deercountry | He's a feral creature (Open)

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He's a feral creature (Open)

Who: Darth Maul and you!
What: Event prompts + TDM overflow
When: All throughout September
Where: Beach and boardwalk for TDM prompts, throughout the city for event prompts

Content Warnings: Corpses of teenagers, stalking behavior

A. Event Prompts

I) Growing Pains

After hearing about the ritual from some of the Trench natives, Maul decides what the hell, might as well participate. While he isn't inclined to believe too much of what they have to say and is still suspicious this would lead to possible harm, he also knows letting go of the past and looking towards the future is nothing but a good thing for him personally. To that end, he is in his front yard near one of the big trees that adorned the house, several items surrounding him for the ritual to be completed.

Maul scribbles down a few words in a large, blocky script on a blank page in journal he's been writing in since it showed up with the rest of his Welcome Bag. While he means for this to be a private moment, anyone around snooping will be able to see what it says. 'Break the chains.' But anyone who comments upon it will receive a glare and harsh growl in return. He looks at it for a moment before dropping it into the hole he's made. Once it is covered with dirt, he picks up a dagger given to him by a dear friend and slashes his palm open. He lets a few drops fall onto the dirt and waits.

After a few moments, a beautiful rose with most peculiar coloration blooms. It remained vibrant and healthy only for a few moments before it begins to wither and wilt. Maul stares at the limp flower for a moment as a frown crosses his face. "Of course" is all that he had to say on the matter. He is not at all surprised his flower would be defective right off the bat.

II) River of Regret

Really, Maul is doing his best not to be surprised about what has happened. He's just been waiting for the other shoe to drop now that he's started getting his bearings here in Trench, so this had been bound to happen. Granted, having a raven feather touch him and then getting swept up in a whirlwind of them only to be deposited in a canoe on a sun-spackled river wasn't quite what he'd had in mind. When he sees the corpses, Maul's first instinct is to throw himself out of the boat and start swimming, but he knows he'd drown with his lower metal half before he got more than a few strokes out. No, he and the other person are going to be forced to sit here and look upon all the regrets of his past.

There are faces, so many faces up there. There is a whole group of teenagers of various species, the most prominent one a young Nautolan with large purple eyes that seem to bore right into Maul's, a strange sort of smile on her face. He can see his family, Savage still with the two holes that had been stabbed through his chest by his former master and Mother Talzin, also with lightsaber wounds in her chest. Some people from Deerington are there as well. Usagi. Xue Yang. Reaper. Ben. Varian. Fern. Luz. Even Darth Sidious is hanging there, his corpse looking as if it had fallen from a great height. Maul pointedly avoids staring at that one as if he's trying to avoid staring into the sun for too long.

Maul's face is set and determined after he is done staring at all the corpses without blinking. His voice has a note of grim resignation in it when he turns to whoever he is stuck with. His hands are tense, claws digging small grooves into the wooden sides of the canoe. "Alright, if this place is at all like Deerington, it wants us to experience some emotions by talking out what's in front of us. So do you want me to go first or do you?" He's been around the block enough times to recognize one of the usual group therapy or friendship building exercises this place was already likely to entail when he saw it. That doesn't mean he is going to like it at all but he knows better than to fight it for too long.

III) Bloodsport

Maul can feel it right from the start of the moment, that restlessness that makes him want to go out and kill something. It's not really different than his usual state at first, so he doesn't really feel like anything is out of the ordinary, chalking it up to being in a new place and trying to be on his best behavior instead of immediately going out and massacring the populace.

He makes offers to spar or train with anyone during this time to help get out all that extra energy and they are completely genuine. If he does get a little bit more vicious than usual during these sessions, at least the curse he's still under is able to rein him back in fairly quickly, preventing him from going too close to the edge of turning it into a potentially lethal fight. He can also be found meditating a lot more as well during these feelings of murderous energy, also offering to show anyone the basics if they want to pull up a seat next to him wherever he might be and learn how to meditate in the ways of the Dark Side.

