Tattooine, for all of the dark souls on it, is a place of blinding light. A place of burning suns, and the endless expanses of sands that reflect their gaze. Even night is well lit, three moons absorbing and redirecting light in cooler tones that still blanket the landscape in pale whites and navy blues. It's is a place burning from its light, it is a place that holds great darkness, it is a place that shows how much hides in the clearest sight.
Luke Lars (Or Skywalker to a very select few) always saw shadows in the sands. With the Tatoo twins high and blazing down from above, he would see shades of darkest black, royal purples, and abyssal blues. No else ever saw this phenomenon, so after a long time trying to show them, he began to ignore them.
Shadows always followed Luke. Not in the amusing way a toddler would confuse thier own and be afraid, no these were much stranger. He never truly noticed them, long since convincent by his own mind that they were mere delusions, never once questioning how they clung to him on long days helping his Uncle fix vaporators, how they always seemed to be in the perfect spots for him to disappear when being chased by bullies or those on the wrong end of his helpful nature. He never noticed how often thugs eyes would glaze over him in a crowd, or how certain things would simple luck out in ways luck simply shouldn't work for. Luke, child of the endless yellow sands, had a young life filled with unseen shade covering him from the oppressive heat of sun's and masters.
Shadows, Luke noticed, seem to talk to him. Well talk is a broad term, but it fits well enough for the near incomprehensible sensation of tasting pictures and seeing sound. Only once did it happen like that, and even with the hardy body built of grit mixed with teenage hardiness he was catatonic for a week. Poor Aunt Beru was so worried she spent the few credits she had saved for a medical droids services to try to help you, not that it could do much. All diagnostics came back negative, and by the weeks end you were back up fine. Well mostly fine, after all hearing multilayered voices whispering from shadows no one else saw certainly didn't qualify as 'normal'.
Shadows don't make any damn sense, Luke found out. When they do manage to sort out whatever will be the main voice for the time, they do little more then ramble nonsense intermixed with adjectives of life, wisdom, and complete babble. Anything that could have a grain of truth and knowledge had far to much salt to be of any worth.
Shadows, Luke noticed, seem to be getting better. More often he hears a distinctly female voice speak to him in clear tones instead of the jumble. The things being said even start to improve to the point he is almost comfortable talking to the completely illusionary darkness....He really needs therapy or something doesn't he? No matter how many times he may dismiss it, during its moments of clarity the shadows insist they are real, half between certain conviction and an almost desperate tone as if it is not truly certain what exactly is real. These tones shift day to day, some filled with nothing but whispers clinging, digging into his mind as its voices become panicked, broken into more discord then grains of sand beneath his feet. He hates these moments with what little anger his heart can bring up. Mix with regret, uncertainty and dread of what this means for his apperntly fragile mind, and it's a rough day. Much rather have the days filled with one increasingly familiar tone, one that still babbles on endlessly, but can actually respond to him. It feels.....comforting is some strange way.
Shadows have become a friend for Luke. Funny part is he didn't even notice. He never abandoned his small group of friends he had mostly around Anchorhead, but he did notice he hadn't seen some of them in awhile, too focused on the shadows and his work. It was a shock to realize how easy it was, even with its improvements, to lose himself in inane chatter with a semblance of response from something. It must really say something about him if he gets lost talking with a figment of imagination. Atleast he has a way to refer to it now beside just shadows. On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, in a moment of clarity that shocked him, it clearly stated "I wish for you to call me Mother, even if I have yet to prove one to you."
Yeah if there was a doubt before hand, it is now out the window that he needs a psychiatrist.
