#ask-toa-nuparu

[crustacean-menace]

Hello BIONICLE fandom. Allow me to bother you over something very silly i made to pass time.

Feel free to argue.

[bionicle-ramblings]

AAAAAH, I POSTED IT TOO EARLY!!!!!!!

This is the basic idea I had, but really who knows?

Splitting up would be Jaller's idea, hence why half would get mutated, but Vakama would urge their strength in numbers and that could get EVERYONE mutated

The Rahaga would 100% be run ragged, but they seem to be "bigger picture" thinkers, even if they growl back or just "remind" the Toa not to try them because they've been mutated longer and have MUCH more experience than all the Toa put together

so that 'all 19 of the Toa being Toa at the same time' is so funny to me imagine if somehow they all got caught up in the Hordika arc-how would that work, i dunno, but like... ...now the Rahaga have to deal with 19 Rahi-Toa isntead of just 6 Those poor Rahagha. They deserve a vacation after this is all done lol

Agreed. They'd ALL have their hands full with looking after three or four Toa at once and having Takanuva around

Some Toa would be easier to deal with than others, for sure, but WHILE THEY'RE FIGHTING? Not so much

I can see some trying to get the others to see the bigger picture so all their lives are easier, but when a fight breaks out, they decide to fight fire with fire, or ice with ice, whoever fighting at the time

I have a hunch that the betrayal probably wouldn't happen, only because Vakama would have people follow him and have him think about how exactly he plans to sace the Matoran, and how doing it alone os physically impossible

As much as everyone would be affected, they would either be quick to stop a fight or just hold the Rahaga back so whoever’s fighting gets it out of their systems

Idk, a lot would change like everyone developing a pack/herd mentality and making sure they're all together and getting along while the Rahaga, Gali, and a few others are looking, but things would change like the betrayal possibly not happening and everyone trying to get through what's happening

Maybe only 8 or 9 of the Toa would get Hordika'd and the rest just need to keep them from killing each other

[randomwriteronline]

"Ah! You're one of those," a voice came to his ears.

Nuparu turned to find a tall Gaquri standing at the entrance, looking at him curiously.

"I am a Toa," he corrected.

The other nodded: "Yes, I do know that. Forgot the name is all. You're a, uh... Ko?"

"Onu."

"Hm! My mistake. Which element is that, again?"

"Earth. Do you need something?" the inventor cut their small talk short, lightly tapping a tool similar to a wrench against the skeletal frame of what appeared to be a heavily modded chariot: "I'm working on a project."

"You know where Berix is?" the Gaquri asked. He raised an arm: an interesting weapon, with a jagged light blue blade at one end and some kind of projectile mechanism attached to the handle, dangled from it casually. "Wanted to drop this off to him. The thornax launcher's been jamming up more often and I know that boy can make it work like a charm again."

"He's getting parts," Nuparu answered. His eyes rested once more on the blade and he added, tilting his head intrigued: "You can leave it here if you want."

"So you can study some original Bara Magna manufacturing?" the other joked.

"It's not really my field, but it looks remarkable."

He watched the organic being laugh heartily as he approached - with a fairly heavy limp, he noticed: "Remarkable! Now that's a bit of an exaggeration, kid. I made these from some bones, whatever viable scraps I could find from wrecks of the Core War, and a few patches across the years when I could afford it. It's held together by spit and whatever Ackar's friend did to make it spurt water."

"From what I understand, spit doesn't seem like a good adhesive."

"That's what we say here to mean something's parts are real shoddily connected together."

"Hm! Like dried mud. Or aluminum sheet."

"That's the idea. Ah, where should I put this, anyhow?"

"There is fine. What's with your leg?"

The Gaquri gave a grimace: "Nothing much - just my knee acting up," he replied, patting the guilty joint. "Something must have gotten rusted. It happens."

Even through the lack of expression of his mask Nuparu treated him to a baffled look.

"What?"

"Organic parts don't rust," the Toa sputtered. "At least, ours don't."

The other eyed the tendons and muscles peeking through black armor, and his lips perked up in a little smile.

Without a word he placed his weapon on the least cluttered corner of Berix's work desk before redirecting his now free hands to the side of the faulty knee, messing with what appeared to be the graceless stitching of a large wound: his fingers sank deftly into it and pried through the gaps enough to loosen the whole thing, and before the less organic being's flabbergasted eyes pulled down the fake skin and meat to reveal a fully mechanical joint, complete with pistons and springs and even what seemed like wires.

"Don't worry," he chuckled with a wave, "Ours don't either. But most crusty old Glatorian like me haven't been completely flesh and bone in a long time."

If the inventor's attention had been piqued before, he was completely captivated now. He was leaning on his seat towards him, vehicle project all but forgotten, intently studying as many details of the prosthesis as he could see from that distance.

His eager interest made the other laugh again: "Why all that surprise! Don't you see something like this on you every day?"

"Yes, but I'm not you!"

"And what's that mean?"

"You're all flesh! And meat! And skin! How does that work?"

The Gaquri considered something for a moment. "If you can get me a seat and figure out what's wrong with it, I'll be glad to let you have a closer look," he offered at last.

Nuparu pulled the stool from right under himself so fast that he fell on his ass.

He then placed it down with extreme care and patted it insistently.

The other barely held back a snort.

His implant hadn't caused this much of a scene since the first day it had been up and functional.

"The name's Tarix, anyhow," he introduced himself as he sat down a little heavily. "Since you'll be rummaging knuckle-deep through the insides of my leg for the next thirty minutes."

"Hm," Nuparu replied as he kneeled until his mask was all but grazing the joint.

Tarix waited a dozen seconds, and added: "You got one too, Toa?"

"One what?"

"Name."

"Nuparu."

"I see. Ah - nope, nope, don't-" his fingers quickly pinched the mechanical being's and lifted them away from the scarified tissue binding the meat to the metal: "That's real flesh, don't peel that - the nerves still work, you'd put me through the pains of Plude."

"What's that?"

"You folks have a place in your lore built just to torture you forever?"

"Yes, Karzhani. I've been there."

"Huh. Well, I've been to Plude too back when it still existed, and I'll just say that the only good thing the Lord of Sand might've done was collapsing it on itself. So, you get what I mean about the pain."

"Hm. Yes, I can imagine. But how do I - see, to check the individual parts, I'd need to pull them off..."

"Oh - hold it, let me just..."

Angling his leg in an uncomfortable position and hunching down with a hiss, the Glatorian set to work carefully pulling screws loose with the help of an empty pipe he'd fetched from his pocket. The small parts dangled from their sockets without falling, just distant enough from the point the metal touched to allow the top and bottom pieces to be pulled apart without needing to pull the much more easy to lose components out of the whole.

"Hold the calf a moment, will you?" he muttered with the pipe now stuck between his teeth. Nuparu complied, holding the lower half of the leg still as Tarix worked his magic on the inner wires. At last, satisfied, he unfurled his back up once more and puffed satisfied: "There, pull."

When the Toa did so, the prosthesis came apart as easily as a house of cards. Suddenly, in the mechanical palm was a whole calf, still warm with life and undoubtedly organic.

Tarix watched genuinely amused as Nuparu tested the ankle in his hands and on the ground, miming an attempt at a walk as though playing with a very concerning doll with nothing short of pure unadultered fascination.

He posed it as if stuck in a sprint: "Can you feel this?"

"Not a single thing," the Glatorian replied. He patted the metallic femur's exposed head: "And neither can I here. The connections are all in the wires, they go right into the nerves, see? So long as they're apart I can't feel crap anywhere from over here," and he pointed to the flesh that stopped around the middle of his thigh "To the rest of the leg underneath. Not that I should be able to, frankly, if we wanted to abide by nature's whims, but luckily for me us Spherus Magna natives never cared much for that."

Nuparu hummed: "How'd you get it like this, anyways?"

"Oh," the Glatorian shrugged as though it were the most normal thing in the world, "Blew up."

"It just exploded?"

"Not by itself, of course, someone shot the whole thing out of me."

The Toa treated him to an appalled look.

Tarix waved a hand harshly, chewing on his unlit pipe: "The Core War was absolutely barbaric, kid! I've witnessed stuff I wouldn't wish on a Skrall. When I saw that half you've got there in your hand fly over my head as gracefully as the ugliest bird known to any being with eyes, I thought I was going to die of shock like a Mountain Striker with a broken wing. I still have no clue how I managed to keep awake through the bloodloss and pain long enough for the fixers to figure out I was still alive enough to be taken down to the medic."

Nuparu regarded the half of a limb in his grasp with newfound horror and fascination. A whole portion of leg, shot right out... He wasn't sure if even the Vortixx could have had something capable of doing that. Oh, sure, they had plenty of possibly worse things, but even the most blunt tended to have slightly more complex effects than just 'blows a chunk off of you'.

And the fact that they had managed to rebuild the broken joint and connected it to the rest of the nervous system was nothing short of miraculous, compared to the same thing done on a mechanical being - whose organic components regenerate, too.

"And all Glatorian have something like this?"

"Us older ones, yes," the other nodded. He watched with a sort of lazy interest as the Toa turned his attention to the mechanism of his prosthesis, checking for damage as he had promised. "The rookies tend to have the usual stuff, thank goodness - scars, plaques, maybe a limb, some fingers..."

"Fingers?"

"Yes, some of them. They tend to nip 'em a lot during training, you know, when they start to get the hang of it and stop holding their weapons like they're gonna grow a mouth and bite them - they cut tendons often those first few times. Or just the whole thing."

"Really?"

He chuckled, playfully waving his fingers: "Gresh keeps losing them. If you look closely you can tell which phalanxes are still his."

"I thought he was good at fighting."

"He is. He's just young. And a little too brash at times."

Nuparu hummed, moving onto the piece of implant attached to his thigh: "You mentioned limbs, too," he noted absentmindedly: "Is that also common, during training?"

"Losing them? Oh no, that happens out in the desert. Or, used to happen... Well, the desert's still out there, just smaller, so I guess - point is, you'll sooner get one cut off by a Bone Hunter or chewed up by a Vorox than find a fellow Glatorian who'll do that to you, on purpose or not. We made sure to try and avoid that sort of thing when we made the rules for the job."

"And plaques?"

"Oh, these," and he tapped some strange metallic protrusions on the top of his legs, on the side of his arms, and on his shoulders. "Nothing special, they keep armor in place. Easier than having to strap it on. We install them when we come of age."

Their shape was somewhat familiar: "Berix has them too, I think."

"I think everybody gets them - Agori, Glatorian, Skrall..."

"They are pretty useful," the Toa nodded.

He couldn't really imagine how they could have managed to stick armor to themselves otherwise. Maybe through some cloth? But then it might chafe their joints, and they'd have to find a way to insert it in the metal anyways...

He hummed thoughtfully, wracking his brain as he tried at once to figure out both the logistics of putting armor on fully organic beings and whatever was wrong with the implant.

So concentrated he was that he actually jumped a little when the pipe gently smacked his shoulder.

Tarix had a strange look on his face as he pointed down at a spot on his prosthesis: "Don't - it's nothing to be worried about yet, just, watch it," he warned, "That coil there you've got near your index, she's real frisky. Won't be a problem now that it's taken apart, but when you stick it back together you'd better avoid even just so much as grazing it - it'll pull my calf back at top speeds to kick my ass. Been like that since the start."

"Oh! Sounds painful."

"It is!"

With a hand already rummaging through a box of springs, Nuparu offered: "Since I'm here already, I could replace that..."

"Ah, there's no need really," the Glatorian quickly stopped him.

"But it's a liability."

"If it's out in the open like this, yeah, but - well, when it's covered it's a lot more manageable, and the wires-"

"It's still a malfunction. I can fix that without any trouble."

"I get it, but it's - I - hm! Let me explain. See, when - if I cover it up, see, with my-"

"The fake flesh?"

"Yes, that - it still jerks back if touched, but not as hard, you get me?"

"But it still does."

"Yes, and here's the - the thing is, I also have my nerves connected, right? Right, and when the coil gets touched and makes my leg jerk, it... Er... See - have you ever - hm! Hmm-hm. Hold on. Do you... Is there something that you know is not good for your body, but when you do it it just feels nice?"

"No."

"Alright, this complicates things."

"Oh! Oh, no, wait - when I cut metal with a saw, I like to keep myself as close to the sparks as possible so they can hit me because they tingle. It's fun. Do you mean like that?"

"Eeeh, close enough! That's what's going on with that coil."

"It tingles?"

"It... Uh... Sure, let's. Call it that."

The change in tone was weird, and he seemed to be somewhat embarrassed about having brought the subject up.

Now, in regards to asking personal questions, Nuparu tended to be as uninterested in other beings' private matter as much as a Kofo-Jaga is in lightstones.

However, this was directly related to the machinations of an impressive, if a little primitive, handmade mechanical joint.

