MairiAnna was born as Twinkle Fireshard. In a dark planet in a far off system, Her mother, Rhine, and father, Gypsum, were less than enthused in her existence. They'd wanted a strong, healthy boy to help them run their ranch. What they'd gotten was a small, less than healthy, girl. Mairi started to speak, but only to repeat in an eerie imitation, what was told to her. Her parents were so unsettled by this behavior that they began to lock her in her room for large parts of the day. They would take away any toys in her room if she cried. When that didn’t work, they took away anything colorful. For a small period of time, the little girl lived in a very dark, lonely place. By the time she was three years old, her parents couldn't stand her behavior. Her sporadic speaking behavior, strange expressions, and easily confused nature made her extremely difficult to care for. They began relying very heavily on the care of others to deal with their child. When her grandparents, both maternal and paternal, had had enough with her strange penchant for long stares and her repetitive speech, a young uncle of hers stepped forward. Barely a day over twenty himself, Zephyr stepped in. Zephyr's fury toward his family went well-noticed, and soon he wasn't welcome with them anymore, either. By the time young Twinkle was five years old, Zephyr packed her up and brought her away from that planet, from that family. They do not visit at all, nor do they correspond with anyone from their home. Zephyr used call and response, repeated over and over, to teach the young one how to have conversations. “How are you?” “I am fine, and you?” would be repeated over and over. The more she learned, the more she adapted. Zephyr began to notice as the child grew that she would flinch whenever her name was said. He realized that this was because she was used to it being said in anger. He resolved in that moment to find her a new name, one that she would only ever associate with happiness and acceptance. They listened to any music they could get their hands on, settling at one point in a glitch home planet whose music closely resembled that of old world human music. The child took a liking to that music, and Zephyr would often find her singing some of the songs over and over. Her favorite song, without fail, spoke of a girl named Mairi on her wedding day. The child would laugh and clap along when prompted. Zephyr found a name for his young niece. He added in her middle name, “Anna”, selected by her because it was a palindrome, or a “mirror word” as she called it. Because she couldn't understand the concept of two names, it just evolved to be MairiAnna. As an adult she now understands and introduces herself as, simply, Mairi. With more time spent on the Glitch planet, Mairi started to understand how emotions affect people's actions, and Zephyr used that information to build a better understanding for her of social interactions. He began to bring her to visit other races, mostly Hylotls, but also the odd Floran, and Zephyr began to help Mairi associate words like “distressed” with the corresponding facial expression. The furrowing of the brow, the protrusion of a lower lip, a partial closing of the eyelids. Mairi learned empirically how to understand social interactions that most people understand without study. As Mairi grew, Zephyr found that he had a knack for using whatever was on hand to make things work, such as working mechanical toys for little Mairi, or mechanisms to play music. One day, someone referred to his workings as “tinker toys”. Mairi briefly reverted back to her old ways, repeating the the phrase over and over, bouncing happily on her heels as she did it. Zephyr took a shine to it, just like his young niece. Thus, they became Zephyr TinkerToy and MairiAnna Tinkertoy Still without a place to call home, Zephyr and Mairi scanned the stars for a new place to live. They first checked places that were familiar to them, dark planets and places similar. Though they didn’t fall in love with any of those planets, and the climate was unforgiving, Mairi’s love for all things colorful was born when she was 8 years old. As she walked past a prism crystal, her own light refracted to created a beautiful rainbow that would changed and evolved as she walked by. It took Zephyr hours and the promise of sweets to get her away from the rainbows. Mairi walked away, sulky and dejected. She didn’t realize that Zephyr had taken samples of the minerals that the prisms were comprised of, to later be replicated for her pleasure. Mairi and Zephyr touched down on a beautiful garden-like planet. It’s slow-rolling landscape appealed to Zephyr, and Mairi loved the colorful flowers that were abundant on its surface. Zephyr could see that this was the best place they were going to find, and that the best thing to do would be to focus on making it their home, instead of just expecting to find a pre- perfected home. The two settled, Zephyr staying home to create for money and to build for pleasure. Mairi sees him frequently, but he sends her off every day, sometimes to drum up more business, but usually to just “make friends”. Mairi is now 20, the same age Zephyr was when he took sole responsibility for her.
