MAY EVENT LOG

[monstertruckers]

code

Out of the thorn brush, the land still looks twisted and broken. And it turns a lot more jagged as rocks burst up and out of the ground like teeth… And keep reaching upwards, in defiance of all the gravity that should be pulling them down. The further up the rock spires reach, the more they splinter until the stones are free floating. The same happens to the threadbare trees, their branches and leaves breaking off and hovering in empty air. The nature of this place becomes clear: reach too high, and eventually gravity gives up.

01: BATTLE GROUND

The ground grows rougher, pockmarked with craters and rents, like the landscape is scarred. A little further up the road is the source of those wounds. Curious Drifters will find a tangle of rock and metal reaching high up to the sky. It’s a snarl of wrecked vehicles, rock spires… And bodies.

Robotic hunters are half melted into the bones of a giant monster, and the lights have long since gone out of their lens eyes. Many of them still clutch weapons; swords, guns, and bullets by the bag-full. The hunters and weapons remain locked with the corpse of a horn crowned monster with arm length teeth, and it’s clear this tangle is the only thing that keeps the hunters or their weapons from floating off. Drifters can potentially loot the weapons… They just have to be careful about not floating off while they salvage equipment. The footing here is uneven, and the ground looks ready to break with a wrong step.

These hunters also carry prayer screen beads, but the data on them is horribly scrambled. Any attempts to tamper with them cause them to repeat a single message: “I STILL LIVE” before shorting out and shutting down.

02: HEALTH INVERSION

A building grows out of the valley; a hospital that has been turned upside down, and its foundations reach for the sky like weird tree branches. The hallways inside are all sorts of twisted up, and the building can’t seem to decide if Drifters should walk on the ceiling or the floors.

Twisted as the building is, ruins gutted by time and overgrown with vegetation… There is salvage available. Medical supplies, healing potions, healing herbs, all of it is bountiful in the hospital. The hospital is also rife with Husks, but all of them are inert… Or have already been broken apart long ago.

Then there’s the matter of the hospital screens flickering on in the wake of the Drifters. Warning lights try to flicker on, as old electronics try to scan the Drifters. The machines give up flickers of data, declaring Drifters to be “infected.” The old restraining systems of the hospital are still active, as manacles and straps alike shoot out, trying to restrain Drifters. The bonds keep them inert until they can be sedated and enclosed in what look like holding pens for violent patients. Best hope there’s someone around to help break a Drifter out.

03: SHARED THOUGHTS

The valley is overgrown with strange plants that glow with eerie light. Sometimes in camp stray glowing tumbleweeds roll through… And any contact has interesting side effects. Drifters will find they’re more aware and capable of picking up on unsaid things. These powers can the month. Each glow confers different abilities:

Blue Glow: Makes Drifters more empathetic in a psychic sense. They can register the emotions of those nearby, and may start to feel those same emotions.
Green Glow: Makes Drifters capable of projecting their emotions to other people.
Purple Glow: Gives Drifters telepathy, to hear and send thoughts to others.
Orange Glow: Grants Drifters limited psychometry. (Object reading.) Using it in the hospital or the battleground will yield unique visions and messages. Please comment to the mod/NPC thread below if your character wishes to do so!

Drifters can stack these effects, but this can overload their minds and force transformations. Those with Swarm traits will find it easier to handle psionic abilities. Additionally, ALL DRIFTERS who experience psionics will find themselves susceptible to Events 4 and 5.

04: MONSTER SHIFT, HIVE-MIND

Worryingly, extra contact with the glowing plants can not only stack mind abilities, but also force Swarm traits. The more a Drifter is overwhelmed by psionics, the more likely this is. Drifters will have access to all Swarm traits for this event, and the following:
+Psi Hunger. A need to eat psychic energy in the form of dreams, psi-infused objects (like sage brush) or even psychic minds.
+Psi Senses: luckily, Drifters can glimpse heavy psychic energy in the brush through enhanced senses, and pick out strange brain monsters. These are good eating for Swarm monsters… And there’s an unnervingly high number of them.
+Group Mind: compelled to link thoughts with other Drifters, to share emotions, memories, and achieve cohesion.
+An increasing reliance on telepathy/empathy/etc in place of speech.
+Increasing collectivist mindset. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few; this becomes more evident during high stress situations.
+Compelled to spend more time in the wilds, absorbing power from plants and hunting prey in wilderness. May also be compelled to share this prey with others.
+Gravity Affinity: If possessing wings or the ability to wall climb, may freely hunt/traverse corrupted gravity areas.

