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

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Yun said:
Because regardless of the wishes of Ling Qi there is a war arc in less then a year that will probably be under the command of Xia Ren alongside CRX, and that makes any understanding Ling Qi can get of the human parts of the General that can still make her unreasonable at times would be invaluable to facilitate [Communication]. In addition to [Communication] is the fact that Ling Qi is mission critical to the operation meaning the irrationality Xia Ren has from her humanity can't simply splat her, and it is rather Grinning for Ling Qi to pit herself against the Crucible to see where commonality ends.
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I think is not worth the risk, specially if we gain her ire, we still need to be in her good graces and is not like there is a guarantee to get that info. I just see it more as conceptual damage, and that is just not good. I don't think Sixiang would approve either.
 
[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.

... I wonder if it would be Dress-chan that would be most affected by being a voice of fire and steel.
 
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Oliver_Twister said:
It should also be noted that we're cultivating Winter's Crown during this tribulation. Embodying fire kinda runs counter to that.

We're Cold and Winter that inevitably freezes the old to give space for new things to grow. This cultivation action improves our Winter trait. Embodying fire and steel kinda runs counter to that and messes up imagery, imo.

However, being ourselves means we stay the same. There are many times where LQ uses Cold and ice in the Liminal. Following our nature would be more conducive to our trait upgrade here.
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Are we really not taking this into account? This seems important too.
 
yrsillar said:
And the labyrinth split asunder, a kilometers long canyon ripped in the earth at the stroke of a blade. No concealment, no tricks, no confusion. The Sovereign of Steel and Fire had come.
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That is one badass entrance.

yrsillar said:
Preservation. So much had been lost, so much taken. One chop after another, felling the Forest People, a thousand insults, changes to the ways of the ancestors. Insidious things, whispers claiming betterment, superiority, even kindness. Lies all, Lies all! The stone builders, the Heavenly Jailors, the Hill Burners, the False Dreamers, the Slayer of Foundations! None had ever been worthy. Each seeking merely to crack the shell of the last and chosen people, the final stewards of the diviner's legacy. Conquerors and Kin of Beasts!

Thieves and despoilers all, that would taint even the kin, take from them the last vestiges of pride and identity. Still waters deep and cold would bear no more, would drown it all, before surrender. Ten thousand years of history sang in the foundations and the depths, and would not go quiet into the night
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This is the Core of the Meng Delun's Way.

yrsillar said:
Meaningless.

A sword that cut down mountains rose into the sky, no lurid light in red or orange crawled on its surface, only raw and ineffable heat, rippling, invisible in its fury.

Chain Breaker.

Ling Qi gagged as the felt the name sear into her mind, stripped of the niceties of language, of courtly characters and human understanding, like the molten shards of broken links. She darted into what remained of the mangrove forest, far from the titans tread, amid the burning, withering canopy and the wails of dying fairies, she hid herself down in the boiling waters without a splash, diving deep, deep into the muck that stubbornly tried to remain cool.

Legends shall die. Heroes shall die. History shall die. Songs shall die. Languages shall die. Petty little nations shall end.

The Crucible would devour them all, and let there be only one people, one DAWN, and one future. Tradition wields no swords, raises no shields, marshals no armies, fills no bellies, fulfills no lives. False comfort, aiding none.

Scream then, rage then, if you would not go quiet. The result is the same.
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And this is the Core of the General's Way.

yrsillar said:
She had thought long on the nature of power of what it meant, what wielding it was for.

She knew now that she had the core of it right in the beginning.

Power was change. Power was resisting change. All boiled down to that. Power was the exertion of your will upon the world, of making your beliefs reality, of making them matter.

The wisest philosopher's wisdom was nothing if it did not reach ears that could take up their cause. The most diligent ruler's reforms were nothing without the power to enforce them.
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Ling Qi has gotten a lot of insights on Power from this whole thing and I'm really happy about that.

yrsillar said:
…That was what she had done. What her songs did. She sang, and sometimes, the world listened. Small as she was meager as her personal power was…

She had wrought this, without her, a titan, a Sovereign, would not be screaming.
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Ling Qi is begning to understand that she's a badass.

yrsillar said:
She could feel the crawling on her skin, of Still Waters Deeping, in his pain and terror and hate. He saw her too for all that he could not afford to crush her with even a mote of full attention.
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Meng Delun has noticed Ling Qi.

[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.

