Post by daishuakatsumitana on May 31, 2006 22:38:49 GMT -5
I didn't expect it to be so great at 11:00pm! Here's the revision.
Name: Daishu Akatsumitana
Age: 15
Gender: female
Nation: Fire Nation
Bender?: nonbender
Physical Appearance: Daishu's weight is average and she's about 5'7", a little over average for most girls her age. Her complexion is pale, but her arms and legs are ruddy from being out in the sun so much. Her face is only pale because of the hooded and veiled cloak she's forced to wear most of the time. Amber eyes with gold flecks compliment ghastly white cheeks and bubblegum mauve lips, almost eternally stretched in a thin line or pursed disdainfully. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are overly thick, making her seem as though her eyes are larger than reality. Jet black hair is pulled up into a fat topknot, with a few stray strands here and there. Her bangs are parted into four sections, two sections on each side that almost look like dreadlocks, and swept back behind her ears to a knot at the nape of her neck. Daishu allows one lock of hair to hang down in front of her left eye, coming to a point just below her firm chin. Her hands are slender, but one right finger is slightly crooked from a broken joint years before in a clumsy accident. Her shoulders are rather broad, and her feet are large, a matching pair, really. And she will wear dark makeup on occasion.
Clothing/Armor:In lesiure times, Daishu wears a black flaired leg pantsuit, with gray front panel corset made of light mother-of-pearl inlaid iron armor on a back loose long sleeved turtleneck. Her other outfit of choice is a kimono, with high back wrap-around flair collar in stiff black silk(note: Collar looks like the usual Fire nation high collar, only the back raises up about another inch), with inner red trim. The dress had a typical Fire nation split collar in black in addition, but without the clothing insignia most Fire nation soldiers wear. The gown is sleeveless, the shoulders sliding gracefully into a sharp point with red trim at the arn holes. Below the base of the collar, a small acute triangle of cut equilateral triangles reveals panels of skin and more silk. An intricate crimson flame design adorns the black kimono, a wrap around pattern beginning at the base of the neck in perfect symmmetry, the stomach, ever flailing apart, crisscross around the back, re -wrap and crisscross around the front, ending in two sharp angles and smaller seperate flames at the ankle length hem of the gown. Her boots are those of a typical Fire nation soldier, only in black and red instead of ruby and gold, gray and black, or ruby and crimson. To hide the ruddy skin of her arms, Daishu sports red banded, black fingerless silk gloves that stretch beyond her elbows to her mid upper arms. For training and fight, though, Daishu wears basic female Fire nation armor; a crimson red sleeveless tunic over light light grat turtleneck, a two piece upper body cloth and metal upper body armor set, red and gold arm gauntlets, brown waist belt with gray buckle, insignia of a snake embedded in a surprising turquoise, split two piece black and red thigh guards with gray cloth front and back panels, loose gray pants, and her Fire nation boots once more. The only other pieces to her typical attire are a black silk cloak with red interior liner, with the hood and veil, as I said before.
Weapons:Daishu has weapons she regularly uses in training. Because she's a woman, and not really allowed to fight, Daishu's weapons are simple and not overly inconspicuous to the wandering eye. She has no need to use the smaller waepons of the soldiers. She owns an antique amethyst inlaid steel dagger, one iron dagger, three chinese stars, a dual long dao broadsword set with split hilts, and a device of her own design: a dual ended separable broadsword that can be swung on chains if unlinked, used as two seperate swords, or linked together to make one long dual ended sword.
Personality: Daishu, unlike many fire nation civilians, is quiet and cold. It's not as if she's incapable of feeling. She laughs at some jokes and cries at some grief riddled romance poems or stories of great tragedies. But she is rather morbid when not surrounded by anything familiar. Looking at someone, it's as though she stares right through them and knows everything about them. It's just the war-created fear in her eyes, though. Opening her mouth most times, Daishu will either contribute her own opinion, share a piece of wisdom passed down to her at some point in her life, or simply compose a grief consumed piece of poetry in her overactive imagination and growl it at people monotonously. In her rare good moods, Daishu will not start jumping aabout and cartwheeling to show her feelings. If anyone looked closely, the only things out of the ordinary would be slightly pinker cheeks, dancing eyes, and a minutely softer expression. She never says much during these times, afraid she may say too much. She may wring her hands excitedly, orchew on her bottom lip. Her lisp will come back sometimes, if she's not careful, a telltale sign of her contentment. On the other hand, Daishu's even more distressed moods will render her completely silent, lacing her fingers together at the small of her back and pacing nervously. In meetings, she will be still, but her posture slouched and head down. She will absentmindedly pull on her left earlobe at times like these, no one knows why.
