Remove ads

Rock the Cradle: A cultivation story

Reader mode
VagueZ said:
Mireya's problem is incredibly straightforward once you frame it right. She's felt like a coiled breeze to your spiritual sense, but another way to put words to the impression you spirit finds could be that she is a caged bird.

The Path of the Clear Sky is not built for a caged bird, for a captive wind. It is not for the precise and methodical. It was built by and for a mighty force who travels where she will. The master of the Clear Sky wouldn't be a carefully-trained acolyte maneuvering through the obstacles of the land. That's why it's called Clear Sky to begin with. Its power centers around its ability to rain destruction from on high or to simply leave if the sacred artist does not like how things are going around her.

The reason Mireya's mother's aunt could easily absorb her madra and Mireya cannot is because it's meant to slot into that spirit, the spirit of the freewheeling, unconstrained ruler of clear skies. All you need to do is to make an adapter, an elixir that bridges the difference in their spirit. Mireya's tutors didn't stop to think about this, because it didn't seem to be a meaningful thing. Your family path wouldn't care about this. You don't think most other paths would, either. There's a dozen things that play into a sacred artist's compatibility with a path, and this normally wouldn't be the biggest thing. There's probably other ways to smooth over the issue, too. You may or may not have found the best or easiest solution. That would be hard to be sure about.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Mireya is compatible with the Path of the Clear Sky because she wants to be free but has been having problems due to being caged.

VagueZ said:
But, the more you craft your potential elixir, the more you are sure you've found a good solution. You inherited your path from a line of people happy to stay with their familiar people and place, and grew into someone who is too curious to stay there. This is just doing that backwards, for madra.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's really impressive and goes to show how the focus on Esoteric stuff has payed off.

VagueZ said:
"It is," they say, reaching up to brush at the flower. "The Riyusai family have a group of natural spirits they take into their spirit to reach Gold. The Second Prince demanded I get one."

You tilt your head. "The second one? But it was Meira and the First Prince we met here in Great Crevasse."

"I was entranced by how much power Meira had. I asked to go with them... and Second Prince Seishen Daji latched onto me almost as soon as he realized what was going on." They give you a rueful smile, shoulders sagging. "I overheard him say to one of his noble friends that if his older brother had a plant-using prodigy, he should get one, too."

"So he's trying to make you be another Meira?" You lean forward, fascinated.

"Trying." The flower-Keras chuckles. "I'm not her. Even with... our help... I can't keep up. Her growth is amazing. She just reached Truegold and I'm... not Highhold yet." Spreading their hands, this Keras unveils their spirit fully. A potent Lowgold spirit presses down on you, stronger than your own and entirely of life madra, with an impression of ever-living thorns threaded through it. "Prince Daji has taken my 'training' on himself. He's giving me lots of advancement resources, but he's also trying to fight me two or three times a day. He's vicious, and he isn't happy that I'm not already another Meira." They sigh. "I could hit Highgold in another year or two. I have to hope he'll be happy with me then. But never mind that—Beti? You actually tried to work with her after she tried to eat me? Eat you. ...Us?"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So basically Keras here is really impressive but not up to snuff with Meira yet but the growth rate is still really great.

VagueZ said:
"Actually, even the King commented to me a couple weeks ago that he thought I was having a good effect on Prince Daji." Flower-Keras manages a smile with this. "That I was helping to ground him and teach him responsibility. That really feels like it means something when an Overlord says it. Even when he's just walking or having a meal, it feels like an earthquake compressed into human skin. His praise or support is almost empowering itself, and everyone else at court follows his lead carefully. A lot of people try to get an audience with me, with suggestions or requests or even just gifts that they want to send to Prince Daji."

After a moment, they glance over their left shoulder and then their right, as if someone might be listening in even during a dream, and add in a low whisper: "I still don't like Daji, though. He's mean."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
They're doing well and are respected but not happy. Also the King as an Overlord is pretty impressive and scary which is something I like, Sacred Artists of that level are more then human.

VagueZ said:
She does not glow. Unwanted wind does not blow away from her. Aura is worked into madra, and it builds up her core. It is only a small piece; she performs only a few of the countless thousands of cycles she will need to do. It is neither a short nor easy road to Highgold, but she is no longer taking nine steps back for every ten steps forward. She can just walk her path.

