Name: Meng Xiang (meaning Dreamer in Chinese.) Pinyin Form: 梦想家
Nicknames: some people call him Xi, though mainly his close friends ... which he doesn't have a lot of.
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Faction/Race Undead [Jiang Shi]
Personality:
Even though his faction is not commonly respected and others often tease him due to this fact, Xi is very comfortable with himself and independent. He is someone who is considered a bit odd by his classmates, but he comes by this reputation honestly: he simply isn't like the other kids at Amityville at all. He seems to be completely out of touch with what's going on around him at times, but he is more serene and composed than most of his peers. His mind often wanders and seems detached from what is going on around him since he tends to be a bit of a dreamer. His deeply-held beliefs, although not understood or accepted by those around him, do give him a certain dignity. He has a somewhat bizarre sense of appropriate social behavior.
He has many odd theories and believes in things considered to be different. However, he is quite intelligent and very observant. He's also very blunt and says things that others could only wish they could say openly and without shame and proclaims his odd beliefs openly. Unfortunately, he feels people are very shallow so they only see him as being bizarre and laugh at him because of it, but he doesn't yell, fight or complain about it to anyone who cares to listen, he just moves on with his life.
Xi is barely here nor there, he feels most people don't seem to notice him and just sort of ignore him although Xi doesn't mind much. He prefers to listen to what people have to say rather than talk out much himself and it's more interesting to him, really. When people look at him, and notice that he doesn't speak much, they immediately assume that he's shy. That's true, to a certain extent. He's shy around strangers if in a large crowd, sure, but one or two won't affect him much at all. He tends to be wary of people, quietly observing them for a while before chatting and then he tends to open up and be more cheerful.
Although Meng Xiang is usually very calm and collected, there are a few sure fire ways to earn his ire. Most of these situations deal with people he thinks have acted inappropriately or tastelessly towards others, and his temper will flare even though he rarely ever gets mad. However, his opinions of inappropriate and tasteless may not seem so to others, and many of the things that he gets upset over are often what one would consider no big deal. Being raised under a traditional Chinese household, he was always taught to respect and to follow good manners. Manners, etiquette, proper grammar, enunciation and dress are a few of the things that he is a real stickler about from being raised in a high class family setting that was all about manners. Nothing upsets him more than another student with their pants hanging low and no respect for the elderly or proper speech. He won’t hesitate to stop what he's doing and drag them by their ear for a lecture on good manners if he sees something that he finds particularly disrespectful.
People's perception of him prevent them from seeing his inner beauty so although Xi is an amazing person and is honestly beautiful ... he is very, very rare.
Loves:
•Watching for shooting stars among the millions of stars in the sky. ♥
•Being able to always smile through the toughest situations. ♥
•Waking up really early and jumping on people's beds to wake them up~! ♥
•Pastries and sweets of any kind, mainly candy. ♥
•Dancing in the dorm to music and not caring who catches him. ♥
•People who can accept him for who he is, no questions asked. ♥
Hates:
•The cold you feel when you've been awake for too long. X
•People who assume they know him, when they really don't. X
•Fingers on a chalkboard. Or even cardboard being ripped up. Each gives him the chills. X
•The classifications about people that are made based on what they wear or what their social status based on what their races are. X
•Trying to explain to someone how he feels, while they completely ignore him. X
•Insensitive people, who refuse to attempt to understand. X
Quirks:
Xi has a major dessert obsession! He has quite the sweet tooth, he loves all kinds of pastries, desserts, candy... you name it! Candy and sweets are the best thing that has happened to him since the creation of the universe!
Xi cringes when he hears people say "good" when they should say "well." For instance, "I slept good last night," is not correct. It should be, "I slept well last night." Or another one, when people pronounce "BOTH" with an "L". It sounds like, "Bolth." Ugh, that one drives him nuts too, he's a huge grammar Nazi.
