Dear Diary, a condensed historical account: "Made in China"

Dear Diary - Made In China

    It takes attitude growing up with two older brothers, especially when you're charged with taking care of them. And especially when you live in a small town in China. Liu Xi Xian did both.

    Her family was poor by American standards but not by Chinese standards. They lived in an apartment with only three rooms and one bathroom. One was used as a multipurpose room and kitchen, one as the adults' sleeping quarters, and one the childrens' sleeping quarters.

    Two families lived there total - two adults, one male and one female, and one male child, in one family, and one male adult and two children, one male and one female, in the other. And therein lie the problem - because in China, only one child was permitted per family. For years their living arrangement was solely friends protecting each other so it was difficult to tell which children belong to which family. Liu Xi was the only female child living there.

    All three of the adults worked. Liu Xi's 'real' father worked less hours than the other two, but generally the adults were mostly absent. Liu Xi, being the only female not working took care of the home and family, even though her two brothers were actually older, because she was far more responsible.

    It was difficult for Liu Xi sharing a room with two older boys. Not just the spacial problem associated with having three twin-size beds and clothing and toys for three crammed into one very small room, but with the always tricky bathroom scheduling.

    And while those two brothers were in high school she got to hear detailed accounts of their supposed 'conquests'. It became obvious to Liu Xi that they were bragging falsely after a time, and she began to enjoy listening to their fantastic stories at night before going to sleep. She listened quietly, never even trying to scold them about it - she saved that for when they left the bathroom or clothing a mess because she was responsible for cleaning all of that up.

    It was a simple but relatively content life. That is, until a province-wide review of local school records finally led to the authorities discovering exactly how many children lived there. When the men in stiffly ironed uniforms visited to sternly talk to the adults they delivered a deadline. The parents were broken hearted because after all these years they came just a few months shy of one of the male children reaching legal age and no longer counting toward the national limit.

    The adults had to choose before the deadline: Find a way to give one child to a new family or find all three children taken by the state and the adults arrested. Male children were generally more valuable in Chinese families because female children were not allowed inheritance. So Liu Xi was the logical choice to go.

    As is always the case with government regulation, loopholes always open up courtesy of the black market. In this case, an adoption agency promising to pay the parents top dollar and find a good home for the newly orphaned child. Naturally extra money looked like a bonus, so Liu Xi's father sold her to the agency.

    They showed up in a nice limousine. Liu Xi had already packed, having no clue what was about to happen to her - she only knew her duty as caretaker of the family was to keep them out of jail. And taking care of another family couldn't be so bad. She gave her father one last hug, and then both of her 'brothers', and bowed to the other two adults before she was herded away.

    Liu Xi was told, while in the limousine, that she would be sent far away to another country - the United States. She was both excited and frightened, being adoped by an American family!

    But once she hit U.S. soil she began to realize it was all a huge mistake. It was too late to go back, however. Rather than be sent to a nice home to be adopted, she was stuck in a dormitory room with one other Chinese girl who didn't speak much. Liu Xi was trained daily in English, and domestic duties like cooking, and managing a household and budget.

    More embarassing for her, at first, were lessons in massage and graphic descriptions of how to pleasure a male companion. It was a very specific lesson plan designed to teach her everything she needs to know so the agency could regain its investment and make a profit - when she would be sold as a bride to the highest bidder.

    There was yet another deadline hanging over her. While her lessons were nearing conclusion the agency began advertising her - not publicly, but through black-market and internet sources. They weren't in the business of housing and protecting their immigrant commodity - once the lessons were over they expected a bid on Liu Xi or they would sell her again, this time to a different agency specializing in slave labor.

    Fortunately Liu Xi did have a single bid before her lessons had concluded. Because there was no 'return policy', and the agency's brides also could not be sold sight unseen, it was customary to have a visitation arrangement. The man offering the highest bid would be allowed to 'borrow' the bride for one evening, and be cooked for and cared for, before making the exchange.

