Lady Takanuva
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Posts posted by Lady Takanuva
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NOTE: I added a feature of sliding wrist armor, currently unused but perhaps useful to give my tiny warrior some melee ability without her powers, and so I'm re-submitting her here.
Keitara
Element: light
Mask: emulation (shaped like a golden Metru Hau)
Faction: Metru Nui refugees
Race: Desecrated toa (light with illumination kraata)Illumination Kraata Ability Stages:
1. can dispel shadows in its immediate vicinity.
2. touch becomes mildly painful for beings of shadow, comparable to an electric shock.
Description:
Keitara is a slightly short Toa of Light with innately gold and ivory protosteel armor, a ahield with a bladed top and a rhotuka launcher that can fire elemental energy drawn from her body, though expending too much can leave her severely weakened, and a collapseable spear capable of reconfiguring between spear, scythe, rifle and storage forms (surprisingly this idea dates back before RWBY). Currently the lance is badly damaged, and is locked in its spear form. She is friendly, outgoing, and slightly headstrong, yet can work well with others. Due to the events specified below, Keitara is currently unaware of her desecrated status, or even of the concept of bonding with a kraata. Additionally, her loss of memory has hindered her elemental control.
Kei has a curious mind. She delights in building and mechanical apparatuses, and would happily while away an entire day repairing or constructing an object or tool. Her past as a Ghost was the perfect outlet for her, even though the discovery of her true nature caused a stir.
She can act as a battery for weapons, which powers her lance and rhotuka shield.
Her lance can fold up, be used as a rifle or scythe as well, and its blade is coated in a superconductive material that can absorb elemental energy, store it in a bank of capacitors, and re-release it in eather a focused beam or a scything fan of power. However, overuse can cause damage to the spear's circuitry and its simple program will lock up or disengage this ability if too much power passed through in this manner. It also acts as a standard focus, like any Toa tool. The armor on her lower arms is mounted to a pair of strong springs, allowing it to slide forward and snap back into place when delivering melee attacks. In addition, as an Av-Toa the exact coloration of Kei's armor can vary. In her case this partially tied to her mood, and also to various factors relating to her elemental powers.Currently Kei presents as having dull-gold, silver and off-white armor with indigo-violet eyes. This shade also extends to her elemental light.
Kei has developed deep feelings for both Skorm and Irna, rapidly growing towards love for the pair of them.
Background:Keitara was hidden amongst a group of Fe-Matoran craftsbeings during the Av-matoran diaspora. Uncomfortable with her more masculine build, Kei scavenged materials over the course of a year and in one day rebuilt herself, using only knowledge of biology gaines from speaking to a few ga-matoran biologists and her own crafting abilities.
As she was perfectly functional the next day, this got the attention of the Nynrah Ghosts who quixkly snapped her up with an apprenticeship. During this time Kei was able to indulge her inventive side, working on progressively more and more complicated projects. However, due to an incident involving a Toa stone power cell she discovered her true nature as a Toa of Light. The incident resulted in the exile of her teacher, but she was allowed to stay in exchange for providing protection and a Toa-sized guinea pig for future projects.
Keitara died in the attack on Nynrah, holding the line in a suit of experimental exo-toa armor while the island was evacuated. It is currently unclear how she is currently alive, though it would seem that an aspect had a hand in her revivification.
Powers: At this time, standard Toa of Light powerset:light bending/camoflauge, laser light, blinding flashes which she can use as a diatraction. Additionally, she was desecrated with a highly unusual kraata strain: Illumination.
Kei also has a highly intuitive mind, especially when it comes to problem solving or mechanical matters.
Occupation: Keitara is currently allied with Metru-Koro, with especial loyalty to Skorm, Irna, and her newly re-discovered mentor Toa Knichou.
Flaws: Keitara's weakness is her naïvte. Aside from the core and Nynrah she has been few places, and acts more like a matoran than a toa at times. But she is fiercely loyal, and hates taking life. She wants to make things different here. She wants to save everybody she can. She afraid of the dark. Also, she has difficulty with social situations which often culminates in her either becoming overanimate and excitable or quiet and withdrawn, depending on her mood. Depression can threaten to de-rail her completely, but the faith her new friends have been putting in her has helped lessen this a bit.
(MOC by Click)
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IC: Keitara (exhausted)
The Av-Toa was leaning heavily on her improvised staff. She attempted to focus in on the airship, but her eyes remained cloudy.
"I… 'm not sure…" Kei forced out, as a wave of dizziness overtook her. "...'s… large…."
Kei's powers had felt drained when she arrived in Metru-Koro the previous morning. Over the last twenty-four hours she had used them nearly nonstop, especially in the darkness. Starlight was holding her together, but the exertion had sucked the Toa dry.
