Beyond - Legends Saga Certain Dark Things | Kessel Run Challenge 2023

Diving in under the deadline, will reply fully later.

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Title: "Icarus"
Author(s): still me
Timeframe: post-ESB
Characters: Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader
Genre: angst

Notes: Playing fast and loose with Greek mythology, my apologies.

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• Write a story between 100 and 400 words, and include these three words: carmine, intoxicate, solace
• Word limit = 100-400 words

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There was a story told in the slave quarters of Tatooine that had become a popular folktale even amongst the freeborn.

The details changed, but the essence was this: once, there was a slave boy who longed to be free and through luck or guile managed to escape - but in his pride he flew too close to the suns and came crashing and tumbling and falling back down to the ground.

Sometimes the boy was a craftsman or a mechanic who fashioned wings from the bones and discarded skins of the krayt dragons of the desert. Sometimes the boy was a podracer whose skill was so great he was noticed by the Jedi.

But always, always the boy fell. And sometimes he died and sometimes he survived, but always he was back where he started.

Luke thought about this story as he recovered, as he reflected on the lesson and truth he had been forced to confront on Bespin.

I am your father.

Vader's presence burned: hot and bright and searing with intensely blinding heat, and that was what Luke imagined it must be - to fly too close to a sun. That's what Luke remembered most clearly about Bespin, through the haze of his pain and his defeat: a phantom memory of burning, of lava glowing in crimson and carmine - and then, inevitably, the fall.

Even now, in the solace of his own mind, Luke could feel Vader's presence reaching for him: the clawing, insistent tendrils of his father's consciousness seeking him from some unknowable distance away: the length of the galaxy and the breadth of a thousand star systems meant little in the eyes of the Force. And even though Luke reinforced his shields, he could nonetheless sense Vader's presence, leaking through like acrid smoke under a locked door.

But.

But the details of the story changed so often in the telling and Luke could sense beneath the truth of this story another truth altogether, shining through the Force. Not with the intense and painful and unyielding heat of a sun but - a candle. A lonely candle that fought to hold back the Dark.

There was a truth hiding behind the words, behind Vader's assertion and armor hate, and Luke knew that it had the potential to change everything, to intoxicate him with its relentless potential -

That somehow in Vader, Anakin could yet remain.

End.

 

A moving piece where Luke discovers the light inside Vader. Excellent use of the prompts

 

I've been gaga over Greek mythology since sixth grade, so I loved this analogy!

Now this is where the tale becomes Star Warsy in its redemptive theme. Too bad Icarus never got redeemed, or forgiven, during his long plunge into the wine dark sea ...

 

@earlybird-obi-wan
Thank you!

@pronker
I read a really great poem recently, which was probably why Icarus was on my mind:

Failing and Flying
BY JACK GILBERT

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.​

 

Marvelous poem accentuating the positive, rather than its opposite. Thanks for sharing!

 

lovely poem

 

These have got to be the best opening lines for a fic that I've read in a long time! You use the myth to such great effect here to describe Anakin/Vader that it's really discounting yourself to say that you're "playing fast and loose with Greek mythology". There's a whole dissertation to be written about myths and Star Wars – I'm actually pretty sure that several have been written already – but this one just fits perfectly, and I love how you went from the big picture story that Luke heard as a child on Tatooine (if only he knew how some versions of the story were actually about his father!) to his private musings about the events on Cloud City.

As a side note, I've seen you mention this dichotomy between the slaves and the freeborn on Tatooine in other stories, and I'm curious to know if this is a piece of fanon that you've somehow codified, or if you just work with a general concept and make it up as you go along.

And this has to be one of the best endings Beautiful imagery, with the contrast of the sun and the candle, and a wonderful way to set up the stage for the events of RotJ.

Thank you for sharing the poem that inspired this story. I'd never heard about this particular poet, but his take on the myth of Icarus is so unusual and glorious that I now want to go and read more of his work.

And most importantly, thank you for sharing these stories over the past three months! It was a true pleasure to come to this thread every week and read your latest offering (although I probably need to have my head checked for enjoying tragic angsty stories so much ). Please tag me if you ever get around to posting the long vignette, I'd love to read it! In any case, be sure that I'll be keeping an eye out for more of your writing on the fanfic boards.

 

lol, yes, yes it would

You could always write actual mushy L/M to erase the memory of it Or maybe just some cracky L/M to balance out the angst

Aw, so lovely and atmospheric and poor Shira

This is some really great descriptions of lightsaber technique, plus a perfect moment of characterization for Luke

That's our boy, he always wants the best for everyone and always wants to help them find that best

He's pretty good at looking intimidating and expecting that his demands be met instantly, and as someone who's been owned by cats for most of her life, I have to say that that's pretty authentic

Of course Artoo figured it out first And yeah, honestly, it's probably a lot easier for Leia to just ignore all of this

Just lovely, Elli

 

ELLIIIIIIIIIIII

I am so, so, SO unbelievably far behind, but I'm finally here with some long overdue feedback to this terrible beautiful amazingness.