But he can't resist his feelings forever and so he's eventually led towards the Gate. Despite the handicap of feeling pain when he attacks anyone sentient, he's not willing to back down. His truly terrifying side comes out when he faces the monsters and he can go all out against them, but his brutality towards the Sleepers he faces is only slightly less. He'll twirl around his lightsaber or whatever weapon he currently has in his possession, a cocky smirk on his face. He twirls his weapon around before facing the business end towards whoever he is facing. "I'm not going to go easy on you. So let us get this over with as quickly as possible, shall we?" With those few words, he's on the attack.

[OOC: Maul is still under a magical curse from Deerington where he feels pain anytime he inflicts it upon someone else. He can still hurt someone thanks to the naturally high pain tolerance of a Vileblood, it's just going hurt him as well. For this reason, he likely won't be able to kill anyone.]

B. Newsletter Prompts

I) Moon Flowers

Standing in front of his house in Prufrock, Maul was studying the outside of it with a puzzled expression on his face. The entirety of the still somewhat worn-down old giant house is now completely covered in white roses. While he's confused by this, he's also not complaining given they seemed to be having a calming effect on his mind, which Maul being Maul was always a good thing.

He clipped a few of them off at a time and carefully sliced off any thorns, twisting a piece of spare rough brown cord around them to form them into a tiny bouquet. He sat there outside, watching Venge and Malice the vornskr play fight in the front yard while Slicer the warg slept underneath his favorite tree. When anyone he knew passed by, he'd hand them a bouquet of the roses. "For you," he'd say simply without explanation. Maul wasn't usually keen on being nice to people but keeping a stable mind was always important considering all that he'd experienced in Deerington.

II) Drawn to Palebloods

It wasn't the first time Maul had been drawn towards certain people due to the machinations of whatever was going on around him. At least this time, he seemed to be in full control of his mental faculties, something he and everyone around him could be thankful for. It just felt natural to be drawn to certain people as surely as if the Force itself was drawing him towards them.

Of course, being a psychotic Sith Lord, Maul wasn't always one for the best social niceties. So it would be no surprise to have someone suddenly see Maul watching them from the shadows of a dark alleyway or perched like a sentient gargoyle on top of the nearest building. Actually just talking to anyone seemed to be out of the question for the weirdo. Granted, the minute anyone actually called him out on his strange behavior, he'd be sure to actually approach them, but until then the Palebloods of Trench were going to be having fun with a creepy sort-of Sith stalker.

III) Walking Around The City

Maul had wasted no time in learning the ins and outs of the city. This place had a far different vibe from Deerington and so far he's liking what he's seeing. His Maalraas Omen, Venge, was always by his side. Though with the way they could cloak themselves in the darkness of the Force, he oftentimes seemed to be alone until suddenly there was a monstrous apparition that appeared out of the dark, all teeth and beady eyes, watching whoever was talking with Maul intently.

He'd taken note of certain places that he was sure he would want to investigate further like Ursula's Ink and Earworm. For the most part, he was just absorbing the atmosphere, but what started to annoy him was the way that the citizens of the city kept staring at him for long periods of time, whispering among themselves whenever he passed by. A few of the bolder ones even tried to follow him unobtrusively. He already knew he was a distinctive individual no matter what galaxy he was currently inhabiting but after the fifth time this happened he'd had enough.

Maul, with how little patience he usually possessed, could only put up with this for a short period of time. He whirled on them, saberstaff suddenly ignited in a show of intimidation. "Go on. Be off with you."

This didn't seem to dissuade them at all. One of them was nudged forward to be a spokesperson. "But you are the one we have heard talk of. The ancient Sleeper who wields great power over the Dark. The one with the face of a demon and two hearts, one dark and one light."

Maul was not likely to trust any of the residents of this city anytime soon but the fact they'd heard of him did appeal to the part of him that still had a large ego and a heaping dose of arrogance even after all these years. He stopped trying to make them leave, now a little intrigued. "So you have heard of me. Tell me more then of what you know about me and the other Sleepers."

One could find him then sitting down at a nearby tea shop as he listened to what the citizens had to say about what they had heard of the Sith in their old legends. Though Maul wasn't at all inclined to believe them too much, he had an inkling of an idea beginning to form in his mind. If they didn't prove to be malicious, the people of this city could prove to be very handy indeed...

