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.
Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- the internet
Someone's a negative nancy, it seems...
Seriously, Ling Qi has enough social grace by now for things not to be awkward. At this point, they've drifted away from one another enough to be called acquaintances rather than friends. But LQ can still give an amicable farewell because I think we all know Han Jian is a character we're not gonna see again, either for a long time or not at all.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Besides, a bit of respectful thanks for his help during our first year is hardly something to be called awkward. This is about tying up the old loose threads before we move on, and there's no reason to not be gracious (pun intended).
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Twilight King Was a planetary level threat. If the Purifiying Sun didn't explode on top of him, he would have required a Great Spirit Incarnation to stop. And that only if they acted right away before he spun up even harder than them.
Note: Great Spirit Incarnations are good for literally nobody, and are only allowed to deal with planetary level threats that no other force can hope to contest.
There's two things I hope to see in the meetup with Han Jian:
Han Fang's cat doing an assassination on Ling Qi, prooobably just planning/preparing one but with cats you can never be too sure.
And Ling Qi doing sign language with Han Fang. Ling Qi reasonably would have been exposed to hand signals during her Inner Sect scout training, and her understanding of Expression is generally pretty great. She should be able to do it! It'd address an age-old regret of never vibing with the story's best butler.
Han Fang's cat doing an assassination on Ling Qi, prooobably just planning/preparing one but with cats you can never be too sure.
And Ling Qi doing sign language with Han Fang. Ling Qi reasonably would have been exposed to hand signals during her Inner Sect scout training, and her understanding of Expression is generally pretty great. She should be able to do it! It'd address an age-old regret of never vibing with the story's best butler.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Nope, we never learned any hand signs because we never bothered to pick Fang for even a single social action. I still really dislike that decision, but I guess others feel it is a worthy trade off for the closeness we achieved with Xuilan.
Yeah, and I'm saying she should be able to manage it these days.
Inner Sect scout training would have included the hand signals which sect forces use. It's not super likely that it matches up with the set used by Han Fang and the Golden Fields group, but it's put hands-on experience into her head. Added to that, Ling Qi's conceptual grasp of systems of communication is deeper and broader now, so it's way easier for her and she can fudge things without actually getting them wrong because cultivation mumbo jumbo.
A bit like, though with a different basis, how she touched on the primal essence of The First Dance while partying with Sixiang at Xiangmen. Conceptual understanding of Expression/Communication combined with her cultivator memory, and Ling Qi can totally reconstruct the correct system of hand signs to chat with Han Fang in, like, her spare time on the road between the frontier and the sect. Easy thing to handwave.
And yeah, I'm still a bit sour over never getting to hang with Han Fang. It's why signing with him would be such a nice gesture, imo.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Eh. If she's gonna be using cultivator stuff to establish communication, it'd just be better to use some sort of qi communication rather than bother with any hand gestures.
Another point I was alluding to is that there really is no reason for Ling Qi to bother seeking out interacting with Fang. Just look at the vote and see how it only mentions Han Jian. Ling Qi did not interact with Fang in any significant sense during her early days in the sect. We interacted with Xuilan's ex fiancee more than Fang, and that dude didn't like us at all.
So lower your expectations on any Fang interactions because I would be surprised if they share more than 3 significant lines of dialogue, even if we count times where said dialogue isn't specifically written out.
I mean, the dude has ears. Han Fang fully understands the spoken word. There's no practical need to sign at him for him to understand her. That wouldn't be the point, so no, esoteric qi communication wouldn't really be "better" than signing, no matter how much cultivation stuff is being used.
Also, it's probably more likely for Han Fang to be hanging around Han Jian now than it would have been, say, 4 months ago. Ling Qi's profile continues to rise. She's doing the weird diplomacy thing with the heir of the province, and she's about to embark as a landed noble clan's Head properly. Whatever Ling Qi and Han Jian think about the meeting, Han Fang's likely to view it through his butler-ish value judgements.
If he's not there, no big deal, but I think it's more likely than not, and it would be neat to see Ling Qi sign with him.
Also, it's probably more likely for Han Fang to be hanging around Han Jian now than it would have been, say, 4 months ago. Ling Qi's profile continues to rise. She's doing the weird diplomacy thing with the heir of the province, and she's about to embark as a landed noble clan's Head properly. Whatever Ling Qi and Han Jian think about the meeting, Han Fang's likely to view it through his butler-ish value judgements.