With a clatter the stave fell to the ground as she collapsed, her cloak shifting to cover her feverish face. She fought for consciousness as her head spun, but could feel herself losing the fight.
I can't protect them, she realized as the darkness closed in. I… there's nothing I can do. I'm sorry, Skorm. I'm sorry, Irna…
"I'm…" she rasped, "...so..r...r...y….."
The darkness wrapped her mind like a cloak, and the Toa fell unconscious.
(OOC: @Conway, @Keeper of Kraata)
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IC: Keitara (Something wicked this way comes)
Something prickled at the back of the crafter's mind. It took her a second to tie this to her elemental powers. Slowly and painfully turning her stiff neck, she saw…
Fire. Or the glow of it. It was too faint to be the raw burning she had at first feared, so the settlement likely wasn't ablaze. But…
Leaning on her shield for support, Kei reached for a pile of rubble and withdrew a longish piece of relatively straight metal. It hummed faintly in her hand, not taking well to the slug of power the Toa sent through it from her failing reserves, but it would do for a few strikes at least. Her power would probably have given out by then, if a fight were on its way. It wasn't her trusty lance, whose shattered remains were still slung across her back, but it would have to do.
"Something's… coming," she said, leaning on the improvised tool. "Something … or someone. I sense light. Firelight, and it's getting brighter. I… I don't know what I can do" she finished hollowly, a note of defeat in her voice at her fading power. She needed rest, or daylight if nothing else. She was worried she was about to find out if one could become a turaga from exertion alone. If it wasn't for a faint pool of warmth spreading from the symbiote clamped around her mending spine, she felt she'd have run dry of power already.
(OOC:
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IC: Keitara (Who do we have here?)
Kei gently rested a hand on the Twi-Toa's shoulder.
"Got it. Just… be careful, okay? After all we've been through today it'd be a sick irony if a building collapsed on you." She smiled wanly, then turned her attention to Irna.
Immediately she could tell something had changed in the Zyglak's mannerisms. She seemed stiff, as though shocked by something, and before her…
Kei's stomach dropped to her boots. She hadn't paid full attention to the figure Irna had been talking to- Mazor, was it?- until now. As soon as she did some tiny sense in the back of her mind clawed for her attention and she felt the kraata on her back convulse slightly.
Every living being had a spark within them. A star's heart, beating and lit. But this figure…
...was a shell. The light was there, but it was a faint afterglow. The figure was nearly a walking husk, armor tattered, organic components dessicated yet still shifting the shambling figure about.
Something inside her screamed, and she was struck with a sudden… vision? memory?... of a swarm of tattered forms writhing and screeching, scrabbling against her armor, dragging on her limbs, pulling her down, down…
She snapped back to the present, the vision fading and she focused back in on Mazor.
''H-hey, Irna, is… is everything alright?"
(OOC: @Keeper of Kraata, @Conway, @Smudge8)
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IC: Keitara (sleeby macguffin lady hours)
As if a spell had been broken, the adrenaline finally fully left Keitara's system. The full weight of the last 24 hours hit her like a footstep from the monster tahtorakh.
"I… Skorm and I had a bit of a rest earlier" said Kei, somewhat shyly. "It was nowhere near long enough. I think that sleep may be best."
Kei paused, looking back and forth between her companions. She found it odd that they could have become so important to her in such a short time. But now her heart ached at the idea of being separated from either.
"Skorm," she said, softly. "Irna. I… I know I'm only one being, and not exactly well-trained in my current state. But… I swear on my own life that I will do whatever I can to help preserve this island. For all of us, not just the matoran."
Letting out another squeaking yawn, the Av-toa once more met her friends' eyes. The certainty of that morning still had not returned, but the determination burning in Kei's soul was plain to see.
(OOC: @Conway, @Keeper of Kraata)
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The following post is the result of a jam between @Conway, @Keeper of Kraata and myself. I would like to thank them profusely for collaborating with me on this!
IC: Metru-Koro
Keitara practically dragged the two former Leaguers into a hut that was still (mostly) intact.
Once they were inside, the Av-Toa turned to face them. Her mask was smeared with dust and soot, though her already somewhat battered armor seemed little the worse for wear from her latest stunt.
Kei looked up, making a rare attempt to meet her friends' eyes. What they saw there was a being who was scared, felt utterly out of her league, but with a core of metal that was determined to see things through.
"First things first. Are… are you okay?" She asked, unable to hide a slight tremor from her voice.
“I’m alright. Looks like there’s some hope for peace talks. And aside from Ostrox, the familiar faces I’ve run into haven’t tried to kill me, so there’s that.” Skorm spoke the truth; he was weary (his pre-battle nap could only go so far), but in one piece. He turned to Irna, putting a hand on her arm. “You looked pretty shaken up out there, though.”
