BZPRPG - Le-Wahi

[Wotz]

IC: Mephiles

 

Mertz was a Matoran who enjoyed a smaller life than some. He wasn't the sort to be off on madcap adventures battling monsters or fighting for the fate of existence in the heart of darkness. Instead, he was perfectly content with his little life in his paradisal home in Le-Koro. Watching the stars from his window sill at night, with only the torchlight within to light his hut's simple interior, was enough to keep him satisfied. The nights in the jungle were warm and comforting, and the stars seemed to watch over the night as guardians of peace and quiet.

 

His gaze drifting to the flowers by his side, who also observed the tranquil world outside, a smile spread across his face. Like most Matoran, his past had been plagued with darkness, the scars of which lived on to this day, and, outside of some miraculous occurrence, were not going to heal. However, while no amount of peace could regrow his hand, it did allow him to move on, and feel safe at last. Now he could sleep at night knowing the world outside was not ready to pounce on him at any moment.

 

Such were his reflective thoughts on such a beautiful night. It was a rare stroke of luck that he was so oblivious of what was to come, as this time of joy was not one to last.

 

Recently, Mertz had tried his hand - or hammer, rather - at crafting metal into works of art, with 'tried' being the key word. He was satisfied, at least, with the fact that he had attempted it, and had several small abstract sculptures in the shadows on the other side of the room. Unbeknownst to him, the lifeless shapes began to twitch, and reach toward one another, until they were so tight in their embrace that they began to compress into one form.

 

Mertz snapped to attention as the clump of iron began to writhe around violently, slamming into objects and rolling around on the floor. The Le-Matoran looked on in confusion and horror, unsure of how to react or what to do to stop his former artwork from damaging anything. Whatever happened, it was not going to touch the flowers. He placed himself between it and the plants as if they were his own children, refusing to let their beauty be lost.

 

Before he could make any kind of defensive action, however, the metal entity darted towards him and latched onto his leg. Any attempt to remove it was in vain. Slowly, the tendril began to coil around his body, making sharp movements as it did so, sticking to different parts of his body until Mertz found he was completely ensnared in the metal. He attempted to escape, but tripped and fell.

 

Already more frightened than he had perhaps ever been, and confused and disturbed that his art had suddenly turned on him, Mertz was totally unprepared for what came next. A part of the metal attached itself to his lips, preventing him from screaming. And then, he began to move.

 

Slowly, as if being drawn behind a Toa or taller being, Mertz began to slide along the ground, through the doorway to his hut and across the small platform outside into a dark spot below a tree branch.

 

The moonlight illuminated a dull-armoured hand as it reached out to grasp the Matoran by the ankle, as if it had been dragging him the whole time. Looking up, he saw that the arm belonged to a pair of glowing, crystalline eyes that looked to Mertz like something out of a nightmare. In his iron bindings, Mertz began thrashing around, attempting to break free, but the hand's grasp was firm and Mephiles had magnetised the metal to his body. There was no escape.

 

Soon, both Mertz and his kidnapper were long gone and forgotten, with the only evidence of the Le-Matoran ever existing being the torch in his hut, which burned till the morning to light the hut of nobody, as it had always done.

[Wade.]

IC: Alfon

 

I was this close to telling Hothead to cool it, but fortunately, his passionate rage bit the dust relatively quickly before I had the chance. Still, his yelling pounded on my eardrums like I had a bad hangover, and I found myself wincing in slight pain. I figured I'd move on with a few more questions, but the guy seemed pretty out of it, like he might pass out from exhaustion at any minute.

 

So instead of answers, I was rewarded with what could arguably be a friend.

 

I turned to face the familiar voice, and as it turns out, Colx, some gym owner I met a while ago, landed himself among this sad-looking lot. Meaning, you're one of us now, sucker.

 

"Man," I grinned, relieved to see a familiar face. "I don't know what it is, but you're uglier than I remember. How's the chin holding up?"