I feel like this is the best way for Ling Qi to use her Communication. Also Meng Delun is aware of Ling Qi already I don't think we can hide from him given how insane his senses are likely to be.
 
[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.

Dance with the partner that brought you. Plus the imagery makes me want LQ to do what she can to avoid friendly fire and having an ally hiding really close to the enemy takes more concentration for Xia Ren to avoid hitting.
 
I don't really buy that this choice won't have more physical consequences to Ling Qi - I think it makes a lot more sense that votes in this horrifically dangerous situation would affect how badly we come out of it. When we entered Bai Xia Anxi's mind, around the end, we were presented with a choice that looked very much like it was just a cultivation choice determining the direction of cultivation on Rippling Starless Shroud, but we later learned that we'd made the exact right choices to get the least harmful outcome from that situation - I really do suspect that either Ling Qi or Bai Xia Anxi could have been damaged if we'd made a different choice.

That was a situation where we had prepared significantly and were within the mind of a peer. Here, we've been jerked into the situation fairly suddenly, and are confronted, essentially, with gods. I really think that what choices we make here will have significant consequences.

I do also buy that the skulk option is likely to have more extreme risks to Ling Qi's survival, given that it'll get her closer to Still Waters Deepening away from Xia Ren's sight to let him crush her if given the chance. However, my other suspicion is that the soar option will (ironically) trade away that more extreme survival risk in exchange for likely a combination of more guaranteed physical and Way damage - Xia Ren exists in order to destroy other people and ways of thought in the service of the future she sees.

Between these two, although the potential survival risk with skulk makes me very nervous, I worry about the Way damage I foresee coming from Xia Ren more. Being brought towards her Way is maybe the worst outcome as I see it, given that genocidal aspirations are what that Way now leads to.

[X] She would skulk as was her wont, her nature. In the boiling mist and the burning labyrinth, she would be as a shadow, a voice singing unseen.
 
[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.

Frankly speaking, we are very literally one spark among the conflagration today. Specifically, we are the wind that carried the fires of the Crucible into the Liminal to sear SWD from reality. Oftentimes we've been a surprise PLR party, or a sudden bout of mist, a specter that appears moments before you're informed that you've become lost and your End has come.

What's wild is that one of Tsu's epithets was "The Breaker of Chains" and here a sword that sunders tradition is literally Chain Breaker. There was a time when the traditions of the Emerald Seas would see the Beast Kings at the top and humanity scrabbling meager existence only where they could. From SWD's rant about the successors of Tsu, you would think upholding traditions was a core tenet of Tsu himself. Tsu was, in many ways, a Revolutionary. One that wanted a brighter future for humanity and actualized it his Way. The Bountiful Earth that humanity can prosper upon.

We shouldn't skulk now at the apex of our Heist. With this summit we will steal a moments peace for our people! And in a hundred years, we'll do it again! Be it from the jaws of violent progress or the stagnant chains of history! We'll nab a better future out from all this generational trauma even if Shenhua herself has to be deposed for it!

(Commenter's Note: Shenhua herself does have to be deposed for it)
 
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[X] She would skulk as was her wont, her nature. In the boiling mist and the burning labyrinth, she would be as a shadow, a voice singing unseen.

The duality of Ling Qi as the Voice of the Duchess' heir in public and her Left Hand in the battlefield appeals to me. There will be moments in the future when a more subtle approach is needed and Ling Qi is the only part of the retinue that can fulfill this role. Gan and Xia can be the fire and steel, Ling Qi is the shadow you don't see coming.
 
[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.
 
[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.
 
[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.

"I an Fire~"
 
Ferb_Ancos said:
I think is not worth the risk, specially if we gain her ire, we still need to be in her good graces and is not like there is a guarantee to get that info. I just see it more as conceptual damage, and that is just not good. I don't think Sixiang would approve either.
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I mean if it happens I'm not worried about any ire as with Ling Qi not being able to turn her eyes off, and her bleeding from eyes/nose... it would be more looking for things to parse that are less harmful than starring at two Sovereign cultivators going at it for a baby green realm.
 
[X] She would skulk as was her wont, her nature. In the boiling mist and the burning labyrinth, she would be as a shadow, a voice singing unseen.
 
I think sixiang will be safer in the dark than with Xia 'one people' Ren.

[X] She would skulk as was her wont, her nature. In the boiling mist and the burning labyrinth, she would be as a shadow, a voice singing unseen.
 
[X] She would soar, one spark among the conflagration. Today she was a voice of fire and steel, better to embrace that.
 
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