- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Check up on the Kid, if they are up to something, better to know.
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.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
DeusExBritannia
Red-White-Black-White
- Location
- Texas
I mean, if this is Su Ling's little sister, that means that when we adopt SL, we'll have two little sisters, it's just basic arithmetic.
we'll have four little sisters. Don't forget Hanyi and Biyu
... I don't know who would be the fourth, there is Hanyi, Biyu, and the fox child.
- Location
- Colorado
She's more of a niece. Our next little sister/daughter is probably going to be our dress.
It was in response to someone talking about adopting Su Ling.
Yeah, but she should have the same age as us.
As many twins would say, younger is younger even if only by a minute.
That makes her fox-imouto-chan.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
I wanted LORE more than new little sister ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah. After all, Ling Qi's the matriarch of the clan.
Anywho, now that we're going to chase down the squirt, it's time for wild speculation.
If this is a real child, a sibling, who is simply dreaming themselves, then it should be reminded that we happen to be travelling through Diao lands a couple times this month already. I'm sure a detour could beforgiven arranged. if there's some actual kid out there missing baths, then it's Su Ling's filial duty to step in, and since we're such good friends we can handle that for her.
If the little cutie is part of the dreamscape after all, then my prediction is it's not actually a reflection of the past. She represents buried anxieties Su Ling has towards her own capacity for love and family, manifesting as a glimpse of a future where Su Ling's blood reigns supreme and tragedies repeat. For added fun, and dreams are at their most fun when embarrassing, the kid will be Gan Guangli's. RIP Gan, too delicious a beefcake to escape the beast's appetites.
Anywho, now that we're going to chase down the squirt, it's time for wild speculation.
If this is a real child, a sibling, who is simply dreaming themselves, then it should be reminded that we happen to be travelling through Diao lands a couple times this month already. I'm sure a detour could be
If the little cutie is part of the dreamscape after all, then my prediction is it's not actually a reflection of the past. She represents buried anxieties Su Ling has towards her own capacity for love and family, manifesting as a glimpse of a future where Su Ling's blood reigns supreme and tragedies repeat. For added fun, and dreams are at their most fun when embarrassing, the kid will be Gan Guangli's. RIP Gan, too delicious a beefcake to escape the beast's appetites.
- Pronouns
- he him
So the thought occurs of how Su Ling ended up with her grandmother. Did a powerful spirit just track down the family of one of her mortal victims and plop down a kid nine months after the fact? That has some implications and we know that this spirit has been doing stuff like this for a while. The kid could be a representation of the spirit's attempts to retrace old steps and create a new Diao clan. After all having children with mortals had worked so well for its older incarnation why not try it again?
- Location
- The Space Between
Wouldn't it be a trip if Su Ling's mother was also aligned with Bloody Moon, but less concerned about Justice? A vigilante that acts with less consideration and care for Justice than Su Ling?
There's something to be said about how messy Justice is, and how "history is a culmination of unrelated fuckups" hehe. Shenhua believes that the replacements for the present regime will be better, and I'd like to extend that look to Su Ling. At the minimum Su Ling may be replacing her mother as some sort of Justice-Fox in the local region. Is that a Ministry path? A path with the Diao? Or simply one step in her own personal journey?
I would like to think that Su Ling's journey is her own, and that she'll drag others along with her even if she doesn't intend to. She just can't sit back and allow injustice to occur, and that causes all sorts of things she isn't exactly thrilled about. She greatly values her independence, but also understands that the more power she accrues the less able she'll be able to act as an independent (as powerful forces take notice of her). I wonder where her journey will take her.
Personally, I'm glad a smol fox child is joining her. She needs more eager foils to drag her around places while she lightly grumbles. The reluctant hero needs many supports to convince them they're worthy of praise! +1 party member for Su Ling! See! It's not just Yu Nuan we help grow a party for!
There's something to be said about how messy Justice is, and how "history is a culmination of unrelated fuckups" hehe. Shenhua believes that the replacements for the present regime will be better, and I'd like to extend that look to Su Ling. At the minimum Su Ling may be replacing her mother as some sort of Justice-Fox in the local region. Is that a Ministry path? A path with the Diao? Or simply one step in her own personal journey?
