Work Text:
The difference between Hong Kong and Gotham, Cassandra feels, is startling.
This is not about the supervillains -- because Hong Kong has these too, even if they are much more less tenacious and eccentric than Gotham's own criminals. This is not about the language -- Cassandra's ability to read is just as pitiful regarding English characters than Chinese ones.
This is about the feeling.
Gotham -- Gotham is a Western city. There's always an almost feverish undercurrent running through the streets, something that energizes or stresses you out, something almost predatory in its agressive exuberance. Gotham is a city for Alphas, and it shows -- Western people do love their Alphas, how passionate and willful they are.
Hong Kong is much more settled. If Gotham is a rushing river, Hong Kong is a huge lake in which many fishes and birds can play and live, but ultimately nothing will ever manage to disturb the peaceful waters for more than a few seconds. Hong Kong is a city for Betas.
They don't call them Betas, though. The Greek classification is a Western thing, and Asian civilizations didn't wait for white people in order to develop their own system and naming.
They use Taoism, yin and yang, softness and harshness, dark and light, female and male. Both essences are needed for a healthy human soul, but of course the balance often tips towards one extremity.
Being yin -- Omega -- is accepted, and Cassandra sometimes thinks it's even valued. Family is an institution on the Asian continent, maybe the most important one, and having a yin spouse guarantees healthy offspring. She can see the logic in that.
Being yang -- Alpha -- is... tolerated. There's no hatred, but there's certainly mistrust. Expectations of unruliness, excessive fierceness. A yang child, she heard whisper, is too stubborn and prone to impulsive behaviour, such is the downside of their passionate temperament.
Being too much of one or another is being unbalanced, and unbalanced means trouble for you and your surroundings. That's why Asian people value taiji.
Taiji is how they call Beta. Taiji is how they write great pole, on which the Universe can stand. Taiji is the reconciliation between yin and yang.
If you are neither, you are both of them. If you can be tranquil yet open to move, you can find common ground. If you can find common ground, you can build peace and order upon this understanding. That's what being taiji means -- the keeper of balance.
Cassandra never actually thought of it this way -- never thought of herself this way. Even after meeting Bruce, it's hard for her to believe Cassandra isn't just a weapon. Just someone who fights and fights and fights more, until there's nothing left.
Maybe she should start to see her situation through another lens -- a keeper's viewpoint. Someone who can find balance within herself and spread this balance around.
She would like that, a lot.