Post by baoli on Mar 10, 2008 10:50:14 GMT -5
Name: Bao Li Shang
Age: 12
Gender: Male
Group: Earth Kingdom Citizen
Nation: Earth Kingdom
Bender?: No.
Physical Appearance: Bao Li is a farily average-seeming boy, more than capable of blending in with his surroundings. He stands approximately 4'7" tall and is very skinny - he couldn't weigh more than 95 pounds if you soaked him. His whip-thin profile is hard to spot because of its overwhelming tininess, especially when he's running for cover and ducking into alleyways.
If you do manage to spot him in the crowd, you likely already know who you're looking for - a somewhat dirt-covered copper-skinned boy, most of his long, fine, ebony hair pulled back in a braid that hangs to his waist and is very tenuously held fast with a frayed strap of leather tied in knots at the bottom. His bangs are bordering on too long, and dangle into his eyes at times - they're also very messy compared to the rest of his hair, and often have a ruffled appearance to them, as if they've been permanently toussled. They also look as though he probably cuts them himself, and are consequentially somewhat uneven. His hair, even though pulled back, actually hides most of his ears under it - what is still visible are the small detached lobes at the bottom, the left one of which is pierced with a small bronze stud.
His round face is a clear indicator of his youth, and his twinklng (and mischevious), wide set India green eyes are somewhat large in comparison to the rest of his features. Above them are two thin black eyebrows, both of which have a mild arch to them. His nose could only be described as 'button', and is the source of much personal annoyance - it, and his 'chubby cheeks' are the two features elders most often pick out and call 'adorable'. They make it very difficult to be taken seriously among older company, simply because they accentuate his youth even more. He also has a wide, expressive mouth with somewhat full lips, and is nearly constantly stuck in a lopsided grin.
Clothing/Armor: Typical of a citizen of Ba Sing Se, Bao Li dresses primarily in earthtones - he commonly wears the same outfit for days on end, until the stench of it forces him to do laundry or get caught after a robbery.
His usual street clothing consists of a long sleeved forest green Chinese-collared linen shirt, covered in patches and stains of various fading colours (including an ever-present grey-purple patch on the left elbow and a badly stitched tear in the right shoulder) with fraying rather than cuffs at the wrists, a simple canvas fallow-coloured sleeveless vest with three fabric-covered buttons of a similar colour, the middle of which dangles precariously from its thread. The vest has a single interior pocket that leans against the left breast, and two exterior pockets at the hips. Bao Li also wears a wide rust leather belt with a deep black buckle and a pair of somewhat baggy (and probably two sizes too large) goldenrod pants. The right knee of said pants is shredded, and on the verge of tearing entirely.
Bao Li has no shoes to speak of, and the entire outfit (and Bao Li himself) is covered in dirt and dust almost perpetually. He also owns no armor, but he is a child (and poor), and thus does not need any.
He almost always has a small grey canvas bag tied to his back by a single thin cord that loops diagonally from the bag's neck across his chest and secures to the bag's bottom. He calls it his 'loot sack'. It rarely has anything more than a few candies and lint in it.
Weapons: Bao Li owns a matched pair of well-loved and somewhat abused butterfly knives with black-wrapped hilts in a single ragged but well-oiled deep brown leather sheath at his lower back, if he manages to sneak them past his grandmother. He is marginally skilled with them, having practiced the art of combat with his father in the family yard from the time of his 5th birthday. This is enough to work on people his own age/size, but nothing an adult who knows the way of weapons would be scared by - especially considering how little his father was actually home to train him. More often than not, the blades become oversized utility knives for him if they come with him at all.
He also carries a set of lockpicks and a small, adult finger-sized utility blade with a wooden hilt that doesn't look capable of cutting more than fabric tucked in a kit inside his vest at all times, and if questioned regarding them, will claim he locks himself out a lot and needs them to get home. And then run away.
