[color=CD5C5C][b]Recollections, Sycamore Tree[/b][/color] [indent] [hider=Linqian Han] [CENTER][img]https://i.imgur.com/FaCzAxe.png[/img] [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwaSTUCyn-U&ab_channel=Halestorm-Topic[/youtube][/CENTER] [i]"If the worst hadn’t already happened there’s no way I’d be back here with these people."[/i] [table][row][/row][row][cell] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/1d0cLLJ.png[/img] [sup]_______________________________________________[/sup] [sub][color=CD5C5C]Linqian Han[/color] [color=CD5C5C]She/Her[/color] [b]|[/b] [color=CD5C5C] 26[/color] [b]|[/b] [color=CD5C5C]Chinese-Congolese[/color] [b]|[/b] [color=CD5C5C]5’6”[/color] [b]|[/b] [color=CD5C5C]124lbs [/color] [sup]_______________________________________________[/sup] [color=CD5C5C]Fickle[/color] [sup]_______________________________________________[/sup] [color=CD5C5C]Skills & Talents[/color][/sub] [i]"My brother stole all the brains in the womb, hah."[/i] [sup]___________________________________[/sup][/center][hider=] [sub][color=CD5C5C][b]Chinese & Kituba ⫻[/b][/color] Chinese is Linqian’s first language, and the one that was primarily spoken in her household and with her two brothers. She is fluent in speaking and reading, but not so much in writing. She also speaks conversational Kituba, taught by her mother and used in the few years they lived in the Republic of Congo. [color=CD5C5C][b]Cooking ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian learned to cook from both her parents, and is the only one in her remaining family with any skill for it (her brothers burn most things they cook). She is surprisingly talented at it, going beyond cooking out of necessity to being able to cook fancy meals (when she feels up to it). [color=CD5C5C][b]Bartending ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian has worked in bars since she was legally able to, to help keep her family afloat. She’s good at making drinks, and passable at service - with time, she’s gotten better at keeping control of her emotions in front of customers, at least.[/sub][/hider] [/cell][cell][sub][color=CD5C5C][b] Appearance[/b][/color][/sub] [sub][sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔[/sup][/sub] [i]"Don’t look too hard."[/i] [indent]The first thing noticeable about Linqian is that she has a resting bitch face, eyes slightly narrowed and lips turned down. The second is that she’s clearly mixed, between her coily hair and hooded eyes. She’s a bit taller than average - though where she’s originally from in China, she’d be counted as tall. She’s relatively slim thanks to working on her feet and cutting costs by cutting down on the meals she eats. Her body is pear shaped, with a relatively flat chest but more curves towards her hips and legs. Linqian’s hair is formed in tight coils that fall just below her shoulders. She styles it in a few ways, most often a bun or low ponytail, but quite often will leave it loose. She used to straighten it, but has stopped since she grew to love her hair type more. Linqian’s eyes are round, with a gentle upturn at the outer corner. They are dark brown in colour with a hooded, double eyelid. The bottom lid creases up when she smiles, making her eyes much narrower - she looks prettier when she smiles than when she doesn’t (there just isn’t much to smile about right now). Overall, though, she views herself as attractive (and she is) - even if not conventionally. Clothes wise, Linqian will normally wear tight shirts tucked into waist high shorts or loose trousers. When it’s colder she’ll wear a thick fleece jacket over the top. She enjoys wearing dresses and skirts, but rarely finds an occasion to. She dressed mainly in shades of blue, black and white with the occasional brighter colour thrown in - namely red, orange or yellow. She has her ears pierced, but doesn’t always wear earrings. On her right hand she has always wears a pair of wedding rings. Linqian also needs glasses, due to being moderately short sighted, but she almost always wears contact lenses when she goes out. [/indent] [/cell][/row][/table][sub][b][color=CD5C5C] Psychology[/color][/b][/sub] [sub][sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔[/sup][/sub] [i]"I never said I’d keep liking you.”