IV) Wildcard

[Want a customized prompt? Something a little different for any of the above or with a bit more horror in it? Let me know at either

Light_shade or Lightshade#4738 on Discord! I'll match format and tenses. This will also be an overflow post for TDM threads that are still ongoing.]

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(OOC: The ultimate trolling Luz icon)

Luz had no idea why Darth Maul was keeping tabs on her. She'd like to think it was because he was concerned about what she was doing (considering this month it was a fair option) but a part of her new fully well that she couldn't possible matter that much to the Sith lord. For the moment all Luz had been doing was gathering items for the house, but she finally decided it was for the best to actually approach him before people began to wonder if he were terrorizing her.

She was on her staff, appearing to look as if she were going to take off far out of the city, then lightly changed course and landed behind him.

"Yes?"

Maul had been watching over Luz for some time now. He wasn't sure just why he was drawn towards his young teenage friend, but so long as this new desire didn't turn malicious the way it had when Sidious' ghost had wormed its way into his mind, he didn't feel any alarm at simply following her about.

Of course, he was bound to have been seen eventually no matter how stealthy he was. Even so, he was a bit startled as Luz landed behind him on the slanted rooftop where he was precariously perched. He whirled around, the tiles of the roof groaning beneath him at the weight of his lower metal half. "Ah, yes." He wasn't really good at any sort of eloquence, especially caught unawares as he was right now. "Hello there," he said blithely as if they had simply met on a streetcorner.

Luz, despite having seen Darth Maul at his most vicious (ah, Deerington times) was not afraid of him now. She was smiling and chuckled at his fairly awkward attempt at a hello.

"Oh come on, I haven't seen you since you turned up on the beach! It's good to see you up and talking again! I'm guessing by now that you found your brother, right?"

Luz had been having a very up and down month, so she was pretty happy to see someone she cared about back properly on his feet.

Hopefully Luz would never let on she wasn't afraid of him anymore. Maul could be rather proud of his reputation as a monstrous psychopath, even as detrimental as it otherwise was to getting people to see what he was really like.

The talk of Savage did make him brighten up a little bit. "Yes, I found him eventually. Our house arrived here along with most of the pets and it is currently covered in the most peculiar white flowers." Luz had been one of those to show Maul kindness when he'd first arrived and he wasn't quick to forget that, nor all that she'd done for him during their time in Deerington.

Luz would rather NOT want to feel that way about Darth Maul. She didn't doubt that he wasn't dangerous (he almost choked her to death, you don't forget something like that), but she didn't want to see him that way. It seemed to reductive, like that was all there was to him.

She had a feeling talking about Savage would make him feel more relaxed. She understood that feeling pretty well. "I'm glad. I was pretty happy to reunite with most of my friends from Deerington. I'm actually living with a few of them now."

Right, the flowers. She was really starting to wonder if there were somehow more significance to them.

"I was very glad to see that most of the people I cared about turned up here. Even some of those that I thought I would never see again," he says, thinking of at least one in particular. Reaper, for one, Maul had thought he was never going to see his boyfriend ever again, and had been immensely thankful to have him back in his life. Despite what anyone else might think, the two of them were good for one another.

"Oh? Which ones?" Maul will have to pay them a visit and make sure wherever Luz is living is going to be secure. Granted, that won't stop anything that truly wants to rampage in the city he's sure, but he can at least make sure that Luz is as safe as he can possibly make her.

"Right, me too! I'm going to miss the ones that didn't come back, but hopefully they're living better lives back home."

She decided she wouldn't think of Margot when saying that, of course. That part still hurt her a bit, and it would be hard to talk about, especially since Darth Maul had gone and killed her that one time.

"I'm living in Cassandra now! I'm with Varian, Finn and a new kid, Luca! Also, they said that Reaper lives here, but in a cup? I'm not really sure how that works."

"I suppose that is true. Those that didn't end up here deserve a better ending," he said slowly, thinking of some people like JP that had definitely needed to go back to something better than where they were right now.

"Ah, yes, you should be fine with those two." Maul hadn't met Luca, but between the other three, Luz would be fine living in such a house. Varian, Fern, and especially Reaper could make sure that they were completely safe from most things that came across their doorstep.

