#outofgloom

[outofgloom]

"Lord Tuyet"

The Lord of Flame scoffed at first, but soon came to see her side--sooner than anticipated. Only a small sea’s worth was required to drown his volcanic halls and quell his arrogance...

She departed with pledges of fealty, as she'd been commanded, thankful to leave those dry lands.

She'd been efficient. The Great Being wouldn't expect her so soon. There was no need to rush. After all, hadn’t he mentioned other Element Lords...a Lord of Water?

That had a nice ring to it...

And it seemed she had time to kill.

[chancetimespace]

Kaita and Nui Variant Headcanons

To start with, thank you to @outofgloom for helping me with the terms for less than Kaita, greater than Kaita, and the same for Nui. Please check out their work with the Matoran language and their writing, and please credit them if you use the terms in any major writing project!

Please keep in mind, these are for my headcanon/au, they aren’t intended to perfectly match canon. I’m perfectly fine with anyone else using the terms, but I would like to be at least tagged in a comment if you write or make anything using the rule sets I’ve made here. I’d really love to see what others can do with these ideas, if anyone else wants to use them as well.

This post is VERY long, and death/possibility of dying is discussed quite a bit in the part about Nui Atu, as well as a little bit in the parts about Kaita Kofo and Nui Kofo . If someone is still curious about it, but doesn’t want to read the death parts, please send an ask and I will try to help you.

:readmore:

Kaita Kofo

This fusion of two beings can occur deliberately or has a 50/50 shot of happening if one member of a regular kaita is killed mid fusion process. The other result is that the fusion is just prevented. Kaita Kofo may also form if one of the three trying to form a Kaita just isn’t able to let go of themself enough to become one. They tend to be rather stable, but Kaita Kofo that were formed as a result of a dead Kaita member have a high risk of being permanently stuck together, because the splitting process may try to begin with the third member who isn’t actually there. Non-death related Kaita Kofo do not have this issue, but they may CHOOSE to be permanent.

Kaita Atu

Kaita Atu may form when another being near a forming Kaita also has the same goal and is willing to surrender themself to that cause. More powerful than a normal Kaita, but less stable as the fourth member was likely not expected and may not have been wanted as a part of the fusion. Elements do not matter for this fourth member, nor does species. If the fourth member matches the element affiliation of one of the intended three members, that element is given a further power boost beyond that of just having added another being’s power. Otherwise, the Kaita Atu gains a resistance to attacks of the fourth member’s element. For example, if a toa of Ice, a toa of Iron, and a toa of Plantlife were trying to form a Kaita while a being affiliated with fire was both close enough and had the same goal that those forming the Kaita did, the Kaita Atu will have a resistance to fire attacks, ranging from just taking half of the damage to near invulnerability. The level of resistance is based on both the fourth member’s dedication to their goal and their proficiency with their affiliated element.

Nui Kofo

This fusion of five is incredibly unstable and is the first to potentially be dangerous to fuse into. If anyone is injured before forming this fusion, there is a chance that those injuries will randomly be assigned to another member of the fusion upon separation. This is dangerous because Nui and Nui variant fusions are typically formed in extremely desperate situations, so there is a high likelihood of multiple members of the fusion having sustained potentially serious or life threatening injuries prior to actually fusing. Because of the random nature of the injury reassignment, it’s possible that every injury could be assigned to one person, potentially killing them if the injuries are severe enough.

Nui Atu

This fusion of seven is not limited by species or elemental affiliation and is only formed out of sheer desperation. Each member has a 50/50 chance of dying immediately once the fusion ends, and this fusion can only maintain itself long enough to achieve the goal it was created for at most, so becoming a permanent Nui Atu to prevent your own death isn’t an option. There is one way to lower the chance of immediate death, but it costs potential access to other elemental powers. If more than one member is of the same elemental affiliation, that element is only in the coin flip of whether they will live or die once, as opposed to once per person, and there is a second chance event if they lose. For example, if an element with two members is selected as one that will die, the second chance event is triggered, with the possibilities being evenly split between both members dying, one dying, and being fused into a Kaita Kofo upon separation from the Nui Atu. This Kaita Kofo is not permanent, in the sense that they are in fact able to separate, but there is a 75% chance one or both will die if they do. However, if they stay as a Kaita Kofo for a long period of time, this chance will eventually decrease to 25%. If all members of the Nui Atu are of the same elemental affiliation and that element loses the coin flip, they automatically split into a Kaita and two Kaita Kofo OR a Kaita and a Kaita Atu, for example. The chance of death will only apply to one of the resulting fusions, but it will be impossible to tell which one it applies to. Regardless of how many members of the Nui Atu are of the same element, the only possible results if they lose that first gamble are:

All members of that element affiliation dying

Only one dies, but the others are spared.

Separation into Kaita and/or Kaita variant fusions, with only one of the fusions having a chance of dying instantly if they choose to separate.

If the element with multiple members wins the first gamble, there’s a random chance (usually about 10%) that all injuries sustained by each member of the Nui Atu will be healed. This healing has a very small chance of even applying to members who lost the first gamble, thus functionally negating their loss. In those cases, the one who lost will die upon separation, but will be immediately revived. Regardless of how many (if any) members of a Nui Atu die, there will be trauma afflicted on the surviving members. Having that many minds fused together does no favors for anyone’s sanity, plus the situation that required the fusion was most likely horrific if they actually went through with fusing in the first place knowing all of the risks.

All of these variants are at least slightly less stable than the nearest fusion that is a multiple of three. They are frowned upon in some communities because they are considered violations of the system of three that is so common in the Matoran Universe. Having an ally nearby with a mask of possibilities or possessing one yourself is heavily advised if you think you may potentially end up in a situation requiring a Nui or Nui variant fusion.

[masterweaverx]

Vaita Ketotakha, or Destiny Reforged. Translations courtesy of OutOfGloom

The night that Earth Bet's fate was changed would not be marked by a sudden wave of Thinkers falling over, or a dramatic flash of light, or even the traumatic awakening of a brand new parahuman. No, the night when things were changed was marked only by an arrival; a strange, smooth canister falling through the sky, blinking lights the only feature on the outer surface. The few who noticed it entering the atmosphere dismissed it as a micrometeor, a simple rock from space, and the splash as it entered the ocean was witnessed only by fish and whales...

