Karin Han

[Gundham]

Name: Karin Min-Hye Han
Gender: Female
Age: 18
Hobbies and Interests: Drama, conspiracy theories, zombie movies, anime

Appearance: Karin is a small, slight girl of Korean ancestry. She weighs 98 pounds and stands only 4’11” in height, but she sometimes wears thick-soled shoes to try and get herself past the five-foot mark. She’s quite skinny with a slight frame, but she appears compact rather than gaunt. Her soft build lacks muscle tone and feminine curves. Karin has a fairly pale skin tone, and she only rarely suffers from acne. Her voice has a deeper timbre than her appearance would suggest, but rises to a high pitch when she’s excited or angry. Her posture is fairly good when she’s sitting in class or with her family, and she tends not to slouch since it makes her appear shorter. While lying down or relaxing she tends to have a much lazier posture.

Karin has a heart-shaped face. Her irises are a rich dark brown, such that they appear black in certain lighting. Karin’s hair is black and very straight, reaching just below her shoulders. She often keeps it tied back into a strict ponytail, but if she’s feeling adventurous she’ll wear it long, in a single braid. Her cheekbones lack definition, and her chin comes to a slight point. Her default expression gives an impression of mild annoyance or distaste. Her eyebrows are narrow but dark, and rather angular, almost always slanting downwards. Karin has a button nose and thin lips, which she rarely, if ever, defines with lipstick. This gives her mouth a wan, displeased look. Her eyes, however, are very expressive. They are wide-set and large, giving her a slightly childlike appearance. She could easily be mistaken for a younger girl, especially when she’s happy or smiling. She has no piercings.

Most of Karin’s clothes are hand-me-downs from her older sister, Charlotte. They were fashionable a few years ago, but they look dated and don’t fit Karin well. The clothes might look better if Karin put in the effort to coordinate her outfits, but she doesn’t care about fashion very much. She often wears loose t-shirts over tank tops, shorts, jeans, or sweaters. She doesn’t accessorize and rarely wears makeup.

On the day of the abduction, Karin was wearing a slightly oversized tan T-Shirt with the Hangul characters "나쁜 얼굴" ("bad face") across the chest, over top of a powder blue tank top with navy blue stripes and hemming. Her hair was tied back with a blue ribbon, and she was wearing black sweatpants, white ankle socks, and green and white sneakers. She wore a pair of dark-lensed knockoff Aviator sunglasses.

Biography: Karin was born on December 24th, 2005, to Gye-chul and Soo-hyun Han. Gye-chul and Soo-hyun met at University of Minnesota; Gye-chul was a second-generation Korean-American studying business, and Soo-hyun was an international scholarship recipient from Busan. The two fell in love and were married ahead of their graduation in the spring of 2001, shortly before Soo-hyun would have been required to return to South Korea. Because they had not been married for long enough, Soo-hyun’s green card was granted on a conditional basis, and despite the support and encouragement she received from Gye-chul, she would often feel self-conscious about being perceived as a real American. Others in their community whispered that she was only using Gye-chul for citizenship, and when she became pregnant with their first child, Charlotte, a year later, they accused her of trying to have an anchor baby. Even after Soo-hyun managed to secure official citizenship in 2003, she still carried the psychological weight of those rumors. After a few years in middle management, Gye-chul became an accountant. The work provided a modest income for the family, allowing them to settle in a spacious ground-floor apartment in the middle of St. Paul. Soo-hyun stayed home to raise her daughters and keep the house.

Soo-hyun still rarely speaks in public, and is often self-conscious. Not wanting her daughters to feel estranged the way she had, she has raised Charlotte and Karin to be naturalized as Americans, giving them Western names and only occasionally speaking Korean to them. Soo-hyun tried to surround the girl with English-language TV and radio from a young age so that they would not develop a strong accent. These efforts were successful, and Karin does not speak with any discernable accent.

Soo-hyun taught her young daughters to embody what she saw as America’s best core values: boldness, fearlessness, and an uncompromising spirit. These ideals were a natural fit for Charlotte, who soon grew up to become a well-behaved, outgoing child. They were less successful with Karin. She was a very sharp child, but her intelligence came with a mischievous nature and a stubborn streak. Whereas boldness taught Charlotte to become confident and successful in school, Karin became rebellious and subversive, delighting in pushing boundaries with her behavior. She was easily bored by lessons, and spent more time daydreaming or looking out the window than paying attention. She was often disciplined by her teachers for this behavior, and would often make token attempts at correcting herself. These corrections were usually undertaken to avoid punishment rather than any earnest desire to change, so she often found herself slipping back into her old patterns, or working harder to not get caught.

