#Tahu in my head

[coldgoldlazarus]

Tahu: Lava board that splits into four; giant dual greatswords, and slightly less giant dual backup swords. His extra weapon? Dual backup backup swords. And as a bonus, he gets a pair of battle flags, that are also dual backup backup backup swords. And if he ever runs out of physical swords, he can use his elemental powers to make a flame sword. Sword.

Ekimu: Giant forging mallet, with an adjoining circular buckler shield with a sawblade function. The two can be combined into a weird tricycle for mobility. No swords in sight, except the ones that come out of his forge.

Jaller: Big circular shield that can be thrown like a disk, and an adjoining Laser polearm of some sort, with a green core. His extra weapon is one(1) singular, reasonable shortsword. (And obligatory Cordak Launcher)

[siren-darkocean]

Gali: I'M OLDER!

Onua: By WHAT?! Ten seconds!

*****

Pohatu: (had to take swimming classes to learn to swim) They wanted to put me in the beginner class with all the little kids, I can't be swimming around with a bunch of five year olds!

Berix: Why-

Pohatu: They can be so cruel when they sense weakness.

Berix: (fair enough)

Tahu: That's why on the first day you have to beat up the biggest one in the yard.

Gali: Tahu that's prison.

Tahu: Only if you let it be.

*****

Rebuilding Ruins spoilers

Tuma: (having a raid against New Atero with an army and is struggling slightly again both Glatorian, Toa AND Matoran but holding up well)

Tuma: ....

Tuma: Why do I hear Boss Music?

Mata Nui: (reformed his Toa body with the Ignika after screaming his head off at the Great Beings in his second slumber after realizing just how crap they were and is not gonna sit around while his people, friends and KIDS are in danger)

[milaisreading]

hallo!! I really like your writing😆😆

Bisakah kamu membuat reaksi karakter kunci biru jika mereka tahu bahwa CD!yn adalah perempuan? (termasuk dunia 5, BM, Ubers, PXG, JFA, dan dunia.)

Sorry, my english is bad (english is not my first language)😓😓

🌱🩷: So I used Google translate bcs the middle part was written in Indonesian. And as far as I understood, you want me to write how the teams, World 5, and the world might react to Crossdresser!yn being a girl. I hope this was translated correctly. Sure, no problem! Hope u like this🫶🏻

Warnings: Reader uses she/her. Requests are open

⚽️Blue Lock belongs to Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura ⚽️

Manshine City:

Chris: So, you are a girl?

CD!Yn: Yep!

Chris: Aha... *looks at Nagi, Reo, and Chigiri*

Chigiri, blushing as he avoided eye-contact with YN: WE DIDN'T KNOW, I SWEAR!

Nagi:...

Reo, trying to keep his cool: This is so embarrassing. Explains why I always thought you were too cute for a boy.

CD!Yn: What?

Chris, pulling her behind him: Stay back from my child!

Reo:...

Chigiri:...

Nagi with his Miffy face: Does that mean I can dress you up as a maid?

Chigiri starts nose bleeding, Reo is scolding him, while Yn tries to leave the place.

Chris: 20 laps around the facility, Nagi!

Ubers:

Snuffy: So, only Barou knew about this?

CD!Yn: Well, him, Isagi, Ego-san, and Teieri-san.

Barou is in the corner getting rinsed by Oliver and Sendou on why he didn't tell them.

Oliver: You mean I might have had a shot?

Sendou: So the whole time I was crushing on a real girl?! *blush intensifies*

Niko had already fainted in another corner while Aryu was uncharacteristically silent as he stared at her.

Snuffy: Lorenzo, keep Yn away from these guys.

Lorenzo, already escorting her out: Let's go and get something to eat

CD!Yn: Ok? Did Aryu just faint?!

BM:

Kaiser: There is no way you are a girl! You are flat!-

Noa ends up bonking him on the head.

CD!Yn: And you have rat hair! *embarrassed*

Noa: And you knew this, Isagi?

Isagi, who was trying his best to calm Kurona down: She told me so during our 2nd selection process.

CD!Yn: True! Yukimiya, you haven't blinked once during this whole ordeal.

Yukimiya, in an attempt to rebuke it blinked once: I did! By the way, we can model together.

Hiori, acting like her bodyguard along with Kunigami and Gagamaru

Gagamaru: We will protect you from unwanted attention!

Kunigmai: Just stay around us.

Hiori: Yes! Don't worry, you are in good hands!

CD!Yn: Thank you!

Ness is meanwhile in a corner, recalling that one time he nearly walked in on Yn showering: AHHH! THIS IS ALL A MESS!

Kurona, after finally calming down: either guy or girl, Yn is still the cutest

Isagi: Very true!

PXG:

Charles: Still would date you!

CD!Yn: Date?! Aren't you disgusted I lied?!

Charles: Nope *pulls her into a hug* I still admire your abilities as a midfielder. Besides, I always had a thing for tall girls!

Yn starts blushing more as Ri and Karasu attempt to pull her away.

Rin, unsure about his own feelings for Yn now: Get off of her, you leach!

Karasu, still trying to comprehend he shared a room with a girl: She has her personal space! Let her go.

Charles: No~

CD!YN: C-calm down everyone!

Shidou is meanwhile excited by the idea that he got beat up by a girl once. Tokimitsu is trying to comprehend everything to the best of his abilities.

Tokimitsu: Girl or not, she is still our captain. Tho, I think she would look really cute in a dress *blushes*

Barcha:

Lavinho, absent-mindedly pats her head: Aha... well, that is quite the surprise you made for us, little lady.

CD!Yn: Yeah, sorry about keeping it a secret.

Otoya, slides next to her and put an arm around her shoulder: So, wanna go out? I know the perfect spot around here

Bachira, pouting and trying to pull Yn away: Get your dirty hands off of her, playboy!

Lavinho: You both leave her alone!

JFA was meanwhile calling Anri and Ego on every phone available. The calls varied either between scolding them for keeping this a secret, or offering to transfer Yn into the female national team.

Ego: Absolutely not! She is not leaving this facility and the JFA can't demand that either.

Anri: Yep! Yep! Besides, we will have now a person more to help with practices!

World 5:

Loki: So you are a girl?

CD!Yn: Yes, you took this surprisingly well.

Loki, blushing a little: Well, it was weirder to me that you showed much more empathy to my situation than the rest. This is very mild.

Pablo and Adam are meanwhile in a corner thinking of ideas to protect her from the boys on her team.

Dada: Don't worry, little lady. We will protect you in case this causes you trouble

CD!Yn: Huh? But I don't need protection-

Luna, pats her on the head: If anyone says anything, we will shut them up. Now, what did you say about your parents forcing you into this?

Pablo: I need addresses and names

Adam: Preferably now

CD!Yn gulps in fear as she saw the dark shadows looming over the World 5.

CD!Yn, thinking: should have kept my mouth shut

The rest of the world was either shocked or not that much surprised. The rest of the week is either spent on trying to figure out how Yn was outperforming the rest, while the other part was arguing over who would be the better boyfriend for her.

[bobthedoctor27]

Tahu Mistika - Red Version

In my eyes, Tahu had the best visual presence of the Toa Mistika and was the real standout Toa of the wave. That said, the Metru red coloring always made it harder for me to see him as a continuation in the Toa Nuva of Fire’s proud legacy of sets. I would have loved to have added orange back to his color scheme but no BIONICLE limbs were ever produced in orange beyond 2002.

So instead I’ve opted to colorswap the Metru red elements for their brighter Mata red counterparts! This, of course, presented challenges with the mask and feet, but there’s an easy solution there.

