[hider=Jai Sikk][center][h1][color=ac1414]Jai Sikk[/color][/h1]
[hider=Appearance][center][img]https://78.media.tumblr.com/be9a4eaeae82db2bea7570588f2f686a/tumblr_inline_mne2kzWhtt1qz4rgp.png[/img][/center][/hider]

[color=ac1414][b]Age: [/b]16[/color]

[color=ac1414][b]Personality: [/b]Jai can be brash and impulsive, often letting her emotions control her actions. She prefers decisive action to long debates, and often gets frustrated if progress is bogged down by minutia. That being said, if given an environment that fosters peace, Jai can enjoy long stretches of solitude and thought, often getting lost in her own head on the open seas, her preferred terrain. Jai loves the sea, the wind, the waves, and the adventure that comes with it. Her freedom is the most precious thing to her, and anywhere she can be her own woman is home enough in her eyes. Jai despises authority and being ordered around, finding structured groups and regiments stifling. Jai also hates being confined, enclosed spaces are not her friend. She is able to get along with a group well enough, provided they are all there by choice and nobody is being forced into something they don't want.[/color]

[color=ac1414][b]Background: [/b]Jai was born into one of the smaller island tribes on the edges of the Fire Island chain. Her parents were fishermen and often took her out on extended trips, where she learned to sail as soon as she could walk. Her family was humble, but comfortable, there were rarely days without food on the table. That all changed when Lord Jiang rose to power and Jai began to exhibit Firebending potential. Firebenders had always been expected to take up positions guarding their villages, but now with a semi-cohesive alliance among the islands there came a huge push for Firebenders to join this army. Jai was recruited by a local lord and taken to be trained as a soldier.

Jai quickly found she hated the life of a soldier. The training, though useful to develop her Firebending, was constant and exhausting. She was expected to show incredible discipline at all times, and to kowtow every ranking officer that so much as glanced in her direction. She attempted to escape the army several times, but was always caught and punished; though because of her age, perhaps not as strictly as she could have been. Her ultimate chance finally came after several years in training, when her regiment passed through her home village again. Finally in a place where she had a home-field advantage, Jai slipped away in the middle of the night, pausing only to leave a note for her parents to explain what had happened, before stealing their boat and sailing away...[/color]

[color=ac1414][b]Bending Ability: [/b]Proficient Firebender. Thanks to her training in the budding Fire Army, Jai has been trained in offensive and defensive Firebending abilities.[/color]

[color=ac1414][b]Other:[/b] 
-Expert Sailor: Having grown up on boats, Jai knows exactly how they work. She can expertly plot a course, navigate tricky situations, and read the stars to determine her course.
-Falchion: Her weapon from her time in the Fire Army, and her only remnant of her time there. She is proficient with this weapon, though she does use it for other purposes, such as peeling fruit.[/color]

[color=ac1414][b]Sample Post:[/b] Jai grit her teeth and resisted the urge to cry out as she pulled at her chains again. She'd been locked in the cells for weeks, chained to the wall as soon as they figured out she was a Firebender. Food came twice a day, and if she was very lucky they'd transfer her to cuffs and watch her closely while she ate. Other than that, she was alone. Stuck in a cell with a bed she couldn't even use, forced to sleep and live chained up to a wall like some macabre art piece. Meanwhile her ship was out there somewhere, moored or repurposed, or taken as evidence, or scuttled. She hoped it wasn't scuttled. The little boat had served her well. It had been home for close to a year now, since she'd escaped the Fire Islands. Escape... Escape from rules and authority and blowhards. She'd escaped from that. She'd escape from this too.

She'd been stupid. Stupid and desperate. Jai replayed the events in her mind and she jerked at the chains again, grunting in frustration as hot tears stung her eyes. She'd been hungry. Her last net had finally fallen apart, and she couldn't fix it. She couldn't fish, had run out of food, and had no money to even put into port with. That's when she had spotted them. a few, small boats.  Just off the coast of the Earth Kingdom, probably fishermen. They'd have food. Maybe some coin too, if she was lucky. And certainly new nets, or poles. She'd been fancying herself a pirate ever since she'd heard the stories of the Pirate King. A Firebender who made his own rules, captained his own crew and did whatever the hell he wanted. Maybe she could be like that... So Jai had set off. She was going to Pirate those fishermen. She'd been caught. They had a Waterbender with them, and Jai had been taken by surprise. Her memory was a bit fuzzy after that, but she remembered being dragged into port, handed over to guards, and seeing her ship being towed upriver to Ba Sing Se, where she was now. Imprisoned. Chained to a wall. Put on display like the rest of the poor Bending saps in here.

Jai closed her eyes as despair began to wash over her. She should have stayed home. Should have stuck with the Army. She at least had a decent bed there, and her sword, and no chains. She didn't even know how long she would be here. Jai slumped forward, a small sob wrestling its way out of her chest before her eyes shot open and she gasped.

The chain had budged.[/color][/center][/hider]