#incorrect SoT quotes

[atsushis-fangs]

North: ali, you love me, right? Scotland: ...normally I'd say yes with little hesitation but I feel like this is going somewhere I dont like.

@winterwrites23

[winterwrites23]

SoT as incorrect quotes based on @atsushis-fangs series part 13:

Andrew about Seán: Every friend group got that one silly friend who also has a profound air of sadness about him.

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Seán: Going to rock bottom do you guys need anything?

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Both Present and Past Scotland, trying to pretend like they're all stoic and badass: "I don't care" I say, as I care deeply.

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Seán whenever he gets into an argument with one of his brothers: Bitches be like, "Oh I'm fine" and then detach themselves from everyone in their lives for weeks. It's me, I'm bitches.

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Wales: I would have made the perfect cat. Life is so unfair sometimes.

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Callum @ Seán: You only hate me because you do not like me and I am mean to you. Grow up already.

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Past Scotland about Seán's true identity: I hate it when shit is unbeknownst to me. It fucking sucks.

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Scotland: aren't you like, 5'2?

Seán: I self identify as tall thank you very much!

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Wales: I'm sensitive not soft... I'll slap you while crying about it.

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*About Wales*: Man says "fuck it", eats lunch at 10:58 a.m.

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Because I was gone so long I decided to do a longer one in order to make up for it. Also, I just got so mad because I feel like Seán would really like the song Duvet by Bôa, however it wasn't released until 1998, a whole year after this story takes place.

You're so right about Scotland, he may act all tough and cool, but he really is just a big softie on the inside, like a giant teddy bear lol. And if you catch him in the act, he'll deny it to the end of days xD

OMG the list of jokes and movie references I want to put in the story but can't because it happens after 1997 makes me go crazy, you have no idea 😂😂

[dragongirl642]

Pirate: I am no longer onboard...

Sir Arthur Pendragon: Don't finish that sentence! Now I know you may have some reservations, Flameheart is a dangerous foe indeed, but I believe if we work together, we can defeat his minions and save my crew. 😎

Pirate: *fell of the ship due to a Megalodon and swimming after the ship waiting for the Mer to appear* 😑

[silasthecat]

nathaniel: let's talk about the emotions you're feeling right now

elisabeth: stabby

nathaniel: stabbing isn't really an emotion, it's more of an ... activity. which I hope you don't do to me. see, an emotion is more of a feeling

elisabeth: well maybe i feel stabby

[ironmanfridgemagnet]

Jonah : I’ve never had a friend before.

Y/n : It’s okay, I’ll be your friend.

Jonah : . . .

Jonah : I’ve never had a girlfriend before either.

[gargalesthesia]

noya: my ideal man is {proceeds to perfectly describe asahi}

asahi:

suga:

daichi:

tanaka, who literally just asked him what he wanted from the vending machine: what the fuck

[rubencondrai]

Stitcher Jim: You seem hard to kill.

Grace Morrow: Aww, thank you. I haven't been killed yet.

Stitcher Jim: To your knowledge.

Grace Morrow: What.

[sanhasoftie]

Rocky: (is sad)

Sanha: I have some emotional jumper cables, I'll boost you. So, just attach like so...

Rocky: This is just a hug

Sanha: Is it working?

Rocky: ...yeah

[xiyao-feels]

Part One: Claims about the Song of Clarity/the Song of Turmoil and the Nie Clan

Intro - Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4

SoC/SoT

1) The SoC is expected to heal NMJ completely

This one is fairly straightforward: one of the Nie cultivators literally says that he didn't expect the Song of Clarity /not/ to heal NMJ completely, around 12:30 in: "Master's illness is getting worse. I didn't expect that cleaning music can't completely cure him." While this could just be one person's incorrect idea, the cultivator he makes this observation to does not correct him, and in general, FJ does not at any point suggest that he is wrong.

As far as I can tell, the claim that the SoC is expected to completely heal NMJ is not made anywhere in MDZS or CQL; nor is there any suggestion the music had been used to treat the sabre curse for past Nie cultivators, so, indeed, how would they know what to expect? Moreover, in neither MDZS or CQL does anyone seem surprised that it failed to heal NMJ entirely, including LXC who would know if anyone would; rather LXC seems to consider his turmoil-induced progression entirely plausible despite (he thinks) JGY's consistent playing of Clarity.

