Third-rate field trip

[ pronounced mixy-mix ] [28/demi/nonbinary] Stuff.

[skkortysoup]

insecurities (if it genuinely flew over your head replace ghostfriend with girlfriend)

[stillnaomi]

the fact that many liberals care more about whether a state is "authoritarian" than whether it lifted massive swathes of its population out of poverty says a lot about their politics. they say China is bad because it's authoritarian and brush aside the 800 million people it's lifted out of abject poverty. they complain that Cuba is "authoritarian", while ignoring that it brought healthcare and education to the masses, who were left to suffer under the Batista regime. at some point you have to realize that you're condemning a country that's run in the interests of the working masses of its population

the kicker is that the marxist-leninist countries being criticised are more democratic than the liberal democracies the critics are comparing them too

[omgellendean]

Example from today:

[tamamita]

[ghostoflamplight]

"Jie, you have to stop. You stack too high. You write too perfect. Your day one's too loyal. They'll kill you."

[raisengen]

Very funny to me that Ch'en's legendary heirloom sword Chi Xiao has the brand of a Columbian weapons manufacturer stamped right on the blade. Don't lie Wei Yenwu, that thing came with a serial code and a three-year warranty

[criticaldiplomacyfail]

it's symbolic of wei yenwu's character! quoting @hexdrake

wei yenwu had chi xiao, the ancient artifact sword representing the yanese throne, a two-bladed jian reforged into a one-bladed dao by an american weapons manufacturer

there's kinda this distinction in wuxia (maybe other chinese fiction in historical settings i'm not an expert) where one-bladed swords (often translated as just "blades") are considered base and common, while two-bladed weapons ("swords") are considered weapons of nobility. so in the context it is literally wei yenwu disguising his nobility AND westernizing; two things he did when he became the Chief of Lungmen. he too was reforged by the west into a common blade, as it were.

[raisengen]

@kc5rings I've not been able to find a direct citation on the reforging stuff, so it might just be a fan theory (still, better than my suggestion it came from a mail-order catalogue). There's honestly not much solid info out there on Chi Xiao, unless there's stuff hidden in the lorebook.

Some stuff I did come across:

7-2: Kal'tsit identifies the blade as "tempered originium", and adds the comment "to think they're still making weapons like that...", which makes it sound recent... at least by Kal'tsit's standards, so that isn't saying much.

7-2 also has the statement that Wei Yenwu gave the sword to Ch'en, in case that was in doubt.

7-20: Kaschey identifies it as a dragonslaying sword that "[Wei Yenwu's] people forged".

AT-1: Tessai is able to identify damage done by Chi Xiao based on reputation alone.

July's IS6 monthly squad story also focuses on Chi Xiao. It's... a story about Yi trying to steal Chi Xiao from Ch'en to add to his collection, wow. He notes that the sword "turns into a new sword every time it meets a new master", and when he can't steal it he instead creates a copy—this is at least the third time he's made a Chi Xiao copy, and he notes that before Heaven's Eye it had the ultimate technique Heaven's Dare. He also implies it's at least 400 years old.

I'm inclined to think the transformation mentioned is metaphorical. Like how Chi Xiao doesn't actually refuse to unsheathe, and instead it's the wielder's hesitancy turning into a mental block. Each wielder finds their own style in mastering the blade, bringing out different qualities. Ch'en doesn't even use Chi Xiao at all for Heaven's Plaint, after all.

Overall, it oughtn't be a blade that was actually made by Raythean. It's possible they reworked it on behalf of Wei Yenwu, or a previous owner; it's also possible that it just decided for itself that it wanted Raythean branding, though that seems unlikely.

I also learned that Chi Xiao is a real-world legendary blade [1] [2] [3], allegedly wielded by Liu Bang to slay a white serpent (identified both with the current emperor and a dragon) and go on to found the Han dynasty. Hence, dragon-slaying sword. The articles don't specify the sword type, but they certainly choose to depict it as a double-edged jian in their choice of images.

Also, because I saw some people thinking that I posted a pic of the sheath: this is very much the unsheathed Chi Xiao, and it's very much red and Raythean-branded.

