Post by Zan Yu on Aug 6, 2012 0:32:40 GMT -5
Name:[/u]
Zan Yu
Age:[/u]
37
Gender:[/u]
Female
Nation of Origin:[/u]
United Republic, Fire Nation descent
Bender? What Element?:[/u]
Nonbender
Physical Appearance:[/u]
A bright golden-ish, ochre skintone and somewhere around the range of five and a half feet in height, Zan Yu has a very round, circular face with broad, flat cheeks. Her dirty amber eyes and almost check-mark shaped eyebrows can give her a questioning appearance. Matched with her thin, pale pink lips, she can cast a predatory visage when she's excited. Firmly solid muscle and a lean athletic build is evident underneath her masked Equalist attire, as well as her small chest jutting at sharp angles like cones. A martial artist and street fighter from the Dragon Flats Borough, Zan Yu possesses a few porcelain dental crowns and a three fake teeth that don't stain as equally as her regular teeth from her tea and smoking habits. Along with it is also a broken hook bulb nose that has healed off center. And of her short, spindly fingers, she is unable to fully extend the right index finger and has a crooked left middle finger.
Zan Yu would have visibly jet black hair if not for her choice to keep it shaved bald. Originally she had chose to keep short for fighting and mechanic purposes, along with keeping short fingernails, before personal curiosity got the better of her. She cut her hair shorter and shorter before finally shaving it off completely, and decided she liked the look. Keeping up with social norms though, Zan Yu owns an ever growing collection of wigs in various colors, lengths and styles. Those around her know full well that she is often wearing a wig and see it as no different than some other women who do likewise, but everyone assumes she still has her own full head of hair underneath those wigs. They just have never seen it.
Clothing:[/u]
The color palette of Zan Yu's clothing ranges primarily in the reds, followed by oranges and golds. Unlike many women in Republic City, Zan Yu doesn't regularly wear dresses and skirts. What skirts she does own are all a single, solid color with a hem ending at or above her knees and either being a pencil skirt with a slim, straight, and narrow fit or a wrap skirt with wide box panel style pleats.
Often not in a skirt, Zan Yu's lower garment of choice are the knickerbockers, a baggier type of the breeches worn by most men in Republic City. They are type of trousers ending just past the knee and tucked into long, knee length socks. They are often of a single, solid color in the deeper reds such as maroon, burgundy, falu red or rosewood; or deeper oranges such as burnt orange, vermilion, tenné or tangelo. Much like her skirts, her lower garments are cinched in place with either a cloth belt or sash in white or black, or a thin leather belt either black or a bright hue of brown in color.
The color of her footwear tends to be a simplistic black with shoes that stop at the ankle and boots that reach her knee. Her shoes are flat with either a rounded or a pointed toe, some that fold over at the top giving the shoe a lapel collar appearance. Her boots have low heels to them with either sharp pointed toes or an upturned toe, and are either fitted or button along the outer side.
Her tops are often long sleeved with cuffs that either loose or narrow close to her wrists. Their color is two toned, with the second color being a thin trim around the cuffs, collar and flap or lapel in a complementary color. The choices in colors are brighter shades of oranges and reds such as crimson, scarlet and carmine, and yellows such as gold, amber, maize or saffron. They fold over almost diagonally to her right with a sparse use of buttons that are concealed inside the garment. The collar of these garments is either a high, stand-up, Mandarin collar style or a flat shawl collar. Ending just below her waist, the tops are either tucked into her skirt or trousers or simply left to hang out but tied about her waist with a belt or sash. At times she'll pair it with an open, sleeveless vest that closes in the center with or without buttons. The collars for these are either wide lapels or not present at all. When not in her Equalist chi blocker attire while riding her motorcycle, Zan Yu's clothing choice hardly changes from what she would be currently wearing. Often she will don a brass frame colored pair of leather goggles with wide, square-shaped, vermilion red lenses and a pair of fingerless, black-and-white checkered pattern gloves; but will not always wear her straight black, open-faced, bucket-shaped riding helmet.
Zan Yu's Equalist uniform consists of close fitting, charcoal grey trousers. Following is a pair of flat, knee high, black leather boots. Along the outer side of the calves is a reinforced maroon patch. Attached to the top of the boot is a heavy, maroon colored, leather pad that rests at the wearer's knee, serving as added protection.
For a top, over any other top Zan Yu is wearing is a heavy, charcoal grey jacket. The jacket is long sleeved, close fitting and cut like a tailcoat, halting about the waist with a tail that falls down either side of her outer thigh until finally ending above the knee. Below the waist and down the tail, her jacket changes to a deep maroon color with pockets at either side of her waist and in each tail. The jacket folds over to the right in a single breasted fashion where it is closed with brass buttons. The shoulders taper into stiff angles where the seaming is visible and reinforced where it joins with the sleeves. The sleeves are reinforced with maroon colored leather above the knuckles, above the forearms and at the elbows for striking and defense.
