VIVIAN LAU
PLAYER: Jeff Skagen
Background/History:
Vivian Lau was born in the Neo York Zero Zone. Her mother was Caucasian, a native of Neo York, and her father a Chinese salariman originally from Hong Kong. She doesn't know the details of how her parents ended up destitute in the Zone, although it was hinted that their downfall came after her father was caught in some sort of financial impropriety. Although life in the Zero Zone wasn't easy, her parents were resourceful, and managed to carve out an adequate living for themselves.
One day when Vivian was nine years old, she had the opportunity to watch a minor Esper in the Entertainment Zone entertaining tourists with psychokinetic tricks. She was fascinated with the way she could feel everything he did in her head, and watched him for over an hour before she went home with a splitting headache. Shortly thereafter, she began manifesting psychokinetic powers of her own. Although not a terribly powerful Esper, her powers were nevertheless useful to many people in the Zone, and her family's relative wealth and position in the Zone improved markedly. Everything seemed to be going quite well...until Jinsei's military forces abruptly occupied the Zero Zone.
Vivian tried to use her powers to defend her family, but she had neither the power nor the experience to do so. She watched as her parents were gunned down before she was captured and imprisoned. She locked in a cell with a number of other Esper children, until a small strike team rescued them.
One of the members of the team who had helped rescue them, a powerful Esper named Raven, took them under her wing. They, along with Raven's "Auntie" Lydia and the Puma Eliza, moved to a homestead hidden deep in the Australian Outback. Lydia took care of them and helped educate them, while Raven focused on helping them to strengthen and master their various Esper talents. Vivian's psychokinetic powers blossomed tremendously during this time and she quickly became the strongest of the Esper children in terms of raw power, although she found it difficult to control her powerful psychokinetic energies.
Although life was fairly good in the Outback, the children chafed at the social isolation and lack of entertainments available. Most chose to head back out into the larger world after they turned 16 years old, which was the youngest Raven and Lydia were prepared to allowed them to leave. Although Vivian was not the youngest of the children, she was the last to leave, as Raven kept her on longer than the others while trying to improve her control of her powers. Raven would have kept her on even longer, but Lydia recognized that Vivian had been insecure ever since her failure to protect herself or her parents from Jinsei, and the implication that she wasn't ready to leave when all the others had gone was only feeding her lack of self-confidence.
Surprised by their sudden decision to allow her to head out on her own, Vivian tried to decide where to go. In the end, she chose Hong Kong, mostly because it was where her father came from and she spoke both the major languages in use there. Raven, still wanting to continue Vivian's psychokinetic control training, suggested that they move there together. That way, Vivian could start meeting other people and try making a living as an Esper-for-hire, while still continuing her training under Raven's tutelage.
Personality/Motivations:
Vivian's failure to protect her parents and herself from Jinsei's troops sowed some powerful seeds of self-doubt in the young Esper's psyche, a problem only exacerbated in recent years by her inability to achieve the degree of control of her powers that Raven has been trying to teach her. Moreover, as much as she deeply loves and respects her "big sis", she is also a bit jealous of her. She is keenly aware that Raven is more attractive, more powerful, more confident, and in much greater control of her psychokinetic powers than she is. In short, Raven is the model of perfection that Vivian wishes she could be. Even the fact that she is jealous makes her feel small and petty; she's sure Raven would be above such feelings in the same situation.
Vivian dEsperately wants to overcome her own self-doubts and demonstrate—to herself, as much as anyone—that she is both competent and capable. Ironically, this desire could cause her overreach her own capabilities and bite off more than she can chew.
Not surprisingly, given her history, she utterly despises mega-corporations. She hates Jinsei above all others, of course, and detests Shiroko-Tsuhi only slightly less, thanks to Raven's stories of her imprisonment by them. She will never knowingly work for either corporation, but may work for other corporations on a job-by-job basis, mostly because she is smart enough to know that an Esper-for-hire who won't work for a mega-corporation is eliminating the vast majority of her job offers on the spot. She will always remain suspicious of them however, and will always be watching for a betrayal of some sort.
Quote: "Hey, you didn't say anything about avoiding collateral damage when you gave me the assignment."
Powers/Tactics: Vivian is a powerful psychokinetic Esper, capable of launching telekinetic blasts that can injure opponents or cause massive amounts of property damage. She can also create solid "walls" of psychokinetic force, launch a powerful shockwave out from her body in all directions, and, by suffusing her body with a psychokinetic field, she can amplify her own strength, toughen her body, and even fly. She can even teleport herself to nearly any location on earth she's familiar with. She rarely uses this last power, however, as she has not yet learned to bring along any extra mass when teleporting, with the result that she arrives naked at her destination. She has not, however, displayed even a trace of telepathic abilities to date.
While her raw power level is very high, her control of her powers is somewhat sloppy. In addition to the usual spillover of psychokinetic force that most Espers have when using their powers at a high level, her fine control of powers is less than precise. For example, she cannot do careful, delicate work with her telekinesis and her force blasts are "mushy" rather than sharp, and waste much of their energy pushing opponents away rather than actually injuring them. Moreover, her powers occasionally escape her control entirely, especially when she is very tired, nervous, scared, or has overextended her use of them.
Finally, in combat she is almost entirely dependent on her powers. If she exhausts herself - which she can quickly do when using her powers to their full potential - she has few options to fall back on. She is familiar with pistols but has no special skill with them, and she has never studied any form of hand-to-hand combat.
Appearance: Vivian stands just 5'1" and weighs a mere 95 lbs. She is of mixed Chinese/Caucasian heritage, with dark eyes and short, midnight-black hair. She is 16 years old, but with her petite stature and small bust, could possibly be mistaken for someone even younger at first glance. She is rather attractive, although her somewhat pixieish face is more cute than beautiful.
She usually dresses in an eclectic mix of predominantly western casual clothes, but with occasional eastern touches thrown in. Her fashion sense is somewhat stunted by having grown up in relative isolation, so her style and color choices are not always conventional or appropriate.
When doing a job as an Esper-for-hire, Vivian prefers a simple black body stocking with heavy black boots.
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