Post by jialingjin on Nov 24, 2008 18:33:52 GMT -5
Resubmitting Jialing Xiang for a re-review. *salute* Do your best, boys.
Name: Jialing Xiang
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Group: The Rebellion
Nation: Earth Kingdom
Bender?: No
Physical Appearance: Standing a narrow and lanky five foot five, Jialing has the the appearance of a willowly statue. Her head is crowned with a massive, gravity defying mop of unruly hair. Dark taupe in color, her hair often times takes on the appearance of a sepia-toned photograph. Much of her hair is slicked back by a combination of grease and dirt, but the bangs that she keeps are crinkled like dried leaves, crimped to frame her long, narrow face. She keeps her hair short and when it's wetted down, it never reaches past her shoulders, but since she rarely gets a shower, most of the tie it's up in a style affectionately known as a 'Duck Butt'. Long strands hang around her face, while the shorter bits of hair in the back are fluffed out, like the feathers on a duck's butt.
Speaking of her face, Jialing was not blessed. She has a shallow forehead and thick, expressive eyebrows. Her eyes are small, rectangular in shape and the color of mud. Her eyelashes are short, clumped with spirits know what and often times appearing like the color of rain-covered rocks. Her face is long, with a prominent nose that could be described as Grecian or Roman. How it's managed not to get sliced off by a sword is a mystery. Her cheekbones are prominent but only because her cheeks have sunken in a little with time. She has a very square jaw that tapers into a rounded chin upon which sit her average lips, most often the color of a rotten mango. She has narrow, rectangle eyes that are the color of dried mud set deep in her face. They are framed by long lashes, but they often clump and look like they have a bad case of mange. The same goes for her eyebrows. She has a talent for a wide variety of facial expressions, usually something resembling a sneer or disgust.
Overall, Jia is a lanky girl who is somewhat tall for the female gender, but despite this, she just barely matches heads with the most average of men. Her bosom is rather flat and while it helps with her bow skills, it is not a source of pride. Her arms are also narrow, and constantly bear a tan from being out in the sun. Her waist and her hips meld into one, with a shallow concave curve at the sides. She, like many girls, has that feminine pooch for a stomach, accentuated often by how she stands: Weight on one foot, hips thrusted out and forward. She has strong thighs from years of running around and climbing trees and her calves are well shaped, narrowing to tiny ankles that run into large, duck-like feet. Her hands are consistently dirty, with the faint, white lines across her fingers and thumbs from cutting, and working with tiny strings of thread. Also, the bow string has left her two draw-back fingers permanently indented.
Her feet are similar, dirty and calloused as she often wanders around camps barefoot.
Clothing/Armor: Her narrow and flat torso is covered with a potato sack like garment, exactly the color of a potato sack. Actually, it might be a bit closer to the color of sun faded, satin gold, but overall.. it's a potato sack. Sleeveless, it has a rounded collar that extends across her shoulders, and the large size allows the hem of the arm-holes to hang down her slender arms. Over this, the young woman often wears a well worn, simple tunic in a fern green, a soft grayed out green that looks best when splattered with mud. The tunic itself is well made. The collar is a traditional Mandarin collar, which means it encircles the neck like the collar of an animal, except it is looser and open in the front. Jia's collar is trimmed in faded, drab gold embroidery thread which has rubbed off in manly areas, giving it an aged look. The Tunic is sleeveless, but the shoulders are short enough that her undershirt's shoulders poke through. Folding over her chest to the left, her the tunic is held shut by simple frog ornamentation consisting of a ornate note that slips through a hole and is secured over a button it is attached to. Two of these, in worn drab gold of course, secure the tunic at her bosom and then at her waist. The tunic is long and over sized on her, reaching her knees when unbound, but she chooses to wrap an old scrap of fabric, perhaps a scarf at one point, around her waist. Jialing wears this dark khaki colored scarf tight, pulling the tunic up over it many times while she keeps the knot and it's long tails to her left side often out of the way.
Over this is worn a slightly nicer sleeveless in the latest olive drab from the backwaters of the Earth Kingdom. This particular item of clothing is actually hemmed with yellow thread, a golden colored ribbon encircling the mandarin collar and the edge of the half that folds across her chest. A homemade belt of scrap fabric, saffron in color and with a old fishing net woven in is tied at her waist, the knot at her hip. The vest hangs to her mid thigh, a pair of her younger brother's old pants slapped on. A tint lighter than dung, the pants, which end about mid-calf and could probably fit a small fuzzy animal inside the legs, are caked with mud and stained with a variety of grasses and moss. Finally, her feet, which are calloused and stained from years of running around barefoot, are usually snug within knee-high rabbit skin and fur boots, laced up with tanned leather swing. The white and arsenic grey fur protrudes from the laces and around her calves.
Weapons: Bow and Arrows. The bow was roughly carved of yew wood, which is light in color, by her brother Goro and is a decent example of his craftsmanship. It is about the length of her arm, if not a foot or so more. The grip is wrapped in leather that was stretched and tightened on the wood, ensuring a tight fit. The strings she uses are made from animal sinew and they must be hooked onto the flexible bow first before she can use it. They are fragile and if left on, can dry out, so she takes them off.
Most of the arrows she has made herself out of the straightest sticks she'd been able to find. Jialing has dabbled in making arrow heads, but is rather poor at the so she tends to save what few metal arrowheads she has.
She carries a small knife with her. The blade was once sharp but now is very dull and she is too stubborn to have it sharpened. The silver blade, speckled with water spots and the beginnings of rust is only sharpened on one side and that side is chipped and brittle. The blade is set into a simple wooden hand that is shaped like a prism, a round triangle, secured to the blade by a pair of shrunken metal rings which hold it tight. The handle is wrapped in pale, suntanned leather but even this is beginning to wear.
Personality: A woman of many faces, Jialing chooses to show one face to the world and that is a face of a arrogant, self-centered, and somewhat dimwitted woman. She is a young woman who has lived on her own for a couple of years now, doing what she needs to do for money, food and shelter. Always a whippersnapper, a young girl who was quick to snap back a retort, this has become her defense measure. By no means did she had to take the life she has, but wanderlust draws her. It would be cliche to say that Jialing is cold to everyone she meets. She isn't, but she certainly isn't welcoming and will most likely regard anyone as suspicious unless she instigates the introduction. She will snap and degrade, attempting to knock the person down a notch. Very dominating, Jialing likes to be in control and has a hard time accepting what she can not control. She expresses this through anger and attitude, often making enemies.