Her hands grip the railing, tightly. "Keras," Mireya says, facing away from you.

You give her a heartbeat or two, but when she doesn't continue, you say "Yes?"

"How long will this elixir work?"

"I don't know. Probably something between a week and a month per dose. When it loses efficacy, you can take more right away—it shouldn't build up any residue in your body or spirit that would make you need to worry about spacing out. I think there's a good chance that after enough of it, your spirit will be used to what it's trying to artificially create, and you might not need to keep taking it."

"Is it terribly expensive? Are the ingredients rare?"

"...No?" You're not sure why she's asking, or why she's not looking at you.

"It's... going to work?"

"I think so." you study the back of her head carefully. "Are you okay?"

"I... yes." Having said that, Mireya sinks to her knees, hands still on the railing, and begins to weep, softly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Great to see that the Elixir worked and it really has brought Mireya a lot of happiness.

VagueZ said:
"I can requisition more of the elixir from our usual refiners," Mireya says, then adds, "songbird's hope."

"What?"

"The elixir. I think you should call it the Songbird's Hope Elixir."

You give her your best smile. "I'm good with that."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's a good name.

VagueZ said:
"Yellow eyes?"

"...Yes?"

You relax. "I guess I've lost track of time! Sorry about that. Her navigational methods work, but I suppose it would be weird if you don't know about them, and I didn't have any idea that she would orient on you."

"What?"

You look past her, and find a familiar hooded face on the street. "Mom!"

For a few moments, everything is good. You run to her, you hug her with all four arms, and she hugs you back. It's been too long, but also it feels like no time at all, the many busy months and two advancements falling away.

When she breaks it off to look at you, you look back at her. She looks shorter, somehow, before you realize that you've grown a bit. You're only a couple inches shy of her, now. Her big eyes consider your Goldsigns, showing no particular surprise. Your spiritual sense doesn't provide any surprises, either: she feels like a perching owl. "I saw from the letters that you were coming," you say, "but I didn't realize we were already there! I've been busy. Oh, you found Gardenia, by the way. She's a friend of mine that I met when we fought in public. Gardenia, this is my mom, Ravess."

"Hi, Keras' mom." Gardenia looks like she's not totally convinced yet.

"Mom is a dream artist," you explain to Gardenia. "She follows things that make sense to her that don't always make sense to us. I think she just sensed you were going to get to me and so following you was efficient." You feel Mom nodding.

Gardenia is still glaring at Mom, but it's only a baseline Gardenia glare.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Keras has gotten pretty used to explaining what's up with Ravess and is actually pretty good at it, and I imagine it's not exactly unheard of so it's even easier.

VagueZ said:
Nodding, Gardenia opens a pouch at her side and begins pulling out various materials you'd told her to focus on: the binding of a Jade-level sacred beast, a set of mushrooms that thrive in places of rot, assorted general herbs and vegetables with enough accumulated madra that they can strengthen the body, and similar sundries. "We couldn't find everything you asked, not at a good price, but I hope that this is good enough."

"Yeah, this is great." You're already mentally sorting it out. "I can whip up at least two Overcoming Hemlock Pills from this. If you've got an hour or so, I can do it now."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I like that Keras is just casually that good at refining it shows the training has really paid off.

VagueZ said:
"You're right! I'm almost eleven." You smile proudly at the reminder as you delicately control the aura in the currently-liquid pill to prevent it from either boiling and concentrating it into a deadly concoction or else failing to cohere and wasting the ingredients.

"I keep forgetting you're younger than me," Gardenia says, shaking her head.

"Not by that much!" you insist.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Keras is really young and I forget that and think they're older sometimes.

VagueZ said:
Cheng breaks off and looks at you hard. "Your spirit is disordered. Why are you so disordered? And who's this?" He only notices Gardenia and Mom after he's already halfway through trying to train you.

You point with the hand not holding a sheaf of papers. "My mom. My friend, Gardenia. She works for Risshon these days."

"Why are they in my house?"

Your mom, still yawning and stretching after her nap, speaks up, which is unusual for her. "A ship on storm-tossed seas. A compass. Long trade routes ahead."

