The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
[X] The want, the revealed desire, the yearning darkness of the city of glittering light
This just feels right.
This just feels right.
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.
- Location
- Space between realms
- Pronouns
- He
What did the Kim dynasty do? I know they love their borderline legal/grey morality stuff but WHAT DID THEY DO!?!?Why the Jin wouldn't like it if Shenhua visited:
- Location
- Finland
So, what are the odds of us being able to drag Renxiangs upcoming fiancee to a Ling Qi adventure, you know, to see what they are made of?
It would only be proper for them to get to know their future spouses immediate vassals and retainers after all.
We'd be doing them a favour.
CRX: Don't worry, nobody has actually died on one of these trips. At most you are looking at a few months in intensive care.
It would only be proper for them to get to know their future spouses immediate vassals and retainers after all.
We'd be doing them a favour.
CRX: Don't worry, nobody has actually died on one of these trips. At most you are looking at a few months in intensive care.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Year 45 Month 13 Arc 3-2
She wanted to see, to immerse herself in the desires of a city, to feel the passions that drove such wild revelry and celebration. She had already bound herself to meet with Shu Yue in the darkness that clung to the corners, to the nightmares in which the memory of Hui rule still lurked. But darkness was desire and want, both good and bad. Before she drank the bitter wine, she felt it would be best to wet her lips on something sweeter.
Sixiang snorted into their cup, shoulders shaking.
"What?" Ling Qi asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Nothing," Sixiang said innocently.
Her eyes narrowed further. "This is some dirty thing you won't explain again isn't it?"
"Definitely not," Sixiang said, speaking with faux solemnity, placing their hand over their heart. "Unless you want me to?"
"No." She replied flatly. "Come on, I think I can smell some wine from this direction. I'm not going to drink… whatever that is, but I should still get in the spirit of things."
"Gotcha gotcha! Really, it's not bad but I guess the fire qi probably wouldn't play nice with your guts."
"I'd rather not have to spend an hour cultivating my way through indigestion, no," Ling Qi replied as they hopped down from the awning.
"I mean you could always let it pass the mortal way…?" Sixiang teased.
"Absolutely not," Ling Qi snapped, making a disgusted face. Gods, she hadn't had to do… that in over a year, and she never would again if she had her way. "I'm not going to let you drink anymore if it makes you so vulgar."
"I'll be good!"
She would believe that never.
Tugging on the muse's hand, they wove their way into the crowd. Not long ago, she would have found the intense pressure and heat of the crowd anxiety introducing, every brush against her arm a potential attack, keeping her back up and her shoulders stiff. It was no wonder she was awful at parties for anything except standing up on the stage and playing music.
Part of her wanted to spin up into the air, materialize a flue from frost and shadow, and set herself to the same role even now, but she wasn't out here tonight to be the center of any kind of attention. Tonight, she was a shadow again, if not a fearful one.
"We'll just ignore the little dive through the foam, eh?" Sixiang said cheekily.
"Everyone has already forgotten that and so should you," Ling Qi sniffed.
"Down the memory hole!" Sixiang agreed cheerfully. "But I getcha. You're people watchin' today, and that's no good if the people are watchin' you. Sides, no offense the talent already up there is a better fit for this kind of party."
"...You're not wrong," Ling Qi grudgingly admitted.
The energetic beat of drums thudded in her ears and the heavy cry of bass-tuned strings sang in the air. It was of a family with Ling Nuan's style, if diverged, hers was angry and forceful, this more rolling and bombastic, but still containing a certain hot energy. The bars were simply constructive and repetitive It was music meant to be danced to, to be clapped with, to be shouted over, or sung with by drunken voices without losing its potency.
Even she could feel the small urge to bob her head to the beat being carried on stamping feet as much as the drums.
It was as far from the icy refinement and faux friendliness of her very first imperial 'parties' as could be. She wasn't so childish as to pretend those didn't have their purposes but…
"I'd rather be here any day," Sixiang said.
She nodded absently.
Restraint was so important to keeping the world turning, among the clashing egos of the world of cultivators, strict lines and boundaries to what was acceptable kept intractable Ways out of conflict, and kept words from spilling over into raised fists and unsheathed swords. But at the same time…
A release was necessary. People were not made to be controlled all the time. Most of them weren't anyway, not until they were much further along their Way.
That was what this music was she thought. It was like the vent in the top of a furnace, the release of steam and heat and power in a controlled explosion.
