Jade the Tiger

Tough, courageous, and willing to punch anything that moves (or doesn't) if it aggravates her, Jade the Tiger, or Jade Lau, is a tigress hailing from small town Chun-nan. Somewhat unwillingly forced into hero-work after the events of the breaking of the planet in Sonic Unleashed, Jade gained a taste for adventure and eventually became the leader of her heroic group of friends, known as "the Jade Brigade." 
==Character==
===Personality===
WIP
Getting Jade to warm up to a new person is about as easy as thawing a mammoth with a hairdryer. She is rather closed off, mostly due to her rather sheltered life in a small village and her natural distrust for strangers. She would have to be extremely close to someone before she could even begin to relax enough to actually crack a joke or make a pun, which, of course, would be delivered in the most serious tone possible, followed by a tiny smirk. 
*Dutiful towards her family through her eternal wish to make them proud and live up to their expectations, with great self-discipline learned through her martial arts training. If not for her ability to know when to bite her tongue, she would likely come off as overly blunt. 
*Though it tends to be buried deep, deep down, Jade has great compassion for others. However, if anyone dared accuse her of caring, she'd scoff at the very notion. It's a secret that everyone knows except Jade herself. 
*Adventurous and courageous. Loyal. 
Since Jade is so uncomfortable in large crowds or when being watched by a group of people, Jade has become somewhat of an unwilling leader, both within her team and her community. She does her best to conceal her discomfort via the teachings of her martial arts training, trying to always project a sense of calm and that she is always in control of any situation. Though no speech-maker by any means, Jade has a way of spreading her fierce determination to others with a few choice words. Her leadership also comes through in her ability to think quickly in the heat of the moment and give rapid-fire orders to her teammates.
*Aggressive. She really has to center herself to maintain patience. Becomes easily riled up. 
*Inexpressive and serious. Can come off as haughty. 
Jade's sense of scathing humour always makes her come off as overly sarcastic. More often than not, she will deliver her sarcastic jabs in an entirely neutral tone, making it difficult for others to determine if she is being serious or not. Her harsh style of communication is used to cover up her inner shyness and insecurities. When she feels uncomfortable around someone, or in an unfamiliar situation, her sentences will be very short and clipped, therefore the other person may feel as though she is snapping at them. Jade does wish nothing more to be liked by others, but because she is socially awkward and covers this with her harsher personality traits, she does come off as unlikable and therefore has a history of having trouble making friends. 
*Somewhat insecure about herself in terms of appearance and abilities. 
Jade is, first and foremost, a cat. A big cat, but a cat nonetheless. Being a big cat means she loves nothing more than to laze around and waste the day away. Though she'll always finish a task or run to someone's aid, she has a problem with scraping together the motivation to get started. This ultimate laziness makes her somewhat passive to certain situations unless she feels that her help is truly needed. She'll often wait until the eleventh hour to finally step in. 
===Appearance===
Jade is a rather slender, fit young lady, and is much stronger than she looks based on her size. As with most tigers, Jade has large front paws, which she thinks is perfectly fine, as they provide a bigger surface to punch with.
 Jade's main sore spot is her height. Being one of the smallest species of tiger found in Chun-nan, she stands at a meager 3'3 (despite matching Sonic's height). She is often teased about her size by the larger animals in her village, since tigers are "supposed to be the biggest cats around."
As one would expect for a tiger, the majority of Jade's fur is orange and striped black. Her muzzle, torso, and the inside of her arms and legs are white, with small white tufts of fur also present on her small ears. She has a large, pink nose which her mother finds adorable (and Jade, therefore, does not.) Though fully retractable, she usually lets the tips of her claws stick out, just because it makes her feel tougher, and like she's always ready for a fight. 
Jade's eye colour is what finally helped her parents settle on a name for their daughter, as they are a bright, deep green which show expression when the rest of her face remains stoic. Her eyes themselves are slightly slanted and almond-shaped, with circles of white fur surrounding them, rimmed with black stripes (which act as her eyebrows for the sake of expressions.) 
Jade's hair is nearly almost always tied back, either in a ponytail or a bun, as she feels that it is constantly in the way when she leaves it loose. Her father often comments that she should just cut it short if she feels it's such trouble, but Jade feels that she would look too boy-ish with short hair. 
