Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
IRL betrothal negotiations could easily take a few years, with the potential for a longer engagement. With Cultivator lifespans, it could easily be decades.
- Location
- Somewhere.
[X] Blurted out a request to spar instead, that helped cultivators understand each other, right?! [Lesser information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi spared a bad time]
I do not think doing anything else is in-character and the lack of arguments in favor of careful date acceptance...Hasn't exactly changed my mind here.
I do not think doing anything else is in-character and the lack of arguments in favor of careful date acceptance...Hasn't exactly changed my mind here.
ImperatorV
The Laughing One
- Location
- The Voyaging Realm
You know what, changed my mind.
[X] Blurted out a request to spar instead, that helped cultivators understand each other, right?! [Lesser information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi spared a bad time]
I feel like this will be more amusing.
[X] Blurted out a request to spar instead, that helped cultivators understand each other, right?! [Lesser information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi spared a bad time]
I feel like this will be more amusing.
NoxOfUmbra
Shadow of the night
- Location
- Colombia, South América
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Blurted out a request to spar instead, that helped cultivators understand each other, right?! [Lesser information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi spared a bad time]
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It/Its
[X] Carefully accepted. She had to begin dialing down her discomfort somewhere. [Potentially, Information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi uncomfortable, potentially negative outcome.]
- Location
- Finland
Meizhen? She seems to be doing great on that front.
[X] Blurted out a request to spar instead, that helped cultivators understand each other, right?! [Lesser information and improved relationship with Bao Qian, Ling Qi spared a bad time]
- Location
- earth
Might be a bit late to affect the vote outcome but I was suddenly reminded of this little exchange from FoD.
I think we could stand to learn more from sparring with Bao than going on a dinner date with him. Arts are far harder to use to misrepresent who you are than social doublespeak.
I think we could stand to learn more from sparring with Bao than going on a dinner date with him. Arts are far harder to use to misrepresent who you are than social doublespeak.
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
I mean this is untrue. There was a fair amount of people giving arguments for why we should go for the dinner. That's just died down as the vote has progressed.
And the argument that one option isn't in character is a false one, as Yrs wouldn't give us a vote if it wasn't in character
Last edited:
If by in-character you mean having LQ's trauma and fear rule her interaction with people then you are correct.
But LQ have repeatedly over the last few in game months and espcially after the Six event seen why this is a bad thing and have decided to start to change herself away from being ruled by her hangups and biases. The dinner thing is one of those steps she can start taking towards healing. Like how she visited the brothel in the Dream quest where she got Songseekers cermony. She knew she needed perspective and to not have the past rule her, so she visited the place and got proper insight that she lacked due to her biases growing up. That is growing up, that is healing which LQ knows she needs.
The sparring option in this case is a deflection and kneejerk reaction to her still lingering hangups that is trying to force her to not move. It is something she is used to and feels safe in. But just sticking around in her safe zone has not helped her before. Going outside it got her friendship with her current circle of friends, it got her close to her mother again.
Last edited:
Technically, she was eating others alive as beasties from the bloody moon. Which was an interesting choice, if not a particularly coherent one even in the context of being a decision driven by fear.
For my part, I think it's difficult to engage with player concerns because of how different a lot of them are from the in-setting social dynamics at play. Like, we players are treating the issue with both more and less seriousness than it warrants, I think. Betrothal stuff is really important in the culture and in clan-building and politics. But it's fundamentally a dry business at its core assumptions within the culture. Ling Qi has a different, conflicted perspective, but she still has to engage with the broader views on the matter, whether she likes it or not. Further, I'd argue that her ability to overcome the distasteful aspects of society's expectations does rely on her knowledge and first-hand experience with them.
At the same time, less broadly, if we look at just Bao Qian's professed interests, he doesn't view the marriage thing as a hugely pressing concern. On top of that, as a born and raised high noble, he hasn't given any indication that romance is particularly relevant to the marriage aspirations that he does have. For Ling Qi, she has serious hangups that currently prevent any serious pursuit of romantic development. It's really premature to be examining either of these vote options within the context of their romantic potential, I feel, because the starting assumptions from both Ling Qi and Bao Qian are not actually aligned in the interests of immediate or even intermediate romance.
tl;dr: no fun allowed
- Location
- Florida
The date is like a reflection for the brothel but instead of having an easier time of adjusting to actually get to know the servants instead of ghosting past them like their featureless mannequins its the cultivators and people who of their own volition want to get to know and meet Ling Qi,
The guy from the hunting party was a jerk but he had a point she simply doesn't give a rats ass about anyone that she herself does not seek out for whatever reason,
Sixiang has shown her perspective on this in her quest and people genuinely do want to be friends but she rebuffs them so they think she's just another smug cultivator looking down on them like the sun princess on our first day but instead WERE the ones doing that to them.
Not only will this help her get down her high horse and down to earth to be more approachable it is going to help immensely when were inevitably going to deal with future negotiations "GASP SOCIAL INTERACTION NO"
Such as our fiefdom in the ES Succeeding Befriending the ES young nobility which by the way was an order from cai herself for digging alliances and info.
Did I mention were supposed to be a social master spy walking into bases and looting all their stuff when they themselves let us in?
