Saturday 16 July 2011

Character Bios: MC & Sibling

EDIT: I've added some more personality traits as par suggested by Mike...hope the extra new bits help!

After spending several hours on trying to find a decent name for the MC and the sibling I have finally managed it.  My knowledge of Japanese names is comparatively vast to my knowledge of Chinese names.  There was just...so much in terms of naming conventions as well as the different types of Chinese o.O. Anyway, I think I've made the names ambiguous enough to not be too bias to either Chinese or Japanese culture since the Ghost Month/Festival and the Japanese Bon festival are very similar.

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Yu Ling (Yu = Rain, LING = Forest) / LING, Yu.
- late 20's to early 30's.

- Is a male nurse and a medical intern who works at a large hospital in the city.
- Has recently suffered from a nervous breakdown in which his team failed to save a child in A&E due to his mishandling of his stress.
- His team leader suggested that he takes a break and visit family just before the Ghost Month starts.
- Lied to his family about suffering a nervous breakdown and instead said that he got a bit of holiday time to spend due to him working hard and has to travel back to work.  Only his sister (Kemi) knows about this.

New bits: (I'll just copy what Mike said in his comment as it was pretty much bang on in my initial ideas)
- Very work driven, he still doesn't quite understand why he got a nervous breakdown as he understands how stressful his line of work is. He is a bit at loss in what to do with all his sudden spare time.
- I like Mike's idea with how he's grown distant with the family because of modernisation which is partly why he has such a good relationship with Kemi. Kemi on the other hand keeps in touch with family and often updates Yu with the latest gossip.
- He's financially stable and is able to afford the occasional creature comforts and that he's more of the type to save rather than spend.
- House wise, lives in a modern apartment complex with modern furniture, no clutter. Kemi often tries to make it more 'homey' by bringing cushions, plushies and throws much to Yu's dismay.  He'd rather fork out on impressive gadgets (like a fridge with an ice dispenser or a 5.1 stereo surround system) than home decor.
- Will quite happily spend several days in solitude on his days off.
- Gets on very well with work mates and can be social-able if the situation calls for it but would never step out of his way to be the life of the party. He's not the type that would hold grudges when not invited to occasions either.
- Would occasionally bring in home-made snacks for the staff room and the team.

Kemi Ling (short from 'Akemi', Ake = bright and Mi = beautiful) / LING, Kemi.
- early-mid 20's for argument's sake.

- Journalist in training, dreams to be the next Harry Potter writer and uses her job as a stepping stone for her writing career.
- Works under an infamous reporter who is known to expose scandals and corrupt officials in the political and business fields.  However that reporter is no clean slate either...
- Doesn't particularly enjoy her job especially when she doesn't agree with her boss's reporting methods but doesn't complain about it.
- Has confidence issues in which Yu helps her out whenever she gets like that.

New bits:
- Her work requires her to do a lot of running around and for that she often eats takeaways.  This displeases Yu so he often invites her round for dinner
- Kemi is able to read Yu like a book due to her line of work.
- Whenever she's depressed she often waits around Yu's apartment complex reading her favourite books. A combination of "I want company yet I don't want to impose on you" kind of thing. 
- Work for Kemi is very tough especially as her boss is very demanding and would often force her to work late into the evenings and sometimes mornings.  She doesn't complain or resent her boss for that though.
- Kemi is not the type to ask anyone for help or assistance and would do things by herself.
- Also note that since they've come from a slightly traditional family, a lot of pressure is pushed onto the sons to do well and that daughters should be perfect housewives.  While the parents are happy with their kids, not all of the elderly members are happy with Kemi's line of work or her passion for writing.
- Other than that, Kemi is a level headed happy-go-lucky kind of girl and is able to focus on the good aspects of life.

Extra new bits:
- Yu is often bombarded with questions on when he's going to get a girlfriend/get married by the older relatives which is another reason on why he often avoids go home too much.
- Yu sees Kemi trying to achieve her dreams as opposed to himself who just accepts everything, for this he pays more attention to helping Kemi.

The siblings have a very good relationship and looks out for each other since they both moved to the same city and they both travelled back home for the Ghost Month. However due to how the Lunar Calendar works, they were unable to stay for the festival (which takes places in the middle of it) due to their work schedules and travelled back to the city.  Superstition states that it's very inauspicious to travel around this time but due to modernisation, that idea is slowly being phased out (like working in hospitals, big marketing firms, grocery shopping, newspaper facilities etc).

