Template:Featured Articles/51-2008
| Karma: Xi'an Coy Manh - who prefers to go by the name 'Shan' - was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, the eldest of fraternal twins. Her father was a former South Vietnamese soldier, wounded in the war, and her mother was a gentle, quiet woman upon whom the burden of supporting her family often fell. When Shan's brother Tranh and her uncle Nguyen's criminal activities brought the attention of the police - and then the government, looking into her father's background - the family eventually left Vietnam and moved to America. It was during the voyage over that Shan's powers manifested, enabling her to stop one of the sailors on board from assaulting her.
Shan adapted well to life in America, learning English and completing secondary education, before entering Columbia University, majoring in English Literature. She also came out as a lesbian, and participated in various human rights groups. Her younger brother and sister - also twins - were born in her second year at college. When she graduated, her whole family attended, only for tragedy to strike - Shan's parents were killed in a fire caused by her criminal uncle and brother, who were extorting money from the owner of the hotel the family was staying at. Tranh and Nguyen disappeared, with Shan cooperating with the FBI as much as she was able, and she was left to raise her young siblings, who were at that time only three years old. The next few years were hard ones, as she struggled through, working as a receptionist and eventually, with the support of her friends, going back to graduate school and getting her MA in Library and Information Studies. In August 2004, Shan became the librarian at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, moving there with Leong and Nga, her siblings. The little family quickly settled in, becoming part of the school's floating population. Shan spends most of her time working in the library, or looking after her siblings, both of whom have tested positive for the X factor. Shan's mutant power is psi-based: She can project a psionic energy surge enabling her that overwhelms people's minds, putting her in control. It's fairly strong; while it would not stand up to a developed telepath like Professor Xavier, or someone with really good shields, she can take down fairly powerful minds otherwise. Her power extends to being able to 'lift' information from her victims' minds, such that she can hear what they're thinking, and to make them tell her what she wants to know (however, they don't know that they're being possessed until after the fact, which makes that a bit easier to handle). Her power allows her to alter perception as well as memory, and eventually will enable her to generate a psionic deflector field that makes her immune to psychic attack. She has to consciously generate the field, however; it's not natural. She doesn't, at this point, know how. There is no physical manifestation of her powers. The range is limited, but the number of people she can take control of is less so -- she can get about ten people under her control with some effort, which isn't much use for crowds, but good enough that she won't have a problem with small groups. Shan's control is mostly self-learnt, but pretty tight because she's had about a decade and a half to control it; since her power does, for the most part, take conscious effort, it's a bit easier to control than some of the 'always on' powers. This character is currently unplayed, but is open for applications. If you are interested in applying for this character, you can contact the mods at x_moderators @ googlegroups . com and you can find the application form here. |
