Lydia Hotaru (Twin Warrior of Fire) [Finished]

|BASICS|
Name: Lydia Hotaru
Age: 17 (After the 15 year time skip)
Birthplace: Vermillion Dragon Empire Colonies of the Fire Nation
Current Residence: Vermillion City, Vermillion Dragon Empire
Rank: Bender, Elemental Warrior of Fire (Along with twin brother.)
Occupation: None
Element: Fire
Pets: While moving from city to city Lydia discovered a bird that flew rather close to her while eating a piece of meat. It was a Raven Eagle. This particular bird seemed rather friendly and immediately became attached to Lydia.  She then half-begged and half-pleaded with her brother to keep the now tamed beast. Kaede finally agreed with some slight persuasion. Thus the Raven Eagle was named Emer meaning “swift” or “ready”.
Weapons: Unlike her brother who never uses any weapons, Lydia is skilled with creating a flame sword. Using a handle of a Jii sword Lydia is able to manipulate the blade my using fire. If the blade is too short she can lengthen it, if the blade is too short she can make it longer. The handle is small and easy to take along on any journey. Once used the sword to light a path in a cave that the twins needed to pass through. However Lydia usually relies on bending in most situations.


|OPTIONAL|
Birthday: February 18th
Blood type:B-
Hobbies: Avoiding her brother’s persistent teasing, weaving (when she wants to and not when she’s forced), avid tea drinker, improvising weapons, and training.
Quirks: Lydia is always rather fascinated with animals of all types. It is kind of a weakness. She has seen many creatures but always wants to see them all. It has been her dream to see living dragons, and often stops her brother on the middle of a trail to see such animals.
Family:
Aruko Hotaru; Father (Firebender)
Sharon Hotaru; Mother (Non-bender)
Kaede Hotaru: Twin-brother (Firebender)
Character Theme: N/A

|APPEARANCE|
Hair: Red fiery hair that stretches a few inches past her lower back. Her bangs are cut at an angle that complements her face. When she is bending the yellow tinges of the flame reflect off her hair. Her brother, Kaede, always jokes that she was born to be a firebender and her red hair shows it.  
Eyes: Medium sized brown eyes with tinges of orange and yellow that appear in the light.
Height: 5’9 and ½
Clothes: Because of the intense travel Lydia and her brother Kaede are dressed to trek. She often wears a soft gold threaded black shirt that is overlapped by a military style ebony coat. The collar of the coat is normally popped upward. Around her waist is a fiery red belt that holds her coinage, sword handle, and extra items. Her pants are a lighter wood color. Her boots are then a darker shade of brown. Upon her back is a charcoal knapsack where she stores food, maps, paper, ink, writing utensils,  and other items for travel.
Skin: Lydia’s skin is rather tough with a few stray burn marks on the back of her palms. The majority of her skin is tanned. Also on Lydia’s hands are many callouses from climbing trees and rocks to escape their mother’s fury. On her back are a few very thin whip marks, a local water bender healed and promised they would fade over time and they have.
Body Type: Lydia is not a petite frame nor is she large and bewildering. She is taller than most her age and is muscular from the intense travel. However she isn’t the most physically fit person. But when tested she can usually keep up.
Image:



[size=18]|CHARACTERISTICS|
Personality: Lydia was always her father’s favorite. She was first child to have fire bending. Thus under his wing she became disconnected from the world and her mother’s wrath for some time. She was taught patience, discipline, and focus to achieve her goals. Thus she had become a sort of strategist when she and her brother left their home. She kept the maps, charts, and food to sustain them always being a step ahead.

However Lyida always worried for her brother. He was not looked upon with her father’s pleasant gaze. He always gave a subtle frown around his son because he was not a firebender. Thus it created a rift. For most of her life she felt detached from family, friends, just everyone. Leaving a void in her heart needing to be filled. She is looking to fill the void but doesn’t know how.

Personal Strengths:

+ Planner
+  Focused
+ Swift in action
+ Navigation
+ Surveillance

Personal Weaknesses:

- Distracted
- Manipulating (Just like her brother)
- Slightly Stubborn
- Guarded (on the flip side slightly emotional)
- Disconnected

Hamartia: Lydia’s fatal flaw is that she is just too disconnected from the world and her brother. Sometimes she never feels that she actually knows and understands him other than that he is her brother. But on the flip side Lydia is guarded. She rarely feels the need to share emotions or other thoughts except when they pertain to the task at hand. Unless she is in a dire situation then she floods over with emotion.

Personal Hero: None.

Dreams and Ambitions: Lydia has no particular dream in mind other than to protect her twin brother Kaede.

Likes:

Fire/Flames
Bending
Kaede (Like a brother)
Competition (Also like her brother. They are rather a competitive duo.)
Tea
Weaving (When she wants to and not when she is forced.
Stars

Dislikes:

Losing a competitive match (whether it be running up a hill or dueling)
Her mother
Being disconnected
Not “fitting in”
Sneak attacks (mostly by her brother)
Not being able to control a fire (but that rarely happens)

History:
Lydia was born to a father who gleamed with pride and a mother who scowled at her. Just two minutes before her birth her twin brother Kaede popped out. Her mother was a peasant in the colonies of the Fire Nation who barely made a living waiting tables in a local restaurant. Her father was a well-respected fire bender who taught private lessons. However the family still barely made enough money from month to month to pay the bills. Though on the side her father, Aruko, kept a stash of money at a local bank as an emergency fund when times became too tough. Because he taught some of the more wealthy family’s children he had money to spare.