About her waist, over the jacket, is a sort of black leather cummerbund that consists of two belts in the front to hold it in place and expands in the back. Looking somewhat like a bustle, it covers the small of her back to her rump and serves as a carrying pack for equipment with a pouch in back. At her neck is an elongated, enclosed scarf-like cowl that drapes about her collar. Atop this cowl and partly covered by it is a one piece, black mask to conceal her identity. At the mask's forehead is a large, crimson red circle while built into the mask is a pair of goggles with lenses that appear yellowish to greenish depending on the lighting. Further attached to the mask is a breather apparatus system consisting of a faceplate immediately below the goggles. Attached to the face plate, on either side, are gold colored tubes that run up along the side of the face, to the top of the head, ending in an almost topknot-like spout.
Equipment:[/u]
Common equipment held in her utility cummerbund are cylindrical shaped canisters deploying either smoke or knockout gas and bolas. The bolas is comprised of a length of cord, made from anything such as rope or leather, with a ball tied at either end made of any material or formed from the cord itself. The object is swung from the center or by one end and is used to entangle its target. She often eschews the use of the electrically charged gloves, preferring to her own chi blocking strikes she has honed over the years.
Serving as both Zan Yu's personal transportation and Equalist-use vehicle, is her cafe racer style motorcycle or motorbike. A two-wheeled, single-lined and engine powered motor vehicle, Zan Yu's motorcycle has an elongated and low profile with its rear wheel being somewhat behind the seat rather than directly beneath it. Modified for speed and handling rather than any sense of comfort the frame allows her to control it best when leaning or laying atop the machine, controlling it with low slung handlebars and rear mounted foot controls and knees gripping the fuel tank. Zan Yu has the machine so striped down that she bothers little with adding shelling, or fairings, to it save for the detachable front guard with headlamp and rear sides between the rear wheel and exhaust which contains second exhaust used for smoke screen. She possesses two sets of these fairings, one being a bright cherry red and the other an ash grey for when she is in her Equalist attire.
Rather impatient for multiple reasons, Zan Yu wishes to make use of the Equalists mecha tank--soon to be fully operational. The mecha tank is a large, person operated, mechanized robot with a humanoid shape made from platinum with forklift style operating controls. The platinum metal not only makes it impossible to metalbend but has a high melting point against firebenders. The two legs end in tank-like treads for feet with a beam and wheel extending from below the main body to help keep it upright. The large hands are claw-like with three digits and are capable of shooting a retractable, two-pronged claw from a metal cable in the center of its large palms. The cables can produce electricity, dispersing it through the hands or prongs to electrocute an intended target. Inside the large palms, stationed around the retractable prong port are holes between each digit that can fire off a bolas style disc that once ensnaring a target electrocutes them.
The head piece is a copper hat style diving helmet with multiple windows of varying sizes to offer the operator a limited panoramic view. On each side of the machine, between its torso and arms are two headlamps on either side. The front of the torso is comprised of four metal plates that with the headpiece, open and close for an operator to enter and exit the cockpit.
Personality:[/u]
Sure, Zan Yu believes as other Equalists that a change in their society concerning the status between benders and nonbenders needs to be made, that such changes are not always peaceful, but in the end Zan Yu believes she is a fighter at heart. However noble she may find the Equalists' intentions in bringing reform to Republic City, they nonetheless provide a satisfying means to indulge her desire for combat against benders. The tools and resources the Equalists place at Zan Yu's disposal can bring a predatory smile on her face, allowing her to terrorize the benders in her old neighborhood with a mix taste of justice in dragging delinquent benders off the streets and personal revenge as her life was often disrupted by benders.
Birthed from the Dragon Flats borough, where the majority nonbending population is often harassed by the bending triads, Zan Yu has known few positive examples of benders in her life. As someone proud of her Fire Nation heritage it especially brings disappointment to her to see firebenders, who helped build her ancestral country, existing in low status or as low-lifes. Unlike some Equalists, Zan Yu is willing to see that benders can probably have some uses in society, such as providing electricity, construction services, or sewer maintenance while pro-bending can serve as an outlet for the more combative among them; but if the Equalists wish to get rid of all benders rather than just control them, she has no qualms in going along with it, especially if there are any good fights along the way.
Informed by past experiences and a member of the Equalists' fighting force, Zan Yu prefers to keep a distance from benders in her personal life. Not only that but her connections to the Equalists and time in prison has left her distant from others on a personal level. On one hand she is uncertain at times how to connect with people outside of a martial or mechanic context, yet she rather not try and lead a double life with hiding her Equalist activities from someone. What camaraderie she attempts to establish with others is often limited to the Equalists she fights alongside or other gearheads, and even then what genuine feelings they may express towards her are often carelessly overlooked or unsatisfactorily reciprocated.
