IMPEDIO SOCIETY . BAILEY, ANABEL

FEMALE

HETEROSEXUAL

TWENTY-TWO. PROBABLY!

UNKNOWN. 

KOREAN AT BIRTH, ADOPTED INTO U.S. CITIZENSHIP

FLUENT ENGLISH, HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL SPANISH AND KOREAN. SHE TOOK CLASSES IN THE LATTER FROM A FAMILY FRIEND AS A CHILD, AND MAINTAINS HER KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE THROUGH WATCHING K-DRAMAS AND THROUGH K-POP. 

ANI, ANNIE, BELLE, ANIBUNANI

0.50(+0.40)

Impedio Society

n/a

Shield Pendant

8/25/13 by Jess

ROGUE

HAYDEN GREEN
COLIN COX
QUENTIN CHOU
CALLUM SNOW

NO I VALUE HER LIFE THANKS

SASHA BROWSE from SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN

She's a recent college graduate, working part-time at the L.A. Times as a journalist before she eases into a full-time position in January. As such, she still lives and acts like a student, with much of a student's free time. She really isn't complaining, to be fair, because it means she has a while longer to goof off. Currently, she lives comfortably in a flat with two other friends, who have all stayed back in Los Angeles after graduation. Her family is easily upper middle-class, with their connections to the Impedio Society and their nice home in West Hollywood, and even though she's technically begun work they still fund her with a considerable sum of money to tide her by. It results in her having quite a bit of free time, seeing as she only has to work one job three days a week. For now.

Impedio Society Patrician: Her actual job. She works for the Citizen Protection sector, specializing in Conspiracy Cover. Saying it that way makes it sound like she's some sort of super spy, but in reality it isn't all that glamourous, considering her personal 007 has yet to show up. Ani began training part-time for her role since she was eighteen, and decided that she wanted to do something in journalism while advancing the Impedio Society's cause. She was cleared for duty alongside her graduation from college, and has been working for them ever since.

In fact, what she's actually working with L.A. Times for is so that she can change news and fudge information to cover up mysterious happenings. It isn't that she doesn't believe in the freedom of the press, but there are unfortunately certain things that are more important than reaching out to the truth. And one of them is, you know, making sure that people don't realise that there are human beings running around with superpowers or that the world is potentially coming to an end. No big deal, right?

(If she has her way, she won't be just a Patrician for long.)

Let's be honest here, Ani doesn't have any notable features. In fact, one might argue that she has what you'd call a 'common face'. She's lost count of the number of times people have gone up to her and asked where they've seen her before, swearing up and down that they know someone who looks just like her, though she suspects that they may just have mistaken her for the girl from one of those 'Visit Korea' ads. Maybe it's the generic Asian features that do it. With dark brown hair, her rounded jawline, and monolids that frame eyes that actually do slant, one could argue that she could have walked right out of a picture book that drew all Asians as stereotypes.

The fact that she ties her shoulder-length hair up into a high ponytail most of the time probably doesn't help her cause, as it accentuates her seeming lack of cheekbones. But hey, practicality over style-- she sometimes gets into some pretty crazy shit at work, and she doesn't want her locks to get in the way when running away from nutjobs. That, and it would suck if her hair got bitten off or something, seeing as it is the envy of most of her friends. Naturally straight, smooth, and thick, it is the source of questions from every hairdresser she visits, asking her where she got her hair rebonded and what her secrets are. More like secrets, what secrets, though, seeing as she hasn't actually done any sort of hair treatment in the past, or even used any sort of special products. Save for a good expensive shampoo and conditioner, and a daily blow-dry of course. Ani may be lazy, but she isn't going to scrimp on the essential basics.

Perhaps what can distinguish her from the Asian stereotype are her height and frame. She is tall by any standards, standing at five foot eleven, able to tower over most men. Ani has broad shoulders with an athletic build, due to her martial arts training and love of exercise. Her dress sense accentuates this, as she considers her height to be her best feature, along with a pair of trim, toned legs of course. She enjoys dressing in shorts and simple dresses. Nothing too fancy, really, no lace or ruffles or too many prints.