    During that time the brides were forbidden to engage in intercourse. The agency could not get top bid if they couldn't guarantee a 'fresh product', so to speak. Of course that rule wasn't always obeyed, even though the consequences would be catastrophic - the bride would immediately be considered a non-sellable product and be sold into the slave labor market.

    Liu Xi Xian was delivered to her bidder's home by limousine in style. She was dressed in a fine silk dress, both flattering and modest, and her makeup and hair meticulously done by an expert. Once the limousine stopped she was escorted in by a strange man she never met before. He seemed freindly and sweet enough, but she was terrified even as she entered his home.

    She made him a nearly gourmet fish dinner that night. To this day she would still remember the exact dish and how she made it, and even the pattern on the plates. That's the way with trauma and fear. But at that point in the evening she wouldn't know what was coming. She concentrated instead on her training and how to make the strange man comfortable and happy.

    They ate dinner together and chatted a bit. She was eager to teach him how to pronounce her name properly, but she never asked him his. In broken English she tried to explain where she was from, and that she could never return to her family. He seemed interested enough. Without being asked she cleaned up after dinner, putting away all the plates and pans and even wiping down the table.

    Up until that point the man had been a perfect gentleman. He gave none of the warning signs that would have convinced her to become cold and distant, insisting she be transported back, as was her right by contract. Instead she actually felt more comfortable and at home with him than she did at the agency's dormitory.

    He was sweet enough that he earned a massage. She asked him to lay on his stomach on the couch and she sat next to him. She began massaging his back and shoulders gently, and he closed his eyes and seemed to enjoy it.

    Liu Xi didn't even realize her mistake in judgement. At the time she mistook a lack of cruelty for caring. She felt she was a success because she heard no complaints. But she also didn't hear anything positive from the man. He silently took what she offered and gave nothing in return. She knew no better.

    She also knew no better when the time came for her to return, and he chose that time to convince her that she impressed him and he fully intended to bid on her. All she had to do, he said, was spend the night with him, and in the morning he would accept her as his wife.

    Of course given what she'd been through before, she was elated to accept that offer. She sent away the limousine driver to go take the good news back to the agency.

    The man, whose name she still hadn't asked for yet, waited until the limousine drove away. He lifted Liu Xi up, and being young and euphoric at the prospect of being freed from the agency, she thought it fun to be carried upstairs so rapidly.

    That's when, as often in the case of trauma, memory of what exactly happened becomes like a dream. Flashes of reality that are not quite continuous, no conception of time, but emotion powerful enough to fill in the blank spaces quite clearly.

    Liu Xi remembered that at first the man was quite caring, caressing her and kissing her as if she was a beautiful creature that he would spend hours to treasure and enjoy. He tenderly undressed her and caressed her some more.

    In retrospect it turned out that all the gentleness and caring was for his own benefit, to immerse himself with her, to maximize his own enjoyment of what he would do next. He penetrated her quite uncaringly, quite violently, and ignored her quite shocked and panicked reaction as he treated her more like a common prostitute than his future wife and equal.

    Liu Xi didn't know much better, since she had no previous experience. For all she knew, all sex was as uncaring and violent. But there was something in her eyes, something about the...urgency...that he proceeded with that made it absolutely clear to her that he lied. That he planned to take everything...everything from her...and then abandon her. She knew even before he finished, and she still remembers thinking about the irony of him rushing to the end and then pausing to make sure his own release was complete before getting up.

    The shock had already turned to numbness when he finally got up, leaving her there, and made a phone call...to the agency, which was no surprise to her. It was time to pick her up, he said. He changed his mind.

    When he hung up, he gave her his best phony smile and told her, sorry, while she was sweet and attentive, she just wasn't that good a screw. At the time she didn't understand the language of the reference, but context was enough to force her temper to flare. Not good? After all the work she put in, and gave herself to him as a wife should...not good?

    Liu Xi dressed while seething in hatred, wishing her eyes could burn him alive, along with his possessions and the money he decided to keep after using her so and cancelling the contract. If he died so horribly maybe she would feel better about being sold into slave labor.

