- Joined
- Aug 5, 2020
- Posts
- 126
- Awards
- 9
- Essence
- €45,320
- Coin
- ₡54,800
- Tokens
- 65
- World
- Mesa Roja
- Profile
- Click Here
It had been a merciful reprieve, their time in Karim.
Beyond the brief ventures into Dante's Abyss, and the welcome shade of the subterranean caverns beneath Black Mountain, Altanis had endured naught but desert, desert and more desert since her arrival into this world. Though the city itself was certainly still in a desert world, the environment around it was far more tolerable and even, dare she say it...pleasant. It was not altogether unlike home, in that way; an inhospitable landscape with a single place of respite and comfort situated in its center.
There was something...different about this place, though. It wasn't by design, exactly. From what she had gathered...this was simply where all the waters of this world happened to flow from. Building any kind of major city upon the surface of Mesa Roja left precious little other options, and none of them anywhere near as easy. It was perfectly sensible to find this place at this exact location, then...built around the fountains supposedly at the very literal center of the world, if one was to believe the rumors and boasting.
All that said, however...Altanis was far from idle during her time.
As much as it was a welcome relief and chance to finally relax and rest from the rigors of the desert, there was still much to be done. Especially when it began to turn out that the dear mister Joshua Graham was far from idle during their time in the city. The burned man had been quite busy, as well. Rumors had begun to haltingly whisper and circulate about his return, it seemed; those same rumors orbited around the news of certain events out in the desert and badlands, about things that had happened. The chaos and apparent mass slaughter of cultists and monsters at Black Mountain, the (somewhat exaggerated) tale of chasing, cornering, capturing, interrogating and butchering one of Jasper's Gems, the incident with managing to double-cross, betray and lead to the capture of one of Plaineview's agents...
It had all, it seemed, initially been attributed to Graham himself, once his return became known. He had certainly been present at every such unlikely event as it happened one after another, that much was for certain. But he as, as it turned out, a surprisingly humble man. He wished no credit for such grim tasks, if he had not actually performed them with his own hands. His work in the city was, thus, well cut out for him: quashing the rumors of his murderous return, and establishing the truth. He had merely been a guide to the one who had actually perpetrated the deeds in question.
Altanis wished she could say she was displeased by this, but....things had begun to slowly but surely shift and change for her, since Graham began his strange personal task, in a way that she couldn't really say was a bad thing. Originally she had been noticed only in passing, her fearsome demonic appearance garnering no small amount of alarm at first, though that quickly cooled to merely a constant wariness. Then it had turned to her being just someone who had been escorted by the burned man and been fortunate enough to make it out in one piece. Or even as a former competitor of Dante's Abyss some years ago, in a frustrating handful of cases. Someone had even had the audacity to mention they had the absurd merchandise Syntech had made in her likeness -- Altanis's spike of rage was only slightly mollified when they had positively gushed about the quality of it, and how much their child adored it.
Slowly but surely, however, as word spread...that began to change. She was recognized in other ways, as her own part in the events that were originally attributed to Joshua Graham began to spread...
".....say. You notice how much attention you been gettin' whenever you go out around here?" the mechanic, Joey Blaese, finally spoke up one day. In a particularly audacious manner, she was sprawled out on her back, hands clasped together behind her head, and resting against Altanis's side as the centaur took a moment to rest herself, idly looking through a book of Karim's history she had managed to dig up. The girl had rapidly begin to grow far too comfortable, and lose her original wariness and apprehension, it seemed. Or any inclination to part ways and leave. "People are lookin' at ya all funny. Not the way they were when we first got here, like they were scared you were gonna start stealing babies to eat or something, either."
"Yes. I have noticed," Altanis murmured, flicking her tail to make it snap sharply just shy of taking the half-snoozing mechanic's hat right off her heat. "Due to Graham's work, no doubt."
"I dunno if it's just that, now," Morgans piped up from where she sat, in a chair near the open window, virtually nude save for her vest she had 'graciously' agreed to wear to stop anyone from getting uppity with her about 'exposure'. Comparatively cooler as it was in the city, and especially indoors, the heat was still getting to her too much to be comfortable otherwise, or so she had repeatedly complained about. It was something that Joey had, at first, given her no end of grief over -- after all, the big tough wannabe mercenary bad bitch about to be undone by a little hot weather, when the poor little wrench-girl from the boonies could tough it out no problem? It was hysterical, in the mind of at least one of them.