There are a few further modifications to add the Nuva chest armor. I feel this was a necessary adjustment to fill in the shape of his armor. As well, I added the obligatory Roborider heads to his shins and added some further engine details to his thrusters. His hips now also feature a grated slope element (61409). This was a part first introduced in 2008 in Exo Force and Agents subthemes and typically only came in dark bluish gray or lime at the time. I always wanted to get the part in red for various creations back in the day, but it was never available to me. All these years later, I’ve finally found occasion to use it on a creation!

I’ve also paired him with Photok here to add a little of that missing orange armor to his color scheme.

Please consider leaving a thoughtful comment below telling me what your own experiences with Tahu Mistika have been!

[sunfireintheory]

On The Particular and Present Littleness of Guys

Fellas! Critters! Little Guys!!!

Had a very sudden burst of legomaking and worldbuilding inspiration. I might post about the world behind these later, i've been on and off developing it in the back of my head for a while now and a bunch of things just clicked recently.

The basic body plan of these is based on and extended from the GWP Tahu and Takua set, with my own experimentation on top of the basic idea of a 2x3 (and 2x4) wide stubby torso.

[randomwriteronline]

I wonder if the toa mata recognized themselves in their own memories from before mata nui.

I dont know, i think theres possibilities to be explored about that. Suddenly remembering yourself and what you find being a complete stranger is a common thing for amnesia plots i guess but also i think this could be even more jarring. Like a more genuine difference between killing machine and living being.

Its less a matter of nature vs nurture and more a matter of nature with a certain type of nurture. Nature dictates they are powerful and driven and well meaning, but the way they are brought up produces completely different people.

Their first taste of life was a sterile room with nobody but each other and a disembodied voice reading out their duties, establishing an arbitrary hierarchy within them, and then sending them to a glorified bootcamp where a ruthless instructor worked on making them into skilled combatants and nothing else, teaching them how to use their elements as tools and weapons without indulging in them; they got a vague sense of what and how a community feels like with the Av-Matoran - as outsiders, as its protective shield, there for them but not with them - only to get that stripped away from them too because their role as life saving tools to be preserved under glass just in case of a crisis was more important.

I wonder if the Toa Mata, the ones who were taken to the Koro of Mata Nui and listened to the Turaga's tales and reprimands and would have moved mountains for the Matoran who treated them like older siblings, return with their minds to things they said or thought or did from before the Island of Mata Nui and stop in their tracks. Whose memory is that, they think? That can't be mine. I am not like that. My siblings are not like that. Some things are perfectly right, they cant deny that; but just as many if not more are so wrong that they almost feel like a really cruel joke somebody planted into their heads.

Kopaka and Tahu got along, even if they dont want to admit it because they need to bicker like children or theyll die, but are more surprised that they werent as tentatively close with anybody else. Lewa remembers so much frustration and tedium and anger that if he stalls in his memories too much he genuinely starts feeling queasy, Pohatu has remnants of bitterness and passive aggression that still cling to him like the smell of a cigarette on someone who gave up smoking, and they both hate that because its nothing like them. Onua and Gali feel like theyre peering into some kind of imperfect clone's brain when they try to remember - its themselves, they know that, it has to be, but there are certain things they know about themelves that are just completely missing and its kind of dizzying to realize that.

Im not even sure they liked each other. They work together because its their destiny, but they don't seem to seek each other out for fun or anything else. In their training days they had to be shoved in each others direction or they would have never solved their obligatory group assignments.

I wonder if their terrors and flaws could partially come from this first life that they had too. Gali's fear of her anger and Lewa's disregard for duty stemming from Hydraxon's methods - she internalized his reprimands about feeling guilt for living enemies, but without any memory of him she believes the words resurfacing in her mind from time to time are her own, and is appalled by their cruelty; he was forbidden from enjoying himself, from indulging in any form of fun, of entertainment, of joy, and unconsciously now he rebels by shirking away from responsability to do whatever he wants.

The responses to Tahu's decision regarding the codrex haunt him, the whole situation, really; how he stripped his siblings of any say on their fate because he was the leader, not even telling them or explaining himself until they had no other choice, and if he could treat them like that once then what would stop him from doing so again and again until he doesnt even think about it? Kopaka is uneasy about it too. He knew the plan and supported Tahu only because he tagged along, but hes very, very acutely aware that he would have been left just as much in the dark as everybody else otherwise, and he would gave not even had anybody to seek any comfort from because hes fairly certain none of the others would have liked him enough to care.

Onua as @cantankerouscanuck pointed out to me mightve taken Hydraxon's teachings to heart, hence why he's so quiet: no use in expressing weakness, right? But karda nui must have been hellish on his senses, with all that light - a tangible physical discomfort that would bleed out into an emotional one as he becomes conscious of how none of his siblings go through this, thus he must be damaged in some way, faulty, out of place, and so he seeks to be alone, digging himself away. And its not hard to imagine how Pohatu (who hasnt had the chance to grow into the affable, kind toa his siblings can always lean on when they need to yet) would become convinced of his uselessness within the team and seethe about it.

They arrive on Mata Nui as broken war machines with no clue who they even are and suddenly find nature and community and love, and in a moment theyre people.

I wonder if the environment helped. Being thrown upon a beach in the open air with nothing but a whole world that is so alien and yet feels so right beckoning them to come closer. Discovering their powers and their domains freely, immediately - first thing they did was dive into their respective elements without a second thought, naturally magnetized, taking after them like it was the simplest thing in the world, because they are the first toa, the first beings capable of harnessing these powers in their whole universe, and its in their nature to be so connected to them. Maybe it helped. Maybe it made them feel connected to their own selves enough to figure themselves out in a way they couldnt have done so before.

Maybe it helped to find out their collective destiny each on their own, in their own environment, at their own pace, surrounded by younger siblings who look at them with awe and curiosity and frustration sometimes, guided by people who know how being alive works with all its good parts and messy bits and who can tell what having so much power means when youre barely aware of how to use it or what to do. And maybe it helped to find out who their siblings were in a similar way, introducing themselves as they wanted, as they felt like, without a specific order, and learning to recognize each other as siblings with all the things that make them insufferable and all the things that make them the best and what makes them happy and what makes them angry and how they sound when theyre worried and how likely they are to chase you down to the other edge of the island for doing something stupid, and like real people they grow and develop and change and stay the same, and then they meet the memory of themselves from before becoming people and its...

Idk. Its like the realization of who they used to be and the distance between themselves and those selves, and the fact that they dont like them.

[pyrorptrs]

Awhile back I did my own redesign of the Toa Mata from Bionicle. Mostly just trying to find a way to draw them without having to keep the toys permanently on hand for reference and a bit more streamlined to make them easier to draw in general. As far as universal details go, I gave them a segmented body template to lean into the biomechanical aspect of them, I also tried to find a consistent way to draw some of the more common limbs they had. I also tried to play with the gears on the back by giving each of them something unique and tried to give them unique kneeguards. I also tried to incorporate the orbs they had their chest by incorporating their elements matoran symbols into them

Tahu - Tahu served as kind of the template for the others, so he's probably the most standard out of them. I wanted to stick primarily with his original colors so made the bright red and orange the most prominent colors on him, but I also used the dark red he sported later as an accent color for more color blocking. His sword is based more on the Bionicle Heroes interpretation of it, though I may change that if I ever redraw this design. His left arm was never really stated to be anything, so I tried to purpose it as a sort of Aegis; it still matches his more aggressive personality, but also gives it a more utility. I also modeled his back gear after exhaust pipes to relate towards his element. Though it probably won't be seen that much, I did try to define his head too, making it kinda broad; specifically basing the heads off a combination of the originals, the glatorian heads from the end of the original line, and the heads from the reboot.

