Excal — Roleplayer Guild

Freya Yrsal

She watched it eat, a few inches away.

It was a fascinating creature, it's manner of digestion even more so. She called it a Moaner, for they lumbered like ghosts through the decrepit, dark hallways of the Zone, releasing a sound like a moaning woman. She found out later, watching one up close, that it was simply the sound of it's breath passing through it's strange mouth, or mouths. It looked like some monstrous hybrid of a giant human and a tree, it's limbs thick and trenched, with a split down it's hooded head into a black maw. From afar, it looked like a veiled woman dragging her long arms across the rusted floor. It didn't seem to have any eyes as far as she knew.

And oddly, it ate like a worm. 

Right now it was holding a Shock Rat (Another nickname. Did they even have assigned names yet, she wondered?), a spiral of pink, slimy mouths, each one beneath the next, extending over the corpse from it's head first, very slowly pushing it in through the passage, unaware of the woman with the bulging, insectoid-like eyes standing right beside it. A faint yellow light illuminated their corner from above, flickering, recently repaired by a Builder.

She rubbed at her foggy gas mask, wishing she could pet the beast. It was a strange sight, not only for it's appearnece, but it's presence, as these creatures lived far below in the unexplored, pitch black depths of the Abyss. That she found it wandering the upper levels before it got shot by some Diver was a blessing. 

Come to think of it, other Abyssal fauna had come up from the depths. Centipedel mammalian creatures and strange eyeless fish that flew through the air, static blanketing their bodies, and other sights. 

Even the usual fauna had been aggressive of late, sometimes shrieking and thrashing against empty air as if assaulted by phantoms before collapsing in a seizure. She didn't pay it any mind at first, passing around these sights on her daily routes like a shadow, sometimes pausing to watch their motions, as she did for many others, even those she saw a thousand times over. 

Her life in the Zone was often a string of faintly connected, shimmering memories, as if she were in a dream. The shifting and mesmerizing environment had that effect. Honestly, when was the last time she actually slept? 

Hmmm...

Ah, but the present.

One of her common past-times was to get enamored with some phenomenom and watch it unfold for hours on end, although in this case she was waiting to see the effects of her new toxin, about two hours now. She didn't feel any sorrow for testing it on the Moaner, fond of it as she was, for all creature's of the Zone were but expressions of it in the end, and would return to it one way or another in it's great cycle of repleneshment. 

Still, this was taking way too long, it hadn't even gotten the body into it's stomach yet, let alone completely in it's mouth!

Upon closer inspection, she realized it wasn't being slow, but not moving at all. She gave it a faint poke and stepped back... No reaction. 

Well, that explained the two hours. 

Ah, but she had a pleasent examination of it's anatomy in the meantime. 

Her fault really.

"Huh, muscle paralysis... Neat! Now let's see how cooking goes..."

She approached the frozen, squatting Moaner and pulled her knife, carressing it's head gently, "Thank you, sleep well." She plunged the knife at an angle a few inches above it's mouth, where she believed it's brain to be if it truly was humanoid or mammalian. Sure enough, the creature's body slumped and it emptied it's bowels, toppling over to the side. She breathed carefully through her mouth and began to carve it, humming to herself, the flickering light and the faint hum of active, ancient machinary her only companion.

And then she heard the gunfire. 

She continued carving despite the noise for a few minutes. It wasn't unusual, this was the Zone after all, and her particular position not too far from a checkpoint. She was sure the Divers could handle it.

Then she noticed the particular type of gunfire... Several Catalyst blasters.

Hmm.

She stopped her activity and sheathed her blade, pulling out a marker and drawing on the corner nearby a neon red circle with an X. Several similar neon symbols of various colors marked the area. Only she knew their meaning.

She briskly walked across the rusted dark hallway, save the glass window at the end of it, passing rooms full of dead, cracked terminals and work tables. Climbing over the broken window, glancing up briefly at the storming Ocean of Ash, pausing to admire the turbulent clouds that shifted like pregnant waves, she sat on the beam and pulled up a pair of binoculars and peered around, looking for the flashes of blasters. Sure enough, a few floors above on the building across the gunfire roared, along with the sounds of shouting. She caught a glimpse of a figure.

The helmet and shoulder piece of a Magistrate. 

She clenched her teeth, hissing sharply. What the ever loving Abyss were those tin cans doing this far out?! 

Wait, if they were this close then...

Ah crap.

Now, if you asked anyone who knew Freya, they would have told you she was nicest person they ever met... and then they would warn you not to ask her about the Magistratum, or the City authorities in general.

She wasn't very nice to them.

Swearing under her breath, she looked down a few levels to the floor of her nearest hideout. She had several, but the last thing she wanted was A PIECE OF SHIT MAGISTRATE SWINE... ruffling through her belongings. 

