#[main verse] stars of jasmine and jewels

[yaksha-garden]

@askrossiel | Continued from x

"Hail?" Eden scoffed. "We're hardly up in the mountains, Ros-"

A light but sharp plink on their head interrupted them. Eden blinked, and glanced up and around and what could have fallen on them. Another plink on their shoulder. Their palm opened up, and in fell a little cold crystal.

Well. That certainly looked like the "hail" that Eden thought only formed at high altitudes... at least, that was the case back home. The weather of the northern climates was truly and utterly fucked then.

More began to fall. Eden's shoulder and hands lowered. Instead of running into the shelter their friend so kindly offered, they gazed up at the sky, muttering "Ay bhagavan, the gods really do hate me..."

[yaksha-garden]

Eden's eyes trace the blood as it drips, down to its grisly source. Their face twists as they fail to hide their disgust, but they press their expression back into line quickly enough.

They force their eyes back up. In a pointless gesture towards politeness, they say, "Who am I to stop you from enjoying dinner in your own house?"

Folding their arms in front of them, they continue. "And maybe I've come to accept that my opinion of you fails to repel you."

❝ what a pleasant surprise. all this time, i thought you couldn't stand me. ❞   a soft chuckle spills from crimson lips while his golden glare narrows, amused and suspicious. what kind of a fool do they take him for? DIO does not trust eden any more than they trust him, not in light of the company they surreptitiously keep, but so be it. he wields an especially watchful eye over his enemies.

❝ — do forgive the mess. ❞   he brings his blood-soaked claws to his greedy mouth, savoring the gore with shameless, unabashed indulgence.   ❝ i would have dined earlier, had i anticipated your company. ❞

[ricegoals-blog]

RICE FROM A TO Z: 26 FACTS ABOUT RICE

Asia. Asia alone both produces and consumes 90% of the world’s rice. Basmati. In Hindi, its name means ‘the queen of fragrances’, in Arabic, ‘my smile’, and it is the most fragrant rice. Produced in greatest quantities in the Himalayas, between India and Pakistan, purists advise eating it steamed. Chopsticks. The internet has many videos for teaching ‘western dummies’ how to use chopsticks, which are difficult to handle when eating rice and vegetables. In China, Japan and Korea, chopsticks are used in place of cutlery. Diet. Rice is the main ingredient of one of the most widely-known weight-loss diets. In its strictest version, only rice can be eaten at lunch and dinner. Energy. An excellent source of energy, rice is rich in carbohydrates, which are needed for the brain to function properly, and for physical activity. Of all the cereals, rice also contains the highest quality and quantity of proteins. It contains little fat, and no cholesterol. Farming. There’s a enormous gulf between Western rice farming techniques – in which land is leveled by lasers and seeds are dropped for planting by airplanes – and the more traditional Asian methods, where farmers still use buffalos to plough the fields.

