The Lorax

The Pala Koro battle lasted more than a month form the time the gate opened to when Echelon called missions accomplished and the Makuta followers left. (Oct 17-Nov 18). If Ko-Koro is going to be like that, we have plenty of RPing ahead of us.

IC (Tapui): There it is! Glen's soulsword has formed, it's clear, strong and glowing with power. We did it! Well, actually she did it, but really, with me sharing her mind as she does it, it feels like a team effort. I'm so proud of us. We've really achieved something here. Now, I just have to keep up my part, and we can give this thing a test-drive. Glen goes to swing the blade, and then suddenly her mind turns against me. The gentle stream of thoughts that we had been shaping into that beautiful weapon explodes into a raging torrent, dragging me under and crushing the breath out of me. I try to pull back, to surface and escape the angry floodwaters, but I can't. It's holding me down and drowning me. I can hear Glen screaming at me to pull back, to get out of her mind and save myself. It's out of her control and running wild. I panic, flailing around in the dark waters. I'm trapped here, and I can't get out. Her mind clamps down around me like a vice. I thrash around, but it's useless. That blade is coming for me, and I've no idea what it might do if it makes contact on the mental plane. Glen doesn't know either, and she's not making things any easier. Her stress is just adding to the destructive flow that's drowning my mind. Somehow, I have o regain control of that blade and stop it before it slices through both of us. I try to bring my thoughts under control, wrapping them tightly around the core of myself and try to find some kind of focal point to balance myself out down here. Just throwing myself out into the rapids won't do anything, and I'll only be dashed against the rocks. I have to remain clam and strong, controlled. That's the only way out of this. I can't do it though. The waves of panic are building up inside me, and I can't breathe. I'm terrified, trapped and uncertain, and those unruly emotions thwart my attempts at a tight, unified ball of consciousness. They explode out, catch the current like huge sails and I'm tumbling over and over myself again. The darkness is closing in around me, lit only by that infinitely sharp blade that's moving towards my throat. So I let it all go. I pour out my terror into the waters around me. All that panic, helplessness, fear and confusion, I gather it up and shove it outwards into the nightmare place that I'm struggling to remember is Glen's mind. They bloom outwards and catch the waters like huge wings, and suddenly I'm rushing along faster than ever. It's crazy, but I keep dumping out all of my anxiety, and the wings grow and grow. They catch on something. I don't know what but I don't care. They catch and hold, and then somehow I'm damming the river. It's all pressing into me but I hold strong against it. The blade is there but it's slowing, waving. Even run wild, it is a tool of order and focus. I'm the opposite of that. I fell like my dam is about to burst, but I throw one last wave of emotion at it, and everything collapses. The blade frays and winks out, the water above me lifts, my wings of terror drop away and I'm rising back to myself. The mental plane shifts away and I open my eyes, fully back in my own body. I'm on the ground. limbs spread around me in a contorted mess, but I'm okay. I'm awake and alive and myself. I'm awake and alive and myself. I have to repeat that to myself a few times, just to recover from all the turmoil. Eventually, my breathing calms and I can sit up and look for Glen. She's still standing, and seems okay. Clutching her chest, but who wouldn't be after what had just happened. That was scary. She asks if I'm alright. "Yeah" I stammer. "I'm not hurt, not physically. I'm just..." What am I actually? A bit shaken, yes, but the terrified panic of a few moments ago has left me. I'd pushed it all out in the effort to dissipate Geln's soulsword. Pushed it out into her mind. No! Had I really done that to her? Subjected her to all my feelings so that I wouldn't break under the weight of them? Or did I just push them against her subconscious defense mechanism? She hadn't been in control of that part of her mind. I'd seen her trying to fight against it before I was dragged under and we lost contact. I didn't know, but either way, it was a wonder she wasn't on the floor as well. "I'm okay, just shaken" I told her. "What about you?"

Neither the request topic not the planning topic seemed like the right place to post this, so it goes here, I guess. With the introduction of the new judging system, will the judged games begin right away or wait until the beginning of October when the current games expire? Also on that topic, the current games will still get their four months, right? CitD should be finished up by then, but just in case I'll have to re-submit it to get that time, I wanted to ask here.

Well, I've just thrown a couple of living battering rams at the gate. Sorry if that messes with anyone's plans, but I couldn't wait to start testing out that Vault Loot.