 

"Oh and before you sass me..." I interrupted, turning back to the other Toa I'd just been speaking to. "Hothead, this is Gym Rat. Gym Rat, this is Hothead. Both of you are now friends."

Edited June 3, 2014 by TX Wade

[Hanako Herupa]

IC: (Hari)

 

Well that was an abject failure. Skyra had some things she had to wrap up, Tillian I think left to find one of our friends that disappeared away. Naona had left to work with Dekhaz, I hadn't seen Kale in a while. So that left Krayn, Onuzek, and I. I shouldn't have been wasting their time anyways. Stupid, stupid Hari. Just dead weight really, prettied up sure but nothing worth keeping around. My friends did things, they got things done, and I, I just let things happen to me. Floated around like a leaf on the breeze. Well perhaps it was time to stop being such. I got up from Krayn's lap, and paid the cashier the correct amount of widgets for my outfits and made sure there would be a message for Skyra and the others. I kissed Krayn and hugged him. "Krayn I'm going to be going for a bit, mainly back to Po, there's some things I need to wrap up, alone. I wish you could come with me, but you know how it is. So don't worry, it's not like you're losing me forever!" I giggled. There were some chapters in my life I needed to revisit and then close. I couldn't do it with my friends though, wasn't sure what I'd find, wasn't the kind of thing I think I could do with others. Had to figure things out on my own for a while. I got up again and walked past Onuzek and out into the crowd, disappearing from view.

 

OOC: Hari leaving Le-Wahi, heading to Po-Wahi.

 

IC: (NPC)

 

While Krayn sat in in the shop, a matoran messenger came walking up to him, carrying an envelope in hand.

 

"Hello sir, this letter should have came to you sooner, sorry for the delay." The messenger simply nodded and walked off.

[sunflower]

IC: Dehkaz

Mentally, Dehkaz smirked at the accent Naona adopted, more of the fact that it was pretty darn good. He'd have to ask about it later. Right now, they had more serious matters. Namely, four of them appraoching them with bad attitudes and disturbingly large blades. Right, they didn't have time for this kind of delay. The plan was to get in and out, preferrably with the crime lord out of business.

And so he directed his attention to the closest of the brutes, a black armored Vortixx who's weapon was glowing for reasons he really didn't feel like discovering. That wouldn't do at all.

Raising a hand, he magnetically pulled the being downward, locking him in place long enough for a certain Toa of Stone to finish the job.

[25K Now!]

IC: Naona

 

Naona lashed out with her powers, a section of the rocky floor below them punching upwards into the Vortixx and trapping him, now unconscious, against the ceiling. The weapon clattered to the ground, and was promptly crushed beneath her foot. Nobody expected to be attacked from underneath in such a confined area - despite the fact that they were fighting a Toa of Stone like her, people seemed to look for attacks from the vicinity of her actual body, not the floor.

 

"No matter how hard you try-persevere ..." she drawled with an uncharacteristic grin, "... IT IS ALL USELESS!"

 

As she fired off two beams from her mask at a Skakdi of Air quite close to lopping off Dehkaz' head (however, she doubted he would be killed so easily), distracting the being from his actions, Naona wondered if she was enjoying her disguise as an arrogant Le-koroan mercenary too much. She immediately squashed the thought.

 

After all, she needed some amusement every once in a while.

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

Finding Onuzek was easy enough, the guy was his own landmark. He was exactly where I'd left him, back in the shop. As I entered I noticed two things, one was Krayn, and two was Tillian and Hari had vanished. I sighed as I walked up to Krayn, hoping he had at least some idea of where they'd went.

 

"Hey Krayn, this is my mom." I pointed to my mother who'd been trailing just behind me. "Mom meet Krayn. Krayn meet Mom." Well that was one friend introduced to my mother, yay.

