Reporter: What’s Your Name?

Some idioms and phrases you should know about part I :

Salt of the earth: a very good or worthy person.

Gut-wrenching: making you feel very upset or worried.

Make a spectacle of yourself: to do something that makes you look stupid and attracts people's attention.

Pass muster: be accepted as adequate or satisfactory.

Putty in someone's hands: easily influenced by someone else, excessively willing to do what someone else wishes.

Look before you leap: carefully consider the possible consequences before taking action.

Set the wheels in motion : to do something that will cause a series of actions to start.

Off the books: without being included on official records.

A long Haul: something that takes a lot of time and energy.

An end in itself: a goal that is pursued in it's own right to the exclusion of others.

Night owl: a person who prefers to be awake late at night.

Kick the Bucket: to die.

Alter Ego: a person's secondary or alternative personality immediately or extremely quickly; at once.

Freak of Nature: something or someone that is unusual, rare, or abnormal in some way / To avoid attracting attention to yourself.

How would zyx have handled being born in the canon sects?

my brain is mush, but let’s give this a shot. in no particular order...

Yunmeng Jiang: 

Comes over as part of the Meishan Yu side courtesy of Madame Yu, as Yu Lin 虞琳 (no courtesy name, same lin character as in DBD). 

Freaks out when she Realizes some realizations.

And then it’s down to business because she fucking lives here now, it’s her fucking house and it’s going to fucking catch fire.

Due to precociousness and competence from of being Done since birth, she’s trained as the successor of Jinzhu/Yinzhu for JC. 

Pre-WWX arrival, she sticks to teaching/providing emotional and mental support to the Jiang sibs so they don’t end up so screwed by their parents.

(Secretly works with JYL to help her cultivation bc fuck that noise.)

Once WWX arrives, she ends up tag-teaming with JYL to keep the peace. WWX ends up treating her like Shijie #2 - especially when he starts to cultivate and notices that she knows a lot more than she lets on.

WWX: “Lin-jiejie! Play with Xianxian!” JC: “Wei Wuxian, have you no shame? Even our shimei is more well-behaved than you!” WWX: “Our... what?”

(Still younger than everyone, but she never says anything. Conceal don’t feel.)

Overall: more emotionally stable and patient, Exhausted(TM), and much more reserved. Can’t wait to fuck off somewhere.

If the Golden Core transfer thing is going to happen, it’s not going on her watch - she’d knock WWX out, let JC take her GC instead, and then finds a nice quiet mountain to retire onto. Immortality didn’t mean much to someone that has died before. Also, the math then works out. Everything should be okay. Right?

(Obviously, no. But we’ll leave it at that.)

Lanling Jin:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Lanling Jin is... ugh. Name: Jin Zi’ai/ 金子藹 (zi as the generational character, ai for affable/luxuriant)

IDK if you know those dinner parties with your relatives when you are done with their shit by hour 2... but it’s like that 24/7. She awaits the day she’s powerful and influential enough to go feral.

The resources available to her are awful. She’s a close enough cousin that she has to see JGS’s shit all day. Deal with Jin Zixun all day. But for the sake of survival and agency, she grits her teeth and ingratiates herself with Madame Jin to get close to Jin Zixuan and get access to better cultivation education and resources.

Mme Jin cuts her a deal - if she can be useful to her son and the heir of Lanling Jin, she’ll help out on the side.

At first, JZA (god that’s so weird to see a vowel in an MXTX name abbr) is planning to just use JZX and get the fuck out.

And then his awkwardness makes her care. Damn it.

Plan: Get her uncle pushed down the stairs Actively set up JZX to take over Lanling Jin by Year 5 post-Sunshot Campaign.

Reluctantly ends up taking MY/JGY under her wing once she remembers the Qin Su situation. Ticks another year off of JGS’s life.

Best fucking friends with LQY.

(Plans go to shit once she meets people outside of LLJ. Recalibrating...)

