TBK

You're all good - just need to change your agility or intelligence to 4. Doesn't matter which.

Whoops, my bad! Fix'd it, intelligence is set to 4. No irony there at alllll

Ready for the adventure! And likely death. But at least it'll be a noble death. Hopefully. Probably not. Anyway, I'm super duber uber grateful to you for letting me join in on this, Voltex.

Player Name: TBK

Campaign: #4: A Feast for Titans

Character Name: Tabek Umrik

Gender, Age, Element: Male, 24, Stone

Personality: Despite what he would like to think, Tabek knows that others usually perceive him as a bit... odd. Upon first impression, one might go so far as to say that he comes off as haughty and brooding. In reality, conversation has never been his particular strength, and he is often just misunderstood. This might be the reason why he only keeps a select few companions, but those particular friends provide a true insight to his personality. He is indeed a loyal and caring fellow, willing to sacrifice nearly anything for his neighbor. Even so, his naive optimism can lead him to trusting strangers a little too quickly.

History: Tabek was born into and seemingly destined for the sensational trade of boat repair, a trade that his clan carried for generations. Not that he wanted it – in fact, he attempted a number of times to veer off and become a fine artist, to the humor of some. Unfortunately, amid the war-torn economy, each attempt ended only in failure and near starvation, forcing him to revert back into the family business. Nonetheless, he gazes past the hammer, the tar pitch, and the endless droll of monotony to a hope of making something of himself for the good of his people. And of course, he also looks beyond his relatives' pessimism. They would tell you that Tabek is the one who has seen the least loss and sorrow in the family, and they would not be wrong.

Greatest Fears: (1) Tabek has always been a thinker and a seeker for the truth behind every situation, every assumption, and perhaps life itself, if he could find it. On the flipside, his greatest nightmare is that everything is truly as it seems: Chaos. His life, the world, the wars, all of history, is for naught. He dreads he may never find out in time.

(2) His inward tendencies also don the impression of even-tempered coolness, but when he senses that he has lost control of a situation, the facade quickly crumbles to panic. And when he loses control of himself? It has happened only twice before, and he hopes for his own well-being to never sink to that point again... heaven forbid that it involve a matter of life and death. He fears this may fall upon him one day.

(3) Though his intentions are well-meant, he is afraid that his ventures will come to nothing, and his family will be the worse for it because he wasn't there to help them.

Greatest Dreams: (1) He often dreams of becoming a great artist, but he knows even this would ultimately fall short. As Tabek pursues the meaning behind life, so also he pursues a purpose for himself.

(2) He hopes to earn the favor of his clan by proving his worth one day.

(3) He also desires to one day find a means to provide a steady means of provisions and income to his clan, whose business is staggering under the post-war market.

Ultimate Power: Tabek would do all in his power to, broadly put, make things right again. To remove fear and conflict from Okoto. To restore sustenance to those in need like his own family. And perhaps even use the power of the mask to strain a glance at the powers orchestrating destiny, if only for his own comfort.

Strength: 2

Agility: 3

Intelligence: 4

Charisma: 1

I first planned on making a career out of writing, then I switched to graphic design, then 3D animation, then game design, then banking, then welding, then personal training, then writing again, then...

... I think I'll stick with Arc on this one

IC: Liina

If one had perked his ears, he may have heard that a dumbfounded hush quickly settled over the incessant dispute in the inn's kitchen. Even then, he may have returned to conversation before another short outburst broke, starting with a grueling snap that released shouts of rage before being bent into pleas for mercy by a second snap. And all this happened in the breadth of Trun's question: "Kovant? Did your companion decide to wait outside?"

 Even as Kovant opened his mouth to reply, Liina unashamedly beat down the silence as she burst the kitchen door with the palm of one hand, coyly strutting back into the room with a set of keys twirling in the fingers of the other.

 "The manager was kind enough as to give us access to the whole inn for the night," she explained as she sat at a table of blank expressions.

 "What? Oh, and the cook specifically said 'I'll do anything', so I suppose that applies to the menu tonight as well."

-----

All the while, Kovant simply dropped his face to his palms.

IC: Kovant, entering the Inn

He gave Ofeo a pat on the shoulder as they entered, and replied to Trun, "I don't quite remember what's on the menu here, but it was actually excellent cooking." Maybe that much has stayed the same, he hoped.

