Li-hua "Lilliya" Witman

"'I'm always a professional.' ~ Li-hua 'Liliya' Witman"

• Brief Timeline of Events •
February 1989 - Li-hua is born in Tianjin, China. September 1993 - First day at school. May 1995 - Li-hua begins her martial arts training. September 2001 - Li-hua changes schools, and starts attendance at Tianjin 25th middle school. October 2001 - First contact with Wylla Humphrey. March 2005 - Li-hua discovers her mother's corpse after she was brutally murdered. January 2006 - Li-hua receives her letter of acceptance to Stanford University. September 2007 - First term at Stanford University. June 2011 - Li-hua graduates near the top of her class in mathematics and physics. July 2011 - Li-hua is hired by a firm on Wall Street as a share trader. May 2012 - Assassination attempt on Li-hua. She narrowly escapes. May 2012 - Discovers that her father is a member of the Dragon, after he recruits her into their ranks. June 2012 - Li-hua arrives in London, as per instruction by the Dragon, though she is not told a lot more. June 2012 - First encounter with evil. Li-hua ends up hospitalised after being saved by Thomas Dillinger June 2012 - First manifestations of her Anima manipulation powers. June 2012 - Wylla visits Li-hua in hospital, meeting face to face for the first time. Wylla arranges for Li-hua to be transferred to Bart's, apparently a better hospital. July 2012 - Applies and gets a job at the cover company for the Scarlet and Cross Institute, oblivious to the company's true roots.

• Biography •
Li-hua Witman is a normal girl, who tried to live a normal life, though circumstances thrust her into the secret world, against her own will at first. It was a delusion of her's, believing that she could've led a normal life, not realising that her father was a Dragon anyway, and after seeing her performance in her first trading year on Wall Street, there were certain individuals that wanted her co-operation or her demise.

• Early Life / Childhood •
Li-hua was born in Tianjin, China to a Chinese man and an American woman. Her childhood was fairly average, though she tended towards the top of her class during her school years. At the age of six, her father encouraged her to take up martial arts outside of her studies. In his words, training the body was just as important as training the mind. Outside of her studies she practised Wushu, typical Chinese martial arts, finding an enjoyment in its practice, thus she, over time, became quite adept at the art, practising it in her free time quite often.

• Teenage Years •
As a teenager, Li-hua had it rough. Up until the age of sixteen, everything was as it should be for a teenager. She went to school, socialised with friends, spent evenings in with her family, all activities that were perfectly normal. However, when she was sixteen, her mother was killed under mysterious circumstances.

Though, not everything was doom and gloom in her teenage years. An initiative at her school was pairing students up with English speaking pen-friends around the globe, in order to improve their English. Through this, Li-hua came into contact with Wylla Humphrey, an English girl of the same age as Li-hua. The two quickly became close friends confiding in each other, sharing secrets, feelings, almost everything. Li-hua began to trust Wylla more than most of her school friends, finding a lot of common ground with her. At this point, Li-hua had no idea that the secret societies like the Templars even existed, let alone that her friend was training to be one!

• Late Teens, University and the Beginnings of Share Trading •
Over the days leading up to her mother's funeral, Li-hua was constantly distracted at school, the experience of discovering her mother's mangled body weighed heavily on her. The first person that she told about it was Wylla, as expected. It pained her, and she needed to confide in someone, speak what was on her mind. She shared everything that was on her mind, her feelings, her pain, everything. She needed a shoulder to cry on, and with her school friends unavailable or on holiday, and her father working seemingly all the time, she turned to her pen-friend. At her mother's funeral, she thought back to that event. In retrospect, she felt there were many things amiss about the situation. The following day, she looked back in detail at the day. The obituary didn't match the description in the slightest. Her research led her to the occult, she hacked her way to knowledge, exploiting security leaks in the police database, as well as that of various well known detectives. Firstly, the obituary stated that she died to an explosion, but there was no evidence of an explosion in the room when she was there, but that could've easily been an oversight due to emotions running wild. However, she found her mother very shortly after she had been killed, as the smell had not yet reached past her parent's bedroom itself. Though she knew this, there was nothing she could do about it, and in all honesty, she was surprised that she even got as far as she did. Whilst her investigation only seemed to turn up dead ends, the knowledge that the cause of death was something weird and unexplainable spurred on her own research over the next few years, discovering many odd things about the world that are kept quiet from public knowledge. She also took on her mother's jobs in maintaining the house, doing jobs like cooking and cleaning, general housekeeping tasks that her mother had done, when she was still alive.

Despite these details, she went on to excel in her studies, gaining a place at the prestigious Stanford University in the United States, where she studied mathematics and physics. She maintained a high GPA throughout the duration of her course, perhaps using her studies as a way to escape from the real world and the anguish it tended to bring. She graduated by the age of twenty two and, after graduating, went on to get a job trading shares for a small company based in New York, spending her days working on Wall Street. She became fairly well known within her first year of trading, earning herself a fairly healthy sum of money in the first year and making it look easy, having an acute sense of how different stocks and shares would behave based on current affairs, claiming it to just be down to a good understanding of human nature, and appropriate judgements according to how humans would react to various pieces of news. Near the end of her first year, there was an attempt on her life.

• Induction into the Dragon •
The letter contained details of a meeting place, time and conditions and was her first step to being initiated into the Dragon society. She was not really sure what to do with it, as it was all very mysterious, and very sudden. She wasn't even sure if she could really trust them. Were they involved in the attempt on her life? Were they involved in her mother's death? It all seemed a little too convienient. After a few days of thought, she took them up on their offer, if only to learn more about the mystery, and coincidence that seemed apparent, though it was with some reluctance, as she did not want to leaver her cushioned, pleasant life behind. Shortly after being accepted into their ranks, she was anonymously given an air ticket to London.

• London-bound •
At first, Li-hua wasn't sure whether she had made the right decision. It wasn't in her best interests to accept a job that she was being told basically nothing about. In the end, she gritted her teeth and made the necessary preparations, she was a professional businesswoman after all. She found a place to live in London, opting for one of the cheapest apartments that she could find, in a rougher area of London so her various activities would go more unnoticed in the mess that comes with rougher areas. She packed her bags with what she felt that she would need in England and set off.

During her first week and a half, Li-hua had a very quiet time in England, not really doing much except sit in her house wondering what she was supposed to be doing, and caught a nasty cold, not being used to a country that can be so cold during the Summer. She worked for herself, trading shares on the London Stock Exchange using a mobile phone client to fund herself, still not sure what she was meant to be doing in this country. She spent some time in a bar in London, to relax, where she met, but did not get the name of a man named Thomas Dillinger, when he tried to steal her purse, then managed to steal her keys, apparently in an attempt to get to know her better. This annoyed her extensively. While she did not get his name the first time, when she encountered him for the second time, she tried, though he did not answer, leaving Li-hua in the dark once again, despite her persistence. This caused annoyance once again, as well as a feeling of curious suspicion about the man. Who was he and why was he so unwilling to give a name? Perhaps he had amnesia, though Li-hua suspected otherwise, hence the suspicion.

 Shortly afterwards, Li-hua decided to just stop thinking about her new job, taking the time to look for various things to do around London. She joined a gym, a bi-weekly advanced Wushu class, as well as finding a local D&D group to join. If her job will come up when it's meant to come up, that doesn't mean that she should forsake her social life and activities.

• Exercise Spree and the Strange Stalker •
Shortly after purchasing a gym membership and joining the bi-weekly Wushu class, Li-hua found herself doing some form of exercise on every day apart from Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings were designated gym days, planning her work-outs into four different muscle groups, assigning them each to a specific day. On Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, Li-hua went to the advanced Wushu class.

