APPEARANCE Khan has mastered the art of the composed smirk, the conspiratorial half-smile, and the noncommittal bedroom eyes. As a movie star and pop-culture personality, it comes with the job description. The wild and vicious emotions that slog back and forth through his head, privately, like jellified thunderstorms, are held in check by The Look that Khan wears by default. His eyes are black, almond-shaped, heavily lidded, and lined by a generous amount of eyeliner, and his lips are dark, defined, and full of color. His long face—usually wavy and soft, occasionally rigid and sharp—is a blend of Vietnamese and European features, which helped considerably when he first entered acting in the white-obsessed world of Southeast Asian celebrity.
Though he is not altogether far from forty, his smile and his eyes have retained a certain ageless boyishness, though whether this is natural or the work of Hollywood surgeons is anyone’s guess. Sometimes, Khan will fail to wash off his eyeliner before crashing after a bad bender, and the next morning head out into the world with smudged, day-old darkness around his gaze. His skin is tawnyish, while his hair is bleached blond, usually worn in some form of undercut. Two bright diamonds sparkle on either earlobe.
Build-wise, Khan is roughly average, standing at 5’8” with a somewhat toned, somewhat sleek, artfully everymannish body, bought for him by celebrity bodybuilding consultants, courtesy of his agent. Nowadays, however, there is a bit of softness to his build, a bit of underfed leanness, though in the past he had private nutritionists to advise him on his dietary needs, and exercise advisers to advise him on exercise. Of course, Khan was never the best at sticking to schedules, and exercise and healthy living pair badly with raucous partying, and after driving off three separate teams of nutritionists with his winning personality, Khan’s agent gave up, and decided to let him run wild.
Khan enjoys the best of clothes, colorful, fashionable things preferably in shades of greenish blue and bluish green, shiny dress shirts and sleek velvety blazers—for most things in his life, he simply throws his money in the direction of his agent and scoops up whatever she deigns to throw back, but in the case of his clothes, everything is personally selected and purchased with great care and deliberation.
PERSONALITY TRAITS ■ Callous
■ Emotional
■ Short-sighted
■ Vain
■ Self-destructive
■ Fatalistic
■ Lonely
■ Childish
■ Spiritual
■ Absolutely furious
■ In control(?)
BACKSTORY & MOTIVATION Khan grew up in an apartment on the suburbish edges of Hanoi. Across the hall lived Vang Dùc Jong. She and Khan had been neighbors since elementary school, but their lives seemed to run parallel to each other, passing each other like ghosts what must have been every day, but never really intersecting, not until the tenth grade when, out of the blue, the two suddenly found themselves best friends.
Jong was of Hmong descent, and her mother, greatly attached to their family’s history, raised her daughter on a rich diet of religion and language, supplemented by regular love, support, and encouragement. Khan, on the other hand, came from a wealthy, sanitized background, with a British chainsmoking mother and a father who wanted very little to do with their family’s or their country’s past. The marriage started falling apart roughly before the first grade, and it wasn’t a violent kind of collapse, but more like a ship slowly sinking, with one end hoisted up out of the water, its weight throwing up great fat whirlpools and sucking down any swimmers unlucky enough to find themselves nearby. Khan, as a child, was largely ignored, while his parents buffeted each other back and forth and, occasionally, used him as a prop in their arguments. He raised himself alone, which he preferred, because when he wasn’t alone he was being raised to hate himself and his home and everything around him. All things considered, Khan could’ve turned out a lot worse.
His isolated upbringing might have contributed to how much he depended on Jong. As a friend, he was funny, and supportive, and honest, but he was also needy the way black holes and dying plants are needy, and he was never the kind of person to think before he spoke. Good looks and good jokes can make it easy to keep people around you, even when they should know better.
Khan was interested in acting, while Jong wanted to follow through on her lifelong ambitions in photography. She would move to China, she said, or California, where there were larger Hmong communities and more in-depth resources at the national libraries. Learning as much as she could about her history and culture and being able to share it was her mother's dream, and now hers. Photography, she often explained to Khan, was her paintbrush, her medium, her power. He listened, sometimes, and was polite enough to not act interested when he wasn’t, and impolite enough to tell her he wasn’t interested, Christ, do you ever talk about anything else?