If he's not there, no big deal, but I think it's more likely than not, and it would be neat to see Ling Qi sign with him.
actually what happened to that guy? Did he end up getting to inner sent? I cant remember
- Location
- United States of America
It doesn't look like he got into the Inner Sect through the Outer Sect Tournament. It looks like Ma Jun was his opponent in the round of 16 and defeated him.
However, he could have been one of those scooped up quietly by the Sect after the tournament and promoted to the Inner Sect even if they didn't make it through. But... we don't know.
He was withdrawn by his family at some point I think
Fan Who?
Turn 17: Arc 5-3
"I'm going down to the main square to speak with an old friend," Ling Qi said. "There's some business I want to mention and it would… just be nice to talk again."
She'd grown apart from Han Jian and he apart from her, but she did still remember his early kindness. She at least wanted to greet him once, while their paths briefly crossed again in the Inner Sect.
"I see, then allow your dashing senior brother to escort you on the journey," Liao Zhu said. "It has been too long since we spoke."
"It has, chaos and war is hardly the best for keeping up with friends," Ling Qi said. "Did you wish to take the slow path?"
"We can descend the mountain quickly, but even I, Liao Zhu would have difficulty holding a proper conversation while soaring," he chuckled.
"Yeah, I wanna walk anyway, lets just jump down and go!" Hanyi said.
"Fair enough," Ling QI said, moving to the edge of the icy peak. Hanyi leaped onto her back scrambling like a monkey to cling onto her shoulders. Another step carried her over the side, plunging down to land soundlessly on the snowy ledge below. Liao Zhu followed her down a moment later, leaving no more print in the powdery snow than she did.
"You have taken on a heavy burden indeed," Liao ZHu said conversationally as they began to walk, seeking the next location where the drop would only be a few score meters.
She glanced at him, smiling. "One must be ambitious to reach the peak."
"I merely find it terribly amusing, that you have taken your disparate patrons, and arrived at a place so like one of mine. The twisting paths of the moon are mysterious, no?"
"What's he talking about Sis?" Hanyi asked, resting her chin on Ling Qi's shoulder.
"Senior Brother follows the Bloody and Reflecting Moons, it's the latter he's referring too."
"Oh, the talky siblings," Hanyi said, squinting at him. "Huh, yeah, I guess Big Sis does talk alot."
"I'm so honored that my Junior Sister thinks so highly of my work," Ling Qi said dryly.
"It is the long and short of it though no?" Liao Zhu laughed. "Truly, I am vexed! To be surpassed in my own field, by a dabbling junior!"
"...I think only I had the right factors to bring about this conclusion," Ling Qi said. She thought about the things Xin had told her about fate and precognition, while she was recovering from her first tribulation. "The Great Spirits may not control the game, but they are certainly skilled at counting the cards."
"Mm, they may only give us opportunities. The course of the world remains in our choice," Liao Zhu said. His tone losing its humor. "It was your will and choices which have brought about your fate."
"It doesn't matter how many cheats you used and help you got getting into the vault. It's your hands that have to snatch the treasure," Ling Qi said wryly.
"Hoh, an irreverent way of looking at it."
"I have to be irreverent when I get the chance, or I just might spit in someone's eye during a fancy dinner."
"As if you would be so openly crass. My junior sister. I think you like the part of the elegant lady more than you admit."
"Yeah, my big sis is the best and most graceful Lady. Sis you shouldn't say gross stuff," Hanyi said. "You'll scare him away."
"I don't want to hear that from you!" Ling Qi exclaimed as they stepped from the ledge, fluttering down to the next, a copse of scraggly trees clinging to dirt and stone. They were a little ways above the old Argent Vent, Ling Qi thought. How nostalgic.
She rolled her eyes as Hanyi broke down giggling. Then she looked to Liao ZHu as they strode through the barren trees. "I have thought about that, you know. Wondered why the Reflecting never called to me, when I have chosen a path that seems to match it so well."
"Our patrons have only limited patience for sharing, Twin Moons more than most. But… I think it comes down to how you arrived where you are. In the end, though the destination might seem similar, the Way was different," Liao Zhu said.