During her time in the gym, and at the Wushu classes, Li-hua was determined to get to know some of the others better, introducing herself to the others in her Wushu class, and meeting a french woman by the name of Hélène Moreau, though she was intimidated slightly by the rather zealous Christian, the two got along surprisingly well, even if Hélène did try to convert Li-hua to Christianity more than a couple of times through the first week. The two got along well though, exchanged numbers and met for coffee once or twice, oblivious to the fact that the other was a member of a rival society. She went out with the people from her Wushu class for a night of socialising in Camden, which she thoroughly enjoyed and, to an extent, needed. The night was slightly ruined though, as she was attacked by street thugs on the way home from the bars, though they proved little more than an annoyance to her.

Over the course of this week, Li-hua found that she was being followed, wherever she went. When she went to the London Stock Exchange, she often had to take back alley detours to lose a pursuer, when she took the time to relax in the park, she had to lose a follower on the way back home. What she decided to do, was take a day in the countryside, to catch her pursuer and confirm her suspicions, confident that she could handle anything that her pursuer could do. That did not end well for her, not in the slightest, and it wasn't due to her pursuer, it was due to something far more sinister.

• Hospitalised •
During Li-hua's day of relaxation in the countryside, she didn't expect that she'd have her first encounter with a creature of darkness. Needless to say, when she saw it, it definitely took her by surprise. She tried to escape, which didn't work, then she tried to fight it, though her attacks didn't seem to have any effect. Every kick, every blow just seemed to do absolutely nothing. Li-hua started as the one with the upper hand, her years of martial arts training allowed her to avoid or block the attacks of the creature for a while, until she started tiring. Once she started getting tired, her movements slowed, and her opponent gained the upper hand. Li-hua fought on, but her efforts were in vain and she eventually passed out, succumbing to her injuries as she literally couldn't stand up any longer.

Li-hua wasn't expecting to wake up in a hospital. Well, she wasn't expecting to wake up at all after her encounter. She knows that the creature wouldn't have spared her life, it was playing for keeps, meaning that there was some sort of outside interference. But how, who and in what form? It, along with the fear of what had become of her bag and its contents, preyed on her mind. She was driven insane with worry and confusion, not aided by her almost complete inability to move, leaving her motionless and bored stiff, alongside worried. Her state of mind was not good, and she was close to being driven insane, until she got an unexpected visit from an acquaintance from London. Thomas Dillinger came to her, holding her bag. The two spoke for a while, Li-hua learning of what had happened after she passed out, though she wasn't too happy to hear that she basically owed this strange man a large favour. She was even less thrilled to hear that he had taken that favour without her knowing, using her investments to pay off his various gambling and drinking debts. This made Li-hua furious, as the man had obviously been taken advantage of. He had given away a total of around $750000 in investments to pay off debts, without even attempting to negotiate or discern what he was doing. Whilst grateful that he effectively saved her life, she was incredibly angry that he did not allow her to handle the repayment as she would've been far more tact and cunning about it than he was, leading to a much lower expenditure. Though devastating, it wasn't total, she had savings and could therefore rebuild what she had lost, though it would take months and months to do. As soon as he left, she cancelled all of her cards and changed her phone and account passwords for her applications, to ensure that he could do no further damage.

• First Anima Manifestations •
During her time in hospital, Li-hua's Anima potential began to manifest. She was lying in her bed, writing a journal entry, as she does everyday, but she noticed that her radio was floating. As soon as she saw it, she screamed in shock and the radio crashed back down onto the bedside table. The doctors and nurses thought that Li-hua was going mad, screaming at what seems to be nothing, as she obviously didn't tell them that the items around her room were floating uncontrollably. She spent many of her days in hospital practising and refining her new-found telekinesis through simple pen manipulations, eventually gaining enough experience to write a journal entry without using her hands. This did seem to drain her, however, as whilst she was practising, she tended to sleep more than normal. She continued to practice this in secret until she was released from hospital, after making a fast, and almost miraculous recovery. This roused Li-hua's suspicions as to what actually happened in hospital that made her recover so quickly, though she shrugged it off, not really in a position to complain, given the circumstances.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Her telekinesis hit a proverbial wall soon after she left hospital. No matter how hard she tried, she could not lift more than about twenty kilograms. She focused more on honing her skills in what she was able to do, until she could handle twenty kilograms with seemingly an ease. However, even when she tried to lift more afterwards, she just found it impossible. She had hit her physical limit, and it wasn't too impressive.

• Approached by the Illuminati •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Towards the end of her time at the hospital, Li-hua was approached by a German woman in a long, leather trenchcoat with blonde hair and blue eyes.

• Release and Employment •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">The first thing that Li-hua did when she got out of hospital, was rush back to her apartment, to eat a proper meal, and take a long, long shower. She decided to walk back to her apartment, as the weather upon her release from hospital was nice. The sun was out, and the temperature was a warm twenty one degrees Celsius. When she got back to her apartment block, she collected her mail, which was substantial and walked up to her apartment. It came to no big surprise to her that there were signs of entry. She proceeded to enter her apartment and track down an extra fifteen cameras and twelve microphones, whoever wants to spy on her was fast becoming Li-hua's number one provider for free surveillance equipment. After she checked the apartment over three times in a row, without finding any more devices, she turned on her rice cooker, and took a very, very long shower. That evening she just stayed in her apartment and ate her first home-cooked meal in what seemed like an eternity. Hospital food was not great, after all. She went out later on that afternoon to regain access to her accounts. Everything else was safe, much to her relief, and she got new cards for her various accounts that she had at various different banks.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The next day, she began by checking the stock markets and the international headlines of the past fortnight, studying them in great detail and releasing a large portion of her savings to make investments to make up for the financial disaster that Thomas Dillinger had left her with. She released around $500000, just about half of her savings fund to recoup her losses. This took her almost an entire day, but it meant that she was fairly securely set up once again, and she could slowly start to rebuild. Sse spent the evening of that day completely severing the connections that the cameras and microphones that she recently acquired, ensuring that they were safe for her personal use, adding them to her collection. Free surveillance equipment is free surveillance equipment after all.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Then it dawned on her that she wasn't really working a time consuming job, apart from that first day since leaving hospital, she rarely spent more than two to three hours actually doing anything work related. At that, she spent the next day, poking around for different jobs, stumbling across one in particular. A large, well established firm was looking for a new personal assistant. The details of the jobs said that it was mangerial and required experience in the financial sector, experience that Li-hua has in abundance. She applied for the job, sending in quite a well-packed resumé. She thought that she'd be up against lots of other applicants, and she was. She was called for an interview for the job, in which she flourished, her experience in her fields, both of work and of study, came shining through and she was given the job soon afterwards.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">She dressed up smartly and was to be flown up to a castle where the company was situated. A castle! Li-hua was quite thrilled at the prospects of working in a castle. She sorted out accommodation near the castle, renting a small cottage nearby, packed her bags and took the train up to the other side of the island. Li-hua thought that London was cold, this place was something else and she instantly started shivering. It was Summer, and she felt cold, again! She made her way to the quaint little cottage that she had rented and unpacked her things. She travelled fairly light, though she did pack a significant amount of clothes, mostly suits of varying uses, some for work, and some were for a more smart-casual look, as well as formal ball gowns. She brought minimal cutlery with her, only the bare essentials that would be needed (which, to her, included her rice cooker!).

