- Location
- Staring into the void
[X] Gan Guangli, your ally and fellow retainer, you could talk him up a bit, and spin your looking away from Xiao Fen as having no doubts a Bai will pass the preliminary.
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.
- Location
- The Space Between
unless she gets an ordinary depressive response of feeling even more hollow and empty and like "I should feel something. I must be a doll, not feeling anything like this"
I think you're misunderstanding something. I don't think our vote affects the outcome of the tournament in any way. That's not the impact on the narrative that it will have.
My argument is this specific scene is extremely instrumental in Gan Guanli's characterization and even his entire Way of cultivation, and that if Ling Qi, if we, doesn't see that it will have knock-on effects on how he can possibly be incorporated into future narratives. There's a kernel of core understanding that is best suited to being showcased in this circumstance. Without it he leans much more strongly towards a shallow and empty add to any future scenes touching on his themes. We don't even have the ability to judge whether they're scenes that touch on his themes, arguably!
It's kind of actually a big deal.
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
Yeah Gan's the winner
- Location
- out of this world
*sorry, missed vote closing*
Sorry everyone I've been having a rough time lately.
- Pronouns
- They
Ack! Missed another one. Heh, guess I can't be mad that humor and superlative abs beat out the mean snake again.
Just couldn't let go of the chance to pounce on Yrs's color scheme though. How better to complete our assignment to ingratiate ourselves to the lower castes than by talking up our support of the black handmaiden born into servitude.
- Pronouns
- He
Poor Xiao Fen is going to have to fend for herself without Senior Ling there to cheer her on ;_;
- Location
- United States of America
The black vipers arent really a lower class tho.... if anything they are one of the upper classes. Considering they are the companions of the top class and literally the only beings the white caste trust implacably.
I might be mistaken but the Black Vipers probably represent Yao and the White Serpents represent Grandmother. There is a hierarchy but they are both the highest of nobility.
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
It hasn't been elaborated on in depth, but we do know that the Eight Castes of the Bai come from the eight daughters of Yao and Grandmother Serpent. Only the youngest sister, the Black Viper, supported the claim of eldest sister, the White Serpent, in taking over rulership of the clan and sided with her in a civil war. It's why the Blacks are the trusted servants of the Whites.
Xiao Fen has at least one Yao Art and I could swear that I heard that the Black Viper was the daughter closest to Yao.
This is the only reference I could find so I'm probably overstating things.
Edit: found it!
yrsillar in discord said:
Last edited:
Wait if the greys are mortals does that mean they had a mortal daughter?
From yrs on discord:
Yrsillar on discord said:
So the grey sister doesn't have any actual living children so all Bai mortals are just considered grey.
Last edited:
- Location
- The Space Between
I just read "The Mirror" and the fate of that dude's surviving brothers? Oh yeah. I feel finally vindicated in stating that everyone in Xiulan's life clamoring for her to pump the breaks had a reason to say such things.
Of course, the problem is that those like Ai Xiaoli don't understand that Breaks don't work with Fire. Fire-Breaks kill, contain and/or weaken fire. Yet clearly the Elder Gu has a Way that allows for survival atop those Fiery Currents. From the descriptors, it sounds as if he soars as the Crow on the heat of the Fires beneath his wings. To embody something adjacent to Fire, or perhaps that wields Fire, or is part Fire, without being actual Fire.
His brothers aren't the first cultivators we've seen shackled and used for power output. The shishigui we saw used those cultivator "generators" in their settlement, and it's interesting to see an Imperial clan doing something similar.
Certainly can't be a popular way to go about things, but a self-sacrificing Way that will give you the power to sustain your Family/Clan at the cost of yourself? Brutal. I continue to be in the camp of worrying for Xiulan as well as the camp that thinks she doesn't need breaks, she needs support. I miss lanlan TT^TT
Of course, the problem is that those like Ai Xiaoli don't understand that Breaks don't work with Fire. Fire-Breaks kill, contain and/or weaken fire. Yet clearly the Elder Gu has a Way that allows for survival atop those Fiery Currents. From the descriptors, it sounds as if he soars as the Crow on the heat of the Fires beneath his wings. To embody something adjacent to Fire, or perhaps that wields Fire, or is part Fire, without being actual Fire.
His brothers aren't the first cultivators we've seen shackled and used for power output. The shishigui we saw used those cultivator "generators" in their settlement, and it's interesting to see an Imperial clan doing something similar.