IC (Kitano): His blade was glowing. Kitano raised the weapon high as he felt the clamp tighten around his wrist and power flowing up the limb into his mind. Willpower, control, and the raw strength of beasts. These were his tools now, all flowing back out of his mind, down his arm and out through this sword. he felt the power rise, and smiled grimly. This was his now, and he was going to enjoy using it. The Piraka hadn't exactly been generous negotiators with their stolen treasure. Personally, Kitano saw Makuta's store as belonging to his followers by right of inheritance, not to this gang of Skakdi, even if they had been the first to discover it. Nevertheless, the toa of crystal was pleased with his purchase. A bit of conjured zamor crystal and his entire stock of makika venom had bought him this magnificent tool that they called a kanoka blade. It was imbubed with the power to control rahi beasts, and with its help, he had been quickly able to return to Po-Wahi and harvest more venom from his toads, extracting the corrosive substance more easily than he had ever dreamed possible. He was back to his normal stock of poison and even had time to spare before teleporting back to Ko-Wahi to meet with the dark army at the gate. Speaking of the gate, it wasn't looking too good. He brought the bladde down, and the pair of Vako he had under his command barreled forward again, recklessly throwing themselves at the structure. Bang! The first rhinocerous connected with the gate with supernatural speed and power. A second later, the second hit the gate with a mighty crash. A large web of cracks was now spreading across the stone, and under his careful instructions, the rahi peeled away and retreated for another run. Two more, he estimated, maybe three, and the living battering rams would have reduced the village gate to splinters.

So, just to check - this has timeskipped the gathering of bad guys, the arrival of Thok at Echelon's base and the distribution of Vault Loot to those involved?

What about Pala-Koro? That seemed pretty losable for both sides. Anyway, I'm excited for this.

IC (Tapui): Glen seems to be warming to the contact, so I press up against her mind a little more firmly. I'll be able to start seeing some of her thoughts now, and give back with some of my own. I try to project feelings of calm and safety, and in return I see that she is thinking... Wait, what? I had only been brushing against the surface of Glen's mind, or at least I'd been trying to. Somehow out of that I'd dredged up childhood memories. Perhaps I had been overestimating my prowess as a Willhammer. One big slice of humble pie coming up, with a side of extra work in classes this week. If I could enter someone's mind and miss the mark by that much, then I probably wouldn't be much help in the delicate process of physically manifesting one's will. No, wait again. That isn't it. I really am seeing surface thoughts. Glen is showing theses memories to me, as a kind of introduction. They say you don't really understand someone until you've walked a kio in their shoes, and it looks like I've just done that with Glen, completely unexpectedly. When we're in such close contact, mind-to-mind, I can't help but feel some of the things she feels, and empathise with her struggles. I'm experiencing these things just as she did and interpreting them through the lens of her worldview. Wow. It's truly quite an intimate experience. I wonder how much of my own mind is slipping back the other way through our connection. Technically, this interaction is taking place inside her head, but if I can mistake deep and formative memories with an attempt at communication, then my control probably isn't perfect. Who knows what thoughts and feelings Glen might be getting back from my end. I focus on the calmness I am projecting for her, and add in a bit of pride and courage, the kind that comes from the promise she had made. I hope that remembering that can be a source of strength for her. I keep it going for long seconds of our mental contact, just adjusting to being in her mind, hearing her thoughts and having them meshed with mine. They flow over me like a fast-moving stream, but the longer I stay and listen, the more I hear of them and the more comfortable I become. The connection's fine, Glen I tell her. You're doing well. Now, let's try that Soulsword again. I submerge myself back into the stream of her thoughts, watching each one as it bubbled towards the surface. There are so many that I can't focus on them all, but I can sense the general directions that they take. A lot of them seem to point in the right direction, while others seem irrelevant, but harmless. Then there are the negative, harmful impulses, the distractions and the doubts. These, I push back down, submerging them in the current and letting them be washed away. They are replaced with the calm strength that I hope would make for a good Soulsword. I'm not sure if I'm right about that, having never made one myself, but It's the best I can do. Glen knows these things, so she has to guide the process. I'm just here to smooth out the distractions.