“It’s nothing,” Irna said, shaking her head. In truth, the appearance of this Mazor character had rattled her more than she could quite understand — more than just guilt or confusion. It was as though seeing him had pulled at something in the back of her mind, the part of her brain that kept her balanced, centered.
“Really, it’s nothing,” she repeated, almost insisting — before turning all her attention back to her friend. “How are you, Keitara? You should be resting.”
Concern was written clearly on the mask bearer's face, but she chose to accept Irna's statement at face value. "You aren't wrong. I feel like a rotten bula fruit, haven't eaten in what could feasibly be called my entire life, and just had the dooziest dream of all time."
Keitara launched into a description of her nightmare, in vivid detail. "It didn't feel like a dream" she finished, looking from Skorm to Irna. "It felt more like… I don't know. Dreams don't hurt like that did. I feel like the heat from that cliff actually scalded me. My… the kraata didn't like it either. The thing's been squirming around my insides like a game of pinball and, frankly, it is not pleasant."
She let out a sigh, then continued. "The point I'm trying to make here is: there's a chain of islets at the far southern tip of this island. Something… something is calling me there. I think I should go. And with…" She paused as a massive roar split the pre-dawn sky "...that happening, I think it's time we got some answers. If whoever did this to me is there, then they know something that other Aspect we ran into does not. And maybe they know something about how to stop the mother of all Tahtorahk out there. I mean… it's better than throwing spears at it and praying it dies. We'd be dead beings praying to a dead god…"
Realizing she'd been babbling due to her nerves, Kei quietened down and listened to what the others had to say.
Skorm leaned against the wall of the hut, scratching at his mask. “I’ll be honest, a part of me doesn’t like the idea of trying to find answers from these… Aspects. The one that healed us was alright, but I sensed that he was made of pure Shadow. Shadow doesn’t mean evil, of course, but I can’t say I entirely trust them to have the same priorities as us.” Reflecting, Skorm thought back to his liberation, when his malfunctioning Kanohi had separated him into his most primal parts. The manifestations of the light and shadow within him had held barely been sentient, scarcely comprehensible; he barely understood their brief experience.
“But,”, he said, “If you’re having visions of some sort… it must be important. But it would do us well to be careful.”
Keitara nodded. "Absolutely. Every time I charge into something, it gets people hurt. I… I acknowledge that I have a tendency to act impulsively. That's why I'm reluctant to do this alone. That's why… I wanted to ask if either of you would be willing to accompany me. We'll be heading across the island, it might be a good excuse to visit some of the other refugee settlements and try to come up with some kind of defense against the Doomsday Lizard there."
A flush crept across the warrior's cheeks. "I'm sorry if I'm being selfish. And you're of course free to say no. It's just…"
Kei took a deep breath as she carefully selected her next words. "Sorilax, the Aspect from before, said that my kraata carried light energy. Also, um… tha-that in order to create one… y-you need a… a b-beating heartlight." Kei shivered, and a slight crack appeared in her voice. "Someone died to make this. Someone died for me. Either that o-or I… I k-...I ki…" Kei shook her head violently. "No. No, no, no no nononono. I refuse to accept that. We need help, and I need… I want answers. If you think this is a bad idea, I'll take your advice into consideration. But if not… your help would mean the world to me" the Av-Toa finished softly.
Irna paused. She didn’t like the idea of leaving the village again, not so soon — not after an attack like this, and with too many fighters gone missing, and with Mazor…. It was too much to leave to chance. To leave to others who didn’t know, didn’t know how bad things could get, like her.
But she remembered Keitara almost dying out in the swamp the last time she had tried to get to the islets. She remembered Kei shaking when she met that Nynrah Ghost, a piece of a history that had been out of her reach. And, above all, Irna remembered Kei standing up for her that morning — had it truly only been a single day? — and defending her against Sans.
“We’ll have to travel fast,” Irna said. “Things are too tumultuous for us to stray from Metru-Koro for too long.”
She placed a hand on Kei’s shoulder.
“But I will go with you.”
Skorm pushed himself off the wall, nodding. “I’ll go too. I’ve done what I owed Tekmo; I can leave. But Kei, whatever happened with your… kraata… you have to know, its not your fault. I know what it’s like to live knowing that you only exist because someone else died. I don’t know how I was created, but I know that somewhere, an av-matoran had to disappear to do it. I don’t remember him; his dreams, his desires, his sorrows… they’re all gone. And even if you don’t count that, well… Irna could tell you what I did in the League.”
Skorm sighed, placing his hand over Irna’s on Keitara’s shoulder. “I’m not proud of it, but I’ve accepted it.”
