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[horncrown]

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No greeting, just a beep. As if anyone is surprised.

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Voice; UN: Bridger

[ezra_of_lothal]

[He has found, since Maul appeared, that he can never be completely unaware of Maul's presence in the Force, not while they remain so relatively physically close.

(He tries not be unnerved at how much that awareness is analogous to how tuned in he's historically been to Kanan and Obi-Wan.)

Folkmore isn't Trench, which had the cool, heavy feeling of corruption overlaying everything. The relative brightness of the Force makes it easier to manage his own emotions in some ways - and makes Maul's presence stand out a little more.

Well, he simply can't worry about Maul's every passing mood, the fluctuations in intensity. He's not Maul's minder. Mostly he lets it all wash around him and dissipate.

And then, one day, something flares sharp enough, Ezra has a little difficulty setting it aside. He stands still, focusing on measured breaths.

He could just carry on. But he decides not to. Another few moments to gather himself together, to consider how to approach things. To make sense his voice is flat and even, rather than soft, before he picks up to relic to message-]

What's wrong?

[horncrown]

[ Cobb had been wrong about everything. Everything. Yet the words struck at things that had maybe been stuck in the corner of his mind; in the depths of his hearts. A feeling he wanted so desperately to put to rest and a different one he so desperately wanted to obtain again.

Maul didn't reply immediately. He stowed himself away somewhere in the depths of Cruel Summer and eventually, once calmed just enough, he replied. With the usual sarcasm. ] Oh, concerned about these old bones are you?

[ezra_of_lothal]

[As the lack of response drags on, Ezra thinks to himself - well, it had been a crapshoot.

SO he finds himself pleasantly surprised. A couple of a quick hops, and he's up on a roof in Epiphany, before he shoots back-]

Yes.

[More lightly-] Although come on, I doubt you're that old. [He'd be surprised if he and Obi-Wan had been more than a few years apart, at Naboo, and he can do the math.

He's always protested Master Kenobi calling himself old, too.]

[horncrown]

[ Yes?

That word trumped everything else the young man said even though he was also right about that. Maul was, technically, even younger than Kenobi given their species aged differently. Not that anyone would know it. Stay so entrenched in the darkside for long enough and she'll corrode more than just your soul. ]

This is your plan?

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Ezra frowns down at his relic.]

Plan? Plan to what, exactly? Talk to you like a person who lives here, and I have history with?

[horncrown]

[ What are you even talking about. People don't talk to him like he's a person, Ezra. That's not a thing that happens. Not without a reason. ] What are you asking me for? It's your plan, not mine.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Ok, better than a diatribe of imagined manipulation and ulterior motives, which he has half expecting.

Is hoping Maul calms down a little an ulterior motive? As Ezra said before, the line between help and manipulation isn't always cut and dry. It's part of being a social creature.]

...rhetorical question.

So. Yes, and that's my plan. What's wrong?

[horncrown]

[ He's learning. Sort of, a little bit. The temptation to go off the handle and monologue about manipulation and whatever whatever was there, though. It had been a consideration. This, again, takes some time for him to reply to. He remembered, by the way. His promise to remain honest. To try to remain honest.

Finally: ] Nothing that should concern you.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[A beat of silence.]

Is that a - you don't want to talk about it, and...decline to? if so, fine.

Or are you trying to anticipate whether I'll consider it a waste of my time by the end of the conversation? Something like that?

[horncrown]

Don't patronize me, Master Bridger.

[ He doesn't want to talk about it but was that because he just didn't want to talk about it or because it felt weak if he did; that someone would see him, like many already had, see his weaknesses. That he'd admitted something to Cobb and it backfired and now it felt raw because he hadn't fully thought on the truth of what he'd said to the man until that moment. And it was wasting away because. He just could not.

He wants to trust you, Ezra. He really does. ]

[ezra_of_lothal]

...Knight. [He's allowed the master bit in their first conversation because he hadn't wanted to derail with such minor detail. But now he's wondering if it was so trivial.] I'm just a knight.

And I'm not trying to. If you don't really want to talk to me about it, ok. If you change your mind later, also ok. The offer will still stand.