Certainly can't be a popular way to go about things, but a self-sacrificing Way that will give you the power to sustain your Family/Clan at the cost of yourself? Brutal. I continue to be in the camp of worrying for Xiulan as well as the camp that thinks she doesn't need breaks, she needs support. I miss lanlan TT^TT
Lan Lan just needs to emulate a sun, be that equilibrium of exploding nuclear force and crushing gravity.
- Location
- CA
So that it all inevitably ends when she massively expands, consuming everything that depends upon her in a massive globe of nuclear fire? I think the residents of the Golden Fields have pretty strong opinions about that sort of thing.
Come to think of it, Lan Lan would probably not like a metaphor where as she gets older she gets fat and burns less bright.
Dragon Fruits
- Pronouns
- They
Dragon Fruits
Love the lil tsundere dragon.
Tried to stay true to Hesui's character and our dragon research from back in the day.
@yrsillar another Omake for the throne
"Know your place." The intense scorn was nearly painful. The intense pain, well... was. The subsequent insensate darkness was blessedly not.
Xiao Yue gasped and struggled to sit up. It hurt to... everything, as if her body was full of jagged ice shards, cutting and freezing any flesh that moved against them. The light was too bright, the blanket too rough... Yue took a labored breath... and the air was too heavy.
"Hooo, it lives," a sacharine voice penetrated Yue's haze of suffering. "Tch, such merciless reprisal, and inflicted upon such a comely little female," the voice affected a pouting tone, but it sounded... pleased? "This will be, unpleasant darling." Yue could hear the speaker grinning. The metaphysical ice shards clogging her meridians shattered in an agonizing flash. Then the biting chill was drained from Yue's body in a great gush. Unfortunately, so was most of her qi. As the icy prickling subsided, the thrumming ache of qi exhaustion suffused Yue's abdomen and the space behind her eyes. "You'll want to drink this child," the voice said. Yue half opened her eyes and accepted a steaming tea cup with a dip of her head. The aroma was full and fruity with mint-ish chill that spoke summer blooms and alpine springs.
As the reinvigorating brew soothed Yue's meridians and calmed her nerves, she discerned that she was not in fact in the medicine hall. She was reclining on a shezlong, in the center of a circular room illuminated by rippling blue light. In lieu of any noticeable walls, the soothing light's boundary gave way to inky darkness. "Thank you Senior..." No introduction was offered. This made it more difficult to judge the appropriate level of deference... or easier commit a potentially fatal offense. Half rising to take another sip of tea, Yue finally noticed her interlocutor's inhuman visage. Her still slightly blue tinged skin went deathly pallid and the teacup slid from her trembling hands.
Blunt horns peeked out from side swept bangs which aesthetically revealed one perfectly sculpted eyebrow that arched haughtily above a dark green reptilian eye. High cheekbones dusted with dark blue scales framed a button nose and fairy bow lips currently pursed in displeasure. Sable tresses shimmered and eddied like a moonlit river. And a trio of damp splotches marred the hem of a diaphanous layered gown. The dragoness huffed irritably and a burst of qi dissolved the cup shards and tea dribbles into ice crystals that gusted off into the surrounding murk.
Panic cleared Yue's muddled mind and propelled her into a full kowtow. Ancestors above. She'd splashed tea on a senior dragon. On a Female senior dragon. As if simply drawing its attention wasn't unfortunate enough for a human woman. "This unworthy one greets the lord of depths and flood and begs forgiveness for her lack of manners." Yue genuflected. "Humble Xiao Yue of the Argent Peak thanks the River Matron for her hospitality."
The dragoness curled a finger to materialize a crystaline tea service atop a low table and a lumpy cushion beneath Yue's knees.
"Prey tell," the dragoness languidly commanded. Yue gulped because she had heard the "e". "How did you goad my son into dealing so ... roughly with you? "
Yue tentatively raised her head, very carefully accepted another teacup and told a dragon a tale.
*****
Sneaking into the vale was easy. The guardian was napping sprawled half in and half out of the river. Yue had nearly collected enough fruit when the golden scales and rumbling storm coulds above shifted. The flux of heavenly dragon qi was apparently enough to rouse the guardian. With her peak second realm strength Yue had no intention to confront a dragon. It was time to leave. Yue materialized her paixiao and played a smoldering verse to engulf her surroundings in an expanding bank of ash and ember. She transitioned to chorus of dancing flames and a dozen floating embers burst into Yue shaped mirages and waltzed haphazardly into the smokescreen. A second round of the chorus sent more constructs in another direction.
Yue sighed with relief as a blue blur scythed through a distant mirage. She suppressed her qi and continued slinking away.
