Civilian Name/Nickname: Ichirin Hiyori
Name Meaning: Ichirin is composed of the kanji for "one" and "wheel, circle, loop", and can mean either "wheel" or "one flower". Hiyori is a woman's name, in this case an alternate reading of the kanji for 'heiwa', which means "peace or harmony"; the kanji for 'hi' also can mean "even". You could take it to mean "harmonious wheel" if you like, which is a good euphemism for balanced cycles or something like that.
Gender: female
Age: eighteen
Birthday: 11 February (born just as the day turned); in an old floral calendar, the 10th of February was associated with hawthorn (hope), and the 11th with cypress (death)
Astrology Sign: Aquarius sun, Sagittarius moon, Capricorn ascendant
Blood Type: O-
Likes
Flowers: It's a family thing, really. Mara has dreamt of flowers since she was a small child, the legacy of pictures and her brother's stories. On Earth, she surrounds herself with flowers whenever possible, spending hours outside in the gardens and bringing cut flowers inside with her; she brings them along when returning to Nemesis as well, though she knows they won't last long (gifts of them are a way to get her into a better mood).
Stories: A bookworm while younger, Mara could often be found tucked away in some nook or another in the palace with a book (or several) on hand. While she read a wide variety of things, as befit a princess' education, her favourites were always stories, whether historical or fantastic. She has an undeniable soft spot for storybook romance.
People: Mara was raised with a sense of duty to her people, but there's more to it to her than simply tradition and expectation. She genuinely likes people -- likes to see them interact, likes to hear their hopes and dreams, likes to see their triumphs and joys. It makes her a little uncomfortable to feel this same fondness that she held for her people on Nemesis for Earth's inhabitants, but she rationalises it by reminding herself that some of these people -- rather, their descendants -- will one day be her people. It will make things uncomfortable at times in the course of the Black Moon's mission, perhaps, but Mara has learned to see the bigger picture, and accepts that the good of the many is more important.
Random Likes: floral language, gemstones, sunrises and sunsets, the rain (and the smell of earth after it), her brothers, fine fabric, daydreaming, traditions, classical music, meditation
Dislikes
Chaos: Well, duh. Mara has a deep, bitter antipathy that borders on hatred for Chaos. She has very good reasons for it, really, but considering it's a Major Hate of hers, it does bear mention. All her carefully designed plans may well go to pot when confronted with Chaos as her rationality flies out the window. She's not overly fond of little-c-chaos, but at least there she understands that it has a place in the world, and is necessary. Because of everything that's happened, Mara wants to see Chaos destroyed (that would elevate this to hate bordering on pathological, come to think of it), because Chaos as it stands is a perversion of what it ought to be -- a necessary, balancing force in the universe.
Impatience: Mara would have been the girl who sat for hours in the garden with a handful of crumbs, waiting for the birds to eat from her hands. She grew up with the ability to wait for things to happen, rather than feeling compelled to make them happen now; she knows well the wait can be worth it. Perhaps because of this, she finds those who lack perseverance to be infinitely frustrating. To her, one of the greatest sins in the world is giving up, and greater yet is the sin of not trying, and the impatient most often are unwilling to even try.
Sunshine: Maybe she hasn't entirely adapted to Earth yet. That wouldn't be altogether unexpected. Maybe it's just years of an upbringing in a dark environment. Mara knows what sunlight's necessary for, and she's fine with it as long as she has sunglasses or a hat on. There's something about how starkly it shows the world that she doesn't like, however, in addition to the sheer brightness which makes her retinas ache. She prefers slightly overcast days when the sunlight is filtered by cloud cover.
Random Dislikes: crowds (which she's not quite used to), absolutes, the need to lie, ice cream (and most sweets), being rushed, being questioned, modern fashion, television and movies (books are better), storms
Hobbies
Ballroom Dancing: Nemesis isn't exactly the shiniest of worlds, but when you bring together its society in brightly lit rooms with fanciful and fashionable garb, there's something to be said for it. Perhaps it's the counterpoint to everyday, but whatever the case, the balls are not to be missed. Some of Mara's fondest memories of her parents are being taught to dance by her father, while her mother watched on smilingly; later on, it was her brothers who partnered her most often and taught her the newest steps. To this day, ballroom dancing remains one of the few things that brings a smile of unrestrained delight to her face. The concept of a masked ball just brings a thrill of the unknown to the entire situation, which makes it even better.
