Timageness

IC: "Been there, done that," Verulas mumbled to himself as the Toa teleported away for the final time. He stood, catching the airborne widget again and shoved it into his pocket as he continued on his path and disappeared into the crowd once more. "And I wish that they hadn't."

At least you can start using your widgets as spare ammo when you run out (if it's built so it can do that anyway).

Okay then... Well, at least it saves me a trip to the morgue. Do you remember what page he died on? If I'm going to write in something that gruesome, I'm going to need details.

I went with Macku because I felt romance being taken out of canon was silly, and the Mahri never had another line afterwards anyway so it wouldn't have mattered if there were two Toa of Water and no Toa of Ice. Takanuva would work well with them too, but it's more likely the spot will remain vacant. I don't even know who anyone else on the list is, besides the fact that they are Matoran, because at that age my focus was on the characters with powers.

To answer your question bonesiii, the symbol wouldn't have had anything to do with Makuta, as he wouldn't have created that. The symbol could have been previously etched into all of the access panels above the maintenance hatches. The device, being above the power supply, could have been directly under the hatch, and the symbol itself being there could have just been a fluke (the device working through the hatch however, would either be due to the Rule of Cool or just plain old lazy writing). Honestly though, I like this theory as an Antidermis revival device only (if there was even a device under there in the first place) because Makuta wouldn't build a revival device so anyone could use it, and still support the Kanohi theory that took place above it. Takanuva (being in control of Takutanuva) having the foresight to see his own demise after being unfused just seems more likely to me, because beings fused via energised protodermis on occasion have powers neither individual had previously.

IC: Watching the Toa of Air help the Skakdi was a prime example of how the Toa Code held them back. Why help your enemies when they'll just attack again and again once they've recovered their strength? If you help someone like that knowing what they are, what they would do given the chance, and they come back and do something terrible, doesn't that make you responsible as well? In his eyes, the Toa had only themselves to blame for the misfortunes falling upon their Matoran charges.

Some protectors they were.

Unity? If beings were truly united, would there be conflict in any form? Duty? Why continuously do the same thing over and over while expecting different results? Destiny? Why follow the fate someone else has laid out for you when you can take your life into your own hands and forge your own path?

The Three Virtues were a joke, and Verulas felt like he was the only one let in on it.

That's a shame, Miras. I was hoping on interacting with Celsakh again (you know, besides selfishly saving him to get the guards of Ko-Koro to let Verulas into the city). Oh well. Btw, I was planning on heading back there with the all out warfare going on and I'd like to know if you'd be okay with, say, coming across the morgue, finding Celsakh's journal or something, and convincing some Matoran NPC's in Ta-Koro to name their shop after him after possibly funding them with loot/payment from the battle? I kind of want to show that my character's not totally heartless and that he just tries to distance himself from feeling anything for others, but sometimes his defenses break down and he does some pretty uncharacteristic things.

IC: Verulas watched as the Toa of Air continued to patch up the Skakdi and shook his head in defiance. Just typical. Of course he would take the time to save the thug even though he had just tried to kill them moments before. He would probably still be doing the same even if he had torn a Matoran in half before his very eyes. The Toa of Plantlife remained baffled at how predictable the rest of his species could be.

Predictability decreases your odds of survival.

Granted, he was telling the truth when he said he wasn't trying to kill their former attacker, but only because he didn't see the Skakdi as worth killing. If it had been a situation where only one of them would be walking away however, that would've been a different story all together. Where most would say "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," Verulas prefered to have no friends and leave his enemies six feet under. He would have no one to lose, and others would think twice before gunning for him. It was just easier that way.

I didn't mean anything by it; they were just some ideas.

But Solomon Grundy covers their entire zombified horde... Also, the Mangaia Pact? Isn't Mangaia Matoran for "Guardian?" I get that it was Makuta's lair and all, but the literal translation just doesn't fit in my opinion. Something more along the lines of the Harbingers of Chaos, Hands of Destruction, or even Death's Gauntlet just have a better ring to it...

Or Teridax was trying to create a device that could bring back dead Makuta (as beings composed of Antidermis wouldn't get picked up by the Red Star even if the teleporter was working) and the symbol was there because he was tapping into the power supply from the Mata Nui Robot to do so. If the main villian of the series is clever enough to essentially become the Matoran Universe, it wouldn't be entirely out of the question for him to create a fail safe in the event that he perished before seeing his plan through, and Vakama saw it fitting for Jaller and Hahli to stand there while reviving Takanuva because of the whole Three Virtues thing.

As Nato and I have stated before on the previous page, PC interaction sometimes has a tendency of being non-existent, and that's usually when players are left to their own devices to move their character's stories along. That being said, Nuju's Zaktan just so happened to release a horde of tree eating Entropy Beetles that are wrecking the jungles of Le-Wahi, and they're most definitely going to be moving towards the Koro you're currently in at some point unless they're stopped... Think your Vortixx is up for squashing some bugs?

IC: "Oh, he'll be fine," Verulas panted, sitting on the ground to catch his breath. "Shoulder wounds aren't that hard to patch. And for the record, I was keeping his concentration broken so I didn't get two laser holes in my forehead."

He looked around, spying the lone widget that started the whole fight and used a vine to bring it back over to him before flipping it in the air again.

