| Shawn Richards |
 |
| Portrayed By: | {$actor} |
| Status: | Alive |
| Age: | 22 |
| Calling: | Qi Master |
| Pantheon: | Celestial Bureaucracy |
| Divine Parent: | Shennong |
| Significant Other(s): | None |
Background
It was in the early 80’s, the lovely Miss Richards had been over in Hong Kong, over to attend a lecture on the use of plants in Chinese medicine. It was here that she had met a handsome young doctor, who seemed to disagree so profusely with some of the statements made at the lecture. Curious about him, she had met and they had spent a few enjoyable nights together until she had to return home to finish her final classes of her doctorate back in New York. Unfortunately she had a surprise for her when she had gotten home, she was pregnant. She had been on birth control, and she was sure he had worn a condom, but apparently she must have fallen into that point oh one percent that it would fail for. She decided to keep it though, and she tried to contact the man she had been with, but to no avail.
It was difficult as a single mother who needed to spend her time on her career, and she could only hire baby sitters so much. Still she had a sister she could pawn the boy off on fairly often, and her brother in law seemed to have time to spare to look over the boy. Of course this was in part due to the fact that he was a white man practicing Chinese medicine in the basement of a dojo in China town. Still he at least knew his stuff.
Growing up Shawn was the envy of other boys. He got to learn martial arts and how to swing a sword around. How many kids got that opportunity after all? Of course he also soon learned that the other things his uncle was teaching him were things that the other students would just laugh at. After all, who would have heard of using glass cups and herbs as medicine, that’s what you went to a real doctor for. Shawn decided it was probably best then to stop sharing the things he learned with the other students, but to keep learning it anyway, after all, that stuff worked!
During his regular school hours he was always bored. He paid little attention to the lessons in school, always waiting to head home so he could get lessons in things that were more interesting, lessons of Qi, of its flow through the world, the purpose of celestial and terrestrial qi for the human body. Shawn was adept at learning how to use these things in his own body as well, in improving the way he fought by flowing with the qi rather than opposing it.
Of course all of this became a little more clear to him when he was 18 and tending shop for his uncle one day. An old Chinese man came into the shop one day, and as he was explaining that his uncle had gone out, the old man told him that he was here for Him, not his uncle. He was abit confused, after all, he’d never seen the man before, but he had at least been taught to be polite. Inquiring as to why, the old man explained that he was Shawn’s father, which just left the young man rather aghast. Shawn complained that it couldn’t be so, since from what his mother had told him, his father was young and handsome, and yeah his mother was a bit on in years (from his perspective) no way his father could be so old. Course this earned him a rap on his head for disrespect, after which the old mans form shimmered and took on the image of a much younger, sharper dressed man. Backing away from the old man with his jaw hanging wide, he backed into the wall, and the old, now young man just chuckled at him.
Shennong explained to him who he was, and that he was indeed Shawn’s father, and that they would be going on a little trip back to the home land to explain matters. Too shocked to resist, Shawn was easily lead by Shennong onto a little cloud that proceeded to take off with both of them, moving at blurring speeds at heights that made the earth seem like it was just an image on a map. They moved across the U.S. moving ever westward, crossing the sea until finally they arrived on some islands in the Strait of Bohai, passing over the land filled with creatures of pure white fur and feathers till it flew up into the sky towards Polaris.
Shawn was rather amazed. His uncle had always taught him that the heaven of Chinese myth was located at the center of the sky, around the unmoving north star. But it was apparently true. He saw the river that was the Milky Way, and the constellations were just cities. As they reached the Purple Forbidden enclosure, Shennong explained more to him about the way of things, how they were always fighting against the forces of Chaos. That as one of the children of the Celestial Bureaucracy, he would likely come against such things, as well as evil spirits of other Titans as well. As such it would be bad parenting on his part not to give him things that would aide him, and keep him safe. He took him however first to the Office of Celestial Travel, telling him the importance of the paperwork, that through the Order that the Celestial Bureaucracy keeps, they are able to push back the forces of chaos.
After this he took him to his heavenly palace after going through his divine gardens, as they went through the store room, he handed him a compass of jade, a small jade bakua amulet, a small amber seed, and then a sword. Nodding to himself, Shennong looked over Shawn again, and deciding he seemed the sort to need alittle help in fighting, he took him to a divine minister of permanent inking. He explained to Shawn that the proper diagramming of qi points directed into the origin of chi, he would be able to better focus qi through his Dantian to be able to fight much better. Nodding, as he remembered the principles of the meditations from his uncle, he took the pain of the tattooing with little whimpering.
Shennong simply smiled and whisked him back to the Office of Celestial Travel after that, telling Shawn that he was terribly busy, and that he or one of his ministers would check up on him from time to time. Shennong unfortunately… set him down in Hong Kong, on the opposite side of the world from his home with no money, no passport, and now with more questions than answers. It was a troublesome year for him, learning to speak the dialect of the area, having only spoken Mandarin before and now needing Cantonese. That and the fact he had a sword that he was in no way shape or form wanting to get in trouble for, having heard of the problems with the Chinese legal system. It was tough learning to live on the streets, doing odd jobs. Occassionally odd things would happen, as a demon might come through harassing people for no reason he could see and he bravely fought them off. He finally was able to call home, his mother terrified that he had been gone for a year apparently, everyone having thought him dead or kidnapped. Unsure of how to explain it, he just claimed amnesia over the whole thing, having had to go to many psychotherapists since then to have them poke and prod at him over the ordeal.
Sadly he had been was away from home around the time of New York becoming a den of weirdness. He saw the Times Square crucifixions on the television and thought it damn strange when he was at one hospital. He was there helping out injured in Ohio as best he could when he he heard about deaths of millions. It seemed whenever he was away from New York something bad would happen, and now this Atlantis mess? He said no more, and decided to spend his time now at home, protecting those he cared about to make the big apple clean of the worms that now infect it.
Personality
~In progress
Relationships
~In progress
Events Thus Far
Links to logs with event summary. Woosh!
Relationships
Character Sheet
| Strength 3 | Charisma 3 | Perception 3 |
| Epic Strength 2 | Epic Charisma 0 | Epic Perception 2 |
| Dexterity 4 | Manipulation 2 | Intelligence 3 |
| Epic Dexterity 2 | Epic Manipulation 0 | Epic Intelligence 2 |
| Stamina 4 | Appearance 2 | Wits 3 |
| Epic Stamina 2 | Epic Appearance 0 | Epic Wits 0 |
