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

JowKeen said:

I think the date is interesting from a quest authorship perspective. If we choose the date rout it's not just LQ easing into intersocial stressful situations, it's an opportunity for YRS to play around with social situations. YRS has written a lot of fights, and plenty of conversations, but this one is different. It's a friendly event with stakes that isn't quite Hard Politik like the Luo hunts but also isn't Slice of Life safe or Hard Drama white-knucklin it. Honestly, as we get comfortable I'd love to see that cast of characters from time to time. YRS-verse is wide and cool, seeing more is cool <3

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

But... that's what the update we just had was.

That, and "I want to see less fights as a way to talk (see: meizhen and Ling Qi bonding) but more dinner talk" is kind of a very meta way to vote.

Sirrocco said:

I disagree. Dating is supposed to be about long-term mate selection. As such, it behooves you to be honest (a relationship built on dishonest ground is not as stable), but enjoyment is not the primary purpose. Finding the right person to spend the rest of your life with is quite literally the whole point of it... both in determining if the person you're with is the right one, and in gathering further data about your own needs with which to be able to better make that assessment with others, if they are not.

And yes, I'm being overly assertive and ignoring the subtleties and other sides and whatnot... but as far as what is important in building a good life, my statement is more accurate than yours is. Proper long-term mate selection is critical, and dating is pretty much the place you do it.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Ehhhhhh. Dating is the place where you show what you like, unless you are talking about literal hook up meetings that are enforced by your family or something.

In that sense, blurting out you prefer fighting... is more of a date than a dinner.

All the people wanting to not have romance in the story or a husband kind of need to just bite the bullet. Sorry not sorry but the story WILL contain romance. Marriage is expected of Lq , she is the head of her clan , and she is the retainer of cai, the actual marriage portion will of course be YEARS off if not even in the scope of this book but its 100% going to happen.

Lq is a weirdo (in the settings cultural norms) where she doesnt want to marry someone she doesnt love, hence it's not just a contract for her. She Wants romance. She just has a bunch of hangups on relationships and that's fine, were working on it. That doesnt make Lq suddenly asexual. If she was that would be different.

Now if you told me it was becuase you dont particularly care for bao then I could understand. Preferences and all that, even if it's kinda early to make too harsh a judgement on him due to little screen time.

I too in fact want a reverse harem of men courting LQ and triggering Ragnorak levels of salt during the husbando wars. But you know. I am a man of culture.

But in conclusion, romance is gonna happen, Lq is gonna find a man, she is gonna date around, these are pretty much guaranteed

Mr.rodent said:

All the people wanting to not have romance in the story or a husband kind of need to just bite the bullet. Sorry not sorry but the story WILL contain romance. Marriage is expected of Lq , she is the head of her clan , and she is the retainer of cai, the actual marriage portion will of course be YEARS off if not even in the scope of this book but its 100% going to happen.

Lq is a weirdo (in the settings cultural norms) where she doesnt want to marry someone she doesnt love, hence it's not just a contract for her. She Wants romance. She just has a bunch of hangups on relationships and that's fine, were working on it. That doesnt make Lq suddenly asexual. If she was that would be different.

Now if you told me it was becuase you dont particularly care for bao then I could understand. Preferences and all that, even if it's kinda early to make too harsh a judgement on him due to little screen time.

I too in fact want a reverse harem of men courting LQ and triggering Ragnorak levels of salt during the husbando wars. But you know. I am a man of culture.

But in conclusion, romance is gonna happen, Lq is gonna find a man, she is gonna date around, these are pretty much guaranteed

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Marriage is expected, but it is not required right now, and not going on a date atm does not mean no romance ever.
In a way, i think sparring would be more likely to help with future romantic prospects with Bao Qian, it lets him get closer to Ling Qi in an environment that Ling Qi is comfortable in.
Also, i think just jumping in with the first suitor "because marriage is expected" is kinda rash, sure, he seems nice, let's get to know him and if he does not have the patience for slow burn romance then so be it.

