Non-Actionable Puffery

Another seasonsofdrabbles round is at an end, and – as always – it was tremendous fun! I love how much leeway a drabble exchange gives folks to be experimental.

I wrote two fics:

"sorrow for sea-fare" for zdenka
Tar-Míriel/Uinen, double drabble sequence (600 words)
Summary:
And it came to pass, while the wood of Nimloth burned, that Tar-Míriel – who had ever loved the night-blossoming Tree – slipped from the palace, and came in secret to the westward shore.

"stands yet the wallstone" for Microscopium
Object and concept anthropomorphism, triple drabble
Summary:
The city had no name.
This was a new state of affairs, and the city was still getting used to it.

I'd been re-reading some of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales before sitting down to write, and I think it shows: the first is reminiscent in some ways of "The Fisherman and His Soul", the second of "The Remarkable Rocket" – only a little bit, and a very poor reflection, but the influence is there. fiona15351 very kindly betaed both, and she was the one who suggested using a line from "The Ruin" to title "stands yet the wallstone", which gave me the idea of titling "sorrow for sea-fare" with a line from "The Seafarer". (In retrospect, "stands yet the wallstone" would have been an excellent title for "Deep Roots", my TRSB fic this year, but…well, hindsight's 20/20.)

I received two fics as well:

"blessed" by sincereously
ASOIAF, Baelor the Blessed, single drabble sequence (700 words)
Summary:
Seven perspectives on Baelor, for each of the seven gods.

Folks, "blessed" is the Baelor fic of my dreams! It's a nuanced and beautifully written take on a deeply complex character, and might just be my favorite Baelor fic out there. I genuinely teared up reading it, and I truly can't recommend it more highly.

"annealed" by allegoriesinmediasres
Maedhros/Fingon, paired single drabbles
Summary:
"... and the Orcs fled before his face; for since his torment upon Thangorodrim his spirit burned like a white fire within… "

― Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"

"annealed" is a lovely and poignant Maedhros character study, with some sweet Russingon as well. For its word count, it packs an outsize punch!

I wrote "nidicolous" for AllegoriesInMediasRes as my assigned recipient in the summer round of this exchange, and I think I was their assigned recipient this time, so we clearly have tastes in common! I think I'll keep an eye out for their prompts in the next round…

All in all, definitely a very good time, and I'm looking forward to the winter round!

I am Ermingarden on AO3 as well.

General Likes and DNWs

A few things I love, in no particular order: slice-of-life fic, epistolary fic, outsider POV, primary source documents, academic debates, linguistics, religion, humor, hurt/comfort, and hopeful endings.

DNW: Explicit sex scenes, anything sexual involving children, onscreen rape/noncon/sexual assault, BDSM, non-canonical pregnancy or parenthood fic, omegaverse, infidelity, and setting-changes AUs.

The Silmarillion

Characters: Maedhros

I'm perpetually fascinated by Maedhros; I want to pick him up and turn him over in my hands to look at him from various different angles. I'd particularly like to see something about Maedhros in Beleriand – his recovery post-Thangorodrim, the building of Himring, all the way through to his death. I love his closeness with Fingon (romantic or not) and his relationship with his brothers.

TGCF

Characters: Xie Lian

I'd love to see a snapshot from Xie Lian's wandering years. I'd also enjoy something to do with the Guoshi Fangxin arc, whether that's the aftermath of his burial in the coffin or his relationship with Lang Qianqiu after the truth of the matter is revealed. Something sweet with Hua Cheng, as well, is always welcome! And I'm a big fan of whump and h/c with XL as the whumpee.

MDZS

Characters: Lan Wangji, Lan Qiren

As you can guess from the characters I requested, I'm really interested in the Lans! What is daily life like in the Cloud Recesses? How do people think about the rules as a structure for their lives? I'm also so interested in LWJ's relationship with music and I'd love to see something about that. For LQR, I'm most interested in his relationships with LXC and LWJ, and the experience of raising them.

Note: I'm pretty exclusively familiar with novel canon – I've only seen a few episodes of CQL.

