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

[propatriamori]

Edward hears the tread SecUnit makes as it approaches, and he turns his head in its direction. He hears its greeting, which is then cut off, and he tilts his head.

"Hello? Are you still there?" He doesn't realise he just blasted SecUnit with WWI Emotions, and wonders if something happened to whoever was approaching.

[serialmurderbot]

Well, something did happen, just not the usual kind of thing that happens. SecUnit has to take 2.0 additional seconds to sort through the emotional hangover and the sheer 'what the fuck' of whatever just happened to it. It has some suspicions, but - frankly it doesn't want them to be true.

It scans the surroundings, searching for and not finding anything that seems a likely source for the sudden effect to its organics, before cautiously taking another step forward. It doesn't take SecUnit long to catch the way the humans eyes don't fixate on it even when Edward's face turns towards it, and despite the fear and despair, its performance reliability goes up a percentage point just from not being stared at, and so it does Edward the favor of not staring in return.

"Yeah." A pause, as it runs through its archives for a sample of what to say, and decides that its examples are all shit. "You're new." A guess, despite the fact that it says so more as a statement than a question.

sorry for taking so long to respond, DW ate the notif

[propatriamori]

"I am new, yes." Edward chuffs out a bitter little sound that is supposed to be a laugh but really doesn't get anywhere close. "It's quite obvious, isn't it?"

He turns more fully towards the new voice, unaware that he's not being stared at either. If he was, he'd appreciate the discretion. He knows people stare at his scars. Even though no one has told him that, he's certain it happens.

"Have you been here awhile? I would certainly appreciate any advice you could give me."

Or just companionship for a little while. It's lonely here.

[serialmurderbot]

"There's a limited number of people in the Convoy." SecUnit says it indifferently - because, yeah, there are a whole lot of key features to the way Edward was acting even before it got into emotional blasting range to make that determination, but more relevantly, SecUnit remembers all the faces in the Convoy even if it hasn't spoken to them, and it's been keeping track. This isn't one it already has tagged.

The whatever-the-fuck-that-was feedback has lessened. SecUnit doesn't have a first aid module, but if this is anything like the shock it's witnessed humans go into, then continued discussion is recommended.

Ugh. Talking.

There's a box of something nearby, and SecUnit drops down to sit on it. "It's been one hundred and thirty five local days. This place is full of hostile fauna, so stay close to the Convoy. It has a shield." It hesitates. "What's your name?"

[propatriamori]

This is a distraction. Distractions are good; it keeps Edward from dwelling on what's going on, and how he's been plucked from everything he knows into whatever the hell this is. It also keeps him from ruminating on the war, and what it did to him.

He hears the person talking to him sit down, and turns himself so he's facing in that rough direction. He listen to what it has to say, taking in all the information SecUnit offers him.

"Have you been here since the very beginning, then?" Edward has no intention of wandering off, at least not deliberately, if they're protected by a shield. He has no defence against the local fauna, hostile or not!

"I'm Lieutenant Edward Courtenay." The title comes out automatically, not like it's something he'll expect to be called in the future. Edwards offers a hand in the direction of SecUnit's voice. "It's a pleasure to meet you, particularly given the circumstances. What shall I call you?"

[serialmurderbot]

"Of this group. Not since whatever the hell started happening to this planet."

It doesn't sound particularly thrilled about all of that, but then who would? This place gives every sign of being trashed, and the accommodations they've managed to scrounge together aren't much more impressive by SecUnit's measure.

The offered hand takes a moment of searching to connect to a particular gesture of courtesy occasionally used in the Corporation Rim for dominance posturing, and some Preservation variants that SecUnit has seen Ratthi combine with a hug. It opts for neither by saying, "I don't shake hands. SecUnit, if you have to use a name." It's - brusque, probably to the point of rudeness, but the explanation itself is a concession, given the way it can tell that Edward doesn't focus on it. It's really not good at this.

Last time it had to talk a human out of shock it brought up family, but that doesn't seem like a good idea when they're stuck here at the moment. "What do you want to know?"

