Xiù Chang

## Name

The name "Xiù" translates as "Beautiful" or "Pretty" and the correct pronunciation can be tricky for non-native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. Native English speakers often mispronounce her name as "Zoo", "Shoe" or "Jew."

For similar reasons, Gaoians call her "Sister Shoo" and she is known to the Ten'Gewek as "Shyow." For her part, Xiù has long since given up on correcting people and tends to forgive mispronunciations, though she does enjoy it whenever her name is pronounced correctly.

## Summary

Xiù is an Abductee taken from Vancouver the night before the first contact attack. She was instrumental in helping a number of Gaoian abductees escape their captivity and bring their abductor to justice, and was adopted into the Gaoian Clan of Females.

Xiù has since lived a remarkable and storied life, and the fame her early exploits earned her saw her become the poster child for the Byron Group Exploration Program, and the pilot of the starship *Misfit.*

## Appearance

Xiù is of Han Chinese descent, with dark brown eyes and glossy black hair that falls to her knees.

She is not tall, but she has proportionately long legs and spent most of her teenage years training as a ballerina, gymnast and martial artist. She carefully maintained her fitness during her long exile and even improved upon it on returning to Earth. As a result she is compact and strong, being heavier than she looks.

She bears a number of scars, including a split eyebrow and a small cut on her throat. The most prominent of all however are the horrific ragged scars that cover her right forearm, a relic of forcing her hand down a Hunter's tooth-lined throat.

## Skills

Xiù's original life goal was to become an actress and star in martial arts movies. To that end she studied acting, *Baguazhang*, Tai Chi, acrobatics and ballet prior to her abduction. She was also a talented chef and enjoyed entertaining her friends with food.

She is a fluent bilingual native speaker of both English and Mandarin Chinese, with some conversational knowledge of both French and Cantonese.This multilingual background helped her learn the Gaoian trade language, Gaori, and during her travels around the galaxy she also picked up smatterings of Cortan and other languages.

Xiù later received intensive education and training under the Byron Group Exploration Program. This included a formal education in linguistic theory, training in sports science and physical education, nutrition, and piloting. She also received combative training from the SOR.

## Personality

Xiù is a naturally outgoing and ebullient individual whose terrifying experiences in the galaxy at large and frequent brushes with death have scarred her physically and mentally. She has grown quiet and thoughtful after long years of isolation and hiding among alien life-forms, but her extroverted side is slowly recovering, partly as a result of being thrust into the limelight by the Byron Group.

She has a strong sense of right and wrong, and a deep-running selfless streak coupled with an intense compassion for all sapient life.

Xiù loves wire-fu action movies, cartoons and Disney movies, her favorite being *Mulan*. She is a talented cook and has successfully fused alien and human cuisine. She prefers to play her music loud, especially classic pop tracks, dubstep and Cantopop love ballads though she also seems to enjoy heavy metal.

She is a Theravāda Buddhist, and practices Metta "loving kindness" meditation.

## Relationships

### Gaoians

Xiù is a Sister of the Gaoian Clan of Females, having been formally adopted into their ranks after saving several abducted Mothers, Sisters and Cubs from a Corti research station. Mother-Supreme Giymuy took this adoption so seriously that she sought Xiùs advice on a matter of interstellar politics - Gao's full membership of the Interspecies Dominion - on the basis that it would harm her prospects of returning home.

Xiù is close with Mother Ayma and Mother Yulna, but she is closest of all with Myun, who hero-worshipped her as a cub and who later came to develop a whole new school of Gaoian martial arts based on the *Baguazhang* she learned from Xiù.

She is deeply fond of Regaari, and enjoyed introducing him to the joys of Tacos.

### Humans

Xiù’s best friend growing up was Allison Chan. The two drifted apart a little bit as they entered university, with Xiù being interested in acting while Allison chose to study sociology, but Xiù remembered her friend with fondness, and was dismayed that she couldn't rebuild their relationship after returning to Earth.

While Xiù is very fond of her mother, she nevertheless finds her to be controlling and exhausting, and found it especially difficult to reconnect with her mother upon her return to Earth. She has a closer relationship with her father, though even this is now strained and distant as he cannot relate to her life experiences. She has much the same problem with her younger brother Wei, exacerbated by the fact that Xiù spent five years in a stasis field where no time progressed, meaning that Wei has now technically become her *older* brother.

Her closest relationships by far are with Allison Buehler and Julian Etsicitty, and the three are now in a polyamorous "triad" relationship.

She initially took a disliking to Kevin Jenkins after taking his clumsy attempt to recruit her into the Byron Group as manipulation, and even broke his nose. They have since apologize to each other and reconciled.

She is good friends with Clara Brown and Dane Brown.

## Quotes

"“Well… my people take hockey pretty seriously.” - *Rat In Sheep's Clothing*

"“Before, I’d never killed anyone… and now I can kill them [Hunters], and hear about so many of them being killed, and I feel glad. And I don’t like being the kind of person who feels glad at killing.” - *A Wounded Rabbit*

"Just. Once. It’d be nice if I could actually do something to protect people and not have it all fall apart…" - *War On Two Worlds* pt.1