Remove ads

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

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
Xepheria said:
After this initial chargen, a way that I suggest you manage things is voting via post reaction - limit choices with each installment to 2-4, and have voting on them be done by Funny/Informational/Hugs/Insightful, leaving likes as a generic form of appreciation. This way, you can still run decisions without cluttering up the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh that makes sense. So just allocate 'hug' to one choice, 'funny' to another and so on.
And keep the individual choices down to only a few. Thanks! I was worrying about clutter.
 
1986ctcel said:
Things which either didn't have much risk or much expectation of risk.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

What does liking thieving and sneaking has to do with risk?

Arkeus said:
Ling Qi does enjoy sneaking and being a sticky finger hurricane, but it doesn't seem to be to an inordinate degree.

Ling Qi viewed music, back in the streets', as her 'one respite', and in the sect she has slowly begun composing for fun and as a way to communicate. She often created songs while cultivating with Su Ling, or sent her mom her new creation, or created a song to explain her feelings to Meizhen, and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The Grinning Moon literally said that Ling Qi 'enjoyed the challenge of theft and trickery' back in Thunderdome Redux, and I pointed out that narration actually does show that she enjoyed it (the spider thing being the most in your face example). By contrast music was always a means to Ling Qi, respite (since it was disconnected from her everyday struggle) in the streets, a weapon during the early part of the FoD and later a way to communicate as we saw during the music duel. What Ling Qi didn't show was enjoying music for its own sake, she doesn't care much about art for the sake of art. She also doesn't really enjoy performing before strangers since she views music as personal.

The assertion that Grinning and Hidden are linked to the job while Dreaming is who she wants to be is counterfactual given Ling Qi chagrin when Cai mentioned that she reassessed Ling Qi future role. Ling Qi enjoys the thrill that the Grinning Moon, while disliking the mingling part that comes with Dreaming Moon ideology and she doesn't care much for the art part either.

You could argue that having Ling Qi taking an interest in art and social gathering is laudable in itself and would help Ling Qi both to enjoy life and her future/current work more; but this is an argument about how the Dreaming Moon fits Ling Qi new job, which runs counter to the what @Erebeal remarked.
 
{Q} Talent 4 + d3. Reach a little higher.. or have a slightly more difficult time.
{Q} Solar.
{Q} Archery.
{Q} A foreign scion you're unfamiliar with. Her hair is of shimmering jade, a sharp contrast to her pale skin.
 
{JK} Talent 2 + d7. For the risk-takers.
{JK} Solar.
{JK} Musician (Fiddle/Violin)
{JK} A foreign scion you're unfamiliar with. Her hair is of shimmering jade, a sharp contrast to her pale skin.

last option mostly in hopes of discovering a new variant of snek. the people demand it.
 
Erebeal said:
Mmm, I'm going to disagree here. I would argue that while she has experience with the mode of the Grinning Moon, and can get a bit of a thrill from such activities, she isn't really that into them.

Being a thief was hardly something she got into by choice, or something she's particularly proud of. It's more an unpleasant part of her past. Similarly, she is notably risk averse. She prefers to take things carefully and make sure she's safe if possible. There's a reason we didn't do any Grinning Moon stuff until actively pushed.

I would argue that if you look at Ling Qi's motivations you see a strong desire for security and comfort. She wants to be strong so she can be safe. She looked for friends so she could be safer. In terms of her hobbies she enjoys hanging out with her friends, playing music, and cultivation. Friends and music sound fairly in line with Dreaming if you ask me.

Ultimately, I would argue that while Grinning is linked to some of her core tools, she uses those tools largely because she's good at them and sees them as a way to accomplish her goals without having to get in fair fights or confront people as much. She is not, however, keen on getting into trouble like Grinning wants. My feeling is that, as I believe @Arkeus noted sometime, Grinning and Hidden are more obviously linked to certain parts of her job, but Dreaming is closer to what she wants to be.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't think this an entirely accurate argument. Saying that Ling Qi gets a bit of a thrill from thieving and being sneaky is downplaying the emotion. She actually enjoys it. She takes enjoyment from startling people at opportune moments. And the Grinning Moon is more than simply thieving and sneakiness. It is about cleverness and ingenuity. Approaching problems in unique ways and figuring out various angles to achieve a goal.

I will say that I agree that Ling Qi is risk averse, and that's the reason why she didn't do more stealing and thieving at the beginning of the Outer Sect. She wasn't sure what the penalty was, and the consequences were fairly dire for an individual who had no connections and safety nets. But that doesn't speak to her lack of desire to engage in those activities, or whether she would have enjoyed the activities. It speaks to her ability to recognize that the reward was far outweighed by the risk.

