EDIT: It is ready to be ripped apart.

[hider=It's getting swampy][CENTER]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/FUv3m0D.jpeg[/img]
[sub][color=darkgray]"We're all trees on the same branch... wait, that's not right..."[/color][/sub][/center] 
[indent][color=darkgray][sub][u]NAME[/u][/sub][/color]
[indent]Huo[/indent]

[color=darkgray][sub][u]AGE[/u][/sub][/color]
[indent]19[/indent]

[color=darkgray][sub][u]BIRTHPLACE[/u][/sub][/color] 
[indent]Foggy Swamp[/indent]

[color=darkgray][sub][u]ELEMENT[/u][/sub][/color] 
[indent]Water[/indent]

[color=darkgray][sub][u]APPEARANCE DETAILS[/u][/sub][/color] 
[indent]Huo is tall, but not altogether imposing. He leans more on the lean side, and is almost always seen in the travel garments of his people. He sports a hat made from a leaf sourced from the swamp, along with natural fiber wraps around his forearms and shins. He keeps his hair cut roughly to shoulder length, but does little to style it. The rest of his garments are assorted basic earthbender attire with the sleeves removed, as Huo finds them too restrictive. The most notable addition to his outfit that he prefers to keep intact is the wooden plate on his chest, a symbol of his pride in his homeland.[/indent]

[color=darkgray][sub][u]PERSONALITY[/u][/sub][/color] 
[indent] Huo is, for better or worse, a child of the Foggy Swamp Tribe. He has remained fairly sheltered from the politics and culture of the outside world, and was instead instilled with the virtues of his people: community, generosity, joy, and a deep respect for the natural world. Some may call it immaturity and innocence, but Huo has a deep love of people and the world that he is experiencing for the first time. He wishes to see the best in people. In terms of his general beliefs, Huo ascribes to a simple philosophy: we are all branches on the same tree. The best way to solve any problem, in his book, will involve cooperation and different perspectives, and is quick to acknowledge alternate views in influencing his decision or approach.

That is not to say Huo is soft and unwilling to fight now. He had let Chi fall at the hands of the Earth Kingdom the first time he had truly faced adversity, and that shame dwells in his heart. He hopes to make it up to her through his actions going forward, but does his best to note let the shame turn to hate. He would rather fight for his love of others than in retribution for their failures... though that is a line that he finds tough to balance. His shame and desire to see the best in others does carry with it naivety and a predisposition to be manipulated.
[/indent]

[color=darkgray][sub][u]BIOGRAPHY[/u][/sub][/color] 
[indent] Huo was born into the Foggy Swamp Tribe, and has remained somewhat disconnected from the politics of the world as a whole. While Earth nation kingdoms have bickered and fought, and even as a coup occurred early into Huo's life that installed King Wei into power... the Foggy Swamp Tribe has remained relatively remote and isolated. They had little to offer the changing world outside, and Huo felt a strong connection to the values he was raised with. He believed in a harmony and connection with all things that lived in the swamp, and with those he considered to be family. He was a strong and brave kid, picking up bending from a young age. Since he was nine, Huo was racing skiffs alongside grown adults through the expansive reaches of the swamp.

That is not to say Huo was a reckless child, or entirely ignorant of the outside world. Even in somewhere as remote and independent as the swamp... it was noticeable when the communication trickled to a near dead halt. It was even more noticeable when guardians of the Foggy Swamp tribe who would patrol near the very fringes of the swamp began going missing. A tension filled the air year by year, as it became clear that something very wrong was afoot. Even as that anxiety was clear to a young Huo, he remained sheltered from the true horrors of what was to come. They all were.

Until they weren't.

Huo was a gifted water bender, and was trained from the age of twelve in more complex waterbending forms. Back then, it always felt like playing. Water whips, octopus form, even surging up waves of water to defend against getting pelted with a torrent of water... it all felt like games then. It was fun, and Huo enjoyed his training.  One of his "instructors" was just... gone one day. She had been selected as a messenger, to simply travel to the nearest town to get some answers about the state of the world. She was only supposed to be gone a few days... but Huo hasn't seen her since. Huo's training became more intense after this. It was becoming clear that he wasn't being trained for the sake of learning or education: this was more about survival than anything else.

