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Shards of Awakening

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[X] "These past few weeks have been different haven't they?" Quan Jia asks. (delves into deeper issues, probably stressful conversation, may address roots of said stress (if there's any), roll(s) required.)
 
[X] "These past few weeks have been different haven't they?" Quan Jia asks. (delves into deeper issues, probably stressful conversation, may address roots of said stress (if there's any), roll(s) required.)
 
[X] "These past few weeks have been different haven't they?" Quan Jia asks. (delves into deeper issues, probably stressful conversation, may address roots of said stress (if there's any), roll(s) required.)
 
[X] "These past few weeks have been different haven't they?" Quan Jia asks. (delves into deeper issues, probably stressful conversation, may address roots of said stress (if there's any), roll(s) required.)
 
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    • Scheduled vote count started by dmclain2 on May 5, 2021 at 2:10 PM, finished with 16 posts and 16 votes.
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    Gossip Turn 4 Part 6
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    • [] "Do I need a reason to be around one of my favorite people?" Quan Jia asks. (Keeps conversation casual, reduces Liu Mei's stress, probably doesn't address root causes of said stress (if there's any), no roll required.)

    "It is reassuring then, that this wasn't a thinly veiled attempt to pry into private matters," Mei Mei muses more to herself than anything, "but I suppose that is one of my lady's many redeeming qualities: the remarkable simplicity of her motivations."

    "I'm not simple," Quan Jia pouts, "it's important to spend time with the people you love, otherwise they can get grumpy."

    "Well, we wouldn't want that," her attendant smiles one of her, considerably more rare, genuine smiles at her.

    "That's right," she agrees and taps her lip thoughtfully as the comfortable silence descends again. "You know what a casual night out needs to be complete?"

    "Utter silence and complete tranquility," Mei Mei's still wearing her eye bandages, and how that doesn't look ridiculous when paired above her bathing suit is something Quan Jia will probably never understand, but those bandages have never been even the slightest impediment to her sarcastic eyebrow raises.

    "Well if you really want to be a pillow, I suppose this is a good place to nap," it certainly had the ambience for it, but Quan Jia tried not to nap around water… not after that time by the fountain at least…

    "If serving as my lady's pillow satisfies the requirements for this type of togetherness," her smile shifts to the familiar, ever so faint, mockery, "then one wonders that there isn't already a surfeit sufficient to last centuries."

    "You're lucky you're comfy, or I'd drop you out of the top twenty all together." Quan Jia scowls, not at all petulantly, "but no, that's not it… we've got a new friend and some who will be friends soon, so we need to talk about them."

    "Ahh, how could I have misunderstood my lady's desire for the time honored and noble tradition of gossip," Mei Mei's head tilts in an odd, unfamiliar sort of gesture, and she almost whispers, "oh nostalgia... you toxic thing."

    "Hmm?" Quan Jia raises an eyebrow, but when she just receives a slight shake of the head in response, continues on with her original point, "it's not gossip, Mei Mei should know that. We need to talk about our new friends so we don't, that is, so that we umm…"

    She trails off, trying to think of a more Mei Mei way to say it, fails, and sighs, "ok, so it is gossip. But not the bad kind, the fun kind… gossip is fun right?"

    "When not malicious, I suppose it can be an amusing diversion." Her attendant shrugs then smiles, "Well, I don't think it too inappropriate to exchange opinions on our new arrivals."

    "Great," Quan Jia grins happily, pushing one of the floating trays back so she can sit up and focus properly. "Frowny chef just got here so maybe we can skip him for now, so... first, what do you think about my cute maids?"

    "Hmm," she hums thoughtfully, "The girl is either terrified of you or smitten, and I lean toward the latter."

    "That's weird," Quan Jia frowns, feeling almost completely perplexed, "we've barely met... shouldn't we be friends first? isn't that how it's supposed to work?"

    "For your father, one glance was enough, though your mother certainly required more... convincing," Mei Mei smiles fondly, frowns, shakes her head, and continues, "but to your original question, I can't tell if the younger one is genuinely embarrassed about the maid's dress you're making him wear or if he's just acting that way…"

    "He's so small and it's soo cute on him," the image of Xue Shi stretching up on tip-toes, the loose folds of his frilly dress swirling around him as he attempted to clean a vase makes her smile, "isn't it adorable the way he tries to carry heavy things for his sister... you remember that one box was bigger than he was..."

