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IC: "You ... you just handed over reality to this monster!" Irna screamed, only barely able to wrench her attention away from the lumbering ... the god that was coming towards her, mace raised high to strike. She wasn't ashamed to say: she was scared. She was terrified. She didn't want to die -- who did? Her veins felt like nothing but ice, but adrenaline. Of course, that wasn't all that was happening in her body. Some -- generally Matoran -- have claimed that the Zyglaki ability to secrete an oil from their skin which can eat through organic matter is clear evidence of their origins as bestial predators to be put down. Aberrations of the Great Spirit. But, in truth, the phenomenon is a simple defence mechanism. In the event that a Zyglak might be the prey of a larger beast -- say, a behemoth claiming to be god Himself -- the ability to melt flesh at a touch seems almost noble. And, of course, Irna being pressed up right against a wall made of flesh meant that ... well.... The wall hissed and bubbled and steamed behind, the tendons and ligaments holding it together liquifying under her sustained contact, the pressure from Mata-Nui's elemental barrage pushing her deeper and deeper into the weakening meat of the structure -- and further and further away from the god Himself. A little further, she thought, desperately. A little further. OOC: @Smudge8 @Azibo @Unreliable Narrator: I'm not actually sure what happens if someone were to try and go through the organic wall of the Cortex. If my post doesn't work, I'm happy to edit it. -Void

IC: Ardoku - Great Temple

IC: Taja | Ko-Metru The rookie Toa followed Sans, fending off the occasional League soldier as they made their way towards Pridak. The supersized Turaga was absorbing the brunt of the League's attacks; Taja didn't know how long he could sustain his assault, but it was a lot of punishment for a Turaga, even one the size of a building. She scanned the surrounding buildings for long-range attackers, feeling fairly confident that Sans could take out anyone who foolishly wandered into melee range. There— a soldier with some sort of energy gun was firing on the giant Turaga. Taja focused, drawing upon the well of energy that only minutes ago had seemed inaccessible. Now it felt hard to contain, like tapping into it might unleash something she couldn't control. Carefully, she drew a mental line from her fingertips to the Takean, tracing out a path for the sound to travel. Then, like Sans had taught her, she extended her own vibrations beyond herself, sending a high, keening bolt of sound out into the world that shrieked through the air and blasted the League soldier off his feet. They were getting closer. The Toa of Sonics looked for another target and prepared to fire again.

IC: Rose - Po-Metru She pondered for a moment, watching the last of Carapar's forces retreat from the district after the death of their leader, some of their own troops in pursuit. "Ga-Metru should be under control soon with Takadox gone," she said, turning to Skyra. "Which Metru do you think requires our help the most at the moment?" @Snelly IC: Nale Vella - Archives She'd expected this, from the moment the skinny Skakdi appeared in the Archives. Not once had she let her guard down around him, although part of her genuinely wished Thom was some kind of saint who would forgive her for grievous actions in the face of the entire city threatened by a problem greater than their own conflict. Things could never work out that way, of course. Thom suddenly moved to fire, and before she could react a shot went into Nale's kneecap. She let out a yelp and balanced against the wall to avoid falling to her knee, grimacing at the Skakdi. "You...son of a..." she paused and sucked in air through her teeth, "the world is ending outside and this is what...concerns you?" She could've fought back--blown a hole in the Ko-Skakdi before he could make another move, and she doubted Arkius would even ask what had happened if the Toa of Earth survived his tussle with Mantax. Instead, she knew doing that would be giving Thom what he wanted. Nale tossed her rifle to the ground, then glanced around the corner at Arkius, now certainly wishing she'd said what she had wanted to say back at the mask vendor instead of waiting. She wasn't sure what would happen next: would her actions give the Skakdi pause, or would he simply go for the kill? "I know what I've done. You only know the half of it. Get your revenge, then. It won't change a ##### thing, but I think you already know that." @Dane@Onaku@pokemonlover360

IC Leklo & Korruhn | Ko-Metru Well this is rich, Leklo thought, here I am. Once again. Falling. He took some small consolation in knowing at least this time he was not in danger of being crushed by Sans' enlarged body, that this time it was their enemy who ran that risk. That made it slightly better. And yet, the former alpinist detested the act of falling, doing it a second time in as many days. Thanks, Sans, he sarcastically accused, not truly meaning any of the thought. What really helped was his friend, Korruhn, once again proving his creativity and mettle by feathering the fall for all four of them. That grace allowed the group of them to instantly deploy without having to tend to sore muscles or injured ligaments from a more catastrophic landing, and gave Sans in particular the agility to quickly swipe at Pridak's troops as soon as he was able. Easily the more militant of the group of them, Korruhn wasted no time demonstrating the more destructive potential of his gravitic powers and pulled an entire squadron of soldiers backwards and into a well of spiraling black energy that consumed them like a ravenous maw, then vanished, leaving nothing but dense spheres of protodermis that clunked on the frozen streets and stayed there. Meanwhile, Leklo had pounced to the ground like a tiger and pulled a sword out. Out of reflex he tried to summon his plasma abilities, but they remained walled off from him—there, but not responding. The matter troubled the thinker's mind; Sans said it would come when he was on the ground, but it wasn't working. There was no time to dwell on it, though, and he resorted to using his weapon as best he could. Hefting it, it felt at once familiar and balanced just like the ice axes it had been transformed from, and he flourished it once before instantly necessitating its use. A takean warrior rushed at him, but to Leklo he was less a man than an icy outcrop he needed to snag for a hold. The margin for error was tiny and a missed strike would likely lead to his certain death, but it had been the same as an alpinist. And to the enemy's detriment, Leklo lived for these moments of adrenaline, not from the joy of destroying enemies but the sheer thrill of the moment. The Pa-Toa deftly swung his blade to meet the enemy fighter, and like an axe striking true into a cranny, the sword hit home, cleaving the takean's arm clean off. There was no artistry behind the movement, only pure precision only a [former] Ko-Matoran could appreciate to the fullest. Leklo stepped forward and seized the aghast enemy with his free hand and threw him aside, sliding him down the length of his sword in doing so and cutting deep into his chest, and then moved on to face the next soldier. "So you are," was all Leklo said, so distracted by the sudden arrival of the mysterious ally that Taja nearly collapsed atop him. He scampered back onto his feet quickly, however, and It was at that moment that Sans crumpled one of the smaller knowledge towers and sowed even greater chaos and destruction on the battlefield. Normally Leklo would lament such a catastrophe, but instead he appreciated the thrilling moment as he bolted away from the path of collapse, weaving his way by other takean troops and opportunistically cutting them down as he escaped the tower's fall. And in that instant, between the thin cuts and decimated enemies, Leklo noticed two things: Firstly, none of his strikes drew blood; and secondly, the edges of his sword were glowing. His heart light skipped a beat.

IC: "Excuse me, sir," the Zyglak said quietly, "but do you require medical assistance?" The man out a raspy chuckle, and said, "No, I'm just undead. Never thought I'd meet a Zyglak concerned for someone's health." ~~~ For a moment, it was as though Irna had passed through a fog. Her vision blurred and her mind wandered, and when she back to, she nearly forgot where she was, why she was here. Shouldn't she have been at home? Back in the mountains of the Northern Continent, with her mother and her family and her friends? Not in this place, this place like the innards of some great and monstrous beast. ~~~ "Of course I'm concerned for my comrade's health," she said. "I pray that we all remain healthy on this mission, after all." "Hopefully this mission is as uneventful as possible." ~~~ But then -- of course! Pridak's mission: to help bring the Krom Sphere to this place, to win the war, to ... invade.... Yes. Of course. The invasion. The Matoran's death. The monstrous god. Bringing the Krom Sphere to this god ... this mad, murderous god ... this god who wanted the power over reality itself.... Why had Irna come to Metru-Nui? "I'll be a hero, Mother," she had said all that time ago. "I'll perform a great deed of valour, and prove to the Matoran that we are just as noble as they!" She'd be a hero. She just needed to stop Mata-Nui from being given the Sphere by... by.... ~~~ "I didn't catch your name!" "Sorry about that, my name's Mazor." ~~~ Her spear, its tip coated with the tissue-melting oils of the Zyglak, flew straight and true through the air, aimed directly into the chest of Mata-Nui. OOC: @Smudge8 @Azibo -Void

