Your success in retrieving Knuckles has brought your three colorful allies back together, thus marking it a resounding success. Still, it's highly unlikely Eggman is going to overlook the destruction of his robots at that base or Knuckles going missing... But strangely, it seems as though life goes on as usual in Chicago.
The patrolling robots have had their numbers cut; a sign that you're doing something, at least. Unfortunately, the humans of this world still don't react to your presence at all, and there's no stopping the chroma slowly overtaking the city. More buildings and wildlife have been affected this week, even though Eggman hasn't set foot here. It's not exactly the most encouraging thing even if this weekend was a success.
THE CITY
Now that you're familiar with Chicago and how to find your way back to the base, you're free to explore as you see fit. You want to venture out into the suburbs? You want to take a day trip to wander even further out? Sure thing! Just be sure to let Tails know where you're going so he doesn't have a heart attack if someone goes missing.
While you're out exploring, you'll likely run across Knuckles or Sonic - both of whom will immediately beeline into the nearest robots to smash them with extreme prejudice. Regardless, they'll gladly help you if you need a hand with anything, or will otherwise carry out their tasks for Tails.
Unfortunately, the rest of the city is as lifeless as it was last week. The humans will scarcely pay attention to you, wildlife will go about lifelessly, and Eggman's unique white chrome slowly overtakes more of the city. In fact, some buildings seem to have been entirely renovated from last week - you'll find more and more "Eggman" versions of stores, attractions, and landmarks.
NIGHTMARES
The biggest difference this week has nothing to do with the world around you at large, however. Instead, you'll find your nights are far more difficult - for absolutely no reason that anyone can pinpoint. If you're lucky, you'll have unsettling dreams that leave you feeling a little worried when you wake, but otherwise fairly well rested.
If you're unlucky, you'll have horrific nightmares.
You may dream about an unwinnable battle - is it against hordes of robots? is it against your enemies back home? - where you simply don't have any choice but to fight, even though you know you can't win. The odds are stacked too high against you, no matter what you do. Will you give in? Will you fight?
You may dream about your fears - the things that threaten to seize you in a vicegrip and never let go. Are you scared of failure? Then you will experience your greatest failures in detail. Even the simplest, most mundane fears will be wildly twisted out of control - and you're powerless to wake yourself up, trapped within the dreams until the night is over and you finally, finally wake up.
You may dream about your past - whatever horrible incidents that haunt you or frighten you to think about will return in full force. These are never perfect recreations of the past, instead twisted facsimiles that only make those thoughts worse. Reliving it is one thing, but having the experience changed on you may be even worse.
Regardless of your dreams, you may find that you're not alone. Others here can be pulled into these dreams - trapped with you until either the dream ends and you wake up... or you die in the dream. Those seem to be the only ways out, no matter what you do. Still, having a buddy with you to help fight might help, right?
When you do wake up, you'll see blood red and you'll feel tired no matter how long you slept. Perhaps a nap is in order - but these dreams are just as likely to infect your naps as well.
SHARDS
You should feel fairly comfortable with using your shard power by now. You may also find that the more you use it, the more things you're able to do with it. Starting this week, your shards' powers are more pronounced, allowing you to do more with them than you could before.
As you fight with your allies - particularly those you have a close bond with, positive or negative - you may feel the tug of something in the back of your head; it tells you that you can do more. Together, you can become more powerful. You can use your shards together. Doing so will grant you a new power, or strengthen the one you already have. The more you trust one another, the easier this power will be to use.
It might be good to experiment with these new powers; after all, you never know when you may need them.
TAILS' TASKS
As mentioned to some of you, the rings that Sonic and friends use to hop between worlds have been dwindling in number, given how many were used to visit all of you and bring you in to begin with. Your job - should you choose to accept it - is to track down more rings. Tails will grant you with a tracking device that will allow you to find the exact locations of these rings. All you have to do is figure out how to get them.
Rings, as it turns out, are not quite as easy to collect as one would expect. They can appear anywhere throughout the city or the surrounding areas, but they always appear in some sort of frustrating place. Perhaps one has manifested at the top of a tree, or on top of the bean. Maybe it's hiding behind rows and rows of items in the W*lmart. Maybe you'll have to break into an employees' only room or a restricted area for one. Regardless, no ring is going to be simple to collect, and it's up to you to figure out how to get it. Every single ring counts, after all.
ENEMIES
This week's enemies are the same as last week's, though lesser in number. Like last week, you shouldn't let them escape, but you're growing stronger: they should be easier to beat than last week.
Badnik Surveillance Units are primarily made for reconnaissance. They can be found flying overhead, observing the people go about their lives and following scheduled flight paths and patterns to ensure every inch of the city is being observed. Well, mostly. You can find some back alleys and hidden spots here and there, and these Badniks usually won't go into buildings or out into the woods. They will immediately try to flee upon spotting you. They're easy to take down, though a bit more durable than one would expect, given Eggman's designs. If cornered, they are capable of shooting a simple laser beam that will hurt and possibly leave a burn.
Badnik Drones are the most common combat robot you will find. Small chrome white orbs with red eyes, they are capable of scanning and detecting abnormalities. They are not quite as common as the Badnik Surveillance Units, but you'll still spot several of them floating through the city at any given point in time. Unlike the Badnik Surveillance Units, these come ready for combat. They can fire lasers as well as shoot small homing missiles. The homing missiles thankfully aren't very fast and can be outrun or otherwise blocked, but they pack a punch if they do hit! These robots will stand their ground and fight if they spot you, but they will call for backup - if you aren't fast enough, you'll find yourself facing many of them!
The Badnik Transformer Model B33, more affectionately called Buzz Bombers by Tails and friends, is... well, it looks like a bee. A hornet, rather, as that stinger is actually a precision laser that moves fast. These robots typically look like Badnik Drones, but are capable of shifting and uncoiling themselves to become the B33 units. They are fast, they hit hard, and they are relentless, pursuing you nonstop until they've been destroyed. They will not call for backup, which is possibly the only saving grace about fighting them. Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell if a Badnik is a Drone or a B33 until you're actually in combat - and by then it may be(e) too late.
