Tu Shanshu App
Aug. 2nd, 2013 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forherprincePlayer Information:
Name: Jessie
Age: 30
Contact: taliaoferagon@gmail, jelmling on plurk
Game Cast: n/a
Character Information:
Name: Lan Fan
Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist
Canon Point: chapter 108, leaving for Xing
Age: 18 (no official canon age, setting her at the higher range to make life easier)
Reference: http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Lan_Fan
Setting:
Fullmetal Alchemist is set primarily in a militarized country called Amestris, best compared to Europe or North America in the early 1900’s, at least as far as technology is concerned. The biggest difference between the world of Fullmetal Alchemist and ours is the existence and use of alchemy, the science of deconstruction and reconstruction. In the world of Fullmetal Alchemist this goes further than the simple concept of turning one material into another (i.e. the age old ‘turn lead into gold’) and can be applied to nearly everything, from boiling water to forming a block of stone into a sculpted statue in seconds, to ‘sewing’ two life forms together to bonding a human soul to an inanimate object. To the uneducated alchemy seems like magic, but it is a devoted science with strict rules, the most important being that of equivalent exchange: To obtain something of equal value must be lost.
Aside from Alchemy, there is one additional technology that sets the world of Fullmetal Alchemist apart from ours (though recent developments in prosthetics may be eliminating this point!), and that is automail: fully-functional metal prosthetics that are hardwired directly into a wearer’s nervous system in a way that allows the wearer to control the limb with nothing other than the natural signals from their brain to the limb through their nervous system.
Aside from Amestris there is a second country that plays a huge role in Fullmetal Alchemist, and that is the country of Xing, lying east of Amestris across the Great Desert. Xing is comparable to China during a similar era, though little is said about the country aside from its political structure: a nation headed by an Emperor, ruling over fifty separates clans in the country with a wife to represent each clan and thereby creating a nightmare when the issue of succession arises. This issue of succession is how the characters from Xing enter into the storyline: following rumors of immortality to curry favor with the current dying emperor to ensure their clans’ survivals.
The overall story of Fullmetal Alchemist follow a pair of brothers on a journey to restore their natural bodies after committing the ultimate taboo of alchemy: human transmutation. The failed attempt left the elder brother with an automail arm and leg and the younger brother as a soul bonded to an empty suit of armor. Their path lead them to the Amestrian military where the elder brother, Edward Elric, became a State Alchemist in order to have access to research materials to continue their search. The chosen path they decided to follow was that of the Philosopher’s Stone, said to be an element that allowed alchemists to bypass equivalent exchange: what would seemingly be needed to perform the human transmutation to return their bodies to normal. In the process of chasing this legend it is revealed that it is not a legend at all and not only does it exist but that the Amestrian military has been involved in a sordid plot run by a puppeteer in the shadows to sacrifice the entire country to create one. As stated before, the Philosopher’s Stone is the reason the Xingese enter Amestris as well.
Lan Fan is a retainer for the Yao Clan imperial family, entering Amestris with her grandfather Fu ( also a retainer) and their charge: the 12th Prince, Ling Yao. They first encounter the Elric brothers in a town in the southeast of Amestris near the Great Desert. Realizing that the Elric brothers are a lead on the Philosopher’s Stone, they follow them for a good portion of the series, finding other leads to immortality as the shadow workings of Amestris reveal themselves. Namely: the homunculi. A homunculus is an artificially created human. In this series it is a being with a philosopher’s stone at their core made up of dozens of human lives, making them seemingly immortal because of their ability to regenerate from injury and even death by using the lifeforce of the souls at their core. Ling and Lan Fan agree to be a part of a plot to capture one of the homunculi, for their part to obtain the creatures’ secrets, for the others to learn the identity of a murderer. The plan backfires on them when two homunculi show themselves, one greatly injuring Lan Fan (a killing blow just barely blocked and turned into one that nearly severed her left arm). During their retreat Lan Fan made the choice to cut her now useless arm the rest of the way off, tying it to a stray dog to create a false trail so that she and Ling could escape.
Ling successfully captures one of the homunculi—however the victory is short lived. The Amestrians get medical treatment for Lan Fan’s injuries, but not an hour after her life-saving surgery the captured homunculus escapes and turns into a seemingly unstoppable monster. At this point Lan Fan is separated from Ling, taken by the doctor who saved her. She learns that during the separation a strange fate befalls the prince: he procured a philosopher’s stone, but at the cost of his own body. He became a human-based homunculus, essentially possessed by an entity known as “Greed.”
