#outofgloom

[outofgloom]

REPLACEMENT

The itch had begun an hour ago, somewhere down at the base of her skull. She'd thought nothing of it at first. She was deep in meditative thought, doing what she loved best: postulating graph nodes and arcs, verifying loops and connection-points and—

It wouldn't go away. She tried to maintain focus, but it was no use. At last she stirred, rolled her shoulders and clacked her jaws in discomfort.

The noise awakened two of her brethren who sat in alcoves nearby. Their eyes glowed in the dark of the deep cave, annoyed at the disruption of their own meditations. She bared teeth, and they left her alone. She wished that she could dismiss the itch just as easily.

To her left, down below her own alcove, another of her brethren appeared in a puff of closing vacuum and stepped out onto the vast Amaja which dominated the center of the cave. The flat area was intricately carved with cartographic notations: the accumulated efforts of many thousands of journeys through the pathways of warped space which made up the universe.

She watched as her brother stooped far below to scratch a tiny addition to one of the many offshoots of offshoots of paths that made up the Great Map. Her eyes widened, and a sharp anticipation filled her: Her duty and the duty of all her people, was to maintain this map and to refine it, to keep the fixed points true, and to keep the Void at bay. It had been so long since the last Addition. She would have to study this new feature, trace its contours, commit it to memory, and then—

No, not right now. Right now...the itch! It was a mounting pressure, pushing everything else aside. She slumped against the stone and writhed, trying to shift her body, trying to get away, but she couldn't. Her jaw clenched tight, and she raised clawed hands to her head....

Something changed. She sat bolt upright, and the feelers on her head twitched back and forth. Her jaws click-clacked involuntarily, and the two pairs of eyes glared at her again, but she paid them no heed. A door opened in the back of her mind somewhere, and she was hearing something...seeing...knowing something. It was a path, down by the south margin of the larger whorl of the Map. Had it always been there? She'd never noticed....

Abruptly, her mind was there, though her body was not: Her awareness traced the pathways and alighted upon a desolate island, flanked by crashing waves and jagged rocks. This was new to her...she had never fully projected before—that was an ability reserved only for the elders, wasn't it?

The landscape impressed itself upon her awareness—dull rocks and clinging, silver lichen—and somehow, it was all familiar. How could that be, when she'd never traveled there before? Or maybe...maybe she had forgotten? Impossible.

The itching sensation consumed her again, and her mind was pulled further: Now a decrepit fortress rose in her vision. Once more she found that she knew the path, all the way in, through the walls, into stone.

A blue-armored figure tapped its foot in a gray chamber. Its eyes turned round the room, turned, turned...then fixed on her.

Those eyes were familiar too.

Another rush of closing vacuum, and her body vanished from the alcove in the far away cave. The network of the Great Map opened, and she skipped from junction to junction along the clusters of warp-veins and capillaries. Down a side-path, she felt her awareness fixate for a moment on a small islet, where a crushed corpse lay under the daystars, and she understood....

By the time she appeared before the ancient blue-armored Toa, more memories had solidified. Memories of training, of testing...but were they her memories? They seemed real, but how could she know?

"Botar," the Toa said, frowning a little. "Took you three seconds longer than usual."

"The...the Botar is dead," she replied, her tone flat. The words simply came out of her, like a pre-recorded message.

The Toa's eyes widened imperceptibly. A moment passed.

"Well," the Toa said, "it's not the first time. Do you know me?"

Memories of training, of testing....

"Yes. You are...Toa Helryx."

"Just Helryx. I am no Toa. Do you know yourself?"

"I do."

"And who are you?"

A crushed corpse, under the daystars....

"I am...the Botar."

"And the Botar serves the Great Spirit."

"The Botar serves..." she trailed off.

"...Yes?"

To maintain the map...to keep the fixed points true...to keep the Void at bay.

"The Botar serves the Great Spirit," she said, and again the words seemed like they'd already been said for her. "The Great Spirit has called, and I have come."

"Affirmative," Helryx replied, smiling a little. "Hopefully you weren't in the middle of anything."

Postulating graph nodes and arcs...verifying loops and connection-points....

"No...nothing."

"Good. Then let's get back to work."

[bionic-baby]

I want to listen to Ide’s journey so bad, but the whole story is over 3 hours long and I’m on a tight schedule. I wish it had a wiki page, so I could know the story without having to listen to the whole album.

(By the way: @outofgloom worked on it, check it out!)

[matoranhoroscope]

I’m back.

To do list:

-Finish the “Element Relationships” posts

-Write my thoughts on the Rare Element Tribes

-Bother @outofgloom about “Ja”

-Maintain some kind of personally sustainable connection with the online Bionicle community

[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

[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.

[dedicatedfollower467]

Just remembered that you like conlangs so I figure I'd point you towards the bionicle conlang dictionary by user outofgloom. Have fun.

👀👀👀

[rahisaurus]

not really sure why this blew up again suddenly

here's the font file if anyone wants it!

