Palpatine in Trench Plot!

[survivalthroughhate]

Hi y'all! So I've got a plot brewing for everyone to participate in! Since the dust has settled a bit for endgame talk, I figured it was a good time to put down some thoughts. I'll be doing a network post in a day or two and then a catch-all log for anyone who wants to participate at the same time.

Some months back, Luke and Maul (foolishly) viewed a memory that featured Sidious. Things went pear-shaped as that memory fragment somehow sensed they were there and hitched a ride back into Trench by possessing Luke's body. Maul went to go hide for a bit until Luke got exorcised because he's terrified of his former master. But Sidious wasn't gone for good! And now he's making his grand reappearance....



After regaining his strength when he was forcibly being pushed out of Luke's body, Sidious is now back to possessing anything that can hold his form for a while: people, monsters, animals, and beasts all. He's going to need to be pushed out of these forms but how one wants to do that is up to interpretation. Whether that's killing the host body, performing a blood magic ritual to push him out, purifying the beast's form, or exorcising them just by beating the crap out of them, I'm leaving it up to interpretation as to how your character gets rid of him. I can NPC Sidious or you can just have him be some omnipresent being in the background of the threads, whatever works for you.

If you'd prefer to do something between two characters (i.e. Character A gets possessed and Character B exorcises them by giving a love confession specifically to them) without involving Maul at all, that's fine! Just be sure to let me know here in a comment so that I can keep tabs on everything and possibly just put in a handwave that one of them told Maul what happened so he can keep track IC of Sidious bodyhopping.

This will continue until Maul himself realizes it's his fear that is tethering the memory spirit fragment to Trench and giving him strength. So long as Maul still has that deep terror, the spirit will never truly be gone for good. He's going to have to face his fears eventually, and once he does, he'll be able to banish Sidious for good.

Questions, comments, concerns, complaints, put them below!

Comments

[forcechanic]

Jaina still thinks they should at least try shooting him

[survivalthroughhate]

Okay but Jaina seriously needs to suggest that to Maul on the network post just so Maul can be like "That.....that actually worked???"

[lightthedarkness]

Time to beat a bitch with the power of love and the friends we made along the way.

Oh, and murder. Can't forget the murder.

[survivalthroughhate]

Usagi can give him the full "This is why you suck and why evil never wins" speech just before she obliterates him into atoms.

[martyrofduty]

Duty here to encourage Maul to face his fear. Also to possibly help figure out that's the tether. Spirits haunting people is kinda a thing in TLT and a whole plot point in HtN with G&P the ones noticing. Love this so much for that. You can do it!

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul will definitely need a small cheering squad/people to give him a kick in the ass when it comes to facing his fears and Duty is definitely a good one for that, so I'm down for it. Plus also helping to figure out the tether as well, it'll take a bit to put the pieces together.

[drawsghosts]

So Darth Imperius has a unique Force ability involving ghosts. Basically, Force ghosts can sense him even when he's miles away, and these ghosts are drawn to him. He's also a Forcewalker, which means that he can bind ghosts to him, but this can backfire on him depending on how strong the ghost is.

Either of those would be fun to play with regarding Palpatine, especially considering that Talwyn very much wants to kick Palpatine's ass.

[survivalthroughhate]

Those abilities sound like the perfect ones to play around with for this plot. Perhaps Imperius can be there at the end to lure Sidious to Maul so Maul can banish him for good? Or perhaps he could end with Sidious' spirit getting a little too interested in the Sith, so Imperius has to show off how the Sith of old do things and kick his ass?

[tempredmental]

So, as per usual with these things, I'm down for Keith getting possessed and beat up. No death. But feel free to beat him up, knock him out, whatever.

I'm thinking a good deep feelings confession from Lance is going to be the thing that really cures Keith of the possession problem this time.

[survivalthroughhate]

Poor Keith having no luck. I imagine Maul will be all for beating him up until he realizes Sidious' spirit isn't leaving and clinging stubbornly to Keith, so that's when it becomes time to get more creative.

Izuku "Deku" Midoriya

[wannasmash]

Possession: Down to interact with possessed people! Weird conversations, failed fights, etc. Deku will not be possessed due to [redacted].
Fight: Yes, he is experienced in the anime trope of battle therapy! (Note: not a real therapy technique!) Please let a mild-mannered teenager fight while crying about the power of friendship and affirmations of selfhood etc.
Death: No, he's here to save! (This time...) And it'd be terribly inconvenient if I killed Deku now.
Maul's fear: Yes, very down to have a talk about fear. Maul helped him out with grief some time ago, so it's time to try to return the favor and inch the needle towards less fear!