As they entered, a female Ce-Matoran -- one he hadn't seen before -- informed them of an issue in the kitchen. He looked toward the kitchen with a hint of concern, and a surge of familiarity came as he heard familiar voices raised to an uncomfortable volume. Those two are still at it? he thought. At least that hasn't changed.

He hadn't thought about a room until now. Kovant had taken the whole trip in anticipation of staying with his tribe... not mourning over their ashes. He would need a room, but his previous attempts to settle the disputes in the kitchen never ended well. Turning back to the Ce-Matoran, he replied quietly with, "Thank you. Would you mind if we waited with you?" as he gently pulled out a chair and motioned for Trun to take a seat if he wished.

IC: Liina, inside the Inn

When the Ce-Matoran mentioned a dispute, Liina's shoulders immediately sagged in exasperation. Not again... must I take care of everything around here?

She would have to... force an agreement again, she supposed.

Staying behind the group until she was confident they were distracted by conversation, she nonchalantly tiptoed toward the kitchen and slid behind the door.

I am so entering this. Time to procrastinate until about 2 hours before the deadline.

And I wish I was joking

Unfortunately, I may need to withdraw my reservation until the next few rounds. With the little spare time I've been given this month, I fear that I would simply be an interference until December. I'm itching to play again, but several other items are higher on the priority list for the moment.

I apologize. But do have a good round, guys!

Whoooooo

Reserve a spot for me plez

IC: Kovant, outside the inn

Kovant was surprised to see Lekar appear, but in consideration of Ig's loyalty to him, it made sense... for the most part. Question was, why would the Hordika want to lead them to Lekar's door in the middle of the evening?

It suddenly occurred to him that he had gotten the entire group to tread through the midst of the city's darkest alleys to watch a Hordika simply return to its master. And now, faced with Lekar's simple question, he felt a bit ridiculous.

He nodded at Hiko's reply and followed up, "It's true... from the look of things, Ig here wanted us to follow hi..." he trailed off as he motioned to the Hordika, who now showed no indication of having ever moved from his curled position. "...him here."

IC: Liina

She stood behind Kovant as he conversed -- or rather, attempted to -- with a Toa of Air that Liina hadn't seen before. This must be the Lekar he was talking about, she thought. Seems friendly enough. She decided to hold her tongue as Kovant finished his explanation, and simply waited to see whether the Toa would notice her.

I was about to go to sleep

Then I saw that

let us protest doctor borg's reign of terror with with our secret weapon: lowercase letters

he'll never know what hit him

D'oh. I was excited to see this, but it looks like majhost is down once again. Lewa's head looked great on the front page, at least

Edit: Woohoo, now I see it! For a "quick sketch," this is fantastic. It hurts my head to try and visualize myself putting this much detail into my own doodles.

I've already pointed this out once before, but I must say it again: you, sir, are talented.

IC: Kovant, in City of Flames

While some tended to give the Hordika species a wide berth, Kovant was almost enraptured by Ig's curious nature. As the creature reappeared with a questioning look about him, Kovant instinctively caught the Hordika's message and began to follow his trail. It didn't occur to Kovant that the rest of the group may not have quite as easily seen the Hordika's intent... or even that Ig's "intent" could be anything less than harmless.

Right after rounding the edge of the building, he poked his head out as Ig had moments ago and informed the group, "Hurry up, he's fast for a little thing." Not waiting for a response, he then disappeared out of sight to follow the Hordika.

IC: Liina, in City of Flames

"Kovant, what-- ugh."

Liina shook her head in exasperation -- even the smallest diversions always captured Kovant's complete attention. Even as she complained under her breath, she nonetheless began strolling in Kovant's direction, being almost just as curious as Kovant... but she wasn't about to admit that, of course.

Unaware of the Hordika's affiliation with the group, she kept her hand on the hilt of her rusted blade, ready for anything as she moved to follow Kovant. Looking behind, she asked, "You guys gonna go on to the docks or go crawl behind a giant bug to who-knows-where?"

I answered the poll in lieu of who Bionicle's main demographic would be, but I suppose I should have read the main post first.   

I otherwise would have simply nulled because I don't think one person is more 'entitled' to buy a set than any other. Bionicle is simply for anyone who wants to take up the franchise, young or old.

IC: Liina

"You can say that again," she blurted with a raised eyebrow.

IC: Kovant

When the words left Liina's lips, Kovant immediately wished to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Even the notion of introducing her to the group was absolutely ridiculous and somewhat horrendous, but apparently, she had forced the notion.

