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Rahkshi Lalonde

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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...
 

Edited by Rahkshi Lalonde

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mark II:

    Waking up did not feel good. I couldn't tell how much time had passed, but I felt like I had just had the longest anesthetic-free-surgery in history, and the hack doctors up and left the problem organ in anyway. My limbs felt like dead driftwood, and my torso, like a rock. I could only assume I looked as bad as I felt at that time.

 

    A glance at my own arms and legs, the blue had faded to gray, and the skin between was scraped and cut in multiple places, probably from sand damage. still, I couldn't feel these wounds as much as I could the aches and fatigue, I'm pretty sure all my nerve endings just up and died that day.

 

    The Scavrax was intact, though whatever enigmatic energy it used had worn out, It was humming rhythmically, like a mechanical snore, and it rocked gently on its legs and wheel.

 

    Okay, so i was alive. But the real important question still stood. Where was I? Looking around as I exited the cabin, (my legs were like rubber, but they held.) The towering dunes of rough sand had been replaced with a rose quartz silt, I assumed it was soft to the touch, since I couldn't feel much in my feet at all.

 

    Rising out to contrast the soft pink sands were long jagged forms scattered about the landscape, they seemed to be rocks at first, but upon closer inspection, they were made of iron. Whatever they were, they felt unnatural and gave the whole place a distant, haunting feeling.

 

    I sighed and tried to collect my thoughts. So, I was half dead, lost, getting spooky vibes, and had no idea what to do next. I could try to get the Scavrax some fuel, or, wait for it to recharge, kickstart it? I still had no idea what that thing ran on, so that option would have to wait.

 

    It was at that point that my insides basically caved in.

    Right, I thought to myself through the sharp pains in my general gut area, Food... and, water...

    I spent the next half-hour rolling around in the dust hissing "Food" in various volumes and tones, ensuring that if i didn't die from exhaustion, i would probably have died of humiliation... if anyone else had been there that is. It was then that it hit me.

 

    And by "it" i mean it was then i got beaned upside the head by a piece of meat.

 

    I stopped thrashing and opened my eyes. Laying not even a foot in front of my face was a large purple slab of beastflesh, I did not know where it came from, and honestly, i couldn't care less.  I grabbed the meat and dug into its thick, juicy flesh. I ate like i was starving (which i was) and my life depended on it (which it did) the feeling of food in the hollow of my gut bringing me back from the brink of a total psychological meltdown, and probably, a slow painful death.

 

    But a chunk of raw beastmeat wasn't really a long-term solution, and i knew i would eventually have to find my own resources if I wanted to survive out here. The first order of such business would be finding a shelter before sundown. I looked around, scanning the field of jagged spikes for any suitable windbreak and sunshade. One of the larger spikes a little further off seemed to have some solid rock and a cave mouth situated beneath its leaning side, this seemed like a safe bet, I went to check it out.

 

    The cave was reasonably big, I could almost stand up in it, and the walls were smooth and glossy. From deeper in, a soft trickle could be heard, running water. I almost passed out from sheer relief, there was one of my resource problems solved. It was also surprisingly cool even near the cave entrance, despite being hot enough outside to fry an egg in midair. I could really settle down in here, once I got the Scavrax closer, anyway.

 

    "It's not Tajun" I mumbled, "But it'll have to do."


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

    The sun had set by the time I started my fire just outside the cave mouth, (I didn't make it inside the cave because I am not the world's biggest bonehead.) it was upsetting to have to destroy the mail crates for fuel, but if I had to pick between losing my job, and losing my life, I'd drop the former in a still-beating-heartbeat.

     A sigh escaped my mouth as I stared through the flames into the dunes beyond, the sky a deep blue, threaded with luminous violet cords of light and bejeweled with the pulsing stars, fading in and out of clarity as several, brighter than the rest, fall across my field of vision.

    At least the view was nice.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

    The next day, I awoke to an explosive hiss from outside. One of the more startling sounds to wake up to, I can assure you that. So, that day, I went outside to see what was happening. Turns out, there had been geysers of hot vapor carved into patches of stone, which were nestled into sloping pockets in the soft pink sand, hidden from sight at a mere glance over the ridge. An interesting find, but nothing to really remain alarmed at.

 

    It was actually while I was heading back to my camp, pondering what was next most crucial to constant survival that it happened, and by "It" I mean "a monster", and by "happened" I mean "attacked me."

 

        The beast struck from the pointed shadows of the iron spikes, and when it was all but on top of me, I wondered how I hadn't seen it all along. It was huge, with each paw nearly as big as I was, the whole thing was vaguely feline, but mostly it conveyed an almost reptilian feeling through the whole of its form. It wasn't even all animal, as far as could tell, thick plates of metal protruded between sparse patches of striped fur, all in a yellow-on-black that screamed "Probably deadly" and the heavy-set face full of sharp teeth screamed "certainly deadly". as it snarled and growled.

 

    The beast's oversized paw swatted me clean over the next hill like I was nothing but a sackdoll, since I found the cave, I had been feeling pretty good about myself, but that one blow took it all back out of me. I felt horrible as I tried to stand up again, knees weak and vision blurry. I could barely make out its silhouette at first, as it charged towards me, steam and smoke gushing from many, many circular vents down its side. It was roaring like an offroad motor as it charged forward at impossible speed.