Plotting Her Revenge: Oh, come on. It's a standard Villain Hobby. Realistically, though, the idea of revenge consumes Mara a little more than she'll ever admit: Chaos not only took her beloved brothers from her, it also brought a war to her people that hurt them even further, and possibly widened the existing rift between them and the inhabitants of Crystal Tokyo. She's justifiably a little pissed on a personal level. While not prone to elaborate schemes, she does spend a substantial amount of time working out ways to move the general plan forward, and even occasionally daydreaming about what she hopes will be the eventual conclusion. She'll show Chaos you don't mess with the Black Moon!
Ikebana: Something picked up recently, since the Black Moon's arrival in the past. Not only is it a proper pastime for the heiress she is pretending to be, but it gives her an opportunity to spend more time among the flowers she so adores. Her studies have been in the Kozan style, and though a novice, her teachers have praised her for a quick mind and instinctual grasp of flora. There's also something about the act of arrangement itself that is nearly meditative, good for when she's having a particularly bad day.
Kyudo: Or at least, that's what it's called on Earth in this day and age. Known as zen archery in the west, it's something Mara was introduced to as a young princess on Nemesis, and finding it on Earth now was unexpected. The sport holds the belief that "when the spirit and balance of the shooting is correct the result for the arrow will be to arrive in the target", making it as much a meditation as a sport. While she was trained in other combat forms when she was younger, this has always been her favourite, and she's rather good at it. (Wiki talks about kyudo. Yay.)
Goals: The obvious one, of course, is the defeat of Chaos. Even if she sometimes wants its absolute destruction (usually in her blacker moods), she knows that's unrealistic, and foolish besides -- Chaos is necessary and perpetual, after all -- but seeing it gain power makes her uncomfortable for more than just personal reasons. On a simpler level, she wants to see her people happy. Is that really too much to ask?
She also wants a rose garden. Yes, she technically has one here on Earth, but she wants one ON THE BLACK MOON, DAMN IT. Silly romantic girl.
She doesn't actually think about the far-flung future, a bit too focussed on Chaos at the moment, but there's a part of her that wants to rule well, wed (for love if she can), have children to continue on the family, and eventually grow old happily. That can all wait until after Chaos' defeat is accomplished, though.
Good Points:
Determined: Or stubborn, if you prefer. Perhaps because she invests so much of herself in everything she does, Mara is not likely to give up on anything easily. She really believes that things will work out if she just tries hard enough. Especially where her people and her ideals are concerned, she'll give her all and then some, just to keep that unspoken promise made when she set out to do what she's trying.
Confident: She's never had a reason to doubt her own self-worth and knows exactly what her place in the world is. Because of this, she's aware both of what she should do and what she should be able to do -- and her expectations of herself are surprisingly realistic. This confidence is almost palpable, something that's obvious to those around her.
Instincts +5: Probably a good thing, given how in the clouds Mara's head can be. She not only has a good intuitive understanding of people, born of years of watching them, but is fairly good at coming up with plans that work (at least, when plot wants them to *runs*). This also makes her fairly good at knee-jerk decisions that don't suck.
Flaws:
Rose-Tinted Glasses: You would think, after everything, she'd know better -- and she does, really. There's just something in Mara that still desperately wants to believe that everything will be right in the end. She believes, firmly, or at least hopes with every fibre of her being, in such ideals as justice and equality and both sides understanding and empathising with each other, and everything working out somehow. On some deep level, she probably even knows that reality doesn't work like that. It doesn't stop her from giving people the benefit of the doubt time and time again. (She has a limit, though. You just don't want to know what happens when you reach it. Or if you do, just look down one point.)
Grudge Until Judgement Day: Mara doesn't hold a grudge. She cradles it close, pets it and feeds it and whispers little words of encouragement to it, nurses it until it grows, bigger and bigger ... Petty things roll off her back, but when she is truly angered, she's more than a little frightening. Anger makes her cold and calculating and ruthless, and she will methodically set about doing exactly what she knows will do the most damage to the unlucky object of her aggravation. Those who cross the line with her had best be prepared to earn her undying enmity.
Open Book: Mara can keep a secret, but she'll damned well show she's hiding one. She probably couldn't lie her way out of a paper bag. It takes her a marked effort to get into "persona" as Hiyori, and if she's thrown off while in that mode, it'll take her a moment or several to recover (or longer, depending on how shaken up she is). There's a reason they set her up as a mysterious rich girl who could be eccentric, after all.