Valmond said:

Marriage is expected, but it is not required right now, and not going on a date atm does not mean no romance ever.
In a way, i think sparring would be more likely to help with future romantic prospects with Bao Qian, it lets him get closer to Ling Qi in an environment that Ling Qi is comfortable in.
Also, i think just jumping in with the first suitor "because marriage is expected" is kinda rash, sure, he seems nice, let's get to know him and if he does not have the patience for slow burn romance then so be it.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

My statement wasnt for the dinner date vs brawl it was specifically towards the people not wanting any type of romance in the story whatsoever.

Secondly I didnt say jumping into the first suitor becuase marriage was expected, I honestly dont know how you got that out of my post. Becuase again I'm talking about romance in general in regards to the story. I literrally state at the bottom my desire for multiple candidates

Mr.rodent said:

All the people wanting to not have romance in the story or a husband kind of need to just bite the bullet. Sorry not sorry but the story WILL contain romance. Marriage is expected of Lq , she is the head of her clan , and she is the retainer of cai, the actual marriage portion will of course be YEARS off if not even in the scope of this book but its 100% going to happen.

Lq is a weirdo (in the settings cultural norms) where she doesnt want to marry someone she doesnt love, hence it's not just a contract for her. She Wants romance. She just has a bunch of hangups on relationships and that's fine, were working on it. That doesnt make Lq suddenly asexual. If she was that would be different.

Now if you told me it was becuase you dont particularly care for bao then I could understand. Preferences and all that, even if it's kinda early to make too harsh a judgement on him due to little screen time.

I too in fact want a reverse harem of men courting LQ and triggering Ragnorak levels of salt during the husbando wars. But you know. I am a man of culture.

But in conclusion, romance is gonna happen, Lq is gonna find a man, she is gonna date around, these are pretty much guaranteed

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I want LQ to find love, and have a large family. But not push her to find/get a husband/boyfriend before she gets to Cyan.

Edited to clarify.

Also, Ling Qi is still a teenager, with a potential life span of centuries, there is plenty of time for romance even if the quest never touches it.

Killer_Whale said:

I want LQ to find love, and have a large family. But no husband/boyfriend before she gets to Cyan.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Annnnndddddd again. The actual marriage part will prob not even be in scope of quest becuase LQ is still young. And the dating/courting part can take YEARS like, a full on decade etc to make sure all parties are satisfied with th contract. Or in case things need to change or the contract needs to be cancled.

Lq will not be having kids or getting married any time soon, and a "boyfriend" isnt really something shed get either , atleast not anytime soon with her issues. But being courted and going on dates is a far cry from that. Secondly LQ is like a few years from cyan, shes 15? Teenagers date, they fall in love. It's a thing dude

I'm still waiting for a suitor to have a Killing Me Softly moment when hearing Ling Qi play:

Mr.rodent said:

All the people wanting to not have romance in the story or a husband kind of need to just bite the bullet. Sorry not sorry but the story WILL contain romance. Marriage is expected of Lq , she is the head of her clan , and she is the retainer of cai, the actual marriage portion will of course be YEARS off if not even in the scope of this book but its 100% going to happen.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Sure, marriage is expected in-universe, but the time span of it is such that the story does not necessarily need to touch on it

Mr.rodent said:

Annnnndddddd again. The actual marriage part will prob not even be in scope of quest becuase LQ is still young. And the dating/courting part can take YEARS like, a full on decade etc to make sure all parties are satisfied with th contract. Or in case things need to change or the contract needs to be cancled.

Lq will not be having kids or getting married any time soon, and a "boyfriend" isnt really something shed get either , atleast not anytime soon with her issues. But being courted and going on dates is a far cry from that. Secondly LQ is like a few years from cyan, shes 15? Teenagers date, they fall in love. It's a thing dude

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

If we have YEARS, actual decades even, then why are we trying to force something now?

Ok, while catching up to the arguments, I wanted to disagree with 3 things.

