Post by Min-Zhuo on Dec 14, 2010 20:34:14 GMT -5
Full Name: Min-Zhuo
Titles: Ronin
Nicknames: Ronin-san
Type:Original
Gender: Female
Age: Twenty-three
Birthplace: Ryoko Owari "The City of Lies", a port city known for its seedy underbelly and colonial status, though it lies in what is now called "The Firenation" inside the conquered parts of the Earth Kingdom.
Nationality/Loyalty: Fire/Earth and The Highest Bidder (At the moment she works most consistently for Earth Kingdom Warlords)
Status: Ronin, or wave-man. A wandering masterless Samurai. She would rank much higher than a peasant but on the lowest possible level of nobility.
Height: Five feet and ten inches (5'10")
Weight: One-hundred and fifty pounds. (150 lbs.)
Hair Color: Firenation flat black.
Eye Color: Pale otherworldly green
Distinguishing Features: Zhuo's most defining features are her strange mix of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation physical features. Her skin and hair match that of any Firenation citizen, but her pale green eyes and staggering height give away her earth Kingdom Heritage as clearly as any other sign. Along with those physical features is the "mask" she wears, a combination or red and white facepaint.
Apperance:
Starting from her skin, Zhuo wear thick cotton winding strips around her chest to serve as a binding agent for her breasts and what amounts to thin cotton underwear. Over this she usually wears a thin long sleeved white shirt, terminating in thin leather vambraces with articulated leather pieces sewn in as well as thick leather gloves. Over the thin shirt comes a red sleeveless lamellar cuirass and spaulders that fit tight around the body leaving as much freedom of movement as possible and over that a wide leather belt over a thin white scarf tied about her waist that peaks from the sides and dangles down her back, her daisho (or Katana and wakizashi set) is usually held by the belt on her right side. The scarf has delicate embroidered fire nation red scroll-work on the edges, a last cherished gift from her mother that she wears even to this very day, though it confuses people even more as to her true heritage. Underneath the curiass, attached to her shirt is a white hood also with embroidered red scroll-work that she flicks up and down depending on the weather.
Her normal pants are of a similar white material to her shirt though thicker in consistency. Over them she wears thick leather boots made of a dark wine color, and matching greaves that overlap the top of the low boots. Luckily the lamellar cuirass is long and segmented at the bottom giving her a minimum of protection on her upper thighs while still allowing her to run and jump as if she were some sort of grasshopper. Around her neck she wears a thick padded red leather gorget to protect her neck, ostensibly to prevent anyone from sneaking up from behind and slitting her neck in battle.
Her "casual clothing" is made up of a thin cotton Yukata with a dark green base and a white repeating branch theme. The Obi, or waist tie, is thick covering most of her lower waist and is a black color with dark grey accents. With this particular set of clothing Zhuo tends to wear thick white tabi, or single toed socks, and a pair of geta which are wooden sandals with raised platform soles. When dressing as such Zhuo does nothing different with her hair save perhaps a single flower or Tsumami-kamzashi hair decoration to top the whole look off.
She has a slender heart shaped face with full lips, a roman nose, a deep cat like haunting pale green eyes. The pink lips are more often than not twisted into a sort of sardonic scowl and she rarely, if ever, seems to smile. Creamy white skin and long feminine eyelashes top off a face that for all its beauty seems to be in a constant state of disrepair, wither it be small scratches on her eyebrow ridge, blueblack bruises across her chin, or most usually perfectly normal chapped lips. Covering this is what has become the woman's most iconic and breathtaking accessory, her face-paint. A thick covering of white covers her from neck to forehead, her lips are painted a shocking color of red and painted around her eyes are two deep red slashes of color. Not a single one of her employers has seen the woman without her painted face, and she would like to keep it that way. The design is heavily cribbed from the great Kyoshi Warriors, though Min has never claimed to be one, and the designs differ to a slight degree.
Her long thick blue black hair is almost always held up in a low knot at the base of her neck, a thick colored band keeping stray strands out of her face and away from her face-paint. Her fingers are long and thin, an artist or perhaps a dancers, but are covered in clauses and small scratch marks, her nails chopped short but meticulously kept clean. Her bust-line is modest in proportion but never displayed at all.
Their is a rather large scar underneath her right eye, that looks slightly like a crescent moon if viewed in the right way. She received it from a childhood accident wherein she fell from a tree after a bout of slightly to intense and unrestrained play with a few others small children. Of her more recent scars those that dot her arms and knuckles are usually the most obvious, though most are now faded, and only one or two is pink and newly healing.
