[h2]Asheel[/h2]

[hider=last time]
There are goblins on the river side. Asheel made them a cool painting cave, then went back to finding goblins.
[/hider]

“What! Why! How! Why do the other gods keep doing this!?” the exasperated Maintainer threw up her hands and demanded to know, further scaring the assortment of humanoid creatures she had come across in the desert. Those that were not already boiling in their thick fur scattered into the desert, fleeing the furious goddess and causing her to snap out of her rage when she saw the consequences of it.

“No wait, come back! I didn’t mean to scare you! Please don’t run, you'll get hurt! You’ll die out there” she called after them desperately, and though some slowed, others just kept running.

Then all of them started running again when the motherly figure and her great crystal orb were replaced by a wizened form sat astride a machine of blades and death, one which immediately started cackling at the Maintainer's misfortune.

“EHEHEHEHEHEHEHE It never ends! It never ends! This is your curse, you stagnant goat! You care too much, and look where’s got you! Endless labor!” The Breaker mocked the third that had been keeping her from taking control, only for her to lose it as well just as soon as she had gotten it, and for the Maker to take over again.

Still, she was in agreement with her oldest self , complaining that “This is so booooooring! It’s time for something new! The cave was cool, let's go do more stuff like that!” only for the Maintainer to snap back in control.

“No! Someone has to do this, and that person has to be me!” she insisted, but the others were still having none of it

“Come on now dearie, we’ve been at this for ages. I think we deserve a break ehehehehe” the Breaker joked, while the Maker agreed with by saying “Yeah, let it be someone else’s problem!”

“No no no we have to- I have to …” the Maintainer insisted, before slowing in her speech, thinking for a moment and then realizing that “we can make it something else’s task” which got a “huh?” From the Breaker but an “ooooooh!” from the Maker before she clapped her hands and declared “one self sustaining solution coming right up!”

[hr]

A nameless figure stumbled through the desert, fleeing from the strange shifting thing that was screaming at itself. The figure had no idea what it was, or who it was, all it knew was it had to run, to flee. Then, in its haste, it tripped.

It went tumbling down a sand dune, sand making an absolute mess of its shimmering black feathers as it fell, before its pointed beak got stuck in the sand. It struggled, grasped the ground with all four sets of talons and then heaved with all its might, freeing itself from the sand.

It shook itself, trying to get the grains out of its feathers and nostrils to little avail, before wondering if maybe it should have listened to whatever that screaming pointy headed creature was. This desert thing was not nice.

Then it heard a rumbling, and turned to find the source, only to see a massive wall of chitin coming straight at it. Or rather rolling, though the distinction was rather lost as it cried out in alarm and started to try and run again. 

It was fruitless however, as all legs pale in comparison to the all mighty wheel.

The roly-poly of a woodlouse the size of a van bore down on the poor bird beast person, but rather than squish him it opened up its curled up body just enough that the gap rolled over its target, rather than its body. It didn’t leave its target behind however, and instead lots of little legs pulled the bird-person up into the center of its body. 

The rather dizzy bird person only barely felt the bug stop spinning, and then was carefully inserted into some kind of translucent cylinder that the bug was wrapped around. As it was dropped in, the bird landed atop a creature who had long red hair, rounded ears, a moderate stature and with skin pale as the sands down to the waist, at which point the rest of its body was that of a red and black banded snake.

The two screamed at each other, struggled and scrambled to either side of the cylinder, from which they stared at each other for a few moments, both panting hard. They hadn’t come out of the struggle evenly however, and the now bleeding from claw wounds snake person shied away from the bird when it tried to communicate. So instead the bird sighed and looked away, only to gasp at what it saw.

Through the glass like exterior of the cylinder it could see the desert flying by as the bug that had captured them rotated around the glass, somehow keeping them completely level as it used its own body as a wheel. They were climbing an embankment of some kind, and from up there the bird could see more of them. So many more. A few were chasing after other humanoid creatures, but most were simply blazing forth into the desert, looking as if they might fill the world with their bodies.

Then their own bug turned, racing down the embankment and careening towards a half dozen green figures. They barely even tried to run, and soon enough they too had been scooped up and deposited inside the cylinder. The bird waved at them too, but the green things seemed too exhausted, dehydrated, or both too much else but lay there in defeat.

