Timageness

IC: Septima - Ga-Koro (Bar) "I was... until they cut me off, that is. Gave me some line about... the management and poof! No more alcohol."

IC: Saffina - The Wastes (Shipwreck) Having grounded the Takea to take a closer look at the destruction, the Vortixx lingered in silence for another moment before finally shaking her head. "Now," she said, averting her gaze back towards the Cargo Haulers, floating patiently as they awaited commands. "We get to work, and hope that whatever did this doesn't decide to come back anytime soon."

OOC: Apologies for the late reply. IC: Septima - Ga-Koro (Bar) "..." "Septima," she eventually replied. "Pleasure to make your... acquaintance."

Fine with me. Bouncing around ideas and suggestions is sort of the point of this topic, isn't it? Ungrateful or not, I'd still be more than a little wary (at least initially) of someone I didn't personally know, especially if they randomly woke me up one morning and started bossing me around. And given that the Turaga of Lesovikk's home island went completely bonkers and sent their entire village to be rebuilt on Karzahni for little to no reason at all, I'd say that's enough evidence to prove that not all of them should be followed blindly. Also, I believe that the exact wording of Teridax's original deal with Vakama was that he (as in the Makuta and his forces) would not organise an attack on the Matoran for one year, in exchange for Vakama not shattering the Vahi. Now in this case, the timeline would obviously need to be extended here to account for the generations worth of events that took place prior to the plot of 2015, but if some other being wished to cause some strife on their own during that period of peace, someone who could be easily advised (read: manipulated) into acting on their jealousy or willing to bargain for knowledge and power, and that he technically had no affiliation with whatsoever... Well, that's certainly a loophole if I ever saw one. Allegedly, the Devil's greatest feat was tricking the world into believing that he never even existed. Assuming that Bionicle's master strategist wouldn't be able to navigate his way around one little pact is honestly a bit ridiculous.

To be perfectly fair, if we're still taking some small part of the actual canon into consideration, only the Turaga would've probably freaked out, as everyone else would've likely still had amnesia after emerging from their canisters. And to be honest, the rest of the Matoran could've just as easily brushed it off as the senility of a bunch of strange elderly folks, especially since they wouldn't have been able to remember them, either. Or the Mask Maker could've simply had another name and adopted the title after becoming an avatar of the original Makuta, who couldn't initially set foot on Mata Nui, due to some yet to be defined plot reason. Whatever works, really.

Crossovers are usually frowned upon in here, but this is pretty much just melding two different generations of Bionicle together, so... ... ... ... Alright. Sounds interesting. I suppose I'd be willing to give it a shot.

IC: Saffina - The Wastes (The Crimson Takea) Finally entering within visible range of the wreck, the Vortixx couldn't help but share a similar thought. What the Karz could've caused such extensive amounts of damage...? Growling in disgust, her mind briefly wandered back to her encounter with the pair of survivors as she continued to maintain her present course. If I find out that the two of you were withholding information on me, I'll be sure to bring you both back a souvenir... just so I can enjoy caving your skulls in with it afterwards.

IC: Saffina - The Wastes (The Crimson Takea) Continuing forward at her current pace, the Vortixx watched on in anticipation as Ektana's craft sped off ahead of her, fully prepared to kick some Vorox ### for when they inevitably decided to show up.

IC: Saffina - The Wastes (The Crimson Takea) Watching on as the Skakdi proceeded to exit the cargo bay, the Vortixx waited for a few more seconds before reactivating the panel and once again closing herself off from the outside world. A moment later, and she was back inside the cockpit, the drum of the disks against the hull's interior signaling her own readiness as the ship slowly rose back into the air, simultaneously releasing its signature sonar ping and allowing her to begin her search for any nearby hostiles.

You may not be able to create someone affiliated with that particular group of NPCs, but that doesn't necessarily mean your character can't be a pirate. The majority of the game's criminal element usually bases itself out of Cliffside. If you're looking for some rather morally questionable activities to get into, my advice would be to start there.

IC: Saffina - The Wastes (The Crimson Takea) Reciprocating the Skakdi's gesture, the Vortixx activated a nearby control panel, causing the ramp to lower before finally exposing them to the darkness of the surrounding eve, only for the ship's own interior lighting to keep it at bay as the area surrounding the newly revealed exit suddenly began to illuminate. Whatever happened to be lying in wait for the pair amidst said darkness, however, would more than likely not be so easily vanquished.

