Saga - OT Gem of My Beaches (end of Rogue One; Jyn/Cassian; ad-hoc OTP Challenge #12)

Author: Findswoman
Title: Gem of My Beaches
Era: Saga–OT, at the very end of Rogue One
Characters: The Force, Jyn Erso/Cassian Andor
Genre: vignette, prose poem
Summary: After Scarif, the Force laments, observes, and acts.
Notes: A very belated, very ad-hoc, not at all competitive entry for OTP Challenge #12: The Landscape of Love, in which I received the prompt “beach.” Also a bit of an experiment. Many thanks once again to @Raissa Baiard for beta reading and valuable feedback.

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I remember it all, because I saw it all, because I was it all.

I remember the moment the white-hot death blast scarred my ocean gem, my Scarif. It threw the oceans into a fierce boil, mortally scalding every creature from the tiniest krill to the schools of scalefish to the largest wahrgil. It sent the waters upward in a giant maelstrom of steam, another white-hot death. And the ocean floor lay exposed, its once teeming dwellers clinging to it shriveled, boiled, beached, dead.

I remember, because I am shriveled, boiled, beached, and near dead along with them.

In the whitened skies, watergulls immolated in midflight, midsong. On the beach—the gem of my beaches!—swaying palms and lush fronds burned in moments to ash. Sparkling sands (each grain itself a gem!) molten into waves of slag, engulfing the slender legs of the shorepipers...

I saw them. I felt them. I was engulfed with them.

For I was them.

(Ah, work of sentients, unworthy of the name! For they do not know the pain they cause me: that once I have made a world, made its creatures, I cannot make them again! My Pipada, uprooted—my Lasan, devastated—my Jedha, obliterated—and now my Scarif—! Anguish fills me to know that these will not be the last…)

And yet there they were.

Ah, even my own creatures amaze me sometimes! Rebel and captain, she and he. Dirty, weak, broken, bedraggled as they staggered against each other there on the beach, the gem of my beaches. He spoke to her: “Your father would have been proud of you, Jyn.”

And her tired smile shone like stardust through the grit on her face, and their hands touched, and they embraced. Heedless of the deadly blast rolling in, heedless of the sand turning to glass beneath their feet...

They did not know it, but they were embracing me.

In that moment they were the gem of my beaches. My chosen, the pinnacle of my creation. For they had set in motion the destruction of the destruction. Set in motion only: I knew what risks they had taken, what rules they had broken, whom they had lost, whom they had antagonized. I knew it would not fall to them to finish that work. But even in starting it they had brought me hope.

And so I sent them my light.

I blazed forth whiter, brighter, faster than the death blast. Now, they did not see, of course. Nor did they see that other light, either; they only felt and held and embraced each other, there on the beach. But I blazed, and came after them, and engulfed them. Engulfed them just as—

* * *​

My light still holds them.

Their work is unfinished. My work is unfinished. My next course of action will not finish the work, for I am the work. But still I hold them. Captain and rebel, he and she.

I shall not be able to hold them long, for I must obey my own laws. I must decide. Do I take them to myself? (Along with the many, from both sides of the battle, that I have had to take this day.) What then? Or do I place them back on the beach—once the gem of my beaches!—that now lies bare and boiled, to drench beneath the driving rains the swollen clouds will unleash? What then?

And the lonely breeze rustling over the shore repeats: What then?

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Spoiler: Notes

The notion that the Force is its creatures, and its creatures are the Force, is influenced by a central tenet of the nondualist strain of Jewish mysticism: that all creation is contained within the Deity, and that there is nothing that exists that is not the Deity. (Nondualist spirituality comes up in many other real-life mystical traditions, too; that’s just the one I know best.)

scalefish: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Scalefish. Specified as a Naboo fish in the Wook, but there’s no reason they couldn’t live on other planets, too, as is true of several other GFFA animals.

wahrgil: A large fanon aquatic mammal, imagined as a cross between a wahrk (a kind of whale-shark mashup from the D’ni/Myst fandom) and a purrgil.

shorepipers: fanon long-legged shorebirds, a GFFA version of sandpipers.

