#Luo history

[languagexs]

Exploring the Rich History, Culture, and Language of the Luo People

The Luo: A Journey through History, Culture and Traditions The Luo  are an ethnic group with deep roots and rich traditions in East Africa. Their history spans centuries and combines elements of migration, cultural preservation and resilience. In this article, we delve into the fascinating world of the Luo, exploring their origins, traditions and…

[oh-wow-im-still-here]

Vaguely thinking about an Ace Attorney-esque bingqiu au where shen yuan is a tired but talented prosecutor feeling down on his life, questioning his hopes and dreams, and maybe considering a career change so he can spend his time reading webnovels all day. Followed by a young, up and coming defense attorney luo binghe who became a lawyer in the first place to meet shen yuan again and maybe, possibly, sorta get to know him after shen yuan left a lasting impression on him by helping him out somehow during his childhood. They meet again in court with shang qinghua as the defendant, who is definitely the larry butz-like character of the au. Hijinks, court drama, and not exactly mid-life crises ensue.

[sthenored]

Binggeck has finally found his Shen Yuan, now he will never let him go again 🥰

[czikpisia]

In light of the recent skinzun debacle that went down on twitter, I offer 1890s Mädchen in Uniform AU

[phoenixcatch7]

Thinking about a 'sqq transmigrates (reincarnates) into dc' (specifically the jl because I don't know much about the rest), and who do you think would be funniest? I have narrowed it down to One but if anyone has anything better I'd love to hear it - Constantine, cap marvel and Manhunter were my top choices until:

Batman. Of course. Mainly because of the adoption problem and dozen kids with attachment issues, but also sqq spending his entire time internally shrieking I AM NOT CUT OUT FOR THIS I AM NOT PREPARED SYSTEM WHY DID YOU CHOOSE BATMAN. Trying so hard to fit the theme. Over preparing and stressing over every detail. A bit autism coded. 'I don't fall in love with anyone unless I choose to' wrong. 'You want me??? To?? Share my emotions?? My troubles??? I want to be a good parental figure but I would RATHER DIE'.

*internal sarcasm at local iq* *encyclopedic knowledge* *forgets he's not supposed to know everyone's identity*. "HOW DID YOH EVEN KNOW THAT??!!" 'oh I uh figured it out lol *bluffs sherlock style deduction*'. *repressed* 'Trauma? What trauma? I'm doing Great.'

Alfred is best man but sqq has been fundamentally a rich kid for THREE lifetimes now. He is unsavagable. Acts all high and mighty for the show but self esteem is garbage. UTTER COMMITMENT TO THE BIT at this point (way post svsss canon) I think sqq would genuinely implode if he didn't have a mask to show the public.

System has followed him of course and has him by the scruff of his neck every time he thinks about a more peaceful life. It has very high ooc standards as always until he first puts on the mask.

I can see superman taking over lqgs role a little. Casual friend and bestie. Always ready to help (and occasionally sky uber). Brawn to his brain but smarter than people give him credit for. Ultimate power team. Romantic tension through the roof but never wants anything more (and Bruce is completely oblivious anyway). Everyone sees it though.

Everyone assuming Bruce spent a huge amount of time training in some ultra secret Chinese mountain range (technically they're not wrong!) but no system sent him to the league of assassins he's just using the excuse to work on his cultivation. (talia tried SO HARD to seduce him but it failed utterly so she gave up and stole his dna while he was asleep (he woke up the next morning to a mission success notification and freaked)).

Unlike what his kids except, is fully caught up with memes. They hate it but that just makes him use them more. On the plus side he is susceptible to rickroll. Peak 'my darling child would NEVER how dare' at events. The only ones who know he had (has???) a husband pre reveal.

He teaches them all cultivation like a little qj peak but without the proper environment, which doesn't exist here, they're never going to reach immortality like him. He's fine about that, really :). He's accepted it. Either way that means pit influence doesn't stick, whoo!

Would like nothing more than to kill the joker :). System won't let him. He can't explain that to anyone :).

Meanwhile an lbh centuries old is Missing His Husband and Its Been MONTHS Where are his kisses from shizun??? But seriously WHERE IS HIS HUSBAND BLOOD WILL BE SPILT THE ONE WHO TOOK HIM WILL BE WIPED FROM THE FACE OF THE REALMS THEIR LIGAMENTS STREWN ACROSS THE NORTHERN DESERT AND THEIR ENTRAILS FED TO HYDRA VULTURES WHERE IS HE

Cue an enraged ancient demon emperor breaking through the walls of reality on a universe shattering rampage only for him to be batmans husband :). Who wants kisses.