Keitara smiled, genuinely and warmly. Reaching out, she embraced her friends, pulling them close.
"Thank you. Thank you so much. If… I swear I'll make this up to you someday. If I can ever help either of you please, please let me know. You… you are more important to me than words could ever convey. Thank you. Thank you…"
As the trio began preparations, Kei couldn't help running over what her friends were doing for her in her mind. She felt honored, and above all grateful. She hadn't been lying. She knew she would give anything for Skorm and Irna. Whatever she was about to learn about her past, she prayed that something within it would be of help to those she treasured.
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IC: Keitara (Metru-Koro ruins)
There was something… off. She couldn't put her finger on it until the roar shook the island.
Matoran were created in a time of conflict, and something ancient and primal clicked in the base of Keirara's skull.
The mass she had begun to realize was her kraata shifted uneasily as the warrior turned around…
The volcano. It was at the center of the island, visible from virtually any spot. And emerging from its maw, magma trailing in thin rivulets from its gleaming silver and ultramarine scales, was…
A Tathorahk. But completely unlike any she'd ever heard described before. It almost looked as though it could tear open the felled head of the Great Spirit Robot with a single clawed hand.
"What" she said in awed fear, gripping the handle of her shield in a futile search for security, "the blazes is that?"
Keitara didn't often remember her dreams in any detail, but her night terrors were shockingly fresh and vivid in her mind. Including the location she had been driven to.
Almost as if it sensed her thoughts, the kraata slithered gently back to its home latched on to her spinal column.
She whirled around to her friends. "Skorm. Irna. Intact hut. Talk. Now!"
(OOC: @Keeper of Kraata @Smudge8 @Toru Nui @Tarn @Conway)
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IC: Keitara (A mind is a terrible place to be lost)
Shards.
That's all there were.
Keitara staggered through fields of broken memories, their dagger-sharp edges cutting streaks of half-remembered emotions across her chilled flesh. Her spirit ached. It felt as though it had been dragged across the shards until all that remained were tatters.
Vainly she tried to gather what shards she could, but all they did was cut deeper, bringing flashes of experience without context. The tighter she squeezed, the harder it was for her to cling to even a single experience.
With an anguished cry, the Toa fell to her knees. Pain blotted out everything. Her back flared with agony, first flooding her with heat then chilling her to the bone. For a second she could feel a weight pressing against her. Her nostrils filled with the smell of cordite, machine oil, hot metal… and burning protoshell. Somehow, she knew this was from her.
Screaming, Kei collapsed into her past's jagged embrace. Her mind was rent asunder.
She fell, ribbons of ego in a sea of oblivion.
…
.
…
Come
Slowly, agonizingly, the chill that filled her entire body resolved itself. Kei shuddered, grasping shoulders not shredded to nothingness, but instead the same armor she had been wearing as she fell asleep next to Irna. Opening her eyes, she saw sodden ground, peat moss, and the burnt purple-red of evening.
Looking around it took a second for the Toa to recognize where she was. When she did, a sick feeling filled her stomach.
It was the swamp. Worse, she saw a scorched chunk of carapace jutting from the water. It was the Manas she had, in her ignorance and overconfidence, condemned to a slow and painful death. She turned away from the sight and saw that she was not, in fact, in the clearing that had played host to their fool's errand. She could see the sun setting.
...wait a second. Were those… islands?
Come.
Kei felt something shifting within her. She nearly screamed as a slick, muscular something shifted across her back and wriggled as though brought to fresh life. It was a truly horrifying experience, and she thought she might be sick.
Come.
She felt as though she was being drawn forward, towards these mysterious islets.
Come.
She was running now. Icy water broke against her shins and yet somehow she ran on, unimpeded. When it became too dark to see, the mass within her seemed to grow warm. A soft phosphorescence spread from each of her footsteps. Her fingers sparkled with light.
Come
She dragged herself up the shore. Dripping, coughing from exertion, body utterly spent, she collapsed against the cliff bordering the slim beach.
Suddenly the wriggling, squirming *thing* within her grew hot. The light that had crawled across her hands burned bright red, and poured out from her body.
She yelped as the cliff face turned hot against her. Scrabbling away, she turned to see a mass of unrecognizable carvings covering the cliff face.
COME.
The light flared too brightly. The feverish heat within her grew unbearable. Keitara shut her eyes, and collapsed against the cooling sands.
…
With a yelp, Keitara's limp body spasmed oddly as Kat's arms heated up. It was almost as though some extra, unnamed muscle was also writhing beneath her armor. The slight warrior collapsed to the ground, the evening dew sizzling slightly against the heated plates of her armor.
