Keras Selyrian.

Ana’s talkative nature was, in part, due to who she was as a person, but it could also be somewhat blamed that teaching others how to speak was a part of her job… after all, she was pretty much singlehandedly responsible for “raising” Rasputin from a freshly-created A.I. into a functional, intelligent being. Granted, he could be tempermental at times, but he still cared. If he didn’t, he would have undoubtedly unleashed all the Warsats at his command on Earth already with no remorse. The Iron Lords provoked the SIVA Crisis, Rasputin was just defending himself. At least, that’s how she felt on the matter.

Thankfully, as they got away from the more population-dense area, the air was clearing. Now, Jinju was actually starting to be able to compensate for the fucking airborne shit. Ana was very much relieved. She would probably be worrying about Rasputin either way, but at least now it wasn’t going to drive her to the point of full-on neurosis. 

Also, her energy was fully returning to her body, and that meant she could maneuver around like the Hunter she was. And that, in and of itself, made her feel infinitely better. Staying on the ground was boring. Being in the air was fun, especially when death was an afterthought. (Jinju was internally sighing.)

“I don’t know… I honestly would’ve been kinda sad if that happened to me, and I couldn’t save the people of that planet. It nearly happened once, but Shaxx and a few of my other Guardian friends made one hell of a last stand, and we pulled it out of our asses.” And if we hadn’t, all of humanity would’ve been damned, she didn’t say that last bit. She honestly hoped that Rasputin wasn’t having a grade-A freakout over her just up-and-vanishing. She was also hoping that there wasn’t some new crisis she was needed for that she couldn’t be there to help with because… well, fuck all if she had any idea what the hell was going on right now.

How did one explain the Light to someone who’d never heard of it before? It was like magic, but it wasn’t actually magic… damnit, Warlocks like Ikora were waaaayyy better at that sort of shit. She was good with her Golden Gun, the IKELOS weapons, Sleeper Simulant, and Polaris Lance. Oh, and her knives. She was good with those too. And that’s all she needed. Rasputin could cover some of it, and the other Guardians could cover what neither of them could. 

Oh, how amazing Polaris Lance was, in Ana’s opinion. (Which totally wasn’t biased because she made it herself. Other people said it was amazing too!) A long-range scout rifle that could shoot explosive bullets under the right circumstances? That was pretty amazing, as far as she was concerned.

“I can see where you’re coming from, and actually, I do know how to handle a melee situation. Most Hunters, like myself, know their way around knives, and I’m no exception. If I needed to, I could stab my way out of a situation. But here’s the thing… if you have no idea I’m there, and I manage a good shot and take you down, then that’s that. Unless you can resurrect yourself after that-which, to be fair, Guardians like myself can do that, but most of our enemies can’t, so it’s not a big deal-then there’s no fuss.” She shrugs, and crosses her legs. “Although, to be fair, if it’s well-made, every weapon is equally useful. Guns, bows, knives, swords… if you know what you’re doing and the weapon itself is good to go, then you’ve got a fair chance… oh, and we Guardians don’t really…. enchant the guns. Some of them have special abilities built into them, but I’ve never really heard of Guardians pouring their own Light into their guns. Or bows. Or swords. Or whatever.” She further explained, twirling her wooden pole a bit before setting it down again.

“I guess you could argue that there are some things we ‘enchant’ with our Light. For Hunters, it would be our knives and grenades. For Titans, it would be their fists, shoulders, and also grenades. Oh, and there was one Titan named Saint-14 who would infuse his Light into his helmet and literally headbutt his enemies to death!” She laughed at that. “He supposedly killed a Kell just by headbutting it! Anyways, and last but most definitely not least, Warlocks would ‘enchant’ their hands and grenades. Out of the three types, Warlocks are the biggest users of their Light…. and also, they can be capable of some pretty freaky shit. Don’t piss one off, trust me.” She shuddered at the thought that Ikora, using her Light, might actually be capable of turning people into frogs.

“But I’ve been going on and on about how things work where I come from. How do your powers work?” She asked, genuinely curious. 

With clean air and a clearer head, Keras started to relax again. He took a few slow, deep breaths on purpose - even if the air was still contaminated, it was better than nothing - and forced himself to think rationally. What, exactly, had he been so upset about? Somebody wanting to have a conversation? Okay, she talked a lot; so what? So did Corin, for that matter, when push came to shove. Kid was always asking questions, trying to understand and categorize the world around him. Dawn had always talked a lot too, and where Corin was always trying to learn, Dawn had just liked to hassle Keras. It hadn’t ever really bothered him.

