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catsafari25 · 5 months

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A/N: Hello! This is my first foray into bionicle fic, where I wanted to explore a possible line of reasoning that Roodaka might have used to turn Vakama against the Rahaga specifically... and then this became a Roodaka-POV fic because villainous POVs are so muxh fun to write (plus it makes it distinct from the book version).

Please forgive any glaring inaccuracies; until a week ago, I'd only ever seen the films and am still familiarising myself with the lore/other content!

Roodaka almost doesn't recognise the creature her Visorak bring to her.

Almost.

There is more the monster than the Matoran, more the Rahi than the Toa, about the once-warrior now, and the two sides war in odd ways across the ensuing form. The limbs are elongated, but erratically; one side might almost be called Toa-like if one was feeling generous, while the other ends in a wicked-looking blazer claw. The mask bears the least resemblance to its former shape, a mockery of the Great Kanohi it had once been.

"Alone, you say?" she asks the Visorak.

It bows its head in the best approximation its spidery form can muster, and chitters in its gnashing tongue a tale of a single Toa Hordika wandering far from its pack. Then, after a dubious pause, it asks if it should send word to the King.

"No."

More chittering, nervous now.

Roodaka snaps her head away from the unconscious Toa. "Do you doubt me?" she hisses.

The Visorak shakes, as if knowing all too well that any alternative answer will lead to a rapid drop in its quality of life, followed by the abrupt cessation of it. It instinctively lowers itself to the ground, reassuring her it knows exactly how far down it hangs in the pecking order.

Roodaka is mollified enough to let the infraction pass. "Why bring Sidorak back for one captured Toa when he is still in pursuit of the other five?" she croons. Fear works wonders, but a pinch of reason never does any harm. "Better to let him focus on the task at hand, and have this as a pleasant surprise upon his return."

The Visorak doesn't respond immediately. Then, in as careful tones as its speech will allow, asks what is to be done with the Toa.

What to be done, indeed?

A more cautious Vortixx than she might harvest the elemental power now – one fewer strand in her web to tie up later – but, then again... he is only one Toa, and she needs all six for her scheme to succeed.

"Keep him somewhere he won't cause trouble," she orders. And then, "No cocoons. I want him to be able to wake eventually."

After all, live bait is always a better lure.

The Toa returns to consciousness the same way he left it: alone.

So much for their precious unity, Roodaka scorns. The reports from the Visorak tell of the other Toa moving across Ga-Metru, with apparently no looking back for their missing companion. Is it confidence in his capabilities that leaves them unaffected, or something more... fractured?

Either way, she is left with a Toa on her hands, alive and kicking and doing precious little to serve as the bait he should have been.

That's fine. She can work with this.

Awake, the Toa's reaction to the Hordika venom is ever more marked; his movements are capricious, tarnished with that feral fear of a caged Rahi, and there is little left of the tactician leader the Toa had once been.

So she leaves him to it. Sidorak is not due back yet – not unless he captures the other Toa, and the whispers that reach Roodaka tell of a merry chase – so she has time. Let the Toa wallow in his fear and his desperation for a little while longer. Let him descend further into his rage.

She can wait.

It is only once the howls begin that Roodaka makes her approach.

She has heard the like before, when an ash bear had fallen into a freshly-made crevice, courtesy of the quakes, and broken a limb. It had howled all through the night, calling for its kin and only summoning the Visorak instead.

The howls hadn't lasted long after that.

The howls of the Toa are similarly primal, gutteral with a wordless rage that sends him reeling in its wake. Only when she hears his horrified, "What is happening to me?" that she realises she is surprised to hear speech still remains. If the venom keeps up its course, it may not be long before even that is gone.

An idea takes root, insidious and brutal if she can pull it off. After all even a beast, if it retains some semblence of language, can be reasoned with.

Or manipulated.

He was found alone, her Visorak had told her. And alone he still was. A strange state of affairs for a Toa... but perhaps not so much for a Hordika.

"You are becoming," she rattles.

The Toa scoffs, ire curdling the sound. "Yeah, but what?"

She steps into the light. The Toa keeps his gaze averted as she nears, evidence enough that the Hordika in him knows not to challenge with a stare. She crouches before him, one claw catching the base of his mask and tilting his eyes to meet hers. The eyes, she sees, still carry a Toa spark. The rest is Hordika. "A friend," she offers.

He snarls and tears his gaze away.

"Or a foe," she adds. She rises back to her full height. "That's for you to decide, and why I invited you here."

"Some invitation."

