Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Bara-Magna'.
Found 2 results
-
review topic HERE. Mark I: The white sun beat down on the golden hills of sand, not a cloud in sight to challenge its relentless reign, swift winds tainted by its intense heat carried clouds of dust from one Artfully sculpted dune to the next, towering canyons of smooth, worn stone whistled into the arid skies with each searing gust... And I was lost, dangit. None of these towering canyons, these sculpted dunes, these arid skies, none of them looked remotely familiar to me. None of this was on my map. A map which, as the agori i got it from said, "contains a detailed depiction of all charted areas of Bara Magna" which means, if I'm off the map... I'm in big trouble. I suppose I should go back to the beginning, before all this happened, I suppose again that I should start by introducing myself. My name is Tiricus, I'm from the water tribe of Tajun, and this started out as a normal day. This morning, I left the house to start my new job. It's pretty important that every Agori with four working limbs has a job, since we as a people are in such short supply already. Mine? I'm in postal delivery, a very important job, I might add. The job of delivery is held especially high since without us, contact between villages would halt almost completely. So, yeah, lotsa pressure falls on us. I had to make this first trip count, like, really count. I couldn't mess up, a single screw-up and I'd be toast, as well as who-knows what happening. Bottom line? Nothing was gonna make this mail a failure. Not if I could help it. The city of Tajun was carved into the sides of many water-worn canyons, sprawling as far as the eye could see and encompassing an enormous metallic structure, which protruded high into the air and cast a long dark shadow. Every village had a landmark like this, nobody seems to know where they came from. Nobody has the nerve to ask. The post office was one of the smaller buildings. Well, small at the front. It made use of a large cavern to store the many many crates of mail, and the fleet of trucks used to haul it out. The Office itself was a quaint room, roughly square with a desk opposite the door and several chairs scattered around, behind the desk was a ragged curtain, and between the two was a stout agori with messy hair. The mechanical parts of him were blocky and green, while the organic parts were scratched and sweaty. To his left was an obviously fake plant. The Office was also known for being very very dry, by Tajun standards anyway, and as I walked through the door, I could practically feel all moisture leave my body. The guy at the desk must've seen this slight stumble, because he took notice of me fairly quickly, "Hey Veri," The agori behind the desk shouted, "I think this's one'f the new guys!" The one he called "Veri" stepped through the curtain, she was tall and she was thin. Her dark skin greatly contrasted the bright blue greeble that ran down her arms and legs. Her eyes had heavy bags under them, and her default face was clearly not a smile. She glanced at her co-worker and then to me, then she spoke in a voice that obviously didn't want to talk to anyone today, but was trying to cover it. "Hey, name's Verita, are you the new guy?" I found myself lacking responses, and bumbled out an arrangement of words that could be called a sentence, somewhere, anyway. "Tiricus. Is me." Verita and her co-worker made faces, "Is, what they call me, yeah. I'm.... I'm here, for a job?" I mumbled. They looked at each other, then at me, sorta in that way you look at people who just stumbled right out of crazytown, then they looked at each other and shrugged. "Alright," Verita gave absolutely none, as seemed her usual, "Let's get you set to go then." We left the shorter guy at the desk and pushed past the curtain, into the larger cavern where all the post and trucks were kept, it was dimly lit by various mechanical devices and skylights in the upper walls. Against the left wall sat cabinet after cabinet of what I could only assume were very important documents, against the right sat the aforementioned trucks, not a unified set of trucks, just whatever vehicle it seemed they could afford. Some of them looked unfit to drive. Verita was, at this time, giving me a debriefing on rules, guidelines, and instructions. I was half-listening, I admit, and I feel I wouldn't be in this mess if I had just listened a little bit closer. But hey, the past is the past. "-and over here, is your vehicle for the job, the Scavrax V5." I tuned in to here Verita point in the direction of a curious cart. The Scavrax was an... odd sort of buggy, the roll-cage roof hung over a very curved frame, a single large treaded wheel held it up in front, while four stocky spider legs lifted the back. I had no idea how it would drive, and was honestly scared to find out. While I was examining the strange craft, Verita chimed in again, "-And that's about