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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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.

Time. From 1942 to the late 2010s. You might know Journey to the West in particular - it's an account of the monk Xuanzang who traveled to western regions in order to retrieve Buddhist sacred texts. He is accompanied by three disciples - the monkey king Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie the half-pig, and Sha Wujing the sand monster - who protect him on his dangerous journey.

Fascinating. Such a thing is unusual in your world, or no?

The framework of a story about journeys to retrieve objects of various kinds, yes. Not this one in particular, though to hear of it leads this one to wishing to read such a thing. Fascinating to have any number of demon-like entities traveling with and protecting a monk, considering the history between such on my world.

[ HE LOVES JOURNEY TO THE WEST! Why does it have to be a Ming dynasty work that in no way is recogniseable to his world, where dynasties don't exist, where China doesn't exist, just the concepts and core beliefs that come out of a certain modern-historical fantasy version of his birth country's popular culture.

1942... has this guy watched any film adaptations of.....................

Wait.

Math. He does math. He can do math, and remembers an anonymous conversation, and.............................................

Is this dual personality guy?! ]

[is it. who knows.]

Unusual, but I'm not the only person to be transmigrated this way. There's at least a few dozen in my library. If only the library had works from home here. But I suppose trying to fit in notable literature from all of the worlds we hail from would be difficult, even if they were easier to access.

[ even if it is, he won't! be able to say anything! also this guy wouldn't know! this is definitely not the fight happy half of his personality...

... why are all transmigrators complicated people... from one transmigrator to another, is there any answer for it? ]

What an interesting way of phrasing such. A few dozen of those who would have been in your library who have likewise transmigrated, or that you all happen to be contained within a library in this future time?

One does miss seeing those works... though along those lines, if one did procure one of these summoning orbs, would you be amendable to using such to summon the book you referenced? In my understanding, that which exists in your world might be summoned, but that which does not will not.

[ in other words... he can't summon it, though actually, he might be able to since he was originally from Earth... he can't test that out though! he just can't! ]

[writers are weird, maybe?]

Both of those are correct statements. It's not that I'm unwilling to summon it - it's a wonderful piece of literature - it's just that it's so far down my list of priorities for books to summon that it would take at least a year to get to it. If not longer.

[ ... this is true. mystery is now solved! ]

Then all those you know are... from novels, or no. Created novels? The timing only makes sense if it relates to the one who wrote it, not to the subjects written about.

Ah, so no requests taken at this time. It's understandable.

[ still sadly disappointing. he wonders if he'll ever see works from his first home again... and kind of suspects not. waves goodbye to the literature he grew up with! ]

Writers, but you might say physical copies of their books acted something like a catalyst for the transmigration. I'm sorry to disappoint.

How delightfully strange. Writers summoned through the catalyst of their own written word.

So it is, and so it shall be. Asking never hurts.

[ hoping is what causes hurts, when he thinks about it. ]

They do say that writers put some of themselves into their work.

Some far more than they realise.

[ rip, airplane bro ]

Usually, it isn't meant so literally.