MARCH EVENT LOG

[monstertruckers]

code

After weeks in the forest, the trees begin to fade out in favor of grass; miles of it with every shade of green you’ve ever seen, covering rolling hills. The weather tends to be mild, with scattered clouds blown on gentle winds… But the nights somehow seem just as ominous as those in the forest, with the moon uncovered and glaring down balefully like a broken eye. And wide open as they are, the grasslands have their own share of danger and weirdness.

01: MESSAGES

The grasslands are dotted with abandoned electrical poles and power pylons. Ruined electric cables hand off these towers… But along with that are kites and balloons tied to the structures. If a Drifter gets close enough to grab one, they can find a message tied to the tail end. It’s printed with a memory or a phrase that is distinctly from their home, and their past.

If a Drifter holds onto the message, it might just remind them of home and help them resist any changes. Or even pull them back out of a monster transformation! Or it might just haunt their senses instead, and almost make them visualize and hear where they heard that phrase for the first time. Try not to get lost in those visions. Drifters can potentially carry one other message for another character, if need be; especially if they need to revert someone else from a painful transformation. Be advised that doing so will result in haunted senses.

Drifters are advised not to grip the old electric wires too tightly. They might get voices from the past of this world, all crowding their mind; old talk shows, sports games, and news reports on the moon. It’s enough to leave them with a serious headache if you hang on for too long, if not knocking them out completely.

02: TRANSMITTER

Out on the road, Drifters glimpse buildings, which are unnervingly empty. Equally unnerving are strange forms lining the roads, the closer the Convoy gets to the broken buildings. All of them look vaguely humanoid, but half melted and coated in something metallic. Clearly the Husks weren’t limited to the forest, with how many litter the landscape. Some Husks become violent, breaking open as strange ostritch-bird and reptilian monsters claw their way out. Such creatures can be easily dispatched, but still harry Drifters.

Other, inert Husks give off an odd metallic hum. Getting close enough to touch the Husks makes the hum louder, and can trigger behavior changes in Drifters. While the inert Husks can’t force transformations, they leave Drifters restless, on edge, and activating psychological monster traits.

When the Convoy makes camp, it is inevitably near Husk clusters. The metallic hum only increases as the sun goes down. But the Convoy has a counter for that. A haunting melody starts to play on the Convoy speakers, and from any phones; taking the sound closer to the Husks causes ghostly forms to rise up and towards the moon. It puts a stop to the odd humming… At least until the next camp.

03: ROUND 'EM UP

Those with sharp eyes will notice something different one morning, on a nearby hill. It appears to be a flock of cattle… Which might well be a welcome sight for those wanting beef for dinner. As the Convoy rolls closer, it swiftly becomes clear these aren’t normal cattle. Their skin is shiny, scale-like and metallic, and their eyes glow. Those hooves also look sharp enough to punch right through a car door.

These are bull gorgons, the guidance computer helpfully notes. And they are capable of exhaling a petrifying mist; one deep breath is enough to make a person slow, two freezes them in place, and three turns them to stone. Luckily the blood of a gorgon bull can also cure the effect. Drifters won’t be able to capture such dangerous beasts for livestock, but they can still try and wrangle them and harvest them for meat! The skin and horns are both tough enough to be turned into tools, as needed.

Tough cars can easily square off with a gorgon bull and come away victorious. Other cars are advised to try lassoing from a distance, and wearing the animals down before moving in for the kill.

04: BUILDING THUNDER

There’s dark clouds boiling up in the sky. Those who shelter in the Convoy will be spared the worst of the storm… Though the winds have a way of screaming, trying to call Drifters out into the storm. And flecks of metal and glowing moonshard stone have a way of replacing rain and intensifying the storm.

If exposed to the storm outside the forcefield, Drifters experience the following:
Gale Force: Drifters are swept up by the winds and tossed about, and even thrown skyward. Drifters damaged by the wind will find themselves inflicted with temporary Harpy traits. These traits become more intense as Drifters experience hunger or violence.
Deluge: Drifters exposed to rain are at risk of almost drowning, along with shards of Husk metal and moon shards slicing down. Drifters damaged from rain will find themselves inflicted with temporary Naga traits. These traits grow worse as Drifters lie, omit truths, or tell falsehoods.

