i couldn't stand the person inside me, i turned all the mirrors around

[dyaddyissues]

who: kylo ren + you
what: intro and settling in
where: throughout
when: June, around tdm time


I. 

Kylo Ren doesn't cope well with being displaced as he is. Not when the Force around him feels... strange. Not quite as full of life, perhaps dull and muted is the word to use? He doesn't know -- he's gotten the introduction, read the leaflet, listened to the chatter on the beach he'd woken up in a body that felt just ever so slightly off. Like a pair of trousers that once fit but needed to be adjusted for whatever reason. 

Now that that disorientation had passed, he picked up the bag of his belongings: a sodden cape, leather gloves, the hilt (which goes on his belt) and the broken pieces of the mask (which he nearly throws back into the ocean upon finding them), and moves throughout the city. For a man so tall, and dressed all in black his attempts at blending in might seem somewhat laughable, as does his not-so-sunny disposition, a scowl that seems almost etched onto his features. 

He brushes through the crowd without much of a word or pleasantry to anyone. 

And force help anyone who wants to catch his eye.

II. (nightmares)

The way Kylo has always avoided the nightmares and memories that typically plague his sleep? Work and train himself into exhaustion, until his mind is too tired to dream at all. Normally, it works well enough, he can function and behave normally - or as normally as Kylo Ren does. Here, without a purpose or cause to cling to, he feels a bit... lost. And it's simpler to lose track, so he begins to have nightmares. Violent, and vivid. Plunging his lightsaber through his father's heart, the way his uncle had stared down at him, and his only friend -- Tai, being cut down by Ren. 

It doesn't only happen during the night, but in the day as well. He pulls himself out of a dream, standing straight where he'd nearly slumped over where he stood to shake the dust out of his mind. 

"Don't bother. I don't require any assistance." He says to any single onlooker or one attempting to reach him. 

III. (wildcard)

want to continue something from the TDM? Or something else entirely. Go for it. You can dm to chat or hit me up on plurk @ dyads to discuss plans! 

Comments

[survivalthroughhate]

"The Knights of Ren," Maul repeats as he thinks back on what he knows about the mysterious group of Force-wielders. "An old organization, to be certain, but never one strong enough to challenge the reign of the Sith or even the Jedi in the galaxy." He deliberately digging at Kylo Ren, trying to see if he'll rise to the bait. From what Maul has seen already, the man has a temper.

Maul leans forward at hearing that Kylo has questions. "Go on." He'll listen to hear what the Knight of Ren has to ask. How truthful Maul will be while answering and how much he'll say, well, that's a different story.

[dyaddyissues]

"They are neither Jedi nor Sith. And they do not interfere in matters as such, unless commanded to do so." Their reputation is known, Kylo isn't surprised to know that he's heard of them. Under him they've outgrown what they used to be under the Master he killed.

Ren had been a fool to underestimate him. As did everyone else.

"By me." His hackles rise as his anger does, though with whatever illness or exhaustion plaguing him it seems like acting on it, if that's what Maul is aiming for, wont happen. A cup rattles dangerously as he clenches a fist at his side.

"About our fight. You summoned something. I want to know how."

[survivalthroughhate]

"How wonderful for you, becoming the leader of a bunch of rabble. What do you want for that accomplishment? Applause?" Kylo doesn't seem like a young man but he's got the temper of a teenager. Maul can't help but want to poke the reek a bit and see how far he can rile the Knight of Ren up.

Fortunately, despite his sarcasm, Maul gives a straight answer when asked about the Omens. If he doesn't, Kylo will just go ask someone else, for anyone could tell him about the strange animal creatures connected to the Sleepers. "What I brought forth is an Omen. They are creatures here that are part of you. Some are part of your personality, some function more like guardians or protectors, and still others serve as your conscience or help to keep you in check. Some will talk and some will not. Some people keep theirs out all the time and some never bring them forth at all even once they know that they can. All are indestructible, and should you be so unfortunate as to die and end up back in the ocean, they will wait for you to come back down at the shore."

As Maul finishes, dark smoke billows out from his chest, and Venge the maalraas forms on the ground beside him. She watches Kylo with beady eyes. They feels no particular way about the man but he had fought Maul and they'll protect her other half with everything they've got. "This is Venge. They are my Omen."

[dyaddyissues]

Kylo glowers at Maul through lidded eyes. His hand clenches at the top of the tablecloth, and unclenches it. He's tempted to take out his saber and put it through the table and the ground. To raise it against Maul in a fight again.

But... he does not.

Instead, he chooses his words slowly, picking them out as though one would as if pulling them from a box, lowering his gaze to the cloth. The menu.

"And the Sith did so very well for themselves... they're extinct now, as I'm sure you've none the less heard. Arrogance and hubris. The Jedi fared no better, of course. The rabble is all that has persevered."

He watches as the omen appears out of a cloud of smoke. Curiosity pulls at him - he could do the same thing? What is his? Kylo wants to figure out what his happens to be, but not here.

