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











serialmurderbot: (this is stupid)

[personal profile] serialmurderbot 2025-05-30 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yeah, just try it, Knives. Stabbing isn't going to deal it as much damage as the average human (not that it'll let on the fact that doing so can still fuck it up and send it into an emergency shutdown.)]

I'm a SecUnit, not a human. We don't eat. [Beat] If you want a robot who makes food, go find Roger.
taediosum: (pic#15381327)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-05-30 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
'Something else'?

[ Well, that's always promising. Arcade pauses, not leading them off toward some post-apocalyptic dive bar just yet. ]

What is it?
winparadise: (138)

[personal profile] winparadise 2025-05-30 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[Nai smiles, like he's enjoying his reactions. Everything on this ship has been his entire world since he was born, so in a way, it's interesting to introduce someone who it who seems totally clueless.]

They call all this -- the ships, the people emigrating, the plants -- Project SEEDS. You can look around, just don't step on any flowers or anything.

[The boy steps out onto the grass, content to let his guest wander for now. Should Donnie pay attention, there's even an artificial breeze, and real insects and other minifauna to help regulate the plants and soil. A small, carefully-maintained ecosystem.]
winparadise: (035)

[personal profile] winparadise 2025-05-30 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[He regards the fox-woman, unimpressed.] Establish if it's edible, or if any of its parts are useful. Eat it.

[He really doesn't care what she does with it, so long as those in the Convoy aren't starving. Figuring out the rest is her problem now!]
solitarysoul: commisioned art (What?)

[personal profile] solitarysoul 2025-05-30 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"The world that...made yours?" How could one make a world? They were just sort of there. He's not sure if the Rher realms were always just sorta there and only the doorways were created or if the whole realms were created somehow. Hes not sure that's something he can really grasp.
solitarysoul: (Eyes)

[personal profile] solitarysoul 2025-05-30 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[The feeling of Jayce's hide breaking under his claws feels...weird. Maybe he'll wonder about it later, but right now he doesn't have time for that. He lets go of the leg and rolls out from under Jayce. He doesn't dodge all of the stomps and kicks, but he doesn't take any significant damage.

Whatever that noise was wouldn't be so easy, though. Its not something he really recognizes but its easy to tell its leading to some sort of shot or explosion. From the deer-thing's mouth, so he jumps to a position behind it and tenses. His reflexes were well honed and boosted by the canine form. Hopefully he'll be able to leap aside once it fires.]
purplexing: (weighing pizza)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-05-30 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Fascinating.

[He doesn't need Nai's encouragement to start wandering, nor does it seem he needs the warning as he takes care not to trample anything.

His expression is one of open wonder as he has a look around, stooping down here and there to study the flowers he comes across, pausing at the simulated breeze.
]

This is incredible. The level of detail and care to nurture such a natural environment is impressive.
discolouredwings: (pic#14995654)

Green Glow

[personal profile] discolouredwings 2025-05-30 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Natsuhi didn't patrol for the obvious reasons, she couldn't fight. But she tried to keep busy, mostly with patching up clothes and basic first aid but... The boy standing off to the side caught her attention as made her deliveries.

For a moment she paused. Watching him as her ears swiveled, debating if she should get involved. Then she sighed, smoothed out her skirt (it didn't help, her drifting tails could not be stopped).

She cleared her throat as she approached.

"Is everything alright? You're unusually quiet."
discolouredwings: (pic#14995653)

[personal profile] discolouredwings 2025-05-30 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[His snark made her gnash her teeth, ears folding even as she focused on seeing if there was a lower spot in the ravine. There was no way she could move him, but maybe she could get help.

Then he made that suggestion and she spluttered. Her voice rising an octave.]


Put it back!? Put it back!? It's sticking out of your leg, I don't think this is something that can just snap back into place!

