ZippyWharrgarbl

Member Name: ZippyWharrgarblTheme: TreasureWord Count: 408Story: Darkest Depths

~~~There was a stir in the damp, mildewy air deep beneath the earth’s surface, in a dark, dank hole that had never known the warm embrace of the sun. A scaled, onyx tail slithered across the floor and over clinking coins from ancient kings as the dragon awoke.The reptilian behemoth lazily eyed its hoard, dull and lifeless in the gloom. It saw no goblet or gold gauntlet out of place, no ruby or rock tarnished by filthy, mortal hands. Satisfied, it rose, arching a spine as old as the mountains and extending wings that had not seen sky for aeons. On its exposed belly were tens of hundreds of jewels, some scraped and cracked, but all worth a fortune. The dragon paced, moving copious amounts of muscle that had been motionless for many a year.Boorish, arrogant feet against charred stone drew the monster’s attention. Ah, yes. Food often came to it in these morbid, morose tunnels that writhed and wormed throughout the dirt. It never understood why. Perhaps, even after all these years, there were heroes above, seeking to destroy its kind and reap the spoils that the dragons had claimed. Perhaps this was merely a lost traveller. It mattered not.Just as the dragon, oily black as a moonless midnight, was about to roar a great gale of golden flames, it paused. No filthy peasant quailed before him, nor did an ironclad idol irritate him with intrepid idiocy. It was a boy, dressed in bright blaring shades of blue and black. The boy looked lucidly up, leering in a lukewarm manner.“Ah,” said the boy. “I lost the tour group, didn’t I?”The dragon watched as the child whirled wavy wires of who-knows-what out of a pocket of his preposterously constricted pants and placed a bud-like bulge at the end of each wire into his enormous ears. With that, he turned and trotted away without further talk or tarry.The dragon, surprised and staggered, watched for well over an hour before wandering after the well-rounded boy. The tremendous amazement by the tepid tot had worn away, replaced by an eerie inquisitiveness. The land long left behind had altered, it seemed. It seemed that some slovenly snacks had stolen time to grow fat and filling. Perhaps the other dangerous, daring dragons did not know of this tasty discovery, atop the amazing area above.Perhaps such a positively appealing place merited a little merry meandering through.

Do we post the stories for the new theme here?

Member Name: ZippyWharrgarblTheme: VisionsWord Count: 600Story: Clairvoyance

There was a slight strangeness about the female, in her clasps and odd, slick fabrics, stretched over her armour to cover nearly the whole of her body. Her cell had three large tanks attached to it, and each of these had many pumps and filters lining the sides. The Toa within didn’t seem to mind; she was busy clawing at her Mask of Clairvoyance absently as she rocked on her heels, eyes wide and unseeing.<The Dark Hunters rise up, striking the village when it was at its most vulnerable, the screams are deafening…>Mad, they’d called her. She had no mind for the label, but she had known of it a week before it passed the lips of any being she knew. It was about the mask, she knew. It wouldn’t go away. It was with her forever.<A Matoran wanders home, takes a wrong turn on the way, meets a friend, goes out for a stroll…>The days had passed without much notice after that. It was too hard to keep track of time. She would recall talking to her Turaga one morning and find that she had spoken to the elder months later. And then came the nightmares, of dark fates befalling those she knew and those she did not. She did not sleep, she did not eat, she did not speak… and they locked her away.<So many cheers, the Akilini player lines up the shot, and it’s a goal…>No. There was something else to the story. She had been fighting with her teammates, and she had fallen into… no, she had fallen back, and her mask was submerged in silver liquid. Energized Protodermis. It had changed her, welded the dreaded thing to her face. But now, now it wasn’t shutting off. She was stuck with visions, and she didn’t know what was the future and what was the present anymore. Her days were an endless cycle of dark and light, with splashes of futures in between.<There was a noise in the dark, deep in the forest the Toa was camping in. He and his friends were worried, but they wandered into the dark…>They were worried about her. Her Toa team members rarely visited, and when they did, it was a quick visit. The Matoran taking care of her filtered her air, worried that, as a Toa of Water, she would escape using moisture from the air. She had no intention of leaving, but they still siphoned her Toa power and took precautions to weaken her.<There was a cave, far to the south, and within, there was a tribe of savages, and their storyteller was spinning tales of dreams and dancing beams of light…>She DID get visitors, though. Scholars, philosophers, educated beings of all sorts, seeking meaning in her jumbled words. She would attempt to answer their questions, but she was unable to stitch two words together in her frayed sentences. They left happy, in any case. And she would be left alone, in the room with the dry air.<A desert. A desert wider than any desert anyone had known. There, strange, alien beings lived and worked in the heat and drought, as they had for many years. And one day… one day the desert would become living land, and these creatures and those of her own lands would live in harmony.>She paused. That was a strange thought. Was it the present? She assumed not. She was in the same cell, the same air, the same dull light. Still, she pondered on it and what that future would mean.

This certainly intrigues me. I'd go see it, even if it came down to pure curiosity. It sounds fascinating.

I haven't.At least, I THINK I haven't... Maybe I have and I just don't remember it!

It's beautiful. I don't know what else to say. Tahu Nuva looks so creeped out.Absolutely wonderful.

Perhaps it is still protodermis, but with some other metallic element mixed in to raise its melting point.

They'd need some sort of system to get oxygen and other nutrients throughout their body. Assuming they are multicellular organisms, they would probably have a form of circulatory system. I believe that there were some references to a heart somewhere in the story, and what use would a heart be without something to pump around?

I'll have to keep an eye on this! The forest looks awesome; I'd love to be able to see it.

