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Xiàhóu, Pila Mingzhu; WIP
Topic Started: Mar 1 2010, 12:16 AM (1,024 Views)
Pila Xiahou
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fire.starter
[title]Out Of Character[/title]
Name: dani
Contact: lizardqueend on AIM
Play-By: Li Yuchun
Additional Characters: Sri Xiàhóu

[title]Cortex Profile[/title]
Name: Pila Mingzhu Xiàhóu
Alias: Xǐaoguǒ (her milk-name, it means "little monkey"), has been known by Miss Pila, Pila Mingzhu, Mingzhu Xǐaoguǒ, and a variety of other mixes of her various names.
Gender: Female
Date of Birth: June 13, 2492 (26 Standard Years Of Age)
Home Planet: Airen
Last Known Location: The Bing Quan
Loyalty: Independent
Occupation: Jill of All Trades, currently? Fire swallower.
Title: None
Family:
-Maya Xiàhóu nee Kumari - Mother - Housewife - Deceased (Birthing complications with Pila)
-Johnathan Xiàhóu - Father - First Lord of Medicine on the High Council (Retired) - 78 years old - last seen on Airen
-Alexis Tran nee Xiàhóu - Elder sister - Surgeon - 43 years - lives on Ariel with her husband, Levi Tran
--Lakshmi Tran - Niece - 14 years - Student with medical aspirations - Ariel
--Johnathan Tran - Nephew - 10 years - Student - Ariel
-Serefini Xiàhóu - Elder Sister - Companion - Deceased (Homocide by a client gone mad)
-Sri Sumana Xiàhóu - Elder Sister - Companion - 36 years - Cressida
-Rin Xiàhóu - Elder Sister - Teacher - 30 years - Persephone
Flags: Disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, assault, resisting arrest, soliciting for illegal prostitution, carrying a concealed weapon, theft, fraud

[title]Physical Description[/title]
Height: 5'3"
Build: Thin as a rail, boyish
Hair Color: Black/brown
Eye Color: Brown

Noticeable Features:

Pila's father, Jonathan Xiàhóu, was a man of very distinct Chinese descent. His strong Asian features carried on into his youngest daughter, marking her surely as his own. Her eyes are almond shaped, slightly tilted, and dark, the color of burnt ash trees. The bridge of her nose is thin and tapered, widening as it goes down her face to a small button nose, just slightly upturned. Her lips are of average thickness, though her lower lip pouts a bit more than her upper one does. Her cheekbones are high and while visible, they are soft, giving her face a rounder, gentler look.

The young woman keeps her hair at shoulder length and in shaggy layers, mostly black with brown highlights streaked throughout. Each of her ears is pierced twice through the lobe, her left ear has an industrial bar through the top cartilage. Reference. As she believes that the body is a canvas, she has several tattoos and plans on getting more. Currently she has a tattoo of a dragon, her sign in the Chinese Zodiac, on her left arm. It is a colorful piece, mostly orange and red with blue waves behind it. She also has a tattoo of a lotus flower on her lower back with the date of her sister Serefini's birth year and death year above it in a calligraphic font. On her inner right ankle, she has a tattoo of a little cartoon monkey eating a banana. She has a thick, round scar on her upper right collar bone, a much larger scar on her back in the same location, from the entrance and exit wounds of a fairly large caliber bullet. She also has a small scar just above her right eyebrow from where her sister Rin hit her with a wooden stick as a young girl.

Pila carries herself with overconfidence, a swagger to her walk. People have told her that she walks like a "big man", as opposed to the small woman that she is. She has an infectious, child-like smile and a high-pitched voice to match it, though she gets irritated at being related to a youngin'. She dresses however she sees fit for the occasion, though she prefers clothes that are comfortable to ones that are fashionable. Overalls, carpenter pants, and t-shirts are the usual order of the day, and she loves any sort of canvas tennis shoes for her feet, as they are both comfortable and much quieter than thick boots. While she does clean up well, she rarely wears much makeup, usually just a smear of lip gloss and a bit of eyeliner if she's feeling particularly feminine. She rarely brushes her hair and often hides it under a cap or hat of some sort, of which she owns many various styles and colors.

