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randomwriteronline · 2 months ago

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@lee-the-yeen hello. for your big brain. i offer you. A gifte :)

(this is part of the Kingdom AU, idk if u know it, but in short a bunch of stuff happens and so theyre eels who live in a fountain named after them in this one. matoran of iron go feed them sometimes. dw it will make sense eventually, possibly. also im including some hcs from ur post bc theyre baller)

"There's a nook at the other end of the fountain, you know," Kotu mentioned nonchalantly as she haphazardly launched jerky strips all over the water.

Vezok didn't make much out of it, as he was busy zooming back and forth with his mouth open trying to get as much food in it as possible, because he had been tricked into being left hungry and angry enough times for him to be very much done with it; Hakann and Thok, instead, quirked their brows at that with cautious, gluttonous interest.

"Is that so?" the Ice Skakdi mused.

"Not that you should go there," the Ga-Matoran continued.

"And why not?"

"Well, I bet there's nothing for you."

"Bah!" Hakann cried out with a snap of his jaws: "And I bet you've got something hidden in that cranny!"

Kotu snickered at him: "How'd you suppose I'd do that?" she asked in an almost mocking tone, "It's not like you wouldn't have know if I'd ever set foot in these Piraka-infested waters before."

"But you could've when it was being built!"

"Why haven't you jumped in yet, by the by?" Thok added, mellifluous voice oozing out of his smirk; he began swimming back and forth just under where she sat with fluid motions, doing a real bad job at looking menacing. "Aren't we friends? Come on, get in for a swim with your old pals, little Matoran, and we can help you get back what you've stashed away in that nook, what do you say?"

She smiled with mischievous intent and a high pitched hum: "Oh, I've got to wait a moment or so first."

"Scared of a little water?"

"No, just wanna check how quick the poison works."

Vezok swallowed his enormous mouthful of jerky as loudly and grottesquely as possible before spitting a spray of water at her: "That's Kane-Ra waste," he decreted, "That slobber tasted great!"

"Aw, thank you! I put a lot of effort on masking the toxin's flavor!"

"Good thing you ate all of it, Vezok," Hakann played along with her: "It was getting a bit crammed in here."

His former backstabbing associate whipped around to bite his chin right off, and in a moment they were both speeding after one another across the fountain as thought it had turned into a pinball machine and they were trying for a new high score, with fitting background music so kindly provided by Thok's deafening laugh and Kotu's snorting giggles.

"Aren't they cute?" she cackled to the silent ex-Piraka beneath her.

Zaktan remained very serious as he slowly turned a side-eyed glare onto her Rau: "You're setting us up."

The Matoran widened her eyes and gasped dramatically with her hands flying on her heartlight: "Me?" she exclaimed, as false as a Vortixx's praise. "Set you up to some prank for my own amusement? Whatever are you saying! I would never do such a thing!"

His jaws lunged lazily out the water to bite at her, missing entirely; Kotu skipped away with a little yelp, not scared in the slightest, and left the Skakdi to their inevitable in-fighting.

In the meantime, Vezok had managed to bite down on one of Hakann's spikes and was being violently yanked around by the red armored Piraka while he screamed his entire head off - which considering they were little more than heads by now meant he was attempting the rather incredible feat of beheading himself without having a body - and Thok convulsed his spine into knots coughing laughs through his clogged gills.

This sort of happenstance really did make him miss the pleasant days of trying to kill each other at every opportunity.

"Quiet!" Zaktan barked at last before their idiocy could kill him with a fulminous aneurysm. The other three Skakdi stumbled, rolled, and hushed at last. "That infernal little thing wants to trick us! She's got something in store for us, something I don't like. I'll bet that nook doesn't even exist."

Hakann scoffed: "Of course I don't trust her! What sort of idiot to you take me for?"

"I've known you too long for my answer to be courteous."

"But she could've told a half truth," Vezok butted in. "And I've seen that cranny she mentioned."

"Did you see it, or only think you saw it?" Thok questioned wisely.

"I said I saw it!" his companion snapped: "It's half covered in rocks and it's barely anything interesting!"

"That sounds like it could be any scrape on the side of the fountain!"