2) A few brief passages from the SoC, even when played by someone with weak cultivation, can very quickly bring a halt to NMJ's violence

On multiple occasions we are shown the gold SoC very quickly visually affect NMJ, returning him to normal from sabre-curse-red. Twice, it halts him partway through significant violence—JGY preventing his attack on NHS in the beginning, and NHS temporarily preventing his attack on NZH. This is so even though NHS and JGY canonically have weak cultivation (ch 14 and 21 for NHS, a whole lot of chapters for JGY but see also this next paragraph).

Consider by contrast this passage from ch. 64:

Wei WuXian, “Jin GuangYao’s spiritual energy isn’t high. He wouldn’t have been able to take someone’s life with just seven notes. And killing him this way would’ve been too obvious. He definitely wouldn’t have chosen a song so powerful. But, if he could use the reason of playing the Song of Clarity for ChiFeng-Zun to calm his temper and continued to play it for three months, would the song be able to act as a slow poison and catalyse ChiFeng-Zun’s outburst?”

It's clear that JGY's ability to affect things via musical cultivation is limited, precisely because he does not have high cultivation.

As a side note: WWX's speculated timeline here is sometimes given as evidence that JGY was playing the corrupted SoC for NMJ /before/ the stairs incident. However, I'll observe that he is, indeed, speculating, and moreover that he is contradicted by his own experience in the Empathy flashback, especially as he also says—see the next point—that JGY would have used very little spiritual power in the unaltered SoC (ch 49):

Since then, Jin GuangYao would travel from Lanling to Qinghe every few days, playing Sound of Lucidity to help quell Nie MingJue rage. He tried his hardest, without speaking even a single word of complaint. Sound of Lucidity was indeed effective. Wei WuXian could clearly feel that the hostile energy within Nie MingJue was being suppressed.

And then, talking to LWJ and LXC following shortly on the three months quote above:

Thus, Jin GuangYao didn’t dare straight up play to him the dark song and instead took trouble to combine two songs of different styles with opposite uses. And he combined them so well. They sound as though there were the same. His musical talent is indeed excellent. I’m guessing that he used little spiritual power in the Cleansing sections and only exerted power in the section of The Collection of Turmoil.

I don't think this is particularly mysterious—WWX has gone through quite a bit since experiencing these moments in the Empathy flashback, including the rest of the Empathy flashback where, since he feels NMJ's anger, he would have been experiencing a great deal of anger at JGY.

In CQL though WWX doesn't specifically give JGY's low cultivation as a reason for him to choose the SoT instead of the instantly deadly song, JGY does still have low cultivation.

In terms of FJ, I'd like also to note that in MDZS, there's a similar scene in ch 49 where NMJ is upset at NHS for not knowing where his sabre is, and tells NHS to burn the fans he's playing with; in FJ NMJ /actually/ breaks NHS' brush, and doesn't indulge in burning or threats thereof, but it's a clear parallel to the MDZS scene). However, there are a few significant differences. First, this happens before JGY starts playing for NMJ without LXC present; that is to say, regardless of when you think JGY started playing turmoil for NMJ, he could not possibly have started yet. Second, JGY defends NHS to NMJ's face, and in front of NHS:

In a hurry, Nie HuaiSang dropped a few fans on the ground. Jin GuangYao picked them up for him and put them into his arms, “HuaiSang’s hobbies are quite elegant. He’s dedicated to art and calligraphy, and has no propensity for mischief. How can you say that they’re useless?”

Third, although NMJ is angry, and expresses his anger through violence to nearby objects ("Nie MingJue slammed his palm onto a table, causing it to crack"), he does not actually directly attack NHS, or indeed actually harm NHS' fans—although NHS nevertheless falls to his knees in his terror at NMJ's initial approach.

And fourth, and most relevantly to this point, although JGY does save NHS from NMJ's anger here, he /explicitly textually does it by being a more appealing target/:

Jin GuangYao walked in from outside the hall. Nie HuaiSang looked as though he saw a knight in shining armor, beaming, “Brother, you’re here!”

