As I've mentioned before, Grinning is Ling Qi's first patron, and our connection to that aspect is what led us to the other two. It seems appropriate to start building a foundation of a new art with the phase that was the foundation of our lunacy.
Hmm. The moons have made it clear that this isn't really about choosing any of them, since they'll all have their turn. This is about choosing the setting for our little trial, and I have to admit, I don't want this mini arc set in a crumbling city or a sleepy village.
[X] A gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows indeed, even under the lightless moon.
I really like this as the aesthetics for our trial, a mighty, thriving city, not of mortals, but of cultivators akin to gods, with blazing light right alongside the deepest shadows. This is the place I want Ling Qi to explore for her trials, not a crumbling, rotting city she's already familiar with.
[X] A gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows indeed, even under the lightless moon.
[X] A little village in the hills, new and yet old, built upon layers of bones, but peaceful and full of laughter under the light of a waning moon.
Dont like the reasons given. And after a quick skim 9ver the other arguements, I am kinda leaning towards disliking the Grinning choice more.
[X] A gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows indeed, even under the lightless moon.
[X] A gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows indeed, even under the lightless moon.
Ling Qi blinked as a sudden weight pressed down on her head, followed by a squeaky yelp as it fell off. Reflexively, she reached out to catch it, and found herself staring down at Zhengui, shrunk to a size only barely larger than he had been at hatching.
"Wh-Huh?" Gui chirped in confusion.
"Why am I, Zhen little again!" his other other half hissed in distress, peering around. "Big Sister, what has happened?!"
"Serves you right," Hanyi huffed at her side. "Auntie Xin is messing around again huh?" Ling Qi almost did a double take when she looked down at her other spirit though, patches of her skin were blackened and cracked, particularly on her feet and legs, but… Hanyi didn't seem uncomfortable.
Wonder exactly what she needs to heal the breakthrough damage? Does she need to become colder and more like her mother, or could learning to fit into and help LQ's mortal family do it.
Think I might be most interested in seeing this one? Just because we get to explore what LQ actually thinking about the fief she's going to have to look after and what kind of village she's going to create and support.
[X] A gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows indeed, even under the lightless moon.
It was frustrating, Ling QI could admit. One could spend time whirling and dancing among the faded stones of a long dead city, to the music of dreams and the cheers of her spirits, and days could pass by without her noticing. Only Hanyi's declaration of boredom and Sixiang's sheepish agreement that they had lost track of time allowed her to pull herself free from the raucous cheers of the revel's phantoms.
The cultivation of spirit and body was no different. She knew if she was not careful, she could lose whole weeks to her efforts, drinking in the qi of the stars and shaping it through spirit and body.
Still, these were not new problems. As she advanced it became easier to lose hours instead of minutes, but it remained an issue that she had solved before. Ling Qi was careful to break up her cultivation with time spent on the real world. She studied the lines of the noble families of Emerald Seas, she took trips to market with Xiulan, Meizhen or both, and stopped by Li Suyin's home to offer encouragement as the girl prepared for her final push to realm breakthrough.
I wonder how many new Barons simply become too detached from the world to lead their clan effectively by the time they leave the Sects...before their cultivating resources run dry and they plateau as Cyan hermits. Maybe thats what the compulsory military service is for. Drag them back down to earth.
On the other hand those who become too grounded don't cultivate much anymore.
She spent time at home, coaching her Mother through the first steps of physical cultivation, or taking her turn to read bedtime stories to her little sister. Zhengui and Hanyi helped as well, though it was mostly the latter. Left to his own devices Zhengui could take day long naps without missing a beat. Hanyi's energy and wandering attention was good for keeping him active though.
Potency: Green 2
Potency Growth: Green 3(6) Green 4(9)
Keywords:
Moon, Motion, Revelry, Yang
Dance, Dexterity, Composure, Presence
Current Meridians: Legx3, Lung
Next Meridians: Leg(5), Leg(7), Lung(9)
Max Level: 9
Experience Needed: 450, 600, 800, 1000, 1200
Passive Effects
+10 bonus to Dance, Music, art and speech
+10 to Speed
+5 bonus to Physical Avoid
+5 bonus to Spiritual Avoid
+10 bonus to Dexterity when escaping grapple or confinement
+10 bonus to begin or maintain a grapple
-This Art uses Dance as mastery for all techniques
Illustrious Phantasmal Festival: B
Duration: Long
The foundational technique from which all others in the art arise. The user gathers their qi and the memories of their night of revelry and expels them through every available channel in a rush of power and gleaming many colored mist. Within Close range centered on the user, ghostly dancers ever shifting in form coalesce from the midst in a riot of color, laughter, music and movement. Amidst the revel the user is but one figure among many, and in its ever shifting tides, only those of sharp eye can even attempt to reach or strike the user directly. Within it's confines the senses of enemies are confused, penalizing perception. This technique may be renewed as if it were D rank at instant speed at the end of its duration. This technique allows for stealth and is an illusion effect, affecting all senses. The festival counts as an opponent for the purposes of determining multiattacker bonuses.
