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Jin Lee

"I'm not the only soldier with a conscience, just the only one with a backbone."

0 · 283 views · located in Earth Kingdom

a character in “Another Way”, as played by Gosunkgugi

Description

Name: Jin Lee
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Occupation (or Role): Avatar's companion, fire bending teacher, hunter, previously a non-commissioned officer of the fire nation army.
Bender: Fire

Appearance:
Jin is a tall, strong, heavily built man with coarse hair and bushy eyebrows. His calloused hands and sunburnt skin tell the tale of a life of hard, physical work, while his rigid stance and curt behaviour betray his military past. He has a sharp nose and a square jaw, covered by a short, black beard in the traditional, angular fire nation style. Typically, he will wear simple, rough clothes in earthen colours, heavy leather boots and travel cloaks.

Special Skills:
Veteran Fire Bender: Enlisting in the army at the age of 15, Jin has had many years of training and experience, battling bandits, wild beasts and upstart warlords. While he hasn't dedicated his life to bending like some, he is a hard worker and has practised relentlessly ever since bending became a large part of his life. Spending his time off studying advanced techniques and memorizing scrolls, he has risen far above the average soldier.
Soldier: Having been a member of the fire nation army for eight years, Jin has seen his share of fighting. He is large, fit and well-trained, unafraid of combat, and has experience with fire nation tactics, vehicles, beasts and weapons.
Survivalist: Jin came from a family of hunters, and took up the family trade again when he left the army. He knows how to hunt with spear and bow, lay traps, follow tracks and find his way in the wild. He also knows how to skin and prepare animals.

Personality:
Severe. Jin believes in discipline, hard work and the survival of the fittest. He takes every job seriously and gives them his all, and quickly judges others as lazy or weak if they spend too much time relaxing. While he isn't incapable of enjoying art, culture or humour, he takes pride in his work and dedication, and quickly grows frustrated when he isn't feeling useful. Unfortunately, he has a habit of taking out his frustrations on others, perpetuating the stereotype of fire people as aggressive and hostile. He is not used to having a lot of free time, and tries to make himself useful whenever he can - whether that be gathering emergency food supplies, training, or fletching arrows by the fireside.

While Jin is fiercely proud of his home nation, he is horrified at their actions of late and determined that the war has to stop. He does not see how the fire nation has any right to the land of the other nations, nor why they need it, or how the slaughter of an entire people is in any way justified. Personally, he is neither cruel nor merciless, nor does he take any particular pleasure in hurting people, much less killing them. He enjoys fighting and bending more as crafts than as tools to harm others - there is joy in perfecting a maneuver or stance, and satisfaction in executing it perfectly to achieve a victory. Skill in firebending has also been a great help in inspiring obedience in his subordinates, something his personality never managed.

Brief History:
Jin Lee grew up in a family of hunters in a backwater province of the fire nation. Spending most of his youth in the forests and in fishing boats, he never learned much about politics, other than what the songs and stories said about the fire nation's greatness. When, in Jin's mid-teens, the family had a string of bad years, he left his parents and siblings to join the army. Looking forward to an ordered, military lifestyle, and secretly also to earning glory in the name of the fire nation, Jin enlisted as an infantryman and firebender, and began climbing the ranks. While he found little glory - mostly acting as an enforcer in local disputes - he found that army life fit him perfectly. By the time they shipped him off to fight in the earth kingdom, he was already a sergeant, with a reputation for reliability, efficiency and swift obedience.

It wasn't long before Jin began to question the actions of the Firelord, however. Burning villages, robbing peasants and desecrating air temples was not how he had imagined war would be like, and the justifications he was fed grew thinner and more transparent with each day. Bloodthirsty commanders bragged to one another about the death tolls of their advances, and lowly soldiers wallowed in the fruit of their looting. Jin was forced to question his entire worldview, and eventually resigned from his position. When asked why, he made the mistake of answering truthfully, and nearly left the army camp tied to a catapult stone. Narrowly escaping a navy press-gang on his way out, he fled into the earth kingdom forest barefoot and alone, and ended up wandering the woods for months.

With a home-made bow for a weapon and crocodeer hides wrapped around his feet, he slowly made his way through the earth kingdom, brooding on his own shame and regret. With no desire to return home and face his family, and no idea what to do next, it took until a random passerby mentioned the avatar, that he finally figured out how he could make a difference.

