Alyska

Please let's just use "storyline convenience" or "a wizard did it" as the explanation

You're in the wrong forum for that, mate.

They didn't actually set up the skull spiders as villains properly before letting the heroes blast them into oblivion. You need to show your villains doing something villainous so that the audience is invested in them being defeated. Basic storytelling. Shuffling slowly towards people and then getting blasted does not count as villainous.

Okay, so the powers that Toa have are pretty well established. They have an elemental power, a mask power,can make Toa stones, protodermis seals, form Kaita, etc. Matoran have low-level elemental power that manifests as elemental resistance (mostly... sorry, De-Matoran) and cannot use mask powers. 

But then there are the oddballs. Characters using powers that don't come from their mask or element. The most common one is receiving visions of the future- Vakama is the most obvious example, but it's also happened occasionally to Kopaka, Gali, and a few random Matoran in the MNOGs. What's interesting is that the visions are similar to those granted by a Mask of Clairvoyance in that the user doesn't control when they occur, and the images and sounds they experience are somewhat abstract in nature, rather than being a literal depiction of what will happen. Perhaps the mask simply hones or enhances an ability that is theoretically already present in all Matoran and Toa? Or do those who get visions "naturally" have a glitch of some sort that makes it happen?

There's a lot of evidence for Gali having some sort of general psychic ability- the Hapka books depict her as empathetic and perceptive to the point of near mind-reading other Toa, she levitates herself while meditating in MoL, and she can create some form of mind-link with Takua (it could be a manifestation of the latter's Av-Matoran power, but the fact that it only worked with Gali, and that it's sustained over distance, suggests there's something else happening here). It looks as though Gali has some abilities similar to what a wearer of a Mask of Psionics might be able to achieve, though possibly at a lower level or with much less precision.

And then there's a character even Greg couldn't explain- Kapura, who moves very slowly but can get places almost instantly when he needs to. Vakama has apparently trained him in using this ability by getting him to hone his focus.  

Kopaka once said of his elemental powers that the power came from within- "the sword is but the focus". What if the same was true of mask powers- what if they were powered by the users' own energy, but the nature of the mask took the energy and focused and shaped it into that specific power? (Side note- Is there any evidence to suggest characters experience fatigue from using mask powers a lot?) What if some individuals had mutations or glitches in their AI that allowed them to access and shape that energy without a mask? I imagine it would be particularly rare in Matoran, who normally can't use masks anyway, but Vakama might have recognised a potential in Kapura that was similar to what he himself experienced.

What do you think? How would you explain all these "bonus" powers?

Great Kakama is adorable, Great Kaukau looks nice too. And I like what they did with Takua's mask in MoL. What I like about the original masks is that they're distinctive, but can be drawn easily from basic shapes- they pass the "doodle test". I think that's an important criteria when designing characters for children- it means that your character designs are going to be replicated thousands of times in drawings and crafts and homemade Halloween costumes, and its an image that will stick in their memories for years and years to come. Even the least artsy of us could easily draw a Great Hau from memory, but I'd struggle to draw any of the Phantoka-Mistika  era masks, even with a reference.

I think it varied, especially on Mata Nui. When we're first introduced to the Matoran of Mata Nui, the villages seem to be at their most disjointed, culturally, with Ta-Koro going through a sort of Sparta phase. They BANISHED Takua! They weren't trading with each other at full capacity—Le-Koro seemed to have been very isolated at this time. Evidence of this is the village's strong dialect, which slowly wore off after the Toa arrived and reunited the island. Compare Kongu's dialogue in MNOG with his dialogue in the Legends books! And if you can accept it (I like it), they weren't calling themselves Matoran anymore until the first victory of the Toa; they referred to themselves as Ta-Koronans or Le-Koronans or (gasp) Tohunga.

 

I know this all can be chalked up to Early Installment Weirdness, and is usually inferred to be retconned... But it doesn't have to!

I like the idea of Treespeak evolving into a more "broad" form on Mata Nui, which Le-Matoran possibly still use among themselves but tone it down for talking to folks from other villages. Lewa seems to code-switch deliberately, using more Treespeak when he's being cute and friendly but dropping it entirely during his most serious moments.

"Tohunga" is probably best left unused, but I like the idea of "Ta-Koran" etc being used more than "Ta-Matoran" on Mata Nui, since it fits with the theme of Matoran forgetting exactly what they are and what their purpose is.

Which Toa makes the best Christmas decoration?

Hahli.

Aw, thanks, Erasmus! Poor Dalu, though...

This was good fun to read! My favorite parts were the humorous falling for Mata Nui, Hewkii's misidentification of Macku, and Kongu's trying to ride a Gukko as a Toa. I wasn't really following Bionicle by the time the Matoran became Toa, but I'm pretty sure that the later Bionicle universe can always use more humorous references to the time when they were still Matoran! It's also a very good way of drawing in more storyline-oblivious readers like myself who were only big fans during the first few years.

 

Anyway, nice work and thanks for posting it! We probably don't have enough prose-heavy, plot-driven stories in the Comedies forum, so this is a welcome addition.

Glad you liked it! You might enjoy the Inika-Mahri arc, since it has fairly strong links back to the early years (e.g. Nuparu regularly used his engineering skills to good effect- Macku isn't mentioned much, but this is implied to be deliberate on Hewkii's part as he misses her). I think they're fun characters to revisit, especially when it comes to putting them in situations outside life-or-death struggles for silly comedies.

I'm umming and ahhing about a spinoff that explains where Jaller was during this fic (He was meant to be the one who stayed sober and looked after the others, but was called away to attend to urgent Toa duties. And by "urgent Toa duties," I mean "drunk Takanuva"). But that would probably be better suited to some sort of visual medium, rather than a written comedy...

