Post by guo cai mei on Jun 14, 2009 17:32:54 GMT
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g u o . c a i . m e i
郭 采 妹
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Basic Information
Family Name ;; Guo 郭[/size]
Other Names ;; Cai Mei 采妹
Gender ;; Female
Age ;; Eighteen
Year and Class ;; Third Year, Class B. Attends Natsu High on a sports scholarship, though her place is jeopardised by the fact she ranks at the bottom of her year group.
Occupation ;; Works in the very small Chinese & Taiwanese restaurant owned by her family in the backstreets of the town. She was a waitress as well in the past but that didn't turn out so well. Trying to find another job to work the night shift to help support her family.
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[/color][/center]Appearance
Celebrity Claim ;; Amber Kuo[/size]
Hair ;; Naturally as close to black as possible, with hints of brown dye. She yo-yo's between having it cut extremely short, and letting it grow out past her shoulders before cutting it again. At the beginning of her third year, she had it cut in a short bob with a block fringe, deciding that this was more practical to her.
Eyes ;; Very dark brown and beady.
Body ;; Standing at a mini 5'2", Mei has no figure whatsoever (being flat as an ironing board and skinny as a rake), and were it not for her hair and facial features, she could probably be mistaken for a prepubescent boy. She has an above average amount of muscle for a teenage girl, particularly in her biceps and shins, thanks to hard work are sport. It's a wonder how such a tiny girl can pedal a pushbike up a hill so quickly.
Usual Clothing ;; Cai Mei stays away from formal clothing like it's the plague. She has never worn any smart or expensive clothing, as most of her clothes are second hand, wrestled for in a shop clearance or constructed from material bought at the local market. She also hasn't worn a dress since she was about eleven years old. Mostly found in shorts or leggings, occasionally skirts, plain sweaters, t-shirts and trainers, she never dresses to flatter herself, rather to match her practicality.
Her school uniform is the only occasion where she will dress 'smartly', but even then her socks lack elastic, her blazer is her brother's old one and she wears her trusted pair of second hand black lace up boots, while the other girls totter about in kitten heels. If someone were to try, she could possibly look quite pretty, but she makes no effort and shows little desire for anyone to do so.
Distinguishing Features ;; None, but looks a little bit goofy. She pulls a fair few distinguishing faces, usually scrunched up expressions at peoples' backs.
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[/color][/center]Family
Mother
Guo Cai Mei (deceased)
Cai Mei was named after her mother at her father's request as, when she was born, her mother had suffered greatly during childbirth and the Guo family were told she would be unable to live past young Cai Mei's first birthday. However, such a tragic death didn't happen, and Cai Mei's mother lived another eight years before she passed away, providing a great nubmer of confusions and misunderstandings due to the identical names. While she was alive, she managed the restaurant's expenses with a bright smile and a never-give-up attitude, and was young Cai Mei's role model. Her mother is who she strives to be like in every way possible.
Father
Guo Jin Lai (55)
Mei’s father is a cheerful old soul, who welcomes anyone and everyone into his arms. He’s very trusting, but his trust once lost is very difficult to regain. Very protective of his three youngest children, he never speaks of his eldest son, and instead nurtures his second eldest to take over the family business. He is incredibly fond of Mei as she is his only daughter and is the spitting image of her mother, even down to her personality. He has no intention to find another partner, staying true to his wife’s memory, and Mei suspects he has never been able to fully recuperate from her mother’s death as he is occasionally put off by some things Mei says and does that remind him of his wife.
Siblings
Guo Dan Feng (28)
Dan Feng is the dark horse of the family for his outstanding intelligence. He lives back in Taiwan with his wife, Xiao Shu, and two sons. He began to ostracise himself from the rest of the family when his mother died, and refused to go with them when they moved to Japan. A collected, wealthy businessman, he is practically unspoken of for forsaking his family to live in Taipei with his classmate, who he then married and joined her father’s successful company in Taipei.
Guo Huo Da (24)
Hard working and honest, Huo Da is the middle brother and has been the closest to Cai Mei since she was young. The two work together in their family restaurant on a regular basis, and although he rarely has the money, Huo Da spoils her as much as he can by doting on her, much to her discontent as she tends to return the gifts to the store he bought them without him knowing. He seems most likely to continue the family business as although he lacks intelligence, he is very much like his father.
