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Cai Xing | |||
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Cai Xing
The information here is a work in progress and considered OOC information
Mortal Life
I can say that my roots were very humble. I was born in San Francisco in the summer of 1858. I was the third child and only daughter of Xing Cao and Xing Ji. For the white folks reading our family name is Xing. My father is Cao and my mother is Ji. My parents only stayed long enough in San Francisco until mother was well enough to travel and then we headed to the southeast, so father could work for the railroad. Seems that the railroad was cheap and they didn’t actually want to send injured and sick Chinese workers to the doctor.
My father had a particular talent for medicine. Well in this day an age people call it holistic medicine. It is sort of a combination of aligning and unblocking chakras, as well as herbal remedies. To my father it was just what he had been taught by his mother and father who had been taught by their mothers and fathers and so on. However, my father had eight brothers and sisters who also learned from his parents. He felt America could be an opportunity for him and it was my father earned in one month what he could make in one year in China. He was still considered poor for an American, but he was happy.
He met my mother at a market in San Francisco’s Chinatown and the two instantly fell in love. My mother was the child of an immigrant looking for gold in California. She was a lot more acclimated to the States than my father was and eventually helped him at his store. Soon after they were married and went on to have two boys before me.
As I was growing up, my father was extremely protective of me. See in that time, there were at least 20 Chinese men to every Chinese woman. So naturally when I hit puberty I was swarmed by all sorts of Chinese boys. Although I being the exotic beauty I was, I didn’t go unnoticed by the white boys either. I downplayed my looks as much as I could and kept my hair down in my face much to mother’s chagrin. I was basically home schooled by my mother and father and learned a lot about my father’s trade, including the philosophies and mysticism that it was based on. My brothers didn’t share my enthusiasm and went about the impossible task of trying to seduce white girls. I remember frequently rolling my slanted eyes at them. Yes I said slanted. I am Asian so shut the fuck up.
Eventually my father wanted to settle down again and we ended up in Richmond, Virginia. Boy was that a mistake. I was nineteen when Richmond flooded…again. I wish my parents had done their research. Anyway, I had been seeing this Chinese boy, Li Pang (who knew he was like 58 he looked 22 to me, it never seemed odd to me at the time that he only came around at night either) who also had interest in my father’s medicine and followed us to Richmond from the railroad. My father had taught him a bit of the family’s trade and gained my father’s trust. So a couple of years after Richmond flooded, Li suggested that we move to Carcosa to start a new life. My father and mother didn’t want to go but gave us their blessing and that would be the last I would ever see of my mother and father.
At first I thought living with Li was a mistake. He always slept in his room during the day and only surfaced at night. At the time I thought he had some very odd friends. Li was always a shadowy type I guess. At time he was quiet and pale and very gentle but some nights he would come home almost in a rage. It was like he was two people in the same body. A yin and a yang. It was very appropriate for what we were studying. He already seemed to be centered in Daoism and he urged me to study more about it. We worshipped in that manner. He asked me which Deity I identified with. I replied to him Meng Po since she made all sorts of potions although she is responsible for giving souls the Five Flavored Tea of Forgetfulness, so that they will not remember there past lives. He smiled at me when he said that. It was purely creepy at the time and I didn’t know why then but I was soon to find out and in away I became like Meng Po. Living in a world of dead people and making potions for mortal souls. Who knew?
1883-1900
For the most part, my embrace was kept a secret. At the time I wasn’t sure why but know knowing what I do it was a smart move on Li’s part. Surely he and I would have been in a lot of trouble from the Lancea Santum if they had known. We stayed on the outskirts of the city in a place that is now known as Chinatown. I began the arduous task of being a member of the Chorus. I was never one to be sneaky, stealthy or anything like the Mekhet were, well other than smart. I had always had a natural wit and intelligence. However I was being pushed to blend with the shadows. Pad around and try to sneak up on my sire. He said this was to be the set of skills I would need to survive in the world we lived in now.
So it was my tribulation to infiltrate where I could and not get caught. A much easier task back then than it is now. I learned a bit of street smarts and tried to develop what it would take to be a better kindred. In essence I was a street rat in my private time while still managing to forge a living cultivating the herbs and medicines to administer to the poor and needy. It was a lovely cover to keep blended in with the mortals. In fact I made many of my regular customers a part of my herd. I would involve them in several low key Daoist rituals. I indulged in the need for these mortal to believe in something and I have to say I developed a talent for swindling the afflicted.
There were very few members of the Crone at the time and with so many members of the Lancea Sanctum in the city we really didn’t do a whole lot of socializing at the time. Li and I held our private rituals and practiced. It wasn’t until close to the year 1900 before I went through my trials to become an acolyte. There is nothing romantic or beautiful about the process. In fact there was much pain, starvation, torture that I went through. I was run through the gambit of mental and physical trials. Kuang Ming Wu once said “Nourishment occurs not high in the misty mountains away from the world's suffering, but in the very midst of suffering.” This suffering filled me up and eventually I found my Dao.