 

"Where'd everyone else go? That's Onuzek..." My mom seemed to be staring at the mountain of a Toa in particular.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Princess Anna of Arendelle

[Geardirector]

IC: Alfon

 

I was this close to telling Hothead to cool it, but fortunately, his passionate rage bit the dust relatively quickly before I had the chance. Still, his yelling pounded on my eardrums like I had a bad hangover, and I found myself wincing in slight pain. I figured I'd move on with a few more questions, but the guy seemed pretty out of it, like he might pass out from exhaustion at any minute.

 

So instead of answers, I was rewarded with what could arguably be a friend.

 

I turned to face the familiar voice, and as it turns out, Colx, some gym owner I met a while ago, landed himself among this sad-looking lot. Meaning, you're one of us now, sucker.

 

"Man," I grinned, relieved to see a familiar face. "I don't know what it is, but you're uglier than I remember. How's the chin holding up?"

 

"Oh and before you sass me..." I interrupted, turning back to the other Toa I'd just been speaking to. "Hothead, this is Gym Rat. Gym Rat, this is Hothead. Both of you are now friends."

 

IC: Colx (Big Tree)

 

"I'd wager you're gonna eat those words some way, if not by my hand then by karma's hand"

[AuRon the champion]

IC:

 

"Yes. You and everyone else," Halfimus said with a frown.

[Relapse]

IC: (Iiasmir)

 

"Have you ever tried playing hopscotch?"

[AuRon the champion]

IC:

 

"Not really."

[Relapse]

IC: (Iiasmir)

 

"You should. It's electrifying."

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"Hello, Skyra's mother." The De-Toa replied politely, not getting up from his seat. He slipped the letter idly into a coat pocket, resolving to take a look at it when he had a little more time; A letter already late can't have been extremely important, after all, and if it was its importance had lessened.

 

"Hari said there was something she needed to do alone. Tillian said there was someone he needed to collect in Ga-Koro."

[AuRon the champion]

IC:

 

I sense a really bad pun/joke/something going on here.

 

"Riiight. I'll take your word for it."

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

"Oh." I tried not to sound disappointed, but I probably did. It felt like we'd just got back together and already we'd split off. I figured it was largely my fault for walking off with my newly rediscovered mom, but that really couldn't be helped.

 

"Well...I suppose we could do...stuff while we wait for them to come back." The thought of actually doing my job as a Gukko Force Commander crossed my mind for a moment. Nah.

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"Or we could go after Tillian, and track Hari down after the fiasco a new arrival from Ga-Koro will no doubt bring."

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

"Oooo I like that idea better. That way we can met this new person, and put a leash on Tillian." It was something I should have done ages ago.

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"..."

 

The De-Toa was silent a moment, and a careful observer might have noted a brief moment of his eyes directed heavenward, as if wondering why he, of all people, was dealing with the crazies. Then he stood, brushing himself off and gathering his coat around him. Krayn took a moment to survey those present, before nodding.

 

"Very well. Shall we set out? Shouldn't be hard to find Tillian once we arrive; He's clearly audible."

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

"Yeah we can take Destiny and-" I glanced back at Onuzek for a moment. "You know, I think I feel like taking the ferry."

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"Probably wise." Krayn remarked dryly, beginning to walk leisurely in the direction of the ferry. His pace was, as usual, measured and perfectly timed, neither hurried nor lazy. It was fairly typical, as was his silence. For a Toa of Sonics, he tended to make little noise, and around most of the team, at least, tend not to speak unless his input was needed.

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

It didn't take long before we had all assembled onto the elevator. (Slightly squished together with Onuzek onboard.) As it descended I looked out the window toward the thick jungle.

 

"I...hate enclosed spaces..."

Edited June 6, 2014 by Princess Anna of Arendelle

[sunflower]

IC: Dehkaz

 

The Toa of Magntetism dropped low, his knees bending as the Skakdi grunt's slash sailed over his head. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction caused by the twin beams of light slicing through the air from Naona's temporary Kanohi, Dehkaz shot back up, slamming his shoulder into the being's stomach. The force of the blow sent him stumbling back a step, though it wasn't enough distance to get away from the knife the Fa-Toa unceremoniously planted in the Skakdi's torso, the blade slipping through a gap in his armor.