05: WHAT DREAMS MAY COME

On several nights the wind picks up, and sage brush is uprooted and sent tumbling into camp. The plants trade their prior glow to something more baleful and crimson. With the wind whipping through the camp, it’s almost impossible to avoid unless a Drifter is already secure in the Convoy.

The effects aren’t immediately obvious, until the Convoy sleeps for the night… And that sleep is different. Namely the sleep is connected, showing both memories and dreams from other Drifters.

Memories from their pasts can blend together to form a strange dreamscape, that connected Drifters can travel through. But those dreams can easily turn into nightmares. Those who were exposed to the fear toxin in February will trend towards nightmares and may have their old fears make a reappearance.
If those nightmares are vivid and unsettling enough, they can force a transformation. (This may be either current monster traits, or a Swarm monster!) And then…

06: BRAIN ATTACK

It happens just before dawn, during the blue hour… Or perhaps it might be more apt to call it the red hour, with how the sky is stained crimson. It’s just bright enough to distinguish something moving in the hills. Drifters can pick out a rustling in the brush; something that isn’t wind. There’s something moving, crawling on claw tipped legs… And looking less like sage brush and more like a brain.

The Intellect Devourers numbers in the hundreds. Their claws scour the ground as they race towards the Convoy and smash into the shield. Numbers start to overwhelm the generator, along with the chaos the brain brush has sown with their psychic echoes.

The psychic echoes increase as they swarm the campsite, trying to drive Drifters into a frenzy with nightmares, fears, and strange visions. The brains are also ready to use those long sharp claws to tear anyone disoriented enough into ribbons, and start feasting on them.

06-A: BRAIN BRAWL

Hallucinations: The Intellect Devourers try to whip up more terrifying visions. Anything to disorient the entire Convoy, or drive the Drifters into a madness that leaves them transformed and too wild to easily counterattack. These hallucinations may be past trauma, or something a Drifter fears happening; the ultimate goal is to leave Drifters panicking, changed, and vulnerable.

Rally: Still, there’s one thing the Devourers didn’t anticipate: and that is how sharing a mental link has given the Drifters an anchor with each other. With all the psychic echoes spreading through the camp, any and all mental links from before can easily flare back up. Drifters who have shared dreams or some form of mental connection may still transform, but their mental link can keep their minds stable and coherent instead of growing feral.

Scars: Whether through brute force battles or mental link resistance, eventually the Convoy is able to shrug off the attack… But there is still some damage done. The shield generator has shorted out, and the Convoy itself has taken a few gashes and gouges. Not to mention any transformed Drifters will still need to be talked down. Luckily the mental links are still in place to help with that, and there’s a truck full of medical supplies to help with patching up any hurts.

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.

Disorientation: When wandering through the brush, Drifters may experience a swarm of disorientation: their thoughts suddenly scramble, they forget where they were going or what they were doing. They may also come to with a set of gashes along their legs, and a sense that they may have seen something in the sage brush move… Or maybe it was just the wind.

Float: Occasionally, parts of the road just give up their hold on the ground and go drifting skywards. Hopefully those chunks of road don’t take Drifters and their vehicles with them. Tough vehicles can likely survive the drop, while Fast vehicles can speed away before they float too far upwards. Drifters caught outside their vehicles will have to hope they have fast reflexes… Or are either good fliers or good jumpers for the leap back down.

Raining Down: On occasion, gravity will flicker and warp oddly… And that means that other odd things can fall where they used to float; rocks, plants, not to mention the odd bit of hardware and buildings. Watch for falling objects of various shapes and sizes!