1: Fight is not the anti romance option, we'll probably have romantic/friendship development either way as the prompt states. The romance/anti romance vote will likely come later.

2: Date comes with a dice roll. Fight is thus the slow and steady option, with Date being the high risk high reward one. If you want to ensure things go, even if they go slowly, you should go for fight

3: I disagree with

glyph said:

Sure, marriage is expected in-universe, but the time span of it is such that the story does not necessarily need to touch on it

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

This story is amping to be a long runner, and with bigger and bigger turns, it can more than feasibly run from mortal to ascension

Sure, if we end up with year-long turns I will concede that romance and marriage will become inevitable. With the current turn length however I do not necessarily see us reach that stage anytime soon.

How do Cultivators handle situations when they have Insights which conflict with each other?

Shard said:

How do Cultivators handle situations when they have Insights which conflict with each other?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

We're in one of those right now. We had a chat about it with Meizhen and Renxiang:

yrsillar said:

Ling Qi shot her friend a frown. She felt Cai Renxiang look her way with a faint frown, studying her. "I've run into a little problem," Ling Qi admitted slowly, carefully filling the cups. "A matter came up, and I found myself unable to fully resolve it. I think I have found a flaw in my cultivation base." Despite herself Ling Qi's eyes drifted to Zhengui, where he, Hanyi and Cui were having their own little 'tea party' though it involved the corpse of a huge mountain beast she didn't immediately recognize. Where had that come from?

"Ah," Meizhen said with a frown. "Do not be too disheartened. Most everyone encounters a heart demon or two on their way."

"Heart Demon?" Ling Qi asked, unable to suppress a snigger. What an overwrought term.

Faint color dusted her friends cheeks at the sound of her laughter. "Honestly, it is the proper term, used for millennia. You are so uncultured at times Ling Qi."

"I'm sorry," Ling Qi chuckled. Laughing felt good. "I'm not sure I'd call it a demon, but yeah. There's… I don't know if I'd call it a contradiction, but...a conflict at least."

She carefully passed out the tea in the silence that followed.

"I was being serious," Meizhen added as she received her cup. "I… resolved such a conflict myself, not too long ago. You will be able to find your resolve and the Way forward, I am sure."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

The answer to your question appears to be "you suffer a cultivation penalty until you figure out how to reconcile the philosophical conflict." This might or might not involve gaining a new Insight, we don't know.

I really don't think this argument on romance is relevant to the vote.

To me, if we are voting for the dinner, it's because we want Ling Qi to constantly pushing her comfort zone because we believe she should be doing much more work there. She has been doing work, but if we vote for it then getting Hanyi to sing, doing trade work with Qian, taking him seriously and having dates is not considered enough, Ling Qi still needs to change how she approach relationships.

However, if we vote for sparring, we believe it's OK for Ling Qi to not like traditional ways of courting and to be the way she currently is as long as she is still having dates with people and taking Qian seriously and doing her job for CRX.

Basically, I am voting for the spar because I believe having a comfort zone is not a bad thing, and taking her time until she feels comfortable with a dinner- if she ever is- is OK.

It does kinda amuse me that people who are anti-romance are voting for the spar, and pro-romance people are voting for the date. Like, the anti-romance with Bao Qian route is to vote for the date and the date to fail. Hard. Which is up to the mercy of the dice.

The date option is the one where the relationship is risked. If y'all like Bao Quan, why are you risking things with him for short term gains when we have literal years? If y'all don't like Bao Qian, why are you voting for the option where we get closer to him, safely?

Diomedon said:

It does kinda amuse me that people who are anti-romance are voting for the spar, and pro-romance people are voting for the date. Like, the anti-romance with Bao Qian route is to vote for the date and the date to fail. Hard. Which is up to the mercy of the dice.

The date option is the one where the relationship is risked. If y'all like Bao Quan, why are you risking things with him for short term gains when we have literal years? If y'all don't like Bao Qian, why are you voting for the option where we get closer to him, safely?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

It does baffle me. I'm romance-neutral, for the record, but I do believe in giving it a chance which means I'm not voting for the option that may set it on fire.