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The next day, Li-hua went for her first day at work and the first thing that she noticed (apart from the fact that she was going to be working in a castle), was how high the security was. When she arrived she had a metal detector passed over her and her bag before she was escorted by two armed security guards to her new office. There were people of all shapes, sizes and nationalities there. This was it, she was really working her way up in the world, this job was possibly working for some of the richest and most important people in the country. Her excitement levels were through the roof, as she went about arranging her desk, where she found a laminated photographic ID card on a fabric cord, which she put around her neck as soon as she found it. She set up a selection of pens, paper and found instructions on how to use the company computer, which she barely looked at, only using it to find her username and password. She was tech savvy enough to learn the rest herself, surely. She noticed three cameras and two microphones on her first casual pass though her office. She was sure that there were more, but she just put it down to company policy. No levitating pens at work, it seemed, though she was ready to amaze them with her investment predictions and financial knowledge and ability, should the opportunity arise.

• New Job at Scarlet and Cross Institute •
((In progress))

• The Second, and Largest Manifestation of Latent Anima Abilities •
((Yet to happen in RP))

• The Truth Revealed •
((Yet to happen in RP))

• Induction and Defection •
((Yet to happen in RP))

• New Allies and New Enemies •
((Yet to happen in RP))

• Physical Description •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua is a Chinese-American woman, though in terms of appearance, she appears to heavily weigh towards her Chinese heritage. Her facial features, as well as her physical build are very typically Chinese, though due to her American blood, she stands slightly taller than the average Chinese woman, standing at 162cm. She is fairly slim and well defined, of fairly average shape. Her hair is jet-black in colour and hangs slightly longer than shoulder length, hanging down approximately a third of the way down her back. She often wears it loose, though a few hairpins are sometimes used to keep it professionally out of her face when the time calls for it, betraying her businesslike demeanour. Occasionally, she will wear her hair in an elaborate bun, pinned back neatly with two small wooden sticks, as well as a few, difficult to see, hair clips, often with ribbons and various aesthetic additions.

• Personality •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua maintains the professionalism of a Chinese businesswoman, she is polite to new acquaintances, as well as diplomatically polite when around people that she actively dislikes and the situation calls for it. She takes a calculated approach to anything, always planning an out and trying to stay one step ahead of the rest. These traits have called the attention of higher ranking eyes, though often this is not a good thing for Li-hua, as it's quite daunting to be in the spotlight when those observing are potentially very, very nasty people.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">She is, however, a very friendly and sociable kind of person. She enjoys conversation with near enough anyone, as long as they return her friendliness in kind, which they often do. She's not afraid to stand up for herself, which sometimes becomes the case as her physical appearance is not daunting, nor is it inspiring. She'll trade arguments and deflect threats from people of twice her size without any regrets or hesitation, her time working on Wall Street gave her this confidence to stand up for herself and what she believed, which led to her making a small fortune in only a year.

• Casual Wear •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">In general, the type of clothes that Li-hua wears will be fairly similar to that of a typical University student. Either wearing jeans or slightly looser fitting trousers, usually combined with a more fitted t-shirt, though she steers clear of 'skinny fit' clothes where possible, feeling them uncomfortable and for people who are trying to prove a point. In terms of colours, she tends to favour brighter colours, often dressing in shades of green, white, pink, red, orange or blue and tends to avoid dull, drab colours like grey, brown or black, though that doesn't mean that she doesn't avoid them totally, owning a few pieces of clothing of each colour respectively. <p style="text-indent: 30px">Sometimes, should she be in a warmer climate, or if the weather just happens to be nice, she may wear one of many Summer dresses that she owns which are, again, of bright colour. She often keeps an olive drab satchel with her, the strap over her left shoulder, it will usually hang to her right, or behind her, the strap resting across her torso. Most of the time, she'll be seen with her large pair of headphones either hanging around her neck, or covering her ears, the wire hanging loosely on the outside of her t-shirt, but not any additional layers of clothing that may be on at the time (e.g. coats and jumpers). Her shoes are the most varied part of her casual wardrobe, ranging from boots, to sandals and flip-flops. Most of the time, she wears either a blue, or green, pair of converse shoes. Should the weather be nice, she owns a few pairs of flip-flops that she will often wear, usually in tandem with one of her Summer dresses, though not only with them. She owns a green pair, a yellow pair, a blue pair and an orange pair.

• Formal Wear •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">In terms of formal clothing, Li-hua owns three suits, as well as two pairs of formal shoes. One pair of her shoes are black leather, incorporating high heels into their design. These became a necessity for Li-hua, as she was not among the tallest people on Wall Street, the heels gave her that extra boost to height so that she wasn't constantly blocked out of view by the other, taller traders. That being said, Li-hua also owns a pair of flats as well, which she generally prefers wearing due to comfort and ease of wearing. <p style="text-indent: 30px">As far as suits go, two of them are the combination of jacket and trousers, one is a jacket and skirt. The jacket and skirt design is completely black in colour, one of the jacket and trousers designs is also black, though it features fine, white-grey stripes running downwards, in a vertical pattern, and the other jacket and trousers design is light grey in colour, though otherwise very similar to the other, same design. She will combine each suit with a white blouse, not completely buttoned up to the top, and one of her pairs of shoes, depending on how she feels. <p style="text-indent: 30px">As far as evening wear goes, Li-hua owns a multitude of evening dresses. Most of them are dark colours, blacks, reds, purples, often featuring very traditional Chinese designs.

• Make-up, Tattoos and Jewellery •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Generally, Li-hua doesn't wear much in the way of make-up or jewellery. As part of her morning routine though, she will often apply a modest amount of make-up. She uses dark, black eye-liner on pretty much a daily basis, regardless of what she's doing, it's solidly imprinted into her morning routine. Depending on the occasion, she has been known to wear a neutral shade of red lipstick, though this is usually only when partaking on some sort of activity that requires formalities, or a special occasion. In general, everyday life, she avoids it. She also, depending on her mood, will wear nail polish of varying colours, much like her clothes, usually choosing shades of blue, green, orange or yellow. <p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua's jewellery collection is small, taking the 'quality over quantity' approach. She is rarely seen without her mother's locket around her neck, only removing it when absolutely necessary. Other than that, the only other item that she seems to wear on a daily basis is a silver coloured watch, which she wears on her left wrist. She owns about half a dozen different necklaces, again often brightly coloured, though she doesn't actively wear jewellery apart from her watch and mother's locket.

• Weapons •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua doesn't own many weapons, having never been a soldier before, and only recently becoming a part of the war on evil, she has never really needed weapons, and therefore didn't acquire any. She is currently looking for a place where she might be able to acquire weapons, feeling that her fists might not be enough when push comes to shove.
 * Water Song Wushu sword - The Water Song Wushu Broadsword has an ultra-flexible high-carbon blade, tapering to almost paper-thin at the tip. At barely a pound in weight, the sword is very quick and the 'Water Song' (caused by vibrating the blade) is very audible. Li-hua has been practising with the same blade for years. She has named her blade 'Mei-Xing', which literally translates to 'Beautiful Star' in reference to the beauty and radiance of the Wushu art when performed correctly. Li-hua wields Mei-Xing elegantly with years and years of practice under her belt, both efficiently as a form of combat, and for show, usually attaching a red tassel onto the end of the hilt when using it for the latter.
 * Professional fighting gloves and footwraps - Standard competition fighting gloves. Li-hua's gloves are fairly standard, though her name is embroidered into the Velcro strap that holds them on, around her wrists. They are fairly open palmed, wrapping around her knuckle area, and wrists, though leaving her palms clear. They feature padding that covers the top of her wrists, spanning to the base of her fingers, the padding parting at joints, to maintain flexibility. They are of green and black colour, the padding and edges green, the connecting fabrics are black. The footwraps are padded and extend up the ankle as a minor form of protection against injuries such as twisting or spraining. They are green in colour, mainly, and cut off just above the toes.