Unable to do anything else at this point, Lan Fan left with her grandfather to search out an automail engineer to replace her missing arm. Despite the fact that the recovery time for automail surgery is three to five years she swore that she would complete it in six months—and true to her word, she and Fu returned to Amestris six months later (though it is not clear if she was outfitted with her arm in Xing or in Amestris).
The two retainers met up with the Elric brothers and a few others planning to fight against the plot to use Amestris to create a Stone, one of those people being Greed, still controlling Ling’s body. The meeting came about during a battle against two other homunculi, so there was no calm moment to try to speak with Ling or even Greed for that matter—and when the fight was over Greed ran off with Ling’s body before anything more could be said. The retainers had no other option than to join back up with the Amestrians in their fight against the homunculi and their “Father” (the puppeteer who had been orchestrating this plot for centuries) in hopes of finding Ling again.
During the battle the following day Fu and Lan Fan were separated. Fu found Greed first—in a battle against another homunculus, specifically the one who had taken Lan Fan’s arm—and joined the fight, ultimately dying in the process (Lan Fan seeing his death from afar as she followed intel that Ling was at that location). She arrived on the scene just in time to catch Greed/Ling as he slipped from the battlement at the front of the Central compound, the other homunculus (Wrath) hanging from his leg. The combined weight nearly ripped her unhealed automail from her body before other soldiers on the scene aided them in firing on Wrath, forcing him to lose his grip and fall from the battlement.
Ling, in control of his body for the moment, begged anyone present to help Fu, to use the philosopher’s stone at his core to heal and revive him to no avail and apologized to a Captain for being unable to help him. The Captain requested that he protect the gate they were standing at as a final wish, and Lan Fan was able to witness Ling and Greed work together in nothing short of harmony to achieve the goal.
Eventually the final battle against “Father” came, a uniform junction between all present against a seemingly unstoppable force, the power of ‘god’ harnessed in a human-sized body. It was through the combined efforts of all present that Father was worn down, unable to contain the power he had attempted to harness. In the end “Father” made a desperate attempt to reabsorb the Philosopher’s Stone at Greed/Ling’s core, at which point Greed chose to separate his being from Ling’s so that the Prince’s soul was not taken by Father, calling for Lan Fan to cut the connection (Father’s arm thrust into Greed’s stomach) at the last second. Absorbed by Father, Greed was able to sabotage his body, making him as weak as charcoal and hastening his demise.
Once it was all over Ling and Lan Fan (along with another clan’s Princess) set off to return to Xing across the desert, another philosopher’s stone that had been found on Wrath’s corpse in hand to secure the Yao Prince as the Emperor’s successor and Ling’s oath that he intended to absorb and protect all fifty clans and end the ever present succession feud.
Personality:
The fundamental character point for Lan Fan is her sense of duty and discipline. Her family has served the Imperial Yao family for generations and from a young age the importance of that role has been instilled in her, and she has taken it wholly to heart. It is not a matter of appearances—their duty consists of one of the most important and most dangerous jobs in both serving and more importantly, protecting the royal Yao family—particularly given that the royal heir is under constant threat of assassination by rival clans. Failure does not merely result in losing face, it potentially results in the injury or death of the heir.
Lan Fan takes her role as retainer with deadly seriousness, prepared to follow any order given by Ling and also to make any sacrifice to ensure his safety. This is brought into crystal clarity in canon when she cuts off her own injured arm in order to create a diversion to save both herself and Ling from Wrath after Ling refused to leave her behind to save himself, despite the necessity of his survival for their clan. Her conviction to serving and protecting Ling is staggering. After the ordeal with Wrath, as soon as she’d received medical treatment for the dismemberment, not even an hour out of the surgery she inquired about automail, as she would be useless to her prince with only one arm. Later, after the news of Ling’s body being taken over by the homunculus Greed this determination only increases—considering something has befallen the prince now and she blames herself for not being strong enough to have been there to protect him from it—and when informed of the one year recovery time after the prosthetic surgery (which… is actually several years, however Edward Elric did it in one) she announces that she will do it in six months. She made good on that word, returning as soon as she was remotely physically able to, refusing to be deterred by any pain or discomfort the new limb caused in order to fulfill her duty to Ling.
