deercountry | [EVENT] Out into the Wilds

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[EVENT] Out into the Wilds

Who: People who signed up for the June exploration!
What: Exploration, camping, monster-fighting, and checkpoint-establishing!
When: June 10-13 (ish; time is fluid for the sake of players' plans)
Where: From the Waystation out into the unmarked wilderness!

Content Warnings: Gore, monster fighting, injuries (other cws will be flagged in comment subject lines please!)

It's finally time. Months of research, planning, and training are culminating into the first proper excursion out beyond the borders, out into Trenchwood and beyond. No one will know what to find out there until someone goes to see it, after all. And who knows? There may be people out there - people like them! People isolated by the formidable borders which separate them.

...Or maybe not. Either way, nothing changes if no one moves forward, and with the moon stirring the spirit of adventure in Manabu's blood, it's time to do exactly that.

I. Gather up

Once the final headcount was made, Manabu contacted all the willing volunteers to meet at the Waystation at daybreak - the more daylight, the better, as monsters are more sluggish at that time. Here, everyone can meet up and do a final check of supplies...and pet some of the Dog Keeper's faithful hounds who keep this length of the perimeter safe from the monsters. This is as good a time as any to take stock of who's all going along, who's got your back...and maybe whose backs you have a feeling you'll be watching along the way. The more familiar everyone is with each other's strengths and weaknesses, the better off everyone is at working as a team, right? So get over there and say hello!

II. Traverse

Now that everyone is gathered, the excursion begins. They pierce through the thick, unfriendly trees which are blooming with the unusual fruits of the season, but be careful about what bits of nature's bounty is taken for eating! The berries out here have properties which cause hallucinations, rapid blood corruption, and even beasthood.

Speaking of beasts: There are plenty. Monster ambushes are frequent, so be prepared to team up to fight and defend each other throughout the journey. Just like in Trench, the creatures vary in form and threat level - difference here is just sheer numbers. Lighting incense helps keep something of a safe radius where the creatures hesitate and slow, so hopefully no one's going to get caught too unawares as they rush in.

It makes travel rather staggered, but before nightfall the sight of the windmills is far behind, and ahead? A bog. Noxious smells, biting insects, and dangerous, sticky mud abound; be careful where you step, or you may find yourself sinking and in need of help, and no one wants to be trapped in one place when the beasts catch wind of travelers.

III. Camp

Carrying on to nightfall is risky business, and the decision is ultimately made to stake out a bit of high ground to make camp. Incense is lit up, with the ask that rotations of people keeping watch make sure they keep lit and replenished through the night. This won't keep everyone safe the entire night through, so be prepared for a rude awakening by monsters yet again; maybe you can catch a few winks after enough of a lull? Or at least take a moment to cleanse corruption and beasthood with the supplies people have brought to do so; failure may lead one down the dangerous fast track to corruption themselves.

Couple this with the month's unwelcome gifts of nightmares and the distant rumblings of earthquakes back in Trench, and it's pretty guaranteed no one is getting a good night's rest too easily. Still, it's time to recharge, to talk with others, and maybe work on some mapmaking if you're handy at it!

IV. The ruined church

Two nights and three days of this journey lead the group out of the bog and onto rockier, more open space: Those who can fly can catch glimpses of lush, green mountains forming in the distance before attracting too much attention from beasts along the way. Mountains! A new landmark to chase!

...But maybe not this time. By now, everyone's been through the wringer from the constant harassment of beasts, nightmares, and natural hazards, so when they come across something of a distinct landmark...that's where it's called. In the afternoon of the third day, the expedition finds the ruins of an old church, as well as signs of other structures well and truly decayed over time. No mud, no stink...just the eerie serenity of a vacant place.

Here, it's decided to plant the new lantern - Diluc provides his, and so, at the cobblestone foot of the remaining structure, little lantern buddies spring up out ofthe ground and hold up this new checkpoint's lamppost. People are welcome to investigate the area, but even though they've had a lull in action, it isn't safe to linger long: beasts will catch scent of the explorers soon enough and make their way here, too.

That said, the lantern's here...and it works. People can now safely teleport back to a location in Trench of their choosing! It's not the rousing success Manabu had hoped for, but it's a step forward - pretty darn forward, in fact! This new checkpoint is 30 miles west of Trenchwood - a fascinating new wilderness for explorers to teleport into and continue their journeys to unraveling the mysteries of the world Trench inhabits.

[please feel welcome to drop your own toplevels, tag around, and have fun! any questions can go here! enjoy!!!]

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It's rare to meet a person who won't immediately stoop down to give Magnet attention; this...cannot stand. The dog grunts, pawing at a boot. Hello! Dog here!

