Norio Fujiwara [Finished; Advice welcome]

Full Name: Norio Fujiwara
Gender: Male
Age: 35
Element: Fire
Birthplace: Fire Nation Capitol
Position: None

Personality: Protective and responsible, Norio grew up in a house of Fire Nation nobility and is firmly rooted in the concepts of Loyalty and Duty, Compassion and Courage, Sincerity and Honesty, and above all Honor in all actions and thought. Tormented by a history of failure and rejection. Has withdrawn into seclusion and self-repressed existence wishing he wasn't alive and is unable to find any means to salvage his honor in life or in death.

Abilities: Limited Firebending due to respiratory problems. His firebending rarely forms a flame beyond the equivalent of candlelight and he can make a lot of smoke, sparks, or he can heat objects with his breath and hands. When he exerts himself, he can firebend naturally, but doing so often induces an asthma attack, which quickly snuffs out his flames so he uses it very sparingly. A trick that he has learned to master is the heating of his blade to make it more effective at cutting. Sometimes he will heat a blade to glowing red temperatures, firebending to keep the heat out of the hilt, and then dip the blade in oil to temporarily wield a flaming blade. This is more for dramatic effect than damage, though splashing an opponent with burning oil is often an effective deterrent. The amount of smoke he makes is often limited again by how much he can breathe without aggravating his asthma, but he can often produce enough thick smoke to conceal from sight a five foot radius cloud quickly enough to confuse an enemy combatant or escape. His other abilities include Swordsmanship, pickpocketing, intimate knowledge of the mechanics of Firebending gear and safety equipment, and "nobility manners".

Appearance: Grungy at best anymore. He has a rough, unkept beard and sloppy, unwashed hair which is bunched at the top into a surprisingly articulate top-knot considering the distress of the rest of his hair. His clothes, which were once a plain red, are dark brown if not black in most places and are full of small holes from being worn. His golden eyes are often bloodshot from lack of sleep and his cheeks flushed from intoxication. He bears a single sword in its sheath on his back and keeps his purse in his chest pocket so that he can sleep with his arms crossed over it. This is the extent of his belongings at this point: his sword for self-protection, his purse to keep what few coins he could find long enough to buy food and cheap beer, and the clothes on his back.

History: Born into lower nobility fifteen years before the death of Avatar Aang, the death of the Avatar signaled the change of an era right at an unfortunately critical time in his life. He signed on for the Fire Nation military when he was sixteen and was taken into the reserves for training a year later. Once there he became increasingly insular, skeptical, and cynical as he watched firsthand how the Fire Nation politics worked. It was not long before he became enough of an issue for the commanding officers that he was discharged from the military. Through most of his twenties, he struggled with his desire to do good and his inability to fulfill his destiny and greater purpose (as he saw it at the time). After a time, he took up an alter ego through which he felt he could reinvent himself to find a second chance to live through another name: Ryu. He wraps black cloth around his mouth and nose, tying it in the back, and then uses another black cloth over his forehead to catch his hair, tying it in the back. He covers both of these knots with a fairly tight hood, leaving only his eyes visible. He also ties up all the loose pieces of his clothing so that they fit his body and oftentimes covers his clothes in mud to make himself almost invisible in the dark. In his youth, he used the other identity of Ryu to escape from his severely strict father and to have fun using his skills to outwit and outmaneuver the local authorities. At first it was hardly more than a young boy's pursuit of adventure and adrenaline, but, before the end, he was breaking his friends out of jail. His father disowned him the day that he was caught helping a friend out of jail, calling him a terrible waste of effort. His father had given Norio relentless, harsh training despite knowing that his son had a respiratory problem. The Avatar world didn't know what asthma was, much less how to treat it, but it greatly limited how much fire he could bend since firebending comes from the breath. For years, Norio's father considered him damaged goods and, thankfully not to Norio's knowledge, blamed his wife for his son's handicap.

