route666rp | FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

The Convoy begins a slow path through the forest, and a long road winding between the trees. The vegetation hangs thick overhead, with a perpetual state of dim light hanging over the surroundings. Sunlight and moonlight both have a hard time piercing the gloom. And alongside that is a sense of danger looming in the shadows.

01: DEPARTURE/MINGLE

Dawn arrives after a long and demanding night. As wane sunlight leaks through the forest, the forcefield flickers out. In its place, the Convoy hums to life. Engines thrum, breakfast appears in the dining car, and the speakers crackle with a pre-recorded, automated voice.

“The Convoy will depart in three hours. Please ready yourself for the trip. Secure your belongings, prepare your vehicle, remain as human as possible. End destination… Nirvana. Repeat, the Convoy will depart in three hours.”

The recording drones on a loop, before fading out in a crackle of static. Before departure there’s a few matters to attend to, some more pressing than others:
+Breakfast consists of bland porridge. Some might want better food, and with a decently stocked kitchen, one can make better.
+The showers have lost any hot water. Surely there’s some way to fix the heater or provide some hot water? Or otherwise grumble through a cold shower.
+There’s plant growth where the Husks have been felled. Flowering vines grow over the Convoy, and need to be pruned for departure. The foliage has an odd effect if directly touched, instilling wanderlust and curiosity. The affected feel compelled to wander… Or be curious about others!

02: HAUNTED GROVE

The trees grow into a tangle just a few paces off the road. They almost envelop the buildings, absorbing the structures until only the roofs are visible. The branches become more twisted, and almost arm-like when reaching out to you.

Vines hang like nooses from the trees. And a closer look shows moss ridden Husks draped in the branches. Still, those who ignore those ominous signs can find supplies growing and hanging from the branches; repair materials, and unnerving types of food like canned ham and frozen pizza.

And then… There’s the effect from staying in the shade of the trees for too long. There’s a lethargy that clings to you, even as it eases the changes wracking your body. Resting underneath the grove can heal a Drifter of one change, and leave them feeling soothed… But all of this is by design. The grove WANTS you to stay there and become a part of it, so that it can ensnare you with vines or absorb you into trees. It can restore Drifters, but if they stay there for too long they’re going to need some rescuing.

03: WRECK

There’s a collection of abandoned cars in the forest clearings. Some cars are better preserved than others, some even containing cargo, weapons, and ammo, with a possibility to scavenge equipment off them…

…If not for the traps, set around the wreckage in the form of steel jaw bear traps and snares. All of them are coated in something that leaves the vision blurry and sets hearts into overdrive. If exposed to too much of it, there’s suddenly a reason for that near panic; hallucinations of fears can easily flare up.

There’s also things prowling the wreckage on four metallic canine legs, with gleaming chrome teeth and red headlights for eyes. The guidance computers on nearby vehicles flash an alert as they draw close; identifying them as chromehounds, though these have seen better days. Dented, damaged, but still fierce enough. And still ready to pounce on anyone caught in the traps or drugged with fear toxin.

While the chromehounds can be dispatched, the fear toxin will have to run its course. Closer examination of the hounds and traps shows an insignia of a sword piercing the moon.

03-A: MONSTER NEST

Hostile beasts lurk in the woods. Many are cautious, nocturnal creatures that prefer to emerge at night, and hunt any Drifter who has strayed outside the reach of the Convoy forcefield.

A massive monster nest dwells in a crumbling, abandoned overpass in the middle of the forest. The Convoy does its best to give the area a wide berth, but it’s entirely possible Drifters might still stumble across it: particularly if some of the more annoying creatures like Great Jagras steal food and take it back to the den.

Many of the beasts make their dens in abandoned vehicles littering the overpass: Jagras and Slicemargl take up the better spots, while noxicaps and scavengers linger on the fringes. But the most territorial are the mutant bears, occupying the darker parts of the underpass.

04: SHRINE

The moon glows balefully overhead some nights. An eerie light glows across the sky, like a burning aurora that exacerbates any symptoms the Drifters have picked up this month. Sometimes the trees help to muffle this maddening light. But not always.

There is however a remedy that blocks out the light; dotted near the road or just off the forest paths are shrines carved from stone and wood. The aurora dims near these shrines, and offers breathing room. Small offerings dot the alters, and some are even medicines that can alleviate hallucinations, wanderlust, and the like.

