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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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[X] Her curiosity and desire to explore
[X] The playful trickiness she sometimes showed
 
[X] Her curiosity and desire to explore
In Hanyi's own words, she wants to be able to go and come back, not to forever remain. This choice is most true to Hanyi's nature.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by Killer_Whale on Jul 30, 2019 at 10:32 PM, finished with 80 posts and 46 votes.
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[] Her curiosity and desire to explore
[X] The playful trickiness she sometimes showed

I've expressed interest in pranking spree 2.0: xiao fen boogaloo, yes?
 
[X] Her curiosity and desire to explore

While her pride and confidence are amusing from this side of the screen, I think her curiosity and desire to explore are her best qualities.
 
Another reason I went for Curiosity is that this isn't just a vote about Hanyi, it's a vote about what Ling Qi advises her adopted dau... little sister to do.
 
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi sighed, rubbing her forehead in frustration. She sat on her bed, looking down at Hanyi, who knelt on the floor, looking recalcitrant. This wasn't a conversation that Ling Qi wanted to be overheard. "Hanyi, you can't just go around bothering people whenever you want, you could get me in a lot of trouble, you know?"

"That's why I challenged someone you already beat," Hanyi huffed. "She doesn't have any strong friends either. Big Sis is way too nice. You didn't have to give her anything."

Ling Qi grimaced. Even with the windfall she had gained from the sale of the mirror she had found in the Weilu tomb, giving up a green stone had been almost physically painful. It had however, finally seemed to convince the other girl that this wasn't some elaborate bullying plot. With her cooperation, Ling Qi could just pass the whole thing off as some friendly competition when the situation hit the rumor mills.

-1 Green Stone

"That's not a good reason Hanyi. When someone tells you they don't want to play you have to stop," Ling Qi replied with a frown. For a moment, she struggled to articulate her thoughts into words, how could she put this in a way that Hanyi would understand. A whisper of inspiration from Sixiang helped her organize her thoughts. "That is not the sort of image Lady Cai wants us to project, and I also do not want to be that kind of person," she chided. "It's not just a matter of strength. Reputation is important too. I trusted you to handle yourself well. That's why I let you go where you went. Now I don't know if I can do that."

Hanyi frowned at her still not looking chastised. "I still don't get it," she replied sulkily. "I was just playing. You didn't have any problem bullying those dumb stream spirits so your real little sister could play."

"That's.." Ling Qi began, only to shut her mouth with a click before she could finish the sentence. It was different. Those were just simple first realm spirits, no more intelligent than an animal, and Biyu was helpless. It wasn't the same but… would Hanyi really see it that way? The young spirit had a very stark and simple worldview. "Dealing with pe-humans is different," she finally said. "I know you might not understand well, but the ways we deal with each other are more complicated. It's easy to mess up. It wasn't a big deal this time, but in the future you could really end up hurting me. Please just ask me before you do something to a human okay? I promise I'll listen and try to explain what you should do. And if someone really hurts you or bullies you. I'll do everything I can to crush them, okay?"
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This...not really spirit logic but asocial logic.
Children and spirits alike have trouble grasping the concept of reputation. Hanyi already is one up on what a human child would be considering:
1) First order consequences - Can they do anything to you? The answer is yes, Hanyi became Hanyeeted. But she's not animal level like the riverside spirits, she can refer to the next tier.

2) Second order consequences - Can anyone do anything for them? Can anyone do anything for you? No to the former, Yu Nuan is socially isolated. Yes to the latter, Ling Qi would intervene for Hanyi and she knows Ling Qi can beat Yu Nuan.

3) Third order consequences - Will anyone uninvolved care about how this went down? Hanyi doesn't understand this, but reputation DOES matter significantly for Ling Qi.

Granted, its not like Ling Qi really gets how to explain the third beyond simplifying to a "humans matter more".
The sum of it is that spirits don't into social.

Reputation largely doesn't matter to spirits, because the crux of the problem is that spirits great and small have immense trouble communicating with each other, if they're even aware of each other.
For them, all society happen at the individual or family unit level at best, i.e. second order consequences only.

And that for many spriits only because the family unit can literally be part of a greater entity, so its really just one hand considering what the other hand might want because the overall body would like both hands thank you very much.
yrsillar said:
Spirits above, she wished that she could pass the responsibility to Meizhen or Cai Renxiang, or even Xiulan. Someone who actually knew what they were doing.
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Meizhen: "Um...apply pain until they learn better? Its what Grandfather does."
Renxiang: *takes notes on the activities of human-like spirits working on their own impulses*
Xiulan: "Hanyi, you need to get powerful enough to overwhelm them yourself before troubling Qi, okay?"
yrsillar said:
"...Fine," Hanyi said after a moment, looking down. "M'sorry I got you in trouble," she added in a mumble.
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Well, consequences to someone you like is something they can understand.
At least, when not having a clear target to strike out against.
yrsillar said:
Somehow, seeing Hanyi finally looking crestfallen and apologetic wasn't satisfying. Ling Qi slid off of her bed to kneel in front of Hanyi, her gown pooling around her knees as she tentatively rested her hands on Hanyi's shoulders. "Why Yu Nuan?" She asked softly. "I still don't really understand, why have you been doing this?"