[rarepears]

Shen Yuan and the ancient hairdresser

Ok, so fun fact about Ancient China: there were professional commercial hairdressers.

No, not for cutting hair. They washed and combed hair.

In the Song dynasty commercial hairdressers began to appear in significant numbers. Known as “tweezers workers (镊工)” or “comb workers (栉工),” these craftsmen could earn a decent living. Writer Zhang Duanyi (张端义) recorded in his Gui’er Ji (《贵耳集》), a book collecting anecdotes of the Song dynasty, that the infamously corrupt chancellor Qin Hui (秦桧) once paid 5,000 wen for a haircut, enough to buy about 120 kilograms of rice at that time.

So... who has access to that kind of ungodly amount of money for such luxuries and would spend that kind of money? Shen Qingqiu.

Not Shen Jiu, mind you. He is more than aware of the value of each coin and copper. He'd know where to go find a valuable bargain... if he could even bare to allow someone near his neck like that other than courtesans. He probably had courtesans combing his hair in fact.

Now Shen Yuan on the other hand has no concept of ancient money. Well, even if he did, he would lack the common sense coming from a rich background.

(Shen Yuan: What could a banana cost? 10 bucks? Pft, that's cheap. Shang Qinghua: Bro...)

And even if he knew how much it cost... a freshly transmigrated Shen Yuan would consist it a worthy investment because he doesn't want to do it, he has to stay in character and Shen Qingqiu was known for his Pristine Appearance. It's not like the original goods had any servants on hand and Shen Yuan couldn't very well have a disciple do it! Plus the original goods had plenty of money laying around (and plenty more letters of rich nobles offering sky high prices for calligraphy and painting commissions that Shen Yuan didn't have to even complete - he just had to find something from Shen Jiu's piles of practice sheets from years prior to ship out.)

So Shen Yuan heads into town (following the helpful google map instructions of the system) to find a hairdressing artist to do his hair. And he gets into the habit of going down every week for a lovely comb and washing. It's great! The guy is good looking and a great conversationalist. A+++ service!

(Historical note: In Lin’an, the capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127 – 1279), the hairdressers even formed an industrial association, called the “hair-dressing community (净发社).” The members of the association, known as “hairdressing artists (净发艺人),” established an industry guidebook, which was titled “Instructions on Hairdressing (《净发须知》).” The guidebook listed 10 requirements for hairdressers, not only calling for them to have excellent professional skills, but also to be good-looking, intelligent, eloquent, and easygoing, so that they could provide good service.)

Hence, even after Luo Binghe moves into the bamboo cottage and offers to help comb his shizun's hair, Shen Yuan still goes down every week to visit his go-to hairdresser, unaware of the fuming jealous little sheep he leaves behind each time. He's also totally unaware of the fact that the rest of the sect thinks he's sneaking off to the brothels with each trip too (since that's where the original goods got his hair washed and combed at.)

[nat-of-personifs]

overburden

A child once lived here.

She was not of Jing’an. She held no part of him. Jing’an had no reason to treat her as anything but a cell of a foreign organism. She has been put away. Where to, the city cares not; she is a matter for his upper avatar to suffer.

That is what he tries to tell his son, his demiavatar, standing in the center of her room, but Jing’an’s control over this area is newly established. He cannot blind the demi’s eyes with smoke and dust to the details of the girl’s life as he could if he was in the downtown, or the mines. He cannot stop the demi from examining the embroidered eyes of a man on the hood of a thing like a cheset she left unfinished on a stool and knowing they’re the same as his, even if the women of Jing’an use metal needles instead of bone. There is smoke here like a faint trace of the smell in the mines, from a fire still smoldering.

But it is far too warm here for the thick coat the demi wears, to protect himself from the descending winter outside. His nose wrinkles at the greater stench of the meat left hanging on the ceiling. He self-consciously traces the curves of the black tattoos running from the delicate skin under his eyes to the beginning of his ears, so unlike the sharp Vs he remembers the girl’s brothers sporting from mouth to chin. The bend of the wall, her space separate from her family’s by a woven curtain, is alien.

And the silence.

Jing’an is never quiet. In the mines, he deafens with the sound of saws on ancient bone; in the downtown, he cries in the competing cadences of eight different languages and music mimicking the sound of the La’gut River running through his center. The creatures in the taiga on his outskirts gladly supplant him as his influence wanes. But here, in the chaos of the eviction, they have all fled, and the demi hears nothing.

