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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
You know, I expected Gay Baby Magic to basically work out like an Ascending White adding an eighth day to the week or something; "well, we're going to have to redo a lot of geomancy, and that's kind of annoying, but it's here now, so..." Mostly because Shenhua is clearly invested in it and it's not heretical or politically dangerous enough to justify fighting a White, so it's not going away. At that point, even objectors pretty much have to shrug and move on.

But I suppose that for all practical purposes that's what's going to happen, we're just going to get a lot of dumb political posturing first. Sure, it's not going to have any impacts on the actual policy because if it does then a White will Vigorously Object, but it might result in you getting a small political advantage over that guy you hate who lives three houses down, and isn't that what's really important here?
 
I was thinking about the Bai not letting Meizhen participate in any of the sect's offensive operations, and on one hand it makes sense. She's a precious scion of a Ducal clan. But on the other, Xuan Shi and Cai Renxiang have been flung fully into the breach. Sure, there are specific circumstances in both cases that explain this...
But doesn't it still leave an opening for people of a certain mentality to sneer that the Bai are weak, terrified of the possibility of their kids getting a scratch? Holding back the winner of the tournament, and thus one hell of a fighter, while other Ducal scions go balls to the wall.
To quote Venom: "Pussy."
In addition to what other people have said, CRX is all but indestructible when wearing Liming. Should she encounter a higher realm opponent, Liming will simply overtake her and truly awaken, ending that fight. Yes it sucks each time for her, being a puppet in her own body but on the scale of what CRX has been through, its not much.
 
Do we know what cultivation Xuan shi currently has because im not sure he actually is much less powerful than the monster trio or at least he wasn't. Not including Renxiangs dress (blanking on name) or Sun lilings recent "power up".

In fact given he seems to be a genuine prodigy in formations in terms of pure talent I wouldn't be surprised if he had more than the other Ducal Scions but less support.
Capability in formations is unrelated to talent. It is related to cultivation, and if I remember correctly he might be third stage
 
"My victory can't come from phantoms and corpses," Ling Qi said, turning away from the shadow. She turned, and reached out her hands. The strings under her skin writhed, but her hands no longer bled. Each string was the shadow of a hand, tiny and grasping. "It will come from us both or not at all."
I was just rereading in preparation for the update tonight and just noticed something I missed. With Qi's change in perspective the strings are no longer puppet strings seeking to control but rather a tiny hand reaching out for connection. I really love that.
 
I'm... pretty sure that was already his plan? The trick is turtle kid is aware that's the plan, so it's turned into a sort of competition between them.

I mean, yeah, we know Xuan Shi wants to turn a nightmare into a dream. But we don't know how he's going to do that, and what Dream he's trying to turn Kongyou into.

This is just one guess which I hope happens.

Do we know what cultivation Xuan shi currently has because im not sure he actually is much less powerful than the monster trio or at least he wasn't. Not including Renxiangs dress (blanking on name) or Sun lilings recent "power up".

In fact given he seems to be a genuine prodigy in formations in terms of pure talent I wouldn't be surprised if he had more than the other Ducal Scions but less support.

IIRC, he's at the same stage at Ling Qi: G5. I expect him to be further along since we got there just over a month ago. So still at a prodigious rate.

As for the punching up thing, I'm not sure. But he has his Time powers and staff that allow him to freeze people and things in time, and his full counter move that we saw in the Liminal when LQ nearly turned herself into a puddle of Dream.

I'm not sure about the support though. We know that the Xuan elders generally like him and that he exceeded expectations at the sect. He also got the chance to go to a different province and study Shenhua's new school of formationcraft (and hunt down his favourite books), so possible support. But he wasn't able to bond a xuan wu, and that's needed to really move up in the clan and own a ship iirc, so possibly no support.

Edit: Also, I think he can compare to the top 3 in defence. Apart from maybe Meizhen, whose whole build also specialises in defence.
 
Last edited:
I think I'd bet on him over Meizhen in defense at this point, if only slightly, but his offense doesn't match up to them. He might not even match up to us in offense.

That's fair, yeah. I can definitely see that happening. Even I'm not sure about the offence bit. He has a lot of versatility with his clay plates. And I managed to find a passage that describes how he fights.

Stripped of the shadows, the dancers did not retreat, weaving a wide circle around Xuan Shi's shifting barrier of light and ceramic. Their knives carved skittering sparks along the barrier, leaving lines of corruption and rot in their wake, but Xuan Shi merely rang the rings of his staff and new panels rose to replace those that rotted while broken panels whizzed out like throwing knives to impact and explode on contact with the trees and ground, forcing the dancers to dodge and weave through a barrage of returning fire.
 
