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: (lookup)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-28 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
SecUnit has biological parts. Those can be turned into nutrients for some other form of life. And the metal parts can be used to shelter others, perhaps, or scavenged by some future generation for tools or prosthetics of their own. Jack is optimistic.

"On my world, on most worlds I'd imagine, yes. That's definitely part of it. There are other parts, too, like wanting to live your life well and connecting with other people. But knowing you will sustain others after death is a comfort." He flips his tails lightly. "Sometimes that sustenance is not just physical. Memories sustain us. So does knowledge. If I teach someone how to mend their own clothes or read a book, or provided them with something they need... I have sustained them for the future, as well."
bufudine: (hey. a naked girl :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-29 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Although Jack had said desire isn't a bad thing if they were both willing, if John didn't want to enjoy inflicting pain...

"Then I won't ask that of you."

His gaze lingers on where their hands are linked, palm to palm, fingers threaded between each other. He lets out a quiet breath, wings curving around to gently cocoon them both.

"Let's walk this path together. How to be better than we were. How to choose different things. All three of us." Quieter, he adds, "Jack was worried we didn't want him around."
definitionofcrazy: (74)

[personal profile] definitionofcrazy 2025-06-29 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
She visibly flinches when he approaches, but makes no move to stop him or move away, and her entire body sags back against the lockers when he rests against her. She lets out an almost hysterical little giggle.

"Yeah, angry ain't exactly the word I was expecting."

Freaked out? Betrayed? Hurt? Terrified? These are much better words.
wereperrito: (lookup)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-29 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
He was perhaps a little freaked out, but he doesn't blame her for it. She clearly seems as shaken as he had. Instead, he sets his wolfy chin on her knee. "You should pet my head and ears," he offers. This is a dream, after all, and he is currently all wolf, except for the six tails bit. It shouldn't be too embarrassing. "I hear petting animals helps you feel better."
definitionofcrazy: (72)

[personal profile] definitionofcrazy 2025-06-29 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
She doesn't even think, her voice suddenly as snappish and hostile as it is shaky and bewildered.

"What are you, some sort of glutton for-"

She bites down in the middle of the sentence. It's not him she's upset with. It's really not. He doesn't deserve that.

"...I'm not the one who just got chased down by a psycho bitch with superpowers here."
wereperrito: (Default)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-29 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
"You do not seem like a psycho bitch right now," Jack counters gently. "It was a dream. Dreams are not reality." He doesn't move, leaving his chin on her knee. His tails shift restlessly against his hip and hind leg. "Did you know, when I was much younger, I used the werewolf to kill people, on purpose? I would stalk them until I knew where they would be, and when I changed I did so right where the wolf would kill them first. I was angry at the world for betraying me, so I took it out on people I thought deserved it."

He heaves a little sigh. "I have learned to be better. To be less angry and not to judge who deserves what. But it did still happen." Maybe she won't believe him, maybe she will. But she is not the only one with a past they regret, and maybe it will help her to know that.
definitionofcrazy: (pic#17735127)

[personal profile] definitionofcrazy 2025-06-29 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"Used to be real enough."

Sounds a little half-hearted, though. Figures he had his own screwed up past, it was the only way he could be this chill with her.

She does, almost without thinking about it, move her hand to rest on the fur on the back of his neck, but she doesn't actually pet him.

"Didn't even care who deserved it. Told myself that everybody did."
wereperrito: (smilesmall)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-06-30 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
It's a step in the right direction! He will take just laying her hand on him. "You don't think that way now," Jack offers. "Or you certainly do not seem to. And that is what counts to me. That you have learned and changed and try to be better. Otherwise where would I be, hmm?"
definitionofcrazy: (132)

[personal profile] definitionofcrazy 2025-06-30 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
She scoffs.

"So what, that just makes it okay?"

She tips her head back again, letting it fall against the metal of the locker with a dull clanging noise.

"Doesn't change what I almost did to you. Did do."
bufudine: (hey. a naked girl :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-06-30 08:21 am (UTC)(link)
For now?

Hm.