Personality:Min is the Daughter of a General and of a Member of the Earth kingdom upper class. Raised to believe that Honor and Duty are the highest virtues any one person could aspire to Zhuo has taken those ideas to heart, basing her own moral code around those ideas. Their is Duty to ones family, then to the Fire Lord and his Lady, and lastly to the land and people themselves. Her exile has twisted this perception and left her reeling. She feels now that the only thing she must be true to is herself and to the memory of her family. The Fire Lord is no longer
Aside from all of her love of her parents and siblings, who are now gone from the mortal world. and her reverence for the code by which she lives Zhuo is a die-hard "tomboy", she had to be. She was not her sister who would marry high, she had to be tough. Unlike many of her her peers back in the royal court Min has never been very interested in the "feminine" pursuits. Min has never felt that what she is is wrong in any way. Even when her mother yet lived she encouraged her young daughter to pursue the things she wanted and not to care one bit about what the court "lovelies" had to say about her. So to this day she stays independent, wild, and a little bit masculine in mannerism and dress.
Stemming from her time living on the roads of the world Zhuo's developed a bit of a, crude, sense of humor to match the men's. Though she rarely participates in the lewd humor matches of other mercenary or Ronin she is well known to have a sharp wit and and uncanny knowledge of when to insert just the right kind of barb or joke, and can slip into the right pause in a conversation for any means necessary. It is most often with the men that she works with that she cracks her rare truly real, lopsided smiles.
At the same time the young woman inside Zhuo is a very real entity of her person, though it manifests itself in a few very select ways. Zhuo allows her hair to grow long and thick keeps herself clean and well groomed, and she wears armor it is of a beautiful make, if not ostentatious in design or execution. She enjoys gardening and playing the Shamisen, a long three stringed banjo like instrument, in her free time, but feels that it is inappropriate and a little embarrassing to reveal such things to anyone.
While a very independent woman Zhuo also longs for something nearly unattainable in the deepest parts of her heart, a family. A happy functioning family to love as her own. Her own past and her own family are as dysfunctional as they come, her mother a dead secret police enforcer, her father a sometimes ruthless army commander with too little time for his only daughter (though he loves her so). That being said she's unwilling to compromise who she is, and what she does, and that knocks most of the men in the kingdom of her station out of the park, and even further she seems at the current time, unwilling to conceive of the notion on any sort of conscious level, and if asked would vehemently deny the fact. At the heart of the matter she wants companionship, be it platonic or romantic to ease the loneliness in her heart.
Family:
Aikune Jishan - Father; deceased
Aikune Suna - Mother; deceased
Aikune Jin - Sister; deceased
Aikune Sasuke - Brother; deceased
History:
The history of the Aikune family is one that is more than a little storied and convoluted. The family has existed in some form or another for over one hundred years, a small noble lineage trusted enough to lead small armies or perhaps stand over a small holding or two, but to independently minded to ever be trusted controlling any of the larger cities or more important Imperil positions at court or abroad. So It was twenty years ago that Aikune Jishan was tasked with becoming the Imperial Governor of Ryoko Owari, a newly captured port city. Eager to prove himself to his masters Aikune quickly moved to the large city and set up his shop inside of the small Palace built by an Earth King long ago. He was soon to find out to his own chagrin that the city, already a place of heady criminal activity, seemed not only to not care that they were now part of the Fire Nation, but used the new label to its advantage morphing into the greatest capital of crime outside of the great Earth Kingdom Cities.
It was soon made rather clear to the young Aikune that the City liked its governor well enough, for a man of the Firenation, but that if he expected to survive he was going to have to make certain concessions to the people. So it was four years after he gained his position that Jishan did what was considered political suicide by his peers of the court, he married an Earth Kingdom “princess”. One of the last left within the city, used as a political dummy to keep the people happy “or so the Fire Lord presumed”. Suna was a powerful woman in her own right, a master manipulator and a go-to woman for many of the underground “groups” that plagued the city. One would have expected the two fierce figures to clash, and for it to end in nothing but misery, but they stayed happily married for decades, eventually having three children: Sasuke, Jin, and Min.
Sasuke inherited his mother’s earthbending, Jin her father’s firebending, and little Min the youngest of all was born without any bending to speak of but with a beauty that rivaled the courtesans of all the Kingdoms a useless gift as far as most were concerened. But neither of the Aikune’s would let their “crippled” daughter be anything but the best that she could be, so they began her training in the martial arts at a very young age. The daisho, the yari, the bow, and many others were taught to her. Tea ceremony, beauty secrets, the art of record keeping and figures, and how to keep all of her things in good repair were all forthcoming lessons for the young woman. Both of her parents knew that without any bending abilities to speak of the likelihood of her making a fine match, as a half-breed, in the courts of the Firenation where almost so small as to be laughable, and they knew the only men within Ryoko Owari itself were likely criminals looking for an “in” with the great family. So they prepared the young woman as best they could against any outcome they could imagine.