Kopaka - Since Toa of Ice tend to stick around cold places, I incorporated a bit of a coat into his armor for insulation. His sword also draws some inspiration from the Heroes version, but it also still works like his toy. His left arm was a bit awkward so I limited the armor to mostly just his bicep, I also tried to make the shield look like a snowflake on top of the radar dish look it obviously was piece wise. Kopaka was also one of the few toa consistently depicted is hauling around the McGuffins for whatever saga they're directly involved in, so I gave him a satchel to call back to that. His back gear is directly modeled after a snowflake like his shield, but a bit more obviously. I also tried to make his kneeguards resemble icicles. I tried to give his head a sharper look to call back to his cold and distant personality.

Lewa - Tried to make Lewa look a bit more lanky compared to the others since he's supposed to be the resident tree swinger. His axe leans more towards the original, but I still tried to incorporate aspects of the heroes version for fun. I tried to make his left arm a big grabby arm since most people turn it into a gun or something, but BlazeTBW thought it looked like a machete so I incorporated a fold-our arm blade to help him cut up vines and foliage as he swings around. His kneeguards are supposed to look like palm leaves but I'm not satisfied with how they turned out. I also gave him a few pouches since I figured he's want to keep a few snacks on hand or maybe even swipe a souvenir here and there.

Onua - Tried to make Onua look pretty broad since he's supposed to be strong even without his mask buffing him. Unfortunately his monochromatic color scheme can make things hard to color block, so I threw in some purple from his G2 version in order to help highlight some parts of his body. obviously made his claws his actual hands. I also did something a bit different with his legs sinw his original toy had them flipped around to bulk them, so I tried leaning into that while also making it look like a heavy duty hinge. I also tried to make his head particularly broad too.

Pohatu - Pohatu was pretty different from the original toa in that his torso was flipped around to make him more bottom heavy, so I tried to call back to that with his body shape. I also took inspiration from the toys arms to make them bigger than the others. I did include the two orbs on his shoulders, but recolored them to make them different from the chest one and included the extra pins on the leg. Since Toa of Stone live in the dessert I gave him a scarf to wrap around his head for sandstorms and gave him a decently sized backpack since he's also been happy to regale his own adventures (so it works for holding souvenirs). His kneeguards are based on boulders. I also inlcluded the orange his Phnatoka version sported to highlight parts of his armor

Gali - Obviously Gali's body is mostly just a female version of the standard one I came up with. I did call back to the pins her original toy had in her hips and I incorporated the mata hand into the chest orb I try to include on all of them. Her hooks are intended to slip onto her hands more-so than replace them. Her back-gear and kneeguards are also based on a bunch of bubbles. finally I incorporated her Mistaka colors as a highlight to add more color blocking.

[magicalgirlmascot]

I was wondering, do you have any “cutting room floor” knps scenes you’d be wiling to share? I know you said there were some werebeast summer bits you didn’t end up using…

I've been holding off on answering this one until I had some time to sit at my computer surrounded by slush files and notebooks but THE TIME IS NOW here we go

Warning: long post is long

Full disclosure: many of these are a) incomplete, b) very much first drafts, or c) both. So. Just keep that in mind.

~~~

Onewa and Krahka Hordika meeting

“Wow, it sure is dark out here.”

Onewa perched on a fallen tree and scratched behind his new rounded cat ears. They were so itchy all the time. He’d better not have fleas. He cleared his throat. “Boy,” he said loudly to no one, “it sure would be a shame if someone found me all alone like this. Out here by myself. In the woods. A real tragedy. Someone strong and powerful and—”

A clawed hand wrapped around his throat from behind and he stopped talking. It didn’t constrict his breathing, but the claws dug into his fur-covered skin just enough for the promise of pain. “What do you want?” a voice growled in his ear. It was low and rough and sent a shudder down Onewa’s back. She could take him apart in seconds like this. He didn’t have access to any of his powers right now. His new beast form might have been a predator, but to her he’d always be prey.

Onewa didn’t have the capacity to worry about why he found that so hot.

“Kind of rude for a hello,” he said.

The hand tightened at his neck, another hand grabbing his wrist and forcing it behind his back. Onewa swallowed, feeling his throat press against her hand as it did. He couldn’t turn his head. He wanted to see what she looked like right now. She probably had a mouth full of sharp teeth and all of them would show when she snarled. “I found you wandering my forest alone, clearly wanting to be noticed. This is my territory, Toa. If that even is what you are anymore.”

A snarl ripped out of his throat and he pulled against her grip. “You don’t know a goddamn thing.”

“You’re the one who came looking for me. If you have something to say, talk.” Teeth grazed his ear. “Quickly.”

His breath caught, but he pushed past it. “You’ve probably noticed the spiders.”

A breath huffed by his face. “It would be impossible not to.”

“We’re trying to stop them, but our first attempt went, well.” He gestured to himself with his free hand. “Badly.”

“And you want my help.” There was another huff that might have been a laugh. “Why should I help you?”

~~~

This one is from the chapter where Takua learns about Toa stuff. The scene where Vakama explains things to him originally also had Tahu in it, but I decided it was a bit too cluttered and cut him.

“We don’t have a choice anymore.”

The staff were all crowded around the hallway in front of the office, crammed together like sardines. Vakama stood tall and stubborn in the middle, an intense frown on his face. “Takua needs to be told. This can’t go on. I won’t let it.”

Onewa groaned. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for once I agree with you.”

Matau’s head whipped around to stare at him. “Really? You?”

“Shut up,” Onewa said with no real heat. He sounded tired. “I know what I saw in the gym that day before break, while you were all off dealing with that fox. Kid’s got something weird going on.” He shrugged. “It’s our job to help out our students when they’re struggling with something. Are we teachers or not?”

“I’m not,” Lewa piped up helpfully.

Onewa bared his teeth at him as Matau laughed. “You know what the hell I mean.” He jabbed a finger down the hall, towards where Takua was sitting unsupervised in Tahu’s classroom. “That kid is our responsibility.”

“My responsibility,” Tahu said.

“Ours,” Onewa insisted. “Weren’t you listening to Vakama last week? This shit is a joint effort. It takes a village or whatever.”

Gali cleared her throat. “Alright, but when? How? We can’t just drop all this on him and then expect him to go back to class like nothing’s wrong. You specifically chose a PA day to talk to us so that we’d have the whole day plus an entire weekend to work through things. And who’s going to talk to him?”

“I am,” Vakama and Tahu said at the same time. Tahu frowned, and Vakama looked surprised.

Nokama held up both hands. “Maybe you both should. Tahu, you’re his teacher. He trusts you. You’ll be a solid rock for him in turbulent waters.”

“No, that’s Pohatu,” Matau said.

She sighed as he snickered at his own joke. “And Vakama—are you sure?”

Everyone looked at him, standing straight and confident in the middle of them all. “Yes. Takua needs to know what’s going on—and that we’re here for him. All of us.”

~~~

From a cut "first meeting" of Krahka's new persona with Tahu's class. Please understand this was written before "goons" had its current slang meaning.

“Alright, you goons,” Tahu shouted over the noise of his classroom as he hung up the phone. “Math can wait a minute.” He had them doing math puzzles in groups for a warm-up before getting into a full lesson. This week they were knuckling down on long division. When most of them were quiet, he continued. “Ms. Nokama is bringing the new youth worker to meet everyone in a second.” Vakama had just called to let him know that, as well as that “Ahrakk” was Krahka’s newest alias. He was grateful for the heads up this time. Finding out their school therapist was actually a shapeshifting monster through her shifting into Kopaka mid-conversation was funny now, but it had freaked the hell out of him at the time. “Best behaviour, okay? We’re going to show her the best class in the school so she’ll want to spend all her time here.”

Takua snickered. Jaller elbowed him.

There was a knock at the door. Tahu went to open it, looking out over the class, pointing at his eyes and then around at all of them. There was scattered giggling, and Tahu was grinning when he opened the door.

Next to Nokama was a woman Tahu had never seen before, but it wasn’t like he knew all of Krahka’s forms. Ahrakk was shorter and stockier than Harkak had been, but when she smiled she had sharp teeth. Nokama elbowed her. “Stop that.”

“What?” Krahka said, but the next time she opened her mouth it was a regular human one. “Nice to meet you, guy,” she said. She paused, taking a deep breath through her nose and frowning. “Huh.”

Tahu held the door open. “Yeah, welcome to the preteen wing. Smells like teen spirit in here.”

“That is not what that song is about,” Nokama said.

Krahka stepped into the room, and she didn’t change anything about her appearance, but there was still a kind of transformation. Just by standing up a little straighter and smiling disarmingly, suddenly she was the picture of a friendly but slightly out of touch educator. Tahu kind of got how she’d managed to pass unnoticed for so long now.