Personality: Bao is still somewhat childish and immature, being prone to sneaking out of the care of elders and wandering the streets of Ba Sing Se at his whim. He delights in sarcasm, practical jokes, and anything that'll net him enough coin to get something sugar filled from the market. He tends to lack a sense of the true consequences of what he does, thinking most of it just a game. He presents to the world a face full of youthful confidence and assuredness of his own skill, even when it is lacking. He tends to hold all attempts at helping him at arm's length, and always wants to do for himself rather than have others do for him. He rarely admits he was wrong and is prone to spinning a situation so he looks right, even if he's being an idiot.
Despite his larcenous leanings, Bao Li has a code of ethics - one handed down from his father. He refuses to take from people who will be worse off than him if their items are stolen, he never takes more than he needs, and shares his spoils where necessary. He will not violate this code willingly, though his ideals of what he needs are a bit sketchy - he is, as most children, of the opinion he needs candy, for example.
Underneath, however, Bao Li is scared. His father left him in the care of his elderly grandparents when he left the city a year ago, and Bao Li misses him. He's heard rumors of the entire army marching on patrols outside the city walls, but doesn't know why, and every time he tries to find out where his father is, the result is the same: His inqueries are shut out by authority, who claim wholeheartedly the man's on routine patrol with his unit. Bao Li is unsure what's going on, he's afraid his somewhat lacking life skills may have to mature sometime sooner than he wants them to, and most of all, he's lonely. He really, really misses his father.
Background: The only child of a low ranking Earth Kingdom soldier and a laundress of modest means who lived in the Lower Ward (the poor section) of Ba Sing Se, Bao Li was to be the pride of the family. His birth was highly anticipated - until tragedy struck. Something went wrong during his birth, and he barely survived it. Had it not been for the lucky intervention of a midwife's aid, Bao Li probably would have asphyxiated. His mother, however, was not so lucky. The messy birthing killed her some two weeks later, when an infection - and her husband's inability to pay for medication to cure it - finally laid her low.
His father made the best of a bad situation - the already lacking income of the family made it difficult to raise a son, but Bao Li's maternal grandparents pitched in where they could and allowed his father to seek out other means of employment to supplement his soldier's income. Bao Li has not to this day found out what his father did during this period, but assumes it was thievery.
As Bao Li grew up he barely saw his father, but cherished the time he got and learned whatever he could from the man, including basic survival skills, some cooking (mainly rice dishes and nothing really fancy), and the art of fighting with two butterfly swords. He considers his father one of the greatest men alive because of what he did for the family. During the absences, Bao Li developed a knack for sneaking about, leaving home when he wasn't supposed to and pickpocketing and other criminal activities, his small frame allowing him to duck and weave through market crowds easily. He also took up lockpicking on the side, and with a set 'liberated' from a market stall, began opening everything he could, even if he wasn't taking anything.
When Bao Li turned 11, his father gave him the last gift he ever got - a pair of well loved butterfly swords of his own, which Bao Li's grandmother has since impounded in a locked chest at the foot of her bed, stating that he was too young - and too much trouble - to have real weapons. Bao Li put up a fight at first, but soon realized that he doesn't really require knives of that size to operate in the city, so he leaves them where they lie for the most part. Occasionally, he will sneak them out when his grandmother isn't looking, mainly to scare other kids away from his marks. He always has them back in the chest before the evening of the day he takes them is up to prevent further things from being removed from his use.
Bao Li cherishes his butterfly knives, as shortly after recieving them his father recieved a scroll that called for his previously inactive unit to leave the city for an unspecified length of time. Bao Li has not seen or heard from his father since that fateful day, and has been living under the somewhat lacking, if loving, care of his elderly maternal grandparents since.
His grandparents are both well past working age and are generally unable to keep up with Bao Li on the whole. His grandfather is bedbound, having had his legs mangled in a severe construction accident some years past, and though his mind is keen and his tongue is sharp and full of 'advice' for his grandson, he can't generally enforce any sort of disciplinary measures on the boy due to his condition even if he does find out about Bao Li's runs through the market.