I would like to think that Su Ling's journey is her own, and that she'll drag others along with her even if she doesn't intend to. She just can't sit back and allow injustice to occur, and that causes all sorts of things she isn't exactly thrilled about. She greatly values her independence, but also understands that the more power she accrues the less able she'll be able to act as an independent (as powerful forces take notice of her). I wonder where her journey will take her.
Personally, I'm glad a smol fox child is joining her. She needs more eager foils to drag her around places while she lightly grumbles. The reluctant hero needs many supports to convince them they're worthy of praise! +1 party member for Su Ling! See! It's not just Yu Nuan we help grow a party for!
I don't recall it being Su Ling's actual blood grandparent. I thought the fox just dumped her in some mortal town and the herbalist was the only one willing to take in a spirit blood.
Turn 14: Arc 3-5
"We should check upon the kid.If they are up to something, you really want to just let them set up as they like?" Sixiang said.
Su Ling grimaced, not being able to refute the logic. "Fine, you know its not a real kid though, right?"
"It's pretty unlikely,'' Ling Qi admitted. The only reason she even considered the possibility was that a child with a foxes bloodline might theoretically be born with a gift for dreamwalking.
"Let's go check this out then.I guess I kinda… already got the basic picture here," Su Ling grunted moving back toward the door.
"Yeah," Sixiang said unhappily, buffing the tarnished icon of the Mother Moon with her sleeve. "The picture isn't subtle. This place musta wanted to show it for a long time."
Ling Qi nodded silently and sharing a glance with Su Ling, ghosted out of the room as a ribbon of shadow. Shapeless, bodiless she flowed along the splintered ceiling, seeking the source of warmth and life and light in this dark place. Her companions followed behind in silence.
It did not take long to find her quarry. The fox crouched inside the doorway of a room, in one of the side halls, fearfully peering around the corner, piled with the collapsed remains of some furnishing. They were as Ling Qi saw them last. Tiny, skinny and filthy, with brush and leaves and now smears of black ooze in their bushy hair, a single quivering tail curled around their body.
But Su Ling was right, observing her for longer than a moment while molded into the shadows of the ceiling, she was clearly not a younger Su Ling. The hair was the wrong shade of reddish brown, her eyes were gray rather than green and her facial features subtly different. The child could have passed for her friend's sister though. Which was unsurprising.
Her spiritual senses showed her a child with innately awakened qi born from beast blood only a couple of meridians and a flicker of light in her dantian a tiny wisp of power. Perhaps not long ago Ling Qi would have only seen that, but her eyes were sharper now, an insight burned silver in her channels even without physical eyes to see through. The girl was not normal. Her meridians twitched and moved, one moment winding along her spine, the next branching through her legs, and now coiling toward her eyes.
It was unsettling and unnatural, not quite like anything she had seen before. She thought the information to Sixiang, who would pass it to Su Ling.
The child looked up. Her eyes were liquid gold now.
Though she was not breathing for a moment, Ling Qi's circulating qi caught in her channels. But then the child looked away, peering warily down the hall at the faint sound of Su Ling's footsteps.
"So squirt, you've been following us huh!" Sixiang said cheerfully, manifesting directly above, crouched on the broken table. Ling Qi tightened her grip on the energy of the dream preparing to hurl them back out through the gate if need be.
But the child fell backward, sputtering and scooting their bottom across the dusty floor until their back hit the door frame.
"Ah, I'm sorry I'm sorry!" the girl yelped, covering her face with her hands. It was unpleasant to watch, Ling Qi knew that particular posture of cowering, expecting the rapid onset of pain.
"Don't apologize, tell us what you want," Su Ling said bluntly, as she rounded the corner. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her tails lashed behind her two real, and one of shadow and stars. But she couldn't hide the flicker of discomfort that showed in her eyes from Ling Qi. Su Ling didn't like this scene either.
"I'm sorry," the cowering girl repeated, peeking through her fingers. "But your not 'upposed to be here."
"Yeah, who decides that," Su Ling said, her discomfort was palpable, and Ling Qi saw her gaze sliding to the right and left as if searching for something else to focus on. Finally she grimaced and uncrossed her arms coming up to crouch by Su Ling. "Look, we don't want to hurt you. We're just looking for information, okay? Who are you."
"I'm Xisheng," said the child, they were still afraid, Ling Qi could still feel their… fuzziness the shifting of meridians, and she saw now in the shadow something disturbing. "You're too big sister. Momma won't like that."
