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route666rp2025-05-06 05:39 pm
monstertruckers) wrote in route666rp2025-05-06 05:39 pm
Entry tags:
- !event,
- fallout: arcade gannon,
- fallout: courier 6,
- fear & hunger 2: levi,
- final fantasy vii: zack fair,
- megaman x: zero,
- odd thomas: jolie harmony,
- rise of the tmnt: donatello,
- rise of the tmnt: leonardo,
- rwby: yang,
- songs for the dusk: v (oc),
- trigun stampede: millions knives,
- umineko no naku koro ni: natsuhi ushirom,
- werewolf by night: jack russell
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.
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.
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.
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.
+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…
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.
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.
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!
5
It'd almost be a relief, when things do finally, abruptly, take a turn for the worst - only he knows too well where this is going. Or he thinks he does, at least, a wave of terrible deja vu overtaking Zack as he starts to run, avoiding flaming wreckage and rapidly collapsing homes as he scans desperately for survivors in the sudden chaos.
"Tifa!" He nearly drowns out her plea with his own shout, but before he can even begin to run toward her, a great, sprawling body of - something collapses in front of him. It looks like a wooden beam, it looks like a metal girder, fire bursts upward from it and he throws up an arm to shield his face as he recoils.
no subject
She has to roll away, to avoid getting crushed. The impact still rattles her teeth, even as Tifa forces herself to stand. The person she was trying to help... They're gone. Dissolved away the second she took her eyes off them.
Not that there's any time to grieve or get confused. She's pretty sure that she heard-
"...Zack?"
Her brain is a roil right now. Can't settle on anger or fear or tears. Tifa puts that decision off for a little longer as she runs to the fire and wreckage. Not sure if she can jump it yet, though she's certainly ready to try. But first, better call out to him.
"Are you okay!? Are you hurt!?"
no subject
"What about you? And - that guy you're with?" This time it's not the smoke that makes him falter, as he tries to recall the shape of the person he saw her supporting. As he tries not to think about the shape of the blood he glimpsed on her.
"I think I can find my way around this..."
/briefly gives notifs a grumpy look. sorry this one slipped by!
"Gone. They're gone."
Of course that makes her angry.
And reckless. Ready to act, instead of have grief and fear swallow her up. Tifa whirls back around to the wreckage, like it's personally responsible for this. If nothing else, it's another obstacle.
"And I'm going to find a way around to you. You're NOT allowed to die, understood!?"
Strangely, the fire is bothering her less and less, even as it blazes brightly. Little more than a brief blast of heat from the oven, to her senses. And though Tifa doesn't realize it (as she's too busy putting hands on the bit of wreckage that isn't burning, and trying to vault over it) the ribbons of jet-black fur along her arms and hands is doing a good job of insulating her from the heat.
no worries! it happens
Not again, anyway. (Though he didn't exactly plan for it, the first time, either.)
Zack takes a couple steps back from the fallen pillar, looking around the small clearing behind him. The path is still there, back the way he came, leading up into mountains he doesn't remember coming down from (but he remembers them, just the same). And above them, inexplicably, the Plate looms. It draws his eye for a moment, just long enough for him to hear the sound of something creaking, groaning, threatening to come down, too—
"Hey, no pressure, but you might want to hurry it up!"
no subject
So it's a really lucky thing that Zack is there to snap her out of it, with the shout he gives. Tifa throws herself forward, through the rest of the flames. She doesn't really have time to care if they hurt or burn. Getting OUT of this place takes a lot more priority. She lands on the ground next to Zack with a heavy thud, but quickly rolls to her feet.
The one good thing about fearing for your life, and having old traumas suddenly surface: it does wonders for your agility.
"You're right: we need to go right now!"
She's only a little breathless as she says that, and reaches a hand out to him.
"I... There has to be a way out of this. A tunnel, or a cable or something we can use-" Her eyes franticly scan her surroundings as she speaks, searching for anything that gets them away from the falling plate.
no subject
Something huge crashes to the ground not all that far from them, sending a rolling wall of flames skyward and making the ground rumble underfoot. But rather than freezing Zack to the spot, that at least seems to galvanize him. He grabs Tifa's hand and pulls her after him.
"The mountains! We need to head that way - the caves are our best bet!"
no subject
So she has no trouble keeping pace with Zack, looking forward... Marvel over how she's able to keep pace with a SOLDIER without being winded, even with her training. But that's when she finally spots a familiar entrance; one she's sure she took once, years and years ago.
"Over there! We can hide in there!" And hope that Mount Nibel, or wherever this is, is more sturdy than a steel plate. She goes sliding and skidding over loose rocks and scrap metal towards the entrance, ready to throw them both in if she has to.
no subject
Zack all but dives for the cover of the mountain, plunging into total darkness right alongside her. The alternative being ending up crushed like bugs beneath the falling Plate, though, there's no room to search for other options, either.
As that looming, empty blackness envelopes them, it seems to blot out all sound along with the remaining light. There's no hot rush of air at their backs, as the fire is smothered by the crushing weight from above, no deafening, head-ringing crash as it all comes down. There's just... quiet. And that eerie, lingering sense of familiarity.
Zack holds his breath without meaning to, his grip on Tifa's hand a little too tight. But he can't see his own hand in front of his face, let alone where she is, in this dark. If he loses her— He doesn't want to think about it. He just starts shuffling his feet forward again, hoping to find the other end of this cave - tunnel? The toes of his boots stutter on something distinctly unnatural, a metal grate that clanks loudly in the silence. Zack's stomach drops. The sound brings with it the pale, green glow of mako, a reddish cast to the lights suddenly overhead. The reactor materializes out of the gloom around them, and he almost wishes they'd taken their chances with the Plate, after all.
no subject
...Or maybe like there's a new set of eyes, slowly blinking open as she's forced to look at the reactor. Her vision blurs and swims, and that's what makes her freeze on the first step. She shuts her eyes, forces her head down.
"Nothing good has ever come out of there." Tifa forces herself to say; every time she's put eyes on it, it's lead to something bad. There's always something new to lose. "...Ever. I don't... I'd sooner tear it down, if I could-"
Hurts to admit that. Maybe there's still some anger and hate left in her heart, despite what she told Cloud. Or maybe it's just that all those nightmares have torn some old wounds wide open.
no subject
"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."