Huo was sixteen when the first confirmed spirit attack occurred in the Foggy Swamp. Spirits had become somewhat more of a frequent sighting before this... but a frog spirit growing in size and crushing a grown man underfoot was a change. It was the first serious injury in some time. Huo was, understandably, shaken by the sudden turn in the status quo within the swamp itself. The tribe had only one elder trained in the art of healing, Yi. Given more injuries of a serious nature and an inability to do much about the spirits directly, several young skilled waterbenders were trained to help tend to the wounded. Huo was one of the few who volunteered immediately. He hated seeing his people in pain... and hated more that there was little he could do to stop it. So, he did the best he could to provide some healing and comfort to his brothers and sisters who had been harmed in their own homeland. But the more fellow members of the tribe were injured, the more clear it was that something had to be done.

Huo, a few months shy of turning 18, was in attendance when a meeting was held among the Foggy Swamp Tribe about how to deal with the growing threat. For the first time, the adults and elder of the Tribe discussed openly their growing predicament. All attempts to get answers from the outside world yielded nothing. However, it was becoming clear at this point that if anyone was going to help solve their current predicament with the spirits and help secure the safety of the free people of the swamp... it was the Avatar. Before they could even find the Avatar, though... the people of the swamp would need more information. Their best bet would be to make a beeline for the Southern Water Tribe and hope to gather more information. They would need strong, swift waterbenders. Three volunteered, all relatively young and competent benders. Huo was one of them. Even he could tell there was a greater poison... a greater disease at the tree of humanity at large. If anyone was going to help his people, it would be the Avatar. The last two had decent relations with the Foggy Swamp Tribe. Certainly this next Avatar would be no different.

The three scouts travelled swiftly south by night, using the cover of darkness to avoid whoever they could. They relied on hunting and gathering in less populated regions, and slept in caves during the day. It did not take them too long to reach the coast. Though it took several nights camped out in a cave not far from the coast in the Xing Fuhua province to cut down several trees and fashion together a makeshift skiff... a right of passage they had all undergone at a younger age. Of course... the stakes were much higher this time around. By the fourth night, the scouts were ready to disembark.

Of course, four nights was one night too many to stay in one place so long.

They were caught on the beach by a small patrol of Earth Kingdom soldiers. Huo tried to speak for the group, and tried to explain simply they were just heading for the Southern Water Tribe. He wasn't able to say much before the rocks started flying. The eldest of the scouts, Chi, quickly took command of shielding her companions. She ordered them to get to the water with the skiff, swearing she would catch up. Huo and the other scout followed their orders, and quickly disembarked. Huo wheeled his arms around, propelling the skiff out into the choppy waters as quickly as he could. Only two Swamp Tribe scouts made it to the Southern Water Tribe, and among them... Huo was the only one conscious when they were found.

A little over a year ago, Huo discovered from his cousins in the Southern Water Tribe the truth of larger scale politics. He learned of the invasion against the Fire Nation, and the efforts the waterbenders made to defend them. He made allies with his cousins, and explained his desire to find the Avatar. Needless to say, he was less than pleased to discover that there was no Avatar. He knew trying to return to the Swamp would have been a suicide mission, given recent developments... and as he lived in communion with the Southern Water Tribe for a few weeks (whilst heavily bundled and recovering from hypothermia), it became clear that Huo's mission would have to change. Spirits were little threat when it came to the intense suffering that would come from an invasion into the Swamp by the Earth Kingdom. And if the Earth Kingdom was bold enough to attempt an invasion against the Firebenders, it would only be a matter of time. Huo committed himself to aiding the Water Tribes in repelling any attempt by the Earth Kingdom to invade by boat, biding his time until an opportunity would arise to do something more proactive.

As of three days ago, a new plan has formed. The second murmuring had begun that an Avatar had awakened, Huo knew this would be his best opportunity. The growing Rebellion would be his best chance to find the Avatar, and the Avatar was easily the answer to both threats facing his people.
[/indent]

[color=darkgray][sub][u]TRIVIA[/u][/sub][/color] 
[indent]Huo constantly talks to animals as if they are people. He thinks he understands them when they chirp back.

Huo has some training in healing as a waterbender. However, he has not come close to understanding how some elders were capable of plantbending.

Huo has been tried hiding his accent, but has made little progress.

The only physical possession, besides his clothes, that Huo has maintained since leaving the Foggy Swamp Tribe is his banjo. It is unclear if he is bad at playing it, or if that's just how it sounds.
[/indent]
[/indent][/hider]