Su Ling narrowed her eyes at the name, no doubt recognizing what Ling Qi did. Xisheng, the girl called herself Sacrifice.
Sixiang looked a little sad peering down. "You're not a dreaming mortal, or one of us, you're not even quite a fox are you kiddo? What are you."
The girl finally lowered her hands, hands now holding a darker shade of skin, more pronounced claws. Her eyes were brown, her hair was black, her features a little rounder. But she was still afraid. "I'm Xisheng. I told ya. I'm the lost."
That childish face tilted showing a spark of wisdom beyond its years. There was a shadow there behind her ever so briefly. Small forms still in the snow, blood and pain ugliness Ling Qi thought left behind in the worst streets of Tonghou.
The girl's face changed again, lighter hair, lighter skin, a boy, a girl,indeterminate. Their voice echoed strangely. "Most of us aren't so lucky sister. Why did you come back? Are you gonna eat us? So you can get even bigger?"
Su Ling had flinched back, her hands white knuckled as she glimpsed what Ling Qi had already seen. This was… a ghost of sorts. But not of one little girl. They were a ghost of many, many little girls and boys, pressed together.
"Fuck no, I don't eat people," Su Ling spit.
The child-ghosts head tilted the side, their curls auburn red now. "But how else are you gonna eat Momma. If you don't, she'll eat you. That's what we're for, she takes what she's owed and gives back the prettiest gifts! But they give us back. We're all sacrifice. And it makes her strong."
"I'm gonna kill her," Su Ling said lowly. "Not eat her. Maybe I'll make a rug, but I'm not gonna eat her."
"That's dumb," said Xisheng, now a little boy with mornful blue eyes and muddy hair, his dark furred ears twitched as he tilted his head, and his nose was black with frostbite. "Sacrifice is how you get big and strong. You might even get your sixth tail! No one has done that here in forever."
"No it's not," Su Ling growled, standing up. "I don't want the tails I already have."
"That's easy to say when you're already big," Said the ghost, once again the young girl with twigs and leaves in her hair. The shadows of bruises and the scent of burning hair wafted gently from her. "When you're already strong. Did you really forget how it is to be hungry already?"
"I know being hungry ain't everything," Su Ling said. "Solving that is only step one. You need more than that, else you're just a monster. Like her."
"What's a monster, sister?" asked the little ghost, through a broken jaw and a mouth of shattered teeth. "Is it another word for a human?"
It was hard for Ling Qi to remain silent, and she saw Sixiang biting their lip as well. But another part of her recognized that Su Ling needed to be the one who answered these questions.
Su Ling's expression folded into a scowl, and for a long, long moment she stared down at the floor. The ghost child just looked at her curiously, now through the empty eyes of a skull, filled with the same dripping black tar.
"You're not all the way wrong, you cheeky little shit, but its not another word for human, it's another word for person," Su Ling said quietly. "It's what we all are, when we don't try to be better."
She grimaced itching at her right eye, and Su Ling's nail broke skin. The little cut bled, and the trail looked not unlike a crescent.
"But what's the difference between killing someone and eating them. They're gone either way?" asked Xisheng innocently. "Isn't it dumb to waste them?"
"No, cause it's more important to keep in mind what the death is for. I don't want to kill her cause it'll make perfect cultivation materials or some shit," Su Ling growled.
"Hehe, Sister is a weird one. Maybe that's why you got to be big, and we never will," giggled the ghost. "But I guess it doesn't matter."
"Momma is waking up from her nap."
Despite her immaterial form Ling Qi felt a sensation like goosebumps on her nonexistent skin, a sensation of crawling predatory awareness.
"Bye Sister," said the little ghost smiling sadly now, with a face that was whole and unscarred. "Meet'cha in Momma's belly."
"We need to go," Su Ling said, her eyes flying open, her ears and tail standing on end. The only hesitation was a faint grimace, as she glanced toward the beatifically smiling child.
[ ] Run Immediately, flee before the monster Su Ling calls mother is fully roused (100% success. Base rewards for action)
[ ] Grab the ghost-child-whatever, grab the young spirit and run (50% success, injury to party based on degree of failure. Additional benefits for Su Ling on success.)