She didn't arrive at Communication through high minded ideals or rationalism, or a devotion to proper order. She arrived there through desire, desperation, and want. "And what is the Reflecting Way?"
Liao Zhu considered. "Mutuality. I feel in your qi that you have touched this. But The Reflecting Moons come from a place of contemplation, of consideration and deep sympathy. A desire not for inner secrets, but the understanding of the interlocking gears of action, reaction, and causality in driving the great engine of fate forward."
Ling Qi considered as they descended, skipping, sliding, floating down a slope of loose gravel, only a bit less than completely sheer in angle. "I thin I can understand the distinction, but it does seem almost semantic."
"In the end, though there are eight faces, there is only one," Liao Zhu replied. He blinked out of existence, rematerializing on the outcropping below. Well, if he wanted to be boring about it. Ling Qi stopped being on the gravel, and started being on the cliff. It was as simple as that.
It was funny, how such things had become instinct. There really wasn't much difference between one location and another, so close together. Greater distance, greater disparity, natural lines of qi and human warding were still walls and seas and roads.
"Siblings are close, bring them together and you'll see as many similarities as differences."
"All division is an illusion, as the Dream sects might say," Laio Zhu replied, eyes twinkling.
On her back Hanyi huffed in annoyance at the interrupted slide.
"That's wrong," Ling Qi replied. "Or at least, distorts the definition of illusion to meaninglessness."
"Hoh? I did not know my junior sister was interested in theology," Liao Zhu said, raising an eyebrow. There was a faint scar, parting it know, skin not so much burned as bleached.
"It's division that gives meaning to anything at all," Ling Qi replied. "If all is one, then one is nothing. The Nameless chose division over Oneness."
She wasn't… quite sure where those words came from. She suspected though. A crescent smile beneath starry antlers.
Liao Zhu regarded her silently, there on the cliffside, crossing his arms. "Most would say the opposite, that they chose to combine themselves, to reach for one another in their divine solitude."
"...That is not oneness. It is choosing to be a pair of parts, rather than immutable divine wholes, uncomprehending. The mere act of reaching out, of seeking understanding refutes oneness, promotes multitude."
Ling Qi frowned, shaking her head. It didn't feel as if she was being controlled. More like…. There were simply foreign memories lodged in somewhere deep in her spirit, perhaps in her fused and broken meridian, mingled with the 'burned out' qi there.
"Junior Sister. Do you require assistance?"
Ling Qi put a hand to her temple, rubbing a circle there. "No, I don't think so. Just a lesson lodged in a little too deep. I have someone keeping an eye on me."
He regarded her gravely for a moment more. "Let it not be said that this champion would ever bear the crime of hypocrisy. I can not speak ill of hurling yourself into danger."
"That would be downright irresponsible of you," Ling Qi said dryly. "Your junior sister would be disappointed."
"And what a terrible curse that would be!" Liao Zhu laughed.
"...I do think it's wrong though. Nothing good comes from trying to erase division rather than bridging it," Ling Qi said. She considered the Wang's policy on the Cloud tribes. The visions of the Forever King, and the history of the Emerald Seas. Th dwindling remnants of the old tribes and Xia Ren's relentless scourging fire.
"Hm, on that I agree," Liao Zhu said. "I do not think that everyone could endure being me!"
Ling Qi laughed.
"...You guys are boring. I thought this'd be more exciting."
"Even if I was thinking such things right now, would I do them with my Junior Sister on my back like a bag of rice," Ling Qi replied, frowning.
"I'm not a bag of rice!" Hanyi complained. "I barely weigh anything at all!"
"That is not the problem here!"
"Hm, right now? Does the fierce Ogre-King need flee the hungry wraith? How complex this tale grows." Liao Zhu wondered.
"You stop encouraging her," Ling Qi said flatly. "Lets… lets just get down the mountain.
She stepped off the cliff and soared, but the words she had spoken still circled in her head. Rejection of oneness… that felt important, somehow. Maybe she should seek the Gaol again soon.
+1 Isolation XP
***
She parted ways with Senior Brother Liao at the base of the mountain. They had never been the closest of friends, but like Bian Ya and Ruan Shen, she was grateful for all of the tutelage she received. She might see him again in the future, when the time came for the war underground, but, that was day far away for now. She came to the second lowest of the Outer Sect Mountains soon enough, and found its central square. Where the offices and medical halls, the forges and the furnaces lay. It wasn;t so different from the entranceway of the Outer Sect all those years ago. The architecture a little more grand and fantastic, the disciples mightier, more obvious in their growing cultivation.
