PKMNB0Y

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

@Eviledd1984: Problem with Kuma is that he, uh... Can't speak... Normally?
Comedy gold given how Tekken has everyone be natural polyglots, but still.
I am also unsure how well he matches up to, uh... Everyone else in the cast. Even if he can throw out electrics (and is—and let's be honest here—Heihachi's actual favorite child), I'm not sure if he has the combat power or a "vibe" that meshes with all the PCs currently in play.

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

@Eviledd1984: Well, putting aside how placing the onus on the GM to study twelve characters from twelve franchises is a bit rough (to put things lightly)...

I think that the only ones workable off that list are Siegfried and Jotaro (maybe?), as a majority of that list otherwise is either "normal person with guns", "normal person", or "too insane/insanely strong to function in context of the world without heavily altering their powerset".

Even then, Jotaro's iffy because Star Platinum the World is... Not something I will ever willingly consider. Then there's all the other crazy stuff that Star Platinum can do normally, and well... Problems can arise if he isn't pulled in line.

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

Kochiya Sanae

Aventon — Forest Outskirts

Before she could even attempt to batter away at the giant boar's hide, the green-haired shrine maiden watched as the half-ghost gardener cleanly dismantled any semblance of an attack from the boar—and the boar itself on top of that. Sanae couldn't help but grimace as blood spurted out of the boar's neck as it's charge slowed to a stop just a few steps away from where Youmu had cleaved through, and the bleeding corpse of the beast did the gruesome scene no favors in terms of palatability.

"Eugh. Remind me to never fight you without spellcard rules," Sanae remarked as she floated back down to ground level, taking care not to actually step on the ground lest the blood soak into her shoes. "But, well, that's that settled, I guess? Pretty huge boar, though; I don't think I've seen any ever grow that big, even on Youkai Mountain. Maybe that hermit might have one, but..."

As the young woman trailed off, lost in her thoughts as she was, Joker's question caused her to reconsider the situation once more instead of reminiscing about her new homeland. Certainly, if it was boars they were talking about, there was no reason to think that there would only be one or two present; doubly so if this one was as aggressive as it was, given how it charged at them a few seconds after noticing their presence.

"Uh... Maybe, maybe not?" she responded, unsure if any response she gave would be meaningfully helpful in the least.

Thankfully enough, someone with more sense about the world than the three of them did seemed to have chosen to follow; strength in numbers, perhaps?

"Oh gods, that's a big earthmane boar," spoke Derek as he finally caught up with the group. "Why the heck's one all the way out here?"

"Out here?" Sanae asked, raising an eyebrow at the hunter's comment. "Are they not native to the area?"

"Er... No, they're native, but I've never seen one all the way out here. They're usually solitary creatures, but they rarely come anywhere near this area. Usually they're deeper into the forest, closer to the mountain than not. Does explain what I saw, though..."

"Huh. Would it be worth checking further out, then? This one had some blood on it's tusks when we met it, and judging by the looks of things, that blood was pretty fresh," Sanae replied, crossing her arms as she glanced at the tusk that had been sliced clean off the creature. A once-over of it would indeed confirm that there was (somewhat) fresh blood layered upon it.

"...Yep, definitely recent. I don't think I'd be surprised if the others ran into a boar or two, too."

"Well, earthmane boars are definitely out of my comfort zone, so I'll leave figuring out what exactly is going on to you. In fact, I'll do the smart thing and head back to town so we can grab some people to haul this thing back; heavens know we're going to need the food, and it'd be a waste to leave this beast to rot," Derek responded before turning back around.

Once he had departed, Sanae turned back towards the boar's corpse for a moment before refocusing towards the other two others who were still standing by. The 'what' of the situation had been answered, but the 'why', less so.

"So... Either of you two want to follow the trail of destruction this thing left, or should we try and regroup with the others before doing anything?"

---

Remilia's approach towards Lewa immediately drew a more cautious response from the boar, almost as if it smelled the blood upon the wind that emanated from her—not that such a scent was easy to escape from given her nature, of course, but it was likely that she would have elicited such a response from the injured creature simply because she was yet another unknown creature appearing in front of it.