A Song of Ice and Fire

Characters: Baelor the Blessed

Baelor is endlessly intriguing to me. He's such a complicated character! Mad – but his madness ended the war with Dorne; no one else would have responded to Daeron's death by freeing the hostages, never mind walking as a barefoot penitent to Sunspear. Kind to the smallfolk – but ruthless in his obsession with his sisters' chastity. I'd also love an exploration of Baelor's legacy in future generations; we see in ASOIAF how polarizing a figure he can be, alternately beloved and scorned.

Star Wars Legends

Characters: Cilghal, Kam Solusar

I love Cilghal, and fandom is generally (inexplicably!) less than excited about her, so I would honestly be profoundly grateful for whatever you choose to write about her. One of the reasons Cilghal fascinates me so much is that she drops everything - including her political career! - to become a Jedi, and specifically to become a Jedi healer. Did she always feel like there was something missing, and now everything clicks into place? What is it like adjusting to the Praxeum, including going from living on Dac/Mon Calamari among other Mon Cals to being the only Mon Cal in a (human-dominated) mixed-species group? After healing Mon Mothma, did she keep in touch?

Like Cilghal, Kam is tragically underappreciated, and I will be delighted with just about anything. Kam's backstory is very interesting and honestly pretty underexplored in canon. (It's also kind of horrifying!) How does he deal with becoming a Jedi again considering that he was captured and tortured by the Empire as a kid and then spent most of his life as a deadly Dark Jedi enforcer? I'm also really interested in Kam's friendship with Luke, and I'd enjoy seeing him interact with Mara, as well, considering their similar childhoods.

Star Wars: Rebels

Characters: Depa Billaba, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger

Jedi culture, Jedi culture, Jedi culture! I'd love to see something about Padawan training, and/or about the struggle of being a Jedi and trying to pass down Jedi philosophy and culture in hiding and without the societal structure of the Temple – though a no-Order 66 AU would also be welcome!

James Asher Vampire Novels

Characters: Don Simon Ysidro

I'd love just about anything with Ysidro. I'm particularly interested in his relationship with his faith – and his bookworm tendencies! Feel free to stick with the tone of canon or go as lighthearted as you want, especially post-canon – I still can't believe we got canonical kittens in Gravemould and Ectoplasm, and I love it. I'd be delighted by either gen or shipfic – I ship James/Lydia/Simon.

Object and Concept Anthropomorphism

Characters: The Longstone of Minchinhampton, Mên-an-Tol (Penwith Moor), The Merry Maidens (Boleigh), Whispering Knights (Rollright Stones)

I am so hyped about the very concept of fic about ancient British stones, okay? (Really, any ancient stones!) Please go wild with whatever your paleolithic heart desires!

Just took this quiz: Which SWTOR class are you? by darthsassacre.

I was very pleased to get Jedi Consular, which is my favorite game class for both the storyline and the gameplay mechanics! (My favorite spec is Telekinetics Sage – I like ranged DPS, and lining up a big "burst" of damage is very satisfying.)

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
My Rating: ★★★★★
 
I loved Gideon the Ninth, but found Harrow the Ninth a bit of a slog, so I wasn't even certain I was going to read Nona. Then I finally read a sample on Sunday, and promptly spent the afternoon and evening devouring the book.
 
General thoughts (non-spoilery)
 
A huge part of what made me love Nona is, well, how much I love Nona! She's an immediately captivating character and narrator – she reminds me in many ways of Klara, the narrator of Klara and the Sun, which I also loved.
 
NtN is a vibrant book with a tremendous amount of heart, and I strongly recommend it. In my opinion, it has the strengths of both GtN and HtN but lacks much of what frustrated me about the latter. That said, YMMV, depending on what and whom you liked most in GtN and HtN.
 
Specific thoughts (very spoilery, and also very scattered)
 
1) PAUL!

Camilla Hect and Palamedes Sextus have had my heart from the moment they were introduced in GtN, so I adored how much we saw of Cam & Pal in NtN – and of course, I have to talk about their end.
 
First of all, the name "Paul" is absolutely incredible on so many levels. For one thing, we only know one other person in this series with one of those stereotypically common, one-syllable New Testament names – and that's John! Which works really, really well with Paul-as-the-anti-John, which I think we see getting set up.
 
