Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- Canada
[] Xiao Fen, your brief student and best friends handmaiden, Renxiang will no doubt be supporting Gan Guangli, and you can talk up your support for her throughout the year.
- Location
- United States of America, Michigan
I want to finally get some Gan time so I'm voting for that
Having based my vote entirely on the art of the two I go FeFe snek. All those logic arguments about plot, narrative and other important sounding words, even the abs, all can't compare to Erebeal's art. Specifically: "Friendship?" in the media tab.
[X] Xiao Fen, your brief student and best friends handmaiden, Renxiang will no doubt be supporting Gan Guangli, and you can talk up your support for her throughout the year.
[X] Xiao Fen, your brief student and best friends handmaiden, Renxiang will no doubt be supporting Gan Guangli, and you can talk up your support for her throughout the year.
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[] Gan Guangli, your ally and fellow retainer, you could talk him up a bit, and spin your looking away from Xiao Fen as having no doubts a Bai will pass the preliminary.
Whether, or not GG managed to win the tournament will be a dominant plot thread for the later fights, and thus this seems like it will build a solid narrative. Furthermore this seems the most similar to the last update about the underground city states, and might permit Ling Qi to continue parts of that conversation.
Also it will be interesting to see how he has improved since his previous fight, and unless he intends to leave the unit he has been training for a year behind he sorta needs to stomp all opposition into the ground to justify an increase in the budget allocated to CRX.
[] Xiao Fen, your brief student and best friends handmaiden, Renxiang will no doubt be supporting Gan Guangli, and you can talk up your support for her throughout the year.
Honestly... I'm not at all worried about Xiao Fen not due to the fact that she will do what it takes to win, and isn't burdened by any requirement for the unit of cultivators that have been trained over a year to win decisively.
Whether, or not GG managed to win the tournament will be a dominant plot thread for the later fights, and thus this seems like it will build a solid narrative. Furthermore this seems the most similar to the last update about the underground city states, and might permit Ling Qi to continue parts of that conversation.
Also it will be interesting to see how he has improved since his previous fight, and unless he intends to leave the unit he has been training for a year behind he sorta needs to stomp all opposition into the ground to justify an increase in the budget allocated to CRX.
[] Xiao Fen, your brief student and best friends handmaiden, Renxiang will no doubt be supporting Gan Guangli, and you can talk up your support for her throughout the year.
Honestly... I'm not at all worried about Xiao Fen not due to the fact that she will do what it takes to win, and isn't burdened by any requirement for the unit of cultivators that have been trained over a year to win decisively.
if it's gonna be mostly fluff, there is no contest. More Gan Guangli is desperately needed. He got done so dirty last tournament.
- Location
- The Maple Syrup Mountains
Gan's already got our focus locked down for the later fights that'll decide if he meets Shenhua's challenge or not, I personally think we can spare some time looking at Xiao Fen, who hasn't had much screentime so far.
- Location
- Location: Location!
"rat" and "vicious", perhaps? I'd joke about political movements, but I ain't touching that can of worms with a 3.048 m pole.
[] Gan Guangli, your ally and fellow retainer, you could talk him up a bit, and spin your looking away from Xiao Fen as having no doubts a Bai will pass the preliminary.
[] Xiao Fen, your brief student and best friends handmaiden, Renxiang will no doubt be supporting Gan Guangli, and you can talk up your support for her throughout the year.
i'm tending towards Brother Gan myself, but either option would be more than fine, really.
Pretty much, yeah. Xiao Fen is mostly idle curiosity, but not actually narratively important.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
If it's just fluff then I wanna watch our boy finally get to kick some ass
- Location
- The Space Between
The sniping back and forth is not good natured, but also seems no more hostile than is natural in the Bai game of competitive dominance. It's interesting how and where the sniping was most lively.
I also think the fact that the Bai have the absolute most spicy food and that it's almost certainly a dominance display to devour something so dangerous without any outward reaction Extremely Hilarious. Holy moly what a way to flex lmao.
Whoever was commenting on how Xia Anxi was attempting to assert dominance in the conversation with us is 100% right. Ling Qi didn't react to any of it though, so I think it's assumed that we're an outsider not versed in such dominance competitions rather than assumed we're submissive. I'll expand on that later.