In fact, her signature item is incredibly simple: a short-cropped tan jacket that she wears whenever it gets remotely chilly. She seems to have had it constantly by her side for the past few years, and the jury is out as to whether she has simply managed to keep same jacket for an eternity, or if she buys a new one every so often. Considering the fact that she isn't very good at taking care of her clothes and cycles through new outfits fast, the latter is more likely than the former. It is for that reason that she refuses to spend a lot on clothing, preferring to buy multiple cheap items rather than one expensive one.

That, and she gets bored of her wardrobe really, really easily.

She's got opinions. She'll give you lip. Bold, brazen, and unafraid to tell someone the truth when they need it most, most peoples' first impression of her is of someone unabashed and unrestrained. Often described as the proverbial devil on everyone's shoulder, she's the person who will coax you into eating that extra slice of pizza, into having just one more drink, or into buying yourself that dress even if you really don't need it. Her favourite claim is that everything good in life is illegal, immoral or fattening, or some sort of combination of the three. As a result, you might as well roll with the punches and enjoy yourself while you're in the position to do so-- as long as you don't do something incredibly stupid, and if you do, don't let yourself get caught.

Besides, the worst-case scenario will be that she's right there with you in prison, laughing at what you did together to get there because she's got your back. Ani prides herself on being a pretty good friend, and she does her best not to abandon those in need, to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves. Her care for people is easily given and easily shared. She's quite the compassionate person, and will try her best to be there for the many people she's made friends with and whom she cares about. Ani is definitely an extravert: she has multitudes of people who she'll claim are her best friend ever, though if she were to be honest with herself she does have favourites among the lot. And though she tries to let as many people as she can reach a close level of friendship with her, she will confide in her closest and tell them they are such, in the hopes that they will come to see her that way as well. She definitely has a need to be liked, and she takes peoples' rejection of her quite personally, even if she'll laugh it off and pretend she doesn't care.

In fact, she often wishes in turn that she could talk to people about herself, to let them in, to share stories of her life and adventures like they do with her. She is guarded and secretive, but not by choice, and often finds herself telling white lies here and there to protect the true nature of her work or to evade social commitments when a story comes up. As a result, she has resolved to be as honest as possible when it comes to non-Society manners, to the extent that she can be considered downright blunt at times. She does try to cushion the wounds, but isn't always successful in doing so, as it is her nature to be forward. This principle has landed her in trouble with friends several times, especially those who are likely to read too far into her words. But she's stuck by it. Once she's made a decision, there is little to no way to talk her into doing something else.

A radiating burst of zeal and vigour, it comes as no surprise to most that Ani throws herself into any professional task assigned to her. Determined, ambitious, and keen to learn and improve, her work is usually impressive and well thought-out. She thrives under pressure, and has mastered the art of spinning even the most ridiculous stories into feasibility. However, in a non-professional setting, she is a completely different story. If you ask her to cash in a cheque or to pick something up for you, she will have to be reminded at least three times before she actually manages to do so. Similarly, she tends to forget to pay the bills and fill out her taxes, and the number of times she has left the stove on while going to answer a phone call is staggeringly high. (She might or might not have been the cause of a small fire in her college dormitory once. Or twice.) It isn't that she means to be unreliable, not at all, but rather that she has a problem concentrating on more than one task at a time. She knows that she should probably start setting herself reminders on her phone or to keep a diary and carry it around, but-- well-- she tends to forget to do so. She's working on it. She swears!