She surveys her captive. Hordika venom is such a messy process, Roodaka can't help but judge. It lacks the finesse, the cruel creativity of her own power, changing at random what would be better done with intent.

Still, she cannot fault its effectiveness. It might be a sledgehammer to her chisel, but in a matter of days it has reduced the Toa responsible for trapping the Makuta into something belonging to a Matoran's nightmare.

"Then perhaps this one will be more to your liking," she says. "I have a... proposal for you."

"And if I don't want to hear it?"

Roodaka smiles, and approaches the Toa once more. From this proximity, she can appreciate the subtler touches of the Hordika venom – the joints that fit at odd angles, the crude connection between the Rhotuka spinner and armour – and as she brings his gaze to meet hers once more, she sees rust-flecked spots across his mask. A side effect of the mask losing its powers? Or a consequence alone of the Hordika venom?

"Be reasonable, Vakama," she croons.

"How do you know my name?"

Her hand dips from the mask and lingers before his heartlight. It's green, she notes; a far cry from the burnished red that had once matched his eyes. A sign, perhaps, that her plan has merit. After all, if the venom has already taken root there, it's only a matter of time before it spreads further.

"I know a great deal about you," she says, and cleaves a claw through the webbing that binds him. "What harm could come from listening?"

And when she tips his gaze again, he does not look away.

While fools might prattle on about the power of love or loyalty as a driving force, Roodaka knows power itself is the strongest motivator of all. And so she speaks to the fragmented Toa of strength and fear and authority; things she knows the once-leader has fought with himself. As a show of her own confidence, she allows him to trail behind, and only once does she hear the whirr of his spinner warming up.

("I wouldn't do that, if I were you, Vakama," she had warned without even glancing to him.)

("Then perhaps you should know better than to turn your back on someone," he had replied. "What's to stop me blasting you off the face of Metru Nui?")

(She had gestured almost lazily to the Visorak guard trailing them. "You can try, if you so wish. But how far do you think you'll get before you're trapped in another web?" She had waited for this thought to sink in before adding, "Who knows what another round of Hordika venom would do the second time? That is, assuming you ever wake.")

The Rhotuka spinner quietened after that, and Roodaka hasn't heard it since. Just enough sense left in him, then, to listen to reason. And listen he does, albeit not without complaint.

She wasn't lying when she said she knew about him – from the whispers of Makuta, from the reports of the Visorak, she knows enough to know where the Toa's insecurities lie. She brings him to a balcony that overlooks his old home.

Ta-Metru still glows with the light of fires and molten protodermis, but rather than forges and foundries hard at work, it is the result of cracked furnaces and flooded lava that raises such smoke. Still, there is enough to leave the Toa scrambling to the edge to catch just a glimpse of his metru.

In better times, it would have been his to protect, the same way the Toa of Fire before had, but now it is only a place to be fled. So she offers him the chance to change that, talks of leading the Visorak to rule rather than ruin.

And when she orders her own guard plummeting over the edge and they follow – not because they trust her, not because they think she has a plan, but purely because not following is a worse fate than an almost-certain death – she knows she has his attention. "Obediance," she proclaims. "This is but the first of many lessons I can teach you."

The Toa hesitates. But not as much as he ought to. "And this is something your king would allow?"

"There is a way," she purrs. "Six ways."

She senses something shift then, the balance of the conversation tipping in her favour as a wall, somewhere, comes tumbling down.

And when Vakama looks to her, it isn't the gaze of a Toa, but of a Hordika.

"I'm listening."

"Good." Roodaka starts towards the main body of the tower, and only hears the slightest falter before Vakama follows after her. His shambling gait is still the noisy thing it was before, but now there is a pattern to it. A natural rhythm.

"If you wish to gain Sidorak's trust, you must prove yourself," she says. "The Rahaga have been a thorn in Sidorak's side for too long; deliver them, and he will surely see your worth."

The Toa stills. "The... Rahaga?" There is hesitation in his voice, as if even he is surprised that his response is not the outright refusal it once would have been. "What have they done?"

"They are meddlesome creatures, as I'm sure you've discovered, too fond of interfering where they don't belong."

"Like saving your captives from certain death?" he asks.

Roodaka smiles, and ignores the bite in the question. "Do you think they rescued you for anything but their own purposes?" she returns. "Or are you blind enough to think it was purely an act of selfless generosity?"

A growl rises through the Toa, and she hears him continue behind her. "What are you saying?"