If any of these appeal, hmu! Threads will have spoilers for his canon point (anime-friendly).

[survivalthroughhate]

Having Deku help to battle one of the forms Sidious possesses is something I am definitely down for! And yes, help him face his fears, Maul needs all the help he can get in people telling him he can do this.

[possessum]

I'm very here for this, and I'll just list out some thoughts / things I can offer in case people might want to indulge in anything!

— Possession Trauma. My favourite, give me all of this please.... the horror of Something Else being inside of you, the loss of self; Peter's character is defined by this and comes with heaping doses of possession trauma, so encountering people possessed by Maul's horrible master would wig him out on several levels (which naturally means I want to do it!) I'd be interested in Peter trying to talk to people / get through to them / anything else you might want to do with your character being possessed. I'm pretty open here!

— Exorcism Shenanigans. The process of this would also touch on some bad places in Peter (and the demon inhabiting him), but I am so here for Peter and/or Paimon to help out with an exorcism, something they did a bit of back when the ghost woman was possessing people. For this, I can offer a couple different options:

1) Peter helping someone else give an exorcism (so we could either do a 3-way thread with 3 players, or we could just have an NPC possessed by Sidious, and thread out our 2 characters performing the exorcism).... Peter could attempt an exorcism by himself, probably via blood ritual, but he would be extremely shaky about it and Paimon would probably step in to help along the way.

2) Paimon exorcising someone by himself. This could be a really cool way for Paimon to display how he can use his OP demon king powers of energy & psychological manipulation in helpful ways. There's a variety of potential there: it could be something more brutal and damaging (aka a forced entry into your character's mind and him going to town on Sidious in there), something slightly less damaging but still spooky (Paimon opening up your character's mind / making them susceptible to him by giving them nightmares / coaxing out their phobias / some fun horror fuckery), something much less damaging (he could sit with your character and much more gently coax his way into their mind / work with them like that / potentially give them good visions to help them regain themselves, strengthen their own psyche, and make Sidious weaker in turn)..... Really it depends on how much or little torment / what kind you might want to inflict on your character, because I'd be here for it! 💪 The one thing he would not do in this situation is outright kill a host unless they specifically asked him to (which could be horrible and fun to play out.) After the exorcism, there's also potential for some good ole H/C, whether from Paimon or Peter. I'm also ota, so whether it's someone Peter/Paimon knows or not, it could be a fun way to get some cr!

[survivalthroughhate]

I had an idea one of the members of Maul's cult will get possessed, which means of course Maul will want to save them rather than let them be killed, so he could end up going to the duo to help him get Sidious out without permanently damaging his follower.

/dying whale sounds

[unphase]

OHMYGODS wait until May when I can get an app for Rey through!

She'll have no idea that she's Palpatine's granddaughter, but I will~~

And perhaps it will be a chance to re-do TROS, correctly this time?

In other words, I want this. I want it as soon as I can play a proper part in it as Rey, along with Tinya and Lexi who are deeply indebted and grateful to Maul as mentors and friends!

(and if I can bring Rose in at the same time as she's also deeply indebted and respectful towards Maul)

[survivalthroughhate]

OH MAN YES! Maul's only just ( or technically is about to, the thread's still being played out) learned that Rey is Sidious' granddaughter, so he'll be freaking out when she shows up, especially since he takes bonds of family VERY seriously and he'll see Rey as being something like a niece to him. Time to figure out a way to keep him from possessing her!

Lexi will definitely be playing a part too since Luz is getting possessed. Perhaps the power of love will play a part in that somehow?

[glitchinthesystem]

So.

So.

Sidious was the cause for this whole Maul and Glitch hatred.

Wanna do something with that?

[survivalthroughhate]

Short answer: YES!

Long answer: What a better way for Maul to finally put some of that hatred behind him than having things come full circle? Perhaps Glitch can help take down a Sidious-possessed monster with his powers and give him a taste of his own medicine?

[xiaoxiuya]

So on discord we talked about Shen Yuan offered Maul emotional support while this is going down, and inadvertently making himself attractive to Sidious as a Final Host, in a winner takes all gamble where he possesses one of Maul's friends and attacks him directly.