But there’s a price for taking these offerings; the various candles dotting the shrines ignite, flames reaching for the intruder, and burn either a monster change, or a message into their skin. It’s equal odds which one a Drifter receives. The message fades in the span of the month, but offers cryptic words regarding the world, and can be logged in the Convoy database.

05: STASIS WARNING

Pockets of something… Wrong lurk on the road, or just off the path. Many of them are lined with Husks twisted into horrified expressions. Others are little more than a faint distortion and ripple in the air. But once a Drifter wanders into the pockets, the effects become all too clear.

The pockets are alarmingly still when stepped inside. This stillness tries to seep into anyone in the pocket, making them stiffen, their thoughts go sluggish and almost halt… But the Sigils on their skin dispel this before it can completely overtake a Drifter. Sigils disperse the field with explosive results; bursts of fire or electricity, surges of plant grown, rock explosions all burst as the field is dispelled.

The one warning for these pockets are strange symbols and the words ‘STASIS’ inscribed on rocks, trees, and signs around these pockets, warning about them. A couple crisscross the roads needed to take out of the forest. It seems that a Tough vehicle could easily wade in and survive the explosions of magic, while a Fast vehicle would be capable of outracing any trouble… While those on foot will need to hope for the best, or for fast healing.

06: RADIO HOUR

After several days of travel, and around nightfall the Convoy approaches a resting point ringed in Husks. It resembles a log cabin, with some unnerving traits; first, the trees near the cabin become more rigid and geometric, almost like pylons. Second is the large radio tower growing out of the cabin itself. Once the Convoy is in range, the radios, phones, and screens all crackle to life. Screens display a broadcasting logo, followed by an emergency signal drone. Astute Drifters can check the dates that pop up, and realize that this is an old recording.

“Attention, this is an emergency broadcast. Seek shelter immediately. A moon warp is imminent. Repeat, a Moon Warp is imminent. Impact: falling moon shards will cause destruction and distortions. Prepare by seeking cover inside shields. Those caught outside will be twisted. Seek shelter immediately.”

Outside the Husks pulse, and the broken moon shimmers. Several bright spots in the sky grow brighter… And larger, as shards of moon fall. The Convoy comes to a wrenching halt. A warning siren echoes, before the Convoy deploys its shield. Those inside are safe from the worst of the Warp, able to hide out in the Convoy. Nothing like a good time to bond with whoever you’ve been shut in with, right?

07: MONSTER HOUR

Those outside the Convoy will be in for a rougher time. The glow from the falling moon shards has a way of piercing into the brain and forcing a full transformation for as long as the Moon Warp lasts.

During the Warp, there’s plenty of trouble for Drifters. The Husks glow before bursting into a pack of violent, wolf-esque gryphons called Nargacuga, and a host of other beasts. These monsters favor scaling trees for dive attacks, or hauling Drifters up into the branches. But with their focus on the Drifters, the Nargacuga are easy prey for the chromehounds nearby, which pounce in a tangle and clash.

By dawn, the Warp has worn off. The Nargacuga are dead, while the chromehounds have been smashed. Transformed Drifters have two options in the aftermath; either they've burned off so much energy fighting they revert into an exhausted state. They will likely be suffering from disorientation and require rest, healing, and anchoring from others. Alternately, Drifters run wild ahead of the Convoy as something draws them north; they will have a chance to revert next month, in the Messages prompt!

07-A: MONSTER BRAWL

One particularly large and ferocious Nargacuga leads the pack of monsters… And seems to have a particular hatred for technology. He attacks the radio tower, doing his best to knock it down, and then strikes at the Convoy only to be deflected by the shields. Once he’s deflected, he vents his rage on the Chromehounds.

The radio picks up something from the lead Nargacuga each time he bleeds, and a patchy broadcast happens, with different fragments heard by different people:
1. “Serenith has ordered. I obey. Obliterate every trace of Wardens, cull their human flock. Justice for the packs they murdered.”
2. “Keep bleeding them until the moon Breaks, just like she ordered.”
3. “They gave me a place and a pack, where I could hunt.”
4. “Be ruthless. The Steel Wardens aren’t different, with the children they cull.”
5. “Hate… Loss… Blood. Always more blood.”

In its death throes the Nargacuga obliterates any remaining Husks, littering the area with quicksilver pools. Drifters must be careful around these pools, as contact with them will cause all pre-assigned monster traits next month to linger without special treatment.

MICRO ENCOUNTERS:

PLEASE NOTE! These are small bits of set dressing for players to include in threads if they wish, rather than full fledged prompts or events. You may handwave your exploration of these areas, or thread them out.