In dealing with other people Lan Fan is standoffish. She would prefer to avoid interacting with others as much as possible—in general it is better that her existence isn’t noticed simply because it makes her job easier—and when she does there is an obvious air of disdain. This is due to two factors: first, she absolutely does not trust strangers and second, she doesn’t seem particularly fond of foreigners at all. The first point is not difficult to see: with the role that has in life in Xing she cannot afford to trust anyone. There are far too many threats to the royal family to afford trust—especially not to strangers. The second point is mostly due to culture clash. Considering her role in life and the tiered society she comes from there are very clear and understood ways for people to act—particularly toward royalty. Lan Fan’s (and her grandfather Fu’s) initial disdainful reactions to the Amestrians come from their treatment of Ling and stem from a very clear thought of ‘these people do not now their place’ (which is fairly clear in the very first chapter where they interact with the Elric brothers and… state as much). The grating against what, for her, is an accepted norm causes a negative reaction and results in what could be interpreted as a sense of superiority when dealing with, what to her, are backward foreigners.
This changes by a degree throughout the manga—particularly after the loss of her arm—because at that point the people she was interacting with proved themselves worthy of her gratitude and respect in the way they found her medical help. After this event, while no less private, that air of superiority and brashness falls away (though this may be partially due to her perceived failure in losing her arm) only leaving the conviction in serving her prince. During this recovery time the man to which she feels the most gratitude and humility is Doctor Knox, the man who initially treated her injury and watched over her in his own home during the first days of her recovery with absolutely no gain for himself. It was also Dr. Knox’s recount of his experience during and after the Ishvalan civil war that truly impact her in what is happening not only in Amestris but in her own country as well, so much that his words come back to her repeatedly: “This is one old geezer who doesn’t like the sight of children trying to kill each other.” The experience combined with the loss of her grandfather at the Promised Day bring enough of a change in Lan Fan that she goes so far as to make a request of Ling, something completely unheard of (which can most certainly be deducted from the look on Ling’s face when she utters the statement) and asks that he not punish the other 49 clans when he assumes the throne as Emperor—because she, just like Dr. Knox, is tired of seeing people kill each other.
Coming away from the heavier aspects of Lan Fan’s personality and her role as an imperial retainer, when she is unmasked she is quite easily flustered and shy—particularly in regards to Ling, suggesting that there is more than simple devotion and loyalty to her lord there. Besides unwilling to share personal and emotional thoughts it would also appear she might be incapable of it with the way she blushes furiously and becomes tongue-tied whenever something remotely rattles her. The manner in which we see this occur is mostly in regards to Ling—whether it is in reaction to him, to things others have said or done in regards to him, or thoughts to what he will think about a given situation. She is very aware of this and it is one of the reasons she prefers to keep her face covered with her yin mask—she doesn’t have to worry about the blush on her face giving away the fluster that she is able to hide in her posture. Aside from this, she can also be a hot-head, best depicted in early canon when she loses her temper while fighting Edward Elric after he begins to insult Ling. Her disciplined manner and training go out the window as she angrily attacks with strong, obvious and easy to read attacks. She threatens the Elrics several times outside of a fight when any insult is made to Ling as well—generally offering some kind of warning attack to deter any bad-mouthing (including one thrown kunai and later a blade being driven down through the ceiling of a moving train…).
Lan Fan will not take well to being caught in this world and the only thing that will keep her from worrying herself to death or becoming despondent is knowing that time has stopped for her and that her time in Tu Shanshu will not leave Ling completely unguarded while crossing the desert and entering into the final arc of the succession war. Of course despite being told this it will be difficult for her to accept and take some time for the idea to truly settle. Living on her own will also be a challenge if for no other reason than the fact that she is used to doing everything for the benefit of her charge and her clan—living for herself will be a new concept and will take her some time to adjust to and not to survive on the bare minimum of what she needs. It will be interesting to see her develop goals outside of her clan.
Appearance: http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll14/jelmling/cfmfbfqrgd_m_zps59bee502.jpg Lan Fan is a petite, though athletic, woman, approximately 5’0”, Asian in appearance with dark brown eyes and black hair that falls to her shoulder blades when down but usually worn in a high top knot with bangs and loose strands framing her face. The most notable aspect of her appearance is her left arm, which is a fully-functional mechanical prosthetic limb known as automail. She regularly wears black hooded clothing that covers her entire body save open-fingered gloves as well as a mask adorning the yin symbol that covers her entire face.