I mean, yeah, we know Xuan Shi wants to turn a nightmare into a dream. But we don't know how he's going to do that, and what Dream he's trying to turn Kongyou into.

This is just one guess which I hope happens.



IIRC, he's at the same stage at Ling Qi: G5. I expect him to be further along since we got there just over a month ago. So still at a prodigious rate.

As for the punching up thing, I'm not sure. But he has his Time powers and staff that allow him to freeze people and things in time, and his full counter move that we saw in the Liminal when LQ nearly turned herself into a puddle of Dream.

I'm not sure about the support though. We know that the Xuan elders generally like him and that he exceeded expectations at the sect. He also got the chance to go to a different province and study Shenhua's new school of formationcraft (and hunt down his favourite books), so possible support. But he wasn't able to bond a xuan wu, and that's needed to really move up in the clan and own a ship iirc, so possibly no support.

Edit: Also, I think he can compare to the top 3 in defence. Apart from maybe Meizhen, whose whole build also specialises in defence.
Where did it say that? Cause I was pretty sure he was a few stages behind us? Not ahead of us
 
Where did it say that? Cause I was pretty sure he was a few stages behind us? Not ahead of us

Sea of Dreams.
"Heavy," he mused, weighing the third stick of wood in his hand, which trembled with the weight. Given that he was a cultivator in the same realm and stage as she, it certainly said something of the woods' strange properties.

And we that was after we literally just entered G5, so it's reasonable to think he's ahead of us. It's Gan Guangli who's a few stages behind us, though I don't remember how much.
 
That's fair, yeah. I can definitely see that happening. Even I'm not sure about the offence bit. He has a lot of versatility with his clay plates. And I managed to find a passage that describes how he fights.
The thing is, most of his offense seems based around retribution, if you hit him he hits you back harder. That's the build Meizhen was going with way back in the beginning, but then Kang was able to keep her pinned down in the first real group fight by just not attacking her and she realized that she needed some proper fangs. In Xuan Shi's case I don't think he cares about that weakness since combat isn't all that important to him.

In a defensive fight he's probably the biggest monster of the four, but going on the attack himself he'd struggle to hurt any of them through their own defenses.
 
Turn 17: Arc 1-8
It was a frightening thing, reaching out. But this was a frightening place and a frightening time. Ling Qi had no doubt that the greater nightmare still stalked in her shadow, ready to fall upon them if her resolve wavered, if she proved that her words really were only air and nothing more. And so she looked through and into Sixiang.

Immediately, she felt a dull throbbing ache. She looked out through her own eyes, but it was as if she peered from behind a double layer of glass. She looking through Sixiang, and Sixiang looking through her, staring into a mirror, where their reflection smirked back. It wore an uncharacteristically cocky expression, her hair was wild and unbound, and shimmering colors ran through her eyes, pools of liminal light

"You see, isn't this just perfect?" the not-her said. It's voice held a subtle echo, a reverb. It was her own voice underlain by Sixiangs. "What we can have, if you only got over yourself? She's already let you in so far. You can be real, and she can be free. Truly free, not the way she deludes herself. It'd only be for the better."

"We'd both be alone then, so what'd be the point?" Another voice echoed around and through Ling Qi, coming from the reflection she saw in the mirror. It's shining eyes screwed up, it's silhouette wavered, bands of color flashing in the hair, skin strobing between tones.

"You don't care about being alone,," the not-her said harshly. "You're just using her words, and why not, you barely exist outside of her skin, her thoughts. You decided to live, and you're nothing. An extension of her thoughts, an extra pair of hands and eyes for work."

"I exist," the reflection said. "As much as anyone. So what if I spend all my time with her? It's fine, she's around plenty of people. I can-"

"Watch," the eyes Ling Qi looked through narrowed. "Watch and make little comments that only she can hear, unless some bigwig is feeling saucy. It's pathetic yanno? You even got the ability to speak, to paint, to make yourself known. How often do you use it, you coward?"

"I'm practicing, manifesting isn't super easy you know," snapped the reflection.

"Liaaaar," mocked the not-her, or really, Ling Qi realized, another facet of Sixiang. "You don't want it to work, cause that's your excuse. You've been practicing for what, a year? You think that's flys in the Ling Qi squad? Might work for the kids, but that ain't us, ain't Ling Qi and her kickass muse. Quit messing around you weepy will-o-wisp."

"We're not-"

"We are," the facet hissed. There is nothing between us. "Nothing that could stop us. We're already in, past any defense. There's nothing, nothing keeping us from getting what we want. Nothin but you."

