I WILL NOT BOW,

INDEPENDENT, PRIVATE, SELECTIVE FANDOMLESS CRIME OC.

DISCLAIMER: Not affiliated with Huang Zitao in any way, shape, or form. Mobile header and icon border made by the amazing esotericdescent/thiefofcrows ;w;. Carrd by koiscarrds.

TRIGGERS: This is a crime-based muse. Triggers will be present (varying degrees of criminal activity up to and including murder/assassinations, death, violence, drug usage, mentions of various kinds of abuse and brainwashing/grooming (non-sexual) and the following trauma will be especially present since it's integral to Matt's background). I don't generally tag it (unless requested), since it's ever present in nearly every reply I write. That being said, it usually only appears in writing, and should it be in something reblogged/visual, I will try my best to tag it. However! I do read everyone's rules and try to remember if someone has specific triggers they need tagged.

FOLLOWING/UNFOLLOWING: If someone follows me first, it’s rare for me to not at least give it a shot and follow back. I’m pretty open when it comes to that. Of course, there’ll be occasions on which I won’t; if there’s barely any replies, or no cutting of posts etc, for example.

VERSE: Standard replies are usually done in his main verse. However, I love throwing my muse into different verses, so I’m always up for it. That being said, whenever I do throw him into different verses, I adjust his background and character accordingly. Different circumstances build different characters.

PLOTTING: Highly encouraged! Honestly, I am rather horrible at writing without a plot. I tend to overthink too much when I have no idea where things are headed. So by all means, come at me and let’s plot something.

SHIPPING: Multi-ship. I’m not going to lie, I love shipping. It’s fun (platonic & romantic, or even antagonistic), and if you want to try something, let me know. I’m always more than willing to at least talk about it and figure things out.

MEMES: I honestly don’t reblog them super often, simply because I’m terrible with sentence starters (if our muses have never interacted). However, whenever I do reblog them and you send something in, feel free to continue with whatever I replied. That’s what I answer them for, after all. Another small note: if I have answered a handful of asks from you beforehand, and they all remained entirely ignored, I probably won’t answer any more

SMUT: Chances are very slim to nonexistent that it'll ever happen unless I know you very well and we've got a solid established ship. And even then I'd probably prefer it on discord over dash.

STYLE/FORMATTING All the formatting I do is small text, and adding an icon. That’s it. Feel free to format your replies however you like. However! If the text is too heavily formatted, chances are, I probably won’t follow back. It’s just simply too much for me, to be honest.

REPLIES: Sometimes I might reply fast, sometimes I might reply slow. It honestly depends on my mood. On some days I will prefer a certain thread over others and focus only on that one. I refuse to feel guilty for it, and passive-aggressiveness about it will earn you a real quick unfollow.

LENGTH: I’ll do almost any length. However, as weird as it sounds, I usually don’t do/struggle with super short stuff. I prefer longer, multi-para and even novella style, and while there is no pressure to match, just make sure to give me something to work with. The more I have to carry a thread, the less likely I am to have the motivation to reply.

LOVED DEARLY BY J: 33, THEY/THEM, EDT.

FULL NAME: 劉 Liu 龙之 Long Zhi
ALSO KNOWN AS: Matt
DATE OF BIRTH: 06 / 22
AGE: early to mid 20s
ZODIAC: Cancer
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: he/him
ORIENTATION: Panromantic / Demisexual
OCCUPATION: Aspiring lawyer ~~triad member~~
SPECIES: Human

FACECLAIM: 黄子韬 Huang Zitao
HAIR: Short and messy, haircolor changes frequently (see here)
EYES: Brown
HEIGHT. 6'2" (1.87m)
BUILD: Inbetween lean and brawny, but not quite either

DOMINANT HAND: Right
SCARS: A variety of smaller ones all over his body due to extensive physical training
TATTOO: A black dragon half sleeve on his right arm
PIERCINGS: Both ears pierced
OTHER REMARKABLE FEATURES: Always wears glasses unless out on clan business

CHARACTER TRAITS: Kind, caring, hard-working, ambitious, witty, naïve, frivolous, subservient, impulsive, reckless
LIKES: Sketching, spending time with Bao, parkour, martial arts, knives of any and all kind
DISLIKES: Being stuck in the same place for too long, bugs, boredom, being underestimated
FEARS AND PHOBIAS: failure, being a disappointment/not good enough, claustrophobia (more on that here)
MBTI: ESFJ
MORAL ALIGNMENT: Chaotic neutral
ENNEAGRAM TYPE: The Enthusiast
HOGWARTS HOUSE : Hufflepuff

BIRTHPLACE: San Francisco, California, USA
CURRENT HOME: San Francisco, California, USA
NATIONALITY: Chinese, American
ETHNICITY: Chinese
LANGUAGE(S): Fluent: Mandarin, English (though heavily accented); Intermediate: Korean, Japanese
PARENTS: Mother: 美莲 Mei Lian, Father: 明煜 Ming Yu
SIBLINGS: only child
OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS: Grandfather: 建豪 Xiao Dan, Grandmother: 兰芬 Lan Fen (deceased)
SIGNIFICANT OTHER(S): verse dependent
CHILDREN: none
PETS: Samoyed called Bao

FULL FAMILY INFORMATION.