Abilities: Lan Fan is a master in Xingese martial arts, capable of hand-to-hand combat and skilled with a variety of weapons, most notably kunai, senbon and a variety of bombs—with a penchant for grenades—but in reality she is able to use quite literally anything as a weapon. Aside from her physical prowess in fighting she is also capable of movements one would expect in wire-fu, bounding well over 10 feet into the air and covering distances at impossible speeds. She is trained to read the ‘dragon’s pulse’, or the flow of chi through the earth and through others. As such, she is able to sense the chi flow from other people (provided they are not trained in how to suppress it), creating a bit of a head start in combat as it makes predicting an opponent’s moves much easier.
Inventory: Xingese Retainer uniform, light body armor, yin mask, two Xingese grenades, four flash bombs, four smoke bombs and six kunai
Suite: Lan Fan is simple with her needs. Even if she is used to the splendor of the Yao Palaces her role there is that of a guard and would feel awkward having much more than a single room to herself (and in reality it is unlikely she ever had even that much to herself). Therefore a single floor flat would suit her best. She would have no particular preference for which sector to be placed in but the Wood or Water sector would fit her best merely for the simplicity of the areas and the calmness of the people in comparison to the Fire or Metal sectors.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
Lan Fan still felt groggy and she hated it. She had the barest grasp of what had occurred—barest in the fact that she understood the words that had been spoken to her but hadn’t fully comprehended what those words meant. They were just words bearing a concept still, not a reality. The concept of being caught between life, death and dreaming… it was difficult to swallow. She had little doubt that she might understand the concept better than the Amestrians would, after all Xingese tradition was filled with stories of spirits and the supernatural, much more than the strictly scientific world she had seen in Amestris. But still, being familiar with a concept and accepting it as reality was two entirely different things.
She was uncomfortable in the cart, her stump ached and the damaged port of her automail sent a searing bolt of pain from her shoulder down her spine every so often if she moved the wrong way. She did not give any hint toward that, however. She was at a big enough disadvantage, the last thing she needed was to show the strangers in this alien place that she was injured. The fact that she was lost and alone was enough weakness by itself. She clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth slightly, her thoughts going back to Ling and the Chang princess… and to her grandfather. She had been assured that time had been “stopped” for her, that her absence would not be noticed, but how was she to believe that? What did that even mean? All she could think of was the fact that she had failed in her duty. She had been taken from Ling’s side, which was bad enough by itself, but now she had left him completely unguarded. He was a capable fighter by himself, but that didn’t necessarily matter if he was met with enough assailants. The Chang princess was with him… but even if Lan Fan had spoken in the other clans’ favor before they left Central City that didn’t man that she trusted them. She wanted to think better of the girl, but a short life of experience screamed otherwise.
She focused in on one of the kedan as she was asked where she wanted to go. How was she supposed to know? She knew nothing of the place, would know nothing until she explored it herself. It didn’t matter where they took her at this point. She shook her head curtly. “It does not matter,” she answered. “Somewhere simple.”
As if any of this was ‘simple’.
Network:
[The visage of a masked and hooded… person… appears on the screen—the mask itself looking rather daunting in and of itself. All that is visible past the mask is said person’s eyes and the hint of the mouth through an opening in the mask itself. There is a bit of a shift as a hand comes up to prod the monitor a bit barbarically as if to test whether it’s working (and apparently missed the part of the lesson clearly saying that wasn’t how it worked).]
[There is a long pause, as if the person is having a bit of an internal battle over something—and a moment later the hood is being pulled back, hands, one of which appears to be in some kind of gauntlet (because it couldn’t possibly be a metal arm, right?), lift to the ties holding the mask in place, and begrudgingly the mask is removed to reveal… a fairly cute girl, other than the fact that she is glaring the monitor down. Her face completely flushed in what was probably embarrassment despite how angry she looked. With the mask gone she instead reached to pull her collar up to partially obscure at least her mouth.]
…
[And just when it seems she is finally going to speak, a very loud, very distinct and completely unmistakable growl is heard. Her eyes go wide for a moment before her expression flattens out even more while her face goes even redder.]
Forget it.
[And her hand darts out to try to end the feed, trying and failing several times just for inexperience before managing to actually end it.