Personality
At a glance, Mara is very much a princess: confident, regal, self-assured. She has never questioned her own self-worth or her place in the world (though there have been moments of reassessment), and because of this, is not given to doubt. If she says she can do something, it's usually because she knows what she's capable of; she was not raised to be arrogant enough to have unreasonably high expectations of herself, nor to believe herself above needing the help of others. To the contrary, she understands that it is others who make much of life possible, and is never without the proper thanks where it is owed. Debts are to be paid, acknowledgement given where it is owed, or one day you'll find yourself left with no one there to support you when you need it -- and to a woman who thrives on interactions, to be alone would be intolerable.
Very much a "people" person, Mara is most comfortable around others. She grew accustomed to watching people when she was younger, and has a good understanding of human nature, as well as a fair talent for reading people. For all that she is a princess, she is hardly unapproachable -- perhaps legacy of being the youngest, and the darling of both her family and her people. Her heart is given unreservedly to Nemesis and its inhabitants, perhaps too much so; she loves them without reservation, and this not only leaves her wide open to heartbreak, but means that she is somewhat irrational where they are concerned. For example, she would be exceedingly unlikely to believe that one of her own betrayed them (even after the Wiseman; she prefers to think of him as a once-in-a-lifetime exception), and holding one of her people hostage is the perfect way to get leverage over her. It doesn't help that she very much wears her heart on her sleeve: anyone who looks at her can see this devotion. It extends beyond the Black Moon as well; for those she is close to, Mara will walk through fire. To her, friendship means opening her heart and giving her trust completely, and she expects the same in return. On the flip side, once her enmity is given, it almost always stays given, and grudges are held for eternity. Even dealing with those who cross her, however, Mara will hold to her ideals; just because they sink low enough to lie and cheat doesn't give her any right to. When it comes to her ideals, she will not compromise them herself, no matter how much others do.
Open and almost unabashedly honest, Mara not only dislikes lying, but is fairly poor at it as well. Perhaps it's that her fondness for the truth is so deeply rooted; perhaps it's simply that she never really had to learn how to play political games when she was young, and that her brothers kept her somewhat sheltered. A firm believer in the rules and honour, honesty and truth, she likes to believe that if things are done The Right Way, Everything Will Work Out. Even knowing that there are people like the Wiseman out there, she believes wholeheartedly that they are the exception rather than the rule, and that by being true in word and deed, she can still accomplish what is necessary. If she's trying to keep a secret, it's plain on her face; if she's trying to lie, she gives herself away with a marked reticence of tone. At almost all times, Mara is an open book; the sole exception to this is in her rare moments of abject fury, when all emotion is swept away beneath an utterly expressionless mask. In anger, she becomes ruthless and cold, and it is unsurprising that she doesn't like this about herself; as a consequence, few (if any) have ever seen it, beyond the icy measured tones she exhibited back on Nemesis when speaking of her brothers' deaths.
Because she was the youngest, and very much the adored one at that, she's still acclimating to the newness of her situation. A year as regent while Demando and Sapphire in the past was one thing; she'd known there might come a day when she'd have to act as ruler. For all that she loves her people, Mara is still a little discomfited by carrying them on her shoulders -- the responsibility of the situation frightens her just a bit. She's determined to be a good ruler, determined to undo the damage the Wiseman wrought and somehow bring an end to the war (and better conditions on Nemesis, and all sorts of other starry-eyed ideals), but for all her self-assurance, she's still adjusting to that role, and figuring out just what she can do there on her own. Perhaps it's just as well she's currently heading up this team back in time, since it gives her a chance to acclimate on a smaller scale.
She misses her brothers greatly -- understandably so, when it has been only a little time since their deaths. For all the difference between them in years, the three were extremely close, especially after the deaths of their parents. Mara idolised both Demando and Sapphire, and their story forced her to see them as human, not the idealised Elder Brothers they had been. Even though they were gone for a year, she still catches herself on the verge of wanting to ask one or the other for some bit of advice or such. She never had an opportunity to truly grieve for them, busy from the moment she found out in setting the wheels in motion for this hopefully strike against Chaos, and she does not have that luxury now. She clings to their memories more than she'll admit, but everyone knows it, when among the things she brought back in time with her were the earrings Sapphire gave her before he left and the flower Demando tendered with his apology, now pressed flat between the pages of a favourite storybook.
