Wait until we tell her that there is an oldie with Hui tech trying to hurt the ES. Then LQ can check that off the list.
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.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
...wait, holy shit, was Yrs foreshadowing the whole time? All the way back when, the General warned Ling Qi about, more or less, taking in old garbage and defining your Way by it. This was entirely in character and she obviously meant, "Anything that's not the new garbage."
But now here we have a villain who has taken in and defined themselves by Old Garbage and been warped and twisted by it into sabotaging and trying to do great harm to the Empire, the Emerald Seas, and countless innocents.
SWD is the kind of thing Xia Ren fears/feared we'd become. Which, again, makes me wonder whether Yrs was laughing into his sleeve about it back then.
But now here we have a villain who has taken in and defined themselves by Old Garbage and been warped and twisted by it into sabotaging and trying to do great harm to the Empire, the Emerald Seas, and countless innocents.
SWD is the kind of thing Xia Ren fears/feared we'd become. Which, again, makes me wonder whether Yrs was laughing into his sleeve about it back then.
- Location
- Space between realms
- Pronouns
- He
She should be glad then, that we have a perfectly good example of what NOT to do. This is the equivalent of telling a kid not to do drugs and only after seeing a celebrity before and after in person does the kid understand.
- Location
- Greece
I mean, I imagine the quote you are replying to has an implicit "at Ling Qi" in it, considering the context, so I think that still would not be crossing that off the list.
It would piss her off so much they'll be able to see her from the Celestial Peaks though. Just not at Ling Qi.
I for one approve of Meng Diu teaching Ling Qi new swears.
Hmm. Obviously final judgement is pending the next update, but things sure feel like the spy subplot is heading for an imminent finale. With an in-game timeline of tomorrow even. Which, hey, exciting! But it's also a pretty big bummer if true, since it means there won't be any place for Boundaries Untrodden. Was really hoping the spy crud would stretch into the fourth, and final, week of the summit so we'd get a chance at cultivating it.
I guess... maybe we could wrap up the current project tonight in the time we have to rest/prepare for the big day tomorrow, and then live-fire cultivate Boundaries Untrodden during the op? Wind Thief is the kind of art that could maybe handle advancing in that way. But I don't rate it likely.
Again, we'll have to see how Meng Diu's contributions to our knowledge change things up, but everything is pointing to a final showdown in the immediate future. If the spy arc is out of the picture, Boundaries Untrodden will no longer be a viable selection for the last cultivation project slot of the summit. The project needs opportunities for demonstration. We're already in the hole on that front with Wind Thief, actually; the last tech we unlocked/improved didn't get shown.
The really awkward thing is we don't have any upcoming plans, post-summit, that are a good fit for Boundaries Untrodden. The little dungeon delves are a poor fit, because they're team-oriented exercises and Boundaries Untrodden is not suitable for that context. None of the liminal exploration targets fit: Burrowing Behemoth is locked in for a different art, and there's no reason to expect stealth and barrier bypass to be useful; Bleeding Mountain isn't anything like a priority, could be over half a year before we get around to it, if even that quickly. Story repeats with basically everything else.
The summit was the most coherent place to cultivate Boundaries Untrodden we ever got, and it's going to be a damn shame if the opportunity slipped from our fingers because of meta info blackouts and the player base at large being allowed to operate on false assumptions.
Here's hoping the spy arc isn't actually closing in on its conclusion here; I'm just not sure how it could possibly be anything else. Curiously awaiting the next update.
Hmm. Obviously final judgement is pending the next update, but things sure feel like the spy subplot is heading for an imminent finale. With an in-game timeline of tomorrow even. Which, hey, exciting! But it's also a pretty big bummer if true, since it means there won't be any place for Boundaries Untrodden. Was really hoping the spy crud would stretch into the fourth, and final, week of the summit so we'd get a chance at cultivating it.
I guess... maybe we could wrap up the current project tonight in the time we have to rest/prepare for the big day tomorrow, and then live-fire cultivate Boundaries Untrodden during the op? Wind Thief is the kind of art that could maybe handle advancing in that way. But I don't rate it likely.
Again, we'll have to see how Meng Diu's contributions to our knowledge change things up, but everything is pointing to a final showdown in the immediate future. If the spy arc is out of the picture, Boundaries Untrodden will no longer be a viable selection for the last cultivation project slot of the summit. The project needs opportunities for demonstration. We're already in the hole on that front with Wind Thief, actually; the last tech we unlocked/improved didn't get shown.