But while photography didn’t hold much interest for Khan, he had a kind of tentative fascination with religion, thoughts on which Jong had in no small supply. She sometimes talked to him about Hmong mythology, and Khan listened like a fearful Protestant fresh off the Mayflower, listening to foreign thunderstorms shake the foreign trees and foreign soil surrounding him on all sides. The story of mankind’s creation in particular captured Khan's imagination, though not always in a pleasant way.
According to some Hmong clans, Nplooj Lwg, a great frog deity, was responsible for creating humanity, and upon whom humanity eventually turned, and killed. With his dying breathe, the great frog cursed all of mankind, splitting them off from the world of the divine and the spiritual. They would know sickness, and death, and the leaves would turn brown on trees. And then he died.
The invisible world of gods and faith and heavenly powers fascinated Khan, then and now, and as a child he would glimpse them occasionally on TV, in fun action movies, and in recordings of Nomad heroes mid-fight. They were a sign of something, and Khan didn’t know what that something was, but it was something different and greater than whatever life he had lived, and seemed certain to continue living. Acting, then, was a convenient way of getting close to that otherworld without putting himself in any real danger. He was interested in several big-name universities, while Jong looked more into smaller, liberal arts schools. However, after copious begging, and after throwing away one of Jong’s other acceptance letters before she could get home and check the mail, Khan eventually convinced her to come to the same school as him.
At school, Khan fell in with new friends, though most weren’t so much friends as they were drinking acquaintances, at best. He and Jong got into arguments. But they stayed friends, still, no dumb argument would change that.
Then, halfway through their first year, Khan struck gold. He had sent out acting applications to a dozen studios, and, to his surprise, was offered a role in a new comedy being filmed in Korea. After some hesitation (he tells himself, often mentally emphasizing the moral quandary of that moment), Khan accepted the offer. Jong was left to complete her degree alone.
In the years later, Khan would think about how many missed years he and Jong could’ve had together, all those times they must’ve silently passed in the apartment halls as children, the different life that might’ve grown if they’d just met earlier, if they’d met differently. He believes strongly in savoring the moment, and not wasting one’s time, though at the same time has a bad habit of never savoring the moment, driving off friends, and generally wasting his time.
But the move to Korea treated him well. Khan became a much beloved character on Wheelflowers, a silly television show about a the slice-of-life antics of a struggling boy band, and after two years on the show, h made his first incursion into Hollywood. Once again, Khan struck pure gold, this time in an Oscar-bait drama where he played a heroin-pusher who facilitates the downfall of his closest friend, and ultimately takes his own life. More roles opened up. Two more hits. A fuckton of money. One day, in some shadowy attic of his mind, he thought, California, didn’t I know someone who wanted to move to California? Shortly after his second big hit (an action movie), Day tried to look up Jong. He didn’t try very hard. But it was enough to provide some fake relief for his conscience, and to suddenly give some new life to old memories and fantasies about his childhood, his teens, and the life he lived and could’ve lived growing up. It is possibly just coincidence that, afterwards, his career choices took an enormous dip in quality.
There were no more successes in Hollywood for Khan, not after his early twenties. At least, not critical ones.
He was in one or two flops, guest starred on a handful of television shows, but mostly he retreated to his Los Angeles home, and he fell into a whirlpool. Parties, mostly, and sometimes those parties even involved people other than him. He felt unhappy, and more than that, realized that he had been feeling unhappy for a very long time. In the blur of jumping into his pool every other weekend from the house roof, out of his mind on cocaine, and masturbating to the infamous shower scene from season two of Wheelflowers, and thinking, always thinking, about the time he spent in high school with Jong, Khan came to a realization. Acting wasn’t enough. He had to go out there, off-stage, off-script. He had to tear shit up.
What if you became a nomad?
Khan tried working out, hiring several famous martial artists to train him. This, of course, was an unmitigated disaster, and either by having sex with, disrespecting, ignoring, or generally badmouthing just about everyone who crossed his path, sometimes all at once, as well as a complete lack of discipline, his training never went very far. Good old fashioned hard work would not do, apparently.