She found Han Jian under the petal heavy leaves of a cherry blossom tree. He sat with his hands folded over his stomach, his back against a golden tiger the size of a horse. The Cai made armor, a peer to her own dress before it was made more by Liming, striped with Han colors, shone in the sun. He was taller, not as tall as her, but it was much closer than any of her other peers aside from gan Guangli.
"Yo, long time huh? I didn't expect that letter, that's for sure," He said as she approached. He patted Heijin on the back, who gave a dissatisfied rumble as Han Jian stood.
"Well, I wish there had been more time, once you made it in, and we were no longer in competition," Ling Qi said, forgoing the bow that would have been respectful for one of his rank.
He hummed, and didn't comment on it. She glanced to the side letting her eyes rest patiently on the shadow of the cherry tree. In the moment of silence, there was an irritable growl, and a night black tiger melted from the shadow, its stripes a shimmering hazy gray that made her hard to look at.
Han Fang was behind the tree, leaning there. She gave the heavyset bald young man a nod. He returned it silently, smiling wryly down at his spirit beast.
"Told you hiding was silly," Han Jian said breezily. "You know the rest, though you might not recognize this big lug," Han Jian said, nodding to the tiger at his feet.
"My resplendence is unmistakable," the big cat rumbled.
"I don't know about that," Hanyi sniffed.
Heijin raised his head to glare imperiously. Hanyi stared him down with crossed arms.
Han Jian snorted. "Anyhow, the new face is Sidao, Fang's partner."
"A pleasure," Ling Qi said, tipping her head.
The dark tiger regarded her with a wary suspicion, as one predator to another, qi running dark under fur. Ling Qi tilted her head, letting a little darkness flow herself.
"Charmed," Sidao's voice was throaty and feminine, like a mature woman's, she laid down beside Heijin and began to groom one of her paws. Acting for all the world as if the little staredown hadn't happened.
Han Fang gave a raspy sigh, and made a sign with his hands.
"If I could not handle a little ego, I would be in deep trouble with my chosen path," Ling Qi said dryly.
"Hah, true," Han Jian said. He was smiling scrubbing a hand through his hair. She could almost imagine they were back in the Outer Sect.
…But there was an awkwardness there.
"You didn't say what this was about. I doubt you can afford to just be saying hi, busy woman that you are," Han Jian said. "I don't mind some business while we catch up."
Ling Qi sighed. He wasn't wrong. "It is good to see you again."
"It's nice," he agreed gently. "You're jumping up the ladder faster, but we're all grown up here."
She nodded. The fact was, speaking with the Eastern parts of the White Sky delegation had raised some issues. She…
[ ] Wanted to see to the possibility of adding an observer from the Golden Fields, more formally bringing them in and largely completing the set. (More difficult ask of Han Jian, adds additional complexity to Summit. Roll for degree of success if chosen.)
[ ] Wanted to him to raise the possibility with his own connections of whether experts on Twilight corruption could be enticed to speak with the Seared lands experts, as a bargaining chip for negotiations. (Easier ask of Han Jian, keeps Summit as is, leaves Golden Fields isolated from the project.)
She'd grown apart from Han Jian and he apart from her, but she did still remember his early kindness. She at least wanted to greet him once, while their paths briefly crossed again in the Inner Sect.
"I see, then allow your dashing senior brother to escort you on the journey," Liao Zhu said. "It has been too long since we spoke."
"It has, chaos and war is hardly the best for keeping up with friends," Ling Qi said. "Did you wish to take the slow path?"
"We can descend the mountain quickly, but even I, Liao Zhu would have difficulty holding a proper conversation while soaring," he chuckled.
"Yeah, I wanna walk anyway, lets just jump down and go!" Hanyi said.
"Fair enough," Ling QI said, moving to the edge of the icy peak. Hanyi leaped onto her back scrambling like a monkey to cling onto her shoulders. Another step carried her over the side, plunging down to land soundlessly on the snowy ledge below. Liao Zhu followed her down a moment later, leaving no more print in the powdery snow than she did.
