Liko Neng

Sempai of the Hairyo Contingent
Expert of the 1000 Canes Society
Agent of the Court of Shooting Stars

Description


~Liko Neng exudes academic intelligence, in his curious veneer and careful expressions. Neng seems like an alright and friendly guy, wearing a smile that provides a measure of geeky charm. He dresses in semi-casual attire: chinos, sweater, loafers. His sleeves are often rolled back and his arms discolored with grease stains from oil and chemicals. The Tibetan-Chinese man seems to boast his youth still, no older than 27, and mirrors the common mass of his countrymen: neither tall or heavy. An unusual tool belt wraps around his waist, and a pair of goggles are commonly strapped upon his head. Only when at work would that protection be tugged down over his bright brown eyes. Normally, a pair of black-rimmed glasses rests on his face instead, constantly slipping down the bridge of his nose to the tip. As lively and energetic as Neng may seem, he's often quite disoriented, as some scientists absently are. He's not mad or confused. It's just hard to focus on the mundane world when he has so many good ideas bouncing around his brain all at once!~

OOC: Appearance 2; Arcane 2

"Everything depends on the proper flow of pure ch'i energies. So if those energies aren't pure, we purify them!"

History


Youth

Science welcomed Liko Neng in 1974. He was born in Lhasa, Tibet. His father, Liko Park, was a factory manager. His mother, Hui Ying, sewed and designed traditional textiles at home. Neng also had a little brother named Sying. This family of four lived fairly well in a middle-class suburban home. The Liko family was very close, though the parents were quite strict. They made sure their sons stayed respectful and studied hard in school.

And Neng proved to be quite an apt pupil. He excelled in science throughout his academic career. Neng was taught to believe Tibet should be independent from China. While he had no interest in the politics, Neng wanted to help his homeland improve scientifically and technologically. Buddhism or other religious beliefs did not heavily sway Neng either. But his parents did instill a belief in the existence of ch'i, an energy that flowed throughout the world and defined all things.

However, Neng took that belief and tried to rationalize it. And he did so like any good scientist would: theories and equations. In his mid-teens, he applied the advanced math he was learned far ahead of his class. Through calculus and similar mathematics, Neng began to map out and create theories that explored the possible existence of ch'i. His teachers scoffed at his work. What was he trying to accomplish besides wasting his talent?

Neng intended to prove the existence of ch'i: not that he told anyone the scope of his vision! He began to experiment chemically at home and at the school lab. He never got any results. Yet Neng never gave up either. He began to dream about the theoretical equations he designed, so intent was he. They rattled around his brain constantly, keeping him awake with insomnia. It was a wonder he didn't go mad or flunk out of school with the little rest he got. But Neng was a driven young man. He was the kind of student that would either break under the pressure and commit suicide, or become the next big shot scientist to rock the world's belief system.

Unfortunately, Neng didn't find what he was searching for. His superb math and science grades nevertheless propelled him onwards with a scholarship to the University of Science and Technology in Hefei, China. While he worked hard at the academics assigned, Neng was still consumed with those "super-equations" he dreamed up in the past. He kept experimenting with the college labs despite all the discouragement he previously suffered.

Eureka!

Finally, in 1994 Neng encountered a shocking breakthrough. Against all odds, Neng channeled a strange substance from a casket of enriched soil with a hydroelectric processor combined with a lesser particle accelerator. The resulting explosion of force shook Neng to his fillings, but there was no kinetic energy involved. He was not hurt. And contained in a polymer glass container was a plasmic substance, green in color, which he labeled as ch'i. Neng laughed long and hard, a laugh of triumph and elation. Of course, some might have interpreted it as the cackle of a mad scientist...

