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











bufudine: (don't say that... :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-23 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
[The abrupt change in topic brings his hunger back into awareness with hyper clarity. As Jayce looks at his neck, Serph's gaze is drawn to Jayce's injured leg.]

Your leg.

[He swallows. When did he start salivating?]

We can't leave it like that.
wereperrito: (smilebig)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-23 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
Aw, Serph. That certainly is one way to win over an old werewolf's very soft heart. Jack, much more expressive than Serph by nature, does melt a little into a smile, at that. It's very hard to stay anxious and awkward when your roommate-slash-bedmate is telling you so earnestly that he believes in you.

"Thank you, Serph," he says. Then, the grin turning slightly impish because if he's not feeling anxious he definitely will just straight-up ask, he adds, "Does that mean I can kiss you again? Without the magic."
bufudine: (searching for something lost :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-23 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
Is that how the cycle works? In a world without plants and animals, before their demons, their bodies served no purpose to the living; their data was washed into the waterways, from where the Karma Temple would gather their data, churn the rest and they were reborn with the rain.

Viktor had told him about plants and they seem so miraculous to Serph. Living things that could feed other living things while spawning more life. Monsters in this world were sometimes absorbed by their sigils, but even after devouring there were still parts left behind... and that went on to feed small plants and animals? In this kind of world, every living thing is connected then, aren't they?

Which makes what happened to the Junkyard so much worse; everyone still left in it... they weren't part of that cycle and now they are gone. The only thing that remains of them are what memories the last members of the Embryon have. It would be impossible to remember all of them; the Tribe's numbers had swelled as they absorbed the others and Serph did not have the chance to spent time with every member.

Serph is silent for a long, ponderous moment as he mulls over that. "Is that what it means to have life? To know your existence will sustain those who come after?"

What of constructs like SecUnit, then?
bufudine: (Default)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-23 09:33 am (UTC)(link)
Serph nods. "They are soldiers who took the virus."

They had attacked him first, not knowing he was like them.

"They chose to become monsters." Even if it was to escape the sun and its stone disease, "It's hard for me to grasp why."
bufudine: (what're you thinking? :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-23 11:33 am (UTC)(link)
???

Serph blinks. Without the magic?

That would mean the act would serve no practical purpose. But if Jack is asking for a repeat, that means there is something in the act itself that he wants. Which would be... how it felt good?

And feeling good and wanting to make the other person feel good using the mouth, hands, and body is part of hunger (desire).

...Hold on.

. . . . . . "Is that all you wanted to do?"
refusefate: (pic#17640714)

[personal profile] refusefate 2025-06-23 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
It is. I could have guessed it before but, gravity distortions…all we’ve seen so far. That makes it harder.

[He straightens and does an internal run down of his systems. His scans flag a welded shut drawer. He blinks and turns,] Hang on.

[He grabs the drawer and uses his strength. There is a tearing sound then a row of healing potions and tightly well packed herbs greets them.] Looks like they didn’t mess up everything. Are these safe?
hexrot: (pic#17918413)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-23 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[ jayce takes a moment of silence to flip it around in his head, and no matter how many times he does, he comes to the same damn conclusion. ]

That's not sustainable, Serph.

[ in fact, it is dooming. limited. makes his chest sink when he looks up at the pitch grim sun. ]
purplexing: (Hmm)

[personal profile] purplexing 2025-06-23 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[Donnie frowns, but his brows lift as he watches Zero pry away the drawer. Impressive.

He lowers his goggles for his own scans, if mostly to check that there aren't any weird magical properties to them that they should know about.
]

I'm not sure how safe anything is here, honestly? But these look promising. And if they were sealed in, hopefully useful.

[He picks up a bottle, studying it before he looks at the herbs. They don't look like anything he's familiar with, but they seem intact enough to study, so he gathers everything he can, tucking them into his bag.]
hexrot: (pic#17918393)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-23 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[ jayce snarls back with wild eyes, furious, as if to ask what? what can i do? smacking the gravel at his sides that just about finish scaring the piximanders off. ]

What do you suggest?

