Unreliable Narrator

IC: ??? | Undisclosed Metru-Nui Prison He stroked his throat in thought, pulling on the organics as some nervous habit. "The chief engineer. You must mean Nuparu. That's unfortunate, he was a good man. Flawed, yes, but he strove to follow the virtues. I'll have to pray for his safe passing when I see the Red Star again. Am I wrong in assuming you sent him to the Great Spirit, Patchy?" Despite the allegation, the voice was calm again. He turned around and Thom got a better look at the mask he worn: a golden noble kanohi hau. His eyes peered out from the mask with a pitying look, the look a parent gives when they know someone else's child did something bad, but only because their those parents were absent in teaching the lesson.

IC: ??? | Undisclosed Metru-Nui Prison "Book burning? No, I'd never do that. The stories of the people are far too precious to destroy." With his back still toward Thom he continued, "Patchy, this is a murderer's hallway. Everyone here has done the deed. Our brothers and sisters in sin have very interesting stories. Some are like fishing though: they grow with every telling. How are things outside going, Patchy? Any news. As you can see I don't around much anymore." There was a soft chuckle. The old man thought his joke was better than it probably was.

iC: ??? | Undisclosed Metru-Nui Prison "Murder. Really?" A pause. "Why did I even ask that question, this is a murderer's hallway. Of course you're a murderer." The man turned away, placing his aged back against the bars and sliding down until he was sitting on the floor. Thom could barely make out the fellow convict staring at his hands, clenching and opening his fingers. "Do you remember it clearly?" He asked in a voice far calmer than his body indicated.

IC: ??? | Undisclosed Metru-Nui Prison "Patchy," the voice said, mulling over the name. There was a soft tapping sound as the figure danced his fingers on the bars of his cell. Something sparked between the metal and his hands when he touched it, but he paid it no mind. "What you in for, Patchy?"

Fa'Atamai is approved @Crimson Jester.

IC: Vhisola | Ga-Metru Cafe "Um, okay," Vhisola said after a moment. Her head leaned to one side, unconvinced but obviously trying to figure out what happened to Okuo to make him do this. Vhisola wasn't devoid of compassion, just unfortunately used to harassment. She sighed and took a sip of her mimosa before speaking. "Look, Okuo. I didn't know you, until now and I'm in the middle of something. If you really think something serious is happening, why don't you tell the vahki. But you coming here, saying that I'm on some assassin's hit list, isn't anything new. News flash: I've had my address taken from me, I've been stalked, I've been through plenty just because people think I don't have a life. You showing up and publicly making a scene of my morning doesn't make me want to believe you. If anything, you're even more like everyone else who's done this before with your little code names and your mocked up photos. I'm not interested." "I think maybe you should go," Nokama said after a moment's hesitation. She watched the two matoran staring at each other, one with a sense of urgency and the other with a decidedly done expression on her face. Obviously Okuo wasn't one of her students or she'd remember, she was good with names after all, and Vhisola certainly didn't know this man. She got the eye of a waiter, who started to make her way over.

IC: Vhisola | Ga-Metru Okay. Weird. Not the first time, but weird way to ruin her day. He said he was a fan of her work, so her blog. Great. Another one. "I'm sorry, have we met before?" Vhisola asked candidly, sitting up straighter in her seat. She tried to look friendly, but honestly this pushed her patience. This ta-matoran certainly went the extra mile to build an outlandish story.

IC: Vhisola | Ga-Metru She leaned back in her chair and tried to ignore the chatter around her as Nokama got up for a moment to do, well, something. Her iStone barely fit propped up between her lap and the table. Vhisola didn't usually feel happy, but today turned out alright for the ga-matoran. What could be a better way to turn a day around than brunch with her professor? She remembered each word of their conversation, a new core memory of happiness she'd remember when depression set in and the night got inevitably long. Something red caught her eye. It, no he, stepped through the door of the cafe with a nervous sort of look about him. Vhisola couldn't help but stare and wonder what a Ta-matoran could possibly be doing in a Ga-metru brunch cafe. He didn't seem the type to go to a cafe for one. He had dust covering his armor, carried a large disc launcher on his bag, and looked more like a software geek in need of a gaming cafe and a cup of energy juice than toast and mimosas. "Everything alright," Nokama asked as she slid back into her chair. "Huh? Yes, of course Professor," Vhisola said, her heading whipping around to face her mentor. She didn't look away fast enough though and accidentally made eye contact with the stranger. Did he notice? Maybe he thought she was looking past him at the painting on the entry way wall? Yes, that had to be it. Like when someone smiles and waves for the person behind you. "You were saying before you left that you'd been thinking about Turaga Dume's recent speech and how that applied to your research on antiquities?"

