Mariah

"You always want to touch what's off-limits."

- Mariah,

Mariah (マライア) is a tertiary antagonist featured in the third part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Stardust Crusaders, specifically the "'Bastet' Mariah" story arc. She also appears as a tertiary character in the spin-off manga Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak.

As Alessi attacks Jean Pierre Polnareff and Jotaro Kujo, Mariah attempts to take out Joseph Joestar and Muhammad Avdol by magnetizing their bodies with her Stand, Bastet of the Egypt 9 Glory Gods.

Appearance
Mariah is described as a with striking legs, dark skin, and short, light-colored hair. Her main attire consists of a hooded short-sleeve jacket resembling, a low-cut shirt, and a high-waist mini skirt coupled with dark satin stockings. She also wears gloves, bow-knotted flat shoes, and a pair of sunglasses which she keeps perched atop her head. Despite her revealing outfit, she conceals an impressive arsenal of bolts, screws, knives and other metal objects to throw at her magnetized victims. Her shirt in the anime exposes her midriff contrary to the manga.

Mariah is also one of the few characters shown to smoke.

Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak
In the spin-off Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak, Mariah's appearance and outfit have changed. Mariah has longer hair, with two long bangs on each side of her face. In addition, she has kept her sunglasses and habit of smoking. She now wears a dark revealing and form fitting dress with a low cut that goes down to her abdomen and reveals most of her legs. Like her previous design, she still wears a stockings and gloves. Moreover, she has a light colored coat which she wears loosely, revealing her shoulders. For accessories, she has a choker and ankle rings made of interlaced lozenges and a belt made of large rings. Her high heels also have a lozenge decoration at the top.

Personality
Mariah comes off as a calm, cool-headed person. Like most Stand users, Mariah has great confidence in her Bastet, notably in that everyone will eventually succumb to it given time. However, she easily loses her cool whenever things don't go according to plan; in such cases, she's been shown to contort her face and bite her lip comically out of frustration and anger. Mariah is quite devious and has worked out many ways in which she could render her power truly dangerous. Mariah keeps on her many metallic objects, from nuts and bolts to metallic wires, to use them as projectiles in a pinch or exploit the magnetism to tie up her targets into dangerous machinery. She's also adept at baiting her targets to dangerous locations such as train tracks or places under power lines so that she could expose them to deadly hazards.

Mariah has a bit of a sleazy streak. On occasions, she likes to talk suggestively, saying for instance that "You always want to touch what's off-limits". The few relationships she talks about have also centered on the men's appearance, revealing that she's also superficial. She notably complimented Joseph Joestar and confessed that she found him very attractive for a man his age and that, if he was a few decades younger, they would have been a great couple; she nonetheless tried to kill him without second thoughts because it would please DIO, whom she considered much more attractive.

She also has a very distinctive "Oho ho ho ho ho!" laugh, which she does when she has her opponents helplessly trapped in the magnetic power of her Stand.

In the spin-off Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak, Mariah is shown to have survived and tried to move on from DIO. However, she confesses that she still has nightmares of DIO ordering her to go defeat the Joestars while she can only grovel and apologize. Even after ten years, Mariah cannot stop herself from calling DIO "Lord DIO" in her dreams and she is aware that DIO still has a grip on her mind. She also admits that she was not fully aware of DIO's atrocities and that it felt good to be at DIO's disposal. It got to the point where despite Mariah believing she was being controlled, she also believes she willingly submitted to him.

She is friendly with Boingo, stating that she wanted to "give Hol Horse a good beating" because he exploited Boingo in the past. Finally, Mariah seems to entertain a difficult relationship with Hol Horse himself, tolerating his presence but not trusting him or liking him in the slightest.

Stand
Bastet takes the form of an electrical outlet which magnetizes whoever touches it, causing metallic objects to be attracted to them.

Stardust Crusaders (1989)
Mariah is deployed by DIO once the heroes reach Egypt to assassinate them. In Luxor, Mariah places her Bastet on a rock while Joseph is isolated in the toilets. Once he gets out, he notices Bastet and, thinking that it is a mere strangely placed electrical outlet, tries to touch it, only to be shocked. Joseph is now magnetized and metallic objects begin to be attracted to him.

