MAY TDM

[monstertruckers]

code

Things are a little stranger than usual at the gas station and garage. Namely that gravity just isn't working as it should. Objects float, pieces of the floor float... Even unlucky new arrivals can also find themselves floating! It's going to be a challenge to get around without any scrapes or scratches... Though at least there's what looks like a hospital nearby? Granted, it's an upside down hospital, but it's better than nothing.

01: SUMMONING CIRCLE

Drifters come to with an odd floating sensation hooked into their stomachs, and instead of laying on the concrete find themselves drifting a foot or two above the floor. An unfortunate few may be stuck on the ceiling. Whether they crash down hard into the floor (and the various vials, daggers, and broken glass scattered about) or remain floating in the air is a coin toss.

Still, it might be best to lend a hand with pulling them back to the ground, and hoping gravity will work as normal in another breath or two.

Once they make their way out, they can see a gas station and garage located in the midst of strange, floating rocks… And an upside down hospital close by, for those who had a rougher landing.

02: START UP

New arrivals will have a similar experience to before; a Convoy waiting for them, and a collection of vehicles, one of which feels like it belongs to them. The key to the vehicle may already be in the ignition, on the dashboard… It may have even been on their person, ever since they woke up in that garage. Either way, Drifters have the keys to the vehicle now.

…But there’s a few rough edges on these vehicles. Flat tires, cracked windows and mirrors, maybe some stuck doors and locks; all of them the sort of thing that requires two pairs of hands and supplies. The garage can take care of the (sometimes floating) supplies… Now it’s just a matter of finding some extra hands.

And hopefully no one's vehicle has decided to float. But one can never be sure in a place like this.

03: HUSKS AND HAUNTS

The inverted hospital seems to have trouble deciding the exact formation of its hallways, whether the new arrivals should be walking on the ceiling, floors, or walls. But one thing that is certain: this place isn’t entirely deserted. Warnings of “Beware the Husks” have been spray painted on the walls. Metallic bodies line those same halls, some of them broken open. A wet trail leads from the broken Husks to the rafters… Where several odd monsters wait to drop down. Some look like they’ve merged with the hospital equipment, while others look like they’ve been cobbled together from different body parts. And all of them look ready to turn the newcomers into a corpse, or part of a specimen collection.

Strange, malformed chimeric creatures that are Unknown stalk the hallways. Unknowns come in three different colors, red aligned with fire, green with poison, and purple with lightning.

Adding to that are the various screens flickering on, and diagnose new arrivals as infected. The screens declare the infection seems to be contained, but requires further study… And if the monsters aren't enough to worry about, there’s also the restraint systems trying to activate and tie the new arrivals down.

04: TESTING (CW: Needles)

The deeper someone plunges into the hospital, the more the building reacts to them. More defenses are deployed, treating them as thieves or intruders. Traps and monsters alike wait for them, with syringes melded into the forms of attackers, or lining places where someone might step or reach for. The syringes make a quick bite on skin… But it’s only a few minutes later where the effects become clear. Something in those syringes is now in the blood and forcing monster transformations. There might be an antidote amongst the supplies… Or the newcomers might need to rely on each other, in order to stay anchored.

The needles can also force temporary Swarm traits, along with:
+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 hunt and share their prey with others.
+Gravity Affinity: If possessing wings or the ability to wall climb, may freely hunt/traverse corrupted gravity areas.

05: LONG WAY DOWN

A portion of the gas station breaks away with groan and a rumble. And it is slowly pulled up and up, taking a portion of new comers with it! They (and anyone watching) will need to act fast, as gravity starts to go weird the further they rise. They’ll need to find a way back down, taking any supplies from the now-floating garage that they can grab.

What’s more, they are drifting closer to the broken moon, and that seems to be having a strange effect on those stranded on the new floating ruin. They may start to feel their control fray, and their forms shift, the higher they rise.

In terms of getting back down, there’s a handful of tow lines in the ruin that might work as ropes. There’s also a few pieces of rock that are floating up more slowly, and could work as stairs back down… Or there’s just jumping and falling fifty feet and hoping for the best.

