Post by sepia on Aug 31, 2010 6:21:35 GMT -6
Full Name: Daniel Kim
Nick Names: Korean Name, Kang-Dae. Usually only allows his brother to use it.
Student or Staff: Student
House: Blue Ribbon House (though he may ask/demand to be changed to be with his brother, in-characterly)
Age: 17
Ethnicity: Korean
Gender: Male
Physical Description: Perhaps not initially the most striking person, with his black hair, grey eyes and well-tanned skin, there's something about the way Daniel holds himself, with his casual elegance, and self-confidence backed up by just a hint of arrogance, which draws the eye and makes him noticeable even in a crowd. He's also looking to be the tallest person in his family, short Asian genes apparently being not being as strong in him as the rest of his family. Always well-dressed, managing to stand on that fine line between smart and casual very well, Daniel draws the eye - and knows it, too.
Personality:
Likes:
+ Ethan, first and foremost, his younger brother is the most important thing in the world to him.
+ Leading. Daniel really rather dislikes being told what to do, and will always try to attain leadership of any group of people he’s put in as quickly as possible.
+ Warm weather. A summer child, Daniel finds that long, cold grey days get on his nerves, making him snappish, whereas summer sun and humidity is right up his street.
Dislikes
-People who pick on his brother are Daniel’s chief hatred, and he won’t hesitate to show them, either.
-Those who refuse to respect him also earn his dislike, because, really, he does so want to be a respected leader.
-Not that he’d admit it, but he fears drowning.
At first glance, Daniel is a ‘people-person’. He likes to be in the middle of things, and hates not knowing what is going on. More than that, he’s of the leader sort, not liking being stuck following others orders. He likes being out in front, giving those orders, and won’t hesitate to make difficult decisions if he needs to. Outwardly, he’s nice, joking and laughing even with people he barely knows, and he can have quite a talent at making people relax, even if he can be rather arrogant.
Underneath his pleasant, talkative outer shell, though, he’s highly ambitious, and he’s not about to let anyone stop him. In his world, he is definitely first, and if anything gets in between him and where he’s going, or tries to hold him back, well, he’s not the sort to mind an argument. The only one who can hold him back is his younger brother, Ethan, for whom Daniel has a protective streak a planet wide. Given that Ethan’s a timid sort, he frequently finds himself the butt of jokes, and Daniel has absolutely no qualms about getting involved – physically or verbally – if he feels his brother needs it. Ethan is both his strongest, and his weakest point, for it is to Ethan that he displays his best side, but for Ethan that he displays his worst.
He's not against using people if it can benefit him, and has few qualms with wriggling his way into people's good books so he can utilise their skills. He has even fewer qualms with completely ignoring people if they're either not interesting, or not useful to him. There are, however, many criteria that could dub you as useful in Daniel's mind, from being a good follower and so liable to obey his orders, to being a highly ranked Rider, and thus helpful for advancement.
Similarly, he doesn't mind earning the enmity of people if it gets him to where he wants to go, and is very good at shrugging off insults and bitter words. If people can't handle the fact that he's got places to go, well then, that's there problem. This isn't to say that he isn't a generally decent person, though. He doesn't make it a habit to rub his ambitions in other people's faces, nor does he (usually) actively go out of his way to antagonise people. He just has goals - and he's determined to get them.
No-one can deny that he’s got potential – even if they don’t like him for his ambition and casual arrogance. Though not the hardest worker in the world, he’ll put more effort into something if he really wants it, and is intelligent enough that he can get away with not working quite a lot of the time.
He does suffer rather from ‘foot-in-mouth’ syndrome, given that he frequently speaks (or acts) without thinking about what he is saying (or doing), which can lead to him unintentionally insulting people. But, then, if people can be insulted so easily, well, he’s hardly going to bother with them unless they have some incredibly useful skill that he sees himself needing at some point, in which case he will make more of an effort to be conciliatory.
Habits: Daniel is very defensive of his younger brother, Ethan, and tends to act-first-and-think-later when it comes to defending him. He also likes to lead, and will attempt to be at the front of every group.
Background:
Father; Kim Young Jae, manager of a small shop chain, 62.
Mother; Kim Chun Hei, deceased.
Though of full-blooded Korean heritage, neither Daniel nor his brother, Ethan, have ever actually been to Korea, and were born and raised in Canada. Their parents were second-generation immigrants, their parents having come over in 1952 as refugees from the Korean War. Though Young Jae and Chun Hei never set foot in Korea, they still retained a strong sense of national pride, drilled into them by their own traditional parents, and trying to keep to some of their traditional customs even as they adapted to life in a new country – they never, for example, adopted English names.
Their two children, on the other hand, being third generation immigrants, have very little identity with Korea, though they are both interested in the country, and would love to visit some day. Both christened with traditional Korean and English names, they tend to go more by the latter, and are very much children of Canada, Canadian passports and all.
Young Jae and Chun Hei married young, when both of then were nineteen, as an arranged marriage between their two families. They were soon madly in love, however, despite having barely known each other before the match was made, and soon set themselves up in business, running a small corner shop catering to the Asian immigrant population of Vancouver, where their parents had made their home after leaving what is now South Korea. Hitting a stroke of luck, and both being very savvy business people, their little corner shop expanded quite quickly into a chain of six, then eight, scattered around Vancouver.
Children came late to the couple, Daniel – or Kang Dae, as he was first named – being born in 1993, and his brother, Ethan – Hyun-Shik – coming along two years later. A close knit family, Daniel and Ethan being especially close, it was a great blow when Chun Hei was killed in a bus crash when Daniel was seven, and Ethan five. The family dynamics changed utterly, Young Jae throwing himself into his business rather than his children, so that Daniel and Ethan came to rely on each other greatly growing up.
Daniel easily slipped into the role of protector, of leader, while Ethan found that the task of being the quiet follower, the ever-loyal backup, suited him perfectly, and from the time their mother died they have been almost inseparable. Daniel defends Ethan from anything and everything, while Ethan acts as a stabiliser to Daniel’s more extreme moods.
It was only a few months after their mother’s death that they were introduced to riding by a friend of their father’s, and from there they have never looked back, both taking to the sport like ducks to water, though even in their riding their differences in personality are apparent. Their father being highly successful by this point, he could well afford this hobby, and being closed off and distant as he was, was quite glad that his children found something to occupy themselves with out of the house, and out of the way. They got their first ponies when they were eleven and nine, respectively, and have since moved on to bigger and more complicated animals.
The move to Blue Ridge was postulated – of course – by Daniel, the elder sibling having decided that given they hardly saw their father anyway, they might as well move to a very good school, where they could really put their riding skills to good use. Ethan, unsurprisingly, supported this idea whole-heartedly, and their father was perfectly content with the idea once he’d learnt of Blue Ridge’s good academic record.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Misc.: Shares three horses with his brother.
Face Claim/Playby: Kim Suk
Threads:
Why not have two for the price of one?