Badnik Tanks are mini... well, tanks. They stand about the size of a large dog and roll around on treads through the city. They're much rarer than the other robots, but it seems some have been sent to Chicago after the destruction of the base. These tanks are capable of shooting a large laser that deals significant damage to anyone it hits, and they're quite durable. When severely damaged, they start sparking - they'll explode when hit, and you probably don't want to be in melee range!
No. It's... it's a leader's job to care for those that choose to follow.
[It's brief. But as Raven holds Vakama's hands, as he carefully pulls him to test his movement despite the onslaught of noise in the white space, he flickers momentarily - back to the form Raven might recognize, still holding on. It's an instant, a tick of the light, and one Vakama doesn't register before he's nodding his understanding, fully turned back around.]
Please trust me.
[-why should we-
They continue to walk, and the surroundings return, flickering in and out of catastrophic levels of disrepair.
Signs of life echo like whispers of ghosts in admist the foundries and rubble; nameplates and personal touches, well worn metal underfoot, paint on bars worn down from constant usage, hundreds of carved tablets hung with everything from workman's lists to accolades, banners hung with the district colors, monumental screens that once might have displayed something important for a huge crowd, now cracked and blackened. Enormous support rings, once holding some sort of transportation chute system that stretched in every direction, now lay empty and cracking.
The more they walk, the more the rubble fills in. Wildlife making nests. Webs stringing together broken pipework. A deep, poisonous fog of green.
The voices twist, a mocking tone that is hard to pinpoint as genuine or not.
--you should not blame yourself
you are a mask maker
matoran in armor
let us praise these jesters
imposters
you are a mask maker
not a--
The ground snaps forward as though being yanked through space by an invisible hand. You feel unsteady and will need to catch yourself.
You can hear the echoes of reaction as you do so - warbled, confused, distant. Someone, somewhere, elsewhere.
"Is everything alright?"
"What's with him?"
The space you raise up into has has the ceiling and one of the walls completely blown out, revealing the darkened sky and smoke filled walkways trailing up and up into forever. It's a foundry, an enormous forge set in the center with equipment and tools strung from every available piece of metal, parts and craftings and molds and masks scattered like so much debris.
At the foot of the ruins lies a sphere. The hatch is open, with red lights blinking on and off. But the sphere itself looks empty.
Vakama's exhausted demeanor only deepens at the site of it, choosing to ignore as he tries to get a better view of his bearings. But surely it would be fine to take a closer look.
Surely you would trust your h̴̠̣̪̊̊e̸̯̚r̷̢̬̹̾o̷̻̭̭̾͑͂̓̋e̴̢̡̪̋̂̇̓ͅs̷̛͉͖̥̬̯̈́̓]
[Something about the way Vakama so earnestly vows to protect him from the position of a leader brings a melancholy expression to Raven's face. But he catches that brief flicker of Toa Vakama and ultimately lets out a tiny heh.]
All right, Vakama. Lead the way.
[His first few steps are rigid as the pain and visions work their way back in, but he weathers it better than before, keeping his hold on Vakama's tiny hand as they traverse the ruined landscape. He can't help but wonder if this was Vakama's home at one point...or what might become of it. It's too hard to tell, and the voices start to seep back in which definitely isn't helping his concentration--
Oh.
What just happened to the ground?
The sudden lurch completely catches him off guard (8), causing him to stumble to his knees.]
Ngh-- Talk about a rough landing...
[But these old bones have endured worse. He gets back on his feet and takes in the new surroundings alongside Vakama. There's a lot to try to unravel about this new scene, but the sphere is very strange to Raven's eyes.
[The closer he walks towards it, the harder it is to step away.
"What are these?"
"Storage containers, but most odd-looking."
A sound thumps in the ears.
Loud, but slowing. Slowing. Slowing, as your limbs start to grow cold and weak. Your memory starts to blur at the edges, as though something is crawling in and eating away at the inside of your skull.
"Matoran of Metru Nui.
Rejoice.
For today will be a momentus climax to your history."]
...Raven? Raven, hey -- get away from that thing--
[Vakama's voice will sound distant, even though the echoes persist.
"--No-- t-the Matoran, they're in danger--"
"What? What do you see--"
It's a sudden flash of an image, another flash of that vivid pain. Storage containers for miles and miles, up and down into infinity, sealed up tight, filled with
curled limbs
dim heartbeats
cold bodies
--
"Nothing. Nothing, sister.
Nothing at all."
Through numb limbs, Raven will feel Vakama's arms try to grab at him, to force his unresponsive body away by force.
He promised. He promised.]
I've got you -- just, just hold on, don't close your eyes--
[Who was responsible?
(6)
Though in a mental fatigue that will be hard to shake, Raven will still get a nice visual head-start of the enormous, twisted tendril of shadow and plant matter that rises from the rubble and immediately snaps forward to grab at him, and only him.
(please don't blow yourself up again raven or i will bad end this entire dream)]
[Everything else fades into the background as the allure of that sphere takes hold of him, dulling his senses until only the horrid vision of the Matoran tombs remains.
Something finally breaks through the dull pounding of heartbeats. He hears Vakama's voices. Feels his hands on him again.
Then there's a dark flash. Something's attacking.
He strains against the weakness in his limbs, blinking rapidly to snap himself out of this haze.]
V-Vakama, get--!
[He uses whatever force he can muster to bring himself and Vakama to the ground in an attempt to evade the tendril (6).]
The sheer size difference means that Raven will successfully get Vakama to the ground with a yelp from the Matoran. But prone and weak, Raven will not be able to dodge the twisting pressure that wraps completely around one of his legs and drags him backwards at full speed.]
Raven!
[The heat starts to rise suddenly. Drastically. The further Raven is tugged through the rubble, the more it feels like he's the equivalent of a piece of scrap metal about ready to burn in an incinerator.