Uncertainty still gripped the creature's heart as it let out a half-huff, half-snort and adopted a slightly more aggressive stance. But Lewa's own actions, undeterred as they were by its posturing, caused the boar to briefly ready itself for combat——

Only for the strange green being to begin to breathe in and out. Such an action was confusing to the boar, of course, but whether or not it seemed to be consciously aware of what was happening, the animal began to breathe in tandem with Lewa. The tense and taut muscles in it's body slackened ever so slightly, and though that sense of unease never truly faded, the creature seemed to calm down enough for the Toa of Wind to reach out and touch it.

A wild beast was not so easily tamed, but it seemed like the animal wasn't going to lash out unless someone or something attempted to attack it now.

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@Lugubrious@EchoWolff

---

Aventon — Hunter's Lodge

"Whoa, hold on, I can only take in so much at a time," Kendrick replied, holding his hands out ever so slightly in front of him so as to keep Anne from speaking far faster than he had a chance to figure it out. Once the woman had finished her hasty explanation as to the circumstances behind their presence here (and by extension what had happened to the two children the day prior), though, the guard could only take a while longer to fully process what he had been given.

"Right, well... I don't remember any goddess with the name Lavielle, and I'm not all that well versed in religious matters, so I'm not exactly the best person to ask about this. Unfortunately, the old man who ran the church here passed in the attack, so you won't have any luck with that here..." he said as he looked at the note that she seemed to be panicking over.

"...Honestly, I don't even know what this thing says. How can you even read this? I've never seen any script like it."

Shrugging his shoulders, Kendrick put the note back in the box where it had been initially before picking up the necklace in turn.

"But putting that aside for the moment... You're saying that this was a planned thing? Kidnapping Millie for some unknown deity? How would they even know she was—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, a faint glow would envelop the necklace, and the amulet dangling at the end of the chain would begin to subtly pull itself towards Millie's still-slumbering body.

@Drifting Pollen

---

Aventon — Town Streets

While the others were busy on their own little sidequests, Rayne was at liberty to speak with those still willing and able around the town. While saying that they were in high spirits would have been a bald-faced lie, the townsfolk seemed to be able to at least converse with her about what had been before this whole incident had transpired.

Aventon was, as would be fairly evident, a frontier town. It was somewhat more developed than one might have expected from a settlement so far from any centers of transportation, but being situated near water and close to national borders meant that it was more something between an outpost and place of interest.

Not that the townsfolk really understood why this place was so important, though; most of them had been here for a generation or two at most, which meant that though they cared for the land upon which they were born, it was more sentimentality than any sense of geopolitical importance that they wished to remain.

But maybe that was for the best?

Either way, conversations would drift from one topic to the next as Rayne continued to help clear away all of the rubble and debris impeding any chance of timely repairs. From the occasional trade caravans that went to and from the town through the southern gate to the odd ruins that were scattered throughout the forest (that nobody really desired to look into given the other matters of import throughout the years) to the inevitable lamentations about those who would rest in eternal slumber and many others beyond that, there was no shortage of things to speak of.

The first point, of course, might have been the most interesting in it's own right; apparently, a trade caravan was scheduled to arrive some time in the next few days. Whether or not it would arrive remained to be seen, but if it did...

Well, expecting merchants to part with their goods for free was folly in and of itself, but maybe there was something to be gained in bartering with them.

@DracoLunaris

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Tachibana Masaru

Abandoned Mansion — Nagano Prefecture

With their offensive proceeding apace, Masaru continued firing volley after volley into the enemy's ranks with no other intent than to chip away at them until Zhao was able to move in and clean everything up afterwards. It seemed like a reasonable enough plan, given how quickly the older man was cleaning up shop, and it didn't seem like anyone or anything was likely to interrupt that simple plan of action.

Or so he believed, up until the point where the enemy decided to do exactly that. A cluster of flash grenades clattering to the ground followed by a bright light in the middle of a dark room was more than enough to disorient Masaru, and given the chaos he could hear unfolding around him, it was rather obvious that he hadn't been the only one caught off guard by them.

Didn't make anything about the situation easier to handle, of course, but it would at least make recovery less problematic if the only thing taken from them was their sight.

Out of habit, Masaru quickly backed up and put his back up against the nearest wall. With his eyes still attempting to recover from the blinding light, it only made sense to try and continue applying pressure onto the enemy forces rather than stop outright. Though aware that doing so made him a sitting duck, the Agent felt that something like this was better than attempting to blindly fumble about and get to cover to wait until his eyes recovered.

At least the ashigaru were probably still clustered up in formation; if he couldn't aim properly, then firing more arrows in that general direction was sure to force something.

