Kal the Guardian

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

The birds called out in warning. There was a crackle as ice rapidly expanded. Then the birds went back to their normal calls. Viltia listened for cries of help, but none came, so she assumed whatever the threat had been was now neutralized by the guards.

Getting to her feet, she brushed off herself and went back inside the forging hut. The ring from the protosteel tools being used was a beautiful song to her. The acrid smells of the impurities being burned off was a scent that denoted your success and so she appreciated it. The air was heavy inside the hut, and she couldn’t imagine how things might be without proper ventilation.

She pulled out her book, looking at her notes on Levitation and Speed discs. Okay, so Levitation liked to raise chunks of the disc and Speed tended to speed up the actions of your tools at unknowable times.

Over the next hour, Viltia wrestled with the merging. She had done it on lower level discs, but she had never done a merging of already merged discs at level eight before. Several times the combination of raised portions and unexpected speed caused her to lose control and the disc would fail, needing to be melted down again.

But, while difficult, it was just a matter of figuring out the quirks of the discs and adjusting to them. She already had the skill and muscle memory required to properly complete the merging. Dousing the completed disc in water and leaving it to settle, Viltia pulled Beruv away from the second forge, making sure the Matoran took a break.

They ate lunch together, with Viltia relating a couple stories about her old village to those who sat with them. Beruv added in her own details, things Viltia hadn’t remembered or hadn’t noticed in the first place. With the Rahi attack earlier, they whispered at the level Le-Metru Nuva normally held, but they still enjoyed themselves.

Viltia caught Wing after lunch, before the Toa of Air had time to slip away. It seemed the attack had been from a giant Kane-Ra bull with weird jackhammer limbs. The guard had been able to freeze it as it charged. It had avoided all the Colony Drones, seemingly intent to run amok around the village. It actually was going to be dinner that night.

Viltia had nodded, saddened by the loss of life, but understanding of the reasons why. Thankfully, even in death, there was togetherness.

Afterwards, Viltia found the Ga-Matoran that had kept the Faux-Exsidian containers. She asked him if he had any more and he rummaged around his pack, giving her two. She had hoped for more, but this would have to do. Maybe Apex would even bring back the used containers when she had gotten rid of the defiled energized protodermis. That would be nice. They were very rare after all. Not much could contain purified energized protodermis, or so she was told. She wasn’t sure about the defiled kind, though, that seemed to be able to be held by mud. But maybe it had been slowly eating through it. She didn’t know.

Then she got an idea, “Hey what would it take to make more Faux-Exsidian?”

The blue Matoran tapped his chin, thinking. He rattled off several rare metals and some machine she had never heard of. “I know the process of how to make it. And while the materials aren’t too rare, the machine for making it needs to be highly tuned and have a strong power source. Far stronger than two solar panels.”

Viltia nodded, thinking of the Vuata Maca tree. That had power waiting to be released. And mining was going faster and safer than ever, so hopefully the materials could be gathered eventually. She thanked the Matoran and walked the bridges back to the elevator. While she walked, she noticed Spark and Match at a bench, calibrating the Kanohi machine backpack’s laser. The device had worked perfectly, but apparently the laser sensor needed to be calibrated to handle longer range inputs.

Along the way, she heard a happy bark and her head swiveled to find a Hapaka playfully attacking the cleaning Nektann drone, which was doing its best to continue sweeping around the dog. For a moment Viltia wondered how the dog had even shown up here all those days ago, but she didn’t give it another thought, her mind instead focused on the task ahead.

Inside the forging hut once more, she grabbed her disc of Flight. It had that slight shimmer to it, denoting it held power. Viltia picked up her hammer and got to work. The disc was full of power, since it was several discs in one, and it was actually harder to shape. Parts of it were more difficult to hammer into shape, and once she had caused a crack, letting the power break free. She had to hold on tightly as it tried to fly from her tools’ grip. Her second attempt was better, but the mask ended up too thin in one spot, nullifying the powers.

The third try, the partially formed mask really did fly out of her hands. She had to spend a couple minutes chasing it around the room, trying to catch the piece of heated metal.

She melted it down and took a short break after that. But soon enough she was back at it, wrestling with what techniques she could use to keep the power of the disc in check. Beruv walked by at one point and mentioned something Viltia had been doing, but obviously not enough, since she kept failing at making the mask. She readjusted based on Beruv’s advice. Unfortunately, her fourth try was a failure as well.

But the fifth try, she was determined. She swung harder than before and with more precision. She was pure focus. Devoted solely to making this Kanohi and making others more difficult than it in the future. This relatively medium difficulty mask wasn’t going to stop her. She surged onward, like a vine growing up a tree and towards the sun.

By the end of it, she was tired once more, though dinner was still a ways off. But she was satisfied. She had beaten the disc into submission. She could do anything if she was smart enough and diligent enough. She forged her own destiny.

Viltia sat in the forging hut, waiting for the mask to settle. While she waited, she wrote down in her book what had and hadn’t worked with her techniques, making sure she would remember her failures and successes in the future.

After the time had properly passed, she went over to the mask, feeling refreshed after the hour or so break. It had settled well, nothing was out of place or too thin or thick. She exchanged it for the mask of Removes Poison, setting that one aside. The power was there in her mind, but she knew this wasn’t like the mask of Quick Travel. She was going to need to practice with it.

She grabbed the mask of Quick Travel just in case as she moved to the door, her normal mask was no longer in her satchel, so she had to hold that as well. Instead, the two Faux-Exsidian containers were in there.

Viltia left the forging hut and flew.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Le-Metru Nuva NPCs

Viltia’s optics opened wide in surprise as Beruv held up several merged Kanoka. She hugged her friend, “Thank you so much! You shouldn’t have.”

Beruv chuckled, “Well, before you came along, I was the only one whose job it was to make Kanoka. You’re just a part time wannabe.” She smiled, patting Viltia on the arm, “I also made some Levitation and Increase Weight dics in case we need to move something heavy or make something stop levitating, but those aren’t to be used as ingredients for other discs. You can make those on your own time if you need them.” Beruv went back to work, leaving Viltia to look over the provided discs.

She pulled out her book to double check the custom symbols Beruv used for the non-normal eight powers. The one merged Kanoka that stuck out to her the most was the one of speed. She had needed one for the mask of Flight.

The door cracked behind her, noticed only by the rush of air let in, not the noise, as the forge crackled with heat and Beruv moved about. Viltia turned to see Circuit, the female Vortixx checking out the inside of the hut. Viltia called out to her, motioning her to come in.

Seeing Spark wasn’t there, the Voritxx with the Ruru did just that.

Viltia went and grabbed her mask of Removes Poison. “Hey, do you think you could create a Kanohi machine for a Removes Poison mask?”

Circuit looked around, confirming Spark really wasn’t there. She hadn’t ever heard of a Kanohi of Removes Poison before. It would test her already considerable skills to create a machine to run it. She liked the idea of that. “It depends, what would you want it to do? Not that I even can make Kanohi machines of course, in case Spark asks.”

Viltia turned the mask over in her hands, her tethers pulled close since she was in the forging hut, “Well what I want it to do is purify ore of its impurities, with some kind of dial to choose what impurities to leave in so we can choose which Metru-designation to make the disc. Is that even possible?”

A multi-purpose Kanohi machine? Circuit had only made one like it before, and it only had two purposes. But… she had already laid the groundwork for it. It might be possible. The mask power seemed tame, which greatly helped when trying to program for it. “Maybe,” she said with a far off look in her optics, “Let’s find out.” She grabbed a couple tools she had come for from off of Spark’s designated work desk and left the hut.

Viltia was left standing there alone. Uh, okay. That happened. She hadn’t really interacted much with Circuit before, so she wasn’t sure what to expect anyway. Viltia shrugged to herself, switching out her mask for Removes Poison. She picked up a disc of Teleportation and a disc of Weaken.

Grabbing her gloves and heavy apron, she laid the discs on top of each other in a special mold made for merging discs. She heated the forge, throwing in more wood and a couple chunks of coal. Soon they would get even more coal. The miners had said work was going great with the new mask of X-Ray Vision. That brought her joy, to hear she was helping those she sought to protect.

Sliding in the mold, the two discs started to warm, then they started to melt. Soon after, they started to merge. Teleport discs liked to teleport around the chunks of the other disc, making it uneven, and Weaken discs liked to ruin the integrity of the other disc by creating impurities. The way around this was making sure the resulting disc was evenly mixed and constantly being stirred. It kept the individual powers from grouping and activating.

And with her mask of Removes Poison, she easily got rid of the impurities that would have threatened this whole process in the past. She was so glad she had made this mask. In a much shorter time than it normally took, and with no reforging required (well, this time), she had her disc of Levitation.

Viltia exited the hut while the disc settled, sitting against the mud bricks that formed a sturdy wall. Whew! even though it was easier with this mask of Removes Poison, it was still hard work. She would rest for a bit, then merge the discs of Levitation and Speed. Hopefully things would be easier there, too. Merging already merged discs was generally a nightmare.
 

IC: Saybo - Toa of Water - Aurax

Location - The Coliseum (4, 9)

With - (Great Being) Aurax

Great Aurax truly was merciful and justly fit to be praised. Saybo silently thanked his Great Being through prayer even as he moved to help.

The ACR was new to Saybo, as he had never seen a mecha of this quality before. But one learned a lot of odd jobs as a Dark Hunter. Or at least Saybo had. He had gone on a lot of undercover missions and learned a lot about many things. Never enough to be considered an expert, but enough that he was comfortable jumping into any job he might have to.

So he was able to move with purpose, hands working the required tools to help Aurax strip down his ACR to its frame. The designs of its parts weren't so different than he was used to, the tech itself was different, but not the nuts and bolts that held it all together.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - The Fau Swamp

With - NPC Shoal Turtle

Viltia climbed, limbs tingling as their receptors came back online after the shock. She found a branch that grew out over the small lake the Shoal Turtle was in. Its deep breathing had returned to normal as it extended from its shell and continued eating. Several small birds picked at bugs on its back.

Viltia’s tethers extended to grab branches without her even needing to look. Her connection to the Green allowed her to sense where branches were and that allowed her subconscious to take over and move her tethers without much thought, much like how she moved her own limbs.