His vision jostles, nauseating, a speed that is impossible for the distance he's taken, into the wreck of an enormous open furnace almost unfathomably tall, s̸͕͓̄ǒ̴̱̪͈̠͌͐ṁ̸̛̠͌̑ḙ̷͍̺͂̿̕͝ť̶̫͌̊h̸̛̛͓͓͈̾̒į̵̘͙͉̀̈n̴̢̩͉̺̏̎̀g̵̨̙̎ boiling in its catastrophic flames.
The vine doesn't let up, aiming straight for the flames. But arms grab him - stronger, larger, a Toa again, gripping onto Raven for dear life with one hand as he wheels his disk launcher completely around with the other and fires. The entire vine's molecular makeup instantly scrambles with a garbled screeching sounds, melding into the floor as Vakama desperately tries to drag Raven backwards.]
I've got you. I've got you, hang onto me--
[Is this what it takes from you, Vakama?
It's a voice that echoes from nowhere, piercing but echoing. A reverberation, not a source.
we're wasting time--
--hunting down just because of--
--so sure about this--
How many mistakes?
How far must you let it go?
Who is responsible, Vakama?
Another shadowed tendril coils behind Vakama and snaps him up tight by the waist. Caught off guard, his form changes right back as his weapon vanishes, yelling and shoving for purchase as he's lifted right back into the air.
What time was wasted in your incessant searching?
What lives brought to suffer?
With a whipping snap, Vakama is fully thrown across the room like a ragdoll.
Though free of the vine and now with his mind and strength slightly clearer, Raven will find his limbs drawn down on the spot in a rain of unavoidable projectiles. Hundreds of thousands of seeded capsules fall from the ceiling; cracking open where they land, growing quickly like a mass of writhing, multiplying snakes of rot and plant and darkness, grasping out to wrap him still and drag him to his death.
No matter whether he acts or stays still, any magical or shard power he has is draining without replenishment. His blastia will not stop working entirely, but OH BOY HOWDY IS IT SURE GOING TO STRUGGLE and i'm very sorry to raven.]
[Raven isn't even sure why he did what he did, but he doesn't feel any regret as the tendril takes him. At least Vakama's safe, he thinks. At least he can say he did one good thing during his time here- that Sonic wasn't wasting his time on recruiting a husk of a man like him.
It's getting so hot. Too hot for him, even. That's the last thing he can think of as the furnace nearly swallows him whole.
But it's not his time yet, apparently. Vakama has come to his rescue once more.]
You're askin' a lot from ol' Raven...
[He feels so weak, but he holds onto the Toa's arm with as much strength as he can muster.
Though he holds out long enough for Vakama to destroy the vine, there's no way he can use that same pitiful strength to prevent Vakama from being ripped away from him.]
Damn it... [He glares at both everything and nothing.] Who invited you, huh? I ain't some toy fer you ta torture him with!
[Not that his irritation with the spooky voice is going to get him anywhere. Quite the opposite, in fact. His limbs grow heavy, leaving him open to become ensnared by the horrors raining down on top of him.
He fights back with every once of strength that he can muster (18), pushing through the white-hot pain of his blastia going into overdrive as he pulls against his restraints. When that doesn't work, he activates his shard power, flickering in and out of sight as a way to free himself. After a few attempts, it stops working entirely.
His vision blurs. His chest aches. His heart might really explode this time. But he doesn't stop pushing. He needs to get to Vakama.
[It's a genuine effort. Vines snap and give way under physical strength, lose hold in confusion at his disappearances, even as they are quickly replaced. The more he activates his powers, the quicker that Raven will find himself weakening - like a battery losing its charge, lower and lower and lower. The movement through the growing sea of vines drags like quicksand, the heat sweltering.]
R-Raven, don't--- don't, just keep yourself alive--!!!
[He's trying to press his hands against his bonds, to get some kind of leverage. But diminished as he is, he's powerless.
Powerless.
It's getting hard to breathe. Suffocating, suffocating.
Powerless.
--Vakama, are you sure about this--]
I did the--- the best I could, I-- w-we had t-to do--- something--
[You're exhausted. You're beyond exhausted. An echo of Vakama's voice rings like a memory. Pushing. Pushing.
"Keep going! Together, at its heart! We will win!"
The floor dips out beneath them both as the surroundings snap to black, the vines disappearing.
There is no time to catch their breath. Their bodies will both ricochet off repeated hard surfaces of metal, to a grand flooring split into hexagonal shapes; shooting up in columns, tossing them about like dolls, slamming them into high stone walls under the jeering boos of a crowd.
--The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
You're too exhausted to do anything but withstand it. Your powers spark but no longer answer. Ghost-like forms of your fellow shard-carrying teammates pick themselves up off the floor, beaten and barely on their feet.
Someone high above you laughs.
"Let us praise these jesters. Perhaps they sought to entertain us during this difficult time.
Or, are they imposters? Responsible for our true Toa's demise?"
The sounds of the unseen crowd roar in fury.
All the effort to be made a fool.
Half your teammates go flying backward to vanish into an unseen space beyond, pulled by the wind itself. The rest scramble for one another, for their weapons, for an escape, as an enormous swarm of robots marches in advance on them.
For people saw true colors, not your empty attempts.
You can do nothing but run. Run. Run, hide, search through muddied dark spaces with your bare hands. You're exhausted. You're all so exhausted.
Empty attempts. Misguided efforts.
The jeering echos of the crowd slowly die to eerie silence. The clicking hiss of a hatch unlocks in the outstretched darkness. An empty sphere, mocking, as lighting starts to crack overhead.
--Tell me, Vakama. The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
Vakama flinches at the gentleness of the question, in amidst the more prominent, jeering mockery.]
Th--- There was no way I could have known... [It's an answerless response into the void, where the stars of the sky seem to black out in response, two glorious suns eclipsing as though the universe has shut its eyes to their efforts.] We tried. I... I tried.
[You fled.
The sound of a violent sea crashes in their ears, surrounded by darkened rock pitted by centuries of waves. A body, golden and feeble and frail, ricochets past them in the dark with a trail of dark energy, immediately drawing Vakama's attention with a choke of distress.
To the ends of the silver sea, leaving your people behind. Suffering for sake of your cowardice.
