𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒾𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝓇𝑜𝓈𝑒𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓃𝓈 🌹

[ayzrules]

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[ayzrules]

1

𝓹𝓵𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭
𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒔 ♔ 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈 ♔ 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒔
𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒔 ♔ 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 ♔ 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒖𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒓
𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 ♔ 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 ♔ 𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕

1

[ayzrules]

━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘♔∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1

❝ 𝑰'𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏. ❞

━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘♔∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

▏▏Princess 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝑴𝒆𝒊 of Liang, also known as the 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈. Her cousin, Crown Prince 𝒁𝒉𝒐𝒖 𝑴𝒆𝒊 of Liang, calls her Meimei (妹妹) as an inside joke (it means 'little sister' in Liangii; Zhou calls her that even though she's older just to be a cheeky little shit). And, of course, who can forget the variety of flowery and over-the-top nicknames given to her by 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒋𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒐 𝑨𝒈𝒖í𝒍𝒂 𝒅𝒆 𝑨𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕í𝒏 of the Kingdom of Castilya ("my darlingest ruby", my dearest Mai, etc, etc, etc).
1

▏▏As of the gathering in 𝑨𝒄𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒔, Mai is twenty-four years old. The model/FC is 𝑭𝒂𝒏 𝑩𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒈.
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▏▏𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈, the people of Liang, elegant, expensive gowns (her preferred shade would be a 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒅), accessories that are 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒚 (bladed fans and parasols, dagger-like hairpins, pointy boots and spiky heels, and the like), lipstick, lipstick, lipstick, red wine (on occasion), 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚, cherries, dark chocolate, cherries with dark chocolate, 𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕, not being viewed as a threat (or being viewed as a threat, depending on the situation), power, information, classical Liangii poetry and art, calligraphy, politeness and propriety, 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒖𝒑 (𝒔𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒎𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒚-𝒆𝒚𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌, 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒗𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒔), bokchoy and tofu, ginger (just...added to her food. It tastes good!), the smell of cinnamon and cardamom, tea with no milk added to it, subtlety, roses and all things red, Zhou, 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒆, Prince Alejandro and Castilya, winged eyeliner and mascara, impractically high heels, the crisp mountaintop air, the blue poppies that grew almost everywhere in the village she was raised in
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▏▏Sloppiness and messiness, drunkards, incompetence, 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, cheap, tasteless beer, people who genuinely 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, sexist people in general, anybody who would bring 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚, 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆, 𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚, people who can’t for the life of them think something through before they dive head-first into the endeavor, 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒏𝒕, crude manners, meat, overly sweet desserts (in true Liangii fashion), 𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 (𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆), excessively frilly accessories and gowns, being completely, totally helpless, 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏, a number of the 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒊 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒔/𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔/𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒔 (some dead, most alive), not a big fan of seafood (or most meat, in general), the extra-ness that is Western cutlery (she doesn't see the need for 25 different spoons and forks, when one could just use chopsticks. Nevertheless, she still knows the ins and outs of Western meal-time etiquette because, well, that's what she's supposed to know), 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 due to some pretty angsty past experiences
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▏▏Mai is quite decidedly 𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒙𝒖𝒂𝒍. She is betrothed to 𝑪𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑵𝒊𝒌𝒍𝒂𝒔 𝑲ö𝒏𝒊𝒈 of Königreich der Welten.

[ayzrules]

━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘♔∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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❝ 𝑰'𝒎 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒄𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒔𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒎. ❞

━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘♔∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

▏▏𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆, standing at five feet and eight inches. She is on the slimmer side, with thick, wavy, midnight-black hair that goes down to her waist and relatively pale skin (the porcelain-pale look she wears in public is 𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒏 𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒐𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒖𝒑 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒔). Her eyes are a chocolate brown color, framed with a set of eyelashes that she makes longer using mascara. She has a heart-shaped face and long, thin fingers. Mai has rosebud lips that are usually 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓, and she has a sort of delicate and dainty look to her, despite the fact that she's practically six feet if you factor in her 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆-𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒔. Mai likes dressing up and takes great pride in her appearance.

▏▏Mai typically sports some sort of dress (𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒔, plus they are just so goddamn pretty) and does almost everything in a pair of heels. Her 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒅, 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒐𝒍𝒅, although she does like to experiment every now and then. Mai absolutely adores traditional Oriental-themed fans and parasols. In terms of cosmetics, 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒅 𝒇𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒓, 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒂, and even kohl on the occasion. She also absolutely adores lipsticks, though she wouldn't be caught dead in public wearing something as outrageously garish as neon green lipstick (but shh-she does indeed own a tube of neon green lipstick). Mai tends to 𝒈𝒐 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒚 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒖𝒑, just as a general rule.