~~~

Contextless line from Krahka about trying to find out what Takua knows about Toa

"I tried to get him to tell me what he knew every day for two months and he stayed sealed up tighter than Nuju's ass." Nuju signed something that even Gali recognized as rude, and Krahka flipped him off right back before shifting into a ferret again.

~~~

Originally, Lewa wasn't going to outwardly forgive Gali after she'd told everyone about the Takua situation. However, that night, all of them except Kopaka wound up staying over at Pohatu's house. The idea was for it to deliberately mirror the scene at the end of chapter 45, where he and Gali are lying awake and she's worried about what his reaction will be when she tells them all about Takua.

Lewa lay on his side on Pohatu's pull-out couch and listened to the fire dying in the wood stove. Talking about everything that had happened--the New Year's fear dreams, Gali's confession--it had taken a long time. They'd wound up talking for hours, well into the night, and Pohatu had insisted that everyone stay over. Onua, traitor that he was, had been the one to suggest that he and Gali take the couch together, and now here he was, flat on his back and not looking at her.

He didn't like being mad at Gali. It sucked. And she'd apologized,and explained, and it made sense, he got why she did it. But it still hurt.

Lewa rolled onto his stomach and smushed his face into the throw pillow he was stuck using. Maybe if he could just fall asleep, it would all be fine in the morning.

The bed shifted. "Are you awake?" Gali whispered.

"No," he mumbled into the pillow.

Gali moved again and Lewa looked over at her. She was lying on her side, facing him, clearly half asleep. "I didn't want to hurt you," she said.

"I know."

"I'm sorry."

"I know." Lewa scooted a little closer, tucked a strand of hair out of her face. "I was ragemad that you did the one thing you always remembertold me not to do."

She smiled a little. "I know." She turned her head away for a minute. "Lewa," she said, "we're going to be okay, right?"

Something in him broke. Yes, he was still upset, and yes, he still thought he had every right to be. But he wanted his best friend back. "I truthknow so," he said, playing with the hair still between his fingers. "You're heartfamily, sisterfriend. I deepwant us to work out, too." He hesitated, then scooted closer and tucked her into his arms. "Sadsorry I ran off this morning. I should've staylistened."

"No." She tucked her head under his chin and squeezed him tight. "You were right to be mad at me. I was a huge hypocrite, and--"

"And I should've staylistened," he insisted. It was nice to hear her say he was justified to be mad, though. "What's overdone is overdone. You're my sisterfriend. That's that."

Her next breath was shaky. "Thank you," she said, her voice just as shaky. "I'll never do anything like that again. And I promise I'll tell you if anything big happens again."

Lewa was starting to get sleepy, so he snuggled down and shut his eyes. "We'll be just fineright," he mumbled before sleep took him.

~~~

From a cut chapter. Originally, Kopaka didn't come to the meetup at New Year's after running away, and the Shadow Kopaka chapter happened between New Year's and the start of school. His main concern since then has been reconciling with Pohatu, so he's in the staff room at lunch, waiting for him to show up.

The distinctive tap-step of Onewa and his cane got closer. Kopaka lowered his book to look up at him with an eyebrow raised. He was smirking. "Well well," he said. "Waiting for someone?"

Kopaka buried his nose in his book again. "Nah, don't be like that," Onewa said. He tapped his cane against the foot of the armchair. "Listen, a little birdie told me you and Pohatu had a bit of a falling out."

"We didn't argue," Kopaka said. Everything in him was tense. He didn't want to discuss this with Onewa. He didn't want to discuss it at all.

"That's not how he tells it." When Kopaka raised his head again, Onewa's face was solemn, leaning towards him slightly. "I think," he said, voice low, "the last thing any of us here wants is to see Pohatu hurt. And if someone did hurt him, well." He shrugged, the gesture carefully dismissive. "They'd have to work pretty hard to make up for it, wouldn't they?"

Kopaka stared him down. Onewa thought he was more threatening than he was. "You know why I'm waiting here," he said.

There was a long moment while Onewa studied him. A thin smile cracked his face. "He's not coming up here," he said, turning away. "He's in the library."

Wordlessly, Kopaka stood, gathered his things, and walked out of the room.

~~~

A short cut chapter about Matoro. The bit about Whenua's family is referencing another cut chapter that I'm not including here because it's likely to resurface as a oneshot side story someday.

"Absolutely not. It's a school night."

"It's not even eight thirty," Matoro argued. "It's only going to be for, like, an hour."

"I said no," said Ren, folding their arms. "We can watch it another night. The recording isn't going anywhere."

Dad stuck his head into the living room. "Matoro, I could use a hand with the chickens."

Matoro turned on his heel, stomping downstairs and slamming the door to his bedroom before flopping face first onto his bed. It was stupid. It wasn't fair. He was thirteen--fourteen in a week--he shouldn't have a stupid nine o'clock bedtime. He was dead sure no one else in his class did.

Someone knocked on the door. "No," he told them.

The door opened anyway. "Matoro," Dad said, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing." He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, at the plastic glow in the dark stars he'd put up there when he was a kid. Uncle Nuju had helped him pick out constellations to put up out of a book he and Uncle Whenua had given him. Some of them were falling down now, but Orion was still all there.

The bed dipped as Dad sat down. "Ren said you were upset that they wouldn't let you stay up to watch your show with them."

"If you know what the problem is, why did you ask?" Matoro mumbled. He refused to look at Dad. He always did this. He could never just leave Matoro alone. If Matoro wanted to talk to someone, he'd go text Uncle Nuju.

Dad patted Matoro's knee. "Maybe it's time we changed up some of the house rules. You're almost in high school."

Matoro hesitated, then sat up, squinting at him suspiciously. "What's the catch?"

"No catch." Dad had his outside jacket on, but no hat or mittens as usual. He smiled down at Matoro. It was almost sad. "Ren and I just keep forgetting that you're growing up, that's all. You're not our little boy anymore."

Matoro pulled his legs up, curling in on himself. He was so tightly wound. Everything felt like it was stretched thin, like he would snap if something else happened.

"What's really worrying," Dad said, "is that you push us away when you're upset. Talk to me, Matoro. What's really bothering you?"

Takua had superpowers and he couldn't tell anybody. Uncle Whenua's family hated him for being gay and he had to act like he didn't know. He had a crush on half the boys in his class and the only person who even knew he liked boys in the first place was Uncle Nuju. "I want to go feed the chickens," he said.

There was a long silence. "Okay," Dad said. He stood up, holding out a hand for Matoro to help him off the bed. "Come get your coat."

Matoro ignored the hand, sliding off the bed himself. He could keep it all in. He'd be just fine.

~~~

I think that's all that I can share without spoilers? There's more, but a lot of it wound up getting recycled into other scenes or sections of the fic, or I'm planning on using in the future (like in the Metru prequel) so I don't want to put it out here.

[fang-feraligatr-blog]

My new Toa Team at long last!

You've all waited so long for these so I'm just gonna jump into it!

First up, Pyrus. Toa Pohalan of Fire!

