RC: Bao Duc

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Go go gadget WALLS OF TEXT! 

Name: Bao Duc 

Age: 27

Nationality: Republic City (1st Generation)

Ethnicity: Foggy Swamp Tribesman

Affinity: Air 

Occupation: School Teacher

Skills:
Teaching: Bao has always had a bit of a knack for helping others learn. He prides himself on being well-versed in a wide variety of topics and he has a certain way of phrasing his thoughts that helps him get his point across. One could almost call his explanations “simple” or “common”, though Bao would likely not appreciate those particular words.

Biology: Bao has a passion for the study of life. If there is any sort of situation that involves investigating interesting fauna or cataloging strange flora, Bao will be there with bells on. He‘s made a habit of studying the subject, and he has cultivated quite an intimate knowledge of many plants and animals as a result. Go ahead. Ask him about the eating habits of the Si Wong Gilacorn. Got a question about Fire Lilies? He’s your man.

Plantbending: As a direct and recent descendent of a member of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, he has worked to learn the tribe’s style of Waterbending and its unique subskill, Plantbending. Ever since Master Huu utilized his skills in plant manipulation to aid Avatar Aang, learning, using, and passing on the knowledge of Plantbending has been considered a point of pride and honor for the tribe. Though Bao usually likes to distance himself socially from the tribe, he still considers Plantbending to be a highly useful practice, especially in his biological studies. He’s not a master by any stretch of the imagination, though.

Personality
✔ Intelligent | Friendly | Passionate about his work | Curious

✘ Know-it-all | Persnickety | Doesn't know when to shut up| Meddlesome 

Bao Duc is a bit of an interesting guy. In all situations, he prides himself on being well-educated and quick witted. He will always have a (likely heavily wordy) explanation for any questions that are asked of him. He also places a great deal of emphasis on communication and relationship building with others. Any friend that he can make, he will attempt to make. He is disapproving of poor basic manners (like saying please/thank you, etc.) and fighting, as well as aggressive attitudes. He has a bad habit of rambling about rare plant and animal species, as well as obsessing over recent scientific discoveries. He is a teacher and has a habit of using his “teacher stare” to show his disapproval of things. Though he likes to keep his ethnicity quiet, you can still find him unwittingly adhering to many Foggy Swamp traditions, like absent-mindedly talking to plants and animals.

In public, he is scared to death of others thinking of him negatively, and feels the need to be as well-mannered, well-educated and “high class” as he can possibly be. This leads him to talk in overly formal ways and fuss endlessly about silly matters (like table manners), and he ends up coming off as a real stuffed shirt. Combine this with his overly chatty and friendly nature, and it tends to become a bit overwhelming. Most folks find him a bit overbearing and think of him more as a caricature of the collegiate, upper middle class than as a real person.

In his classroom, things change a bit. He believes that being well-educated is critical to the growth of the young and he is very passionate about his work at the school. As such, he isn't afraid of to get down and dirty, resorting to means that may be uncouth (like hopping into a muddy river to catch a frog) in order to get pertinent information to his students. He tends to feel less pressured to be prim around children, and he drops a good deal of his stuffy, formal tone when teaching. He can still be quite fussy at work, though he tends to turn this outwards, fussing over his students rather than himself. 

In private, he’ll drop most of his pretense with a large sigh of relief. With the eyes of the public off of him, he feels much more at ease and is therefore more likely to kick up his feet or accidentally cover himself in fertilizer while tending to his plants. In this state he is more informal, childish and playful, not to mention endlessly curious about his loved ones. He can be quite meddlesome in his loved ones’ affairs, fussing and poking and prodding in ways that he thinks will help them. Please feel free to glare at him and throw things if he does this to you, as he does not know when to stop. 

Likes and Dislikes
✔ Capturing/Cataloging rare plants/animals | Teaching | Children | Long, interesting words| Fire Lilies| Learning new things | Freshly washed clothing | Helping others

✘ Willful ignorance | Bad manners | Fighting | Unsolvable situations/problems | Looking foolish/dirty/ill-mannered in public

History:
Bao was born in Republic City as the first child to a pair of immigrants hailing from the Foggy Swamp. Early in his life, his parents worked at the city’s water purification plant, and were unfortunately quite poor. Thankfully, this never phased the family. Having hailed from an area widely regarded as “poor”, they knew how to make due with the little money they had, and all was good for the family. Bao learned early on that money does not equate with happiness. His parents wanted more for the young boy than they had had, so they worked hard to instill a well-mannered and hardworking personality in the boy. Once Bao reached the age for schooling, his parents enrolled him in the local public school. It was here that Bao learned two lessons that would shape his future. First, he learned that science was AWESOME. There were so many amazing things to see and understand in the world, and he knew that he wanted to learn all that he could about all of them. Secondly, he learned that many people in Republic City thought of the Foggy Swamp folk as graceless and backwards, and that he would have quite a bit of work to do if he wanted to shake the stereotype. At this point, the teasing was relatively mild, and the boy dealt with it as best as a young boy can. “Jus’ ignore them, Bao,” his mother would say, “You’re a lovely, well-mannered boy. Just stay nice n’ polite, and keep your head to the books.” He took her words to heart. When he could, he kept his head in his books and when he could not, he took great pains to be as kind, polite, and well-mannered as possible. 