So yes, he would have loved to pry.

The mental manifestation of Turaga Whenua repeatedly smacking him over the head with his drilling staff was currently the only thing keeping him from inquiring on any activities Tarix might have enjoyed dabbling in outside of his work hours, but luckily for the Glatorian that singular imaginary scenario was also an extremely effective deterrent for any Matoran or Toa that had ever at some point of their lives resided in Onu-Koro.

As such, the Toa just shrugged and diverted his attention onto the object the Gaquri was now nervously twisting in his hand: "What's that, by the way?"

The total swerve in subject matter destabilized the Glatorian briefly. He looked down at his fingers, then back at the Toa.

"A pipe?" he replied.

Nuparu squinted at it a little better: "That does not look like a pipe." he decreted.

Tarix lifted an eyebrow, curiously: "It's just an Agori pipe."

"That's not a pipe," the inventor insisted.

"And how should a proper Toa pipe look like, then?"

"Matoran pipe, maybe-" the Toa scoffed, rolling his eyes and making the other chuckle a bit while the mechanical hands went right back to checking on his implant in the midst of his correction: "First of all, it's far too small to be of any proper use; second, that seems to be made of wood, which is the worst material for this kind of thing - even if you could fit that tiny piece in a proper hydraulic system, long time usage will lend it to rot and come apart much faster, which is why we used to trade iron with Le-Koro to avoid the whole village from caving in on--"

"Oh!" Tarix interrupted him all of a sudden, smacking the object on his palm with a hollow sound: "Oh, you meant - no no no, it's not that type of pipe! It's a, uh -- pipa! Nagele! Sghitt!"

"Don't curse at me, please."

"I'm not cursing at you, it's just different names for this! You really don't have a word for-?" then he cut himself off as he seemed to remind himself of something evidently obvious: "Ah - well, I mean, you don't have a mouth, of course you can't smoke..."

"Yes we do."

"You do?"

"Yes? How else would we hold our masks?"

Tarix blinked, briefly wondered if he should have asked, and decided it didn't matter: "But you don't smoke? At all?"

"No? Unless we get catastrophically overheated or are set on fire," Nuparu replied as he attached the disjointed calf into the thigh again. "Both of which in all fairness have happened before. Not very often, but they have happened."

"No, I meant... Ah, hold it, hold it..."

He stuck the unlit pipe back in his mouth, puffing out nothing a few times with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"See - it's a bit like the coil and the sparks again, the matter with smoking," he decided to start explaining: "There's certain plants, if you dry them and burn them well, that make really pleasant smoke."

"How is smoke pleasant?" the Toa muttered.

"The smell can be," the Gaquri shrugged, "And the taste too. Wait-" and he gently knocked the foot of the pipe on the top of the Volitak before the inventor could interrupt him again "-Wait a second, I can't very well clear this up if you keep cutting in. Alright, so the bigger part here, the bowl we call it - you need to press the dried plants in here and light them up, only a little before the whole thing burns up; once they're charred nicely, you inhale through the shank, and then you puff it back out. That's how the smoke gets in your mouth and you can taste it."

"And how does it taste, then?"

"Ah, depends on what you smoke," was the whistful answer. "Same goes for the smell. The Lebori have a certain bark that gets real flexible when wet - they make whole pipes with it, they burn up real well, but it's a bit too sour for me. Before the Shattering there used to be a type of kelp I liked, and Kiina said they had River Eyes up near the Dormus that made some terribly sweet smoke."

"River Eyes?"

"It's a flower! Small, round, blue, and it grows on river banks. Never got to try them, though, and it's better I don't go around asking for some with the lungs I've got. Like I said, smoking's the same as the coil and the sparks: feels good to do, but it's bad for the body."

Nuparu hummed deeply, rummaging inside the knee as he handled the hanging wires carefully.

"I think I figured out the problem," he announced.

At that Tarix perked up: "Rust?"

"One piston has developed a limestone growth that makes it much harder to move properly, and as a result one of the springs is bent out of shape and chafes right against the nerve."

"Ah! Well, damn. You can get limestone in there?"

"If it's humid enough, it can build up over time."

"Hm... Alright, I guess all those years sweating in arenas and whatnot were bound to do the trick eventually."

"Also there was rust."

"Hm. Where?"

"Three screws. I changed them already."

"Wait, really? When?"

"While you were talking about the Core War."

"Huh! You're quick. And quiet."

The Toa shrugged: "I like working."

He pulled the prosthesis apart for a second time, laying the calf down on the floor. He then leaned back to search through a tool box brimming with bits and pieces - bolts, nuts, coils, springs, and all sorts of other things - with what his mask's stillness still managed to convey as a focused furrowed brow, evidently still thinking about what course of action to take now that he had pinpointed the anomaly to fix.

Changing his mind, he stood up and made his way to one of the various piles of junk and assorted more or less useful knicknacks to start looking for something in there instead.

"Speaking of the Core War," he said, implying he wanted to start a conversation but without really adding to that sentence.

Tarix waited a few minutes, puffing out in silence while watching him shift towels or bottles until he found what he was looking for (a clean enough rag and flask containing a murky liquid), before figuring that he was waiting for some kind of permission to continue on the admittedly not particularly pleasant topic: "Yes?"

"You said other older Glatorians also got implants like this from it."

"I implied it, but yes, that's the case."

The Toa hummed as he settled back before him: "And they're all knees, like yours?"

"You want to ask what their own prosthesis are?"

At that, he got no response.

"You can, by the way," Tarix reassured him, "It's been a damn long time by now, it doesn't hurt as much as say, eighty hundred years ago. We've been living like this long enough to joke about the whole thing and whatnot."

Nuparu mumbled something indistict as he soaked up the rag and began scraping the limestone off of the metal with it.

"Don't act all shy now, kid! As I said, it's no trouble." the Glatorian repeated. A sly smile curled the corners of his lip: "You can't get embarrassed like this every time you have to ask about new possible clients, you know," he jokingly reprimanded him, "Otherwise you'll have a hard time getting any."

"I don't want to be paid!" the Toa replied. "I'm just curious, is all! This is... Well, I didn't expect it to be something you'd have."

"Oh, don't worry, not everybody's missing a whole chunk of leg like me," Tarix chuckled. "We Glatorian like to keep ourselves distinct from one another."

"In implant too?"

"Of course! Let me think, now..."

He inhaled a long breath through his pipe, leaning back a little as the kid continued on with his work, and exhaled with a whistle.

"So, let's see - Vastus, he's got a good chunk of his lower spine replaced and, oh, 'bout three quarters of his intestines," he began: "Kiina had her hip crushed and put back together, and that should be... Ah, nope, nope, half of her left hand and the whole ulna too. Telluris I haven't see in a long while now, but unless he's figured out how to place his brain in a tin can I'd bet his head's all that's left. Certavus, bless his memory, I don't think he had a single original organ left by the end, and Gelu's got bionic feet - one foot, one leg, right, a whole leg, so then Strakk was the one who got his eye shot out and his nose crushed. And the jaw, of course. I don't remember if it was him or Malum who cracked his head but I do think it was him, because Malum had the femur that got split in half and it worsened with that problem with his ribcage where the metal was corroding and messing with his blood... Which is why he had to get his marrow replaced in his leg later on. Oh, and Ackar also had to... Ah, wait, which one was it? Right, right. Ackar, poor guy, his back itself is worse than a Plude street but his real problem's his right shoulder blade, which got essentially pulverized - I was there, ghastly sight - so they had to replace the whole thing, and that was bad enough; but then, and this is the fucked thing, the implant actively degraded the rest of the arm, so he had to keep replacing bits and pieces of it until it was just completely gone."

Nuparu lifted his head, eyes wide and flabbergasted: "The fixing made it worse?"

"It did! He kept having trouble moving it."

"How?"

Tarix raised his shoulders: "Beats me," he replied just as baffled. "It's a common thing for Tapyri, honestly. It's hard to tell if the material's bad quality or has trouble with the heat. Perditus too - after he got half his leg replaced, the damn thing somehow managed to melt halfways and left him limping almost worse than he would if he just didn't have it."

"And he can't replace it?"

"It's grafted onto the bone and the muscle has grown over it. They'd have to carve the whole thing out with it, it's just not worth it."

The Toa stared at him positively appalled.

"That is horrid," he spat, punctuating the adjective with a harsh yank of his hand over the faulty piston, thus launching a loosened piece of limestone to skid across the floor.

"You're tellin' me, kid."

"That's - it's inadmissible. It's insane."

"And I haven't told you about the Agori."

"What about the Agori? Were they fighting too? Do they-?"

"No, not fighting, usually - it's something we got in common with your lot: we're basically the same species, but we are much bigger and they're much nimbler. So you had us larger folk tearing one another to bits properly, while they tended to work as scouts if they weren't busy trying to put us back in one piece."

The Gaquri interrupted himself to stretch his arms up, pulling one towards his head.

The movement produced a loud 'crock!' roughly around the height of his shoulder, followed by much softer pops crackling all the way up towards his wrist as it twisted.

Satisfied with the sound (which instead made the inventor a little uneasy considering their conversation), he moved to massage the sides of his spine with his knuckles, rolling his neck: it seemed to make a curious ticking noise in place of a meatier sound, filling in the quick pauses of Nuparu's rag scrubbing the limestone away.

At last he puffed into his unlit pipe: "If you look at the older ones - the Agori, I mean - you'll see they've got less lower half than upper."

"That makes no sense."

"It does if you don't count implants. We've got them a bit everywhere, I told you, but an Agori with an arm prosthesis is a real rarity. They've got them mostly between their soles and the top of their hipbones."

"And why's that?"

"It's 'cause the lucky ones stepped on mines."

The Toa hummed thoughtfully.

He did not raise his eyes from the almost clean piston: "And the unlucky ones?"

"Well, we were trained to aim for either the neck or the head."

Ah.

Those certainly had been unlucky.

For every thing Toa and Glatorians seemed to have in common, a complete opposite came around. To imagine a Toa willingly kill was already hard, though not impossible - the Mahri themselves had been met with the chance to do so once or twice, and it had been tantalizing to say the least; but to envision a group of his brothers and sisters being not only instructed but even trained to kill, and especially to kill Matoran...

Well, he was glad he did not live in that kind of world.

"That's just how life is," Tarix sighed in the end. "Nobody wins. They've got their metal hips, and I've got my leg held together by wires and pistons. And an artificial diaphragm."

That snapped Nuparu out of his unpleasant musings: "A what?"

"That one wasn't the war's fault, though - well, it was, but it came in later. See, I had some sharpnel that got stuck in there but nobody noticed, and then one day I got a shove in the wrong spot during a match and just stopped breathing. So I had to get a mechanical one, and when I have to put myself under any sort of strain I need to hook myself up to an oxygen supplier to make sure it doesn't collapse under the effort - you know, that tube thing you might have seen on me, sort of like yours."

"Your gills?"

"I..." the Gaquri briefly did a double take. "You call those gills?"

"Yes?"

They blinked at each other briefly.

"Yeah," Tarix conceded, "Yeah, I guess those would be gills for you folks, huh. Makes sense."

"What was it that you had to replace?"

"My diaphragm."

"What is that?"

"... The muscle?"

"Which muscle?"

"The... The one that makes the... Lungs? Work? I understood you did have lungs?"

"Lungs work on their own."

"No they do not?"

"Yes they do. They are muscles."

"No they are not??"

Before Nuparu could further argue his point by lifting his chest plate and forcing Tarix to behold the disquieting spectacle offered by his very much clearly autonomously moving lungs, the unmistakeable noise of a small variety of hollow brass objects gracelessly crashing on the floor and being hurriedly chased after by stomping feet attracted their attention elsewhere.

Berix did not notice them as immediately as they noticed him, since he was busy making his entrance on all fours as he scrambled to pick up a bunch of scrap metal that had spilled from his arms.

The other two beings made no sound as they watched him curse to himself after stepping on a rogue bolt. They decided to simply observe him in silence much like an equipe of entomologists observes a particularly frenetic spider panicking for some kind of fault in its web, making no motion to lend the young Agori any help as he crawled along the ground to collect the scattered pieces of his scavenged treasure of junk.

It was particularly fascinating when he accidentally shoved several bolts in his mouth to the point of almost stuffing his cheeks with them, realized his mistake, and spat them in what looked like an exhaust pipe.

He almost cried when they fell out of it and rolled away again.

Then he lifted his eyes briefly to the other two silent beings in the room and failed to recognize them.

Meaning he then proceded to jump almost three whole bio straight in the air once he figured there were people looking at him - landing on a screw.

"FUCK!" he whimpered.

Tarix waved: "Hello to you."

"Do you need help?" Nuparu asked with a notable delay.

