Captain Jack Harkness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theendiswherewestartfrom) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
mogmelodies2015-02-01 06:27 pm
theendiswherewestartfrom) wrote in mogmelodies2015-02-01 06:27 pm
To All Heroes
To Everybody:
Whether we've met or not, I'd appreciate a reply from as many people as are willing, especially if you didn't just come from a version of Earth.
So, let's talk holidays. Christmas, I was willing to let pass as a coincidence. Any civilized planet out there with a winter season ends up with some version of a winter solstice. It doesn't matter the time or the planet or the alien race, they've got some kind of tradition that we would recognize. Celebration for being 'almost out of the dark,' as a friend of mine would put it.
But Valentine's Day? Definitely a product of Earth, of a specific time period of Earth, to be sure. At least, in my experience. And that's where you guys come in. Anybody else, not from Earth, have a custom or a legend like this? Something specifically surrounding a holiday, something that's celebrated. Also, is anybody else reading up on Aqures Ixen legends enough to know if we're going all going to be dealing with rabbits and eggs in two months? If so, I'm calling shenanigans now.
-Captain Jack Harkness
Whether we've met or not, I'd appreciate a reply from as many people as are willing, especially if you didn't just come from a version of Earth.
So, let's talk holidays. Christmas, I was willing to let pass as a coincidence. Any civilized planet out there with a winter season ends up with some version of a winter solstice. It doesn't matter the time or the planet or the alien race, they've got some kind of tradition that we would recognize. Celebration for being 'almost out of the dark,' as a friend of mine would put it.
But Valentine's Day? Definitely a product of Earth, of a specific time period of Earth, to be sure. At least, in my experience. And that's where you guys come in. Anybody else, not from Earth, have a custom or a legend like this? Something specifically surrounding a holiday, something that's celebrated. Also, is anybody else reading up on Aqures Ixen legends enough to know if we're going all going to be dealing with rabbits and eggs in two months? If so, I'm calling shenanigans now.
-Captain Jack Harkness
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Jack gestures to the chair across from him. "Have a seat, your letter was giving me a lot to think about."
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"I wouldn't say that I am the only one," he replied. "It seems that the Fire Crystal had felt I needed a sister to spoil, but Yes. That is my name. You sounded very curious to know about the Planet, but you are not the first I've tried explaining it to."
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Jack leans forwards a little, rests his elbows on the table, prepared to hang on Genesis' every word. There's this extra light in his eyes, something that's always present when Jack is talking about something incredible. "I mean, I was very curious about the idea of a life force being tied into your planet. Like I wrote, it's all theoretical. There should be some life force around any planet, but I've never heard it described as an energy that someone could tap into. So, for starters, how would you explain it?"
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It was a bit odd, but still she was like a sister to him and he found it rather nice to have someone around that he could relax with. They had the same little quirks and yet were different enough that they weren't too uncomfortable with each other.
"I don't know about how other planets are, but ours live." To explain the Lifestream, to put it in ways that someone who never seen it or felt it, that was going to be hard. Genesis bit his lower lip, thinking for a moment about how to simplify it. "The soul of the Planet is the Goddess, or maybe She is the guardian of the soul. I've seen her, been touched by her, and felt the Lifestream move at a hint of her command. The Lifestream is where all life comes from. It's a living flow of energy, moving between the Promise Lands and back to the Planet, like a river. All things spring from this and all things go back to this.
"Then there is pools of mako, which is like the concentration of the Lifestream, rising to the surface of the Planet and nourishing all living things. Magic comes from it, as do raw materia formations. The materia is a kind of crystal that we humans managed to craft into spheres that we use for spells. Some of us SOLDIERs don't need most of them for the amount of mako in our system gives us a touch of magic.
"It is a fragile balance though, the balance between the Lifestream, the mako and humans. Humans drain the mako to power their cities and don't realize that they are draining the Planet's lifeblood as they do so."
