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

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You know it's going to be interesting for people to experience that reaction first hand. The girl who pushes communication and diplomacy to drop it and show she learned the same type of lessons from the Bia.
 
Okay, attempt #2.5 on typo roundup. Was not comprehending the multi-quote system. Pretty convenient when you do, though!

yrsillar said:
On the other hand, cloaking the truth too much would just give him the wrong idea, leave dissatisfied and unanswered, or worse, make him actively misunderstand.
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Should be a "him" between "leave dissatisfied". I tried rotating different tenses or whatever in my mind to make it line-up, but nothing else fit short of reframing the whole sentence.

Or wait, if "leave" was changed to "and thus" it would work. Maybe I dunno.

yrsillar said:
but she is not interesting in sitting in a closed palanquin
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interested

yrsillar said:
Xia Anxi said grumpily. If that Keung can get away his passive aggressive routine
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Missing quotation mark before "If"

yrsillar said:
"I understand lady bai is fully in line with her Mother.
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Lady Bai

yrsillar said:
It was no wonder the Empire leaned so hard layers of obscuring formality to keep everything neutral.
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needs an "on/into" after "hard"

yrsillar said:
After all the Bai were probably like that, before the Empire, from what she understood.
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After all, the Bai were probably like that before the Empire, from what she understood.

yrsillar said:
"Would you be so polite to answer one of mine, Xia Anxi?"
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needs an "as" after "polite"

yrsillar said:
"I wouldn;t want to make things awkward, no,"
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wouldn't

yrsillar said:
He snorted. "Being humble doesn;t suit you. It is a good scheme, and one difficult for any one of the 'cats' to raise their backs over. That your Lady inends to use her time well is a point in here favor and yours."
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"doesn't" "intends" "her"

yrsillar said:
"I've not heard it put that way before, but I can't say its wrong,"
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it's

yrsillar said:
"Oh? You have my sympathy, such an allergy must be a hellish one to live in the Thousand Lakes."
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missing a "with" after "live"

yrsillar said:
and made pinched, pained expression.
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missing an "a" after "made"
 
"I have," he replied grudgingly. "There is some value in not having to… massage the truth to avoid punishment, I will grant. Heiress Suzhen's harsh views toward that sort of thing are… disruptive though. Perfection is impossible, yet less is an insult to their sublime command. Things get done without the rulers being aware of every little stumble and have for ages. Inviting more scrutiny is… unwise. What does a lofty throne understand of production delays and snags in supply lines and other petty minutiae of trade and industry. It is a waste of their time."
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Grandmother Serpent's Law:
Yrsillar said:
She makes the rivers and waterways incredibly rich and pure. The sort of disease problems that can crop up in tropical environments are basically nonexistent, at least as far as waterborne things go. She also generally reinforces the rule of terror over the region and the inclination for the weaker to submit to the stronger... until they reach the shattering point as the Bai found out.
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The White Serpents are a worse trash heap than Chernobyl five minutes after the explosion. Suzhen wanting accurate reports is seen as disturbing. They suck so much that even with the very metaphysical rules of the Thousand Lakes enforcing "tremble and obey" their vassals eventually decided a suicide charge into the helljungle was preferable to staying under the Bai boot.
"Waves a tiny Sun flag."
 
yrsillar said:
Play the part he wouldn't accept as a partial jest. It would be swept aside, but the words would stick in the back of his mind. She considered what could be shared. "It's frustrating for her to receive only the good news, the rosy news, you have noticed that, surely?"

Bai meizhen had mentioned such things in passing. Her friend was still very… prideful, and saw many things as beneath her, but Cai Renxiang had instilled some appreciation for accurate reports.

"I have," he replied grudgingly. "There is some value in not having to… massage the truth to avoid punishment, I will grant. Heiress Suzhen's harsh views toward that sort of thing are… disruptive though. Perfection is impossible, yet less is an insult to their sublime command. Things get done without the rulers being aware of every little stumble and have for ages. Inviting more scrutiny is… unwise. What does a lofty throne understand of production delays and snags in supply lines and other petty minutiae of trade and industry. It is a waste of their time."

"Only what you tell them I suppose, unless they are annoyed enough to learn themselves," Ling Qi said dryly. "So better that she know you well enough to see that there's no need to check then?"

"Better that my results speak for themselves. I am going to get myself into trouble, speaking the way she demands in front of another white serpent, one of these days," he grumbled.
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The idea of a White Serpent trying to be a reasonable ruler is freaking him out which is understandable.

yrsillar said:
"I do not know what game you are playing, but, some fragments of your needling line up with my own observations," Xia Anxi said grumpily. If that Keung can get away his passive aggressive routine without any censure, my words won't provoke a reaction either."

He really… resented having to learn a whole different system of etiquette, most of all, Ling Qi thought. That was what it was in his worldview. What she saw as friendly openness… for a Bai, he merely saw as a divergent and confusing new ruleset he was scrambling to learn. She could feel around the edges of that perspective. She had felt like that right at the beginning in the Sect, learning how the rules were different than those of Tonghou's streets…

…And where they were the same.
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Things are different but there's also places that are the same, LQ's experience adapting to cultivator culture lets her get what he's going through.

yrsillar said:
"You are a reservoir on the edge of bursting. Or at least a pack of cats all chasing different mice. Your Duchess is the Queen of those cats for now, but your Lady will have a struggle of it taking that throne. There is no clear expectations or traditions left to hold them together," Xia Anxi said. "That is what you are doing with this whole Weilu revivalist business, is it not? Attempting to cobble together a symbol you can use as a foundation."

