Full Name: Shishio Ebbna
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Element: Water
Birthplace: Beihai Town, along the Northern Coast of the Earth Kingdom
Position: Just a ‘mere’ traveller
Training: Self-Taught Water Bender, though for long enough that he effectively operates at an Intermediate level. However, he is a Beginner Level martial artist, enough to defend himself, but not likely to win a proper fight.
Personality: (458)
Shishio fancies himself as something of a mild ladies man and smooth talker, preferring to weasel his way out of trouble rather than face it head on like a hammer. His normal tone is often a cheery one, laced with compliments and pleasantries so as to ensure minimal injury from offended parties, and the best response from others. One might of course assume that this is because Shishio is a coward, and to some degree, they’d be right. Shishio is quite aware of his limitations, and is far being some foolhardy idiot who would rush right into a fight against a squad of well-trained firebenders because one happened to spill their drink on him. However, closer to the truth of the matter, is the simple fact that Shishio is, as he likes to refer to himself, a ‘preferential pacifist’ – if a fight can be avoided, why not go that route instead of getting you or anyone else hurt?
This so called pacifism however, can and will be dropped if Shishio should find just cause and reason for it, such as defending someone else from imminent assault. Far too curious to keep his nose out of things that ‘don’t’ concern him, the young man will go well out of his way to help others – particularly those to whom he owes some form of debt, no matter how small or trivial. Indeed, he has often gone out of his way to help people despite quite a vehement refusal to his efforts. Arguably an overwhelmingly naïve approach to life, Shishio rather sees it as keeping his fellow man in mind, regardless of how little he might know them. He idolises the notion of peace and harmony throughout the world, and with that, idolises the Avatar, the great symbol of this balance. The waterbender then likes to kindly ignore the various rumours of the Avatar’s misdeeds, seeing it as nothing more than hatred from an older time, or a simple scorn against a person of such power. After all, it’s the Avatar – how could they possibly do wrong like that?
With a great love of travelling, and meeting new people, Shishio likes to keep an open mind towards simply experiencing the rest of the world. No new fruit is too sweet, and no style of dress too bizarre for him to want to see it and try it. Prideful about the small town he grew up in and his parents as being the sources of his world view, insulting either is one of the few ways to almost immediately piss him off. He loves both very dearly, and is quite open in his various letters to his mother... even if should be a matter of great embarrassment that anyone else read them.
Abilities: (454)
To get the most obvious of matters out of the way, as mentioned, Shishio is a water bender. Has been for roughly a decade now – though depending on one’s view of how such a gift works, since the very day he was born. It is not a trait inherited from either of his parents, and thanks to avoiding any formal education in using his power, he has instead built up his understanding over the course of years of experience, through trial and error. This has both its strengths and weaknesses, largely in the lack of a coherent form. The most noticeable flaw, easily discernible to even the most basic of the students, is the total lack of fluidity between each of Shishio’s techniques. This would be rather disconcerting for most, given how waterbending is meant to
work, but Shishio sees no problem in this. The reason why he does not, is that his existing ‘style’ (or lack thereof) comes from the imitation of other benders that he has seen across his travels, and incorporating them into his own techniques.
As a basic example, one of Shishio’s preferred moves, should he find himself in a fight, is to fix himself in place like an Earthbender might, gather water into a sphere as his counterpart would a large stone, and then thrust it forward with his fist for power as it flies. However, were he then to engage in melee combat, it would take a moment for him to mentally register and recall how to mix the movements of his limbs with short range bursts of water, and such a delay can be costly in battle. A lot of his techniques overall are rather simplistic in nature, involving perhaps one or two actions before being finished. Chaining together what he does is difficult however, and as he lacks a full understanding behind the core of his own art, he cannot use what he sees to actually improve it or create something new – just do it differently. Large or complex abilities are pretty much absent from his repertoire, unless utterly simplistic like creating an ebb and flow, and done in conjunction with other benders.
Without using his bending, Shishio is only mildly capable of defending himself, having been taught by his father in basic hand to hand combat. His preference being towards holds and throws, it doesn’t particularly blend well with his bending as far as he can tell. Still, it’s something at least, and puts him a cut above the average mugger. Overall though, Shishio is either an unpredictable and dangerous force to face, or a clumsy amateur who would not fare well against a true master of any of the elements, let alone his own.