Some of Soo-hyun's siblings and cousins emigrated to St. Paul, starting when Karin was eight. Karin vividly remembers being introduced to many of these relatives at a family gathering; the relations were all thrilled with Charlotte's appearance and demeanor, and praised her as a beautiful child, but made a point of telling Soo-hyun that Karin would be a problem. According to these relatives, Karin's looks were very poor according traditional South Korean beauty standards, and her general insang, or overall demeanor, was unappealing and dour. This, they warned, would harm the family's social standing and cause people to think of her as a bad and immoral person, and they recommended that Karin be sent for plastic surgery if her looks didn't improve in her teenage years. Karin's parents responded by disciplining Karin more strictly for her behavior, in hopes that a stronger moral character would improve her insang. Karin deeply loathes her relatives for this, and they in turn tend to strongly favor Charlotte and frequently give her better presents and verbal praise than they give Karin. Karin has an intense dislike of Korean culture and food as a result of these negative experiences, and her only real connection to the culture is that the Hans attend a Korean church every Sunday, albeit one where the sermons are delivered in English. Karin's parents do not generally treat Charlotte better than they treat her, but the family is frugal and Charlotte often gets new clothes and electronics while Karin gets her hand-me-downs. Charlotte also gets along with her parents more easily and they clearly enjoy her presence in a way that they do not seem to with Karin.

As with most children whose brain activity outpaces their age, Karin often had trouble sleeping. On nights when she could not sleep, she would sit by the window in the bedroom she shared with Charlotte, and stare out at the city lights. The neighborhood looked different at night, and she wondered what might be going on in other houses and apartments. One summer night when she was seven years old, Karin decided that she wasn’t satisfied with imagination; she wanted to go explore for herself. Over the next few nights, she worked out how to work the latch and slide up the window without waking Charlotte up. She walked around for a few minutes before she got scared of getting caught and went back inside. After a few weeks, she tried it again. And again. Her night walks soon became a secret habit, but she was careful about it. She only went out once a week, less if Charlotte slept fitfully, and never went very far.

In September, she was abducted. Someone shone a bright light into her eyes, blinding her, and picked her up. She was taken into a place she didn’t recognize, and a strange figure questioned her in words she didn’t understand. Eventually, she spotted her chance and escaped through a metal door, after which she tripped and fell to the ground, fracturing her arm. She ran to a playground near her apartment and hid there, sobbing, until the police found her the next morning. She told them what she believed had happened: that she had been abducted by aliens.

The Hans were extremely concerned, both by the incident and Karin’s bizarre explanation. They hired a therapist, who went over Karin’s scattered and inconsistent recollection of the incident and concluded that she had most likely been seen wandering in the dark by a helpful stranger. Many immigrants lived in the Hans’ neighborhood, and not all of them spoke English fluently. It was likely that the person who had picked her up was only intending to help and were too afraid of what the police might think to come forward. Karin rejected this explanation outright, and refused to talk to that therapist ever again. She has gone through four other therapists since then; the first three variously posited that Karin was sleepwalking, that she may have dreamed or fabricated some of the incident, or even that she’d escaped an abduction of the non-alien sort. Karin refused to believe any of these explanations, and has consistently maintained to her family and her therapists that she was taken by extraterrestrials.

Karin's parents took some practical precautions, installing a lock on the bedroom window and outfitting the house with a simple alarm system overnight. But they have never given credence to Karin’s story, and their patience wore thin after eighteen months. They settled for sending Karin for therapy as best they could afford it, and they otherwise began to avoid the topic as much as possible. Karin knew that her family didn't believe her and neither did the therapists or her teachers. Some of the kids at school were a bit more credulous at first, but others made fun of her. At first, Karin was known to break down in angry tears when she was accused of lying. By the time she was in fifth grade, her rage had dulled to quiet resentment. Her classmates had largely been told by their parents to ignore fantastic stories, or had otherwise aged into natural skepticism. Most kids settled for simply ignoring Karin, but a few girls picked on her. They gave her nicknames like Crazy Alien Girl and The Illegal Alien, and sometimes they drew pictures of flying saucers and put them in her backpack and her locker. Karin never spoke up about this, but she seethed internally. She became sullen and withdrawn, and was often terse or rude when she talked to other kids. She was disciplined by her teachers for outright refusing to participate in group projects. Eventually one of the girls pushed Karin too far, and she was suspended after punching her in the face during gym class. Soo-hyun met with school officials that afternoon, and made arrangements to have Karin transferred to another school. When they got home, Soo-hyun broke down in tears of frustration, and snapped at Karin for always getting into trouble and destroying the family’s reputation. The experience scarred Karin deeply, and she believes that her mother harbors the same dislike of her that her relatives do.