While the circumstances surrounding her birth are largely unknown to her, Yoon-Na Kim was born on a snowy night in Seoul, Korea, approximately twenty-two years ago. The result of an extramarital affair between a rich businessman and a prostitute, her mother Su-Min had discovered her pregnancy far too late to be able to abort the child safely, and besides, she hadn't quite had the heart to do so. While she hadn't been in contact with the father of her child for a few months when she discovered she was pregnant, she had decided to maintain the radio silence between them until after their child was born. She was confident that any person with a heart would melt upon seeing a beautiful bouncing baby girl, and that her father would certainly take the baby in upon learning of her existence, or at least provide his child and Su-Min with some kind of financial support. At the very least, there would be no more need to sell herself: prostitutes in Korea are looked down upon at best, and completely shunned at worst, and she was looking for a way out.

This did not end with the desired result. Upon hearing of the existence of a child born from his adultery, the girl's father immediately rejected her, pointing out that Su-Min had no proof that it was him who had fathered this child because of the many men she had slept with in the same period of time. He spat at Su-Min, calling her a liar and a whore, even though the woman was completely certain that this was the father of her child-- there had been no genetic testing, no nothing, she just knew. But she was uneducated and poor, and didn't have the means nor the knowledge to hire a lawyer. If she couldn't use her child as a route to obtain a better life for herself, she could at least obtain a better life for her daughter. Putting Yoon-Na up for adoption seemed to her like the right thing to do, even though it pained her to do so.

Enter the Baileys, who would turn Yoon-Na's life around forever.

A well to do American couple without any children, Damien and Michelle Bailey were looking to find a Korean child that they could adopt and take home to California. They were both Impedio Society plants in a big-name technological corporation, but they wanted a daughter, some sort of connection to a world that was normal. Some careful selection, a trip to South Korea, and a lot of paperwork later, they found themselves cradling the now six-month-old Yoon-Na in their arms on the way home. Deciding to rename her Anabel but to keep her Korean name as her middle name, the Baileys knew that it was impossible to keep her adoption a secret. This was largely due to the fact that they were, to put it quite crudely, Black and not Asian, and so Ani grew up knowing that her biological parents were hours and hours away by plane. But they weren't her Mummy and Daddy, no! Her parents were the man and woman who picked her up from school, who bought her ice cream at the mall and went to her grade school concert.

Yet there was always the lingering sense of non-belonging, the knowledge that there was someone else lying out there that knew of her existence, and she hated it, hated how different she was from the rest of the family, hated the strange stares and questions from her classmates when they saw who her parents were. As a result, Ani went through a phase where she decided to completely reject her heritage. She loathed the fact that she was made to learn Korean, even though her mother attempted to do so with her, throwing tantrums and having to be forcibly dragged to class. She refused to dress up in hanbok during family parties, wanting to wear pretty Western dresses with bows in her hair instead.

Above all, she wanted to be like parents, to look like them and to fit in with them, to not be a little peach beacon in a sea of dark mahogany. Her parents tried to talk to her, tried to convince her that this was an important part of who she was, that she might want to go back some day and to learn about her roots, but she refused to listen. What would they know, anyway? But they tried and tried, kept pushing and pressing her to read another Korean book or to recite another poem in the language. And in a last-ditch attempt to get her to appreciate her heritage, they decided to sign her up for private Taekwondo lessons when she was seven, taught by a contact they had in the Impedio Society.

That succeeded where nothing else ever had before.

Ani was strong and hard-hitting, though a little slow, but most of all, she absorbed the skills and abilities taught to her like a sponge. Enthusiastic and excited, she constantly pestered her parents to sign her up for extra classes, and by the way, this Impedio Society thing was totally cool, what did they do and were they like secret agents of any kind? Her father had laughed it all off, telling her that she didn't need to know and would come to understand when she was older, to which she would always respond that she didn't want to wait until she was older because by then she'd be dead.