Her embroidery loses its color to him when he glances back at it. What does it matter that they have the same folds?

The demi wipes sweat from the nape of his neck and strides out of the house, out of the village, if it can even be called that. Jing’an may be able to repurpose the men who once lived here, but the structures they left behind are only overburden.

[semperardens-juli]

"We three will swear brotherhood and unity of aims and sentiments."

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (14th century), Luo Guanzhong from The Literature Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, James Canton

leave a little kindness

[astramachina]

Those saying the 3 Body Problem trilogy is one of the best science fiction works in recent history are correct, I can say near the end of the second installment. But hear me out.

This is as much a horror as it is science fiction. The number of times I have experienced heart seizing terror and nausea have been frequent enough that I had to put it down to watch an actual horror movie in order to recover.

10/10 no notes

[mejomonster]

Chapter 131. I love Luo Wenzhou silently like: I mean... is Fei Du STILL lying, you reckon? He was raised by Fei Chengyu and thought it was the Right way to be... is it possible he's still lying and playing me? I'm not even mad if so, just sad he was raised so fucked up and I wasn't there and didn't know once I Was there. And I just loved him so much I did my best to connect but. Could I even really have connected to a boy like that? With such a different fundamental view on right and wrong from childhood? Was Fei Du crying, recently? Fei Du is so open with me now, I hope he's telling me enough, tells me enough when he's ready. Is there anything else critical he hasn't said yet? My Fei Du...

Fei Du, aloud: ... anyway the CASE so

Luo Wenzhou mentally: <3 ;-; my fei du

To an ordinary person, assassination is a serious crime that there’s no coming back from. They absolutely won’t make that kind of choice unless they have no way out. But to Wei Wenchuan, it’s an advanced strategy reserved for adults only, his father’s prerogative. Adolescents have an intense desire and curiosity towards the adult world. He’d do it if you only gave him two things—the puffed up feeling of being grown up, and the ability to obtain the ‘tool.’” Fei Du’s fingertip drew a line over Wei Wenchuan’s photograph. “Single-handedly establishing the order at school gave him that puffed up feeling, and having him conveniently run into Lu Guosheng gave him the tool. He was like a child holding kindling. Sooner or later, he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back.”

 

Luo Wenzhou paused and couldn’t resist letting his mind wander a little. He thought that what Fei Du said made sense, and that was why it made him feel something was off.—At the age when a small child was like a blank piece of paper, he didn’t know the difference between good and evil and would imitate his parents. His views towards some things would already be taking rudimentary form while he was learning to talk; it would be very difficult for later education to change them. So there was nothing remarkable about Wei Wenchuan growing up like this.

 

But thinking about it carefully, Fei Du had grown up in almost exactly the same environment as Wei Wenchuan. What had made him resist Fei Chengyu so fiercely?

 

It was hard for Luo Wenzhou to imagine that it was merely because of his mother.

 

The reason that the majority of people thought of “mama” as a warm and sacred form of address was that when they’d learned to pronounce it, they’d linked it to the parent who raised and taught them; because they were filled with affection towards this person, they invested this word with a special meaning. But from the few words that Fei Du had let slip, it seemed that his earliest acquaintance with the word “mama” had been attached to a hysterical madwoman, punished every day for doing the wrong thing, mentally unwell, her position not even as high as a housekeeper’s.

 

Would the sort of woman who left that impression really have been able to use her life to overturn the brand left by Fei Chengyu?

 

Luo Wenzhou couldn’t help remembering the day they’d been investigating Lu Guosheng’s whereabouts, when Fei Du had made that strange and accurate inference about the employee bus. He hadn’t had time to think carefully about it then, but now his misgivings floated up again.

 

He must have been staring at Fei Du too long. Fei Du gave him a slightly dubious look, and Luo Wenzhou suddenly discovered that the redness floating at the corners of his eyes still hadn’t receded fully. His rigorously calculating line of thought staggered in its steps, nearly slipping into the abyss flowing below. He hastily withdrew his gaze, coughed dryly, and sat up properly.

[j-august]

Wang Yun said, "Centuries ago, Emperor Wu spared Sima Qian and employed him on the annals, with the result that many slanderous stories have been handed down to us. This is a trying period of great perplexity, and we dare not let a specious fellow like this wield his pen in criticism of those about the court of a youthful prince and abuse us as he will."

Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms (trans. C.H. Brewitt-Taylor)

[ineffectualdemon]

Shen Jiu: I will be nice to your Luo Binghe for a whole week if you make the sect leader cry when he next tries to visit

Shen Yuan: Deal!

Shen Jiu after witnessing Yue Qingyuan cry from the worst tongue lashing in history: wait no. Why am I feeling protective? Stop that!

Next week:

Shen Yuan: be nice to Binghe or I make the sect leader cry again

Shen Jiu: you're evil. Deal and now you are head disciple. Go insult Liu Qingge and I'll give you pocket money

[sunderwight]

Imagining a scenario where Shen Qingqiu clocks some of the lingering tension between the peak lords and Luo Binghe after they get married, and so looks up what all the rights & privileges of a peak lord's spouse are (because really only the ascetic peak has restrictions against marriage), and then just like. Heaps them onto Binghe.

Fine robes and ornaments in Qing Jing's style. A title. Appropriate authority over Shen Qingqiu's disciples and junior sect siblings. Technically Binghe is also entitled to use of his own residence, and there's a building on the peak that is at least nominally reserved for the peak lord's wife, but it hasn't been used in a long time and Binghe would cry if Shen Qingqiu even suggested living in separate buildings (and Shen Qingqiu would also not like it but shhh). So he doesn't get that, exactly, but Shen Qingqiu does have the building freshened up and aired out as a place where Binghe can house guests from the demon realms, or potentially his own personal disciples (should he desire to take any on one day).

Binghe accompanies Shen Qingqiu to peak lord meetings in his capacity as husband, rather than disciple, which means Binghe also gets to sit at the table instead of standing behind Shen Qingqiu's seat.

But really just, Shen Qingqiu making a point of doing everything extremely officially to really drive home that he married Binghe, and he expects Binghe to be treated with respect and not suspicion or derision or any of the other bad habits that his fellow peak lords have displayed. Not just with Binghe, but also towards the original goods in the past (SJ might have been a piece of work, but the fact also remains that most of what his sect siblings thought of him was inaccurate). SQQ scraping up every bit of political acumen he can find from all the books he read and PIDW itself and his own history as the son of a wealthy family, and being like, "if I don't want Binghe to be bullied, I must make it clear that he has my favor!"

Meanwhile everyone already knows Luo Binghe is Shen Qingqiu's favorite, like man they know it so much already, more than they'd like to, but it's not like they can SAY anything because actually putting the right hair ornament onto Luo Binghe's head and making the disciples address him as Shimu is in fact more appropriate than all the other ways Shen Qingqiu displayed his favoritism so far. It's just driving several of the other peak lords slowly insane because it's backwards! The order of things is all messed up! Shen Qingqiu can't truly expect them to start respecting this disgraceful mess of a relationship now, can he?!

Of course he can. Also Yue Qingyuan is backing him up. (Yue Qingyuan actually finds this kind of amusing, because it's very on-brand for both versions of Shen Qingqiu to get embroiled in a controversial mess only to retroactively go "oh yeah, respectability politics are a thing" and then just try and brazenly bluff his way through it.)

Meanwhile Binghe is very much enjoying himself. Could he stop anyone in the sect from actually mistreating him in a heartbeat? Of course. He could kill any of them, they all know it, and Binghe is not unaware of how to leverage that kind of fear into compliance, if not respect. But then he'd have to go stalking around being tyrannical all the time, and he does that enough as the demon emperor.

It's far more enriching to let people be rude to him and then hang his head and "nobly endure" the mistreatment, just to watch Shen Qingqiu's eyes narrow and his fan snap shut before he lets out some cutting remark and then lavishes another sign of his favor onto Luo Binghe. Binghe's wildest teenage fantasies were made of this stuff! He's living the dream!

[mccromy]

Tbh I think people should be more rabid about moshang. Like, talk about an artist falling in love with his creation, then upgrade it to infinity.

I mean, it is not like Shang Qinghua made Mobei-Jun and fell in love with him because he was so beautiful. Shang Qinghua designed Mobei-Jun to be what Shang Qinghua considered perfect. Every single flaw was included lovingly, every virtue, every inch of his body and face to be what Shang Qinghua found the most handsome, attractive. His ideal man. He made Mobei-Jun for himself, he made him with the intention to love him.

He told a history about a boy who was wronged, who had every ounce of kindness bleed out through a thousand cuts. Who took revenge on every single person who hurt him, even if by negligence. Made the whole world revolve around him, changed it to satisfy his readers.