Guo Yuan Da (20)
The youngest brother is the most ambitious. He is extrememly money hungry, but too lazy to find a decent job and so ends up working with his family but determined to be elsewhere. His ideals and dreams shift from one thing to the other, one moment wanting to be an actor, the next a businessman, the next something else equally out of his reach. He and Mei bicker on a regular basis as he tends to slack off on his duties towards the restaurant. He takes a lot of money from the family to spend on frivolous things like clothes and gadgets, while Mei skimps out on everything. Although she and Yuan Da are similar in age, Mei being younger, she always seems to be 'lending' him money that he cannot return in order for him to buy the things he wants. The spending of her hard earned wages is mostly done for her brother, as he acts younger than her and sulks when he wants something. She appears to hate him, but feels hurt whenever she cannot give him what he wants.
Other Significant Relatives
Guo Pei Ling (47) and Guo Jin Liang (50) are Cai Mei’s Aunt and Uncle, who owned the establishment where the family restaurant was set up. They were the connections when Cai Mei and her family moved to Japan as they already resided there, and now it seems the whole Guo family live together in one small building. Her Uncle manages accounts and is fairly quiet, while her Aunt runs front of house, though she seems to spend most of her time watching television, reading magazines and telling Mei what to do to get a good husband. She longs for Mei to dress up nicely, tells her not to eat so much and wants her to wear make up in order to attract a rich man to help the family out of their debts, to which she is the main culprit (being a keen spender).
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[/color][/center]History
Cai Mei was born in Taiwan into a loving family who owned a large café in Taipei. She had a normal childhood, oblivious to the worry than hung over her father and older brothers. She only cottoned on to their worries when her mother fell ill, and she began to see cracks in her perfect family. When she was eight years old, her mother passed away after an intense year long battle with an illness that was determined to take her.
Immediately, the carefree pace of her life sped up, and in the blink of an eye plans were set for her, her father and three older brothers to leave their life in Taiwan behind to move to Japan, something her mother had always wanted to do, to open the run down shop below where her aunt and uncle lived. The only resistance came from her eldest brother, who resented their father’s decisions and called him a coward for running away. The family split, and Dan Feng stayed in Taiwan while the rest of the family went to join Jin Lai’s brother and sister-in-law in Japan.
By her ninth birthday, Mei was fully settled in Japan. Of course things were still rough, but she made new friends and quickly began to pick up the language around her. Her father took over his brother’s empty store, and the Hua Guan Jie restaurant was set up. It wasn’t ideal, it was a lot smaller than their café in Taipei, and it was down a back street that wasn’t particularly well known, but they became popular with the locals for being a hidden gem with wonderful food.
Mei spent the rest of her childhood in Japan, her mind set focused on the restaurant even from a young age, neglecting her studies as she found them difficult and time consuming, and grew up with the ambition to be as hard working and persevering as her mother. She has no goal in life to aim for, only to make the people she affects happy, so although she is focused and determined in what she wants, she isn’t ambitious, and feels she doesn’t have sufficient talent in any field other than cooking to pursue.
As she got older, she began to work harder and harder to help maintain her family. With the youngest of her older brothers being so lazy, the restaurant lay in the hands of her father, and her middle brother and herself. However, as larger, more expensive and prestigious restaurants began to open all over the city, business at Hua Guan Jie began to slow down until only locals were attending. Determined not to let things fall, Mei began to run a moving trolley service, taking take-away food out onto the streets in the Saturday morning Market and at night, allowing her to serve rice, noodles and steamed food on the go. Despite that, the excessive spending of her aunt and the youngest Guo brother and the decline in business resulted in the Guo family falling into debt, for which Mei – although the youngest – feels responsible for, as though she has let her family down as she is the most capable to work (being the strongest and healthiest). For this reason, she takes it upon herself to work her hardest to earn money, hailing herself as the self-proclaimed leader of the Guo family.
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[/color][/center]Personality
Likes[/size][/blockquote]
eating ; chinese food ; vending machine coffee ; K-1 ; purikura ; hard work ; music ; fireworks ; fairy lights ; christmas ; asian dramas ; hand-made items ; woolly hats ; puddings ;
Dislikes
math ; being put on the spot ; expensive gifts ; parties ; being poor ; pitied ; seeing her family unhappy ; herself ; reading ; dressing up and smart clothing ; fancy restaurants ; school work ;
Hobbies
cooking ; sports: girls soccer, field hockey and baseball, dance, track & field, kickboxing; karaoke ; writing stories ; making people smile; riding her bike ; helping people ;
Cheerful girl lacks intelligence
Optimism is usually an overused word, but there are few others to describe Cai Mei. She has a habit of always seeing the better side of things. Her best attributes are that she is hard-working and determined to try her best in whatever she puts her mind to, and is never one to give up on someone or something. Mei absolutely hates her situation; in her eyes she scores a big zero in the categories of beauty, intelligence and wealth, yet this biggest insecurity is one that she has covered well over the years. It would be an understatement though to describe Mei as lacking in intelligence, as she barely scrapes points in tests on a regular basis, falling just one place up from the bottom of her year group. However, she is never put down by this and carries on with the idea that she’ll do better next time anyway (which she never does). Her written Japanese is poor, with her spelling and grammar betraying her lack of grasp on the language. Her excuse is that Japanese isn't her first language (though she moved to the country at a young age). Her Mandarin is, on the other hand, perfect (and pretty useless to her).
