Hmm, I had looked at the wiki and it didn't seem to say specifcally one way or another, other than stating the the Kyoshi warriors were all female themselves. I did some internet digging and people seem to think that all soldier extra types in the show has been purposefully ambiguous as to gender, and that feamle soldiers did exist, just not in equal proportions to male.
But, if the concensus here is againt it, I've got no problem tweaking some stuff around to make it fit better.
Well, it never hurt anybody to have some good, clean competition.
I have my CS up now, minus the sample post portion. It took me a little longer than I had initially anticipated to get the rest of it how I wanted, so I'll get the sample post up as soon as I can. Unfortunately I am old and have to wake up at an ungodly hour for work, so it probably won't be tonight.
Saili’s features are all fairly common place among the peoples of the Earth Kingdom. Her skin is a coppery, warm tone that’s pulled over tightly corded muscles and good for hiding the dirt she’s covered in the vast majority of the time. She keeps her hair cut relatively short for easy maintenance and it’s usually pulled back from face in some manner or another, and is an oaken, middling brown color. Her eyes are almond shaped and a vivid green and do an admirable job at ruining any of Saili’s attempts to hide her emotions, especially when her traitorously expressive and mobile eyebrows come into play. Her mouth is thin and is usually set in a crooked, single dimpled smile. She’s taller than your average Earth Kingdom woman by a good few inches, and her clothing is in keeping with the simplistic nature of earthbenders. It’s also important to note that she, like many other skilled earthbenders, does not wear shoes as she is stronger when her feet are in direct contact with the earth.
Name: Saili Age: 28 Personality: If one were to put Saili next to a rock and compare them, they’d be pretty hard pressed give you more than a handful of differences between the two, including the horribly obvious ones. This close affinity towards her element, however, is one of the largest reasons she makes such a capable earthbender. Her stubbornness cusps on a near legendary level, and it might be more plausible to shift a mountain than to change Saili’s mind from something she’s decided on. Of course, while fighting, people will often refer to this trait as more of an ‘unwavering tenacity and endurance’ than stubbornness. Which might be very true when she’s fighting to protect her homeland or friends, but sounds ridiculously pretentious to her ears for any other occasion.
A combination of having a quick mind and decisive attitude can make her seem brash, however she is actually quite the patient individual. Being firm and confident is important, as earthbending does not respond to hesitancy well, but knowing when to strike and when to defend is also an important aspect; timing is everything for a neutral jing fighter such as herself. An outgoing woman, Saili is generally friendly to any who haven’t given her a reason not to be and makes for an interesting companion if one doesn’t mind her candid and frank manner of speaking. Her temper is very cool as well, and most insults and raised voices are met with a crooked little grin and a lifted eyebrow. She can be infuriating to more hotheaded people in these instances, as her cavalier attitude seems to stoke their fires more. If she actually manages to get angry she’ll go very quiet and still, every muscle in body tensed… and said anger may or may not be accompanied shortly thereafter by hurling boulders. Nobody wants that. (Note: angry quiet is not to be confused with pensive quiet, where she stares off into space with a bemused look about her, or uncomfortable/frightened quiet, where she furrows her brows and chews the inside of her cheek.)
Skills:
A master earthbender with many years of service within the Earth Kingdom military, she’s no stranger to the stresses and rigor of war.
Aside from knowing most of the master level techniques of earthbending, she also is skilled in the use of seismic sense.
Seeing as earth is the “element of substance,” Saili is physically strong and all ripcord musculature to be able to bend all the bulk.
She’s pretty good at throwing some random things from the forest into a pot and cooking them together into something edible, and most of the times tasty. That’s to say, she’s a decent cook in or out of civilization.
Weaknesses:
Very dependent on her earthbending.
She’s as decent as any soldier should be at hand-to-hand, but if she has to resort to it it’s probably not going to end well for her.
She highly prefers her feet firmly planted on solid ground. Boats, water deeper than what she can stand in, tree houses, even riding animals can make her a little iffy. She’ll avoid these situations if she can at all help it.
In relation to the last, she does not like being unable to work her element. At best it makes her uncomfortable and at worst she reaches an almost phobic level of tension and nervousness, depending on the situation.
History: Saili was born and raised in Taku, a coastal city in the northwestern region of the Earth Kingdom. The city was known as a hub for commerce, as its ports handled many of the imports and exports from other nations. Both of Saili’s parents worked in this industry, her father working on a cargo ship as a crewman, and her mother in a warehouse. While her father would be away for varying lengths of time, her mother was still a constant in her young life despite her constant working. Often Saili would find herself trailing after her mother all day until it was that she grew old enough to be left to her own devices.
