Post by nim on Sept 25, 2008 8:59:51 GMT -5
The words long and drawn out just arn't enough. There is just so much and yet so little, my head hurts.
Name: Undou Tamouri (Undou is an abbreviation for the Japanese word "Undoushinkei," which denotes "reflexes.") Becuase his loving parents knew what kind of acrobatic BAD! he was going to grow up to be. Also makes me think of Underwear for some reason; I have decided, you shall be known as ‘Underwear-man!’ *classic echo*
Age: 22 Ah a refreshing age, old enough to get piss drunk, but young enough to fix most of the mistakes you make.
Gender: Male okay he seems to know all about his dongle-doodle for now, but I fear how long it will last
Group: Flame Dancers Gypsy Caravan Gypsies, tramps and thieves *singing under breath*
Nation: Northern Water Tribe Big polar ice cap, uo-haha
Bender?: No *hears a chorus of ‘Hallelujah’* silence, it can only get worse
Physical Appearance:
Undou's hair is kept cropped short and near to his scalp to avoid it getting in his vision during his maneuvers. He keeps his chestnut yum, chestnuts *thinks of Christmas carol*hair kept slightly longer toward the crown of his head, at approximately 1/2 of an inch in length. Elsewhere, it is kept at about 1/4 of an inch and Undou is usually quite particular about keeping it at those lengths in those places Piss-drunk-Undou- “Hey, hey, barber, it’s- it’s gotta be, like short. Okay man, you- you understand, but don’t make it sh- shorter than short, okay, yeah?. He has a small patch of hair missing behind his left ear due to a slight mishap when he was younger and participating in a carnival event involving intricate firebending I swear on the life of the avatar if he is the firebender there will be no forgiveness. His almond-shaped cerulean eyes are ever so slightly wide-set and he nearly always has the appearance of a slight squint due to minor myopia not cool, throwing wordy BAD! around, go back to being drunk. He hasn't got glasses as they would be near to impossible to obtain and even harder to maintain given his line of work So the guy performs on an elevated stage without being able to see… does that just scream “dangerous”?. His nose is decidedly IT DECIDED!?? "Well pardon me, Underwear-Man, but I think I should like to be crooked." and notably crooked because of the many times he has failed a landing and face-planted on the earth. His mouth has a small scar just to the right of the lateral vermilion border go die, seriously, what is wrong with just saying his upper freaking lip? . It extends approximately a quarter inch, even with the groove distinguishing the upper and lower lips. He has a small chin that is not cleft and appears to be slightly weak. ”I am but a defenseless chin, spare me!” Undo has eyebrows ever so slightly lighter than his hair. As with many people, a childhood fall made a small scar on his eyebrow (the right one, in this case), though it is scarcely noticeable like many people? I don’t think I know a lot of people who have that scar, I know I don’t have it. Waa, nobody gave me a sue mark!. His ears are proportional with his face and even with each other laterally. Due to his short-cropped hair, they appear to protrude slightly away from his face, though they really do not do so more than is normal. He has attached earlobes. I’m sorry, but if you’re ears look big, your ears are big, I don’t care how many times Narcissus measured them.
His neck hosts a rather large Adam’s apple, which gives Undou a slightly awkward appearance.
Undou does not have broad shoulders, and despite his many exercises in maintaining good posture, his shoulders are slightly sloped downward haha, girly shoulders!. His torso evidences that he is a highly fit person, with lean muscles built more for speed and precision than strength but I though you said he was fat earlier, something about a large meal and no exercise. He is thin to the point that an average person might describe him as scrawny, but the other acrobats in the caravan would more likely just identify him as in good physical shape. He has very calloused palms from rope swinging, tumbling and all of the other various acrobatic feats he has had to perform in the course of his career.
His legs are toned from years of breaking falls and tumbling so that they are thin and the veins slightly protrusive. Generally he wears thin-soled sandals so that should he land on, for example, small rocks, he does not injure his foot and thus jeopardize his routine.
Okay, I am two pages in and all I know is his physical appearance… scratch that I still can’t visualize this guy. For all your fancy words he is just a piecemeal individual.