I'd like to focus on this exchange at the end:
-
Ling Qi took a moment to finish chewing and took a small drink from the cup a servant had poured for her, chilling the watered wine as she took ahold of it. "I think that even a barbarian would understand the threat of an enemy gaining more allies."
"True," Lao Keung said, a smile briefly tugging at his lips. "Too often we forget that our enemies do not want to die."
"If you are acting properly, their opinion on the matter should be moot, no?" Xia Anxi drawled, but she could tell his attention was wandering back toward the ambassador and her liege.
"As if reality is ever so easy," Lao Keung scoffed.
"I generally agree," Ling Qi said carefully. "As one of my elders has said, the world is not a go board, there are no players, every piece moves itself."
Xia Anxi nodded noncommittally.
Loa Keung gave an approving grunt. "I would like to hear a bit more, Baroness. Would you give some details of your journey under the earth?"
-
This is the exchange that causes Xia Anxi to check out, as it has become "beneath him". To act as is proper, the consideration of the enemy's opinion should be moot. For the Red Python and ourselves, who live on the front, it's an advantage we cannot afford to waste. Perhaps this could be an example of "Power needs no Excuse" in that, if you are strong enough you need not consider the movement of the opponent. Just another way that the Red Python, as a martial caste often on the front, would be considered lesser than the other castes.
This is where Lao Keung switches to the Plus 1 opinion if I had to guess, as he finds our pragmatic consideration of the enemy to be aligned with his own views. It's mentioned that the Green are the Rangers, and that sounds similar to the Scout duties we've often had to fulfill. I would not be surprised if the Green shared the same pragmatic consideration for their opponent's opinions that the Red (or at least Lao Keung) has shown. Placing ourselves in this camp is not endearing nor damning to Xia Anxi, but is endearing to Lao Keung.
This is where the fact we're not submissive circles back around. We didn't become ruffled by any of the raw animal terror, sizzling spicy foods, and have secured our position at the left hand of the Cai Heiress. We're not subordinate to Xia Anxi. We are also seemingly not actively competing with them for dominance.
Our conversation shifting towards martial talks which are improper is not worth Xia Anxi's attentions, and seeing as we're not contesting them for dominance, they shift their attentions to the more worthy.
I suspect that it will not be difficult to get the +1 for Xia Anxi at some point after this, as it seems that finding someone competent to converse with about their interests is all it will take since our status and lack of subordination already prove us worthy of not being discarded. I suspect that the most difficult parts of diplomacy with the Bai is not starting in the negative from the jump, and getting to any rank higher than perhaps 2. It was quite the ordeal getting to 4 with kind Meizhen, and that was while we were both children rather than fully fledged adults.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[J] GG MAH BOI FLEX ON EM YEAHH GO GO GO
that's my vote. You may not like it, but this is the optimal vote formatting
I also think the fact that the Bai have the absolute most spicy food and that it's almost certainly a dominance display to devour something so dangerous without any outward reaction Extremely Hilarious. Holy moly what a way to flex lmao.
Whoever was commenting on how Xia Anxi was attempting to assert dominance in the conversation with us is 100% right. Ling Qi didn't react to any of it though, so I think it's assumed that we're an outsider not versed in such dominance competitions rather than assumed we're submissive. I'll expand on that later.
I'd like to focus on this exchange at the end:
-
Ling Qi took a moment to finish chewing and took a small drink from the cup a servant had poured for her, chilling the watered wine as she took ahold of it. "I think that even a barbarian would understand the threat of an enemy gaining more allies."
"True," Lao Keung said, a smile briefly tugging at his lips. "Too often we forget that our enemies do not want to die."
"If you are acting properly, their opinion on the matter should be moot, no?" Xia Anxi drawled, but she could tell his attention was wandering back toward the ambassador and her liege.
"As if reality is ever so easy," Lao Keung scoffed.
"I generally agree," Ling Qi said carefully. "As one of my elders has said, the world is not a go board, there are no players, every piece moves itself."
Xia Anxi nodded noncommittally.
Loa Keung gave an approving grunt. "I would like to hear a bit more, Baroness. Would you give some details of your journey under the earth?"
-
This is the exchange that causes Xia Anxi to check out, as it has become "beneath him". To act as is proper, the consideration of the enemy's opinion should be moot. For the Red Python and ourselves, who live on the front, it's an advantage we cannot afford to waste. Perhaps this could be an example of "Power needs no Excuse" in that, if you are strong enough you need not consider the movement of the opponent. Just another way that the Red Python, as a martial caste often on the front, would be considered lesser than the other castes.
