deercountry | i'm not a superhero [September Catch-All]

This Maul is a lot younger than the one in Deerington, not that it's easy to tell given the tattooed skin, though it's clear he's about four inches shorter than he currently stands. He's maybe twenty, twenty-one at the most. Maul is focused on deflecting the bolts back at the hunters coming after he and Eldra. They may have teamed up for the moment but that's only out of necessity. He still plans on killing her soon enough.

The appearance of someone else startles him. The Sith isn't sure where he came from, what species he is, or why he's helping them. Maul deflects another another bolt and it catches one of the hunters in the heart. "Who the hell are you?"

Maul assumes he's another one of those who had been bidding on the Jedi and who have come to try to take her back after Maul stole her away. She may be a foe but she deserves respect and Maul wasn't about to let her be auctioned off like a prized cow to let someone do Force-only-knew what with her.

Aw, young Maul... he's almost cute. Not that Nara'a is going to say that. He's not stupid and he's not suicidal. He's dressed for battle and he isn't about to let someone get hurt if he can help it. They may be surrounded, but he's been in worse battle situations.

"Right now? An ally. Someone with an interest in not letting either of you die." He makes a gesture with his hand, and a translucent shield surrounds Maul for a moment, connected to Nara'a by a thin cord of translucent light. A blaster bolt speeds towards the Sith, but hits the shield. Nara'a flinches but doesn't grunt in pain or anything.

"You can either waste time fighting me or waste time fighting them. Your choice."

Maul has no interest in trusting this newcomer but at the same time he doesn't have much choice. Another set of hands to help push back the hunters is welcome right now. He assumes what he's witnessing Nara'a doing is just some form of advanced tech that he's never seen before.

Despite the odds of three-on-six, the criminals are soon dispatched. Maul turns to Nara'a. "You have my thanks for helping. For that, I will spare you." For now, anyway, Maul can't allow anyone who has seen his lightsaber to live for too long. It's a dead giveaway that he's a Sith and if any word of it gets back to the Jedi they might become curious why there's a Force-user running around the galaxy with a red blade. All his master's plans would be in jeopardy and he would be punished severely for that mistake by Sidious.

He gestures to the vast landscape of the deserted moon they are on. "Now run along. The Jedi and I have business to attend to and you are not a part of it."

He snorts at the proclamation. Sure, Maul could try to kill him if he wants, but it might not work out well for him. He's tempted to stay and fight, but this is a memory. It wouldn't really do anything to change the past, as tempting as it is to try. He sighs and puts away his weapons. He's not sure how to get out of here, but...

"Right." He looks at the Jedi, considering warning her of what's to come... but there'd be no point. "You take care of yourselves now." He starts heading out over the rocky terrain, wincing slightly at the thought of not helping someone. He has no desire to get injured by that weird sword though. Hopefully the memory will let him out soon.

... And then he really should let Maul know that there's a book with his memories in the Archive.

Maul lets the strange man go. He figures he'll catch up later once he's dispatched the Jedi Padawan he's currently dealing with. His attention turns back towards Eldra and they exchange a few words before their battle begins. It's one of the last times Maul will have to turn his back on the Dark Side and once again he'll squander the chance. Ironically for someone who has to use them in order to access his powers, Maul's so out of touch with his emotions that he doesn't realize part of him is attracted to the Jedi and that is part of the reason he keeps thinking of sparing her life.

It won't be enough to stop Maul from his course of action. His master's claws are set too deep into his mind and he can't bring himself to do something that would cause punishment. As Nara'a walks off, he'll hear the unique sound of two lightsabers clashing time and again as the two combatants square off. Soon enough, the memory dumps him back out.

Maul is not going to be pleased hearing that his memories were viewed but he won't be enraged as he might otherwise feel. Hadn't he already gone through this in recent memory with the memory-sharing the Omnis and Omens had done?

He sighs and calls Maul's Omni, leaving a message.