So why was he so bent out of shape about this lady? Maybe he’d been affected by... whatever was going on here. More so than he’d thought. That was... a bad thing, even if it hadn’t really amounted to much. Keras didn’t appreciate having his head messed with. Normally he was a lot better at spotting mental manipulation and doing something about it; but in this case, he supposed, things could have been a lot worse. Still, it was something he’d need to pay better attention to. If this whole ordeal started getting worse...

Contrary to Anastasia, Keras settled himself down on the ground, back to the brick wall of... whatever building this was, exactly. no need to waste his energy bouncing around the place, and under the circumstances, he didn’t see a lot of point. If he’d had his sword, and his magic... there were relatively few threats he couldn’t defend from while sitting, as he’d shown Corin and Marissa. Sadly he didn’t, but even so, he saw no reason to keep standing.

“No, no. Rendalir was destroyed at least a few thousand years before I was born. Possibly, I think, before there were even humans on my planet; I’m not really sure. So don’t get me wrong, Rendalir’s destruction is a tragedy. But I don’t exactly take it personally.”

He spoke somewhat absently; after all, it wasn’t exactly a massive topic on his mind. Oh, Rendalir was important for many, many reasons; but not here and now. He had to wonder whether or not the same forces that had destroyed Rendalir would ever try to find their way here. Quite possible, actually, one day. But by the time that happened.... well, then,. he would know that his own home planet was gone. And right now, there wasn’t anything he could do to defend this place.

Besides, talking about there here and now was a much more interesting subject. Especially when fighting was part of the conversation. 

“You’re right, staying hidden and getting a few good shots off is a pretty solid way to win a fight. Prevents the need to close the distance, if nothing else. But in my case, you’d find I’m rather hard to sneak up on, and a whole lot harder to kill. If you don’t put me in the ground with your first shot, then you’re never going to hit me with a bullet again, and then you’re going to have to fight me up close and personal.” Keras smirked widely. “And in that fight, I think it’s safe to say, I’d win without much trouble.”

Resurrection was an interesting power for the woman to claim. That certainly wasn’t anything he’d ever seen or heard of before - not if she meant it in the truest possible sense of the word, anyways. Not that he could see any way for that to be the case, but now wasn’t the time to question her on it. If she thought she could get back up no matter what kind of damage she suffered, then that simply meant he just might have a sparring partner who could take anything that he dished out.

And if the worst came to worst and they became genuine enemies... well, Keras had always hated killing people. It was something he preferred not to even think about. But if things went that far, well, he could permanently kill anything. Period.

Back onto lighter things, though...

“Magic is a little hard to describe, if you don’t have any background in that kind of thing. I’m certainly no magical theorist, but I’ll give it my best shot.” Keras crossed his legs, frowning a little at the ground. “Everyone has a little bit of every kind of mana in them. Light, shadow, wind, fire, water, ice, stone, metal, life, death, knowledge, deception... there’s probably more, but I think you get the idea. Together, in balance, they all keep the body working. They’re also each tied to a Dominion - and kind of... plane, a place that exists outside of the physical world, which consists of nothing but that specific kind of mana, and the elemental made of it. There are more dominions than just the ones in the body - we call those “deep dominions”, as I recall. Metal is an example of that. it’s connected to the Dominion of Stone, but it’s sort of... farther away, and normally, I think, doesn’t really affect the body. Not much, anyways.”

He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. Lots to say, after all. in some ways, this reminded him of trying to explain things to Corin and his friends... but at least they’d had attunements. Not the same as sorcery, no, but the theories weren’t so far apart after all.

Kanon watched as the person put back the book… rather haphazardly, too. She felt a prickle of irritation at the thought that the poor librarians here would have to resort the shelf he just contaminated, but honestly? She was at the point where she wanted to stride up to the information table (if this place had one, if not, then the front desk) and strangle said librarian herself. Who had said once that libraries held all knowledge? This library only held hormones.

“Your friend would..” Her mouth twisted into a wry smile, glancing at the shelves around them. A fan of young adult novels, huh? Kanon briefly wondered if his so called ‘friend’ was also in the city. .. Probably not.