NAVIGATION

Comments

[becomerobot]

[Confusion and intrigue, that familiar thrill of longing to make a discovery, makes Viktor wince deeper in this form. He shakes his head with a thrash, disturbing the plants in his arms with a ruffle of greenery. Yet, like a vessel with too many cracks, the emotions leaks out and leaves. Void. Nothingness.

He levels his hollow gaze again, burning and yet passionless. The projection of that emptiness is heavy, now, as if striking back at the young man for his imposition.]

It is more efficient to feel nothing. Emotions cloud judgement.

[androidvictoriam]

[ A fatalistic part of Danse has already accepted the thought that he won't be leaving this place, not when that's what Maxson has come here to ensure, with that inexorable will of his that Danse has been until now mostly content to help him carry out. His limbs are numb and leaden with resignation--only at that shout does feeling flare back into them, panic, because this kid is going to get himself killed.

Nobody talks to the Elder like that. It's not only that nobody would dare, it's that nobody would even think to. To ask a question that cuts so deeply to the heart of the Brotherhood's entire raison d'etre, and to do it within range of Maxson's combat knife? Danse reaches out as if to pull his brave, doomed would-be savior back out of harm's way, but with sickening dream-helplessness, his reach isn't long enough.

He doesn't actually know what that shade of blue to Zack's eyes means. His mind draws a different and simpler parallel, with almost laughable irony, between the two alike-in-coloration men in front of him--sees Arthur before he grew the beard to make people take him more seriously, before he outranked anyone, in a time when he could still have needed Danse's protection. Maybe, if Danse had done that rather than helping to shape him into the unforgiving beast he is now, this brave knight wouldn't be about to get swallowed up on Danse's undeserving behalf.

Or is he? He certainly doesn't sound like he fears any consequence here. He sounds like he knows whereof he speaks, with such confidence that even Danse almost believes it--wants desperately, with something deeper inside him than his Brotherhood loyalty, to believe it. Even Maxson looks taken aback, though not so easily deterred. ]

You forget yourself, Knight. [ His voice is dangerously soft. ] What I know about humanity is that it's clinging to survival by the skin of its teeth. And scientific overreaches like this one are just one more symptom of the cancer that nearly led it to destroy itself in the first place. If we don't treat those symptoms as we continue to strive for the cure, we won't last until morning.

[ It's wording Danse has used himself before, about himself and other synths alike--overreach, mistake, error, nightmare--but it sets something off in him now, emboldened by the vigor of Zack's defense. He protests, almost before his judgment can catch up to his voice. ]

No. He's right. How can you say that about me? It doesn't matter where I came from--I'm not a sickness. I've never been a cancer.

[becomerobot]

A doctor and not a veterinarian, then.

[As if to taunt him, the mere mention of a doctor makes Viktor hack and cough, raising a fist to his mouth to cover it. That hasn't happened in a while... but dreams will be cruel like that. He pets Rex with his other hand, not wanting to contaminate him, not that what Viktor has has ever been infectious... just feels polite.]

Being able to maintain oneself is a great blessing. A truly genuine biological engineer must have designed his augmentations. I'm both impressed and jealous.

[guidemyway]

"Well that's a shame. Maybe we'll get lucky with the next batch of plants we run into."

She taps her chin in thought as she considers that.

"Good point. I mean I guess once you start considering all the changes we've been going through here. I don't think normal or natural is really on the menu anymore."

[purplexing]

"That'd be nice, plants that work in our favor instead of having secret designs to try making us suffer more. Or eat us." He'd heard what happened to Leo with that tree.

He sighs heavily at that though. "Yeah... This whole world is pretty warped, and as much as I wonder how it happened, I also have to wonder if we'll like what we find out."

[androidvictoriam]

[ On the opposite side of the camp, Danse wakes in that same instant, as the dreamworld pops like a bubble without Arcade's consciousness to sustain it. His heart is still racing, and for a long moment he feels like there might still be nightstalkers out there in the darkness, even though he's not entirely sure what a nightstalker is.