"Come." she murmured. "Come… come… come...come…"
Gradually, the pain subsided. Kei became aware of raised voices and the smell of scorched wood and earth. A memory slipped through her fingers, leaving a jabbing pain in her heart. Opening her eyes, the Toa groggily looked around her as she regained her bearings. "Who…" she groaned, "Who the Karz is yelling so much? And why do I feel like a boiled ussal?"
(OOC: @Tarn, @Keeper of Kraata, @Conway, @Smudge8, @Onaku, @Nato the Traveler, @Toru Nui)
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Hello! Hope you're doing well!
Wanted to ask if you still wanted to do a dream interaction between Kei and her mysterious benefactor at the current time, as I know things are hectic for ya right now.
I'm still happy to, but I want to ask so that if not I can have Kei wake up and do more Things.
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IC: Keitara (The Desert Sands)
A shiver passed through Keitara's weary body. Looking up at the sky she saw, no, she felt one of the stars go out. The ancient light had just… stopped flowing. That couldn't be possible, could it? Did stars go out? They must, if they ran on anything like the energies she had studied. But…
"Cold," she chattered in Kat's arms. "Dark. A star's heart, light fleeting, ashes flit…" She coughed, shuddering again. "I think… I think something is very wrong here, but I cannot quite put my finger on it…"
Kei looked up to Irna. Trying to force down the massive lump that filled her throat at the Zyglak warrior's proximity, Kei spoke. "Irna… that Ostrox mentioned your name… and Skorm's. Skorm said something about accusations. Is… is he accusing you of something?"
Slowly, the cogs of her thoughts meshed together. "You… You were both in the league, weren't you? That makes sense. Matoran… w-we have a lot to answer for, it seems. I… I'm sorry we've not been the best of exceptions to this rule today. Sans… Sans was an absolute brakas, and I nearly killed you."
Kei, the exhaustion of everything she'd done finally sinking into her still weakened form, let her head sink against the warmth of Irna's shoulder. "m'sorry 'rna," she mumbled, " 'll do… better… t'mrow. Prom...ise. Don't...give up…'n us...just yet…"
(OOC: @Conway @Unreliable Narrator (now she's on the verge of slep. If you had plans for a somnolent Kei or dream messages, the time is here!) @The UltimoScorp)
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I love your blend between organic and mechanical in your Bionicle art! Also always a big fan of seeing traditional media in use.
Also huge props for rendering good so well in colored pencil- I always struggle to get the warmer, buttery tones right.
I can't wait to see what else you create!
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IC: Keitara (The desert sands)
Slowly, painfully, consciousness returned to Keitara's body. She ached everywhere. She ached in places she hadn't realized existed before. The pain of her spine? Now merely a single voice in a chorus of agony. Kei had just had a literal crash course on why parachutes were meant for only one being. Idly, she wondered if her arms or legs would ever work again.
The smell of sweat, leather, and warm protodermis scales gradually brought Kei back to the present. With a jolt, she realized that Irna was leaning against her. With another jolt, she realized that she was being carried, once again, in Toa Katherine's arms.
Seeing Skorm walking toward them, Kei tried to wave. But whether it was from damage due to her ill-advised stunt or the context of her current situation frying her last few cohesive brain cells, all she could manage was to croak out a broken "Hi."
After this herculean effort another minute passed. "Sorry… about… ship. My.. bad… ow."
(OOC: @Toru Nui @Keeper of Kraata @Conway @Tarn)
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IC: Keitara (I wanna fly like a Kahu...)
Keitara saw the ground getting closer and closer. If they waited any longer she and Kat would be one with the desert in a way no Po-Toa could ever hope to match.
Swearing internally, Kei dropped the spare chute. In one swift action, she yanked out the chute's ripcord and wrapped first her arms and then her legs around Kat. As she felt the chute deploying behind her Kei held on with all the energy she had left in her body.
When the shock came Kei felt as though her limbs were being ripped off. She would have screamed had she been able to get a proper breath as the pack harness snapped tight across her chest. The parachute caught, billowing out to its full size. As it did, the two Toa were plucked from the top of the ship and found themselves gently gliding down toward the desert below.
"Kat" gasped Kei as the warrior-monk ceased her fiery barrage, "grab the handles. Steer us. I… can't… gruh…" Kei went back to bear-hugging the Toa.
There was a noticeable shift as Kat took the hand grips and began steering the pair towards the ground. When they finally made contact Kei collapsed nerveless on the sand as Kat used a quick burst of fire to dissolve the chute and prevent the nerveless Av-Toa from being dragged away by the wind. Gently lifting the groaning figure, Katherine began walking, tiredly, toward where Nale and Ostrox waited.
(OOC: @Tarn @The UltimoScorp @Keeper of Kraata @Conway @Toru Nui)
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IC: Keitara (Bracing to do something foolish)
Wind whipped past Keirara, making her cloak snap and flow as she moved closer. "KAT! IT'S LOST! THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO! I'M SORRY… WE! HAVE! TO! GO!"
