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route666rp2025-03-06 05:39 pm
monstertruckers) wrote in route666rp2025-03-06 05:39 pm
Entry tags:
MARCH EVENT LOG
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
+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.
+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.
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.
2, maybe a touch of 3a?
It's beginning to suspect that the actual reason it's here is to do the scavenging and get footage from its memory archives while Jayce does... whatever it is he's muttering over.
The only part of its expectations that's still happening is SecUnit playing Episode 297 of Sanctuary Moon in the background. What SecUnit is actually doing with 38% of its processing power is sorting through the remains of a bathroom cabinet and dubiously eying a couple of pill containers to try and figure out their contents, while Jayce gestures. It doesn't look up - someone before Jayce must have inoculated it to the 'chatty scientist' vibe, long before Jayce.]
Sounds like a wormhole drive.
[Even inside, it hasn't removed its helmet at all, the visor slightly muffling the buzzing doubling of its voice.]
When was the last time you took a rest period.
🫡
Last night—
[ all night, actually. they weren't exactly nightmares, but the repetition and edge he finds himself in ever since is what's playing into his irascibility. the dream itself isn't a bother. it's what it all means. through his rummaging for batteries and medication, he snags a chip of charcoal kept in his pocket to begin his urge to scribble what he's thinking, and what he's seen, down. on a broken wall. security could take a picture of it— ]
Not, wormhole drives, it's— The moon, breaking, falling apart, [ he draws an accurate, if not messy depiction of what they see every night, but somehow it manages to look worse. more fragments. an impact just taking place. next come the angular lines of tall city structures, broken architecture and shards, raining down on them with pointed strokes and dotting periods. ] and it's falling—
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It's broken off its analysis of the medication (it's not like it can actually tell, it's not a walking chemical analyst or anything,) to watch Jayce with increasing suspicion. It's seen humans have mental breakdowns before. It usually doesn't have to do something about that unless they become distressed enough to need medical care, in which case its involvement has been limited to physically carrying them to that medical care.
Okay, but. Not jumping to conclusions yet. Maybe this is just what Jayce is like.]
That's what the runes are about? [Okay, maybe it can't help sounding a little skeptical.] Do they at least say what caused it.
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Because it's not a dream, it's a vision, and there's always, always a scream before it ends, a woman's scream—
[ woman. scream. he writes a formula after the words. circles the number, and the glyphs used. ]
A woman's scream, for combination 2A . . .
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Because it's starting to get an impression, here. It's seen a variety of irrational human behaviors, and it's beginning to worry about Jayce.
What the fuck does it do about a human having a breakdown when it can't just escort them to medical?]
You should take a break.
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it also keeps him pleasantly distracted from the rest of him that's irking. the cold he doesn't feel the same way as he used to, chilling to the bone rather than suffering it, the . . . entirety of his chest. yeah. the bridge of jayce's nose pinches with simmering irritation as he turns his sharp glance to the walls, but it doesn't at least, come out explosive. no one else would understand him. ]
I need more results, [ jayce pockets his charcoal, stares at the wall and moves on into the rest of the store with a hobble. ] and electronics.
[ hey wait a minute.
something dawns on him. jayce had his back turned, but slowly he turns his torso to at least face the construct. ]
—What do you run on?
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The spoken response too is clearly gritted out through a clenched jaw, is even more disproportionate, completely missing the question actually being asked.]
I'm not your battery.
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jayce's reflexes startle in his eyes, but he makes no attempt to shift away or even move too fast at all. he stands perfectly still. the stag sees headlights. squeezing his eyes shut briefly and sighing out, frustrating perhaps with his own approach, he eventually relaxes his features when prepared to look up (it can't wait too long). calmly: ]
You're no one's battery— Easy. [ he holds a hand up— and doesn't even shift his gaze to his hammer, somewhere. it might have been poorly timed with his tone, or maybe it was just a topic that set the other off. ] I asked only for an idea.
[ only so he can think of something to work off of. to make, with his own hands. not to claim, or steal. ]
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It has to give it half a second before it can properly release the tension from its posture, and deliberately turn its head away from Jayce. Congratulations, Murderbot, even the human halfway to having an episode can tell you're fucked up, now.
This is probably a reaction that deserves an apology, or at least an explanation, but SecUnit doesn't have a handle on either. It just goes quiet, the silence between them stretching out to an awkward length.]
You'd have better luck finding a generator.
