Bao Lung

Juxtaposed to his... *occupation*, Bao looks quite innocent: a bit like a puppy, really, and one of the least likely people around to steal from you. He's a bit on the skinny side - he does have *some* muscle on him, but not all that much - and stands at five-foot-seven-inches tall. He has Cathayan (?) ancestry, and it shows in his messy black hair, matching dark, warm, and slanted eyes, and almost always has a smile on his face. He's got a few small scars on his large hands and forearms, and he tends to t-shirts, jeans with big pockets, sneakers, and over-sized hoodies (that are easy to slip stolen items into).

Probably is on the missing persons list and has a warrant out for his arrest.

## Personality

By all appearances, Bao is a kind and friendly young man. He's got a tendency to keep to himself, but also isn't one to turn people away if they approach him first. He'll often be there to extend a helping hand and a smile if he thinks that someone needs it, and he makes for quite the charming personality, too; he doesn't let conversation lull unless his partner wants it to, and he can ramble enough for a shy person to not feel pressured to speak. This, however, is mostly just an illusion: while he really is plenty charming and has a face that would make your grandmother want to immediately start piling him with various foodstuffs, he doesn't talk to people who approach him just because he wants to and the people that he helps usually walk away with a missing wallet or piece of jewelry - not that they'll notice it until he's long gone. He's a master of sleight-of-hand, and more than that, is great at projecting an image of himself that he wants other people to see; that being sweet, friendly, and even a little bit helpless (something that his age helps with, despite the fact that he tends to carry himself with an air of confidence wherever he goes). He'll con help out of wherever he can get it, whether it be someone paying for one of his meals or someone offering him some money, even though he's plenty well-off already. That, though, isn't enough for him - it's enough to survive, but he wants to do more than that, he wants to *live*, and so he's turned himself into a thief, breaking into houses and stealing money or jewelry or anything else that looks valuable so he can sell it later on. He's become quite stealthy over the years, and if he doesn't want someone to notice him then chances are they won't - the probability is there, of course, but he's light on his feet and agile, and even if he *is* caught, then he's quick enough to run away before he gets caught and his daemon is intimidating enough to threaten any pursuers into keeping their distances. Him being caught in general, though, is unlikely; he prefers to have a well-thought-out plan as well as a plan b before he acts, and he rarely deviates from it. He's also patient, and is willing to wait however long he has to in order for something to work out the way he wants it to, and he's rarely one to let something get under his skin, either; he keeps his facade of all-smiles, boy-next-door pretty well in almost all situations he's put into. Bao is great at masking his emotions, even though he feels them very much (something which could be put him for debate, with what's been said of him so far) - he doesn't enjoy seeing people sad and hurt and he doesn't particularly like taking advantage of other's suffering, either, but he takes an opportunity when he sees one and he prioritizes himself over everything else. He also tends to distance himself from those around him, not really wanting to spend time people unless he thinks he can steal from them, and even then he doesn't stick around to really make a connection with them. Anyone who tried to stick around and do so would just get on his nerves and would have plenty of other barriers to break through, but that isn't to say that it's impossible. He's stealthy as all hell, light on his feet, and has has a talent for pick-pocketing and manipulation. He's also bilingual, speaking both [enter Chinese equivalent here] and English.

## Dæmon

Chang'e. African Leopard. Female.

Most of Chang'e's coat is orange-brown, but her pelt is spotted all over with black spots. On her belly, her fur fades to a cream-yellow shade, and her eyes are a calm green color. Her paws are large, and her tail is a bit short.

Bao is already ruthless, but Chang'e is even more so - she's all survival of the fittest, and as far she's concerned, the *fittest* is going to be *them*, no matter what happens. She's far colder than her human is and really only likes Bao and no one else, and she's also not one to mince her words either - while Bao will say what he needs to get what he wants, Chang'e is going to cut straight through the bullshit. She absolutely *hates* people prying into their lives to try and *understand them more*or some bullcrap like that, and is likely to growl, snarl, and snap at anyone who tries. She values her privacy (mostly because they live a pretty illegal lifestyle, but also because people that they *don't know* aren't *entitled* to *know* about them), but most of the time, she's just grumpy.

## History

Bao was born in the Republic to a seemingly happy, but struggling family. He struggled to understand why the kids around him had such nice thing but why he didn't, but he didn't complain much; his parents made him happy, and that was all that mattered. Or, at least, it *was*, until his father left the family when he was four and his mother grew depressed from it. She never abused him, but she just stopped caring about him, forgetting to clean or feed him or do any of the things a mother should have done. He left home one night as a nine-year-old in search of food, but got lost and never made his way home, and started to make a living for himself stealing food from farmer's markets and food carts. He did, eventually, find his home, but he decided not to go back; his mother didn't care about him anyways and he could take care of himself, so what was the point? He taught himself to pick-pocket, and after more than a few failed attempts he managed to add the skill to his repertoire. As a teenager, he decided that he wanted to earn more money than he could from just that, and he robbed his first house, and has been stealing ever since.