Deer Country Network

[Maul's posts as of late had been a bit more lighthearted as he tried to set up his brother on a date and spoke of a memetastic grumpy batcat. But he'd been waiting for this day to come and so his face was as grim as if he was at a funeral during this post. His followers had been on the alert, watching for the signs, and had come to tell him that what he'd feared most had come to pass: Sidious was back at full strength and starting to possess people again in Trench. He couldn't put it off any longer. He had to warn people of what was coming.]

I come to you with the gravest of news. My former master, Darth Sidious, also known as Emperor Sheev Palpatine to some, has arrived in Trench. Many of you already know what that means, either through viewing my memories or listening to me talk about him. For those who do not, he was the man who raised me and turned me into....this. [The one word encompasses all of Maul, his psychopathic personality, the anger and pain he'd held onto for so long, his life being completely ruined by his master, getting turned from a person into a weapon and now spending the rest of his life trying to heal from that.] If you think I am dangerous, he is ten times as worse. He is pure evil. There is no reasoning with him, no way to appeal to any goodness that might reside within him, for he has none. All he has ever wanted in life is to gain power and he doesn't care how many people he must hurt or kill in order to do that. He's destroyed entire planets and every living thing that resided on them in order to do so. A city full of people is nothing to him if he wants to ascend to ultimate power.

Only his spirit has arrived rather than his physical body, so he is currently traveling from one body to the next as he tries to find a form he can take over for good. I have yet to discover a permanent way to banish him but I am open to suggestions. In the meantime, take whatever precautions you must in order to protect yourself and others. Trust me when I say if death is the only option, we must take it. You cannot afford to give him a chance, for he will brutally kill you if you give him one. Better to kill someone then allow him to remain and tear Trench apart at his whim.

His eyes look like this. [Maul closed his for a moment and channeled all the old anger he felt towards his master. When he reopened them, they had changed from the grey-brown color they had been holding steady as for the past three months and were back to the Sith yellow color they had remained for so many years.] They remain that color no matter who or what he is possessing, so it is a way to track whose form he is in. Please let me know if you spot a person or monster that has those eyes and I will deal with it.

[That euphemism of course meant that he would kill Sidious if he had to. Maul had gone over a year without killing anyone in Trench but he knew he couldn't afford to use kid gloves on his master. He'd need to be brutal and swift. He went to turn off the Omni and then paused, remembering one last thing he wanted to say.]

Oh, and Anakin? --The annoying whiny older one that is, not the annoying weird younger one-- if you try to interfere with this? I will stop you. That's not up for negotiation or debate. I'll kill you if I have to and keep you as a squid in the ocean to keep your idiotic devotion to this man from causing this situation to get worse. That is all.

[Then he does go and turn off the Omni for good this time.]

[OOC: This is the kickoff post for the Palpatine in Trench player plot! Feel free to interact with Maul, threadjack others to talk with them, or just head straight over to the log post to get started. As a reminder, Maul doesn't necessarily need to be involved in exorcising an NPC or character if you just want to do to something among two of you.]

[ elster hasn't been much for posting on the network. she's done it here and there, but largely she just keeps an eye on things.

the video starts with a stylized symbol of a bird and an acronym beneath on a black background, while a voice calls for attention—achtung. achtung. achtung. static, then—

it's another dreary midday on some distant corner of the beach. a dark-haired woman with polymer and metal climbing her neck, crossing her face, stands in a black jacket next to some rusted metal... thing. a wreck? her speech comes with a light german accent, almost musical even with her largely flat affect. ]

For those I haven't yet met, my name is Elster. This is a call for any other engineers or technicians in the city. A derelict spaceship came through one of the portals; its nuclear reactor is heavily decayed and unshielded. The radiation on board has fallen to relatively safe levels, but I'm concerned about the long-term effects if it starts to leak into the water. I'd... prefer to avoid that problem.

[ the camera shifts, pulling out into a wide shot of the ship, showing the crushed and buried nose of the machine in the sand and the fuselage extending out into the water. finally, elster's facing it again. ]

Any assistance would be appreciated. If we can salvage something of the reactor itself, you're welcome to it.

[ something flinty and serious enters those electronic eyes. ]

One rule. You avoid the other areas of the wreck, and try to keep your curiosity to yourself. I can answer any relevant questions for the work, and I have the ship's technical documentation.

[ if someone wants to snoop and explore, that can be on their own time. ]

Once the problem's solved, I'm scrapping the ship.

[The first month Ezra arrived in Trench, Madam Generosity gifted him with a crisp white and bronze Jedi style outfit. He’s never felt like there’s been the right occasion for it.

Until today.

His Omni is set down for a wide view, the Sanctuary grounds in the background, and Anakin Solo, in his own robes, at his side.]

Some of you may have heard me talk about, or seen a memory of my master, my first teacher, as a Jedi, Kanan Jarrus. Or even met him, because he was here, briefly.

[Ezra flashes a smile, bittersweet.]

