Basic Information
Name:Hye-mi Park
Nickname/Alias/Etc:Mio (Preferred nickname)
Asia Minor (DJ handle)
Gender:Female
Age: 23
Height: 5'2'' (Or, you know, 5'1'' without the hair)
Weight: 122 lbs.
Home District: Greencrest Heights, White Coast
Appearance
Hair Color: That's a funny question. Mio's real hair color is actually a very, very deep brown, however, she has dyed it to hell and back: originally, she was okay with just the sable base, but she has since branched out to a small spectrum of colors, gelled and sculpted together to range from a deep green to a sunset-hot orange. At least, that's what she tells people. Some surmise that she may just wear a wig, but as no one has seen her with this wig off, who's to say?
Eye Color: Sharp, pale brown, with a minor case of sectoral heterochromia: the rings around her iris are very dark, and two black splotches dot the lower edges of each eye.
Ethnicity: Coastal Asiatic, specifically Korean and Hindi
Physical Appearance: Mio's face speaks volumes. Quirky, queer-eyed and cutesy, Hye-mi has a talkative grin, expressive eyes, and more access to gel than God. Her short stature does little to weaken the fire in her pepper-printed eyes, and her stubby button-nose wrinkles whenever she laughs. Because she lacks so much in height (a shortcoming she blames on her heritage), she makes up for it in razzmatazz. The first thing most people notice about Mio is the hair. Preened, cut, and kept perfectly in order, her huge, sweeping crescents of hair dash the vision of one eye, while framing the other in a broad spectra of violent, exciting colors. From the left of her head, her hair passes in gradient from a pleasing, warm green to an orange that could only be described as 'sharp cheddar with a side of Miami sunset.' Tying it all together is a jet-black ponytail that she deliberately gels to follow the easterly wave that Mio calls a fringe, keeping her midnight-black, shoulderblade-length hair up and out of the way. Her eyebrows sit softly above deeply lidded eyes, calming and contrasting the wild beast that is her hair.
However, this is about where Hye-mi's attention to appearance stops. She isn't flashy with makeup by any stretch of the word--a little foundation, a little bit of pink, a little bit of mascara--it's all little bits for this little shit. Quiet, clever almond-shaped and almond-hued eyes take in the world, and happen to be the quietest thing about this peppy piece of work.
Her neck is long, cut by strong, slim shoulders and a collarbone that could kill a man. Her arms are light yet firm, muscle from countless hours of punches, pull-ups, and playing at parkour. This is also, moreover, where she keeps her singular tattoo: an ice-inspired koi half-sleeve, a sharp, blue-toned fish coiled around intricate glacial lotuses--wrought from ice and outlined in thick layers of black. The tattoo is more than a few years old, but her meticulous attention to maintenance keeps the frosty-flavored tat fresh as the day she came out of the shop, tears in her eyes and a hand on her bicep.
Her hips sit wide beneath her short, firm torso, accentuated by strong, thick thighs and equally powerful calves. Hye-mi has no thigh gap, nor does she care for one; she'd rather be slim, not bow-legged. Her legs have been trained through years of dealing with her power manifesting at the worst of times, leading to her strong, toned lower half--which, given the soft appearance of the rest of her body, serves as quite the contrast.
Mio could kick a hole in a wall and the wall would thank her.
Sweater puppies and hips that don't lie aside, Mio's eternally-tanned skin tone lends itself to hours upon hours in the daylight, mixing tracks, listening to tunes, and getting up to no good. Her whole body sings a song of exuberance and liveliness, a tune which harmonizes oh-so-well with Park's perky personality.
Attire: Clothes. Mio loves dressing up in fantastically bright or otherwise interesting attire, often preferring to keep to her summer wardrobe when in doubt. Band tees, tight tanks, the occasional sporty minidress--Hye-mi has worn them all, and wears them in all varieties of colors, from gaudy to glum. Her attire tends to be movement-minded, but not without the nod to style; she likes the skirts-and-spats combo, particularly, because it lets her get away with all of the fun of a short skirt without any of the unwanted attention.
...But the pockets still suck.
