nexus_crossings | Ceremonial curiosity

Ceremonial curiosity

In the past few years the Nexus has become more of a home for Viatorus than his own world, despite its strange and changeable nature. So then perhaps it is not so odd that he finds himself feeling more comfortable here than there, able to talk to strangers with nary a stutter. Mostly. Though whatever nerves remain they're still a far cry from how he was when he first came here. Now he can sit and think, his head clear and undisturbed by the passers by.

He sits and watches the crowd flow through the streets, shuffling the ring on his ring finger in slow circles. For once he's without a book in hand, not even with a tea nearby. In fact, he looks quite composed for someone so easy to fluster. Perhaps it's the distraction of speculation, for he certainly sounds like he's been mulling over this a while.

"Do you think that ceremonies hold power? Do they influence anything or do you think they're purely symbolic? Are they an expression of hope, or a way of channelling power?"

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"Y'know, if somebody asked me that a couple years ago, I'd say ceremonies were all bullshit made up to make people feel important."

To someone living in the tropics, it's pretty chilly out this time of year, so Jake's already broken out his fluffy coat and boots to keep him warm. There's no hiding his height, of course, his nine-foot frame towering over a good deal of the foot traffic in this part of the Nexus. His pointed ears are perked forward at attention, looking down curiously at the man.

"It's probably still bullshit for some of 'em," he admits after a moment's thought. "But not all. Some rituals are the real deal; I've seen it myself."

Viatorus looks up at the person in front of him and his brain immediately translates what he sees: Elf. Clearly he is talking to an elf. Play it cool, Viatorus!

He laughs a laugh that is a little too loud, and a little too strangled, before coughing and calming himself when he realises that probably wasn't a joke about ceremonies being bullshit.

Clearing his throat, he sounds somewhat more level headed when he asks, "May I ask what kind of rituals?"

Jake never really gets tired of seeing people's faces when they see a Na'vi for the first time, even if it's him. His catlike tail swishes side to side in amusement, a toothy grin on his face.

"The real kind? Body transfer." He thumps a fist against his chest. "This one right here used to be temporary. We had this tech to kinda remote control bodies for a bit. Long story why, but I decided to live in mine full time and ditch the human one. Tech couldn't do it, but the Na'vi could, with Eywa's help. The Mother Goddess. Everyone together, the whole clan and me, wired into the Tree of Souls, doing all this... chanting. And Eywa took me through Her eye, took my soul outta my old body and put me here to stay, for good."

He's expecting to be looked at like he's crazy, so feel free.

Viatorus' wide eyed blinking gradually turns from curious confusion to amazement. Even if the stranger hadn't told him there was a longer, bigger story to all of this, it would have been obvious. The scholar settles in for a story and some serious consideration. The Mother Goddess and Tree of Souls sound so familiar, and then a different kind of familiar… And then there's the mention of eyes… Maybe Micolash's Great Ones have more of a universal presence than he gave them credit for. All of this is amazing on its own, let alone talk of body swapping technology too.

He presses his palms together and raises them to his lips for a moment, takes a deep breath, and lowers them again. "I have questions."

Brace yourself.

He leans forward at first, only sitting back again to start counting off the questions with his fingers. "Were you fully human before? Did you meet Eywa? Are the Na'vi forest elves? Is changing bodies easy for them- you? By 'wired' do you mean they used their own technology? Did it hurt? Did you see anything, or hear anything? Are you alright now? How- How did you get another body? Are you part of their clan now?"

Jake blinks his big golden eyes at the seemingly endless slew of questions being thrown his way with nary a breath between them, and chuckles nervously. "Wow, that's... that's a lot. All right, let's start with the easy ones."

"Yeah, I was born human, a hundred percent. This body's only part human though, a kinda clone hybrid called an avatar; Earth scientists made 'em for talking to the Na'vi without freaking 'em out, though they still thought we were nuts. They, uh, they're the really naturey type. Bows and arrows, riding animals to get around, that kind of thing. Not a lotta manufactured tech."