Diomedon said:

It does kinda amuse me that people who are anti-romance are voting for the spar, and pro-romance people are voting for the date. Like, the anti-romance with Bao Qian route is to vote for the date and the date to fail. Hard. Which is up to the mercy of the dice.

The date option is the one where the relationship is risked. If y'all like Bao Quan, why are you risking things with him for short term gains when we have literal years? If y'all don't like Bao Qian, why are you voting for the option where we get closer to him, safely?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

What can I say?
Im feelin lucky.
Romance is not what I'm aiming for I just want her to grow from this.

Arkeus said:

Basically, I am voting for the spar because I believe having a comfort zone is not a bad thing, and taking her time until she feels comfortable with a dinner- if she ever is- is OK.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

This.
It might be silly to worry about comfort zones and such in a xianxia quest, but i think there's value in doing so.

Diomedon said:

It does kinda amuse me that people who are anti-romance are voting for the spar, and pro-romance people are voting for the date. Like, the anti-romance with Bao Qian route is to vote for the date and the date to fail. Hard. Which is up to the mercy of the dice.

The date option is the one where the relationship is risked. If y'all like Bao Quan, why are you risking things with him for short term gains when we have literal years? If y'all don't like Bao Qian, why are you voting for the option where we get closer to him, safely?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I'm kinda anti romance, but i am voting for spar even if i agree that it is the safer romance option, largely because i don't want to read Ling Qi having bad time.

I legit think the date has a higher chance of torpedoing the relationship, so as someone who wants to see it advance I'm going for the spar.

A certainty of small improvement is better than Ling Qi potentially souring herself on the relationship by advancing against her own wants.

Hmm the guys on discord make some good points, since the event with the hunting party and Sixiang Ling Qi doesn't well care about anyone outside of what she considers her friends.
If someone approaches her and she just doesn't give them a thought and brushes them off as "irrelevant' thats on her not them.

So yea this could also be helping her get out of this mindset and have more potentially friendly encounters in the future more often than not.

Okay, now I got a little time to put to this:


[] Carefully accepted. She had to begin dialing down her discomfort somewhere. [Potentially, Information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi uncomfortable, potentially negative outcome.]

What Bao gets:
-Ling Qi's attendance on a date.

What Bao offers:
-A meal
-Hopefully riveting dialogue

What Ling Qi gets:
-Pushes her personal boundaries.
-A meal - She doesn't value this, unless its also a cultivation drug.

What Ling Qi offers:
-Her presence, however uncomfortable she's clearly being about the whole business.

[] Blurted out a request to spar instead, that helped cultivators understand each other, right?! [Lesser information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi spared a bad time]

What Bao gets:
-Finally an indication of what Ling Qi wants.

What Bao offers:
-A demonstration of his skills and cultivation.

What Ling Qi gets:
-Training progress.

What Ling Qi offers:
-A chance to actually get to know her directly.

Now, its not obvious to most people in setting but...Ling Qi mainly spars with her friends. To her, its a safe 'social' activity which she regularly enjoys. Its how she learned to trust, by asking Meizhen to blast her with terror for training, and by having her friends attack her to train and validate her defensive skills. When she decided to hook up the Ma sisters to Su Ling she did it the same way.
This isn't something Bao Qian's research on Ling Qi will reveal, the only people aware of it(Meizhen, Renxiang, Xiulan, Su Ling, Suyin, Han Jian) wouldn't talk, and outsiders lack the critical context to understand it.

Meanwhile...I think its fairly clear Bao Qian is somewhat at a loss for how to begin to court Ling Qi. The traditional moves visibly repel and intimidate her. She wouldn't talk about her interests. She visibly treats most social scenes as an onerous obligation.
She doesn't initiate activities so he can't predict what she actually is interested in.

The spar would be the first time Ling Qi ever initiates an activity she enjoys with him, rather than reluctantly tag along on what he suggests out of obligation.