She placed a hand gently on Kat's arm. "...PLEASE. THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO. THE OTHERS ARE READY, WE ARE WAITING ON YOU. I PROMISE WE WILL NOT ABANDON YOU. "
(OOC: @Toru Nui, @Keeper of Kraata, @The UltimoScorp, @Tarn, @Conway)
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IC: Keitara ( Experiencing some minor turbulence)
"She's my next stop" Kei said, snagging the last remaining chute and checking to make sure Skorm and Irna were ready. "I just… I wanna make sure y'all were set before I headed outside." Kei looked away for a second. There… there was so much that she wanted to say. The League sent someone to ask for peace. Skorm had served with them, and seemed to have a very good heart. Looking at Ostrox, hearing the bitterness in his voice… What had his past been like? Those scars, had a Toa caused them? Keitara was not naïve enough to see the world in black and white, us and them, Matoran and 'other.' But did all Toa feel that way? Sans' words had seemed… poisonous. Kei shivered at how dismissive he had been. While she accepted full responsibility for their immediate predicament. she also knew Sans was, at the root. the cause of all this. When it came down to it… what did they have to fight over? Why had it come to this?
"Just… get clear of this, okay?" Kei said softly, before slinging the extra pack across her front and climbing over to the Ta-Toa. "KAT! TIME TO BAIL OUT! I HAVE A LEV-CHUTE FOR YOU. WE'VE GOTTA GO NOW!"
(OOC: @Toru Nui, @Keeper of Kraata, @The UltimoScorp, @Tarn, @Conway)
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IC: Keitara ( Experiencing some minor turbulence)
"Starting to feel like a karzing gukko bird" muttered Kei. Then, more loudly, "Sure, let's fly!" As she strapped on her pack and prepared to jump, she looked to Ostrox. "Will you be able to manage your chute okay? Mask drain can be a bit brutal."
(OOC: @Toru Nui, @Keeper of Kraata, @The UltimoScorp, @Tarn, @Conway)
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IC: Keitara ( Experiencing some minor turbulence)
Color returned to Kei's cheeks. "You- I… you have a point there. I was out of line." The 'terminal stupidity' comment hadn't gone unnoticed, but she tried to push that aside so Future Kei could deal with it (providing Future Kei was not laminated to a bulkhead).
Kei tried to level herself out. She was enraged, yes, but not homicidal. Leaning down, Kei yanked open the panel and began bundling out small, shelled packs. She tossed one to Irna, then deliberately held one out toward the League fighter. "Here you go. I assume we can agree not to try and kill each other until we've landed and all cooled our heads a bit? Because, frankly, I've had enough pointless fighting for one day. By all rights, we should be trying to build pea-"
A particularly violent jolt threw Kei face-first mid-dissertation. Suppressing a groan, Kei dragged herself to her feet, shoved the pack into Osterox's arms, and staggered over towards Skorm and Nale. "Anybody else on board we need to see to?"
(OOC: @Toru Nui, @Keeper of Kraata, @The UltimoScorp, @Tarn, @Conway)
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IC: Keitara ( Experiencing some minor turbulence)
Keitara wanted to hug Irna. She really, really did.
However, she could tell this was not the time for reunions.
"Osterox, is it? Listen, I do not have the words for how skeeved off I am for you for firing on a virtually unarmed shantytown, but we'll put this aside for right now. You're outnumbered, I can conjure lasers, and possibly most importantly of all I am the one with your sorry carcass pinned to… this… control panel…"
The color drained from Kei's mask, leaving it pale grey. "Oh karz." The Av-Toa reached around the stunned League warrior, attention suddenly on trying to find a functioning control panel. "Ohhhh, bad bad bad." She looked Osterox dead in the face. "What did you go and smash the controls for? We needed those!"
Not bothering to wait for a reply, Kei yelled "Guys, we gotta dip. Unless you wanna find out why it's called 'lithobraking.'"
(OOC: @Toru Nui, @Keeper of Kraata, @The UltimoScorp, @Tarn, @Conway)
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12 hours ago, Toru Nui said:
Without a pilot at the controls, the Tranquility began to slowly lose altitude. But Ostrox saw his opportunity to strike as Skorm busied himself with shooting the only thing keeping them airborne, and charged him with his sword of protosteel.
As the airship captain rushed Skorm, there was an audible BOOM from behind them. Keitara was angry, she was scared, and most importantly her fist was coated in a hardened layer of light which violently decompressed on impact, stoving in the hatchway.