Many times though have caught Jialing as a bright, cheerful, albeit very loud individual. She has a sarcastic, blunt personality, often calling people directly out and publicly condemning what she views as their mistakes and failures. Even if she is responsible for them. A driving force she often rushes head on into things without thinking. Sitting still in one place bothers her and since leaving home, she has had a hard time staying in one place or even keeping a constant in her life. Jin, her dog has become the only constant in her life now. He has provides the stability that has somewhat calmed Jialing's wild attitude. While still headstrong and prone to bouts of stupidity, Jialing has stopped in her quest to conquer the world to actually take a breath of air.
The war may be going on, but until her recent involvement in a Rebel group originating in the Fire Nation, she has virtually ignored it outright. The war never affected her. She was born in an area under Fire Nation Control but the petty little village of Lochan was left alone. It had no resources and aside from taxing the sleepy town, Jia never really knew anything differently. She still is, despite her allegiance to the Rebels, ignorant of the true cost of war. The Western Coast of the Earth Kingdom is mostly quiet, suffering little compared to the advancing front line which has given her a false sense of security in regards to their Fire Overlords. Really, she'd honestly go with whoever paid her more or offered her a better deal. Not that she's greedy, which she honestly, is but the Rebellion offered her the chance to be apart of something, a group.
That unity is something Jialing feels she has be missing. That wanting to be with.. brings us to another aspect of Jialing. Her insecurities which lay buried under the strain of the dominate aspects of her personality. She dreads failure, having failed in the eyes of her mother to become the daughter she wanted, and now.. living in trees. Her over-confidence which seems so unshaken is built on this weak, crumbling facade. Jialing seeks to build herself up on the shoulders of others. She is reluctant to do any work herself and is beginning to discover that she can not always rely on others when she wants to and sometimes they come when she doesn't want them. Dreading showing anyone just how shaky she is, Jialing will often become extremely defensive and evasive when nervous or upset, going so far as to run off from her group if she can not kick the problem out. This has led to many a misunderstanding.
While it took a few months and some harsh words to developed, Jialing has found something out of a misunderstanding. She has partnered with the Merchant, Reed,in more ways than one. Business partners on one end, Jia is responsible for a large loss of Reed's fiances from a failed trip and squarely pinned it on him, reversing the loss and saying that he owes her. She stuck with him, claiming that she was after him for payment.. but really, it was for his companionship. Reed filled in a similar role that Jin did, he stabilized her. Calm and with that voice of reason, he took all her jabs and verbal slaps in stride, along with the physical injuries. Their relationship is still questionable as Jialing is prone to cut him off for days, even weeks on end from any sort of romance.. and what they do have is rather dry.
Background: Jialing's hometown is a tiny, insignificant dot on west coast of the Earth Kingdom the named Lochan This village was once a grand and large city. Infact it was used to host a summit of the four nations a thousand years ago but since then it has fallen onto hard times as the mines were emptied and the farming has become poor over the past couple hundred years. The village has one saving grace though in that it is home to a small temple dedicated to the earth spirits, Badger moles and Earth Avatars. This relic occasionally brings visitors who wish to pay homage to the spirits to the village. The temple complex is in disrepair save for the main shrine. Various dormitory type buildings used for housing have collapsed, halls have caved in to underground passages leaving the temple's grounds a haven for the local children to explore. The village of Lochan radiates out from the old temple, spreading outward and gradually becoming less dense. Fields encircled the village and many of not owned by one family but by the village as a whole.
There is a general sense of reliance on one's neighbor and friends in Lochan. Nearly everyone is self-sufficient and they get a steady stream of travelers that come through, enough that many have set up small shops to cater to the merchants that run from the sea to the inlands and to the Fire Nation colonists who come over to settle the annexed territories. Lochan is part of this annexed land and has been for decades. Their placent behavior and willingness to pay taxes has left them unscathed by the war.
The land is filled with gentle rolling hills that allow for gracious amounts of farming. Speckles of trees dot the landscape, standing in the middle of fields and decorating the yards along the dirt roads, worn with wagon tracks. Forest creeps in on the village's eastern most sides, covering the hills that have not been touched by the plow. The ocean is not very far and when a good breeze is blowing, the smell of salt often fills the air.
Many of the families in the village have been her for generations and the Xiang's are not an exception. Her parents are one of the farming families, employing help from some of the other families. Her father, Xiang Itsuki manages the farm and the fields where they grow rice and wheat while her mother, Arjuna handles the imported Koala Sheep, weaving fine textiles from their wool. The couple were friends growing up, their love growing into a gentle sort of love. They married out of convince, having known each other so long it was as if living with your best friend. They have since grown fond of each other over the years of raising their children.
Twenty four years ago, their first son, Daichi, was born followed two years later by their second son, Goro. Like perfect clockwork, two years later, their first and only girl, Jialing was born. The two brothers, best friends and inseparable for the most part (they had their spats..) felt this newcomer intruded on their family. They were used to being the center of attention but now this crying little human worm was at the center of everything and stole their mother's attention. Jialing was a demanding little baby. She came into the world with a scream and screamed for practically everything else after that.
For weeks, her Mother had little sleep. Itsuki could escape to go sleep out in the bars on a pile of hay, but poor Arjuna had to care for her new born daughter and that was hassle enough even when the boys were out working the fields with their father and the farm workers. It was tasking on Arjuna but like any mother, she persevered especially as Jialing grew and became somewhat more easier to understand. It wasn't that she was talking, but she became better at expressing herself.
As she became mobile and learned how to talk, Jialing would often stomp after her brothers, chasing them through their home. She learned quickly to be careful around stairs after a nasty tumble down the stairs in their home. Her brothers often teased her and tricked her, sometimes scaring her with the ghost stories from the abandoned temple. They lived on the outside of town, near the fields and could see the complex over the scattered roofs of the other homes. She cried and whined at them, but the truth was.. Jialing adored being with her brothers. She almost always cried when the two boys left the house, now four and six to her two years, to go help with their father. There, they learned how to ride ostrich horses, how to plant and harvest and how to plow the fields and work the scythes to harvest. On the other hand, Jialing was kept inside with her mother where she often clung to the woman's dresses and legs. Arjuna kept Jialing with her as she went about doing her daily chores, introducing the young girl to cooking and cleaning, the essentials of running a household. She wasn't fond of these but went along with what her mother because that was the only way her Father would take her out with him now that she was old enough to participate.
Her education was fairly simple. She never attended formal school but her Mother and Father supplemented their children's education with what they felt was best. All three of the children learned to read and write basic characters and they learned the math that was
so critical for the management of the farm. The family, while certainly not rich, did have a many books that had been brought through by traders and merchants. The children learned to read what books they had, often trading with other children. Jialing herself was never a fan of reading. Sitting still was too much for the energetic child who could barely stand sit still and listen to stories, no she had to get up and reenact them! She was always the counter for the family farm, helping her father tally the day's harvest over the dinner table once in his books. Itsuki more than welcomed his daughter's help, even if she did think 2+2=5 most of the time, He would correct the books after she went to bed so as not to hurt her feelings.