[mxxymx]

God, degenbrecher's *so* fucking funny.

"I have forgotten everything from my life before I witnessed the primacy of raw strength and decided to take it as my own. I am a living weapon and I have spent decades honing myself to become the most perfect instrument of violence and might I could possibly be. Anyways, happy birthday pal! That's a lot of presents you've got there!"

Genuinely nobody doing it like her.

[averyterrible]

apparently, chinese goths have figured out how to do qing era costuming. jiangshi time.

[averyterrible]

@post-brahminism check it

[raisengen]

I do feel like such a mark with Jie though.  Like hello yes here's this mellow bookish dragon sister with a subdued colour palette and haunting eyes.  She's fiercely dedicated to finding and recording the truth, and she's so shockingly utilitarian that she measured her own life by whether she'd leave too much grief to others.  And—you guessed it—she's about as playable as Mandragora👍have fun out there!

[raisengen]

Her tail is books. You can read that thing

[raisengen]

I do feel like such a mark with Jie though.  Like hello yes here's this mellow bookish dragon sister with a subdued colour palette and haunting eyes.  She's fiercely dedicated to finding and recording the truth, and she's so shockingly utilitarian that she measured her own life by whether she'd leave too much grief to others.  And—you guessed it—she's about as playable as Mandragora👍have fun out there!

[raisengen]

Her tail is books. You can read that thing

[kkoricat]

mybr

[fishing-princess]

Utage forcefemmed Kirara so hard she turned her from an otaku gamer into a gyaru (gamer). That’s so beautiful

[whooiew]

King Halo and Urara's first meeting

[qillermeme]

[terriblewomanyuri]

Just to make it clear, this happened December 15, 1923. This was a man enslaved by a system that gave him pennies as pay and hundreds in debts.

He killed anywhere from two to twelve of the people who wanted to lynch him and wounded up to twenty-six other members of the lynch mob. That year, eighty-four Black people had been lynched in the state (Mississippi) he lived in.

Slavery in the USA never ended, and it sure as hell didn't end with the American Civil War.

[nekosaws]

src

[secondquarrel]

so venezuela has become a usamerican colony. like that happened and everything carried on like normal

[secondquarrel]

like i know venezuela is going through a huge humanitarian crisis right now and their political regime is low in the list of priorities when tallinmg about it obviously it's just it shocked me to read trump congratulating his secretary of energy on how well he's running what used to be a sovereign country until a few months back you know

[weirdgirl247]

every year small towns and indigenous communities across canada are burnt to nothing by horrific wildfires and americans go on the internet to complain about it and blame us bc the smoke has spread to their state. i’m so tired.

go yell at mark carney or your own local politicians about climate change and urge them to do more to stop it. the namaygoosisagagun first nation had their community destroyed today. you can find a link to donate to them here. donate to your local food bank. go to the beach next week when the smoke clears and you don’t have to think about it anymore while the people who’s lives have been destroyed will have to pick up the pieces and try to move forward when we are already in a huge cost of living crisis across the country.

[spin-the-wheel-polls]

you are now a cat in the warrior cats universe! Spin these wheels for your name!

Do you like it?

YES!!!

yes

eh it's okay

no.

IM MOON MOON

results/other

Voting ended on14h

note: I (the owner of this blog and maker of wheels) am not into warrior cats! I just thought this would be fun to make

(prefixes and suffixes from @yarrowleef)

[spin-the-wheel-polls]

I DON'T WANNA BE DEAD WOLF

[gallusrostromegalus]

It's me. Football Cat.

[maimonideznuts]

Apple Storm... The forecast is crazy 😧.

[cerastes]

I really, really appreciate that Priestess is, simultaneously, absolutely terrifying in her nigh omnipotence, and positively hilarious in that she IS a pretty human individual otherwise that clearly still observes societal cues (ours, not Terra’s), so while she’s able to… Well, just read Chapter 15, trust me, she also has moments like “I’m not upset” while clearly freaking fuming and clenching her hand in abject rage when you deploy the funny Palicos from the Monster Hunter collab on the tile she wanted to place a Coca Cola Cannon on.