But truth be told, the man hadn't been completely sure as to how much he wanted to involve his daughter in matters of the Society, as he was particularly protective of Ani. She was the kind of person who would be interested, who would want to get knee-deep into it, but she was also bubbly and happy and social and all-too-willing to allow people into her trust. Getting her too involved would be to starve her of the closeness and the camaraderie that she thrived so much on, and the last thing he wanted was to allow her to be lonely. His wife on the other hand believed that she would certainly be an asset, and that she would find friends within the Society that she could trust-- she saw a lot of herself in her little girl, and said that if she could handle it, Ani would be all right. They came to a consensus: that they would tell her the truth when she was thirteen, or, at least, on the thirteenth anniversary of when her parents brought her home, seeing as she had been told to pick a birthday for herself and could never settle on one. They would tell her what it would entail and what she would have to give up, and allow her to make her own decision.

She had been completely and totally enthralled.

Ani had always wanted to be a hero, in a sense. To help those who couldn't help themselves. She'd been the kind of girl who would beat up bullies, who would stand up for the weak, and to hear that there was a secret society dedicated to helping to keep the world safe was absolutely amazing in her eyes. Her father tried to explain that it wasn't all black and white, that the Awakened were innocent and many of them unaware, which was why they followed the creed of Arcturus Dia who believed in watching them and keeping tabs rather than complete destruction, and she'd lapped it up completely. Right there and then she had declared that she was going to join the society and become an artifact hunter, to give up school and her real life to explore the world. Needless to say, her parents told her that she would have to finish her schooling first before making any decisions, and that it was something she would seriously have to think about.

She was confident, of course. When you felt like the world was your oyster, who wouldn't be? She'd grow up and hunt artifacts some day, and meanwhile she was going to go to school and be a normal person, and enjoy herself in the process. Besides, with teenagehood came secrets and sleepovers and best friends, and Ani soon grew to be a drifter, someone who had friends in every social group and didn't belong to any one in particular as a result. It made her slightly self-conscious, yes, but she didn't want to risk losing the close connections she had with people in different circles. And so she maintained her status as a floater, knowing that it was probably for the best. Besides, at home, she was slowly learning about the kingdoms and the past and the war, and she probably couldn't tell her friends about it.

It didn't mean that she couldn't still be friends with them though. Having her fingers in every pie meant that she was invited to all the parties, to all the gatherings, and she was determined to balance her friendships with the Impedio Society. Her parents encouraged this, wanting her to feel like she had an option when she was of age, wanting her to see what she might potentially give up before making the decision that was best for her. In some ways she was the most popular girl in school, but in others she was the loneliest, harbouring secrets and taking secret lessons in martial arts and a different history. She had to cancel commitment after commitment at times for the Society, and when she was sixteen she came home and told her parents that she'd had enough of feeling like she had to give something up. Her parents weren't surprised: they had seen what kind of toll the Impedio Society was taking on Ani's social life, and how it was hurting her. It was then when she declared that she was going to still work for the Society, but not in artifact hunting. Instead, she was going to go undercover for them so she could maintain some semblance of a normal life.

There had to be someone to do their dirty work, after all. And while she enjoyed being honest and forthright in her daily life, the means definitely justified the ends. Wasn't that what the Impedio Society was supposed to be about, she'd pointed out-- sacrificing a few for the sake of the many? If it meant that she was going to have to work around her principles, so be it, because there were more important things out there than her personal sacrifices and concerns. Her parents were stunned-- proud of her for being able to find this middle ground to solve her internal conflict, yes, but stunned nevertheless. They explained that she was going to have to continue hiding, to continue lying, but she was determined to not give up on her goal to work for the Impedio Society and protect the world. Just because she was going on a different journey to get there, didn't mean that she wouldn't arrive at the same destination. She'd made up her mind, and there was no more turning back.

Besides, isn't every girl entitled to a few secrets of her own?

Her artifact takes the form of a pendant. When activated by pressing a button, this creates a protective barrier around her that deflects attacks, allowing her to go into dangerous sites without taking damage. It also serves as a good means of self-defence, seeing as the attacker will get injured by the barrier if they are using a physical attack, or have their attack fly back at them if it is an elemental.

Sadly, it doesn't always work when she wants it to. And when it doesn't? Time to run. Like. Hell.