So begins...

Jin Lee's Story

Setting

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Character Portrait: Jin Lee
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The fire nation convoy suffered a humiliating defeat - two humiliating defeats - and then their commander ran away. Jin watched from a distant hill, barely able to make out the action in the light of the fire benders' flames, as the guerrilla fighters made short work of ostensibly professional soldiers. So much for the fire nation's superiority. One by one, the fire benders' flames went out, and soon enough the attackers accomplished their goals and dispersed into the woods - fortunately, not in Jin's direction. Heaving a sigh, he slung his bundle over his shoulder and headed back down toward the road.

He had been going in the same direction direction as the convoy, along the road out of Yu Dao, although Jin was traveling out into the wilderness, a good distance behind the soldiers and their vehicles, walking deep enough inside the wood that he wasn't likely to be noticed by anyone on the road. Even if he were, with his ragged earth kingdom clothes, his hunting gear and the pelts he carried made him look like just another hunter, anyway. So far, no one had bothered him, and he had hoped it would remain that way until he found the avatar. Of course, nothing ever just worked out. As he turned down the road the military convoy had taken, he cursed his luck, but he couldn't simply leave things be.

The fires had already died down by the time he made it to the rearmost tanks, and the devastation the earth kingdom guerrillas had wrought made his stomach turn with revulsion in shame for his nation's armed forces. Half the wounded were crying for medics that would never come, and the level of disorganization was such that half the men were effectively standing around, doing nothing. Jin stalked around the camp, carefully avoiding the torches that were being lit, and with practised self-assurance, began barking orders. "Soldier, fetch bandages!" he went, "Soldier, see if that animal can stand!" The men were used to following orders, of course, and in their relief at having something to do, never stopped to question who it was that had spoken, while Jin himself dodged in behind a tank to drag an unconscious sentinel to safety.

Before Jin got very far, however, he was alerted by the sound of eel hounds entering the encampment. Did the commander's conscience get the better of him? Jin crouched behind what cover he could find, whispering an apology to the man he had been helping, with nothing to do but to hope the eel hounds wouldn't smell him before he could make an escape. To Jin's relief, the riders soon left again, but not before they'd given the order to put up even more torches. Cursing his luck again, Jin settled for dropping the fallen sentinel somewhere more visible, and then going for the next. Thus he carried on, searching out casualties out of sight from the camp and helping them as best he could. He was no medic, but anyone spending months at a time in the forest had to know how to take care of wounds and avoid infection. Of course, he healing herbs and mosses Jin had gathered for his own use wouldn't last, but it was better than nothing.

One after the other, he carried and dragged the fallen guards into the growing circles of light until, just as he put one down, the guard regained consciousness. The two stared blankly at one another for a few long seconds, then the guard screamed for the camp to raise the alarm. Jin had harboured some vain hope of stepping out into the light and helping out openly, but as the torchlight suddenly fell on him, that hope was lost. He lost grip of the flailing soldier in his arms, dropped the man to the ground and, for the second time in his life, left a fire nation army camp running for his life in front of a wall of spears.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Qin Huang Character Portrait: Sotaro Yuan Character Portrait: Jin Lee
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The remaining Fire Nation troops loaded their mounts with the rations left behind by the Shadow Palms and their mercenaries. Many had been taken from the Fire Nation supply before the cargo had been set alight. Sotaro, meanwhile, lit a makeshift pyre to burn the dead. It was short work - there were significantly fewer than during the initial ambush by the Shadow Palms. It was the last thing he could do him, and would prevent anyone from looting the bodies. Sotaro left the guerilla troops where they lay. He told himself that he had his own men to care for, and would not know who to return the bodies to anyway.

Sotaro lit no fire on the return route.. It was not a particularly long trip, especially on an eel hound, and he had served long enough to have a good memory for direction. The beasts had an acute enough sense of smell to find an army in any case. He ran through the plan in his head - at this point, a forced march to Fei Long was necessary to prevent losing more time than they already had. They would make it by dawn, commandeer the ferry, and make a straight line to Omashu, Sotaro suspected that his soldiers would not take kindly to this, but expected nothing less than what they were trained for. They had served him well thus far. The extra black market goods he had nearly emptied his pockets on and the retrieved rations were meant to ease the pain. So would getting to Omashu alive and having their comrades at their backs.

