Ji Taro (DONE!)

[The Jackal || Ji Taro]

Ji Taro

(well something like that)

Basic Info

Birth name; Ji Taro
Age && date of birth; 49, (March 2)
Gender; Male
Bending Element; Earth
Alias; Ji, Taro, "The Drunken Savage", "The Nightmare Eater", Lefty.
Plot Position; Bulwark General

Appearance

hair color; Black (with strands of gray)
Eye color; Green
Height; 6' 2"
Weight; 210lbs
Appearance;His skin has the feel and look of tanned leather after a lifetime in the sun. Its riddled with battle scars gained from from barroom brawls to duels with demons, and he wears each one like a badge because, as he would put it, "Chicks dig scars.". He has also gained and iron solid frame from a life of fighting and has large, somewhat bulky, muscles. He seems to be shirt challenged and typically doesn't wear one except for incredibly special occasions but that's just part of his flamboyant personality. He walks with a cocky swag, and brandishes his dadao with reckless disregard. His favored weapon, a dadao called Nightmare, is carved with the ugly visages of demons and dragons, and he wears it around his waist, using the orange red cloth about his hips as a sheath for it. He also always seems to have at least two flasks with him, one if full of water which you need to carry with you to survive in the wasteland that is the Spirit Riff area, the other is filled with hard liquor, which you need just as much to survive when you face the horrible monsters that cross over from the rift.

Traits

likes;

• Whiskey
  
• Rum
  
• Fights
  
• Gambling
  
• Special herbs that have..."effects" when set ablaze and the smoke is inhaled.
  

dislikes;

• Paper work
  
• commitment
  
• naggy women
  
• bad dreams
  
• demons
  

Overall Personality;Ji Taro has decided not to drink anymore...but he doesn't plan on drinking any less either. As far as planning goes however, Ji Taro is pretty brilliant. A lifetime of fighting as given him keen battle sense and his charismatic and commanding personality makes him an inspiring (if not entirely reasonable or agreeable) leader. He tends to be stubborn and unwilling to change his opinions on things (why should he? he's usually right) he is also fiercely protective of the men under his command and will often put himself in danger rather than them. He is more of a front lines leader, and rushes out into battle with his men. He often has issues with people who use tactics that involve throwing men at the enemy. He has a few bad habits that have been lessened in recent years, but still remain. He often gets drunk after big battles, and may even take a few drinks during a fight, but doesn't let the demon in the bottle interfere with his duties. He is also a bit of a womanizer and a chronic flirt. He is a bit arrogant and likes to brag about his accomplishments and fights he's been in, and is makes sure everyone around him is acutely aware of how great he is. He likes telling stories and listening to them, and is generally a fun person to be around.

History Info

Home Country; Kyoshi Earth Kingdom.
siblings; yes? (three; two brothers, and a sister)
history;He was born on Kyoshi Island, his father was an ex-Earth Kingdom soldier, and his mother was one of the Kyoshi warriors. His father, Yi Taro, suffered deep depression after his time serving in the military, and turned to alcohol to solve his problems. Often while drunk, he would argue with his wife, Lei, and on occasion would even strike her. It was at times like these when Ji's older brother, Tong Taro, would take him away and work on him with his Earth bending, this was the only diversion from the chaos of his family life that Ji really had. Eventually, his parents had two more children, a boy and a girl, neither of which were interested in the bending arts, which further cemented Ji's relationship with his older brother.

Ji's older brother eventually followed in his father's footsteps and joined the military, leaving Ji as the oldest of his siblings and the only one to stand in between his father and his mother. Yen and Fa, his younger brother and sister, would often run and hide behind Ji when his father broke into one of his drunken rages. With Tong gone in the army, Ji didn't feel bold enough to stand up to his father, who progressively got worse and worse. Tong would come home on leave and teach his younger brother sword techniques with the dadao he learned in the military, it was times like these that the whole family put on the appearance of being happy and safe. However this didn't last long, as Tong was killed during active duty in the, and this spurred a few changes in the Taro household