What else did the guy ask? Jake squints as he tries to remember, tail lashing a little, and truth be told, he's probably gonna forget a few. Right, the ritual. "Life on Pandora's got this kind of... biological fiber optics, I guess? Plants, animals, Na'vi... all of 'em can network their nervous systems together. Share thoughts, feelings, memories. Doctor Augustine figured the whole planet's like one big brain, and we're the brain cells or neurons or whatever. Eywa is the planet."

As a rule, Durants always ask more questions than people are prepared to handle. Their taught curiosity is too strong, and even though Jake may forget some of the questions, Viatorus certainly won't. He nods along, brow furrowed as he listens carefully to each answer.

"That's amazing," he half-whispers. "So Eywa is the planet, but also their goddess? Is she an entity unto herself or just a name for the collective of all the planet's entities?"

"Oh no, She's definitely Her own thing." His answer is immediate and unambiguous, and he doesn't even have to think about it. "I've, uh... talked to Her? Kind of. Well, I talked, She listened, but there was this... presence. Not like when I'm plugged in to an ikran or whatever, but like... something else." Words can't quite describe the enormity of it all, and he's never been the poetic type, but he's trying. "Something bigger."

"I know that feeling," he says eagerly. "Something that speaks to your soul in a way you feel you can't quite remember. An old way."

Shuffling on the spot, he leans a bit closer. "What's an ikran?"

Jake's ears perk up a bit, and he trades the reverent look for a gleeful smile. "Earth scientists call 'em banshees. They're like these bit bird dragon things with a fourteen meter wingspan. Taming one's part of the adulthood rite," he adds, flashing sharp teeth. "You fail, you get eaten. You win, and you get a badass critter to ride. Hunting from ikran-back is a hell of a rush, lemme tell you."

Viatorus' eyes go wide in surprise and he pales a bit. He needs a minute before he clears his dry throat and says, "That... That seems a bit harsh, doesn't it? To become an adult you need to do something that might get you eaten?"

"Kinda," he agrees with a shrug. "But Pandora's not a safe planet. Very 'law of the jungle, eat or be eaten' kinda place. And more often than not, you wanna be as high up as you can. Plenty of stuff on the ground that'll eat you too, if they can get you. The risk doesn't outweigh the reward, 'cuz going without if a hell of a lot worse."

Viatorus is quiet for a long moment before trying for a meek smile and saying, "I suppose that's quite fitting for a planet called Pandora… It doesn't sound very peaceful, though."

"Not all the time, no. But it's not like every moment's a life-or-death struggle either." The military had been convinced Pandora was a death world, the scientists, a utopia for the Na'vi. Black and white. No wonder neither of them could see eye to eye, with each other or the natives, when the truth is more somewhere in the middle, in the shades of gray.

Jake shakes his head a little. "The forest is... it's something else. Trees that're hundreds of meters tall, birds and lizards and shit Earth hasn't had for decades, and everything glows in the dark. Even us," he adds with a laugh, gesturing at himself. "Actual fruit trees, meals that you gotta gather or hunt yourself, not reheat some rehydrated farm-grown algae slop. And if you leave 'em alone or know enough signs to avoid 'em, the local predators won't bother you most of the time either. It's a life you gotta work for, not just sit back and let someone else do all the heavy lifting. Maybe it's not for everybody, but it's way better for me than what I had back on Earth."

"It sounds beautiful," he admits. Only to quietly add, "And dangerous. I'm... not very good with danger. My sister would be. She'd probably love your planet. Give her a challenge and she'll overcome it no trouble."

After another thoughtful moment he continues slowly, "But then I suppose that makes it no different from Earth. For me, at least. My sister protects me from everything there too. So it only makes sense that it would be the same everywhere else... Do all the Na'vi end up as hunters?"

Jake doesn't know who this guy's sister is, but she sounds like his kinda person, and he grins again. "Danger's my middle name," he says, delivering Earth's oldest and corniest macho man boast with all the irony it deserves. "I was a Marine, back on Earth. Career soldier. Can't say which one's harder, but they both've got their challenges."