"It's no scrape, it's an opening! It's the one she meant!"

"Let's see this, then," Zaktan conceded, "Just to check if the little Water maiden's words had some inkling of truth to them."

So, still trading doubtful looks, the four toothy beings swam quickly, following their blue armored associate's lead.

The Piraka fountain (so graciously named after them after they'd been confined in it, as they couldn't very well be left to prowl the shores and have free reign on the toes of anybody that dared dip their feet in the water) wasn't as small as it looked like: those Onu-Matoran architects were quite skilled at building things that were much bigger than they appeared - likely on account of their experience living underground in tunnels that would have otherwise been downright suffocating.

It took as such quite a while for the mutated Skakdi to find the specific spot Vezok had mentioned. They were rather pleased to find that their search hand't been in vain: lo and behold, in a corner of the structure there opened some kind of hole half buried behind a hastily put together barricare of small rocks, looking not shallow at all.

The Water Skakdi grinned victoriously: "See! Beings of little faith!"

"Incredible," Thok noted - unsure whether to attribute the word to the fact that Kotu hadn't lied, or that Vezok had indeed connected the dots correctly for once.

Zaktan slithered closer to the opening.

"So?" Hakann egged him on. "Get in! See what's in there!"

The glare the green armored being shot him was accompanied by the Ice Skakdi's complaint: "And why don't you go in, huh? Scared to get your tail chomped?"

"What about you, then!" the other immediately bit back: "If you're so brave, go ahead!"

"Of course I won't, I'm not built for recognition! We should send in Reidak for this - nothing can kill that brute, anyways."

"And where is he?" Vezok asked.

"What sort of question is that!"

Then Thok hushed.

"I have no idea." he admitted finally.

Hakann howled a guffaw: "Great job on the detective skills! You wouldn't notice a Manas crab if it was charging at you!"

"Oh, shut your trap! Where's Avak, then, huh? Do you know that?"

"Of course I do!" and after a quick turning of his head left and right, the red Skakdi tried to save his hide by declaring, with the arrogance of someone trying to cover a mistake: "Not here, clearly!"

"Ah, well, aren't you observant!"

"Get off my back, he's a different deal! We could lose him in a shallow pool with how tiny he is!"

"Quit your yapping," Zaktan hissed suddenly. "I hear something."

The other three swarmed him immediately.

There was indeed a sound coming from within the nook. It was cavernous, and intermittent, with a rumbling cadence typical of something very large and (for now) relaxed. Perhaps it had heard their bickering and was warning them? No, that seemed unlikely; but at the same time, they couldn't quite rule out that possibility.

This sounded like something to be handled by someone near indestructible... Or with the right cage always at the ready.

Where were those two idiots when you needed them?

Vezok, with his animalistic strength and dim wits, was the best next thing, the other three reasoned. But before they could order him around he had already shoved them further into the nook, blocking off the exit with his big dumb head.

"Safety in numbers," he growled; caught between two beasts as they were, his associates decided it would be wiser not to argue.

It wasn't a long trip, but it certainly felt like it.

The little entrance opened into a short tunnel heading for another somewhat wider opening; now added to the grumbling groans growing louder with every inch they swam forward was another sound, a little softer but equally as insistent, warped by the water as well, probably belonging to a second unseen creature.

This kind of news tends not to be very warmly welcomed when one is scouting uncharted caverns. And yet, though they were certainly not happy to hear it, they couldn't shake off a strange feeling of familiarity about it.

There was just something about it - and the rumbling too, it reminded them of something, but where could they have heard anything like that? It seemed so natural, like, like...

They made themselves as flat as they could against the ground and walls, and peeked through the opening at last.

The scene was... Well.

To anybody else, it would have been rather puzzling.

Reidak was growling up a storm, lips pulled around his impressive chompers in a large square frame, otherwise almost immoble aside from a few quick jolts every now and them; swimming around him in short bursts, Avak busied himself biting everywhere across his spine, gnawing at his angular spikes and chin like a properly furious eel desperate to tear the skin off its prey.

