continued to hunt Jedi and Sith. During times between bounties on them, she settled for bounties on others purely due to the easy money they offered. By this time the two Orders were scattered and in disarray, so while the opportunities were plentiful, actually finding the targets became far more difficult, so Fara began to focus more on finding the smaller bounties to finish her climb out of poverty and start to build a bank again.
During this time she became aware that simply being a mute, disfigured bounty hunter was something highly unprofitable. And to get the better jobs and intel on her targets- specifically the valuable Jedi/Sith targets- she would need to become rather well known and build a name. She scarcely remembered her own name, having not used it for over a decade nor thought about the past for the last five years. She tried various battle armors, but they all greatly diminished her abilities to use the Force. She tried more free-fitting clothing but they bunched up and harassed her maneuverability.
It wasn't until shortly after her 33rd birthday- she didn't know it was her birthday, it's just a convenient reference point- that she found something that both appealed to her and fit her style of stealth. The old adage of hiding in plain sight would aide her greatly, and the nightmarish appearance would both entertain and terrify. The costume was cheap as well, but the mask would have to be enhanced- she had grown rather fond of the combat visors from the armor she dabbled with. Having a custom made combat visor wasn't a terribly rare practice and she was able to get a mask that fit the suit while still satisfying her needs. Donning the suit and mask of her new persona, The Jester, Fara was now a faceless silent creature of death. No name, no voice, no gender, no history. It just existed.
The Jester soon found itself in a small group of bounty hunters being escorted along an Imperial Star Destroyer to an Admiral who had a gripe with a certain Jedi freedom fighter on a world he was having enough difficulties establishing dominance over. The first bounty hunter to bring the live Jedi or report proof of its demise would be rewarded handsomely. The race began.
Fortune didn't favor The Jester however, as the Jedi had been taken care of less than an hour before she arrived, captured by one of the other Bounty Hunters. This was not something that it would let go without a damned good fight. It wasn't a Bounty Hunter and had no care for their traditions or methods or unwritten rules. Before the one who was able to take the Jedi was able to bring the prisoner to the Admiral for payment, The Jester had already snuck aboard the Bounty Hunter's ship and slit the throat of the captive Jedi. The award wasn't what it was after- it was the death of the Jedi.
Five more groups of Bounty Hunters that included her were assembled during the expansion of this particular Empire- which Empire it was, the Jester honestly didn't care, it merely enjoyed the that the imperial form of government reminded her much of her time under Phage's tutelage. It seemed a far far larger, but far far more sluggish and oafish version of The Good Doctor.
The second and third of the groups resulted in her not being the one to claim the bounty or the life of the target quarry. The first excursion, however, was more to her liking. The Sith being targeted had gone into hiding on Coruscant and was doing a very very good job of it. The group was offered the sum of money and only half stayed to accept the job. The Jester was the first to find the Sith walking through he crowded lower streets of the city.
Blending in with the other street shows who performed for change was easy for The Jester, and in a fit of whimsy it actually cartwheeled in front of the Sith and got its attention. Hardly amused by The Jester's antics, the Sith pushed its way past the masked entertainer, though as it stepped by and came within a foot of The Jester was The Sith able to pierce the Force Concealment protecting The Jester's identity. Allowing a moment of surprise to grace his face the Sith reacted quickly and reached for his weapon. The Jester's lightsaber was already there and the Sith moved his hand directly into the beam of fuchsia energy, slicing off four of his fingers. With a quick flourish the Sith's upper body was separated from his lower half.
The fourth mission had the bounty hunters racing to Ambria where a Sith Apprentice was seeking to siphon Force energies from Lake Natth. Utilizing Force Stealth to hide while the other Bounty Hunters fought through the mutated beasts of the lake, The Jester followed the Sith as he escaped during the distracting fight. Following the Sith directly to a small hut in the shadow of a large rocky outcropping of the desert, The Jester stabbed an injector containing a special tranquilizer given to all of the Bounty Hunters by the Sergeant who issued the bounty into the Sith's neck moments before he entered the hut and dragged his unconscious body back to the ship. Once safely contained within the cells of the ship, The Jester returned to the Sergeant to collect the reward.
A couple years later is when the fifth outing occurred, this time to Ryloth to find a Jedi who had gone into hiding among his native species. With little enough intel to go off of, The Jester hunted by following the other Bounty Hunters...for about a week. When it was clear that none of them had any leads, it went off on its own. Finding the Jedi was not too difficult- the Twi'leks were ready to believe that The Jester was an entertainer here for a surprise party and needed to find the Twi'lek that had hired it. Once given an address, The Jester was able to get as close as shaking the Twi'lek Jedi's hand. Reaching out and pressing its palm against the Jedi's chest, the spike built into The Jester's artificial hand extended with great speed and force, killing the unprepared Jedi. Closing the door to hide the corpse from passers-by, The Jester transmitted the image of the dead Twi'lek for confirmation of his kill
After the eight kill in Jester's life- the fifth as far as the Empire was concerned- an Admiral who had issued three of the bounties showed an interest in the oddly dressed yet highly talented individual. Having pulled strings in the Imperial government, the Admiral acquired for The Jester a class-0 Imperial IFF registration. The Jester was overcome with emotion, having never felt accepted since before she killed Kinan until now.