[squared-m]

INTRODUCING THE BIONICLE SQUAREDVERSE

The SquaredVerse is a quasi-AU set in the Bionicle universe that, frankly, I only made to make the universe more consistent, and less mind-bogglingly fuckhuge in scale, as well as giving concrete dates, and statistics. The SquaredVerse, for the most part, follows the Bionicle storyline beat-per-beat, with some somewhat minor changes to the lore and story.

MAJOR CHANGES

Reduced the size of the Great Spirit Robot to 2,250 kilometers/2,250,000 meters (or 1,398 miles/7,381,440 feet).

Reduced the timeline scale from 100,000 to around 2,000 years.

Added a calendar system with days and months (with some assistance by @outofgloom for the names of the days).

Added concrete ages to the Glatorian and Agori characters.

No more gendered elements.

Love is canon, but the oropi have no idea what love is, they just know they sometimes feel closer than usual to others. (eat my ass, Greg).

The Great Beings have both Skrall and Agori within their ranks now.

The official name for the Glatorian species is Beltori.

The races of the Matoran Universe will be using the names created by the lovely people at @redstarforge.

The average magnan lifespan is around 1,000 years

Clothing for matoran (stuff like hats, goggles, eyeglasses, cloaks, hoods, shawls, etc.)

Anyone who has a suggestion, don't be afraid to slip it into my DMs and we can discuss it! I plan on releasing an official timeline soon

[coldgoldlazarus]

So, for a while now, I've been kinda entertaining the idea of more-or-less wholesale porting the G2 Protectors into a G1 AU. (Or at least, a more G1-derived setting, depending on how loose I feel like I want to play with things at a given moment.)

Because one thing that struck me as genuinely interesting about G2's approach, was how the protectors simultaneously fulfilled a very similar and yet very distinct role from the Turaga.

Both are leaders of villages, with greater elemental power than the Matoran/villagers, yet considerably less than a full Toa. Yet while the general conception of the Turaga as old and decrepit is perhaps overstated in fanon, there is still a noticeable difference between their demeanor, build, and general presentation, than the way the Protectors came across in G2's smattering of story content.

Particularly notable is the attention drawn to this difference in one of the early animations, where Narmoto is initially presented as a hunchbacked, cloaked figure, only to fairly dramatically throw aside the cloak and reveal his barrel chest, shoulder-mounted minigun, and those flame whip/sword/things. Like, that felt intentional, to draw the parallel with the Turaga and then subvert it. In addition to that, there is the second Ryder Wyndham book, where the Protectors go on their own adventure in parallel to the Toa venturing through the city, which also paints them as acting in a more proactive manner. So despite the similarities, the Protectors fit a unique niche, coming across as more proactive and powerful in a direct sense, while perhaps lacking some of the same level of subtlety and wisdom as a Turaga.

---

So basically, my idea is to essentially slot them in as an additional, optional stage in the life cycle, an intermediary state between being a Matoran and being a Toa.

The benefit to this is having someone there who can partially fulfill both the duties associated with a Toa or Turaga as needed, but in a more flexible way, without the power investment of the former or the time investment of the latter. Again, they may not be as capable of the same kind of feats as a Toa, or have the same depth of wisdom as a Turaga, but they can still fill in the gaps as needed, and lead and defend their people in a way most Matoran would still struggle to. Depending on regional tradition and whether circumstances allow, it could also serve as a good way to gain experience on the way to becoming full Toa, rather than being thrust directly into the role and forced to sink or swim like the Toa Metru were.

---

Also, with @outofgloom 's input, I think I've finally settled on a name for them, since "Protector" obviously doesn't quite fit into the setting or language: Vaaki, as derived from Va-Aki; "Lesser Valor", befitting their intermediary status as lesser Toa.

(I was initially less inclined to go with that since it sounded too similar to Vahki, but in hindsight I like it for exactly that reason. Assuming Vaaki are like, not a common practice but at least a known-of one, then Nuparu naming his creations to sound similar, despite the different derivation, would be an intentional choice. A nod to the similarities between the role of a Vaaki and the original, perhaps overly optimistic, intention for the Vahki to serve... and extra bitter irony when the latter ultimately wound up being tools of oppression instead. So yeah, rather than detracting, the resemblance could add additional interesting context and history.)

---

The matter of how they are made, mechanically speaking, I'm a bit more uncertain of, but at least for now the idea is still continuing literally with that idea of them as essentially half-Toa. Basically, there would be some way to control the process of transformation from a Toa Stone, only partially releasing the stored power and conserving the rest, which in turn results in a partial transformation. One side-effect of this could be some odd body/limb proportions like Narmoto and Izotor in G2 had. And then later, if it is felt that a Toa is needed more, then the remainder of that power could be used to complete the transformation, and grant the full strength of form and elemental power.

In essence, this approach would be a way to utilize the Metru toa stones on Mata Nui, aside from summoning the Toa Mata; in my version of the island where there are multiple villages per Wahi, those toa stones would have been used to make some of the Matoran into Vaaki to run the additional settlements, alongside the Turaga Metru still leading the primary ones.

---

On the other hand, part of me prefers the idea of Vaaki as a full and distinct additional step, rather than just "half-baked" Toa. Particularly in a more loose take on things, such as my G3 concept from a few months back, where adding this additional stage of things is easier to smoothly incorporate, it feels like it makes more sense that way. The issue there being, if a Toa Stone is still how a Vaaki becomes a Toa, by what other means would a Matoran become a Vaaki in the first place? To that, I'm not yet sure.

[systemsearcher]

Random Bionicle coding project idea: a vocoder that takes plain text (perhaps tuned to accept @outofgloom 's Matoric alongside just English) and turns it into a selection of mechanical sounds akin to the ones used in MNOG and the original unreleased Bionicle game, each sound attached to a phoneme.

Several things I need to do before I take this on:

1. Actually fall asleep. I'm tired and this is keeping me up.

2. Figure out if Matoric has a table of phonemes I could use as a basis

3. Figure out what language to use. I know C# and Python decently well but I've never done soundwork in them beyond gluing a TTS library to my code. There's probably something for this somewhere.

4. Find enough mechanical and synthetic sounds to use as phonemes. Potentially either figure out how to tweak them in code or create a bunch of variants for say vowels in Audacity or something.

5. Again, sleep dammit.

[0m3g45n1p3r4lph4]

A1, A24, B18, C32 for the BIONICLE asks?