Galand and Graham had opted to take a separate room during their stay, for whatever mixture of politeness and retaining 'decency' as actually mattered to them. So they hadn't been present, but as they overheard through the walls....it had finally spilled over one day -- or rather, one particularly warm and unpleasantly stifling night -- into an almost comical altercation, while Altanis had stepped out to tend to some business or other. A slightly more inebriated than usual Morgans, complaining of the heat, had been needled one poke too many by Joey after an increasingly heated (and mostly lighthearted) back and forth, and decided to retaliate in a more physical manner.
The exact particulars were never really made clear, as the only ones who knew the entire story -- namely, Joey and Morgans -- refused to elaborate beyond the most basics. All Altanis knew for certain was that she had returned in the early hours of morning, shortly before sunrise, to discover the two women completely naked, somewhere between fast asleep and unconscious, and in a tangled heap together among a heap of discombobulated room room furnishings and bedding. A scene, and physical altercation, she found herself sorely disappointed she had missed being a part of. The following morning, all they would say was that 'Joey won', and from then on her incessant teasing seemed to fall off almost altogether. She seemed to have made her point, whatever it was.
Altanis still wasn't altogether sure if the encounter had been sexual or violent -- or even possibly both.
For now, however...Morgans sat leaned back so heavily that only two legs of her seat resting on the floor, one arm draping over the back of it to rest on the windowsill while her other dangled down below, only keeping a tentative grasp on her drink of choice. "You ain't exactly been shy about goin' around out there, doin' this and that and whatever the hell else. You an' me an' that big lanky pal of yours." She leaned forward, lifting her arm to heavily plop her bottle down on the table. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were tryin' to make a name for yourself and get known around here."
"With a certain group, maybe," Joey mused.
Morgans just snorted in amusement. "Heh...yeah. You seen the way she looks at and acts around them Gerudo, or whatever ya call 'em?"
"I can hear you both, you know," the demon growled.
"Yeah, I know ya can, boss lady," Joey drawled. "But I also hear ya didn't say we were wrong, either."
Altanis heaved a long, drawn out sigh laden with faux-suffering as she pinched and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Sometimes I truly do regret keeping you both alive..."
Beyond the brief ventures into Dante's Abyss, and the welcome shade of the subterranean caverns beneath Black Mountain, Altanis had endured naught but desert, desert and more desert since her arrival into this world. Though the city itself was certainly still in a desert world, the environment around it was far more tolerable and even, dare she say it...pleasant. It was not altogether unlike home, in that way; an inhospitable landscape with a single place of respite and comfort situated in its center.
There was something...different about this place, though. It wasn't by design, exactly. From what she had gathered...this was simply where all the waters of this world happened to flow from. Building any kind of major city upon the surface of Mesa Roja left precious little other options, and none of them anywhere near as easy. It was perfectly sensible to find this place at this exact location, then...built around the fountains supposedly at the very literal center of the world, if one was to believe the rumors and boasting.
All that said, however...Altanis was far from idle during her time.
As much as it was a welcome relief and chance to finally relax and rest from the rigors of the desert, there was still much to be done. Especially when it began to turn out that the dear mister Joshua Graham was far from idle during their time in the city. The burned man had been quite busy, as well. Rumors had begun to haltingly whisper and circulate about his return, it seemed; those same rumors orbited around the news of certain events out in the desert and badlands, about things that had happened. The chaos and apparent mass slaughter of cultists and monsters at Black Mountain, the (somewhat exaggerated) tale of chasing, cornering, capturing, interrogating and butchering one of Jasper's Gems, the incident with managing to double-cross, betray and lead to the capture of one of Plaineview's agents...
It had all, it seemed, initially been attributed to Graham himself, once his return became known. He had certainly been present at every such unlikely event as it happened one after another, that much was for certain. But he as, as it turned out, a surprisingly humble man. He wished no credit for such grim tasks, if he had not actually performed them with his own hands. His work in the city was, thus, well cut out for him: quashing the rumors of his murderous return, and establishing the truth. He had merely been a guide to the one who had actually perpetrated the deeds in question.
