Now go stand in the corner and think about what you've done (Semi-closed)

[survivalthroughhate]

Who: Darth Maul survivalthroughhhate, Lance azurestar, and whoever else wants to watch and help but not get involved
What: Lance killed Reaper, Maul's boyfriend, and now Maul wants revenge!
When: Nov. 1st-3rd
Where:

Content Warnings: Property destruction, injuries (including biting)



Though the Gate may be a lantern location, when Lance spoke to Maul he wasn’t near enough to a lantern that could take him there faster than his feet. He’s been to Prufrock often enough by now to know the street that will take him directly to the gates of… well, The Gate. He’s on the main road leading to the massive colosseum, moving at a fast pace and in Trench appropriate garb. If Maul gets there first and doesn’t find him there, well…

Maul, full of fury and the desire for revenge, can feel the Dark Side closer to his grasp than it has been in a very long time. He marches off to where the Gate is at, and every so often along the streets, something will happen. A light shorts out, a trash can crunches down into a small ball, a window shatters. Just small signs that his rage is ready to overflow. Once he reaches Prufrock, he reaches out with the Dark Side and finds he can sense Lance’s mind close by. Once he has a lock on him, off he goes. If they don’t reach the Gate, well, Maul wasn’t joking when he said he’d be willing to raze the town to the ground in his grief and anger.

When he spots Lance up again, the street beneath the paladin’s feet will begin to tremble. "You!" Maul howls out, his double-bladed lightsaber being immediately ignited. He points one end at Lance. “Prepare to die!”

“...Shit.” Is Lance’s eloquent reply. Well, at least Maul announced himself instead of just jumping right in. This whole mess is too overwhelming for him to spare more than half a thought to Maul’s Hollywood worthy line. Under other circumstances he might laugh. But he’s got to focus here, the street seems sparse right now and Maul’s shout combined with the lightsaber seems to have some people scattering. Except some Hunters who seem interested to watch.

Blue-gold bright light curls off his arms like plasma arcs off the surface of the sun as he raises them to get ready to try to take Maul on. He turns his back to the direction of the gate so he can more easily try to maneuver in that direction and lead the man there. His empathic powers are overloaded by the pure hate and pain radiating off of Maul and that’s distracting, but he ignores it like he does so many other things every day.

“Give it your best shot,” he tries to gently goad to maintain Maul’s focus on him and him alone as he forms a plasma staff in one glowing hand.

The fight that starts at this point will rage on for three days straight as Maul does his utter best to gain revenge on Lance. The first few hours of it will take place in the Prufrock district and there will be a very large amount of property damage in the two main streets that lead up to the Gate from Maul using the Force to throw rooftops and other large objects he can grab with the Force at Lance, who will do his best to control their fall or if he can’t do that, incinerate them with his abilities. There's going to be at least one NPC shop owner who forever has Maul on his shit list after this because Maul causes his little store of magical knicknacks to completely collapse.

Lance will have given a couple characters heads up that he’s telling Maul to meet him at the Gate and those characters and others will work on keeping the path clear. During this time, there will be a lot of natives being displaced from their homes and businesses needing help to get away from the impromptu battlefield. Maul won’t care while Lance will do his utter best to contain his opponent from causing too much death or destruction.

Once Lance sees a clear path to the gate, he will full body grab Maul and use his powers to rocket them both over there after a little while of trying to lead him there slowly. The two of them will continue fighting in the arena where nobody can be hurt for the remaining 2.75 days until both are too exhausted to continue. As long as no one tries to interrupt the fight or take Lance’s side, Maul will ignore them, but anyone is welcome to simply watch and/or make pithy comments with others watching in the arena’s stands about how dramatic this whole business is. Lance will mostly be trying to stay alive and wear Maul down, trying to keep his wrath on him and nobody else.

Eventually, Maul will concede he can’t defeat Lance, and limp off to the disaster house where Reaper lives to go lick his wounds and recover his strength. He won’t be apologetic at all for the chaos he’s going to be causing. Lance will tend to his own wounds and get to fixing up Maul’s damages in Prufrock once he’s regained some strength, viewing them as his responsibility as well.