06: PSYCHIC ECHOES

There's one last quirk to this area; a few scattered bits of odd plantlife, and the odd dead brain monster. While these things aren't a threat on their own (beyond being unnerving) they still pack a psychic punch; mainly in the form of temporary psychic abilities.

It's possible that after coming in contact with either plants or corpses, newcomers will find themselves gifted with either empathy (projecting or receiving emotions) telepathy, OR the ability to share their dreams with others, and having their dreams influenced by others in turn. This effect fades in just a day or so, but is still capable of causing mishaps.

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.

Broadcast: The garage contains a few burnt out monitors. But a handful of them are playing a message over and over again on loop, filled with static. It’s a recording of important looking people in lab coats advising people to remain indoors and avoiding all objects falling from the sky. Especially “moon shards.” They insist that they are working to contain and cure the infection, but the safest action is to remain inside.

Warped Air: As seen in Long Way Down, the air overhead has strange warped pockets in it. There seem to be slightly different shards hanging suspended in the air, looking more silvery than the surrounding rocks. Almost like it could have fallen from the broken moon overhead.

Medical supplies: Most of the medical supplies found in the hospital seem to consist of healing salves and potions, a handful of healing herbs, and a few antidotes for poison or sickness. As for reverting transformations… It’s advised that new comers be careful of taking any experimental medicine. It may revert a change. It may also leave them hallucinating nightmares and fears, and they’ll be wanting someone close by to help administer the drug.

NAVIGATION || RESERVES || APPLICATIONS

Comments

Giddyap

[propatriamori]

[He's been told to find a vehicle. Edward had pointed out that he isn't going to be able to drive anything, let alone whatever kind of wild futuristic vehicles they have here, but that excuse hadn't flown. No, he's apparently getting a vehicle whether he wants one or not, and he sulking at the edges of the area with the cars when he hears another American accent.]

[It's a particularly egregious American accent at that. He knows it's English but he can barely understand what she's saying.]

[Something he does recognise, though, are the sounds of a horse moving about, and that piques his interest.]

Pardon me, but is that a horse you've found?

[He can't drive a car but he could, in theory, ride a horse, as long as the horse knew which way it was going.]

[undyingcrow]

"Heh. You've far lighter expectations than everyone else who confessed their feelings to me." His... ugh, fangirls immediately come to mind. Parasocial, shallow... To say nothing of his lack of interest in girls.

Not that he could ever make that too apparent, given his celebrity status. He had to at least give people the fantasy of the charming, charismatic detective prince to latch onto.

It helps, though. He relaxes, both physically and mentally, though waves of confusion and fear still linger.

"I'll... consider it, but if this is the path we take in the end, I can't promise you a simple outcome. I am who I am, and all the ugliness inside me cannot be so simply scrubbed away."

Not that he expects Ren to want that, after he rejected Maruki's deal. Still, it bears repeating.

[iron_stomach]

Heat doesn't have wings in the way that would get foiled by a cloak, his way is perfectly good for him, but Serph obviously required something different. He feels strangely bare without it, even knowing it's just temporary. He's been angry with Serph countless times, was right now, but it's never become hatred. Squashed fury that Serph declared tribes all but irrelevant, absolutely.

Attacking him over it .. not so much. Not yet. Not when he wraps gray and orange around himself, a decent stand-in until something more appropriate could be found, settling some of that irritation down. Rejecting it would have been rejecting him the tribe and that's intolerable.

This is better. "Yeah, well, you can't get away from us that easily. You had to know we'd be turning up eventually." He sets one hand on his hip, scowling at the hospital at large. There's no trusting the Embryon to anyone else, and comrades stuck together, didn't they? Of course they'd follow. He would. "Wherever this is, if it's not Nirvana." But wasn't it? There's so many new things. "..And what the hell is up with the wings, anyway?"

[acrocanthosaurus]

[Patience holds very still, suppressing the urge to snap at flying too close thing. This is not dignified but it's better than Zane's 'girly lessons'. She guesses. Little dude isn't obviously laughing at her anyway.