OOC: Soundtrack Recommendation IC [Zataka, Coliseum]: Zataka looked up from the screen just as Kalmah defeated Brutaka and uttered his guttural challenge to her. With everything going on at once, the Vortixx had managed to go unnoticed. As had the aquatic looking Steltian who’d raved about the monsters in the basement. “I’m a little preoccupied, so I don’t know. Maybe help him.” she told Zecrillia, pointing towards Waveahk with her chin. “Or - “ she parted her hands over the holographic display of Metru-Nui, as if presenting a multi-course dinner, “ - you could back us all up by coordinating defenses from here.” The titan unslung the larger black pack she’d carried on her back thus far. It hit the top of the desk with a thud. Her fingers moved quickly, unlatching the top of the pack and pulling away the black fabric to reveal a pristine Kordak blaster and extra ammunition. She picked up a six-shooter magazine of rockets and slapped it into the receiver with a metallic snap. She lifted the blaster up - the weapon appearing almost like a small arm in her titan hand - and held it next to her ear, slowly rotating the drum magazine manually. Satisfied it was working as intended, she attached it to the strap formerly used on the carrier bag and slung the weapon across her shoulder. Then she pocketed extra ammo and headed outside, through the shattered window. Dume’s office and the attached balcony overlooked the parade grounds. Under normal circumstances it was high enough up for that fact to be irrelevant, but right now it was useful as Zataka approached the edge and peered down. Kalmah was easy enough to spot with his whirling chains and his squad of retainers waving his banner. He was already facing the next opponent - a Toa of light, judging by the sudden bright flash. They look like they could use a hand… The warlord stood back up to her full height, blaster in one hand and blade in the other. Zataka let out a breath and then stepped off the ledge. ---- The only warning Kalmah’s soldiers had that trouble was coming was a soft whistle in the air. Then the Kordak missiles that had been fired from above detonated around them, scattering their ranks. The explosions were followed by another massive impact at the foot of the coliseum, behind Kalmah. The pavement shattered, sending crumbs of concrete and protosteel flying and leaving a crater in the rallying grounds. A tall, dark and imposing silhouette stood at it's center, obscured by the swirling smoke - answering the call of the one foolish enough to challenge her. Arcs of static zapped around the dust cloud, remnants of the energy blast that had been used by the emerging titan to break her fall. Zataka stepped out of the crater and into view of the other warlord. “Kalmah - ever in search of more punishment. You’ve come to the right place.” OOC: Superhero Landing! @Unreliable Narrator Sorry about locking you out @That Matoran with a Vahi Reinforcements are here @~Xemnas~

IC: Zaliyah - Le-Metru The airship had made it through the minefield. Not safely, but intact enough that it had managed something that could be tentatively considered a landing, rather than the intended effect of being rent asunder in midair. Disappointed, but not entirely surprised, Zaliyah set aside the rifle and stepped inside to inform Ehlek of the developments. "As I'm sure you heard, the airships have been detonated," she reported, offering the Barraki a curt bow, "An enemy airship made it through, and has crash-landed in the streets. If there are any survivors, they'll either retreat, or press their attack. Either way, I'd suggest we hold our ground here."

IC: Mata-Nui, Cortex "I can do that... Someday, you'll freely come back to Me... just as I have come back to you." Mata-Nui closed His eyes, and the bubbling power inside of Him subsided. The room rumbled and shook and the walls seemed to move. Low vibrations could be felt softly throughout the floor, yet the monstrous fusion before the two League warriors seemed at peace. For nearly half a minute, the dark abomination stood resolute yet calm. Outside the Cortex... beyond the Colosseum... above the City of Legends, while many forces waged war, no one noticed the crimson skyline subtly shifting. One star extinguished, and another burned brighter in its place... Then Mata-Nui opened His eyes. "It is done. Your Destiny's path has been shattered, and a new one, unbeknownst to all- even Me- has taken its place. I have freed you from My woven timeline, and from the Duty you once swore to uphold. You have no Unity with any being in this world from this moment on. You are free. Now give Me the Krom Sphere. Let this stand-off end. Enjoy your new life in My new world." Mata-Nui began pulling the Krom Sphere towards Him. Unless Mazor reaffirmed his own grasp on the artifact, Mata-Nui would finally hold it in his own demented grasp. OOC: @Smudge8 @Conway

IC: Taja | Ko-Metru Her shout had yet to finish echoing when Taja raised her launcher and fired a disk. A Takean suddenly found himself half-encased in ice, his limbs quickly going numb. The Toa of Sonics hoped that would hold him as she loaded another disk. Before she could fire, another soldier was upon her, broadsword raised to strike. With nothing else at hand, she braced her right arm with her left and caught the blow on her launcher. Sparks flew as she staggered under the assault, but the metal was undamaged and so was she. If there was a moment to remember how she'd called forth a blast of sound in the airship, this was it. Pointing her left hand at her attacker, palm outstretched, the De-Toa looked inside to find that thrumming energy she'd felt earlier. It was easier this time, almost like tuning into a radio station. She felt the familiar vibrations begin to reverberate through her bones, and directed them out of her fingertips into the air. All this was accomplished in half a second; she had no time to choose the frequency or dial back the decibels, and the resulting blast of sound was so low that she felt it more than she heard it, and so powerful that it knocked her off balance. The Takean soldier received the worst of it: she was blown back and launched ten feet into the air before crashing back down to earth, knocking one of her comrades to the ground. Taja took the opportunity to fire another disk. It was a weak shrinking disk: the unfortunate recipient shrank to half his size, almost cutting his own head off with a weapon that was suddenly bigger than he was. She felt like she was starting to get the hang of her new powers, but she still felt more comfortable with a disk launcher.

IC: Skorm(?), Ga-Metru The mirrored entity raised its hand; whether to block, attack, or summon forth more light, could not be discerned. Tekmo's shield bash knocked them aside, however. They crumpled to the ground, weakened by the stamina drain; the bright light diminished, their form tarnished. "No... Mata Nui... demands..." Oreius's ploy to eliminate the shadows in the area was successful. As the shadows shrank, a keening wail pierced the air, and slowly the shadow entity was forced into solid form once again. It too was kneeling out of fatigue. "Resourceful, that." The Kra-Toa looked at Oreius. His expression was that of... not quite fear or sadness, only consigned acceptance. "I tried to protect him, keep him hidden away. Takadox never found him; nobody did." He looked away, at the befuddled Av-Toa. "I can feel it happening again. If he finds out all of this... what's left of his mind will be gone." Again, the masks of the four divisions of Skorm began to glow, and each separated into yet two more forms. The mirrored being split into a singular mask haloed by shimmering light and a toa with only a void for a face. The mask floated serenely, with no mass save for itself; around it, a spectrum of colors faded around it as it floated around the rapidly growing group. The blank-faced toa only knelt, mindlessly repeating verbiage from no apparent source. "OBEY TAKADOX. HIS REIGN IS JUST. THE WILL OF MATA NUI IS THE WILL OF TAKADOX. THE ENEMIES OF THE LEAGUE OF SIX KINGDOMS ARE YOUR ENEMIES. YOU ARE SERVING THE WILL OF MATA NUI." The shadowy entity split into an orb of blackness and a jumble of biomechanical parts inside a swirling vortex; deep inside the orb, the glimmers of a mask could faintly be seen. It moved to orbit the group opposite of the glowing mask. The vortex moved with a malign intelligence, quietly appraising each of the others present. The Kra-Toa divided into yet two more toa, each bearing different shades. One, the darker of the two, managed to curl up into a sitting position, put up his hood, and stared down, as if meditating. The other groaned, looking at the beings the Av-Toa had split into. From the Toa of Light, two other beings had emerged. One, clearly a toa, was completely gray, and from the way he was looking around, completely unaware of his surroundings. He shifted, appearing as a Vo-Toa. "Nynrah Matoran can make mistakes just as well as anyone else, right?" He shifted again, this time into what looked like a ba-matoran. "Real quick, in and out. You'll be fine." The last being was a matoran. His coloring indicated he was a ba-matoran, but it shifted into that of a ta-matoran, then a fe-matoran as he breathed quickly and looked around. "Wha-what's happening? Where am I? Who are all of you?" OOC: @Onaku @Toru Nui @Eyru

