Individually the characters mean 'to know' and 'one's self'. Taken together it roughly means a friend, inference being that it is one who knows you well.
I should have known from the moment everyone insisted on being called by their birthnames. They don't even use titles! How is anyone supposed to know when I'm insulting them by being inappropriately informal now?
It would depend upon their own preferences towards formality.
My reputation had a tendency to precede me, so how people choose to address me specifically is not an adequate sampling of how such things work in my world.
They recognize you on sight? [It takes him only a moment to parse that one out. Itachi's eyes must give it away.] Ah.
I suspect forms of address may be more regulated where I'm from. We're all granted names at birth, but once we're old enough, men are granted courtesy names, and cultivators and others of note are granted titles on top of that.
My title was the Yiling Patriarch. Yiling is where I was born, and where I took the Wen to hide them from the other sects. My birth name is Wei Ying.
My name and photograph are in a book of bounties passed among elite shinobi. The organization I am ๏ผ it surprises him, how immediately he wants to correct that to was. the ring is a sudden weight on his hand, and he curls his fingers around it. ๏ผ associated with has many powerful members, likewise documented. The book would indicate our abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and the bounty for our deaths.
[Wait what the fuck, Itachi there are cameras in your world??? He's going to come back to that in a minute. To all of that. First—]
When used by strangers or acquaintances, it's an insult to call someone by their birth name so. You can imagine I heard it a lot towards the end haha. But when used by a friend, it's a sign of intimacy.
Lan Zhan still called me Wei Ying. Here, Gwen is the only one who knows it. Now you too. It's too much to explain to most people. Easier to just tell them to call me Wei Wuxian.
๏ผ they are intimate. they have seen something of each other that few others do, and he has long tired of denying their acquaintance. but he understands that some things are to be held only within one's culture, one's kin. if this lan zhan raised a child wei wuxian considered his own, it speaks to a particular bond that he does not feel he measures up against, and would not be offended not to be party to that level of intimacy. ๏ผ
[It's not a question he was expecting from Itachi, and he has to take a long pause before he responds. There's something inside of him that longs for the sound of his birth name and the affirmation of hearing someone use it for reasons other than hatred.
Except when he'd died, only one man still used it to call him friend. It's stupid and childish, but if someone else starts using it now, what if he forgets what his name sounds like in Lan Zhan's voice?]
You and Gwen both have the right. But I think for now, for the sake of not confusing the "English" speakers, it's safer to stick to Wei Wuxian. If we were in my world though, I'd nag you until you called me Wei Ying.
๏ผ safer, he says, but there is something else there that makes him press his mouth into a thoughtful line. he is a man long-accustomed to relying on his instinct, and though he cannot say why he does not wholly trust what wei wuxian is saying, it does not feel like — malice. ๏ผ
Also, what is this about your world having cameras? I didn't think you had that kind of technology. [Although now that he thinks about it, he's not sure Itachi has ever actually said anything of that nature, he's pretty sure he just assumed.]
Is your world as advanced as Gwen's? Or some of the other people here? Did I completely fool myself into thinking otherwise?
My world has some technological elements. Cameras, computers, radios, digging machines with engines that require fuel and mechanical maintenance. We have refrigeration, air conditioning, and the like. However, I used very little of that — my clan was quite traditional. Other things we notably lack — long-distance transmission of digital messaging, for instance.
I believe chakra is likely at least in part responsible for the divergent evolution of technology.
So they had pictures of you. My world relied on sketches. Bad ones at that. Didn't look a thing like me.
Do you know it's so strange for me to imagine someone being afraid of you? Passing around a book with your image to warn people away. I know the ignorance of it. I know you're beyond formidable. But the feeling remains.
๏ผ other people's fear has dogged his feet as long as he can remember. because he was an uchiha. because he was a prodigy. because he killed his clan. because he was akatsuki.
none of the reasons for it even cut him half so deeply as sasuke's terror, entrenched in his young mind with the helpless, hopeless desperation of a man who felt then that he had no choice.
he should have taken sasuke and ran, and left his foolish clan to their fate.
he does not think anyone aboard the ximilia fears him, but it means something different coming from wei wuxian, from gwen, than it does the others. they are the only ones that have peered behind the veil, and survived to know a fraction of which he is capable.
yet, he did not expect the statement to affect him as it does. his breath catches. ๏ผ
Their fear is justified, Wei Wuxian.
You simply lack exposure to the side of me that necessitates such things.
No one here fears me either, and while I suspect that you still wouldn't, if the others had seen what I had done. If they'd seen the things I was capable of. It wouldn't matter how much I smiled at them or made a fool of myself. I suspect most of them would want nothing to do with me and it would be justified.
I really...I get it. But to me you're as you are now. [Betrayal and all, goes unspoken but implied.]
Anyway, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go and get so serious. Is this because I'm getting old? I used to be so much fun, I swear!
There is a man obsessed with obtaining it. Orochimaru. Should he ever arrive here, he would be a considerable threat. Please commit the name to memory.
Some people have found ways to extend their lives unnaturally using the chakra of others.
I'll remember it. And if we're trading terrible people names, please remember the name Jin Guangshan. Should he ever arrive, I'm sure he'd spread my misdeeds across the network to discredit anything I say, but among other things, he's the type of monster who should never be left alone with a woman. Any woman.
