trans_9 | Bene Gesserits for Dummies

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Bene Gesserits for Dummies

The day after the Hannukah celebration, Katara had time to think about the last twenty four hours. The idea of a challenge, the training Sheeana was taking about, was still fresh in her mind. There was no avoiding it: she WANTED to be a Bene Gesserit, wanted to be trained well enough that she could move as the Mother did. She didn't know how enthusiastic she had seemed then, but she had even replaced one of her usual Yoga practices with trying to move a limb independent of all other: to no avail, sadly, but she was getting closer, she knew that well enough, but it wasn't enough for her to do the exercises, she wanted to know more about them too. So naturally, the Media library was the best place to go.

She made her way to the place and poured through the material, avoiding several interesting books about martial arts and looked up specific sisterhood paths. There were several interesting goddess ones she wanted to research later, and one called "Dianic Wicca" that would probably have bothered Sokka, but she was finally at the Bene Gesserit, and engrossed herself in her readings.

Thus spoke St. Alia-of-the-Knife: "The Reverend Mother must combine the seductive wiles of a courtesan with the untouchable majesty of a virgin goddess, holding these attributes in tension so long as the powers of her youth endure. For when youth and beauty have gone, she will find that the place-between, once occupied by tension, has become a wellspring of cunning and resourcefulness."

"Interesting," Katara said to herself aloud, reading on.

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She's not the only one looking up information about the Bene Gesserit, though. Tess has been sorting through the materials in the Media Library for a bit, trying to cross-index things. It's such a hassle, with the literature of endless worlds stuffed into the databanks, trying to find anything actually useful. But there was one area in particular that seemed promising—

With the heels of the suit extended, the click-click as she walks up behind Katara to peer over her shoulder is obvious. It's a strange thing to be wearing—form-fitting (but not skin-tight), wrapped in some blue-green plasticine slightly-iridescent material, fitted with well-integrated panels and protrusions here and there and a strange, snugly-fitted 'backpack' unit. Only her face is exposed, and even that is covered with an odd, skin-clinging transparent membrane, almost missable at first glance.

"It is interestin'," she comments, her US-Southern accent likely a rather strange one to Katara.

Katara looked up at the voice, surprised. She had been so into what she'd been reading that she hadn't expected someone to pop in, let alone read over her shoulder. The voice was friendly enough though, and reminded her a bit of the Swamp Benders when Aang and the gang had landed there bu circumstance.

The outfit she was wearing was definitely something she had not been used to, and Katara stared at it a moment, then looked up at her.

"Um, hi," Katara said, extending her hand, although she was a little unsure if this was how people greeted each other. "My name's Katara. Are you just interested in what I'm reading, or are you looking this stuff up too?"

She wanted to add "What's up with the suit," but first thing was first.

"I'm Tess," she says, and takes Katara's hand, giving it a firm shake. There's an odd striated texture to the glove—a set of sensory elements to make up for the lack of direct touch. (The feel of it is a little warm and pliable—almost like skin, in fact, though a little too artificial.) "I was talkin' to Sheeana, if you've heard've'er."

Katara, Tess thinks, reminds her of some of the more interesting worlds she's been to. There's definitely a touch of the exotic to her.

"Nice to meet you Tess!" Katara said, smiling. "Actually yes, Sheeana is a friend of mine. I'm currently studying this because she's a part of an order that I want to be a part of. Before I do that, I want to learn what I can about the order. After I do that, I plan to talk to Sheeana again, and tell her that I want to learn from her if she'll have me."

Katara observed the hand, then looked up at Tess. "If you don't mind me asking, and I hate to impose, but what is with the suit, and your hands?"

"It's a spacesuit," Tess says with a broad smile in return. She's a cheerful sort of girl, practically bubbly, and not at all afraid to show it. "And a life-support system. Ain't really need it 'round here, I guess, but I'm used t'bein' a lot've places ain't so nice'n set up for humans." She holds her hand up. "It's built t'transfer the feelin' through safe. Keeps me from fumblin' everythin'."

She looks Katara up and down–more curious than appraising. "She told me t'think about it and get back t'her once I've done some readin' on what they do."

Katara couldn't help but give the girl another smile back: enthusiasm of this nature was infectious to her, and was not something she was used to seeing on this ship, aside from maybe Will. "So you opted to keep the spacesuit that you had in your world instead of the one Stacy gave you? That's cool! I can usually only wear my Watertribe clothes in the Sensorium since it makes no sense to wear it now. But I'd love to know the mechanics of the suit whenever we get the chance!"

