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

[androidvictoriam]

The thought, though audible, is walled-off enough for Danse not to understand all the reasons why Deacon's thinking it. But he bristles nonetheless at the pity he reads into it. He's not always one to get angry about being pitied, even when it's humiliating, but if there's anyone he won't take it from, it's an agent of the Railroad. His own seething thoughts run in parallel to Deacon's, more accurate than he has any way of possibly knowing.

From the moment I was taken in by the Brotherhood-- he can hear himself imploring Maxson, outside the listening post with Nora standing in front of him and Deacon lurking behind. Taken in, like a stray animal, like any other one of those single-named wastelanders who make up the East Coast Brotherhood's most fanatically loyal bread and butter, whatever rank and title they earn filling that empty starving void where a family name ought to be. Danse was one of dozens of those. Taken in by the Brotherhood, like he remembers being allowed to spend the occasional winter night sleeping on the floor inside a stranger's doorway, in the homeless orphaned trash-picking childhood that never fucking happened.

He'd blamed the Institute for that before he knew better, because in those first chaotic days before he'd thought anything out, it made enough sense to simply blame all of his misfortunes on them like the entire rest of the Commonwealth does. Everything wrong in his life could be attributed to pointless Institute cruelty, whether it made logical sense or not. He'd asked Nora why they couldn't have given him memories of parents, siblings, someone who loved him--why they had to make it all so gnawingly painful and lonely, if it was all made up anyway? He doesn't have any more of an answer to that now that he knows there's someone different to blame.

But he will blame the Railroad for it. And he'll be damned if he lets any one of them, Deacon included, judge him for finding brothers and sisters and elders where they refused to give him even the semblance of those. His thoughts might as well be a fire alarm for how audible they all are, and the way he rubs his temples to try and calm them doesn't actually help.

"You'll be fine, I'm sure. Though you won't have any alternatives to this group if you're not." He gets up, sensing that he's probably just about overstayed his welcome in the would-be safehouse--though if telepathy weren't involved, things might have sailed smoothly a bit longer.

[facethefacts]

What Danse reads as pity, Deacon feels as guilt. He was responsible for escorting the freshly liberated synth later known as Paladin Danse to Rivet City. The agent that left him there as this stray animal Danse thinks himself. Vulnerable to The Brotherhood's indoctrination. He may not have implanted Danse's memories himself, but he cannot help still feeling responsible.

That fire alarm rings deafening into Deacon's mind, but his poker face holds true. He doesn't react. He can't. But he'll certainly lie sleepless all night with a pit in his stomach over it later. That's his own burden. Danse is only one of the synths Deacon had liberated. Distantly, he wonders if they all curse him like this one does.

"I will," he echoes. "I'm used to flying solo, anyway."

He leans forward, snuffing out the cigarette into the broken mug. He won't ask Danse to leave, but he's not going to beg him to stay, either.

[androidvictoriam]

There is a part of him that does appreciate not being asked to leave, even if he hasn't said anything to merit it. The pack mentality he doesn't want to acknowledge is rearing its head again, telling him to smooth things over, but he lets himself be just self-indulgently angry enough to push it aside.

Not quite so angry as to stomp away without further ado, though. He pauses in the doorway as he goes.

"Let me know if you need a hand with the gun rack." He crushes his cigarette butt underfoot on the ground outside, and leaves.