Gods. In India, rice is associated with prosperity and the Hindu god of wealth, Lakshmi. In Japan, it’s associated with the sun-god Amatereshu-Omi-Kami, and in Thailand, where men aren’t allowed to enter rice paddies, the deity Mae Posop, who is considered to be the ‘mother of rice’ deity. History. Rice is the oldest known food that is still widely consumed today. Archaeologists can date its consumption back to 5000 BC, the time when the first traces of its cultivation in China, India and Thailand appear. From India, it arrived to the West thanks to merchants, but its always been most widespread in Asia. Italian “le mondine”. In the Italian countryside, ‘mondine’, or female rice field workers, used to sing amongst themselves while they worked, teasing and calling to one another. The world’s most famous mondina is Silvana Mangano, the seductive Italian actress and star of Bitter Rice (‘Riso Amaro’). Japanese rice. Rice is also the most common staple food eaten in Japan. Here, a variety of small grain types are eaten, which are also used as the basis of sushi. Rice grains in this country are affectionately called ‘Little Buddhas’. Kanetsugu, the samurai. Each year in Yonezawa, Northern Japan, local farmers celebrate the harvest by planting rice and other vegetables in order to create a gigantic, unusual image. This year, it’s the face of Kanetsugu, a 16th Century samurai warrior. Liquor. Besides rice wine, vinegar and beer, the distilled plant can produce excellent grappa, and also sake, a liquor that aids digestion when enjoyed chilled after a meal. Ming. One of the secrets to Chinese architecture under the Chinese Ming dynasty (1300-1600) can be found hidden in limestone. Rice, which adds strength and stability, was used in the walls of the city of Nanjing. Newlyweds and Newborns. In India, rice is the first meal that a wife serves to her husband after their marriage, but it is also the first food given to newborn babies, as it’s considered auspicious for future prosperity. Oryza sativa. The Oryza Sativa family, from which all commercially-produced rice comes, can boast over 40,000 different cultivated species. Each rice seed can produce up to 3,000 grains, which is the highest level of production amongst cereals. Pillows. Originating in Switzerland, pillows made of natural textiles stuffed with rice are an excellent aid for relieving back and neck pain. First heated up in the microwave, they are then positioned over the painful area. Quick. Rice is also good when eaten cold, and for this reason it can be considered as a kind of fast food. Many kinds of par-boiled rice, which have very short cooking times, are already commercially available. 

Rainbow rice. In April in China, on Ancestor’s Day (or Tomb Sweeping Day), rice is used not only to honour one’s ancestors, but also to celebrate the arrival of Spring, and is traditionally dyed in a variety of colours using natural dyes. Sophocles. Rice was even spoken of as far back as the ancient Greek tragedies. The tragedian Sophocles mentions it, telling us that the cereal arrived from Ethiopia, while the comedian Aristophanes, in one of his verses, sketches out the recipe for a rice roll. Types and varieties. There are three types of rice grain: short, medium and long. Long-grain rice, which does not stick together easily, is considered to be the most prized. Of the world’s 40,000 varieties of rice, however, the most famous in the West are the aromatic varieties such as Basmati, Thai Jasmine rice, the Italian Arborio rice, and the sweet varieties, used for cakes and puddings. University. From former US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, to Rice University, in America, rice is not just a food, but is also a name given to people and universities. The most famous university named as such is found in Houston, Texas, and is renowned for its science and engineering faculties. Vishnu. In Bali, Indonesia, Hindus believe that it was Vishnu who first made rice grow out of the ground from nothing. The god of bad weather, Indra, then taught people how to grow the plant: this explains why rice only grows in waterlogged soil. Wedding. When leaving the wedding ceremony, and after the blessing of the bride and groom, it is traditional in all cultures to throw grains of rice over the heads of the newlyweds in order to wish them prosperity and fertility. Xanthomonas. Simply called Xoo in biology, Xanthomas oryzae is a bacteria which attacks the leaves of the rice plant and its grains. This is not the only enemy of rice farmers and producers: many fungi are harmful to the plant, meaning that entire harvests sometimes have to be rejected. Your name on a rice grain. Is it a grain of rice, or a jewel? Grains of rice are used by some jewellery designers to make personalised pieces of jewellery. The most classic example is one’s name written on a grain of rice, which is then kept in a small glass vial, and worn as a pendant. Zizania. It’s called wild rice, but despite its name, Zizania is in fact a variety of grass, which has little in common with the many varieties of rice.

[yaksha-garden]

@askrossiel | continued from x

Today, Eden decided to make good on Rossiel's offer of company, and visited her apartment. When they arrived, they heard singing.

They brought their hand up to the door, but paused. The song seeped through the cracks under, and it felt like a shame to interrupt it. After a moment, they properly knocked.

"Hello?" they called, almost sheepish. "Um... are you busy?"

[yaksha-garden]

@askrossiel | Continued from x

Eden didn't bother getting themselves a pillow or blanket, even a makeshift one. If the leaves and twigs got up in their hair or clothes so be it, it didn't bother them.

