Ayn Arilum

"My name is a label for my mind and body. They are not my own."

- Ayn Arilum

Ayn Arilum is a Force-sensitive human female who was cloned from an unknown Jedi Knight during Project Sixty Circles.

Youth and Genesis
Ayn, like all intelligent life in the galaxy, began life as an embryo. A small speck of life. While in utero Ayn was not like others in galaxy. She was not housed in her mother's womb, shielded off from the world. She was grown in an egg shaped vat. From the very beginning, Ayn was destined to be apart of Project Sixty Circles, a controversial research project, carried out by the Watson Science and Research Company, and primarily funded by the Marsupial Medical Corporation revolving around cloning that is stepped in shadiness and mystery.

Project Sixty Circles was headed by Dr. Julianne Young, an employee of the Watson Science and Research Company. She was assisted by Dr. Jasper Roden, a then 63 year old human scientist, and Dr. Selen, a Columi expert in cloning technology. The group of scientists were instructed to create six living clones. Two of the clones died in utero for unknown reasons. A third was whisked away by the Watson Science and Research Company. The remaining three were born in 246 ABY.

Upon birth they were given names. Subject Three, a female, as planned, was named Alice Janey. Subject Five, a male, as planned, was named Kirk Mullin. Subject six, a female, as planned, was named Ayn Arilum. These names were all randomly selected by a computer, without any influence by the three scientists who created these tiny infants.

The subjects were born on Iego and kept there for the entirety of their first eight years of life. Alice and Ayn were both raised as babies predominantly by nanny droids. The only true human contact they had was from Dr. Roden. As a baby, Kirk, by contrast, was given large amounts of attention. Not by Dr. Roden or Dr. Selen, but by Dr. Young. This favoritism seemed to extend into the subjects toddler years, where Dr. Young's time spent with Kirk increased.

By the time the subjects were of speaking age, the subjects were calling Dr. Young “mother” and Dr. Roden “father” and Dr. Selen “Uncle Selen.” Ayn and Alice, however, did not much love for their so called mother. They, even at that young age, could detect Dr. Young's favoritism for Kirk. The two resented both Dr. Young and Kirk as a result of this neglect.

Their resentment took a while to take shape into the form of notable despise and hate. As toddlers they would fight in the way that siblings do, and these fights would typically be with Ayn and Alice on one, and Kirk alone on the other. Dr. Young, trying to be a maternal force in the children's lives, would inevitably try to be the arbiter in these disputes, but would nearly always take Kirk's side. Doctors Roden and Selen noticed this, and confronted Dr. Young over it, but little came to it. Kirk was mother's favorite.

The subjects eventually noticed startling differences between them, that none of them looked terribly alike, nor did they look anything like their so called family. The scientists explained to them a fake story, that they were all adopted children. She gave them all loose stories about their parents. That they'd all known each other and that they had also known Dr. Young. That their parents would've wanted them all to live together. They accepted this story. Difficult to deal with, but they accepted it nevertheless. Ayn and Alice both found comfort in speaking with Dr. Roden, who was extremely kind to them about the subject.

The subjects were educated by a teacher named Liam Holm. Holm was hired as their educator without knowing the entire story behind the origins of the subjects, nor was he informed what the goal of Project Sixty Circle was. As far as he was supposed to be concerned, these children were adopted by Dr. Young, and there was nothing else to it.

While Holm was educating the three subjects, he found that they were all highly intelligent individuals. They learned to read and write rapidly, and they excelled in mathematics and science. Ayn a special talent when it came to numbers, and was learning and thriving in calculus lessons by the time she was ten years old. he was also a technical wizard by time, knowing substantial knowledge of computer systems. Her knowledge only grew as the years past.

Dr. Roden spoke with Ayn quite often after Holm started as her teacher. He questioned continuously about her understanding of The Force and the New Jedi Order and the Sith Order and the differences between right and wrong. She didn't understand why he asked her so much about these things, and Dr. Roden refused to explain. Her curiosity on Roden's reasons grew. She asked around, first starting with Dr. Selen, who claimed to have no knowledge of Roden ever speaking of discussions with her about these subjects. She asked Holm next, in front of Alice and Kirk. Holm provided no explanation. He was bewildered. Ayn knew the basic history quite well for a ten year old. The separate orders' philosophies weren't on his list of things to teach.

Despite her resentment for Dr. Young, Ayn asked her. She was angry upon hearing this news. Ayn couldn't understand why Young was as angry as she was. They fought. Dr. Roden was nearly fired. After this episode, Roden told Ayn to start referring to him as Dr. Roden, and not as father. He didn't like it. He felt that being called that was enforcing a lie. Ayn agreed to it, as did Kirk and Alice. Dr. Young, however, still instructed them to refer to her as mother.

Alice felt severely ill when she turned twelve. Her nerves were unraveling. Her spine was weakening. She was going to lose feeling in her legs. Her immune system was weakening too. And all of this was happening for reasons that Dr. Young, Dr. Selen, and Dr. Roden were unable to decipher. The best case scenario would be that Alice would survive a year or two. Her health would eventually deteriorate and she would die.