“Huh? W-Wait, I’m not so shameless as to be here for romantic fiction-” Why was she justifying herself? It was definitely in part an instinctive reaction to the sly look he just gave her. It unpleasantly reminded her of a friend of hers. “I would have gone to another location if I had known..” She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, shaking her head. Her protesting was starting to feel like a weird excuse, but it was the truth! Honestly! “I-I’m also looking for information on the city. I haven’t seen anything besides pamphlets…”

Ah, she seemed to be on her back foot, now. Good. If she was too busy being embarrassed and trying to defend herself for looking at romance books, then it was that much harder for her to hassle him for doing the same. Maybe he should have felt bad about that, but this was hardly more than a little teasing between strangers, so he wasn’t going to worry about it.

Of course, there was every possibility that she actually wasn’t here for these books, either. Maybe she really was looking for information. In that case, putting their heads together to work on it was probably going to go a lot better than trying to gather information on their own. Actually, in a lot of cases, if he’d had a reliable friend or two around, he’d have had them split up. But he didn’t even know this lady’s name, and given the scarcity of information, working together was probably the better option.

Assuming she wanted to work with him at all. Or that he wanted to work with her. Hard to say, since they didn’t know each other yet. On that basis - first things first.

Ana loved to talk. She loved to make friends. It was just her nature. Not to say that she couldn’t and wouldn’t kick all manner of ass when needed (she was a key part in humanity’s victory at Twilight Gap, after all), but she wasn’t nearly as trigger-happy as some Guardians. Or stab-happy. Or grenade-happy. Or Light-happy. She was getting off the point, though.

Her main concern was still very much Rasputin, however. The Warmind was… well… tempermental at times. He always meant well-just didn’t always execute in a manner that everyone else agreed with. She never had really spent much time with Saladin (and because she rebelled against his orders and fought alongside Shaxx during Twilight Gap, she likely never would), and… well, she and Zavala still didn’t agree on Rasputin, and as such, they didn’t really get along. There was a reason she primarily stayed on Mars after saving Rasputin from Xol. (Okay, multiple reasons, but avoidng that stupid Awoken was one of them.)

“Alright, let’s go!” She was relieved that he agreed to get out of there. And, as they got away from the main area, the effects of… whatever was in the air on Ana started to fade. Her head was starting to actually properly clear. Still a fair bit worried about her favorite Warmind, though. 

Of course, being a Hunter, Ana wasn’t keen on staying on the ground. The moment she got close enough to the wall, she ran, and used the wooden pole she’d been given to vault herself up into the air, landing on top of an overhang. She then followed Keras into a back alley, settling for sitting on a dumpster when he stopped, wooden pole at her side. She had a childish grin plastered on her face as she did all of this… until he dropped that little bombshell.

“…Oh. Well, that’s kinda… sad. Sorry to hear about it.” She admitted, leaning back a bit. “Hmm… you probably wouldn’t want to call your powers ‘magic’ where I come from. Magic, at least, where I come from, tends to only be used by the Hive, the Taken, and Ahamkara-all of which are very, very, very bad news. Well, there is the Awoken’s magic, so maybe you could try to sell it as that… except in the Dreaming City. That’s where most Awoken come from.” She further added. She started to idly twirl around the pole.

“I’ve got powers too. Sadly, most of them have been sealed off, but I still have my strength, it seems. Mine come from a weird energy called the Light. Not kidding. I’m what they call a ‘Guardian’-someone who can use the Light and has a Ghost. Some powers are pretty standard-issue, but different Guardians will use their Light in different ways. Damn, I wish I could show you my Golden Gun…” She told him. 

“It’s kinda weird… there’s no real way to guess who’s gonna be chosen as a Guardian. Seems like it can be pretty much anyone. But I’m not limited to my Light alone-if I had my Polaris Lance or anything like that, I could show you how amazing of a shot I am! ….Oh, yeah, Guardians tend to use a variety of guns, but there are some who like bows or swords better. Shaxx likes swords, for example.” Ana further added, once again smiling as she bragged about her aim. It was good-good enough to be able to take down swarms of Fallen of all types with great skill and ease-but still… she sometimes would forget just how prideful she could be when it came to said aim.

At least she wasn’t bragging about the fact she’d designed and built Polaris Lance all by herself… at least, not yet. No promises. 

She was a Hunter after all.

Still talking. Still so much talking. It was absolutely starting to grate on Keras’s nerves. Much more so than he expected, actually. This Anastasia woman talked even more than Dawn did, and that was saying a lot. But at least in Dawn’s case, he could generally get a word in edgewise, and there was plenty of room for banter in between them. This woman just... wouldn’t shut up.

