Meichen Long

Meichen Long
IC Information
Age:	13
Zodiac Sign:	Earth Dragon (Chinese), Capricorn (Western)
Gender/Sexuality:	Female/Lesbian
Species:	Half-Dragon
Place of Origin:	Chengdu, Sichuan province, China
Hair Color:	Black
Eye Color:	Dark Brown (Bright Yellow in blessed form)
Build:	Small
Romantic Status:	Involved (Ichiko Suzuki)
Romantic Identification:	Polyamorous, Open, Disclosed
Occupation:	Student at Rinkei Gakuen, professional chef, owner/head chef of the Hong Fu Long
Residence:	Caislean Dubhcoille
Religion:	Buddhist/Taoist
Blessing:	Unique Dragon-girl blessing
Spoken Languages:	Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, English, French, German, Korean, Japanese
OOC Information
Source:	Original Character
Other Characters:	Mirabelle O'Shea, Misao Nakamura

Meichen Long is a resident of Yuriba of over a year.

Personality/Psychological Data

Meichen has a very kind, humble nature and loves to talk. Being of a 'noble' background, Meichen speaks to virtually everyone with a formal, respectful tone in whichever language she chooses. Her voice is quiet and rarely raised, and she smiles often. Things that catch her interest, of which there always seem to be many, spark many questions from her that usually won't rest until her curiosity about the subject is sated. These are usually things that weren't in use before her arrival on the isle.

She approaches everything she does with diligence, and will not hesitate to lend a helping hand even if she isn't sure how. Being a devout Taoist, she is also mindful of nature, ever courteous towards others, and loves to come up with new ways to pleasantly surprise those she knows. She is adamant in her stance of returning favors, to the point of insistence, and is always attempting to learn new things from others. Thus, in some ways she is very mature for her age, and in others she is naive.

Powers

Aside from her skill in Kung Fu and her prowess with the jian, Meichen's training under Shaolin has given her uncanny reflexes, to the point that she is capable of catching or evading most potential disasters near her. She also possesses an incredible leaping ability for her height, and has the ability to glide upon air currents for short distances, or rise upon the wind and fly.

History

Meichen was born the daughter of the ruling governor of Sichuan, late in the year 1628 of the Gregorian calendar in the twilight years of the Ming dynasty. Her clan, Long, were said to be a clan of very strong lineage indeed; local lore had said their founding fathers were descended from dragons, and that the eldest among them could even become them (it is suspected that the rumors were metaphors, however, being that many had served in the Imperial army as fearsome generals or had studied under the tutelage of Shaolin).

Even as a privileged noble's daughter, however, she was always at the feet of her brothers and was not educated very well beyond what amounted to elementary school due to the laws regarding the education of girls at the time. Instead, once she had completed her basic education, her father prescribed her to be trained as a concubine so that she might be wed off to another wealthy family. In place of this, however, Meichen agreed to train under the tutelage of a famous European linguist to learn several languages in case dealings with the Western world increased in popularity in Sichuan. Unbeknownst to her father, Meichen also secretly studied the arts of Shaolin under a former resident of the famed temple; as a cover, the former monk also trained her in the art of tea brewing and the traditional Chinese tea ceremony, which she subsequently performed many times for guests in her father's halls.

It was during a night in 1642, when Zhang Xianzhong and his personal army of Manchu rebels invaded Sichuan, that Mei's life changed forever. She fled her palace halls under the guise of a boy, and disappeared into the forests, carrying with her only food taken from her palace stores and a simple bamboo walking pole, which broke as she defended herself against a pair of drunken travelers along the way. In complete panic she kept running, hoping to reach a neighboring province, or perhaps run as far as Taiwan or Korea, at the time a neighboring kingdom. Unfortunately, she had barely reached the border of Sichuan before fatigue overcame her and her supplies ran short. As she sought shelter beneath trees in the forests in which she hid daily, she fervently wished to be guided somewhere safe, where she needn't any longer worry about being pursued by Manchu rebels because of her now-unfortunate title, and where she could live in perfect peace for the remainder of her life. It was then, according to her, that the sky was set alight by the spirit of a great golden dragon, who descended from the sky toward her, and that was the last thing she remembered seeing. Whatever the case, after that wish, she woke up some time later lying on a rock on the Southern shore of Yuriba.