The Agori kneeled to the ground and skidded across it: "No no no, I'm good! I'm good, I'm - hey, hi, Tarix, hi, when did-? What are you-? Uh," he said nervously as he tried to catch as many nuts and springs as possible, "What is going on there? Is it, did I interrupt or, should- should I leave? Again? Should I leave again?"

"Nuparu's fixing my leg."

At that Berix snapped his head with a deafening gasp to look directly at him, the most betrayed expression to ever grace his face plaster across it.

"But I wanted to do that!" he cried out in anguish like a desert fox cub experiencing the horrors of its mother's tongue bath for the first time: "I told you I could do it, I- I replaced Gresh's ribs and, and I fixed his lungs when the Skrall got him and he hasn't had problems with them since, I told you I could do it, I'm good at fixing-!"

"I know that, and Gresh told me you did real well," the older Gaquri stopped him, "But - don't take it personally, kid, you're good and all, but when it comes to my leg I only trust you as far as I can throw you and believe me, it ain't far."

"But then why does he get to do it!" Berix wailed, pointing at Nuparu still scrubbing off the limestone.

"He's got a whole body like this, I'd imagine he knows what to do."

"But I know what to do too!"

"I told you, I'd rather have a specialist on it."

The Toa briefly wondered if being a descendant of the Water Tribe had something to do with how outstandingly wet Berix could will his eyes to look, or if it was just a specifically Berix thing.

Mabe it was an Agori defense mechanism. After all, it would have been pretty hard to want to hurt something that appeared to be the personification of the verbs 'to whimper', 'to whine', 'to sob', and last but not least 'to wail'.

Whatever the origin of such an expression of anguish, Tarix was not immune to its effects: "Oh, don't be like that," he finally pleaded with a tired but guilty tone, and pointed off to the cluttered desk not too far away: "There, I've got something for you too, alright? I came in 'cause my Thornax launcher's busted and you're the best with 'em. Could you fix that for me? Pretty please?"

That was enough to light the younger being's face up again.

With the sort of excited thin howling laugh that a mischievous ghost might have, he scuttled away to the mess of a table that was the headquarters for most of his projects: onto it he dumped the rest of his scraps, not caring even in the slightest that it only helped to worsen the general situation he already had going on as he was already completely absorbed by the thought of the inner mechanics of the weapon at hand.

The perfectly good chair right beside him thoroughly ignored in favor of sitting on the ground in a curled position that would have made a shrimp suggest booking an osteopathic appointment, he immediately started tinkering around to figure what the problem was with the drive and precision of a blood hound.

That had been perhaps one of the best things their unplanned collaboration had brought Nuparu - aside from all the knick-knacks and thingamajigs and vehicles and tools he'd been able to make or just plan out with the Agori, of course. Watching Berix work on something was such a fun and fascinating experience: his intensity gave his body language a sort of visceral desperation that contrasted his careful fumbling motions, pulling pieces apart with his scarred skeletal fingers and letting them fall all around him as though discarded carelessly - yet he somehow always knew where to search when he needed them again, and if in the middle of his fixer's frenzy you asked him for a specific nut or a gear he could pick it up without even looking, always on the first try. The thunderous act of creation and its rhythmic symphony played on rough instruments whisked the both of them away from the world at large, but when the Toa managed to pull himself back to reality (whether done or stumped or just in need of a break) it was enjoyable if not just all-together mesmerizing to observe the other hard at work on his own project.

A loud bang was not enough to deter him from the launcher either.

The equally loud voice that followed with an exasperated bark did, however: "BERIX! THE DOOR!"

"RIGHT! RIGHT- RIGHT, HOLD ON!" he squeaked hurriedly, abandoning (with a little more care) the weapon to scuttle away as fast as he could to the entrance of their laboratory.

The figure that emerged from the held open door replied to his rambling apologies by grunting every few steps - not without reason, seeing as they were carrying the carcass of an older model of chariot intertwined with some other mean of transport that had clearly gotten lodged sideways in its back, trying to balance the hellish thing on their shoulders in a way not too dissimilar to how a shepherd might carry a too small Mahi tired from a day of running wildly.

The mess of a car accident was dropped rather gracelessly onto the first largest spot of floor available; freed from their herculean weight, the being sighed and pulled back their arms, making the rather dull metal vertebrae poking from their skin creak in a somewhat unsettling fashion.

Nuparu briefly wondered if they were encrusted in limestone too.

They sort of looked like it.

Hm.

Now he had to wonder if it was a common yet not very well-known problem for organic beings with mechanical implants. Maybe it had to do with an excessive production of sweat?

While he was busy pondering that, Tarix grinned at the sight: "Hello, my beautiful wife who sucks at killing me," he crooned lovingly.

Vastus turned to him with a smirk, thin feathers raised and brows slightly furrowed in a manner that was much more fond than annoyed: "Hello, my beautiful husband who can't aim for shit," he replied; upon noticing the Toa kneeled before him, he cheekily added: "Committing adultery, I see?"

His partner wheezed a loud gurgling laugh: "Twelve thousand years we've been married! Twelve thousand years and now you mistake me for Gelu!"

"For who?"

"What, you haven't heard about--?"

"NOT IN FRONT OF MY PROJECTS!" Berix shrieked.

The Lebori chuckled - it was a strange sound, some kind of hiccuping hiss - and reached out to rub his hand all over the younger Gaquri's head; the kid swiveled away from him with a soft rattling noise as his annoyed trembling arms shook his scales against one another, face contorting into a piqued grimace, and returned to the launcher to tinker the other two away from his conscious perception.

"And where'd you get that?" the Glatorian inquired, pointing at it with his chin as it was common to do in his tribe and getting no answer.

"It's mine," his husband reassured him, "He's fixing it."

"Jammed again?"

"Seems like it."

"Bet you just didn't clean it properly."

"You don't know that."

"But I'm right," Vastus teased him as he approached to steal the pipe from his mouth. "And over here, what's going on?"

"He's fixin' up my leg. Nuparu, by the way, that's his name - he's a, ah, Ko- nope, Onu-Toa, he said - thought it was rust but I had limestone in it."

"We can get limestone?"

"Might be the sweating," Nuparu interrupted them suddenly. He fixed his unmoving mask onto the Lebori: "Can you turn around, please?"

Tarix snorted at the other's brief baffled blink: "Hey now, kid, I get you've put your hands in me and all, but you shouldn't go around just checking my wife out like that!"

"NOT! IN FRONT! OF THE PROJECTS!"

The Toa looked between the three of them with no clue what any of them was going on about: "I thought there might have been crusts on the vertebrae," he explained. "Since I have the solvent at hand already, I could handle that already if it's the case..."

"That's what they all say," the Gaquri snickered.

His confusion was palpable.

Vastus flicked a playful finger at his husband's head, warning him: "Berix is gonna kick you out at this rate... But I'm sure it's just some dust, kid, nothing to worry about."

"It still would not hurt to do a simple visual check."

"He's right," Tarix interjected while trying to snatch his pipe back and failing: "Maybe you've been building up a limestone deposit this whole time without knowing it."

"I don't have limestone."

"You don't know that."

Vastus smirked at him as he turned around for Nuparu to check: "But I'm right."

"You can't keep answering that and get away with it."

"I can if I'm always right."

The inventor gave a high pitched hum: "False alarm. That's just dust," he confirmed.

A triumphant grin briefly met the Gaquri's eyes as he rolled them.

Nuparu reached into a box to pull out a short variety of springs in order to compare their size with that of the one that had been bent by the affected piston, now cleaned and hopefully ready to work smoothly; careful not to dislodge anything else, he carefully pried the ill piece out and hooked up its replacement.

Satisfied with how the procedure had done, he pulled himself back a little and announced: "I have another question."

"Shoot," Tarix answered instantly.

"What do 'wife' and 'husband' mean, exactly?"

A hot second of silence passed in which the Glatorian regretted opening his mouth.

He glanced at Vastus.

His wife glanced back.

The quiet persisted.

"We're married," he answered lamely at last.

The question he dreaded slapped him in the face with outstanding punctuality: "And what does that mean?"

Having had his fun of seeing his husband's best full-body impression of a yam turning exponentially smaller when fried to a crisp piece of coal, the Lebori finally intervened: "You folks have contracts?"

"We do."

"Marriage is a contract between people where you become part of one other's family. And tribe, if you're from different ones like us."

A vacuous gaze met his explanation.

"Alright, what's confusing you?"

"The 'becoming part of' thing."

Vastus shrugged, his feathers puffing out for a moment before returning flat in a way similar to how certain avian Rahi did before starting a very long song: "It means we become relatives," he tried again. "Here, look - Tarix is a Gaquri and I'm a Lebori, so my family and hers come from different tribes. By marrying me she became a sort of honorary member of the Jungle tribe, and everybody treats her almost as though she was my brother, or my cousin; in the same manner, I became an honorary member of the Water tribe and I'm treated like her sister or cousin."

"So... It's sort of like assembling a team?" Nuparu tilted his head, puzzled: "There's no need for a contract for that. All Toa consider each other siblings already."

The other clicked his tongue as though he'd bitten it by accident: "I shouldn't have used that metaphor," he muttered.

"Why not?"

"First of all marrying your actual blood-siblings is frowned upon."

"Why? What's a blood-sibling?"

"I'll tell you when you're older. Secondly, I can assure you marriage is nothing like siblinghood."

At that, the Toa frowned: "It sounds the same to me."

"Your knee and Tarix's look the same to me, too," Vastus argued: "They're both made of metal, so they're the same thing."

"They really aren't." then he blinked, bright eyes flashing briefly, looked to the ceiling to recollect his thought, gave a loud hum, and met his gaze again: "I see your point."

The Glatorian smiled: "Good kid."

"Back to the point - how do 'wife' and 'husband' fit with all that?"

"That's just how you call someone who's married."

"So they're synonyms?"

"Yes, pretty much."

The answer seemed to satisfy the inventor greatly.

"I'm learning so much about your species today," he commented in a giddy tone. He returned to the discarded robot calf on the floor, dusting off its mechanical parts to make sure not even small amounts of debris would interefere with its functions; just as he plucked it back into the bulk of the implant, he looked again at the two Glatorian and told them with complete and total earnestness: "You know, if you were significantly smaller, quadrupedal, perhaps vaguely insectoid and incapable of speech, Turaga Whenua would have the best day of his life writing down and trying to decypher your absolutely incomprehensible habits."

That was the highest compliment an Onu-Matoran from the island of Mata Nui could bestow upon someone.

It was not categorizable as such by perhaps any other being in the entire universe, considering the source of such an idiom had been cut off from all other known civilizations and it was generally not considered particularly flattering to be told that you would make for a great petri dish for one's paternal figure to microscope if you were any less sentient, but luckily his tone did manage to properly convey the positive nature of his otherwise insane sentence.

So instead of knocking his head off with roundhouse kick, Tarix and Vastus smiled awkwardly in an attempt at not laughing in his face and just replied: "Thanks."

His Volitak did not have a mouth, but Nuparu's grin was blinding.

Berix chose that moment to shriek triumphantly.

"Fixed!" he declared, Thornax launcher hoisted into the air like it was the second making of the Element Lords.

The older Gaquri turned to him with eyes wide: "What, already?"

"It was encrusted with Thornax juice!"

Not even the time to feel bashful about such a silly and easy to fix thing hindering his battling performance so much that his wife was already leaning down into his line of sight with a smirk so wide that he could have just bitten his whole head off with it.

"What did I say?" he teased.

Tarix sighed, a weary smile on his face: "You cannot keep getting away with this."

"Yes I can," Vastus gloated, "If I'm always right."

[whiteheartlight]

(An intro scene for a story I've written bits and pieces of, but might not ever post in full. About Jaller and his guilt, mostly.)

.

It was the burst of color, Jaller realizes later, that woke Kongu up entirely.

The appearance of the Toa Hagah inside the Skakdi fortress didn't register with any of them as anything other than a nuisance, as far as he knows. Hahli took Norik to the ground like she had never had any other goal in life, and the rest of them rushed hotly into battle after her. He remembers Hewkii whooping, glad to have a break in the monotony, glad to have an enemy to throw against the wall, but then Kongu put that ax into Kualus's shoulder, and wow, fireworks. Kualus was silver and pure bright white one moment, and then the next – an explosion of purple ichor splattered across himself and Kongu both, and Iruini yelled so loudly it echoed in Jaller's audio receptors for long minutes after.

“Mata Nui,” said Kongu, as Kualus crashed to the ground with a choke. “Kualus, I – I – Mata Nui. What... are we doing?”

“Kualus!” Iruini darted between the battle to get to his brother, even as Gaaki knocked Nuparu solidly out on the other side of the room. Jaller's mask warned him of the loud sounds of oncoming Skakdi, but he couldn't think to say anything about it. Two minutes ago everything in the world made sense. Now something's wrong.