Clothing/Armor: Undou wears loose clothing around the caravan, a once long-sleeved shirt hangs off his upper body Hanging off his scrawny/fat bod. The shirt is a faded blue that used to belong to his father. The shirt has had to be modified so that they could be worn in the Earth Kingdom, which is considerably warmer than the Northern Water Tribe yes considerably, it’s not like a frozen wasteland at all. The shirt originally was a v-neck long-sleeve shirt with fur lining the neck, hem and cuffs.I’m sorry, but that doesn’t sound very warm, especially that girly V-neck part The shirt was, upon the entry of his parents into the caravan,and not before while they were wandering about the Earth Kingdom cut to be a sleeveless shirt with no fur linings. The inner layer of fabric was also carefully removed to thin the shirt to make it more suited to the much more temperate climate. He wears a pale green belt with a brown buckle that he got from a friend in the caravan, whose family originated in the Earth Kingdom ”Hey, we don’t have much and I could probably use this belt to hold my own pant up, but here, you can have it”. His pants are a standard brown and have leggings only extending ¾ of the way down his legs to allow him to keep cooler. They host no form of support other than the belt, which goes through loops that were specially sewn on to accommodate it. They are made of a thin, fabric of natural fibers to maximize the air passage. Brown, formless pants would have probably been another acceptable description. I know there is such thing as ‘not enough’, but there is also such thing as ‘too much’ and sir this is way too much.
His sandals are a simple affair their having an affair!? Scandalous with thin soles and cloth strips which go over the feet to be tied to the sole on the opposite side. They are a pale brown, almost khaki. The soles themselves are unpatterned and thus provide poor traction on smooth surfaces. which is why I go bare foot, shoes-shmoes
Weapons: In terms of actual weapons, the nature of Undou’s work makes them unsuitable to be carried and so he generally fights with his fisticuffs ’fisticuffs? Umm, sounds a little… girly. Unlike many fighters who face opponents head on, Undou would rather use tai chi to turn his opponent’s strength into his or her weakness. Through his extensive practice, he has learned from experience the weaker points of the human anatomy and prefers to use a minimal amount of energy applied to specific spots to incapacitate a particularly brutish opponent.
This form of fighting is necessitated in one such as Undou who isn’t physically built for a confrontational, direct tête à tête with an opponent, many of whom are taller and/or heavier than he. So he fights people often, sounds like a jerk
Personality: He hasn’t bought one yet. They’re pricey, he’s poor. That saves me a joke of my own. That was cute kid, but it wont save you forever, especially with the crap you pulled earlierJust kidding. -.- …
He is a fairly amiable person who isn’t really hard to get along with in his own right. He is fairly accepting of diverse personalities and backgrounds, a natural consequence of being raised in the “melting pot” of the caravan which is open and accepting to all seekers which is why he learned Tai Chi to kick butt with, just incase someone got on his good side. He of course has some prejudices, especially against fire nation soldiers, who historically aren’t friendly to, well, most anyone. That aside, though, he is a fairly laidback individual who takes things as them come (as he must in a performance due to the unpredictable crowd dynamics and the nature of the stage).
One of his largest pet peeves is a liar, especially one that lies about himself or herself. For Undou, a person is exactly who he or she was meant to be, and to deny any part of that is a source of nearly limitless irritation. This isn’t to say that Undou doesn’t see the value in lying, as he can readily admit that it can save lives and is used explicitly in performances. ”I hate lying, but it is good when I use it”
Undou is deathly afraid of spiders I knew he was a girl. It is a rather irrational fear as random word much?. So far as he can recall, he has never had a necessarily bad experience with one, but even so he kills them on sight and then shudders
Undou is reserved around strangers because he doesn’t know what to expect. As such, he reserves his judgment until he is certain about his impressions of the person.
When genuinely irritated, Undou displays an escapist philosophy in that he tries to distance himself from the stressor. If that is impossible, he becomes hostile and possible violent like a rabid animal, rawr in order to terminate the stress and allow him to regain his calm.Sounds unstable He is certainly not above yelling at people and once he finally decides he dislikes someone he rarely changes his mind. Drunk-Unerwear-Man: “I- I hate you- I hate you so- so- so much, *stumbles* I’m- I’m gunna- kick- kick you’re a-ass. *punches* Stop moving dammit!”
