"Um, I guess you could say this kinda like my Domain?" Sixiang replied, not looking back at her. "Not bad for a first try, huh? I haven't gotten all the physical bits finished though. I wanted to wait a bit before I invited you in."
A dream palace! Nice. Seems like Sixiang imprinted on Ling Qi's Domain — her desire to make her family and closest friends feel safe — and created a smothering land of pillows and cushions; a place where Ling Qi is forced into physical comfort and thus achieves mental comfort as well. It's an obvious and fitting reaction to the Bloody Moon dream.
The abilities Sixiang can grant Ling Qi via this palace seem to center on the lake of paint; as befitting a muse, the pool seems to be a method of storing memories, which may also extend to storing ideas and test-bedding compositions. Once the palace is finished, perhaps Ling Qi can, instead of figuratively composing music in her head, literally compose a piece using the paint pool ala modern day digital composition software.
"How long ago was you're debut party?" Sixiang asked lightly, answering her question obliquely. "Or...it's hard to put it in way you'll get. I have memories way older than that, but 'Sixiang' isn't even a year old. I didn't understand how losing yourself would be scary, after all, all the bits that were you would end up part of something else, and that's fine."
So every Dreaming Moon spirit is really a remix of older spirits, made on the spot for a specific individual at a specific moment? That's—
Sixiang's like Vengeance of Burning Grove: he was made and fueled by the anger of the desecrated site, and they were made by the emotions Ling Qi felt while intoxicated from the Dreaming Moon rave. So their personality and behavior are patterned after Ling Qi's thoughts at the rave!
Sixiang knows a bunch of koans, because cultivation is a bunch of mind-bending philosophical nonsense and approximately 50% of Ling Qi's thoughts are of cultivation at any one time. She was very interested in the habits and rituals of how people lived in cultivator society because Ling Qi was and is trying to adopt Meizhen's and Xiulan's high society demeanors to fit into cultivator society. He was interested in making Ling Qi talk to Meizhen because Ling Qi has complicated feelings about Meizhen and their relationship.
And now, because Ling Qi has her budding Way disturbed, because the base personality they were molded after changed, Sixiang must change also.
(There's an interesting post speculating how interacting with Ling Qi affected spirits. Sixiang is imprinting on Ling Qi's inclination to want and yearn for connection, amongst other things. Zeqing is learning the nuances of loss and perseverance she needs to let Hanyi go — she's been exposed to Ling Qi's interpretation of safety and persistence in solitude via FVM tutoring for months. There's not much for Zhengui, though he's young in nature yet.)
(Also, the dream spirits like those that were practicing with Biyu? How does the Dreaming Moon remix work with young memories like that?)
"I need a composition that focuses on what I want to do in the future don't I, what I think I can accomplish," Ling Qi finally said.
This is the most critical consideration for the vote:
what does Ling Qi think she can accomplish in the future. All the vote options are based on the future, and the answers are about what Ling Qi intends to do. In terms of Ling Qi's budding Domain, this vote is about what we want Ling Qi to want to see herself as. The basis of her Domain is being a person that defends her family.
[] Compose a piece about the shadows of disorder and uncertainty, and how those ills might be vanquished
Ling Qi wants to defend her family's place in the world — i.e. Xiulan's whole thing about being not good enough in her family and province, Ling Qingge's meekness and resignation to meager hopes.
[] Compose a piece about loneliness and cold, and how they came to fade away
Ling Qi wants to give her family happiness and relationships — i.e. Meizhen's isolation, Ling Qingge's despair of her squandered opportunities.
[] Compose a piece about fear and disquiet, and how they might be defeated
Ling Qi wants to give her family safety — i.e. Ling Qingge's pessimism and fear of loss.