Saili and her own devices usually meant running amok through the crowded of streets of Taku, a pack of her friends around her. Like most kids their age, they often played at being heroes of great grandeur, or even the next Avatar knowing full well that the first was nigh impossible, and the second was completely so. Regardless, Saili grew up with the idea that she was meant to be something more than a what her parents had achieved especially when she had first learned that she was an earthbender.
It was her ticket to adventure in her life, or at least something a bit more interesting. When she was old enough she enlisted into the Earth Kingdom military, bent on expanding her knowledge and determined to master this new facet of herself that she had discovered. Bender recruits were trained separately from their non-bending counterparts, of course, but still her basic training class made up of those from Taku and the areas around was quite large.
Regardless, Saili was better than them all. Impressed, her trainers sent her and several of the other top recruits to Taku’s earthbending masters with the intention of testing their limits and priming them for promising careers. Saili studied hard for years under their tutelage and eventually became a master in her own right and even began to expand upon the militaristic style of earthbending she had been taught and add her own little flair to things.
Her abilities coupled with a down-and-dirty, lead from the front personality and leadership style meant that she rose quickly to the rank of sergeant, but no further. And she never wanted to be any further either, if it meant sitting in cramped rooms thinking of strategies and plans. She was perfectly happy doing her rounds within the city limits and leading patrols and scouting parties in the areas outside the city limits under their protection. She'd much rather work her body in tandem with her mind, rather than just sitting and thinking all day long.
But everything changed once the Fire Nation attacked… (I’m sorry!)
After Sozin’s comet struck and obliterated the Air Nomads it was Taku that came under siege by the Fire Nation; the first Earth Kingdom city to be attacked. Saili had been on wall duty that notorious day, and although she had not been facing the port, she still remembers the exact moment the first explosion rocked the city to its core. Things after that became somewhat of a blur. She knew she had run to go meet the enemy threat, and that the Earth Kingdom soldiers and benders held onto the city for a few days; only long enough for the civilians to flee out of the inland gates and into the heart of the Empire. The Fire nation’s navy was too large and they decimated Taku’s port before barraging the rest of the city. Saili fought the entire four days before the city fell completely to the Fire Nation. She didn’t think she slept once, and that exhaustion probably resulted in her flighty memory of many of the particulars. Though, it's pretty common that bits and pieces will float up in her dreams at night.
After the last of the bystanders left Taku’s gates, the Earth soldiers abandoned the city to their enemy, Saili among the last groups of fighters to leave as a sort of rear guard. Most of the refugee groups scattered into the winds, going every which way to seek safety within the heart of the largest of the nations. Saili decided to remain in the outskirts of her hometown for some time, keeping watch on the enemy army from afar and scrounging together any lingering refugees and sending them onward towards Ba Sing Se or other settlements inland.
After a while there was no more point to her presence, as there was nothing more she could do that would be productive so close to this new Fire Nation stronghold. So Saili left to wander the nearby settlements and villages, wanting to link up with her fellow Earth Kingdom soldiers to create some semblance of a fighting force for the area, and hoping that she’d find her mother among the refugees there. Or to hear news of her father’s ship, which had been at sea at the start of the siege, and learn if it had made it away safely.
Now she fights the good fight, helping the effort against the Fire Nation by helping to establish guerilla forces and resistance fighters from among the willing civilians and scattered military, and teaching Earth Kingdom citizens how to stand against the Fire Nation’s advance. She’s only one woman, but she’ll do whatever she can.
Cassie waded after their fishy foe even as it was swallowed up into the murky waters of the marshlands. A few pot shots at its fleeing form from their designated marksman didn’t seem to have any effect on it, but Cassie wanted to make sure the thing wasn’t lying in wait just beneath the surface. A few good stabs with her buster sword into the waters where the thing had made its escape later, nothing decided to pop back up to the surface to say hello. “Quick little bugger,” she mumbled to herself with a shrug and began trudging back towards the group. She was going to count that as a kill for her. After all, she’d got the last hit on it, and in her book that totally counted.
She smiled despite Selene’s frustrated yelling. As far as Cassie could tell, nobody dying or being injured meant things had gone pretty damned good, if not having to endure a slightly anticlimactic ending to their battle. But she let their leader rant without so much as a witty quip. The other woman was very much the perfectionist, Cassie knew, and no amount of telling her that it was impossible to plan for something like a giant fish monster spitting slime at their transport would make her berate herself less. It’d probably just make it worse, really.