In terms of her style, the tigress normally prefers loose, breathable clothing that she can move in easily, and will only wear more formal attire if absolutely necessary. However, she doesn't mind wearing makeup, mostly dark eyeshadow (preferably black) as it makes her feel edgy. Her favourite colour is red, and thus appears in the majority of her outfits, along with a combination of black and yellow. Rarely, she will wear green, as she feels the colour would be too "predictable" on her. 
==History==
===Backstory===
Born and raised, Jade resides in a small Chun-nan village at the base of a mountain range, close to one of the nation's major cities. Jade's early life was relatively quiet and peaceful, growing up at her family's ancestral home on their orange orchard with her mother, father, and grandmother. 
Jade's excessive strength started to make an appearance at a very early age. After several catastrophic temper tantrums leading to many pieces of broken furniture, her parents enrolled her in a martial arts class at the small local dojo to teach her self-control, discipline, and to put her strength to a more constructive use. Though always reluctant to participate with the other students, Jade's father always pushed her and motivated her to put in extra practice outside of class hours, and Jade rose quickly through the rankings, becoming somewhat well-known in the area for her kung-fu skills, which only continued to improve as she became older. Additionally, this extra training allowed her strength to greatly develop to the point where she could lift extreme weight without breaking a sweat. Her father always found this skill to be incredibly useful around the orchard which earned Jade plenty of extra chores (much to her chagrin.) 
Home-schooled by her mother, her mornings were filled with work on the orchard, her days with her academic and athletic studies, and her nights listening to her grandmother's tales, both tall and true. Though a happy child, the small village with very few strangers passing through, and the seclusion of the orchard combined to cause Jade to become shy and closed off around unfamiliar people, resulting in her having very few friends throughout her childhood and into her teens. Her success in her martial arts studies only further ostracized her from her fellow classmates. 
Jade would almost count the shattering of the planet as a blessing. The resulting quakes sent her tiny community and the nearby city spiraling into chaos. Bound by her sense of duty to use her skills to help those in need, Jade was spurred into action, helping to lift away the wreckage to pull trapped citizens to safety. It was then that she first met a trio of like-minded teens: Skye the Raven, Tala the Echidna, and Rilla Raccoon. Deciding the four of them could do more good for the people of the city and village by working together than apart, they teamed up, rescuing as many people from the debris as they could and assisting with the cleanup. Afterwards, they were heralded for their courage in the time of great need by the city's military councilor and they became well-known throughout the area, though Jade was not exactly comfortable with all the unfamiliar attention, she was simply glad to have finally found a group of friend she felt like she belonged in.
Following the quakes, the unruliness of local criminals came to the new group's attention and they decided that together, they would be able to help those in need and in that moment, they decided to form a team. It was Skye that declared that Jade should be their leader, both due to her leadership skills and because of her knowledge of the area and its people, and thus the raven decided that they should be called "The Jade Brigade." Though Jade was thoroughly embarrassed and by no means wanted to be the leader, the girls all agreed, and she was unwilling to argue for fear of upsetting her new friends.
Slowly but surely, the Jade Brigade became known as local heroes within the city and were looked up to by citizens of the city, and Jade's new friends were unwilling to leave the community behind, wanting to continue to help where they were able. Without stable homes of their own in the area, Rilla, Tala, and Skye went together to purchase a rundown abandoned warehouse in Jade's village to slowly turn into their home and a headquarters where Rilla could build her gadgets and conduct her experiments safely. To help pay for the restorations, Rilla planted a small field outside of the warehouse of fruits and vegetables to sell in the marketplace and contribute to the community, and Jade would pitch in by doing most of the hard labour and heavy lifting, happy to do it if it meant she got to keep her friends close.
For a long time, Jade's parents were unaware that she was leaving home in the evening to patrol the village and city streets with her team, as she would excuse herself by saying that she was spending the night with her friends. Her parents were so pleased that she had finally found a friend-group to spend time with, they believed her without question, as the village was fairly secluded from the city's news. Jade's grandmother, as quick and sharp as she is, was quick to figure out what her granddaughter was up to when she would return home with dark circles under her eyes and unexplained cuts and bruises. To Jade's surprise, her grandmother was willing to keep her secret, citing how proud she was of her granddaughter, and that it was Jade's story to share with her parents when she felt the time was right. However, as the Jade Brigade's fame became known within Jade's home village, it wasn't long before Jade's parents found out what she had been up to most evenings. Initially upset and disappointed in her for her lies, they eventually came to accept that she was doing good in the community that they had no place to put a stop to. They agreed that she could continue her heroic activities... so long as she finishes her chores and always comes home for dinner.