Raven will see an enormous claw of shadow reaching out beyond the sea like a giant swatting a fly, intent on smashing them both against the sea wall.]
[Despite his efforts, it's all in vain. Raven completely exhausts himself and succumbs to the battering that the nightmare continues to do to his body. He lies motionless as he watches his teammates become overwhelmed or lost- as he listens to the onslaught of mockery. It's hard not to let that helplessness seep deep into his bones. He's only getting bits and pieces of Vakama's turmoil, but he still feels the full force of it bearing down on him.
The worst part is that it's not an unfamiliar feeling.
As the claw advances on them, he finds it within himself to reach for Vakama's hand once more. Wherever this is going, they'll go together.]
[It's hard to tell if Vakama acknowledges the touch at first. He stays frozen under that desperate grasp, eyes still stuck on the maskless body lying broken and barely visible in the darkness--
--a battered body with brunette hair and the final traces of magic taken on another's behalf, bow discarded--
The sacrifices that kept piling up for him to take such unsteady steps.
The body that sits cold in his place.
"That was meant for me."
Murderer.
His breath catches.
But his grip tightens hard against Raven's hand, pulling the two of them closer.
Together. Together.
And the blow hits them both hard.
Deep, thundering arcs of foreign energy immediately crack through every part of the body on contact. You cannot struggle, and can barely watch, as you're slammed headfirst into solid rock.
Raven is now alone.
The rock starts to dissolve into itself, a dizzied run of spiraling tunnels.
What reaches for atonement have benefited?
Would you twist them in your hands with delay?
Would you twist your heart once more?
Your confines feel claustrophobic and foreign from all sides, smelling of earth and ocean, horrifically dark. And while the comments have been mocking, now they grow genuinely angry.
--who died and made you Mata Nui anyway--?
--you're not the only one trying--
--maybe if this wasn't coming from a leader who doesn't know when to quit--
--we can't keep going like this, Vakama!!--
Arrogance.
Recklessness.
Foolish, childish decisions.
The poisonous fog that had laid out in that cityscape returns, thick and suffocating, before Raven drops straight into the depths of an angry, stormy sea, the battered parts of a craft pushed too far sinking slowly into the rocking depths beyond them.
And where did that lead you?
Guilt disguised as bravery, your chest raised with eyes blinded.
Claiming atonement.
Another jerking lunge, and Raven will be washed on the shore of a beach filled with nothing but rubble. A skyline that criss-crosses with thick webs. A stillness broken only by the deafening roars and cries of wildlife that had not been there before.
And Vakama sits, at the precipice of the nearest hill, looking down towards Raven with an immediate alarm as he scrambles back to his feet and out into the surf, even as his own voice echoes, unattached, off in the distance with an almost pompous arrogance, the voices mumbling constant and increasing disapprovals through the air.
As though you could drown it all out.
As though your bold words could change any of it.
"Are we going to stand around all night? Nothing changes! We go to the Coliseum, we rescue the Matoran, and we leave!
Follow me!"
...
For now, despite the pull of his echoing counterpart, Vakama's attention is only on Raven. A pause in the madness, as small hands try to help right him out of the sea.]
This... this is all my fault, my friend...
You shouldn't have to go through something like this... Not because of me.
Edited (oops my html AGAIN) 2025-02-06 02:37 (UTC)
[Raven's weary gaze follows Vakama's...to the lifeless body of--
A mixture of shock and horror grips his chest like a vise.]
Casey?
[He whispers in disbelief. What is she--
"It's not supposed to be like this. I'm supposed to be the one protecting HER.
Run away, Casey. Even if it's only by a second, you have to live longer than me!!"
He presses his eyes closed as Vakama's grip on him tightens. He squeezes back.
Then the next thing he knows, his head hits something hard and the world turns black. But the nightmare does not allow him the mercy of waking up. No, the comments continue as he sinks deeper and deeper in this murky prison.
Eventually he rolls onto the shore and barely has the strength to sit up. The comments continue to ring in his ears, verging on the point of maddening with their ceaselessness.
He hears Vakama's voice this time, though... A very different-sounding Vakama from the one he's come to know. Was this the sort of person he was that garnered all of these criticisms?]
Vakama, buddy... [He takes the Matoran's little hands to pull himself up.] You've been stewin' in this guilt fer a real long time, haven't ya? Have ya ever reached out ta anyone?
[His laugh is tired and humorless as his eyes trace the ground, trying to lead them out of the water but not much farther. He's definitely hesitant to keep following the path they need to tread, even if the tug persists.]
My people are all in a neverending sleep, Raven. I have not been within much company to talk to.
I used to confide in a teammate, when we were both still uncertain. She always struck me as the better one to lead us. A better head on her shoulders.
She was patient. But even she grew tired of how I changed. After a while, I think I took it as a sign that I had to do it all on my own.
[The distant, dim heartbeats echo in the fringes of Raven's mind.
"There's no one left besides you."]
Yeah, s'pose not.
[He feels the pull, but he's content to deny the nightmare the progression it wants. They both need a breather. So he encourages Vakama to sit for a minute.]
...Can ya tell me about what's been goin' on? What you've been through as a leader? I'll hear ya out.
[He's such a hypocrite. Why's he even saying any of this when he can't even do the same for himself?
...Maybe it's just easier to focus on someone else's issues.]
[It hits like the dull ringing of a distant hammer, a constant even now.
You have a job to do.
He hesitates, clearly trying to find his words as he hoists himself up to a seat against some of the rubble. Hesitates, as if this is not something he's often asked at all.]
I, um...
I don't know how much I can add to what this place has shown. So far, at least. [His hands wring together in his seat.] But I suppose it depends on what you'd want to know.
Raven leans against the rubble next to Vakama, arms crossed.]
This place has shown a whole lotta bits and pieces that ol' Raven here has barely had a chance ta process before he gets thrown into some other horror.
[He'd only had a year, maybe two, to process any of this. After how long he'd been alive, the whiplash of the recent history felt just as chaotic.
...]
Something was taking over Metru Nui. For how long, I don't think any of us really knew. Not until it was late.