Five years later The Jester is assigned to a small group of commandos to take down a particularly irritating Jedi Knight. Going with the Commandos all the way to the deserts of Tatooine to hunt this Knight, The Jester was aghast to catch a glimpse of their quarry. Though twenty years had passed and he had aged noticeably since then, The Jester was able to recognize the eyes of Kinan Dunwir.
As the Jedi entered a small room he was renting for the duration of his stay, the commandos began to draw up plans to take him down. While the five highly trained soldiers were focusing on the hologram of the room and the objects within, The Jester plunged her knives into the necks of two of them. While the other three were reacting, her lightsaber was ignited and moving, decapitating the third of the commandos. The two remaining had their weapon's trained on The Jester by then and opened fire. Deflecting the blaster bolts, The Jester was able to kill one of them with his own gunfire. Activating the stealth units implanted by Phage as well as her Force Stealth, she vanished from the other commando's view. Alarmed at the disappearance of the murderous jester, the commando headed for the exit, falling through the door with a gaping wound in the back of his neck where one of The Jester's knives had sliced him, severing his brainstem from his body.
It took the better part of three years for The Jester to get over that single glimpse of Kinan. He lived! The fact shook its foundations to their core. He lived! Even as she turned a Jedi over to the Empire, or sunk a knife into the spine of an unsuspecting Sith, her mind would always drift first to the moment she killed Kinan, and then the instant she spotted him on Tatooine. She replayed the moment over and over in her mind, forcing herself to realize that it was not just a dream or nightmare, that Kinan did live
It's mind was cleared following a pirate raid on her ship. Unable to fleet the faster vessel, The Jester allowed the pirates to board while she cut off the power. Used to such antics, the Pirates brought their own sources of illumination. What they were not used to was being on the run from a grotesque figure hidden in the dark. They were unprepared for being slowly herded into the prison block aboard the HT-2200 and beyond surprised as an unseen force crammed them into one of the cells. They felt their breathing become more strained as the air became thinner and their limbs felt more heavy by the minute. An hour later, the gory remains of the crushed bodies were all that was left of the pirates who had attempted to rob The Jester.
Boarding The Jester's ship just as The Jester was ready to go counter-board the pirates was a figure carrying a crimson bladed lightsaber. Hiding its physical and Force presence from the new boarder, the former Sith walked past The Jester to find out why her companions had not yet returned. The Jester entered the pirate ship to do a little counter pirating before it would return to kill the Sith. Inside the pirate ship The Jester found a Jedi trapped inside a universal energy cage.
The Jester examined the cage and ignored the Jedi's please for help. Deactivating the cage, The Jester killed the thankful Jedi and dragged its corpse back to its ship along with the cage. Dispatching the angered ex-Sith without too much difficulty- The Jester knew its ship better than the Sith did and used the familiar terrain to its great advantage- The Jester dumped all of the bodies off at its next stop before tapping into its now rather well-off bank accounts to purchase eleven more of the cages. The Jester installed one in each of the cells aboard its ship to ensure that no captive Jedi or Sith would have a chance at escaping despite how few captives The Jester took.
Faction: Fringe
-Branch: Unofficial Galactic Empire Operative
-Rank: Sith/Jedi Assassin
Force-Sensitive? Yes
-Force Powers:
Weapon: Throwing knives, twin vibro daggers, a pair of charric handguns, fuschia lightsaber, and a palm spike in its left hand capable of penetrating eight inches of non-metal armor and flesh.
Items: The mask- Full spectrum vision, night vision, Heads Up Display, and net access. Sound-dampening Stealth Unit embedded into its body with neural interfaces to provide mental control. Enough neural disruptor headbants on its ship to keep any and all Force prisoners thoroughly incapacitated.
Ship: A customized HT-2200 where, of the four cargo bays (each able to hold approximately 200 metric tons), only one is used for cargo (It also sports two cots and a couch for visitors). One was converted to additional fuel storage for the ship, another is filled up with enough sensor jamming and stealth field generating equipment to keep it invisible to all but the most powerful sensors, and the final room is a small block of prison cells with individual gravity controls to pin any prisoner to the ground under their own weight. There are also individual controls for the cells to alter the chemical composition of the air so that a particularly rowdy prisoner can be given a thinner ammount of oxygen, or if they are not oxygen breathers, another composition of air to give them life but not energy with which to struggle. Though those components became redundant when The Jester installed Universal Energy Cages within the cells.
Too epic not to share:
Character Information:
[/u][/center]Name: Fara Teran
-Alias: The Jester
Species: Zabrak
-Gender: Female
-Age: 53
Homeworld: Irridonia
The Character
[/u][/center]Personality: The Jester is a cold, silent being. Tortured by its past, The Jester takes no pleasure in the killing it does. In fact, every death makes it feel even more dispicable, yet it is driven to continue persuing its greatest talent by the past that causes it to stay awake many nights in utter tearful despair. All the while The Jester years for acceptance and will perform for anyone, even her victems, for a few moments of that feeling.
