296 Littervine
"So . . . what is it you want?"
"What do you mean?"
"Littervine. It's not just the vines you want, right?" Titanyana's ears flicked at Diana's question. In her excitement she hadn't properly explained why they were so desperately needed. Diana had no frame of reference as to why they were so important. "Is it a cultural thing? The wine from the fruits is probably used for ceremonies, right?"
"I mean, I suppose it is both of those things, but it's a bit more important than just a ceremony." She started to blush once she realized she would need to bring up procreation. "It's really important to, um, making children."
"Oh, so it's a marriage thing. Got it."
"No! I mean, yes, it's presented to the bride during the marriage ceremony, but that isn't why I brought it up." Titanyana took a breath. "We present it at weddings because of how preciously hard to grow it can be. We would be much more liberal with its distribution if we had the Littervine to spare, but the vineyards just don't produce enough to satisfy . . . you know?"
She hoped Diana would pick up on the insinuation.
"Oh? OH! It's an aphro- ahem - fertility aid! Of course, yes, I'll have Donovan and Arc prepare whatever you need to get a farm up and running." Diana's cheeks flushed. "I-is it something you eat? Or is it just the wine you consume?"
"I, um, Petunia?" Titanyana wasn't entirely sure how Littervine was supposed to be used, such education generally being saved until the ceremony itself. She knew Litterwine had some . . . provocative effects, far more disinhibiting than most alcoholic beverages, but all she knew about Littervine was that the stalks were 'burned' somehow.
"It is my understanding that the groom is to keep the stalk on the inside of his clothing - close to his chest - during the wedding ceremonies and feast so it absorbs his scent. It is only removed after the pair have each consumed a cup of Litterwine and returned to their bedchamber. The stalk is then lit from one end while the pair prepare to consummate their marriage. The act itself must be initiated by the bride once she feels herself sufficiently prepared to proceed, the groom only allowed to assume a proactive role after his first, um . . ."
Petunia morphed into a similar species of cherry as Titanyana had, Diana being a little less 'innocent' only turned into a peach. Petunia had managed a straight (enough) face whilst reciting the steps though, so Diana had developed a decent idea of what Nekh 'mating rituals' were like in a more general sense.
"So it enhances the smell of your partner? I assume this is related to the olfactory bond your kind develop." Diana put down her cup of tea, pulling her tablet into a position to make some notes. "Speaking of, how do you usually find a partner? I imagine you avoid leaving something so important up to chance, but surely the conditions for forming such a bond make it difficult to arrange on purpose."
"We've found it effectively impossible to force such a bond, but I don't think forming one is as difficult as you imagine." Titanyana squirmed in her seat, thinking about her own bond to Donovan.
"Isn't it? I mean, it took Donovan saving your life . . ."
"That was an extreme case!" Titanyana's tail bristled slightly, finding herself oddly defensive. "D-depending on clan, most women will spend their days working around men their age, though I think a reasonable distance is usually maintained to avoid an accidental bond. M-most have grown up in the same communities and have a general idea of the characters of their counterparts. If a woman thinks they may be developing feelings towards someone, they invite him to have dinner."
"So a date?"
"K-kinda? Most of the time, the parents and siblings of both prospective partners will attend, as well as a few close friends. I've never participated in one given my status and the lack of such events in the palace . . . but my understanding is that the other parties are supposed to either convince or dissuade the woman in the hours leading up to their dinner."
"I've attended a few of these in my hometown." Petunia tagged in on behalf of her inexperienced Queen, who breathed a silent sigh of relief. "I've attended as a friend of both men and a women, and I find that most of the time the man's friends attempt to dissuade while woman's friends try to persuade unless they also have their eyes on him. In my experience, the families of the pair in question usually just trade embarrassing or endearing stories about their respective child."
"That's . . . pretty interesting, honestly. I imagine the whole ordeal is so the parents and friends can express their opinion and approval on the matter while socializing with other families. Is it a potluck sort of arrangement where everyone brings their own food?"
"Um, not quite?" Titanyana tilted her head, learning just as much from this as Diana was. What was supposed to happen if someone didn't have remaining family? Or if they didn't have friends? "I mean, each party is expected to prepare half of the meal, but the approval of the families have no bearing on the pair becoming married. Their bodies are not making the decision, after all."