Normally our city would have many Toa. But they started vanishing. Sent away to help others, or disappearing on missions. Eventually, we only had one left.
When he got the sense that he was in danger himself, he did the only thing he could do. He had to find new Toa, and he didn't have much time to do it. So he looked through the stars for guidance, and found names he then hunted down.
That was us. Myself, and my team. Complete strangers when we were summoned, with no idea what was being asked of us... and no explanation to go by. Lhikan was captured before he could deliver more than a fleeting message - that the Heart of Metru Nui was in danger, and that we were to save it.
We were changed that day. But we had no guidance. We were all stubborn in our own ways, and started to fight immediately. The only thing we had for guidance...
...Was me. The visions I saw... some took for me being completely mad, while some --[only two. only ever, truly, two.] -- thought it was messages from our Great Spirit.
[Ah. So the nightmare has been simulating the actual nonstop hardships Vakama was experiencing during his journey with the Toa. As Vakama continues, Raven is finally able to start drawing some connections to the constant onslaught of comments he was hearing.
Lots of dissent. Lots of mockery.]
Were any of you guys even trained fighters? Or used ta workin' as a team?
How did bein' the impromptu leader sit with ya?
[To him, it sounds like Vakama wasn't prepared to lead at all.]
I was only a maskmaker. Onewa was an artisan, Nuju studied prophecy, Whenua was a lead archivist in the Great Archives. Matau only tested vehicles. Nokama was just a school teacher.
[His eyes stay focused at his hands.]
I wasn't well-liked from the start. I'd never had to speak up for myself so much, and I felt I never really belonged.
But none of us knew what we were doing. In hindsight, I cannot blame the others for being impatient with me, or with each other.
A rag-tag group of strangers given powers and told ta save yer people because the stars said so... Yeesh. You guys really got thrown right into the fire.
[He's definitely starting to see the bigger picture now.]
It couldn't have been easy ta be saddled with such a monumental task when none of ya were even prepared fer it. And it's not like ya had the time ta find yer footing...
[They were under way too much pressure to press forward for that.
He shakes his head.]
So all the bad stuff happenin' ta me...were those sticky situations ya got yer team in?
Destiny calls for much stranger things sometimes, I've been told. Even if we don't ask for it.
Mata Nui knows none of us did.
Matau liked to bask in the hypothetical glory of it. The rest of us, not as much. We enjoyed our lives as they were.
[And, y'know, you can't just show back up to work 5 feet taller.
At the question, he only nods at first.]
The Morbuzakh at first. An enormous plant that had hidden in the furnaces of Ta-Metru. My visions led us to a way to defeat it in time, as well as where it was hiding. But we drained ourselves completely in our efforts.
By the time we made it to our Turaga to try and present ourselves as guardians, we had nothing to show for it. No evidence, no powers. He questioned us, tested us, and when we failed, he branded us as imposters.
Yes. Turaga Dume has been our leader in Metru Nui for as long as I've been alive.
At some point, he'd been taken captive. Replaced by an imposter. I came to learn later that Toa Lhikan had figured that much out, but was arrested before he could go any further. But as far as we knew at the time, Dume was the same leader as he'd always been.
He arrested and trapped half my team, while the rest of us fled. And I think... he knew he was running out of time, to do what he wanted.
By the time we found and rescued everyone, including Lhikan, the Matoran had already been wrangled up. We never got to them in time.
Temporarily. Not before he'd had his way with the city. He absorbed every last ounce of power from it and turned himself into a raging storm. [Remember the shadow hand that made us pancakes? Yeah that was him.] The sky went dark, the suns eclipsed... the bioquakes were disastrous.
We trapped him, before he could go too far. But our city was destroyed, and we had no safe way to wake our people.
So we fled, past the Great Barrier, to look for a place we could call shelter. And we had to leave our people behind in the process.
[Remember the giant sea wall that said shadow hand made us pancakes against?]
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No. It's... it's a leader's job to care for those that choose to follow.
[It's brief. But as Raven holds Vakama's hands, as he carefully pulls him to test his movement despite the onslaught of noise in the white space, he flickers momentarily - back to the form Raven might recognize, still holding on. It's an instant, a tick of the light, and one Vakama doesn't register before he's nodding his understanding, fully turned back around.]
Please trust me.
[-why should we-
They continue to walk, and the surroundings return, flickering in and out of catastrophic levels of disrepair.
Signs of life echo like whispers of ghosts in admist the foundries and rubble; nameplates and personal touches, well worn metal underfoot, paint on bars worn down from constant usage, hundreds of carved tablets hung with everything from workman's lists to accolades, banners hung with the district colors, monumental screens that once might have displayed something important for a huge crowd, now cracked and blackened. Enormous support rings, once holding some sort of transportation chute system that stretched in every direction, now lay empty and cracking.
The more they walk, the more the rubble fills in. Wildlife making nests. Webs stringing together broken pipework. A deep, poisonous fog of green.
The voices twist, a mocking tone that is hard to pinpoint as genuine or not.
--you should not blame yourself
you are a mask maker
matoran in armor
let us praise these jesters
imposters
you are a mask maker
not a--
The ground snaps forward as though being yanked through space by an invisible hand. You feel unsteady and will need to catch yourself.
You can hear the echoes of reaction as you do so - warbled, confused, distant. Someone, somewhere, elsewhere.
"Is everything alright?"
"What's with him?"
The space you raise up into has has the ceiling and one of the walls completely blown out, revealing the darkened sky and smoke filled walkways trailing up and up into forever. It's a foundry, an enormous forge set in the center with equipment and tools strung from every available piece of metal, parts and craftings and molds and masks scattered like so much debris.
At the foot of the ruins lies a sphere. The hatch is open, with red lights blinking on and off. But the sphere itself looks empty.
Vakama's exhausted demeanor only deepens at the site of it, choosing to ignore as he tries to get a better view of his bearings. But surely it would be fine to take a closer look.
Surely you would trust your h̴̠̣̪̊̊e̸̯̚r̷̢̬̹̾o̷̻̭̭̾͑͂̓̋e̴̢̡̪̋̂̇̓ͅs̷̛͉͖̥̬̯̈́̓]
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All right, Vakama. Lead the way.