In some respects, Mara is a dreamer -- not only because she wants to see the best in all situations, almost unrealistically, but because she always loved stories, and the natural outgrowth of that was stories within her imagination. Despite this, her dreams are nearly always grounded (at least a little), looking forward, and the things she want to build always have some basis in reality. Impulsive when it comes to acting on plans, she is quick to initiate, but her plans will usually be well thought out, even if the reasons behind what she wants to do haven't quite crystallised in her mind. Moreover, she is not one to set into motion something she isn't going to see through to the end; she has an almost dogged persistence when it comes to making her plans work, and thankfully has enough flexibility and speed of thought that she can roll with the punches when a plan is shot through with holes. Logic has a place, and that place is in her advisers; she's a creature more of instincts, and those instincts are correct more often than not. For all her dynamism and that energy in planning and executing, she's still given to daydreaming when the time permits (usually when engaged in some sort of physical activity that doesn't require a good deal of thought). It should come as no surprise that, given her love of stories and her idealistic nature, a fair number of those daydreams are of a romantic nature; Mara has an incurable (if somewhat subdued) romantic streak.
Her day-to-day moods tend to be on a fairly even keel; it's almost as if the spectacular fury she evinces in those rare moments of anger leaves her much more mellow afterwards. It takes a good deal to disrupt her equilibrium, and she'll treat everyone she encounters to the same friendly smile. Even with strangers, she's likely to try to help if confronted with a problem -- she's the girl who'll offer up a handkerchief, a shoulder to cry on, and a listening ear for you to pour your problems into, and perhaps because of her openness, it's not unlikely for even those strangers to at least accept that handkerchief. She doesn't sugarcoat, but at the same time, she doesn't need to, when with that rose-tinted outlook, there's no doubt in her that somehow everything will work out for the best; this makes her assurances feel like more than just platitudes. Despite all those smiles, however, there is the faintest air of melancholy to her: she does still grieve, and like everything else she feels, it shows. There are days when her moods grow black, even times on Nemesis when she's alone that she slips into brooding silence, immersed in memories and concerns (she feels as if she's abandoned her people sometimes; despite her belief in what she's doing here, she feels the duty of a ruler is to be with her people), but the arrival of others always shakes her out of that. She doesn't have the time for those sorts of things, after all.
At the end of the day? An idealist, someone who holds truth and justice and honour and love as sacred tenets, and who will do anything at all for her people. Someone who, when crossed, becomes more than a little terrifying. But really, just another young woman old for her years, trying to do right in the world.
Appearance
Face: While her heart-shaped face and that little pink bow of a mouth are never going to be described as anything but "sweet", somehow Mara manages to look regal more than anything else. Her eyes are a pale blue, almond-shaped and long-lashed; they typically show what she's feeling fairly clearly, and the vanishing of that emotion is an easy danger sign. The rest of her features are fairly sharp, thin brows and high cheekbones and a nose just barely saved from hawklike by being slightly snubbed. She is extremely fair-skinned, which makes the downturned Black Moon of Nemesis stand out all the more in contrast on her forehead.
Hair: Jet black, hilights swimming somewhere between deep blue and smoke, and remorselessly straight and thick. She wears it cut fairly short, just brushing her jaw, in a style reminiscent of a pageboy. A few slightly shorter locks frame her face, the closest she gets to bangs. A chiffon scarf, matched to whatever she's wearing, is typically pinned over her hair, reaching nearly to her waist.
Build: On the taller side for a woman at 5'8", Mara's build is rather average. She has healthy curves, a little padding over her muscle. She's in fairly good shape, with a decent amount of muscle, but nothing particularly impressive on that front. Her fingers are a little long, ideal for a pianist, with some dirt under the nails not uncommon; her forearms usually sport some slight bruising from archery practise.
Voice: A high alto. Her typical speech is much the same both in persona and as herself: a little soft, open, warm. When she's excited, it gets louder, but when angered, it drops to an almost deadly whisper. She has a broad vocabulary she's not afraid to use (though admittedly the curses are used far less than, say, the more complex or obscure words) and a tendancy not to stand on the formalities.
