Arya

[Arya]

Arya

23. Firebender.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

ALIAS(ES): Hema (real name)

BIRTHDAY: August 18th, 1899

BIRTHPLACE: Fire Nation

CURRENT: Republic City

FAMILY:

• Mother: Urja, aged 45.

• Father: Ishan, aged 48.


Extended Family:

Mother’s Side:

•Aunt: Akemi, aged 47.

•Uncle: Surya, aged 49.

•Cousin: Katsu, aged 20.


Father’s Side:

•Aunt: Jyoti, aged 44.

•Uncle: Hideki, aged 45.

•Unnamed Cousin, aged 22.

•Unnamed Cousin, aged 19.




ALLIANCE: Neutral

RANK: N/A

STATUS: Bender, Ex-Equalist

POWER:


Firebender: Her longest kept secret, Arya has managed to learn bending while still maintaining a non-bender facade. Seeking out a trainer on her own, she has gained a firm grasp on her bending that makes her a formidable opponent. Her style has mixed elements of traditional firebending with the methods and movements of chi blockers.


Lightning Generation: Her motivation to perfect this ability proved to be well worth the effort. Arya spent many training hours working with lightning, and now is able to produce it almost as easily as fire.


Lightning Redirection: This is where Arya has had little experience. She only knows the basics of this ability, and has yet to meet anyone that has mastered this skill and would be willing to pass their knowledge onto her.


Chi Blocking: Growing up in a family that despised benders, Arya was introduced to chi blocking and their ways. She is an expert in the technique and though she does not agree with the Equalist reasoning behind it, she sees its usefulness and is not against using the method in situations that call for it. To her, it is just another way of self defense.



BLOOD TYPE: A+

ORIENTATION: Heterosexual

SCARS AND MARKINGS: N/A

UNIFORM:

Arya’s clothing style has been an odd mix over the years. She now often wears close fitting clothes, usually in various blacks and grays. To this she adds a tunic, which has slits on either side at the waist, that brings in the reds and golds of the Fire Nation. She also wears a gold belt around her hips, and a pair of black boots. Anything worn other than this “street look” usually is more prominent in Fire Nation elements or Republic City trends.

While she is fine with wearing clothing to match the occasion, Arya has a strong dislike for styles that restrict her movement. She’ll often find ways to manipulate the standards so that she has as much flexibility as possible.


DESCRIPTION: Arya is 5”7, with an almost deceivingly small but powerful build. She looks like a typical Fire Nation born girl with dark hair and eyes.


PLAY-BY: Arden Cho



-------------------------------------------------------------------



Fear: Losing her bending and being captured. Arya has experienced the bitterness of the Equalists and Platinum Fist Triad, and seen their ruthlessness towards benders. She knows that her betrayal won’t be taken lightly, and she will do anything to stay out of their hands.


Desire: All Arya desires is to live comfortably and master firebending.


HABITS: When nervous she will bite her lip or shift her weight from one foot to the other. Arya tends to isolate herself when something is on her mind and can often be found in quiet places.


PET PEEVE: She does not like when people assume they know everything about her.


STRENGTHS:


•Arya is a great actress, and that extends to being a great liar as well. She can play the role that she needs to in order to survive, even if it goes against her morals.

•Secretive: she can keep information to herself and knows what is better left unsaid.


WEAKNESSES:


• Arya doesn’t put much faith in anyone except herself

• Perfectionist: She likes things done right, and it takes a lot for her to admit her flaws.

• As the expression goes, she has a habit of “biting off more than she can chew”.



TRAITS: Arya is not an openly friendly person, to say the least. She can seem uncaring and detached, and almost cold. A lot of this, however, is a defense mechanism. If the time is taken to get to know her, underneath her attitude is a sense of humor, and a realization that she has a “dancing with death” personality. Risks to her are necessary challenges to get a job done, often causing her to test her luck. She is willing to help others but keeps herself in mind, always thinking of how she will be affected. Her only true refusal is to working with non benders who attack benders. Logical and determined, she can be a worthy partner, but she is not willing to sacrifice herself for the others.

While she has a strong rein on her emotions, hate and anger come easily to her due to her early years, and she hasn’t outgrown it. She won’t reveal her feelings completely at first, dropping hints before she reacts; with an eerily calm yet furious attitude. It’s hard to tell when she’s upset, as she’s good at hiding it, unless something pushes her over the edge. Arya is also able to mold herself to different situations when needed. She doesn’t see this as manipulating or deceiving, strangely enough, but simply a part of who she is.


