Lihn Thị Phan
(潘 氏 靈 , Phan Thị Lihn

Female

29

5'4"

108

Greencrest Heights

Black

Deep brown

Vietnamese

Lihn is a hardly a tall woman, however she is above the average for her home country. She is somewhat unassuming looking and the kind of person that doesn't stand out. She blends in easily to the crowd. Pure Vietnamese, it is obvious from first appearances that she is from an eastern country.

Lihn's dark hair is straight and long, falling past her mid back. While she tends to prefer to keep it loose she will tie it back if it is more practical. It frames a reasonably wide, slightly round face. Her eyes are large, a warm brown, and almond shaped. She has a flat, and broad nose, above thin lips. Her skin tone is a relatively dark yellowish brown colour, indicating that she is from the more Southern areas of Vietnam rather than the north.

Lihn has a relatively thin, but fit, body frame. She enjoys participating in sports but has never gotten to the point of properly building up muscles. She is fitter than people who do not exercise but it hasn't filled out her rather petite frame. She has subtle curves, noticeable if enhanced by clothing but hardly anything to brag about. It adds to her more average looks. She generally looks feminine but is hardly the most attractive person around. She's not bad looking but nor is she noticeably good looking.

Lihn's attire greatly varies. When planning on doing some running or something more physical she will wear clothing made for when doing sports. She does tend to dress quite nicely, in most cases wearing jeans and a nice shirt. She does also enjoy wearing skirts and dresses and will do so regularly. More rarely, an only in formal settings, Lihn will wear the more traditional Vietnamese dress - a light blue Ao Dai.

Lihn is a calm, people oriented person. Her personality is far from a force of nature. She prefers to be subtle and how she acts is very similar to how she appears - not immediately noticeable. She is kind hearted and will take her time to listen to others. She is very good with children, having a very close relationship with her own daughter. She enjoys time in the company of others but rarely is one to dictate the conversation. She prefers to listen and go along with the flow.

However, just because Lihn tends to be relaxed and follow along with others doesn't mean that she is a pushover. She has something of a no nonsense attitude. If she knows that someone is making up excuses she will, in general, not tolerate it. She is not cruel in the way that she gets this across, however. Even though she doesn't accept excuses and believes everyone should take responsibility for their actions she is gentle in her application of these beliefs. Again, she is not pushy but nor is she easily forced into things herself.

Lihn has a deep understanding of human emotion, coming from both her powers and her training in psychology. She can easily read other's emotions without having to activate her empathy, from the way they speak and subtle differences in expressions. She knows how to speak in different situations, how to calm someone down who is distraught and how to help someone feel better.

Lihn is also quite a sturdy person emotionally. She has had to build up a certain resistance to being moved by others emotions and as a result is unlikely to panic when someone gets overly angry or to be intimidated when threatened. However with this emotional detachment comes an air of aloofness, no matter how kind and socially aware she is.

Running: Lihn was quite sporty in her youth, and still goes out on runs when she has time.

Sewing: Though at a young age Lihn disliked more 'girly' activities she has in recent years picked up an interest in sewing. She does this relatively regularly, often when relaxing at home, and has made some nice clothing.

Reading: Lihn enjoys reading, both fictional and non-fictional. Her main reading interest is in fantasy, sci-fi and dystopian in terms of fiction. For non-fiction she reads a lot of psychology based books.

Human Brain: Lihn has an interest on how the brain works, especially the mental aspects of this. Her interest is even more pronounced in terms of metahumans - as to whether there are brain differences. She also has a good interest in how emotions work and affect the brain.

Psychology: Lihn has a degree in psychology, and as a result knows a good amount about the human brain. She took interest in metahuman aspects as well but was not interested in joining organisations such as DOVE.

Children: Lihn is also quite good with children, something that made her consider going into teaching. She is patient enough with them and seems to know the right thing to do to quieten a baby or keep a child happy.

Sports: At a younger age Lihn was good at, and enjoyed, sports. She still does but she doesn't participate in them much anymore. Are main sports were badminton, and running.

People: Lihn just generally has good people schools, finding it easy to talk with people and help them with their problems. People find her easy to trust and she is more than willing to lend a listening ear.

Family: Lihn is motivated to protect the small family she has. She loves her young daughter dearly, and is quite close to her half-brother. She would do a lot to make sure they are safe.

Knowledge: Lihn has a long term goal to gain more knowledge on metahumans, especially in relation to mental states and whether their brains work. She doesn't have much access to information out with of herself and her metahuman family.