These traits last as long as the weather remains stormy; the symptoms ease as the skies clear, only to flare back up as storms return, and will remain that way as long as the Convoy remains in the grasslands.

04: MONSTER SHIFT, NAGA

This month, Drifters will have access to the serpentine Naga. On top of all Naga species traits being available, the following occurs:
+Cold Blooded: the rain and storms can potentially make Naga slow and sluggish, or inclined to sleep or seek out other heat sources to gain energy; this includes basking in body heat from others!
+Water Divert: With their water shaping, Naga can divert falling rain and even ground saturation to make the area or other Drifters more dry. They can also concentrate water into different areas, and can also change water into mist or ice.
+Blue shift: the scales of Naga become more vibrantly blue, or a strange mottled combination of blue and stormy gray, the more intense the rains become. These scale colors can also reflect their moods.
+Extra arms that are painful and disorienting to grow, and can result in coordination issues.
+Scale Pains: Pain and discomfort when scales grow in, as well as fangs or talons!
+Water glide: during floods from the rains, Naga find they can easily traverse deep water as though they were simply walking (or slithering) across it.
+Thermal vision, making it easy to track others in the middle of storms. Vision may also become disorienting, and eyes become slitted.

04: MONSTER SHIFT, HARPY

The storm will bring a second monster this month, in the form of Harpy. On top of all Harpy species traits being active, the following occurs:
+Storm Rider: high agility and capable of flying through the storm winds without hindrance. Even tornadoes can be mastered!
+Feather pains: itching, or full pain when growing feathers or wings. Talons may also be painful when growing from fingers or from feet.
+Wind Affinity: able to shape wind, including diverting the worst of the storm winds, or summon and focus wind into razors.
+Warbling Voice: words may waver and slip into something more songlike, or even a damaging sonic scream if emotions are heightened.
+Height Call: a need to get higher into the air, whether through perching on buildings or the convoy, or through flight. A sense of euphoria as they go higher.
+Nest Building: a compulsion to create a nest out of spare and soft objects, and feeling more safe inside that space.
+Heightened vision like a bird of prey, able to pick out details even at great distance. This may be disorienting at first, as vision becomes telescopic.

05: ZOLOM HUNT

As the Convoy travels into marshy points in the grasslands, it becomes clear something is following. Something is hunting the Convoy, disturbing the boggy ground in waves and humps as it travels. It’s hard to say what exactly the monster is, just that it’s BIG and feeling out the Convoy, seeing if it can find prey.

Drifters who try attacking as it hunts will see the shape sink into marshy ground and shrink away, before returning. After about an hour of building tension, it finally strikes. The ground erupts in a spray of water, as a thirty foot serpent called a Zolom rises out of the ground.

Going by the hissing surrounding the Convoy, it’s clear there isn’t just one. The Zoloms go for any who attacked them while hunting, identifying those as the biggest threat, followed by whatever looks like the best prey.

In the aftermath, Zoloms can be harvested. Their fangs are sharp, their scales are tough and can make good leather, and their blood, while corrosive, can still be contained in vials for poisons or anti-venom study by the more medically inclined. And the meat may taste a bit gamey and oddly spicey, but it’s still edible. But first, Drifters need to survive the onslaught.

05-A: ZOLOM ATTACK

Constrictor: The lead Zolom constricts the Convoy trailers to try and crack them open and spill any Drifters out. Other Zoloms target vehicles, trying to get at the Drifters driving them. Tough cars can stand up to the coils and ram into the Zoloms enough to disorient them. Fast cars can easily outpace the Zolom, and if needed lead serpents away from the Convoy before doubling back.

Beta and Venom: There's more danger after Zoloms take wounds. Their blood steams as it hits the ground, burning grass and earth and steaming the water. Zolom blood is laced with venom that either burns Drifters bodies… Or burns their thoughts, inflicting them with a berserk frenzy. The Zoloms also super heat the air in a circle and spit out venom as fire. Cars can protect from the firestorm, though only the Toughest of the bunch will be able to drive away without serious damage.