"Besides, if I wanted him dead, I'd like to think that I would have gone for his neck. It would've been much easier that way than going after his shoulders. Also, I kind of figured that if you're the type to jump into battles to aid someone you don't even know, you'd probably have 'objections' to that as well, and those three were enough to fill up today's fight card. Not that they were even that good, but they were still just as tiring all the same."

You never know; a certain mercenary of Plantlife who enjoys difficult, usually one-sided battles might be making his way over there eventually...

IC: Verulas had been around long enough to know that normal crossbow bolts didn't have flashing lights, but couldn't react fast enough to do anything about it. And he didn't like that one bit. At the very least, the Skakdi was getting buried with them.

Ah, good. So my character won't die if he gets hit with Antidermis. Cool. Are the effects permanent for survivors though?

I was having a similar problem when I first arrived in Ta-Koro, since most of the characters were dealing with the aftermath of the Piraka attack and destruction of the Lavapool Inn, so I just started making up things for Verulas to do while waiting. Fighting off three thugs in a back alley somewhere was definitely better than sitting on my character and waiting for something to do.

IC: "These guys just never learn, do they?"

Verulas turned back to the Skakdi as lasers pierced the bottom of the container, his flexing muscles ripping through the metal with moderate effort as he threw the object off of him. He looked around, spying the unconcious Lesterin and the Vortixx writhing in pain as he shook off the disorientation from the impact.

"I'm going to have so much fun tearing you two in half," he snarled, pulling his previously loaded crossbow off of his back and aiming it at the wall behind them. "But I'll have to settle with digging you up first!"

The bolt flew through the air, the explosives built into the shaft self-arming as it sailed towards its intended target in an attempt to bury them in the ensuing rubble.

I believe that it is stated somewhere under the "Kanohi" page on BS01 that the masks retain an imprint of the previous wearer for a limited period of time, and they could be brought back with a great amount of life energy being transferred into it (as in how Takutanuva brought back Jaller). Maybe the symbol on the floor did something similar, taking the energy from Jaller and Hahli to revive Takanuva? He could have known that reviving Jaller would have left him unable to hold up the door, so he could have transferred enough extra energy to bring himself back too.

IC: Thankfully none of the stone fell in their direction, impacting harmlessly behind them as the Skakdi regained his composure, a look of pure rage painting itself across his face. He charged at Verulas once more, becoming a mere blur as he sped in the Toa's direction, but he had anticipated the attack this time and fell to his knees before slashing at his foe's leg.

"Have a nice trip," he said as the Skakdi stumbled over the weapon and sailed face first into a pile of garbage. "See you next fall."

These thugs were a bunch of amateurs.

Verulas stood up and flipped his sword back around before resting it on his shoulder, wondering how long the other Toa was going to keep playing with the Vortixx as the Skakdi returned to his feet, struggling to rid himself of the trash can that had been firmly stuck over his head and arms.

IC: Seeds emerged from Verulas's hands and were thrown to the ground around his foe before he could react, creating a prison made up of woven roots that pinned him in place. The Lesterin's red and green form struggled against his bindings in vain, a scream emerging from his mouth as the Toa punched him in the face, knocking him out.

"Sweet dreams, psycho," he said, turning his attention to his new ally.

The other Toa had his hands full with the Vortixx at the moment, but Verulas could tell by the way the new arrival fought that he had faced far worse. He stood and watched the duel contently, catching his breath before noticing that the Skakdi was once again on his feet and preparing a nasty vision powered revenge against the Toa of Air.

"Too slow," he said as he removed a knife from his arm and threw it into his shoulder, knocking him off balance and causing his laser beams to miss, cutting through the wall of an adjacent building instead of their intended target and raining debris into the alleyway below.

Note to Twelfth Ghosthands and anyone else who was thinking of getting involved in the Ta-Koro alleyway scuffle:

IC: An insane grin spread itself across the Lesterin's face as he charged, swinging his scythe sideways as Verulas rolled under the path of the weapon, barely avoiding a second strike from his opponent as a small fruit appeared in the Toa's hand. He threw it on the ground, causing it to break apart as it released a green mist in between them and obscured their visibility of each other.

"Fool! Do you think that I wear this Akaku for show?"

He activated his mask power, scanning through the cloud of water vapor and harmless spores for his prey and was surprised to find nothing.

"No," a voice said from behind him. "I kind of thought you wore it to spare others from looking at your face!"

The Lesterin turned around as Verulas became fully visible once more, a second too late to stop the Toa from punching him in the head. His counter-attack was parried by Verulas's sword as a palm strike was quickly delivered into his chest, causing him to release his grip on the scythe as he flew backwards and hit the ground.

So much for Verulas taking a very unwise vacation to the Archipelego in the near future. And creating a Dasaka character would involve killing him off due to the text limit on my PS3's keyboard, so that's not happening. Oh well.

IC: Verulas took advantage of the brief pause the newcomer had created, using it to regain his composure and draw his own weapon as he silently nodded in appreciation. He wasn't out of the fight just yet.

"So...," he mused as he began to catch his breath. "Any idea who your dance partner's going to be yet? If it's all the same to you... I've been eyeing the Lesterin. No need to make it too easy now."

He waved his hand, spinning his sword into his favored back-handed grip with his fingers as their two standing foes began to attack.