Hopefully his sight would return before something tried to break past the chaotic lashing out of his teammates that he could make out around him; relying on hearing to fight was not a skill he was particularly accustomed to, much less fighting while literally bleeding out or missing a limb.

"My vision's still screwed up, so be careful of any stray arrows!" he called out before blindly firing a few volleys in the general direction of the largest group of enemies. "Point me in a direction and I'll shoot, but don't expect perfect bullseyes for a bit!"

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Seasalt Caverns — B2F

Once Luna's attacks landed and the Nacli was left reeling, Richard made sure to try and capitalize on the situation with a timely throw of a Pokeball. As the device soared through the air, Luna quickly took a step to the side to allow for it to lightly tap the Rock-type's head and suck it inside. A few shakes later, though, and it seemed clear that the Nacli had stopped trying to resist any further.

One more member of the team, then. Simple as that.

"Good job, Luna," Richard said as he moved forward to retrieve the newly-captured Nacli, making sure to pat the Snivy on the head for her accomplishments before brushing some of the dust and mud off her body. "We'll get you cleaned up once we're out of this place."

With a new teammate firmly in hand, though, Richard had a few new things to consider—namely, how to exit the cave and what nickname to give the Nacli. But before either could be addressed, the arrival of two completely new people had arrived from further into the cave. Though the young man would have been content simply letting them pass by (or tailing behind them if they intended to leave), it seemed that they weren't keen on doing the same for him.

The odd (and thoroughly out of place) girl dressed like an exotic dancer seemed to quickly take an interest in him, and it went without saying that being suddenly accosted like he had been wasn't exactly something anyone (least of all him) had expected. The following offer to make some cash did absolutely no favors here, of course, and Richard was left at least mildly concerned about what was afoot here.

With that said, though, the woman—Marzana—seemed rather intent in dragging him along for whatever it was she had planned.

...At the very least, it probably wouldn't hurt to hear her out, right? The option to say no was always on the table if it seemed too dangerous.

"Could I at least ask what you want me to do to begin with? I'm not just going to blindly agree to a random stranger asking for help out of the blue like that, you know," he said, taking a step back from the two women as he spoke. "And what do you mean by 'good feeling', exactly?"

It was a valid concern to him, at least.

@Rune_Alchemist

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

@Ever Faithful: I'm going to reject this form out of hand for a variety of reasons, detailed below.

• Eustace is, on a fundamental level, a character who does what he is able to do simply because of the nature of the medium he is from. Courage the Cowardly Dog is a comedy at heart—one that centers around a dog that is able to overcome all odds against all manner of horrors and supernatural beings, granted, but a comedy nevertheless. To claim that a character would be able to perform superhuman actions based solely off of the fact that the medium that he is from (more specifically, a cartoon comedy show that plays with extreme violence for laughs and wild gags for comedy) is ignoring the context in which the character is presented. By the same logic, could Tom and Jerry (from the titular cartoon) not be as gods unto men (or, well, cats and mice in this case) despite the comedic violence they are famous for being little more than just that?
  This is hyperbole, of course, but when everything else in the world (and all the characters therein, both from it and not) plays by similar rules, would it not be reasonable to assume that anything that so exceeds the threshold for one's suspension of disbelief that it wholly breaks immersion would not lend itself to breaking the semi-cohesive setup that is already reliant upon some basis in feasibility to function? A character needs to be presented as serious enough so as to not simply devalue or ignore the cohesion of what has been presented and what every other person involved in the RP has "bought into", so to speak. On that note...
• The character does not mesh with the cast as far as I can see, nor does he have any reason to mesh with them nor any reasonable willingness to follow along with their actions, whimsical or otherwise. Eustace is, as you have noted, a crotchety, grumpy old man who is prone to weakness and cowardice at his core. He's stubborn and seldom cares about anyone beyond himself, Miriam, and maybe Courage at times. In what world would someone like that ever be willing to place themselves on the front lines and fight instead of just letting someone else resolve it for him, especially when they show themselves to be more capable of handling what has been thrown at them?
  This is ignoring the fact that Courage the Cowardly Dog, as a cartoon show aimed at children, does not present Eustace's actions as anything more than comedy that oftentimes result in his comeuppance. Nobody is ever meaningfully hurt, nobody ever dies; who is to say that a person with those traits mentioned above—and who might otherwise may as well be a "normal" human at heart—could ever survive in a world like this to begin with?
• Linking back to the first point: being from an episodic show with no intent on continuity beyond the occasional two/three-part stories (after which everything returns to status quo anyways) does not, in my eyes, present itself as a valid argument for abilities in stories where the world is persistent and the actions of characters have meaningful, long-term consequences. Eustace is abused and ends up in ridiculous situations (often of his own making) because the setup of the show often desires it. It's not "fun" to see a character so mean to a protagonist and everyone around him escape consequences, so the show punishes him for his hubris. But with so many of those punishments being so meaningfully damaging both physically and mentally (and occasionally emotionally), retaining those results would change Courage on a fundamental level—because it is a gag show that has no intent of being bogged down in character development beyond the tropes that present the main trio as the archetypes they fit within (literally within the opening blurb of every episode, might I add) and nothing beyond that. Arguing that they should be taken seriously outside of that context—again, because the show must always return to the status quo for the next incident—does not mean that the character has anything that would given him those powers inherently, but rather that the medium is presented in such a way that the viewer doesn't have to care about what happened before.