So it came to be that when the girl was twenty, her brother was poised to take control as Governor from their aging father, her sister was looking forward to a fine match, and her parents were in happy accordance living on the spoils of their years. It was then that the accusations started from all sides. The Aikune were corrupted, they were plotting against the city, the Firenation, any other number of things. Their children were abominations, they needed to die, and they all did really.
Racial tension in the city started spiraling out of control, riots spread across the city. Men, women, and children, were slaughtered for looking too much like this or that person, and eventually the violence found its way into the palace atop the hill. When the Knight of Long Knives was finished Ryoko Owari lay nearly in ruins, hundreds slaughtered, among them the Aikune Family. Save for the youngest daughter who had managed to flee from the city itself with the “help” of a few of her mother’s old friends.
Fleeing across the Earth Kingdom Min made her way into the heart of the Firenation seeking an audience with the great Fire Lord Ozai, to ask for revenge against those who had wronged her. She made it deep into he palace before she was stopped and informed she would not be allowed to see the Fire Lord, by some sniveling bureaucrat. He told her not to bother, to tun away and leave because she was already disgraced, and her family as well, so she turned and left her heart breaking.
Aikune Min was nothing, she ceased to exist as her family, who was almost as old as the Nation itself ceased to exist on the mere whim of a madman.
Cast aside, dirty, devastated, and nearly comatose with grief Min wandered into the city. It was summer then, and it was the time of the great festivals, and all around her the city was bright with joy and happiness, and people wandered wearing colorful masks shouting and laughing. In her hands the young woman clutched her daisho, the only thing she had left of her station and her family, so it was a surprise when from an alcove she heard a voice shouting at her, asking who she was and her business, and why did she look so sad.
It was a simple woman who asked these questions, the madam of a small house of beauty. Sensing Min’s distress she gently guided the young Ronin inside her simple shop and simply asked and Min told her all in-between heaving sobs and tears. “I am nothing.” She would say to the woman, who would grasp the girls chin, forcing her pale eyes to her own dark ones. “You may not be samurai, you may not be Aikune, but you will always be Min, you will always follow your code.”
Reaching behind her the woman grasped several small jars, and a tiny brush set, and told Min to still herself. In went the brush, and out, and lines were being laid across her face. “I have always liked the name Zhuo.” The woman said conversationally, brushing a slash of red across Min’s lips, “It means boat you know, and it was the name of a great warrior once in the ages of myth, though many do not remember her.” She set the brush set down. “She was a Ronin, much as you are, and she painted her face like I have yours.” Min lay a hand to her cheek as the woman lay a small bit of polished brass before her, and saw the pale face and slashes of red.
“Why did she do it?” Min whispered.
“To remind all that she was no one, that she was Ronin, and that everything she did was not for honor or glory, for none would know who she was truly.”
Min had stared, and the woman had told her to sleep, to take the night within her shop, and figure out what to do in the morning.
When Min awoke, the shop was an empty dead shell of what it had appeared as the night before, the floorboards and walls bare. All that remained was the mask on her face, and a small perfectly placed row of paints and brushes.
So Min-Zhuo, the painted woman, has worked as a Ronin for three years, and their has not been a day when she has not laid down her spear and her daisho and prayed, to the spirits for saving her from herself, and giving her hope in the darkest of times.
Status: Non-Bender
Rank: Master of Sojutsu - or the art of the Yari (long spear), Advanced/Intermediate in hand-to hand combat and Kenjutsu.
Skills:
Yari V
Kenjutsu IV
Hand to Hand III
Kyujutsu II
Min is a bit of a jack of all trades, being a Wave-man makes things a little harder for her than for those with masters of personal affiliations. She is handy at light repairs to armor and weapons, can survive for weeks without paying for food or shelter in most climates, is a passable archer and brawler along with other small and sundry abilities. Min is a capable liar and can drive a very hard bargain when she needs to (Living on the road has taught her to be shrewd) and along with it all she is an incredibly light sleeper.