"You have taken on a heavy burden indeed," Liao ZHu said conversationally as they began to walk, seeking the next location where the drop would only be a few score meters.
She glanced at him, smiling. "One must be ambitious to reach the peak."
"I merely find it terribly amusing, that you have taken your disparate patrons, and arrived at a place so like one of mine. The twisting paths of the moon are mysterious, no?"
"What's he talking about Sis?" Hanyi asked, resting her chin on Ling Qi's shoulder.
"Senior Brother follows the Bloody and Reflecting Moons, it's the latter he's referring too."
"Oh, the talky siblings," Hanyi said, squinting at him. "Huh, yeah, I guess Big Sis does talk alot."
"I'm so honored that my Junior Sister thinks so highly of my work," Ling Qi said dryly.
"It is the long and short of it though no?" Liao Zhu laughed. "Truly, I am vexed! To be surpassed in my own field, by a dabbling junior!"
"...I think only I had the right factors to bring about this conclusion," Ling Qi said. She thought about the things Xin had told her about fate and precognition, while she was recovering from her first tribulation. "The Great Spirits may not control the game, but they are certainly skilled at counting the cards."
"Mm, they may only give us opportunities. The course of the world remains in our choice," Liao Zhu said. His tone losing its humor. "It was your will and choices which have brought about your fate."
"It doesn't matter how many cheats you used and help you got getting into the vault. It's your hands that have to snatch the treasure," Ling Qi said wryly.
"Hoh, an irreverent way of looking at it."
"I have to be irreverent when I get the chance, or I just might spit in someone's eye during a fancy dinner."
"As if you would be so openly crass. My junior sister. I think you like the part of the elegant lady more than you admit."
"Yeah, my big sis is the best and most graceful Lady. Sis you shouldn't say gross stuff," Hanyi said. "You'll scare him away."
"I don't want to hear that from you!" Ling Qi exclaimed as they stepped from the ledge, fluttering down to the next, a copse of scraggly trees clinging to dirt and stone. They were a little ways above the old Argent Vent, Ling Qi thought. How nostalgic.
She rolled her eyes as Hanyi broke down giggling. Then she looked to Liao ZHu as they strode through the barren trees. "I have thought about that, you know. Wondered why the Reflecting never called to me, when I have chosen a path that seems to match it so well."
"Our patrons have only limited patience for sharing, Twin Moons more than most. But… I think it comes down to how you arrived where you are. In the end, though the destination might seem similar, the Way was different," Liao Zhu said.
She didn't arrive at Communication through high minded ideals or rationalism, or a devotion to proper order. She arrived there through desire, desperation, and want. "And what is the Reflecting Way?"
Liao Zhu considered. "Mutuality. I feel in your qi that you have touched this. But The Reflecting Moons come from a place of contemplation, of consideration and deep sympathy. A desire not for inner secrets, but the understanding of the interlocking gears of action, reaction, and causality in driving the great engine of fate forward."
Ling Qi considered as they descended, skipping, sliding, floating down a slope of loose gravel, only a bit less than completely sheer in angle. "I thin I can understand the distinction, but it does seem almost semantic."
"In the end, though there are eight faces, there is only one," Liao Zhu replied. He blinked out of existence, rematerializing on the outcropping below. Well, if he wanted to be boring about it. Ling Qi stopped being on the gravel, and started being on the cliff. It was as simple as that.
It was funny, how such things had become instinct. There really wasn't much difference between one location and another, so close together. Greater distance, greater disparity, natural lines of qi and human warding were still walls and seas and roads.
"Siblings are close, bring them together and you'll see as many similarities as differences."
"All division is an illusion, as the Dream sects might say," Laio Zhu replied, eyes twinkling.
On her back Hanyi huffed in annoyance at the interrupted slide.
"That's wrong," Ling Qi replied. "Or at least, distorts the definition of illusion to meaninglessness."
"Hoh? I did not know my junior sister was interested in theology," Liao Zhu said, raising an eyebrow. There was a faint scar, parting it know, skin not so much burned as bleached.
"It's division that gives meaning to anything at all," Ling Qi replied. "If all is one, then one is nothing. The Nameless chose division over Oneness."
She wasn't… quite sure where those words came from. She suspected though. A crescent smile beneath starry antlers.
