(no subject)

[victormakesart]

Vic's been spending time on the spa planet, not to do spa things, but to spend time barefoot with the birds people, to meditate, and try to be less miserable.

But everytime she sees one of the little feathered kids, with their round healthy bellies, she can't help thinking about a few nights ago, the rescue mission, what was on the floor.

She's been spending a lot of time helping them garden the greens and harvest the rocks that give them the calcium that they need. But she needs another perspective, needs to get out of her head.

So she invited a military man over, someone who might know what she's going through. She doesn't want to burden Cole, Clark's been through enough, and she's sure James wouldn't even know what to say to her.

Most of the swelling has gone out of her face, now there's just a purplish bluish blotch on her right cheek. She waits.

Comments

[jarheadclan]

He's not going to say anything about it, but it looks like interacting with some of the children she's helped save is definitely helping. "They're pretty cute," he says to the parent with a nod.

[victormakesart]

"They're a product of the song," she says, which is Biron's parent's way of agreeing. She tucks each one securely back into their baby-holster.

"They are!"

[jarheadclan]

"Hey, that's good. I like songs." Although not before joining the Omaticaya. Songs are used to teach, tell history, entertain, connect with Eywa, all sorts of things.

[victormakesart]

The parent skims hands over the heads of the children. "Everything is a song, throughout the universe. Everything a note, or pause for breath, or cluster of notes, a getting louder, a softness."

[jarheadclan]

"Yeah, it really is." He's not sure how much of that's true outside of Eywa, but he doesn't dismiss the idea anymore like he used to. Living with the Na'vi has really opened his mind to all sorts of things he saw as hokey and outdated before.

[victormakesart]

Victor connects very well to this religion, and she nods her head, and the parent, with a warm glance to Jake, leaves to do weeding.

"Great folks. Most of 'em work at the spa. I've been learning their language, and some of their songs."

[jarheadclan]

"Is it pretty tough?" he asks, standing back up again, and looking around casually.

[victormakesart]

"It is, a little. I guess 'cause I've got a lot on my plate. But when I come here, sing what they sing, pray what they pray, I feel... connected to things."

[jarheadclan]

"What kind of things do they believe in? I mean besides the whole interconnectedness thing."

[victormakesart]

"That death is a returning to the songs. It's like reincarnation but not. You return as a good moment for people you love, a rain when the plants need rain, a warm patch of sunshine when it's cold, good notes."

[jarheadclan]

"Sounds kinda like what Ewya does for Her children. Energy's borrowed, including life energy, and when you die it goes back to Her."

[victormakesart]

"That sounds real nice. Makes a lot of sense to me."

[jarheadclan]

"Yeah. You don't really reincarnate as the person you are, but part of you is preserved in the Well of Souls. Your life energy goes back to Ewya and gets... recycled, I guess, into something new. Maybe a plant or a pali or something."

[victormakesart]

"I really like that a lot more than I like Western ideas of the afterlife."

[jarheadclan]

"Big props to scientifically measurable stuff like that, huh? And I've heard the voices of those who've died, when I was connected to the trees. It's all real. At least for Pandora."

[victormakesart]

"That's amazing, honeybee. Yeah, I mean, I just don't get that whole afterlife-is-a-place thing."

[jarheadclan]

"Me either. I mean, before I ever signed up for the whole Avatar thing. Once you're dead, you're dead, that's it. Maybe it still works that way for humans, I don't know."

[victormakesart]

She looks shockingly scared for a moment, and she wets her lips, and she says, "I don't know. I don't know what the soul means. Where it's located. I don't wanna die. I wish I could stop everyone from dying."

[jarheadclan]

"I'm not saying that is how it works, that's just all I thought before," he clarifies.

"I don't particularly like anything dying either. On Pandora, any death that doesn't serve a purpose is a waste. Even if you just accidentally killed a nantang."

[victormakesart]

"I think that's how it might work for humans. When I died, that's what happened. But I can't say."

[jarheadclan]

"I don't know either. Maybe there's some kind of afterlife, or the whole borrowed energy recycling thing. I'll never know."

[victormakesart]

"I just wanna live forever, and make everyone else live forever."

[jarheadclan]

"I don't. Life's gotta continue. No new life if you've got no energy to get it from." Jake shrugs a little. "It's the law of the jungle, and it's harsh, but there it is."

[victormakesart]

"Yeah, y' see, not a fan of that. I know the song can't stop, but, heavens... it ought to. I know, I know the logical reasons against that sorta thing, but why's stagnation on a grand scale always bad? If we're evolving mentally, why do we have to- why do people have to die, why can't we keep going, improving, moving forward?"

[jarheadclan]

"I gotta say that people tend to do things when people die. Accidents happen, safety gets improved. You make a bad call in combat, you learn never to do something like that again, and it saves more lives. Your twin brother gets killed, you take his spot and end up liberating a race of people you otherwise wouldn't have given a shit about."