Clothing: Away from Nemesis, Mara has adopted simpler clothes than those she wore as regent. A typical day will find her in a simple midriff-baring blouse with short, snug sleeves and ties in the back, reminiscent of an Indian choli blouse, and either loose pants or wrapped ankle-length skirt. She favours white, black, greys, and various shades of cool colours, particularly blues. Her sole concession to her rank is the embroidery which decorates her scarves, occasionally adding gold to her colour palate. The only jewellery she wears are a pair of the Black Moon Crystal earrings Sapphire made, a simple stud from which hang a pair of back-to-back single-loop spirals above a two-inch piece of black crystal (yes, they look just the same as in canon).
History
Many years from now, on the Black Moon, three heirs would be born to the Royal Family. Demando, the eldest, was due to become ruler when his parents died, and was trained from infancy to that role. The middle child, Sapphire, was happiest when left to his own devices, studying and inventing. The youngest of the three, and the only girl, was named Topaz, and she was the darling of the family. To say she was spoiled would be nothing short of truth: her parents cosseted her, her brothers adored her, and to their people, she was the flower of the Black Moon.
The children's parents passed on while the trio were still fairly young, first mother lost in an illness that swept their world, then father shortly after to grief. Demando became Prince of Nemesis at the age of fifteen; Sapphire was twelve, Topaz only six. She didn't understand the sudden change in her eldest brother, because while Demando still smiled at her and ruffled her hair and would indulge her in games, there was a solemnity and a cold determination to him that hadn't been there before. He spent far more time closeted with his advisors, both the council and his especial confidante, the mysterious hermit everyone called the Wiseman. But time passed and the children grew up. As Demando became more and more involved with his duties as ruler, Topaz spent more time with Sapphire; it was not uncommon to find them both in his workshop, Sapphire fussing over some new creation or such, Topaz on a stool in the corner with her head bent over a book. She idolised both brothers, even as she became aware of their flaws -- knowing they were human only made her love them more.
Nemesis was a cold world, bleak and forbidding, and even the happiest soul would become somewhat embittered in that environment. Demando had felt the brunt of their parents' death; perhaps it was that, or perhaps the increasing dissatisfaction he saw in those around him, or perhaps something else entirely. Whatever the reason, ten years after he became Prince, he gathered his siblings together and informed them, privately, that tomorrow he would be making an announcement. The negotiations with the White Moon had fallen flat yet again; all that was left was war. "We'll go back to Earth again," he promised that night, "and we'll see flowers, whatever it takes."
The war went on for a year, skirmishes between warriors of White and Black Moons growing more and more frequent. It was almost exactly a year after it had begun that Demando collected his siblings again. He had spoken to his advisors, he said, and determined that there was no way to win this war in the present. It would take going back to the past, before the senshi held the power they did now, to ensure that they could return to Earth. He would be leading a picked group of warriors, accompanied by the Wiseman back through time to accomplish this, and he wanted Sapphire to go with him. While Topaz was heartbroken at the prospect of both of her brothers leaving at once, she managed to smile for him at that. "You better bring me back some flowers," she said, and Demando ruffled her hair as if she'd still been six and promised that he would.
The next morning, the announcement was made, and that evening, Demando and Sapphire and a half-dozen others left, and Topaz was made acting regent. She was seventeen.
In the past, Demando and Sapphire and the rest brought their war to the senshi of that time. In the future, Topaz ruled, and waited for her brothers' return, and did her best to hold things together as war with the Neo Moon Kingdom raged on. And then --
She woke one night -- or perhaps slept still; she was never sure, afterwards -- to find her brothers in her bedroom. It was dark, so she didn't notice at first that both of them were translucent, hazy. She remembers, though, sitting with her arms wrapped around a pillow while Sapphire sat at the foot of the bed and told her, quietly and calmly, what had befallen them on Earth. She remembers how Demando stood behind him, his face half-averted in the shadows -- how embarrassment and pain had flitted across his features. The awful truth was something she would never be able to forget: that they had been manipulated by Chaos, that Demando had killed Sapphire, and the Wiseman, who had been Chaos' avatar, had killed him in turn, and that Sailor Moon, whom they had been brought up to see as the enemy, had tried her hardest to help them in spite of everything. It was, quite simply, shock upon shock upon shock.
She woke, truly, with Demando's last words still echoing in her ears. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise," he'd said, finally meeting her gaze. He'd given her a hydrangea blossom before turning away, and when she sat up, she realised with shock that it was still there. It had been no dream.
