Biography

Name: Jin he Domino
Nicknames: She’s most often called Domino, the moniker she was given by the first freakshow to own her, for her spots.
Age: 53 years old
DOB: unknown
Species: mermaid [altered] (this and this)
Displaced for: ~ 5 years
PB: Zhang Ziyi

Height: 5’3”
Eyes: Dark brown. Often seem very large in her face, and sad.
Hair: Very long and black
Build: Slim and perky, delicate and doll-like
General: She’s much longer when she has a tail, much taller. Her fins trail after her, lacy and beautiful. When she’s in the water, she’s gorgeous, all delicate and colored and diaphanous. She’s gold and orange and white, like a koi fish, and when she really tries, she can flare up out of the water and balance on her tail for a moment. Her ears have a bit of a point. She has gills behind her ears as well in her ribs. Her teeth are sharper and pointier than human teeth, and she’s self-conscious about that so her smiles almost always stay closed lipped. Her fingers are webbed, moreso when she’s finned than when she’s legged. Her toes are webbed when she’s legged as well.

When she has legs, she’s much more diminutive and also that much more reclusive. She’s short and slim and slight, and tends to curl in on herself unless someone really hits upon her pride. She gestures a lot with her hands when she finally gets interested in talking. When she gets wet while human, small patches of scales tend to start popping up, and if there’s an utter deluge she can be forced to turn back into a mermaid. Her feet are quite dainty.
Scent: similar to a fish but not quite.
Scars/Marks/Tattoos:

Marital Status: Single
Sexuality: Unknown. She’s never had anything resembling a romance.
Children: None
Parents: king and queen of a school of merpeople off the China coast
Siblings: Many, both male and female
Other family:

Hometown: China Sea
Occupation: Freakshow – mermaid tank
Powers:
Water – she can control water up to an extent. Her sisters are more powerful, she knows. Small water spouts, waves, streams in the air, but the more there is the less control she’ll have. She can also keep water rather well purified.

Changing – Normally she, like the rest of her kind, can only gain her legs with a magic spell or with the pull of the full moon. But she’s about to discover that she can now gain her legs anytime she wants, though often it still does feel like walking on knives when she uses her feet. It depends on the cycle of the moon as to how bad it is.

Supernatural – some of your normal stuff – much longer lifespan (She’s very young at 53, still, barely an adult). Increased healing and such.

Enchanting voice – Her voice while underwater is enchanting and can snare people’s attention. However, outside the water with legs, her voice is rough and gritty, a throaty alto that she doesn’t think has any beauty to it (though it does, in a way). It’s one of the things you give up, when you go on land.


Weaknesses:
Extreme heat – It causes her to dry out and, like a fish out of water, she can suffer and eventually die. Her skin will start cracking and peeling early on.

Water – when doused in water while legged, she starts to break out with scales. A few spots of water won’t do anything, but a spill or a deluge will start to give her scales back and enough will force her tail back.

Trauma – vulnerable like most to extreme traumas and such.

Blood in the water – Mermaids are omnivores, but like many of the more ‘apex’ predators, they do love meat. Though she’s no shark, she can lose control of herself when there’s blood in the water, and she would feel horrible if she hurt someone.

Walking on knives – depending on the cycle of the moon, walking on legs can be very painful. It’s one of the prices you pay, for moving about on land. It eases near the full moon, and the new moon is the most painful.

Personally:
Shy – Domino is very shy most of the time. She’s forced by circumstances to spend most of her time in her tank, so she has less social skills than most. She gets seized by intense bouts of shyness and curl in on herself and hide. She does get visitors, and they can win her over after a while. She’s learned to be a bit of a showgirl in her tank, but loud noises or rough people will still cause her to go hide in the back.

Agoraphobia – A side effect of living only in her tank for so long. It’s incredibly scary venturing outside of it, though once she has her legs, she’s going to try. She might get panic attacks though.

Clumsy – With her legs, she can be as clumsy as she is graceful in the water. She’s often running into things or tripping or falling down.

Skills:
Swimming – of course she is an above average swimmer.
Water manipulation – Decent skills at manipulating water even on legs.
Embroidery – not sewing in general, no, but sometimes she crawls out of the water and does very fine neat work, often with silks. It’s calming and she likes to make pretty things.
Video games – she loves a good video game, and with some amount of care, she really kicks butt at them. She’s very grateful for the set up that’s been given her, as she interacts with most people from behind a screen and it’s where she’s most comfortable. It’s also the best chance a person has of seeing her open up immediately. She gets very enthusiastic while playing.
Board games and card games – likewise, she likes games like that where she play, whether online or from her tank, when people come to visit.

Personality:
Shy and reclusive is the first impression. She’s very soft spoken, at least initially, and she has trouble finding her voice when around too many new people. She tends to hide behind her hair and speak so softly she can’t be heard at first. She’s very curious but also very embarrassed to have to ask questions about things that everyone else already knows about. She panics at loud noises and raised voices, especially if she has legs. She apologizes a lot when she knocks things over in her clumsiness.

If you can get to know her, though, she’s got a gentle wittiness and sense of humor, and can get very enthusiastic about the things she likes, waving her hands in the air and absolutely gushing about it. Sometimes she’ll realize what she’s doing and her mouth will shut and she’ll flush with embarrassment.

She’s learned to perform, and on the whole it’s okay. They don’t force her to do things, so she’s gotten more courageous. They don’t yell, either. Her favorite bits are getting to interact with the children, though. She adores children and will play with them all day. They’re the only ones she usually lets come in her tank with her, and she’d never harm them.

History:
She was born Jin he to a large school of merpeople off the coast of China. Her parents were effectively the king and queen, and she has a multitude of siblings. She was a quiet but vibrant young one, always curious and exploring on her own or with her siblings. She had a deft touch with other marine animals, and with the other children younger than her.

Merpeople age slower than many other species, and at 40 she was just barely being considered an adult. That was when the tsunami came. She was out in the open water, not having heard the warning in time to find proper shelter, and she got swept up. She was incredibly lucky she wasn’t killed, but as it was, she was injured and found by some less than honorable sorts before she could find her way back to the ocean.

For several years she was used in one show or another as a prize freak, her tanks very small and hard to maintain, forced to perform or show off, punished if she wasn’t. She might have been predisposed to be friendly, once, but reaching out had been punished. Talking too much had been punished. Trying to enchant had been punished. So she withdrew to herself.

Then the Carnival came to town, and her current owner, bored with her, offered to sell her. In truth, she was bought and paid for, but she was shocked to find once she was within the Beast’s grasp that she was treated… well, on the whole. She has a big tank with whatever she wants in it. Partition to make part of it private. She has her choice of foods. They gave her technology and encouraged her to use it. Someone taught her to read and write. Sure, she had to perform… but no one hurt her if she didn’t do it right. People even wanted to talk to her sometimes.

It’s been about five years, give or take. She is rather lonely, a lot of the time; she can’t come out and visit except during the full moon, and most people are busy during that. And she’s still very shy. But it’s better than before. They even let her go in the ocean, when they were on the coast last. Of course the beast refused to let her go far, but it was her first taste of it in many years.

And soon she’ll discover that she’s been altered – allowed to have legs whenever she wants, so she can venture outside of the confines of her ‘home.’

Storylines:
ANY AND ALL