Yue Huang

Yue was born in Chongqing to Mei Liao and...well, honestly? She's not sure. As far back as Yue can remember, it was always just her and her mom. That was fine by Yue – her mom was extremely loving to her; Mei was a bit silly, sometimes over the top and not exactly "with" how Yue was, but she cared about her. She loved her and tried to support her in everything she did. The two of them were surprisingly close, mostly because Mei saw how Yue was and didn't really pull any punches with her. Though it may not have been the best thing to tell a growing child, Mei admitted that, as a huli jiang, she had made her life by wrecking families, tempting away husbands that were too stupid or greedy to think about their situation. Yue's father, Mei told her, had been a man with considerable power, a lovely and doting wife, and a lovely son – and he had been almost willing to risk it for a pretty little thing like her. She told Yue that she did what she always did when she got pregnant: extorted a stupid man of money to "get rid" of a problem and then, after she had the baby, she would drop it off somewhere for someone else to raise. She had done that with pretty much all of her children...except for Yue. Yue, she said, because she could see the white of Mei's own hair in her. Yue, she had decided, was special and it had made her keep her. Definitely not something you told a child, but for Yue, it was this moment where she realized how much her mom loved her. This was unconditional love in Yue's opinion and she thrived with it. As annoyed and frustrated as she can get at her mom, she's never once doubted her mom's love and willingness to see her grow up into what she wants to be rather than what Mei wants her to be. Mei have tried to encourage her huli jiang side, but when Yue proved to be a technomage, she helped her move towards her goals.

This meant Yue was put into some of the best schools and Mei made sure she got every chance she got to excel. It was hard because Mei gave up her usual work of tempting men the normal way, but they got by. They had money, they had food, Yue could do any after school clubs that she wanted to participate in. Yue didn't want for anything. What this meant for her is she found a love of robotics and engineering; everything she did started to focus primarily on finding a career in that field. All of her schools changed to science and tech ones, Mei proudly announcing to everyone she was a technomage – that got her even more notice and previously closed off schools opened to her. Finally, Yue graduated high school and moved on to university, taking course after course, but a part of her felt...empty. She couldn't quite explain it, even when she told Mei about it. It was one of those things where she felt like while looking for her career was good and all, she wanted to do...more. Mei knew the feeling, the need to break out and do something different. Mei, being the stellar parent she is, started looking at things to spice up Yue's life. This eventually brought her to the idea of Yue going out of the country to do schooling. Sometimes people just needed a change of scenery, right? So between them, they searched and budgeted and planned until finally Yue decided on going to New York for school. It was as different as it could be from China while still being somewhat the same.

The choice in mind, Yue and Mei began to work at what they needed to to see about moving. Mei knew she didn't have to move with Yue, that Yue could just go for school, but Yue, she felt, was going to go on to bigger and better things. Once Yue was done with school, she wouldn't need Mei anymore and would move out, find a good job. She might even marry and her and Mei's time together would be watered down more and more. So, they moved together, finding a nice place that suited them both near Chinatown so that they had some place where they didn't always have to speak English. Yue had found a place that revitalized her and her need to create and learn.

The rest of Yue's story is explored in the To the Moon, Through the Stars story, The Sun Is Also A Star.

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