-------------------------------------------------------------------



HISTORY:

Arya was born in a small village located in the Fire Nation. Called Hema at the time, the little girl realized early on that her family was not a typical, happy bunch of people. Her parents and extended family were all non-benders, having casted out in previous generations anyone with the affinity to bend. Each of them possessed a strong hatred for benders, for various reasons. Some blamed them for the war that destroyed all peace among nations. Others had been done injustices by benders in their lifetime, and made to feel inferior compared to the benders, and their stories and hatred were passed down through the family tree. The resentment had not disappeared, and only grew stronger with each generation.

Unfortunately, little Hema was born in the middle of perhaps the most bitter generation of her family history. Her parents outright despised benders, and that was all she heard about as she grew. Benders were evil, benders were murderous, benders were trying to suppress the non-benders and make sure they had no representation. These spirited talks around the dinner table were the essence of her early years, and Hema began to fall into the mold, understanding that bending was a curse, not a gift.

Coupled with the family hatred was the fact that Hema lived in an area where non benders were greatly oppressed. This was not something that she was shielded from as she grew, and it didn’t take long for her to become aware of her surroundings. Her parents were quick to point out even the smallest injustices done towards them or their neighbors, and Hema was just as fast to echo their distaste. By the time she was five years old, Hema knew who to stay away from and who to curse, uniting with her family’s view on benders.

When she was eight years old, new faces began to appear in their village. Hema was used to seeing people come and go, since where they lived was a hot spot for traders, but these people settled rather than left. Not long after they arrived did her parents begin to discuss a new movement that they’d been told about from these strangers. They were calling it the Equalist Movement, and they were welcoming other non benders to join them against the benders. A man named Amon, they were told, was on a quest to put a stop to the suppression of non benders. It was an opportunity that could not be passed up by her family, and they agreed to become a part of the Equalists.

Hema’s enthusiasm could not be contained. Finally, people were going to come together to make the benders pay for hurting them. After pledging their loyalty to Amon’s cause, the family was inducted into training. While benders fought with the elements, the Equalists had their own weapon. This, Hema learned, was a technique called Chi Blocking. Together with her family and other non benders who agreed to join, Hema received an education on the fighting skill, and learned how to use it herself. Though unlikely she would ever get to fight with the Equalists because of her young age, Hema embraced learning Chi Blocking almost more than the actual Equalists. Still, the movement was kept quiet and Hema knew not to speak openly about it, so not to alert anyone.

By the time she was ten years old, the movement had begun to pick up speed. Gone were the early stages of the Equalists, and their ranks began to fill faster than ever. The Equalists announced that it was time to center their movement, and bring everyone together in a place called Republic City. Hema had never heard of it before, but that didn’t intimidate her. She was impatient, ready to leave and especially ready to have the chance to meet the man behind it all; Amon. Her family packed only their necessities and a few treasured items before following the Equalists to their new base.

Republic City was where Hema saw just how many people were with the Equalists. Though it was still kept in secrecy, the amount of members that had joined was impressive. Hema found herself surrounded by others that all felt the same way towards benders, and her ambition and dedication only rose. She trained hard, determined to be the best Chi Blocker she could be, and did all that she could to prove herself to her peers. It gained her pride from her parents, who would always use her as an example and praise her accomplishments. Hema was filled with her own pride and dignity, believing she was doing what was right.

By fifteen, she was an excellent Chi Blocker, knowing the craft and performing it well. The Equalist movement was in full swing, and Hema was certain that it would make its appearance in the public soon. She looked up to Amon, though she couldn’t help but fear him. Anyone that could take away bending was not to be messed with, whether that person could bend or not. Hema was careful to not disobey and was always on her best behavior around him. It was at this age where her family presented her with a new name: Arya. They felt it best that this was their new beginning, and so she should have a name to honor her commitment to change. It stood for everything her family saw with her dedication to the Equalists: honorable, noble intentions. Arya adopted the name immediately, putting her past behind her.