At her new school, Karin didn't talk about the aliens to any of her classmates. She embraced a reputation as a quiet person, and rarely spoke. She kept her head down and wrote in a small notebook at her desk. She tried to pay attention as best she could, but she still struggled. Her grades only showed a mild improvement, but her parents were pleased to note that she was no longer arguing with other kids.

In seventh grade, Karin was introduced to her current therapist, Dr. Friedman. He has made no attempt to explain the abduction, or to pass judgement one way or another. Instead, their sessions focus on coping mechanisms and opportunities for personal growth. He remarked on her rapid improvement throughout middle school, but cautioned that she was socially withdrawn. When she entered high school, Dr. Friedman suggested that she join a club in order to socialize with other students. To her parents’ surprise, Karin joined the drama club. She had reasoned that it didn't seem like much work, and because of her vivid imagination she'd had good grades in the subject throughout middle school. Drama club is one of the few places where Karin speaks openly and engages in discussions with other students. Despite doing well in the club, Karin’s fear of bright lights keeps her from ever appearing onstage in a production. She tells everyone that she has stage fright, to avoid spilling the real reason. She generally takes backstage roles, but whenever a play requires an offstage narrator role, she tries out for that and usually gets it. She also sometimes helps with sourcing props or costuming, and will occasionally help with set building.

At her parents’ insistence, Karin also joined the religion club. She attends it regularly, but often sits in the back doing homework and doesn’t contribute much to discussions. She does believe in God, but dislikes most Christians and finds them too narrow-minded.

Karin still isn't particularly good in school, and despite her natural intellect often has to study hard just to keep up with everybody else. Her best grades are in gym class, as her slight build and energy give her a decent turn of speed, which often helps her compensate for a lack of physical strength. She particularly excels in games like badminton, where agility and speed have a greater impact. She has never tried out for a sport, because she has no interest in being part of a team. In her more academic classes, Karin often tries to take a lot of notes so she can go over them later. She is easily frustrated with people who slack off during class, goof around and interrupt her note-taking, or seem full of themselves. She's often quite judgmental of the people around her, and enjoys people-watching and making snarky comments to herself.

When she’s not at school, Karin tends to hide in her room. She has an old laptop, handed down from Charlotte when she was given a new one. Karin uses it to watch a lot of anime, as a quiet act of rebellion. Her parents strongly dislike Japan and Japanese culture intensely, and Karin was scolded for watching anime as a child. Her rebellious side wanted to watch it even more, simply because it was forbidden. Ever since she figured out how to watch shows on her computer without her parents knowing, Karin began secretly watching anime in her free time. She started with generally popular shows like Hunter X Hunter, and after overhearing about the series at school, she went through Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. She continued watching other shows from there. She enjoys Death Note, Chainsaw Man, and Overlord, but particularly likes horror anime like Another and Deadman Wonderland. She also enjoys zombie movies from time to time, particularly the Dawn of the Dead remake and Train to Busan, but tends to be ambivalent about most other horror films. She enjoys zombies more than other horror genres because she's often felt alienated from other people and society at large, and the idea of being alone against a mindless populace resonates with her.

Karin is a member of several internet forums about anime and horror films, and often maintains at least two accounts: one for serious discussion, and the other for trolling. Online as in real life, she enjoys stirring up controversies and debates for her own amusement. When she’s in a less mischievous mood, she sometimes looks at online conspiracy boards, looking for stories about abductions and UFOs that mirror her own. On a few occasions she’s attempted to contact people who’ve had similar experiences, but she has yet to find anyone whose story seems credible. This makes her feel lonely and discouraged, so she rarely does it.