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

Kochiya Sanae

Aventon — Forest Outskirts

As much as she would have liked it if the creature they were pursuing was more apt to go somewhere more open, Sanae had no expectations that she could do much more than restrain the beast. That feeling only grew as the team split up; Remilia and Lewa had opted to split off, and with Joker appearing to be lost in his thoughts for a bit, it seemed quite apparent that she would be heading out with a fellow incident-resolving regular in the form of one half-ghost gardener.

Given what they could be facing, that wasn't actually all that problematic. Quite the opposite, really; a pair of swords were more likely to deal a meaningful blow than her danmaku, especially if it was someone like Youmu wielding them.

The pair-up meant that pursuit of whatever it was that crashed through the area didn't take all too long, either; between Youmu's natural agility and Sanae's ability to simply choose not to get caught up in the underbrush by flying over it, finding their mark was never a matter if if, but when.

Said mark being a rather nasty-looking boar with bloodstained tusks, however, didn't seem to shake her much at all. The state of the beast explained the state of the area from which they had begun their search, and it didn't exactly take a genius to put two and two together.

With that said, a creature like this being so close to a human settlement was naturally cause for alarm. And when something like that was turning towards them and, while staring dead-on at the pair, began to shake its head around and stomp at the ground...

Well, it was clear that it saw them as a threat, too.

"Don't think we're going to be able to scare this one off," Sanae remarked before the massive boar suddenly began to rush at them. Given how she had expected the animal to posture a bit more before anything happened, though, the only thing that she could instinctively do was dodge upwards.

"I'll back you up from the air!" she called out before forming a few ofuda and firing them off towards the creature's thick hide. Unfortunately enough, it didn't seem like the impact of a few bullets would do much.

...Maybe she just needed to fire more? Surely Youmu of all people could dodge accidental friendly fire if it came down to it, right?

---

The boar that Remilia and Lewa had come across seemed to be far warier of their presence, especially as Lewa made himself known. Even with the latter's gentler tone and choice of action, the boar seemed to be less inclined to actually want to acknowledge his words than it did to stand its ground. Rather than back up, though, the creature chose to shake it's head and grunt at the unfamiliar being approaching it.

A closer look—or a keen sense of smell—would make the presence of wounds both new and old quite apparent now, though. A few gashes upon the beast's shoulders and an odd festering bite wound on it's rear leg made clear that the boar was injured.

It still seemed to have enough energy to fight if one broke out, though given it's current demeanor it didn't seem like such an outcome would be all too desirable to begin with.

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@Lugubrious@EchoWolff

---

Aventon — Hunter's Lodge

Anne's explanation of the situation left Kendrick with a rather distinct grimace on his face—particularly the notion that he or his would-be wards could be taken as hostages in order to trade for Millie's. That had as much to do with his own safety as it did everyone else's, of course; with Ywain gone, it naturally fell to him to protect what remained of Aventon. If that meant his safety was in turn tied to the kids' own, that would naturally leave him at a troubling crossroads.

It didn't help much that the village head and his wife had passed in the attack too, leaving only their daughter behind to carry on in their place. To say that this entire situation had spiraled out of control would be an understatement at this point, and heavens knew how many people wanted to try and rebuild after so much had been lost.

Hopefully the survivors would recover soon enough to make a decision on the matter, then. But that was a problem for the future.