Behind the door, the Av-Toa came rushing in, shield held before her as both a line of defense and a highly effective battering ram. Gold and indigo light streamed from the onrushing figure, and a disk of light sat blazing in the shield's rhotuka launcher. With a yell, Keitara charged Osterox. Her stature may have been slight, but at that moment every inch of her was incandescent with fury.
"YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY MAN!" Kei bellowed like the wrath of gods.
(OOC: @Toru Nui, @Keeper of Kraata, @The UltimoScorp, @Tarn, @Conway)
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IC: Keitara (The Tranquility)
Keitara nodded, a slight smirk flitting across her face as she ran alongside the warrior. "Right. Let's go pay our respects to the pilot, shall we?" As she ran, Kei once more charged her shield. A thought crossed her mind. Extending her power, her hand was once again coated in a gel-like glove of liquid light. Another thought hardened the knuckles into a lethal striking surface. As the trio reached the cockpit door, Kei looked to Kat for confirmation as she readied her light and protosteel-gloved fist to smash in the portcullis.
(OOC: @Tarn, @The UltimoScorp)
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IC: Keitara (Inside the airship Tranquility)
Keitara shook her head, attempting to dispel the cloud of anger that had filled her. No, being impulsive would get them captured or worse. Now was time for calm and logical thinking, not blind anger. It was not easy, but Kei was not about to give up now. "Sorry. Lost my composure." Kei shifted slightly. "Yeah. I... I don't want to lose him, or Irna. I also don't want to put everybody here in danger like back at the swamp though." Taking a slow breath, she attempted to calm her jangling nerves enough to think straight.
Kei looked around. "Indeed. Yeah, it's completely different in here." Then, the comment their third companion had made sank in. "Heh. Yeah. Sorry, I just didn't catch your name. I hope that wasn't too rude."
She turned to Kat. "Listen, if these things were retrofitted with those big cannons there may not be much we can do to them from inside. Our best bet would be to cripple the levitation grid that Knichou was talking about." Kei dispelled the gauntlet, and the rhotuka flowed back across her shield into her waiting hand. "How do you wanna do this? Should one of us go and help Skorm and Irna, or should we focus on getting this bird grounded?"
(OOC:
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IC: Keitara (The airship Tranquility)
In less than thirty seconds Kei fought an entire battle within her own mind. It was rough, it was brutal. and she did not come out of it unscathed. Battered and weary as she was she nearly lost herself to wave after wave of nameless, poison dread. Then, something cut through the encroaching darkness. Two somethings, to be precise. Two sharp sensations, like static across her organic tissue.
Skorm's light energy.
It was like pulling herself out of quicksand, but finally a drained, gasping Keitara lay at the edge of the deep pool that had attempted to swallow her whole.
Keitara had not been made a Toa by accident, or through some grand design. She had been chosen because even under enormous pressure, enough to break a person, enough that nobody would blame her if she gave in and just withdrew… Kei would not. She would drag herself, broken and bleeding, from a fall or a beating and drag herself forward. She always had something to fight for, and when she did not she found something in no short order.
Firelight danced across her dusky gold armor, and violet-indigo sparks danced within her eyes. Joints aching, hands still trembling, Keitara, Toa of Light, Nynrah crafter, and duly appointed guardian of Metru-Koro straightened herself until she stood at her full height. It could not have been more than fifteen seconds, but a small eternity had passed for the slight warrior.
Red-orange firelight crackled and ran like quicksilver across her shield, pooling in its rhotuka launcher. Her other hand was coated in a grieve of starlight, set hard across her fist like a knuckleduster.
Keitara made herself meet Kat's eyes. "That's the signal." She said, her voice almost cold with a new emotion: the same defensive anger that had led her to attack a demonic ussal crab for her friends. "Laser fire. Skorm's fighting. The negotiations failed. I'm ready to fight."
There it was. No lies, no half-truths. If they survived this experience perhaps she could ask Kat about the fear still attempting to claw its way into her heart. But until then, they had one goal.
Throwing caution to the winds, the Toa arrow-dived through the hole, tucking and rolling on impact before bounding to her feet, shield brought to bear and fist ready to throw an armor-shattering haymaker.
No more impulsive, showy attacks. No more tackling a gigantic problem without thought for the ramifications. Keitara looked around her, rapidly assessing the situation. The first enemy to make a move, she would cut down with her shield. The next would receive a blow capable of deforming protosteel.
(OOC:
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IC: Keitara (The airship Tranquility)
Trigger warning: depiction of PTSD symptoms and an acute panic attack.
Kei's heart sank to her protosteel-clad boots as she watched shrapnel and molten slag spray from the wounded Taku. When she felt Irna's strong grip on her shoulder she reached up and placed her own slight hand over the zyglak's. There was too much to say. Too many emotions. "Please be safe." She whispered as Irna moved back to Skorm. She knew that, no matter what happened, part of her would forever wonder what would have happened if she had run over and demanded to join them. But the Av-Toa had grown a great deal that day. Swallowing down a kohlii-ball sized lump in her throat, she turned to her own team.