She tried to be quiet as she lowered herself above the giant Shoal Turtle. One silver tendril lowered even farther, not even reaching its limit as it extended down forty feet. Viltia ever so gently grabbed the Vuata Maca Crystal… and quickly released it as it sent a shock up through her tether!

It didn’t hurt as much as when she had teleported onto it, but still, OUCH!

Okay, so that didn’t work. How could she grab the thing without getting fried? Oh! Viltia created a long vine, tying a knot on the end and forming a living lasso. She lowered it, trying to keep it on course. The giant Rahi was oblivious to her scheming above him.

She failed several times to get the loop around the crystal. When she did get it, she almost cried out in joy, but sheepishly withstrained herself. She carefully tightened the loop, pulling it snug. Then she tugged hard, trying to dislodge the crystal.

It wasn’t coming loose, so she tried to pull harder, arms straining. Then it finally came loose, thankfully her tethers kept her in place. She brought up the vine, embarrassed with herself when she saw her results. The vine had come loose, not the crystal. Oops.

She Absorbed the vine, regaining its energy. She scratched her mask. What else could she do?

Swinging her legs from the branch she was seated on, Viltia ran her hand along its bark, trying to sense its history while she tried to think. It was an old tree, with several black growths Viltia sensed housed cavities, probably for insect colonies. It had strong roots, though, and its long reaching branches did their best to touch the sky.

Long reaching branches…

Viltia smiled and Controlled the branch she sat on, causing it to reach down to the Vuata Maca Crystal. The end of it curled around the crystal, gripping it strongly. She wiggled it back and forth, trying to loosen it. Then with a -crack!-, it came free. Viltia quickly put the limb back in place and went over to inspect the crystal. It was still whole, and had a piece of the giant Shoal Turtle’s shell stuck to it from where the shell had broken.

But the crystal was fine, and shone in her hands. She could feel the energy running through it as it almost hummed in her hands. She clutched it to her chest, using her other hand to pull out her compass. She plotted the course home and did several more teleports, eventually sensing the Vuata Maca tree.

She climbed high in the air, bypassing the wall of bark and entered the clearing. The tree stood as it had, vile tar oozing from it. It was a sad sight. One she hoped to change. Viltia slowly moved forward, waving aside the insects that gathered around the tree.

As the crystal touched the tree, the bark swallowed it. Or absorbed it? It was hard to tell. The tree itself seemed to awake, bark healing and limbs growing stronger. Even the rotting fruit was given new life. The moss covering it had even changed, going from a dead brown to a tan. But the corruption remained. The tree wasn’t fully healed. Blackish brown tar still came from cracks in the bark, though the flow was lessened and the cracks smaller.

So it needed two crystals to heal it completely. Viltia thought of the Nui-Rama that had stolen the other crystal. She needed to go find the hive it had taken the crystal to. But her mask of Quick Travel wasn’t enough. The Fau Swamp was too dense, too dark to teleport long distances. What she needed was that mask of Flight. Well, what she wanted was a mask with multiple powers, but yeah right, like that was ever going to happen.

And with how excited she was right now, she could make the mask of Growth later. Her mask of Rahi Control should be enough to handle the hive. Uh, well, if she was smart. But she could handle it. Yeah, she wasn’t just some fresh Toa anymore. The Fau Swamp had given her experience far beyond what other Toa had to deal with back in her old universe. She could do it.

Viltia left the clearing, mind on the task ahead. Flight needed a disc of Levitation and a disc of Speed, which meant she had to merge two Kanoka three times. Easy, considering the work she had been doing trying to figure out Truth and Time Duplication.
 

Oh, so both are true? Interesting. That's WAY better than what I was thinking.

To be clear, the breed quirk mask powers can be shared along with the Nuva mask powers. That's what I believe you are ruling here.

2 hours ago, Unreliable Narrator said:

Shared Element: You may share your element and breed quirks with up to two other willing creatures you see within your elemental range. 

Nuva Masks: the mask you were wearing is fused to your face and its abilities are considered one of your breed quirks. Pick a new mask to wear over your fused mask. This new mask is your Nuva mask. It’s appearance is more organic than other masks. You may share your Nuva mask’s power with up to two other willing creatures you see within your elemental range. While you may personally use both mask powers, you can only share the powers of your Nuva mask.

 

So does the sharing your breed quirks ruling override the only sharing the Nuva mask ruling? Or does the only sharing your Nuva mask ruling override the sharing breed quirks ruling?

It seems to me that the Nuva mask ruling overrides the shared breed quirks ruling, but I'd like to know for sure.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

Setting aside the mask to settle, Viltia yawned. She took off her gloves and heavily insulated apron, setting them in their place. Growing an apple, she absorbed it, trying to get a little nutrition after missing dinner. Like all the food she grew, it was perfectly ripe.

Switching out masks for her original one, she made her way to her hut up in the village, throwing herself on her bed. She was so tired. And yet, excited. So many things had gone right that day. And the future only shone brighter.

So many things to work on. Her masks, a Great Disc maybe, the Vuata Maca tree, and helping Spark with his Kanohi machines. Oh yeah, she hadn’t stuck around to see if that second mask of Quick Travel worked.

Eh, tomorrow.

Viltia quieted her mind, thinking of Sidra and Nektann, her two best friends. She hoped they both were doing well.

Night in the swamp was fraught with peril. Filled with shrieks, screams, and sounds of murder. Rahi were learning to avoid the village, but to others that was only a challenge. However, Le-Metru Nuva was kept safe for one more night, and soon the sun began to rise, the dim haze that reached the village through the leaves greeting those who awoke with the sun.

Viltia ended up sleeping an hour later than normal, but she had put in over a full day’s work yesterday. It was well earned.

Grabbing her satchel, she made a round around the village guard posts, making sure everything was safe and all the guards were well stocked with Kanoka. Everything was good, so Viltia went to the forging hut, pushing open the heavy door. Beruv was already inside, working. It was a 50/50 if she had slept or not. Viltia would have to make sure her friend took a break today.

Viltia forgoed her gloves, grabbing the Great Mask of Quick Travel she had left to settle the night before. She inspected it, turning it over in her hands. This time the fins looked very even and well formed. She swapped it with her mask, placing her old mask in her satchel. Well, placing it three fourths of the way into her satchel and then using the strap to keep it closed.

She teleported to the door, stomach braced for a feeling of movement but receiving no feedback. Huh. So it wasn’t super speed and instead actual teleportation. Probably.

Viltia exited the forging hut. Today was a good day for some more exploration, and a chance to see if there were any more undead out there. If they attacked again, the village needed to be ready. Viltia danced around, limbering up and letting her muscles loosen.

Okay, ready.

She pulled out the compass Wing had given her, choosing south southwest. Viltia opened her mind to Observation, letting the swamp flow around her. Then she did several short teleports, since the swamp wasn’t big on visibility.

Each teleport, she paused, feeling for any death in the area. Then she would teleport again, momentarily stopping once more. After a couple minutes of this, a growth of moss in the shape of a giant dome caught her attention. She turned her head, trying to see it in the darkness.

She cautiously moved towards it, pulling out her axe/crossbow and having her Rahkshi Staff at the ready. No plants around her were dying, but the other undead had lain dormant for a couple minutes before revealing themselves. She climbed over several roots and pushed aside a thorned bush. Eventually things thinned out.

The space opened into a clearing, with a large pond, almost a lake, filling the center and winding off behind some far off trees. In the center of the lake sat a giant Shore Turtle, covered in moss that hung from it like vines. The cracks of its shell glowed a bright blue and Viltia could feel bits of electricity in the air. Its breaths filled the clearing, vibrating the air. The water was a foul yellow brown and bubbled for some reason.

Viltia was happy to leave it alone when she noticed something wedged into its shell. It was a Vuata Maca Crystal! She teleported onto its back. And cried out in pain as she was thrown back, electricity coursing through her body. She landed in a heap, tethers twitching around her like dying eels.

She groaned, staring at the leaves above her. Well... that didn’t work.

Viltia eventually pushed herself to her feet, flexing her limbs. Everything felt numb, even her tethers.

The crystal still sat on the giant Shore Turtle’s back, mocking her. The Shore Turtle slowly turned his head to look at her, then retreated into its shell. Suddenly electricity leapt through the air all around. Viltia turned tail and scrambled behind a tree.

Okay, so it turned out she was going to have to earn this.

OOC: Vuata Maca Crystal quest objectives approved by GMs and permission has been given to me so that I can run the encounters myself.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

Viltia picked up the mask, inspecting it. It seemed whole and fully formed, with a slight give. She had shaped the level eight disc of Removes Poison into a noble Matatu, with a few tweaks so she could differentiate from any noble Matatus she made in the future.

She swapped masks, smiling when she felt the energy of the Kanohi waiting to be used. She looked around, trying to find something to try it out on. There wasn’t anything readily apparent. Spark and Match had found the right lenses and had crafted two more powerful lasers. They had scampered off to test out the Kanohi machine.

Circuit, the female Vortixx with the Ruru, had slipped into the building, which was intriguing. She hadn’t shown interest in building anything before. Viltia took notice as Circuit began construction on a piece of tech that looked suspiciously like the one that Spark had said was planted in his backpack. Very sneaky. Viltia wondered why Circuit didn’t want Spark to find out she could make Kanohi machines.

Beruv had finished her designs of the stencils and was finalizing them, with various tools gathered around her for the job ahead.

How could she find poison? And how could she tell if the mask might be better than its Kanoka counterpart? She scratched her mask, thinking. The substance she hoped to purify wasn’t necessarily poisoned. It was just a gamble that it might work.

Purify…

That gave Viltia an idea. If she already was hoping for something outside the range of the Kanoka, why not try something she knew wasn’t going to work and move down from there?

She grabbed the appropriate amount of ore for a disc of Teleportation, inspecting each piece and testing to weight, trying to discern how much ore was actually there. She started heating them up and they slowly melted into one form. She stirred the mixture. Time to test out the mask.

No way this would work, though.

Viltia activated the mask, imagining the impurities in the ore as poison and trying to remove them. To her shock and surprise, it worked! The impurities disappeared as if they hadn’t ever been there. She gasped, frozen in place.

It had worked.

Far better than she had hoped.