The Jade Brigade now runs a call center where people can call for help, for anything from reporting a Chao stuck in a tree to a dangerous thief terrorizing the marketplace. 
===Appearances in Fiction===
TBA
==Powers and Abilities ==
===Super-strength===
Don't count her out because of her small stature; Jade is strong enough to easily lift a car over her head, or, more likely, a cart full of oranges that lost its wheel on the way to the local market. This extreme strength has also gifted Jade with increased durability and resiliency. If someone toppled a wall on top of her, she'd just shove it off and come out of it looking angrier.
===Claws ===
Though more a physical feature than a power, Jade counts her claws as her primary weapon in a fight. Incredibly strong and razor sharp, ...... TBA
===Hydrokinesis ===
Since this ability did not appear until Jade was in her early teens, it remains a very underdeveloped power in Jade's arsenal. WIP
===Kung fu ===
Though her parents originally enrolled her in classes to teach her discipline and patience, Jade has become a local champion in several forms of kung fu, making her formidable in hand-to-hand combat situations. Combined with her strength and her claws, she is a force to be reckoned with in a fight. 
===Stealth ===
TBA
===Strong Swimmer ===
Even without her water-based abilities, Jade has always loved spending time up to her nose in the water on hot days down at the local ponds and rivers. ....WIP
==Interests==
===Cooking===
TBA
===Geology===
TBA
==Weaknesses==
===Extreme cold===
(WIP) Jade isn't exactly sure if her water powers are what makes her freeze up or if she really just hates the cold that much. Either way, she can never give a peak performance when she's chilled through. 
===Self insecurities===
TBA (Would be extremely susceptible to villainous taunting.) 
===Hot-tempered ===
TBA
==Relationships ==
===Family ===
Lei Lau (Mother): Lei is probably the gentlest person Jade knows. 
The young tigress admires her mother in how she manages to remain patient and calm in any situation, and, of course, for her cooking. To contribute to the family income, Lei runs her own small event catering business, providing delicious and traditional Chun-nan delicacies, and she and her daughter have spent many long hours in the family kitchen, teaching Jade the trade. When her mother is catering an event, Jade often goes along to help serve the guests and make last-minute food preparations. Though they do attend a wide variety of events, such as festivals, business meetings, and family gatherings, Lei is most commonly called to cater weddings. At such events, Lei nearly always makes comments to her daughter about how she can't wait to cater Jade's wedding. While Jade always scoffs at the idea, she's always secretly watching the happy bride and groom and daydreaming of the same thing. 
Garnet Lau (Father): Garnet, simply speaking, is one tough cookie. He is incredibly hard working when it comes to their family's orchard, and is very handy around the house, but with his daughter, he can be a bit strict. He always wants to see Jade be the best of the best, and therefore pushed Jade through her school and martial arts training. Although Jade was far from appreciating his tough love at the time, Jade is now thankful that he did force her to practice so much when she was younger, as she has now found great use for her skills.  
Lotus Lau (Grandmother): Jade is very close with her grandmother, and is the one person in her household Jade feels that she can turn to without worry of judgment. Therefore, Jade constantly seeks out her experience and wisdom when in need of advice. For the longest time, her grandmother was the only one who knew that Jade was sneaking out to patrol with her friends, and Jade always got the feeling that her grandmother enjoyed keeping the secret. She enjoys her grandma's mischievous and fun-loving nature, and Lotus is one of the few people that Jade just lets loose around and has a laugh with.