NtN is shot through with the theme of love-as-consumption vs. love-as-communion. (Religious connotations intentional.) John literally describes the Lyctors as extensions of himself; he reshaped the people he called his friends to place them under his own control. We see an echo of this in how Ianthe treats Coronabeth, too.
 
Then we see Camilla and Palamedes, and Pal's desperation not to subsume/consume Camilla! I've not been looking at Tumblr reactions to NtN much, but from what I have seen, at least some people are seeing this as a bad end, a horrifying end, for Cam and Pal. I don't see it that way. Their backs were to the wall, and they wouldn't have chosen this if it weren't necessary, but ultimately...well, as Cam put it to We Suffer earlier, "the Sixth House went out on its own terms." Choosing to die (or be transfigured?) in the way they did, in Pal's words, was "the best and truest and kindest thing [they could] do in this moment." Truest – truest to themselves, to who they were and who they always tried to be. And they avoided the thing they feared most, which was one of them swallowing up the other.
 
Is this "Perfect Lyctorhood" – or a form of it? MAYBE! In HtN, we see the Lyctors furious at learning – or thinking they've learned! – that John achieved Lyctorhood without Alecto dying. But Alecto isn't a human! She's literally the Earth! John couldn't possibly consume her entirely. Could two human beings to achieve Lyctorhood and remain separate? Maybe not, actually. Maybe Paul is as good as it gets.
 
But turning again to the name "Paul":
 
Pal says to Cam, "In the River—beyond the River—I truly believe we will see ourselves and each other as we really are." This is essentially 1 Corinthians 13:12: "Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known." (Note: The translation I'm using for Biblical quotations throughout this post is the 1966 Jerusalem Bible, which has traditionally been the basis for the lectionaries used by English-speaking Catholics outside the United States, including in New Zealand.)
 
Going down the road of Paul's name as referencing Paul the Apostle – which, considering this is Tamsyn Muir we're talking about, is probably one of at least four overlapping references, but it's the one that leapt out to me – immediately brought to mind 2 Corinthians 5:17: "And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here." Paul is a new person who did not exist before, but Paul also is Cam and Pal – Cam and Pal transfigured.

There's a part of me that wonders if this transfiguration is what will happen to Harrow and Gideon in the end. I doubt it – it would be too tidy for Muir! There's another part of me that wonders if this is what will happen to Harrow and Alecto: Harrow sacrificing herself to bring the Earth back to life – albeit a new Earth – through her living body?

I'd say attempts at prediction are fruitless with Muir, but shoutout to chestnut_pod for predicting the Cam & Pal "smoosheroo" back in May!

2) Nona

The line in the (delightfully Wilde-esque) epilogue that gutted me was: "For Alecto knew not how to kiss, except such as it involved the mouth and teeth." Because Nona knew. Nona knew the "lessons of the hand and the mouth"; Nona kissed Gideon's corpse so tenderly. I hope and expect that Alecto will remember what it was to be Nona. But she still won't be Nona. This is the line that drove home that Nona is gone.

It's interesting to me to think of Nona as the human i(/I)ncarnation of Earth. Nona is fully a human being in a way Alecto really isn't – or rather, she learns to be human in a way Alecto never has. And the most fundamental thing is how to love in a human way. The things Nona learns best, that she pays the most attention to, have to do with expressing love.

Continuing in a similar vein, I am struck by how important Nona's job as Teacher's Aide is to her motivations. She takes extremely seriously the idea that she is in some way responsible for her friends. For example, even as she generally looks up to Hot Sauce and follows her lead, when she helps a panicking Hot Sauce after the broadcast she does it as a Teacher's Aide: "'Listen to me,' she commanded. 'I'm your Teacher's Aide. Breathe with me...'"

Paul reminding Nona that Noodle is in the truck is what spurs Nona back into action when she was ready to let go. Why? I certainly don't think it's because Nona cares about Noodle more than she cares about Pyrrha or Crown or anyone else. I think it's because Nona feels responsible for Noodle – looking after him was part of her job as a Teacher's Aide, and even now that matters to her.

(I just love Nona so much, okay? She's so good.)

