Bei Fang Xuan Wu
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Bei Fang Xuan Wu | |
| Player: @Plum Whine | |
| Basic Data | |
| Origin: | magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | dominator (ice/earth) |
| Ability Level: | (see user profile) |
| Occupation: | student, current celestial warrior of Genbu |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Johnathan Chin |
| Known Aliases: | Johnny, Xuan Wu, "Warrior of Genbu", "Warrior of Hyeonmu", Turtle |
| Identity: | not quite established |
| Species: | human |
| Age: | 21 |
| Height: | 6'3 |
| Weight: | muscular |
| Eye Color: | black |
| Hair Color: | black with dark blue highlights |
| Blood Type: | AB |
| Biographical Data | |
| Birthplace: | New York City, NY |
| Birthdate: | Jan 5, 1989 |
| Citizenship: | USA |
| Current Residence: | Paragon City |
| Religion/Faith: | Buddhist |
| Sexual Orientation: | North :D |
| Marital Status: | very single |
| Known Languages | |
| English, Chinese (Mandarin) | |
| Known Relatives | |
| mother, father, several siblings, cranky mystic grandmother | |
| Known Powers | |
| encasing enemies in ice and manipulating frozen earth | |
| Training / Abilities | |
| some Kung Fu training | |
| Equipment | |
| none | |
| Footnotes | |
| Johnny often comes across as temperamental and sometimes bipolar due to having both the nature of the biting snake and compassionate turtle. Being from NYC really doesn't help this either. | |
Johnathan's power comes from the Celestial Being, Xuan Wu, also known as the Black Tortoise of the North or Genbu. He isn't actually Genbu, just a guy who one day found he had the celestial powers of the legends his grandmother used to babble about. And now he has to learn how to live with being a celestial warrior and find the others. While searching for the others, he found himself a bit lost along the way. Like Praetoria lost.
Contents |
Journey to the West
Johnny was the first child born to Ling and Fang in the US, named Johnathan as that was the only American name his parents knew at the time. His older siblings had Chinese names yet they had since taken on American names to use at school.
Johnny grew up Buddhist. He heard legends of China over and over again until he could recite them by memory in both Chinese and English. Why his parents insisted on repeatedly telling him the lore, he wasn't sure, but that was okay. The legends were heroic, sometimes scandalous, and entertaining. He liked hearing them and became interested in world mythology. He read every book he could get his hands on, learning and often memorizing the tales. Mythology and history became his obsession.
Johnny had a terrible time attempting to fit in at school. While his grades were excellent, his social skills were shot. At times he would be compassionate, helping someone out by tutoring them or something similar. Then he would switch to someone with a sharp sarcastic wit. The councilor called him in to speak with him and his parents, referring him to a psychiatrist to help with the social issues. That's when they learned Johnny was bipolar.
When Johnny was 10, his maternal grandfather died and his grandmother flew half way across the world to live with the family. She was a short woman, wore traditional Chinese clothing, and slouched a bit. She took one look at Johnny and said, "Xuan Wu."
Johnny politely corrected her. "Johnathan," he pointed at himself.
"No!" she smacked him on the head with her newspaper. "Xuan Wu chose you," and she retreated to the living room. Johnny scoffed in disbelief and returned to his homework. He knew who Xuan Wu was. Also named Genbu or Hyeonmu, Xuan Wu was the celestial guardian of the north, the turtle and the snake. He was just a legend. Whatever, she was just a crazy old bat, he thought.
For about 5 years, Johnny and his grandmother didn't interact much. He kept to his schoolwork and reading, often sitting near the fountain in the courtyard of their apartment complex, and his grandmother always seemed to watch him.
One summer day, when Johnny was 15, he was reading by the fountain as usual, reading "Journey to the West" for probably the 20th time. His grandmother shuffled over and sat on the fountain next to him. He paid her no mind until she snatched the book from his hands and snapped it shut.
"Ever wonder why you read this book so much?" she asked him.
"It's a good story," he replied, reaching for the book.
"Wrong!" She smacked him on the head with it. "It is because Xuan Wu chose you to be his celestial warrior."
"That's not in the book," Johnny frowned.