Appearance:
Height: 5 feet 11 inches
Weight: 145 lbs (roughly speaking)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Skin: Tan
[Credit to FryFriday on DeviantArt for the sketch]
(303)
Standing close to six feet – but never quite reaching it, much to some mild annoyance – Shishio is a relatively tall fellow, but the rest of his physical stature doesn’t quite match that. At a distance, one might assume him to be rather bulky underneath such large clothing as his, but upon closer inspection, one would realise that it is indeed just the clothing. His baggy attire has been only somewhat modified to account for the water climate on the continent, whilst retaining his identity as a member of the water tribe. His form more skinny than it is bulky, there is at least
some muscle in his frame that he can be proud about - though more athletic than truly muscular. Keeping his hair done up in a ponytail, it is nonetheless relatively unkempt, and noticeably spikes out in the occasional odd direction. Shishio's fringe sometimes has to be worked to be kept out of his eyes, but he'd rather it'd be there than cut off.
Perhaps the easiest to realise about the lad, at least seemingly so, from his simple appearance is that he is no way a warrior. He does not carry himself like one, he is not dressed like one, and he certainly does not bear a weapon upon his person. His very face is certainly at odds with such an image, as with a short nose, unmarred skin, and eyes that seem to have not realised the true horros of war, he seems more like an uneducated pretty boy. His expression can quickly change into one of severe anger however, his pointed eyebrows coming rather across as like the horns of a raging beast as they contort with his frown. Despite this though, he is generally as young as he would appear, still having not reached his physical prime.
Weaponry & Other Gear:
Item Name Satchel
Materials: Leather, Soft Fabrics, Cotton Threads, the typical sort of thing. Nothing spectacular.
Description: A simple satchel that Shishio uses to carry his personal belongings, be it letters, other parchments, his coin bag, and so forth. Not particularly big though, as even a decently sized scroll would have to be kept in place by nothing more than the main flap (see above).
Item Name Water Pouch
Materials: Leather, Threads, etc, somewhat similar to the above, plus the wooden plug.
Description: Only large enough for a few decent drinks, Shishio's pouch is both a means of sustenance and of defence. He can use the water inside to either quench his thirst, or for his waterbending as he fends off assailants.
History: (1339)
Some are born into the realms of greatness, whether it be by family or by their own blood. There are those who claim to be grand masters of their art, or hold an ancestry of Kings, War Heroes, and what have you. These are the men and women that are clearly capable, of shaping the very world itself.
And then you have those who actually keep it running.
Farmers, teachers, merchants, the people on whom a society is actually built and must function. And in the days after Fird Lord Ozai's defeat, society it seemed, was changing. For nations devastated by such a long war could not hope to wholly rebuild on their own, and opportunity could be seen by those who wished to make their own place in the world.
One of those opportunities was seized by the Ebbna family of the Northern Water Tribe, who whilst only having water benders in the distant memories of their family, were great fishermen. The first of their ships arrived from the North and landed in Beihai Town, bringing with them great yields of fish that soon sold well upon the market. Whilst they did not too great an economic power, their contributions aided in the town's recovery, and led to its increased development as a centre of trade. In the decades to come, many things would enter the Earth Kingdom through Beihai's coastline, reaching markets even all the way in Ba Sing Se - in some ways, such is the unofficial motto of the settlement. And the Ebbna family has been a welcome part of it, even settled so far from their original home.
Into this family, Shishio was born, a curious boy right from the get go. Always asking question about those who passed through the town, he gained an understanding and appreciation for the sheer scale of the world, even if he didn't realise just how far it stretched beyond the borders of his home. As had been the case with his family for generations, he was taught how to fish from a young age, with the expectation that he would carry on his family's legacy like others before him.
It was in his first real trip out at sea however, that his parents realised that things might be... different, for this little one.
For it was a stormy day upon which to go fishing, but previous hauls had been poor, and so the journey was necessary. As thunder clashed and waves struck the side of the ships, the young Shishio, then only ten or so years old, found himself struggling to stay safely upon the boat, which swayed so much. His own parents struggled as well, and at one point, Shishio witnessed his father almost fall over the edge of the vessel, the currents dragging down the net he desperately tried to bring up from the waters.
But in that moment, as a desperate boy screamed for his falling father, and on instinct raised up his arms, a brief pillar of water shot up and knocked the old sailor back over the railings and safely - even if painfully - onto his backside. Being that he was not a fool, it did not take the man long to realise the correlation between his son's desperation, and the sudden convenience of a helpful wave.
Shishio struggled at first to recreate what had occured that day, as per his father's wishes, but eventually, he could make small pockets of water flow back and forth. As time passed, small pockets turned to ponds, and larger still as the boy turned into a teen, and practiced further. He felt no inclination to truly learn his craft from a teacher, wishing more to stay in the home he had always felt comfortable in. However, as he came towards his sixteenth birthday, the limits of what one could learn by themselves were starting to become apparent. What had been calm and gradual development over the years began to grow frustrating as he failed time and again to get things to work 'right', but still Shishio refused to find a teacher. He could not bring himself to allow it after working so long to develop things all on his own. He did not wish to spend his days locked up in some school with people he did not know for months or years on end, even if by contrast, he enjoyed the company of the strangers that passed through his town each and every day.