I'd say brown for both, but 11's is less saturated.

Thanks for reading, guys!

Yeah, I was halfway through the story when I reread the S&T thread and started thinking about drunk Skakdi. At first I was like, "Oh, they'd be awful, they'd get into fights and chew up furniture and throw Matoran at people like the cat lady on the Simpsons- I should totally have Kiina bump into one."

But then I thought, 

"No, what if they got super friendly and clingy and just wanted to cuddle everything that moved and sang slightly creepy songs about friendship? I should totally have Kiina bump into one."

And Kiina and Ackar's method of dealing with him basically just wrote itself. ("Soft Skakdi, warm Skakdi, little ball of-" *CLONK*)

Great job- really spot-on in terms of the MNOG tone, and little subtle things like the body language and gestures really sold it. 

So we all know that regardless of which year, or which generation we're looking at, Kopaka has to have an eye-thingy. An X-Ray lens. A vision scope. Whatever you call it, he just doesn't look like Kopaka without it. Even in Gen II, where he doesn't have X-Ray vision, he still has the eye thing. People even got annoyed when his Phantoka set swapped which side it was on.

What I'm wondering is whether there are any distinctive characteristics on other Bionicle characters that people think should *always* be there. When a character gets transformed or upgraded, how can the set designers ensure that the character still looks like themselves in their new form?

Could be distinctive shapes, colours, body types, signature weapons, or any other feature- and it doesn't have to be necessarily true to reality, either- What sort of design consistency would you like to see in Bionicle?

This was a lot of fun- you have a real talent for rhyming, and the rhythm and content was very Seussian. Well done.

Hi all! Have some cracky Christmas comedy.

This is another one of those weird beasts that could have been labelled a short story or a comedy, but I figure it will appeal more to the sort of mind that hangs out in the comedy forum rather than those who like the more serious stuff.

So here it is- a story of drunk Toa, very angry Christmas tree decorations, and the perils of falling in love with giant robots.

Enjoy and have a great holiday, everyone!

Mahri Christmas
 

“Kiina!” yelled Ackar from the other side of the town centre courtyard. “Got another three over here!”

Kiina groaned, and squinted in the early morning light. The streets were quiet now, but they would soon be abuzz with shoppers of many different species busy buying gifts and food. A massive conifer had been erected in the square yesterday, and a few of the shops had brightly coloured decorations in the windows.

Gresh had been particularly mesmerised by the whole thing.  Decorations like these hadn’t been put up since the Shattering, and his own memories of the holiday were faint (Kiina had to feel for the poor guy- very few things could mess up your childhood like a planet getting blown up). But Kiina herself had more important things to worry about at that moment, so she barely looked at the festive decorations.

If she had, she might have noticed the unusually large and rather unhappy-looking ornament at the top of the tree.

“Better not be more Skakdi,” she muttered, trudging towards Ackar and the three horizontal figures at his feet. During the past week alone, Kiina had dealt with over a dozen blind-drunk Matoran (at the same time), and one drunk Skakdi, and there was no question about which was worse. Matoran were easily subdued- take off their masks and they fell asleep almost instantly. She and Ackar had found out where they lived, piled them into their vehicles and dropped them all off at their homes, enlisting some helpful neighbours to watch over them while they recovered.

 Some of the Kanohi might have been accidentally swapped around in the process (Kiina hadn’t realised they lost colour when removed, which made matching them to their owners more difficult), but it was a small price to pay for getting home safely, she reasoned.

Kiina had expected the Skakdi to be a challenge, but she hadn’t been at all prepared for that unique experience. Skakdi, as it turned out, became extremely chatty and affectionate when intoxicated. Also very clingy and quite hard to get rid of. She’d got him back to his house, eventually, put him to bed, and started on her way home, only to find him shuffling towards her five minutes later, singing a well-intentioned but slightly inappropriate song about his new best friend, the “nice blue lady”.  Luckily for Kiina, they hadn’t been too far from Ackar’s place at the time. Long story short, Ackar had helped get Kiina’s new friend back where he belonged and ensured that he stayed there.

There may have been a lullaby involved.

And possibly the teeniest, tiniest little bit of bludgeoning somebody over the head with a blunt object.

Heck, to a Skakdi, that practically is a lullaby.

I don’t know why I bother sometimes, thought Kiina.

No, scratch that. She knew exactly why she bothered. Well, one of the reasons, anyway. The main reason, even.  Maybe if she hadn’t met Mata Nui personally, hadn’t fought alongside him, hadn’t sat up late around a campfire listening to stories of other worlds…

…Hadn’t gone and fallen in love with the strange man who fell out of the sky in a magic mask and was actually a humongous planet-fixing robot-god, basically…

…Well, she supposed she would still want to help the newcomers settle in. She’d always had a reasonably functional sense of justice and fairness and empathy and all those other things that life after the Shattering tried to iron out of you, but the things she’d found herself doing lately continued to surprise her. The Kiina that she’d been just a few short years ago wouldn’t bother helping a drunk Skakdi…

She reached into her satchel, and her fingers found the shape of a small metal tube. A cheerful chirping sound echoed from the tube as Kiina tickled the little purple insect that hid in there.

  Kiina did not regret falling in love with Mata Nui. Even though it hurt. Even though she didn’t understand exactly why he chose to retreat back into the mask and leave everyone. Even if she never really knew what she actually meant to him. She did not regret one single second of the time she’d spent with him…

…Although, sometimes she did sort of wish that he hadn’t left her to play nanny to his several thousand oversized mechanical children.

