#the abandoned plotlines

[you-are-a-saucy-boi]

chris chibnall’s era of doctor who felt like dw wattpad fanfic, in this essay i will

[canisalbus]

This is a weird ask that kind of relates to the headcanon of Vasco being a blood donor.

What's is Vasco's and Machete's blood type?

Maybe they like hook eachother up and die if they have incompatible blood types.

That's the way to go. Kinda romantic?

(A reference to a show that I hope someone here gets-)

This has no bearing whatsoever and I'm picking these based on nothing.

It would be ironic if Machete was O-, which is the universal donor type. It can be given to anyone without adverse effects, which makes it very useful in cases of trauma and emergency when the receiver's blood type is unknown. But he wouldn't be able to donate because of his chronic anemia and low weight. Type O- can only receive O- blood.

I'm tempted to give Vasco O+. Over 80% of human population is compatible with it so it's always in high demand, and I like to think as a regular donor his blood would have extremely high chances of being put to good use this way. Type O+ can receive O+ and O- blood.

Neither of them are that uncommon, and it would be kind of funny if they had the same group by chance but were only halfway compatible.

[gil-notskajla]

christian linke fighting for his fucking life out there (i hope he loses)

[willfulscarlet]

On the one hand, stop trying to make Hawke happen. The GA name is not the issue here. On the other, I’m so glad Mia was shown to be actively looking out for Connor and that we got an actual character interaction, not just action quips.

Of course Connor’s a bit fucked up at the moment, and is not taking Ollie’s actions well. He’s not had much more than that one evening on the beach to regroup since leaving Lazarus Island, and Mia would notice and not want to let him struggle alone. The Brothers Arrow are so important to each other, but Roy’s got rather a lot on his own plate - and Mia and Connor are family too.

[yuridovewing]

oh my god can the erins shut up about the sisters already

[noones-untruly]

Your bitch is watching the second season of Blood of Zeus and lemme tell you, I don't like it. At least the very first 10 minutes. As I did previously, imma put here all of my thoughts regarding each episode as I watch, so beware of MASSIVE SPOILERS.

Also, small disclaimer: I'm not a professional writer, nor a movie critic. So everything here is my pure humble opinion so if you don't like it - don't read it.

So without further ado:

Episode 1:

Gods, it's been 10 minutes and half of the visuals (if not more) are just parts of the final episode of the first season. And also the plot didn't really moved past the point "yeah, Hades is the bbeg. Again." Although I sense some bits that it's more like "oh he's a misunderstood guy who did it all for love and whatnot" but the line of "Hera and Zeus made us fools and now we get to have our revenge" is already pissing me off. 10 minutes of almost nothing but being cliché. Not a good start, but imma give it a shot.

Another thing that irritates me is the "romantic" tension between Alexia and Heron. First of all, I don't get it how Heron is so good at fighting despite the fact that he lived with his mother and never really had to fight anyone with a sword. Like I get the arrows and such (tho hunting an animal in a forest and shooting a moving fucking warrior on a bloody battlefield seem kinda different, but aight, I'll let it slide). But how in the fuck after a few days-weeks of training with Zeus he manages to be so fucking op in the battle that it impresses an Amazonian Fucking Warrior Lady that spent at least half her life perfecting her martial skills?? This guy was not a warrior to begin with, how is he so good at killing people and demons?? He was BULLIED AND HAD NO ONE TO TEACH HIM KICK BALLS! So anyways, I don't like that it's implied that Alexia is falling in love with Heron. No, she's a powerful ass Amazonian, she's supposed to be COOL AND NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH THIS WIBBLY WOBBLY HERON THAT HADN'T EVEN LIVED FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS!!! Like, c'mon, how old is he? 17? 18? He maybe has a body of a perfect athlete, but he's a fucking baby... And don't tell me Alexia is below 20, she's in her late 20's AT LEAST, cuz ain't no way a 20 year old is commanding an elite squad in ancient Greece. So no to Heron×Alexia. Not on my watch.

Also, what the fuck is elusinian stone and why are we supposed to care whether Hades gets it not?