"I want to keep her, I don't want to be her," the reflection hissed.

"Liaaaar," the facet mocked, childishly drawing out the word again. "Else you'd have warned her, else you'd have tried harder to be you. Don't give me that alone crap either. You don't give a spit about those other fleshbags she hangs around with. When was the last time you even initiated a conversation outside of her head huh?"

The reflection was silent, stewing.

"Thought so. We love her, of course we do, but you know what we hate? What pisses us off? The way she keeps tryin to throw herself away. Every time she trashes herself, us in her thoughts. We want to to want, the both of us do. But all this weepy bullshit is holding us back. There ain't enough of us to exist without her, and she's got all sorts of gaps to be patched."

"It'd go bad, we'd get us both killed, that spook would notice, or one of those craggy old elders. We wouldn't last a week."

Ling Qi felt startled by the reflection, the real Sixiang's response. That wasn't the rebuttal she expected. Sixiang didn't…

…No she'd already realized it hadn't she. The reflection wasn't the 'real' Sixiang. Neither was the figment. It was all them, every last bit of it. It was one thing to acknowledge that she'd let herself be vulnerable in her own head. That she had lowered her defenses. It was another to be faced with the fact that the one she had made herself vulnerable too had really considered taking advantage.

The facet who wore her face, whose eyes she looked through, smiled at the reflection, it was too wide for her face, unnaturally curling the corners of her lips.

"C'mon now, gramps is here, he'd give us some help I bet. Can you imagine it, can you imagine this whole crazy scheme falling to bits with us out of the way, with us pushing it that way? The chaos that'd bring. Everyone building up this big moment and then…. It all falls to dust. The fists and blades come out. The little broken doll she's stringing along falling to bits, and that crazy monster self destructing. Wouldn't that be a scene, a whole new generation of nightmares and dashed hopes."

"I don't want that!."

"You already decided to accept pain when you decided to stick around and help her kill people sometimes," the facet said sweetly. "You want it a little. We want it a little, things coming apart is just so pretty."

The imagery of the mirror spun away, and Ling Qi saw images, images of roaring arguments and drawn blades, of smoke and radiance, of tears and drama and tragedy. A great and terrible epic, scrolling out into the future, and herself singing merrily among the ashes.

"Do you know how rare this is, an opportunity to do so much with so little? Don't tell me you're not bored playing house!"

The wind howled, blowing through the clouds of mists and smoke that surrounded and buffeted her, and the riotous song of cruel and merry revelry that called to their soul and…

Ling Qi breathed out, and opened her eyes.

"Backing out huh?"

She looked up into the shifting colors. "I've seen enough."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"You didn't do it," Ling Qi said quietly. "You're here stewing."

And, Ling Qi looked down, the shadowed threads were still there reaching into the colorful sea.

"It's like you didn't learn any lesson at all," Sixiang chuckled, some of the tension and harshness leaking out of their voice. "You just gonna pretend it doesn't matter that I can."

"It scares me. Its absolutely terrifying," Ling Qi said frankly. "I don't think things can be the same after this, Sixiang. You… lied. It was by omission, but still-"

"That's-thats what you're going to complain about?!"

Ling Qi felt her shadow swell, felt the ice crackle and spread.

[YES]

It wasn't a word really, it was will, impressed on the world, on Sixiang. It was a truth, however tiny and fleeting. That was absolutely what she wanted to complain about.

She felt and saw the sea of colors shrink in on itself, saw it flinch, a ripple of monochrome through the shifting colors.

"...It was after you almost dissolved yourself. After I… held you together. We got closer than we should have and you… didn't notice. It was gradual."

Ling Qi frowned. It was right, there was no one moment where she could pick out when Sixiang had become fully integrated into her perceptions.

"You were afraid."

"Yeah, I was," Sixiang whispered.

The colors shifted and spun, something coalesced in their depths. A rough shape and then a silhouette. Sixiang formed a body, seated on a cloud of sickly color. Thin, but a little wider shouldered than usual. A shimmery black robe. Their hair was white and lank, hanging partially over their face. Their features were a little harder and sharper, a little more masculine. "You gonna say you forgive me and have us do a little happy jig?"

Ling Qi regarded them silently letting the flippant words wash over her. "No, because I don't think I do yet."

"Ah hells, the one thing I never even had the urge to poke and prod and break apart, and that's the one I managed? What a joke," Sixiang chuckled.

"Do you really want to see me fail that badly?"

