That Matoran with a Vahi

IC: Akie - Arriving in Onu-Koro "Oh... well, that's okay, then." Her smile, even behind her mask, made the young Toa's relief quite obvious, despite her attempt to play it off casually. She might well have fumbled the first impression embarrassingly, but with no harm done greater than a temporary misunderstanding easily cleared up... well, frankly, it could have gone a lot worse. That he seemed friendlier than the initial scowl he'd been wearing would have suggested was certainly helping to put her more at ease, too. As he spoke, she thought to ask about the (presumably poor) reception he'd alluded to having; but at the same time, the way he hurried on the conversation was enough to suggest to Akie that he didn't want to talk about it. Or at least, not to a complete stranger... which was absolutely valid. She was, after all, a newcomer not only to the city but to the island as a whole; so even if he had elaborated, she most likely would have had no frame of reference on which to base anything he said. Speaking of... "Oh, ah, it's that obvious?" She chuckled lightly, making clear that she wasn't bothered by the observation. Surprised? Sure... but if his words were any indication, her situation was a fairly common one. Whatever this island was, it was clearly some kind of hub for those lost at sea; so it was probably more than just random chance that had beached her on these shores. "That's right, yeah. I washed up here... maybe a week ago?" She scratched her head slightly. Her sense of time was still a bit messed up after whatever she'd been through, so she may have been a few days off, one way or the other. She couldn't really have said. "So, yeah, this is probably going to sound the dumbest of dumb questions, but... could you tell me what island this is?" And then, because her curiosity couldn't resist asking: "And, ah... does this happen often here...?" @oncertainty ooc: Sorry for the delayed reply! I'm a bit of a slow writer generally, and I've had a lot of things on my mind distracting me recently ^^;

This is definitely a question that I've seen asked (and answered) before, but it was a long time ago and I don't remember the source for it... maybe one of the old Greg Discussion topics? I do remember that the gist of the given answer, though, was that Dume's chamber contained a mirror; so when Makuta-disguised-as-Dume entered, it reflected back at him his 'true' form, and he had a conversation with himself to practice keeping in-character as Dume.

Oh wow, these are impressive! Really amazing work!

IC: Akie - Arriving in Onu-Koro Oh... oh dear, whoops. Looked like she'd done a little too good a job of pretending that she belonged here. Beneath her mask, Akie flushed, her cheeks colouring red. Still, he had invited her to sit, so she abruptly did so - albeit with a distinctly embarrassed air. "No... no, we haven't met. I've actually only just arrived in town. It's been a bit lonely travelling, so I was looking for company, but I... I really don't know anyone here. And I guess I just saw you sitting alone, and figured maybe you'd like some company too..." Her fingers played over the silken fabric of her purple scarf, aware that she was being weird. She'd been trying to appear like she fit in and belonged, had clearly immediately screwed that up by getting too friendly with a stranger; and her babbling was absolutely not helping matters. She wasn't usually such an awkward girl; but the fact of the matter was, having had no company since arriving on the island had been driving her a little bit crazy, and she had leapt at the chance to remedy that. "I'm Akie-- Toa Akie, I mean." Even if she didn't remember much of anything about her past, she certainly remembered that she was not yet used to the title of 'hero'; it sat uncomfortably upon her shoulders. "I'm sorry. I do hope I'm not being weird." @oncertainty

