Ling Tong

Is this better?

*MEANWHILE, in Gongji and Ryoutou's room in the base, SOMEONE is looking at his brand new, VERY SPECIAL porn with which he was gifted. o lol camp*

*someone is waking up, completely covered in blood and chicken feathers D:*

...nnngh?

So guys: Naesala and Lady Claire Sanosuke for the wolves - y/n?

Edit: Yeah, I know I suck. Sorry about that.

(( continued from here))

Boyan can, and I think Tong can, too - I, err... I'm kinda grounded from it. 'S'why I use nunchaku instead.

- the 'D- Father' stuff is because Gongji's trying to get out of the habit of calling his parents "Momma" and "Daddy". Like you do at that age.

- He doesn't recognize the name 'Gongji' yet - he's not been given it yet. So right now, he's just Ling Tong. He'll look atcha funny for calling him Gongji, though.

- Like most boys, he's not yet learned how to speak properly without sounding like, well. A hick. So there's that.

- He's still just learning to use a sword and hasn't picked up the nunchaku yet - BUT HE THINKS THEY'RE REALLY COOL and also anachronistic wut I might have him try to use his normal weapons... and hit himself in the head with 'em. Also, according to the Sanguo Yanyi, he attempted to kill Gan Ning with a sword dance (twice) - so I'm betting he was a pretty decent swordsman. (as we've been playing it in camp, those incidents were the reason he picked up the nunchaku - Lord Lu Meng grounded him from using swords. D:)

I think that was all.

LET ME PREFACE THIS BY SAYING that Jun or Bofu would probably be a whole lot better with this than me. I AM JUST LEARNING OKAY OKAY. Also, this is as much info as I've gathered on names in the Three Kingdoms period - modern Chinese may be completely different, I don't know. |D;;;

Anyhow, you've probably noticed that when Gongji introduces himself, he does it as 'Ling Tong, styled Gongji'. Basically, that means his style name is Gongji, his family name is Ling, and his personal name is Tong. We're all familiar with family names (last names) and personal names (first names), but what the heck is a style name?

I AM HERE TO TELL YOU!

Back in ancient China (and actually following through to fairly recently, considering Mao Zedong has one), when a boy reached adulthood, his family - usually his father or grandfather - would give him the style name. Some people would even give *themselves* style names, although I've read this was considered sort of rude. Additionally, some women were even given style names at certain points in history.

Style names were usually some sort of literary allusion, a reflection of the bearer's personality, a play on their family or given name, or any other of a list of clever plays on words.

SO HOW ARE THEY USED?

I'm glad you asked! There are a couple similarities between Japanese and Chinese names - name order, for one, and using family name with people you're not close to for another. Past that, though, things get a little... weird. It's easier for me to break this down by how each name is used (to the best of my understanding):

Family (Last) Name
Japanese: Used among casual friends, co-workers, strangers, subordinates, superiors, etc., modified with an honorific to signify relationship
Chinese: Used by subordinates, strangers. I've most commonly seen it used in conjunction with the given name.

Given (First) Name
Japanese: Used by family, close friends, superiors on particularly close subordinates, increasingly by younger people to refer to casual friends (ala western style name usage)
Chinese: Family only - no one else gets to use it.

Style name
Japanese: N/A
Chinese: Members of older generation or peers

In other words, pretty much everyone but your subordinates calls you by your style name, whether they're your friend or not. In fact, this quote attributed to Emperor Sun Quan (Sonken) is kinda illuminating about how they're used:

Mengde has Zhang Liao, and I have Gan Xingba.

'Mengde' is Cao Cao, Emperor of Wei, and Xingba is Gan Ning. Which just goes to show that you may not like the person, but if they're your same social status...

SO WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE JAPANESE VERSIONS OF THEIR NAMES?

Japanese kanji were basically taken from Chinese hanzi several hundred years ago. In doing such, the hanzi used in the names of the characters of Romance of the Three Kingdoms are pronounced differently in Japanese than in Chinese (think of it like the difference between the French Jacques and the English Jack). In addition to different pronounciations, the names are used differently as well.

In both the Japanese version of Dyansty Warriors (Sangoku Musou) and in Koutetsu Sangokushi, the Japanese equivalent of a family name is used pretty well exclusively - for instance, Ling Tong is always called Ryoutou in Kousan and in DW. In fact, it's a pretty safe bet that more style names should've been thrown around - but I'm guessing because of the Japanese tending more towards using family names than given names, that they don't use the style names as much as they should. In fact, 'Ling Tong/Ryoutou' is treated as a family name in Japanese, while 'Gongj/Kousekii' is treated as a personal name. (this gets a little weird when you've got Sonsaku and Sonken who're supposed to be brothers, but... have a different family name? Heck, at least Sun Jian is also translated into Japanese as Sonken)

I PROBABLY SCREWED SOMETHING UP, but basically, that's a good run-down of it, as I understand it?

I was going to respond to the main thread with this, but figured it prudent not to. I already know I'm marked, and if I'm correct, there's no point in giving them a bigger reason to off me tomorrow night.

I'm not sure about Lady Tot, but... she was awfully quick to incriminate Omi. And he did have three votes on him for the suspicion poll, at least one of which we know to be hers.

And if we're to believe Wolfram's clue, and not take it as a blatent attempt to try and scapegoat Raito, it could be used against her, too - she said in her conversation with Omi that she worked as a bodyguard, not as a killer, although it was pretty clear that killing was part of her job. And she failed to mention that in an attempt to pin the title of 'killer' on him.

I was hoping we'd be right about Omi, and that I could believe Lady Tot, but... evidence is starting to mount against her.

I'll just start out by saying that I don't have a reason for you to trust me - it's too early in the game to trust anyone blindly just yet. But I'm contacting you two because I've noticed some things and you're both safes. I'd as soon tell you two as anyone else - at least one of you will be around tomorrow. So I don't expect you to trust me, but I would like for you to look at what I'm saying and keep it in mind.

Lady Huang is lying in this comment. Riddle, you've played with her before - did she publicly ask anyone to voice their suspicions? She didn't when I played with her. Also, check her livejournal userinfo - she made a locked post right about the time the first post of this game was made. Why would she make a locked post that early in the game if she only wanted to organize her thoughts, or contact other sheep? There wouldn't be enough info to comment on.

I could be wrong - I have been before, frequently - but she's not anyone to take lightly, and the locked post is very suspicious to me. Unless it was locked to you and Shibuya, as you're the only known safes right now? Why would she have a reason to lock a post to anyone else?

Also, as Ash and I are the only ones with three or more votes in the suspicion poll right now, one of us is being set up. It's an easy way for the wolves to frame a scapegoat - the votes at this stage are usually too divided for the sheep to all vote one way. Since I told Dearka to vote for me, I don't think I'm being set up by the wolves - I think Ash is. He may be dumb and loud, but I don't think he's a wolf. Elric and Lady Huang have both talked of voting him out of the flock 'just cause' - Elric's reasoning seems to be that we can stand to lose a couple of useless sheep, when in fact, all we need him for is his vote. We really can't stand to lose him, but it looks like it's either him or me.

As for me, I don't think I'm going to survive the night unless I prove to be an acceptable scapegoat or stupid enough to believe whatever the wolves say. I may even get voted out - who knows? In any case, my advice is to watch Lady Huang and Elric, but don't be too vocal about it - if you set them off, and they are wolves, they can get rid of you.

Looks like I owe someone a cookie.