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

Re: Hospital

[iron_stomach]

Heat wants to kill these things, they keep disappearing every time he finally gets his teeth on them and it's infuriating.

It's so routine to have Varuna at his side that he automatically moves to make a space for the long cutting blades, not in a fashion that suggests he thinks he's being attacked by the way his attention remains mostly on the current fighting prey.

"It's about time you showed up." Though there's an obvious undercurrent of irritation to the growl, that's par the course isn't it? He's always annoyed about something. The nice part of two heads is one can be employed working on tearing a different limb off with his teeth while the other speaks, the lashing struggles of their current victim unpleasant but that's what made the meal after more savory. Varuna wasn't particularly chatty, so it might be rhetorical to even ask. "Where the hell have you been?

[bufudine]

Heat slots back into his usual place when they fight together and it's a relief, like something that had been missing all this time has finally been found. Above all else, it feels right.

Which makes him wonder... had he gotten through to Heat in his last moments?

"Here." Which isn't really much of an explanation, but it's true beyond just this building. He's spent a frankly extremely long time in this world.

Between the two of them, the Unknown doesn't stand a chance. And it feels right, too, to once again be openly devouring with another at his side.

But when Serph reverts after eating, it's apparent that something is very different. With 6 wings, feathers and both glowing hair and eyes, his human form can no longer truly be called that. He doesn't wear any clothing from the Junkyard anymore, instead wearing slacks and sandals with a halter top of checkered blue. The typical streak of orange is completely missing, though the tips of his wings carry the colour of his tribe.

[iron_stomach]

For a little while, it's as if nothing's changed except the setting, and Heat's okay with that. When others spoke of Nirvana, it was all peace and hugs and being friendly to strangers, but that's never been his idea of Paradise. Somewhere worth being should have the things worth having, and part of that ... is simply having meals with comrades. That those meals tended to die screaming and were best raw and fresh was simply the way it was and he didn't want it to change.

So for him, it's almost a relief. It meant the rest were around here somewhere (including Sera), and not running into them yet was coincidence. It's fine, the Junkyard had a lot of people in it and who knew how big Nirvana was.

These ideas are set aside during what passes as 'cleanup' and as Serph reverts back to what would have been a human form, and Agni ... doesn't follow immediately, watching eyelessly for a long moment in surprise so total it renders him silent. Changing back is simply to use finer tuned vision, frowning. His is identical to when he left, cloak and all.

Serph's ... doesn't have the feel of wearing another Tribe's colors, it's not something that strikes him as being a deliberate show of checked blue and white. But it's not orange. The tips of his wings, and why the hell does he have WINGS, don't look deliberately dyed. It doesn't even occur to him that Serph might have simply discarded their Tribe's colors and affiliation. Which meant there's one other option.

"Which one of 'em beat you?" There's only one reason a Leader might stop wearing their Tribe's colors. They might have let Jinanna and Lupa live, so another Tribe might be willing to let Serph live, salt in the wound of his defeat. "And don't give me any 'oh I'm loyal I can't tell you that, law's the law' shit, who was it?"

Giving a name is going to go badly for whoever got named.

[bufudine]

Heat's response is... revealing.

Akechi had mentioned months ago that people could be drawn from different periods of time. That there were other people who shared the same world as him, but came from earlier times.

The realisation strikes Serph immediately; Heat doesn't know.

This is a Heat who is still loyal to him, a Heat who only knows the law of the Junkyard and still abides by them even as they started ignoring the law as was convenient. This is a Heat who would immediately search for whoever beat him and tear them apart to take over.

Serph's expression and body language doesn't change, masking his feelings as usual. But his wings spread wide, proud and unbowed.

"No one beat me." He looks Heat directly in the eyes, unflinching. It feels strange to be taking the role of Leader again, but he slips back into it so easily in the presence of old comrades. "There are no tribes here."

[iron_stomach]

Eloquence isn't Heat's strong suit, and formulating a response that doesn't end in some measure of aggression in some fashion is a struggle. Assuming the worst is always in comparison, really easy, and less adept by far at masking emotions, his surprise darkens by degrees at the implication, a fleeting moment of hurt buried swiftly under rising ill temper.

Someone's tribe is almost everything. Of all people to abandon it.. he never thought it'd be Serph. If tribe could be tossed aside so easily, what did that mean for everything that went with it? "Huh. What, so you get to Nirvana and just threw us away?"

And grew a fancy bunch of wings.

[bufudine]

Serph shakes his head. No. Never.

But he can't explain to Heat why he hasn't mentioned the Embryon or the significance of the orange streaked piece of body armour that he keeps in his vehicle to anyone, not even Jack; Heat doesn't know. Heat doesn't know he killed him. Heat doesn't know that Serph willingly relinquished the Tribe to those left behind.

"This isn't Nirvana." The bottom pair of wings fold forward to wrap around his waist while Serph folds his arms, the feathers tipped in orange noticeably on display. "I've been here for five months."

Which should be enough to hammer the point that their perception of the passage of time is not the same.

[iron_stomach]

This isn't the hellscape they would have normally found themselves in, with a black sun and a dying planet. The sky's blue here, the sun is gold and warm and inviting, there's new and tasty things to hunt (even if most of those things disappeared when killed), the floating rocks are a curiousity to poke at, all that's missing was his comrades.