[ nothing, if he still wants any rate of success when considering get out of here. when the fever passes. when the bone sets. when his leg heals. it will heal—

until jayce's thoughts sputter like a dying engine. until the cogs come together and turn in a direction that is quick enough understanding the implication. he's that hungry, and he knows serph enough— or call it a shared instinct, now he can only shake his head, sweating cold. ]


. . . N— [ he shakes again, ] No. No—
solitarysoul: commisioned art (Default)

[personal profile] solitarysoul 2025-06-23 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
They chose, or couldn't control whatever the demon-virus did to them? He supposes it doesn't matter and Serph might not even know. "Are they just on the surface?"
bufudine: (come with me :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-24 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
[Serph closes his eyes. For perhaps the first time in all the conversations they've had, Serph sounds Tired.]

I know.

[A demon and peaceful existence are incompatible. And yet he yearns for it all the same, unable to give up on finding it.]

Most humans despise those who become demons because they're hunted by them. Yet some took the virus for strength to fight and protect their loved ones.

[He remembers how angry and scared the humans of Lokapala had been when he'd first met them. It seemed seeing their leader take the virus in order to finally fight had galvanised others into the same drastic action. But...]

...Even knowing what that means once the fighting is over.

[They had willingly doomed themselves, just so others may live.]
definitionofcrazy: (75)

[personal profile] definitionofcrazy 2025-06-24 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
He says her name, and she stumbles back again, her back pressing against lockers. She never takes her eyes off him.

"I-"

Her words catch in her throat, and her lips twitch in a momentary strained grimace. What's she even supposed to say? How do you say sorry for-

If you apologize to me, I will beat you to death. The cold words flicker through her mind, and then as now she can't even pretend it isn't fair. What, because it wasn't her? It used to be. Maybe it still was, under everything.

She finally closes her eyes, slumping down to the floor.

"Y-you should..."

Go, she was going to say, but they're stuck in this weird dream together. Her head tips back against the metal of the locker door behind her.
bufudine: (the usual rainy weather :|)

acorn...

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-24 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
The waves roll gently up the beach's short, washing back out in a steady rhythm.

Honour... He wonders if the man Sephiroth knows would have much to speak about to Lupa, if they could have met. The concept seems to have resonated deeply with Gale, a kind of earth-shattering revelation that his strategist has come to that Serph isn't quite privy to.

If the hope of a peaceful, ordinary life isn't what drives Sephiroth, then, "What's your goal?"
firstsoldier: (pic#17626935)

[personal profile] firstsoldier 2025-06-24 09:54 am (UTC)(link)
Sephiroth didn't bother with things like hopes and dreams. He knew their futility. But he could still support his friends' ideals along those same lines, when possible. He didn't have to have Angeal's deep passion for honor to encourage it, he didn't have to share Genesis' love for theater to go with him to opening nights.

"Currently, reach Nirvana and return to my friends' sides." Simple, straightforward. Terribly unambitious. "If they are here, find them first, before either one decides what's been inflicted on us is a good excuse to cause trouble." Something in his tone suggests he's not thinking of the usual sort of monster trouble in murder and destruction.
bufudine: (Default)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-24 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Serph remains calm in the face of Jayce's fear, gaze steady and sympathetic.]

It's infected. It will spread to the rest of you.

[Even though the hunger gnaws ever more insistently, Serph doesn't move. Doesn't dare to move, lest he is unable to resist the siren's call of simply tearing into Jayce.]

You want to survive, don't you?
bufudine: (hey. a naked girl :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-25 09:42 am (UTC)(link)
Hm.

That kind of answer explains much about Sephiroth's thoughts and responses. Serph doesn't think any less of the other man. There were many who did not have any particular goal of their own, going along with the goals of those around them. In a way, it's a life rooted in the present.