AN: Might be one sided, but you gotta walk into it with open eyes.
Su Ling grimaced, not being able to refute the logic. "Fine, you know its not a real kid though, right?"
"It's pretty unlikely,'' Ling Qi admitted. The only reason she even considered the possibility was that a child with a foxes bloodline might theoretically be born with a gift for dreamwalking.
"Let's go check this out then.I guess I kinda… already got the basic picture here," Su Ling grunted moving back toward the door.
"Yeah," Sixiang said unhappily, buffing the tarnished icon of the Mother Moon with her sleeve. "The picture isn't subtle. This place musta wanted to show it for a long time."
Ling Qi nodded silently and sharing a glance with Su Ling, ghosted out of the room as a ribbon of shadow. Shapeless, bodiless she flowed along the splintered ceiling, seeking the source of warmth and life and light in this dark place. Her companions followed behind in silence.
It did not take long to find her quarry. The fox crouched inside the doorway of a room, in one of the side halls, fearfully peering around the corner, piled with the collapsed remains of some furnishing. They were as Ling Qi saw them last. Tiny, skinny and filthy, with brush and leaves and now smears of black ooze in their bushy hair, a single quivering tail curled around their body.
But Su Ling was right, observing her for longer than a moment while molded into the shadows of the ceiling, she was clearly not a younger Su Ling. The hair was the wrong shade of reddish brown, her eyes were gray rather than green and her facial features subtly different. The child could have passed for her friend's sister though. Which was unsurprising.
Her spiritual senses showed her a child with innately awakened qi born from beast blood only a couple of meridians and a flicker of light in her dantian a tiny wisp of power. Perhaps not long ago Ling Qi would have only seen that, but her eyes were sharper now, an insight burned silver in her channels even without physical eyes to see through. The girl was not normal. Her meridians twitched and moved, one moment winding along her spine, the next branching through her legs, and now coiling toward her eyes.
It was unsettling and unnatural, not quite like anything she had seen before. She thought the information to Sixiang, who would pass it to Su Ling.
The child looked up. Her eyes were liquid gold now.
Though she was not breathing for a moment, Ling Qi's circulating qi caught in her channels. But then the child looked away, peering warily down the hall at the faint sound of Su Ling's footsteps.
"So squirt, you've been following us huh!" Sixiang said cheerfully, manifesting directly above, crouched on the broken table. Ling Qi tightened her grip on the energy of the dream preparing to hurl them back out through the gate if need be.
But the child fell backward, sputtering and scooting their bottom across the dusty floor until their back hit the door frame.
"Ah, I'm sorry I'm sorry!" the girl yelped, covering her face with her hands. It was unpleasant to watch, Ling Qi knew that particular posture of cowering, expecting the rapid onset of pain.
"Don't apologize, tell us what you want," Su Ling said bluntly, as she rounded the corner. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her tails lashed behind her two real, and one of shadow and stars. But she couldn't hide the flicker of discomfort that showed in her eyes from Ling Qi. Su Ling didn't like this scene either.
"I'm sorry," the cowering girl repeated, peeking through her fingers. "But your not 'upposed to be here."
"Yeah, who decides that," Su Ling said, her discomfort was palpable, and Ling Qi saw her gaze sliding to the right and left as if searching for something else to focus on. Finally she grimaced and uncrossed her arms coming up to crouch by Su Ling. "Look, we don't want to hurt you. We're just looking for information, okay? Who are you."
"I'm Xisheng," said the child, they were still afraid, Ling Qi could still feel their… fuzziness the shifting of meridians, and she saw now in the shadow something disturbing. "You're too big sister. Momma won't like that."
Su Ling narrowed her eyes at the name, no doubt recognizing what Ling Qi did. Xisheng, the girl called herself Sacrifice.
Sixiang looked a little sad peering down. "You're not a dreaming mortal, or one of us, you're not even quite a fox are you kiddo? What are you."
The girl finally lowered her hands, hands now holding a darker shade of skin, more pronounced claws. Her eyes were brown, her hair was black, her features a little rounder. But she was still afraid. "I'm Xisheng. I told ya. I'm the lost."
That childish face tilted showing a spark of wisdom beyond its years. There was a shadow there behind her ever so briefly. Small forms still in the snow, blood and pain ugliness Ling Qi thought left behind in the worst streets of Tonghou.
