Jinx (Lien Ta)
Personality
Lien Ta is a mix of vulnerable and street-tough, a woman whose make-up is comprised of the scars of childhood as a mutant and the self-assurances that come from surviving it. She is quick to laugh and easy to anger, but wouldn't know a grudge unless it walked up and kicked her in the face. Although she's eager to help, she's extremely hesitant to trust others past a certain casual point, and she's extremely skeptical of the various government agencies put in place to monitor people like her. For this reason, she's not prone to talking about what she can do (and how she can do it); this causes many to underestimate both her intelligence and her ability, which is just fine with her.
For all her confidence in matters that she is familiar with, she's terribly hesitant about reaching out in matters that she isn't. On various comms, she can come across as uncertain, wary, or younger than she is. Still, humor is both her foundation and her shield. As long as she can laugh, she doesn't have to focus on the alternatives.
Appearance
Although only five feet and four inches, Lien tips the scales at about a hundred and twenty-six pounds of lean muscle. Aside from an apparent love affair with the gym and an unusual eye... condition, she's an otherwise typical specimen of Chinese-American heritage. Her hair is long, straight and jet black when she isn't putting other colors in it. Her mouth is full, nose small and gone crooked from a healed injury, and her almond eyes are faintly slanted and usually lacking in makeup. Her skin is extremely light, and likely prone to burning, and her cheekbones are extremely high in a somewhat round face.
Her eyes aren't typical of humans, however. They're a rich shade of magenta, that strange cast just before the point where red becomes purple, and they glow with a faint but insistent sheen. For those not used to such an amalgam of normal and not, it can be off-putting to look into such weird eyes in an otherwise typically human face.
As Lien Ta
As Jinx
gallery coming soon...
Spoiler Warning
The following details are about a player-created storyline, or is information currently unrevealed about a character.
Please do not use this information ICly unless given permission to do so.
Background
Growing Up
The first few years of her life, like for most people, are a mystery. Lien was told that she was born in Shanghai, and was smuggled out by her parents before anyone could take her away from them. Her first real memory is the funeral of her mother, clinging to her father's leg as the community came together. While the Ta family was a hardworking, quiet family, New York's Chinatown wasn't so large that the rumors couldn't persist: the Ta girl was a demon, touched by the spirits, blessed by the gods, and so forth. (Even in Chinatown, religion was as varied as it ever was in China.) Some outright shunned her, others chased her away or warded against evil when they saw her coming. But some reached out to her, and it's to these that she attributes her survival today.
Growing up as a mutant is rarely easy, and various incidents involving poltergeist activity and thoughts plucked at random from the minds of those who bullied her didn't help matters. Throughout her childhood and formative teenage years, she and her father worked hard to survive in a small, cramped apartment—a kind of dignified poverty. Because of Lien's wayward abilities, few would hire Jian Ta (who reversed his name to better fit in with his new American home). Jian had to commute outside of Chinatown, seeking work in a metal factory where the pay was low and the work both tedious and dangerous. Lien worked as she could after school, but she dropped out of school at fourteen to work full time where she could get it. Work for Lien meant "anything that put food on the table", and she often accepted jobs that were shady or illegal between the few legal jobs that would take on the Ta demon. After two months of muling for the Ghost Shadows, an enterprising member put two and two together and realized that Lien could pluck thoughts from peoples' heads.
Within days, Lien found herself sitting at a table with a member of the On Leong Chinese Merchants Association, and within a week, that table was replaced by a legal gambling club. Her role was less than legal, however, and as she served the wealthy men and women who played there, her disguised cues allowed the tong to rake in the money. To say she was terrified would be an understatement, but at the end of the night, she was given more money than she'd ever seen in her life and allowed to go home. Until the next time.
When Jian Ta saw the money his daughter gave him, he forbid her to ever do it again. In defiance of her pleading, her aging father approached the tong. She never knew what it was that he said to them in the meeting, but he returned very late at night, reeking of cigar smoke and with his eyes grim. She was never asked to serve again; in fact, whenever she saw one of the Ghost Shadows she once worked for, they took great pains to leave her alone. But the tong has always had a secure grasp on business, and in retribution, any Chinatown man fool enough to hire the demon Ta suffered a severe increase in "business taxes" and wisely chose to let her go. Soon, the money ran out, and her father simply worked his fingers to the bone in silent perseverance.