Ling Qi enjoyed playing the trick on Xiao Fen with Zhengui, and I want her to develop that side of her more. The ability to have fun with her abilities in creative ways and surprising friends and coworkers with harmless trickery. It would be strange and unfortunate to push those aspects towards only her job, rather than exploring them and enjoying them as part of Ling Qi's character outside of work.
 
SITB said:
What does liking thieving and sneaking has to do with risk?

The Grinning Moon literally said that Ling Qi 'enjoyed the challenge of theft and trickery' back in Thunderdome Redux, and I pointed out that narration actually does show that she enjoyed it (the spider thing being the most in your face example). By contrast music was always a means to Ling Qi, respite (since it was disconnected from her everyday struggle) in the streets, a weapon during the early part of the FoD and later a way to communicate as we saw during the music duel. What Ling Qi didn't show was enjoying music for its own sake, she doesn't care much about art for the sake of art. She also doesn't really enjoy performing before strangers since she views music as personal.

The assertion that Grinning and Hidden are linked to the job while Dreaming is who she wants to be is counterfactual given Ling Qi chagrin when Cai mentioned that she reassessed Ling Qi future role. Ling Qi enjoys the thrill that the Grinning Moon, while disliking the mingling part that comes with Dreaming Moon ideology and she doesn't care much for the art part either.

You could argue that having Ling Qi taking an interest in art and social gathering is laudable in itself and would help Ling Qi both to enjoy life and her future/current work more; but this is an argument about how the Dreaming Moon fits Ling Qi new job, which runs counter to the what @Erebeal remarked.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I myself just said that Ling Qi enjoyed thieving, so I am not sure why you are saying it in response to my post.

On the other hand, music has been for a long time now something that is more than just "she enjoys it", but about who she is. I gave many examples about it not being a mean, but about it being who she is, and how she now likes it to a much stronger measure than thievery.

Ling Qi dislikes a lot of socialisation, yes. But that's not all or even most of what is dreaming moon. The same way that Ling Qi dislikes taking risks isn't all of what Grinning Moon is. The difference between the two is that Ling Qi is now someone who default to music when thinking of herself or interacting with others or when doing things on her own. She... doesn't do that for tricks and thieveries. Grinning and Hidden are very much more in the 'jobs' slots, while dreaming is much more in the 'self' slot.
 
[X] Take the Grinning Moon's suggestion
[X] Take the Hidden Moon's suggestion

{} Talent 6. Reliable, safe.
{} Solar.
{} Daggers.
{} A mortal. Perhaps a diamond in the rough?

Remember Meizhen's interlude? Unawakened mortal sitting here as a disciple is guaranteed to be high talent. I'm sure the Ling barony can always use more high talent.
 
{X} Talent 6. Reliable, safe.
{X} Solar.
{X} Ashen Shadow Art.
{X} A foreign scion you're unfamiliar with. Her hair is of shimmering jade, a sharp contrast to her pale skin.

Brethren! Our time has come!
 
yrsillar said:
Their journey took them away from the city outskirts, where the poorest of Tonghou's residents lived. It took them inward, toward the cities inner wall. Not past it of course, that was the realm of the very wealthiest mortals and the nobility. But there destination fell in the shadow of the wall. Nestled amidst theatres, gambling halls and teahouses, her mother's former place of employment sat. Though it was by no means small, the brightly painted building somehow failed to loom the way that it did in her memories.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So fairly high class place, as we've theorized already.
It services mortal officials, and poorer cultivators.

Thats good, in that they have higher standards of living, much higher pay, tip more liberally...but also that you'd have a hell of a time making any offenses stick. And the retirement age is much younger of course, theres no market for any bloom past their prime.
yrsillar said:
She did not have that privilege though. Distantly, she felt her fists clench and the air grow cold. People in the streets, oblivious to her presence before shivered and cast glances at the mouth of the alley where she stood, muttering quiet prayers and hurrying on. Just looking at the place turned her stomach, and the pleasant facade only made it worse.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Looks like they can't see her, but they can feel her domain lashing out.
Not unlike noncorporeal spirits huh?
yrsillar said:
"It does not seem worse than the other establishments, nor the dens which we have left behind," said the Dreaming Moon. The spirit's resplendent gown and ephemeral beauty looked faintly ridiculous with her perched on the rim of an old rain barrel.