Maul's face softened up a little at the mention of Reaper, the expression on his face becoming what one could call even dreamy or smitten. He did love his boyfriend very much, even if he couldn't truly say it yet. "He should be thankful they decided not to make him sleep in a vacuum cleaner," Maul said with a chuckle. "Reaper is made of smoke on his most basic level, so unless he is consciously solid, he can fit easily into a bucket or cup most of the time."

"That's for sure! Besides, most people made the choice on what they wanted to do, so if they're home I imagine it's what they truly wanted."

She knew for sure that it wasn't what Margot wanted, so she had no choice but to think that she'd been woken before she got to make the choice. In any case, Luz would remember her in her own way, such as with the omen watching Darth Maul right now.

"I think so too! Right now I'm just cleaning the house a bit so we don't fall into a pit or stab ourselves on one of Fern's many, many weapons."

Huh. That was definitely an expression she had not seen Darth Maul have before, and she sure had never expected a chuckle unless it was one mired in bitterness or malice.

"Oh! Why the heck did no one ever explain that to me? They just told me he lived in a cup! You try telling someone new that and then shrugging when they ask what you mean!"

"Good. That house could use a good cleaning." Maul cared for his nephews dearly but he also knew Varian was usually too caught up in his latest experiment and Fern too busy with his latest weapons to really care about whether or not the place looked like a pigsty. As for Reaper, well, there was a reason Maul had called him a murder hobo repeated times in Deerington.

"Clearly, they need to work on their communication skills." Really, it wasn't that hard to explain once one knew at least a little bit about Reaper. "You'll be safe with that many people in the house. There's not many that can defeat Reaper in combat besides me and a few others." Plus Maul had mostly won because he'd played on Reaper's affections for him when he'd been brainwashed, so while it was a fair fight, he was certain such a maneuver wouldn't work again.

"I'm sure you'll see me over there sooner rather than later." If not just to talk to Reaper or Varian, he still had to talk to Fern, something he was not looking forward to but knew that had to happen.

"Several good cleanings," Luz said, because you weren't going to make a big difference cleaning the place just once and awhile. "But I don't think I mind it too much, when I think about it. With all of us in one place, now we can keep an eye on each other in case of trouble, and that more than makes up for things!"

She nodded. "I guess maybe they figure that Reaper would be so out of the way it wouldn't be that big of a deal? I just thought I'd be avoiding messing with any cup I didn't know too much about. Good to know about Reaper though! Not that I was going to ever challenge him!"

She had her hands busy enough sparring with Vira, after all.

"Oh? Well that's good to know. Maybe you ought to introduce yourself to Luca then, so he knows you're not someone trying to rob or attack us."

"Having people you can rely upon in this place are worth their weight in gold." Even Maul, with his severe trust issues, had been able to find a few of those.

"Considering how antisocial he can be, you might never see him unless he actually wants you to." Now there was the pot calling the kettle black right there. He never would have revealed he was following Luz around unless she had confronted him right now.

"Yes, that would be wise. I don't need him screaming about a demon suddenly being in the house." Plus Maul had the unfortunate tendency not to always use doors, so suddenly coming in through a window was a sure way to make someone suspicious of him.

"You can sure say that again! I'm really lucky I was able to find the people that I have here! I'm going to make sure that I take care of that household even if it kills me. Gonna make sure I don't take it for granted either."

Not that she thought she'd exactly done that with Eda and Margot, but she'd been under the impression it was going to last longer than it did, so it hurt when all of that finally became unraveled.

"I'm sure that's true, so I guess that means I'll have to work extra hard to hunt him down, huh?"

You couldn't really get rid of Luz that easily!

"You know, I don't know if Luca even knows what a demon is, but that's a good idea. Honestly, Luca is making a lot of adjustments too. There's a lot he's not used to. Also, don't come in through his window or anything. I'm not saying you ARE, but just in case."

"Make sure that it isn't the house itself that kills you. One never knows what might happen in this place." Really, their own homes turning against them and trying to murder them all seemed just like the sort of thing that Trench might have to offer the Sleeper population.

"Just aggressively befriend him. I simply was too fascinated to let him go and just wore him down into a state where he started to tolerate me and then accepted my friendship as well." That had led to the two of them becoming lovers but Maul wasn't going to mention that little detail just yet. The two of them did like their privacy after all and Maul didn't need all of Trench knowing his personal affairs.