Instead, Khan put his considerable wealth into drugs, rituals, and invasive medical procedures, imbibing whatever piece of science and magic he could get his hands on. He quietly receded from Hollywood, building up a purchased nomad's body born from fine taste, excess wealth, and lack of restraint. Mystics would trap him in magical vortexes, drugs would be injected one after the other into his spine, surgeons would plant mysterious organs into his chest—it was a hectic, badly thought out, and altogether painful affair, to say the least. Khan was very drunk for most of it. But he kept going. Some part of him must’ve savored the pain, the feeling of knowing exactly what he needed, and getting it, and for once having what he needed and got be neither drugs or alcohol.
It was around then, sometime after his fifth augmentation, that he began having dreams.
The corpse of Nploog Lwg loomed over him, and Khan was deafened by the frog’s dying curse, which rang in his head like a bell, splitting his body in two.
Odin hung from the Tree of Creation, pinned to the living wood by a spear, crying out into a starry sky, and Khan cried with him, screaming for help, screaming.
He held up his hands and shouted for mercy as Ma’at lowered her scepter upon him, flatting the infinite chaos of the universe and imposing order upon all of creation, binding Khan’s body to the belly of the earth.
He watched Yeshua pray on the hilltop, hours from his execution, steeling his doubts and fears as Judas led a crowd over the distant hills, his intent as clear as day, and Khan wept, and could not stop weeping, until every drop of water in his body had leaked out from his eyes.
He saw thunderstorms, and stormcrows.
Eventually, Khan decided these nightmares were a sign of divine providence, that his new path had been approved by the powers that be. This is intermittently a source of wild confidence and frightening unease. When he felt he had enough augmentations, that is to say, he was told any more would kill him, Khan took to the roads. This was his moment. This was when he would make change, real change.
However, after a few months of attempted nomading, as with most other things in his life, Khan quietly gave up. With very little fanfare, he returned to his life as a celebrity, and rumors went wild over his recent, mysterious absence. With a kind of blank, uncomfortable resignation, Khan was cast by a Korean film studio for a supporting role in a well-received, mild box-office success, and he has, once again, drowned his thoughts in reckless indulgences and the glitz of the advertising tour. His most recent stop—Japan.
SPECIAL MOVES & TECHNIQUES ■ The AbnormalitiesA series of passive effects granted by the various drugs, enchantments, and surgical augmentations Khan has imbibed.
■ [Passive Effect] Cirrhosis Halo Khan’s most dangerous abnormality; a series of artificial demi-livers spread throughout his body that provide him with an unusual set of enzymes, enchantments, and immune responses. While a normal liver filters toxins, the Cirrhosis Halo protects Khan from alien ki. Though this has an unfortunate effect of preventing ki-based healing, Khan has significant resistance to attacks made of pure ki energy. He can also give his attacks a debuff effect, temporarily lowering defenses and ki reserves by directly injuring an opponent’s life energy.
■ [Passive Effect] Sybil’s Convulsions A serum injected into Khan’s spine that gives his body a sort of sixth sense, allowing it to detect incoming attacks. Damage received from attacks is slightly lessened as his body subconsciously repositions itself to avoid critical hits and react to surprise attacks.
■ [Passive Effect] Purifying Lymphoma Several glands grafted onto all three hearts that produce a powerful regenerative enzyme. Normally, this would be an extremely potent regeneration enabler, but his body has long since built up a tolerance to the enzyme since he first received the implants.
As of now, the effect has stabilized as a decent defensive measure, the regenerative enzymes extending his natural health bar and allowing him to survive nomad-level damage without instantly dying. The enzymes will also slowly recover health if a battle goes on long enough, and, if he applies his blood to another person’s body, can act as a powerful healing agent.
■ [Passive Effect] Metastatic Justice A hex running through Khan’s blood that allows him to inflict burning pain and damage to anyone or anything that has his spilled blood on them. With a simple hand sign, the blood ignites with dark energy. Requires the target be within line-of-sight.
■ [Passive Effect] Hemophiliac’s Sacrament An enchantment on Khan’s bones that allows him to drastically increase blood production when injured. Increases Khan’s overall health, and allows him to fight easier while bloodied.