Background:Daishu grew up deep in the heart of a large city smack dab in the middle of the Fire nation, called Lai-Nao. Her family is rather presteigious, very well known and rich, and people refer to Daishu as "the Duchess". Once lowly street peasants, the had one gift to offer the world many years ago: knowledge. They were never part of the royal line, until Daishu's great, great grandmother, whom she's named for, found she liked a cousin of the current Fire Lord and they were married. At first, the Fire Lord, outraged, called for a meeting with the Akatsumitana family members. He was going to order them executed, one by one. But when a surprise visit from a breathless general interrupted their preliminary meeting, the youngest member piped up in the face of a siege and shouted the perfect war strategy to follow. The room fell silent, all eyes, including the burning gold ones of the Fire Lord at that time, fell on the youngest child. Then to everyone's astonishment, soft chuckling was heard, followed by straggling applause. The Fire Lord asked the rest of the family hypothetical questions about different war tactics, and each time a different member would answer with the correct defensive or offensive reply to their question, sometimes a simple neutrality being achieved. As he listened, entranced in their wisdom, the Fire Lord had a sudden change of heart, much of it from his own greed, and let the family go unharmed, calling them back for days after to confer. In selfish gratitude, he showered them with gifts and luxuries, so that everyone in Lai-Nao would know the Fire Lord's power and generosity, if you would only obey him. Eventually, he found he could not lead without at least one of them, even the youngest toddler, on his right hand, and crowned the family rulers of Lai-Nao. People respected them, their connections, and their wealth. They were the puppets of the Fire Lord's, and surprisingly proud to be so.
But times changed. After the throne was passed to a new Fire Lord some years later, he did not forget his adviser family, but Lai-Nao did. They saw that this Fire Lord was perfectly capable of handling himself, just as all the believed lies said. In truth, rare in the Fire nation, the Fire Lord was weak and insecure, calling on a member of the crowned royalty to confer every other day. Some members were fed up with him. His predecessor had at lest been able to fend for himself most times, calling on them to discuss tactics, not have them come up with them every waking moment. It was not that they didn't know what they were saying when they gave the current Fire Lord his tactics, but they usually challenged his mind to work on it's own, leaving gaping holes in strategies and plans. Their plan was failing miserably. And their great city did not accept them as before. Many family members left the city, relinquishing their royalty and some even sneaking out of the Fire nation itself. Some stayed, thankfully. But in the third generation after the crowning, the current Arch Duke of the family became horribly ill with the Great Plauge, a current heat bred epidemic sweeping the nation, symptoms resulting in high fevers and eventually fatality. But the Arch Duke survived, though certainly far from superhuman. Unfortunately, but the fevers left him insane and weak. After he went legally insane, the numbers of the Akatsumitana line dwindled rapidly, members fleeing from the plauge like wildfire, with the exception of the Arch Duke, his wife and children, and a few close brothers and sisters.