Though he had been lost in his own thoughts for a brief moment, Anne calling attention to what exactly had transpired when the small group he had seen before—including the odd "gift" that they had received. Naturally, this was cause for concern in it's own right; the remark about "falling into hell" didn't help assuage any fears about the matter either.

When presented with the actual items within said box, though, the guard seemed to take a moment to examine each. His attention panned over towards the vial first, and after picking it up, Kendrick took a moment to hold it up to the light before popping the cork on top off and taking a quick whiff of it.

"...Mmm... There's a really strong medicinal smell to this one, but I'm not super qualified to say what it might be. Might be better to get this examined by an apothecary; unfortunately, given the situation, the one we have here is probably going to be busy for... A while," he stated before turning his attention towards the other two items.

"These, though... Call it intuition, but there's gotta be more to these things than just looking pretty," he continued before picking up the jewel and looking at it in the light in turn. "At the very least, I know that the symbols carved into this gem aren't just for show. Seen a few mages use things like this when they were passing through, at the very least, but I've got no affinity for magic so I can't help much there, either."

Naturally, that left the one object that hadn't yet been examined by him: the necklace. After placing the jewel back in it's place, Kendrick slowly lifted the necklace up and held the emblem in his hand as he checked it over. Nothing seemed to be apparent beyond the fine workmanship that had to have gone into such a piece, though, which was... Somewhat disheartening.

It was at this point, though, that the presence of an odd piece of paper that had been hidden away beneath the necklace caught his attention, and curiosity soon got the better of him as he picked it up to examine it in turn.

"Hm... Any idea what this means?" he asked before handing the paper off to Anne.

"Enshrining a god without proper precautions can lead to unforeseen consequences. Unchecked divinity can overwhelm a soul, snuffing it out like a light."

@Drifting Pollen

---

Aventon

Being so high in the skies above the town would provide Rayne ample view of what the townsfolk were up to now that the battle had passed. If the situation was better, it was more than likely that she would have seen people milling about in the market square by this time of day, picking up what they needed from the vendors peddling their wares. Instead, though, everyone seemed to be on edge and still barely recovering from what had transpired the day before. Guards were still posted around the town's walls, though there seemed to barely be enough to keep watch; else, civilians who were of sound enough mind and body and not otherwise occupied with care for the injured were starting to move around town to try and start getting things back in working order.

In less vague terms, that meant cleaning up the remnants of the battle, bodies and rubble alike. It was by no means a job meant for the faint of heart, but the reality of the situation could not be ignored. The Raven Heralds had not collected their dead when they had departed, though, which left them awkwardly strewn about all over the battlefield for the survivors to handle alongside the bodies of the deceased.

In that regard, though, it seemed like a few of the more able-bodied among the townsfolk were beginning to gather the dead outside the walls therein and (very roughly) trying to sort them into two groups. The Heralds, of course, were gathered into one group and stripped of what arms they had; the deceased residents, then, were gathered into another. It went without saying that the latter were treated with far more respect than the former, but at the end of the day it was far from a pleasant task.

Those with less of a heart for matters like these, however, were busy trying to move all of the broken wood and shattered stone away from the buildings scattered about the town, slowly working their way out from the lodge where a majority of them had spent the last night. There, at least, there was less of a chance of witnessing a scene that might have left them sicker than not.

@DracoLunaris

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Seasalt Caverns — B2F

Richard couldn't help but wince as Luna took the Mud Shot head-on, and though she seemed to come out of it better than he had expected, the issue of the Nacli not wanting to engage them remained. By this point, though, it seemed reasonable to assume that the Rock-type Pokemon had been sufficiently weakened enough to try and go for something more impactful.

Well, that and the fact that Luna didn't have any ranged options meant that it wasn't exactly viable to stay at a distance as she was now.

"Luna, you okay?" Richard called out, to which the Snivy responded with a quick cry of affirmation and a nod as it shook the remaining mud off of itself. "Then let's try and close this one out! Close the distance as best you can and tackle it down; once it's on it's last legs, you just let me handle the rest."

With that command, the grass snake Pokemon shot off. The second that the Nacli looked like it was about to go down (assuming it would, of course), Richard would lob the Pokeball in his hand at it in hopes that he'd have someone new to add to his team.

What came after, though... Well, he could worry about that after the battle.

