vivarium mods. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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vivarium2014-09-19 05:35 pm
vivariummods) wrote in vivarium2014-09-19 05:35 pm
Entry tags:
the garden
 Early in the morning, yet again, the test subjects get to wake up to Calhoun’s dulcet tones. Through a megaphone. “Hey! Lazy test subjects, get your human rears up!” Once everyone is moderately awake and gathered, Calhoun will continue. “You all did such a great job last round, and everyone’s been so pathetic lately, that I, your glorious, merciful host, decided to open a room for you! Remember, rooms are a privilege, not a right! That means!” He takes a deep breath to scream out the next parts: “Don’t. Break. My. Stuff!!” He eyes at a few people in the crowd before leading everyone up to the second floor, where a new door will now be openable. Once inside there is a surprisingly refreshing breeze and bright light flooding from the ceiling. Welcome to the Garden! The roof of the garden is made up of what appears to be grids with screens depicting a blue sky during daylight hours and a starry night during the evening (they must be sunlamps because the light from the ceiling feels warm and, yes, finally some vitamin D for you sad test subjects). It appears to be more of a dome than anything else, but the grass is green, there’s a few trees around, some flowers, a bench here and there, and even a little waterfall that creates a small creek around the garden! Sure, there aren’t any edible plants, fruits, or vegetables around, the water is freezing, everything feels almost artificial, but this is a lot better than the cold, monochrome, and bleak look of the warehouse so far, so unless everyone else wanted to stay in the boring lobby instead of here, there wasn’t much to complain about. Well, have fun! Enjoy your new surroundings. |
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"But a bunch of magpies felt real sorry hearin' her cry all the time, so they flew over and created a bridge with their bodies so she and Hikoboshi could meet once a year. That star Deneb over there represents the bridge."
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"Yes, I think Orihime and Hikoboshi's is a much better story." He offered with a small smile. "Are there any other stars connected to Japanese mythology? I remember reading a book once about how they see a rabbit on the moon-" He paused. "Well, I'm not sure remembered is the right word. The information is there and I assume it was from reading."
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Gosh Heiji knew an awful lot of bedtime-type stories, too bad there weren't any little kids around here. Or actually no, that was probably for the best.
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Kendo, Osaka accent japanese, a lot about Osaka in general... Heiji did you have a bias towards Osaka maybe?
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"Couple days later, this real cute girl shows up at his house and asks to stay with him and help him around the house. He's surprised, but she seems pretty reliable and doesn't ask for a lot of pay, so he agrees. All she asks in return is that he get her a weaving loom and some cotton. At the end of each day, she's woven all this amazing cloth, and it's so high-quality that soon he's got wealthy people clamorin' just to buy it. Things are going great, but he's just sooo curious about how she does it that one day, he looks in on her when she's not expecting it.
"What he seems is that she's actually a spider -- the same one that he rescued before. She spins the cotton into thread inside her own body, and that's how it comes out so fine. The farmer's real grateful, so he decides not to say anything and just buy her the day's cotton like usual, right? But then the snake from before sneaks into the bundle of cotton. When the farmer gives the cotton to the weaving girl, the snake slithers out and starts chasing her. She runs and runs, but she can't get away.
"The sun takes pity on her and grabs the thread hanging from the spider's mouth. He pulls her up into the sky, away from the snake, and she's so grateful to be saved that from then on, she spins fluffy white clouds for the sky. That's why the word for 'spider' and 'cloud' are the same in Japanese -- 'kumo'."
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No use guessing, so he smiled as he looked up at the grid. "That's another nice story- I must say, it sounds like Japan enjoyed a happier ending than Ancient Greece tended to." He paused. "Does the story say what happened to the farmer? That must have been upsetting for him, to save her only to bring the snake right back to her."
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"Doesn't really say what happened to him, no. But he was living with her for a while there, and he was the one who took her work to the market and sold it. Don't you think that when he saw them fluffy clouds, he knew who made 'em right away? So I like to think he was happy for her."
