milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Wellington is not a happy Womble.

Some idiot with a beard has been giving a motorbike a bath in the lake, and although there wasn't a lot of oil, there was enough the next day when Wellington swam in it that he is now feeling very itchy and off his food.

He can't explain at home how he got oiled, because they'll want to know where the source was, so he's curled up on the sofa with a blanket trying not to shed fur everywhere.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Father Harman strides in through the door, orders tea, and then sits down on the sofa with a sigh. Apparently, it has been a stressful day at the vague yet menacing government-Vatican joint venture.

"I say!" he declares when he discovers the furry creature with the blanket that's curled up on the sofa. "What is the matter with you?"

And then, he feels silly, suspecting he's talking to some kid's stuffed toy.

"Lumme!" the womble jumps at nearly being sat on, releasing a short cloud of fur.

"I got oil on my fur." he says, once he calmed a bit. "Someone put a motorbike in the lake and it must have come off that."

"Does it make you ill?" Father Harman asks, kindly, now that it's clear this isn't a teddy bear, and all the more as it sounds as if it was from London.

"Yes sir." Wellington says. "I can't go home, they'll want to know the source."

"How long is it going to take for you to get well again?" Father Harman asks.

"It took Orinoco a few days." Wellington says.

"Orinoco?" Father Harman says.

It's a river, by his books.

"One of the other Wombles." Wellington says.

"That is what you are?" Father Harman says. "A womble?"

"Yes sir." Wellington nods.

"And where is your home?"

"London." Wellington says, having been there long enough to know people can't get home and hunt his kind. "And yourself?"

He shivers and wraps himself in the blanket.

"London," Father Harman says.

"Oh. Well don't look for us."

"I've never seen one of you, as it is," Father Harman says. "Perhaps your London isn't in the same world as mine. Do you have vampires?"

"I don't think so. But we don't mix with the humans."

"So you're a sentient species that secretly lives along us?" Father Harman asks.

"Pretty much." Wellington says.

"Just like our vampires, but infinitely less worrisome," Father Harman says. "What do you do?"

Presumably, not drink blood.

"We clean up after polluting human beings." Wellington says.

"Why?"

"Because you don't."

"That's a very general condemnation of my species," Father Harman says.

Wellington sighs.

"I'm normally more even tempered, but I just got sick because of pollution."

"Not earth pollution, though," Father Harman says. "And it was rather a small and individual incident."

"Still a human that did it."

"You do realise that the problem of pollution is actually far more systemic than just a few people littering or spilling oil in a lake?" Father Harman says.

Wellington frowns.

"We can't fix everything humans do." he says. "We can only try. If it wasn't for Wombles, the humans of our world would drown in their own rubbish."

"But to really fight pollution, you have to fight its cause," Father Harman. "The depletion of fossil fuels, climate change, industrial sale deforestation in tropical and subtropical areas, the plundering of earth for the sake of corporate greed, billions of people in poverty getting by any old way, large countries getting out of poverty and misery at any cost -- Brasil, Russia, India, China -- while repeating the mistakes of the West on a larger scale. Of course you can't fix that. YOou have no point of leverage to do so."

"You have to fix that." Wellington says. "Not us. But we do our bit."

"We have to do that," Father Harman agrees. "But it must be very frustrating to you to try and tidy up after our mess, like trying to empty the sea with a sieve."

"Now you see why I summarise humans that way?"

"We are working on the issue, you know," Father Harman says. "It just takes time. And many people are a bit useless about it."

Wellington nods.

"You may not have all the time in the world."

"I know," Father Harman says. "Peak oil, and the first tangible effects of climate change, are expected within the next decade or two."

Wellington sighs.

"Why do human beings always try to destroy themselves?"

"Well, if we only destroy ourselves, it's not that bad," Father Harman says. "But we're destroying the rest of God's creation, and that's really objectionable."

"It is." Wellington agrees.

"It's probably because we've set ourselves above the rest of creation," Father Harman says, "but if we repair that mindset first, it might already too late. Humanity has 99 problems, and they are all deeply interconnected."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only