3) Crown

Crown Him with Many Crowns Thy Full Gallant Legions He Found It in Him to Forgive is such a name. Wow. I do not really know what's going on in most of the latter part – "Thy Full Gallant Legions" is a phrase in the Côte d'Ivoire national anthem, though I don't know if that's what Muir's trying to get at with it, and I don't know what "He Found It in Him to Forgive" is referencing in particular...BUT I do have a few thoughts about the first phrase!

My initial reaction to Crown/Coronabeth's full name was actually annoyance, because simply reading the words "Crown Him with Many Crowns" was enough to get the tune stuck in my head. "Crown Him with Many Crowns" (the tune name is "Diademata," which just means "Crowned") is a real old warhorse of a hymn I've sung in choir dozens of times at least. (Here's a version on YouTube.) But thinking about the text of the hymn, there seems to be a lot Muir could potentially be hinting at here.

The first question about the name is obvious: Who's the "Him"? I don't know! On a Watsonian level, one assumes it wouldn't be John, in a Blood of Eden name. Perhaps that question will be answered someday!

"Crown Him with Many Crowns" has twelve verses total, although they're basically never all sung. The first verse goes like this:

Crown him with many crowns,
The Lamb upon his throne;
Hark how the heav'nly anthem drowns
All music but its own:
Awake, my soul, and sing
Of him who died for thee,
And hail him as thy matchless king
Through all eternity.

What immediately springs to my mind is the parallel we're getting between "Crown" at the start of the verse and "Awake" at the transition into the second half. Knowing Muir, I think this was deliberate, hinting at a parallel or contrast between Crown/Coronabeth and Wake/Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity. This is underlined by the similarity between "Thy Full Gallant Legions" in Crown's name and "These Valiant Dead" in Wake's.

Looking at the names in parallel makes me a little more confident about "Thy Full Gallant Legions" coming from Côte d'Ivoire's national anthem, because "Kia Hua Ko Te Pai" ("Let goodness flourish") is a line in New Zealand's national anthem. I don't know enough about the history of Côte d'Ivoire in general, and the anthem in particular, to speculate on why Côte d'Ivoire's anthem in particular, so I'll leave off that thread there.

The names are very different structurally, though! Corona's name works as a single sentence: the gallant legions the unidentified "He" has forgiven are instructed to crown him. Everything is structured around a single figure who isn't Corona. Wake's name, in contrast, doesn't have a similar internal narrative and doesn't center on any single figure apart from the hearer.

Generally speaking, I would tend to read Crown's name as pointing back in the direction of John; that was certainly my reaction when first encountering it. But while "Crown Him with Many Crowns" is definitely a triumphant hymn, and a lot of the imagery is of the sort we see used for John, it also has some astonishingly beautiful lines that don't fit John at all: my personal favorite is "Crown him the king, to whom is given / The wondrous name of Love."

4) The nun

There were three moments in NtN that really Got Me. One was Paul coming into being, another was the line in the epilogue I discussed above, and the third was the nun walking into John's room, saying the second half of the Hail Mary, and then shooting herself.

Did I know from the lead-up in the preceding paragraphs that she was going to kill herself in a kind of self-sacrifice? Yes. Did the lines "She said, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. And she shot herself." still make my skin crawl? YES.

It has me thinking about different symbolic languages, especially in the context of religion; religious practice as language, in a sense. My particular background and cultural context makes the words "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death" just about as weighty as words get – I've surely said them literal thousands of times. And that passage is only as much of a gut-punch as it is to me because of that external context. It reminds me how much I'm missing when reading books, watching movies, etc., that draw on different symbolic languages! I can be told "Oh, this has this association, and this is used in that way," and that gets me to a certain point, but inevitably there is a gap in emotional experience.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you think! How did NtN compare to the first two?

I finished my internship on Friday; it was an amazing couple of months! I was lucky enough to be given more responsibility than is typical for law student internships, and I learned so much from the experience. Looking back to my first day, I was terrified to stand on an arraignment, even one where we weren't asking for bail; just a few weeks later, I conducted an entire Sex Offender Registration Act hearing myself!

