Gensoukyou:Hong Meiling

Background
Meiling hatched from her egg on May 2nd, 1815, near the Yangtze River in Qinghai. She grew up as an only child, enjoying a relatively peaceful life amongst other dragons for a while. As a child, she found herself frequently playing with smaller wildlife or insects, quickly growing an appreciation for the natural world she was born in. When she wasn't having fun doing that, training her martial arts, or gaining control over her Qi, she would bathe in the sunlight and take a nap or assume a humanoid form to watch passing humans floating down the river in their boats. Her interactions with them were minimal, though. She would usually just be watching or on rare occasions infiltrating their society for a good laugh. Humans can be so silly sometimes.

Soon enough, Meiling would start hearing that the humans were starting to go nuts about a drug called Opium. While she and the other dragons rejected them on the grounds that the ensuing addiction would cause nothing but trouble for one's body, they soon came to see that the humans thought differently. Foreigners would start creeping through the land and as the years dragged on, the dragons would have to move away from the river to make room for human settlements. They wished to be left alone to their own business, but the humans unknowingly upset these legendary creatures with the new riverside homes. Meiling was among the group that wanted to just take their home back by force, but if they took such an action against the humans, the repercussions would just be more trouble than it was worth. In the end, they just shut up and migrated far from their now former home.

As it turns out, the homes built were to house poor soldiers involved in the Taiping rebellion. Meiling in particular was upset when she saw that these soldiers would just be killed in the end anyway. Either way, she had to move on to a place where human influence was still minimal. Things quieted down with the end of the Opium Wars, and Meiling had stopped aging at this point. She went back to bettering her control of her Qi and refining her skills in T'ai Chi ch'uan and patiently working on her own personal problems, which in retrospect were minor compared to what was to come soon enough.

The humans' population exploded and factories were being made for military concerns. The ensuing pollution caused the dragons to want to fall further back away from the humans, but Meiling was just about at her wit's end when she just saw the world she once loved being turned into an industrial wasteland that spat on what she once considered her home. Instead of migrating once again, she snapped. She ran away from her family and in dragon form, started flying back to the Yangtze River in an ultimately futile attempt to open the humans' eyes and get her childhood back. She went on a rampage on the settlement there, killing defenseless humans and destroying buildings and farms, and was soon met by gunfire. Since her scales were not quite hard enough to endure the shots as well as she would have liked, she was forced to retreat. She ran until she just collapsed, bleeding out, dying in fact. Just as she was passing out, she thought she saw the shadow of some hands, and she felt like she was rising above the ground. She didn't know what was happening, but assumed it was some bizarre part of the process of dying and moving on. Fortunately, it wasn't quite the case.

She woke up under warm sunlight and was greeted with the pleasant sight of lush, green grass and blue skies. Upon the realization that her wounds were still very much there, she knew she was somehow still alive. Meiling struggled to sit up and took in more of her surroundings. From atop a hill, she spotted a massive lake with an island in the very center, and what looked like a small collection of crimson buildings on the island. Her first thought was to head over to that island and see if anyone lived there. She needed to get her bearings, as she now had no idea where she was, so the best course of action was to simply ask. Of course, first she had to tend to her wounds and get her Qi back in order, so she took a moment to meditate and do exactly that before flying off to the lake.

She landed on the lake's shore and upon taking a closer look at the crisp, clean water and the foreign fish in the lake, she had a flashback to her childhood on the river. She looked over toward the buildings and started to swim toward them, soon realizing that it was in fact a huge mansion, one much larger than what buildings she's seen before. She could tell it wasn't deserted though; it seemed to be well kept in the front. Meiling didn't want to intrude, so she decided to wait until someone inside noticed the huge dragon on their front lawn. It took until nightfall, so she passed the time by grabbing some food from the lake, namely some fish. She was just about to pass out for the night when she felt something poking her. She looked up at the source, and backed up a little. It was a young girl with bat-like wings, bright red eyes, and bearing fangs, accompanied by a young woman in a maid outfit, and seeming to be holding a knife...then the shorter one started speaking in a language she didn't understand. Meiling responded, saying she had no idea what she was saying...and neither did this stranger, who would later identify herself as Remilia Scarlet. Remilia sent the maid back inside and waited, keeping an eye on Meiling. Soon, the maid would come back with another woman clad in very purple attire. She seemed to be annoyed at being dragged outside, but she was acting as an impromptu translator so that the language barrier could be more easily breached.

