Meilin Hsiao
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Meilin Hsiao | |
| Player: K | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Threat Level: | 50 + A MILLION |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Meilin Hsiao |
| Known Aliases: | The Radiant Storm. Also May. |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 34 |
| Height: | 5' 4" |
| Weight: | 133 (and it's all muscle, baby!) |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Etoile |
| Occupation: | Senior Buyer and Junior Designer for the Fierce fashion house in Paragon City. |
| Place of Birth: | Cap au Diable, Etoile Archipelago. |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, Croatoa district. |
| Marital Status: | single |
| Known Relatives: | Xiao Ruolon (great great something grandmother), April Jiang (cousin) |
| Known Powers | |
| Awesomeness. | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Making you cry. Also trained in Changquan (a.k.a. Northern Long Fist kung fu) and Baguazhang, along with boxing and some submission grappling. She was an accomplished gymnast as a child. | |
| Equipment | |
| None. It's a Zen thing. | |
| ' | |
Contents |
Arachnos File
Name: Xiao Mei Lin (萧梅林), a.k.a. Meilin Hsiao, a.k.a. May Hsiao
Aliases: In some martial arts circles she is evidently called "the Radiant Storm."
Date of birth: August 22, 1990
Place of birth: Cap au Diable, Etoile Archipelago
Status: Registered Destined One. Freelance asset in good standing. Etoile entry permitted.
Patron: Ghost Widow
Additional: Subject's cousin, Kai Wei "April" Jiang, is a senior Widow.
History
Early History: Subject's family emigrated to Etoile from Taiwan in the 1950's, fleeing the KMT political purges, a.k.a. the White Terror. Family supported Recluse during the uprising against Marchand and was allowed to settle in the Haven borough of Cap au Diable. Family moved to Aeon City shortly after construction in the early 1990's. Subject grew up in Aeon City and enrolled at Aeon University in fall of 2008, majoring in art.
September 2009: Hsiao entered care at Haven House for abuse of MDMA and other recreational drugs. Subject was determined to be in excellent physical condition and reported training in martial arts and gymnastics from a very early age, and was thus considered for conscription into the Blood Widow program. During the early examination period subject was sedated and sterilized against her knowledge, as ordered by Haven House senior staff.
Subject's demeanor during treatment showed certain anomalies. Typically subject showed clear signs of fear of the doctors and orderlies, but at other times she appeared calm and businesslike. In November 2009 a full psychological workup of subject was ordered, but was never completed. (See next item.)
December 2009: Subject escaped from Haven House. Incident report shows that the orderly witnessed the subject simply vanishing before his eyes as he entered the room. Shortly afterward the orderly noticed that his key ring had been removed from his belt. A thorough search of the facility revealed no sign of subject. Hsiao was not seen in Haven House again.
Early 2010: Subject resurfaced in Port Oakes, evidently in the employ of metahuman Liam MacComber, a.k.a. Pity Fist. MacComber ran a floating club or rave called Outcast's Hope. Hsiao apparently served drinks for the club. Outcast's Hope had a pattern of strife with local power groups that brought them into conflict with Longbow, the Goldbrickers, and the Verandi and Marcone crime families. During this time it became evident that Hsiao possessed metahuman stealth abilities, which she used to infiltrate, spy on, and steal from MacComber's enemies. (It is assumed these same abilities allowed her to escape Haven House in December 2009.)
Project DESTINY officials determined that contact should be established with subject to determine asset status. Subject was registered as a Destined One and agreed to take stealth and procurement work, but refused assassination work. Despite this, subject inflicted numerous casualties on her enemies during this period, evidently using a straight blade of at least 18" in length. This weapon was never seen by any Arachnos contact who worked with Hsiao.
Throughout the first half of 2010 subject worked with numerous Arachnos contacts including Marshall Brass, Seer Marino, Arbiter Leery, Regent Korol, Arbiter Rein, and Ghost Widow, who became her patron. She also worked with a number of outside operators. By all reports subject performed all given tasks in a satisfactory manner.
Mid 2010: Subject legally emigrated to the United States. It is theorized that she somehow lost her stealth powers right before this time. Since resettling in Paragon City she began work as a fashion buyer and began freelance hero work as well, apparently utilizing her martial arts training. See Powers and Abilities, below, for further details.
Late 2010: Subject played a significant role in exposing a renegade Longbow cell that attempted to spread a weaponized virus in Port Oakes.
2011: Hsiao worked as an active hero in Paragon. Information is scarce on this period of subject's life, but it is known she joined organizations such as Vanguard and the Midnight Squad during this time.
Early 2012: Following the battle to bind the death god Mot Hsiao was betrayed by a group of heroes, evidently in a dispute over Operative Kai Wei Jiang's association with the team. With the help of a Longbow squadron Jiang and Hsiao were both captured by the group. Jiang was remanded to custody at Zigursky Penitentiary in Paragon City on false charges. Hsiao was illegally held in an off-the-books underground facility in Croatoa. Jiang was freed by a standard Arachnos flyer raid. She then led a group of allies to free Hsiao. In time the kidnappers, including the rogue Longbow commander, were arrested and imprisoned.