Death Rattle: With enough tenacity, Drifters are capable of defeating the Zoloms or driving them away. (Spiking them on the top of a nearby tree is optional.) At the end of combat, the Zoloms have a parting gift as they lash, writhe, and snap.

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.

Ruined Buildings: Grow more numerous, encountering one or two a day. Usually in the form of residences, or farms. Many of them have been gutted from both time, elements, and moon warps. But a handful still hold basic supplies; medical kits, canned food, etc. They also hold hastily scrawled maps that show the surrounding area… And a parched looking area surrounding the grasslands. It looks as though the Convoy is heading right towards it.

Farmlands: Occasionally interrupt the rolling grasslands. They look scraggly and overgrown, with sparse crops available. The handful of food in such areas is edible with no ill affects, but the taste profile is confused: apples taste like watermelons, corn tastes like avocados, etc.

Wind Turbines: A few lonely wind turbines still dot the landscape, spinning even without anyone to maintain them. They give a lonely whistle as they turn, perhaps even sounding a little like a whisper… And one trying to mimic the message Drifters may have received on the power lines.


NAVIGATION

Comments

An experiment - third test - outside the shields

[bufudine]

[Serph's hunger has been getting worse. His new serpentine body has been dogged by an equally insistent lethargy in the poor weather that made him strangely eager to spend more time in the company of Jack and John in their shared room. He hasn't hunted enough, he knows he hasn't hunted enough, but it isn't until he finds himself standing on the precipice of starvation that he reluctantly slithers outside the Convoy's shields one night to hunt a monster he can eat.

That's when he hears a horrible scraping noise and an awful hum that leaves him tensely tucking his wings in tight before he detours from his quest to find the source of it.

Which takes the form of a familiar man -- albeit with some unfamiliar changes -- scraping at a wall with stone.

Uneasily, he approaches.]

Jayce...? What's all this?

[hexrot]

[ he's being watched. he feels it relentlessly since the second combination test— unseen eyes burning into him, always at an angle he isn't facing. and now the voices, it doesn't . . . leave him alone. when jayce sleeps, it's out of pure exhaustion and when he does, it's the same nightmare story. he knows what's happening, he's recording every change he's noticed, and viktor does the same as his partner in crime. at this point, it is driving him to a maddening brink. pushing him, sometimes away from the camp. the convoy's metal trailer is what kept him there, grating stone against its protective shell and debasing it with repetitive words because that's all he could hear all he could think about all he could see you i need you i see you i need you i see you—

by the time jayce snaps around with exaggerated startle (not unlike a horse, or a stag; he's certainly got the antlers to match the former), he hurls the stone without thought and with a frightened shout. where was his hammer? to his left, sunken into dirt that he had dragged about with him. what follows that is— even more disorientation. he realizes who he's looking at, when he focuses more on the face. he's panting, but more out of a reaction to fear. ]

Serph—? I— [ there're too many trees here. this isn't the convoy— ] I don't, I don't know, how I got here— [ this is scary. loss of autonomy and control is scary. his voice is tight, and his eyes squeeze because even then it doesn't stop and he scrapes blunt nails into his scalp as he strains his words through grating teeth. ]

It doesn't stop, it doesn't, it's just, constant, I need you, I see you, I need you, I see you, I need . . .

[ and that babbling only hushes into quiet murmurs, just as low as they were earlier. the trees groan, and the leaves shiver with wind that feels like louder whispers to jayce. it feels like every hair on his body is standing. ]

[bufudine]

[Serph reflexively raises an arm to block the thrown stone from striking his body. Jayce somehow looks worse than the day Serph had shown him the message that had been burned onto his arm by the shrine. At least that day Jayce could hold a coherent conversation. This was... the word manic springs to mind.

Despite the alarming scene before him, Serph keeps his voice calm and even.]

Jayce. Listen to me. It's night and you're far outside the Convoy's shields.

[And there's always monsters about. Not all of them are local.]

You need to come with me back to the Convoy where it's safe. Then we can talk, alright?

