In Perl, take two references to the same variable. Bless one. Note that the other reference is now blessed. Conclude that the blessed state is stored in the referenced variable not in the reference (not that surprising).

In Perl, it is useless to bless something unless you have a reference to it; so blessing is done through the reference. In XS, the blessing API doesn't have the extra derefence cycle built into it, understandably.