Just a question first: Is this forum active?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Basic Information~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: He Ao Lan – I got this using a Chinese name generator; in Chinese, surnames come first, which means, the name you’ll most likely use to refer to my character, especially if you are in friendly terms with her, is either Ao or Lan.
Alias: Firefly (nickname)
Gender: Female
Age: 21
Bending Power: Fire
Allegiances: Fire Nation, I guess.
Blood Type: AB – does this even matter?
Family Members: ”I don’t have a family. I have a freakin’ clan.”
- Mother: Master of complaints and biggest loudmouth in the house. She used to be a very skilled and beautiful bender.
- Father: Wacky inventor; the funny guy, so to speak.
- Grandfather: Third generation inventor. He used to work for the army, but later retired and devoted his work to improving the life of ordinary people.
- Siblings: two older brothers and a younger brother and sister. Her eldest brothers and her sister are down to earth types, while the newest “addition” to the family, the troublesome 15 year-old Li, is the mirror image of their father.
- Cousins: Lots. Some are crazy and some are definitely not. Some are rich, some are poor and one is even a general in the army. A decent lot are also inventors.
- Uncles and Aunts: Her mother has an older sister and a younger brother. Her father was an only child.
Birth Date: I have no clue what type of calendar people in the “Avatar Universe” use. How about January 29? That should make her an Aquarius.
Star Sign: Aquarius, Monkey
Extra Information: Her family is actually rich, as this crafty people did not only use their mind to improve the life of everyday people, but also to build a small fortune by mass producing and selling some of their inventions and trading commodity goods. They have also collaborated in times of war with the army and government, which has earned them some well-deserved prestige. Their neighbors fear they will eventually blow up the whole neighborhood, if one of the weirder inventions goes wild. What the town people do love about their inventions is, of course, their usefulness and ingenuity. They have build irrigation systems throughout the area, they own the only fast delivery system in the country that uses airships and they are trying to develop a communication network that uses something similar to a telegraph.
Note – I am uncertain of the timeline. I assumed there might be a time skip when I wrote this. If technology hasn’t really evolved too much, I will change the details with something more plausable and fitting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Appearance~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Appearance: He Ao Lan is slender and of average height. She has short spiky red hair with an uneven bang that covers her left eye a little bit. She’s got tanned and freckled skin and her big eyes are jade green. She wears a variety of eccentric outfits, most of which are handmade by her talented relatives. Her clothes always have a lot of pockets and those pockets are normally filled with useless stuff. Her brown sandals are made of high quality leather. Her eyesight isn’t as great as it should be, for someone of her age, so she wears glasses when reading. You sometimes get to see her dressed as a scientist or as a mechanic too and by that I mean, the kind that, for some reason, wears clothes with extra pockets.
Height: 166 cm – that’s 5’5... I think...
Weight: 56 kilos/123 pounds
Body Type: Slim/Athletic
Extra Feature: Her only notable scar is found on her right hip.
Voice: Feminine and somewhat loud; she might dress manly at times, but she’ll never be mistaken for a man.
Extra Clothing/Gear: Lan keeps her tools and creative gadgets in a rucksack along with a swish knife, a pocket knife and a compass. That said, she’s smart enough to leave most of that junk at home and take only the necessary things when she’s traveling. Although she claims she isn’t fond of jewelry, she’s never been seen without wearing at least a pair of gold earring and a colorful bracelet. One should also note that she’s got quite a collection of “souvenir” necklaces she’s bough from all over the “Avatar” world. She never paints her nails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Persona~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personality: Lan is smart, blunt and crazy. She’s got the brains and the looks and loves bragging about them. She’s short-tempered, ill-mannered and driven. She talks too much and she hates being interrupted. Her interest for science was sparked at a very young age and she regards curiosity as her greatest asset. She prefers discussing intellectual subjects, commenting on the daily news or complaining about the events that occurred throughout the day; just like her mom. She loves her family and accepts their specific wackiness. After all, that’s a trait she also shares.
Lan might get into fights due to her loudmouth and somewhat reckless behavior, but none that are really serious ones. That’s because most of the people she insults are part of her family and her family easily forgets and forgives. She’s also much more careful about the way she behaves when she is in front of strangers and not with her old acquaintances.
Likes:
- Learning
- Inventing
- Making fireworks
- Traveling, shopping and sightseeing
- Talking to intelligent people
- Teaching and sharing what she has learned to others
- Fire bending
- Swimming
Dislikes:
- “Haters gonna hate” expression
- Closed-minded people
- Fools and ignorants
- Eating bad food
- Being told to shut-up
- Failing an experiment
- Quitters and people telling her to give up
- Being called a geek
Goals: Lan hopes to become the greatest inventor in the world. She is obsessed with flight and she has been studying birds and aerodynamics since she was a child. Her biggest dream is to build a flying machine that is heavier than air, bird-looking, much more maneuverable than an airship and self-propelled aka what we call a plane.
Fears: spiders, obsessive-compulsive people, spies, death
Strength:
- Intelligence
- Curiosity
- Fire Bending
- Ingenuity
- Adaptability
- Perception
Weakness:
- Curiosity
- Talking too much
- Getting bored too easily
- Sleeping – she considers the fact that humans require sleeping to “function” a severe drawback and weakness.
- Caffeine addict
- Being way too hyper for an adult
Extra Information: He Ao Lan loves drinking tea, but she hates making it.
Despite all of her flaws, she has no problem making friends.
Another thing that should be noted is that most of her family can fire bend to some extent, yet none, with the exception of her mother, have been referred to as “genius fire benders”. They have been called brilliant inventors many times before, Lan included… but that’s a different story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~History~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
History: Lan was born in a close-knitted clan of inventors and was raised in a loving, friendly and permissive environment. Her eccentric family seemed to have a thing for disobeying authority, behavior which she also displayed. Lan learned to read and write at a younger age than your average child and was home-schooled. Her private tutors taught her to perceive the world from various angles and form her own opinions about things. Her father made sure she received the proper education that would allow her to never miss the forest because of a single tree, as he would like to say.
Due to her family’s fame, scientists, inventors and thinkers from all corners of the Fire Nation would visit her house and debate the fiery problems of the scientific world. Not only that, but her family supported young scientists and sometimes even grated them scholarships. It’s no wonder that a child who grew up in such a home would look up to them and dream of becoming the most amazing inventor.
At home, Lan was always surrounded by people and the only escape into solitude was running from home for a couple of days and camping in the woods. Still, sometimes, her plan would fail, not because she was caught, but because, her big brothers would also have similar plans and, well, she would have to tag along. “Why go alone, when we’re heading in the same direction?” they’d ask with an evil grin. That was life. Everyone was friendly towards her and would forgive her for the times she acted mean. Oddly enough, they were able to do so, in a way that didn’t turn her into a spoilt child… or maybe she just didn’t turn into one because she had good genes.
Lan learned the basics of fire bending from her mother, before starting practicing with one a private tutor as well as with her older cousins. With time, she surpassed most of them in skill, yet, failed to come anywhere close to her mother’s potential. That didn'’t hinder her from starting to teach fire bending to others.
As she grew, she started traveling more and she eventually inherited a branch of their family business: the airship building site. It was then, when she started wondering whether there might be a better approach to flying.
Extra Information:
Nickname: Lan is at times called Firefly by her family; nicknames that stays as a reminder that long ago, she was a just pesky brat that always lightened the mood.
Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:06 pm