voidtreckernet | video from greenhouse

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video from greenhouse

[ As usual, Gyousou has been visiting the greenhouse to check on the small plant from his world. Which, in turn, has led him to some navel-gazing. ]

I have been thinking recently on the future of this journey of ours. Preparation is key for any venture, and perhaps we have been too reactionary... We are able to purchase animals and supplies, but perhaps it might be worthwhile to request a riboku, so that we might grow animals of our own and gain some self-sufficiency. I'm not familiar with customs for the creation of a riboku outside of my own land, but in Tai the village would assemble in a festival gathering, so that their prayers may all be heard.

[ He smiles slightly, expression wry. ] Ordinarily, we would also register the settlement on the divine lists... but here I suppose notifying the train itself would work just as well.

[OoC: Threads can and will be threadjacked by Taiki as he tries to do cultural damage control, let me know in your tag if that's not okay!]

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Ah, not quite a farm. I don't think we have enough space to grow grains, so we would not need to pray for seeds. Perhaps just some of the more compact breeds of livestock... though I suppose we have little space for those either.

Pray...? Oh, to the gods, then.

Is that how you get food and plants to farm, then?

How else? [ he's being good-natured about this, even if the manner of their questions are a little off. ]

[Eva grins.]

Well, for all my world has gods, we've got to do it the hard way: cultivate and grow things, or breed them. It's actually a bit of pain a lot of the time, because of things like crop failure and low yields or not breeding enough animals.

I like your way better. It sounds like a secure supply of food at the very least.

[ His turn to be confused. ] I'm not familiar with that term - 'breeding' animals?

It's where we put a male and in-heat female or females together. After some time, the female gets pregnant and some months later, she gives birth to baby animal.

[It's matter of fact and to the point.]

Um. If you want a better explanation, I can do one off the ICPs.

[He can tell by Lord Gyousou's face that she has lost him round about the time of 'gets pregnant']

Um I think... Sorry Iden'no-san [Quickly checking her name on the passenger roster.] it might be better. Things work very different in our world.

Sure. Give me a few and I'll meet you guys in the greenhouse?

[Her life. What even.]

[ He isn't entirely sure this is necessary, but Taiki is. So, here he is, dutifully sat waiting on one of the empty crates. ]

[He also makes his way to the carriage, looking a bit awkward.

It might have been easier if he just explained things, but at the same time he is relieved there will be someone else there who was willing to help.

He moves to sit on the ground next to Gyousou, close to him.] Um... sorry. I guess... I didn't think that you wouldn't know how things work on worlds like earth...

[Things Eva did not think she'd be doing: Giving The Talk to a grown man.

Things Eva is doing: Exactly that.]

Ok so... How about you both start by telling me how things work on your world? That way I can try and explain better?

[Maybe?]

Sorry Iden'no san. [He really does look sorry.] I lived most of my life on earth so if it is too awkward for you... I can explain. In our world though... People pray to tentei and tie a ribbon around a riboku... that is a tree in their village and then a child will grow.

[He actually doesn't know exactly how it works. He hopes Lord Gyousou can explain more.]

I should have learned more about taika when I had the chance, hm? [ He's mostly taking this entire fiasco well, besides the few people who decided to use it for ridicule.

Still, he's attentive to Eva, and his expression is one that acknowledges that she and Taiki are both finding this deeply uncomfortable. In recognition of that, he keeps his explanation factual. ]

Kouri has said the essentials. A married couple, should they decide to honour the heavens by raising a child, will weave a ribbon expressing their wish. They will tie that ribbon around a branch of a riboku and, if Tentei wills it, a ranka will grow on that branch. Only the petitioning couple is able to pluck the fruit when ripe, and have the child hatch.

It's fine.

[She has this!]

Basically, to have a baby naturally, a woman has to have sex with man who ejaculates inside of her, and if she's lucky, she'll fall pregnant, but sometimes it takes months before that happens. Basically, inside the body there's what we call a womb and the baby grows in that and after nine months, the woman pushes the baby out into the world.

What you say happens in your world is actually pretty similar to something in my world that people who can't have children naturally use -such as same-sex couples-, but less of a tree and more a tank that functions like a womb until the baby's ready to come out. I'm not actually sure how it all works, only that it does.

[She knows the basic laws around the tanks though.]

A tank?

[He looks at Lord Gyousou and gives the tiniest of shrugs to show he doesn't know any further, it seems like that is a way his and Eva's world differ.

The rest though is the same and he sits trying to not look too awkward.]

[ The talk of luck, and of a woman containing the growing child... he's sure his expression betrays his distaste for both aspects.

The tank confuses him just as much, but given that she's readily admitted that she doesn't know much about it, he decides not to take their lack of understanding personally. He smiles briefly at Taiki's shrug, and lifts one shoulder himself to return the gesture. ]

I see. It sounds like a dangerous, unreliable process to me, I'm afraid.

Yeah. I think it's known as that because it's kinda like an opaque fishtank.

[There's a wry smile.] It can be that, yeah, though, through science and medicine, we've made it as safe as can be for both mother and child. There's also drugs on the market that make it impossible for the mother to accidentally get pregnant before she's ready. Some women go their entire lives without wanting any children.

[She's not even touching on the unreliable part. That is so not stuff one talks about around boys.]

The riboku doesn't have dangers?

I don't think so. [He glanced at Lord Gyousou as well, because he doesn't know truthfully.] At least not to the parents...

[ He shakes his head to both of their looks. ] Not from the riboku itself. A ribboned branch might not grow a fruit, if the couple isn't deemed fit. Some couples choose to part ways, if their branches remain barren for too long...

Of course, the greatest danger has always been the loss of ranka caused by the shoku storms.

I see. So, if a branch doesn't grow a ranka -the egg of the child?- it could be likened to infertility or, well, barrenness.

[Not the most pleasant of thoughts, considering she does want a child one day, but it is what it is.]

What's a shoku storm?

[He nods at Eva, he guesses it is a bit like barrenness or infertility but different in another way. He is not sure what reasons the gods would have for denying a child.]

It is a storm or a calamity that is caused when our world and another world, called earth, clash together. Sometimes people from earth are blown over into our world during those storms and sometimes ranka are blown from our world into earth.

Generally it's considered that it isn't the right time for them to have a child, or that their prayers are insincere.

[ He hadn't paid much attention to it personally, having never planned for a family. The reports and scrolls after his ascension were dry of exposition, more concerned with social issues around the riboku, or economic considerations of livestock births.

He nods approval of Taiki's explanation; nothing to add. ]

[Eva nods in understanding; her world has very real gods, too.] The gods do as they will, that much I know as truth. I do hope those the vast majority do end up with a child in the end.

[She likes happy endings.] Is there no way to predict these shoku storms and thus protect the ranka? Or is it deemed impossible?

Um... I don't think so. [He glances at Gyousou and then back at Eva. He doubts it. Storms were unpredictable and if ranka could be lost even from the Shashinboku, guarded as it was then it was unlikely any riboku could be protected.]

Unfortunately not. We try to keep registers of lost ranka, should they return from Hourai or Kunlun-- Earth, that is. We call those that find their way home 'taika'.

[ He meets Taiki's eyes, expression proud. ] Kouri here is one such taika.

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Sorry for the slow /)(\

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/late :(

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