After a somewhat lengthy conversation, they came to an agreement that if Meiling were to become the mansion's gatekeeper, she would be provided food and shelter. She would also need to learn the Japanese language so that Patchouli wouldn't needed to be bothered every time Meiling needed to speak. Thankfully, after introductions were over, she quickly picked up enough to get by, slowly refining it to a fluent second language for her over time. To this day she honors her side of the agreement; she guards the gate, she gets to stay at the mansion. She also eventually settled into the role of being the gardener as well, mostly since she's outside already. Not much has really changed since that's severely impacted her, aside from having been tossed aside during the Scarlet Mist incident and having a very odd dream involving Taisui Xingjun. She's still unsure if it was actually was Taisui Xingjun, but she's had no other dreams like it since, so it's more of a back-of-the-mind worry that she isn't actively calling from her memory at all. For now, she lives by simple goals: stay friendly with the Scarlet Devil Mansion's residents, push her limits farther at a steady pace, and keep moving forward now matter how rough it might get.

Personality
Meiling is best known around the mansion for her boundless optimism, helpful attitude, and resilience to all the abuse that's given to her. She strives to remain friendly with all of the mansion's residents, even the fairy maids, and help them out in any way she can. Despite also needing to fend off every intruder that would try to come into the mansion (in theory), and take abuse from Remilia, Sakuya, and Patchouli due to her failures, she just keeps on smiling and makes the statement that she won't fail again...though nobody's believing that statement for even an instant. She does truly want to stop letting everyone down, but it's a two part issue. First, she's found it difficult to break out of her routine, specifically the afternoon nap; usually around an hour or two after lunch, she takes a half hour nap to re-energize herself...trouble is, she's a fairly heavy sleeper, so anyone can just walk around her without an issue during that window of oppertunity. She did manage to successfully go one day without a nap, but she ended up too tired to give Marisa something that even resembles a fight; it was possibly the most embarassing display she's ever put up in her life. The second part is just that her weakness to long range combat is fairly easy to exploit, so anyone who has the sense to stay as far away from Meiling as possible during a fight will typically wear her down to the point where she can't continue. She has made promises upon promises that someday she'll make up for all of her failures, it'll just take some time... or maybe a lot of time.

On some ocasions, Meiling will end up wandering inside to chat up one of the residents or grab a manga for reading if it's been an excessively boring day. Naturally, this behavior is a bit frowned upon, and usually she'll be humored for only a moment before getting reminded to return to her post. Sometimes her timing for doing this is awful, and someone managed to slip inside while Meiling was shirking her duty. If this happens, Meiling is usually given an earful, usually from Sakuya or Remilia. Patchouli would be the one doing it if it was Marisa who slipped inside.

To potential intruders, if she's not asleep or just doesn't notice them for whatever reason, she'll warn them to turn back, as she will not let unannounced guests inside, and warn them that even more powerful beings than she reside inside. Some people will heed the warning, others will try to bargain with Meiling or try to trick her, and others will simply try to force their way in by challenging Meiling to a battle. Some people will attempt to convince her that someone inside is expecting them, but Meiling isn't gullible nor stupid. She will then question them and test them, especially if she wasn't informed that someone was expecting outside company. If they fail these tests, Meiling will give them one final warning to back off or she will be forced to make them leave.