    "He almost tipped over trying to get it through the door." Mei Mei smirks in agreement, "or more recently, does my lady perhaps remember when he tried to clean the main chandelier?" Her poor maid had stood on tip-toes on top of a chair and tried to dust that pretty gold and crystal thing hanging in the foyer. Tried...

    "When he leaned too far forward and had to jump for one of the arms?" Quan Jia giggles into her hands, "the way his feet kicked while he was hanging there..."

    "Or how his sister tried to help him down?" that particular rescue had ended with the two of them in a pile on the floor… an adorable pile of silk and embarrassment...

    "They're hard-working, adorable, and entertaining," she smiles. "I'm definitely keeping them."

    "For the sake of my lady's personal hygiene, I am most grateful for that." so mean…

    "What about Xiao Lien then?" Quan Jia shifts to her other housemate. "I thought it'd be cool to live with a friend, but it seems like she's always busy."

    "A perhaps reasonable result of being told that another disciple may try and have you killed…" Mei Mei replies idly as she leans back further, thin scars on her arms reflecting silvery moonlight.

    Nope, not asking today… too clever Mei Meis...

    "I guess. But it's so boring…" she complains.

    "She is progressing rapidly though," Mei Mei offers a mild sort of defense, "perhaps my lady could benefit from attempting to match that intensity."

    "Boring," she pronounces judgment on that idea, "I think I'll drag her out and go exploring tomorrow instead… we can go get some new clothes afterwards, make a day of it."

    "At times, one must wonder at my lady's priorities." Mei Mei's voice isn't quite disapproving, but it's not exactly approving either.

    "Fancy dresses are cool, and friends are important." She pronounces with an exaggerated sort of solemnness, one that fades with a sigh when faced against her attendant's even stare. "Training… it sort of feels like wasted effort, you know, watching qi drain out through all those stupid, stupid cracks."

    Mei Mei smiles comfortingly, but she doesn't say anything in response to that, by now familiar complaint. After a moment Quan Jia sighs again and continues, "finding thing when exploring, on the other hand… it's like everyone has the same chance of doing that, it feels like it's... fair, you know. Or, maybe more than that, it's something that with dreams and fate and stuff I might even be good at, you know. And friends..."

    Again, she trails off, trying to sort through fractured thoughts, "it's nice, being around people who don't think about pops when they see me. Or at least they're willing to pretend they don't."

    "Jia…" her attendant's voice is barely audible above the silence.

    "It's ok Mei Mei," she grins, shaking off the momentary sadness, "I'm meeting cool people who I'm making friends with because I want to and with my own efforts. That's way more important than some greedy people thinking pops will help them because they're nice to me."

    "It feels like I'm free, finally." Quan Jia isn't quite sure whether she says it out loud or not, but when an arm wraps around her shoulder, she snuggles into Mei Mei's side all the same.

    "I suppose that there is more than one path to growth." Her attendant's voice is a soft rumble that she feels as much as hears.

    "That's right," she nods into a soft shoulder, already feeling sleep calling to her with gossamer welcome, "Mei Mei should remember that next time she's stuck on something..."


    Liu Mei smiles softly as she looks down at the girl sleeping on her shoulder, as far as epiphanies went it was a little thing... but then the world was made of little things, wasn't it... Well, perhaps once her lady was more established, she'd try again...

    [AN]
    Short update today and no vote either. I spent 3 hours talking at work for presentations and I'm exhausted. Shopping trip and exploration roll tomorrow. If anyone wants to roll, I'll take the first one in thread. Otherwise I'll roll when I start writing.
     
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    • dingdonghadron said:
    Wait a minute... you mean to tell me we've been rolling d100s this entire time?!

    .
    ..
    ...
    I thought it was d20s.
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    When a long-neck herbivore needs to do the rolls, you know something is wrong.

    But yeah it was a d100 all the time. We just were really unluck, even more when our build goes to luck exploration
     
    A Lady and a Cup of Tea Turn 4 Part 7
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    • Sect exploration roll 79

    "See, this isn't so bad," Quan Jia calls back over her outstretched hand which is currently attached rather like a manacle to her oldest friend.

