User Profile

Player Name: Kex
Email Address: hexisea@gmail.com
AIM Screen Name: scientifLc
Character Name: Prince Zuko
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Age: 16

Physical Description: For a teenager, Zuko is surprisingly muscular. A bit on the short side at about 5'8", he's built like a whipcord and is just about as quick. He dresses rather simply, usually in a long jerkin and loose-fiting pants that are easy to fight in, and depending on his mood he'll either go barefoot or in small wooden sandals. After spending a bit of time surviving in Hell's Eyes, he's found that anything fancier than that attracted unwanted attention. He still carries a set of twin Dao swords, normally strapped to his back in a single large sheath, and occasionally he'll carry a small, flat flamethrower concealed under his clothes, the hose curving up his back beneath his shirt so it can be easily pulled. He doesn't much like going unprepared, after all -- time on the poorer islands has exaggerated his already rather paranoid nature. He even has a small pearl dagger that he keeps strapped to his calf, though he won't use it unless he has no other options. Typically, though, the first thing most notice about Zuko is his head. He has a massive burn scar over the left side of his face, hindering his vision to a point but mostly just making it impossible to conceal his identity without a mask. His eyes are an unusual amber-gold, and he keeps his head mostly shaved except for a small diamond on the back of his head, which is usually pulled back and wrapped into a long tail(when not up, is dusts the bottom of his shoulderblades).

Personality: At first glance, Prince Zuko is your typical spoiled teenager -- selfish, arrogant, impossible to please, and using people to get whatever he wants. Few can stand him long enough to see anything beyond this, and to an extent he prefers it this way. Of course, none of these observations are inaccurate, but there's much more to him than just a hotheaded jerk.

Zuko is headstrong and driven above almost all else; while many would probably call him ruthless, he does have a very strong idea of what right and wrong mean, and what should and should not be. He has no patience for people who don't agree with him, and while he usually ignores those who don't exactly see the way he does, he's very quick to lash out if said person pushes the issue. He doesn't have much of a sense of humor, either, unless it involves someone he doesn't like being severely inconvenienced.

While he does care about people he's close to, in a sort of odd way, he's slow to actually care about anyone, and once he does that doesn't exempt the person from occasional angry outbursts. He's solitary by nature, or he likes to think he is, and even attempts at help or friendship from people he hasn't already placed his trust in are usually met with hostility. He has quite a bit of pride about him, and part of his self-imposed isolation comes from his desire to avoid facing how much he'd 'fallen' from his original position. The rest is simply due to his stunted social skills. Solitude cultivates strength, as far as Zuko is concerned, and he will not let other people weaken him. He will also not let other people keep him from the things he feels he deserves.

Abilities/Strengths/Weaponry: Having spent much of his life either in training or actively fighting for his life, Zuko has gained considerable physical prowess. He wields twin Dao swords as his favored weapons, though he can use most others with varying degrees of skill(he can even use a whip decently well, though he doesn't own one). He also owns a small pearl dagger that he can fight with and throw with some accuracy, though as it was a gift he prefers to use it as little as possible. In addition to this, Zuko is also adept at hand-to-hand fighting, using quick, powerful attacks coupled with evading and dodging rather than blocking or defending. He is exceptionally quick and agile and can sneak very capably when he needs to.

Zuko is also something of a pyromaniac. Fire fascinates him, with its ability to both destroy and pave the way for renewal. He has a small casing of butane strapped to his left thumb and a flint on the tip of his middle finger, working as sort of a makeshift lighter that he carries around almost constantly. He owns a very small, lightweight flamethrower that could easily be concealed should he have a reason to, though that he carries around much less often as it can complicate close fighting rather than simplify it. He's talented with bombs of all sorts, though mostly the ones that can be easily built(the classic hairspray flamethrower among others), and when he needs to be sneaky these are what he tends to use.

Weaknesses: As talented as he is, Zuko is still a sixteen year old boy. His immaturity tends to show at the worst of times; while he won't exactly throw tantrums, he becomes violent and moody at the drop of a hat and with very little regard to those around him. He tends to brood far too much; all this makes him very unlikely to have any friends or allies when things become too much to handle, which they often do. His plans are usually half-baked at best when he decides to go through with him, and it's not rare at all for him to land in a situation that he doesn't know how to get out of.

