 |
|
|---|---|
| Portrayed By | Zhou Xun |
| Sex | Female |
| Status | Unregistered Evolved |
| Ability | Lie Detection |
| Age | 24 |
| Occupation | Triad Member/Smuggler/The Red Lotus Assistant |
| Family | Fen Chu-Ha |
| Significant Other(s) | N/A |
| First Appearance | |
A very intense Chinese girl living on Staten Island, she is not very friendly and can be very off-putting, particularly with that scar on her face.
_
Character History:
Yin was born in a high penthouse above the glimmering lights of Shanghai. Her mother didn’t go to the hospital, because her father didn’t think it necissary - he was a “Deputy Mountain Master” in the Triad, and had money from his work. He brought in the whole kit and kaboodle to have Yin born right there at home. Of course, this could have just been a ploy to keep Yin’s mother, Fen, from leaving the house. Fen’s story is a long and arduous one, and a difficult one at that. Her marriage left her almost under house arrest and miserable all the time, but that story isn’t relevent here, suffice to say that when Yin was 8 and her brother 13, Fen dissapeared, without so much as a word or a letter. Her children would hate her for that for several years.
Instead, Yin was raised by her nurse. Raised is a rather loose-term, however, as her older brother and her older cousins (male) dominated the house and dominated the nurse, much to the father’s delight. He liked to see strong boys, and bossing around women was one way of showing that strength. Yin was raised in this household, as a second-class member. It’s not surprising she became a tomboy, trying to keep up with the boys and prove she was just as good as them. She’d get into fights with them, or for them, or whenever she could. Just to prove her toughness. It is important to note that she was not abused - her male relatives were just rough on her. If she’d win one of these fights, the whole lot of boys would fall upon her and beat her bloody to retaliate. Yin coped by going out into the night and catching birds or mice or rats and strangling them, cutting off their heads or ears or tails and watching them bleed. At least there’s someone that she’s more powerful than.
When Yin turned 15 when her life changed forever - for the first time, at least. She only came home sporattically. But at 15, one day, she just stopped coming home completely, going instead to pawn shops and selling some of the items she’d stolen from home. She lived good, even on the streets, for a few months. But she wasn’t used to handling her money, and she soon ran out. Desperate and alone, she lived on the streets. She avoided selling herself, and was tough in a brawl, so she was never raped or misused. She begged, stole, and dove in dumpsters to survive. Living like this for a few months was enough to make her skinny and weak, so when a man approached her, offering transportation to the new world in exchange for working off her debt, she agreed.
Little did young Yin know that this was a human trafficking scam, and as soon as she hit the docks she was hearded into a canister and shipped illegally to America. There was little food in the container, no real bathrooms or anywhere to sit. When the guards finally opened the container in New York, she leapt, angrily at the guard. He slashed her across the face, ruining her for prostititution. It turned out to be to her advantage, as she was instead sent to be sold for whatever little price could be found for her. After all, pimping out a scarred girl is rather useless. Yin remembers this moment very well too, looking up and seeing her mother standing right in front of her.
“I’ll take this one,” her mother said in Chinese, pointing at Yin. “The ruined one.”
Instead of hugs and tears, Yin was scolded when her mother brought her to the brothel she owned and worked for the local Triad, The Flying Dragons. She was scolded for being weak, for letting men rule her life and ruin her face. That’s how Yin began her new life, under Fen’s training. She was taught to fire weapons, guns, to defend herself from men and those who would take what was hers. She was taught management and finances and maths to manage what little corner of the world she may one day scrape out for herself. There was one thing that Fen never had to teach her daughter, however, and that was lying.
From around the age of 16 or so, Fen decided it was time for Yin to revisit the carnal nature of life. She walked into the room just in time to hear a man assure Fen “I won’t hurt her.” But she felt a tingle, a shiver along her spine. She begged her mother to pick any other man, because she knew he was lying, but her mother insisted.
He was lying, and he smacked Yin around a few times before she yelled, and the man…well he was no longer an issue.
Yin’s ability to detect liars only grew with time, and she helped her mother spot two abusive men and an undercover cop among the clientelle, as well as a few girls who were lying about taking drugs or talking to outsiders. Fen, as someone with the ability to see into the future, knew her daughter had something special. With this lie detection, it also became apparent that Yin could do the opposite - she could spin and weave lies that people believed. Her body language, her voice, all of it was perfect to telling the truth, making only the most skeptical of people doubtful. She could make men fall in love with her by telling them how much she loved them. The only problem? Yin wasn’t very keen on becomming a whore, she much more enjoyed tricking people and hurting them. Despite this, her usefullness continued to grow, and when Yin was 20 she was initatied as a member of the Flying Dragons.
Fen kept her daughter on, teaching her the ropes of the business, schooling her privately on English, Russian, math and other needed skills for the business. Yin never went to school after she left China, so her geography might be a bit rough, but she does know the brothel business, backwards and forwards. When the Linderman Act was passed, Fen ordered her daughter not to register, and Yin didn’t want to, anyway. The bomb going off severely hurt Fen’s business, as reputable clientele for reputable whores dropped dramatically. So instead, she’s trying her hand at a new twist at the business, moving into Staten Island under the protection of the Flying Dragons to open up a new place. Yin will be one of her assistants there.
Evolved Human Ability:
Yin’s ability is lie-detection, and it’s one she’s had it since she was about 16. As such, her control over this is more-or-less mastered. She’s very aware of the tingle that makes her aware that someone is lying to her. However, her power reacts more than just words - she can read the body language, tone, and even sense the raised pulse and sweat of a liar (of course, this is all subcontious, this is just how her body knows to register a tingle). People lying in different languages are fair game - although she couldn’t tell you what they were lying about. On television, she can still usually get a ‘tingle’ but it may be more difficult to register where a person was lying - she’ll just know that generally they are lying, while in person, the tingle usually allows her to pinpoint what word the lie was spoken on. On the phone, it’s really hit or miss. If a person is a bad liar and can’t control the pitches of their voice, then yes. She can sense a lie. However if a person just manages to keep their voice levels controlled, her ability won’t go off. She can always tell which person is lying.
Timeline:
Trivia and Notes:
- Yin is xenophobic, both of being an Evolved and Chinese.
- Yin hates liars with a passion, in fact she hates most people with a passion.