"So they hamper our natural abilities and offer us new ones -- a spirit guide?"

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul can't help but smirk at Kylo's reaction. Really, it's just too easy with this Dark Sider. He's got a worse time controlling his temper than Maul and that's saying something.

He doesn't rise up to the insult to his order. Instead, Maul shrugs, sipping his tea. "The Sith became as stagnant and mired in their ways as the Jedi were by the time my master died. That is not the way of the Sith. It was his fault, of course, wanting to break the cycle of master and apprentice by being the last one for all time. But the point stands that sometimes you have to burn everything down to ashes and begin anew in order for things to continue in their natural course."

"They hampered your Force abilities perhaps," Maul corrected. "Mine not so much." In exchange, Maul's blood powers were much weaker and harder to control but he's hardly going to be mentioning that to Kylo. He won't mention anything that could possibly give the Knight of Ren an advantage over him. "Depending on your blood type, the Pthumerians may have given you abilities in exchange."

[dyaddyissues]

Kylo listens, his reaction settled for the time being. "That might be the first thing that you've said that I agree with. My first teacher tried to rebuild the Jedi, but he wanted to keep everything the same as it had been, seemed to believe that it would all turn out differently." Luke hadn't been prepared, for his own nephew. He'd been so afraid of the darkness. "All I strive to do is cast aside the old ways and create a new order for the galaxy. Only then can we bring about 'balance'." He's almost too surprised by this sudden turn in things to remember to be annoyed that Maul hadn't risen to his bait.

Well. Almost.

But perhaps, it's fine --

"And that's just a matter of figuring it out." He flexes his hands. He can't say that he enjoys knowing that his "blood" has been changed, his own force given powers have shifted but the blood gifts... he's not going to try it out in front of Maul.

[survivalthroughhate]

"You would do well to listen more to what I have to say. I've survived things you wouldn't believe possible." Yes, he's bragging, but it's also simple fact. Everyone had assumed Maul dead for years after he'd been sliced in two but he lived and continues to do so still. His anger and hate is just that great.

Surprisingly, he does agree with what Kylo has said. For some time now, Maul's been straying a little further from the teachings of Sidious and drifting back more towards the idea of balance, something that stretches back to his youth on Dathomir and being surrounded by nature. "Balance is hard to find but it is worth it in the end. Both orders as they stood had to come to an end for things to continue onwards. From what I have seen, the Jedi in the future are far different from those in my time and that's a good thing. They keep their better qualities without their weaknesses like being shackled to politics and their hypocritical stance on fighting in wars."

Maul leans back in his seat, his prosthetic feet back on the ground now. "I wish you well trying to figure it out. Trial and error is how most people eventually discover what they can do," Maul says. That had been the way of it for him. His first real test had come with trying to remove corruption from Anakin and he'd only barely just succeeded.

[dyaddyissues]

"What happened to you?" Kylo might've been skeptical, called him on those words -- but he finds himself strangely curious about Maul. He speaks of someone who's experienced much, evidenced by the mechanical legs he glimpses from his seat. The force ripples around with him with the same clarity in his darkness that Kylo has long sought after.

"They never had much of a chance to do much, where I'm from. To be involved in anything. They -- Luke Skywalker sought to rebuild the Order. Differently enough, I suppose. He took in children to teach. He failed. I'm all that remains of his attempt." The reason it had failed - no that was Luke's doing, not his. There are likely other Force sensitives, then there is Rey who'd remained hidden until their meeting. Luke's last student.

But he's not exactly ready to speak on her, not yet.

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul figures that what he said would intrigue Kylo enough to ask him about what he meant. "A long time ago, I was in a fight with a Jedi. He sliced me in half. It would have killed anyone else." Again, that's not Maul bragging but mere common sense. He's never heard of another Force-user Light or Dark that could have survived what he went through. "But the Dark Side can provide access to many abilities one might consider to be....unnatural. My hatred and rage were so great I was able to survive and go on living." Anger like that was rare but in Maul it was an innate thing.

"It is not so far a stretch to say I was born on the Dark Side and so that has shaped my relationship to it." Dathomir was a planet saturated in it. Those born on the planet soon became used to the darkness but those that were outsiders oftentimes found themselves being infected with it in an unnatural way. He glances at Kylo with his golden eyes. "I sense the Darkness within you but that's not all that is there. You have turmoil inside." Maul is reminded more of Anakin than anything else, the way Skywalker always feels whenever Maul gets near to him.

He looks intrigued at the mention of Luke Skywalker. Here in Trench, Maul and Luke have formed a deep friendship and he considers the young Jedi part of his family. To hear that he tries and fails in the future, well, it is an old story given the cycle Maul has seen of the Jedi in his own time. Still, it is a bit disheartening to know his Jedi friend doesn't succeed where he wants to. "Such a shame. From what I know of him, he would do his best to teach the next generation. But some things are not meant to be."