Pipada, Lasan, Jedha, Scarif: All planets that suffered some kind of destruction or devastation (whether of their people, their physical environment, or both) at the hands of the Galactic Empire before the destruction of Alderaan.

“Their work is unfinished. My work is unfinished. My decision here will not finish the work, for I am the work”: Inspired by the following quote from the Talmud: “It is not for you to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it” (Mishnah Avot 2:16).

“the driving rains the swollen clouds will unleash”: A reference to my story The Rains of Scarif. And if you know that story (it’s a quick read and not hard to get to know), you may have an idea of “what then”...

 

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting!

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed and always glad to have you here.

Why, thank you, ma'am!

Yes, great point there—and I would say that that those amazing verses from John chapter 1 could be interpreted as a statement of nondualism, too! It's a pretty intriguing concept that I am curious to read more about.

Thanks again! And that is so much what that final embrace in Rogue One feels like: now that the mission is completed, the future and eternity are now, and they join that future and eternity (see also below, too). And as I recall, you once wrote a stunningly beautiful Rogue One story based on that very same moment and Blake quote, and I know it's a theme of your fantastic Rogue One drabble series—both which have been major inspirations to all my own attempts at doing anything RO-related, so thank you!

Exactly! That end scene seemed in a way more like a transformation than a death—kind of an apotheosis, really! And it got me thinking that even though the Force seems to be mostly absent from Rogue One—at least compared to the way it comes up in other films, with Jedi tricks and techniques of one sort and another—that, well, maybe it isn't really so absent from this movie, just present in this other way. (Again, a theme of your "Stardust," too!)

In a way, the Force's indecision mirrors my own initial indecision when planning this story: should I make it just plain canon-compliant (!) or lead in to the AU of "Rains of Scarif"? And then I thought, "why not both?" The reader can decide. Though, too, as you say...

...that is pretty much how I was imagining this piece, so perhaps you guess which direction I lean. Thanks so much once again, and I'm so glad this was enjoyed by such a Rogue One and Rebelcaptain authority as yourself!

Thank you so much! I’m so glad you came by to read. I guess that was indeed supposed to be a bit of a guessing game, so I’m glad it worked!

Thanks so much! This was the opening line I knew I wanted from the start (which isn’t always the case with me and my opening lines), and it kind of became the prompt for the whole rest of the story, in keeping with the nondualist theme mentioned above.

Aw, thank you! I have to say, even just doing the research on this scenery was a bit of a wrench—looking at all the beautiful Scarif scenes and just knowing that this kind of destruction would be their ultimate fate. It’s as though the makers of the film made a point of making that planet as gorgeous as possible, so that the destruction would hit all the harder! And it did, at least for me.

Thank you again, Brodie, I certainly try! Ever since seeing Obi-Wan’s reaction to Alderaan I’ve believed that destruction of that kind, on that scale, couldn’t not have some effect on the Force itself. I so appreciate your coming by to read and comment; always glad to have you here!

Thank you so much, and I'm so glad you came by to read! So glad you enjoyed this story!

That, too, was one of the first lines I wrote for this story. If there's nothing that is not part of the Force, then just think what the Force itself experiences when something is so ruthlessly and unnaturally destroyed! Or that's what I was hoping to get across, at least.

Thanks! In a way, the work of which the Force speaks will never truly be finished—but that too is part and parcel of the Force's omnipotence. It takes notice—and appreciation!—when its mortal creatures truly lean into the ongoing work, the way Jyn and Cassian did. (If that made sense!)

Thank you so much once again! So glad to have you here.

Thanks so much! And that is exactly how I feel the Force must be working here. Yes, it created the universe and the worlds, but it also created each of those creatures, from the tiny shorebirds to the gigantic wahrgils, and takes pride in each of them, and hurts when any of them is destroyed (because it can't make the same ones again). And again, I feel like they made a point of making Scarif's scenery super beautiful so that its destruction would hit extra hard!