That was until they stopped rolling again a little while later, and a stream of little soft globs rained down atop them, stirring the goblins into wakefulness. One reached out a shaking hand and promptly shoved the foreign object into its mouth, chewing it with grim determination. Then it paused. Then its eyes lit up. It chewed barely enough to soften the orb up, swallowed, and then eagerly grabbed for another one, and then a third, before finally pausing its feasting, and passing the fourth to a fellow green thing.

Curious, the bird, who had left the goblin pile well alone after one weakly hissed at it when he’d poked them, reached for one of the orbs itself, only to have their hand slapped by the green thing who had eaten. Very weakly slapped. 

The bird was shocked rather than hurt. Sat there for a few more moments, thinking, and then tried again. A hand tried to slap it away once more, but the bird was bigger and stronger and still full of the energy it had been created with, so it simply ignored the feeble attempt at violence and took what it wanted. 

That rather set the tone for the rest of the journey. Having found that it could, the full blooded bird folk with its larger size, feathered armor, and sharp beak and talons came to dominate the other occupants, snake person included. It hoarded the lion’s share of the food orbs, leaving only a few for the others. They in turn stuck together, the snake joining the goblin tribe mainly because they had to share space with each other as the bird took over ⅔ of the chamber so it could control the food supply.

Then, out of the blue, the journey ended.

Sand was replaced by wetlands and, at their heart, a shimmering river of crystal blue waters that gave life to all around it.  

The giant rolling bug promptly dumped them out onto the ground here, proceeded to devour several trees, and then rolled off into the desert again. It was not the only one to do so. Even as the people started around in wonderment, they saw other giant bugs rolling in to drop off people. 

A lot of people.

Then all of a sudden all eyes went to the bird for a moment, then back to the open space before the goblins and snake-folk all collectively ran (or slithered) away from it, wanting to be as far away from the bully as possible.

It watched them go with disinterest, and though in time it would come to desire that power again, for now it instead approached the banks, and stared down into the waters, finally seeing its own face. 

A thin beak, dark eyes, pointed ears and radiant black and dark blue feathers stared back at it, and then the kingfisher heeded the call of the waters, diving into their cool embrace. On instinct it snatched its head forwards, catching something in its beak, and then rising up to the water’s surface, wiggling juvenile carp in its beak.

The act of fishing fed some hunger it had not known it had had, bringing about a satisfaction that beat even that of the one brought by the taste of swallowing its catch.

Life, it decided, was good, and surely it had all been made for the king fisher’s benefit. Thus bloomed to fruition a deep seated ego, and only woe for those upon whom it was inflicted could follow.

[hider=summary]
The Maintainer freaks out again, this time about how there are a whole load more people stuck out in the desert now. The Breaker and Maker break back out again from under her control, mocking her and demanding they do something new respectively. They argue, and eventually Asheel realizes that she is a god, and can just, you know, make things to do this desert rescue job for her.

So she does.

Thus the roly-polies are born, giant woodlice the size of vans or small busses that can defy physics and roll around a central biocrystal axel they are able to make. These roly-polies then roll out, capturing goblins and beast folk alike, depositing them in the axles, and then transporting them to the riverside.

One such bug captures a kingfisher, a snake, and a bunch of goblins. While being transported the kingfisher becomes a petty tyrant thanks to its full blood physique giving it all sorts of advantages. Then when they arrive all the others run off rather than be stuck under its rule any more. It doesn’t really care though, and instead goes fishing, fueling its inner fire in the process.

Then we leave it as it fully develops a superiority complex that will likely have predictable consequences for the increasingly overcrowded riverbanks.
[/hider]

[hider=mp summary]
6mp start

1 mp to create roly-polies (and 2 bonus mp provided by wheels and cycles): these potentially massive woodlouse bugs move around by rolling around bio-crystal axles of their own creation. The largest ones can transport people inside their hollow axles, and keep them fed using unfertilized eggs, while the smaller ones have the potential to act as self powering wheels for all sorts of contraptions if tamed. Initially tasked with saving people trapped in the desert, the following generations will be unguided, though still naturally dispositioned towards being helpful.

5mp remaining
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