Shadows....Mother?....Mommy..Mom..Shadommy? The ever present roiling darkness of my fractured psyche? Whatever he refers to it as, might not be as fake as he originally thought. Yeah sure it might not be seen or heard by anyone else, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it chokeslammed a Gammorean. Ok context, standerd run into town to transport our water tax and sell off what was left simple, easy, done it hundreds if not a couple thousand times by now. Problem came after we got the credits. Few steps out the door turn down the side street towards Uncle Owen's speeder, the man himself looking down at an old holopad of things they needed to buy in order of most necessary, when a full gang of assorted thugs comes out of the woodwork. Several Weeqeuys, a Twilek and a pair of Gammoreans, one of which had their customary axe (seriously they all have one) pressed tightly to your neck. Now again, this isn't rare, it's Tattooine. Most of the time Uncle Owen can scare them off with his rifle or some good ol fashion fisticuffs, but gangs are much more common then thugs on their lonesome. Its such a common thing, there is even an option to delay your tax date if you got robbed, it is heavily scrutinized but atleast Jabba had one decent law put in place. All in all average time, for as brutal as the gangs are, they are surprising proffesional with their theft. You give them the items they seek, they may even say thank you and leave without trying to shake you down for more. All of this changes with any hint of defiance or aggression, what was once cordial is now the excuse they needed to brutally beat and kill you. So you see the option most people tend to prefer and go for is the easy way. Well this day by no volition of your own, you choose The Hard Way. How you ask? Well thats simple, the shadows that engulf your mind reacted rather......badly to the threat being used against you. With an ear piercing shriek that the thugs most certainly heard, darkness coalesced into a vague humanoid shape towering over the pig towering over you. Amorphous hands slid between your neck and the axes blade protecting it as the being yanked up the Gammorean. Now, you have a vague idea of how heavy these guys are, mostly because it's a bragging point for them, so to see a hefty version snatched up and held dangling several feet above the stone street by what you though was a part of your mental illness, well the only thought going though your head was "Huh that's kinda cool."
Then, with the speed of lightning, the shadow hefts them back before slamming then against the stone with the rumbling of thunder as all the sandstone simple becomes sand. The rest of the gang had fair reactions, the few who didn't have weapons drawn, had them out firing before their comrade hit the floor, unfortunately all shots that landed on the abyssal being simply....vanished with no evidence of it truly being hit. You wish you could've seen the rest of the brawl, but Uncle Owen, ever the survivor, grabs your arm and hauls you down the street. You don't stop until your back inside the most guarded place on the planet. The tax office.
Shadows, Luke learns, still don't make sense even if they can slap him now. After the incident, they started to appear more often as a being then a shade, able to interact with the world around them even if no one but him could see it or hear it still. Not much has changed with its speech either other then when it considers its advice ignored and conks him upside the head gently. Emphisis on gently because as he knew, it was physically very strong and very much didn't know how much so. Let's say it looked like he went a few rounds trying to bang engine parts back together with his head....again. Once that was solved it was just became a fond reminder of the many, many, many, many dope slaps his Aunt had given him before. Well besides the terrible abuse he must suffer for his own stupidity, he had noticed Old Ben started acting weird around the same time the incident did. Not to say he wasn't very weird in the first place, but diffrent. When visiting he would space out before suddenly jerking his eyes towards either Luke or 'Mother' if they were in the room. He would always look confused about it as well, as if he truly expected something there. After this happens he would shiver. Shiver! On Tatooine of all places, and begin aggressively muttering to himself and even stanger start counting before cutting himself off, atleast you think so, why else would he keep saying one?
Shadows, Luke learns, envelope the galaxy. Not like the one that follows him, and smothers him with affection and care. The one that started showing flashes of white hair and pale skin alongside a mouth a little too wide. No, the shadows that hang over the stars is a noose choking their light. Ben....Obi-wan reveals this to him alongside two old friends of his bearing a message of desperation, one calling for thier last hope. There is much he doesn't say, even with all he does. Little gaps filled in by whispers from the invisible being behind you. He speaks truth, he tells what he believes Luke need to know. And he is right, even with more of the story behind what he says revealed, Luke will not just abandon a galaxy to despair. He knows shadows, he knows of the darkness that can hide with in. But he also knows even if the deepest black, there is still good to be found, and he will use his life to bring this good back from the galaxies shadow.