[His first few steps are rigid as the pain and visions work their way back in, but he weathers it better than before, keeping his hold on Vakama's tiny hand as they traverse the ruined landscape. He can't help but wonder if this was Vakama's home at one point...or what might become of it. It's too hard to tell, and the voices start to seep back in which definitely isn't helping his concentration--
Oh.
What just happened to the ground?
The sudden lurch completely catches him off guard (8), causing him to stumble to his knees.]
Ngh-- Talk about a rough landing...
[But these old bones have endured worse. He gets back on his feet and takes in the new surroundings alongside Vakama. There's a lot to try to unravel about this new scene, but the sphere is very strange to Raven's eyes.
He takes a step toward it.]
You know what this thing is, Vakama?
1/2 mild body horror just to be safe
"What are these?"
"Storage containers, but most odd-looking."
A sound thumps in the ears.
Loud, but slowing. Slowing. Slowing, as your limbs start to grow cold and weak. Your memory starts to blur at the edges, as though something is crawling in and eating away at the inside of your skull.
"Matoran of Metru Nui.
Rejoice.
For today will be a momentus climax to your history."]
/2
...Raven? Raven, hey -- get away from that thing--
[Vakama's voice will sound distant, even though the echoes persist.
"--No-- t-the Matoran, they're in danger--"
"What? What do you see--"
It's a sudden flash of an image, another flash of that vivid pain. Storage containers for miles and miles, up and down into infinity, sealed up tight, filled with
curled limbs
dim heartbeats
cold bodies
--
"Nothing. Nothing, sister.
Nothing at all."
Through numb limbs, Raven will feel Vakama's arms try to grab at him, to force his unresponsive body away by force.
He promised. He promised.]
I've got you -- just, just hold on, don't close your eyes--
[Who was responsible?
(6)
Though in a mental fatigue that will be hard to shake, Raven will still get a nice visual head-start of the enormous, twisted tendril of shadow and plant matter that rises from the rubble and immediately snaps forward to grab at him, and only him.
(please don't blow yourself up again raven or i will bad end this entire dream)]
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Something finally breaks through the dull pounding of heartbeats. He hears Vakama's voices. Feels his hands on him again.
Then there's a dark flash. Something's attacking.
He strains against the weakness in his limbs, blinking rapidly to snap himself out of this haze.]
V-Vakama, get--!
[He uses whatever force he can muster to bring himself and Vakama to the ground in an attempt to evade the tendril (6).]
cw fires, tentacle/snake imagery just to be safe
The sheer size difference means that Raven will successfully get Vakama to the ground with a yelp from the Matoran. But prone and weak, Raven will not be able to dodge the twisting pressure that wraps completely around one of his legs and drags him backwards at full speed.]
Raven!
[The heat starts to rise suddenly. Drastically. The further Raven is tugged through the rubble, the more it feels like he's the equivalent of a piece of scrap metal about ready to burn in an incinerator.
His vision jostles, nauseating, a speed that is impossible for the distance he's taken, into the wreck of an enormous open furnace almost unfathomably tall, s̸͕͓̄ǒ̴̱̪͈̠͌͐ṁ̸̛̠͌̑ḙ̷͍̺͂̿̕͝ť̶̫͌̊h̸̛̛͓͓͈̾̒į̵̘͙͉̀̈n̴̢̩͉̺̏̎̀g̵̨̙̎ boiling in its catastrophic flames.
The vine doesn't let up, aiming straight for the flames. But arms grab him - stronger, larger, a Toa again, gripping onto Raven for dear life with one hand as he wheels his disk launcher completely around with the other and fires. The entire vine's molecular makeup instantly scrambles with a garbled screeching sounds, melding into the floor as Vakama desperately tries to drag Raven backwards.]
I've got you. I've got you, hang onto me--
[Is this what it takes from you, Vakama?
It's a voice that echoes from nowhere, piercing but echoing. A reverberation, not a source.
we're wasting time--
--hunting down just because of--
--so sure about this--
How many mistakes?
How far must you let it go?
Who is responsible, Vakama?
Another shadowed tendril coils behind Vakama and snaps him up tight by the waist. Caught off guard, his form changes right back as his weapon vanishes, yelling and shoving for purchase as he's lifted right back into the air.
What time was wasted in your incessant searching?
What lives brought to suffer?
With a whipping snap, Vakama is fully thrown across the room like a ragdoll.
Though free of the vine and now with his mind and strength slightly clearer, Raven will find his limbs drawn down on the spot in a rain of unavoidable projectiles. Hundreds of thousands of seeded capsules fall from the ceiling; cracking open where they land, growing quickly like a mass of writhing, multiplying snakes of rot and plant and darkness, grasping out to wrap him still and drag him to his death.
No matter whether he acts or stays still, any magical or shard power he has is draining without replenishment. His blastia will not stop working entirely, but OH BOY HOWDY IS IT SURE GOING TO STRUGGLE and i'm very sorry to raven.]
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It's getting so hot. Too hot for him, even. That's the last thing he can think of as the furnace nearly swallows him whole.
But it's not his time yet, apparently. Vakama has come to his rescue once more.]
You're askin' a lot from ol' Raven...
[He feels so weak, but he holds onto the Toa's arm with as much strength as he can muster.
Though he holds out long enough for Vakama to destroy the vine, there's no way he can use that same pitiful strength to prevent Vakama from being ripped away from him.]
Damn it... [He glares at both everything and nothing.] Who invited you, huh? I ain't some toy fer you ta torture him with!
[Not that his irritation with the spooky voice is going to get him anywhere. Quite the opposite, in fact. His limbs grow heavy, leaving him open to become ensnared by the horrors raining down on top of him.
He fights back with every once of strength that he can muster (18), pushing through the white-hot pain of his blastia going into overdrive as he pulls against his restraints. When that doesn't work, he activates his shard power, flickering in and out of sight as a way to free himself. After a few attempts, it stops working entirely.