Weaponry: Katana, Wakisashi, Yari, Long Knives. The Daisho set are obviously of excellent make an heirloom of the family, and they are kept in the best of shape as possible. The Yari on the other hand is a magnificent piece and obviously very well cared for, it is a massive six feet long, not including the foot long blade that tops it. The knives are probably the cheapest part of her outfit, being simple flat blades commonly seen in fishing villages to prepare fish and other such foods
Strengths:
Mastery of the Yari: Min is a master of Soijutsu, or the art of the spear, and can use it well in and out of battle. Not only does she enjoy fighting she's good at it.
A Wanderer by Nature: The life of a Ronin is one of constant travel and hardship, but also one of freedom. As a Ronin Min can choose whom she works for and why, where she lives, who she loves. She is never forced into anything and can do what she wants.
Living Weapon: Striking from any angel, with any part of herself, Zhuo is an engine of chaos.
Weaknesses:
Ronin: With no social connection beyond that which she makes for herself, Zhuo is at a disadvantage when dealing with high society
Female: As a woman, there are certain social prejudices against her vocation as a warrior. Most notably in the Earth Kingdom.
Poor: Zhuo never has much money on her person. Her livelihood makes it so that most of her income goes towards keeping what little she has in working condition.
Role Play Sample:
Mazaki was a beautiful city, at least from a distance, Zhuo thought as Charon shifted underneath her lazily rocking form one huge paw to the other. Reaching down the hooded woman patted the Mongoose-Dragon lightly on its leathery neck. "Easy boy, easy." She muttered leaning back up and squinting down at the port that sprawled out below her. She had pulled Charon onto the side of a road on one of the many great hills the ringed the city, to take a bit of a look before she went in. She had only been to Mazaki once before, and she had been nine at the time, so her remembrance of the incident was hazy, past a sudden urge to go jump in a fountain. A good look at the skyline, and some of the landmarks that could be spotted all over the city would do her a bit of good if she was ever on the run somewhere in the warren like alleyways and streets below her.
As she mused Charon gave another deep basso grumble and turned to snort at a passing Ostrich-horse who gave a squeak and dodged out of the larger animals way, sending its rider shouting. Zhuo simply stared him in the eye for half a second over her scarf and he backed off, mumbling something about daemons. Tightening her thighs around the saddle Zhuo snicked her tongue against her teeth and steered her mount back into the river of traffic that was streaming towards the cities northern most gate. The pace was sedate enough, for she had inadvertently become stuck behind a large cabbage merchants cart, but she really wasn't in a hurry. She needed to formulate a plan for finding Captain Lang before she could get down to the dirty deed.
Sighing and leaning back into the saddle Zhuo slipped a hand into her saddle pack and fetched out a rather large fruit. It was still relatively firm, but it was best to eat these things swiftly. It was a quick matter to release a wrist dagger and slice the round fruit into several large piece, and as she re-sheathed the blade with a flick of the wrist the second largest piece was stuffed into her mouth. The other she tossed to Charon who sinuously whipped his dark green molted head through the air and snagged it as it fell. By the time this little snack was through she was please to see they had reached the gates, though they were several people behind the great gate in the line.
It was but a few seconds before it was her turn to be interrogated by the uniformed guards who policed the wooden wall. "Whats your business here Ms?" the portly guard who took her papers asked as he glanced them over. "M'er to get a job, guardin caravan's an the like., or get a job on a ship." she canted back at him, her voice slipping into a dialect commonly used among the less, savory, of the Fire Nations citizens. The guard raised an eyebrow and passed the small wax sealed case back to her, which held all of her "relevant papers" she would need for the time being. She tucked them back into the saddle bag at her side fingers slipping over the wax seal.
"Well if you be looking for dock work, or ship work, best place to look is the Twisted Fish." The guard said sagely nodding his head, "Or the Nina fer land work."
"I thank 'ye kindly guardsman." She said with a small bow in her saddle as she passed. He grunted and waved the next in line on as Zhuo continued on into the city. Her first order of business was to find a place to stay that housed Mongoose-dragons, preferably close to the dockside bar. Gently nudging with her heels Zhuo steered through the city, slowly, eyes roving around marking the sights and the streets. She wished she had a map, those were much easier to memorize, but she hadn't had the time.
It wasn't long before she found a lodging house, and gave her name as Min. Charon wasn't happy to be left behind, but as she gently nudged his snout he settled down into his stall to morosely munch at a bale of food she had thrown in with him.
After that it was quick work to find her way to the dock, and into the Twisted Fish. It was dim, cramped, dirty, and filled with sailors. Sidling up to the bar she orders the house swill, and starts asking lightly about a Captain Lang, and if any of the rumors about him are true.
She does not try to hide that she is asking, simply the reason why. Hopefully someone will overhear and take the news of someone snooping around back to the esteemed Captain.
