Drifting Pollen

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

Aventon — Hunter's Lodge

Most of the group seemed pretty eager to go and deal with whatever was lurking out in the forest, but Anne was glad to know that she'd still have some backup in the event that the worst came to pass. "I'll try and gather information down here," she told the others as they left, "We can fill each other in again when you all get back." She looked as serious as ever when she spoke, but the quiet confidence in her words was a show of her faith in their abilities. They'd survived the battle yesterday; they could survive whatever challenges this new day brought as well.

She wanted to believe that, even if harsh experience had made it impossible for her to think that way.

As the colorful backs of the otherworldly heroes passed through the threshold and out into the daylight, a new face loomed at the door. Kendrick wasn't an unwelcome sight, exactly, but his presence was a sharp reminder of what had happened the night before, and she already had an inkling of what he wanted to say to her. Not that this was something she could flee from even if she wanted—the Knight only drew in a quiet breath, and met the eyes of the weary guard.

"It's Anne. And yes, I was the one to tell him." Even after getting a long night's sleep, she looked completely worn out, in a way that went far beyond her sorry physical state. It was a feeling Kendrick surely knew by now: the pain, the guilt, the exhaustion that afflicted every single villager who'd survived the Heralds' attack. A single traumatic event could scar a soul for life, and when you repeated that, over and over and over again for hour after hour as your comrades died screaming around you—whatever was left of you, when the sun finally set, would never be the same person that had existed before. They'd be someone else, someone haunted. Something less than what they'd been before.

Anne had lived through the events of yesterday, just as Kendrick had. For her, the day before hadn't been much different. And the day before that... The weeks. The months. The years. Violence and loss and white-hot fear, stretched out in a bloody trail all the way back to her earliest years. Chipping away at her bit by bit, until all that remained was a brittle shell of a woman with eyes as empty as the dead.

And still she soldiered on, and tried to fumble her way to an answer. Why did I...?

"I didn't mean to tell him at first." She sounded quiet, contemplative. "But you were right: he's a bright kid. Maybe a little too bright. I left the lodge for a while to deal with some of the others who'd showed up, and by the time I came back he'd noticed something was wrong." The look in his eyes, his worry transformed into cold dread. "I approached him, and he asked... And I felt like it would be a betrayal, to try and evade or lie to him. That I owed him the truth, even if that was all I could give him." Would things have been different, if she'd gone with the others to defend the village? Would her power have been enough to push the Heralds back a few moments sooner, and save even a few more people?

She cast her eyes downward. "...No, those are only excuses. The truth is I was just too weak to face him."

@PKMNB0Y

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Hunter's Lodge

"Alvin, wait—"

Anne reached out for the fleeing boy, but her fingers slipped as a ragged cough forced its way out of her lungs. Red flecks of blood stained the floor in front of her, and her vision briefly blurred, Alvin becoming a dark smudge of motion she could hardly keep track of. "—Damn it. Can anyone follow him?" The hunters, the guards, they must have seen. Surely one of them would at least keep an eye on the kid, and make sure he got back safely?

She'd have to hope so, because she wasn't in any state to run around, and her face was probably the last one Alvin would want to see right now. She could only stay close to Millie, breathing heavily as her vision returned to her, and wait until Remilia arrived to offer a healing hand through her blood-based paranormal power. As expected, she could only do so much, but Anne was visibly thankful nonetheless. By the end of the process her breaths had eased, and she looked more relaxed than at any point since she'd arrived on this distant world.

"That's a useful ability you've got there. It's like Kasim's..." Her tired eyes watched for any reaction to the name, but Remilia didn't seem to recognize it in the slightest. "...Never mind. I'll manage over here; you should go and help the others."

The minor exchange more or less confirmed what she'd overheard from the others' discussion: that these travelers weren't just from the far-off reaches of known space, but from outside her civilization entirely. The concept defied everything she knew, but that was the reality... And it only weighed her down with fresh feelings of hopelessness, as the impossibility of returning became clear. There would be no ships flying in to rescue her, and no method of communication with enough range to reach Aegis from wherever she was now. Her only bet was to rely on the same mysterious entity that had transported her here in the first place, an entity she still hardly knew anything about.

Exhaustion crept up on her, and without any remaining strength or reason to resist, her thoughts soon faded away into the dark of the rainy night.

