Ya Chi Silk

"I may be a jack of all threads, but I can never master prioritising, you know, finding time for myself"

- Ya Chi to his Quill Pal

Ya Chi Silk is a 2015-introduced and all-around character. He is the son of the Widowed Weaver, whom prefers to call herself Madam Silk, from the Chinese fairytale The Magic Brocade. He was born and raised in the artisan-artist village of Chuang as a homeschooled child, but would eventually learn at Ever After High due to a Quill Pals program. He likes his destiny which he inherited from his grandfather because he likes helping his mom, and he gets to raise a good family of his own, but he prefers to contribute bigger like finding long(er)-term financial solutions for his 'economically-unstable' family, making him a Roybel.

Ya Chi originally made his family (and others he trusts) his number one priority while living in the village - even his siblings who were supposed to be the 'bad guys' and become homeless in the end. However, he realised after confronting his siblings one day that in order to help them and his mom is to deal with his own life and issues, thus being independent, before focusing on his destiny and future plans. The boy is skilled in creating and selling many crafts, and enduring through physical and personal obstacles.

Personality
Ya Chi is a hard-working boy, a one-tracked mind on the many goals of his life. This makes him a dedicated student in his classes, especially Arts & Crafts and Hexonomics. Unfortunately, he has difficulty in identifying what's important in a situation or conflict, as he usually leaps before thinking, following his emotions over his logic often. Along with his small insecurity, over-reliance on limited beliefs and shaky trust towards certain people, he might be taken advantage of by someone, or he isolate himself from others depending on the situation. At worst, he's a bad multi-tasker who fears letting the people in his life down.

Otherwise, when he trusts someone as much as his family and vice versa, he is a loyal friend who keeps most of his promises. Ya Chi may like assisting people to an annoying extent, but he gradually learns his and others' limits and refuses to be at someone's beck-and-call. He's a little bit of an attention-seeker (a humble-bragger?), but usually because he wants others to know of his family, village and lesser-known tales, even though he just enjoys being the centre of attention too. The boy is also proud of his fairy heritage, wishing he could cast a spell for fun someday. He also have his own brand of confidence through his not-as-fancy hand-me-downs; after all the family made textiles not clothing.

One of the childhood lessons Ya Chi was taught: 'No matter the pain, never complain'. He took this very seriously, rarely telling anyone of his struggles and pains. Luckily, as he got older, he could talk to people more openly, although sometimes he forgets during stressful times, and saving the 'never complain' mantra in his story. Similarly, despite being driven by emotions, he rarely gets angry or upset, again releasing it only in stressful situations. Given a difficult obstacle, Ya Chi is a smart problem-solver aided by his magic bandana-scarf to save the day.

Appearance
For his everyday wear, he wears a dull orange short-sleeved changshan with beige and yellow accents, with a subdued red long-sleeved shirt underneath. Below he wears a pair of cut-knee khakis. He accessorises with brown closed-toed sandals(sometimes dusty sneakers), his magic light-blue-and-white bandana-scarf tied around his head - cascading down his back - and his grey fanny pack.

Ya Chi's hair is charcoal-brown, short and swirly-spikey. He has androgynous features in his oval face with black almond-shaped eyes, medium-sized nose and high cheekbones. He has a light tan complexion and a tiny mole on his right cheek. He has a skinny stature but his legs are long and toned. He has a thin mouth and a lot of missing teeth, thus he wears dentures.

Interests & Hobbies
Once every month, he creates some woven artworks and knitted crafts so he would sell them at reasonable and high prices at his shop stall Jack of All Threads in the Village of Book End. With that being said, he is skilled in other crafts like miniature clay sculptures but weaving is his forte. He likes any legal opportunity to make some cash, but he is usually frugal afterwards, referring to his budget and time planner at times and donating a huge sum to charities.