Your Name: Zoe
Other Characters: None
Titles: Ronin
Nicknames: Ronin-san
Type:Original
Gender: Female
Age: Twenty-three
Birthplace: Ryoko Owari "The City of Lies", a port city known for its seedy underbelly and colonial status, though it lies in what is now called "The Firenation" inside the conquered parts of the Earth Kingdom.
Nationality/Loyalty: Fire/Earth and The Highest Bidder (At the moment she works most consistently for Earth Kingdom Warlords)
Status: Ronin, or wave-man. A wandering masterless Samurai. She would rank much higher than a peasant but on the lowest possible level of nobility.
Height: Five feet and ten inches (5'10")
Weight: One-hundred and fifty pounds. (150 lbs.)
Hair Color: Firenation flat black.
Eye Color: Pale otherworldly green
Distinguishing Features: Zhuo's most defining features are her strange mix of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation physical features. Her skin and hair match that of any Firenation citizen, but her pale green eyes and staggering height give away her earth Kingdom Heritage as clearly as any other sign. Along with those physical features is the "mask" she wears, a combination or red and white facepaint.
Apperance:
Starting from her skin, Zhuo wear thick cotton winding strips around her chest to serve as a binding agent for her breasts and what amounts to thin cotton underwear. Over this she usually wears a thin long sleeved white shirt, terminating in thin leather vambraces with articulated leather pieces sewn in as well as thick leather gloves. Over the thin shirt comes a red sleeveless lamellar cuirass and spaulders that fit tight around the body leaving as much freedom of movement as possible and over that a wide leather belt over a thin white scarf tied about her waist that peaks from the sides and dangles down her back, her daisho (or Katana and wakizashi set) is usually held by the belt on her right side. The scarf has delicate embroidered fire nation red scroll-work on the edges, a last cherished gift from her mother that she wears even to this very day, though it confuses people even more as to her true heritage. Underneath the curiass, attached to her shirt is a white hood also with embroidered red scroll-work that she flicks up and down depending on the weather.
Her normal pants are of a similar white material to her shirt though thicker in consistency. Over them she wears thick leather boots made of a dark wine color, and matching greaves that overlap the top of the low boots. Luckily the lamellar cuirass is long and segmented at the bottom giving her a minimum of protection on her upper thighs while still allowing her to run and jump as if she were some sort of grasshopper. Around her neck she wears a thick padded red leather gorget to protect her neck, ostensibly to prevent anyone from sneaking up from behind and slitting her neck in battle.
Her "casual clothing" is made up of a thin cotton Yukata with a dark green base and a white repeating branch theme. The Obi, or waist tie, is thick covering most of her lower waist and is a black color with dark grey accents. With this particular set of clothing Zhuo tends to wear thick white tabi, or single toed socks, and a pair of geta which are wooden sandals with raised platform soles. When dressing as such Zhuo does nothing different with her hair save perhaps a single flower or Tsumami-kamzashi hair decoration to top the whole look off.
She has a slender heart shaped face with full lips, a roman nose, a deep cat like haunting pale green eyes. The pink lips are more often than not twisted into a sort of sardonic scowl and she rarely, if ever, seems to smile. Creamy white skin and long feminine eyelashes top off a face that for all its beauty seems to be in a constant state of disrepair, wither it be small scratches on her eyebrow ridge, blueblack bruises across her chin, or most usually perfectly normal chapped lips. Covering this is what has become the woman's most iconic and breathtaking accessory, her face-paint. A thick covering of white covers her from neck to forehead, her lips are painted a shocking color of red and painted around her eyes are two deep red slashes of color. Not a single one of her employers has seen the woman without her painted face, and she would like to keep it that way. The design is heavily cribbed from the great Kyoshi Warriors, though Min has never claimed to be one, and the designs differ to a slight degree.
Her long thick blue black hair is almost always held up in a low knot at the base of her neck, a thick colored band keeping stray strands out of her face and away from her face-paint. Her fingers are long and thin, an artist or perhaps a dancers, but are covered in clauses and small scratch marks, her nails chopped short but meticulously kept clean. Her bust-line is modest in proportion but never displayed at all.
Their is a rather large scar underneath her right eye, that looks slightly like a crescent moon if viewed in the right way. She received it from a childhood accident wherein she fell from a tree after a bout of slightly to intense and unrestrained play with a few others small children. Of her more recent scars those that dot her arms and knuckles are usually the most obvious, though most are now faded, and only one or two is pink and newly healing.