Strengths: The Jester is a mentally cunning and physically agile assassin, strong in body, will, and the Force. Decades of hunting Sith and Jedi have honed The Jester into an efficiently lethal predatorl
Weaknesses: The haunting past of The Jester has left it emotionally unbalanced to a severe degree where even a phrase might bring up terrible memories and set The Jester on a rampage of fury or set it in a deluge of self pity and grief. As an added 'bonus' to this near-psychosis, The Jester is given to fits of whimsy where it might do something highly erratic, unpredictable, and utterly meaninglys, such as cartwheel down a corridor instead of simply walking.
Appearance:
-Clothing: The seemingly rediculous costume worn by The Jester serves a dual purpose. For one thing, it casts The Jester in a rather harmless light, giving it the edge for a sneak attack, And secondarily, the outfit masks the physical monstrocity that was once Fara Teran but now would likely even cause the most battle hardened soldier to get squeemish. Despite its solid woven appearence, the costume has many slits and pockets hidden throughout its baggy facade, giving The Jester access to its holstered blasters and knives and even its hidden lightsaber. The mask is merely a reshaping of a modern combat visor, giving The Jester various alternate spectrums of light to view the world in, the ability to see in the dark, and constant data access.
The History
[/u]Bio:
"All beautiful and noble qualities have been united in me... I shall be the fruit which will leave eternal vitality behind even after its decay. How great must be your joy, therefore, to have given birth to me."
~Egon Schiele[/center]
It was a springtime afternoon on Iridonia when a grunt of pain and a scream of discomfort announced for all to hear the healthy birth of a young female Zabrak. The doctor immediately gave the newborn to one of the nurses who took the baby away from parents to clean it up and perform nearly two dozen preliminary health screenings. It did not take long for the procedures to be completed- childbirth was a highly efficient practice- and as the child was carried back to the parents, the test results were displayed and sorted through the hospital records where anomalys were sorted out and sent to the proper individuals.
Only two anomolys were present in the newborn. The brain activity scans were sent to neurologist of the hospital while the other anomoly was beamed off planet entirely, bouncing its way through the galaxy to the appropriate organization. While the results were examined and scrutinized, the neurologist examined his own papers and was interested at the level of awareness the child's brain displayed- most newborns were the mental equivalent of a thumbtack so shortly out of the room, but this one was recognizing shapes, sounds and images to the degree of a toddler. An anomoly yes, but nothing to be worried over. The neurologist tucked the file away and put a copy in with the other birthing records that would be given to the parents in due time.
"A toddler believes that if you love a person, you stay with that person 100 percent of the time."
~Lawrence Balter
~Lawrence Balter
The child, named Fara Teran after the her maternal Grandmother Fara Kritirk, was raised by the Iridonian equivalent of the noble class. While far from being the wealthiest family on the planet, the Age of Strife did sting the majority of the galaxy afterall, Fara wanted for nothing and was fed by the metaphorical silver spoon. By her first birthday she was already speaking and solving puzzles that even children two years ahead of her had difficulties tackling.
Fara was placed into advanced tutelage during her second year of life and taught some of the basic academics that one would learn during their first year of school. Simple mathematics, reading, and basic history lessons. Though barely two years old, Fara absorbed the information greedily, however over time began to yearn for the freedoms she had several months earlier in her normal preschool life, playing games with her friends and just simply goofing around.
By her third birthday she was moved back into preschool with the rest of her friends. Her months under the tutor had given her a greater capacity to understand things, but her test taking abilities were still highly underdeveloped. It was both disappointing yet rather unsurprising- she was only three years old after all and could hardly be expected to be able to take a test like a child five years older than her.
"A happy childhood... is the worst possible preparation for life."
~Kinky Friedman
~Kinky Friedman
Fara met two other children in preschool who became her best friends. Her fourth birthday was small and she only had those two friends over where, when her parents were in the room, they stacked every pillow and blanket in the house into a two story fort using a couple of kitchen chairs to support the second floor. Fara's parents got back in time to stop them from installing electrical wiring fortuntely.
It was a sad day the week after she turned five. She bid a tearful farewell to her friends when the Jedi came for her. Her parents explained to her that at birth she had a high midichlorian count and that the Jedi had come for her then, but they had refused to hand their infant child over. They did, however, promise the Jedi that the Order could have her when she had enjoyed a bit of her childhood. Now that she was five, the Jedi had returned for her. Fara left Zabrak, never to return, and was taken to the Jedi Headquarters on Coruscant. Years later she would inquire why she was taken there when there were other enclaves so much closer and was told that her midichlorian count was unusually high and for special cases they would take them to the core of the Order for more focused training.
"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world."
~Leo Buscaglia
~Leo Buscaglia
Her first year as a Jedi youngling led her to the Reek Clan where the best of the younglings were supposedly congregated. Kinan Dunwir was another youngling in the clan, having been placed there some years earlier when he was brought into the Order. The odd aloof youngster and Fara took to each other like fish to water and became close friends quickly.