A1 - Favorite Character

This is the hardest question by far. Choosing within limited groups? Easy. But there's so many characters that I feel this answer changes around frequently. Maybe Takua? Perhaps Taipu? Or Krika? Who knows? I sure can't decide.

A24 - Favorite Piraka

This one's slightly biased by headcanon, but Avak. In canon, the Piraka barely have differing personalities beyond Zaktan, with everyone just always being aggressive and backstabbing, but I always liked to imagine Avak was kind of roped into things with the whole "Species Loyalty" mentioned in Legacy of Evil, and that if left to his own devices, he'd end up focusing on tinkering rather than enslaving Matoran. Maybe, in different circumstances, him and Nuparu could've been lab partners?

Of course, if we're exclusively focusing on canon details, I'd say Zaktan. Makuta may be menacing by virtue of being a dark god, but Zaktan is a mortal who has seen the end and survived through sheer hatred. Dude could stare down Irrnakk and that's commendable, he'd probably be outright immune to a Tuhrahk.

B18 - Favorite Comic

Thiss is a bit tough since I've only gotten into the comics recently. Overall though, the final 2001 comic (issue 3? I forget the name) where Gali has a vision of the Toa Kaita and the Toa learn to work together. It feels kinda rare - especially in '01 - to get Unity like that, and it's usually depicted as either "everyone hits at the same time" or like Fant4stic where they all try and the villains deflect everything, but once they say "together" the villain stops fighting back. Here, the Toa are constantly under attack, from Makuta's environmental control to his infected Rahi, and through the whole thing the Goa are genuinely supporting each other and using their unique abilities to catch each other's blind spots. 10/10 Mask of Light wishes it had this good fight choreography.

C32 - Favorite Fan Artist

This is unfair. So many different artists have their own styles and things I like about their art that I couldn't easily put one above the rest.

Does a conlang count as fanart? Cause if so then @/outofgloom definitely ends up high on the list. I gotta get back into those studies.

Tattorack (no tumblr account unless I'm misspelling, but has twitter) is also a fave. Their work on Project Inquilina (a Mirimax-esque modular animation kit for Matoran) is one of the closest things I've seen to the perfect ideal style, I'd highly recommend people check it out.

@/beesgav is also really high on the list. Incredible cute matoran. 11/10 such a charming style

[avita-tales]

Bionicle: The Thread of Death - Chapter 3

Thank you to @outofgloom​ for kanohi names! And thank you to @kanohivolitakk​ and @generalbioniclefriend​ for catching some errors and inconsistencies in the last couple of chapters!

AO3 Link if you prefer reading there. (Just replace the space before “org” with a “.”) https://archiveofourown org/works/39085365/chapters/98385003

Chapter 3: Face Off

Nidhiki started with just seeing how long he could endure the mask.

The answer was: not long. Within an hour of possessing the dead toa’s body, he’d had enough of the mask’s incessant command. Returning to the fikou’s quiet mind was a blessing, by comparison.

Then he tried tricking it. He endured brief moments in the toa’s body, simply trying to argue with the mask, telling it there were no more tsunamis or that it had already succeeded at its mission. However, the mask was not in a listening mood, and no amount of persuasion silenced it.

Next, he removed the mask from the toa’s body, collapsing it once more. He wondered what would happen if the mask were placed on a new body, and considering the fikou already had a powerless Pakari that could be removed, it seemed a fitting subject. The fikou was less than pleased with the plan however, and its mind tried to resist the attempt, though to no avail. Nidhiki understood why the next moment when he removed the mask and instantly weakness flooded through the fikou’s body. Masks, it seemed, played a similar role for rahi as they did for matoran.

Placing the dead toa’s mask on the fikou’s body proved little better. Strength returned to the spider’s body with the mask secured, but then began to drain a moment later as the mask began to siphon energy from it. For a toa, perhaps the drain would have been tolerable. For the fikou though, it was deadly, Nidhiki realized, and would likely kill it within a few minutes. He quickly removed the toa’s mask and returned the powerless Pakari to the fikou’s body, much to both their relief.

The temporary change of wearer did nothing to fix the problem, either. Once back on the dead toa, the body stood and resumed its vigil of the sea. Possessing it once more revealed to Nidhiki that the command was still as prevalent as ever.

“What is this going to take?!” Nidhiki thought, staring at the dead toa from a distance. “I’m so close! So close to having my own body! Why?!” He stared up at the sky. “Mata Nui, you’ve given me nothing but misery! For just this once, give me just this small, imperfect desire!”

The body collapsed.

Nidhiki’s thoughts stopped as he stared. The mask was still attached, so why then…

He approached and looked the body over. There was no sign of further harm, and the mask was still firmly on its face. What had changed, then?

“Wait… this mask was drawing energy from this body when we wore it,” Nidhiki thought. “Then… is it some kind of battery? Did it just run out?”

He possessed the body for just a moment, long enough to confirm that the command was gone but also that there was no energy for him to use. The body was fully dead now.

“Damn it! Damn this all!” Nidhiki howled mentally as he returned to the fikou. The mask was drained. The body was dead. The fikou didn’t have nearly enough energy to wear the mask for long, so he had no way to charge it.

Or did he?

A figure appeared approaching the toa. A matoran, bringing another offering.

Nidhiki stared for a moment as a plan began to form in his mind. The last plan. If it didn’t work, then he would have to give up on the body. But if it did…

He hid behind the crumbled corpse as the matoran spotted it and began to run forward. Barely had the matoran reached it that Nidhiki leapt from his hiding place and tackled the matoran’s head, grabbing his mask to wrest it off. The matoran fell over from the impact, and between losing his mask and the surprise of the situation, he was stunned long enough for Nidhiki to web his legs and arms into place.

The matoran cried for help, but he must have come alone because no one appeared. Nidhiki removed the toa’s mask from its corpse and carried it to the matoran. Seeming to realize what he was doing, the matoran tried to pull apart the webbing holding his limbs in place, to no avail.

Then Nidhiki forced the mask onto the matoran. He screamed as the mask began to draw energy from him, while Nidhiki stepped back to simply watch. “So what comes first?” he thought. “Will you escape, or will the mask drain you dry?” He looked at the hill above the beach. “Or will you be fortunate and have someone come to your rescue?”

As night fell, the matoran had not yet escaped his bonds, and Nidhiki could tell he was weakening, though he was not sure if it was from fatigue or from the mask.

By morning, the matoran still lived… if only barely. He still had a glow in his eyes and heartlight, but they had both faded significantly.

