11 - Common Lifestyles

Ñezyeki lifestyles are, quite often, very relaxed and lavish. The nearly-equal (some do, in fact, still have more than others, though not for long) distribution of common funds and materials means that work is more of a “task to be done” than “necessity to live”- many individuals will gladly do harder jobs when they only have to work as much as everybody else! Time spent with loved ones, especially polycules, is considered the most sacred of time to the species, as well as intimate and romantic private time with them.

Lifestyles usually revolve largely around WHERE someone lives- if the environment is more harsh, it may involve more group work, sometimes with their romantic partners, if it is calmer, it might be a more at-home life. As mentioned previously in section 8, food culture is very important, and often takes a toll on the body of an individual- though, in their society, this is much more normalized in ours. Their equivalent to an “all bodies are beautiful” movement never needed to truly happen, as it was not a societal issue, or a real matter of health worries, as the wings of a Ñezyeki are often large and strong enough to carry orders of magnitude more than the individual’s original “base” weight.

The relaxed lifestyles of much of the species leads to the mastery of numerous unique talents- people are encouraged to find what they love and pursue it, as in a society like theirs, it is much easier to have entire days of free time and relaxation. The center of their work ethics tends to revolve around the fact that they get as many breaks as they could possibly want- meaning they work at 100% capacity whenever they do, as they are not worn down by regimented work days or impossible hours, allowing them to put their whole mind and self into their job, and have more than enough wealth to live a happy life, and due to the communal nature of the species, multiple polycules may even band together to share their money and pool for something bigger. That’s the reason their society runs so well, as they have uncountable people who each take some time, when they can, to do their jobs- and it works out.

Though they have a strong work ethic, the Ñezyeki are prone to needing incentive to actually work on something big. This usually comes in the form of “work parties”, a large celebration that occurs after a project is complete, thrown for all those who contributed, usually involving partying and eating, and generally happy moods. This has been standard practice for a very long time, and has worked extremely well to quell what would otherwise be a copious amount of laziness in the species.

A lot of other common Ñezyeki lifestyles center around leaving the local group of galaxies (also commonly referred to as the ‘former Empire’) for the deep cosmos, where they may often settle in a completely uninhabited area, or travel from place to place, or system to system. It is also incredibly common to find alien life, sentient or otherwise, and it is courteous to undergo some sort of cultural exchange, though scientific exchanges are often at the discretion of group leaders on both sides. Due to how immense the lightspeed bubble is around Miirtetz, the common methods of travel continue to work for billions of light years deep into the cosmos, more than enough space for travelers to find their own paths.

Another common method of living comes in the form of “indulgent settlements”, these being spacecraft, stations, celestial objects, or other settled areas, that are entirely dedicated to the pursuit of leisure and pleasure (oftentimes involving sexual pleasure as well, though many exist without it). These are extremely common places to go on a trip with your polycule to, as intimacy is allowed and encouraged. Most Ñezyeki usually only stay temporarily, though many, including those who staff the locations, stay their whole lives, or at least most of them, living in the indulgent settlement for their own personal betterment. This also means they usually contribute to maintaining the indulgent settlement’s community in some way or another, be it through caring for others, maintaining the infrastructure, or other similar ways to give back.