Bao Li's grandmother, Mrs. Mao, often has her hands full with the upkeep of their tiny house and the care of her husband. She does generally keep an ear to the local gossip chain while doing the family laundry in a communal tub with her neighbours, and put the word out for friends of the family to watch Bao Li when she knows he's out of the house - his grandmother is keenly aware of the boy's love for sugar, and also knows that she cannot afford to take care of him to the standard that he likes. She also knows he occasionally comes home with pastry crumbs in his vest or icing on his face, so he's likely up to no good.
She originally tried talking to Bao Li about his activities, and tried to convince him that school was a better idea than theft (particularly where the Dai Li were involved), but her lecturing lead to him running away and living in back alleys for three days, during which she worried sick. When he came back of his own volition, she resolved to just let him do whatever it was he was going to do and try to clean up after him. She still worries, not knowing when he's going to overstep his bounds, but at least he comes home at night and that's all that matters to her.
Bao Li and his grandmother have come to an agreement, for the sake of both their hearing, that they will not tell his grandfather what Bao Li does during the day. The question of how he spends a day is avoided during most conversation in the Mao-Shang household, and tends to get directed to involving the elderly Mao male in stories of years past and how much better things were for everyone in the city then. As long winded and pointless as such stories usually are, at least they're better than the shouting match that would ensue if Mr. Mao found out his grandson was a petty thief.
Bao Li has several aquantances in the Lower Ward of Ba Sing Se, being a boy who's often out and about in the ward and the market. His mischevious nature puts him at odds with the law-abiding and serious, but he's got a host of adults who look out for him because they believe he could do well if given a chance and out of respect for his grandmother. He was breifly the leader of a small 'gang' of sorts, consisting mainly of six to ten year old boys and girls with nothing better to do. The 'gang' has since broken up, but the members stay in touch when they can, exchanging information on who's got the best stuff in the market when they meet.
Thus far, he's managed to stay out of any real trouble. Time will tell when it comes to that, however - all thieves get caught eventually, especially the self assured and somewhat bad ones.
Sample RP: Another typical morning in Ba Sing Se, Bao Li had to admit as much the second the cabbage vendor got into a shouting match with the old lady who sold stinking fish cakes from Lake Laogai. Something about cart placement rights or somesuch nonsense. Bao Li didn't care. He grinned and looked to the sky, drinking in the freedom of not having to worry about that pesky thing the rich kids had to - school.
He sat huddled in a corner of the bustling market, his back to a wall, and sighed as his stomach growled at him angrily. If he didn't find a mark soon, he was sure he'd starve - Grandma Mao's porridge was alright, but there was never enough of it to get a full belly anymore, even with dad's meager pay still being sent to the family. He had to take care of things like this himself - after all, Bao Li was the man of the house nowadays. Nodding as he considered this, he watched the market. It was a matter of time before...
Ah! There we go - an upper crusty out for a jaunt in the silk stands, looking for a new dress. She was sure to have a hefty coinpurse with her, and Bao Li intended to help her lighten the burden. He crept between the stalls, ducking from shadow to shadow so as not to get caught. He crept right up beside the woman, who was wrapping herself in a bolt of green silk from somewhere in the country and stretched out his deft little fingers to make a grab for the money.
Before his hand closed around the purse's ties, a hand yanked him backwards by the collar and into the shadows near the stand. He yelped, and a hand clapped over his mouth. The merchant and the woman both looked around, but seeing no source for the sound never worried. The woman with the silk bolt and the fat purse returned to haggling with the merchant. Bao Li turned angrily on the person who had grabbed him.
"What was that for? I had her!" He whispered, his voice an angry hiss as he turned around and came eye to eye with the old bearded man with a picnic basket across his back. Bao Li's stomach growled as if in agreement. The old man chuckled.
"Are these the kind of manners they teach children in Ba Sing Se?" The old man questioned, his brown eyes twinkling. He flung the basket off his back and fished out a pair of buns, handing them to Bao Li. Bao Li blinked, but shoved a bun into his mouth anyway.
"I could've gotten these myself, old man," he managed between bites, spitting out bun fragments in the process. The old man laughed and shouldered his basket once more, walking from the alley and leaving Bao Li to eat his prize.