[propatriamori]

"Has the entire planet been... damaged?" Edward shuffles his feet in the dirt a bit. "From what I've been able to tell, and what people have told me, it doesn't seem to be in good condition."

He pictures the entire planet as an endless, roiling wasteland of mud and barbed wire, an eternal No-Man's-Land, and for a second, that image gets projected outwards. Filthy, sticking mud, rusting barbed wire reaching for a mustard sky, tortured shapes half buried in the mud that would be recognisable if you cared to look more closely.

Edward takes his hand back and settles it on his knee. "My apologies, SecUnit. Do you not like being touched? I've known men like that."

He asks it with a tone of quiet, gentle consideration. There's no judgment here; if SecUnit doesn't want to be touched, Edward isn't going to push the issue. As long as they don't decide to go anywhere together and Edward doesn't need to be led, it shouldn't be problem.

[serialmurderbot]

There's a pause, as SecUnit takes in that image. It looks like something out of one of the darker dramas it's watched, ones about extreme human conflicts and failed terraforming that leaves the colonists struggling to survive on a poisonous planet.

"The moon is shattered. The planet got fucked up by it somehow, but the environment isn't as affected by it as the people are. There's still local flora and fauna, but the settlements are all empty." Or, not as far as it can tell, but it's used to planets with a high percentage of hostile fauna and weird plants. "The only locals we've found have been... highly altered and highly aggressive."

And not very coherent. SecUnit is prepared to go on talking business if that's what Edward's interested in knowing, but the question puts its hackles up. It's so... nice. It's excruciating. "I'm not - no." Ugh. It's going to have to explain, isn't it. "I'm not human."

[propatriamori]

Most of what SecUnit tells him is completely lost on Edward, although he tries to visualise it. A shattered moon, deserted settlements, altered local species? It's too much for him, and the muddy wasteland image spreads out from him again, although with slight changes; this time, dark, tangled plants sporting wicked thorns grow in the churned mud, and shadowy creatures with yellow eyes flit back and forth in the gloom.

When SecUnit tells him it's not human, Edward pauses for a moment. He has no idea how to process that, but he also has no reason to disbelieve it. Why would someone say it's not human if it is? SecUnit also doesn't seem keen to talk about it, so Edward tilts his head to the side and addresses the major issue that he envisions cropping up between them.

"If we go anywhere together, I'm afraid I may ask you to take my arm and guide me. I," and he gestures at his eyes, "can't see, and have difficulty navigating on my own. I would, of course, let you initiate contact, if it's necessary."

And then he smiles faintly. "Or we can stay right here and keep talking. You said settlements... does that mean it appears that people, or other things, were here at some point?"

[serialmurderbot]

There's a hint to it, in the background to SecUnit's voice, if Edward focuses. A badly-tuned radio static that accompanies its words like a discomfiting harmony, rendering an otherwise human-seeming voice something strange and distant. The effect is new, a consequence of this place - but if it makes it easier for everyone here to believe it when it says it's not human, it'll have complicated feelings about that, but it won't complain about that side effect. (It's just weird, to have people not know what a SecUnit is. It's never getting used to the way people here just don't know what one is).

"Safety is more important," it says, awkwardly. "When you need to return to the Convoy I can help." It almost certainly sounds like it's not used to offering like this, and it isn't. Some of that is the result of the vision Edward's projecting - it's trying to ignore that, because if it does it has to talk about the things that were coming through before and that's going to turn into a conversation about emotions that it just does not want to have.

"There's a range of structures and roads," it says instead. "Individual dwellings, signal towers, traveler's stations. They're all in disrepair or abandoned."

[propatriamori]

Edward nods when SecUnit says it'll help him back to the Convoy. "Thank you. I appreciate that."

It doesn't seem like it wants to talk about that any further, so Edward drops the subject. He hasn't noticed the faint static in SecUnit's voice yet, but now that he's been alerted that he's not talking to a human, he'll be listening for it.

He listens to what SecUnit tells him about the surrounding areas, and his brows draw together. "Has each of them been searched? Is everyone certain they've been abandoned?"

Another mental projection, but faint this time: a sniper, hidden far away in a distant tree and picking off men, one by one.