>>C:\main_drive\Section_2: Commentary

[EmperorWhenua]

Well, clearly the joke was not obvious or funny.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

Well, clearly the joke was not obvious or funny.

 

Ah, but therein lies the trick! If jokes of a sarcastic nature become too obvious, they loses their charm. When writing, you must do it in such a way so as to make it seem completely serious to the dear reader not searching for such commentary. Take your case - why, during a serious conversation regarding your characters lack of empathy, would one bring in comedy?

 

Now while I enjoy blunt force humor as much as the next person, I also appreciate less obvious jokes - ones where you need to read between the lines - for their cleverness. Unfortunately, such humor seems greatly under-appreciated (though it may not have always been so; it's rather interesting to learn how many subtle bits of humor one can find in Shakespearean writings, just as one example from the past).

 

Of course, the difficulty with the written medium is the multiple interpretations of something. For instance, every person will have different reaction to a sentence. Take yours - my reaction to it was a chuckle (we clearly find different things funny), followed by my decision to elaborate upon my own comedic beliefs. One could easily read it other ways, just as easily as they could pull things out of this or any other post. But me, well, I find a more comedic interpretation of things to be best. Sure, you'll wind up mocking a few people, but the others will laugh. And wouldn't you agree that folks who take themselves so seriously deserve a good mocking?

 

(But seriously, Shakespeare was a very dirty man.)

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

 

P.S. This post is the result of my night-time posting and mild boredom. Lord only knows what I'd do if I ever got really bored!

[EmperorWhenua]

Ah, but therein lies the trick! If jokes of a sarcastic nature become too obvious, they loses their charm. When writing, you must do it in such a way so as to make it seem completely serious to the dear reader not searching for such commentary. Take your case - why, during a serious conversation regarding your characters lack of empathy, would one bring in comedy?

Now while I enjoy blunt force humor as much as the next person, I also appreciate less obvious jokes - ones where you need to read between the lines - for their cleverness.

I said the joke was neither obvious or funny. If that was what you were going for, good for you, but it fell utterly flat for me. That's not a trick, it's just silly. And I'm quite aware of how dirty Shakespeare was—the utter nefariousness in denying the audience of Othello with Iago's much-anticipated confession being a prime example.

 

What I'm saying is if you were trying to be clever, you failed, because cleverness lies in actual wit and timing, neither of which were objectively practiced in your joke, thus it wasn't funny. You're a terrible comedian. (Not that I'm any better, though.)

 

P.S. This post is the result of my night-time posting and mild boredom. Lord only knows what I'd do if I ever got really bored!

I'd imagine you write your ridiculously long character profiles.

[25K Now!]

I feel like playing a punner because of this discussion.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

What I'm saying is if you were trying to be clever, you failed, because cleverness lies in actual wit and timing, neither of which were objectively practiced in your joke, thus it wasn't funny. You're a terrible comedian. (Not that I'm any better, though.)

 

I know many who would disagree on that point, though I'll be the first to admit my skill with humorous writing is far inferior to that in actual speech. My writing skills are grossly underdeveloped next to my speech and improv techniques.

 

Though in this case, your not getting the joke does not imply nobody else could. Not that we'll know until someone else adds on, of course. Still, I'm going to drop the conversation off here, as there's not much else where we could take it.

 

I'd imagine you write your ridiculously long character profiles.

 

There's a little more to it than simple boredom, though. Or, in fact, writing character profiles simply for the heck of it. It's simple enough to write a personality and see what a person is when tossed into a situation; that was the experiment I went for in Voyage. But the truth is, experience is a far greater determinant of who a person is (right to a bio-chemical level) than inborn characteristics. Thus, when writing a character, I like to have an understanding of "where they're coming from" when making their decisions, which is a lot easier to when I have something written down to consult.

 

Of course, that mostly stems from (arguably) my greatest flaw as a writer - unless I actively think about it, all of my writing sounds like me. It's why I can do public speaking, but my essays tend to fall flat; why I can write character monologue, but generally blend characters together too much in dialogue.

 

Personally, I think the forum could use a topic to discuss things like this in terms of writing method and the like. Things to help newer members flesh out their characters, improve their writing, etc. Perhaps even a workshop for critiquing the writing, which would also serve for some older members. Of course, with how quick some people can be on the defense, I can't see it going more than a few weeks before closing from flame war.

 

(P.S. I think I turned your sentence into a soapbox. Sorry.)

 

I feel like playing a punner because of this discussion.