And then made Mobei-Jun for himself. He made him silent, strong, mistrustful, arrogant, spoiled and beautiful and set him up for betrayal. Made his life tragic in that way authors do with their favorite characters.

(Luo Binghe was perfect in the eyes of the world. Shang Qinghua crafted Mobei-Jun to be perfect in his eyes.)

Can you imagine? If god made you solely with the intention to love you. Perfect in the eyes of god, literally.

And then Shang Qinghua became Mobei-Jun's servant. Mobei-Jun was both his King and his favorite creation. (As if god made himself a personal deity to worship.)

Their relationship was rocky (mountain sized rocks) for what amounts to decades. Shang Qinghua's perfect man was so incredibly flawed it made him near impossible to get along with, he was also destined to kill Shang Qinghua. And Shang Qinghua was far from perfect himself, he was also destined to stab Mobei-Jun in the back. What's more, Shang Qinghua wove those threads of fate himself.

(In the end none of that happened. But think about it.)

Even better, when put like that, Moshang sounds so poetic. And it could be!... If moshang was composed by anybody else other than Mobei "to get your man you need to beat him up at least three times a day" Jun and Shang "the best way to seduce someone is to be so pathetic and lame!" Qinghua.

Shang Qinghua is literally Mobei-Jun's creator but he's also his little minion going nice one, boss!, the LeFou to Mobei-Jun's Gaston. The sleazy car salesman to Mobei-Jun's Nepo baby CEO. The Connecticut Clark to his Malfina.

How, just how is it possible that I have to channel my inner truffle hog when sniffing around for moshang brainrot? Everybody should be losing black brain matter through their nostrils about them, and yet.

[niteshade925]

Perfect music for reading Records of the Three Kingdoms

[greentrickster]

SVSSS AU set post-canon, the peak lords are having a meeting, business as usual, right up until a heavenly official manifests smack dab in the middle of it. Said official takes one look around, spots Shang Qinghua, and basically falls into a perfect kowtow in front of him while being a level of distraughtly sticky that would make Luo Binghe proud.

"Your excellency, we know you wanted to oversee this section of history, we know it's your holiday, but we need you back, please, no one can figure out your filing system-!!!"

There is an absolutely reasonable amount of pandemonium from ten of the remaining peak lords, Shen Yuan is feigning indifference while also paying razor-edged attention because 'dammit, Airplane, what did you do now', and Shang Qinghua is desperately trying to figure out how to get this god to stop crying and hugging his ankles while babbling about paperwork. Once everyone has calmed down enough, it's revealed that Shang Qinghua, on top of being Shang Qinghua, really is the creator-god of this world and his current human incarnation is the equivalent of a sabbatical to watch some really interesting current events.

Now, the thing is? Airplane is still very much Airplane, all that's true. The part where it gets complicated is that he really is also this world's creator-god, divine powers and all, and he arrived much earlier than the 40+ years ago he thought he had. He has, in fact, been here for most of the world's history, managing the logistics of things to keep them running relatively smoothly the whole time. Except then he realized, "Hey, we're getting close to the era of the Plot, I wanna see that and maybe fix it some!" So he sealed his own memories from between his death and his arrival in this world and incarnated himself as Shang Qinghua specifically so he'd get a chance to meet his favorite character.

The real kicker is, the System? Yeah, there's a reason it has such a modern-tech interface and sounds so Google translate and stuff.

Because Airplane made that, too. Primarily because, while it's been awhile and he doesn't fully remember how he was as a human, he does remember his tendencies to try and wriggle out of stuff, and even now he prefers a comfy life with a not unreasonable amount of delegation, so he decided to give himself a little something to keep himself on-task.

He did not mean to make the damn thing so mean, that was an oops on his part.

While Airplane is reeling with all the headache that is gaining a few thousand extra years of memories while still remaining primarily himself, one of the peak lords asks if the official is certain they have the right person.

They get a derisive sneer for their efforts. "Of course it's his excellency, you think a normal man could run the logistics for a great sect, the Northern realm, and a portion of the Demon Emperor's court, even without having a writing career and social life on the side? Besides, he's the only one we've found who takes notes in his excellency's secret language." And they point dramatically to where Airplane's scribbled some pinyin in the margins of his paperwork.

Airplane can feel Cumcumber-bro's judgement from across the room. On the plus side, his memories of being a god included how to power down the System, so that's something at least, right?

Right?

...

...he needs to go stick his face in his king's chest and cry for a little, he can just feel his workload increasing...