- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
[X] Keep things formal between you, show her around the Sect and discuss the mission and expectations, perhaps have a spar?
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.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
I am gonna go at this from a slight tangent here. We are both lackeys, I think informality works here. Baroness LQ is not meeting a fellow noble, but CRX's retainer LQ is meeting CRX's temporary adjutant Xia Lin.
Also, I feel like people are being a bit over the top with the kind of reaction they are expecting from Xia Lin. I think too much is being extrapolated from what little we have seen.
I am gonna go at this from a slight tangent here. We are both lackeys, I think informality works here. Baroness LQ is not meeting a fellow noble, but CRX's retainer LQ is meeting CRX's temporary adjutant Xia Lin.
Also, I feel like people are being a bit over the top with the kind of reaction they are expecting from Xia Lin. I think too much is being extrapolated from what little we have seen.
CedeTheBees
Probably high right now
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Keep things formal between you, show her around the Sect and discuss the mission and expectations, perhaps have a spar?
ContemplateLife
Philosopher Thesaurus
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Keep things formal between you, show her around the Sect and discuss the mission and expectations, perhaps have a spar?
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
Honestly I want LQ to mess with her a bit and see how she responds. Is she flexible enough to adjust or will she do poorly?
We have to start building up our Old Master points sometime. What kind of self-respecting Matriarch doesn't constantly mess with everyone's expectations?
Honestly I want LQ to mess with her a bit and see how she responds. Is she flexible enough to adjust or will she do poorly?
We have to start building up our Old Master points sometime. What kind of self-respecting Matriarch doesn't constantly mess with everyone's expectations?
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
Insert Tally
Mmm, so the vote is kinda interesting because on the surface it's a "safe vs. risky" vote.
But that's purely from gameplay/ic-decision standpoint. Historically, us getting too hung up on trying to be proper and make the "sensible" decision hasn't always led to the best outcomes.
If we look at things from a narrative engagement point of view, the big thing that the formal vote offers is honestly the spar. Being all professional and everyone just doing their jobs and not engaging more deeply means we're less likely to get a strong look at Xia Lin's character and personality. This means we're less likely to get as engaged with her. Similarly, focusing on talking about the mission and expectations will probably not be wildly satisfying since that's just going to be redundent with what we have to do with Renxiang later anyway, so it probably won't do much here. The spar is the main thing of interest, and that's mostly with regards to seeing how Xia Lin fights, as we haven't really gotten anything new since our last fights on screen.
Friendly otoh, while seeming risky from a gameplay standpoint is actually great from a narrative one. It's more focused on getting to know her more as a person, which is great for making her a character that we're interested in and want to see more of. It's more social focused which fits the challenges of the current arc more than fighting. And even if things do go south, that just means we've now got character conflict which is narrative fuel! If you think of it like that, we can't lose!
More seriously though, people have talked about how being formal might be more comfortable at the start, and help getting to know her better later on - but isn't that kind of just treading water? Moreover, the focus of vote 1 as described isn't to be formal and polite as a way of getting to know her better in a way she might be more comfortable with - but rather avoids trying to get to know her by instead focusing on talking about work and things.
So you know what? I'm willing to roll those dice.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
But that's purely from gameplay/ic-decision standpoint. Historically, us getting too hung up on trying to be proper and make the "sensible" decision hasn't always led to the best outcomes.
If we look at things from a narrative engagement point of view, the big thing that the formal vote offers is honestly the spar. Being all professional and everyone just doing their jobs and not engaging more deeply means we're less likely to get a strong look at Xia Lin's character and personality. This means we're less likely to get as engaged with her. Similarly, focusing on talking about the mission and expectations will probably not be wildly satisfying since that's just going to be redundent with what we have to do with Renxiang later anyway, so it probably won't do much here. The spar is the main thing of interest, and that's mostly with regards to seeing how Xia Lin fights, as we haven't really gotten anything new since our last fights on screen.
Friendly otoh, while seeming risky from a gameplay standpoint is actually great from a narrative one. It's more focused on getting to know her more as a person, which is great for making her a character that we're interested in and want to see more of. It's more social focused which fits the challenges of the current arc more than fighting. And even if things do go south, that just means we've now got character conflict which is narrative fuel! If you think of it like that, we can't lose!