Diana's own head tilted to mirror Titanyana, eyebrows furrowing before her mouth opened slightly. Frankly, this pattern completely defied her Terran understanding of 'traditional' pair forming ceremonies, but then again the circumstances of the Nekh were completely different to anything Terran. A lack of parental consent to the only chance their daughter would ever have at children would eventually lead to their own extinction.
"What happens after the meeting?"
"The man and woman have their meal in a room isolated from the rest of the party, engaging in 'conversation' with each other. I've never had one of these matchmaking parties for myself, so I don't know what the 'conversation' usually entails, but I've heard it is usually less of a 'talk' and more of a display of intimacy." Petunia blushed again. "N-nothing sexual, of course, at least I haven't heard anything of the sort. Most often, the woman will seat herself next to the man and offer to feed him, allowing herself to take in his scent. If by the end of meal she has had a reaction, the wedding is to commence during the next time there is a full moon."
"And if she doesn't?" Titanyana was curious about this aspect as well. "Has anyone ever lied?"
"I'm sure a few have, but they are most certainly a rarity. The lie would be found out within the month, you see, and it would be incredibly embarrassing to have it revealed." Petunia closed her eyes. "As for when no bond is formed, both leave without much in the way of bad blood. These meetings are intended to determine the suitability of a couple. Should it fail, the relationship was unlikely to be fruitful anyways."
"How do you know that?" Diana clearly wanted to grill the two of them on this. The better she understood this process, the better she could accommodate it whilst in this period of chaos. "Would it not be possible for a bond to form later on?"
"Such a thing isn't unheard of, there are stories of those who had a second matchmaking meeting succeeding in the formation a bond, but to lock a pair into a relationship not guaranteed to succeed domestically - let alone have a chance at children - would be a detriment to the community more generally. It would prevent her from finding someone she could bond with, and prevent other women from forming a bond with that man."
"I see. Have multiple women ever bonded to a single man?"
"It happens on occasion, though it seems such women usually bond to a man much younger than themselves." Petunia had experienced the opposite phenomenon, bonding with a man considerably older than her. She didn't mention that, but Titanyana could tell she was slightly embarrassed about that. "We make every effort to prevent those scenarios. A standard of hygiene is expected among men to minimize their body odor, and most married men opt to sprinkle pungent herbal tinctures on their clothing to mask it further. It is much more difficult to form a bond when you cannot make out a scent."
Diana put down a note on her tablet, leading Titanyana to consider what she might be thinking about. Given what she saw on the Pegasus, Arc could probably manufacture concentrated soaps and deodorants for general use while they worked to set up an industry of their own . . . or maybe this presented a business opportunity for Diana? She mentioned a desire to enter the cosmetics and fashion sphere in the past, and perfumes were at least tangentially related, weren't they?
"And I take it the man must provide for the woman?"
"Yes, though I should add that some women elect to live with their parents or in a widow's coven after their wedding night, only returning to live with the man and his first wife should she have been impregnated. As I'm sure you can imagine, having to share your loved one with another can create some tension, more so if that rival was blessed with a child where you were not."
"Of course, of course." Diana sighed, Titanyana barely catching the implication of Petunia's elaboration on the subject matter. She was trying to establish that while Donovan having a second wife would probably accepted by the general public, there would almost certainly be a stigma. "We won't have any issues there, will we?"
"If you refer to the people, I am sure we will be able to figure it out on our own. If it's Titanyana-"
"There won't be any problems!" Titanyana interjected on her own behalf. Even if she was nervous about making the whole thing public, she had no intention to let anyone get in the way. She didn't have a plan to make them accept it though, which was also a bit of a problem. "I, um, may need help at some point . . ."
"Then all you need to do is ask." Diana put the tablet back on the side table. "As for the Littervine, we've got a solution for the problem of surviving winter. It'll be a bit expensive in terms of materials that could otherwise go towards shipbuilding, so we will almost certainly get some pushback from Donovan, but if need be we can keep a small amount growing in optimal conditions, day and night, all year round. They are, from what you've described, something like an evergreen berry vine, so that will be perfect."