It was if my eyes were opened and I saw things at they were for the first time and I had moments of clarity. Was this to say that I became a quiet wise woman? No to be only one side of things does not mean that I am in balance. I realized the need for noise as well as quiet; chaos as well as order. It was in this that I decided that not only must I be a woman who healed mortal, but that I must also be the one who could destroy them. It has always been a dangerous thought and even more so dangerous given the nature of what I am. It is the nature of balance though. I was determined to stay in balance with who I was and its effect on others.
1901-1954
It has been said that “laws are regarded as being relative to the interests of those who would inflict them on society at large. They are seen as the imposition of unnatural constraints on the spontaneous development of the many in order to serve the few in power.” This would be no different for the city during this period of time. Li and I moved into a slightly more accommodating place in what was now formally called Chinatown. The Crone in the city would grumble and often come to speak with Li about what they should do. Li would give him his off-putting smile and calm them down. He would often say they is no reason to go after an someone who hasn’t even attacked us yet. He related a story to them often as a reminder. It demonstrates why a Mekhet in the Crone is a good thing.
“Lieh-tzu was studying with his teacher Hu-tzu. "Before you understand what it means to act, you need to know what it means to react," said Hu-tzu. "Can you tell me more about this?" "Turn around and look at your shadow." Leih-tzu turned around and looked at his shadow. When he was bent, the shadow was bent. When he straightened up, his shadow straightened. Leih-tzu found that his shadow had no control over its movement and simply reacted to what he did. It was only then that Lieh-tzu realized we are also like shadows, reacting to events in the world. We are not the mover of events; we can only respond to situations. Whether we should be active or passive does not depend on what we want to do, but what the situation calls for.”
Now don’t get me wrong there is a time and place to act, but only after we have evaluated what the reaction will be. It also takes the discipline to realize when the opportunity is right. One who acts too soon anticipates the opportunity and one who acts to late gets left behind. For some reason I think these early talks stuck with some of the Crone in the city.
I will admit the fact that the Lancea Sanctum taking praxis in the city was a bit unnerving. Even more unnerving was attending the Midnight Masses. Li said it was good to go and that we shouldn’t be ignorant of those who would oppresses us. That’s when my mind began it’s inquisitive thought train. Knowing how to react would involve getting to know a bit more about the Spear. That involved me becoming a lot more social than I had been. It paid off and when then Brood entered town it paid off in the little bit Li and I contributed in searching for its members. This didn’t make us so popular among the Crone but it didn’t hurt either. I think it would have hurt the Covenant more if none of us had contributed at all.
Shortly after these events, Li received several letters from his sire in Richmond. Li made several trips back and forth to visit his sire. I was pretty much independent by then and continue my education in Cruac as well as developing some skill with a sword. The more people that came to Carcosa the more business I seemed to be getting and it was all I could do to keep up with orders for herbs and medicines. I was progressing well within the Crone, mostly keeping to myself, and learned a few rituals. In the city, I had become a familiar sight I guess. I mean I wasn’t one of the prominent citizens but I never really though my place was in city politics. I did however make some acquaintances. Some would say I made friends. I just don’t think its in our nature to make true friends. I learned from these acquaintances and was basically liked by many who weren’t Spear. It was a good thing I had the training I had.
I was one of the many non-cracker Kindred harassed by the Bloody Fist of the KKK. Although I did fair better than some of the Kindred who were harassed. I was just visiting one of the new bars in Ecclesia when they strolled in. Here is three things I abide by when I am confronted:
- “conquering toughness by gentleness”, - “defeating strength by allowing weakness”, - “subduing the quick by languid moves”.
I didn’t react, although it was all I could do to keep my Beast in check. Eventually seeing as there was no getting a desired reaction out of me. They got bored but I left the bar as to avoid further confrontation. It wasn’t until later that I found out that the Hound and his “posse” came in later and broke the Masquerade so brilliantly. It was after that I decided I needed to keep tabs on that group. It would be some years later before they would re-emerge.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of anybody to replace the Hound after his breach caused him to get fired. So the Prince appointed a Gangrel in the Invictus to sort it out. I knew the guy and he had way too much bravado for his own good. His death…..wasn’t…pretty. It was shortly after that I felt my blood thicken and it made me feel out of balance. I notified Li and went into a slumber the winter of 1964 and spend the next two decades in torpor.