---

By the time she woke up, the others were already gathering. With Millie still just as soundly asleep as she had been the evening before, Anne left the girl where she was, and ambled up to the rest of the gang of otherworldly strangers as they eavesdropped on the hunters' conversation. They still had no other leads left to go on, and it made sense that the proactive types among them would want to jump on solving this problem, but Anne herself was of two minds about it.

"Hold on." She held up a hand, her tone soft but firm. Though still a little pale, she seemed to be in better shape now that she had been even back at the church. "It'd be good for us to assist if we can, but we shouldn't rule out the possibility of another Herald attack either. And it's not like we need everyone just to chase off a few scavengers." She was still worried about Alvin, and even with her partial recovery she wasn't keen on the idea of trekking about in the forest all day. "Those of us who're less mobile in this terrain should probably stay behind and keep an eye on the village. Myself, Lily... One other would be good, but the two of us can probably hold the line ourselves if it comes to it."

@PKMNB0Y@VitaVitaAR@DracoLunaris@EchoWolff@Lugubrious

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Hunter's Lodge

Anne knew how it went. She'd gone through at least a dozen variations of this talk before, and had been on the receiving end of her fair share. Psychologists talked about desensitization, about hearts that turned to stone under the weight of too many deaths, but she'd never really felt that way—the pain persisted, every time. It just got harder to cry.

There was no sword skill or negotiating tactic to resolve this situation; all she could do was give Alvin the truth. She spoke softly, so that the others would not overhear. Clearly, so that he would not misunderstand. "Ywain died in the early stages of the attack. Fighting the Raven Heralds, as I understand it." She bowed her head slightly, feeling the need to pay her respects to the man. From the sound of it, he'd protected his home until the last, and it may have been because of his bravery that Alvin and Millie had even been able to escape at all. By extension, every villager in this lodge right now owed their lives to the commander.

Except that wasn't what really mattered, right now. A brother and sister had been left without a father, and no number of lofty accolades would ever fill that hole.

"Kendrick was going to tell you," she said, as she raised her head to once again meet Alvin's eyes. "He'll know more than I do... But please don't be too harsh on him. The loss hit him hard as well." The guard had been worried the boy might hate him, but Anne remembered what he'd said before that. Ywain did his damn best to raise them—and a lot of us under him did our best to follow. If there was anything that could help these kids now, it would be the bonds they shared with the rest of the town, the family that had cared for them in their own way since the very beginning.

@PKMNB0Y

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Hunter's Lodge

Tired as she was, Anne didn't really show any visible signs of relief or relaxation when the two newcomers let down their guards. One less problem to deal with, she supposed. A thousand more lay in wait, like a horde of beasts with eyes aglow- but they could deal with those once everyone was out of the rain.

"Honestly, you're right to be cautious," she told them. "But we don't have much to go on, so we may as well trust each other until we can find out more. You can call me Anne." She tilted her head to indicate the direction of the lodge, then turned to limp back towards it. "The survivors have all gathered in one of the intact buildings over this way. It's not much, but there should be room for us to take shelter and exchange info with some degree of security." There was no way to make them follow her if they didn't want to, but as she'd just mentioned, it wasn't like they had much else to go on. She moved slowly enough, anyway, and that left them plenty of time to decide.

By the time she'd limped her way back, Lewa and Rayne were already returning with their own fresh face in tow. Anne, for her part, hailed them with a weary wave of her hand. "Good work." It seemed like everyone was in the same place now, and they could finally share info without any interruptions.

No sooner had she walked in the door, however, than she caught the look Alvin was giving her. Though she made no audible reply, her features spoke volumes in turn: tired, sad, filled with that bleak mixture of guilt and helplessness that so often accompanied bearers of bad news. Kendrick was supposed to be the one who told him, but... It was her he looked to, in the end. She would not turn away.

"Sanae. Would you fill in the others?" She seemed to know some of them already, which could turn out to be a vital clue. They could figure things out for themselves right now, though. "I'm going to check on the kids."

A slow limp across the room. Past the injured, and the nearly dead. She reached Alvin's seat and got down on one knee before him, so that their heads were at a level, where she could meet his eyes for a long few seconds before she dropped her gaze.

"I can tell you what happened," she said.

@PKMNB0Y

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Razed Town

By the time Anne emerged from the lodge and limped her way to the source of the disturbance, the two strangers were already facing off. A tiny, silver-haired slip of a girl and a tall pale pretty-boy type, both dressed in completely different styles and carrying long blades. By the standards of the Knight Order, they weren't even that strange—Anne had fought alongside her fair share of weirdos in the past.