Hands unsteady, he pushes his own blanket aside and sits up in his truck bed. The darkness still feels oppressive. He slides into the driver's seat instead and turns on the light, enough that he can think. It was real, nearly all of that was real enough, and he's been terribly wrong.

He's apologized once already for being an asshole about the truck, but that apology had only then served as extra fuel for his anger and mistrust once he'd come to feel like he'd been played for a fool--the more fool him now, for letting that make him so stubbornly insistent on condemning an innocent man. It's not as if the truth wasn't there, had he been willing to listen. Though it's not as if Arcade had explained anything, either; Len's attempted mediation had done more heavy lifting there than Danse had wanted to let either of them know.

What's done is done, anyway. But Danse can't just let Arcade keep thinking he's liable to get shot if he puts a foot wrong. It would be more sensible to just try to find him at breakfast like before, but there's no guarantee he'd be there, and anyway, the last time Danse felt this queasily unable to think about eating anything, he'd needed Arcade to medicate him for it. He sits at his steering wheel, lost in thought, until the camp finally begins to stir again and he can see movement around the Enclave truck, and gets out of his own to approach with some hesitance. ]

Can we talk?

[ It's earnest, finally devoid of suspicion or hostility. ]

[undyingcrow]

I hope you can keep up...

[With a shrill cackle, Akechi picks up momentum, as the horrific dreamscape continues distorting, and through the flickers, he can see those brain-like beasts.

Fresh prey.

Between sword slashes and gunshots, there are times where he strikes with his new scorpion tail, only to start biting those beasts. It doesn't matter. It's eat or be eaten in this place. They deserve nothing less!]

[undyingcrow]

A followup question: Did you interact with any of the sagebrush?

[Feelings radiate off of him. Curiosity, a touch of apprehension at the mention of those screens...]

I received my vision after testing some of the different plants. That may be the key.

[bufudine]

At the question, what appears to be a crack in the concrete materialises as if it were always there. But if one were to look at it more closely, there is nothing natural about it; straight edges cut the sides. Peering down into the artificial valley within, there are buildings with marvellous pillars decorated with intricate iconography of deities set into the sides of the valley, their lights glowing a faint orange.

And there are people -- a truly uncountable number of them -- scattered throughout, all dressed in variations of the odd clothing Serph had been wearing at the beginning of the dream, all having a painted streak of orange -- the same orange at the tip of Serph's wings -- somewhere on their clothes and hair in unnatural colours like pale blue or bright pink.

Serph's expression softens near imperceptibly at the sight. Of all the bases he had moved to, Muladhara is the one he's most fond of.

"Hundreds. Thousands." Serph's wings curl forwards, feathers half hugging his shoulders even though the rest of his body remains still. "Only five of us made it to Nirvana."

[undyingcrow]

[His face crinkles at this new information. Frustration bubbles from within him...

His emotions are a close-kept secret, when he can manage it. To have him so readable...

Well, nothing to do about it now. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he breaths a small sigh.]

So, through process of elimination, we can conclude that green results in projected emotions and orange results in visions or memories from objects... That just leaves blue, then, as well as purple.

[purplexing]

Being one for details, Donnie's at least 90% sure that crack hadn't been there a moment ago. He glances at Serph before edging towards it. Maybe walking towards suspiciously appearing cracks is not exactly a great idea, but how else do you learn things?

"...whoa..." he breathes, not at all having expected to see what he does then. A glimpse of something completely different, inviting, a contrast to their stark surroundings now.

Donnie looks at Serph again, brow knitting at the response. "O-oh..." he murmurs, a little sorry he asked.

[guidemyway]

So Ruby knows the tune. This time in her head she isn't humming along with it. But she's running combos in her head on what she's going to do with her character the next time she gets a chance to play.

Which is followed by her getting into a fighting stance, bobbing back and forth around the Titty Van (TM). Then she throws a punch that connects with the van and all Yang can hear from the outside is.