The circus performer/mercenary/whatever she is has a habit of shoving her hands into her pockets, and she bites her cuticles when she's nervous or stressed. She usually smells of cigarette smoke and mint, the former obvious from the smokes she keeps on her at all times, the latter much more of a mystery.


[title]Psyche Evolution[/title]

Pila is fast-talking, quick on her feet, and a survivor at all costs. She is fierce and stands by her beliefs, however unconventional they may be. Her need to explore and fight for what she feels is right got her in a lot of trouble in her teenage years, though there is still a bit of that rebel-without-a-clue girl inside of her. Her sense of humor is biting, sarcastic and sometimes cruel. Her quick wit helps her in demeaning others, though she usually means it in fun and not in true cruelty. (Unless you cross her, of course, then beware her barbed tongue!)

Old age is something that just doesn't seem to appeal to the young woman. She lives fast and hard, drinking, smoking, and taking risks more often than she should. As such, she has garnered a number of talents that require a tough constitution and serious courage. Fire-eating is only her most recent - she has also been the knife thrower's assistant, a lion trainer's assistant, and a sword-swallower. Fire-eating is the funnest for her, however, as she can be a bit of a pyromaniac. Fire, after all, is a purely destructive force, and one that she holds great respect for. Besides, it's fun to breathe the stuff out like a dragon and hear the many ooh's and aah's of the crowd.

Pila loves attention. She's a showman, garnering admiration for her flash and pizazz as much as for her actual skills. She's charming, though she can also be a bit of a stage hog. She's also extremely quick to anger, and her fury is every bit as nasty as a dragon's. The young woman isn't overly kind - she believes in survival of the fittest. Those who die (except in instances of war), were often simply unfit to live. War, however, is too chaotic to count as real Darwinism in motion, with bullets flying even the mightiest of warriors could be slain in an accident of fate. War, she believes, is the closest thing to Hell, and she holds great respect for warriors, even though she is not. Soft, cushy lives like those that Companions and Alliance officials lead are infuriating to her. Life is for living, for experiencing every brutal moment, every sweet victory, and sitting around in padded leather chairs and having your feet washed and covered in lotion by people that can't feed their children is a waste of pure, simple life!

Despite her father being a member of high-ranking Alliance staff, Pila hates the Alliance. Her father included, of course. Her entire family wrote her off years ago and she prefers it that way.

[title]Personal Records[/title]

(This takes place about a month before Pila joins the circus crew of the Bing Quan, as she's being interviewed before her departure from a jail stint on Highgate.)

As far as Pila was concerned, all Agents were the same. Sure, they had different hair colors, eye colors, and heights, but they all had the same walk, same talk, same fàng pì spewing from their mouths about doing right by the Alliance. This particular Agent came strolling into the holding cell where Pila waited, strapped to a chair and hooked up to all sorts of wires that led to a machine that beeped at her now and again. Old tech, a lie detector, but she figured the scientist running it stood by the old adage of "don't fix what ain't broke." Her nostrils flared in anger as the Agent sat down across from her, adjusting his tailored suit and smiling at her. This particular brand of Agent had a shaved head, eyes the color of mǐ tián gòng that sat in the sun, and shoulders that looked like a pile of neatly stacked bricks.

Pila herself was dressed in plain gray scrubs, standard prisoner fair. There was a bloodstain on the right sleeve near the cuff, and just glancing down at it made Pila smile at the memory of breaking the guy who originally owned that blood's nose. The Agent rapped his knuckles on the table and addressed her, using her full name. Only her mother and father were allowed to do that, and her mother was dead and her father several systems away. Fuckin' feds.

"Pila Mingzhu Xiàhóu. How is it that the daughter of Jonathan Xiàhóu, former First Lord of Medicine, seems to keep finding herself on the wrong side of the Alliance? This is your fourth time behind bars, is it not? And don't lie, I've got both your records and Dr. Kingston here to tell me if you are."

The petite woman looked over at Dr. Kingston. He was a squirrely little man with wire-rimmed glasses and a comb-over. She rolled her eyes and addressed the man in the over-starched suit. Agent Cobalt, by his name badge.

"Not counting a brief stint in juvenile detention, yeah, this is time number four. Including my short vacation in Airen's juvie center, I've spent right around three and a half years in some jail or another, all added up. What does being the daughter of the First Lord of Medicine have to do with it anyway?"

