Profile


Anqien
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Liu
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Anqien Liu

From my novel Offshore

a.k.a.
Anqien, 刘安潜
age
25
pronouns
they/them
birthday
10 September
birthplace
Joutien, Helfi
job
competitive sailor
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Playlist



Stats

Strength
Stamina
Reflexes
Perception
Problem-solving
Teamwork


Theme by Circlejourney

Cloudlander skipper

optimistic • dreamy • self-doubting

Anqien has a will like water: they flow around hard obstacles and make way for what doesn't yield, but they have a patience and commitment to their dreams that lets them carve out the world they desire. Agreeable and rather spacey (in the "doesn't notice when there's a boom flying towards their head" sense), they bring positive energy and a can-do attitude to their team.

In the past 4 years, Anqien has made lots of progress since their days in the university sailing club, despite their parents' unsubtle wishes for them to quit the sport. Even then, they believe they're underperforming, and habitually look to Jinai as their superior. (They're also obliviously in love with her, but that's another story entirely.)

Despite being easily overwhelmed by attention and praise, Anqien is actually quite sociable, the sort to go wild at parties (where no one would judge them). They're often told that they're the most tolerant person in the world, but they do lose patience at some things, like their parents', and occasionally Jinai's, ruinous stubbornness.



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Anqien grew up near Wulien, where competitive sailing is always in. But their family made them ignore their wishes to explore it, in favour of a safe, less fanciful future. After discovering unexpected success in their university's sailing club and being offered a chance to join the Cloud Connectors team, Anqien quit university to pursue it in full. They put pressure on themself to succeed because they know their family is disdainful of their decision. They sometimes worry they’re not meeting their more experienced teammate Jinai's skill level and are dragging the team down.

Trivia

I associate Anqien with bottlenose dolphins and refracted light through shallow water. The "q" in their name is pronounced with a sort of sharp "ch" sound (as in hanyu pinyin). The name loosely translates to "peaceful and submerged / hidden".
Likes
• Teal and turquoise
• Keeping plants
• Loud parties
• Jinai
Dislikes
• Parents and the family business
• Their lack of focus
• Too much praise and attention

Connections

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Jinaiteammate

Anqien and Jinai have been sailing together for three years, and have built a trusting, supportive relationship where they're comfortable confiding in each other. Anqien has also been a little starstruck by Jinai from the day they joined her team; they look to her for leadership, worry about falling short...and get really flustered by her compliments for some reason?

They have a relationship profile!



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Telakicoach

Anqien thinks Telaki is the best coach in the world—she is certainly a much better one than their university sailing coach, devoting both sailors lots of one-on-one time and personalised advice. Telaki thinks Anqien is a great person to be around, partly because they're highly receptive to her advice.



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Iki • navigator

Iki and Anqien have a warm relationship; the navigator finds it easy to talk to them and instruct as they generally don't interrupt him, unlike, ahem, Oojima (and also Jinai from time to time).



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Lujangnetwork / comms engineer

Anqien's general carelessness with equipment is a point of great frustration for Lujang, as is their inability to be direct about their feelings and opinions. She nags them more than anyone else on the crew.

0 years old. Anqien was born in the town of Joutien, an hour from the city of Wulien. Their family had just started putting down roots in Helfi at the time.
12 years old. They lived with their family in Joutien throughout their childhood and teenhood, attending the Joutien Ward school. They were always surrounded by tales of the sea and its associated sports, living less than an hour from Wulien, "the sailing capital of the world". The family liked vacationing around Helfi and neighbouring countries.
18 years old. Even after graduating school, Anqien stayed in their parents' home, spending a year as a trainee then an employee of the family's hairdressing business. This was around when they started dyeing their hair.
“You make me feel like I'm flying.”
21 years old. Anqien entered the Wulien City University to study business and marketing (with the intention of bringing their learning back to the family business). They joined the university sailing club after having been fascinated with the sport for most of their life.
22 years old. Anqien was lauded by the club coach as one of the best students they'd ever had, proving their skill at the inter-university Cross-Helfi Cup. That year, the Cloud Connectors offshore racing team lost one member due to misconduct, and they were shortlisted to join the team.
22 years old. Succeeding in their bid, Anqien dropped out of university to join the crew of the Cloudlander, meeting the remaining team member, Jinai. They had known about her from the day she had won her first local Helfi cup (she was well-known to everyone in Helfi who followed the sport), and were in awe from the get-go.
24 years old. After an excellent run, the Cloudlander team came second in the annual Niro-Helfi Race—for the second time in a row. Jinai announced her plans to retire not long after, and they are now gearing up for their final attempt.

Bonus trivia

  • Anqien is more popular in the sailing fandom than they realise, where their memetic reputation is that of the "cute clumsy one." Fans love to share photos of them being a klutz in public (they often are). They cannot comprehend why these people find that worth fawning over, it's just embarrassing as far as they're concerned.
  • They haven't fully wrapped their mind around the idea of being a celeb. It shocks them when people ask for their autograph, collect their photos, or are aware of obscure photoshoots that they had almost forgotten about.
  • They sometimes model for products, but usually with Jinai leading the charge. It amazes them that people will pay them incredible amounts of money just to stand in front of a camera wearing something nice/holding an object.
  • The Liu family runs their hairdressing business out of the family home. Anqien has a younger sister, Qingyen, who helps dye their hair. She's more of a "model child" than they are, and their parents seem to favour her.
  • They live about an hour and a half to Muli Bay by train, and typically have to wake up early (6 in the morning) for the commute. Thankfully, Helfi has quite an extensive and reliable train network.
  • Despite being the less experienced sailor, Anqien usually skippers because they learned to Weave from youth (this is one of the things that people can easily learn in Helfi). During the airborne leg, the rudder isn't useful, and the skipper is usually the one who must be versatile between both helm and Weaving. Conversely, Jinai is much better at micromanaging the ropes and sails to ensure the boat is moving as quickly as possible.
  • Anqien is a little scared of taking on too much responsibility, because their parents never really let them feel secure in their ability to handle it.
  • Probably pansexual. They've dated around a little bit and had three past romantic encounters worth remembering, but none of those flings lasted more than a week.
  • Their gender is basically "both and yet neither". They've probably gone by all three most common pronoun sets at some point in their life, but they/them is their favourite.

Art wishlist