IC: Septima - Ga-Koro (Bar) "No, I'm... quite alright. Got lucky, I guess." Standing up once again, she immediately felt her legs begin to wobble, only to use the resulting momentum to quickly slide herself onto a currently unoccupied seat. "Though apparently, my... balance doesn't quite seem to agree. I should probably... stay off my legs for a while."

OOC: Might as well apply another timeskip in order to account for recent events. IC: Saffina - The Wastes (The Crimson Takea) Having long since restored the functionality of her ship, the Vortixx went through her mental checklist of preparations once again for good measure before making her way down towards the cargo bay, where she assumed Ektana would currently be waiting. Truth be told, the entire situation at hand had already put her on edge. Shortly after the meeting in the mess hall, their mouthy, diminuitive companion, still rather aggravated by how the discussion played out, announced that he was departing the Takea in order to scout the surrounding area. Figuring that the outing would give him more than enough time to cool off while simultaneously providing them with additional information in regards to the terrain and whether or not it was clear enough to begin their advance, she allowed it after a few seconds of careful consideration, eventually deciding that the Matoran's own vehicle would be enough to assist him with any potential trouble he may or may not have encountered. That was an hour ago at the very least, and seeing as to how she had limited his search to a relatively short distance away from the ship, "Velmes" should've definitely been back by now. Granted, he had unintentionally left some of his personal effects behind in his rush to get outside (nothing to tremendous in value, of course, but possibly enough to still hold some meaning), and she hadn't been treated to the sight of his severed head mounted precariously upon her cockpit's exterior the last time she was in there, so there was still no need to expect the worst yet; the delay could've just as easily been attributed to mechanical failure or simple laziness on his part. Either way, however, she had hired him to do a job, and to be frank, she wasn't too keen on sitting idle any longer than she had to while there was still work to be done. He had been made well aware of the plan beforehand. He knew what the risks were, and if she didn't think he was capable of catching up to them, surviving a night out in the wilderness, or even making his way back to Cliffside if he had to, then she wouldn't have brought him along in the first place. But deep down, she secretly wished that the Skakdi and herself would be fortunate enough to avoid having to face anything even remotely similar to his current circumstances. Coming to a halt just a few feet away from one of the cargo bay doors, she proceeded to scan its interior, attempting to discern if her companion was truly ready to face the trials that awaited the duo ahead. Given that the situation beyond the ship's exterior was relatively unknown to them, for both their sakes, Saffina sincerely hoped that she was.

Whatever, man. Here's your edit. The way I see it, you won't have to worry about me and my "pointless arguements" for much longer anyway.

If the sentence in question was too vague for your liking, then maybe it should've been amongst the list of changes you wanted me to make the first time I submitted her profile for approval. That way, we could've avoided this entire conversation. Nevertheless, it still utterly dumbfounds me that the ability to program or reprogram relatively simple automated machinery is considered to be game-breaking (especially since this really only applies to weaponless Cargo Haulers as far as I know), but seeing as to how whipping out the GM Card seems to be the go-to solution for every discussion around here, I'm not even going to bother asking about what specifically led up to that particular conclusion. Now if you'll excuse me, apparently I have to go edit a post from over a week ago, and devise an entirely new plan of attack.

