trans_9 | 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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Katara sighed. "I certainly understand where you're coming from, and I think you're right, mostly: there is more to learn about being a soldier than fighting. But the thing to take into account is also that it might not have to do with being a kid OR being a soldier either. I know with me, I wanted the best direct route to where we needed to go. I've fought in wars before, I know how to take orders. But it isn't as cut and dry as you would think on this ship either. With Luthor for instance: people looked at him, before a word was said out of his mouth, with malice. I'm not saying he improved their impression of him, but if you're a solider you remain impassive to some situations. I didn't think that was happening, so I reacted. Isn't part of being a soldier is making sure you don't become the enemy too?"

That was what she thought anyway, and she was certainly not going to give Leon the impression she argued for arguments sake. "I'm not just doing this to fight anyway. I've lacked focus, and now I want my training to move to the next level. That means I train my body, my spirit and my mind. If I weren't doing that, I wouldn't even be joining the Bene Gesserit."

But keep in mind, Katara is not refusing to be taught. She'll just be very very busy.

"It's more than just that," Katara said. "In my world, Sokka had to keep up with us benders in our group: he had no bending ability, he was just a watertribe boy who had to take on the responsibilities of being the only full grown teenage male when all the men went off to war. That meant he took on greater responsibilities and even learned to fight with a sword. To be brought here, away from his home and all of the things he worked long and hard for...I think that's weighing pretty heavily on him."

"That's part of it, but another part of it is learning how to deal with the unexpected." And Lex was, above all else, unexpected. "Not everyone handles surprises well."

There was more to it, but he was willing to leave it at that for the moment.

As for Sokka, that would be more difficult to deal with. Particularly since Leon didn't know a whole lot about the boy. But seeing as how Katara did...

"So what do you think would help?"

"Yeah, I think I'm still going to need help with that," Katara admitted sheepishly. "I may be able to deal with things better than my brother, but he's a little better at expecting the unexpected, mostly."

Katara thought a moment. "What he needs is a way to feel useful again, but more specifically, he needs to train again. Sokka needs to remember that he doesn't know everything that there is to know. That was why he had to train in sword fighting in the first place. Sokka is actually really smart, he just is very set in his ways."

Leon smiled a bit. Well, if you can call it a smile. More of a subtle quirk of his lips that wasn't entirely a lineface. Which is about as much as he smiles at anyone not named Claire or Sherry.

"Don't worry, we'll help you with that."

Sokka, however was going to be a more difficult problem to deal with. Though, that she mentioned it, Chris might be having similar troubles.

"'The Outsiders' haven't shown him that there's just that much more for him to learn?"

Katar returned the smile, though it was considerably less forced than Leon's, since it came more natural to her. "Thanks. I don't feel like I'm doing my part here if I'm not at least trying to understand the way other people think. I guess you could say that it gets me in trouble a lot, though. But I'd appreciate any help that you could give me."

Katara looked thoughtful. "Well, we've been training of course, but so far Static and Slobo are trying to play to Sokka's strengths. Sokka needs to be challenged, needs to remember that there's a lot to learn that he doesn't know. That, and I hope he can see that the people on the ship are going to be his new family now, and they need him too."

Bene Gesserits for Dummies

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