First and Foremost, I will explain Pohalan later. Pyrus like most of his current team is actually a toa from another group that was brought to the accursed lands of Bota Magna by the whims of fate, and his experience might not be as deep as the other toa, but his Elemental Powers rival that of even the Great Tahu! In fact due to an encounter with a rather aggressive nui-rama, Pyrus burnt out all the organic material in his right arm and now has what we would equate to an entire motorcycle for a right arm, engine and all. His golden blade was a gift given to him from an old friend before he left for Bara Magna, only for the fusion of Bara Magna and Aqua Magna to throw him off completely and land on Bota Magna instead.

His kit features the Mask of Time-stop, which allows him to literally stop everything around him for exactly 30 seconds. He can also focus this power to pause one specific object or individual for 15 seconds. It takes a lot of concentration, or in some cases desperation, to activate it so he's not prone to use it much. He's also got his replacement arm that sports it's own ventilation system so he never burns himself out again, and the gear system in his hand allows him to hold onto anything, and never let go. His Golden Sword of Fire is powered by a stone containing a blue flame that allows him to wield the sword even when exerting an extreme amount of power.

He leads his current team in hopes of finding a way back to his original destination, unaware of what fate has in store not just for him, but for all the universe.

Next up: Moku, Toa Pohalan of Air

Not usually one to be concerned with things like "emotional responses" and preferring to use his head rather than his heart to decide things, Moku is a calculating and ingenious Air Toa that prefers to work alone for the most part. So why he's willingly working with the others is a mystery, until you ask him and he says, "They're the best odds of survival I have". He seems cold, but in reality he only works with his logical side because emotions and feelings are confusing to him. That said, he's a mechanical genius who, using his own methods, basically turned himself into a toa and even augmented his armor into a fashion that he found both practical and stylish. His biggest drawback is that he's rather sarcastic and constantly butts heads with the Toa of Water because of it.

His kit includes the Mask of Mechanisms, which allows him to understand how to use any mechanical object simply by looking at it. This is incredibly useful to him as he likes to tinker from time to time, leading to him being the brains of the team. Despite being a Wind Toa, he's no gust of wind to ignore as his armor is EXTREMELY HEAVY! So heavy that he NEEDS that rocket engine on his back just to get off the ground. His flight is slow at first but it builds up speed fast and eventually gets powerful enough to break at least Mach 9, pushing on ten. This of course would make him hard to steer and slow down normally, but that's where his wind powers impress along with his shield (which he built himself of course). Placing his shield in front of him at top speed and utilizing his wind powers, he creates a massive sonic boom in front of him that stops his speed entirely, and obliterates pretty much anything in front of him, something that took several attempts and many broken armor pieces including his old mask to perfect. His weapon of choice is an energized Axe with a hilt guard and a flail attached. The flail is usually there for show, but if pressed he can use it along with more wind power to turn it into a deadly accurate weapon!

Now onto: Kanaka, Toa Pohalan of Stone

Before you ask, yes his right arm looks like a Visorak, but no it is not a Visorak, it is simply his right arm. And yes he does drag it behind him when tired. Kanaka is what we would know as a Wild Man, being one of two natural residents of Bota Magna, he and the Toa of Earth have been friends and survival partners for a long long time. Slow and lumbering, he makes up for it by practically being invulnerable to anything, unyielding and unstoppable. You really can't stop the rock when Kanaka is is your foe. Not one to say much, he really only speaks when he has something important to say, and even then in as few words as possible. Stalwart and strong as the mountains themselves, Kanaka is also a gentle giant, often listening to the others complaints and offering helpful opinions on the mater, and he absolutly loves rahi of any kind.

His kit includes his Mask of the Wild, granting him the various abilities of any rahi he knows of. This allows him to not only be one of the few toa's of stone that can swim, but possibly the only Toa of Stone that can fly. He can communicate with all rahi and is often seen as the king of the beasts. His weapon is the mighty Gaia Mallet, a hammer that's heavy enough that lifting it feels like moving a mountain, something that another mountain wouldn't have much trouble with so naturally he's the only one who can wield it. He also has a tail which never stops surprising his team, and his right arm has claws that tear through anything. Beyond all that, he does tend to get ferocious in battle and is often seen going into a frenzy against his enemies, not only making him stronger but faster than he should be able to move at all! If you're going to take him out, take him out FAST, otherwise he'll unleash his rage and smash you into oblivion.

Next: Taniwa, Toa Pohalan of Earth

Most people say that in order to be a toa you have to be a matoran first. This is not true, and Toa Taniwa is proof of this. A former Rahi that was imbued with the power of stone and the intelligence of a toa from an accidental interaction with a toa stone. Taniwa is in a constant struggle between his more intelligent Toa half, and his instinctual beastly half, but it's a struggle he's gotten used to now. Possessing the strength of a beast and the intellect of a Toa puts him on par with a Toa Hordika, and like any Toa, he's only as mean as he looks if you're a threat. Sharp claws, gnashing teeth, night vision and toa armor to boot, Taniwa is a monster in battle, but a loyal friend to those he trusts.

He's a good doggy.

The only other thing that really needs mentioning is that he CAN talk...but while his head does most of the head things you think it would do, his tail is how he talks. A small mouth can be found on the end of his tail that only exists to speak and nothing else. Any other mouth function you can think of happens in the mouth in his head, the tail only talks. What's weirdest abut it is that he can talk to someone without facing them thanks to this, but it never stops being weird. Stealthy for sure, but weird.

He is still a toa though, and despite having no mask to speak of, he still has amazing control over his element of Earth. Kanaka and Taniwa have been friends for about as long as they can remember now, and you cannot have one without the other.

Now for: Kali, Toa Pohalan of Water.

Armored in bullet proof metal, and armed to the gills, Kali is not your usual Toa of Water. She has a million ways to kill you, and no mater what she's always planning how she can end as many people in any given room at any given time and get away with it. She's cold, she's calculating, she's meticulous and skilled. She's so talented in fact that it seems like the only thing she doesn't have is a sense of humor or a tolerance for sarcasm. Never without a weapon of some kind, no one is ever quite sure if they're safe around her. Not much is known about her personal life, and that's just how she likes it. In the end though she is a Toa for a reason, and if there's one thing she hates more than anything else, it's Evil. Turns out that deep down she has a heart of solid gold and a will to defend others, but she hides it well.

She's armed with a sniper rifle that fires shots of hyper compressed water that she supplies herself that can penetrate a 10 inch thick steal SLAB and has the precision to snipe a sand scarab from the other side of the desert. A shoulder mounted zamor launcher that fires special zamor spheres that explode on impact and cause a torrent of water to slam opponents into walls, flat onto the ground, or up into the air only to come crashing down hard. She ripped the head off a Vahki unit at one point and now uses it as a special disk launcher. Incredibly accurate and fast, this is a close quarters firing weapon when her enemies are too close for the rifle. Her mask is the Mask of Focus, allowing her to lock on to her enemies both physically and mentally. At range it negates drop off for shots fired and makes those shots unaffected by wind as well, and close up it allows her to single out priority targets and take them out with precision. And you'd better pray she doesn't run out of bullets, or she'll show you her own version of CQC, CQK. Close Quarters Killing. She'll unholster her blades from her ankle sheathes, and then focus a blade of pure water down them to cut and slice her opponents to death.

Now for a shocker: Matoro, Toa Pohalan of Ice

Yes, THAT Matoro, and he's just as confused as you are. After the death of Makuta, Hali found herself lamenting that it almost felt like Matoro's death was for nothing, as the Matoran universe was now essentially gone. These thoughts found they're way into the Mask of life and by it's own will, it spent it's own life to revive Matoro with a few additional gifts. Upon his revival, Matoro discovered he was not on his home planet, and in fact had somehow ended up on Bota Magna. He also soon discovered that his time as a Toa Ignika and a Toa Mahri had somehow been connected through the use of his masks from both times. After an untimely surprise from a Dinosaur Rahi near a cliff face, Matoro fell to his death only to wake up a moment later. He soon discovered his mask powers from the masks on his shoulders and the one on his head came together and he can now revive from deaths like nothing ever happend. A now more skeletal like build and the fact that death itself meant nothing to him as the mask power activated automatically upon death, Matoro started feeling like he shouldn't exist really, and like his very existence was some sort of sin. This lead to giving him a more macabre outlook on things but all in all, he's the same duty bound toa he was before.