What the fuck did they do to Hestia's and Athena's designs?? Like what the honest fuck is this bullshit?? Who do winged dead eating demons look more interesting that obviously very important characters?? Also, the scream Hestia lets out burning the demons away from her 💀💀💀

NO, NOT THE PROPHECY TROPE, PLEASE, NO

Why does Gaia look like she stepped out of a marvel movie...?

Episode 2:

Alexia, girl, why are you sleeping in full armour?? Also what happened to your face??

Heron, what happened to your face?? Did they ever give proper character references to the animators??

Also, why is Heron having a mental breakdown over some noname bro that killed their mother??

Bro, why are you so suddenly questioning gods?? (Ye, he should question who the fuck these gods are to rule over humanity, but it's smth he was supposed to do in the previous season, not now when he beat the shit out of his step brother in the name of gods)

Yay, my babygirl Seraphim is still here, serving cunt as usual 💖 And fuck yeah, eternal judgement >> serving gods!! Slay babe! (I am kinda ashamed for this passage, but I won't apologise for it)

Bitch what. A love interest? FOR MY MURDEROUS VENGEANCE LED BABYGIRL?? ARE Y'ALL KIDDING ME??

WHY DID YOU SPIT LIKE THIS?? PEOPLE DON'T SPIT LIKE THIS, SWEETIE. DEMONS TOO BY THE WAY

Ok, I understand the lack of colours for Hades, he is kinda gothic, but why is Persephone such a goth chick?? She's the goddess of spring and such no?? Why'd she wear black fucking lipstick and look like a depressed teen??

What in the Hades the game is this?? Listen, I didn't want to bring the game into this discussion, but you did it yourself, netflix. Y'all are not ready to be compared to the supergiants' masterpiece. Don't drag Zag and Melinoë into this, y'all are not on the same level of deepness into the greek mythology to have them here.

Seriously? The same punishment as Loki? Y'all ain't even creative. Don't tell me this bitch lover of Sera is gonna stay there with a cup to "help with the pain"

Bro, stop it already with y'all's "well I've always tried to help you, I'm not like the others" it's not gonna cut it anymore

So like, Hades was very hot and you redesigned him into edge lord? Ok.

Ah, so now you explain us about the elusinian stone and why it's so important, at the end of the 2nd episode? Thanks, cool.

Episode 3

Apollo is still serving. By now you should see the pattern of what men I like.

Drop it with the love interest for Seraphim already. I don't believe that a murder machine like him is able to fall for a simple mortal woman. Like this fuck would even care for anything else than his revenge. Well, tbh I didn't believe that he'd care for his biological mother either, so... I just don't like how they portrait him as a weak for love bud. Isn't that a bit unrealistic for a mass murderer with no empathy? Like ain't one supposed to be empathetic to love? Ain't one supposed to feel nothing when killing a shit load of people with no remorse whatsoever? Isn't there some psychological repercussions? No? Ok.

Lmao, suicidal Hades is something new.

Yeah, ofc, let's make Hades seem like a creep again...

Is that weird that I'm more attracted to the demon Seraphim more than to his human form?

Honestly, I'm so tired of media portraying Hera and Demeter as hysterical bitches that know no boundaries. Like come up with something new.

Lol, Hades just made my man enter into an invisible wall to make the wall disappear a second after.

Aren't you supposed to win over his trust? For now you're just venting about your shit ass family to a man that has no family at all. Not very kind tbh

"Look at her! Look at how she suffers!" Meanwhile the girl is just sitting on the ground bumboozeled that the god of the dead and some hot demon guy are looking at her talking some nonsense.

Why, of course she's not gonna suffer ugly like the other wraiths, she's the main hero's love interest, so that's why she looks like she's on some heavy tranquilizers

Yes, of course the prideful demon Seraphim, the murderer of guilty and innocent, the vengeful spirit will succumb to be a pawn in god's hands once again, only to alleviate the suffering of the soul of his beloved! What a bunch of horseshit, guys... I may be delusional enough to be attracted to that man and call him babygirl, but even I understand that this fuck is incapable of love. This isn't his character, it was done to just make him into the "good guy that was just too miserable so he caused a lot of pain to the others". Let's be fair for a sec here, he's a mass murderer, he deserves no forgiveness. Yes, he can be redeemed, but it's a long fucking process, that doesn't always include forgiveness, but a shit load of work and reflection. And therapy. Hades could've "tempt" him to join forces by manipulating his pride and desire to be free, to be above gods. Not love. Love can be ugly, love can be beautiful, love can be an instrument to redeem someone, but by gods, stop using it on every Joe to make him into hero, it's just stupid.