Manabu, meanwhile, breathes out a withered laugh that dies out in a sigh. He glances over his shoulder toward the camp to see it relatively unbothered. Good; everyone needs to rest, given how brutal the journey's been.

"It...it has to let up soon," he utters quietly. "The further we get from Trench, the less there is to prey on..."

D again glanced down at the canine. Omens were such curious things, so like the creatures whose shape they took and yet very different. Few canines, natural or supernatural, would have been willing to approach D on their own. He still wasn't going to divert more of his attention to it, no matter how clearly the little omen wanted it.

And despite the occasional bit of white fur that clung to D, courtesy of regularly giving Amaterasu the attention he was denying the omen.

"Not everything that hunts needs regular prey to survive. Some don't need to eat at all." There were many such awful hazards and beasts in his own world, creatures that would have gone extinct if they truly needed to hunt for sustenance.

Vampires could live indefinitely without consuming blood, but were predictable in their pursuit of it and almost as predictable in the madness that came from starvation.

Manabu's expression grows grim at the words. It's true that he doesn't know enough about the natural world to say one way or another - especially on this planet - but he was still clinging to the hope that his reasonable hypothesis gave him.

There's so little of it left, though.

So while the omen whines and paws at D's shoe, Manabu rubs at his own face.

"That's going to make things trickier," he says afterward, letting his hand drop to his side as he looks out into the dark. "But if that's how it is...we'll just have to deal with it, huh." Until they can't any longer.

"And that's not even considering the things that don't hunt, but will still attack anything that comes too close. We're in for a rough time, but at least we have a way back quickly if we need it." If not for that, this would go from nearly suicidal to definitely suicidal. Fighting until they could no longer fight onward wasn't an option if they had to fight their way back as well.

The spirit and motivation behind this is just the kind of spirit D has always appreciated in humanity. The will to survive and to explore for the sake of it. Not everyone traveling along is human, but the sentiment behind the expedition is.

"Behave. I'm busy keeping watch right now." D is still looking out into the darkness, though for him it's as bright and as clear as midday, but his words are meant for the little omen trying to get his attention.

"Eh-?!" For a second, Manabu thought those words were directed at him, given how D barely made a move to indicate to the contrary. It takes that second for him to blink, swallow back impulse indignation, and hear the offending dog still grumbling at their feet.

Oh.

"S-sorry about that," he utters, bending down to scoop the terrier up, who proceeds to wriggle and flop around like a fish until Manabu straightens up and the dog can get new D-things to sniff at from this distance. "He, he gets fussy when he's ignored..."

He still doesn't know what that says about him, given this is his soul manifest here...

D smells mostly like incense, cupcakes, and the greenery they've been traveling through with a strong sickly sweet scent of death.

"Omens are strange things, aren't they." As soon as he's done speaking, D abruptly turns to stare off across the camp. D spends a tense few moments staring before he eases back to cautious alertness. Whatever he detected apparently isn't an immediate or impending danger, as he turns to face the direction he was looking before.

Magnet does little swimmy-legs while being held close to Manabu's chest, clearly just as comfortable with standing idle as his person: not comfortable at all.

"Most seem pretty cool," Manabu admits, frowning down at his furball. "But most have cool stuff like dragons or birds or horses...and I haven't heard of any of those ones biting their people's ankles..."

"Dogs are small hunters. Predators, but also small enough to be prey to larger carnivores or seriously wounded by larger herbivores. They have teeth and claws, but that's not what makes them dangerous or successful. They have endurance, keen senses, clever instincts, and the rare ability to work together to take down larger prey," D observes, reaching over with his left hand to very gently run his sharp fingernails through the dog's fur on top of its head.

"Maybe you're trying to tell yourself something important." Inner conflict is something D knows very well and deals with constantly. He has two halves that shouldn't be able to coexist, that can never be perfectly in balance.

When the elusive pet is given, Magnet goes almost reverently still, save for the perpetual sniffer. What you got on this hand here, sir?

"If that's the case," Manabu says, turning his head to look out into the bog, "then he may as well use words I can understand. I don't speak dog.

"I don't speak...monster, either." His brow furrows. "All those journals in the archive, and it's still not enough to cover what's out here. Why is this planet like this...?"

Oddly enough, D's hand smells like strawberry cupcakes and death.

"My home is similar to this. Full of terrors ready to kill and maim and frighten, made for no reason but to bring terror and death. This place... I think this world might be dying, or on its way to becoming something else. It can be hard to tell the two apart."

It makes D think of the fall of once great empires. Humanity nearly wiping out all life on Earth, and the fall of the Nobility and all the technology and wonders that went with their reign. And the harsh struggle of humanity clawing its way back from the brink both times. Once under the guidance of vampires, and again under their own power.