She continued forging the disk, cooling it, reforging it, cooling it again. She tested its strength, the tolerances, making sure it hadn’t lost any of its power. It… it seemed fine. She created a cactus on the ground, striking the disc against it. It teleported away. It, she had done it!

Viltia thought about how useful this was going to be. Merging discs without impurities was going to make the process a hundred times easier. Okay, maybe not a hundred, but a lot. Why hadn’t they used this back in their old universe? It was soooo useful.

She tried to remember what Beruv had said.

Oh yeah. You didn’t purify ore with how you used to make Kanoka. You used already purified liquid protodermis that you poured into molds and got a random disc of random power level, power, and Metru designation. So this mask really would have been useless in the old universe.

Viltia held up the Kanoka of Teleportation she had made. Actually, she could use a Kanohi of Quick Travel herself. And if she skipped dinner, she could make one right now.

Oh, Mata-Nui. Was she becoming Beruv?

Viltia grabbed her hammer. No, of course not. Skipping a meal was just for today. Kanoka and Kanohi crafting wasn’t going to turn into an obsession or anything.

OOC: Kanohi of Removes Poison approved by the GMs.
 

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Irnakk’s Tooth (7, 10)

With - Whira

No no no no nonononono NO NO NO NO NO!

There was no way to avoid it. He couldn’t see any other option. They would have to enter the mountain through the Tooth. Cravious steeled himself. He was already committed. This was for the money.

He stopped Whira from continuing and tapped next to his optics, “I see where we might need to go, but there are no other tunnels leading inside the volcano beside the Tooth itself.” He gestured up the side of the volcano, “I guess we’ll have to go inside that way after all.”

Balling his hands into fists and relaxing them a few times, he nodded to himself and started walking, hoping Whira was close behind in case they roused Irnakk’s wrath in any way. After several grueling hours of heat, climbing, and then traversal to the path that led upwards, they stood at the entrance to the volcano.

Cravious checked his gear again and inclined his head to Whira, indicating he was ready. Once more he activated his X-Ray Vision, this time looking for tunnel offshoots as they descended. He tried to keep his mind focused on his task, blocking out all other senses other than sight.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~ @Eyru

IC: Saybo - Toa of Water - Aurax

Location - The Coliseum (4, 9)

With - (Great Being) Aurax

Saybo tried to slow his breathing, flexing his hands. They felt weird. His whole body did.

He slowly picked himself up, hand against his head. He tried to stop shaking. Aurax’s aura of Fear had overwhelmed him. It had grown stronger than he could manage. He- He had failed his Great Being.

Saybo dropped to one knee, head bowed, “Yes, your power of Fear is off. I am sincerely sorry for not being able to handle it. I have failed you, my Great Being.”

A small flicker of his own naturally occurring fear danced around his brain before flitting away. Would Aurax rightly dispose of him? Would he be executed for his failure? Whatever the punishment, he was worthy of it for failing his Great Aurax’s test.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Irnakk’s Tooth (7, 10)

With - Whira

Cravious shrugged, “Sounds good.” He turned to his hirelings, “Get to cover. I’ll radio you if we need pickup.” The Cube’s garage ramp slowly lifted, sealing the conditioned air inside. Cravious turned away from his creation, already used to the heat. He had spent the last couple days at the forge for most of the time. So far this was nothing.

And he was really glad Whira had suggested searching elsewhere. No need to tempt the beast. Or, well, a god in this instance.

The Skakdi of Lightning readjusted his gear, making sure it was all secure and within easy reach before moving in the direction Whira pointed. He made sure his Kraata power was currently going so he could detect any nearby minds and then he activated his X-Ray and Telescopic Vision, scouring the volcano. Layer by layer, detail by detail. Small vents here and there, he searched, using the sound of Whira’s footsteps to lead his way while he looked beyond.

OOC: @~Xemnas~ @Unreliable Narrator @Vezok's Friend @Eyru Cravious is looking for any Kanoka forging ruins hidden in or around the Irnakk's Tooth.

Interesting. Can't wait to see if Viltia getting one Taboo has allowed her to learn more or not. I'm sure Sorilax will be back in Le-Metru Nuva soon so we can see. Just as sure as I am that Sala hasn't jumped into another reality behind his back.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

After her time away, the stifling heat of the forging hut was once more like a comforting hug. Match and Spark were off to one side, shining a red laser into a receiver. Spark was interchanging several lenses and seeing how they affected the light, reading the receiver’s small display. Parts for a more powerful green laser were also set out, though it hadn’t been created yet. Viltia spied several pieces of their precious rare metals among the parts. Hopefully the mask of X-Ray Vision she had created earlier in the morning would solve that problem and allow them to create more complicated machines, like lasers and Kanohi machines, with their new, easier access to rarer ores.

Beruv was still at her desk, working on the stencil designs. A bowl of barely touched fruit was beside her.

Viltia went over and inspected the Kanoka of Removes Poison she had created before lunch. To others, it might seem fine, but to her now trained senses, she noticed it was slightly curved. It must have settled wrong. It would still function, but at a couple levels lower than intended. Maybe six, or even five. She would have to reforge it, which wasn’t too uncommon. Creating a Kanoka of power level eight was in no way an easy task.

As she started melting it back down, her mind moved to Sidra. She hoped her friend had found the reward free of trouble. And that it really was a reward. It had taken so much training, and then so much work to create that Great Disc. But Sidra had done it! Great Discs were real and could be made.

Viltia shook her head at the thought. Great Discs could be made. That filled her already wonder filled mind with so many ideas. If Great Discs could be made, could you create Kanohi out of them? And if you did, would they be more powerful? And could Great Discs be combined with each other? If they could, then who knew what could be created! The mask of Creation, of Light. Maybe something she hadn’t even heard of, like Life, or Space, or something even crazier!

The possibilities were endless. She was so glad that she had learned the techniques of forging. Her body was filled to the brim with joy and potential.

After she made sure the molten ore looked like it was settling correctly in the mold, she let her mind wander again.

But without a sword like Sidra’s, how could she make a Great Disc? No one before her had ever figured it out, or so Beruv said. But obviously someone must have, way back when. And if so, how?

Viltia thought of the defiled energized protodermis they had found where that big undead thing had died. Kanoka were already made of protodermis, could energized protodermis be a potential next step?

The Kanoka had cooled enough to be solid, so Viltia took it from the mold and doused it in water, rapidly cooling it in a process called hardening.

A stray thought entered her head. A story from Torch when they had been thrown from the giant robot head. He had mentioned a vast, poisoned lake. At the time she had been told about it, she had dismissed it as just being poisoned, but after seeing the defiled energized protodermis, she wondered if maybe the two things were more than just similar in physical description.

Viltia inspected the disc. It appeared smooth and uniform, she set it down to let it fully cool and settle.

And the term poisoned, it took a different meaning in her mind as she stared at the Kanoka of Removes Poison she had just made. She turned to Beruv, who looked up from the desk, “Hey, Beruv, can you make a Kanohi out of Removes Poison?”

The black and red Matoran nodded, “Yes, but no one ever does. Barely anyone ever gets poisoned. And even if you do, having a Kanoka is far more convenient than having to go find someone who can use a Kanohi to cure you. And for those who can use masks, there are far better options to wear.”

Beruv sat back in her chair, “Actually, you can create Kanohi out of all the base eight powers, even Increase Weight. It’s just that no one ever does. Remove Poison is redundant as a mask, Freeze is overshadowed by an elemental mask of Ice, Reconstitute as Random is unruly and kind of horrifying, and Increase Weight I’m not sure about. That might actually be a good mask. Never heard about someone using one, though.”

“Huh,” Viltia sat down, her tethers moving below her and increasing as wide as they could go to form a sort of chair, “But I don’t remember hearing about anyone with an elemental mask of Ice.”

Beruv shrugged, “Like I said in the past, before we got to Zakaz, Kanoka were far harder to make, Toa Discs even more so. And creating masks out of Toa Discs is even harder. Far harder than merging three Kanoka. I don’t know anyone that has ever made one. I think you are either created with one, or get one when you become a Toa. Although I guess Artakha himself would be able to make them.”

Viltia nodded at the information. If Great Discs were real, then Artakha could be real, too. Or used to be real. Their old universe did fall apart after all.

“Wait, but if they are so hard to make, then why aren’t masks of Freezing made?”

Beruv shook her head, “I don’t know that one. I’m only repeating what I learned when I asked the questions you ask now to a travelling smith back in our old village. Maybe you should create one for yourself and find out.”

Viltia nodded, standing. She thanked Beruv and inspected her newly forged Kanoka. It was nice and even, with a perfect dip in the center and a crisp, but not sharp, outer lip. If her process had been true, it should be power level eight. She ran her hand along it. Smooth and even. Her mind turned to think not of a Kanohi of Freezing, but of another kind. This island had changed a lot about Kanoka forging. Who knew what a Kanohi of Removes Poison might be able to accomplish? After all, Kanohi were always stronger than Kanoka.

She grabbed her hammer. Time to find out.

IC: Hahvok - Za and Ja Krana of Ice - Independent

Location - Underground Dead Forest

With - Marrow, Providence, Zak-Yak, Takadox

Hahvok nodded at the information, catching snippets of remembered images as Zak-Yak talked. His large, flat head accentuated the motion. “Tall Blue treats me like I am nothing. Your information is good to know. We can watch Tall Blue together. Stay safe. Use all three pairs of optics.”

Friends were being made left and right. He was like a charismatic Le-Matoran at a Naming Day celebration. You know the one. Where you’re friends with him even though you’ve only met him the once. Still would die for him, though. He’s a great guy. Tells fun stories.
 

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Nato the Traveler @Burnmad @Unreliable Narrator

IC: Hahvok - Za and Ja Krana of Ice - Independent

Location - Dead Forest

With - Marrow, Providence, Zak-Yak, Takadox

He scampered after Marrow even as he was approached by Zak-Yak. This one’s mind was easier to read than the others, with his thoughts practically being shoved Hahvok’s way. There was no ill will. Perhaps a fledgling bit of kinship?

"So...No like Blue One too?"

Zal kept close to Marrow even as his main body responded to the Mesi of Light as they both entered the tunnel, “Correct.” The ease with which he gently slid into conversing casually was no doubt the envy of all Ko-Matoran.