When her fine motor skills were better up to par, her Mother sat her down at the family loom and began to teach her the craft that she had learn from her mother. Jialing learned all the steps of weaving from cleaning the wool, to teasing and carding it, to spinning and finally dying and weaving it into fabric. Even though Arjuna did mostly just dying and weaving, she felt that her daughter should know all aspects of it: even the parts she outsourced to other women in the village. Needless to say another boring hobby was just what Jialing need. Not. The young girl wouldn't sit still with her mother. She would leap right up, squirm away, and somehow find a way to go run after her brothers, ruining many a dress with mud, snagging it on sticks or broken bits of stone. Arjuna desperately wanted a little girl who would love the pretty fabrics, ribbons and bows that she made for the village and for the traders. It was a honorable and respectable occupation for a woman and even some Fire Nation Traders had shown some interest in her works, especially the tapestries.
Itsuki's gentle nudging was all that she needed and she agreed to let Jialing help in the fields now that she was older. The clumsy little girl took it like a fish takes to mud. Each season working the fields alongside their neighbors was a blast. Running down the rows of tiled soil, scattering seeds from her gathered apron, racing her brothers to finish each row and to scatter the most seed was the best part. Daisuke almost always won, Goro and Him leaving the younger Jialing behind everytime. The siblings befriended many of the village children, often helping their families out with their own planting and harvesting at the urging of their Father. After all, it takes a village to raise a child and there were many children in Lochan. This was Jialing's life for a number of years, learning how to weave fabric on the loom, making clothes, living the farm life and chasing down the Koala-Sheep. Ah.. the Koala-sheep. More than once, she received a kick to the head from them. They were mean, and grumpy, and they smelled, and she didn't like them! But oh man were they cute.
Growing older meant taking on more responsibilities. It became Jialing's job to tend to her family's herd of Koala-sheep, shepherding them from pasture to pasture. It was required that she stay out with the koala-sheep, to keep an eye on them and protect them. Her mother gave her a small, hand held loom that she could weave small, handkerchief size bits of cloth on. Begrudgingly accepting it, Jialing spent her afternoons sitting on the grassy hillsides, weaving. Her mother had just taught her to weave in patterns and how to paint silk and create beautiful tapestries, and so she began to make small hand held versions of what she saw; weaving during the day, dyeing in the evening.
Around this time, Jialing began her growth spurt, shooting up past her mother in years, and now equal height with her brothers. Unlike them, she was lanky, shapeless with bony hips and a flat chest. Her mother enjoyed that her daughter was becoming a woman and lovingly spent time making new han-fus and aoi's for daughter to wear. After all, Lochan was home of many festivals celebrating the different seasons and the harvest.. Jialing would have to look her best if she was to secure a husband. Jialing found her Mother's insistence in dressing her in such finery a waste and annoying. She often groaned and complained during fittings, violently carding wool as her mother tried to brush through her ratty hair which at this point hung down her back in ripples of dull, dark taupe.
Sure, Jialing liked some of the boys in her village, even dated a few, but.. she lost her interest in them after a while. She left a few of them with broken hearts, some of them angry and spiteful towards her, which only served to fuel her developing, snappy teenage personality. Oh yes, the Jia we all know and love was beginning to emerge. Her mother's constant nagging of her appearance, "You're too dirty, wash your face!" "Your hair needs brushed!" "Stop wearing Goro's things!" "Honestly, Jialing.. you disappoint me.." wasn't helping. Many of the village girls, friends when growing up, now laughed at her lack of a figure. Yes, she was dirty, yes she didn't brush her hair out, yes she wore her Brother's clothing.. but she was comfortable.
Years passed, with Jialing weaving tapestries under the guide of her mother and with helping her father and brothers with he harvest. The time she spent in the fields became less and less as she spent more and more time at the weave, her focus becoming ornate scenery of the forests and fields, and the ruined temple and palace where she often played as a child. On one rare instance where she was outside, bundling wheat during the fall harvest that she expressed her disdain for weaving and a growing hatred for her mother who kept pressing her and also who was obsessively keeping her inside and away from the fields. Itsuki, always understanding, listened to his daughter. He felt for Jialing, who wanted nothing more than to work the fields and get out from under the thumb of her mother. He spoke to Arjuna in private, then with Jialing eventually, the three reached an agreement. Itsuki traded with another man and his family and they could use a hand on their farm now that their only son had left to fight in the war effort. Jialing was to travel to the town, a few days' travel away, and spend the next year helping them. She would leave in the spring.
Her new job would require much of her. Not only her agricultural skills, but also some housekeeping skills which Jialing was rusty at. During these winter months, Goro carved Jialing's yew bow for her, making her arrows as well. Daichi worked with her to gather her supplies - Clothing, her portable loom, and a kitchen knife for the road. The two brothers taught their sister what they knew about survival outside, even though she would only be traveling by herself for a few days and on a well traveled road to Tachi Dai. They gave her an old ostrich horse harness that they rigged up to carry her quiver of arrows, carry a backpack of sorts and also hold her newly acquired kitchen knife. Her mother begrudgingly mender some of her son's clothes for Jialing, as well including a fancy outfit for her.. just in case.
The bow and quiver, while a lovely idea.. was a miserable failure. The brothers thought it could allow Jialing some protection while keeping her at a safe distance. Both of them were decently skilled, and they had tried to teach Jialing before. Never really having been interested, she had little practice with the weapon but now agreed to a few lessons. After a few lost chickens, a couple of close close calls and a number of arrows on the roof of their small home.. the two brothers stopped their lessons. It seemed that Jialing had no aim what so ever. When she was aiming at the cans and seed bags placed on fence poles, her arrows would go far and wide. Both brothers tested her new bow, tested her quivers and did just fine! Jialing insisted on keeping the bow and practicing. ...If you can call it that.
Spring came and Jialing, clad in an over sized, pea green tunic, bid fair well to her brothers.. and to her new sister-in-law. Daichi had married over the winter and his new wife had moved in with his family, filling the void that would have been left by Jialing. Already her mother had latched onto the new wife, a young woman named Jyotisna, and had begun to teach her all about weaving. Jyotisna was a perfect wife, beautiful, dressed in as fine clothes as she afford, with lovely hair that she did up every day. Already, she was expecting a baby as well. Jialing wasn't fond of her.. or how she stole her Mother's attention. With this jealousy weighing on her, Jialing left home, heading on the road to Tachi Dai. She was seventeen years old.
