deernet | 1-800-BUGGELOO | video

[ Green = Midoriya | Blue = Murderbot | None = Locals ]

Beasts can be people. I had to see if there was a person in there. That's why I used a Moon Drop on the Bugge.

Waste of a Moon Drop... Just kill it like we all do, Deku. [ The voice comes from a grizzled Hunter with their hand on their hilt. ]

[ Midoriya isn't filming this. He and a group of farmers are the subject of this onlooker's stream. A few Hunters are interspersed with them, identifiable by the badges that match Midoriya's own. They know him by his Hero name, Deku. His green Hero gear is lightly stained with his own warmblood. He's bruised and exhausted, but anyone familiar with him knows that he'd be much more injured if he actually came off worse in a fight. ]

If there's a chance I can save someone without killing, I have to try.

These are my crops! The blood of the Bugge enriches them, don't you understand? I have to feed my children! [ A farmer brandishes their harvesting sickle. ]

I--I'm sorry. If you need help, I--Please, let me help. There has to be another way. There are other ways to make the soil better, just--we can figure this out together--

[ Several people in the crowd push forward, and Midoriya flinches with a step back in time with them. He can feel several stabs of alarm in his head. It evokes multiple memories of a group of people ganging up on him, and he's not good at using words to defend himself. He wants nothing more than to wrap his arms around his head and not look at them, but these are people he wants to protect. He has to face them. ]

Congratulations, you are being streamed live to DeerNet. Don't do anything you'd regret.

[ The voice is flat and even, near emotionless but with a slight edge to it. If anyone looks at their relic, it is streaming with a one second delay. ]

[ OOC: replies will come from Murderbot and Midoriya ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't expect you to understand it. Most people don't. But most of them also weren't fueled by the need for revenge and survived off of it for almost fifteen years.

Survived off of what—revenge? Their revenge? Someone else's? You lost me.

I had a burning desire for revenge against the one I felt had wronged me. It allowed me to survive when I otherwise should have perished and so I lived long enough to see it done.

I have plenty of anger, but it wasn't revenge that allowed me to survive. Had to remember to think, not only see red.

I wouldn't know how that feels. As a Sith Lord, I was taught to keep my anger close at all times to help fuel my powers.

Seeing red is magic, huh?

Different circumstances, different tools.

No. Not magic. It is the Force.

What is the Force? I'm guessing it's not physics.

An energy field generated by all living things. Plants, people, monsters, animals: everything. Those who are sensitive to it can manipulate it for their own ends and tend to fall on either the Light Side or the Dark Side of the Force. Those sides are not the same as good and evil despite what others might think. The Force makes you feel connected to everything around you. It's like having another sense in addition to the ones you already possess.

[His standard explanation for what the Force is given he's been giving one for over two years now to Sleepers.]

Right. [ It's not exactly skepticism. Blood magic is real here. The Force is hokey sounding. ]

You don't sound particularly connected to the people around you.

Jedi believe in being connected to people and helping them. Sith believe in using that connection to get what we want.

What do you want—here in Trench? (Besides your brother alive)

[There's a long pause from Maul as he tries to figure out how to answer that.]

....I'm still figuring that out. I covet power but there is only so many ways to gain more here. I would like for those I care about not to be hurt but that is an impossibility in this place.

What's the point of power in the end?

I've yet to see any place people don't get hurt at all. Preservation was close, but you mix in one group of murderous people, and well, that's that. Trench is like that amplified.

If you have enough power, you have control. You can make things happen or prevent them from occurring.

[That's the lie the Dark Side whispers to Maul. He still clings to this delusion at his core.]

[ The one second delay saves Murderbot from scoffing loudly at this statement. ]

Even Pthumerians don't have complete control over what happens.

I've seen what happens when someone has ultimate power. That'd be enough for me.

[No, it wouldn't, but he thinks it would. Maul will never be free of fear he has of bad things happening to those he cares about but he wants to find a way to make it so.]

What was that like?

[ Murderbot pauses. ]

How long did it last?

He was able to do whatever he wanted and get away with it. And it lasted most of his life, all the way until almost the very end.

[That's when Sidious made his only error: underestimating the amount of goodness in Luke and believing he could be turned to the Dark Side like his father could.]

Then he died earlier than he meant to.

[ Murderbot doesn't need its media collection to pick up on that one. Make a mistake, die. ]

Guess his power wasn't absolute; he fucked up.

I'd still take having power for most of my life as opposed to be completely powerless for all of it.

[Maul's head could sometimes be as thick and hard as a brick.]

Oh yeah, that's you right now. Completely powerless. Completely powerlessly killing people. Completely powerlessly accessing the network. Completely powerlessly doing whatever else it is you do here.

[ Though its tone is mostly dry, Murderbot is pissed off. ]

There is a large difference between power and unlimited power. What I seek is the latter.

There is a large difference between limited power and completely powerless. If you'd experienced being completely powerless, you wouldn't mix them up.

The only way for anyone to have complete power is for everyone else to be completely powerless. Good way to guarantee almost anyone's first choice if they get one is to kill you.

Why the fuck should everyone else have to pay that price for your ease and emotional comfort? Why should your brother? Because everyone else also means your own damn brother. If he can fuck off and get himself killed, you don't have unlimited power.

[Eden is making a lot of sense but that just fuels Maul's ire all the more. What she's saying goes so contrary to what he's thought for so long that he can't simply discard what he's always believed in favor of something else, even if he knows logically it makes a lot of sense.

Maul's never been one to listen to his logical side. He's always jumped to having his emotions take over first and dealing with the consequences later. Even now, struggling for months become a better person, he still can't shake that part of himself.]

You--You--You don't know anything!

[Maul yells out and then abruptly hangs up the Omni, unable to continue this conversation for the amount of rage it's brought up in him.]

1-800-BUGGELOO | video | un: rin

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