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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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[x] Hold off, Let Su Ling settle into the Inner Sect for longer before springing new social groups on her.

I don't think trying to include Su Ling is the right thing to do right now. Not only is she extremely weak compared with the usual Inner Sect disciple (let alone the noble ones Ling Qi hangs around with...), but she also has just been granted an extremely valuable promotion in the middle of the "school year". I'm pretty sure if the war wasn't the main preoccupation of everyone right now she would have already been bullied. Putting her even more in the spotlight by linking her directly with Ling QI (and hence with CRX) is the last thing to do for her right now. And of course her demi-human status doesn't help...

besides, we already pushed her out of her comfort zone, we should let her rest a couple of turns before springing something new on her.
 
Honestly, I feel that if we ever got to do adventures with the gang, then Su Ling would probably fit well there. Xuan Shi, Shen Hu, Su Ling, maybe Yu Nuan... that could be great!

... if we ever went on adventures with the gang :(

Also the war makes it not the best time.
 
[X] Invite Su Ling to the training group. As the co-organizer, inviting a few close friends was allowed.
 
Erebeal said:
Honestly, I feel that if we ever got to do adventures with the gang, then Su Ling would probably fit well there. Xuan Shi, Shen Hu, Su Ling, maybe Yu Nuan... that could be great!

... if we ever went on adventures with the gang :(

Also the war makes it not the best time.
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What are you talking about, war is the best time to go on adventures with a ragtag gang of misfits. War leads to adventure, it doesn't stop it.
 
Erebeal said:
Mmm, I think it wouldn't be unfair to say that getting Su Ling involved in Noble politicking probably isn't what she wants.

tbh, it would probably be better if we knew more common people... Hmm, her and Shen Hu and Yu Nuan might get on decently :p
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AbeoLogos said:
But the overarching concern isn't that there aren't good, interesting, productive hooks involving Su Ling. It's that there's already an overabundance of hooks tangled up together. I don't know that the narrative objectives of sorting out our shit with Zhengui or scoring brownie points with Wang Chao are served by including Su Ling at this juncture, and we're kind of obligated to those.

There is an argument that showing up with our own "second" lends legitimacy and gravitas to the gatherings, while fostering some spacing towards neutrality with Wang Chao that bolsters the legitimacy of his role as the nominal head of the effort. It's true too, it would have that effect. I'm just not sure Ling Qi and Su Ling are all-in on the commitment involved in projecting that image. It would be a... commitment and potentially painting a target on Su Ling's back that our detractors (who still do exist as a generic faceless body off-screen) are more willing to strike at more directly than our own.
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But like... those hooks are not in competition with Su Ling being there. It's easy to say that her being there will muddy the water, or her being there is not something she really wants to learn to do. I'm pretty sure neither are true, though. Su Ling does want to be able to learn how to deal with nobles just enough that she doesn't get embroiled in their bulshit, and she needs to for her own goal. Su Ling being there also is something that's, well, good for Ling Qi's ability to interact with others.

Ling Qi's as much as said there that people are expected to bring their seconds/etc, so that means that all those 'plots' about specific people? they will have their seconds around, too. Su Ling as such wouldn't be 'muddying' the water, but rather be there to provide balance when we talk to the various people (or, if she wants to do her own things, she will do her own things).

Basically, she needs this, she wants this (or she can say no), and it helps Ling Qi being able to actually talk to people and have them take her seriously... unless we have a classic 'who do we talk to' that doesn't include Su Ling on our side, and in this case it actually doesn't matter at all re: muddying the matter.

Basically, the whole 'muddy the water' argument doesn't, huh, hold water.
Erebeal said:
Honestly, I feel that if we ever got to do adventures with the gang, then Su Ling would probably fit well there. Xuan Shi, Shen Hu, Su Ling, maybe Yu Nuan... that could be great!

... if we ever went on adventures with the gang :(

Also the war makes it not the best time.
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This is basically a repeat of the good old "but we can just vote for Su Ling and GF to meet again later, promise".
 
zamin said:
... is this why we seem to be surrounded by dorks all the time? Is our domain catnip for sad or lonely people?
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Imagine what her domain must feel like when you're her enemy. Not only do you get the exclusion and cold blow right into your face but you can also see/feel the "home" just a little bit further ahead, just out of reach...

angelofwhim said:
Ling Qi and Han Jian?
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Who?
wait... is that a new name for Fan Yu? :V
 
Arkeus said:
But like... those hooks are not in competition with Su Ling being there. It's easy to say that her being there will muddy the water, or her being there is not something she really wants to learn to do. I'm pretty sure neither are true, though. Su Ling does want to be able to learn how to deal with nobles just enough that she doesn't get embroiled in their bulshit, and she needs to for her own goal. Su Ling being there also is something that's, well, good for Ling Qi's ability to interact with others.

Ling Qi's as much as said there that people are expected to bring their seconds/etc, so that means that all those 'plots' about specific people? they will have their seconds around, too. Su Ling as such wouldn't be 'muddying' the water, but rather be there to provide balance when we talk to the various people (or, if she wants to do her own things, she will do her own things).

Basically, she needs this, she wants this (or she can say no), and it helps Ling Qi being able to actually talk to people and have them take her seriously... unless we have a classic 'who do we talk to' that doesn't include Su Ling on our side, and in this case it actually doesn't matter at all re: muddying the matter.

Basically, the whole 'muddy the water' argument doesn't, huh, hold water.