"The Archives have some special books. I'm pretty sure that they're actually memories... I saw one of yours. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." He sends the message off and closes the book, going back to the Archives' collection and handing the book in.

Sure, someone else might try to destroy the books... but he's not entirely sure what the staff here might do if he tried.

Maul's pretty pissed-off at what he hears but there's no real malice directed towards Nara'a himself. It doesn't sound like the man intended to deliberately set out and find himself in one of Maul's memories, so it's not like he can be mad at him on a personal level.

When he calls him back, his voice is calm....well, calmish. It's hard to tell if he might go from 0 to 100 in five seconds as he often does. ".....What did you see?"

"You were fighting off people with Eldra." He keeps his own voice calm - he's not going to pass judgement on what Maul's done. He doesn't know the circumstances... and besides that he doesn't really have enough of a stake in things to get angry.

He knows there's some Light versus Dark rivalry going on given what he's heard about the Force from others in Trench, but he can't exactly say that either is right from his perspective. He just doesn't know enough.

Maul's face flickers with surprise. Out of all the things he'd expected Nara'a would have seen, that wasn't even in the top ten. His jaw tenses up for a moment and he swallows thickly as he remembers that day, many years in the past now. "That was a long ago time you witnessed."

The Sith Lord gets a faraway look on his face, growing pensive and a little sad. "She was a worthy opponent. She would have been knighted soon had I not....well, neither one of us had much of a choice in that circumstance, no matter what she claimed my options would. Only one of us was going to get off that meteor alive and I was determined it was going to be me." It's only now all these years later Maul can even begin to admit to himself that part of him had been attracted to the pretty Twi'lek Jedi Padawan, which had been part of his reluctance to kill her.

He watches the other's face but doesn't comment on it. Of course it's something that he wouldn't want other people to see - he doesn't want other people seeing his memories either. Though probably for other reasons - he doesn't want to scar anyone. It's not like he has anything to hide.

"I see. Why was she your enemy? Just because you didn't agree on the use of the Force?" He knows there's a light side and a dark side and that they're different than the elemental light and dark he knows of... it's still a strange concept to try to grasp.

Maul takes a very deep breath in through his nose. When he finally lets it out, the air comes out as almost a sigh. "The animosity of the Jedi and the Sith goes beyond one or two generations. It seems complicated at first, but at its core, it is simply two ways of seeing the Force that cannot reconcile themselves. Long ago, the Sith were many and powerful. The Jedi sought to destroy them entirely. In their minds, the Dark Side is unnatural instead of simply being half of a whole, something that needs to be vanquished down to the last member of the sect. They nearly succeeded. Since then, the Sith remained in hiding.

I had never gotten the chance to kill a Jedi before and sought to see if I was ready to kill those who had done so to my Order many generations before. When I heard one had been captured and was going to be auctioned off, I sought to liberate her so that I could test my mettle against her worthiness."

Hm. WHile he doesn't think Maul is the best influence, he's also far too aware what happens when one side of something gets out of balance. Opposing forces are necessary for a healthy ecosystem, in his experience. He nods and keeps his voice steady - while he'd wanted to save her, there would have been no point.

"I see. So you were curious as to whether she was a worthy enemy, and you a worthy fighter." It's brutal, but... well. It's not as if he hasn't had multiple tests of worthiness over the course of his adventures - over the course of his lifetime, really. He sighs and lets his shoulders drop. "I know it's not that simple, with people who have been hunted and oppressed over generations. So I understand the desire to fight back." Had he not done the same with others? Stood by their side, and even partaken in the fighting himself? He has no room to judge Maul here.

"Yes. It was a test of my skills as a Sith. Had she been able to kill or subdue me, I would not have been worthy of the title of Sith Lord, and my life would have been forfeit." Maul's sole purpose as he'd been molded by his master was to kill Jedi. To fail at that meant he'd fail at the only reason his master saw fit to let him live. After that, there would have been no reason to keep him around, even if Eldra had been merciful and spared his life.

