monstertruckers: (Default)
monstertruckers ([personal profile] monstertruckers) wrote in [community profile] route666rp2025-05-06 05:39 pm

MAY EVENT LOG




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











guidemyway: (Volume9-Ruby-193)

B: 2

[personal profile] guidemyway 2025-05-22 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
[Ruby can't help but grin sheepishly as she looks up at Pyrrha like that. A few fanged teeth displayed in the smile.]

Yeah. You know, I always hated these levels in video games, but living through it is like way worse than I thought it'd be.
androidvictoriam: (what do you have for me today)

[personal profile] androidvictoriam 2025-05-22 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ Even if Danse doesn't entirely feel like himself here, it's freeing, the sensation ever so slightly giddy. If he remembered stalking criminals through the back alleys of Goodneighbor at the side of "the Silver Shroud," trying to contain his laughter at her ridiculous voice and throwing in a few ad-libbed lines of his own as the loyal sidekick, it would feel like that--but even without the concrete memory, the sense of it remains, that rare exciting momentum of improvisation. ]

Don't sell yourself short.

[ His voice is low, deliberate. His gaze tracks immediately down to Len's lips at that bite, before he drags it back up to resume that eye contact. Asleep or awake, he's still an open book, but it doesn't make him feel vulnerable here. ]

I could've just left when you were done.
guidemyway: (3999546 (43))

[personal profile] guidemyway 2025-05-22 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
Ruby pauses at the call out. Luckily she is pretty used to being to being treated like the youngest one around.

"Oh- Okay- Okay!"

She glances around and certainly doesn't see anything that could have knocked Tifa around like that.

"If it makes you feel any better. I don't think anyone expects just about any of the weird stuff this place has been throwing at us. So you're not alone there."
purplexing: (of course I did...n't)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-05-22 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
"Huh." Donnie glanced over briefly before he considered the thing they were climbing on. Did he really want to find out just how potentially radioactive this area was?

"Well, no one's skin's falling off so that seems to be a good sign at least..."

Never mind that he could whip up something with his mystic-tech to check things out, but sometimes, you didn't really want to know some answers.

"Yeah, not like they're using it," he agreed, deciding to focus on other things.
wereperrito: (smilesmall)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-05-22 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
The surprise is expected. The lack of resistance, slightly less so. Not entirely unexpected, not after how well Serph continues to react to more casual affection, but still. The John thing, and all. Jack is not going to be the same kind of kisser as someone who had seconds before been fighting anyone.

But, it's nice. He's kind of wanted to kiss Serph for a while. He didn't expect to be doing it for magic reasons, but he'll take it, even if it's the only one he gets.

It's only a beat later, then, that Jack deepens the kiss, leaning up and opening his mouth to Serph's lips. The buzzing energy blooms up between them, cool and crisp on the tongue, almost exactly like the phantom fire, and if Serph responds by opening his mouth to accept it, a burst of rejuvination will rush into him.
wereperrito: (delighted)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-05-22 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
The void is momentarily disorienting, and Jack tries to hold very still until things solidify around him. He does not like that sensation at all, of there just being nothing.

But then there's sunshine and ocean surf and it's much, much nicer.

"Oh!" Jack turns in a quick circle, tails bouncing lightly, to take it all in.

"Oh, it's a beach! It's beautiful. You have been here before?"
wereperrito: (scared)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-05-22 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, that's a bit much," Jack complains. "You're really much younger than-- oh!"

He leaps back just in time, but only just. His supernatural reflexes have followed him into the dream, but she's also a slayer. Her reflexes are pretty good, too.

"I would really rather not fight," he says, backing hastily further away, tails drooping. "Faith... You're my friend, remember?"
mytearsaremine: (Default)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-22 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Not anything specific," Jolie admits, looking a little embarrassed. "But the diner and garage from last month? They had the exact same kind of parts and stuff my family's diner and garage had. Like, the brand names are different, but it's the exact same tools and dishes and things."
mytearsaremine: (Default)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-22 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
Jolie adds her hand next to his. "Now that you've said that, something is absolutely going to get worse," she warns, only about half-seriously. "That's always what happens in movies. Let's pull together, on three."
mytearsaremine: (hopeful)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-22 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
The praise is unexpected, especially after her poor showing with proper fist-making techniques, and she blushes just a little beneath the green streaks in her cheeks. "Okay." She drops her fist, relaxing her non-existent stance, and watches.
mytearsaremine: (annoyed)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-22 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
She shoots him a little glare. He's edging dangerously into telling her what to do, and she hates that. The frustration in the air tinges with a spark of almost frightened anger. But she keeps a grip on her temper. For now.

