Video: UN - JustD

[distant_one]

[The video isn't of D, but instead a carefully drawn map of Trench and its close surrounding areas with rough lines indicating the tunnels. The video zooms back to show a rough outline of a path leading from Trenchwood further inland, denoted as '30 miles' and then a point circled and labeled as 'outpost lantern'.]

Earthquakes and underground tunnels last month, and severe storms this month. If this city sinks into the ground or is washed away, there's nowhere to go.

[D puts another sheet of paper down in front of the video, this one showing a rough outline of ruined building and some sketched in structures and a perimeter wall.]

Last month, Manabu Yuuki led an expedition, this lantern point is as far as we went before we had to return. The wilds are full of aggressive plants and animals, high levels of corruption, and even the plants that don't attack will probably kill people.

But this is a chance to make an outpost. Every time I've gone out there I've come under attack almost immediately, but if we made it that far, we can make this work too.

I'm looking for anyone who can and will fight, anyone who can aid in building fortifications to make defenses easier, and anyone with the ability or knowledge to provide magical protection and reduce corruption, or who can provide supplies and support.

I'll provide food and shelter or items for trade to anyone who works on turning this outpost into a haven.

My name is D. I'm setting up a staging point for people and supplies in the house near the Watch Tower with the red door and cloth banners. Contact me here, or look for me there between mid afternoon and sundown.

[OOC: Plotting post for this open and approved player plot here and location post and information here. An open log post will be going up sometime in the next week.]

Comments

[distant_one]

As long as you don't kill the blood roses or too many of the nonviolent plants that's not a problem.

[D has a similar problem keeping his own aura in check when he's unhappy, but he can usually keep it out of 'kill the nearby plant life' levels]

[umbraportation]

It's not really something I can control well enough to pick and choose, but I'll save it as a last resort and avoid the blood roses.

[ He'd like to be better at it, but unfortunately life likes to throw him curve balls. ]

[distant_one]

I see.

[There's a long, heavy pause.]

I can help you with that.

[umbraportation]

[ A pause on Nico's end, as well. ]

You have experience?

[distant_one]

Yes.

[umbraportation]

[ Another moment of silence. ]

Yeah, sure. I'll take all the help I can get. Fair warning, it should be somewhere that there aren't other people. Killing plants isn't the only thing that can happen if it's bad enough.

[distant_one]

[That is very out of control, or perhaps the kid is simply much more 'Death' than D is on a mystical level.]

There are plenty of places. How much room do you need?

[umbraportation]

[ He would be more willing to explain in person, rather than over the open communication. ]

Not too much, ten or twenty feet. I just don't want some bystander walking into it on accident.

[distant_one]

That's easily doable. I'll meet you at the waystation lamp.

[D does not like going out in the rain at all but he will do it to investigate someone he thinks might be like himself.]

[umbraportation]

Yeah, sure. Give me a few minutes to get there.

[ He's got nothing else going on, and has to find his way there. Nico will be pretty easy to pick out of a crowd, wearing all black while his t-shirt has a skeleton pegasus and the words "Camp Half-Blood: on it. ]

[distant_one]

[D is also wearing all black. Black wide brimmed traveler's hat, black great coat. Black scarf.

And now that he can get a better feel for the kid D can tell they're on a similar mystical wavelength. They both have an air of death and doom about them, even if D keeps his suppressed to the point that most people can't sense it, he can never quite get rid of it entirely without hiding himself completely.]

You're young. Wouldn't ghost prince have been a better choice?

[Not that D looks like he could possibly be older than 19 himself.]

[umbraportation]

[ Ah, someone who could understand his fashion sense.

Somehow, he isn't all that surprised that Just D bring Nico the sensation that he just walked into the Underworld. Though he can't quite put a finger on why or what D might be, having never experienced this before. ]

I'm older than I look. An Oracle called me that once, and I couldn't think of a better one.