Cheng's spiritual sense washes over the three of you. You're pretty used to it by now, but Mom winces and Gardenia falls to the floor. Then, he grunts and says "Well, listen to your mother." He stops paying any attention to them after that. "Once she's helped you settle your spirit, we'll pick back up. I'd say to hurry up but I know that that's counterproductive if you're dealing with this sort of thing, so just do it as quickly as you can."

And then he's gone, leaving you with just a sheaf of notes and theory.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Okay so something is up with Keras's spirit, and then Cheng goes wtf are these people here for, then upon scanning Keras's mom is like ah she can deal with this.

VagueZ said:
Mom holds up a hand, and gestures for you to sit again. She waits until you stop squirming and sit patiently to speak. "You can do nothing for me."

"No, I'm sure I can. There's all sorts of—"

She holds up a hand again, and waits. "You cannot." You see her struggling to find the right words. "What must be done before a thing can be fixed? What cannot be otherwise?"

You cycle the Mighty Heart of Oak to center yourself as you work through the riddle. It's not intentionally a riddle, probably, but it's what she's found to communicate. Soon enough, you find the answer. "A thing must be broken. You can't fix something that is not broken."

"Yes." Mom leans back, looking a little relieved. "I am not broken. I struggle here and there, but that is common to all people. I bring news, I guard faithfully, I protect my family. I neither need nor want a change. But you?" She holds out her hands, so you hold out all four for her to take her choice of. She takes one hand of madra and one of flesh. "You do not want to follow all my steps. My eyes see things that can be. Your hands choose what will be. I am here for your..." She hesitates. "Your hands must point. And then I shall see the path to lead."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
She's happy with who she is and that's what matters to her.

VagueZ said:
She lets go of your native hand to brush your cheek with her hand. "Lower your defenses. Open your mind. Receive."

Like Mom showed you visions before, you let her project her madra into you more directly, and you work as hard as you can to sort them into distinct, separate visions. To see what paths the owl can lead the raven.

All thinking beings produce and use dream aura: it is the power of the mind. This includes you. The problem you are beginning to suffer is that you are gettingmore dream power than your natural body uses. So, unfocused, it seeks to obey its nature, a nature that speaks to communication, possibility, and fate. You see yourself, as you may have been. You take in memories and thoughts from them.

In doing so, you risk diluting yourself.

These other selves are not you. They lack your skills. They have their own specialties. They have the slightly different values and opinions that come from their different experiences and from the fact that they did, indeed, take different choices.

Much of the risk is mitigated by understanding, but not all of it. Moreover, it leaves a tool to be seized. Dream madra from Zeyu's Remnant suffuses you. It can be channeled. The simplest answer is to make it a part of you, wholly central to your cycling and power, like death madra already is. This is not the only option, however. Because dream madra is part and parcel of all people, like blood or life, you can partion off this additional power and use it to enhance one specific technique, feeding only that with your excess dream power supplied by the Remnant.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
She's really good at what she does and is providing Keras with choices on how to deal with this. Also I like Keras's raven symbolism.

unObservant said:
Mom's here! I loved the way she tailed Gardenia to us as a shortcut, and the return of the cryptic but earnest metaphors that Keras has got so much experience working out and immediately got back into the practice of.

And wow, Gardenia really continues to show up at just the right time for Keras to unintentionally flex their powerful connections, huh? I'd feel a little bad for overwhelming her like that if it wasn't so hilarious, plus it might be one of the big factors that convinces her to side against her mentor later on soooooo...

As for voting:
[X] Fold Dream into Field's Strength

As cool as the idea of adding in a third Madra type sounds, I think I've gotta go with this one. I'm more than happy in our Path's conceptual niche as Beti's Bird, honestly. In terms of Dream-aligned abilities, we've already got the boosted fatesight and metaphysically-relevant Goldsign that keep on proving their worth, and those won't be going away even after we tie the loose Dream Madra generation to a Technique that suits it and stops bleeding into everything else. We already barely touch on the Death half of our Path; and I can't help but feel that shifting around the entire thing again just so that we could add on a third source we won't have the attention to develop sounds a lot more frustrating than focusing on the untapped potential we've already got.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's fair getting more into another Madra type is already going to be hard and we haven't delved into death enough as it is.