Just like the group at the church, however, the two of them spoke of places and people she'd never even heard of. The Netherworld? Wallachia? She rubbed one hand against her temple, already feeling a headache coming on. Just how much more of this nonsense would she have to deal with before the day was out?

"I expect she's here for exactly the same reasons as you." She spoke up as she came into earshot, though she doubted it was necessary to get their attention. Neither of them would have missed her approach even from a distance, and she could already tell enough about them to be certain of this fact. "Transported with little warning, across great distances, without any explanation nor obvious culprits. There are several of us here already, and we still haven't even worked out what planet we're on."

Her hands didn't stray towards her swords even as she drew nearer, and the green-eyed glare that fixed them both in turn spoke more of irritation than of fear. The scent of blood lingered thick around her, but it carried the same smell she did: chemical, artificial, and not entirely human to begin with. If he could sense the magic in Youmu's swords, Alucard would likely feel the blood-red power lurking within the Knight as well, though in her case it seemed less like magic than a curse, an insidious poison that slowly ate away at her even now.

"If you join us, we might manage to figure out some answers together. Or if you'd rather fight each other, then at least have it out somewhere else. This is a populated area, and the colonists here have already been through more than enough."

@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaAR@Vlad Tepes

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Hunter's Lodge

It wasn't long before a few of the others from the church appeared, carrying a bloodied villager with them. Anne recognized Sanae, with her distinctive green hair, as well as the horned woman, who looked far too much like a Chimera for her tastes. On the other hand, she'd clearly been helping out the townspeople, and nothing about her movements gave off any kind of hostile intent. Under these circumstances, there's no choice but to trust her, whether I like it or not.

Anne's eyes followed Sanae around the room, and watched with curiosity as she used another Paranormal Power to stabilize each of the injured in turn. Just what bloodline was she from, to have so many different abilities? She wanted to talk to the girl, find out more about what she could do—but with so many villagers still in dire states, now wasn't a good time to interrupt her focus.

Instead, Anne slowly got to her feet and made her way over towards the horned woman. Unhurried, even a little reluctant about it, but she needed information. Once the other offworlder was in a position to glance her way, the Knight spoke up.

"It looks like both of our groups were successful... Were there any casualties on our side?" She was fairly sure she'd seen Lily come in with the others and find a quiet spot to rest, but Lewa and Rayne were still unaccounted for. "The children are unharmed, but the Heralds were specifically looking for the girl. If she's their objective, we can expect they'll be back before long—"

A commotion outside caught her attention. Unfamiliar voices, calling out across the village, one of them tense and aggressive. What the heck was happening now?

"...We should go and see what that is." She started towards the door, with more urgency now. The rest helped, it was a little easier to move around now, but she really hoped she wouldn't have to fight again this soon.

@Raineh Daze

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Razed Town

Ywain. A man she'd never met, whose face she wouldn't even recognize. Anne knew intimately the nature of war, the inevitability of what had happened here, but even so she had to glance away before Alvin caught the flicker of grief in her eyes.

After all she'd seen and all she'd done, it still hurt every time. One more innocent man she hadn't been able to save, one more failure on a list that already stretched billions long.

"I understand." She matched the volume of Kendrick's voice as she met his eyes again. "He needs time. You should talk with him, though, once things here are—"

The Knight whipped around so fast it looked like she'd teleported. Someone had just appeared behind her, manifesting in the room without any sign of their approach. An assassin, concealing their presence with a cloaking field? She was already in a fighting stance, prepared to break their limbs in three places before they could manage a single strike.

Except it wasn't some killer Herald. Only a confused and frightened villager, freshly warped into the lodge by Rayne's helpful magic. Anne, of course, had no knowledge of this power, and could only blink in surprise while still frozen in her fighting posture.

"...Ah." She awkwardly straightened up and shuffled back a step, a sudden flush coloring her cheeks. "Sorry. I thought you were... My bad." Her insides were already cramping up from the sudden movement, and she realized all of a sudden just how tired she really felt. Kendrick was right: she couldn't take care of anyone if she was still this badly on edge.