Ever the hipster, Park likes to support local businesses--especially if they come recommended by a friend-of-a-friend, or even just are a friend of a friend. As such, you can catch her wearing scarves, strangely-colored socks, and not-quite-ever-have-been-in-fashion-and-probably-never-will-be articles of clothing alike. The beauty of having a look--and an attitude--so wholly devoted to grabbing the eye of the random bystander is that Mio really can wear whatever she wants and get away with it, as she is wont to do.
Even in the winter, Park prefers to keep 'bundling up' to a minimum, preferring rather to traipse about from building to building, trying her damnedest to not catch a cold in summer jeans, a tank top, and, if she's feeling particularly worried about the weather, a cropped jacket.
Another interesting aspect about Mio's day-to-day wear is that she enjoys mixing old ideas with new flavors; a favorite article of hers is a horrendously misused bomber jacket, cropped to the ribs and emblazoned with the South Korean flag on the shoulder and back using fresh materials. Any fasteners were taken off, making it effectively useless as anything but a fashion statement--it won't even close. Because the jacket had to be so heavily tailored, it wouldn't even close if Mio wanted it to--said tailor was a little overzealous in their hacking away at fabric.
Personality
Innate & Outward Personality:Mio, at the very core of her being, is just a girl who wants to get noticed. She wants to be somebody, and at that, be somebody exciting. While inwardly insecure, you wouldn't know it by looking at her; on the outside, Mio is a radiant ball of sunshine, excitable and effervescent. Outgoing, charismatic, perhaps a little too nosy for her own good; all of these are traits that quickly endear people to Hye-mi, and she revels in it. She's a touch self-centered, as evidenced by her attention to image and keeping up appearances. Often seen with her head in the clouds and stars in her eyes, Mio loves the idea of fame--glitz and glamor excite her, as does adventure and suspense. This all aside, though, Mio is only a little self-centered--she's easily capable of putting herself aside to talk to and about people, from whom she so loves to hear stories and tales and--most especially--gossip. Ever the chatterbox, Mio isn't especially concerned with seeming refined or 'polite.' If there's shit to talk, she's the first to say "Dish, gurl," in a not-entirely-sarcastic tone.
However, this isn't a constant--Mio and her power are a lot alike, in that they function in waves. Just as she can be excitable and friendly and outgoing, there are also moments of flow for Mio--times where she can be serious, objective-oriented, and focused. Sobriety is something Park is perfectly capable of achieving, and it's almost startling how quickly she can shift from feckless joviality to a barrage of salient questions and points. Mio is aware that there is a time for games and jokes, and tries as hard as she can to keep spirits high, but she knows as well as anyone that work and play are meant to have a fine line between them.
Mio isn't perfect. As a matter of fact, she's a totally unreliable narrator--an extremely tightly-wound household and home life left her with a (usually covert) inferiority complex and a long-standing problem with pathological lying. If she's being accused, the first thing she thinks to do is lie. Lie, lie, and keep lying. While Mio personally knows better, her instincts tell her to deny until she can flee, and instinct is so much harder to reason with.
More on that inferiority complex--Mio would be the absolute last person to say "Well, at least I'm better than you." While she does have a heaping helping of self-interest, it's more about becoming better, getting stronger, faster, cleverer--to keep working until everyone she passes is visibly impressed by how far she's come. Whenever she meets another artist, her first thought is 'I can't even imagine the skill gap between us,' not 'I could probably out-mix this dude without even thinking.'
Which is a shame, because she really is a clever musician. Mio is obsessed with the idea of self-improvement, to the point that she works out every other day, learned to cook, and has a whole stack of books on her nightstand.
In an oddly paradoxical way, Mio has a tendency to be very withdrawn--while she puts on an amazing show out in the world, and absolutely loves being around people, she always comes home alone and has never really shown an interest in romance; while she's not opposed to the idea, she's never met anyone she can truly be alone with.
That is one thing she absolutely values. Solitude. A place where she can go and be alone with her music and nothing else. Moreover, being alone allows her to let her power run totally free, and she can just relax, allowing the beat to lull her into peaceful meditation. Even though she enjoys the company of others, Mio is still, at her core, something of an introvert--and enjoys her privacy as a way of resting and recharging.
