Latona Zhou

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Latona Zhou, commonly referred to as Shua [she/her], is a 2019-introduced original character, Martian moon bunny, and... Joshua Li?!? She is destined to be the next Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, from Chinese folklore. She is currently attending her First Year (otherwise known as Freedom Year) at Ever After High.

Personality

 * Bright-eyed bushy-tailed village kid who really likes food, making food, sharing food. Literally a grandma that makes you eat even if you're full.
 * a little awkward, but has a good heart, very hospitable
 * views everything through rose-tinted glasses. thinks in a black and white mentality, and believes that all people are good until they become villains, in which they're completely irredeemable.
 * grew up on the moon, had no company except stories for a long time, so she's very excited to interact with people
 * big on celebrations and festivities, and goes all out (she and destiny would be good friends haha go ask wise for interac)
 * really hyped and wants to go into genetics research.
 * specifically, genetic disease research cause jade rabbit makes medicine.

Appearance
As her lineage is of aliens, very human aliens but aliens nevertheless, Shua has some oddities about her appearance. Namely, her jewel-esque hair.

Shua is extremely tall for her age, at about 5'11", simply because there isn't as much gravity where she's from. She's on the chubbier side from being well-fed her entire life, with very round, pinchable cheeks.

Her skintone is pale, and her eyes are large and maraschino cherry red. Shua has a bit of a sensitivity to sunlight and much prefers going out at night instead. Her skin's prone to irritation, angry red patches forming on her skin if she's not careful. She also has a hard time hearing, so she wears a white hearing aid on her right human ear.

Shua's hair is a lovely dark jade green, appearing not to be hair but translucent gems shaped like hair. Think Houseki no Kuni. She wears it tied up in two loops resembling rabbit ears at the back of her head. In the front she has bouncy bangs and loose tendrils, their edges a lot more translucent.

Sprouting from her head are two white rabbit ears that aren't naturalistic. She also has a tail, resembling a cotton ball. She has the habit of pulling on her ears when nervous.

She also sports glasses shaped like the iconic alien eyes, with lenses enchanted to be protective against UV rays.

Food
Shua is a major foodie, and would cite cooking as her favorite hobby.

Abilities
rabbit jumpy things, healing, immunity to fire

How The Story Goes

 * How the Jade Rabbit got to the moon: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/Jade_Rabbit
 * The Jade Rabbit saving Beijing from a great plague: https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/moon-rabbit
 * Generally just living on the moon making elixir for Chang'e

How Does Shua Fit Into it?
The last Yutu was Shua's father, who, after destiny, went on to become a successful plastic surgeon. He met her mother, an entrepreneur with a recently established skincare brand famous for their jade rollers. They fell in love, got married, and had Shua.

Before attending Ever After High, Shua lived with her parents and grandparents on Phobos, the larger of Mars' two moons. She loves her family, and loves spending time with them. Her childhood was full of listening to her grandparents' neverending stories, being her dad's sous chef, and making thousands of lanterns to light up the lonely surface of the moon.

Obviously, she had a loving childhood, but it was still so unbearably lonely. As soon as she was old enough, Shua started begging to travel with her dad and visit the world outside of Mars. She went with him to Earth whenever he had an operation (though she was obviously not allowed in the operating room) or needed to fight a plague, and went with him to visit all the previous Chang'es, turned into stars scattered across the universe.

Now that she's at Ever After High, Shua wants to make the most out of her time. She's never been around so many new people for so long, and if she doesn't make any friends, it'll all be for nothing!

In the future, Shua is to meet the Jade Emperor, disguised as a beggar, and throw herself into his fire. Only then will she gain all the powers of the Jade Rabbit. She will continue her father's position of delivering the elixir of immortality to every previous Chang'e, and visiting Earth to protect the people from disease.

Honestly, she can't wait.

Parallels

 * Because there are so many other similar moon rabbit folklore from other countries, Shua's family lives on Mars and its moons. It just got a little too crowded on Earth's moon.
 * Mars has two moons, Deimos and Phobos. Two moons -> tù moon -> rabbit moon.

Viewpoint on Destiny
really hyped for her destiny, easily impressionable and scared so she doesn't want to poof. royal

Name
Shua's full name is 周朔绿, or Zhou Shuolü. Her unofficial English name is Latona, though she mostly uses Shua.

The character 周 is read zhou1. It means "cycle", relevant because of the cycle of the moon or the cycle of life and death, since the Yutu makes elixir of immortality. It shares its pinyin with 粥, meaning "porridge", since her identity is strongly tied to food. And 州, which is a word to indicate "states/prefectures/cantons/etc", since the moon sees all of Earth. 周 also somewhat resembles the character 月, aka "moon".

The meaning of 朔 shuo4 is "the first day of the lunar month". You may notice that its right side looks familiar. That's because it's the previously mentioned 月!

绿 lü4 means "green". Jade is green, and so is grass, which the rabbit gathers for the Jade Emperor.

As a name, Zhou Shuolü is incredibly similar in pronunciation to Joshua Li. It's become common that Shua is mistaken for a Joshua Li. It's also why her nickname is Shua.

As for explaining Latona, a little bit of background knowledge is needed. Firstly, "rabbit" in Mandarin is 兔, or tù, pronounced similarly to "two". Secondly, Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. With that, we can continue.

Latona is the Roman form of Leto, who was the mother to Apollo and Artemis. In some accounts she took the disguise of a wolf in order to hide from Hera. Twins you say? Two! Tù! Rabbit. Additionally, wolves are commonly connected to the moon.

But wait? Roman? Wolf? Goddess? Hmm, sounds pretty FOUNDING OF ROME to me! A she-wolf raised Romulus and Remus, who were yet another set of twins.

And oh, hmm what? What? Oh who's the father of these two? Ares, right? Oh sorry, I forgot, it's Roman, I meant MARS.

Hextracurricular Activities
moop

Trivia

 * Shua's birthday, June 10th, was the last day the Mars rover Opportunity was active.
 * Furthermore, this makes her a Gemini. The whole twins thing... yeah.
 * Originally her birthday was Jan 21st as a Capricorn, as Lunar New Year is always Aquarius central, save for that one day of Capricorniness.
 * Also, Gemini season is about 9 months after Mid-Autumn Festival, if you catch my drift.
 * ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 * Her page was uploaded on September 13th, 2019's Mid-Autumn Festival.
 * Shua has ocular albinism.
 * She often smells like cinnamon, as a reference to how the Yutu is sometimes portrayed as standing under a cinnamon tree.
 * Her least favorite song is EXO's "Two Moons", simply because she was excited for a song that related to her but it ended up sounding like That.

Quotes
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