Kovac good to go.

IC: ??? "That's not gonna work," the small being said with a chuckle as Thom's eye glowed. He was mostly right. Thom couldn't see past his cell, but his powers of x-ray vision saw through the bed just fine. A small bedpan, smooth edged, and a bottle of what could only be water were tucked underneath. After another moment the voice called back out, "what's your name?"

He ain't in Onu-Metru anymore.

IC: Reliable Narrator | Ga-Metru "Informant" as he was called by his co-workers found Vhisola's apartment within a few hours of the hit being sent. It was a single room dwelling on the fifth floor of a floating tower, with a view of one of the lecture hall buildings for Ga-Metru's extensive campus. While not the most upscale renting location, it couldn't be cheap. Neither could several lavish pieces of furniture. It seemed the most used location, however, was her desk with a small telescope next to it by the window. Books, slates, and half finished assignments covered the floor around the desk, the only item on it besides Vhisola's computer station being a photo of her and a Ga-matoran scholar wearing a kanohi rau. Unfortunately, Vhisola was out. Okuo nearly crashed into a protodermis chute when he found a clue to Vhisola's location. She'd posted a photo five minutes ago to one of her many blogs, curated by activity, of a thick piece of toast with a green spread. It was a well composed photo, with perfect lighting and just enough of the surrounding table settings to feel natural. The words "student teacher mentoring brunch" were underneath. As was a picture of the menu, its obscene prices, and more importantly the address of the cafe.

IC: Reliable Narrator | Onu-Metru and ??? | Vahki Response It took almost no time for the rorzakh to collect their criminal prey. While two maintained physical control of Thom, the rest of the rorzakh busied themselves with swarming after Waveahk. When the icy Dark Hunter awoke, he was in a very different place. And sideways. Maybe it was a dream? Strangely, no, he felt very awake, but he didn't know how long he'd been out. His leg no longer hurt, somehow healed, but he felt tired and disconnected from his element. He was in a cell somewhere lying down on a slab someone pretended could be a bed. The lightstones in the hallway for light were red, making it hard to see beyond the reach of his hands. "You're awake," said a gravely voice from across the hall in the cell opposite Thom's. A small being shuffled close to their bars. They were red in color, with sprinklings of yellow and gold. Maybe a matoran? Whether or not the light made them red or if it was their natural armor Thom couldn't tell. "Finally." Thom got the feeling he wasn't in Onu-Metru anymore.

IC: Reliable Narrator | Ga-Metru | Great Temple As the party began to split, Triki knew his advance into the sewers could only lead to adventure. Good or bad, he couldn't say, but the plucky Le-Matoran knew there'd be a tale to come of today. His feet splashed on a thin coating of run off water from whenever rain fell on the Great Temple Roof. Small growths of algae spotted the floor, making it important to be careful while walking. On the walls of the access tunnels were the sewer pipes, contained orderly with neat matoran writing every few feet stamped on their surface to make sure no one mistakenly cut into the wrong pipe. About ten feet in there was a fork in the tunnel: Triki could go left or right. The sunlight didn't make it past the fork. Whichever way he went would be in darkness. IC: Reliable Narrator | Onu-Metru | Vahki While Arkius and Stannis vanquished the aggressive rorzakh enforcer units on the docks, the rorzakh below continued their hunt. Known as the most persistent of the six vahki, rorzakh viciously upheld their 97% capture quotas. Today the monthly quota lagged, but the clockwork hive mind collective didn't understand despair. If anything, the reduced success led to even further and more dogged persistence. No surprise then when the rorzakh found Thom bleeding out by a protodermis elevator chute further down the street from where they briefly faltered in the smoke. Waveahk's visible weapons implied involvement, adding him to the pool of individuals to be detained. Three squads -- eighteen units -- descended on the injured Dark Hunter. they could run, or they could submit to The Law. Ooc: quick mobile post

I love these, but I don't think the first applies anymore. Thanks for getting rid of those watermarks. <3

I'd say Nale has a leg up on Thom in this race.