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Nato the Traveler @Burnmad @Unreliable Narrator

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Irnakk’s Tooth (7, 10)

With - Whira

The orange glow of the rising sun to the east struck the Aqua Sphere, light dazzling forth from it. Even from the volcano it could be seen as a glimmer in the sky. And approaching that volcano, another speck of light could be seen.

The Cube steadily moved towards Irnakk’s Tooth. Gone was the desert. Instead the land grew rocky and ashen. Soon they would have to start navigating lava flows. But for now, they still moved with good speed.

Cravious awoke with a hunger to continue. He failed seven more times trying to properly make a Kanohi, and on the eighth try, he was pretty sure he got it, but he didn’t like how a part of the outer edge felt and so he tried again.

Finally, a fully realized Kraahkan sat before him. Cravious laid down his tools, fingers running over the surface. All the edges were crisp, but not sharp. The metal even throughout. The surface held no bubbles or other blemishes. There were no cracks or weak spots. But the silver color, well, it was different from the Kanoka he had made. It didn’t have that glimmer, that slight, almost imperceptible sheen.

Based on how Kanoka worked, that meant it held no power. Cravious debated with himself over what to do. Should he go to Whira and have her test it? Or would that be displaying weakness to someone who valued power above all else? No, not weakness. He had made a Kanohi in under the week he had said it would take. If it didn’t work, that was simply because he had yet to discover the right ingredients for the mask.

After all, he hadn’t even touched Kanoka merging yet. He had no idea what a mask of Shadows might require.

Still, better to try to make a different mask and see if that one was dull too.

A couple hours, and four attempts, later, he had made a Kanohi out of the second unknown Kanoka power (Regeneration). He shaped it like one of his hireling’s in the mine. It did have that slight silver glow to it. The way it caught the light showing him that it held power.

He tried it on, wondering if he might be able to use it. But it was just a mask to him, not a Kanohi. It was a covering, not a power. Just a hunk of protodermis on his face.

Cravious wasn’t sure if this meant this Kanohi was a failure too, or if Skakdi just couldn’t use them. He had never seen a Skakdi wear one except out of mockery, so he doubted they could.

Their pace slowed as they grew closer to the entrance into the volcano. The Cube switched from its treads to its legs as it maneuvered over the jagged ground.

During lunch, Cravious explained to Whira how he had made a mask from a disc of Shadow, but it didn’t seem to have power like his other mask did. He held out both to his Aspect, showing her how one reflected light differently than the other. The Kraahkan was a dull silver, like a rock, the other seemed like it had been polished.

As Cravious finished his meal, the Cube came to a stop. Sagacious yelled from the driver’s console, “We’re here!”

Cravious gathered his gear as Clash opened the garage ramp. An oppressive heat flooded in, smothering them with foul smelling and acrid air. Cravious frowned to himself, anxious about what they were about to do. He said a quick prayer to Irnakk to guide their way and leave them alone, then he returned to Whira’s side. He tried his best to push away his fear of this place. It was for the money. All for the money. He could do this.

“You have any idea where this Kanoka forging site might be located? I assume within the volcano, but I’m not sure if it’ll be where other Skakdi come to create their Tahtoraks. It would probably be picked over if that were the case.”

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

Lunch was a combination of tropical fruits she herself had grown the day before. Viltia occasionally spent a small portion of a day creating fruit for future meals. The plan was to ultimately have enough farms going to sustain themselves without her there, but for now, every so often she could add some much needed variety to Le-Metru Nuva’s food pool.

Viltia pulled three of the fruits to the side and absorbed them all at once, enjoying the mixture of flavors. She looked around the platform she was on. Several tables filled the space, with Matoran taking up most of the seats. Interspersed were other species, some of them eating with their mouths rather than through their hands.

That always weirded her out. She had spent her whole life eating through her hands, and everyone else around her had done so too. When she found out not everyone did it, that had shattered her views on eating. She had tried it herself, once, but it felt wrong and she had given it up. Maybe sometime else. In the future. The far future.

She was used to seeing it now, though, and she noticed a couple Matoran also had started eating with their mouths. That brought a warm feeling of togetherness to her. All of life should be able to experience together, to become one. She just wanted to go over and hug them all, washing away their worries and fears. Well, Sidra said to hold off on that, so she probably shouldn’t, despite her feelings otherwise. Nobody needed it yet, so maybe in the future.

Viltia finished her meal and sat back, taking in the noise and colors. With less Rahi attacks, the village was able to be louder, and occasionally an unrestrained laugh could be heard before the noise maker remembered to quiet themselves. It was good that her friends felt they could finally enjoy life. For so long they were just trying to survive. It was nice to be able to ease up and focus on more frivolous things.

Gathering her wooden bowl, she moved to place it in the receptacle where it would be washed later. She bid farewell to the villagers she had been sitting with and took note of how many bowls were already in the receptacle. Water was still scarce, since it had to be brought up in buckets, purified, and then finally it was available for use. So cleaning dishes ended up being a much larger and more dangerous chore than it normally would be.

She placed her bowl gently on the others, appreciating the wood grain of it before moving on. It was time to check in with Wing and make sure they all stayed at this level of safety.

Wing had nothing of note to mention, other than requesting once more for Viltia to make a mask of Mutation, so Viltia went around the outskirts of their guarded perimeter. She moved through the branches with ease, tethers extending and grabbing tree limbs all around, making it seem like Viltia was weightless as she glided through the canopy.

When she reached the southeast side, she paused, mind finding the corrupted tree.

Everything seemed safe. She had only seen one giant insect and it had scurried away upon noticing her. So she moved closer to the tree, suspended a hundred feet above the ground, her glowing silver tethers granting her enhanced mobility.

The tree actually wasn’t that far from the village, but it was hidden by a dense cluster of banyan trees. Viltia had to carefully navigate through the dense foliage, even up in the canopy layer. Once through, she slowly descended, coming upon a small clearing. She looked for any threats, then climbed down to the ground.

The trees all around the clearing were warped, full of knots where dead branches had fallen off centuries ago. They twisted and entwined with each other to form a wall of bark all around her. Glowing mushrooms dotted their forms, looking like small shelves, sometimes like lamps, and some even deceptively appearing as other forms of fruit. This place was heavily steeped in the Fau Swamp’s mutations, and evidence of it formed a wall around her. The trees were kept in shadow by their leaves, with vines wrapping around their crooked trunks. It gave a menacing feeling to the enclosure.

But illuminated through a hole in the canopy directly above it stood a short tree with smooth bark and wispy limbs. Moss grew in large swaths across its trunk. But something was wrong. The tree looked half dead. Horrid, blackish brown tar oozed from it, and small insects swarmed around it. The moss covering it had turned mostly brown itself.

She reached out with the Green, but still the tree refused her. She could only sense the tree vaguely. It was like it wasn’t fully alive, or maybe not fully a tree? Viltia moved closer, waving away the small insects buzzing around her. There was a strange light embedded in the trunk, and around it the bark seemed whole and untouched by disease.

Looking at the limbs, she saw a fruit, rotting on the branch. It looked like the mythical Vuata Maca fruit, said to provide healing and energy to those lucky enough to find a tree. But that was silly and just a legend gardeners told, there was no way- She looked at the light in the trunk. It was a glowing gem… A crystal. Her optics lit up. This was a Vuata Maca tree! They were real! And, and she was standing next to one!

She touched the bark, feeling how smooth it was around the crystal. Her hand moved up to the crystal. It moved under her gentle touch, then fell out of the tree, bouncing off the roots and resting in the moss around the tree. From where it had been, more black tar oozed and the tree shriveled even more. Viltia gasped in shock. What had she done?

The Toa of the Green scrambled for the crystal, but froze. She heard something… It was, it was buzzing. It was a low buzzing, but not too low. Probably a Nui-Rama. Her tethers quickly transported her to the shadows at the edge of the small clearing. The buzzing grew louder and louder until a lone Nui-Rama swooped down through the hole in the canopy. It landed on the Vuata Maca tree and slurped up some of the blackish brown tar. Then its wings buzzed slightly as it dropped to the ground. It circled around something before picking it up and flying away.

Viltia sighed in relief. Insects were already tricky to control with her mask, and if she angered one Nui-Rama, that generally angered the rest. She cautiously moved over to the Vuata Maca crystal. They were said to be able to hold great power for the tree. Maybe it had just been in the wrong spot on the tree to heal it.

She got to where it had fallen and- Uh, where was it? Viltia searched around, normally and then frantically. When she couldn’t find it, the image of the Nui-Rama filled her mind. Dread and regret filled her. She had just lost her best bet to heal this tree.

Viltia slowly sat down, stunned by the sudden turn of events. She had found a legendary tree, super close to her village, and now she had just lost the only thing that could bring it back from dying.

No! No. Should wouldn’t give up. She could do whatever she set her mind to. She had seen the Nui-Rama that took the crystal. And unless they had mutated to eat rock, those giant bugs couldn’t destroy it. All she had to do was go find it. Yeah, that would work. Her mind started to fill with several plans. She tried to work backwards.

Okay, she had seen several Nui-Rama hives while flying on the Kahu, but one giant one really stuck out to her. She would search that one first. But she wanted to keep the Kahu out of this, so she needed a mask of Flight. But that required her to merge four discs into two and then merge those two into one. It would be very hard work.

Or maybe she could just use a mask of Quick Travel? That was far easier to make. But what if she got caught? Her mind went to one of the other masks she already planned to make, the mask of Growth. That one was easy, too, and could help her get free if caught. Yeah, this just might work.

Viltia hurried back to the village, she needed to craft two masks before Sidra got back!

OOC: Quest accomplished: Find the Vuata Maca tree.

New quest gained: Find two Vuata Maca Crystals and restore the tree.

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

Viltia was fairly certain she had figured out the problem. The fins of the Quick Travel mask she had tried to make were too thin, that’s why they had bent. So she made sure they were a little bit thicker than last time as she carved out their shape with her hammer.

This time things flowed much easier and she lost herself in her focus of the task. Her tethers started to wave around her, reminiscent of seaweed caught in an ocean current. They grew slightly longer but remained out of her way. Her hammer arm swung with precision and tempered force.

There were no cracks, no teleporting mask. By the time she was finished, the mask still had that silver shine instead of dullness. She doused it in water to rapidly cool it and then set it aside to cool fully and settle into itself.