Comments

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz nodded, then walked into the kitchen and got a cup. Thanks to Fern she'd been able to make her own freshly squeezed orange juice, and she poured Darth Maul a cup now, also sliding a sandwich next to him.

She didn't say anything for a little while, only watched him eat and drink. When he was done, she finally looked him square in the eye.

"Did you accomplish what you mean to do?"

[survivalthroughhate]

Despite his utter exhaustion, his body still reminded him that food was a priority considering the last time he'd eaten something had been almost four days ago. He devoured the sandwich with all the manners of a starving alligator, tearing into it and chomping large sections of it down, hardly chewing the bites. After he'd swallowed almost the whole thing, he felt revitalized enough to answer Luz's question.

"No," he said sourly, not even hiding the fact he was sulking like a child who had lost a championship soccer game. "That little maggot Lance is still drawing breath." So at least he hadn't murdered him even with all of the Sith Lord's rage and utter hatred powering him.

[imaglyphwitch]

Luz sighed. She made herself some hot chocolate and was sipping it gently, swirling the chocolate with her spoon, looking into it a moment before turning to Darth Maul.

"How many places were demolished, with your attempt to kill him? How many people were hurt, do you think, while the fight was going on? Did you see any of them getting rescued? Or maybe in the moment, you didn't really care. And in the end, you didn't even succeed."

Luz put her cup down. "I need to know something. I know you care about Reaper, I'd be blind if I didn't. But you also know that if we die, we come back. It takes a little time, but it happens. So why was it so important to kill Lance?"

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul shrugged, nonplussed at the thought of how much destruction and chaos that had surrounded the fight as he'd made his way towards the Gate. "My empathy is very limited as you well know. Others can care about people they don't know well and perfect strangers all they like. For me, it is limited to those I am close with." That was just how Maul worked. His friends were attempting to get him to a point where he could care about all life but he wasn't there and possibly never would be. He was just too stunted emotionally that way.

"We don't know what lasting effects come from killing someone here. There hasn't been a big enough sample size of dead Sleepers for that and it means we can't take anything for granted. And--" He paused, a muscle tightening in his jaw. "--I killed someone in Deerington and he never revived. I never got the chance to apologize or make up for what I had done to him." Ben's lasting death had hit Maul hard, but if there was one good thing that came about from it, it was the fact he'd felt true remorse for the first time when it had happened. "So there is no guarantee that just because someone has revived before that they will do so again. Losing Reaper would devastate me and I couldn't let that insignificant little speck, sitting there and gloating about what he'd done on the network, just get off scot-free. It was the only way I knew how to deal with it all."

Was it healthy or at all a good way of dealing with things? No. But it was very much the way Maul would choose to channel his grief and rage. All things considered, it had been a lot less worse than it could have been.

[imaglyphwitch]

"So I guess that means you have to let the heroes worry about everyone else. The Usagi's and the Midoriya's of this world. That's a lot to lay on them, Darth Maul, especially because we don't know what else is coming for us. You never know when we're going to need all hands on deck."

And Luz sighed, because she couldn't understand it. She couldn't NOT care about people who were in the crossfire, that one moment were just walking around and the next were flattened by something falling on them because of someone else's vendetta.

Because one day, Darth Maul might piss off the wrong person and that would result in HIS death.

"I'm sorry that happened. There was a lot of unnecessary death that happened when your mind got all warped. But I understood that it wasn't you Maul, even when you were choking me. That place was taking advantage of what you were, and it used you as a tool. But you're free from that now.

And so is LANCE. That recording he did was because of the Arena influence. He may have not have had regrets about killing Reaper, because they already have a history, but the person in that recording? He was the same as you when you killed Varian, or set Fern on fire or killed Margot. The only difference was that you didn't regret half of it because deaths made you forget how important it was. Lance had to see himself succumb to this place's hold on him. I can tell that's something he's going to have to deal with on his own."

That was probably why his Omen recorded it without his knowledge. It was a creepy thought, but one that Luz knew must have been mortifying anyway. Luz couldn't even imagine seeing herself reflected by her worst feelings for all to see. That was a lot.

In any case, she sits back down next to him. "You're not hurt, are you?"