■ [Passive Effect] Arrhythmic Veneration Two additional hearts implanted slightly below the first. Khan’s extra hearts can override his body’s limits, providing him with nomad-level strength in fights.
■ [Passive Effect] Devout Sclerosis A combination of steel plating and cushioning film around the major components of his nervous system, to protect against head and spine injuries.
■ Myopathic Covenant Khan takes a moment to concentrate his two extra hearts, then unleashes an enormous display of strength. This ability requires a few seconds to charge up, and can be somewhat impractical mid-fight—Khan primarily uses it to close distances if an enemy is trying to make space, or to turn a simple grapple into a crushing vice-grip. Alternatively, momentary exertions of super strength can make for some pretty fun photo-ops, which Khan has used on recent publicity tours.
■ Apocryphal Aneurysm Khan concentrates the power of his Cirrhosis Halo into his hands, then makes two sharp, successive punches. The first sears a temporary weakness into an enemy’s ki-armor and drastically lower defenses. It probably doesn’t feel that great either. The second is a simple, straightforward punch, but it’s targeted straight at the spot where the ki’s been burned, to inflict maximum damage before the enemy can recover.
This attack can be a useful lead in for a combo, or one of Khan's grapples.
■ Arthritic Scripture Surgery along Khan’s arms allows him to unhinge his joints, giving him unusual reach and flexibility. During an Arthritic Scripture, Khan throws out a rapid fire punch with all his strength, temporarily unhinges the joints along his arm for extra reach and throwing power. Excluding a powered up Covenant attack, this is Khan’s strongest and fastest move, his only serious attack option for skilled foes, and is one of the only moves he has that is above average in speed and power.
This move can only be performed on the ground, where Khan can root himself.
■ Apostle’s Hypoxia A grapple attack where Khan latches on, usually with an arm around the neck, and clings to an opponent for as long as he can. He exerts his Cirrhosis Halo into a constant, fiery burn, hoping to lower the enemy’s ki reserves and ki defenses as much as possible before they break free.
■ Cystic Stigmata Khan uses the hex of his Metastatic Justice to carefully shock his internal systems. This technique will increase his bleeding and weaken his regenerative defenses temporarily, but will also throw off any sort of mental interference, purge himself of toxins, and give him a jolt of stamina. The ability can't be used multiple times in a row. After bad benders, Khan will occasionally use this when he’s too lazy and/or hungover to reach a room temperature water bottle or turn on the coffee machine. This is unwise and generally causes more pain than it eases.
SUPER MOVES ■ Blessed Trepanation Khan sends his Sybil’s Convulsion into overdrive, gaining extreme hyperawareness. The world seems to move in slow motion, and his sense of coordination and flexibility are massively increased. However, after wearing off, Khan loses his Sybil’s Convulsion for several hours, and his body loses the ability to process his super strength, bringing him down to an normal human's strength level.
■ Heretical Surgery Khan uses his Metastatic Justice to carefully burn away the skin over his hands, then fights with his bloody muscles fully exposed. At the same time, he focuses with all his might the brunt of the Cirrhosis Halo's powers into his knuckles. The technique is massively painful and requires careful concentration, but while directly exposed, with no skin to muffle it, the effects of his Halo becomes supercharged, and the debuff damage it inflicts is greatly increased.
■ Ineffable Autopsy Khan drives his Cirrhosis Halo into overdrive, putting up an enormous defense against not just pure ki attacks, but also any form of ki-imbued effect. While the temporary defense of the Autopsy is enormous, it also suppresses Khan’s own, meager life energy, and both during and after the Autopsy, Khan is notably slower, if not outright sluggish.
WEAKNESSES & LIMITS Khan’s ability to injure ki is quite dangerous, and his augmented body boasts strong defensive capabilities (though without true ki protection he does get quite bloody easily). However, he is at his best against melee fighters, and is very weak to strong ranged attacks, as he has low speed and low mobility. His abilities also work best when dragging out a fight, so fighters who can apply constant aggressive pressure from the start can usually overpower him.
He is also slightly below average for a nomad in terms of raw power, and not to mention his lack of skill and training can put him at a disadvantage against highly trained fighters.
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