The guy from the hunting party was a jerk but he had a point she simply doesn't give a rats ass about anyone that she herself does not seek out for whatever reason,
Sixiang has shown her perspective on this in her quest and people genuinely do want to be friends but she rebuffs them so they think she's just another smug cultivator looking down on them like the sun princess on our first day but instead WERE the ones doing that to them.
Not only will this help her get down her high horse and down to earth to be more approachable it is going to help immensely when were inevitably going to deal with future negotiations "GASP SOCIAL INTERACTION NO"
Such as our fiefdom in the ES Succeeding Befriending the ES young nobility which by the way was an order from cai herself for digging alliances and info.
Did I mention were supposed to be a social master spy walking into bases and looting all their stuff when they themselves let us in?
Last edited:
- Location
- Finland
That's a rather uncharitable take on the brawl option.
Probably not what you meant, but avoiding things that make you uncomfortable due to past trauma is not simply a case ofallowing fear rule you.
In a way, the brawl is taking interaction Ling Qi is not sure she would be comfortable to do right now, and does something similar that can, later, get her to the action suggested.
Dealing with trauma by de sensitizing yourself to the source of trauma (or things that trauma makes you avoid) is a valid treatment, but throwing trauma victims into uncomfortable situations can just as well make things worse.
Almost certainly not going to happen here, this is fiction, and having the main character break down (permanently) is not something i would expect being among the potential outcomes.
If we're talking character development, it also naturally follows that it doesn't turn around on a dime and sometimes back sliding happens. This is a relatively harmless place to have a controlled back slide. Ling Qi is still enroute to being a more social confident person and tackling her past but it can come in fits and bursts as is natural.
- Location
- Finland
It's not even backsliding.
Backsliding would be Ling Qi going "nopenopenopenopenopenopeNOPE!!!!" and then doing a disappearing act (some hyperbole here i admit).
This is her just redirecting the suggested activite to one just as, if not more, intimate, that she is comfortable with.
- Location
- Florida
Ah but she is avoiding for it will be going to stranger times ahead, there are other Ling Qi's out there and worse Yan Renshus she is not unique and will have to go forward going into uncomfortable situations to resolve situations that are called of her.
This is her getting over the disgust from her part which is in an ideal environment, she recently was with her family just going shopping in her down time just had a friendly match with her spirits and a boring but hugely beneficial deal that will help her.
To say this is not the perfect time would be like saying the sun is green or the moon is baby barf yellow, its not about success its about putting her foot forward and saying "Hello my name is Ling Qi how do you do?"
She has her hangups but its high time she needs to resolve this and this is the perfect way.
- Location
- Finland
Wat? No, seriously, what are you talking about?
I literally explained two posts aboe how trauma does not work that way.
And the brawl option is putting her foot forward, just in a way that allows her to be comfortable with the situation and avoid potential bad consequences in favor of slower moving forward.
No?
There is not "time to resolve this", we're talking about a fucking huge childhood trauma, on someone who would still be considered a child irl.
Realisticly there may be no resolution, ever. Best one could hope for is to learn to deal with it, like the brawl option is doing.
I actually liked the rude guy at the hunting party. He was abrasive, but challenging his challenges was a viable path forwards, and there's no discernible harm in settling into an orbit of critical opposition with him. It was the party's host who was the problematic actor, with his manipulation of the flow of the event that limited Ling Qi's options, all with hardly engaging directly himself.
Your position isn't without merit, but I think this is overstating the virtues of the spar and ignoring what the vote options are telling us. The dinner is variable in its outcome, the spar is more stable. If the dinner goes poorly, then the spar most likely does reveal more of their characters to each other in a more pleasant way. If the dinner goes well, however, they'll learn more about each other than if they'd sparred. Those are the potential outcomes we're explicitly being asked to weigh. Though other considerations are obviously valid motives for voting- no way to restrict those anyhow.
This seems like an exaggeration too. The dinner option is explicitly attempting to "begin dialing down her discomfort" and the spar does not actually reference it in any constructive context. You can be skeptical of the dinner's likely success in that venture, but that doesn't make the other option the "deal with trauma/discomfort" option by default- there can just as easily be no advancement on that issue. Likewise, just because the spar is a deflection motivated by Ling Qi's aversion to anything related to romance or marriage doesn't mean it makes the issue worse. It's just not dealing with it.
It's hard to see how the spar can be interpreted as anything other than explicitly not confronting her issues though, in the context the two choices are presented. But putting those issues aside while continuing to get to know Bao Qian isn't an invalid choice anyway.
- Location
- Florida
I apologize I did not mean to downplay her trauma, rather I meant we need to learn how to talk to people without having a goku moment of beating the everliving daylight out of people.
Not everyone will be as powerful as she is and that will be a what they see, like if Zeqing and a moon spirit decided to fuse and had a pinch of dragon thrown in the mix.
She needs to learn how to just have a casual conversation without being all paranoid about the motive, he has been a gracious host and an almost 0 Percent chance of ulterior motive.
So unless he's a master actor which Six would have commented on that she hasn't and a real sleaze ball that wants to steal us away like a fairy princess yes this is the ideal way to resolve her issues odds of success be damned.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
Inserted tally