She's covered in a dense coat of flattened integument that could be keeled scales, or else heavy quills. It's not painful to the touch but not soft, either, almost like rough, shaggy bark. She twitches at any contact, the tip of her tail flicking.]

Ugh, baby hands...

[iron_stomach]

There's no more yelling and taunts now, but Agni is still easy to hear in his pursuit, heavy and deliberate, perfectly willing to run John to exhaustion the way they had countless others. He had plenty of endurance to spare, and sprinters rarely had a hope of outlasting him.

Stalking it is.

It gives John time to scramble into a place of strange gravity and chase potential sources of water as Heat uses his sharply curved claws like grappling hooks to swing from what had been one 'floor' to the wall now taking that place, everything briefly wrenching uncomfortably sideways. He doesn't know what John's goal is here, he only knows that the man has run himself into a room with only one exit.

He can take his time now. There's nowhere to run.

[elementsofabounty]

It ain't like any other horse that I've seen, but it seems nice enough.

[She puts a booted foot into the sterup and swings her leg over the horse.]


Well, I'm not getting bucked off. Maybe there's another close by.

[She sits up in the saddle a bit more and glances around.]

I think I see somethin in a corner over yonder.

[Make fun of her accent all you want. Its not stopping any time soon.]

[firstsoldier]

[Though a faint smile crosses Sephiroth's expression, it doesn't last. It rarely does, and this one is a touch wry]

If only I had something more positive to offer than nebulous uncertainty at unknown hands.

[It's not a situation he enjoyed, but over the past weeks was .. sort of coming to terms with, much better than the whole 'becoming a monster' thing. It had been worse when he'd first arrived, it would likely be as distressing for any other new arrival.

There's a moment where he's certain something changes, as if a picture had gone out of focus or the image had flickered, but Diarmuid is .. certainly still there, and though it's not mentioned it's mulled quietly.

Nearly ten years now, since he'd seen something similar. As bitter resentment - easily recognized - gives way to an introduction, that brief, faint smile returns. Maybe it had paid off after all, a gamble with open weakness.]

I am Sephiroth. For the time being my allegiance is only to the Convoy and those souls within it, should you join our travels that extends to you as well.

[That name has a sound to it that he'd have guessed to be from the north somewhere, but he suspected it's not of Gaian origin at all. He wouldn't have to introduce himself at all if Diarmuid was from his world. Or any similar one.]

... But your warning of what to expect, I suspect, will be very accurate.

[heaven's feel he doesn't recognize, but empty promises by those who lie as easily as they breathe? They were a daily occurance most of his life. Why change now?]

We are promised paradise to keep us moving while we are corrupted and defiled. It would not surprise me if an arena waited at the end, for us to butcher each other like animals for the amusement of others.

[propatriamori]

[A horse... yes, Edward could handle a horse. But when she makes a comment about seeing something over yonder--where is over yonder? what does that even mean?--Edward's expression sours. Still, he keeps his voice polite when he answers.]

Apologies, my lady, but I'm going to need some assistance.

[He gestures towards his eyes. The pupils are scarred over and grey, and spiderwebs of scar radiate out from their corners to his temples.]

I can't see where you're pointing.

Husks and Haunts

[purplexing]

[Funny how you never figure things like this will happen.

Donnie's already on the jumpy side given the general ambiance of the place, but certainly the active restraint systems haven't helped any.

Reflex has him go immediately on guard with the glowing bō in his hands once he registers a weapon turned on him, not that he figures it would do very well against any shots unless he got lucky, but firearms are actually not something he's ever had to exclusively come against.]

03

[coffinturk]

[ Vincent wanders these halls. But really, is a person like him out of place in them? Who's to say that he'll be even more of an indicator this isn't a dream.

Or more accurately, a nightmare.

As he heard the sound of someone's approach, Vincent had gone still and hidden. The gravity effects were seemingly ineffective against the shapeshifting gunslinger though this isn't exactly true. They do try to take him to the ceiling or turn the walls into floors but some part of the odd individual he'd become under Hojo's knife seemed to defy the conventional laws of physics here and there.