Since that point, the Akatsumitana family has been re-accepted into the Lai-Nao community, but forgotten by the Fire Lords and real royal family. The royal family has long since claimed a sharp army and ruthless leaders who no longer have a need for the wits of the dukes and duchesses of Lai-Nao. Still, some more attuned members of the royal line keep in touch with the Akatsumitana's, writing letters or visiting when they feel like it. Because the family tries to keep up appearances, they still rule over Lai-Nao, in their elaborate mansion atop the city's largest hill. Daishu's mother is not spoiled, but moody when she does not get her prissy way. Daishu herself is accustomed to being treated like royalty, but everyone knows she can rough house just as well as any boy in the world. Speaking of which, from the alleged rough housing, Daishu had a lisp that comes from a gap between her two front teeth when she was little more than five years of age, playing with her best friend in secret. Daishu has never really fought before, but she trains with her weapons often. She has traveled outside the Fire nation twice once to a remote Earth kingdom island she still does not know the name of, and once to a small city on the coast of the Earth kingdom, under the control of the Fire nation when she was about seven years old. Mostly, Daishu will train, read her many scrolls of fiction and histories of the world, write lyrics and poetry, garden if forced to, or play the pima by herself. Her family does not enjoy music the way she does. She is not very skilled at playing the pima, but she gets by. She was taught by an aunt. She gains her love for the outdoors from a firebending ancestor, though Daishu herself possesses no power whatsoever. Sometimes she wishes she did so she could be allowed to fight, but she is confined home by her lack of experience with many of her weapons, as she was always expected to be a proper young lady and not play with sharp objects, so no one has taught her but the people she watches in the city. Her family has always expected their oldest child to be the supporter and mediator, even early on in life. She had vivid memories of her father's hand on the top on her head as she was shown off like a procelain doll to some other high status members of the Fire nation. She hated it, so she reverted to her now cold state, and her family gave her more and more freedom, as they feel she's shown herself to be unfit to carry on their good name. Daishu's hero's are the fighting members of the royal family, especially Princess Azula, her distant cousin. She has never met Azula, but she has met Prince Zuko, another distant cousin directly in the royal line. She has not seen him in years, or his uncle, General Iroh. But sometimes she wonders if the people she remembers from her childhood have given her any sense of honor in the eyes of the higher people... or if her love for fighting would.
Daishu's father, Sinjiin Akatsumitana was hard on her when she was born, knowing she would be of no use to him in the army. Still, he cared for her and gave her everything she could possibly want. Her mother, Shaia Akatsumitana, was always the perfect lady, training Daishu to be a clone of her own self righteousness. Daishu's younger brother, Fiotai Akatsumitana, is a typical younger brother, twelve years of age and a little brat. He looks up to her, and to hide that makes fun of her every chance he gets. Daishu tunes him out in the sorrowful melodies of her songs. Daishu would have been the middle child, but her older brother was stillborn. Thus, the responsibility of eldest child is on her shoulders. The stress of being primped and polished to assume her father's high seat of power when he passes hurls the teenager even farther into her depressive state. Absolutely expected as the eldest to be the future Arch Duchess of her line, Daishu began life as her mother's pet project. But Daishu felt she needed something more. Dressing up and sitting quietly was not quite the lifestyle she had in mind, so she went to her father, who came up with a small plan to take Daishu's mind off her troubles, mainly taking her to a show. Duke Sinjiin turned a blind eye to the intrest his daughter developed in weaponry after watching a parade in a fire festival, in which the dancers acted out courageous battles with real weapons. The shimmering glint of the metal and swift, cat like movements had Daishu transfixed at once, and she fondly remembers the day her life's hobbies changed forever. One day, six year old Daishu was caught with her father's daggers by a maid and sent directly to him for puinishment. Instead of the beating she feared so much, he mildly asked her why she had stolen his weapons. Timidly she said, "because, Father, the graceful movements are so much like the dances Mother wants me to learn as the Duchess. I never seem to get them right when it's just me. But with the daggers I thought I could act out a battle in my head and see the dance, Father". Smiling, the duke had calmly explained that stealing was wrong, but that she had discovered something she could do from now on in her spare time. She had discovered her very own lust for fighting. Since that fateful day, Daishu has trained with weapons secretly smuggled to her by her father, because if her mother ever found out she was not the proper young lady she was meant to be, it would mean a boarding school until she was called back to rule.
Daishu's friends are small in number, many family members. As I said, she's met Prince Zuko. In the short time they spent together, they played together and taught each other new moves. When he left, the duchess was alone for the longest time, training to be the city's next ruler. But her father took her out into the city more and more, and Daishu found friends, her clique' now consisting of three members excluding herself; Xanatai Jehso, Sai Hinata, and Gai Lynn Sakatmata. Now the group gets together to swordfight and make up new battle scenes, always in secret, lest her mother ban her from ever leaving their mansion again. It was Xanatai who gave her the lisp, quite by accident, during a wrestling match in his backyard one flawless summer day years before. Ever since then, Daishu has fondly whistled through her teeth when she wishes to call a meeting with her friends, and Xanatai blushes a bright red every time.
