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

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I'd probably deflect with personal assessment, something like:

"I don't know the party very well yet, so it's difficult to say. I'd probably be more useful as bait, but I'd enjoy socializing a bit and exercising my horrifically rusty archery skills."

Feels like Luo is being a bit unfair here putting so much on Ling Qi. EDIT: especially because it's impossible for Ling Qi to have any idea how she should try to fit into such a party without any knowledge of their skills or preferred roles.
 
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I'm in the mood for another skit.

CRX: Hey Ling Qi, how'd the hunt go.
Ling Qi: it went well, we worked together and brought down a Mirage Lion, which was neat.
CRX: Make any new friends?
Ling Qi: URGH! About the only person there that was decent was Alingge!
CRX:...Hrrm. Well, it HAS been awhile, perhaps a more...Private get-together would do you some good? It could be me, you, the Bai duo, your old Golden Field friends, Xuan Shi...
6: (Laying it on a bit thick aren't you?)
Ling Qi: I'm fine.
CRX: You sound like you're going to hit Sublime Ancestor by 30, Talent permitting. What reason have you to not sit on your butt and cultivate?
Ling Qi: I'm poor?
CRX: Which will last until you decide to go on another stealing spree. I still remember that raid you did on Sun's fortress. And if my own court is so inhospitable that you wouldn't feel guilty doing that to them...My only other recourse is to try and defeat one of my most potent vassals.
Ling Qi: I'm not going to go rouge like that!
CRX: You didn't before, that is true. But then, we had Sun to provide an external threat, to unify us and to make power like yours useful enough to overlook your lack of social grace. If in peacetime you only grate without really being useful, I can only see you becoming almost indistinguishable from the Bai. To that end...I have an idea. The Ma Sisters, your vassals shall serve as your handmaidens instead.
6: (Social. Bodygaurds. And I'm just a breeze in your hair. Oh the perils of being a muse!)
Ling Qi: *sighes* as you wish.
 
I think this is test.
But i'm not sure test of what?
Test of our judgement? Leadership? Social skills?
Do we make a right decision on where to place ourselves? (the parameters for "right" being unknown)
Do we accept leadership position or defer to others? (no idea which Luo would see as a right choice)

Do we lead from front or send others into danger?
Or on the other hand
Do we hog glory or let others shine?

I think going for bait is the right decision.
Not because it would make us pass Luo's test (that we don't actually know the answers for, or even the questions).
But because it is who i want Ling Qi to be would do.
 
I think it's less "He's looking for something in particular" and more "He wants to get a read on one of Renxiang's retainers, the only one he has an excuse to get a read on, so he can figure out if they should be cultivated as a connection, or if they're a vulnerability that can be leveraged for advantage in some other sense."

But, yes, we picked the option that had our 'Wincon' as being as impressive as possible to serve as a centerpiece. While it's not ideal to be socially inept, it's also 'Acceptable' given our origins, provided we exhibit exceptional abilities for our level of cultivation. After all, "We're still learning" is a strong defense so long as one can establish their ability first.

[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

If we wanted to sandbag to just talk to people, that was last choice. We went with the strategy of "Gain admiration being being as impressive as possible." Attempting to take a crew of low greens unscathed through a mid-green's ambush is pretty god damn impressive.
 
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I disagree that we committed to being as impressive as possible, I just don't think that the scouting, because of its pretty extreme isolation, actually demonstrated skills anyone besides Alingge will admire.
 
I don't know about that. I mean Luo said "The two of you were certainly swift in finding such valuable prey."
That seems like we did demonstrate impressive tracking skills.
 
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
 
[X] Ling Qi would stay and hide herself with the other archers, she had already showed off in helping Alingge quickly isolate their target. Now was the time to catch up on her original goals.

Actually, I still think this is clearly and by far the inferior decision, and quite socially risky, but screw it. Showing up for the hunt and not doing any boring noble gossip at all probably looks just as bad as being an inconsistent flip-flopping coward who doesn't respect the wilds.
 
AbeoLogos said:
[X] Ling Qi would stay and hide herself with the other archers, she had already showed off in helping Alingge quickly isolate their target. Now was the time to catch up on her original goals.

