Protections
Summary: After a hard bounty, Din comes back to find his ship vastly different.
Words: 335
Warnings: Lore, fluff, talk of skeletal remains
A/N: This had to be written today, demanded to be written. I don't know where it came from but it did and it's cutesy! And most of the lore is true.
Din trudged back to the Razor Crest with heavy steps. This bounty was an unpleasant one. He’d chased his target into a cave, the night vision on his visor revealing skeletons everywhere. Din completed his task without putting too much thought into the origin of the bones until his target was picked up.Â
By the time he arrived back at his ship, his mind had concocted a story about the remains, one he was loath to admit fit with the stories of the Imperial Army and its leaders. His boots clanged along the ramp as he boarded the vessel, going silent when the doors opened and revealed a heavily decorated interior.
“Din! You’re back!” you exclaimed as you walked through the narrow corridor.
“What is all of this?” he questioned, gesturing around the place he called home.
“Just some traditional decorations from home,” you shrugged.
“But why decorate with humanoid remains?”
“I don’t follow,” you responded, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed.
Din pointed to a skeleton hanging on the wall, his exasperated face covered by his visor.
“Oh, the skeletons? They’re not real,” you explained. “It’s a traditional way of warding off evil spirits. Stories say that spirits will settle in the bones of the dead instead of the living, preferring the ease of not fighting the soul of the living.”
“So it’s protection?” he asked, his head tilting to the side.
“Yeah, basically,” you confirmed.
“And these gourds?”
“The Jack o’lanterns?” It was your turn to tilt your head in confusion, trying to figure out his meaning.
“Is that what you call them? The vegetables with faces?” he clarified.
“Yeah. Uh, those are an Irish folktale about a demon and the lights in the pumpkins ward him off,” you sighed, rubbing the back of your neck as you summarized the story of Jack of the Lantern.
“So they’re also for safety?” he pressed.
“Yes,” you nodded, trying to seem more confident than you were.
“They can stay,” he sighed, “as long as they work.”