Daishu really has the good life. She struggles mainly with the thought of war, because it seems so far away. Trapped inside the confines of her city life, Daishu rarely sees a taste of the war, unless generals come to consult with her father, a new family is crying over the draft of a son, or wounded soldiers straggle in from all corners of the earth. This is rare however, so Daishu and her family almost forget the war at times. But when Daishu is being trained to be inducted someday into her father's seat, she will sometimes jolt out her her safe haven and remember what's really going on. It's through the sob stories, the stories of grief and songs shot though with pain that really draw her closer to the reality of it all. And still, she feels as though it's all a bad dream she'll wake up from.
Sample RP: Daishu sighed and stared blankly out her large picture window in the sitting room of her family's expansive two floor dwelling. Looking out over the flooded courtyard, she growled at the surprise storm. The rainy season had never been her favorite, mainly because it meant there would be no training until her world dried up. She smirked, her sumptuous mauve lips snaking upward. In the Fire nation, that wouldn't take long. Daishu heard footsteps, and automatically tucked her feet under her, the proper way for a lady to sit, instead of staring off into space with knees pulled up into her chest. She turned her head to face the curtain, and plastered on a faked smile, revealing the gap between her front teeth. "Good morning, Father", she said carefully, attempting not to spit though her teeth. Succeeding, Daishu waited for her father's reply, but it never came. "Father? Are you alright"? She queried, becoming concerned at her father's unnatural silence. He lifted his drooping dark head so she could see his chiseled face, and now Daishu saw his worry creased features and bloodshot eyes. Also, he seemed to notice her now. "G'morning, daughter. Sorry. I'm fine, thank you for asking". He mumbled absent-mindedly. Daishu knew it was better not to persue his strange manner this morning. She returned to staring out the window, the rain beating hard against the window and drumming out a steady beat. To the beat, the girl silently closed her eyes and began setting lyrics to the vivid melodies she could hear in her head so clearly. The soft baritone underlying bass, the falsetto highs that ebbed and flowed within her own imagination. The melody was a cacophany of sugary soprano and mellow treble, with a stark contrast in the tenor section. To anyone else, even her stern father, Daishu's hidden music would have been a gracious and welcome escape from daily pressures. But it only sounded like this in her head. On the instruments she tried so very hard to master, she would pluck a dead tone here, miss a note there, or completely destroy a chord. Today, Daishu shook her head to clear it and scratched out the mild tune in her mind, beginning a hard and icy minor montauge. She wished she could leave to go find her pima, but that would require asking to be excused, and opening her loose tounge to her father might cause a spill of curious questions to flow from her frowning lips. So Daishu sat still with a tightly sealed mouth, her fingers gently beating out the tempo to her melody on her thigh. To her surprise, the answer to many of her questions came out of the blue. Her father whetted his lips and cleared his throat as he threw open the elaborate cedar chest that stood erect in the corner of the dakrened room. The chest held the soldier's armor her father had aquired from a brother, but had vowed never to use. Until now. "Daishu, my firstborn. I want you to be able to hold this family together in my absence". He announced, not meeting her spiteful amber gaze. What was he hiding from her? Though they had never been very close, Daishu was sure he had never kept secrets so large as this one from her. Far off down one of the many curtained corridors, she could swear she heard soft male weeping. Her brother? Fiotai never wept. This was something out of the ordinary. She could feel it in the air. Her father comtinued slowly, his tounge thick with too many stressed drinks. She knew he was not drawing this from a drunken fantasy. This, whatever it was, was completely real. What she could not glean, however, was if the crackling sensation in the heavy air was fear or a gleeful, yet sorrowful excitement. "Daishu, I trust you will take care of your mother and brother while I'm away, and I know you have been trained well to undertake any... complications that may come up". Complications? The usual complications of war, or something utterly unfamiliar? Her father broke the news briskly and swiftly. "Fire Lord Ozai has requested my presence in a War Council this coming week. This city is in grave danger, and we are still his stronghold for fresh troops. There's talk of an ambush. This is very dire. Times are changing, Daishu. If you have to fight, my child, fight with all the spirit in your heart. You may very well need to defend lives of everyone here".