"Of course not!" She smacked him again. "The book only tells you part of the legend!" As she spoke, ice spread from her wiry fingers up the book until it was encased in ice. She handed it back to him. "The celestial warriors are awakening. I will teach you what you need to know."
She had his attention now. While Johnny wasn't certain he believed the celestial warrior business, he definitely believed in magic now.
Johnny began college at 17 but continued to live at home. The university was close enough he could simply take the subway to school and not have to worry about room and board. He could focus on his studies and work part time at his parents' restaurant as a host to pay for his share. He was old enough that his parents wanted him to earn his keep. He studied business and finance though his heart still remained with history and mythology. His parents told him that history would get him nowhere and business was the better way to go. And so that was what he did. It kept his parents off his case, after all.
Three years later, Johnny received a message in his dreams. "Go west," said the turtle. "Go west," echoed the snake. He woke confused if that were a dream or not. He brushed it off as reading too much, but that didn't stop him from settling down in the usual spot by the fountain with a book.
"Go west," said a voice. Johnny looked around, confused. He wasn't hallucinating, was he? Then he heard it again. Johnny put down his book and turned, looking into the fountain water. Xuan Wu stared back at him. "Go west," said the turtle. "Go west," echoed the snake. He shook his head in an attempt to make sure he wasn't dreaming or to knock whatever hallucination he was seeing out of his head, but Xuan Wu stayed. A portal appeared behind the snake and the turtle.
"Go west!" shouted his grandmother, kicking him swiftly in the rear. The portal grew larger and swallowed Johnny, sending him to some strange alternate world. Praetoria.
Nova Pizza
Johnny woke up in a fountain in a strange alternate world. The people there simply stared at him and left him be. Yeah, this wasn't New York anymore. He wandered a bit, marveling at this new world until he bumped into two other very lost people: Jin and TJ. They both stuck out as much as Johnny himself did, but he somehow recognized them both as Celestial Warriors, too. This was getting weird. They all had received the message to go west, but only Jin had gotten a message it was to prevent an impending doom, whatever that meant. Nothing really helped all that much.
And so Johnny grouped up with the other two in hopes of figuring out what the "go west" message was all about. They learned the land they'd arrived in was called Praetoria, the city Nova Praetoria, which TJ insisted was called Nova Pizza since he arrived in Praetoria by a pizza shop by that name. Jin and Johnny stopped attempting to correct him, seeing it was futile, and began calling it Nova Pizza themselves.
Aside from the "Go West" dilemma, the group still found themselves short a member. The vermilion bird was still missing.
"Where's the bird?" Jin would ask, receiving shrugs from the other two. No one had actually seen him yet.
Fashionably late, the bird did arrive. Ren was far from ordinary, an incredibly melodramatic guy who seemed to be more infatuated with beautiful things than figuring out why they were all stuck in an alternate world named after pizza. Now together, the four made their way west. They came in contact with the Resistance, which kept them from the eyes of the Seers. If the Seers had learned they were from Primal Earth, that would've been the end of their journey right there. The Resistance helped the four get back to Primal Earth through an interdimensional portal in the west. Going west at least got them out of Nova Pizza.
Paragon City
They found themselves in Paragon City, Rhode Island. Johnny heard of the place, being from New York, but had never been. The city of heroes. Well it was west, at least for him.
Relationships
Celestial Warriors
- Cheong-ryong / Jinhwo Seung aka "Jin" - Celestial warrior for the azure dragon. While Jin's from Korea, he also speaks Mandarin, which Johnny understands fluently. He often calls the other celestials by their celestial guardian's Korean name. He has a tendency to fold his arms and likes high places.
- Nan Feng Zhu Que / Ren Jian-ying - Celestial warrior for the vermilion bird. Ren is anything from ordinary. Everything he does is melodramatic, and for some reason, he's always late for everything. He wears bright red and has little feathered wings on his back.
- Xi Fang Bai Hu / Tian Jang aka "TJ" - Celestial warrior for the white tiger. He has the attention span of a child and seems clueless most of the time until he's in battle. Then he tears things apart with amazing skill and strategy. His arms are covered in black tiger stripes.
