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Lan Sizhui ([personal profile] paperbutterflies) wrote in [personal profile] groundrules 2021-05-03 04:22 pm (UTC)

Lan Sizhui | The Untamed

PLAYER NAME: Kiki
CONTACT: [plurk.com profile] kikibug13
INVITE STATUS: Existing player

CHARACTER: Lan Sizhui
CANON: The Untamed
CANON POINT: Post-canon (we're not including the story of the Walking Dead.)

BACKGROUND:
(Wiki is for the novel AH WELL)
- Son of a cousin to Wen Ning and Wen Qing. Wen Yuan was a young child when the Wen clan made their bid for total control (Sizhui may or may not have been made a puppet temporarily along with his elders around this time) and then during the sunshot campaign.Wen Yuan, along with Grandma, Uncle Four, several others and Wen Ning and Wen Qing, ended up in a Lanling Jin sect labor camp.

- Wei Wuxian broke the whole group of them out of there to bring them to the (not safe and not nice but) safer and nicer settlement at the Burial Mound. They had about a year of peace during which time A-Yuan was exposed to demonic magic, the near impossible recovery of Wen Ning, mood swings, witnessing experimentation during Wei Wuxian's R&D, meeting and then parting with Lan Wangji, and sometimes questionable cooking. (Wen Ning can cook; Wei Wuxian mostly includes a lot of spice.)

- After everyone else is gone, A-Yuan is found by Lan Wangji, alone and with fever, at the Burial Mound. He is taken in, raised as a Lan, and does not remember his life before that for the next sixteen years.

- Around the time when Wei Wuxian is brought back, Sizhui is of an age where he goes out to night hunts unsupervised, acting as a leader of the group of juniors, also known as ducklings. He seems very properly Lan, sometimes acting as Lan Wangji's voice when he does not bother to speak, though it is clear that he has some experience to gather before he can be a fully-fledged cultivator on his own.

- Along with other juniors, both of the Gusu Lan sect and others, he gets lured and later kidnapped into danger, but doesn't shy away from pulling his own weight. His memories start trickling back (with some assistance as Wen Ning recognizes him) and come back more or less fully around the time of the final showdown with the bad guy. He leaves with Wen Ning to attend to family matters.

ABILITIES | POWERS:
* Cultivation: Discipline for controlling and enhancing the inner / spiritual / qi energy, allowing various effects, both internal and external, to be possible (improved health, strength, and speed; higher resilience, quicker recovery. Later, maintaining youth. Abilities to produce bursts of energy, or imbue objects or processes - such as music - with spiritual energy. Ability to transfer spiritual energy to help another body recover from damage, poison, or illness. Ability to control weapons, especially spiritual weapons, from a distance, and fly on them.)
* Self-discipline: The Gusu Lan sect's path to cultivation has two foci - self-restraint and music. Sizhui has been learning to contain, control, and discipline himself since he came under their care.
* Six arts: Because all the cultivators in this canon know these.
* Sword fighting: Sizhui is fairly proficient within the Lan technique.
* Talismans creation and use: A lot of the magic effects are done via talismans - they can be used for protection as well as attack, to start fire or simply produce light, and various other actions that are necessary for night hunts. (An extension, of sorts, is that Sizhui is able to draw and use spirit-attracting flags, a technique that is somewhat dangerous but he can use it in a safe manner.)
* Lan music techniques: Lan cultivation is heavily based upon using music as the medium of power transfer. Spiritual-energy-imbued music can attack, protect, calm, agitate, query the (un)dead. Sizhui is still learning, but his skill with the guqin is deemed decent by his dad, who is an expert.
* Beginner healer knowledge: he can do basic diagnosis from the pulse (very basic), transfer energy, and apply medicine (probably field first aid as well) - he is the first to get to the aid of someone stumbling out with overload of dealing with resentful energy.

PERSONALITY:
The first impression Lan Sizhui gives off is 'almost too good to be real'. He is well-mannered, quick-thinking, gentle, considerate, clear-headed in a tight situation, respectful but not letting wrongs happen on his watch without taking action. He is competent and capable, yet also knows when a situation has gone beyond his limits and he needs help. Nobody among the junior questions his decisions, instructions, and even quiet beratings when they are breaking one of the many rules. He has earned the respect of his peers and they follow his instructions willingly, knowing that his choices are the best for them. With time, even (very stubborn) juniors from other sects and high standing accept his leadership.

And he is that good - with the provision that he is still rather young. Unlike the previous generation, who grew under the certainty of a coming war and so were pushed to their limits constantly, Sizhui is allowed to be young and inexperienced, to be sent off to and advised to do things according to his abilities, rather than expected to succeed always, at any cost. He is even (not often, but while he tries not to, he doesn't seem upset at the slip) allowed to be a little childish sometimes.

What is not easy to see in the beginning, and what he tends to keep under wraps, beneath a gentle smile and kind words (an attitude he probably learned from his adoptive uncle, Lan Xichen, the Sect Leader and Lan Wangji's older brother), is that the calm and restrained nurture that is the one thing he remembers helps, but doesn't quite bridge the gap between the serenity that he knows and the other aspects of his nature and earliest upbringing. Then, for a while, he was raised by Wei Wuxian, who was never known for his restraint. Sizhui only very recently remembers growing up among his close family as well as the intense resentful energy of the Burial Mound, the wildness and freedom of it have always been within him. More than likely not strictly subdued by Lan Wangji.

At best, the result is that he can interpret situations and make decisions that are more creative than the rule-following of the Lans would suggest. He also finds it easier to recognize and follow non-formulaic solutions, and less bothered for his own sake by behavior outside the lines of strict propriety. And he can tease Wei Wuxian just as hard as Wei Wuxian teases others. At worst, he might join in fights/squabbles among his peers when under pressure or even break some rules.

It is of note that while he has a relatively clear head regarding what he, or the group he is with, can handle, he doesn't seem to have much of a concept of fear, at least for himself. It's definitely something to work on.

Another trait of his is the utter admiration and trust he has for Lan Wangji, and how much his adoptive father's approval means to him. His chosen instrument is the guqin, like Wangji, and he has learned and been evaluated on its use for Lan techniques songs by Wangji himself.

Overall, Sizhui is a good, sweet, warm boy, mature, steady, and reliable and, after the complete loss of his blood family, growing up a little too sheltered.

SAMPLE:
With Wen Qing
With Wen Kexing

INVENTORY:
Sword
Guqin
Robes, a spare set of robes, forehead ribbon
Paper for talismans, brush and ink
Lan signal lights/fireworks

NOTES: N/A

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