On those rare off-duty occasions, Meiling will come across as a relaxed, friendly individual. She won't instigate a fight unless she feels she's got enough of a reason to, or if it's agreed to be a non-lethal fight. She tends not to bring up the fact that she's a dragon unless she feels it's relevant to the topic at hand. Of course, seeing her away from the mansion in the first place is such a rare occasion that most people she encounters will only see the side of her that she shows while outside, tending to the gate.

Power/Combat
Martial Arts: T'ai Chi ch'uan, Usage of Qi, Dragon Form

Unlike a large chunk of Gensoukyou's population, Meiling's entire fighting style revolves around keeping moderately close to her opponent. She isn't the most skilled with danmaku, and she's most dangerous when she can actually reach out and touch you. She doesn't have many long range options aside from weak danmaku mainly designed to keep an opponent just busy enough so she can get in closer. More still, it's a bit more difficult for her to fight in mid-air than it is on the ground unless she's in dragon form.

To go into further detail, her fighting style is an offshoot of T'ai Chi ch'uan. Though it started true to the roots of the martial art, over time Meiling mutated it into her own style that uses danmaku to supplement it, and is somewhat usable in mid-air. The first step is always closing the gap between her and her opponent, as Meiling's danmaku isn't very effective at range. Next, is to read the opponent's moves and body, adapt to their attacks and find the slightest hint of a weakness to capitalize on it. Once she gains momentum, she tries to make sure she keeps hold of it. If she finds herself in a disadvantageous position after an attack, she'll go right back on the defensive to repeat the second step of her fighting process.

Her danmaku is highly variable in color and usually can only travel a short distance from her before slowing down or spreading out to the point of ineffectiveness. Most of her techniques will be near her, surrounding her, or a short distance away from her.

When she sheds her humanoid form and chooses to fight as a dragon, she instead relies on her amplified strength, easier and greater control in flight, and slightly better danmaku techniques to overwhelm her opponent with raw power rather than concentrated technique. While she's stronger and faster in this form, she's also a much larger target. If she doesn't care about revealing herself as a dragon, she'll attempt to switch between the forms mid-battle depending on the situation; it's easier to close gaps, overpower with brute strength, and outmaneuver her opponents as a dragon, but it's much easier to exploit weaknesses and maintaining a strong defense in humanoid form.

Through meditation, Qigong, and her T'ai Chi ch'uan practices, Meiling has great control over her Qi. She uses it to keep extreme focus, power her danmaku, and maintain balance. She also uses it for the more mundane purpose of manipulating the Qi of the flowers she takes care of in the garden to make keeping them healthy much easier. Typically, her opponents can see her manifest it in the form of short-range blasts or an augment to one of her physical attacks. When fully concentrated, she can become absolutely indomitable for a brief period of time, barely flinching to incoming attacks (though still receiving damage) and giving enough energy to deal a hefty amount of damage to her opponent uninterrupted. However, when it runs out, she can be left suddenly exhausted, so she only tries to enter this state when she feels she can definitely subdue her opponent or incapacitate them for long enough for her to regain her energy once it's run out.

Spellcards
(to be filled in)

Major

 * Remilia Scarlet: The mistress of the mansion herself is usually one of the first to bring up Meiling's failures if Sakuya or Patchouli haven't beaten her to it, sometimes even if she knows that Meiling's been scolded already. Despite that, Meiling has the utmost respect for Remilia, still grateful for even being allowed to stay there when she had nowhere else to go. If one of Meiling's blunders never comes up, they can go ahead and act like the best of friends at times.
 * Sakuya Izayoi: The gatekeeper feels slightly intimidated around Sakuya at times, mostly because she seems so critical of her work. Of course, it's justified that she is, since Meiling hasn't exactly been a brick wall for possible intruders. While they aren't on the best of terms, they're not really on bad terms either. Still, when Sakuya isn't giving her a disappointing glare, she'll still be her good-natured self and try to get along well with her.
 * Patchouli Knowledge: Meiling and Patchouli are not on good terms, but it's entirely Meiling's fault, and she knows it. Due to the sheer number of times Marisa in particular has slipped through, Patchouli has gotten rightfully angry at the gatekeeper for letting valuable books get stolen by letting in the thief. Despite this, Meiling puts on her usual friendly face whenever she sees Patchouli, naturally never wanting to bring up her latest failure to keep the witch at bay. She hopes one day she can make up for everything her screw-ups have cost the librarian.
 * Mamizou Futatsuiwa: Meiling and Mamizou had gradually formed a friendship through the tanuki's occasional visits to the SDM, which eventually led to Meiling giving Mamizou's sake brew a try to help deal with a bout of insomnia. She was knocked out fairly quickly. The two are currently travelling together across Gensoukyou on foot. When the two reached Heaven in that adventure, they had decided to try and take their relationship to another level with a little help from Cupid. Developments on that front have yet to be seen.