Ayn found herself deeply affected by this. Alice was essentially her only friend, as Alice's only friend was Ayn. They both found solace in this tragedy from, once again, Dr. Roden. He was a friend to them, he listened, something that Dr. Selen didn't seem capable of doing, and something that Dr. Young didn't seem willing to do.

Action is a Thought
A year past after Alice's illnesses began. All feeling in her legs vanished with numbness taking its place. She was confined to a wheel chair. Her lungs began to weaken. Dr. Roden petitioned Dr. Young and the project's investors to allow for the remainder of Alice's life, she be taken to a place less desolate than Iego, where the project had remained for its entire existence. It was eventually decided to temporarily move the project to another planet. Duroon, a jungle planet controlled by the Corporate Sector Authority was elected as the new location.

Holm was paid to come with the project and continue to educate Ayn, Alice, and Kirk. Despite hesitance, he agreed to go with them. The seven rented a YT-1300 and hired a pair of pilots. A week after Alice's thirteenth birthday, the group was off and heading for Duroon. During the trip four day traveling period, the three doctors held many behind-closed doors discussions that Ayn, Alice, Kirk, and even Holm were forbidden to interrupt. After each of these discussions Dr. Roden would appear more and more distraught. Ayn constantly asked Roden what they were talking about. Roden refused to tell her. "It's best if you don't know."

They landed on Duroon. A deal had been arranged with The Corporate Sector Authority to allow them to use the Authority's military base on the planet as a temporary place to live while a shelter was constructed for the Project's use. While on the base, the doctors had more private discussions. Eventually, Holm was brought into one. When he came out of it with the other doctors, he looked incredibly disturbed. He refused to talk to anyone. Ayn was worried. Kirk said, doubtfully, that there was nothing to worry about. Ayn definitively told him to shut up. Holm canceled their lessons for the next day.

During the time Ayn would've normally been learning from Holm, she sat quietly alone in a small garden in the center of the base. She discovered something abnormal. She found herself able to lift a rock up with her mind. At first she thought something was wrong, that she was going insane. But she tried it again, and found that, again, she could lift up a rock with her mind. She tried it with multiple objects, and found that she could lift them up. She kept this little episode to herself.

Ayn continued to work on this skill, lifting up various objects in her room at the base. Books, pencils, pens, eventually graduating to the level of lifting heavier objects such as chairs, desks, and beds. She came to the realization quickly that she was force sensitive. She decided to keep this a secret. It was not a secret. Ayn's room had a hidden camera that fed into and only into Dr. Young's quarters. All of the subjects rooms were bugged without them knowing it.

Even though Dr. Young knew of Ayn connection to the force, she did not disturb Ayn's progress teaching herself how to use it. She didn't even let Ayn know that she knew Ayn's secret. There was a scheme at work.

Three months after they arrived on Duroon, the shelter was complete and they moved to it. A small platoon of armed Kaiser Security guards were present at all times around the shelter. Their presence was much more noticeable than they had been on Iego. Ayn knew that there had been guards on Iego, but not as many and not as forceful as they were on Duroon. The guards wouldn't allow Ayn, Alice, or Kirk to leave the shelter without permission from Dr. Young.

A pair of weeks went by. Alice's condition got worse. She still had to move about with her wheel chair as help, but she didn't feel that that inclination would last much longer.

Alice was given permission one day to go outside into the shelter's garden one cool afternoon. Ayn and Kirk, however, were forbidden to leave the compound. Ayn watched Alice from a window. She was quietly smelling the roses. She was at peace. But Ayn noticed something that bothered her, the Kaiser guards were nowhere to be found. Alice was entirely alone. Ayn went on alert. She tired to tell Dr. Young, but Young was busy and locked in her office with Roden, Selen, and even Holm. She tried to find out from the guards themselves why they weren't outside. She was told that they were under strict orders not to leave the compound. Alice was to be left alone.

Frustrated, Ayn went to the compound's second, and highest floor, and entered a sitting room, where she could get the best view of the garden. Ayn saw a newcomer in the distance. The newcomer had a blaster. Alice didn't. Alice didn't even see this person coming. Ayn tried to warn her, but Alice couldn't hear a thing. The newcomer picked up the pace, and approached Alice with rapidness. Alice noticed this person now, and stared as the silhouette came closer. The newcomer stopped right in front of Alice and held out the blaster directly at her forehead.

This newcomer looked almost exactly the same as Alice. The same blond hair, the same blue eyes, the same complexion. Dr. Young, accompanied by Dr. Selen and three guards, entered the room Ayn was in. Dr. Young explained what was going on. The newcomer was a clone of Alice, who had started life as an embryo before Ayn and Alice and Kirk had exited their egg vats on Iego. This Alice Clone had been put into stasis, and only was born a few years ago. It had been given the age enhancement procedure commonly done to clones. The Alice Clone had been named Alicia, and had been instated into the Kaiser Security naval force orbiting Iego. Young had recently contacted her and had told her just that she was a clone and that the original was on Duroon.