Any other being would have rightfully assumed they were having some kind of silent argument, or maybe some specific fighting ritual not particularly well known outside of Zakaz, and concluded that losing a limb to part them was not worth the risk; being the former Piraka properly brought up Skakdi, however, they were intimately aware of what was indeed going on, and to say they were embarrassed beyond bewilderment would have been an understatement. To put things into perspective, they would have gladly gone back into the Shadowed One's employ if that could have somehow immediately teleported them away from the scene they were bearing witness to.

It distinctly didn't help that right as they thought that Reidak reared his big ugly head to lazily chomp on Avak's cheek, eliciting a similarly loud and fond growl from the smaller being.

Between their difference in height and the Stone Skakdi's vague thagomizer, they looked like some weird parody of a typical pair coming from some upside down version of Zakaz where the females were tinier and males much larger.

They were necking.

And Great Spirit knew how little their associates wanted to see that.

The four unfortunate Skakdi tried to slink away, to leave that little disgusting lovenest and forget all about this experience; alas they all had the same idea at the same time, which resulted in them smacking their tough skulls right against one another, producing a terrifying rockus akin to a dozen pots and pans carelessly being launched onto a tinfoil roof.

Certainly, in another situation, this woul have led to some kind of infinite argument with plenty of physical retaliation.

In this situation, however, they instead became very aware of the fact that the two gross sweethearts had immediately hushed and were peering directly into their souls with the sort of gazes that would make a Takea shark feel deeply unsafe.

Hakann suddenly felt a great void around himself.

He glanced at his sides: the other three Piraka had mysteriously vanished while he'd been petrified.

Sons of a--

Next thing he knew he had been chased out of the nook with Avak clamped around his head in an attempt to crush his skull between his teeth while prattling in a shrill muffled voice (mouth still full of Fire Skakdi) something about not having a moment of privacy in this blasted fountain.

He would have certainly ended up exploding like a watermelon between a pair of muscular enough thighs if Reidak hadn't swam up to his beartrap-mouthed partner and knocked Hakann out of his invincible bite. Granted, the impact had enough force to smack him right into the fountain floor where he formed a small crater, but he'd take a mild concussion over being turned into the two halves of a delicious freshly split open coconut.

His vision swam for a few moments as he tried to get his bearings again. By the time sight came back to him, two pairs of glowering eyes were squashing him against the ground.

"Liked what you saw?" Reidak growled - no longer in the amorous tone he'd reserved for the Stone Skakdi's affection.

"No," Hakann peeped: "Not at all."

"Then you'll keep your ugly mug out of our business, now?" Avak hissed, so cose he could almost still feel his teeth clenched around his temples.

The red armored being nodded hastily.

"All four of you?"

He nodded even harder.

A second later he was flung away, almost directly out of the water, and the other two Skakdi watched him hurry as far away from their nook as his fishy body would allow him to swim.

The Earth Skakdi huffed, piqued: "The nerve of some beings..."

"I bet it was Kotu," the other snarled as he paced back and forth. "That nosy little thing - I saw her, you know! I bet she told them there was some treasure or other... Ah, next time I catch her--!"

"You should put her in an airtight ball," his partner suggested: "So we can knock her in the fountain and toss her between ourselves."

The thought tore a hysterical cackle out of Avak as he contorted in time with his own guffaws, spirits definitely lifted: "Ha! Ha, now that's an idea! Wouldn't that be a sight! That little prankster wailing and crying, smacking her mask all over the prison while we throw her about... Oh, that'd be payback, alright!"

Reidak chuckled hard while curling around him; the smaller being's thin spine fit perfectly within black spikes shaped like square brackets, letting the two snuggle like a pair of vicious water snakes locked in a fight to the death.

A quick chomp around his third eye-like lump on his forehead brought the larger of the two back from his nuzzling haze.

His grin turned sharp, his eyes squinting at Avak in an awfully dangerous manner: "Ah?" he only drawled, letting his cavernous voice ripple through the water.

The Stone Skakdi bristled - exactly like he used to bristle back before their mutation whenever Reidak would come just a little too close to him, shaking his spine hard and subtly swinging his thagomizer to convince the other he was a enough of a threat to be left well alone, or else; but this felt a little more performative, like some kind of invitation instead of a 'keep out' sign, especially with that nervous smirk accompanying the motion, and his tardiness in trying to escape, only making a move when his tail was already mellowly held between his Earth companion's big jaws.