“Bomonga?” Hewkii asked in bewilderment, his spear slipping out of his hand. “Why are we fighting?”

“Easy, all of you, take it easy,” Pouks shouted over everyone. “Okay, stop, you're okay. Something got in your heads. Kopaka sent us to help. We're going to get you out of this, just try to think clearly.”

Hahli shook her head hard and regained herself – she's always so sturdy like that, always so determined to bounce right back. She hurried to help Iruini with Kualus, falling to her knees beside them and trying to tend the injury. Jaller remembers pushing back from Pouks to get a better look, morbidly enthralled. Kualus was struggling to breathe. Kongu pierced him deeply, from his shoulder towards his throat.

“Jaller,” said Norik, approaching and grabbing him harshly, clasping his shoulders tight. “Jaller, look at me. We need to know who got in your heads like this. We will figure everything out, but we have to handle whoever is controlling you to get you all free.”

“Will he die?” Jaller asked instead of replying. “I've never seen Matoro bleed like that.”

Something flashed over Norik's face. “Brother, it's Kualus.”

“I tried to stop him from leaving,” Jaller tried again, sensing that they weren't understanding each other. “I would have died instead of him. Don't you believe me?”'

“Jaller – ”

“It's the – the big mutated thing with the gold skin,” Hewkii rasped, interrupting them. “Norik, there was some kind of prophecy. They combined a group of beings in energized protodermis. I don't know where the psionic powers came from, but the moment it was created, it was in our heads. We didn't even have a chance to fight it off. It will do the same to you – we should run!”

“The lot of us have plenty of experience fighting off psionic influence,” Gaaki said. “Roodaka couldn't turn us into Rahi, and this being won't turn us into servants.”

“Pouks,” Norik said. “Your mask – you'll match its powers, if only for a few minutes, and then you can make sure everyone's mind is clear. Bomonga, grow, intimidate it. Iruini, find it.”

“I need to stay with Kualus and keep him breathing,” Iruini protested.

“I'll do it, I'll do it,” Kongu said, voice increasingly thin. “I – I'm so sorry, I never meant – I'll help, I swear, please – ”

“We all would have saved him if we could,” Jaller insisted, grabbing Norik's arm. “It's my fault, not theirs.”

“Jaller, listen, you have to keep it together for your team. We're going to get you back to safety, little brother, I swear.”

Yes, Kongu came back to himself in that flash of ichor, and so did the others, he thinks, but Jaller felt so hazy, so lost, alone in that moment. Wasn't the Gold-Skinned Being in charge? Aren't things better that way? What has his leadership ever led to but Ice Toa dying at his feet? He blinked and saw purple ichor, golden fire. His brother eaten alive by the destiny he led him to.

Norik turned away from him, readying his siblings for another battle while the others tried to orient themselves or help Kualus, whose ichor was pooling on the stone floor, approaching Jaller's feet. The door on the other side of the room slammed as a pair of Skakdi came up the stairs to interrupt their reunion, and Hewkii and Pouks both charged at them together. Jaller turned away and left through the other door. He needed to get back to the Gold-Skin. That was where he belonged.

“Jaller!” someone called after him, but he didn't know whose voice it was. He still doesn't. In his memory, the next few minutes seem to pulse like a heartlight, throbbing through his head, so clear and so warped at the same time.

“Fire Toa,” said the Gold-Skin, who was coming down from its tower already. It grabbed Jaller by the arm, yanking him towards it. The second it touched him, he heard himself gasp, and he was glad he came back to it. Of course he belonged to this being. He didn't know his own name. He was just the Fire Toa who served it. Its grip on his arm was painfully tight. “Why are your siblings free?”

“There are invaders,” he managed. “They'll come to fight you too. Experienced Toa with masks to rival your powers – you should run.”

“Run? I can handle another five Toa.”

“Six,” Jaller corrected.

“Oh, yes, I forgot you're missing a piece of your set.” It pulled at Jaller again, and he resisted the urge to scream: it was gripping his arm so tightly he thought the metal might be bending. “Well, they'll destroy the fortress, I suppose, there's no getting past that. Trouble of dealing with Toa: there are always more of them. But I so love to have the elements tamed under my hand.”

“I can be useful,” Jaller said, trying to breathe through the pain.

“Yes, maybe you can. You know what a Nova blast is, don't you, Toa of Fire?”

“Yes,” he said. He's so grateful it always knows the right next step. “Yes, that would work. The others could try to stop me, but that would give you time to prepare for them.”

“Very well, then, but no room for error.” It touched his mask and he choked on a wave of power, nearly crumpling, and it let him fall to his knees. When his eyes flashed open, there was nothing left in his head but its command.

“You don't need to survive it,” it added, turning away from it. “In fact, maybe you shouldn't.”

“Yes,” he remembers saying. “I understand.”

And he did understand, very clearly. It was all he understood. The need to destroy himself.

Gold light eating him alive. Destiny is always sacrificial. He heard himself laughing. He understood completely.

He thinks Norik held him to his chest and screamed. He thinks their armor grew soft against their bodies. But it's hard to remember beyond what he's been told. Really, in his memory, there is nothing else there but the heat.

[makutaservaela]

Bionicle Headcanon Ramblings: Homosexuality, Sex Work, and Skrall and Bone Hunter Reproductive Habits

This is going to be quite NSFW, so I'm putting it under the break. Also TW for heavier topics on the subject.

When the Great Beings organiced the MUians, they also swapped some sexes to even the sexes out for reproduction. Generally, this was only done by converting some males to female- there was no reason to convert any females to males. Because most MUians don't have much concept of sex dimorphism, this caused virtually no mental distress or gender dysphoria. As Chirox put it: "I was essence in armour before. Now I have organs, and one of them is a uterus. What meant 'male' for Makuta then, I was. What means 'female' for Organics, I am."

Matoran:

Homosexuality

Matoran have basically no concept of homophobia. They have no reason to. They also have gay marriage, likewise because they see no reason not to, so it was default when they discovered marriage. In most elements, about 30-40% are at least Bisexual, with that up to around 50-60% for Le-Matoran and around 20% for female elements like Ga, Ce, and Vo.

Sex Work

Matoran also have very little concept of slut-shaming or the like, with the only real exception being shaming of irresponsible mating habits (although the Matoran fertility rate is incredibly low, so this is hard to catch, and they don't have many STDs yet), since their children are communally raised, so having too many is considered putting too much work on your village. They are not all that much of a social sex species, so they are way less horny than humans.

Prostitution is virtually their only form of sex work, since they don't have enough concept of shame around sex to have a reason to make occupations built on teasing it/skirting the line, such as stripping or pornography. (They do have pornography, but it's seen as a standard form of artwork, and isn't more or less likely than other forms). They also have different versions of prostitutes, such as escorts, doms, brothel workers, etc.

Extreme temperatures negatively affect a Matoran's ability to feel aroused, even if that Matoran is resistant to that type of temperature. Because of this, Ko and Ta villages have very few sex workers.

Le villages also have very few sex workers, because they just have way more free sex. There is no reason to make an occupation out of something you can much more easily get from asking your friend for a favour.

Because no female Matoran were converted male and the second generation just reached adulthood, nearly every older adult male Matoran living in a Ga village is likely a sex worker. Other males may pass through to perform tasks or visit friends, but if he settles down, it's almost guaranteed he is doing so to perform sex work.

There is one element of Matoran known for their intense passion in their work. If something isn't their work, they are practically blind to it, but if it is related to their work, they pride themselves in knowing everything about it. Because of this, Onu-Matoran sex workers take their jobs very seriously and with intense dedication. Matoran have no internet, but an Onu-Matoran sex worker knows more about creative ways to do the deed than the average E621 user. Currently, the only named character in my headcanon who is a confirmed sex worker is Zemya. She is a mistress to both Onua and Nuparu, and neither has any clue the other visits her. She is so dedicated to her clients, that she has also mothered Onua's daughter and Nuparu's unborn child, and again, neither Toa has any clue their children are half-siblings, and no other Matoran knows the fatherhood of her kids.

Toa

Homosexuality

Toa's concept of homosexuality is the same as Matoran's. They find intra-group pairings to be completely acceptable, and since a Toa child is automatically considered a member of his mother's Toa group, they prefer intra-group pairings or grouped-Toa and ungrouped-Toa pairings over inter-group pairings for convenience of not having to separate the child from his father.

Sex Work

"Toa" itself is an occupation, so any side occupation is considered strange for a Toa. They can have hobbies, but are expected not to have other jobs. Because of this, you will not find a Toa sex-worker. Toa do frequent Matoran sex-workers, and prefer them over casual sex with Matoran, since they recognize their power dynamic over Matoran. Nuparu and Onua prefer Zemya specifically because as an Onu-Matoran, she takes her job seriously and has mastered separating her personal feelings for the Toa from her job.

Skakdi (Urban)

Homosexuality

Urban Skakdi will take any excuse to mob another Skakdi and beat him to death, and any "difference" in behaviour is enough excuse. Avak met his second boyfriend while watching the lynching of his first boyfriend.

Sex Work

Urban Skakdi are Patriarchal and believe in male ownership over females. They used numbers to beat the females into submission and kill any female who shows dominance or resistance to a male, so they have very little sex work, since a male can just buy or kidnap a wife, and there are no laws saying he must take care of her.

There are Skakdi sex workers, and they are considered poorly. Thok's mother is one. A Skakdi without a father is also basically considered garbage, so this negatively affected Thok's life.

Skakdi (Rural)

Homosexuality

Rural Skakdi care absolutely nothing about homophobia, since they generally don't care about the behaviour of other Skakdi at all, granted the other Skakdi isn't affecting the one. If Rurals spend a lot of time around Urbans, like Reidak did, then they may pick up on the homophobia.

Sex Work

Rural Skakdi don't have occupations. Older males are solitary, and Skakdi packs consist of a female and her children. They have no currency and generally don't trade resources. They share resources only with family members.

Makuta

Homosexuality

Makuta don't generally pair bond unless they are raising kids, so they have no concept of homosexual relationships. Homosexual behaviour is considered just a method of release, so they think nothing of it, and no Makuta would notice if a particular Makuta was exclusively homosexual.

Sex Work

Makuta don't really have occupations in that sense. They don't have currency or trade, and are generally just assigned tasks by their leader solely to keep them stimulated. There is no requirement for them to do the work, but they do it anyway because they require high levels of stimulation. So for them, a Sex Worker would just be a Makuta who prefers bottoming and happens to be frequently available for other Makuta who need release. Currently, Chirox fills this role, and Antroz is considering assigning Spiriah to do it as well, since he can't find anything else for Spiriah to do, and Chirox is busy with her lab work and her baby. Spiriah has not yet received this assignment, so he has not yet considered it.

Vortixx

Homosexuality

Vortixx rates of homosexuality and bisexuality are around 20-30%, but around 60% of female Vortixx are in lesbian marriages. Lesbian behaviour is highly praised, and lesbian art is highly respectable. Lesbian relationships are presented as the default in media. The only thing Vortixx consider more beautiful than a lesbian relationship is one where a husband is perfectly dedicated and submissive to his wife.

Gay male Vortixx are heavily ostracized, as they are considered "Trying to have a life with no women in it". It is common for gay male Vortixx to marry female friends of theirs. When this occurs, anything he does with his boyfriend is immediately brushed off as "That male must just be practicing to better please his wife", and is immediately accepted. If the boyfriend is not an Educator (see the next section), he is generally presumed to be the wife's boyfriend.

Sex Work

Not only are sex workers prominent in Vortixx culture, but so are a sort of "Geisha"- both the prostitute variety and non-prostitute variety. Since the leave from the disgusting Xia in the Mata Nui to the new Xia of Spherus Magna ("Xia" is their word for "home", so the biggest homeland of Vortixx is always called "Xia"), Vortixx have regained their love for beauty and art.

Female Geisha and prostitutes are generally treated with more respect than male Geisha and prostitutes, and are much more likely to have chosen either occupation than to be forced. Female Geisha are much less likely to be expected to give sex than male Geisha. High-Class Vortixx will also keep (mostly male) concubines

Gay males who can't find a female friend to marry often pose as "Educators", which is a male Sex Worker a woman hires to teach her husband how to be a better lover. If the husband doesn't consent to the idea, neither he or the Educator is allowed to back out unless they make a strong enough excuse to convince the wife. If the Educator backs out too often, the Vortixx will grow suspicious that he doesn't take the job seriously and is actually a *gasp* gay male. Unmarried male Vortixx are given the worst, most dangerous jobs, but because male homosexuality is so frowned upon, female Vortixx generally presume that Educators are just heterosexual males willing to horribly demean themselves out of dedication to making sure wives are getting more satisfaction from their husbands, so the Educator job is considered a reasonable excuse to get him out of that work and is treated with respect. Of note, virtually no Educators are heterosexual, and it's mostly just a con the gay men use to stay out of trouble.