It would have to do, Nidhiki decided. He did not want the mask to take up a new command if the matoran died to its draining, and so he pulled it off. The matoran did not seem to notice, remaining still where he lay as Nidhiki dragged the mask back to the toa’s body.

Once it was back in place, the body showed no sign of life. Nidhiki hissed in frustration. Had it all been for naught? There was only way to be sure, and once more he possessed the toa’s corpse.

All was quiet. And as the toa’s lone eye opened, Nidhiki paused a moment in shock. The mask had energy, the body could move. Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet.

“It worked,” he said aloud. He raised a hand to his mouth as a tentative grin formed. “And I can speak.”

The body was less than perfect, he could tell. It was definitely slower than his own had been, between the limited access to energy he had from the mask and the decay of biological tissue. And reaching his hand out in an attempt to call on some sort of elemental power, air or psionic, produced no results. And of course, it only had one functional eye.

But it was his own. No shared mind, no mutated insectoid legs or pincer hands; it was a toa’s body, and even with the strangeness of being in a different one than he had been made with, the familiarity was wondrous.

Something tapped his foot and he looked down to see the fikou staring up at him. He smiled – he had facial expressions again! – and he knelt down to it. “St-” he began, but his mouth jammed up for a moment. He grabbed his jaw to readjust it. “Still here, little one?” he asked. He noticed his voice certainly was not his own, but it was too much like a hoarse whisper to have been the toa’s. He reached down to it and the fikou gently climbed up his arm. The touch of its many feet sent a shiver through him, but he suppressed it. “Alright, you can stick around. Wouldn’t hurt to have a friend.” He looked back at the unmoving matoran. “I’m probably not gonna be making many here.”

He walked back to the matoran and lifted him up. “They’ll fear me at first. But they’ll see…” he muttered. “They need a toa to defend them. To lead them.” He looked back behind him out to sea, in the direction of Metru Nui. “They’ll figure out I know what’s good for them.”

As Nidhiki made his way back to the seaport village, a glint of moonlight caught his eye from a nearby fencepost surrounding a farm. Pausing a moment to let the unresponsive matoran down, he went to investigate. He smiled when he saw the source. It was just a farmer’s tool, certainly not a toa weapon, but it would be good to have in his hands once more.

Without hesitation, Nidhiki grabbed the scythe before continuing on his way.

___ ___ ___

 “That’s an awful lot for a single assassination.”

“Well, we need the funds,” Hynzal replied with a shrug. “They were willing to pay.”

Lariska wanted to scowl, but she held back. The mission seemed an insult to her skills, but Hynzal, the accountant of the Dark Hunters, had a point: war was expensive.

The Dark Hunters were now five years into their war with the Brotherhood of Makuta. At the moment, it was quiet. With the Dark Hunters’ victory at and seizing of Kristyla, the Brotherhood had been pushed back for now. The Shadowed One surely had intentions to strike at another island before long, but until then it was a good time to do some normal jobs. At least that way, when the next series of battles began, they would not be wanting for resources.

Lariska nodded to Hynzal. “This is all of the details, then?”

“Everything the clients gave us,” he answered. “Honestly, with as strange as it is, the Shadowed One himself asked that you be the one to fulfill it. The possibility that it may be related to the Makuta can’t be ignored.”

Lariska looked over the tablets sent by the mission client once more. “I agree. But the island would be an unusual target for the Brotherhood. Its only value was as a trade hub between Metru Nui and the Northern Continent, but now that the city has fallen, it doesn’t even have that anymore.” She frowned, her tail flicking back and forth and her hand fingering the hilt of her dagger as she thought. “What they’re paying us must be almost all they have left.”

“All the more reason to find out the Brotherhood’s interest in it, if it is indeed them,” Hynzal said. “And if not-” he shrugged, “-then it’s an easy payday.”

“And a good practice dummy,” Lariska replied. “Ever since Vezok broke that Steltian, I’ve been getting bored with the inanimate targets.”

Hynzal smirked. “Well, then may you have fun with your assignment.”

___ ___ ___

 The boat rides were always the worst parts of a job. They were long and boring, and the boats themselves never had enough space for Lariska to go all out and practice upon. Even her personal schooner, The Reaper, despite having the most powerful motor she could find for its size, could not shorten the journeys enough to make them bearable.

Still, she did her best to stay occupied. Since she traveled light, she had been able to turn the hull from a storage into a small practice area that afforded her at least some space to move. As soon as she set sail from Odina, that was where she went.

“I wonder if I’ll be lucky enough to hit a storm,” Lariska thought as she tossed her daggers at the targets at the far end of the hull. The swaying of the ocean offered at least a small bit of motion for her practice target, and storms made that even better.

For hours, Lariska launched her daggers at her targets, again and again. And time after time, she struck where she aimed. The only break in the routine was when she went up to the deck to make sure she was still on course and not drifting too close to the walls of the seagate channels.

When Hio Tui finally came into sight, Lariska breathed easier. Landing would not come soon enough.

___ ___ ___

 She waited to dock until dusk, and she did so at the smallest port she knew of on the island. Some of the islanders knew she was coming, and by the sounds of it none would be opposed to her arrival, but habit dictated that she be seen by as few eyes as possible.

Lariska’s meeting with the client was a ways inland, so she decided some kind of steed would be best for making the journey as speedy as possible. The owner of the dock, a ce-matoran, pointed her to a small stable on the edge of the village.

“Just be careful, stranger,” she said as Lariska turned to leave.

“Of what?”

“The toa doesn’t like strangers hanging around. And last I heard, it was in Mahiki, the next village over.”

Lariska almost scoffed at the warning, but she kept her expression neutral. “You call your toa an ‘it?’”

The ce-matoran lowered her gaze. “Didn’t used to be. But… it’s not the toa we knew anymore. It’s… it’s become something else. Something evil.”

Lariska feigned ignorance with a perplexed stare. “You’re not talking about the dead toa rumors, are you? That’s just sailor gossip.”

The ce-matoran shook her head. “They’re not just rumors. Our toa died when the tsunamis hit, and for a while she just stood there. Never moved, never spoke… and then one day she… it did. It went to our turaga and…”

Lariska tilted her head. “Killed them?”

“Drained him,” the ce-matoran said. “We don’t really know what happened. But he was asleep for almost a year, like he was barely alive. And the toa took over. And every once in a while, it takes someone else and drains them, too.” She looked away. “And they don’t always wake up.” She fell silent.