Suddenly a terrifying roar reverberated throughout the vale. The sonic disturbance spurred the river to overflow its banks and lashed Yue with knee rattling dragon fear. Meters high waves coursed out in every direction extinguishing a score of mirages. One sloshed over Yue with a frigid slap then reversed direction to tumble her back towards the river.
At the riverside, Yue encountered a very annoyed dragon coiled in the shallows and grumbling about unfair time limits and interrupted naps. The dragon managed to look down his snout at Yue despite her elevated position on the bank. "Feh. Flimsy smoke and shadows. An unworthy insect aping the superior songstress is offensive to these venerable eyes." The dragon glared contemptuously from Yue's paixiao to her harvest of fruits. Then his throat expanded like a toad's and he spit a screaming bolt of pressurized water over Yue's right shoulder. The attack severed the strap of her fruit laden satchel; a significant thatch of her hair; and finally the head from a surviving mirage. The dragon sneered, "Know your inferiority human." With a slap of his tail on the river's surface, the surrounding flood waters aerosolized into thick disorienting mist. The crackling sound of freezing water was Yue's only warning of imminent attack.
The rising dragon's fist shattered her hastily flaired gale shield into disparate gusts. Rapidly spreading rime armor buffeted her with an aura of intense cold. Yue's eyes widened in surprise as the frost covered claw snatched away her paixiao; and then in horror as the trailing water shadow struck heavily across her chest. The powerful blow drove the air from Yue's lungs and the cold deeper into her body. Her conciousness faded as she tumbled back through the grove of fruit trees.
*****
Yue finished her tale and again bowed low to her host.
*****
Qingshe surveyed the disciple's bedraggled state, average mien, slightly squat stature and truly unfortunate hair.
"Mmmmm," having judged the residual water qi sans echoes of possessiveness, she hummed in satisfaction. Finally, clashing with the outer rabble had aroused her son's pride.
*****
At the dragoness's murmur of approval, Yue straightened from her kowtow but didn't relax her posture. With pleasing enough etiquette, she may yet escape the dragon's den without further humiliation or injury.
That was not to be the case. "Worthier pursuits yet require my attention," the dragoness imperiously declared. "Ah, so much to do in so little time." She feigned inattention while being lost in thought and her own teacup "slipped" from her hand. The vessel rocketed straight down to land on the floor without a sound. The remaining tea however, sloshed violently in a ridiculos and unerring arc to splash into Yue's face and hair. "Ooohh, how clumsy." The saccharin voice was back. "Allow me dear." Yue was still spluttering in confusion as a wave of cold brushed along her cheek. The dragoness smirked as "spilled" tea and mousy hair dissipated into fine ice crystals and tinkled to the floor. "Yeeessss," she purred, "We're done here." She waved her hand and swept disciple, cushion and ice crystals out of the illuminated space.
Yue broke the surface of the river with a momentous plop and barely managed to get ger feet beneath her before landing on the muddy bank. There she noticed the broken pieces of her paixiao in a paw shaped depression. As Yue idled on the bank; contemplating her broken instrument and teasing her jagged bob with the fingers of her right hand; her forgotten satchel impacted her back with a wet and painful smack. Yep ribs definitely bruised. Yue groaned... with the effort of suppressing the curses bubbling up from her gut. Those could be disastrous if the dragoness was still watching. Best to return and then release her invective in a private bath. Yue paused. Where had the satchel even come from? Of course the vindictive wyrm was still watching. She gathered her belongings in a huff and oriented herself towards the first year mountain. The uncomfy cushion slid from the bank into the river with a quiet splash.
Yue paused again and eyed the cushion. She let out a deep sigh. Goading indeed. Despite the domineering dismissal, she hadn't properly thanked her host at her departure. Yue fished out the cushion and knelt once more; thanking the dragoness for granting her succor and audience. Manners weren't just for getting out of trouble after all. The current eddied then calmed and Yue glimpsed the immaculately edged fringe following the angle of her reflection's right cheekbone. She gawked. That was... quite nice actually. "This disciple will heed Venerable Elder's gracious advice," Yue concluded her genuflection. The current seemed to murmur ... in approval? The cushion dissolved into ice crystals that melted into the shallows. The most prominent lump resolved itself into a crystalline case. Yue gasped as she inspected the conents; a faintly glowing pill. She bowed once more out of genuine gratitude then climbed to her feet and headed for the residential area. She was really aching for a bath.