One night, Arya and her cousins were out exploring Republic City when they crossed paths with one of the triads: the Triple Threats. It didn’t take long for a fight to break out between the two groups. Though the benders were tough and proficient in their abilities, they did not expect the power that the young Blockers had in them. They were a match for the benders, though it was not an easy win for Arya and her cousins. Together they managed to take down two of the benders, but then found themselves chasing down the others who tried to escape.

As they ran after the benders, another came from behind. Arya heard his approach and stopped in her tracks while the others ran off, unknowingly leaving her behind to face the bender on her own. The two fought, Arya doing well until she was knocked off her feet and cornered by the bender. Anger rose in her, and as he raised his hand to send a blow her way she threw out her fist as if she could reach him. A burst of flame exploded from her clenched fist, sending the bender backwards. Arya stayed frozen on the ground, looking at her hand in absolute shock. To her horror, she was a firebender.

Before her opponent could recover his senses, Arya shook herself out of her state and got to her feet. She ran faster than ever until she was far from the benders and back under her non-bender roof, but nothing was the same. Locking herself away in her room, Arya spent the rest of the night in disbelief, pacing and thinking as the hours wore on. She couldn’t be a firebender, not after living her whole life in hatred for them. How could she ever be a bender when she lived in the midst of the Equalists? A large portion of her life had been dedicated to serving them, and doing otherwise was impossible to imagine. In truth, Arya was terrified at having discovered her bending, and was determined to pretend that it was all a trick of the mind. She denied that the event had happened and refused to acknowledge it further, making up excuses the next morning about where she had gone when questioned.

For a little while she was able to occupy her mind with other agendas, but it quickly became impossible to not think about it. Even as she practiced her chi blocking, even as she attended Equalist rallies and cheered for Amon, Arya knew that she was living a lie. The thought haunted her, but she continued to act as if nothing had changed, successfully concealing her disgraceful ability from her family. They suspected not a single difference in her character, much to her relief. Nonetheless, the act continued, as hard as it was to deny what Arya knew was true.

Eventually, Arya couldn't pry herself away from bending any longer. She had to face it and prove to herself that she could indeed bend so that she could stop being tormented by the remembrance of that night. With her parents and older family members attending an Equalist meeting, and her younger cousins off with friends, Arya went out on her own, secluding herself from her family. Getting far away from any of the usually Equalist commonplaces, she managed to find a space away from prying eyes, with only silent buildings to observe her. There she paced, anxious and tense, until finally Arya decided to go through with it. She paused and threw out her hand again, but no flame came from it. This distressed her further, for reasons that she couldn’t explain, and on her next punch was thrown with a burst of orange and yellow flame.

That settled it; Arya had no choice then but to accept she was a firebender. The acceptance didn’t come with joy and excitement, only confusion and uncertainty. She couldn’t ignore her curiosity about bending, but it went against everything that she had been taught. It was something that she could never tell her family; they would turn her directly over to Amon and the rumor was that he was able to take away bending permanently. Her instincts to fear him had been right all along. No, they could never know she was a bender, but how could she keep denying who she was?

The simple answer was that she couldn’t. Remaining loyal to her family didn’t seem like an option, and she felt so lost in the turmoil that all she could think was to get away from it all. The next evening, after another Equalist rally that affirmed her decision, Arya fled her home. She took her bare necessities and silently escaped into the dead of night, leaving Republic City as well. Once the distance was put between herself and the city, Arya found herself alone with her thoughts, unsure of what she was going to do.

For a few months, Arya simply travelled where life took her as she tried to figure out who she was supposed to be. She saw various small towns and cities, and before she knew it she was back where she had grown up: the Fire Nation. While she could have gone back to her old village, Arya spent a few weeks travelling to places she had never been. It was in one of the seedier cities that an incident occurred: she had been making her way through the streets one night when she was ambushed by a group of people that intended to rob her. They were benders, to no surprise, but Arya put up a fight. She used her chi blocking to take out a few of them, and then found herself reverting to her meager skills of firebending, unintentionally. It seemed that knowing she was a bender made her instinctively try to use it against her enemies. This mistake tripped her up and she was easily overwhelmed from there by her opponents.

As she was cornered, someone intervened, revealing themselves to be a firebender. They quickly broke apart the fight, and the benders ran off howling. It was then that Arya met her future friend: Master Kohaku. After conversing with Arya and learning how she had just recently discovered her bending, he offered to teach her. Arya hesitated, not knowing whether she should put her skills to use in that way. She barely knew where she stood on the bending issue, but something attracted her to the idea of learning about what she had been taught to hate. So, doing something she’d never thought she’d do, she accepted help from a bender and agreed to learn firebending under his guidance.