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Every single word that is coming out of Genesis' mouth is utterly fascinating. The look on Jack's face slowly melts into one of wonder, and then one of sympathetic frustration, as Genesis describes the situation on his home planet. Of course, the only time anyone would notice or define such an energy source would be when they were trying to use it for something.
Once Genesis is finished, Jack slowly nods. "It all makes perfect sense. I've met beings, entities that transcend time, or space, or just encompass something so much greater than us simple humans. If a planet has a life force, of course it should have a consciousness, a soul, to go along with it." He frowns. "But, of course, the people on that planet are using it for their own ends without knowing what they're doing. As different as our universes are, some things are completely the same." A dry tone as he says that.
"But there's no mako," he uses Genesis' term, "here. So there's no way to connect to the life force, if this planet had one?"
"Also, betting you've already been asked this question, but, materia," he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his own crystal, sets it on the table. "Different than whatever's being used for these?"
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He had a short in which he asked himself about his own existence but that was long before finding another him. The fallout from that moment in time was still being felt and he really saw no need to restart that sort of thing again, especially now he knew what he did. Doubting himself yet again would just be ridiculous.
"There is no mako here," he said, nodding and making a waving at his eyes. They were mostly a pale green in color, though there was a faint trace of a glowing blue at the edges. "If there was mako, the eyes of myself and my colleagues would be glowing from it. But there is nothing to say that there is not something similar in this world. After all, the Lifestream and mako was only discovered being more than a natural product recently on the Planet."
Genesis looked at Jack's crystal and smiled, reaching back and pulling his sword out. He set it on the table and pointed at the large round stones set along the base of the sword. "Those are materia. They don't work here, but what they did do was give a person access to magic." He tapped a pale blue stone. "This was an 'All' and junctioned with another materia -" he tapped the next stone, a dark green one, "- I was able to cast an 'Ice' spell on a group of attackers."
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"So, you'd need the mako, the connection to the Lifestream, but also, the materia," Jack gestures towards Genesis' sword, "Kind of as a physical focus? And that's where magic comes from on your world?"
It brings up another troubling thought. "Connecting yourself to the Lifestream, that's gotta be a two-way street. You're using the Lifestream as power, through mako, but anyone who's using it as a magical source? As the planet gets weaker, so do you?" And maybe he realizes he's just answered his previous question.
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"Humans need the materia but not mako for magic," he said turning back to business and tapping the stones set in his sword. "The Cetra were intimately connected to the Lifestream and able to use magic as easily as we breathe. The Calamity had tried to use that connection to corrupt the Lifestream but the Cetra found her and stopped her at a cost of their lives. By the time I and my colleagues were created, there was no easy way to use mako. Materia of this size and quality is rare, and the use of it for magic was not a precise science until creating artificial materia was possible."
He smiled, picking up his sword and letting the light catch the runes inscribed along the blade. They knew better now but at what cost to the Planet? Were they going to still weaken it in endless battles until the Lifestream was dead and they no longer had magic or mako?
"Yes, but at first the use of materia was limited and the magic was only a drop of water from the ocean. It was when mako was drained to power machines and build SOLDIERs that we started to truly kill the Planet. The group that created SOLDIER and mako reactors is gone and we are looking to other ways to power our industry, but some say it is too late."
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"Life always finds a way. Always. It would be a tragedy if your planet were allowed to fall into ruin. But even 'ruin' is still a point that life can return from. Where I'm from, humans have taken to the stars, left their home planet, spread out through galaxies and into the universe. 'Indomitable,' as a friend of mine put it. Even after multiple civilization collapses, planets becoming inhospitable, wars, both among themselves, and between other races? The human race lives on."
"If the damage could be reversed, yeah, that would of course be the best. But, so long as your people learn from what they've done, there is always a hope for a future." There's a quiet wonder and a promise in those words. Even for someone who has lived through it, Jack is always impressed by what humanity has managed to accomplish. And, if anything, he would want the things he's seen in his timeline's future to act as a source of hope for others.
