handwritten; numbers written in various non-roman numerical systems

[sixpetals]

"kyouka suigetsu"

I had one of those echoes a few weeks ago, and got that phrase and nothing else. I tried google translate, and got "mirror flower water moon." A little more digging and I found out it's related to a Chinese saying, "flower in the mirror, moon on the water." It's about things that can be seen, but not held.

But I'm not sure what it means, or why I remember it. People share echoes sometimes...so I was wondering if anyone else recognizes that phrase.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

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[icy_heavens]

[It's not often he gets Pulsed straight off the network. Not often that he gets Pulsed aside from contact with the alien threats they've faced, even. So when it happens here, it gets his full attention.

[He knows what that is.]

It's the name of a sword.

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[sixpetals]

a sword?

[so what, was her past self some sort of samurai or what]

do you know any more about it?

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[icy_heavens]

It has to do with illusion in some way. Kind of fits with the can be seen but not held thing.

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[sixpetals]

[so...not an ordinary sword? Michelle is confused.]

A sword that has to do with illusion...in the "magic" sense? Like Vegas illusionists?

Or more of a video game sort of thing?

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[icy_heavens]

Why would it be like some fake Vegas thing? If you wanted to call it that, then yeah, more of a video game kind of thing.

[Yep, this is life now. Stuff being like a video game makes more sense than being like stage magic.]

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[sixpetals]

Well, I don't know what my past self could've been like!

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[icy_heavens]

Sounds like we might be from the same place. What some swords can do is very real.

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[sixpetals]

Like what?

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[icy_heavens]

Don't know if you were downtown that day in March, or maybe just saw TV coverage of it. But if you saw a giant ice dragon? That's what mine does.

Text; lemme know if i've assumed anything incorrectly

[sixpetals]

[with her number somewhat hard to decipher, she's giving herself license to say:]

holy fucking shit, that was you? the little blond kid?

[icy_heavens]

[That kind of language looks way out of place with the pretty writing, but whatever.

[And he grits his teeth a bit. Just had to throw that "little" in there, didn't you?] I'm not that small. [Toushirou. Honey. You are.] But yeah.

[sixpetals]

[ahh if only she weren't trying to get more information about this, she would totally insist that yes, you are a tiny little bratling, but diplomacy, Michelle, you can do this.]

do you think I could see it? In person I mean.

[icy_heavens]

[Look, no self-respecting twelve-year-old wants to be called little. Even if it's true.]

[As for that request . . . hm. On the one hand, he'd rather not use something so big and obvious for anything short of real combat. On the other . . . he hasn't met a whole lot of people on here that share his past. Not that are still around, anyway.] Maybe. I need to think about it.

[sixpetals]

[Disappointing. Smart kid, but still disappointing.]

I understand. Let me know when you decide.

[text]

[pianistofraielin]

sorry, i've never heard of it before, but it sounds really pretty.

but if it's a chinese saying why did you remember it in japanese?

[text]

[sixpetals]

I'm not really sure. It could be a borrowed expression?

or maybe it's a Japanese saying in my other's world and Chinese in this one.

[pianistofraielin]

oh, that's possible! i guess i never thought too much about how the worlds our past selves came from might be different from this world.

[sixpetals]

Well I mean, think about it. If there were robots and vampires and magical girls in other selves' worlds, it makes sense that some of the words we use might be different there, too, right?

It's just not as exciting a difference as the robots and vampires and magical girls.