The Agent raised his brows. "I'm just curious as to how the youngest daughter of a man so prestigious could have ended up so... criminal."

"I was actually raised by dogs, my dad kept me locked in the basement. How's that do for ya?" She spat, wishing her hands were free to do some rather unfortunate things to the man's face. Dr. Kingston shook his head and spoke up in a soft, gentle tone. "Miss Xiàhóu is lying."

Pila laughed. "Really there Pointdexter? You think he didn't know that I was pulling things out of the air? Fine. You want to know how a spoiled rich girl ends up spending her time between jail cells, hospitals, and the seedier parts of the black? My mom died when I was born. My entire family hated me for it, even though my father tried to make up for things by treating me better than he ever treated my other sisters. His former favorite, Alexis, she hated me most for that. I spent my early years causing trouble and getting away with it. Dad'd just turn a blind eye and do what he could to keep me from suffering the repercussions of my actions. He sent me to the best schools, bought me the nicest things. All it gave me was a distinct problem with authority and a better grasp of New Chinese than your average gǒuzǎizi."

The good doctor nodded, Pila was speaking truth. The Agent smiled. "Go on."

"I hated the private school uniforms, hated the teachers, hated my father for trying to make me into something I wasn't. I wasn't his beloved Alexis, medical genius. I wasn't Sri or Serefini, pretty like my mother and graceful. I sure as hell wasn't Rin, patient and soft-spoken. No, I was my own little devil and he just couldn't handle that. When I was fourteen and got caught stealing about fifty credits worth of jewelry from a local shop, he finally let me do the time for it. Almost a year in detention, doing all kinds of community service. After I got out I caught the next ship off that rock, headed straight for Persephone. Figured the Docks'd get me to the center of travel, get me anywhere I wanted to go."

She took a breath and looked around the room as she spoke. "Problem was, most folk didn't have a real need for a fifteen year old fresh into the black without much to her name. So I ended up in Ni-Tokyo, working odd jobs for odd men. Never went into prostitution though, even if my records say I tried it. That charge was a lie. After a year of that nonsense and another six months in jail for that prostitution charge, I hopped on a freighter and tried to join the Browncoats. They didn't really want to recruit a seventeen year old kid, so instead they used me as a runner instead of a solider. Ended up getting shot in the shoulder about a month before the Battle of Serenity Valley. I don't know whether that makes me lucky or unlucky, but shit happens, right?"

The Agent nodded. "I suppose one could say that."

"Cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài! Yeah shit happens! I ended up in a hospital for a month and then back in jail for almost a year for some other pìhuà charge. I dug ditches for a year, kennit? You ever dig a ditch with a bum shoulder in the blazing sun all day? No, you'd wrinkle your suit, wouldn't ya?" She snarled, getting fed up with the interrogation.

"Can't say I have. So that puts you at what, twenty years of age? Care to fill me in on the other six years?" The man in black asked her, nonplussed by her obvious irritation and defiance.

"Jesus H. Christ you Alliance boys are nosy. I dug ditches for a year, got my freedom back, and headed back to Ni-Tokyo for a span. Picked up some various trades, mostly sideshow freak kinda stuff. Made some decent coin doing corner work, swallowing swords, in the entirely literal sense, èrbǎiwǔ. I can juggle, catch a knife between my teeth, all sorts of crap no one ever needs to know how to do. Also learned how to do little things like pick locks, break safes. Ran a couple of second story jobs, which is how I ended up here. Been here twelve long, boring months, and now that I've served my time I'd like to git."

"And just where are you planning to go, Miss Xiàhóu?"

"Not that it's any of your gorramn business, but I've already got myself a job lined up as a firebreather on the Bing Quan, with their circus. I start next week, so the sooner you get these cuffs off of me the better."

The Agent looked to the doc, and the doc nodded. All truth, tawdry and cracked as it might have been. With a sigh, the Agent undid her restraints and pointed her toward the door. "Best of luck to you."

The little firecracker hopped up and sauntered out of the holding cell, muttering under her breath. "Jiào nǐ shēng háizi zhǎng zhì chuāng."
Edited by Pila Xiahou, Mar 8 2010, 09:55 PM.
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