Hah, Ling Qi totally choked.
[] Plan Back to the Basics
I like Li Suyin, but this isn't a terribly interesting action. That said, I think it's important to cultivate SCS with Bai Meizhen seeing as it's an art she benefits from seeing in action and the foundation of our training agreement. Also, it has the benefit of probably not taking too much writing focus, and there's a number of socials heavy with that on the docket.
[] Plan Focus on Fundamentals
[X] [name] Zhengui
I would really rather this plan go with Gan instead of Xuan. We are about to walk into a big meeting, speaking with Gan ahead of time might give us a bit of time to mentally prepare and not just get swept up in the decisions of others. On the other hand I like the rest of it, so I suppose I will vote for it and hope there is a change of heart among all the voters, and they all come to agree with me.
[/QUOTE]
Just to be clear with you both, the only differences between Plan Back to Basics and Encompassing Shadows is that encompassing shadows has Gan Guangli (it also has SCS with Bai Meizhen, the foundation of our training agreement).
I guess that Gan Guangli is a non starter for Abeologos and training SCS is a nonstarter with mc2rpg, as the latter is the only difference, alongside Gan instead of Xuan, with fundamentals ?
And yet the result of that is Ling Qi doing what Elder Su warned Ji Rong about and what the dream-Qi whined about - cultivating all the time (I vaguely recall there being a third admonishment against "cultivate all the time", but can't recall where it was).
Look at it differently - "Ling Qi should be out doing something every week", so one action exploring, doing a sect mission, making Kang Zihao's life complicated, whatever. Her new friend eats up a second action, at least for now; I'm wondering if that might not count as Spiritual or Qi cultivation.
That gives her three major actions to cultivate - which is, mind you, a majority... and if you count "tending to your spirit pet" as cultivation, it's even more. Studying the moon counts as Eight Phase Ceremony, thankfully. Spiritual (perhaps at the vent?) is two. Working a combat art (I prefer Forgotten Vale Melody) while hunting with the Golden Fields group is three.
This week there's a reasonable need to use all the minor actions Ling Qi has available - the meeting, there's a couple friends that seem to have fun things planned that Ling Qi might want to get in on, and that doesn't leave two minor actions. Still, I could see next week being able to squeeze in a fourth (or fifth, if the turtle isn't taking a major any more, or counts) cultivation action.
Now, I expect the turtle to not take up a major action fairly soonish - so another combat art can be worked on in its place. Spiritual is coming along at a reasonable clip, so in the foreseeable future a third combat art can join in. At about that time EPC will increase (probable decision point) - I'm not sure if it'll cap there until Green or not, but it just might... which means four slots for combat art advancement.
Moreover, it turns out that 180 successes are needed to get ready for breakthrough, not the 360 that was anticipated by many long-range planners.
That's a very different way to look at what Elder Su or our alter ego has said than I do:
"Ji Rong, your growth has been truly phenomenal. Reaching the peak of both Red and Gold from nothing within three months time, mastering three separate arts to their fullest extent, as well as your other accomplishments… you have earned a pass to the archives," Elder Su announced. "However… I would suggest that you take some time to settle yourself. A prodigy who burns out does nobody any good, particularly themselves."
"Hm, well, that's a hard question," The figure mused, tapping a finger thoughtfully against her lips. "I'm you of course, but also not really? You wouldn't understand," the older-her shrugged. "As for what I want… I guess you could say I'm curious? You aren't exactly what I was expecting. The determination is good, but you've gotten so uptight. You hardly do anything fun anymore."
Ling Qi narrowed her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking…" her thoughts seemed to clear a bit for a moment, and a spark of understanding took root. "I don't have any reason to waste my time doing things like that anymore."
Other her frowned back at her, crouched amid the flowers. "That's a lie. You just don't want to look bad in front of your little friends," she accused. "It's still there, you know. The part of you that enjoyed the challenge of theft and trickery. Don't lie. You aren't happy just letting things go either. What happened to your fangs little rat? Have the snake and the tiger plucked them out?"
Ling Qi shook her head, remembered indignation from the slights she had suffered bubbling back up. "It's… not important, and I have too much to do. They aren't worth my time. Not anymore."
"You're afraid," the moon spirit replied, eyes no longer blue, but rather solid pools of silver. "Afraid of what others will think of you," she said, sounding disappointed. "Afraid of being who you are. Do you remember what you felt when you saw that boy's face as he fell into the well?"
Ling Qi remembered the satisfaction and delight at her success well enough, even if it had been quashed by other things shortly thereafter. "I…"
"Life is boring without risk," the spirit continued. "What is the point to a trick or a scheme that has no chance of failure? If all you do is plan and train, you may as well stay home in bed. Or cultivate in a cave until you are old and grey," the figure was growing indistinct, more a shadow than a human shape now. "You have enemies now, ones you can't dismiss as beneath you. I wonder if you will have more excuses… Or if you will remember how to live free, and how enemies deserve to be treated."
From what I can see,
neither messages are about 'too much cultivation', and
neither message are about "Doing something every weeks". They are, however, both somewhat about 'Do things that are important to you'. 'Don't burn out'. Our Alter-Ego advised to go around and bully people for feeling better about ourself, or simply to not let fear dominate us. Do things that are not 'easy' even if they interest us. Elder Su, OTOH, cautioned Ji Rong about taking the same kind of risks without making sure he had a solid emotional base to 'settle' back in.
However, let's take this week for example.
Every Plans has the following two major actions:
[] Spend time researching and rearing your new spirit.
[] Visit the Archive
-
[] Research the moon element and the phase spirits(counts as cultivation of EPC)
So, in the major actions, every plan has one action that's purely "down-time" and 'settling down' time (researching and rearing our new spirit), and one that's action that's about learning more about the world and trying to determine our influence in said word (grabbing an opportunity to choose things we want with our eyes open, etc). One is "Ling Qi emotional time", the other "Learn more about the world by ourself and try to grab our place", which fit under both their advice.
However, the main reason we don't have a mission, this week, is because we
want to do the minor actions. Again, there are three minor actions every single plans have:
[] Gu Xiulan seems awfully smug about something, and has dropped hints that she wants to go out together, indulge her.
[] Han Jian seems to be planning something, perhaps you can see if you can help?
[] Cai Renxiang has put out notice for a proper second meeting to discuss the future
The first is both risky (because it's kind of mean of us) but also is hilarious as all hell and is going to be fun, helping Ling Qi's emotion there. The second is "grabbing opportunities", following our alter-ego's advice, and the third is "continuing to settle down our order".
Minor actions aren't 'nothing'. They aren't free. We
could take them out to get something else there. We aren't because
those minor actions, in particular, all fit what we thing Ling Qi wants to do.
It's... been like this for a while, now. The plans voted for constantly have less and less cultivation (When Elder Su warned against skimping cultivation) and more and more 'For fun' actions. Some of them were necessary and less for 'fun' (researching our baby before he was born), but a lot of them
were. It's just that the admonishment from our alter-ego came from the other side: we were too cautious. We "let ourself" always take the road of the minimal risks instead of trying to do dangerous things that we would enjoy. We pretend to be nicer than we are because for the first time we have friends and don't want to lose them, etc.
Doing something for the turtle is doing something. Looking up the moon phases in order to decide where we fit there
is doing something. Volunteering to do something for Han Jian's big plan
is doing something. Gloating at Gu Xiulan when she presents us our new spirit beast likewise, and so on and so forth.
If you are going to count 'Minor actions' as "those don't even count anymore", then you can argue to have 6 actions weeks every weeks. Those are very rare though, simply because those minor actions are
important.