Lunatic Whirl: C
Duration: Persistent
Usable only while Illustrious Phantasmal Festival is active. The ghostly dancers gather around an intruder in the festival, laughing, singing and demanding a dance, forcing them to join the revelry. The dancers seize their arms and hands, dragging them through the chaotic revelry. Though the dancers will do no harm to their captive, the frenetic pace of the revelry is highly draining, and victim finds their qi dribbling away, siphoned to the user while the sights and sounds of the revel cloud their minds and steal the strength from their limbs. So long as their hands lie in the grasp of the dancers, they will also find the meridians in their arms blocked and unusable. Each usage of Lunatic Whirl may target up to three enemies, no more than six enemies may be under the effect of Lunatic Whirl at a time.
Joyous Toast: C
Duration: Immediate
Usable only while Illustrious Phantasmal Festival is active. The guests of the festival raise their voices and cups and stamp their feet in joy, roaring encouragement for the user and their allies and jeering at their foes. The next music, dance or art based technique used by those affected is treated as if it is one rank higher for determining effects.
Phantasmagoria of Lunar Revelry 5
Potency: Green 2
Potency Growth: Green 3(6) Green 4(9)
Keywords:
Moon, Motion, Revelry, Yang
Dance, Dexterity, Composure, Presence
Current Meridians: Legx4, Lung
Next Meridians: Leg(7), Lung(9)
Max Level: 9
Experience Needed: 450, 600, 800, 1000, 1200
Passive Effects
+10 bonus to Dance, Music, art and speech
+15 to Speed
+5 bonus to Physical Avoid
+5 bonus to Spiritual Avoid
+10 bonus to Dexterity when escaping grapple or confinement
+10 bonus to begin or maintain a grapple
-This Art uses Dance as mastery for all techniques
Illustrious Phantasmal Festival: B
Duration: Long
The foundational technique from which all others in the art arise. The user gathers their qi and the memories of their night of revelry and expels them through every available channel in a rush of power and gleaming many colored mist. Within Close range centered on the user, ghostly dancers ever shifting in form coalesce from the midst in a riot of color, laughter, music and movement. Amidst the revel the user is but one figure among many, and in its ever shifting tides, only those of sharp eye can even attempt to reach or strike the user directly. Within it's confines the senses of enemies are confused, penalizing perception. This technique may be renewed as if it were D rank at instant speed at the end of its duration. This technique allows for stealth and is an illusion effect, affecting all senses. The festival counts as an opponent for the purposes of determining multiattacker bonuses.
Lunatic Whirl: C
Duration: Persistent
Usable only while Illustrious Phantasmal Festival is active. The ghostly dancers gather around an intruder in the festival, laughing, singing and demanding a dance, forcing them to join the revelry. The dancers seize their arms and hands, dragging them through the chaotic revelry. Though the dancers will do no harm to their captive, the frenetic pace of the revelry is highly draining, and victim finds their qi dribbling away, siphoned to the user while the sights and sounds of the revel cloud their minds and steal the strength from their limbs. So long as their hands lie in the grasp of the dancers, they will also find the meridians in their arms blocked and unusable. Each usage of Lunatic Whirl may target up to three enemies, no more than six enemies may be under the effect of Lunatic Whirl at a time.
Joyous Toast: C
Duration: Immediate
Usable only while Illustrious Phantasmal Festival is active. The guests of the festival raise their voices and cups and stamp their feet in joy, roaring encouragement for the user and their allies and jeering at their foes. The next music, dance or art based technique used by those affected is treated as if it is one rank higher for determining effects.
Ephemeral Dreamlit Dancer: C
Duration: Short
Having begun to understand the nature of the dreams, the user flits from place to place, shrouded in the phantoms of paths not taken. While active the users speed is increased significantly. Techniques which would still hit the user have a chance(decreasing based on the attackers perception) to simply fail, shattering instead some of the dreamlike phantom images the user is shrouded in. Each use of this technique generates two 'charges' which do not stack with additional uses.