At times, Zan Yu feels like she can't sit still. That after having been locked away from the world, it is moving too fast and she is still trying to catch up. Or that she has lost so much time to her life that the world is too slow and there is still much to do before it comes to a stop. She has become a clinging lover of fast vehicles, especially motorcycles which she believes lets her experience the world around her at high speed better than a car. And always one for a challenge, prefers any race that includes obstacles in her path while she tries to maintain a high speed--such as street racing. The only time she does seem to slow down is when she smokes, drinks, eats or reads--sometimes all at once--wanting to savour the activity for a moment. Such habits are among the few things she takes true comfort in, along with quiet solace in tinkering, be it with her motorcycle, taking apart and reconstructing an appliance, performing maintenance with a automobile, or cooperating with the other mecha-tank engineers. When it comes to mechanics, hands on or study, her focus can take a monk-like sabbatical from the world around her.
Seeming unable to put herself on pause, she can be seen as a rather competitive person by in always seeking a challenge or a fight somewhere with someone. Her tendency of acting before thinking, planning as she goes, give the impression of a person unhindered by consequences with a bold and fierce disposition but uncouth behaviour. When it comes to speaking, it will be difficult for her to hold her tongue, and when she does she still communicates with gestures and sounds to get her message across. And though she has not fully admitted it to herself, she is scared to comprehend what a world without benders would be like or how it would carry own. But she wonders that after the Equalists have reformed at least Republic City, would it be possible for her to slow down or have a better life outside of Republic City.
Background:[/u]
Hailing from Republic City's Dragon Flats district, Zan Yu has lived much of her life surrounded by the influence of benders who often had free reign amid a majority nonbender population. Born eldest of three by about a decade, the Dragon Flats grew increasingly under the thrall of the bender triads after Avatar Aang's untimely passing. For Zan Yu, as far back as grammar school, it seemed the strongest and more renowned childhood bullies were always the kids who were benders, taking example from most adult benders who found wealth, power, 'respect', and automobiles were the key to life. And they viewed the triads as the gatekeepers and exemplars to that life.
But fueled by the inspiring tales and dutiful heroes of the Fire Nation from her nationalistic grandparents, a young and idealistic Zan Yu decided she wanted to defend herself and others from bullies and triads by learning the martial arts. By the time she was ten, her parents begrudgingly enrolled her in a tiny startup class underneath a local library advertising self-defense lessons for children and adults. Geared especially towards nonbenders, much of the school's curriculum revolved heavily around anti-bender techniques. And after almost two years of classes Zan Yu was becoming increasingly eager to experiment with her training outside of the library's basement.
Over the years her penchant for fighting came much to the chagrin of her family and sifu. Becoming increasingly problematic throughout her teens, Zan Yu's school career was failing, her standoffish and temperamental behaviour was slowly being copied by her younger brother and sister, and she was always involving herself in one fight or another. Expulsion from school, even from her martial arts class, did little to tame her passion for fighting. In fact, though as a child she wanted to protect innocent people from delinquent gangs and benders as a child, Zan Yu herself came to lead her own delinquent gang comprised of nonbenders. Her unnamed gang targeted benders almost exclusively, even those who were not triads or delinquents, just any bender that could put up a fight or had a vehicle to steal was worth their attention. Before she neared eighteen, Zan Yu's gang came to a law enforced end after a probending championship match. Aided by other nonbending delinquents, she and her gang brutally assaulted members of the pan-bender Triple Threat Triads during the post-game festivities, which in turn dragged in more members of the Triple Threats followed by the Agni Kais and Red Monsoons deciding to join in until bystanders were swallowed into the spiraling melee. By the time the violent rumble and near riot ended, almost an entire city block was in ruins from either fire, flooding, or collapse.
Even if some considered the court lenient with the number of charges brought against her and her sentence since she was a girl and still a minor, Zan Yu would still spend nearly a decade of her life in confinement. Life in Republic City, the United Republic of Nations, and the rest of the world became nothing but distant nattering outside her cell as they continued on without her. During those years she spent in stir, Zan Yu occupied herself with three pursuits. One was always her martial arts, what she knew and what few other prisoners who knew a martial art would bother to teach her. Another one was reading, often the same ones repeatedly, for the prison library's holdings were rather meager. A favorite subject of hers became the life, inventions and achievements of industrialist-inventor Hiroshi Sato, which fostered in her an interest of mechanics. And so Zan Yu's third pursuit became vocational training, earning certification in basic mechanical engineering thanks to the philanthropy of Hiroshi Sato's Future Industries that helped to fund the prison's education program, and her own curiosity about the full workings of automobiles and other vehicles, after having stolen her fair share of them.