The trip was uneventful for.. two days until Jialing passed near a Fire Nation colony. For some reason, she found herself drawn to the town, wandering around it's streets and vendors for a day. That night, camping out under a tree.. Jialing sat up and stared into the darkness. She didn't want to farm now that she had a taste of being by herself, of living on her own. Jialing enjoyed being able to look around freely, stopping to fish out a toy that had rolled under a porch for a kid, playing a game of kuai ball with some kids she happened across in the Fire Nation Town. Never really one to hate the Fire Nation, she held no hard feelings towards them.. after all, she was used to their presence. Although she still had time to get to the farm, and still had the coins given to her by her father.. enough for a month's worth of food, and she had promised to help this family.. Jialing took a selfish step off the beaten past and headed to the east instead of north. Venturing further into volatile territory and leaving behind Lochan and her secure lifestyle.
As her money dwindled, Jialing knew that her aim with the bow and arrow she had was pathetic.. She'd never catch anything. Daisuke and Goro had shown her some basic traps she could use, but she had never tried her hand at them before and had failed to even catch her own foot so far. There were many a night when she went hungry or when she managed to bribe an inn keeper into letting her sleep in their ostrich horse stable or somewhere or managed to cajole some work in exchange for a bit of food. The more east she traveled, the more into disputed territory she went, the more fresh ravages of war she saw.
It was in one of these villages, when Jialing was strolling behind a row of houses, looking for anything left out in the open, perhaps some fruit, that she came across a fairly young puppy. The little puppy, with it's goldenrod down colored fur was tied to a stake and crying his little head off. It was spring, and still a little chilly out right, and judging by the worn patches of dirty between the stake and a crumbling makeshift dog house without even a blanket. Her heart ached, having grown up with animals most of her life and even though they sometimes went to slaughter, they always had decent shelter, good food, and someone to pet them. It was an impulsive choice, and something she regretted for the next few months, but Jialing stole the puppy, cut through his tie and tucked him against her chest and ran. Caring for a puppy was hard.. trying to get enough food for the both of them was hard.. but at least having a puppy with her now gave her that element of cute in addition to her bedridden, greasy, 'oh my spirits, you need a bath' appearance. He often cried at night, which resulted in Jialing letting him curl up against her chest, under her futon and he couldn't catch his own food worth a damn for months. He got sick eating the raw food sometimes, but when Jia learned how to build a fire, she began to take it from him and cook it.. thus.. enabling both of them to eat. Soon, as he grew in to a lanky, long legged and big headed dog, it became apparent that he was going to be HUGE.
Her travels weren't as eye opening as she might expect. Jialing was used to seeing Fire Nation Soldiers.. they kept the peace in her hometown's region, but the further she went in the more unstable everything was. People kept fighting back.. the Earth Kingdom Soldiers kept fighting pack, using dirty underhand tactics and then.. retreating like scared little boys. She ignored the war for the most part, discovering she could get a nice warm place to sleep if she leaned towards whatever sympathies she happened to be around. She's been around the flaming fire flakes stand a few times if you catch what I mean. It's during these years that her sense of self-worth began to warp, becoming deteriorated and also inflated.
Little did she know how much life would change when she met Reed..
Sample RP: Whatever.. Jialing scoffed as she straightened her neck. She was done for the night. The fight was over as far as she was concerned and she had won. It was a good feeling, that trembly little giddiness in the pit of her stomach a sure sign of the adrenalin rush. She wiggled a raised eyebrow in the direction of the former soldier for a brief second before she turned her haughty head towards Reed who had risen to his feet. She beamed at him without a smile, but her face said everything as she bounced on her toes. He had to chuckle as he passed, grinning at her.
She tilted her head coyly at him, the corners of her lip curling up as a hand rose to brush back her taupe colored hair. Her hair felt stiff, it was wiry and course, even with all the oil on it that gave it a slick shine. Man.. when they got to town, she was taking a long soak in a warm tub that was for sure. Brushing shoulders with Reed as he passed, she dropped her gaze shyly for a moment only to feel his fingers grasp the excess myrtle colored fabric of her tunic, pulling her along with him. Her bare feet padded backwards once, twice, turning Jialing around to walk alongside Reed, away from the Fire. He leaned on her shoulder, something he was prone to do as they walked, drumming his dirty, calloused fingers on her collarbone.
"Way to go, Jiaa! That impression; priceless." He spoke to and just her, but he let his laughter carry into the woods. Again, it drew a rare smile from her that wasn't evil, or admonishing him for something stupid he did (Which was probably her fault anyway). She unfolded her arms, forearms wrapped in the thread-bare muslin that was stained with dirt, blood, grass, and slipped one behind Reed's Back, around his waist. She chuckled like any girl, pulling him closer as they walked to where they had piled their gear under a tree. She forgot about the strangers traveling with them, the strange cloaked man who had run off into the woods and the former soldier who challenged her so much. "..Just doing my job." She muttered to him, a cheerfulness in her voice as he slipped from her grasp, ruffling her hair. The rat's nest he created stayed put, defying gravity more than usual on the top of her head.
While Reed took a blanket to the poor kid crashed out alongside the fire, Jia kicked out their rolled sleeping packs, rolling them towards the Fire. It would be safer near it anyway. "..Reed, Call her Tsuya." She commanded, overhearing the young man with the scruffy, jaw length hair refer to the only other woman in the group by her island. She glanced towards the warrior, watching as she removed the white face paint for a moment before feeling like she was intruding on something private. Jialing finished unrolling the two packs, side by side, and placed her leather and rabbit fur boots next to hers. Jin was passed out clean by the fire, warming his stomach as he laid on his side. All around them, the night had grown quiet save for the crickets chirping and the wind rustling the leaves. As she sat down on her pack, crossing her legs under her, she couldn't help but wonder where the hooded man prattling on about his precious books had gone.
Name: Jin
Age: about 2 years old
Appearance: Jin is a large dog, standing the height of a grown man's waist. His fur is thick, shaggy and the color of a new golden coin. His dark eyes have a bright and youthful spark, the irises a rich, mahogany color. She doesn't brush his fur out too often so it's often matted and flecked with dried bits of mud that break off. The fur on his legs is stained a muddy brown, the pads of his feet cracked and worn though his claws stay quite trimmed. He has a wise face, with his wiry hair resembling a messy mustache and bushy caterpillar eyebrows above his eyes. His imposing presence has served Jialing well, often intimidating anyone who she didn't want to deal with. The crying little puppy has grown into a sweet dog who loves to snuggle but who also is fiercly protective. Jialing is his woman after all.
Personality: Jin comes off as a very lovable dog to Jialing. He is well trained, and responds to her commands most of the time. A happy dog, he almost always greets the people he likes with a wagging tail. That being Jialing, and those who she lets into her circle. Yet secretly, Jin is preparing to murder her in her sleep and take over the world. Therefore, he must behave or else lose his chance, often following her orders with a grudge or a look of disdain. However, because he wants to be the one to snuff her out, he is very protective of her, resulting in a conflict of interest.