Personality:Min is the Daughter of a General and of a Member of the Earth kingdom upper class. Raised to believe that Honor and Duty are the highest virtues any one person could aspire to Zhuo has taken those ideas to heart, basing her own moral code around those ideas. Their is Duty to ones family, then to the Fire Lord and his Lady, and lastly to the land and people themselves. Her exile has twisted this perception and left her reeling. She feels now that the only thing she must be true to is herself and to the memory of her family. The Fire Lord is no longer
Aside from all of her love of her parents and siblings, who are now gone from the mortal world. and her reverence for the code by which she lives Zhuo is a die-hard "tomboy", she had to be. She was not her sister who would marry high, she had to be tough. Unlike many of her her peers back in the royal court Min has never been very interested in the "feminine" pursuits. Min has never felt that what she is is wrong in any way. Even when her mother yet lived she encouraged her young daughter to pursue the things she wanted and not to care one bit about what the court "lovelies" had to say about her. So to this day she stays independent, wild, and a little bit masculine in mannerism and dress.
Stemming from her time living on the roads of the world Zhuo's developed a bit of a, crude, sense of humor to match the men's. Though she rarely participates in the lewd humor matches of other mercenary or Ronin she is well known to have a sharp wit and and uncanny knowledge of when to insert just the right kind of barb or joke, and can slip into the right pause in a conversation for any means necessary. It is most often with the men that she works with that she cracks her rare truly real, lopsided smiles.
At the same time the young woman inside Zhuo is a very real entity of her person, though it manifests itself in a few very select ways. Zhuo allows her hair to grow long and thick keeps herself clean and well groomed, and she wears armor it is of a beautiful make, if not ostentatious in design or execution. She enjoys gardening and playing the Shamisen, a long three stringed banjo like instrument, in her free time, but feels that it is inappropriate and a little embarrassing to reveal such things to anyone.
While a very independent woman Zhuo also longs for something nearly unattainable in the deepest parts of her heart, a family. A happy functioning family to love as her own. Her own past and her own family are as dysfunctional as they come, her mother a dead secret police enforcer, her father a sometimes ruthless army commander with too little time for his only daughter (though he loves her so). That being said she's unwilling to compromise who she is, and what she does, and that knocks most of the men in the kingdom of her station out of the park, and even further she seems at the current time, unwilling to conceive of the notion on any sort of conscious level, and if asked would vehemently deny the fact. At the heart of the matter she wants companionship, be it platonic or romantic to ease the loneliness in her heart.
Family:
Aikune Jishan - Father; deceased
Aikune Suna - Mother; deceased
Aikune Jin - Sister; deceased
Aikune Sasuke - Brother; deceased
History:
The history of the Aikune family is one that is more than a little storied and convoluted. The family has existed in some form or another for over one hundred years, a small noble lineage trusted enough to lead small armies or perhaps stand over a small holding or two, but to independently minded to ever be trusted controlling any of the larger cities or more important Imperil positions at court or abroad. So It was twenty years ago that Aikune Jishan was tasked with becoming the Imperial Governor of Ryoko Owari, a newly captured port city. Eager to prove himself to his masters Aikune quickly moved to the large city and set up his shop inside of the small Palace built by an Earth King long ago. He was soon to find out to his own chagrin that the city, already a place of heady criminal activity, seemed not only to not care that they were now part of the Fire Nation, but used the new label to its advantage morphing into the greatest capital of crime outside of the great Earth Kingdom Cities.
It was soon made rather clear to the young Aikune that the City liked its governor well enough, for a man of the Firenation, but that if he expected to survive he was going to have to make certain concessions to the people. So it was four years after he gained his position that Jishan did what was considered political suicide by his peers of the court, he married an Earth Kingdom “princess”. One of the last left within the city, used as a political dummy to keep the people happy “or so the Fire Lord presumed”. Suna was a powerful woman in her own right, a master manipulator and a go-to woman for many of the underground “groups” that plagued the city. One would have expected the two fierce figures to clash, and for it to end in nothing but misery, but they stayed happily married for decades, eventually having three children: Sasuke, Jin, and Min.
Sasuke inherited his mother’s earthbending, Jin her father’s firebending, and little Min the youngest of all was born without any bending to speak of but with a beauty that rivaled the courtesans of all the Kingdoms a useless gift as far as most were concerened. But neither of the Aikune’s would let their “crippled” daughter be anything but the best that she could be, so they began her training in the martial arts at a very young age. The daisho, the yari, the bow, and many others were taught to her. Tea ceremony, beauty secrets, the art of record keeping and figures, and how to keep all of her things in good repair were all forthcoming lessons for the young woman. Both of her parents knew that without any bending abilities to speak of the likelihood of her making a fine match, as a half-breed, in the courts of the Firenation where almost so small as to be laughable, and they knew the only men within Ryoko Owari itself were likely criminals looking for an “in” with the great family. So they prepared the young woman as best they could against any outcome they could imagine.