[hexrot]

No, no—

[ his agitation springs like a stretched band ready to snap. jayce shakes his head and smacks a palm repeatedly against his cheek, then scrapes at his beard— it's still calling. still chanting in his ears, but he knows one thing about it. it was unbearable earlier. it's why he found himself walking, and stumbling, and heaving away from the convoy bed room, away from his truck

he just didn't think he wandered out of camp. out of the shields. but the chanting feels worse than the danger of a monster, or monsters, coming for him. ]

I can't, it's too loud, back there, I-I can't— Here, it's, it's still loud, but, I-I have to go farther, than this—

[ he could stagger through the trees, if he catches his hammer and starts dragging the head behind him. ]

[bufudine]

[Serph could subdue Jayce, forcibly bring him back to the Convoy against his will. But then what? Without knowing anything about the irrationality that has Jayce in its vice tight grip, Serph can see a repeat of this event happening when his back is turned and there is no one to keep an eye on Jayce.

So when Jayce starts dragging his hammer and stumbling through the trees, Serph follows beside him, grimly aware of the hunger gnawing at the pit of his stomach. He has a lot of questions, but those... can probably wait.]

If you won't come back to the Convoy, you shouldn't be alone.

[He's coming with Jayce, whether he wants company or not.]

There's more monsters the further we go.

[hexrot]

[ monsters would have to wait; the thought of them, at least, are not concerning to jayce right now. he's darting his eyes all over the damn place, his emotion spiking higher and higher until his hazel eye glows a precious gem blue, as blue as the one in his wrist. his left eye is a swill, prismatic— blue is the strongest glow within, but pinks, greens and golds still eclipse its light with every churn.

he won't stop serph from following him. he's not himself, too plagued by the haunt of these voices to hold even a progressive conversation. it always connects to this. ]

I-I'm not alone, Serph, they're watching me, they've been— watching me, [ weaving through the trees has jayce eventually snagging his antlers in a drop of hanging boughs, and both the snap of his resistance and the pull back from his step agitates him. ] they need me, they said, but for what— Let go—!

[bufudine]

[The strange glow to Jayce's eyes... it's almost like something beyond himself has seized hold of him. Will Jayce remember this later? Serph is mentally noting down all that Jayce is saying, in case he doesn't.

This form has limited fighting power, but it has some measure of control over water and ice. With a wave of his hands, the temperature drops and water is extracted from the branches until they're brittle enough to snap with Jayce's next attempt to pull himself free.]

They're only watching you?

[But Jayce's sense of being watched is strongest near the Convoy? Perhaps the Convoy itself has some manner of relay to this outside party; it runs upon a predestined path set by unknown beings.]

What do they need you for?

[hexrot]

[ repeating. endless. i need you i see you screams louder against his ear drums, startling jayce into a horrid bugle that wrenches his antlers from the trees with terrible snaps. ]

I don't know what you want from me!

[ it's near immediate to his shout, what comes next— a zu from above flares its wings as it dives from high canopies with sharp talons bare. highly attuned to movement, both prey animal and predator, jayce's hammer buzzes to life from a slumber just as his attention snaps. he whips the weapon in both hands in a weightless swing, aims the open core at the monster and fires a blast that distorts the very atmosphere it impacts. one of the zo's wings is blown clean off along with a swirl of its torso and spine. the same stains of infection up jayce's left side mangle the monster's gored corpse, half meeting the earth with heavy cracking, half suspended by a glitching, corrupt reality.

an apypos hunts jayce from vanguard. a gurulu stalks the heights from above. a zolom slithers meters away and ensures jayce stays within the circle of its massive body. monsters come, one by one, but none seem to have interest in serph despite his proximity. ]

[bufudine]

[What the hell!?

There's no time to marvel at the effects of Jayce's hammer; monsters are coming, as if summoned by the Jayce's alien call. Immediately Serph transforms, shifting from his legless body into his taller demon and in one smooth motion, cutting down the apypos with an arm blade as it rushes past him.

Varuna's hunger is pounding in his ears as he ignores the scent of the fresh corpse at his feet, instead encasing the gurulu in ice as it dives for Jayce.]

