Post by New Dornalia on Dec 16, 2010 23:51:20 GMT -5
Emma McKinnon in her younger days.
Emma Lawrence McKinnon is a Sensei who's generally got two things about her. A dark past, and a good knack for detective work.
Emma McKinnon was born in London, the daughter of a librarian and a barrister, respectively. The young Emma was raised in a bookish, intellectual environment on a diet of detective novels--both classics and pulp fiction--taught to be mindful of facts, and raised to go to church on Sundays. A generally quiet life, interrupted only by occasional holidays to Brighton or to see relatives in distant Scotland; the family was distantly descended from Scottish Lowlanders, but their branch had long since assimilated into respectable English society years ago.
And it would have stayed that way but for two things. One--her Force powers, particularly those involving mindreading and other things involving the brain. Those got her in trouble with just about everyone, including her clergymen, her teachers, and fellow students, who bullied her as "the witch." About the only people who were okay with the powers were her parents, who tried in vain to persuade their colleagues their child was no threat and generally were determined to ensure she had someone watching her back, and a Jamaican family next door, the Smiths.
The second was a war in Ireland--the post-Apocalyptic State of England and its Emergency Government had chosen to occupy the old territories previously under the command of the UK, and that included occupying Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Wales fell easily, but Scotland and Ireland proved more troublesome, the two areas not keen on being forcibly reunited with England. A counterinsurgency was in progress, and with Emma being unable to secure much in the way of employment, she attempted to join the English Army. Having been trained as a paralegal, she tried joining the Judge Advocate General's corps, but her powers soon led her to being assigned to Intelligence.
Intelligence soon put her to work. First doing a tour of duty in Scotland, she perfected the art of using her mental skills to track and interrogate prisoners. After a stint there, she was then assigned for the bulk of her duties to Ireland.
The latter is more controversial, and one which McKinnon is reluctant to speak about. Little wonder--McKinnon's term in Ireland is marked by savage fighting versus the IRA, and the extensive and corrupting use of Dark Side powers in the course of her duties, to the point where others noted she became paranoid. Studies of her record have indicated a large portion of this was due to coercion from her bosses, namely Major Harold West, the commander of her unit. His attitude towards counterinsurgency was one of results, and he wanted confessions and intelligence at all costs, forcing Emma to act appropriately to avoid risking her job and her life.
This culminated in the Fundraising Operations. McKinnon picked up the trail of Mary Hartigan, future Sensei of the Seattle Sanctuary District Outreach Program. Tracking her down with her "Flying Squad," she launched no less than six operations to hunt down Hartigan and her team, brutally using attrition and trickery to murder the Fundraising Committee until Hartigan herself was taken.
McKinnon then began to interrogate Hartigan, a high-ranking IRA member. As Hartigan noted, "McKinnon would be wierd. Paranoid, vicious, and sadistic one day, then quite gentle the other day. A real punch clock villain, that." The stress of the attempts, cuminating with the successful IRA breakout of Hartigan, lead to a mental breakdown which sent McKinnon home to London for several weeks, before coming back for one last tour before the war ended.
McKinnon then joined the People's Acolytes, her record initially proving troublesome. However, character witnesses and the circumstances of her service led to an exoneration, and she was allowed to continue in the service of the PA.
A high point in her life was the induction and training of Hera Agaeathon into PA service--Emma regarded that as "Something which helped me get over my past, and a resurgence for me." Afterwards, she served as the PA's representative on the Coredian Jedi Council, and then returned home when Coredian-Colonial relations turned sour after the end of the Coredian War of National Liberation.
As of now, she currently resides in London, managing the Greater Temple.
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Emma is generally quiet, soft spoken, and articulate, befitting her educated background. Most notably, she tends to shun violence unless needed, and holds remarkable self discipline and attention to detail. However, she does have training in UK Army combatatives, and is an expert boxer who won several women's amateur competitions.
An odd part of her education is that she knows how to cook Jamaican food. This was due to her upbringing, where living near a Jamaican family ensured that inevitably a few dishes would make it into her palate.
She also has a thing for detective novels and legal/police work, and enthusiastically welcomed the formation of the Vanguard program, even creating the investigative guidelines for the PA Vanguard in London and a complete curriculum in psychic detective work.