…She wondered if this was closer to the originating Grandmaster's vision, if Ling Nuan's heartfelt rage captured the spirit better.
Bao Qian was right, she really did need to study her musical history a bit. It was a little embarrassing to not be able to answer that question…
"I'd say neither's exactly on the dot, the conditions of the composing have changed, ya know?" Sixiang said idly, peering up at the burly, red-faced man bringing his sticks down in a hammering rhythm across the stretched hide of his drums, the pressure wave of each beat ruffling hair and tugging at robes and gowns in the nearby crowd.
"That guy… he was angry, his music was an accusing finger jabbed at the heavens… but yeah… your new Sis… the anger and energy it has is different, comes from something humbler, yeah?"
She cocked her head to the side, giving Sixiang a curious look.
"Hey, past me's aren't all solid up here, but I got some impressions. Xiangmen's always been thick with muses. I can't count how many of my dreams began and ended here," Sixiang shrugged.
It couldn't be otherwise she supposed, finally reaching the edge of the thronging square where less flashy purveyors of good cheer had set up shop. She found her way to a woman hawking jars of something a bubbly deep red wine, whose scent and qi were both clear and rich, with a touch of tangy sweetness. A few stones bought her both a jar and a pair of cups, helpful since Sixiang had lost their mug somewhere along the way.
The taste had something of cherry to it, and the bubbles left her nose and head alike tingling. She cycled her qi experimentally as she felt the effects of the drink coursing through her blood, feeling the incremental slowing of her thoughts and reactions as it took hold.
"C'mon, you're missing the fun, analyzing things like that. It's not the point you know? Loosening up is," Sixiang pointed out. "The thing about keeping up a face all the time… you can't just put it down at will you know? You humans aren't so malleable as that. You ossify, you become ever more solid, and the mask won't come off anymore.
"And so the solvent comes in handy," Ling Qi mused, peering down into her cup.
Their footsteps clattered as they mounted an arching wooden bridge leaving the square, built between the branch it occupied and its neighbor, bringing them to a higher view. She tugged on Sixiang's hand, and the muse sucked in a breath, their weight decreasing. She pulled them up into the air, among other drifting cultivators who flitted around the bridge like fireflies in various states of repose. They came to sit atop the high peak of the pale green painted arch of the bridge support, looking down on it all.
To the cultivators of the city, the bad old days were not so distant a memory, were they? For the mortals in the roots, those times were already stories rather than experiences. Generations had passed since the day the Duchess had torn down the previous dukes. Her reforms and ruthless purges of the city administrations for corruption were more recent, but still the tales of grandparents.
But for the cultivators of Xiangmen, one hundred and fifty years was lived experience, or the days of one's parents.
The Hui had been a vice on the spirit of the city, and the Duchess' rebellion the release of that pressure. It was no wonder that the festivities were so much more spirited here, even beyond the spectacle that cultivators could so much more easily bring to bear.
The Want of Xiangmen was Expression. It was the roar of a million voices no longer forced to repeat the lie passed down from the heavens.
It was a strange juxtaposition, that pitiless burning truth could free ten thousand voices to say what they pleased, whereas a cloud of insidious and conflicting lies could be a blanket of smothering silence.
"There's something to what she did, yeah," Sixiang said, sipping at their cup and kicking their feet, looking down at the whirling dance of lights below. "...Grandmother's power got too thick here. You're not all meant to live in the liminal. If humans can't tell what's what for long enough they just shut down, shut it out. Plod along repeating whatever story the next bully up top wants them to say."
"The same way we break if we're denied any shade if we burn too long under the harshness of unbending truth," Ling Qi pondered. Humans were the meeting between form and formlessness, thought and material, the children of the Nameless Mother and Father. They could not withstand being only one thing.
Not without cultivation, to shear away the mixture of impurities which made one human in the first place.
"A state many question the value of, now and in the past, back to the oldest scrawlings cut into clay and stone."
Ling Qi stiffened reflexively. Even now, it was impossible to truly be comfortable with the guttural echoes and layered whispers of that voice. It scratched at the ears and spirit alike.
"Aw c'mon, couldn't you have left off for another few hours?" Sixiang complained, tilting their head back to glower at the one joining them.
Shu Yue stood in their shadows, still looking far more human than usual. The black silk of their robe hung off a body that had the correct number of joints, that had bones that pointed the right ways, and limbs that only flexed in the proper directions. But there was still only pooling blackness where their eyes should be, in the space between their smiling lips.
