Drakmanka

I was eight years old when Bionicle was first released. I saw Tahu on the shelves in the toy section of my local grocery store, and begged my mom to get him for me, but she refused. I was an eight-year-old girl, and playing with something as "creepy", "weird" and "potentially violent" as Bionicle was out of the question. I was undeterred, though I knew I could never actually acquire the sets at that point in my life. I made-believe I was a Toa and that I was rescuing others from evil. My oldest sister married a LEGO nut, and when I went to visit them he would let me play with his impressive collection of pirate minifigures and sets. He also had one Bionicle set: Tahu Nuva. I played with Tahu more than with the others, but when he offered to let me keep it, I had to tell him no because of my mom. Fast-forward four years. My parents had divorced, my mom and I had moved into another neighborhood, and any ideas she had about turning me into a "real" girl were forever broken and swept away both by my stubbornness(I would rather die than wear a dress) and by necessity. As a homeschooled child, I was home alone doing my schoolwork while she was at work. Being as my school would only take me four or five of the eight to ten hours she was gone, I had a good deal of time on my hands. Once again, I turned to my imagination's version of the Bionicle world. Then I met the person who very quickly became my very best friend. We shared many common interests, including Bionicle. Like myself, her mother didn't want her to get into Bionicle, for the same reasons. Her father finally shot that idea down when he bought her Toa Hordika Nuju in 2005. She got Nokama not long after. It was because of our friendship that my mom finally caved in and let me begin collecting the sets. My dad bought me my first set, and since it was my very first and I was so excited about it, he didn't put a price limit on what I could get. I promptly picked Roodaka, because of the three titans she looked the coolest. I stayed up all night putting her together, and the next day playing with her or on the Bionicle website. Long-time fans may remember the 2005 version of the site, with the Rhotuka battle games, the story videos, music videos and the online comics. Those were my first taste of Bionicle story. Soon enough I was collecting books from the library and thoroughly immersing myself in the universe and lore. My collection of Bionicle figures quickly grew from one to over twenty in the span of two years. My friend and I would look at the online catalog as soon as it was released, and decide between us who would buy which sets, to ensure that between the two of us we would have them all. I became a diehard fan. In 2012, nineteen-year-old me was looking for a job. A local, third-party LEGO retailer was as well-known to me as I was to it's owner, and I was hired very quickly after I dropped off my resume. The reason? The current employees knew NOTHING about Bionicle, and lost a lot of money because they would get in fragmented sets that they didn't know how enough about to find the instructions and repair. By this point in my life, I had the vast majority of the instruction manuals for the canister sets memorized, and the parts lists for many of the titan sets down as well. I could look at a pile of random Bionicle pieces and figure out if there were any complete sets in it within five minutes, usually less. I have been at the same job for over three years now, and am affectionately, and accurately, called Bionicle Girl by my boss and several regular customers. My co-workers often call me the local Bionicle Expert. My name badge has the symbol of the Three Virtues on it, and I built a Technic construction onto it that allows me to fit two Kanohi onto it as well. A lot of kids who weren't even alive at the time Bionicle was in it's heyday recognize the masks, and ask me if Bionicle is my favorite. Thanks to my job, I have over 90% of the 2001-2010 Bionicle sets, but that just wasn't enough for me. I've been building MOCs for the past year and a half with my best friend, and we have so many of them now that half my bookshelves have been devoted to them. We often take them out into local wooded areas or to the river and photograph them. We've built up a story around them, and each one is a unique character who exists in our own head-canon. We've taken LEGO's world and run with it, and there's no stopping us now.

Here's my entry: http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a621/Drakmanka/ManasLord_zps341d884c.png?t=1417310494 Name: Manas Lord (and pet)

Whelp, looks like I'm going to be buying that huge lot of Bionicle parts a lot sooner than I originally planned... And my bedroom floor is going to be nigh-on impossible to navigate for the next two months, too. IT'S TIME TO GET THIS GOING.

I cannot begin to say how awesome this is. I'm sure you've got plans for the game later on in development, but I could very easily see this being a sort of Mata Nui RPG in the same style as The Elder Scrolls or The Legend of Zelda; with a linear story as well as Mata-Nui-only-knows how many side-quests to enjoy.

This is awesome! I gotta ask, though, what is the axe head from? I've never seen that part before.

I was only a kid back then, 8 years old. I live on the west coast, about as far as possible from what happened, but I still remember, it scared me quite a bit. The even rocked the world of virtually every citizen, and crushed the worlds of some. I can only hope that the last 13 years have allowed them to find their footing again.

I liked this. Very clever.

OOC: Removing Terus from the game. I don't have enough time to stay active here anymore, so away he goes. IC Terus: Terus stood on the cliffs overlooking the impressive waterfalls that roared by Ga-Koro. It was beautiful. It truly was. I could stay. He thought as he pondered his recent decision. I could start again... But he couldn't. Deep in his heart, he knew he couldn't. His life had ended the same day... she... had died. Now it was simply time to complete his death. "I tried, my love. I knew you wouldn't want this. But I can't be away from you anymore." He whispered to the wind. Then, before he could reconsider this final choice, he bent his knees and leaped, sending himself clear of the falls, to land in the far-too shallow water at the edge of the pool below. He barely felt the impact. It was the last sensation he would ever have.

OOC: Taking Lana out of the game and shutting down her tavern. I'm too busy these days to stay active here, and it's not fair to other players to have a business that is stagnant. IC Lana: Lana grabbed a bucket of black paint and a brush that was a little too big for her hands, and began going over the door to her former tavern. Ta-Koro had been a nice stop-over, but the place was simply too chaotic for her taste. She preferred a slightly more stable area to put her life's work in. One by one, the letters of the tavern's sign disappeared under a layer of black paint. Soon, The Drunken Murderess was nothing more than an empty store with a black door. Someone, undoubtably, would take over the building and make something of it. That someone would not be Lana. Silently, the Vo-Matoran gathered her few belongings and made her way out through the city gates. She wasn't sure where she was going; just going away.

As an AFOL, I would be rather upset to flat-out not be allowed to subscribe to the magazine if I wanted to. My main reason for not being subscribed? Laziness...

This was more amusing than I anticipated...

Your rocket-powered couch is no match for my rocket-powered rocking chair. My mask.

The Mimbari come flying by and raze the site of the battle. How very unlike them... While you either duck and cover or scramble to look up that reference, I come by and take the mask. My mask.

Dalek fleet is incoming. Prepare to be exterminated. The Dalek's mask.

I decide to cross the streams here and fly a fleet of Borg ships into this Star Wars moment we're having. Everyone is assimilated and I escape with the mask. My mask.