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











wereperrito: (peer)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-17 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
Jack gives up on even trying to wriggle away when she slams him against the wall, a little stunned but mostly aware there's nothing he can do without actually hurting her, and he refuses to do that. The phantom fire doesn't even hurt her when it flickers around her hand on his throat, it just cushions the blow, like a barrier of soft air between her and the muzzle she tries to smack.

His tails tuck up against his legs at the second hit, and he looks back at her with ears pinned back but no teeth bared.

And then suddenly she's-- herself again. He drops to the ground, tongue lolling out a little as he tries to get his breath back. "Faith?" he coughs.
wereperrito: (lookdown)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-17 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry, Serph. Consent is in fact pretty important to Jack, and trying to work out the consent in a situation where the other person doesn't have the same framework for it is tripping him up. He's been avoiding thinking about this for a while now, and now it's just getting all jumbled up when it comes out of his mouth.

He sighs, knowing where Serph is going with this. "I would apologize and try to make it right. If I couldn't make it right, if the other person would not or could not forgive me, I'd probably run away, but that's hard to do here."

He should just ask Serph. And maybe he will, in a minute, once he's let Serph make his point.
wereperrito: (Default)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-17 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
"It is the way it should be," Jack says. "Death is part of the same cycle as life. When something dies, it becomes food for something else-- not just monsters or people, like here or in your world. There are small animals and plants that feed on the dead, that then can feed the living in turn." He tilts his head, ears skewed. "But losing life is frightening. Especially for the people left behind. So we make traditions, gather together, and celebrate to make it less awful to be left."
bufudine: (hey. a naked girl :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-17 10:35 am (UTC)(link)
"If you hurt me, I believe you would choose better and braver things."

Jack believed he would choose better and braver things than his past self.

He levels his gaze down at Jack, expression as flat as ever, save for the slightest softening at the corners of his eyes.

"You believe in me. I choose to believe in you."
refusefate: (pic#17640706)

Feels like the absolutely perfect spot to wrap this one

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-17 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[He blinks. A complicated series of emotions flicker across his face. Then he ducks his head, laughs, and a tired real smile spreads across his face. He looks his age. Someone who faced countless battles for years and years.]

We’re not. We can decide what our purpose is and who we really are.
refusefate: (pic#17640715)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-17 01:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[They move in tandem. He makes use of the openings Donnie gives him with his strikes. The creatures are caught between them and fall fast to their ambush. As the last one falls, Zero nods to him.]

Guess we can expect stranglers taking advantage of the gaps in the defenses. I wonder how long ago all of this started?
purplexing: (it's not a nerd thing)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-17 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[The turtle lets out a breath, not quite lowering his guard, but he does so his stance as he eyes the bodies.]

Guess so. Hopefully they haven't messed things up too much. I was hoping to find some supplies around here.

[He frowns as he takes the moment to have a better look around the rest of the room.]

Hard to say.
guidemyway: (3999546 (44))

[personal profile] guidemyway 2025-06-17 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Uh- Yeah. I said what I said.

[Ruby feels a little sheepish having her compliment repeated like that. The smirk doesn't help. But she smiles and shakes it off.]

Let's just say that I've had the time to pick up some wisdom along the way.

Fill out some bigger boots.

[As if she hadn't always been someone to wear very large boots.]
bufudine: (searching for something lost :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-18 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
[At the question, Serph's wings ruffle as he tucks all but the upper pair in their place at his back. His upper wings briefly bend forward as his gaze lingers on the orange tips of their pinions before that pair is also tucked back.]

I don't dislike it.

[There's a silent "but..." in that statement.]

The place I seek has no enemies. But the only people left to devour would be my friends.
lonedanger: (three cheers to all the souls below)

[personal profile] lonedanger 2025-06-18 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
You're sweet.

[ He quips, very obviously flattered by the compliments but not especially keen to let it ruffle him all that much. People come in here all the time looking for company, whether they intend to pay for it or not, and they usually make eyes at the girls serving drinks and cigarettes. Folk usually don't touch the talent, but if they do it's for other reasons.

Besides, he isn't all that big enough yet to have developed a complex about it. And sometimes it's just nice to flirt.

Len hunkers down onto his elbows, absently rubbing his thumb against the side of his glass as he searches this man's face for something he recognizes - there's loneliness there he can just identity, though he isn't sure why it occurs to him that it's there. Must just be an easy read.
]

I like sweet. [ He shifts, the toe of his boot knocking the inside of Danse's. ] What d'you like?
lonedanger: (pic#17560402)

[personal profile] lonedanger 2025-06-18 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
[ Sex dreams aren't rare occurrences but they always feel a bit like they happen halfway through the act, and this is different. It seems to come naturally, fluidly, even if there are fewer barriers to entry and Arcade is suspiciously amenable to his attention. The fingers around the collar of his shirt, curling against his back, hold him securely in place and Len feels like he doesn't have to chase down the contact, complemented by eager reciprocation.

