Sept 20, 2023 13:21:25 GMT
Gemini Enigma likes this
Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2023 13:21:25 GMT
Chao Li Fen
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history
| Childhood | Teenage Years | Adulthood |
| Chao Li was born into a complex situation. His mother was a mortal woman, promised freedom and magic, used and abused by one of the West Court's prominent families, the Noyers. His mother studied magic back in the mortal world, and in a lucky discovery, found faerie. She was offered the west court's hospitality, and while she knew much about Chinese folklore, she knew less about the traditional Celtic fae. As such, she demanded something in return, but she came to understand she asked for too little, too late. Jemirose was assigned to serve Ambrosine Noyer in exchange for an "education" in faerie culture. This education was largely just being treated as a plaything by nobles, but she and Ambrosine became very close. Close enough for Jemirose to move with Ambrosine when she got married. However, she didn't just move to stay with her friend. She also moved to get away from the father of her unborn child. Chao Li does not know who his father is. His mother refused to tell him. But he knows he was fae, and he knows his mother had reason to flee. That is enough for him. Chao Li was raised with Ambrosine's family. Her son was born two years before him, but the two boys grew up together. While Chao Li always feared high-handness from Ambrosine and Silas, he never really had to worry about that. But he grew up always feeling just a touch lesser than. It was worse for his mortal mother. But everyone knew the family Ambrosine had married into was not a safe family. Perhaps Chao Li, even at ten, wouldn't have been surprised when both of Silas' parents were killed. What he didn't expect was his own mother being "collateral damage." She was killed in the so-called accidental fire, taking the only family he'd ever known. It didn't get easier. Silas was killed later-- in a fire, again. Chao Li started to realize some sort of a pattern. But he didn't know what exactly to make of it. Anyway, did it matter? Silas was still dead. Jemirose Fen: Mother Ambrosine Noyer: Silas' mother, mother's best friend Father: Unknown. | Silas was not dead. He didn't even tell Chao Li this fact until Chao Li when Chao Li started school. Even then, it didn't get easier. Maybe part of that was Chao Li's fault. He enrolled in the school for war with no family, no real home. He functioned painfully aware of the fae principle of duty, and that was gone now. There was no one he was made to protect. So he just got better, preparing himself for... something. Even Chao Li couldn't say what it was. He didn't try to make friends. In fact, he tried to avoid it. Everyone he loved died. But he couldn't help being friends with Amaris Silvershade, another student in the school of war in the same year as him. The two may have seemed like an unlikely duo, but Chao Li seemed to often find himself in those. He was a brilliant fighter, a better solider. It didn't matter. His mother- was still dead. | Chao Li was a brilliant solider, a great tactican. It wasn't easy being a half-mortal. And he had a debt. He would protect Silas with his life just like Ambrosine had protected his mother. So he became a knight in the west court. Even though much of what Silas did was hardly in the best interests of any of the courts, their paths have never crossed in work. It haunts him, what he might become. Could he be a general? Something more? He doesn't know if his debt to Silas is real or pretense. He has always been looked down on for his blood, but as hard as he's fought that stereotype, he doesn't know if he could fight harder. He hates half of his lineage, but it's not the half he's expected to hate. Not the half everyone arond him hates. |
personality
Chao Li has always seen order and duty as preeminent in everything. If there is a best way to do something, that's how he will do it. He has very strict moral code-- though sometimes contradictory-- and he will always put others first. He is very guarded, but once you make it in to his inner circle he would kill or die for you.
writing sample
Jin-hwa stared at him, and she was struck with inexplicable fury. That he could stand there and look at her and stay that. Not that he dared. That he could.
This boy spoke of thrones unearned. He spoke of empty power and broken promises and rotting robes. He had no idea. He had no idea that she would earn that power, every scrap of it, but she would earn it by biting her tongue until everyone forgot she could speak. He spoke of things he knew nothing about, and it infuriated her. He spoke of things he knew nothing about because he could.
Everything he did was not in a glass room. No one peered through the walls just for the curiosity. He was inconsequential. He thought it was a weakness. It was anything bit.
They weren't the same. They would never be. Jin-Hwa would earn everything she had, and no one would ever know it.
"Easy for you to say," she sneered. "Nothing you do matters." The bite in her tone was the bite of jealousy. He wouldn't recognize it.
She told him about her fears as a child. She didn't tell him the whole story. She didn't tell him that when she was a child, she would scream to get her way. She broke things-- she broke anything and everything. She was awful and cruel. She watched the other children without playing with them so she knew exactly what to say to get what she wanted. She did whatever she could because she could. No one knew how to stop her.
작은 괴물. Little Monster. That's what her sisters called her. She didn't know it was an insult. She just laughed. If they annoyed her, she hit them.