In the beginning, he attempted to join in as many classes, clubs and activities as he could. After one really big mess, he decided to join in only two after-school sports: magic rug-by and rag-minton. He works on yoga and endurance training during weekends with his deer Songket. Besides stamina, he is very agile and flexible, so he sometimes volunteer in Cheer-hexing or Grimmnastics (if he has time) and even lead his own group of Park-lore artists.

Fairytale - The Magic Brocade
(Adapted from The Piece of Chuang Brocade)

Once a long time ago, a widow wove brocades and tapestries so beautiful the images depicted were almost lifelike. She sold these textiles in the local market to support her three children. One day, while buying new materials she stumbled upon a magnificent painting of a building with a big garden, meandering river and even flying birds. The seller even told the house was the rumoured Sun Temple where many fairies roam and lived in. But the widow was too awed of the beauty to care, and bought the painting instantly to show to her family.

However, her two eldest children laughed at its ridiculousness, guffawed when the widow expressed her hope to live in it someday. Luckily, her youngest son encouraged his mother to weave the picture into a brocade, as he knew it made her happy. Afterwards, the woman spent months and years weaving, much to her two eldest sons' frustration and her youngest's cheering support. Her eyes teared and bled in the duration but she incorporated them as the water and flowers. After three years, the woman finally completed the picture. Unfortunately, a huge gale of wind lifted the brocade from the home, down the hills and over the mountains. Suddenly, she became sick, and lied in bed. She pleaded to her oldest son to find it before she died. When he left, he didn't return after a month. Then the widow begged the second son to retrieve the brocade, but similarly he never came back. Finally, without hearing from his mom, the third son began his journey up the mountains. After two weeks, he hiked up to a house where an old woman and a horse statue lived.

He was going to tell her where and why he's going, but the woman spoke before he did. She handled his two brothers in the last two months. She said the brocade was up in the Sun Palace where the fairies attempt to replicate it. "To reach there, knock out your two front teeth, place them in my horse's mouth - making her alive, and ride her through Fiery Mountain and the Icy Sea. Complain of the pain, and you'll either burn or drown. Or you would prefer taking this gold and buying something nice for your family, like your brothers did", the old woman explained. Immediately, 3rd Son found a rock, knocked his teeth with it and put them in the horse's mouth.

Next, they set off east across the Mountain and Sea with little complaint and injury, and made it to a golden palace unlike the picture. Inside 100 fairies wove his mother's brocade, which was displayed by a luminous pearl. One fairy caught the son's eye and told him she and the other fairies would finish and let him take it tomorrow. The temple served him dinner and a nice bed while he and the one fairy talk about their lives, then they continuing to weave. The fairy finished with her copy, although it wasn't as perfect as the widow's. Determined to learn the widow's way and to join mortal land, she sewed a door on the original brocade.

In the morning, the son returned from an empty temple to his previous path back to the old woman. She took the teeth from the horse to the boy, and gave him deerskin shoes which speedily brought him back to his house. Miraculously, seeing her precious brocade back healed the widow and together they went to glance it. Then, the brocade grew, covering the home and its images came to life. Among the river, garden and birds was a door and the fairy the boy met appeared. They fell in love and got married, and the widow continued her career and shared her house with her neighbours. After some time, the two older sons came back as beggars, shocked at the house their mother had weaved before, and embarrassedly wandered away. The End

How Ya Chi Fits In
After the fairy marries the third son, she loses her magic but doesn't mind much as she learns to weave from the widow, as well as the son and children. The other fairies follow her guide too before they return to the temple because the door diminishes from the household in some time. Unlike other fairytales, the story is passed through every other generation, that is grandpa to grandson, to prevent the child receiving magical powers and using them in the story. The previous 3rd son and fairy couple would have give birth to a girl who's the Weaver. Then the Widowed Weaver would marry a different man, give birth to three children and grieve for her husband's death afterwards. All leads up to Ya Chi and his family and like other 3rd Sons, he is powerless, or is he...?