(Due to a bad JZX/JYL encounter, WWX makes an exception and she’s the only girl he hates. “Just as insufferable, if not more, than that Peacock.”)

Qinghe Nie:

It’s fucking cold. She complains about humid heat, but she also bitches about cold and snow. All weather sucks.

QHN is probably the only sect that lets her get away with as much as she does in Shuangfeng. Goes gender-neutral again.

Name: Nie Yunxun. Done.

‘Don’t yell bankai, don’t yell bankai -’ as NYX is training with a humongous sabre. Big sword is encouraged. Give an inch, take a mile.

Da-ge energy pulls them in like a black hole. “Damn it, now I fucking care.” None of this Song of Turmoil Shit on their watch.

(”Da-ge,” because NHS latched onto them and NMJ allowed it, “Not everything is so black and white.” Tries their best to slowly make him chill the fuck out.)

Pretty prim and proper despite a foul mouth - slated to take over for Nie Zonghui when it comes time for the new generation.

Refuses to believe that eating dirt is the only future for sabre-wielders. Convinces NHS to trust and confide in them once he figures out what they’re trying to research and test.

(NHS latching on - 1) he catches NYX punning a subtle insult on LLJ during a discussion conference, 2) while escorting NHS to watch a play, he then catches them making the bitterest commentary on the not-so-great plot, and 3) on the days that he really can’t confront the fact that his Da-ge is going to cultivate to his own death, they will lie to NMJ’s face with no shame and let him hide.)

Uses QHN reputation to their advantage to play stupid and guileless. “A pretty, dumb brute.”

In public, NYX is essentially NHS’s long-suffering henchman.

In private, NYX and NHS are the Shady Duo, scheming tirelessly to... make the Cultivation Realm better, of course :) (better for some, not for others.)

Gusu Lan:

This feels worse than LLJ.

Lan Wenhui 藍文慧, wen for literary, and hui for intelligence.

CR is fine to visit, but awful to grow up in.

Grows up like a grumpy version of Lan Jingyi, because she knows that things aren’t going to be okay and there’s nothing she can do about it from her position.

Acts out a lot (like pre-ZYF death little Lin-lin). Sometimes accidentally, sometime purposefully. Living the CR feels like perpetually having an itch that she’s not allowed to scratch.

In trying to ‘tame the little beast’, LQR discovers two methods: 1) stump her with challenging/stimulating work, or 2) make LWJ ‘babysit’ her.

(Never mind telling an eight-year-old to watch a seven-year-old - but it’s the Chinese way to outsource your older kids to watch younger kids)

LWH can’t bring herself to be mean to LWJ. Thus LWJ gains a reluctant cousin-friend, and a buff to his social interaction skills.

LXC dotes on her so unabashedly that she effectively goes speechless for the whole day out of embarrassment.

Thus LQR discovers method #3 to nerf the Little Devil of the Cloud Recesses, and is so proud of himself and his nephews.

(WWX kicks him off his laurels when he arrives.)

Endgame: post-SSC (since she’s not in a position to change much without being scrutinized), seeing the 3Zun’s essentially make an alliance sans YMJ (+ JYL being betrothed to JZX), JGS basically is the most influential leader of the cultivation world.

Fuck no.

She orchestrates a ruse, if you will. ‘Accidentally’ lets JC pull her ribbon and doesn’t object. When questioned, lies and says that ‘he was her first love since catching a glimpse during the Cloud Recesses.’ (Complete with inflectionless voice)

“well shit, there’s nothing really objectionable about this match... so... congrats on your upcoming nuptials?”

Actually using that time to 1) go back and forth between YMJ with a semi-legit reason to interact and collude with the Yunmeng sibs and warn them of the upcoming BS, 2) delay the JZX/JYL wedding, 3) give LWJ time with WWX and hopefully they both get their heads out of their asses.

Shenanigans, fake dating/betrothal-turned-real? idk.

Qishan Wen:

The worst. Worstest. 

Two options:

Option one, side-side-side branch Wen

She’s fucking off.