Hey everyone! Congratulations @Onaku on the past 2 pages! Let me know what spoilers you're interested in for the next game. I've been on a bit of a meme making kick recently for SKE. I'd love to see any memes you all have! For Example:

IC Stannis | The Virgil At the Wanderer's command the vahki piloting the Virgil slowed to a crawl to accommodate Jutori's gradual learning curve. He came around Jutori and took position beside him and imitating his stance, instantly recognizing the tension on his face as stress. "Feel, don't think," he instructed, taking the relatively peaceful moment to to coach the new toa on his powers. "Sense the ley-lines connecting the airships to the ground's pull... touch them with your mind, feel their flow as if they were tethers to buoys, the bobbing and tugging of the ships as they fight gravity to remain aloft. And then, connect yourself to them, the ley-lines—and realize you have the power to give them slack or take it away. A force of nature is at your command, all you have to do is touch it." The effects were incremental at first, but Stannis possessed incredible patience and understanding. He helped Jutori control his breath and let go of the anxiety that held him back. In... out... in... out... And soon, sooner than Jutori thought himself capable of, the airships that stood guard peeled away and drifted upwards as their engines and levitation disks, previously balanced to be at a precise pre-programmed height, was suddenly overwhelming to the level of gravity exerted upon the hulls. The path was cleared but only for a moment; the autopilot programming was sure to swiftly realize the errors and compensate accordingly to return to their previous elevations. "Vahki: Forward—now!" he ordered. "This unit is designated BO-1337P," the vahki pilot corrected in its monotone, although it followed the toa's instruction just the same. The response gave Stannis pause for an instant. Kilo-M9 gave its designation with a similar sense of pride, and the Wanderer was not missing the irony of working alongside a vahki when he was chased doggedly by Rorzakh a mere 36 hours before. And yet, despite the change of the relationship's nature, any feeling of justified authority Stannis held over the Bordakh unit was diminished then. There was intelligence in that unit, just as there was in Kilo-M9, sufficient enough to speak for itself, and Stannis realized the pilot had actually accelerated the airship before he even gave the order. There was no reason not to trust in BO-1337P, he understood. Just as the airship propelled itself through the blockade, Stannis spied a small speck of energy shot from a position near one of the largest towers deep in the Metru. It arced close to the ground, seemingly purposeless, but nothing was purely an act of coincidence for Stannis. Everything had a reason or destiny behind it, no matter how small. Alarmed, but betraying nothing, he simply said, "Vashni... ready your speeder." The glowing projectile finally struck a building and flared briefly with brilliant energy, then vanished... but that was only the scout ahead of the chaos to come. BO-1337P required no instructions to speed more, throttling the Virgil as much as its thrill-seeking programming allowed. Even as their airship slipped by the ones Jutori had lifted away it was quickly getting crowded in again. Worse yet, the Wanderer's senses were shouting at him about the danger all around them, still unseen but utterly inevitable. It was a beacon, Stannis knew, and he quickly surmised what it heralded. The air to the portside of the Virgil shook with a great tremor as one of the hovering mines was detonated, buffeting the Virgil in the opposite direction like a sea vessel washed aside by some great wave. BO-1337P barely had time to compute that challenge before another mine blew up, this one on the starboard, and threw their ship back from whence it came. A myriad of sensors and lights barked at the occupants with angry alerts of errors and damage, none of which made any sense to the luddite old toa, but thankfully were exactly what the vahki was engineered to understand. BO-1337P was still entrenched in its cockpit dataport, managing the array of controls with an empirical stoicism and precision even Knichou was likely to admire, and adjusted the Virgil's course according to its needs, all while urging the now-ailing vessel ever forwards. Another set of airships blew up again, some closer than others, as the chain reaction of explosions began. Like a line of firecracker dominos, each explosion catalyzed the other, rocking the air currents with destructive concussions and throwing the hapless Virgil about like a toy duck in a pool even as the explosions happened more and more to the stern of the airship. "Current course is untenable," unit BO-1337P notified the rest, nary a hint of alarm in its voice, though it did raise its volume in an effort to speak over the cacophony of booms and bursts. "Collision with ground: Unavoidable." Even so, it still plied its programming to direct the airship as far into Le-Metru as it could and tried to compensate for every interference with its trajectory possible, even as the Virgil warbled and fishtailed to its eventual doom. Like the lightstone shot, Stannis knew even that crash landing was not without purpose, but without opportunity enough to program his Haonga with a lifesaving power all he could pray for was Mata Nui's grace and favor from a different avenue.

Photos on Instagram I've honestly not purchased a lot of Friends sets in recent years. First I started collecting from the theme because of the new pastel colors, but the novelty kinda wore off after a while (and I started focusing on the Elves theme instead) so I haven't picked up any. But this set had a few fun pieces that I was interested to get. And besides, I've always been tempted by submarine sets. The figs are... honestly I don't care, which is kinda unusual for me. The designs and hair pieces are nice but I have no real need for the minidolls. (I hear this is a scene directly from the show though, and the other character is actually an antagonist, so that's cool.) Indeed, the bigger drawl was the wildlife. The adult dolphin isn't new but I love the mold so I can appreciate another one. The baby dolphin is a great addition too, and actually has better connection anti-studs, so more versatile. Plus, the pack of coral-colored sea life is great, with fish, clams, seahorses, starfish, and an octopus; these are super fun and I can't wait to find a way to incorporate them into a MOC. If we're also looking at new molds, the teal seaweed / coral elements also greatly interests me. The plethora of pins and attachments is inspiring me to have fun with these somehow. I am a bit disappointed that they are very much unsymmetrical, but that just adds further challenges to using them in builds. And the angles are quite fun to experiment with. You get three pieces in this set, which is a nice start, but I'm thinking I'll need a lot more to really come up with something crazy. (And I've apparently angered a lot of folks in LUGBulk by making these my part choice. Hehehe.) The first big build is the submarine, which is well rounded and compact. It's not a super intricate build by any standards, but the rounded doors in the back and the bubble window are positioned quite well, and the setup inside to seat the minidoll works quite well. It's a bit of a junorized built but it works well. My biggest gripe is that the arms on the front are too short to really be useful. (I'm sorry, I'm nostalgic for the Aquazone subs and their lanky arms.) The two mini-builds that you build before the sub, on the other hand, are forgettable. The landscape piece is very simple (and I guess it has a cloth that reveals a treasure map when it gets wet... I didn't really deal with that element.). The underwater scooter also positions the propeller right beneath the diver's belly, which seems unsafe. The best part of the build was the sunken ship wreckage. It was kinda fun building a mini pirate ship and then covering it with sealife. The stern of the ship has a neat technique that angles it upward pretty nicely, but the bow's angled attempt is a much weaker connection that is prone to breaking whenever the model gets moved. There are a few hiding spots for fish and the baby dolphin built around the ship, and the mast has an action feature where it can fall down and pin the dolphin, which necessitates the need for the sub to swing by and help them out. It's also not a super complex design, but it really does a great job at setting the undersea location. Very well done. For $39.99 USD, only 363 seems a little low, but the coral, dolphins, and sea life elements bring up the value. It's also the second cheapest set for the teal coral and baby dolphin, the cheapest set for the coral colored sea life elements, but it has them all in one set. Plus, the sub and sunken ship are fun designs and add a lot of play value. Yeah, it won't win set of the year, but it's a modestly priced set that does a great job at bringing out the Friends underwater adventure. And it's been a while since a Friends set caught my eye, so I'd say it's worth it. (Granted, I bought it nearly six months ago but only recently put it together, so I guess I wasn't that hard pressed for the pieces.)