[Well maybe someone would hear them. Because the lady could yell.]
discolouredwings: (pic#14995651)

[personal profile] discolouredwings 2025-05-30 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"It got you-" She repeated his words, then they sunk in and she gritted her teeth. The hand that was rubbing his back pausing and just gripping the fabric. Her eyes narrowed at his arm. What was that? Scales?

It was probably bad that she hoped he was just turning into something strange. That was normal for here.

Then she brought her other hand up, reaching for his forehead. Going to check his temperature. Though she wasn't sure what to do if he'd been injected with something.

"How are you feeling?"
solitarysoul: commisioned art (omgwtf)

[personal profile] solitarysoul 2025-05-31 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
He flinches back as she touches his forehead; he hadn't really noticed her before but that was hard to miss. There's no fever, but he is sweating as he peers at her with wide eyes.

"Y...you...w-w-when did you get here? D-d-did they get you t-too?"
rootlessly: (pic#16305062)

[personal profile] rootlessly 2025-05-31 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[He waits. He waits and frets, because even as a child, Vash was always a worrier. He'd worry about the greenhouse plants and the Plant room plants and the humans in cryo, and about what it would be like on the new planet when everyone was awake.

The longer he sits there by himself, the more he frets about what his brother needed to show Rem. he rolls over onto his stomach and confesses his anxiety to a geranium before he presses his cheek against the grass, letting the sensation ground him out here in the endless sea of space.]


We're okay, [he mutters to himself, humming a tune under his breath] we're okay.

[And then Nai is back, and Vash sits up, tries to smile like he wasn't just spiraling out, but then he sees the look on his brother's face.]

What is it? Was something really wrong with the ship after all?
x2bet: (039)

[personal profile] x2bet 2025-05-31 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
Wait a fucking second-

[Something dawns on him as he puts an actual face to the voice that he now recognizes. That scruffy guy he's always seeing hanging out in a pair with that other shorter fella - Benny points the fork he's holding at him and brandishes it in a rather accusatory manner. It's purely for dramatics' sake, considering the deer-thing can't see it at all... nor is the fork particularly threatening in general. But sometimes you just gotta make a stand, baby.]

You're the reason the Ben-Man's lost out on his beauty sleep - You and that twiggy fella "Victor" wakin' up everybody and their damn mothers at night!

[Too busy "getting some" to consider that some other people in the convoy might want to "get some" sleep too. Unlike Jayce, Benny does has a nose, and he scrunches that up.]

Well this - [The tip of the fork wiggles up and down, somewhat judgementally but not entirely too seriously.] - explains why I ain't heard you yowling like an alley cat recently.
mytearsaremine: (knees)

sorry for the delay :(

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-31 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
"No, nothing like them," Jolie says, shaking her head. "We had aliens, but they were all dead, being studied by the government." Or killed by Odd. But that alien was pretty dead, too, so. "Nothing like here. No magic or weird broken moons or anything like that."

She offers the CD back. "The cars almost all look like they're from my world, too, though."
mytearsaremine: (nervous)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-31 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Hiskott did not expect to have the body he wants already occupied, but he is also very unused to being resisted. He fights, too, and his desire is not "eat" but "control". He tries to stretch the digital ghost of himself through Serph's body, trying to wrestle Varuna under control as much as Serph himself.

Jolie reaches for his hand, as if that will help. It won't, she thinks, but she can't do nothing. Serph with Hiskott in him will probably kill her. But it's okay. She's been prepared for that for a long time. She just hates that it had to happen to someone she knows, who had been free.
mytearsaremine: (Default)

[personal profile] mytearsaremine 2025-05-31 03:28 am (UTC)(link)
Jolie also doesn't have superpowers, so her doing it right is probably more important. She leans over a little to get a better view. "Huh. Okay. I'm pretty small, so I probably ought to use what leverage I have, right?"