It isn't a bad thing.

Serph nods. It doesn't matter if others do not believe in his dream; he will strive for it regardless. "The path to our goals are the same." The smallest of smiles curls at the corners of his mouth. "When we reach journey's end, we'll see what paths await."
hexrot: (pic#17858053)

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-26 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ no. no, jayce is a fixer. he was born to fix things. born with a hammer in his hand. born to flip equations in his head until he cracked them. until he found solutions. he can't just accept that there's absolutely nothing to be done—

even if it is not his world. it is his friend, and his dream. as far as jayce knew, he was living in it. ]


I'm no doctor, [ even if he knows his way around the mere basics because of viktor, ] but there has to be something that can be done, if it's a virus. Like a vaccine, or . . .

[ antiviral medication? ]
hexrot: (pic#17857973)

cw: suicide ideation

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-26 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
Serph—

[ yes, he wants to survive. he does, he's realized it in the worst of ways. he needs to, despite thinking a few times too many about what it would've been like, if he'd jumped those years ago. he thinks if it might just be best, to end this all here before the present caught up to this devastating future. how easy it would be to take the sharpest stone he could find, tear his wrists open and watch the bleak future go dim in his eyes. he'd die and no one would find him. the world, perhaps, would only miss his presence, the image they've built of him, and realize in his cruel absence what they've done to drive him here.

but the rational part of jayce agrees. he's right. you'll die before you get out of here. that depressed, defeated part of him thinks maybe i should just rot, but— jayce's irrationality shrieks so much louder, as does his actual will to live. to survive. to get out of here and reach those who mattered more than all of this. he shakes his head again, his rack of antlers following, his eyes swelling with tears as the lower eyelids rise halfway up and his lower lip hanging into unconforming shapes, of could-be words before he can finally answer, a shaken: ]


No[ it's natural, to refuse to amputate. to be without a part of you. to be terrified of the prospect. ] I'll sign my death sentence, I'll— [ his eyes climb the terrible incline he fell down from, ] I-I won't be able to climb, when it heals— It could heal.

[ but for all they knew, he was babbling right through a fever that may take him first. ]
bufudine: (we aren't who we eat :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-26 11:56 am (UTC)(link)
[Maybe there is something in this world that holds a solution to problem that would otherwise be impossible to solve in the false Nirvana. If there's one thing he's learnt since his arrival, it's how limited his perspective is. What may be impossible in one world may be possible in another.]

I don't know. But there's no solution if I die.

[He's already done that once. It was unpleasant. But since he's been given another chance at life despite everything, he doesn't intend to throw it away.]

So I won't.

[Simple. Easy.]
bufudine: (come with me :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-27 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
Serph shakes his head. "They come underground to hunt other humans."

So they're not entirely safe here either. Humans intentionally turned into monsters to hunt other humans.

[ooc: I think we can wrap this one up in a tag or two, unless you had other ideas on where to take this?]
hexrot: (pic#17918419)

perhaps we can call this a wrap...!!

[personal profile] hexrot 2025-06-27 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[ . . . hah. while jayce keeps silent, a moment more and air sweeps through his nose. his shoulders bounce just once. ]

Simple as that.

[ tragedy can happen, but if you're not willing to die? it makes fate work double the time to get you. ]
thetatters: human!. (before the wave hits)

[personal profile] thetatters 2025-06-28 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
John's fingers lace with his, an immediate reflex for closeness, and tighten at every confession. His eyes are wide and startled. In this moment, there is no resemblance to the monster from those sandy depths: he has never looked so bewildered, so overwhelmed.

"I was... more than willing, Serph." John cannot imagine that his willingness was ever in doubt. He was the one to drag them down together, entangled beyond all understanding. "Of course I... T-that is, in the moment..." He makes a frustrated, helpless noise. "I don't want to enjoy hurting you. That's not the sort of creature, the sort of person, I want to be."

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