The story takes place when Yu is travelling back on a 2 day train journey on the eve of the festival.

Random side note: I decided to use my own surname for the character's name because I couldn't make up my mind XD


8 comments:

  1. I thought Ling was your Chinese name, rather then your surname? Anyway moving on.

    I really like the character bios. I think Yu's background as a male nurse who lost a kid in A&E is a good and rather eerie set up for the story. Not that it will be hugely important to the overall story but I was thinking how does he screw up? Does his mis-medicate someone or something like that? I was just trying to think in what ways a nurse negligence could lead to a death, im sure theres more but to mis-medicate someone seems like more of a tragedy rather then say losing someone on the operating table, which would be unfortunate (also he wouldn't be doing the actual operation) where as to mis-medicate would be carelessness. I'm guessing after that he's put on sabbatical by his boss and goes visits his family?

    Kemi I like her background as a journalist. One thing I failed to mention in previous posts (but which you've covered anyway in this) is that its probably best that the victim is someone generally disliked, even if its going to be a supernatural story, there could always be potential killers if you see what I mean. Depends if you are in fact going to have an actual killer or if its going to be like higurashi (the first season of higurashi when it was good) in which its more ambiguous. It could of course always be a combination of the two and be like Walter Sullivan from silent hill 4.

    I think now that you've got this down you/we need to nail down their personality's. Such as does Yu like his family, is he funny, is he a loner, is he introverted or extroverted, does he enjoy his job, how does it get along with his work mates, does he like the city? Just general stuff like that. From what you've mentioned in previous posts about what you wanted the character to be like and from this I imagine him being a very work driven person, that hes well liked but would be viewed by his colleagues as someone who 'just gets on with the job', maybe a bit tired and warn down by it, I imagine he loves his ma and pa but has been quite distant from them and the rest of the family for some time, with the exception of his sister. I also imagine that part of the distance between him and the rest of the family stems from the fact he's quite a modernised person while his family are still quite traditional, though I bet his parents are very proud of him. I reckon he lives alone and is financially quite well off (well for a nurse he must be). Thats just my thoughts based upon what you've written so far.
    For Kemi, see initially from the sounds of her job, being someone who uncovers scandals and corruption (or at least works under someone who does that) I'd of initially thought she'd be quite extroverted but then you say she has confidence issues. I think that makes a nice contrast for her to be in a job that would require a lot of confidence but lacks it. I imagine her being very technically good at her job and being a fantastic writer but not so great at the interviewing and reporting side (and yet again I was just about to say 'she probably wants to write books' and then realised you already said that, so yeh just take what I've just written as me agreeing and liking what you're written XD).

    On a more side note. Obviously I'm not story telling expert, but I think its a good idea to get all the finer details of the story figured out, BUT you dont necessarily have to reveal all of them. What I'm trying to say is figure everything out about the story but dont over explain anything, as you've already said you want to keep it ambiguous.

    Anyone well done, I think the stories beginning to come along really well.

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  2. Ah remember that Japanese drama show Iryu? The one that's practically trauma centre in live action? Yu probably fumbled whilst handling a needle and broke it which delayed the drugs by several more seconds. It could be something else in which he fumbles over like the resuscitation machines or whatever...maybe we don't really need to know the details just yet anyway lol. At least it make it really insignificant yet crucial in a situation like that. And yes, he went on a sabbatical for it.

    I've yet to figure out the 'killer' but I can build up on it later for the time being.

    You've pretty much nailed my initial thoughts about Yu's character...nice out!

    I'll get the finer details sorted out soonies. After the general plot that is XD

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  3. ah i like it, this gives us a lot more depth to the characters and will really help with the design. i particularly like that he had a nervous breakdown as that will kinda help with the creepy factor and lets us get away with more XD

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  4. Yey Michelle! :D

    Awesome, glad everyone seems to like poor Yu and his nervous breakdowns haha.

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  5. yeah, i think the nervous breakdown thing is actually a really good way to get empathy as well :D i love charas like that... thats also why i liked roxas from kingdom hearts XD

    when i do some sketches of yu ill have to do a little breakdown one when hes going crazy i think XD

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  6. Go for it Michelle! Can't wait to see your sketches :B Are you alright with posting it here on the blog? Feel free to post it to your dA account too (everyone included!).

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  7. ill post it here exclusively no worries :) at least until i get the okay from you or we finish the project XD

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  8. I've okay'ed it, the more marketing/exposure the better!!! :DDDD

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