Name: Jessie
Age: 30
Contact: taliaoferagon@gmail, jelmling on plurk
Game Cast: n/a
Character Information:
Name: Lan Fan
Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist
Canon Point: chapter 108, leaving for Xing
Age: 18 (no official canon age, setting her at the higher range to make life easier)
Reference: http://fma.wikia.com/wiki/Lan_Fan
Setting:
Fullmetal Alchemist is set primarily in a militarized country called Amestris, best compared to Europe or North America in the early 1900’s, at least as far as technology is concerned. The biggest difference between the world of Fullmetal Alchemist and ours is the existence and use of alchemy, the science of deconstruction and reconstruction. In the world of Fullmetal Alchemist this goes further than the simple concept of turning one material into another (i.e. the age old ‘turn lead into gold’) and can be applied to nearly everything, from boiling water to forming a block of stone into a sculpted statue in seconds, to ‘sewing’ two life forms together to bonding a human soul to an inanimate object. To the uneducated alchemy seems like magic, but it is a devoted science with strict rules, the most important being that of equivalent exchange: To obtain something of equal value must be lost.
Aside from Alchemy, there is one additional technology that sets the world of Fullmetal Alchemist apart from ours (though recent developments in prosthetics may be eliminating this point!), and that is automail: fully-functional metal prosthetics that are hardwired directly into a wearer’s nervous system in a way that allows the wearer to control the limb with nothing other than the natural signals from their brain to the limb through their nervous system.
Aside from Amestris there is a second country that plays a huge role in Fullmetal Alchemist, and that is the country of Xing, lying east of Amestris across the Great Desert. Xing is comparable to China during a similar era, though little is said about the country aside from its political structure: a nation headed by an Emperor, ruling over fifty separates clans in the country with a wife to represent each clan and thereby creating a nightmare when the issue of succession arises. This issue of succession is how the characters from Xing enter into the storyline: following rumors of immortality to curry favor with the current dying emperor to ensure their clans’ survivals.
The overall story of Fullmetal Alchemist follow a pair of brothers on a journey to restore their natural bodies after committing the ultimate taboo of alchemy: human transmutation. The failed attempt left the elder brother with an automail arm and leg and the younger brother as a soul bonded to an empty suit of armor. Their path lead them to the Amestrian military where the elder brother, Edward Elric, became a State Alchemist in order to have access to research materials to continue their search. The chosen path they decided to follow was that of the Philosopher’s Stone, said to be an element that allowed alchemists to bypass equivalent exchange: what would seemingly be needed to perform the human transmutation to return their bodies to normal. In the process of chasing this legend it is revealed that it is not a legend at all and not only does it exist but that the Amestrian military has been involved in a sordid plot run by a puppeteer in the shadows to sacrifice the entire country to create one. As stated before, the Philosopher’s Stone is the reason the Xingese enter Amestris as well.
Lan Fan is a retainer for the Yao Clan imperial family, entering Amestris with her grandfather Fu ( also a retainer) and their charge: the 12th Prince, Ling Yao. They first encounter the Elric brothers in a town in the southeast of Amestris near the Great Desert. Realizing that the Elric brothers are a lead on the Philosopher’s Stone, they follow them for a good portion of the series, finding other leads to immortality as the shadow workings of Amestris reveal themselves. Namely: the homunculi. A homunculus is an artificially created human. In this series it is a being with a philosopher’s stone at their core made up of dozens of human lives, making them seemingly immortal because of their ability to regenerate from injury and even death by using the lifeforce of the souls at their core. Ling and Lan Fan agree to be a part of a plot to capture one of the homunculi, for their part to obtain the creatures’ secrets, for the others to learn the identity of a murderer. The plan backfires on them when two homunculi show themselves, one greatly injuring Lan Fan (a killing blow just barely blocked and turned into one that nearly severed her left arm). During their retreat Lan Fan made the choice to cut her now useless arm the rest of the way off, tying it to a stray dog to create a false trail so that she and Ling could escape.
Ling successfully captures one of the homunculi—however the victory is short lived. The Amestrians get medical treatment for Lan Fan’s injuries, but not an hour after her life-saving surgery the captured homunculus escapes and turns into a seemingly unstoppable monster. At this point Lan Fan is separated from Ling, taken by the doctor who saved her. She learns that during the separation a strange fate befalls the prince: he procured a philosopher’s stone, but at the cost of his own body. He became a human-based homunculus, essentially possessed by an entity known as “Greed.”