Mio is, in the end, a girl who wants to enjoy every bit of life, and to prove she deserves to be there for every moment. She's a dedicated worker, and plays just as hard as she works--and intends to prove that all that effort isn't there for nothing.
Hobbies/Interests:- She's not so much a hobbyist DJ as she is a career disc jockey--but she loves the work, all the same, and absolutely dedicates a huge portion of her time to mixing tracks and setting up playlists for events.
- Parkour! Because of the nature of her power, freerunning is a whole lot more interesting--and fun--for her, and she has methods to catch herself if she slips. Plus, it's not like she can ride a bike to get places, and using public transport can be a huge pain in the ass unless she's actively concentrating the whole time.
- Mio likes to think she's fashion-forward. She does love trying out new clothes and combos, though.
- She sure doesn't hate video games--they're a good way to pass the time, especially when she's got artist's block and she's too tuckered out to go for a run.
- Music is absolutely integral to her lifestyle. She swears she's heard 40% of the library on Pandora, and she intends to find the bottom of the barrel on Spotify. Her tastes tend to be an eclectic mixture of electro, rock, rap, drum'n'bass, and alternative.
- Talented musician; she's capable with the electric piano, and has an intimate relationship with common synthesizers--especially those that follow the piano's key-style.
- Knows how to throw a party! A dedicated disc jockey and acquainted with more than a couple popular dance moves, Mio can absolutely put on a show. With glowsticks. And ecstasy.
- As a result of being small and easily kidnapped, Mio has undertaken informal training in self-defense--specifically in Tang Soo Do, and, in conjunction with her Metahumanity, she can protect herself if the need arises. A can of mace helps, too.
- Pretty sure she could crush a melon with her thighs. Both the fruit and the euphemism for a head.
Mio wants to get famous. She doesn't necessarily want to get rich--middle class is more than enough for her--but she definitely wants to get noticed. Being the chipper, smiley-faced disc jockey that you can have at your party is great, and all, but she really wants attention on a broader scale. She wants to do something great that really turns heads.
History/Bio:Hye-mi Park is the daughter of two second-generation Asian-Americans, who both came from very different cultures: her father from Korea--whose parents expatriated to America immediately following World War II and the collapse of Korea's Japanese rule, and the other from India, whose parents decided, simply, that "If we're going to cut ties with Britain, why don't we just move to a country who already has and avoid the mess?"
It would make sense that a couple of rebels would give birth to another rebel. Mio's mother was very vocal in her disputation of her parents ruling her life, and intended to live the 'American Dream' as the rest of the country did. Her father, on the other hand, was a clever, conniving, sagacious snake of a man who intended to take the business world by storm--and both of them had a pretty clear grip on life when the two of them came together and had a child during their late 20s, totally delineated from their families and intent on paving their own path in life.
Thus, on April 22nd, 1993, Hye-mi Park was born--her father insisted on her first name, though her mother desired a mix of their two cultures. The one thing Hwan didn't expect, however, was the presence of her mother's Metahumanity to be passed onto Mio.
This caused trouble. This wasn't his plan. He would no longer be Hwan the Businessman. He would be Hwan Park, the man with the Metahuman child. However, Hwan was a clever man. As a result, Mio's childhood could be best described as tumultuously stringent. In order to learn to control her power--a difficult task--her father taught her two things: the violin, and how to fear him without Hwan ever laying a hand on her. Once the basics were down pat--something Hwan handled respectfully enough, and actually nurtured her towards success--she was expected to know. If she let her powers go out of control and warp the sound from then on, there would be no response.
He would ignore her, as if she wasn't there.
The worse she failed, the worse the negative feedback--sometimes, she would come to the dinner table and a place would be missing.
As she got older, it got worse. Little infractions caused greater silences--longer times of loneliness. She'd mastered the violin, and she was expected to find the next instrument on her own. They would 'forget' her on family trips--and she was an only child. However, it taught her how to fend for herself, how to get to-and-from school, how to meet people, and how to get that interaction she so sorely desired. She might've hailed from a rich family, but the older she got, the more she started living like a kid in a poorhouse. Eventually, she got tired of learning to suppress--she'd made friends. She had opinions. She had thoughts and dreams.