Training in remedial Force abilities was where Fara excelled. Learning how to connect through the force through calming herself and reaching a state of tranquility came easily to her, and her mind could become as calm as an underground lake without anything to disturb the surface and as smooth as a brand new mirror fresh from manufacturing and still in its packaging.
Once she reached the age of lightsaber training did she first begin to know how hard it was for some of the other students in the academy. Channeling her mind and body to the saber and making it as one with her body was a struggle for her- she had difficulty viewing it as an extension of herself.
"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down."
~Arnold H. Glasow
~Arnold H. Glasow
Kinan tried to help Fara through her lightsaber difficulties. She appreciated the help and for months they worked at it. Still, Fara wasn't up to the instructions. That is, however, until she disobeyed the instructions and instead of viewing the lightsaber as an extension of herself, she viewed it as a weapon, a tool to enforce...something. She was too young and naive to know that she believed it to be a tool to enforce her will.
It seemed a small thing- a personal improvement to a group instruction. Not something one would normally bat an eye over, right? Well it was this first tiny step of secret disobedience that would begin to escalate. While action-wise, she could do all that the Jedi demanded of the Reek Clan, internally and feeling-wise she began to make adjustments to suite herself.
She did not rid herself of attachments, as she found that attaching herself to something gave her focus- a mental foundation that would give her something to visualize 'defending'. She also did not feel compassion for all life- organizations such as the Sith and even the common criminals on the streets earned only her contempt and desire to put away. She knew that Kinan knew about her secret adjustments to their lessons, but never let on nor said anything about them aside from a few little warnings that the way they were learning things was the best way, having been honed by generations of noble Jedi Masters.
Her aptitude with the Force only grew over the years, as did her skills with a lightsaber and other self defense techniques taught to the younglings that were approaching Padawan age. During the rounds of training, she quickly rose to one of the top hand-to-hand combatants in the Reek Clan and quite clearly the stealthiest- able to sneak up on virtually all of her Clanmates with frightening ease.
"Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born."
~G. Stanley Hall
~G. Stanley Hall
Like all beings in that tender stage between the blissful naivety of childhood and the closed-minded understanding of adulthood, Fara was subject to the chemical imbalances of the adolescent stage of her teenage years. Early signs of these stages were the physical changes in changing from a girl to a women, as well as the more-than-friend feelings she began to develop towards her good friend Kinan. He began to 'shine' in her eyes, his movements so graceful and his presence so soothing. Whenever Fara was with Kinan she felt both intimidated and nervous while at the same time confident and unbeatable.
"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."
~George Washington
~George Washington
All in the training of the Jedi wasn't simply how to use the Force and how to fight and defend. The natural ways of the world had to also be taught to the young ladies and gentlemen that were to be sent out into the large universe. Mathematics, reading, history, all of the basic academics were covered, as well as the proverbial 'birds and the bees'.
Naturally, this caused discomfort and nervous laughter among the now teenage younglings, but the lessons taught Fara the word that had eluded her for quite some time. She was in love with Kinan. When she felt ready to tell him this, the lessons about love and attachment followed before she could do so, and the feeling of taboo settled in over her, preventing her from coming out with her feelings.
"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."
~Kahlil Gibran
~Kahlil Gibran
Kinan passed the tests to become a Padawan learner to a Jedi Knight earlier than most. This greatly upset Fara, who knew that as a Padwan Kinan would be away more often than not on missions. She would laps into states of an uncharacteristic introvertedness during his absences, and when he was present he would scarcely leave him be. She did everything that she could think of to try and earn his affection but it all seemed for naught.
"In time we hate that which we often fear."
~William Shakespeare
~William Shakespeare
It had been a year since Kinan became a Padawan and a year of hard work by Fara to win him over. His lack of interest began to worry her. Did he have another love? Was she doing something wrong? Was there something wrong with him? Was there something wrong with her? The questions were maddening and the haunted her, causing great frustrations and severely hampering her training. She was forced into some counciling where she learned how to hide her emotions- it wasn't the point of the counciling, its just what her inner tutor changed the lessons into.
"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."
~Buddha
~Buddha
After a year of emotional torture Fara began to vent her frustrations in miniscule, steady amounts while combat training and meditating. While she was still viewed as a little 'touchy'- a nice word for unstable- she was allowed to participate in group trainings again. Though she began to become rather cold towards Kinan, secretly hoping that his concern would produce the results that warmth had failed to garner, she returned to her normal jovial self around others.
"Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him."
~Louis L'Amour
~Louis L'Amour
Kinan's master had to recoup after a rather serious injury on one of their excursions, leaving Kinan in the Temple with Fara for quite some time. During that time the two got to talking and Fara's feelings came pouring out. As she became more emotional and frantic, Kinan became more calm and passive, trying to dissuade her rage. It did not work and she merely became further enraged. She drew her lightsaber and lunged at him.
