a singsong and a scrap

-- The New Burlesque

He did a wonderful job, but as he was returning my plant to my custody, he explained "I watered her every other day, I gave her new dirt, moved her into the sunshine, prayed the rosary-"

"What?"

He looked at me, confused. "Isn't she a plant you pray with?"

"No," I said slowly. "She's a prayer plant. That's the... colloquial name of the plant."

Upon seeing his stricken face, I realized something went wrong. Turns out, this entire time, he's been including my plant in on his prayers and leaving her near icons.

Behold, Dorothea

He turned to me, sighed, and said in a very deadpan tone-- "Plants don't have covenants, Joy,"

When you're talking about the design of the boat, you say "it".

When the boat is still being built, your say "it".

When the boat is nearing completion, you can say "it" or "she".

When the boat is floating in the water you probably say "she", unless there is still a lot of work to be done (e.g. no engine yet) then you say "it".

When the boat is officially launched and operating, you say "she". If you continue to say "it" at this point you are not incorrect but suspiciously untraditional. You are not playing the game.

If you are referring to a boat you don't really know anything about you may say "it" ("there's a big boat, it's coming this way"). But if you know its name, it's probably "she" ("there's the Waverley, she's on her way to Greenock").

If you are talking about boats in general, you say "it" ("when a boat is hit by a wave it heels over")

If you speak about a boat in complimentary terms, it's "she" ("she's a grand boat"). If you are being disparaging it may be it, but not necessarily ("it's as ugly as sin", "she's a grotty old tub").

If she has a boy's name, she's still she. "Boy James", "King Edward", "Sir David Attenborough"? The pronoun is she.

If it's a dumb barge (no engine), you say it. But if it's a rowing boat (no engine), you say she.

Reunion: Escape from the Monstrous Snake (2021)

↳ Hei Xiazi's slutty entrance

Bonus:

言正. No radicals - his name cannot be split apart anymore. He cannot be "broken down" anymore than to Yan Zheng.

Thinking about how Changyu found him and treated him like just a man on the brink of death. Just a man. When was the last time when he was treated like just a person and not a weapon of war, a sword of the state to be wielded? When his parents were alive.

When given the choice to introduce himself to a stranger who knows none of his backstory (the good, bad, scary) that's what he chose. He chose to start from as close to zero as he could get.

Was it out of survival initially? Yes! But after things changed where it would have objectively benefitted him to be the Marquis (money, the politics with the Magistrate) he still maintained the identity of Yan Zheng - just a man, just a matrilocal husband.

It hurts when Changyu calls him by his titles (one because it's Changyu doing it) because there's no one else that he can feel human with except her. It feels like she's rejecting not just Xie Zheng the marquis but Yan Zheng the human.