Glatorian

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is quite common among Glatorian, since heterosexual sex is banned. Agori want to control Glatorian reproduction, so they strictly control their reproduction, and even make sure female Glatorian in heat are never alone with male Glatorian, or often bar her from leaving her village. Female Glatorian's health and heat cycles are closely monitored by their villages, and for a female Glatorian to obscure the fact that she is in heat is a punishable offense. Glatorian generally see homosexuality or sex with Agori as a common way of release, regardless of that individual Glatorian's sexuality.

Sex Work

There are no Glatorian Sex workers, since their sex lives are so strictly controlled. A Glatorian who wants release can hire an Agori or just ask a favour of a same-sex Glatorian friend.

Agori

Homosexuality

Agori are mildly homophobic: homosexuality is considered something only bestial things do, so being gay is considered bizarre. It doesn't help that Skrall, Zesk, and Vorox are all incredibly gay (with Vorox doing it out of dominance and Zesk being the Bonobos of Spherus Magna). Agori also have no concept of gay marriage, and found it very bizarre that when they explained marriage to Matoran, the Matoran immediately invented gay marriage.

Agori populations are low, so tribe leaders discourage homosexuality to encourage more childbirths. Gay Agori aren't exiled from villages or harmed or anything of the sort, nor are they prevented from dating same-sex Agori, but their relationships aren't taken seriously.

Sex Work

Agori have lower sex-drives than humans, and they have a mild sense of shame around sex for two reasons: The extreme weather of the desert and their natural lack of body armour means they must be clothed in public for safety, and children are generally raised by the parents. Both of these mean sex or nudity outside of marriage is frowned upon. Agori do have sex workers of many types, including pornographers, strippers, prostitutes, etc, and despite being shamed, none are illegal. The only version of Agori sex work that isn't considered demeaning are prostitutes who specialise in tending to the Glatorian, as this is considered an effective method to keep Glatorian from breeding without permission (Agori and Glatorian cannot interbreed). These Agori are treated with respect. This is so normalized, and female Glatorian heat cycles are monitored so closely, that when a female is in heat, her village elder may hire a male Agori prostitute- or even a regular male to temporarily serve as a prostitute- to just hang out naked in her house and refuse to leave, to encourage her to release her urges.

Skrall

Homosexuality

Every Skrall has homosexual behaviours, although most are not explicitly homosexual. The exception are Leader-Class whose use female concubines/slaves, and are the only Skrall permitted to use slaves at all in that fashion. It is a punishable offense for any lower class male to have sex with a prisoner or slave, although some males may do so when attacking the prisoner, before bringing the prisoner back to the base. However, if the Leader finds out, that male's entire hunting party may be punished- the specific male for the action, the party for not stopping him. Because of this, a male who does this may kill the female rather than bring her back as a prisoner, although bringing back a caravan with no or few living prisoners will arouse the Leader's suspicions, so Skrall are much less likely to target Agori caravans that have no or few males. The Agori have not yet realised this pattern.

Skrall's general perspective of sex with other Skrall is "If he's weaker than you, he's the bottom, and he doesn't get a say in the matter. If he can fight you off, you don't get to use him." They have no sense of homophobia except to see heterosexuality as something one has to earn (since it is only available to Leader class with female slaves, or during the Day of Mating.)

Sisters of the Scrall also primarily stick to homosexual relationships, and although very few are actually homosexual, almost all Sisters are monogamously paired.

During the Day of Mating, the Sisters meet with the males, and this is the only time they show any cordiality to the males. The females arrive in a caravan, deposit all recently-weaned boy children they have, and then are permitted to wander the Skrall base. The Skrall do not directly approach or initiate interaction with the Sisters, instead turning to beat each other senseless. The Sisters wordlessly walk though the base and observe the combat, judging the males. The Sisters judge based on fighting skill, honour, intelligence, and stamina, and judge against brutality. This means they don't always pick the winner, which the male Skrall find confusing. After all this time, the male Skrall still don't quite understand what the Sisters are judging, and think that if a Sister chooses someone who lost in combat, she was doing so to spite or insult the winner. In this situation, the winner may maul the loser after the mating (the Sister will protect her mate with her psychic powers until the mating is finished). The Sisters find this jealousy ridiculous, but then they generally find everything about the Skrall ridiculous. Sisters may also select males who are not participating in combat. This male may also be mauled if he is caught mating but was not seen fighting. Basically, the dominant males decide what they think the female is judging (Power and Dominance), and any male who did not show this before mating will be considered assisting the Sister in spiting the proper males, and will be mauled, even though really the Sister is either judging based on her preferences, or just selecting randomly and only pretending to care about the selection. Because of this, male losers or non-combative males will often flee from the Sister who selected him and refuse to mate, which spares him the mauling.

A Sister will mate with dozens of males on the Day of Mating, and males will mate with as many females as they are permitted. Leader Class males are treated as equals to other Skrall by the Sisters, which seriously pisses the Leader Class males off, but there isn't much they can do about it. Other Skrall will rebel against and group-maul any male, including a Leader Class, who attempts to harm or force himself on a Sister (as they believe the Sisters will curse and destroy their tribe if disrespected).

Skrall and Sisters barely make eye contact or speak to each other during the Day of Mating. Neither party knows or cares the identity of their partner, and Skrall have no clue which kids are theirs. Sisters don't bother growing attached to their male children, since they will be surrendered to the males immediately upon weaning, but they lovingly dote on their girls.

Sex Work

There is no occupation of sex work among Skrall, since bigger males just take sex from smaller males, and Sisters freely give to other Sisters if requested.

Bone Hunters

Homosexuality

Of all of the Bara Magnan natives, Bone Hunters are the most accepting of pretty much anything. They respect their women, they respect gays, and even have gay marriage. As long as you pull your weight, they could not care less how you spend your free time or with whom you share your bed. They are also rather family-oriented, and it is not uncommon for gay Bone Hunters to assist in caring for, or even adopting their nieces and nephews if the child's parent cannot.

Sex Work

Sex Workers are not common among Bone Hunters, but are neither illegal, nor shamed. Most Bone Hunters don't have "occupations", but may trade skills, and likewise a Bone Hunter may trade a resource to another for sex, but the performer is not considered a "Sex worker" for this. Bone Hunters also do not force Agori or Glatorian prisoners to perform sex work, as prisoners are often fed to the Rock Steeds to the point that Rock Steeds have grown a taste for Agori, and getting the prisoner's bodily fluids on your genitals may result in something akin to a Velociraptor attempting to perform a circumcision.

[magicalgirlmascot]

I am curious: What are your current thoughts about the Toa Inika's drivining situation when they become Toa Inika?

Hahahaha I am SO glad you have asked me this because I have Thoughts

Terminology for non-Canadians (and/or Ontarians, idk what other provinces call things):

G1 - learner's permit, obtainable at 16, written test only, must have someone in the passenger seat who has had their full license at least 4 years, can't drive between midnight and 5am, can't go on certain high speed highways (401, QEW, etc) unless the person in the passenger seat is an accredited driver's ed instructor, must pass G2 exit test within 5 years or restart process

G2 - must have had a G1 for either a) 1 year or b) 8 months if graduated from driver's ed, practical exam, can drive alone, on any roads, at any time of day, certain other restrictions apply (esp if under age 19), must pass G exit test within 5 years or start over

G - must have had G2 for at least a year, practical exam, no restrictions except for basic road laws lol

MTO - Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, basically the DMV but for Ontario

OKAY SO ALL THAT SAID:

Jaller: got his G1 the day after he turned 16 because his birthday was on a Sunday and the MTO was closed. Took the driver's ed course affiliated with his school that same year. Just got his G2. Has to beg and plead to borrow a car because both his parents work and need vehicles for that, and he can bike to work from the house.

Hahli: has been driving farm vehicles illegally for several years. Has her G1 but isn't eligible for her G2 yet. Is learning how to drive from her uncle because he's the only person in her family who respects road safety laws. Can occasionally convince her parents to loan her the truck if she fills up the tank.

Kongu: got his G2 a couple months ago. Inherited his grandparents' junker. Mostly just drives himself and Tamaru to school and back. Grumbles about being his sister's taxi service but also uses this as an excuse to hang around in town.

Nuparu: almost eligible for his G2 but not quite. Took driver's ed exclusively to lower his insurance premium. The only Inika who knows how to drive stick. Wants to get a motorcycle license too. Does all his family's car maintenance in exchange for money being put into the "Nuparu Gets His Own Car" fund.

Hewkii: can't drive. Wants to move to a big city with good public transport so he never has to learn how.

Matoro: was forced to get his G1 against his will and avoids driving like the plague. Sometimes his parents make him drive to the store or something for practice and he hates it. Wants to move out to the woods so he never has to drive again.

Takua: had to learn to drive so they could take on more cleaning jobs. Is actually almost eligible for their full G license. Has the most experience driving because their mom would make them drive between jobs for practice when they had their G1. Is not allowed to cover their mom's company car with bumper stickers to their immense dismay, and also isn't allowed to borrow it for non-work reasons if it's not an emergency.

[tiredspacedragon]

Thing about me is that I'm a huge softie. I want everybody to get happy endings and be alright in the end. And that's great for fluffy headcanons. But when I actually buckle down and think about my ideas for how things would go post-canon, it's a little rough. Because the point of Marendar is to kill Toa, and to have it show up and be defeated or change sides or what have you before doing any Toa-killing would just be a cop-out (especially after 10+ years of irl buildup). So that means some Toa gotta die. But who?

On that note, here's a potentially gruesome poll. Pick whichever option you think should happen most, and add anyone else you think should bite it in the tags.

Would have added options for surviving, non-zombified Toa from the Red Star, and Nobody <3, but alas, ran out of room. Also, Krakua isn't here because he has to survive to do the whole "lone guardian of an island fortress" thing and send Vakama that Kratana-induced vision he got back in Time Trap. So his survival is guaranteed. Everyone else, not so much.

Some anti-propaganda (reasons they all should die *evil laugh*) below the cut:

Toa Nuva: Would there be a bigger gutpunch than this? The flagship characters, the six heroes with one destiny! But that destiny is complete now, they don't need to be kept alive anymore. Imagine how much it would shake things up to take them off the board, how ruined the survivors would be if only a few of them went down. Wouldn't it just be so juicy?

Toa Mahri: They're one down already, so it's not like you'd be breaking up a complete set. Besides, we all know they're built for tragedy at this point. Jaller and Hahli could fall together. Hewkii could go down in front of Macku's eyes. Nuparu could sacrifice himself using one last invention to stop Marendar, perhaps making up for the perceived sins of the Vahki and Boxor. Kongu could accept death as it takes him, at least now he might see Matoro again.

Toa Hagah: These six are prime candidates, aren't they? Important enough for it to hurt, for us to care, but not so important that they aren't expendable. Never truly frontrunners. Named characters it's safe to kill. What more could you ask for? I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Greg had planned to kill them so he'd never have to describe Gaaki, Bomonga, Pouks, and Kualus' appearances. Plus, Norik dying just after getting to see Varian again? Or even just before? Doesn't it hurt so good?

Takanuva: He only needs to live long enough to end the civil war between the Great Beings, but after that, if Marendar is still in play, he's fair game. What do you say? It would torture him more to see his friends fall while he lived on, but there is something poetic to "Takanuva, the first and greatest Toa of Light, whose life burned brightly, but quickly."

Yesterday Questers: These three are like the Toa Hagah, but even safer. Named characters, important enough for their deaths to matter, but brand new, without much audience investment. Besides, they're asking for it, aren't they? Ancient Orde, the chip on his shoulder as old as he is, could finally know peace in oblivion. Perhaps Zaria's death would finally clear his guilty conscience. And Chiara... Does anyone actually like Chiara? Would anyone miss her? Are these questions she asks herself? And wouldn't it hurt to hear her ask them in her final moments?

Varian: Talk about tragedy. Thousands of years, locked in a tube, dead to the world. Unaware time is even passing. And when she finally awakes, it's only to die. A waste of her character, perhaps, but if you don't mind fridging, it would piss off Norik somethin' fierce.

Tuyet: Doesn't she deserve it? And you know, Marendar does track Toa Power, and there's no greater source of that than Tuyet and the Nui Stone. It would be gunning for her. And it would be so deliciously ironic. All that power, all the effort she put in to get it, and it would be utterly useless to save her in the end. Her dreams of empire ground to dust in seconds, right before her eyes, as Toa Tuyet dies one last time.

Helryx: Think of the poetry. Marendar, the Toa's bane. What more worthy opponent could there be for the first Toa's last stand? It practically writes itself. Helryx has done her duty. The will of Mata Nui has been carried out. This is her perfect chance to go down fighting on her own terms, not as the leader of the Order, but as a Toa once more.