IC: Akie - Arriving in Onu-Koro Well, here she was. Wherever the heck here was. She'd been walking for several days, by this point, and Akie still felt like she was none the wiser as to where she'd ended up. She'd simply washed up in a tiny boat on a deserted patch of beach, with no clear memory of what had happened and, moreover, no clue where she was. She'd never seen the shores of this island before, she could confidently say that much; but she hadn't been able to see any other island or boat on the horizon from which she might have come. It was weird... and the young Toa had quickly decided better than to dwell on it. Whatever may have happened... Well, it was in the past. It... probably? ...didn't matter that much. So she'd picked herself up, dusted herself down, and started walking across an ever-varied landscape. Before long, she'd found a tunnel leading down into the ground; something that, under normal circumstances, she'd avoid on the grounds of feeling like she was intruding where she shouldn't. But circumstances were anything but normal, and this tunnel had been well signposted with the name "Onu-Koro"... which made it clear, at least to her, that there was some kind of important town / city / other settlement on the other end of the tunnel; and that, therefore, bore investigating if she wanted to encounter, you know, people on this island. Would they be Matoran? Who knew at this point. But right now, Akie was just, well... lonely. Lonely and lost. She'd take any companionship, no matter what form it took. In due course, the passage she'd been doggedly following had opened out into a cavernous underground city. Lightstones illuminated highways through what looked to her like some kind of intricate maze of buildings; and the Toa followed one of them, mouth agape behind her Huna. It was, she felt though couldn't remember for sure, so much vaster than any town she'd seen before. She'd kind of expected her passage to emerge on the other side of the mountain before she found a settlement of any kind, not to discover a thriving city beneath the very earth. ...Oh, right. Onu-Koro; roughly meaning 'Earth City'. That name... made sense, if you took it literally enough. There were many beings on the road, Matoran and others, and Akie hesitated to disturb someone who was clearly very focused on their own business. Instead, as she dodged through the crowd with natural grace, she cast around for someone who looked less busy; and her gaze landed on the green-armoured Matoran sitting outside what looked like some kind of restaurant. He, certainly, didn't seem busy... and while his scowl didn't make him look exactly welcoming, she'd already committed to her course of action. "Hey, hey." Waving a black-armoured hand idly, trying to look as though she belonged here just as much as anyone else, the girl Toa approached his table. She probably didn't want to come off as a complete stranger, she figured. Being clueless wasn't exactly a crime, but would still likely do her no favours. Best to just... pretend like she was up to speed on where she was and what was happening, and figure out the details based on context as she went. That would be fine, surely. "Not waiting for someone, are you? I was just kinda looking for someone to enjoy this glorious Onu-Koro weather with--" WHAT WEATHER, WE'RE IN A CAVE??? "But I'd hate to butt in if you were expecting someone else." OOC: Approaching Gonrae (@oncertainty) for interaction, if that's okay? ^^

I'd got a bit bored of the Lego video game style recently, in all truth. That said: getting several of them super-cheap, including the two that I have the most interest in trying out (Incredibles and Marvel 2)... AND the money going to such a good cause as this into the bargain? Count me in! ^^ Thanks, again, for sharing offers like this!

Name: Akie Species: Toa of Gravity Gender: F Description: Slender of build, but fairly short by Toa standards; Akie still stands taller than a Matoran, but only comes to a little above the shoulder of your average Toa. Much of her armour is black, with sleek silver highlights; it's only her lower layer of armour, around her joints and such, that shows off the distinctive purple of her element's colour scheme. She wears a scarf, also in purple, wound tightly around her neck; and her mask is a silver-streaked black Great Huna. Powers: The ability to manipulate gravity; of particular note, Akie can reorient a subject's gravity, "causing [them] to fall up, sideways, and the ever popular - if mundane - down", as well as increasing their gravity to make them too heavy to walk, or negating it to make them float away. In addition, her mask allows her to vanish from normal sight - although she still casts a shadow, and can still be seen by those looking with enhanced vision powers. Weapons: Several throwing daggers. She's a pretty good shot with these; aided, of course, by the fact that she can manipulate their gravity to adjust their trajectories in mid-flight. Technological items: None. Personality and traits: A good hearted girl, but easily convinced into things that aren't in her best interests. This isn't to say that Akie is naive, because she isn't; but standing up to others, outside of battle, is not a particular strength of hers, so her better judgement can be easily overridden by someone persuasive. Light-hearted, just kinda chill and laid-back... it may seem a little strange, therefore, that Akie was blessed with Toa powers at all, given that she doesn't seem like the wisest or most responsible person to hand them to. Still, when battle does call her, Akie sheds her laid-back attitude, becoming someone who seems less a single warrior and more a force of nature for a cause that she truly believes in. Weakness(es): Easily persuadable, not the most strong-willed in an argument. Often too casual with her powers, liable to unintentionally get herself into trouble. Reluctance to face her past. Becomes weary after using her powers overmuch. Alignment: TBD History: Akie has to admit, she isn't really sure where she came from. She had a life before, out there somewhere, she's sure of it; but all she remembers is washing ashore on the beach of Mata Nui in a row-boat with no recollection of what she was doing there, or where she had come from. She has the vague impression that something bad had happened in her past, maybe even something involving skakdi pirates, but this so far is just a lurking shadow... and it's partially in an attempt to quash this shadow that Akie has embraced her current carefree nature. Nothing in her past can harm her if she just continues to ignore it, right? Since arriving on Mata Nui, she hasn't done much besides wander a little. She goes wherever the wind takes her for now, with no specific destination in mind. Maybe somewhere, she might find a purpose to pursue... but she isn't holding her breath for this.