 

Do it.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

Edited June 1, 2014 by Toa Levacius Zehvor

[EmperorWhenua]

-snip

 

(P.S. I think I turned your sentence into a soapbox. Sorry.)

 

... I made a deadpan joke. Clearly you don't even pick up on the very humour you say you enjoy. Good job.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

-snip

 

(P.S. I think I turned your sentence into a soapbox. Sorry.)

 

... I made a deadpan joke. Clearly you don't even pick up on the very humour you say you enjoy. Good job.

 

And here I was beginning to think that the point of this conversation was to intentionally miss the joke. Still, as amusing as this apparent gambit pileup could be, I find the following to be a much better response -

 

Well, clearly the joke was not obvious or funny.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Geardirector]

Alright, that's enough out of you two. Lev; you're an asshat. Yumiwa; you're a prick.

 

Now can it.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

Alright, that's enough out of you two. Lev; you're an asshat. Yumiwa; you're a prick.

 

Now can it.

 

Gotcha, boss.

 

Also, I've got a staff-directed question - exactly how common/uncommon are Toa, Skakdi, and other "powered" races around here?

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Geardirector]

The City is basically a melting pot, so anything goes, really. You could find all of these species in reasonably large numbers throughout.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

So what of the Matoran sub-species? Since we're following the biomechanical reproduction method, it begs a lot of questions as far as the actual genetics behind it. Matoran, Toa, Turaga, and elemental affiliation are all simply different phenotypes of the same species. Perhaps I'm overthinking this, but an established fanon ruling for this could be helpful for things like population demographics.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Geardirector]

It's not that hard to figure out the way I see it. If you're talking about power inheritance, then it's as easy as just picking one element and running with it.

 

Passed down from, say, a Toa of Earth you'd get the elemental power of Earth, and also enhanced strength and night vision.

 

Pretty simple in my view.

[Krayzikk]

It's pretty simple; Elements are an either/or deal. Say one was born of a Ta-Toa and a Le-Toa. They wouldn't have air and fire, or the traits associated with them, they would have just one or the other, regardless of mixed parentage.

[sunflower]

Fanon reproduction rules for demographics?

 

 

why i'm glad you asked

 

 

i'll get back to you soon

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

It's pretty simple; Elements are an either/or deal. Say one was born of a Ta-Toa and a Le-Toa. They wouldn't have air and fire, or the traits associated with them, they would have just one or the other, regardless of mixed parentage.

 

So a straight flip of a coin, then? What of Toa, then - it's fairly well established that Toa Power (unlike Elemental Power) is finite, so does the conception of a Toa child drain some of it from the parent(s)? Possibly all? Either way, it reflects two scenarios - the first being that the number of Toa is held constant, and in fact lowering as some die off, which means there's very few; the second being that the power is spread out amongst offspring, who are still in fact dying, and as the population grows, the power of younger individuals is lower than that of previous?

 

The latter scenario would certainly explain why NPC Toa always seem to go down so (comparatively) easy.

 

Fanon reproduction rules for demographics?

 

 

why i'm glad you asked

 

 

i'll get back to you soon

 

Oh, well then. Yay.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Krayzikk]

There's actually a third scenario; You're overthinking this.

 

But, if we insist on overthinking it, it is entirely plausible that, similar to reproduction in the real world, the process creates Toa Energy. It is finite among those who already possess it; It had to have come from somewhere, as Toa Energy wasn't really a thing before Toa were. It's entirely plausible that energy taken in during the process is converted into Toa Energy, providing the finite amount that will continue with the new Toa through their entire life.

[25K Now!]

It's a dominant-recessive thing.

[NorikSigma]

Right. So Ta-Toa x Ga-Toa

Child is Ta OR Ga Toa.

 

Genetics ftw.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Just Norik

[graggen2468]

“I lived through the Cataclysm.
I helped make this world a Utopia.
I built this city, and by the Great Beings I’ll tear it down.”

-One of Sai’kun’s many rants

Name: Sai’kun

Species: Male Ta-Matoran

Affiliation: Being disillusioned due to the history of the city, Sai’kun does not really trust anyone but himself.

Powers: Intelligence bordering on the edge of insanity and heat resistance.

Gear: A small forge hammer and an ancient akilini disk launcher with various disks depending on the situation. However, due to his lack of a decent forge, he only has access to level four to five disks on average, although he did make a level 8 disk at one point through sheer luck. He has most types of disks stored away in some hidey-holes around the city. In addition, he has various gadgets and gismos such as weak cloaking device and a jump pack, but more often than not, they explode. In addition, Sai’kun has a few flash grenades to get him out of sticky situations.