Name: Jialing Xiang
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Group: The Rebellion
Nation: Earth Kingdom
Bender?: No
Physical Appearance: Standing a narrow and lanky five foot five, Jialing has the the appearance of a willowly statue. Her head is crowned with a massive, gravity defying mop of unruly hair. Dark taupe in color, her hair often times takes on the appearance of a sepia-toned photograph. Much of her hair is slicked back by a combination of grease and dirt, but the bangs that she keeps are crinkled like dried leaves, crimped to frame her long, narrow face. She keeps her hair short and when it's wetted down, it never reaches past her shoulders, but since she rarely gets a shower, most of the tie it's up in a style affectionately known as a 'Duck Butt'. Long strands hang around her face, while the shorter bits of hair in the back are fluffed out, like the feathers on a duck's butt.
Speaking of her face, Jialing was not blessed. She has a shallow forehead and thick, expressive eyebrows. Her eyes are small, rectangular in shape and the color of mud. Her eyelashes are short, clumped with spirits know what and often times appearing like the color of rain-covered rocks. Her face is long, with a prominent nose that could be described as Grecian or Roman. How it's managed not to get sliced off by a sword is a mystery. Her cheekbones are prominent but only because her cheeks have sunken in a little with time. She has a very square jaw that tapers into a rounded chin upon which sit her average lips, most often the color of a rotten mango. She has narrow, rectangle eyes that are the color of dried mud set deep in her face. They are framed by long lashes, but they often clump and look like they have a bad case of mange. The same goes for her eyebrows. She has a talent for a wide variety of facial expressions, usually something resembling a sneer or disgust.
Overall, Jia is a lanky girl who is somewhat tall for the female gender, but despite this, she just barely matches heads with the most average of men. Her bosom is rather flat and while it helps with her bow skills, it is not a source of pride. Her arms are also narrow, and constantly bear a tan from being out in the sun. Her waist and her hips meld into one, with a shallow concave curve at the sides. She, like many girls, has that feminine pooch for a stomach, accentuated often by how she stands: Weight on one foot, hips thrusted out and forward. She has strong thighs from years of running around and climbing trees and her calves are well shaped, narrowing to tiny ankles that run into large, duck-like feet. Her hands are consistently dirty, with the faint, white lines across her fingers and thumbs from cutting, and working with tiny strings of thread. Also, the bow string has left her two draw-back fingers permanently indented.
Her feet are similar, dirty and calloused as she often wanders around camps barefoot.
Clothing/Armor: Her narrow and flat torso is covered with a potato sack like garment, exactly the color of a potato sack. Actually, it might be a bit closer to the color of sun faded, satin gold, but overall.. it's a potato sack. Sleeveless, it has a rounded collar that extends across her shoulders, and the large size allows the hem of the arm-holes to hang down her slender arms. Over this, the young woman often wears a well worn, simple tunic in a fern green, a soft grayed out green that looks best when splattered with mud. The tunic itself is well made. The collar is a traditional Mandarin collar, which means it encircles the neck like the collar of an animal, except it is looser and open in the front. Jia's collar is trimmed in faded, drab gold embroidery thread which has rubbed off in manly areas, giving it an aged look. The Tunic is sleeveless, but the shoulders are short enough that her undershirt's shoulders poke through. Folding over her chest to the left, her the tunic is held shut by simple frog ornamentation consisting of a ornate note that slips through a hole and is secured over a button it is attached to. Two of these, in worn drab gold of course, secure the tunic at her bosom and then at her waist. The tunic is long and over sized on her, reaching her knees when unbound, but she chooses to wrap an old scrap of fabric, perhaps a scarf at one point, around her waist. Jialing wears this dark khaki colored scarf tight, pulling the tunic up over it many times while she keeps the knot and it's long tails to her left side often out of the way.
Over this is worn a slightly nicer sleeveless in the latest olive drab from the backwaters of the Earth Kingdom. This particular item of clothing is actually hemmed with yellow thread, a golden colored ribbon encircling the mandarin collar and the edge of the half that folds across her chest. A homemade belt of scrap fabric, saffron in color and with a old fishing net woven in is tied at her waist, the knot at her hip. The vest hangs to her mid thigh, a pair of her younger brother's old pants slapped on. A tint lighter than dung, the pants, which end about mid-calf and could probably fit a small fuzzy animal inside the legs, are caked with mud and stained with a variety of grasses and moss. Finally, her feet, which are calloused and stained from years of running around barefoot, are usually snug within knee-high rabbit skin and fur boots, laced up with tanned leather swing. The white and arsenic grey fur protrudes from the laces and around her calves.
Weapons: Bow and Arrows. The bow was roughly carved of yew wood, which is light in color, by her brother Goro and is a decent example of his craftsmanship. It is about the length of her arm, if not a foot or so more. The grip is wrapped in leather that was stretched and tightened on the wood, ensuring a tight fit. The strings she uses are made from animal sinew and they must be hooked onto the flexible bow first before she can use it. They are fragile and if left on, can dry out, so she takes them off.
Most of the arrows she has made herself out of the straightest sticks she'd been able to find. Jialing has dabbled in making arrow heads, but is rather poor at the so she tends to save what few metal arrowheads she has.
She carries a small knife with her. The blade was once sharp but now is very dull and she is too stubborn to have it sharpened. The silver blade, speckled with water spots and the beginnings of rust is only sharpened on one side and that side is chipped and brittle. The blade is set into a simple wooden hand that is shaped like a prism, a round triangle, secured to the blade by a pair of shrunken metal rings which hold it tight. The handle is wrapped in pale, suntanned leather but even this is beginning to wear.
Personality: A woman of many faces, Jialing chooses to show one face to the world and that is a face of a arrogant, self-centered, and somewhat dimwitted woman. She is a young woman who has lived on her own for a couple of years now, doing what she needs to do for money, food and shelter. Always a whippersnapper, a young girl who was quick to snap back a retort, this has become her defense measure. By no means did she had to take the life she has, but wanderlust draws her. It would be cliche to say that Jialing is cold to everyone she meets. She isn't, but she certainly isn't welcoming and will most likely regard anyone as suspicious unless she instigates the introduction. She will snap and degrade, attempting to knock the person down a notch. Very dominating, Jialing likes to be in control and has a hard time accepting what she can not control. She expresses this through anger and attitude, often making enemies.
Many times though have caught Jialing as a bright, cheerful, albeit very loud individual. She has a sarcastic, blunt personality, often calling people directly out and publicly condemning what she views as their mistakes and failures. Even if she is responsible for them. A driving force she often rushes head on into things without thinking. Sitting still in one place bothers her and since leaving home, she has had a hard time staying in one place or even keeping a constant in her life. Jin, her dog has become the only constant in her life now. He has provides the stability that has somewhat calmed Jialing's wild attitude. While still headstrong and prone to bouts of stupidity, Jialing has stopped in her quest to conquer the world to actually take a breath of air.