@Rune_Alchemist

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Tachibana Masaru

Nagano Prefecture — Abandoned Mansion

Despite expectations that the enemy might have survived more than a single hit, Masaru found himself ever so slightly disappointed at their complete lack of durability. With Zhao covering the vanguard as he was now, the duration really did boil down to little more than target practice. Arrow after arrow flew true, crippling any ashigaru that had miraculously not been shot somewhere "lethal"—not that they lasted long afterwards, though. Between the flurry of limbs and follow-up attacks, crushing the defensive line was but child's play.

Just as they were beginning to make headway, though, the defensive line that the team had broken through for but a moment seemed to reform in an instant. Despite the lighting in the area being less-than-ideal, though, Masaru could make out more than a few of the phantoms taking aim; with more melee-oriented ones essentially marking the positions of a few barely-concealed rifling, though, it made sense to try and take them out before potshots could start being issues of any sort.

Not that he'd have any chance to, though, as Zhao took the offensive and began to rush down the snipers before he could.

"You're fine without any covering fire?" Masaru chimed in as he shifted his focus back towards the spearmen standing staunchly between them and the rest of the main hallway. "Don't think the guys turtling over there are liable to break formation or anything."

Regardless of his thoughts on the matter, Masaru began to unload volley after volley into the stationary ashigaru, to the point where he began to intentionally move forward to bait stabs before retreating and firing into any openings made as a result.

This wasn't a phalanx, after all; poking the line until it broke wasn't exactly too outlandish if the only things he had to be aware of were linear stabs or stray bullets, and moving unpredictably solved both of those issues easily.

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze

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

Kochiya Sanae

Aventon — Forest Outskirts

"Uh... Huh. Right."

Though Derek might not have been a fool, the explanation that Remilia provided didn't really explain anything to him as much as it tell him to accept that it was monsters that they were dealing with. Probably. The semantics of the situation mattered little in the long run, though, so long as the problem—be they monster, youkai, rahi, or whatever other word these otherworldly travelers might have had for them—was dealt with.

"Well, if we're talking about a general description... I will admit that the size of whatever it is that we're hunting was about... That high and roughly that wide?" the hunter continued, gesturing towards the bottom of the treetops and between a pair of trees roughly four meters apart. "It wasn't a clear look, mind you, so that's a rough estimate... But I can at least trust my eyes if nothing else. Not a hunter for nothing."

With that description and Lewa's assertion to proceed, though, Sanae took a brief moment to think for a bit before pointing in another direction, wherein the trees seemed to be equally scarred by whatever had passed through in that direction.

"It might be a good idea to split up here, then—teams of two, maybe, if we want to be safe? If there are a bunch of these things in the area, it might be a bit too slow to take them out one at a time. Worst comes to worst, we can always just run; no way these monsters are any stronger than those soldiers, right?" the green-haired girl asked—somewhat rhetorically, of course—before starting to head off. Hopefully someone actually able to track monsters would join her; otherwise, it'd come down to relying on her intuition. While that had served her well enough in the past, hopefully she could just follow the vague trail of destruction in front of her and not lose the trail entirely.

Assuming the group split up, though, each of them would come across very similar scenes—namely, the presence of what could only have been described as a massive boar surrounded by decimated trees. None would notice the people that had come seeking them immediately, but it would take little more than a few seconds before they turned and recognized the existence of something yet foreign to them—and likely hostile, to boot.

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@Lugubrious@EchoWolff

---

Aventon — Hunter's Lodge

Kendrick chose to listen to Anne's word's in silence, but all the while that same expression seemed to remain as it was. Once she had finished speaking her piece, though, the guard spent a few more moments in silence before sighing.

"...I guess I can't blame you for saying something in that situation. Still doesn't sit right with me, but if the alternative was false hope or something..." he mused before shaking his head. "...No, wait, it's a kid we're talking about at the end of the day; there was no way something wouldn't happen. Gods, why's it so much more complicated now of all times?"

After scratching the back of his head and groaning in frustration, Kendrick took a deep breath before finally turning to face Anne again.

"Ugh. Well, in any case, he should still be asleep now, which gives me a bit of time to talk to you about what comes next," he said as he glanced towards Millie. "Those two are orphans now, no two ways about it. I could take them in, and that'd be that. But my gut's telling me that something's up; I don't know why those Raven Heralds came here in the first place, but it's got something to do with them, right? No way Ywain would've made them run if he didn't know something himself, and it's not like he's around to ask any more..."

@Drifting Pollen