ext_15150 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
malabud.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crack_van2005-05-30 04:35 pm
malabud.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2005-05-30 04:35 pm
Entry tags:
Five Senses by Selena (PG)
Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: Gen
Length: 2,000 words
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
selenak
Author Website: Selena's Fanfiction.net Profile
Why this must be read:
Selena wrote this short piece soon after seeing Revenge of the Sith, so it is very new. In this story, Anakin Skywalker contemplates each of his five senses in turn, remembering how he once used them. He also examines his senses as they are now, irrevocably changed through the fire of his final transformation into Darth Vader. Now that he is entombed within his distinctive life-support suit and mask, his senses are muted, dulled, unused, and remote. He seeks to convince himself that he prefers it that way, but the irony and bitterness of that false conviction are very clear.
The last line of the story is a real kicker. I do not want to spoil it for you, but it brings to mind one of the last things Anakin ever said while still wearing his mask. This story is mostly angst, but the last line does bring a bittersweet hope, though Vader may think he has none. Highly recommended.
* * *
I. Touch
Now that he has no fingers made of flesh left and what remains of his skin will never feel anything but the metal of medical droids and the suit they keep him in, he seems to remember every single thing he ever touched. All the repair tools at Watto's shop. His mother's face, saying goodbye to her twice, the second time feeling the dried blood, sweat and tears under his fingertips which nourished the murderous fury in his heart. Obi-Wan's hesitant fingers, cutting his hair after Qui-Gon's funeral, brushing the bare skin at his neck. Her hands, covering him with a blanket; the stretched skin of her belly, and the movement of the child; her mouth, making sense of his life after all.
He had not touched any of his victims. If you kill with a lightsaber, it cauterizes the wound at once. There is not even blood. If you kill through the Force, no physical weapon is necessary at all. He dimly recalls some of his victims touching him, though. One of the Tusken women, grabbing at his cloak. And Gunray, desperate Gunray, trying to find a way, any way to stop him, clutching one of his wrists. He does not wish to recall these touches, but the body is stubborn. It provides physical memory even beyond physical existence. He does not have human legs any more, but he still can feel one of the younglings, trying to catch his ankle to stop him from moving on.
The last touch he remembers, though, the last contact with living flesh, did not come from a victim, or from a friend. He has no words any more for what the Emperor is to him. In fact, when he noticed Palpatine bending over him, he had assumed that the man would complete what Obi-Wan had not finished. Not out of mercy, of course, and not for punishment, but simply because a dying cripple was of no more use, and in all his incarnations -- Chancellor, Sith Lord, and Emperor -- Palpatine had above all been pragmatic. There was no practical reason to touch the burned skin of his head, and yet that was what Palpatine had done.
Five Senses
Pairing: Gen
Length: 2,000 words
Author on LJ:
selenakAuthor Website: Selena's Fanfiction.net Profile
Why this must be read:
Selena wrote this short piece soon after seeing Revenge of the Sith, so it is very new. In this story, Anakin Skywalker contemplates each of his five senses in turn, remembering how he once used them. He also examines his senses as they are now, irrevocably changed through the fire of his final transformation into Darth Vader. Now that he is entombed within his distinctive life-support suit and mask, his senses are muted, dulled, unused, and remote. He seeks to convince himself that he prefers it that way, but the irony and bitterness of that false conviction are very clear.
The last line of the story is a real kicker. I do not want to spoil it for you, but it brings to mind one of the last things Anakin ever said while still wearing his mask. This story is mostly angst, but the last line does bring a bittersweet hope, though Vader may think he has none. Highly recommended.
* * *
I. Touch
Now that he has no fingers made of flesh left and what remains of his skin will never feel anything but the metal of medical droids and the suit they keep him in, he seems to remember every single thing he ever touched. All the repair tools at Watto's shop. His mother's face, saying goodbye to her twice, the second time feeling the dried blood, sweat and tears under his fingertips which nourished the murderous fury in his heart. Obi-Wan's hesitant fingers, cutting his hair after Qui-Gon's funeral, brushing the bare skin at his neck. Her hands, covering him with a blanket; the stretched skin of her belly, and the movement of the child; her mouth, making sense of his life after all.
He had not touched any of his victims. If you kill with a lightsaber, it cauterizes the wound at once. There is not even blood. If you kill through the Force, no physical weapon is necessary at all. He dimly recalls some of his victims touching him, though. One of the Tusken women, grabbing at his cloak. And Gunray, desperate Gunray, trying to find a way, any way to stop him, clutching one of his wrists. He does not wish to recall these touches, but the body is stubborn. It provides physical memory even beyond physical existence. He does not have human legs any more, but he still can feel one of the younglings, trying to catch his ankle to stop him from moving on.
The last touch he remembers, though, the last contact with living flesh, did not come from a victim, or from a friend. He has no words any more for what the Emperor is to him. In fact, when he noticed Palpatine bending over him, he had assumed that the man would complete what Obi-Wan had not finished. Not out of mercy, of course, and not for punishment, but simply because a dying cripple was of no more use, and in all his incarnations -- Chancellor, Sith Lord, and Emperor -- Palpatine had above all been pragmatic. There was no practical reason to touch the burned skin of his head, and yet that was what Palpatine had done.
Five Senses