Learning some cultivation/stealing some manuals, do a little spying and map-making, and deserting. 

Drops some secret missives for the other main sects, when the information becomes more relevant. 

Due diligence done, fucks off to some coastal town as their standoffish, neighborhood Cultivator. 

Micromanages the town and its well-being with the tenacity of playing a city builder/animal crossing in her previous life. 

Grow old. 

Die.

Option two, Wen Qing/Wen Ning’s family, the middle child. Wen Ling 溫玲, ling for exquisite.

She’s close enough to be in WRH’s purview but not in his main family. Whew.

Tries to convince older sister WQ to turn traitor and dip. 

Almost causes catastrophic end for their family bc of premature planning. 

She can’t play the same espionage game as WQ or MY/JGY does with WRH because she knows there’s no recovering from being publicly seen supporting WRH post-SSC. So she just works as a mainline fighter bc at least she’ll be able to defend herself and feel ‘useful’.

Fakes death and deserts mid-SSC. 

If lucky, lives and reluctantly infiltrates LLJ to be in the position to rescue her family after the war.

If she’s not... WWX kills her while she’s on the battlefield. She sees him and picks that moment to fake her death.

In this case, WWX catches her in the act, kills her but she calls out for WQ.

WQ learns about her death. WN is the one to tell WWX about the relation.

Tries to revive her as ‘owing one’ to the Wen sibs, looks for her corpse, encounters LWJ, gets his help to catch her soul with inquiry.

(Prime LWJ vinegar-drinking as he makes up his own reasons for why Wen Yuan exists and why WWX is taking care of him).

Ends up possessing WN on accident when WangXian returns to the Burial Mounds, able to help avert the Qiongqi Path incident.

Grimy spytime shenanigans to fight back against LLJ and surviving, and ends up passing on once things settle.

There was a tweet about Jingyi possibly being Jin Rusong, and this popped in my mind 🤣

LJY: What?! I’m your son? I’m Jin Rusong?!

JGY: Yes…Please und-

LJY: Is that why I’m short?!

JL: THAT’S YOUR BIG TAKE AWAY FROM THIS?!

LJY: SHUT UP! You don’t know what it’s like down here.

JL: You’re only 4 cm shorter!

LJY: 4 cm too short to reach the top of the shelf! This whole time I thought it was the bland food, but it turns out I came from midgets!

JGY: …

WWX: *Burst out laughing like a maniac*

JL: HOW ARE WE RELATED?

LJY: HOLY SHIT WE’RE RELATED?! No wonder I hate you!

JL: *In tears* Shut up! I hate you too!

LSZ: Guys, let’s calm down.

QS:…You know, I’m not so disgusted about the incest thing suddenly. But I want a divorce, and we’ll keep it a secret.

JGY: Unless you tell me who sent you the letter.

QS: No.

JGY: I need to know so that I can find out who else knows, and kill them so we won’t be slandered by the Cultivation World. Besides, who ever decided to tell you this now after all this time must be doing it for money.

QS:…It was Bicao. 

JGY: Thank you. Now excuse me future ex-wife. I’m going to go interrogate a maid.

*And thus Nie Huaisang gets found out, and it’s a whole different complicated mess where LXC is the one most shafted by it. In the mean time, Qin Su is happily living at Gusu to get to know her son.*

Tumblr is Tracking Shared Links

It looks like Tumblr @staff have finally implemented tracking garbage into shared links in the Tumblr mobile app. It took them years and years, but Tumblr is finally making an attempt to track shared links you click or links you share with friends.