So by his sixteenth birthday, his parents hoped to reach a compromise with their son. He clearly loved his bending, as well as seeing new and different things. Not wanting to give up either, but then not giving any leeway on his current way of life, would seemingly only bring him further frustration in the future. It simply wouldn't work.
So instead, they proposed, what if he were to travel? Shishio had developed his waterbending by himself through attempting new and different things - through experience. If he did not wish to learn from a teacher in some classroom, then perhaps instead, he should let the world itself become his tutor?
The idea at first shocked and surprised Shishio, who wrongly took it to mean that his parents no longer wanted him around. After all, the occasional outrage of anger - however much he personally regretted them - had led to ill talk about the family of late. Before he might have had made too grave a mistake however, Shishio's mother clarified it before him. Talking to him calmly, she explained that neither she or Shishio's father wished to see their son's potential stifled, but also believed that he might be able to truly grow as a person from the likely experience. Understanding his mother's wisdom, Shishio accepted the proposal, soon making preparations. It would not be for another year, on his seventeenth birthday, that Shishio would finally depart Beihai Town, following the great road eastwards to Ba Sing Se.
Eventually reaching the greatest city in the Earth Kingdom - if not the entire world - Shishio was already soon to make plans on where else he might go, particularly as he came into possession of a map. Allowing him to expand his journey beyond places the road might commonly reach, he marked down a great deal of locations that might take his interest, before asking around on how he might make his way there. He took down many notes and directions which he still carries with him to this very day, for the world is so vast, and he has yet to explore it all.
But, nonetheless, the journey has changed him.
He no longer feels insecure about his particular method of waterbending, having since found how to ground its power in the styles of the other elements. Developed through observation over the five years he has been away from home, he is far more familiar with the ways and methods of Earth, Fire, and Air, than he is his own water.
So too has he become more confident as a young man in himself, having faced life and death scenarios - from traversing the perilous Great Divide, to enduring the hardships of the Si Wong desert (perhaps his most impressive tale) - and come out still amongst the living. Once shy and avoidant of the opposite sex, seeing the variety of fair maidens that the world has to offer has made him far more eager to try his luck. Failing far more times than he's ever succeeded has yet to dent this newfound bravado, partly because the sheer adventure he has along the way continues to carry him forward, despite whatever mishaps have come. Even as the world turns to war once more, and tales spread of an avatar perhaps not wholly fit for her duties, Shishio simply shakes his head and continues to walk on to the next place in his journey. If his experience has taught him anything, war is not for him anyway...
Right?
**OPTIONAL**Sample RP:
| 
Shishio Ebbna
|
"Now now sir, lets not get hasty here." Hasty? Hasty was probably what one might call trying to ask a man's daughter out on a date when you've only met the one time. In which case, Shishio was being something of a hypocrite, even as he stared down the giant of a man wielding a sledgehammer. It was probably all the more incriminating that he happened to be standing on the man's front doorstep, having expected someone a tad more petite and beautiful to be waiting for him.
"You've got five seconds to run, or I smash ya into the dirt." The point of the threat was quickly punctuated when the steel head of the weapon came crashing down into the ground below, causing a small crater to form. Shishio could easily imagine that being his head, if he wasn't too careful.
"Surely, you must understand, it was solely going to be a date. No funny business. Honestly, we're both adults, we can be reasonable..." The hammer was raised.
"...Or not." And it came down again, though Shishio had already rolled to the side before it might have hit him. Trying to sneak away with the man's daughter at this point was probably just only going to make matters worse, and it wasn't like he was entirely unjustified in being concerned for family. It was just, well, his methods were a little extreme.
"Whoa." Shishio ducked again as the hammer was swung sideways through the air, and bashed against the side of the house the man himself owned. Continuing to duck and weave as he attempted to flee, Shishio began to increasingly suspect that the guy might just be a danger to both himself and the community - a tightly packed residential area in this particular town - if not stopped.
"Well, it was nice being here..." Pivoting slightly on his feet as he came to a halt, the twenty two year old turned to face the sledgehammer wielding father. Briefly considering his waterbending, he instead tucked himself in close under the man, before grabbing their arm and kicking one of their feet. With the momentum of their own swing carrying them, it didn't take much effort on Shishio's part to toss the man into the ground before him, where they landed with a thud, and seemed to lose conciousness.
"But I think I've got to go now." Lightly slipping his map from out of his satchel as he walked around the unconcious body, Shishio began to trace his current location to the next...
Should be interesting.
| Mood: Excited
Condition: Healthy | |