Unable to do anything else at this point, Lan Fan left with her grandfather to search out an automail engineer to replace her missing arm. Despite the fact that the recovery time for automail surgery is three to five years she swore that she would complete it in six months—and true to her word, she and Fu returned to Amestris six months later (though it is not clear if she was outfitted with her arm in Xing or in Amestris).
The two retainers met up with the Elric brothers and a few others planning to fight against the plot to use Amestris to create a Stone, one of those people being Greed, still controlling Ling’s body. The meeting came about during a battle against two other homunculi, so there was no calm moment to try to speak with Ling or even Greed for that matter—and when the fight was over Greed ran off with Ling’s body before anything more could be said. The retainers had no other option than to join back up with the Amestrians in their fight against the homunculi and their “Father” (the puppeteer who had been orchestrating this plot for centuries) in hopes of finding Ling again.
During the battle the following day Fu and Lan Fan were separated. Fu found Greed first—in a battle against another homunculus, specifically the one who had taken Lan Fan’s arm—and joined the fight, ultimately dying in the process (Lan Fan seeing his death from afar as she followed intel that Ling was at that location). She arrived on the scene just in time to catch Greed/Ling as he slipped from the battlement at the front of the Central compound, the other homunculus (Wrath) hanging from his leg. The combined weight nearly ripped her unhealed automail from her body before other soldiers on the scene aided them in firing on Wrath, forcing him to lose his grip and fall from the battlement.
Ling, in control of his body for the moment, begged anyone present to help Fu, to use the philosopher’s stone at his core to heal and revive him to no avail and apologized to a Captain for being unable to help him. The Captain requested that he protect the gate they were standing at as a final wish, and Lan Fan was able to witness Ling and Greed work together in nothing short of harmony to achieve the goal.
Eventually the final battle against “Father” came, a uniform junction between all present against a seemingly unstoppable force, the power of ‘god’ harnessed in a human-sized body. It was through the combined efforts of all present that Father was worn down, unable to contain the power he had attempted to harness. In the end “Father” made a desperate attempt to reabsorb the Philosopher’s Stone at Greed/Ling’s core, at which point Greed chose to separate his being from Ling’s so that the Prince’s soul was not taken by Father, calling for Lan Fan to cut the connection (Father’s arm thrust into Greed’s stomach) at the last second. Absorbed by Father, Greed was able to sabotage his body, making him as weak as charcoal and hastening his demise.
Once it was all over Ling and Lan Fan (along with another clan’s Princess) set off to return to Xing across the desert, another philosopher’s stone that had been found on Wrath’s corpse in hand to secure the Yao Prince as the Emperor’s successor and Ling’s oath that he intended to absorb and protect all fifty clans and end the ever present succession feud.
Personality:
The fundamental character point for Lan Fan is her sense of duty and discipline. Her family has served the Imperial Yao family for generations and from a young age the importance of that role has been instilled in her, and she has taken it wholly to heart. It is not a matter of appearances—their duty consists of one of the most important and most dangerous jobs in both serving and more importantly, protecting the royal Yao family—particularly given that the royal heir is under constant threat of assassination by rival clans. Failure does not merely result in losing face, it potentially results in the injury or death of the heir.
Lan Fan takes her role as retainer with deadly seriousness, prepared to follow any order given by Ling and also to make any sacrifice to ensure his safety. This is brought into crystal clarity in canon when she cuts off her own injured arm in order to create a diversion to save both herself and Ling from Wrath after Ling refused to leave her behind to save himself, despite the necessity of his survival for their clan. Her conviction to serving and protecting Ling is staggering. After the ordeal with Wrath, as soon as she’d received medical treatment for the dismemberment, not even an hour out of the surgery she inquired about automail, as she would be useless to her prince with only one arm. Later, after the news of Ling’s body being taken over by the homunculus Greed this determination only increases—considering something has befallen the prince now and she blames herself for not being strong enough to have been there to protect him from it—and when informed of the one year recovery time after the prosthetic surgery (which… is actually several years, however Edward Elric did it in one) she announces that she will do it in six months. She made good on that word, returning as soon as she was remotely physically able to, refusing to be deterred by any pain or discomfort the new limb caused in order to fulfill her duty to Ling.