"OW! OW OW! WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!?"

[purplexing]

[Donnie can't help but flinch a little at that sensation, wings folding as tightly as he can manage against his shell. It's easier to tell when something's not his emotion when it's drastically different from what he's experiencing himself. But he's never been particularly good with identifying such things, much less owning up to admitting them.]

Given that the effects seem to have been happening not long after contact, maybe blue effects have some kind of overlap, but I can't say for sure what...

[firstsoldier]

As Leo's gaze shifts, Sephiroth moves to track it. A pink speck, amidst other strange pink things, he'd dismissed it earlier. Was it important? It must be, given the context, but it doesn't look like anything to him.

It didn't have to, it's not his nightmare. "Then we will neither let it out, nor allow anyone else to come to further harm. The price has been paid, you're already hurt."

He says it with the calm certainty of fact and not hypothesis, stepping deliberately closer to the damaged turtle. Such an impact to leave a crater like this must have caused serious harm indeed, and the closer he gets the more he can tell things have gone badly. A turtle's shell, if he remembered right, wasn't merely exterior protection. It was their ribs. "Come. I will carry you, if you can tell me where we must go."

[undyingcrow]

[It's unsettling, really. So... foreign. His feathers ruffle slightly at the projected void.

It's... hm.]

I can see where you're coming from. However, I cannot imagine living such a life. My identity, for better or worse, has been defined by who I am. The good and the bad. Even at my worst, those feelings drove me forward... Even if I made mistakes along the way.

[taediosum]

Some Pre-War technology was built to last. ...I'm not sure they meant for it to be quite this long, but...

[ He lifts a shoulder in a shrug. Who can say? And then casts a concerned glance over Viktor. ]

Are you feeling all right? That cough doesn't sound so good.

[flowersnjunk]

"L-Levi?"

Focus. Focus! If she could just wake up... Eunie wrenches her eyes shut, then forces them open again, forces herself to really look.

"Am I still out of it? You look... different!" Well, that's one way to put it.

[taediosum]

[ Danse lurking around isn't something he really pays attention to, anymore. Sure, it's still a low-grade anxiety, constantly bubbling at the back of his mind - but that's all it is, now. Len seems entirely convinced the man won't make a move unless he actively catches Arcade in the act of whatever it is he's waiting for. Killing puppies or eating babies, or something equally heinous. (Though with none of either in evidence, perhaps Arcade will simply be caught on suspicion of wanting to, either way.) And, for the moment, that's enough for him to let it lie.

It isn't enough to keep those thoughts from invading his dreams, though, apparently. The tired circles that linger from that restless excuse for sleep can attest to that, as well as the stray patches of scales that have cropped up on his face and neck, creeping palely down from his hairline and up the sides of his throat.

He's outside, leaning against the truck's front bumper and lighting a bent and slightly smashed cigarette (the mint ones aren't so bad - actually, he didn't think honey-toffee was, either), when Danse decides to break the weird little ceasefire they've been standing in, after all. Maybe it's the exhaustion that prevents Arcade from being too shocked, or maybe it's the dream still weighing on his mind - but it could also be those ears.

His gaze tracks upward, over Danse's brow, before he replies. ]

If it has anything to do with a medical query or - those— [ He gestures vaguely upward. ] Can it wait?

[androidvictoriam]

Or--what?

[ There are a few different ways in which this is all immediately throwing Danse for a loop, and the more serious ones promptly take a backseat to raising a hand to the side of his head in utter bafflement. He's been sitting by his rearview mirror for two hours and somehow failed to notice the way his ears have taken on a different size, shape and degree of hairiness. ]

For the love of--

[ He despairs. But it would be worse if he were talking to someone with more room to judge, he thinks, as his eyes scan in turn over those new scales. He doesn't immediately draw the connection that the dream has stress-triggered any of this. And he has to wonder now, at this reaction, if the dream really had been shared at all--if his own subconscious hadn't just somehow invented a scenario, in a way it's never done before but other people claim theirs always do, and Arcade hadn't had anything to do with it at all or been any the wiser.

