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

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Apart from the Savage Seas, other provinces are about to meet foreign polities. Ignoring the Golden Fields and the Emerald Seas, the Western Territories will touch base with the Thousand Princes sooner or later.

If we can settle the summit peacefully, and the Guo can learn from us and so something similar, it'll put pressure on the Sun to also do the same. Or not. But the possibility remains.

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PowerLeca said:
This update has put us in front of the first hill of the roller coaster, and we're strapped in!

Advice from an old person: Never lend anything that you couldn't lose forever.

That was the non-answer of someone who thinks it likely he'll never see those gauntlets again, but if she comes back at all it's worth it.
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A sidestory about Xuan Shi building Defensive Gauntlets 2.0, now with WS runes, Dream, and Void, would be so cool. ...I feel bad now. I want his gauntlets to be destroyed.
 
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Yeah, but the Twisted Pines are people of the WS and the Wall, a region new to the Sun. Meanwhile, the Thousand Princes heavily resemble the Jungle barbarians in their arts.

So that situation would be more similar to the ES meeting the WS and mistaking them for cloud nomads.
 
Oliver_Twister said:
Apart from the Savage Seas, other provinces are about to meet foreign polities. Ignoring the Golden Fields and the Emerald Seas, the Western Territories will touch base with the Thousand Princes sooner or later.

If we can settle the summit peacefully, and the Guo can learn from us and so something similar, it'll put pressure on the Sun to also do the same. Or not. But the possibility remains.

Edit:


A sidestory about Xuan Shi building Defensive Gauntlets 2.0, now with WS runes, Dream, and Void, would be so cool. ...I feel bad now. I want his gauntlets to be destroyed.
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He's gonna have to regem his slots god what a pain.
 
So, thought.

The duchess is probably trying to stay as absolutely disengaged from foreign policy as she can. She knows with the Bai who her partner in revolution is, and I think she trusts her to keep REVOLUTION positive. She knows with the Sun that applying REVOLUTION to the rulers in that province is arguably positive from a number of angles.

So she's not going to burn the world down just because she built herself to do so, not yet, not with these engagements.

But she's really not capable of interacting with anything and not being what she is, so she can guess that if she gets engaged with these foreigners and their government structure, guess what? REVOLUTION.

So she pushes it off on her daughter, it's her thing. Success means her daughter is on course to end her before she becomes too dangerous to everything, failure means they go away and she doesn't have to engage.

It's really the only way she can spare them. But she's doing it.
 
Yun said:
I'm going to laugh if Xia Ren's opinion of Ling Qi is sufficiently positive that her report to Shenhua is that the Baroness has potential for command, and Shenhua runs with it leading to Ling Qi being put in charge of a White Plume squad for the war arc. :V
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Or remember that her information on LQ was incomplete, decide to rectify that, and assign a White Plume to shadow us.
 
TehChron said:
The funny thing is that Ling Qis already prepped an independent avenue for the Han to get in touch with those Easterner powers during this summit, denying the Gao a monopoly on that avenue in a similar vein to what she and Renxiang themselves are setting up

The Gao are not going to be fans of hers or the Cai, moving forward

Its actually kind of remarkable how much of an impact Ling Qi is stirring in the geopolitics of the Empire right now through relatively innocuous actions rippling out
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Yeah. All those little dominos that we've been setting up are almost ready to knock down.

Glau said:
So she's not going to burn the world down just because she built herself to do so, not yet, not with these engagements.
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Keyword: yet.
Scary Dommy-mommy is scary

Oliver_Twister said:
Apart from the Savage Seas, other provinces are about to meet foreign polities. Ignoring the Golden Fields and the Emerald Seas, the Western Territories will touch base with the Thousand Princes sooner or later.

If we can settle the summit peacefully, and the Guo can learn from us and so something similar, it'll put pressure on the Sun to also do the same. Or not. But the possibility remains.
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Yeah, three is a pattern. Even if the Guo don't like it, they probably will end up making some sort of 'positive' agreement with the Polar Nations, even a non-aggression pact would make the Sun's position harder.

