May Chang

Name: Cappy
Contact Info: plurk @ madcapjest
Other Characters Played: None
Preferred Apartment: None

Character Name: May Chang
Canon: Full Metal Alchemist
Canon Point: Post episode 28/when she's been stuffed inside Alphonse's armor
Background/History: May Chang's entry in the FMA wiki
Personality: When we're first introduced to May, she's collapsed by the side of the road after having managed to cross the great desert entirely on foot by herself (well, aside from her panda). Within the first scene, it's already clear that despite her young age, May Chang is one determined and capable girl. Once she's set her mind on accomplishing something, she will not give up. Most of this is due to her status as one of the princesses of Xing; being from the poorest family line that won't survive for much longer without the emperor's favor, May carries the survival of her entire clan on her shoulders. Because of this responsibility, she's willing to go to extraordinary lengths to gain the emperor's favor and save her family.

For someone bearing such a heavy burden, however, May is a very cheerful and optimistic girl, rarely letting anything get her down for too long. Despite her royal title, she's definitely no spoiled princess; growing up in an impoverished clan means she's used to enduring hardships, and she happily lives in the broken-down slums of Amestris with only a trash-can fire for warmth with no complaint whatsoever. She's friendly and polite to almost everyone she meets, no matter how intimidating they may seem, and she's completely genuine in her behavior; she isn't being polite for form's sake, but because she really is just a nice person who thinks that everyone else must also be nice. In fact, hiding or faking her emotions is something May simply doesn't do at all. When she's sad, she'll start crying with no reservations at all; when she's angry, she'll yell at the person pissing her off and even attack them; when she's infatuated, she'll squeal around her crush and make no attempts to conceal it whatsoever. Shame and artifice is for people who aren't princesses of Xing.

This complete honesty in herself does make her rather naive and gullible, however. While she's definitely intelligent when it comes to more scholarly pursuits - you can't use alchemy or alkahestry without putting a ton of research into it first - her street smarts could use some work. Because May never lies, she naturally assumes that no one would ever lie to her either. She's rather easy to manipulate, as she'll buy into almost anything anyone tells her, no matter how much evidence is against it. For example, she automatically believes Yoki's claim that Scar is his servant, despite their relationship being the exact opposite. On a more serious level, she's also easily manipulated by Envy into going back to Amestris for the secret of immortality despite the fact that she already knows he's evil and shouldn't be trusted. She's also not the greatest judge of character; she immediately attaches herself to Scar and thinks of him as a good person for no reason whatsoever beyond the fact that he lets her tag along with him and helps her find Xiao Mei.

A large part of this naivety is due to the fact that May tends to see the world as somewhat...differently from reality. She often drifts off into romantic fantasies and casts people into various roles without even meeting them. And it's clear from her behavior that these aren't just idle daydreams; May genuinely believes that what she fantasizes about is the truth. When she first hears about Edward Elric as a golden-haired alchemist who helps the people, she immediately falls in love with what she believes to be a handsome and charming princely figure. After seeing him for the first time - short and grumpy-looking - she becomes furious with him for "playing with her heart" and attacks him (inadvertently also saving his butt). Meanwhile, Alphonse Elric is a horrible demon fiend who kidnapped Xiao Mei...until he describes himself as gentlemanly and taller than his brother, upon which he becomes the object of her affections instead (again, all this while barely having exchanged a few sentences with him). Her view of the world is relatively black and white: there are heroes (sometimes the heroes are serial killers), there are villains (sometimes the villain is the protagonist of the series), and there is herself as the romantic lead who will run off into the sunset with her handsome prince and the secret of immortality into the sunset.

Not that May would ever cast herself as a damsel in distress, of course - in fact, quite the opposite. She usually assumes that she's the most capable person in a group, whether it's true or not, and will go charging off to the rescue when she thinks one of her companions is in danger - even if said companion is a grown man with the power to explode people's faces. While she can be easily startled, not much manages to faze or intimidate her for long; she doesn't even react to seeing chimeras or Envy's true form (a giant hideous monster with dozens of screaming faces sprouting from its hide), focusing instead on the fact that Edward is not in fact the tall handsome knight in shining armor she thought him to be. The one thing that genuinely creeps her out the most in the entire series is the sense of Father's chi, which she describes as millions of souls screaming in agony - but even then, she gets over her fear enough to try to fight him for the secret of immortality. While she certainly doesn't lack in courage, it does sometimes lead into overconfidence; she challenges Father on her own, ordering Edward and Alphonse to take out the last remaining homunculus instead, and it doesn't take him long to send her flying. Still, the occasional defeat doesn't affect her pride or her sense of fierce independence; even after being rescued from a battle gone south, her first response to her savior is to tell him indignantly that she didn't ask for him to help her, though she does thank him later.

In short, despite her young age and bubbly persona, May Chang is not someone you want to underestimate. For all her naivety, she does have a sense of ruthlessness about her. While she's certainly one of the more idealistic and moral characters in the series, being raised as a Xingese princess means she's used to assassination attempts and to do whatever it takes to raise her family's status. While killing a human would be a last resort for her, unlike the Elric brothers, it is still something she would stoop to doing; in fact, the first thing she does when she sees a bodyguard from a rival clan is to try to kill her, even though both of them were recovering from injuries at the time. That said, when push comes to shove, May does value life over her own goals. She expresses conflict over handing the emperor the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, which requires many human sacrifices to make, knowing that he would likely try and recreate it even with the high cost. And while she comes extremely close to achieving her goal twice - once when Scar gives her a homunculus to take back to the emperor, and once when she's literally a foot away from a Philosopher's Stone - both times, she chooses to save people's lives instead. It isn't an easy decision for her to make by any means, and as her half-brother and rival heir points out, her insistence on getting involved in another country's affairs instead of going back to Xing once her task was finished cost her the chance of becoming the next in line. But it's because of her kindhearted nature and her refusal to stand aside when she could save people's lives that Amestris still exists at all, as she winds up playing a key role in the final battle.

