Xiaofan Fāng
The Avatar
”How do you dethrone a tyrant? No, that's not it. The question is how do you balance a world by deliberately throwing it into chaos? The answer has to be more than me."
Full NameXiaofan Fāng
pronounced: show (in shower) fawn fang
NicknamesXiao
Earthworm
Metal-head (some of her siblings call her this in jest)
Age20
GenderNon-binary and doesn’t mind being referred to as she/he/they.
SexualityPansexual
AbilitiesA late bloomer, Xiaofan got access to her earth bending (and other elements) later than most do; because of this, she has an unintuitive grasp on the other abilities, showing in less expression and more restraint. She’s fascinated by the nuances of bending, resulting in a strong technical grasp of the elements. She has a preference towards metal bending, and is interested in it’s potential for technological advancement and human enhancements. She has a book of female innovators tucked away at her bedside; Asami is one of her inspirations.
She grew up making things—sculptures, paintings, inventions—with earth and metal (and then the other elements), and is always looking for interesting ways to use her abilities. Her creativity makes her an innovator and dangerous foe, as she’s always for different angles to approach a problem or enemy. Her innovative interests lie in intersections and contradictions; like bending and chemistry, spirit energy and technology, or the freedom of art and her restraint in bending.
As someone who is able to center herself easily, she has a good temperament for spiritual access; she’s been meditating for years, trained by the White Lotus about the importance of a steady constitution and open mind—she has only been able to access avatar state a few times, though not ever through conscious will, only accidents and pressing circumstances and once while asleep. In fact, it is most often while dreaming she has been in contact with her past lives and the spirits, which is frustrating to her. She often comes in contact with an owl spirit, a comforting presence, but it is always elusive.
As for the other elements, water comes a bit easier to her than air and fire, and she aligns with it’s defense-is-offence nature; she is a good healer with a good grasp on chi pathways and able to pinpoint the tiniest pain points direct energy to. She also enjoys the feeling of stability that comes with the combination of water and earth, and uses them the most. Fire, she struggles the most with and finds hard to control; it’s a volatile element that is heavily affected by her mood, swelling up with power when emotionally passionate. She prefers to use it in small, potent doses—explosives and projectiles. With air, it requires effort for her to get into the free and intuitive mindset that characterize the that style of bending; She is most powerful if she meditates beforehand, being able to stabilize the rushing currents for a longer amount of time.
Her bending style, when not used in smaller amounts, lacks grace and precision—her earth bending is definitely better than the rest, though.
Fighting StyleTanky, though not without precision. She tends to endure non-lethal hits, drawing out the amount of time she can look for weaknesses and do the most damage in a few moves.
She keeps a light-weight metal staff with her at all times, and uses it in close combat, as well as for bending. Her close-combat style is aggressive and sharp, aimed at handicapping the opponent or putting distance between them so she can deliver the finishing blow—without her staff, she uses a messy style of mixed martial arts; She also can use the metal for feather light armor enhancements (i.e encasing her knuckles in a thin metal layer) when going into battle, projectiles, and whatever she can think of. The staff style of fighting also facilitates other bending methods, like air blades.
Her bending style is subtle, and she avoids grandiose displays of flair. She is much more likely to metal bend a dollop of steel to the opponent’s foot and jab it through their ankle, than hurling boulder after boulder. While effective, her tactics require focus and planning, and she is susceptible to being caught off guard—outside experience will be a good wakeup call for her.
Physical Appearance5’ 6’’, average height and stocky build. She’s got mussy, short black hair, framing her dark face and eyes, and can easily be perceived as either gender. Freckles inherited from her father dot her entire body—she has surprisingly pleasant smile, lighting up her whole face when it appears, though her neutral expression is enough to give off a gruff, stoic impression.
Equipment and Personal BelongingsMetal Staff—this has gone through many iterations over the years, as her and her White Lotus teachers have been seeking the best weapon that balances strength, weight, and usefulness.
Headband — A gift from her favorite White Lotus teacher that keeps her hair out of her face when she spars. She has it on almost always.
Book of female innovators — Got it from her sister on her 9th birthday. It’s annotated and bookmarked so much that it’s intimidating.
GoalWants to create something revolutionary, making a positive, systemic change in the world. She doesn’t know what yet, but wants to see the implementation of it—a technology, bending practice, whatever—while she’s alive. Of course, this means first getting rid of President San and creating an equitable environment for innovation to spread properly.
SecretOne thing that she’s kept to herself is her how strong bending always evokes strong emotions which she feels uncomfortable with, as they sometime threaten to overwhelm her; she is scared of unintentionally hurting others and this is one reason why her bending style is so subtle and technically focused. What she doesn’t realize is the more she refuses to deal with her lack of control, the more volatile the nature of her bending becomes. Also, no one knows about her struggles to contact the owl in her dreams or some of the other recurring themes...
Habitso Gets lost in her thoughts and stares at nothing in particular. While doing this, she either looks absent minded or about to take a shit. It can disturb people.
o Does the bending equivalent of doodling when she’s anxious/bored/thinking, which means very subtly molding earth or whatever she has around her.