Name: Daishu Akatsumitana
Age: 15
Gender: female
Nation: Fire Nation
Bender?: nonbender
Physical Appearance: Daishu's weight is average and she's about 5'7", a little over average for most girls her age. Her complexion is pale, but her arms and legs are ruddy from being out in the sun so much. Her face is only pale because of the hooded and veiled cloak she's forced to wear most of the time. Amber eyes with gold flecks compliment ghastly white cheeks and bubblegum mauve lips, almost eternally stretched in a thin line or pursed disdainfully. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are overly thick, making her seem as though her eyes are larger than reality. Jet black hair is pulled up into a fat topknot, with a few stray strands here and there. Her bangs are parted into four sections, two sections on each side that almost look like dreadlocks, and swept back behind her ears to a knot at the nape of her neck. Daishu allows one lock of hair to hang down in front of her left eye, coming to a point just below her firm chin. Her hands are slender, but one right finger is slightly crooked from a broken joint years before in a clumsy accident. Her shoulders are rather broad, and her feet are large, a matching pair, really. And she will wear dark makeup on occasion.
Clothing/Armor:In lesiure times, Daishu wears a black flaired leg pantsuit, with gray front panel corset made of light mother-of-pearl inlaid iron armor on a back loose long sleeved turtleneck. Her other outfit of choice is a kimono, with high back wrap-around flair collar in stiff black silk(note: Collar looks like the usual Fire nation high collar, only the back raises up about another inch), with inner red trim. The dress had a typical Fire nation split collar in black in addition, but without the clothing insignia most Fire nation soldiers wear. The gown is sleeveless, the shoulders sliding gracefully into a sharp point with red trim at the arn holes. Below the base of the collar, a small acute triangle of cut equilateral triangles reveals panels of skin and more silk. An intricate crimson flame design adorns the black kimono, a wrap around pattern beginning at the base of the neck in perfect symmmetry, the stomach, ever flailing apart, crisscross around the back, re -wrap and crisscross around the front, ending in two sharp angles and smaller seperate flames at the ankle length hem of the gown. Her boots are those of a typical Fire nation soldier, only in black and red instead of ruby and gold, gray and black, or ruby and crimson. To hide the ruddy skin of her arms, Daishu sports red banded, black fingerless silk gloves that stretch beyond her elbows to her mid upper arms. For training and fight, though, Daishu wears basic female Fire nation armor; a crimson red sleeveless tunic over light light grat turtleneck, a two piece upper body cloth and metal upper body armor set, red and gold arm gauntlets, brown waist belt with gray buckle, insignia of a snake embedded in a surprising turquoise, split two piece black and red thigh guards with gray cloth front and back panels, loose gray pants, and her Fire nation boots once more. The only other pieces to her typical attire are a black silk cloak with red interior liner, with the hood and veil, as I said before.
Weapons:Daishu has weapons she regularly uses in training. Because she's a woman, and not really allowed to fight, Daishu's weapons are simple and not overly inconspicuous to the wandering eye. She has no need to use the smaller waepons of the soldiers. She owns an antique amethyst inlaid steel dagger, one iron dagger, three chinese stars, a dual long dao broadsword set with split hilts, and a device of her own design: a dual ended separable broadsword that can be swung on chains if unlinked, used as two seperate swords, or linked together to make one long dual ended sword.
Personality: Daishu, unlike many fire nation civilians, is quiet and cold. It's not as if she's incapable of feeling. She laughs at some jokes and cries at some grief riddled romance poems or stories of great tragedies. But she is rather morbid when not surrounded by anything familiar. Looking at someone, it's as though she stares right through them and knows everything about them. It's just the war-created fear in her eyes, though. Opening her mouth most times, Daishu will either contribute her own opinion, share a piece of wisdom passed down to her at some point in her life, or simply compose a grief consumed piece of poetry in her overactive imagination and growl it at people monotonously. In her rare good moods, Daishu will not start jumping aabout and cartwheeling to show her feelings. If anyone looked closely, the only things out of the ordinary would be slightly pinker cheeks, dancing eyes, and a minutely softer expression. She never says much during these times, afraid she may say too much. She may wring her hands excitedly, orchew on her bottom lip. Her lisp will come back sometimes, if she's not careful, a telltale sign of her contentment. On the other hand, Daishu's even more distressed moods will render her completely silent, lacing her fingers together at the small of her back and pacing nervously. In meetings, she will be still, but her posture slouched and head down. She will absentmindedly pull on her left earlobe at times like these, no one knows why.