[horncrown]

It is what you want, though. Isn't it? To become a Master? [ Just going to ignore the patient kindness here for a sec if its all the same to you. ]

[ezra_of_lothal]

I imagine that'll take me a while to grow up into myself more.

I'm already teaching what I can - what I think is safe to - to whoever wants to learn.

[horncrown]

Mind well what you teach, Ezra. It was not that the Sith hadn't existed for those thousands of years in so called called peace. They very much did. Intelligent as Sidious is he would not have been able to do all that he had done were not the Order so blind.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Can you hear Ezra rolling his eyes, Maul? Part of him wants to demand what exactly the Order should be done, what they should have seen, in actual actionable terms.

But he suspects he'd mostly get some weird take on the Jedi that has practically nothing to do with what he's actually been taught.]

Good news - I'm not sworn to a decaying Republic, or even a formal Order. And mindfulness is one of the core things I try to teach.

[horncrown]

[ Well, yes. The vast majority of his understanding of things had been twisted by Sidious. Not all of it was lies but as they had already addressed: good manipulation starts with the truth. But really what Maul was doing was biding time. Trying to weigh the various possibilities and outcomes of what might happen if he was honest about the whole what's wrong thing. And so the Zabrak goes silent again. Consider him bored with whatever this conversation was going to become.

It was a resounding five hours later that he spoke again. Very quietly. ] He forgave me.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[His time, he's home, so he steps out on the patio of the apartment and jumps on his own room. He does not want Obi-Wan to just....walk in on him talking to Maul.

He turns that statement over and over a few times. Not Padawan Kenobi - he caught a glimpse of Maul the person, rather than the Sith of his nightmares, yes. That's progress but not forgiveness.]

Master Kenobi? [Please let me him not be so horribly wrong that question backfires, he pleaded with the Force.]

[horncrown]

[ Lucky you are, Ezra. For you are correct. ] Yes.

[ezra_of_lothal]

[Logically, this admission is permission to ask something more, he reasons. Not that Maul is necessarily running on logic in this conversation.]

What does that mean - for you?

[horncrown]

[ Balanced, though. Oddly. He took his time to find some kind of center. Well, as much as he could. He wanted to trust Ezra; he did back then, too. He just. You know. Did what he always did. ] Besides the infuriating notion that even after everything he could still be the better man? [ Heavy sarcasm in those last two words yet it also came with an amused chuckle. ] I wonder if he did it to spite me.

[ He's quiet again. The type of silence that lingered as if he had more to say but couldn't yet. No, Maul knew that wasn't it and perhaps that was the frustrating part. One of many. ]

[ezra_of_lothal]

Hmmm. Is being unwilling to let people who have hurt you change you into someone you don't want to be spite? Or just dedication?

[With a touch of humor-] Admittedly, could be a little bit of both. People are rarely just one thing.

[horncrown]

[ He could only hope that there was a tiny piece of that man who chose forgiveness in part to resist everything that Maul had come to stand for even as he died; and he could die with just a bit of his claw in one of those many wounds that he'd made. Because that's just the person he was. And so, with great tone of entertainment: ] One could hope.

[ And then a moment, and one more moment longer. ] But I asked. I— asked for it, Ezra. It meant something different then, I think. When death was so near. Now its harder to discern.

[ezra_of_lothal]

I see. [He can't be completely certain that Maul's past and his are from identical timelines but...it tracks. He'd felt something like peace from Maul, as he'd passed into the Force.]

Do you regret asking?

[horncrown]

No. [ Immediate and certain. He— ah. Mm... not yet ready to talk about it, maybe. Conflict. Too common a feeling these days. ]

video: un; apparition (backdated two weeks after his arrival)

[unphase]

[Tinya is in a ball gown and a black leather biker jacket. once she confirms that the video feed is going, she bends both arms at the elbows, each hand clasping the opposite side's elbow and rests her forehead on her arms, saying quite formally]

I wanted to apologize to you for my over familiarity, Ser Maul. I know now that I made a mistake and would not wish to repeat it. I can only ask for your forgiveness and perhaps a way forward.