monstertruckers: (Default)
monstertruckers ([personal profile] monstertruckers) wrote in [community profile] memestertrucks2025-05-15 04:31 pm
Entry tags:

MAY TDM




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













coffinturk: (Vincent-eh-eyes)

[personal profile] coffinturk 2025-05-21 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Definitely a theme. And absolutely the owner. Vincent recognizes the ploy even if he isn't certain what he's done to earn his fellow Drifter's ire. Could he guess about the issue with color? Maybe. Also depends on just how much red is left visible at this point.

He doesn't budge. At least not until the last absolute moment a collision might have been possible before he simply snakes to the side as if it were happenstance that he did; seeking another angle to observe. Heat will have to put some effort in if he wants to engage in a shoulder collision for this impudence.

Watch how that red cloak just billows in the air in his wake. This, actually, is an unintended side effect. That sort of thing just happens with Vincent.

"No paint?"

iron_stomach: (pic#17860761)

[personal profile] iron_stomach 2025-05-21 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
He doesn't go out of his way to deliberately collide when Vincent's already given way, his point's been made. The gray cloak he wears is branded in the back, a vibrant orange x slashed across it. The cloak hides much, but aside from his hair and matching eyes, it's the only real color on him, eyecatching even from a distance.

The newly claimed seat cushion is tossed with the small pile of growing objects he intends to put to use obscuring as much of the red as he can. But when Vincent speaks up, the glare returns, shot over one shoulder. "Do you see paint around here? I sure as hell didn't."

Paint WOULD work much nicer, but there's a reason he'd made do with a crappy tarp barely the right shade. He also hasn't thoroughly searched through the area, so MAYBE something more appropriate is around.
coffinturk: (Vincent-eh-eyes)

[personal profile] coffinturk 2025-05-22 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
It's a fair question and probably means Vincent's question was a dry observation of the obsession rather than an actual, genuine suggestion.

"No." But it'll still be answered as though it were a serious question. The man sounds very indifferent and not just to Heat's tone. Speaking of, Vincent's attention has shifted from the vehicle to study the newcomer.

"Be careful around plants when you search. Especially the ones with colorful gasses."
iron_stomach: (pic#17860752)

[personal profile] iron_stomach 2025-05-22 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
Now, Heat has a reasonable idea of what a plant is. He's seen some nearby, and knew at least he shouldn't eat them or mess with the ones covered in spikes, but nothing at all in his fragmented knowledge suggested plants had gasses.

Why would he be searching plants for paint? Did plants have paint? Is that where it comes from in Nirvana? That sounded stupid, but a lot of things that happened in Nirvana might be stupid, and when he turns to address Vincent directly, he ... still seems offended by his presence alone. "What are you talking about? What gasses?"
coffinturk: (67)

[personal profile] coffinturk 2025-05-22 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
Plants are totally a great source for many pigments! Vincent isn't going to recommend this because setting aside trivia level knowledge, he wouldn't know how to extract it or if there's any plants of that type around.

...Also oranges tend to come from mixing yellow and red pigments which are often from bugs and only the occasional... um, anyway!

"A gaslight, maybe. They're all around. Touch them, and you could find yourself experiencing visions. Hearing the thoughts of others."

Vincent has been suffering at least one of those; probably not the thoughts one.

It's the touch and have visions about an object. This is also why he's avoiding direct contact with anything right now.
iron_stomach: (pic#17860759)

[personal profile] iron_stomach 2025-05-22 09:55 am (UTC)(link)
What plants can and can't be used for eludes him. They existed, they were supposed to be nice, girls liked flowers and he wasn't sure what a flower was but he kept an eye out for anything that might qualify since Sera might like it, she's a girl .. anything else, irrelevant. It'd be less irrelevant if he knew some of them, squished, could be made into useful colors.

But would it stick to paint? "Yeah? Who set traps like that?"

Sounded possible, weirder things have happened, and that's the exact sort of nonsense he'd expect with certain Atma. But on a plant? He's pretty sure that's not supposed to happen to a plant. "And what kinda visions, anyway?"

If it's more of that 'past life' crap, he'd avoid it. What came before didn't matter, this life did.