Sera, why are you so easy to manipulate??

Episode 4:

NOOOO, WHY DID YOU TURN HIM HUMAN AGAIN?? BRING BACK THE DEMON LOOK, IT WAS SO GOOOOD!!!

Off topic, but wasn't heron impaled in the middle of his chest? Why's the scar on his tit?

I can't, Aphrodite clinging to Ares's arm 😭😭😭 Stop with itttt!

Okok, one good thing: I like how in the games Heron is drawn to always be in Ares's shadow. A bit on the nose, but I appreciate the symbolism.

Apollo's refusing to compete with Ares?? Apollo?! You're making me laugh.

There's this background god with blueish skin and black wings and I cannot, who are they?? I have to know whom I'm falling for. Is that Thanatos??

Hm, so half the season is wasted on some weird intro to the story itself? Cool. Wow. Never seen that happen.

Episode 5:

You serious? The mighty Zeus, the king of gods, is judged by mere mortals? The pure-blood god, not a bastard child ascended to godhood, but the child of Rhea and Kronos, is judged by some mortal and has to go through the same path as any other human?? Y'all aren't serious. I can't. This is idiotic.

Hera, I don't believe you, that now, all of the sudden you're changing your mind and vouching for Zeus, that he's not that bad. Girl, you unleashed a whole ass box of giants to kill that man just a few weeks ago, why such sudden change of mind??

Zeus, how in the fuck you managed to build a whole ass knowledge bunker under that shabby house of your son without anyone noticing?? Please, share the secret, I also want to be capable of that

Greatest quote of the greatest man in these series, Evios: "Look, I'm alive for two reasons: I was born and I hadn't died yet."

Oke, I can understand why Sera might've fallen for the priestess in a normal situation (if he hadn't been fucked up beyond repair, that is). She's smart, she's beautiful, she's compassionate. A perfect woman, if she had any character to her. But my man is, unfortunately, beyond salvation of any kind, when he met her, he wasn't recovering from the hatred, he was driven by it. How can one love another, when one is fueled by hatred and anger? How can one love, when one had long forgotten what is it to be loved? How can one love, when one is no longer feeling?

Episode 6:

I suddenly like the Heron's arc. Is he gaining some depth to his character? Wow.

Lmao, Sera, you fell from gods know what height and you're still in one piece and not smushed into the ground and around? You are a solid rock of a man.

Ok, maybe Sera is slay in his human form. It's just that he needs to be dressed appropriately. Stop walking around with tits out in and wearing this stupid furry mini skirt and he's looking like a decent man.

Icarus?? Sera, choose another pseudonym, this ain't a good one.

Honestly, I'm kinda digging all that "Demeter, the great mastermind " vibe. Slay queen! Love it for her. She's a bitch in this scenario, but damn she's good at it.

Episode 7:

Y'all, I'm in love with Demeter. This bitch? The bitchiest of them all. Slay 💅

Alexia, girl, how did you survive Talos exploding?? You demigod too? And that big fella who's name wasn't mentioned once this season is he also the same or just explosion-proof?

Ah, yes, his name is Kofi. Could've guessed.

Bruh, you've already done Alexia wrong in this season, why open her character like that in under a minute?? 😭 Opened and immediately closed. Feels like "That's rough, buddy" from Zuko but make it lvl 99 of idgf

And now you're Nobody?? Babe, you decided to fuck with mythology, didn't you? Bad idea.

Also, hadn't Kronos had another design in the beginning, no? Then who was that cosmos looking titan in the beginning?

Wait a moment. Does Sera classify as a demigod? Like, he is partially giant, cuz he ate flesh of one. And he possesses a ton of demigod-like qualities. Could it be that he's the prophecy demigod? Meh, I'm too lazy to look for the prophecy to compare it and actually find out. Will see in a moment what happens.

Episode 8 (finally):

Sera is getting sexier with each challenge.