More seriously though, people have talked about how being formal might be more comfortable at the start, and help getting to know her better later on - but isn't that kind of just treading water? Moreover, the focus of vote 1 as described isn't to be formal and polite as a way of getting to know her better in a way she might be more comfortable with - but rather avoids trying to get to know her by instead focusing on talking about work and things.
So you know what? I'm willing to roll those dice.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
Yeah, I think I agree the first option mainly offers the spar as something of interest to the voters, but hmm. The fun things to do with a solo spar seem at odds with the "formal/don't cause waves" tone of the first vote? For example, Wind Thief is kinda of the star in any duel, and it could use some more screen time in its evolved form, but it's literally got laughing at your opponent built into it. I'm skeptical a "formal" duel will really be worth our time reading about.
We'll see that Xia Lin is very cool, no doubt, but that's a pretty low bar for expectations. There's a clash between Ling Qi's repertoire and how it makes her engaging with another cultivator interesting in the context of a duel, with the overarching motivation of keeping things interpersonally tame in this instance. Replace Ling Qi with Xia Lin sparring any other character and I expect our takeaway to be about the same, considering the more professional tone she's trying to stick to. That's just not Ling Qi sparring at her best.
Ling Qi's journey is intrinsically one of her engagement with other people. It feels like maintaining polite, professional distance and having an interesting duel to read about are mutually exclusive goals, here.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
We'll see that Xia Lin is very cool, no doubt, but that's a pretty low bar for expectations. There's a clash between Ling Qi's repertoire and how it makes her engaging with another cultivator interesting in the context of a duel, with the overarching motivation of keeping things interpersonally tame in this instance. Replace Ling Qi with Xia Lin sparring any other character and I expect our takeaway to be about the same, considering the more professional tone she's trying to stick to. That's just not Ling Qi sparring at her best.
Ling Qi's journey is intrinsically one of her engagement with other people. It feels like maintaining polite, professional distance and having an interesting duel to read about are mutually exclusive goals, here.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
- Location
- Virginia
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
[X] Keep things formal between you, show her around the Sect and discuss the mission and expectations, perhaps have a spar?
[] Keep things formal between you, show her around the Sect and discuss the mission and expectations, perhaps have a spar?
Provide the expected. Talk shop, test combat prowess, make the surface level small talk.
Unlikely to cause offense, but also unlikely to form a connection beyond gathering information about each other's capabilities.
[] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
Approach on an interpersonal, casual level. Expose a bit of Ling Qi's interests, looking for reciprocity, and let her learn what to expect from Ling Qi.
We'd still learn something even if it doesn't work. If she's a clockwork soldier then we'd still get the clockwork responses.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
Now, if we were her superior/inferior, thats one thing and we'd risk upsetting the way of things, but we're in a parallel chain of command, within the same faction. The social barriers are as low as they can get. It'd be a simple risk assessment.
But this expedition revolves around Ling Qi's personal relationship with Hanyi. Xia Lin cannot make good decisions in the field without this information, and this is information she is unlikely to understand without witnessing it directly.
Ling Qi treats her spirit as a sister, and that matters for reacting correctly during the later mission.
Provide the expected. Talk shop, test combat prowess, make the surface level small talk.
Unlikely to cause offense, but also unlikely to form a connection beyond gathering information about each other's capabilities.
[] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
Approach on an interpersonal, casual level. Expose a bit of Ling Qi's interests, looking for reciprocity, and let her learn what to expect from Ling Qi.
We'd still learn something even if it doesn't work. If she's a clockwork soldier then we'd still get the clockwork responses.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
Now, if we were her superior/inferior, thats one thing and we'd risk upsetting the way of things, but we're in a parallel chain of command, within the same faction. The social barriers are as low as they can get. It'd be a simple risk assessment.
But this expedition revolves around Ling Qi's personal relationship with Hanyi. Xia Lin cannot make good decisions in the field without this information, and this is information she is unlikely to understand without witnessing it directly.
Ling Qi treats her spirit as a sister, and that matters for reacting correctly during the later mission.
Arkeus
Crazy cat guy
- Location
- France
Keeping things formal and sparring is basically the 'be professional strangers' option, imo. So, huh, it depends on whether we believe Xia Lin has a chance to be a recurring character. Like, say, the potential replacement for GG Shenhua has lined up if GG fails his test.
As such, I think it's better to begin the relationship as a relationship, rather than professionals.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.
As such, I think it's better to begin the relationship as a relationship, rather than professionals.
[X] Be friendly, show her around and introduce her to your spirits. They will be members of the party too.