They had nearly cleared the tree line when Sotaro suddenly pulled left. He was sure that the heavy breathing and footsteps from that direction did not belong to any of the unit behind him. Sotaro wasted no time cutting the man off with a burst of flame. He aimed immediately before the man, careful to ensure that it was not quite powerful enough to hit the ground and set the twigs and leaf litter alight. From his height that was still enough for anyone to feel its heat.

The eel hound tensed beneath him, perhaps something about the stranger's scent making it uncomfortable. The remaining eel hounds cut the man off from behind. Sotaro could just make out the strong build and rigid stance of a soldier. One of his? No couldn't be, he was on the run. As inconvenient and damaging as the recent attacks had been, Sotaro somehow doubted that it was enough to cause otherwise well trained and loyal men to desert. He knew them better than that, and that they understood the cost of war as well as he did.

"Take him," Sotaro commanded without hesitation.

Foot soldiers landed lightly on the ground and moved towards the stranger.

This was a situation in which action might be more prudent, especially considering recent events. Sotaro could question the man later and release him. If he posed a threat or was somehow allied with the guerrilla troops, talking to him first would prove disastrous.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Jin Lee
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The soldiers were still tired and somewhat disorganized from the fighting by the time they started chasing Jin - and he thanked his lucky star for that, as the shouting and the spear tips eventually fell behind, and he thought for a moment that he was about to get away. But he was not that lucky, as a gout of flame suddenly made clear. Jin spun around, ready to clear a ring around himself as the flames caught on to the forest floor - only to find the flames died out before the touched the floor, nowhere near so recklessly thrown as he would have assumed. Looking over his shoulder, he found himself surrounded before he had a chance to try to run. Carefully moving to face his attackers, he swore inwardly and assumed a ready stance. That's what you get for showing yourself.

The eel hounds trampled the undergrowth as they circled him, leaving no useful openings. Jin's eyes darted from one soldier to the next and found - at a glance, at least - no one he knew. That was probably a good thing. For a moment he considered lying, telling them that he was a forward scout or spy, but he was a terrible liar and knew it. He turned back and forth, switching stances in indecision as he stared down the soldiers. Then they were ordered to take him, and Jin's fuse finally burned down. Spinning around again, he shot a short-lived circle of fire between him and the approaching scouts, singing speartips and threatening eyebrows, and as the clearing they caught him in was lit up by the flame, he spotted some tell-tale rank insignia. Jin raised his hands, and bright jets of fire sprouted from his closed fists as he faced the officer, glancing left and right to make sure he wouldn't catch a spear in the back while he talked.

"Captain," he said, "you'll forgive me if I don't bow, but I'm not a member of the army. All I've done is trek peacefully through these woods." He glanced over at the approaching mass of soldiers from the camp, "and maybe stop to help a fallen countryman on the way." Getting out from under dozens of soldiers surrounding him would be virtually impossible - especially as he'd rather not kill any of them. Dragging this out was the worst possible thing he could do. "There really is no call for this."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Sotaro Yuan Character Portrait: Jin Lee
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The scouts and foot soldiers stepped back from the flames that died just before reaching them, but did not lower their weapons. Sotaro stared down Jin. Had he not demonstrated his firebending, Sotaro would have been inclined to disregard his explanation. He had the vague look of a Fire Nation soldier, and spoke like one, but otherwise dressed like a hunter . . . or a vagrant. Deserter? If so, Sotaro had no choice but to take the man. Spy? If so, for whose side?

Sotaro considered. Under usual circumstances he may not have cared if someone decided to live as a huntsman, but this was not peacetime. A firebender trekking through the woods alongside an army looking like an Earth Kingdom hunter during wartime was questionable.

A dispatch of soldiers from the camp caught up to the band. There were perhaps a dozen, weapons drawn.

"Captain," breathed the one in the lead. "This one was caught trespassing after the attack. Lee claims he was trying to take his uniform."

Having no time or patience for needless indecision, Sotaro motioned for his men to close in.

"I don't care much for bowing," said Sotaro simply. "But these days, everyone is in the army. And considering recent events, I can't afford to let you walk."

The unarmed infantrymen surrounded Jin more closely while the spearmen formed a wall behind them to prevent escape.

If this man was telling the truth, Sotaro would have have some explaining to do. If he truly was treacherous, he would be in an even bigger bind. In any case, Sotaro was not about to risk a potential rebel bringing information to the enemy or leading another attack.