Liao Zhu regarded her silently, there on the cliffside, crossing his arms. "Most would say the opposite, that they chose to combine themselves, to reach for one another in their divine solitude."
"...That is not oneness. It is choosing to be a pair of parts, rather than immutable divine wholes, uncomprehending. The mere act of reaching out, of seeking understanding refutes oneness, promotes multitude."
Ling Qi frowned, shaking her head. It didn't feel as if she was being controlled. More like…. There were simply foreign memories lodged in somewhere deep in her spirit, perhaps in her fused and broken meridian, mingled with the 'burned out' qi there.
"Junior Sister. Do you require assistance?"
Ling Qi put a hand to her temple, rubbing a circle there. "No, I don't think so. Just a lesson lodged in a little too deep. I have someone keeping an eye on me."
He regarded her gravely for a moment more. "Let it not be said that this champion would ever bear the crime of hypocrisy. I can not speak ill of hurling yourself into danger."
"That would be downright irresponsible of you," Ling Qi said dryly. "Your junior sister would be disappointed."
"And what a terrible curse that would be!" Liao Zhu laughed.
"...I do think it's wrong though. Nothing good comes from trying to erase division rather than bridging it," Ling Qi said. She considered the Wang's policy on the Cloud tribes. The visions of the Forever King, and the history of the Emerald Seas. Th dwindling remnants of the old tribes and Xia Ren's relentless scourging fire.
"Hm, on that I agree," Liao Zhu said. "I do not think that everyone could endure being me!"
Ling Qi laughed.
"...You guys are boring. I thought this'd be more exciting."
"Even if I was thinking such things right now, would I do them with my Junior Sister on my back like a bag of rice," Ling Qi replied, frowning.
"I'm not a bag of rice!" Hanyi complained. "I barely weigh anything at all!"
"That is not the problem here!"
"Hm, right now? Does the fierce Ogre-King need flee the hungry wraith? How complex this tale grows." Liao Zhu wondered.
"You stop encouraging her," Ling Qi said flatly. "Lets… lets just get down the mountain.
She stepped off the cliff and soared, but the words she had spoken still circled in her head. Rejection of oneness… that felt important, somehow. Maybe she should seek the Gaol again soon.
+1 Isolation XP
***
She parted ways with Senior Brother Liao at the base of the mountain. They had never been the closest of friends, but like Bian Ya and Ruan Shen, she was grateful for all of the tutelage she received. She might see him again in the future, when the time came for the war underground, but, that was day far away for now. She came to the second lowest of the Outer Sect Mountains soon enough, and found its central square. Where the offices and medical halls, the forges and the furnaces lay. It wasn;t so different from the entranceway of the Outer Sect all those years ago. The architecture a little more grand and fantastic, the disciples mightier, more obvious in their growing cultivation.
She found Han Jian under the petal heavy leaves of a cherry blossom tree. He sat with his hands folded over his stomach, his back against a golden tiger the size of a horse. The Cai made armor, a peer to her own dress before it was made more by Liming, striped with Han colors, shone in the sun. He was taller, not as tall as her, but it was much closer than any of her other peers aside from gan Guangli.
"Yo, long time huh? I didn't expect that letter, that's for sure," He said as she approached. He patted Heijin on the back, who gave a dissatisfied rumble as Han Jian stood.
"Well, I wish there had been more time, once you made it in, and we were no longer in competition," Ling Qi said, forgoing the bow that would have been respectful for one of his rank.
He hummed, and didn't comment on it. She glanced to the side letting her eyes rest patiently on the shadow of the cherry tree. In the moment of silence, there was an irritable growl, and a night black tiger melted from the shadow, its stripes a shimmering hazy gray that made her hard to look at.
Han Fang was behind the tree, leaning there. She gave the heavyset bald young man a nod. He returned it silently, smiling wryly down at his spirit beast.
"Told you hiding was silly," Han Jian said breezily. "You know the rest, though you might not recognize this big lug," Han Jian said, nodding to the tiger at his feet.
"My resplendence is unmistakable," the big cat rumbled.
"I don't know about that," Hanyi sniffed.
Heijin raised his head to glare imperiously. Hanyi stared him down with crossed arms.
Han Jian snorted. "Anyhow, the new face is Sidao, Fang's partner."
"A pleasure," Ling Qi said, tipping her head.