Minor

 * Flandre Scarlet: Meiling's occasionally been tasked with watching over Flandre if Sakuya and Remilia both can't do so when it's needed. It's not terribly frequent, but Flandre at least recognizes Meiling as a "friend." The gatekeeper does get nervous around the younger vampire, however, with the thought of randomly exploding violently occasionally cropping up in the back of her mind...though usually she shoos that thought away quickly.
 * Koakuma: Meiling hasn't spoken too often with Koakuma. Usually, when they encounter each other, Meiling is in the library for whatever reason and not at the gate, so Koakuma tries to politely ask her to get back to work. Success has been variable, usually depending if Meiling has found a manga before Koakuma noticed.
 * Zhuge Lin: Meiling never had many oppertunities to speak to Lin while she was staying at the mansion, and has even less oppertunity now that she's decided to leave the mansion, presumably for good. Meiling sort of regrets not finding time to get to know her better.
 * Marisa Kirisame: Frequently slips by the gate guard or beats her to gain entry. Meiling is aware that she's often at a disadvantage when fighting the thief-magician, so sometimes she won't even bother trying to stop her, to Patchouli's annoyance.
 * Cirno: Occasionally has to fend off the ice fairy, frequently seen around the lake, though she only resorts to fighting her when Cirno's being particularly stubborn. Generally, their meetings are brief and end with Meiling redirecting Cirno elsewhere so she can focus on more important things.
 * Daiyousei: Occasionally sees this greater fairy alongside Cirno. Very few words have been exchanged between the two.
 * Hieda no Akyuu: An occasional visitor that she'll open the gate for without question. She has little opinion on Akyuu since the two haven't exactly spoken very much aside from small greetings at the gate.
 * Cupid: A rare visitor who Meiling has had little opinion on for the most part. Cupid was the one who suggested that the dragon and Mamizou could try acting as a couple, and after a small talk, shot both of them with arrows to help start that along. Supposedly, she'll be checking back with them every so often.
 * Taisui Xingjun(?): Had a dream in which she confronted him and a bunch of his minions. It's unclear whether or not Meiling dreamt the entire thing herself or if Taisui actually did something to her dream. Not even she knows.
 * Unnamed Giant Catfish(?): Avatar of Taisui Xingjun fought in Meiling's dream. Again, it's unclear if Meiling was making everything up in her dream or not.

Trivia

 * It's not common knowledge that she's a dragon outside the SDM. Most people who have to go through her at the gate assume she's just a run-of-the-mill youkai.
 * She gets noticeably annoyed when she's called "China" or if her name is forgotten completely. The reaction is usually worse the better she knows the offending person.
 * She can occasionally be seen reading manga. Nowadays it's more to keep a grasp on Japanese culture, but she also finds it entertaining. When she first arrived, it also aided her in learning the Japanese language.
 * During the colder months, she seems to be slightly weaker in battle. She isn't a big fan of the cold in general.
 * She'll cook meals for the others every now and again for the sake of variety, as she knows how to prepare several Chinese dishes and does a fairly good job at making them.