She attempts to mimic it. She has pretty good body control, but it's not perfect right off the bat, either. She'll need to practice to keep her center of gravity balanced.
wereperrito: (Default)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-05-31 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes, yes. Okay." Serph has a point. There might still be monsters around. Though them not being bothered for long enough for a make-out session suggests this part of the convoy, at least, is clean.

Still. He straightens up, ruffles at his own hair and fox ears a moment with both hands, then steps back all the way. "Do you need to eat? Or should we just leave these to disappear, as they do?" He's seen monsters die. He knows what happens sometimes.
wereperrito: (Default)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-05-31 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
[Jack closes the last distance and moves one hand closer, stopping before touching, but clearly making the offer to do so if Jayce would like to be touched.]

Well, the other person did most of the work, each time. But having someone else talk them through changing back into a mostly human person seemed to help. Maybe it was timing, and I was lucky, but maybe it was useful to have someone talk about what being human-shaped feels like.
wereperrito: (sneak)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-05-31 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
"I am turning into a kitsune, apparently," Jack allows. "Maybe I have a trick or two. But nothing to hurt you with!"

Jack throws up a second illusion of himself behind her, bolting for the other end of the library, while he runs for the door. With luck, she'll go for the wrong one. The sound of his speaking comes from first one image of himself, then the other.
wereperrito: (thinking)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-05-31 03:48 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, see, Serph doesn't know about growing old yet. Jack will worry about explaining it later. For now, he nods thoughtfully, still leaning into Serph's side. "I can tell you some customs from Earth," he offers. "And you can decide which ones you like best. Traditions for when people die are not really for the dead, after all. They are for the living left behind. You do what makes you feel better, more at ease, about the loss."
electrifyking: (50.)

[personal profile] electrifyking 2025-05-31 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
"Not easy to fight something that looks more human, huh?"

[He rolls his shoulders at that, looking uncomfortable for a brief instant. His eyes flicker away, as Akihiko works on collecting himself. It's hard to say what makes him more on edge: fighting something that looked human, or the fact that it didn't bother him as much as it should have.]

"I guess for me it's... They were out for blood. Felt like defending myself. Or... Maybe like a more deadly version of sparring...

...Saying it like that sounds messed up, I know. The more I think about it, it starts to feel unnerving. Just at the moment, I was ready to fight back and put them in the dirt, if I needed to.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... No worries about you needing to protect yourself?"

[And no grudges about what happened between them, that too.]
wasteland_101: (Default)

[personal profile] wasteland_101 2025-05-31 04:03 am (UTC)(link)
She simply nodded before stretching her arms above her head for a moment.

"This isn't much different than some of the buildings I've explored," she said before beginning to make her way to the closest robot. Her movements are calculated. She's used to crumbling buildings and not gravity being reversed so she is moving a bit slower than she usually would.
faceguy: (hey kids)

[personal profile] faceguy 2025-05-31 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
Leo jerks his head up when Donnie reaches for him, but he'd never deny one of his brothers anything, and so he easily opens up his palm, slotting their hands together, fingers threaded. It's a reassuring motion, and that rolls off of him as he rubs his thumb over Donnie's knuckles.

"...Did... you have a nightmare, too?" he finally asks, a little hesitantly. His voice is thick with sleep, still, his tongue dry, but he manages.

He's afraid he knows which nightmare Donnie had.
faceguy: (USDA certified lean)

[personal profile] faceguy 2025-05-31 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
Oh sorry, let me pencil you into my schedule for a later time!

[Leo is about to say something else snappy when another of those brains skitters up on him - and Leo gasps as it suddenly skitters on to him.]

Auuugh, no! It's on me, gross!

[Wait... will this thing start to turn him, like the Krang did? Leo's panic rises as he flails his arms to free himself.]
undyingcrow: (distant)

[personal profile] undyingcrow 2025-05-31 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
Blake-san may have some that are at least somewhat legible, but it depends how thoroughly the books were purged. Anything related to this world's state of affairs has been almost entirely scrubbed, however.

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