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











purplexing: (oh...)

\o/ hope all is well

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-11 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Agreed. We just need to find access to the main systems.

[He grimaces at the thought of the tower being a containment system of itself. From what he remembers seeing, it had been so very crude compared to this.]

The million dollar questions. But whatever happened...it must have been faster than they anticipated.

[Donnie follows, not wanting to be left behind around here. He breathes out a sigh at Zero's report.]

Just hope whatever came out of them isn't still around.
firstsoldier: (pic#17626940)

[personal profile] firstsoldier 2025-06-11 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
That.. is a sudden and very unexpected transition, and Sephiroth doesn't know the thoughts that turn wasteland to seaside paradise. It's jarring, even for him it's hard to hide his surprise, squinting briefly up at the sun and blue sky with a pained wince; full dark to full sun is not easy on anyone's eyes.

"Realistic experience sets realistic goals," he says, looking around more carefully. He still has Masamune, but there's .. nothing hostile here. Nothing feels like it should be a danger, somehow, and the sword disappears in a ripple of dark violet energy. Something's still off, but it isn't in a way that flags as immediately hostile to a lifetime of battlefield experience. "I don't need to believe I am capable of what I wish to do. I know I am, and knowledge is stronger. Where.. is this?"
Edited 2025-06-11 21:16 (UTC)
androidvictoriam: (pb - laughing)

[personal profile] androidvictoriam 2025-06-11 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
That's what I'm talking about! Nicely done!

[ Danse can't feel the sensation of crushing the things, exactly, though there's strangely something a bit like an echo of it, but he can feel the emotions that go along with it, and no small amount of righteous jubilation of his own to see that many enemies taken out in one stroke. ]

Feels good, doesn't it?

[ His voice might still have that same wolfish relish to it even if he were speaking aloud right now, in his own form. But for as much of that vindication as he absorbs, as much vicarious satisfaction as he already feels on his own, he soaks in some of that civilizing influence too, the unfamiliar perspective of someone who doesn't ordinarily take pleasure in fighting. It's strange, to be on a battlefield and have his mind so vividly linked to that of a pacifist.

It pulls him back, makes him look out over the camp with a more restrained tactician's eye again. The enemy's numbers have definitely, visibly thinned now; the other drifters have been just as busy, but he and Arcade have certainly taken out a respectable chunk between the two of them, and the energy of the devourers' deaths is giving a much-needed second wind when he would ordinarily be exhausted and limping too heavily to run. ]


You think you're up for one more round?

[ He's shifted away from that instinct to bark orders, and certainly from being feral enough to just take off running again. ]
wereperrito: (Default)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-12 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
"No, no, not... exactly?" Jack gives a helpless little laugh. "Sorry. I do tend to ramble. I am not really worried in the way I think you think I might be."

He considers how to explain, because Serph will want him to explain. And he's been avoiding explaining this for a long time now. "I am very old," he begins as they approach the convoy proper. "You, I think, are not. You don't know very much about how actual humans interact, while I have seen so many relationships and falling outs and reunions and makings up in my time. I do not want to hurt you, without meaning to, because you do not understand everything that I understand. Does that make sense?"
wereperrito: (confused)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-12 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
Okay. Okay, hmm.

[Jack hasn't seen Jayce's human chest in a while, it's always been covered in clothing, but he does remember seeing Leonardo's heart beating visibly in his, so he re-evaluates, giving Jayce's skull-nose a gentle pet, as much for hopeful comfort as because he simply does not keep his hands still easily.

That's an idea, though.]

You have your hands still, yes? Think about those. The usefulness of thumbs, the way your fingers curl around something when you hold it or pick it up. The way the muscles in your forearm react to moving your fingers.
wereperrito: (scared)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-12 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
Jack gives a sharp, short, canine yelp of pain and tries to wriggle away, out from under her. He doesn't, pointedly, try to bite or claw or even kick. A little phantom fire flickers up around him, as if trying to cushion him against the next blow. "Faith, please--"
wereperrito: (smilesmall)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-12 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, of the human body, their skeletons-- their bones-- are the last part to decay, or to burn," Jack explains. "The skeleton is what is left behind most often when we die. So they have become the symbol of the dead in many cultures. But if you turn them into dolls or skull masks, make them bright with flowers and colors, it makes death seem a little less scary. Like there can be joy in death as well, joy for the life that was had and the people who loved them."

He swishes his tails over around Serph's hips, under his wings. "And a parade is a bunch of people walking and dancing together down the street, usually with music and vehicles made up to look pretty with flowers and paper mache, celebrating together."
faceguy: (they kiss on the ring)

[personal profile] faceguy 2025-06-12 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Three syllables is usually where he taps out.]

Well, it's not like I'd stop you. It's probably not my world you'd be going back to, anyway. ...Unless in about seventeen years your New York also gets invaded by aliens.

[In which case, oops.]
faceguy: (local god)

no worries!

[personal profile] faceguy 2025-06-12 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Leo thinks about the Shredder, and how he used to be a Hamato. That hadn't stopped them, at the time; if anything it had only spurred them on.