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but he quickly retaliates: an immediate response. ]
Please, [ jayce insists— ] I'm an engineer, I'll damn make one if I had the parts, it's— [ his pause is short. he needs to make something that generates its own energy. he'd been so dependant on hextech before. there are options, though. options right in front of him that he knows he could fingure out if he just saw how it worked— ] It's for my partner's heart.
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[The sharp way it says that, the deliberate way it remains turned away from Jayce speak to a SecUnit who isn't affected - is trying not to be affected - by that appeal to emotion. (It's not unaffected. Its shoulders are hunching.)
It could have led with the impossibility of it, the way it was built/designed with tech as much a base part of it as organics, about the way its internal composition isn't just laid out like a human's so it's not as simple as just copying one part and implementing it. But that would mean revealing things, wouldn't it?]
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Yes, [ he, at the very least, owes this: ] please.
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No.
[It should be looking at him when it refuses to make the point of how final the answer is, but it can't even bring itself to look in his direction.]
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there are more options. this isn't— dire, yet. he could do it himself. it would be harder, he'd have to start from scratch and take up precious time, but at least he's the only one he'd depend on. he'll accept that. there's just one thing that's always irked him with secunit— it always feels like it's hiding something. jayce isn't going out of his way to be friends, so it shouldn't actually bother him at all. it could keep its damn secrets. perhaps . . . he could pinpoint his displeasure with its consistent lack of transparency, not necessarily secrecy. ]
Look at me when you say that.
[ so that's what he wants, at the very least. transparency in the "no". ]
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This, it thinks bitterly, is why being a SecUnit makes being around humans the worst. They think they can just... do this. Order it around. Maybe it should have just fucked off into the wilderness until its batteries gave out, back when it first hacked its governor module.
Some of the bitterness definitely bleeds through into its voice when it answers. ]
The answer isn't going to change from a no to a yes just because I make eye contact.
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his voice is steady, but it is firm, and edged— like a knife that could cut. ]
That's not what I want from you.
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Jayce could probably hit it in the back with it turned away like this. It'd like to see him try.
Or - what? Is he going to try to appeal to its better nature? To guilt-trip it? Fuck it wishes it had Doctor Mensah or Pin-lee to turn on Jayce right now.]
You just said so.
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[ jayce isn't going to attack it, but he's certainly going to attack something in his wake to chip at the explosive frustration he feels boiling up and turning over his rationale. the wall to jayce's right recieves the blunt of his ire that does not just stem from this but from a build up of months in isolation. rubble cracks and crumbles once knuckles meet debris. the damage is greater to his bones, but the gash it leaves is just enough room for viscous, iridescent blood to splatter and ooze, but in a thin ribbon of slime. the pain is as dull as a stuffed kick drum. ]
It's not about your blueprints, it's your damn transparency when it counts. You've never had it.
[ he'd let it go the first time. he was dying, anyway, too sickly to retaliate. now? there's no patience for it again, no room for a repeat of his entire political run that would always taste bitter. jayce storms away in the opposite direction before doing something even more stupid, snapping his hammer into a grip that he'd left at the door, walks out it, and throws it into his truck's cargo bed. there is muttering, happening— it's inaudible, though.
secunit didn't particulary owe him anything, but that perhaps meant, simply, they shouldn't be working in close proximity if it's something that would rub jayce wrongly. something that could be resolved with open communication, but if that is not in the cards, then . . . there will be no dance. ]
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The wave of I-don't-care hits around the time that Jayce reaches the door and grabs the hammer.]
Well, fuck you!
[It's going somewhere, anywhere, that isn't the door Jayce walked out of. One of the inner rooms of this half-destroyed building, where it finds the sickly remains of an old armchair and drops down into it, hooking its heels up onto the sagging cushions as it starts episode 206 of Sanctuary Moon.]
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after blowing off steam outside, it's outside where jayce stays. he was upset and irked, but he's not breaking a convoy rule and leaving secunit alone. as much as he was upset, he didn't want the other dead. jayce asked him to come. the least he could do is watch his back until they return to the convoy safely.
(he just won't be open to chatter) ]
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(It still would have made that list because it will probably save lives, but it doesn't have to be happy about the way it finally emerges after reviewing an episode to calm down, to find Jayce waiting outside.) It half-expects another impassioned argument - when it's instead greeted with silence, it doesn't say shit, it just starts to make its way back to the Convoy. Fuck Jayce, acting like SecUnit needs any escort. Fuck him for making it feel like a bad person for protecting itself. Fuck him for not just leaving it alone.
It's going to be an uncomfortable trip back.]