Gaming/Storyline

Yip Gaming is a young man who serves as a transport guard for the Sword and Strongbox Secure Transport Agency. In his spare time, he is also the head of the Mighty Mythical Beasts Wushou troupe.

Profile

Personality

Gaming is a young and energetic man working for the Sword and Strongbox Secure Transport Agency. He has a very strong work ethic, eagerly completing whatever his clients may ask of him and will fiercely protect their cargo regardless of the situation. He also enjoys Wushou Dances, something which he practices regularly on a daily basis, wanting to become a professional dancer. This practice has made him nimble and proficient in martial arts, despite the numerous injuries he obtains doing so. As such, he is well-liked by the people of Yilong Wharf, who see him as reliable and optimistic. Gaming is incredibly polite to everyone and finds the thought of being rude to others disturbing.^[8]

In his youth, his energetic personality made him renowned as a troublemaker and oddball. He is fond of his mother, having picked up her manner of speaking (which includes gesticulations) and carries her letter in a book she gave him, though he misses her dearly after her passing. After being shown a wushou dance by his father, Gaming became inspired to become one himself, causing him to be at odds with his father, who wanted him to continue the family business. This nearly resulted in a fistfight, though he ended up leaving home to fend for himself. His father had only opposed the idea because he felt that the family could provide for him, but after witnessing his show firsthand and a talk with Zhongli, reconciled with him and agreed to let him pursue his own path.

Outside of work, if not practicing Wushou Dances, Gaming enjoys drinking tea and eating small bites. He does not mind eating any food, as long as they taste natural.

Appearance

See also: Ranging Rainbow

Gaming uses the medium male model. He has golden brown eyes with a light-like glowing ring around the pupils. He has brown hair with red peekaboo dye, pale skin, and a mole on his neck. His hair has a small ahoge at the very top of his head, and his hair is fluffed out in a half-up-half-down.

History

Past

Gaming was raised by his parents; his father, Yip Tak, runs a tea leaf business. His mother died from an illness while he was young, leaving Yip Tak to run the business on his own; both were greatly affected by her death. He also has unnamed family who live around Chenyu Vale.

In his childhood, Gaming witnessed a suanni wushou dance which captivated him, deciding that he wanted to become a wushou dancer when he grew up. Tak disagreed with his son's decision, believing that the income provided by the job was not stable compared to the family business and led them to have a falling out. Since he did not have the income to support his dream, Gaming also took a job with the Sword and Strongbox Secure Transport Agency, serving as a guard to protect merchants delivering goods to various places across Liyue. He would become acquainted with many people during his job, such as Xingqiu. He also met Xianyun, and his politeness to her greatly pleased the adepti to the point that she would look out for him.^[9]

While looking for inspiration for his wushou dances, Gaming learned about the suanni and asked his colleagues if they had ever seen one. As they were incredibly solitary creatures, what they knew they had only learned from passed down stories. With Xingqiu's help, Gaming set out to look for one, bringing his lion head and snacks. Eventually, he came upon one of them, though he noted it was much smaller than he expected. He befriended the suanni and called it Man Chai, who began to follow him around. He also noted what he believed was a Vision but it was actually a shiny stone. Later, while escorting some merchants, they were beset by brigands. Gaming held them off and protected the goods, and when the merchants tallied them, they found a Vision. The merchants sent the Vision and a letter of appreciation to Gaming, who eventually accepted it as his own.^[10]

Present

The Traveler first meets Gaming at Liyue Harbor, where he was about to depart for Yilong Wharf to drop off a delivery. At the small town, they spotted his family and he asked the Traveler to sneak around them. Regardless of the outcome, they arrived at the agency, meeting Zhigui. Gaming took another delivery for some kite-making materials to Mt. Aocang and asked the Traveler to catch up with him in a few days.^[11]

Two days later, Gaming caught up with the Traveler at Xinyue Kiosk, where he treated them to a large meal. After the meal, he asked them if they had any plans; the Traveler told them they were going to meet up with Xianyun, who he had known. Gaming brought some luminescent dyes to Mt. Aocang and met up with Xianyun and her disciples. As the kites were made and set into the air, another kite fell into the vicinity, angering Xianyun. The Traveler went after her, discovering that the kite intruders were none other than Cloud Retainer's fellow adepti, Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver. By the time they returned, Gaming had left with Yaoyao and Shuyu to bring them back home while muttering that a kite could never be free, which Shenhe and Ganyu found odd. As the five sat for a meal, the Traveler explained Gaming's situation and they resolved to help fix it.^[12]

To start the reconciliation process, Xianyun decided to have Gaming accompany his father to transport his wares to Charlotte, who would introduce his product to the Fontainian market. As they stopped at Wangshu Inn, she also had Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver pose as Treasure Hoarders, who would flee when confronted. While he was surprised to escort his father, Gaming took the task and chased after the fake bandits. Although Zhongli was not involved in the plan, he understood the message from Paimon and told Tak that he was fretting over his son's future and should let him do what he wanted. Gaming returned, having failed to apprehend the bandits, while Tak began to talk with Gaming. Ultimately, Tak stated he would no longer oppose his son's decision to become a wushou dancer, and he brought his father and the goods to Charlotte at Liyue Harbor.