"You do?" Maul asks with a note of great curiosity in his voice. Most people immediately peg Maul as being the bad guy in the situation as soon as he mention there is a Dark Side and a Light Side. He doesn't see it that way but given how many others do, he's always surprised the rare individual who doesn't condemn him outright for being a Sith.

"I see. That seems rather harsh..." Then again, how many times had he been tested at the risk of losing his life? Too many. But Maul's sounds rather... different. Much more extreme in some ways. And perhaps, more lonely. He'd been on his own... he has no idea if Maul'd had any allies to call on, but...

"Ah? Of course." The idea of light versus dark doesn't phase him. They need to be in balance, or else terrible things happen. All of the elements do - it's not as if he has room to say which is 'better'. Sure, in Maul's world they might be connected to emotions, but... he's not sure why people seem to have such an issue about there being balance. "I've seen multiple peoples rise up when given common cause and a nudge in the right direction. The Domans and the Ala Mhigans were both oppressed for decades, and they... well. Took what they thought was due."

Whether that's right or not? He's not sure. He knows how the Garleans see him, now. How the loss of their friends and families at the hands of him and the others have affected them. But what else could he do, let them stay oppressed, with an Empire at their door led by a ruler with no pity? Sure, he'd wanted to stamp out the threats he'd seen, but he hadn't been willing to work together.

"That is the way of the Sith. It is a hard life with no compassion or empathy attached to it." Two things Maul has only just started to learn now here that he is surrounded by people willing to show him the same thing. His own nascent emotions of those two feelings are only just starting to awaken and he's learning by the day what it means to care about others.

He feels gratified to run into someone who can understand what he's talking about and relate it back to something in their own world. "Not everyone understands that. Even some Jedi feel the Dark Side is unnatural and deserves to be stamped out, leaving only the Light Side. They don't understand you can't erase darkness. It is one half of a whole. You can't erase the night and leave only the day. So it goes the same way with the Force."

"... That's... it sounds like a sad way to live. And lonely..." He can't really judge someone else's way of life, but... it doesn't seem like a nice way to feel all of the time. No compassion or empathy? Those are two of the things that make life worth living.

He stifles a bitter laugh when Maul says that. "Erasing the night and leaving only the day... I've been to a world like that. I had to defeat beings of light in order to restore night to the world. Where I'm from... light is considered more active and darkness more passive, but that's actually not quite the truth. Both can be either, but... in that world of endless day, the light was cleansing and passive, frozen in its tracks as a giant wave threatening to crash down on what remained of the world - only stopped by the sacrifice of a friend. Light out of balance is as bad as Darkness out of balance - the latter being what happened to another world that's now called the Void for... obvious reasons."

"It was. I had no one in my life but my master. No friends or family. All I thought about was serving his will. I had no desires of my own because he molded me into the perfect weapon. It took a long, long time to break away from that kind of thinking and I am still undoing what he did to me even to this day." Maul speaks in a frank manner about his past, no self-pity or angst over what had happened. The past isn't something he wants to keep turning to. In Trench, he has the future to look forward to. "But such lessons are not easily forgotten and easier still to cling to." As Maul often does, reverting right back to the mindset of an assassin when

Once again, Nara'a's world sounds so interesting to Maul. Every time he talks with the catman, there's another story for him to listen to, hearing about all the adventures that he'd been on before ending up here. "As I've said before, you should write all of this down in a book for the Archives. You're one of the few who has been able to grasp what I'm talking about right from the start." Nara'a had gotten even from the first conversation he and Maul had. "Both sides have their place. The Light where I am from promotes helping others and letting go of attachments but it often comes at the cost of stagnation, trying to keep everything the same in a state of unending passiveness. The Dark is quicker to act, being aggressive and bringing much-needed change about. It encourages its acolytes to use its power for themselves to get what they want and to always continue to seek out power."