I lost track of who came up with this (it wasn't me). Might have been @outofgloom and @kanohi-hau-doesfuryevenseethese ?

bionicle names look ridiculously cool in matoran shorthand

[0m3g45n1p3r4lph4]

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

[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]

SPIRIT OF FLAME, HEAR ME

Staggered in under the black stone, sick from the teleport. He’d barely made it. Could feel how close it had been, as the power ebbed. He fell to his knees, succumbing to the shivering exhaustion that spread through his core and into his limbs. 

Once, he had been strong. He remembered how the villagers of Ta-Koro had first looked at him from behind their thin spears: fear and hope mixed. They were frail, weakened by the darkness, but still they had raised open hands toward him.

“Mata Nui has answered,” they’d said in hushed tones. Then, beseeching: “O Spirit of Flame, hear us!”

The Armor had abandoned him. Angonce had warned...“Contingency against contingency” or something equally as cryptic. Not only that: The Armor had taken its power with it, emptied him of all the strange abilities it had granted. Teleportation was all he’d been able to manage. One last escape, and no more.

All that was left now was his own elemental power, but even that.... The Hunter’s black ceramic lances throbbed where they protruded from his back, draining his energies. Dark and smooth and alien. He couldn’t get them out. He’d have to try again....

Jaw clenched, he crawled forward a pace, felt cool air on his brow, and remembered that he was maskless. That’d have to be first. He reached out with his mind. It was hard, much too hard...but then he felt his old Hau respond. It came to him from however far away and covered his face with its familiar shape, filled him with its familiar energy.

Better. He breathed and pushed back against the pain in his body. Now he raised a hand in front of his face. Focused again. It was still hard, but not like before. Come on!

Radiance. A small tongue of fire sprang to life above his palm. It grew. Yes, it was alive. He was alive. For now.

“Listen to me!” he’d yelled, trying to make himself heard as the Hunter smashed blunt arms against his shield. He’d used the Armor to exert telekinetic control then, arresting his foe’s upper limbs. The great eye fixed on him with an expression of...Amusement? Insult?

“Your creators don’t want this!” he’d gasped, breathless from his wounds. “And neither do mine. We must stop. They don’t want this destruction.”

The Hunter had no real mouth, but words came from somewhere, a metallic clamor issuing from the gaps in its carapace.

“THEY DO.”

He’d felt it then. An unlatching, a withdrawal. The air shimmered as his telekinesis failed. The Armor twisted him, wrenched itself from his body and limbs and face, and flung him away. Teleportation saved him from the impact, but not much else, and then...

The tiny flame danced before his eyes. Alive.

They have answered you. They have shown you what they want.

Pain swelled in his body, and his hand began to shake. His arm sagged, and his breath came in gasps. He was weak, weakened by the darkness, and there was no one here to help.

He struggled to raise his hand a little higher, felt the warmth on his mask.

“Spirit of Flame...hear me,” he whispered.

Then he collapsed forward, and was still.

The flame wavered in the air. Trembled.

But it did not go out.

[tenosit]

Rust Bees are, well, bees that cause bio-metal rust (sounds nasty). Up until this point, they only appeared in The Battle for Mata Nui, the 2002 quasi-RTS thing that works a little like janky Age of Mythology with weird, seemingly-prototypical models rendered into sprites, as an AoE power.

(its not on screen but its in the power options)

Yesterday, with unveiling of partial design bible for Bohrok Swarm, we know that the whole affair with fighting off Bohrok would've been a much larger part of the storyline. And, naturally, rust bees are utilized by the Le-Koroans.

Perhaps, someone will be able to create a plausible model for the rust bee out of the 15x15 pixel depictions of them. And, if I may dare, I wish I could ask @outofgloom on what an "in-universe" name for this critter could be?

On this day, the fifteenth of September, two thousand and twenty four, let it be recorded for all time that Rust Bees are part of the biblical canon, and not as many have proposed, a poorly thought out addition to a barely working abandoned piece of software from twenty two years ago.

[bionic-baby]

Why can’t I see outofgloom’s account? I went on a tumblr ripoff site called Tumgik that I went on before I got tumblr, just to check up on the place, and to see if it got taken down, and I found outofgloom’s account. It was active and just posted 7 days ago! This is also the same with demitsorou’s account. Maybe tell demitsorou and outofgloom about this to see if they know what’s going on?

Is this a glitch?

I’m freaking out!

Can anyone give me an answer?

[lukassprehn]

Missing Outofgloom

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

[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.

[anasianfriend]

One of the lead scholars is actually on here, @outofgloom has their third edition on Matoric in their pinned! If you’d like, I suggest looking at some of their content, they also do prose stories that are great.

Mitzi and I are watching a bionicle movie cuz she’s tistic about it and I’ve been informed there’s not only an entire alphabet but also detailed naming conventions and oh gosh I’m gonna hyperfixate at some point aren’t I

[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...