THE GAMES APP

[notareflection]

OUT of CHARACTER
Name: bii
Other characters: Susannah, Ringabel

IN CHARACTER
Name: Tenzin
Fandom: Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Canon point/AU: Shortly after Book Three: Change
**If you are apping a canon Hunger Games Character your canon point is automatically set to just after the 74th Annual Hunger Games.
Journal: notareflection
PB: Canon artwork
History: On the wiki

Presentation:

You know that wise old martial arts master you see in the movies? Obi-wan Kenobi, Master Splinter, Mister Miyagi? That's who Tenzin is trying to be. Sure, he's more middle-aged than actually old, but he's got most of the other qualifications down pat. He definitely has the whole calm wisdom act down, as well as the authoritative, stern demeanor. Anyone, upon meeting him, might come away with the impression that he's both level-headed and in touch with his spiritual side. A serious man, but one you can trust. (And indeed, Republic City trusted him to be on their ruling council for a time.)

Tenzin shaves his head every day. He doesn't have to—shaving is a personal decision made by every monk—but it's the traditional Air Nation lack-of-hairstyle and how else would he show off the blue arrow tattoos that mark his mastery of airbending? Perhaps he grows his beard so pointy to compensate. He dresses in orange, yellow, and red, the traditional Air Nation colors, in clothing cut very much like his father wore in his youth, with a red cloak on top that resembles the one his father wore as an adult. Even in the capitol, under the watchful eye of a stylist, he would choose those colors more often than not.

Tenzin has a message to send with his dress and attitude and that message is Air Master. Until his daughter Jinora received her own mastery tattoos just before his pull point, Tenzin was the only Air Master in his world and the defacto leader of what Air Nation currently exists, as well as the son of Avatar Aang. He's very conscious of his father's legacy.

Motivations: And what's going on on the inside?

As mentioned before, Tenzin is very conscious of his father's legacy, especially considering how for the seven years between Aang's death and Jinora's birth, he was the only airbender left in the world. Also, until Harmonic Convergence granted his older brother Bumi bending, Tenzin was also the only airbending child of Avatar Aang. Because of that, he lived his life in his father's shadow, trying to be the reflection of the great man who had brought Harmony back to the world. His front of being wise and calm and spiritual is his attempt to live up to the man his father grew up to be.

Tenzin, however, is neither as calm nor as spiritual as he tries to portray himself to be—though he is, at least, capable of some wisdom. He gets frustrated more easily than he'd like to admit, although he tries to hide it. He can be snappish or passive-aggressive and it's safe to say that he's the master of the long-suffering eyeroll. In many ways he's actually inherited his mother Katara's temperament. Both of them can go from calm to furious in seconds. It's even more apparent with Tenzin with the way his head sometimes changes color to match his reactions. He dislikes having to admit that he's actually very bad at the whole spiritual thing. Sure, he's memorized countless maps of the spirit world, but what use is that if you can't astrally project yourself out of a wicker basket?

He does pride himself on being a sensible person, however—the most sensible of all of Aang and Katara's children in his opinion. Someone had to be and it certainly wasn't going to be Bumi. He consciously suppresses those sides of him that aren't sensible and respectable, though on occasion a sillier side of him does pop out. He is Aang's son after all.

Being Aang's son is very important to him. Keeping airbender culture alive, first through his family and then through the fledgeling new Air Nation is very important to him. From the time he was a small child he knew that if the airbenders would live it would be through him and his children. Although when it comes his and Pema's children—even though they the next stage of the airbending legacy, Tenzin is very much un-airbender. Unlike his monkly ancestors, Tenzin is a family man. He loves all three of his children dearly and—rather like Katara with her way of 'mothering' the whole Gaang—he can get paternal at other young people in his care quite easily. He certainly did to Korra.

Setting:

Quite frankly, Tenzin will think the games are a horrible travesty against human decency and will not pretend he feels otherwise, even if he tries desperately to hold his tongue once he realizes he has both Korra and Aang to keep quiet for. However, the first time the capitol does something he finds particularly heinous—that upcoming Children Only Mini-Arena being a good example of that kind of thing—he may very well throw caution to the wind, literally flip a table, and go yell in the face of a nearby Peacekeeper. Whatever consequences he'd get from that would probably reminded him of the importance of caution.