Undou driving motive is generally self-advancement. He loves learning new things, especially when those things have to do with his trade. Aside from that, he is really interested in folklore and legend. He generally doesn’t come off as an overly spiritual person, though his inner beliefs are strongly engrained by his parents. He is a follower of the Water Tribe faith in the spirits of Tui and La, who govern the moon and the oceans, respectively. I thought he hated fish
Background: Undou’s grandparents were captured by Fire Nation Soldiers eighty-five years ago. Sue-sue much?The worked dutifully as slaves in a Fire Nation work camp located in the Earth Kingdom. It wasn’t until a mass prisoner uprising that allowed his grandparents to make their escape. His grandparents survived in an underground refugee camp in the Earth Kingdom. A year or so after the breakout, Undou’s maternal grandparents (Khuong and Huyen) gave birth his mother, Hue. She eventually married Nayate, the son of two water-tribe parents (Tarun and Oorjita), and his parents joined the Flame Dancers Gypsy Caravan when they secretly watched a performance hosted (much more quietly than usual) in the refugees’ underground encampment. All of his grandparents, maternal and paternal, are now deceased. So the gypsies some how found ex-prisoners hiding out in a cave and decided ‘hey lets perform’ sounds so likely- NOT!
Nayate and Hue joined the acrobats in the caravan and worked hard to rise in the ranks to become somewhat well-known within the group they had learned acrobatics from the Bat-Monkeys in there time underground. Their parents disapproved of such tom-foolery since the lazy brats should have been looking for food with the rest of the ex-prisoners. Undou was born five full years after his parents joined the caravan. Some complications during his birth caused his umbilical cord to get wrapped around his neck and so he was born a ‘blue baby’ and the midwife’s superstition placed an ill-omen on his birth.Midwife one:”This baby is to grow to be a Sue, we should kill him now and save the world,” Midwife two:“No, we cannot tamper with the fate of the world,” Midwife one:“We’re going to regret this” His family was never exceptionally superstitious, though, and so the omen was immediately written off and no known consequence has been observed because of it. Says you.
As a child, Undou got along fairly well with the other children in the caravan. As a normal child of no discernable physical deformity, he seemed to fit in and the naturally accepting atmosphere within the diversified caravan was conducive to a more-or-less happy childhood. It is noteworthy that Undou was a late walker and his parents worried that he would be unable to find work as an acrobat and would have to try to establish himself in his own niche Mother: ”My baby wont be acrobat, that means he leave mommy to find his own place in world! Waaaa!” . Despite the many falls and minor injuries associated with his childhood awkwardness, Undou grew to find that he was equally as talented in acrobatics as his parents and that he liked to take lessons with the other children in tai chi. …Okay, I didn’t know acrobatics was genetic.
Tai chi became a much-enjoyed lesson for Undou, who found the gentle motions were mystifying in terms of the results they could have on a combatant. He never really had to use these skills as a child in the caravan, because of the fairly rigorous system of overseeing the children to make sure none wander away or are taken. He began competing for fun in the competitions occasionally held among the members of the caravanWhy was I not aware of these competitions?”, and of the four competitions he has taken part in, he took second place once and third place once. He looks forward to someday being able to be talented enough to defeat his sensei, Kitsune-sama. Da Fox!!!!
Other than his training in acrobatics, undou was mostly taught by his parents. His parents had the benefit that their parents were literate as they had come from the Northern Water Tribe. No, his parents grew up in a cave, you said they grew up in a cave! *growing hysteric* the knowledge of reading was passed down after Undou's two grandparents saved money for a long time to buy a very long volume for the sake of using it to teach their children how to read Instead of getting food to survive. The book is The Secret Art of Fire Gardens and is a book about how to use firebending for recreation and relaxation in forming a zen-type garden where the sand is burned to make different-shaped glass. While the knowledge itself is totally useless, the book stands a testament to Undou's grandparents' dedication to keeping their family literate and semi-cultured and as such is a trasured family heirloom. Food is also treasured.
Undou worked from a young age to join the acrobats, beginning with simpler tumbling maneuvers and performing more and more difficult stunts as he aged. As one of the not-so-numerous acrobats in the caravan that have been performing for more than a generation, Undou has had invaluable help from his parents in perfecting his technique. He is normally a background performer doing the more subtle and occasionally harder work that is much less noticed and appreciated. I disagree, with out the shadowed Sue in the background the show would be far less entertaining.
For a long time, he really resented that he would never really get to be in the forefront of everyone’s attention, but as he grew into maturity he came to understand that everybody’s role is absolutely essential. Without their support, even the best acrobat would put on a bad show. Because of this epiphany, which was really more a slow revelation than anything, Undou was able to come to acceptance about his place in the caravan. I, Sue number 4,986, accept that I will be nothing more than a cardboard cut out, but that for as long as I remain a Sue I will attempt to make my pathetic life more important by having every known tragedy befall me then refuse all form of consolation and instead become a total prick. Above all else I know that my knowledge and guidance is superior to everyone else.