OOC: hey Arkius and Vyarik, nice PVP! One thing I wanted to point out is it looks like Vyarik got "Falcon punched" into next month's calendar. I'll have to write what happened to that building he hit soon, but it doesn't seem likely that (with gravity playing into it) Vyarik would be able to repel with as much force in the exact opposite flight trajectory to reach the docks. You two figure out what you want, and I'll stay out of it unless you ask me to jump in. IC: Reliable Narrator | Silver Sea Beach Battle The wall of sand and rock fell as the combined elemental powers of the po-skakdi cut short. Skyra’s cordak blasters hit the ground near the chanting elementalists, destroying their perch and sending them flying into the jungle. She wouldn’t be able to see the desperate struggle of two brothers finding each other amidst the foliage, crawling despite their wounds, holding each other as one bled out and the other swore revenge against the Great Spirit for making their people inferior to toa. While Skyra fired in the air, she became the target for several explosive rounds. They flew through the air as lazy missiles, ready to follow the toa of air wherever she might choose to float. Rose found her riot shield peppered with zamor spheres as she continued her advance up the rocky beach. The bluff was about a hundred feet in height, and she was confident her armor had the added power to climb the distance once she was close enough. For now, she could do nothing but advance. Orieus’ elemental retreat was well timed, escaping the surprise burial by a mere moment. A vortixx saw him tumble out into the open sands, and double checked their calculations on the map. Sure enough, the attackers were in the correct zone, and the Voritxx pushed a small button on a console. Mines erupted beneath Orieus’ feet. Shrapnel and sand filled the air. Only the vortixx bomb squad knew how much of the beach was trapped, and the fear of death underfoot swept through the hearts of the Metru-Nui attackers with the exception of one part: the vahki. Iona’s militarized group of vahki plowed ahead, clambering up the slopes of the bluff despite the explosions and cannon fire. In a moment they’d breach the bluff and be in melee range of the defenses. A blasphemous toa of jungle busied themselves with growing vines and organic defenses to deter the robotic war machines.

IC: Reliable Narrator | Onu-Metru Disc Hunt As the robotic enforcer arrived, Vashni was faced with a hard choice: drop her telekinetic powers over Jutori and let the matoran fall to wherever Tallea landed, or ignore the new threat until Jutori was safely deposited. Atamai was the only one able to truly see the oncoming threat of Kilo-M9. Tallea traveled down what felt like five stories in her jumping pattern. Aside from the sparking of broken electrical lines in the hole above, the only light source came from her exo-suit. The headlight swayed back and forth as she examined where she was. The floor was packed dirt here at first glance. More focused inspection revealed Tallea was in the crater of whatever fell through those five stories. Rubble piled up blocking off one side of the hallway, significantly wider on this lower floor. In the other direction, a very large and very still rahi lay on its side. She made out the biomechanical tail and the hind legs of something massive. There was no rise or fall to its chest beyond. There was, however, a burst of movement as dark chitinous tentacles rushed out of the darkness towards Tallea’s armor, grabbing at her and making to pull her down the hallway. IC: Reliable Narrator | South of Destral | The Ripple On the deck of The Ripple Mazor watched the two airships retreating. It seemed they damaged one of the ships enough to force the raiding visorak horde to reconsider a head on assault. Having a repurposed cargo airship only made discovering the multitude of capable warriors onboard a greater surprise. Despite his thorough search, Mazor couldn’t find anywhere indicating a cockpit or bridge of either ship. Whatever was giving orders had to be inside the floating gas bags. As Valia reached the open decks, she found herself surprised by spinners flying in her direction. When they missed, webbing sprayed out like silly string from the mouths of two visorak making a berserker rush at the deaf toa. Asksa’s mask flared as she reached out with her powers, and the votorakh’s usually agile movements slowed. It screeched in panic, but the fighters inside the cargo hold saw their opportunity and pounced. Ostrox, Morah, and others blasted, slashed, stabbed, and brutalized the spider creature until all that was left was a mess of organics and inorganic components. One of them took a spinner to the face before it died, clutching their bodies and rolling on the floor as spasms of pain racked through every wire of their being. OOC: you all get to choose who took the spinner and why, but somebody got hit killing that thing. The pain will wear off in a few minutes tops. The airships are in retreat unless the visorak aboard your airship can wrestle control. Fight back!

