memestertrucks | MAY TDM

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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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Something different inevitably meant something interesting, and whenever there's a bunch of feral demons or rookies, there's always a leader or two, something worth hunting, something worth effort. So far nothing in the hospital has been worth his time.

But the sound of staggered hooves, like there was some sort of prosthetic involved, draws Heat to a stop with one mouth still full of bitten-off limbs from some misshapen thing that had pounced on him not long ago, suddenly alert. The smell of rot isn't as offputting as it is for some, Agni could eat nearly anything without suffering for it, and decayed is usually not appealing but decaying that MOVES..

Well. Ghouls could be worth a snack sometimes.

What it is is not a ghoul, but something he'd never seen before - and unique is ALWAYS worth investigating. The remains of his previous kill are tossed aside as he rounds on the vaguely deerlike (...deer. He knew what deer were in a fragmented kind of way) demon with a hammer with interest, content to stay where he is and let dinner come to him, bouncing once lightly on his feet.]

C'mon. You're not the moldiest thing I've devoured.

[ jayce's lip pulls up in a silent snarl that drawls a heavy breath outward, the slant in his brows prominent with building fury and fuel to his hunger (and his rationale; he doesn't question if this is friend or foe; it's foe, now). the hammer's cracked head spread like butterfly wings blusters with a core that batters about its own orbit. like a supernova ready to blow. like a dog ready to charge. ]

I'd like to see you try.

[ the hammer glitches the space around it, a jitter of corrupted energy around its hilt and body before jayce pulls the lever— and fires a blast that not only breaks apart what it hits— it distorts, corrupts on impact completely. the rot on him spreads to the surfaces it touches. ]

Let's go!

[Heat's capable - or had been - of using some small measure of magic, it was never his best role in a hunt, and thus COULD if he had to, usually strike at range. But he doesn't like to, and chooses not to, as the hammer splits open with a tattletale sound of building energy in a way that can't be mistaken as anything other than a long ranged weapon. Instead he lunges straight into the blast, intent on closing the gap between them as quickly as he can.

It's a testament to exactly how tough that crimson and gold monstrosity is that he doesn't pay for it with his immediate death. Energy and that strange webbing of color and light sluice off his hide as Heat staggers in a lurch to one side, still visibly more or less perfectly fine.

He isn't. Appearances are deceptive, when the damage is internal. He manages to right himself with unnerving swiftness and lunges, reaching for both Jayce and his weapon, to slap the hammer aside and strike with sharply curved claws. It's no accident that the side struck is not the one he's employing to actually try to hit the rotting deer-man with, but it could look coincidental.]

[ the only thing jayce consciously knew about hunting was what serph was teaching him, and let's just say— jayce was a greenhorn. the only way he manages with more than average results if he allows instinct to take hold, and that requires a slip in his psych. jayce treads the half-human track of his assault first. the mercury hammer's blast connects, its glitch seizing the demon's frame in static ripples and if it doesn't do damage immediately, jayce knows it will. perhaps it already has. jayce does not exactly move out of the way of the attack; he prefers to guard his hammer's success than his own safety, and that comes with reason. claws slice right through his collar and jugular like brittle paper; only some blood splatters through, clearly not enough from such a soft, succulent spot. prismatic fluid spews from the lacerations like thick slime, as dark and reflective as an oilslick. jayce does not yield.

it barely makes him flinch.

the hammer's image is faulty, hums, crests out of sight and back as he throws the weight of it from one hand to another in a switch, to swing into a sideways arc that aims for the monster's preserved side. if he could make somewhere softer to bite through, its all he needs. if he's to do something proper with his biology, he should take advantage of it. being undead may have its perks afterall. ]

[This time he's not waiting for the hammer to connect, instead of swatting, he makes a grab for it, intending to try to wrench it right out of Jayce's hands and toss it aside completely out of reach. Using weapons, actual mundne weapons when they have natural weaponry seemed... wrong, somehow.

Maybe without it, Jayce will be more inclined to use the demon and not the man, as is proper.]