"Let's go." She choked out, her gauntlet creaking against her shield's handle. "While the Taku is still in the air. Let's buy them as much time as we can."
As she spoke, Toa Keitara stood between the two. Screwing her eyes shut in concentration, she bent the frail starlight around the others as best as she could without having to maintain contact. The result was not perfect, but once they were inside a daisy chain of Toa would be too easy a target.
As her face rippled out of sight, hot tears welled in the Toa's eyes. Suddenly, the idea of hand-to-hand combat was not some distant hypothetical, but an immediate reality. Keitara had been trying, hard, to convince herself that she was ready for this. But something inside her was absolutely terrified of jumping through that hole. She tried to quash it down. Now wasn't the time to discover she was a coward. The others needed her.
Another round of gunfire nearly caused Kei to scream. Had it been that loud a second ago? Shaking her head furiously, she tried to regain the relative composure of a minute ago. However, to her horror, the cloak over her comrades was degrading, holes showing through.
The Kolhii ball rose back up in Kei's throat. She struggled to breathe. As hard as she tried. the cloak would not function the way it had been. Her powers felt like they were drying up, even though she'd just felt as though she had a bit left in her.
"I'm sorry," she whispered as the cloak broke apart, "I'm sorry," as she slid to her knees, "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry…."
The world became very small around Keitara. As she knelt all she knew was the world an inch from her own eyes. Even as she dragged herself back up, armor rattling slightly as she shook, she still felt as though she was moving her body from outside, the panic within too great for her to even dip a toe into. She didn't even have the energy to lie about what had happened, to say she was really okay or that it had been a sudden attack of nerves. Raw, paralyzing fear still had her in its steely grip.
(OOC:
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IC: Keitara (Atop the airship Tranquility)
"Gonna be honest, any plan that potentially means not having to kill an entire crew seems good to me-"
Kei stumbled as the wind rushing by them changed direction. Looking towards the front of the airship, she saw to her horror that it had begun to swing towards the Taku.
"Karz. I think they're targeting the Taku. Skorm, I'm with you on this. But whatever we're doing, we need to do it fast. I'll cloak everyone for as long as I can, but especially out of the light my powers won't hold out forever. I'm running on fumes as is. I swear, if after tonight I discover my kanohi projects invisibility or something I'm gonna be slagging livid."
The slight Toa turned toward her fiery counterpart. "Whaddya say, Kat? You up for a little covert operations before we tear the place apart?"
(OOC:
Six Kingdoms: Apocalypse -- Gameplay Topic (IC)
in Bionicle RPG
Posted · Edited by TL01 NUVA
Added muzak
Suggested listening: Starry Eyed by Ghost Data
IC: Keitara (en route to the Kumu Islets)
The nice thing about chutespeak was that it was exceptionally liberating to curse in. Usually the slang followed a set pattern, fusing related ideas into two-part descriptors. A large, out-of-control fire became Badflame, uneven terrain without proper lighting became falldark. It was exceptionally useful shorthand for an engineer.
The curses, however, were nearly random and often caustic enough to eat paint from a ship's hull.
Kei found herself thankful for her armor's rigidity as she levered her finger out of the flywheel, which itself seemed undamaged. Had it been crushed around her fingers she doubted anybody on the island would have the tools to extricate them, save perhaps Toa Knichou.
Signaling to IV to gun the Muaka's motor, she used her power to rapidly flash a white light over the timing assembly, checking if the marks were moving in synch.
Keitara may have been a creature of light, but she'd come to realize that she never felt truly happy unless she was elbows-deep in some kind of mechanism or building a circuit pathway. Her nimble hands were small enough to delicately manipulate components even in armor. She'd begun examining her own suit in her free time after repairing her lance as best as she could. Freeing some twisted metal and heating a couple of slide tracks to free them up had led her to discover a useful feature of her gauntlets: namely that they could slam forward into any surface she struck before ramming back home. She'd demonstrated this by punching a neat, u-shaped gash into a large stone, much to her companion's surprise.
Kei scrubbed wind-launched sand from her visor as she worked to seal up the vehicle's engine cover. The desert had not been terribly kind to the vehicle, but she should be running smoothly now.
Her cloak snapping in the wind, she crawled inside of the Muaka's seating compartment.
"The engine should be in time now!" she shouted above the gale. "And I can top up the lightstones if we need to. How much further do you reckon before we reach cover?"
(OOC: @Keeper of Kraata
@Conway
The game is afoot! Lemme know if I should amend anything)