"Then I'll try to be gentle with the boy." He couldn't promise that he wouldn't scare him or end up terrorizing the kid at all. Maul never could tell how encounters with new people were going to go. They either seemed to see down to his core where he wasn't quite the monstrous psychopath he pretended to be, seeing him for the damaged person he really was, or all they saw was that monster facade on the surface and wrote him off as irredeemable scum. There really seemed to be no inbetween.

"I mean, other than falling into that hole in the bathroom that Varian made, or tripping and impaling myself on one of Fern's swords, I think I'll be good. Not that either of those things are anything to sneeze at."

The disaster house was the disaster house, after all.

"Luckily, those things sound right up my alley! I'm a little surprised you decided to go that route though. You always manage to surprise me, Darth Maul! But then I guess you're still figuring out stuff about yourself here, like I am."

She nodded. "Thanks! He's already wrapping his mind around having blood magic and us knowing each other in a horribly scarring death town, so he'll be busy! I'll just have to draw him a picture of you so he'll know what to expect...and probably tell him about you before Fern does."

“Make sure to create a dedicated room for that grass boy’s weapons and that will help solve the problem. No one is going to want to watch you die by impaling.” Plus what a terrible way to go. At least fighting off a monster or something would be noble.

"Well, I had my own reasons for wanting to be close to him." Namely being smitten with a crush from the moment he'd met the man. Just ignore that blush on his cheeks right now, which looks very odd considering the blood rushing underneath his skin is now green instead of red. It gives him quite odd coloring at moments like this.

"Yes, that would help solve some of the problem. What does he look like? I don't want to accidentally Force Choke him because he sneaks up on me." Maul had already created enough violence in that house to last a lifetime. He was still unsure if they'd ever gotten the stain out of the flooring where he'd attacked Varian and Fern.

"Oh, he does have his own room, but that doesn't mean that his swords just stay there. Trust me, I'm not trying to die at all if I can manage it. I've gotten lucky so far!"

Luz might actually agree with that sentiment.

"Oh, I'll bet. I mean, I can imagine you have several reasons why you wanted to be close, but I definitely don't know them! Oh whoa, your face is turning a cool color!"

Luz, while perceptive, still has her dense moments.

"He's on the smaller side, with curly hair, square eyebrows, and a round nose. He's my age also, if that helps. Something tells me he's going to be seeing a lot of stranger stuff though."

“Someone needs to teach you all to be more organized and keep your rooms clean.” That someone definitely wasn’t going to be Maul, though, given he’d never learned that as a child himself. This late in his life, he was just content with being a bit of a slob, letting his clothes drop where they land when he takes them off or letting the dishes pile high up in the sink before he ever gets around to dealing with them. “Well, maybe not you. You did just say you were cleaning the house.”

Maul runs a hand over his face when he realizes he’s started to blush. Oy vey. At least Luz doesn’t seem to understand what’s going on. “Yes. We’re very similar in temperament and the way we think about things. He often thinks murder is the best solution just as I do.”

Maul nods at the description of Luca. “I hope I recognize him. Sometimes, it seems like all humans look somewhat alike to me.” But then not all species could have vibrant, bright skin colors and unique tattoos that made it easy to tell each other apart.

"Oh sure, I've been cleaning it a lot since I've been there! Fern and Varian are great, but when it comes to their affinities, they tend to lose themselves in their work a bit. But slowly, I'm getting it so that if people come to visit, I don't have to worry about them falling into one of Varian's traps or Fern's discarded weapons!"

Again, Luz has definitely gotten far too comfortable with the way the boys work. Well, the teen ones anyway. Luca was still minding his business, and it helped he didn't have a lot of items like they did.

"Hmm. Maybe you guys might need to work on other solutions. I wouldn't rule out destroying an enemy, but that'd have to be some pretty extreme circumstances."

As someone who'd already gone there, Luz wasn't exactly gung ho on obliterating people if she could help it. Besides, if there was anything to be learned from Mother Superior and Ramona, it was that there was always worse things than death.

Luz chuckled. "Luca is...not quite like most humans. But I'm sure you'll meet him soon enough."

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He's a feral creature (Open)

Newsletter Prompt II

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