it. You'll be taking crates E5 to F6, the locations are on this list-" She tore some papers from her clipboard, "Don't lose anything, and be back as soon as possible." "Yes Ma'am!" I said, before bumbling over to the pile of crates, "I-I-I won't disappoint!" "Oh," She turned to face me again, "One more thing. You have a map, right? You will definitely need one..." As I hefted one of the mail crates I hastily replied, "Oh-oh yeah, sure!" She gave a weak and forced smile before slipping back into the office, "See you when you get back. If you don't die. that is." When I had all the crates on the back of the Scavrax, I hoisted myself into the small cockpit seat, which rocked from the sudden weight. I waited for the cabin to settle before starting the ignition, which made the whole thing rock even more. Well then, I thought, trying to keep my cool, Guess I'd better find a map. The Scavrax started rolling forward, but then, to my surprise, it shoved off with its back legs, a sudden jolt of speed that felt wrong for the rickety craft. the wheel hummed as it rushed down the street, and I just thanked some higher force the streets weren't busy today. I pulled over in front of a building that looked promising, The legs (which had been propelling the vehicle in a fashion far too organic to not be mildly unsettling) Dug into the ground and the wheel gradually lost momentum before coming to a stop. The building was an odd sort, the door was squared, but the windows were rounded with metal crossbars. It lacked the elevated step all other buildings had and instead had its floor run flush with the street, I could assume it was possibly made from the same material inside too. A sign that hung above the door simply said "WARES" in bold, but faded lettering, and a bell next to the door said "RING FOR SERVICE, PLEASE". I rang the bell, as instructed by the sign, and immediately heard the sound of footsteps on the other side, someone came down the stairs and approached the door, and soon i was greeted by a small agori with white metal ringing his wrists and waist, as well as white smooth headgear. "Greetings," He said, in a light but sharp voice, "What brings you to Sardix's general store? We have only the finest wares!" This obviously being Sardix, I got to my point quickly, "Well," I said, trying to not pay too much mind to his obvious over-enthusiasm, "I'm just looking for a map, honestly." Sardix was gone before i could finish the last word, and was back with a roll of paper in no time at all, "I assume," he said, again enthusiastic as ever, "That you are looking for a map," "Yes," I replied, "A map of-" Sardix cut me off "A map of all of Bara-Magna, yes." He pushed the roll of paper towards me, "This map contains a detailed depiction of all charted areas of Bara Magna," "Detailed?" I sighed, "I have a feeling it's not gonna be cheap, then?" Sardix simply smiled, "Oh no, It's not expensive at all, in fact," He pushed the paper into my hand, "I accept payments on pay-what-you-can terms, so what you can pay is what you will pay. And besides, I get the feeling you need this particular map a LOT." He winked. "Oh, okay... thanks?" I slipped sardix the coin and began to back towards the door, "Good luck with the shop, I've gotta get going now." Sardix waved as i slipped back into the Scavrax, "Pleasure doing business, We do hope you return soon!" The Scavrax once again kicked into high gear and skidded down the road, whirring all the way. I pulled one of the crates up into the passenger seat and checked the location it was marked for, Roxtus, City of Skrall, I set the Scavrax to high speed and headed out in the direction of Roxtus, and kept going, and going, and going, and going.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And I'm not too sure what even happened, How I missed it is beyond me, but somehow I ended up way out here, in archetypical no-man's-land, without a man in sight. The Scavrax is still going strong, so I swear the thing is solar powered or something. It's a miracle, is what it is. I'm just worried about if I can keep up with its stamina honestly, I'm starting to waver in consciousness as I search the cliffs and dunes for anything at all that looks familiar. The sun is beginning to set too, which is just peachy, i don't need to worry about dying of heat stroke because my body will already have been picked clean by some monster with more legs than it has business having by the time the sun rises! I might as well just bail out now, let the dunes claim me while I still have some dignity, anyway. And the worst of it? While I'm out here, slowly fading in and out of my mind, the mail. It never. got. delivered. I had one job, ONE JOB, and look at how much I messed up completely, man.... Verita is probably blowing a fuse about this. Maybe... Maybe I'll just... rest a bit, yeah, rest, I'll close my eyes, and it'll all be fine...
-
Just a space picture I made on Gimp The Three That Must Become One