Besides that, I have a feeling he'd try to take on a more fatherly role to any of the younger tributes he might befriend, if only because he'll be very much missing his own children and it's hard to fall out of the habits of being a parent.

SAMPLES
First Person Thread: An example of a first person post, at least 200 words minimum. Feel free to use introspection and scene setting if your character is not chatty. Please use one of the two following prompts:

For Tributes: You have just been killed in your first arena. It was violent, messy, and unexpected. And just as suddenly you wake back up in a very cold, very medical room. After a few moments of silence, a voice comes up over the speakers.

"Please use the device to the right to record your current feeling on your loss. Once you are finished, someone will be along to take you back to the Capitol." On cue, a small recording device starts to chirp at your side.

It is quite clear that you will be staying in the room until you make that recording.

[Tenzin scowls at the device. What in the world do they expect him to say?]

I don't know what you expect me to say. I'm no Shiro Shinobi. I don't even know if I'm holding this at the right angle.

[That's a lie. He's fairly sure he's suppose to speak into the part with the tiny holes into it. He makes sure that the holes are pointed away from him, in hopes that his captors have to strain their ears to hear him.]

It wasn't pleasant. I'd hoped, you know, to die at home, in bed, with my wife and children by my side, a old man of... oh, a hundred if I'd be so lucky. That's not completely out of the question for Air Nomads, you know. The vegetarian diet keeps us young.

[Is he getting distracted from his point? Yes. Yes, he is. Does he care? No. No, he doesn't.]

Isn't there anything else you people have for entertainment besides these barbaric bloodsports? Can't you go to the movers? To the park? To-- to sporting events? Have you ever tried to meditate?

You haven't tried anything else, have you? You don't care. I'm almost sorry for you.

[The peevishness from before is gone from his voice. All that is left is resignation.]

Prose: 200 word minimum. To mimic the spirit of capriciousness within this game, please write your third person sample based on the following prompt:

You have been set in a room in front of the Gamemakers to be judged on a score of one to twelve, with one being the lowest and twelve being the highest. The Gamemakers sit safely behind a force field and watch, and you are provided with an array of weapons and targets, though no gun to be seen.

If you are a new tribute, you have been plucked from home and rushed in here with only a brief explanation of what is going on: You are about to enter an arena death match that only one person will make it out of, and impressing these people will help you live.

If you are someone from Panem, then you are very unlucky. You know what's going on but... you were told all the tributes were from a foreign land now. So why are you in front of the Gamemakers fighting for your life now? Are you a criminal, a traitor, deeply in debt? Or do you even know why you were shoved in to this room?

“This is outrageous!” Tenzin bellows, striding right up to the hole in the wall where a group of strange-looking men are sitting—only to smell the point of his beard sizzle when it hits some invisible boundary. He backs away, disturbed. What in the world--?

“This is outrageous,” he repeats, in barely quieter tones once he's a few feet away from the hole. “You're kidnapping people and forcing them to fight to their deaths. Innocent people! People who never did anything to you or have even heard of this-- of this Panem of yours.”

As far as Tenzin knew, no such place even existed in his world. He must be in some other world, where the laws of physics were much saner than in the spirit world—and the madness of the inhabitants more than made up for that.

He wants to tell them he's an important man, that he has a family, that except for his eleven-year-old daughter he's the only air master left in the world, but he can already tell that no sympathies will be found with these men and women. He's reminded of the late, unlamented Earth Queen and the thought makes him scowl, for he knows that despite how strange they look, men and women like this certainly exist back home as well, some in similar places of power.

“Don't listen, then,” he snaps and he turns away from them, his bald head flushing red with fury. Breathe, Tenzin, he tells himself. Don't let them know they've got to you.

Unfortunately, they probably know very well.

What is your character scored: Fairly high, I'd think. Quite possibly double digits. Mostly this is because although Tenzin's airbending will be gone, airbending itself is based on the Baguazhang style of martial arts and Tenzin the acknowledged world master of said art. He's also in excellent physical shape for a man of fifty-two. He'd be hampered by his stern demeanor cutting down on crowd likability and in his unwillingness to kill anyone unless it was the absolute last resort.

Additional information: n/a