Lien turned to petty theft, and her life would have taken a terrible turn for the worse if it weren't for the kindness, and stubbornness, of an old Chinese apothecary. Caught in the act of robbing his store, he hired her on the spot and paid the increased taxes without a word. Ho Yongnian—who didn't hold with the abandoning of traditional naming—allowed her to mind his store as he saw to other matters (most of which were as foreign to her as if he spoke in Greek). Only once did her mutant issues crop up to be a problem, destroying a portion of the stock in his store. It only took once. That day, he put her to work cleaning up the mess she made and greeted her the following morning with a new regimen: herbal teas, qigong, and a stern talking-to that never stopped echoing in her memories. She had to keep the spirits in her head, he said, or they would never, ever leave her alone.
Over time, with help and the ongoing training the various aspects of quijong, she learned to control herself under duress, and Mr. Ho allowed her to assist in the various matters that the wise, crazy old man handled. These included exorcisms, funerary rites, acupuncture, magical troubleshooting, run of the mill apothecary services, and brutal games of high-stakes mahjong. The first time he caught her flexing the talent that won the tong their gambling games, he banished her from his shop for a week. She never did it again.
When Lien was eighteen, Mr. Ho oversaw the funerary rites of Jian Ta. He died peacefully in his sleep, during one of his few days off, and Mr. Ho was her silent, sternly supportive rock as she grieved.
To Be an Adult
She was nineteen when she fell in love. As all such tragedies must, it began as a chance encounter—a woman was pregnant, and she had been complaining of horrific back pain. Lien accompanied Mr. Ho to this woman's house, and met the woman's brothers. Among them was Shen Sun. As the eldest son, he was something different, something edged and handsome enough to pull the beating heart from her chest and squeeze.
Over the following months, Shen met her at the shop at closing time and walked her back to her apartment. The tattoos on his arms proclaimed him as a member of one of the tongs, and he carried himself with that confidence so many of the gang members in Chinatown mimicked, but there was something different about Shen. He was smart, a man of few words but a devastating smile. He didn't seem to mind Lien's strange eyes, meeting them directly when he spoke to her on those short walks. He comported himself like a gentleman, but to be given this kind of attention at all was her undoing. Shen took her on dates, spent money lavishly to give her anything that she even so much as glanced sideways at. Sometimes, he disappeared for days at a time, but always returned. Sometimes hurt, sometimes with the same pinched look she'd seen in her father's eyes when he returned from his meeting with the On Leong Chinese Merchants Association, but always silent. On those dark moods, she would simply sit with him until he battled whatever ghosts he saw in his mind.
Shen paid for everything, and tolerated her continued working situation with an indulgence that made it clear she didn't have to. When she expressed interest in furthering her strangely mixed modern- and tradional medical knowledge, he arranged for her to meet with nurses and doctors, encouraged her to assist them when they could take the time to train her. Mr. Ho said nothing. Already old by the time Lien had started to work with him, it seemed to her as if Mr. Ho hadn't aged at all, and he continued his business with the single-minded focus of a dedicated man. When Shen learned about the business taxes, he offered to give Mr. Ho enough money to pay them—the shop was clearly in Ghost Shadow turf, and he couldn't do more than offer—but he refused. For a handful of years, it was a strange family unit: the demon Ta, the oddly ancient Mr. Ho and the enigmatically strong Shen Sun. Not once did Lien attempt to read her lover's mind—after all, his membership in a tong wasn't just normal, it was expected.
But she didn't have to try the night her lover died. She never talks about the events of that night. What is known is that the night Shen Sun and his brothers were brutalized and murdered by members of the Ghost Shadows, Lien's apartment complex suffered unusual structural damage that caused it to collapse three days after the evacuation notices were disseminated. Mr. Ho once more presided over the rites, and was simply there when Lien returned to work. Haunted, hollow and cold, she went through her days as if in a fog; only instinct and routine kept her going. Mr. Ho made sure she had a cup of hot tea with her at all times, and anticipated her every need before she even knew she had them. The doctors and nurses she had befriended came to see her, but even they couldn't get through her haze.
A few weeks passed before the first real ray of light cracked through her shroud; time heals all wounds, and though it took far more effort than she would have ever thought possible, Lien slowly but surely returned to life, and to her studies.