The really awkward thing is we don't have any upcoming plans, post-summit, that are a good fit for Boundaries Untrodden. The little dungeon delves are a poor fit, because they're team-oriented exercises and Boundaries Untrodden is not suitable for that context. None of the liminal exploration targets fit: Burrowing Behemoth is locked in for a different art, and there's no reason to expect stealth and barrier bypass to be useful; Bleeding Mountain isn't anything like a priority, could be over half a year before we get around to it, if even that quickly. Story repeats with basically everything else.
The summit was the most coherent place to cultivate Boundaries Untrodden we ever got, and it's going to be a damn shame if the opportunity slipped from our fingers because of meta info blackouts and the player base at large being allowed to operate on false assumptions.
Here's hoping the spy arc isn't actually closing in on its conclusion here; I'm just not sure how it could possibly be anything else. Curiously awaiting the next update.
So, after the Summit, we'll be having an adventure with a member of a Bai clan (Meizhen) on a dark place with a pool of still water (Cathedral). We'll also move in a group together with Meizhen and Suyin.
You know what art project would have fitted that delve quite nicely?
SNR's Lake Hei is Wide!
Seriously, i know I have said so before, but that's the root of all this awkwardness with Boundaries.
Xia Anxi's mind heist was the perfectly tailored adventure to complete Boundaries.
And we had a pretty nice adventure just around the corner for Lake Hei.
But no. The "If we don't do Lake Hei right now we'll never finish SNR and the art will be lost forever!" argument won.
Fearmongering of the worst kind.
Well, there was also a weird argument that the chosen art project would alter SWD's plans. So if we chose Lake Hei, there would be some wide area attack on the Summit to defend from. That wasn't the case
So now here we are, with all the good opportunities to finish Boundaries gone.
Frankly, if we can't take the appropriate chances to pair projects with fitting arcs, we deserve to have awkward leftover projects like this.
Oliver_Twister
Idea-Man, He Who Shits Ideas
- Location
- West Africa
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think there's still a place for Boundaries Untrodden. I'm pretty sure we'll get some Huisheng plots after the summit, even when we're cooling down.
Edit: Also, art visibility isn't a LFWT only problem. It's with all our arts.
Edit: Also, art visibility isn't a LFWT only problem. It's with all our arts.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Yeah, it's not as if this is the tenth consecutive month we've neglected the Art as a whole. We literally did Four Winds Joy as part of Turn 18, and we're in Turn 19 now. Yes, Turn 19 is really, really long because it's a grand finale, but we shouldn't let that warp our understanding of where things actually are.
- Location
- United States of America, Michigan
Honestly I feel arts are a mistake overall since no one is ever happy with them and can always tempt people into complaining about past votes and how they totally didn't work out at all
- Pronouns
- They/Them
No? There's really not actual alternative from... having Arts. It's the foundation of both the in and out of universe mechanics of things. It's led to all sorts of great story beats. People arguing about it is down to people being people.
Yeah, almost all of them are useless for the diplomacy stuff. We need to do a bunch of fighting and fief exploration after the summit.
In fairness, that logic for SNR project getting shown via some wide area attack on the Summit has it's place. That place is just at the end of the summit, or near to it. It could have never happened where we actually picked the art, because that kind of incident would have been too disruptive at that point in time. Circumstances like we're facing done right now? Yeah, that's when a group defense art could plausibly have narrative room to show its stuff.
Silver lining, at least SNR is definitively dead now, and we don't have to suffer through the arguments surrounding it anymore. We'll get to suffer through arguments surrounding new things!
I'm not sure you're appreciating how much Stuff™️ we have to get to. It's true we're overdue a hang out with Huisheng, but who knows when we'll even have a chance to slot that in somewhere, and tacking on an art obligation to that makes it even more difficult. And Boundaries Untrodden isn't even well-suited to being demonstrated with Huisheng! Not really.
Again, yes, it's a problem with all our arts. That doesn't make our fumbling less of an issue; it makes it more of one. We had a very rare opportunity to demo the art right, and it's looking like we completely whiffed on it. That's bad! The solution is really damn simple though- simply do not do that. I don't get the argument to, like, not worry about it because everything sucks anyway. It doesn't seem, to me, to be a sensible response to "Hey, we messed up this thing we could have easily not messed up."
This is the kind of thing we should start actually paying mind to, and continue doing so moving forwards. Not blindly trusting that "yrs has a plan" despite all context pointing to difficulties.
Like I mentioned, that project basically didn't manage to actually hit the page. It's narratively invisible, which isn't great.
But that's also somewhat besides the point, imo. It's not just the art, but the specifics of what the art is doing in the project that matters, here. Stealth and obstacle bypass. Circumstances where those things really matter, really get put to the test, are really rare. It's about cultivating space for a particular kind of narrative and losing the opportunity to do so when appropriate.