[ jayce isn't exactly superhuman in his strength, the power between them unmatching, and thus the hammer is taken with a sort of ease jayce hates to see. the mercury hammer glitches out of image once it clatters away, the glow of his embedded rune sputtering with the power disconnect.

the worst part of jayce's form now is that he is poorly equipped, for a flesh eating creature. his nails are too blunt, thick like small-scaled hooves. his teeth aren't like saws, only his human canines are more dangerously pronounced, but he has every human incisor and every molar. it doesn't look like he's fit to eat flesh at all, and that is where some of his struggle lies, compared to the demon before him. he has a braced leg, a disability that does not allow him to use his hooves to kick, even as they clop wildly to hold his position without faltering. the only thing he has that poses a threat are his antlers. without further ado and in his rage, in the height of instinct beginning to scale, jayce lowers his head and brandishes his rack like a blade of dozens of faces.

there are too many sharp points, netted with blight; careful not to poke your eye out. ]

[The transition from Junkyard to not-Nirvana has left Heat with most of the weapons and defenses he's used to, but not all of them. There's a certain level of recklessness he's used to, as devouring his target later often would heal the injuries incurred in the fight.

It means he ignores the threat of horns entirely, ignores the spreading searing pain of where he'd been struck earlier, and simply wades right in, certain now that his enemy is mostly noise and little actual threat. So it should be perfectly safe to just make a grab for the rotting deer-man and aim to sink sharp teeth into whatever's closest as if there's no threat at all.

The downside is it does put him in range of those sharp points; he has no eyes to poke out, but while most of his hide remains disturbingly durable, the one previously struck is almost delicate with the harm done beneath crimson hide, enough to easily give way when it ordinarily would not.]

[ jayce feels more discomfort and pain in his leg than the actual ripping of his arm and side, staggering, and becoming an easy target to fall if pushed. his blood is acrid, almost searing, vile and unlike commonblood— probably an exotic pop that his magical decay provides. his chest and torso beneath clothes and bandages is already open, there's no sternum, he's missing some ribs— but getting closer to that has jayce throw his head into the affected side to skewer the demon with a defying shout. antler bone pierces weakened hide and tears upward. with flesh pried, blood smells hot and inviting; jayce digs his jaws in to meat like a starving man and squeezes until the muscle ushers sweet iron down his throat.

his golden amber eyes glow a ghastly ice blue; his near dead pulse quickens, he goes hot— his eyes nearly roll as he swallows a second time. his wounds regenerate rapidly around the demon's own snapping fangs, and the cervid's strength instantly tripples to properly match his meal.

now they're even. ]

[Taste to a human and taste to a cannibal demon is a bit different. What would be revolting to even his own human-form taste is perfectly acceptable to Agni, the nuance of decay and and vile blood more interesting than merely rotten. And perfectly edible. The time to linger and enjoy his meal however is distinctly lacking, he only gets a few moments to savor it and weigh Jayce against countless other devoured demons before agony rips through his side, and the two headed monstrosity roars in surprised pain.

Agni doesn't in turn taste human. There's no fat either to alter the flavor of hot blood and packed muscle.

Heat's too used to the only real threat to him being the very powerful or those welding ice, things like this should be no risk. Like most predators he's fine with eating helpless prey alive, but doing so here was obviously not the right choice; he doesn't bother to try to rip himself back and away now that he's in comfortable melee range. if Jayce can match him for strength now, maybe he can match resilience too, as Agni's next strike is full force with long claws but this time seeking the kind of damage to kill.

Flesh isn't it. Maybe the strange looking organs, or if he can get to it, the spine, before he lost more himself than a snack would replace. Argilla or Gale aren't here to repair lethal injury..]

[ it's starting to hurt a bit. the plunge of countless knives into the softness of jayce's side spills a kidney, absolutely destroys his liver into two separate, gory pieces as all that gorges between them is the viscosity of jayce's blood and the arcane radiation that came littered with it. bits of tissue and stringy veins, hot mouthfuls of carnage will slob between them, back and forth; jayce pries his nails into the wound he makes from his teeth, grabs and pulls apart like a wedge to widen the injury and pull more vitality from it. his body stitches itself back together, closing wounds just as they're ripped open and replacing organs torn from the inside of his framework to keep his momentum going. it seems the same is happening to his enemy, an endless loop of consumption and healing.