• Technology •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">A bit of a tech head, Li-hua owns more technological items than most. Whilst she's not extreme in her level of tech infatuation, she is always interested in the latest happenings in the world of technology. Specs: <p style="text-indent: 30px">• Intel Core i7-2670QM processor <p style="text-indent: 30px">• 16GB RAM <p style="text-indent: 30px">• nVidia GeForce GTX570M <p style="text-indent: 30px">• 750GB hard drive + 160GB Solid State Drive <p style="text-indent: 30px">• 15.6" HD display <p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua's laptop is used for many, many purposes. She used it during her time at University to type up essays, or perform various researches into topics during her time on her course. It still holds all of her lecture notes, all of her projects and assignments from her University days. She also used it to play a few video games, which also, remain on the hard drive as she does enjoy playing them every once in a while.  Specs: <p style="text-indent: 30px">• 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9  <p style="text-indent: 30px">• 1 GB RAM  <p style="text-indent: 30px">• 384 MHz PowerVR SGX540  <p style="text-indent: 30px">• 32GB storage  <p style="text-indent: 30px"> Li-hua actually owns four of these smartphones for different purposes. One is used as a normal, casual contact number that is shared between friends and acquaintances. One is used for business, specifically share trading and is used to contact business partners and acquaintances. One is used specifically as a contact point between her and her other Secret World contacts. This model is the most well encrypted of all the phones. The fourth model isn't used to contact anyone, and is purely used as a prototype for testing new applications. It's rumoured that it doesn't even have a sim-card, and its wireless capabilities are disabled, unless necessary for testing purposes. This is by far the most unstable of all her phones, though the least connected to any kind of network. <p style="text-indent: 30px">A small, silver-coloured multimedia player, Li-hua often keeps this with her wherever she goes, as she enjoys listening to music wherever she goes. Most of her music collection is a selection of Cantonese 80s music, as well as some European metal and industrial. <p style="text-indent: 30px">This set is recently acquired by Li-hua after it was planted in her house by an unknown entity. Whilst she suspects that her own organisation, the Dragon, planted the devices, she has no concrete evidence nor does she care too much, what's done is done. She has recently severed all connections between the equipment and it's original host after a failed attempt to retrace the signal to its source, and has since reprogrammed them to her needs, now feeding directly to her laptop though a secure connection. She has yet to plant them anywhere, though she keeps them safely in her apartment, just in case she has a need for them, testing them by setting them up as surveillance in her own apartment, however small it may be. After getting out of hospital, she came into possession of a load more cameras and microphones as her apartment was bugged yet again whlst she was incapacitated, leading to a healthy amount of surveillance equipment in her hands that she had basically paid nothing for.
 * Medion Erazer X6819 15.6" Laptop.
 * Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
 * Archos Gmini 400 20GB Pocket Multimedia Player
 * A full set of surveillance equipment

• Miscellaneous •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua's possessions do not all take the form of weapons or technology. After all, she is, apart from the whole war on evil part of her life, a normal young woman. <p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua owns a journal and two notebooks, all leather-bound and of the same design. She is fairly defensive of each book, taking measures to keep them out of the prying eyes of others. The largest of the books is used as a journal, in which she keeps daily entries of what went on. The medium sized book is used as a notebook, specifically used when dealing with the events and goings on of the secret war against evil. This notebook is kept hidden on her person almost all of the time. She may stash it away somewhere if she fears captivity may be possible in the near future, not wanting anyone else to see what she writes inside. She is highly defensive of this notebook, even more so than both of the others. The smallest book is used as a standard, everyday notebook. This one she may use to copy down directions to a location, make notes on the behaviour of certain shares and stocks, or just take someone's phone number. This one is the least safeguarded of all the books, though Li-hua is still fairly defensive over hiding its contents. <p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua is rarely seen without her bag. Inside, she keeps various normal items, as well as some not so normal items. Usually the contents include: <p style="text-indent: 30px">• Li-hua's professional, personal fighting gloves and footgear <p style="text-indent: 30px">• Galaxy Nexus smartphone - Li usually has at least two with her. Her social phone and her phone used for all contact within the secret world. She often has her business phone (share trading) with her as well, though not as often as she used to, as she no longer works for a specific company. <p style="text-indent: 30px">• Miscellaneous extras - Basic items that you'd expect to find in a woman's bag. A purse, a mirror, a small make-up bag etc. There are other items that are, on occasion, also to be found in her bag, though not often: <p style="text-indent: 30px">• Medion Erazer X6819 15.6" Laptop <p style="text-indent: 30px">• A selection of her surveillance equipment - If she is headed to a job that may require extensive surveillance of an area, she may bring along a selection of microphones and cameras to set up.
 * Leather-bound journals and notebooks
 * Olive green satchel bag

• Anima-Influenced Skills and Abilities •
Li-hua's Anima manipulation powers are hereditary, passed down from both parents, who were both Anima users, though she her abilities have only recently begun to manifest. As a result, she has not had much chance to practice or use her abilities and thus, they are far less refined than her non-Anima related skills and abilities.

• Mild Telekinesis •
After being hospitalised from her first encounter with a Revenant, Li-hua thought that she was going crazy when her radio started floating as she sat down to write her daily journal entry. This feeling wasn't helped the next day when more items started to float around the room, causing her to panic. Her screaming at seemingly nothing led the doctors and nurses to believe that she was crazy. After she was transferred to Bart's, at the request of her good friend, Wylla Humphrey, she began to learn that it was in fact her mind that was causing this, rather than assuming it was a hallucination from what she thought may have been a slight imbalance in her morphine drip. She took the time to subtly gain some degree of control over her abilities, learning to levitate relatively small objects with more and more control. Her abilities are small, and only really usable for minor tasks, but nevertheless, it results in a source of amusement for her, retrieving books from a bookshelf without having to even lift a finger.

• Skills and Abilities not Influenced by Anima •
Not all of Li-hua's skills come from her ability to manipulate Anima. Quite the opposite, as Anima manipulation is still a very new concept in her life, most of her skills and abilities come from her life before she was introduced into the Secret World, and are far more refined than her Anima manipulation abilities, due to having years of experience and practice to hone them, as opposed to the matter of weeks that she has been practicing with Anima.

• Cognitive Power •
Whilst not particularly 'gifted' or declared a natural genius, Li-hua is a very intelligent individual. She has gained her vast array of knowledge through pre-dominantly a very studious attitude throughout her childhood, always striving for more, never ceasing in her pursuit of knowledge. Her studious nature, along with her natural talent got her recognised by Stanford University, where she studied her degree for four years.

• Ability to Predict the Stock Market •
Whilst not supernatural, or anything like that, Li-hua seems to have an uncanny ability to predict the behaviour of the stock market with a frightening accuracy. She merely calls it common sense with attention to details in the headlines of the papers. By no means are her predictions perfect, far from it, as she does make bad decisions as well, though in general, the figures are vastly positive.

• Technological Expertise •
Li-hua did not study in the field of computers, however in her free time, she decided to teach herself, seeing it as not too dissimilar to her own field of study. She is not a computer genius, but she knows the ins and outs of various computer systems, networks, programming languages and concepts.