 

With a little help from the Kakama he now wore, of course.

 

By now, the remaining two brutes, who had previously stayed back from the pair, watching them, moved forward.

 

The first, a Toa clad in a set of battered orange armor, raised his curved sword, a torrent of flame blasting out from the weapon towards Naona.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Gravity

[25K Now!]

IC: Naona

 

A wall of stone rose to meet the torrwnt of flames, before shattering into millions of little fragments that flew straight into the attacker's chest. Naona watched as the man collapsed to the floor, squirming - the pain far too much to handle.

 

"Did I not already say?" she remarked. "It is Useless."

[sunflower]

IC: Dehkaz

 

"I'd listen to her," Dehkaz remarked dryly, still having yet dropped the clipped accent, a knife that was all blade and no handle floating beside his open palm. "Things do not end well otherwise."

 

Before he had a chance to advance on the last guard, the crime lord, who had positioned himself off to the side, gave a gravelly laugh. One devoid of humor, which drew Dehkaz' attention toward the Turaga of Lighnting. Just in time to see the being raise his war-ax toward the two. And the crackling arcs of electricity that shot out from it toward him.

 

With a single blinding, Kakama-powered, motion, the Fa-Toa brought both his hands up, the hum of his elemental power filling the air. The jagged bolts of lightning suddenly shot upward into the ceiling, deflecting off the invisible force Dehkaz was generating.

[Observedhalo]

IC: Athiel

 

"That sounds perfectly fine. I insist on paying." Athiel placed a small bag of widgets on the counter. "Will this cover it?"

[25K Now!]

IC: Naona

 

"I do believe we're quite shock-surprised," drawled Naona, firing off two laser beams at the Turaga.

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"Le-Korans tends not to enjoy tight spaces." The Lieutenant responded, hands in his pockets. He was equally cramped in the elevator, and due to his element he was aware of every threatening creak and groan at its load's weight, but he elected not to comment on it. After a moment's silence, he glanced at the Le-Toa.

 

"Are you alright, Commander?"

[25K Now!]

IC: Kunitu

 

"I honestly cannot see an inn anywhere."

[Onaku]

IC: Qyntar

After paying for their meals, Qyntar and Athiel sat down at one of the tables. Qyntar gracefully cut the steak into smaller bites, using the fork to tidily navigate the food to his mouth. "Alright, so what is our next move?" Qyntar finally asked while cutting his steak.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"I wouldn't keep looking for very long." Esao had his hand on one of the archery turrets and his feet planted hard on the wall to steady himself while he did some maintenance work. "We only have the second floor of the bar. Nothing full-fledged."

 

-Tyler

[Razgriz]

IC: "Any place to lay up that isn't a tree. I think we both know how that turns out."

He glanced up at Esao. Something about this guy was... familiar. Like he'd someone like him before.

A lot.

He didn't like that.

Who could that have been, with such an easygoing attitude, yet straightforward manner of speaking?

Oh yeah right Jol duh

"I take it that's open, at least?"

[Vezok's Friend]

IC:

 

I’m not the type to wake up in the morning and not recall what’s been happening the night before. Mostly because it means that something happened that caused that loss of recollection. Either a huge bump on the head or ingesting something in a large enough quantity to pass right out.

 

So you’ll understand the second of confusion when I opened my eyes to find myself looking at the diffuse, warm sunlight falling onto my face through a high window, the leaf-edges of the hut I was in slightly moving in a soft breeze. Not a bad start, I’d had worse mornings. Still, I wasn’t entirely comfortable, thanks to the weight on my chest that made breathing a little harder than usual.

 

I glanced down and spotted the lavender-colored figure that curled up next to me, half of her on the bed, while her head and arms rested on top of me. A soft, humming chuckle formed in the back of my throat as I looked down at Valria’s sleeping face, half obscured by her own arm. Guess not all things that cause a bit of slowness in the morning are bad.