 Many of whom were just discovering the concept of alcohol.

Today’s culprits, as it turns out, were three Toa, which was still hopefully a bit easier than one Skakdi. Kiina had met them only briefly before, but she’d got chatting to Toa Hahli often enough to know a bit about them.

“Toa Mahri,” she told Ackar. “That one’s…that’s Kongu,” she said, pointing at the green one with the beard-like mask.

“And the other two?” asked Ackar.

“Hewkii and… Nuparu, I think it was…” She’d heard the names often enough, and knew that one was Earth and the other Stone, but couldn’t quite recall which was which. “I don’t know where they live, but I could go find Hahli…”

 

Kongu was beginning to stir. He rolled onto his side, revealing a mass of what looked like orange, mechanical feathers stuck to his torso. He winced as he moved, and Kiina noticed what looked like bruising of some of the organic tissue on his arms and legs.

“What happened to you?” asked Ackar.

“Too much happy-juice,” he babbled, waving his hand around vaguely. “Decided to take joy-fly on Gukko-back. Forgot about Toa-size.  Gukko quick-buck, Kongu deep-fall. Hewkii tried to make feather-light, came out rock-weight, Kongu went ouch-splat.”  He winced and slumped his head back down to the ground. “Hurts to live-exist…” he whimpered.

Ackar turned to look at Kiina. “Did you understand any of that?”

Kiina shrugged. “Think I got the general gist of it. He fell off… something, and hit harder than he should have because his friend was drunk and couldn’t use his gravity powers properly.”

“Right…” said Ackar, “I think we might have more luck with the others.” He gestured towards the one with the mask that looked like a weird sea creature, who was beginning to stir. “Try Fishface over here,”

 

Kiina crouched down beside the heavy-set Toa. The Toa squinted blearily up at her. He looked like all of his wildest dreams had suddenly come true.

“Macku,” he mumbled excitedly, “You’re a Toa…”

“Wrong on both counts, I’m afraid,” said Kiina gently. “Name’s Kiina. I think we might have met before?”

“Hyuuuh-(hic)-kii” came the slurred reply. So this was Hewkii, then… or what was left of him, after whatever shenanigans took place last night. There was a small piece of tinsel caught in the corner of his mask.  It was at this point that Kiina also noticed the pink party hat atop the sleeping Toa Nuparu’s head.

“So, you three were at a party last night?” she asked Hewkii.

Hewkii frowned and shrugged. The details, apparently, eluded him.

She plucked the tinsel from his mask and dangled it in front of him.

“Ring any bells?” she asked him.

“Yeeeeah…” he said, a demented smile creeping across his face.

“Yeah?”

“Bells.” There was a note of pride in his voice. “We rang ALL of the bells…”

Right on cue, Toa Nuparu sat bolt upright and launched into a loud, mangled version of “Jingle Bells”. In his hand, he had a small set of tinkling bells, and he seemed determined to get as much noise out of them as possible. Ackar very gently hushed him and confiscated the toy.

There was a sound like a muffled shout, seemingly from the other side of the courtyard. Kiina glanced around and saw nobody, and figured it must be a few streets away. She turned her attention back to Hewkii. Ackar, meanwhile, looked a bit more closely for the source of the noise.

“Uh, Kiina…” he said after a moment.

“Mmhm?”

“Your eyesight’s better than mine. Tell me, is it just me… or is that angel moving?”

“Angel?” Kiina looked up at the top of the tree. She hadn’t even noticed that someone had already put an angel up there.

She was quite a shabby-looking angel, to be honest.  Her dress looked like it was made from coloured giftwrap, held in place with several layers or red ribbon tied around and around her body, even around most of her head. She had no hair, no visible arms, and nothing clearly resembling a face.  Her wings seemed to consist mostly of cooking foil and tinsel.

She looked like something a young Agori child might proudly bring home from kindergarten.

Only much bigger.

And much, much angrier.

For the angel was indeed moving. Thrashing, in fact, kicking her legs around, wings flapping wildly. She was secured to the top of the tree by strong rope, and was battling to get free. The conifer was beginning to sway dangerously. Kiina and Ackar scrambled to get out of the tree’s potential falling radius.

Kiina vaguely recalled hearing bedtime stories as a little girl about a tree-angel that would come to life, fly down from her perch and grant wishes for people, or take good little children on magical adventures. But the scene unfolding before her looked more like something out of a campfire horror story.

 She supposed that after all the strange things she’d encountered recently, psychotic animate tree ornaments didn’t seem all that farfetched.

But Ackar, as usual, had a more reasonable explanation. “Is that a Toa in there?”

His question was answered when one of the angel’s wings was ripped open, revealing a wicked-looking silver fin underneath.

“Hahli?!” cried Kiina. But there was no time for questions. “Hahli! Listen! You have to stop struggling or you’ll bring the whole tree down on us!”

The thrashing stopped.

“’-iina?” came the muffled reply. “Whurram I?”

“Do you think she’s drunk, too?” whispered Ackar.

“Possibly…” said Kiina. Hahli didn’t seem like the type to drink that much, but Kiina knew she had an adventurous streak.  Besides, that Hewkii guy had “Charismatic Bad Influence” written all over him. And she was fairly certain Hahli wouldn’t allow herself to be wrapped up and tied to a tree if she herself had been completely sober.

“You’re tied to the top of a tree in the town centre, “ Ackar told the Toa of Water. “We can get you down,  I’ll just get Kiina to- Kiina?”

But Kiina had marched back over to Hahli’s three brothers, where were all slumped back down on the ground.

