Abilities & Traits

TALENTS

ALERTNESS     *  *
Tae has training to pay attention to danger. This has been drilled into him by both parents. Dad taught him to be alert to dangers in his environment so he could survive in the wilderness. Mom trained him in Martial Arts and thus how to pay attention to threats from other people.

ATHLETICS     *  *
Tae is practiced and maintains his fitness. Martial Arts is such a huge part of his physical training and self-maintenance.

AWARENESS     *
Unlike Perception or Alertness, this is Tae's uncanny ability to spot hidden truths. Many years of denial has kept him from truly being more aware of the Magical world.

EMPATHY     *
Tae is pretty good at noticing emotional cues. He knows he needs to work more on this as he really wants to be a very good Healer one day.

SUBTERFUGE     *
Tae is pretty good at at looking innocent, innocuous, and trustworthy. He has learned to be just sneaky enough to pass socially for how he is presenting. Awww... he is so damned cute.

 

SKILLS

CRAFTS     *  *  *    (Specialization: Cha Do - TEA)
Deeply ingrained in him by his mother is the value of tea for so many things: meditation, focus, precision, comfort, healing. The Way of Tea is part of his lifestyle. He has learned many ways to make tea, what kinds of tea there are and how to blend them for various purposes. He knows the Japanese Tea Ceremony, tho hasn't yet truly mastered it. Eventually, he will be a Tea Master like his mother, but that takes a great deal of practice. He is damned good at this, and can expand this to other herbal (and poisonous) concoctions.

DRIVE     *  *
Tae lives way out in St-Annes. Having a car is an absolute necessity! He is a practiced Montreal Driver, who can also take it off-roads with relative ease. All of this is made easier because he drives a RAV4. Altho... a smaller car would cost less on gas and would fit in more downtown parking spots, yet... the RAV4 can park on SNOWBANKS! So it is a bit of give and take. Montreal Drivers are interesting folks, tho thankfully not as crazy as New York taxi drivers.

MARTIAL ARTS     *  *  *     (Specialization: Aikido)
As soon as he could walk, his mother started training him in Aikido. By now, with a little over 20 years of training, Tae is a rather skilled devotee. Martial Arts is not just about physical moves, but about a whole mindset whereby your body and mind act as one. He does not use it for competition as he is not interested in competing with anyone. This year, he has started transcribing The Art of Peace as a way to learn the more spiritual teaching associated with Aikido.

MEDITATION     *  *  *     (Specialization: Do, often mistaken for Zen)
Center. Ground. Breathe. Relax. Even under distracting conditions, Tae knows how to find his center and remain focused. His mother taught him several forms of meditation, including those associated with Do - Jivahasta (Hand of Life) to help Tae with his Healing Arts. Tae directs his focus upon The Peaceful Way.

MELEE     *     (Specialization: Jo)
Tae has not been very inclined to learn to use weapons, but as part of his Aikido training, he has started with the Jo (a 4-foot wooden staff). He is but a novice in this. He knows the basic moves and can use them without hurting himself. He is not ready for a real fight yet, tho if his mother has her way, she will make sure he is.

RESEARCH     *  *
By necessity as graduate student working on his Masters, he is rather proficient at research in a library or on the internet. He can find the info and verify its quality.

SURVIVAL     *  *
Tae has not escaped his father survivalist training. He has spent lots of time outdoors, living off the land with his father. He knows how to camp in almost any weather and terrain, and he knows how to identify the not-good plants... so he won't poison himself. He has very decent survival skills. He just happens to like living in the city more, for now.

TECHNOLOGY     *
It is the 21st century. What idiot doesn't know how to use basic technology?! Yes, he knows how to use the appliances; he is capable of cooking his own food and washing his own clothes without disaster. He knows enough about his car to gas it and check the fluids, even change the tire. 

KNOWLEDGE

ACADEMICS     *  *  *     (Specialization: in-progress MA in Religions - East Asian & Paganism)
He plowed thru his early academics, blessedly paid for by his parents.  Once he finished his BA Honors in Religion with a minor in Anthropology, he decided to take it further and start his MA in Religion to better understand his parents' cultures and spiritual backgrounds, his heritages. As both his parents felt he should have gone into science and medicine more, they decided not to fund his personal interest in advanced university study that would get him effectively nowhere. So he works part-time as an EMT and pays his own way thru his MA doing the degree slowly. Theoretically, he will graduate at this rate in another 2 years.

COMPUTER     *
Tae can most certainly use a computer for his research, paper writing, and some social media.

ESOTERICA     *  *     (Specialization: Paganism)
With a Pagan father )who is a regular and notable person in the various local Pagan communities) and having gone to KG annually, Tae knows Paganism/Wicca fairly well. He knows the philosophy and practices, has studied the history, and experienced its rituals. He loosely self-identifies as Pagan with a very East Asian enriched path. He is skilled enough to use the tools, perform the basic rites and rituals, and do some divination. He can even cast their spells, tho now that he is Awakened, he has a much better grasp on Magic and is far more careful.

MEDICINE   *  *     (Specialization: EMT)
Tae spent his extra time getting his certifications in lifegaurd training thru his teens to make extra money for himself. Liked it so much that he kept up his First Aid and CPR certifications and took training to be certified as an Emergency Responder, an EMT. This is so far his part-time career. He has several contracts on the go. Many of these contract are for LGBTQ events, some are not. He is on-call as backup for the Glen Hospital and local Emergency Response organizations, including Concordia. The pay is good. He likes healing people. It also provides a very good cover for his healing magic, now that he can actually do some.

OTHER TRAITS

RIDING     *  *
Tae's father made sure Tae knew how to ride, in case the world went to shit and all you had left were horses instead of cars. Tae can very decently ride a horse. He rather enjoys riding and would love to have a horse of his own, but that is impractical.

LINGUISTICS     *
Tae, like any West-Islander speaks English as his mother tongue. Like anyone living in Quebec, he has a basic grasp of French. He is not really fluent in French; his work reviews keep asking him to go get more training in French. However, Tae is fluent in Japanese. He also has an understanding of general linguistics and the structure of the language. So, theoretically, he could attempt to identify accents or read lips. 

DIVINATION/FORTUNE TELLING     *     (Tool/Technique/Style: Lithomancy)
Like anyone in Paganism, Tae leaned a few different forms of Divination. By his late teens, he settled on the Wildwood Tarot and Lithomancy (using gemstones to tell fortunes). He is not magnificent at this since it is just a pastime. Tho Awakened, he has found he can use the Magical Spheres of Time and Spirit to do some rather interesting readings. Mostly, they are lousy (tho interesting), except on Full Moons when they tend to be terrifyingly accurate. Frightening himself, it means he often puts the cards/stones away for months at a time without using them.

DO     *  *     (Focus on The Peaceful Way)

ARRGH!!!! SO CONFUSING !!!! NEED MORE READING AND PERCOLATING

http://mistsofmemory.net/wiki/doku.php?id=secondary_talents#do

http://mistsofmemory.net/wiki/doku.php?id=mta:do