#eldritch force

[somestorythoughts]

Okay so been reading eldritch/inhuman jedi things and eldritch/inhuman clone trooper things and would like to propose what if both were true but neither group realizes it for months?

So the Jedi are kinda eldritch or at least very distinctly Other and the clones are superhuman or Something Else or happily existing in the Uncanny Valley but not in the same way as the Jedi and they just. Don’t notice?

Like, its a big fucking galaxy. Everyone’s definition of normal is going to be different. Especially the clones. Because their definition of normal is freaking Kamino and being literally bred for war. They know what they’re like and they know what the Kaminoians are like and they might have picked up some things from whoever their trainers are but really the entire galaxy is going to be weird to them and everywhere they spend time could involve culture shock because they don’t know any other culture? And for the purposes of this prompt lets say that nothing about them that’s superhuman/not normal for regular humans isn’t something they notice that Jango doesn’t have. So they have basically no idea what Normal Human is and it takes them a while to realize they aren’t that.

And then the Jedi just like. They know they’re Eldritch. They can’t not. It’s part of the Force shenanigans. And they know how to hide it from other people. But that doesn’t mean they fully understand the regular limits of “normal people” r how off-putting they can be. This goes double for anyone raised in the creche or who doesn’t spend an extensive amount of time outside the temple interacting with others. And they realize that the clones can keep up with them in a way most cant and are just like “oh great finally don’t have to worry about leaving someone behind while running!” :) and just. Don’t really realize how weird/Other the troopers are themselves because their perception of normal is skewed.

Meanwhile the rest of the galaxy is like “okay who the fuck authorized the creation of ANOTHER group of eerie superhumans?!”

[adreamfromnevermore]

It has been a long time since anyone remembered the true origins of the Jedi. A long time since the world remembered them as more than the peacekeepers they have been turned into. The careful song and dance they follow to avoid the ire of a senate they don’t care for to retain what chance they could to do as the force asked of them.

Over the years fewer and fewer had taken to wandering as had once been common. Too busy watching over their young, too busy attempting to keep the senate happy and sated as they are ordered from planet to planet and war to war. 

The Force whispers in their ears, grief and guilt that they can not understand. Calls them to the planets she knows need their aid and sings when they listen. It is the force that sends Obi-wan and his master to Naboo. It is the force that then calls Obi-wan to leave the ship on Tattooine, to wander the dunes until he finds a boy with wide blue eyes, his features morphing as he looks up and smiles with 3 rows of teeth and Obi-wan smiles back with fangs to match.

The boy is a supernova, a child that has not learned the lessons of the creche but is one of them all the same. The boy is pure light, brilliant and blinding to any that are not used to the stars that all jedi are when you open yourself to it.

The boy is truer to what they should be than anyone Obi-wan could speak of now. 

In one world Qui-gon is the one to find the blond blue eyed boy. In one world the Jedi are simply conduits of the force. 

In another they are her children, molded from the very stars and gifted the breath of life to wander her creations. In this world a star finds a supernova, in this world a pair of lights stand side by side in the desert and the crechemaster a galaxy away smiles at the knowledge a lost crecheling has been found. 

-

In this world Shmi Skywalker meets the brilliant blue of the boy her son leads into their home and knows without a doubt that he is no different from her Ani. That given the chance he could hunt the same beasts her son does, could lead them through the desert wastes to the caverns her son so adores. 

In this world the boy smiles, gentle and kind, lays a hand on her arm and frowns at the reminder of what holds her here. His hand twitches his lips split in a snarl as fangs poke out and then he wipes it away. Fingers warm where they brush against her shoulder and he smiles before he leaves. 

She doesn’t ask how he knows the traditional greetings of a land he’s never been.

A day later she leaves a planet she has been trapped on for far too long with her son in her arms. 

[adreamfromnevermore]

Mace learns the same lessons in the Creche that all younglings do. 

And just as he learns how to speak, and move and breathe. How to hold himself, with the correct amount of limbs and the correct amount of teeth and no little details to give himself away, he learns to hunt. To stalk, to shadow your prey as it runs while you dart through the trees. 

That one was always his favorite. After all, the world thought them diplomats, negotiators, but that was simply what the Senate wanted and they had learned centuries ago the dangers in attempting to break free of that. It was better to be tools than weapons, and the freedom they’d managed to claw back was something they refused to let go.

Mace remembered the games the padawans used to play with the younglings. Darting through the trees under the watchful eyes of the crechemasters while all those who had enough control of their limbs to follow hunted them. It was something that even now in war they attempted to continue. A tradition that let the youngling decide their own paths. Whether they wished to be hunters or turn their sights on something else. 

The Order had hidden itself from those who feared them by dulling their claws. By smiling with closed lips to keep fangs hidden from prying eyes. By hiding their young when they didn’t have the control not to slip up. 

At war they didn’t have that luxury. Padawans sent to fight when they were far from ready. Masters hunting through a galaxy so shadowed in darkness they could barely sense the dangers they knew the force should be screaming about. 

They were not the Force’s only children. And those of the Dark had just as much a claim to her as they did. Someday someone would recognize the similarities in Ventress and her shifting features. 2 eyes and then 6, fangs changing into rows of sharp teeth. Hands curled around saber hilts suddenly taloned and vicious. 

[adreamfromnevermore]

Hello! I've been following your story on AO3 and adoring every minute. I think you'll be addressing this soon but when you mentioned how understanding the Force makes it easier to deceive it, is that how Palpatine is hiding in plain site as the chancellor? Because he is hiding from the Force?

It’s connected and I do plan to address that soon but I can give a little bit of an explanation here as well!

Essentially yes, because Palpatine is a Force user he has an understanding of the force that they wouldn’t expect of a random senator. The Force can’t technically lie, but you can use ti to omit or hide things if you know what your doing. When I described it in the last chapter with Cody it was a nebula, almost like a web every one and everything is visible to it and they all have their own layers and depths.

I’m going to do a cut here in case you don’t want to see the more in depth explanation as it’s kind of spoilers :)

 For those who don’t understand the Force their lies will be obvious to most force users as they’ll just be on the surface. For Force users who know what they’re doing there are different ways to hide what may give away their lies and also ways to support them if they know what to do. Mostly, Palpatine works through a level of misdirection more than outright lying. On Coruscant it’s easier than it would be in other places because there are simply so many people to hide both your own presence and the things you want to obscure. The senate especially makes it more difficult as there are many people there who are already unpleasant to Jedi senses which helps Palps blend his own presence in when he hides it. 

Palpatine is using those around him, especially the Senators that are already dark in the force to hide himself so that the Jedi only see the presence he presents for them. They don’t notice it because they’re used to the darkness of the Senate and expect it of them by now. And they don’t catch the lies because they aren’t expecting a random Senator, the Chancellor even, to know how to hide the same way they do. 

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

The gods of Mortis are reborn in a trio of clone troopers. Fox, Rex, and Cody take stock of their new world.

Title taken from the song Yellow Flicker Beat by Lorde.

Speaking of clones, everybody should totally check out this post about Land Back in Aotearoa and donate if you can.