Name: Sora G. Silverwind Livejournal Username: cinnamonical E-mail: cinnaberrisora@yahoo.com AIM/MSN: le tempest noir @ AIM Current Characters at Luceti: Pommy / bemyused
Character
Name: Huang Pao-lin / 黄宝鈴. (Hero alias: Dragon Kid) Fandom: Tiger & Bunny. Gender: Female. Age: 13. (Not quite confirmed in the show, but an interview with the main writer seems to put her around 12-14, so I've decided to hit the middle of that.) Time Period: Some point after the end of the first season. Wing Color: Same color green as her hair. History: You can find a brief summation of what's known about her canonically on the Tiger & Bunny article on Wikipedia, but a slightly more detailed headcanon history follows below...
Huang Pao-lin (or Huang Bao-ling, if we really want to be precise about romanization rules given the official characters for her name) was born in Hong Kong, the elder of two children. Although her parents loved her very much, it was clear that they had a preference and higher hopes for her younger brother Bao-zhi, two years her junior. This preference became even more pronounced once it became obvious that Pao-lin was not a girl given to typically "feminine" things like playing with dolls or wearing dresses -- she instead preferred to spend her time playing outdoors, usually with the other boys of the neighborhood, participating gleefully in bug hunts and various sports games. And when she discovered the wide world of martial arts movies, she begged her parents for kung fu lessons. Initially they refused, but after Pao-lin nearly broke her neck imitating some of the flashier movies she saw in her favorite films, they decided that she should at least learn how to do things correctly so she didn't accidentally kill herself in the process. So at age 5, Pao-lin began taking kung fu lessons.
At age 6, her NEXT power of controlling and generating lightning began to manifest.
Word of this got around, and Pao-lin lost most of her friends, either because they were frightened of her or because their parents were. Left with all this time to herself, she spent it practicing her kung fu when she wasn't watching movies, reading comics, or doing responsible things like helping around the house or schoolwork. Her sifu was a kindly old man who lived in an apartment building not far from Pao-lin's old home; she took both public and private lessons with him. Although he wasn't a NEXT himself, he had been friends with one before and thus knew that they were just as human as everyone else. Through kung fu and tai chi, he taught Pao-lin how to control her NEXT power, convincing her to view it not as some curse but as merely a tangible manifestation of her chi. Pao-lin didn't always believe him, especially when she was being taunted at school for who she was, but going through the forms on her own usually gave her peace of mind, and it allowed her to deal with her circumstances without snapping. Her parents, however, were understandably less at ease about the situation. Not only was Pao-lin refusing to behave like a proper young lady, but she also had these strange powers that scared off anyone who knew about them. Who was going to marry someone like her? And what sort of career or job could someone like her have?
Only time will bring the answer to the first question, but the answer to the second question came when Pao-lin was 11 years old, in the form of Odysseus Communication, a company based on North America but owned by a Chinese man named Yung-fa Chang. Chang, along with a woman named Natasha Evans, visited Pao-lin and her family wanting to know if they would be interested in having Pao-lin work for the company as a "Hero" on HeroTV, a show based in the city of Sternbild in North America where NEXT used their superhuman powers to catch criminals and save innocent bystanders from various perils while showing off advertising on their Hero costumes. Both Pao-lin and her parents were enthusiastic about the idea (well, "enthusiastic" is probably overstating things with regards to her parents, but it's accurate enough for Pao-lin's reaction). This was a prime opportunity for Pao-lin to make productive use of her quirks, especially since her starting salary would easily exceed that of both of her parents' combined. She would also be living under the care of Natasha as a kind of foster daughter, so she wouldn't have to live on her own in a strange country.
Two months later, Pao-lin's parents saw her off at the airport with a wish to "make their country proud", and thus Dragon Kid was born. She would finish three seasons of HeroTV before being whisked away to Luceti.
Personality: Probably the first thing that anyone notices about Pao-lin is her tomboyish nature. She's very adamant in voicing her dislike for anything remotely girly, a fact which causes Natasha much consternation. But it's been shown that she can appreciate cute things: she shows off a maternal side in caring for the mayor's infant son (in fact, she's the only one out of the Heroes that he responds favorably to), and she eventually chooses to wear a pair of flower hairpins given to her by her parents as a parting gift once she finds out that the meaning of the flower on the hairpins is "thinking about you always". Episode 13 also revealed that Pao-lin is perhaps not completely at ease with her tomboy nature: she apparently considered herself less of a "girl" than a flamboyant heel-wearing, pink-clad gay man. While Pao-lin does genuinely have interests that don't coincide with mainstream notions of femininity, part of her insistence on tomboyishness may also be a defense mechanism against the isolation and ostracization she experienced when she was younger. She has it in her head that in order to endure her trials, she has to be strong, and being "strong", to her, means eschewing anything associated with being a typical girl.
