Horrid

ZONES: -system offline-

Ursula Elwyn

---

Ursula's expedited breathing and guzzling of water helped to calm her ragged nerves. She still felt as if she had just been passed through a blender on the puree setting, every nerve in her body frazzled, frayed and burnt out in that order. The sound of a hot meal, or any meal for that matter, sounded like being allowed through St. Peter's gate on its own. With beaten determination, she bustled off to the eatery. Cafeteria. She wasn't in the correct mindset to be remembering anything except how to move her mouth and shuffle her feet, and once she reached the cafeteria, received some food and sat down, she was thankful that at least those functions were still intact. Ursula couldn't tear her mind from the terrible beating they received from the Ram. They were doing so well, Nora, Malcolm and herself.

She sighed, rolling her shoulder in its socket as she felt her muscles pulling, tight with tension. She must have been all clenched up when she was in the Nexus Projector. Picking up the spoon that came with her tray, she scooped up a spoonful of... what had she even grabbed? Some sort of meat... soup? Regardless, she scooped up a spoonful of meaty broth and munched it down, mumbling to herself. "Seriously whatdafugguugu-" Gulping hard, she removed her glasses and placed them at her side, before rubbing at the bridge of her nose. "Chili. Duh. Thank god it ain't Mystery Meat."

There she sat, alone. The calm, cold environment of the complex wasn't all that bad now that she was over the initial panic. The purpose didn't seem overly malicious, and they were being catered for well enough. Her family's wellbeing was still a major concern though. One that needed to be tended to before she would be able to cooperate again in this crazy project. That involved getting some answers. She spooned the last of her chili into her mouth, wiped with a napkin and donned her cracked glasses once more before dumping her tray with the other used trays and moving off towards where she last saw the ringleader, Elias.

She found him in short-order and made no delays in laying her concerns bare. Her voice was soft and passive, but concerned. "Mr. Eli, sir. Had a question burnin' me up for a little while and I'm feeling that after what just happened, I'm owed a bit of an answer," She took a short breath and continued. "When you said earlier that our families were being 'taken care of', what'd you mean by that?"

@SepticGentleman

ZONES: -system offline-

Ursula Elwyn

---

"Hey!" He called out, "You three alright?"

The familiar feeling of consciousness rushed back into Ursula's mind, the feeling of her cloth uniform touching her skin and the cold, filtered air touching her throat. She jolted up from her seat and immediately launched herself into a fit of rapid breathing. Her head throbbed with dull pressure from her temples, and her body was wracked with aches like deep bruising. Whether they were phantom or not, she couldn't tell for sure but they made her groan and wince as she moved. Her breath inward was quick and her exhales were short, ragged breaths, on the verge of bursting into tears as she threw herself from the terrible chair contraption to the floor. Crawling on all fours, she attempted to pull herself away from the Nexus machines and reach a safe place. Elias' words hit her finally and she spoke in a half-scream, half-weep as she said, "N-n-not exactly! We nearly f-fucking DIED. Jesus Ch-christ!" The dryness of her throat hit her after she spoke, her voice hoarse, and she coughed hard as she crawled into the corner and put her back to the wall.

The walls felt as if they were bearing down on her, closing her in. How was the Ram so powerful, that with all their power, they couldn't do anything to stop it after their previous victory? He shrugged them off like flies off a semi-trailer. Ursula reached into the pocket of her uniform to retrieve her glasses and attempt to put them on her face once more, hands shaking so much that she poked herself in the eye before managing to put them on. A long crack now ran through the corner of one of the lenses. She didn't notice. She just gripped at her knees and pulled them to her chest, looking around at her team-mates to see how they were doing. The deluge of sick coming from Malcolm to hit the floor only confirmed how she felt. She felt like she was both feet in the grave, and he was throwing up his soul.

At least it wasn't her this time.

@GingerBoi123
@Stairdweller

ZONES: -system offline-

Ursula Elwyn

---

Ursula raised her hand to wave slowly as she was introduced. To her the smaller girl in the shining silver suit and the large reptilian man looked like apples and oranges, completely contrasting one another. She scratched at her arm, looking on dumbfounded for a moment as Henry mentioned the other Zoner present, Julian. The knowledge that there were other zones like the Red City was still something that she was having trouble wrapping her head around. She had many questions for her new companions, but all that she could manage to blurt out was directed to Henry, "Christ, you're big. You must weigh a freakin' ton! Just what the hell do you ea-" She cut herself off from inquiring about his diet, hands raised in a gesture that said 'I don't even want to know'.She felt that her stomach had received enough of a shock for one day and it didn't take a genius to put together the pieces based on what he had said and what she was seeing. "You seem to have everything under control here though, thankfully."