There's no replacement on the table, that I can see.
you are onto something here. Xia Ren has probably dealt with people like Still Waters Deeping her entire carer (and before according to Ling Qi's vision of Xia Ren's past).
Here's hoping giving Xia Ren an excuse to kill someone will make her happy with Ling Qi
- Location
- Staring into the void
What if it's more a case of the Meng have a "stockpile of nukes", and they're seeing LQ playing with "uranium" in her "garage", and then she's talking with hostile forces.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
Yan's defenses being bypassable by us was frankly a skill issue.
A miracle of us still having survival instincts, maybe.
Is there any uranium in the destiny-verse?
- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
Meteorites, probably.
- Location
- iTALY
A yes, the Violet Art of "Explosive Concentrate Heaven Breaker of Uncleaness Origin"
(In normal words: a Dirty Bomb)
There is antimatter(star stuff) and matter(world stuff). One of the twin emperor used the stuff to power his machines.
I think that's closer to anti-matter.
But on the other hand, unfiltered stellar-QI is like high-energy radiation. So probably the analogy fails, because star-stuff is its own thing with some anti-matter like properties and some radiation like properties. Still. I want my Uranium!
Chicken?!
"You know, you know I've been thinking I should warn you off that girl, but she's doing pretty good work here, you know?"
Xuan Shi sat in the inner garden of the building set aside for the Xuan clan, cross legged upon a flat stone in the center of the pond that was the centerpiece of the garden. His hat, coat and staff were set aside by the door leading inside, allowing him to feel the cold moisture in the air on his skin.
Kongyou draped their phantom weight over his shoulders, their narrow features close to his, glittering black eyes twinkling and the needelike fangs between their lips exposed by their grin. "Going into our realm, seeing the echoes… and she's still pushed out those claims of yours huh? Man, so many people are gonna die. These mountains will be a butcher's shop."
"To stand astride history and scream stop is no virtue. She nor I are weights great enough to halt its advance, only to tilt one way or the other," Xuan Shi replied placidly, his hands cupped in front of him, his thick arms tensed with the immense weight they held.
The weight that appears as no more than a tiny white egg, held in his palms.
"Hoooo, absolving yourself of responsibility? You aren't usually so cowardly, Shi," Kongyou wondered.
"To take responsibility for the whole of the world is not bravery, but arrogance," he replied placidly. This was a spar they had undergone many times now, in one form or another. He breathed out, and the sheen of moisture glistening on his skin flowed away, rivulets running between lines of muscle and then across stone, dribbling back into the pond. He pushed away cold, and drew in heat, gathering it in his palms.
"And the future has changed. There is much bloodshed and strife yet… but there is an end now. An end aside from the grave's silence."
"You reallllllly think any of this is gonna hold?" Kongyou weeded playfully, their arms draped over his shoulders, reaching for the egg… Sparks the color of granite snapped and bit at the nightmares fingertips, stopping them dead. "C'moooon Shi, I want to help too."
"The words being spoken here hold weight. Perhaps they might buckle or crack, but they are not wind. This one can feel them taking hold. Even those against have more and more trouble being wholly dismissive."
"If one side thinks the other actually has something of value, it only encourages them to take it more. You know that, don't you Shi," Kongyou crooned. "How every large group of people acts. When its just individuals, sailing in their little boats, one or two swimming where they can be absorbed, the shoals can ignore them. When it's a competing shoal, when the food and living space is at stake, where does it always end?"
Xuan Shi was silent. He fixed his attention on the egg in his hands. Kongyou's hands hovered over his.
"C'mon Shi, let me help. You know this little one is more aligned toward me. Its not like I could harm it if I wanted too, with a lineage like that," Kongyou murmured.
"I know no such thing. Darkness is not fundamentally a thing of nightmares," Xuan Shi said. "Nor is sacrifice. Sad things may still be bright, in the end."
"Stick in the mud," Kongyou sighed. "...It really is exquisite, watching all this set up. Its going to be amazing, when it falls apart. I wonder what her face will look like when it does."
"In failure, she will endure. However, though sails might be torn, though the hull may need patched, thou are wrong. This ship is not made to sink," Xuan Shi said. "...It cannot be impossible, this thing called peace. It can exist, if those involved can be bothered to try."
"...I feel bad for you, you know. I keep trying to soften the landing, but you just keep climbing higher up that cliff, you know?" Kongyou said softly.
"This one is pleased with your sympathy, even if it is misplaced."
Kongyou bit his ear, he twitched. "Tch, there's only so much bittersweet I can take you idiot. I want a balanced meal."
