Jaiks : Background

[Jaiks]

Name: Kana Drayson, AKA  “Jaiks”
Father:  Jaik Drayson  (smuggler/bounty hunter)
Mother: Heana Windtide (casino prostitute)

Born: Level 88, Nar Shaddaa



Jaik Drayson had a reputation for being smooth, clever and reliable.   If you needed the job done, you needed Jaik Drayson and the Forgotten Joe.   (The latter being the name of his ship, not his partner.)   When not running cargo or fetching bounties, Jaik was often found somewhere on Nar Shaddaa entertaining his other interests: booze, gambling and women.   And if there was one place you could go to find all three in plentiful supply, it was the casino runs on Level 88 in Nar Shaddaa.

And so it would happen that one such run eventually netted him with some unexpected cargo.    Kana’s arrival into the world was about as unplanned as one can get.  A one night stand in a pleasure lounge rarely bonds two together in an agreement of love and fidelity, and even less likely are the odds a child conceived on such terms will make it into the world at all.    Yet somehow Kana had defied those odds.

Heana hid her condition from her employer until it became too obvious to do so.   During the eventual discovery and ensuing argument of what should be done regarding the matter, the unborn Kana seemingly decided to take hold of her own fate and forced her way into the world.    They decided to keep the child, and when it was old enough, she too would serve under her mother’s employer, the casino’s owner, Vuul Mikko.

For the first three and half years of her life, Kana was raised in the shadows of Vuul Mikko’s lounge and casino.   From cribs to closets, she watched from the darkness as her mother worked.   Many believe that young children make no sense of what happens in their environments, and perhaps even Heana had disillusioned herself to believe this, but Kana listened and watched as clients came and went, and while perhaps the greater understanding of what was happening was lost, at the base of it – she was learning one thing.   The strong command the weak.

It would be when Kana was almost four that her errant father returned to Mikko’s Lounge and requested an old favorite.    When he returned to Heana’s room and the dark, shaggy-haired Kana slipped out, he was dumbstruck.   It was as if he were looking at a smaller, female version of himself and he knew it.   Something deep within struck him like a lightning bolt and he urged Heana to let him take the girl.   She agreed readily, knowing that Kana’s fate, if she refused, was already set in stone.

What had started as a night of leisure was now turning into one of Jaik’s most challenging runs yet.   He needed to smuggle a four year old child out of Mikko’s Lounge.     Things went smoothly until they were nearly out of the Lounge foyer;  one of the guards who frequently visited Haena recognized the child.   He pursued with two of his men and forced Jaik on the run into the alleys of the Casino District.   It was there, that once more, some uncanny fate seemed to intervene.

A man with white hair and several noticeable scars had stumbled into the mix, raising a hand as if in sudden alarm at the commotion.  “Easy!” he said to the gathered, and in unusual acquiescence, the urgency of the chase halted.

Jaik looked to him and, with the child held tightly in his arms, simply said, “Help, she’s my daughter.  I can’t leave her with them…”      

The white haired man tilted his head at the girl for just a moment, and then turned to the three Casino guards that had been giving chase.   Once more he held out his hands, this time both of them palm up in apology.  “This is not the girl you seek.     You should look elsewhere.”    

The lead guard turned to his two subordinates and waved them back the way they’d come, “She’s not the one.   We should look elsewhere.”   A moment later they had turned and were rushing off the opposite direction.

Jaik once more looked dumbfounded, but the man just offered a smile. “You should take her far from here, far from the influence of such greed and dishonesty.”

“Anywhere’s better than where she was.  I don’t know how you did that, but I owe you one.  Thank you…” Jaik stopped short as if seeking a name.

“No thanks is needed, but someday, tell the child about the man you met fleeing this city.   My name is Rahm Kota.   Now go, hurry.”  Once more he offered a gesture, shooing the two off toward the ship port.  

They never saw the man again, and despite his best intentions that day, Jaik had no idea how to raise any child, let alone a female one.    He left her to run underfoot of his operations, much like her mother had.   He never took her on space runs, fearing that it was too dangerous to bring a child along, but as she got older, he started giving her odd jobs to run through Undercity, getting messages and small packages to and from his colleagues and clients.  

Often times, when her father’s runs went long, she was left to take care of herself among the miscreants and hooligans of Smuggler’s Moon.     As it turned out, she was quite good at it.   Never one to let herself be bullied or pushed around, Kana asserted herself quickly when challenged.   And while her physical prowess in fights was initially far from glorious, she proved a quick learner, especially in the art of brawling.   A young street boy took a liking to her at seeing her grit, and agreed to teach her what he knew.  Joran Rhade would become not just her mentor of sorts, but her closest and most trusted friend… and the only one who knew her as Kana, and not “Jaiks”.

Oh yeah --- and why does she go by Jaiks?  Pretty simple really.  From the time she was a hip hugger hanging at his side, all the way until she started running for her father, people would ask who the kid was.   The usual answer was always a simple, “Oh she’s Jaik’s.”    In the underground of Nar Shaddaa, names weren’t too important, and so it became that the regulars knew her as Jaiks.   And she was fine with that.   It was a new life here after all, so why not leave the old name behind.

As time went on, Jaiks grew into her own; strong, independent, adventurous.    She was earning her own reputation aside from just being ‘Jaik’s daughter’.   She was fiercely bold, and while her fists were capable and she proved a great student of martial combat, there was just something about her that could cow her opponents from even wanting to fight in the first place.  This side of her was starting to gnaw more strongly at her core, begging to be used more and more.   Quite frankly she liked the feeling of being in control or subduing others with just a glare or a word.  Perhaps it was from what she witnessed in her earliest years; that she could either be the conquered, or the conqueror.   Or perhaps it was just part of who she was.    

Despite this edgy side of Jaiks, it would turn out that an act of selfless bravery and loyalty would ultimately trigger a response that proved beyond reason for the girl- enough so to set her on her search for answers.   Only her closet friend Joran would bear witness to this phenomenon, as it was he that she saved with an amazing feat of athletics during a job turned sour.    There was no way she should have been able to catch him from falling out of the cargo hold bay!  And it was even more impossible how she one-arm lifted him back up to safety as if he weighed nothing at all … it was just … too impossible.  After that event, Jaiks felt that there was something more to it- to all of it.   And so she started seeking answers.  Carefully.   Subtly… and without letting anyone else, save for Joran, know what she was looking into.


Quick Details:

“Jaiks”
Officially: Kana Drayson
Age: 19
Born/Raised: Nar Shaddaa
Force Sensitivity (Aggressor / Enhance)
Knowledge Skills – Underworld

Fun Facts:


-Jaiks knows about her mother’s employer (Vuul Mikko) and frequently gives his name as a name drop when it might lead trouble his way.  
-Smugglers such as Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Greedo all spent some time during their careers in Nar Shaddaa.
-Rahm Kota was in fact a Jedi, and he did intentionally aid in Jaiks' childhood rescue.
-Jaik Drayon is alive and well.  His relationship with his daughter can best be described as warm,fond and loyal, but distant.  He just never got good at being a father.
-Heana Windtide was executed for her betrayal against her employer.  Jaik Drayson knows this, but he told a young Kana that her mother died of an illness.
-Joran Rhade is a smuggler/bounty hunter in his own right now.   The two keep in contact, though carefully.   It is assumed the two are more than just ‘childhood friends’, though neither speak of it.
-Jaiks has a weakness for dianoga pie and krayt milk, a specialty at the Meltdown Café.