"As Mal said, I'm Ursula. Friendly and all, so no problems here." She raised her hands and held them open, taking a passive posture. Her attention was torn away as Eli's message beamed over to her, voice in her head giving her a 'special mission'. She watched as Malcolm spoke to himself with his finger to his ear. Different strokes, she guessed, because she didn't get any earpiece. Would have been cool though. She shook her head and nodded, to both Malcolm's invitation and Eli's mission offer. "We'll get there right quick." She stated, turning to leave the veritable crime scene they had just intruded upon. She delayed for a moment, turning back to spare a wave to the large lizard man Henry and the smaller space cadet Kayla. "See you two later, nice meeting you. However strange the circumstance may be." She stepped quickly, eager to be away from the carnage of the scene and to be at the tunnel again so they could begin to investigate this 'Ram'.
@GingerBoi123
@UrbanEvolution
@Empour

Infestation, An Original Sci-Fi Roleplay

Július nodded upon receiving the order and turned quickly on his heel to file out of the room. With a sigh he relaxed his shoulders and hunched over once more to fit through the doorway and the following halls. The walk to the sleeping quarters was a short one, but there he found his personal effects, as sparse as they were. He stashed them quickly, in the sack then came with, not sparing a glance to see what he had actually brought, before shoving it into the locker marked as his. Július lingered for a moment, patting the locker with a sigh and hearing it reply with a hollow metallic thud before he turned from it and moved to the armory, hunching his massive frame the entire way.

Straps and belts, clips and zippers all snapped and drawn and pull shut, tight and secure until Július was safe and sound in his suit of custom-sized Grey Plating. It was comfortable enough for a military getup. Snug in all the right places and just the right weight to remind him that he was wearing it. He took up his Psionic Weapon and studied it for a moment, eyes going from the weapon to the crystals being held by his suit and then back again. He nodded his head, satisfied. Today was going to be a good day. He only need do what he did best. Guard and wait. And that is exactly what he did as he stood in the armory, ready to roll out.

ZONES: -system offline-

Ursula Elwyn

---

@GingerBoi123
The streets wound and turned in familiar patterns as Ursula padded along with Malcolm, feeling the texture of the ground beneath her feet. The rolling wisps of dirt and dust brushed across her skin, like moons orbiting her form as they slingshotted themselves to the ground behind her, attraction too weak to keep up as she ran. She skid to a halt as Malcolm did, scanning their surroundings for Denizens or uglier presences. Rooftops, alleyways, streets and windows in the local area were, for all that she could see, clear and safe. No sign of any baddies or the goatman, so at least the area was safe.

@Zombehs
@UrbanEvolution
@Empour
Relatively safe, that is. The moment the sight of the ravaged, charred Aggressor corpse hit her, Ursula felt her stomach move once again. "Oh sweet christ, what the fuck happened?" She spoke through her hand, her other hand at her stomach. She coughed from her throat, but managed to keep her lid on this time. With a panicked look to Malcolm and then to the bodies, she spoke in a harsh whisper, "It looks like a pack -- a battalion of bears came through here!" Her eyes lingered on the wounds for a moment and took in shredded skin and frayed sinew, unable to look away as she pondered rapidly. It was as if they had just been pulled from the body, right off the bone! She had never actually seen Denizens eating, so maybe this is truly how they found sustenance?

Finally managing to work up the resolve to look away, she closed her eyes and gripped at her stomach to calm its burbles of protest. Her skin was crawling and it was a few seconds before she could bring her eyes from the ground up to the crackling figure before them. Having being introduced, she waved silently, fearing to open her mouth immediately should more than words come flying out again. Her steadfast silence didn't last long as she witnessed the large reptilian creature that she arrived with. Holding an arm in one hand and knocking at a nearby door like he was trying to borrow some sugar. She let loose a short squeak, surprise dismissing her sickness. "I don't- I mean what is... what?"

ZONES: -system offline-

Ready freddy.