Warm, almost normal, before an undercurrent of anxiety shoots down into his stomach like an electric shock. The kind of sensation he hasn't felt in years and one that comes across as uniquely specific to the man currently exploring his mouth, who has professed, at times, a propensity to worry. Len leans back just enough to duck his head, pressing his mouth to the sharp line of Arcade's jaw.
]

You okay?
bufudine: (come with me :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-18 11:41 am (UTC)(link)
Serph nods; so it isn't even the first time he's been to another world. Argilla had even theorised there is a world this false 'Nirvana' that encompassed it, too. In a way, she's right.

"Revan bears many similarities to this world." He turns his gaze back up towards the stairs they had come from. "Most of humanity is gone." Turned to stone. "All that remain on the surface are monsters."
hexrot: (pic#17857961)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-18 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course not—

[ he's quick to snap that out, and all too quickly remembers viktor all over again— he was the one to spur jayce into discovery, breaking an entering, running the risk of getting prison time or even worse, banishment? and they still did it. because you don't ask the damn world for permission to change it. ]

There's taking risks— and there's . . . Ignoring the signs.

[ he feels . . . unfocused. brittle. his stomach makes a terrible noise and he's once again, realizing he's starving out of his damn mind. jayce presses hands to his temples, but next time he looks to serph, his eyes linger too long on his neck. ]

We're scaring off the piximanders.
Edited 2025-06-18 15:18 (UTC)
becomerobot: (66)

[personal profile] becomerobot 2025-06-18 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Soft-? [Viktor can think of many other things he is right now; disgustingly grimy, soaked cold, freshly bleeding. Soft takes him out of that mindset. Of course that is what Jayce notices first and foremost, before peppering his pale skin in desperate kisses,]

Well, you're... warm, again. [his arms clutch around Jayce, feeling the fullness of his form. Not so collapsed and withered in on itself. More like he is when freshly fed- or, really, more like he was before all this. Terrible, how Viktor acclimated to their new state of being so quickly. He didn't hold tight to his old self the way Jayce had. The way Jayce still did... but he knows if he were Jayce, he'd want things back the way they were before his revival, before his death, before this awful pit-]

What am I saying..? You are always a very... warm man. [as a person, in his soul, Jayce will always be warm]
becomerobot: (68)

sorry for long overdue tag, life got craaaazy on me, we can wrap this up!

[personal profile] becomerobot 2025-06-18 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[Viktor's hold is pulled away from and it shatters some oppressive part of the dream. Asserted by him, of course. The tunnel he was looking down opens up. He feels exposed, no longer controlling the world with his focus. Dropping his hand with a slump, it curls back towards his crutch and he huffs with something like embarrassment. Caught acting out on his obsession-]

I-... apologize. Not my intention to... overwhelm you. [to put it lightly, the dreamscape collapsing from the push and pull stress- the environment seems to have given way, they lack any place, and Viktor's attention pulls inward self consciously and scoldingly. He won't remain much longer, he'll wake from this with a slow and arduous blink in a moment,]
x2bet: (052)

[personal profile] x2bet 2025-06-18 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yiiikes. If Benny's mission was to make the guy feel better and make some friends, he's walked backwards right into a radioactive pit. He stows the fork in a bit of a hurry.]

Hey hey hey, it's all good, capiche?- [Benny attempts a hearty man's-man's backslap of approval somewhere.... shoulder-ish, following the tradition of self-congratulatory lads all over the world.] - Nothing wrong with getting all the hey-hey you can handle, you rascal. Just... pipe down while you’re piping him down, wouldja?

[Benny can only assume that the smaller man in the equation is the one being "piped", and the big, broad-shouldered guy's been doing the "piping".]

Your, ah, "fella" [Benny stresses the word euphemistically,] looks like he can't handle too much anyway. Go easy on him!
solitarysoul: commisioned art (hmm)

[personal profile] solitarysoul 2025-06-18 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"Were the monsters people too?" It seemed like the statues must have been.
hexrot: (pic#17858088)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-19 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
That's something to dislike, if you ask me.

[ even if he doesn't mind it— hell, that's something jayce wouldn't be able to swallow, period. ]

There's no way around it?
bufudine: (Default)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-19 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
[There were as many people who disliked their demons as there were those who revelled in it. But it was only those who were willing to pay their price who survived... until the entire Junkyard was deleted.

He wonders what they might have thought, in those last moments before oblivion.]


If we don't eat, we don't have the strength to resist our demon. We lose control. The demon is a ravenous beast, devouring friend and foe alike. Words, prayer, nothing can reach a person in that state.

[Serph lets out a long breath, a sigh contained within an exhalation.]

We killed our comrades who succumbed.
taediosum: (pic#15693868)

[personal profile] taediosum 2025-06-19 11:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

[ It's quick and kind of defensive, caught on a shuddering exhale as Len's lips find his pulse, just below the line of his jaw. When he tenses further, this time, it's only a result of fleeting surprise, the shiver that stubble scraping gently against his throat elicits carrying most of it away in its wake. ]

I'm fine.