Xuan Shi felt a pulse in the flow of energy wrapped so tight around the egg in his hands.
Crack
Tiny, hair thin, the cracks spiderwebbed out across the egg, shard pushing upward and outward, the little beak within punching a hole.
The inside of the eggshell was the color of the midnight sky, down to the glittering stars, and chilled his flesh where the fallen fragments touched his hands. The hole widened, the cracks widened, the egg split apart, and the creature within spilled awkwardly into his hands
Soft blue white down, matted down and sticky with the remains of the egg, bits of shell still clinging to it. Large eyes black as void peering up at him from a too large head as the chick awkwardly clambered to her feet his hand, wobbling back and forth on unsteady legs.
"...Ah, fair greetings to you, on this your day of birth, little one," Xuan Shi murmured. All his life, he had been denied a companion. None of the new generation wanted him, his unshelled kin had their webs of family, that he was not part of. Kongyou… he had thought at first that he had something, but it was a lie. Even if he regretted it not, even if he still staunchly believed it might be made real.
This was different. It was simple, pure. No deception, no exhausting social maneuvering. Already he could feel the infant spirits cool, dark qi reaching out to him for connection. He reached back, so tentative, cool stone, the sheltering shade of the mountain, sturdy and immovable. Safety.
He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as it was accepted. He felt the small, cold mote of qi nestle into his dantian, bonded and bound.
"Oh wow, raggedy little fella, huh," Kongyou cooed. Still hanging over his shoulder the nightmares long fingers remained splayed over the shrouding qi that remained in his palms. "Guess birds be like that though. Ain't you a cute…"
The chick's head tilted further to the side, its down covered behind wiggled back and forth, and it leaped. Xuan Shi blinked. Kongyou blinked. The chick's beak opened, revealing its inner surface and throat to be lined with tiny, razor sharp teeth, and a blot of inky blackness in the back of her throat that pulled on the eye.
The chick's beak sheared through Xuan Shi's dense qi, and clamped down on the nightmares' immaterial fingertip as if it were real.
Kongyou let out a shocked screech, like a crickets song turned to pain and dispersed immediately. The chick dropped back into Xuan Shi's palm, a little strip of slowly dissolving dreamflesh in her beak. She threw her head back and swallowed, chirping happily up at Xuan Shi with multicolored blood staining her beak.
"....Not cute at all!" Kongyou complained, ensconced firmly now behind his eyes. "What the hells!"
"...This one would not say that. Perhaps one will be more careful, where they put their fingers," Xuan Shi said and very carefully, with much reinforcement, brushed his thumb over the chick's head.
She chirped, flapping damp, stubby little wings, bobbling in his palm.
What to name her, he wondered.
AN: Going a little out of order, but this one should probably be public, for reasons.
Xuan Shi sat in the inner garden of the building set aside for the Xuan clan, cross legged upon a flat stone in the center of the pond that was the centerpiece of the garden. His hat, coat and staff were set aside by the door leading inside, allowing him to feel the cold moisture in the air on his skin.
Kongyou draped their phantom weight over his shoulders, their narrow features close to his, glittering black eyes twinkling and the needelike fangs between their lips exposed by their grin. "Going into our realm, seeing the echoes… and she's still pushed out those claims of yours huh? Man, so many people are gonna die. These mountains will be a butcher's shop."
"To stand astride history and scream stop is no virtue. She nor I are weights great enough to halt its advance, only to tilt one way or the other," Xuan Shi replied placidly, his hands cupped in front of him, his thick arms tensed with the immense weight they held.
The weight that appears as no more than a tiny white egg, held in his palms.
"Hoooo, absolving yourself of responsibility? You aren't usually so cowardly, Shi," Kongyou wondered.
"To take responsibility for the whole of the world is not bravery, but arrogance," he replied placidly. This was a spar they had undergone many times now, in one form or another. He breathed out, and the sheen of moisture glistening on his skin flowed away, rivulets running between lines of muscle and then across stone, dribbling back into the pond. He pushed away cold, and drew in heat, gathering it in his palms.
"And the future has changed. There is much bloodshed and strife yet… but there is an end now. An end aside from the grave's silence."
"You reallllllly think any of this is gonna hold?" Kongyou weeded playfully, their arms draped over his shoulders, reaching for the egg… Sparks the color of granite snapped and bit at the nightmares fingertips, stopping them dead. "C'moooon Shi, I want to help too."
"The words being spoken here hold weight. Perhaps they might buckle or crack, but they are not wind. This one can feel them taking hold. Even those against have more and more trouble being wholly dismissive."