She began her lessons right away, and it was apparent that she had had previous training in something other than bending techniques. Arya revealed to her Master that she came from a family who despised benders and that she had been taught another tactic to defend herself. Kohaku, however, did not try to break Arya out of the training she had learned. Instead he worked with her, allowing the girl to manipulate firebending so that she created her own personal style, combining chi blocking and firebending movements.

Arya remained with Master Kohaku until she was eighteen, gaining a firm grasp on the art of firebending. They travelled together across the Fire Nation, and she accompanied him on visits to other parts of the world. She was a well mannered student, and found that bending made her feel not disgusted, but whole. It was like a piece of her had been missing all her life, and she’d filled it with hatred and anger to try and mend the void. Her years with Master Kohaku brought those dark emotions down from their intense levels until they were just an undercurrent of who she once was. Still, however, she was not fully sure of her stance. She had betrayed her family, she was a disgrace, but part of her longed to see what had transpired in her absence.

Though she had yet to master firebending, she couldn’t stay away any longer. Saying goodbye to Master Kohaku, and not making it clear whether she would return or not, Arya left the Fire Nation and returned to Republic City. At first she wasn’t sure where to start; she couldn’t just walk back into the Equalist stronghold nor did she want to do so. Instead she wandered, gathering news from the citizens, and discovered that Amon had set his plan in motion. His name went around the city and people trembled in fear at the sound of it. Arya was torn; part of her still cheered for her leader while the firebender part of her both feared and rallied against him.

It only took one incident to solidify which side she was on. She’d been making her way around the city one night, trying to see if she could gather any more information without crossing paths with the Equalists when she stumbled upon a scene; Amon gathering up a group of people, their hands bound. Arya took cover, staying among the shadows, but watched in horror as Amon took away their bending. She had never seen it done before, had only heard the rumors among her people, but seeing it almost took the breath out of her. It chilled her to the core, and her heart turned cold at the sight of Amon and the sound of his name. This was the final straw. She could not side with the non benders any longer, not after that.

As Equalist activity surged, Arya found herself siding with benders who wanted nothing but to protect themselves from Amon’s crusade. Arya was involved heavily with benders, and found herself dealing among the triads. She had not intended to become a part of them, not one for chaos without reason or for greed, but it seemed like one way to battle the non-benders. And indeed, the triads clashed with the Equalists plenty. At first, she wasn’t part of a single triad, trying to live a solo life but bouncing between assisting the Triple Threats and Agni Kais; the two triads who accepted firebenders. She helped them to fend off the Equalists and protect their ranks, and themselves, and earning payment in the process.

Once Amon had been revealed as a bender, Arya was told to take sides. The triads weren’t keen on having her go between them, and their trust was limited. But Arya refused, saying that she wasn’t in it for them, she was in it to stop the Equalists. She did not attach herself firmly to either side, but would choose to ally herself with whichever one clashed mostly with her enemies, assisting in their conflicts. To this the triads couldn’t complain, because she always provided results. When the Platinum Fist Triad rose up from the ashes of the Equalists, Arya threw herself back into the fighting, wanting to rid Republic City of any remaining followers.

That was not an easy job. Although their numbers were not as many as other triads and the original Equalist organization, they were still ruthless. Though she tried to stay low and concealed, even in fighting, eventually her luck ran out. In a clash with the Fist, where she had been siding with the Agni Kais, she was recognized by some of the Ex-Equalists, including her cousins. Names such as ‘Traitor’ and worse were thrown her way, but it only fueled her desire to fight. They tried to grab her, threatening to take her back to the Fist stronghold, but Arya did not allow that to happen. Once the battle came close to the end she fled and disappeared.

Arya has remained as low as possible since being discovered as a bender, uncertain if there is a target on her back. She still does not align herself with one single triad and works for whichever asks for her assistance. Being a chi blocker that sides with the benders has had her being used as a “secret weapon” against benders in debt to the triads.

-------------------------------------------------------------------



NAME: Elle

EXPERIENCE: 5+ years

CONTACT: PM

HOW'D YOU FIND US? Here



CHARACTERS: Neva



ANYTHING ELSE?



Code: Probending