    "I guess it's not," Xiao Lien admits from where she's being reluctantly dragged across a windswept plateau dotted with fluffy white spirit-beasts and even fluffier clouds. After a few moments of silence, her friend shakes her arm a bit violently and asks, "is this really necessary though?"

    "Xiao Lien was the one to run away and try to hide when I told her what we were doing today," she grins, gripping tighter. It wouldn't do for her friend to escape so late in the game… "fortunately she was easy to catch because her legs were weak from all that time in front of the mirror."

    "It's hard to stop using it. The mirror makes me feel… strong." the slack in their arms increases as her friend moves up to her side, "I never thought I would master my first technique that quickly."

    "That's because you are strong," wind whips blonde hair around her face as she smiles widely at her friend. "The mirror just makes that a bit easier to see."

    "I… tha-" a mirror within her soul shatters with thunderous cacophony. Shards of silver light cascade down around the two of them and reality twists, blurs under that rain of light.


    A girl blinks and reality fades into clarity. Light from twinned suns, one crimson red, the other azure blue bear down mercilessly on head and skin and soul. A hand, loosely draped in lace and silk rises to shade her eyes, and she looks around at an endless vista of sand. Rising up out of the distance and reflecting azure and crimson in a thousand different shades of light are dunes of sand, taller than mountains, that cast not a single mote of shadow. The sky itself shivers and twists in striations kaleidoscopic. Swallowing back vertigo the girl looks down.

    Where? Who?...

    A weight, or rather the lack of weight drags down at the girl's hand, and she looks down, ignoring for a moment the jade plaque hanging from her wrist. Something was missing… someone? That thought, and the distant, faded concern that rang through it disappears as her continued study of herself reveals a dress of pale blue silk worked with pearl white lace and a pair of equally white slippers, intricately styled with golden thread. Pretty…

    Locks of blonde hair fall in her eyes as she stares down at her shoes, the aching familiarity of those strands causes reality to toll like a bell and a ripple of solidity radiates out from where the girls stands. I'm me, whoever that is… and I can't stay here… there are people waiting for me, but who?

    As if summoned by her thoughts, shadowless iridescent sand gives way to rough cobblestone. The stones of this newly formed path... her path?... glow dully, invitingly, against the surreal brightness of the sand and the sickening blur of sky around her. Bereft of ideas, of alternatives, of even the ability to consider the girl shrugs and one foot delicately stretches out to the start of her path. As toe touches stone, the rippling coolness of a gentle ocean breeze washes over her, bringing with it a promise. A second foot joins the first, and the girl grins in relief as promise becomes reality in the fading of the pounding heat of the suns above her.

    Glancing up, now able to see through the twisting striations that had so nauseated her earlier, she can see countless pinpricks of radiant light as they pierce through the kaleidoscope of sky. Glancing down, no longer nearly blinded by the radiance of the sand around her, she sees her way illuminated in gentle light. For a moment doubt stirs and skepticism swirls around her in hazy gusts of sable light. For a moment. As if in response to her concerns, a soft silver mist rises from the path. A soft silver mist that draws color from doubt, leaving behind thoughts smoothed of even the faintest edge of concern.

    Doubts settled, and no other options available, the girl takes a first step along her path. The landscape around her blurs as she crosses a thousand miles in a single step. The landscape remains utterly still as she returns to where she started. The girl blinks, frowns, steps forward again. Again a thousand miles pass beneath her feet as she remains motionless. A third step and again, she returns to where she'd started.

    How?

    Words that speak with a voice she instinctively knows is her own echo, muffled and distant within her soul. "Surrender… fate… negotiation…"

    Confusion flows, frustration a beat behind, and angrily the girl moves to step forward again. Before her foot touches stone, inspiration strikes, or rather whimsy does and her eyes close.


    A girl, a woman, a being with far too many eyes sits on a delicate white chair, legs crossed as she sips at a porcelain cup. "My my, I didn't think any within that bastion of [Order] still walked the old paths. Welcome seeker, to my humble home."

    "Who," words escape from parched lips and mouth in a ragged whisper.

    "Am I? I am the Lady of Shifting Sands..." A child's smile crosses an old woman's face and a hundred eyes blink in unison, "Are you? Isn't that a question for you to answer, young seeker?"

