[hider=I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.][CENTER][h2][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/240307/e2a35954abb1006d692efd0d0bce47db.png[/img][/h2]
[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/8344ff41-d495-48ca-b573-33929b20223e.png[/img]
[sub][color=0066cc]"A hidden stone may shatter a plow, but a hidden current will drag a man to his death. Even the most adamant rock cannot outlast the river's erosion forever.
When it crumbles at last, my family will be whole again, and I can return home."[/color][/sub][/center]
[indent][b][color=0066cc][sub][u]NAME[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[indent]Tao Huangzi[/indent]
[b][color=0066cc][sub][u]AGE[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[indent]18[/indent]
[b][color=0066cc][sub][u]BIRTHPLACE[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[indent]Ba Sing Se, Earth Kingdom[/indent]
[b][color=0066cc][sub][u]ELEMENT[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[indent]Water[/indent]
[b][color=0066cc][sub][u]APPEARANCE DETAILS[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[indent]Tao is a foreigner no matter where in the world he goes. Though he has the striking blue eyes of a Water Tribesman, his complexion is far more at home in the northern Earth Kingdom, and his features aren't quite typical in either. His face resembles both and neither of his parents' at the same time, with his father's sharp eyes subdued by his mother's demure eyelashes, and her soft jawline sharpened with his father's chin. He has a lithe build atypical of a hardy Earth Kingdom native, born of a life of leisure rather than hardship or starvation, and accustomed to the dancelike flow of the waterbending arts. This is accentuated by his attire; outside the frigid poles, he prefers the flowing attire of the Earth Kingdom, both for its familiarity and its helpfulness in blending in, though he's still petulantly fond of blues and whites. [/indent]
[b][color=0066cc][sub][u]PERSONALITY[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[indent][color=steelblue]"You are not a child of the earth, Tao. You are only as rigid as you need to be. Water has no shape. Water is flexible. Be as the flowing river. Be as the raging tsunami. Be as the stalwart glacier. Be whatever you must to suit the moment."[/color]

Tao is no stranger to the role of the outsider, and has thus embraced it. He has a friendly nature, even if it can be hard to see under a reserved and awkward exterior, but he rarely considers himself truly integrated into a group. To this end, he tries to be very adaptable. He believes he cannot find a space for himself through commonality, so he weaponizes his differences in order to ingratiate himself to others. As his father would say, every group has a weakness, whether through their values or simply the combined shortcomings of those that compose it, and Tao aims to fill these weaknesses as surely as water fills the vessel it inhabits. He is the unconventional solution, the Vaatu's advocate, the fresh perspective to a tired problem. Failure is simply the result of one lacking the fluidity to attack the problem from another angle. 

Expectedly, he finds it all rather lonely. The only people with whom he's ever felt as though he truly fit in was with his family, which now stands in jeopardy due to the war. Beyond this, Tao has a tendency to cling to those who are nice to him, though he's thankfully a bit too shy to be overbearing with it. He also despises liars, and the dishonesty demanded of returning to the Earth Kingdom, much less taking part in a rebellion, unfortunately grate heavily on his patience, even if his misgivings are ultimately overwhelmed by his drive to end the war and return to Ba Sing Se.[/indent]
[b][color=0066cc][sub][u]BIOGRAPHY[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[indent]"The clever bird chooses the branch whereon to perch; the wise servant selects the master to serve. Seize the chance when it comes, for repentance ever comes too late."[right][sub]—From [i]The Romance of the Three Elements[/i][/sub][/right]
Though a waterbender, Tao was born in Ba Sing Se, and spent his childhood in a luxurious apartment in the Upper Ring of the city. His mother was an immigrant from the Northern Water Tribe who left to ply her healing arts in the wider world, and his father was a native-born agent of the Dai Li under King Xiong and later King Wei. The family knew little of his work, only that he was a peacekeeper for the crown and the city, and that his frequent fishing trips to Lake Laogai were probably more work-related than he let on. Tao was shielded from many of the worsening conditions for foreigners across the nation by his father's position, but he felt like no less of an outsider, especially in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, where foreigners were rare beyond visiting dignitaries. His mother was the only waterbender he'd ever met, and her womanly education in the north could show him little more than the fundamentals. Attempts at practicing with other children left him with little choice but to try and replicate earthbending with ice, to limited success.

This seemed like it would change six years ago, when Tao's father cryptically announced that dangerous events were in the works, and he was moving the family to Northern Water Tribe territory until it all blew over. While Tao was hesitant to leave the only home he'd ever known, Agna Qel'a promised a new beginning; for the first time, he'd be among fellow waterbenders, he'd have a role in a collective united by more than just geographic location. At least, that was the idea. The reality was less than ideal. While never one to enjoy the heat, the biting cold of the north pole was still a far cry from a Ba Sing Se winter, and the local cuisine left a lot to be desired. Likewise, his father's status meant nothing in the frozen city, and he was reduced from pampered gentry to just another tribesman. It was a hard adjustment. The one saving grace was that he was formally enrolled under a waterbending master for training, and he took to it swimmingly. The initial learning curve was rough, as Tao had to unlearn his earthbending-inspired philosophy and relearn how to be a waterbender proper, but the lessons were far more engaging than his mother's rudimentary teachings. 

Still, he was even more of an outsider among the other students than he was in the Earth Kingdom. He didn't know how to hunt a seal or dive for sea prunes - he barely knew how to swim before moving to the north. His culture was foreign and nonsensical to the traditionalist Water Tribe, which made him an interesting visitor but not an accepted member of a tight-knit tribe. They were polite, friendly even, but it was clear that Tao was not one of them. Nor did he want to be; with the reality of the north falling short of his hopes, Tao longed to return to his home in Ba Sing Se. He trusted that his father would not steer the family wrong, but he couldn't fathom what threat could possibly justify leaving the eternal walls of Ba Sing Se for a shoddy replica carved from ice and snow.

Tao thought he received his answer when the war broke out. The real answer came months later, when his father was brought before the chief on charges of espionage. Though the ostensible reasons for their relocation may have played a role in Tao's father's decision to flee the Earth Kingdom, his primary motivation was to act as a spy for the Earth King in the Northern Water Tribe. He and his mother naturally fell under suspicion as well, and any good will he had accumulated evaporated nearly overnight, and with it left any ties Tao had to the Water Tribes. He wanted to return home with his family, even if his father was a liar who broke his mother's heart, but that was impossible with the Earth Kingdom's descent into tyranny and his father's new status as a prisoner of war besides.

The solution was simple; he'd have to help end the war. Since his mother was barred from participating in military affairs, Tao had volunteered for a blockade run to the south pole to help prove his innocence. The expedition took damage during one of their encounters with the Earth Kingdom navy and docked in the southeastern edge of the continent for repairs when they heard the news of the Avatar's alleged return. That seemed a far more prudent method of ending the war decisively than merely ferrying messages between the Water Tribes, so Tao, now back in his homeland, set off in search of the elusive resistance. Wary of Tao being a saboteur to their own mission, his fellow warriors from the Water Tribe did little to stop him.[/indent]
[b][color=0066cc][sub][u]TRIVIA[/u][/sub][/color][/b]
[list][*]Though formally trained by a Northern Water Tribe sifu, Tao seems as though he intends to emulate earthbending whenever he has access to large quantities of ice, using it much as an earthbender would utilize rock.
[*]He carries an Earth Kingdom dadao slung across his back, for when his waterbending is inaccessible or otherwise ineffective.
[*]Tao isn't fond of heights.[/list]
[/indent][/hider]

If you notice anything wrong with my lazy photoshop no you don't