"Breath, think, and analyze," the Hidden Moon said somberly, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I will not tell you to let go of your emotions. Instead understand them and place them in context."

"Why did you want to come and see this dump? What were you hoping to gain?" Asked the Grinning Moon, lounging atop the cloth awning of the gambling hall which stood across from the brothel.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Dreaming Moon hits the mark. This isn't exceptional, in any sense.
Hidden Moon emphasizes understanding, learning of why you feel emotions instead of simply acting upon them.
Grining Moon emphasizes goals. We're here. Why are we here?
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi let out a breath, tightening her grip on Hanyi's hand. The young spirit glanced up at her questioningly. It was funny, the young spirit seemed completely unbothered, just bored. "I'm not sure if I'm honest," she admitted. Her eyes tingled as she allowed a trickle of qi into them and looked again at the place which had been her first home. It was utterly mundane, and that bothered her somehow. The smiles of the girls on the balcony were fake, true, but no more fake than the enthusiasm of the hawker calling people in to gamble their money away. They were mostly just bored and apathetic. There was some resignation and unhappiness true but…

Where was the misery that she remembered?

"You know by now that memory can be a funny thing," Sixiang said quietly, from their seat on the opposite side of the rain barrel that their grandmother had claimed.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This isn't one of those places where the girls are directly coerced after all. Not in a high class place. They're here because it was better money than they could hope for anywhere else, or their high class skills were for nothing when bereft of family and estate.
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi closed her eyes for a moment, it was true if she thought about it objectively, the terrible memories she had could not possibly cover the full span of time which she had spent here. Yet, they had objectively happened. She remembered the bruises on her mothers neck and arms. She remembered some of the vile men she had seen, arrogantly doing whatever they liked without any pushback. She remembered the girl struck by an off duty guardsmen.

"Unprovoked assault on a mortal, charged and fined after report by the establishments owner to the district magistrate," Xin said, and it was Xin, she could tell.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Archivist of Vice.
People did not get away with abuse untouched, if touched rather lightly even so.

People care.
There are Standards.
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi glanced her way. She would trust the spirits word on that but… did it really change anything? Yet, she found herself remembering things that she had forgotten. She remembered her mother and the owner talking, and other girls contributing coppers to a growing pouch. She never had seen that girl again, which she had seemed sinister, but… "Do you know what happened to the girl?"

"She recovered on the back of communal funds," Xin began.

"She purchased an apprenticeship with a seamstress using the restitution paid from the fine," The Dreaming Moon said absently.

"Never got her smile back though," the Grinning Moon said flippantly. "If ya know what I mean."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Kindness in the pits.
People with little giving what little they have so that she has a future.
The punishment fit the crime, paying for the career she lost in a coldly impartial and hardly deterrent approach. But she has a living.

Still sucks. But it could be worse.
yrsillar said:
It didn't make things better, it never really could have. It surprised her all the same. She had become so inured to the idea that the people who went in could do as they liked, the idea that one had suffered even mild punishment surprised her.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I reckon that's more true on the streets.
Think of the old man who lost a blanket in winter.
No consequences save guilt.
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi frowned, focusing her senses once more. A twinkling light blinked into existence before her eyes and began to drift across the street. She would not, could not make herself step across that threshold, but she didn't need to any longer, now did she? Using memories of the Argent Mirror art, she forced herself to remain dispassionate as she looked inside. What she saw fit the general shape of her memories. On the first floor was the common area, where a tired older woman played competently on a guzheng. Most of the tables and booths were empty, but here and there were customers. Men being served drinks and fawned over by younger girls, smiling empty smiles and laughing empty laughs.

Yet, when she looked at them, looked through them, she saw that they were just as empty. Sad, lonely, exhausted, worn down by one thing or another. Seeking fulfillment in people who had none to give. It was a sickening sort of parody. A few even deluded themselves into thinking that the girls felt something genuine for them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And theres the point Renxiang made which she couldn't understand.
Brothels serve a purpose beyond the carnal.

Morale is important, after all.
yrsillar said:
Something other than a low level of fear anyway. She couldn't, even in her forced dispassion feel real sympathy. In the end, they were the ones who held all the power, and the girls simply had to play to their wants. It wasn't as if her memories lied. Even at this slow time of day, there were some there who could see their own power and reveled in it. She knew without looking, just from the ambient qi that she would find nothing different on the second or third floors, where the workers lived, and which were rented out for more intimate services. Just emptiness and exploitation in different trappings.