However, that's not necessarily a good thing. They've been pushed back into a corner (Lilling is proof of this), and the last time King Sun was in a corner he did something...drastic.
 
TehChron said:
The funny thing is that Ling Qis already prepped an independent avenue for the Han to get in touch with those Easterner powers during this summit, denying the Gao a monopoly on that avenue in a similar vein to what she and Renxiang themselves are setting up

The Gao are not going to be fans of hers or the Cai, moving forward

Its actually kind of remarkable how much of an impact Ling Qi is stirring in the geopolitics of the Empire right now through relatively innocuous actions rippling out
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Knowing that "gao" is the Japanese representation of tiger sounds made this post way more confusing. "Gao... Tiger? *squints* Why would the Han be upset? Oh, wait, the Gu."
 
Yeah, the guys who live on Daddy Scorponock.

Honestly, what a cool decision to have a Duke have an Itinerant Court. Like the Malaysians had at one point.
 
gee, wouldn't it suck if our bond to Sixiang was sundered as they saved us? But then Xuan Shi's gift gives Sixiang small spaces to hide themselves in and survive? But they're stuck recovering in the gloves for awhile?

it'd be fitting that it's not only ourselves getting mauled when we jump into situations like this. We had a whole conflict about this when we allowed the Ith'ia to stab us, we're not the only one that gets hurt when we get mauled. This would be a literal extension of that.

it'd give us more reason to study Liminal Carver stuff, to try and help Sixiang get out from the gloves. It'd be a deep not-only-personal wound that would feel real bad, but that we'll have to confront because we're not gonna stop. It'd give Six even more independence while also keeping them growing through exposure to other cultivators.

and of course we'd also get a personal injury haha. No escaping the Crucible unscathed!
 
gee that sensory Art we're working on sure seems sensitive. Sure would be a shame if it got seared into an "Always On" mode that we've already been told is rude and we just noted would be a major problem of the technique if we couldn't control it.

We'd have to get some sort of sensory dampening talisman to cover our eyes with. And they'd probably still shine from behind the veil with our Art being stuck in the On position. That'd be an inconvenient injury with judicious foreshadowing and a cool aesthetic behind it c:
 
yrsillar said:
"I am told that I am very difficult to kill," Ling Qi said. "I'll simply have to be even more so. How will I know where to go, Shu Yue?"

Shu Yue regarded her silently for a long moment. Their pallid face twisted into a small grimace as their fingers tapped against one another with a twitching energy. It stopped when they reached up to the dark hair that flowed down their shoulders, and wound a single strand around their pinky.

A jerk of their wrist yanked the strand free and it writhed like a serpent, knotting tight around their finger. The other end of strand writhed toward her as Shu Yue extended their hand. Ling Qi didn't need words to understand. She extended her own hand into Shu Yue's palm, and too long fingers closed around her wrist. She let out a small hiss as the hair knotted around her finger and punched through her skin, anchoring in the tissue below.

"Simply follow the thread," Shu Yue said.

"...I am familiar with that," Ling Qi said quietly. She wondered just how much Shu Yue knew?
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Shu Yue guiltily thinking about the imagery in Ling Qi's Dark Song tribulation, that used black threads digging into flesh to represent her trauma around connections and control between people: "Shit, this is going to look bad isn't it?"
 
Oliver_Twister said:
A sidestory about Xuan Shi building Defensive Gauntlets 2.0, now with WS runes, Dream, and Void, would be so cool. ...I feel bad now. I want his gauntlets to be destroyed.
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Basically no crafter/engineer would let an existing solution stop them from making shiny new toys. But we've seen that talismans can incorporate old things into them, so then surviving wouldn't stop Xuan Shi from upgrading them with all of his fancy new toys.
 
yrsillar said:
"Miss Ling, are you quite…" Meng Dan began, only to cut himself off. "How do you imagine you will manage this? If it were only transporting the General and then fleeing, perhaps, but…"
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Meng Dan full sentence: "Miss Ling, are you quite insane?!"
He could accept a risk of just dropping her in, but actively staying on the field as the known weak point is madness.
yrsillar said:
"...I am familiar with that," Ling Qi said quietly. She wondered just how much Shu Yue knew? "I hope you are not depending on my being able to use a mask like that."