Sixiang flinched. "No, no, it ain't it ain't like that. I like getting a rise outta people, you know that. I like poking them and making them squirm when they're acting all stiff and haughty. Poking the foundations of that whole ridiculous show you humans put on and seeing where it wobbles. Gramps is…. Grand. He does big scale stuff. Takes it all way outta proportion. Of course I'm gonna get a little weird when he's sticking his eyes in my head."

They-He seemed to struggle for a moment, clenching their fists atop their knees and hunching their shoulders, a bit of color bled back into their hair, it drifted up. "I ain't all bubbles and cheer, that's true, you need bubbles and cheer though you gloomy beanpole."

"I probably do," Ling Qi admitted, she remained standing herself grasping her hands together as she allowed her eyes to wander the dreamscape. "...I expected something more like Kongyou, if I'm being honest."

"Feh," Sixiang made a face. "That's low, real low."

Ling Qi chuckled, looking down. "I don't know how long we have. I can sense him out there, this is just too easy so far."

"Masochist," Sixiang snorted.

"I don't know what that means, but it sounds dirty," Ling Qi said, narrowing her eyes.

"It means only you would think getting backed into a corner by gramps until you either found a conclusion or dissolved was easy," Sixiang shot back.

"If I can't even do that I don't have any business cultivating further. And I won't stop."

Sixiang's head drooped a little, some of the flickering color in his hair flaring up, spreading further through the whitened locks. "What now?"

"I don't forgive you," Ling Qi said. "But…"

She closed her eyes, searching her feelings. "I do still trust you."

Sixiang's head jerked up. Ling Qi extended her hand. There was only one unwanted connection here. The one thing she was sure of was that such things could be broken.

"Will you let me steal you away?"

Sixiang laughed, there was little hiccup in it, their voice cracking. "Do you even need to ask?"

"Yes."

Sixiang reached out and took her hand. In the roiling color Ling Qi felt the attention of an old and terrible things. She had seen him, and knew his name now. The rotted dream of a better future. Brother Darksong, the Emerald Mourner. The Dirge of Futures Lost.

The other half of the Dreaming Moon of the Emerald Seas.

She was going to steal his grandchild, once and for all.

It is not enough to wield the power of the Dreaming Moon here, to Dance the Dreamlit path, but you are not only the disciple of one moon. To wield their power separately is not enough.

[ ] Wind and laughter, the steps of the great thief will guide you. Your treasure is in hand, and now you must make haste from beneath the hoof of an angry god.

[ ] Darkness and secrets, let the black moon occlude you, it is not enough to merely seek, a true master of secrets must be able to hide from the keenest eye as well.
 
[ ] Darkness and secrets, let the black moon occlude you, it is not enough to merely seek, a true master of secrets must be able to hide from the keenest eye as well

Stealth is an important part of Lin Qi portfollio. Will vote for this.
 
[ ] Wind and laughter, the steps of the great thief will guide you. Your treasure is in hand, and now you must make haste from beneath the hoof of an angry god.

I still enjoy this most.
 
[ ] Wind and laughter, the steps of the great thief will guide you. Your treasure is in hand, and now you must make haste from beneath the hoof of an angry god.

Wind thief, or should we say, Dream Thief is a go?
 
The Nightmare knows Hiding, the fear of cowering beneath an inadequate shelter while titans rage.
-To the Hidden Moon, Knowledge Conquers Fear. Do we know the nature of the Nightmare? Well enough to turn it into a shield?

The Nightmare knows Flight, the fear of being pursued by a Power you cannot overcome.
-To the Grinning Moon, Power fails against greater Wit. No matter how strong you are, it doesn't matter if its used poorly.

I THINK Grinning Moon is more resonant with this moment, this is much like the Wind Thief, stealing the Winds from the Dragons that rule the weather. Stealing a dream from The Dream.
 
Yeah, the Emerald Seas has had their wish for a better future stolen time and time again. So it makes sense that such would be the nature of the Nightmare.

... Really makes our mission with the Polar Nation that much more important, nevermind the whole CRX vs Shenhua thing.
 
Yah no, you ask me to pick between Laughing Thief and Hidden Moon. Low blow Yrsillar, but I know what I pick 99 times out of a 100.

Heist Time. Let's fly.

[ ] Wind and laughter, the steps of the great thief will guide you. Your treasure is in hand, and now you must make haste from beneath the hoof of an angry god.
 
[X] Wind and laughter, the steps of the great thief will guide you. Your treasure is in hand, and now you must make haste from beneath the hoof of an angry god.

What is tribulation but a heist from the consequences of your actions?
 
Last edited:
[ ] Wind and laughter, the steps of the great thief will guide you. Your treasure is in hand, and now you must make haste from beneath the hoof of an angry god.
 
Back
Top