In dealing with other people Lan Fan is standoffish. She would prefer to avoid interacting with others as much as possible—in general it is better that her existence isn’t noticed simply because it makes her job easier—and when she does there is an obvious air of disdain. This is due to two factors: first, she absolutely does not trust strangers and second, she doesn’t seem particularly fond of foreigners at all. The first point is not difficult to see: with the role that has in life in Xing she cannot afford to trust anyone. There are far too many threats to the royal family to afford trust—especially not to strangers. The second point is mostly due to culture clash. Considering her role in life and the tiered society she comes from there are very clear and understood ways for people to act—particularly toward royalty. Lan Fan’s (and her grandfather Fu’s) initial disdainful reactions to the Amestrians come from their treatment of Ling and stem from a very clear thought of ‘these people do not now their place’ (which is fairly clear in the very first chapter where they interact with the Elric brothers and… state as much). The grating against what, for her, is an accepted norm causes a negative reaction and results in what could be interpreted as a sense of superiority when dealing with, what to her, are backward foreigners.
This changes by a degree throughout the manga—particularly after the loss of her arm—because at that point the people she was interacting with proved themselves worthy of her gratitude and respect in the way they found her medical help. After this event, while no less private, that air of superiority and brashness falls away (though this may be partially due to her perceived failure in losing her arm) only leaving the conviction in serving her prince. During this recovery time the man to which she feels the most gratitude and humility is Doctor Knox, the man who initially treated her injury and watched over her in his own home during the first days of her recovery with absolutely no gain for himself. It was also Dr. Knox’s recount of his experience during and after the Ishvalan civil war that truly impact her in what is happening not only in Amestris but in her own country as well, so much that his words come back to her repeatedly: “This is one old geezer who doesn’t like the sight of children trying to kill each other.” The experience combined with the loss of her grandfather at the Promised Day bring enough of a change in Lan Fan that she goes so far as to make a request of Ling, something completely unheard of (which can most certainly be deducted from the look on Ling’s face when she utters the statement) and asks that he not punish the other 49 clans when he assumes the throne as Emperor—because she, just like Dr. Knox, is tired of seeing people kill each other.
Coming away from the heavier aspects of Lan Fan’s personality and her role as an imperial retainer, when she is unmasked she is quite easily flustered and shy—particularly in regards to Ling, suggesting that there is more than simple devotion and loyalty to her lord there. Besides unwilling to share personal and emotional thoughts it would also appear she might be incapable of it with the way she blushes furiously and becomes tongue-tied whenever something remotely rattles her. The manner in which we see this occur is mostly in regards to Ling—whether it is in reaction to him, to things others have said or done in regards to him, or thoughts to what he will think about a given situation. She is very aware of this and it is one of the reasons she prefers to keep her face covered with her yin mask—she doesn’t have to worry about the blush on her face giving away the fluster that she is able to hide in her posture. Aside from this, she can also be a hot-head, best depicted in early canon when she loses her temper while fighting Edward Elric after he begins to insult Ling. Her disciplined manner and training go out the window as she angrily attacks with strong, obvious and easy to read attacks. She threatens the Elrics several times outside of a fight when any insult is made to Ling as well—generally offering some kind of warning attack to deter any bad-mouthing (including one thrown kunai and later a blade being driven down through the ceiling of a moving train…).
Lan Fan will not take well to being caught in this world and the only thing that will keep her from worrying herself to death or becoming despondent is knowing that time has stopped for her and that her time in Tu Shanshu will not leave Ling completely unguarded while crossing the desert and entering into the final arc of the succession war. Of course despite being told this it will be difficult for her to accept and take some time for the idea to truly settle. Living on her own will also be a challenge if for no other reason than the fact that she is used to doing everything for the benefit of her charge and her clan—living for herself will be a new concept and will take her some time to adjust to and not to survive on the bare minimum of what she needs. It will be interesting to see her develop goals outside of her clan.
Appearance: http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll14/jelmling/cfmfbfqrgd_m_zps59bee502.jpg Lan Fan is a petite, though athletic, woman, approximately 5’0”, Asian in appearance with dark brown eyes and black hair that falls to her shoulder blades when down but usually worn in a high top knot with bangs and loose strands framing her face. The most notable aspect of her appearance is her left arm, which is a fully-functional mechanical prosthetic limb known as automail. She regularly wears black hooded clothing that covers her entire body save open-fingered gloves as well as a mask adorning the yin symbol that covers her entire face.