She quickly excused herself to the huntsman, and sought out somewhere quiet she could sit and rest. Preferably with a clear view of Millie, so she could keep one eye on the girl while Joker looked after Alvin. This time may have been a false alarm, but she wouldn't put it past that Herald commander to send in a group of kidnappers while everyone's guard was down.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Razed Town

"Um- Well, that's not exactly-"

How to properly explain things to this old man? No, I got banged up on a completely different planet before I was suddenly warped across the galaxy through unknown means. My entire body from the neck down, excepting the right arm, has been regenerated with cutting-edge biotechnology that threatens to fall apart every time I push it too hard. I don't need herbs and gauze, I need emergency nanomachine injections and a warp gate straight back to Aegis before my remaining organs completely break down and I die in horrible agony.

...Somehow, she didn't think that would be very helpful in this situation. It was easier just to stumble along behind the villager and follow him into the lodge, then muddle her way through from there. Heedless of the armed bowmen who watched over the entrance, she hurried through the door and sought out the closest flat and reasonably sanitary surface where she could lay little Millie down on her side.

The mingled scents of blood and sweat, the groans of the wounded; these were all too familiar to Anne. This could have been any of a thousand field hospitals she'd visited, though few had ever been so bereft of proper medical equipment. She squared her shoulders, glancing around the room to get a rough headcount and pick out anyone who seemed to be in charge.

"Is Millie's family here?" Officer voice, loud and clear enough to cut through the general hubbub. "I have an unconscious child, possibly concussed. I need someone trusted to watch over her; I can assist with first aid for the wounded in the meantime." Dark bruises still bloomed across her skin, and she could taste blood somewhere at the back of her throat, a symptom of the havoc playing out inside her on a cellular level. However, the state of the village outside had her far more worried about the townspeople. If supplies were stretched so thin that herbs were being raised as a possible option for treatment, then they couldn't afford to waste any of what was left on a hopeless case like her.

@EchoWolff@PKMNB0Y

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Cave Entrance

The child's tears were like a shard of broken glass, stabbing her through the heart. Anne lurched to her feet, heedless of the pain and sickness that still echoed through her nerves, ready to do whatever she could to help fix this, protect him, and wipe out the injustices that had led them all to this sorry state of affairs.

Except Joker was already there. A few gentle words, a warm embrace, a reassurance for a small soul in terrible pain. His simple act of kindness stopped Anne dead in her tracks, and the tension seeped out of her all at once, replaced with a soft smile that stayed with her as she watched over them for however long they needed.

Even in the midst of war, kids like them would strive to take care of each other, protect one another, and live on in hopes of reaching a brighter tomorrow. Just like her and Pray, so long ago...

It filled her with a different kind of resolve, just as fierce as before, but rooted in faith and optimism this time. So long as people were still willing to reach out and hold each other in times of need, so long as there was even a chance the children could grow up without fear and hatred in their hearts, then this planet could still be saved.

...I won't let any of them die.

After a few minutes, once she'd recovered and Alvin had a chance to calm down, Anne walked to the edge of the cave and peered out into the woods. A peaceful forest greeted her, leaves rustling in the wind, with nary a sign of the roving shadows from before. "I think it's safe," she told the others, and once again lifted Millie into her arms. "We can go back now, Alvin. I don't know what kind of state the village is in, but I'm certain the others will have protected all they could."

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Anne Mayer

??? — Cave Entrance

Anne managed to stand firm just long enough for the Herald to disappear from sight. As soon as the woman was gone, she stumbled over to the nearest wall and slumped against it, her breaths deep and haggard. A thin sheen of sweat covered her skin, as though she'd been running laps around the cavern for the last few minutes. Somehow, without knowing any of the context around this situation, she'd stumbled her way through to a nonviolent ending... And on top of being stressed from that, she'd had to maintain a state of battle-readiness for the whole conversation. Broken as she was, even this much effort took its toll on her.

"That's all," she said, her head leaned back and her eyes closed. "I'm beat. If any more Heralds show up, tell them we're not here." Joker was young, and seemed perfectly capable; he could handle the kids for a minute. She needed some time to gather her thoughts, without acting as a human shield for endangered children.

Without being fully conscious of it, she kept on turning the little box over and over in her hand. Intuition told her it was a clue, perhaps the key to unlocking this entire mystery, but the contents had only left her with even more questions than before. Without any recourse, she let out a deep sigh, and cracked open her eyes to look blearily at the others.

"How's Millie? Any sign she might wake up soon?" She phrased it hopefully, for Alvin's sake, but her words concealed the true depths of her worry for the girl. If that Herald woman had really gone and called off her subordinates, then the next step had to be getting the children some proper medical attention.

@PKMNB0Y@EchoWolff