They registered Rossiel's presence by the crunching of dry foliage as she lay down next to them. For the most part, they stared up at the sky, the branches, the falling leaves.

"I hate this country's autumn," they whined. "It gets too cold. Back home, we could be watching blossoms and having tea while it was a reasonable temperature outdoors..."

And yet, here they are, basking in this country's overly-cold autumn.

[yaksha-garden]

Finally, Eden cracked a smile again.

"I would, actually," they answered. "It's a bigger comfort than you think, from one relic of the past to another. Besides-"

They failed to hold back a chuckle. "In the meantime, I need somebody to keep gossiping about all this with. Really, thank you for this."

And who knew? Maybe the day they could speak more freely with the Speedwagon Foundation wasn't too far away. Eden could hope -- they were as curious as anybody as to what all this was about.

"Very well." She put the card away with a gentle shake of the head, taking up instead a scrap of paper and a pen.

"I will not ask you to take on anything you may deem a risk. Would you at least accept my personal number and address, though? My ears and apartment are open to you, should you ever need them-- for whatever small comfort I can offer as a musician, a student of the woods, or a relic of a world long-since changed."

[yaksha-garden]

@askrossiel | Continued from x

Eden holds the brooch as precious jewelry ought to be held -- gently, with care to not stain its lustre or crush its most delicate parts.

"You did not," they say, their voice lighting up with a gleeful curiosity.

Very, very gently, they set down the brooch, and make themselves comfortable on one of the sturdier boxes, elbows on their knees and head on their chin. "And I do have all day."

[yaksha-garden]

@rejectshumanity | Continued

Now this was the dilemma. They couldn't drag him to the Verdant Haven where they could crush him or something. Maybe they could plague him with nightmares, all it cost was their dignity, their values. Why did they have to make threats they had no idea how to follow up on effectively?

Eden pressed their lips into a line, and let their gaze wander to the side.

Maybe -- just maybe -- this could be a lesson. Or further bait depending on Dio's mood.

"You know what? I'm sorry I said that," they said, quiet and subdued. "That was rash of me in a way that- I used to be the sort who would act out in anger like that."

Through gritted teeth, they finished with "I try not to be anymore."

[yaksha-garden]

@riiese | Continued from x

Eden stepped back to give Ingvar ample room to rouse himself, and then curtly answered, "Your apple tree? I have."

They paused, and their lips twitched and their nose scrunched up slightly, but they refused to frown. If they knew Ingvar even a little, they knew he generally meant well, and they would never want him to think he'd upset them. Even if he kind-of sort-of just-a-little-bit had. He didn't need to know that.

Still, they had one question.

"...but why?"

[yaksha-garden]

Eden hums "mm-hmmm..." in thought, with an edge of concern. They invite themselves over the threshold of the apartment, and follow Elias over to the table with the... interesting looking apple.

They glance from it over to Dwight, then to the board. Their theoretical understanding of magic, the academic sort of stuff that Dwight (and presumably Elias at one point) studied in his school, was not as broad as they'd have liked. So many things to learn in this life, they suppose. But in any case, they aren't sure if it's a good idea to ask Elias to explain all these scribbles from the top. He looks frazzled enough as is.

Instead they crouch slightly, bringing the apple floating in its bowl to eye level. They tilt their head as they examine it.

"Well, the first thing I want to find out..." they think out loud, "...is where this apple came from. Maybe we can get an antidote from there?"

Elias sighs deeply and pinches the bridge of his nose. He turns down the heat on the stove and crosses over the living room to stand in front of Eden. He glances over at the slumbering witch, his chest rising and failing. He actually looked peaceful which was a rare sight. Poor Dwight always looked so worried and stressed. If this wasn’t an enchanted sleep, Elias would have be inclined to leave him there a little longer.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but a few days ago, I was supposed to meet him here for a lunch outing.” Elias started to explain. “And I was waiting outside the store and he never came out, so I walked inside-“ Elias is lying, he came in through the window. “And I found him like this.”

