Welcome to Gaia! ::

Name: Ling Anka

Gender: Male

Age: 10

Occupation: Student dancer

Appearence: Anka's black hair is cut short, reaching no further than his ears. In spite of the Earth Kingdom style of his dress, his amber eyes might still point him out as non-native. He wears the uniform of the Ling family dancing school, with its black baggy knee-length pants and green sleeveless top. The character for the Ling name (岺) appears on the back of the top in gold. The pants are tied at the bottom with green cord, and the loose ends of the cord have been strung with bells with the intent of further helping the boy in his balance and grace exercises; a similar but thicker woven cord is tied around his waist over the sleeveless top, too, along with four larger bells. As part of his training, Anka currently wears one-toothed tengu geta, which add about 10cm to his modest height, but will make him a bit wobbly on his feet until he gets more used to balancing on them. The only other thing of real note with regards to Anka's appearance is the knife-coin from the ancient Fire Nation that he wears on a leather thong around his neck - it was given to him by his father sometime before he was abandoned, and Anka wears it nearly every day.

Personality: Though Anka has spent the last 7 or so years of his life in the Earth Kingdom, he spent enough of his early days with the values of the Fire Nation that he still retains many of them. He enters his dance training each day with great fervor and determination that is appreciated at the school, but there is talk behind his back that the boy is a bit obsessive. Anka expects nothing less than the best from himself, and can occasionally come off as snooty when he feels that others are falling short of his expectations.

The years he has lived in the Earth Kingdom have not been lost on Anka's development, either. His creativity has been not only permitted, but encouraged. He has grown to be very sure of his path studying dance, and sees succeeding as a way of besting his father.

Anka has forgotten many of the details of his early life, since he was separated from his parents fairly early on. He was too young to know what was written on the letter left with him when he was abandoned, and not knowing what it says eats at him deeply. The master of the dance school claims to still possess the note, but refuses to allow Anka to see it - mostly because Anka's demands to read what it says, or even to know his original family name are generally accompanied by vows to kill his father for discarding him.

He bears no resentment towards the Earth Kingdom, though, and gets along well enough with his fellow students, and with his teachers. Between his fiery passion and his stubborn desire both directed towards success, though, Anka tries to spend more time interacting with his superiors than his peers. Though this may make him seem mature for his age, he can still be quite short-tempered.

Background: Anka was the fifth-born of five boys in his family. His father was a low-ranking officer in the Fire Nation military who was well-known not particularly for his bending abilities, but for his the fact that he always carried out orders promptly and without question. His mother was a middle-class merchant who made enough money to be able to save some, but not enough to be particularly wealthy. Mishaal, his father, wanted to be sure that his boys would follow in his footsteps, and so he did what he could to teach them firebending as soon as they could learn.

However, Anka came into the world with something unacceptable - creativity. He worked well at his father's lessons, and at his schooling, too. When he was finished with his work, though, the boy could always be found wandering on his own and making things up. And when he accompanied his family on one of their regular trips to the edge of the Earth Kingdom where his mother did business, he would often slip away in order to watch street performers and dancers.

When he was four, two things happened that Anka never knew about, as he would have been too young to understand. His mother's father died, leaving a gaping hole in the trade business. Aruna would have been fully capable of running the business, except that her husband was called off at around the same time for active duty in a neighboring Fire Nation city. With the crimp on the income to her father's company, and the inability to put too much time into it herself for fear of ignoring her five children, Aruna tightened everyone's belts and did what she could to make the reduced income last. The boys, lacking their father's guidance in bending, grew instead to help their mother and follow the merchant's path.

Anka, however, was still too young to be of much use. As a result, he fell into disfavor with his mother and older brothers. While he suffered from time to time from want of attention, this also meant that he was given a bit more freedom to wander.

After a few months, Mishaal returned, and Aruna prepared the family to make another trip to the Earth Kingdom for business. Though the trip outwardly went just as all the others in the past had, Anka's parents apparently made some decisions regarding their family's state of affairs and their youngest son. Ultimately, the came to the conclusion that the boy was not suited to follow in the footsteps of either of his parents, and was therefore not worth expending their strained resources to support. And so, when the family finished their business in the Earth Kingdom, Anka was left behind with nothing but a few coins for food and a note that he could not yet read that would let him into the city's dance school.

Bloodline: Born in the Fire Nation to a merchant-noble mother and a Firebender father. Abandoned in the Earth Kingdom at age 5, where he now lives, having been adopted into a theater and dance school.

Skills:
Bending - Anka has had only the most limited training in Firebending, and therefore can essentially not bend at all. His inner turmoil currently makes him currently unsuited for further training in either Firebending or Earthbending. However, in his rare moments of inner calm, nearby flames may react slightly to the rhythm of his breathing.

Dance - Though he is still fairly young, Anka is well on his way to being a fine dancer. He studies primarily dancing in groups, however, and has not yet had an opportunity to distinguish himself solo. He practices as often as he can, though, in hopes of being selected for more specialized training. One of the other teachers at his dance school knows many intricate blade dances, but has not taught them to anyone so far as Anka has seen since his arrival; the Fire Nation boy dearly wants to be accepted in that teacher's eyes, in hopes of learning the shimmering sword dances.

Extra post #2