milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

bodhi rook

(no subject)

Bet you didn't think that the Swamp Thing could alter his looks. But since he's basically a plant, in some senses all plants, it's merely a matter of growth. Even so, he's been the same for a long time, and it's a bit weird even to him that he looks so different.

But since everything else seems to be changing, why not change himself as well?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's a young man out in the garden, weeding carefully around a freshly cut garden bed, two cats chasing crickets nearby.

The young man looks up, unsurprised by Swamp Thing looks. "Hello."

"I would be careful with those weeds. They're plants, too." It's a knee-jerk statement, about what might be expected from both a botanist and the Avatar of the Green. "Oh, and hello."

Bodhi chuckles softly. "The soil here is so fertile, I didn't expect them to grow in so fast."

"It's not just the soil. The air is low on pollutants, there is regular rain, and the Green is sometimes more in tune with magic that people would guess." He can even feel the Green here humming today. It's a nice change.

"It's beautiful here. It really is. The moon I grew up on, the soil was so thin and poor. And it only rained twice in my childhood."

He winces. And guesses there is no Green on that moon. "How did your family end up there?"

"Jedha is- was a place of pilgrimage. Because of the Kyber Temple and the Guardians of the Whills. My grandmother was a pilgrim, before the Clone Wars. She was young, from minor core royalty. She fell in love with Jedha, and street preacher who got her pregnant. Her family came for her, forcing her to leave her child behind."

He has no idea what a kyber is, or why you would pronounce "wills" like it has an H. And Jedha sounds like it should be in another desert, in the Middle East.

"I am sorry. No one should be forced to leave a world they love. Though if it's a world of pilgrimage, were there those to make sure your parent was taken care of?" He knows that faith and decency don't always live together.

He nods, a little bitterly. "Yeah. My mother was raised by the street preacher. And stayed with the Follower of the Way."

"But my grandmother kept trying. She left her world, worked as a mechanic during the war to get back to Jedha. But by the time she did, my mother didn't want anything to do with her. And she had children of her own she didn't care much about."

"What sort of temple, what sort of faith, are on Jedha?" The Way is very vague.

"There are Guardians from my world here who can explain better than I could." Bodhi shrugs. "I never really understood or liked it."

"The Way my mother's people practised was pretty fringe. And it wasn't exactly kind to the kids it produced. The tenant that children should be raised by the followers as a whole meant no-one took responsibility for any of us. We had to fend for ourselves."

"I have never had much use for religion in general. I know there are forces beyond our understanding - I live my life as one, in fact - and think there is a god beyond us all, but that doesn't mean I like the faiths and practices that come out of the gods." And he certainly doesn't care for any faith that abuses its children.

He nods, toying with the ring at his finger. "The Force. That's what they call it in my galaxy. An energy field that binds all life. The kyber crystals are attune to it, can channel it. That's what the temple was build of. What people pilgrimage to see."

There's a tiny shard of crystal in his ring, warm with the living force that Bodhi himself can't sense.

The Force...much becomes clear, though it has been a long time since Alec saw those movies, or though of them. They don't really have the same meaning anymore. Not that he would say that here.

"All life is bound, there is no doubt. Though I don't know of any faith that truly understands how those bonds work. The Green and the Red and the other connections between life on my world are not that simple to explain."

"But you're connected to it? Some people in my world are. Sensitive to it, I mean. I'm not but my husband is. At least a little, I think. Or he just has faith."

"My connection is all encompassing now. But when I was human, I always felt a keen link to the Green. It was why I became a botanist." That seems like so long ago.

Bodhi cocks his head. "You were human? Sorry, I just assumed you were-" He gestures to Swamp Thing's current form. "I'm use to a lot more non-humans than this place has."

"It's a strange and complicated story. Though here, at least no one rushes to call me a monster."

He nods, respecting that Alec might not want to talk about it. "Humans can be xenophobic like that."

"I suppose all species can be, but for the most part I tend to know just humans." And the occasional talking chimp.

"I was- I worked for the Empire for a while. The systematic xenophobia was... hard to ignore." How many times did he fight back the urge to say something when he saw it. But he had to, to keep his head down.

The Empire? "Do you know a Captain Andor? He talks a lot about an empire that would practice such things."

"Cassian's here?" Bodhi suddenly looks bright and alert. "I didn't know."

Edited 2018-08-12 11:33 (UTC)

"I have spoken with him a couple of times. I probably shouldn't be surprised that you haven't met him, though. This place can be so random." It's like a bus station. Anyone can meet anyone, but don't even expect that to happen two days in a row.

"Is he-" Bodhi cuts himself off, unsure how best to ask. "Is he still working?"