Lesovikk: This guy is Orde and Zaria but worse. He wants death so bad. And what else is there left for him to do? Karzahni is dead. His Matoran are found. What, will he become a Turaga and gift his power to the next generation of Toa? Will he wander the woods and care for the animals? Will he find joy and beauty in living? Lame. He misses his team so bad? Let him join them.

20-odd nameless mooks: By far the safest option. A Toa-killer would be pretty pointless if it never killed any Toa, but nobody said it had to be anyone we cared about, right? This is the best of both worlds. A pile of bodies to make Marendar a credible threat, but nothing and no one of consequence lost. A perfect solution, right? Just uh. Hope you don't have any OCs in here.

Mutants: The Dark Hunters are scattered, vulnerable. If these lost souls haven't found the greater group yet, they'd be easy to pick off. Good options too, right? Actual characters, so their deaths have some weight, but not major ones, so they won't be missed. Guardian was killed off in Reign of Shadows for those exact reasons. Why not have Savage, Spinner, and Prototype carry on the tradition, and tie off some loose ends in the process?

Shadow Takanuva: Sure, it might suck for their home universes to lose their Takanuva like this, but hey. If you have a whole army just sitting around, might as well put them to use, right? The fight could be interesting to watch too. Shadow might be the only element Marendar has no countermeasures for, since Toa of Shadow were never meant to exist. Maybe this is how it's finally beaten, after taking several alternate Takanuva down with it, of course. Besides, Melding Teridax flattened several of them already, so it's not like they were all making it home to begin with.

[sandiaheadonline]

"Oh, I've been crazy for years... Ask anyone."

Nuparu fanart I made a couple years ago, I have this headcanon that he (just like the other Toa Mahri) eventually got his all kanohi back and kept it as a memory of his homeland when everyone settled in the new Spherus Magna. He also kept his passion for inventions and engineering.

I love this guy so much 🧡

[ghost-mantis]

The Biggest Damn Winner

You, Takua, cheer your crab of choice as they dash for the finish. The contestants give their all for the final stretch in a thrilling display of sportsmanship! Until, what is clearly a Matoran in a Crab Suit skitters wildly off-track, tangling into Absolute Unit and tripping both of them up in an act faker than professional wrestling. Several Matoran in the stands laugh knowingly.

Ceiling Sam- Total Score: 28

Grapple- Total Score: 30.9

Racer X- Total Score: 34

Shortstack- Total Score: 29.2

Matoran in a Crab Suit- Total Score: 10

Hannah the Guncrab- Total Score: 32.9

Horseshoe Crab- Total Score: 10.8

Spot- Total Score: 25.6

Absolute Unit- Total Score: 6.6

Hannah dashes to the finish line, but is overtaken by the mysterious Racer X. As both are about the cross the finish line, the cavern once again begins to tremor!

RuMbLe rUmBlE RuMbLe rUmBle RuMbLe rUmBlE RuMbLe

With another mighty crash, the ceiling caves in just over the finish line. Riding the debris down is a menacing Manas! Snapping it's claws and glaring at the oncoming crabs. Absolute Unit is now the second-largest crab in Onu Koro.

On it's heels drops Toa Onua, looking the worse for wear but still fighting on with his claws and throwing waves of earth, to little effect.

You, Takua, turn to Jaller, who has caught up to you with Turaga Whenua. They quickly explain that the Manas escaped containment somewhere deep below the mines along with many other rahi. The others have mostly left the Koro, but the Manas is good and cheezed about being caged for so long. Toa Onua needs help!

Maybe you should have talked to the Turaga or found Toa Onua first...

Nah!

You, Takua, Jaller, and Kongu rush forward. The Matoran in a Crab Suit rushes forward as well. It's Nuparu! He lost a bet, don't ask.

Racer X and Hannah the Guncrab also aid you, the rest of the crabs flee squealing in terror along with the Matoran spectators.

[siren-darkocean]

Character Headcanons

Berix

Berix is an orphan, his parents are alive but his parents disowned him for being a halfie

Berix's halfie genetics come from his father due to some small Glatorian genetics of his dad's side of the family, Berix was one of the only two kids with his parents children that were Halfie's, the other was their second child was born permanently and a girl

Both of his parents are Agori

Berix when under a lot of stress has a tendency to stutter

Berix occasionally harms himself by clawing at her arms, this is due to many causes, stress, constant anxiety and ofc the stuff with his biological parents

Ackar saw this happen one time and held Berix until the halfie calmed down

Before the events of Journey's End, Mata Nui gave Berix a stuffed animal that looks like a Jovian lemur with a small pouch sewn in that has lavender inside of it to help calm his anxiety, Berix almost never leaves without it in his bag

Of Toa he gets along the most with are Pohatu, Kopaka(surprisingly enough) and Nuparu

Nuparu and Berix both love to create mechanical stuff, Nuparu mentoring Berix's talent

Berix sees Ackar and Mata Nui as parental figures, Ackar like a dad and Mata Nui like a mom (fuck gender roles)

His friendship with Kopaka was quite a surprise to even himself, Kopaka had a rather protective nature around the halfie and would even jokingly throw the halfie on his shoulder and jostle him around which would make Berix laugh

Berix's age is around twelve or thirteen in human terms, his only the height of an adult Agori due to delayed growth spurts from malnutrition of both being on the streets and Bara Magna's issues

Berix in the past would occasionally get repeatedly kidnapped by Skrall or Bone Hunters for them to torture him for amusement, he still gets night terrors of those moments to where Ackar would comfort the halfie until he calmed down

Ofc after those night terrors he would be too scared to fall asleep alone so Ackar would let him sleep in his bed with him to help the halfie fall asleep

Berix is a regular drinker of respect women juice, he's always been like this for as far back as known even before Kiina

Berix at first was very uncomfortable with Kiina treating him better, he slowly got used to it though and gladly sees her as a big sister

During the time he got hit by a Thornoraxx Launcher, Ackar actually thought he was gonna die like how Ackar's dad did to them. Though him getting treated allowed everyone to realize how emaceaded Berix was, it was a surprise he was still alive and for so long with how bad it was

Kiina was actually in hysteria of sobs because she blamed herself for it due to her past mistreatment to him

The treatment time as well was also how everyone found out Berix was a halfie with more potent Glatorian genetics than Agori

When Berix admitted his parents disowned him, he swore up and down he thought Ackar was gonna brutally kill his biological parents with the look on his face

Berix's hair is long, it reaches his mid back in length and is a deep brunette with some natural silver and electric blue streaks in it. His hair has uneven cuts to it due to the times he's had to cut it with his pocket knife to get away from someone holding him back by his hair

His hair is usually tucked underneath his helmet in a braid, but it does poof up with high temperatures so with the uneven ends it looks like a lions mane

Ackar evened his hair while keeping its length

Berix actually had this happen during training to which Tahu asked Gali to wet his hair, Gali was confused but did so, Tahu used his fire powers to heat his fingers enough to flatten Berix's hair as he braided it, the water helped protect his hair from being damaged

Lewa calls Berix "Halfie-Brother", when Berix asked Onua of this the Earth Toa smiled and replied "he sees you as a brother, a high honor if I do say so" Berix was seriously confused by this but he learned to accept it

Berix has learned when getting Tuma's shield as his own shield to use it perfectly in both offense and defense

Berix carries around some knives in between his armor due to Ackar's knife rule, and always carries a pouch of sand to throw in someone's eyes for a get away

Click mostly stuck around Berix when the Scarabax wasn't watching over the Ignika

Mata Nui has mused that if Berix was a Toa his elements would be gravity and lightning, even though Vo-Toa's are all female he still can see it, Berix was honestly surprised by this

Casual clothes outside of his armor, Berix would prefer to wear a pullover hoodie as like a shell to protect himself and the weight of it helps calm his anxiety

He actually made his pair of boots be able to have an extendable/retractable blade from the back of the heel to use in emergency

[magicalgirlartist]

[ID: 5 comic pages, mostly of the same 2 humanized Bionicle characters (Jaller and Matoro) talking in a cave. Full ID is in alt text and under the cut.]

I am never not thinking about Matoro and Nuju. I've been obsessed with them for years. He was a TRANSLATOR.

Anyway this was some comic practice that got out of hand. I love to draw Blorbo Angst

[Commissions open!]

(please don't tag this with Mat*ro/N*ju ships please)

Jaller lies awake between a sleeping Hahli and Kongu, looking up at the ceiling when he hears Matoro crying. Sitting up, he asks "Matoro?" and Matoro responds "Oh, Jaller…" wiping his face. We see Jaller sitting up as Matoro asks "Did I wake you? I'm sorry…" from off panel, but Jaller replies "No, it's fine. Couldn't sleep." Matoro sits up and wipes his face, saying "Ah, yeah, I get it. It's hard to sleep at a time like this." We then see Kongu and Nuparu cuddling together, with Kongu curled into Nuparu's side and Nuparu with his mouth open and drooling. From off panel, Jaller says "I don't know, Nuparu seems like he's doing fine." Matoro says "Nuparu can sleep anywhere." and Jaller replies "That's true."

Matoro, sitting up, looks at us and grips his blanket tighter as Jaller off panel asks "Matoro, what's wrong?" They move to sit against the cave wall, a little away from the rest of the group. Jaller looks at Matoro with concern while Matoro looks away sadly. Matoro sighs and says "It's Turaga Nuju."

Jaller asks Matoro "What about him? I know you two are close, but--" before tears come to Matoro's eyes and Jaller panics, leaning forward and saying "W-wait, don't cry, I'm sorry--" We then see a greyed out flashback panel of Matoro talking to Turaga Nuju, smiling and holding a clay tablet in Ko-Koro while Nuju holds a hand to his chin thoughtfully. Matoro says "He's not just my Turaga, Jaller. I'm his right hand. His translator, his assistant, his confidant. His friend." We get a closeup of Matoro's mouth, saying "I didn't even--" before cutting himself off, and then a greyed out shot of Nuju from behind, while Matoro says "I didn't even say goodbye..."

Back in the cave, Matoro clutches at his pant legs and starts tearing up again, saying "And out here...without even Takanuva...I--I just c-can't help but wonder...what if I never see--" before Jaller puts a hand on his shoulder, cutting him off with "Matoro." From the front, we see Jaller holding Matoro's shoulder and leaning towards him, looking determined and saying "You will see Turaga Nuju again." while Matoro looks up at him, crying. Jaller says, "We can't give up now. We will find the Toa Nuva." Matoro cries as Jaller continues "We will save the Great Spirit."

Jaller hugs Matoro, who buries his face in his shoulder to cry as Jaller says "We will make it home. And you will see Turaga Nuju again." The rest of the page is taken up by one large panel of Nuju and Jaller in Ko-Metru. Nuju is turned away from the viewer so we can't see his face, shaking, and Jaller is in his Mahri armor, hunched in on himself slightly and holding one arm, looking up at Nuju. Above them is Jaller saying the words "I promise."

[rrbobani]

I hope this isn't too weird to ask; have any stories been written of your humanized versions of the characters? I was looking over some of your other art pieces, and I was enjoying the idea of Onepu being a big muscle lady flirting with smaller inventor lady Nuparu.

Now I'm having images of a story like this. Them and Taipu building the first Boxor as their first post-Metru Nui meeting; Onepu being all flirty and Nuparu flushed while trying to build the Boxor. Then we've got meetings over time, more flirting...

Then Onepu hears about Nuparu inventing the Vahki. I can kinda see Nuparu wanting to be alone, with the knowledge of what the Vahki did. I can see Onepu having to get Nuparu to calm down, being a good leader and a good friend and all that.

Hm...maybe I should write this!

No no, it's not a weird question! But no, not that I know of. But I'd absolutely LOVE to read a piece on Onepu and Nuparu getting closer! ;0;

Oooo, I can just imagine while Nuparu's working, Onepu just leans against the Boxor, complimenting Nup's muscles and her intuitiveness, and Nuparu tries to hide her abashed expression with a snarky comeback like, "And does the Captain of the Ussalry love to stand and watch at the sidelines?" or something like that.

Cue Taipu's "Oh snap" expression.

But a comfort piece with those two would be so nice as well ;-; Nuparu going back to her old workshop, faint/fuzzy memories coming back, but all she knows is what the Turaga have told her - that she made the Vahki enforcers. Onepu coming in and sitting with her, knowing that without Nuparu, most of the matoran might not be alive with them. Despite her flaws, Nuparu's always had good intentions behind them and heros always fall before they can rise ;;v;;

Words she probably remembers into her Toa days.

Anways YES I would love to read stuff like this! Thank you for the ask!