She lines up the shot, trying to resist the urge to do the opposite of what he said to do. He's probably right. But she hates that he is. She hates it even more when the advice does hit the target a little more squarely.
mytearsaremine: (scared)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-22 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
Jolie laughs. It's an ugly laugh, not like a teenage girl's at all. "No one has ever resisted me."

And then Jolie gasps, expression going from angrily amused to terrified and mortified, and suddenly Serph's mind is much more crowded than it had been, as a foreign presence, hideously powerful with the strength of Jolie's fear of it and years of being subjugated by it, jumps out of her and into him with a tiny zap of electricity.

This version of Hiskott admittedly does not know about the demon, but even with Varuna's help it will still be a fight to keep him from taking over.

"Serph. Serph, I'm sorry," Jolie exclaims, holding out her hands, but not quite touching him, sure that it won't be him speaking out of his mouth if he does respond.
mytearsaremine: (aaaah)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-22 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
Jolie nods a little. "I bet it was, if you were the last one to figure it out. Still, I bet yours is the coolest." She holds up her light-weight hammer and flashes him a smile. "All right. Let's try this out, huh? Smash a desk."

She's never been able to go wild on furniture before. It sounds fun. "Want to stand back in case there's splinters?"
bufudine: (they're used like that?? :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-05-22 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
Jack kissing him is a completely different experience to John doing the same. For one, Jack doesn't have a maw full of spines, nor does he have a long, winding tentacle for a tongue. And this time, Serph is actually cognisant for the beginning and doesn't have a mouth full of pointed teeth.

It's warm and gentle like Jack, contrasting the cool press of something between their mouths. Serph doesn't think twice about accepting it, a hand fisting in Jack's shirt as a energy floods into him. The dizziness and exhaustion from his own magic lifts away in the face of Jack's. Renewal and rejuventaion spreads though him, Serph fiercely returning the kiss as though trying to devour the rest of the magic passing between them.
purplexing: (just like we planned)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-05-22 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
Donnie can't help but grin back there. "Well, naturally," he says, never shy about claiming such things. Sure, his brothers can do amazing things too, and he supposes they all have their uses. But he still likes being thought of as the cool one, affirmation, he needs it.

Giving Jolie a thumbs-up, he looks around before flitting off some ample distance. "Maybe the gravity will keep it from spreading too much. Anyway, smash away!"
bufudine: (hey. a naked girl :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-05-22 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
It is indeed, beautiful. Serph shakes his head.

"After I gained my demon, I saw this place in my mind. It was just a blue sky and crashing waves back then." Serph turns his face up towards the sun and closes his eyes, its rays gentle and warm on his cheeks. "I'd never seen a blue sky."

He'd been so moved by the vision that he'd been 'awake' nearly immediately after being infected by the Atma virus. It had taken longer for the others, the shift immediately apparent to him as their voices and mannerisms changed. And yet that felt more right to him than the unemotional selves he'd known for years.
dolphinpunch: (09)

[personal profile] dolphinpunch 2025-05-22 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
She's almost used to things suddenly flying up and sticking to the ceiling.

...Almost. There's still that flinch reflex as Tifa suddenly has a new person hanging out next to her in just a blink. Still, she also picks up that motion to stay silent, and not provide much commotion. Tifa gives the briefest nod before settling into a... Does this qualify as a crouch? And upside down one?

Either way, she tries to reduce her outline, and watches the far end of the hall.

"...Wasn't my imagination, then." She whispers, carefully keeping her voice low. "Don't know what we're dealing with, but..."

She trails off as something continues to scurry and... Almost hop down the hallway, on long spindly legs, with bird-like motions. Except that it looks a lot more like a gray cotton ball with wings than a bird.

"...Not letting my guard down. Promise." Even if she can't help but think it's kind of cute. So are chocobos, but an angry one can still kick a person's stomach out.
dolphinpunch: (08)

/briefly gives notifs a grumpy look. sorry this one slipped by!

[personal profile] dolphinpunch 2025-05-22 07:16 am (UTC)(link)
"I..." She glances back through the fire, to where the persons he left should have been... And there's nothing there. Nothing but shadows and ash, barely a hint of anyone she knew; taken away too fast to do anything about.

"Gone. They're gone."

Of course that makes her angry.

