Born on November 16th, 1978, to father Keung and Annette Li (née Henderson), Tanya — and her brother Thomas, who was born less than five years later — were raised in a caring, if modest, home. As a child, Tanya faced her share of hardships, but mostly external ones. Bullies who called her and her brother various epithets for the simple act of being born half-Chinese, extended family who didn't really understand the difficulty of trying to walk between two disparate cultures, and so on. This, combined with being raised in a poorer neighborhood of the Bronx, led Tanya to becoming something of a scrapper — she'd learned that when someone made the first "slant-eye" joke, she needed to let her fists keep them from making a second one — or doing something worse.
This attitude made her fall in with the "wrong crowd" in high school at P.S. 928, specifically a group dubbed the "low wallers" for generally hanging out on a low wall that ran along the front of the school. It was there on that wall she tried her first — and last — cigarette, where she gained an interest in picking locks, where she realized an interest in and affinity for cars, and where she forged friendships that, for better or worse, would last her into adulthood.
She graduated from high school in 1998, took a year break, then entered Bronx Community College for Automotive Technology. While her high school friends became high school drop-outs, she studied hard and worked hard, graduating after four years. She spent a year job-hunting, and finally got an entry-level position at Mack and Co. Automotive Repair, where she's been ever since. Not long after first becoming employed, she moved to Manhattan, living in an old apartment complex in Harlem, but its gentrification led to her building being bought then the the tenants evicted, so the apartments could be revamped and leased out at exorbitant prices. As such, she finds herself crashing on friends' sofas while she hunts for an affordable place, though having had her six-year-old cat Baudelaire — whom she's had since he was a kitten — doesn't make it any easier.
Confident: It's taken her years to get to that point, but she's finallymore or lessgained a strong understanding of herself and her abilities, her merits and her flaws. She's become a rather confident woman, though as yet it doesn't edge into arrogance—/too/ much.
Goal-Oriented: Once she starts something, she /will/ finish it, if at /all/ possible.
Goals: Her goals are simple, but then not everyone can juggle entire planets or spew lightning bolts from their nostrils. Her main goals are to continue climbing the ranks of Mack and Co. Automotive Repair, find time for friendships and outdoor activities, and continue helping people as best as she can.
Loyal: Once someone has earned her trust and respect, she will fight for them without question. No questions asked, if they need her, she'll be there; if they're in a fight, she'll leap to their defense.
Motivations: At the end of the day, it's to help people. Everyone's (hopefully) trying to do the best they can, and live as well as they can. This knowledge has led her to want to help nearly anyone she can, no matter what. Even people she might not otherwise want anything to do with, she'll help them if she can.
Family: She comes from a close-knit family; two parents and a younger brother who she can count on for help, and who can count on her.
Finances: Though far from "rich", thanks to her job and careful control of her bank account, she's not in danger of going to the poor house. %bShe can afford her phone, a small apartment, a few luxuries, and have enough left over to actually live on without scrimping and saving.
Friends in Low Places: Due to having friends she legitimately cares for in the less-than-savory walks of life, she has something of an information network. %bShe'd never be able to get anyone's secret identity or access to secret government files, but if she wants to know which shipping trucks are likely to get robbed or who's dealing what hard drugs, she can usually find out in a few days.
Jacket: More than just a jacket, it's something like her Swiss Army Coat, really. %bIt's got all kinds of things tucked into hidden inner pockets:%r%rLock Pick Sets%rTwo thirty-piece sets: One designed for European and Japanese locks, and one designed for United States' and Canadian locks. %bThey're handy little things, but, being highly illegal, are kept safely tucked into a hidden pocket at the small of her back. %bThey are well-made and were obviously very expensive. %bThey can open most mechanical locksbut only "most".%r%rWallet%rHidden in a another part of the jacket is her wallet, which doesn't have all that much in ita few tattered business cards, some pictures, and less than fifty dollars in cash.%r%rVictorinox Swiss Army Knife%rThe "SwissChamp", specifically. %bSometimes called a toolbox for your pocket, the SwissChamp packs an impressive thirty-three implements from fish scaler to wire cutters to magnifying glass to miniature pliers and more, but is still compact enough to fit in the pocket.
Motorcycle: An old Harley-Davidson XA; mostly original, refurbished parts but with a handful of elements that are technically new. %bIt's not the fastest thing aroundwith a top speed of all of sixty miles per hourbut it was hand-built over a few years, gets her where she wants to go, and can be eye-catching enough to let her meet new and interesting people.
Gear Head: If it's got an engine, she's into it. %bTaking them apart, souping them up, talking about them—you name it, if it's related to cars or trucks or motorcycles, she likes it. %bShe's more a fan of older models, before they had electronics shoved into every possible spot, but that's more personal preference than anything else. %bStill, she can take a vehicle apart and put it back together, sometimes better than new.
Gear Head MacGyver: If she doesn't have the proper tools and parts to fix a vehicle, she'll likely be able to jury-rig something from whatever's laying around. %bIt might not last very long, but it should work. %bShould.
Linguist: Due to her upbringing, she can read, write, and speak Mandarin Chinese and English fluently. %bComing from living in Manhattan and the Bronx all her life, she's also picked up a little Cuban Spanish, though it's not enough for much of a real conversation, however.
Lockpicking: Through patient study and practice, she's gotten to where most modern mechanical locks that you could pick up at a hardware supply store would take a minute or less, though when it's quiet enough around her to let her focus, she can sometimes cut that down a fair bit. %bA lock that's a little more complex will, of course, take her longer.
Martial Arts: As much for the focus and exercise as anything else, Tanya takes twice-weekly Jeet Kun Do classes, and has for years. %bShe isn't going to win any medals, but in the sorts of situations she'd have to defend herself, that wouldn't exactly be a factor.
Swimming: She's not exactly ready to compete in the Olympics or anything, but she can swim for quite a bit by herself before getting tired, and she can drag another person safely.
Friends in Low Places: Due to having friends she legitimately cares for in the less-than-savory walks of life, she's occasionally pulled into shenanigans she'd rather not—and her desire to help, at times, puts her at odds with her desire to keep from being incarcerated again, or having anything to do with extralegal activities. %bJust having these friends, period, has made people think she's "no better than they are", and has been at the receiving end of quite a few "talks" by well-intentioned individuals, as well as under scrutiny by such as police or even security guards simply because she hangs around a known thief, or is a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend of a drug dealer.
Only Human: In a citymuch less a worldfull of people who can shoot laser beams from their heinies and rain down destruction with an ill-timed sneeze, battle gods themselves and spin the entire planet on their finger like a basketball, she's comparatively super-smoosh-able and is, as such, severely disadvantaged when measured against the Spandex-wearers.
Scrapper: When push comes to shove, Tanya can show that there's still a lot of the Bronx left in her. %bShe doesn't usually start a bar brawl, for example, but there's rarely been one while she's around that she hasn't participated in, and she doesn't take kindly to bullies. %bShe'll usually try words to calm a situation—but her line between "words" and "actions" is a bit thinner than it probably ought to be.
As yet not much reputation to speak of outside the body-mod and car-repair community, and even that's centered mostly around northern Manhattan.