Yeah, well, experimental weaponry =/= guns, either. The Vortixx_Rhotuka_Battle_Axe and Nektann_Defense Sentries are both prime examples of this, and, especially in the case of the latter, would've required a background in programming just to get them to move and properly recognise and target potential enemies. Also, if your settlement's resident tech-heads are largely composed of Vortixx and Nynrah Ghosts, then chances are, they're not going to be able to magically whip up something that another Vortixx or Nynrah Ghost with a background in said tech wouldn't be able to partially recognise and possibly reverse engineer if they had to at the very least, even if they did work together to come up with both new designs and an entirely different system of code. Granted, overcoming the several hundred years of stagnation in meaningful advancements outside of Fe would still be troublesome, but in comparison to those made during the previous 100,000 between the departure and arrival of the GSR to and from Bara Magna, they'd still pretty much amount to a single drop in a bucket full of water, especially since Bionicle characters in general tend to live for ridiculously long periods of time. And if they're really so advanced as you claim them to be, then New Atero's engineers probably wouldn't have realistically possessed the capacity to understand or decipher any of the blueprints they somehow managed to steal from them in the first place, nevermind use them to build a working prototype vehicle at all. As for the drag issue, I'll concede that I somehow neglected to take that into consideration, but will also counter with the possibility that a pilot could simply limit their craft's speed to those of the Haulers', as the ability to do so is still usually a common feature on most modern vehicles, and not including a similar function on those belonging to a galaxy filled with technologically advanced alien robots would be downright silly. And again, since this point was apparently missed the first two times I brought it up, attaching themselves to a vehicle is only meant to provide it with additional armor; for them to actually use the winch offensively, they would have to detatch and pursue targets situated on the ground. However, given that you did bring it up and all, this also poses the question of whether or not they could latch onto a nearby craft and effectively slow both them and their pilot down enough for them to be easier to hit, but that's a discussion for another time. And considering that I started typing this about five hours ago, I believe I've spent more than enough of mine on this for today. Seriously, all of this over wanting to roll into battle and possibly terrify the Karz out of some Vorox with a few robotic shark blimps. Ugh.

Kind of hard to do that when I'm also waiting on Nato to address my last response to the Cargo Hauler situation. My apologies, but I happen to be a bit rusty at deciphering week-long silences. Wrong game, Sil.

Well, whether a banned member or not, it may have hypothetically been given. Permission, that is. Possibly by way of Discord. Insert belated apology for the cloak-and-dagger routine here. ... ... ... Also, isn't the original creator of your other game currently a banned member as well? Because I seem to recall that being the reason why it needed a shiny new set of GMs. Needless to say, a little additional leeway on that front would be much appreciated.

So, uh, yeah. Recently heard this through the grapevine, but apparently, word is that the Vorox Quest has a new opening available. The catch, however, is that potential applicants would either have to stumble across the group's base camp... or simply play as Dessimus. In the case of the former option though, it might be best just to type up a new character, in order to completely avoid the pitfalls of travel time.

OOC: Yeah, sorry about the wait. Server issues and writer's block have kept me from typing anything up until now. Anyway, here you go. That can be Viis and Tira's table, if you want. IC: Septima - Ga-Koro (Bar) "My apologies, Miss, but I'm affraid I've been told that you're to be cut off." It took the Fe-Toa a little longer than usual to reply, almost as if she was having trouble understanding the sentence. Which was no surprise, considering the numerous amount of glasses her table had accumulated. "But... why? I've been good for my orders so far, and it's not like... you'll run out anytime soon," she slurred. The waitress simply shook her head. "Management doesn't approve of us continuing to serve customers after they've reached a certain point in their partying or... self-medication," she said calmly. "Cuts down on hospital visits and the number of folks looking to make a scene. Please understand." Burying her face in her hands, Septima simply forced herself to nod, eventually fumbling around for one last sack of widgets in order to cover the tip. Pushing herself back up and out of her seat, she swayed for a moment before finally succeeding in directing herself towards the door. Looks like... I'll just have to find somewhere else to drown out my problems then... Unfortunately for her, however, she didn't quite end up making it that far. After a few steps of stumbling forward, her foot abruptly caught itself on the leg of a nearby chair, causing her to trip and smash the side of her forehead into the edge of an adjacent table. Picking herself off of the floor, she quickly ran her hand along the surface of her mask, breathing a sigh of relief upon discovering that it hadn't been broken. "I'm... okay," she said to nobody in particular, giggling a little at her current situation.

If it's all the same to the rest of you, I'm going to wait a bit longer on that front before I actually start posting again. Hence the off-site shenanigans I mentioned earlier.

Tesara - Had some stuff stolen by an agent of New Atero (Varim, by way of Silvana); currently dealing with the aftermath of a raid, in which a few vehicles were hijacked. New Atero - Recently finished testing a new prototype vehicle (which ended disasterously); currently being attacked by a giant monster of doom, seemingly composed almost entirely out of the Visorak Horde's remains. Fe- Had some stuff stolen by an agent of New Atero (Barlow); found some Baterra while excavating/mining. Cliffside - Drinking, death threats, more drinking, and shopping. Just another day in paradise. The Wastes - Aqua Magnan diving expedition attempting to locate the former fortress of The Golden-Skinned Being; Cliffside salvage crew approaching the wreckage of an airship shot down by Vorox (currently stalled, mostly due to off-site shenanigans, though the unresolved dispute certainly isn't helping things either); large pillar of light emerging from the arena that nobody has apparently even noticed yet, nevermind investigated. That's pretty much it, I believe. Anyone else want to add something?