    I didn't have much of a choice, either I endured what felt like dying and made a run for it, or I could actually die to those horrible hooked claws by simply laying there. yeah, obviously I bolted.

 

    I obviously didn't bolt fast enough, another paw, another direct hit, I went flying into one of the pillars in a spray of rust, screws, and bolts.

 

    The creature huffed, beads of condensed steam rolling down its metal surface, its fur stood on end, and globs of thick saliva drooled from its gaping maw. Oh yeah, and I was seeing this all upside down.

     This is it, I thought to myself. I just couldn't take any more of this kind of abuse, from a monster that will clearly be chugging along long after I'm dead no matter how much I run. There was no way to win, there was no way I could-

 

    My self-deprecating thoughts were paused when the massive creature stopped and craned its head, lifting a heavily scathed claw to scratch and tug at the metal plate behind its neck. sweat trickling onto its chest as it panted heavily.

 

    It can't take the heat, I realized, recalling the plumes of steam and the sweaty fur. There was an obvious solution somewhere in here, I just needed to think about it...

 

    My time to think was cut short, however, when a slitted, yellow eye opened back up and turned its gaze to me, the monster set its jaws into another snarl, as a deep growl began in its chest. I was going to have to wing it this time.

 

    I tore like wildfire, weaving between outcroppings with the beast in hot pursuit, and I mean really hot pursuit, I could feel the heat radiating off the semi-mechanical hulk as it heaved its weight on its forepaws, its tongue lolling out of its mouth and a crazed look in its bestial eyes. Still, it had more stamina than I could ever hope to, i needed to take it out somehow.

 

    The forepaws were, as I soon saw, the monster's only paws, when I finally got a glance at its full, massive body, from shaggy underbelly to exposed spinal ridges, it had an enormous tank tread in place of hind legs, which honestly explains the unwavering speed and smooth locomotion this thing had going.

 

    And yet, as i wiped sweat from my brow and turned another corner, pink sand flying from my heels. This gave me another Idea.

    As the maze-like chase continued, I kept close watch on the iron structures, as well as the raging monster behind me, waiting for the right moment and praying it would arrive before I lost my footing and collapsed, The right time, and the right place...

    I reached such a place shortly after, an extremely jagged and unstable looking tower, and as I passed by, I plunged my hand into its side.

 

    Bad idea, i thought with clenched teeth as my hand was sliced by corroded blades of brittle steel, but it caught on something, something I anticipated (or hoped for anyway), and when it emerged, battered and cut, on the other side, a rigid metal pole was in my grasp.

 

    Now was the tricky part, I could not stop running, It was still chasing me, even at my distance, though, i could see the red of its skin where the metal was overheating and burning into itself, still, it did not slow down. And honestly, I was hoping it kept that speed going, practically counting on it by now.

 

    This plan was crazy, this plan was stupid, this plan was crazy stupid, I could not stop thinking about how crazy and/or stupid this plan was, even as I was carrying it out. I ducked into another twist, and another, each time I passed a tower I gave it a sharp strike with my pole, a metallic sound ringing from each of them in turn. At the same time, I worked to get my metal shoe loose, but kept it on my foot, running became a bit harder, but I kept at it, despite once again feeling like my legs were evolving into tentacles.

 

    One more turn, then another, then another, it was always just. one. more. and after one more, at the next turn, I saw it, what, exactly? I saw my chance, on that very turn I flung my shoe at the next pillar down, and ducked behind the one I just passed, the metal ringing alerting the creature to the path I had just avoided and sending it plowing ahead past me, giving me the perfect shot.

 

    With whatever might I had left in my body, I plunged the iron rod into the monster's wheel-tread-hind-foot, bending the old metal between its cogs and sending the creature flailing through the air and past the metal towers, It skidded to a halt on a flat bed of rock, paws flailing to gain footing and broken tread whirring uselessly. Its jaws snapped and foamed and its eyes were bloodshot.

 

    By the time I fully approached it, it had gotten upright, and was shaking with rage, what it thought was going to be a quick catch turned out to be an exhausting struggle, and now it honestly just wanted me dead to pay back at least some of the energy it had clearly wasted chasing me, and as I stood there, pole in hand, I was faced with another dilemma.

 

    I had never killed anything in my life, I never had the need to, I never had the want to, and even there, even then, I just couldn't summon it in me to kill this creature, not while it sat there, soaked in sweat and whipping its shredded wheelfoot around. Thankfully, It wasn't my choice this time. As I was lost in thought, the geysers erupted again and blew the beast's face clean off in a spray of metal and fur.

 

    That was.... something.

Edited by Rahkshi Lalonde

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  • 1 month later...

Log [6500714] Day [???] location [???]

 

I am still in recording these logfiles, in hopings that someones will come and find me, in whatevers state i may be in, cha. In the meantimes, they will helps me in rememberings of things i may'vey forgottens. cha.

 

The blue thing w'ith the helmet came out'eve's hole again todays, what a cur'ius things it is, cha. No ideas where it'es comings from, or what'es it would be wantings, but i'evey watchings on it from days one, since i gave it the meat-thing so-es it wouldn'et dies, cha.

 

Since that days, cha. The blue thing hasn'et doing much, seemings the-es creatures are beings non-agressive, or at least non-comba- oh H-O-A, cha, there'es one of my targets now, engagings neutralizing-mode, cha,

[End Log] [code: AODEH ]

Edited by Rahkshi Lalonde

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