For a long moment, Ling Qi's gaze lingered on the crone. Something in the cold iron visage resonated with her, the chilling note of silence and endings which she had cultivated in the form of the Frozen Soul Serenade and the Starless Night's Reflection arts. More than that, there was something lonely there, in the hunched shoulders and shadowed, wrinkle lined face. Ling Qi felt Hanyi squeeze her hand then.
His voice shook her from her thoughts, and Ling Qi looked up at the statue looming overhead. The statue of the young woman loomed overhead, cold and metallic, yet nearly alive in its shape and silhouette. The folds of her iron gown seemed ready to rustle and move with the wind, and her chest seemed ready to begin rising and falling. The young woman's expression was resolute, and the line of her back and the set of her shoulders screamed of confidence and poise, the orb held to her chest gleamed with contained power. Blue light sparked in eyes of cold iron, and Ling Qi's breath hitched.
Pride.
Pride and rule. Guidance and responsibility.
She felt as if she knelt once more before the throne of Xiangmen, pierced by the sight of something wholly beyond her.
She felt small. What pride did she have? What right to guide anyone. She was just a foolish girl who struggled to balance her own time and family. Even now, she wasn't strong, she was always trailing behind others.
She was still so often afraid.
Imperious blue eyes stared back at her. They judged her.
Ling Qi caught her breath then, staring once more at a visage of iron. She found herself subtly straightening her own shoulders as she looked on, feeling a stirring of pride in her chest. It was a spark of heat at first, and then a growing warmth. Though the final leg had been dangerous and painful, had they not made it hear? Had they not crossed through most of the Wall in a matter of weeks?
Had she not grown as far as she had in less than two years, shooting up to tread just behind the prodigies of great houses. Had she not done so without abandoning her family and responsibilities and becoming a hermit cultivator?
Things were far from over, and their actions, her actions might still change the path of nations, if only in a small way. She couldn't claim full credit for that, but there was no point in shrinking from the accomplishment.
Yet she was still just a child. Lacking in clarity and decisiveness, but that would come in time.
These glimpses were, hm, disappointing if I had to put a word to it. On a character level, I mean. And
not as a matter of writing, but as an... opportunity?
The first was perfunctory, most likely just a nod to the second place vote. Still, there's some insight into the Crone, and it's fairly expected. Maybe there would have been more nuance if we'd chosen her, but as is the snapshot we get seems to be telling us just how utterly unsatisfying what she represents is, how opposed to Ling Qi's desires. Near to her understanding of the world, but apart from the solutions she's seeking for its challenges. The contrast of Ling Qi being pulled out of the moment by her companion, her bond with others, squeezing her hand was some good juxtaposition though.
The second was the greater disappointment. In retrospect, it makes sense. Sudica's raiments of rule and her apparent bearing and attitude do not match Ling Qi very well, and I'm not sure they match what she wants to be very well either. The lack of common ground makes the interaction come off as shallow, and a little redundant but less fitting where there was overlap. Ling Qi's Grinning self-assurance covers the territory of Pride well enough. Clarity is something Ling Qi has more or less toyed with since the days of Argent Mirror, she's had advice related to the underlying concept from both Hidden and Dreaming in terms of understanding one's own secrets because they're the source of one's dreams, and Ling Qi has contemplated her lack of clear answers on things concerning her more than once in the last few turns. It feels like this push was things Ling Qi had well in hand, nothing new.
Which is probably the real key to my sense of disappointment. Nothing new. I was really hoping that with foreign gods we'd get a glimpse of a different worldview for Ling Qi to chew on. But in a lot of ways, at least from what we see of her, Sudica represents a worldview that's... imperial conventional. Powerful and proud cultivators ruling disparate clans to a unified vision of caring for their lessers with disciplined clarity is practically Imperial propaganda. We've got oodles of that worldview at home, and it seems like a shame we didn't get to peek at something that might be different. Especially when the dominant point of culture we're going to be interacting with is projecting big Sudica vibes through very deliberate emulation anyway.
Opportunity to see things from a Fryja point of view seems all but impossible; if it does come up, it's probably going to be through the lens of a human adherent talking about it, and that just doesn't filter through to Ling Qi in the same way. Feh. We collected some more lore scraps, which is nice, but I wish we'd had a flash of divine attention that could have been a little
more. We gained little Ling Qi wasn't already contemplating, from a worldview that's mostly conventional and familiar. It just felt underwhelming. Not an issue with the writing, just what there was on offer from the statue we poked.
Anyway,
[X] To the dining hall, to find Meng Dan
Meng Dan is a young unaccompanied male, and that's inappropriate. And probably funny. More seriously, history is kinda our thing too, and he's been poking around for them.
[] Toward the barracks to find Xia Lin
I'm still not really interested in their barracks or martial traditions. We know Fryja's important to soldiers, not super surprising with the axes. I doubt we'll get a deeper look into the intricacies of the goddess's portfolio from talking to the soldiery, though. Not outside of a shrine context. So there's not much to this option, for me. Taking Gan Guangli into the fox den might be worth a chuckle or two, but it's not really an important goal.
[] Toward the stairs, where she could feel Cai Renxiang
This one is interesting. We were told to stay on this level, so proximity to the stairs potentially has some implications. Did Ilsur ditch her? Was someone else of some prominence, relevance, or influence summoned for her to interview? Did something come up that she wants to be poised for immediate engagement upon Jaromila's return? Am I reading too much into innocuous details!?
The potential wildcard nature of the choice is intriguing, but also makes me less inclined to it. If there's a problem, we'll either have to face it anyway or it'll be handled without us. Might as well spend our time on something personally fruitful, absent confirmation that this is a matter requiring or benefitting from our presence.