His kit includes an enhanced version of his Mask of Astral Projection as well as his mask of Necromancy, both of which get activated at once whenever he dies giving him a combined "Mask" of Immortality. His Ignika sword is now a little weightier than before and he's made use of a recently discovered staff that allows him to share his power of Immortality with others if he needs to. His now bone-like armor makes him very light, but also surprisingly durable. Most long range weapon shots just pass right by him or right through him without causing damage, and despite looking like mostly bones, his powers of ice will chill you directly to the bone before he shatters you like glass with his mace like staff. For now that's all, but there is one more. Another 7th toa to look forward to, but I am exhausted and SPENT. So for now I tease you with the 7th along with the whole Toa Pohalan Team! Bye for now!

But what is a Pohalan??

It's the Matoran word for revival. This is the team fate has decided is going to revive the universe from it's massive collapse and revive the Great Spirit himself. They will soon learn however, that Mata Nui cannot exist without his other half...

[makutaservaela]

Were Toa in your world always able to have kids, or was that a Skadi thing? And turned into Skadi? Is there a comic or fic for that? color me intrigued...

My Timeline Post goes more into detail about why people can have kids, and why Zaraki is a Skakdi. I'm also currently planning out a Rambling post to talk more about reproduction. To answer for the time being...

Why they can have kids:

There were always a small group of Great Beings who wanted Bio-Organic things in the Mata Nui, mostly out of their passion-project. They were proud of their ability to make life, why not show it off? The other Great Beings vetoed them. The small group decided to run a demo to prove that Bio-Organic beings can exist in the Mata Nui, and so, they created six Bio-Organic Toa: Tahu, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, Onua, and Gali, and argued that since these six's job is so important, high-sapience of Bio-Organics was needed. So, while the Mata Nui was in construction, they created the six kids and assigned them to six Glatorian to raise and train.

And when Pohatu's mentor died in child birth, the other GBs listed this as a wonderful reason to not have Bio-Organics in the Mata Nui. They broke the proto-Toa Mata down, stripped their memories, and made them new Bio-Mechanical bodies with the aid of Artakha. Pohatu's son was at least a teenager by the time the Mata Nui was finished, so he was also stripped of his memories and slapped in a Po-Matoran body.

100,000 years later...

There were two initial purposes of the Mata Nui: To fix the broken planet, and to study cultures in order to guide the Agori into not breaking the planet again. The Mata Nui(s) succeeded in the first purpose, but all of the culture information he had gathered had been stored in the primary robot's brain, and all of it was lost when said brain was cracked open against the moon.

The planet was saved... but hope was lost. The planet would simply fall into disarray again without that research... until the GBs noticed that the Matoran were peculiarly cultured.

As it turned out, in order to make the Matoran Universe Inhabitants sapient, Velika had set the Mata Nui to implant the culture information he was gathering into the heads of his inhabitants. They stored the information- but were not quite sapient enough to really display it.

Therefore, the only way to get that treasured research was to convert them Bio-Organic and study the culture they would develop. Why Zaraki is a Skakdi There is a running theme in my HC that if you have transformed into something in the past, that thing may still be inside you, and your kids may inherit it. You also may be able to turn back into it if emotionally stressed enough. Two of Matau's kids can Hordika physically at will with no mental issues, and his third has a Hordika's mind but a Toa's body, for example. Another example is that Toa Nuva kids will always be born Toa Nuva, or that it is possible for a Toa to have a Matoran kid. The Piraka found an object (which I will Ramble more about later) known as the Mayeka. The Mayeka can manipulate life-energy similar to the Ignika, among other things, and they used it to screw with the Toa for shits and giggles. One such screwery involved turning first Jaller, then for a short time Hahli, into crazed and amnesiac Skakdi. The Toa eventually were able to turn them back, but years later when they had their twin girls, one of them came out... a bit strange-looking. (Another such Screwery was trapping the Toa Nuva and remaining Toa Mahri in a Shadow Prison, which was mentioned in the recent Krika/Gali ship comic)

[dardawirdhaa]

Aku tahu kalau Allah tahu apa yang aku mau,

tapi aku percaya kalau Allah hanya memberi yang aku butuhkan.

So, dear my head and heart, please don’t fight >.<

[makiruz]

Know what? Fuck it, I'm posting this here.

So as I mentioned before I found a couple of old Bionicle Fanfics on my computer, they're from the old BZPower forum, which died twice, so there's a good chance my copies are the only ones left in existence, and because I really like this one I'm posting it here.

I don't know what's the etiquette for posting fics no longer online, so if people considers it inappropriate please let me know and I'll delete it; also if you know the author let me know so I can contact them. Anyway here it is:

I'm Still Here by Raia Svit-kona

http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=292937 (original link, now dead)

I am a question to the world, Not an answer to be heard. All a moment that's held in your arms. And what do you think you'd ever say? I won't listen anyway… You don't know me, And I'll never be what you want me to be.

Takanuva paused and took a deep breath. He immediately regretted it, as the swamp air was damp and heavy and left the musty scent of mud in his olfactory sensors.

Yuck, he grumbled to himself.

The last few days had been a complete blur. Never before had life been so eager to pass in front of his eyes. It seemed that only yesterday he had transformed from a mere Matoran to the sole Toa of Light. Then, in the blink of an eye, he went from being the seventh Toa to the only guardian of Metru Nui, and then he was sent to bring this vital message to the Toa Nuva in Karda Nui. It was mind-boggling.

And what do you think you'd understand? I'm a boy, no, I'm a man. You can take me and throw me away. And how can you learn what's never shown? Yeah, you stand here on your own. They don't know me 'cause I'm not here.

He looked down at his armor, once red and blue, then white and gold, and now a deep, thundercloud gray instead of gold. So many faces, so many identities, so many masks to bear, Kanohi or otherwise.

On the outside, he was Takanuva, mighty Toa of Light, traveler of dimensions.

But deep down…he was afraid. He was inexperienced.

Tahu and the others were never Matoran, he thought. They've never done anything besides fighting for us. For Mata Nui. Would they ever feel like this? As if they've given up everything they ever were, ever could have been? What about Takua? Is he still in there?

Nothing felt real anymore. It was if some other, heroic, strong being had taken over his body. Every action felt almost fake, as if he was just a puppet on a stage, and if the strings were cut, he would flop to the ground, useless and weak.

One mistake. That's all it would take to doom Mata Nui forever, he knew.

And I want a moment to be real, Wanna touch things I don't feel, Wanna hold on and feel I belong. And how can the world want me to change, They're the ones that stay the same. They don't know me, 'Cause I'm not here.

The old Takua, alive in the recesses of his heart, wouldn't have let anything bother him for long. Takanuva pushed his despairing thoughts away. He had a job to do, after all.

The thick vegetation, looping and twisting between the thick pillar-like trees, reminded him of Le-Wahi, and the time Jaller had 'bear-fought' an ash bear, narrowly escaping the encounter only after Toa Lewa had arrived. It seemed so long ago…

And you see the things they never see All you wanted, I could be Now you know me, and I'm not afraid And I wanna tell you who I am Can you help me be a man? They can't break me As long as I know who I am

If only he had the courageous, loyal Toa of Fire by his side. They could have worked well together. I wonder what he's doing now, he thought. Then he realized that his mind was drifting again, like a boat left untied, and he shook his head.