Just when Young had finished explaining, a blaster went off outside. Ayn looked and saw Alice was dead. Ayn angrily flung her arms back and grabbed hold of a lamp using the the force. She threw it towards the window, but it stopped in midair. She looked back and saw Selen with his arms up. He was force sensitive. The lamp dropped to the ground. The guards drew their rifles up. Young told them to set them to stun. They complied with rapid motion. A trio of blue bursts flared out of their weapons. Ayn was hit by one of these bursts and she fell onto the floor in a catatonic state.

God is in His Heaven
Ayn would later awake as a group of guards were carrying her into a holding cell. She was left there after receiving a look of pity from one of the guards. She was left alone for roughly an hour, and then she was visited by Doctors Young and Selen. The two told her she was aboard a transport bound for Iego. The two proceeded to explain to her the origins of Project Sixty Circles and what its purpose was.

The project, in its days as but a concept, was intended to observe and investigate the differences between force sensitive and non-force sensitive clones. It was a basic experiment. But as Dr. Young pitched the idea around the scientific community, she found that no one had any DNA from a proven force-sensitive. Accepting that fact, she went about looking for work. Being the graduate of an esteemed university at the top of her class, it wasn't terribly hard for her. After several years of work, she had a terrific reputation within the scientific world. She would soon start a family with a former college professor. They would have a baby boy, as she said to Ayn, "A blue-eyed angel." They named this baby Kirk. Young's boy died at the age of two in a speeder crash. The father of the baby was involved in the crash, but he survived. The father was Dr. Roden.

Years later, when Dr. Young was given the position of the head of Project Sixty Circles, which was intended to test if it was possible to artificially piece together genes and chromosomes to create a fully functional being, she used an old piece of hair from a baby book to clone and recreate her baby. This brought on little questioning, as the project required a regular clone to act as a control subject. Ayn was a clone. Her DNA was added in later for shady reasons by a Marsupial Medical executive. Young didn't mind the inclusion, but noted that the project's purpose was being further and further changed and confusing. Ayn was a clone. Young suspected she was the clone of some dead Jedi that the Marsupial Medical executive had had affairs with. That was all Young had to say to Ayn she and Dr. Selen departed Ayn's cell, where she was left all alone.

Ayn was a clone. Ayn was a clone. Ayn was a goddamn clone.

Ayn could not believe this revelation. She just couldn't. She had so many questions. She wanted to know so much. She needed to talk to Alice, but she couldn't, Alice was dead. Alice was dead. Oh God, she needed to talk to somebody. She needed to talk to Dr. Roden.

She began to loose her sense of identity, she began to feel less like Ayn and more like an extension of something that wasn't her. She had dissociative moments, feeling like she was floating above her body. As if this crushing mental instability wasn't enough, she was locked away in solitary confinement. Until the transport she was imprisoned on landed on Iego, Ayn had virtually no human contact for 168 hours, going with only 18 of those hours having been slept through. Ayn was a wreck. She was hearing voices in her head.

She was locked up on Iego in solitary confinement. The voices started to yell at her. They spoke in tongues, languages that she couldn't comprehend. All she understood was there anger. Ayn had thought she had heard voices like this before, when she was younger, but she had always been able to shrug them off as an extension of herself. But it felt like these voices were of another consciousness.

After several weeks of imprisonment, Holm entered her cell. He held a heavy pistol in his hand. He told to get up. They were leaving. He'd gotten to the good side of the guards, they knew, as much as Holm did, that holding Ayn in this fashion was incredibly unethical. Ayn was told by Holm that Young had gone completely insane. She had shot Roden dead after he threatened to go to the media with information on the project. Selen had made a statement indicating that he wished to leave the project, and Selen subsequently died when his mental hovercraft exploded the next day. Holm believed that Young had arranged for that to happen. She was paranoid. All the project's guards were on alert and looking for her. The project's investors were declaring Project Sixty Circles a complete and utter disaster, the priority now was collect the living subjects creating by the project, and capture Dr. Young. Kirk had already been collected, but Holm was going to get Ayn out of there.

After having Ayn stealing back her belongings from a security locker, Holm succeeded in getting her out of the compound and into a spaceport where Holm brought her to a ship headed for Nal Hutta and put her aboard, alone. Holm gave her a datapad with a place to go but said nothing of the people there. Ayn trusted him. She didn't have much of a choice. He was taking a different ship, he told her. But she didn't believe him. He left her alone then, before she couldtell him about the voices she'd been hearing.

As she was traveling to Nal Hutta, she slept in a bed for the first time in she had no idea how long.

Personality
Ayn is self-reliant, cautious, and, extremely suspicious of the motivations of other people. She is quiet, speaking only when required, but mostly not at all. She seems to suffer from thought disorders, usually making itself present in her speech, which is frequently pressured and rapid and she'll occasionally repeat the same word over and over again. She remains hyper vigilant at nearly all times. She rarely sleeps, resulting in a near constant feeling of lethargy. She suffers from hallucinations, which doesn't help her already fragile state.

Behind the Scenes
Ayn was created by Housing, whose real name is Daniel.

Ayn was named after the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. Her surname comes from combining the common name Ari and Lum, Michigan, an unincorporated community in Lapeer County.

The character used as Ayn's avatar comes from the title character of the 1999 anime series Serial Experiments Lain.