That morning, before her assembled court, Topaz told of what had happened to her brothers and their allies in the past, and renounced the name she had been born to. "Until my brothers are avenged," she swore, "I will be bitter," and the name she took up held to that vow. Now Mara, Princess of Nemesis, Ruler of the Black Moon, she met with the council that had been assisting her for the year she had been regent and laid her own plans out. She would take her own warriors, she told them, and go back in time as her brothers had, and instead of seeking the blood of the Lunar Kingdom's senshi, she would find Chaos -- and for the honour of their kingdom, for the blood that had been spilled, she would see their vengeance enacted. Chaos, she explained, was a menace, and above and beyond her personal vows, there was that to consider. It had to be destroyed, for the sake not only of their world, but for everyone.
To her surprise, the councillors backed her decision. Leaving regency in the hands of the Council, ordering them to negotiate the terms of surrender with the White Moon's people, she presented Nemesis' surrender to the Lunar Kingdom and took her quartet of warriors and left. Barely eighteen, she is nothing like a child.
Current Situation
LIVING ON THE BLACK MOON. Actually, Mara does spend a fair amount of time at the group's base on modern-day Nemesis, the better to keep track of her fellow Black Moon warriors. Unless one happens to be in the middle of some sort of deep cover mission (in which case, she'd better have been consulted and given her approval!), she expects daily reports, and is constantly revising her plans as new information comes in (if she's not accessible there, she can be reached via e-mail or cell phone in persona). On Earth, she can typically be found on the grounds of the Ichirin manse (which are pretty durned big, conveniently), usually in the gardens.
As an aside: Mara's first act as ruler-by-right of Nemesis was to hand over the world's surrender to the Lunar Kingdom. It's probable that at least some people wouldn't have been entirely comfortable with this, particularly when all they had to go on was the word of the princess that her brothers had died (and granted, Mara's ineptitude at lying was well-known, but there was still bound to be some suspicion). Consequently, there may be (and probably are) rebels among the Black Moon's people who wanted the war to go on -- and even among those warriors with her (whee?).
Name: Mara
Spheres: balance, death
Symbol: A horizontally-stretched six-rayed star. Used on gravestones to signify "date of death", it also bears a superficial similarity to the symbol for equilibrium, which is a horizontal line with outward arrows at each end.
Main Color: cornflower blue
Secondary Color: white (in illustrations, both Demando and Sapphire share white as a common colour, so it makes sense for their sister to as well)
Transformation Sequence: Mara closes her eyes and raises her hands, forming the Dharmachakra Mudra, both hands chest-high, thumb and forefinger in a circle touching the other hand, the other three fingers arcing, left palm inward and lower than the right, which is turned out. The world about her shimmers like a heat haze, colour leaching from it and from her. From her closed eyes, a single tear falls; as it touches her hands, it shatters, pinpricks of light and colour that spread outward. The world behind Mara restores to normalcy, but as the tear-shards pass her, her garb changes to her fuku. When she opens her eyes at the end, they flare cornflower blue for a moment before settling back into their normal hue.
Introduction Phrase: Confronted with a senshi, her first words will typically be, "I have no quarrel with you; get out of my way." This is usually accompanied by a cool stare and arms folded across her chest, posture one of regal disdain, though she will typically sweep an arm out to point to the nearest appropriate exit route to accompany her demand that the senshi leave.
Fuku: Mara's top is a well-fitted cornflower blue jacket with a mandarin collar, fastened with invisible hooks up the front and, at the throat, a round white pin with her symbol engraved on it. The sleeves come to her wrists, straight and almost military in line. All told, it's very similar to what both of her brothers wore, albeit with a slightly more feminine cut that brings it tapering in at the waist and flaring out again to stop just below her hips. A cape drapes from her shoulders to her hips, cross-woven fabric that shimmers either cornflower or white, depending on the angle of view; it is caught at each shoulder and the base of her neck in back with small pins of blue topaz, her symbol surmounted by a tiny rose. More little blue topazes are scattered across the shoulders of the jacket, almost invisible save as a glint against the fabric when she moves in just the right way. She wears a pair of slim white slacks, half hidden by the ankle-length side-split skirt worn over them, this too in white and embroidered with a broad band of cornflower blue stars (a la her symbol) amid a vine-like tracery along the bottom hem. Her shoes are white Victorian-style ankle boots with a two-inch heel and cornflower blue laces and stitching. As always, she wears her crystal earrings, and the Black Moon of Nemesis is prominent on her brow.