 Kovant put his hand on Liina's mouth only to get it smacked back off and apologized, "I'm sorry, please excuse my sister. Well, technically not sister, but she's, uh..." He trailed off and decided to start over. "Allow me to introduce my friend, Liina. If she says anything offensive, sarcastic, and overall downgrading, please pardon her and exit the immediate area as quickly as possible." As he finished, he did his best to ignore her firey glare.

Looking over his friend again, he observed to Ofeo, "At this point, I would agree that you're something more than a matoran now... which seems to involve teleportation, and if you don't mind me saying, that's quite exciting." Despite his own inner turmoil, he smiled and continued, "But underneath whatever mask you wear, you'll always be Ofeo to us."

IC: TBK [18 Spartans]

 Instead of dodging the bolt, the Spartans learned from the previous mishap and instead dodged the lightning. They did not expect what happened next -- halfway through the formation, the bolt came to a stop and exploded, sending a burning shockwave through the bodies of the surrounding spartans and searing their flesh. There was little they could do to avoid this attack, and the surge was enough to leave only 2 of the remaining fighters with a heartbeat. [-13, total of 5 remaining.]

 As they began to hobble onto their feet, the 3 covert Spartans reappeared from the rising dust of the fallen tower and shouldered the two injured Spartans to their feet. The three raised their shields as they held up their two comrades, both holding their blades even as they coughed blood. Amidst the bloodstained rubble, they knew that the battle was lost. Their commander lay buried in the destruction of his own fortress. Their brothers lay unmoving around them, each one having given their dying breath in honor. And even as the enemy closed in all around and the dust from the crumbling city darkness shrouded the sky... they stood their ground. None of them were to trade for cowardice.

No. This this was their day. Not all men are oft given chances for valour, but these men were given the chance of their lives. The choice was now before them: they could flee and live for another day. They could return to their families. They could continue their lives and delay fear of death for a while longer.

Or they could die with the honor of a hero. And even as it mixed with the cold earth, the lifeblood of their brothers called out for such a hero. And as they raised their faces to the enemy, they marked sacred the ground they would hold now. Their legacy would never be forgotten.

They were Spartans.

IC:TBK [22 infantry, 28 Spartans][Total:50]

While TBK continued firing shots at Zakaro's unshielded troops, he felt the breeze getting stronger... and hotter... very quickly. It wasn't until he looked over when he heard the roar crackling from the immense tornado of fire, heading straight for his troops... all of which were around the central tower. TBK immediately ducked behind the cover of the stone ledge to shield himself from the heat and debris and commanded his infantry to take cover in the Wall -- unfortunately, its structural integrity was not something to be desired. Collapsing on half, the survivors fought to their last breath as they were swarmed by Zakaro. [-15]

Even as this happened, the slingshot operators had just repaired the slingshot as Zakaro fired another shot. However, they had just barely loaded another boulder, and they could not fire back before being buried under the largest pile of bricks they would ever see. [-7]

TBK hesitantly poked his head out after the storm had passed. It seemed safe -- until the floor began to tilt under his feet. The tornado had damaged the tower base just enough to send the huge tower -- and TBK -- falling toward Anna and Chro's army. All heads turned toward the scene, even if just for a moment, as they heard a faint scream that sounded something like "Mommeeeeee...!"

As the tower was coming to the ground next to the Spartans, they raised their shields to block Blade's bolts -- unfortunately, the shields conducted electricity a little too well. [-10] The remaining Spartans knew they were going down... so with a berserker's shout, they all charged Anna and her shadow, intending to take her down with them.

[15 Spartans, 3 in hiding.] [Total:18] Attacking Blade.

Dear Ekimu, I nearly sent this topic spiraling down into another debate avalanche with half a sentence.

Anyway, that observation of Lewa controlling both wind and air makes me wonder if there will be any other secondary elements. It might make things less complicated, but I still hope they're gonna be around.

Why do they gotta be female....?

(1) To remove females from the storyline would be a high offense to all ladies in the fanbase -- and there are quite a few -- and LEGO would lose a huge portion of their fans.

(2) Even though it's a different universe entirely, Bionicle is based on reality's basic precepts, one of those being the existence of both male and female. If Bionicle lacked these precepts, fans could no longer relate to the characters, and almost all interest in the storyline would disappear.