Your author's notes are the best.

This is perfect? And also yes, absolutely agreed.

What an insight right here, because you're right, Luke was just so certain in that moment, and how galling must that have been for Palpatine, once he realized that Luke was right all along? I also love "you remember with something deeper than memory". (And I love that you used second-person POV here before we even got to the second-person prompt. I'm really enjoying this second-person renaissance we're having lately. Especially fitting since I'm pretty sure you're the first person I ever saw use it. )

Gah, this description. It's all so awful and amazing, but this particular turn of phrase ("you know yourself to be a fine hand with wicked things") is just... *chef's kiss*. You're so good at this, Elli.

Chills.

Beautiful description, again. And not just quivering against the wind, but against a frozen wind. I love it.

Seriously, Elli, it's SO GOOD. The descriptions you come up with are so unique and sharp and vivid, they instantly conjure up not just an image or setting, but a feeling. It's like you're taking something we know instinctively but can't quite put into words, and then putting it into words anyway, and I feel like I'm rambling a bit, but it's so impressive.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you bring Palpatine back and have him turn Luke to the dark side.

So creepy and eerie and dark and good, Elli.

Such a simple yet powerful image.

What a great description of how it feels for Luke to walk that path, I love it.

The pacing of this section is just so good, so disjointed and stream-of-consciousness and picking up speed as you go.

"you don't know who you'll be when you get to the other side" is chilling.

it already misses someone you used to be

Anakin! Luke, listen to your father!

Heh, I think that's what I would have wanted for Jacen, too. Except, you know, I'd probably still want it to be an AU, or at least not have it be permanent.

Awww, Elli. (Love you too! )

lolol

I loved this, both for Sam's confusion over what we the readers know to be mind trick fuzziness, and for how tired and over it Luke is here.

Like Gabri said, you sure do write a great creepy/conflicted Luke.

This whole section is great, but what I thought you did particularly well was showing the mind trick from within Sam's own thoughts, and how those thoughts reform themselves around the mental commands that Luke is giving in a way that makes it feel completely natural to him and shows just how insidious that trick is.

Brilliant echo of Sam's thoughts at the beginning. I had the same thought as Gabri: has all of this happened before, right down to the order to rethink his life? Or did Luke finally add that command in, and now maybe Sam will actually talk to Logan and, you know, rethink their lives? However you intended it, it was all excellently crafted, and I loved it.

lolol and YAAAS

lolll, "Vader's blade followed by Vader's son", idk that just made me laugh

I enjoyed this jab at Sacrifice, I won't lie. What was it you said in your drabble thread? Luke Skywalker doesn't straight up murder people, Karen

I mean, unless he's fallen to the dark side...

Fantastic imagery.

And then I'm afraid I didn't quote anything until nearly the end, because it was all excellent action writing, truly. I couldn't pick it apart without quoting the entire thing. The pacing and the wording and the choreography were all awesome, I could follow and picture it all.

Damn, Luke, that's some creepiness there, good job.

That's our boy.


And I'm going to pause my review there, but I will be back with more asap because I read it all as you were posting it, and I love it all, and I've waited far too long to leave these comments, and I will try to be quicker about getting back here with more!

 

I think "read a lot of vader_incarnate's fics" is going to be my villain origin story, one of these days. Fantastic set of stories from start to finish; I especially enjoyed seeing some moments from the "Black Knight" universe that I never expected -- hadn't even thought to wonder how Lumiya would react to that whole debacle and your version is so much fun (and angst) to read with both the real emotional warfare and the sheer pettiness she and Luke are flinging about. ("He's my formerly malevolent garbage dad, not yours!" ) Even more interesting that he does choose to avoid killing her for the time being.

And this, this is such a wonderful bit of Force-philosophizing from a Sith perspective that actually sounds like it would have a draw for someone like Luke -- or anyone who cares for the well-being of others, which is often the sticking point that makes it hard to imagine how oneself or others could go to the dark side. Because allowing the world around you any kind of free will does allow people to commit all the predictable and often systematic evils... from a certain point of view. But the cost of turning always turns out to be some flavor of way too much, which is the bit that is always conveniently left out of such a pitch!

And then there is bitter, salty ghost!Padme, which I just adore and am deeply pained by. (I love all the ghost!Padme flavors really, but sometimes she can have a bit of vengeance ghost haunting as a treat, surely? )

Just so sad, that this is how he now sees her, and perhaps how she now is.