The next morning, Mariah stays in the hotel where the Joestar Group is in to keep the effect of the magnetism on. Joseph eventually realizes his condition but is alone. She ambushes Joseph on an escalator and uses metallic wires to entangle Joseph's hands to the machinery of the elevator, threatening to crush his hands. In doing so, she reveals her identity. When Muhammad Avdol comes to deactivate the escalator, Mariah has already placed Bastet near the stop button, also shocking Avdol. Joseph spots Mariah hiding behind a pillar and they begin to pursue her into the women's bathroom and then the streets, giving Avdol's magnetism time to grow. Thus, Joseph and Avdol are stuck together.

Mariah disappears and waits for Joseph and Avdol to find her. After trying to separate themselves, Joseph and Avdol accidentally roll down a slope where Mariah awaits them. She baits them into stepping on metal train tracks, just as a train approaches. When the train passes, Mariah assumes that she's won but she then discovers that Avdol has dug a hole underneath the train, frustrating her to no end. Magician's Red melts the train, allowing the pair to confront her. Joseph ties Mariah's neck with Hermit Purple and tries to choke her but she reveals that she's stuffed her bra with nuts and bolts which are attracted towards Joseph and Avdol. They have to protect themselves from the hail of projectiles coming onto them, allowing Mariah to slip away once again. However, Joseph devises a strategy.

After separating themselves again, Joseph and Avdol begin to chase Mariah through the streets of Luxor and split up to surround her thanks to a map created by Hermit Purple. On their way, they gather many metallic objects that are stuck to them. However, Mariah then reveals that she's baited them near power lines. Throwing a knife, she cuts the lines, which are then attracted to the pair. Although Avdol's Magician's Red can melt the cables, his magnetism gets so strong a truck flies at him and threatens to crush him. For his part, Joseph has a hard time keeping the cables away. Confident in her victory, Mariah reveals that she finds Joseph attractive for a man his age, leading Joseph to beg her for mercy. However, Mariah refuses as DIO is more attractive than Joseph for her.

However, Joseph has accounted for the whole battle and unveils his stratagem. He lets go the pavement and lets himself fly toward Avdol. The mass of metal violently closes on Mariah, taking her out and, according to Avdol, breaking a few bones. Mariah is retired.

Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak
In the spin-off, Mariah says that DIO didn't implant a flesh bud in her. Instead, Mariah was following DIO due to his charm and charisma.

It is revealed that Mariah survived her ordeal and that the Speedwagon Foundation contacted her and then explained to her the magnitude of DIO's atrocities then apparently left her be. Ten years after the events of Stardust Crusaders, Mariah has settled down with her husband, Kenny G. They have a hideout in the middle of Cairo, an abandoned bar camouflaged by Tenore Sax.

In March 1999, Hol Horse meets Mariah at her hideout. Mariah informs Hol Horse that the Oingo Boingo brothers want to see him, though Hol Horse is only interested in contacting Boingo. Mariah asks if Hol Horse still has nightmares of DIO, which he denies. However, Mariah points out the three wristwatches on Hol Horse and says that he's developed a superstition. She explains how she still has nightmares of the vampire on a regular basis and that a part of her is left unfulfilled without DIO's control. Hol Horse tries to console Mariah, but she suddenly gets angry when he calls DIO a conman and those who fall for a con "fools", taking it personally. She stomps on Hol Horse and summons Bastet which shocks Hol Horse. The cowboy is almost impaled by a dozen swords flying at him, but a door thankfully blocks them. Mariah calls off her attack, as she only wanted to teach Hol Horse a lesson for taking advantage of Boingo years ago, and lets Hol Horse and Boingo plan the next step of their mission.

Quotes
Stardust Crusaders=

Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak=

Gallery
{{tabber {{tabber
 * Manga|
 * Story|

}}

Trivia

 * In the manga, Mariah's name in Japanese was originally spelled as "Maraiya" (マライヤ) in the WSJ publication of Part 3. It was changed to "Maraia" (マライア) in the tankobon release; however, the original spelling could still be seen on her Stand and Retired card. These mistakes were fixed in later publications.
 * In the English dub of SC Episode 29, Mariah is mentioned as being of citizenship, though her actual nationality is unknown.