But then he thinks about Raph, when he'd been fully turned by the Krang, when he'd been trying to kill Leo himself. Leo had never once considered "putting him down". That simply hadn't been on the list of options.

So yeah. Maybe not.]


Uh... it's kinda embarrassing to describe. [He says this with the self-consciousness of youth, rubbing at the back of his head.] I guess it's just... they're always there. And I know that sounds like a bad thing, because sometimes they know exactly what buttons to push, and I think I want to kill them. But there's nothing they could do to make me not love them, and nothing I could do to make them stop loving me, either.

[He thinks about when he really didn't think he deserved that kind of love, and his family gave it to him anyway. Donnie saying we saved you, ripped apart time and space to get Leo back.]

So yeah, I guess that's what it's like. Just... knowing someone's always going to have your back, and you'll have theirs.
bufudine: (Default)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-12 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
It's quieter than before, the sounds of fighting dulled and subdued.

Serph's not sure what has Jack so concerned. He's well aware of his limited knowledge; that seems logical when Jack has lived at least forty of his lifetime.

But being afraid of hurting him? Everything running perfectly smoothly is the realm of those without emotion. Pain without hurt. Accomplishment without joy. Having arguments seems like a perfectly normal part of interpersonal relationships, even from what he's seen of humanity. If anything, humans seem much more confused about their lives than he is.

Serph shakes his head. No, he doesn't understand. "Hurt is the realm of those with emotions."

After all he's been through, it's hard to imagine Jack inflicting pain on him that could rival what he's endured. It's hard to imagine Jack doing anything that was irreversible, something so abhorrent that there could be no forgiveness.

So it's with full confidence that he says calmly, "You can't hurt me in a way that matters."
refusefate: (pic#17640714)

It is better!

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-12 02:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Stay behind me just in case. We move as a unit. [His calm shifts subtly, he is in professional hunter mode.

He glides forward, keeping his pace to one Donnie can match. He pulls his saber from the charger but doesn’t activate it. He turns his head to scan around. An open doorway on their left is propped open by another broken open husk.

He listens. In a low voice for Donnie alone.]
I hear something. It could be machinery. It could be a problem.

[Whatever is in there is faint, almost too low to pick out. It could be another alarm wailing because the intruders are infected.]
refusefate: (pic#17640706)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-12 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[There’s a pause. Zero looks out over the rippling and shifting memories. X asking if there’s a cure for the virus and Zero sadly shaking his head.

Their promise that if the other became Maverick, the other would deal with them. Because they would never want to hurt others by their choice.

And the last one, Zero had started to become what Leo first saw. The power had flickered around him. There is a pressure in the dream just like the start. A hint of the sheer magnitude of the problem his existence has posed. X stopped everything. His deep bond with X held back his true programming kicking in. He had shielded X from a blast that took out his lower half.]
It doesn’t sound like a bad thing. Those kind of ties can keep you from the edge. Or pull you back from it.

I couldn’t have weathered the centuries without them.
purplexing: (i cannot be hearing this right)

yay!

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-12 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[Donnie nods. For an organic he still moves pretty fast, and he definitely knows how to be quiet. It's clear that being quick and sneaky is pretty natural to him.

He takes his cues from Zero, pausing to listen as well before he nudges his goggles down to scan what he can of things beyond them.
]

Not getting anything much different from before... Wait.

[Was that movement? Or his imagination kicking into gear? The turtle frowns.]

Hard to say. Power seems to be fluctuating so I'm not sure if I saw something move or if it was just the flickering lighting. Of course, power compromise also means the security systems won't be as functional if there is something actually in there...
faceguy: (sell your soul)

[personal profile] faceguy 2025-06-12 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[The memories look harsh to live through. But Leo is glad Zero had someone.]

It's not. It's the best thing, actually.

[He can't help but grin.]

Seems to me like maybe you did have family.
taediosum: (pic#17385399)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-06-13 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ There are lines you don't cross, knowing what's on the other side - but that never really stops you from wondering, just the same. The wondering just usually isn't this vivid.

Arcade stifles a soft sound against Len's mouth as his tongue slips past his lips, eager and insistent. The hand holding him close is an unnecessary precaution; he doesn't think for a second of pulling away, ending this pleasant dream before he even has the time to properly luxuriate in it. Here, at least, and just for now, it doesn't feel so much like a betrayal or a profoundly foolish move. He can be selfish for a moment, blame it on his lonely subconscious drumming up something obvious to soothe the homesickness.

His hand is gripping Len's shirt a little too tightly, the hand at his back curling into a similar fist. Suddenly, the tension running through him is more anxious than anticipating, uneasy - but not because of Len. ]
taediosum: (pic#12456997)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-06-13 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
Good isn't the word I'd use.

[ Not even with the echo of Danse's fierce approval in the back of his mind, and the feedback from his sigil, as the few devourers that simply dissolve upon death bleed their energy into it. Angry vindication doesn't leave him feeling any brighter or cleaner than the crush of those devourers left behind, broken limbs and deflated, brain-like bodies shaken roughly away from the coils of his tail as he lashes it sharply to rid himself of the mess.