Untitled spider tank Untitled rover for Febrovery Matilda (of Robot Wars fame) Gallery VIC-R 'The Officiator' (part of a collab with some other hot boys & gamer girls here's the gallery) (yo is there a way to centre-align images in blogs)

This is my first post to BZPower and my first Bionicle Music Video - are these technically AMVs? It's a little sloppy just because it is my first but let me know what you think. I know I'm posting this late at night but I hope at least a few of you see this. I've got quite a few ideas for songs that were not Bionicle songs but fit the theme very well - all of them are sort of obscure punk or alternative songs. If you like this, check out Bob Mould, late 2000s Propagandhi, and early 2000s Dag Nasty. Jawbox is a band from Washington, D.C., originally signed to Dischord Records. They're one of the many bands that came from that label that were vitally important to the development of alternative rock. Although they weren't signed to Dischord in 1996 when their final album, Jawbox, was released, it is easily their best work, and from it I pulled the first track "Mirrorful" to use for this video. I tried to give it an overarching story based on the line "histories" from the chorus, and so it sees the Toa Nuva in Karda Nui reminiscing on their adventure thus far. I also sort of made it as if Tahu Nuva, in the first clip, is peering into the future, as the end of this same clip appears at the very end of the video. I also left in the entire Rise of Mata Nui clip at the end. Anyways, I hope this makes you guys feel like kids again. It was a blast to make and watch it all come together.

IC: Dume | Cortex Memories “I’d imagine so,” Dume said approvingly, “but I’m not about to question my own identity. I know who I am. I’m real enough for my liking. You seem to be in quite the pickle though. If you can’t figure out how you got here, maybe you’ll have to retrace your steps? Dume closed his eyes, nodding to himself while he thought. Eventually he opened his eyes again and clapped his hands together. Then he stood up, walked to Ostrox and waved his hand through the League soldier. Their bodies passed each other like two ghost ships in the night. Dume’s eyes lit with joy at his thought process having been correct. “I’ve got it! You don’t exist here. And I don’t exist wherever you are. We’re both illusions. You are in Metru-Nui. I am in Mata-Nui. Somehow, we’ve become connected. You were supposed to follow someone, and you got lost somewhere strange. To me it sounds like you got lost in a temple. The temples here are said to have worlds inside of them, and that time and space work in different ways deep in the temple’s secret chambers. Maybe Metru-Nui’s temples are similar? If that’s the case I’m sure you can retrace your steps and think your way home.” As Dume said his last words the two stuck in a space between time heard a rumbling sound, a squishing sound, and the sound of something splattering as it was torn apart. Then Irna stumbled out of the green tropical grasses and bushes near the shore onto the sandy beach near Ostrox and Dume. Dume looked at Ostrox quizzically. “Friend of yours? IC: Grell | Archives Onu-Metru The falling stasis tube shattered Grell’s idea of maintaining cover. She threw herself outward from behind her hiding place, but the glass richoting from where the impact zone of the stasis tube crashed cut her legs and left bloody trails across the Archives floor. She winced and did her best to not look at what could only be several nasty and crooked gashes. Instead she reached into her zamor bag and pulled out the first thing her hands grasped: a green sphere of acid. She’d gotten it half off from a dealer back on Zakaz. Far as she was concerned the thing would actually do nothing, or it could release a spore plague that would infect all of Metru-Nui and lead to the League having to stay safe at home for two weeks after the war was won… Eh, who cares, Toasters gotta get toasted, Grell thought, and loaded the sphere in her zamor as she kept hobbling away before turning around in plain view of Kilo and firing. OOC: @pokemonlover360 IC: Vahki NU-8008S | Coliseum “Apologies. They just jumped out the window.” Said vahk NU-8008s. NU-8009S nodded and then added; “We apologize for the delay. A cell should be available shortly.” OOC: @Toru Nui, @Conway

IC: Thom - Onu-Metru Archives "YOU HAD NO ISSUE BEFORE!" Thom raised his voice, now sounding like a different person entirely. None of the tongue-in-cheek intonation, or the grinning. Ever so slightly, the grip on his own gun shook.

IC: Skyra - Po-Metru - And so they were off, heading south down the Ko-Metru. It didn't take the young and healthy Toa too long to make it to the border. Though Triage seemed to be wheezing a bit. "Hmmmm...." Well it was cold, that much was for sure. Oh yeah and of course under siege by the league. @Tarn

But they got to know each other again, perhaps much better than they did on Metru Nui.

IC: Jabali - The Virgil, crashing into Le-Metru Well, time to go! As far as Jabali was concerned, this could either go badly or really badly; but she'd picked up this skydiving vest out of the hold for a reason, and now was as good a time as any to put it to the test. As the doomed Virgil began its graceless plummet as the far too close for comfort explosions rocked the airship, the Po-Matoran fumbled for another teleportation disk. With any luck, she wouldn't even need the vest at all; she would, hopefully, be able to teleport neatly onto a nearby rooftop just before the airship hit; but she knew, as always, that teleportation disks could be unpredictable, especially when used in the heat of the moment. She could very well end up in the sky outside the airship, and that wouldn't end well. Still, her chances were better with that, she reckoned, than making it through the crash in one piece. Gulping a quick breath, the Po-girl tapped herself with her disk as the ground raced up to meet them. One moment she was onboard the airship; the next, she was watching the airship from the outside as it smashed nose-first into the ground. Jabali gulped, hoping that those on board were okay - but they'd be okay because they were Toa, right? They could survive things that no Matoran could, right? Her own situation, in contrast, was... untenable, but not entirely unmanageable. The disk had done her the favour of at least finding her somewhere solid to put her feet; albeit on an extremely narrow window-ledge some distance above the ground. It would be really handy, Jabali thought bleakly for a moment, if her powerless Miru was actually the real thing, so she could simply float to the ground; refusing to dwell on that fact, however, the Matoran activated her newly-acquired vest and took a leap of faith off the building. The journey down was a lot quicker than she would have liked, as she failed to manage the combination of disks in the vest properly. Still, though she jarred her knees uncomfortably in her less-than-perfectly-controlled landing, she didn't break anything; so Jabali counted that as a win, regardless. Without hesitating, she raced over to the Virgil's wreck, hoping to find the three Toa climbing out of it unscathed. IC: Zecrillia - Zataka's Office. Oh wow, that was a lot of responsibility. She'd expected... maybe some kind of minor task, something that would make a small contribution to the war effort, but keep her under the watchful eye of someone who Zataka actually trusted. Zecrillia knew how it went: she had been hired by Dume, and Zataka couldn't know whether or not her loyalty still lay with the dead old man. What the Vortixx hadn't expected, then, was for the new ruler of Metru Nui to hand over her desk to her - complete with basically the controls to the whole city - in order to take a dive out of the window so that she could seemingly settle a score with the bloodstained warlord down below. Well, if that was how Zataka wanted to play it? It suited her. Zecrillia quickly settled in behind the desk, her eyes scanning the various displays. Airship crash in Le-Metru... that looked unfortunately like the one commandeered by the Toa who'd recently been in this very room, hopefully they made it out of that okay. Giant Turaga and pals putting up a fight in Ko-Metru. Ga-Metru... a scene of relative calm except for several Toa scuffling(?) in the Great Temple, store that one away as low priority. Everyone in Onu-Metru underground where she couldn't see what in Karz was going on there. Po-Metru apparently all-but cleared, good job team. And Ta-Metru being slowly dismantled, though without the respective warlord overseeing it... maybe she could do something about that. Zecrillia began flicking through the controls, seeing what she could do to turn Ta-Metru against those who would break it apart. One other thought, not really relevant in this particular moment, drifted through the Vortixx's mind as she tried to keep track of absolutely everything else at once. Hope I'm being paid for this later. ((ooc, in reply to Vezok's Friend: No worries, it's fine! Zecrillia's not been in the heart of the action up 'til now, anyway ^^)) ((ooc 2: It's late here, so I don't have time to add Varxii; I'll make another post for her tomorrow. For now, she's just continuing to aid the Ko-Metru group, so feel free to move her along with you all as need be! ^^)) ((ooc 3: @Unreliable Narrator So, apparently Zecrillia just got given the most important desk job in the whole island... what can she reasonably do from here? I don't want to overstep my bounds with this ^^ ))