Heron, surprisingly, is too, getting more attractive.

I absolutely hate Gaia's design. Disgusting.

Lmao, I was right, there's a possibility for Sera to be the prophecy child.

Oh my, are you serious, Hera is a pacifist now?? Y'all are crazy.

This is just a massive slaughter house at this point, gods, what the fuck.

Aw, the brothers are helping eachother in this butchery, how cute.

Heron, chill your ass, you're about to explode.

Btw, where's Evios? And that interesting associate of his.

So, what's that terrible horrible monster whose name we do not say?

Oops, someone pissed off the primordial Gaia. Y'all are fucked. Btw his name's Typhoon. Meh.

In conclusion:

The majority of the script is shite. Some (almost all) of the arcs can be done so much better. Designs suck an ass too. But did I enjoy watching it? Yes. Is it because of Seraphim? Primarily so. But will I wait for the 3rd season? Absolutely yes.

So I loved and hated the show at the same time. The main line is quite interesting nevertheless, so see y'all when the 3rd season is out.

I have a shit load of stuff to say on addition, but this post is long enough in it self, so maybe later.

[phoebepheebsphibs]

If I have to make the content myself so be it,

but goshdangit I want a story where the apocalypse future turtles arrive in the present and Casey is so happy about it and everyone is excited that they survived and sure yeah it’s great but the side plot shows at least ONE OF THE BOYS gets really anxious and feels sad because he thinks Casey is replacing him and he doesn’t love them?? He went out of his way to resurrect his family through space and time?? Because the ones in the present weren’t enough of a family for him?? So obviously Casey must hate him?? Fear of abandonment who?? Inferiority complex never heard of it?? And so little by little they start to resent the older versions of them (and maybe Casey too)

Because honestly

I would eat that up with tears in my eyes like it was forrest truffle porkchops cooked by Rupert Swaggart himself

[kirkwallguy]

NGL i think everyone getting magic powers is the most boring resolution to so many plotlines and if they do it just to make their arpg mechanics more fun i'll be annoyed as fuck

[bubblingbeebles]

when your older lesbian mentor figure has maxed out skill levels in "asking for a friend"

[sissytobitch10seconds]

I just saw a post complaining that s4 was a slap in the face to Gerard Way and how hard he fought to get his comics on the big screen. Girl, I hate to break it to yo but s4 is the most loyal to the feel of the comics out of all of them. If anything, he had more writing in this season than any other

[spacedlexi]

trying to keep all my clemviminnie thoughts contained until i get to episode 3 but

its hard

[catsafari25]

A/N: Hello again, and with this I think (?) I may have succeeded in writing enough bionicle fic to get it out of my system (unless another plot bunny hits me like a cannonball, but... eh, we'll see) and thus, here is the companion piece to the Vakama & Roodaka oneshot.

This time, exploring the scene where Vakama entered the Great Temple, from his side of things! This was also partially inspired by the scene in Challenge of the Hordika where Nokama is almost physically repulsed in trying to enter the Great Temple :)

x

In the tunnels beneath the temple, Vakama must stoop.

At first he shuffles, mutated arm tucked against him and his sole hand brushing only briefly along the floor to steady himself, but the passages are dark and deep and lined with creatures which seek out the weak. The eyes that watch him are not hungry. They keep their bellies too full for that.

In the end, it is easier quicker to drop to all fours, to share the weight between claw and tool that feet alone cannot. His altered form folds into the new stance with frightening familiarity. It's comfortable.

Natural.

The crown of his mask grazes the tunnel's ceiling, but only in passing. His gait is sure. Well. Surer than the ungainly slouch it had been before.

It was said – back when Matoran were awake to say such things – that even the strongest swimmers of Ga-Metru would hesitate before plunging into the depths of the protodermis sea. Not because the creatures there had any fondness for the taste of Matoran. In truth, it was thought that the rahi actively disliked the flavour. No, it was because the way Matoran swam was indistinguishable from the rahi's usual prey. Only when they had sunk tooth and jaw into their meal would they realise their mistake.

It was an annoying, if harmless mistake for the rahi.

Matoran couldn't say the same.

