Cai Yinqiu

[Cai Yinqiu]

"Her deeds say more then she speaks."
- Cai Jiaoxia

Name: Cai Yinqiu (Solemn Autumn) zi Yingqi (Shadow Star)
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Style: Original

Residence: Xiang Yang

Personality:
A major influence in her personality is her incapability of speech. Not a single person in her life has heard her say a single word. Therefore she can only be very timid, as she is not the person to draw attention with her voice. Anyone who knows her, sees her still as friendly, trustworthy and at times, funny. It's easy for her to keep a secret, she won't laugh at you if you're doing something silly, and she listens and won't ever interrupt you.

But most people newly acquainted or plain bypassers can only think her to be shy, not wanting to get attention, or even a simple girl who has only looks and nothig more. If she gets negative looks, she ignores it, but if they start making remarks, she would look annoyed and wave them off. And when one would touch her without her permission she won't run away but instead use her knowledge of her brothers tactics to defend herself, and not only that but to make her opponent into submitting to her.

Yinqiu has a strong conscious and decides most of her actions by judging on her sense of righteousness. And in contrary to Jiaoxia she is not think long before making decisions, but makes her mind up rather fast, though always having thoughts in the back in case of she needs to adapt some of her moves in every situation.

Appearance:



She has a slender figure, with her clothes often tell as most dresses fit and show the lines of her body. However, the outside layers are not always tightly bound with the rest. She has the average height and weight of a woman of her age, only the hands and feet are slightly smaller. That is hard to notice since she wears shoes of normal size and her hands are covered in her sleeves most of the time.

Yinqiu has her hair often together in a hairpin, with leaving it hanging it on her back and some hair strands covering part of her face. The dark black hair keeps a natural glance and she cares for it as it is a big part of her look. The long eyelashes along with her black eyes with a hint of grey might make it difficult to some to see through into her soul. She never uses too much make-up, simply because she does not believe in it, but her twinsister won't let her meet anyone without.

small notes:
- she has not a single birthmark except two beneath her left-wrist. Jiaoxia has more over her body, but shares also two at the same spot though under her right-wrist.
- she has to brush her hair to keep it straight, otherwise it is naturally wavy.

Apparel/Armour:

Casual: When not being on duty she dresses lightly, with only one or two layers of dresses, in different warm colours. With the colder days though covered by a long black robe with grey fur.

Court: At court or diplomatic missions she would be dressed fully for all formalities, leaving few parts of her body uncovered. Most of the times she wears one of her best dresses, one turqoise dress with long sleeves with darkened prints of lotus flowers, while this is covered by a transparent material with silverlined images of flying cranes. The hairpin is made of a shining white material, having on it the shape of a star along with some pearls.

Battle: She prefers wearing very few armor, to make full use of her agility. Her battlerobe has a marineblue color all covered with small white spots, which are to represent the stars of the sky at night. It does not cover her elbows or underarms, neither covers it her lower legs. However she wears a thin chest plate made of a mix of iron with another metal to make it lighter, and she wears thin goblets to protect her hands so she can hold her weapon. Also she wears some shoulder protection, but her legs remain practically defenseless.

Weapon(s):

Shortie swordie

History:
She was born into the prosperous Cai family in Jingzhou, as the second of a identical twin. The girls were named after the seasons since their mother gave birth to them at the end of August. Jiaoxia, Sparkling Summer being the first, who cried loudly the first minutes she saw the world, and Yinqi, Solemn Autumn, who shed lots of tears as well but only emitted a soft sound.
Their father held a average office under the government in Xiang Yang, while their mother took care of them and controlled the servants and the household. But thanks to the great support from the family they lived a life without much worry. Since he first had received a son who proved to have talent for leadership. Plus he had two beautiful daughters, which would increase their reputation if they would be married to other families of influence.
All seemed perfect, but one thing. Yinqiu would not speak.

