DOCUMENT no. KUZ-2007: scan of local citizen profile, scroll found in the "Southern Fire Islands Gazetteer".
Connected TimeLink: https://writerssanctum.com/threads/the-petals-of-destiny-an-atla-story-closed.32834/
Name: Kinjirō, Jirō/Kinji for short. Sometimes goes by the craftsman's name Tetsu.
Age: 19
Appearance and Backstory:
Kinjirō is a short, pale young man, made stout by his work at the forge—he has muscle to be sure, but the muscle of peasants, not of warriors. He has a mop of messy jet black hair atop his head, kept out of his orange-bronze eyes by a maroon bandana worn like a durag, or a by a clip or hair tie. Burns on his calloused hands and thick forearms from being hasty or careless mean that they're pockmarked with a constellation of healed scars and are often wrapped in bandages, especially in the aftermath of major projects.
Kinjirō's defining feature to many are his legs: now a solid green bronze, shaped in the manner of a soldier's legs with greaves and shoes, which can heat up to a glow when heavily fire bent through (he does not do this often: the heat travels up the metal and can burn him if intense enough). Crippled from a childhood accident, the lower portions of his legs were left enfeebled and useless. Initially, in his poor, extensive family, this consigned him to sitting listlessly at he forge helping his father, the overworked and underpaid blacksmith of the town, with the forge. While these years would be useful and he showed a knack for the craft, times were hard and his family was wracked with debt, and eventually his father had to resort to sending Kinjirō out begging on the street in an effort to try and make enough money to eat. He knew from the occasional sparks that could fly from his fingers and toes that he was a bender, and thus had the ability to rise up in Fire Tribe society, but his disability meant that dream would be forever deferred.
One day however, when Kinjirō had scarcely turned nine, he happened to come across an old man hobbling down the street with a cane, and the inventive child had an idea. Kinjirō dragged himself to the forge and went to work, taking up whatever space and time and fuel his father could spare. Eventually, the work produced two crude yet meticulously measured lower legs. He then went to his uncle Iwakiri, a surgeon who would be considered a world-renowned medical genius if not for his alcoholism, and the boy promised the old man money and free drinks forever if he did exactly as he asked. Miraculously, the project worked: his lower legs were amputated and refitted with functional, bronze replacements. They were far from perfect, and Kinjirō would spent much of his life to the present improving the designs in both form and function—including the ability to attach and detach them at will—but they worked.
This did not translate directly into firebending success. Kinjirō managed to learn just the basics—which still he was wobbly at—from the stuffy local firebending master before the master finally kicked him out in annoyance at his lack of progress. This was obviously due to his prosthetics and the fact that Kinjirō was still getting used to them, but which she considered to be rank amateurism. To Kinjirō, however, this was just as well. News of his metalworking feat had spread, and he his knack had finally found a market, boosted by the fact that he could now walk around and carry his own materials and equipment without any help or pain. To protect his craft, he took up the guild name "Tetsu", which became something of a proto-brand: Tetsu-made weapons and armor and tools were highly desirable and sold well across the southern Fire Tribes where he was based out of. Within a few years, Kinjirō had made enough money to pay off his family's debts, and he even began to use a little bit of his extra cash to experiment with different mechanisms: making primitive yet useful clockwork devices for tracking time and directions, some new bolt-launchers and stone throwers, and even a small engine that spun a wheel with the power of steam. Curiosities, for now, but a glint in Kinjirō's eyes saw the opportunities…
Unfortunately, all the others could see were the opportunities right in front of them. When Kinjirō made the mistake of turning down a "request" from Touga, a local fire noble, for a gratis set of resplendent and utterly impractical armor, the noble and his men burned down Kinjirō's house and forge, scattering and terrorizing his family. He was only able to save his tools, which Touga's thugs scattered around, and a few schematics which luck spared from the fire. When Kinjirō complained and demanded restitution, he was faced point-blank with an Agni Kai. Both knew that such a request was suicide for the inexperienced Kinjirō, but he felt that he had no way out except to strike out. Surely there was someone out there who could witness not just his plight, but the plight of all other lower-class people like him oppressed by the firebending lords, and they would come to the Fire Tribes and cool down their violent, vain ways.
Kinjirō decided to suffer the dishonor of fleeing the Agni Kai, if it meant final justice. He grabbed his reluctant uncle Iwakiri, the only other family member who would be just as disgraced as he would be, and fled first north, then across the ocean, to the Earth Kingdom.
Abilities:
-Firebending, albeit at an amateur level.
-Immense skill and immediate understanding of metalworking, metallurgy, and all things metal really, as well as a deep understanding snd appreciation of mechanical systems.
-Some better-than-average medical knowledge (supplemented by Uncle Iwakiri, when sober).
-Metal legs, and whatever he can fit inside them or mechanize with them.