Katara nodded. "I think she wanted me to do the same thing even though she didn't really say it. I think she wants me to know a little more on the Bene Gesserit way before I get more involved."

She looked over at what she was reading, and read it aloud.

All states are abstractions.

The Fremen have a saying: every faintly evil thought must be put aside immediately before it takes root.

To know a thing well, know it limits. Only when pushed beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen. Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake.

And here Katara was quiet a moment, contemplating the words.

"Mmm-hmm," Tess says, nodding sharply. "It's set up fer efficient world travel." Her teeth click and she mumbles something; all at once, the backpack unit slides open and 'wings' of a similar-looking material flanking her unfold out of it (but there aren't even any visible joints!), and then fold up again and it shuts, all over the space of only a few seconds. "Glide right down from orbit. Good for surveyin', too."

The reading... it leaves her quiet a moment, too.

"That's...that's...amazing!" Katara exclaimed, grinning. "I've never seen anything like that before, except when Aang was on his glider! I have to know how it works! It's so neat!"

But the words she'd read, they were fairly heavy few things to think about. She reread the quotes to herself again, then looked over to Tess.

"Here, she said, "Where it is says 'all states are abstractions,' I think they mean that any heightened states, like a fight or maybe a time when you are meditating, you are involved in a way that changes our normal way of thinking. In other words, states when we have to have all our senses peaked, we see the world in a different way. This one is a bit harder: 'The Fremen have a saying: every faintly evil thought must be put aside immediately before it takes root.' I think that means that even when we are at our worst, when we want to hurt another, it is a feeling we have to check, make sure it doesn't allow you to mirror cruelty. And this one: "To know a thing well, know it limits. Only when pushed beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen. Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake." Theory on something can't replace actually pushing, fighting against someone until you're actually at the point when you see them at their weakest. That is the only time you strike with everything."

Katara was silent a moment. "What do you think?"

"Well... 'states', it might be talkin' about nation-states. A country's only a country if'n people go 'long with it, right?" Tess' expression settles into a thinky-face. "It's hard to tell without more info," she adds. "Umn... desert folks, so maybe the point's t'not waste any time thinkin' 'bout stuff that won't help the group..." She claims a seat and leans forward a little. She's soft-looking, even with that suit—generous assets that are if anything a little emphasized by it.

"Limits, it might be talkin' 'bout technology. Y'ain't ever seen all the failure states've somethin' 'till you've tried it out in the field."

What Tess said made sense...had she been thinking in a completely different way? That was a bit embarrassing! Then again, Katara seemed to be more in tune when Sheeana was talking anyway. The woman's presence, her very self seemed to react in a manner Katara understood. Maybe she was just misinterpreting the concepts: that was her fault.

"I think you're right," Katara said, smiling. "I guess I still have a lot to learn about Bene Gessert way of thought. But I'm curious: why do you want to study the ways of the Bene Gesserit?"

"Because it's sort of what like I already do," Tess says. She doesn't seem to take her own answers at any particularly higher value than Katara—she has no solid idea, just vague ideas without enough context to really back them up. "I'm a grasshopper. We go around, find new places, help people if'n they need it..." She jerks a thumb at herself. "That's why 'cause the suit. It lets y'get a lookit the universe up close."

"I understand that feeling," Katara said, "That's the reason I want to learn about it too. In my world, I have a skill that aids me in helping people too: I can bend water. In my group we had a mission to prevent a war, but on the way we tried to help people as best we could. I guess I envy you the suit a little, but we had a flying bison to help us, and he was as much a part of the group as anyone!"

She looked back at the quotes. "And now that I'm a master at what I do with my element, I'd like to be more in tune with my body too. I want to know more about the sisterhood, what it takes to be a Bene Gesserit. Sheeana has a wisdom and inner strength I know I don't have yet, but I want to someday."

"Bend water?" Katara's sudden exposition leaves Tess more confused than anything. In her universe, after all, bending as Katara knows it doesn't even exist. And a flying bison... huh. Those must be some pretty huge wings, to carry that weight. Is that a euphemism?

"I'm already kinda in tune with m'body, I guess," Tess says, holding a hand up and twisting it around. "When yer a grasshopper, y'gotta be able t'handle yourself, 'cause you don't have much else. The only way the suit's so small is 'cause a lot've the stuff a bigger one would do has t'be built into whoever wears it."