Undou is particularly used in ‘support’ work in the shows because he showed an accelerated understanding of tai chi and so could use the techniques in complement with the acrobatics of the others to launch them higher for a jump or break a fall more easily than another, less talented person might have. Though he occasionally regrets that he rarely gets to be in the limelight, Undou is in general content with is role in the acrobatic shows and has no real deep-seated resentments on account of his general duties. Or so he says.
Those general duties are quite inglorious, as are most menial tasks in the caravan. Undou is not only lithe on his feet, but he is fairly nimble with a needle. He is a member of the team of caravaneers that repairs torn tents, ripped clothes and the like Oh, you mean like everyone in the Caravan…except for Nimuta who can’t see, she has a legitimate out. He isn't the most artful seamster on the planet, but his abilities reflect the values of the caravan.…cheap and quick… that doesn’t make us sound very good He is able and useful with sewing and gets the job done with maximized economy of time and thread. BrefAkward sound, right there, he's efficient NOTE: he is only efficient if the mending doesn’t tear. When there is nothing for mending, Undou helps out with watching the children to make sure none get away Their not cattle, y’know, also that’s really the womens job…unless there’s something you want to tell us,. It isn't too often that he has this duty as the intense performances of the caravan generally tend to leave a surpluss of rips and tears, but he likes watching the children and sometimes, if they're good, he gives them a small acrobatics lesson (generally in balance and falling). Cuase when I was a little tot I wanted nothing more than to learn how to fall.
Sample RP: Undou walked off of the stage quickly and precisely, mentally detached from the autonomous motion. His mind was reviewing the various tricks he would need to perform in the next act of the performance for the Fire Nation soldiers. His part was, as usual, a more minor part, but he didn’t mind. He had long ago accepted the idea that he was a support worker, and realized that without the aid from people like himself, the acrobatics shows wouldn’t be nearly as good as they were. Sure, you keep teeling yourself that, Robin, you don't mind playing second fiddle to Batman, do you.
“We were awesome, Undou!” squealed Nim HEY!! That is my character and she does not associate with Sue's!. The act had been something of a test run. The dancers of the caravan and the acrobats worked united to perform a combination act. The result was a mixing of the mesmerizing motions of the dancers and the exciting gymnastics of the acrobats. The soldiers had loved it, it had seemed. Undou anticipated many more shows like it in the future.
“Yeah. This will definitely become something somewhat more regular as a response to the complaints that our shows were becoming too methodical.” Undou had, of course, heard the remarks at many of their more recent shows, and so the caravan had formed an informal council to work on remedying the problem with the aim of entertaining the crowd always forefront in the deliberations. ”Someone deliberately followed us around the country to tell us our shows aren’t doing so well, we need to spice things up, okay?”
“You sound very enthused,” chimed Nim, playfully sticking out her tongue, “Always concerned with the future. Just lighten up and enjoy yourself. We both know our ultimate goal is to please the crowds, but there’s nothing against us enjoying doing it. Sheesh.” That is not Nim, it’s a clone, a double, Doppelganger! She’s not me!!
Undou smiled, realizing the truth of the statement. So often lately he seemed to forget the whole point of the caravan. It wasn’t really a job like the soldiers had, where you had to follow orders or else, but was a communal effort to entertain all involved parties. How you forget what everyone knows and repeats?
The pair reached the tents where their next act was being reviewed. The noise inside the tent reflected the playful, jovial moods of the performers getting ready to go be in their element. Undou half-listened to the choreographer, an older woman going over the specifics of their next performance for what must be the thousandth time. Here in the caravan, the true element was neither fire nor water nor earth, but was laughter. Oh avatar, I think I just puked a little in my mouth.
“Come one, come all, you’re in for a show,” he breathed absentmindedly, a smile playing across his features as he walked back out of the tent toward the arena. He watched their bard sing a rather long ballad praising Fire Lord Ozai. Not that he liked the Fire Lord, personally, but the soldiers got slightly irritated if there were fewer than about five songs sung to their “fearless and all-powerful leader.” Going to say, I think the soldiers would rather see some kick-butt moves then listen to tales of Lord Ozai. After the bard’s ballad drew to its close, The acrobats went back on stage for another performance. The choreographer, dressed in her least-shabby clothes, called out to the soldiers.
“Would any kind firebending soldier in the audience like to light the batons for our next show? I promise it’ll light up your night.” Oh, I puked again.
Talk about long, drawn out and totally drawl. The Flame Dancers can do so much better, and they have. I hope our fearless leader feels it necessary to club you with a frying pan.