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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"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."

"A web?" Here Katara was a little confused until Tess explained. "So what do you guys all do together?" She asked. "I'm curious, I know I seem a little rude asking all these questions. In my tribe we all really have no choice but to stick together. So much was taken away: all our benders and our men going off to war, that without depending on each other, we would have all perished a long time ago. I don't want to seem like I'm saying my way is better than yours, there's just so much about other worlds I have to adjust to."

Katara brightened though. "We're probably going to have to do this a lot though, when it comes to our training."

Strangely enough, Katara seemed the type to love researching things.

"We help each other explore, share what we know... oh!" she says, suddenly realizing something she never quite said outright. "We ain't related, not by de-fault, anyways. Anybody can try'n be a grasshopper if they want to, but you gotta do it right if you want people t'take you in. Bein' a grasshopper's about..." She rubs her helmet, trying to think about it. "If you could go anywhere in the whole world and you ain't got anythin' t'hold you down, you'd be a grasshopper if the first thing y'wanna do is find new stuff and meet new people."

Wow. That was all that Katara could think when she actually heard the definition of what a grasshopper was. Katara thought Tess's abilities were amazing, and certainly liked the ways he spoke, but to be able to travel and say that looking at the world was part of an adventure...

She could definitely relate to that. When it came down to it, that was what the Avatar group was all ab out. Of course they were going to try and get Aang to save the world, but it helped to see with his own eyes what the world was like. In only a few years, Katara gained an appreciation for people, fire, earth and water tribe people, all just trying to live their day, and wanted to know more, see more.

"Oh," Katara said softly. "Now I'm understanding why you want to be a Bene Gesserit."

Tess silently smiles and nods.

"There's a lot've people it's hard to help when you're just one girl," she finally says. "What the Bene Gesserit do... I don't know about some've it, but it sounds like what I wanna do. Teach people without forcin' 'em, give'm opportunities..."

"I know what you mean!" Katara exclaimed, smiling. "I mean, I just accidentally stumbled on what Sheeana was doing, and I just wanted to know what it would mean to have that strength. As it turns out, its more like keeping a discipline of the body and working to help the universe continue to mature. I know there's a lot of work, but I'm willing to do it. I've wanted this ever since I left the North Pole: a sister group with morals who were also strong and standing on their own."

She grinned. "I'd like to hear more about grasshoppers after this, and I hope you don't mind hearing about the Water Tribe a little. I can't wait to work with you in becoming Bene Gesserit. I hope we can be good friends!"

"I do too." Tess grins broadly. "I'd love t'hear 'bout your tribe." The North Pole... well, Katara looks like she'd fit, with the features of a group much more adapted to the harsh conditions than someone fair-skinned like Tess herself.

Katara couldn't have been more pleased. For a few panicked moments, she thought Asuka might be trying to be a Bene Gesserit, but now that she knew it was someone like Tess she was pleased. She seemed like someone it would be fun to do this with.

And then a vow came that stood out to Katara, and she motioned to Tess. "Hey," she said, "Look at this. The Litany against fear."

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Katara stared at the phrase as if she wanted it burned in her mind. She couldn't get mind off the words.

"A mantra," Tess says quietly, looking over the words. "There ain't nothin' t'fear but fear itself, a great man said that once. This feels like the same kind've thing."

Katara reflected on the words. Tess did a good job analyzing what the mantra was about, it was pretty cut and dry. But it was the way it was said that drew her, that made her start to memorize it in her mind. The words helped to give recognition if what fear was: it was big, scary at times, and undoubtly the mind killer. It was a good thing she had been in wars, had fought Azula in their final battle, with the Firebending power increased exponentially. Those experiences reminded her about how she felt when she was facing a dangerous situation.

"When the fear has gone there will be nothing, Only I will remain," Katara said softly. "I like that."

"But it's not always smart just t'forget 'bout why you're scared've somethin'," Tess says, thinking about the subject. "If fear was useless, people wouldn't've evolved t'have it. Doesn't mean y'can't work 'round it, but y'gotta remember why y'were scared in the first place."

"I don't think its quite forgetting," Katara said. "The mantra doesn't sound like it wants you to forget fear, that would be like running away from it. It sounds to me more like you have to fight it, conquer it, so you don't become overcome with the what ifs. Fear is a natural part of all of us, but fear is also the weakest thing we can bring against a dangerous situation. So you have fear, but you fight it too, so you can do what you have to. That;s what it means to fight in a war."

"But it ain't quite fightin' it," Tess says, shaking her head a little as she thinks about the litany and about what Katara's said. "I will permit it t'pass over me'n'through me," she repeats. "That ain't the same as just resistin' it. It's like..." She pauses a moment, and her cheeks puff out, then she lets out a funny little pop of breath through her lips. "It's like makin' a part've you 'stead've just somethin' outside've how y'think, maybe."

She makes a little back-and-forth motion with two fingers in front of her face. "I will turn the inner eye t'see its path. Fear can be power sometimes too. Fear wants y'to run away, but if there ain't a place t'run to, it can let y'lash out in ways you'd never think've normally." Her hand swishes in a swipe at the air.

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