The war may be going on, but until her recent involvement in a Rebel group originating in the Fire Nation, she has virtually ignored it outright. The war never affected her. She was born in an area under Fire Nation Control but the petty little village of Lochan was left alone. It had no resources and aside from taxing the sleepy town, Jia never really knew anything differently. She still is, despite her allegiance to the Rebels, ignorant of the true cost of war. The Western Coast of the Earth Kingdom is mostly quiet, suffering little compared to the advancing front line which has given her a false sense of security in regards to their Fire Overlords. Really, she'd honestly go with whoever paid her more or offered her a better deal. Not that she's greedy, which she honestly, is but the Rebellion offered her the chance to be apart of something, a group.
That unity is something Jialing feels she has be missing. That wanting to be with.. brings us to another aspect of Jialing. Her insecurities which lay buried under the strain of the dominate aspects of her personality. She dreads failure, having failed in the eyes of her mother to become the daughter she wanted, and now.. living in trees. Her over-confidence which seems so unshaken is built on this weak, crumbling facade. Jialing seeks to build herself up on the shoulders of others. She is reluctant to do any work herself and is beginning to discover that she can not always rely on others when she wants to and sometimes they come when she doesn't want them. Dreading showing anyone just how shaky she is, Jialing will often become extremely defensive and evasive when nervous or upset, going so far as to run off from her group if she can not kick the problem out. This has led to many a misunderstanding.
While it took a few months and some harsh words to developed, Jialing has found something out of a misunderstanding. She has partnered with the Merchant, Reed,in more ways than one. Business partners on one end, Jia is responsible for a large loss of Reed's fiances from a failed trip and squarely pinned it on him, reversing the loss and saying that he owes her. She stuck with him, claiming that she was after him for payment.. but really, it was for his companionship. Reed filled in a similar role that Jin did, he stabilized her. Calm and with that voice of reason, he took all her jabs and verbal slaps in stride, along with the physical injuries. Their relationship is still questionable as Jialing is prone to cut him off for days, even weeks on end from any sort of romance.. and what they do have is rather dry.
Background: Jialing's hometown is a tiny, insignificant dot on west coast of the Earth Kingdom the named Lochan This village was once a grand and large city. Infact it was used to host a summit of the four nations a thousand years ago but since then it has fallen onto hard times as the mines were emptied and the farming has become poor over the past couple hundred years. The village has one saving grace though in that it is home to a small temple dedicated to the earth spirits, Badger moles and Earth Avatars. This relic occasionally brings visitors who wish to pay homage to the spirits to the village. The temple complex is in disrepair save for the main shrine. Various dormitory type buildings used for housing have collapsed, halls have caved in to underground passages leaving the temple's grounds a haven for the local children to explore. The village of Lochan radiates out from the old temple, spreading outward and gradually becoming less dense. Fields encircled the village and many of not owned by one family but by the village as a whole.
There is a general sense of reliance on one's neighbor and friends in Lochan. Nearly everyone is self-sufficient and they get a steady stream of travelers that come through, enough that many have set up small shops to cater to the merchants that run from the sea to the inlands and to the Fire Nation colonists who come over to settle the annexed territories. Lochan is part of this annexed land and has been for decades. Their placent behavior and willingness to pay taxes has left them unscathed by the war.
The land is filled with gentle rolling hills that allow for gracious amounts of farming. Speckles of trees dot the landscape, standing in the middle of fields and decorating the yards along the dirt roads, worn with wagon tracks. Forest creeps in on the village's eastern most sides, covering the hills that have not been touched by the plow. The ocean is not very far and when a good breeze is blowing, the smell of salt often fills the air.
Many of the families in the village have been her for generations and the Xiang's are not an exception. Her parents are one of the farming families, employing help from some of the other families. Her father, Xiang Itsuki manages the farm and the fields where they grow rice and wheat while her mother, Arjuna handles the imported Koala Sheep, weaving fine textiles from their wool. The couple were friends growing up, their love growing into a gentle sort of love. They married out of convince, having known each other so long it was as if living with your best friend. They have since grown fond of each other over the years of raising their children.
Twenty four years ago, their first son, Daichi, was born followed two years later by their second son, Goro. Like perfect clockwork, two years later, their first and only girl, Jialing was born. The two brothers, best friends and inseparable for the most part (they had their spats..) felt this newcomer intruded on their family. They were used to being the center of attention but now this crying little human worm was at the center of everything and stole their mother's attention. Jialing was a demanding little baby. She came into the world with a scream and screamed for practically everything else after that.
For weeks, her Mother had little sleep. Itsuki could escape to go sleep out in the bars on a pile of hay, but poor Arjuna had to care for her new born daughter and that was hassle enough even when the boys were out working the fields with their father and the farm workers. It was tasking on Arjuna but like any mother, she persevered especially as Jialing grew and became somewhat more easier to understand. It wasn't that she was talking, but she became better at expressing herself.
As she became mobile and learned how to talk, Jialing would often stomp after her brothers, chasing them through their home. She learned quickly to be careful around stairs after a nasty tumble down the stairs in their home. Her brothers often teased her and tricked her, sometimes scaring her with the ghost stories from the abandoned temple. They lived on the outside of town, near the fields and could see the complex over the scattered roofs of the other homes. She cried and whined at them, but the truth was.. Jialing adored being with her brothers. She almost always cried when the two boys left the house, now four and six to her two years, to go help with their father. There, they learned how to ride ostrich horses, how to plant and harvest and how to plow the fields and work the scythes to harvest. On the other hand, Jialing was kept inside with her mother where she often clung to the woman's dresses and legs. Arjuna kept Jialing with her as she went about doing her daily chores, introducing the young girl to cooking and cleaning, the essentials of running a household. She wasn't fond of these but went along with what her mother because that was the only way her Father would take her out with him now that she was old enough to participate.
Her education was fairly simple. She never attended formal school but her Mother and Father supplemented their children's education with what they felt was best. All three of the children learned to read and write basic characters and they learned the math that was
so critical for the management of the farm. The family, while certainly not rich, did have a many books that had been brought through by traders and merchants. The children learned to read what books they had, often trading with other children. Jialing herself was never a fan of reading. Sitting still was too much for the energetic child who could barely stand sit still and listen to stories, no she had to get up and reenact them! She was always the counter for the family farm, helping her father tally the day's harvest over the dinner table once in his books. Itsuki more than welcomed his daughter's help, even if she did think 2+2=5 most of the time, He would correct the books after she went to bed so as not to hurt her feelings.