[bionicle-ramblings]

So, picking up where my last post dropped off, imagine the two teams trying to plan what to do, but barely able to because Vakama ends up passing out to the point waking him up is very hard, Nokama can't talk, Nuju has no clue what anyone is saying, Whenua can't see, Matua has to fight to stay conscious, and Onewa is so "not there," he's letting Vakama rest on him and occasionally pats him on the head and keeps staring at Takanuva because he's pretty and shiny

Most of their survival boils down to constantly moving and going where there's no exo-Toa or Rakshi, easier said than done, but they manage. Many of the team members are separated from the group, namely Nuparu, Hahli, Kongu, Nuju, Nokama, and Onewa. The remaining teammates, Vakama, Jaller, Hewkii, Whenua, Matau, and Takanuva, have to trek on and hope their fellow Toa are doing the same, though tensions are high, especially between Jaller, Vakama, and Takanuva. Jaller is deeply upset and angered at Vakama because he thinks none of them would be where they are now had Vakama just told them what was happening. Vakama admits he should have told them, but also wouldn't have allowed Jaller to go as far as go to the realm of Karzahni, or allowed him to take his team with him

Matau and Takanuva break up the fight, but Jaller also snaps at Takanuva, shouting at him because while everyone was fighting and losing allies, he just wandered off again, leaving everyone alone to fight.

In a moment that shocks everyone, Takanuva quickly and stoicly slaps Jaller, snapping him out of his anger for a moment and quieting him so Takanuva can explain that they can't afford to fight each other, not when Teridax wants them to do just that, to be divided so it's easier to pick them off

Takanuva also gets to explaining where he's been and what happened, but on the condition that Jaller keep his mouth shut or Takanuva will leave them when they're not looking and he'll carry Vakama with him

While that's happening, Hahli, Nurapu, Kongu, Nokama, Nuju, and Onewa are sneaking as quietly as possible, Nokama trying to communicate to ask Hahli how she's taking what she just learned. Hahli admits she isn't sure how to feel, not with learning she was actually Nokama's student or with the knowledge that her old home has now turned into a prison. Nokama can understand that, but the two are distracted when they see Nuju dragged Onewa toward the group, frustrated and lashing out by punching a wall; he has no idea what anyone is saying and he's practically forgotten how to speak Matoran, so he feels stuck. Nokama tries to comfort him, because she can't talk, but what gets the two to really break down is seeing Kongu and Nuparu lead Onewa back to the group, because he keeps trying to wander away from them

The team, overwhelmed, scared, and feeling too many things at once, take a moment to cry, to be together in their pain. After a moment, they gather themselves and keep moving, Hahli and Kongu leading the group to Ko-Metru with Nuju's help, though it's tough for him to do it because he has to point to stuff and remeber chute and passage ways

While they're doing that, Takanuva has finished explaining how he traveled dimensions and has heard that Tuyet is around somewhere, so they need to jeep an eye out for her. Jaller has nothing to really say because what his friend's been up to is bigger than just wandering, especially when he realizes that Takanuva has seen things that rival being trapped in the Great Spirit robot

No time to really get into it because the team has to run and scramble to avoid getting swallowed by the ground and taken somewhere else, going as far as to try parkouring their way across the ceiling, thoguh they have some hiccups because of the state Vakama, Whenua, and Matau are in

Despite some close calls and then being cornered by exo-Toa, they are able to tell when the Great Spirit Robot dies, evidenced to Hahli's team when Onewa lays flat on the ground and by seeing the exo-Toa drop to the ground, both teams facing no threats as they leave

The teams, shaken and stirred, leave the robot and find their way out, and find other Toa and Matoran leaving the Great Spirit robot as well. The reunion between them is an emotional one, the Toa Mahri and Metru being emotional as they realize they escaped with their loves and they're out

Again, this is muscle pulling reach, but this has been on my head and I need to get it out. Expect one more post about this "story line," and then we're back to other stuff

[randomwriteronline]

@cantankerouscanuck

Berix had never seen this much water before.

Or this many girls.

He couldn't quite decide which was more overwhelming.

He latched onto Nuparu's arm like a lifeline, looking around the essentially finished village nervously as if fearing that a pack of Vorox would jump out of the seaweed and brick huts at any moment. His Toa companion wasn't nearly as preoccupied as him as they made their way to the docks: he'd given the Agori a weird look when he'd first asked, in a sort of strangled voice, if it was true that the Ga-Matoran were all female, and hadn't understood his apprehension when he'd replied that yes, of course they were, what else did he expect? He'd only grown steadily more confused by Berix's short list of other possible options, and so the Gaquri had decided to just keep that strange tension he couldn't explain to himself.

One of the Matoran waved at them as they approached the port, recognizing the Toa who greeted her back. She must have been the one who'd sent Macku to ask for a mechanic - her boat had been damaged during fishing, and while repairing the hull had all in all been easy work, the engine kept sputtering to life for only a second before dying down with a pitiful lament.

She looked Berix up and down with a sort of mild curiosity: "Why's she here?"

The Gaquri's scales rattled with a tremble, almost turning indigo from the embarrassment: "I'm not a girl," he mumbled awkwardly, extremely quiet, as he tried to disappear behind Nuparu.

"Berix works with me," the Toa explained simply.

"And I'm not a girl."

"And he's not a girl."

"He's male?"

"Yes."

"Huh!" she exclaimed, hands on her hips: "Well, I'll be. Does that mean they've got females for all the other elements like we've got males for them instead?"

"They've got all genders in all elements."

"Is that so! Like the Skakdi?"

"Sort of. What was the problem?"

"Oh, yes! The engine, over there. We turned it over, in, out, sideways and upside down, but we've got no clue what's the matter with it. You used to be good with this sort of thing?"

"Still am," Nuparu replied, and with little fanfare walked to the side of the pier and plunked into the water.

Berix did not follow him.

The Matoran watched the Onu-Toa swim under the boat. After roughly two minutes, she gave the Gaquri a worried glance.

"He's - he's amphibious," he reassured her.

"Ah!" she sighed in relief. "Like you folks."

"Uh - I, hm, no, no, we're - we're not, ah, we can't, breathe. In the water, I mean."

"You can't?"

"N-no."

"But you're all fishy and stuff."

"W-well, you're - we're - uh - we, we can see, fine, in there because we've got these- there's little eyelids we can - we can see fine in there, b-but we can't breathe like fish."

"But you can swim well?"

"I'm, uh, I-"

"Turn on the engine," Nuparu's voice saved him as the inventor's head popped back out of the water: "I can't see anything weird with the propellers either. The problem might be a conjoined anomaly that happens upon ignition."

Berix shot him a grateful look as the nosy Water-maiden's focus was redirected away from him and she hurried to comply with the Toa's demand. His friend raised a thumbs up at him.

"By the way, do you know where Gali is?" he continued.

"Uh? Should be meditating down at the bay."

"Alright, thanks." then, pointing the Gaquri in the right direction: "You go on ahead, I'll handle this here and meet you halfway."

With a trembling smile and a little thumbs up of his own, Berix legged it as far away from the pier and the talkative sailors as he could, as fast as his legs could carry him.

A great chunk of the mountain the village stood at the feet of had fallen into the sea during the Mending, crumbling into a sort of rocky half circle that cut off the sandy beaches and turned them into a series of bigger and smaller ciffs surrounding the water. The Matoran and Agori had wasted no time carving paths into the sharp walls, be they smoothed trails or stairs of varied length: little constructions could be found alongside them - fishieries, solitary homes, even the skeleton of what looked like an astronomical observatory the works of which surveyed by an eccentric Ga-Matoran (Nixie, her name was) who kindly pointed him towards a track further down when he asked her for directions.

Gali sat crosslegged before the waves, as still as a statue. Seafoam sprayed her rhythmically, but it didn't seem to break her concentration in the slightest.

Berix hesitated, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

He cleared his throat; but it was too quiet, and she didn't hear him.

Grabbing as much courage as he could with both his hands, he took a deep breath and almost shouted: "Hello!"

The Toa shifted imperceptibly at first. After a moment more she broke her perfect posture and looked back in search for whoever had called out to her until her eyes met the young Gaquri's; at which point she squinted for a little before replying with a wave of her hand: "Hello. May I help you?"

He froze in place.

They exchanged a long glance for a while.

"I'm Berix," he cawed out.

"Ah!" she exclaimed in sudden recognition, pointing at him: "Yes! Kiina's brother! I know you, we've met!" and before he knew it she'd climbed all the way up to him with a jovial glint in her eyes that made her mask look as though she was smiling. "I'm sorry, I still struggle telling Agori from one another when you folks are out of your armor. I guess it's even worse for you, what with our masks..."

"I- i-it's a little, a little bit, yeah, not the easiest, really," he nodded with a sort of tinny nervous laugh, suddenly aware of how much larger than him she was now that she was standing so close, enveloping him completely in her shadow.

Her eyes gleamed in a friendly manner: "Is there something you need my help with?"

There was, yes - technically, but yes.

Unfortunately, his body was refusing to let him speak his request into existence as hard as it could.

His scales rattled as he trembled fiercely, feeling weaker and weaker at the knees; he struggled to produce even just a single phoneme under her shining gaze, fingers twisting around the fabric of his clothes so fast that he almost tore it at the seams.

His throat unclogged only when she began to make a gentle sound, like another question, and in a sudden hurry to avoid that he wheezed: "I can't swim."

Gali blinked.

"I mean-" he corrected hastily, "I mean, I can dive and come back up and not drown and sort of, sort of move in the water, you know, but I can't- I'm not, really, that good, at actually - yes, I mean, you know, because I - there's, was, a desert and not - they're not, really, known, for having much, uh, much water, right?, right, s-so it's not that I, that I d-don't know how to- well I don't know how to swim, b-but I can float and dive and- and, and--"

"Then you came to the right Toa," she interrupted him. "I'll be glad to teach you."

Her arm slipped under his armpits and lifted him up to rest against her chest plate in one swift motion, keeping a tight hold on him so that he wouldn't risk slipping; helping herself with her tools, she jumped back down the small cliffs until she was at the edge of the water, and plopped the both of them into it with a little hop, Berix's head never coming even close to being submerged.

He clung hard around her neck with his arms when the frigid sea met his scales, shivering with a harsh whimper and curling up against her. He could feel what little weight he had try to drag him down, he was certain of it.

A wide hand pat his spine: "You've got nothing to fear," Gali reassured him. "I'm right here with you, and my mask will let you breathe underwater so long as I'm close by."

"How- how, how does it do that?" he asked, "D-did you test it?"

"Yes, don't worry! Just don't go too far."

Before the sight of the endless ocean and the rockus of the waves crashing into the stone, Berix swallowed a little trembling frightened laugh and tightened his grip around her: "Who's leaving?"

Gali swam slowly forward, carrying him along much like a river drags a sleeping otter that hadn't secured its hold onto a nearby plant.

Once she was far enough from the shore she turned to face the sky and began prying the scaled limbs from her shoulders; the young Gaquri, predictably, replied to her action by clinging onto her with all of his strength and shot her a wide eyed stare filled with terror.

"You'll never learn anything if you just stick to me," she argued.

"Maybe I don't mind that!"

The way she squinted doubtfully at him reminded him of Kiina.

Without any warning, she dipped a little further down, submerging herself completely. Berix immediately let go of her to pull himself through the surface, gasping for air as though he'd dived for hours and flailing his arms wildly to keep himself afloat; steady palms grasped the sides of his chest and helped him remain out in the dry air while Gali took her time coming back up.

"There!" she concluded mischievously. "That wasn't so bad, was it? Now we can start making some real progress."

He blew a raspberry at her face, making her cackle.

"Start by kicking your feet instead of splashing around aimlessly like that," she instructed: "Gently - take a look at my legs if you need to. Steady little kicks with both feet, like you're getting a pebble out of the way - not too strong, and keep that going."

She observed him carefully as he tried to follow her words. Her hands moved to hold his arms, then his forearms, then his palms; he panicked a little when she left him completely, but aside from a quick dip and a lot of frightened sputtering she found himself more than satisfied with how he was handling the situation.

The praise bubbling in her throat was however stopped by a quick frightened shriek as the Gaquri leaped onto her, scrambling for cover.

Beady orange eyes peeked from the waves to stare intently at them, the tips of large grey teeth barely visible through the water as its blue maw huffed in their direction...

"Kiriri!" the Toa exclaimed.

The massive beast pumped its thin front legs at her in greeting.

Berix could only watch flabbergasted as she gently caressed the mechanical creature's head, talking to it as though it were a harmless Scarabax beetle: "I was about to rip your mask right off again! Is this the way to show up, scaring us like that?"

The animal gurgled something in response, perfectly happy with its choice of introduction.

"You're lucky Kotu loves you to bits."

"You know this? Thing?" the Gaquri wheezed.

She laughed a little: "Kiriri and I go way back," she nodded. "I fought him off once and he's been the sweetest Tarakava on Aqua Magna ever since. Though like his caretaker, he dabbled in pranks a bit too ofted for most beings' liking..."

