Jia Sin Se

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Name: Jia Sin Se

Role: Face

Rank: Seasoned (IV)

Ancestry: Human

Quote: Be your own best friend.

Player: Dersen Lowery

Attribute Value Agility Smarts Spirit Strength Vigor Pace Parry Size Toughness 13 ()

Skill Value Athletics C. Knowledge Electronics Notice Performance Persuasion Repair Shooting Stealth

Hindrance	Type	Description
Curious	Major
Enemy	Minor
Ruthless	Major
Edge or Power	Type	Description
Alertness	Background
Attractive	Background
Very Attractive	Background
Charismatic	Charismatic

Item	Type	Weight	# Carried	Notes
M5 PCA	Armor	15	1	+8 Armor to full body. Max Encumbrance +1 Die Type, +1 Stealth in Natural Environments, -1 Notice (listen)
Single Shot Grenade Launcher	Primary	4	1	Varies; 20/40/80; 1 Shot; Bulky 2; Reload 2
HE	Grenade	1	?	3d6 in MBT; 5/10/20
Smoke	Grenade	1	?	Cover in LBT
EMP	Grenade	1	?	2d12 AP2 non-lethal (mechanical) in LBT
LM-1 Laser Pistol	Secondary	2	1	2d8 AP 1; 12/24/48; 12 Shots; Laser; CQB; Semi-Automatic;
Battery Pack	Ammo	1	2	Reload for LM-1 Laser Pistol
LM-3 Stealth Carbine	Primary	5	1	2d8 AP 1; ROF3; 12/24/48; 42 Shots; Laser; TRB; Auto;CQB
Battery Pack	Ammo	1	2	Reload for LM-3 Stealth Carbine
NVG	Personal	2	1	Eliminates penalties for dim or low light. Glows slightly in complete darkness.
Radio Headset	Personal	1	1	Allows radio communication, +1 to Notice (listen).

Bio

Public:

Zhang Wei, professional name Jia Sin Se (Jacinth), was groomed for a life at the top of Beijing society—as a musician and professional date, but nevertheless. It was fun for a while, but she found it stuffy and its people more self-important than interesting, more vain than intelligent. The fun ended when she attracted a stalker. In a move so impulsive that she's still surprised she did it, she booked a flight to New York City and started over. NYC was hard, but she networked, reached out, made connections, and eventually found a card in her purse whose provenance was a complete mystery. On the back was written, "Five Leaves, 7 o'clock sharp, tomorrow morning." That led to X-INT. The intelligence analyst life was not for her, so she moved to X-COM. She hopes that's shaken the stalker off her trail, but if not, she's happily tucked in to an organization full of blooded and heavily armed soldiers. Ironically enough, she feels safer in X-COM than she has in years.

Private: [not known by any of the current team, or anyone in X-COM]

From what she has been told, her aged grandmother judged her parents unfit to raise their infant child, and dropped her off at a cleanest and more orderly-looking orphanage she could find. The young ladies who answered took her in and sent the grandmother home with a modest reward. Unknown to pretty much anyone, the orphanage was run by a secret, by-invitation-only brothel that catered to the rich and famous, the Lotus and Pearl. For most girls, there was never any evidence that the orphanage was anything else. For the young girl, who her grandmother had called Zhao Jingbei, was pretty and extroverted and precocious enough to get put on the track toward prostitution. Desperately curious about her family, the girl made multiple attempts to run away and find them, only to be caught, scolded, and told "there is no business there, only trouble." She hasn't seen her family since infancy.

She was educated, trained in traditional instruments and courtesies, taught everything from how to dress to how to mend, tailor, clean and press clothes, to how to disappear as a servant to how to fight off and escape an aggressive client. She can still brew a mean pot of ceremonial tea, not that she has for years.

It was while she was taking a night off, sitting in the bar of a downtown hotel, that she felt eyes on her. Tactfully, she half-turned enough, adjusting herself in her chair as if for comfort, to see the source: a tall, blond American. She'd tuned out his drunken braggadocio about defending country and family—as he was staring at her arse—but now she was intrigued. Might be an easy payday, she thought. Americans expensed their indulgences just as readily as Chinese businessmen did. She approached his table with a particular smile on her face, and sure enough, only minutes later she was in his mess of a room. She was particular proud of her ability to seal the deal. That's where the shouting began. Slurs, insults, denigrations, dark promises that she was going to burn in Hell. Frightened less by the words themselves than by the intensity behind them, she decided to just go through with it well enough that he would fall fast asleep afterward. Which he did. That's when, at age 22, she made a decision that would change her life. She was so furious. She looked around. A big, fat dossier had been spilled out all over the nearby desk. Among the stack of papers was a folder full of TOP SECRET information. Well, she decided, that's his fault for leaving it out. She slipped it out from the pile. She knew a colleague who messed with this sort of thing, and before dawn she'd left the folder in a bag at a dead drop in a bad part of town, and she was boarding a flight for Jakarta to pick up a cash payment. It was over a bowl of pho in Sydney, waiting for her flight to NYC, that the enormity of what she'd done hit her full force. The only life she knew was over. She'd never see Beijing again. She'd never know who her family were. She cried so hard that one of the airport staff came over to ask if she needed help.

New York City was easy to get lost in. She tried to make it as a face model, since she was too short to make it as a regular model, and made some money. But it was a brutal, hyper competitive industry. She recorded her first musical material as MOCCA G. But the City was expensive, and she was burning through her savings at an alarming rate. She needed a break.

She'd already had to move from Long Island City because somehow, that American jerk had found her. Again. If I'd known he was CIA, I wouldn't have been so stupid.

She was wearing her favorite little black dress to a boring cocktail party when she saw a door open, and an absolutely singular piece of wall art hanging in the room. She could just make out a sliver of it, but that was enough. She went into "don't mind me, I'm the help" mode and slipped through the door. She didn't hear it open again.

"'Benjamin,' by Shmuel Dresner," said a female voice. "On loan. What do you think of it?" Jia Sin Se nearly jumped out of her skin. She spun around. "I was just looking!" Seeing the completely neutral, even curious face on the other woman calmed her. "I've never seen anything like it. It's very sad."

"You have no idea." The woman slow-walked toward her. "But right now I'm more interested in you. You've got the chops, but not the discipline. We can put that curiosity of yours to work, if you're interested." She handed Jia a card. "Meet me at Five Leaves tomorrow. 7 o'clock sharp." That was only a few blocks from her apartment. 7 o'clock, though. But it was the first real lead she'd ever had. The rest of the evening was a blur.

She found herself in intensive training at X-INT. They'd hired and trained her for her people skills and her ability to get around, but mostly what they had her doing was research. Sometimes it was even on a computer, but sometimes it was microfiche, which she'd never even heard of. She was doing well. She knew how to work hard. But she was a people person. It was in a dank, cinder block room in a sub-basement, leafing through an actual file cabinet looking for an actual folder, where she finally snapped.

And that's how she, of all people, found herself let through the gate of Area 51, far from the cities she loved. But there were people here. And there were, she was assured, no filing cabinets. Let's see if that jerk can find me here.

Personal Motivations

• Shake off her stalker by any means necessary;

• Figure this "teamwork" thing out;

• Prove that she has the skills to belong on this team;

• Learn to live outside a city without going nuts.

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