IC: Sidra - Tuyet's Lair "Wait, how can we already be in a paradox?" Sidra asked, her confusion legitimate. "The disks haven't been gathered or used before... have they?" As she spoke she glanced momentarily at her iStone, at the scene unfolding on her nektann's feeds. She tapped the screen a few times, queuing up a new sets of commands for her nektann. Fresh bits of scrap and shrapnel continued to rain down on her, and she raised her arms to cover her head, more irritated than injured. It sucked being the centre of attention. "Before we go back to trying to kill each other..." her eyes flared a mesmerising red as she focused her hypnosis on Tuyet and Atamai, "...please explain to us all, in great detail, exactly what is going on." _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Nektann - Dume's Office With Zataka now gone, the nektann still perched by the balcony scuttled forward. It made its way up to the broadcast equipment, repeating the motions Sidra has seen Zataka carry out when she'd issued her message to the city. Then it plugged its own port into the console and uploaded a snippet of audio, cut from the footage it had been recording in the office earlier. A few moments later, the voice of Turaga Dume once again echoed through the City of Legends, issuing forth from the speakers in the streets. “By combining the Great Disks, Time becomes ours to harness, to focus, to manipulate, just like Him. A mask of time would be wonderful, but terribly dangerous. What would happen if the mask fell into the wrong hands? What if someone destroyed it? Would it, like we think of Artakha’s mythic mask of creation, destroy reality upon its own breaking? It’s too terrible. It’s too much." Its work done, the nektann retreated under the cover the desk as the message continued. The audio was set to play on loop until someone turned off. "But there’s a way to use it without forging a mask. A machine, a great ring which can place the powers of kanoka disks into anything living. My chief engineer could not complete it before he died… Dark Hunters killed him in Onu-Metru. But my vahki collected his work and brought it here to the Coliseum. We’ve done our best to finish it, but… We haven’t been able to be sure it works. That’s why I’ve fused the disks now, in case a mask of time is our only hope in the end." Knichou had been right. Sidra didn't have any right to champion choice. But these Toa didn't have the right to choose to change history for everyone. Sidra wasn't sure if anyone in Metru Nui could get to the cavern now with the mirror broken. She wasn't even sure where the cavern truly was. But people deserved to know what was coming, what choice was being made, and to fight for or against it if they could. "But Imagine finding someone who loved this world and our people enough to go back in time and stop the Barraki with a nova blast? There is a day, a terrible day, where all the barraki gathered together and announced their breaking from the Order of Mata-Nui. I was there. I saw their intent, although the others thought they were joking. They thought the barraki were pulling a prank like a matoran placing a bula berryon a turaga’s chair. But if we could give a toa the power of time and send them back to that day, and they could bring themselves to commit the ultimate act of love for their people, we could change our lives today. We would not be here, we’d all be safe and loved by those we care about. Lhikan and Nidhiki did not agree, they were afraid of changing the past. They were afraid of time. Tuyet though, she understood. She believes in the power of our people. She believed. They killed her in the Great Temple and hid the Great Disks. That’s why I arrested them. That’s why I have kept them in prison and tried to convince them to see the truth: they are murderers who delayed the salvation of their people. You have to finish this task, Stannis. These new toa were my hope. Our hope. Let them choose who goes back. Let them choose who saves all of us.”

IC Kanohi - the Coliseum’s Border with Le-Metru Other Matoran were there now, some of the Bo-Matoran refugees and a few Ga-Matoran had pushed Kanohi aside to tend to the injured Le-Matoran. They worked to pump the Liquid Protodermis from the Matoran’s lungs, helping them breathe. It was slow work, but gradually the rescued victims of the collapsed bridge were recovering. But others remained in the metallic water. Kanohi grappled down to skim the waves, scooping up Le-Matoran from the canal before dropping them by the medics. The number of Le-Matoran fleeing the district was dwindling, but surely there were more in Le-Metru? Had they already surrendered? The Fe-Matoran flinched at the thought, but the Toa were headed there to rescue the district. They would succeed where he would have failed. As he scooped up the last of the Matoran, he looked into the canal at the chunk of ice drifting inside the waterway. There were a number of Matoran clinging to it, and that Kanoka was still inside. Bracing himself, he fired both of his Volo Lutu Launchers, latching onto both the ground of Metru-Nui and the floating island of ice. His servos and pistons strained as his launcher tore him in different directions, but he held, his physical stamina enduring. Then with a boom the ice chunk went flying, smashing onto the shore. Kanohi fell to his knees, panting, as the medics rushed to those Le-Matoran. He struggled to breathe, his body aching, even as a Le-Matoran dropped that freezing disk at his feet. He … he needed to rest a bit, but at least the Matoran had escaped the canal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yr5ozlQyUA&list=WL&index=3 I'm 17 orange again! Wheeeee! (Also, that is probably my favorite song by the Fold as of yet.) (And this is basically a head-off of all of that "Congrats on the orange!" nonsense. I was there, then I was not, and now I'm back, and should have never left.)

IC: Mazor-Cortex Mazor released his grip on the cube, letting his hand slowly slide off, Leaving the cube in the hands of the avatar. Then everything happened at once. Mazor had let his guard down, and it seemed Irna didn't agree with his choice. He rolled out of the way as Mata-Nui advanced. Thinking quickly, he grabbed and loaded his Kanoka launcher, then stood up, aiming at his friend. "Irna," He called out. "I'm sorry, but this means a lot to me. Everything's going to work out."

3287: Takutanuva

IC: Skyra - Po-Metru - Skyra picked up Leonn's iStone, which had been left behind at Rose's order. "Not sure...but maybe I can find out with this..." Skyra started to use the iStone's web feature, if anyone was reporting on the current happenings on Metru-Nui, it would be on here. Skyra frowned a bit after looking for a few minutes and then put the iStone away. "It's really chaotic out there, hard to tell what's going on really. But the other Metrus appear to still be under attack. We need to decide where we want to help next." @Tarn

IC: Kalmah "Life is pain, sister. Get used to it," Kalmah replied and ripped away her shield with his chains.

That, basically. I tried to covering that a couple of days ago in a long post, but couldn't make it work and gave up. You've just summed up everything I wanted to say, and in just two sentences!

IC: Rose - Po-Metru She watched the pair leave. She was relieved that weird situation had been sorted out, but at least that was two warlords down, and still more skulls to bust in. "We deal with a third one and continue our streak. Any idea on how the other districts are doing?" @Snelly IC: The Swordsman - Ta-Metru I followed after Iradra, not even having time to sheath my blade, it resting on my shoulder as I ran. I could see just how poor the state of the Metru was as we made our way towards the Coliseum with bodies littered about and molten protodermis blocking off streets. Not to mention there were still undead wandering the district. "Look," I cried out, and observed that the Ta-Metru gate had been destroyed. "I'd say that's a sign of the warlord." @Onaku IC: Nale Vella - Archives Nale was suddenly very worried. Don't say you've developed feelings for me after I blew your leg open don't say-- "What." @Dane@Onaku@pokemonlover360 IC: Jutori - The Virgil He welcomed Stannis' advice--the old Toa had been using his elemental powers for much, much longer than Jutori had, and without him the newbie Ba-Toa might not have been successful as he was at moving the bomb ships. He relaxed, treating it like using his element was as natural as breathing, and already he could feel more in control than before. Unfortunately, the moment between mentor and student could not last, as this was a time of war and strife. Nothing could happen without something going wrong. The vessels began to detonate once they were past the initial line, and the Virgil was thrown around and off course. The Vahki pilot was nonplussed, simply doing what it was programmed to do in moments like these. Jutori had never been in an airship crash before. I mean, he hadn't even been on many airships in the first place. And now they were plummeting towards the air district and he wondered if this was how it was going to end, if he had become a Toa just to die. He looked to Stannis--surely he had a plan? But the old man seemed to simply prepare himself for the inevitable impact. Meanwhile, in the hangar, Vashni got on her bike as ordered and braced herself. And what of the Po-Matoran with them? He was trying very hard not to panic. He wondered if he could use his element to slow their descent somehow, but under the stress of the situation and after already doing what he had done, Jutori felt spent. So he simply closed his eyes and said a silent prayer, hoping Mata Nui would be kind to them. And then the airship hit the ground. @EmperorWhenua@Snelly@That Matoran with a Vahi OOC: Everything is fine.