Elias goes over to the bowl with the apple. “It didn’t take me long to find out what happened.” The older mage grimaced down at the poisoned apple. “So I’ve been trying to find a way to reverse this spell and I keep running into walls!”

[yaksha-garden]

Nothing lasts forever Some things aren't meant to be But you'll never find the answers Til you set your old heart free

[yaksha-garden]

you wouldn't believe me if i told you.

Eden furrows their brows. "Why wouldn't I?"

They like to think, after all, that they are a worldly sort, and no stranger to strangeness, especially after spending decades immersed in the nonsensical, mutable logic of humanity's dream. And, when one has one foot in a world where rivers and fires could speak their wills, and the other foot in a world where humanity built terrible, roaring engines that flew above the Gods' heavenly sphere, surely nothing was too unbelievable.

(No, they are still not over the existence of airplanes, far less space ships.)

In truth, they suspect this coyness on Dio's part was just another facet of his overwhelming arrogance. Did he think whatever he could say to them would be so beyond them? Or did he think they just couldn't handle whatever it was?

"Out with it, Dio," Eden huffs. "You're not the only immortal with a strange and sordid life story in here."

Telling A Big Secret Prompts: x

[yaksha-garden]

Kubera's Prism

ORIGINS & PURPOSE

When does a story die? When it's last told, when it has changed beyond recognition, or when it stops changing? When it stops being idly dreamed of and becomes set in stone, is the resulting "definitive edition" actually its corpse?

During the writing of the Rayamana (estimated to be in the 7th to 5th century BCE time-frame), a collection of deities created Kubera's Prism, as a result of grappling with these questions. These were the ones who were prominent in the Vedic era, but would later lose prestige in relation to modern Hinduism's popular deities (which isn't to say they are no longer worshiped, though). In particular, it was named for Kubera, the subterranean lord of wealth, king of the yakshas and master of the guhyakas, among other beings. He is one of the gods who spends much time in the Prism, his procession can be found in the world's caverns. He is the one who created the first Keystones, given to chosen yakshas to act as custodians of various facets of this terrarium-world.

And it is a terrarium of sorts, for fantastical beings and mythological beasts. Being nestled away in the world of dreams, saturated much more heavily with the sorcerous force of maya, stray wishes, and ever-present ideas of how reality and narratives "should" work, allows these beings to live and accomplish great feats, even if it should be impossible by the laws of physics.

STRUCTURE

Kubera's Prism is, well, a prism (think a d8-shape, an octahedron) nestled into the world of dreams. The prism is made of a thick, glass-like material, that separates the world within from the dreaming mists and seas outside. Within certain parts Kubera's Prism are build-in pathways and portals leading from here to other parts of the cosmos, such as the portals to the underworld and afterlife in the deepest caverns, or the portal to the abode of the gods somewhere in the sky, opened by the right confluence of planets. However, over thousands of years, unintentional cracks have appeared in the prism - both on the glass boundary, and within the prism, the latter looking like "a tear in space time". These cracks let in the dreaming mists, and in rare cases, might spatially connect to some location in the human world.

(Tiny cracks at the very top of the prism have allowed some celestials to fall through, at the cost of becoming shrunken in both size and power upon landing. Gandharvas and apsaras, who are typically human-sized musicians and dancers in their home heavens, fit in the palm of an average Kubera's Prism resident's hand after falling through one of these cracks, and find their famed celestial powers are similarly diminished.)

If you look up in the sky, you'll see that the sun is actually a ruby, with flames combusting within it, hanging from the upper point of the prism by a gold chain. The other planets are similar, gemstones hanging from the sky, spinning in a slow and methodical pattern. The moon, similarly, is a pearl hanging from a silver chain, traveling across the night sky as if on a track. The stars are glowing from outside the glass boundary, the twinkling and persistent remains of old, old dreams. The clouds are firmly within the boundary, usually - but often their vapour contains more than just water. The clouds are also made of condensed prana (the animating breath of life), or even liquid maya (again, the force of sorcery and illusion that drives the dream world outside).

