<strong>Name:</strong>Melissa Ling<br/><strong>Nature:</strong>Follower<br/><strong>Aptitude:</strong>Telepathy<br/><strong>Allegiance:</strong>The Ministry<br/><br/><strong>Willpower:</strong>5<br/><strong>Psi:</strong>7<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Attributes</span></strong><br/>Physical (Tertiary):<br/>Strength: 1<br/>Dexterity: 2<br/>Stamina: 3<br/>Mental (Secondary)<br/>Perception: 3<br/>Intelligence: 2<br/>Wits: 3<br/>Social (Primary)<br/>Appearance: 3<br/>Manipulation: 2<br/>Charisma: 5 (Quality: Polite)<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Abilities</span></strong><br/>Strength<br/>Dexterity<br/>Athletics: 1<br/>Drive: 1<br/>Firearms: 1<br/>Martial Arts: 3<br/>Stamina<br/>Endurance: 1<br/>Resistance: 1<br/>Perception<br/>Awareness: 2<br/>Intelligence<br/>Academics: 1<br/>Bureaucracy: 2<br/>Wits<br/>Meditation: 2<br/>Rapport: 2<br/>Appearance<br/>Style: 2<br/>Manipulation<br/>Subterfuge: 1<br/>Charisma<br/>Etiquette: 3<br/>Perform: 1<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Modes</span></strong><br/>Basic Technique: Mindscan<br/><br/>Mindshare: 5<br/>The Babel Effect<br/>Mindspeak<br/>Pilfer<br/>Brainjack<br/>Network<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Backgrounds:</span></strong><br/>Contacts: 2 (She's gotten to know a few people on friendly terms through her work in the Ministry and with other Orders)<br/>Resources: 3 (Paid relatively well.)<br/>Status: 2 (She's generally used for her capacity as a translator/switchboard/'linguist'; the details of getting the right people together are typically handled by someone else.)<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Flaws</span></strong><br/>Poor Sight (1): Requires glasses.<br/>Combat Ineffective (2)<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Bonus Points:</span></strong>15/18<br/>+2 Mode (8)<br/>+1 Ability (2)<br/>+1 Psi (5)<br/>Flaws: +3<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Appearance</span></strong><br/>Melissa Ling's name gives more light to her ethnic heritage than her actual appearance. Her mother was an ambiguously caucasian mix of ethnicities, while her father was of both Korean and Chinese descent. The closest thing to an accurate description of how Melissa looks, at least in terms of complexion and facial structure, would be "oriental, probably-Chinese, with definitely a bit of something western in there."<br/><br/>She's just barely under five and a half feet tall, breaking that mark in any decent pair of shoes. If permitted to hang loose, her jet-black hair would reach to the bottoms of her shoulder blades and underside of her breasts; accordingly, it's almost never allowed to. A loose, poofy bun is Mel's preferred hairstyle (giving her something of a classic librarian look, when paired with her glasses), with braids or ponytails being featured rarely.<br/><br/>Her build is fit, though perhaps not athletic. Plenty of cardio and a reasonably healthy diet have kept her in good shape, but beyond that she more or less avoids exercise and strenuous physical exertion when she can do so without actively dodging responsibility.<br/><br/>Melissa spent a significant portion of her adult life to date dealing with foreign dignitaries, businessmen, psions, and other people who the Ministry deemed would benefit from the use of her powers. As such, she became rather habitually attentive to keeping her appearance prim. What few blemishes her skin spots are typically concealed by clothing or make up, and for outfits she prefers plain yet crisp garments that look almost like casual business suits. Her fingernails are often polished light pink, clear, or charcoal gray, though she's recently taken to experimenting with pearly white and a sky blue she claims matches her eyes (it doesn't; it's off by a few shades).<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Background</span></strong><br/>Melissa was the second of her family's three children, born and in mainland China. Growing up, she was exceptionally unexceptional. She was not particularly athletic, of average intelligence, not inclined to any sort of arts or science. That, if anything, made her unique within her family. Her father worked for the Chinese government, and her mother was a noetic scientist who'd moved to the country to be part of a fairly prestigious--at the time--research project.<br/><br/>Her older brother proved to be fantastically intelligent, an exemplary student with math and science; her younger sister, on the other hand, was an all-around prodigy, excelling at sports and academics, and socially popular. Melissa herself was... ordinary. She was average almost to the point of it being a fault. Her parents did not set their expectations unrealistically high for her, but growing up she always felt as if she was somehow insufficient.<br/><br/>By the time she was had finished her high school education, Melissa had, as far as she was concerned, no idea what she wanted to do with her life, no appreciable skills to speak of, and nothing to make her stand out to any of the handful of universities her parents had recommended.<br/><br/>It certainly came as a surprise when she was singled out as someone with latent psionic talent. She'd fantasized about it, certainly--how 'cool' it would be to have psionic abilities, how then she'd stand out even among her family, how she wouldn't have to deal with the constant, niggling anxiety of realizing that she was going nowhere and reality wasn't planning on waiting around for her to get her act together.<br/><br/>The still-young Ms. Ling leapt at the opportunity to reach for that idealized reality. Of course, it didn't quite turn out that way, but she emerged from a Ministry Prometheus Chamber with one thing she'd lacked for the past almost two decades: a sense of purpose.<br/><br/>Perhaps her background caused her myopic focus, a desire to be seen as extraordinary, to excel at least in something... or perhaps it was just how her powers naturally manifested. Mels telepathic abilities manifested exclusively in the form of direct mind-to-mind mental connections; mindshare, in common parlance.<br/><br/>As much as that left her lacking, it also meant she was a young, gifted, ultimately relatively inconsequential--compared to her seniors, at least--psion with abilities not commonly seen outside of people who generally had fairly important duties to tend to. The Ministry offered her a post as a translator and sometimes-diplomat, and she leapt at it. The work suited her abilities perfectly, nobody with far greater skill and viability had to work below their potential to take care of it, and she was ecstatic to feel like she was finally a faceless blank slate.<br/><br/>She was successful beyond expectations in her job, but ultimately there were better uses for a psion of her talents... and she was falling into the trap of a comfort zone. She finally had something she was good at, something where she wasn't constantly encountering people who were effortlessly better than her giving her all; why should she try to move upwards or outwards, and face that again?<br/><br/>The Ministry had other ideas, and after several years of that Melissa Ling found herself being shipped off into space to serve as, primarily, translator (both as needed amongst the crew, and in case the ship were to encounter any species with whom normal communication proved impossible), though her powers had by then evolved sufficiently to potentially offer more strategic options.<br/><br/><br/>((Notes: 3 BP unspent and items unselected, due to not being particularly certain on the guidelines for what can reasonably be brought along as starting equipment. Shall hopefully get that done right proper-like.))