Gradually, Manabu's attention draws back to D, his brow furrowing and mouth pulling a frown.

"It's not Monstadt, is it?" he asks. "Diluc and Childe talk about their planet being full of monsters they have to chase off and away from people all the time, too..."

"I've never heard of that place, but there are many monsters and many people hunt them for a living on Earth. I'm not surprised to hear there are others here from a place like it." D's beginning to think there's something terrible in each of the worlds they come from, but hasn't been able to gather enough information to confirm that theory. Disproving it would be impossible as well, because people could simply be unaware of whatever horror it is in their own dimension.

"Earth?"

Manabu's eyes wince to hear it.

"There's really a parallel Earth out there as messed up as this?"

That's not fair. To anyone! The number of people Manabu's met who come from places rife with horrors...it's too much! Not that the galaxy he hails from is all sunshine and daisies - not by a longshot - but...but most of those horrors? They're surmountable. The right technology to spare a body from corrosive atmospheres, the right diplomacy to stop wars and piracy...it's so much more achievable than...than all of this.

All the more reason to get this right.

"Not quite, but close. There's no blood pollution and corruption, but there are places just as dangerous to humans as this." The reaction to the name Earth is an interesting one, and D regards Manabu with some curiosity over it. That takes a lot of empathy, to be horrified that such things exist even when someone doesn't have to hear or see the horror of it for themselves.

"I think this place calls people from terrible places, or perhaps people who can cope with terrible places. That might be why we 'wake up' with these forms and memories, because we want to remember being someone who can survive or change a place like this. We all worked very hard to make it to shore, to remember."

Manabu shakes his head a little, looking back out into the woods.

"Maybe you, maybe...maybe a lot of people who show up here now. But...I have a good idea of why I'm here, and it's not because my galaxy was terrible, and definitely not because I can handle it on my own.

"I'm culpable for the decision everyone made in Sodder's nightmare...even though I was outvoted."

"You can only be responsible for yourself, and even then that's not always true. It's easier to blame yourself than to admit how powerless we all really are." D spent a long time suffering and blaming himself for things he had eventually come to realize were inevitable.

"I'd be a hypocrite if I told you not to feel that way. But you're faced with a choice now. You can either let it weigh you down and destroy you, or you can become stronger from it."

That gets a grimace out of him, because even though the words sound and seem pretty true to Manabu (hell, he'd agree if they were talking about anyone but himself), he can't really find it in him to let himself off the hook. At the conclusion, he does manage to breathe out something of a grim laugh - something that prompts Magnet to lift his head and sniff at his chin.

"And I probably won't have a say either way in the end," he utters in the same breath. "Sometimes I don't think any of us do."

"You can try, but you're right, it really isn't up to any of us." D is an extremely depressing individual sometimes even when he's trying to be helpful. Perhaps it's the corruption getting to them, but likely it's just the somber reality.

Beholden to Fate... It's not a new thought, but it's never been the comfort Manabu would like it to be. Rather, it just makes him antsier; he shifts where he stands, bending and letting the dog down.

"I guess until that time's up, we'll just go as far as we can. Either we finally get a break from all the creatures...or we stake out a spot and go back."

"It's always better to go as far as you can than to do nothing. That never works out the way people hope it will." D really does approve of this effort, and Manabu even if he's unlikely to say as much directly.

"Ha."

Magnet gives a little grunt, too.

"And sitting still...I can't stand something like that, that's for sure." Manabu rolls a shoulder, leaning back on a heel.

"I'm gonna walk the perimeter, replenish any incense stakes that might be getting too low."

"You should rest while you can. Let your omen and those of us with better night vision keep watch, we'll need you to be as strong as you can be when fighting resumes." But D isn't going to press the issue. "I can take care of the incense, if that's your concern."

Manabu is immediately reluctant, given he's not the sort to want to be idle when others are at work. Still, he can't deny the importance of rest when it can be gotten.

So...a compromise, then? "Mmh, I'll...just go around one side, then? And let you handle the other side."

D nods in acceptance of the compromise. His senses are alert enough that he can detect all movement far outside their camp anyway. There's nothing heading immediately in their direction but it's only a matter of time for the nearer of the presences he senses.

If incense can buy them more time, that's better than nothing. "Yes."

Manabu nods in a similar fashion before stepping away.

"Holler if anything comes up, then." Not that he can imagine a stoic guy like that ever hollering... Hey, the world's full of surprises, right?

Despite Manabu going on his way, his omen lingers around, sitting at D's feet and dutifully keeping watch with the watcher.

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distant_one - 2022-07-07 21:03 (UTC) - Expand

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