mental link; day 050

[hymnals]

[ Adra's mental voice is much like his actual voice: resonant, warm, oddly deep. He's been glad of this restful period; the flurry of the last mission weighs on him, even if he only (mercifully) experienced the tail end of it. He's been able to work on adjusting to the Nest in the meantime, to test all these newly formed connections, to know something of all these unfamiliar minds.

But he would like to know more. ]

( Tell me something, if you feel like it. What does faith mean to you? Religion? Doctrine? Is it something comforting, or something repellent? Did it foster community or oppression? What kinds of faiths have you lived in or alongside? Were you directed by gods? Or crushed by them, perhaps. )

[ He hasn't spoken to many people about the Light, though he's certainly not hiding his own position. ]

( Indulge an old priest. )

Comments

[somnifacient]

[This is a topic that Noctis is drawn to; whether out of irony or something heavier is not immediately prevalent.]

(There are the Six where I come from. We call them Astrals.)

[Faith, though...]

(Faith is the belief in something bigger than yourself. That's the cliche answer, isn't it? But it can be blinding, and I'm not always sure it's a good thing.)

[hymnals]

( Are they of help to you? These Astrals. )

[ There's a feeling of nodding along as Noctis continues. ]

( Both true. I suppose, more precisely, I'm asking for what constitutes your faith. If you have it. )

[somnifacient]

(Some are helpful. Some are violent, and then choose to be helpful. And one in particular hates mankind.)

[A flash of fire, angry and searing, at those words. But he continues.]

(I had to have faith. I had no choice.) [Which sounds paradoxical, he knows.] (I was born because the gods needed a solution to their problem. And so I guess you could say that I was "destined" to adhere to a prophecy. And to... have faith that my existence would set things right again.)

[hymnals]

( I knew a guy like that. )

[ More flames: an elemental, tremendous in size, a hurricane of fire and rage. His voice booms like an earthquake; his body roils like lava. Fire is given to such things, it seems--but it's a force of creation, too. Something Adra tries to remember. ]

( Well ... did it? )

[somnifacient]

[The reflection of flames back at him is surprising, but painfully familiar. The whole world shuddering with the force of fire and pure anger. The rage twisted in Ifrit's face -- his fire illuminating the darkness of the world in a twist of irony that Noctis hadn't the time to digest.]

(Why does everyone with fire have anger issues?)

[A joke that lacks any real humor.]

(I don't know. I want to believe it would have. I was... brought here before I could finish the job.)

[hymnals]

( Fire gets a bad rap, I think. Eldritch forces using it for mass destruction doesn't help much, though. )

[ Fire runs in his blood, hot and heady; a smoke born in the bone. It can feel overwhelming at times, and it likely seeps through the network--or will, if they ever land somewhere with a high summer. ]

( That's a heavy burden to bear. I haven't had many positive experiences with gods, myself. But with faith ... that's another matter. )

[somnifacient]

(Eldritch forces?)

[He wonders how true that is. Noctis is no stranger to fire, either -- elemental magic on his own end, something garnered from the environment itself. Rage and intensity, all condensed down into a single flask.

Still. Far less impressive than anything eldritch.]

(And what's your take on faith, then?)

[hymnals]

[ Adra does the mental equivalent of a sweeping, 'you know what I mean' sort of hand gesture. ]

( Yeah, you know. Primal deities. Elemental chaos. It's all one and the same where I'm from. )

[ The Elemental lords were subordinates of the old gods, the old gods were cosmic horror monsters, so on and so forth. The scenes that filter through his memory are of flame-scarred battlefields, of shimmering, obsidian temples populated with buzzing hives and pillars of vicious, man-sized wasps, of rolling deserts whispering madness into travelers' ears. ]

( To me, faith is community. Religion should serve its people, not the other way around. It should be a balm, focused on service above ideology. On healing above ritual.

That often turns out to be an idealistic viewpoint, though. )

[ So many of Azeroth's religions were little more than cults; engines of hatred and zealotry sustained by blood. ]

[somnifacient]

[He supposes he knows. He can think of "primal deities" and "elemental chaos", drawn up and tinted with the bias of his own experiences. And so, a mental shrug in return. A sure, I think I get where you're coming from type of gesture.]

(That is pretty idealistic. It's a nice goal, anyway.

So, then... you don't believe faith should be placed blindly in the will of the gods? Even if they were the ones to have created the world?)

[No contention in his voice. Just curiosity.]

[hymnals]

[ Adra knows there's a difference between a lovely goal and ugly reality. Still, he has to hold on to the former. It makes the latter bearable. ]

( Absolutely not. No more than should a child blindly believe in the will of their parents. )

[somnifacient]

(I agree with you. As weird as it might sound.)

[After what Noctis had said about being chained to destiny and all that. After he sounded all very accepting of it.]

(Are you some kind of priest? Or do you just like talking about philosophical stuff like this?)

[hymnals]

( Both, in fact. I'm a priest AND I like talking about philosophical stuff. Though, with gods you can talk to and divine energy you can touch, some of it crosses over into practical considerations, too. )