Xiao Yue gasped and struggled to sit up. It hurt to... everything, as if her body was full of jagged ice shards, cutting and freezing any flesh that moved against them. The light was too bright, the blanket too rough... Yue took a labored breath... and the air was too heavy.
"Hooo, it lives," a sacharine voice penetrated Yue's haze of suffering. "Tch, such merciless reprisal, and inflicted upon such a comely little female," the voice affected a pouting tone, but it sounded... pleased? "This will be, unpleasant darling." Yue could hear the speaker grinning. The metaphysical ice shards clogging her meridians shattered in an agonizing flash. Then the biting chill was drained from Yue's body in a great gush. Unfortunately, so was most of her qi. As the icy prickling subsided, the thrumming ache of qi exhaustion suffused Yue's abdomen and the space behind her eyes. "You'll want to drink this child," the voice said. Yue half opened her eyes and accepted a steaming tea cup with a dip of her head. The aroma was full and fruity with mint-ish chill that spoke summer blooms and alpine springs.
As the reinvigorating brew soothed Yue's meridians and calmed her nerves, she discerned that she was not in fact in the medicine hall. She was reclining on a shezlong, in the center of a circular room illuminated by rippling blue light. In lieu of any noticeable walls, the soothing light's boundary gave way to inky darkness. "Thank you Senior..." No introduction was offered. This made it more difficult to judge the appropriate level of deference... or easier commit a potentially fatal offense. Half rising to take another sip of tea, Yue finally noticed her interlocutor's inhuman visage. Her still slightly blue tinged skin went deathly pallid and the teacup slid from her trembling hands.
Blunt horns peeked out from side swept bangs which aesthetically revealed one perfectly sculpted eyebrow that arched haughtily above a dark green reptilian eye. High cheekbones dusted with dark blue scales framed a button nose and fairy bow lips currently pursed in displeasure. Sable tresses shimmered and eddied like a moonlit river. And a trio of damp splotches marred the hem of a diaphanous layered gown. The dragoness huffed irritably and a burst of qi dissolved the cup shards and tea dribbles into ice crystals that gusted off into the surrounding murk.
Panic cleared Yue's muddled mind and propelled her into a full kowtow. Ancestors above. She'd splashed tea on a senior dragon. On a Female senior dragon. As if simply drawing its attention wasn't unfortunate enough for a human woman. "This unworthy one greets the lord of depths and flood and begs forgiveness for her lack of manners." Yue genuflected. "Humble Xiao Yue of the Argent Peak thanks the River Matron for her hospitality."
The dragoness curled a finger to materialize a crystaline tea service atop a low table and a lumpy cushion beneath Yue's knees.
"Prey tell," the dragoness languidly commanded. Yue gulped because she had heard the "e". "How did you goad my son into dealing so ... roughly with you? "
Yue tentatively raised her head, very carefully accepted another teacup and told a dragon a tale.
*****
Sneaking into the vale was easy. The guardian was napping sprawled half in and half out of the river. Yue had nearly collected enough fruit when the golden scales and rumbling storm coulds above shifted. The flux of heavenly dragon qi was apparently enough to rouse the guardian. With her peak second realm strength Yue had no intention to confront a dragon. It was time to leave. Yue materialized her paixiao and played a smoldering verse to engulf her surroundings in an expanding bank of ash and ember. She transitioned to chorus of dancing flames and a dozen floating embers burst into Yue shaped mirages and waltzed haphazardly into the smokescreen. A second round of the chorus sent more constructs in another direction.
Yue sighed with relief as a blue blur scythed through a distant mirage. She suppressed her qi and continued slinking away.
Suddenly a terrifying roar reverberated throughout the vale. The sonic disturbance spurred the river to overflow its banks and lashed Yue with knee rattling dragon fear. Meters high waves coursed out in every direction extinguishing a score of mirages. One sloshed over Yue with a frigid slap then reversed direction to tumble her back towards the river.
At the riverside, Yue encountered a very annoyed dragon coiled in the shallows and grumbling about unfair time limits and interrupted naps. The dragon managed to look down his snout at Yue despite her elevated position on the bank. "Feh. Flimsy smoke and shadows. An unworthy insect aping the superior songstress is offensive to these venerable eyes." The dragon glared contemptuously from Yue's paixiao to her harvest of fruits. Then his throat expanded like a toad's and he spit a screaming bolt of pressurized water over Yue's right shoulder. The attack severed the strap of her fruit laden satchel; a significant thatch of her hair; and finally the head from a surviving mirage. The dragon sneered, "Know your inferiority human." With a slap of his tail on the river's surface, the surrounding flood waters aerosolized into thick disorienting mist. The crackling sound of freezing water was Yue's only warning of imminent attack.