Forced less by the prison guards than by other inmates who would be spending decades or the rest of their lives in confinement, Zan Yu became a quick study of prison politics and the upstanding person she failed to become whilst a free citizen. Released early and on parole by the time she was almost twenty-five, readjusting to life outside proved to be more of challenge to her than an elation. After a tepid homecoming Zan Yu and her family realized they were only further estranged from one another by the passage of time after they had cut ties with her sometime after her imprisonment. Soon afterwards she took up residency in a half-way house in the Dragon Flats borough rather than try to remain with her family and managed to find work in an independent after-market parts garage. But adjustment to her new life still came no easier to her: being an ex-convict, still being on parole, the culture shock of how so much had changed in the outside world after almost a decade of being removed from it, the absence of an Avatar, the Dragon Flats seeming even more terrorized by benders than before, ashamed to reconnect with her former sifu, the death of her idol Hiroshi Sato's wife at the hands of the firebending Agni Kai Triad, and an untamed desire to fight that had yet to leave her.
Still under parole four years later, Zan Yu was a roiling ball of bottled up, unexpressed emotions that ostracized her from co-workers, the other members of her half-way house and a set of medical problems. During that time she managed to find new work as a Future Industries mechanic for luxury autos after protection tribute seeking triads burned down the after-market parts garage the year before. In that time she was surprisingly reunited with her former sifu during a political rally in Republic City Park. Drawn in by a bullhorn wielding protestor screeching for the tear down of the "oppressive benderocracy establishment," she found the teacher handing out pamphlets about a new political organization called The Equalists. Breaking down, a tearful Zan Yu recounted to her sifu the events of almost fifteen years since they parted ways. Graciously, Zan Yu accepted the invitation to return to the martial arts school under the library and in time, membership into the Equalists.
By the time Zan Yu had reached thirty, her parole and complete sentence had finally been served. Unlike her homecoming to the outside world years ago, the event became one of honest elation as her sifu and advanced students introduced her to another side of the school. At some point in time her sifu didn't just join the Equalists but belonged to a branch of the social movement willing to bring reform by force actively fought against benders. Willingly she became initiated into the underside of the Equalist movement: taught the art of chi blocking by her sifu, becoming one of Amon's chi blocking henchmen, and witnessing firsthand the power given to him by the Spirits to remove a person's bending.
Becoming part of the Equalists fighting force was nothing short of a thrill to Zan Yu. She was able to satisfy her lust for fighting once more. She could terrorize the benders that terrorized nonbenders once more. And she could do it all again this time without being caught. At times she felt herself like the vigilante heroes of the old Fire Nation her grandparents told her about as she assaulted and kidnapped benders and bender triad members off the streets. But better still, it gave her venue to just fight once more. And in time the Equalist movement brought her more surprises, not only her own vehicle, a motorcycle to use in and out of uniform, but the resources of her idol, the widowed Hiroshi Sato, to the cause. Unashamedly ingratiating herself to him as an admirer and employee of his company, Zan Yu has forever remained starstruck of Hiroshi Sato when he handpicked her as part of his engineering team to create an anti-bender vehicle that would become the mech-tank. Employing the secret factory chamber underneath his personal workshop as a test facility, Zan Yu did not care whether her selection was on account of actual merit or needing to employ only trusting Equalists with engineering skills, just as along as it meant she would be working alongside Hiroshi Sato. Since her transfer from the Future Industries facilities to the underground factory of the Sato estate, Zan Yu's official duty and cover has been that of a mechanic at the Future Industries test course for Satomobiles and race cars on mansion grounds.
Sample RP:[/u]
"Oop." Zan Yu casually stated while observing the hank of human hair in her glove.
"Hey!"
"Ick," wiping her hand over the shoulder of the nearest masked chi blocker, leaving a stain of grease and hair strands. "Why do you boys even put so much slop in your heads these days," speaking to the chi paralyzed, bound and gagged, but bravado filled triad member behind her. "Disgusting."
But being dropped face first to the ground from the back of a truck did little to keep him quiet under that gag, along with loosing a chunk of his hair after being dragged out of the truck by it. The bender managed to roll over to his side then unleashed a new muffled tirade, this time aimed directly at her but still went ignored by his kidnappers for a few minutes before Zan Yu finally decided to put her foot against his face then rub as if snuffing out a cigarette.
Somewhere in Republic City's underground tunnel network, other chi blockers began assisting her in unloading tonight's small haul of triad benders snatched off the street. Unlike Zan Yu, their method of removing the human cargo and standing them in a rail-car for transport involved much less hair shedding.
"Uh, hey," the hair and grease stained chi blocker cautiously nudged her, "um, are we still on for those drinks after this?"
"Yes," she replied after a thoughtful pause while manning the controls of the rail-car. "Central City Station. There's a restaurant in the district occupied by the Triple Threats. This can be an surveillance opportunity from the inside," she pronounced as if it were more a mission than anything casual. "Anyone else wish to join us?"
The chi blocker's shoulder sagged at the sound of this. A few of the other chi blockers in the rail-car chimed in to join, as well as one captured bender, shoulders bouncing up and down while in his rope and gag.
"Then be ready in fifteen after we stow them in a cell. You," pointing to the bender and commanding, "you stay here." The bender moaned in disappointment and drooped his head like a scolded turtle-puppy.