"Yes, like this," Katara said, opening the pouch on her right hip. Some water strated to trickle down until Katara brought her hands up and she started to stream the water in the air now, turning it in midair and moving it back and forth until she had the water rise high in the air and condense to mist, droplets forming on their hair.

"I'm pretty in tune with my body, but there's always room for improvement," Katara said. "You have to be to be that good of a bender in the first place, to be able to become a master. But I can't move as fast as Sheeana can, I can't control my body as well as she does. If I can change that, I'd be willing to go through whatever is necessary. It might help with the next fight we have to deal with."

Katara smiled. "But I really like your suit. I wished I had something like it in my world. I'd like to be able to roam the world whenever I could."

Tess' eyes go wide. That's—impossible would be her immediate reaction, but she's seen far too many impossible things here. But it's incredible. In the back of her head she starts to think about the scientific implications.

"I don't know if anybody could match up t'how she does it," Tess says with a mildly sheepish smile. "I've never really did the 'martial arts' stuff anyway, actually."

Katara smiled a little shyly. "It seems to surprise people despite many of them being superheroes. but my talent is pretty useful too: I can freeze things, surf waves, use mist as a cover, anything that can be done with water. I think that still startles Sheeana, actually, since there's so little water on her planet."

Katara nodded. "But the Bene Gesserit sound, I dunno, like something I'd want to be a part of if it were in my world. I don't like the idea of assasination so much, but even as a master waterbender I can tread that path."

Tess nods. "Grasshoppers try not t'hurt anybody, but we can if we have ta. Mostly we use slingshot stuff, nothin' that's really dangerous." Her expression is half-distracted, still thinking about the waterbending. "But... they've thought a lot longer 'bout this kinda stuff than any've the folks back home did. It's not anything I think I could just say 'no' ta."

"I'll try not to hurt anyone either," Katara said. "It's why I'm glad that my bending is more of a defensive art than an offensive one. But the people I've fought where things got that far were usually those both able to counter my defensive abilities and had a want to hurt others. And its because those people exist and they mean harm that I want to become a Bene Gesserit."

Tess nods a little. "I haven't fought much," she admits. "It's one've the things they kind've look down on ya doin' if yer a grasshopper," she adds. "I guess... I want to learn how, 'cause not doin' anything might not always work."

Katara looked a little surprised. "They don't let you fight? But why would they feel that way? Wouldn't it be better if you could, in case someone tries to hurt you? Why would they tell you not to fight?"

Katara understood a little now. In a way, it made her pleased that Tess was doing something outside of what was expected. Not everyone was able to really do that, even with their worlds gone.

"There's enough ways t'get rid've problems without havin' to really hurt people that it's kinda... yer almost expected to," Tess says, face a little thoughtful. "Y'can go do what y'like if y'really want, but people'll lookatcha like you ain't got enough brains to think yer way through things."

"Its not that I want to go around fighting people," Katara explained, "But in my world, a war in which we are subjected to intolerance and slavery generally results in us wanting to fight back. As a waterbender, our land, our people are the most important thing. Of course we don't want to fight, but if we have to, we do. Simple as that."

It wasn't simple though, even Katara knew that. Aang would have wanted people to talk through violence.

"Fighting is sometimes the only way you CAN make a difference."

"Where I'm from, the Drive makes that kinda different," Tess says, but she keeps her tone cautious. To trivialize any of what Katara's saying is the farthest thing from what she desires right now. "It's the reason grasshoppers like me can do what we do. If it really comes down to it, the Drive means people can leave—" (she snaps her fingers) "—and nobody'll be able t'follow them. Fer a lot've people, if it's keep fightin' or leave and you'll never get bothered by those people again..."

Katara opened her mouth to get into a speech, but then thought the better of it. After all, Tess was trying to become a Bene Gesserit because she didn't quite believe that would work. Katara KNEW it worked, had seen it in action and would continue believing it too, but there was no point beating Tess over the head with her ideals. Besides if they were both doing this together, chances were that they'd have a LOT to talk about.

"You and I are pretty different," Katara said. "But why should that matter? I'd still like to know about your world, and your clan of grasshoppers."

But it's not such a solid belief as that—or the idea of the Bene Gesserit wouldn't have drawn Tess' attention in the first place. For all that she's older and has seen more of the universe, Tess is in many things less wise in the ways of the world than Katara is.

"It's not one 'clan'. It's like... a web," Tess says, making a slightly funny face as she thinks about it. She meshes her fingers together. "Y'know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody... People get together in clades sometimes, that's little groups that have more'n just what grasshoppers do in common with each other."

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