...It was disorienting to traverse this gravitational hellscape, true. But he could do it. There are no signs he's suffered any effects of Revan... yet. Most people would assume the red eyes or pale skin are traits because he became a Drifter in this world. Cloud would know better. And the mercenary should know Vincent's profile when he sees it, even if it's half cast in shadow and holding a gun aimed in his direction.

Well, probably because he's holding a gun. ]

Cloud?

[ The gun isn't lowering. Really in a place like this, it's best to be sure that's not just an illusion. ]

[definitionofcrazy]

"Not exactly."

She came in here alone, because she's very wise and not at all reckless.

"Was mostly hoping to hunt down supplies. Most of which seem a little less med school and a little more ren faire than I was hoping."

[taediosum]

"Back the way I came seems like as good a way to go as any."

Better, actually, because there weren't any monsters that way. And it should be a quick enough way back out of here, though that thought does give him pause. (Not literally, of course. He's moving quickly back down the hall, not wasting any time putting space between them and that thing still battering at the now blocked doors.)

"Unless you were looking for something in here? We've salvaged a lot for the infirmary, already."

[facethefacts]

"Lead the way, boss," he replies casually, already following tightly behind in case of any other close encounters. He's taking his gun up again too, just to be prepared to shoot the next thing that pops out at them.

"I mean, this whole thing's kinda been a bust. But yeah, got a nasty splinter earlier. You a doctor?" He is wearing a white coat, Deacon noticed, it just wasn't really the best time to ask.

[androidvictoriam]

It's not so much that Danse lacks a sense of humor so much as that he'd never have allowed Deacon to see it before, anyway. Jokes have historically been for people he doesn't need to uphold a spotless Brotherhood reputation in front of. And then, once that ceased to apply, he might have said they were for friends, and that had gradually loosened to allies, and then further still to 'people I can be sure I won't have to kill,' and then he'd found himself making some kind of deadpan 'handyman' pun and a morbid joke about the Institute to Arcade and all bets had been off from there.

He doesn't think he really has friends here. Not like he did back home, however few they might have been after his exile. It's nice to have a generally harmonious community, as the drifters seem to be, but it's not the same kind of thing, doesn't make him feel less individually isolated even when the local magic is making everyone's thoughts vibrate together like a hive. Deacon's wording is a precision strike exactly where and when he needs it most, and he blinks at it, projecting that surprised warmth around him like a tangible aura for a beat before he collects himself again.

All right. Friends, then. Here, where neither Brotherhood nor Railroad exists, either at peace or at war.

"I don't know if there's going to be much to claim," he says dubiously, leading the way inside on instinct as if still taking power-armored point to defend a squad. There might be feral ghouls lying in wait. One never really knows. "Usually we've got to find anything good the old-fashioned way." Looting abandoned buildings, et cetera, the usual. Standard wasteland pastime. It's one of the only normal things about this place.

"Speaking of which, I've got a box of Twinkies in my truck. You're not going to find those in the mess hall here."

[facethefacts]

Friends are, believe it or not, a fairly new concept for Deacon. He's not sure he remembers the last time he's even made a friend since following Nora around the Commonwealth, and as an extention of that relationship-- now a man offering a helping hand-- Danse feels like the kinda guy who could use one nearly as much as Deacon could. Sometimes all it takes is recognizing another person's loneliness to realize you have more in common than you'd think, and Deacon could see it in Danse's eyes when the Brotherhood packed their shit and flew away without him.

The inside of the car has multiple hotdog-colored seats, the back wall lined with a bench made up of some sort of storage drawers that look promising. There's a console in the back that he assumes manages the electrical properties of the vehicle (he'll tinker with that later) and a door just past it with who-knows-what behind it. It's roomy inside... and the ceiling is decorated like a cloudy blue sky.

"What's a Twinkie?" he asks, pulling a face, then plops down onto a cushioned seat and kicks his feet onto the bench.