"But, 'some say' it's too late? Do I detect a hint of cynicism in there?" Jack is a little playfully curious. "Are you among them, or do you think your own people would be able to turn it around?"
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He had been changed fromt he Goddess touch. While it probably only cleansed him a little of the Calamity taint - or at least cure him of the instability presented in his system from his creation - it also made him one of the Planet's few WEAPONs. It was a strange thought given that the others were huge creatures of unbelievable capabilities, but still he felt far more kingship with the Goddess than a mere human.
"What I think? Now... what I think is nothing but accepting my place in the pattern of the Planet, and the amount of forgiveness I seek."
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"The mako, some of the lifeblood of the planet, was," Jack gestures towards all of Genesis, "given to you? Injected, infused?" Genesis seemed intentionally vague about how that happened, so Jack will move on quickly.
"However it happened, it doesn't make you complicit. Did you have a choice in the matter?" Even if he did, Jack can still argue that it wasn't his fault.
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"Normal humans are slowly given doses of mako to make them stronger, faster, more resistant to injuries, and able to tap into poor quality materia. Each Class of SOLDIER has more mako until you reach 1st Class, which are the toughest, strongest and most mako infused people on the Planet. SOLDIERs have a choice, but you can say that the choice is not really explained to them.
"To be a SOLDIER is to be a part of the best fighting force on the Planet. It's a guaranteed job for life, with benefits worthy of the task. All jobs are connected to ShinRa, with SOLDIERs being lower only to the administration and the Turks. They are built up as heroes and as peacekeepers, so when someone asks to join the cadet class to become SOLDIER, they do not heed the warnings, which are never really told to them."
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And yet. "You sound like you regret the path that your planet has taken, maybe not your own personal role in it? I mean, it's good, but most people in your position would feel more guilty, even though, like I said, you aren't complicit, it's not really your fault?"
Jack isn't quite sure if he's explaining himself well, but he wants to hear Genesis' reaction. Finds himself suddenly more interested in the man's personal opinion, than the story of his Planet.
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Genesis wasn't sure what Jack was trying to say but he wanted to make it clear. He was no longer a SOLDIER or part of ShinRa save in only his attempts in trying to keep his friends safe. Even if they were like Sephiroth and keeping their distant.
"The Planet chose me to become one of it's guards. I think that alone speaks to what it feels about me."
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"So, she does have a soul?" He speaks up, tone full of wonder, at that last part. "Or, it does? Enough of one to make a decision like that? It feels, it grows, it is alive, by anybody's definition of the word? That's-" he shakes his head a little, smile growing, "amazing. Truly amazing. By theory, every planet should maybe be like that, but," he waves a hand at Genesis, "you know. You've felt it. That would be something to see."
"And you're doing the right thing, working to fix it all?"
It does bring up a thought, though. "But, hang on. Your- connection, the abilities granted to you by the mako, they're gone here, aren't they? Just like- a few other people. They lost what they could do from their home worlds, replaced by the Job abilities here?" Jack had lost his own connection to the Time Vortex (if that's really what was powering his immortality, the Doc was never 100% clear on that, but it's Jack's own best guess at this point, thanks for that, Doc.)
ack lost the tag!
Rediscovered and abused. Of course there had been legends, about the power of the Planet and everyone knew that though bodies did happen when someone died, the energy of them dying could be seen as a mist of lights before it faded into the ether. It was easy to assume that the Lifestream was nothing more than energy and not actual souls.
"If the Lifestream dies, then the Planet dies. This is something we have seen, especially around Midgar where the largest mako plants are. Nothing grows there, and only kind of creatures one sees are deformed monsters. But the plants are gone and life was starting to return, though not fast. It will take a long time before it does.
"Yes, my abilities are gone, save for what I am re-teaching myself. It is a pity, though I am glad as well. Mako infusion can be a shortcut to a greatness one may not deserve after all."