Artanis Prime said:
Just think a Path built on Life, Death, and Dream. But how do they relate? Life and Death is obvious but Dream? Look at how we've interacted with Dream so far. At first just a little psychometry, just little feelings and insights into things, and then progressing to full on uncontrolled alternate timeline visions...possibilites. But with a unified path that might change Life into Beginnings and Death into Endings....something like the Begining and Ending of the Possible turing the Path of the Evergrowing Field into something like the Path of Chosen Destiny? Or maybe I'm being overdramatic, its been known to happen.

At any rate if we fully incorporate Dream aura we could eventually use it to improve ALL our techniques over time, not just the one, though they probably wouldn't come out exactly like the above options. Anyway enough of my ramblings....
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
On the other hand Dream is pretty cool and count fit into Keras's path in a really interesting way.

1337Procrast said:
I would much rather refine what we have than constantly chase new shiny things tbh. We haven't even set up Desiccated Valley yet, or added death to a bunch of our techs. We haven't crafted techs focused on death yet either.

I just do not vibe with having to dilute our focus another way that alters all our techs and dilutes them even further. Life and Death at least has the strong contrast when you add dream in it just feels muddled to me.

This is also why I support field's strength as the fold. It gives us something stronger now as Keras is finally coalescing a little into a sacred artist that can do things now and not "maybe later" as has been a continued issue. It also lets us shed the restriction of the family Path's enforcer technique to truly make it our own thing. The concentration boost would work so well with Keras techs. The vines and dandelion rain and the combat useful ruler techs we absolutely should work on (because Keras has good compatibility with them) become scarier and scarier the more Keras can juggle at once.

Karas is gold now. They're a real sacred artist. We can't constantly go "oh we'll add another thing we'll work on how to make useful later" because there's limited time until we hit the tournament. I don't want to have to wait even longer as we need to figure out how to mix in another chaotic element when we don't even have a big ruler tech trump card. Keras is built for a Ruler trump card tech!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah we've been adding new shines each time we run into stuff.

[X] Fold Dream into Field's Strength
I was considering adding Dream to the Cycling but honestly splitting focus again won't do Keras as much good as staying focused on Life and Death. Also this is a pretty nice technique upgrade to have for Keras.
 
[X] Make Dream a part of your overall cycling

We have an entire remnant, and we're just going to use it for a single technique?

Unless I'm misunderstanding, if we incorporate Dream into the overall cycling, we can eventually get similar to results to the automatic upgrades, they just won't be...automatic.

And Keras is already creating this entire path wholesale. They invented the cycles that led them bond with Beti and integrate Death madra. Etaja makes them uniquely suited to pulling this off. Life, Death, and Dream as a trinity - is there really any other element we might ever add? Do we really want to give up on integrating both of our parents' paths?

We don't have to worry about continuing to add things without specializing - this is the third and final madra type we can add. We've already chosen the iron body, jade cycling, gold remnant... A third element is really the only foundation-type shiny left that we can integrate. It's just the last piece.
 
dolcevita said:
And Keras is already creating this entire path wholesale. They invented the cycles that led them bond with Beti and integrate Death madra. Etaja makes them uniquely suited to pulling this off. Life, Death, and Dream as a trinity - is there really any other element we might ever add? Do we really want to give up on integrating both of our parents' paths?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ignoring all the other arguments about splitting focus even further, wanting to work more on Death, not making another long-term decision, etc etc.

I just really like being Beti's Bird. I think it's cute and potentially hilarious if/when we become super badass and that's our path. Not "Arbiter of Life and Death" or anything over the top like that. Just... Beti's Bird. Adding Dream into our path muddies that.
 
Karnax626 said:
I missed this first time around. My first thought would be Malice and the Dragon King? Can't imagine one of the other Monarchs making a play.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's most likely the four-way fight between Reigan Shen, Tiberian Aurelius, Northstrider, and the Weeping Dragon.

[X] Make Dream a part of your overall cycling

This is tricky. Ultimately, while I'm sympathetic about us already splitting focus too much and not developing our path (barely done anything with Death), it feels kind of weird to shy away from Dream at the last second. Like, we took the fate reader's remnant, so let's go all in on Dream.