They're coming for you!

[hexrot]

[ the come faster than jayce could think, but faster than his trigger reaction. he launches blasts where his panicked eyes find movement, but that soon becomes moot— and apypos has bolted from the lower dips in terrain to bite down on whatever jayce could offer it. razor fangs tear into his right arm like saws, and, incredibly, there is no pain to speak for. jayce swings the stub of the hammer into its skull to kick it back, it hits its ribcage instead, only breifly sending the creature skidding before its clawing at grass and roots to launch itself back to him. it spews mud right between the eyes, and halfway through his rhythym, jayce can't see.

he persists with his attempt anyway, cries out and slams the hammer's head into its middle. gore and corrupted atoms split the earth's reality, spew on him and his clothes. his poor recharge time to lift the hammer back and rub his eyes clean (now blue, glowing bright) may be his last solitary move; the zolom that had contained its prey in a circle of its own coil lifts its ugly hood in a growing strike-pose behind him. ]

Serph—

cw: monster eating

[bufudine]

[It quickly becomes apparent to Serph that even though Jayce's weapon is powerful, his current state of mind is certainly not in any shape to fight well with it.

The huge snake that had been naught but a shifting shadow in the darkness is now the biggest threat. There's a loud hiss, but from Serph rather than the snake. The temperature rapidly cooling, a huge spike of ice bursts from the ground before Jayce. It isn't quite sharp enough or powerful enough to penetrate the zolom's scales but it strikes the serpent in the lower jaw hard enough to knock it off course from making Jayce into a snack.

While the zolom's head is low to the ground, Serph plunges his blade into the serpent's eye, stoically enduring the burning spray of blood as he drives his blade deeper into the zolom's skull. He pulls out before he can be tossed by the creature in its death throes. His hand is badly burned and even the leathery hide on his arm is pockmarked from the zolom's blood.]

Stay sharp. I'll defend you.

[But he can hear more monsters and he needs to from his injury. The zolom is too large and armoured to devour easily, so instead he seizes the apypos he'd gutted earlier and tears out the liver before ripping into it with his sharp teeth.]

cw: more gore (of the zombie variety)

[hexrot]

[ the dirt smeared across his face was wiped and carved quickly enough to make his vision doable, though jayce was struggling, being ganged up on wasn't much of his strong suit. the hammer was too slow moving a meelee weapon, even if he could fire long range— there were simply too many opponents gathering for him to effectively keep up. if it weren't for serph, he'd be torn apart; a mass of blood and entrails on the forest floor.

the zolom's blood splatters in brief deluge and jayce can feel the sizzling drops poking holes in his flesh, but little blood of his comes out of his wounds to begin with. the pain continues dulled. he can still move and react accordingly. jayce retreats and puts the hammer into a long distance defensive, cocking its handle and opening fire on the serpent. the blasts that hit its hide do little but agitate the thing. aims at the head opens its current wound to bigger holes, suspending beads and buckets of flesh in the air, more easily avoided, but then— the monster's organs in serph's teeth grabs his attention and fills his nostrils like sprays of a meal freshly cooked in the face of hunger.

not now— his panic tells him they must leave this place. the now quiet whispering drumming against his eardrums brings chaos. the bloodshed, hunger. he tries to ignore the strain that grinds his teeth and twists his inactive gut to vigor, because the zolom still strikes at them with its coils and armored scales. he's bat at because of the distraction that could've been avoided— a lack in sharpness— the thick tail of the snake cracking a disk in his spine as he's thrown and lands at a terrible angle. a terrible, unnatural, mortal angle. his antler snaps, and burries, bloodied, into earth and root.

and still, not a second after, he moves— with a forceful press against bodily resistance to lift because he has no limits to hold him back, the misplaced bones tear through skin and crack back into place horridly like fireworks. he could still feel it, pain begins to click and spark his recoil, but just enough to do something about it. if jayce makes a sound at all, it's out of pure startle. his hammer has clattered against the base of a tree that he must retrieve, now vulnerable to what remains of the zolom and a second, approaching bull gorgon, stomping its hooves and fuming through its nostrils.

jayce manages to stand once his back aligns enough to do so, hobbling— ]

Fuck—

[bufudine]

[Jayce is struck by the zolom with a sickening crunch. Serph does not turn to see his condition despite the horrid sounds of bone being forced to move in unnatural ways; he cannot afford the distraction when there's yet another monster horning in.