Zan Yu
Age:[/u]
37
Gender:[/u]
Female
Nation of Origin:[/u]
United Republic, Fire Nation descent
Bender? What Element?:[/u]
Nonbender
Physical Appearance:[/u]
A bright golden-ish, ochre skintone and somewhere around the range of five and a half feet in height, Zan Yu has a very round, circular face with broad, flat cheeks. Her dirty amber eyes and almost check-mark shaped eyebrows can give her a questioning appearance. Matched with her thin, pale pink lips, she can cast a predatory visage when she's excited. Firmly solid muscle and a lean athletic build is evident underneath her masked Equalist attire, as well as her small chest jutting at sharp angles like cones. A martial artist and street fighter from the Dragon Flats Borough, Zan Yu possesses a few porcelain dental crowns and a three fake teeth that don't stain as equally as her regular teeth from her tea and smoking habits. Along with it is also a broken hook bulb nose that has healed off center. And of her short, spindly fingers, she is unable to fully extend the right index finger and has a crooked left middle finger.
Zan Yu would have visibly jet black hair if not for her choice to keep it shaved bald. Originally she had chose to keep short for fighting and mechanic purposes, along with keeping short fingernails, before personal curiosity got the better of her. She cut her hair shorter and shorter before finally shaving it off completely, and decided she liked the look. Keeping up with social norms though, Zan Yu owns an ever growing collection of wigs in various colors, lengths and styles. Those around her know full well that she is often wearing a wig and see it as no different than some other women who do likewise, but everyone assumes she still has her own full head of hair underneath those wigs. They just have never seen it.
Clothing:[/u]
The color palette of Zan Yu's clothing ranges primarily in the reds, followed by oranges and golds. Unlike many women in Republic City, Zan Yu doesn't regularly wear dresses and skirts. What skirts she does own are all a single, solid color with a hem ending at or above her knees and either being a pencil skirt with a slim, straight, and narrow fit or a wrap skirt with wide box panel style pleats.
Often not in a skirt, Zan Yu's lower garment of choice are the knickerbockers, a baggier type of the breeches worn by most men in Republic City. They are type of trousers ending just past the knee and tucked into long, knee length socks. They are often of a single, solid color in the deeper reds such as maroon, burgundy, falu red or rosewood; or deeper oranges such as burnt orange, vermilion, tenné or tangelo. Much like her skirts, her lower garments are cinched in place with either a cloth belt or sash in white or black, or a thin leather belt either black or a bright hue of brown in color.
The color of her footwear tends to be a simplistic black with shoes that stop at the ankle and boots that reach her knee. Her shoes are flat with either a rounded or a pointed toe, some that fold over at the top giving the shoe a lapel collar appearance. Her boots have low heels to them with either sharp pointed toes or an upturned toe, and are either fitted or button along the outer side.
Her tops are often long sleeved with cuffs that either loose or narrow close to her wrists. Their color is two toned, with the second color being a thin trim around the cuffs, collar and flap or lapel in a complementary color. The choices in colors are brighter shades of oranges and reds such as crimson, scarlet and carmine, and yellows such as gold, amber, maize or saffron. They fold over almost diagonally to her right with a sparse use of buttons that are concealed inside the garment. The collar of these garments is either a high, stand-up, Mandarin collar style or a flat shawl collar. Ending just below her waist, the tops are either tucked into her skirt or trousers or simply left to hang out but tied about her waist with a belt or sash. At times she'll pair it with an open, sleeveless vest that closes in the center with or without buttons. The collars for these are either wide lapels or not present at all. When not in her Equalist chi blocker attire while riding her motorcycle, Zan Yu's clothing choice hardly changes from what she would be currently wearing. Often she will don a brass frame colored pair of leather goggles with wide, square-shaped, vermilion red lenses and a pair of fingerless, black-and-white checkered pattern gloves; but will not always wear her straight black, open-faced, bucket-shaped riding helmet.
Zan Yu's Equalist uniform consists of close fitting, charcoal grey trousers. Following is a pair of flat, knee high, black leather boots. Along the outer side of the calves is a reinforced maroon patch. Attached to the top of the boot is a heavy, maroon colored, leather pad that rests at the wearer's knee, serving as added protection.
For a top, over any other top Zan Yu is wearing is a heavy, charcoal grey jacket. The jacket is long sleeved, close fitting and cut like a tailcoat, halting about the waist with a tail that falls down either side of her outer thigh until finally ending above the knee. Below the waist and down the tail, her jacket changes to a deep maroon color with pockets at either side of her waist and in each tail. The jacket folds over to the right in a single breasted fashion where it is closed with brass buttons. The shoulders taper into stiff angles where the seaming is visible and reinforced where it joins with the sleeves. The sleeves are reinforced with maroon colored leather above the knuckles, above the forearms and at the elbows for striking and defense.