Kinan, always the superior fighter, attempted to disarm her but it wasn't working. He couldn't let loose against her since she was still his friend. When Fara got lucky and perced his stomach with the lightsaber she stared down at his body in horror. Without a sound, she sprinted away, leaving only seconds before a pair of Jedi Knights who ahd sensed the violence occurring showed up. The two were more concerned with Kinan's injury than with finding Fara just yet, giving Fara the time to hop aboard the next outbound flight from Coruscant and vanish.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
~Yoda
~Yoda
Fara eluded the Jedi pursuing her easily enough. She convinced herself that she was being hunted to be punished for her crime when in fact they were trying to find her to help her and prevent her from turning to the Dark Side. Moving from planet to planet rapidly, never staying on one for more than a few hours and sleeping only on between destinations, Fara spoke to no one for several months. During her silence and solitude- while surrounded by people she was still alone- she was highly introspective, her mind leaping from one thought to the next, regardless of how much they made sense.
It was the Jedi who made Kinan into a cold, unloving statue. It was the Jedi who made Fara into the emotional wreck she became by repressing her feelings. It was the Sith who made the Jedi as strict as they were, the Sith who made the Jedi fear emotion and attatchment. The two organizations would pay dearly for killing Kinan. She vowed it. That day, she stopped running.
"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."
~Maya Angelou
~Maya Angelou
The first Jedi Kinan encountered was a Padawan who was on a task for her Master- a simple 'fetch this person' job that Padawan frequently do. The Padawan recognized Fara, but Fara didn't bother to 'see' the Padawan, instead just painting her target red with her mind and attacking the surprised teen. Panicking, the Padwan did his best to defend against Fara's assault, but the Padawan was not of Fara's caliber, and not ready for the fight.
It took three minutes for the emotionally stricken Zabrak to overpower the Jedi and remove the upper-left half of his body, slicing from his right shoulder down to his left hip. Fara didn't stand around to gloat over the corps of her victim. She deactivated her weapon and continued her hunt.
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
It took time for Fara to track down Jedi and Sith. Even more time to find them alone. In the months it took to find the active and elusive members of the two opposing Orders of the Force, she had yet to find an individual that she could deliver justice upon. One day she did detect a dark figure traveling alone. Eager to slay a Sith, she waited for the individual to go someplace hidden and alone and then she attacked. Little did she know that this individual was not a Sith, nor was he an average independent user of the Force. He was a doctor. A Good Doctor.
Before Fara knew what had happened she was pinned against a wall with her own lightsaber's blade close enough to her forehead that her skin was burning slowly. The amused Phage liked what he sensed within her and with a simple injection rendered her immobile and unconscious for safe transport to one of his laboratories. Fara regained consciousness minutes before the cutting began. Through her screams of pain and howls of agony as Phage worked his magic upon her body, his soft voice still seemed louder than her, and his words pierced her mind just like the knife that was slicing through her tendons. "The pain will serve as a reminder..."
"I keep things moving, I give you something to focus and hate. I am the center of your despise. And because you do you will not sink into the pit of apathy. I save you all from a true hell. I am both your devil and your angel, nay I am a Messiah."
~Phage
~Phage
Fara didn't know when she finally dipped into the tranquil depths of non-consciousness. She knew it was after she had seen the bones of her own hand being delicately removed. Upon waking up, she felt incredible pain once more, but the memory of the surgery was still fresh enough to make the agony of laying in a soft bed under bright lights with bandages wrapping her entire body seem almost pleasant by comparison.
For the next several months Fara was educated by Phage, her mind probed by his psychological wordcraft, and her body slowly and painfully rehabilitated from the augmentations he made. Her joints were stronger, her body now able to transfer oxygen and other vital nutrients to her extremities more efficiently, and a stealth unit implanted within her connected to her mind via neural implants.
It took the better part of a year for Fara to return to her physical condition she had been in before the forced surgery. Once Phage deemed her ready, Fara was tasked with a series of increasingly difficult challenges. Escape a building undetected, kill someone in an office building without being seen, kill a trained soldier, and capture a mercenary hired by Phage to kill her.
"Hunt the Echoes of your mind."
~Phage
~Phage
Fara was finished. A completed experiment in Phage's eyes. Her body was honed and perfected, her skills were sharpened and ready for the large Galaxy. Her mind was set, Phage's words over the past two years focusing it and clearing the debris that was decency and morals. The two parted company after Phage granted her a gift- combat armor that would hide her body so that the unnatural appearence of her flesh wouldn't alert her quarry to her presence.
Phage had done more than just change her body. He had introduced her to the concept of hiding herself from the Force senses of others that she may be more able to sneak upon her quarry. The next time she encountered a Jedi, however, she only saw red as she rushed into the fight. The pair dueled for what seemed like hours before Fara was able to deal the final blow. Her recklessness had cost her the functionality of her armor, however, and she was forced to disguard it, taking the Jedi's robes to cover herself and stealing a breath mask to cover her face. She was dissapointed in herself for her recklessness, and all through the fight she kept picturing the Padawan she'd killed, and about Kinan.
"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."
