prismatica | (no subject)

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The Ware Wolf Shop has a two item limit per month, even if you have enough Chroma for more. How does anyone decide what to buy? I know I want one orb to get one of my books that Caster asked for, and I know I want to have another orb for some of my coworkers' works... But how am I meant to choose just one? Even if I can get more later, I find it hard to say whether Kyouka's works are a higher priority than Dazai's or Chuuya's or Yosano's or Kunikida's or - well, I could go on. And that's just limiting myself to buying the orbs and limiting what I could summon to books. I could use advice? Or opinions about Japanese literature, if you have those.

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You could, but you will not. Which is your decision. It's simply a possible solution.

'I couldn't bring myself to' is more accurate.

[ for whatever reason, that makes him smile even as it makes him sigh. ]

How is it that you could bring yourself to ask? What would make such possible for you?

Edited 2019-08-06 09:09 (UTC)

[Shen Qingqiu: Ah, one of those types.]

I don't know. I suppose, if I were really convinced that it wouldn't be a bother? But I don't know how I would convince myself of that.

[ e x a c t l y ]

A question only you might answer. Yet I would question in turn if anyone who you call friend or companion, or any who call themselves such to you, would truly be bothered by a request made without expectation behind it.

Well... It's always possible that I think we're closer than we are. I don't want to demand too much.

When did "ask" become "demand?"

...I'm not sure?

Neither am I. Asking a friend if is not the same as demanding when.

"If you aren't planning to purchase two items from the Ware Wolf Shop this month, would you mind picking up an extra dimensional orb for me? I'm happy to transfer the necessary Chroma," is a different thought than, "Purchase a dimensional orb for my sake when you're at the Ware Wolf Shop this month." Even if both would achieve the same objective.

I think I would sooner drop dead than say that second one. Even hypothetically, it's nauseating.

Then as an outside observer, I would say you're in no danger of making demands of your friends.

Thank you. That's actually very reassuring. I know I should be less nervous in general about offending people...

Knowing means giving yourself a challenge you can address. How might you see about changing your outlook when it comes to causing offense to others?

[A full ten minutes passes without a response. Then, finally:]

I don't know.

[He really tried to think of something...!]

[ ..................... well that's also a starting point of a kind................ ]

One way may be asking someone you trust if an offense is likely, or if you may be imagining one where there is none...

[An attempt was made.]

I'll try that. With one of the friends who isn't likely to just say something kind to spare my feelings.

A good plan. You want genuine feedback, not coddling.

May your path be clear.

Thank you very much. My name is Nakajima Atsushi. May I have yours?

Well met, Nakajima Atushi, and if anything this one has said is of help, then you're welcome to the words.

I'm called Shen Qingqiu.

[ ... that name does seem slightly familiar... but alas........... this is what he gets for not being an Eastern Lit major. ]

Pleased to make your acquaintance. May I assume you are Chinese?

[Atsusi's studied too much of the classics to not immediately recognize a Chinese name when he hears it.]

You may, if it's not precisely correct. In my estimate I would be considered Chinese if I were from Earth, but it's difficult for me to claim that as true. I don't have a sense that the logic of my world is anything similar to the logic of any Earth I've heard about.

[ is it good or bad that all of what he typed is true? he can't claim he's Chinese, because while Shen Yuan had been, Shen Qingqiu wasn't technically from China, past, present, or future. Proud Immortal Demon Way had not been set on Earth, so he wasn't from Earth anymore. How he overthinks everything... ]

Somewhat correlated, but not the same.

[At least, that's Atsushi's takeaway on what any of that meant.]

Please forgive my rudeness. I've studied Chinese history and literature at great length, and I let my enthusiasm for the subject get the better of me.

Yes, or so I suspect.

The forgiveness is freely granted, since no harm was done. I'm curious about what you've studied, and if any aspects would be familiar to me from my world. Either in the history or in the literature, though I admit my interest is more in literature. Human (are you human?) history is a more fluid, fast moving river compared to the well of cultivation's politics.

Transmigrated spirit, but I have memories from when I was still human, so close enough. What I've studied from the thousands of years that make up Chinese literature? Of course the Four Great Classical Novels - Dream of the Red Chamber, Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Journey to the West. The Buddhist tales and plain tales of the Song dynasties. How translations of Western literature influenced Chinese tradition in the late Qing dynasty, and the New Culture Movement that I was lucky enough to be alive for. It's a bit difficult to know where to start.

Transmigrated... through space? Time?

Summaries of these four great classical novels would help this Shen Qingqiu, but with the rest, Buddhist tales? Those certainly may share similarities, with some of the sects in my world being those which are particularly devoted to interpretations of Buddhist tenets.

These dynasties don't have a meaning for me. Neither the Song nor Qing dynasties are existences on my world. The Human Realm is ruled more in city-states than in an Empire, at the time.