[/i] [INDENT][color=CD5C5C][b]MAIN GOAL ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian’s primary long term goal has always been to fall in love and start her own family (surprising many, as she isn’t particularly maternal or even nice) eventually - though right now the thought of settling down terrifies her. Her shorter term goal is to see her younger brother through college and into independence before she can concentrate on her own life. Currently, her goal is to destroy the piece of shit that killed her twin brother. [color=CD5C5C][b]PHILOSOPHY ⫻[/b][/color] Family is more important than anything else. Linqian believes in always prioritising her family over any other relationships and sometimes herself. The bond between close family is incredibly important in her eyes - but she also doesn’t believe it extends to distant relatives. She also thinks that others opinions (outside of family) don’t mean shit, if they disapprove of what you do then fuck them. People that hate you are just jealous, and if anyone causes you problems you should just cut them out. [color=CD5C5C][b]SECRETS ⫻[/b][/color] How she always felt inadequate next to her much smarter twin brother. Sometimes she resented him. She has insecurities that come from this, deep down not feeling good enough, but she’d never let anyone know that. [color=CD5C5C][b]SEXUALITY ⫻[/b][/color] Pansexual, with commitment issues. Linqian had a difficult breakup with a former coven member, which was the breaking point for her leaving the coven, and then was cheated on by her next partner. She tends to keep things casual nowadays, and has slept around quite a lot the last few years - but never with the same person twice. [color=CD5C5C][b]FEARS ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian’s worst fear has already come true - losing her twin brother. Second to this is losing the only family she has left, her younger brother. She’s scared of commitment. She also has a much more mundane fear of dogs. [color=CD5C5C][b]REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian’s reputation was mixed. On one hand, she was friendly and charming, especially when she first joined the coven. On the other hand she was fickle, quick to decide she disliked someone, and incredibly argumentative. There are plenty of members she got into heated fights with, and others that she gave the cold shoulder for seemingly no reason. While some might have neutral or positive opinions on her, there aren’t any that saw her as a close friend - any friendships she had were surface level only. Linqian left the coven explosively after being broken up with by her partner of the time. She wasn’t there when it dissolved, but caused enough fights after the battle that she definitely had a hand in it. [color=CD5C5C][b]ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian fought against the Stygian Snake’s minions, and the apparition itself, from relatively early on. While she was nowhere near the strongest, she’d had her abstraction long enough to know how to use it and help. In the final battle she helped weaken it, lowering her body temperatures to deadly levels and using that to damage and fight its darkness constructs. [color=CD5C5C][b]FLAWS ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian is quick to change her opinions, especially in relation to other people or her emotions. One day she can be incredibly nice to someone, the next giving them the cold shoulder due to some perceived slight. She’s incredibly ‘hot and cold’ when it comes to relationships outside of her family. She also doesn’t hold back her opinions, often being quite blunt and harsh. She won’t back down on her opinions and is incredibly argumentative if someone disagrees with her. Once she loses her cool it's difficult for her to see reason, and normally it was her twin brother who reeled her in. For all she would deny it, she was incredibly dependent on her twin, and now that she’s gone it’s left her struggling. [/INDENT] [sub][color=CD5C5C][b] Backstory[/b][/color][/sub] [sub][sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔[/sup][/sub] [i]"Only one thing’s ever been constant in my life… Now he’s gone. Fuck."[/i] [indent]Linqian was born in Tangshan, China just ten minutes after her twin brother, Jinhai. She spent the first seven years of her life there, relatively peacefully - until suddenly her dad had a falling out with his parents, cutting off all contact. Their family moved to Pointe-Noire, in the Republic of Congo, where her mum’s family was. The sudden move was a shock to Linqian and not one she took well, being in a different country speaking a language she struggled with, surrounded by family members she’d never met. Her and Jinhai grew even closer than before, practically becoming inseparable. Half a year later her younger brother was born, then less than two years later they were moving again. This time to St Portwell in the USA. Yet another new country and language, but this time it was only their family of five. It took a while to settle in, and for a long time Linqian missed her original home, but eventually she managed and all was peaceful again. Then at age fifteen Jinhai had his kindling event - and immediately after it he used his abstraction to freeze Linqian’s hair when she’d just come out of a shower, triggering [i]her[/i] kindling event. It was fucking weird talking to a great grandmother she’d never met, who was convinced that she should already know about Lux and how their family line could use it. Unlike Jinhai, who’d taken to it easily, Linqian was freaked out and confronted her parents over