The next instrument she learned was the piano. Not the grand kind--not the type she'd have to learn how to stop the strings from warping their own noise--no. She learned the electric keyboard, and she was proud of that.
Something about music resonated with her. It sparked a passion in Mio. There was a beauty in the little rebellions--the thoughts and ideas her friends had, the little freedoms she took when no one was looking--or no one cared to look. With music, she could enjoy studying, enjoy improvement, and the beating rhythm stoked a great, impossible fire within her. She didn't hate being alone anymore. Mio could use solitude. Her fears of loneliness--of not being good enough--became weaker, and morphed into a determination she now uses as a power source every day.
Mio has been legally emancipated since she was 17. She'd been holding down part-time jobs (and lying about her age through her teeth) since 13.
The emancipation, however, wasn't entirely her idea. One day, she came home from school with deep, black hair and a whole new hairstyle per the urging of her friends, and it sparked a series of terrible, awful arguments that ended in her leaving home permanently.
There's little to say about Mio's mother--a natural at sound manipulation, she'd become a wallflower after entering a relationship with Hwan. At the time of Hye-mi's birth, Arati Park was already well under Hwan's thumb, without family to return to--the status of her grandparents is something Mio is totally unaware of, and frankly, doesn't care to know.
By 19, Mio had decided that she was done living day-to-day. Living with bullshit people, leading bullshit lives, doing bullshit every bullshit day. Living just on the edge of Greencrest Heights, working her way up in the world and putting herself further in the black on her bank account, she finally decided to pull the trigger and try.
A girl by the name of Annabelle Thastey--Anna to her friends--happened to be an event organizer and a close friend-of-a-friend in Mio's growing circle. Mio, of course, decided this was the time to start making connections, and set up a meeting with Annabelle. The meeting ended in shaking hands, a handshake, and the exchange of a thumb drive.
By the next week, her calculated risk had landed her with a spot DJing for a wedding.
Two years, 16 weddings, 30 parties, one nightclub venue night, and so much work towards an album later, Mio finally found her place in the world as 'that DJ what can make the floor literally shake,' and finally started living comfortably--with a pothead roommate by the name of Stoner Dave. It's a mononym. Probably. He might've also been the result of a virgin birth.
Give it another year, and you have Mio as she is today; currently whiling the days away with music in her ears and a bounce in her step, considering acting on her plans to finally go to an Academy and finally figure out her powers in a healthier manner--that is, without intentional neglect or her horrendous method of trial by fire.
Relationships
Family:Hwan Park: Currently living in Lower South Royer. 48. Shrewd businessman, currently in ownership of a variety of car dealerships and intending to expand across the Washington coast area.
Arati Park: Currently living in Lower South Royer. 43. Ex-rebellious teenager, now something of a housewife--she currently looks after a younger brother Mio is unaware of, as he was born after she emancipated herself. Metahuman capable of Sound Manipulation.
??? Park: Currently living in Lower South Royer. 3. The recent Park boy--Mio isn't even aware he exists, nor is she aware of whether or not he's Metahuman.
Dynamics: (Relations with other characters - You don't have to put relation with family here.)
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{Impression (Good/Bad/Neutral} |
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Abilities
Power Class:Energy
Power: Sound Materialization. Not quite the same as simply manipulating sound, Mio's specific brand of sound control quite literally causes sound to take physical form within a 30 meter radius. Without concentrating on actively suppressing or enhancing the ability, however, this power maintains a spherical radius of about three-quarters of a meter--around arm's reach, if she were to really stretch.
The actual appearance of 'material' sound is strange. Because there is nothing physical to make the sound out of, it simply creates an aberration as it passes over or strikes against all nearby objects, so long as they aren't currently alive. The living create a series of counter-vibrations that effectively nullify the warping of their bodies, but their clothes, weapons, and other personal effects are not excluded from this aberration. This warping manifests as an extremely temporary wave passing over the nearby landscape, created from the very ground itself. However, this wave only warps, it does not destroy. Other than creating temporary dissonance in any objects that produce sounds themselves, the wave is harmless to all things it naturally affects.