~Buddha
~Buddha
Fara spent over half a year in solitude. Hiding in the tropic jungles of Cularin, she ate and drank only enough to survive, and spent the rest of her time in deep, deep meditation, focusing on the Living Force around her and throughout the Galaxy, washing herself of the past and focusing entirely on the present. She would never allow the memories of Kinan to haunt her again.
She used this time also to practice Force Concealment and Stealth, hiding her physical and Force presence from others as she crept among the smugglers to steal provisions she needed. Her first few excursions always ended with her being caught and fighting her way out, but each time she was able to get further and further into their midsts.
Fara felt her abilities had peaked for the time being. She did not feel that her creeping among the busy smugglers would be adequate practice for her anymore now that she was able to spend hours among them without being seen or heard. Between her sharpened Force Concealment and Stealth abilities, the stealth units installed in her body by Phage, and her natural stealthiness from childhood, she was virtually invisible to the men and women and other genders that passed through the smuggling operation. She decided that she was ready to renew her vendetta.
Stealing a ship from the smugglers was easy for her. They were cozy in their safety and secrecy on Cularin and, thus, rather lax with security. It was a lot of mutual trust and distrust, where if one smuggler would screw another over by stealing something, like a ship, the other smugglers would readily know about it and the small economic boost in the theive's life would be short lived as he was ostricized by the rest of the community. Fara didn't give a damn about that of course, and when she found an ideal ship she readily took it. The HT-2200 had plenty of cargo space so she could hold prisoners and plenty of supplies for long excursions and chases. Leaving Cularin, she headed back out to the galaxy thirsting for blood.
"Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings."
~Alice Duer Miller
~Alice Duer Miller
Fara began to hunt Jedi and Sith through posted bounties for two reasons. One reason was for the money- she would be doing what she loved and getting paid for it, so she figured she might as well. The second reason was more important- the bounties often included helpful information such as last known whereabouts, known aliases, and an image or holo of the target, making them much easier to find as opposed to her random wanderings through the Galaxy.
A rather lucrative bounty slipped through her hands, unfortunately. She had caught a Jedi Knight off-guard and rendered him unconscious. Tying him to a bed in one of the cargo bays of her ship, she had taken him to be collected. Unfortunately during the travel he managed to escape his bindings and when she checked on him he feigned being trapped still. While going to inform the bounty-setter about the capture, the Jedi escaped the ship, leaving Fara looking quite the fool.
Fara never forgot the humiliation at having her quarry escape. And of the thing's Phage taught her, there was no such thing as 'overdoing it'. She spent a year collecting bounties and saving up a vast sum of money to afford several upgrades to her HT-2200 that would prevent such ease of escapes. She already had a decent amount saved up for some upgrades to assist her in traveling and after the Jedi's escape, she had a few more additions to make.
Of the four large cargo bays in the ship- space which she rarely utilized, and even then only to a minimal extent- she would be using three of them for means other than typical storage. One was rigged to become a massive additional fuel tank that pumped its contents directly into the main tank of the ship. Another of the cargo bays had its spacious interior filled to near capacity with equipment that would render her ship invisible for all intents and purposes, and ever since she has been meticulous at maintaining and upgrading the devices within.
The third cargo bay that would be changed was to become a prison block. Twelve cells in all- two levels of three cells on each side. Each cell would have its own gravity and atmosphere controls which were routed to the main controls in the cabin where not even the most cunning of Force users could access them. Being so close to bankruptcy after the expensive modifications did not concern her, however. She'd stolen to survive before and would have no troubles doing it again. In fact, it would be easier, as every hunt developed her skills at stealth and sneakiness further.
"To kill you would be a waste of my practice art and time. If you are flawed I shall analyze and dissect you into perfection. If you are injured as daughter I will care. Savior or Demon are but names that mean little to me... In the end it was only I who found you, it was only I who could give you life."
~Phage
~Phage
Attempting to capture a Sith alive to earn a handsome reward fore the purpose of offsetting some of her bankruptcy turned out to be a mistake. This particularly tenacious Sith was in the process of crushing Fara's throat before she was able to delimb him with her lightsaber. Delivering the fatal beheading and capturing an image of his demise to transmit to those who would pay- only half price since he was dead- was the last thing she did before immediately returning to her ship.
She returned to where she once was operated on by Phage. Breaking into the secret laboratory, she found it deserted. Out of hope and no longer able to breath, she passed out and awaited death. Death, of course, did not come, but upon awakening she found Phage looming over her and felt a pain she remembered from her past- the indescribable agony of Phage's surgery, this time it was located primarily in her neck.
Phage described the procedure even as he was performing it. He removed the damaged cartilage from her trachea and replaced it with a metal that wouldn't be rejected by the body. Within the metal was also a set of powerful blades that would prevent her from choking on anything she may swallow in the future, and the tube of metal wouldn't be able to be 'crushed' by Force Choke abilities if the user wasn't aware of the pressure needed to crush the metal. However if it were crushed there would be no flexibility as the cartilage had and so she wouldn't have the time to get it fixed. This was essentially a double-edged armor that could end up saving her or killing her in the future and he was rather interested to see which would occur. There was also the unfortunate fact that her voicebox had been beyond repair, but Phage decided that it was unnecessary for a silent killer to speak. He left Fara to recover on her own.