Despite this serious side, Pao-lin is a more or less happy, cheerful girl. In fact, even considering how dangerous her work is and the fact that she's away from home, she's probably happier in Sternbild than she was in Hong Kong. But she's also still a bit lonely: being a Hero doesn't give her much free time, and she has to keep her Hero identity secret from the public. She doesn't go to school, instead learning the basic curriculum from a personal tutor hired by Natasha, and although she definitely gets along with and likes her Hero co-workers, they're also technically her rivals at HeroTV, which complicates things slightly. There's also major age gaps to contend with; the current Hero roster contains two other teenagers, but they're on the older end of the spectrum, and a difference of a few years means a lot more to a young girl like Pao-lin than it would to an adult. But sharing the common experience of being a young Hero bridges these age gaps a little (or a lot), and as such Pao-lin's grown closer to them over time. She's also begun to think of the adult Heroes as surrogate family members: Kotetsu as a father, Antonio as an uncle, Nathan as a mother or an older sister, and Keith as an older brother. (She doesn't quite know what to make of Barnaby yet, though.)
Because somehow I didn't realize until after I'd posted this that I didn't talk as much about her personality here as I should have. Oops. Hope you don't mind this little add-on.
Still, Pao-lin can be a little shy about asking her co-workers (or sometimes even her caretaker) for help if she needs it. Because she grew up without many friends and with parents who didn't really understand her (and a sibling who was as different from her as night from day), she's always felt that she had to deal with her problems on her own. Not to mention that forging it out on her own also falls within her assumption that this is what will make her stronger, and that asking for help is "weak." She'll usually try to keep an upbeat or a determined front, but every now and again the facade will crack, as it did when Kotetsu began teasing her about how cute she would look with flowers in her hair, and she blurted out to him and Barnaby about her frustrations with her parents. When it does, she'll quickly retreat and maybe sulk for a little bit before returning and pretending like nothing's wrong, hoping that everyone will just conveniently forget about her little outburst.
As a Hero, Pao-lin is probably up there with Keith and Kotetsu in terms of how much idealism and optimism she holds about her job -- which is to say, a lot, especially considering how corporate the job is in the world of Tiger & Bunny. While the 16-year-old Karina got into it because her sponsors promised to also help her with a budding music career, and 19-year-old Ivan spent (or used to spend, anyway) most of his Hero career photobombing for his sponsors because he didn't think he was capable of anything else, Pao-lin decided to become a Hero because she really wanted to help people. This was influenced by a lot of different things: the frequently black-and-white situations of the movies she watched and the comics she read, her desire to become someone better than the girl who was teased by her peers and misunderstood by her family, and just overall a sunny, kind disposition. Of course she understands that there are less savory parts of the job aside from the expected dangerous situations (for example, Natasha constantly being on her case about how Pao-lin's boyish tendencies apparently make her less appealing as a Hero -- whether this is actually true is never explored), but she hasn't yet reached the point in her life where she's cynical about what she's doing. Really, her life so far kinda sounds like something out of a shonen manga, and that's just awesome -- how could she hate it, even with all of its bad points? Those are just obstacles to be overcome, things to make her stronger in the end, anyway.
When left to her own devices, Pao-lin spends her time reading comics (she likes both American superhero comics and Japanese shonen manga), drawing, training, and watching/re-watching martial arts movies. She also doesn't mind playing games like basketball or soccer, though she's not necessarily the best at it. And sometimes, when she's walking the city, she'll stop and stare at some of the clothes in the fashion boutiques, trying to convince herself that she's only interested in them from an aesthetic standpoint, and not because -- god forbid -- she'd actually like to try them on, just once.
physical - Pao-lin is a very skilled and acrobatic martial artist, able to fight both barehanded and with a staff (and possibly other weapons). She frequently combines this with her NEXT power of generating electricity, which is strong enough to stun someone. She's also quick and light on her feet.
mental/emotional - Surprisingly for her age, she can keep a calm head in dangerous situations. Probably the only reason she was caught trying to escape her bindings in a hostage situation was because the person who was holding her (and the mayor's infant son) hostage had a NEXT power that allowed her to literally smell danger. Pao-lin's also very disciplined about her kung fu training, working through forms while waiting for a criminal to show up at a location she was scouting out.