Radio Trees: A strange line of geometric trees leading towards the radio tower cabin. The closer a Drifter gets, the more they can hear faint music and old broadcasts regarding moon phases.

Hunting Grounds: An area of burnt out husks that have already burst open. There’s a few monster carcasses scattering the area, along with broken weapons and bullet casings. A symbol has been carved into the monsters, or a moon pierced by a sword.

Forest Flowers: A clearing that lacks the grasping trees from before, and instead is taken up by crystalline flowers. They give off a pleasant fragrance, and help to relax characters. Can be crushed into a medicine to help cure long lasting fear toxin effects.

Falling Trees: Drifters are advised to be careful of falling trees obstructing the road, and which may need to be hacked through. Granted, what’s knocking over the trees is another question entirely!

Lakeside: streams and rivers thread the forest, occasionally creating marshy areas. These rivers eventually feed into a massive lake that borders the radio tower cabin. The water is cloudy, and the bottom of the lake covered with the remains of destroyed chrome hounds: they’ve clearly been torn apart by the nargacuga prowling the area.

NAVIGATION

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Wow, only 83? Not sure if that's a sign of how important or not important MedSys is to it.

Jack points back towards the convoy, picking himself up when the examination appears to be over. "It does not drive well off the road," he says. "I did not want to risk any of the tires or the undercarriage. So I had to come on foot."

"I'll walk you to it." Its ATV is in a different direction, but that's fine - if there are more chromehounds around, it'll want to take those down, regardless of whether they land another hit.

Speaking of - it checks the arm, briefly, to ensure that the leaking there has stopped (it has, one thing's going right here) before redeploying the energy weapon there.

Though; "If you've got supplies." It didn't actually... think to check that car that Jack was perched on top of, did it.

"Um. Let me finish this car," Jack says, sensing the potential to not get ushered back to the convoy immediately. He hurries to pull the passenger side door open and leans in to start rummaging through the garbage, dead leaves, and dust to try and find anything useful.

It could help, but it doesn't. It leaves Jack to start rooting through the vehicle's seats in his search, positioned so that it can keep its attention on Jack through its peripheral vision while leaving its focus on the surroundings. It's alert, too - or at least mostly alert, despite the episode of Sanctuary Moon it's got playing in the background - reacting to the occasional creak and groan from the junkyard around them, the rustle of the wind picking up some detritus.

SecUnit waits what it feels is a reasonable amount of time before it asks, brusquely, "What did you find."

By then Jack has crawled into the back seat, all the way in the car, and says, "Well, some of the fabric on the seat hasn't rotted, so I'm pulling some of that up." Which, punctuated by a tearing sound, seems to be exactly what he's doing. "It will be good for durable patches on torn clothing and things. There's a few cans in here but the labels wore off, so I don't know what they are. I'm taking them anyway. I want to pull some wires from under the dashboard, in case the wiring in any of our cars goes bad, and I still need to check under the hood and see if there are any parts I can scavenge."

Which is to say, he's not done yet, but as he appears to be climbing back into the front seat and popping the plastic off the underside of the dashboard-- more leaves fall out, making him grimace-- he's about halfway there!

It isn't human manual labor. It doesn't have to do this - it doesn't have a contract, it can just keep standing here and watching its shoes as Jack works, if it wants. It's not like it knows fuck-all about these ancient human vehicles or what humans actually need to survive long-term in a situation like that.

It makes it a full thirty seconds before it walks to the hood of the car and tests lifting it. It finds a catch keeping it closed, sliding its hand along until it can find the fucking thing and snap it.

And now to stare at a bunch of parts that it has no clue what to do anything with.

... Okay, different tactic. The first aid kit was one thing, but this stuff Jack is doing, there's a lot more to it. "You're used to this." Scavenging, it means, but it doesn't actually elaborate.

Jack finishes his wire harvesting-- there aren't a lot of good ones in there; this car is never going to start again, even without him stripping it-- and eels out the car door again, getting up and shaking off a little, looking kind of dog-like in the process. "I have stolen parts off of junked cars before, yes. And scrounged for food in places. If we stayed in one place long enough, I could lay snares and see if any animals fell into them, too, and then we would have fresh meat."

Its expression is hidden behind the helmet, so Jack can't see the eugh gross face that SecUnit makes at the thought of fresh meat, but he can probably see the little wince it gives at the mention, as though it's just been presented personally with one of the snared animals.