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He considered this answer for a moment, apparently satisfied. "I wonder if that means there were never any clouds in the sky before." After a moment he looked over. "I'd say I was surprised you know so much about the stars and such, but you really are the type to have a lot of random knowledge, aren't you, Heiji?"
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"They name her Kaguya-hime, and that's when their luck turns around. Every time the bamboo cutter cuts down another bamboo stalk, he finds this piece of gold inside. Soon they're pretty well-off, and Kaguya-hime grows up to be a real beauty, same size as anyone else. They try and keep it quiet, but eventually, all these fellas hear about what a looker she is and end up coming to her house to ask her to marry them.
"But she turns 'em all down by giving them crazy requests, like a cowrie that was born to swallows. Eventually, all of them give up except the Emperor of Japan. That's when she starts acting real strange."
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"How so?" He imagined a girl born out of bamboo would probably yeah, be a little tiny bit peculiar.
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"Then one night, a shining host came down from the sky to collect Kaguya-hime. Before them, even the Emperor's guards were powerless. They dressed Kaguya-hime in a feathered robe, and together they rose up and returned her to her true home -- the moon."
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"I can't say I remember completely, but isn't the japanese emperor supposed to be descended from the sun god? That would have been quite the match."
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He looked excited that Hershel had remembered that tidbit about Japan, though. "That's right! Not that anyone really says that any more, but I guess they couldn't work out their differences so easily, after all."
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Yeah, Hershel smiled, glad he remembered correctly. "I don't know, people say opposites attract, maybe being so vastly different could have worked out well for them and covered their weakness." He shook his head. "Though I doubt the Emperor would have the ability to regularly visit the moon, so I suppose the point is moot."
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Hmm. "I dunno if I'd wanna go out with someone long distance," said Heiji. "Let alone someone on the moon. I mean, the whole point of dating someone is that you wanna see more of them, right?"
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Hershel had to pause to consider this a moment. "I don't know... I think it would be difficult, but if you really loved them it would be worth the time you could spend together." He answered after a moment. "Still, in some cases it probably would be better to let them go and move on. Being a planet away seems like a good example of that."
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He elbowed Hershel. "Now who's the romantic?"
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Totally. "Come no, Heiji, I'm sure you'd be willing to do the same if you found someone you truly loved and you couldn't be together for a while. You're... you." That's actually a compliment, Heiji was a loyal, good sort of dude in Hershel's eyes. Could have put it better though.
oh no that face
Heiji picked at the grass a little. "Wonder if you see any meteor showers or anything if you wait long enough."
i so rarely get to use that icon
He huffed an amused breath. "Somehow I doubt Zero would care that much." He regarded the sky. "Where I'm from this would be a spring sky, I think. In the first memory I got back I was outside at night, I can just barely remember looking up to see the stars. They were very clear, I think Stansbury was a little town, not much in the way of light pollution."
And he paused. "Ah, sorry, just I wonder if we'll ever get enough memories back to remember just a quiet night of looking at the sky before heading to bed, small, everyday things like that."
you should use it more often tho
"Ya know, you really seem like you'd be at home living in the countryside. I mean, you can't see a lot of stars in London, right? If not Stansbury, maybe you should move somewhere quiet where you can lay out on the grass like this."
ask and you shall recieve
"No, not London, that's for certain. Far too much going on to see the stars." He smiled a bit. "London has other things though, like Gressenheller. I suppose Osaka is a bit more like London then Stansbury, wouldn't you say?" He imagined it as quite the city from everything he heard from Heiji.
yes good
"Well, it's definitely not out in the country," said Heiji. "But it ain't as full of people as Tokyo. That's a good thing, in my book. I mean, how many folks you really need walkin' around? It does get a little crowded during festivals, though. Plus a lot more lively."
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"Do you remember any specific festivals?" He asked, sounding pretty curious. He couldn't remember a thing, maybe Britain didn't festival a lot, or maybe it was locked in his memories. "When we go there after all this I'd love to see one."
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