And reckless. Ready to act, instead of have grief and fear swallow her up. Tifa whirls back around to the wreckage, like it's personally responsible for this. If nothing else, it's another obstacle.

"And I'm going to find a way around to you. You're NOT allowed to die, understood!?"

Strangely, the fire is bothering her less and less, even as it blazes brightly. Little more than a brief blast of heat from the oven, to her senses. And though Tifa doesn't realize it (as she's too busy putting hands on the bit of wreckage that isn't burning, and trying to vault over it) the ribbons of jet-black fur along her arms and hands is doing a good job of insulating her from the heat.
hexrot: (pic#17858041)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-05-22 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[ the fact that everything that's happening to them is so similar to the journey they go through now is just . . . morbid. even the word "demon", jayce considers sparingly. it was just a shifting form, a name for something. but what sticks out for jayce as he pulls his squinting gaze away from the eclipsing sun, ]

Do you remember anything from that time?
hexrot: (pic#17857984)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-05-22 02:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ in these crevices, jayce has been alone for too long. he's been deprived of touch, company, everything he's been so accustomed to receiving even if it depleates his social battery from time to time. what jayce used to have was at least a bit of choice in when he needed the solitude of the forge, but being stripped completely from the world made him . . . skittish. wanting to swallow it before it could escape from his fingers like water. he shivers at touch, sweltering with fever, grips back perhaps with an uncomfortable tightness, because in his mind it's the first time in months someone solid has been around that wasn't a fever mirage, or a wall, a rock, a roach or other scurrying creature— ]

Food— I've been trying, trap the piximanders, but I— [ his hoarse voice, from screaming or not even using it much at all cracks. his throat snaps tight, and the strain makes his words quiver: ] I can't get up.
hexrot: (pic#17857889)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-05-22 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ what?? jayce's mouth slacks open in mock shock. the slander! the low chuckle thrums in his chest as he swings his legs forward, anyway, a bit remnicent on one particular night he was convinced to break an entering. ]

If you think I'm a troublemaker, you should see my partner.
undyingcrow: (distant)

[personal profile] undyingcrow 2025-05-22 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
They still are, so we'll need to tread lightly.

[But that's then. For now, his attention returns to the unsightly amalgamation of metal and bone.]

Do you intend to salvage any cybernetic parts? If so, I don't mind assisting. The weapons are already worth retrieving, as it stands.
purplexing: (this face looks the same yet doesn't)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-05-22 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Guess wings help there. And being on higher ground.

Ah...

[He looks back at the cyborg he'd been working on, grimacing at where he'd left the screwdriver, so savagely jammed into the thing's skull. Sighing, he takes hold of the tool to pull it out.]

I've still got the parts from our own battle to pick through, but I've been keeping an eye out for anything that might still be in tact here. Leaving most of the weapons for people who need them, otherwise I'll take anything no one else wants.
lonedanger: (the more I straighten out)

[personal profile] lonedanger 2025-05-22 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The man at the bar is dressed sharper than anybody in New Reno has any right to, with slickly coiffed hair and a neat, tailored suit. The pattern on it feels familiar in a way Len can't quite place, but it's a vague uneasiness that he swiftly ignores in favor of basking in the kinds of compliments he doesn't often receive after taking the stage. Star act. Platinum performance. Said with the cadence and confidence of a salesman, but but it does make Len curious about what exactly he's selling.

The expensive cigar, clean clothes, and handful of caps casually tossed onto the counter pique his interest more than they have any right to. Len's gaze darts quickly to them with a hunger every down-on-his-luck bastard knows, before he slides back into eye contact.
]

Opener doesn't get bar credit. [ He volunteers, teasing out the intent. ] You from California?
andnevermore: (001)

[personal profile] andnevermore 2025-05-22 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Blake hadn't forgotten that there were other tragedies happening, too. Even as she was getting Yang out, civilians were dying. She has a vague memory of Ruby and Weiss finding them, but Ruby had left shortly after to go after Pyrrha.

That, she can't picture. Ruby hasn't told her much, nor has Pyrrha. Blake doesn't blame them; up until now, she'd been pretty sparing with her own details. But now Ruby knows everything. Blake thinks she might be kind of grateful for this nightmare sharing thing, actually. It's good that Ruby knows, now.
]

Maybe we'll get lucky and just share dreams, next time. Not nightmares.

[ What a weird thing to have to wish for. That's just life as it now, she guesses. ]

I don't think I'm going to be sleeping for the rest of the night after this, though.

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