Background:Daishu grew up deep in the heart of a large city smack dab in the middle of the Fire nation, called Lai-Nao. Her family is rather presteigious, very well known and rich, and people refer to Daishu as "the Duchess". Once lowly street peasants, the had one gift to offer the world many years ago: knowledge. They were never part of the royal line, until Daishu's great, great grandmother, whom she's named for, found she liked a cousin of the current Fire Lord and they were married. At first, the Fire Lord, outraged, called for a meeting with the Akatsumitana family members. He was going to order them executed, one by one. But when a surprise visit from a breathless general interrupted their preliminary meeting, the youngest member piped up in the face of a siege and shouted the perfect war strategy to follow. The room fell silent, all eyes, including the burning gold ones of the Fire Lord at that time, fell on the youngest child. Then to everyone's astonishment, soft chuckling was heard, followed by straggling applause. The Fire Lord asked the rest of the family hypothetical questions about different war tactics, and each time a different member would answer with the correct defensive or offensive reply to their question, sometimes a simple neutrality being achieved. As he listened, entranced in their wisdom, the Fire Lord had a sudden change of heart, much of it from his own greed, and let the family go unharmed, calling them back for days after to confer. In selfish gratitude, he showered them with gifts and luxuries, so that everyone in Lai-Nao would know the Fire Lord's power and generosity, if you would only obey him. Eventually, he found he could not lead without at least one of them, even the youngest toddler, on his right hand, and crowned the family rulers of Lai-Nao. People respected them, their connections, and their wealth. They were the puppets of the Fire Lord's, and surprisingly proud to be so.
But times changed. After the throne was passed to a new Fire Lord some years later, he did not forget his adviser family, but Lai-Nao did. They saw that this Fire Lord was perfectly capable of handling himself, just as all the believed lies said. In truth, rare in the Fire nation, the Fire Lord was weak and insecure, calling on a member of the crowned royalty to confer every other day. Some members were fed up with him. His predecessor had at lest been able to fend for himself most times, calling on them to discuss tactics, not have them come up with them every waking moment. It was not that they didn't know what they were saying when they gave the current Fire Lord his tactics, but they usually challenged his mind to work on it's own, leaving gaping holes in strategies and plans. Their plan was failing miserably. And their great city did not accept them as before. Many family members left the city, relinquishing their royalty and some even sneaking out of the Fire nation itself. Some stayed, thankfully. But in the third generation after the crowning, the current Arch Duke of the family became horribly ill with the Great Plauge, a current heat bred epidemic sweeping the nation, symptoms resulting in high fevers and eventually fatality. But the Arch Duke survived, though certainly far from superhuman. Unfortunately, but the fevers left him insane and weak. After he went legally insane, the numbers of the Akatsumitana line dwindled rapidly, members fleeing from the plauge like wildfire, with the exception of the Arch Duke, his wife and children, and a few close brothers and sisters.