"You think you're smart, uh?" Reidak chuckled.

"Smarter than your ugly mug, for certain!" Avak bit back, and gnawed at his forehead again.

He laughed as his tail was yanked with a muffled: "Why, I oughta--!"

"You oughta what? Teach me a lesson?"

"Are you mocking me, you Fikou?"

"So what if I was?"

"Oh, that's it then," and as they wrestled playfully, biting each other silly between gross ugly chuckles, they began yanking one another back into their not too secret little nook. "Let's settle this like proper Skakdi, eh?..."

#bionicle #avak #reidak #hakann #thok #zaktan #vezok #kotu #random writing #the kingdom au #i didnt like the piraka while reading bc their constant backstabbing grew old and repetitive p fast but writing them was so fun actually #theyre like old ladies bickering bc they have nothing else to do #hope u like itttt aaaaa #ill be puttin it on ao3 too

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outofgloom · 2 years ago

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Recently learned that the Piraka apparently had preliminary names (Zaktan was "Noxis", Vezok was "Grraka", Avak was "Mekrani", Thok was "Wracko", Reidak was "Trakka", Hakann was "Brutaka") and now I'm wondering what the five new names would mean in your Matoran or Skakdi languages

These prototype names have been known to me for a long time, yes, and, believe it or not, in my work on the 3rd Edition of the Matoran Dictionary, I have taken some steps to incorporate them into the etymological origins of the official names of the Piraka, as a little easter egg.

To tease this a bit, here is the story for the origins of the name of the Skakdi Zaktan:

Zaktan has possibly the most interesting history of the Piraka. He is a Skakdi who, as far as anyone ever knew, possessed no additional auxiliary power/ability like his other Skakdi brethren, aside from his laser-vision. He was also discovered by The Shadowed One while he was a slave in a Protodermis mine. By those measures, he seems to have had a rather unfortunate life, and I imagine may have been somewhat of a misfit amongst the other hyper-powered Skakdi on Zakaz, looked down upon for his perceived “weakness” and maybe even exiled from Zakaz at some point.

My conception of his name-origins reflects this:

Zaktan’s original name (upon creation) would have been something like Zakta or Zaksa, derived from the Skakdi word zaktaa, zaksaa “cunning, strategic, manipulative”, which traces back to Early Skakdi zaksas. This word zaksas is not native to the Skakdi Language, but entered the language via borrowing from other languages of the Mata System in a very early period–in fact, the period of the Barraki (80-95k years before present).

At the time of its borrowed, the term zaksas was an adaptation of the form of some other word to the sound system of the Skakdi Language. It represents an original form zoksis or noxis (!), which is found in various dialects of Matoric in the northern and eastern regions of the MU. This term ultimately originates as a clipping of a form takadoxis or takanoxis “of (the) Cunning One” or “of (the) Manipulator”, formed from the name of the Barraki Takadox (known historically as a cunning and manipulative leader) combined with an archaic affix -is “of, related to”, not found in Matoric but readily used in non-Matoric languages like Vortixxaric. Thus, Zaktan’s (Zakta’s) original name evoked the cunning of an ancient Barraki.

However, when he became exiled and enslaved, he lost this name and was given another--a common practice amongst enslavers in the Mata System, used to try to erase the identity of the enslaved. I have chosen to locate the Protodermis mines in which Zaktan was imprisoned as somewhere in the northern central regions of the Mata System.

In this area, a variant of Matoric is spoken called Central North Insular Matoric (also spoken as a trade-language on the island of Stelt), and in this variety there is a word zaktan, which is cognate with (i.e. from the same etymological source as) and roughly of the same meaning as the North Matoric word daita(n) “small creature”, which is Anglicized as -dite in the word Protodite (“first/primeval small creature”).

His captors renamed him Zaktan “small one”, intending to make him small, insignificant, powerless, never realizing how prescient the name would turn out to be…

#bionicle #matoran language #conlanging #matoric #matoran dictionary #3e #third edition #etymology #headcanons #dialects #linguistic varieties #zaktan #piraka #names #asks #autobotua

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