Hana Jin/Jean Hannah - Benevolent Flower

As you can tell by the City of Heroes character avatars, this is a character concept I've had for quite a long while.

Background

The Hana clan have been heroes for generations. Various members of their bloodline had been touted as valiant warriors or workers of magic at one time or another. In truth, they have a considerable legacy of psychic ability which they have honed in various ways. It is a well-established Legacy which Jin walked away from or at least tried to.

Hana Jin was never expected to be the one upon whom would fall the majority of the responsibility for taking up the mantle of the family legacy. She was second born and she knew it. Preferentially, the bulk of training was given to the first son in any case, most of whom were expected to go the way of the warrior. Daughters of the clan were expected to hone the more cerebral abilities of the family and seek out worthy matches in order to insure the continuance of the line or even the establishment of supporting branches.

This thought did not particularly bother Jin to start and she took to her training and studies as a medium, seer and general support. It wasn't until her brother's marriage that things changed for her. She quite liked her brother Kaneda's fiancee. Miya was charming, empathic in a comfortingly mundane way and had a knack of really understanding people. She was also a world-class martial artist in her own right who had often rivaled Kaneda in her impact on a battle. That last was something which put the more traditional members of the family into a bit of a tantrum. So Jin liked her and it was during the wedding that she had an epiphany and realized exactly how she liked her new sister-in-law.

The realization of what she at the time felt to be "unnatural lusts" for her sister-in-law struck her with the force of a typhoon and she immediately shut down her psychic faculties for fear that her family would notice and condemn her. She became unwilling to open up even in the slightest ways and training became all but impossible with the combination of her growing despondency and shutting out all attempts to get into her mind. The stress showed physical symptoms as even her brown eyes seemed to grow more red somehow. In desperation, the family decided to send her abroad to finish her schooling and possibly witness some foreign heroes. The traditionalists complained, of course, but her parents and immediate family were willing to try anything. Unfortunately, Jin considered it a punishment for her failure to advance.

Despondency became cynicism and her former joy in the use of her abilities became a firm distaste. She began to spell her name as if it were a similar sounding English one: Jean Hannah. She stuffed most of her Japanese clothing unceremoniously in the back of her closet and dived headlong into learning a proper American accent and absorbing everything she could of American culture. While she came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with homosexuality (at least consciously, subconsciously it is still very much the hang-up), she remains in the closet and unwilling to tell anybody, least of all her family, maintaining that she has a lack of interest in romantic issues while still feeling internally hopeless that she'll ever have a relationship like her brother's and his wife's.

Emails and phone calls from concerned family were answered in minimal, curt ways and she made it obvious she'd rather not talk to them. She destroyed nothing however, and occasionally would find herself thinking about looking through some of the boxed up belongings and old emails for nostalgia's sake.

It might have continued this way had Jean not witnessed an assault. She was never really sure what the nature of the assault was. Her memories stop a little bit after the scream and turning to look at the woman being attacked and they don't pick up again for nearly twelve more hours waking up in her own bed. That had been the first time that "Jin" had manifested.

Jin represents much of the good characteristics Jean represses and denies about herself. Her innate sense of justice, her great potential in the use of her powers, pride in her Japanese heritage, her former self-respect and other such qualities come to the fore when Jin is in control. Over time, Jean became aware of Jin, but still cannot remember actions taken as the other personality. For her part, Jin considers herself only as a piece of Jean and hopes to one day see a time when they will be healthy enough to see themselves as a single person again. In the meantime, she manifests whenever Jean comes to know about a situation where her unwillingness to draw on her heritage conflicts with a subconscious knowledge that she would never forgive herself for doing nothing.

Masks Stats

Name: Benevolent Flower...comes from her name, Jin can be translated to "benevolence" and Hana is often translated to "flower". It's basically how Jin avoids giving her identity away without directly lying.

 

Look: Woman, Asian, Western clothing, psionic costume.

Mask: Jean does not wear a physical mask but undergoes a subtle transformation. Her Jin persona has golden hair and eyes where as she most often has brown hair and unusual but still normal red eyes (red eyes can occur as a result of blood staining the iris and altering the melanin levels. Usually this comes from injury, in this case it was sheer stress). 

Powers: Superhuman senses and Impossible Mobility. (her telepathy and telekinesis are pretty much narrowed to these uses right now, that might expand later).

• Freak: -1
• Danger: +0
• Savior: +0
• Superior: +1
• Mundane: +3

Moves: The Mask (Savior), Mild-Mannered, I'll Save You (usually immediately followed by Jin taking over if she isn't already in control)

Secret Identity: Schoolwork (she intends to be a lawyer someday), Romantic Entanglements (something she actively tries to avoid and then lingers over after successfully doing so), Waitress, Paying bills (trying to maintain her independence from her family)