• Martial Arts •
The study of martial arts is perhaps Li-hua's most potent, and well versed field. She has studied Wushu, traditional Chinese martial arts, for just over seventeen years, and still continues her training to the present day, finding enjoyment and calmness that its practice brings. Often, in her free time, she may go outside and practice her stance and form for the pure enjoyment of it. If the weather is good, she will not hesitate to practice in a nearby park, which often attracts the looks of other park-goers, nevertheless she still practices, focussing solely on her art form, she often doesn't realise that people are watching until she has finished.

• Free-Running •
During her time at University, she made friends with a group of parkour enthusiasts. After witnessing what they could do, and the freedom that it gave them, Li-hua started, slowly but surely, to join them, learning the various techniques and educating herself to 'see the lines'. It wasn't too difficult to adapt to, already being a fit individual, and the gymnastic side of it wasn't a problem due to the flexibility and natural agility that she had acquired over the years of martial arts training. She still practices it to the present day, quite adept at traversing urban environments, though in her words, you can always be better.

• General Fitness •
Fitness is a valued concept by Li-hua. A healthy mind and healthy body are the keys to longevity and general vitality, so she does her best to maintain both. She visits the gym four times per week, and attends advanced Wushu classes for two days. When she went to University, she made friends with a group of parkour enthusiasts, who convinced her to take it up as well. All in all, she is a very fit and healthy individual.

• Linguistics Skill •
Li-hua is quite a linguist, due to coming from a bi-lingual background. She has always favoured Mandarin over English, though she can speak both with much competence. Li-hua's written English was vastly aided by having a pen friend, Wylla Humphrey, from the age of twelve. She is fluent in both Mandarin and English, she is currently learning Cantonese and is getting fairly decent at understanding and communicating in it.

• Acquaintances •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Obviously, being a share trader, conscript in the fight against evil, and all around normal, sociable person, Li-hua has a fair number of contacts from all over the world, and of all kinds of backgrounds.

• Huojin Xiao (Father) •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Huojin is a typical Chinese man. He was fairly short, by Western standards, though in China he was of average height, maybe even slightly tall in comparison. He often dresses fairly formally, favouring long coats and rimmed hats with formal clothing underneath. He appears to work very hard, and rarely seems to make time for his family. He married a US diplomat in 1980 by the name of Sheryl Witman and has fathered three children, two sons and then a younger daughter. He is always serious, and rarely appears to just unwind and have a good time, truly dedicated in his work. He has short black hair, kept neat almost the whole time, brown eyes, and a typically Asian skin tone, and has already developed some heavy wrinkles in his older age.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Huojin is Li-hua's father and was often away during her childhood, busy with work that she would not learn of until much later. Her relationship with her father was, as a result, a little bit strained. She didn't like how he rarely seemed to have time for his family, not always coming home at night, and never calling whilst he was away at work. She didn't know how her mother put up with it, and often questioned her about it, though she was never given any solid answers. There were many things that Li-hua was yet to learn and understand before she could get a total view of the sitation. This feeling rose in intensity after her mother died, and he took her older brothers to work with him in his job as they each graduated from their respective Universities. He made her feel isolated, a horrible feeling of solitude continuously nagging at her, and she never really forgave him for that.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">What Li-hua did not know about her father until she was much older, was that his true job was being a part of the secret war on evil as a fairly prominant member of the Dragon. It is why he rarely came back, and never called, which made Li-hua understand, especially when he took her into the fight as well, though still, she refused to forgive him for making her childhood, though especially her teenage life, a horrible experience. He had been for some time, and did well to hide it from the rest of his family, though it was the family job, taking her brothers before Li-hua into the fold to fight against the growing darkness. After inducting Li-hua though, no further instructions were given, which didn't sit well with her, giving her the impression that the society was inept and a little childish.

• Sheryl Witman (Married as Sheryl Xiao) (Mother) •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Sheryl Witman is average height, though she is around about the same height as her husband, Huojin. A lot more laid back than her husband, and spent more time taking care of the children as time went on. She is of American descent, with a heavy New England accent, originally hailing from Boston, Massechusettes, a trait that made her stick out like a sore thumb, along with her American features. She's a naturally beautiful individual, still looking young, even as she approached fourty, looking like someone perhaps in their early thirties. Her hair is a dark, chestnut hair and she has brown eyes. Her skin was often lightly tanned, though naturally it was fairly pale.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Sheryl Witman married Huojin Xiao in 1980, on a long-term business trip to China. She worked as a US diplomat to China during the end of the Cold War. Her life was not always made comfortable, but she got by. It was all a cover up though, her real job being a member of the Templars, which made her move into China a lot easier. When she first met Huojin, they married for love, but over time, as she learned of what she did, it was a marriage of professionalism, as she was assigned to spy on her husband for the Templars. At first, she did not want to, though over time, the more Huojin seemed to neglect their family, the more she became willing to spy on him, extracting various different pieces of information without arousing Huojin's suspicions. Li-hua became very close with her mother, her father's job tearing the family apart, Li-hua spent a lot of time with her mother doing various activities. She helped around the house, learned to speak English, went shopping, all the kinds of things that a child may want to do with their mother as they grow up.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">She died under very mysterious circumstances when Li-hua was sixteen. She was the one to find her mother's body, mutilated and quite messily killed. It was obvious that she suffered a long, and painful death. The official story was that she was killed by a sadistic murderer during a break in, though Li-hua saw right through it. She was later told by her father that her mother was killed by a wraith, shortly after he inducted Li-hua into the Dragon. The truth is that she was murdered when the Dragon found out that she was spying on them through her marriage. This was the truth, and was not revealed to Li-hua for a very, very long time, though when she found out, she was angry, with her father for not opposing it, and the Dragon as a whole for what they had done to her mother.

• Cheung Xiao (Eldest Brother) •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Cheung Xiao is the tallest and oldest of the three children. He is taller than both his mother and his father, though looks similar to his father in almost every way, his hair similar, but having more of it. His skin is also typically Asian, though it's lighter than Li-hua's.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The oldest of the three, Cheung feels protective over his little brother and sister, often taking an interest in their wellbeing and making sure that they were alright. He felt that Li-hua was growing apart from her father, whilst the two brothers were growing more towards him and tried to soothe the tension, though ultimately he was just a teenager, and so he couldn't do anything. The only thing he could really help with, was breaking up the fights that erupted between his two siblings if their parents weren't around. At present he is also a member of the Dragon, having been inducted into the society by his father after he graduated from University.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">When Cheung heard of Li-hua's betrayal, he sought her out, not violently, but to hear her side of the story. He eventually tracked her down to England and visited her home. At first, she was frightened, thinking that he had come to kill her, but after talking about it, he could see why Li-hua had made the decision that she had. When confronted with the idea of defecting, he was tempted after learning the facts surrounding their mother's death, but in the end, he declinded, his loyalties were too well rooted now to just leave. The two are still on speaking terms, and do not wish conflict with each other.

