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

[aetherweaver]

Who: Nara’a and various people.
What: September catch-all - starters will be in the comments. Contact me at atrypical or Matt#6266 if you’d like one.
When: All through September.
Where: All throughout Trench.

Content Warnings: Violence and possible death - will add to this if it comes up.

[Prompts below. If you want a custom one, just let me know!]

Comments

[survivalthroughhate]

"I prefer to think of it as being a little less in the darkness. I'll never be fully in the light but I can settle for being in some grayish twilight of my own making." He hopes Nara'a understands what he's trying to say. So often Maul feels he can't adequately express everything going on in his mind.

"You had to face very angry librarians when looking for a single book?" Maul asks with a bit of amusement in his voice. Somehow, that sounds both absurd and yet on-point for what Maul has come to know about the catman's universe.

6.1 spoilers

[aetherweaver]

"That makes sense. A little more of a balance." He smiles at the other man and nods at the question.

How to even explain... "It was in a nation of very isolated scholars. They have vast libraries and study many things, but their general policy is to remain neutral on world events. They have a section of books that are restricted, due to what they consider to be dangerous content. And a lot of it probably is - how to summon monsters, dark and twisted rituals, and... other such things." Including, apparently, forbidden smut.

[survivalthroughhate]

"Interesting. That sounds like a number of planets I can think of in my own world." Mandalore immediately springs to mind, with its semi-isolationist sentiment at times and desire to stay neutral during the Clone Wars. It also described the way his home planet of Dathomir operated sometimes towards outsiders, cagey and wary, keeping the secrets of the Nightsisters close to their chests. Even the Jedi, with their way of destroying Sith artifacts and recorded records so that none could learn the old ways.

[aetherweaver]

"Oh? Interesting. It's... well. It's a wonderful place to study, not so wonderful if you want to see the outside world. Though I have a number of friends who did get their education there... their isolationist tendencies are starting to crack a bit now that we used some of their resources to fight to save existence."

He says it casually, even though he knows that it's going to just invite more questions. "But they're very stubborn... most of them, anyway. There's a reason that people who care about the wider world tend to leave."

[survivalthroughhate]

"You saved.....existence itself?" Maul asks, clearly interested if he'd heard that correctly. Frankly, he wants Nara'a to write that book for the Archives purely so he can keep everything he's been told about the man's universe straight. On occasion, some of it is just so bizarre and beyond comprehension to the Sith.

Endwalker spoilers

[aetherweaver]

"... Yes. There was a force that wanted to end everything because she thought it was kinder than letting people suffer through the terrible things that happen in life. ... But she lost sight of what was good in life - good people, friendships, love, happiness... there's always a spark of hope in the deepest despair." He's not wrong - even Nara'a has trouble believing some of the things he's done.

[survivalthroughhate]

"Life is worth living because of what is inherent to it. I feel life all around me with my senses in the Force, all the beautiful points of life and color that make it up from all the beings that have a life force to them. It's so beautiful and I wish sometimes others could see it. It would make them understand why it is important to go on living even through suffering, pain, and hardship."

This is one of the softest sides there is to Maul. When he was young, the beauty was all he saw in the Force. As he grew older, the shadow of his master clouded that beauty, making Maul only see the worst things that were around him. Now, he's starting to finally see the good again, all the beauty he remembers experiencing as a child.

[aetherweaver]

"I feel similarly. I'm not particularly more sensitive to aether than anyone else, but the things it creates! Blue skies, singing birds, grand cities and barren wastes. It's all something worth seeing, and life is worth living to see it all." He smiles at the other and nods in understanding. "I didn't want to see all of that beauty and life and love disappear... so I fought."

So did so many others, from him to the person who did the smallest bit on their ship. Everyone helped. "Though I could have done without getting planets thrown at me..." Turns out that those hurt.

[survivalthroughhate]

"That is a noble cause to fight for," Maul said. He felt just a touch envious. Maul's never had an honorable cause to fight for, something that he believed in so strongly he'd be willing to die for it. Sure, he would have been willing to die as a Sith Lord, but there was little honor or anything noble about dying just for those principles.

To die to protect someone or something else that they believed in so strongly....yes, Maul would have liked to have something like that in his life.

As usual, Maul felt more questions than answers with Nara'a speaking with him. "Planets....thrown at you?" Had he heard that correctly?

[aetherweaver]

"Small ones, and more..." How does he put this? "In that area everything was more the conceptual idea of itself. So not literal planets but the idea of planets. But they still hurt. And yes, I known it makes no sense. I was there and it still doesn't completely make sense."

It's given him multiple headaches in the months since. Sometimes he thinks it's better to not try to think about it at all.

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul felt like his very brain hurt just hearing about Nara'a's world sometimes. This was one of those times. "Your world is so very strange. It is as if all the laws of reality and physics are mere suggestions rather than hard and fast rules."

[aetherweaver]

"... To be fair it's mostly that place where that's the case. Most of the rest I have at least a groundwork of aetherology knowledge to go off of. ... Most of it."

Not... all of it.

[survivalthroughhate]

"You shall have to tell me more about the study of aetherology at some point in the future." Maul was definitely invested now in learning more about the subject. As he well know, knowledge was power in almost all cases where something new was learned.