About her waist, over the jacket, is a sort of black leather cummerbund that consists of two belts in the front to hold it in place and expands in the back. Looking somewhat like a bustle, it covers the small of her back to her rump and serves as a carrying pack for equipment with a pouch in back. At her neck is an elongated, enclosed scarf-like cowl that drapes about her collar. Atop this cowl and partly covered by it is a one piece, black mask to conceal her identity. At the mask's forehead is a large, crimson red circle while built into the mask is a pair of goggles with lenses that appear yellowish to greenish depending on the lighting. Further attached to the mask is a breather apparatus system consisting of a faceplate immediately below the goggles. Attached to the face plate, on either side, are gold colored tubes that run up along the side of the face, to the top of the head, ending in an almost topknot-like spout.
Equipment:[/u]
Common equipment held in her utility cummerbund are cylindrical shaped canisters deploying either smoke or knockout gas and bolas. The bolas is comprised of a length of cord, made from anything such as rope or leather, with a ball tied at either end made of any material or formed from the cord itself. The object is swung from the center or by one end and is used to entangle its target. She often eschews the use of the electrically charged gloves, preferring to her own chi blocking strikes she has honed over the years.
Serving as both Zan Yu's personal transportation and Equalist-use vehicle, is her cafe racer style motorcycle or motorbike. A two-wheeled, single-lined and engine powered motor vehicle, Zan Yu's motorcycle has an elongated and low profile with its rear wheel being somewhat behind the seat rather than directly beneath it. Modified for speed and handling rather than any sense of comfort the frame allows her to control it best when leaning or laying atop the machine, controlling it with low slung handlebars and rear mounted foot controls and knees gripping the fuel tank. Zan Yu has the machine so striped down that she bothers little with adding shelling, or fairings, to it save for the detachable front guard with headlamp and rear sides between the rear wheel and exhaust which contains second exhaust used for smoke screen. She possesses two sets of these fairings, one being a bright cherry red and the other an ash grey for when she is in her Equalist attire.
Rather impatient for multiple reasons, Zan Yu wishes to make use of the Equalists mecha tank--soon to be fully operational. The mecha tank is a large, person operated, mechanized robot with a humanoid shape made from platinum with forklift style operating controls. The platinum metal not only makes it impossible to metalbend but has a high melting point against firebenders. The two legs end in tank-like treads for feet with a beam and wheel extending from below the main body to help keep it upright. The large hands are claw-like with three digits and are capable of shooting a retractable, two-pronged claw from a metal cable in the center of its large palms. The cables can produce electricity, dispersing it through the hands or prongs to electrocute an intended target. Inside the large palms, stationed around the retractable prong port are holes between each digit that can fire off a bolas style disc that once ensnaring a target electrocutes them.
The head piece is a copper hat style diving helmet with multiple windows of varying sizes to offer the operator a limited panoramic view. On each side of the machine, between its torso and arms are two headlamps on either side. The front of the torso is comprised of four metal plates that with the headpiece, open and close for an operator to enter and exit the cockpit.
Personality:[/u]
Sure, Zan Yu believes as other Equalists that a change in their society concerning the status between benders and nonbenders needs to be made, that such changes are not always peaceful, but in the end Zan Yu believes she is a fighter at heart. However noble she may find the Equalists' intentions in bringing reform to Republic City, they nonetheless provide a satisfying means to indulge her desire for combat against benders. The tools and resources the Equalists place at Zan Yu's disposal can bring a predatory smile on her face, allowing her to terrorize the benders in her old neighborhood with a mix taste of justice in dragging delinquent benders off the streets and personal revenge as her life was often disrupted by benders.
Birthed from the Dragon Flats borough, where the majority nonbending population is often harassed by the bending triads, Zan Yu has known few positive examples of benders in her life. As someone proud of her Fire Nation heritage it especially brings disappointment to her to see firebenders, who helped build her ancestral country, existing in low status or as low-lifes. Unlike some Equalists, Zan Yu is willing to see that benders can probably have some uses in society, such as providing electricity, construction services, or sewer maintenance while pro-bending can serve as an outlet for the more combative among them; but if the Equalists wish to get rid of all benders rather than just control them, she has no qualms in going along with it, especially if there are any good fights along the way.
Informed by past experiences and a member of the Equalists' fighting force, Zan Yu prefers to keep a distance from benders in her personal life. Not only that but her connections to the Equalists and time in prison has left her distant from others on a personal level. On one hand she is uncertain at times how to connect with people outside of a martial or mechanic context, yet she rather not try and lead a double life with hiding her Equalist activities from someone. What camaraderie she attempts to establish with others is often limited to the Equalists she fights alongside or other gearheads, and even then what genuine feelings they may express towards her are often carelessly overlooked or unsatisfactorily reciprocated.