Right, she thought. No more “Nice Blue Lady”.

“Hey!” she yelled.

 No response.

She summoned a sphere of water and dropped it on Hewkii’s head. “Hey! You!”

The Toa of Stone gave a yelp and rolled over sideways, staring up at Kiina with wild eyes.

Kiina pointed to the tree-bound Toa of Water. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, would you?”

Confusion crossed Hewkii’s face, followed by recognition, and then silent dread.

“Maybe…” he managed

“ And what made you think that was a good idea?”

Hewkii looked sheepish.

“We were just trying to do the thing,” he said sulkily.

“The thing?”

“Yeah. You know, the thing-thing.”

“Like in the song-carol,” added Kongu, who was still too sore to move.

“Which song?” asked Kiina. She lowered her voice so as not to rouse Nuparu. “…'Jingle bells’…?” she whispered.

“Nah, the other one. You know, ‘Deck the halls with bales of… of…’” he frowned. “That song don’t make sense,” he muttered, just as Nuparu joined in with an off-key “FalalalaLAAA”

Kiina sighed. She could see where the misunderstanding had happened, but that really wasn’t a good enough excuse to justify doing that to the Toa of Water.

“Holly,” she snapped .

“Nah, nah. ‘m Hewkii. Hahli’s the blue one with the big…” Hewkii raised his hands above his shoulders and made a flapping motion. “…thingies”

“I said ‘holly’. The song says ‘bales of holly’. It’s a type of plant. Agori used to decorate their houses with it in winter. ”

“Ohhhhh…” said Hewkii, then paused. “Why would they do that?”

“I like our version better,” said Nuparu, admiring his drunken handiwork from afar.

“Very nice-pretty,” said Kongu, oblivious to just how much more pain he would be in once Hahli got down.

Kiina sighed again. There was no point trying to reason with them in this state. The best she could really do would be to rescue Hahli from her festive cocoon, and try to prevent her from beating her brothers up too badly afterwards. She could walk them all home later… if anyone was in fit condition to walk, that is.

“I’ll get the ladder,” she called to Ackar as she left for home.  Her place was quite close by, just a quick shortcut through this alleyway, and-

“Heeeeeey, it’s her! Hey, blue lady, remember me?”

Kiina’s heart sank as she turned to see the familiar red eyes and toothy smile.

“Hey, boys! Come meet my friend!”

“Hey, toots!”

“Heeeeeeeeey,,,,”

“Aw, look at her little squishy face… Can we keep her?”

“Wanna see my collection of Vortixx heads?”

Kiina groaned inwardly but tried to manage a polite smile as the four intoxicated Skakdi approached her.

It was going to be another one of those days.

Skakdi love mouth-feeding and practice it regularly (and doubtlessly consume fermented fluids too).

Headcanon time!

Skakdi are absolutely terrifying when drunk.

But not for the reasons you'd expect.

They actually get really really affectionate and clingy, and have no sense of personal space whatsoever.

Imagine an intoxicated Skakdi cradling a petrified Agori, going "You're my bestest squishiest friend and I'm gonna take you home and we'll be together FOREVER. Yes, you'd like that, wouldn't you? Yes, good squishy-squish."

Hi all! First attempt at fanfiction, inspired by a discussion about the ridiculousness of the Kanohi Faxon. It got me thinking about creative ways one could annoy people using the mask- and what might happen to Jaller if he and Hahli ever had a massive argument. Basically it takes the good old "wife makes husband sleep on couch" cliche in a new direction.

A bit fluffy, a bit cracky, and definitely shippy (Jaller x Hahli or Jaller x Hahli x Takanuva, depending on your interpretation)- I thought the style was more like a short story, though it could easily qualify as a comedy, so please move if appropriate. The idea was for a silly fic that was still mostly consistent with the canon "rules".

Enjoy! 

The Argument

For the third evening in a row, Toa Jaller was regretting not being a bit more discerning when he bought the furniture for his home in New Atero. Not that there had been much to choose from at the time- Bara Magna’s furniture industry hadn’t exactly been thriving since the Shattering… But if he’d waited a few more weeks for the Matoran to get settled back into crafting, he could have got something much nicer than the battered, threadbare brown couch he was currently stretched out on.  It was probably well over a thousand years old, and parts of it had clearly been scavenged for other uses at some point. Something metallic was jabbing him in the back. He rolled over and shoved the wayward spring back down where it belonged.

Jaller wasn’t fussy about couches. It wasn’t as though Toa spent much time sitting down anyway, he’d reasoned. And he certainly hadn’t considered the possibility that somebody might need to sleep on it at some point.

Or that the “somebody” might be him.

Now, beds- beds were a different story. He’d been very particular about the bed. Toa need to sleep properly when the lives of others are in their hands. Perhaps they’d gone a bit overboard with the bed. It was large and strong enough to withstand a bellyflop from a Toa Kaita (which he knew from experience- the Agori furniture salesman had nearly fainted at the sight), and the mattress was very comfortable.

It was a great bed.

Too bad he wasn’t currently allowed to use it.

It was still light outside. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to sleep for several hours, regardless of how much he might want to. Toa really only needed to sleep every few days- they could go for about a week without if they had to- but he’d been helping build the new Great Furnace in Ta-Atero. His muscles ached, and he knew his ability to focus had been compromised.

But it wasn’t just the horrible couch or the aches and pains keeping him awake. Takanuva had disappeared off to Bota Magna as part of an expedition led by Onua Nuva over three weeks ago and hadn’t come back- Jaller and Hahli had been out on another mission when Takanuva was unexpectedly recruited, so they hadn’t even been able to say goodbye.  And as often as he told himself the Toa of light would be okay, his hope was fading by the day. He was starting to plan a search party of his own, but had no idea where to start looking.