it. If she should know, they should too, right? Turned out, both her mum and dad came from a long line of Adepts - in fact, it was because of this their dad had cut off his family and thus been severed from his lux. His parents believed in the purity of their line, trying to keep marriage between those of red lux only. On the other hand, her mum’s family was much more relaxed - most of her relatives were green lux but there were a few mixed just like Linqing and Jinhai. For some reason they’d made the decision to not teach their children about this, even though their mum still had her abstraction. So suddenly Linqing was not only in the midst of puberty and petty highschool drama, but she also had magic. Her and Jinhai started practising together whenever they had time - frustratingly, as with all things, he was better than her. Then, the Stygian Snake appeared. Linqian’s dad, who was only one-eye-open now, was enthralled by it and tried to kill the rest of his family. Her mother used her abstraction to stop him, sacrificing herself in the process so Linqian and her brothers could get away. While fleeing they bumped into a group called the Sycamore Tree coven. Jinhai made the decision there and then to join, which Linqian followed (reluctantly). Their brother, only one eye open and eight years old, was sent to temporarily live with a distant relative in a different city. Linqian used her abstraction to participate in each battle with the Stygian Snake and its apparitions, primarily focusing on taking out the apparitions and thralls it created. She was always in a group with Jinhai - and always following his decisions over others. He was intelligent, and one of the group members who took part in planning with the information provided by those more knowledgeable about magic (namely Britney). Linqian, on the other hand, was there to help with the fight and cause unnecessary problems. Somehow, in amongst all this Linqian managed to find love with another coven member. She started to drift from Jinhai, spending time with her partner in the small moments in between battling the Stygian Snake’s minions. It was her first relationship and she fell hard very quickly. It caused tension in her relationship with her brother, which they resolved after multiple arguments and before the final battle. On the day of the eclipse Linqian helped defeat the Stygian Snake by manipulating her body temperature to deadly cold levels, using this to distract and weaken it to help Ashley deal the finishing blow, even when it required her to get close enough to touch it - sustaining injuries in the process. She was drained and hurt after the battle, barely aware of the apparition being sealed and agreeing to have her memory wiped. Then, she joined the brand new coven afterwards. Linqian played a big part in the petty arguments and fights the coven members had afterwards, and had no interest in going after other apparitions. They’d already done enough, surely? Honestly, she was only still there because of her partner and her brother still holding some interest in it. Then, her partner suddenly broke up with her - over text on the day of a meeting no less. Angrier than she’d been in a long time Linqian confronted them when the coven met up, and what started out as petty insults and angry words turned into her being practically dragged out by Jinhai when she tried to use her abstraction to burn her ex. She never went back. She probably would’ve been kicked out anyway, and the coven dissolved only a month later. Linqian moved on - well, as much as she could when her parents had died. She dropped out of highschool to start working, first in supermarkets then in bars when she was old enough. Together her and Jinhai moved for his college, and their younger brother moved back in with them now that they were legal adults. It was difficult, but between her job and Jinhai working part time around his degree they made it work. Finally, after years of being the main breadwinner of the family, her brother graduated his law degree and passed his bar exam. Her younger brother was finally in college too. From now on things would be easier for Linqian. She wouldn’t have to work herself to the bone. The night after her brother got a job at a well known law firm she went to work with this knowledge, more relaxed than she had been for a long time, and looking forward to a drink with him once she was done. Instead she came home to his unmoving body in their living room, blood staining the ugly cream carpet. He had been stabbed to death, and the only pointer towards who’d done it was a wolf idol she found hidden in his bedroom. Linqian lived in a daze for a week after that, sorting out everything that needed to be done when someone died, and continuing as if she hadn’t lost one of the most important people in her life. It was as if she wasn’t quite there. She felt emotionally numb, but also incredibly volatile at the same time. When Auri reached out to her about the string of murders that were happening - murders including her brother - Linqian didn’t hesitate to return. Under any other circumstance she’d decline (especially with the risk of seeing her ex again), but not for this. She needed to find whatever had done this, and make sure it died just like her brother had.