Rather than voice that disgust, it shuffles to the side of the open engine bloc, leaving itself with enough personal space while still allowing Jack to take a look at the grimy, rusting parts within.

On the one hand, that sounds like some kind of salvager or raider - or at least the kinds of tasks that the ones in Murderbot's shows are good at. On the other hand, Jack doesn't seem like a particularly aggressive human. Maybe he's one of the sympathetic ones that was driven to it by desperation and bad circumstances and never takes it out on other people by getting into stupid fights or trying to cry on the nearest disguised-SecUnit Security Consultant.

"You should look for a weapon." Besides that knife, it means.

Homeless, really, and much longer lived than he looks. Not nearly as violent as a raider!

As proven by his answer to SecUnit's suggestion. Jack shakes his head a couple times at the suggestion. "Oh, no. I would not know how to use it, and I'd be more of a danger to myself than anything I tried to use it on." Jack has very intentionally never learned how to defend himself except with his words. This will probably make him a difficult person, in SecUnit's perception, but at least he knows his own limitations?

"I am very good at running away and hiding normally," he promises, coming around to poke his head into the now-open hood of the junker. "I just hadn't disarmed the traps on the other side of the pile of cars yet, so I couldn't go that way."

Oh, a human that has the sense to turn down a weapon they can't use - novel. Sensible, in a way that it doesn't usually find humans. The murderbot ranking evaluation just rose a few points, even if he's weirdly concerned and maybe more prone to getting himself into situations than he ought to be.

"... Avoiding open confrontation is usually a good plan," it admits, begrudgingly. "But if you can't do it you should call for backup." Then, because Jack did technically do that - "on the - radio. Especially when you're backed into a corner."

Edited (left out a few things) 2025-02-26 05:33 (UTC)

"Oh. I didn't bring the radio." Jack pauses and pats his pockets to make sure. No, no radio. "I will remember that next time, though, thank you."

Then he pushes his makeshift bundle of goods, wrapped up in the torn off seat fabric, at SecUnit. He doesn't touch it, but the bundle will touch it. "Hold this a moment please? I need both hands to get into this engine. It will not take long, I think." There are a couple parts he thinks he might be able to use in the future.

Rin's so surprised by the bundle of fabric being just shoved at it that it takes a moment to react, even with it being close enough to touch. One hand comes up, momentarily positioned in such a way that it looks like it might actually shove Jack's collection away, rather than accept it.

(It's the presumption that gets it, like of course it's going to say yes, the gesture accompanying the question in the first place. There's an immediate instinctive kick towards no.)

It does accept the bundle - though it also follows it up by pointedly setting it aside on the edge of the car's open hood, swapping between watching Jack's efforts in the engines and glancing towards the spot where the faint, directionless twitching of the chromehound still continues. "What about that thing," it asks.

The problem with the bundle of fabric is it is not very big and it is not tied in any way, and as soon as SecUnit sets it down, it basically unfolds and things tumble to the ground in a clatter. Jack looks aside, heaves an aggrieved little sigh, but doesn't otherwise comment. He'll pick it up in a minute.

He's elbows deep in the engine when SecUnit comments, and he glances aside. Pauses a little at the whiff of strangeness he gets coming off of SecUnit when he turns towards it-- plastic? ozone maybe? it smells kind of like the chromehound, maybe it spilled some oil on it?-- then shakes himself and addresses the question. "I do not know how that works, I don't know if the parts will be of any use in repairing cars. If you would like to take it apart, though, we can try."

... Well shit. It didn't actually mean for that to happen, but now it just looks like the kind of asshole who'd do that on purpose. And like it doesn't know how just fucking holding things works (holding things is fine, it's figuring out what to do with its hands otherwise that's the fucking problem).

Now that it's left just holding one of the bundles of wires, it looks down at those, shoving them into a pocket and leaving its hands there, instead. Less chance of jostling the cut arm, that way.

"There's other equipment that might need to be repaired." Other things, too. But - it also has no fucking clue if the chromehound's components would be compatible with any of them. "But without blueprints we'd just have to take the whole thing back."

Edited 2025-03-02 04:12 (UTC)

Hmm. It's a point. Jack has no idea what powers the shield on the convoy, after all. (And there is that nagging "plastic and electricity" scent coming off SecUnit, plus he knows V is a cyborg.)

Jack considers, frowning a bit with thought, as he digs out the pieces he wants from the car. There's not many, so it doesn't take long, though it does require pulling out the small adjustable wrench he has in his pocket. "I am not sure I feel comfortable bringing it as it is," he decides. "I would want to be certain it is deactivated and does not have, I don't know, the ability for whoever made it to spy through it. We may be able to take it apart though. Leave anything that looks like a camera or microphone here."

