So... am I the only one seeing a potential clash with the Ministry of Integrity around here?
And also a lot of parallels between the LQ/Six/CRX dynamic to the SimaJ/Xin/An dynamic?
Already, we're seeing LQ and CRX act as a sort of symbiotic duo and, IIRC, that was the intention for Inexorable Justice and the Great Spirit Jiao never became.
Maybe that's intentional and good? We are supposed to be iterating on the past to make a better future... or, I guess, that's kinda CRX's thing and we're kinda her thing.
We were explicitly warned from binding ourselves too closely, and we are definitely not doing anything resembling that. We aren't putting CRX into our way directly.
Also, while this insight would be super out of place for member of MoI, I don't see how it can really clash with them, their job is to sniff for bad actors, and while 'Lets not be assholes first' is a somewhat unorthodox technique, it is not like it is forbidden to try to coexist.
No
That would require so much self-awareness that they'd also notice that demonic cultivation is the real Imperial orthodoxy.I should have clarified.
When I meant "clash," I meant the following:
We might end doing a thing similar to the MoI, but differently. We'll be the internal policing agency of the Emerald Seas, sniffing out badactorsneighbors and dealing with them. Similarly, CRX is a revolutionary who is shaking up (but probably not fully getting rid of? IDK, she's definitely pro-rights, though.) the whole "class structure" thing that the Empire loves. I think they'll probably see us and what we are doing as a threat to the empire, potentially even the early stages of secession or a coup, whether we want that or not.
You know, I didn't think of that...Hmmm. Food for thought.Look at the penpal network. It's not quite spying but it's also not quite NOT spying.
We used stealth to exploit worm-boy's shitty security in his latest appearance. Also, hiding in the Heron General's sparks was technically stealth.You know, I didn't think of that...Hmmm. Food for thought.
Even so, I do miss the days when we went a classic heist or at least a spy mission...When was the last time LQ had to really use her stealth in an important way for a mission? The caldera fight?
We used stealth to exploit worm-boy's shitty security in his latest appearance. Also, hiding in the Heron General's sparks was technically stealth.
Now I want Ling Qi to help spark a Hill tribe cultural Renaissance because it'll piss off both Xia Ren and Kongyou."No, you come off it," Kongyou shot back. "We're the beginning and the end. We always have been. When two people meet, one subjugates the other until only one dream is left. That's us. Humanity's dream."
"It doesn't have to be that way," she found herself speaking in sync with Sixiang.
"Tch, you think you're the first person who has thought of talking?" Kongyou hissed, contempt dripping off their words. "It doesn't change the ending. People die. Maybe you remember them a little, living on in a food dish or a funny hat. They're dead just the same."
They walked. In the dark, men and women bearing hill tribe tattoos toiled in silence, their hands raw, their backs bent. Down in the dark, song and art and language died.
The Elder Huisheng had said that a cultivator could not kill an idea with a blade. Much crueler weapons were needed than that. Maybe there had been some virtue remaining to the old Weilu, that they had not been able to deploy such weapons.
"Hah! You've even got friends, don'tcha, who know better. That chick in the wolfskin robe, Alingge, and the good little soldier, Xia Lin, their cultures are shrinking, withering, and dying just the same. It's taking longer, sure, but boy, did that metal lady speed up the process!"
I'd honestly be curious to find out his reaction. Word of Yrs is that he didn't know he'd gotten Qingge pregnant. She was 16 and he was, I believe, a year or two older. So they were both kids themselves at the time. Maybe he would have taken her with him if a spirit informed him of the pregnancy? Or maybe he would have run even faster? I'd like to find out.
Right, if there's an opportunity in quest I'm going to push for a chance for Qi to explore that part of her family. Her father seems to be a prick who abandoned her mother, but we don't know what "his" family are like. Maybe they're pricks. Maybe they'd be aghast to learn how the guy treated Qingge and who would gladly welcome Qi (after the grannies had beaten up her father with every slippers at their disposal).