And then there was the whole mess between him and Hahli, which showed no signs of being –

Click.

Jaller sat bolt upright

.

Click. Rattle. Click click.

Yes, that was definitely the sound of a key in the front door.

“Hello? Anyone home?” called a familiar voice.

Jaller leapt to his feet and ran down the hall.

He was startled to see a mottled green figure hunched under a heavy pack trudge through the door, but relaxed upon seeing the familiar shape of the Kanohi  Avokhii as the figure discarded his backpack and stood up straight.

“Jaller!” cried Takanuva, flinging his arms around the Toa of Fire. “How are you?”

“Tired, but a bit better now.” said Jaller vaguely, “More importantly, how are you?”

“Good! Yeah, really good! I was-”

“Oh? Are you sure? You’re looking a bit… green.”

The pun would normally be well beneath Jaller’s dignity, but he was tired, and Takanuva was back, so it didn’t really matter.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, the camouflage!” He switched back to his normal white and gold colouration, revealing a thick layer of mud and grime crusting his armour. “Uh… I guess I should get Hahli to squirt me down before I get any further…”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Jaller a little too quickly, then had an idea. “Hold still”.

He touched one of the dirty patches on Takanuva’s shoulder armour, causing only the surface to heat up without affecting the organic tissue beneath. The muck dried up into a brittle coating that flaked away easily.

“You should get Nuparu to make a machine that does that,” said Takanuva, looking impressed as Jaller worked at the rest of his armour. “Water-free bathtimes! He’d make a killing with the Le-Matoran market.”

“You’ll still need a bath later,” said Jaller with a sniff. “You’ve still got that boggy smell, but at least you won’t make the whole house look like a swamp-There,” he said when he had finished, handing Takanuva a brush. “Go dust yourself off outside.”

Takanuva obliged. Jaller got a cloth and started wiping up the muddy footprints.  He wondered how he was going to explain about Hahli…

A few minutes later, Takanuva had flopped down on the couch, and Jaller was hearing tales of laser-powered lizards, plant people, and awkward rescues.

“So you found him?”

“Lewa? Yeah! He was sort of being held prisoner by a tribe of Agori, but he’d sort of made friends with them, so he was sort of happy that we rescued him, but… well, it’s complicated, apparently. Anyway, he made sure Onua didn’t beat anyone up too badly, so I think it went well. He promised them he’d come back to visit now and then.”

“And what if they kidnap him again?”

“Then at least we’ll know where to find him. Besides, I think they’re all too scared of Onua to try that.” Takanuva chuckled.  “So, is Hahli not home?”

“Not sure, might have to check,” lied Jaller. “Want some tea?”

“Oh, yeah, that’d be great- I can make it if you like-” He moved to rise. Jaller dismissed his offer with a wave.

“Faster if I do it.” he said, and then left for the kitchen.

Jalle waved his hand over the dry wood in the stove, causing flames to instantly spring up. He filled a pot and hung it over the fire to boil. He could have snapped his fingers and boiled it immediately, but it never seemed to taste quite the same when he did that. Besides, he needed to do a quick detour before getting back to Takanuva.

Jaller trudged down the hall, arrived at the bedroom door and thumped loudly on it three times with his fist. “Takanuva’s back, if you felt like being sociable,” he called gruffly to the room’s occupant.  There was no response. Well, he supposed that was to be expected given how the last few days had been.

He returned to the living room with two mugs of tea, setting them down on the table in front of Takanuva. The Toa of Light looked uncharacteristically serious.

“Did… something happen between you and Hahli?” asked Takanuva.

Jaller froze.

His silence was as good as a “yes” as far as Takanuva was concerned.

“How do you mean?” said Jaller warily.

Takanuva gestured to the blanket and pillow crumpled in a pile on the couch next to him. “You’ve been sleeping in here,” he observed.

“Long story,” muttered Jaller.

“Short version?”

Jaller sighed.

“I’m sleeping in the living room because my bed has been hijacked by a giant blue Muaka.” he said finally.

“You don’t need to be sarcastic.”

“I’m not.”

There was a pause. Takanuva’s eyes widened as he processed this information.

“You mean there really is a Muaka?”

“Yes.”

“On the bed.”

“Yes.”

“A real Muaka?”

“No.”

A look of confusion crossed the Toa of Light’s face, but Jaller offered no further explanation.

“Can I see it?” asked Takanuva after a few seconds’ silence.

“Go ahead. Maybe you can talk some sense into her. Wouldn’t advise getting too close, though.”

While Takanuva somewhat doubted his ability to “talk some sense” into large, carnivorous wild animals, his curiosity once again triumphed over his self preservation instincts. Forgetting about the tea, he jumped to his feet and made his way down the hall. Cautiously, he opened the bedroom door and peered inside.

Yes, there was indeed a large, feline Rahi curled up on the bed, eyes closed, its massive head resting lazily upon its forelimbs. And yes, it did look like a Muaka, more or less… but there were a few odd features that stood out. Like the presence of two powerful, clawed hind legs in place of treads. And the colouring was all wrong. Muaka were yellow and black- this one was mostly deep blue, with occasional patches of lime green. But most peculiar of all was the pair of little silver fins- tiny and delicate in comparison to the rest of the beast- protruding ridiculously from the creature’s broad, muscular back.

Takanuva wondered at first how it could have possibly got in there- it was too big to fit through the Toa-sized doorway, or any of the windows for that matter. His attention was suddenly drawn back to the strange creature’s fins- bizarre and out of place, and yet oddly familiar. His eyes widened in horror as he suddenly recognised the silver appendages- and the creature they belonged to.