The internship was wonderful, but I'm going to enjoy having a little more free time between now and the start of school at the end of the month. It won't be 100% vacation – it's job application season, and I also have work to do for the journal I'm on – but compared to 40+ hours/week, it feels like I have buckets of time to relax. I'm also tremendously excited because my best friend is coming to visit me in just a couple of days! The biggest downside of living in NYC is that I miss my West Coast friends like crazy, so I've been desperately looking forward to this.

I'm also so excited to have more time for fic! First things first, I have to kick things into gear for tolkienrsb. I also have a couple of other ideas I'm hoping to work on this month, including a fairly ridiculous MDZS fic about copyright law:

I saw this prompt over at mdzskinkmeme exactly one week after my copyright exam, and I pretty much have no choice but to fill it! I've been doing some thinking about what common law copyright principles would develop in ancient fantasy China, and also how I could make it funny. I'm thinking copyright for talismans and arrays would be fairly similar to how copyright in software is treated under U.S. law – which also gives me a great chance to make a pun about Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc., 516 U.S. 233 (1996), which is a landmark software copyright case. (Admittedly, the pun would probably only be funny to me.)

It should surprise no one that "Crack Treated Seriously" is one of my favorite tags!

I am Ermingarden on AO3 as well.

General Likes and DNWs

A few things I love, in no particular order: slice-of-life fic, epistolary fic, outsider POV, primary source documents, academic debates, linguistics, religion, humor, hurt/comfort, and hopeful endings.

DNW: Anything sexual involving children, graphic rape/sexual assault, PWP/porn without plot, BDSM, non-canonical pregnancy or parenthood fic, omegaverse, and setting-change AUs.

The Silmarillion

Characters: Maedhros

I'm perpetually fascinated by Maedhros; I want to pick him up and turn him over in my hands to look at him from various different angles. I'd particularly like to see something about Maedhros in Beleriand – his recovery post-Thangorodrim, the building of Himring, all the way through to his death. I love his closeness with Fingon (romantic or not) and his relationship with his brothers.

Characters: Aghan, Original Drúedain Character

I'm particularly intrigued by the concept of the watch-stones, both in general and in the story of the friendship between Aghan and Barach, and by Drughu craftsmanship and magic more generally. I'd love to see more about the laughter of the Drughu, as well: We see in Unfinished Tales a real emphasis on their laughter, and are told that "their laughter and the laughter of Orcs are as different as is the light of Aman from the darkness of Angband." I'm also fascinated by the way the Drughu value stillness and take pleasure in it.

TGCF

Characters: Xie Lian

I'd love to see a snapshot from Xie Lian's wandering years. I'd also enjoy something to do with the Guoshi Fangxin arc, whether that's the aftermath of his burial in the coffin or his relationship with Lang Qianqiu after the truth of the matter is revealed. Something sweet with Hua Cheng, as well, is always welcome!

Characters: Yushi Huang, Yushi Huang's Ox

I'm very interested in Yushi Huang's daily life, both in her youth and as a god. And the ox! What is it like to be (a) a door-knocker, (b) an animal, and (c) a human, all at different times and moving among the three throughout one life?

MDZS

Characters: Lan Wangji, Lan Qiren

As you can guess from the characters I requested, I'm really interested in the Lans! What is daily life like in the Cloud Recesses? How do people think about the rules as a structure for their lives? I'm also so interested in LWJ's relationship with music and I'd love to see something about that. For LQR, I'm most interested in his relationships with LXC and LWJ, and the experience of raising them.

Note: I'm pretty exclusively familiar with novel canon – I've only seen a few episodes of CQL.

Star Wars Legends

Characters: Cilghal, Kam Solusar

I love Cilghal, and fandom is generally (inexplicably!) less than excited about her, so I would honestly be profoundly grateful for whatever you choose to write about her. One of the reasons Cilghal fascinates me so much is that she drops everything - including her political career! - to become a Jedi, and specifically to become a Jedi healer. Did she always feel like there was something missing, and now everything clicks into place? What is it like adjusting to the Praxeum, including going from living on Dac/Mon Calamari among other Mon Cals to being the only Mon Cal in a (human-dominated) mixed-species group? After healing Mon Mothma, did she keep in touch?

