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

[earthborn]

( Eh, it's a big topic. There are about as many religions and forms of faith as there are stars in the galaxy. It was never much my thing. )

[You know what Shepard likes about this mode of conversation? You can eat and talk at the same time. The day she'd discovered that, it was a beautiful day-- by now, she's just about mastered it. It's a good cover, though. Nobody can take you seriously over a couple gallons of microwaved popcorn.]

( The Asari have a goddess, the Krogan worship their anscestors, the Salarians... Shit, I don't even know. Circle of life or something. ) [It really is good popcorn, even if the flavor is weird. It came package with some kind of green sauce, which smelled enough like imitation butter, but tasted more like matcha. Interesting combination.] ( The Drell, they have all these gods. Gods of the hunt, and of death, and the sea. They say, when you die, your spirit goes to an afterlife beyond the sea. Their whole world's a desert, so maybe that's not shocking. )

[hymnals]

[ He can't hear her lips smacking; doesn't even know she's eating--but if he did, he wouldn't be surprised. ]

( Nothing in that ever spoke to you, huh? )

[earthborn]

( I like the way the Drell think. But I've got a list three miles long of things that it'd be nice if it were true. That's not what I'd call 'faith,' anyways. )

[The texture, no, but perhaps the flavor might leach through the connection. It's polite to shield as well as you can, but Shepard isn't often confused for a polite person.]

( I had a crewmate who was pretty devout. Most of them were, come to think of it, in one way or another. But if life has taught me anything, it's that there is no god. )

[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.)

[shiro2hero]

(You're a priest?)

[Well that kind of explains their last conversation a little bit.]

(I can't really answer the question, unfortunately. I've never thought much about it.)

(I did meet a planet of people who... well. Worshiped their planet.)

[Granted, the Balmera was kind of ALIVE and all but hey, let's start small.]

[hymnals]

( High Priest. Of the Light. )

[ A theology which includes no prohibition against relations of any kind--all of that comes strictly from personal issues on Adra's part. If only he could blame the collar. ]

( Hmm. Some on Azeroth are part of earth cults. Typically bad news, though. As with most things that fit under the 'cult' label. )

[shiro2hero]

(The Light? Can I ask what that is?)

[He's curious. Not religious himself, but still. Curious.]

(Right, understood. The Balmerans weren't really... cult-like. Their planet was actually a living thing. And they had a kind of mutual benefits relationship with it.)

[servitor]

( It got messy sometimes, but at the end of the day, I'd say the people I knew were more spiritual than religious. Some of us worshipped more than others, like anything.

It helped some of us get through the day. I had faith in tomorrow more than in the gods, sometimes. )

[Even if he did keep a statue of Bahamut, even if he did have Bahamut with fifteen sword emblazoned on a badge over his heart, he kept more to worshipping in private than in huge, overt affairs. What he could do was more tangible than what he could ask of the gods. He really only asked of Bahamut to make sure to protect himself and his friends.]

[hymnals]

( Helping someone through the day is worthy enough to me. )

[lavelly]

[He still doesn't like communicating like this, so he almost doesn't respond. But this is a topic with a lot of personal importance, so he can't resist.]

( The only thing religion has ever done is brutalize my people. The only gods I've ever known were delusional men or slavers. )

[Is he bitter? Yeah he's fuckin bitter.]

( I have no use for faith. )

[hymnals]

[ Thanks to their connection, Adra feels that wave of bitterness like a crashing tide, feels like something tangible and sour on his tongue.

Adra, for his part, is just somber. ]

( Most gods--and those who would take the name--are only ever interested in worship and blood. A commonality across worlds, I suppose. )

[deployed]

[ Tendrils of interest nudge at Adra long before Bellamy's thoughts coalesce into anything more concrete. ]

( On the Ark, there were people who thought the Ground was Heaven. They'd hold services. )

[ It's more a response to faith than anything else. The kind of ceremony Bellamy's come to associate with religion through his reading seems to have been lost and burned away by the bombs; no one had carried doctrine onto the Ark with them. And ALIE—

Faith gone wrong, wrecking atrocities onto their people. From what Bellamy understands, that's not necessarily an exclusionary factor. ]

( We never had priests. )

[hymnals]

[ Huh. ]

( I take it you were a sky-faring people. Or--space? )

[ Infusing divinity into something presumed unknowable--that's not so surprising. ]

[adamance]

( My people are guided by the belief that the spirit of our Commander will choose a new host after they have died. And in that, the spirit itself is one that is continuous. )

[Lexa's belief system has been altered, changed dramatically by the circumstances of learning the truth of the Flame.

But it doesn't keep her from knowing that the spirit of those Commanders is with her. There is that, even if it's born from technology.]

[hymnals]

( I assume 'Commander' means something more than military in your case. )

[ The tone is inquisitive, not judging.

(Yet.) ]

[decommission]

( Comforting now, most of the time. ) [ When it comes to him here. But there are other times when it's less so. ]

( What kinda priest? ) [ His mental voice holds a touch of curiosity. ]

[hymnals]

( Good to hear. )

[ Ultimately, this kind of response is what he's after. He wants to know how religion--in whatever form--has affected the lives of these people; whether it's been healing or traumatic. It's both a sincere inquiry--as a religious person--and a litmus test. ]

( I'm a priest of the Holy Light. High Priest, now, but that's pretty recent. )

[lifewithoutrest]

(I've seen many kinds of faith in many kinds of people.)

[And some may have been less people, more animal. But that's something she isn't yet sure she's willing to discuss.]

(I don't practice a specific religion, myself, but I do believe there's something greater.)

[hymnals]

( Sure. Everyone likes something to believe in. The question is whether that belief sustains them, or exploits them.

What do you mean by 'greater'? )

[gogurt]

(Gods never did anything for me, why should I do anything for them?)

[hymnals]

( Feels like there's a story here. )

[futurewitness]

( My homeland was founded by the First Exalt, who made a pact with the Divine Dragon Naga for the protection of the world. )

[ Also her great-great-great-grandsomething, which certainly colors her answers. ]

( Faith is...hope. Naga's blessing saved the world once, and it was not Naga who failed us again. )

[hymnals]

[ Huh. Heavy stuff. ]

( Divine Dragon, eh ... does that imply worship? A religion? Or is it just a title? )

( I have often experienced faith as hope. For those who believe it, it can certainly nourish them in that way.

And I suppose you mean 'people' failed, as we often do. )