"If one side thinks the other actually has something of value, it only encourages them to take it more. You know that, don't you Shi," Kongyou crooned. "How every large group of people acts. When its just individuals, sailing in their little boats, one or two swimming where they can be absorbed, the shoals can ignore them. When it's a competing shoal, when the food and living space is at stake, where does it always end?"
Xuan Shi was silent. He fixed his attention on the egg in his hands. Kongyou's hands hovered over his.
"C'mon Shi, let me help. You know this little one is more aligned toward me. Its not like I could harm it if I wanted too, with a lineage like that," Kongyou murmured.
"I know no such thing. Darkness is not fundamentally a thing of nightmares," Xuan Shi said. "Nor is sacrifice. Sad things may still be bright, in the end."
"Stick in the mud," Kongyou sighed. "...It really is exquisite, watching all this set up. Its going to be amazing, when it falls apart. I wonder what her face will look like when it does."
"In failure, she will endure. However, though sails might be torn, though the hull may need patched, thou are wrong. This ship is not made to sink," Xuan Shi said. "...It cannot be impossible, this thing called peace. It can exist, if those involved can be bothered to try."
"...I feel bad for you, you know. I keep trying to soften the landing, but you just keep climbing higher up that cliff, you know?" Kongyou said softly.
"This one is pleased with your sympathy, even if it is misplaced."
Kongyou bit his ear, he twitched. "Tch, there's only so much bittersweet I can take you idiot. I want a balanced meal."
Xuan Shi felt a pulse in the flow of energy wrapped so tight around the egg in his hands.
Crack
Tiny, hair thin, the cracks spiderwebbed out across the egg, shard pushing upward and outward, the little beak within punching a hole.
The inside of the eggshell was the color of the midnight sky, down to the glittering stars, and chilled his flesh where the fallen fragments touched his hands. The hole widened, the cracks widened, the egg split apart, and the creature within spilled awkwardly into his hands
Soft blue white down, matted down and sticky with the remains of the egg, bits of shell still clinging to it. Large eyes black as void peering up at him from a too large head as the chick awkwardly clambered to her feet his hand, wobbling back and forth on unsteady legs.
"...Ah, fair greetings to you, on this your day of birth, little one," Xuan Shi murmured. All his life, he had been denied a companion. None of the new generation wanted him, his unshelled kin had their webs of family, that he was not part of. Kongyou… he had thought at first that he had something, but it was a lie. Even if he regretted it not, even if he still staunchly believed it might be made real.
This was different. It was simple, pure. No deception, no exhausting social maneuvering. Already he could feel the infant spirits cool, dark qi reaching out to him for connection. He reached back, so tentative, cool stone, the sheltering shade of the mountain, sturdy and immovable. Safety.
He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as it was accepted. He felt the small, cold mote of qi nestle into his dantian, bonded and bound.
"Oh wow, raggedy little fella, huh," Kongyou cooed. Still hanging over his shoulder the nightmares long fingers remained splayed over the shrouding qi that remained in his palms. "Guess birds be like that though. Ain't you a cute…"
The chick's head tilted further to the side, its down covered behind wiggled back and forth, and it leaped. Xuan Shi blinked. Kongyou blinked. The chick's beak opened, revealing its inner surface and throat to be lined with tiny, razor sharp teeth, and a blot of inky blackness in the back of her throat that pulled on the eye.
The chick's beak sheared through Xuan Shi's dense qi, and clamped down on the nightmares' immaterial fingertip as if it were real.
Kongyou let out a shocked screech, like a crickets song turned to pain and dispersed immediately. The chick dropped back into Xuan Shi's palm, a little strip of slowly dissolving dreamflesh in her beak. She threw her head back and swallowed, chirping happily up at Xuan Shi with multicolored blood staining her beak.
"....Not cute at all!" Kongyou complained, ensconced firmly now behind his eyes. "What the hells!"
"...This one would not say that. Perhaps one will be more careful, where they put their fingers," Xuan Shi said and very carefully, with much reinforcement, brushed his thumb over the chick's head.
She chirped, flapping damp, stubby little wings, bobbling in his palm.
What to name her, he wondered.
AN: Going a little out of order, but this one should probably be public, for reasons.
Less than a minute out of the shell and already fucking shit up. The Crone approves.
The White Sky delegation is going to take one look at the birb and go
"This ship is not made to sink."
XUAN SHI KNOWS WHATS UP. XUAN SHI WINS THE HUSBANDO WARS BY BECOMING A HOT DAD.
XUAN SHI KNOWS WHATS UP. XUAN SHI WINS THE HUSBANDO WARS BY BECOMING A HOT DAD.