Before he left these shores, we did an impromptu ceremony here at the guardian tree of the Sanctuary. A knighting. [His smile turns sheepish; he’s not here entirely to toot his own horn, honest.]

Back in the galaxy I’m from, Jedi Knights have taken a lot of different variations of oaths, over thousands of years of history. I’ve been thinking for a while about how to express my commitment to being a Jedi of Trench– believing that, for a lot of reasons, something closer to traditional wasn’t in the cards. So, with Knight Solo’s help, I wrote an oath that I think fits...here.

And accountability is important, at least to me, so- [He takes a deep breath, and raises his right hand, palm out.]

Here goes:

I, Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight, vow to use all my skill and abilities to serve others rather than ruling over them.
To not seek personal power, but knowledge and enlightenment,
To act not out of aggression, but to defend and to protect,
To preserve what grows and lives well in its own way,
To support betterment and ease pain,
To guard justice and peace,
To put ever aside fear for courage, hatred for compassion,
And when it is fitting to do so, death for life
— looking always towards the Force, in which all are one,
Until my final death, or I return to the sea.

[Anakin nods, very solemn for a 17-year-old.]

Oath witnessed and acknowledged, Knight Bridger.

[Then Ezra and Anakin beam at each other with excitement, like the very young men they are, and Anakin claps a hand on Ezra’s shoulder. ]

And now the part I’m sure more of you will care about-

[Anakin rolls his eyes and talks over Ezra.]

We’re having a celebration tonight- [Ezra mouths ‘party’.] at the Sanctuary. Contact me or Sansa if you want to be more involved than showing up.

[Ezra has to get the last word before signing off.]

Everyone’s welcome!

(OOC: Ezra in blue, Anakin in green, obv. Link to party log here)

[Jun has his head resting against his fist, looking bored and unamused.]

All right, all right. We all saw that other post. How many of us are under fifteen, then?

Or were under fifteen when you were brought here, I know that some people have been here a while.

[Maul was sitting outside on his roof, the snow softly coming down around him, hood up so they didn't land on his head. There was a soft, contemplative look on his face that he didn't often wear. For those that knew Maul, they'd realize there was one big change. His eyes, which had constantly been a golden color before, were now instead a grey-brown.

Next to him, looking perfectly fine with this cold weather due to the fur that made him little more than a ball of fluff, was his Mankey, named rather fittingly Cranky. Though Maul seemed unaware of it, the Pokémon was imitating his master in body language perfectly right now, sitting down with his arms folded and staring off into the distance. Mankey see, Mankey do and all that.

There was a long pause before he began the video. He was woolgathering and trying to put everything together, saying it in just the right way.]

For anyone I teach, classes will commence again now that I am back. [There was a pause.] In case you were unaware, I made a long journey to my home galaxy for about three years, though I understand I was only gone for about a week here. I had....quite the experience just before I came back with the Dark Side of the Force. I had to face a great many things about myself and learn some hard truths. But while I could not accept what it had to offer me then, I think I am ready to now. To let go of the past, to put some of my pain behind me, to gain more power than I ever thought I could.

[Always with the search of power. He couldn't help it, such a thing was ingrained into him by now.]

It taught me to let go of fear and pain and instead learn to care about others, to keep anger close, but never to let it turn self-destructive. Things many of you have told me here but which I did not want to listen to. But who am I to deny it when the Force itself tells me such things? [There was a soft laugh.] Well, I have returned and don't plan to go anywhere, much to the misfortune of some of you.....But this has proven an interesting experience, one I shall take heed of going forward.

[Since his arrival, whenever Lucius used the Omni he's kept the username of a randomly generated number. He prefers it - an identifier completely separated from identity. And that's the username he'll continue to use when he wants to be consistently recognizable or has to use voice or video. But to comment on something personally important, he believes it's better to adopt a new, unconnected name. It can be its own identity, living through text alone. And now that he knows how to do that, why not test it out with something that's been on his mind?]

There's been a lot of talk about stories lately. Stories about holidays, stories to soothe people, those sorts of things.

What use is a story when it's taken from its people? If it refers to rituals that aren't possible here, or lands we'll never return to, is it simply a way we hold ourselves back? If it's adopted by the very people it was meant to fight against, what are the original people left with?

Does a story remain a useful thing?

 ( cut for male presenting nipples  )

[ it's november and something is in the air. or light, because alucard seems to be glittering. glowing. pick your adjective of choice. and he seems most disgruntled about it. even when he moves, his skin seems to glow.]

I do not suppose anyone knows how to stop this?

Or at the very least, disguise this?

Look, I know there was a ton of family drama with messed up timelines to get through.

[This is quite possibly the understatement of the century to anyone who has had to deal with a Skywalker whether they know how many people are connected to that family or not. But the feed pans to a strange mass.]

But did everyone just forget to warn me that sometimes people just fall asleep and end up in a weird eye covered cocoon thing? Maybe before my brother wound up in one?

[She takes a deep breath. She should be in better control than this. She's a Jedi, Jedi are calm, not irritable]

I should meditate...