===Friends===
OPEN FOR FRIENDS
Zalika the Jackal: Left to her own devices, Jade would never have willingly associated with someone like Zalika. While the two are polar opposites, Zalika is the yin to Jade's yang, the girly-girl to her tomboy. Jade first met the jackal when her mother was hired to cater a luncheon of a modeling company which Zalika had just been hired to, and Jade accompanied her mother to help. Jade immediately developed a distaste for the fashion-forward canine, mostly from her own stereotypical views of rich model types. Much to Jade's chagrin and Zalika's delight, she learned that Zalika's family had purchased the community's uninhabited large country manor next to the tigers' orchard home, thus becoming the closest thing the Lau family had to neighbours. Zalika was then determined to become best friends with the tigress, helping her out with everything from fashion to relationships. Though thoroughly annoyed with her new neighbour's over-enthusiastic attitude and constant picking at her sense of fashion, Jade did eventually warm up to her when she saw past the model to understand that Zalika really was a very caring girl who always wants to help others, just in her own way (though she is still constantly annoyed in Zalika's presence, just in a more fond way.) Zalika will often drag Jade into the city for a day of shopping and fun-seeking, and is always overjoyed when the tigress politely accepts her invitations to meet up at the location of one of her photo-shoots. 
====The Jade Brigade====
*Skye the Raven: Her eye in the sky, her sidekick, Skye is, by far, Jade's closest friend. WIP
*Tala the Echidna: Tala seems to think of herself as Jade's enforcer, often found standing at Jade's side when Jade is giving a speech or is trying to be intimidating. The tigress finds Tala's uncanny ability to counter any argument to be incredibly useful, since Jade isn't overly talkative herself and her aggression does often get in the way of her making a cohesive point. Tala is an excellent boxer, and though their fighting styles do not exactly align, Jade and Tala do enjoy training together, and teaching each other a few tricks from their chosen combat styles. 
*Rilla Raccoon: The group's resident super-genius, Jade is very protective of the raccoon, as Jade basically sees her as a helpless kitten. Rilla absolutely abhors violence and therefore refuses to fight (and is equally incapable of it), which has led to more than a few disagreements between her and the tigress on their group's methods of operation. Eventually, Rilla was able to accept that Jade could use her fists and bad attitude to help others, and she could use her skills with tools and technology alongside, lending their team to becoming a more well-rounded unit. Rilla accepts Jade's leadership and judgment and now listens to her orders without question (which definitely gives Jade an ego boost) and is good at quelling the tigress' hotheadedness with her natural calming and sweet nature. 
*Kina the Skunk: After meeting in the middle of an adventure, Kina is the group's most recent addition. Jade and Kina were able to grow close surprisingly fast, as they both connected on knowing what it felt like to be avoided by others throughout their early lives (Kina being a skunk, and Jade being so secluded) and because Jade finds Kina's quiet nature to be soothing. They are easily able to enjoy sitting in a comfortable silence together. Since Kina has the ability to produce hypnotic pheromones, Jade and her team find her skills to be incredibly useful, whether to induce a criminal to tell the truth, or calm a raging rioter. Jade also truly appreciates Kina's chemistry skills in producing aromatherapy products and incense, which Jade loves to use when practicing her martial arts, meditating, or when she's in a generally grumpy mood. She, along with Rilla, often work together to produce and test new products, which they sell in the market to earn their group a bit of extra spending money. 
*Dria the Eagle: They once met when Dria was part of the Security Corps, when Jade’s village was being rebuilt after the war. The two didn’t hit it off, so to speak, but Dria’s friendly nature eventually drew the two together enough that they would remember each other. They later met again alongside the rest of Team Dragoon when they were sent to assist in destroying a Eggman base on the continent. They became actual friends there, even though Dria didn’t get to stay long, being part of Team Dragoon and all, but she would keep in contact.
===Acquaintances ===
TBA. OPEN FOR ACQUAINTANCES. 
* Alan Hamond and Silence the Hyena: These two were part of Team Dragoon, so they were sent with Dria to destroy the Eggman base. They weren’t much interested in becoming friends with Jade, but they did become allies due to their friendship with Dria.
* Srish the Water Strider: Another member of Team Dragoon, Srish came with Dria to destroy the Eggman base. Unlike Alan and Silence, Srish tried to become friends with Jade, but was shut down due to the short time they spent together.
* Unnamed multidimensional robot: A random multidimensional robot (resembling a Dalek) at one point teleported to Chun-nan, planning to meet Jade and her team and Zalika, where it will ask and dare them to do many things. WIP
===Romantic Interests ===
OPEN FOR SHIPS (Jade would secretly love nothing more than to be in a relationship.) 