Likeso Learning (aspires to be a polymath: current strengths in microbiology & bending chemistry, rationality, and slight weakness in social sciences)
o Exercise and wellbeing practices
o Debate and discussion
o Making statues and sculptures and any form of art
Dislikeso Censorship
o Betrayal, unfairness, injustice
o Toaster ovens
Strengthso Mentally and psychically resilient
o Steady temperament
o Fast learner & curious—willing to make mistakes and understands it’s a part of the learning process.
o Good grasp on first principles and rational thinking
Weaknesseso Tunnel Vision, can get too caught up in details and not enough on the larger picture.
o Struggles with healthy bodily/physiological self expression (evidenced in her bending and emotional expression)
o Perfectionist and Type A, not good with uncertainty
o Can come off as socially abrasive
Personality Xiaofan usually appears cool, with a calm demeanor and sharp, observing gaze. She has an even temperament and rarely has strong outbursts to anything—if she’s angry, you’ll feel it in her silence and soft, but biting remarks. She is most alive when she’s exercising and creating things, and regains a childlike, open mind while doing so.
She’s remarkably patient with some things, like bending exercises and making mistakes, and remarkably impatient with other things, like social pleasantries and double-talk. The fact that she’s only grown up around people she trusts, has conditioned her to be straightforward and unapologetic about it. She also has a surprising sense of humor that can draws its strength from wit and/or unexpectedness.
Her nonchalant demeanor belies her Type A personality. While she can be open minded and creative in thought, her intense focus on details makes her a perfectionist. She’s stubborn when it comes to getting things right, which can mean practicing the same bending technique for days or locking herself in her room many evenings in a row to determine how to, theoretically, funnel spirit energy into toaster oven.
Brief HistoryThe avatar grew up in a very warm family, with 4 siblings (all older) and her parents, in Ba Sing Se; they were all relocated when she was a baby, so she has very little memory of the place she they all called home—her home was the stronghold and wherever they needed to go to avoid suspicion or train. She’s had limited interaction outside her family and White Lotus circle, and started to itch for real world interactions when she was a young teenager, feeling like she was missing a huge chunk of potential knowledge; her stubborn curiosity pushed the White Lotus to acquiesce and she was allowed her first steps back into the earth kingdom with a White Lotus guide, once they had determined she was emotionally mature enough to remain under guise and avoid suspicion. She took on the young grandson role with ease and became fascinated with the the markets, the people, the spirits—this lasted only a few years, as the civil war expanded towards the border and she was once again forced to hide. While brief, the excursions out of her home left a long lasting impact on her desire to learn about and improve the world.
As she was growing up, her main influences were family, all of whom reacted variously to being taken away from their homes. The siblings were all supportive, they had no choice to be, and because most of them were also very young when they were taken [Nehru (3), Yue (5)], it was not a traumatic transition. The oldest siblings [Kanan (10), Hui-Ling (15)] struggled much more, but didn’t have deep ties, like a career or significant other, to make the transition harder than it needed to be. Her mother a professor and father on the earth bending police force, took their relocation in stride, pouring their time into teaching and guiding their children the best they could. The concept of being the avatar has always been normal to her, as she grew up under the guidance and protection of the White Lotus, and she takes the importance of it for granted.
Being inside a stronghold meant there was little to do than train, either with her teachers or siblings, and so she took to reading and art when she was young. There is a library in the stronghold she visits often, but never stays for long, preferring to bring the books outside—somewhere she can mold the earth whenever she feels like taking a break from text and intense thought. For her 9th birthday, Hui-Ling bought her a book on female inventors (her favorite one) and she’s been fixated on innovation in technology, bending, and art ever since.
She was not able to bend earth until she was 5, and her siblings could all do so before her age. When she could, attention was diverted towards training her to be the best avatar, and this created a distance between her and and few of her siblings for a short time. Her favorite White Lotus teacher saw the imminent emotional alienation, and worked with the teachers and her parents to create a system that would be more kind to Xiaofan’s emotional state; from then on, he was to double as her counselor, to encourage feedback and facilitate personalized learning, which is how they’ve come to a foundation-based approach to harness her technical grasp on bending. This focus has also led her to develop an interest in first principle thinking and rationality, which she’s found to go hand in hand with creativity.
Growing up, Xiaofan has never felt quite male or female, but doesn’t mind being referred to as female. It was something she came into very naturally, and has brought it up to her family over dinner once. Her parents have accepted it whole-heartedly and without question, and that was the end of that. She hasn’t had to think to hard about it, but exposure to outsiders mostly leaves her a little confused—they just don’t get it.
She began dreaming of the spirit world when she was 10, and grew up with the familiar presence of an owl in her dreams. As she’s grown, her dreams have become longer and more vivid, akin to lucid dreaming. The owl is still a constant fixture, but just as elusive, never communicating to her in a direct manner or giving any indication of its significance…
Even with the turmoil of the world outside, she considers herself to have lived a blessed life, having a supportive family that is protected under the White Lotus; she has a strong sense of loyalty to her family and community, and is determined to be a great avatar—the fact that her goal aligns with the task to usurp President San makes it easier to swallow the challenges ahead.
Tim the Yeti