[ ] A beautifully illuminated book written and illustrated by an artist who had risen from the rootways and become an Elder of the Blue Mountain Sect (Gift for Xuan Shi Unlocks Isolation Boosting Personal action)
Well, the object itself doesn't seem super interesting at a glance, but any excuse to poke at isolation from a new angle is a welcome one, seeing is how central to Ling Qi's cultivation it is, and we're already seen Xuan Shi's understanding resonate with her despite its differences.
On top of that, Xuan Shi is on his way to getting woven back into the narrative in a real way, with the southern diplomacy and Jin rivalry stuff. The hook for actually doing that just isn't visible to us right now, in any of our available actions. Fief exploration doesn't fit for him, the war arc(whenever that happens)
definitely doesn't fit for him, and the Wang group has like 6 different plot threads running through it as it is, so that's not suitable even though it's the only action with his identifiable presence.
This action would be a good way to dive into Xuan Shi's circumstances properly for once, while introducing more nuances of the state of the diplo corps we and Renxiang are forming for our project. It's out main job at the moment, and as was pointed out in this last update our future hinges on its success, but we haven't yet really gotten into it, which isn't ideal. Xuan Shi's got some ingredients, between his aspirations and rivalry with the Jin scion, to really set the stage for Ling Qi to take the effort seriously and orient her efforts towards it. Before it's too late.
[ ] A set of notes and a disassembled puppet of ivory and wood reclaimed from an abandoned workshop after its owner passed away with no next of kin. (Gift for Li Suyin, Unlocks Creation Boosting personal action)
Kooky spooky puppet times sound fun, and this choice has the advantage of more or less overwriting the previously outlined Li Suyin action. This "saves space" if you're deadset on hanging with her to the exclusion of others due to worry over our timelines. On the other hand, in the absence of serious worry about fitting her in at
some time, the action isn't really
necessary either if the goal is just to see her.
Others have pointed out we burned through pretty much all the Creation projects on our docket, so on a mechanical level there's not much synergy with this Creation opportunity. Speaking personally, I'm a bit wary of, hmm, subordinating Creative exploration to Li Suyin's hobby, here? Like, the girl's great, but I still have poor memories of the last time we shared in a creative process together. Li Suyin's vision took over completely and that killed Formations development for over a year because it wasn't a fit for us.
When we're diving into the meaning of Creation, I really think it ought to be more centered on Ling Qi's context for it, until or unless she has some kind of major philosophical shift on the subject. Which might happen! The Gala's basically where you'd expect that to happen, but there's no guarantee.
[ ] A set of recordings made recently in Xiangmen itself, you don't know the name of the rising star touted, but perhaps someone more embedded in the 'scene' would? (Gift for Bao Qian. Unlocks Expression boosting personal action.
Now here's some subject matter more in tune
evil
with Ling Qi's competencies. It'd be nice to actually look at some music. OTOH, we did also just secure those music materials from the Meng, so eh.
It'd also be nice to touch base with Bai Qian again. Feels like Ling Qi's on much different footing in general since the last time they had a real talk, so finding out what his impression of it all is would be interesting. Could massage out some wrinkles on Hanyi's sub-plots moving forwards too, maybe? It's hard to judge overall impact because his thoughts are a bit of a black box and conditions on the ground are shifting pretty drastically. He'll have to make himself visible again sooner or later, and it's not clear how this opportunity rates against something with more, hm, substance to the plot.
[X] A beautifully illuminated book written and illustrated by an artist who had risen from the rootways and become an Elder of the Blue Mountain Sect (Gift for Xuan Shi Unlocks Isolation Boosting Personal action)
Ultimately, I'm just really hungry to push the southern diplomacy plot forwards, and into the spotlight. Xuan Shi is the character who has hooks to do that. Between Jin rivalry and Xuan interest in preserving the legitimacy of (at least the Imperial throne's non-interference with) foreign trade, his clan has a major stake in how our venture plays out, even if they haven't made themselves seen to us yet. Xuan Shi seems to share his clan's attitude towards the Jin, and being able to take part in beneficial contact with foreign people's tickles at some of his childhood dreams, and regrets.
There's a lot to work with, and so far he's the genuinely most interesting character in the context of the White Sky summit after Ling Qi and Hanyi. I want that material firmly on the table, moving forwards. Current trajectory is worryingly sparse.