This is where Lao Keung switches to the Plus 1 opinion if I had to guess, as he finds our pragmatic consideration of the enemy to be aligned with his own views. It's mentioned that the Green are the Rangers, and that sounds similar to the Scout duties we've often had to fulfill. I would not be surprised if the Green shared the same pragmatic consideration for their opponent's opinions that the Red (or at least Lao Keung) has shown. Placing ourselves in this camp is not endearing nor damning to Xia Anxi, but is endearing to Lao Keung.
This is where the fact we're not submissive circles back around. We didn't become ruffled by any of the raw animal terror, sizzling spicy foods, and have secured our position at the left hand of the Cai Heiress. We're not subordinate to Xia Anxi. We are also seemingly not actively competing with them for dominance.
Our conversation shifting towards martial talks which are improper is not worth Xia Anxi's attentions, and seeing as we're not contesting them for dominance, they shift their attentions to the more worthy.
I suspect that it will not be difficult to get the +1 for Xia Anxi at some point after this, as it seems that finding someone competent to converse with about their interests is all it will take since our status and lack of subordination already prove us worthy of not being discarded. I suspect that the most difficult parts of diplomacy with the Bai is not starting in the negative from the jump, and getting to any rank higher than perhaps 2. It was quite the ordeal getting to 4 with kind Meizhen, and that was while we were both children rather than fully fledged adults.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[J] GG MAH BOI FLEX ON EM YEAHH GO GO GO
that's my vote. You may not like it, but this is the optimal vote formatting
If Lao Keung is any indication, the Red Pythons look to have made a virtue of necessity and exalted austerity over the wealth the Violet and White castes possess, even if Lao Keung seems to desire the hedonism opportunities the Violet caste enjoys. Which makes sense, as the second lowest caste, the Red Pythons would receive the least amount of resources of the Bai since they don't own and control any production sites. That poverty also makes the other castes look down on the Red Pythons; Lao Keung seems to have an inferiority complex specifically over his lack of resources. (Though, I'm not sure what he feels specifically as someone Bai Suzhen is grooming to become an officer and thus giving him additional cultivation resources, like those bronze bands around his arms.)
Additionally, if the aphorism Lao Keung says is something he and his caste learned from observing the actions of the White Serpent generals, it sounds like the Red Pythons are feeling that the White Serpents are concentrating the wealth of the Bai to themselves -- being stingy in particular in spending their monies on the Red Python-staffed armies. (I doubt he would be praising his general for her austerity if he was feeling well-paid, after all; if he was, I'd think he'd be pulling out the "victory needs no explanation" cliche.) From how he says it in reply to Xia Anxi's jab that implied the Red Python's strategies are wasteful, the Red Pythons are also feeling attacked by the other castes, who maybe think that the resources going to the Red Pythons could be better used by the other castes.
However, if the jab at the budget of Zhengjian (and thus of the White Serpents, as their capital, as well as of the Red Pythons comprising the city's army) signifies that Xia Anxi thinks the White Serpents are concentrating the wealth of the Bai to themselves, then the Violet Corals are also feeling neglected by the White Serpents. With the infrastructure deal Bai Suzhen made with Cai Shenhua, which gives the Violet caste monies to expand their port holdings, Bai Suzhen seems to have accurately predicted that would assuaged the Violet caste's concerns and buy their loyalty; Xia Anxi appears to understand that Bai Suzhen is a Sovereign of Prosperity and is dealing to elevate more than just her own caste. If the 1,500 equipment sets Bai Suzhen bought from Cai Shenhua and her apprentices are to be given to the Red Python soldiers, then maybe that deal will also buy the Red Pythons' loyalties.
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[X] Gan Guangli, your ally and fellow retainer, you could talk him up a bit, and spin your looking away from Xiao Fen as having no doubts a Bai will pass the preliminary.
- Location
- Staring into the void
[X] Xiao Fen, your brief student and best friends handmaiden, Renxiang will no doubt be supporting Gan Guangli, and you can talk up your support for her throughout the year.
- Location
- Yes
[X] Gan Guangli, your ally and fellow retainer, you could talk him up a bit, and spin your looking away from Xiao Fen as having no doubts a Bai will pass the preliminary.