Vakama's early crawl through the passage had been like that of a Matoran swimmer: functional, but slow and indiscernible from wounded prey. Creatures drag themselves down into these depths to die, in hopes that they will be devoured only when they are too far gone to feel it. The eyes are patient. They will wait to see if this newcomer is similarly inclined.

And so when Vakama drops to his haunches, the eyes blink. Reassess. He moves less like the hunted and more like the hunter now, more predator than prey, and the eyes – and teeth – keep their distance after that.

The path Vakama stalks through was once a protodermis pipe, made obsolete even before the cataclysm. Newer conduits had been built, more efficient, more resilient, and this one had been disconnected but never dismantled. When he reaches its origin, it takes some effort – and his blazer claw – to break the seal across the hatchway, but when he does, one of the temple's protodermis purification chambers looms above him.

The room beyond is quiet.

Unmarked.

He doesn't realise he's stopped until the chittering of his audience draws closer. The snarl he throws back echoes off the pipe's walls, and the eyes retreat, but do not leave.

Vakama curls his hand around the lip of the hatch, and then falters.

Something is wrong.

It's not a pain, because the feeling does not hurt as it ought, but something is undeniably, fundamentally wrong. It causes his breath to catch, his hand to flinch, and it would be so easy, so easy, to turn and walk away, only...

Only he came here for a reason.

The wrongness flares, amplified for a moment, and then he pulls himself up. The eyes watch, but do not follow. Do they feel it too? Can even such base creatures sense the innate malice the temple exudes?

He clambers out of the purification chamber – empty and abandoned now – and stumbles upon his landing. He catches himself, but does not rise back to his feet.

Wrong.

This is wrong.

And at the edge of the wrongness there is a strange sort of terror. It dreads the same way the fire fears the sea, the same way the prey fears the predator; it is the meeting of two primally antithetical forces where only one can survive. It whispers turn back through his mind.

He moves into the next room.

It's one he knows well. Light filters down from the rot-stained windows, centering – as it had the day he'd first seen it – on the suva, and casting long sentinel shadows of the columns standing to attention around it. A crack mars the suva, its stone dome now split cleanly in two from the quakes, and – drawn by some desire he cannot identify (instinct, curiosity... nostalgia?) – he approaches.

It seems so small now. Even bowed and altered in his Hordika form, he looms over the Ta-Metru symbol he'd once had to stretch to reach.

Unbidden, his hand moves to the niche where once he'd placed a Toa Stone – where once he had though himself chosen, duty-bound, destiny-gifted – and falters a breath from the stone.

The wrongness spikes.

Screams.

And with a twist of something he will not call horror, he understands it is not originating from himself.

But from the temple.

It is repulsion. It's alienation. It's recognising him, but as other, as rahi.

It's disgust that a monster would dare enter its sanctuary.

In the Ta-Metru carving, stone once polished to the point of fragmented reflection, he sees a glimmer of his own face. Neither Toa nor Matoran. Nothing blessed by Mata Nui.

Vakama recoils.

And then a wave of his own disgust, propelled by that fury that runs so close to the surface now, rolls through him. If you didn't want us as the Toa, you should've stopped Makuta from choosing us, he thinks, and digs his claws into the stonework.

The wrongness sings.

But he knows it for what it is now, and his morphed, clawed hand gorges scars through the carving. The stone is soft. Its makers had never imagined someone would take a blade to it.

There comes a tapping from across the room, echoing brazenly off the ancient stone walls, and Vakama retreats instinctively into the shadows. A Rahaga enters.

Norik?

No, this Rahaga's armour is more akin to a Po-Matoran than a Ta-Matoran's, the colour of dust and stone. Vakama tries to recall the Rahaga's name – and then dismisses the attempt.

It won't matter, in the end.

The Rahaga walks as he always has, stooped and slow, but clearly unhindered by the temple. He passes by the suva and runs one gnarled hand across the stonework, his movements marred by curiosity rather than reverence.

The rage arrives a fully-formed creation. It drowns out the wrongness, floods the apprehension, and he is moving before he's decided that this is the path he wants.

It is not pain, for it does not hurt as it ought.

But it does still hurt.

x

Whatever the Rahaga might once have been, they are old and weak now. Four are captured before Vakama's rage has a chance to cool, but the ire is no less dangerous when it does.