Since that point, the Akatsumitana family has been re-accepted into the Lai-Nao community, but forgotten by the Fire Lords and real royal family. The royal family has long since claimed a sharp army and ruthless leaders who no longer have a need for the wits of the dukes and duchesses of Lai-Nao. Still, some more attuned members of the royal line keep in touch with the Akatsumitana's, writing letters or visiting when they feel like it. Because the family tries to keep up appearances, they still rule over Lai-Nao, in their elaborate mansion atop the city's largest hill. Daishu's mother is not spoiled, but moody when she does not get her prissy way. Daishu herself is accustomed to being treated like royalty, but everyone knows she can rough house just as well as any boy in the world. Speaking of which, from the alleged rough housing, Daishu had a lisp that comes from a gap between her two front teeth when she was little more than five years of age, playing with her best friend in secret. Daishu has never really fought before, but she trains with her weapons often. She has traveled outside the Fire nation twice once to a remote Earth kingdom island she still does not know the name of, and once to a small city on the coast of the Earth kingdom, under the control of the Fire nation when she was about seven years old. Mostly, Daishu will train, read her many scrolls of fiction and histories of the world, write lyrics and poetry, garden if forced to, or play the pima by herself. Her family does not enjoy music the way she does. She is not very skilled at playing the pima, but she gets by. She was taught by an aunt. She gains her love for the outdoors from a firebending ancestor, though Daishu herself possesses no power whatsoever. Sometimes she wishes she did so she could be allowed to fight, but she is confined home by her lack of experience with many of her weapons, as she was always expected to be a proper young lady and not play with sharp objects, so no one has taught her but the people she watches in the city. Her family has always expected their oldest child to be the supporter and mediator, even early on in life. She had vivid memories of her father's hand on the top on her head as she was shown off like a procelain doll to some other high status members of the Fire nation. She hated it, so she reverted to her now cold state, and her family gave her more and more freedom, as they feel she's shown herself to be unfit to carry on their good name. Daishu's hero's are the fighting members of the royal family, especially Princess Azula, her distant cousin. She has never met Azula, but she has met Prince Zuko, another distant cousin directly in the royal line. She has not seen him in years, or his uncle, General Iroh. But sometimes she wonders if the people she remembers from her childhood have given her any sense of honor in the eyes of the higher people... or if her love for fighting would.
Daishu's father, Sinjiin Akatsumitana was hard on her when she was born, knowing she would be of no use to him in the army. Still, he cared for her and gave her everything she could possibly want. Her mother, Shaia Akatsumitana, was always the perfect lady, training Daishu to be a clone of her own self righteousness. Daishu's younger brother, Fiotai Akatsumitana, is a typical younger brother, twelve years of age and a little brat. He looks up to her, and to hide that makes fun of her every chance he gets. Daishu tunes him out in the sorrowful melodies of her songs. Daishu would have been the middle child, but her older brother was stillborn. Thus, the responsibility of eldest child is on her shoulders. The stress of being primped and polished to assume her father's high seat of power when he passes hurls the teenager even farther into her depressive state. Absolutely expected as the eldest to be the future Arch Duchess of her line, Daishu began life as her mother's pet project. But Daishu felt she needed something more. Dressing up and sitting quietly was not quite the lifestyle she had in mind, so she went to her father, who came up with a small plan to take Daishu's mind off her troubles, mainly taking her to a show. Duke Sinjiin turned a blind eye to the intrest his daughter developed in weaponry after watching a parade in a fire festival, in which the dancers acted out courageous battles with real weapons. The shimmering glint of the metal and swift, cat like movements had Daishu transfixed at once, and she fondly remembers the day her life's hobbies changed forever. One day, six year old Daishu was caught with her father's daggers by a maid and sent directly to him for puinishment. Instead of the beating she feared so much, he mildly asked her why she had stolen his weapons. Timidly she said, "because, Father, the graceful movements are so much like the dances Mother wants me to learn as the Duchess. I never seem to get them right when it's just me. But with the daggers I thought I could act out a battle in my head and see the dance, Father". Smiling, the duke had calmly explained that stealing was wrong, but that she had discovered something she could do from now on in her spare time. She had discovered her very own lust for fighting. Since that fateful day, Daishu has trained with weapons secretly smuggled to her by her father, because if her mother ever found out she was not the proper young lady she was meant to be, it would mean a boarding school until she was called back to rule.
Daishu's friends are small in number, many family members. As I said, she's met Prince Zuko. In the short time they spent together, they played together and taught each other new moves. When he left, the duchess was alone for the longest time, training to be the city's next ruler. But her father took her out into the city more and more, and Daishu found friends, her clique' now consisting of three members excluding herself; Xanatai Jehso, Sai Hinata, and Gai Lynn Sakatmata. Now the group gets together to swordfight and make up new battle scenes, always in secret, lest her mother ban her from ever leaving their mansion again. It was Xanatai who gave her the lisp, quite by accident, during a wrestling match in his backyard one flawless summer day years before. Ever since then, Daishu has fondly whistled through her teeth when she wishes to call a meeting with her friends, and Xanatai blushes a bright red every time.