The rising dragon's fist shattered her hastily flaired gale shield into disparate gusts. Rapidly spreading rime armor buffeted her with an aura of intense cold. Yue's eyes widened in surprise as the frost covered claw snatched away her paixiao; and then in horror as the trailing water shadow struck heavily across her chest. The powerful blow drove the air from Yue's lungs and the cold deeper into her body. Her conciousness faded as she tumbled back through the grove of fruit trees.
*****
Yue finished her tale and again bowed low to her host.
*****
Qingshe surveyed the disciple's bedraggled state, average mien, slightly squat stature and truly unfortunate hair.
"Mmmmm," having judged the residual water qi sans echoes of possessiveness, she hummed in satisfaction. Finally, clashing with the outer rabble had aroused her son's pride.
*****
At the dragoness's murmur of approval, Yue straightened from her kowtow but didn't relax her posture. With pleasing enough etiquette, she may yet escape the dragon's den without further humiliation or injury.
That was not to be the case. "Worthier pursuits yet require my attention," the dragoness imperiously declared. "Ah, so much to do in so little time." She feigned inattention while being lost in thought and her own teacup "slipped" from her hand. The vessel rocketed straight down to land on the floor without a sound. The remaining tea however, sloshed violently in a ridiculos and unerring arc to splash into Yue's face and hair. "Ooohh, how clumsy." The saccharin voice was back. "Allow me dear." Yue was still spluttering in confusion as a wave of cold brushed along her cheek. The dragoness smirked as "spilled" tea and mousy hair dissipated into fine ice crystals and tinkled to the floor. "Yeeessss," she purred, "We're done here." She waved her hand and swept disciple, cushion and ice crystals out of the illuminated space.
Yue broke the surface of the river with a momentous plop and barely managed to get ger feet beneath her before landing on the muddy bank. There she noticed the broken pieces of her paixiao in a paw shaped depression. As Yue idled on the bank; contemplating her broken instrument and teasing her jagged bob with the fingers of her right hand; her forgotten satchel impacted her back with a wet and painful smack. Yep ribs definitely bruised. Yue groaned... with the effort of suppressing the curses bubbling up from her gut. Those could be disastrous if the dragoness was still watching. Best to return and then release her invective in a private bath. Yue paused. Where had the satchel even come from? Of course the vindictive wyrm was still watching. She gathered her belongings in a huff and oriented herself towards the first year mountain. The uncomfy cushion slid from the bank into the river with a quiet splash.
Yue paused again and eyed the cushion. She let out a deep sigh. Goading indeed. Despite the domineering dismissal, she hadn't properly thanked her host at her departure. Yue fished out the cushion and knelt once more; thanking the dragoness for granting her succor and audience. Manners weren't just for getting out of trouble after all. The current eddied then calmed and Yue glimpsed the immaculately edged fringe following the angle of her reflection's right cheekbone. She gawked. That was... quite nice actually. "This disciple will heed Venerable Elder's gracious advice," Yue concluded her genuflection. The current seemed to murmur ... in approval? The cushion dissolved into ice crystals that melted into the shallows. The most prominent lump resolved itself into a crystalline case. Yue gasped as she inspected the conents; a faintly glowing pill. She bowed once more out of genuine gratitude then climbed to her feet and headed for the residential area. She was really aching for a bath.
Love the lil tsundere dragon.
Tried to stay true to Hesui's character and our dragon research from back in the day.
@yrsillar another Omake for the throne
TimEd
Meteor maker
So, Dragon Mama gave the firstie a stylish haircut? Such fashion sense.
Ai Xiaoli described Xiulan as a reckless wildfire which suggests she might become a firestorm. Se MinuteEarth's Firestorm Video.
Basically a wildfire vaporises water in plants and creates stormclouds that might move from one forest to another and rain lightning down to light new wildfires and repeat. Having Fire fuel Heavens as Heaven spreads Fire which fits perfectly for Linhuo, being born of lightning sparking a wildfire. All she needs is a shit ton of fuel, preferably Wood, preferably an entire land of forests that stretches out like an emerald sea, and she can keep going as long as the woods regrow. Maybe her family has a Wind elemented phoenix that can help her storm travel from Phoenixhome through Luo land, where she might find an ambitious husband like Luo Zheng who wants to strengthen his clan's connection to her province, and on to our fief and hearth.
Last edited: