Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
I don't hate Hanyi or anything. But I'm still very angry that we have to behave badly to cover for her bad behaviour, and that we didn't notice her behaving badly and embarrassing us for an entire month. I hope we make Hanyi apologise to Yu Nuan after this. At this point, I don't even care how Hanyi develops or how the competition turns out, because I'm stuck on needing to make things right with Yu Nuan rather than trying to help Hanyi beat her in this annoying competition.
I don't expect Hanyi to win tbh - we were significantly more skilled and we still had trouble. And I also don't really want her to. Partly because she doesn't really deserve it yet, partly because it would feel like us bullying Yu Nuan, and partly because I want to get to know Yu Nuan and friend her :p

I see this more as Ling Qi realising that she needs to pay more attention to Hanyi and help her become better, and a chance for them to get closer.
 
I'll admit, I am warming up to the Bombastic and overbearing piece. I was initially very hesitant about that option because it didn't feel right to me, but I think that was because I kept wanting Hanyi's style to match with Zeqing's style. And, quite frankly, that's not going to happen. They both have very different attitudes and demeanors.

To me, it seems that Hanyi wants to be noticed, wants to be taken seriously, and wants to simply take what she desires. She doesn't consider people outside of her family important and could care less for how they feel about doing something. This was demonstrated time and time again in the Scouting arc where she didn't want to, or even couldn't, understand why we were respecting our subordinates and taking their experience in consideration. If something is in her way, she wants it to move out of her way, or she will make it move.

She's stubborn, prideful, and wants to be paid attention to. For example, I believe that Zeqing would not care whether the people she was killing knew it was her killing them, but Hanyi, it feels to me, would want the people she is killing to know that it was her who was killing them.

However, while I am becoming more convinced that a bombastic overbearing piece could very well be in character for her, I'm not sure that such a piece is what we want coloring our discussion with her in the next chapter. Each of the songs could be powerful compositions, not because of their effects but because this is the first song she is composing herself. The piece that is chosen could have some significant impact on her character growth and how she sees her role in the world.
Interesting. Those look like arguments for "beautiful and alluring" to me. Think about it, it's the means most directly related to turning a situation towards holding her in esteem. The overbearing song seems more "screw you, I'm amazing and don't need you" than the more delicate motivations you're highlighting. There isn't no association, but I'd tie it more strongly to the other.
 
Just noticed something interesting while reading the Royal Road version:
"However, the Red Sun Kingdom was mighty and gave pause to even the bellicose Bai. The Red Sun Kingdom knew the secrets of the sacred metal from which the Bai forged their weapons and armor. A fierce and proud people, they bent their necks to no one, and unlike the similarly proud Horned Lords, their people were not a collection of barely connected enclaves, grown unused to war.
In the far past, in the days of the Legendary Yao and his daughter, the first White Serpent Queen, even the Bai's conquests had ground to a halt against them. In the courts of the brute, the serpents advised caution."

Now take that in combination with the Bai refusing to invade across the river during the incident that led to the Sun rebelling.

And I'm left wondering what kind of pact, deal, or fear had the Bai always refusing to attack the Red Suns
 
Just noticed something interesting while reading the Royal Road version:
"However, the Red Sun Kingdom was mighty and gave pause to even the bellicose Bai. The Red Sun Kingdom knew the secrets of the sacred metal from which the Bai forged their weapons and armor. A fierce and proud people, they bent their necks to no one, and unlike the similarly proud Horned Lords, their people were not a collection of barely connected enclaves, grown unused to war.
In the far past, in the days of the Legendary Yao and his daughter, the first White Serpent Queen, even the Bai's conquests had ground to a halt against them. In the courts of the brute, the serpents advised caution."

Now take that in combination with the Bai refusing to invade across the river during the incident that led to the Sun rebelling.

And I'm left wondering what kind of pact, deal, or fear had the Bai always refusing to attack the Red Suns
Notably, this is before the Helljungle became the Helljungle. It was only as bad as any other place in the world at the time the Bai were saying 'don't invade here.'
 
[] A bombastic and overbearing piece (Damaging, Yang, Presence)

Plays into Hanyi's distinctive nature. Musically it puts her as the energetic counterpoint to Ling Qi's tendency to learn...background musics.
One of the things about both the Yukiko and the Yukionna is that they're generally lures, the lost child or woman luring travelers to their doom. You do see energetic Yukiko playing, but they don't actually MAKE you do anything, while the Yukionna only shows their passion when they're going to kill you.
It'd be an interesting path in the long term to be sure.
Contest wise it also has the best odds of, if not winning, then at least impressing Yu Nuan for being true to herself rather than emulating another's style.
Tactically it has her being Zhengui's mounted artillery, forcing enemies to approach to deal with her ice-flavored Xiulan pops.

[] A beautiful and alluring piece (Control, Balanced, Manipulation)

Imitation of her mother. The diva on the stage.
...its not very effective. Nevermind her poor Manipulation(Hanyi's never had any need to deceit in her life), trying to be alluring just plain won't work because she's a brat and not going to pull off a properly succubus routine.
Its probably the easiest path for her in the mid term, because it'd be following the 'proven' Yukionna growth path, but the hazard in the long run is of course, being trapped on that path, since its easier.

Contest wise...she's already been doing this? Hanyi's current arts are literally this(and probably explains why her lure is so weak except against Yellows).
Tactically this has her continue playing the lure role on Zhengui, force them into his engagement range and let him chew them up.

[] A quiet and melancholic piece (Defensive, Yin, Composure)

Imitation of Ling Qi, even as Ling Qi is moving slowly away from that herself.
Hanyi is not the most restrained child, but she has shown to be capable of that when theres incentive to do so. Hard to peg on growth since its very similar to standard Yukionna.

Contest wise, the imitation aspect springs up again, just because she's imitating a different person doesn't mean she's not still imitating.
Tactically...what I see here is a more defense capable Hanyi ranging out on her own as an independent operator(Zhengui: ;_; "Everyone keeps running around so much" )

I'm not putting any credit into the talk of confronting her maternal issues, all three are valid coping mechanisms(Finding a Passion/Clinging to Memory/Seeking meaning in Loss), and Hanyi isn't going to be sharing such a heartfelt issue with a relative stranger.

So what I'm going for:
[X] A bombastic and overbearing piece (Damaging, Yang, Presence)

A bombastic Yukionna would be interesting.
 
I'm more concerned with her personality. As a spirit, it's not like she'll automatically become more mature with time, and potentially encouraging her to be any more bratty or morbid would probably be imprudent at this point.
Maturity comes with human interaction.
Its not a personality trait per se, people learn not to be jerks at random to each other because they have to deal with possible retaliation and setbacks.

Hanyi will be maturing simply by dint of the triple pressures of:
-She acts out at people she doesn't care about, she sees Ling Qi hurt or shamed in order to cover for it socially.
-She acts out at people she doesn't care about, she gets tossed into a pond because theres a bigger fish.
-She acts out at people she doesn't care about, she gets confronted and shamed because she's not good enough.

Hanyi isn't as bad as one of those wilderness spirits who don't have ANY society or interaction at all. Those are pitiless forces of nature.
What she is is a sheltered Young Mistress, raised by an overwhelmingly powerful, doting parent, where theres no problem in the world she can't solve by calling her mother's attention to it.

Down the brash and direct route, she makes her feelings up front. Part of the problem of her is that she's trying to be manipulative and clever like Zeqing, like (what she thinks of) Ling Qi, when she's not good at any of that.

Down the elegance route, she would take the cold beauty approach. Be silent, be enigmatic and alluring. She's be more subtle, but that doesn't make her any more sociable. Look to Meizhen, standing intimidatingly and aloof at events while glaring death beams at people.

None of the options are going to do anything about her behavior, because the fundamental issue isn't "Hanyi is too loud and intrusive" or "Hanyi won't tell people whats actually bothering her".
The fundamental issue is "Hanyi doesn't get why other people matter".
 
[X] A quiet and melancholic piece (Defensive, Yin, Composure)
[X] A beautiful and alluring piece (Control, Balanced, Manipulation)
 
Anyway, on another note: a planning report.

We need Bronze Foundation in order to train Wind Thief. This is thus, obviously, a priority. Similarly, maintaining progress on spiritual cultivation is vital if we are to hit our targets and not be roadblocked anywhere, and hope to perhaps reach Green 5 before the tournament.

Similarly, as always at the start of a new stage our priority is to get our cultivation arts down so we can maximise benefits from them. Now we are in Foundation, we can finally also blow Argent Genesis out of the way and get its (hopefully) sweet sweet permanents.

Current plans for the next two months are thus to focus on base cultivation, which should get our cultivation arts done and get us Bronze 3 so we can train LFWT and do a darkness art turn in Month 8 with the pill we brought. Thus, the basic outline for our plans is roughly:

Month 6Month 7Month 8 OF DARKNESS
Spiritual x4Spiritual x4Spiritual x4?
Physical x4Physical x4 (Bronze Foundation)Physical x3?
EPC x3 (mastered)SSC x4 (softcap)LFWT x3 (softcap?)
AG x4AG x3 (mastered)SNR x4 (level 3)
3 AP spare3 AP spareBKSD x2 (softcap)
UGM x2 (softcap?)
Arts: Songseeker's Ceremony, Argent Genesis, Laughing Flight of the Wind Thief, Starlit Night's Reflection, Beast King's Savage Dirge, Unstoppable Glacier's March

Thus, the main point of nerd arguments for the next two months has focused on what to do with our 3 spare AP in each of months 6 & 7. The lobby to which I belong favours using those AP to shore up our current weaknesses in stealth, fade, and social. Thus, we do something like ENM x2 + Archive (social) in Month 6, and then probably train our new social art in Month 7. Others have argued to instead master HDW, or to go to the archive for a different stealth art.

Another point that should be noted is that we really want more pills for our DARK MONTH OF DARKNESS. Firstly, we want pills that can send appropriate overflow to base cultivation if possible to take advantage of all that art xp. Secondly, it would be nice if we could get some more dice there. Currently UGM and LFWT are cutting it a bit close, and it would be good to get better odds on them.

ALSO: while I imagine people want to jump on our cool new darkness arts ASAP, we really don't have the meridians for them. We need, at minimum, 1 lung, 5 spine, and 3 heart for what's described above. That's 5 AP of meridian opening. A strong case can be made that we should push DARKNESS out to month 9, since we can only equip LFWT anyway.

We do, after-all, have HDW and SES to master, and a *lot* of PLR to train. As well as potentially CDE successor, social art etc...
 
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Thus, we do something like ENM x2 + Archive (social) in Month 5, and then probably train our new social art in Month 6. Others have argued to instead master HDW, or to go to the archive for a different stealth art.

To clarify, the competing camps right now polarize around HDW vs ENM, with BKSD also a possibility instead. ENM plans could be ENMx3 for level 4 or ENMx2 for level 3. HDW would be x2 for maxing it. BKSD would be 1 AP for meridians and then x2 for a level. So clearly we can only do one of those.

After that there would be 0-1 AP left, which in the case of it being 1 is usually going to be spent to go Archiving. One priority in the Archive would be to get the CDE Successor(s), but the other would likely be either Stealth based if we don't train ENM or Social based if we do. We also could do either level 2 or level 3 of the archive; level 3 effectively costs ~2.3 total AP due to SP instead of just 1, but we have a glut of SP right now so we wouldn't feel the hurt of that immediately.

And of course, all this is convolved with setting up Darkness month; we might see more Darkness Arts in the archive, we might want to save BKSD for it specifically. ENM is going to be too depreciated by then though, and likely wouldn't be worth training if it hadn't been started already (though getting to ENM 5 from 3 or 4 might be a way to eat 2 AP or so of Darkness.)
 
This is still fine as there will be two more shots at the Pill Gacha, and between that , potential loot from events, and existing banks of Sect Points theres an expectation that we'll be able to leap on a good pill should one present itself.

This would further shore up the DARKNESS month.
 
Maturity comes with human interaction.
Its not a personality trait per se, people learn not to be jerks at random to each other because they have to deal with possible retaliation and setbacks.

I am very new to this thread having arrived via RR recently and not looked at the community or voting catching up - so I have "fiction bias" here.

What are we actually voting here? My assumption is that the author will soon include a realisation and sub-arc where Ling Qi will realise that she must do for her little siblings what Baizhen, Jian etc did for her when her - give them an actual education required to function in the human/immortal society, and guide them to finding their Dao (Obvious Mother bonding and insights)

I expect a) Ling Qi to bargain Hanyis disciplinary path on the result of this challenge. b) Hanyi to lose in all cases.

So - My biases say that we are voting for how she gets Hanyi through this emergency, and guide her through what her challenge means, and what she needs to do actually compete sucessfully in a challenge - Not how we want Hanyi to grow.

Thus I want Hanyi to gain some confisdence and not get trounced. My choice was Presence as that is her highest Social attribute, and the only one that Hanyi doesn't get squashed. Getting trounced spectacularly by allowing her to attempt Composure vs a worthy opponent is also a viable life lesson.

Looking at the comments I have nfi what the Social art compoonent of the vote indicates
 
To clarify, the competing camps right now polarize around HDW vs ENM, with BKSD also a possibility instead. ENM plans could be ENMx3 for level 4 or ENMx2 for level 3. HDW would be x2 for maxing it. BKSD would be 1 AP for meridians and then x2 for a level. So clearly we can only do one of those.
I really wouldn't do BKSD. We can easily save an AP if we leave it till darkness month, and it doesn't really offer us a huge dps gain. FSS right now is solid, and FVM can bully lower level people fine.
 
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