(That's the thing about Ta-Metru; it's not a place of fire so much as it is of magma. And magma doesn't extinguish with the cold; it sets. It moors itself into place, an unmovable, burning force.)

The rage settles, solidifies around his heart and lungs and carves a home between his breaths.

(Magma is not fire. It does not leap blindly from one source to the next. Instead it advances. Slowly. Steadily. It finds a channel, a destination, and it engulfs all in its path until it reaches it.)

He finds the last two remaining Rahaga, pathetically ignorant to their brothers' fates and still scavenging the temple for answers. He hears the way Norik appraises his sister's translation, relief clear in his voice that they are one step further on this wild rahi chase. Relief, surely, that the Rahaga are one step closer to regaining their Toa form.

(And Vakama's anger has found its destination.)

He does not descend on the Rahaga's leader the way he has the others. No. Norik will know what's coming for him first. He gets to fear. Vakama waits until Gaaki has gone, until Norik is alone, and then he circles. The wrongness thrums in his veins, weighing him down and labouring his breaths. It doesn't matter. Let Norik hear his approach.

Norik doesn't try to run. Vakama will give him that much. (A wise choice. Vakama intends for this encounter to last, but if Norik runs, Vakama cannot be sure he won't chase.) Instead, the malformed once-Toa calls out and actually tries to approach him. Stupid. Doesn't he know that he won't win any fight, transformed as he is? As both of them are? No, instead, he tries to talk. As if they are equals, as if Norik has done anything to deserve his respect rather than his scorn. As if he has earned the temple's forgiveness for his trespassing.

Even when Vakama raises the fate of Norik's fellow Rahaga, Norik attempts to sway him with the illusion of reason, talking of duty and unity, as if he's not using the other Toa Hordika to chase after a rahi myth for his own desires. As if their roles are in any way comparable, both Toa of Fire once, both leaders, it's true, but Vakama hasn't forgone his duty to chase after selfish needs.

And it stops now.

Vakama circles closer, and Norik is still talking, unease in his voice, but not fear. Still searching for the right words to turn Vakama to his bidding as he has the other Toa Hordika. Ever the voice of two-faced logic.

Why won't he just shut up?

Does Norik think him to be as gullible as the others? As quick to desert his duty as them?

And Vakama knows he wants – needs – to shake that assurance, that arrogance out of Norik. Needs to see that facade of self-righteous wisdom crumble into the terror of his situation.

The growl begins deep in his chest and, unleashed, it becomes a roar. He rears out of the darkness, into the weak sphere of light surrounding Norik – and there, there he finally sees true fear fill the old fool's eyes.

Something slams into Vakama and he reels, his roar cut short. His hand reaches automatically, defensively, to his mask. He finds only water there. It clings to him, imbued with some sort of power – he can feel something other in it – but otherwise impotent.

"Leave my brother alone," Gaaki snarls. She stands in the doorway, small and hopelessly overpowered, but her shoulders are tensed with a stubborness Vakama recognises. Already, her spinner is powering up for another shot.

Well. Two can play at that game.

Vakama's rhotuka fires into motion, but the water has seeped into the mechanism, and dowses the fire before it has a chance to catch. He gives it a withering look, before turning the expression onto Gaaki. "Very clever."

Another water spinner hits him, but this time he is braced for it and all it does is wash harmlessly off him.

"Is that all you have?" he asks. His blazer claw splutters, but the claws on his hand flex. After all, there's more than one way to defang a muaka...

Gaaki steps back. Good. She knows she's outmatched. "It's a devastating attack underwater," she offers, and her words are strong but there is a cracked edge to them.

"Then you'd better start finding a puddle," Vakama growls, "before my claws find you," and he drops into a run, feet pounding and fangs bared and that ever-present wrongness humming about him.

She doesn't flee. Just like Norik, she stands her ground, gnarled fingers wrapped tight around her staff. Her eyes are hard, but he sees the way her hands shake.

How long will her resolve last, Vakama wonders. Before or after the claws find their mark?

He never finds out.

He's knocked off his feet before he reaches her, and when he hits the ground, ropes of energy pin him to the earth, like a water-bound rahi caught in a net.

