The Glowing Suva

 "Volcanic Waters"

There's something interesting about vapor and light, which is why I enjoy staring at deffusers. I saw the opportunity to take pictures of our small Linkyo deffuser this evening when no one was around.  The glow of blue I chose for the defuser, and the reddish orange of the nearby salt lamp are perfect contrasting colors, like water in a volcano.

The shape of it has reminded me of multiple things, including a Matoran's hut or a Toa's suva. This then inspired me to take pictures of Trillahru on another one of her adventures this evening.

Above, her first discovery of a glowing Suva occurred near the volcano. The triangular tracking stone she holds in her hand led her to the glowing suva like a compass would point North, only the stone flashes light when you're at a found destination.

Trill can only wonder why this suva is steaming.

What's actually happening in these scenes? It's probably a good time to list my ideas now that I've edited my chosen pictures. Trill holds, I would say, a special suva stone, something that unlocks the power of a Toa's suva. She has a task to tap into a suva of her element, by placing this crystal into its center.

  

 After my first experimental pictures, I went and got out a tile and a backdrop to make life easier. this resulted in dark room scenes which gave me the idea that Trill found other glowing, vapor spewing suvas underground or within mysterious temple walls of some hidden place on the island.

This particular suva is a peculiar one, in the fact it glows blue when active, obviously meant for someone from the water region. It has a funny shaped top that spews steam from below, like a venting cap for some underground hot water spring. For all we know, it could be a venting cap placed their to prevent pressure, and Trill is testing to see if it's a suva or not. :P

 
I wanted to have a slightly less dramatic pose for one scene, so I stood Trill upright and had her gaze at the steaming suva. This is likely a scene of her observations before she holds out the crystal to this device.

Trill's discovery of this is no doubt a moment in her history of exploration during her times of land measurement for an island accurate map. She's been willing to take on a few extra tasks during her travels, even if it means exploring a spooky temple or underground lair.

 

 She herself can be kind of spooky when excited (left), or just observing things around the suva (right).

I was surprised at how the blue light was kind of like black light on Trill's eyes and mask. Here she is, staring into your soul.

 

Blue light is always fun, but I wanted to play with colors and change the mood a bit. Green created  the perfect spooky atmosphere I was looking for, like a lantern in the lair of Makuta. Trill goes from being bright blue, to a sickly green.

"Before the vat of antidermis"

I love creating tense atmosphere. Here, Trill summons the elemental energy from the green suva. I took some angled shots of the scene just to create an unnerving feel. This is what you might see in a nightmare.

What's happening in the scenes of green are up to imagination, but I think Trill is either being influenced by Makuta, or she's trying to undo Makuta's plans by placing the crystal into a suva within his underground lair of shadow.

  

 "Resist the Shadows"

 

 "Summoning" (right and below).

 

 

 

 Will you fall to the darkness?

Trill observed this ghastly suva as she did the blue one. The ones where the mist appears to be wrapping itself around her interest me, because it's like antidermis of a Makuta, whispering in her ear.

Blown Up Stasis

I took some new photos today as part of an experiment in using this odd, puffy packaging which held a glass bottle. It's a clever design to prevent damage during shipping, but in my mind I saw more than a package great for glass bottle mailing. I saw a chance to play with it as some kind of puffy stasis chamber for a toy, specifically a Bionicle character.

My first snap shot actually seemed kind of cool for the opening of the series.
Marine was the only character I could think of that fit just snugly in the packaging, and the following scenes seemed appropriate for her character story wise.

These pictures are of course concepts of what could happen in a story involving Marine. I'm always reimagining or adding to ideas in my head.

I created the scene of a semi laboratory setting with stasis chamber using basic objects. A tracing board with black light and an LED flashlight beneath to create a glowing floor. On top I added shelf lining that's clear and lined, a way to add texture to the lab floor. The walls are a broken metal case I've kept from when I got a kit of cheap jell pens. Reflective surfaces naturally make it harder to take pictures without showing myself in the background, but I did what I could.
 

I added Bionicle tubing and stuck it to the packaging with sticky tack. The back side of the metal walls is held up with cardboard, and my light sources were kind of interesting. I used my Radha beauty diffuser as one of the light sources and small fog machine, then above I placed a plastic lid on the corner of my walls and set an LED flashlight on top for overhead lighting.

 

"Ah, Marine, you helpless little princess. Here you are, sleeping within a chamber I've kept for you, and while you sleep I shall rule in your place.Your people are proving to be stubborn, but soon they'll find their queen is less than tolerable of their disobedience."

There are a number of ideas I got from doing this photo shoot, all of them relating to the story of Marine, who's trouble with Queen Skaliska was part of the Life of Lewa fan fiction.
Basic ideas for that part of the story have already been written, but I still reimagine or add to the concepts in my head for fun and for a possible rewrite.

Marine's palace has an underground laboratory and science quarters for brilliant minds to play in. In one of many rooms there are sure to be some fantastic inventions, including prototype stasis chambers for healing, preserving, and studying any kind of life form. One of the stasis chambers is bouncy, appears to be glass, but doesn't break. Its walls are hollow tubes which make the structure oddly difficult to penetrate, and provides cushioning for the specimen within.


Who and why would someone want to put Marine, the water kingdom princess, into one of these stasis chambers somewhere in the deeper levels of the labs where few hardly venture? That's where the story would begin.

Obviously Queen Skaliska, the jealous queen Skrall/Makuta/ something else. She wishes to overthrow the water kingdom and take it as her own, which is the obvious reason Marine has been placed into such a dreary situation.

During Marine's sleep, Skaliska talks to her about all the terrible things she plans to do to the people who don't obey her. It pleases her greatly to converse with the helpless heir to the throne, but someone is bound to free Marine eventually.

Another concept could also be that Skaliska captured Marine and put her into stasis beneath the floor of her own devilish laboratory located within the mountains.

Skaliska enjoys tormenting, and especially enjoys milking regions of their valuables by holding an important member of them hostage.

To me the theme is spine tingling, but I wanted to heighten that mood by adding fog you could actually see. The mist of a diffuser doesn't always show up well on camera, so I turned to an artificial method.

I imagined the basement to be slightly foggy based on the idea that the stasis chambers work best when kept cool. There's probably a cooling system hooked up to the devices which vents and causes fog.