Karin doesn’t get on well with her parents. She loves them, and they love her in their own way, but Karin knows that they’re embarrassed to have a child in therapy. The Hans rarely spend time together, except for on Sundays where they attend church together and go out for lunch afterwards. Gye-chul and Soo-hyun seem satisfied with the progress that Karin has made in her therapy, and as long as she’s not actively causing trouble they are generally content to let her do as she pleases. Karin does not get along with Charlotte, who has moved out and is now a sophomore at Brown University. She does follow Charlotte on Instagram under a fake name, purely out of obligation. She does this so that she’ll have an answer when Soo-hyun asks questions about how Charlotte is doing, as she believes that the girls share a sisterly bond. This covert activity is the only real contact the two of them have outside of holiday visits.

Karin isn’t sure what she wants to do after high school. Her parents insist that she go to college. Karin would prefer to go somewhere out of state, but her parents are wary of another psychological incident and want her to attend somewhere closer. She was accepted to Minnesota State University, because it’s the cheapest school in the area. She hasn’t declared a major yet, but will likely got for English as it seems like the easiest subject. She is still debating whether she will actually attend.

Karin still attends therapy sessions with Dr. Friedman once or twice a month. He’s been consistently impressed with her improvements and tends to schedule her more casually so that it feels more like a check-in than a routine therapy session. Karin still has occasional nightmares about being taken by aliens and a paralyzing fear of bright lights, and her sessions generally revolve around discussing and managing them.

Advantages: Karin spends a lot of time in backstage environments, and thus is good at moving around silently and invisibly in low-light environments. This will give her an advantage at nighttime and in situations with low visibility, and make it easier for her to hide or avoid other students. She is also fairly agile, and a decent runner, making her harder to catch if she runs away. Her small size means that she can also escape through small openings if she needs to.
Disadvantages: Karin is absolutely terrified of bright lights, and will either become extremely panicked or throw up if an opponent catches her eyes with a flashlight. In either state, she will be helpless and extremely vulnerable. Karin also has few positive relationships with the rest of her class, and is unlikely to trust anyone or be trusted in return. Her small frame will also put her at a distinct disadvantage in physical altercations, and make her clumsy or ineffective with large or heavy weapons.

[MurderWeasel]

Hey, Gundham! Karin's looking pretty good, just a bit of expansion to go.

First off, a little template stuff: we're missing the Original Profile and Permission fields, so I'd like to get those added.

Since SC3's abduction takes place in May 2024, Karin's birth date should be moved up to 2005. The additional two years probably ripple to other dates in her bio as well.

Was the attempt to minimize the girls' accents successful?

What prompted Karin's relatives to treat her so differently from her sister? Were the girls actually that different at the time? How did Karin's parents address this with their daughters?

Who disciplined Karin for acting out? The school? Her parents? What form did this discipline take, and why did it never stick?

While Karin and her family may not know exactly what happened the night when she believes she was taken by aliens, I'd like to get it nailed down a little more in her profile. Right now the explanation starts out very dramatic (referring to her experience as an abduction), then sort of backpedals on that to make it more nebulous. I'd like to ideally get it to a consistent tone—if it's important that it be unclear what the motivation was, that's fine, but I'd like the details to be a bit more concrete and objective just so the reader has as easy a time as possible reconstructing what actually literally happened.

I'd also like to hear a bit more about the progression of therapists. How quickly did her parents give in to her not seeing the first therapist again? What made her so resistant? What was the time frame for the next four?

What consequences did Karin face for refusing to participate in group projects? Were her parents ever involved prior to the incident where Karin punched a classmate?

Does Karin actually like drama club, or does she mostly just view it as a way to appease her parents? If she is legit into it, what does she like about it?

Does Karin consider herself as belonging to any specific religion (and, if so, which)?

What classes does Karin have the hardest time in?

Why do Karin's parents harbor such negative feelings towards Japan?

At what age did Karin get into anime and zombie movies?

What draws Karin to conspiracy theories? Is it purely her own experience, or is there another element to it? Does she focus on UFO stuff primarily (or solely), or does she cast a broader net?

Have Karin and her sister ever gotten along? How was their relationship before Charlotte moved out (especially in the years in which they attended the same school)? Also, could I get one specific detail of Karin's relationship with her father?

Can I hear a bit about how Karin's issues with light affect her in normal life?

Finally, could I hear just a bit about how Karin directly feels about her childhood experiences now, with it over half of her lifetime ago, and how that's changed over time?

Post when you've got that taken care of, and we'll give Karin another look. Thanks!