So instead she just planted her weapon into the ground and pulled her soaking shirt over her head and wrang it out several times before tucking it into her belt. There was nothing she could do about her drenched pants or soggy, water-logged boots, but at least she wouldn’t have to deal with that horribly clingy, wet sensation of her tee. She had a sports bra on anyway, so it’s not like it mattered; she ran around the gym in less all the time. And man, it was so much more comfortable.
The rest of their trip through the swampy lands was unfortunately uneventful. Cassie spent the first little bit amusing herself by throwing pieces of wet pancake from her pocket to the little fishes and critters they came across on their trek, and later swinging around her sword arbitrarily to keep her muscles warmed up and ready to fight.
Eventually a cityscape came into view, and with it the slight rumblings and flashes of UDF ships laying waste through barrages of artillery fire. She bet there was a lot more excitement going on within the confines of the city. And she was sure they would have been doing a lot more damage to the enemy’s ranks had their group been allowed to fight. Sponge, Grunt, and Fodder (not to mention thousands of other soldiers she hadn’t met) were out in Astral somewhere, fighting the Mordrem threat without Guardians to back them up. The piece of paper, or whatever it was they were fetching, had better be important. The fingers wrapped around the hilt of her sword itched, and she realized that she had been gripping the thing so hard that her fingers had started to numb.
She switched her sword to the other hand and shook out the tingling as they approached the access point to the city sewer system. Cassie couldn’t say she was thrilled with the idea of running around pipes beneath the city. She didn’t know the size of a standard city sewage drainage system, but she doubted it was nearly as large as she would prefer. That is to say, large enough where she could swing her weapon freely without worry of hitting a wall. Cass was… well, she wasn’t proud to say that she claustrophobic. And it was stupid, and it didn’t make sense, but that’s just the way it was.
A full grown woman who ran headlong into anything you threw at her but couldn’t handle being a little cramped? Cassie snorted.
Then the group of refugees appeared, and her heart clenched at the woman’s plaintive cries for help. If there was a worse death than being trapped underground, surrounded by human waste, and being attacked by Mordrem Cass couldn’t think of it. She wouldn’t wish that on her worst enemies, let alone scared war refugees and little kids. Fuck. Every part of her screamed out to help them, except that one little seed of fear festering in the back of her mind. She was not accustomed to the feeling, and the way it made little worms wiggle around in her gut made her shift her weight uncomfortably.
Cassie exhaled deeply, steeling herself. “Well,” she said after Eric had his piece, thinking that she’d managed to make her voice sound more confident than she felt at the moment, “We can’t really call ourselves Guardians if we don’t protect people, can we? It’s kinda implied in the title.”
She wouldn’t let people suffer just because she was being a baby. Besides, sewers were made of metal, right? So she could use Push and Pull to make sure they didn’t all end up in some nightmarish, reeking tomb beneath the city. And surely Selene had some sort of plan to get them through it, because she always had a plan. They’d be fine. Super, even...
I'm so excited to write Aurelia being all conflicted over whether or not to help the refugees. On one hand, she's terrified of the dark (and I fully intend to expand upon that little anecdote about the mine shaft cave-in). On the other, she probably isn't selfish enough to condemn a small child to death by starvation.
Crap, I totally forgot about her being afraid of the dark. And Cassie is claustrophobic. It's almost like someone planned to put them in a small, dark place... Oh @Prisk, you conniving little GM, you.
I am going to start on a post tomorrow, because today I took two tests in Farsi and they straight up broke my English. Languaging is hard.
EDIT: Totally almost forgot. I heard this song from X Ambassadors today (on a Jeep commercial, whatever) and not only is it a pretty cool song, but it reminded me of this RP. So enjoy!
But yeah, I totally agree with DJ. The estrogen to testosterone ratio is bordering on dangerous levels. Just think about what will happen to poor Eric when all four of the girls have shark week at the same time (because you know, that crazy syncing thing we've got going on). No man should have to go through that alone.
@JJ Doe You know, somehow that picture doesn't make me feel any better.
Fun Fact: Cassie did the most damage with a single blow because of the "Might" boon on herself and the "Exposure" condition on the Lurker. Congrats!
Whoo! Look at me doing stuff and things.
@bluejay_gl Mourn not for the loss of pocket pancakes, my friend, but instead rejoice in the the tremendous valor shown through their sacrifice. We must strive to be like blueberry pancakes in all things.
Posted. And decided that I wanted to be like the cool kids and have fun font colors in my post too.
Now, if you will all excuse me, I need to go wallow in grief at my Red Wings being kicked from the playoffs tonight. So if you need me I will be curled up in the fetal position in the darkest corner of my basement wearing nothing put my old hockey pads, clutching a bottle of whiskey as I rock myself back and forth, and softly sing-crying "Hey Hey Hockeytown" until I eventually pass out.