"I'm sorry. You deserved better. You still deserve better. No child should have to grow up like that. I'm... sorry if that's disrespectful towards your culture in some way, but... you deserve love and kindness. You're not a tool to be used or a weapon to be forged, you're a person." He pauses and takes a deep breath. He did say he's trying... "But I know how easy it is to cling to pain. Mine may not compare to yours, but I can understand how easy it is to turn to anger and hatred."

He smiles at Maul and nods. "I think I will. And... well. It's a simple aetheric equation in my world. You can't upset the balance too much. There have been calamities of all six major elements... and the two I know of in other worlds. I wouldn't wish living in a world of pure light or pure dark on anyone." He thinks for a moment, then shakes his head. "The elements I know as light and dark don't have emotions associated with them, but I can see where the similarities are in terms of their physical effects. Sin-Eaters are slow and prone to lazing about, where voidsent are much more active in seeking out aether to devour. The dominance of one side over the other just leads to disaster."

He scratches his chin, thinking. "You'll have to tell me more details about the Force at some point. How it works, what you can do with it. I'm intrigued, and while I don't think I can learn to use it I can also show you what I can do with aether."

"No, I need to hear that." Over and over again from different people who care about him but it is something Maul takes to heart. He'll need to hear it for the rest of his life to undo part of the damage Sidious did to him. "And don't worry about seeming disrespectful. My master was not a Nightbrother. In fact, he took me away from my clan and culture, all that I had known before." Growing up as a Nightbrother wasn't all sunshine and roses, as Savage could testify to, but Maul knows it still would have been ten times better than a life with his master.

"The precarious balance of the Force is one of the many reasons I have strived to get along with the Jedi in this city. With so few of us here, the balance can easily get upset if one side tries for domination. That is not what I want." Not any longer in any case, given Maul's desire to become a better person also involved letting go a little bit of his constant quest for power.

"I should like to do that at some point, yes, and also learn about the aether you wield. You're not Force-sensitive from what I have been able to sense, so you cannot learn how to use it but I can still pass on what knowledge I can." Maul's been adamant about doing that ever since he learned about the utter destruction of the Sith after he dies in his own galaxy.

"Then I'll say it as many times as you need it." He smiles, nodding to the the other. He's met plenty of people with... not the best childhood, and while they're all very different he's gotten used to helping build up someone's self-confidence. And that starts with acknowledging that they have issues from their childhood... "Is there a possibility for you to go back, should you return to your world - worlds?"

It's not a possibility for some people, he knows... and he has no knowledge of Maul's specific situation in regards to that. "But... good. I'd like for everyone to get along anyway, as impossible a task as I know that is. But if the source of power you draw on is unbalanced..." Well. It wouldn't be good, for Maul or for anyone - from his galaxy or not.

"I'd like that. It's always fascinating to learn about other worlds... but I'd be glad to go into more detail about aether. I've yet to find a book from my world in the Archives, but I've read enough tomes on the subject to be able to give a fairly decent if abridged lecture. Thaumaturges wield elemental magicks, and they need to have a keen awareness on what they're manipulating. Some guilds use it more innately and on instinct, but not them..." He'd been frustrated at first, but then once he'd gotten into the weeds he discovered he actually likes reading dusty old tomes...

"Thank you." That gets a smile out of Maul, a genuine one that softens up the harsh lines that his black tattoos make on his face. "Alas, no. The Nightsisters were completely wiped out. There a fair number of Nightbrothers left, but without the females, this will be the last generation of my particular clan." There were other clans of Nightkin upon Dathomir but none of them were run quite the same as his own. Maul lost a lot of his culture thanks to the Clone Wars.

"Well, I doubt we're all going to get along anytime soon, but I've sworn off being disruptive for the most part personally." Maul's kept a lower profile than he has in the past here in Trench but he's still remained a bit (in)famous among the Sleepers as a whole.