Lariska waited a few moments before saying, “It got one of your friends.”

The matoran stiffened before nodding. “Last year.”

“Has anyone tried to put a stop to this dead toa?”

“They tried. It didn’t work. It’s already dead, so when they tried to ambush it, they thought they killed it… and then it got back up.”

“Interesting,” Lariska said. “Certainly sounds dangerous.”

“It is. So be careful, stranger.”

“Oh, I always am.”

From there, she visited the stables and rented a bipedal bird rahi, a moa. The rahi was fast, fortunately, and it was not long before she reached her destination.

As Lariska slowed at her approach, she looked at the ghost town before her. It had long since been abandoned, likely even before this issue with the dead toa surfaced. Judging by the buildings, it had likely been for some kind of mining operation. Now though, it was dead, and the buildings were well on their way to being reclaimed by nature. Portions of some buildings had collapsed, and others were sinking into sand dunes built up by the winds.

“What a fitting place for this mission,” she thought in amusement.

She tied her moa to one of the buildings and began listening. The client had directed her here, so she guessed they were likely hiding out to avoid the dead toa. If so, then based on the information from the ce-matoran, she wondered if they had been a part of the failed ambush.

The client must not have known she had arrived, for there was no indication of anyone waiting for her. It took a few minutes of searching, but finally she heard movement from one of the buildings.

Lariska stalked in the direction of the noise and peered into where it had come from. There, she saw seven individuals, five matoran and two vortixx.

“I’m sure it’s looking for us,” one of the matoran said. “If it really is in Mahiki…”

“It’s too close, yeah,” said another.

“We should leave in the morning.”

“Not until the hunter gets here.”

One of the vortixx, the blue one of the pair, snarled. “That was your idea, Vezda. You can wait for them.”

“And the turaga approved it! So do you got a better idea, then?!” Vezda, a ta-matoran wearing a kakama, snapped.

“If we can’t kill it, we throw it in a pit and forget about it.”

At that, Lariska laughed, and the group fell silent, all turning to look in her direction with terror on their faces and masks. Lariska stood to her full height as she walked in. “If it’s bad enough you need me to deal with it for you, that will get you killed just as quickly,” she said.

The group shared uncertain looks with one another before Vezda stepped forward. “Are you the Dark Hunter?” he asked.

“I am,” Lariska said. She looked over the group. “This toa has you all quite terrified, doesn’t it.”

“It’s killed almost all of us,” the blue vortixx said. “We’re all that’s left.”

“And how many was your group?”

“Thirty matoran and vortixx from across the island,” Vezda said. “Our first attack against it, it killed twelve of us in less than a minute.”

Lariska looked over the seven remaining members of the resistance, taking note of their weapons and supplies stashed at the back of the room. Some of them had some skill in combat, judging by their postures and the condition of some of their weapons, but most were likely just merchants and traders who had taken up arms out of frustration and without much planning. Twelve of their number would not be difficult to kill in less than a minute for someone like her, or any of the Dark Hunters for that matter. But that her target could do the same indicated it would give her some challenge in a head-to-head fight.

On the one hand, that might be fun. On the other, the job came first. If after scouting out the dead toa, she determined stealth was the better option, then fun or not she would do so.

“Alright, then start talking,” Lariska said. She looked around at the seven survivors. “All of you. I want to know everything about this dead toa.”

___ ___ ___

 Nidhiki stood at the edge of the town of Mahiki, looking out to the horizon. Somewhere out there was his prey, a ragtag band of shortsighted savages. He knew they had come this way, the residents had confirmed it. They had been reluctant to speak with him, but it hadn’t taken much convincing. A little comment about needing to recharge, and they had been willing to speak right away.

“What ungrateful fools!” he thought. “The whole universe is falling apart. They’d be begging for scraps and struggling to get even that if it wasn’t for me. I keep them safe, I keep them fed and out of poverty, and yet they treat me like a stone rat.”

The years since the quakes and the tsunamis had not been kind to Hio Tui. Without Metru Nui, there were would have been little trade to sustain the island in the first place. But now, on top of it all, war had broken out between the Dark Hunters and the Makuta, and as a result everywhere was closing themselves off from the rest. Either they restricted trade to those on the same side of the war as themselves, or they shut everyone out altogether to avoid getting caught up in the skirmishes. Perhaps two other islands at most, which of course were on the far side of the southern continent, had continued to trade with Hio Tui. But between how far away they were and what little there was to go around, it was not exactly enough to make economies boom.

But Hio Tui had its own resources. If Nidhiki hadn’t stepped in when the turaga fell ill and gotten the islanders to start using what was available to them, they would be far worse off now.

“But no, they’re more upset that I accidentally caused their turaga’s illness. They’re too shortsighted to think about that I stepped up to fix that mistake. Too scared of what they don’t understand.” He breathed a hot breath of frustration. “Oh, but they can think through how to ambush and try to kill me. They have no problem doing that.”

A chirping sound at his feet made him look down. There, looking up at him, was the fikou spider. It must have sensed his anger, as it seemed concerned. Nidhiki smiled at it. “It’ll be fine, Taktak,” he said. “Once I take care of these pests, everything will calm down.”

He knelt down and extended his hand to Taktak, who climbed up and perched on his shoulder. The feel of the fikou’s clawed feet was still enough to make him shudder in revolt, but the rahi had more than proved its worth. He was not about to just discard it because of icky feelings. Without it, he would not have survived this long, even once he had taken the dead toa’s body. Whenever he needed to recharge, it was easy enough to subdue a matoran or vortixx, but then he had no way of placing the mask on them. Their minds were simply too much to try and overshadow. But with Taktak to possess instead, he could do just that.

For all that, he could overlook the inherent creepiness of the rahi, as well as that it had turned the home he had taken into a mess of webs and small husks of dead rahi. Aesthetics aside, at least it made the place safer.

And now Taktak had gone a step further to win his favor. Even now, he felt the fikou prodding at the shattered hole in his back which it had webbed shut, checking to make sure it was sealed tight so none of Nidhiki’s essence leaked out.

That particular wound was what he had earned for getting too complacent. With as well as he had done keeping the island safe, he had begun to think everyone was falling into line. He had therefore been unaware of the small resistance forming against him until they ambushed him, driving a pickaxe into his torso from behind.