The day they received the news Ji remembers well; he was 18 at the time, and it was windy and over cast, and the cold wind blowing was moist with the promise of rain. Like he always did in such situations, Ji's father got drunk in an attempt to wash away the pain of losing his son. He went after his wife and started and irrelevant argument with her; probably in order to justify beating her in his mind. He took to her and struck her savagely, and even through her down the stairs. Somehow the memory of his older brother seemed to embolden Ji just a bit, and for the first time he stood up to his father. The verbal conflict quickly turned violent, and sense both men were Earth Benders it was even more dangerous. Despite his drunkenness Yi Taro was a deadly combatant, and a fight that began in the late cloudy afternoon stretched into the dark and tempestuous night. The storm raged on as the battle did, and eventually Yi Taro gained the upper hand, throwing his son to the grown. Ji's cried tears of rage and berated his father before running back to the house.

The next morning Yi was found floating at the base of one of the higher cliffs around Kyoshi, whether he stumbled off in his drunken stupor or jumped in a last attempt to abate his sorrow was never really puzzled out. Not wanting to stay with his family in the situation it was in, Ji ran away, the beginning of a particularly nasty habit he would develop. He traveled around the world for a year, getting into fights here and there, only ever stopping long enough to pick up a few Earth Bending techniques from the local master, or a work on a few swords skills with the villages soldiers. He eventually did settle down, however, when he came across a small group of nomads traveling the desert. He met one girl his age named Sha Rong. They fell in love and married in a relatively short amount of time, and lived happily- for awhile. Like his father before him, Ji took to drinking, bored with his mundane life and depressed by lack of excitement. He too began to argue with his wife, who had become pregnant. His arguments with Sha came to a head one day when he realized that he had his hands on her shoulders, and was shaking her enough to make her uncomfortable.

Worried about becoming his own father, Ji got drank all the liquor in his flask, filled it with water, and walked off into the desert. Again running away from his problems, he begged the tribe elder to look after his wife and unborn child, and just started marching towards the sun. Eventually he ran across a mercenary group, which had dire need for someone with skills like Ji's. He joined them and continued traveling the world and adventuring, fighting battles for other countries for pay, but more for the fun of it. He did eventually inquire about his wife and child, even went searching for them. He was heartbroken to hear that the entire nomad tribe had been massacred by a desert raider band. He left the mercenary group he was with and began to frequent bars, pubs, and taverns around the many nations, wandering in and out of work, usually doing odd jobs or just outright stealing to get enough money for a drink.

He eventually got into a knife fight at a pub in the Earth Kingdom and killed one of the other men involved. He was at first sent to prison, but learning of his past the military offered him a deal to serve his time in the armed forces instead of rotting away in a dilapidated jail cell. Always ready for a fight, Ji jumped at the notion, and the unit he was assigned to was eventually stationed near the northern peninsula of the Earth Kingdom. While serving Ji found the military as a new drive, and tried to follow his older brother's footsteps instead of his father's, and put his heart into his job rather than into a bottle. He quickly moved through the ranks and surprised several of his superiors. This good luck streak didn't last long for Ji though, and once the northern part of the continent was engulfed in the Spirit Rift, and he found him self in the midst of battle with otherworldly abominations.

The sector of the military which had been assigned to hold the line against the Spirit Rift eventually broke off and became the Bulwark. And as several of his superiors died or quit the seemingly hopeless cause, Ji eventually found himself the head General of the Bulwark region. He still fights long and hard to hold the line, but has recently found that the monotony of daily combat is vexing, he also found that the Bulwark lacks people of varied skills, with most of them being Earth Benders. He uses this as an excuse to go on extended recruiting trips, looking for fighters from the various nations to help champion the cause, and also taking a bit of a break from the fighting.

Other Stuffs

"Sometimes when life kicks you in the ass, you have to grab life by the ass and kick it right back."