↳ REGARDING: SKILLSETS.

↳ REGARDING: MARTIAL ARTS. Matt has been learning and training MA for as long as he could walk. Xiao Dan made sure to bring in several different masters of their craft over the years to teach him different disciplines. Which allowed Matt to develop his very own fighting style, mixing together everything he's learned over the years and adding his own flair, as well. It also serves to keep his moves unpredictable during a fight, which makes it difficult to anticipate what he might do next.

↳ REGARDING: KNIVES. His weapon of choice. Although proficient with firearms, he's never much liked them and always opted to train with knives instead. He carries one or two on his person during day-to-day life, but conceals half an arsenal when out on clan business. Regular knives for close-combat, throwing knives for ranged combat and slender throwing needles laced with poison for special occasions.

↳ REGARDING: STEALTH. While running in, guns blazing, is the preferred method of the clan, Matt taught himself how to approach things stealthily. Using rooftops to travel, climbing in through windows or balconies, blending into shadows and moving noiselessly are all things that allow him to achieve his goals with the smallest loss of life possible. It also aids his unpredictability, allowing him to use the element of surprise to easily gain the upper hand.

↳ REGARDING: POISON. Rarely used, but Matt makes sure to always carry a few throwing needles laced with potent poison in a small pouch. The poison is derived from cone snails, and is ideal when Matt needs to make absolutely sure that a target goes down quietly, as it paralyzes nearly immediately before killing them.

↳ REGARDING: PARKOUR. Highly practical, because it allows him to approach places fairly unseen and unnoticed when needed. It had never been a part of his strict curriculum, but started as a bet between a few other clan boys and himself. They bet he couldn't climb up the building, he bet he could. He'd had a liking for it ever since. Parkouring across rooftops and buildings gives him a certain sense of freedom, and he prefers the vast open space over the crowded streets.

↳ REGARDING: ART. The only skill he's managed to acquire that has absolutely nothing at all to do with any shady business (and despite Xiao Dan's efforts to prevent him from ever learning any of it). Matt had always enjoyed sketching from an early age on and did so at every given opportunity. Over the years he's gotten fairly skilled, and expanded from pencils to charcoal and whatever else he could get his hands on. Once away from his grandfather and able to fully indulge in his hobby, he also starts painting with watercolor. More here.

PORTRAYAL NOTE: I TEND TO HEAVILY TWEAK THE MAIN VERSE, DEPENDING ON THE MUSE I INTERACT WITH.

Having been born to a Chinese couple in San Francisco, California, Long Zhi certainly made the appearance to be a regular Asian-American. Adopting the name Matt during high school, he excelled in school once he was allowed to attend, was part of the basketball, as well as soccer team, and even enjoyed a certain degree of popularity.Outside of school, however, he had very little time for friends or hobbies. Most of his day-to-day life consisted of rigorous training, oftentimes observed and led by his strict grandfather. Slacking off, talking back, or disobeying was punished immediately, as it should be. He was to take over the family business someday, after all. The family business being a clan named 黑龍, or Black Dragon. He had to be prepared if he wanted them to remain as successful and lucrative as his grandfather had made them during his reign.

Matt’s daily training included, but was not limited to, martial arts (Changquan being his chosen discipline), firearms, knives, different poisons and their effects, evidence disposal, as well as getting to know the inner workings of the clan. All crucial knowledge if he wanted to be effective, and an efficient leader someday.On top of that, he decided to go to university to one day become a lawyer. Knowing the law and its loopholes could only be of help, after all, right? And why put your own men’s fate in someone else’s hands if you could put it into your own?

It was the perfect path to choose, and given that his biggest goal in life was to please his grandfather, seemed like a win-win.Until studying a variety of cases, and working as an intern at a law firm started to open his eyes to the damage people like his own could do. Drugs, and violence, as well as countless other crimes, had always only been part of business, a way to make money and establish influence, and he started to realize he’d never stopped to think about the people on the other side. About the destroyed lives and families, and the atrocities being committed.

For a while, he tried to shut those thoughts out, but it didn’t last very long. Now, every time his grandfather would take him along, Matt couldn’t help but think about the consequences it had for the person opposite of him, couldn’t ignore their pleading words and faces.But he had a responsibility to his family, didn’t he?He was trapped between a rock and a hard place. There was the unwavering loyalty he felt towards his family, but there was also the guilt that accompanied him every second of the day. Matt knew he had to choose a side eventually, he just wasn’t too sure which one it was.