Daishu really has the good life. She struggles mainly with the thought of war, because it seems so far away. Trapped inside the confines of her city life, Daishu rarely sees a taste of the war, unless generals come to consult with her father, a new family is crying over the draft of a son, or wounded soldiers straggle in from all corners of the earth. This is rare however, so Daishu and her family almost forget the war at times. But when Daishu is being trained to be inducted someday into her father's seat, she will sometimes jolt out her her safe haven and remember what's really going on. It's through the sob stories, the stories of grief and songs shot though with pain that really draw her closer to the reality of it all. And still, she feels as though it's all a bad dream she'll wake up from.
Sample RP: Daishu sighed and stared blankly out her large picture window in the sitting room of her family's expansive two floor dwelling. Looking out over the flooded courtyard, she growled at the surprise storm. The rainy season had never been her favorite, mainly because it meant there would be no training until her world dried up. She smirked, her sumptuous mauve lips snaking upward. In the Fire nation, that wouldn't take long. Daishu heard footsteps, and automatically tucked her feet under her, the proper way for a lady to sit, instead of staring off into space with knees pulled up into her chest. She turned her head to face the curtain, and plastered on a faked smile, revealing the gap between her front teeth. "Good morning, Father", she said carefully, attempting not to spit though her teeth. Succeeding, Daishu waited for her father's reply, but it never came. "Father? Are you alright"? She queried, becoming concerned at her father's unnatural silence. He lifted his drooping dark head so she could see his chiseled face, and now Daishu saw his worry creased features and bloodshot eyes. Also, he seemed to notice her now. "G'morning, daughter. Sorry. I'm fine, thank you for asking". He mumbled absent-mindedly. Daishu knew it was better not to persue his strange manner this morning. She returned to staring out the window, the rain beating hard against the window and drumming out a steady beat. To the beat, the girl silently closed her eyes and began setting lyrics to the vivid melodies she could hear in her head so clearly. The soft baritone underlying bass, the falsetto highs that ebbed and flowed within her own imagination. The melody was a cacophany of sugary soprano and mellow treble, with a stark contrast in the tenor section. To anyone else, even her stern father, Daishu's hidden music would have been a gracious and welcome escape from daily pressures. But it only sounded like this in her head. On the instruments she tried so very hard to master, she would pluck a dead tone here, miss a note there, or completely destroy a chord. Today, Daishu shook her head to clear it and scratched out the mild tune in her mind, beginning a hard and icy minor montauge. She wished she could leave to go find her pima, but that would require asking to be excused, and opening her loose tounge to her father might cause a spill of curious questions to flow from her frowning lips. So Daishu sat still with a tightly sealed mouth, her fingers gently beating out the tempo to her melody on her thigh. To her surprise, the answer to many of her questions came out of the blue. Her father whetted his lips and cleared his throat as he threw open the elaborate cedar chest that stood erect in the corner of the dakrened room. The chest held the soldier's armor her father had aquired from a brother, but had vowed never to use. Until now. "Daishu, my firstborn. I want you to be able to hold this family together in my absence". He announced, not meeting her spiteful amber gaze. What was he hiding from her? Though they had never been very close, Daishu was sure he had never kept secrets so large as this one from her. Far off down one of the many curtained corridors, she could swear she heard soft male weeping. Her brother? Fiotai never wept. This was something out of the ordinary. She could feel it in the air. Her father comtinued slowly, his tounge thick with too many stressed drinks. She knew he was not drawing this from a drunken fantasy. This, whatever it was, was completely real. What she could not glean, however, was if the crackling sensation in the heavy air was fear or a gleeful, yet sorrowful excitement. "Daishu, I trust you will take care of your mother and brother while I'm away, and I know you have been trained well to undertake any... complications that may come up". Complications? The usual complications of war, or something utterly unfamiliar? Her father broke the news briskly and swiftly. "Fire Lord Ozai has requested my presence in a War Council this coming week. This city is in grave danger, and we are still his stronghold for fresh troops. There's talk of an ambush. This is very dire. Times are changing, Daishu. If you have to fight, my child, fight with all the spirit in your heart. You may very well need to defend lives of everyone here".