So it came to be that when the girl was twenty, her brother was poised to take control as Governor from their aging father, her sister was looking forward to a fine match, and her parents were in happy accordance living on the spoils of their years. It was then that the accusations started from all sides. The Aikune were corrupted, they were plotting against the city, the Firenation, any other number of things. Their children were abominations, they needed to die, and they all did really.
Racial tension in the city started spiraling out of control, riots spread across the city. Men, women, and children, were slaughtered for looking too much like this or that person, and eventually the violence found its way into the palace atop the hill. When the Knight of Long Knives was finished Ryoko Owari lay nearly in ruins, hundreds slaughtered, among them the Aikune Family. Save for the youngest daughter who had managed to flee from the city itself with the “help” of a few of her mother’s old friends.
Fleeing across the Earth Kingdom Min made her way into the heart of the Firenation seeking an audience with the great Fire Lord Ozai, to ask for revenge against those who had wronged her. She made it deep into he palace before she was stopped and informed she would not be allowed to see the Fire Lord, by some sniveling bureaucrat. He told her not to bother, to tun away and leave because she was already disgraced, and her family as well, so she turned and left her heart breaking.
Aikune Min was nothing, she ceased to exist as her family, who was almost as old as the Nation itself ceased to exist on the mere whim of a madman.
Cast aside, dirty, devastated, and nearly comatose with grief Min wandered into the city. It was summer then, and it was the time of the great festivals, and all around her the city was bright with joy and happiness, and people wandered wearing colorful masks shouting and laughing. In her hands the young woman clutched her daisho, the only thing she had left of her station and her family, so it was a surprise when from an alcove she heard a voice shouting at her, asking who she was and her business, and why did she look so sad.
It was a simple woman who asked these questions, the madam of a small house of beauty. Sensing Min’s distress she gently guided the young Ronin inside her simple shop and simply asked and Min told her all in-between heaving sobs and tears. “I am nothing.” She would say to the woman, who would grasp the girls chin, forcing her pale eyes to her own dark ones. “You may not be samurai, you may not be Aikune, but you will always be Min, you will always follow your code.”
Reaching behind her the woman grasped several small jars, and a tiny brush set, and told Min to still herself. In went the brush, and out, and lines were being laid across her face. “I have always liked the name Zhuo.” The woman said conversationally, brushing a slash of red across Min’s lips, “It means boat you know, and it was the name of a great warrior once in the ages of myth, though many do not remember her.” She set the brush set down. “She was a Ronin, much as you are, and she painted her face like I have yours.” Min lay a hand to her cheek as the woman lay a small bit of polished brass before her, and saw the pale face and slashes of red.
“Why did she do it?” Min whispered.
“To remind all that she was no one, that she was Ronin, and that everything she did was not for honor or glory, for none would know who she was truly.”
Min had stared, and the woman had told her to sleep, to take the night within her shop, and figure out what to do in the morning.
When Min awoke, the shop was an empty dead shell of what it had appeared as the night before, the floorboards and walls bare. All that remained was the mask on her face, and a small perfectly placed row of paints and brushes.
So Min-Zhuo, the painted woman, has worked as a Ronin for three years, and their has not been a day when she has not laid down her spear and her daisho and prayed, to the spirits for saving her from herself, and giving her hope in the darkest of times.
Status: Non-Bender
Rank: Master of Sojutsu - or the art of the Yari (long spear), Advanced/Intermediate in hand-to hand combat and Kenjutsu.
Skills:
Yari V
Kenjutsu IV
Hand to Hand III
Kyujutsu II
Min is a bit of a jack of all trades, being a Wave-man makes things a little harder for her than for those with masters of personal affiliations. She is handy at light repairs to armor and weapons, can survive for weeks without paying for food or shelter in most climates, is a passable archer and brawler along with other small and sundry abilities. Min is a capable liar and can drive a very hard bargain when she needs to (Living on the road has taught her to be shrewd) and along with it all she is an incredibly light sleeper.
Weaponry: Katana, Wakisashi, Yari, Long Knives. The Daisho set are obviously of excellent make an heirloom of the family, and they are kept in the best of shape as possible. The Yari on the other hand is a magnificent piece and obviously very well cared for, it is a massive six feet long, not including the foot long blade that tops it. The knives are probably the cheapest part of her outfit, being simple flat blades commonly seen in fishing villages to prepare fish and other such foods
Strengths:
Mastery of the Yari: Min is a master of Soijutsu, or the art of the spear, and can use it well in and out of battle. Not only does she enjoy fighting she's good at it.