It still made her skin crawl, she still hated it, and what happened inside. The special horror it had once held seemed a little washed out now though. It was horrible, but if she compared it to the things she had seen in the streets, could she really say that it was a special kind of horrible? In the end it was just the powerful enforcing their will on the weak, just like everywhere else. The men who got away with hurting were the ones rich or connected enough to make enforcing the rules unprofitable.

It was funny, in a twisted sort of way that the cultivator had been the one who actually got punished. She wasn't sure what to think of that. Leaving that aside however… running away really had been a sideways step, hadn't it. Whether in a fancy brothel or a dark alley, you debased yourself and survived. Virtue and vice were luxuries to be considered when you had a full belly and a warm blanket.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You know, the funny thing about this is...the streets were seen with rose tinted goggles in a sense. The freedom held up as an ideal of sorts.

But it wasn't any better.
The difference lay in control.
On the streets, she was not strong, but she was faster, fitter than some, and that put her in the middle, with power over the lower.
In the brothel, she would not be compelled to harm others to live, but would lose agency.

Thats her fear.
Better to choose evil than be coerced.
yrsillar said:
Which she certainly had now. She would not allow herself to feel shame about her Mother, nor the people she had hired any longer, no matter the sneering she got for it. In the end, they were people who had picked the poison they were willing to swallow in the name of survival, just like her. They were people who her mother had considered important. She thought back to what Cai Renxiang had said, when she had made the decision to hire them, she could see the truth in the girl's words, it was a gross, unpleasant job, but there was no inherent shame in it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
And thats one small resolution.
Removing the shame she feels, even if she does not admit to it, lets her talk about it.

Progress, but more of getting a key than opening the door.
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi smiled despite herself as Hanyi let out a last excited woop from her perch on Ling Qi's back back. She landed then, her legs bending to absorb the impact as she came to a stop on the roof one of the little mansions that lined the quiet avenues of the inner city. With how busy she had been, Ling Qi had forgotten some of the simple joy that could come from just moving. The feeling of burn in her muscles and qi channels as she dashed at full speed, trying her best just to keep the flitting silk shrouded figure of the Grinning Moon in sight as they raced atop rooftops and walls.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Zoom~~~

yrsillar said:
Sixiang landed beside her with a thump, pitching face forward onto the roof tiles as they gasped for breath. "...Changed my mind, dun want a body anymore," Sixiang complained, voice muffled by the tiles.

"Ah, what a lax grandchild, how shameful," sighed the Dreaming Moon as she alit on the roofs edge, the parasol which had carried her floating behind them dissolving in her hands.

Ling Qi nudged Sixiang with her foot eliciting a groan. "It wasn't that bad, we were only running for an hour or two," she said. In reality the passage of time seemed strange, the sun had barely moved, but surely her game of tag with the Grinning Moon had taken more than a few minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sixiang needs leg day.
Either that or learning the Mary Poppins trick.
yrsillar said:
"I, Zhen am getting tired of being small again," the little serpent grumbled petulently, still tucked under Hanyi's arm.

"Gui agrees for once," said his other half, sounding cross.

"Pfft, even if you were big you'd be too slow," Hanyi scoffed.

"So are you!" they both cried out in affront
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Zhengui feeling embarassed about being carried by Hanyi? :p
yrsillar said:
"I don't need to be," Hanyi replied smugly. "Since Big Sis can give me rides like this."

Ling Qi glanced back at them and Hanyi smiled angelically. She huffed, that was a conversation for another time.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm...sounds like something needs addressing. Hanyi is deflecting the issue?
yrsillar said:
Ling Qi cast them all a wary look. "...You're going to have me choose between a cryptic metaphors for whatever we're actually going to do, aren't you."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The common axis between Dreaming, Hidden and Grinning: Mystery!
yrsillar said:
"Well now you've gone and taken the fun out of it," The Grinning Moon said, crossing her arms. "Fine, we can be direct too. In my choice, we'll be going to a place where the dullards at the top of this heap would much rather we not go."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Heading to forbidden places?
But forbidden for what reason?

yrsillar said:
"In mine, we will see to the spread of art too long forgotten and suppressed," said the Dreaming Moon, her smile catlike and predatory.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Sounds like performances of some suppressed minority culture...or the rites of some defeated polity?

My guess is that it'd be some tomb raiding, then planting or playing it where it inspires best?
yrsillar said:
"And in mine, we will see that a certain secret makes its way to the appropriate ears," The Hidden Moon said somberly, speaking once again through Xin.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ironic that the Hidden Moon's is the clearest and most direct.
Get a secret, then convey it while keeping secret.

