Story and Mog Post: Tai's Shado-Pan transmog

     Trying something new: a snippet of character backstory and a semi-relevant transmog. This one's been brewing for a while.

            Bohao sat beside Fish on one of the wall tops that overlooked the training grounds. He always seemed to find the stranger there, watching the exercises with his single glowing eye.  The platter of food he'd brought with him when he came rested on a small table and as they watched the apprentices in the yard below, Fish took the occasional bite, mechanically chewed and swallowed it. Bohao wondered if he ever even tasted it.

            He'd healed completely in the many months since they'd found him. Desheng had found him an eye patch to replace the bandages, and he'd begun to move around on his own. But he still never spoke, never seemed to do much but feed himself and tend to his own other needs with a sort of calm detachment. And watch the trainees. He was always watching, sometimes even when it was his turn down in the yard Bohao thought he felt the stranger's eye on him. What did he think? Bohao wondered, as he did every day. What was going on in his head?
            Sighing he gazed off skyward as he picked up the thread of his own words again. He wasn't sure it did any good to talk to Fish, the man never so much as grunted in response, but it filled the awkward silence. Somehow Bohao could never bring himself to just leave the man alone as so many others did. "And Desheng ran off before..."
            "What are they doing?" The voice that had interrupted him was low, rough, and sounded almost rusty with disuse. The accent was a strange somehow but each word was understandable. Bohao looked around him, puzzled, but there was no one there on the wall but Fish. Fish: who had stiffened where he sat and who, as Bohao watched, dropped his half-eaten dumpling on the plate and stood.
            "Did you say something?" Bohao asked, feeling stupidly shocked by the sudden change in the skinny, furless stranger. He was standing now, and every line of his lean form bristled with tension. That tension dragged Bohao slowly to his own feet.

            Even more surprisingly Fish's hand lifted to point down at the trainees in the yard before them, and this time he was watching, saw the man's lips move with the words. "What are they doing?"

            Almost reluctantly Bohao dragged his eyes from the somehow transformed stranger toward the trainees. They were doing one of the more complex exercises; monks of each of the three schools were taking part. One of Brewmaster Peng's best students stood at the center of the ring, doing his best to dodge and deflect the blows directed at him from five of Master Shuzhen's windwalker students. To the side one of Master Huifeng's older apprentices stood, channeling energy into the pandaren at the center of the group.

            "They are training." He explained. "Wulong practices avoidance and deflection, the ones around him practice hitting someone who is trying not to be hit, and Dewu practices channeling his chi to heal." He turned his eyes back to Fish, but the man had fallen silent and merely stood, frozen and intent. Again Bohao couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking as they stood for long moments in that silence.

            "Can I learn?" Fish's voice almost startled him when it finally sounded again and Bohao looked thoughtfully into the stranger's face.
           "I don't see why not..." He said slowly. "I'll talk to my master."

     I'd been wanting to do a Shado-Pan transmog for Tai for ages, but kept putting it off because I couldn't see how to do it when in order to keep his eyepatch he can't wear the helm. To make matters worse the faction tabard doesn't match the helm or any of the gear that does so that was out too. In the end this was what I came up with.

Head: Swashbuckler's Eyepatch

Shoulders: Cutthroat's Mantle

Chest: Iconic Vest

Hands: T'wansi's Handwraps

Waist: Red Belt of Gentle Persuasion

Legs: Booty Bay Pantaloons

Feet: Blighted Leather Footpads (second choice boots, still doing weekly lockouts for the first choice)

Weapon: Wicked Mithril Blade (This is one of those situations where I wish I could make the enchant less shiny)

Off hand: Fan of Fiery Winds

Disclaimer: No actual pandaren NPCs were harmed in the making of this story (or even included for that matter. All of the awesome furry people came out of my own head. As did the training nonsense. :D)

Notes: Tai was called Fish at first because he was a hairless, silent thing that came out of the ocean, and there's loads more to the story because I like stories.