For the next two years Fara continued to hunt Jedi and Sith. During times between bounties on them, she settled for bounties on others purely due to the easy money they offered. By this time the two Orders were scattered and in disarray, so while the opportunities were plentiful, actually finding the targets became far more difficult, so Fara began to focus more on finding the smaller bounties to finish her climb out of poverty and start to build a bank again.
During this time she became aware that simply being a mute, disfigured bounty hunter was something highly unprofitable. And to get the better jobs and intel on her targets- specifically the valuable Jedi/Sith targets- she would need to become rather well known and build a name. She scarcely remembered her own name, having not used it for over a decade nor thought about the past for the last five years. She tried various battle armors, but they all greatly diminished her abilities to use the Force. She tried more free-fitting clothing but they bunched up and harassed her maneuverability.
"All the world loves a clown."
~Cole Porter
~Cole Porter
It wasn't until shortly after her 33rd birthday- she didn't know it was her birthday, it's just a convenient reference point- that she found something that both appealed to her and fit her style of stealth. The old adage of hiding in plain sight would aide her greatly, and the nightmarish appearance would both entertain and terrify. The costume was cheap as well, but the mask would have to be enhanced- she had grown rather fond of the combat visors from the armor she dabbled with. Having a custom made combat visor wasn't a terribly rare practice and she was able to get a mask that fit the suit while still satisfying her needs. Donning the suit and mask of her new persona, The Jester, Fara was now a faceless silent creature of death. No name, no voice, no gender, no history. It just existed.
The Jester soon found itself in a small group of bounty hunters being escorted along an Imperial Star Destroyer to an Admiral who had a gripe with a certain Jedi freedom fighter on a world he was having enough difficulties establishing dominance over. The first bounty hunter to bring the live Jedi or report proof of its demise would be rewarded handsomely. The race began.
Fortune didn't favor The Jester however, as the Jedi had been taken care of less than an hour before she arrived, captured by one of the other Bounty Hunters. This was not something that it would let go without a damned good fight. It wasn't a Bounty Hunter and had no care for their traditions or methods or unwritten rules. Before the one who was able to take the Jedi was able to bring the prisoner to the Admiral for payment, The Jester had already snuck aboard the Bounty Hunter's ship and slit the throat of the captive Jedi. The award wasn't what it was after- it was the death of the Jedi.
Five more groups of Bounty Hunters that included her were assembled during the expansion of this particular Empire- which Empire it was, the Jester honestly didn't care, it merely enjoyed the that the imperial form of government reminded her much of her time under Phage's tutelage. It seemed a far far larger, but far far more sluggish and oafish version of The Good Doctor.
The second and third of the groups resulted in her not being the one to claim the bounty or the life of the target quarry. The first excursion, however, was more to her liking. The Sith being targeted had gone into hiding on Coruscant and was doing a very very good job of it. The group was offered the sum of money and only half stayed to accept the job. The Jester was the first to find the Sith walking through he crowded lower streets of the city.
Blending in with the other street shows who performed for change was easy for The Jester, and in a fit of whimsy it actually cartwheeled in front of the Sith and got its attention. Hardly amused by The Jester's antics, the Sith pushed its way past the masked entertainer, though as it stepped by and came within a foot of The Jester was The Sith able to pierce the Force Concealment protecting The Jester's identity. Allowing a moment of surprise to grace his face the Sith reacted quickly and reached for his weapon. The Jester's lightsaber was already there and the Sith moved his hand directly into the beam of fuchsia energy, slicing off four of his fingers. With a quick flourish the Sith's upper body was separated from his lower half.
The fourth mission had the bounty hunters racing to Ambria where a Sith Apprentice was seeking to siphon Force energies from Lake Natth. Utilizing Force Stealth to hide while the other Bounty Hunters fought through the mutated beasts of the lake, The Jester followed the Sith as he escaped during the distracting fight. Following the Sith directly to a small hut in the shadow of a large rocky outcropping of the desert, The Jester stabbed an injector containing a special tranquilizer given to all of the Bounty Hunters by the Sergeant who issued the bounty into the Sith's neck moments before he entered the hut and dragged his unconscious body back to the ship. Once safely contained within the cells of the ship, The Jester returned to the Sergeant to collect the reward.
A couple years later is when the fifth outing occurred, this time to Ryloth to find a Jedi who had gone into hiding among his native species. With little enough intel to go off of, The Jester hunted by following the other Bounty Hunters...for about a week. When it was clear that none of them had any leads, it went off on its own. Finding the Jedi was not too difficult- the Twi'leks were ready to believe that The Jester was an entertainer here for a surprise party and needed to find the Twi'lek that had hired it. Once given an address, The Jester was able to get as close as shaking the Twi'lek Jedi's hand. Reaching out and pressing its palm against the Jedi's chest, the spike built into The Jester's artificial hand extended with great speed and force, killing the unprepared Jedi. Closing the door to hide the corpse from passers-by, The Jester transmitted the image of the dead Twi'lek for confirmation of his kill
"A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never outgrows it."
