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Bionicle Mafia Book 2: Extraction Teaser #1 “I think he’s waking up.” “Well, why don’t you just yell it louder? I’m sure some of the Matoran down the hall didn’t hear you.” “Was that for real?” “No, it wasn’t.” Voltex sighed, trying to block the voices out – to no avail, unfortunately. Sighing, he blinked his eyes opened and blearily sat up, ignoring the pain that lanced through him. “Where am I?” “BZ-Koro General Hospital,” the first voice said. “I think you’re lucky to be alive.” “I don’t feel very lucky,” Voltex muttered. “Who are you?” “I’m Xonar,” said the second voice, as a black and purple Ba-Matoran (jealously twinged somewhere in his chest) stepped into view. “The stupid one behind me is called ‘Phantom Terror’, although we call him PT for short.” “I’m not stupid,” PT protested, also moving into view. He was clad in dark blue and gold armor – a Ce-Matoran. Remembering how the last Ce-Matoran that he had encountered had ended up, Voltex shuddered, deciding to move past the introductions. “You know who I am, obviously – where is everyone else?” “Either in recovery or meeting in the lobby,” Xonar told him. “Do you remember what happened?” “Of course I do,” Voltex snapped. “My ride off this stupid island exploded.” “BZ-Koro isn’t that bad,” PT protested. “I think it’s quite nice!” “I’m not you,” Voltex growled, moving to get off the bed. “Whoa, whoa, hold on there, buddy,” Xonar said frantically, pushing him back. “Don’t start moving too quickly! Your friends told us you’d already been out for awhile before the explosion and now you’ve been out for twelve hours-” “Twelve hours?!” Voltex screeched, smacking the other Ba-Matoran’s hands away, “That’s half a day!” “Yeah, it is,” Xonar agreed, “which means you’re probably too weak to stand right now.” “I defy ‘probably’,” Voltex said. “Alright,” Xonar said, shrugging. “Then you are definitely too weak to stand right now.” “Are you a medical professional?” Voltex snapped. “No,” Xonar conceded, “but Taka Nuvia is. Well, either that or she’s really good at faking professional documents.” “Whatever,” Voltex muttered, flopping back onto the bed with a defeated sigh. “That reminds me,” PT said brightly, turning to the filing cabinet in the corner and rifling through it. “Somebody came by earlier with a parcel for you.” Suspicion pricked at his mind. Voltex mentally swatted it away. “Who?” “Don’t know,” PT said, shrugging and handing him the package. “He didn’t give a name. He looked weird, though.” “Yeah,” Xonar agreed. “Almost like he’d been put together with scraps from the junkyard....” Oh, no... Voltex thought, staring at the package in his hands. Is this a bomb? Is it poison? Maybe it’s a poisonous bomb. Or maybe it’ll throw a knife in between my eyes. Is the paper razor sharp? “Are you going to open it?” Xonar asked. “He said to tell you that it’s safe and that he likes you too much to... uh... ‘mess with you’.” “Well isn’t that a relief,” Voltex muttered, dripping with sarcasm, turning the package over with shaking hands. “Well... here goes nothing.” He ripped it open, tossing the spare piece of paper aside as he reached inside and grabbed the letter, which was wrapped around something that felt suspiciously familiar. “...could you give me a minute? Alone?” he asked. “This... uh... this might be private.” “Of course,” Xonar said, grabbing PT and dragging him to the door. “Let us know when you’re ready again.” Voltex waited until the door had clicked shut behind the two Matoran before returning his attention to the paper in his hands, unfolding it and flinching as a gun fell onto his lap. Frowning, he checked the chamber – two bullets were inside. What is going on here? He wondered. He grabbed the letter and glanced it over – it was more of a note, with only four words: Use it wisely. – Xaeraz --- Post your thoughts in the comments below! This scene debuts two of our newcomers for Book 2, as well as Voltex waking up from... something. Somewhere down the line I will reveal one of the other points of view for Book 2 to you all; at this point in time, I believe the total counter is six, although some POVs receive more focus than others.

So yeah, I'm set for life. Now maybe some of you can take that look into my mind.

*looks into your mind* *runs away screaming in opposite direction*

I don't see why everyone seems to think the referral system is bizarre. Sure, it's a big implementation, but members have been referring new members to BZP since this place got started. All that the Administration has done is put in place a system to reward members for doing so.

Gesundheit.

IF THE ZOO BANS ME FOR HOLLERING AT THE ANIMALS I WILL FACE GOD AND WALK BACKWARDS INTO DENNYS.

