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

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LightLan said:
[X] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]
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1986ctcel said:
You're actually continuing this "Ling Qi wanting to try helping Xiulan stop being suicidally reckless with a Way that's killing her in a practical way is evil and patronizing" bullshit? ...I got nothing to say to that, just shock.
[X] A jade slip recording Thousand Rings Fortress [2 Green Stone cost. May result in Xiulan taking offense]
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Moratorium.

EDIT: you too @Ct613hulu
 
[ ] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]

Ling Qi is all about inappropriate intimacy. How can there be any other choice?
 
[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]

I see @AbeoLogos old idea made it in, cool.

I think I prefer that one. TRF is sadly dated by now for Xiulan, and she won't have time to really use it before it become too weak for her, so it won't ever have the impact it had for Ling Qi. Also it's a bit late to try to push her toward wood, and that seems to be a bit too much of a push there.

Ling Qi being intimate with Lanlan is appropriate anyway.
 
Can we afford the Green Stones? I'm not clear on our income-outflow situation, but it does feel like we've spent a fair amount lately.
 
[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]

Inappropriately intimate practically describes their entire relationship, so this is really just normal.
 
Art is stupid. She literally doesn't need us holding her hand, especially now that she's being given enough attention from her family to be nurtured directly.
They aren't going to leave her vulnerable and the implication is doubly insulting to her and to her family for no rational reason.

[X] Set of matching jewelry of some kind [Negligible cost. No possible offense]
I'd also be okay with the Song, but this accomplishes the goal of being a reminder of our bond.
 
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Definitely like the composition idea. We shouldn't be trying to dictate a friend's cultivation anyways, and a special song will remind Xuilan of Ling Qi.
 
For those who don't recall where the composition idea comes from :
AbeoLogos said:
Rather than tossing around semi-obsolete arts that aren't hers to give, Ling Qi might try furnishing Gu Xiulan with a more appropriately Ling Qi parting gift. More than most things, she is a musician. Ling Qi could grab that Bao guy to record a piece in jade to give to her friend. Three protests immediately leap to your lips, obviously. Ling Qi is uncomfortable with the notion of immortalizing her Music outside her self, Gu Xiulan has proven herself an... inattentive audience in the past, and what's a song supposed to accomplish in any case? Let's look at why those concerns are not an obstacle to a musical gift.

First off, it's precisely because Ling Qi has reservations that the gift would be especially meaningful. Pushing her own boundaries for her loved ones is also slap dab in the middle of her SCS insight and broader family focused Way. And it's not like it's a sacrifice she'd be making, just something she's a bit uncomfortable with but that doesn't harm or diminish her in any way. On a meta level, it'd also be nice to see Bao roped into focus and give him pretty stark exposure to Ling Qi's inner character.

Secondly, it is obvious that Xiulan would pay no attention to songs on such pedestrian matters as sightseeing among mountains; that's more the speed of someone like Shen Hu. Playing to this audience requires a more impressive subject: Gu Xiulan. Fortunately, Ling Qi has pretty close knowledge of that subject, and has been around for many of her feats and trials, not least of which is the fiery girls recent stand against wave after wave of impure spirits while astride a legendary beast. There's a lot to work with, and Xiulan's naturally inclined to appreciate the subject matter.

Lastly, most importantly, what's the point anyway? Well, foremost the point of a heartfelt gift is, uh, giving a nice thing to a person? Doesn't need to be more to it than that. But if that doesn't cut it for you, consider that the message of the song would be sincerely heartfelt by definition of the medium and from a person she truly trusts. And also Ling Qi isn't a jerk. Consider what we know of Xiulan's upbringing; a sincere and uncritical "Yer awesome, bro" from someone she respects isn't something I'm sure she's had before. We'd be just handing her a permanent one she can keep in her pocket. Of course, just because it's honest and not critical doesn't mean it can't challenge her or make suggestions to her in other ways. If the melody extends into the future, there's material Ling Qi can draw on. Yanmei's fires, the scale and awesome presence of the prism dragon's power, the efficacy of her steadfast flames when bolstered by Zhengui's Wooden backing.... (Hint hint) Heck, Ling Qi could even slip in some rueful acknowledgement of Xiulan's very successful team up with the growing boy, assuming poking her twoards Wood is something Ling Qi actually thinks might be productive.

In any case, I'd rather be leaving Xiulan with something that comes from Ling Qi's heart than something she happens to have on hand anyway.
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[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]

Definitely going for this.
 
As always, the answer is all of the options.
[Q] A pair of earrings made out of slips of jade slips of the thousand ring fortress engraved with a new composition.
People will be so confused, they won't know if they should be offended.
 
[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]
This, absolutely this.
And anyone who dares to disapprove of it can get fed to whatever monstrocity crawls to the surface next.
 
*sees a TRF vote*

....alright, time for me to get up.

[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]

This is the one I'm gonna be supporting
 
Update preempted this post but I suppose I might as well.