Abilities/Powers: May's primary ability is her use of alkahestry. It is similar to the alchemy used in Amestris, as it allows her to essentially deconstruct and reconstruct any material as long as she draws a transmutation circle; in her case, she usually draws a circle with a five-pointed star inside it surrounded by kunai, and she is able to do this very quickly. Unlike Amestrian alchemy, however, she is also able to perform long-range transmutation: instead of having to touch whatever it is she's transmuting, she can throw five kunai in the shape of a circle any distance away and be able to transmute whatever material they encircle.

Her alkahestry also has the power of healing. That said, it's not a complete process. While she's able to fully heal minor wounds, she can only close major ones and stop the bleeding, and she will not be able to replace anything that has become removed from the body such as a limb or blood. Essentially, her power works as a more advanced and faster version of first aid; she'll be able to stop a severe injury from becoming fatal and even get them back into fighting shape again, but the person will likely still require medical attention afterwards.

Aside from that, May is also a skilled martial artist. Her style is mostly a defensive one; she is very quick and dexterous, allowing her to dodge most attacks even from multiple enemies. Offensively, she's stronger than the average ten-year old girl - her kicks have been shown to have the power to break necks (granted, in the FMA universe where everyone is a badass, this isn't relatively that impressive) - but she generally prefers to use her alkahestry or her kunai to attack. That said, she is still just a child; while landing a hit on her will certainly be difficult, one or two powerful blows will likely be enough to incapacitate her. As far as her kunai go, her aim is as close to perfect as is possible to get - after all, she needs to be able to instantly throw five of them in circles of various sizes for her alkahestry to work.

Finally, like all the Xingese characters, she is able to sense chi. She can tell when someone's inhuman or has something wrong with their souls, though she can't get any more specific beyond how many souls they have inside them.

Items/Weapons: May will arrive with her set of kunai, chalk for drawing transmutation circles with, and a drawing of Xiao Mei (there aren't any words on it, so it shouldn't disappear, I believe?)
Sample Entry: Dear Mun post
Sample Entry Two: "It's hot...."

May drops to her feet underneath the shade of a large rock, grateful for the slightest reprieve from the scorching heat of the desert. A hastily drawn transmutation circle in the sand creates a small burrow for Xiao Mei to rest in; another begins to heal the sunburn she's acquired over the course of the day. She looks back over shoulder at the long line of footprints in the sand, then forward to an endless horizon of yellow and blue.

"I wonder how long we've been walking, Xiao Mei? It feels like it's been at least a year and a half. And we haven't even reached the ruins of Xerxes yet..."

She leans her head back against the rock, closing her eyes. She knows it's only been a week or so since the two of them embarked on this quest, for all that it feels forever. In this endless sea of sand, reaching the shining streets of Amestris seems like nothing more than a dream. Perhaps if she sits here long enough, someone will find her and guide her to the country on their own. Perhaps a gallant explorer from Amestris looking for treasure and finding a princess instead...or even better, a golden-haired survivor of the lost city of Xerxes. He would come up to her on his brilliantly white stallion, swooping her and Xiao Mei up into his arms, setting a fierce pace back to the castle he owns hidden deep in the ruins. There, he would nurse her back to health, falling in love with the beautiful girl he stumbled upon in the desert as if fate itself had led him there, and together they would discover the secret of immortality and bring it back to the emperor. Yes...when she opens her eyes, he would be standing in front of her, holding out a hand to help her onto her feet.

She opens her eyes, reaching her hand out with a dreamy sigh to greet her savior at least...and sees nothing but the sand and sky in front of her.

"Ahhhh! Stupid Xerxes prince! Why is he so late!" She scowls at the ground. "I bet the Yao clan would have horses. And servants. And chariots. I bet they didn't even send their dumb prince in the first place. They probably have servants to do the job for them."

She feels bad about her words instantly. It's not her clan's fault that she was sent on this mission alone; with what little people they had, they couldn't afford to lose even another person from the paddy fields, let along a horse they could barely afford in the first place. And with her knowledge of alkahestry, she had the best chance of surviving the desert; it's saved her life more than once, allowing her to find water deep underground and trap animals for food without having to expend any energy in doing so. Furthermore, she was their princess. It was her duty to impress the emperor and gain his favor; she could not ask any of her people to risk themselves or endure such hardship for her sake when their lives already rested in her hands. Still, to have walked so far for so long and not even have reached the halfway point yet...she's beginning to wonder whether she will have the chance to discover immortality at all, or whether she will wander in the sand until she perishes.

A sharp pain in her finger makes her yelp and shake her hand rapidly to try and dislodge the teeth that have sunk into it. "Xiao Mei, what are you doing!" The tiny panda lets go and squeaks angrily at her, tugging at her sleeves impatiently and puling in the direction of Amestris. May shakes her head slowly as if waking from a dream, then smiles.

"You are right, of course. This is no time to be resting! We've already come so far, we can't give up now!" She gets to her feet, slapping her cheeks lightly to wake herself up, her eyes gleaming with newfound determination. "Come, Xiao May. We go to Amestris...and to immortality!"