Maul listens. Magick fascinates him as a subject. He's sure his mother would have liked him to learn all her secrets and the magick she wielded had he stayed on Dathomir, maybe even preparing him to become leader of the Nightbrothers in time. "The aether, is it something anyone can learn to wield with the proper study?"

"Gods... I'm sorry about that. A whole people wiped out... and I assume taking from other places and teaching them your ways isn't really an option? I know it's not the same, but..." He's heard of plenty of clans being wiped out, especially by the Calamity, but... a whole people? That's horrifying. He might ask how that happened later, but now doesn't seem to be the time.

"Well, good. I might be your friend, but I'm not afraid to tell you that you need to stop it if it comes to that." He's only heard a tiny bit about Maul from other people, but he's certain that the other has a good heart, even if it's buried under a lot of trauma.

He nods at the question. "It is. With very few exceptions, everyone can manipulate it. I do know of someone who lost his ability to do that as a result of being possessed, as well as the Garlean race which is entirely incapable of manipulating it. But for the most part, everyone else can do it with varying degrees of success."

"No. Nightkin are not like Mandalorians. We don't adopt outsiders into our groups." For a myriad of reasons, though prime among them was outsiders weren't immune to the effects of Dathomir's darkness upon a person's mind and would have been driven insane after staying there for more than a few years. "You have to be born into one of the clans on Dathomir to be considered one."

He tilts his head, considering the words with a softer expression on his face than he's warranted to possess. Maul's not dim but he's had so little social interaction with people that he does flat-out need to be told when they're his friend, otherwise it's hard for him to tell. "Good. I do occasionally need the reminders when I get close to going too far." Even now, his instincts are tilted towards destruction and death at all times. Fighting against them is a conscious effort.

"If you do not mind I..." It's odd to ask anything from anyone. He's always been so independent and asking such a request makes him feel uncomfortable. "...I would like to learn more about how to do that." There's that urge within him, always pushing him onwards to seek out more power, but at least this time he can channel it for a better use that subjecting people to his cruelty and hatred.

"I see. I'm sorry..." It was worth asking, at least. And he can understand the reticence about adopting outsiders into their groups - it's not like someone of a different species would really understand. Hellw, even the two subspecies of miqo'te have their own rules and rituals and ways of living, and as far as he knows having a mixed bloodline is rare. He happens to have a bit of Sun Seeker in his background, but he can't imagine growing up like one.

"I'll be there to help support you. There are other ways to solve problems other than going over the edge. I've seen people totally consumed by hatred or duty, and it never ends well. I don't want something like that to happen to you. It would truly be a loss." Not to mention dangerous for everyone around them, even if becoming a Primal isn't really a risk here. "I know that there's many reasons to be angry here, but there are ways to use anger without being destructive."

He's a little surprised, but perhaps he shouldn't be. Maul seems like an intelligent person, capable of wielding powers that Nara'a doesn't even understand. It's only natural that his curiosity should lead him to want to explore other paths. "I can try. I make no promises about results, but we don't know if we don't try, right?"

“Yes, for me my anger has helped sustain me for a long time. I don’t intend to shed myself of it ever entirely or stop doing things like taking revenge on those people who hurt the ones that I care about.” In Maul’s warped way of thinking, it was actually showing how much he loved those people to take revenge on those who had hurt, tortured, or killed them. “But I am trying to find ways to manage it better. I have had a few people talk to me about being able to express my emotions, to practice anger management while still having it alright that anger is my go-to emotion.”

There’s something a bit humorous in having several of the teenagers of Trench be the ones to teach such an emotionally-stunted alien how to properly handle his anger but that’s just how it’s worked out for Maul.

“Right. Even if it turns out to be nothing but failure, it will still be worthwhile to possess the knowledge.” For Maul, knowledge is just another form of power, one as intangible as the Force and just as powerful.

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