[survivalthroughhate]

"That's their choice to make. They could always be a little selfish and stop being martyrs that run around trying to fix every problem that crops up in this place no matter how big or small instead of burning themselves out doing just that. But they won't." Maul's voice was blunt and harsh. He just couldn't be asked to care about his effect on people in this place when he was this tired. The lasting damage he'd caused to the city and its inhabitants was the furthest thing from his mind.

"So maybe he'll regret killing Reaper or at least have to deal with seeing that ugly side of himself? Good for him. Because I'm most certainly not going to feel the same way about my attempt to kill him again." 'Again' because Maul had already killed Lance once in Deerington, though there had been little malice in the action then. He simply couldn't be bothered to act when Lance was in trouble, not so soon after being branded as a monster in the post by Ironwood and Glitch, and instead just gave him a mercy kill rather than acting.

He leaned back into the couch, his yellow eyes closing for a moment. "Just a little banged up." Lance hadn't been aiming to really hurt Maul all that much, though he did have a few scrapes, bruises, and burns from going twenty rounds with the Voltron paladin.

[imaglyphwitch]

"No. They won't. And I wouldn't either. Its easier to have a fight when you ignore everything else around you, but those people have a right to live too. Why do we get to take it away just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? By that logic any one of us could die in an instant. Me, you and all the things you've worked for. Does that mean you just let it happen?"

Luz was grateful to have magic, but that didn't mean she'd use it without any sense of appreciating the things around her. Of course it was harder to bother with people not involved in what she was doing, but what good could come out of devaluing everyone else around you?

"No, you won't. You won't regret trying to kill him at all. But the same could be said about any of his friends. Shiro could come after you, or any other person that wanted to make suer Lance was OK. So you die, or they do, and someone else gets angry and its just one big killing spree. We all put each others' eyes out and die and feel justified, if we're lucky."

She looked down at the tea she was serving him, and poured herself a cup.

"But you know I don't feel that way. If I did...I would have hated you. You almost killed Fern. You DID kill Varian, then Margot, and later you almost killed ME. By all right, I should hate you. I should want you dead for being a destructive monster that never seems to care about any of the lives that you snuff out in your path."

She stared into the cup. Margot had hated him, she remembered that. Luz couldn't have ever explained to her sister why she had not hated Darth Maul the same way, and in the end, she never got to anyway. She did see the mob of people who Darth Maul had angered, and understood that anger. For a moment, anyway.

"And I don't. Because I know it isn't all you are. That's what your Master wanted you to be: a tool. A harbinger of chaos. And I know you're more than that."

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul listened to Luz and tried to think of counterarguments to her words. But it was difficult when he was so fried emotionally, physically, and mentally. "I am too damn tired right now to have talks about morality," Maul said in a surly tone, stifling another yawn that threatened to worm its way out of his mouth. "The power to kill someone is one of the greatest a person can possess and I have never had a reason to rein it in or put it in check yet. I just don't feel the need to."

If he ever did get that far, Maul would be well on his way to the redemption he was currently seeking, but he just wasn't ready to look that critically at his own actions yet. Maul had a very strong Id and just so often gave into what he wanted that he really had no concept of moderation. He was still relying on his friends for that.

It was one thing to tell people himself about what he'd felt like as his master had completely depersonalized him and turned him into more of a living weapon than a sentient creature with feelings and his own mind, but to hear his own words echoed back at him from one of his friends was more than Maul could really stand right now. He sighed deeply and rubbed at one of his temple horns as if he was getting a headache. "You know that. I know that. But it's still hard to remember it some days." Sometimes, it was so easy to fall into old patterns and Maul just couldn't remember how to be the better person.

[imaglyphwitch]

"Well, you did try to kill someone, and you're not dead yourself, so it's probably taken a lot out of you."

Luz was pretty sure she was never going to understand why it was so prized to kill someone. Luz had done it herself and had only felt horror in its wake, mostly because she had the fear of it being a thing she'd just do instead of trying other ways. Luz had always cherished life, and the idea of snuffing it out of someone, even if said people were horrid to the core, it was a lot to put on the conscience. She was sure she'd never be able to explain that to Darth Maul, that doing it had made her wonder if she'd be putting her soul in jeopardy every time it happened.