As the festivities started, Xianyun used her adepti powers to allow Gaming to perform a spectacular performance in front of the crowd, which his father witnessed. Once the performance was over, Gaming met up with his father and reconciled with him.^[13]

By Gaming's birthday almost a year later, he and Man Chai had moved back home with his father in the village when he wasn't working. Tak took Gaming out with him to the market on the morning of his birthday to buy all the ingredients for a hotpot feast. Gaming noted that Tak is an excellent cook.

That year's Lantern Rite, Tak was eager for Gaming to get home in time to attend the local festivities with the family after he finished his delivery for the Feiyun Commerce Guild. As the destination was Yilong Wharf, Gaming was pleased that it worked out well with his holiday plans.^[14]

In the next Lantern Rite, Gaming was looking for more people to join his troupe when he ran into Lu Xiangxiang. The Traveler realized that Zizhi was possessing her and wanted to speak with her, but she refused and possessed Gaming. He then proceeded to chase two Treasure Hoarders out of the city in an attempt to recruit them, only for Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver to intervene. The Traveler caught up to them and informed the adepti of the situation, which prompted Zizhi to possess Mountain Shaper instead. Gaming came back to his senses and learned from the Traveler what had happened. The shock of both being rude to others and having been possessed by Zizhi caused him to collapse, prompting the Traveler and Moon Carver to take him back to the city to recover.^[15] He would recover soon after, and days later, celebrated the release of the lanterns together with his city friends.^[16]

Trivia

• Wushou Dance (Chinese: 舞兽戏 wǔshòu-xì) is likely a reference to the Chinese lion dance (Chinese: 舞狮 wǔshī), a form of traditional dance in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune and to ward off evil. The dance is often performed during Chinese New Year and other traditional, cultural, and religious festivals.
  • His constellation Leo Expergiscens (Chinese: 醒狮座 "Awakened Lion Constellation") specifically refers to the Chinese southern lion dance (Chinese: 醒狮 lit. "awakened lion").
• Gaming's role as a guard may be a reference to Chinese guardian lions, mythical beasts in the form of lions that are placed in front of a building to ward off evil spirits. Several such statues also exist in Liyue Harbor.
• His title Leonine Vanguard 骏猊頕首 Jùnní Diànshǒu is a reference to a Chinese legendary beast called the Suanni 狻猊, a dragon-lion hybrid often depicted in carvings atop Buddhist temples and incense burners.
• In the Chinese text of the game, the letter Gaming's mother wrote to him is in written Cantonese rather than standard Chinese.
• He is the first character in the game to have a facial piercing: he has an eyebrow piercing below his left eyebrow that is normally hidden under his hair.
• Gaming shares his Chinese voice actress, Xie Ying, with Keqing and Skirk.
  • He also shares his Japanese voice actor, Komatsu Shouhei (小松昌平), with Cacucu.

Etymology

• Gaming is the first character from Liyue whose name is romanized in Cantonese rather than the typical Mandarin, though the name is still read in Mandarin in the Chinese dub. The individual characters of his name mean "auspicious (Cantonese: 嘉 ga¹)" and "bright (Cantonese: 明 ming⁴)."

Other Languages

Character Title: Leonine Vanguard

Language	Official Name	Literal Meaning
English	Leonine Vanguard	—
Chinese (Simplified)	骏猊頕首 Jùnní Diànshǒu	The Spirited Lion Lifts Its Head
Chinese (Traditional)	駿猊頕首 Jùnní Diànshǒu
Japanese	頭角を現す駿猊 Toukaku wo Arawasu Shungei‍‍[!]Assumed reading‍	The Spirited Lion Shows the Top of its Head
Korean	고개를 치켜든 ‍산예狻猊‍ Gogaereul Chikyeodeun Sanye	Lion that Lifted Its Head
Spanish	El Vigía Leonino	The Leonine Vanguard
French	Avant-garde léonine	Leonine Vanguard
Russian	Львиный авангард L'vinyy avangard	Leonine Vanguard
Thai	ซวนหนีผงาด	Rising Suanni
Vietnamese	Tuấn Nghê Ngẩng Đầu
German	Fabellöwe im Vormarsch	Mythical Lion on the Rise
Indonesian	Leonine Vanguard	—
Portuguese	Olhar Leonino	Leonine Gaze
Turkish	Aslan Yürekli Öncü
Italian	Avanguardia leonina	Leonine Vanguard

References

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