She shifted herself over the window completely and steadied herself on a metal ledge, gazing down into the neigh endless depths of the buildings, currents blowing fiercly over her body, nearly tossing her back through the window. Patting her person, she grabbed an antique grappling launcher, feeding the heads of some grapple lines through it's barrel, pulling the switch that reeled it in. 

She'd had this launcher since her first days as a Diver, years ago now, having gotten it from her fa....

Her d...

Hmm...

Well she knew some very nice man gave it to her.

What a nice man. 

Aiming it proper, the launcher hissed sharply as it shot the obsidian steel arrow hooks across the abyss. They smashed through a broken window and hooked on it's beam and she reeled the line in tight. Pressing her hand against her chest, she muttered alien, arcane words, a small maginta bracelet flaring up from her wrist, enveloping her in a soft grey field. She gripped the launcher tight and jumped, the LEVITATION LVL 1 ;Link only moderately counteracting the powerful wind current. 

It swept her to the side, but the line held tight and the launcher quickly reeled it in, sweeping her across the abyss. She pulled her feet up, bracing them against the approaching wall. Breathing deeply, she stared up at the hooked lines and the windows around her, spotting the neon orange square drawn above a window below. She descended slowly and climbed in, gathering up her lines and bolting across the corridor, jumping over thick vines that broke through the floor panels, wet, red fuzzy fungi sprawling across the walls like an infection. Her eyes quickly re-adjusted to the darkness.

Left, right, right, left... ah, there it was. Orange Square. She stopped and listened... No, if they were here they would already be making a racket, especially on account of the decapitated magistrate head she had put on a stick right in front of the door, "TRAPS. DO NOT APPROACH" written in neon red in the entrance hallway of the small apartment. 

She hadn't actually killed her, just found her body and had the wild idea. She hasn't been robbed since, so, effective!
She sighed in relief, entering the apartment, only to be struck by a faint "whirring".

"Oh no. No. No! For the love of..."

She entered to the sight of a small Sweeper bot consuming her belongings, a maw on it's rectangular body opening up and swallowing the items it's arms pushed it, steam blasting off it's sides as it literally burned whatever it ate to the atom.

She sighed, taking off her gas mask and wiping her face, "Fucking useless bucket of bolts...". As much love as she had for the Zone and it's fauna and magic, she held none for it's technology, to the suprise of many Divers. She used what she needed, but otherwise, the whole place could keep rusting for all she cared. 

Case in point.

The dumb bucket continued to gnaw on her camp, stuffing a cooking pot into's mouth and burping out another cloud of steam.

Hmm...

She pulled out one of the pieces of meat she carved out of the Moaner, walking over to the Sweeper and hanging the meat in front of it's sensors. Sure enough, after a minute or two, it's attention locked onto the offending meat and it began to reach out for it. She quickly stepped back, leading the damn thing out of the apartment and down the hall. Oh how she wished to just blast the stupid thing...

Beams of light broke across the hallway. Chatter followed.

"Of course we get stuck on patrol duty while the others get to go hunting. And you know why we get stuck ever time on patrol duty now?"

"Oh not this again. C'mon man, I said I was so-"

"Because your stupid ass couldn't keep your fucking finger off the trigger! That's why! Now if I hear you whine one more time!"

Shit.

No, wait.

Opportunity!

She dropped the meat and shuffled back into the dark around the corner, holding out her hand at the Sweeper as it gobbled up the meat. She snapped her wrist back, then clenched it into a fist, pointing a small orange cylinder at the machine, concentrating. In a blink the machine changed appearences to a ravenous Moaner, a wail escaping it's lips as it shuffled on the spot. The Magistrates turned their torches on the beast, yelling and shooting their Catalyst blasters in alarm. 

The Sweeper fell on it's side, burn holes smoking along it's metallic frame.

"What the hell?! Wait, I swear, I saw a-"

"You fucking idiot, that's a Sweeper!"

"YOU SAW IT TOO!"

"Wait, did you hear that...

Ah shit. RUN!"

She bite down on her lip to hold back her snickering, pressing herself against the wall as a beastial, metallic roar filled the hallway, followed by a sharp squeek as a miniature Catalyst tank drove down on it's four legs, massive arcane blasters sprouting from the side of it's golden orb body, the blue crystal in it's center turning red as it turned sharply and immedialy began to open fire on the fleeing Magistrates, their chase followed by her shrieking laughter. 

She followed along, singing with volume and pride, mocking the soldiers from afar. 

As they ascended a flight of stars, her eyes widened and her song was cut short.

One of her favorite plants in the whole Zone was a colorful, bio-luminscent fungi she called an Abyssal Daughter, for she found it one day exploring the fifth level of the Zone, miles below, blooming a beautiful sanguine at the edge of an anomaly. The strange flora seemed connected on a fundamental level to the chaotic, primal energy of the Zone, feeding off the excess magic released by the anomalies that appeared like air bubbles in the fabric of reality, twisting it's forces. They would blossom and release spores when the anomly appeared, drifting through the air until they settled on some random location, a location that at some time or another would host an anomly, glowing a navy blue in their hibernation and turning a light green just a few moments before the anomly 'popped'. She took them and spread them throughout the upper levels whenever she could, a priceless secret of her trade.

