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Kin-Liu is one of the two cat-like beings that wander the hallways of General Ghestov Sal-Yun's monstrous space fortress, CRASHER. She is the female red cat with a large tail, a coin on her forehead, and wearing what appears to be a blue karate gi. She carries a samurai sword and can fight with martial arts. Together with Harken, the other cat-like being who wears a reaper hood and carries a large scythe, Kin-Liu keeps the ship repaired and running, and is supposed defend it against intruders. However, sometimes these two will help enemies of Ghestov and other times simply ignore them. The two of them talk with each other quite a bit, often esoterically...It's as though they have their own agenda.

The true purpose and identity of Harken and Kin-Liu is unknown. After being banished from his home planet, Ghestov had discovered the derelict remains of CRASHER floating in space. It was obviously created by the civilization of another planet, one perhaps far more advanced in technology than that of any presently-known world. It is not known if CRASHER was a vessel used for exploring space, for transportation, or warfare, but Ghestov and his followers converted it to a formidable war machine, nonetheless. Harken and Kin-Liu were already onboard the ship when he found it, and, amazingly, they were keeping it in fairly good condition. This is probably why Ghestov was able to make good use of it.

But there is quite a bit of mystery surrounding these two cats. Are they part of the civilization that made CRASHER? Are they all that remains of its vanished crew? Are they just artificial creations that exist solely for the purpose of maintaining the ship, or do they have their own sentience? Do they have something to do with the original crew's disappearance? Why do they help Ghestov and why do they sometimes help his foes? Another theory is that they might be ghosts or spirits of some kind.

Although Harken is a permutation of a character that I've been sketching and doodling in my notebooks since I was in grade school, Kin-Liu was created specifically to be an avatar for an internet friend of mine around the time I joined The Minerva Project website. My friend liked this design so much, the character became practically synonymous with her, although I did use Kin-Liu in my early TMP scripts. Neither of these characters ever appeared in the original Image Arcane or R.A.U. comics, but they are one of the few elements of TMP I've legitimized. (My TMP stories were essentially an "alternate universe" version of Image Arcane, and since the site went down years ago, pretty much everything has been retconned from existence unless I specifically say it's now canon.)

Since I had been sketching Harken for years, I had wanted to use him in my comics, but couldn't really decide where best to fit him in. It wasn't until I created Kin-Liu that I finally found a purpose for him. She is the perfect "yin" to his "yang", and I find these two inseparable now.