Contest:Character Contest/Xu Jinfeng - Audrey's Entry

Introduction= "I have a small tendency to lose myself more often than I find myself." "Depending on only yourself is the worst thing you can do." Personality Alistair is a determined spirit, always persistent in a challenge and never willing to back down of his own accord. He's stubborn and isn't very easy to convince. He believes in teamwork, and prefers the company of others although he wouldn't particularly have an issue with being alone. He tends to look cold at first glance but that's possibly the exact opposite of his personality. He's a warm teddy bear who will probably give you a hug as a greeting, stranger or not. He's generally very welcoming and in many cases, extremely innocent due to his lack of exposure to other people.
 * -|Personality=

He's kindhearted and what one may call a true romantic, intentional or not. He may not give the best advice but is open-minded and supportive. He's been known to be charismatic and selfless, as he would effortlessly give up some of his time to help someone else. He is awkward with romance in general though, as he's never felt romantic attraction towards anyone due to lacking exposure to any human being for a majority of his life.

Alistair tends to invest himself in dance and enjoys it majorly. He feels like he can escape when he's dancing, and whenever music plays, it's as if his feet move by themselves. He doesn't really favor any type of music as he could dance to probably anything. He's very non-selective in general, choosing not to pick favorites as he can see how that might lead to trouble. He isn't quick to dislike things, but when he does dislike something, he is very stubborn about it. "I've been wandering so long I don't even know if I can be classified as lost anymore." History Xu Fei had an undeniable wild side. Young and extremely reckless, she wanted nothing to do with her parents' company. They knew this but were determined to have the company passed down through blood so they wanted Fei to have a child so they could train him. That wasn't in Fei's interest, unfortunately, as she'd rather do anything than have a child. Her parents were determined to get a heir though, so Fei approached a man to help her. He agreed, possibly with his fingers crossed behind his back, because he never fulfilled his side of the agreement.
 * -|History=

Instead, this man, secretly Notus in disguise, took Fei to a club. They spent the night there and at four A.M, Notus drove a drunk Fei to her apartment where Fei awoke the next day, without a single memory of the happenings. Notus had long disappeared, so she was convinced she'd probably partied too hard the following night, not knowing someone had the influence to drink as much alcohol as she had.

Fei went about her life, unaware she was pregnant with Notus' son. It wasn't until two months later that she discovered she was pregnant. Panicked, and having no intention of keeping the child, Fei tried to kill the baby several times. The baby survived though as Notus had asked Rhea to bless the baby so it would not die before birth. Eventually, Fei gave up and allowed the baby to be born. Her parents were overjoyed but she was not, so she sulked while watching them come up with names for the baby boy, as she refused to acknowledge the baby as her son.

Fei's parents named the baby Jinfeng, and naturally Fei doesn't care much, just lets it happen. Now that she's had a child, she figures she's off the hook and can go live life her own way. She, of course, took care of the child under her parents' orders until it no longer needed to rely on her for milk to which she would send him to her parents. Her dreams are crushed when two months later while visiting her parents, Jinfeng was kidnapped.

A car randomly swerved into their lane, surprising Fei who swerved off the road and into a ditch. Naturally, you would think Jinfeng would've died, but the back of the car was left unscathed as the front of the car was smashed, killing Fei. Many cars stopped by the roadside, people climbing out of their cars to survey the destruction. 911 was called, but by then, Jinfeng was gone, taken by an unknown person in the middle of the night.

For the next five years, Jinfeng lived in a secluded neighborhood on the outskirts of Shanghai in a fairly large and expensive house owned by another child of Notus. In a dream, this child of Notus had been told by their father that it was their responsibility to find this child and bring them back home with them to train them, for he had a task for this child. The demigod was skeptical but did as her father asked.

Jinfeng lived happily under Caixia's care, completely unaware of the harsh conditions to come. When Jinfeng turned five, Caixia received another dream from Notus, telling her that training began now. He wanted her to help Jinfeng build up a high pain tolerance as well as resistance to the cold. How she went about doing this, Caixia would have to figure out.

