Fade Rift - Application

[taijiquan]

RIFTER APPLICATION

PLAYER

Name: Roppie
Age: 24
Contact: themongers
Other Characters: N/A
Interests: I’m looking forward to writing action scenes for sure, but Dragon Age asks a lot of hard moral and political questions, so I think having to answer to those questions AND having to work with other characters who disagree would be interesting.

CHARACTER

Name: Leifang
Canon: Dead or Alive
Canon Point: post-Dead or Alive 5
Journal: taijiquan
Age: 21

Canon World

The Dead or Alive setting is like modern Earth in terms of day-to-day living for a normal person. What separates DOA are its presence of DOATEC (the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee), traditional and urban ninjas, accelerated military/cloning technology, and some random tengu.

In this world, DOA tournaments are a Big Deal (like imagine if EVERYONE cared about MMA), and they’re the platform that the Mugen Tenshin ninja clan uses to iron out their family issues. How and why this clan exists is something we just have to accept. Little do these ninjas know, DOATEC has this nefarious plan to clone the best fighters of the tournament to create the Perfect Weapon, and lots of them.

Eventually DOATEC is taken over by a good guy, Helena, but she continues to implement DOA tournaments, and the previous owner Donovan is still out there with the fighters’ DNA trying to clone them. Those are really the only things an outsider would need to know: everyone cares about DOA fighting tournaments, a mad scientist wants to clone ninjas for bio-weaponry, the tournament fighters are NOT happy about it, and occasionally you might run into a tengu.



History

Little is known of the details on Leifang’s history, not due to mystery but because it’s fairly unremarkable. She is introduced to the Dead or Alive series as a nineteen-year-old college student who is prodigious in both academics and t’ai chi ch’uan. She comes from a family of wealth.

The most significant aspect of her background, which accounts for her motivation and her reason for picking up t’ai chi ch’uan, is the night she was saved from thugs at the age of thirteen. Her savior was Jann Lee, an orphan who picked up martial arts as inspired by Bruce Lee, and whose passion for being the best fighter has carried into adulthood. Now Leifang is determined to prove to him that she can live in his world of martial arts.

Throughout the series, Leifang’s motivation to defeat Jann Lee largely remains the same, even grows obsessive by the fifth tournament, and she isn’t very integral to the overall plot. She loses to Jann Lee in the first, second, and third tournaments, defeats him in the fourth but loses overall, and is defeated again by Jann Lee in the fifth tournament.

Leifang on the DOA Wiki.

Personality

If three words could be used to describe Leifang, they would be t’ai chi ch’uan. Doesn’t make sense, but it kind of does. She picked up the martial art at age 13 after being saved by a group of thugs from another fighter, Jann Lee—and she LOVES it. Since then, she has determined that she will always be able to defend herself, and t’ai chi ch’uan is the best thing ever. This is important.

Being that Leifang is notably wealthy and intelligent already, and that she mastered t’ai chi ch’uan at a prodigious pace, she’s certainly someone who thinks highly of herself and exudes unapologetic spunk and confidence. She derives genuine excitement and energy from every victory and good things that happen; and conversely, she hates to lose. This is why she is so studious and works so hard despite her self-assurance. While full of youthful pride, she also takes herself and her training very seriously, and her focus is sincere and exceptional.

Over time, Leifang accumulated several rivalries (Jann Lee, Gen Fu, Tina, Helena, Hitomi), so her rivalry-turned-friendship with Hitomi is a breath of fresh air that also illuminates a personable and soft side to her. While their relationship shows that Leifang can be a bossypants, particularly in regards to their training regimens, she also demonstrates that she actually can be a normal girl who can hold regular conversations and have trivial, day-to-day fun. She is also vulnerable to losing her characteristic focus and coherence when she has been humiliated, particularly in the presence of her romantic interest, Jann Lee.

Speaking of Jann Lee, it is he who drives Leifang to succeed. In the second tournament, she relays to him, “I mastered kung fu to live in your world.” Consistently, and to her dismay, she has lost to him in several tournaments, with the exception of the fourth tournament. In the fifth tournament, Leifang follows him wherever he goes to spy on his training, from the Amazon rainforest to the New York subways. This shows that Leifang has a bit of an obsessive personality—she’s so desperate to prove herself to him that she will do whatever it takes to get better and stronger.

The whole reason Leifang picked up t’ai chi ch’uan was because she was once in danger and could not protect herself. Now she uses her ability to fight in the Dead or Alive tournaments and prove herself to Jann Lee, sure, but she also now plays small-scale vigilante against belligerents and bullies for those who can’t protect themselves. Leifang has a very strong sense of righteousness to that end. In addition, she displays her martial arts for entertainment, likely as another way besides formal training to keep practicing tai chi, and likely because she enjoys the positive response she gains from it. The martial art has become her identity and her purpose, and its philosophies culminate in her actions and decisions.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Leifang’s strengths are her combat proficiency and her intelligence. She excels in hand-to-hand combat, particularly in terms of defensive maneuvers: counter-attacks, crushes, parries, and sabakis are ways in which she’ll disrupt or turn her opponents’ moves back onto them. She is fast, focused, flexible, and she can pack a good punch. Speaking to her intelligence, Leifang is shown to be book-smart and studious with education being important to her.