    "I am…" memory crashes, a hundred flashes of a man, tall and proud, powerful… fath- no, pops… a hundred more of a woman, bandaged and ever-present… moth- no, Mei Mei… dozens of other faces flash through her mind, until finally her own, blonde haired and green eyed, stares back at her. "Quan Jia."

    "Welcome then, Quan Jia to the Endless Shifting Sands," eyes dangling from stalks of flesh, eyes ripped as holes in reality smile at her. "Would you like some tea?"

    Her throat burns and Quan Jia answers before she can even consider the question, "Yes, please."

    "Come then, sit with this old lady for a while," a child's smooth face, studded with too knowing eyes, smiles at her and gestures at a chair that had not existed a moment ago… had it?

    "Thank you," gratefully, she slides forward across loose sand and flops down onto a chair softer than even her Comfy Pillow with an exhausted sigh. "This chair is soo soft."

    "Oh," a pair of eyes untethered to anything blink in mild amusement as they circle around her, "it has been some time since my hospitality has been so appreciated."

    "Comfy things are really important," she pronounces with entirely genuine solemnness, "and the sign of cool people."

    "And am I one of these cool people," shimmering black hair shifts into tentacles bearing dozens of tiny red rimmed eyes.

    "Of course," Quan Jia responds almost instantly, "you're living in a Dream and you care about comfy things… you might be the coolest person I've ever met… except for pops though."

    "High praise indeed then," a girl around her age, dark haired and dark eyed smiles with what seems genuine pleasure, "but as a host I have perhaps been a touch remiss, so tell me Quan Jia… how do you take your tea?"

    "With honey and vanilla," she replies before looking at a table that almost certainly hadn't been there a moment before… had it? A silvery tea-pot and a single emerald green cup sit on a tray made from a creamy white stone and upon not seeing any saucers Quan Jia continues, "but I like it plain too, I guess."

    "Quan Jia must be a neophyte seeker indeed, or perhaps she is just exceedingly polite?" the girl smiles with amusement and warmth, "for what is Dream but the manifestation of want and desire?"

    With those words, small silvery pots, one filled with a thick amber liquid, the other radiating a pleasantly fresh aroma appear next to the empty tea cup, "drink, and be at ease. And perhaps we can discuss topics both amusing and interesting."

    With a fluidity she can't quite claim in the waking world, Quan Jia prepares a cup of steaming tea, and takes a sip. Starbursts of flavor she can't name, flavors her mind cannot even begin to identify cascade across her tongue. Liquid turns to mist, to vapor, to contentment as she swallows, and finally, the last weight of those twinned suns fall from her soul. "Wow, this is really good."

    "My heart lifts with your enjoyment," the girl continues with her soft smile, "perhaps first we could exchange questions and thereby become familiar with one another?"

    "Yep," she grins, "it's important that future friends know things about each other."

    "Are we to be friends then, young seeker?" an eye, pitch black sclera and pale yellow iris blinks once from the girl's forehead. "And what would such a friendship entail, I wonder?"

    "We could drink tea and umm…" she frowns thoughtfully, "we could wander around looking for cool places or go and meet cool people… or, umm… you're not, you know…"

    "Trapped here?" the eye closes and disappears from the girl's face as her lips curve in amusement. "Let us say that I will remain as I am here for a time yet."

    "Well, we can still have tea," Quan Jia nods decisively, "and I can bring some food from my frowny chef… and I've never tried to nap in Dream before, but we could definitely sleep together some time."

    Laughter like the ringing of bells cascades around her, though the girl's face doesn't move, "a most precocious seeker indeed… but perhaps in time friendship will form nonetheless."

    "Right, sometimes it just happens," Quan Jia agrees. "Did you want to ask first, or…"

    "If my guest does not mind the rudeness, I would ask first," when Quan Jia gestures to go ahead, the girl smiles and asks, "countless seasons has it been since a seeker has wandered my corner of Dream, one wonders how the young seeker before me came to walk such paths?"

    "I was hiding from a really boring tutor and I found this really great spot beneath a willow tree and because I was kind of tired from the running away, I took a quick nap." Quan Jia grins at the memory of her Awakening. "When I woke up, I was still asleep, so I wandered around a bit, chased butterflies, did fun stuff, and then woke up again… after I told pops about it, he sent some letters or something and a month or two later my Cultivation Art came strapped to the leg of a falcon."