IC Kilo-M9 - Archives: Enemy has taken cover. Enemy must be forced out into the open for proper counterattack to commence. Scanning environment for suitable projectile... Evasive maneuvers. The mechanical enforcer ducked to the left as the zamor sphere rushed past its head, impacting on the wall behind it. The crackling hum of electricity and buzzing of a dozen pairs of wings alerted it to the sphere’s contents. Auditory signal detected: Lightning bugs. Contact ill-advised. Swarm will be agitated. Nullification of swarm is required. Solution located. This unit will test how quickly enemy can reload. As the nefarious skakdi was no doubt beginning to reload her launcher, the protodermis protector rushed over to a nearby stasis tube. The tube had been damaged in the barraki’s rampage and ensuing earthquake, but that was no matter. The maintenance panel on the side had been untouched by the conflict, which the machine promptly smashed open with one of its hands. The other hand gripped the outer surface of the pod, and with a heave the tube was lifted from the ground and swung around. The lightning bugs that had been pursuing the machine were forced back lest they be swatted by the fast swinging piece of debris. At the right moment of the pod’s rotation, the machine let go, allowing the pod, bits and pieces still falling off mid-flight, to careen through the air, arcing over the display cases that formed Grell’s improvised cover and landing on her current position. The swarm of insects had recovered from the temporary setback and were poised to resume their attack. They wouldn’t get a chance, for the machine now held a tool to deal with them: a freeze disc from the stasis tube. The disc was launched at the bugs and in their off-balance state couldn’t hope to dodge. Ice coated the first insect hit, the cold energy soon spreading and encasing the entire group in a solid chunk of ice. The now frozen insects fell to the floor. The machine began to approach Grell’s location once more. With any luck, forcing the skakdi into closer quarters would result in less projectiles. OOC: @Unreliable Narrator@Tarn@Dane@Onaku

IC: Vashni - Virgil - Vashni was quick to get onto her hover bike, turning the engine on. It seemed there was no time to ponder the vision from Kanohi, as they were about to crash. If they survived this she would pass it on to Stannis...if they survived. "####!" @EmperorWhenua@Tarn@That Matoran with a Vahi

IC: Knichou, Tuyet's cave As the dark hunter lowered her weapon, Knichou felt less tense, finally able to move his eyes off the weapon. Perhaps his words disarmed her? She wasn't agreeing with him yet, only beginning to ask less threatening questions. Was she stalling for time? Thinking of another plan before combat began? Knichou wasn't sure of the intentions, especially given her history of lashing out again after being subdued. Knichou was on alert, but couldn't help thinking about her questions as she continued to speak, for Sidra started with questions Knichou had already asked himself but was doubtful about his answers. Why was he in this position, why did he accept the the Toa stone? Why was he rushing headlong to what he very well suspected (Dare he say, secretly hoped?) would be the end of him? Sidra spoke proudly of her murderous vow to serve the dark hunters, while Knichou stood as a living violation to his old Guild's ways. For all of Sidra's talk of choice she seemed to believe her pledge to the Shadowed One was more important than her free will. Besides, what purpose did the Dark Hunters have? Coin, Knichou mused. Sidra continued to talk and Knichou found it difficult not to listen more closely. Was the other Toa leaving his quest like how it felt when - no, that was different. Was it? Knichou thought back to his last encounter with Stannis, his newfound friend, the Toa he trusted the most out of anyone he knew to still be living. The Toa had given him a nod - no words were exchanged. At the time Knichou thought it was an acknowledgement of Knichou's next step, him forging his own path. But with Sidra's line of questioning and the presentation, those calm eyes of what looked like genuine curiosity, seeds of doubt grew quickly in Knichou's mind. Had the ancient Toa been disappointed, too disapproving of Knichou's decision to verbalize? Such doubts grew at an alarming rate as Sidra continued her hypnotic smooth-talking. she made an offer. an alliance. the battlefront. his brothers and sisters in arms. they needed his help. they were going to be overrun, the barraki were about to. but. they were overrun. knichou ran. knichou always ran. that's how he survived. knichou was a survivor. they werent. but. knichou remembered. knichou knew they were dead. he saw the reports. he heard the rumors. why was she. what did. did she. how did she. Knichou's mind was racing as the scenes came back to him. Not just the stories he knew were true, but the ones he could no longer remember if they were originally nightmares or not. He had always been on the run for so long. He thought he could stand and fight now, that the powers of a Toa would change him but it was all a lie, he was still trying to run. Trying to run from the war. Trying to run through space. Trying to run through time. Trying to run from his failure. Trying to run from himself. Knichou's arm began to rise, as if it was beginning to float. Then his knees buckled and the arm moved downards to brace himself as he fell forward on his knees, shaking. His tears joined the wet floor of the island.

IC, Atamai: Some Desert ”Wait until we get back and then you can give me a rating,” Atamai said. “Please try not to mess things up if you use the machine, though.” Atamai focused his mask power, imagining the cavern in his head. The world changed, and he and Tuyet were standing in front of the machine. “I’m really sorry Knichou, but things are way more complicated than we thought. Turns out we’re living in a time paradox, and the machine can be used to fix everything.” IC, Kohara: Coliseum Luckily Kohara had been standing just beyond the reach of the chains. Seizing her opportunity, she aimed a laser vision blast directly at Kalmah’s heartlight.

IC: Okuo - Tuyet's Lair Meanwhile, after stashing the fivefold Great Disk in his pack, Okuo had moved to the crates of kanoka, rummaging through them to try and find some disk that would be useful in this situation. "Come on, give me something good."

IC: Skyra Daring - Po-Metru - Skyra loved happy endings, truly Leonn and Tik-Tak were a great couple! Only...well they were also the bad guys so...yeah kind of mixed feelings there if she was completely honest...hmm was letting them go really the right call? Skyra shrugged to herself, as long as they weren't in the way of liberating Metru-Nui then technically her and Rose had just taken care of two Warlords? Right? Right? Speaking of that hot Toa of fire, Skyra turned to Rose. "So, we basically took care of two warlords then yeah? Technically speaking." ... "Now what?" @Tarn

It's difficult to see any evil-doer reciting the Tragedy framing themselves as Plagueis. That's the weird thing about the Rule of Two, it's not really "selfish" in the way we envision Sith because the master must, on some level, understand that they point is to find someone better than them to kill them. Its underlying principle is that the Sith as a whole are greater than the individual, which goes against the whole Sith thing of being individualistic. But that's neither here nor there. I'd consider Teridax vs. Sheev (or Makuta vs. Palpatine, if you're more traditional) to be a quintessential unstoppable force meets an immovable object. It's really anyone's guess who'd win between them.

IC: Taja | Ko-Metru They landed safely, but Taja hardly had time to appreciate it. Pridak's army surrounded them, mostly alien beings with long limbs and cruel jaws, and all bristling with deadly weapons. The Toa of Sonics swallowed her fear and readied her disk launcher when a strange Toa suddenly sprang from the enemy's ranks before blasting several soldiers with lightning. "I'm on your side," she said. Unexpected, but the day was already full of surprises, so Taja accepted it without much question. They were going to need all the help they could get. At least this was a good chance to live up to the title of Toa. She figured she probably wouldn't ever get a better one. A handful of heroes standing against an army of bloodthirsty invaders... these were the stories she'd grown up reading. These were the legends that, even now, still echoed in the stars. If this was her destiny, well, it was a pretty epic one, all things considered. She'd never asked for it or even dreamed of it, but the stars had sent her down this path all the same, and she would walk it to the end. Raising her launcher, Taja yelled a battle cry. The shout seemed to come from her very soul, and it started out as her voice but quickly turned into something louder and stronger and stranger, like the sound of a vast trumpet sounding from somewhere beyond the clouds. The blast of sound reverberated out from the Toa in a circle, the air itself shimmering like they were suddenly underwater, and the knowledge towers around them seemed to shiver in response.