"No. That would be unwise. Although, today may be a day for unwise things," Shu Yue said, consideringly. "
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Shu Yue: "Mantling Huisheng is a bad idea, but do it anyway if you have to"
yrsillar said:
Only the one requesting information from Cai Renxiang did she give much time too, sending back a message to inquire at the command post and in person.
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CRX situation: Diplomatic Zerg Rush inbound.

yrsillar said:
"Hey Ling Qi! Heard you were gonna need me from the squirt. I was talking to Shi here, and he seemed to think you'd be coming here," Sixiang said, waving as they approached.

"Quite perceptive of him. I did not think you were a practitioner of the Divination arts of your clan, Sir Xuan," Meng Dan said.

"This one's focus lies elsewhere, and yet, a fell wind is blowing, even untrained hands may feel its touch," Xuan Shi replied.
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Xuan Shi: "I felt a storm coming and I know you would be at the eye of the hurricane"

This is a Ling Qi Adventure veteran.

yrsillar said:
Xuan Shi stood as well, his hat tugged low. His robe was bulkier than usual, the lines indicating armored plates fitted under the fabric.
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Also he came fully intending to lend her his best masterwork, considering he's fully armored in addition.

Greatly improves chances of not being splattered in one hit.
yrsillar said:
"No, but more satisfying to the spirit," Meng Dan huffed. He glanced to Shu Yue. "You have some deeper plot here."

"I do."

They admitted it baldly, without hesitation.

"Yet she trusts you."

"I do not sacrifice my juniors, though I do not command all things. No one does," Shu Yue replied, in a whispered baritone that seemed to echo from the body of a grave. "You understand this, historian."
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Translation: "I'll do my best to see that she survives, but its never guaranteed in war, we do what we must."
 
I wonder how many people are going to have really, really intense dreams tonight. Dreamers get glimpses into the liminal, and there's going to be a hell of a show.
 
veekie said:
Shu Yue: "Mantling Huisheng is a bad idea, but do it anyway if you have to"
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No, Shu Yue isn't saying "Mantling Huisheng is a bad idea," they're saying "mantling me is a bad idea." Because she'll be in the liminal with an unabsorbed bit of Qi from someone who has been teaching her lessons, so yeah, that's all the conditions she met when she pulled the same trick with Grandpa Skeleton. There's really no reason she couldn't theoretically go all Thief of Faces for a few seconds if she absolutely had to.
 
Orkus Majorkus said:
With the Golden Fields now starting to talk to people on the other side of the Big Bird Crater, it is catching on independently in another province. Now, to be fair to Xia Ren she probably isn't aware that part of the wave is coming but precluding that happening is where my history degree starts rattling around in it's drawer all angry like.
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Yeah, with the polar nations to the south, the people to the west being told to stop murdering the Sun on sight, and those folks, the Empire is about to be confronted with the idea that they're not very unique at all as civilized people. Which is definitely going to be something of a cultural shock. I'd imagine the conservative Meng aren't the only people around that have enshrined hostility to foreign ideas into their Way.
veekie said:
Shu Yue: "Mantling Huisheng is a bad idea, but do it anyway if you have to"
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I figured, given they just gave a piece of themself to Ling Qi, that they were talking about Mantling *Them*. Which would certainly be an experience.

Also, gods, do I look forward to Ling Qi getting the chance to do inexplicable shit to her juniors like give them a piece of hair to act as a guide seemingly just as an on the spot improvisation. Though I suppose she can already just vanish and appear out of thin air at will, so she has ways to mess with fresh cultivators already.
 
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The Laurent said:
One day Ling Qi will have to fight that urge, to be confused at the idea that people's views exist outside of caring about community and choice, or etc, etc.
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We might be able to abuse our communication and thief of names ability to make use of the understanding of others.
Glau said:
I wonder how many people are going to have really, really intense dreams tonight. Dreamers get glimpses into the liminal, and there's going to be a hell of a show.
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I expect people in the area to have intense dreams here for years to come. Hopefully that isn't just a bad thing.
 
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