Ahead, the swamp, or bog, or whatever you chose to call the smelly, mucky pit, dropped down sharply. The gnarled roots of the trees erupted from the squishy earth, bare and dry like rahi bones. Without pausing to think, Takanuva leaped down amongst the tangle and used the roots like a bridge to the next dry spot.

Technically, he could fly, but he hadn't been in the mood for it. Flying made him think of the birds yammering above his head, too far up to see, and birds made him think of Gukko, and of home.

Maybe I should fly up there and see if I can spot the Toa, he decided. Holding out his new power lance for balance, Takanuva braced himself. Remember when you used to do stuff like this for fun?

And I want a moment to be real, Wanna touch things I don't feel, Wanna hold on and feel I belong. And how can the world want me to change, They're the ones that stay the same. They can't see me, But I'm still here.

The next thing he knew, he was swooping through the sky. The dank mud and moss sped along underneath him in streaks. Adrenaline flooded his limbs. In a fit of spirits, Takanuva dived, hurtling through the gaps in the drooping vines. A second away from impact he swooped upward and hovered in place.

Cheered, he took a good look around. Mist hugged the trees here, but in the distance, Takanuva could just make out the blurred shapes of two grappling figures; one blue, and one ghostly white. Unless he was sorely mistaken, the blue figure looked distinctly like a Toa of Water. The other unknown was wiry, with luminous red eyes and rows of spines erupting from its armor.

They can't tell me who to be, 'Cause I'm not what they see. And the world is still sleepin', While I keep on dreamin' for me. And their words are just whispers And lies that I'll never believe.

Without hesitation, Takanuva summoned a bright flare. The creature whirled, eyes narrowed. It made no sound, only giving the Toa of Twilight a penetrating glance before sinking into the quagmire.

And I want a moment to be real, Wanna touch things I don't feel, Wanna hold on and feel I belong. And how can they say I never change They're the ones that stay the same. I'm the one now, 'Cause I'm still here.

He didn't have much thought to spare for the strange, spindly being. The Toa of Water, recovered, had stepped through the curtain of mist. Altered and silver-armored, her mask adorned with two wing-like projections, she was Gali Nuva, and one of the Toa he sought.

"Takanuva? Is that really you?" Her voice was shadowed by the countless questions she wanted to ask. Her bright yellow eyes, as open and easy to read as he had always remembered them, showed her shock.

"Yes. Are you okay?" "Of course. But…what happened to you?"

Takanuva sighed. "It's a tale worthy of the Wall of History, but there's no time for that now."

"You've changed," Gali murmured. "So have you," he replied. But under all this armor, I'm still here.

I'm the one, 'Cause I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm still here.

[sepublic]

Forever ago when you were talking about Gaardus you mentioned you made a custom head out of the Stars sets. Can you please share it? I am deadly curious since the Stars sets have like 3 pieces each.

Y’know what? I made a mock-up for an alternate Stars combiner, and with this ask, I finally decided to just buy all six Stars sets and make it a reality; So here it is!!!

Consider this a different take on Gaardus, based on how he’s depicted in the story; He’s a carnivore and a hunter, meant to be a living weapon, and Pohatu suggested Gaardus must’ve blended in with actual Rahi during the evacuation to Spherus Magna. So I worked with that prompt to create something that actually looked bestial, and had a proper mouth… Alas, the mouth can’t move but there aren’t exactly a lot of pieces to work with here! Hence Gaardus’ hind feet being Glatorian hands.

I had a lot of fun coming up with this design, first on paper and then applying it in-person, and changing it up as I experimented with the actual pieces in hand. I’m particularly happy with how I managed to upgrade the wings from my original draft, so now they’re actually big and prominent enough to fly with, as described in The Powers That Be. Speaking of…

Here’s Gaardus next to a Mata build, my own take on Takanuva based on the pieces I had. So here’s a general idea for scale against Kopaka and Pohatu, and the wings are posable and big enough to go around two more figures, to reenact the scene where the trio are teleported to the Red Star.

My main objective, other than the ones stated above, was just to make a combiner that actually felt like it was having fun and trying to be creative, rather than slapping limb pieces onto Tahu and calling it a day. Apologies if I’m bragging, but I’m quite chuffed with how Gaardus turned out, especially with the color scheme, since making him not a rainbow eyesore was also another goal of mine. I find it ironic how the official Gaardus combiner is just Tahu at its core, whereas my version uses only one piece for Gaardus’ upper jaw.

Technically it’s two pieces if you include Gaardus’ sword, which I did add because of a brief mention in the story itself, though Gaardus’ legs are admittedly standard-length and not long as they’re described. His weapon being a ‘sword of fire’ also gave me an excuse to add another piece from Tahu, in a way that didn’t jeopardize the color scheme too jarringly. Keeping the colors I chose -gray, black, white, silver, and lime green- distributed evenly was another fun challenge.

Since this was supposed to be a Stars combiner, I made sure to include as many pieces as I could from every set. These are all my leftover pieces;

Technically speaking, I should also have Tahu’s feet and Gresh’s ankles here, but unfortunately the seller forgot to include those pieces. Not that it matters, as I never expected to use those pieces due to the color scheme I’d already settled on, but still. I was also missing Takanuva’s ankles, but I had pieces to substitute on hand. My alt Gaardus build pulls primarily from Takanuva, Skrall, Rahkshi, and Gresh; Nektann is just gonna have to learn to live without feet, and Tahu is only missing his sword but still has the Golden Armor to compensate. This was honestly an incredibly fun challenge; Working within limitations really does breed creativity, huh? This must be what the official designers felt like making all of the other combiners for Bionicle.

[babblingpipit]

Too much but not enough

These thoughts are deeply ingrained in the back of my head, I know it's not true but they kept bugging me so I just want to spell it out.

Why did I have to do so many things? I have too much on my plate right now but still, I don't think it is enough to sustain my career in the future. Let's see. This semester I am managing the high ionization project with collaborators, which have two aspects in it: observation and simulation. Terus ada EW paper sama PI yang harus direvisi. Sekarang lagi ngelarin reviewer reports yang ternyata penting kalo mau apply green card (specifically dia bilang untuk suatu stream, kamu harus udah pernah ngejudge karya orang). Itu baru riset. Mau ngajar pula di timnya Alyssa. Terus supervisi student: master student di ITB, mau ambil REU summer ini, sama bikin summer program di ITB. Terus mau submit abstrak buat beberapa konferens.

Belum lagi ilya, lagi belajar makan. Ga sempat masak sama sekali jadi dia dari awal makanannya beli di supermarket huhu maaf ya nak. Tapi he is such such a good baby, kalo lagi makan di luar dia juga doyan yang kita makan (asal teksturnya sesuai). So far doyan banget TAHU dan telor di quiche hihi.

The feeling of good enough, maaf loncat-loncat tapi aku ngerasa despite everything that I am doing, kayanya masih belum cukup buat aku securing a job that I wanttt huhu yaitu kesempatan buat melakukan research di astronomi secara secure sampe ujung karirku. Ya Allah susah banget sih huhu effort kadang ga sebanding hasil. Bismillah semoga dikasih rejeki untuk bisa doing riset dan produktif serta ga harus cari-cari kerja tiap 3-5 tahun aamin.

[dear-indies]

Hello, dear-indies! I'm trying to get back into gif making and was gonna release the gifs of more popular FC's for a small charge and the gifs of lesser known ones for free, but it's been awhile since I've been active in the RP Community (like, when I left, Ashley Benson and Selena Gonez were the most popular FC's while). I was wondering if you had any suggestions of people who need more resources made of them? Or people who are wicked popular?

Hey anon! I'd suggest looking through the gif pack tag and see who appears a lot - Sadie Sink, Sabrina Carpenter, Reneé Rapp, Sydney Sweeney, Saoirse Ronan, Nicholas Galitzine, Anya Taylor-Joy, Joseph Quinn, Margot Robbie, Timothée Chalamet off the top off my head and a lot of them I wouldn't feel comfortable suggesting either.