(In fact, prana and maya in Kubera's Prism have "cycles" similar to the water cycle and various other cycles of Earth, but that's an essay for future Jaye to figure out.)

Underneath this bejeweled sky, the world below looks rather similar to an Earthly ecosystem. There are mountains and oceans, and rivers running between them. There are forests and fields of infinite variety in fauna and flora. There is one landmass in Kubera's Prism, surrounded by an ocean. It's quite a large landmass, though ultimately much smaller than Earth's total landmass. Eden's Verdant Haven and the surrounding regions are just one tiny portion of this huge and varied land, one that happens to be most strongly influenced by Bengali culture. Other areas of Kubera's Prism have different cultures and influences.

Ultimately, Kubera's Prism is anchored to the human world, if only metaphysically. Cultures evolving similarly over the eons is one example. Additionally, large-scale events in the human world have a tendency of affecting or bleeding through the Prism boundary one way or another. Histories of famine and war tend to line up for example, even if the surrounded contexts and content are different.

KEYSTONES

Keystones are embodied boons, divine authority over one aspect of a given region of the Prism. They are created by the gods of this world and given to certain worthy* petitioners, typically yakshas whose guarded groves and treasures are in the region that the Keystone grants some authority over.

Unfortunately, the gods cannot take back Keystones on their own. They can only be willingly relinquished by their holders, and then either passed on to an heir or - if the holder foolishly just left the thing lying around - picked up by just about anyone. The gods may not be able to unmake or take away Keystones, but they have other sanctions and tricks up their sleeves. Perhaps that's why they still feel secure enough to keep giving these things out.

Additionally, Keystones can splinter. If you do this "right", every fragment retains some power, and the full power of the Keystone can be accessed when they're all in the same place. Commonly, just a sliver of a Keystone breaks off, leaving the main one mostly intact in ability, and the sliver might have some strange power, actually inherit some of the full Keystone's power, or simply be a potentially extraordinary magical conduit with no inherent power.

Keystones are embedded into the flesh. Heart, eye, on the back between the shoulder blades, or on the back or palm of a hand, are some common locations.

The power granted by a Keystone varies depending on what aspects and region it's keyed to, but they're all big and impossible to ignore. A Keystone keyed to animals, or a certain kind of animal, might call and command vast numbers of those animals. A Keystone keyed to plant-life might be able to create entirely new cultivars. A Keystone keyed to the weather grants wide-reaching weather control. Et cetera.

*What makes one worthy? Traditionally, it means doing severe austerities for the gods, but that's not universally the case anymore. Great heroism or accomplishing feats that impress or earn the gratitude of the gods are common examples nowadays, but occasionally, the gods' judgement is opaque, just plain poorly explained.

[yaksha-garden]

"I see. Well, is it such a sin to know your limits? Or, I guess a better question would be... could you take him now?"

@yaksha-garden replied to your post “"Speaking of mistakes and learning from them,...”:

"An act of relative mercy? ...On some level, I wish I had your mistakes."

​"Not mercy. If I was merciful I wouldn't have killed his father, and taken his sister as a servant. No, it was cowardice. For I knew I couldn't take him. And I ran from the challenge."

[yaksha-garden]

@askrossiel | Continued from x

Well, didn't that make the whole sordid situation an even bigger tragedy? Missing out on some pie baked by their friend -- as if their afternoon couldn't get much worse.

"Then we must find the true culprit!" Eden proclaimed, itching for some relief for this mundanely terrible sequence of events.

They crouched slightly, investigating the now-empty countertop at eye level. "Hmm... when was the last time you saw it?"

[yaksha-garden]

@askrossiel | Continued from x

Eden wasn't entirely expecting a hug -- though they didn't know what they were expecting from their friend.

That being said, it wasn't unwelcome. They wrap their arms around Rossiel and murmur a "thank you".