Name: Chu Hua Yuan
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Element: Fire
Residence: Complicated. Rents out a nicer apartment in the Middle Ring for use during the stickball season so she can be close to her home base and her teammates, but spends the rest of her time in the house she bought for her and her family in the Upper Ring.
Occupation: Pro stickball player
Who are you? The best stickball player in Ba Sing Se. Well, that might be a bit ambitious. Let’s go with… best on my team. That works. I’m the best attacker that the Middle Ring Badgermoles have had in ages, and I’m famous for it. I love my job. I love the game, my fans, and yes, the money. Who doesn’t love money? I’ve been able to provide for me, my family, and my fiancée with everything I bring in. And they love me. I am loved. I am the perfect daughter, the perfect sister, the perfect soon-to-be wife. I wouldn’t trade my life right now for the world. I have everything I could ever want.
I’m a family woman. I have two younger sisters, a mother, and a father. But our family is growing. Next fall, I’m marrying my current fiancée and the love of my life-
An Tamura. She’s perfect. Everything I’m not. Wicked smart, mostly, but also beautiful and hilarious. She gets tired of following me through my busy life, I can tell, but she’s never complained. She’s always supported me, even though she has a job of her own- working for the government in the Department of Energy.
I love An. I love family. I love my house, the little garden that runs along the front porch. My job, my teammates. I have a life that many could never dream of. But what if there was something that could ruin my perfect life? Something that would doom me and my family forever? There is. I’m a… No. No, I won’t say it. But I have a secret, and if it gets out, my life will be ruined. Everything I have worked for my entire life will fall into flames.
Is it wrong of me that I still feel compelled to do what I never should?
What is your opinion on Benders? Evil. Monsters. The bender will never stop destroying until they are destroyed. The world will never be at peace until they are finally gone. That’s what I’ve been taught, at least. Bender is a dangerous word to say in this city, even around those you love. It’s terrifying. It even scares me a bit, too.
When I was a child, going through a box of old things in the far back of the gym, I found a tape. It was unlabelled and ancient. Later that night, I found an old video player and popped it in in my room, alone. Imagine my surprise when it was…
bending. A pro-bending match, from the old Republic City. I should’ve been revolted, should’ve thrown it away immediately. But I was 12. I was fascinated. I watched and rewatched that old tape in secret for years, prying up a piece of my floorboard to make sure no one ever saw it. I had never seen someone bend before. It was… beautiful.
I’ve always been an adrenaline junkie- it’s something I can’t deny. This was just like stickball but
better. Watching those tapes, doing something forbidden, gave me such a rush. I didn’t end up finding another tape until I was 15, when I finally summoned the courage to venture into the Underground with some of my rowdier classmates to find one. It cost a
lot of money, but I found it. And now? Well. I still collect the tapes, still watch them. Pro-bending is fascinating. It’s an expression of violence, sure, but it’s done as a form of sport. And just watching them can’t be that awful of a crime, right?
But the other secrets I hold… those are the kinds of things that could get me killed. I’m… it’s hard to say. Terrifying. But I think I’m a firebender. Gods. Isn’t that the kind of thing that would ruin my life? Of course I would be. Of course. But I can’t be a monster if I don’t use it, right? And I don’t. But sometimes…
Sometimes it gets hard to hold back the heat.