Atherton Wing was a young nobleman on Persephone who, when he appeared in the episode "Shindig," had hired Inara Serra on multiple occasions and was eager to enter into a more permanent arrangement with her. At a fancy ball, he accepted an unwitting challenge to a duel from Malcolm Reynolds after Mal struck him for treating Inara like a whore (despite his own frequent and blatant insults to Inara in that very vein, Mal justified this action on the grounds that he only disrespected Inara's profession, while Wing's comment and actions showed disrespect to Inara herself).