All of them.I really, really wanted to see a movie with Malum in it, but that's mostly because he's my favourite character. Still, 'The Exile's Tale' would have been an awesome animated short.

5, 5, 2. Although I did like the one with Tohu with a moustache.

The Malum drawing rather creeps me out, mainly because of the human face underneath. Such an interpretation is always offsetting for me. Unfortunately, I cannot say that there's anything such as shading to distract me from the distraction.The Zesk, however, has quite a bit of personality, and I'll agree that it's cute. If only it was shaded, too, but I guess not.Your Honor,Tyrannosaurus Kraggh

Oh, my. I was aiming to have Malum look 'organic' in this image, though I suppose that, since I took some creative liberties with the design (non-see-through head, less detail on the face, etc.), it could look a little less like LEGO than some people like. Sadly, I cannot shade very well, and I didn't want to ruin the picture, so there is very little shading in most of my art.Quite honestly, I didn't think either of the pictures really needed much, if any, shading. But that may just be my preference, and I respect your preference, too. Thank you very much for giving me criticism on my art.

Why.Why is this so BEAUTIFUL?!I'd definitely give this a 10/10. Just the general feel of the drawing... ooh, it's just so wonderful. The sight of the Matoran there made me laugh a bit,and I absolutely adore the design for Toa Audio.

Well, since the malum drawing is not yet finished, and there's still a lot missing, I'll compliment you on what I see: the head. I looove the facial expression, it seems very lively. And considering the rather early stage of this drawing, it is remarkable. ^^And the Zesk... it's adorable. :3What confuses me a bit about it, though, is that it looks very human in design. I do know that's your art style, but on that Zesk, it seems a bit odd. Not in a bad way.(OT: nice sketchbook you have. from what I can see the paper quality seems great ^^)_{Edit: fixed a typo}

It's weird how I don't realise it's unfinished until someone points it out. XD Welp, looks like I'll have to fix that up. My goodness. Thanks for pointing it out , though. I'll fix it up and, when I've fixed whatever's wrong with my drawing tablet, make it all pretty on the computer. I just hope no one thinks it's a WIP; it wasn't intended as one.I noticed that the Zesk looked too bipedal. My explanation is that it's unregressed.Thanks for commenting! (OT: Thanks! ^^ )

This is definitely an interesting look at the bloke. You've pulled the look off well on him, in any case. Great job!

I think it's much more likely to be a tail rather than a third leg. It would be very hard to walk with three legs. I mean, I suppose if I was created with a third leg, I'd learn to walk with it, but it just doesn't seem to be a very efficient way to travel.That said, that throne must be very uncomfortable for one with a tail. Perhaps he has a hole in the back of it for his tail or something.

So, I realised that I haven't put up any art here for a very long time! The only thing I've been doing at the moment is cheap sketchbook art, so I thought I'd put some of those up here.MalumSo, anyone who is familiar with me at all will know that my favourite character is Malum. My sketchbook has at least five sketches of him at the moment. While the arms in this image aren't that good and I didn't go into detail on the shoulderplates, I really like how the head turned out.And yes, those are teeth sticking out from the sides of his mouth in a modern-Orcish way.~~~ZeskI'll admit, this thing was drawn without any form of reference. Still, look at those eyes. This young, friendly Zesk will not maim you; it will love you!~~~Comments and (constructive) criticism will be appreciated and cherished!

I recall hearing that, while beings fro the MU are not capable of reproduction between themselves and as such don't have a need for romantic love, the Spherus Magnans are fully capable of it.That said, I believe that MU citizens are probably capable of romantic love, but they'd pobably see it as ultimate friendship.Also, in Sahmad's tale, it does mention 'the woman he loves', but that may just be his mother or something. Romantic love doesn't have to be the love he's talking about. However, it's highly likely, due to the words used in describing this woman and her actions, that it is romantic love being mentioned.

The MUians probably have a 'favoured' hand, but that would probably be due to preferring to wield one weapon in one hand. I suppose that they would be ambidextrous, since there probably wouldn't be a purpose to the Great Beings fixing them up to be left- or right-handed. Actually, now that I think about it, the MUians may have some form of mixed-handedness, where they do certain tasks better with one hand than they do with the other. For instance, Hewkii could write with his right hand, but use his left hand more dominantly in Kohlii. So, either ambidextrous or mixed-handed.The Spherus Magnans will, most likely, be left- or right-handed, like us, but perhaps with more even numbers of left-/right-handed people than ours.

I always thought that the element Iron wasn't restricted to Iron. Firstly, seeing as everything is made of protodermis in the MU, the element would just be silly. Secondly, Toa of Fire also can control heat. Toa of Lightning are not just limited to making lightning bolts zoosh out of the sky. So, why couldn't Iron just be used as a general term?

Well, it would be kind of weird if, after Mata Nui says goodbye and sits back in the mask, Iggy suddenly jumps up and prances around the place. Especially how the Agori and Glatorian don't seem to know that the Ignika's conscious even exists.Perhaps, assuming Mata Nui can speak with the Ignika inside the mask, Mata Nui requested that the Ignika sit back with him. They're probably having a whole mental tea party back there.

"For you it's Kriya! ... But for everyone else, it's Jenny."Awesome job! I can't wait to see what's next!

This has made me so pumped. Anyone have any idea where it'll air anywhere else?

Hapori Tohu is back! All is well again! :biggrin:I missed the dude so much.Also, GSR, you are a LEGEND.

Phyoohrii, you are a pillar of awesome in this community. Not only is this amazing art, it also has a practical purpose. If bored, you could play Where's Wally? with the characters.You, sir, are a legend.