    But then she realized she was fooling herself on that last point - and it made her angrier. Angry beyond the point where she couldn't imagine being angry ever before or ever again.

    And then her wishes came true. The man turned and smiled at her once more, and opened his mouth to explain that the limousine was coming back. As he opened his mouth, he burst into flames. He screamed and began thrashing about, setting the bed, the carpet, and the dresser on fire. Liu Xi ran, not quite understanding what happened, but she still felt angry.

    Even outside she could hear his screams, and it made her more angry. Because in her addled mind the breathless screams too much resembled the much more muted sounds he made while he took her virginity. She wished him to burn, and the flames flared hotter, until they began to increasingly rage and engulf the entire house like a gas-fired barbecue.

    She then snapped to reality when she realized that the limousine was on its way back. The agency was on their way back to take her away to somewhere else she could suffer. The flames died down at the distraction, and her realization that she had to escape. She took off her high-heeled shoes, holding them both in one hand, and she began to run as fast as she could.

    Liu Xi tired several miles away, finding an unlocked RV parked outside someone's home to hide in and get some sleep.

    When she awoke she felt hopeless. No home, no money, no one to talk to. She couldn't even go to the authorities, because she would just be sent back to China where she also had no home and would face reprisals for returning.

    It was purely by accident that she ran into a tall, dark skinned woman in very scarce robes that morning. It was because she spotted the woman leaving a coffee shop looking distracted. Liu Xi ran past her and snatched a bag of breakfast foods the woman had just purchased, and then the Chinese girl raced around the corner and paused when she thought she lost the stranger.

    Then something unspeakable bubbled out of the sewer grating. Something so terrifying that Liu Xi was frozen with fear, unable to even move. It formed up to a roughly human shape and seemed to examine her. And then the dark-skinned woman showed up.

    Liu Xi quickly figured out that the two knew each other. She knew she was caught, and knew she would be punished. She slid to the ground and curled up, hands above her head, hoping that her death would be swift and painless.

    The dark-skinned woman offered her a hand, and tried to speak to her. But Liu Xi had difficulty with English, and even more so since she was terrified and the dark skinned woman had a thick accent of her own, so Liu Xi didn't understand. The slime being with her offered to translate...and Liu Xi was frightened because she did understand that. So frightened that when she was asked questions, she could understand, but she was too paralyzed to reply.

    And then somehow, the slime being was in her mind. Its name was Manga Shoggoth, and it instantly understood everything Liu Xi had been through. It was painful, at first, having such a being in her mind. But her mind had been in such turmoil, casting it into the maelstrom that is the Manga Shoggoth made no difference to her anymore.

    But it understood. And as it did, so did the dark-skinned woman named Ebony. Liu Xi cried, from fear, from relief, and from shame. She remained on the floor until Ebony took her hand and gently pulled her to her feet.

    Then the accented words that Liu Xi would remember, forever etched into her brain. That she was strong, that she was powerful, and she should stand, hold up her head, and face her destiny.

    And so she did. Liu Xi Xian accepted training from the Manga Shoggoth and Ebony. She learned that the fire she set to kill the man who was to be her husband was no accident - it was from the force of her own will. She could control the Chinese mythical elements. And as her training moved along, she discovered she could control Void, the literal absence of elements, a talent so rare that another who could can't be found.

    She learned English and culture, and pretty much anything that could come from educational channels on satellite television and anime tapes and DVD's. At some point, however, there was a limit to what she could learn sequestered from the rest of society. That's where Ebony and the Manga Shoggoth had to turn to friends from the Lair Legion to complete her lessons.

    They sent her to live with Yuki Shiro, and eventually to the Lair Mansion. The rest is history.

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
-- Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
-- Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

Post By Anime Jason is glad I wrote this a week ago when I was still healthy Fri Aug 25, 2006 at 09:30:14 pm EDT	Subject Dear Diary, a condensed historical account: "Made in China"

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