“They wouldn’t have even gotten that far if not for this damn eye,” he thought, raising a hand to his missing eye. “I’m just lucky my new condition means this mask keeps me going.”

His assailants had thought him finished. That was their mistake, and after the initial extermination he had spent the last week hunting them down one by one. Now, he felt he was closing in on the last of them. Soon, the danger would be gone, and he could return to taking care of the island as a toa was supposed to do.

With the veil of night to cover him, Nidhiki traveled into the wilds. The residents of Mahiki had said there was an abandoned mining town the insurgents may have gone to, so that seemed the best place to check. Fools that they were, they had probably holed up there thinking its lack of notoriety kept them safe. If so, this would all be over soon.

Well after midnight, he reached the ghost town. At first glance, all was still; there were no lights, and as he approached he heard no noise either. But if they had even a hint of intelligence, they would have someone on watch, and so as he neared it he began to lower himself and move with more care.

He stopped a short ways from the first building to pick up Taktak from his shoulder. “Wait here,” he muttered before darting forward into the darkness.

It reminded him of missions he had shared with Lariska. For as fond as she was of a good fight, where she had truly excelled and where she was most deadly was the shadows. He recalled all too clearly still their first meeting, when she had backed him into a corner and held his life in her hands because of just how adept she was as a dark assassin. With every mission he had joined her on, he had gotten to see firsthand just how close he had come to a quick, effortless death.

With these insurgents though, he had no intention of giving them that. He would just drain them dry and let them feel their lifeforce sapping away hour after agonizing hour. But first he had to find them.

The moon was only half full that night and so its light was not much, but it was still enough that Nidhiki kept out of its glare, fleeting from shadow to shadow between each building as he searched them. It was almost fun, really; he hadn’t gotten to sneak around like this since he followed Lhikan into the maskmaker’s forge, when he had finally captured him and-

No, he was not going to think about that. He was not going to think about Lhikan. Not right now, and maybe not ever.

Lariska almost didn’t notice the new arrival. Had she not noticed the slightest of movements out of the corner of her eye, she may have missed the dead toa altogether. Her eyes darted in the direction of the movement, the rest of her body remaining perfectly still so that she would not reveal her own location. At first it seemed there really was nothing. But she was patient, and she was certain the dead toa was coming. Based on what the clients had told her, it really was hunting them down as they suspected, but unlike them she doubted hiding in the ghost town would save them. If she had just seen what she thought she had, that she was quite right.

Finally, her suspicions were confirmed as a glint of moonlight caught the edge of armor at the edge of the building’s shadow. The dead toa had gotten far before she noticed it, and once more she felt wary. Any other target, and she would have noticed them before they even reached the edge of the town. Maybe if they were acting cautious, they would have at least reached the first building at best. But this dead toa had gotten more than halfway from the edge of the town to the building where she had found her clients. If she hadn’t convinced them to take shelter in the nearby hills, they would be in much more danger than she would have liked.

But, ifs aside, she had spotted her target. It was fast, and particularly skilled at sticking to the shadows. It was quiet as well, and even with her attuned senses it was difficult to keep track of. Difficult, but not impossible; now that she had a lock on her target, it was not going to escape her.

Nidhiki moved from building to building, checking each one for his prey, unaware of the eyes on him or the new shadow moving between rooftops behind him. Finally, he found what he was looking for, a building near the center of the town that had very recently been occupied. Scuffs in the ground marked footsteps and sitting places, and some trash had even been discarded from one of the insurgent’s meals. He was on the right track then, and judging by how fresh the marks looked, they were not far at all. There were enough of them too that, if they moved together as a group, they would have left a trail in the ground that would be easy to follow.

Lariska watched the dead toa enter the building she had found the clients in. When it did not immediately come out, she knew it must have found something that indicated their recent habitation. “So it’s got a good eye, then,” she thought. “It makes a good hunter. Most likely not a makuta, but formidable nonetheless.” She unsheathed her daggers. “It might have made a good recruit. Too bad I have to kill it.”

Nidhiki smirked as he stood and turned to leave the building. He didn’t need to be stealthy anymore now that he knew his targets had fled. There was nothing they could do to avoid him now, either. He had their trail, and soon he would have their lives.

He stepped out into the moonlight and kneeled down to look at the footsteps. Sure enough, the number of matoran and vortixx had left a noticeable series of marks in the ground. “They may as well have left me a trail of crumbs to follow,” he said. He stood up and began to follow.

Lariska tossed her dagger.

Pain exploded in Nidhiki’s head as it entered in through the back, cutting through his skull and projecting out the other side so far it almost dislodged his mask. On first instinct, he began to grasp up at it before he focused himself. Unlimbering his scythe from his back, he spun about to face his opponent. And then he froze.

“So that really isn’t enough to kill you, then,” Lariska said as she landed on the ground ahead of him. She raised her remaining dagger. “Let’s see just what it takes.”

“Lariska!” Nidhiki wanted to shout, but he couldn’t. Her dagger had gone straight through his voicebox. He raised his hand to stop her, but she paid him no heed. To her, no doubt he looked like just another victim begging for her to stop.

She charged him, and even with the gap between them Nidhiki barely had enough time to parry her first strike. Immediately, he could tell he was at a disadvantage against her. Even if he was blocking her strikes, she gave him no chances to retaliate. And that had always been how it’d been with her, hadn’t it. In training, she never let up, treating a sparring session as seriously as she did a mission. He’d always been glad to be on her side, because as he was having confirmed now, he really did not want her as an enemy.

Lariska was impressed by how well the dead toa blocked her attacks. With every opening she saw to strike at, the dead toa reacted blindingly fast to stop her. Even with the bulky scythe that was obviously not meant for combat and must have just been stolen off of someone’s farm, it was keeping her at bay.

She lashed her tail around to take the toa’s feet out from under it, a move that opponents never seemed to expect. Yet the toa not only leapt to avoid it, it did so in a manner that took it out of range of the dagger strike she followed such a move up with. Almost as if it had been expecting it.

“You must have just enough psionic element to read thoughts. Not enough to attack me with, but that explains how you seem to know my moves so well,” Lariska thought. “Let’s see how you handle this, then.” Rather than continue her assault, she backed up into the nearest shadow.

As Nidhiki came out of his evasion of Lariska’s tailsweep, he froze as he realized she was gone. He felt a chill run through him, and his eyes darted to every shadow. Now that he had lost sight of her, Lariska could strike him from anywhere. As was her MO, she was likely seeking out a vantage point so that she could get him from behind. He turned his eyes to the rooftops, moving away from any shadows as he did so to keep as much distance from wherever she might be lurking.