"You were acting irrationally, from someone else's standpoint. It was an act of passion, to strike out a someone you care so much about. It blinded you."

Luz lowered her eyes. "I wouldn't have wanted to attack Lance. I know where he's coming from, a little, and I can't imagine how it must feel to have someone that tortured and killed him still moving around like it never happened. The people that tortured me back in Deerington, I made sure they...that they met their ends quickly. It was cold and dark, but I knew I wouldn't have had a chance if I let them continue on to do the same thing to others. The messed up thing is that they take up mind space in my head, they have since. So for Lance, it must have been different, and gnawed at him until the Arena compelled him to fight the monster in his nightmares."

She sighed. "And even knowing all of that stuff, I would have probably done what YOU did too. Not so much with the smashing of buildings and casual injuring of onlookers, but. Revenge for the one I loved. I understand that feeling."

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul listened and he nodded at what he heard from Luz. She clearly didn’t approve of what he’d done but she also wasn’t about to completely condemn him for the course of action he’d chosen to take. “You’ve already got much more wisdom than I did when I was the same age as you.” A high compliment from Maul no matter what circumstances they were given under. “I’m sure that will only continue to grow.”

He yawned and laid down on the couch, shifting to put a pillow beneath his head. With his horns, he was bound to tear it into pieces by the time he woke back up, but with his level of exhaustion he needed a bit of fluffy comfort instead of just using his arm as he was warranted to do when sleeping alone. “I am glad you understand both sides. That is something I cannot yet do.”

Maul’s stubborn insistence on holding to the ideas he’d known for so long make him very inflexible and rigid, unable to fully take in anything new that entered his mind. It was just another on top of the pile of things he found himself needing to work on.

[imaglyphwitch]

"It's the trauma that does it," Luz said, only a third joking. "You think you know how you feel about things, what your view was, and then you meet all these new people and all of a sudden you're thrown into your worst nightmares. You have no choice but to think about everything you've been and put it into perspective."

Family. Loss. Sadness. Joy. Pain. Any of those had one had a meaning Luz thought she understood, and then Deerington had come and intensified ALL of them.

"If there's something I learned in all of my months in that place, it's that EVERYONE has a side. People just think it's easier if 'right' and 'wrong' are the only options. There's so much more to everything, to everyone. That's the part of me that understands why you attacked Lance. I wouldn't have done it because Lance has his side, but I think if, say, someone had hurt Varian or Fern or Luca, what would I do? I wanna protect them, with everything I can. It wouldn't be me if I didn't."

[survivalthroughhate]

"Mmmm-hhmmmm," Maul said, agreeing with her. "At least you've learned that at the beginning of your life, so the lesson will stick for the rest of it. I learn slowly and stubbornly and most people do not give me a large amount of leeway given I am already an adult." Granted, that was only in body and partially in mind, given Maul's emotional maturity level was about on the same one as that of a a seven year old.

He yawned once more, now ready to sleep. "I do try but there are times when I can only react as I know how to do. This was one of them." His eyes shut and he dozed off near immediately, curling up on the couch as he went into a deep, dreamless sleep. Best just to put a blanket on him and leave him there. He'd be asleep for a full twenty-four hours given how long he'd been up and how much energy he'd expended.

[imaglyphwitch]

"People also judge by appearances sometimes, and you look pretty scary," Luz added. She didn't think much of people who judged others on appearances, but she couldn't act like that wasn't a factor. It had been for her too: if she so happened to look guilty and she was smelled within a length of something back on Earth, she was usually blamed for it. "But you know as well as I do that new people are coming here every month. You'll be able to show new aspects of yourself to others more willing to give you a chance. I'll bet they have their own complicated stories anyway."

Luz nodded here. "Things are complicated. And hopefully, if Lance and him ever meet again, they can talk and settle things in a less, uh, death arena kind of way. That'll just be better for everyone involved."

She let him sleep and saw that the pillow was going to be ripped to shreds and shrugged. Varian would just go and get a new one, or several new ones, later. Things in their house tended to get messed up pretty easily to begin with.