"Teacher," Ling Qi said, inclining her head.
"I suppose I have no right to deny that title at this point," the towering shadow mused, cupping their chin thoughtfully. "But, these contemplations of yours. They are a useful preamble to our lesson."
"But I chose to delve into the roots," Ling Qi said, tilting her head.
"You did, and to the roots we will go. Eventually," Shu Yue agreed.
"....But a dip into desire and want and all of its good and bad is just the sort of prep work for what you're up to," Sixiang huffed. "I am getting you to party without any philosophizing before we leave!"
Ling Qi chuckled, rising to her feet. "I promise, on my way and cultivation."
She could do that much for her friend.
Sixiang peered at her and nodded once, hopping to their feet as well.
Shu Yue's thin smile widened. "An oath to bear seriously. But now, walk with me."
AN: Bit short this time splitting the section as we get back into things, but hope everyone enjoys!
Sixiang snorted into their cup, shoulders shaking.
"What?" Ling Qi asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Nothing," Sixiang said innocently.
Her eyes narrowed further. "This is some dirty thing you won't explain again isn't it?"
"Definitely not," Sixiang said, speaking with faux solemnity, placing their hand over their heart. "Unless you want me to?"
"No." She replied flatly. "Come on, I think I can smell some wine from this direction. I'm not going to drink… whatever that is, but I should still get in the spirit of things."
"Gotcha gotcha! Really, it's not bad but I guess the fire qi probably wouldn't play nice with your guts."
"I'd rather not have to spend an hour cultivating my way through indigestion, no," Ling Qi replied as they hopped down from the awning.
"I mean you could always let it pass the mortal way…?" Sixiang teased.
"Absolutely not," Ling Qi snapped, making a disgusted face. Gods, she hadn't had to do… that in over a year, and she never would again if she had her way. "I'm not going to let you drink anymore if it makes you so vulgar."
"I'll be good!"
She would believe that never.
Tugging on the muse's hand, they wove their way into the crowd. Not long ago, she would have found the intense pressure and heat of the crowd anxiety introducing, every brush against her arm a potential attack, keeping her back up and her shoulders stiff. It was no wonder she was awful at parties for anything except standing up on the stage and playing music.
Part of her wanted to spin up into the air, materialize a flue from frost and shadow, and set herself to the same role even now, but she wasn't out here tonight to be the center of any kind of attention. Tonight, she was a shadow again, if not a fearful one.
"We'll just ignore the little dive through the foam, eh?" Sixiang said cheekily.
"Everyone has already forgotten that and so should you," Ling Qi sniffed.
"Down the memory hole!" Sixiang agreed cheerfully. "But I getcha. You're people watchin' today, and that's no good if the people are watchin' you. Sides, no offense the talent already up there is a better fit for this kind of party."
"...You're not wrong," Ling Qi grudgingly admitted.
The energetic beat of drums thudded in her ears and the heavy cry of bass-tuned strings sang in the air. It was of a family with Ling Nuan's style, if diverged, hers was angry and forceful, this more rolling and bombastic, but still containing a certain hot energy. The bars were simply constructive and repetitive It was music meant to be danced to, to be clapped with, to be shouted over, or sung with by drunken voices without losing its potency.
Even she could feel the small urge to bob her head to the beat being carried on stamping feet as much as the drums.
It was as far from the icy refinement and faux friendliness of her very first imperial 'parties' as could be. She wasn't so childish as to pretend those didn't have their purposes but…
"I'd rather be here any day," Sixiang said.
She nodded absently.
Restraint was so important to keeping the world turning, among the clashing egos of the world of cultivators, strict lines and boundaries to what was acceptable kept intractable Ways out of conflict, and kept words from spilling over into raised fists and unsheathed swords. But at the same time…
A release was necessary. People were not made to be controlled all the time. Most of them weren't anyway, not until they were much further along their Way.
That was what this music was she thought. It was like the vent in the top of a furnace, the release of steam and heat and power in a controlled explosion.
…She wondered if this was closer to the originating Grandmaster's vision, if Ling Nuan's heartfelt rage captured the spirit better.
Bao Qian was right, she really did need to study her musical history a bit. It was a little embarrassing to not be able to answer that question…
"I'd say neither's exactly on the dot, the conditions of the composing have changed, ya know?" Sixiang said idly, peering up at the burly, red-faced man bringing his sticks down in a hammering rhythm across the stretched hide of his drums, the pressure wave of each beat ruffling hair and tugging at robes and gowns in the nearby crowd.