In the first years it wasn't noticed that much, although her sister was trying her best to say something what actually was a word, Yinqiu remained silent and watched with her big eyes at you, smiling, as if she was unaware you tried to make her say something. Her parents still believed she would be fine when she would get older, but began to worry when Jiaoxia was talking small sentences, and Yinqiu kept her mouth shut. Then the physicians were summoned to examine her. They tried everything. Surprise her, making games where she had to talk, give her medicine, herbs. They noticed when she was given books she did understood the characters and were convinced she understood what they wanted, yet she did not give it. In the end they wanted to expose her to different levels of pain to see if she would scream. However her parents rejected that so they carried on with different sort of treatments. When she would hurt herself with small accidents, she came to her mother with crying eyes, but she'd only sniff and snivel. It didn't mattered to her brother and sister though and they had a fine childhood.

Thanks to the families reputation, no one would dare make fun of her in public, but with when she was not with the other children, she at times eavesdropped when she heard her name fall and heard what they really thought of her. In the beginning it made her sad, and she often stayed in the house, reading all kinds of books of the large collection they had. When she had become a teenager she was able to write quite fluently, and she communicated either through writing or with the body language. With her brother she practiced some of the martial arts which Yun held great interest in, and she liked it as well since she barely had to talk in a fight after all. With her sister she attended all kind of banquets with other girls of wealthy parents.

When they were at the age of being able to get married, their father went to look for possible candidates. However, the twins were both headstrong in their way f thinking about marriage, and would not agree with any of the proposals as long as they did not like them. Jiaoxia was just picky, but Yinqiu did not want to marry before her older sister would, as it would be shameful to her. Now finally a young officer of the Jingzhou army would show up at the family residence to grant Cai Yun a rank in the army, and Jiaoxia found him worthy enough, even though Cai Liao strongly suggested he was below with what she would get. Yinqiu advised her sister to do only what she felt in her heart. And so Jiaoxia decided and married him. She left their home but Yinqiu promised to visit her soon.

After a couple of months from that time Yinqiu went to see her, but there she found out that they weren't the happy couple as they would supposed to be. Jiaoxia told her that they have tried plenty of times but she has not been able to get pregnant yet, and he came less and less home from patrols to see her, and fears he sees others. Yinqiu regretted deeply how she had told her to follow her heart, and she expressd her sorry and begged Jiaoxia to come back home with her, writing with a thick line of ink. When Jiaoxia read it she started crying, and told her that she was only attracted by his appearance and there was not real love in her heart, but she would remain loyal to keep her family status high. They wept tears together, but Yinqiu hd to return home as he would come back tonight. She left insatisfied.

A few days later a report came to the Cai residence, saying the husband of Cai Jiaoxia had been murdered, highly possible by a horse thief as his horse was missing.
Thus she returned home, and soon she came to her twinsister, and Yinqiu smiled. Her sister did not smile back however and became serious. She knew what Yinqiu had done, but told her the horse was found and that sooner or later they will suspect Jiaoxia herself, as the rumors had been going on indeed that she could not bear children. Yingqiu wrote her she now received the style name Yingqi, trusted by her father that she will need to find work and settle their reputation and marry soon, and that she needed to gain reputation in a positive way. Her sister responded where she would go, and what she had to do herself. In reply Qingqi gave her a warm hug, and then wrote they'd find her a new husband as well and that they should certainly not find work under Liu Biao, as they had removed one of his officers, because she had found out Jiaoxia's former husband was promoted to general, but she had catched him on his horse kissing with a concubine, probably from his superior. She wrote she had let the woman go because she had disguised herself, but the woman must have known the assassin was a woman as well. So they both agreed to leave their home and wander the land in search for someone who would be able to help them. They told their father who had no choice but to agree and send them off with some money.


Cai Liao, father


lady Zhuge, mother


Cai Yun, elder brother


Cai Jiaoxia, twin sister

Current Information: (To be updated at author's whim.)

Gold: 200 Gold

Reputation: 50

Entourage: Ronin

[Adam]

Looks good to me =] Approved!