Skills: Years of living in this city have taught him the art of guerilla warfare. He usually likes to strike quickly and unexpectedly from the shadows with a few shots from a disk, throwing a flash grenade, and running like Kharzani is behind him. He also loves tinkering, and is bent on finding a way to easily destroy Vahki and the monsters, although his plasma weaponry prototypes are too unstable to even pick up at the moment. However, if he feels that somebody is committing a crime, he will come out of the shadows yelling and shooting a never-ending stream of disks and grenades. He also can make kanoka disks and hopes to someday make a noble mask that he could use.

Weaknesses: Like every other matoran, Sai’kun does not stack up well in close combat. Using his hammer is more of a last resort rather than a true battle tactic. He will also do anything to help anyone, even if it means certain death for him. This has been used against him quite a few times, as he will walk into a trap, no matter how obvious it is, in order to save someone from danger. So far, he has been able to fight his way out, but he is afraid that probability will eventually catch up to him.

Appearance: Rusty red armor with a mechanically augmented right arm. His right hand is little more than an empty socket where he can attach his hammer, launcher, or other tool depending on the situation.

History: Sai’kun always wanted to be a Toa in order to defend the helpless and uphold the law. He became a great mask maker, hoping that one day he could be powerful enough to use one. However, as the years passed and nobody came rushing up to him with a Toa stone, Sai’kun believed that the only way to help people was through politics. For a while, he served on the city council in order to make make the city the utopia it once was. Feeling satisfied, he retreated back into the lower levels to live out the rest of his days in peace, knowing that what he did was right. However, once social classes began to develop, he became disillusioned with the entire power structure and led a revolt against the upper levels. During the battle, a Vakhi’s uncharged staff cut off his right arm, forcing him to retreat into the shadows. He stayed in hiding for years after that, his intelligence becoming insanity and his desire to do good becoming a burning hatred towards the upper levels. Sai’kun remained in the shadows for many years, until the monsters began to attack. Realizing that these creatures just might be enough to destroy the city and are putting people in danger, Sai’kun now emerges from the shadows to help people, albeit in a highly destructive way.

 

Personality‏: Sai’kun is a matoran of contradictions. He hates the people who obsessed with the vices of the upper city (drinking, murdering, and women) and will attempt to kill them on sight, yet he will help anyone in trouble no matter what the cost. This split between his hatred and his sense of duty to behave like a Toa causes him to be unpredictable in the heat of battle, and depending on how he is feeling, he can be a savior or a menace. He judges people by what he notices, and is brutally honest when pointing out character flaws. In fact, when he sees someone who has too much hubris, he goes into an insane rage and will not stop ranting and shooting until the adversary is down.

[sunflower]

Sai'kun approved, I'm interested to see where his character goes, actually.

[25K Now!]

If I made a character, would it be fine for him to lead a gang?

[Geardirector]

Certainly, it'd be up to you and other players to give it members beyond NPCs, though

[NorikSigma]

Sure. Go wild.

 

Not too wild. Just normal wild.

[25K Now!]

GOODIE.

[Krayzikk]

Theeeeeeeere.

 

Finally got my first PC profile done.

[25K Now!]

Goood.

 

Now, FemKrayn.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

There's actually a third scenario; You're overthinking this.

 

But, if we insist on overthinking it, it is entirely plausible that, similar to reproduction in the real world, the process creates Toa Energy. It is finite among those who already possess it; It had to have come from somewhere, as Toa Energy wasn't really a thing before Toa were. It's entirely plausible that energy taken in during the process is converted into Toa Energy, providing the finite amount that will continue with the new Toa through their entire life.

 

Toa were initially manufactured, not born; others were created by Mata-Nui directly. That's where it originally came from. Gathering more of it is the issue, especially outside of the Matoran Universe, where physics seem to have taken a day off. Or at least, that's the issue I'm seeing here.

 

I suppose every Toa could have a tiny Nui-Stone inside of them to sap in Toa Energy when it was lost from one, thus slowing down the loss due to deaths taking place, as the universe tried to balance it out. In truth, it would make a pretty epic Bionicle/Highlander crossover. The first Highlander, of course.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

Edited June 3, 2014 by Toa Levacius Zehvor

[25K Now!]

Swans come from the sky to give you Toa Power.

[NorikSigma]

So...

Eldritch abomination invading character's mind.