Xi gets really giggly and irrational when he's tired. Pretty much any time after midnight he starts losing it -- he's been known to spontaneously start laughing, and moments later be asleep on the floor somewhere in the common room. His roommates claim to hate this because apparently Xi is difficult to wake up and get into bed so he has to be picked up and carried. Xi wouldn't know ... he doesn't have any recollection of this ever happening.
His hiccups. Have you ever heard Xi's hiccups? If not, you're lucky. They sound like a dying vulture, or a scared, squealing pig. Or maybe a barking puppy. They scare small children. So obnoxious (and so embarrassing). Luckily they don't come about very often.
Why are they enrolled in Amityville Academy?
Xi has enrolled to Amityville not by the request of his parents or because he feels obliged to enroll, but out of his own free will. In fact, his parents wanted more than anything to prevent Xi from going because they knew that the boy wouldn't fit in with the other kids there. Although the Jiang Shi people were not exactly zombies they were the next closest thing, and since zombies were a minority race his parents realized that it was an incentive for the higher social status students to bully him.
Xi's family had always been a more reclusive family, not really interacting with others and often keeping more to themselves than anything else. Their only son Meng Xiang had been home schooled for years until the young boy decided that he didn't want to be stuck inside of his small traditional Chinese household anymore and that he wanted to make a reputation for himself. He wanted to go out into the world and do something for himself, he didn't want his family to hide any longer. He was tired of the same old life that he lived, tired of not being allowed to go out and make friends or to have his own social life. Day after day, it was always the same thing and after awhile it just grew so exhausting on the boy.
Though that was not the only reason he wanted to enroll to Amityville. There was an even bigger reason that Xi would give up everything he had ever known for. Meng Xiang had a passion that he yearned to pursue ... and that passion was dancing. Xi loved music and dance, and in a way they had always been everything to him aside from being buried under mounds of textbooks by his family. Since Xi was a child, he remembered never being able to hold still, his feet were always moving to any rhythm and sound, in you could say that he had happy feet. So, against the wishes of his parents, Xi enrolled into Amityville to follow his dream of becoming a dancer free from his parents enforcing things upon him and maybe making a new friend or two along the way.
FEAR:
Natural Ability:
Energy Drain
Jiang Shi are in a way a mixture between vampires and zombies, so like the common vampire, when a Jiang Shi comes across a victim it has the power to suck the life force out of them. Jiang Shi though do not suck the blood of the victim, but a hidden energy source that hides within the victim's soul. This ability is able to help regain a bit of their stamina, though leaves the victim intact.
Fear Ability:
Minacious Minuet
A minuet, derived from the Italian term minuetto meaning small, pretty, delicate is one of the most elegant forms of dance that has lasted through centuries ... though in Xi's case, it becomes one of the most dangerous. Before he begins any dance, Xi invokes the music by striking a pose that corresponds to the type of music he needs. Striking the wrong pose will result in a type of music that he does not need and will prevent his ability from working. The music is a type of mental control, which consumes some of Xi's energy to use, that anyone can hear. As the music begins slow and soft, Xi begins to circle the opponent in what appears at first to be a innocent, graceful dance that soon becomes mesmerizing to the opponent, which causes them to become dazed and confused. As soon as Xi senses the opponent is caught under his spell, the tempo of the song picks up and Xi begins to dance faster around the opponent until they are unable to pull their attention away from him. If executed successfully, Xi is able to incapacitate the opponent leaving him an opportunity to strike though the only downside is that it will leave Xi very dizzy making it difficult for him to attack. If failed, the opponent will regain consciousness causing Xi to trip as the music stops abruptly and causes him to land on his face taking away much of his stamina. This also leaves a huge opening for the opponent to attack him as he attempts to regain balance.
Physical Description:
Eye Color: (See reference)
Hair Color/Style: (See reference)
Skin Color: Although the reference depicts Xi with a more natural skin color, the artist can make his skin pale white if they feel it makes more sense for him since he is an undead. So the skin color in his reference is not set in stone.
Clothing Style/Colors: (See reference)
Extra: (See reference)
References: [Meng Xiang Character Sheet] [Meng Xiang] [Meng Xiang Stickfigure] [MengXiang Portrait]
