- Location
- The Space Between
[X] Take the Dreaming Moon's suggestion
I'll be honest I kinda like the idea that social is a different realm of combat, and it seems like the most subtle way to change minds is through art. It's how you open up belligerent people to knew ideas and viewpoints. Never directly, never overtly, just with the right melody and shades of color. Perhaps a word or a twirl or a passage of song. I'm pretty sure all of the options are stealth of some kind, all of them mischievous, and all of them about secrets being uncovered. Only one of them though, is also about Art. And that's very important to us, as much or more so than larceny (which we enjoy but hardly have targets for) and espionage (which we enjoy, but hardly have targets for). It also feels kinda like a robin hood option, the one that steals secret things and gives them to the broad public
as for the update, I duno. When confronted with heavy trauma it's easy to dissociate, and even easier to dissociate when you have an art that is basically magically enhanced dissociation without the loss of focus. We're high on moon juice and the joy of movement, the hurt will sink in the next time we think about it I'm sure. The fact that the horror she felt as a kid wasn't that unique doesn't make it less bad, it makes it worse for the commonality of it. These conditions are shocking that they aren't quite so terrible as she remembers, but they only aren't so terrible because now she sees that almost the whole city is just as bad. I think we need to save Tounghu.
Sure we're selfish, but only out of necessity. We have done many, many selfless acts once given the opportunity to and this place? Maybe we should indulge ourselves a grudge. A bit of selfishness. Maybe we should pull on those threads of Mom's oppression. Maybe we should dig in a little and see if we can't build a functioning city on the bones of war.
- The Mom/Liu mystery may give us claims or give us just cause to drag their name. Now that we're nobility we can probably demand some sort of recompense for the treatment of our mother. Alongside that, personal grievance would be a good way to justify pushing Liu around for Lady Cai, especially if it wasn't her directly doing the pushing but simply her daughter and her daughter's loyal retainer. This would allow her to dodge much of the blowback for slapping Liu down while still gaining the boost with Liu's enemies. It should help shift the Southern Gridlock a bit, and that's a good thing for Lady Cai.
- If Renxiang's shadow accounting is accounting of Liu territories then Shensua is testing to see if her daughter could manage it better, but she might be really testing to see if the frustration will provoke Renxiang to act of her own volition. I think Renxiang is too wrapped up in pleasing her mother for her mother's taste. Not that she would want rebellion, but I think she would want Renxiang to be proactive instead of totally submissive. If this is the test, then our push would be helping our friend and liege Cai Renxiang on top of being a selfish indulgence <3
- Tounghu would be much better than a border province for us. We're more familiar with it and it will give us more of a chance to use our streetwise. Probably more production and trade capabilities as well, or at least safer and more stable options. On top of that I think Su Ling would be a natural fit to help us out around the place, since she is concerned with justice for the small folk and boy do cities have lots of small folk. It wouldn't be a handout either, since policing/questing for that many people will be a hassle. She'd fit at a border province too, but more aloof and less surrounded by people. More a hunter/ranger than a Batman. Which uh, she deserves to be Batman. She's good people
because we have meta knowledge of a coming southern disaster, and we know what the formations are supposed to do on the inner walls, if we don't administer Tounghu directly I am nearly positive it will blow up. If we do administer it, I bet it blows up anyway but we can save the people and rebuild after. In the best version of that legend, we'll steal away the whole population with a grin and a flute and frustrate the barbs that go to loot Tounghu only to find a city rigged to blow it'll be great, trust me
I'll be honest I kinda like the idea that social is a different realm of combat, and it seems like the most subtle way to change minds is through art. It's how you open up belligerent people to knew ideas and viewpoints. Never directly, never overtly, just with the right melody and shades of color. Perhaps a word or a twirl or a passage of song. I'm pretty sure all of the options are stealth of some kind, all of them mischievous, and all of them about secrets being uncovered. Only one of them though, is also about Art. And that's very important to us, as much or more so than larceny (which we enjoy but hardly have targets for) and espionage (which we enjoy, but hardly have targets for). It also feels kinda like a robin hood option, the one that steals secret things and gives them to the broad public
as for the update, I duno. When confronted with heavy trauma it's easy to dissociate, and even easier to dissociate when you have an art that is basically magically enhanced dissociation without the loss of focus. We're high on moon juice and the joy of movement, the hurt will sink in the next time we think about it I'm sure. The fact that the horror she felt as a kid wasn't that unique doesn't make it less bad, it makes it worse for the commonality of it. These conditions are shocking that they aren't quite so terrible as she remembers, but they only aren't so terrible because now she sees that almost the whole city is just as bad. I think we need to save Tounghu.
Sure we're selfish, but only out of necessity. We have done many, many selfless acts once given the opportunity to and this place? Maybe we should indulge ourselves a grudge. A bit of selfishness. Maybe we should pull on those threads of Mom's oppression. Maybe we should dig in a little and see if we can't build a functioning city on the bones of war.
- The Mom/Liu mystery may give us claims or give us just cause to drag their name. Now that we're nobility we can probably demand some sort of recompense for the treatment of our mother. Alongside that, personal grievance would be a good way to justify pushing Liu around for Lady Cai, especially if it wasn't her directly doing the pushing but simply her daughter and her daughter's loyal retainer. This would allow her to dodge much of the blowback for slapping Liu down while still gaining the boost with Liu's enemies. It should help shift the Southern Gridlock a bit, and that's a good thing for Lady Cai.
- If Renxiang's shadow accounting is accounting of Liu territories then Shensua is testing to see if her daughter could manage it better, but she might be really testing to see if the frustration will provoke Renxiang to act of her own volition. I think Renxiang is too wrapped up in pleasing her mother for her mother's taste. Not that she would want rebellion, but I think she would want Renxiang to be proactive instead of totally submissive. If this is the test, then our push would be helping our friend and liege Cai Renxiang on top of being a selfish indulgence <3
- Tounghu would be much better than a border province for us. We're more familiar with it and it will give us more of a chance to use our streetwise. Probably more production and trade capabilities as well, or at least safer and more stable options. On top of that I think Su Ling would be a natural fit to help us out around the place, since she is concerned with justice for the small folk and boy do cities have lots of small folk. It wouldn't be a handout either, since policing/questing for that many people will be a hassle. She'd fit at a border province too, but more aloof and less surrounded by people. More a hunter/ranger than a Batman. Which uh, she deserves to be Batman. She's good people
because we have meta knowledge of a coming southern disaster, and we know what the formations are supposed to do on the inner walls, if we don't administer Tounghu directly I am nearly positive it will blow up. If we do administer it, I bet it blows up anyway but we can save the people and rebuild after. In the best version of that legend, we'll steal away the whole population with a grin and a flute and frustrate the barbs that go to loot Tounghu only to find a city rigged to blow
it'll be great, trust me