Jinfeng soon learned Caixia had a bit of a cruel side. Deciding that Jinfeng's training might cause questions, it was probably better no one remembered his existence. She gave Jinfeng a special necklace that basically acted as an electrical collar for let's say, a dog. If he got too close to any exits on entrances in the house or stood too close to an open window, he would get shocked or magically dragged away from the said place. Jinfeng learned the hard way it would probably be a bad idea to stand by a window too long.

Upset, he tried running away a few times as a six-year-old, he was unsuccessful as he was shocked into unconsciousness every time he tried. Each time, the shock was more painful but over time, it simply just dulled because he was so used to getting shocked. Of course, he didn't like it, but he tried his best to avoid all of those things.

Next came the actual training which involved Jinfeng trying to fend off Caixia in a locked room as she beat him until he passed out. It was strange, to say the least, but Notus did say to build high pain tolerance. It probably wasn't what he meant, however. Nonetheless, he didn't come to her in another dream to tell her to stop so she continued on with her ways. Slowly but surely, her methods did work although they were very strange and obviously extremely harmful.

By the time Jinfeng was ten, he barely felt the crack of the whip against his skin. Even though he could still just barely feel it, he didn't even flinch. The training had left many bruises and welts on Jinfeng's skin, making it discolored and weirdly pigmented in certain places once they healed. No matter how many bruises and welts Jinfeng received, Caixia had avoided his face, telling him when he asked once, that it was too pretty even to ruin, even for the sake of training.

At the same time, while Jinfeng as a child of Notus was naturally warm, Notus seemed to think it was fitting for him to build resistance to the cold too. Lucky for Caixia—not too lucky for Jinfeng—she just happened to have a freezer room in her house for some odd reason. For a certain amount of time, Caixia would keep Jinfeng in the freezer. Each time, the period increased just a tiny bit. By the time he was ten, Jinfeng could comfortably stay in the freezer room for several hours.

Jinfeng at the time, having no idea what in the world what actually responsible and loving care looked like, just came to rely on Caixia and identify her as his mother. She didn't particularly mind, but it made her slightly guilty considering what she made him go through every day. Between the beatings and sitting in freezers, Caixia taught Jinfeng martial arts and self-defense. Surprisingly, she also taught him dance, which seemed probably useless at the time but it was sort of an escape for Jinfeng so he never asked why. She also taught him English alongside Mandarin, and Greek Mythology.

On his eleventh birthday, Caixia gifted Jinfeng with a pair of Chinese fans. He was confused, as at first glance they looked positively harmless until Caixia showed him the tops, which were trimmed with Celestial bronze. She showed him how to use them, and suddenly for some reason, they were using fans in dance practice.

For all eleven years of his life, Jinfeng had never seen a monster. That was because Caixia made sure no monsters got on the premises. She made sure the house was well-lit at all times and locked everything, whether she was indoors or out and about. Even when monsters did show up, she killed them before Jinfeng even realized something had happened. This changed suddenly when Caixia thrust him head-first into a room conveniently containing three hellhounds who had spawned there when she accidentally forgot to turn the light off in the basement.

For a few seconds, he panicked but quickly collected himself and defeated the hellhounds with the only souvenir of the fight being a cut on his thigh. Caixia, feeling it was probably a good idea to teach him first aid, had taught him beforehand, so he was fine for the most part, barely feeling the sting due to the adrenaline and all the pain tolerance training. Jinfeng wrapped it up, Caixia gave him some ambrosia, and in an hour, the cut was gone.

The world kept spinning, Jinfeng kept training, and everything was fine until Christmas Eve. Jinfeng was fifteen now, had encountered a few monsters and was trained well enough by the fans. Caixia had left early that evening to go get something from the store so Jinfeng sat by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate, watching some sit-com on television. The show was interrupted by an announcement of a large blizzard, possibly the largest seen in years hitting Shanghai. It was impeccably strange timing but Jinfeng made nothing of it.

Not until Notus approached him in a dream. The words, ''"It's time, my child." ''rung in his head Christmas morning as he searched the house high and low, looking for Caixia. When he couldn't find her, he settled in on the living room, deciding maybe she went out again. The Christmas tree sat untouched by the fireplace, a surplus of presents he knew were all for him, but he couldn't bring himself to open any. Not until he was convinced Caixia was safe.

It took a five-minute newscast to crush his dreams.

"Following the spontaneous blizzard yesterday night, several car crashes resulting in fifty deaths occurred as a result of the high speeds many were traveling and the icy roads. The currently recognized death toll contains the following..."

Caixia's name, age, and picture were the first to show up. Something caught in Jinfeng's throat, and suddenly tears were filling his eyes. He fell asleep curled up on the couch, crying. He woke up with tears staining his cheeks, his eyes red, and still continued to cry. Looking at the Christmas tree made his stomach twist, knowing Caixia was never going to come home to see him open all his presents.

Jinfeng spent the rest of Christmas day distracting himself. He practiced dance, he wrote, he slept, he practically drowned himself in the shower, and other various things. Eventually, he decided he was going to have to open the presents sometime and opted to do it sooner than later. The first present was wrapped in candy cane wrapping paper, but it was labeled with a name he'd never seen before. It was in Greek, but he could read it. Caixia had told him demigods, like them, could read Greek automatically.

'FROM NOTUS TO JINFENG'

''Notus... the God of... South Winds? ''he struggled to recollect. He lifted the box lid off of the box and glanced inside, moderately surprised to find an envelope on top of another box, a cardboard box this time. He took the envelope and opened it to find a letter from Notus himself.

Dear Jinfeng,

''It's unfortunate that circumstances have led to this, but Caixia was destined to die at this exact time, no matter the cause. On the other hand, I have a task for you, that may take years to complete but I know you can do it. Your training has led up to this. Inside this box are other things to help you. The presents from Caixia will help too. Now to describe your task.''

''A certain group of demigods has been drifting aimlessly in South Pacific Ocean. They've been cursed by Aigaios to remain there for a hundred years after a few inconvenient circumstances led them to kill a few of his children. Well, more like two dozen, but the numbers don't matter here. Several of the demigod crew are your brothers and sisters, furthermore my children, which is personally why I want you to look for this ship besides the fact that it also harbors a large sum of riches and two of Hephaestus' automatons which need to be repaired.''

I forgot to mention, completing this task may or may not get you killed and/or be cursed by Aigaios forever.

Good luck,


 * Notus

Jinfeng wanted to go to sleep again and never wake up. Instead, he groaned and continued opening the presents for the rest of the night, examining each one. Although most of the bags were labeled FROM CAIXIA in Mandarin, some had multiple labels like FROM CAIXIA, HECATE, AND HERMES. He got a magical backpack from Notus that could carry pretty much anything from, as long as he could fit it through the flap (ie. he couldn't like, bring a grand piano with him because that's way too big), and thankfully all of the items were.

Caixia gave him more Celestial Bronze trimmed fans, the key to remove his necklace, a journal, some colored pens (several of which were erasable or had invisible ink), a compass, 6,528,268 Yuan (One million American dollars), a pendant, a plane ticket that would take him to Spain, Brazil, and then Chile, and a water bottle that never ran out of water. How convenient. So then began his journey that would take him five years to complete.

After a good night's sleep and some breakfast, Jinfeng waited until the following night before he left the house, possibly forever. He arrived at the airport, where he was greeted by a daughter of Hecate named Ailin. She would be helping him on this task. She used the Mist to help them check in and get on the plane. Over the flights, they got to know each other and Jinfeng felt moderately comfortable with her.

It was strange at first, seeing as Jinfeng hadn't had any other human interaction but Ailin seemed to get it. When arriving in Chile, they were met by a Sea Nymph named Elliana. She slightly reminded Jinfeng of Caixia, but he tried his best to ignore their similar personality traits. The three devised a plan to locate this ship and bring it back to the Chile coast. Ailin suggested that Aigaios may have trapped them in the Bermuda triangle, which would make it very difficult for anyone to reach them. It seemed logical so they decided to work off of that theory. Somehow, Ailin got them an empty cruise ship and they were off.