In elementary school Lydia excelled. Teachers often liked her for her superior intellect. Often she sat in the front of classes while Kaede kept in the back few seats to himself. Though Lydia tried to tell him to move up a few seats but he often declined and she soon gave up efforts. Early in 2nd grade Lydia learned her ability to firebend. She learned of this while watching her father do some warm-up drills. He slowly breathed fire in and out harnessing the flames, but then he realized someone else was doing the same technique behind the gate. The flames Lydia made reflected onto the walls of the compound. Her father immediately came over and asked her to try the breathing again.  At which she did.

Her father rejoiced, but Lydia did not know what to feel. A father who barely paid Lydia any heed till now…It was just a matter of time till Lydia was her father’s favorite. Though Lydia’s mother hates bending of all sorts and finds it “an abomination to nature itself” thus letting her mother know would be a most dire fate. Lydia’s father then made her swear never under any circumstance to tell her mother. She then took this to mean she could tell this to her brother. Lydia raced over to her brother to bring him to good news to notice he was doing her chores silently and alone. Lydia sighed, her brother was isolated and she couldn’t do much about it from their father always taking her away to practice and perfect her delicate art.

Around age 13 Lydia was completely fed up with her mother. Money became tighter and she forced Lydia to weave items like blankets, cloths, and clothes to sell at the local market place. Lydia hated her mother working her like a free sweatshop. She never lashed out this hard at Kaede, but she always hated Lydia. Once one garment was done she was forced to work on another and another and another. If she did not finish by the market day her mother would beat her until she pleaded for mercy. (Though sometimes mercy never came.) Usually her mother would beat Lydia when her father and brother were out of the house. Soon her mother began getting crueler by installing a whipping post and would whip Lydia’s back till it was mutilated flesh.


She was exhausted and could barely keep conscious during firebending practices. She attempted never to burden her father will her terrible plight till her mother’s whipping left blood running from her back. Her father rushed her to the local healer and she confessed to the mistreatment by her mother. The father sighed deeply and she followed him to the local bank at which he withdrew part of his emergency fund. He bought Lydia a new set of clothes (the clothes she currently wears) for travel and he bought her a few traveling items, maps, a compass, ink and paper, and so forth. He looked his daughter directly in the eye and said,





Lydia dashed home with her father on looking and slowly sauntering towards the home. When Lydia came home she saw her mother in the kitchen with a wooden paddle in her hand. Her look was a like a venomous snake when it traps its’ prey. The cruel mother told Lydia to go outside the whipping post for immense punishment. She forced Lydia to strip down until she wore no cloths and the mother chained her hands to the post. Assuming Lydia was a firebender she put a ball-gag in her mouth and chained her waist and neck to the post. The chains gave Lydia slight movement just enough if her mother wanted make her move. She circled Lydia telling her she learned about the firebending practices, her husband’s secrets, and Lydia’s unfinished garments. “You’ll wish you were dead once I am done with you!” The mother shrieked in fury.

Lydia held her tongue chocking in sobs and tears freely flowed down her blotched face. First her mother began with the wooden paddle forcing Lydia to squat and she repeatedly beat it on her back and bottom until Lydia could barely stand. “Get up you little gremlin I am not finished with this abomination!” her mother grabbed up her red hair and yanked her upward.  Then she made Lydia turn around for the whip, lash after lash, crack in the wind, and tears coated the stones outside. “Hm I hadn’t planned anything yet so I am done with you. But you cannot leave. I want you to feel the misery and know deep down it is wrong for you to be a firebender. Bending is bad Lydia.” With that the mother placed a black cloth bag over Lydia’s head. After one or two more yanks on her red hair her mother left.

Kaede rarely came home nowadays always out and about and her father rarely came home. But when they both did she lashed out on them thus they left. Lydia had become a personal slave to her mother. Her mother began new methods to torture her daughter but repeatedly forcing her head in water and bring back up only when Lydia was gasping for air. She then would take thorny roses and scrape them along her body till the ground was bloody. Then the day was over and the bare Lydia chained to a post was forced to suffer. This treatment went on for weeks of harsh punishment and forced labor, in that time neither her brother nor her father came home. She was disconnected.

Around three months after it began both her father and brother came home. Her mother forced her into a long-sleeved shirt and floor length shirt to cover the scars, bruises, and blood. The dinner was fine and her mother whispered venom into Lydia’s ear, “Tomorrow I will shave you like the dog you are and you’ll be eating your own hair for the next week. You are an abomination.” Her mother finished with a pleasant façade. No one was the wiser.

After dinner finished she raced towards her brother’s room where he was pondering to himself. Lydia pleaded with him that they could run away. Mother was going crazy. Lydia showed him all the scars, bruises, and other cuts her mother had done to her. Kaede understood they both understood all they could do was run away from the vile beast. With a nod they both packed their things, changed, and were about to leave when their mother halted them. She asked what they were doing, but then Lydia with rage filling her heart she flung out at her mother and let the flames dance along her mother’s back where Lydia has whip marks.




And with that with little hindrance in their progress the thirteen-year-old Lydia left with her brother Kaede to escape her mother’s wrath and detached father. They dashed to woods behind their old home. With their mother screaming “I will find both of you and end you!” Her brother discovered he had possessed the gift of firebending when he was covering up tracks as he accidentally began to burn them. The twins have been running, sprinting, jumping, firebending, and climbing though many terrains, cities, villages, and other areas ever since.

Approved