The more Abyssal Daughters, the stronger the anomly. Usually, there was only a small patch in a corner, snuggling with the other moss and fungi.

When she ascended the stairs, she saw the whole hallway blanketed in Abyssal Daughters, from floor to ceiling.

They were glowing bright green.

The Sentry tank halted it's chase and blast-fire, crystal humming to blue, watching the soldiers stumble through the field.

It turned around and drove past her, just as the field turned red.

And thick darkness swallowed them all. 

She couldn't see, she couldn't hear. She couldn't smell, she couldn't feel. 

She felt... weightless.

Nothing.

An ex-alchemist once told her on a dive that they called it a Blackhole anomaly, named after ancient anomalies beyond the sky that devoured light and bent time. She found that funny, that the Zone stretched even beyond their world.

Perhaps even their heaven was a honeytrap hell?

She smiled and began to walk, drifting through the void, and then she saw them, struggling.

She saw their catalysts, twinkling like stars.

And she saw the Stalkers, splitting like rotting fruits and enveloping them in a cacoon, their inky twisted bodies made of ruptured time itself and suffocated light.

"Daniel! WHere are you?! WHere the hell are you?!"

"Grab my hand, grab my hand! I'm right here!"

"Where?! Whe-"

One soldier turned around, grabbing onto the other's hands, just in time to watch his skin melt through his armor, then his bones, then all togather his body contorted and mixed like a soup, as if reality itself were digesting him. He twisted into a focal point, fading, a faint outline shimmering in his place before that too faded.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

The soldier, unfortunately, didn't blink.

And in his silent scream he tried to call out his partner's name, but he forgot.

He tried to remember to his face, but he forgot.

He tried to remember his touch, but he forgot.

HEFORGOTHEFORGOTHEFORGOT

And as he felt the very fabric of his mind devoured, he forgot himself. 

Freya watched silently, watching them fade, then watching the Stalkers feed. On them, on their catalysts. She felt as if she were adrift at the bottom of an ocean, and she gazed up, and before her lay the Ocean of Ash, pregnant with waves, or...

No..

It was an Ocean of the Zone. And not far from her she saw a twisting torrent of energy, like a whirpool, frothing, drawing in the elements all around, centered in a block of buildings she recognised. And she felt herself pulled into that whirpool.

And within she glimpsed...

She reached up and wiped the blood from her eyes, and then fell to her knees and vomited. She choked, gasping, as a silver leaves sprouted forth from a thick branch rupturing from her mouth, and she lost consciousness.

"Soon."

She looked around, walking down the rusting, rotting hallway with the cuts of Moaner meat hanging off her arm.

Huh, that was odd. 

Wasn't she just...

When was the last time she slept?

 Some time later... 

She squeeled softly as her exo-rig reeled in the grappling lines of the remote climber, pulling her up the string of broken holes in the flooring, grunting as she pulled herself out of the last hole, peering up at a familiar mask.

"Oh hey Annie! What'cha doin' here? Come fer a bite?"

The Diver scoffed and gave her a helping hand, dusting her off, "Oh I'd love to stay and play cooking experiment, I really do, but I was actually looking for ya."

"Aw, well, it's a blessing to see you! How'd you know I'd be here?"

"When ya ain't staring at water dripping you're kinda predictable. Should mix up yer routines alittle honey. Knew you fixed up checkpoints today."

"Well, you wouldn't have found me otherwise, now would you, smart ass." She chuckled softly and rushed over to give her a tight hug, the smaller Diver kicking her legs around trying to push her off.

"UGH! Okay! Okay! No touching, blight, how many times! I got a job for you, you free or not?"

"Of course! I always love new visitors."

"Feh, bet you didn't love the new string of Magistrates knocking."

Freya visibly twitched all over briefly, staring, "No."

"Sheesh. Beats me why they're suddenly crowding the placce, it's turned into more of a hellhole than usual. Hell, I was actually worried you'd get caught."

"Caught?"

"You know, with all these new freaky anomalies popping up. They're fucking huge and they ain't budging. Real pain in the ass... What, you ain't run into them yet?"

"Um..."

"Fuck, and you live here. Get your head straight... we kind of need you."

"Aw, Annie, come he-"

"NO TOUCHING! Anyway, here's a chip with the details. I wasn't told anything else, but, personally, something feels really... really wrong with this. Be careful, yeah?"

She took the small crystal in her hands, pocketing it without a glance, "Don't worry about me, the Zone is my home. Do you want some help getting back?"

The Diver shiverred visibly, "Please. I'm getting a heart attack just standing here."
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