"That guy… he was angry, his music was an accusing finger jabbed at the heavens… but yeah… your new Sis… the anger and energy it has is different, comes from something humbler, yeah?"
She cocked her head to the side, giving Sixiang a curious look.
"Hey, past me's aren't all solid up here, but I got some impressions. Xiangmen's always been thick with muses. I can't count how many of my dreams began and ended here," Sixiang shrugged.
It couldn't be otherwise she supposed, finally reaching the edge of the thronging square where less flashy purveyors of good cheer had set up shop. She found her way to a woman hawking jars of something a bubbly deep red wine, whose scent and qi were both clear and rich, with a touch of tangy sweetness. A few stones bought her both a jar and a pair of cups, helpful since Sixiang had lost their mug somewhere along the way.
The taste had something of cherry to it, and the bubbles left her nose and head alike tingling. She cycled her qi experimentally as she felt the effects of the drink coursing through her blood, feeling the incremental slowing of her thoughts and reactions as it took hold.
"C'mon, you're missing the fun, analyzing things like that. It's not the point you know? Loosening up is," Sixiang pointed out. "The thing about keeping up a face all the time… you can't just put it down at will you know? You humans aren't so malleable as that. You ossify, you become ever more solid, and the mask won't come off anymore.
"And so the solvent comes in handy," Ling Qi mused, peering down into her cup.
Their footsteps clattered as they mounted an arching wooden bridge leaving the square, built between the branch it occupied and its neighbor, bringing them to a higher view. She tugged on Sixiang's hand, and the muse sucked in a breath, their weight decreasing. She pulled them up into the air, among other drifting cultivators who flitted around the bridge like fireflies in various states of repose. They came to sit atop the high peak of the pale green painted arch of the bridge support, looking down on it all.
To the cultivators of the city, the bad old days were not so distant a memory, were they? For the mortals in the roots, those times were already stories rather than experiences. Generations had passed since the day the Duchess had torn down the previous dukes. Her reforms and ruthless purges of the city administrations for corruption were more recent, but still the tales of grandparents.
But for the cultivators of Xiangmen, one hundred and fifty years was lived experience, or the days of one's parents.
The Hui had been a vice on the spirit of the city, and the Duchess' rebellion the release of that pressure. It was no wonder that the festivities were so much more spirited here, even beyond the spectacle that cultivators could so much more easily bring to bear.
The Want of Xiangmen was Expression. It was the roar of a million voices no longer forced to repeat the lie passed down from the heavens.
It was a strange juxtaposition, that pitiless burning truth could free ten thousand voices to say what they pleased, whereas a cloud of insidious and conflicting lies could be a blanket of smothering silence.
"There's something to what she did, yeah," Sixiang said, sipping at their cup and kicking their feet, looking down at the whirling dance of lights below. "...Grandmother's power got too thick here. You're not all meant to live in the liminal. If humans can't tell what's what for long enough they just shut down, shut it out. Plod along repeating whatever story the next bully up top wants them to say."
"The same way we break if we're denied any shade if we burn too long under the harshness of unbending truth," Ling Qi pondered. Humans were the meeting between form and formlessness, thought and material, the children of the Nameless Mother and Father. They could not withstand being only one thing.
Not without cultivation, to shear away the mixture of impurities which made one human in the first place.
"A state many question the value of, now and in the past, back to the oldest scrawlings cut into clay and stone."
Ling Qi stiffened reflexively. Even now, it was impossible to truly be comfortable with the guttural echoes and layered whispers of that voice. It scratched at the ears and spirit alike.
"Aw c'mon, couldn't you have left off for another few hours?" Sixiang complained, tilting their head back to glower at the one joining them.
Shu Yue stood in their shadows, still looking far more human than usual. The black silk of their robe hung off a body that had the correct number of joints, that had bones that pointed the right ways, and limbs that only flexed in the proper directions. But there was still only pooling blackness where their eyes should be, in the space between their smiling lips.
"Teacher," Ling Qi said, inclining her head.
"I suppose I have no right to deny that title at this point," the towering shadow mused, cupping their chin thoughtfully. "But, these contemplations of yours. They are a useful preamble to our lesson."
"But I chose to delve into the roots," Ling Qi said, tilting her head.
"You did, and to the roots we will go. Eventually," Shu Yue agreed.
"....But a dip into desire and want and all of its good and bad is just the sort of prep work for what you're up to," Sixiang huffed. "I am getting you to party without any philosophizing before we leave!"