[X] Take the Dreaming Moon's suggestion

Ordis said:
It makes sense with the story of the girl who stole the wind, but the Grinning Moon is very animated isn't she? At least compared to the Dreaming Moon being all elegant with the parasol and Xin just teleporting.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Grinning feels...fundamentally childish in a way I think.
 
Arkeus said:
I myself just said that Ling Qi enjoyed thieving, so I am not sure why you are saying it in response to my post.

On the other hand, music has been for a long time now something that is more than just "she enjoys it", but about who she is. I gave many examples about it not being a mean, but about it being who she is, and how she now likes it to a much stronger measure than thievery.

Ling Qi dislikes a lot of socialisation, yes. But that's not all or even most of what is dreaming moon. The same way that Ling Qi dislikes taking risks isn't all of what Grinning Moon is. The difference between the two is that Ling Qi is now someone who default to music when thinking of herself or interacting with others or when doing things on her own. She... doesn't do that for tricks and thieveries. Grinning and Hidden are very much more in the 'jobs' slots, while dreaming is much more in the 'self' slot.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Trickery and wit are also things that she very much cares about, from the small stuff like suprising Bai Xiao Fen and Su Ling up to where Sixiang asked Ling Qi what element would they use to let Ling Qi define her, and Ling Qi answered with wind while reaffirming her Grinning Moon connection.

If the Dreaming Moon is more than parties, socialising and art then the Grinning Moon isore than sneaking, thieving and tricking.
 
{} Talent 4 + d3. Reach a little higher.. or have a slightly more difficult time.
{} Solar.
{} Archery.
{} A foreign scion you're unfamiliar with. Her hair is of shimmering jade, a sharp contrast to her pale skin.


We should definitely use a different system for omake votes next time. Cluttering the thread is a bad idea.
 
Last edited:
commando2341 said:
Ling Biyu Quest Negaverse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ling Biyu hummed as she approached the central building, both excited to experience the sect where her sister had taken her first steps and anxious to live up to the large reputation her sister had left behind on this mountain. Her own time here would be significantly different though - as a member of a new born baronial house her sister had entrusted her with additional duties in continuing to make ties with clans Ling Qi had reached out to and attempting to recruit talented commoners. She knew there were quite a few noble scions attending - not quite as varied or significant as her sister experienced, but still notable. A Bao member, Bao Hai was noteworthy, in addition to Luo Xian, Ruan Jie and others from the Emerald Seas province. There would be foreign scions too that she was less familiar with, given that the Argent Sect had their profile raised significantly in the Empire in the wake of her sisters year group.

Her cultivation too was different - as her sister was not awakened when she entered the sect, Biyu had her Qi awakened at 12. She sat in the late stage of Red and Gold, with a wide range of arts and talents to her name. Though Ling Biyu had been content with the pace of her progress prior to entering the sect, she desired a much more rapid pace now upon entering the Sect. She refused to disappoint her sister.

Entering the central hall, Ling Biyu casually moved, grey disciple robes shifting around her, to the specific disciple hall - Hall 1 - she was allotted to. As she crossed the threshold to the room, she could immediately see a range of people there, all the way from noble allies to sit with, scions of clans in opposition to her own, common-born cultivators of city guards and mortals with locked Qi. Who she sat next to was possibly one of the most important choices she could make in her time here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Voting blocks!
Talent:
{} Talent 6. Reliable, safe.
{} Talent 4 + d3. Reach a little higher.. or have a slightly more difficult time.
{} Talent 2 + d7. For the risk-takers.

Elemental Alignment (primary)
{} Lunar. You follow your sister's path. Slightly better starter arts as Ling Qi can provide her own. May feel like you're re-treading FoD.
{} Solar. Though you tried, the lunar qi you tried to absorb was an exercise in futility. You tend to the opposite end of the spectrum - shining, vibrant solar qi. Starting art quality might be lower. Will carve a new path of your own.
{} Other. Write in a good justification, as the Ling Clan has a reputation for celestial Qi cultivation from your sister. Your sister and her liege will need good reasoning to allow you to change the Baron House of Ling's still-tenuous steps as a Weilu successor in spirit if not blood.

Art techniques.
{} Musician.
--{} Flute.
--{} Other instrument.
{} Archery.
{} Other. Write in.