You have been nudged.

Hi Drakua! The game was approved for play. If you want to find out more about why and how the canon shifted in this game, come play with us!

OOC: More soon... For now, @Crimson Jester, @EmperorWhenua IC: Reliable Narrator | Ko-Metru Hideaway The Alpinist and the Cartographer paced the circular room thoroughly. They quickly established the diameter as approximated ninety steps by walking heel to toe across the floor. The Alpinist made the educated guess the highest point of the domed ceiling matched the diameter of the floor. Despite being Ko-matoran and scholars of some level in their own rights, neither could place the language inscribed on the walls, but they did conclude it to be a form of hieroglyphics. “These are shells of some kind, big ones,” The Cartographer stated while pointing to the moltings of some unknown rahi. The best he could discern was some kind of crab or beetle. The pieces of shell were big enough to reach the waists of the ko-matoran. The matoran corpse in the room released a sickly smell when moved. It had been in this state for some time. Once the smell dissipated, searching the remains of the deceased matoran they found a kanoka disc. It was a Ko-Metru kanoka disc with the inscription 4-1-5 underneath the three towers depicted on its surface. The matoran was of their own element. The wind hinting at another way out further up intrigued the Alpinist. Instead of ascending with his gear, he threw a lightstone into the air with all his might. It sailed halfway up the wall, revealing small holes -- too small for a matoran to crawl through -- where the domed ceiling met the wall. If anything, they were for proper ventilation of the space. IC: Reliable Narrator | Po-Metru Tower As Okuo explored the new playground of this unknown network he came across a credentials request. Setting up a script, he let it run while he brewed tea, rubbed his eyes, and continued to fight for his concept of self-identity post the vahki hive merging. Memories that weren't his kept flashing behind his eyes, and occasionally he'd catch himself muttering prerecorded vahki slogans. The script worked a few minutes after he returned to his workstation, the credential request bypassed. The active window flashed with green lettering, and he realized he'd found a part of the network he didn't want to see: New Target: Vhisola. Ga-matoran. Last seen in Ga-Metru. Silence immediately. Okuo wasn't the only one to see this message. Every Dark Hunter in Metru-Nui received the hit, some already on the move to intercept and silence the student blogger.

Aw... You just made my day. <3

IC: Reliable Narrator | Po-Metru Tower The real difficulty in hacking a vahki network wasn’t the computations, it was the stress on the hacker. With how the clockwork computing Nuparu devised worked, the only way into a data terminal was by physically connecting oneself to the hivemind of a nearby charging cluster where hundreds of vahki rested and acted as a remote processor for active squads. Matoran could access via an invasive procedure to themselves, and more than one hacker had lost their mind to the vahki hive. Taking a deep breath Okuo pressed the enter key, starting the program that would rob him of his current consciousness as he took a swim into the world of the vahki. Minutes passed in a blur of sights and sounds. What felt like long hours ticked by as he helped solve crimes, his own mind forced into submission and used as additional RAM by the charging cluster. Finally he pulled away from being one with the hive, ended the procedure, and vomited as the real world and his own sovereign self identity spun into focus. His body was shaking uncontrollably. He felt like smoke was pouring out of his gears. But he knew where to go: the coliseum. IC: Reliable Narrator | Onu-Metru | Disc Hunt As they stared into the stasis tanks, the party could feel the softest tug on their minds from the strange green masks housed in the transparent craniums of the sleeping creatures. While Atamai knew these creatures were, few outside knew the name bohrok. If they turned around, Atamai likely saw a group of confused faces. The hallway lined with bohrok on either side contained twelve specimens, two of each color variant. The floor between each wall was wide enough for the group to comfortably cluster together, and the ceiling perilously close to Vashni’s head. These were smaller tunnels compared to the finished exhibits at higher levels. Just past the installation the floor ahead was dark. In fact, it wasn’t a floor at all. There was a massive cavernous hole ahead leading down several levels. It looked like something fell through with tremendous force. Careful inspection around the lip of the hole showed deep scratch marks on the floor and walls. It would be slow going to climb down through it. The hole stretched a good twenty feet before the floor picked up again in the hallway.