The noise that Neng's successful experiment made was audible only on levels that Enlightened Scientists could hear. At this university, two of the professors were such persons. Dr. Cheng Kong, master of the mathematics department, was a researcher of Iteration X; Dr. Dao Fai was a teacher of nuclear physics, and an Adept of the 1000 Canes Society. Both Scientists confronted Neng in the lab as the youth gloated over his captured ch'i. And both doctors realized the fresh potential in the recently inspired Liko Neng. Dr. Dao blew his cover as a Sleeper at that university as he immediately leaped to Neng's defense. Dr. Cheng chewed Neng out for his abuse of the labs and "weird" experiments. The Iterator was vainly trying to instill a sense of regret and shame in the youth, the better to manipulate the student into obedience. Dr. Dao out-debated the Iterator, however, and persuaded Neng to take his discovery to a highly sympathetic agency. The Canist left the university and so did Neng. The youth wasn't taking a lecture for such an incredible breakthrough! And Dr. Dao's promises held a lot more potential than Dr. Cheng's. Neng left Hefei and took his vial of captured ch'i with him.

Thus, Neng escaped a closer call than he originally realized. Dr. Dao informed Neng all about the Technocracy and the brainwashing he would have received had he stayed with Dr. Cheng. Neng was brought to Changan and the secret 1000 Canes Science Academy. Here he could safely finish his academic career with all the advanced studies his Enlightened young mind needed. Dr. Dao rained down all the facts and theories regarding the Hidden World upon Neng. The young man learned all about the limitless potential of advanced science and the control of ch'i. Apparently, his discovery wasn't so innovative, Neng mulled.

The Academy

But Dr. Dao assured Neng that it was brilliant. Few scientists had the genius and imagination to think "outside the box". Neng felt almost overwhelmed by all the information this 1000 Canes Society was burying him beneath. So he wisely just put his nose to the grindstone and focused on one thing at a time. The academy was small enough that Neng could be apprenticed to one professor. Dr. Dao took personal responsibility for his education. Neng studied insane-sounding fields like hyper-physics and super-chemistry.

And it was a long apprenticeship. While there, Neng kept in contact with his family. They were proud of his "promotion" to even higher education. He kept them in the dark about the Hidden World, as he was instructed. Neng also tried his hand at dating for the first time. He saw another apprentice steadily until his graduation. Her name was Tsing Fen. Fen was a sweet young woman despite her interest in virology. They got along wonderfully and she was always an attentive listener when Neng practiced his oral presentation skills. (No, they only ever kissed!) Neng was too wrapped up in his work, studies and experiments, to take their relationship seriously. Fen had her own work to focus on, too.

So, Neng felt that no social obligations impaired his visionary project: a filtering system for ch'i. This revolutionary device as he planned it would channel ch'i from a source and purify it from corrupting and infectious Resonance patterns. Even nuclear taint could be removed with the device he was designing. Neng hammered at this idea after taking the first two semesters to adapt. Then it took him five long years to work the system out. But this became his graduation project for his Master's. When he finally pulled it off, he impressed everyone at the academy. It had been a long time since the 1000 Canes Society could boast such a brilliant and innovative young scientist. Neng was awarded the equivalent Master degrees in hyper-physics and super-chemistry. He was released onto the world as a bright new spark. Neng was eager to help his fellow man and pave the way for more imaginative technology.

Civil Work

Now a full-fledged member of the Society, Neng stayed in Changan a few more months. He finished work on his designs. And he devised a version that even the Chinese government could use. This energy filtration system was a masterpiece of nuclear physics as far as Sleepers could tell. It took nuclear waste from power plants and filtered it through a hydroelectrical processor. This strained 30% of every kilo of waste for storable and reusable conventional energy! The government didn't hesitate to purchase the plan and Neng's patented designed earned him plenty of kudos for future research funds. Unfortunately, the government was leery about actually putting the plan into action. The Technocracy, puppeteering the state, had doubts about the system's functionality. They intended to add their own fail-safes and run some tests to confirm its actual effectiveness...and determine the nature of its inventor.

Not that Neng really minded. He had good money to his name now. In 2003, he returned home to Lhasa. He visited his parents and brother, whom was now an electrician working for the city. Through Sying's contacts, Neng got work for the civil government, too. The Canist was more than happy to put his expertise to good ends for the people. Over several months, he worked with civil engineers on a sewer system water-recycling project. He helped the city install the best technology for this end, adding some of his own advanced tinkerings to improve yield. Neng also worked on his own private projects. He developed further methods and devices to channel and contain ch'i energies from other physical sources, including himself. Neng even turned his theories on how to purify Resonance patterns in a human being.