• Guowei Xiao (Older Brother) •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Guowei is different to his siblings in the way that he is very confrontational. He was always said to be slightly unhinged, and was sent to various counsellors during his childhood and teenage years. He always disliked Li-hua and their parents always had to keep a close eye on the two, so that Guowei didn't do something terrible. They always fought, and more often than not, it ended in a light scuffle, often with Guowei prevailing before their parents or older brother could intervene, due to his strength and the fact that he had more martial arts experience than Li-hua, also he saw it as a means of attack, whereas Li-hua embraced the more artsy and controlled side of it. He is also the only one to have brown hair, rather than black.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Guowei is the middle child of the three. He quickly grew distant from Li-hua early on, perhaps jealous of the relationship that developed between her and their mother. He got on well with his older brother, but often left Li-hua out of the loop, which only worsened her feelings that their family was falling apart, and though Cheung tried to remedy this, he was unable to mend the gap between them.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Guowei, like his older brother, was taken in by the Dragon, though he was taken in before he graduated as his Anima abilities manifested a lot quicker than both Cheung's and Li-hua's, and as a result, he was taken in at a similar time as his older brother, as their abilties manifested at roughly the same time. Guowei's dislike of his younger sister grew into a murderous hatred after hearing that she had betrayed the Dragon, and now hunts her down, wishing to put an end to her, even though he also knows the truth behind his mother's death, all he wants is to destroy the traitor, that is his younger sister in the same way that his mother was killed for being a spy all those years ago.

• Wylla Humphrey •
"'It's warm in England as well! We just needs lots of blankets to get there!' - Discussions about the weather between Wylla and Li-hua."

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Wylla and Li-hua go back many, many years. The two first made contact with each other when they were mere children, at the age of twelve as pen friends, but grew very close over the years. Wylla was often the first person that Li-hua went to if she needed to tell something important or close to her heart to someone. As such, Wylla knows almost everything about Li-hua, barring the fact that Li-hua is a part of this secret war against evil. Though Li-hua hasn't told Wylla about this, and feels terrible that she cannot tell her most trusted friend with such information, Wylla is keeping the same secret from Li-hua, both of them a part of this secret war, and both of them reluctant to tell the other. As a result, the two are completely oblivious to each other's allegiances and actions pertaining to this.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The two have only met face to face once, when Wylla came to visit Li-hua in hospital, after the incident that left her heavily injured. It was an odd experience for the two, knowing so much about each other, yet having never met and conversed face to face. It started off fairly rocky, though fairly quickly, the two were chatting away, happily about all kinds of topics. This meeting made Li-hua very happy, she was delighted to have finally met her most trusted friend in the flesh.

• Hélène Moreau •
"'I barely recognised her at first, and thought that they had found that my wounds were too grave, and I was going to die, so they sent a nun to say a prayer to guide me to the heavens above. Well, that's until I heard her talk and instantly knew it was Hélène, as nobody around here has an accent that's so French.' - Words written in Li-hua's journal after she is visited in hospital by Hélène in her full religious garb." <p style="text-indent: 30px">Hélène Moreau was among the first people that Li-hua would befriend in England, and she wasn't even English. Of distinctive French origin, she met with Li-hua when Li-hua started going to the gym. A zealous Christian Protestant, she tried more than once to convert Li-hua over, though ultimately, as a Christian, she accepted Li-hua's choice in faith, an acceptance made easier by the fact that Li-hua was loosely Buddhist, not exactly an offensive religion. Li-hua and Hélène got along well, meeting up for coffee regularly until Li-hua was hospitalised, at which point, when Helene found out that her friend was in hospital, she began to visit Li-hua regularly, always making sure to pray for her recovery when she did.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua was surprised to hear that the tattooed, gym-faring Frenchwoman was a nun at the local baptist church, though what Li-hua didn't know, was that her fanatical friend was, in fact, also a Templar. Though that worked both ways, as she did not know about Li-hua's affiliations as well. Utterly devoted to her God, and her mission to smite evil, even if Hélène were to find out about her friend's affiliations with the Dragon, she'd likely not care as long as Li-hua's actions were directed at evil, and not at her own organisation. Cold and ruthless in combat, Hélène is that terrible action movie cliché “nun with a gun”, but she doesn't give a damn about it, her mind and focus too busy on her worship and her work to even care about what others might think of her.

• Pixie (Ravyna Sepp) •
"'So, I give you this interview and free investment advice, and you give me information from your web of contacts and your... expertise with a camera. That sounds like a fair deal if I ever heard one.' - Early words spoken by Li-hua when confronted by Pixie for the first time." <p style="text-indent: 30px">Every woman climbing the social and financial ladder needs contacts. This was true for both Li-hua and Pixie, who met twice, once for a formal interview, the other at a party that Li-hua happened to be invited to with some other, higher-ups in her company that she worked for. The details of how they got talking were sketchy, though it stemmed from each other's reputation, and from the interview. Pixie originally interviewed Li-hua about what she did, asking various questions about her job, just Pixie doing her job, and Li-hua obliging. At the party, the two got talking, recognising each other from the interview. Li-hua learnt that Pixie had a web of contacts, knowledge that may help her to predict the markets better, as well as certain skills with a camera, and Pixie knew that Li-hua was an up and coming broker with a knack for predicting the correct outcomes of share prices, so the partnership started as a mutual business agreement between two women who were determined to climb society's ladder.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Over time, the natural friendly nature of both individuals came through, and the two became, although primarily still work contacts, friends. Whilst it was not the same kind of friendship that Li-hua had with, for example, Wylla Humphrey, she still valued Pixie as a friend and opened up more to her. Pixie is perhaps one of the few work contacts of Li-hua's that knows more about her personal life, as well as that of her professional career. The two would, fairly often, go out to lunch, or hit the nightclubs fairly often with each other, nothing too close, but closer than just solid work colleagues.

• Raina Anwyl •
"That bitch has a stick shoved so far up her backside that you can see the other end whenever she opens her mouth." - Kind words said on the topic of Raina Anwyl by Li-hua. <p style="text-indent: 30px">Despite being allies in terms of affiliations, Li-hua and Raina could not get along worse even if they tried. They are two complete opposite ends of the spectrum. When these two are around, it seems that the only thing from stopping them attacking each other is the fact that they are both members of the same cabal, and so fought for the same society.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The dislike originally stemmed from Raina's side, viewing Li-hua as some sort of lesser person, due to the fact that she could not manipulate Anima, her constant patronising tones and snarky comments drove the usually patient young Chinese woman to a strong dislike. This did not change, even when Li-hua's Anima abilities begun to manifest. Even more surprising though, is that her views didn't change even when Li-hua's heritage was brought to light, as despite her decending from a long line of Templars, Raina still hated her, possibly even more so as she was more like a dirty stain on the reputation of the Templars than a helpful member. The fact that Li-hua was a Dragon did not help to calm the tension, either, as when Raina found out, it just seemed to reinforce her ideas that Li-hua wasn't really a member of the Templars, and was in fact a spy. It's a small miracle that there have been no formal accusations, to Li-hua's knowledge at least. The two have yet to come to blows, but it's like watching a pan of boiling water move closer and closer to the rim, closer and closer to boiling over.

• Thomas "Azrael" Dillinger •
"'A sword with a barbed hilt' - Thomas Dillinger's wiki page"

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Thomas is a difficult one to explain. Li-hua has mixed feelings about the man. To her, he is fickle and often self-conflicting, sometimes performing acts that in her eyes, are good, but at other times, he seems to perform acts that she'd deem bad. She doesn't think that he has bad motives, as his not-so-great actions aren't vindictive or have malicious intent. He is a very difficult concept of a person for Li-hua to deal with, and is definitely her most strange acquaintance to date. On one hand, he did save Li-hua's life, but on the other hand, he took her $750000 worth of investments as 'repayment'. He also tried to steal her purse, and stole her keys the first time that they met, apparently in an effort to get to know her better.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Even despite his very odd tendancies, and terrible money sense, Li-hua does not hate the man. She may show distaste of him, especially after he cost her so much, but she does not dislike him. She can see that his motives are generally good, but definitely brings his methods into question. All in all, she doesn't dislike the man, but nor does she particularly like him, he just is there, in the middle, in her eyes.