The wave is physical in nature--someone could stand on it if they so desired, or even ride it, as Mio does. However, as the sound dissipates, so does the 'material' sound--so while the wave is extremely fast, it will evaporate almost as quickly as it occurs, making it difficult to use as reliable transportation.
Mio, specifically, can exert a certain level of control over materialized sound--not necessarily affecting the sound itself, by affecting how the material sound manifests and travels using direct contact as a medium. She can cause the wave to stall, split, curve--Mio could even make the wave taller or shorter, if she desired. This does, however, require a certain kind of concentration--the manipulation of the waves requires a moment of zen, or, as Mio so esoterically puts it, "You've got to--fuckin'--be in the groove."
Simply causing the waves to appear at greater distances or suppressing them altogether is a task better suited to the day-to-day normal kind of focus; it's a little bit like riding a bike. You could do it for hours and hours, and you'd be tired as hell afterwards, but it's simple enough to do once you know how to do it and you can train yourself to last longer.
An unexpected externality of Mio's power is that projectiles become a total crapshoot near her. Because this ability is radial, anything caught within the however-many-meters invisible 'sphere' around Mio will aberrate, and as a result, curve wildly out of control. Bullets, especially, given the spiraling nature of their trajectory, react totally unpredictably when the object bends during its travel.
Limits:The first and most obvious limit of Mio's ability is the near-total lack of control. She serves more as a conduit for her power--other than actively suppressing it or allowing it to run free, it is effectively its own animal. Only in unique moments of concentration--her 'groove' state--can she affect the waves as they radiate, and even then, it puts considerable strain on her limbs--the power doesn't lie so much in her mental faculties as it does in her stance, like she's a pebble dropped in a pond.
Moreover, no matter how much she tries, Mio cannot use guns. They will misfire 9 times out of 10 due to the extreme warping of the barrel, and even if they do fire, the extremely loud noise from so close will almost certainly trip Mio immediately after firing. As a matter of fact, most hand-held weapons are almost totally worthless in her hands, because every solid strike will cause the object to warp due to the following noise and she'll lose her balance soon after.
As a result of this, Mio's self defense classes rely totally on hand-to-hand combat, not with the use of a knife or any sort of blunt instrument.
Another limitation is the range. Mio's range has a soft cap of 30 meters while concentrating--while that seems like a lot, the usual soft cap while still being able to move normally is closer to 10 meters, with total effect dispersion at 15 meters.
The final--and least obvious--limitation is the effect her power has on its epicenter--the source of the noise. Noise sources greater than another audio source are totally unaffected by the second source, and said source will be in turn aberrated by the stronger sound. In essence: the loudest noise in the room is the only one that isn't affected by sound materialization, and serves as the epicenter of all manifestations. Smaller waves will fold into the much larger wave, similar to how a million conversations are all at once deafening and meaningless.
Weaknesses/Drawbacks:Alarm clocks are literally the worst thing.
Jokes aside, the most notable problem with her power is that if Mio wants to listen to music, she absolutely has to wear headphones unless she intends to make a scene. Earbuds are not an option--the rippling of a cord is one thing, but earbuds tend to get stuck in her ears because of all the tiny parts expanding and contracting inside of her ear as they play music. Moreover, because her power will radiate unless she concentrates on it, moving through crowded streets and around construction and every other variety of extreme noise can be strenuous, and thus forces her to be wary of her surroundings and to avoid crowded areas--which, considering how much she loves to get noticed, is disappointing for Mio.
An extremely significant drawback, as referred to in the Limits section, is her total incapability to use firearms of any variety. Because of this, she has very little in the way of physical protection on the streets, and instead has to rely on protecting herself in other ways--usually through the use of her power and really good speaker/headphones.
A smaller problem, but a problem nonetheless, is that sound bounces as it travels. Because of this, Mio is forced to account for sound waves travelling back over towards her from all directions, and it requires her to be extremely wary of the architecture of the building she's in--if not, she's likely to get tripped up and have a whole lot of trouble getting back on her feet. Thankfully, much of this is remedied by her height--she has a low center of gravity, and is better at keeping balanced with two feet on the ground than most people.
To put it in short: Mio's main weakness is that she has so little control over her power that it can actually serve as a detriment to her, if she isn't careful.
Other:
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