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RP Samples

(Romance) The demon snarled and showed it's yellow orange fangs. Its red skin matched the crimson spray that had been washed over it from the battle perfectly, it seemed almost like camouflage to Ji. The brute was holding a Bulwark soldier in his two inner arms that sprouted out of his chest, his other set of arms were otherwise regular except for being incredibly large and hanging apishly at his side. "That lil' snack you're chompin on? That's an old pal of mine. He was retiring tomorrow." Ji spat as he brandished his dadao, Nightmare, over his head in a swinging motion. The beast set down his grisly treat and turned his eyes to fresher game, not seeming to understand what Ji Taro had said. It may not have grasped the complexities of human speech, but it seemed to understand a challenge, and belted out his own in the form of a primal roar which launched a stream of red mist into the air. He got down on all fours (minus the two t-rexesque style arms on its chest) and charged towards Ji. He broke into a deep horse stance, and connected his body to the Earth. He sensed the movement of the demon and timed his strike perfectly. He thrust his hands into the air, erecting a stone pillar just beneath the chest of the best. It was knocked off it's feet and Ji used this opportunity to commence his attack. He used his earth bending to increase the height of his jump by bringing the ground below him up as he jumped. He got to a point vertically above the demon and let gravity do the rest. He plummeted towards the ground and landed with the meaty sound that only those who've heard flesh ripped from bone can imagine.

Nightmare was embedded in the monster's shoulder and Ji pushed off of its chest with his feet, bringing the jagged blade of his weapon out with him. While it was stunned he used the time to use on his more difficult skills. He squatted and brought his body close to the ground, and reached down and shoved his fingers deep into the soil. He pulled his hands away from each other opening a crag beneath the demon, who promptly fell in. "Now here comes the hard part..." Ji groaned as he forced the earth back together. The demon reached out pushed on the walls of the man-made chasm at the same time Ji was trying to close it back up. The demon screamed and used all of its unearthly strength to fight back, but it was not enough. The creature's sinew and bone crushed under the pressure of the earth and a satisfying vertical blood spout was the result. Ah.. Ji said as he raised his flask to his lips and took a swig to finish of the whole store of the liquor. He surveyed the battle field and took account of all the dead bodies, and it looked like he was all that was left from this fight. Then he heard the sirenous screams demons coming over horizon. There was at least twenty. Ji sighed and looked inside his flask with one eye. "Gonna need more whiskey..."

***

Ji Taro stepped into the captain's tent, and several men bristled at his approach. For one, the smell of liquor on his breath didn't do much to inspire respect and admiration, all it did was singe their nostril hairs. An second of all, he was commanding officer to all of them, whether they liked him or not they got tight assed when he was around; Ji understood that was the nature of being in charge. "Well hello to you too pansies!" He said as he popped the cork on a small flagon of rice wine and took a few loud gulps. "Hell! don't yall just clam up on my account, what're we talkin about?" One of the younger greener officers spoke up "Sir, should you be drunk on duty?" A few of Ji's detractors sneered, and a few of his friends cracked a smile "Boy!" he began raising Nightmare to the younger soldier's throat "If I was drunk, you'd know it. Now, what was this meeting about?" One of the men unfurled a map scroll with a picture of the region on it, and the soldier who spoke up before decided to chance it again. "Supply routes sir, some of the Fiends have set up a blockade on our border with the Earth Kingdom, we can't get anything in our out."

(Dialogue) Ji Taro pondered over the maps for a few seconds taking in the troop distribution and the lay of the land "What's this here a river?" one of the officers gave a curt nod "I say we come in from there, tonight. We load the boats with explosives and blow those shit faces to kingdom come." Ji like the plan, but Commander Contrarian (a somewhat less than affectionate nickname Ji had coined for Commander Khan) had to butt in. "Well what do we light the boats with?" he spat in an arrogant tone. Ji sighed in exasperation and began "With-" he was cut off by the newer officer who had asked about his drunkenness earlier "With arrows, of course." The young man had said without looking up from the maps, his eyes fixed on them tiny pictorial representations of the terrain of the Bulwark region. "We could shoot them from these hills over here..." the young man concluded. "Damn straight." Ji Taro said wetting his lips with another swig of wine. "I'll led this op myself," he said, " you can come too Officer-" "Lee" the kid filled in "Whatever, just don't die, I don't feel like writing one of those heartfelt letters to your parents today." Ji finished the meeting and ordered the supplies to be prepared. The Fiends seemed to be getting bolder everyday, he hoped that this plan worked.

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