He has been fighting, hunting these creatures since their arrival in the grasslands; he knows well what they're capable of... and what weaknesses they have. He doesn't have the luxury of back up, so he has no choice but to take risks so he can eliminate every monstrous reinforcement with brutal efficiency.

As he swallows the liver, flesh knits back together and the burn that would have rendered his hand unusable instead rapidly fades away. And that's all he time he has to devour as the bull gorgon charges towards Jayce. But Serph is immediately in the path between them, hands wrapped around its horns as his clawed feet slide back a few inches from meeting the impact of the bull's charge before it can trample Jayce. He's well aware of the danger in the creature's breath, so he lets out his own chilling breath that will rapidly encase the creature in ice if it doesn't rethink its attack.

The Apypos corpse still remains largely uneaten, its belly carved open and entrails half spilled upon the ground.]

cw: they're hungry

[hexrot]

[ thank god, that might have skewered him wide open (and even then he'd survive, from the look of things?). it's a challenge to stagger when he's bent up like a disjointed doll stuck in terrible angles, viscous blood oozing out of cuts, scrapes and broken flesh where bone has pierced. it's a little more distressing when it doesn't hurt as much as his mind tells him it would, but there's so much rush that jayce doesn't register. he just moves and keeps moving as much as his mangled frame allows. his hesitation, however brief, comes when he's at a crossroads to either return to his hammer, or the splayed apypos corpse. the stench of gore is phenomenal. it catches jayce's attention now as it pools and beckons him. this weak body . . . craves nourishment. he can't fight or even think to survive if he's so broken. ]

. . . Damn it—

[ jayce diverges from his first path, holding onto not just a primal urging but, perhaps, quick-thinking rationalizing— seeing serph power up from a feast, and remember what it was like to sink his lips into viktor's wrists, how he felt— it could save him. this— this wasn't mindless. he needed this. the armored bull is all force and no thought, an easy icicle through its flailing head and countering paralytic breath. the grassland creatures will not cease, even if that one is gone. if there is a pause, for them, eerie and beyond what nature's silence should be, it won't even be long lived. ]

Serph, I need— I need to eat, and then— [ his cry chokes through the disquiet groans of his movement, dropping to his kneecaps upon the open belly of the creature. a switch flips. he's starving, he's needing. he doesn't care. ] We run. For the shields—

[ before the voices yell at him again, before the monsters corner him. before he's trapped beyond salvation that even serph could not provide. enough of that, though— there were louder things screaming at him. jayce reaches within the hot cadavar and sinks his arms elbow deep into viscera. warm, inviting. it welcomes him in, fingers frantically searching and digging for an ample supply, a grip around a nugget-shaped offal padded underneath the ridges of the creature's spine. he rips a kidney from its ligaments, arteries and veins, wasting no time at all in bringing the organ to his bearded maw. he finally sinks his teeth with bated breath, until his gums submerge in squelching tissue, his tongue hits torrid spews of fluids and all he knows is the mindless, eye rolling buzz of satisfaction. down his throat. in his bones. a fire in in his icy belly—

and his injuries, healing. his fractures, popping, straightening. coming undone. ]

[bufudine]

[Serph lets out a bestial snarl -- so at odds with his usual quiet demeanour -- as the bull gorgon struggles against the effects of his breath before it finally turns aside to escape getting iced.

He barely registers Jayce's words before he hears the all too familiar sounds of someone falling upon a corpse and devouring it ravenously. He doesn't have time to process the implications while he's ramming his blade down the bull gorgon's throat as it opens its jaws to breathe its petrifying mist. The creature chokes and twitches before slumping over as Serph pulls him arm out, heedless of the sharpened teeth cutting long wounds along the parts of his arm unprotected by bone white carapace.