As for those seeking immortality, we have some of the same sort who search for all sorts of unsavory was to reach it, but there are ways to achieve it. My mother's teacher is an immortal. I never met her, she resides high in one of the mountain and avoids interacting with mortals outside of those she decides to train. Cultivators who cultivate well enough and long enough can achieve immortality. She's not the only one, but she's the only one I know about.
When I was very young, it was what I dreamed of. As I got older I decided there was no point unless everyone I loved achieved the same. What's the point of living forever if you're alone?
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Individually the characters mean 'to know' and 'one's self'. Taken together it roughly means a friend, inference being that it is one who knows you well.
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I have learned its written form and it is not much improved in comprehension.
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I should have known from the moment everyone insisted on being called by their birthnames. They don't even use titles! How is anyone supposed to know when I'm insulting them by being inappropriately informal now?
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๏ผ excuse you. he doesn't need the sharingan to be a genius, thank you. ๏ผ
I believe shortening their birth name has the same informal effect.
Samuel to Sam, for instance.
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Sorry, noted.
And it's not the same! Before I got here I'd never heard anyone call Lan Xichen anything but Zewu-jun, and Xichen isn't even his birth name!
How would someone address you in your world if they were a stranger who'd just met you? It wouldn't be just Itachi, would it?
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My reputation had a tendency to precede me, so how people choose to address me specifically is not an adequate sampling of how such things work in my world.
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I suspect forms of address may be more regulated where I'm from. We're all granted names at birth, but once we're old enough, men are granted courtesy names, and cultivators and others of note are granted titles on top of that.
My title was the Yiling Patriarch. Yiling is where I was born, and where I took the Wen to hide them from the other sects. My birth name is Wei Ying.
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I see.
Not a name used by others, I imagine?
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When used by strangers or acquaintances, it's an insult to call someone by their birth name so. You can imagine I heard it a lot towards the end haha. But when used by a friend, it's a sign of intimacy.
Lan Zhan still called me Wei Ying. Here, Gwen is the only one who knows it. Now you too. It's too much to explain to most people. Easier to just tell them to call me Wei Wuxian.
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๏ผ they are intimate. they have seen something of each other that few others do, and he has long tired of denying their acquaintance. but he understands that some things are to be held only within one's culture, one's kin. if this lan zhan raised a child wei wuxian considered his own, it speaks to a particular bond that he does not feel he measures up against, and would not be offended not to be party to that level of intimacy. ๏ผ
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Except when he'd died, only one man still used it to call him friend. It's stupid and childish, but if someone else starts using it now, what if he forgets what his name sounds like in Lan Zhan's voice?]
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Very well.
Inform me, should your preferences change.
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Also, what is this about your world having cameras? I didn't think you had that kind of technology. [Although now that he thinks about it, he's not sure Itachi has ever actually said anything of that nature, he's pretty sure he just assumed.]
Is your world as advanced as Gwen's? Or some of the other people here? Did I completely fool myself into thinking otherwise?
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I believe chakra is likely at least in part responsible for the divergent evolution of technology.
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So they had pictures of you. My world relied on sketches. Bad ones at that. Didn't look a thing like me.
Do you know it's so strange for me to imagine someone being afraid of you? Passing around a book with your image to warn people away. I know the ignorance of it. I know you're beyond formidable. But the feeling remains.
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none of the reasons for it even cut him half so deeply as sasuke's terror, entrenched in his young mind with the helpless, hopeless desperation of a man who felt then that he had no choice.
he should have taken sasuke and ran, and left his foolish clan to their fate.
he does not think anyone aboard the ximilia fears him, but it means something different coming from wei wuxian, from gwen, than it does the others. they are the only ones that have peered behind the veil, and survived to know a fraction of which he is capable.
yet, he did not expect the statement to affect him as it does. his breath catches. ๏ผ
Their fear is justified, Wei Wuxian.
You simply lack exposure to the side of me that necessitates such things.
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No one here fears me either, and while I suspect that you still wouldn't, if the others had seen what I had done. If they'd seen the things I was capable of. It wouldn't matter how much I smiled at them or made a fool of myself. I suspect most of them would want nothing to do with me and it would be justified.
I really...I get it. But to me you're as you are now. [Betrayal and all, goes unspoken but implied.]
Anyway, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go and get so serious. Is this because I'm getting old? I used to be so much fun, I swear!
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๏ผ don't even try it. ๏ผ
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Did I ever tell you that some cultivators become immortal? Are there immortals in your world?
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Some people have found ways to extend their lives unnaturally using the chakra of others.
But as to genuine immortality? No.
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As for those seeking immortality, we have some of the same sort who search for all sorts of unsavory was to reach it, but there are ways to achieve it. My mother's teacher is an immortal. I never met her, she resides high in one of the mountain and avoids interacting with mortals outside of those she decides to train. Cultivators who cultivate well enough and long enough can achieve immortality. She's not the only one, but she's the only one I know about.
When I was very young, it was what I dreamed of. As I got older I decided there was no point unless everyone I loved achieved the same. What's the point of living forever if you're alone?
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trolling as an artform