FREE! FREE! AT LAST SWEET BLISS MAY I TASTE THE AMBROSIA OF YOUR HALLS!

...

Sorta. Still got finals next week. But only one! But yeah, I get to go home next Friday!

Recently I have been coming across more and more situations where I could use that dancing emote that Turakii had for a while. I'm going to have to message her to ask if I can steal it.

Anyways.

Having Psionics as an official element is awesome. I know a few people who have been setting up Toa with psychic powers for a while now, and I'm sure they'd be very happy to know it has become part of canon. May you return someday to see it, Crystal Matrix, Ninjo. Of course, the catch is that both of those guys are...guys...and Psionics is officially a female element. Which is awesome, we need more female elements. I remember when the element of plant control was christened the Green and Greg told us that he'd be happy to make that element a female-only one. There was much rejoicing. Then someone re-read the book that the Toa of the Green appeared in and found that it was referred to exclusively as 'he.' There was much sadness that day.

However, things aren't all happiness and sunshine yet. There are still problems. One such problem is pinning down what, exactly, psionics can do. Well, affecting the mind is obvious. But the problem is putting some limits on that power so that a Toa of Psionics can't make an army fall over drooling just by glaring in their direction.

So, what are the possibilities? Myriad, that's what. Telekinesis is one of them; memory manipulation is another. As in, blocking, altering, erasing, and fabricating. Mind control is up there as well; mind reading and telepathic communication as well. Wiping the mind clean, causing various mental maladies. Illusions, phantom pains, implanted commands to be activated at a later date (actually, that would be Nuva territory; nevermind), sensory hijacking, the list goes on. There really is the potential for a LOT of havoc here. So obviously, Psionics is going to need to be toned down a bit. And by a bit I mean a lot. Greg is working on that, and is going to be releasing a more detailed breakdown in his blog on Monday. But I might as well compose my own ideas and put them up sometime this weekend now that I have some free time.

Another thing that's going down is the passive powers for the Sy-Matoran (the favored name amongst the EM crowd). A number of people have proposed that the Sy-Matoran be 'more intelligent.' This irks me, mainly because none of them seem to want to clarify what they mean when they say "they're smarter." I already summed up my feelings about it on the official Elements topic, so I'll just copypaste here:

The problem I have with giving Psi-Matoran increased intelligence is that "intelligence" is ill-defined. It's easy to say that an element grants enhanced strength, speed, agility, etc., because they're easy to pin down - more muscle, running faster, being quicker on your feet. But being smarter is nowhere near as easy to define. Does it mean that you're knowledgeable? The you're quicker on the uptake than most? That you have better analytical skills? That you can think think faster (which has its own collection of meanings)? That you can mentally handle most or all things that are thrown at you? What? I might be able to get behind the Psi-Matoran having some kind of mental boost - just be specific about what you're boosting.

So yeah, my two cents. *shrug*

My personal suggestion for the Matoran power is that they're empaths. They can't actively read minds, but they can subconsciously sense emotions and intentions, so even if you try to lie to them they can read you like an open book. This is by no means foolproof; it is fully possible to lie to them. It would just take insane amounts of skill. They would also come with the standard resistance to their own element, including minor resistance to mind control, reading, etc. Not sure where illusion falls on the psionics scale. I suppose it shouldn't be on it; Bionicle illusions seem to be more physical projections than mental tricks.

And to top it all off, the community seems to be largely accepting their color as pink. So We have pink female Matoran who, if we follow my suggestion, can get into touch with the emotions of others. I keep expecting militant feminists to storm my dorm room.

And also in other news, I completely and utterly failed NaNoWriMo. I thought it could help me get started on my Darkness story; apparently it only advertised to teachers "KID WITH NOTHING BETTER TO DO; INCREASE HOMEWORK TO CTHULHU-BREAKING-DOWN-AND-CRYING LEVELS." Sorry, LK. >< I'll try and get it done over break.