Still, though, as he raises himself up again to take the same kind of measured, cautious survey of their surroundings, he doesn't shy away from the prospect of ridding them of more of those things. With a terse nod, Arcade shoots him a glance, noting the blood painting his limbs. He can worry about that a little later, though. ]


Just make it quick.
soldiernoclass: (pic#11223215)

[personal profile] soldiernoclass 2025-06-13 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
"...I know." Zack lets go of her hand, shoulders slumping as he looks up into the looming face of the reactor. Just one of many, but this one - he'd just as soon it suffer the same fate as the one in his own hometown, too. Nothing good has ever come out of there.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault... It's my fault that you, and Cloud— I should've been able to stop it. I should've been strong enough."
soldiernoclass: (pic#17897654)

[personal profile] soldiernoclass 2025-06-13 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
Real? Yeah, I get that a lot.

[ Zack recovers from his own shock pretty quick (though he still wishes his hands were free so he could pinch himself just to be on the safe side), with an easy laugh. ]

...Well, not really. But I don't usually have crazy dreams about total strangers, either.
androidvictoriam: (pb - crisis)

[personal profile] androidvictoriam 2025-06-13 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
[ He'll understand that distaste more when he thinks about it later, feel far less envious and more grimly sympathetic that Arcade had to be the one to do the dirty work. Even when Danse kills things at close range, it's only in these past couple months here that he hasn't been insulated from the gore by a suit of power armor, and even here, he's got a tire iron--he hasn't had to do it with his own body.

But it is what it is, and even though he's beginning to feel the pain--he's beaten and clawed enough of them himself to reap some benefits, but not as many--he can steel himself for one more pass. There are far fewer of them left to chase him now, a mercy, but when he leads them back to Arcade and leaps over his tail to leave the brains corralled within it, he staggers a little on the landing.

It's enough. The enemy seems, finally, to be retreating. His relieved laugh is out loud now, a coarse snarling bark that he hates to hear coming from his own throat, and he collapses back against the nearest truck to support himself, more fatigue than injury, finally feeling that battle-adrenaline beginning to wear off. ]


I don't want to imagine how ugly that could have gotten if you weren't here, Doc--

[ Still reflexive, but the cutoff and prompt mental correction, too, is tangible through the still-existing mental thread. Danse may still have his hangups about the intimacy of first-name terms, but it doesn't really get much more intimate in its way than "telepathically linked and the only thing keeping each other sane," so this seems like as good a time as any to let that go. ]

--Arcade.
bufudine: (searching for something lost :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-13 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
Serph shrugs; he's not entirely sure how he got out, himself.

"Someone from this world entered my original world. When my original world was destroyed, maybe we were tossed out." He casts his gaze back out into the dimly lit streets. "Maybe it was the wish of the creator that we survived, so we did."
bufudine: (searching for something lost :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-13 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
If a goal is only ever 'realistic', then is that not a chain? A long length of chain is still a chain nonetheless. Idly, he wonders what personal goal Sephiroth pursues.

Serph shakes out his wings before tucking them at his back, gaze roving over the familiar horizon. "This is Nirvana. Not the Convoy's destination, but the one I seek."

Although the beach is idyllic, there's a distinct lack of wildlife to it. No sign of gulls or other sea birds that might circle both land and ocean, nor of creatures that might scuttle the sandy shores. Serph doesn't know there should be more.
refusefate: (pic#17640715)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-13 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
And possibly another problem if it comes to a fight.

[The shifting is to their left. He moves carefully, easing the door open. A group of three monsters about the size of dogs are trying in vain to feed on a broken husk. They look made of tentacles and more eye than anything else.

Zero positions himself near the doorway, considers it and puts the beam saber away. His hand becomes a cannon. He breathes in, and hand signals with his other hand.

In the same low voice.]
I’ll shoot first. Dash in to the right. It’s likely they will focus on me. Giving you a window to strike from the left. We go in three when you’re ready. Sound good?
refusefate: (pic#17640703)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-13 02:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe I do. [He looks at the memories as they fall back into Hunter hq. Alia at the computers next to Douglas, the two discussing repairs and data. The tall imposing figure of their commander, nodding with respect.

And X. The constant down through the years. Zero smiles at Leo. Then he sobers.]
I saw what you first saw here. If you have questions….I don’t have a lot of answers about it. …someone mentioned ‘awakening’ me to my true purpose.

I think that’s what they intend.
purplexing: (shredder down)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-13 05:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's a gasp from behind Zero as Donnie catches a glimpse of the monsters. At least there's only three of them...

He looks at Zero, nodding as he adjusts his grip on his impromptu naginata.
]

Got it. Ready when you are.
faceguy: (got nothin to learn)

[personal profile] faceguy 2025-06-13 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh? ...Oh, you mean when you looked kinda scary?

[Enough has happened now that Leo kind of forgot about that.]

Hey, don't worry about that. It doesn't matter what someone thinks your "true purpose" is; you only have to do what you want to do.

[Leo gestures at himself.] I mean, I was made to destroy humanity. But I didn't! So who cares what you're made for.

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