Of course, she couldn't spend all of her free time on fun and study. She had spent all of her Sect points in the month before, so now she dedicated time to earning more, so that she could once again peruse the more powerful elixirs and pills turned out by the Sect.
More than that though, every night the moon stared down at her, as if in expectation, but her meditations brought no new insight, and Ling Qi found her eyes drawn to the table where she had set up the map of the Sect. There was somewhere that she needed to be, her instinct told her, and the map would be key.
Whistling Cliffs
Multiply the Success of Wind and Music Art cultivation by 1.2.
Mirror Basin
Multiply the success of Lake and Water arts by 1.2. Provide an additional+1 per die to the training of social attributes and skills when used in a month.
Her wandering through the Sect lands proved profitable enough, she discovered a breathtaking series of cliffs, where wind spirits flew and played through funnel like holes worn in the rock, that made the land ring with natural music, and deeper in the mountains, she found an isolated basin, filled near to the brim with water, forming a crystal clear lake of unnatural stillness.
Most of her time searching the Sects lands however was spent following the strange tingling sensation in the back of her mind that grew more potent every time she sat down to cultivate. She sought through one map marker after another, the first markers turned up a few crumbling ruins, little more than a few broken stones still laying in the same vicinity.
However, when she returned home to look at the map again, she found her eyes drawn to a marker that she was quite sure had not been there before. It hardly stood out, a single mountain peak surrounded by stylized 'eight' characters. She supposed that it was as close to a sign as she was going to get.
"Hmph, it's so dirty," Hanyi huffed as materialized off to Ling Qi's left, her bare feet kicking off the edge of Zhengui's shell where she sat.
"There's nothing even a little tasty looking here," Gui confirmed dubiously, peering back and forth. "At least the last place had the tasty moss."
Ling Qi huffed out a small laugh, remembering the comical sight of Gui awkwardly gnawing on a chunk of rock, trying to get at the moss clinging to it without filling his mouth with pebbles.
Peering ahead, she could not disagree with their assessment. A crumbling path, missing more than half of its cobblestones lead back into what looked to have once been a grove of cherry trees. Now only a single sad and withered specimen rose from the moldering logs and stumps that characterized the rest.
Much like the grove, the structure set in the back of the ruined grove was no grand ruin, just a crumbling foundation and a partial frame, built of wood so old that it was halfway to being stone. Ling Qi felt her eyes tingle as she activated her arts, but there truly was nothing here, no formations, no spirits, no more qi than any other place in the world.
"It's taken you long enough Ling Qi," a teasing voice whispered, tickling her ear with its closeness.
Ling Qi spun around in a flash, alarmed at the strange floaty feeling spreading through her body, the mist that seemed to have consumed everything more than a meter away, and the strange clouding of her vision by strands of glittering starlight, only to hear a surprised yelp and a splash. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something bewildering. She saw Sixiang, fully physical climbing out of the pond, spitting water and looking rather put out. Then she became aware of the source of the strands clouding her vision.
She was standing backward inside of her own body, which stood frozen in perfect stillness, just like the world around them. She heard tinkling laughter and finally looked back up to see three figures resolving in the mist. To her right stood Xin, giving her an amused but apologetic smile. She wore her gown of red and blue, and her silver hair hung loose blowing in a phantom wind. Directly in front of her was a tall and willowy woman, clad in pale grey silk, with her long ink black hair tied back in a braid that wrapped twice around her neck, and hung down from shoulder. Her gown was a gauzy thing of billowing silk, cloaking the movements of her limbs. Behind the woman's black veil, only a wide grin was visible. Last of all, to her right was a matronly woman with glittering eyes, so much like Sixiang, save for her age and overt femininity. She wore an elaborate gown with a high feathery color, her hue changing hair woven into an complex web of ornaments.
"Do not tease the girl, a lady is free to be fashionably late," the rightmost spirit said lightly.
"Hmm, I thought I heard something, but you didn't say anything, did you Hidden?" The veiled spirit asked in a sing song voice.
"Oh do stop, Grinning, it is hardly unheard of for a human to be aligned with three of us," Xin said, her manner every inch the put upon older sister. "I am glad you made it Ling Qi, it would hardly do for you to waste your potential with an incomplete cultivation art."