The swamp occupied her mind as she rearranged her tools, then she focused once more and started work on a Kanoka of Removes Poison. She melted down the ore, making sure it mixed smoothly. Then she put it through the Metru designation filter. After that, it went through the second filter, removing most of the impurities. No disc was truly without impurities, as certain levels and types created the Metru variations, but the less impurities, the higher level of the disc. The proper amounts of hued ores was also a factor, but less of one.

When the disc seemed settled and at the perfect mixture, according to her now highly trained optics, she doused it in water, now letting it settle fully while she picked up her mask of Quick Travel. There still was that slight silvery glint as a nearby lightstone hit it.

She swapped it for her own, hating the momentary weakness and almost complete cut off from her element. The power of the new mask was there in her mind, waiting to be called upon. She had done it! But she wanted to test it anyway. With a thought, she was standing on the other side of the forging hut. She couldn’t help but to smile. Just a short while ago, her life held only plants, then suffering. Now, her life had a new friend and a new skill. And now both her gardening and her Kanoka and Kanohi making benefitted the village immensely.

And who knew, if Spark got the Kanohi machine backpacks working, maybe they could start safely trading with other villages, if they even still were around. Viltia remembered some northern village from Nektann’s memories, and then Sorilax had mentioned some place called Metru-Koro to the northwest. If they were still there and willing to trade, Viltia had no doubt her masks would help out many others against the dangers of this island.

Viltia replaced her old mask and bid Beruv farewell for now. It was almost time for lunch, but not quite yet, and she wanted to get Spark this new mask. As she stepped outside the hut, the sticky, smothering humidity of the swamp was a refreshing winter breeze to her. It really was hot in there, even though she had spent so long getting used to it. Lunch would do her well to refresh her body for more work later.

She found Spark in his hut, several projects strewn around the room. He was holding one of the metal backpacks, looking confused, and talking rapidly with Match. Match pointed at something in the metal backpack. Its back was taken off and the wiring and chips were exposed. There was a fake Toa head inside, which was kind of creepy, that everything was wired to.

Spark noticed Viltia and motioned her over, “Hey, Viltia, did you mess with my backpack?”

Viltia shook her head no, intrigued.

Spark narrowed his optics, “Well somebody did, and I’m still trying to figure out who and why. But, well… Match, tell her.”

The yellow and red Matoran nodded at the backpack and gave her a thumbs up.

Spark nodded emphatically, “Exactly! I just need to set up the shoulder mounted laser guidance system and this Kanohi machine should work! Some genius did some technical things I never would have thought to try.” Spark paused, staring into blank space for a moment, “Well okay I might have tried them eventually. I’m pretty great at figuring stuff out. But this saves me a ton of work and helps me better understand what makes a Kanohi machine even work!”

His arms waved about as he explained, with Match nodding at certain parts. He finally wound down after a bit, “So it all comes down to this. The basis is the mind and how it’s programmed. That’s what a Kanohi needs to be powered. That’s why Skakdi and others can’t use Kanohi, they’re programmed differently.

“You need to trick the Kanohi into thinking it’s interfacing with the correctly programmed mind. Once you do that, you’ve figured it out. But unfortunately that’s the hard part. Like, really super mega hard.”

Spark motioned to the brainless, fake Toa head and the processing chip wired into it, “I’ve been reading through this chip’s code, and I’m barely able to figure out the basics of why this works. But whoever gifted me this and added some other unique parts gave me a gold mine.

“I’m pretty sure it turns out that you need to create a single mental command that is always ready to be activated. Then you turn it on, the command connects and the Kanohi activates. It’s ingenious! And with how this code is written, I should be able to change commands for other machines. This is great.

“Of course, this is still for only single use. Say we wanted to create a Kanohi of Shielding to protect the village. That would require some major modifications and rare metals. But with this, I’m certain I could figure it out!”

Viltia held up the completed mask of Quick Travel.

Spark’s optics went wide and he swiped the mask from her hand. He started rapid fire talking with Match about finishing making a high powered and far reaching laser. Match motioned in the vague direction of the forge and Spark nodded so slightly and quickly that Viltia almost missed it. Spark inserted the Kanohi onto the fake face and closed up the metal backpack, picking it up and scrambling out of the hut, with Match close behind.

Viltia just smiled and went to lunch.
 

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Desert (7, 9)

With - Whira

An object of immense weight and silvery sheen reflected the intense light of the sun. It was constantly moving, causing the light to shift and shimmer. It left in its wake two deep tread tracks that only confirmed the mass of the vehicle. It was a solid block of protosteel, unlike anything the Skakdi of the island had seen prior to its creator himself being created. While other vehicles might roar with power or emit noxious fumes, this one brought only the sounds of its treads as they rode along their designed course.

Inside the Cube, Cravious turned off his X-Ray and Telescopic Vision. They were safe for the time being as they journeyed. He would check again soon enough. No need to be forced to fight a needless battle and slow their progress.

Cravious sighed as he plopped down onto a rung of a stepladder he had set up. He massaged his Kraata once more. It was weird to feel. It was all “organic” protodermis muscle, with no mechanical parts. It was soft and seemed full of power, as if it were still the Heartlight that had created it. It lay nestled in his frills, a spot for a future friend waiting next to it. Cravious doubted this “Zak-Yak” would ever get him a sentient Heartlight before he actually needed it. He would probably have to do it himself. No doubt he could find someone else who had failed to fulfill their contract.

Lifting up his bad foot, he inspected it again. His muscle had barely regrown since the last time he had checked. He tried to ignore the injury, and the artificial foot he made worked well enough, but it just wasn’t the same. And that made him angry. Angry at himself for not being powerful enough to avoid the injury, but certainly not angry about getting into the fight. Oh, no. Never about that. He had just unfortunately not studied the special power of the Skakdi he had tussled with.

It also made him angry every time he put his foot down and it ended up being awkward. Every time it happened, it fueled his want for a second Kraata. No, he didn’t just want one, he needed one. And once he got it, injuries would never be a problem again.

Standing up, he moved back to his forge, the various addons and adjustments causing the area to look like a plumber had gone haywire, adding pipes and valves everywhere he could just for fun. Many of them seemed to dead end or lead to useless places. Various knobs and valves were scattered haphazardly around, with a couple cables attaching to it all and providing power. But everything had a purpose, and with his Improbable Machine, it held a purpose no other Skakdi could achieve.

He looked at the discs he had created the night before. They were colored green, blue, brown, and white. Based on the discs of Fire and Earth he had tested out the day before, he guessed the discs on his workbench would end up being Air, Water, Stone, and Ice. He would test them out when they stopped for lunch, but for now he still had a problem to solve. He had used all the combinations of ores he could. And four differently hued ores combined just produced useless, powerless discs. He had even tried all five at once and not gotten Shadow.

Yes, he knew now that silver was inert and gave no powers, even when combined with another hue of ore. But what else could he- Well… if he was already trying all he could, then he might as well try silver with two other ores. Maybe something surprising would happen, who knew?

An hour and a couple failed combination attempts later, Cravious grinned savagely. He held a cream colored disc with flecks of pearlescence in it if you shifted it. The light seemed to play off the surface. It had to be the one for Light.

That left one more variation to try.

By the time they stopped for lunch, Cravious held six discs, with the last one almost darker than black. It seemed to get lost from sight if you didn’t look straight at it.

This time, he made sure he was a very safe distance away from the testing zone. He had given the discs the fly further secondary power, so that helped.

The green disc, made of red, blue, and black ore (go figure that one), created a mighty gust of wind.

The blue disc, made of blue, black, and green, created a glob of water on the first throw, then a pressurized burst on the second after Clash had said he blinked and missed the first test. Cravious was surprised that the power had manifested differently, as the main eight powers hadn’t on repeated tests. He threw it for a third time, and it caused a brief shower of rain. Interesting.

The brown disc, made of red, black, and green, grew a boulder where it struck. The second time it created spikes of stone. The third time a line of sudden flat boulders that formed a short wall. So, the effects were random? That seemed very dangerous and not useful. Maybe he could control the effects when he threw it like supposedly you could with a Kanohi when you used it?

The white disc, made of red, blue, and black hued ore, created a blast of ice much like the other freeze disc had. But the second time it created a tall cylinder, and the third jagged icicles that flew through the air, almost reaching the observers. Cravious had tried and failed to mentally control the outcomes, so he concluded that the freezing disc was way better than this randomized Ice one.

The cream disc, made of red, blue, and silver, created a blinding light that forced everyone to look away. The second time, it created a laser that bored deep into the sand, far too close to the Cube for comfort. Cravious used his X-Ray Vision to see the line of glass it left behind. Yeaaaaah, there was no need to try out that disc again. He liked his life, no need to end it prematurely with a laser to the brain.

Finally, the black disc that got lost in the dark, made of black, green, and silver ore, created a field of darkness that sucked out all light. The effect lasted for a good half minute before the light of the sun beat it back and filled the area once more, re-illuminating the area. That’s all he needed to see. No need to take any unnecessary risks.

They all reboarded Cravious’ vehicle and started south once again. It was time to truly begin the vaugest part of this job. Kanohi crafting. Apparently you had to shape the disc into a mask shape without leaving any flaws or cracks and you would have a powered Kanohi. The true nuances of that he couldn’t even begin to comprehend yet.

His first attempt broke the disc almost immediately. Apparently he had to be more gentle. His second attempt failed when he tried to make holes for the optics. A seam formed from one of the optic holes to the side of the mask. His third attempt was too thin, and it bent when he tried to test its flexibility. His fourth attempt seemed good, but the corners of the mask were jagged, the center too thick. This was horribly hard work. No doubt it took weeks, months, or even years of practice to get this right.

Cravious flexed his fingers. But he didn’t need that. He had already spent most of his 300 years working metal and forging iron and protodermis. He had honed his craft day in and day out since he had shown up, fully formed, in a back alley of the Rig and bartered his way into a blacksmith apprenticeship the same day. He had discovered how to make protosteel, a feat even Avak hadn’t accomplished. He may or may not have stolen most of his other ideas from that worthless Skakdi of Stone, but no one could prove that in court. Okay no Skakdi could even stay out of a fight long enough to think up a court system, let alone run one, but that was beside the point.

He inspected the reforged disc. It still had that slight shine, or, well, more of a glimmer, to it that showed it still held power. He had been very happy to learn he could just reforge the disc whenever he messed up on making a mask. It saved him a lot of time.