Hanyi mumbled something unintelligible, not looking up. Ling Qi gently squeezed her shoulders and the young spirit spoke up. "I want to be strong. If it was someone you beat, I… I thought I could win. Even if I wasn't as good as you, I would still be keeping up. But I couldn't. I lost, and I shamed Mommas songs. I told her I would be strong and pretty and smart like Momma and I'm just NOT!" Her voice rose until she was practically shouting by the end.
"Hanyi, " Ling Qi began, but she was swiftly interrupted.

"I'm slow and I'm heavy and I'm still weak! That girl was right, I can't sing right, and I can't move right and… I'm nothing like Momma and I should have just stayed with her so she could still…"

Ling Qi pulled Hanyi into a hug, cutting off her increasingly hysterical words. "Hanyi, Zeqing wanted you to live. Everything else comes second to that," Ling Qi said, with complete conviction as the little girl in her arms trembled.
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Guilt, feeling like she's not worth the sacrifices.
I think she's been taking some of that from the whole importance we put on family too.
yrsillar said:
"I'm not saying you can't be like Zeqing, but you need to focus on your strengths, and build yourself up," Ling Qi replied gently. "You're an energetic and forthright girl, maybe you should accept that and..."

"I dunno," Sixiang said brightly, timing her interruption perfectly. "Do you really think she can turn being a stubborn brat into something productive?"

Hanyi scowled at the empty air. "Who asked you! If Big Sister thinks I can, then I can. Don't interrupt Ling Qi!"

Ling Qi sent Sixiang a silent thanks as she stood and offered a hand to Hanyi.
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Six is great at this.

[] Her curiosity and desire to explore

It can extend into a spirit of exploration and traveling, or into scholarship later on maybe. Hidden Moon sneaks by to say hi.
Expect more "but why tho" in future.

[] The playful trickiness she sometimes showed

Play on her mischief and make it a charm point?
An important part of this is how to make it harmonize instead of conflict, mischief must be made in good faith on those who want or need it, not inflicted upon all and sundry.
Grinning Moon says hi.

[] Her pride and confidence

She has pride and ego, but its currently a hollow facade, built around wanting to be like those she respects. Find something she CAN be proud of, and build around that. Make it sing with her own charm.
Smug Hanyi ahoy~

And of course in keeping with the pattern, Dreaming Moon is there.
 
veekie said:
This...not really spirit logic but asocial logic.
Children and spirits alike have trouble grasping the concept of reputation. Hanyi already is one up on what a human child would be considering:
1) First order consequences - Can they do anything to you? The answer is yes, Hanyi became Hanyeeted. But she's not animal level like the riverside spirits, she can refer to the next tier.

2) Second order consequences - Can anyone do anything for them? Can anyone do anything for you? No to the former, Yu Nuan is socially isolated. Yes to the latter, Ling Qi would intervene for Hanyi and she knows Ling Qi can beat Yu Nuan.

3) Third order consequences - Will anyone uninvolved care about how this went down? Hanyi doesn't understand this, but reputation DOES matter significantly for Ling Qi.

Granted, its not like Ling Qi really gets how to explain the third beyond simplifying to a "humans matter more".
The sum of it is that spirits don't into social.

Reputation largely doesn't matter to spirits, because the crux of the problem is that spirits great and small have immense trouble communicating with each other, if they're even aware of each other.
For them, all society happen at the individual or family unit level at best, i.e. second order consequences only.

And that for many spriits only because the family unit can literally be part of a greater entity, so its really just one hand considering what the other hand might want because the overall body would like both hands thank you very much.

Meizhen: "Um...apply pain until they learn better? Its what Grandfather does."
Renxiang: *takes notes on the activities of human-like spirits working on their own impulses*
Xiulan: "Hanyi, you need to get powerful enough to overwhelm them yourself before troubling Qi, okay?"

Well, consequences to someone you like is something they can understand.
At least, when not having a clear target to strike out against.

Guilt, feeling like she's not worth the sacrifices.
I think she's been taking some of that from the whole importance we put on family too.

Six is great at this.

[] Her curiosity and desire to explore

It can extend into a spirit of exploration and traveling, or into scholarship later on maybe. Hidden Moon sneaks by to say hi.
Expect more "but why tho" in future.

[] The playful trickiness she sometimes showed

Play on her mischief and make it a charm point?
An important part of this is how to make it harmonize instead of conflict, mischief must be made in good faith on those who want or need it, not inflicted upon all and sundry.
Grinning Moon says hi.

[] Her pride and confidence

She has pride and ego, but its currently a hollow facade, built around wanting to be like those she respects. Find something she CAN be proud of, and build around that. Make it sing with her own charm.
Smug Hanyi ahoy~

And of course in keeping with the pattern, Dreaming Moon is there.
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Click to shrink...

At first I was like "Man, it's weird that those moon analogues are there in a completely non moon spirit"

Then I remembered we taught a forest fire how to be sneaky through a spirit bond, so....
 
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