However, while studying, Neng received a warning from Dr. Dao back in Changan. There was a very high statistical danger that the Technocracy was looking for Neng and would find him soon. Neng knew he had to relocate. Dr. Dao pulled some strings abroad and Neng was offered a teaching position. The job was at the College for Asian Studies in Little Asia, Kansas City, Missouri. There was also a "chantry" of Oriental "mages" there, Neng learned. But the real reason Neng accepted this relocation was curiosity. In truth, Neng was interested in learning if there was a difference in ch'i flows between the Far East and the West.

So by the end of the summer of 2004, Neng moved from Lhasa to Kansas City. He joined this Court of Shooting Stars, if only for protection from the Technocracy. Meanwhile, he looked to the future, and all the possibilities science and imagination merged together would offer.

Home Lab Mark III (Sanctum)


~The basement of Liko Neng's small and innocuous home in Little Asia's Chinatown was transformed into the scientist's personal laboratory, concealed down here from authorities and meddlers alike. Stairs lead down into this area from the first floor. There is no other access except for the various tubes and ventilation pipes worked through the ceiling and walls of the house to the outside world. The solar-panelled glass tubes encased in copper descend through the ceiling from as high as the roof. There they capture sunlight all day long and guide it down to the lab for power as well as one of Neng's vital scientific components: sunlight. The tubes open into broad, box-shaped machines that quietly whir and funnel the captured energy through special prismatic lens. The light is transferred down glass tubes into a dozen jug-sized containers that rest on solid lab desks, each filled with a single color. That color swirls inside the beaker like it were some sort of contained gas rather than a fragment of pure light.

Other machines include a standard (if electronically-controlled) furnace, a broad ring with a much larger prismatic lens installed, and a variety of electronic maintenance and service panels and devices wired to the various devices. A computer sits upon a nearby desk, printer seeming to be in a constant state of dishelvement with papers everywhere. The rotating chair is often spun the wrong direction from Neng's constant up-and-down research. Aside from the computer, the entire lab is kept clean and sterile. The walls are white-washed, the finished floors are tiled in white with gray clouding, and the ceiling boasts soundproof panels. A small broom closet not far from the computer contains cleaning equipment, from a basic broom and dustpan to state-of-the-art air purification systems, some of which are Neng's own design.

Most interesting of all, however, is not the cleansliness of the lab, nor the color-light containment system. Instead, it is the ch'i-filtering system, which stands across from the color-light area. Here the set-up is connected to the color-light by tubes and wires lain across the floor and protected in heavy plastic casing. A device encased in double-layered titanium bears a "radiation warning" label on its side panel. An electronic panel monitors and controls the dangerous-looking device that seems to be a middleman between the color-light and the ch'i filtration systems. The lab desk contains a number of jug-like containers like the color-light system. But instead of colors swirling about in each, a bright green essence fills each container up. The essence seems to be neither liquid or gas but a combination of both: plasma, perhaps. Moreover, the brightness of the ch'i essence sparkles as if it were super-charged and bubbling with life and enervation. Whatever Neng is working on down here, it's clearly fundamental. Fundamental to his field, and fundamental to live by the words "DO NOT TOUCH". Who knows what this stuff would do a fragile vessel of flesh...~

OOC: Arcane 3

Significant Other


A pair of techno- and computer geeks, these two have a lot in common. But they differ in their spheres enough that they can help and intrigue each other. Their relationship is timid but tender, dating and romance slow and uncertain but enjoyable. These are the kinds of love that last forever. Who knows how far it will go between these two?

Kyi-Atami

Weakness
Lost in Innovation


This scientist is so fixated on his work that he tunes out the rest of the world. Naturally, this is a highly exploitable weakness. Fortunately, Neng is too nice a guy, and keeps well under the radar of most shen, to warrant the attention of those who would exploit this flaw.

Likelihood of Corruption


Average.

Neng's ultimate Path impels him towards providing means to help purify dragon lines. The technology he may one day design might even clean up the tainted ch'i of regions infected by nuclear testing (or detonations, such as in Japan). Naturally, demons who realize Neng's Destiny may well seek to stop or corrupt him.

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