@BULiK Oh cool; that's really helpful, thanks! I'll see about getting her app up in the next few days ^^

Thanks, thanks both! I've kinda been shaping up the beginnings of a Toa profile as my potential start point over the last few days (the idea of beginning with a Dashi is very cool, but I think I'd rather start with a species that I'm familiar with until I'm a bit more sure of myself) but I'm not altogether sure what I can put for her backstory? I've read that the MU beyond Mata Nui doesn't exist in this universe, so are all Toa natives of Mata Nui in this context? Thanks, again!

Hiiiii... any advice for a newcomer tentatively looking to jump in here? ^^ I've played in other RPs here on BZP, so I know how they work in general, and I think I've read most of the important information pages; but the sheer amount of backstory here makes it kind of intimidating for me to approach. Still, I've kinda been having the itch to do Bionicle things again lately, so I guess I just wondered whether it would be easy to just jump in somewhere and learn the rest of the details as I go? Thanks ^^

I like your thinking; definitely agree that while Bara Magna was an interesting concept, the way we were thrust into it was pretty alienating at the time. Another possible route I can see could have been to have just a few familiar characters possibly escaping the GSR to follow Mata Nui into space; the story could have followed them as they landed on Bara Magna and searched for what had become of him - that way, we would have been discovering this new world and society at the same pace as these familiar faces, and so letting us get invested in it more easily because of its direct impact on characters who we know. The culture-clash between the MU inhabitants and the Bara Magnans could have been interesting to see, too. I find it notable, after all, that every other time that Bionicle had switched protagonists - 2004 and 2006 - the switch was still to characters who we knew from the theme's early days, so we weren't being asked to accept someone completely new taking over. As good a move as this was, I suspect that it made it all the more jarring to be thrown into 2009 where we knew literally no-one; even the 'familiar' character of Mata Nui had only been a name before that point, not someone we'd met, so it felt like we were being asked to just start over from scratch. I feel like discovering Bara Magna first through the eyes of a very small group of known characters, even if nothing else changed beyond that, could also have been a better way to ease into the new world ^^

My gf and I are currently playing through one of her favourite games, Tales of the Abyss, together! She's been wanting to introduce me to it for a while, but for various reasons (including it not having been released in my region), we couldn't do that until we were together again and could play it on her console. Much like the other entries in the Tales Of Series that she's recommended me to play (Berseria and Arise), it's a fun time and a very immersive story, and sharing it with her in real-time just makes it even better The graphics are a little dated (though it IS 15-plus-years-old by this point!) and some of the NPCs behaviours are a little derpy; but the story and the characters are very good, and I'm certainly hooked! ^^

Not encountered personally, but... most surprising for me was when an online friend, who I'd made a long time ago now on a completely unrelated roleplaying site, got a boyfriend who happened to also be a Bionicle fan! To the point where she once asked my advice on Bionicle merchandise she could buy for him, heh ^^

Agreeing a lot with everyone in this thread so far! For myself, while I'd never been a huge completionist on Lego themes besides Bionicle (usually being content to have either just one set to represent each theme I liked, or to at most get just enough sets to own each of the main character minifigures), I definitely hit that point in 2008. My interests had shifted drastically as I'd finished my compulsory schooling and entered Sixth Form, making Lego far less of a priority for me generally... but on top of that, I also found there were sets in 2008 that, for the first time in a while, I actively *didn't want* to get. I think that was really the point when I realised that I was done with fully collecting Bionicle, after I'd already mostly stopped buying other Lego themes a few years before; that, and the story wrapping up to what I felt was a satisfying conclusion that year too, gave me a comfortable jumping-off point. My Lego 'dark age' started not long after, when I started university. Even since I've emerged from that, I've felt no inclination to dive back into serious collecting. Like the posters above me, at the times I do feel like scratching that Lego itch, I like to do so by seeking for some old set that fascinated me as a kid but that I never got - I have a few key late-90s / early-00s themes that I'll keep an eye out for. To me, Lego was really always about the themes and characters that I grew up with; so an old set that captured my imagination as a kid is far more enticing to me than the even latest and greatest of modern Lego, to which I don't have that emotional attachment. Finding old sets for decent prices often isn't easy, but that just makes it all the more satisfying on the rare occasions I can find something cheap - and if it isn't fully complete and needs a bit of Bricklinking to get the remaining parts, that's a kind of fun in its own way too. I just find it a lot more enjoyable to be casual about it, just indulging a little here and there without pressure, rather than feeling a need to keep up with everything. tl;dr version: Yeah, me too.