His vision blurs. His chest aches. His heart might really explode this time. But he doesn't stop pushing. He needs to get to Vakama.
They need to put an end to this.]
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R-Raven, don't--- don't, just keep yourself alive--!!!
[He's trying to press his hands against his bonds, to get some kind of leverage. But diminished as he is, he's powerless.
Powerless.
It's getting hard to breathe. Suffocating, suffocating.
Powerless.
--Vakama, are you sure about this--]
I did the--- the best I could, I-- w-we had t-to do--- something--
[You're exhausted. You're beyond exhausted. An echo of Vakama's voice rings like a memory. Pushing. Pushing.
"Keep going! Together, at its heart! We will win!"
The floor dips out beneath them both as the surroundings snap to black, the vines disappearing.
There is no time to catch their breath. Their bodies will both ricochet off repeated hard surfaces of metal, to a grand flooring split into hexagonal shapes; shooting up in columns, tossing them about like dolls, slamming them into high stone walls under the jeering boos of a crowd.
--The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
You're too exhausted to do anything but withstand it. Your powers spark but no longer answer. Ghost-like forms of your fellow shard-carrying teammates pick themselves up off the floor, beaten and barely on their feet.
Someone high above you laughs.
"Let us praise these jesters. Perhaps they sought to entertain us during this difficult time.
Or, are they imposters? Responsible for our true Toa's demise?"
The sounds of the unseen crowd roar in fury.
All the effort to be made a fool.
Half your teammates go flying backward to vanish into an unseen space beyond, pulled by the wind itself. The rest scramble for one another, for their weapons, for an escape, as an enormous swarm of robots marches in advance on them.
For people saw true colors, not your empty attempts.
You can do nothing but run. Run. Run, hide, search through muddied dark spaces with your bare hands. You're exhausted. You're all so exhausted.
Empty attempts. Misguided efforts.
The jeering echos of the crowd slowly die to eerie silence. The clicking hiss of a hatch unlocks in the outstretched darkness. An empty sphere, mocking, as lighting starts to crack overhead.
--Tell me, Vakama. The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
Vakama flinches at the gentleness of the question, in amidst the more prominent, jeering mockery.]
Th--- There was no way I could have known... [It's an answerless response into the void, where the stars of the sky seem to black out in response, two glorious suns eclipsing as though the universe has shut its eyes to their efforts.] We tried. I... I tried.
[You fled.
The sound of a violent sea crashes in their ears, surrounded by darkened rock pitted by centuries of waves. A body, golden and feeble and frail, ricochets past them in the dark with a trail of dark energy, immediately drawing Vakama's attention with a choke of distress.
To the ends of the silver sea, leaving your people behind. Suffering for sake of your cowardice.
Raven will see an enormous claw of shadow reaching out beyond the sea like a giant swatting a fly, intent on smashing them both against the sea wall.]
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The worst part is that it's not an unfamiliar feeling.
As the claw advances on them, he finds it within himself to reach for Vakama's hand once more. Wherever this is going, they'll go together.]
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--a battered body with brunette hair and the final traces of magic taken on another's behalf, bow discarded--
The sacrifices that kept piling up for him to take such unsteady steps.
The body that sits cold in his place.
"That was meant for me."
Murderer.
His breath catches.
But his grip tightens hard against Raven's hand, pulling the two of them closer.
Together. Together.
And the blow hits them both hard.
Deep, thundering arcs of foreign energy immediately crack through every part of the body on contact. You cannot struggle, and can barely watch, as you're slammed headfirst into solid rock.
Raven is now alone.
The rock starts to dissolve into itself, a dizzied run of spiraling tunnels.
What reaches for atonement have benefited?
Would you twist them in your hands with delay?
Would you twist your heart once more?
Your confines feel claustrophobic and foreign from all sides, smelling of earth and ocean, horrifically dark. And while the comments have been mocking, now they grow genuinely angry.
--who died and made you Mata Nui anyway--?
--you're not the only one trying--
--maybe if this wasn't coming from a leader who doesn't know when to quit--
--we can't keep going like this, Vakama!!--
Arrogance.
Recklessness.
Foolish, childish decisions.
The poisonous fog that had laid out in that cityscape returns, thick and suffocating, before Raven drops straight into the depths of an angry, stormy sea, the battered parts of a craft pushed too far sinking slowly into the rocking depths beyond them.
And where did that lead you?
Guilt disguised as bravery, your chest raised with eyes blinded.
Claiming atonement.
Another jerking lunge, and Raven will be washed on the shore of a beach filled with nothing but rubble. A skyline that criss-crosses with thick webs. A stillness broken only by the deafening roars and cries of wildlife that had not been there before.
And Vakama sits, at the precipice of the nearest hill, looking down towards Raven with an immediate alarm as he scrambles back to his feet and out into the surf, even as his own voice echoes, unattached, off in the distance with an almost pompous arrogance, the voices mumbling constant and increasing disapprovals through the air.
As though you could drown it all out.
As though your bold words could change any of it.
"Are we going to stand around all night? Nothing changes! We go to the Coliseum, we rescue the Matoran, and we leave!
Follow me!"
...
For now, despite the pull of his echoing counterpart, Vakama's attention is only on Raven. A pause in the madness, as small hands try to help right him out of the sea.]
This... this is all my fault, my friend...
You shouldn't have to go through something like this... Not because of me.
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A mixture of shock and horror grips his chest like a vise.]
Casey?
[He whispers in disbelief. What is she--
"It's not supposed to be like this. I'm supposed to be the one protecting HER.
Run away, Casey. Even if it's only by a second, you have to live longer than me!!"
He presses his eyes closed as Vakama's grip on him tightens. He squeezes back.
Then the next thing he knows, his head hits something hard and the world turns black. But the nightmare does not allow him the mercy of waking up. No, the comments continue as he sinks deeper and deeper in this murky prison.
Eventually he rolls onto the shore and barely has the strength to sit up. The comments continue to ring in his ears, verging on the point of maddening with their ceaselessness.