Lihn was born in South Vietnam to a farmer and his wife. They were not particularly well off, but they were not poor. They had a small farm and mostly prospered off the fact that their animals were better than all others. Unknown to Lihn at the time this was due to her father's metahuman abilities in relation to animals.

Lihn was five when her own powers developed. She began to sense the emotions of all the humans around her, unable to keep it out and constantly bedridden due to migraines caused by this. Unfortunately for the family the small community they lived in was not particularly friendly to metahumans and found out about what was afflicting Lihn. It turned out her mother also did know of her father's powers and shared very similar views to the other people in the community. Lihn and her father were forced to run. With money saved up the two of them managed to immigrate to America. It was difficult, but eventually they were allowed to settle down and make a new life with the decision to get full citizenship as soon as possible.

The city they chose to live in was Verthaven. Here her father met another woman, and within a year and a half of living in America the two were married. Another year a half and along came Lihn's younger half brother, Rei. The eight year age gap made it difficult for Lihn to see eye to eye with her younger brother. However there was no jealousy from Lihn's side - she was more than happy to have a new family.

Lihn left her family to study psychology at college in a difference city when she graduated highschool at 18. By now she was a full American citizen, speaking English as well as her birth language of Vietnamese. She kept in contact with her family while there, and occasionally they would visit. During this time period she got slightly closer to her brother - he was becoming slightly more mature.

After graduating, just turned twenty two, Lihn moved to Baybridge to try and find a job. Upon moving into a small flat her brother decided to visit to, essentially, test out her new home and spend some time away from parents who were getting on his nerves.

Rei never went back to live with his parents. It was lucky he was staying with Lihn, as his parent's tragically died in the Verthaven Disaster - two among many. It was a difficult time for both. Lihn was suddenly given the responsibility of looking after her then fourteen year old brother. A series of slightly bad decisions on her part, nights out more drunk than she should be, ended up with her pregnant with the child of an unknown father.

It was enough of a shock for Lihn to return to her responsible self. With a child on the way she only worked harder at her job, becoming a well respected therapist for her age. She earned enough money to move out of the more shoddy Springtown and into a better area. Her daughter, Thanh, was born on time and healthy.

In the last six years life has been more normal for Lihn. She has managed to juggle raising a child, working as a therapist and making sure her lazy half-brother does more than just lying about and is planning to continue doing so.

Mai Phan - Mother
Dinh Phan - Father (Deceased, Animal Empathy)
Xuân (Rei) Phan - Half-brother
Thanh Phan - Daughter

| Good | Younger Half-Brother | "Rei and I get on, I just wish he spent more time outside and with people." |

Cerebral (Domination)

Lihn can read the emotions of others. How much information she gets depends on how hard she concentrates. If an emotion is very strong it is easier to figure out, if it is weak it is more difficult. She can often get a basic idea of the emotions of all those around her however has to concentrate more to get the full picture. Certain emotions are more difficult to sense, such as obscure and very specific emotions. Easy emotions to read are happiness and anger.

Lihn can subtly change the emotions of people near her. She can effect up to five people, however the change will be less than if just concentrating on one person. The change is subtle and unnoticeable. She essentially takes an emotion than the target is already feeling and increases or decreases the intensity with which they feel it. For example if someone is angry she could reduce this anger slightly, or increase it. This can achieve a variety of effects. She can use it to help people feel, in a way, more confident. However it is quite limited in what it can do.

Lihn can only change and read the emotions of those in her immediate area. She can, roughly, read the emotions of those in a twenty foot radius around her and change them of those in a ten foot radius around her.
Lihn must concentrate to change emotions, so any distractions will stop it. The same can be said for reading specific emotions.
Lihn's ability to read emotions is technically never turned off. However she has gotten to the level of control where the bombardment of stronger emotions is just like a background noise in her head. However in stressful situations she is likely to be overwhelmed by something like this.

Lihn suffers from severe, often blinding, migraines if she reads emotions for too long. This occurs from her brain essentially being overwhelmed by the different emotions of people. These often cause her to be bedridden for long periods of time.
Due to her ability to read emotions always being 'on' incredibly strong emotions around her can be crippling to her mind. They often overwhelm her thoughts meaning she cannot coherently speak or even hear what other people say. This can lead to migraines caused when also actively increasing her ability.

Along migraines overwhelming emotions can also have an effect on her emotional state. This often leads to mental breakdowns on Lihn's part, or feeling a variety of emotions. There have been a few times when she has been overwhelmed by other's anger resulting in her resorting to an angry violence.