The Great Leap Forward

Since arriving in Yuriba, Mei met a slew of interesting people and saw much of the beautiful island in an attempt to know the land and its residents, but what struck her as strange were things seeing common use in the village that were what she believed to be native innovations; among them cameras, water spigots, and range stoves, which were later explained to her to be imported. On a few, however, she was right; her first encounter was with a tarot card that transformed into a plushie (or what she called a 'toy animal'). While she thought it was adorable, she was told by a passing villager of a girl named Ichiko who was collecting plushies, and out of desire to give it to someone who likely would want it more, made the trek across the island to the residential castle known as Caislean Dubhcoille.

Unfortunately, the intended recipient for Mei's delivery was asleep at the time. But she was fortunately greeted by a mistress of the house known as Juliet. By the time she had reached the castle, it was late at night, and so Juliet agreed to put the young girl up for the night. This of course wasn't a favor Mei was apt to forget, and so the next night, the girl returned to the castle with groceries from the market, whereupon she asked to cook for Juliet and the other mistresses of the house (Mirabelle O'Shea, Ichiko, and Asuna Asagiri). Also present during that night was the catgirl Curia, who happened to wander up to the castle after having met Mei several times within the area. Mei's Sichuan-style chicken recipe was well received, and led to her becoming a houseguest of the castle.

During her wanderings, however, she had several discussions with one of the authority figures of the isle, breisleach. (Because it's a hard word to wrap the tongue around, she refers to the wise kitsune as "Lady Fox" instead.) While many of them touched upon life in Yuriba, eventually the kitsune revealed to Meichen that she had not simply been carried to the island, but had traversed well over 300 years into the future. Mei was certainly frightened by this news, but has come to accept her new place on the isle. She now lives in Caislean Dubhcoille as a friend of the mistresses and an occasional cook, spending much of her time in its library catching up on centuries of lost history and keeping her training sharp in the Suzuran Dojo.

Life in Yuriba

Meichen ran a small stir fry pavilion during the Anniversary festival of 2009, which saw few customers, with several among those that did attend being asked by Mei to leave for either misconduct or drunkenness. This coupled with only a few opinions, although positive, of her cooking managed to discourage her from the kitchen for a while. She couldn't be kept long from one of her favorite pastimes, however, and was soon back in the kitchen with a new flourish.

Mei began seeking tips from local chefs, in an attempt to leave her comfort zone and try new things. A trip to the Tail Club in order to learn about "American cuisine" allowed her to meet one of the Yuriba Clinic's physicians, Cibele. This ended in a severe misunderstanding when the club's hostess on duty insulted Meichen for no real reason, and though the club's half-owner Lizz Inari later apologized for the incident, Meichen turned down offers of free food in favor of simply leaving the place alone. A much more pleasant learning experience was an evening in the Ocean Lily in which Mei learned the definition and use of a frying vat from Aya.

Recently, Meichen discovered and named the Huang pepper, the Huang Yi Yu Mao. During a walk in the woods with Morrigana, the two of them happened upon a strange plant with amber-golden leaves and long, thin peppers upon it. Each of them decided to try one, Mei sampling a skinny yellow-green pepper and Morrigana chewing whole a dark red pepper. Morrigana then made a beeline for the castle kitchen, shrieking and almost breathing fire the whole way, before she drank down three whole jugs of milk to dull the raging inferno in her mouth. Although the catgirl described it as being french-kissed by Kikoutei and wanted to name the pepper "Kikoutei's Kiss", the name Huang Yi Yu Mao was eventually settled upon, and samples of the pepper taken to Mirabelle for cultivation in Caislean Dubhcoille's new greenhouse. Mei developed a variant of her Sichuan stir-fry that uses this pepper to create the Ultra-Hot Stir Fry, which she debuted during the Anniversary festival of 2010.

Mei was a contestant in 2010's Fall Food Festival, organized by Mirabelle. She ran a tent in which she served dishes of varying levels of spiciness. Although she ended up a finalist, the judges' voting caused her to fail to place. Mei was crushed by this "defeat", and for a few months afterward refused to cook anymore, which resulted in her being in danger of failing her cooking classes. It wasn't until her girlfriend Ichiko convinced her to do so that she ultimately began cooking again; she broke her slump by recreating the dish that won, and subsequently improving upon it with her own methods.