Altanis wished she could say she was displeased by this, but....things had begun to slowly but surely shift and change for her, since Graham began his strange personal task, in a way that she couldn't really say was a bad thing. Originally she had been noticed only in passing, her fearsome demonic appearance garnering no small amount of alarm at first, though that quickly cooled to merely a constant wariness. Then it had turned to her being just someone who had been escorted by the burned man and been fortunate enough to make it out in one piece. Or even as a former competitor of Dante's Abyss some years ago, in a frustrating handful of cases. Someone had even had the audacity to mention they had the absurd merchandise Syntech had made in her likeness -- Altanis's spike of rage was only slightly mollified when they had positively gushed about the quality of it, and how much their child adored it.
Slowly but surely, however, as word spread...that began to change. She was recognized in other ways, as her own part in the events that were originally attributed to Joshua Graham began to spread...
* ~ * ~ *
".....say. You notice how much attention you been gettin' whenever you go out around here?" the mechanic, Joey Blaese, finally spoke up one day. In a particularly audacious manner, she was sprawled out on her back, hands clasped together behind her head, and resting against Altanis's side as the centaur took a moment to rest herself, idly looking through a book of Karim's history she had managed to dig up. The girl had rapidly begin to grow far too comfortable, and lose her original wariness and apprehension, it seemed. Or any inclination to part ways and leave. "People are lookin' at ya all funny. Not the way they were when we first got here, like they were scared you were gonna start stealing babies to eat or something, either."
"Yes. I have noticed," Altanis murmured, flicking her tail to make it snap sharply just shy of taking the half-snoozing mechanic's hat right off her heat. "Due to Graham's work, no doubt."
"I dunno if it's just that, now," Morgans piped up from where she sat, in a chair near the open window, virtually nude save for her vest she had 'graciously' agreed to wear to stop anyone from getting uppity with her about 'exposure'. Comparatively cooler as it was in the city, and especially indoors, the heat was still getting to her too much to be comfortable otherwise, or so she had repeatedly complained about. It was something that Joey had, at first, given her no end of grief over -- after all, the big tough wannabe mercenary bad bitch about to be undone by a little hot weather, when the poor little wrench-girl from the boonies could tough it out no problem? It was hysterical, in the mind of at least one of them.
Galand and Graham had opted to take a separate room during their stay, for whatever mixture of politeness and retaining 'decency' as actually mattered to them. So they hadn't been present, but as they overheard through the walls....it had finally spilled over one day -- or rather, one particularly warm and unpleasantly stifling night -- into an almost comical altercation, while Altanis had stepped out to tend to some business or other. A slightly more inebriated than usual Morgans, complaining of the heat, had been needled one poke too many by Joey after an increasingly heated (and mostly lighthearted) back and forth, and decided to retaliate in a more physical manner.
The exact particulars were never really made clear, as the only ones who knew the entire story -- namely, Joey and Morgans -- refused to elaborate beyond the most basics. All Altanis knew for certain was that she had returned in the early hours of morning, shortly before sunrise, to discover the two women completely naked, somewhere between fast asleep and unconscious, and in a tangled heap together among a heap of discombobulated room room furnishings and bedding. A scene, and physical altercation, she found herself sorely disappointed she had missed being a part of. The following morning, all they would say was that 'Joey won', and from then on her incessant teasing seemed to fall off almost altogether. She seemed to have made her point, whatever it was.
Altanis still wasn't altogether sure if the encounter had been sexual or violent -- or even possibly both.
For now, however...Morgans sat leaned back so heavily that only two legs of her seat resting on the floor, one arm draping over the back of it to rest on the windowsill while her other dangled down below, only keeping a tentative grasp on her drink of choice. "You ain't exactly been shy about goin' around out there, doin' this and that and whatever the hell else. You an' me an' that big lanky pal of yours." She leaned forward, lifting her arm to heavily plop her bottle down on the table. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were tryin' to make a name for yourself and get known around here."
"With a certain group, maybe," Joey mused.
Morgans just snorted in amusement. "Heh...yeah. You seen the way she looks at and acts around them Gerudo, or whatever ya call 'em?"
"I can hear you both, you know," the demon growled.
"Yeah, I know ya can, boss lady," Joey drawled. "But I also hear ya didn't say we were wrong, either."
Altanis heaved a long, drawn out sigh laden with faux-suffering as she pinched and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Sometimes I truly do regret keeping you both alive..."
Beginning Quest: The Gerudo's history preserved 'neath the sand
Post Word Count: 1,392
Total Word Count: 1,392/10,000
Last edited: