By Jason C. Marshall (JCMarshall@sympatico.ca) for the Celestial Court.
Gloria, as she liked to be called, waited quietly in the shadows for her assignation. Mark Hammond was a minor member of the Zantan Corporation, but he had possibilities for fast promotion within its ranks and her masters in the Shu wanted a person of power there. Mark would do nicely.
She smoothed her skirt and quickly re-did her lipstick.
Mark turned the corner and saw Gloria standing there, leather mini-skirt, bra top and thigh boots her only clothing. She smiled at him.
"You ready?" He asked.
She nodded and took his hand in hers as the walked.
"I'm in the mood for something different tonight. You game?"
She smiled at him.
"Anything you want, love."
It was one of these Men Hu who was discovered by a rather nasty Shu known as Mu Li.
At the time Mu Li was an up and coming Shu gun runner and smuggler. He'd long hoped for a way to gain 'dirt' on those to which he reported and worked for. When he found the young Men Hu, lying in a alley, left for dead by a Brujah who'd discovered her, he realized that he had found what he needed. Plans and plots formed within his mind.
He spirited the young kindred to a secret hiding place out on an small island he used for storing smuggled goods.
Here he began his plans. First he blood bound her, letting her think that he was there to love her, understand her, and to help her. In reality he was slowly dominating her mind, twisting it and reshaping it to his needs. After some five months of conditioning he arrived at what he needed: a submissive kindred who'd willing follow his orders, doing what ever he commanded in order to please him. He immediately put her to work in the docks area as a prostitute.
It didn't take long for her to start gathering information, after all, her bloodline was known for its seduction qualities. Soon Mu Li found himself with power over many of the tongs that were growing in the port area. He used these groups to further his own power base, gathering loyal soldiers and spies.
Mu Li soon realized that he needed more of his prostitutes. He had the young kindred embrace several women of both Asian and European descent. He processed them the same as the first. He them commanded each to seek out two women and do the same. It took only a couple of months before Mu Li had a small army of loyal spies.
Mu Li turned over control of the his new Mui Tsai to the first of their kind in the late 18th century. He needed more time to devote to his growing underground empire of crime. He'd determined that his hold over the young kindred was unbreakable and full.
Unbeknownst to Mu Li, that control wasn't as good as it should have been. Limited contact with a member of her progenitor bloodline had broken through the programming slightly. She realized several things. The first was that she was no longer one of her original bloodline. Second she was still utterly loyal to her master, Mu Li and the compulsion to carry out his orders was still unquestionable. Third, she was now the mistress of several dozen more like her of younger generation. She had sired an entire bloodline of submissive slaves. She'd doomed her childer to servitude for all time. She immediately retreated to a small monastery in order to contemplate her and her childer's future.
The Mui Tsai have remained within the employ of their Shu masters since. Their mistress and bloodline founder has yet to return from her self-imposed exile. Rumors have begun to circulate, telling of her re-acceptance into the Men Hu, of her destruction at the hands of Mu Li, and of her breaking of the conditioning that was imposed upon her.
"We have watched you. You are worse than your Shu Masters."
Jian: They are said to have accepted our former bloodline into the Court. Maybe in time they will also accept us.
"You are nothing like your parents. You show little in the way of promise."
Pao Yu: They are fierce warriors.
"That any of our noble kind could be reduced to such a state."
Kwai Tao: Our masters may be headed for a future that resembles that of these noble kindred.
"You, like us, are doomed to a future of misery, unless you help yourselves like we now help ourselves."
Tong Chu: The Dragon Council's assassins and fear mongers. To have one visit you is death.
"Pray that we never need to visit you."
Men Hu: Our parents. That we could re-join them.
"Our little sisters. Oh, how you've suffered. We wait for the day when you throw off your chains."
Shu: Our Masters. What they command, we do.
"As I dictate so shall you do. As I wish, you will obey."
Ch'i chu: Strange kindred they are, walking the rooftops and seeking knowledge.
"We watched as you were created. Now we watch to see if you free yourselves."
Yu: Perhaps our only salvation is with these quiet kindred.
"When the time is right we will be there."
Camarilla: It is upon them that our Masters send us. When will they mete out their justice upon us?
"We have seen you on the corners and in the bars, waiting to steal the information from our minds with your seductive ways. Know that your days are numbered."
Shogun te: When the time comes, Our Masters will send us against them. I've met the Koga. We will die when this time comes.
"Do not enter our cities, else we'll give to you one freedom. That of Final Death."
Sabbat: They are infernalists, trafficking with evil spirits and demons.
"Heheheh. You haven't seen anything yet."