The girl's face changed again, lighter hair, lighter skin, a boy, a girl,indeterminate. Their voice echoed strangely. "Most of us aren't so lucky sister. Why did you come back? Are you gonna eat us? So you can get even bigger?"
Su Ling had flinched back, her hands white knuckled as she glimpsed what Ling Qi had already seen. This was… a ghost of sorts. But not of one little girl. They were a ghost of many, many little girls and boys, pressed together.
"Fuck no, I don't eat people," Su Ling spit.
The child-ghosts head tilted the side, their curls auburn red now. "But how else are you gonna eat Momma. If you don't, she'll eat you. That's what we're for, she takes what she's owed and gives back the prettiest gifts! But they give us back. We're all sacrifice. And it makes her strong."
"I'm gonna kill her," Su Ling said lowly. "Not eat her. Maybe I'll make a rug, but I'm not gonna eat her."
"That's dumb," said Xisheng, now a little boy with mornful blue eyes and muddy hair, his dark furred ears twitched as he tilted his head, and his nose was black with frostbite. "Sacrifice is how you get big and strong. You might even get your sixth tail! No one has done that here in forever."
"No it's not," Su Ling growled, standing up. "I don't want the tails I already have."
"That's easy to say when you're already big," Said the ghost, once again the young girl with twigs and leaves in her hair. The shadows of bruises and the scent of burning hair wafted gently from her. "When you're already strong. Did you really forget how it is to be hungry already?"
"I know being hungry ain't everything," Su Ling said. "Solving that is only step one. You need more than that, else you're just a monster. Like her."
"What's a monster, sister?" asked the little ghost, through a broken jaw and a mouth of shattered teeth. "Is it another word for a human?"
It was hard for Ling Qi to remain silent, and she saw Sixiang biting their lip as well. But another part of her recognized that Su Ling needed to be the one who answered these questions.
Su Ling's expression folded into a scowl, and for a long, long moment she stared down at the floor. The ghost child just looked at her curiously, now through the empty eyes of a skull, filled with the same dripping black tar.
"You're not all the way wrong, you cheeky little shit, but its not another word for human, it's another word for person," Su Ling said quietly. "It's what we all are, when we don't try to be better."
She grimaced itching at her right eye, and Su Ling's nail broke skin. The little cut bled, and the trail looked not unlike a crescent.
"But what's the difference between killing someone and eating them. They're gone either way?" asked Xisheng innocently. "Isn't it dumb to waste them?"
"No, cause it's more important to keep in mind what the death is for. I don't want to kill her cause it'll make perfect cultivation materials or some shit," Su Ling growled.
"Hehe, Sister is a weird one. Maybe that's why you got to be big, and we never will," giggled the ghost. "But I guess it doesn't matter."
"Momma is waking up from her nap."
Despite her immaterial form Ling Qi felt a sensation like goosebumps on her nonexistent skin, a sensation of crawling predatory awareness.
"Bye Sister," said the little ghost smiling sadly now, with a face that was whole and unscarred. "Meet'cha in Momma's belly."
"We need to go," Su Ling said, her eyes flying open, her ears and tail standing on end. The only hesitation was a faint grimace, as she glanced toward the beatifically smiling child.
[ ] Run Immediately, flee before the monster Su Ling calls mother is fully roused (100% success. Base rewards for action)
[ ] Grab the ghost-child-whatever, grab the young spirit and run (50% success, injury to party based on degree of failure. Additional benefits for Su Ling on success.)
AN: Might be one sided, but you gotta walk into it with open eyes.
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NoxOfUmbra
Shadow of the night
- Location
- Colombia, South América
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Grab the ghost-child-whatever, grab the young spirit and run (50% success, injury to party based on degree of failure. Additional benefits for Su Ling on success.)
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See the AN
Omake gang we call for aid.
[X] Grab the ghost-child-whatever, grab the young spirit and run (50% success, injury to party based on degree of failure. Additional benefits for Su Ling on success.)
With max omake we get a 70% chance of success, and even if we fail we can't get too many degrees of failure.
[X] Grab the ghost-child-whatever, grab the young spirit and run (50% success, injury to party based on degree of failure. Additional benefits for Su Ling on success.)
With max omake we get a 70% chance of success, and even if we fail we can't get too many degrees of failure.
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