And then she was called before her mother.
Jin-Hwa was six. She hadn't really spoken to her mother. She didn't understand, yet, that while her unique eye color made her lovely, it also made her a liability, because everyone knew that wasn't the queen's eye color. That was the color of the eyes that watched over the library-- a commoner the queen had known for years. Jin-Hwa didn't know any of this. She was just excited.
And then she made it into her mother's sitting room.
She would never forget that room. She would never forget the pearl crown her mother wore, or the dazzling lights. She would never forget how furious her mother was when discussing "her conduct." She wouldn't forget how her mother picked up the ornamental statue of a mortal beside her and hit Jin-Hwa with it. Hard. Three times. The statue shattered. Jin-Hwa tasted blood in her mouth. Her mother sat back down, unbothered.
The servants in the room didn't move. They didn't blink. Blue walls. Glittering walls. White floor, now stained red. A little princess in a white dress covered in her own blood, sitting on the floor. Refusing to cry. Biting her own lip. Shattered gold statue. Blank-eyed courtiers. And a queen, totally unbothered by it all. Jin-Hwa knew this had happened before. She knew it might happen again.
She met her mother's eyes anyway.
Her mother laughed. "That statue is an antique. Yet it means so little to me. Do you know why, Jin-Hwa?"
Jin-Hwa had never heard her name from her mother's lips before. She hated how beautiful she could make it sound. She hated how much she wanted her mother's praise, after what just happened. She didn't answer. She just shook her head.
"Because I am a queen. And when you are a queen, you can have whatever you like." Her mother stared down at her. "You are not a queen."
And Jin-Hwa understood. She may have been six, but she understood. She understood that she could not scream whenever she wanted. She understood that though brutality was valued, it had to be with poise. She understood that she could be as horrible as she liked as long as no one saw it. She understood that her mother's reputation was in danger if she didn't have her children under control. It was a horrible realization, sitting there in that moment. It was almost as horrible as looking into those servant's eyes and realizing that they weren't glamoured. They just weren't going to help her.
Looking at this prince, now, she had no way to say any of this. She didn't care to. He was no different. His curious stare was not much better than a dead-eyed one. He would not help her either. For him to stand there and say she wasn't bold--
Her mother had never beaten her again. Jin-Hwa knew she would if she had a reason. But her mother never did anything without a reason.
"We adapt to things you could never dream of." she said coldly. "We can exist where you could never hope to." Adaption made her think of her father. Her father who couldn't help her. Her father who helped her anyway. Her father who taught her how to look at life as a game of strategy. To cut things into wins and losses. To stop feeling and start thinking. Jin-Hwa scoffed at Gemini's ignorance. She didn't just adapt. She survived.
This was just another game, wasn't it? It didn't really mater. Win or lose. If she let herself worry, if she let herself say what she was thinking, if she let herself care? What then? She hadn't done anything of the sort in so long.
I don't care what you want. she thought. She couldn't say it. She couldn't lie. It terrified her. She didn't want to care. She couldn't risk caring. Why did this half-mortal nothing have to be her first real foe in so long?
Her mother wasn't here. But Jin-Hwa was no fool. Everyone was watching her. Everyone. This boy most of all.
"I like to know who I'm dealing with." Jin-Hwa said. "Makes everything much.. easier." She hated the smile on her face. She hated that even if she couldn't lie, she was telling the truth for the first time in a long time.
She hated that it had to be him
special situations
This is the place to let us know about any special abilities or disabilities your character has that might affect either their time at school/work or their time on site overall. Also, if your character is a prodigy in a certain area, please put the area here and explain the ways that this is necessary to develop their character.
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learned skills
Learned Skills. If your character has graduated school, then fill out the value for the skill corresponding the school they would have graduated from. (I.E. Herbology for the Herbalist School)
Please put 10 for only two skills, as that is all they would have learned at school unless they were a prodigy as defined above. If you need any clarification on these skills, please consult the site lore.
Enchanting (as outlined in the site lore, putting enchantments on objects) 8
Wards (as outlined in the site lore, protections against magic on people or things) 9
Glamours (as outlined in the site lore, illusions and mind control) 6
Tailoring: (Making clothes, magical or otherwise) 5
Craftmanship: (Making furniture, architecture, woodworking. A broader field as few fey take to craftsmanship) 3
Forging: (Weaponsmiths and jewelry makers. Usually magical.) 6
Herbalism: (Magical plants, poisons, etc) 4
Combat (Strategies and tactics as well as actual fighting) 10
Theory (Academic knowledge, ability to learn) 9
out of character
Alias: SeaJem
Other Characters: Guinivere Marcel, Jin-Hwa Mei, Kagome Tsukishima, Talia Avedon
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