▏▏Most people who see Mai describe her as elegant, alluring, and in some cases, 𝒅𝒐𝒍𝒍-𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 (𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆-𝒖𝒑 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔, 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒚). She moves with a practiced and fluid grace, each step and each movement measured and precise. Her features are 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕, and pleasant smiles fall easily across her lips, though those who are more keen will notice that they rarely ever reach her eyes-𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒑 𝒂𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒔.
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▏▏Mai has always been a 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. There is something about her that seems to draw others to her-whether it's her carefree laugh, her twinkling eyes, or her bright smiles, no one can say. More often than not, she will 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 by pretending to be nothing more than a lady of high society with absolutely nothing to hide but plenty of gossip to share. She thinks with her heart when she needs to, but uses her brain at the same time.

▏▏Behind brown eyes sparkling with mirth and delicate lips curved up in a half-flirtatious, half-demure smile is a woman 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔. Mai processes vast amounts of information all at once, taking in people's actions, words, and emotions at the same time and forming a conclusion based on what she sees and what she knows. 𝑺𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌. Sharply observant, perceptive, and brutally analytical, Mai is able to detect even the most subtle shifts of emotion, assess entire situations with one inconspicuous sweep of her wide brown eyes, and kill a man in a dozen different ways while dancing the waltz. Mai is 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒔𝒉𝒆’𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈.

▏▏Enigmatically charismatic and exuding 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, Mai puts up a playful and coquettish front all while maintaining a certain air of mystery that makes her that much more attractive. Depending on the people around her, Mai is either a 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒚 of considerable wealth and status or a 𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒏 of equally considerable wealth and status. Mai is not “smart” in the traditional sense of the word-complicated mathematics and the latest developments in quantum physics all go straight over her head, though she is able to hold her own in conversations about a wide variety of “sophisticated” topics. When around others, 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒔, pretending that she is nothing more than another pretty face. She has mastered the right combination of sugary sweetness and sharp wit to detract attention from her real intentions as she shrewdly advances her own agenda.

▏▏𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚. Mai believes that family is everything, and she is fiercely protective of people that she considers part of her family, and of 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒊 𝒊𝒏 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍. She is scarily manipulative, and she isn’t afraid of resorting to 𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒅𝒔 to achieve her goals. Mai is calm and collected in times of crisis, and she rarely allows herself to panic. She is truly afraid of very, very few people, and she holds no qualms against playing others like a violin to get what she wants, all while smiling prettily and sipping tea from a dainty porcelain tea cup. Sly, shrewd, and cunning, 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆-𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒐𝒔.

▏▏If one is able to 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚, 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝑴𝒆𝒊, one would come face-to-face with an intensely driven yet extremely insecure woman who has been bottling up her emotions for much too long. 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚, but she doesn’t know what it is that she truly wants. Mai does not know who she actually is, and it makes her wonder-is there anything to her besides 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔?

▏▏(Though, she realizes, what she wants and who she perceives herself as 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓. Still, she can't help but wonder).
1

▏▏One of her closest friends is, of course, 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒋𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒚𝒂. Alejandro and Mai hit it off when she and her uncle, along with Zhou, visited Castilya in order to negotiate a trade deal. Both of them share an 𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒖𝒑, as well as a mutual exasperation for Zhou's sloppiness.

▏▏After 𝑨𝒄𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒔, Mai grew to consider 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑳𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂 one of her closest friends as well. There's the fact that she kept quiet about Zhou, of course, and the fact that 𝑳𝒊𝒗 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇, with everything that's happened. 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔 is also one of her friends, though Gen and Mai definitely are closer in a bunch of our AUs than they are in the original universe. Their friendship started, as things with Mai usually do, with 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒖𝒑.

[ayzrules]

━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘♔∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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❝ 𝑴𝒚 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒍. ❞

━━━━━━━━━ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘♔∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

▏▏When Mai was born, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒊 𝒓𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. Several distinct factions of varying beliefs and ideologies had risen to power, but all of them agreed on one thing-it was time for the imperial dynasties to go. Liang was 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒋𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔, and although it was large and had plentiful natural resources, the military was stretched far too thin and its techniques were totally backwards. Liang's dire situation came to light about a decade before Mai was born with 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 that caught everybody by surprise. Within a year, Liang was forced to give major trading concessions to a dozen different countries that all wanted to get their hands on the silk, porcelain, and other luxuries that the country was famous for. In response to foreigners taking over their land, jobs, and positions, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕, and the unrest finally broke out in violence when Mai was just half a year old.