1974-1983
Perhaps subconsciously I knew something big was going to happen. Perhaps it was the fact that Li had almost lost his life in Richmond. I am not exactly sure what the cause was but I woke up with an uneasy feeling. There was a sense of dread and concern that came over me after I woke. The city had grown vast in numbers when I awoke. This wasn’t the same city I had known. In the mortal world there was a feeling of decay that came with the new growth that they city had experienced. It was like a cancer. It was a malignancy that was washed through the city. The poor were vast in number and the rich while small in number controlled everything. There was underlying resentment and hatred everywhere you turned. It was like the city had lost its Dao.
Whatever the feeling I had I knew it was going to manifest itself in some form or the other and I didn’t get the chance to rest on my laurels. I knew it was time to hone my ability to react. It was hard that first year after waking. Li decided he wasn’t going to return to Carcosa. He left me the garden he was tending, small as it was, and the place I was living. I got back in to my ritual routine and replaced my herd and my cash flow. The cash flow wasn’t the hard part. With the poor not being able to afford conventional means of health care, they turned to the alternate means. Once I got medicines made they were gone and by word of mouth I became one of the more popular eastern medicine healers in Chinatown. It was 1977 and I knew something was coming. People were coming in complaining of an ailment and sought something to help them. I guess you don’t figure things are an epidemic until it’s too late.
It started with a few people who had an ongoing sickness they couldn’t shake. Then it became a few dozen. Then, before I knew it, it was more people than I could help with the same symptoms. There was no relief for the disease. I even had a few more affluent people seek me out for medicine because everything else hadn’t worked for them. Nothing was curing the disease and panic broke out. I kept my mouth shut to the problem. It is one thing to have your own fears and panic, but it is another thing to voice them. I had the suspicion that this wasn’t any ordinary disease. It was then that I decided it was best to try and shield my herd the best I could.
The disease and riots and everything turned into chaos, but there was no sense of order. Everyone was acting they way they thought they should. It was by sheer effort that I kept my herd out of the general populace. The reaction to no one quarantining the sick was to quarantine those that weren’t. Those in the Crone also followed suit and we eventually teamed with the Invictus in that regard. Those of us that knew how to make Sanguine Stones stockpiled them to the best of our ability. The problem was that we knew we had another problem on our hands if the only recourse was to use them and let our allies use them. The stress level of the city was high and no one was answering the Spear’s prayer. The riots would eventually force me to leave Chinatown and I headed elsewhere to live.
Then the mess with Evans and Elysium happened and Evans was staked for not keeping his yap shut. I guess that’s what upset me the most. How is one supposed to react when you don’t know how someone is acting against you? The alliance that formed between the Crone and the Invictus was a perfect union to me. You can’t get more yin and yang than that. It was a balance of proper tradition and wild and crazy pagans. I knew the alliance would succeed and it did. That didn’t make things any easier. Things changed so much in so little time balance was thrown asunder again.
Between the Consilium taking charge of the city and portioning off sections of it to the various groups, to the people disappearing it was a wonder I survived. Maybe it was the fact that I never made myself stand out that allowed me to be safe from it all. Perhaps I just wasn’t seen as a threat. Although there were times after the overthrow of the Spear I had to avoid being seen by one of them when I was caught alone. Whatever the reason I was glad that the half decade long chaos was over and by the time 1983 rolled around I was contemplating spending more time in torpor.
1984-Present
The Crone chose its time wisely but that didn’t mean there wasn’t retribution from the Spear. It was an odd time to be a Kindred and a Crone. The others pushed for embrace to bolster our numbers. I was a bit leery to do so and for good reason. Not even six months after my first embrace than she was killed. It tore me up inside and I know I began to withdraw. Not only did I do so from the city but from the other Crone. I knew better. This wasn’t the proper time to attempt such a feat. It hurt to have a creation of mine that I nurtured and cared for ripped from me. It hasn’t been until recently that I have been feeling once again balanced between the Beast and the person that I am. I reconnected ties within the Crone but once again I resign myself to the quiet passive role. I am not in the majority in the Covenant. I practice my beliefs and worship alone with my herd.
The appointment of Kien Zhao seems a prudent one. He is Invictus but has ties to the street. It is good to finally see a Prince with a balance to his nature. We shall see if it persists. Again I take the roll of dwelling behind the scenes and reacting as any good shadow should. Again I continue to guard myself and practice. I learn things I think balance my character out. Will I embrace again? I am not sure. All I can do is going back to scheming a living out of the mortals to fund keep that portion of my life in balance. The darkness is still there and the serene front I put forward only hides the dark tortured being underneath. It is as it should be. Problem is the next chaos is around the corner. I needed a break and after the North Docks coterie were made examples of I decided I needed to enter torpor once again. I am awake now but I don’t know how much more I patience I have to give. My Dao is the only important thing and I will be damned if I allow anyone to lead me away from it again.