It only plays a role in avatar creation at the start, and all it does is affect which of their base stats are higher or lower than normal. They're generally a pretty balanced character regardless, and there will be plenty of characters to round out their weaknesses, so don't stress about it too much. If all else fails, go with the default (I think that's what I did). EDIT: In case you're still worried, take comfort in the fact that I didn't even remember what you were talking about, being more than halfway through the game. I had to look it up to remember even choosing those options.

Did somebody say Wizwuz? More on topic, I love the Oz stories as well as many adaptations of them (including Wicked and its sequels as well as the MGM movie). Regarding questions of satire, you could make a case for it in the first book (many of the characters in the story were picked out of political cartoons in L. Frank Baum's day, although it's debatable whether they were used for the sake of allegory or simply because they formed convenient archetypes), but the sequels (at least those written by Baum himself) used more original whimsical elements and were arguably better for it.

There is no South. =P

... And just where was the Witch of the South in that movie?

Yeah, I heard the gold standard representation story as well (it was touched upon briefly in an economics class- and I'm not sure I buy it). But The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as an economic/political allegory isn't the same as it being an allegory on how good people aren't necessarily good. And, as I stated, I'm not convinced the MGM film was going that route, either. I do think Maguire was, though, at least partially. Of course, what I think is pretty much irrelevant since I haven't read the original book. I've seen the MGM film, the 2013 film, Once's take on it, and read Wicked... but I still have no idea what Baum actually wrote. I know the MGM film has pretty much set the standard for telling stories in this fantasy world, but it deviates in several ways and I would like to understand the original intent actually is.

Haha, well this wasn't the most serious entry. =P But, you do have valid points. Also, the play version was a fun experience. I would recommend going (and if they do The Jitterbug it will be so worth it). Also in the play version, I would like to point out that there was nothing to suggest Dorothy couldn't take off the slippers herself. When the Wicked Witch told her to take them off, she replied "but the good witch told me not to!" Also, "I didn't mean to kill your sister, it just happened" does not sound like a valid excuse to me. =P As for the satire, I remember we talked about it in highschool history. I forget which era of history it was from, exactly, but the Wizard of Oz was supposed to represent the president of the USA and the yellow brick road was the gold flowing into Washington. Dorothy was supposed to represent the average American citizen while her companions were politicians, I think? The Wicked Witch represented mother nature, and at the time the country was going through a drought. When Dorothy hit her with water, it was supposed to be the introduction of irrigation where civilians bested nature's drought. Oz was used due to the abbreviation of ounce, which is what gold and silver were weighed in. Also, in the book, Dorothy's slippers were silver. Again, this was a long time ago when I was told this and, admittedly, I haven't read the original book either. I could be wrong about it, though, or maybe it's just a theory made by fans. Edit: Found something! On the wikipedia page under "The Gold Standard representation of the story" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz#Themes It's a thesis that the story is actually a political allegory. I may have gotten a few things wrong above, but it's an interesting idea nonetheless if you're interested.

Some group is doing a Wizard of Oz stage production in my town. I'm been debating whether or not to go but I really think I should. Was the original novel actually intended to be satire, though? I've never actually read anything that implies so. Although admittedly I've never read the novel myself. To be fair, in movie-version Dorothy can't take off the shoes and the witch threatened to kill her in order to get them. A person who places the value of pretty shoes over a human life doesn't sound like a very good person to me. Also bear in mind that, from what I remember, no one actually asked Dorothy to kill the wicked witch. The wizard just wanted to her broom, and her death was an accident. GLINDA, on the other hand is kind of shady, but I just chock that up to her being the sort of mentor figure who isn't supposed to just flat-out give our hero the answers. So yeah. I'm not entirely convinced that the 'good is grim' argument is valid. I do love Wicked (book), though, for the amount of development it does for the setting and characters.

Weltanschauung

it's cold in there.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Ap5yzzFVNH

Then you holler at the waffles.

It's just audacious, Sumiks. I just can't imagine sending an email to someone IRL and asking them to join BZP. That takes more nerves than I have. Now the Adminstration is encouraging such audacity? Wow. People actually taking them up on it? Insane...ish? (Anyway, not zee point of the blog entry.)

Grats ^^ Welcome to the club

I was quite happy when I reached that milestone. Congrats! -Gata

The shore was quiet, deathly quiet--as quiet as a tired beach, or perhaps a sleeping coast, one could say--since the water that usually beat against it so earnestly was this night so flaccid and lazy one was inclined to wonder how many swimmers it had swallowed this day (surely a sizable amount, for it sat in a satisfied, full stupor) and, reflecting off the dark, murky surface, the indifferent glance of the moon illuminated the ocean with the same enthusiasm the water showed in loud and rapid movement. ?????