Life + Death is a bit of a "purer" path, and I do get the appeal of that. That said, I think Life+Dream has some intriguing possibilities, and so does Death+Dream.
 
[X] Make Dream a part of your overall cycling

Just seems like the more interesting option.
 
Tylansimov said:
Life + Death is a bit of a "purer" path, and I do get the appeal of that. That said, I think Life+Dream has some intriguing possibilities, and so does Death+Dream.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't disagree that separately they're all solid ideas. My main disagreement has always been that Life/Death/Dream is really weird to weld together into something cohesive. When you create a Path you don't really get to like pick and choose to only be one aspect or whatever. Aspects have a generic idea of what they can do but every Path filters them into something specific.

With just Life and Death we can build on the farmer thing to have sowing and reaping cycles to bring in that theme of life and death flowing together that really solidifies how the Path can work as a vibe. Which is really important for building a Path in Crafle. In the last uodate alone we saw that Mireya's life circumstances causing her to be unable to fit the vibes of the Path she's cycling weakened her ability to grow. I want to capitalise on the strength of the vibe of Life and Death Keras has available.

Hell the life and death cycle vibe could even fit the current name to a T. Path of the Evergrowing Field meaning a field that grows and dies and grows endlessly. Fuck it cooks so hard…
 
Last edited:
[X] Make Dream a part of your overall cycling

This is not a dilution of the path, it is completion. Dream is the madra of communication and insight; things Keras is best at. Adding Dream to Death and Life means the path better reflects Keras's spirit. This may make the path more compatible and easier to walk.

In games terms, Death is offensive, Life is protective, and Dream is buff and debuff.

In narrative terms, Keras may see death coming, heal both bodies and minds, and speak beyond the grave. There might be interesting Remanent interactions. It might even lead to Herald Keras.

But otherwise, the dreams are cool, the characters are awesome, and talk-no-jutsu is mighty.
 
Last edited:
Axel Fones said:
Ignoring all the other arguments about splitting focus even further, wanting to work more on Death, not making another long-term decision, etc etc.

I just really like being Beti's Bird. I think it's cute and potentially hilarious if/when we become super badass and that's our path. Not "Arbiter of Life and Death" or anything over the top like that. Just... Beti's Bird. Adding Dream into our path muddies that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This wouldn't be erasing us being Beti's Bird. This isn't taking anything away from our path, or our relationship with Beti - it's just adding something to it.

It's taking us from just slotting straight into the relationship Beti's species has with carrion birds, and making it our own. We wouldn't stop being Beti's bird, just deciding what that means to us, to Keras and Beti specifically instead of some generic example of the species.

I mean, even the vision mom had specifically still envisioned Keras as a bird, you know? Whatever happens, it'll be additive, not reductive.
 
[X] Make Dream a part of your overall cycling

Whos to say that being Beti's bird cannot incorporate other elements of the mind on the side. They shun advancement mentally for now but there may be a day where emphasising the communication or fate aspects of dream madras would be useful.
 
dolcevita said:
This wouldn't be erasing us being Beti's Bird. This isn't taking anything away from our path, or our relationship with Beti - it's just adding something to it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
What? You're wrong.
VagueZ said:
Instead of "Beti's bird", your path will need a new overall association and it will need to be reflected across much of what you do.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It very much changes our path from Beti's Bird. Maybe we can finagle things to make it still work, but the overall association is explicitly changing.
 
Last edited:
[X] Make Dream a part of your overall cycling

If we're worried about lack of aspects in our techs then we should vote for more tech options when we have the choice. I think this is the coolest option even if it does have a distance before the payoff is as good as option 1. Since Keras isn't often involved in fatal combat that upgrade doesn't feel as urgent to me as getting a final pillar for our foundation that has interesting synergies with life and death.
 
[X] Fold Dream into Dandelion Rain
You will double the amount of seeds you can throw, from two to four, and their blasts try to interject distracting dream madra on hit: small visual illusions and spikes of emotion may affect peer or wearker targets, hampering them slightly. This is worth being called an Advanced technique.

I don't know about adding Dream to us but I think is a mistake. But Advancing the Dandelion's Rain may be usefull for future advancement.

[X] Fold Dream into Field's Strength
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top