Thanks! Just like divapilot said above—that whole scene really had that "eternity in a moment" feeling. (I am so glad I rewatched it, because it hit me even harder on the subsequent watch!) How could even the Force not notice the beauty and sincerity of their final moments? Because it is itself that beauty and sincerity.

Aw, thank you again! That was another line that I knew I wanted in the story from the start, given what an apotheosis moment that scene feels like (at least to me). Again, I had some indecision at first about what to have the Force do in that moment—and then decided to give that indecision to the Force itself, just to show how truly unfinished its work was. And I'm so glad you enjoyed the tie-ins from Jewish mysticism and philosophy; pulling things like that into my stories is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, but also a great way to make sense of the ideas for myself. Always wonderful to have you here; thanks so much again for reading and commenting!

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that, and I definitely try! Both this story and "Beautiful, Inexactly" were a bit experimental in nature, and I'm glad they turned out successful. Humility is a great way of putting it: in a way, maybe the Force's limitations are is part and parcel of its omnipotence. Its compassion for its works certainly is!

I have to say, that image hit me hard, too! I just love the way sandpipers, etc. run around beaches on those slender little legs, and it hit me that in a scenario like this that very sand would be their death, and that the very characteristic that allows them to live as wading birds would prove fatal. And yes, the "ocean gem" of Scarif is indeed made up of gems of all sizes and kinds that will never be able to be remade after the Human-made destruction they suffer.

How can the Force itself not admire the way Jyn and Cassian hold on to that final moment together? They did their part of the work and they did it well; they know they have brought hope, so whatever happens next cannot faze them. And if it is indeed fragile, fallible creatures like them to continue the work, then that will make the ultimate triumph all the more impressive, in a way! The Force knows that, and that's why it does what it does, even if it means suspending its own rules for a bit. Whichever way it ends up will be the right way, in a way. (Again, if that makes sense!)

You are so welcome, and thank you so much, as always, for reading, and commenting and being part of the genesis of this story!

 

Oh my . . . oh my my my. Just: wow!

I've sat down a few times to leave my thoughts here, and yet I keep putting off doing so because I wanted to write a review worthy of your work - a state you know I've found myself in before! I don't think I'm still quite succeeding, but I'm going to give it my best shot. So! Because this is beyond lovely, in every way. There's such a haunting tone of myth and legend, all the while still being so humanly relatable. This reads more like poetry rather than prose, which is quite the feat!

Then, in particular:

And just like that, I was drawn in and hooked. As soon as you mentioned a beaches project in the WIPuary index, I was hoping for a companion piece to your Rains of Scariff. (Which I am completely taking this to be - so hush, Canon - though the ambiguity of your ending has an amazingly heavy impact either way!), and this most certainly did not disappoint!

Oh ow ow ow! The details here were so lush in their horrific intensity, and made for such incredibly poignant reading. To see such beauty laid to waste and the innocent suffering thanks to greed and cruelty was so vividly expressed with just a few well picked sentences. And that omniscient presence mourning all the while! So, so heavy hitting!

It was here, right here, where I understood for a fact that it was the Force itself that was speaking, and that comprehension slammed into me like a tidal wave. I had to go back and restart from the beginning just to get the full impact and: wow. I have no words. I still have gooseflesh, just thinking about it while typing!

Unworthy of the name, indeed! The Force is life and death, it doesn't take away free will for better or worse, but rather is affected and then effects in return, but the destruction wrought here is truly senseless. The Force remembers and holds all of its creation dear, even while holding everything that ever is and was and will be through eternity - it remembers. I had such awe for this paragraph, in particular!

Oh! Amongst the despair, this little bit of light heartened me, as it did also for the Force! Where the worst of sentience is on display here, so also is the best! Balance, always and ever.

I had to stop reading and get up and walk this line off - as I sometimes have to do when something I read really checks all of my emotional boxes, and this well did above and beyond.

No. Words.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What then, indeed??? Well, I know what ending I subscribe too, personally, but I adore how you left this open to interpretation!


Thank you for sharing this breathtaking, hauntingly beautiful piece with us. I am well blown away by genius here. This one is going to stay with me and linger, and will be a piece that I revisit often in the future. Bravo!