* Nestor the Red Panda: (Courtesy of Onyxodon. Hope you like this guy) Known as Ness to his friends, he's virtually the opposite of Jade, being bashful, emotional, slightly wimpy, and a bit nerdy like his old friend Rilla, and is in a wheelchair that Rilla built for him, which can hover and has purely defensive capabilities. He's trying to get a doctorate for psychiatry because of his natural empathy and his uncanny ability to reach people. They first met when Rilla introduced them. Jade initially didn't think much of him, thinking that he was "just a scrawny little guy," but, although she hated to admit it, she came to enjoy his company, especially since he's one of the few who actually listens to her and doesn't judge her. Once, he became frustrated at her own insecurities and went all out on all the great things about her and how she's way too hard on herself, making her tear up. After that, she greatly warmed up to him, often inviting him along on their adventures and gradually became more bashful and enamored with each other.
===Enemies ===
OPEN FOR ENEMIES! (Give her someone to fight!) 
* Aliandra the Cheetah: WIP
* Jamal the Hybrid: (Courtesy of Onyxodon. Hope you like this one) A genetic hybrid and Allandra's husband, he was created in a facility underneath Jade's community by a group of scientists as a prototype living weapon, before they lost control of him and he destroyed them. He's made up of a multitude of animal and plant DNA, but the base is wombat. Intelligent and manipulative, he kidnaps random people and transforms them into hybrids to make his own army in hopes of filling the world with "superior" beings. His name is derived from the letters in Project Amalgam, the program that created him. His telekinesis and genetically enhanced strength and healing factor make him a difficult enemy for Jade.
==Quotes==
*"No plans. Just action!" 
*"Oh no. You do not get to tell me what to do." 
*"Listen here, buddy..." 
==Trivia==
*Jade's birthday is May 24. 
*Jade was first conceptualized in 2009 as a doodle on the back of a science test. She was her creator's first OC.
*Jade was named by her creator's best friend. 
*The Jade Brigade consists of characters that Jade's creator designed for her best high school friends. They are simply called the "Jade" brigade because Jade came first. It was one of Jade's creator's friends that suggested the group name. 
*The members of Jade's father's side of the family is traditionally named after precious gemstones, hence "Garnet" and "Jade." 
*Jade is a South China tiger, which is the smallest subspecies of tiger found in China, hence why Jade is so small for a large cat species. 
*Though she rarely does so, as she knows she looks silly, Jade can run faster on all fours. 
*Jade doesn't swear. She's come up with quite an interesting alternative vocabulary to express her anger. 
*She has a habit of snapping her fingers, both to emphasize her words and as non-verbal commands. Skye is really the only person who actually understand what most of these snaps are intended to convey. 
*After watching lots of martial arts movies, Jade decided at age six that she wanted to be a ninja when she grew up. 
==Gallery==
Jade the Tiger 2010.jpg|Jade's first digital drawing (2010)
The Jade Brigade.jpg|Old designs of the Jade Brigade—Tala, Rilla, Jade, Skye, and Kina.
Jade and Lovely.jpg|Jade and an old friend's oc.
Gryffindor Jade.jpg|I was excited when the last movie was coming out
Jade Through Time and Space.jpg|Doctor Who crossover—Jade as River Song
Jade The Time of Angels.jpg|Doctor Who crossover—Jade as River Song
Halloween Vampire Jade.jpg|Halloween 2013
Jade Forms Meme.jpg|Jade's Sonic Forms Meme
Jade Mysterious Discovery.jpg|Jade on an adventure with someone else's oc.
Jade Halloween Mummy.jpg|Halloween 2014
Jade Day of the Moon.jpg|A Doctor Who crossover—Jade as River Song.
Jade's New Wardrobe.jpg|Outfits designed for Jade for a contest.
How's the Weather Down There.jpg|Something I made when I realized Jade is shorter than all the other Sonic ocs I've drawn.
Makeover!.jpg|Zalika is happy. Jade is not.
Strike a Pose!.jpg|Jade and Zalika can't even go to the beach without Zalika posing for a picture.
Chun-nan Dumplings.jpg
Category:Characters
Category:Mobians
Category:Tigers
Category:Females
Category:Heroes