Ling Qi quickly glanced around her, unsettled by the stillness of the misty world she had found herself in. Glancing to her side, she allowed herself to be comforted by the sight of Sixiang climbing out of the pool, dripping wet. Their expression was one of disgruntlement and not fear. It struck her as odd that all the world would be frozen, but the pool was not, in fact, looking back, een now the waters had stopped moving, ripples freezing in time. Had they really…
"If you do not use your world bending power for a bit of fun now and then, there isn't much point to it," The veiled spirit said lightly. "Don't tell me you've forgotten that."
Ling Qi began to reply, but paused. "...No, I haven't. Where are my other spirits?"
"Bold as brass," the Grinning Moon mused. "Let it not be said that you haven't changed in good ways as well."
"Zhengui and Hanyi have not been harmed," Xin said soothingly. "That said, Dreaming, if you would…?"
"Of course, we can afford a few more guests," the third spirit said, dipping her head. Somewhere inside her voluminous sleeves, a pair of fingers snapped.
Ling Qi blinked as a sudden weight pressed down on her head, followed by a squeaky yelp as it fell off. Reflexively, she reached out to catch it, and found herself staring down at Zhengui, shrunk to a size only barely larger than he had been at hatching.
"Wh-Huh?" Gui chirped in confusion.
"Why am I, Zhen little again!" his other other half hissed in distress, peering around. "Big Sister, what has happened?!"
"Serves you right," Hanyi huffed at her side. "Auntie Xin is messing around again huh?" Ling Qi almost did a double take when she looked down at her other spirit though, patches of her skin were blackened and cracked, particularly on her feet and legs, but… Hanyi didn't seem uncomfortable.
"Nothing physical about where we are right now," Sixiang said quietly, as if reading her thoughts.
"Auntie Xin, huh?" The Grinning Moon said in amusement. "The new you is a real homebody. I wonder, did you see this fate for yourself, Archivist of Vice?"
"Some of the best things in the world come to us as surprises," Xin replied evenly. "I will thank you not to use that name however, little sister. I have a secret or two that I am sure you do not want aired after all."
As the Grinning Moon raised her hands in mock surrender. Ling Qi cleared her throat. "Ah…. honored spirits, are you all really...um," she struggled to articulate her feelings, it boggled her mind that three great spirits would come together in one place for her."
"My Sixiang has given you a glimpse behind the curtain has she not?" The dreaming moon asked, raising an eyebrow. "Each of us are only local spirits, actor's masks through which our greater selves might peer, and even then, this is not the whole of our being."
"Time and space can be a funny old thing when you cut out the material," the Grinning Moon said lightly. "So worry not, I've still got an eye the province's urchins and sneaks."
"You are not even interrupting dinner," Xin said. "For which I am glad. I managed to drag that old curmudgeon out of his workshop for once."
"You have nearly completed the Eight Phases Ceremony," Xin said solemnly.
"The time has come to mold the next step in your journey," the Dreaming Moon continued matching her tone.
"No more aping of the eight, but rather, forging your own," the Grinning Moon said seriously, before shooting a sly look at Dreaming and adding in a much more irreverent voice. "Of course, there really should only be two of us."
"Are you of all spirits, decrying a follower for a bit of indecision," the Dreaming Moon asked blandly.
"...Sisters," Xin sighed. "Can we not maintain at least a little bit of decorum."
"Wrong grouping for that!" The Grinning Moon laughed.
At Ling Qi's side, Hanyi rolled her eyes. "I guess all aunties are silly huh?"
"I still don't know what's going on," Gui grumbled petulantly, glancing up to Zhen jealousy as the little snake leaned into Ling Qi's absent petting.
"You don't even know," Sixiang sighed.
Glancing at the three incredibly potent spirits before her bickering like any other trio of sisters in the world, Ling Qi felt her own patience for decorum slipping away. The part of her that remembered just what they were wondered if that was the point. "So… what do I need to do?"
"Why you get to participate in our little night out," said the Grinning Moon, spreading her arms wide.
"We will show you scenarios, and allow you to make decisions, which will be the foundations of your own phase," XIn elaborated.
"Do not treat it lightly though," The Dreaming Moon admonished. "Though the dream might be fleeting, the truth it reveals in yourself will last long past the morning."
"...I know that," Ling Qi said lowering her eyes. She still remembered the Bloody Moon's Dream.