↳ REGARDING: 小丹 XIAO DAN, GRANDFATHER.

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↳ REGARDING: 美莲 MEI LIAN, MOTHER.

↳ REGARDING: 明煜 MING YU, FATHER.

↳ REGARDING: 兰芬 LAN FEN, GRANDMOTHER.

↳ REGARDING: 包子 BAO(ZI), BELOVED COMPANION

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↳ REGARDING: TOPIC HERE.

THE ROAD TO THE TOP IS MY ONE WAY STREET: MAIN, FANDOMLESS.

Set to be the heir of the Black Dragon clan, Matt is relentless in pursuing his goals of becoming the man his grandfather wants him to be, as well as graduating and becoming a full-fledged lawyer. At least until he realizes that things aren't as black and white as he thought them to be, and the things the clan does are far worse than he was led to believe. So now he needs to make a decision: remain loyal to his family, or choose to end what they've started.

ALL LIVING ORGANISMS DEVELOP DEFENSE MECHANISMS AGAINST ATTACK. THEY ADAPT. THEY FIND SOME WAY TO SURVIVE: STRANGER THINGS.

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VERSE NAME HERE: FANDOM HERE.

IF FATE DOESN'T GIVE US THE CHANCE, WE STEAL IT: GRISHAVERSE.

Born a squaller, Long Zhi's family moved from Shu Han to Ketterdam to prevent him from being found out and subsequently taken away. Once Xiao Dan, his grandfather, realized the potential Ketterdam had for criminal activity, he began to rebuild the Black Dragons — the criminal enterprise he'd left behind in Shu Han. But he had no intentions of being just another low-life Barrel gang. No, he set his sights higher: the wealthy half of Ketterdam. With high quality products (human, or otherwise) and nothing off-limits, the Black Dragons quickly became the number one supplier for anything and everything; at least for the ones that could afford it.But with growing success came the need for a successor to pass his empire to once he died. It had to be family, but Xiao Dan had always regarded Ming Yu — Long Zhi's father and his son in law — as too weak and susceptible. So he set his sights on someone else, someone better: Long Zhi. Young and impressionable, he intended to turn the boy into a carbon copy of himself. Thus began endless hours of training and studying, until he could hardly stand up straight by the end of the day. The only problem: the boy's good heart. But that was nothing a few lies, intentional omission and isolation couldn't fix.Blissfully unaware of the real dealings of his clan, Long Zhi — now in his 20s and going by Matt outside of his own home — was willing to die for his family and the clan. But as long as there was no need for it, he instead focused on his studies at Ketterdam University. His goal? To become a lawyer. After all, there was no profession more useful to a criminal than a crooked lawyer that could make everything seem legit and above board.

VERSE NAME HERE: FANDOM HERE.

A NEW WORLD IS GOING TO RISE OUT OF THE ASHES OF THE OLD ONE: MIDNIGHT TEXAS.

If being hunted down by your own men — no, your grandfather’s men — wasn’t proof enough that his entire life had been a lie, Matt wasn’t sure what was. It had all started innocently enough; Matt had seen things from a different angle, a different perspective. He’d always been told that ‘the victims’ of their criminal dealings deserved it. That they had made the wrong choices, lived their life in a way that had led them down that path and no one else was responsible for it but they themselves. They were scum, worthless, and anything that happened to them, they deserved. The Black Dragons were merely executioners in this. And Matt had believed it. Had looked down on the people addicted to drugs and gambling, or taking out loans at interest rates they couldn’t afford. The Black Dragons were enabling, sure, but it wasn’t their fault those people were in that predicament to begin with.Until he started studying at university and working at a law firm. Some of the cases he had to study had been downright brutal and gruesome. It wasn’t just desperate men and women who had fallen victim to gang and triad violence, but children, too. How could children deserve that kind of fate? It didn’t sound right. So Matt had the nerve to ask: are you sure what we’re doing is right? It hadn’t sat too well with his grandfather, and after a verbal reprimand, Matt didn’t bring it up again for a while.Until he did. This time he didn’t cave. He questioned his grandfather and the clan repeatedly, struggling to understand what was truly right and wrong. Slowly, but surely, he could feel his entire world collapsing all around him. What exactly had turned Matt from being heir of the clan to being hunted, he wasn’t too sure. One night his mother burst into his room, telling him to pack a suitcase and leave. Run. Run as far away as possible.It was somewhere in Texas where they finally caught up with him. What followed was a high-speed chase, then a shootout. In the end, Matt emerged victorious, but critically injured and close to bleeding to death. He’d managed to drag himself to a nearby town. Midnight, Texas. He’d never heard of it before, but he didn’t really care. As long as they had a doctor, or.. anyone that could help him, where he was was of no importance.