 

The Toa of gravity was breathing steadily and calm. She was doing much better the past few days, after Dorian had taken her aside. I had only heard fragments of what he’d told her, but considering that it had obviously affected her in a positive way, I wasn’t gonna question it. I was quite grateful for it, in fact. But don’t tell the kid I said that. That had been...3-4 days ago now. Next thing I’d felt then were Val’s arms draped over my shoulders...

 

-----

 

Dorian gave me a lot to think about, all the thoughts and ideas were still swimming around in my head, I walked up behind Agni, and wrapped my arms around him. It felt good, didn't care, just wanted to hug him. "You can still talk if you want, I don't mind," I chuckled.

 

I leaned my head back slightly while gently placing a hand on her wrist. “Looks like you reconsidered leaving.” I said, smiling. “Guess the kid had a thing or two to say, hm?”

She nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but I just squeezed her wrist lightly. “It’s okay. You don’t have to repeat it back to me - I’m just glad you’re still here. Not sure I could have watched you walk away a second time…” I added, low enough that only she could hear me.

 

“I’m sorry Agni, I shouldn't have broken down like that. I just felt like...like I was a toxic influence on this team. Dorian helped me realize though that it wasn’t as bad as I thought, besides I still had someone here I couldn’t leave.” I squeezed my arms around Agni tighter, pressing myself against the Toa of Fire, I didn’t want to let go, I shouldn’t have thought about leaving. New slate, focus Valria, you’re not the bad guy here, no one is. You made a mistake, and they’ve forgiven you, he’s forgiven you. I just had to forgive myself, and maybe some day soon I would.

 

I smiled. “You’ve been through more on your own than most of us. I doubt there is anybody who could live through the same and come out the other end unaffected. There is no shame in that.” I said, though I must admit, my memories get a little blurry after that. It had been a long day and despite the time we spent in Le-Koro gathering our strength back, I had felt quite tired. I had bade the others a good night and retreated too my room, with Valria in tow, since the next morning I’d found her curled up on the other side of the bed, much like she was now, though not quite as close. For a cop who’d spent the majority of his sleeping time in one-man bunks I wasn't quite used to the sight yet - but I didn’t mind it either.

 

-----

 

As I started to shift around the Toa of gravity blinkingly opened her eyes and turned her head slightly, looking up at me.

 

“Sleep well?” I asked.

 

“Yes,” I chuckled, a small smirk on my face, uncurling and stretching like a lazy Muaka.. I wish we could just laze in bed, not worrying about anything but this moment. I reached to wrap my fingers around his, a soft sigh of contentment escaping my lips as I looked over at him. The previous night seemed to fade from memory when I followed Agni. I had felt that sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over me. Now though I was well-rested enough, didn’t mean I wanted to leave the comfort of our bed. “What about you, how are you feeling?’

 

“I was feeling good a minute ago - I’m better now.” I answered with a slight grin. I curled my fingers, interlocking them with hers. Her palm was pressed against mine and I playfully started to push back. It was a sort of lazy tug-of-war between us which continued in silence for a short while, until she put a bit more force behind her next push. I didn’t resist and a moment later she had pushed my arm back down to my chest with her upper body. Now really laying half on top of me, she shot me a sly grin which I returned.

 

“You know, we will have to get up eventually…” I said.

 

“Yeah...eventually, but who says we have to get up now?” I chuckled, pecking Agni with a kiss on the cheek. I laid against Agni a little more, making my point clear, that I wasn’t exactly interested in leaving the bed and his arms yet. I can’t even remember the last time I felt like this. Probably because I had never felt at ease as I felt in this moment, I felt lazy but in a weirdly good way. Like all of the world’s problems melted away when I laid in that bed with Agni, when I ran my fingers over his chest and around his shoulders. I didn’t have to think about hunting down a rogue Toa, and an all around by the name of Echelon. If he found allies like he had before, it would undoubtedly make our mission to chop off the hydra’s head all the more difficult. I pushed the the thoughts from my head and instead laid against Agni’s chest, nuzzling up against him as I tried to push away the responsibilities, if only for a few more minutes. A contented sigh escaped from my lips and I didn’t really fidget anymore, just wanted to hear the comforting thump of his heart, feel safe for the first time in a long time.