"Only that if they were rescuing you solely from an untainted sense of duty, then where are they now?" Roodaka glances back and reads the defensive hitch of the Toa's shoulders. "Where are any of your friends, Vakama?"

"Like I would tell you–"

"You don't need to. I know where they are. The question is: Do you?"

Vakama doesn't meet her gaze. "If you're thinking that I'm expecting any sort of great rescue–"

"I never said anything of the sort," Roodaka croons. She doesn't need to. By the sound of things, his mind is already doing it for her, wondering when the other Toa will realise he's not coming back. Wondering if they will even care. "Only, how sure are you that they will follow their duty without you to guide them?"

"Toa are bound to their duty," Vakama begins.

"Of course. As they are to their unity." Roodaka gives this a moment to sink in to the lone Hordika Toa. "And their destiny."

The once-Toa of Fire has no reply to that, and that is all Roodaka needs to know the truth of their origins have come to light. She steps out onto a neighbouring balcony, but Vakama lingers in the archway.

She motions to him. "Come along."

He begrudgingly does so, and his gaze finds little of interest in the waterway metru below. "Why have you brought me here?"

"Because this is where your friends are."

Vakama takes a second look at Ga-Metru, overrun with webs but presumably still recognisable from its better days. His head tilts, his eyes narrow. "Ga-Metru? Why...?"

"My Visorak say the Rahaga are leading them to the Great Temple," Roodaka relays, and this indeed is true enough. "They say the Rahaga are seeking an ancient Rahi, the next steps of which they hope to find within the temple."

"Keetongu," Vakama mutters.

"Yes."

Vakama wars with this knowledge, the conflict clear in his silence and his mask. Then, in a halting, hating tone, "The Matoran–"

"Are not the Rahaga's priority," Roodaka finishes. "Don't you see that, now? Why else would they turn the other Toa away from their duty the moment you weren't there to remind them? All they want is to chase after a Rahi myth, and with the help of Toa, they finally have the strength to do so." She sets a clawed hand upon his shoulder, anchoring him. "The Rahaga are not all they appear, Vakama."

A scoff rises through the Toa. "They are old and weak."

"They were not always so," she says. "Once, they were Toa like you, until their meddling left them as the malformed creatures they are now. That is why they truly seek Keetongu; they believe he has the power to undo their change."

It is a half truth, but one supported by enough that the Toa has no reason to doubt her. He has no way to know Roodaka's powers were the catalyst of the Rahaga's transformation, nor that nothing – no mythical Rahi, no Kanohi power – can unravel their altered forms.

Her hand tightens. "Or perhaps you've already begun to suspect the truth?"

A tremor in his breathing betrays that questions of the Rahagas' origins have crossed his mind before, but only now is he realising the possible ramifications of it. "They want to find Keetongu for themselves," he snarls.

"And they need the support of the other Toa to do it," Roodaka says. "Now do you understand? They are not your allies, Vakama; they are parasites. And you know what should be done with parasites."

"Yes," he growls. "I do."

#bionicle #lego bionicle #cat writes #also written in present tense because i find that easier for some reason w/ emotions #this was mostly fuelled by 'what if roodaka revealled part of the rahaga's origins and convinced vakama they were using the toa?'#thus making his first step down this path one that isn't inherently lashing out at his team #but will make returning to the light that much more difficult #also discovering that roodaka's power is mutation really put fuel on the fire for this #i love the idea of her seeing the toa hordika not just as mutated toa #but as a variation on her abilities #part of her dissecting the changes and judging them #i also like writing scheming characters who have a pov with an aggressively agendaed take #anyway idk if ill post this elsewhere #i also want to explore the idea that roodaka sent vakama to the great temple for not just kidnapping the rahaga #but also to drive another wedge between him and his destiny #since entering the great temple will feel Wrong to him #and if nokama hasnt shared her experience then he might just take it personally #okay enough rambling in the tags #if you got this far: congrats!#feel free to shout at me about bionicle

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gloomforrestrunes · 2 months

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I am so curious, was Kenta the first person Aiden has ever physically hurt in that way? or has he done something like this before?

If you cant answer thats completely understandable, I am just pondering because his reaction to trying to explain is so interesting. Because not even he seems to know why tf he did what he did and his current freakout seems genuine to Some extent, like this is the first person he did this to OR the first person he didnt have an actual justification for in his head, it was just out of pure illogical emotion he threw into this child and his brain is trying to find a way to justify it to himself.

however his reaction to Laxo calling out his bullshit just being Oh and the way he looks at his paw in the most recent page like he did in the first scene we saw him in the comic, and just in general how nonchalant he was before Laxos questioning also makes me think its not his first time at all.