At times, Zan Yu feels like she can't sit still. That after having been locked away from the world, it is moving too fast and she is still trying to catch up. Or that she has lost so much time to her life that the world is too slow and there is still much to do before it comes to a stop. She has become a clinging lover of fast vehicles, especially motorcycles which she believes lets her experience the world around her at high speed better than a car. And always one for a challenge, prefers any race that includes obstacles in her path while she tries to maintain a high speed--such as street racing. The only time she does seem to slow down is when she smokes, drinks, eats or reads--sometimes all at once--wanting to savour the activity for a moment. Such habits are among the few things she takes true comfort in, along with quiet solace in tinkering, be it with her motorcycle, taking apart and reconstructing an appliance, performing maintenance with a automobile, or cooperating with the other mecha-tank engineers. When it comes to mechanics, hands on or study, her focus can take a monk-like sabbatical from the world around her.
Seeming unable to put herself on pause, she can be seen as a rather competitive person by in always seeking a challenge or a fight somewhere with someone. Her tendency of acting before thinking, planning as she goes, give the impression of a person unhindered by consequences with a bold and fierce disposition but uncouth behaviour. When it comes to speaking, it will be difficult for her to hold her tongue, and when she does she still communicates with gestures and sounds to get her message across. And though she has not fully admitted it to herself, she is scared to comprehend what a world without benders would be like or how it would carry own. But she wonders that after the Equalists have reformed at least Republic City, would it be possible for her to slow down or have a better life outside of Republic City.
Background:[/u]
Hailing from Republic City's Dragon Flats district, Zan Yu has lived much of her life surrounded by the influence of benders who often had free reign amid a majority nonbender population. Born eldest of three by about a decade, the Dragon Flats grew increasingly under the thrall of the bender triads after Avatar Aang's untimely passing. For Zan Yu, as far back as grammar school, it seemed the strongest and more renowned childhood bullies were always the kids who were benders, taking example from most adult benders who found wealth, power, 'respect', and automobiles were the key to life. And they viewed the triads as the gatekeepers and exemplars to that life.
But fueled by the inspiring tales and dutiful heroes of the Fire Nation from her nationalistic grandparents, a young and idealistic Zan Yu decided she wanted to defend herself and others from bullies and triads by learning the martial arts. By the time she was ten, her parents begrudgingly enrolled her in a tiny startup class underneath a local library advertising self-defense lessons for children and adults. Geared especially towards nonbenders, much of the school's curriculum revolved heavily around anti-bender techniques. And after almost two years of classes Zan Yu was becoming increasingly eager to experiment with her training outside of the library's basement.
Over the years her penchant for fighting came much to the chagrin of her family and sifu. Becoming increasingly problematic throughout her teens, Zan Yu's school career was failing, her standoffish and temperamental behaviour was slowly being copied by her younger brother and sister, and she was always involving herself in one fight or another. Expulsion from school, even from her martial arts class, did little to tame her passion for fighting. In fact, though as a child she wanted to protect innocent people from delinquent gangs and benders as a child, Zan Yu herself came to lead her own delinquent gang comprised of nonbenders. Her unnamed gang targeted benders almost exclusively, even those who were not triads or delinquents, just any bender that could put up a fight or had a vehicle to steal was worth their attention. Before she neared eighteen, Zan Yu's gang came to a law enforced end after a probending championship match. Aided by other nonbending delinquents, she and her gang brutally assaulted members of the pan-bender Triple Threat Triads during the post-game festivities, which in turn dragged in more members of the Triple Threats followed by the Agni Kais and Red Monsoons deciding to join in until bystanders were swallowed into the spiraling melee. By the time the violent rumble and near riot ended, almost an entire city block was in ruins from either fire, flooding, or collapse.
Even if some considered the court lenient with the number of charges brought against her and her sentence since she was a girl and still a minor, Zan Yu would still spend nearly a decade of her life in confinement. Life in Republic City, the United Republic of Nations, and the rest of the world became nothing but distant nattering outside her cell as they continued on without her. During those years she spent in stir, Zan Yu occupied herself with three pursuits. One was always her martial arts, what she knew and what few other prisoners who knew a martial art would bother to teach her. Another one was reading, often the same ones repeatedly, for the prison library's holdings were rather meager. A favorite subject of hers became the life, inventions and achievements of industrialist-inventor Hiroshi Sato, which fostered in her an interest of mechanics. And so Zan Yu's third pursuit became vocational training, earning certification in basic mechanical engineering thanks to the philanthropy of Hiroshi Sato's Future Industries that helped to fund the prison's education program, and her own curiosity about the full workings of automobiles and other vehicles, after having stolen her fair share of them.
