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. )

[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.)

[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.]

[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.]

[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. )

[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. )

[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.]

[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. ]

[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.)

[gogurt]

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

[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. )