Like Cilghal, Kam is tragically underappreciated, and I will be delighted with just about anything. Kam's backstory is very interesting and honestly pretty underexplored in canon. (It's also kind of horrifying, tbh.) How does he deal with becoming a Jedi again considering that he was captured and tortured by the Empire as a kid and then spent most of his life as a deadly Dark Jedi enforcer? I'm also really interested in Kam's friendship with Luke, and I'd enjoy seeing him interact with Mara, as well, considering their similar childhoods.

Star Wars-specific DNW: Jedi-bashing/"the Jedi deserved the Purge!"

Star Wars: Rebels

Characters: Depa Billaba, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger

Jedi culture, Jedi culture, Jedi culture! I'd love to see something about Padawan training, and/or about the struggle of being a Jedi and trying to pass down Jedi philosophy and culture in hiding and without the societal structure of the Temple – though a no-Order 66 AU would also be welcome!

Star Wars-specific DNW: Jedi-bashing/"the Jedi deserved the Purge!"

This one's entirely a U.S. politics post – feel free to skip.

---

There's a difference between knowing abstractly that Roe v. Wade will almost certainly be overturned this term and actually reading a draft of the opinion. Assuming that the final published opinion is substantially similar to the leaked draft, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health will turn over all responsibility for determining the legal status of abortion to state legislatures, which will lead to an even more radical divergence in abortion access between liberal and conservative states.

The median age in the United States is about 39 years; Roe is 49 years old. The majority of Americans have never lived in a U.S. without a federally recognized constitutional right to abortion, however limited that right may be. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey – a case that will be overturned alongside Roe – the justices who wrote the controlling opinion did not endorse the reasoning in Roe, but nevertheless upheld its fundamental principles on stare decisis grounds, even though Roe was at that point only 19 years old. Considering the number of people who have relied on Roe over the decades, it should have been afforded far more protection under stare decisis than this patently partisan Court has evidently decided to give it.

If you have some extra cash, now is a great time to consider donating to abortion funds, especially in those states where draconian abortion restrictions are poised to go into effect as soon as Roe is formally overturned. You can find a list of U.S. abortion funds on the website of the National Network of Abortion Funds; I've sent a little something to the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund. (And as an extra incentive, the wonderful chestnut_pod is offering thank-you gifts of drabbles or podfic for donations of $18 or more to any U.S. abortion fund or to the NNAF itself; see details on their journal here.)

---

Less important thoughts:

(1) A draft of a Supreme Court opinion being leaked is genuinely unprecedented, and I'm very curious how the Court will react. It's common for published opinions to be very different from their early drafts; will that be the case for the final opinion in Dobbs, or will the publication of the draft "freeze" it to some degree?

(2) I'm a little surprised that Alito is writing for the majority rather than Barrett. It makes sense in terms of seniority, but I would have expected the Court to go with Barrett solely for the optics, on the theory that having a woman write the opinion overturning Roe would make the result appear less sexist.

maitarussa made a very fun uQuiz: As a Maia, which Vala do you serve?

I got Vairë, which is entirely accurate:

You are a follower of the Weaver of Time. You are greatly concerned with the truth, and hate being lied to above all else. It is likely that you spend a great deal of time asking how or why, and that you desire to know the reasoning behind each and every thing that is done or that happens. You make it your mission to make the truth known, which may result in a tendency to correct others too often. Keep in mind when it is a good time to do so, and when it is better simply to let things go.

Found this very fun uQuiz: What Middle-earth Dish Should You Eat?

I got Athelas Tea:

Also known as ‘Sam’s Kingsfoil Brew’. Athelas/Kingsfoil was a healing herb that grew throughout Middle-earth. The herb was used throughout the books and films. Aragorn also used Athelas to ease the pain of Frodo's wound when he was stabbed by a Morgul-knife at the Weathertop camp. The scent of the leaves also calmed the minds of the other Hobbits. Aragorn used Athelas in the Houses of Healing to revive Faramir, Lady Éowyn, and the hobbit Merry. Herb-lore of Middle-Earth is mostly confined to herbs native to the Shire, records of True Athelas are scarce. However, it seems by all accounts that Mint is the closest relative. A cup of nice mint tea is as close as we can get in the real world.

I don't have any mint tea on hand, but I do have chamomile; I think I'll make myself a cup right now.