A Wanderer by Nature: The life of a Ronin is one of constant travel and hardship, but also one of freedom. As a Ronin Min can choose whom she works for and why, where she lives, who she loves. She is never forced into anything and can do what she wants.
Living Weapon: Striking from any angel, with any part of herself, Zhuo is an engine of chaos.
Weaknesses:
Ronin: With no social connection beyond that which she makes for herself, Zhuo is at a disadvantage when dealing with high society
Female: As a woman, there are certain social prejudices against her vocation as a warrior. Most notably in the Earth Kingdom.
Poor: Zhuo never has much money on her person. Her livelihood makes it so that most of her income goes towards keeping what little she has in working condition.
Role Play Sample:
Mazaki was a beautiful city, at least from a distance, Zhuo thought as Charon shifted underneath her lazily rocking form one huge paw to the other. Reaching down the hooded woman patted the Mongoose-Dragon lightly on its leathery neck. "Easy boy, easy." She muttered leaning back up and squinting down at the port that sprawled out below her. She had pulled Charon onto the side of a road on one of the many great hills the ringed the city, to take a bit of a look before she went in. She had only been to Mazaki once before, and she had been nine at the time, so her remembrance of the incident was hazy, past a sudden urge to go jump in a fountain. A good look at the skyline, and some of the landmarks that could be spotted all over the city would do her a bit of good if she was ever on the run somewhere in the warren like alleyways and streets below her.
As she mused Charon gave another deep basso grumble and turned to snort at a passing Ostrich-horse who gave a squeak and dodged out of the larger animals way, sending its rider shouting. Zhuo simply stared him in the eye for half a second over her scarf and he backed off, mumbling something about daemons. Tightening her thighs around the saddle Zhuo snicked her tongue against her teeth and steered her mount back into the river of traffic that was streaming towards the cities northern most gate. The pace was sedate enough, for she had inadvertently become stuck behind a large cabbage merchants cart, but she really wasn't in a hurry. She needed to formulate a plan for finding Captain Lang before she could get down to the dirty deed.
Sighing and leaning back into the saddle Zhuo slipped a hand into her saddle pack and fetched out a rather large fruit. It was still relatively firm, but it was best to eat these things swiftly. It was a quick matter to release a wrist dagger and slice the round fruit into several large piece, and as she re-sheathed the blade with a flick of the wrist the second largest piece was stuffed into her mouth. The other she tossed to Charon who sinuously whipped his dark green molted head through the air and snagged it as it fell. By the time this little snack was through she was please to see they had reached the gates, though they were several people behind the great gate in the line.
It was but a few seconds before it was her turn to be interrogated by the uniformed guards who policed the wooden wall. "Whats your business here Ms?" the portly guard who took her papers asked as he glanced them over. "M'er to get a job, guardin caravan's an the like., or get a job on a ship." she canted back at him, her voice slipping into a dialect commonly used among the less, savory, of the Fire Nations citizens. The guard raised an eyebrow and passed the small wax sealed case back to her, which held all of her "relevant papers" she would need for the time being. She tucked them back into the saddle bag at her side fingers slipping over the wax seal.
"Well if you be looking for dock work, or ship work, best place to look is the Twisted Fish." The guard said sagely nodding his head, "Or the Nina fer land work."
"I thank 'ye kindly guardsman." She said with a small bow in her saddle as she passed. He grunted and waved the next in line on as Zhuo continued on into the city. Her first order of business was to find a place to stay that housed Mongoose-dragons, preferably close to the dockside bar. Gently nudging with her heels Zhuo steered through the city, slowly, eyes roving around marking the sights and the streets. She wished she had a map, those were much easier to memorize, but she hadn't had the time.
It wasn't long before she found a lodging house, and gave her name as Min. Charon wasn't happy to be left behind, but as she gently nudged his snout he settled down into his stall to morosely munch at a bale of food she had thrown in with him.
After that it was quick work to find her way to the dock, and into the Twisted Fish. It was dim, cramped, dirty, and filled with sailors. Sidling up to the bar she orders the house swill, and starts asking lightly about a Captain Lang, and if any of the rumors about him are true.
She does not try to hide that she is asking, simply the reason why. Hopefully someone will overhear and take the news of someone snooping around back to the esteemed Captain.
Your Name: Zoe
Other Characters: None