His family is financially stable, but there's a history of debts and close calls to bankruptcy between generations. Family matters more to them than money, but Ya Chi nevertheless observed some struggling instances which the older people in the family hide. The grandparents and mom

Family
He has close connections with his family members. He is the son of Madam Silk, and the grandson of Zhu and Xian Silk. Them and his older twin siblings, Jin and Yin, give him encouragement and advice during tough times, ands he likes to do the same. The boy only feels not okay when the adults in the family give him too much attention and his siblings too little.

Friendships
His first relationships originally began in his home village, obviously with his family and a few kids around his age. He was especially intimate with Rainn Hua as they shared and taught each many arts and crafts which eventually led to a short-lived romantic relationship. Another resident, Seleat Noutlite, becomes his roommate in Ever After High and they start to hang out sometimes even though they had their usual spats. Due to his local popularity, he sometimes wonder if some people see him as an idol rather than a human being although he's embarrassed to say he likes it a bit.

He knows a lot of people in Ever After to different extents (from friends to the unfriendly) as his village always had the scoop in Ever After. However, he found a taut friendship with his quill pal Dexter Charming, and found his siblings on good terms. He can relate to them because they had similar dynamics as him and his siblings'. Ya Chi likes Dexter's observations and unique humour in and out of the MirrorNet, even though he had a few prejudices of the prince when they first met IRL as he only saw the difference of their settings. Eventually he met and connected with few other Royals such as Ashlynn who shares his diligent business attributes. He also hangs out with magical students like Raven, even though some of the questions he asks about destiny and magic to them makes them uncomfortable, and they even give him a lesson or two.

Enemies
He definitely cannot stand the mocking students (who make fun of his destiny and dentures) in Hero Training. On one hand, Ya Chi wants them to understand he goes the same journey as them, just not the same goal; on the other hand, he occasionally wishes a dragon would eat them.

Romance
Ya Chi's home village was more 'lenient' to dealing with destinies, so it was fine for him to date anyone even though he is supposed to marry the fairy in the end. He is openly bisexual, though it took some time to come out in EAH. He used to date Rainn Hua, as they were both passionate on the arts and were close friends. However, Ya Chi had to break up with Rainn, because he was very hot-tempered and controlling, sometimes persuading him to do things Ya Chi is plain uncomfortable in.

In Ever After High, he misses his ex-boyfriend at certain times, but doesn't feel like dating to feel better. Nevertheless, there are a few students who caught the guy's eye. Some people believe he would like fairy students like Farrah or even Faybelle because of his destiny, but he currently only see them as common associates. Though he seems to be growing some feelings for Farrah even though he gets slightly annoyed when she persists on giving him a makeover.

Pet
As a child, Ya Chi was hex-tremely clumsy, and as a result he lost some of his teeth. His dentist Dr. Stone (the old woman in his story) prescribed him a Shuttle deer as a guide pet to avoid accidents. He called the deer Songket for her bright deer spots among the dull fur. He is glad to have her as he has a speedy training buddy for Grimmnastics, and sometimes a means of transportation, though his family one time reprimanded him for hex-hausting the creature too much. He also hopes he could use her in his story to avoid wearing deerskin.

Notes / Trivia

 * Ya Chi in (Simplified) Chinese means 'teeth', obviously referring to the one of the character's motifs
 * Some people call him Buck but he prefers his Chinese name
 * The author tried to show his destiny's hurdles - the mountain, fire and ice - through the basic wear colour palette (but she is not good with writing fashion)
 * He is deeply terrified of all types of needles - even pine needles, and sleeps with a loom-inescent pearl nightlight
 * Since his destiny occurs every other generation, it is common for each retelling to have big changes which impacted the latter, such as the door and the two older siblings, but the family is dedicated nevertheless
 * An early version had the 3rd Son and the Widow to live in the Sun Temple
 * If Ya Chi manages to conjure up some magic, he could only manipulate fabric for a few minutes at a time
 * It had somehow infused itself into his scarf