(3) As far as I know, many if not most of us want romance to be canonized this time around. And without females present, that would be obviously impossible.

On a side note, I also hope that they don't throw in a ton of characters that never appear again / don't get a set / aren't even given a canonized appearance.

Hm... how shall I put this?

Hewkii and Macku. I'd like my characters to be more than malfunctioned robots, thank you.

I've been considering joining the BZRPG for a while. I suppose I should jump in the boat now before the imminent newpocalypse sweeps in.

That would be crazy!

That's truly what I call a bag of goodies if there ever was one.

I'm not sure how I would feel about the whole villager species wearing one uniform mask. One thing I could guarantee from it, though: it would make creating sprite sheets a hundred times easier.

IC: TBK [25 infantry, 28 spartans.] [TOTAL: 53]

As the spartans continued fighting Blade, another boom rang out from Zakaro's cannon. Adjusting from the errors of their last miss, TBK's slingshot operators immediately hurled another boulder into action, this time successfully colliding the two massive projectiles into a massive explosion of bricks. However, Zakaro's boulder was quite a bit larger, flinging most of the debris toward the giant slingshot and crushing a few of its operators under the larger chunks. [-3] The slingshot itself was a bit damaged, and the remaining operators would need a few moments to repair it.

As he was firing at Blade from the tower top, TBK spotted a large portion of Zakaro's men moving toward the Wall, where 15 of TBK's infantry were residing. Letting one last bullet fly toward the head of Blade, he switched positions and concentrated his fire on Zakaro's army, commanding his own infantry to line the top of the wall and hurl their makeshift spears and lances and whatever else they could make down on top of the enemy.

Meanwhile, TBK's Spartans continued swinging their blades at Anna and her shadow.

[7 slingshot operators, 15 regular infantry, 25 fighting spartans, 3 spartans in hiding.] [TOTAL: 50] Attacking Zakaro's army and Blade.

IC: Kovant

Kovant trudged along the same streets, which had quieted from the rush that had passed through an hour before. Only this time, there was no joy in his stride as he passed through the thinning crowd. Only sadness loomed as he approached the grave site of his Ta-Matoran tribe, their ashes mixed with the dirt under the blackened timbers. The crumbled structure had been left almost untouched since its destruction, and for just a moment, Kovant was thankful that the city hadn't disturbed what he now considered sacred ground.

As he neared the fallen complex, his eyes raised to meet those of a sitting matoran named Liina, the lone survivor of the tribe who had hung around ever since. Beneath her mask, Kovant detected the slightest hint of a smile before it reversed into her usual frown. He sat down at her side on the ground, and they both stared in the distance, cooperatively let the silence drag on under the sky as it crept into a blood red sunset.

IC: Liina

Liina's eyes drilled the ground as Kovant silently mourned beside her. She had always protested becoming a teary slob, but she knew that Kovant needed this time. She was a whole lot worse herself when it actually happened, after all.

After what seemed an hour, it was enough. She spoke up -- only in a whisper, she never needed to be any louder -- and said to her brother, "You can't stay like this, you know."

Kovant looked up at her, shifting between understanding, annoyance and utter pain, and held her gaze. "Can I?" he whispered back before lowering his head back down.

"They would want you to move on," she continued. "They knew how much you wanted to do what you're doing now."

He looked up again. "Sitting in the ashes?"

She backhanded his shoulder, perhaps a bit too forcefully. "No! I mean exploring the world. Seeing things that we dreamed about when, you know, you were stuck in these slums."

Kovant's face softened into the first smile Liina had seen in years before fading out again as he returned his gaze to the dirt. She set her hand on and gently squeezed his shoulder. "I'm just glad to see you again."

Seconds later, Kovant's head perked up. He heard something. Liina followed his eyes to a nearby skyscaper, where a blinding light was being reflected from the street. Kovant spoke under his breath, "That's where Ofeo and Hiko were headed."

Liina didn't care who Ofeo and Hiko were -- she was curious about that flash. She immediately jumped to her feet, grabbed Kovant's hand, and forcefully hoisted him to his feet. "Well then, let's go!" Without waiting for his consent, she dragged him into a sprint toward the site of the flash.

-----

IC: Kovant

He and Liina didn't even reach the site before he noticed that Ofeo and Hiko were the center of attention. However, upon coming closer to the scene, Kovant's jaw dropped as he saw that Ofeo himself was... very different.