When you share a post and choose to “copy” a link to your clipboard, you can see that they use their (new?) url shortener, at.tumblr.com.  The shortened URL appears to contain: your blog name; either the ID of the destination post, or the short string associated with the post; and an alphanumeric string.  Eg:

https://at.tumblr.com/pizza-and-ramen/im-fucking-dying-this-is-hilarious/uqndb20nkyob

The shortened URL redirects you to the destination link, but with 2 URL parameters: _branch_referrer and _branch_match_id.  Both are associated with a third-party analytics tool, branch.io.  Eg:

https://pizza-and-ramen.tumblr.com/post/118684413624/im-fucking-dying-this-is-hilarious?_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAxXEwQ2AIAwAwIlKH8aP21RQaaSAUIIyvZpczqvmuiCSGm2yhmJsEsw8BgFFB4Vki8gCe7MnxwPc86%2BeK3w8ByqcWsU7jHnql0u99xd0v%2FAuVQAAAA%3D%3D&_branch_match_id=1104914739086906151

_branch_referrer appears to be another shortened at.tumblr.com URL, except it’s been gzipped, base64 encoded, then URL encoded.  Eg:

H4sIAAAAAAAAAxXEwQ2AIAwAwIlKH8aP21RQaaSAUIIyvZpczqvmuiCSGm2yhmJsEsw8BgFFB4Vki8gCe7MnxwPc86%2BeK3w8ByqcWsU7jHnql0u99xd0v%2FAuVQAAAA%3D%3D

URL decode to:

H4sIAAAAAAAAAxXEwQ2AIAwAwIlKH8aP21RQaaSAUIIyvZpczqvmuiCSGm2yhmJsEsw8BgFFB4Vki8gCe7MnxwPc86+eK3w8ByqcWsU7jHnql0u99xd0v/AuVQAAAA==

base64 decode to (in hex for legibility):

1F8B0800 00000000 000315C4 C10D8020 0C00C089 4A1FC68F DB545069 A4805082 32BD9A5C CEABE6BA 20921A6D B286626C 12CC3C06 01450785 648BC802 7BB327C7 03DCF3AF 9E2B7C3C 072A9C5A C53B8C79 EA974BBD F71774BF F02E5500 0000

and unzipped with gunzip:

https://at.tumblr.com/pizza-and-ramen/im-fucking-dying-this-is-hilarious/xlz53wqdowww

which directs to the post with the same _branch_referrer but a new _branch_match_id:

https://pizza-and-ramen.tumblr.com/post/118684413624/im-fucking-dying-this-is-hilarious?_branch_match_id=1104899685865808870&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAxXEwQ2AIAwAwIlKH8aP21RQaaSAUIIyvZpczqvmuiCSGm2yhmJsEsw8BgFFB4Vki8gCe7MnxwPc86%2BeK3w8ByqcWsU7jHnql0u99xd0v%2FAuVQAAAA%3D%3D

_branch_match_id, according to this stackoverflow answer, is an identifier unique to you, used to track users.  It could be based on browser fingerprinting, as branch.io’s branch_match_id is.

Anyway, there’s not a terribly easy way to avoid this tracking from the Tumblr mobile app, but if you get a link that has the id, not the string, you can modify it to the format of blog.tumblr.com/ID, like so before sending it to a friend:

https://at.tumblr.com/pizza-and-ramen/118684413624/uqndb20nkyob

https://pizza-and-ramen.tumblr.com/118684413624

Alternately, you could paste the link in your browser, allow it to redirect, then remove everything past the ? at the end, eg:

https://pizza-and-ramen.tumblr.com/post/118684413624/im-fucking-dying-this-is-hilarious?_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAAxXEwQ2AIAwAwIlKH8aP21RQaaSAUIIyvZpczqvmuiCSGm2yhmJsEsw8BgFFB4Vki8gCe7MnxwPc86%2BeK3w8ByqcWsU7jHnql0u99xd0v%2FAuVQAAAA%3D%3D&_branch_match_id=1104914739086906151

https://pizza-and-ramen.tumblr.com/post/118684413624/im-fucking-dying-this-is-hilarious

Anyway, this has been my privacy rant of the day.  Thanks for reading, and let me know if you know more about this than I do!

hehe incorrect quotes

Oof there's a typo :'(

Based on this 👇

I've gotten more fond of svsss after @fatalism-and-villainy read it and liveblogged it to me, and I've been thinking so much about what it says about villains, and people's environments affecting what they do, and also/especially fandom and fandom interpretations of villains. obviously societal factors on behavior and how social pressures form villains is a theme through all mxtx novels, but it's really obvious in the contrast between alt universe versions of people!