IC: Tuyet | Some desert we’ll see again on Monday. A familiar sun-kissed plateau stretched out before Atamai in what appeared to be early afternoon judging by the single sun in the sky. An unfamiliar plateau stretched out before Tuyet. Concern spread on her face, then rage. She kicked a small pebble off the side of the cliff. It fell for a very long time. A nearby frilled lizard skittered under a larger boulder to hide from the toa standing in the desert wasteland. A soft and warm wind fluttered the needles on a plump and stocky cactus growing on the plateau’s edge. Atamai realized now on closer inspection Tuyet’s clothing had small tears in it, and little metal studs pushing out from the tears. They were dull, the same color as the leather, and so didn’t prove visible in the evening light of Metru-Nui. When Atamai spoke Tuyet whirled on him. He smelled roses, smoke, and vanilla. “Nothing personal?” Tuyet spat, her eyes squinting in the sunshine at Atamai while her hand kept a vice grip on his wrist. Wherever Atamai jumped next, Tuyet followed. “Yeah this is so not what should be happening right now. Did you even think about where you were going? The matoran are dying and you want to go maroon me in a desert? That Dark Hunter is literally destroying our chance at fixing home. Your vibe sucks man. Sucks. Alexa? Alexa play…” She paused, realizing what she was about to say wouldn’t work out here without reception. IC: Pridak | Ko-Metru Pridak’s command met Varxii’s betrayal as she turned her allegiance. He looked out at the toa of lightning in the distance joining forces with the new arrivals on the far side of the icty bridge between the knowledge towers and scowled. He thought for sure he’d kept her on a tighter leash. Letting her leave on Carapar’s errand to the islands South of Destral must have given her a chance to remember her sovereign identity. How foolish. The rage buried behind Pridak’s smiles and wine glasses full of chocolate milk began to break through. Casting his hand outward he pulled upon the powers of his mask using the components of broken vehicles and vahki remains along the sides of the wide ice bridge. In his mind’s eye Pridak imagined the construction of a banded cage around the traveler’s form as he flitted about, and metal shackles on his arms and legs with heavy chains between them, and then he released the powers of the mask of creation to do their work... IC: Takadox | Po-Metru “Never change, Leo,” Takadox said with a cheeky, malevolent grin. “We’ll get shades at the resort. Hope you packed light ‘cause this’ll be a bumpy ride. So long girls. Get married though, hypnosis or no. You’re both too weird to say apart.” He waved his open hand in a dismissive gesture and his mask glowed brightly. And then they were gone, nothing remaining of Takadox and Leonn except their footprints in the sand as the purple and orange sunset faded to a dark blue night sky. OOC: Leo ‘n Tik-Tak riding off into the sunset before this game go boom.

OOC: mobile post IC: Sidra - Tuyet's Lair "You want to talk about fire? While you and all of your Toa friends were prancing about trying to find the disks, a League terrorist crashed an airship into Ta-Metru," Sidra spat. "I was there. I tried to stop him. I failed, but at least I tried. Your Turaga had to blackmail us into keeping you Matoran safe while you chased power and glory, because the real heroes were apparently too busy to do their karzing jobs." She remembered Othorak's steadfast resolve, his cold certainty that his cause was right, and worth dying for... was that what Sidra herself was becoming in this moment? "Life is unpredictable. Life is unexpected. Life is unfair," Sidra spat, "If you go back and stop the League from beginning, you'll change millions of lives... and none at all. Someone else will inevitably step up to fill their place." She kept her launcher levelled, but she was still holding back from charging up a spinner. For now. "And if you look forward, try to stop future catastrophes, you'll be denying that change. You'll be denying everyone their chance to make mistakes, to right wrongs, to survive or sacrifice, to fight or fall, to stand for something..." There was no shine in her eyes as she spoke. Her pleas were earnest, devoid of hypnotic coercion. "...you would rob everyone of their ability to choose. What in the karz gives you that right?"

OOC: currently sick, apologies if this post is incoherent IC Kanohi - the Coliseum’s border with Le-Metru The little Fe-Matoran focused, to Toa Vashni his mind might be a storm of static, full of thoughts bashing and striking each other like a clash of armies. And through it a strange image manifested. Not unlike what it might be like to read the mind of a Toa who wore a Mask of Clairvoyance. There was a roar like fire erupting off in the distance, and Kanohi startled to see a bridge collapse in the wake of an explosion, Le-Matoran plummeting into the waterways below. He could not wait longer to see if Toa Vashni got his vision. Quickly he grappled past the wreckage, firing a regeneration disk at the edge of the ruptured walkway. The metal bridge regrew like a vine, even as he ducked beneath it. With a hand outstretch he grappled past the water, dredging a Le-Matoran out of the waves as he did. As he dropped off the survivor he grappled again, arm outstretched to scoop up more Matoran.

Lego probably does want their old cash cow back; their behavior in 2016 suggests that they were pulling the plug to keep the brand from going under, just like with G1; they even said it was doing "average." Knowing this, and that pulling funding to un-end Ninjago likely contributed to G2's poor marketing, I imagine Lego would understand that the brand is not unviable, it simply didn't get a proper chance. Logic dictates that, while we can't know if they will, it'd be smart to try and bring it back; in fact, I recall there being an article from within Lego saying they'd like to try again. If we assume that's what Lego plans to do, we have 2 possibilities: 1, Lego plans to scrap CCBS for a new, more versatile system to bring Bionicle back in earnest; 2, Lego has abandoned constraction and revive Bionicle as a System theme. While I'd like to have some good-old-fashioned constraction sets again, I'm also curious to see what Systemicle would be like.

By the time I come it, so it does end...

I sort of lean to the earlier sounds in a way. I know the lead track of the Power Pack was Paul Hardcastle's Killing Machines from his album "Extreme Global Hardcore" which was renamed to The Bionicle Music for the Power Pack release. That one is a banger, and it shows up a lot in MNOG and other early media up until 2004's Vahki Animations: https://music.instantlicensing.com/audio/killing-machines-1090149 As for the MNOG stuff, a lot of the original files Justin Lutcher composed are assumed lost. There are a few fans though who have recreated or reinterpreted those songs in modern high quality that are worth checking out: Of course I got to mention Nathan Furst and his orchestral works for the films. The fact he went back and re-recorded his music for a proper release on YouTube years after the fact is insane. That is some dedication. Most of my musical tastes are rock, but for some reason I never really got it to stick with Bionicle. Yes I can't listen to Move Along without thinking of the Toa Inika... but it still felt like an odd fit for the franchise. I never got that much into Cryoshell either. I sort of stopped following Bionicle as a kid in 2007 just as Cryoshell started playing for Lego, so I missed that train completely. EDIT: I guess what I feel about rock with Bionicle... is its not really a musical style that feels native to the story. Like its a sort of addition us humans made to the narration that the Matoran themselves wouldn't have picked. The weird techno-tribal fusion stuff from 2001 just sounds to me like the music the Matoran themselves would make, being a weird amalgamation of cyborgs living on a tribal island themselves. The orchestral stuff slides in as well, if only in the same way a Williams score fits Star Wars. No, at the end of Star Wars Luke doesn't sit down to listen to some Williams tracks; its not what people in Star Wars would actually listen to (Cantina Band and The Imperial March besides). But the Williams tracks convey the story's mood and tone to us in the audience. In the same way Furst's music seems to be telling the story along with the films. Where as something like Move Along is "this is a cool popular rock song lets run it with our toy commercial." Its a nice pairing, but All American Rejects are neither native to the Matoran world, nor does their song actively try and convey the story to the audience. Its only association with Bionicle is as a cool tune used in a cool commercial. Edit 2: Really getting off topic here, but an example of Williams music being adapted to sound "in-universe" to Star Wars is Michael Giachinno's scores for the Star Tours ride at Disneyland. It tries to take the film score's melodies, and turn it into some hammy travel company commercial tune. Its hilarious to think the epic scores from Star Wars only exist in the Star Wars universe as background noise in cheesy travel videos.

