ataraxion | 002. Video

First thing's first, and this isn't just me being a pain in the ass but could someone maybe bring everyone on board up to speed on the Smiley thing? We've got a lot of people around here don't know what's going on and if I have to put my hands up and be the first to admit to it then so be it, but for the love of God if there's something you've got to share with the class get on and do it.

I do a lot of watching around here - guy can't be on duty all the time - and I've got problems. Communication is a big one, there's a whole lot of difference between the people with their hands on the wheel and those who're just along for the ride cause they got nowhere else to be. There's no liaison between one and the other, everyone's just gotta sit tight and wait for information to trickle down, and I don't know about the rest of you but I don't think it's working out.

To that end I think we gotta have that meeting people have been talking about, whether it's for the sake of expediting that or just to get people talking--we're jumping again soon, and I'm pretty sure things are gonna be as much as a shambles for the new guys as I felt they were when I got here. Sure, we're all gonna be just as screwed coming outta those things as anyone else, but at least we know where we are.

Now I'm not saying it won't be dangerous, or that there's not a hundred different excuses for leaving things the way we are, I'm just saying - and I think most people agree - that some kind of something has gotta be done, and it'd have been a hell of a lot easier if we'd had the opportunity to discuss it last week, rather than leaving it to the last second. I know: everyone's too busy asking 'How high?' when Smiley-boy says 'Jump'. While I'm on the subject, what the hell happened to that chapel idea we were floating? We got go ahead for that yet?

One other thing, and I'm gonna be assertive and straight out say it. If you wanna be useful, then join the crew. And if you don't wanna be useful-- [ He just shakes his head. ] Only thing I can think of is the story of the Little Red Hen.

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Minas Tirith. [ Quietly. ] Edoras. Castles of stone, surrounded by trees and fields still.

[ Nathan pauses for a moment, wondering how to put this. ]

The world I'm from has billions of people in it. Huh... How do I even explain that sort of number to you? You can imagine hundreds of people, thousands, right? Well there's more people in my world than there is sand on a beach, more cities than there are stars in the sky.

The city I'm from makes this ship look tiny. It's glittering, sprawling, towering, made of glass and metal and concrete, filled with people and light.

[ There's a long, long pause, before- ]

I see. [ Softly. ] Thus comes the dominion of Men. Like zealous ants they come, taking over even nature itself.

We still have natural places. Our civilisation respects them, preserves them as best they can; but it is a world of billions, and our achievements--

[ He motions around. ] This is where we're headed.

Is it something that makes you proud? [ Actual question ]

I'm proud of my country, yes - the cities, the countryside, and the people that live in it. I'd give my life for them. That's what you do for something you love.

[ He's heard words like this from one other Man before. A proud Man with golden hair, who sits uneasily at an Elven Council; who wished for a powerful weapon to be turned against an enemy that he has been fighting against his whole life. A Man who loves nothing more than his city; on whom the entire city itself is laid upon his shoulders, and he begrudges not the burden, only that he is incapable of fully shouldering it.

Boromir has haunted his steps from Parth Galen to Minas Tirith. But even here, he still haunts Aragorn. In the faces of Errol Partridge; in the words of Nathan Petrelli. Aragorn looks upon these people and sees the ghosts of home; of those he reaches out for and cannot grasps. ]

You are a rare man, Nathan of Petrelli. [ Quietly, and there seems to be a break in his voice. Instead of merely calm, there is now warmth. ]

Will you do the same for those here, even though they might not be your people?

[ Nathan hesitates for a second at that change in Aragorn's voice, because he has no idea what he said that's set him off. His patriotism and sheer force of will hold out. ]

These people are my people. Might be difficult to believe; I don't know most of them and a good number of them don't even like me, but that's pretty much how politics goes. It's thankless, but it's what you do.

Wherefore do you continue?

[ Simple answer. ] Duty.

[ In that single word, Aragorn hears more of Boromir's voice than he thought he ever would, echoed in another man's voice. ]

To your people. [ Softly, then- ]

I knew not that the House of Petrelli is one of highborn.

[ Nathan snorts. ] We don't have nobility any more. You put your mind to it then it doesn't matter where you were born, you can do anything.

But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't born to expectations; as a brother, as a son, as a man. I joined the military to fight for my country, and now I work to keep it safe from threats against it from the inside. That's all.

Course that feeling of responsibility carries over to here.

[ He would address responsibility, but something else catches his attention- ]

All noble lines have died out? [ He sounds genuinely shocked, and- ] It matters not at all to you the destiny carried from a name and a heritage?

No, not died out. And where you come from still has some importance, but it's not what decides who and what you are in the world.

Some countries still hold onto their royal families out of some sense of historical pride, but in most places it's just ornamental now. Tradition.

Kings or beggars, what it comes down to in the end is that everyone is equal in the eyes of God.

The Valar did not create all to be equal. [ He's not contesting, just stating. While... confused. ]

There are the Men of Numenor, and the Men of Arda, and they are separated by heritage and by strength.

[ Nathan just raises both of his eyebrows on his end of the call. Because that's backward, compared to how he's been brought up, the world he lives in that is so fiercely against inequality. And this is the same guy who was judging him for trying to express leadership qualities. For a moment he doesn't really know what to say. ]

So your god make one sort of your people to be 'better' than others? Is that what you believe? Don't you think that's kind of odd?

Nay. [ Blithely. ] The Men of Numenor comes from another land; they sailed over the seas to reach Middle Earth.

Sounds like my world. They sailed over the ocean, tried to make it seem like they were the superior race, like they owned the whole world. Eventually the peoples of the lands they invaded rose up against them and drove them out.

'Tis no invasion. [ Calmly. ] It was a land given by the Valar to the Numeroneans themselves.

A land given by your god to certain of your people? Their right by birth?

[ Why yes, he does sound condemning. ]

Aye.

[ Softly, and he chuckles. ]

'Tis clear the ways of Men have changed greatly through time.

Not that recently, believe it or not. People still think believing in God gives them the right to do what they want and take what they want.

[ Says the Republican. ]

[ A beat. ]

I know not your God, but the belief in the Valar has granted little. [ Considering pause. ] There is little belief needed at all.