(Danse has not been lucky enough to find any cigarettes lying around the ruins. He has never craved one more desperately than he does right now, in a way strong enough to unconsciously project.) ]

No. It's not a medical query. I assumed you would... [ Recognize what he wanted to talk about, if not actually want to talk about it in turn; Danse hasn't assumed the conversation would be welcome. He certainly doesn't know where to begin if he has to explain all of it, or ask what Arcade had dreamed about. ]

I shouldn't have bothered you.

[taediosum]

[ Arcade doesn't make more of it than he must, glancing away as Danse appears to come to a rather belated realization. He must be even more out of sorts than Arcade, to not have noticed that change. And why should that be, Arcade finds himself wondering, shaking out his match before it lights the tips of his fingers, too.

That I assumed you would nags at him just as immediately, as sharp a tug as the craving that sweeps over him at the same time. He holds out the crumpled, nearly empty pack of cigarettes almost automatically, the look he turns back to Danse sharp and scrutinizing, now. Considering. He'd feel incredibly stupid asking just about anyone if they maybe, perchance, had happened to have the same exact dream as him, last night. But asking that of Danse? Exponentially worse.

Not that it would even be approaching the status of most absurd touch on this whole situation, of course. So maybe he should just get over himself a little. ]

Wait. What was it? Maybe I... Maybe it's going around?

[solitarysoul]

Levi blinks. Was that a joke? He doesn't think it quite works with Leo not having visible ears but whatever. He nods and wonders about using weapons in this form for a moment.

"I'll, uh, shout if I find anything." Howl, probably, but he doesn't really want to say that.

[solitarysoul]

[He frowns at Jayce, not sure where he knows the guy from or if antlers were normal or weird.]

I'm real. How did you get here?

[He eyes the lizard. Had they really run out of rations already? He might have some on him...]

[solitarysoul]

He nods, ears perking up a bit as she recognizes him. "Y-yeah...I, um, I look very different."

He doesn't really like it.

"Are you okay? C-can I help?"

[androidvictoriam]

[ It's generally second-nature for Danse to refuse things people offer him, out of longstanding habit, unless he knows them well. But none of his reasons for that apply anymore, and he wants that smoke badly enough right now to accept it with a nod of sincere thanks, all the more when he sees how close the pack is to empty.

It's enough show of goodwill, paired with that intense and searching look, to make Danse think it would be worth the risk of looking ridiculous to try and articulate an answer to that question. He doubts Arcade would be pressing out of curiosity alone. He pulls a half-empty matchbook from his own pocket, and uses the time it takes to light up to find the words to explain--cautious, halting, after a fortifying drag and slow exhale. ]

I had this dream last night. You were in it. I imagine this doesn't sound unusual on its face, but...so much about it was completely foreign to me. Things I wouldn't even have known how to invent.

I've been having strange dreams for days now, but--not like this. This was different. It felt almost like it was all happening to you, instead.

[taediosum]

[ I had this dream last night. Well, that about settles it, doesn't it? If Danse had led with anything else, Arcade may've been able to maintain plausible deniability. He could tell himself that dreams are only dreams, no matter what other thoughts he's had put in his head, lately. Feelings he's felt without wanting to. He could pretend that his nightmare was only a perfectly understandable, entirely reasonable mixture of traumatic childhood memories and new, unpleasant experiences. That's just how the subconscious works.

(Except Danse wasn't really an unpleasant part of the dream, was he? Somehow, actually, his presence made it more tolerable than it ever was, before.)

He doesn't speak for a long moment, similarly using the act of smoking to stall, to sift through his thoughts as he eyes a scrubby patch of brush, studies it in the early morning light. ]

It was, I think. Navarro, right?

[ He glances, briefly, at Danse again, sketching a shrug. ]

I had that dream every week for months, when I was a kid. Only it was... Different, then. It didn't have an end. I'd just wake up, terrified, convinced I was going to suffocate on all that smoke.