[] The crumbling city of Tonghou, turned inward, shrinking by the decade, lit by the light of a grinning crescent.
Where we began. The clever girl in the streets under the Grinning Moon
[] A gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows indeed, even under the lightless moon.
Where we are now. Cultivation. The aspirant climbing to the Peak under the Hidden Moon.
[] A little village in the hills, new and yet old, built upon layers of bones, but peaceful and full of laughter under the light of a waning moon.
Where the future lies. The home we wrought on the many sacrifices, what we hope to build.
[X] A little village in the hills, new and yet old, built upon layers of bones, but peaceful and full of laughter under the light of a waning moon.
My personal impression is that if the art has the Water keyword, it applies. So FSS should work because it has the water keyword.
Anyway, this site is either quite good or really damn good depending on interpretation. On RAW, it doesn't say it needs the social attributes to be on the art keywords, so we could get the bonus to Presence/Manipulation/Composure while training CDE or CDE+. However, that might not be how it works.
If it works like this though, its like 22% speed improvement on attribute training, AND it's 'stable' improvement, which means it's safe against bad luck. Given we want to get Manip to S and Presence to at least C, and likely A, this means: 60 + 80 + 40 + 50 + 60 = 290 xp needed. Without the site, that's 65 dice or so, so 130 points. With the site, it's 53 dice, so 106 points.
So it's around 27 points gained if we dismiss event gains, as well as 'get things faster and be stronger to get more opportunities'. In practical term, this means half a turn worth of exp and a significant power boost to help us get the ranks up we want fast, opening up opportunities to get Argent Vent/Etc earlier.
[X] The crumbling city of Tonghou, turned inward, shrinking by the decade, lit by the light of a grinning crescent.
[X] A little village in the hills, new and yet old, built upon layers of bones, but peaceful and full of laughter under the light of a waning moon.
We were told it's dangerous to tie your cultivation to your job, so going with Don't Do That.
[X] The crumbling city of Tonghou, turned inward, shrinking by the decade, lit by the light of a grinning crescent.
[X] A little village in the hills, new and yet old, built upon layers of bones, but peaceful and full of laughter under the light of a waning moon.
It is interesting that while FVM is also perception gated, FVM's darkness style means it is helped much less by teaming up with CRX, while PLR being a more malfeas type stealth means that it will be helped much more.
Oh, and I am pretty sure Celestial Relevation is not the only blinding tech CRX has, either.
Something that you missed in your above analysis is that while EDD stacks really well on top of IPF, both for the perception penalising element and 'perception gated dodge on top of perception gated misses', EDD is the first tech of PLR that doesn't necessitate IPF to be there to work. So it works better if it's there, but it can work by itself.
Its conditional nature does make it iffier as a panic button that DWV, its direct competitor, but it also has a 'short' duration instead of an 'immediate' one. So it's very possible for Ling Qi's defences to look like this: IPF to make opponent miss, EDD to perfect dodge, and if both fail DWV as a last layer. That, or if both fail there is a decent odd it's a really powerful technique that would bypass DWV, so SCS the tech for the perfect dodge.
So while EDD and DWV compete in what they actually do, EDD not being immediate means that, in the defence setup, it can actually be used as a prepared defence with either DWV or SCS being the last ditch panic button, creating another layer of conditional perfect defence between our preceding existing ones.
Past image is an interesting one.
It's a pity though, because Capital or Village are more interesting to me when it comes to the narrative for Ling Qi. Capital seems to be about our current centre of interests when it comes to working with CRX, and Village seems to be about 'how to build toward the future'.
There is only so much work you can do on your past hang up before you need to buckle up and actually work on how you want your work to reflect on your present and future, after all.
She doesn't necessarily have to though. Moving past and letting blow away is a legitimate solution(if one advised by zero therapists ever because anyone who COULD, wouldn't need help)
Observe how the village is built upon bones, yet filled with joy.
She has befriended Han Jian even though she was wary of what he could ask of her, and then accepted her sexuality through talks with Xiulan. She has faced her old fears when contacting and then accepting her mom, renewing the bond she had fooled herself into disavowing. She has accepted to actually talk to Gu Tai and give that courting thing a whirl, and by the end realised that she could have done worse than be with him.
She has decided that for all the Freedom was important to her, more important still would be doing something with that freedom.
Ling Qi has done plenty as a consequence to her introspections, I think. It's high time she looks toward the future and see what she can build.