~Frank Howard Clark
~Frank Howard Clark
After the eight kill in Jester's life- the fifth as far as the Empire was concerned- an Admiral who had issued three of the bounties showed an interest in the oddly dressed yet highly talented individual. Having pulled strings in the Imperial government, the Admiral acquired for The Jester a class-0 Imperial IFF registration. The Jester was overcome with emotion, having never felt accepted since before she killed Kinan until now.
"Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone."
~Jim Fiebig
~Jim Fiebig
Five years later The Jester is assigned to a small group of commandos to take down a particularly irritating Jedi Knight. Going with the Commandos all the way to the deserts of Tatooine to hunt this Knight, The Jester was aghast to catch a glimpse of their quarry. Though twenty years had passed and he had aged noticeably since then, The Jester was able to recognize the eyes of Kinan Dunwir.
As the Jedi entered a small room he was renting for the duration of his stay, the commandos began to draw up plans to take him down. While the five highly trained soldiers were focusing on the hologram of the room and the objects within, The Jester plunged her knives into the necks of two of them. While the other three were reacting, her lightsaber was ignited and moving, decapitating the third of the commandos. The two remaining had their weapon's trained on The Jester by then and opened fire. Deflecting the blaster bolts, The Jester was able to kill one of them with his own gunfire. Activating the stealth units implanted by Phage as well as her Force Stealth, she vanished from the other commando's view. Alarmed at the disappearance of the murderous jester, the commando headed for the exit, falling through the door with a gaping wound in the back of his neck where one of The Jester's knives had sliced him, severing his brainstem from his body.
"Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out."
~Anton Chekhov
~Anton Chekhov
It took the better part of three years for The Jester to get over that single glimpse of Kinan. He lived! The fact shook its foundations to their core. He lived! Even as she turned a Jedi over to the Empire, or sunk a knife into the spine of an unsuspecting Sith, her mind would always drift first to the moment she killed Kinan, and then the instant she spotted him on Tatooine. She replayed the moment over and over in her mind, forcing herself to realize that it was not just a dream or nightmare, that Kinan did live
It's mind was cleared following a pirate raid on her ship. Unable to fleet the faster vessel, The Jester allowed the pirates to board while she cut off the power. Used to such antics, the Pirates brought their own sources of illumination. What they were not used to was being on the run from a grotesque figure hidden in the dark. They were unprepared for being slowly herded into the prison block aboard the HT-2200 and beyond surprised as an unseen force crammed them into one of the cells. They felt their breathing become more strained as the air became thinner and their limbs felt more heavy by the minute. An hour later, the gory remains of the crushed bodies were all that was left of the pirates who had attempted to rob The Jester.
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures.
~Tom Peters
~Tom Peters
Boarding The Jester's ship just as The Jester was ready to go counter-board the pirates was a figure carrying a crimson bladed lightsaber. Hiding its physical and Force presence from the new boarder, the former Sith walked past The Jester to find out why her companions had not yet returned. The Jester entered the pirate ship to do a little counter pirating before it would return to kill the Sith. Inside the pirate ship The Jester found a Jedi trapped inside a universal energy cage.
The Jester examined the cage and ignored the Jedi's please for help. Deactivating the cage, The Jester killed the thankful Jedi and dragged its corpse back to its ship along with the cage. Dispatching the angered ex-Sith without too much difficulty- The Jester knew its ship better than the Sith did and used the familiar terrain to its great advantage- The Jester dumped all of the bodies off at its next stop before tapping into its now rather well-off bank accounts to purchase eleven more of the cages. The Jester installed one in each of the cells aboard its ship to ensure that no captive Jedi or Sith would have a chance at escaping despite how few captives The Jester took.
Faction:
[/u][/center]Faction: Fringe
-Branch: Unofficial Galactic Empire Operative
-Rank: Sith/Jedi Assassin
Force-Sensitive? Yes
-Force Powers:
Misc.
[/u][/center]Weapon: Throwing knives, twin vibro daggers, a pair of charric handguns, fuschia lightsaber, and a palm spike in its left hand capable of penetrating eight inches of non-metal armor and flesh.
Items: The mask- Full spectrum vision, night vision, Heads Up Display, and net access. Sound-dampening Stealth Unit embedded into its body with neural interfaces to provide mental control. Enough neural disruptor headbants on its ship to keep any and all Force prisoners thoroughly incapacitated.
Ship: A customized HT-2200 where, of the four cargo bays (each able to hold approximately 200 metric tons), only one is used for cargo (It also sports two cots and a couch for visitors). One was converted to additional fuel storage for the ship, another is filled up with enough sensor jamming and stealth field generating equipment to keep it invisible to all but the most powerful sensors, and the final room is a small block of prison cells with individual gravity controls to pin any prisoner to the ground under their own weight. There are also individual controls for the cells to alter the chemical composition of the air so that a particularly rowdy prisoner can be given a thinner ammount of oxygen, or if they are not oxygen breathers, another composition of air to give them life but not energy with which to struggle. Though those components became redundant when The Jester installed Universal Energy Cages within the cells.