Weaknesses:
physical - Pao-lin is stronger than most girls her age, thanks to her martial arts training, but considering her small stature she's not that much stronger. She has to rely on her NEXT power, her agility, and her knowledge of sneaky, decisive strikes in order to take down criminals. Episode 10 shows that Pao-lin has a tendency to be a kill-stealer -- presumably she lets the other Heroes wear down or distract the bad guys before she swoops in for the final strike, netting her points with only part of the effort.
mental/emotional - For all of her discipline and experience with the darker side of life, Pao-lin's still just a teenage girl living away from her loving family in an unorthodox environment. There are certain aspects of life that she hasn't been exposed to yet, including things involving hormones, and it might be difficult for her to navigate such things without either a peer support group or an older, wiser mentor to help shed light on a few confusing things.
Does anyone want to come with me to the Battle Dome? It sounds really interesting, but I don't want to go by myself, since I haven't been there before. I think it would be a lot more fun to train with other people! Plus, I want to see what everyone else can do. I've seen some really cool things here in Luceti so far!
Also, maybe this is a weird question, but...do you have to be a certain age in order to be drafted? I have a lot of fighting experience, so I'm sure I could help out with things, even though I know I'm pretty young.
Okay, I guess that's enough for now. I'm going to go get some dinner, so if you want to talk to me, you can find me at the pizza place. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone!
Third Person:
Pao-lin realized only belatedly that going to the tea shop was not the cure for the homesickness that had suddenly stung her heart as soon as she woke up this morning. Everything -- the smells, the atmosphere, even some of the people in the shop -- reminded her of a home she hadn't been to in years. A home she wasn't sure she could ever go back to, if the information she found in this new journal of hers was telling the truth.
A cup of oolong tea bled steam into the air as the young girl reviewed the guide, currently fixated on the sections regarding the war that Luceti was apparently involved in. It sounded a lot scarier than the things she dealt with on a regular basis as a Hero, and those things were pretty scary. That was really what worried her about this place: not necessarily that she was trapped here, but that she could die in this war without seeing or talking to anyone else she'd known before Luceti. And that thought depressed her.
But at the same time, if she could help people with the abilities and talents that she had, how could she back down from that if she were called to it? She was a Hero, wasn't she? That was what she was supposed to do. And at least in Luceti she didn't have to worry about looking good for the cameras. Here, she wasn't Dragon Kid, Lightning Kung-fu Master: only Pao-lin, who'd spent way too much of her time training and fighting to waste it all just because her mind had up and decided to be a sissy about this whole thing.
Everyone's probably noticed that I'm gone by now, Pao-lin thought, biting her lip to distract herself from the sudden tightness in her chest. I wish I could let them know I was okay, at least.
Please create your character journal, and join luceti, lucetiooc, lucetilogs, lucetilocked. You can also join luceticrack and lucetifans if you like, though it is not required. After you are accepted into the communities, reply to the friend add/remove post and the player contact post. Please note that the friend add/remove and contact posts are inaccessible until you are accepted into the community.
Once you have gotten settled, please remember to comment to housing and tell us where your character will be living! You may also sign your character up for drafts and register any pets he or she may have.
After all that, feel free to introduce yourself on the lucetiooc community so people know who you are (and more importantly, friend your new character!) For the sake of other players and their friend lists, please use the 'Date Out Of Order' option (which can be found by editing the date on your post) for informational posts like HMD, Relationships, Contact, and so on. It's also suggested (but not required) you disable custom comment pages here.
Also, please DO NOT REPLY TO THIS. Comment HERE with your character information using the following format:
Character’s Full Name | Timeline: AIM: | MSN: Wing Color: Your Name/Nickname |
Name: Sora G. Silverwind
Livejournal Username: cinnamonical
E-mail: cinnaberrisora@yahoo.com
AIM/MSN: le tempest noir @ AIM
Current Characters at Luceti: Pommy / bemyused
Character
Name: Huang Pao-lin / 黄宝鈴. (Hero alias: Dragon Kid)
Fandom: Tiger & Bunny.
Gender: Female.
Age: 13. (Not quite confirmed in the show, but an interview with the main writer seems to put her around 12-14, so I've decided to hit the middle of that.)
Time Period: Some point after the end of the first season.
Wing Color: Same color green as her hair.
History: You can find a brief summation of what's known about her canonically on the Tiger & Bunny article on Wikipedia, but a slightly more detailed headcanon history follows below...
