Chen

I think I finally cemented what I want Chen’s human body to look like. Haven’t designed her full outfit yet though. What’s shown here (for both her and Gin) is just the under layer of it. I’ll get that worked out before too long though.

For those of you who don't know, Chen is Gin's gate companion. Like, as most of you probably know, Gin is a Shishi, which always come in pairs (one male, one female), and Chen is the other half of the pair. The concept of making Chen into a character was actually suggested to me in the form of an entry in my "everything you know is wrong" contest from a while back. I liked the concept of making the second shishi part of the story so much that I have since integrated her into Gin's main plot line. Which actually, she kind of spurs the whole conflict in the story, which was nice because before I'd been lacking a real goal/resolution to write towards. designed the initial concept for Chen, but she made her as more of a literal female version of Gin, so they looked very similar.  I opted not to use Panda's design, but more I just adopted the concept of Chen and a couple traits suggested, and expanded her from there. Because she was always there, I'd just never thought to really utilize the second shishi in the story. So, here's a little info about her for you to peruse if you'd like. I'd like to make a ref sheet for her to go with Gin's once I finished designing her full outfit. :> So now it's fun fact time!

- Chen is essentially designed to be an "inverse" version of Gin, both in personality, and appearance (for example, Gin has red hair/blue eyes, and Chen has blue hair/red eyes.) Gin is energetic, bubbly, easily distracted, easily impressed, etc. And Chen is calm, stoic, difficult to impress/phase, patient, and typically a lot less energetic and outgoing.  She has excellent focus and endless patience for long, tedious tasks. Like Gin, she can lean a bit towards over-reacting, but her reactions tend to be more stern and serious. 

- Chen serves as a personal antagonist for Gin in his story, but they aren't really enemies. They're actually very close, they just have different goals currently. Chen's goal is to take Gin back where he belongs, and Gin's goal is to avoid going back for as long as possible.

- I gave Gin a child's body initially to reflect his childish, self-centered desires. Alternately, Chen is older to reflect her more mature and rational nature. However, they are actually the same age.

- Unlike Gin, Chen is highly literate. (It's also probably a safe bet that she's the more intelligent of the pair. XD)

- Chen's full name is Chendori, which roughly translates to "Lovely gift of God." Gin's full name, Ginkoruma, roughly translates to "Tender Guardian." (With some spelling/placement adjustments of course. They're not direct translations, but it's approximated.) 

- Chen and Gin are kind of designed to represent life and death. Not in an over-the-top, grim reaper-y sort of way or anything though.  In many traditional Shishi statues, males are shown with an open mouth, symbolizing life and beginnings.  As such, Gin is concerned with living his life to the fullest extent possible.  Female Shishi statues are often shown with a closed mouth, symbolizing death and endings. Following this mindset, Chen's role in the story is essentially to bring Gin's temporary life to a close.  It's not that she is out to kill Gin or anything. It's just her job to restore balance and stability.



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