until heat strikes too close to his chest, to his heart— a cavity that is already open and so easy to pull from. the heart isn't jayce's, originally— it was transplanted, given so that he may live again; tearing the pump from its snew would mean death, surely, and jayce was not going to allow the invasion of something actually precious to him. his hands respond to his emotions, frightened on top of frantic and feral, and when he drops his weight all the way back to thrust them into a fall, together—

jayce's grip freezes. literally freezes. ice cracks from his palms and surges into the creature's hide like barbs, invades and spreads like frigid wildfire. when jayce parts his stringy, bloodstained maw to bugle, a terrible sound of death, the temperature around them drops, and drops, and keeps on dropping until metal groans in protest, frost collects on hospital beds, doorframes, and creeps closer to the cause.

he'll freeze the place over if it meant survival. ]

[Every now and then an opponent's a fair amount tougher than the other demons around them, where fighting alone was a terrible idea because of some unwelcome quirk to their powers. Having comrades along meant there'd be breathing room to reorient, recover a bit and strategize against those more annoying foes.

Ones like this one, with unusually high rates of regeneration. Agni's durability is second to none, but without backup and not able to heal quite as quickly, not able to mend the damage of that first hammer-blast at all, it may only be a matter of time if he doesn't find a wound that sticks. He's patient enough when he has to be and there's only so much to tear apart before something doesn't heal, right?

Until the bite of cold, turning stinging pain to jagged agony as soon as it encroaches. He can handle that; it had taken time and a lot of frustration to learn Void Ice but he had, eventually. Except it doesn't respond. What should be a protective barrier against the crippling damage of ice is nothing at all.

Agni is a demon of fire, ice is its antithesis, the damage it causes exponential in comparison to pretty much anything else; Heat's not afraid, he's too used to fighting for that, but he knows as his target shrieks and ice builds across everything, the only way he's going to overcome the spreading frost and bitter cold is retreat - or reverting to human form, where elemental weaknesses ended but human fragility reigned instead.

Where being struck by arcane might didn't hinder him, or antlers tearing into his side, or the bite of blunt herbivore teeth ripping weakened flesh, ice forces a gutteral, snarling retreat, leaving red blood to freeze in his wake.]

[ jayce clatters and kicks his hooves to allow it, making sure there is a moment's worth of safe space between his chest and danger— and in less that a second longer, a switch flips. jayce is spurred to pursue. the creature flees and he wants to chase after him—

and so he does, as a storm brews, contained around and within the hospital as wind and ice sneaks its way through every crevice. the demon puts space between them and the draugr, his eerie blue eyes alight in the dark, staggers right back into heat to cling onto his hide and bite into another part of him that's been hindered. his tongue drags where blood pops through. he seems to avoid the spots he has chilled with his touch, and much prefers the heat of freshness. but it's so cold that liquid cracks into crystal maroon. ]

[Serph had split from Heat briefly. They had cleared out a number of monsters, but they were still hungry -- they were always hungry -- and the creatures really weren't much of a threat to two people well accustomed to hunting others of their kind that had intelligence behind their eyes.

But when the ambient sound of the building is sharply pierced by a bugle, Serph answers the call and is met with howling wind and bone-chilling ice, Agni's snarls drawing his attention into sharp focus.

There is no monster he's encountered in the hospital that can do that. And he recognises that silhouette.

Serph pushes through the storm, reaches for both draugr and demon to shove them apart, heedless of how that would almost certainly result in some flesh being torn away; Heat's been through worse, he can handle being a little bitten.]

Jayce! Get a hold of yourself!

[As Jayce pursues, reaches to cling to Agni's hide and bite again, he's met with as much force as Heat can apply with either both sets of sharp teeth or the one claw-tipped arm not hobbled by pain tearing up that side. Once more in melee range, and once more subjected to the bitter rending ice, observation marked one spot the rotting deer monster had been protective of.

So it's the one spot Heat aims for with those three sharp bone talons, the snap of jaws aiming to get what hold he can and prevent any kind of evasion or sufficient defense even if it costs him the pain of injury and exploited weakness.

Well, that was the goal anyway, except quite suddenly Varuna is in the way, and the bloodied two-headed demon locks up mid-swing in surprise simply to avoid hitting Serph instead of the decaying Jayce. Friendly fire isn't.]