Actually, I still think this is clearly and by far the inferior decision, and quite socially risky, but screw it. Showing up for the hunt and not doing any boring noble gossip at all probably looks just as bad as being an inconsistent flip-flopping coward who doesn't respect the wilds.
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You ever hear of a tradition of looking the thing you hunted and killed in the eye, as a gesture of acknowledgement and respect? Admittedly Ling Qi might not be the one delivering the killing blow herself in this circumstance but...
 
My understanding is that this is not a one time thing - and I think Ling Qi trying to jump in the deep end here would have only ended badly with her being overwhelmed and defaulting to sixiang talking. I'm hoping that this path has us talking to a smaller group of people, and at least getting some names and faces we can say hi to around campus. I think LQ does much better with small group settings than large ones, and I think this path is more likely to lead to that. It's possible "small group" was never really an option here, but that's my hope.
 
Zaealix said:
You ever hear of a tradition of looking the thing you hunted and killed in the eye, as a gesture of acknowledgement and respect? Admittedly Ling Qi might not be the one delivering the killing blow herself in this circumstance but...
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Hmm? I'm saying that hanging out with the archery group doesn't conform super well with Alingge's premise that the dangers of the wilds should be respected. Since it's deliberately not putting our best foot forwards in the exercise, we're taking our quarry lightly.

She won't be killing it in either case, since she's not going to use FSS, etc.

Hisar said:
My understanding is that this is not a one time thing - and I think Ling Qi trying to jump in the deep end here would have only ended badly with her being overwhelmed and defaulting to sixiang talking. I'm hoping that this path has us talking to a smaller group of people, and at least getting some names and faces we can say hi to around campus. I think LQ does much better with small group settings than large ones, and I think this path is more likely to lead to that. It's possible "small group" was never really an option here, but that's my hope.
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If we look at the history of the quest, things generally are effectively "one time things". Even if they're recurring events, our choices persist through later iterations that do not have narrative focus. Based on the information that we've gained through the events so far, it appears most likely that going with the more social option at the start would have involved Ling Qi moving between small groups as they hunted. A medium-sized group like this would have needed to go fairly diffuse to actually hunt anything competitively, and we identified that there were natural clique-ish break points throughout the gathering.

"Everyone gangs up on Ling Qi" doesn't appear to have been a credible risk. Specific subgroups, yes. But it was all smallish groups the entire time.
 
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[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
 
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

In for a penny, in for a pound.
 
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
 
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
 
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
 
[X] Ling Qi would stay and hide herself with the other archers, she had already showed off in helping Alingge quickly isolate their target. Now was the time to catch up on her original goals.
 
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.

"I'll be bait!"
Luo Zhong smiles before uncorking a bottle
"Good initiative Miss Ling, now please hold still while I apply the spices."
 
[X] Ling Qi would stay and hide herself with the other archers, she had already showed off in helping Alingge quickly isolate their target. Now was the time to catch up on her original goals.

Why did we even pick the noble party option, if we're just going to use it as an excuse to grandstand? We choose this to improve our social network.
 
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CornyBones said:
[X] Ling Qi would stay and hide herself with the other archers, she had already showed off in helping Alingge quickly isolate their target. Now was the time to catch up on her original goals.

Why did we even pick the noble party option, if we're just going to use it as an excuse to grandstand? We choose this to improve our social network.
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Because this is a noble hunting party, and participating might improve our standing.
 
Sigh. I do expect another, purely social phase to this arc, but we'll have very little context for it. Even odds it's picking between prominent figures to focus on too, which is... marginally productive.

Anyone grumpy at our attendance has had the whole event to strategize a sick burn or whatever too.

Edit: like, ending an event with a more focussed 1 on 1 actually makes a lot of sense normally because it capitalized on or responds to broader circumstances. We're isolating ourselves from those though, so there's waaay less to draw from. Doing a general social as the capstone is probably going to be lackluster because it lacks focus, especially if it's the first of an arc. Pacing/balance issues, basically.

It's on us. I didn't expect the first decision to isolate us to the degree it did, which I'd argue undercut even its desired effect, but it's still on us.
 
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