Where to sit?
{} Bao Hai. Ling Qi desired you to try and form ties with him.
{} Ruan Jie. A rising clan under the Bao.
{} Luo Xian. A fellow Weilu clan, they are neutral towards you mainly due to your sister also following the Weilu path. Perhaps you could improve the relationship?
{} A foreign scion you're unfamiliar with. Her hair is of shimmering jade, a sharp contrast to her pale skin.
{} A mortal. Perhaps a diamond in the rough?

@yrsillar, an omake. If anyone'd like to vote for any future instalments, I'm not sure how to do it to avoid cluttering the thread. Perhaps PM me?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I feel like we know enough about Ling Biyu's situation to make some bad guess' about who she's likely to become. She's a Ling with another father than her sister which means she probably isn't as flighty and inattentive, but retains as version of Ling Qi and Qingge's fearful need for freedom, safety and friendship. She'll likely grow up in a rising clan with few peers where Ling Qi is stationed and the newly settled Ling territory, meaning she'll spend her time watching her burgeoning clan grow as her mother gets it in order and her sister work to improve it's fortune. I could see her looking up to her mother as the active head of their household and Ling Qi who'll impress on her a desire for achievement. She'll hope to be a stable, patient presence where her sister likely disappears for months on end on some quest or other.

Most importantly she has shown a connection to spirits in her dreams and dreamed of going to a river before Ling Qi brought her to one, so Dreaming and Hidden might be interested in her. I'm thinking a bit of a socialite making alliances and using spirits and dreams to play games of intrigue. Still very much like her sister only poised where Qi is skulking, preferring plans, traps, minions and drawn out fights of attrition followed by brutal executions. Extroverted with an endless energy for friends and allies against Qi is introverted nature.

{X} Talent 6. Reliable, safe.
{X} Lunar. You follow your sister's path. Slightly better starter arts as Ling Qi can provide her own. May feel like you're re-treading FoD.
{X} Musician.
--{X} Flute.
{X} Other. Write in.
--{X} Spear.
Ling Qi gave her Grinning's Jade Slip which she uses to dance around opponents like a shadow in mist.
{X} Bao Hai. Ling Qi desired you to try and form ties with him.
 
Lena27 said:
Ashen Shadow Art?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thread in-joke/meme. Midway through the first quest, there were several contentious votes on which Arts to select from the archive. One of, perhaps the most significant of these was between Falling Stars Art (a solid archery art at the time that filled in the 'no burst damage' hole in our build and gave us a long range option) and Ashen Shadow Art (an unarmed melee fire art that conjured ash constructs and drained qi, which we could use in melee at the same time as our flute).

The vote was long and bitterly divided, with people making passionate arguments on both sides. Eventually, it was decided that because both Arts filled holes in our setup at the time, the thread planned to get FSA then and go back in a week or two to get ASA. This ended up never happening because we got distracted by events and optimization for time-crunches, then later Yrsillar kept throwing powerful arts we didn't vote for as narrative arc rewards, which resulted in a vaguely schizophrenic 'catch everything' build that left no time to go back for ASA if we wanted to be ready for the tournament (and at that point ASA's starting levels would have been too low level to be relevant in optimization).

If the thread had been allowed to pursue its own Dao, we would have ended up as a stealth archer instead of an ice-bard. I know this explanation has rambled a little, but the important thing to know is that you should vote for ASA and the successor art to FSA at every opportunity.
 
Arkeus said:
Ling Qi does enjoy sneaking and being a sticky finger hurricane, but it doesn't seem to be to an inordinate degree.

Ling Qi viewed music, back in the streets', as her 'one respite', and in the sect she has slowly begun composing for fun and as a way to communicate. She often created songs while cultivating with Su Ling, or sent her mom her new creation, or created a song to explain her feelings to Meizhen, and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Mmm, seeing as we're in a psychoanalyzing mood...stealing, tricking and generally surprising people seems to me to be primarily a self-assuring power play. She establishes that she is strong and it validates her desire for security because she constantly proves she can get away with stuff that way. She directly obtains resources.

Music on the other hand is a comfort from the other angle. Its something without a pragmatic purpose, something purely for pleasure originally. It comforts by expressing that she is secure and can pursue things with no immediate returns...that it also became quite the weapon is a nice bonus

Scholarship, secrecy and cultivation on the other hand is building power. To become ever stronger, to gain more levers against others. She has not found the passion of a true scholar yet, but she studies as hard as any
commando2341 said:
Xepheria suggested a new system which is to use each rating (hugs etc) and assign it to a specific vote.

I was worried about this too so I'll do this version instead.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Would strongly recommend it as it avoids well...taking over lots of quest space.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top