When her fine motor skills were better up to par, her Mother sat her down at the family loom and began to teach her the craft that she had learn from her mother. Jialing learned all the steps of weaving from cleaning the wool, to teasing and carding it, to spinning and finally dying and weaving it into fabric. Even though Arjuna did mostly just dying and weaving, she felt that her daughter should know all aspects of it: even the parts she outsourced to other women in the village. Needless to say another boring hobby was just what Jialing need. Not. The young girl wouldn't sit still with her mother. She would leap right up, squirm away, and somehow find a way to go run after her brothers, ruining many a dress with mud, snagging it on sticks or broken bits of stone. Arjuna desperately wanted a little girl who would love the pretty fabrics, ribbons and bows that she made for the village and for the traders. It was a honorable and respectable occupation for a woman and even some Fire Nation Traders had shown some interest in her works, especially the tapestries.
Itsuki's gentle nudging was all that she needed and she agreed to let Jialing help in the fields now that she was older. The clumsy little girl took it like a fish takes to mud. Each season working the fields alongside their neighbors was a blast. Running down the rows of tiled soil, scattering seeds from her gathered apron, racing her brothers to finish each row and to scatter the most seed was the best part. Daisuke almost always won, Goro and Him leaving the younger Jialing behind everytime. The siblings befriended many of the village children, often helping their families out with their own planting and harvesting at the urging of their Father. After all, it takes a village to raise a child and there were many children in Lochan. This was Jialing's life for a number of years, learning how to weave fabric on the loom, making clothes, living the farm life and chasing down the Koala-Sheep. Ah.. the Koala-sheep. More than once, she received a kick to the head from them. They were mean, and grumpy, and they smelled, and she didn't like them! But oh man were they cute.
Growing older meant taking on more responsibilities. It became Jialing's job to tend to her family's herd of Koala-sheep, shepherding them from pasture to pasture. It was required that she stay out with the koala-sheep, to keep an eye on them and protect them. Her mother gave her a small, hand held loom that she could weave small, handkerchief size bits of cloth on. Begrudgingly accepting it, Jialing spent her afternoons sitting on the grassy hillsides, weaving. Her mother had just taught her to weave in patterns and how to paint silk and create beautiful tapestries, and so she began to make small hand held versions of what she saw; weaving during the day, dyeing in the evening.
Around this time, Jialing began her growth spurt, shooting up past her mother in years, and now equal height with her brothers. Unlike them, she was lanky, shapeless with bony hips and a flat chest. Her mother enjoyed that her daughter was becoming a woman and lovingly spent time making new han-fus and aoi's for daughter to wear. After all, Lochan was home of many festivals celebrating the different seasons and the harvest.. Jialing would have to look her best if she was to secure a husband. Jialing found her Mother's insistence in dressing her in such finery a waste and annoying. She often groaned and complained during fittings, violently carding wool as her mother tried to brush through her ratty hair which at this point hung down her back in ripples of dull, dark taupe.
Sure, Jialing liked some of the boys in her village, even dated a few, but.. she lost her interest in them after a while. She left a few of them with broken hearts, some of them angry and spiteful towards her, which only served to fuel her developing, snappy teenage personality. Oh yes, the Jia we all know and love was beginning to emerge. Her mother's constant nagging of her appearance, "You're too dirty, wash your face!" "Your hair needs brushed!" "Stop wearing Goro's things!" "Honestly, Jialing.. you disappoint me.." wasn't helping. Many of the village girls, friends when growing up, now laughed at her lack of a figure. Yes, she was dirty, yes she didn't brush her hair out, yes she wore her Brother's clothing.. but she was comfortable.
Years passed, with Jialing weaving tapestries under the guide of her mother and with helping her father and brothers with he harvest. The time she spent in the fields became less and less as she spent more and more time at the weave, her focus becoming ornate scenery of the forests and fields, and the ruined temple and palace where she often played as a child. On one rare instance where she was outside, bundling wheat during the fall harvest that she expressed her disdain for weaving and a growing hatred for her mother who kept pressing her and also who was obsessively keeping her inside and away from the fields. Itsuki, always understanding, listened to his daughter. He felt for Jialing, who wanted nothing more than to work the fields and get out from under the thumb of her mother. He spoke to Arjuna in private, then with Jialing eventually, the three reached an agreement. Itsuki traded with another man and his family and they could use a hand on their farm now that their only son had left to fight in the war effort. Jialing was to travel to the town, a few days' travel away, and spend the next year helping them. She would leave in the spring.
Her new job would require much of her. Not only her agricultural skills, but also some housekeeping skills which Jialing was rusty at. During these winter months, Goro carved Jialing's yew bow for her, making her arrows as well. Daichi worked with her to gather her supplies - Clothing, her portable loom, and a kitchen knife for the road. The two brothers taught their sister what they knew about survival outside, even though she would only be traveling by herself for a few days and on a well traveled road to Tachi Dai. They gave her an old ostrich horse harness that they rigged up to carry her quiver of arrows, carry a backpack of sorts and also hold her newly acquired kitchen knife. Her mother begrudgingly mender some of her son's clothes for Jialing, as well including a fancy outfit for her.. just in case.
The bow and quiver, while a lovely idea.. was a miserable failure. The brothers thought it could allow Jialing some protection while keeping her at a safe distance. Both of them were decently skilled, and they had tried to teach Jialing before. Never really having been interested, she had little practice with the weapon but now agreed to a few lessons. After a few lost chickens, a couple of close close calls and a number of arrows on the roof of their small home.. the two brothers stopped their lessons. It seemed that Jialing had no aim what so ever. When she was aiming at the cans and seed bags placed on fence poles, her arrows would go far and wide. Both brothers tested her new bow, tested her quivers and did just fine! Jialing insisted on keeping the bow and practicing. ...If you can call it that.
Spring came and Jialing, clad in an over sized, pea green tunic, bid fair well to her brothers.. and to her new sister-in-law. Daichi had married over the winter and his new wife had moved in with his family, filling the void that would have been left by Jialing. Already her mother had latched onto the new wife, a young woman named Jyotisna, and had begun to teach her all about weaving. Jyotisna was a perfect wife, beautiful, dressed in as fine clothes as she afford, with lovely hair that she did up every day. Already, she was expecting a baby as well. Jialing wasn't fond of her.. or how she stole her Mother's attention. With this jealousy weighing on her, Jialing left home, heading on the road to Tachi Dai. She was seventeen years old.