Given her affluent background, Leifang may also be an asset in settings that require formality, as long as she learns how The Game works.

Normally Leifang fights in pretty dresses and high heels. In a setting where weapons and armor are essential, she is going to have to adapt for sure. Her weakness in this particular situation is that she isn’t accustomed to fighting demons and wild animals and others who use magic and swords and shields. She also isn’t used to brutality to this extent—blood and bruises are normal, but eviscerations and decapitations and all that good stuff are barbaric.

As far as the fan interpretation in her canon goes, Leifang is normally considered upper-tier because of the defensive tools at her disposal; in this setting, her fighting style will probably be considered very different and out-of-place (which could work in her favor) but I think in time she’ll be able to effectively marry her tai chi with dual dagger techniques and fight as well as anyone out there.

Arrival Inventory

Leifang’s inventory includes personal belongings she might take to a tournament in a duffel bag:

• First aid kit
• Change of clothes
• Cell phone
• ID
• Wallet
• Digital camera
• Snacks (small bags of chips, crackers, cookies)
• Water bottle
• An oversized cabbage, because it’s a dream
• A trumpet, also because it’s a dream

'Human'ization

N/A.

Fit

Leifang is a formidable combatant who exclusively competes in hand-to-hand martial arts, and it’s very different from the mode of combat utilized in Thedas. Thedas is “western” and historic in her sense, and it’s brutal, and the natives (and even some Rifters) aren’t familiar with China or martial arts or her world altogether. This is a really great opportunity to challenge her character in a completely new way— I want her to adapt to this world while also maintaining her passion and belief in her fighting style.

Once Leifang accepts that she’s here for real, the Inquisition will benefit from having someone who will put herself out there for the sake of saving the innocent. Whether or not she officially joins the Inquisition is another question that’s dependent on what transpires with the Rifters, but absolutely Leifang can get behind helping people who need it. While her challenge at first will be adapting to Thedas, and it’s going to come with trial and error, her pride is too certain for her to give up.

SAMPLES

Sample One, Bulletin Board.
[ The following entry is attached to the bottom as a follow-up of her previous posting that advertises a “self-improvement” session (i.e. tai chi/meditation, but some around here seem to be wary of those words). ]

Thank you to all who attended my self-improvement session and took it seriously. With so much going on, I hope it helped clear your mind! I’ll arrange another meeting in the same room as soon as I can work out an agreement with the Singquisition, or whatever they’re calling themselves now.

Until then:

- As much as I appreciate you practicing on your own, please stop disturbing the horses at Master Dennet’s stables. Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane is a meditative technique, not something you actually have to go out and do… Generally speaking, it’s for the best if you don’t take the names of the techniques literally.

- Whoever kept passing gas, get that under control next time! You’re breaking concentration.

- Someone dropped a really, really personal letter. I promise it was just a glance. But if this sounds like it belongs to you, can you come get it?

See you guys soon!

Leifang


Sample Two, Log.
“I think we’re ready to head home.”

The words had slipped out of Leifang’s mouth. Though the Inquisition soldiers who accompanied her seemed not to think anything of it, she felt her face turn hot against the Storm Coast’s humid air and heavy raindrops. Suddenly she was rendered immobile, and instead of packing up on her own cue, she watched her companions gather their belongings.

“Rifter,” a soldier said to break her distraction. Leifang sighed audibly before taking stiff strides to her horse, which she found herself suddenly resenting, and it wasn’t the horse’s fault. It also wasn’t a taxi or a train, and the saddle made her butt hurt, and she still had to feel the full force of the storm on her head and shoulders until they traveled far enough southwest to make it to Skyhold.

Quietly, on the journey back to Skyhold, she tried to remember China. She tried to remember her house, her school, her friends, the tournaments, and the other fighters. She even tried to remember what it was like to want to fight with him so badly. Those memories were quiet and dim, an ever-present humming softening in the back of her mind while her collection of Elfroot and Black Lotus, for some reason, took precedence today. She suddenly felt desperate to cling to those memories again.

Skyhold wasn’t home.

“Has anyone taught you how to play Wicked Grace yet, Rifter?” the same Inquisition soldier from before asked her. Stern he seemed usually, but suddenly relaxed.

Broken again out of her trance, Leifang thought about it. “That’s a card game, right? I don’t think so.”

“Next time we do an overnight, I’ll teach you,” he said. He sounded exhausted.

Leifang’s lips curled slightly in a smile at his kindness. He didn’t return her glance; his eyes were set on the path ahead of them, posture slouched with resignation, mouth in a permanent frown whether or not he meant it.

No, she didn’t suppose anyone wanted this for themselves. Everyone had a past reality they wanted to return to, and Skyhold was the closest refuge they had for getting back to that old feeling of relief.