"What is it?" Titanyana was curious about this, ultimately seeking to vindicate herself and explain it to Leno the next time she saw him.
"A 'Greenhouse'. Well, an 'Evergreenhouse' in this case. Do you remember that room on the Pegasus where we plan to grow plants?" Diana picked up her tablet and fiddled with it again.
"Of course I do."
"Well it has a similar concept." Titanyana accepted the tablet from Diana, somewhat perplexed by the contents on screen. "There are three spaced layers of tempered glass to protect against inclement weather and insulate the interior, the temperature of which is regulated by that box on top. There are also sun lights built into the support frames to supplement the exposure the plants receive during winter months and sprinklers hung from the roof to water everything evenly. You come in and out through these doors here, and the gardening tools can be kept in the lockers inside. It's a perfect growing environment, practically isolated from pests, weeds, and pathogens."
"It's so . . . small?" Titanyana thought it looked about as large as one of the cabins she had seen earlier. While they were by no means small for a human to live in, that footprint wasn't exactly a lot of space to grow crops on.
"Well, you can't have everything. I'm sure we'll end up with something bigger than this, but assembling it by hand would inevitably produce faults that could compromise the function of the building, if not its structure, so Arc says it would be best to tow it down beneath a ship. So long as the descent is slow enough and nothing is left sealed it should be fine, or so I'm told."
- - - - -
"I'm tired." Titanyana watched Diana slump down in her chair once Petunia left to handle some domestic task. "I don't get how Donovan can be up and about all day. Just walking around is exhausting."
"I'm sure you'll get used to it. . ." Titanyana did not want to comment on Diana's less than active lifestyle. She was by no means unhealthy in her sedentism, she took the time to walk around and kept an eye on what she ate, but she wasn't exactly jogging a mile.
"Shoulda exercised more, I know." Diana stuck her tongue out, a playful response to Titanyana's implication. "Anyways, I want to talk with you about something."
"If it's something I need to do, I will spare no effort."
"No, nothing like that. It's just something I'm a little concerned about." Diana righted herself again, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees to make eye contact with Titanyana. "At the moment it's only a hypothesis, but if it turns out to be correct then we might have a major issue on our hands."
"Oh?" Titanyana clenched her fists, preparing for the worst. "What is it?"
"Take everything I'm about to say with a large grain of salt, it probably won't be that big of a deal even if my guess is correct, but it doesn't mean we can ignore it." Diana sighed again. "I believe the bond your people form is a genetic form of the 'Damsel in Distress' syndrome, or at the very least similar to it."
". . . what does that mean?" Titanyana pieced together each of those words independently, not knowing what the term itself referred to.
"It's the symbiotic counterpart to 'White Knight' syndrome, in which each party sees themselves in a fairytale-esque relationship with the other. The 'White Knight' sees their partner as someone in need of their protection where it may otherwise not be warranted while the 'Damsel in Distress' sees their partner as their savior and one true love. From the sound of it everything is fine as is, but it isn't going to stay 'as is' forever. In fact, we are probably going to see changes a little bit faster than either of us are ready for."
"Is the syndrome a bad thing?" Her ears drooped. "I don't think there's anything we can do to fix it . . ."
"I am of the opinion that it is an overall positive . . . so long as there is relatively strict cultural cohesion. Having a genetic aversion to infidelity is already a massive advantage, doubly so if the men are given a cultural incentive to accept and care for the woman who has fallen for them, however it can become an issue if there are men who don't possess that incentive."
"A woman who bonds with a cheater would be devastated. We are well aware of that."
"More than that, a woman who bonds with an abuser or trafficker. Should they fall for someone with bad intentions towards them, they will almost certainly be taken advantage of. We will need to be incredibly careful with foreigners in our borders to ensure they don't interact with unbonded women, and unbonded women should not be let abroad." Titanyana could already see Diana's point. This would impose heavy limitations on what they could accomplish with regards to 'Bellum Missarum', a stricter overculture making integration more difficult and mostly restricting intermarriage to Nekh men.
"Is there a fix?"
"Nothing easy, at least as far as I can imagine, but I don't see this as an impossible problem either. We just need to prioritize population growth a little more than we already were."