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

Also leaning bait. She said it herself, living quietly is not always the greatest idea. We are a direct servant of the Cai heir, we should not be showing flaws merely to ingratiate ourselves with the other servants. Ling Qi has to continue to impress given Gan Guangli's previous failure in the tournament already casting doubt on Renxiang's choice of retainers. Let's just be impressive enough that the others will make the attempt to get close to Ling Qi themselves.

If we're not bait then someone else will have to be, and that's one person likely resentful of us right there. Let's stick to what we're good at instead of trying to seem approachable with the price of an unfavorable impression.

yrsillar said:

With the practice she had gotten over the last few months attending her liege's parties and cultivating the Harmony of Dancing Wind art, she could see the lines that ran through the group. Who was actually friends and who was simply tolerating who. There was less division than she might have expected. There were clear cliques, the largest was Wu Jing and the other noble born disciples, a cluster of five brightly dressed young men and women who very much seemed to be trying at being exemplars of imperial nobility. The other cliques were much smaller, a pair of young men with fur cloaks and silver jewelry with the scent of the moon about them. A trio of disciples with modern but much less ostentatious clothing, and one or two others who seemed to drift from one group to another as if unsure of where they belonged.

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I must say, Harmony of the Dancing Wind is pulling even more weight than it's simple description might indicate. Although, I guess it is simply a special flavor of social perception that it is granting us.

Being able to sense the connections between people is some pretty incredible information to have, and it will be interesting to see if we can pick up a social art that will allow us to use that information more effectively in any social battles we might find ourselves in.

Worros said:

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

Suggesting someone be bait, then expecting someone else to fulfill that role feels like a social trap, and her scouting and tracking skills have already been shown.

Isolate herself as bait, then admit minor weakness in wanting to work on her archery skills with a team

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It still not 2 hours yet

I am also leaning towards being a bait. There doesn't seem to be much to be gained from playing an archer that Ling Qi is not anymore - just a chance to lose some face from not contributing a reasonable amount to cooperative effort.

I must stay true to my jokes

[] Ling Qi would stay and hide herself with the other archers, she had already showed off in helping Alingge quickly isolate their target. Now was the time to catch up on her original goals.

[x] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

I think, after we suggested chasing a bigger, riskier prey, staying safe with the main attackers while some helpless lower nobles are bunched up as bait is somewhat throwing them under the buss if something goes wrong.
We can play the role of a defensive/tank bait and ensure our fellow bait members are safe.

On one hand, we ensure the hunt will go well, and that the bait team won't suffer as badly from the attack of the beast. It also gives us the chance of saving people who are in danger, which will bring their gratitude towards us. Playing the game or showing off by doing the kill shot on the beast most likly gives less genuine appreciation than "You saved my life/" or "you saved my brother/cousin/friend's life."

Possible downsides:

* We are possibly rejecting one of the few chances we've had in a long time to practice archery, so I guess we are commiting to further ignoring that skill, I guess.
* Greater actual chance of LQ herself biting more than she can chew and actually get hurt.
* Unless the new girl we've just befriended also wants to be bait, we'd lose our chance to keep up with her much, for the rest of the event. I wonder if this means we will be acting mostly solo, or if we will make more acquaintances.

[x] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

kitty will be only clawing at shadows

I'm going to try and give the hang back option a push.

The biggest complaint against Ling Qi, and her biggest problem*, is that she is seen as aloof and unapproachable, refusing to engage with people or play the game, instead focusing on training and defaulting to using her strength in combat to solve things. Our recent problem with Hanyi hasn't helped that.

The entire point of taking this hunting party action was to help combat this and to get more of an idea about the factions in the emerald seas.

The Bait option here does nothing to solve that. It again shows off how strong we are, but everyone here has at least heard of Ling Qi's challenge record. They know that. It doesn't really show less aloofness or disdain for engaging with them. Ling Qi is already known to be impressive. It's a continuation of our current policy. And as Ling Qi pointed out this update, simply hiding away wanting a quiet life (or disengagement from politics) is a poor defence.

As Sixang points out, showing a little vulnerability with the archery can be an icebreaker. It can allow people to relate to Ling Qi a little and open up conversation. Even a small conversation "oh you're of the x family, who produce Y" can be extremely helpful for combating our image of lofty arrogance. It can show that we don't always need to be seen (becasue while we haven't always engaged at Cai's parties we've always been visible as the entertainment).

We shouldn't lose track of why we came to this party just because it's an area we're less comfortable in. And if things really fail then we can always go back to our previous strategy.

*That we can do anything about. We can't retrocatively change Ling Qi from her commoner background

[X] Ling Qi would stay and hide herself with the other archers, she had already showed off in helping Alingge quickly isolate their target. Now was the time to catch up on her original goals.

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

I think saying there should be bait and then pointing fingers at someone else is a stupid way to make friends. Under other circumstances (if it had been someone else's suggestion), I wouldn't mind joining the archers, but we came up with the plan.

This might not be the most social approach but it is the one we are best at, and if things go bad we won't give people another reason to dislike us.

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

There is some merit to viewing this vote choice from the perspective of sunk cost fallacy and going with the other option, but for reasons others have mentioned, I don't think our previous choice was wrong. Staying committed to this path is our best option here.

Maybe it's just me but I've enjoyed Ling Qi being seen as somewhat of independent and aloof to the nobility. She needs to garner respect as a retainer of the Cai and while making friends here would do that as well as give her useful allies. But I think of Ling Qi as someone with a number of close friends rather than someone who is above neutral standing with the larger nobility. We should do our best to become respected because it will help us in our duties and increase our personal power but there's no need to be a socialite. The others will treat her as they would someone in their own circles but will not approach her for pleasantries.

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

If we really want to show the rest of the hunt that even the great Ling Qi is a human girl with human weaknesses we just need to have them decide that a particularly well-muscled boy from their number should accompany her and then marvel at the resulting spaghetti avalanche.

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.