Cravious worked through dinner, each attempt getting closer to a working Kanohi, but he stopped when night came. They would be at Irnakk’s Tooth tomorrow around midday, and who knew what awaited them. He would get a full night’s rest and get back to work on the Kanohi in the morning.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Desert (7, 8)

With -  Whira

Okay, so the red hued ore ended up making a disc that rearranged the cellular structure of… well of sand at least. There wasn’t much else to test it on in the desert except for his own tools or weapons, and that didn’t sound very cost effective.

The blue hued ore created ice, freezing what it struck. Clash ground some of the ice up and added flavoring to it and they all had a nice dessert. It was refreshing. Cravious was reminded of Gore Fury and he wondered how the Metru-Nui Skakdi was doing. Hopefully he had found a place to start that business of his. Cravious’ delivery people needed a place to actually deliver to, then the money could start flowing in.

The green hued ore didn’t seem to do anything. It was disappointing, but understandable. The powers of Kanoka could be any number of things. There could even be a time delay.

Well, they didn’t have time to stick around and see. They moved further south, avoiding sand worms and the other dangers in the desert. The sun beat down once again, but the Cube had air conditioning running to keep the interior at an even temperature. This day they didn’t stop to eat lunch, instead consuming as they went.

Cravious moved on to hued protodermis ore combinations, his mountainous pile of newly procured ore scarcely dwindling. He had 6 more discs by the time dinner rolled around. 4 of them were silver, spray painted to distinguish between them, 1 was red, and 1 was black.

He had been surprised at that. He never expected a combination to change the color of the disc. It was fascinating. Hopefully the black one would be Shadow.

After dinner was had, the Nui-Jaga rushed off into the dunes to get his own. Irnakk only knew what disgusting thing the giant insect would find to eat out there.

The sun was dipping down in the sky as Cravious found a good spot to test his new disks. There was no breeze, so the air was still. Sound almost seemed muffled. He could tell there was no moisture in the air.

The first disc, a combination of blue and green, enlarged whatever it hit. That was really interesting. It presented a ton of amazing opportunities for savings. Make a miniature weapon, then enlarge it. He hypothesized that if you adjusted the design for the added weight once it grew, it would save a ton on ores and other materials. There could be drawbacks, however. Did it add more atoms to the object? Or was it now weaker? Was it heavier than normal? He would have to find out.

The next disc, a combination of red and green, shrunk the things it struck. Cravious immediately thought of using it on Clash, but held himself back. Maybe later.

The third disc, a combination of red and black, also didn’t seem to do anything. So that was two discs so far that had no immediately apparent powers. He would need to develop a system to better test the Kanoka.

The fourth disc, blue and black, made whatever it struck disappear. There were several options there. The sand didn’t become invisible, so either it was destroyed or teleported somewhere. And Cravious wasn’t about to test it on himself. He would have to make a weaker one and see if it was teleportation or something far more deadly.

The red disc, made of red and blue hued ore, erupted in a scorching blast of flame that sent Cravious scrambling. Once he deemed himself safe, he crunched on glass as he walked to retrieve the disc. Fire. He was getting closer to Shadow with this revelation. He just knew it.

Now farther away, Cravious made sure he was out of range of the black disc’s power. The black disc, a combination of black and green ores, created a mound of the freshest and most nutrient dense earth he had ever seen. It smelled amazing. Though it did seem to quickly dry out in the hot sun. Cravious was slightly confused that the black disc hadn’t been Shadow, but Earth also made sense with the coloring, so he begrudgingly accepted it.

But Fire and Earth let him know an important insight. There were more elemental discs that could be made. And if there was a pattern to all this, then there would be eight elements he would ultimately find, just like he had found eight other powers. The other eight elements were probably just mergings of the first eight.

That night, as they continued their journey, he tried various levels of one ore over another, but ultimately he found he had to add a third hued ore into the mix to finally get more variations. He couldn’t wait to try them out.

They were now halfway to Irnakk’s Tooth. His, and Whira’s, continued growth in power moved ever closer.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Desert (7, 8)

With - Whira

Lunch was spent listening to Clash and Voracious argue about the finer points of how to knock someone out cold as fast as possible. This ended as it usually did, with the two rolling around on the ground, wrestling each other in an attempt to knock out the other one.

That afternoon, Cravious focused on what worked, the black hued ore, trying to nail down the variables. It seemed that purity controlled the power of the disc, and that there were eight stages in power. Go too impure and the disc lost power, go as pure as possible and nothing seemed to change.

And then there was a matter of allowing certain types of impurities to remain in certain levels. It seemed there were certain additional powers that were dormant until thrown. One could direct the disc in mid air and one flew farther. That’s all he could figure out in the moment, but it seemed there were more variations to discover.

After dinner, they all returned to the Cube and started on their way again.

In the midst of trying new hued ores, Cravious was searching his scrap piles for a specific part he remembered tossing away, but he couldn’t find it. Anywhere. He grilled Voracious about it, but his fellow mechanic scoffed him off. Cravious would have beaten him up then and there, but he was kind of busy.

That’s when he heard a “chit”ing noise and looked at the Nui-Jaga. It had gathered scrap to form itself a sort of nest. It sat atop it like some kind of bug king. Cravious glowered at the smug looking insect. It looked at him warily as he slowly approached.

It chittered out a warning and Cravious paused, before rapidly reaching out to grab his part. The Nui-Jaga moved to grab him. It was too fast. He tried to twist his body out of the way and- And then the Nui-Jaga moved where he had been a moment before, missing him.

Cravious backed away, slightly stunned. What? What had just happened? There was only one explanation. It had to be his Kraata power. He massaged his Kraata as he thought it over, numbly moving back to his forge. Maybe his first stage power wasn’t completely useless after all.

That evening he made discs of the red, green, and blue hued ores, though he didn’t have time to test them out. Instead he got some sleep, and awoke early the next morning to both scout out possible threats in their path and then to get back to work.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

I thought UN has implied that it's defiled EP. You really can't use it for Taboos? That stinks.

IC: Sorilax - Aspect of Light and Silence - Aspects of Makuta

Location - Kini-Nui (7, 10)

With - Sala, Nuju

Sala rose and left, but his voice still carried a level of hurt. Sorilax thought about responding. His mouth opened and everything, but he thought better of it.

He still had questions for Nuju, but they would have to wait. Sala came first, and Sala wanted to explore. Sorilax bowed a goodbye to Nuju and followed his friend. As he joined Sala, he once more tried to study Avagah’s static face. There was no change, no indication of hidden thoughts. The ACR that stood half a head taller than himself secreted away Sala’s feelings just like how it dampened elemental powers brought against it.

Sala stood at the top of the steps where the Suva had been, waiting for Sorilax. Sorilax nodded to his friend, not even sure himself what the gesture meant in the moment. He paused, not sure if Sala wanted to go first, but either way, they began their descent down into the dark, with Sorilax conjuring a golden yellow light to hover above them as they descended.
 

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Unreliable Narrator

IC: Sorilax - Aspect of Light and Silence - Aspects of Makuta

Location - Kini-Nui (7, 10)

With - Sala, Nuju

Sala remained still and Sorilax wasn’t sure how his friend was doing. For not the first time since meeting Sala, Sorilax wished his ACR had moving facial features instead of the static approximation of a Toa’s face that it did. If he could see Sala’s face, even hidden under a mask, then maybe he could interpret the silence.

Instead he was left to wonder if Sala had found his words to have any meaning. His beliefs were founded on what he saw to be absolute truths of Moral Light, but they might end up feeling devoid of meaning without his background of belief. He just wasn’t sure.

Should he offer Sala another Kraata? There were plenty of Rahi around that he could use for the Desecration. Then maybe… well. No. That would be an attempt to fix the surface issue instead of going to the core of the matter.

Sorilax didn’t wish to see his friend in distress. Sala had already gone through enough with Le-Metru Nuva and Metru-Koro. There was no need for further emotional damage.

But what could he even say?

His lack of instinctual emotional connection was hurting him. And he recognized it was so. Yet he couldn’t do anything about it.

Well, maybe he could offer his assistance? Surely it would not make things worse.

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Unreliable Narrator

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

CLANG

Viltia shaped the Kanohi, giving the mask of Quick Travel its distinctive fins.

CLANG

She was far more relaxed with this mask after her success with the first one. The protodermis was nice and malleable and the mask was coming along nicely. Soon she would need to heat it up again and switch to a smaller hammer.

CLANG

Viltia gave the mask a quick dunk in water to solidify its new, curved shape and stuck it in the forge, where it grew to a beautiful slight orange glow. Not as malleable as the first pass, but still malleable enough to refine details. She retrieved it and put it in a vice, grabbing her smaller hammer.

CLANG

The fins needed to be slightly more tapered.

CLONG

Clong?

Viltia gave the mask a once over. One of the fins was angled farther than it should have been. It… would be fine, right?

CLANG

She struck again, giving shape to the glowing metal. The mask was suddenly several inches lower in the vice.

Viltia paused, concerned with the development, but time was of the essence and so she continued.

PING

The mask disappeared from the vice, appearing a foot and a half to her left in mid air. Viltia instinctively snatched it with her gloved left hand in a display of incredible reaction time that she knew she wouldn’t have been able to replicate.

Her mouth opened in awe at the reaction and she turned to Beruv to share in the incredible moment. Beruv was at her desk, drawing up designs for numbered stencils. Inscribing the numbers on Kanoka caused them to leak energy every so slightly, so it would be best to develop a stencil system to apply inks at the moment of a disc’s creation. Beruv hadn’t been focused on Viltia at all.

Viltia was disappointed that Beruv had missed the incredible feat, but didn’t say anything. She sighed and instead put the mask back into the forge, this time to melt it down completely. She would have to start from scratch, reforge the disk, then try to mold it into a Kanohi again.

At least this process didn’t remove any power from the disk. She could mess up as much as she needed to. But it was still disappointing. She was hoping to have finished this one and then one for herself before Sidra got back. Now she wasn’t sure if she would finish this one before it grew too late and she had to break for lunch. That would set her back an hour, and then after that she should probably check in with Wing and do a round around the guard posts. After all that, if everything was fine, she could get back to work at the forge.
 