Norio was caught trying to break a friend, Gakuto, from prison. It turned out that Gakuto was the romantic interest of the girl named Hitomi, who was arranged to marry Norio. Both Hitomi and Norio had expressed to their parents how they did not wish to marry each other, despite their childhood-long friendship. Naturally their parents were unyielding. The marriage even had a date set. But Hitomi had fallen for the peasant boy Gakuto, who promised to steal only enough money to be able to steal Hitomi away from her life under her parents. Before he could complete his promise, he was arrested and placed in jail. Norio was the only one of Gakuto's less than legal contacts left willing to help break out of jail when Hitomi came and asked him to help Gakuto escape. Norio agreed and succeeded at freeing Gakuto, but was caught in a fight with the warden of the jail, who was actually Hitomi's father and who had been having dinner at Norio's father's house earlier that evening as a kind of chaperoned date for the two youths, who were pretending to try to fall in love with each other. During his fight with the warden, the building started burning down and Norio was caught while trying to escape because he stayed to keep people from getting killed by the burning building. Naturally, when the warden had the pleasure of unmasking his long-time foe, Ryu, he became furious with Norio and his family. Norio was glad that Hitomi's father had called off the wedding, but the price he paid was being disowned by his father and thrown out of his home. When he was disowned, his father said that it was such a shameful waste to have to disown him. "The first time his firebending displayed true promise, he uses it like an idiot and gets himself caught." He didn't even care why Norio had been using Ryu or for what purpose; he approved of Ryu and especially how well the "Dragon" fought. It was that he had failed to escape the police, especially considering that all he had to do was kill some of them and he would have had ample opportunity to escape. That was why Norio was disowned and banished from returning to his father and mother. Today, Norio uses Ryu to protect the innocent and the weak wherever he can, to atone for his own failures at life.


**OPTIONAL**
Sample RP: Stepping quietly from the door as he subconsciously registered the conversation taking a turn towards its end, he found himself surrounded by a buzzing of newfound information. 'Qin Maru. They're all Qin Maru, aren't they? This entire Dojo is run by them. Who are they? What do they want?'

It was not possible that anything was coincidence anymore. Before he had simply let all the strange events of his most recent past be an odd collection of improbable circumstance, but now he was aware that this Dojo was some kind of Qin Maru organized effort. Not that he had any reason to suspect the Qin Maru to intend him any abuse or harm, but if they didn't, why didn't they simply tell him? Why hide if you have nothing to hide?

'Maybe the better question is how could they ever trust a person like me with such information? If Ty-Min even suspected that I might betray her and the Dojo, her Qin Maru oath would forbid her from revealing possibly dangerous information to me.'

For once, he was grateful to have a self-abusing mental habit; it was relieving to have a reasonable answer to his questions. At least for now. He was already feeling guilty for having listened in, but he set aside those feelings for the time being. He had other things to think about including his own welfare. He was likely still dehydrated and very tired, though his warfare training wouldn't let him feel it until he collapsed, willingly or otherwise. Making his way into the kitchen, he wondered absently where Li had gotten off to as he fetched a cup from a cabinet and filled it with water. Downing the cool liquid in a few swallows, he soon was refilling it. He counted the cups just to give himself a measure of his fatigue and counted five and a half tall cups of water before he slowed to a more leisurely pace. He figured once his body had put that new water into his system he would need more water soon after, but for now he took a seat and began slicing a few pieces of meat and bread for himself.

"Why is it always the smallest of soldiers," he asked himself, "who get trapped more than any in the nets laid out for the largest of generals and kings?"

An older soldier had quoted that saying, telling him that the saying was even older than himself. Likely the question was as old as war itself, even though it may not have been asked quite that long. Norio didn't have the answer and felt at this time that, like everyone else before him, he never would.

Character Box: (Any suggestions would be appreciated.)

Norio Fujiwara	"Why is it always the smallest of soldiers," he asked himself, "who get trapped more than any in the nets laid out for the largest of generals and kings?"
Mood: Tipsy, unhappy. Condition: Inebriated, but stable.	Link:

Approved.

Very detailed :O