bairnsidhe | Lucky Cricket / Xìngyùn bǎn qiú

This Qiyan jueju poem* was inspired by the China's Mistake arc of

dialecticdreamer set within the Terramagne Setting belonging to

ysabetwordsmith

In China, a pet cricket is lucky

Kept in beautiful gourds, Bǎn qiú lóng

Fuse boxes or camps, cages are cages

Maybe the Cricket in China isn't lucky

*The Qiyan jueju is most properly written in kanji, seven of them per line. As I do not actually speak or write Chinese, I simply used seven words per line. This is probably incorrect and would not translate well to Chinese. My apologies. Learn more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qijue

In Chinese culture, a cricket is a sign of longevity and prosperity, and they were often kept as pets in wealthy households during the Imperial Era. The Communist regime suppressed cricket keeping and tried banning it in 1950, but it persisted and today there are over 20 legal cricket markets in Shanghai.

Bǎn qiú lóng are special gourds or cages made into cricket homes. They are beautiful and ornate, but still cages,

In the Terramagne setting, cricket is slang for a closeted soup (super-powered person). Another term for being a cricket is to be "in the fuse box".

T-China is a 'bottom ten' country for how they treat soups (and ordinary people but that's true for L-China too).

Lucky Cricket / Xìngyùn bǎn qiú

Oh, this is lovely!

Yay!