Attacks
Name: Balance the Scales
Effect: The visual is fairly simple: Mara folds her hands as if praying, eyes closed. Suspended from her hands appear a pair of scales glowing a faint cornflower blue, which spin, faster and faster, forming first a disc and then a sphere, all within the space of a moment. As Mara opens her eyes and calls out the words, the effect takes hold and the sphere shatters into a thousand pinpricks of light. Effects, in brief? Karma's a bitch. What this does, essentially, is turns what has been done to Mara and her allies back on those responsible. When the attack is loosed, all damage taken by Mara (and any allies within her sphere of influence at that point) is returned, halved, to those responsible. It also affects positive efforts: had she or one of hers been healed by an adversary, half of that healing's effects would be returned as well. There is no effect on Mara or her allies, positive or negative; they are simply the "template" for the attack's effect.
Restrictions: Obviously, this is useless without getting beat up a little first; the damage only applies to that "fight", not prior encounters. Her sphere of influence encompasses a ten-foot radius from her, both for allies and adversaries. While the power can be used a half-dozen times in the course of a single battle, each subsequent usage will only apply to what has transpired between the last casting to affect any individual within the new sphere of influence (herself aside) and the time of casting.
Name: Stand on the Threshold
Effect: As with her first attack, Mara brings up her hands and folds them as if praying, closing her eyes. She whispers, "Let me walk the darkened path, and stand on the threshold between the worlds." A step backwards, and the world grows hazy around her, losing colour and shimmering slightly. Mara herself seems almost illuminated from within, desaturated but glowing faintly against the darker background; the colour that remains seems to bleed into her eyes, which are now a brilliant (if still pale) blue. For as long as the power remains in effect, anyone she focuses on will feel a chill (as if, perhaps, someone just walked across their grave) while Mara "weighs" their soul. Her attention pins people in place, makes them feel light-headed and cold and altogether uncomfortable, and it will take a person with strong will indeed to move before her focus passes on.
Essentially, this power lets Mara look at someone's soul by stepping halfway into the underworld. It takes but a few seconds' observation to get a general read of the soul, judging where it fits on the pure-to-not spectrum. Useful for figuring that out, but not much else.
Restrictions: While she can maintain this power for a good handful of minutes, the longer Mara stays on that cusp, the harder it is to come back. After fifteen seconds of use, it takes a scant second to translate back to the living world, but if she pushes it to the limit of five minutes, it takes nearly a minute for her to come back. A large part of this difficulty stems from the fact that, the longer she is there, the more it feels that she belongs in the underworld; thus, reminders from teammates about her duty or similar ties to the living world may help speed this along. After a longer time between worlds, she will usually be a little more subdued and distracted, as though she's listening to voices just past the reach of human ears (and she is, really, but it's not really a useful skill in this context). Additionally, the power only lets her observe one person at a time; she cannot "scan" either, but must focus on someone she wants to read to get any impressions at all. While using the power, she is completely vulnerable to attacks; any contact, in fact, will push her forcefully into one world or the other, and jar her out of the vision the power grants. Being forced out of the halfway state is uncomfortable, to say the least, and will typically leave her disoriented and gasping for air for a short period.
Name: Sojurn
Effect: Mara dies. Don't worry, it's just temporary. Actually, it's probably one of the least flashy powers out there, and yet is ridiculously dramatic when you stop and think about it. There are no words involved in this one; rather, it demands hand positioning to invoke it. Mara forms the Dharmachakra Mudra (see Transformation), inhales deeply and slowly, exhales the same way. At the next attack, or in fifteen seconds (whichever comes first), she collapses, for all intents and purposes dead.
Now, this isn't a true death, and it would be deucedly inconvenient if the body stayed there to be poked at. Rather, at the moment of collapse, a rift into the underworld opens beneath her (visuals much as for the prior power) and her body is taken through it. When she returns to the world of the living, it is on the Black Moon.
Restrictions: If the death was not from an attack, it takes Mara three hours to come back from the underworld; if she took an attack after activating this power, it will take six. As with the prior power, it's a little difficult to come back -- moreso here, in a way. It does not help at all that in the underworld, she can kibitz with people she cared about who died. Using this power more than a single time in a twenty-four hour period is a Bad Idea Indeed, and while it probably won't result in Mara staying in the underworld for good, that's certainly a possibility; in the least, it will make her return times half again as long.