Marmite, love or hate?
Despite being constantly beaten down by her schooling, she has a lively personality with bags full of energy to compensate for the laziness of others around her. She adores cheering people up, and likes to think she’s friends with everyone, though this is far from true as she has a Marmite quality about her, you either love or hate her, as she can come off as adorable or annoying. She loves to help people, but hates to be put in the spotlight, avoiding masses attention whenever she can and rarely taking credit for any of her good actions (and denying things when confronted). Her strange way of expressing her kindness can be endearing to those who recognise it.
Annoying and overbearing
However, to those who don’t really know Mei, she can often seem like a huge pain. The futility in her studying, her blind optimism even when things seem like they can’t get better and her bouncing energy push at the boundaries of annoying. Her kind deeds are often done in secret, and when she helps out she rarely lets anyone know about it, and so on the surface it seems that she can be quite unfriendly. Although she hates being put in the spotlight, she can be very argumentative and confrontational when she’s angered, in an almost rude way (though her manners are otherwise decent), which can really tick people off.
Hot-headed and quick to jump to conclusions
Although cheerful, Mei is easily provoked and will fluctuate between good and bad tempers without pause. She tends to shout before she thinks, and has death glare to be feared. She is very judgemental, and tends to form opinions (usually wrong) about people before she gets her facts straight. If someone crosses her, expect her to fume silently to herself before she explodes, like the deathly quiet before the storm.
Strong (in both definitions)
Strong both mentally and physically, Cai Mei’s determination can teeter on the boundaries of stubbornness, and is frequently perceived as obstinate when she fixes her mind on something. Good at most sports, her physical strength can also be off putting as she isn’t terribly feminine, and occasionally wows customers who glimpse her in the kitchen or in the back room doing heavy work or carrying her bicycle up the hill. Despite her family situation (as they are not the wealthiest family), she is stubborn and proud, always refusing to accept help or gifts from others as she views it as a form of pity.
Cai Mei loves making up recipes, and spends a great deal of her time in the kitchen even when not working. Otherwise, she can be found singing along to her favourite songs, riding her bike or walking around the city, or battling people to buy sale items. She loves doodling on everything (particularly on her work when she fails to understand – it’s a stress reliever), writing little notes to people in one of her many mini-notebooks, and loves writing down stories and ideas for projects that will never be completed and are badly spelt.
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[/color][/center]Sample Roleplay[/color]
The long distance between home and the butchers was something that Cai Mei’s father said was cancelled out by the quality of the meat, but the young girl couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t the one who made the journey so early in the morning if he could help it. She wasn’t usually one to complain, but that Saturday as she traipsed down the street in the early morning light she was particularly tired and couldn’t help herself from yawning, stretching her arms above her head, after she checked there was no one else in sight. Everyone else seemed to be sleeping, curtains in house windows drawn with the exception of the windows that topped shops every few metres, where bleary eyed shop keepers were pulling up the blinds and wishing it was still night time.
Smiling to herself, Cai Mei hummed quietly as she walked, hands clasping the strap of the cooler bag that was slung across her shoulders. ‘Really’, she thought to herself, looking down and watching the toes of her trainers as she walked, ‘it’s not that far, and it’s better I went than Pa, he’d probably trip on his way back with the heavy bag’. She chuckled to herself, rubbing one eye sleepily before ruffling her fringe to stop it from clumping up. She wasn’t terribly bothered about the way she looked, which was obvious from her tracksuit bottoms, the legs unevenly rolled up to under her knees, exposing her yellow socks and tattered converses, but she hated her fringe being tangled because she could see it when she looked up.
Tugging at a knot in her hair beside her ear, she scrunched her nose in a slight display of frustration, before she yanked her fingers harshly through the knot to undo it and pulled the stray hairs back, wrapping them around the tie that held her pony tail securely in place. Fresh faced and without a trace of make-up, she winced slightly as a sudden breeze caught her by surprise, blowing a small amount of dust into her eyes. Stumbling slightly on her feet, she dropped the cooler bag and pressed her fingers to her eyes for a brief second, before opening them and blinking profusely with a light sigh. Something told her today wasn’t going to be her day.
