milliways_bar | (no subject)

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It's a quiet day in Central City. No dead bodies have dropped to call Barry into his day job, and a quick zip around the city yields only a mugger and one jaywalker who would've been pancaked by a garbage truck if 'The Streak' hadn't been there to rush him to the safety of the sidewalk.

(Seriously, he needs a better superhero name.)

With things so chill at home Barry is glad when he finds Milliways in his apartment. He was looking for something to eat, but the fridge and cupboards in his place are bare.

Obviously it's time for him to join Costco or something, but in the meantime...

"Hey, Bar," he greets the counter, sliding onto a stool wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt. "Can I get a-- "

A platter appears with deli meats and cheeses all cut down to fit on the accompanying Ritz crackers. It's the type of tray usually made to feed small armies of party guests.

"--snack."

Barry grins and while he starts assembling cracker sandwiches, Bar produces a chocolate milkshake; which earns a wary glance from Barry, but he soon discovers this one isn't a protein ruse.

[ooc: Here all day, and this will be open through the weekend.]

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"And there's also..." Chirrut launches into a long rolling Jedhan phrase that has him grinning like a loon. It's one of his old favorites, that offers acerbic commentary about the parentage, morals, cleanliness, and sexual proclivities of the insulted all in one phrase. He loves it, it's so economic.

"That one... isn't for polite company."

Edited 2017-06-03 05:05 (UTC)

Barry laughs, amused by both of them.

"Yeah, I'm terrible at swearing so I don't think I have any good ones to give you guys."

"Oh, there are a lot of swear words that we know," Baze says, made giddy by Barry's laughter. "Kriff, farkled, crink, skogging... Honestly, I could go on all day. The Hutts--a large, alien species with prehensile tails and no legs--have the best insults."

"He can go on all day, I've heard him." Chirrut reports, bland as bland can be. "Didn't even repeat himself once."

Barry laughs again, shaking his head at the pair.

"Didn't you guys work in a temple?" He's just saying.

"It's true, Master Sheotar used to clean my mouth out with soap when I was a kid," Baze says, and do please forgive him if his tone turns a little wistful. Grief wraps a vice around his heart, turning him cold. He shoves his sorrow down, resolutely ignoring it.

Later. It can come up later.

Or never. Never is good, too.

"But she was the only one who really cared," Baze says, laughing. "Our order was rather violent, compared to some. It deserved swearing."

"The Jedi would be more severe." Chirrut explains, "Due to their belief that drawing on the Force with any emotion more negative would lead to their downfall. The Guardians believe that the Force is made up of every facet of emotion - to only follow one side is to court unbalance. I do not know if this works because there were none in our order who could actually use the Force's power to their own ends, or because we were, actually, correct."

A twinge of guilt hits Barry when he hears the wistful notes, but a moment later Baze's laughter eases it.

"Joe would have had me by the ear if I thought about popping off like that," he says with a chuckle.

Barry considers what Chirrut says about the Force, shaking his head a little. "It seems to me people are always going to have a variety of emotions. Suppressing the negatives ones seems like it would just... make them worse."

"Joe is wise," Baze says, grinning. He makes himself another Ritz cracker sandwich, and nibbles thoughtfully. "Bottling emotions certainly makes them worse. Grief will find an outlet, and anger hurts the vessel it's stored in more than that it's poured out upon."

Ask him how he knows that, Barry. Go ahead, ask.

Chirrut wants to know if the various stormtroopers Baze has shot during the occupation of Jedha would agree about the anger thing. He's not disagreeing, he's just saying they might need to spread that philosophy around a bit more.

"I take it your world's religion isn't so... even-handed?"

"That's deep." He says it with a smile, but he's by no means mocking Baze. The words have merit, and Barry takes them to think about.

"My world has a lot of different religions, but the basis for most isn't in emotions, but in actions. Doing good. I guess. Some people take it to crazy ends, and it's been cause for a lot of conflict, but overall just... being a good person, helping others is what I take from it," he shrugs, not being the best person for religious dialogue.

Baze is relieved that Barry decided not to give them a comparative religions lecture, like Harman. He has no doubt that Barry could have, if he truly wanted to, given his penchant for good explanations. But the information is largely useless to Baze, who probably won't visit Earth, and certainly won't take up an Earther religious order.

"We've heard a little bit about Earther religions," he says, just barely managing to keep the dryness out of his tone. "From Harman, a Jesuit priest who comes here. Have you met him?"

"If you do, don't get muddy near him - he really doesn't like that." Chirrut adds, grinning.

Barry thinks about it a moment, then shakes his head. "I haven't."

Looking between the two, he kind of gets the sense that, that meeting wasn't the best.

"Muddy? Like, with dirt?" he asks and chuckles.

"When we first arrived here, we showed up lying prone in the mud, and had a brief wrestling match in it to celebrate finding each other again," Baze says, with a quick grin. He plucks up another cracker. "Harman objected strenuously. He told us we were going to contract UTIs."

"He would bring it up every few minutes. I think we were stressing him inordinately." Chirrut giggles. "I hope he's recovered."

"UTI's?" Barry cants his head, puzzling through that one a moment before his eyes widen. "As in the infection?"

His expression and voice both shift to show confusion and that he's slightly disturbed.

"Why would he-- was he a doctor and a priest?" Or just a really weird priest.

"I... I don't know," Baze says, cocking his head to the side. "I don't think he was a doctor, but people have surprised me before. Can you actually catch a UTI from playing in the mud?"

"We didn't think so - either we have been incredibly lucky all of our lives, or..." He trails off with a shrug too big for his frame.

"I mean, I-- " Barry gives his own shrug, a bit helpless for explanation. "Maybe if you were naked? But otherwise... That's just a really weird thing to fixate on, I'm sorry."

But it seems like maybe they feel the same way.

Baze is smug as hell. He folds his arms, nodding exactly once. "I knew it," he says. A grin spoils his smugness. "It is a weird thing to fixate on. And he seemed really surprised that we were willing to go to the bathrooms to wash off, too."

"We should have walked out muddy again." Chirrut sighs, regretting a lost opportunity. "His spluttering would have been worth it."

Barry shakes his head, confused and bemused.

"When you mentioned him I thought maybe he'd gone overboard with the religion thing, I didn't think it'd be public health warnings and hygiene instead."

Technically, Baze has no idea what the urinary tract is, nor why you'd need to be naked to get an infection there. But it seems pretty serious--and weird. He grins at Barry.

"Oh, he did that, too," Baze says, laughing. "We were treated to quite the oration. It... was interesting, but I highly doubt we'll use any of the information given in a comparative religious study of Earth, you know?"

He scratches his beard. "Honestly"--as if Baze is ever not honest--"I felt kind of bad for him. He seemed to really want to talk about it, so we sort of let him go on. And on. And on."

"It seemed rude to interrupt him. Maybe he had a frustrated career in the medical field and moved on to religion?" Chirrut suggests with a shrug. "We are glad to hear we're safe, however. I'm not sure what a UTI is, but he made it sound severe."