He had to stop this fight somehow. He needed to tell her who he was. With the insurgents, he’d had no fear they could do more than maim him. With Lariska, however, he had no doubt that she could figure out a way to kill him. And in terms of skill, he had no hope of beating her.

Nidhiki dug his scythe into the ground and spun it in a circle. He mentally cursed at himself; this plan was awful and it would take too long, but it was all he had. Putting a cross through the circle, he had an N, and then he started on the next circle.

Lariska watched in amusement as the toa began to write. It must have concluded it couldn’t beat her, so now it was resorting to bargaining. But in doing so, it had left itself wide open and defenseless, not even bothering to try and locate her. Or maybe it was a ruse; if it was working with limited psionic powers, then it might not be able to read her without seeing her. That would explain how she had gotten the first dagger throw in so easily. Perhaps it was trying to look vulnerable to lure her out. Clever, but not enough.

She threw her second knife. As with the first, the toa seemed to have no idea it was coming, and it met its mark in the toa’s right hip. Immediately, the toa’s right leg fell limp as the blade severed its circuits and nerves, causing the toa to collapse. It tried to get up onto its left leg, but by then Lariska darted from her hiding place and tackled it. She grabbed the hilt of the dagger embedded in the back of its head, and with all of her might pulled up and to the side, cutting the rest of the way through the toa’s skull, and in doing so removing the mask.

The body fell limp.

Lariska panted as she remained over her kill, watching for any signs of movement. Was that it, then? What had she done to kill it, if the first strike hadn’t done so?

She looked at the mask on the ground. It had fallen face down, so she turned it over, and suddenly it all made sense. It was a Kanohi Ikaukhu, the mask of undeath. Certainly, something more was at play here – no mask of undeath could put up a fight like this one just had – but it meant her foe was no more. Without the mask to power the body, it was just another corpse.

Lariska stood up. “Well that was fun,” she said. She looked down at the ground to look at what the toa had been trying to write. Some of it had been scuffed by her tackling it, but she doubted she would have been able to glean anything from it even if it hadn’t. The toa had only gotten four letters in before she attacked, though the third was no longer legible.

N-I-?-H.

As Lariska looked at his attempts to write, Nidhiki took the moment to leave the body. He wanted to scream, but without a body he couldn’t even do that. In the dark, he looked like nothing more than a cloud of dust kicked up by the breeze, and so Lariska never noticed.

What did he do now? Once he possessed the fikou, where could he go? He was back to having no body of his own. And he didn’t dare try to spell out the rest of his name with the fikou; if Lariska caught sight of him, she could end it all in an instant.

Lariska picked up the mask and looked it over before looking back at the body. “Looks almost like you were trying to spell a name,” she said. “Trying to bargain with information, then?” She put her weight on the corpse and placed the mask back on. “Alright then, talk.”

But there was no life left. The body remained still, and no amount of coercion – verbal or physical – changed that. “Alright, then, keep your secrets,” Lariska said as she removed the mask once more. “If you have any to tell, Armorer should be able to pull it out.”

___ ___ ___

 As the light of dawn began to illuminate Hio Tui, Lariska loaded the corpse, mask, and the generously-sized crate of payment onto her ship. It was time to leave the decrepit island.

Nidhiki watched from afar as she disembarked. A hollow, aimless rage stewed within him, but it had nowhere to go. He couldn’t be mad at Lariska; she didn’t know. He couldn’t be mad at himself; he couldn’t follow her back to Odina. He could only be mad at destiny, and what did that give him to yell at? The sky? Mata Nui himself? As if he cared.

Sure, he could be mad at the islanders. After everything he had given them and lead them through, they had betrayed him. He need only look at the massive payment Lariska had been given to see it went deeper than just a few disgruntled insects.

“Fine. They can rot, for all I care. Let them face this hostile world on their own. And when they beg destiny to take back what it did to me, may it be as uncaring to their pleas as it is to mine.”

___ ___ ___

“Lariska!”

She turned at Armorer’s voice and then went to retrieve her daggers from the target dummies. “What did you find?” she asked.

“The mask is nothing special,” Armorer said. The fe-matoran waved his hand in dismissal. “It’s a little hypertuned to charge itself faster than normal, but otherwise there’s nothing special about it.”

“A hypertuned mask doesn’t do what I saw that corpse do,” Lariska said.

“Well, that brings me to the next thing. The body was contaminated with antidermis.”

Lariska pulled her head back. “Then it was a makuta?”

“Well, that’s what it seems like,” Armorer said. “But I read your report. If it was a makuta, it did not have access to the usual powers in their arsenal. I think it’s something else.”

“Like what?”

Armorer shook his head. “I can only speculate, and without more information it’d be useless speculation. An experiment with the mask, maybe? It’s a troublesome mask to craft, but not impossible. If all it takes to make it into a formidable foot soldier is a little hypertuning and some antidermis, then maybe they’re looking into ways to make something other than rahkshi that they can just throw at us.”

Lariska turned back to her targets. “Except a foot soldier doesn’t take over an entire island.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t add up.” She bent her knees and leapt in a high, backwards flip, and at the apex of her jump she threw both daggers at her target, burying one in the chest and the other in the neck. When she landed, she nodded to Armorer. “I’m sure the Shadowed One will be interested in your findings.”

He took that as his cue to leave, and Lariska resumed her practice. As she retrieved her daggers, she could not help but think. No, Armorer’s speculation did not make sense. But neither did it make any sense that the makuta were involved at all, either. The Brotherhood had plenty of ways to take over an island that were far faster and more efficient than whatever had been happening on Hio Tui.

A failed experiment gone rogue, then? It was not out of the question; the Dark Hunters had more than one member that met that description. It certainly had combat skill to keep up with her. The way it wielded that scythe was impressive. Almost as good as Nidhiki had been.

As Lariska grabbed to pull her dagger from the practice dummy, she froze. Nidhiki. N-I-something-H. A scythe. The way it had almost seemed to know her moves. Could it…

She shook her head and ripped the blade out of the dummy. “No,” she said. “He’s dead.” She walked back to her starting position. “He would have come back. He hasn’t. So it wasn’t him.”