Terry is a master manipulator and would likely just do as Sheev did; or try to. He'd struggle to really get anything done if he knows nothing about the SW universe, since he needed an intimate understanding of the GSR to know how to take over from the inside. What I wanna know is, can GSR residents be force-capable?

Another year has gone by, and so it's time for another top five. 2019 was better than usual for films; I feel like I saw a really diverse set of movies, more diverse than I usually do, and almost all of them in the cinema too. As usual, there are a few films I did not get to, which I'll give honorable mentions to now: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - while I doubt it would have made my top five or even come close, the first film in this trilogy remains one of my all-time favorites. Though the trailers to the finale didn't sell me on it, I have heard that it's very good. I should probably give it a proper chance. 1917 - It hasn't had a wide release in Canada yet, but will within the next two weeks. I guess since the wide release is technically this month, I might actually count it for 2020, and maybe it'll make the next top five.... That's about it. For once, I feel like I actually managed to see just about every movie that I was interested in. Feels weird. Anyway, onto the top five of the year. #1: Avengers: Endgame Avengers: Endgame isn't the best movie that was released this year, and it isn't even the best movie in the MCU. I think Infinity War is probably the better movie between the two, but I also think it's important to judge Endgame as the event and phenomenon that it was. Providing a satisfying conclusion to 11 years of story and 22 movies was a near impossible task, and yet Marvel managed it with flying colors (barring a few missteps - it REALLY sucks that Black Widow was by far at her all-time best in this movie, only for her time in it to be cut so short). Ultimately, Endgame is the movie that impacted me the most this year. These characters and stories have come to mean a lot to me in the past 11 years, and getting a proper sendoff meant a lot. I cried during my first viewing of the film, and continued to tear up at points during repeat viewings. The MCU will continue on - but this was the end, and I don't believe the MCU will ever really reach this point again. #2: Knives Out Rian Johnson has discussed possibly doing a sequel to this movie if it does well, starring Benoit solving a different case. I hope he does, because Knives Out was just a whole lot of fun, and I'd love to see a little bit more from this world. Plus, I can't get enough of Daniel Craig's outrageous accent. #3: Joker Joker was another cultural phenomenon. It was rather fascinating to watch Gotham descend into anarchy, while Arthur Fleck disappeared into the Joker. #4: Ford v Ferrari Matt Damon is always fun to see onscreen, and Christian Bale does a wonderful job here too. The racing is heart-racing (pardon the pun), the struggle between these two individuals and their corporate overlord feels real. #5: Ad Astra Sad Space Man Brad Pitt goes off on a quiet, lonely adventure through space. Ad Astra isn't for everybody - it probably isn't for a lot of people - but I enjoyed it a lot, and found it a nice change of pace. - And those are my top five films for 2019. Tomorrow, I'll do a Top Ten of the Decade.

So BZP got a revamp, and only went down for a few month. Now it's back and I have to get used to all the changes!! I think the blogs got the worst of it, TBH. Although this does seem more in line with other personal blogs I've seen elsewhere on the internet, so it's probably a modern template that's cool for everybody but those of us (like me) who are so used to the old BZP / Invasion format. This new one looks like it could incorporate pictures better, so that's something I'll have to start thinking more about. So far my photo uploads have just been scenic mountain shots from various trips... but I'm boring and don't do as many of them anymore, so I'm going to need to diversify. The lost of the custom sidebars is also disappointing, but I also noticed that all the various blog tags and groupings have been trashed, so now I have 10+ years of unmarked entries, and at least a few of them were useful and will take a while to find by just scrolling thru. Anyway, as for what I did this summer... go to work and get by. I did manage to make some MOCs and attended BrickFair for the first time in three years. It was a lot of fun to hang out with folks again, although I felt a bit mellow over the weekend and didn't have a big rush rush rush to do everything. (I didn't participate in any of the official games because I was too lazy). Also didn't win anything, but my Mt. St. Helens lenticular mosaic did get nominated, which was awesome. (And also a little odd because it's a repeat MOC, but then again I didn't exactly disqualify it when I entered it in.) Outside of work and some Lego, I've played a lot of Pokémon Go and reached level 40, finally. But gosh darn it, there are still more to collect, so I'm still playing. I'm also playing the Harry Potter Wizards Unite game, but in general it is less compelling than PokeGo. The previous game I was all in on, Ingress, did an upgrade last year that totally broke the gameplay mechanics and I still haven't been able to get back into it. Which is a shame; it was fun to travel to different places and use the game as kind of a tour guide to various local art and scenic spots. I've also looked into working more on my stories, or in particular reposting them. I finally signed onto Fanfiction.net and started posting a few of my Bionicle stories. (Because, honestly BZP is not the hotspot for library posts anymore, sorry.) Not that this site is any better... I haven't looked around really hard, but the quality of the average story is pretty bad. (I mean, we all had to start somewhere, so fair is fair.) But I don't know if there's a readership for lengthy Bionicle novels. But I did start reposting one of my old popular stories, Time Disruption. (I checked on the Wayback machine and I started that story on 10-11-2003. It's also crazy that it was popular enough that I was able to find a Wayback entry for it; the Epic forum was so crowded back in the day and Wayback is spotty about archiving forums.) Anyway, after doing a editing run through, I'm still impressed with my teenage writing, even if the language is a bit more basic than what I write now... and I desperately needed an editor. Man, no wonder half the comments were about spelling and grammar errors, they were bloody everywhere! But I've started reposting that story (all 63+ chapters) and it's been getting a lot of views... so I guess people still like it. (It also doesn't focus on crazy custom characters, so I'm sure that helps.) I've also had readership of my Hero Factory story when I didn't think there was any audience for that! I've written it so far in batches for NaNoWriMo, so maybe I'll work on the final part for it this year. I've also been playing in Voltex's BZPGOT RPG on Discord for months and months now... and the activity there certainly helped when BZP went down. It's fun to play, but the Discord format is a bit easier than the forums, and I managed to get into the lore with only a few weeks (or months) of what-am-I-doing-ness. I can now see why the RPGers are the ones keeping this community alive. I've gotten a few cool Lego sets over the summer, but kind of slacked off in doing reviews and such. Last spring, my camera's charging cord vanished, making said camera unusable, so I haven't had anything to take decent review pictures with besides my phone, which is only so-so. Chocolate Frogs and I were planning to pull off a few more livestreams, but then Youtube changed the system and we haven't been able to figure out an Encoder that works, so that's been put on hold for a while. I have a backlog of sets I want to build, but haven't gotten any truly big ones... except for the Bricklink models, which I ordered back in March and received in August. The Western Saloon is an awesome design, although the instructions make it a bit difficult to distinguish between the various shades of brown. I would like to do some more reviews, either official or just generic blog posts, but I'm a combination of lazy / exhausted most of the time. Maybe I'll put together some just to test the picture capabilities of the new blog system. Anyway, here's to another long and rambling post. Honestly don't know if anybody will bother reading (did they ever?) But the post count now including blogs really upped my count; I went from 6K to 8K, so I'm guessing it was the blogs. I know in the old forums when there was a list of the most comment / most viewed / most posted of the blogs, I was in the top three (or top one, I forget) of the blog with the most entries. Not views or comments, but entries. So I like typing a lot and posting stuff nobody reads. I hope to continue hiding subliminal messages in walls of text as long as BZPower lets me! Thanks for reading, take care y'all! (yay at least the emotes stayed the same, I would be sad without my signoff)

It makes everything better.

I had to wait 7 years for Norik, and 3 years after that for these. I'm done with patience. I'm an adult. I get what I want, and I pay for it.

Hey I know you! You're that whippersnapper that hit me with that clipboard months ago! GET OFF MY LAWN! ("Sanity?" What does that taste like?)