EmperorWhenua

Ic: A matoran ran up to the bulletin board, one of many across the treetop village, and nailed a conspicuous flyer on it. Bright red and black, it spelled out entertainment for some and trouble for others. It read, simply:

And that was it. The matoran ran away, leaving the sign to do the rest.

Ic: "Yes, we should stick together," Cersei agreed. "But maybe we are to help each other out in the end. Anavel, tell me... what do you think about --" and Cersei's eyes glowed darkly with demonic posession as she finished her sentence "-- sorcery?"

Acheno sighed and headed back inside. Even the excitement of a buried civilization wasn't enough to keep him going for twenty-four hours straight. He would need sleep soon.The Toa of plant life picked up his pickaxe and started digging again, alternating his blows to the wall with Danerys'.Ooc: Go ahead here, I'm not sure what the room is supposed to look like or anything.

Ic: Finally after a while longer, they had dug a tunnel straight in the room and Dany stopped, Acheno following suit. Dany motioned for her companion to step back, which he did, and then she pointed her hand at the dirt around her. The cave began to get warmer and warmer and more and more humid as the moisture in the soil began to evaporate and disappear. The dirt shriveled and turned to cake, crackling as it did so, and revealed the sides of the room. With a final wave of her hand, flames cascaded from her fingertips and obliterated the dirt, stopping short of reaching the walls and damaging them, and finally she purged the area of moisture in the air. Suddenly, the full room was in view. And it was huge."Holy..." she gasped as she walked to the nearest wall. "This is... amazing!" The walls were dirty, but there was little that disrupted the clear beauty that existed under the thin veil of dirt. Blues, whites and reds painted a gorgeous frescoes that decorated the sides with images of various beings. People that resembled winged toa and matoran-like figures stood poised in various stages, depicting some sort of scene, though Danerys still had no idea what it really was. She stood entranced and mesmerized, inching towards the wall like a possessed simpleton and closed her eyes as her mask glowed brightly, activating. As her fingers made contact with the surface, however, a bright flash erupted and she fell to the floor... unconscious.

IC:"I like all art, and everything is art... so I guess I like everything!" Anavel exclaimed, "Like, like... fighting, it's jus' dancing. The better dancers win -- it's like a competition! So exciting, so interesting -- especially hand to hand fighting, because it's like dancing with someone... up close, with the prize being the death of the other, but in those final moments... just caught in a... a duet, kinda. Where each different move, from a distance, creates a graceful, beautiful scene of death at the nth of its glory. But then again, there are great dancers, boring dancers, and poor dancers. Boring dancers would be like Mr. Lightning Bolt -- efficient, but there's no flair. There's no style, there's nothing captivating and mind boggling. And... torture, is also art. Good torture is more creative... more interesting, more fascinating and efficient to watch -- a hammer to the foot is not the best art torture has to offer, but like you... you seem like an artist of torture. Painting pictures of pain, misery, desperation, worry, with blood as your paint and your tools as your brush. The screams I bet you hear... just icing, just icing on an already magnificent cake," Anavel exclaimed, sounding quite enthralled by what she took to mean "art." "And then there's stuff like... snowglobes, paintings, carvings, drawings, music, poems, literature.... all different types of art that paint amazing pictures, making the impossible possible, the improbable probable. It's such an amazing breath of fresh air, after being forced to go day in, day out, watching all these poor artists not even attempt to craft a masterpiece," Anavel gestured to just about everyone at large, save Cersei."Art, is really what defines the skilled from the unskilled, the talented from the untalented... the beautiful, from the ugly."

Ic: Cercei nodded while Anavel spoke, agreeing. "I am pleased that that's how you think of me, and flattered, honestly," Cersei said. It didn't matter than she was an artist in the most grisly and menacing meaning of the word; that was irrelevant. What mattered was that she was developing an excellent rapport and was being seen as the elegant being she was."Though I have to ask," she said after a moment of musing, "where does that put the two of us? There has to be a meaning behind our meeting."