Ling Qi chuckled, rising to her feet. "I promise, on my way and cultivation."
She could do that much for her friend.
Sixiang peered at her and nodded once, hopping to their feet as well.
Shu Yue's thin smile widened. "An oath to bear seriously. But now, walk with me."
AN: Bit short this time splitting the section as we get back into things, but hope everyone enjoys!
*****
A small afterward, If you enjoy the quest, please consider dropping a few dollars to the patreon or for a fun bit of merch. For patrons even as quest followers you get early access to commissions, full access to Journey to the East as well as the new sidestory featuring Meizhen's trip in Zhengjian underway as well as first access to new stories if I make them!
Check out them out!
Patreon
and
Destiny Store
Thank you your readership and participation in the Quest!
*****
Had to split this one will be a vote in the next
A small afterward, If you enjoy the quest, please consider dropping a few dollars to the patreon or for a fun bit of merch. For patrons even as quest followers you get early access to commissions, full access to Journey to the East as well as the new sidestory featuring Meizhen's trip in Zhengjian underway as well as first access to new stories if I make them!
Check out them out!
Patreon
and
Destiny Store
Thank you your readership and participation in the Quest!
*****
Had to split this one will be a vote in the next
Last edited:
- Location
- Canada
Ling Qi: I am beyond mortal failings, beyond bodily concerns, beyond shitting ever again!
Emerald Dreamer: "Tribulation challenge accepted."
Seeing the good before the bad will do her some good and brace her a bit.
LQ enjoys the less talked about benefits of being a cultivator.
Seeing her mix her understanding of people and music is great.
For Cultivators the Hui weren't to long ago. The Want of Xiangmen being Expression is interesting.
I love that they're straight up throwing around questions like that from the get go.
Looks like they've accepted that LQ is their student.
This young lady is in dire need of a comprehensive sex-ed class.
Which unfortunately for her is non-existent in the Empire outside of the Zheng.
Abby Normal
High Clerk of the Ymaryn
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*squints suspiciously* i suppose it will hold me off for now... but I still require an explicit mention of the word(s) date and/courting between them!!!
Emerald Dreamer: "But what about your poooosssstssss!!!"
SV Hivemind: Nooooooooooooooo *spit blood*
Cecylene
Eternal Idea Engine
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Pronouns
- He/They
It's amusing to see these glimpses into what Ling Qi really is when dealing with mortals. She is so much of her mentor, the hunger ever drinking... at the same time she is also the explanation. The winnowing of myriad perspectives to something understandable and explainable to others.
I'm looking forward to when Shen starts to play its own hand at things and people start to catch those glimpses of the mighty tree(palace[home]) at the heart of its own storm(conflict[curiosity]). Sheltering those under/within its domains while taking pieces and debris and scraps from others and letting them fall more gently at its foundation.
Mist unending, yet a path through can be found to those trusted with the knowledge. Roots unbreaking, but able to be persuaded to move. A hunger without limit, but a hunger that can be stolen from just as much as it steals.
It's fun to see these things all starting to really build together into not just flowery language but also into the story itself!
Isn't she still way too high up in the tree for there to be mortals around? From the last update:
Mr.Error
The Clock-Hand that Tampers with Time
- Location
- The Cosmos
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Coincidentally, there's a Zheng who likes dream-diving and who is probably hanging around in Xiangmen right now for the Duchess' marriage~
A Zheng sex Ed course is a single piece of paper, blank except for the word. SEX: and a single empty check box next to the phrase Yes, please!
- Location
- Winter Hell
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sixiang sure was having a good time on their not-date and even scored a promise of a future one!
I'm looking forward to (and kind of afraid of) what this dive is going to be like.
- Location
- Staring into the void
This is pure husbando material.
- Location
- Spain
I like to imagine the music playing in these rowdy streets sounds something like this.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOOp4k1CaGA
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOOp4k1CaGA
Pedantic nerd mode engaged: nope, it's a lot more comprehensive than that.
Yrsilar said:
Notably the parents ARE expected to give you the Talk to the extent where they are comfortable with, and LQ DID get the lowbrow version just growing up in a brothel without being both blind and deaf.
What she's missing is the highbrow methods of being erotic without being blatantly erotic.
What she's missing is the highbrow methods of being erotic without being blatantly erotic.
I mean...she accidentally made a reference to cunnilingus. When she grew up in a brothel. That's an unusual blind spot.