It is difficult to control her ability in incredibly busy places often resulting in too many emotions being registered in her brain at once. This can very negatively affect how she reacts socially and can even physically weaken her.

Thanh Thị Phan
(潘 氏 青, Phan Thị Thanh

6

Thanh is the short, and slightly round young daughter of Linh Phan. She is well loved and doted upon, resulting in her developing a very cheerful personality. However she takes after her mother in being more calm than most her age. Her hair is black and straight like her mother's. It is quite long. Her skin is a golden colour - lighter than Lihn's. Her eyes are an odd dark green, probably inherited by her unknown father. Thanh doesn't particularly want for anything and is more than happy in her life.

Thanh inherited an ability similar to that of her late grandfather. However while his was affecting the emotions of animals, Thanh's is more communication based. She can essentially read the thoughts of animals and communicate with them in this way. She has very little control over it however it is not a dangerous enough power to warrant any control. Her mother tends to keep her away from animals for this reason so that she is not overwhelmed by thoughts.

Harmon Rottlage

Male

25

5'11

158.9 lbs

None. Harmon considers the Microcosm to be his home now.

N/A

N/A

N/A

As he is now, Harmon is a not the picture of perfect health. He's lacking in the muscle department and a multitude of his bones can be seen to bulge from under his pale skin - ribs, limbs, spine, so on. This isn't to say he actually is unhealthy, as this is his natural bodily appearance. It's pretty much impossible for him to put on weight as his internal systems are too constrained for it - a stapled stomach without the surgery. Though he looks fragile, he can still stand and take a decent hit, but anything more will either break him or kill him outright. Aside from all that is the much less human-looking part of him - his head. Harmon lacks eyeballs and eye sockets. He also lacks ears and a nose, but he does possess the appropriate cavities to serve their respective functions, if only at a lesser effectiveness than most humans'. His lips are somewhat cracked, though this doesn't provide any discomfort. And the most striking feature of all - the mess of pseudo-metallic shards jutting from Harmon's head. These are a key part of his physiology, and they play into the full extent of his powers. More on that further down.

Harmon's most common outfit consists of a sleeveless white hoodie, a gray tank top underneath it, olive cargo shorts, and pair of brown sandals. He doesn't change out of the set very often, except when he gets it washed. Then he'll just use whatever's available from his very meager collection of clothing, of which he does not own many articles of.

Harmon used to be something of a wallflower. Did little speaking with others, always hanging in the very back, never presenting or asserting himself. This has changed over the years, all for the better. Through a myriad of events and relationships formed throughout his life, he's come to be much more open and friendly with people. Not to the point that he'll walk up to anyone and start chatting away, but still. He possesses something of a stutter, and his voice remains relatively weak, but not as much as it was. He is kind to people, he's honest, and he takes any form of relationship to heart. He always feels uneasy when someone is upset with, or angry at him, and he'll do his best to remedy the situation, always. But friends of his will find him to be a happy soul to have around, under a plethora of circumstances.

Neither a hobby or interest really, Harmon is prone to collecting batteries. This is more of a habit he has failed to break since years ago, as he had to do it to keep his only camera at the time functional. Nowadays, he has more than enough, but he'll still pocket any strays he finds.

Harmon is very, very skilled with the assembly, disassembly, repair, and maintenance of a multitude of electronic devices. If you have a broken phone, or a TV remote, or even a whole TV, or anything at all really, then you can be certain he can get it running again.

Truth be told, Harmon has never really desired to amount to anything major in life. No lucrative careers, no intimate relationships, nothing. All he really wants is to survive and be with friends.

Harmon Rottlage was born on June 16, 1997, in the secluded Ivory Deer Community located near Black Fall, Pennsylvania. The IDC was a place meant for meta-humans of a physically unseemly nature - not just the ones with naturally elaborate markings on their bodies or pseudo-bestial features, but the kind who were absolutely abhorred in public and often branded monstrosities, even by other meta-humans. It was formed during an older time when prejudices were more abound, and during Harmon's years it had become more of a private retirement home than anything. The circumstances of Harmon's birth remain muddled in obscurity to this day, as his mother Marnene died during childbirth, and his father Harris was exiled from the Ivory Deer Community for reasons unknown, when Harmon was just days old.