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Mountains (7, 7)

With - Whira

Cravious gathered several materials for the forge and set them down by it. Then he moved to his desk. He set down the schematics and- He looked at them again. Okay “schematics” was a generous term. There was no sense of third dimensional form. No specifications on width or materials. Melt had shown Cravious how wide a disc should be with his hands for crying out loud!

The Skakdi of Lightning started working on his own schematics, specifying how and why he was making the decisions he was. He tweaked the shape of the disc. Melt had said they were flat with a curved outer edge, but if they were meant to be thrown, then they should have a dip in the center and then slope up to the curved edge. It would stabilize their flight paths.

Melt had also talked about purity, which wasn’t a problem for Cravious. He already had a purification system in place for when he made protosteel. Which, well, protosteel was extremely hard to make. And most everything of protosteel that he had made ended up going into the construction of the Cube.

Selling protosteel was tempting, but there was no reason to give Skakdi something to be able to damage his Cube. There were already enough powers out there that could damage it. Better to keep the knowledge of protosteel to himself. He hadn’t even taught Voracious how to make the stuff.

But with a few tweaks to his system, he should be able to apply it to the Kanoka crafting system he was designing.

Cravious spent a large part of the day planning, rearranging the area around his forge, and then shaping metallic protodermis. He could upgrade it to protosteel later if he needed to, but that would take too much time right now. Piece by piece, he created molds, attached them to his purification system, and added in machines to help assist in the creation. He spent all night doing this, along with most of the morning. The sounds of metal clanging and pistons moving and power tools working didn’t faze the Skakdi who did sleep, nor did it bother Whira, who didn’t need to sleep. Only the Nui-Jaga seemed upset, but even he eventually became used to the noise and smells and got to sleep.

Sleep. What a curious thing. Cravious figured it had to do with a body’s “organic” portions. It seemed the Heartlight needed the time to be able to build up enough excess energy to keep the body going for a stretch of time. Periods of minimal energy usage were required to do this, and so sleep existed. With his observations through his many sleepless nights, Cravious found that after two days you started suffering from being extremely tired, with sleep required on the third day or your body would start to suffer. It also seemed like a body was most healthy when it consumed one meal a day, with more meals being slightly beneficial, yet redundant.

Of course Clash argued with him about this every time he brought it up, so his employees got two meals a day and were allowed to sleep once per day. And despite Cravious’ insistence that extra meals were meaningless, somehow he always managed to make time to join them for both meals. And most nights he slept. Better to have extra energy and extra sleep than not. Not having them might cost you far more in the long run. And you never knew when you might need to sacrifice a night to stay alive or work on something important.

And Cravious was very focused on the long run. The future held the most money for him. He just needed to make it there.

Just before lunch, Cravious grabbed some black hued protodermis ore and began the melting process. His purification system hummed slightly louder than the background hum of the Cube in motion. The mold filled, settled, then opened. Cravious grabbed the disc, plunging it into water to cool it slightly, then reintroduced it into the forge. When it reached the right temperature, based on his knowledge of metallic protodermis, he removed the disc and introduced it to an oil quench, cooling off the disc rapidly in a process called hardening. It would give the disc sturdiness and rigidity.

When the disc was ready, the Cube stopped, the garage ramp opening. His hirelings set up a table outside to eat and the Nui-Jaga scampered off to find some food. They were in an open place, now far from the cliffs and valleys that had surrounded them before. The sun beat down on them in a way that was both stifling and comforting for those used to it. To their south, mighty sand dunes rose into being as the desert began. Beyond the dunes, the great Irnakk’ Tooth mountain range lay, almost hidden by the atmosphere that gave it a blue tint at this distance. There was the slightest of breezes near the rocky outcropping they had stopped near.

Cravious tested the weight of the disc in his hand, noticing the silver sheen it had, which normal metallic protodermis didn’t. And it was so smooth as well. Not perfectly, though. So there was still more to figure out there.

Well, time to test if it had worked, and what powers it might have. He hoped the black hued ore he had used was somehow tied to Shadow. But somehow he doubted it would be that easy. It generally never was. The Skakdi chucked the disc at a nearby boulder. It struck with a satisfying crack, but nothing seemed to happen.

Cravious frowned and walked over, picking up the disc. He inspected it. His mold had been perfectly crafted, but perhaps it had been in the wrong shape? Or the ore used could be wrong. Or maybe there needed to be a combination of ores? There were too many variables to consider! His mind raced with possibilities. This really was a lot of fun.

He ran his hand over the boulder. It cracked and fell apart as he touched it, parts of it even crumbling further.

A look of surprise came over him. In the background Clash was talking with everyone about The Gadunka mentioning a salvage effort for the Rig. Cravious struck the disc against another rock, unrelated to the first. When he touched it, it too fell apart. Slowly a sinister smile came over his face, though it was just his normal smile and held no ill will.

Time for lunch.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Saybo - Toa of Water - Aurax

Location - The Coliseum (4, 9)

With - (Great Being) Aurax

Saybo absorbed the food quickly with his hands as they walked. It tasted good, but taste didn’t matter. Nutrition was paramount. In that same vein of thought, Saybo dumped the coffee in the first garbage can he saw. Caffeine was just as addictive as other drugs. He wasn’t going to have any part of it.

The workspace they entered seemed secure and well defended from any peering optics. There was even an alternative escape route. Saybo approved. It smelt of grease and oil. And the above lights quietly buzzed as they provided illumination.

Saybo nodded to Great Aurax, indicating that he understood the order to stay put.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Cravious - Skakdi of Lightning - Zakazian

Location - Mountains (7, 7)

With - Whira

Cravious peered into Whira’s purple optics. It felt like they swirled with mystery and a hidden darkness. Soon. Soon he would be able to peer through those optics and straight into her mind. He would know her better than she knew herself.

When she finally spoke, he blinked several times in surprise, but showed no other sign of having lost his train of thought.

"I... believe we should begin our work in the fires of Irnakk's tooth," Whira said. "It is a special place for this island's inhabitants, and that leads me to believe that ancient peoples may have stowed knowledge of disk crafting away there."

Cravious pondered this, massaging the head of his Kraata with one hand. Irnakk’s Tooth? It… well it scared him, and he actually admitted that it did. All Skakdi knew not to mess with Irnakk. But… Whira was right. There was power there. It might be the perfect place to search for hidden knowledge. And who knew, the knowledge there might help him bring in more many more widgets.

The Skakdi of Lightning looked up into the darkness above the hanging lights. One couldn’t see anything there, but with Cravious’ X-Ray Vision and Whira’s Shadow sense, they both knew the Skakdi of Gravity was up there, watching. “You heard her, Asperity, go tell Clash where to drive us.” The shadows shifted as the Skakdi of Gravity moved from her perch on the ceiling. Shortly thereafter, the Cube slightly readjusted its course.

Cravious shook his head, “That Asperity is a creepy one, that’s for sure. Glad she’s working for me. Any other alternative would probably be very costly.”

He grabbed his schematics and waved them at Whira, “Alright, that gives us a few days of travel. Let’s see what I can figure out in the meantime.” He turned, heading for his furnace.

Time to discover the secrets of Matoran disk crafting.
 

OOC: @~Xemnas~

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

Inside the forging hut, Viltia found a place to sit down and just let her mind wander. She still cared for her friend, but now that friendship had strange nuances to it. Sidra still continued to show no reason not to trust her, yet Viltia still felt a little off. She would die for her friend, but that didn’t mean she truly knew her friend.

What things had shaped Sidra into who she was? What experiences had molded her, and how many of them had she chosen for herself?

Viltia really didn’t like thinking about these kinds of things. So she became the swamp for a bit, mind exploring through the senses of trees, shrubs, and vines. She floated through the air as spores, she felt the air ruffle her leaves. She soaked up the sun and caught food and was corrupt.

She blinked. Was corrupt? She focused on that feeling, but it remained muddied and hidden from her Observation. It came from the southeast. From that tree that hadn’t died! But she couldn’t explore it just yet. She had a job to do. But definitely later.

She stood, grabbing her gloves. Spark wanted a Kanohi of Quick Travel in order to tinker with his Kanohi machines and Viltia wanted one in case she ever got separated from Sidra. Viltia went over to the metal encased book that held the forging hut’s inventory of masks and discs.

Skipping past anything that wasn’t level 8, Viltia found what Beruv, Sidra, and her currently had in stock. There were 5 Teleportation discs, which wasn’t that many considering how many recipes required them, 2 Enlarge, 2 Reconstruct at Random, 1 Weaken, 1 Removes Poison, and then 2 Shadow Toa Discs, since silver hued ore was so abundant and it made for good practice, though she wasn’t sure what they could be used for other than creating shadow when striking something.

Viltia pondered the list, scratching her mask. One of her tethers grabbed her own vine bound book from her satchel. Hissing rose in the background as Beruv cooled a new disc off in the bucket of water, sending up steam. Viltia opened the dried bark cover of her book. Inside she had a list of Kanohi powers that she had gone around the village and asked about. Beruv, Torch, and her didn’t know how to make half of them, but the more complex to make masks seemed to follow a certain type of logic of the Kanoka merging required to make them, so figuring them out on her own wouldn’t be entirely impossible. That gave her hope.

Okay, so she wanted to make a mask of X-Ray Vision for mining. Check! She filled in a small box next to the mask.

Spark wanted as many masks of Quick Travel as possible, but seeing as he had only made two weird metal backpacks so far, that requirement was just at two for the moment. Well, three, she wanted one as well.

She moved to the next one. A mask of Growth. Merging with Nektann had given her a different perspective on things, and she wished to try to capture some of it on her own. Being larger had its perks, especially in this mutated swamp with its larger than normal Rahi and insects.

Then a mask of Flight. She didn’t want to be forced to rely on the Kahu to safely traverse the Fau Swamp. It might be better to be able to fly on her own.

And a mask of Truth. She didn’t want another fake Wing situation again. But this was one she didn’t know how to make. Maybe a disc of Telepathy? That made sense, but what else? She had tried combining several weaker in power Kanoka to test it out, but even with the uncontrollable nature of merged disc powers, nothing seemed to happen at all when struck. Maybe Mind Control or Translation?