ZONES: -system offline-

Ursula Elwyn

---

@GingerBoi123
Ursula returned the smile in kind. This boy seemed rather friendly, and that would be more than okay with her outside in the normal world, but something about being in the Zone and the Nexus situation threw her off. For now, she erred on the side of caution and remained wary of the entire situation. She spoke plainly, tone rather nonchalant, "Nice meetin' you, Mal. I'm partial to being called Ursula, since its my name and all. Hahaha..." Her laughter weened off into a drawn out whine, a pathetic attempt to bridge the uncomfortable silence. At the mention and showing of his gauntlets, she pondered out loud to him. "Well, if you follow power-lines around, they usually link up to a transformer or a pylon. There are also those sidewalk power boxes that you could probably bust open like a roasted walnut..." She stopped for a moment to slam her foot on the ground, reporting back with, "As for underground power, may as well be Atlantis to me. No idea where they are. Seems like the power boxes would be your best be-"

@Zombehs
The dying cry of an Aggressor made Ursula turn her head so fast that she could feel the tendons in her neck straining to keep up, skirt whirling excitedly as she swivelled on the spot to assess where it was coming from. A death call meant that more might be on the way soon. Maybe it had something to do with the terrifying goatman, maybe it had found an opponent to go toe-to-toe with. She pointed in the general direction of the noise and looked to her new companion Malcolm. "Oooooooohhhhhh that isn't good. Not good at all. That could be that goat-thing. Could be someone ate some bad enchilada. Sounds a lot like bad enchilada." With no further word, she moved forward, bare feet kicking up dust as she hopped towards the noise. "We can find you a juice station on the way, or there if we are lucky. Come on, Mal."

ZONES: -system offline-

Ursula Elwyn

---

Ursula's focus had already shifted to searching for any Denizens that may be around, out and about. She never knew what to make of the Denizens, in any sense. Sometimes they seemed like they wanted to help in some fashion, other times they just seemed like they wanted to avoid her at all times. This Denizen, or Aggressor, she wasn't even sure, had a very different method to avoiding her and her company. A very collaterally destructive method at that. It was worrying to say the least, if it could cause that much movement just by hopping around then Ursula could only shake to think of what it would do if it were allowed to run around the City for any long stretch of time. With a slow flex of her fingers, Ursula concentrated on feeling out her link to the ground beneath her feet, closing her eyes to listen to the low rumble from within this dream earth. She only wished she could hear this in real life. So calming, like a voice calling out to her. Soothing her and drawing her down where it was safe. Such a lovely ambience.

@GingerBoi123
The crack of the pavement beneath her broke her from her slightly meditative trance. With a sudden movement she turned slightly as she was addressed directly, a boy speaking in reply to her earlier statement. He began jogging off in pursuit of the goatman and looked back at her, inviting her along. With a nod she pushed herself into a light jog to catch up to him, skirt and decorative fabric flapping slightly as she gained speed. With every step, a small plume of dust billowed out to be only slightly larger than her foot, as she displaced small amounts of dirt with every placement of her bare foot. She turned to the boy, and greeted him as they moved. "We probably shouldn't pursue too quickly, who knows what kind of dangers this thing might pose. I think we should just observe from afar for now, and make sure it isn't doing anything overly concerning. Hopefully it just ends up looking for some grass to eat or something. Do you think it has a problem finding horseshoes out here, what with having hooves and all?" Her thoughts spilled over into her opinion on the situation, coming out as a slight ramble but overall getting her point across. She adjusted the fabric around her head and neck, pulling her hair so that it sat correctly alongside her face in one large forelock.

Monsters Hotel

<snip>

@MonsieurShade

Al pushed his bottom lip up against his top in such a way that pushed it out, and exhaled through his nose in a defeated fashion as he crumpled the letter up and put it in his still sopping wet jacket pocket. He returned the small nod from Cain with a large, ponderous nod of his own, looking quite like a horse or a donkey moving its head up and down. What was there to do but follow the instructions of the 'Lord' of the area? He had been dealing with lords and ladies and kings and queens and regents and dukes and duchesses and earls and counts and countesses of all sorts for the many, many years that he had been alive. He knew how these types were, cross them or fail to dance to the tune that matched their fancy, and they were extremely liable to make everything an uphill battle on a river without a paddle.

Cain's question hit him slightly harder than he expected a question to, as he was reminded about his farm and how much he missed it. He hoped the hands and the animals were alright. 'Wait, of course they are alright,' he reminded himself. 'Augeas didn't fame them for their wonderful coats, after all.' Alcaeus took a slow breath in and shook his head, looking over at Cain with a knowing stare. With a smile, he spoke frankly. "Well there buddy, when you've lived quite as long as I have, the slowly shifting form of Mother Gaia becomes one of the most beautiful things a man can ever experience. All over the world is weird and wonderful, from the snow-dusted plains of Moesia to the shifting sands of Aegyptus. Maybe you should come down to the farm when all this is over. Might even let you milk a cow or muck out the stables. Was there anything specific you wanted to know?"

ZONES: -system offline-

Have a very happy merry, Duck Dodgers. Hope the birthday cake is nice in the 24th and one half century.