IC (Tapui): Oh, thank Zuto Nui! She gets it. I'm not the only one who doesn't want to put up with all this divisive political rubbish, and I'm not going to get stabbed in the back. Thank you Zuto Nui! "I'm so glad to hear that" I tell her. "Your Rora is safe from me, and if you can be friends with a Dastana, then I can be friends with a Hogo. Maybe all of this will blow over and we'll be fine. Then, all of the others will look silly for distrusting each other so much over something so small". Even as I say it though, I find it hard to believe. Clans tensions do rise every so often, but this time is different. The Rora is dead, there is open bloodshed in the streets, more and more clans are taking sides, and somewhere out there, the Chaotic Six still roam. The last major clan war had happened before I was born, but all the signs were pointing to another. I can only hope any pray that I am wrong, and that somehow peace can be achieved. Zuto Nui preserve us. "Okay" I breathe, calming myself and extending my mind out towards Glen's. Before we can get onto anything too complex, we will have got get a feel for each other on the mental plane. This will go beyond simple ideatalk, with each of us broadcasting thoughts onto the mental plane for others to pick up as they wish. I will be actually getting inside her mind, and able to see her thoughts as they form and, hopefully, direct them. I moved slowly, tentatively, ready to recoil if I went too far and invaded too far into the privacy of her head. In spite of the promises of friendship we had just exchanged, we had barely met. I wasn't going to penetrate any further than what she was comfortable with.

I believe the correct quote for this situation is: "If I could, I would, but I can't, so I shan't" No. TPBM can tell me which character I was quoting.

IC (Tapui): "Dastana Tapui" I replied, taking the hand and shaking it. "It's good to meet you, Glen. I - " I had spoken without thinking, making an introduction in my normal, friendly manner. This girl was a Hogo, the enemy of my clan. Things were different now, and I couldn't just go and... Now wait just a minute! I mentally interrupted myself. This is not a person who wants to hurt me. She is a young student just like me, caught up in events too big for either of us to control. She is not evil, and she is not my enemy. Two weeks ago, I wouldn't have been having these thoughts. I would have gone straight on with the introduction, made a friend and probably even helped her with her Soulsword. Should a quarrel between some in our clans really stop me from being the kind of person who would do that? Does clan loyalty mean that I have to be rude and unkind here? I came to this school not just to learn a discipline but to make friends and good connections. Here is an opportunity to do that. I can serve my clan by making an ally, a friendship the bridges clan boundaries. If we made enough of those, maybe we wouldn't have to fight. This is what Ihi was talking about earlier. Maybe next time I should listen harder before I almost go and let stupid hostility overpower my conscience. I stood up, and offered the Hogo my arm for a hand up as well. "I'm on tonight's squad as well" I told her. "Maybe I can help you with your Soulsword. I'm a Willhammer myself, but I could try to soothe away the distractions from your mind while you learn to get control. I'd we can make it work, I'd be glad to have you watching my back tonight." I would also be giving a potential enemy the ability to stab me in the back with a blade of glowing psionic energy, but I tried not to think of that. I had made my choice, and I would stick to it. "So, what do you say?" I asked, still proffering my hand to help her up. OOC: Experimenting with the first person. I'm not sure I'll stick with it, but it's quite fun for now.

GM IC: For a moment, the Makuta's focus went back to his experiments, but then Karaihe's rattling chains drew his attention back. "Quiet, you Skakdi trash!" he hissed, taking one long step across the lab and backhanding the prisoner across the head. As he did so, he activated his sleep kraata power to the second level. Karaihe would feel slow and groggy for the next few minutes, and be unable to continue cutting through his chains. "You're lucky I didn't kill you outright! Make no mistake now, I will have my revenge on all of you eventually, once my plans are complete. But for now, you're here to give me information. I'll start simple: have the Dark Hunters arrived yet?"