"Oh man..." he groans, pleased with himself, "I'm gonna spend all day in this chair. Or maybe that one-- or that other one-- damn." After his bout in the hospital, he thinks he's earned it.

hey are you tired of us all yet!! [room with a view]

[lonedanger]

Being hair-trigger on a good day, Len doesn't hesitate to reach for his pistol the instant something brushes against his hair. He's a little less hair-trigger when he realizes it some poor sad sap who got strung upside-down, recognizing the classic trait of a newcomer: general confusion, and decided annoyance at the circumstances.

He makes a point of stepping back when the man with the perfectly coiffed hair adjusts his position (and perspective).

"That was your first mistake, slick," he quips, holstering his firearm and patting himself down for the little kit Arcade forced him to start carrying.

"Testin' fate with that kind of attire."

exactly the opposite

[facethefacts]

To be fair, it's not actually white. It's become some shade of Wasteland beige, littered with snags and holes, dust, and various swear stains. His pants too, once probably blue jeans but so faded from the sun they're almost the same color, cuffed around his ankles, right around where his high top shoes start.

"Aw, c'mon... this is my Sunday best," he quips back, already moving across the room to grab a roll of duct tape that he spots floating in the air. Beggars can't be choosers...

[lonedanger]

"Coulda fooled me."

There's a reason why Len tends to lean towards clothing that is already some shade of brown, tan, or faded denim. Outside of the unrelenting sun of the Mojave and its ability to fade anything with color in under a month, it's a means of blending in with an environment otherwise hellbent on killing him. He can say one thing in the NCR's favor, and it's that their khaki uniforms make them look a whole lot less ostentatious than the Legion's blood-red skirts.

Len leans back slightly as a broken bottle drifts past his face, letting it bounce off the wall and spin slowly toward the concrete floor.

"Got some gauze you can put under that," he says, nodding toward the duct tape. Having used the same to bandage himself in the past he can at least acknowledge that it's the kind of behavior he can attribute to a man after his own heart.

"So where'd this place kidnap you from?"

[facethefacts]

When Deacon wants to blend in, he most certainly will. Unfortunately, he wasn't really anticipating being abducted by... well, whatever it was that took him. Wastelanders talk about aliens, sometimes. They frequently sound insane, but he supposes it's no less believable than anything else one might find out there.

"It must be my birthday," he replies with a smile, tucking the roll of tape under his arm to move toward the stranger again. He glances around them at the question. The extreme lack of gravity gives him pause, and he sucks in a deep breath, sighing it out, his shoulders dropping.

"To answer that question, I think I might need to know where 'this place' is in relation. We'll start with the broad strokes... Earth?" The last word is meant to be his answer, but it's spoken uneasy, like he's unclear whether or not he's still even on it.

wildcard / hospital

[lonedanger]

[ He's accustomed, at this point, to entering the various buildings of this world and being mildly inconvenienced by the lack of sense in either their design or orientation. Regrettably, their circumstances don't exactly allow them to neglect the kind of scavenging bullshit he's used to, so any opportunity to get half-decent supplies is an opportunity they can't pass up.

Running into another stranger also doesn't particularly phase him, with how frequently this place steals folks out of time and space, but to his credit he makes the assumption that she wouldn't have wandered in if she wasn't somewhat acquainted with the hazards of picking through old refuse. ]

Watch your six. [ He advises, jerking his head toward her in a little nod. ] Last time I was in one of these upside-down hospitals the wiring on the walls started tryin' to get friendly.

[lonedanger]

It should come as reassuring that a substantial number of folks have come from Earth, though it's clear that most of them are different versions thereof. They range anywhere from hyper-technological with galaxy-spanning wars to the backwater, post-nuclear fallout wasteland he hails from. Len tries not to overthink the logistics of varying or contradictory timelines. It doesn't do anybody good to mull on that.

"They call it Revan, so no, it ain't Earth," he breaks the news simply, unraveling the first few inches of a clean strip of gauze from his satchel. Len gestures for the stranger to remove his hand for bandaging purposes.