So with the turn end likely coming up, thought I'd take a moment to outline the current plan and open questions:
  1. The primary goal of the next 2 turns is to reach Green 4 (which besides the obvious cultivation speed and art level access, speeds up the timeline on things like another virtual from SSC and the option to start working on a successor). This is made more difficult by the cultivation penalty, if it's not gone we can expect to need to cover an additional 595 spiritual xp between 3 turns of EPC drip (historically 130-200 xp/turn), omake contributions, and in the worst case directly supplementing additional AP at an efficiency loss.

  2. A secondary goal which seems to be widely agreed upon is to try visit the 3d floor archive and find a replacement Resist art to last us through G3-G5; hopefully taking over the roles of personal resist and group sustain from SES and TRF respectively[1]. Ideally we'll be doing this archive visit next turn so we'll have a better idea on which meridians we want opened.

  3. Finally, we want to use these 2 turns to become strong; whether it means finally getting some of the Cai package arts online, completing our social kit with MSS, starting to work on Wind Thief and the newly improved PLR, and preparing meridians so we can actually equip all of those.

With those goals in mind, there are basically 2 turn plans with mostly interchangable order:
- A "Darkness Turn" that utilizes our dark pill with 14 darkness art AP, 4 phys AP, and has a single free AP for archive or something else.
- A Meridians+PLR turn where we master HDW, get at least PLR6, and open as many meridians as we can while we're still G3 so we can actually equip all the arts we'll start on the darkness turn, and make room for later levels.

The pros/cons to doing either first are (roughly):
Darkness plan first Meridians/PLR plan first
    • Pros
      • LFWT level 2 online and usable.
      • MSS (social darkness/hidden moon art) level 1 online and usable (help with unlocking appropriate advanced social skills?).
      • SNR up to level 3 (first level in G3), usable if we replace TRF if it's better (seems likely).
      • BKSD2 at level 2 and usable if we replace FVM (hard to say if it'll be strong enough yet).
      • UGM2 attained, ENM mastered.
    • Cons
      • Missing 1 leg meridian from ENM5 so likely no access to it that turn and would have to either unequip it or convince yrs to let us do the relevant leg meridian first thing the turn after.
      • UGM not actually usable until we open 1-2 spines (depending on whether we equip SNR or not).
    • Pros
      • PLR6 attained, cashing in on the current narrative push for it.
      • HDW mastered.
    • Cons
      • 1 more turn without Wind Thief or our full social kit online.
      • Likely can't actually start training the archive art until 2 turns afterwards. This is mostly fine since we'd likely want to use AP on meridians anyway, but it is a slight loss of flexibility.
        • Generally less flexibility for the subsequent turn since we really need the darkness turn for the virtual spirit AP.
      • Will likely have to game the meridians somewhat since we actually want to know which arcive art we're getting (if any) before making the final decision on which meridians we're opening/scrunching.



With that said there's a few open questions left:
  1. In the Meridians/PLR turn, are we going for PLR7 or not[2]:
    • The cost is a leg meridian and additional 3AP training, of which 1AP is likely long-term "wasted" due to xp breakpoints.
    • 5th AP will have to happen on the darkness turn since PLR7 costs 4.5AP in G3.
  2. Will we be trying to reduce HDW to 1AP with omake or keep it at 2AP:
    • HDW5 costs 1.1AP at current dice.
    • 10 omake points (the maximum possible allotment) brings up the odds of mastering it in 1AP from 7.3% to 98.7%, which is reasonably safe for a non-critical target (e.g not a SSC level that gives a virtual or a cultivation level).
    • Considering yrs' tendency to refund overcap art omake spending, the real cost is likely 3-5 omake points, which is fairly efficient RoI.
    • Donwside is, spiritual likely needs all the omake points it can get and to get good odds on HDW a full 10 need to be committed until the turn is over (barring a deal with yrs saying points are committed to HDW > Spiritual if overcap).

[1] SNR likely completely takes over group defense from TRF and the only serious competition to getting an archive art to cover resist/sustain is to try and make a TRF+ that fits those roles. Unfortunately, we only (barely) have time for one successor art before the tournament and I believe most of us want it to be a music art, either FVM or FSS, though that's a matter for a separate post. There's a real argument to be made for that approach though.

[2] IMO it's not a great trade since even in the short-term it would take 2 and not 3AP in G4 to go PLR6>PLR7, and we really could use the 3AP head start on meridian-related AP and maintain flexibility .


My personal opinion is that going with a darkness turn first (as was initially planned before the current PLR push) is still the better idea in terms of:
- immediate power (wind thief, SNR, MSS because social is still a very relevant battlefield).
- value-of-information (we get to see what G3 levels in our relevant Cai arts look like).
- flexibility for turn 9, in case we need to spend extra spirit AP to reach G4 on time.
The other way around isn't a horrible idea though.
 
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[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]
 
yrsillar said:
There is a war brewing Ling Qi, in case it has already slipped your mind.
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Xiulan you can't say that! It's not Qi's fault she's attentively challenged.


[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]

This. We show Xiulan how much we care for her and she'll have something to remember that. We get more time with possible husbando and Meizhen might get adorably jealous.
 
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[] A new composition, recorded just for Xiulan [1 Green Stone cost, may be inappropriately intimate to some eyes]
Just an idea, can we upgrade the song to be inappropriately intimate to most eyes? Possibly all? :V
 
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