Serph has wondered for a while what he would do in a land of peace to show that he cared. In a land of violence, loyalty to each other meant they would fight alongside each other, die for each other, without hesitation.

Sleeping in such close proximity feels right in a way he can't describe, but it didn't seem sufficient to him. Kissing without magic... if that simple request is what Jack would ask of him, then Serph would willingly give it to him.

Besides, he liked it, too.

He nods. "You can kiss me without the magic." Just like the hugs. "But not right now. Let's finish checking on the others."

[ooc: we can probably tie this thread up soon :>]
tokencanadian: (Default)

[personal profile] tokencanadian 2025-06-30 11:10 am (UTC)(link)
Well... it's nice. For you, I mean. You've really come into your own.

[...Cough. Goliath in the room, time to move on.]

I think this might be - well, it's not going to be enough, but at least we'll be prepared in case another disaster hits.
bufudine: (Default)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-07-01 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Serph shakes his head.]

This is what kills you. The infection. The corruption.

[Sacrifice a leg? Or lose your entire life? Serph knows what he would pick. And he'll make that choice for Jayce whether he wants to or not. The brand on his face glows, Serph's familiar transformation into Varuna as quick and seamless as ever.]

I'll make it quick.

[How many times has he dismembered a demon or monster with the blades of his? Serph stopped counting long ago. But it has always been fast. In a flash, one of his blades unsheathes with its distinctive scrape of bone, sharpened end aimed at Jayce's broken and infected leg.]
bufudine: (searching for something lost :|)

[personal profile] bufudine 2025-07-01 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
Serph mulls over Jack's words for a long time, hand gently stroking Jack's fur.

"One of those who died... her name was Jinana. She taught us what it meant to be comrades. We didn't have a word for such connection before."

And in them, she lives on, is it? He knows Argilla's thoughts are often occupied with the other leader.

"Perhaps she would have felt comforted, if she knew what she had given us was so important." He gazes down at Jack, a small, fond smile curling at his mouth. "And you are a comrade as well."
becomerobot: (89)

[personal profile] becomerobot 2025-07-01 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[Only Jayce would say something like that to Viktor whilst the man is covered in toxic runoff and muck. It is clearly not in jest. No, Viktor knows what the man must mean, he can feel the way his mouth drags and lingers,]

You're hungry, Jayce... I don't think- you'd get much of a meal out of me, in this state...

[He feels hopelessly unable to give what is needed, frail and unwell this way. Too much metal and bone to even be a decent meal. Funny, that Viktor took pride in that with his Selkhet body. He feels robbed of his potential, of his ability to provide for his lover. His flesh, his blood, his very organs... all would be given so easily to Jayce if he only needed them more than Viktor did,

The haze of the dreamscape makes Viktor no less stubbornly and self sabotaging generous,]


No matter... please, have your fill. Better that then to see you starve.
wereperrito: (smilebig)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-07-03 01:03 am (UTC)(link)
Jack is mature enough not to pump a fist with success, both for the permission and positively navigating this weird conversation, but the grin shows he's probably thinking something of the sort. "Good. Maybe after we get you cleaned up. And me cleaned up. I got monster blood on me from you, you know, I'm going to have to soak this jacket."

And he contentedly tows Serph the rest of the way to the convoy proper.

((and scene!))
wereperrito: (lookup)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-07-03 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
"It will never be okay that we did things to possibly good people. Or even bad people who should have had the chance to do better." He flips his tails gently against the lockers behind them, and Faith, a little. "But we cannot do better ourselves, if we are always holding onto the anger at ourselves for doing it. That just gets in the way of doing the better thing now, I've found."

He shifts his muzzle a bit so he can look back at her with one eye. "And I forgive you for what your dream-self did. So that is one thing I would certainly wish you will not be angry with yourself for."
wereperrito: (smilebig)

[personal profile] wereperrito 2025-07-03 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
Jack squirms just a little under the affection, but then he stretches up to lick the side of Serph's face in canine affection, back. "I'm glad. I know you had to leave a lot behind when you came here, but I'm happy I met you and get to be your comrade."

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