shen yuan and shen jiu are the most obvious example of this. It's so clear why Shen Qingqiu was the role chosen for Shen Yuan! He's grumpy, demands perfection from himself and others, has a very sharp tongue, is very Intellectual, and has the type of mind to want to write bestiaries and focus on scholarship. He has an enormous wealth of knowledge about xianxia tropes in general and PIDW worldbuilding in particular. ALL of those are Shen Qingqiu traits! He just doesn't envy children who have good childhoods, and therefore doesn't Do Child Abuse.

Originally, he dismisses Shen Qingqiu Original Version as a one dimensional, irredeemable "scum villain." Shen Jiu's backstory doesn't show up in the original work, and Shen Yuan dismisses it as irrelevant.

And this is a mistake. Not only does Shen Jiu's backstory explain why he's the way he is, it continues to affect his life and by extension the life of any Shen Qingqius. Understanding his past and feelings are ESSENTIAL for Shen Qingqiu v2 to keep himself alive! He struggles with interacting with the remnants of the Qiu family, SQQ's past as a slave, and is distressed by the memories he's shown of child SQQ being raped and abused. He needs to know these things, and he needs to have sympathy for the original occupant of his body!

It's not that Shen Yuan seemed to have a good life -- he was a hikikomori, "waiting around to die" -- but the circumstances of his life took his base characteristics that he shares with SQQ and molded him into a totally different person.

It's also visible with LBH1 and LBH2. Original Luo Binghe is not a good person! He responds to his traumatic early life by conquering the world, forming a harem of hundreds of women he doesn't care about, and eventually dies unfulfilled, unloved, and unhappy. SVSSS Luo Binghe has problems for sure -- definitely traumatized! so many mood swings! -- but his positive experiences with Shen Qingqiu v2 were just enough to make him a good person. "People improve when they receive external love and support!"

soundless love song.

Zutara- Momtara Dadko 

I saw your meta on Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan's relationship - it was fantastic, by the way - and was wondering if you'd read the Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan extras and what you thought about them.

Hi!

I actually didn’t know there were extras on them until you mentioned them…I wish I had known about them before writing my initial response on their relationship. Thank you for your compliment about my meta btw!

Overall, after reading those extras, there’s only a few major tweaks I would make to my thoughts on Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan’s relationship. Delving more deeply into Shen Jiu’s perspective was essential to gain a keener sense of just how cynical and self-loathing he is…and just how attached he actually was to Yue Qingyuan until the very end. 

For starters, when it comes to Shen Jiu himself, what’s emphasized throughout his origin story, is that he arguably hates himself most of all. Be it as “Shen Jiu” or as “Shen Qingqiu”, his hatred of both his names is symbolic of his deep-seated self-loathing. He hates his past as Shen Jiu because he was a poor, abused slave. And he hates his present as Shen Qingqiu because he wound up inheriting both a name that’s the same as the family who caused him so much pain AND a disposition that’s similar to Qiu Jianluo’s, the man he hated most. 

Shen Jiu’s experiences made him see everything through jade-coloured glasses. The few occasions he tried to do something positive, he always wound up suffering. He tried to help Yue Qingyuan save Shi Wu, but only got betrayed and captured. He put all his hopes into being rescued by Qi-Ge to the point of enduring abuse for years, but that came too late and with no explanation. And here’s where we get to the part from the extra that changes a bit what was presented in the main story. Initially, from what was shown to Shen Yuan, Shen Jiu’s attachment to Yue Qingyuan seemed severed after he burned down the Qiu household and left with Wu Yanzi. But we see that’s not true here. Shen Jiu obviously still cared for Yue Qingyuan and tried to think of excuses for him not being able to save him until the latter’s inability to communicate honestly when they met again made him think that he was simply abandoned. 

Keep reading