"Is it?" Ling Qi wondered.

He snorted. "Being humble doesn;t suit you. It is a good scheme, and one difficult for any one of the 'cats' to raise their backs over. That your Lady inends to use her time well is a point in here favor and yours."

"Any group needs a story it can tell at its center," Ling Qi agreed. "I think Tsu and the Throne of seasons are not totally gone from peoples minds, as you implied."
"A fair point, but when every count has their own story of who 'Tsu' is it makes little difference. That too is baffling. Yao is Yao. The Fisherman, Inviolate Death, there is no variation in who he is, from the northmost shore to the southern fens. Yet here I would think there were a half dozen men called 'Tsu'. Stitching him back together again seems to be your project, and it is not one I envy you on. I expect you'll be assassinated long before you manage."
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That's a very on point observation.

yrsillar said:
+1 Community XP, +1 Power XP
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Happy to see numbers go up.

yrsillar said:
Welcome back.

Glad to be back, if just for a bit. You ready to do this?

About as ready as you were to gulp down that tea.

She sighed, steeling herself, and reached for the vase.
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This will be a trip.
 
yrsillar said:
"You don't lie to yourself that well…? You are infuriating you know. Saying things like that in that faux-friendly voice."

"There's nothing faux about it."

"So all of my senses tell me, which is why you are a dangerous woman," Xia Anxi sniffed. He clapped his hands onto his knees, sitting up straight backed, in a more traditional mediating pose. "No, your words are scalpels. Every one of them is deliberate. That you manage to seem so casual and sincere while you do is all the more frightening."
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Still wonderful and amusing reasons as to why out of all of CRX's retainers that Ling Qi is the one that Shenhua has been most approving of.

Truth lies at the heart of every deception, Clarity is what shapes the telling of tales even in the massaging of facts, and Understanding is what shapes the nightmares that take shape around Ling Qi.

Shenhua certainly appreciates that CRX has gained Ling Qi's Cold Fusion to Shenhua's own Heron General's Fission Reaction.
 
Since everyone disagrees on what Tsu was like, I hope Ling Qi one day unearths evidence like an item spirit that informs everyone the Diviner loved bad puns and dad jokes. Then she'll be able to argue that her naming sense is traditional.
 
I really appreciate that Qi has such a deep understanding of how formality obscuring truth serves as a buffer and allows for peace, where full honest would demand differences be settled immediately.

It's one that I don't think a lot of modern people have, so I'm glad to see it anchored in her thoughts.

yrsillar said:
"I, on the other hand am very allergic to knives, and should like to keep them far away from me," Xia Anxi huffed.

"Oh? You have my sympathy, such an allergy must be a hellish one to live in the Thousand Lakes."
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Let me get some cream for that burn...
 
yrsillar said:
"I've not heard it put that way before, but I can't say its wrong," Ling Qi chuckled. "As for assassins, I am very good at catching knives."

If not always in a way her friends liked.
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HA! Understatement.

Karthak Urzak said:
Since everyone disagrees on what Tsu was like, I hope Ling Qi one day unearths evidence like an item spirit that informs everyone the Diviner loved bad puns and dad jokes. Then she'll be able to argue that her naming sense is traditional.
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Tsu probably would rather be remembered as an actual person who became a spirit but was a person first.

Yao the Fisher be like - REMEMBER! ALL THINGS MEET ME IN THE END! Oh hey honey bun lets go massacre some more of your enemies.
 
yrsillar said:
"Yep nope not my kinda tea. Abandon body!" Sixiang gasped, gagging comically. Porcelain clattered to the table, wood and metal whirred, and where her friend had been was only the doll like frame of wood and porcelain that sagged limp into the seating
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Man, so many people would be envious of Sixiang's ability to just abandon body after consuming something foul.
 
Karthak Urzak said:
The White Serpents are a worse trash heap than Chernobyl five minutes after the explosion. Suzhen wanting accurate reports is seen as disturbing. They suck so much that even with the very metaphysical rules of the Thousand Lakes enforcing "tremble and obey" their vassals eventually decided a suicide charge into the helljungle was preferable to staying under the Bai boot.
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The thing about reports isn't actually that surprising. You get that a lot with dictators in the real world as well, though they generally tend to believe the idealized reports that they're getting are actually true. It's all about sheltering them from a reality where their choices aren't perfect and where the people that they lead might be upset with them.
 
Mechanical aside I definitely intended to give you the stats for cultivating in Xiangmen a couple arcs ago and my brain was just so melted recently that I forgot

Xiangmen, The Heavenly Pillar, Tier 1 benefits
+1d10 Physical and spiritual cultivation XP(General)
+1d6 Physical Cultivation for each Wood Aligned Art in cultivation(Art)
+1 Spiritual Cultivation for each level of Persistence Concept(Insight)

This will do for the initial math. I'll get into the general site mechanics overhaul at the end of turn here.
 
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