“H-Hahli?” he choked.

The feline Toa of Water opened one amber eye and gave a soft grunt of acknowledgement before getting back to her nap.

“What happened-?” Takanuva started, cautiously moving towards her.

“Somebody figured out she could borrow the Krahka’s shapeshifting power using the Faxon, and decided to exploit it for the purpose of throwing a tantrum, that’s what happened,” said Jaller bluntly.

Takanuva’s horrified expression instantly dissolved into a massive grin. Partly out of relief that Hahli hadn’t had an overdose of Hordika venom or lost a fight with Roodaka in his absence, and partly at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

 Any delusions he’d had about Toa being unfailingly wise, majestic beings untroubled by petty concerns had been dispelled long ago (well, within a few days of first meeting Tahu, actually). He’d seen a variety of Toa sulks, tantrums and hissy-fits over the years- but this… this took sulking to a new level. He had to give points for Hahli’s ingenuity. Although, he supposed, her approach was much safer that angrily throwing fireballs around, at least.

“I can’t leave you two alone for a minute, can I?” said Takanuva, shaking his head.

“You’re one to talk,” Jaller snapped. Takanuva whirled around, surprised at his tone. Jaller composed himself and elaborated. “We were out for less than a day, and came back to find you’d trotted off to Bota Magna to go frolicking through the forest with the laser lizards for Mata-Nui-know-how-long, and we didn’t see you again for three weeks! What do you call that?”

“Is that your way of saying that you missed me?” said Takanuva innocently.  Jaller still looked stern. “Besides, that wasn’t my idea… for once… and Lewa sort of needed rescuing. Y’know how you’re always going on about that duty thing I’m supposed to do?”

“Mmhm… fair enough…” Jaller murmured vaguely. “Just… just don’t take off like that again anytime soon ‘kay?”

It was then that Takanuva realised how Jaller must have worried about him, and how much it had drained the Toa of Fire, though he’d never admit it outright. He put a reassuring arm around Jaller’s shoulder, and the two gazed at the Muaka-shaped Toa occupying the bed.

Takanuva noticed that the Kanohi Faxon was now attached to Hahli’s cheek, like he had seen on some of Makuta’s infected creatures.

“So,” he said to Jaller, “If you pulled her mask off right now, do you think she’d change back? Or would she be stuck like that?”

“I’d be in even more trouble either way, so I can’t say I really care to find out,” said Jaller flatly, looking at the wicked talons on Hahli’s forepaws. “You can try… if you don’t particularly value your life.”

Takanuva chuckled, and released Jaller. “Oh, no, I’m not taking sides in this one- ‘specially since you haven’t even told me what you two are fighting about.” A grunt from Jaller indicated that this was not about to change. “But I do want you to get some sleep, and…  I want you two to get this sorted out… I don’t like to see you and Hahli fight,” he paused briefly as Hahli yawned and stretched out her forelegs. Her fins gave a comical little flap, and her head swayed from side to side, before she once again settled down, paws crossed, watching her fellow Toa intently. The Toa of light grinned again. “Even if it is ever-so-slightly hilarious.”

“Oh, yes. Hysterical.” said Jaller curtly. He glared at the blue creature. “Well, Hahli, I’m glad you’ve found someone who thinks you’re funny. A rare and precious treasure indeed.”

“Cheer up,” said Takanuva, nudging him. “I mean, it could be much worse, couldn’t it?”

 Jaller glowered at him.

“She can use all the Kanoka powers of the Rahi Nui, remember?” The Toa of light continued. “Freezing… teleportation… shrinking… I mean, having to sleep on the couch might not be fun, but at least you’re not sleeping on the other side of the planet… Or in a matchbox.”

Takanuva managed to keep a straight face for about half a second before the mental image caught up with him, and he burst out giggling. The blue Muaka gave a low, rumbling sound that might almost have been a chortle. A faint smile even tugged at Jaller’s lips, though there was a slight look of worry in his eyes.

“Don’t give her ideas,” he told Takanuva, as if possibly ending up one inch tall and being used to light candles was a serious concern of his.

Takanuva reasoned that regardless of her current appearance, if Hahli was in a good enough mood to laugh at his jokes, he was probably safe around her, so he plucked up the courage to get closer.

“Hello Hahli,” he murmured, crouching down in front of the Muaka’s massive head.  The Rahi-shaped Toa extended her neck forward, brushing her snout against Takanuva’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I missed you too,” Takanuva told her, and then, resisting all of his body’s natural survival instincts, put his arm around the great feline’s neck.

A growl of disgust from Jaller made Takanuva turn around. “I told you, Jaller, I’m not taking sides,” said the Toa of Light calmly. “Look, I don’t know exactly what happened between you two, and I realise it can’t have been good, but I still care about both of you, and that’s not going to change just because one of you has turned into a big, growling, surly sulk-monster and the other one has turned into a Muak- Aaaaah!”

For while his back was turned, the beast of the bedroom had struck.  A powerful foreleg had whipped around, seized the Toa of light by the waist, and in a split second he found himself sitting upright on the bed, held tight against the Muaka’s torso, like a plush doll being cuddled by a small Agori child. Hahli’s claws had never touched him- he was pinned down by the strength of the huge limb resting across his legs- powerful, but surprisingly light. The feline gave a low yowl at the Toa of Fire.

Jaller thought it sounded suspiciously like the word “Mine.”

He shook his head. “Great, now she’s started taking hostages.”

“Little help here?” gasped Takanuva.