Yay.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Just Norik

[25K Now!]

This os gping to befun.

[Krayzikk]

 

There's actually a third scenario; You're overthinking this.

 

But, if we insist on overthinking it, it is entirely plausible that, similar to reproduction in the real world, the process creates Toa Energy. It is finite among those who already possess it; It had to have come from somewhere, as Toa Energy wasn't really a thing before Toa were. It's entirely plausible that energy taken in during the process is converted into Toa Energy, providing the finite amount that will continue with the new Toa through their entire life.

 

Toa were initially manufactured, not born; others were created by Mata-Nui directly. That's where it originally came from. Gathering more of it is the issue, especially outside of the Matoran Universe, where physics seem to have taken a day off. Or at least, that's the issue I'm seeing here.

 

I suppose every Toa could have a tiny Nui-Stone inside of them to sap in Toa Energy when it was lost from one, thus slowing down the loss due to deaths taking place, as the universe tried to balance it out. In truth, it would make a pretty epic Bionicle/Highlander crossover. The first Highlander, of course.

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

 

 

Not quite the case; Allow me to borrow an analogy from biological reproduction. There are cells that are creates when the body is first developing, but will never again develop during the creature's life. A finite supply. Actually, there are a few kinds of these cells, but it doesn't really matter which one you prefer to think of; But I digress. Similarly, Toa Power exists in a finite supply during the being's life. However, as previously noted, it had to come from somewhere to start with, which means that it can, somehow, be created. This makes sense; If it could not be created, ever, then there wouldn't be very much available of it now. The Brotherhood killed many Toa, after all, and many of them before creating Toa Stones. Logically, this would mean that there is a massive canon decrease in the available Toa Energy.

 

However, this is assuming a completely closed cycle. Assuming a cycle such as the one I have described (As this game does) means that whenever a Toa comes into existence without the transfer of another's Energy, they create their own supply that will last them their entire life. Thus, we have a system that maintains its energy levels; Even if a part of the system loses energy, another will create enough to make up for that deficit.

 

Again, however, you're overthinking this. None of these concepts really have any bearing on the game itself, and don't serve much of a point to discuss. If you would like to discuss them with myself or another over PM or similar systems, by all means, feel free. But I think that that's enough for discussion in this topic.

[Toa Levacius Zehvor]

So if Romaln is waiting for things to get ugly...

 

And the NPC Toa and Vortixx are guarding the doors...

 

And Zaak is guarding the roof...

 

And Naona is guarding the door...

 

.... poor Vynsehnt.

 

(Hopefully Sai'Kun throws his disk.)

 

-Toa Levacius Zehvor

[Krayzikk]

Vynsehnt need not worry.

 

IT Trench Coat Man is there!

 

...

 

Kinda.

[25K Now!]

Can we have a diagram of the positioning?

 

As visual aid?

[Geardirector]

Why don't you get right on that Hubert?

[25K Now!]

 

Seeing that I have the barest of ideas on how the location is set out, this is the best I can do.

[Highly Suspicious Person]

Where's the colour? You can't have a diagram with different factions and people without colour.

[25K Now!]

Alas, I have no idea who's who.

[Perp]

Well I guess I'll just jump right in

Name: Kelko

Species: Male Ba-Toa

Affiliation: Neutral

Powers: Kanohi Calix, Abilities granted as a Toa of Gravity, his winning smile

Gear: His (un)trusty revolver, and two dual-blade switchblades

Skills: Being generally charming and such; he's also quite agile, and very quick - especially on the draw

Weaknesses: Beneath the charming smile lays an injured being - both mentally and physically. A significant 'event' in his personal history changed him forever. He was wounded in a gunfight, and has been suffering from his still-present internal injuries ever since. He suffers on the mental side as well - sleep brings him horrible nightmares, so he has turned to a life of insomnia.

Appearance: Very neutral in build - not overly muscular, nor too lithe and thin. Usually wearing a long, brown overcoat, very worn, and a matching wide-brimmed hat to boot, which shades over his eyes. Beneath the clothing he wears black armor over his purple limbs.

History: A terrible memory in his past, involving someone he trusted and a fateful gunfight, threw Kelko into a world of despair. In constant agony, Kelko has been wandering the streets ever since - either looking for trouble or trying to avoid it.

Personality‏: Very charismatic and charming on the outside, this warm and bubbly personality is only but a mask (no pun intended) for his true self, buried underneath the layers of armor and fabric.

Awaiting approval.

[Geardirector]

Kelko is approved