She could figure it out later; she moved on. A mask of Mutation. Wing was in agony over her changes. And, well, she really did reek. Her slime stunk a lot. Viltia needed to help her change back for all their sakes. Plus a mask of Mutation could help in case anyone else was ever affected by the swamp.

A Kanoka of Reconstruct at Random made sense as one of the ingredients, but Viltia wasn’t sure what else. Maybe a Toa Disc of some kind. Light, Shadow, or Energy. It was worth a shot.

The last one on her list was apparently one of the hardest masks to make and if she accomplished it, she would truly be a competent mask maker of the highest level. A Kanohi of Time Duplication. It made clones of yourself, or something like that. The being that had told her about it hadn’t ever seen one himself, only heard about it.

Her mind raced at the idea. What combination of merged Kanoka could even accomplish such a thing? And if that could be done, what other kind of masks could be made? Could the legends of a Mask of Creation be true? Or what about a Mask of Light, that held the full range of elemental Light powers, not just a shallow interpretation like other element masks. It might be real too. If Time Duplication, whatever that was, was real, then she could make anything she wished if she worked hard enough and was clever enough. And if she was able to make it, she would know her destiny truly was her own to create.

There were other masks like water breathing or translation on her list, but those first seven were far more important to either her or the village.

For a moment she paused. How would she ever carry that many masks? Her satchel wouldn’t work. And she used her tethers to move around or carry things a lot of the time. She shrugged. She could figure it out later.

Putting away both books, Viltia grabbed her heavy work gloves and a level 8 Kanoka of Teleportation. If Spark really could figure out Kanohi machines, then the possibilities of village protection were endless.

She got to work.

Hey, we just hit 5,000 replies in the Gameplay topic. That's really cool.

IC: Sorilax - Aspect of Light and Silence - Aspects of Makuta

Location - Kini-Nui (7, 10)

With - Sala, Nuju

Sorilax finished taking down Nuju’s words. This Matoran was giving him weird vibes. On the one hand, Nuju’s words had a ring of truth to them, clear and loud, but on the other hand, he still offered no evidence to back up any of his claims.

The Aspect wasn’t sure what to make of it. The researcher in him knew he had to find some sort of evidence. These claims were too deathly important to ignore. He needed verification if he was to properly protect all Life in the future.

Nuju finished, "I appreciate you waiting Sala, and I hope I answered all your questions Sorilax. But now I have a question of you both: with everything I said and you have learned, what are you going to do?”

Sala spoke and Sorilax turned. Wait, where was he? His fellow chronicler was seated up against the wall of prophecy, his voice full of emotion. "What now? What now?! I don't even know! All this time, I've been trying to help Sorilax achieve his Grand Wish, in some vain hope that it would lead to everything being put back to the way it was. But now, it only just now struck me the significance of Mata-Nui's death now with the full context and how nothing will ever be how it once was. And then this entity, Tren Krom, who seems to be an overseer laughing at our lives like we're characters in a book, you say we could reach his world but what is keeping him from simply stopping us?..." It was at this point that Sala's laugh started to descend into sobs, "I...I..ju-just...Every time something seems to go right, that I've been able to grow strong enough to help others...I'm left with another problem greater than I. So what am I supposed to do?!"

Nuju’s response was harsh, cold, and cut deep, like a strong winter breeze, "You break or you become the master of your own fate. That choice reveals who the true heroes are. Will you rise with me, or is this where you fall?"

Sorilax frowned at this and even the shadow lizard on his head in his flower crown stretched in his sleep. Sala was clearly distressed from this flow of information, and Nuju’s words, while they struck true, seemed very unfeeling.

Sorilax may not be used to emotions in others, but now he finally felt them fully with his change to the Light. The Aspect addressed Sala, “You do your best. That’s all anyone can do. If things are out of your control, that simply means you know your boundaries and are that much wiser for it. But you must strive to do your best no matter the circumstances. One can never tell what boundaries in life are of our own making and actually holding us back from being a better us.”

Sorilax’s long arm rested on his friend’s shoulder, “But even failure to change things is its own reward, for there is always an opportunity to better yourself because of it. Take comfort in this information, don’t let fear and uncertainty hold sway. Wisdom gained is far more valuable than knowledge. And with wisdom, one just might be able to change the unchangeable.”

OOC: @Sparticus147 @Unreliable Narrator

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Sidra

Viltia looked at the ground in embarrassment. She definitely wasn’t everything a Toa should be. She still had a lot to work on. But the words of praise from Sidra meant a lot to her, even after the revelation of Sidra’s past.

Her voice grew emotional, “Thank you. That means a lot to me... Now go! I expect you back in one piece.”

She opened her mental aperture holding back her elemental energy slightly and let herself be immersed in the Green around her. It comforted her. Her friend would be back. She didn’t have to worry. Vitlia looked Sidra in the optics one last time, smiled, and reentered the forging hut.
 

OOC: @Nato the Traveler

IC: Hahvok - Za and Ja Krana of Ice - Independent

Location - Dead Forest

With - Marrow, Providence, Zak-Yak, Takadox

Zal ran on head, scampering after the first mind as his main body looked around the group. Their surface thoughts all seemed to be in agreement in following someone named Marrow. Perhaps the first mind?

Hahvok turned and followed after Marrow and his second half. Hopefully the underground would only get colder. It would probably be easier to find his purpose someplace colder.
 

OOC: @Nato the Traveler @Sparticus147 @Burnmad @Vezok's Friend

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Sidra

"You shouldn't be,” Sidra’s voice was grave.

Viltia frowned, confused. Sidra gently guided Viltia fully out of the forge. One of her tethers closed the door behind them. She would always be there for Sidra. What could her friend mean?

Sidra continued, "Duty is... easy for you Matoran. Your place in the world was dictated to you the moment you came into it. A lot of the rest of us didn't have that luxury. Before the universe broke, before I found my way here... I was a Dark Hunter. You understand what that means? I stole things, killed some people, protected others, not because it was always the right thing to do, but because it was what I was hired to do."

A Dark Hunter? Viltia hadn’t ever heard the term, but the descriptions of the things Sidra had done turned her stomach enough to figure out it was mercenary work of some kind.

Killing not to defend like Sorilax taught, but for profit? Viltia shut off the constant passive Observation she had going with her element. She had to focus fully. She wasn’t sure how she felt right now and several of her tethers planted into the ground to keep her upright as she got a little woozy.

"When I was in Metru Nui, in the days before everything fell apart, I killed two people. One was a League terrorist who killed dozens of Matoran. The other was... Turaga Dume. The things he was going to do... I still think I was right to stop him. But I didn't find out what he was planning until after I'd already cut him down. I did it because that's what I was ordered to do."

Anger, confusion, and a little bit of fear rose up in Viltia as Sidra named a name she actually knew. But even as her emotions sought to place blame, her mind was drawn to Nektann. She couldn’t remember much from his entire lifespan that she had gone through, but she remembered enough. He had killed countless beings, Skakdi as well as others. It was just how he lived. How his mind operated. He knew nothing else, though he had wanted to change deep inside.

It had taken his transformation to finally change him for the better. 

But with Sidra...

But with Sidra, all it had taken was Le-Metru Nuva.

The Sidra Viltia knew was not at all like the Sidra her friend was telling her about. Whatever had happened in the past, it was the past. Sidra’s actions in Le-Metru Nuva had proved it, both to her and to the whole village.

"Those Toa I mentioned... the last thing Dume ever did was transform them," Sidra said. "They have every reason to hate me, and hunt me. If I run into them out there, I will do whatever I have to in order to defend myself. I can't ask that of you."

The sick feeling in the pit of her stomach had made her feel like she was going to throw up during Sidra’s explanation, but Viltia felt a soothing in her body while she used Nektann’s perspective to help give her experience that she sorely lacked.

Even apart after all this time, he was still helping her. She would have to find him again someday and see how he was doing.

Viltia didn’t say anything at first, simply stepping forward and tightly hugging the former Dark Hunter. Several of her tethers also wrapped around Sidra, accentuating the hug. Still in the embrace, Viltia finally spoke, “Well if they ever show up here, they’ll have to get through me.”

She backed off from the hug, concern for her friend’s feelings filling her optics as she held Sidra’s hands, “I don’t care what you were, just what you are. And what you are is my friend and a fellow defender of Le-Metru Nuva.”

Vilita dropped her hands from Sidra’s, “I’ll keep the village safe. Just make sure to keep yourself safe.”

OOC: @Nato the Traveler

IC: Viltia - Toa of the Green - Metru-Nui Refugees

Location - Le-Metru Nuva, on the Northwestern fringes of (7, 13) in the Fau Swamp

With - Sidra

"You're right that this island isn't the safest place. I think I'd feel more comfortable knowing you were still here looking after the village," Sidra said. "No sense in losing two defenders if something does go wrong."

Viltia pondered this, hand scratching at her mask. It made sense. Sidra had been able to take care of herself on her own. Well, for the most part. Viltia remembered saving Sidra from the muck of the swamp floor when they had first met.

And the village did need protectors. After the undead and a giant Taboo beast, who knew what else might assault them. Yes, Rahi attacks were down after Apex, but there was still that danger, too. And Wing wasn’t as skilled with her element as Torch had been or Viltia now was. Wing’s devotion to her job was now a detriment to her learning.

No, Sidra was right. She should stay here, probably forging more Kanoka and Kanohi in preparation. There were a lot of Kanoka combinations Beruv and her needed to figure out. She had several Kanohi in mind that required them.

"There's something else," Sidra took Viltia aside, turning their backs to Beruv and lowering her voice, "There are other Toa out there, who know about the temple and my intentions to access it. I wronged them, and they're likely to oppose me. If it comes to a fight against them... I don't want to put you in that position." 

Wronged them? Viltia didn’t see how that was likely. But Sidra also didn’t lie to her, so the Toa had to be upset about something. It couldn’t have been anything big, though. Her voice was concerned, “Well, I was ready to stay, but now I feel like I have to join you! I can’t let anyone try to hurt you. I’d be happy to stand by your side no matter what.” Viltia nodded to emphasize her statement and her tethers gripped the Rahkshi staff tighter.

In the background, Beruv pumped the bellows, causing a noisy ruckus and not hearing Sidra and Viltia’s conversation. She was trying to save the flame that had almost been extinguished by the Great Disc of Freezing.
 

OOC: @Nato the Traveler