I.... think she could talk about it rationally? I mean, maybe my standards are just not high, but it feels like she made a shit ton of progress since 'Is Han Jian expecting to have sex with me for the help he is giving me' days.
I.... think she could talk about it rationally? I mean, maybe my standards are just not high, but it feels like she made a shit ton of progress since 'Is Han Jian expecting to have sex with me for the help he is giving me' days.
Yeah, but that has more to do with her own personal power providing security and confidence, and not really interacting with others who show that kind of shallow interest in her.
Its avoiding the problem
And even then, the way the dig at her household got under her skin shows that there's still an element of unresolved tension there.
[X] A gleaming tower of light and wood, vast beyond easy comprehension, a bastion of power that cast deep shadows indeed, even under the lightless moon.
She has befriended Han Jian even though she was wary of what he could ask of her, and then accepted her sexuality through talks with Xiulan. She has faced her old fears when contacting and then accepting her mom, renewing the bond she had fooled herself into disavowing. She has accepted to actually talk to Gu Tai and give that courting thing a whirl, and by the end realized that she could have done worse than be with him.
She has decided that for all the Freedom was important to her, more important still would be doing something with that freedom.
Ling Qi has done plenty as a consequence to her introspections, I think. It's high time she looks toward the future and see what she can build.
I'm talking about her hangups regarding how she associates sex with things she saw when she was younger, in her mom's workplace:
Article:
Ling Qi didn't know that she agreed. Such things were kept well out of public for a reason, she had seen what it looked like when things like that were not handled with care, far, far from everyday life.
"Ling Qi," Sixiang sighed.
Article:
Yuan He gave her a look, and Ling Qi felt an unpleasant prickling on her skin, like he was looking through her. "Young lady, I think you will find that the men and women of this world can take most anything and make of it a horror. This place was however, built to bring young men and women together in joy and comfort, away from judging eyes."
Ling Qi looked away unable to hold the old man's gaze, what a surreal conversation this was. Still… she supposed it wasn't impossible. Her experiences aside… she had glimpsed things in Sixiang's memory, something so fundamental to the human experience couldn't be wholly awful. It didn't make standing here in this room make her skin crawl any less.
She's aware that her aversion to this topic is based off of her experiences--thanks to Sixiang's memory, she knows love is a fundamental part of the human experience. She's just avoiding thinking about the idea and repressing any relevant thoughts that emerge (Jealous of how Bian Ya flirts with Ruan Shen? Push the thought away!)
She doesn't necessarily have to though. Moving past and letting blow away is a legitimate solution(if one advised by zero therapists ever because anyone who COULD, wouldn't need help)
...And she's not one of those people who doesn't need help. She probably saw some screwed up stuff as a kid and that sort of thing can leave its mark--its easier to heal and move past something when you address it early, rather than letting the thoughts and memories fester. Early intervention usually results in a better outcome. The career I'm pursuing is in the psychology field so I'm aware I'm biased on this one.
But I'm sticking to my argument. She grew up in an environment that wasn't wholesome or appropriate for a child, she saw things that effects the way she thinks today. Whenever the topic of sex comes up, she'll have these associations. This isn't an area of life that she should miss out on for her whole life, however long that is--she should have the option of romance if she wants it. But to have the option, she first needs to address some trauma and misconceptions. Its not fair or right for her to be deprived of the joy and adventure that can come with romance just because of her trauma
Note that I am not saying she should be pursuing romance right now. I agree with people who have pointed out that she's young and there's no need to rush it. I'm not saying she should jump in a relationship tomorrow, just that she should be able to view the optionwithout her past coloring her perception. Maybe in a year or two or three, she can date casually for the sake of romance and not with the prospect of marriage hanging over her--if she wants to.
I really think she should address the trauma sooner rather than later. Generally speaking, it is easier for younger people to adapt and change their way of thinking because they are still learning. Older people have views that are reinforced by many past experiences--its not impossible for them of course but its much harder. I'm speaking from experience with many many clients of different ages as well as education.
I just want her to learn that whether its a romance or a traditional marriage proposal, the prospect of sex won't involve what she saw as a kid. Of course, she's been told that marriage contracts will prevent the sort of abuse she's thinking of...that won't really ease her misgivings though. She's gonna have to confront her hangups sooner or later, there's no reason it shouldn't be now. I don't think these aspects of the Moon will traumatize her the way Bloody Moon did. I think this trial is likely to have a positive outcome, especially with Xin there--she clearly dotes on LQ.