This is basically a repeat of the good old "but we can just vote for Su Ling and GF to meet again later, promise".
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My concern is Su Ling's inexperience basically requires Ling Qi to support her through the socializing. But that's in large part what we were planning on doing with Wang Chao. So there's direct competition for Ling Qi's efforts there. And since we know Wang Chao can be a bit of an unintentional dick and Su Ling is on edge with fancy pants nobles, there's potential for a conflict of interest there. It's an uncomfortable possibility, and not one I think Ling Qi has the social chops to thread the needle on reliably.

And meantime, we have this whole other species of issue and effort related to the actual training and Zhengui that I don't want to take further focus away from to handle the increasingly complicated social situation.
 
Arkeus said:
SNIP
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Nah I don't believe she'll have a choice if we press her which I think it will be default of the vote, she needs to cool down after the mission anyway and getting settled in inner.
Also with the teacher she has he could give her some pointers and research the nobles without having to actually interact with them and floundering.
 
[X] Hold off, Let Su Ling settle into the Inner Sect for longer before springing new social groups on her.
 
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angelofwhim said:
Would there be any difference to when we try to bring along su ling and suyin to the golden fields group last thread?
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The personalities will be different. Han Jian was nice and Han Fang was... Han Fang, but Fan Yu was openly dismissive and Gu Xiulan was still in full Mean Girl mode at the time.

We don't really know this crew well enough. Alingge and Liang He seem like reasonably even-tempered people, but Wang Chao is kind of prickly. Also, there's the Zhengui factor, and our boy is not the most diplomatic around. It seems to me plausible that a momentary breach of etiquette could escalate quickly due to personality conflicts and result in a fair amount of social progress -- which, I will reiterate, is the #1 reason for dealing with Chao in the first place -- being damaged.
 
On the other hand, showing up and going "Look, Sir Wang, look at this friend I have who doesn't have noble social connections, look how magnanimous you could show yourself as by giving me the face of offering her amiable attention!" is actually likely to please Wang Chao pretty easily. I'm just not sure Su Ling would appreciate being condescended to with all the tact Wang Chao has at his disposal to bring to bear. :evil:

Which, like, I guess is my issue. Too many people need babysitting. Wang Chao needs babysitting if we're going to accomplish our devious plots. Zhengui, especially in his rotten mood, needs babysitting. I think Hanyi's going to be busy with her compositions and not there, but if she ever is she needs super babysitting. Su Ling would also need babysitting. And we're not even good at this yet.

angelofwhim said:
Would there be any difference to when we try to bring along su ling and suyin to the golden fields group last thread?
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As far as I know, there's no Gu Xiulan around to be a total dick about it.
 
AbeoLogos said:
Which, like, I guess is my issue. Too many people need babysitting. Wang Chao needs babysitting if we're going to accomplish our devious plots. Zhengui, especially in his rotten mood, needs babysitting. I think Hanyi's going to be busy with her compositions and not there, but if she ever is she needs super babysitting. Su Ling would also need babysitting. And we're not even good at this yet.
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And that's really the problem, yeah. Like, maybe Su Ling just meets Liang He and they have fun swording and we don't have to think about it, but if update focus is being taken up with babysitting her, or, god forbid, we have more votes about trying to help her, then I would not be happy.
 
Erebeal said:
Honestly, I feel that if we ever got to do adventures with the gang, then Su Ling would probably fit well there. Xuan Shi, Shen Hu, Su Ling, maybe Yu Nuan... that could be great!

... if we ever went on adventures with the gang :(

Also the war makes it not the best time.
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storryeater said:
What are you talking about, war is the best time to go on adventures with a ragtag gang of misfits. War leads to adventure, it doesn't stop it.
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Unfortunatelt, Xuan Shi's first wacky adventure with Ling Qi's misfits was plagued with Zhengui talking down to him as soon as Ling Qi got hurt (Creepy Love Cave does not count because that was his introductory arc with only the MC)
 
And that's where Ling Qi and friendships come in. If Ling Qi is inviting Su Ling along in order to help Su Ling, then there is an obligation to assist her so it's actually helpful. Leaving her high and dry just isn't really an option. It's why the situation would be so ugly if things did sour, because then Ling Qi's put herself in a situation where her motivations are at cross-purpose. She's there to suck up to Wang Chao. Having to prioritize one or the other is plausible with the personalities involved, and it'd be miserable to have to do.

I'm wary of overcommitting, basically.
 
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[X] Hold off, Let Su Ling settle into the Inner Sect for longer before springing new social groups on her.
 
So... Xuan Shi's thing, in part, is that he is deeply lonely, and has no family, and doesn't know how to fix it. He comes to us in part in the hopes that we can solve this for him. I'm thinking... might be worth trying to figure out how we can help on this one.
 
Insert Tally
Adhoc vote count started by sleepypanda on Jun 5, 2020 at 7:33 PM, finished with 161 posts and 68 votes.
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I was pretty sold on changing my vote until abeo talked about needing to babysit all of these peers of ours. Like. Didn't we just have a lil injury that relaxed with a "hey we can trust others to not be absolutely incompetent usually"

I mean. We can invite her and she can say no if she isn't ready, right? :0

Come onnn, let's do more things with Su Ling! She just got here! It cannot possibly go wrong! We are in Darkness Month! Greed is Good! Sometimes selfishness ends up being good for everyone! Sometimes a view verbal nudges are all that's needed for the Yang Gang to have great successes! Let's use Moonless Saboteur's Smile! Let's make it happen with trust and greed and selfishness and bold, decisive action! Woooo!
 
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