But she had damaged his- its voice. It had started to spell something that might be his name. It-

Lariska shook her head sharply. No, she had to put the thoughts aside. Nidhiki was gone. After five years, she needed to accept that. He was not coming back. Her friend was gone.

Her next blade throw embedded itself in the wall beside the dummy’s head.

[rahisaurus]

Welcome back to 2014. This is a re-recording of Avonai Kui'o - the Matoric translation of Cryoshell's Creeping in my Soul, by @outofgloom.

[deepsearahi]

Time Adventure/Vahi Voya

So I haven’t been able to get this blog off the ground as quickly as I intended. Shortly after I created it, I ended up going through a very stressful move that has left my Lego collection packed in boxes for the past year and into the foreseeable future. In the mean time I’ve been focusing on writing material for my AU and messing around with @outofgloom​‘s Matoran conlang. 

Below the cut is my translation of the first verse and chorus of “Time Adventure” by Rebecca Sugar, from the series finale of Adventure Time. It’s probably not 100% grammatically correct, but I had fun doing it nonetheless!

Time is an illusion that helps things make sense

Vahi mahiki ki hi akhuyapa

So we are always living in the present tense

O avamu boyapa i-vapa-a

It seems unforgiving when a good thing ends

Akai sare-pa kimi hi laho fayapa

But you and I will always be back then

Fa ou no o avamu vyako

You and I will always be back then

Ou no o avamu vyako

Singing “will happen, happening, happened,

“Huyako, huyapa, huyanu,

Will happen, happening, happened,”

Huyako, huyapa, huyanu,”

And we’ll happen again and again

No o huyako-anga no anga

‘Cause you and I will always be back then

Ta ou no o avamu vyako

You and I will always be back then

Ou no o avamu vyako

Like I said, it probably has a lot of problems, but I’m satisfied with my work nonetheless. Here’s to dead franchises! I’m not sobbing you are

[outofgloom]

“Perfection”

[ Version without text ]

[lukassprehn]

Missing Outofgloom

I miss seeing @outofgloom post. I hope he comes back one day :) I think many people do.

[masterweaverx]

Bionicle Elemental System

There are six core elements in this version of Bionicle Lore, and blending two Core elements will create a Blended element. Blending an element with its opposite will create a Legendary Force; Fire and Water make Time, Earth and Air make Life, Light and Shadow make Creation. These are oft aligned with Unity, Duty, and Destiny, the three virtues, though which force aligns with which virtue is a matter of serious debate in philosophical circles.

Fire is the Core Element of Energy, a source of fuel for one’s self and for the world.

Fire and Stone’s blended element is Iron.

Fire and Air’s blended element is Lightning.

Fire and Light’s blended element is Plasma.

Fire and Shadow’s blended element is Instinct.

Stone is the Core Element of Stability, providing a firm base for the physical world to be built from.

Stone and Fire’s blended element is Iron.

Stone and Water’s blended element is Ice.

Stone and Light’s blended element is The Green.

Stone and Shadow’s blended element is The Earth.

Water is the Core Element of Change, transitioning things to the form they need to become.

Water and Stone’s blended element is Ice.

Water and Air’s blended element is Magnetism.

Water and Light’s blended element is Psionics.

Water and Shadow’s blended element is Decay.

Air is the Core Element of Motion, moving things around to wherever it is they need to be.

Air and Fire’s blended element is Lightning.

Air and Water’s blended element is Magnetism.

Air and Light’s blended element is Sonics.

Air and Shadow’s blended element is Gravity.

Light is the Core Element of Revelation, providing direction to one’s self and clarifying one’s role in the world.

Light and Fire’s blended element is Plasma.

Light and Stone’s blended element is The Green.

Light and Water’s blended elment is Psionics.

Light and Air’s blended element is Sonics.

Shadow is the Core Element of Unraveling, breaking apart the world so that it can be reforged anew.

Shadow and Fire’s blended element is Instinct.

Shadow and Stone’s blended element is Earth.

Shadow and Water’s blended element is Decay.

Shadow and Air’s blended element is Gravity.

Rings of Elements:

A common organization for the elements in Matoran philosophy is the “Three Rings,” each centered around a single Legendary Force and with six elements set around them. These rings supposedly determine the sort of society a group of Matoran will form; Formative tribes interact often and create trade goods, Cyclical tribes are nomadic and form small tight-knit groups that wander where they are needed, and Anima tribes will integrate into and tend to larger tribes. This is mostly cultural stereotyping, left over from the different elemental tribes serving different roles in Mata Nui’s body.

The formative elements are those which are often used in the shaping of the world. Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Stone, and Ice. They are that which can be made and remade into many things. Some people consider them to be the primary elements of Matoran-kind, and it is true that Toa of those elements have had more historical impact than the others. Still, to say they're the only elements is a limited perspective. The Formative Elements fall under the Domain of Creation.

Each formative element has a matching Cyclical element, something that simply is in the world. Plasma, Lightning, Gravity, Magnetism, Iron, and Sonics. Cyclical elements are generally, they are modulated through their formative element. Plasma through Fire, Magnetism through Water... but they can exist without those guiding essentials. Of course, Elemental power is different from simply using an element. Many creatures can use lightning, but that does not mean they have Elemental Lightning within them, just that they can generate electricity. The Cyclical Elements are under the Domain of Time.

Then there are the six anima elements. The Green, Psionics, Light, Decay, Instinct, and Shadow. Of course, they can exist independently, every plant is made of the Green and little else, but when all are bound in a single form... that, that is what we call a soul. Toa of the Green and Psionics are generally those who tend to others, they are the menders of the world. Toa of Light are rare, and there are no Matoran tribes of Decay, Instinct, or Shadow. The Anima Elements fall under the Domain of Life.

Formative: Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Stone, Ice. Ruled by Creation.

Foundational: Plasma, Lightning, Gravity, Magnetism, Iron, Sonics. Ruled by Time. 

Anima: Instinct, Light, Decay, Psionics, The Green, Shadow. Ruled by Life.

[manebioniclegali]

where are all my asks, tumblr

i’m only seeing like twenty

where’s the rest of the messages

where

[matoranhoroscope]

In order to practice @outofgloom ‘s Matoric language, I have started putting together a Journal in the form of my Matoran stand in character Jasui as he and his friends travel south during the early years of the Matoran Universe.

[0m3g45n1p3r4lph4]

Catch me staying up way later than I should writing down study notes from @outofgloom‘s Introduction to Matoric