Forced less by the prison guards than by other inmates who would be spending decades or the rest of their lives in confinement, Zan Yu became a quick study of prison politics and the upstanding person she failed to become whilst a free citizen. Released early and on parole by the time she was almost twenty-five, readjusting to life outside proved to be more of challenge to her than an elation. After a tepid homecoming Zan Yu and her family realized they were only further estranged from one another by the passage of time after they had cut ties with her sometime after her imprisonment. Soon afterwards she took up residency in a half-way house in the Dragon Flats borough rather than try to remain with her family and managed to find work in an independent after-market parts garage. But adjustment to her new life still came no easier to her: being an ex-convict, still being on parole, the culture shock of how so much had changed in the outside world after almost a decade of being removed from it, the absence of an Avatar, the Dragon Flats seeming even more terrorized by benders than before, ashamed to reconnect with her former sifu, the death of her idol Hiroshi Sato's wife at the hands of the firebending Agni Kai Triad, and an untamed desire to fight that had yet to leave her.
Still under parole four years later, Zan Yu was a roiling ball of bottled up, unexpressed emotions that ostracized her from co-workers, the other members of her half-way house and a set of medical problems. During that time she managed to find new work as a Future Industries mechanic for luxury autos after protection tribute seeking triads burned down the after-market parts garage the year before. In that time she was surprisingly reunited with her former sifu during a political rally in Republic City Park. Drawn in by a bullhorn wielding protestor screeching for the tear down of the "oppressive benderocracy establishment," she found the teacher handing out pamphlets about a new political organization called The Equalists. Breaking down, a tearful Zan Yu recounted to her sifu the events of almost fifteen years since they parted ways. Graciously, Zan Yu accepted the invitation to return to the martial arts school under the library and in time, membership into the Equalists.
By the time Zan Yu had reached thirty, her parole and complete sentence had finally been served. Unlike her homecoming to the outside world years ago, the event became one of honest elation as her sifu and advanced students introduced her to another side of the school. At some point in time her sifu didn't just join the Equalists but belonged to a branch of the social movement willing to bring reform by force actively fought against benders. Willingly she became initiated into the underside of the Equalist movement: taught the art of chi blocking by her sifu, becoming one of Amon's chi blocking henchmen, and witnessing firsthand the power given to him by the Spirits to remove a person's bending.
Becoming part of the Equalists fighting force was nothing short of a thrill to Zan Yu. She was able to satisfy her lust for fighting once more. She could terrorize the benders that terrorized nonbenders once more. And she could do it all again this time without being caught. At times she felt herself like the vigilante heroes of the old Fire Nation her grandparents told her about as she assaulted and kidnapped benders and bender triad members off the streets. But better still, it gave her venue to just fight once more. And in time the Equalist movement brought her more surprises, not only her own vehicle, a motorcycle to use in and out of uniform, but the resources of her idol, the widowed Hiroshi Sato, to the cause. Unashamedly ingratiating herself to him as an admirer and employee of his company, Zan Yu has forever remained starstruck of Hiroshi Sato when he handpicked her as part of his engineering team to create an anti-bender vehicle that would become the mech-tank. Employing the secret factory chamber underneath his personal workshop as a test facility, Zan Yu did not care whether her selection was on account of actual merit or needing to employ only trusting Equalists with engineering skills, just as along as it meant she would be working alongside Hiroshi Sato. Since her transfer from the Future Industries facilities to the underground factory of the Sato estate, Zan Yu's official duty and cover has been that of a mechanic at the Future Industries test course for Satomobiles and race cars on mansion grounds.
Sample RP:[/u]
"Oop." Zan Yu casually stated while observing the hank of human hair in her glove.
"Hey!"
"Ick," wiping her hand over the shoulder of the nearest masked chi blocker, leaving a stain of grease and hair strands. "Why do you boys even put so much slop in your heads these days," speaking to the chi paralyzed, bound and gagged, but bravado filled triad member behind her. "Disgusting."
But being dropped face first to the ground from the back of a truck did little to keep him quiet under that gag, along with loosing a chunk of his hair after being dragged out of the truck by it. The bender managed to roll over to his side then unleashed a new muffled tirade, this time aimed directly at her but still went ignored by his kidnappers for a few minutes before Zan Yu finally decided to put her foot against his face then rub as if snuffing out a cigarette.
Somewhere in Republic City's underground tunnel network, other chi blockers began assisting her in unloading tonight's small haul of triad benders snatched off the street. Unlike Zan Yu, their method of removing the human cargo and standing them in a rail-car for transport involved much less hair shedding.
"Uh, hey," the hair and grease stained chi blocker cautiously nudged her, "um, are we still on for those drinks after this?"
"Yes," she replied after a thoughtful pause while manning the controls of the rail-car. "Central City Station. There's a restaurant in the district occupied by the Triple Threats. This can be an surveillance opportunity from the inside," she pronounced as if it were more a mission than anything casual. "Anyone else wish to join us?"
The chi blocker's shoulder sagged at the sound of this. A few of the other chi blockers in the rail-car chimed in to join, as well as one captured bender, shoulders bouncing up and down while in his rope and gag.
"Then be ready in fifteen after we stow them in a cell. You," pointing to the bender and commanding, "you stay here." The bender moaned in disappointment and drooped his head like a scolded turtle-puppy.
Accepted.