The trip was uneventful for.. two days until Jialing passed near a Fire Nation colony. For some reason, she found herself drawn to the town, wandering around it's streets and vendors for a day. That night, camping out under a tree.. Jialing sat up and stared into the darkness. She didn't want to farm now that she had a taste of being by herself, of living on her own. Jialing enjoyed being able to look around freely, stopping to fish out a toy that had rolled under a porch for a kid, playing a game of kuai ball with some kids she happened across in the Fire Nation Town. Never really one to hate the Fire Nation, she held no hard feelings towards them.. after all, she was used to their presence. Although she still had time to get to the farm, and still had the coins given to her by her father.. enough for a month's worth of food, and she had promised to help this family.. Jialing took a selfish step off the beaten past and headed to the east instead of north. Venturing further into volatile territory and leaving behind Lochan and her secure lifestyle.
As her money dwindled, Jialing knew that her aim with the bow and arrow she had was pathetic.. She'd never catch anything. Daisuke and Goro had shown her some basic traps she could use, but she had never tried her hand at them before and had failed to even catch her own foot so far. There were many a night when she went hungry or when she managed to bribe an inn keeper into letting her sleep in their ostrich horse stable or somewhere or managed to cajole some work in exchange for a bit of food. The more east she traveled, the more into disputed territory she went, the more fresh ravages of war she saw.
It was in one of these villages, when Jialing was strolling behind a row of houses, looking for anything left out in the open, perhaps some fruit, that she came across a fairly young puppy. The little puppy, with it's goldenrod down colored fur was tied to a stake and crying his little head off. It was spring, and still a little chilly out right, and judging by the worn patches of dirty between the stake and a crumbling makeshift dog house without even a blanket. Her heart ached, having grown up with animals most of her life and even though they sometimes went to slaughter, they always had decent shelter, good food, and someone to pet them. It was an impulsive choice, and something she regretted for the next few months, but Jialing stole the puppy, cut through his tie and tucked him against her chest and ran. Caring for a puppy was hard.. trying to get enough food for the both of them was hard.. but at least having a puppy with her now gave her that element of cute in addition to her bedridden, greasy, 'oh my spirits, you need a bath' appearance. He often cried at night, which resulted in Jialing letting him curl up against her chest, under her futon and he couldn't catch his own food worth a damn for months. He got sick eating the raw food sometimes, but when Jia learned how to build a fire, she began to take it from him and cook it.. thus.. enabling both of them to eat. Soon, as he grew in to a lanky, long legged and big headed dog, it became apparent that he was going to be HUGE.
Her travels weren't as eye opening as she might expect. Jialing was used to seeing Fire Nation Soldiers.. they kept the peace in her hometown's region, but the further she went in the more unstable everything was. People kept fighting back.. the Earth Kingdom Soldiers kept fighting pack, using dirty underhand tactics and then.. retreating like scared little boys. She ignored the war for the most part, discovering she could get a nice warm place to sleep if she leaned towards whatever sympathies she happened to be around. She's been around the flaming fire flakes stand a few times if you catch what I mean. It's during these years that her sense of self-worth began to warp, becoming deteriorated and also inflated.
Little did she know how much life would change when she met Reed..
Sample RP: Whatever.. Jialing scoffed as she straightened her neck. She was done for the night. The fight was over as far as she was concerned and she had won. It was a good feeling, that trembly little giddiness in the pit of her stomach a sure sign of the adrenalin rush. She wiggled a raised eyebrow in the direction of the former soldier for a brief second before she turned her haughty head towards Reed who had risen to his feet. She beamed at him without a smile, but her face said everything as she bounced on her toes. He had to chuckle as he passed, grinning at her.
She tilted her head coyly at him, the corners of her lip curling up as a hand rose to brush back her taupe colored hair. Her hair felt stiff, it was wiry and course, even with all the oil on it that gave it a slick shine. Man.. when they got to town, she was taking a long soak in a warm tub that was for sure. Brushing shoulders with Reed as he passed, she dropped her gaze shyly for a moment only to feel his fingers grasp the excess myrtle colored fabric of her tunic, pulling her along with him. Her bare feet padded backwards once, twice, turning Jialing around to walk alongside Reed, away from the Fire. He leaned on her shoulder, something he was prone to do as they walked, drumming his dirty, calloused fingers on her collarbone.
"Way to go, Jiaa! That impression; priceless." He spoke to and just her, but he let his laughter carry into the woods. Again, it drew a rare smile from her that wasn't evil, or admonishing him for something stupid he did (Which was probably her fault anyway). She unfolded her arms, forearms wrapped in the thread-bare muslin that was stained with dirt, blood, grass, and slipped one behind Reed's Back, around his waist. She chuckled like any girl, pulling him closer as they walked to where they had piled their gear under a tree. She forgot about the strangers traveling with them, the strange cloaked man who had run off into the woods and the former soldier who challenged her so much. "..Just doing my job." She muttered to him, a cheerfulness in her voice as he slipped from her grasp, ruffling her hair. The rat's nest he created stayed put, defying gravity more than usual on the top of her head.
While Reed took a blanket to the poor kid crashed out alongside the fire, Jia kicked out their rolled sleeping packs, rolling them towards the Fire. It would be safer near it anyway. "..Reed, Call her Tsuya." She commanded, overhearing the young man with the scruffy, jaw length hair refer to the only other woman in the group by her island. She glanced towards the warrior, watching as she removed the white face paint for a moment before feeling like she was intruding on something private. Jialing finished unrolling the two packs, side by side, and placed her leather and rabbit fur boots next to hers. Jin was passed out clean by the fire, warming his stomach as he laid on his side. All around them, the night had grown quiet save for the crickets chirping and the wind rustling the leaves. As she sat down on her pack, crossing her legs under her, she couldn't help but wonder where the hooded man prattling on about his precious books had gone.
Name: Jin
Age: about 2 years old
Appearance: Jin is a large dog, standing the height of a grown man's waist. His fur is thick, shaggy and the color of a new golden coin. His dark eyes have a bright and youthful spark, the irises a rich, mahogany color. She doesn't brush his fur out too often so it's often matted and flecked with dried bits of mud that break off. The fur on his legs is stained a muddy brown, the pads of his feet cracked and worn though his claws stay quite trimmed. He has a wise face, with his wiry hair resembling a messy mustache and bushy caterpillar eyebrows above his eyes. His imposing presence has served Jialing well, often intimidating anyone who she didn't want to deal with. The crying little puppy has grown into a sweet dog who loves to snuggle but who also is fiercly protective. Jialing is his woman after all.
Personality: Jin comes off as a very lovable dog to Jialing. He is well trained, and responds to her commands most of the time. A happy dog, he almost always greets the people he likes with a wagging tail. That being Jialing, and those who she lets into her circle. Yet secretly, Jin is preparing to murder her in her sleep and take over the world. Therefore, he must behave or else lose his chance, often following her orders with a grudge or a look of disdain. However, because he wants to be the one to snuff her out, he is very protective of her, resulting in a conflict of interest.