• Quotes said by Li-hua •
"I was told they could be used to pay off my bar tab and gambling debts so..... I MAY have used those too..." "How much of my money did you spend?! What did you do?!" "5 or 6 pieces of paper to each party.... who knew paper was so valuable!" - Li-hua and Thomas Dillinger, when Li-hua finds out that Thomas Dillinger had used her $750000 worth of investments to pay off his debts.

"'Chaos isn't entirely a bad thing. Whilst I'm not going to tell you to embrace it with open arms, I just feel that I should say that we're only human, we make mistakes, we make decisions based on emotions, random variances occur. We can't control everything that goes on in our lives, to do so would be to rob ourselves of our humanity, which is not a good thing, nor is it healthy' - Li-hua when telling her good friend, Wylla Humphrey, her views on life in general."

"'I mean, I lived in Tianjin for eighteen years, then went to University in California for four. Both have very different climates to England. You know, it's actually warm during the summer in those places.' - Li-hua on the Great British climate."

"Those bastards tortured and killed my mother, the only person who made me feel like I wasn't alone, and forced a horrible life on me in my youth. There's no way I'm ever assosiating myself with those scumbags again" - Li-hua's defection from the Dragon.

• Quotes said about Li-hua •
"'They said you were smart, and had an interesting background.' - Alex Waynewright"

"'I didn't know you were so sassy, you know that? I would have never imagined you to be this person.' - Wylla Humphrey"

"'And I hope to God you are a married aunt. I dont want you to be a crazy catlady!' - Wylla Humphrey"

• Narratives •
In IC chronological order, this section is dedicated to the narrative parts written about Li-hua. They can also be found here, along with what I write for my other characters, PCs and NPCs alike. Click the arrows to expand the relevant part that you wish to read.

• Mother's Death •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">Li-hua peddled her bicycle as she raced down the packed street, weaving her way in and out of other students, businessmen and women, as well as people just going about their lives. She was eager to get home after the day at school. Her mind raced with the possibilities of what to do with the rest of her day. Help mother with dinner, practice her Wushu stance and form, perhaps just lie in bed and read. She had managed to find "The Art of War - Sun Tzu" in the local library, and was quite eager to read it. The streets of Tianjin were busy as usual, packed with all kinds of people, though mostly it was school pupils, such as herself making their way homeward. It was warm, highly humid, a characteristic trait of summertime China. Sweat had already broken out across her forehead, the humidity and dampness in the air was unavoidable. She came to a halt at a crossroads. Vehicles drove past in front of her as she waited for the lights to change, looking up at the sky with a smile. It was still very light, though a couple of clouds dotted the sky at random, white and fluffy.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The lights changed, and she began peddling once more, shortly after taking a sip from the water bottle that she had stored on her bicycle, passing through an industrial district of Tianjin, the air seemed thicker. It was sickening. She could taste the waste products in the air as she breathed heavily, due to riding her bicycle at a fairly hasty pace. The factories must be working overtime, she thought as she peddled harder to get out of the district as soon as possible.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">As she approached her house, something seemed amiss. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, she just had a feeling as she pulled up to her house. She took her bicycle around the back, chaining it up inside the shed, grabbing her bag and making her way towards the back door of her house. She turned the key and pushed the door gently, allowing it to slowly swing open as she made her way inside. She unlaced her shoes, placing them neatly on the shoe rack near the door, before removing her socks also as she stepped onto the carpet.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Mother, I'm home", she'd call out. No response. "Mother?", Again, no response. Curiously, Li-hua advanced through her house. It was deathly silent. She must've gone out to get groceries, Li-hua thought to herself. She made her way upstairs to her room. On the way, she heard a dripping sound. Rolling her eyes, she'd make her way towards it. Someone had left the tap on, she thought. Rounding the corner, she gagged, before falling to her knees, screaming. In front of her was a badly mangled body, lying motionless on the small table in the middle of her parents' room. The body was female, covered in lacerations, both major and minor, wearing a dress of white and blue colouring, though the white was now mostly red with the blood of the corpse and her expression was one of intense pain and fear. The faint dripping was still there, inaudible over Li-hua's screams as she sat on her knees, staring at the corpse in horror, paralysed with fear. She took the time to compose herself, slowing her breathing down as she crawled closer to the corpse. By now, she noticed that the source of the dripping noise was the corpse's blood, dripping from the corpse's right arm, which hung limply over the edge of the table. As she got closer, Li-hua checked around the corpse's neck, as well as its ring finger. Her fears were justified at that moment as she identified her mother's locket and wedding ring, two items that she was never seen without. She stopped once again, the smell only now overpowering, she gagged again, leaning forward, placing her hands in front of her as she stayed on her hands and knees. She'd scream once more, closing her eyes tight, fighting back the inevitable tears that would come with this discovery. A futile attempt as tears streamed freely down her cheek. In her grief-induced fit, she didn't notice the sound of someone entering through the front door. Li-hua felt a hand on her left shoulder, as well as hearing the voice of her father.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Li-hua...", her father said softly as he placed his hand on her shoulder, as he knelt down next to her. In response, she quickly turned around, flinging herself into her father's arms, hugging him tightly as she cried into his chest, her tears dampening his shirt where they fell.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Father... What...? Why...?", she managed though the sobs, though her father would just place his arms around her, his expression one of anger and frustration primarily. She looked up, catching a momentary glance of this expression, before her father's expression shifted, looking down at her with the same sadness that she was feeling, though he'd shake his head, saying nothing. She hugged him tightly still, crying for a good ten minutes before she released her father, returning to sit on her knees once more, though this time facing her father. She wiped her eyes, her eye-liner was now smeared, and running down her face. Her father rose to his feet, standing up, and taking another look at the corpse, before offering a hand down to Li-hua. She took his hand and stood up as well, still sobbing.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Come, let's sort this out", her father said in a low tone, walking over to her and placing his arm across her shoulders, ushering her out of the room. The two of them made their way down the stairs where her father took out his phone. He made Li-hua a cup of tea and sat her down on the sofa in the living room, before walking outside the house to make the calls. Within ten, short minutes, the area was closed off, police and medical staff swarmed the area. Within five more minutes, Li-hua and her father were in the car, driving to a nearby hotel where they were being provided lodging whilst the situation at their home was being resolved.

• Attempted Murder •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">"I want you to sell at two hundred and fifty. No exceptions", Li-hua said calmly into the phone, her Chinese accent audible, but not overpowering as she spoke in English.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Alright, Miss Xiao, we will sell at two hundred and fifty, not a point over, not a point under", a voice on the phone replied, causing her to smile and nod.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"That will be all, Mr. Cooper. Thank you"

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Now we just hope that we're all millionaires by tomorrow, hm?"