▏▏The first wave of revolts came from the countryside, where impoverished peasants were suffering from sky-high taxes with no opportunity to better their station in society. 𝑴𝒂𝒊'𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒓, and her other family members were too stuck in tradition and the days of the old. All of them refused to do anything about the feudal system that was obviously tearing the country apart. And so the violence escalated and people grew angrier and angrier until they eventually stormed the capital city of Xiajing 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚-all but Mai, who was sent away to be protected by her father's younger brother.

▏▏After the royal family was ousted, 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒓𝒖𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒍-𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒄𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝒘𝒂𝒓. Each separate faction refused to tolerate the others, and widespread warfare gripped the nation. To make matters worse, the neighboring island-nation (known as the 𝑴𝒊𝒌𝒂𝒘𝒂) decided to take advantage of the turmoil and invade Liang. However, Mai lived safely in isolation. Her uncle, 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒆𝒊, was believed to be dead after he fled from court. Mai's father was the only one to know that Ming had done so because he wanted to pursue a life other than that of a member of the royal family. In his small home near a stretch of imposing mountains known as the 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔, Ming spent his days learning multiple fighting styles and indulging in the arts. 𝑯𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘, and by the time she was fifteen Mai could knock someone out in ten different ways and wield a variety of blades, all while reciting a piece of classical Liangii poetry.
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▏▏Mai 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒚. Ming told her everything as soon as she was old enough to understand it, and Mai has always known, on some level, that 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒑 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈. As she grew up, Ming began to come out of isolation, getting in contact with old friends and allies, most of whom were shocked to find him alive and breathing. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒅𝒐𝒛𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒏, and most of the common people were sick and tired of all the fighting. Some even began to wish that the royal family had never been killed, as there were times of prosperity during the reign of Mai's parents despite the fact that they were completely ineffective rulers. 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏-a faction that would support the reinstatement of the imperial dynasty.

▏▏𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒐𝒇𝒇 when Mai was about thirteen years old. With most of the other factions dissolved or falling apart, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆: 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔. This group generated widespread support with its ideas of social equality and sharing all property, something which greatly appealed to those that remembered the huge wealth gap present when Mai's parents were in power. However, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔, and they alienated the upper and middle class by actively persecuting them just because they happened to have more money. Ming managed to win the support of the wealthy, and after he secured 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑲ö𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒏 by promising extensive natural resources in exchange for military aid (and using Mai's hand-in-marriage to seal the day), the rest was history. With more funds than the socialists could ever imagine to accrue, 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒖𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, while the socialists were stuck using crossbows and outdated artillery. After defeating the socialists in a series of battles that were concentrated on their strongholds, Ming was finally able to take power-albeit reluctantly-𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒚𝒏𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒚.
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▏▏Due to the nature of his activities, Ming was usually forced to bring Mai along with him for security reasons. 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒎𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆, no matter what anybody else said. Mai grew up seeing how the poor lived and experiencing it herself, and vowed that she would not forget them when her uncle took power. She also encountered many people who would undermine her uncle and everything he stood for if they could, and learned not to judge a book by its cover, so to speak. 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒂𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 due to the brutal acts carried out by the soldiers of the competing factions and the armies of 𝑴𝒊𝒌𝒂𝒘𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑹𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒗𝒚𝒂. She remembers it all, though she wishes she didn't-the northern grasslands turned into graveyards, the imperial capital reduced to nothing but ashes, the towns and villages they passed through, all the names and identities she took, how careful they had to be to avoid being recognized...but most of all, 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅, being terrified, and she remembers the hands, the hands in her hair, crawling up her chest, holding her shoulders, on her throat...

▏▏When he became emperor, 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒖𝒈𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, which got the common people on his side. He abolished feudalism and 𝒎𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔. Since the socialists had pretty much killed off all of the landed gentry, 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. He began establishing foreign relations with friendly countries to help this industrialization come into fruition. Mai's teenage years were spent living in a beautiful palace with courtiers and officials running every which way. A few years later, Ming began looking to secure an heir when he took power, because although he was a spry old man, he still was old and wouldn't live forever-plus he never married, nor did he ever have children (or so he thought; more on that later). 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍, 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇𝒇 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒔𝒉𝒆'𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒅. Mai didn't like it, but she recognized that she would have to go through with the marriage in order to ensure the survival of her uncle's precarious reign. And if that was all it took, then 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒕.

▏▏A couple years ago, 𝒁𝒉𝒐𝒖 (𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒈), kicked down the doors (quite literally) and demanded an audience with Emperor Ming. Mai's uncle obliged, of course, and suddenly, 𝑴𝒂𝒊 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏. Mai was initially very suspicious of him due to the possibility that he could have been working for one of her uncle's enemies, but she has grown fond of him over time and now does not think that he has any ulterior motives at all. Mai does her best to keep him from messing up too much in front of other royalty, although 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆.

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