The dark tiger regarded her with a wary suspicion, as one predator to another, qi running dark under fur. Ling Qi tilted her head, letting a little darkness flow herself.
"Charmed," Sidao's voice was throaty and feminine, like a mature woman's, she laid down beside Heijin and began to groom one of her paws. Acting for all the world as if the little staredown hadn't happened.
Han Fang gave a raspy sigh, and made a sign with his hands.
"If I could not handle a little ego, I would be in deep trouble with my chosen path," Ling Qi said dryly.
"Hah, true," Han Jian said. He was smiling scrubbing a hand through his hair. She could almost imagine they were back in the Outer Sect.
…But there was an awkwardness there.
"You didn't say what this was about. I doubt you can afford to just be saying hi, busy woman that you are," Han Jian said. "I don't mind some business while we catch up."
Ling Qi sighed. He wasn't wrong. "It is good to see you again."
"It's nice," he agreed gently. "You're jumping up the ladder faster, but we're all grown up here."
She nodded. The fact was, speaking with the Eastern parts of the White Sky delegation had raised some issues. She…
[ ] Wanted to see to the possibility of adding an observer from the Golden Fields, more formally bringing them in and largely completing the set. (More difficult ask of Han Jian, adds additional complexity to Summit. Roll for degree of success if chosen.)
[ ] Wanted to him to raise the possibility with his own connections of whether experts on Twilight corruption could be enticed to speak with the Seared lands experts, as a bargaining chip for negotiations. (Easier ask of Han Jian, keeps Summit as is, leaves Golden Fields isolated from the project.)
- Location
- Space between realms
- Pronouns
- He
Holy shit. Just caught up as the update came out.
Its been a while. Is the vote open immediately?
Its been a while. Is the vote open immediately?
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
We are supposed to wait 2 hours so that people can talk about the vote before voting, but the vote will be open for a few days.
The second I think. Ultimately the foreign observers are an annoyance to us as much as anything, and if the Guo wanted to send someone they've had plenty of time. And getting into the whole Han/Guo tensions is the last thing we want.
The second gives us a straightforward simple reason and opportunity that makes use of the connections we've acquired over the years and justifies talking to Han Jian here.
The second gives us a straightforward simple reason and opportunity that makes use of the connections we've acquired over the years and justifies talking to Han Jian here.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
I would agree with option 2.
At the end of the day we aren't friends with Han Jian. We may be friendly, but its a bit much to ask him to stick his neck out for us. Option 2 keeps the door open (Which is what we want. Frankly we don't care about the golden fields we care about Lanlan and maybe Han Jian) and it adds more tools to our kit so that we can leverage things. There is a lot of juggling we have to do and option one adds to the pile while option 2 helps us keep the balls in the air.
At the end of the day we aren't friends with Han Jian. We may be friendly, but its a bit much to ask him to stick his neck out for us. Option 2 keeps the door open (Which is what we want. Frankly we don't care about the golden fields we care about Lanlan and maybe Han Jian) and it adds more tools to our kit so that we can leverage things. There is a lot of juggling we have to do and option one adds to the pile while option 2 helps us keep the balls in the air.
Is there a way that one of these options gets us Xiulan back? I really would like us to see her again.
[ ] Wanted to him to raise the possibility with his own connections of whether experts on Twilight corruption could be enticed to speak with the Seared lands experts, as a bargaining chip for negotiations. (Easier ask of Han Jian, keeps Summit as is, leaves Golden Fields isolated from the project.)
Option 1 seems more like completing the set for completing the set's sake, this feels more constructive.
Option 1 seems more like completing the set for completing the set's sake, this feels more constructive.
NoxOfUmbra
Shadow of the night
- Location
- Colombia, South América
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Wanted to him to raise the possibility with his own connections of whether experts on Twilight corruption could be enticed to speak with the Seared lands experts, as a bargaining chip for negotiations. (Easier ask of Han Jian, keeps Summit as is, leaves Golden Fields isolated from the project.)
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- Location
- United States of America
We have too many moving parts in the negotiations as is. Too many cooks in the kitchen. And, as is often the case, the more moving parts there are, the more likely that a failure will occur.
Let's keep it simpler and easier and leave the Golden Fields out of the picture. It's option 2 for me.
Let's keep it simpler and easier and leave the Golden Fields out of the picture. It's option 2 for me.