His idea of a camera or a microphone is perhaps a bit outdated, or else comes from sci fi movies. He is not a tech genius, just an ordinary scavenger who knows some basics about repairing a junker car.

"I could cut off any surveillance, but I'd need a hard connection, since I don't have Feed access even if these things have one. And we'd have to deactivate it properly." As callous as it's been about monsters... something about the idea of the chromehound being active while they tear it up for parts seems to sit uncomfortably with it.

"Can you take it apart with the tools you have here?" Because... it's not as confident in its ability to just punch through the metal involved to tear the thing apart as it once might have been. Also, if it fucks up its hands there might not be anything to fix those with.

... Wow is this what being human feels like, being constantly aware of how fragile your whole body is? It must suck.

Yeah Jack has a knife and a wrench. And a small screwdriver that will only fit some screws. That's not going to work super well on the chromehound.

But... there is more here than just what he has on his person.

"We can drag it to one of the traps, spring the trap onto it. That might break through the outer shell so we can take it apart better," he suggests. "Also be more likely to deactivate it the rest of the way than just poking at it, I think."

Oh, now you get squeamish, Murderbot.

It mulls over that, staring in the direction of the still occasionally-twitching patch of foliage, as Jack continues to work on the engine block. Size and shape don't necessarily indicate how high or low functioning the bot is - on the other hand, if it had been faced with a sustained fight, whatever it did to the chromehound wouldn't have been much less destructive than dropping it in a bear trap.

"Fine," it declares eventually. "Better than leaving it active."

Maybe its central processor won't be trashed. It can check the datalogs that way - see if they really are being observed through these things.

Jack finishes pulling out parts, and moves around SecUnit to collect the bits that fell onto the ground, stuffing things into pockets and putting the bundle back together to the best of his ability.

By the time he's done, SecUnit has made its decision. "All right. There's still some on the other side of the car pile. Can you carry it alone again? You're injured." He did notice that, after all.

It answers the question by making its way over towards the chromehound's abandoned body. It's landed sprawled awkwardly on one side, legs twitching and head occasionally jerking, and so SecUnit adjusts its course, to come up on the chromehound from an angle where it's less likely to be struck by the uncoordinated movement.

"It's fine." Actually fine or fine enough is probably hard to tell, but it's not moving or talking like it's in pain, as it reaches out to snag one of the Chromehound's back limbs. "Mark the trap for me."

At least Jack isn't going to question what it can do or can't do if it claims to be able to. He'll just do what he can to help if it turns out SecUnit is pretending to be better off than it is.

"Around this way," he says instead, moving towards the front of the pile-up of wrecked cars. "There should be some near the front or on the other side. The whole place is ringed with them."

The effort it takes to lift the chromehound's body is more than SecUnit is used to, and it has to put in enough effort for a brief grunt, before balancing the body so that it can't get knocked by any of the limbs. Then it follows Jack, focusing on maintaining its grip on the chromehound and letting Jack take the lead on getting them within range of a promising trap.

"Grab the neck cables," it tells him, once they've found one. "So we can drop it directly on. On three. Ready?"

Jack hesitates briefly, but then does as he's told, coming up to SecUnit's side and getting a good hold. "One," be starts, "two, three."

And he heaves, aiming the machine directly for the center of the trap, hoping that bear trap metal is stronger than chromehound metal.

With the body suspended that way, SecUnit is able to direct its end when the two of them drop it - it doesn't time it based on the countdown so much as it does by observing Jack's rhythm of the count and anticipating the release. And -

Maybe it's the force of the trap snapping shut that does most of the damage - there are certainly some dents, some panels warped out of place, but it's not an explosion of mechanical gore the way they might have hoped.

It does seem to deactivate it, though, as if the trap crunched a main processor somehow. The twitching stops and the light behind the chromehounds eyes winks out. "Okay. Well. Let's see what we can do with it, then," Jack says after moment of watching it warily for reactivation, coming to kneel next to the machine and pry carefully at some of those dented plates. He doesn't bother trying to unspring the trap: they can work around it if needed, he figures.

fade sounds good!

serialmurderbot - 2025-03-09 14:52 (UTC) - Expand

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FEBRUARY EVENT LOG

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want to fade out at trying pulling the thing apart or keep going until they finish?

fade sounds good!