An Ultimatum
Mr. Ho started to show signs of ailing. In deference to his health, he allowed Lien to handle some of the medical cases herself. Ten years after first breaking the window in Mr. Ho's apothecary shop, she was twenty-six and one of the best apprentices Mr. Ho had ever had—not that he'd ever tell her so. Still, life wasn't peaches and roses. Her father had been dead for a long time, and she no longer had the protection of Shen's tong affiliations to keep her from trouble. The Ghost Shadows started sniffing around again, chasing rumors of decade-old history, and it would have only been a matter of time before they caught up to her again.
Except then the government got in the way.
Tangled in a sting to take down members of the rival Hip Sing Association, Lien was caught while trying to assist injured tong members, collared by the NYPD and promptly remanded into PRIMUS custody as reports came in of telekinetic activity at the scene of the sting. PRIMUS didn't play any games—their offer: register and work for PRIMUS, or be convicted of practicing medicine without a license, using unregistered powers on law enforcement, aiding and abetting known criminals and, worse, resisting arrest, and so on. They laid a pile of paperwork at her feet.
She said yes.
And then it got messy.
UNTIL stepped in, pulling strings where there shouldn't have been many to pull, and worked out some sort of deal over her head. Before she knew it, she was signing waivers with something called Project Mind Game and was allowed a single hour to get her things. She hurried to Mr. Ho's shop, but was surprised to find it abandoned. Worse than abandoned; dark, layered with a thick sheet of dust and filled with spiderwebs. It was as if ten years of use had never happened. Chinese characters had been drawn in the dust: kindness, bravery, courage, justice, righteousness, and wisdom. Although she could read it, she'd never heard Mr. Ho talk about anything of the sort; all his attempts to drill ancient tradition into her head had been met with the typical flippancy of American youth.
With nothing left to do but collect a few items, Lien Ta was shipped off to a PRIMUS boot camp. Six weeks of hard training toned her body, honed her mind, and sharpened the powers that Project Mind Game unlocked. A full three months after signing her life on the dotted line, they let her out as part of her plea bargain probation. Which is to say, they let her out, but they didn't let her out. Registered and codenamed Jinx, she would always be watched, would have to meet with her probation officer and UNTIL contact every week, and placed on a very, very short leash.
Poor Little Government Girl
After a brief stint "freelancing" in Millennium City, and after one of her mentors died, Jinx gave up fighting UNTIL and joined them officially. For almost three years, she's worked with the same organization that leashed her, becoming a dependable agent whose methods still occasionally raise eyebrows—mostly because they sometimes depend on a whole lot of luck. She was sent all over the world as needed, usually within teams, and dispatched when the focus was on psychokinetic threats. She doesn't particularly love her job—at least not the part with the extreme government oversight—but she seemed to resign herself to the parameters.
She came back to Millennium CIty when a psychokinetic terrorist she was tracking for recon purposes fled St. Petersburg. Picking up the trail in Michigan, Jinx continues to track him—partially under the guise of a new assignment within Striker's unit, and partially because her pride took a knock when the terrorist vanished on her.
Powers
Psychokinesis
According to UNTIL, psychokinesis is the umbrella term for a handful of related abilities. In the case of Jinx, they include:
Telekinesis
- UNTIL definition: The movement of matter at the micro and macro levels; move, lift, agitate, vibrate, spin, bend, break, or otherwise impact matter without ever physically touching it.
- Jinx is still somewhat unskilled, but there's every indication of vast, untapped raw talent. When UNTIL monitored her brain waves during training, they registered a depth of potential that far outstripped anything she was actually displaying; for this reason, she's among the most promising of Project Mind Game's studies.
Teleportation
- UNTIL definition: Disappearing and reappearing elsewhere.
- It's not quite phasing; Jinx is not capable of moving through solid matter (though it may be posited that matter can be shifted aside, if the telekinetic were strong enough). She gives the impression of vanishing from one point to reappear at another, when what she does is move through the matter of visible reality.
Thoughtform
- UNTIL definition: Telepathic projection; a physically perceived object, person or creature created in the mind and projected into three-dimensional space and observable by others. Alternate label: protopath.
- Jinx has the ability to project the images in her mind into thin air, as if the image were coming from a holo-recorder or virtual simulator. The visuals projected can not be interacted with, although there is theory that this is only a step away.