"I'm sure you could have. But why do all that work when someone is willing to help?"
Age: 12
Gender: Male
Group: Earth Kingdom Citizen
Nation: Earth Kingdom
Bender?: No.
Physical Appearance: Bao Li is a farily average-seeming boy, more than capable of blending in with his surroundings. He stands approximately 4'7" tall and is very skinny - he couldn't weigh more than 95 pounds if you soaked him. His whip-thin profile is hard to spot because of its overwhelming tininess, especially when he's running for cover and ducking into alleyways.
If you do manage to spot him in the crowd, you likely already know who you're looking for - a somewhat dirt-covered copper-skinned boy, most of his long, fine, ebony hair pulled back in a braid that hangs to his waist and is very tenuously held fast with a frayed strap of leather tied in knots at the bottom. His bangs are bordering on too long, and dangle into his eyes at times - they're also very messy compared to the rest of his hair, and often have a ruffled appearance to them, as if they've been permanently toussled. They also look as though he probably cuts them himself, and are consequentially somewhat uneven. His hair, even though pulled back, actually hides most of his ears under it - what is still visible are the small detached lobes at the bottom, the left one of which is pierced with a small bronze stud.
His round face is a clear indicator of his youth, and his twinklng (and mischevious), wide set India green eyes are somewhat large in comparison to the rest of his features. Above them are two thin black eyebrows, both of which have a mild arch to them. His nose could only be described as 'button', and is the source of much personal annoyance - it, and his 'chubby cheeks' are the two features elders most often pick out and call 'adorable'. They make it very difficult to be taken seriously among older company, simply because they accentuate his youth even more. He also has a wide, expressive mouth with somewhat full lips, and is nearly constantly stuck in a lopsided grin.
Clothing/Armor: Typical of a citizen of Ba Sing Se, Bao Li dresses primarily in earthtones - he commonly wears the same outfit for days on end, until the stench of it forces him to do laundry or get caught after a robbery.
His usual street clothing consists of a long sleeved forest green Chinese-collared linen shirt, covered in patches and stains of various fading colours (including an ever-present grey-purple patch on the left elbow and a badly stitched tear in the right shoulder) with fraying rather than cuffs at the wrists, a simple canvas fallow-coloured sleeveless vest with three fabric-covered buttons of a similar colour, the middle of which dangles precariously from its thread. The vest has a single interior pocket that leans against the left breast, and two exterior pockets at the hips. Bao Li also wears a wide rust leather belt with a deep black buckle and a pair of somewhat baggy (and probably two sizes too large) goldenrod pants. The right knee of said pants is shredded, and on the verge of tearing entirely.
Bao Li has no shoes to speak of, and the entire outfit (and Bao Li himself) is covered in dirt and dust almost perpetually. He also owns no armor, but he is a child (and poor), and thus does not need any.
He almost always has a small grey canvas bag tied to his back by a single thin cord that loops diagonally from the bag's neck across his chest and secures to the bag's bottom. He calls it his 'loot sack'. It rarely has anything more than a few candies and lint in it.
Weapons: Bao Li owns a matched pair of well-loved and somewhat abused butterfly knives with black-wrapped hilts in a single ragged but well-oiled deep brown leather sheath at his lower back, if he manages to sneak them past his grandmother. He is marginally skilled with them, having practiced the art of combat with his father in the family yard from the time of his 5th birthday. This is enough to work on people his own age/size, but nothing an adult who knows the way of weapons would be scared by - especially considering how little his father was actually home to train him. More often than not, the blades become oversized utility knives for him if they come with him at all.
He also carries a set of lockpicks and a small, adult finger-sized utility blade with a wooden hilt that doesn't look capable of cutting more than fabric tucked in a kit inside his vest at all times, and if questioned regarding them, will claim he locks himself out a lot and needs them to get home. And then run away.