It's vibrant and alive in a way the Junkyard never was. How could it be anything else?

The wings nag at him. A coat of feathers that shouldn't be there. Varuna didn't have feathers. Five months.

This is about where Gale Would Not Comprehend and further explanation would be demanded, the byplay between him and Argilla teasing out answers and perspectives that wouldn't otherwise be spotted, Cielo and Sera preventing panic or blind hungry rage setting in in their very different ways. They would move forward together, unified.

For a handful of breaths Heat's fists clench white-knuckled, short pointless human nails digging into his palms before he suddenly reaches up to tear the ever present cloak off his own shoulders, crumpling the sturdy gray canvas in his hands, the orange paint-smeared brand vivid in the hospital's terrible lighting. Five months.

The cloak is thrown at the winged form of Serph, familiar and not. Serph but changed. "I don't want to hear another word from you about tribes not being here. As long as we are, Embryon is. I'm not gonna have our damn Leader running around like some raw rookie." He'd find something appropriate to update his cloakless status before he left the building, it's more important Serph be properly marked. He doesn't think Serph might reject it, reiterate that there are no tribes, no reason to be proud of who they were together, no reason to stay comrades. It's not Nirvana.

It's not that the rest isn't important. Five months, somewhere NOT where they were supposed to be--

Where was everyone else?

[bufudine]

Serph watches Heat's reaction with the calm of someone who is long used to the quiet before an explosion. But when Heat tosses his cloak at him, Serph catches the cloak on reflex, momentarily stunned by the offer. The memory of Heat's face twisted in rage at the sight of him is still too vivid in his mind, Agni's claws turned towards him instead of at their enemies.

Carefully, he pulls taut the fabric in his hands so he can look down at the familiar orange cross splashed across grey. He thought he would never see this again.

"...When I was dragged here, I entrusted the Embryon to the rest of you."

He doesn't need to say who.

Serph lets out a quiet huff -- it would be a laugh from anyone else -- before pulling the cloak over his head. His wings are in the way of it draping over his back, so instead he allows it to fall over his right shoulder, orange mark visible from the front, exactly the opposite of how Heat wears it.

"It's good to have old comrades again."

[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?"

[bufudine]

Of course his comrades would follow their leader. But he did not want them to follow him after death. It isn't often that the others would go against his will, only really happening after they gained their Atma.

He doesn't mind it, even though it meant keeping control of the rapidly growing tribe became more and more difficult.

"When we enter this world, we are marked with sigils that turn us into monsters." Serph's wings bend in an unnatural way at times, and he demonstrates that with a twist of the upper pair so the long pinions frame his face. And, in a rare moment of complaint, Serph adds flatly, "...It's slow."

The situation is familiar. They are branded and turned into monsters. Their objective is to reach Nirvana. The only real difference is that there are no other tribes to fight, only a small group of allies and a world of unthinking enemies.

[iron_stomach]

Crossing his arms over his chest, he frowns at the offending wings as if they're the source of all the problems going on, watching them move in ways that normal bone and wings shouldn't allow for.

It is very familiar. It's not the first time they've been branded, been changed.. but Heat liked Agni.

And it hadn't been slow. It had been one sudden, heady rush of power and hunger. "So what's this one called then?" Anyone else probably wouldn't violate Serph's personal space, but Heat doesn't hesitate to reach to grab a wing, careful for all the suddenness of it. Wings tended to be delicate, and he wasn't interested in doing harm. Finding out what it felt like though.. "Guess its teeth and claws haven't come in yet. You look defenseless."

[bufudine]

And that's the part that rather bothers him. Many others were gaining changes that came with natural weaponry. He... is not. If anything, his changes are making him more vulnerable. The wings impede his movement and make him unable to wear armour. The magic at his fingertips leaves him reeling and weak.

Serph allows Heat to grasp his wing, calmly staying still so he can examine it more closely. Unlike most feathered wings, theh are also missing an extra layer of feathers, immediately identifying them as non-functional to anyone with knowledge of bird wings. The feathers themselves feel no different, the ones on his body and closer to wingbone having that comfortably soft texture of down.

"Varuna is always with me." In many ways, it's a relief that he has his demon to fall back on. His long term goals might necessitate Varuna's eventaul demise, but that doesn't mean Serph resents his demon's presence like Argilla or Gale. "This one doesn't have a name I know of. It doesn't have a voice."

No hunger. No urges. As far as he knows.

[iron_stomach]

He doesn't know enough about real birds' wings to know the difference, his assessment is more primitive, automatically categorizing weakness that someone might choose to exploit. It's interesting, it's soft, and if he burrows his fingers in its warm. But it's also utterly without any kind of protection, no hidden scales or scutes or claws buried in the feathers. "Huh."

No voice. So it's more like.. a changed default state than a new demon?

Eventually he lets go, frowning. "I don't like it, that's a lot of new targets." Not a matter of appearance, that part was fine and he wouldn't really mind seeing how far the feathers went.

At least there was still Varuna. Serph wouldn't BE defenseless, and anyone underestimating him would find out how badly they erred. "... It looks okay," he adds with reluctance. "Sera's seen it yet?"