Abilities: Lan Fan is a master in Xingese martial arts, capable of hand-to-hand combat and skilled with a variety of weapons, most notably kunai, senbon and a variety of bombs—with a penchant for grenades—but in reality she is able to use quite literally anything as a weapon. Aside from her physical prowess in fighting she is also capable of movements one would expect in wire-fu, bounding well over 10 feet into the air and covering distances at impossible speeds. She is trained to read the ‘dragon’s pulse’, or the flow of chi through the earth and through others. As such, she is able to sense the chi flow from other people (provided they are not trained in how to suppress it), creating a bit of a head start in combat as it makes predicting an opponent’s moves much easier.
Inventory: Xingese Retainer uniform, light body armor, yin mask, two Xingese grenades, four flash bombs, four smoke bombs and six kunai
Suite: Lan Fan is simple with her needs. Even if she is used to the splendor of the Yao Palaces her role there is that of a guard and would feel awkward having much more than a single room to herself (and in reality it is unlikely she ever had even that much to herself). Therefore a single floor flat would suit her best. She would have no particular preference for which sector to be placed in but the Wood or Water sector would fit her best merely for the simplicity of the areas and the calmness of the people in comparison to the Fire or Metal sectors.
In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
Lan Fan still felt groggy and she hated it. She had the barest grasp of what had occurred—barest in the fact that she understood the words that had been spoken to her but hadn’t fully comprehended what those words meant. They were just words bearing a concept still, not a reality. The concept of being caught between life, death and dreaming… it was difficult to swallow. She had little doubt that she might understand the concept better than the Amestrians would, after all Xingese tradition was filled with stories of spirits and the supernatural, much more than the strictly scientific world she had seen in Amestris. But still, being familiar with a concept and accepting it as reality was two entirely different things.
She was uncomfortable in the cart, her stump ached and the damaged port of her automail sent a searing bolt of pain from her shoulder down her spine every so often if she moved the wrong way. She did not give any hint toward that, however. She was at a big enough disadvantage, the last thing she needed was to show the strangers in this alien place that she was injured. The fact that she was lost and alone was enough weakness by itself. She clenched her jaw, grinding her teeth slightly, her thoughts going back to Ling and the Chang princess… and to her grandfather. She had been assured that time had been “stopped” for her, that her absence would not be noticed, but how was she to believe that? What did that even mean? All she could think of was the fact that she had failed in her duty. She had been taken from Ling’s side, which was bad enough by itself, but now she had left him completely unguarded. He was a capable fighter by himself, but that didn’t necessarily matter if he was met with enough assailants. The Chang princess was with him… but even if Lan Fan had spoken in the other clans’ favor before they left Central City that didn’t man that she trusted them. She wanted to think better of the girl, but a short life of experience screamed otherwise.
She focused in on one of the kedan as she was asked where she wanted to go. How was she supposed to know? She knew nothing of the place, would know nothing until she explored it herself. It didn’t matter where they took her at this point. She shook her head curtly. “It does not matter,” she answered. “Somewhere simple.”
As if any of this was ‘simple’.
Network:
[The visage of a masked and hooded… person… appears on the screen—the mask itself looking rather daunting in and of itself. All that is visible past the mask is said person’s eyes and the hint of the mouth through an opening in the mask itself. There is a bit of a shift as a hand comes up to prod the monitor a bit barbarically as if to test whether it’s working (and apparently missed the part of the lesson clearly saying that wasn’t how it worked).]
[There is a long pause, as if the person is having a bit of an internal battle over something—and a moment later the hood is being pulled back, hands, one of which appears to be in some kind of gauntlet (because it couldn’t possibly be a metal arm, right?), lift to the ties holding the mask in place, and begrudgingly the mask is removed to reveal… a fairly cute girl, other than the fact that she is glaring the monitor down. Her face completely flushed in what was probably embarrassment despite how angry she looked. With the mask gone she instead reached to pull her collar up to partially obscure at least her mouth.]
…
[And just when it seems she is finally going to speak, a very loud, very distinct and completely unmistakable growl is heard. Her eyes go wide for a moment before her expression flattens out even more while her face goes even redder.]
Forget it.
[And her hand darts out to try to end the feed, trying and failing several times just for inexperience before managing to actually end it.