Jaller just shrugged.  “I did warn you not to get too close” he said, still having not quite forgiven Takanuva for the “sulk-monster” remark. He gave an exaggerated yawn. “Besides, as you know, I’m very tired right now, so if you two are all set up for the night, I think I should go have my nap. Good night.”

“I don’t know why I bothered coming back to you jerks!” Takanuva called out as Jaller walked out the door. “I should have just stayed in Bota Magna with the laser-saurs!” And then, as an afterthought, “I didn’t even get to have my tea!”

Resigning himself to his fate, Takanuva reached out and grabbed a pillow from the bedhead, stuffed it behind his shoulders, and tried to get comfortable against the wall of armour and muscle that Toa Hahli’s torso currently resembled.  Hahli’s enormous head snaked around and nuzzled against his chest.

“No, don’t start that, you horrible creature,” he muttered. But in spite of himself, he soon found his knuckles brushing gently against the Muaka’s forehead as he drifted off to sleep.

---

Later in the night, Jaller, in spite of his intent on napping, was still wide awake.  It hadn’t been fair on Takanuva for him to come back to this mess. Takanuva generally didn’t hang around awkward situations or difficult people very long. If they carried on like this, he’d be gone again before they knew it.

And the fact that he was unable to tell Takanuva- of all people- what had happened- that was very telling. It sounded bad because it was. He knew it was his fault. And he had to fix it.

He hauled himself off the couch and made his way towards the bedroom.  

“Hahli, ” he whispered.

No response. Takanuva was in the same spot he’d been left in, curled up, fast asleep, but the feline was now stretched out on her back, all four limbs in the air. Jaller wondered how she’d got like that without waking Takanuva.

“Hahli!”

There was a high-pitched trilling noise, like Pewku used to make when woken, and the amber eyes cracked open. They regarded Jaller with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance.

“I wanted to tell you I’m sorry,” he said.

No response.

“I am. And it’s okay if you can’t forgive me right away… but, I just wanted you to know that.” He pointed at Takanuva. “Just… don’t take it out on him, okay? We’re both being unreasonable idiots towards each other, and we’re gonna end up hurting him as well if we keep this up.  But I know I started it all, so… just… don’t become a horrible person because of me, okay?”

The Muaka sighed, and gave an upside-down nod.

“Okay,” said Toa Hahli. Her voice was slightly growly, but still recognisable.

Jaller was caught off guard by the talking Muaka- so much so that he didn’t see its head whip round to knock him to the side.

“Oof!”  This was followed up by a swipe of the paw, scooping him up onto her chest and pinning him there.

“Still gonna be a horrible Rahi for a bit, though,” said the horrible Rahi, sighing with satisfaction at her most recent “prey”.

Jaller sighed. At least they were on speaking terms now. The underbelly of the Muaka was mostly soft organic tissue, Jaller found, running a hand around it. Certainly softer than the couch, anyway. He might almost get a decent half a night’s sleep here... provided Hahli didn’t roll on him.

The surface beneath his body began to buzz with a low growly sound. It caught him off guard at first, before he realised what it was.

“Pretty sure Muaka don’t purr, Hahli,” he muttered sleepily.

Within a few minutes, the purr was intermingled with his snores.

Ga-koro and -metru are probably the most hospitable areas to humans as far as Matoran habitats go, though some of the reformed Spherus Magna might be even more suited to organic folks. It's a pity we never got a good look at all the areas of the new planet- it would have been nice to watch the civilization unfold there.

Le-Koro and Onu-Koro would be nice places to visit, too. Onu-Koro has a lovely underground park. With an Onua fountain. The fact that this is canon makes me happy for some reason. 

Looking forward to the Christmas one- looks like good demented fun.

Also, found this. (video)

Go home, BBC. You are drunk.

(Though the idea of a universe where the Doctor and Sherlock both exist alongside sentient food and toys is an intriguing idea. Now I'm picturing Sherlock running around trying to solve mysteries involving decapitated gingerbread men and eviscerated teddy bears. Also, was that Graham Norton at the party? Norton meeting Sherlock would be hilarious.)

"Ooh! Oooh! Sherlock! Look! The Internet thinks you look like an otter!"

"John, help, he won't leave, can you punch him for me?"

Biomechanical beings, legendary warriors, big heroes, small villagers, wise elders, masks, elemental powers, mysterious island, tribal aesthetic, and Lewa getting his face attacked. Obviously.

Going back to the original post, I actually think they incorporated some variation into Matoran body shapes in the original movies, though it's quite subtle. Jaller's quite wide and sturdy (which is actually consistent with how he's described in the early books), while Takua's a bit more slender and lighter. And Hahli's even smaller- she looks tiny next to Jaller. The walking animations reflect a difference too- Jaller moves with weight and purpose, like he means business, while Takua sort of happily bounces along, which suits their personalities so well. But I'd love to see that variation taken further. 

 

Akamai/Wairuha VS. Opal/Sardonyx/Sugilite: They're all fusions, only the opposing side can only form one at a time, whereas the Toa Mata can form both simultaneously.

 

...Then again, who says they have to fight each other? Why not have them team up to defeat a common enemy or, say, just have a friendly chat?

Garnet: Right, I'll stall the lava one while you two form  Opal and take down Stormy over there-

Wairuha: The tall one seems to have heat resistance, so we'll go for her while you-

Takua: Wait! Stop!

Steven: Gems and Toa shouldn't fight each other!

Takua: Yeah! Listen to this guy! See? He's even more adorable than I am!

Steven: What? no, you're more adorable!

Takua: No, you are!

Amethyst: Fight! Fight! Fight!

