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

husks & haunts b/w testing.

Whether you recruited him or he asked to join, there is now one (1) Ren Amamiya in your scavenging party, headed for the bizarro hospital. He doesn’t look like much - a quiet teenager with glasses and unkempt black hair in plain, unassuming clothes, no visible sign yet of any monster traits transforming his slim frame. At first glance, he likely seems laughably out of his element, a nerdy kid who should be in school with his nose in a book rather than tagging along to a monster-infested death trap.

Inside the hospital, however … he’s a different person entirely. He stealthily slinks around corners like a seasoned jewel thief, pocketing every useful supply he can carry and gracefully evading traps like an acrobat. When one of those hideous creatures comes into his sight … hoo boy, is he ever ready for a fight. Armed with a large bladed weapon he either found or made, Ren attacks with spinning jumps, slicing wildly, grinning like a maniac after the fight ends. If that’s not enough to fell the foe, Ren is joined by a giant, black-winged demonic figure wearing a top hat and wreathed in chains and blue flame, appearing after a summoning shout of ”Come, Arsène!” to dish out spells of incredible damage.

At some point, Ren does slip up - he’s not perfect, he’s still just a kid, and sometimes he gets a little cocky. A syringe sneaks up and sticks him - but it’s fine, he never expects to go into battle without taking some blows. Nothing about him physically changes, but mentally, he becomes a walking billboard.

dream: out of kindness (cw: blood, knives, death)

”This isn’t trivial!”

You find yourself standing in a room, crowded with large tables and benches to one side, a bar with five chairs on the other. Soft lighting tumbles out from underneath multi-colored domes of glass hung from the ceiling. Behind the bar, large glass jars full of coffee beans line the shelves of the wall. There is no music here, only heavy silence in the aftermath of the jingling bell over the door, the signal of a recent departure.

A figure stands in front of you: tan trench coat, red plaid scarf, black gloves. His face is featureless, impassive, like that of a mannequin, framed by soft brown hair. Behind him, through the glass-paned café door, you see snow gently falling onto the street, darkened in the night.

I will carve my own path for myself, the figure in front of you says, his voice warped beyond recognition, slicing through the silence. His tone is calm and even as he explains: I refuse to accept a reality concocted by someone else, stuck under their control for the rest of my days.

“But then, you’ll … “ Your throat is dry, tight, refusing to let you finish the sentence.

So what? the other person snaps. That’s the path I chose.

Your heart is a leaden weight in your chest as you raise your eyes to meet where his aren’t. “Are you sure?”

He nods. All you have to do is stick to your guns and challenge Maruki.

You fall silent. He makes it sound so easy, like making the choice to end his life is the same as deciding whether to make a cup of coffee.

Your silence angers him, and he takes a challenging step forward.

Are you really so spineless that you’d fold over some bullshit, trivial threat on my life? he demands to know, seething.

“This isn’t trivial!” you shout, head snapping up as enraged white heat shoots up your spine and collects at the base of your skull.

It IS! he insists, shouting back at you.

You shake your head. “Don’t oversimplify this,” you say, and it feels like begging, even without the please that goes unspoken.

Do you think I’d be happy with this? Being shown mercy now, of all times?

You again drop your gaze to the floor, and again say nothing.

I don’t want to be pitied - this isn’t something I’m debating with you!

You don’t answer. He never had a problem debating with you before. You want to leave, to walk out that door and start running and never stop. Let someone else take the lead and make decisions for a change. It’s not fucking fair that you have to be the one to break your own heart.

Your indecisiveness on the matter is essentially a betrayal of my wishes.

… He’s right. You know he’s right, and you know what you need to do. But knowing doesn’t stop it from making you feel like you’re being torn apart from the inside.

I want to hear you say it aloud … what do you intend to do?

He moves toward you, steps close in front of you, places both gloved hands on your shoulders. Those hands feel heavier than the weight of the entire world.

I won’t wait a moment longer, Ren. Answer me.

The heaviness of your heart shatters like glass. Some small part of you will never forgive yourself for this. That same part of you may never forgive him for making you choose this, either.

“We’re stopping Maruki,” you answer, calmly, and without warning, you jam a double-edged knife as big as your forearm into his chest. Blood seeps out around the blade, staining his coat as it spreads. You give the knife a hard twist and yank it free.

“I won’t fold,” you say, and this time, you shove the knife into the surface of what should be his face. It shatters like porcelain, and the figure before you falls to the floor in a heap at your feet.

“I won’t fold,” you repeat, and the knife drops to the floor with a loud clatter. You stare down at your hands, now covered in blood, and watch silently as the blood thickens, wraps tightly around each finger, and transforms into a pair of red leather gloves.

Outside, the snow continues to fall.

wild card? wild card.
[Want something else? Feel free to hit me up! PM or gothmoth @ plurk. Happy to do prose or brackets.]

The bell on the door rings. Foosteps approach. Akechi walks in, perfectly human, in his school uniform. In a dream, he need not bare talon and fangs, horn and barbs...

At least for now.

It was a brutal sight to see, certainly. No Hereward. No renewed conviction. Just murder.

Certainly not undeserved. Akechi nearly killed Ren. It's an eye for an eye. A fate well deserved...

But not his true fate.

So Akechi walks closer. "Really, Ren? You and I both know that's not what happened."

Ren looks up from his gloved hands wearing an expression of absolute anguish. It’s his dream, and he doesn’t need to be the calm, collected, poker-faced Ren of the waking world anymore.

“Wasn’t it?” He shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter if I killed you myself or just stood by and let you die, the result is the same. You’re dead and it’s my fault.”

"Ren, we already went over this." He's still moving closer, trying to keep his composure. Damn Ren's dreams for tormenting him like this. "I survived to February 4th. I didn't contact you, and that was entirely my mistake. You didn't kill me."

“It felt like I did.”

Ren stares down at his hands again, fingers spread out in front of him.

“For weeks, I had to choke on my regrets and pretend I was fine. I had to keep living in a world where you were gone, again.” He breathes out a laugh - bitter, truncated. “I had to fix the world for everyone else, but I couldn’t fix it for me.”

His fingers curl into fists, the fists drop to his sides, and Ren looks up at Akechi again, dark eyes dull with pain behind the mask of his glasses.

“You mean so much to me. Why can’t you care about that, even a little bit?”

Akechi's eyes draw wide in alarm. Before words, a strained grunt leaves his lips. Tension grips him from head to toe.

"After everything I've done to hurt you and the others..."

His chest slowly inflates with a deep, silent breath.

"I never said I didn't care. You are putting words in my mouth."

ren amamiya } persona 5 royal } potential new kid

dream

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HOSPITAL TIME (Let me know if this doesn't work)

PERFECT yay faith c:

Fun fact: I have no idea if Ren knows Akechi is here as-of this thread.

he does! they had a whole long very emotional reunion on the last tdm 😁

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Husks and Haunts

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Husk and Haunts

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Husks & Haunts

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husks & haunts (walks in late with starbucks)

welcome! please allow ren to make you a better coffee than sbux