[/indent] [sub][color=CD5C5C][b] Paranormal-Abilities[/b][/color][/sub] [sub][sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔[/sup][/sub] [i]"You think I’m hot? Well, you’re not wrong."[/i] [indent][color=CD5C5C][b]TYPE ⫻[/b][/color] Adept [color=CD5C5C][b]ABSTRACTION ⫻[/b][/color] [i]Red & Green Lux.[/i] Channeler: her mother’s wedding ring [color=CD5C5C][b]ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian has a primary affinity towards thermokinesis, especially of her own body. She also has an affinity towards fire and transformation, which she hasn’t discovered due to not exploring outside of her primary affinity. [indent][color=CD5C5C][b]Body Temperature Manipulation ⫻[/b][/color] The spell Linqian is most skilled with, she can manipulate her own body temperature to harmful and possibly deadly levels. This results in her touch being damaging. Along with this it means her body radiates heat or the cold. This change is visible, causing her to glow orange if she heats herself up or to get paler if she cools herself down. Her own body temperature can go up to 100°C and down to -30°C. With more concentration she can change the temperature of specific body parts, rather than her whole body. [color=CD5C5C][b]Heat Manipulation ⫻[/b][/color] Linqian can cause the air temperature in a radius around her to increase up to 40°C (104°F), a heat which other humans can survive but that can also cause hyperthermia. She can control what temperature she manipulates it to, to a certain degree (she will never know the exact temperature but could roughly guess by making it from “somewhat hot” to “extremely hot”). [color=CD5C5C][b]Cold Manipulation ⫻[/b][/color] Her cold manipulation is similar to heat manipulation, with different temperatures. She can decrease the air temperature around her to around -15°C (5°F), a survivable but possible dangerous temperature and can cause hypothermia. [color=CD5C5C][b]Ice Hands ⫻[/b][/color] Taught to her by Jinhua, Linqian can turn her hands into ice and manipulate them. She’s not very good at this spell, as she doesn’t have much of an affinity with it. [/indent] [color=CD5C5C][b]LIMITS ⫻[/b][/color] [indent][color=CD5C5C][b]Body Temperature Manipulation ⫻[/b][/color] She’s limited by temperature, between 100°C and -30°C. This isn’t exactly precise, Linqian can control from deadly hot to deadly cold and some variety in between but not specification temperatures. She can only keep her temperature outside of normal for ten minutes, then needs to rest for at least five. She can push herself to do it longer, but it will start damaging her. Due to emotional fields she can’t just kill other paranormal beings by, say, boiling their blood (though she can damage them). She can’t heat up one body part and cool down another at the same time. [color=CD5C5C][b]Heat & Cold Manipulation ⫻[/b][/color] She can change the temperature from -15°C (5°F) to 40°C (104°F), and this isn’t precise. The radius is limited to five metres around her, and it will always be the whole radius. Like above, emotional fields dampen the effect of this. She can hold the temperature for about twenty minutes at a time. [color=CD5C5C][b]Ice Hands ⫻[/b][/color] If the ice her hands turn into is damaged, her actual hands are also damaged. She can only do it for five minutes at a time. [/indent] [color=CD5C5C][b]WEAKNESSES ⫻[/b] [/color] [indent][color=CD5C5C][b]Body Temperature Manipulation ⫻[/b][/color] While heated up, Linqian is more susceptible to water and other factors that would cool her down. While cooled, it's vice-versa; she is far weaker against fire and the heat. She's not entirely immune to the effects of heat/cold, and going too hard can cause injuries. This does not differentiate between friend and foe; she can accidentally burn or freeze a friend touching her. If Linqian quickly shifts from one temperature to another, she can induce thermal shock in herself and possibly die. [color=CD5C5C][b]Heat & Cold Manipulation ⫻[/b][/color] These Spells do not differentiate between friend and foe and can be risky during team-based combat. This Spell can also cause her to overheat/overcool faster if she uses it with her Body-Temperature Manipulation. [color=CD5C5C][b]Ice Hands ⫻[/b][/color] This Spell weakens her against fire/heat-based attacks and can cause her [i]actual[/i] flesh to melt (not pretty).[/indent] [/INDENT] [sup][color=CD5C5C][b] Other[/b][/color][/sup] [sub][sup]▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔[/sup][/sub] [i]"I never wanted to see these people again."[/i] [indent]Nothing[/INDENT] [/hider] [/indent]