Before you make gifs though I'm begging people to check if they're on the zionist masterlist using control + F!

As for people who need more resources, here are a bunch of people from my has spoken up for Palestine and Palestinian masterlist - please let me know if you need more suggestions! 💌

Saba Mubarak (1976) Palestinian / Jordanian.

Saleh Bakri (1977) Palestinian.

Rajshri Deshpande (1982) Indian.

Amir Eid (1983) Egyptian.

Siobhan Thompson (1984)

Aisling Bea (1984)

Vicci Martinez (1984) Mexican - is a lesbian.

Ruth Kearney (1984)

Lilan Bowden (1985) Taiwanese / White.

Saagar Shaikh (1986) Pakistani.

Jodi Balfour (1986) - is quee

Chai Fonacier (1986) Bisaya Filipino.

Charlyne Yi (1986) Korean, Yuki, Mexican, Filipina, Spanish, French, Irish, and German - is non-binary and queer (they/them).

Mustafa Ali (1986) Pakistani.

Erika Ishii (1987) Japanese - is genderfluid (she/they/any).

Anjana Vasan (1987) Tamil Indian.

Ally Beardsley (1988) - is non-binary (they/them).

Adam Bakri (1988) Palestinian.

Rakeen Saad (1989) Jordadian.

Amir El-Masry (1990) Egyptian.

Paapa Essiedu (1990) Ghanaian.

Rosaline Elbay (1990) Egyptian.

Shareena Clanton (1990) Blackfoot, Cherokee, African-American, Wangkatha, Yamatji, Noongar, Gija.

Sarah Kameela Impey (1991) Indo-Guyanese / British.

Tanya Reynolds (1991)

Tahraa Ghandour (1991) Iraqi.

Jamael Westman (1991) Afro Jamaican / White.

Vinnie Bennett (1992) Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngā Puhi, White.

Joana Ribeiro (1992)

Zaqi Ismail (1992) Indian.

Tara Emad (1993) Egyptian / Yugoslav Montenegrin.

Olivia D’Lima (1993) Goan and White.

Sinem Ünsal (1993) Turkish.

Bambie Thug (1993) - has ADHD, is non-binary (they/fae).

Bobbi Salvör Menuez (1993) - is trans non-binary (they/them).

Mia Khalifa (1993) Lebanese.

Luke Rollason (1994)

Arsema Thomas (1994) Nigerian / Ethiopian - is non-binary (she/they).

Jaboukie Young-White (1994) Chinese, Afro-Jamaican, Cuban, Irish.

Kedar Williams-Stirling (1994) Afro Jamaican.

Mona Farouk (1995) Egyptian.

Elvina Mohamad (1995) Malaysian.

Brandon Soo Hoo (1995) Chinese.

Reem Amara (1995) Palestinian, Jordanian.

Juliette Motamed (1995) Iranian.

Achraf Koutet (1995) Moroccan.

Willow Pill (1995) - is trans femme, has cystinosis and is autistic.

Halema Hussain (1995) Sylheti.

Chioma Antoinette Umeala (1996) Nigerian-South African.

Leo Sheng (1996) Chinese - is a trans man.

Éanna Hardwicke (1996)

Halima Aden (1997) Somali.

Niamh Wilson (1997) - is queer (all pronouns).

Bryn Chapman Parish (1997)

Blu del Barrio (1997) Argentinian - is non-binary (they/them).

Micheal Ward (1997) Afro Jamaican.

Mayan El Sayed (1997) Egyptian

Hania Aamir (1997) Pakistani.

Kaiit (1997) Papuan / Gunditjmara, Torres Strait Islander - is non-binary (she/he/they).

May Elghety (1998) Egyptian.

Angel Guardian (1998) Palestinian and Filipino.

Máiréad Tyers (1998)

Towa Bird (1999) Filipino and White - is queer.

Noor Taher (1999) Palestinian and Lebanese.

Frida Argento (2000)

Andria Tayeh (2001) Jordanian and Lebanese.

Hope Ikpoku Jnr (2001) Black British.

Amybeth Mcnulty (2001)

Hamzeh Okab (2001) Palestinian.

Nora Dari (2001) Moroccan-Belgian.

Kei Kurosawa (2001) Bisaya Filipino and Japanese.

Rhea Norwood (2001) - has type 1 diabetes.

Denise Julia (2002) Filipino - is pansexual.

[titanic-toa]

Toa

So, there were six of them in total it seemed. Having spoken with the Turaga Nokama, Gali was directed towards the center of the island where she encountered a strange temple like shrine building, where five similarly sized being awaited her. She was told there were probably be six of them in total but she hadn't expected to be the only woman of the group, though it didn't seem like that made an impact on their treatment of her.

It looked like she was the last one to arrive, the red one and the white one seemed to be arguing with each other about... something, possibly deciding who might be the leader of the group? Approaching the group they paused for a moment to acknowledge her presence and then immediately resumed their bickering. The other three were Brown, Black, and Green, seemingly talking among themselves and trying to ignore the fight going on. The Toa colored a midnight black would turn to her and flash a beaming smile as she approached, clapping strong on her shoulder almost making her stumble. "Sister! I was wondering when you would arrive! My Turaga told me there would be six of us, so nice of you to join us. Ignore those two, they've been at this for half an hour now." He gestured towards the Red one. "Tahu there, our hot headed brother, has determined that HE ought the be in charge." He then gestured towards the snow white Toa. "Whereas Kopaka, our ice cold sibling here, is suggesting we each just our own way."

Gali immediately brought her hands to her head and rubbed her temple, this was going to be long and tiring introduction. The black Toa released her shoulder but kept smiling as he spoke. "I'm Onua! Toa of Earth and guardian of the archives of Onu-Koro! And this is..." With that he'd stand aside and sweep an arm out to the other two Toa, the Green one stepping forth enthusiastically to introduce himself. "Well said! Happy to see you're not as prone to anger-shouting like the firespitter there!" He also gestured to Tahu. "I'm Lewa, Toa-Hero of Le-Koro and guardian of the Tree-Bright!" He stepped forward and gave Gali an firm hug. While embraced, Gali shot a look towards Onua who returned the same look, neither one seemed to understand what Lewa was saying.

As soon as Lewa released her, he stepped aside and let the brown Toa approach, he seemed just happy and confident as Onua. "Ah our sister of water, pleasure to meet you! I'm Pohatu, the Toa of Stone and sprinter across the plains of the badlands, if you ever need news spread Po-koro has your back." Wow his hand shake was strong, made sense for someone who worked with stone. "Though I don't think I'll be visiting your Koro too much, stones and water don't exactly mix you know."

Gali giggled softly at the joke, nodding in understanding. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you all as well, including..." She looked towards Tahu and Kopaka, whose argument seemed to have peaked at a point where they were about ready to just storm off. "Our two predisposed brothers." With a heavy sigh, she stepped past the trio that welcomed her and walked up between her fire and ice brothers. "Alright, I don't know what started this argument but it ends now. I've seen enough to know that each of us cares for our Koro and our people and we ALL want to help." She emphasized this staring at Kopaka. "However, we should do this as a TEAM, working TOGETHER." She raised her voice, eyes locked with Tahu and then back to Kopaka. "In fighting when we first gets us nowhere closer to doing anything to better ourselves or our people. Agreed?"

There was a silence between the six, but Onua, Lewa, and Pohatu were looking on with a combination of amazement and smug satisfaction at their sister's negotiation ability. Eventually Tahu and Kopaka would grumble and nod in agreement with Gali's words before walking over to join the others. With another sigh Gali was relieved that her gamble worked. This was going to be quite the tight she'd have to walk, and our job as mediator was only just beginning.