Literally the second paragraph of her bio. Taking that into consideration, I respectfully disagree. Given that the more advanced equipment of Xian make probably contains like, a cubic buttload of circuitry and other various components, I think it's safe to say that she'd know her way around a motherboard. And it's not like she's sticking weapons on them, either; the only difference is that they can try to latch onto people in an attempt to hamper their movement. They wouldn't have to. If they're basically just smaller airships, then they'd likely still be using Levitation Kanoka, so attaching their winches or whatever to Ektana and Dessimus' vehicles for them to simply drag around like a sidecar or trailer would effectively bypass this. Also, the combat bit was really only thrown in there in the event that the fighting stopped being vehicular.

IC: Saffina - The Wastes (The Crimson Takea) "Well then, by that logic, all Vortixx are sexist ########, all Skakdi must be murderous hooligans, and all Matoran can be written off as selfless workaholics who have absolutely no social lives whatsoever." "..." "..." "..." "I'll give you another moment to ponder exactly how ridiculous that sounds, though I do believe I've made my point. If it's all the same to you, I'd much rather formulate a plan around the actual capabilities of an enemy, and not just a stereotypical assumption of their species in general." "The reason why I'm primarily planning on encountering Vorox is quite simple; that is what the survivors said attacked their ship. Considering that they were actually onboard at the time of it being shot down, managed to fight a few of them off, and also had a front row seat while they slaughtered the rest of the crew, I'd say their account of the situation is more than enough of a reason to do so. However, as the captain of this vessel, and an avid believer of the Tenth Man Rule, I assure you both that I am taking your concerns into consideration, despite the fact that the current evidence does not support the notion that their numbers are being supplemented by other beings." "As for the weapon itself, I do agree with it being odd that they managed to acquire something like that, though like you, I am also completely unaware as to how that came to be, as the Skakdi didn't exactly stop to ask where it came from while they were fleeing for their lives. For all I know, they could've overpowered a transport previously belonging to Fe, found some ancient relic created by The Great Beings, or it could simply be some leftover technology that was jettisoned from the remains of the GSR." Glancing back towards the map, Saffina immediately fell silent for a moment, only to reveal what she personally thought was a fairly decent plan. "Isn't it obvious? We leave the Takea behind." Before either Ektana or "Velmes" could voice any objections they might've had, she continued to proceed with the details. "Seeing as to how we originally used it to arrive here, and it is the only craft capable of carrying all of our bounty, I can think of little reason why we should risk endangering it and potentially having it destroyed. Sure, it does possess the most firepower, but it is also fairly large, easily gives away our position, and would be much less maneuverable inside the valley in the event that you were correct in assuming that the wreckage has already been picked clean of anything remotely useful or valuable. Factor in our mystery weapon on top of all that, and she's effectively a sitting duck." "The two of you will approach the initial crash site in your respective vehicles, making your presence rather obvious as you go in order to draw the attention of any hostiles lying in wait to ambush us, and hopefully tricking them into following you both back towards me, only to be overwhelmed by a volley of cannon fire. Once there, we'll secure the area and start taking inventory of what's left, grounding the Takea and utilising the Cargo Haulers to start filling up her bay with our quarry. In the event that we do have to track down their main camp after the completion of said task, the three of us will then proceed to begin our descent down into the valley, using them once again when we arrive, though this time as a distraction, while we outflank them and launch our attack from the opposite direction. That way, they will be far less likely to see us coming, we'll have the jump on them, and their advantage of technological superiority will no longer be an issue, as the opportunity to take it out of the equation will present itself long before the'll even have a chance to use it effectively." Letting that all sink in, she finished mixing up her beverage and took a much needed drink, already mentally preparing her conclusion. "Once the debris settles and our prize is secured, we head back towards the airship and finish loading her up before traveling back to Cliffside. And should things take a turn for the worse, we simply make our escape and get the Karz out of Dodge instead."

Alright. I'll wait an extra day, though, just in case either one of you need to do some last-minute changes.