[ He wants to be fine, anyway. He can't really help it. Usually this sort of dream is more a mirror of his more recent love life (before it died entirely). Decisive moves, little talking. Certainly no gentle touches or careful checking in. It's not a disappointing change from the norm, of course. But he isn't entirely sure how to handle it, either. ]

It's not because of you. [ Though Len probably already knows that. ]
bufudine: (shorty :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-21 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Serph considers those words. He agrees, but for a different reason. There ought to be people here. The people he would call friends and comrades.

"These are only the fragments I remember." So the vision is incomplete. But more importantly... "My comrades will be here. Laughing. Smiling. No longer would we need to do battle to survive."
firstsoldier: (pic#17626940)

[personal profile] firstsoldier 2025-06-21 09:20 am (UTC)(link)
"A life without needing to fight and kill.." He digs a boot into the sand, knowing now there'll be no variance in pebbles and shells. This representation is just that, a representation. Was the earlier place, if this wasn't real?

Was any of it? "Is that what you hope for?" There's no acorn in Sephiroth's tone or stance, he didn't like warfare no matter how good at it he was. He just knew it was an impossible dream. Peace. "An ordinary life.. far from any need of battle."

Maybe that would be a reason to hope, for most. Could they make it reality? Could Serph? "A man I know wishes for similar, believes dreams and honor are the only way we could ever achieve it." There are no little broken shells in the sand. "It would be nice ... If you and he were right, and I wrong."
hexrot: (pic#17857968)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-21 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ whatever is being said to jayce feels garbled in comparison to what he has an increased focus for, to the point that it was scary but jayce himself had no awareness of to the point of feeling offput: viktor was warm with life force. hot with blood running through him, through delicate veins and thicker arteries, a quiet little thrum of a heartbeat just under the blanket of his skin, his jugular pulsing at jayce's broken lips like a lamb between the jaws of a wolf.

jayce takes another insistent breath in through the nose until his nostrils flare up. too deep. that was too deep, and he does it again, his sigh outward warping into the clips of a groan as his lips begin to drag, his teeth scraping flesh with his words, ]


And you smell— [ the grip is too tight. the kisses are a little too wide, too wet with tongue at the neck as he becomes fervent in his reunion. jayce's deprived body knows what it wants, pressing flush and shivering into viktor's meager bones, slim muscle . . . beautiful belly. it has trained reaction, an anticipated rush; he feels pleasure when he thinks of it, thinks of them together like this, in the way he's wanted, tangled in him with his partner's body splayed over their working desk, on top of a mess of scattered research. in a crammed bed when viktor's limbs were so much longer than his. he thinks of pleasure, when he hears his heart beat. he thinks of an ecstacy that rivals, if not better than intercourse, when the salty taste of sweat beckons him to the spurt of his blood in his mouth. ] —so good.
hexrot: (pic#17858059)

cw: suicide ideation (in a comical sense)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-21 02:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[ oh, my gods.

you know, jumping from the balcony is starting to look like a much better alternative than listening to this, or learning, in the worst way, that the convoy's walls were as thin as paper. wrap that up with the little bow tie that is shared thoughts on blast and jayce considers death better than the limelight he's in now. as a joke. a joke that has him chuckling out of sheer irony. can't get any more dead than this, actually. conclusion: intention tabled.

something else goes splat on the floor, instead; the thickest ribbon of saliva falling off the hinges of his unsettling maw. as much as this guy is inconvenient, at least he's trying? you've got your fellas transposed and the obvious he's seven feet tall he thinks, half biting in his protectiveness towards anything that viktor is capable of, because that is the most capable man he's had the honor, pleasure and insanity of meeting—

to counteract this terrible possibility of accidentally oversharing more than what's already been, jayce starts to, instead, think of science. reciting formulas in his head until he comes down to examples, solves those. it's easier to think of this as the background noise than accidentally flash anything else that's obscenely private.
that isn't to say viktor should go easy on him nor can he not handle it himself, he could totally handle all of that. he handled mel maderda and well anyway

he ends up settling with: viktor's the most efficient man i know, with thoughts drifting to everything viktor can do with absolute competence. engineer work, theories, completing his equations, complimenting his work. ]
guidemyway: (Volume9-Ruby-54)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2025-06-22 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
Huh.

Well at least we have the two early risers on the team here.

[They would be doomed if it was up to Yang or Weiss to wake up early.

But Ruby glances Blake's way and looks thoughtful for a moment. She spent a lot of time on the road to Mistral thinking about that. She had missed her friends, and the life she had built there so much.]


Trying to stay awake and keep track of another Oobleck lecture.

I don't- I wouldn't ask for anyone else to have to do what we're doing. But it would have been nice to have a little more time to just be- us, and not dealing with the end of the world.