We can call it something other than "hard." Which has always been a property closely related to "brittle."
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
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PowerLeca
Rapidly aging
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
[X] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."
I'm not helping but at least I'm participating!
I'm torn because I don't care that much about formations, not because they're not good and useful and cool, but because I'm just meh about reading, "and then LQ spent a long time carefully chiseling."
I want Jiao to get his groove back, but I am also viscerally aware that 99.9% of that work is his internally, and fixing another person is not our responsibility.
Jiao strikes me as the kind of prickly that needs a long time for someone to worm their way into his confidence/ respect/notice, and we didn't choose that, so I doubt our ability to do much other than just plink against his outer shell. Possible? Yeah, and there have been good arguments for both options having some kind of impact, but I don't want to hang my hopes for the update on someone else's reaction.
So what do we get personally out of these options?
If I decouple the boundaries answer from formations specifically, it still actually fits our Way very well generally. The boundary between Winter and Spring, between cultivator and spirit, between family and community, between art and truth and lies.
We can get potentially some good philosophy on this subject, probably wrapped in the frame of formations.
The second option I like because it's confident and forceful, but I don't like how it's repetitive. It was brought up that Jiao was likely also feeling bright and confident back in green, so while this statement feels like a strong thrust, it may be as likely to backfire on us (Jiao with the heart demon uno reverse). LQ really does need to continue firming up her stances, though, and what better way than standing up for herself vs a prism elder?
[X] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."
I'm not helping but at least I'm participating!
I'm torn because I don't care that much about formations, not because they're not good and useful and cool, but because I'm just meh about reading, "and then LQ spent a long time carefully chiseling."
I want Jiao to get his groove back, but I am also viscerally aware that 99.9% of that work is his internally, and fixing another person is not our responsibility.
Jiao strikes me as the kind of prickly that needs a long time for someone to worm their way into his confidence/ respect/notice, and we didn't choose that, so I doubt our ability to do much other than just plink against his outer shell. Possible? Yeah, and there have been good arguments for both options having some kind of impact, but I don't want to hang my hopes for the update on someone else's reaction.
So what do we get personally out of these options?
If I decouple the boundaries answer from formations specifically, it still actually fits our Way very well generally. The boundary between Winter and Spring, between cultivator and spirit, between family and community, between art and truth and lies.
We can get potentially some good philosophy on this subject, probably wrapped in the frame of formations.
The second option I like because it's confident and forceful, but I don't like how it's repetitive. It was brought up that Jiao was likely also feeling bright and confident back in green, so while this statement feels like a strong thrust, it may be as likely to backfire on us (Jiao with the heart demon uno reverse). LQ really does need to continue firming up her stances, though, and what better way than standing up for herself vs a prism elder?
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Except... it fits. The harder they get, the more brittle they become. "hard" is part of the damage that one takes from such things, in addition to being a form of strength, drawn at terrible cost from the forge.
There simply is no difference between wisdom and scars.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
I'm going to go with this. I like the idea of us bringing it up again, just kinda showing that we remember pretty much everything he ever told us. That he had that big of an impact that even now we remember the questions he posed to us.
I'm going to go with this. I like the idea of us bringing it up again, just kinda showing that we remember pretty much everything he ever told us. That he had that big of an impact that even now we remember the questions he posed to us.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
For those who aren't read in, the whole "Hard Man Making Hard Decisions" thing is largely the whole meme where some person in charge always takes the morally bankrupt approach that apparently solves their problems at a tremendous cost in order to contrast the Heroes who Find A Better Way. It's a position that tickles the lizard brain by going "It's the action that is least acceptable by commonly held morality and that means it's hard to make." Though you'll notice that these "Hard Men" (Or women) aren't actually the ones paying the price for it usually, but they feel bad about it because it's Not Something Good People Do and therefore it has to be right.
It's effectively a narrative shortcut to creating a villain with good intentions but tends to fall apart if you put too much scrutiny on it. But the stories where HMMHD are a thing aren't usually intended to stand up to scrutiny, but be a good pulp story that tickles the lizard brain in a good way.
That's kind of why it's easy to get to that point, in a setting where strength binds you closer and closer to a narrative of your own design. You'll note that such people rarely reach the Uttermost Peak of Cultivation though. Transgressing Norms for its own sake rather than in service to another cause tends to be a dead end.
It's effectively a narrative shortcut to creating a villain with good intentions but tends to fall apart if you put too much scrutiny on it. But the stories where HMMHD are a thing aren't usually intended to stand up to scrutiny, but be a good pulp story that tickles the lizard brain in a good way.
That's kind of why it's easy to get to that point, in a setting where strength binds you closer and closer to a narrative of your own design. You'll note that such people rarely reach the Uttermost Peak of Cultivation though. Transgressing Norms for its own sake rather than in service to another cause tends to be a dead end.
- Location
- US
[X] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
[ ] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."
The problem I have with this is that it's not like there's no one else. We've explicitly been told that others have walked our path, and we can't really declare that they were wrong in their attempts.
Rather, it's just that the task is so great that it will require persistent work across multiple lifetimes. And here and now, Ling Qi is the one with the opportunity to persist at it.
So I think I have to go with:
[X] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
The "was" is of course a jab at Elder Grouchy McBroken, but the "where things and people meet" is where we will persist rather than giving up.
The problem I have with this is that it's not like there's no one else. We've explicitly been told that others have walked our path, and we can't really declare that they were wrong in their attempts.
Rather, it's just that the task is so great that it will require persistent work across multiple lifetimes. And here and now, Ling Qi is the one with the opportunity to persist at it.
So I think I have to go with:
[X] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
The "was" is of course a jab at Elder Grouchy McBroken, but the "where things and people meet" is where we will persist rather than giving up.
I mean for the white sky connection there literally is nobody else. Qi is the lynchpin to the entire diplomatic endeavor with her unique place in both cultures. It was started by her and is only possible because of her. To the point where Yan Renshu justified his assassination attempt on Qi by rightfully pointing out that the diplomacy project would likely die with her.
PowerLeca
Rapidly aging
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
[X] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right.
[X] spoke. "I can finally answer your question. Boundaries and borders, liminal things, where things and people meet, that is my study, what was yours, Elder?"
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] spoke. "I have already said it. Your words were true. But I do not regret it, because it needs to be done, and no one else would do it right."