I remember a very old version of the Lego club site... the one where member pages didn't have all the fancy add-ons of later years, but you could still customise them to an extent by picking one out of a choice of characters and a choice of backgrounds. And the two didn't have to match, so you could have Johnny Thunder or whoever on Planet Slizer, for example, as your member page. I don't remember what all the options were, and I can't find any evidence of that version of the site existing online - I searched for it once, the only Lego club pages I could find pictures of were the far more customisable early-00s ones - but I'm sure that was a thing. I also remember the part of the site for the Adventurers theme was cool. The Jungle page had it set up like a map, and you could click on the sets in it for more information about them, and there were some things you could click for little bios of the Adventurers, too. And the Desert page had a little game on it where you had to help Johnny Thunder pick the right direction on the map, and every time you made the wrong choice, part of the graphic of him would be replaced by the respective part of a Lego skeleton. If he got completely turned into a skeleton, you lost and had to start over. Again, I've found no evidence of those things, but I for sure remember that they existed!

I'd say it's definitely to do with their argument in Tales of the Masks. It is a bit weird because, like TERIDAX941 says, they seemed on fine terms by the end of the Bohrok-Kal's defeat in the comics - though it could just indicate that Gali is professional enough to put aside personal grudges when things depend on it, even if she still nurses them during times of calm; and I believe that comic was written before that book anyway - but given what Tahu had said... Well, I can certainly see why she'd still be sore at him!

Oh right, that makes a lot of sense; I didn't even realise that would factor into it. Thanks for clarifying! And thanks to minfamily8 for the client link! Anyway, I've now got it all working and ready to go! Not going to start playing quite right away, but I'll definitely give it a try over the next few days ^^

I'm finding the same issue as Taria Pakari, on the previous page, with the version I installed from the original disk; I get that exact same launcher screen and only seem to have a legouniverselauncher.exe. Does this mean that the disk version I have is no good for running this server, either?

Is it just me, or does Tiny Tahu remind anyone else of all those chibi sprite comics that were so popular over in Artwork 3 during BZPower's busiest years? In any case, I'd like to see someone in the fandom rise to the challenge of representing every Bionicle set ever in that style! xD

Oooh, this looks cool, I like it The animation style is fantastic... I love the way it kind of recalls the style of MNOG, while at the same time being very distinctly its own thing; and how much expression you get out of Lhikan's eyes, even though they're the only part of his face to move, is equally impressive. Really like that you're using a hand-animated style for this, too; 2D animation just doesn't get enough love these days, so that makes me happy ^^ I'm curious: is the project going to be voiced in the end? Or is it all character interaction going to be conveyed by body language / subtitles, like in so much of the classic Bionicle media? Either way, I'm eager to see this as it progresses... and I honestly love that Lhikan's getting the focus, too; he's long been one of my favourites!

My response it late, I'm only just checking back into BZ now... but thank-you, all, ever so much for your kind words! It means a lot to me that you each like this so much! :D Master Inika, I'm impressed that you took the time to list everyone! I also included Toa Iruini - though only two sets, I counted the Hagah as a separate wave for the purposes of including one of them - and I also slipped in a tiiiiiny little Click on Mata Nui's shoulder, too!

Mostly I'm just looking forward to that big fan-game... Quest for Mata Nui, was it? I'm not sure I'm expecting it to be this year, though, since I've yet to hear any word on a release date; we'll see, I suppose! Otherwise, I can't think of anything else. The game promises to meet all my ideas of what I like, Bionicle-wise, so I'm content just to wait for that ^^