#((they're meow haiyin and jin meowshu))

[pctaldrunk]

YAO HAIYIN , tw dysfunctional families, murder, etc. etc.

His mother was the leader of a decently sized, newly created sect, until she married his father. He was too young to know the details, and the elders, siding with his father, rarely talked about it - but his father took the sect over by force - using his safety as leverage to keep his mother in check. He did not understand, obviously, when he was younger. Mostly, he was just sad that he didn't get to see his mother very often and was always kept away from "home" for one reason or another.

As a young person, he seems unassuming, perhaps too soft. Not particularly soft-spoken, but generally pleasant and easy to talk to. Musically and artistically inclined, avid reader, eager student, lover of beautiful people and things. Always seems to say and do what's needed and wanted of him no matter which person he is facing - a skill, almost, to morph into the way and say with the voice of only what the other person wants to see and hear, no matter his true feelings. A survival mechanism, perhaps, living under his father's rule..

He got to see his mother only very rarely, a few times a year at most. Even so, he loved her, and was very sad when she was sad, and despite putting on a brave face for their meetings, she was sad all the time. As he grew older and older, he saw and heard things that allowed him to understand the situation and piece everything together. He promised his mother and himself that he would help her escape. However, his mother eventually wasted away in captivity before that could happen, leaving his father entirely in charge. Angry and grieving, he spends years pulling together plans to overthrow his father.

He succeeds. He overthrows his father and the sect's elders that stood with him. They're not all dead, in the aftermath, of course - but the ones that are alive probably wish they were dead. Haiyin succeeds his mother (he has wiped his father from the sect's inner documentations), at an incredibly young age. In the years following his succession, he closes the doors of the sect to the outside world entirely and spends his time clearing out any of his father's remaining forces. He rules with a just but iron hand - the paranoia of what happened during his childhood bleeding into his reasoning and the way he runs things.

Years later, he has relaxed. Once again he begins engaging with others in the cultivation community. In the face of his pleasantness and his unique ability to cater to other people's expectations of a friend-shaped being - most people have forgotten his bloody origins. They have forgotten that though it was in the name of revenge for his mother, he has done terrible things. Despite his jovial and friendly outward presentation - his life seems fairly empty and he is tired after taking over the burden of revenge and a sect so young. Now he roams around in disguise, and seeks an heir so that he might retire early from his position.

He is definitely A Gender (tm), but...he plays fast and loose with how he feels and pronouns. For example, he just let me write a whole bio using he/him. There are times when Haiyin specifically prefers she/her (Haiyin makes it pretty obvious when Haiyin is there) and a few times Haiyin will go for they/them. In general, pronouns don't matter to him too much. He will take any and all of them.

JIN SI (Jin Miaoshu), TW alcohol, dysfunctional family, sexism, etc. etc.

If Jin Z.ixun is the unpleasant (tm) cousin, Jin Si...is the one that gives you 99 headaches. Raised like a little princess - it wasn't too long before she figured out that she was being raised like a lamb for slaughter, too. Her father was not a particularly good man, and as the eldest and legitimate daughter of an inner family member in a family that - likely has some flawed teaching and opinions about the value of daughters, her destiny was mapped out early - sold to the highest bidder in a political marriage.

Horribly rebellious since the realization that the life she is living isn't...entirely right. Maybe it's attention seeking, maybe she's just tired - as soon as she's old enough / can manage it she hops on a sword straight for the nearby (and then slowly, further away) towns around L.anling. There, she lives - well, a party life. Drinking, brawling, gambling on occasion, learning dances from top performers at the local entertainment district - everything a "polite young lady of sophisticated and elegant disposition" ought not do. Accidentally or maybe a little bit on purpose, she aims to push her limits and her parents' limits every time. People don't usually question her - she's pretty, looks obviously like she has a ridiculous amount of money to spend, and is very generous (read: careless) a customer. If she ends up damaging the property, it'll be covered in full and twice over before she leaves. She really is the “black sheep” of the family.

Her parents somehow seem to think giving her more pocket money is going to make her make less trouble - it just gives her more funds for the trouble. She’s constantly about to kill jet father with an aneurysm and she’s a little bit proud of that.

Very...bratty, in her own element. Aware of her privilege and entirely going to use it / play it up. Uncooperative, lazy, picky, frivolous, short temper to boot - enjoys rolling her eyes and misusing her face, especially around her relatives and other cultivation world big shots. And any problem that can be solved with money is no problem. Doesn’t go out of her way to be unkind though. Snappy and sometimes sharp, escalates when the other person escalates - but quick to panic and backpedal when it becomes evident feelings have really been hurt.

Almost "more trouble than she's worth" in the words of her father - except after every night of all night drinking, brawls, and god knows what else she gets up to, she drags herself back in time the next morning to sit for whatever lesson, gathering, or formal affair she needs to sit in on.

(It's the futility of it all. The idea that her life will amount to nothing other than her fate and that her parents see her as little more than an item of value to trade. She says, perhaps a little wickedly - to let it rot. As long as she's "perfect" for the camera, so to speak - who cares what she does in her off time?)

Her cultivation is decent, though. Probably because she first needed it to sneak out of the wards they started placing around her rooms when they figurd out she was sneaking out at night, and then because she got into - way too many fights. She's by no means brilliant but she can carry a fight on her own. If she put her mind to it she might be brilliant - but she says "what's the point" anyway. Sleeps through most of her classes. Reads only what she wants to read and studies only what she wants to study.