Telepathy
As per UNTIL, telepathy is the ostensible transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five senses. Then again, according to UNTIL's Project Mind Game, there's nothing "ostensible" about it.
Thought-to-thought communication is a talent that Jinx prefers to leave alone, but it won't remain ignored. From empathic links to stronger, more solid discourse, even full thought transferral (wherein her entire consciousness can be forced into another's); her talents with telepathy register on a scale similar to that of telekinesis, but remain untapped. She remains hesitant to utilize these talents, and agents have noted on her file that she often requires coercion of some sort to practice.
Raw Talent
These are skills that do not require powers or mutant genes to define. They are as follows:
Munitions
- Wonder of wonders. Despite a life avoiding the need for guns, PRIMUS' boot camp revealed an innate talent for them. Out of everything she took away from training, she developed a love affair with two specific things: keeping fit, and her guns. Seeing the physical exertion as the opposite of her mental abilities, she embraces these before she reaches for the psychic powers she's just not so sure about. If she took to the use of guns a little too quickly, and far too easily, she doesn't stop to consider what that might mean.
- Little Known Fact: She doesn't have a single kill to her PRIMUS file. The bullets in her guns are PRIMUS issued, specially made rubber bullets. Even the bullets that aren't rubber still aren't bullets as expected. Though it's not apparent, she doesn't shoot to kill, and only shoots to maim if she has to.
Medicine
- With no accredited training, this aspect of her education often goes unnoticed—except when used as a bargaining chip, that is. Her medical training is a mix of ancient Chinese superstition (that oddly works), modern hands-on practice, and field training with PRIMUS. Although forbidden to practice medicine in anything other than field emergencies, Jinx doesn't let that stop her from tending to those who can't afford (or won't go to) the hospital fees. She's just very quiet about it.
Arcana
- There are benefits to having an old Chinese "grandfather"—among them is a near-mandatory introduction to the arcane. Although there was a definite slant to the magical bias, the end result is a healthy (or perhaps less than healthy) foundation into the fundamental theory, practice and religion of the arcane. Despite her lack of formal education, she's hungry for learning, and this is the way she's channeled it.
Weaknesses
The following are weaknesses or disadvantages, though some may have a side benefit despite the lack.
Human
- She's human. Well, she's a mutant, but her genetic mutations don't have anything to do with regeneration, rapid healing or invulnerability. To that end, anything that makes it past her psychic shield can hurt her badly, leading to loss of life or limb, and certainly loss of sick time.
- Advantage: None. Soft and squishy sucks.
Opinions
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Associates
Friends & Trusted Types
- Striker: Her immediate supervisor in Millennium City's UNTIL unit. A fair man, but firm. As far as superior officers go, it could have been worse.
- Kyle Foster: It was pure chance that dictated their meeting. While the telepath was struggling to help people assaulted by the being called Superior, Jinx instinctively followed his psychic trail and bolstered his ability with her much weaker power. Since that surprising revelation, he has taken her on as a kind of student—a partnership that comes with a price that neither wanted, but became necessary. Whatever bond is formed between them, it's one that Jinx doesn't talk about. In fact, it could be said that she is intensely careful not to give others the wrong idea. Which won't be a problem now—news of his death hit her hard enough that she left the city soon after.
- Rezz: What started as a casual greeting over the UNTIL/PRIMUS comm frequency rapidly shifted into a kind of friendship that addressed everything from quitting cigarettes, medical check-ups and tackling sticky probationary laws—all in the space of two days. Rezz (maybe unconsciously) extended a sort of sheltering wing that demanded she work for what she wanted, offered at a time when Jinx could use it most. Although initially surprised by his monstrous form, it was quickly replaced with a genuine liking for his mannerisms as he treated her. And a studiously concealed amusement at the doctor who turned squeamish at the sight of wounds.
Enemies & Nemeses
coming soon...
Metadata
Theme Songs
Main Theme: Fiona Apple - Across the Universe
Personality: Poe - Walk the Walk
Motivation: Portishead - Roads
Current Headspace: Regina Spektor - Laughing With
Live Action
Character Actress: Shu Qi
References
- 1. Psychokinesis definitions referenced from: Psychokinesis (this version)
- 2. Telepathy definitions referenced from: Telepathy (this version)