"A-a-and he's, is he dangerous? Does, does he eat fish, o-or meat, or, or meat with scales on it, or-"

"He enjoys algae and other water plants," the Toa reassured him. Struck by a mischievous vein, she smirked: "Maybe let's keep him away from your head."

She couldn't hold back a giggle as the poor young thing hurriedly grabbed the lichens growing out from under his scales like hair and tried his hardest to pull them away from the sharp maw sniffing at him curiously.

Many smaller pairs of black eyes also poked through the waters with curious sounds, agitating their little white tusks towards Gali with a certain familiarity.

"And what are these?!" Berix wailed as he tried to lodge himself into her armor.

"Don't scream like that, these are no threat either!" she laughed: "They're Waikiru! Some of the most mellow Rahi I've ever met. Give me your hand, I'll let them get to know you."

He whimpered as she held his palm out towards the creatures: almost immediately they were piling up to take a better look, grazing him with their massive teeth but never hurting him, just honking and barking softly. One even brushed its neck against his fingers as if asking for scritches, prompting Kiriri to push his big snout between them to get a pat as well - making him grumble a little disappointedly when the organic being pulled back away from him.

Gali nudged Berix to extend his arm again with a stern look. Despite his better judgement, he complied.

He wasn't particularly fond of animals. Their smells, their sounds, the weird way they moved and conveyed their thoughts - it was all terribly overwhelming and unpredictable, too dangerous. They were always too big or too small, and so far the only ones he'd been able to stomach had been Click and (for only a few minutes) the Rock Steed he'd somehow managed to ride during the attack against the Skrall.

But Kiriri's snout was metal, protodermis - caked in brine and scratched, but immediately distinguishable. It was fairly smooth and cold, just like a shield, or a mask: the top of his head had the hard edges of a variety of vehicle parts he had worked with during the years, and the rumbling noises that denoted his pleasant mood were awfully similar to those of a well oiled machine toiling away at its job, steady and functioning just right.

The Waikiru were rougher, with more dents and harsher textures, but all the same just as mechanical, just as familar; their barks had a tinny quality to them, their honks were more rubbery. Their flippers waded through the water with the quick precise movements of automated paddles.

"They're not so bad, right?" Gali's voice reached him.

Her hand was near him (he could feel the movement in the water, the way it gently disturbed the smaller lichens growing across his body) but wasn't sustaining him. He had been so caught up in petting the Rahi that he hadn't even noticed she'd slowly let go of him.

Berix gave her a small, wobbly smile: "They're different," he replied. "From- from the other ones, I mean. The ones from here, I mean, from Spherus Magna."

"Well, they seem to like you well enough," the Toa noted with a smile: "Maybe they could swim with us."

"With, with us?"

"Why not? You'd have someone else to latch onto for a change."

"Hey!"

Her laugh held no malice: "Come on," she grinned as she kicked her feet just enough to splash a few droplets on his face, heading a little further into the open waters, "Who knows if they won't teach you a thing or two themselves."

Kiriri and the herd followed along, gently pulling the Gaquri with them as he held onto the large reptile.

They swam a while - at least an hour or so. Berix had no idea one could spend so much time in the water. It felt profoundly unnatural in a way; in another, it felt like home in a way Bara Magna couldn't. At the end of the lesson he could paddle fairly fine, and even somewhat imitate a Waikuru's gait.

Gali noticed Nuparu first as he waved from the cliffs.

She replied to his greeting with a friendly shout, turning the focus of Rahi and young man alike back to shore.

"I didn't know he was here," she noted.

"Oh, he- for, we got a, uh, a Matoran needed a repair and so he, we, we came over," the Gaquri answered quickly; he waved back to let his fellow tinkerer know he was looking right at him.

The Onu-Toa brought his hands to the mouth of his mask and made a strange gesture, as if a cone were expanding from it.

Berix tried to reply with both arms, but what little weight he had wasn't quite enough to keep him afloat and almost caused him to sink into the waves. He climbed carefully onto Kiriri to stabilize himself and finally managed to show both thumbs down.

Nuparu gave him two thumbs up; he smacked a hand on his own head, made a swinging motion downwards twice, and pointed off to the side.

"What language are you two speaking?" Gali whispered, more than a little baffled.

"Oh, it's - you know, when there's welding and hammering and- and all that stuff, it gets, it gets hard to hear, when you talk," the kid explained as he gave the other thumbs up. "He said he's - he'll be helping the, uh, with the observatory."

She made a sort of strange drawn-out knowing clicking sound as she watched the other Toa make his way back up the cliff, soon disappearing from sight - whether because he was just that quick or from activating his Volitak, it was hard to tell: "We should get back to shore too. I think about an hour and a half of swimming is more than enough for a first lesson."

Berix paddled most of the way there, and was very proud of it.

A couple Waikiru nudged him up the rocks with their heads as the rest of the herd honked encouragingly, accompanied by Kiriri's deep gurgling goodbye. The Gaquri's clothes were sopping wet, dripping all over the cliffside as if aching to jump away into the sea again; strangely, the drenched fabric didn't feel so bad.

Gali smiled, still in the water: "See you, then. I'll be glad to swim with you again."

She watched him nod, mumble something like a goodbye.

Then he stood still.

He played with his fingers a while, scratching at his scales with newfound nervousness, shifting from one foot to the other. He seemed to be debating something with himself, whimpering and hissing under his breath far too fast for her to keep up.

At last he made his decision: he shut his eyes, sucked in a big breath, stiffened his spine, clenched and unclenched his fists, and pointed a trembling finger at the now sumbfounded Toa.

With as unwavering a voice as he could muster, he stated: "I know you're having sex with my sister."

Gali blinked: "Yes," she replied, a bit puzzled, "Should I stop?"

Berix sputtered a little (he had expected a variety of things, but not that) before regaining some amount of countenance and managing to continue on his line of thought: "Well, it's - you... You better treat her right. Or I, I will challenge you in the arena about it. And I'll kick you ass."

The Ga-Toa continued to watch him.

She extended her hand and grasped the Gaquri's wrist with a deathly serious expression. He flinched hard, but held as still as he could.

"I promise you, upon my honor as protector of Mata Nui," she spoke solemnly: "So long as I live, I will respect and care for Kiina with all of myself, and give her the best sex she's ever had."

Berix wheezed loudly, unable to find a more suitable answer.

He nodded very stiffly, shaking her hand; she made the same motion as him with a satisfied look.

"I," he stammered: "I- uh, it's, I'm, know that she can just - do, that, on her own of course- challenging you, I mean, she'd, she'd p-probably be better than me at fighting too, but you know, she- she's m-my sister and I- I-"

Gali snickered: "Don't worry, I get it," she reassured him: "I'd fight off anybody who threatened my siblings' well-being no matter the disadvantage too."

She let go of him and leaped backwards, landing with a splash amongst the Waikiru.

He watched her mask reemerge several bio away; she waved goodbye back at him with a wide smile before disappearing beneath the waves again with the rest of the herd.

The Gaquri stood before the sea.

A wave rocked against the shore a little softer.

The gentle sound snapped him out of his daze, and he hurriedly climbed back up the cliffs towards the observatory.

Nuparu was knee deep in some kind of argument with Nixie regarding the actual use for astrology and whether or not it was more interesting and-or worth putting effort into studying than astronomy when Berix finally arrived. The Ga-Matoran continued to chew his audio processor off even when his attention had very clearly turned elsewhere - though she was quick to turn around and blabber on to the rest of the construction crew, who seemed much less intent on arguing with her statements than the inventor was and simply enjoyed some chattering during work.

"So?" Nuparu asked genuinely curious: "How did it go?"

His friend, dripping water everywhere, straightened his shoulders for what felt like the first time in his life: "Good! I think. Pretty good."

He bounced on his heels and clicked his tongue.

"I even learned how to swim."

[whiteheartlight]

your post reminded me hewkii is the mahri deputy for some reason. i mean he plays sports so ig hes used to leading teams so it makes sense. but i was thinking what if jaller at some point decides to appoint hewkii kongu and hahli as deputies. just all three of them bc theyre good and reliable (nuparu is also reliable but also he will fuck around and find out at any given opportunity so maybe its better not to entrust him the lives of the team). now do you think jaller would assign them each as deputy for like specific situations (underwater in the air etc) or would he let them wrestle it out for the right to lead in case hes unavailable

OHH I FORGOT ABOUT HEWKII BEING THE CANON DEPUTY skdjgndfkg um yeah guys when you talk about Kongu and Jaller and Hahli being good leaders let's not also forget Hewkii.... obviously

lol you're right I don't know why that happened. Don't get me wrong, Hewkii's so friendly and likeable he's probably a great guy to have as a deputy (especially as Jaller stands at enormous risk of some severe Fire Toa angst after Matoro) but after highlighting Kongu and Hahli as leaders too, it's a little odd. I suppose part of it is that really, all six of those Matoran were leaders in their communities, just in different ways. Even Nuparu, who isn't exactly a people pleaser, was renowned for his genius. Jaller could definitely call on all of them in different situations.

a little bit of a sadder note, but I have played with the idea of Jaller temporarily (or not?) quitting after Matoro dies. just one day throwing up his hands and telling the others he doesn't want this anymore, Kongu or Hewkii or Hahli can be in charge, and walking away while they call after him. it might be part of that Gold snippet fic I have - Tahu and Vakama helping Jaller find his balance as a leader again, without the guilt.

thank you for the ask!

[wjbs-bonkle-au]

And the correct answer is "A conman gets corrupted by a Bionicle vampire and gains shadow powers", which was a scrapped story-element that is referenced in canon, but doesn't actually end up happening; towards the end of the story, Makuta Icarax - a vampire-themed mad scientist who can steal peoples' light and turn them evil - wants to corrupt Ahkmou, who is already a dodgy (and technically evil) character who does some bad stuff early-on. However, Icarax gets distracted by the chance to attack his species' main rival, Takanuva (who has light-themed powers), and forgets about Ahkmou.

Context for all the others below.

"One of the antagonists in the 2007 arc punched his homeland so hard it broke."

Nocturn was exiled to an underwater supermax prison called The Pit after punching a weak part of the island he came from, causing it to be destroyed.

One faction is comically OP because of a real-world OC-canonisation contest.

The Dark Hunters are an... interesting faction, and in 2005 the official Lego magazine ran a contest for people to submit their own concepts for who some of their members are. The results included a guy who can stretch and squish and wants to Starscream his boss, an army of electric dragons, and a mage who has telekinesis, can steal his opponents' powers, and shatter stuff with his staff.

Power-loaders are made of dead shapeshifted people.

Ok so basically one of the main antagonistic forces early-on are the Bohrok, which are giant spherical roomba-monsters powered by funky bugs; at a certain point in their life, Light-element Matoran turn into Bohrok. Nuparu, who I will get back to later, built an army of mini-mecha called Boxors by dismantling deactivated Bohrok and putting them back together in a different shape.

The guy who built the power-loaders also invented cops and blimps.

Millenia before the Boxor incident, Nuparu was an engineer in the city of Metru Nui (which is basically like if the Jetsons got a gritty mid-2000s reboot). He created four types of robotic law-enforcement (the unstable Kralhi, the persistent Vahki and the elite Kranua and Kraahu) and also helped create the city's omnipresent airships.

One of the main antagonists of the 2009 arc is canonically middle-aged.

According to a QnA with Greg Farshtey, the Skrall king Tuma is meant to be in his species' equivalent of his mid-40s.

An ancient badass hollowed out a giant aquatic worm and turned it into a train.

One of the main supporting characters in the 2006 story-arc is Axonn, an ancient axe-wielding warrior. At some point in the past, he captured a giant worm-like sea-creature, cyborgified it (to a greater extent than it already was), turned it into a giant train-adjacent mobile base, and chained it to a giant rock-pillar. The Toa Mahri use it in the 2007 arc in order to explore the ocean surrounding The Pit.

One guy's team failed so hard that their name is a slang term for desolation.

The Toa Cordak were a team of ancient warriors who were killed super-hard by creatures called Zyglak; their last surviving member, Lesovikk, goes full Speedball and becomes an edgelord who kills people despite what the Toa Code (yes that's a thing) says. "Cordak" goes on to become an in-universe slang term for desolation, and there's also a type of rapid-fire rocket-launcher named after them that the Toa Mahri (and various Pit denizens) use in the 2007 arc.

God's sheriff dies and immediately gets replaced by an identical guy.

There's this dude called Botar who was recruited by the Order Of Mata Nui, which is basically a more benevolent illuminati that serve the setting's sleeping god, Mata Nui (who is also the universe; don't ask). Botar's job is to take criminals to The Pit by grabbing them and teleporting there. In one of the 2008 web-serials, Icarax (remember him?) kills Botar with magnetism; Botar is then replaced by an unnamed member of his species, who has basically the exact same powers.

If you vote, reblog? Maybe?