Ic: Stannis stepped inside the narrow grotto the temple had. To his left was a slot and a carving with a riddle, and he toyed with it for a moment while the others tried to see if they could open the door that loomed ahead of them. He didn't pay much attention, but when he looked back, he was in for a surprise. "Everybody, stand back!" Atiel warned as he raised his hammer above his head. Before Stannis could stop him, his heavy weapon struck at the stone door with a reverberating crack. A quick but violent quake erupted suddenly, and sand poured around the temple and seeped into the entrance, but stopped short of the matoran's feet.Finally, everyone looked at the door. Not a scratch, a crack or a missing crystal was evident on the door. "Maybe if he hit it harder?" one of the matoran suggested, but Stannis shook his head."We can't risk it. This door is sealed, either elementally or spiritually, and we need more than brute strength to breach its doors. It is doubtless that this is important, but we must find another way. Let's go to Po-Koro and speak with the turaga; maybe Onewa can give us answers on this. The elder knows of us and I, and I believe Aurax was sent by him, too," he said, gesturing to the Po-Matoran. "This knowledge will be useful for us when we ask him for information."

See, the matoran group has not actually done anything yet. We're going on a hunch that the temples have clues, but other than that, that's it. We know about the temple, or at least the Po-Wahi one, because one of our members had explored before and seen them, [correctly] assuming them to be temples. However, the next step is to go and seek information on the edifice, since we don't know enough yet. This isn't us trying to jump the gun, it's just us working with the gun.

So were Toaraga and B6 affected by the memory reset, too? You say they alone bare the burdens of the war, but at the same time you say B6 "knew no more." Or does that mean something else entirely?A good end, though! Kudos on seeing this through to the finish line!

I'll be out for the weekend again, so because the Po-Wahi stretch is largely in Lloyd's imagination, (temples, etc.), I'm leaving the group under his care until Sunday evening, PST.

It's the intro music. I get it, too.

Ic: After Aurax descended, and some hassle with trying to get a ussal crab to rappel in a confined tube, Stannis went down. The rest of the team members could be heard, heir echoing voices reverberating off the walls, tinny from the long distance down. One by one, their voices trailed off and Stannis could sense some light coming up, and finally, without warning, he plopped out of the cave like a child from a slide and landed on a the ledge he predicted would be waiting for him. He looked around and could see places where the scree had been disturbed. His companions had descended to the valley floor below.The view was spectacular. All of Po-Wahi was scrawled beneath him, and he could see the magnificent slot canyons, the majestic stone edifices, the massifs that protruded from place to place, the vast carpet of yellow and brown, and the scant scattered oases marked by their telltale greenery. Settlements dotted the landscape, their huts like miniscule ooids in a pattern, their inhabitants invisible. The sun seemed higher here, mainly because the horizon was far lower on Po-Wahi than in the high plateau of the Kini-Nui, and this gave him and his team a little more time to set up camp.And with that in mind, he went down.Ooc: To Po-Wahi.

Ic: "I have to admit, you don't look like a connoisseur, a thief or an artist. What kind of art do you like though? The literal kind like that snowglobe you got," Cersei asked, pointing at Anavel's cloak, where the globe was hiding, "or pretty in a more... metaphorical and subliminal way?" Cersei asked, her sly and cunning tone betraying her kindly and wide eyes. "I'm curious because, frankly, I may not be an artist, but I do greatly admire an intelligent design, especially the imaginary."

Ic: Cersei was sure there was something, but ignored it. Time revealed all. She nodded slowly."Well then, tell me about yourself? There has to be at least some stories behind your smile," she said disarmingly.

Ic: The group had spoken, and Stannis made it happen. The day was coming to a close, and the sun was slowly uniting with the horizon, so time was of the essence. Leaving the Kini-Nui was not quite as hard as getting to it, and there were actually many ways to depart from the complex. The mountains around the temple were filled with narrow canyons, and caves that dropped nearly straight down, and they usually ended with some sharp cliff face that would put the travelers in some shelf above a wahi and an eye-opening view. They were nearly unusable to access the temple, since they required toa-level rock climbing skills and tools, but they were great for leaving, as all one needed was an anchor and plenty of rope. Luckily for the team, they were not the first ones to use the one tunnel, and there were tools already waiting."Grab the rope and rappel down the shaft," Stannis ordered. "This tunnel will place you in the mountains directly above Po-Wahi. We will regroup at the bottom, in the desert. Unfortunately, only one of us can go down at a time, and I will go last. Stay safe until we regroup," he warned.

Ic: Stannis nodded. "We're leaving," he said decisively. Lowering his voice and signaling for a group huddle, he said in a near whisper, "Atiel, you said you've seen temples around the island. We'll head to Po-Koro, and maybe you can show us what you mean. Maybe there we can find something more. Agreed?"