Notus wasn't kidding when he meant the task might take several years. They spent the first year circulating around South America but found nothing. They docked in Brazil to restock again and continued. They were attacked by several sea monsters sent by Aigaios, and suddenly all the training Caixia put Jinfeng through made sense. On top of that, they faced off with a crew of ice nymphs who practically sunk the ship by freezing it. The next two years were more successful, as they had found some clues as to where to find this missing ship but Aigaios seemed relentless in trying to sink the cruise ship. They wandered around the Pacific for another year and a half before finally, after being whisked around in a storm sent by you know who—they had found them.

Out in the distance was the outline of a Greek ship. They steered themselves towards the ship and announced that they were boarding. Reluctantly, the occupants of the ship allowed them to board. There was a total of sixteen demigods, two automatons, and two nymphs, one being a Cloud Nymph and the other being a sea Nymph on the ship, who acted as the crew.

The leader, a handsome man named Daniel who was a son of Eros, approached them, curious as to how they had found them and to thank them. Ailin and Elliana had nominated Jinfeng as the leader, which he argued against but their persistence eventually won them over, so he spoke with Daniel alone while the rest of the crew got to know Elliana and Ailin and went over to the cruise ship.

''"You know... there will be dire consequences for rescuing us, right?" Daniel said, leaning back in his chair as he gazed upon Jinfeng with disappointment. "You're quite handsome, it would be unfortunate for you to die."''

''Jinfeng didn't know how to respond to that so he looked away from Daniel and coughed into his fist, squirming in his seat. "I know. Notus told me. It... It's worth it though. I have one question though."''

"Hm? Shoot away."

"Why did you kill twenty-four of Aigaios' children?"

''Daniel suddenly went rigid, gripping the armrests of the loveseat. "...We didn't kill them. It was completely a misunderstanding. If anything, they killed us. We started out with forty but now we're down to twenty-four ourselves. They... they did perish, however. One of them attempted to summon a storm... and it went wrong."''

''"Why would they attack you in the first place?" Jinfeng asked, leaning forward and looking quite curious opposed to his usual blank expression.''

"We don't know, but I have a theory..."

Before Daniel could say another word, suddenly the waves seemed to roughen and before they knew it, a storm was upon them. A monster had risen from the depths as well, the Ketos Troi or more known as the Trojan Sea Monster. Daniel encouraged the rest to get on to the cruise ship and sail away while they could. Stubbornly, Jinfeng, Ailin, Eliana, and the other Sea Nymph stayed with Daniel. Several other demigods tried to help as well, but Ailin sent them on a course head back to Chile before they could complain.

They managed to distract the Ketos Troi long enough for them to safely escape and attempted to slay it. While in the midst of defeating the monster, Jinfeng was killed. Elliana took Jinfeng's body with her and rushed it to the cruise ship just as the other ship was destroyed. The other sea nymph took an unconscious Daniel with him, while Ailin spent the last of her energy fighting the monster and killing it before drowning while unconscious.

Elliana led them back to Chile where a funeral was performed for Jinfeng. Elliana took Jinfeng's body back to China, where he was buried in the small town of Zhouzhuang in the Jiangsu province. The rest of the crew returned to Camp Half-Blood with the heavy weight of death on their shoulders alongside their riches. The automatons were returned to one of Hephaestus' workshops.

Jinfeng resided quite peacefully in the Underworld, but when the Doors of Death were opened, he was quite surprised to be met by the daughter of Thanatos part of the crew he had rescued how many years ago? She was all grown up now, twenty-two and living happily engaged to a son of Hermes. She brought him to the world of the living, having felt incredibly guilty for his death and she wanted to take the opportunity given to her to revive as many old friends as she could.

She took him to New York, and Jinfeng thanked her, deciding to live a new life here. He decided to go by Alistair and persisted a degree in dance instruction. During this time, he found out about Camp Half-Blood and debated between going to Camp or staying in New York. It took a few pesky monster attacks for him to make a decision. He decided maybe it was a good idea for him to rest. He took a taxi upstate and trekked the rest of the way to camp with a messenger bag, headphones, his phone, and a strong urge to take a nap. There he was claimed by Notus and promptly collapsed in his cabin to take a very long nap.