Huang Pao-lin (or Huang Bao-ling, if we really want to be precise about romanization rules given the official characters for her name) was born in Hong Kong, the elder of two children. Although her parents loved her very much, it was clear that they had a preference and higher hopes for her younger brother Bao-zhi, two years her junior. This preference became even more pronounced once it became obvious that Pao-lin was not a girl given to typically "feminine" things like playing with dolls or wearing dresses -- she instead preferred to spend her time playing outdoors, usually with the other boys of the neighborhood, participating gleefully in bug hunts and various sports games. And when she discovered the wide world of martial arts movies, she begged her parents for kung fu lessons. Initially they refused, but after Pao-lin nearly broke her neck imitating some of the flashier movies she saw in her favorite films, they decided that she should at least learn how to do things correctly so she didn't accidentally kill herself in the process. So at age 5, Pao-lin began taking kung fu lessons.
At age 6, her NEXT power of controlling and generating lightning began to manifest.
Reply
Only time will bring the answer to the first question, but the answer to the second question came when Pao-lin was 11 years old, in the form of Odysseus Communication, a company based on North America but owned by a Chinese man named Yung-fa Chang. Chang, along with a woman named Natasha Evans, visited Pao-lin and her family wanting to know if they would be interested in having Pao-lin work for the company as a "Hero" on HeroTV, a show based in the city of Sternbild in North America where NEXT used their superhuman powers to catch criminals and save innocent bystanders from various perils while showing off advertising on their Hero costumes. Both Pao-lin and her parents were enthusiastic about the idea (well, "enthusiastic" is probably overstating things with regards to her parents, but it's accurate enough for Pao-lin's reaction). This was a prime opportunity for Pao-lin to make productive use of her quirks, especially since her starting salary would easily exceed that of both of her parents' combined. She would also be living under the care of Natasha as a kind of foster daughter, so she wouldn't have to live on her own in a strange country.
Two months later, Pao-lin's parents saw her off at the airport with a wish to "make their country proud", and thus Dragon Kid was born. She would finish three seasons of HeroTV before being whisked away to Luceti.
Reply
Despite this serious side, Pao-lin is a more or less happy, cheerful girl. In fact, even considering how dangerous her work is and the fact that she's away from home, she's probably happier in Sternbild than she was in Hong Kong. But she's also still a bit lonely: being a Hero doesn't give her much free time, and she has to keep her Hero identity secret from the public. She doesn't go to school, instead learning the basic curriculum from a personal tutor hired by Natasha, and although she definitely gets along with and likes her Hero co-workers, they're also technically her rivals at HeroTV, which complicates things slightly. There's also major age gaps to contend with; the current Hero roster contains two other teenagers, but they're on the older end of the spectrum, and a difference of a few years means a lot more to a young girl like Pao-lin than it would to an adult. But sharing the common experience of being a young Hero bridges these age gaps a little (or a lot), and as such Pao-lin's grown closer to them over time. She's also begun to think of the adult Heroes as surrogate family members: Kotetsu as a father, Antonio as an uncle, Nathan as a mother or an older sister, and Keith as an older brother. (She doesn't quite know what to make of Barnaby yet, though.)
Reply
Still, Pao-lin can be a little shy about asking her co-workers (or sometimes even her caretaker) for help if she needs it. Because she grew up without many friends and with parents who didn't really understand her (and a sibling who was as different from her as night from day), she's always felt that she had to deal with her problems on her own. Not to mention that forging it out on her own also falls within her assumption that this is what will make her stronger, and that asking for help is "weak." She'll usually try to keep an upbeat or a determined front, but every now and again the facade will crack, as it did when Kotetsu began teasing her about how cute she would look with flowers in her hair, and she blurted out to him and Barnaby about her frustrations with her parents. When it does, she'll quickly retreat and maybe sulk for a little bit before returning and pretending like nothing's wrong, hoping that everyone will just conveniently forget about her little outburst.
As a Hero, Pao-lin is probably up there with Keith and Kotetsu in terms of how much idealism and optimism she holds about her job -- which is to say, a lot, especially considering how corporate the job is in the world of Tiger & Bunny. While the 16-year-old Karina got into it because her sponsors promised to also help her with a budding music career, and 19-year-old Ivan spent (or used to spend, anyway) most of his Hero career photobombing for his sponsors because he didn't think he was capable of anything else, Pao-lin decided to become a Hero because she really wanted to help people. This was influenced by a lot of different things: the frequently black-and-white situations of the movies she watched and the comics she read, her desire to become someone better than the girl who was teased by her peers and misunderstood by her family, and just overall a sunny, kind disposition. Of course she understands that there are less savory parts of the job aside from the expected dangerous situations (for example, Natasha constantly being on her case about how Pao-lin's boyish tendencies apparently make her less appealing as a Hero -- whether this is actually true is never explored), but she hasn't yet reached the point in her life where she's cynical about what she's doing. Really, her life so far kinda sounds like something out of a shonen manga, and that's just awesome -- how could she hate it, even with all of its bad points? Those are just obstacles to be overcome, things to make her stronger in the end, anyway.