Steven: Nobody is going to fight! The Toa are going to unfuse and then we are going to go out for FRIENDSHIP PIZZA.

Pearl: Ugh, pizza...

Takua:...Please?

Steven: Takua! Do that trick I showed you!

(Both of them gaze up at the Kaita with big starry eyes)

Steven and Takua: Pleeeeeeaaase?

(*Akamai and Wairuha explode from the cuteness*)

Gali: I'm sorry, Takua, I don't know what came over us...

Amethyst: So... pizza?

Pohatu: Yeah, let's go for pizza. I love pizza. Pizza's the best. Quick question, though-

Kopaka: Here we go...

Pohatu: What's a pizza?

(*Star-shaped blackout, roll credits*)

Steven Universe vs Takua, though they'd probably just try to "fight" by having an adorably dorky dance-off or something.

Yeah, I wonder about the availability of powered Kanohi on Spherus Magna- whether they got a furnace up and running, and whether there are many trained Matoran around to make them. Also whether Suvas can be built. Though, it might be more the fact that Kongu never had Toa tools that were suited to flying- Lewa never really flew until he got his Air Katana, whereas Matau was able to get airborne with his aero slicers within a few minutes of becoming a Toa (though steering required some practice). Kongu's only got the Cordak blasters, which aren't much use here.

Back to the main topic, I am still cackling over the fact that Greg gave the ok to copying the Rahi Nui, reasoning that it was irrelevant given that hardly anyone knew of the creature...probably forgetting that he'd given the mask to the one Toa in that year's storyline who *definitely* knew all about it. Hahli was pretty formidable in the ocean, but her potential powers on land are insane.

Actually, you know what? Lesovikk encountered the Rahi Nui at some point too. Lesovikk's much more experienced in battle than Hahli, too, and he's willing to kill enemies, so that's actually pretty terrifying.

Thanks for finding all that, Fishers.

So, a Rahi is probably anything made primarily from Makuta viruses, Hahli can use all the powers of the Rahi Nui as ranged attacks (she was the one writing down some of the chronicles about it, so she definitely knows what it can do), and flight is possible only if there's a primarily-terrestrial Rahi that has the power to fly, but doesn't do so by use of any physical characteristics.

Hmmm... I remember hearing something about that quite recently... A creature that spent most of its time crawling in mud and wallowing in swamps would probably count as both terrestrial and aquatic, would it not? Even if said creature happened to have the ability to fly...

Kongu: Oh, look, now Hahli's flying. Because of course she is. Everybody's wind-flying these days. Never mind the fact that those wing-fins shouldn't be able to provide lift, and she doesn't have air powers, or adaptive armour, or a mask of flight, or even levitation. Yes, go ahead, Hahli, just quick-break all the laws of physics, I'm sure the universe won't mind... Seriously, Hahli, how are you even doing that?

Hahli: Shore turtles, mate.

Kongu: What.

Could be platonic or romantic- either way, merging your consciousness and soul with that of another being could probably be considered a very intimate act, even more so if a part of you will be bonded together forever. There's little description in the canon of what being merged (physically or mentally) is actually like, but it's usually hinted that it requires a great deal of trust, and can potentially leave the participants quite vulnerable to attack. Forced fusions are often portrayed as horrific monstrosities, and mental intrusions can do a lot of psychological damage. So to do that willingly with someone, even if it's platonic, says a great deal about strength of the relationship.

As for G2 headcanons, it'd be cool if they could reuse some of the old character names for the extended cast to flesh out families, villagers etc. I think I mentioned elsewhere I like to think Kivoda has a teenage son named Macku who sneaks off to visit his girlfriend Hewkii against his father's wishes. One of the strengths of early G1 is that the storytelling really did take time to build up whole villages, so seeing some of those characters reimagined with family ties to each other would be a great way to add some depth to the new setting.

Aanchir- yeah, I thought that was a huge wasted opportunity with the Bara Magna setting. 

What if Ackar and Malum were brothers?

What if Vastus was Gresh's father or uncle?

What if Gresh lost his mother in the Shattering, only to find she'd survived on Bota Magna?

What if Gelu was trying to support his aging parents?

What if the storyline featured kids? No, Gresh doesn't count.

I do like the fact that kids exist in G2, and we've actually seen them in the story. (I personally headcanon that Korgot has three tiny daughters who think Onua is the best thing ever- sometimes she walks in on Onua curled up asleep with the girls perched quietly on his back.)

I suppose we had some sort-of familial relationships between Toa, Turaga and Matoran- Kopaka and Tahu certainly had "sibling rivalry" covered, but then, it's never going to be exactly the same (Matau, stop hitting on your sister!). Jaller and Tahu seemed to have an almost father-son relationship in the beginning- Tahu's attitude towards Jaller being basically a bratty teenage "Go away small dad, you can't tell me what to do!" 

I can imagine some Matoran seeing the appeal of having a family, though they'd probably find the organic processes involved a bit icky. Opinions probably vary between "That seems like a horribly inefficient and unnecessarily painful way to make a person" to "Oh, but look at the tiny hands!". If we run with the "Mata Nui gives gifts" headcanon, I can definitely see that as the sort of thing he might do for Matoran.

Maybe rather than a biological conception and birth, two prospective parents could perform a process of power/consciousness-sharing (similar to Gali and Takua's mind-link, or what happens during a Kaita fusion), but instead of fusing the two bodies together, part of their shared energies combine to create a third being with combined traits of the other two. Perhaps the body structure of the child would be created beforehand, and the parents would channel their energies into it to give it life. From there, you could get children of hybrid elements- maybe even hybrid species. Lots of possiblilities.