    "An aspirant of sleep," an old lady looks fondly down at her, "and if you will forgive the second question, would you show me the nature of your Art?"

    "I haven't had a chance to cultivate it much," Quan Jia feels her cheeks warm with embarrassment at the admission, "but I'll try my best."

    With those words, she focuses, and pulls, pushes, coaxes forth the tiniest fragment of Dao that had come upon attunement with her Art. A shard of rainbow crystal, hair thin, and no longer than a fingernail pulses without rhythm in her palm as she holds it up for inspection.

    "So fragile," fingers tipped by razor sharp claws extend forth, but stop short of touching her Dao, "and so trusting…"

    The hand withdraws, and a girl smiles, full of affection, "I believe it is your turn, young seeker. Ask and this Lady will answer, for she knows many things, things old and forgotten, things hidden in places both dark and radiant, secrets of peoples old even by the way your archives measure things. Ask and receive Enlightenment."

    "Umm," she can feel the weight of the offer weighing down on her, knows the Truth in it, and for a moment her thoughts turn to greed. For a moment. Or perhaps it is just a different kind of greed that makes her ask, "do you want to be friends?"

    A moment teetering on the edge of a vast emptiness shatters, collapses under the weight of incredulity as Lady Shifting Sands laughs, impossibly radiant face matching the chiming sound that resonates from within and all around her. "Such a response have I never heard from those who come to visit my humble home. And yet the bonds of hospitality shared, of self freely offered, mean that only one response can I give: no."

    Quan Jia's face falls in disappointment even as Lady Shifting Sands continues, "Perhaps in time, were we to stand more as equals, I would be delighted to claim thy friendship. However, I could not condone having my enemies become thine, young seeker. That greedy and desirous hands would crush so fragile a bloom, would mar my soul such that I would never recover."

    "Oh, well, I… umm, can I still…"

    Delicate fingers trace along her face and she looks up at the shining face of Lady Shifting Sands, "of course, come visit whenever whim, desire, or necessity strikes. Though friends we cannot be, I would still treasure thy company."

    A dream is ending. This Dream is ending. Quan Jia can feel it, can see it reflected in the kaleidoscopic eyes of Lady Shifting Sands as her touch drifts to a spot between her eyes, "for the gift of thy presence, a boon do I offer, but the choice, as ever must be thine:

    [] "I offer thee a gift for today, that tomorrow may burn all the more brightly." (Boon provides an immediate bonus to some aspect within Lady Shifting Sands domain.)

    [] "I offer thee a gift for tomorrow, for distant days yet to come." (Boon provides a future bonus (larger, but may not apply for months or years) to some aspect within Lady Shifting Sands domain.)

    [AN]
    It appears I am made a liar once again, final part of turn 4 will come next update.
     
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    • [] "I offer thee a gift for today, that tomorrow may burn all the more brightly." (Boon provides an immediate bonus to some aspect within Lady Shifting Sands domain.)

    I know that normally we're pretty big on long term gains, but we're still early in Quan Jia's cultivation career and NEED a way to start snowballing
     
    Alectai said:
    ... Did we have a secret modifier of some kind here?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We the questers already knew she was hanging around. It might be that she's keeping an eye out for things relevant to her, and we happened to be one of them.

    That said I'm leaning towards the current bonus so we can leverage it into more gains later on.
     
    [X] "I offer thee a gift for today, that tomorrow may burn all the more brightly." (Boon provides an immediate bonus to some aspect within Lady Shifting Sands domain.)
     
    I agree, an immediate bonus seems to be the most valuable to us at the moment. We need to start gathering immediate advantages to leverage our wealth and abilities.
     
    [X] "I offer thee a gift for today, that tomorrow may burn all the more brightly." (Boon provides an immediate bonus to some aspect within Lady Shifting Sands domain.)

    That flying ship trial is coming up soonish so... Going for immediate
     
    [X] "I offer thee a gift for today, that tomorrow may burn all the more brightly." (Boon provides an immediate bonus to some aspect within Lady Shifting Sands domain.)
     
    We arent strong enough to guarantee lasting the unknown time until we would get the bonus.

    [x] "I offer thee a gift for today, that tomorrow may burn all the more brightly." (Boon provides an immediate bonus to some aspect within Lady Shifting Sands domain.)
     
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