[ Nico certainly wasn't going by deathboy. ]

[distant_one]

[D spends a moment studying the kid very intently, as if he's looking into him more than at him.]

An Oracle. Are you bound by fate, or can you break free of it?

[Actually important questions here.]

[umbraportation]

[ That's an intense stare, and he shifts a little, but shrugs at the question. ]

Sometimes she's vague enough that some parts could go the opposite or different way. That prophecy's old, though. She's come out with a bunch more since then.

[ Let's not say that there were actually like 5 Oracles up until recently. ]

I think that particular line was "You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand".

[distant_one]

[Not a concrete answer either way. That's fine. D starts walking to lead the way further away from people. It's daytime and it's raining and D is very miserable but barely shows it except as maybe the slightest hint of being tired.]

We're closer than I thought.

Stopping my aura entirely is extremely difficult, but keeping it from killing plants every time is more practice and habit forming than anything else.

[umbraportation]

[ Some prophecy lines he could do without, but demigods kind of can't do anything without a prophecy. They can if they break Camp rules or decide to say "screw everything". He follows after D in silence, not feeling the need to fill it. ]

There isn't anyone I can ask back home for help, so everything I've learned so far was on my own. Well, my dad, but he doesn't really understand.

[distant_one]

[These parallels are uncomfortable.]

He's the one you get it from, and a human mother? What's his name?

[D can't quite decide if Nico is his reality's equivalent of a Dhampir or not.]

[umbraportation]

[ A nod of his head at the first question. ]

Hades. God of the Underworld.

[ Just in case D's world doesn't have Greek deities. ]

[distant_one]

The dead. The undead. The cold dark of a world the light of the sun doesn't reach but longing for it all the same?

[Hades is little more than a word to D. All gods were stripped away and only Dracula was worshipped.]

[umbraportation]

Yeah, that's basically him in a nutshell.

[ Nico, too. He is dating a son of a sun god. ]

[distant_one]

[That's a second parallel in Dark even if it's not Night, but no blood connection he can think of from what he knows so far.]

Control is more difficult for hybrids born with abilities from a supernatural parent. We have conflicting natures, our supernatural and strong affinity for death and undeath is at odds with our human mortality. You accidentally hurt people with your aura?

[D has had to use much more of his mystical knowledge and education since arriving here than he's had to in a long time, and in this area in particular he knows more than his left hand.]

[umbraportation]

[ He nods at that. Nico has definitely noticed a difference between his powers and his fathers, how lacking Nico is because he's half-human. ]

It's why he could never really understand, he's always been a god.

[ A small shift in posture at the question. ]

Yes. I inflicted my memories and emotions on a friend, mostly the negative ones. Later, when I lost control, I turned another demigod into a ghost and sent him to the Underworld, in addition to memories and emotions - I have no memory of it, only the words of my friends. Plants died, the temperature dropped, the earth bent to my command.

[distant_one]

[An Earth component then as well. Vampires are naturally tied very strongly to the earth, but the rest of it sans memory loss makes sense.]

That's a little different from mine, but I think it's because you have a stronger death aspect. We're complimentary that way, you are death foremost and darkness after, and I have darkness over death.

I have to work to use my killing lust as a weapon against all but the smallest animals, but if you don't do that frequently when your aura comes out it could be a different ability altogether.

[umbraportation]

[ Admittedly, his earth powers aren't all that, one of the lesser ones - which is why he brought it up. Tapping into that power isn't easy. ]

Yeah, though mine may be more intricately linked together. I overextended myself on using my shadow powers, then tried to turn around and use my death ones - almost became one with the darkness.

I think part of it is my father has control over fear, he can inflict other's worst nightmare on them. Me, I seem to inflict my fears on other people.

[distant_one]

It'll be interesting to see where our shadow abilities overlap. My aura causes fear, but not of anything but myself or of impending death.

[They're getting a bit off track.]

Let's start with the aura first. I'll know if anyone approaches and your aura shouldn't be able to hurt me if you don't want to even without using my own to protect myself.