Jayce has the right idea; they can't fight out here all night.]

Run as soon as you can. I'll cover you.

[But he suspects this reprieve won't be for long and he, too, needs sustenance to mend his injuries.

The Apypos is the easiest thing to eat of the multiple corpses, but he'll leave that for Jayce to feed from. The bull gorgon is a troublesome monster to eat quickly when they're short on time, but it's the least bad option compared to the gurulu and zolom. Stabbing a blade in between the armoured plates of the bull's belly, he carves along the length of the beast before retracting the weapon. Shoving his clawed foot into the gap, he stomps down with force to prise open the wound so he can sink his fingers into warm viscera. Immediately, he tears into bull's exposed organs with teeth and hands, devouring everything he can without care, fresh injuries stitching together as blood and tissue are consumed.]

[hexrot]

[ all that exists is sinew. engorged tissue. spurting meat. the wet spate of hot, hot blood between his teeth, on his tongue and down his throat, pleasuring every cell in his body and healing every freshly broken bone, every oozing gash in his undead corpse. jayce leaves not a piece of the kidney behind as its torn by its thick arteries and flacid veins, stringy ligament and calibrous and lush with lifeforce. he takes more with a hand elbow deep in gore, whatever he could find and yank and pry to his maw to fill the void. there was a daft difference in meals, he quickly finds when there is one pang missing— this monster replenishes him, feels good, but it loses in comparison to the shimmer fused blood that made his eyes roll back with ecstacy. it did not offer him the same rush, no— but this was only his second meal, and he might as well be considered an infant draugr figuring out his tastes.

it was good. powering. it was what he needed. that's all that mattered as his wandering eyes find serph mutilating his own monster catch with formidable savagery. jayce chews very little, swallowing chunks as they're allowed to fit and go down, and doing so now with rushing urgency. his vertebra are aligned, his arms and legs fully functional save for the gained disability he already had on his left, braced leg. his open side, mended.

he's ready to lift himself, hobble to his hammer in a mess of blood that dirties his face, beard and hands— and he moves, as fast as he could on the legs he has, with monsters clustering right behind them. ]

[bufudine]

[There isn't anyone to keep watch while they devour, so Serph can't afford to lose himself to his demon's urges. And so when Jayce moves, so too does Serph abandon the half eaten bull gorgon corpse in favour of flanking the other Drifter, immediately beheading the levikron that charges out from a nearby thicket towards Jayce, its head hitting the ground as Serph forces his hand into its chest before the body can follow suit. Slipping in below the ribcage, he tears out its stomach and rips into it, the last vestiges of his burns ebbing away.

Though they'd had a brief reprieve, enough to regain some strength, now they have another wave of monsters gunning for them. Lips curling back into a hiss, the temperature drops as Serph creates an icy wall that blocks the land monsters' direct path to them. But gurulu soar high above it, diving for Jayce.]

[hexrot]

[ the bright light of blue that shimmer from jayce's eyes are the only things that bounce in the night as he staggers&mdash. he knows that he mustn't blindly travel ahead when serph couldn't stretch himself so thin. with an adjustment of his left leg and anchoring his right, jayce pulls the lever of his hammer to crack open, expose the roaring core of corruption inside, and land a glitching blast that splits the avian creature and leaves it suspended where it dies. another. then, another.

almost there— and still the whispers sing like a perishing siren's song. ]

[bufudine]

[That strange, eerie blast from Jayce's hammer itches in the back of his mind, the wrongness of how it kills the creatures it touches settling beneath his armoured carapace. Physics no longer affects their corpses, as though they now dance to another set of rules, and he can't help but if its made from the same sort of thing that Sera is capable of -- the ability to meld and shape the laws of the world they hold power over.

He can't think of it for too long though, not with monsters snapping at their heels.

The journey back seems to pass quickly, time catalogued in snatches of running between fighting. Brutal efficiency has always been Serph's partner, so for every monster that tries to attack them -- no, it's Jayce, they're fixated on Jayce and only Jayce. Serph is merely an obstacle between them and the other drifter -- it's repelled and dispatched within seconds, the corpse left to fester on the ground.