Late 2012: Subject moved from Paragon to New York City to pursue her fashion career, evidently retiring from hero work.
Early 2019: Subject relocated to Paragon and returned to active status as a hero. She makes periodic trips to Etoile to act against various factions. See next section for details.
Powers and Abilities
As Ghost Widow was her patron Hsiao is presumed to have some familiarity with soul magic, but by all accounts she does not use it offensively. Instead she seems to fight exclusively unarmed, relying on what is evidently a very high degree of physical skill. Hsiao is known to have no mutant genome or psionics, and evidently has no technological enhancements. She is not known to carry weapons or wear armor. Paragon's ELITE organization classifies her abilities as "maximized / exceeded human potential."
Hsiao appears capable of defeating small cells of groups such as the Council, Malta, and the Carnival of Shadows on her own, indicating that her timing and reflexes have been honed to an extraordinarily high degree. She is clearly able to deliver strikes with a degree of force that is well beyond human parameters. The precise source of this power is unknown. Any individual capable of defeating such foes alone and unarmed should not be engaged lightly.
Numerous attempts have been made to capture Hsiao's image on camera during her excursions in Etoile, but to date all have failed. She evidently does not show up on camera at all if she does not wish to. This is likely related to defensive usage of soul magic. Eyewitnesses claim that in combat she glows brightly.
While Hsiao leaves her enemies alive she inevitably destroys their firearms, shattering them well beyond repair. She appears to abscond with significant items of magic or high technology. It is unknown what she does with these items; she does not turn them over to Arachnos, nor does she appear to fence them. It is possible she has a cache for these goods somewhere in Etoile.
Current Status: Passive Asset
Hsiao is considered a passive asset to Arachnos. While in no way an Arachnos loyalist her freelance work in Etoile tends to oppose hostile factions such as the Council, Nemesis, Circle of Thorns, Malta, Carnival of Shadows, etc., so these activities are currently tolerated. Subject is known to harbor resentment against Longbow; manipulation of sympathy against Freedom Corps may be possible if the need arises. However, so long as Hsiao does not oppose Arachnos interests nothing more than routine surveillance is recommended.
Known associates are William Carrington, Blocker, Fenwick McDough, and Rockford Pennington.
Comprehensive Threat Assessment Level: Low
Hsiao's abilities seem largely limited to physical training. Apart from the limited utility of her soul magic she evidently no longer has metahuman stealth abilities. While she has friends and allies among Paragon's hero community, she has no known followers. She shows no interest in the acquisition of power or excessive wealth and appears to be mentally stable. Due to this combination of factors her comprehensive threat level is classified as Low.
As always, caution is recommended in dealings with any subject who is involved in metahuman affairs in any capacity.
RP Notes (OOC)
You will occasionally see May hanging out in Pocket D. A lot of my old RP friends aren't around these days so May doesn't know very many people. However, May is walkup friendly as long as you're polite. Once you get her talking she's brassy, sassy, opinionated, and very A-type. She has a heart of gold, though. Well, tarnished gold. Maybe pyrite. But anyway, my favorite thing is creating stories and being involved in other people's stories, so May will be interested in hearing about what kind of situations you've got going on, bad guys you're dealing with, and so on. I enjoy creating RP AE arcs and might do so for you if you engage my interest!
May is my attempt at a modern day wuxia heroine. In the style of that genre her powers were not attained by birthright or happenstance but through years of discipline and hard training. As is appropriate for a young wuxia heroine she is focused and serious, but also headstrong and willful. While she is named after Maggie Cheung's character from the Police Story series she was largely inspired by Miu Tsui-fa, Jet Li's butt-kicking mother from the Fong Sai-yuk films. (And if you want to see some top notch wuxia the Fong Sai-yuk movies are so much fun!)
I was also a Dragon Ball fan when I was little so May takes more than a few elements from that series as well. Of course Dragon Ball was more than mildly influenced by the wuxia genre, albeit with a ton of anime and sci-fi conventions mixed in, so I think it works!
None of my toons do IC romantic relationships, nor do they do ERP. That's just not my thing.
May's Photo Album
- Main article: Photos
Here is a collection of some of May's pictures from Pocket D and the Rogue Isles.
Now for some tropes!
Action Girl -- Obviously!
Deadpan Snarker -- Also obviously!
Tsundere -- Mostly type A.
Alternative Lifestyle Assistant -- May LOVES LOVES LOVES gay men, and she stands ready to be emotional support and wing woman for her gay pals.
Yaoi Fangirl -- WE ARE LEGION. Why? Because guy on guy is hot!
Only Sane Woman -- Meet her friends and you'll see!
Break the Cutie -- Her backstory. Awwww.
Charles Atlas Super Power / Bare Fisted Monk / Kick Chick -- Her origin and fighting style.
Qi Attacks -- The explanation for her blasty powers and her healing and her waif fu!
Pint-Sized Powerhouse -- All part of the waif fu thing. Muscles are meaningless, after all.
Cursed With Awesome -- Early on, anyway.
Broken Bird -- When she started out. She's a good bit better now.
Hates Being Touched -- At first. She's better about it now, but still may react badly at times.
Genre Savvy -- You don't fool her for a second, you know.