On an only slightly unrelated note, growing up as royalty has severely limited what few social skills he has. He doesn't really know how to act towards people that he neither commands nor is fighting, and he's notoriously awkward around girls he wants to impress.

History: Prince Zuko was born with an array of silver cutlery at his disposal, the second-born but only son and heir to the Aegian king. His childhood was mostly for want of nothing except perhaps a bit more affection; of his father and his older sister, the former seemed content to ignore and the latter was rather unfairly(in his opinion) born prodigal and outshined him for as long as he could remember. He spent quite a bit of time with his mother, consequently, who favored him and rather quietly considered her young daughter to be, at the very least, severely mentally unhinged.

Still, with or without the support of his entire family, his life was mostly uneventful for most of his childhood. Zuko had always taken his role as the crown prince fairly seriously, and once he was old enough to comprehend the sort of future laid out for him he began voraciously learning "everything he'd need to know." He was a bright child, devouring history texts and military strategy as quickly as he could. (Though Aegis's military had always been rather sedentary, excepting the navy, Zuko's father nonetheless emphasized that understanding how to manage a battlefield was critical.)

His mother disappeared under unknown circumstances when he was eleven, however, and without her protection the young prince started to notice her sister's disdain for him and his father's favoritism much more pointedly. He began to withdraw even further from the both of them, occupying himself with swordplay and martial arts training in addition to his studies. He wasn't as adept a fighter as his older sister, but if he could learn quickly and show his understanding of how to run a country adeptly perhaps he could regain his father's favor. It never seemed to happen, though, and eventually he took to avoiding what was left of his family in an effort to mask the inevitable failures and mistakes that came with any sort of practice. It came as a complete surprise, then, when he was invited to sit in on a council meeting one day when he was twelve. It was an intense relief; perhaps this was his chance to prove himself, if not physically then mentally.

The wealthy islands were well-known for standing on ceremony, and the royal family was certainly no exception. To disagree about military tactics in private probably would have only earned Zuko a Talking To, but doing so in the middle of a Serious Meeting that he technically wasn't supposed to be in, in front of several Important People, at the beginning of a war that was quickly looking to be a Real Problem was completely unacceptable. He was reprimanded on the spot and ejected from the room, and a few days later(he never really understood the reason for the time gap) his father challenged him to a very old and seldom-used ceremonial duel called an Agni Kai. The idea was terrifying; while Zuko had certainly spent most of his time with his training he knew there was absolutely no way he would last in real combat, let alone against his father. Still, he decided that he would at least try to put up a good fight even when he knew he was inevitably going to lose. It was all he could do.

When it came time to begin the duel, however, all of Zuko's resolve drained, leaving him with only an icy fear in his stomach. He dropped to his knees and begged for his father's forgiveness in the imperial square; he had meant no offense, after all, and had only been trying to demonstrate that he was learning and that he took his position as heir apparent very seriously.

To put it mildly, it didn't work. His father was furious at the show of weakness, especially in a public setting where it not only shamed him but his entire family. His father burned him severely with the small flamethrower Zuko had built a few years previous, which he'd been wearing(and practicing with) beforehand but removed for the weaponless duel, publicly disowned him, and gave the boy three hours to be out of Dardenelles. He would not be permitted to return to either of the southern islands.

The next four years, which were spent mostly on Tartarus, the wealthier of the two northern islands, turned Zuko from an idealistic boy into a bitter and jaded teenager. He found himself completely unused to and unsuited for living on his own and supporting himself, and it wasn't long after he healed that he began resorting to less-than-honorable means of generating income. He "earned" most of his money fighting in illegal pit brawls, and when that proved insufficient he cultivated a disguise for himself and turned to thievery(which he was surprisingly good at, he quickly discovered). His morals slowly eroded away until the only real standards he held himself to were very basic: avoid killing where it isn't needed and don't rely on anyone else. He was weakened by his mother's favor with him, and he would not let it happen again.