name :: Xi Zhao

player :: Haru [[etude on dstring]]

position :: Carpenter

group :: L'Ombra

Appearance.

Ordinary. Not much to look at. Muscular, but the work demands it. Clean-shaven when Roi bitches. The hair's been getting long, too.

Background.

My father was a carpenter, and his father before him. The carpentry shop had been part of the family for at least that long. Though my mother doted on me something terrible, it was my father's hope for a legacy that kept me from being sold off like my 3 sisters before me. As soon as I could hold a hammer and count out change, I spent every waking hour in my father's shop. Considering this, it is surprising how blind I was to his gambling problem, or the debt that kept our moderately successful business from ever taking off.

Backbreaking work day and night and there was still barely enough porrige in the pot to fill our stomachs. My mother looked thin and tired all the time.

I married Xiu-li when I was 16 for her sake more than anything. The daughter of a wealthy merchant, she assured my parents would be looked after no matter what happened to the shop. She was a kind girl with a beautiful face, and to this day I can find no fault with her whatsoever.

Shan-feng, our son, was born shortly after the wedding. By this time I was doing most of the work for the shop, but I still wasn't aware of how deeply its financial troubles went. The first time I learned about the outstanding loans was when the loan shark had long grown sick of my father, and brought friends to express this sentiment.

I am most thankful that my mother insisted Xiu-li rest while she took care of the baby, for neither of them witnessed what happened in the shop that day. Those thugs broke two men that night, and in the end, my father's shop as well as his debts were my responsibility.

In the end I agreed to let them have the shop and the space above it where we took residence, what was the point with my father dead? Xiu-li moved back in with her parents, with the baby and my mother while I attempted to make enough money to buy a house of our own. One of the many steady jobs I had was set construction for a cabaret, and it was there I first saw Roi.

I don't think he noticed me. Or perhaps he did, but wrote me off. To me, he was like a bird of a paradise, a flourish of bright colors and motion in my increasingly dark life. Xiu-li would tell me that it was the day I saw Roi that she lost her husband, but the truth is I had been lost to her long before. After the night my father died, I no longer kept a bed with her. I could not bare her touch, knowing that I was not the man nor the provider she had desired when she first met me.

I followed him as a set carpenter when he formed Shingetsu and later when he joined L'Ombra. That was when I first let my feelings be known for him. His first night of the circus, I left him roses for luck. He invited me back to his trailer to thank me, and I never came back.

Techically Xiu-li and I are still married. I write letters to her and Shan-feng, and I send a lot of my finances back to them, to make sure my mother is well looked after. I have not seen them in years, and though I long for my son, it is better this way. Their lives are much better without a broken failure of a man about, and that is what I would be without Roi beside me.

Activities.

Build sets. Fix sets. Redress sets. Set up tents. Listen to Roi bitch.

Ideals/Motivations.

Attitude.

If you question what I would do
To get over and be with you
Lift you up over everything
To light up my room

--Barenaked Ladies, "Light Up My Room"