Currently, Mei is in an apprenticeship program under Abryn at the Ocean Lily, where she works as a cook and waitress. With talk of a new street in the village planned to be built, she hopes to enter the restaurant business for herself with her own ideas...

Dragon form

Meichen's blessing obviously did not come from a known spring. Instead, after a night of a vivid dream, she was bedridden and in great pain for three days until she woke to find herself having sprouted horns and a reptilian tail. A chat with the dragoness Atara suggested that there may have been some actual dragon lineage in her family to give the Long clan its name, or that one of them did in fact become involved with a dragon somewhere down the line on her branch of the family, and as such she has begun to display some of its characteristics. It is uncertain at this point. With some help from Mirabelle she was able to make the form behave as other jusenkyou blessings do.

In this form, Mei's eyes become a bright reptilian gold, and two small buttonlike horns protrude from the top of her head. Her hands and feet gain hooked claws that she prefers to keep covered, and she grows a proportionately long tail with smooth emerald-colored scales and short yellow spines in two parallel lines down the top, with jade green underbelly scales on the bottom.

Likes/Dislikes

Likes: Cooking, learning new things, chess, Kung Fu, rain, tea, rice dishes, dragons (designs, sculptures, and real ones), 'cute' outfits, gardens, talking with others over virtually any subject, school, dolls, books and stories.

Dislikes: Selfish people, arrogance, those who take advantage of others, cruelty against any form of life (not to include hunting or fishing), adults who believe age instantly equals greater wisdom or superiority, aggressive drunkards, people whom she doesn't know well who hug her without permission.

Other: She will cook pork if asked, but will not eat it. While this might seem like a major hindrance on her road to becoming a chef, she usually employs the services of a taste-tester to make sure that any porcine meat product has been properly cooked and has the correct, or at least a very delicious, flavor. Although she loves her home country, she strongly disapproves of its current state and its government.

Relationships

Meichen cares deeply for her girlfriend Ichiko Suzuki, and is often inseperable from her. If ever they are spotted in public they are likely attached at the hands. They are a bit of an odd couple in terms of blessings, though it is probably a testament to Mei's kindness that the dragongirl protects and loves a bunnygirl.

Juliet seems to have taken it upon herself to see to Mei's care in this new locale, as well as teaching her how to cook things besides Chinese dishes; in contrast, Juliet has confessed that Asian dishes are not her strong point, and Meichen sees it as her task to show her. Consequently, Meichen and Juliet are often found together in Caislean Dubhcoille's kitchen.

Curia was a source of frequent conversation for Mei, who knows little to nothing of the modern world. During her absence Mei has come to learn much more about the new time period, but Curia still hasn't quite taught her the purpose of roller skates.

After 2009's Anniversary Festival auction, Mei made friends with the phoenix Ling Ra, who was a small child at the time. Although Mei at first believed the phoenix to be a carrier of a Jusenkyo blessing, she was surprised when the kid grew up to adolescence almost overnight. Mei and Ling have been friends for months, although Mei is uncertain what the future will bring as Ling's repetitive life cycle takes its course. She keeps one of Ling's feathers in a small vial as a charm for luck and prosperity. Ling's disappearance has not changed the fact that Mei considers her a friend.

Mei took cooking classes at Rinkei Gakuen not only to familiarize herself with modern kitchen tools, but also to gain a more cultural knowledge of world cuisines (as well as to learn as many recipes as she can!). To this day she often brings surprise meals to breisleach and Atara, often appealing to the kitsune priestess' love of spicy food and, by contrast, challenging herself with coming up with meals that the dragoness who dislikes food with any kind of spice may actually like. Like many, Mei looks up to the couple for their wisdom as well as their overall friendliness.

Abryn became Mei's tutor in the culinary arts as part of her work study program, and a source of plenty of knowledge given the woman's experience. After seven months in Abryn's tutelage, Mei passed with full marks, earning her official place among the chefs of Yuriba at last. Not content to rest on her laurels at her age, however, Mei began putting forth her culinary efforts into a restaurant of her own.

The result of these efforts, the Hong Fu Long restaurant, opened its doors in May of 2012.