In reality, it wasn’t that Jin GuangYao could calm Nie MingJue’s anger, but that since Jin GuangYao came, all of Nie MingJue’s anger would be directed at him alone, having no time to scold others. Thus, there was nothing wrong with saying that he was Nie HuaiSang’s knight in shining armor.

CQL is missing many of these scenes, but there is not as far as I remember any evidence that JGY could quickly stop NMJ's violence via music.

3) The SoT is so powerful that its brief corrupted passage will totally overwhelm all positive effects from the unaltered SoC, even if the player is using equal cultivation power throughout.

This isn't explicitly stated, but it's the only mechanism by which the plan of 'have NHS play the corrupted SoC' makes any sense at all. Otherwise, as far as I can tell, NHS would actually be helping NMJ, just more slowly than if he had the full SoC, since he would have no reason to use less power in the unaltered section. Indeed, we see the gold flow of the regular SoC affecting NMJ when NHS plays it, which suggests he's using regular amounts of power there. Consider by contrast what WWX says to LXC and LWJ in ch 64, as above:

Thus, Jin GuangYao didn’t dare straight up play to him the dark song and instead took trouble to combine two songs of different styles with opposite uses. And he combined them so well. They sound as though there were the same. His musical talent is indeed excellent. I’m guessing that he used little spiritual power in the Cleansing sections and only exerted power in the section of The Collection of Turmoil.

I am, I want to note, not an expert in the theory of musical cultivation, or in the xianxia genre. Nevertheless, the obvious inference from what WWX says there is if JGY had been using full power in the Cleansing sections, Turmoil wouldn't have worked.

And of course as I mentioned above, WWX gives a timeline of three months and calls it a slow poison. CQL pretty much matches here, giving the he didn't use much spiritual power in cleansing, the slow poison part, and indeed the three-month timeline.

The Nie Clan

1) When the curse is coming on them too strongly, they remove themselves to the tombs to die there.

This is explicitly stated by NMJ when he and NHS have fallen into the tombs.

As far as I can tell, there's no evidence for this in either MDZS or CQL. Indeed, in neither does NMJ seem to be doing anything to deal with the fact of his increasing anger—that is, he accepts the treatment of the SoC, but he doesn't do anything about the fact that his increasing anger and hence increasing use of violence are dangerous to the people around him. If anything, he seems rather in denial. This is probably more justifiable in CQL, where he dies at the stairs and thus doesn't have the chance to reevaluate post-stairs or post-burning NHS' things,* but nevertheless there's no sign of it.

*That is, we don't see him burn NHS' things in CQL, and in MDZS it happens after the stairs, so it seems reasonable to assume it didn't happen in CQL; that said CQL does not as far as I know actively tell us he did not burn NHS' things.

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[atsushis-fangs]

Scotland: get in the halloween spirit and make a ghost!!

Ireland: that’s called murder and I heard somewhere that it’s illegal

@winterwrites23 I’ll have you know that I am NOT dead, SoT is STILL my all time favourite fic, and I MISSED making these. Happy Halloween! :D

[atsushis-fangs]

North: adults are the most insanely stupid people I have the displeasure of interacting with. Ian, referring to himself and the Clan: even us? North: especially you guys. Hamish: petition to kick Killough out so he stops insulting us. Malcolm: seconded.

@winterwrites23

[atsushis-fangs]

Angus: are sure you’re alright?

Andrew, crying: yeah it’s just these onions

Angus:

Andrew:

Angus: those are potatoes.

@winterwrites23

[atsushis-fangs]

Past Scotland: here is my wall of inspirational people. Callum: …that is a picture of you. Past Scotland: yes, I am big enough to admit that I am often inspired by myself.

@winterwrites23

[atsushis-fangs]

North: we've really got to stop meeting like this Scotland: maybe we would if you stopped breAKING INTO MY HOUSE

@winterwrites23

[atsushis-fangs]

Past Scotland: I have an idea.

Callum: a good idea?

Past Scotland: let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

@winterwrites23

[atsushis-fangs]

England: you know, back in the day...

North: you mean back in the day as in a decade ago, or back in YOUR day as in before societies were a thing?

@winterwrites23 it's september 1st, and you know what that means! Happy North time traveling to 1743 day (AKA the day all his troubles began)