"But that is where I'm from, and plenty of other people, so you're in good company. You ever heard of the Mojave?"

[thetatters]

When Heat prowls into the room, the shower is running. Gravity here seems even less decisive: water flows out from under the shower curtain and rains a crooked waterfall across the room. It puddles against one wall, seeping through old cracks in the plaster to whatever lies next door.

Something moves behind the shower curtain. There is a ripple of motion, a strange shadow that coils at its edges. There's a flicker of golden light.

Heat's prey is silent until he has crossed the band of water in the room. Then a coil of yellow something whips out under the shower curtain to seize his ankle and yank him flat.

John bursts out into that squall of steaming rain. He's all white carapace and black-to-yellow bioluminescence, tendrils coiling across the floor. The distortion in his voice has pitched deeper, echoing.

"Fuck off."

[phantomshow]

Something about Akechi’s mention of other people confessing their feelings sends a needle of something sickly and sharp and summer-hot straight through Ren’s gut, and he lightly bites his bottom lip. Huh - jealousy, that’s new. Ren isn’t typically the jealous type. Akechi hadn’t even seemed to say that to be mean - if anything, it was a compliment to Ren. Why did it make him feel jealous?

Ren bats the feeling away, hoping against hope that he didn’t just broadcast it out into the open.

“You keep acting like I’ve never met you before,” he says, reaching for a smile and finding something unexpectedly barbed. “I’m not one of your adoring fans who only ever saw you on TV. I’m not some schoolgirl from another class with a crush. I know you.”

Maybe that was … a little more pointed than Ren intended. Maybe he’s just frustrated that Akechi keeps suggesting he isn’t fully aware of what he’s asking for. Whatever the catalyst, the nerve has been struck, and Ren is no longer speaking like a meek high school student or an easygoing funny-guy friend. This is the defiant rebel who awakened Arsène and told a literal god to begone, focused and steady and entirely certain of himself. He searches to find and hold Akechi’s gaze with his own.

“I spent the better part of the past year watching you, studying you, fighting you, and then fighting with you at my side. Do you really think I’m naïve? Or that you’ve charmed me so well that I can’t still see right through you?”

Somewhere in the part of his brain where logic lives, Ren knows Akechi is still deflecting, and he knows it’s because of the distorted view he has of himself. Knowing that doesn’t stop the flickering angry heat from rising in his chest, but it’s enough to dampen his temper and keep it from going wildly out of control.

“If you think there’s some dark secret about you that you’ve been hiding from me, something you think I don’t already know, then tell me now. But don’t keep acting like I don’t know exactly what I’m doing. I love you - the real you, not that fake mask of a person you used to wear. All of you, and that includes whatever parts you think are ugly or not worth loving.”

He sighs out a sharp breath and continues, a little softer: “I don’t want to change you, Akechi - I want you exactly as you are. I’m not looking for a simple outcome. If you’ve ever trusted me, trust me now when I say this - I know you, and I still love you.”

[facethefacts]

"Oh good, it's been a while since I took a vacation." Deacon seems relatively calm for a guy who just found out he's on another planet, but that's because he bottles up just about every emotion he feels so that he can let them consume him in solitude. It's extremely healthy of him.

He moves his hand, angling his body and lifting his arm to give the other man room to work the gauze around it. He has no reason to believe that this man's Earth is any different from his own, given he's not met anyone else yet and had his mind blown.

"The Wild West," he notes with amusement, "Traveled there once. One encounter with a cazador and I turned tail and headed straight back to the East."

[solitarysoul]

"Dunno. Its just there are monsters and, um," what was the word...? "cyborgs, or machine people or something and they all want to kill and eat us. Well, maybe the machine people don't want to eat us. But the convoy has sheilds at night that...somehow...keep things out. I don't know how it works, it just looks like light.

"Also its safer in numbers, I guess." Hm, but if this guy can't see...well, he can ride in the convoy itself probably. "Everybody has a vehicle, but I think some people ride on the big truck itself."