Personality: Bao is still somewhat childish and immature, being prone to sneaking out of the care of elders and wandering the streets of Ba Sing Se at his whim. He delights in sarcasm, practical jokes, and anything that'll net him enough coin to get something sugar filled from the market. He tends to lack a sense of the true consequences of what he does, thinking most of it just a game. He presents to the world a face full of youthful confidence and assuredness of his own skill, even when it is lacking. He tends to hold all attempts at helping him at arm's length, and always wants to do for himself rather than have others do for him. He rarely admits he was wrong and is prone to spinning a situation so he looks right, even if he's being an idiot.
Despite his larcenous leanings, Bao Li has a code of ethics - one handed down from his father. He refuses to take from people who will be worse off than him if their items are stolen, he never takes more than he needs, and shares his spoils where necessary. He will not violate this code willingly, though his ideals of what he needs are a bit sketchy - he is, as most children, of the opinion he needs candy, for example.
Underneath, however, Bao Li is scared. His father left him in the care of his elderly grandparents when he left the city a year ago, and Bao Li misses him. He's heard rumors of the entire army marching on patrols outside the city walls, but doesn't know why, and every time he tries to find out where his father is, the result is the same: His inqueries are shut out by authority, who claim wholeheartedly the man's on routine patrol with his unit. Bao Li is unsure what's going on, he's afraid his somewhat lacking life skills may have to mature sometime sooner than he wants them to, and most of all, he's lonely. He really, really misses his father.
Background: The only child of a low ranking Earth Kingdom soldier and a laundress of modest means who lived in the Lower Ward (the poor section) of Ba Sing Se, Bao Li was to be the pride of the family. His birth was highly anticipated - until tragedy struck. Something went wrong during his birth, and he barely survived it. Had it not been for the lucky intervention of a midwife's aid, Bao Li probably would have asphyxiated. His mother, however, was not so lucky. The messy birthing killed her some two weeks later, when an infection - and her husband's inability to pay for medication to cure it - finally laid her low.
His father made the best of a bad situation - the already lacking income of the family made it difficult to raise a son, but Bao Li's maternal grandparents pitched in where they could and allowed his father to seek out other means of employment to supplement his soldier's income. Bao Li has not to this day found out what his father did during this period, but assumes it was thievery.
As Bao Li grew up he barely saw his father, but cherished the time he got and learned whatever he could from the man, including basic survival skills, some cooking (mainly rice dishes and nothing really fancy), and the art of fighting with two butterfly swords. He considers his father one of the greatest men alive because of what he did for the family. During the absences, Bao Li developed a knack for sneaking about, leaving home when he wasn't supposed to and pickpocketing and other criminal activities, his small frame allowing him to duck and weave through market crowds easily. He also took up lockpicking on the side, and with a set 'liberated' from a market stall, began opening everything he could, even if he wasn't taking anything.
When Bao Li turned 11, his father gave him the last gift he ever got - a pair of well loved butterfly swords of his own, which Bao Li's grandmother has since impounded in a locked chest at the foot of her bed, stating that he was too young - and too much trouble - to have real weapons. Bao Li put up a fight at first, but soon realized that he doesn't really require knives of that size to operate in the city, so he leaves them where they lie for the most part. Occasionally, he will sneak them out when his grandmother isn't looking, mainly to scare other kids away from his marks. He always has them back in the chest before the evening of the day he takes them is up to prevent further things from being removed from his use.
Bao Li cherishes his butterfly knives, as shortly after recieving them his father recieved a scroll that called for his previously inactive unit to leave the city for an unspecified length of time. Bao Li has not seen or heard from his father since that fateful day, and has been living under the somewhat lacking, if loving, care of his elderly maternal grandparents since.
His grandparents are both well past working age and are generally unable to keep up with Bao Li on the whole. His grandfather is bedbound, having had his legs mangled in a severe construction accident some years past, and though his mind is keen and his tongue is sharp and full of 'advice' for his grandson, he can't generally enforce any sort of disciplinary measures on the boy due to his condition even if he does find out about Bao Li's runs through the market.