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"If only. Speak to you tomorrow", Li-hua continued smiling as she hung up the phone, placing it into the pocket on the inside of her jacket, turning away from the screen as she walked out of the building. It was dark, and cold. The winters of New York cut straight to the bone, the pavement was damp where snow had fallen, and then melted due to salt on the roads and pavements. She hailed a nearby taxi, climbing in, sitting straight, her hands calmly placed on her lap.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Where to?", the driver inquired fairly apathetically. In response, she handed him a piece of paper, to which he nodded, handing the piece of paper back to her as he started driving. Shortly into the journey, Li-hua noticed that they were going the wrong way.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Excuse me, driver, but this is the wrong way", Li-hua spoke assertively, with a slight frown. The driver, however, remained silent, continuing to drive. "Let me out of the car, now", she said, frowning and poking the driver on the shoulder. The driver stopped the car, and before she climbed out, he had pulled a small pistol and had it pointed at her face.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Reflexes kicked in almost instantly, her hands moving faster than he could react as she disarmed the man of his handgun, pulling his hand to the side of her head, the gun now pointing harmlessly out the back window of the car. Her other hand moved up, striking at the man's elbow joint with a loud crack as his arm broke. She dived out of the door of the car, quickly climbing to her feet and darting down the alleyway. Behind her she heard multiple voices, before hearing gunfire, the shots hitting the wall where she turned the corner. She was sprinting now, darting through the alleys with the agility that came with years of wushu training. Ahead of her, a car pulled up, blocking her exit ahead. A ladder. She leapt, grabbing hold of the bottom of the ladder, adrenaline causing her to climb faster than she thought possible. She got onto the fire escape, running upwards to the rooftops, though she heard the others in pursuit below. Removing her shoes as she got to the rooftop, she began running again. As she reached the edge of the roof, she jumped. She fell short, grabbing onto a window ledge lower down momentarily, before losing grip tumbling down the wall and landing in a pile of refuse at the bottom, knocked out cold.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">She began to regain conciousness, she was in her house. She stirred slightly in her bed, though a jolt of pain sent made her still again. Across the room sat her father.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Father...? What are you doing here? Who were tho-...", she asked, speaking Chinese for the first time since moving to America, though her father held up his hand, interrupting her speech.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Questions for another time. Rest, Li-hua", he replied. She nodded and closed her eyes obediently, slipping into a quiet, peaceful sleep.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">She spent the next day in bed, re-bandaging the various cuts and scrapes that she suffered in her fall. Her father still sat across the room from her, a worried expression on his face.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Father, is something wrong?", she inquired. He immediately sat up straight, folding his arms, looking at her with a serious expression.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Li-hua, what do you remember about your mother's death, and I want you to be truthful. I know what you researched, what you found", her father said, his deep voice was more serious than she'd ever heard.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"I... The obituary was wrong", she started, recalling all of her years of research in fine detail to her father. What seemed like ridiculous theories of a child to her, he just nodded to. By the time she had finished, her father was on his feet. He turned to face her, taking from his pocket what looked like a small locket.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"It belonged to your mother. I think it's time you had it"

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Mother's...", Li-hua was cut short by a man in a green leather jacket entering the room.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Mr. Xiao, we have to move", the man said, panting slightly. Her father merely nodded at the man, before turning to Li-hua.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Keep it safe, and remember to check for the boogie-man under your bed", he smiled, gently rubbing her shoulder before he walked out of the room without another word.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">"Check for the... What was he on about?", Li-hua muttered to herself. She chuckled lightly, looking under her bed in a humorous, over-exaggerated fashion. "See, nothi-...", she was cut short by the sight of a small envelope, neatly placed under her bed. She opened it, and read the contents.

• Inspirations for Li-hua •
<p style="text-indent: 30px">When I was creating Li-hua as a character, I thought of a sort of cross between myself, Ling Xiaoyu from Tekken 6 and a successful businesswoman, with the discipline seen in a lot of Asian University graduates. This spread to share trading, because it was the most lucrative job for her to be in at such a young age and still earn a hell of a lot. It's given me a great explanation for where her money comes from, proclaiming her to be a self-made millionaire, mainly to avoid the issue of "How can you afford that?" or "Where does all that money come from?".

<p style="text-indent: 30px">Her fighting stlye is directly inspired from Ling Xiaoyu. I was playing Tekken 6 and I just thought "That's how I want Li-hua to fight!", though there was a competition in my mind as to whether I was going to have her fight like Ling Xiaoyu, Kazuya Mishima, Jun Kazama or Asuka Kazama. In the end, I dismissed Kazuya's fighting style, feeling that it just wasn't the kind of fighting that she would follow, being more about strength, and powerful punches, which left me with the remaining three. I settled on Xiaoyu's style because, apart from the fact that I'm always amazed by it in game, it's directly derived from traditional Chinese martial arts, known as Wushu, which just seemed to fit the bill perfectly for Li-hua. It'd be easy for her to find a class in China, and it was a lot more calm and more like an art form, than a way of fighting.

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The parts that I derived from myself are quite apparent. I gave her nerdy tendancies, such as an enjoyment for D&D and a small gaming habit (ha ha, small...).

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The hardest decision to make when making and developing Li-hua, was which secret society, and I got it wrong the first time! I put her into the Dragon, thinking that chaos would be pretty cool, and it's the typically Asian faction based in Seoul, but as I moved on, I realised how wrong I was. To be fair though, my original character specification was... Extremely different to what I have now. I was originally going to go for a girl in her late teens who is a part of the Dragon because she's a bit immature and wanted to poke chaos at things and watch them squirm. I really didn't think that I'd end up with a mature, intelligent Chinese buisnesswoman. I may revive that character concept in the future. 3 Character slots, 3 Societies, it's almost like Funcom is just asking me to make a character in each!

<p style="text-indent: 30px">The interesting part was where Li-hua started inspiring me! I looked for music that she might like and I chose 80s Cantonese Pop music. I never thought that the next week, I'd be firmly hooked on the stuff as well! Life really is full of surprises. I don't think that my father thought that he'd see me back this holiday with various Priscilla Chan, Vivian Chow and Vivian Lai CDs in my cases, so I wasn't the only one surprised when I found myself listening to this new genre of music that I would never have thought about listening to before.

• Important External Links •
TSW RP community website - If you don't know about this, but are reading this wiki, please tell me how this happened! :P

Li-hua's Journal - A page dedicated to Li-hua's daily journal that she keeps.

My Narrative Page - A page where I keep every narrative part that I write.

My awesome Youtube account! - My Youtube account where I upload various videos, mostly danmaku-shooter replays though.

• Credit Where Credit is Due •
Ratman - I took a few inspirations on sections to include from the great scarf wearing Ratman, mainly this exact section!

Agent Ivory - Made me decide to include an acquaintances section. Also, for being my first networked character (that wasn't one of my own NPCs!).

The Almighty Google - Pictures were (almost) all sourced from google. There are clear exceptions.

Trayer - For just being awesome and motivating me to write. You'll be missed Trayer D:

Pixie, Ratman and Raveneye - For constantly writing more and pressuring me to continue to add to my own page. I <3 you guys!

Debt - For putting up with my confusing, and traitorous actions towards the Dragon ;)

In-Betweener and Raveneye - For making the wiki in the first place. It's great, and allowed me to write my walls and walls and walls of text! *salutes*

Inanna, Ratman, Covington, Raveneye, Dazzle and In-Betweener - For being absolutely huge helps and discussing my faction change in great detail, as well as giving great arguments each way. Couldn't have done that without the help of you all.

PandaKrieg, Inanna, Dazzle, Debt, Ratman, Raveneye, Pixie, Covington, Trayer, Surbi, Adilicia, Alex "Isiah" Wayneright, Roxie [Kodi], Sinreiko, Sotof, Chemical Cutthroat and Zeta Ockham - For all the chatbox shenanigans that kept me away from writing this wiki page. I love every moment of it, even when it deteriorates into the tsw-rp.com chatbox mess that it can sometimes become.

Dazzle, Raveneye and In-Betweener - For accepting me into their awesome cabal, despite me not ICly being of the same faction (yet! See Templar section of wiki... mwahahahahaha). You three are awesome and deserve a mention here for setting up a great cabal that feels like home despite only being in it for a few days.