When left to her own devices, Pao-lin spends her time reading comics (she likes both American superhero comics and Japanese shonen manga), drawing, training, and watching/re-watching martial arts movies. She also doesn't mind playing games like basketball or soccer, though she's not necessarily the best at it. And sometimes, when she's walking the city, she'll stop and stare at some of the clothes in the fashion boutiques, trying to convince herself that she's only interested in them from an aesthetic standpoint, and not because -- god forbid -- she'd actually like to try them on, just once.
Reply
- physical - Pao-lin is a very skilled and acrobatic martial artist, able to fight both barehanded and with a staff (and possibly other weapons). She frequently combines this with her NEXT power of generating electricity, which is strong enough to stun someone. She's also quick and light on her feet.
- mental/emotional - Surprisingly for her age, she can keep a calm head in dangerous situations. Probably the only reason she was caught trying to escape her bindings in a hostage situation was because the person who was holding her (and the mayor's infant son) hostage had a NEXT power that allowed her to literally smell danger. Pao-lin's also very disciplined about her kung fu training, working through forms while waiting for a criminal to show up at a location she was scouting out.
Weaknesses:Reply
First Person:
Does anyone want to come with me to the Battle Dome? It sounds really interesting, but I don't want to go by myself, since I haven't been there before. I think it would be a lot more fun to train with other people! Plus, I want to see what everyone else can do. I've seen some really cool things here in Luceti so far!
Also, maybe this is a weird question, but...do you have to be a certain age in order to be drafted? I have a lot of fighting experience, so I'm sure I could help out with things, even though I know I'm pretty young.
Okay, I guess that's enough for now. I'm going to go get some dinner, so if you want to talk to me, you can find me at the pizza place. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone!
Third Person:
Pao-lin realized only belatedly that going to the tea shop was not the cure for the homesickness that had suddenly stung her heart as soon as she woke up this morning. Everything -- the smells, the atmosphere, even some of the people in the shop -- reminded her of a home she hadn't been to in years. A home she wasn't sure she could ever go back to, if the information she found in this new journal of hers was telling the truth.
A cup of oolong tea bled steam into the air as the young girl reviewed the guide, currently fixated on the sections regarding the war that Luceti was apparently involved in. It sounded a lot scarier than the things she dealt with on a regular basis as a Hero, and those things were pretty scary. That was really what worried her about this place: not necessarily that she was trapped here, but that she could die in this war without seeing or talking to anyone else she'd known before Luceti. And that thought depressed her.
But at the same time, if she could help people with the abilities and talents that she had, how could she back down from that if she were called to it? She was a Hero, wasn't she? That was what she was supposed to do. And at least in Luceti she didn't have to worry about looking good for the cameras. Here, she wasn't Dragon Kid, Lightning Kung-fu Master: only Pao-lin, who'd spent way too much of her time training and fighting to waste it all just because her mind had up and decided to be a sissy about this whole thing.
Everyone's probably noticed that I'm gone by now, Pao-lin thought, biting her lip to distract herself from the sudden tightness in her chest. I wish I could let them know I was okay, at least.
Reply
Please create your character journal, and join luceti, lucetiooc, lucetilogs, lucetilocked. You can also join luceticrack and lucetifans if you like, though it is not required. After you are accepted into the communities, reply to the friend add/remove post and the player contact post. Please note that the friend add/remove and contact posts are inaccessible until you are accepted into the community.
Once you have gotten settled, please remember to comment to housing and tell us where your character will be living! You may also sign your character up for drafts and register any pets he or she may have.
After all that, feel free to introduce yourself on the lucetiooc community so people know who you are (and more importantly, friend your new character!) For the sake of other players and their friend lists, please use the 'Date Out Of Order' option (which can be found by editing the date on your post) for informational posts like HMD, Relationships, Contact, and so on. It's also suggested (but not required) you disable custom comment pages here.
Also, please DO NOT REPLY TO THIS. Comment HERE with your character information using the following format:
Character’s Full Name |
Timeline:
AIM: | MSN:
Wing Color:
Your Name/Nickname |
Please be sure to fill it all in!
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