Hey, guess what, it's Monday in the GMs side of the world. Which means... MORE DARK HUNTER HITS: Go Kill Vhisola. She's a Ga-Metruvian student with a blog that's been gaining popularity for her anti-government message. Also, here's what I'm tracking from the past week in SKE: Onu-Metru: Hunters of the Great Disc are on level seven. They're discovered bohrok in stasis tubes past a construction zone. Dark Hunters and toa fight for supremacy of an elevator shaft up to the surface level docks where Knichou's airship is waiting to take off. Vyarik and Arkius have a one on one duel. They are surprisingly well matched. The vahki are about to say, "am I a joke to you?" Ga-Metru: Disc hunters consider breaking and entering into the Great Temple rather than walking through the front door. Triki's hoverbike is impounded for improper parking. Ko-Metru: The Alpinist and The Cartographer put their heads together to solve the puzzles in the Ko-Metru Hideaway in hopes of finding the region's great disc. Po-Metru: Okuo hacks the planet, discovers Toa Tuyet is likely murdered and Lhikan and Nidhiki probably did the deed. Uses Ko-VPN to hack the vahki hive network. Silver Sea: Metru-Nui assaulted an island taken by the League at dawn, attempting to secure purchase on the rocky beach for a safe landing zone. The fight rages on. South of Destral: The Ripple and its passengers are harried by a group of visorak in airships that fly now. They fly now? They fly now. Am I missing something? Let me know! Happy start of week three. As always, I'm blown away by the amount of traction this game has gained, and how committed you all are to keeping up this pace.

OOC: More soon, but I realized I left out a response in my last post! Also, this PVP duel has got me so engrossed!! IC: Reliable Narrator | Onu-Metru | Sewers As "Victim" triggered the power of the rorzakh's staff with concentration, he felt his field of view flood away to be replaced after a moment of vertigo with another world entirely. He was on an airship now, watching as a bulkhead closed slowly before him. He felt much smaller than usual, small enough to be looking through the eyes of a matoran. Through the gap in the closing bulkhead "Victim" watched a toa of earth and one of the Dark Hunters from earlier duel on the docks. The scattered wreckage of rorzakh encircled their fight. Before the powers of the staff faded due to range, he caught a glimpse of the walls of the docks, noting the correct pier and level. IC: Reliable Narrator | Silver Sea | Beach Fight Dawn broke on the rocky beach. The moon still hung above the world, bearing witness to the war of morning. Warm golden light flooded across the rippling silver sea, blinding those staring into its depths to avoid the horrors of combat. Most of the jumpers landed on the beach successfully, but there were a few whose miscalculations cost their lives. Even as Rose gave her rousing cry, a fellow toa saluted the dirt and crumpled into a jumble of something once alive against the rocky bluff where the League’s cannon encampment was stationed. An allied skakdi fell limply into the silver sea after a cannon blast burned through his core and hit the airship behind him. An explosion of sand and rock cut Orieus’ advance short, the beach lifting into a protective wall as two skakdi of stone held hands and chanted from a vantage point close to the jungle. Like a rolling wave the rock and sand crashed down over him, burying him alive. Blasts from the embanked cannons, energy rifles, blinding lightsone launchers, and heatstones exploding peppered the beach below where Metru-Nui’s brave assault team struggled to find purchase. Despite the danger, there was nothing to do but push forward. Reliable Narrator | Ga-Metru Disc Hunt Triki’s quirky crew of treasure hunters and anxiety generators stood ankle deep in sewer runoff as they stared at the grate. The sewer gate did have a lock on it, near the top of the semi-circular design. “Revamp” knew it was worn from protodermis sea spray and could easily break in his strong grasp. Behind the sewer grate extended a sprawling but well planned network of service tunnels and drainage for the holiest site in Metru-Nui. Entering without permission of the priests was sacrilege, but this adventure called for heroes willing to ride the line. Speaking of riding the line, If he ever came back to check, Triki would find his vehicle impounded by bordahk for improper parking.