Bao Li's grandmother, Mrs. Mao, often has her hands full with the upkeep of their tiny house and the care of her husband. She does generally keep an ear to the local gossip chain while doing the family laundry in a communal tub with her neighbours, and put the word out for friends of the family to watch Bao Li when she knows he's out of the house - his grandmother is keenly aware of the boy's love for sugar, and also knows that she cannot afford to take care of him to the standard that he likes. She also knows he occasionally comes home with pastry crumbs in his vest or icing on his face, so he's likely up to no good.
She originally tried talking to Bao Li about his activities, and tried to convince him that school was a better idea than theft (particularly where the Dai Li were involved), but her lecturing lead to him running away and living in back alleys for three days, during which she worried sick. When he came back of his own volition, she resolved to just let him do whatever it was he was going to do and try to clean up after him. She still worries, not knowing when he's going to overstep his bounds, but at least he comes home at night and that's all that matters to her.
Bao Li and his grandmother have come to an agreement, for the sake of both their hearing, that they will not tell his grandfather what Bao Li does during the day. The question of how he spends a day is avoided during most conversation in the Mao-Shang household, and tends to get directed to involving the elderly Mao male in stories of years past and how much better things were for everyone in the city then. As long winded and pointless as such stories usually are, at least they're better than the shouting match that would ensue if Mr. Mao found out his grandson was a petty thief.
Bao Li has several aquantances in the Lower Ward of Ba Sing Se, being a boy who's often out and about in the ward and the market. His mischevious nature puts him at odds with the law-abiding and serious, but he's got a host of adults who look out for him because they believe he could do well if given a chance and out of respect for his grandmother. He was breifly the leader of a small 'gang' of sorts, consisting mainly of six to ten year old boys and girls with nothing better to do. The 'gang' has since broken up, but the members stay in touch when they can, exchanging information on who's got the best stuff in the market when they meet.
Thus far, he's managed to stay out of any real trouble. Time will tell when it comes to that, however - all thieves get caught eventually, especially the self assured and somewhat bad ones.
Sample RP: Another typical morning in Ba Sing Se, Bao Li had to admit as much the second the cabbage vendor got into a shouting match with the old lady who sold stinking fish cakes from Lake Laogai. Something about cart placement rights or somesuch nonsense. Bao Li didn't care. He grinned and looked to the sky, drinking in the freedom of not having to worry about that pesky thing the rich kids had to - school.
He sat huddled in a corner of the bustling market, his back to a wall, and sighed as his stomach growled at him angrily. If he didn't find a mark soon, he was sure he'd starve - Grandma Mao's porridge was alright, but there was never enough of it to get a full belly anymore, even with dad's meager pay still being sent to the family. He had to take care of things like this himself - after all, Bao Li was the man of the house nowadays. Nodding as he considered this, he watched the market. It was a matter of time before...
Ah! There we go - an upper crusty out for a jaunt in the silk stands, looking for a new dress. She was sure to have a hefty coinpurse with her, and Bao Li intended to help her lighten the burden. He crept between the stalls, ducking from shadow to shadow so as not to get caught. He crept right up beside the woman, who was wrapping herself in a bolt of green silk from somewhere in the country and stretched out his deft little fingers to make a grab for the money.
Before his hand closed around the purse's ties, a hand yanked him backwards by the collar and into the shadows near the stand. He yelped, and a hand clapped over his mouth. The merchant and the woman both looked around, but seeing no source for the sound never worried. The woman with the silk bolt and the fat purse returned to haggling with the merchant. Bao Li turned angrily on the person who had grabbed him.
"What was that for? I had her!" He whispered, his voice an angry hiss as he turned around and came eye to eye with the old bearded man with a picnic basket across his back. Bao Li's stomach growled as if in agreement. The old man chuckled.
"Are these the kind of manners they teach children in Ba Sing Se?" The old man questioned, his brown eyes twinkling. He flung the basket off his back and fished out a pair of buns, handing them to Bao Li. Bao Li blinked, but shoved a bun into his mouth anyway.
"I could've gotten these myself, old man," he managed between bites, spitting out bun fragments in the process. The old man laughed and shouldered his basket once more, walking from the alley and leaving Bao Li to eat his prize.
"I'm sure you could have. But why do all that work when someone is willing to help?"