[ the worst part about this is that jayce does have a hold of himself. he's not exactly feral in mind, just ravished by anger and the will to survive— seeing red. snapping down harshly on heat only to be forcibly thrusted with so much effort that he's torn right off, sinew ripping down to strings that threaten to freeze up being snapped too thin. jayce's balance is thrown off, his leg easily falling victim to a false step that flares his nerves and jostles the wrongly set bone. with his mouth full, he yelps and buckles to the floor in his stagger, stretching his leg out and grasping at his thigh to keep from falling. the brace's bending mechanism fails to click, groans; the cold does not take kindly to it. he can't bend it. the cogs are frozen.

jayce swallows near instantly and yells: ]

Serph!

[Immediately, Serph's hand snakes out to grab at Jayce to prevent him from falling completely, doing his best to steady the other drifter. With his demon's increased height and strength, it's an easier task than if he were human ('human').

The fact that Serph is willing to turn his back towards Agni is an indicator that he doesn't see the red, hulking demon as a threat. Of course he wouldn't, when he has known Heat for years despite the oddities surrounding his appearance in this world.]

He is a comrade.

[The words are directed at both of them, his tone as calm and even as ever, despite his demon's guttural snarl underscoring his speech.]

[The low grinding noise Agni makes when Serph declares his lunch a comrade sounds anything but pleased, especially with the biting, freezing cold still crippling the area. It wouldn't bother Varuna, that was his element. It takes far more effort to bury any sign of how much damage had actually been done and how much it hurt, from the damage done by ice and arcane rot to antlers and blunt teeth, but bury it he does.

The jagged, tooth filled grin of Agni leers over Serph's shoulder, as if no injury had been sustained, as if he wasn't missing several chunks and freezing his bare ass off.]

Should just eat this one. Tastes weird, you'll like it.

[Was this deer demon the reason Serph's been acting off?

He didn't feel particularly Charmed, so it isn't the utterly bizarre but interesting meat. Probably not.]

Edited 2025-06-06 09:31 (UTC)

[ winds die. the cold stills. it doesn't get any worse, but it does fail to dwindle. ice crackles where it clings, and once jayce has his footing, he could be easily trusted not to go at it again. there's no resistance to his collar, only a light tap on serph's arm to let him go, and an incredulous stare between the two.

until heat says that— jayce doesn't, perse, charge, but he does stomp his good hoof down and throw his antler rack in a way only an enraged stag would. baring his bloody teeth, jayce spits out a coaglate hanging at the back of his throat and snarls: ]

Fuck you, I was defending myself.

Edited 2025-06-06 13:20 (UTC)

[Serph may be without eyes while wearing Varuna's skin, but the look he gives Heat is stern. Not quite icy, but it's definitely a, "Really? You're choosing say that right now?" kind of expression. It won't be the first time Heat's said something that resulted in furious ire from the recipient.

(But he will have to ask Heat later what Jayce tasted like...)]

He's a rookie.

[The term has implications beyond simply being inexperienced (and maybe a little weak); rookies were people newly 'born'... and new to being a monster.

He turns his head towards Jayce, expression even more unreadable with Varuna's lack of eyes.]

Viktor was looking for you. Will you go back to him?

[Best to separate Jayce and Heat for now...]

[It is a testament to exactly how much influence Serph actually has over the temperamental redhead that for all the countless responses to Jayce's claim of self defense, none of them are actually spoken. Somehow, it's obvious they're being thought though.

Rookies did indeed have implication. Naive, inexperienced.

Beelzebub had been a rookie that got a little too big for his britches; rookies needed to be kept in hand or they'd run amok, the structure of tribes and their usual intense loyalties important to prevent it. But Jayce isn't marked in orange. Or any other tribe color. The low rumble resumes, distinctly displeased.]

Fine. [Obedience didn't mean he wouldn't grumble about it.] I'll let you go this time.

[Fearless he remains, but he's not stupid; re-engaging surrounded by ice and already injured wasn't high on Heat's priority list though that didn't mean he wouldn't claim otherwise. Regaining his 'human' form in a cascade of pale light, Agni's injuries seem to disappear, no obvious wounds marring the gray and black Junkyard armor, but they ARE still there.

The cold is far more tolerable immediately.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

MAY TDM

taste the rainbow?!

skittles flavored jayce

..gonna taste the rainbow. if he can catch it

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a tiny tag, also i need more icons

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