What–

Norik.

He'd forgotten Norik.

He thrashes against the restraints, but they hold strong – for now. His blazer claw splutters again, but it does nothing to the energy that binds him.

He stills as he hears footsteps approach.

The two Rahaga hobble into his line of sight. Gaaki is breathing hard, as if only now is she allowing herself to feel the fear. "You left that late, Norik," she says, and even the breath that follows sounds more like a shaken wheeze than a nervous laugh. "Almost too late."

"I only had the one shot. I couldn't afford to miss," Norik replies. "He's got our brothers. Gaaki, go find–"

"I'm not leaving you alone with him," she retorts. "I only went for a moment before, and look what would have happened if I hadn't returned."

Vakama tilts his head as well as the energy net will allow. He grins at the Rahaga, anger curdling it into a sneer. "Yes, Gaaki, you're very good bait, congratulations." He shifts his gaze to Norik. "But you've always been so good at getting others to do your dirty work, haven't you, Norik?"

Norik doesn't even have the decency of guilt. Instead, he simply looks tired. "Whatever you think you know–"

"I know the truth! You don't care about the Matoran, you only care about yourselves!" He strains against the ropes, and although they do not break, there's a little more give in them than before. He slumps back to the ground, breathing hard. "You might have the other Toa fooled. You might even have the temple fooled, but not me," he growls, and the temple's hatred presses down on him, straining his last words.

Gaaki places a frail hand on her brother's arm. "Norik," she says, and there is such unbearable sorrow in her voice. "He looks in pain."

"It's not my doing," Norik assures her softly. "My snare spinner only binds."

Vakama snarls. "I don't need pity from the likes of you. I know what you are."

"We're allies, Vakama," Norik says, in that insufferably reasonable way of his. "Friends."

"You're frauds," Vakama snaps. He twists against his restraints. They slacken, just a touch. "Liars. You don't deserve to walk these floors."

And the Rahaga stand there, unburdened by the temple's hate, strangers to this land, to Metru Nui, and yet it is Vakama the temple repulses? After everything he has forgone, the life he's abandoned, the friendships he's lost, Mata Nui punishes him?

His rhotuka fires off a fire spinner, and it goes wide, cracks a wall. Norik and Gaaki stumble back, Norik preparing another snare shot, but the energy net holding Vakama snaps. Vakama lurches forward, suddenly free, and slams into Norik.

The snare spinner wraps itself around a column. It lights up the room with crackling energy.

A blast of water grazes past his shoulder, too shy of hitting Norik to commit to taking the easy shot, and Vakama reels towards Gaaki. He fires with a snarl, but hears the snare spinner coming again and ducks at the last moment.

Again his own attack misses and the shot cleaves clean through a wall. Something on the other side begins to smoulder.

Then it begins to rumble.

It's a low sound at first, as deep as the earth and just as vast. Almost like a distant growl. But then the cracks begin to spiral out across the roof, along the columns, and the room buckles.

The light flickers. The frames of the high windows above collapse.

The world becomes fragmented, filled with flickering images. Falling masonry and toppling pillars and dust – but the sounds never relent. Even in the depths of the passing darkness, the thunder continues.

And when the dust settles, so does an awful silence.

Vakama straightens, or does his best approximation of it. Fragments of cracked protodermis fall from his shoulders, his head, his back. He withdraws the hand which has somehow found itself raised above Gaaki, knocking aside the stone slab caught against his arm.

Where's Norik?

Both Hordika and Rahaga stand side by side, that quietness disturbed only by the skittering of stone shards settling. There is wrongness in his breath, his head, and it's impossible to separate where the temple's ends and his begins. But any moment now, Norik will reappear from the wreckage, bearing that ever-same holier-than-thou look, and the anger will rise anew in Vakama.

Any.

Moment.

Now.

"You've killed him," Gaaki says, and her voice breaks that terrible stillness. She draws in a half-breath that cracks into a sob. "You've... oh, Norik..."

No.

No, it was an accident. He hadn't meant to– Norik had simply been in the wrong place. It wasn't as if he'd taken a blazer claw to Norik, or hit him directly with a fire spinner. He'd only meant to... what? What had he only meant to do?