Though rough at times, Harmon managed to live a mostly quiet, easygoing childhood. The other residents of Ivory Deer treated him better than Harris would have, or so they claimed. Harmon simply went along with whatever they said, being very meager and impressionable at the time. They instilled within him some very conflicting prospects, mainly between being kind and open to humans and "more fortunate metas", and on the other end of the spectrum, outright hating them and living in solitude. As Harmon grew older, the lot of these attempted teachings just gave him headaches. When he reached his teenage years, he decided he was going to figure things out for himself. He quietly sneaked away one night and went out into the city of Black Fall. There, he experienced quite a few events that... well, they're a more muddled part of his history. Skipping ahead, he ended up deciding to attend the prestigious Academy 218, at the recommendation of a certain NEST agent. He was apprehensive, but in the end, he overcame his inhibitions and took the plunge.

Harmon's school years were a story all on their own. He experienced friendship, danger, betrayal, a bunch of sordid things really. Before too long, he'd worked up a suitable education, and he'd come to assume full control of his powers - at least, within his differing biological limitations allowing. After all was said and done, he graduated, and returned to the Ivory Deer Community with the goal of convincing the other residents that, honestly, life on the outside was just fine for folks like them. That they didn't need to stay cooped up in a forested mansion all their lives. But oh, how reality bit back at him.

The Verthaven disaster came when Harmon was eighteen. The hostility that followed suit quickly extended to his caste of meta-humans in particular, and the Ivory Deer Community quickly became targeted by quite a few unruly groups and individuals. The following months were nothing but prosecution, vandalism, stalking, and the occasional stint of arson. For most of the residents, it was just too much. Many died, and it just beat Harmon's poor soul into the dirt. Time went on, and things only seemed to get worse. But when it all seemed to hit rock bottom, one fine young man came along and freed the IDC from its troubles. Archie Davis was just beginning to formulate his plan to save as many meta-humans as he could during the time he was in Black Fall, and he held much respect for the residents of Ivory Deer. At his behest, those who were still alive took shelter within the Microcosm - and just in time as well, for not even a day later, their home was burned to the ground. As for Harmon himself, he and Archie quickly bonded over the incident, and ever since then, the two have been great friends.

Seven years went by, and Harmon was present within the Microcosm for all of them. He watched Archie rescue meta-humans all along his traveling westward, and even aided him in the endeavor every now and then. Time has taken its toll, however, and Harmon is one of the very few remnants of the Ivory Deer Community still around today. Most of the rest have either died of old age or biological difficulties, or they left the Microcosm for their own reasons. But Harmon stuck around, and he thinks he's come out a better person for it.

Harris Rottlage - Father, missing
Marnene Rottlage - Mother, deceased

| Good | Friend | "A good friend, a-and a good person." |

Cerebral (Extra-Sensory)

Harmon possesses the abilities of a technopath, though his in particular differ much from the norm. He can directly control any sort of electronic device and apply a variety of uses in all of them. For example, as he lacks eyes, he can use any functional camera to simulate vision from its point of view. He can utilize any device from a range without manually operating, access internal system databases, and even perform more covert and defensive actions, such as disrupting camera feeds and disabling tools of pacification, like tasers and stun batons. It all plays into his biology - specifically, the shards protruding from the crown of his head. These shards are bio-metallic, and operate on a procedural growth. Harmon's powers increase in range, effectiveness, and efficiency the longer the shards get. Freshly plucked or shaved, Harmon won't be able to do so much as see out of a camera in his hands. But as time goes on, he can see more clearly, interact with multiple devices at once, and other benefits.

As stated, the range of Harmon's ability to interact with any devices is stapled to the rate of growth of his shards. Mathematically speaking, it increases by around a couple yards per day, two yards per collective inch of all shards, though this rate is prone to change depending on any individual shard's condition - in-growth, for example. And that's just as painful for Harmon as it is detrimental to his abilities. Additionally, Harmon cannot naturally supply energy to anything he wants to interact with - if a camera's out of power, it's essentially a brick to him.

The shards' growth rate is, for the most part, easy for Harmon to tolerate and manage. However, if enough time is allowed to pass and the shards become too unruly - about a foot and a half each, roughly - then Harmon will begin to suffer from migraines, and they will only intensify if the shards are left untended too. In this state he loses control of his powers, and any electronic system or device in his effective vicinity will become inoperable.

Other than Harmon's own biological weaknesses, he is very vulnerable to (and fearful of) two particular elements - electricity, and magnetism. Bio-metallic shards running directly from his brain means any level of a shock to them will almost certainly kill him. Magnetism is not as lethal, but still very effective at dampening Harmon's abilities. In a close enough proximity, and depending on their level of power, magnets will render Harmon unable to interact with any devices, and also plague him with headaches of varying intensity.