Since he became clan leader, Jake's been doing a lot of explaining Na'vi culture to anyone who's interested, so he looks more than happy to answer as much as this guy wants to ask. "Sure, kinda. I mean everyone knows how, it's a basic part of life in the forest. Some people do more of the hunting than others though, on a daily basis kinda thing. But there's gotta be someone watching the kids, or doing the weaving and gathering and stuff, and some people're better at stuff than others, just like with humans."

It sounds like Jake is Isidor's kind of person, too. Something that becomes even more apparent when he reveals he was a marine. Isidor always has time for military people. She understands them better than he does.

Still, Jake reminds him a little of her, which gets a small smile. "Isidor's in security. You should meet her some day."

"So there aren't really pacifists or vegetarians or anything like that?" Perhaps that's a luxury for the modern world. "Do the Na'vi have technology?"

That first question gets a surprised laugh out of Jake. "A pacifist on Pandora'd probably be dead in three days. Or less. And it'd be a hell of a waste not to eat what we gotta kill. Can't let the death be for nothing." He learned that his first day out in the jungle, and only after months of learning did he realize just how badly he fucked that one up from the Na'vi point of view. Sorry, little viperwolves. If Jake hadn't been crashing around in the underbrush like a moron, they never would've come after him.

'Do the Na'vi have tech' is a little more complicated, and he tilts his head, tail flicking to the side. "Depends on what you mean by technology. No spaceships or firearms, no metalworking at all that I've seen. But we've got handmade stuff, bows and arrows, that kinda thing."

The polite smile narrowly avoids becoming a grimace as Viatorus pulls a face at that thought. He's no vegetarian, but the thought of killing... "There's no one? At all like that?"

It's sometimes difficult for Viatorus to remember that not all technology has to be purely scientific, and that science isn't just 'not magic'. He's a little biased in an odd sort of way. "But you come here, to the Nexus. Don't you want to take technology from here to make life better on your world?"

Jake's not gonna judge this guy for being squeamish or anything, it's just that the whole vegetarian idea is...very Earth. Not that Jake doesn't think like a human anymore because he does, but a couple years of immersion has done him wonders in terms of getting into the Na'vi mindset. "Nope. I don't think it's possible, the way the Na'vi live. We're part of the food chain, part of Eywa, not just visiting once in a while."

The tech question is something it took Jake a hell of a lot of time to wrap his brain around, too. "I mean, there's a couple things that ended up being kinda useful. Throat-mikes and grenades, mostly, but those aren't things we're gonna need again anytime soon. There ain't a lot that'd be useful, with where we're at right now. You thinking of something specific?"

"Oh." Looks like he isn't going to become part of Eywa in any scenario, it seems. Suddenly he feels very lucky he was born on Earth.

Everything this guy deals with is so violent... but then he was a soldier. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise. "I... I'm not sure. Phones. Or soap. Technology covers a lot. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't call someone when I need help."

Oh, well if he's going that broad with his definition, then that explains a few things. "Oh, we've got soap, or something kinda like it. Some kinda root, you mash it up and it gets all frothy. Not havin' toothpaste took some getting used to though. Gotta chew on twigs instead." Yeah, it's not exactly glamorous, but Jake was used to roughing it before he ever got to Pandora in the first place.

"I mean yeah, there's some stuff that could change things us a bit, just not something that could be self-sufficient, you know? Like medicine. It'd save lives, probably, but what happens if the clan gets dependent on Sky People meds and then can't get more? Not like we can make 'em ourselves, and who knows if the way here'll be open forever." Jake shrugs, not dismissing it outright; he's clearly put some thought into this. "Anything I bring over, I gotta think about the long-term. My actions are gonna have consequences, and I gotta think about what it's gonna do to the clan down the road. Gotta do what's right, not what's easy." He learned that lesson the hard way.

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Ceremonial curiosity

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