IC (Dastana Tapui, Arohi School of the Mind): Tapui walked out of the weights room feeling oddly slow and heavy. Even though her training duel with Sokuratesu had barely lasted a minute, both of them moving a kakama speed had allowed them to pack in what would normally have been an hour's work. Moving, striking and reacting at such speed, as well as the struggle of their mental battle had been a welcome distraction, taking her mind off things, at least for a while. If only it had really lasted for as long as it had seemed to them. Tapui's clan was neck-deep in conflict with the most powerful clan in the archipelego, putting not only her future but her very life at risk. Perhaps Toroshu Ihi's new security measures would be enough to protect her while she remained here in training, not yet a full Menti, but then, perhaps not. The Daikura were still worried enough about the possibility of attacks on students to take the measures in the first place. And that led to the question of whether she should even be here. Yes, she had ties the the school here and good friends across many clans, and they might well hold the keys to her future as the Toroshu had said. Still, that was all very easy for her to say. Ihi had a responsibility to the school but none to any flesh-and-blood family away from Sado. She wasn't being torn between two conflicting loyalties. For Tapui, maybe the right thing to do was to leave, to abandon her training and go to help her clan in whatever ways she could. She was a fairly proficient Willhammer, after all, even though she hadn't yet achieved mastery of the discipline. These heavy thoughts weighted her down, adding to the sense of solidity from her kakama-hangover. The young Dastana stomped slowly down the hallway, not really paying attention to her surroundings. In the distance, she could hear the throng of students still crowding around the noticeboards and learning of their new timetables and guard assignments. Had the assembly really only finished a couple of minutes ago? Kakama-binging really screwed with her sense of time some days. Maybe she should stop. Or maybe, she should continue. It made it easier to forget that she would be on first patrol tongight, maybe meeting some of her own clan-members and being forced to betray either them or her friend, teachers, and future as a Menti. She took a few random turns, and ended up in another training room. It took her a few moments to recognise that the room was even occupied. There was a navy-armoured Dasaka sitting slumped against one wall, looking troubled. Maybe they could both use some company. "Hey" she said gently, sitting down next to the other student. 'What's on your mind?"

IC (Kitano): The pair struck out away from the village, not following the established paths through the drifts but cutting across steep valleys in the less-traveled parts of Ko-Wahi. Kitano teleported ahead to scout out the best route for the Matoran to take as he walked the icy mountain paths and occasionally used his elemental powers when more assistance was necessary to pass the difficult terrain. The system proved effective, and within the alotted half hour, the pair were standing at the top of a long glacier. With hard ice under their feet, the going should have been quicker than half-wading through snow, but Kitano stopped here and stood still. "We wait here, for my brother." He told Cimond. "Then we will go to meet Echelon and the others. You might as well make yourself comfortable."

Last Son Amakusa! Your PM inbox is full, so I'll post this here.

Looks good from my point of view. The Daikura are neutral for now, rather than unaligned, but if anyone touches our school, they will feel the wrath of a clan who does nothing but teach and learn Menti disciplines all day every day. We're quite good at them. Anyone who wants to join in with this can see this post. Anyone who wants training is welcome at the Arohi School of the Mind.

Hubert and Grochi were knocking 40 each at one stage. Smaller, actually. I counted 1082 in the first census. Sadly not, though as soon as I saw the Vault Loot post I wished I had. I assume you want it for the same reason? The reason I didn't catalogue those was that almost every piece of tech is unique, and so it is difficult to split them up into categories and make a nice, succinct table rather than a list longer than my arm.

IC (Ofeo, Duality): "Huh...Yeah" he replied shakily. He stood on the deck, dripping and shivering, but somehow alive. The lthers on the boat hadn't abandoned him; they had saved him. He owed these people his life. "Thank you, so much" he said to the three beings gathered around. "I was... I just..." He didn't know what else to say. "Thank you so much".

Really? Because when you count through seven hundred odd in a day and record all of their information, you might think that there were enough. I think what you mean is that three are never enough active characters. And on the subject of how many players per clan, that is something I didn't record. I didn't attach character names or players to any of the records. It keeps them a little bit annonymous (though for some, like the one elementless Toa with a kakama, it shouldn't be that hard to recognise them). This way the census is more about the game as a whole than pointing out whose characters are more unique and interesting and whose wear illegal masks (this is back when I was counting those, I left them out of this one). I'm not interested in pointing out who is doing what specifically, but how we, as a community, are playing this game in interesting ways.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. I'd say that since they were built into his body, he could keep them.

Only one, in the case of the Mamoru. They have 8 characters in the clan though.

Well, if you flip back to the census on the last page and look at the table 7th from the bottom, you will see a breakdown of all 15 clans and who is in them. That 15 is not counting sub-groups or the Tajaar.

Male Matatu on Female Toa of Crystal Female Akaku on Male Toa of Magnetism Female Tryna on Male Toa of Plantlife Female Arthron on Male Toa of Lightning Male Huna on Female Toa of Air

There are five of them, all on Toa. By power, they are: Matatu Akaku Tryna Arthron Huna