Right now, I look like your avatar. Facepalm. I said serious ideas, you nub! *shakes fist*

Noooo, totally different music, kthx. Anyway, any more serious ideas for the matoran team? Tuck, stay out of this.

So I finally bought Mylo Xyloto. Major Minus, U.F.O. and Up in Flames are absolutely brilliant. However.....the whole album really sounds nothing like the Coldplay I know. Oh, and Rihanna? Why? Why? -Heat

Why not? Remember, they used Jay-J to great effect in their previous album with Yes!, and there are plenty of other examples of pairing up with another musical talent of another genre. It isn't a mole in the face of the band and a cancer that will grow, it's a sign of progression and experiment that showcases diversity. I think Coldplay used Rihanna very well.

Ic: "Makuta happened. The fortress was an illusion and it was all a trap. We were being expected." Pause. "All of us," he said, looking at the somewhat battered group he had now. "The rahi are restless, and the evil ones' minions are all over this place. Atiel and I were unable to figure anything else out, though. Anything new on this end?" he asked to nobody in particular.

IC: "Whaaat iffff... say like, you made a thingy... that could just like... suck out mask powers, maybe that type of thingy might work? But then... you said technology isn't that good yet, so that's prolly too special... buuuut how about, hmmmmmm, like... startin' simple, like sucking out... toa powers?" Anavel suggested, thinking that if it was possible to create something, anything, to vampirically suck the power out of a toa, then in theory, a similar machine might be doable for a mask. Of course, Anavel had her own little motives behind suggesting such a device to begin with, but even if Cersei had been privy to those little motives, Anavel felt that she wouldn't care. After all, Anavel's motives simply benefitted herself, though in this case, it could potentially benefit the both of them -- leading to why she even suggested it to begin with.

Ic: "You mean stripping a toa of his or her powers? Elemental powers? I... I think it is actually possible. I never had a reason to research it, to be honest, but it is doable, from a theoretical standpoint." Cersei looked closely at Anavel after this question, and her trained eye picked up on something other than childishness in Anavel's mind. "There's a meaning behind this," she said, more statement than question.

If we're talking about music, the Onu-Koro music from the MNOLG2 is my soundtrack for this game.

I ripped music from Bionicle: The Game like a year ago, link's been on my sig for a while actually...

That's cool and all, but like I said, I like the music from the second game. The Onu-Koro theme, with the mechanical hammering and percussion beat is simply amazing.

Ic: In a flash of light and haze, the fortress that had existed only moments earlier had collapsed, not physically but mentally. The whole thing was a farce, a setup by evil forces. Stannis and Atiel had been had. It was a difficult fight for two matoran, but their combined efforts were enough to at least survive the two tall, skeletal beasts who hissed at their very presence. Slugs crawled in the ground and seemed to make the tree roots come alive with movement, and it took the matoran's combined might to down a tree on one of the tall creatures and bring an end to the chase. But their flight was far from over, and Stannis' mask had almost been knocked off. That was a while ago, and the two matoran finally arrived at the temple complex, exhausted and out of breath. Atiel's hammer was bloodied from smashing slugs, and Stannis was holding one of his spears in the ready position, its tip no longer as shiny as before. Stannis arrived in the midst of a discussion to split the group. Apparently, he and his friend were not the only ones who had make a touch with danger, but the others were not as patient as he was. However, he remained silent as he cleaned his spear and slid it back into its place at his back. He breathed in long, deep breaths and finally stood upright, tweaking his mask back into its place. He waited for the first cool dude to open their mouth and complain about his absence. Ooc: Have any of you played Mini Ninjas? It's wicked fun.

If we're talking about music, the Onu-Koro music from the MNOLG2 is my soundtrack for this game.

I've been wondering the same thing. Preferably something cool and short that's easy to memorize.

Help! I'm turning into Fiar Truck!

For all of you on EW's team: I suggest we split into two groups to run around the island. We're going too slowly.

Makes sense, how about one of us reports back to Stannis, while the rest head back to Ta-Koro? By the way, this is my last post for the next eight hours or so.

I'm back again. Awfully sorry for the absence: turns out the facility I was at had very limited Internet access. The buggers. Also a heads up that you should not expect me to do any updating on Fridays to Sundays for the next three weekends -- "business" trips. Now that I'm back, time to shove the ball again!

They are placed on the Infinity Gauntlet and grant the wearer supreme reality-warping powers. Oh, wait, that's a Marvel thing...