When Bao was 12, some of his parents’ coworkers discovered his parents’ Plantbending talent and asked the couple to train their children in the practice. Word spread beyond the purification plant, and before the family knew it, they had a sizeable class of Plantbending students on their hands. After posing a modest tuition fee, the family was able to purchase some property and supplies, and the Duc School of Plantbending was founded in the Dragon Flats district of Republic City. Within a year or two, the school was thriving, and the Ducs found themselves amongst the upper middle class. They moved to a nice neighborhood and enrolled their sons into the local private school. Unfortunately, the family rapidly discovered that a group of good old Foggy Swamp tribesmen do not exactly fit in with the well-polished merchant class of Republic City. The family, especially the boys, found themselves the unwitting subjects of gossip. Bao and his younger brother, Luc, were tormented by their private school peers, and both tried to tackle the problem in different ways. Luc, the scrappier of the two, took to giving his tormenters a swift punch in the snout, but Bao… Bao was never much of a fighter. Instead, he pledged that he wouldn’t give them any rope to hang him with. Like a true scientist, he decided to observe his new classmates in order to discover the secrets of fitting in with the upper crust. He watched his peers carefully and tried to emulate their behavior. His study left him with a strange, overly formal set of behaviors, but the trick worked. His peers still thought of him as obscenely weird, but they no longer called him slack-jawed yokel.

After making it through the fire pit that is middle and high school, Bao was presented with a choice by his parents. He could take up a position at the Plantbending school, or he could pursue his own interests. The school position was sorely tempting, but Bao knew that his love of understanding the world would not be quenched if he stayed. He chose to travel to Ba Sing Se and enrolled in the university there. He spent eight magnificent years with the school, first learning the intricacies of the field of biology, then working in far-flung locations cataloging rare plant and animal species with his professors, and finally traveling with classes of his own as their tutor. Working as a tutor, he discovered his love of sharing his scientific knowledge. After much deliberation, he finally decided to conclude his studies with the university, and give back to the place that had provided him so many opportunities: Republic City. He returned to the city over a year ago, and has been working as science teacher at a local public school ever since. Though teaching has had its ups and downs, he has felt relatively successful in his teaching career thus far, and looks forward to continuing the trend.

Bao is ecstatic about the spirits returning. There's tons of new flora and fauna to be found in Republic City, and Bao has taken some time off from work to explore the spirit vine forest, searching for interesting things!

RP sample
“Let’s see… Baby boar-q-pine? Check.” Bao looked lovingly at the adorable little ball of quills sitting in a cage on his desk and smiled widely. “Glass shield mounted on my desk? Check!” He tapped the old Satomobile windshield that a student had brought him the day before, and turned towards the students sitting behind him for a moment. “Thank you again for your contribution, Thanh. Goodness knows what we would have used if you hadn’t scavenged through your father’s old auto parts!” He nodded approvingly at the boy in question, and then turned his attention to the long pole currently resting on the desk. A small frown crossed his face for a moment, before he made a conscious effort to return the expression to a small smile. “Though, I wonder where you found this sign post. I hope it won’t be missed, wherever it happens to be from.” Bao’s smile turned a bit wan as he noted the mischievous look on Thanh’s face. He’d have to make it a point to figure out where the boy got it from after class. “I do thank you, though. It will make an excellent generator of stimuli for our little boar-q-pine.” He turned his full attention to the class as a whole, smiling fully again. “Now, if you’re all ready, I’ll slip these protective gloves on…” Bao pulled a pair of thick, leather gloves out of his belt pouch and slid them on, then grabbed the sign post from his desk. “As you all may remember, we’ve been talking about the role of defense mechanisms in nature. After spending so long talking about them, I do believe that it’s time to see some in action! If you would all kindly remain seated and quiet, I will provide a gentle but unwanted stimulus to our baby boar-q-pine.” 

Bao pressed himself against the glass, and slowly lowered the pole down on the other side. After a bit of finagling to get the pole through the bars of the cage, he slid the pole through until he was hovering over the pointy little ball of quills. “Ready, class? Three, two… one!” He gave the baby a firm, but gentle poke with the post and the next few things happened in rapid succession. The baby boar-q-pine swung its little tail as hard as it could. Quills flew off the little boar-q-pine and embedded themselves into the walls in all directions. A good amount bounced off of the windshield protecting the class, causing several students to wince and jump back in surprise. After a moment’s silence, Bao laughed and pulled the now quill-covered pole back over the glass and showed it to the class. “Now if you were a predator, would you want to try and eat him? No? EXACTLY.”

Additional Info
- Keeps a small, private greenhouse on the roof of his flat
- Does not know a lot about apothecary-esque things. He can tell you the properties of the plants and animals (such as “this has anti-inflammatory properties”), but he doesn’t know how to mix things, etc.
- Has never drank alcohol before
- Will become politely enraged if you insult his family or tribe.
- Will happily teach Plantbending to willing Waterbender students
- Keeps a spare change of clothing on him at ALL times
- Is a HUGE dork

Important or Notable Relationships:
Father: Bao has a rather amicable relationship with his father. Though the two have their disagreements, it was through his father’s encouragement that Bao decided to chase his dream of studying plants and animals. Father is still a bit sad that Bao chose not to take up a position in the family Plantbending school, but he understands.

Mother: Bao loves the coddling and attention that his mother slathers on her oldest son. She tries to provide what she can for the boy, and he returns her love and help in kind when he can.

Luc Duc (Brother): Bao greatly disapproves of his brother’s fascination with pro-bending and further disapproves of the training the boy is receiving to become a player. Luc, in return, constantly harasses his brother for being a “poncy egghead”. Though Bao snubs the 21-year-old and talks down about the “ruffian”, he secretly loves his brother. Don’t talk bad about Luc, or Bao will be all up in your grill.


(2nd Choice: Earthbender, 3rd Choice: Non-bender)