He hears Vakama's voice this time, though... A very different-sounding Vakama from the one he's come to know. Was this the sort of person he was that garnered all of these criticisms?]
Vakama, buddy... [He takes the Matoran's little hands to pull himself up.] You've been stewin' in this guilt fer a real long time, haven't ya? Have ya ever reached out ta anyone?
[Hypocrite.]
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My people are all in a neverending sleep, Raven. I have not been within much company to talk to.
I used to confide in a teammate, when we were both still uncertain. She always struck me as the better one to lead us. A better head on her shoulders.
She was patient. But even she grew tired of how I changed. After a while, I think I took it as a sign that I had to do it all on my own.
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"There's no one left besides you."]
Yeah, s'pose not.
[He feels the pull, but he's content to deny the nightmare the progression it wants. They both need a breather. So he encourages Vakama to sit for a minute.]
...Can ya tell me about what's been goin' on? What you've been through as a leader? I'll hear ya out.
[He's such a hypocrite. Why's he even saying any of this when he can't even do the same for himself?
...Maybe it's just easier to focus on someone else's issues.]
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What... I've been through?
...
[It hits like the dull ringing of a distant hammer, a constant even now.
You have a job to do.
He hesitates, clearly trying to find his words as he hoists himself up to a seat against some of the rubble. Hesitates, as if this is not something he's often asked at all.]
I, um...
I don't know how much I can add to what this place has shown. So far, at least. [His hands wring together in his seat.] But I suppose it depends on what you'd want to know.
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Raven leans against the rubble next to Vakama, arms crossed.]
This place has shown a whole lotta bits and pieces that ol' Raven here has barely had a chance ta process before he gets thrown into some other horror.
[JUST SAYING.]
What's happened, exactly?
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[He'd only had a year, maybe two, to process any of this. After how long he'd been alive, the whiplash of the recent history felt just as chaotic.
...]
Something was taking over Metru Nui. For how long, I don't think any of us really knew. Not until it was late.
Normally our city would have many Toa. But they started vanishing. Sent away to help others, or disappearing on missions. Eventually, we only had one left.
When he got the sense that he was in danger himself, he did the only thing he could do. He had to find new Toa, and he didn't have much time to do it. So he looked through the stars for guidance, and found names he then hunted down.
That was us. Myself, and my team. Complete strangers when we were summoned, with no idea what was being asked of us... and no explanation to go by. Lhikan was captured before he could deliver more than a fleeting message - that the Heart of Metru Nui was in danger, and that we were to save it.
We were changed that day. But we had no guidance. We were all stubborn in our own ways, and started to fight immediately. The only thing we had for guidance...
...Was me. The visions I saw... some took for me being completely mad, while some --[only two. only ever, truly, two.] -- thought it was messages from our Great Spirit.
It was as close to a leader as we had.
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Lots of dissent. Lots of mockery.]
Were any of you guys even trained fighters? Or used ta workin' as a team?
How did bein' the impromptu leader sit with ya?
[To him, it sounds like Vakama wasn't prepared to lead at all.]
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No.
I was only a maskmaker. Onewa was an artisan, Nuju studied prophecy, Whenua was a lead archivist in the Great Archives. Matau only tested vehicles. Nokama was just a school teacher.
[His eyes stay focused at his hands.]
I wasn't well-liked from the start. I'd never had to speak up for myself so much, and I felt I never really belonged.
But none of us knew what we were doing. In hindsight, I cannot blame the others for being impatient with me, or with each other.
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[He's definitely starting to see the bigger picture now.]
It couldn't have been easy ta be saddled with such a monumental task when none of ya were even prepared fer it. And it's not like ya had the time ta find yer footing...
[They were under way too much pressure to press forward for that.
He shakes his head.]
So all the bad stuff happenin' ta me...were those sticky situations ya got yer team in?
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Mata Nui knows none of us did.
Matau liked to bask in the hypothetical glory of it. The rest of us, not as much. We enjoyed our lives as they were.
[And, y'know, you can't just show back up to work 5 feet taller.
At the question, he only nods at first.]
The Morbuzakh at first. An enormous plant that had hidden in the furnaces of Ta-Metru. My visions led us to a way to defeat it in time, as well as where it was hiding. But we drained ourselves completely in our efforts.
By the time we made it to our Turaga to try and present ourselves as guardians, we had nothing to show for it. No evidence, no powers. He questioned us, tested us, and when we failed, he branded us as imposters.
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That explains why I felt as powerless as I did back there... Man, that thing almost drained my... [Ah.] Shard. I didn't even know that was possible.
[ANYWAY...]
Setback after setback, huh... [Of course the leader would have to take responsibility for that.] Who's this Turaga? Some kinda leader?
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Yes. Turaga Dume has been our leader in Metru Nui for as long as I've been alive.
At some point, he'd been taken captive. Replaced by an imposter. I came to learn later that Toa Lhikan had figured that much out, but was arrested before he could go any further. But as far as we knew at the time, Dume was the same leader as he'd always been.
He arrested and trapped half my team, while the rest of us fled. And I think... he knew he was running out of time, to do what he wanted.
By the time we found and rescued everyone, including Lhikan, the Matoran had already been wrangled up. We never got to them in time.
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So this imposter basically sent you guys on a wild goose chase, is that it? [He clicks his tongue.] Damn...
[He feels like he doesn't need to ask what became of the Matoran from there. Vakama doesn't need to spell that part out. He knows.]
Did yer group manage ta deal with this guy?
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We trapped him, before he could go too far. But our city was destroyed, and we had no safe way to wake our people.
So we fled, past the Great Barrier, to look for a place we could call shelter. And we had to leave our people behind in the process.
[Remember the giant sea wall that said shadow hand made us pancakes against?]
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Ya had ta leave 'em behind fer a fightin' chance at livin' another day, otherwise there'd be no hope at all.
Can't say I blame ya fer feelin' guilty about it.
[There's a reason why he resonated with it.]
"Great Barrier", huh? [He remembers the wall, but...] Was it supposed ta prevent something like that guy from gettin' in?
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1/3 yippee yahoo another for the furry fest
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3/3 cw: body horror
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