I dont have an actual conclussion for this, Im just putting my thoughts so far into words here haha. The fact that Laxo has had to deal with this man for so long is terrifying.

i will go ahead and confirm that kenta is the first person aiden has physically harmed in that way! he's caused some physical damage to others in the past, but not with the same intention.

his seemingly conflicting behavior is done on purpose and it makes me happy that it was picked up on! he's meant to have an air of capriciousness to him, especially in situations like this.

i cant go into Too Much detail, but a lot of his behavior and how he carries himself outwardly depends on how in-control of a situation he is in. for a lot of his life he felt like he wasn't in control, which harkens back to the catalyst that causes his estrangement with his parents in the first place. he hates feeling helpless and weak and unable to change anything, and he hates being viewed that way even more. for that reason, its very important to him that he portrays himself as someone who is completely Logical and Level-Headed at All Times, someone who knows exactly what he's doing and is, well, in-control of himself and his situation. in reality, he's a complete and utter mess that becomes so consumed in his helplessness that he will desperately do anything to make him feel in control again. or, at least in control of something in some moment. and in the aftermath, he is incapable of examining the source of it happening and would much rather rationalize, rationalize, rationalize. anything to stop feeling guilty.

he lies so quickly and easily because he believes he's in control of the situation, he truly thinks he's able to sweep this under the rug and bury it like everything else thats been caused by his misery and rage. but once he feels that control start to slip, thats when he starts to writhe and panic and break. and that ever-constant desperation to cling onto some version of control begins to boil.

#ask #crystalcanis #hi noa :)#nex blackwood #analysis #i love asks that let me pick apart my characters behavior. big fan of dissecting this dude's awful little brain

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camgirlkaminari · 1 year

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several thoughts about the new years 2023 sketch that i CANNOT stop having:

he's getting hornier. he's been getting hornier on main the closer we get to the end of the series. everyone scroll his twitter back to 2021 and you will see there is an abrupt spike in horny art around august of that year. horny on main about literally all his own ocs and unapologetic about it

horikoshi has DEFINITELY been looking at all the bunnyboi deku fanart over the last 8 years

the previous two points lead me to conclude that the fandom has been picking up what he's putting down this whole time. shameless deku supremacy bunnyboi deku supremacy etc etc

also thinking maybe deku's steel toed thigh highs were an aesthetic choice and not entirely necessary for support reasons. thotty deku supremacy etc

hori really fleshes out his characters with these sketches it seems very clear to me that ochaco was bribed with free food for this event & kirishima didn't have to be bribed with ANYTHING he's just happy to be here, very on brand

thanks bud i WASNT thinking about their balls but NOW i am

that being said: release the balls cut horikoshi. i KNOW you have a secret balls-in drawing. im a 'do-it-for-the-bit' artist, i know theres a secret bit art folder i just KNOW it

and you KNOW he also did a bunnyboi katsuki sketch. hes a freaque he simply would not let that go undrawn

do you guys think katsuki feels left out. do you think he's mad he missed the memo. where are his eyes pointed, mirko? or ochaco? is he jealous. does he have fomo

katsuki adhd king

it is SO funny of hori to make mirko have to wear clothes while the rest of them wear her costume. so cruel. so inhumane. get dressed idiot

shouto said 👁️👄👁️ as usual absolute comedy king

#i NEED everyone to understand that aince day one deku has never had a single body negative thought in his LIFE #its so apparent to me that this weirdo either has incredibly high self esteem OR he simply cannot perceive his own body as a tangible thing #im just saying. very few of my friends would have been ao unconcerned about bein shirtless in front of their peers and yet #this little guy has been running around half naked since the third episode #but NOT in a kirishima or bakugou way #in a 'ive never thought about my appearance beyond being a plain looking guy in my LIFE' kind of way #hes not showing off his gains hes just. not self conscious #fascinating character absolute chad of an mc #which begs the question: why does he wear the arm brace. is it solely for joint support?#because he doesnt seem to worry abt his other scars. so is he just being medically cautious????????#obsessed with him i want to dissect him like a bug #also re:hori getting hornier. he really is equal opportunity horny. like YEAH the girls are being objectified.#but look what he did to kamui woods from day one. he didnt have to define all might's dick so thoroughly and yet #and now hes baby girlifying his amab mc you LOVE to see it #anyway #evil words #horikoshi sketches #bnha

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