Blood oozes from Serph's half-healed wounds inflicted by claws, horns and fangs, but he fights as fiercely as when the attack first began. The shields are in sight, and with them, safety... for now.]

[hexrot]

[ jayce wouldn't enter without serph. he'd fend off the monsters on their tails at last, and with safety being lurched for, jayce finally throws himself to the floors of the convoy. it felt like an eternity had passed before they breached thosr shields and monsters snapped for jayce regardless of the wall between them. at least, whenever serph decides to slip into his own safety, the monsters do not follow. he could do so whenever he wanted, and the beasts wouldn't give a damn or even notice.

they want jayce. the voices scream and rattle into his skull enough for jayce to buckle into the earth and pull at his hair, scrape his antlers into the dirt and scream for it to stop. it's only when sunrise violates the darkness and breaks night into twilight. the monsters desintegrate. the voices, finally, cease, and jayce gasps so loudly with disbelieving startle that the hands in his hair and antlers drag down his bloodied cheekbones. ]

I-It stopped— Gods, it stopped—

[ it has not stoped just yet, jolting back with a cry when he hears, harsh and numerous in his ears: NEXT TIME YOU ARE MINE. ]

. . . Shit. Fuck—

[ and he throws himself, back to soil and grass, to breathe out the edges of panic he didn't necessarily need— but how else could he regulate himself? tears stream into his beard as he covers his mouth. overwhelming. god damn overwhelming. ]

[bufudine]

[As soon as Jayce is behind those shields, Serph enters soon after. He doesn't revert immediately, wary of the monsters rattling outside. But once it seems that they're unable to get at Jayce, Serph undoes his transformation and leans against the side of the long vehicle, bruised and bleeding slowly. He lets Jayce do whatever he needs to to cope with the voices in his head -- he remembers Jayce saying they were stronger closer to the Convoy -- while he rests, barely upright.

Damn. He's sure Jack and John will be worried when he hadn't returned to their shared room. But he can't leave Jayce like this.

As dawn comes and the voices seemingly stop and Jayce seems to come back to himself -- albeit overwhelmed -- Serph unfolds himself and crouches by his side, reaching to grasp Jayce's shoulder.]

Hey. It's alright. I'm here. You're not alone.

[hexrot]

[ so wound up tight, jayce flinches to the touch before quickly melting under it. gods, that was harrowing. he wants to burrow beneath the hands in his hair and only come out when he's changed skins. so much has happened that he's still catching up, going through every move and every memory with the gift of clarity and peace of mind (although he hardly feels at peace). his mouth and beard still a gory, splattered mess of blood and pieces of stray sinew still caught in the wires of his facial hair. he wanted to scrub at it in the tub until he was raw. he hated, again, the chaotic turmoil of enjoying the consumption that were at odds with what he should be feeling: disgust and fear. he doesn't feel it. the lack is distressing. ]

—I heard another voice.

[bufudine]

[Serph has already had plenty of time to come to terms with enjoying the sensation of devouring. Even though he acknowledges the feelings of disgust towards devouring that people like Argilla have, the reality is that he does feel satisfaction at the sensation of teeth sinking into soft flesh and tearing into fat and muscle.

He keeps his hand on Jayce; it seems like he needs it. If Jayce will allow it, half of Serph's wings blanket over his back in a feathery kind of hug.]

What did it say?

[hexrot]

[ jayce shivers, feels the crevices of his mind close off to touch in the way only the ravine could have destroyed in him, after once being a man of such tactile language, he would've so easily rushed to open his heart and press chests in his anguish. it's so much harder now, feeling the blubbering wetness of his eyes pelting his beard in his quiet unease— ]

"Next time— you're mine". [ but harder does not make it less wanted. jayce is touch starved, and he is needing it, twisting sideways and shooting for a grip around serph's back. ]

[bufudine]

[Serph doesn't hesitate to wrap his arms around Jayce in a hug, heedless of the blood and gore spattered across Jayce. Wings wrapping around Jayce like a blanket, Serph's long, serpentine tail loosely coils around them protectively.]

I won't let them take you.