I still think such an event would be really freaking cool.

I'd be happy to play as Sidious-possessing-Shen Yuan for the duration of their fight. I think by this point in the plot he'd be frustrated and angry to the point of no longer thinking straight, and simply want to hurt Maul by any means possible. This would give Maul the perfect opportunity to stand up to him and put his memories of Sidious in their place, gaining catharsis and finally driving Sidious out of Shen Yuan's body.

I will ask that we do a little hand-waving about the resilience of spirit swords so that Xiu Ya isn't damaged by Maul's lightsaber. Also leaving it up to further discussion exactly how Maul exorcises Sidious; a ritual, beating Shen Yuan up, whatever. I just think a cultivator vs Sith battle would be cool as hell XD

[survivalthroughhate]

I love this idea to pieces and am all for it from start to finish!

I'm almost tempted to have Maul FINALLY be able to channel Force Lightning to help get Sidious out at one point during the battle. What's always held him back from being able to use it is that block of fear in his mind that associates Force Lightning with Sidious, so being able to show he's not afraid of him any longer will help remove that and allow him to channel it for the first time. Obviously, he wouldn't use it to the point of killing Shen Yuan, but it would help weaken Sidious to the point where Maul can perform some blood magic.

I'm thinking at the end of the battle he uses his Vileblood powers, only instead of removing corruption this time he yanks Sidious' spirit out and crushes it for good.

[imaglyphwitch]

So sorry I'm late to this!

But like I said in the PLURK, I haven't had something really bad happen to Luz (and by extension, Lexi) in a while. Having Luz be invaded by Sidious (and by extension, resembling Philip Wittabane) sounds like it would be a blast!

And I'd be up for Darth Maul helping to get her out since Lexi knows him and it's been some time since Luz had a thread with him anyway!

[survivalthroughhate]

Yes, I'm all up for Maul angsting over the fact one of his kids got possessed. Any preference on how you want Sidious driven out of Luz?

[abornfighter]

I said this on plurk, but Tory is gonna go Ghostbusters on Palpatine since that's what is going to come to mind as a possible solution for containment. She will help psych Maul up for confronting Palpatine and will mention that all the progress he's made and all of the friendships he's gained are proof that he's become strong enough to not put up with Palpatine's shit anymore.

[survivalthroughhate]

I love this idea, giving everyone a breather while Palpatine fumes impotently and tries to figure out a way to escape his Ghostbusters prison. I assume Tory will use her powers to construct the device?

And yes, be part of Maul's cheering squad, he needs all the help he can get!

[creidim]

I'm so damn late to this however, a couple of things:

— one: I'm absolutely here for Luna exorcising Sidious from others. She'll be doing this via Blood Magic with some bonus occult-style magic since she'll absolutely be channelling John Constantine for a lot of it. (That's her not!Dad Dad, y'all. He'd be so damn proud tbh.)

— two: Additionally, Luna owns a Blade of Agency which can be used on anyone who wants to have their character Beast-out temporarily due to Sidious' possession of them, or just on other NPC Beasts. Being struck by the Blade of Agency will essentially cure Beasthood, although it will also cause temporary amnesia. So if anyone wants to explore that, or help Luna in a team up to (peacefully) take down an NPC Beast, I'd be down with that.

Considering Luna is currently writing a book about dealing with Beasthood and how to cure without killing Beasts, this is something I'd be really down for doing (and also it'll give her more entries for the book tbh).

[survivalthroughhate]

So Maul is just gonna be all pushing Luna in the direction of Sidious and letting her have at 'em. He knows full well from experience now she's got this handled and it's about time someone else got a taste of her magic!

[dousedflame]

Giggling at the idea of Bluestar getting possessed. I think I have exactly enough icons from her canon descent into madness to swing it lmao.

She is distinctly Not Helpful when people are in danger but she can sure try?? Maybe she can help out with blood magic rituals.

[survivalthroughhate]

A possessed cat? How is that different than a regular cat? /Badum-TISH!

[ezra_of_lothal]

I said some stuff on plurk but for reference - Ezra helped exorcise Palps from Luke and probably could do it again.

He'll also be big on 'fear is the real enemy here' from the get go, and thus can help Maul realize he needs to let go of some of his fear.

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul definitely needs an emotional support Jedi right now. Ezra will work, he's Maul's third favorite Jedi after all.