deercountry | Catch-all for Maul; Love is not the opposite of hate.

Perhaps they're sitting in the study at Arklay House, a pot of tea - green with rose hips - on the table between their chairs, a fire on the small hearth and some incense burning, while snowflakes tap on the windowpane.

Wesker tips one hand slightly. "Ask as you will. After all that you've done for me, I am at your disposal." With a hint of dry humor, he adds, "You nearly need not ask."

Maul appreciates the tea. The drink always makes him feel a little bit better no matter what sort of situation he's in. It is a cozy setting here and he feels at home. He's not often visited Wesker, but given how recently he's been made aware of how little he knows about some of his friends, he's been trying to rectify that.

Maul gets right down to what he wants to ask Wesker. "Have you heard of these bonds that can be made between two people? I have been reading up on them and they are most intriguing."

The tea came from a small shop in Willful Machine, a brew he'd saved for the month of love, though he prefers celebrating the more cerebral forms of this interpersonal engagement.

"I've read about them. They aren't something to be entered into lightly, from what I've gathered. However, for the few true and deep connections I have formed in this place, it's something I would embrace.

He takes a sip from his own cup, almost as if to cleanse his palate or brace his senses before he speaks again. "Are you suggesting that we two form a bond?"

Maul nods at Wesker's description of the bonding ceremony. Then he leans forward, yellow eyes with an intense expression in them.

"I wouldn't ask this lightly or of just anyone. But you and I have been through certain things in Deerington and here which have formed a bond between us." He trusts Wesker in a way he doesn't always with other people. They're in darkness together, two people who are comfortable there and not interested in moving to the light. It has created a certain feeling of kinship for Maul between them.

He reaches up and removes his glasses, uncovering his eyes, more orange and gold in the firelight

"There is that. I have, for some time, regarded you as kindred, Blood of the same blood, in the metaphoric sense. A brother and I had eight elder brothers by adoption. And all of them are dead, due to the same experiment which made me what I am. Or... perhaps a father, and I barely remember my biological father." He will not defile this moment by bringing up Spencer. Maul has already witnessed to that broken dynamic. There is a void which needs to be filled. And the moon has pulled him closer to a sense of family these days.

"I feel very much the same way about you." It shows how Maul has grown here, for he takes the bonds of who he calls family very seriously, and won't give the title away to just anyone. But Wesker has earned it.

A smile so gentle one would hardly be able to think someone as vicious as Maul could make it crosses his face. "I had two brothers and both are dead in my home galaxy. Savage was returned to me but still one is lost to me forever." Maul doesn't often mention Feral to people, his presence in the back of Maul's mind, forever labeled in the category of 'what might have been.' "We are family, you and I, and if you will undertake it I will gladly make that bond permanent.

"I also had four sisters: three died in agony from what we were inoculated with. Alex survived, albeit in a flawed state: two faces of her turned up in Julia's dream. The face of the healthier and younger host body she transplanted her mind into, and the face of the horror that her original body turned into. She was more a doctor of the mind and the spirit than I was, smarter and more deft than I. She might have found you interesting, though I suspect I would needs restrain her from considering you a potential specimen.

He pauses and glances into the fire. "Did your brother find his way to this world or it's predecessor?" He won't ask about the second. He can't help suspecting some pain there, which he understands, even empathizes with.

He may go still at this offer, then he leans forward slightly, rising and beckoning Maul to follow him.

He'll step out into the hallway, unlatching the rear door and stepping out into the snowy courtyard. Vaulting onto the pergola in one corner, he takes something perched there. "I'd had other intentions for this." He drops down and comes up, holding a silver goblet.

Edited 2022-02-20 06:49 (UTC)

Maul listens to Wesker talk about his sister. This is the most he's ever heard of Wesker talk about his past willingly. Putting together from what he saw in that memory they shared recently and he's beginning to see their lives had been on parallel tracks. Both had been manipulated and turned into weapons by a pair of sociopathic monsters. Both had siblings they had loved and lost in a horrifying manner. Now, here in Trench, they both have a chance to be greater than what they were. No wonder they got along so well.

"He arrived in Deerington. It was the happiest day I ever had there when I sensed his presence now in the town." Maul's eyes and voice both go soft when he talks about Savage. His brother means everything to Maul. He would sacrifice so much if only it meant his little brother would be happy and he knows Savage will do the same for him. ~~Codependent? The two of them have no idea what the word means.~~

"Convenient then that you have it ready." Maul pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and checks over all the supplies they will need. "Do you have a syringe around here?" He'll need to get a vial of his blood. As for the bit of himself, he'll just bite down one of his claws. They've been growing so much faster lately, seemingly overnight, and Maul hasn't quite clued into the fact that it's the corruption building within him.

It's a clear sign that Wesker has opened toward Maul, allowing transparency between them. If they are family, he sees every reason for it. He may betray a quiet smile of understanding; as cool-blooded as he can be, he understands the importance of connection and finding those one can feel vulnerable with. And Maul has seen him vulnerable enough times.

"I was considering it for another, a young man from my world of origin who caused me some trouble and tried interfering with my work in that place, though there was no malice: he was doing his job and it happened to be at cross purposes with mine." He would be the first to admit that seeing Leon here was initially an irritant, at least until he gave it some thought. Had Chris Redfield shown his face here, that would have raised his ire. "Our bond, yours and mine, however, is the more pressing matter."

A gentle, closed-mouthed chuckle. "I probably have more syringes about than is reasonable, outside of being a Blood Minister." He'll step back inside, leading the way to the kitchen, where he opens a drawer in the dresser. He'll take out a sealed brown paper envelope, tearing it open and taking out three clean syringes with good-sized barrel. He'll offer one to Maul, plunger first.

The two of them have seen each other at low points and have been able to trust one another. Maul finds it hard to tell people of his past here but he and Wesker are so similar that he has absolute trust the man won't use what he's been told against Maul in the future. That's a rarity for the Zabrak to show that much faith in someone. Yet here he able to do it.

"I didn't know anyone else from your world had showed up." Granted, it was pretty easy to tell with those from Maul's universe given how many of them were Force-sensitive and had lightsabers, plus being dramatic as they possibly could.

He takes the syringe, figures out where there is a vein on his arm suitable, and plunges it in without hesitation, drawing out a vial of the sickly green Vileblood that now runs through his veins. "That will do," he says. "I think we have all the pieces necessary now."

"He's an elusive fellow, but if you meet a youngish human male with light brown hair falling over his forehead, that would be him. Don't let on that you know me: he might distrust you, given the past he shares with me," he says. "But if you meet a tall, robust human male with dark brown hair and pale blue eyes, who introduces himself as Chris Redfield, give him a wide berth. Considering the personal history between him and I, I'd rather you didn't get pulled into it."

"We'll need a few roses: fortunately, I've been collecting those." Just because you're an undead mutant, doesn't mean you lose your appreciation for fresh flowers. Setting down the tools on the worktop in the middle of the kitchen, he steps out, returning with a white rose and a pair of red roses, adding them to the rest of the necessary. He'll carefully draw some of his own Blood, adding the syringe to the items on the work top. "And lastly, we'll need a bit of essence: a bit of our physical persons besides our blood. A bit of hair or a paring from a claw will do."

Catch-all for Maul; Love is not the opposite of hate.

Family Bond

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[CW: Unethical medical experimentation referenced]

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