Something swings towards him and he grabs the staff before he even registers what it is.

"He's not dead," Vakama says, and maybe if he says it, he might even believe it. He snaps his gaze to Gaaki, as if her grief is bringing it to pass. "He's not. He's not as easy to kill as that. When the others– when the Toa find him, he'll be fine. Fools like him always find a way to survive."

Gaaki attempts to pull her staff free, but her strength is no match for Vakama's. He wretches it out of her grasp and tosses it aside.

"Stop that."

She doesn't listen to him, only steps back and charges up her rhotuka. The grief in her eyes fogs into hatred.

The water spinner hits him but does little more than rock him.

"Stop."

Gaaki screams, a sound of rage and anguish, and releases a volley of spinners as ineffectual as the first.

Vakama's patience – or whatever had held him in place until now – snaps. He lunges forward. His claws close around the joints of Gaaki's rhotuka and pins the mechanisms harmlessly into place, in the same manner one might pick up a baby ussal crab by the widest edge of its shell. She thrashes, but Vakama's grip holds.

"I said, stop," he snarls.

She's breathing hard, her gasps sharp-edged with agony. "You killed him," she says, voice hoarse and hateful.

His insides twist, and – Gaaki hauled by his side – he starts the ascent to where the rest of the Rahaga are trapped. He doesn't look back to the rubble. Doesn't glance for one last glimpse of Norik's resting place.

He's not dead. He's not dead he's not dead he's not

The wrongness, the hatred, has woven so deep into him, it's almost a part of him now.

Toa don't kill. Vakama can't remember who taught him that (he recalls, briefly, the flash of a gold mask, but it comes with pain – grief – and he pushes it aside before it can take root) but it gnaws at him like a trapped stone rat. Toa don't kill.

But he was never meant to be one.

And if the Great Temple – if Mata Nui – thinks a mistake was made in Vakama's destiny....

Well. That's somebody else's problem.

x

The Hordika that returns to Roodaka is different from the one she sent out. There's something new in his eyes... or perhaps something lost.

"How was the temple, Vakama?" she asks when it's just the two of them.

He looks to her. Beneath the anger, beneath the rahi, there's almost a haunted look to those eyes. It vanishes a moment later, but Roodaka never doubts her own eyes.

"Unwelcoming," he replies, and Roodaka smiles. She could have suggested Vakama pick the Rahaga off one by one in the chaos of Metru Nui, outside where her Visorak could have been an aid... but the temple had been too good an opportunity to miss.

"Good." She sets a hand on his shoulder. "You owe no loyalty to Mata Nui, Vakama. Not anymore."

He rolls his shoulder, but not sharp enough to dislodge Roodaka's hand.

"One thing I do not understand," she says. "What happened to the sixth Rahaga?"

The Toa growls. It is a gutteral sound, rooted deep in the chest and at home in a way it wasn't before. "You wanted a message left for the other Toa. I needed a messenger."

"Alive?"

Vakama shrugs his shoulder again, and this time she lets him roll her hand loose. "Does it matter, so long as they understand?" he growls.

No, Roodaka concedes as she surveys the remains of the Toa before her. She supposes not.

[danmeichael]

double complex's ending is the "bad ending" not because of the incest but because this guy fumbled a 24/7 d/s situation with a bad bitch.

[nekoprankster218]

me 20 pages from reaching the end of Point of Life: man we’re really running out of time to finish the remaining plot threads with the crew, and it’s been 100 pages since we’ve even seen Niko and we don’t even know what his secret is

me midway through the final chapter: uh oh. oh no. oh fuck-

me after the epilogue: goddamit Halo

[ardentpoop]

the angels (collectively, as a concept) were the worst thing to happen to supernatural's narrative btw im sorry if you cant see that bc you're attached to individual characters

[thewiglesswonder]

Transformers Animated is by no means a perfect franchise, and I know this full well. There are plenty of missed opportunities, inconsistences, dropped plotlines, questionable choices, et cetera, but all that I can overlook. Nothing that isn’t above the power of a good old fix-it fic. 

However, the one thing that I will never, ever forgive Animated for is the fact that apparently, in this universe, 454 standard Cybertronian units make one kilo-unit. What the fuck kind of math is that.