 

I chuckled softly, which sounded more like another low hum to Valria’s ears in her position. “If you keep me here much longer, that could be seen as obstruction of justice.” I said, moving my hands up her sides and over her back, gently but firmly embracing her. “I just might have to arrest you for it.”

Let’s leave out the fact that I didn’t actually have any authority outside Ta-Wahi’s borders, apart from the normal powers vested in lawful Toa.

 

“Sorry officer, might as well cuff me because I’m not going anywhere.” I giggled. “Yeah we should really get up though, Merror probably wants to get us moving. We’ve relaxed but it’s time to hunt Echelon down.” I looked up to him as I said that last bit. I wanted to lay here forever, but we had a job to do, maybe after that we could relax again. I’d like that, maybe we could take a break in Ga.

 

Agni was about to admit defeat and just stay pinned by the Toa of gravity, when there was a knock on the door.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Open and prepped for visitors," the archer confirmed, building energy in his calves and then pushing back; his hand on the archery turret clenched and he pulled himself up effortlessly. The bow on his back unlimbered casually and he assumed his firing stance, closing one eye and then the other with his teeth clenched in thought. Whatever he felt - in the breeze, the stance, the turret - he was satisfied, and threw the bow back over his shoulder while he climbed down and landed nimbly on his feet.

 

Before he was even fully rooted to the ground he'd started walking again, graceful and quick, with a hand outstretched. "Toa Esao. I've been heading up reconstruction efforts here."

 

-Tyler

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

"Well...let me put it this way..." I kept staring out the very small window that gave me a small glimpse at the jungle that we were descending towards. "...I'm getting flashbacks of being trapped in a cave for hours." Those were not good memories.

 

As soon as the elevator reached the bottom I squeezed out of the exit.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Princess Anna of Arendelle

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"I understand."

 

As the elevator reached the bottom, the De-Toa moved aside carefully to allow Skyra out first, before slipping out alongside the others. He adjusted his coat slightly, straightening it from the descent.

 

"Is there anything you need?"

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

"I'm fine now..." I assured Krayn, panting a bit. I hadn't realised I'd been starting to hyperventilate before I'd escaped the elevator. Now that I was outside in the jungle again I was feeling better.

 

"Well...the ferry is only a short walk from here." I started to lead the way, trying to pretend the whole elevator incident never happened.

[Razgriz]

IC: Tarex took the hand in his own giving it a firm shake.

"Tarex. Bit of a wanderer. Decided I'd come home a bit. Found a village on the way." he said.

He got a oddly strong sense of trustworthiness from Esao.

Well, probably not odd. It takes a certain sort to decide to rebuild a village from what sounded like nearly the ground up, you know?

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"..."

 

The De-Toa followed, but with his acute hearing, he couldn't help but note both the pattern and rate of the Le-Toa breaths, but also the tone of her voice. For a few minutes, he kept his silence, but ultimately, elected to ask his question. "Would it help to talk about it, Skyra?"

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Not quite the first time I've heard that story." Esao made a wry face, the closest he ever got to expressing external good humor. "Good grip, Tarex. You said you're a wanderer? Where you hail from?"

 

-Tyler

[Razgriz]

IC: "You too."

If I had to guess...

"A couple dozen kio or so to the south."

In the jungle, just off the beach. Good times.

"Surprised this is the first I've seen this place, honestly."

[Snelly]

IC: Skyra

 

I was surprised, Krayn wanted to talk? He was quiet one of the group most of the time.

 

"I...guess so."