At least the air seemed to be clearing a little as they continued down the alley, and with that, his head started to clear, too. That was definitely a good sign, although he was fairly certain that there ultimately wasn’t any way to escape from this cloud of whatever-exactly-it-was. Not permanently, at least.

She certainly seemed to be feeling energetic, bouncing about the place and swinging that wooden pole of hers around. In a way, she reminded him of Marissa, although at least the teenager liked to keep her feet planted on the ground most of the time. 

“Nothing to be sad about. Wasn’t my planet. I’ve just been trying to prevent mine from suffering the same fate.” Keras interlocked his hands above his head and stretched them upwards. How long was he going to be trapped here? Impossible to know, but quite possibly too long. Wouldn’t even be the first time that somebody else’s teleporting, time-traveling nonsense screwed him over. Not that he knew he’d been sent to a different time, but it seemed likely.

And she just kept right on talking. Calling some kind of energy ‘Light’, but not magic, struck him as rather nonsensical; but who was he to judge? As to the Ghost - he supposed to must be the floaty thing that was still following her around. not that it looked anything like a ghost, but nothing else she said made a whole lot of sense, either, so at this point he was simply accepting it.

“How kind! I shall take you up on that offer then.”

Not a moment sooner had Propeller followed suit by dropping to the ground to sit cross-legged before the man with the same enthusiasm he held prior. It’d be rude to speak down to a new acquintance, no?

“Let us start with the pleasantries. I am Propeller Knight, captain of the beautiful airship ‘The Flying Machine’ and her fleet! We were last stationed in The Valley before I was whisked away to wherever this is. You are not from the same world I am, yes? You do not look to be a knight of any kind. So tell me about yourself and your home!”

Sure it could be seen as a bit off topic but there was at least a bit of rhyme to his reasoning. 

Propeller Knight. The Flying Machine. The Valley. Even Keras could’ve come up with better names than that. For that matter, Dawn’s could’ve given each of those things names that were worse, but at least they’d have been more creative. Sounded like a terrible land to call home.

In any case, no need to insult the poor man (?) and his crazy helmet. There were certainly worse things in the world than a bunch of generic names, after all. Wouldn’t want to be rude.

“I’m Keras Selyrian. Beyond that, well, there’s not a whole lot to say. I’ve become something of a wandering adventurer and swordsman, though it seems my normal sword has been taken away. I also used to have a mission, but, well.”

“Of course.” He pushed off the branch, landing lightly on his feet below.

“I don’t believe there are human guards. It’s very well kept inside the walls, however. There might be people in the castle somewhere, unless the beings that live in this forest have gotten creative.” While he made his living in the general forest area, Dune had only seen the castle grounds so far. 

“Reportedly there’s treasure inside the castle itself. I can confirm there’s a dragon wandering about looking for anyone after it.” His own interest lay in pulling something off unharmed eventually, rather than enriching himself further. That was low importance with his power as it was; he could fly, but he didn’t know if it could fly after him.

Keras considered this information for a few moments. Unfortunately, he had to admit, it’d probably be a bad idea to tackle a dragon in his current condition. And while he normally was all about bad ideas when it came to fighting, this was the scale (ha) of bad idea that would probably get him bitten in half within a few minutes. If he was lucky. 

Simply put, he didn't have the capabilities to deal with a dragon right now. And he certainly didn’t have what he’d need to survive if things started to go badly for him.

The look on the man’s face told Ana that he’d never seen a Ghost in his life before. She wondered what he thought made Jinju work. (Granted, she didn’t really know herself-no one entirely seemed to know the details-but they worked and were usually great friends on top of that, so who the hell was anyone to complain?) At least he didn’t seem keen on attacking either of them, so she’d take it. Especially given her… current condition.

Had he not noticed the fact he’d gone and trashed a perfectly-good apple? How did one exactly… manage that? Although, if she thought about it, sometimes, she got so caught up with Rasputin (she loved the Warmind like a son, but Traveler above he could be a right pain in the ass at times) that she would stop paying attention to the world around her. It seemed that lapsing into little trances was a universal thing. 

Though it was suppressed via means unknown to her or Jinju, Ana still very much had her Light within her. She just had to figure out how to break the suppression, and then she’d be back to full power in no time! But she wasn’t sure what his power was. It wasn’t Light, but it also wasn’t Darkness. It was definitely something, but Ana wasn’t really sure what it was. She honestly doubted that even Rasputin or Ikora would know. It didn’t seem evil though, so there was that.

She nodded at the man.

“Keras, huh? Somehow, your name isn’t the weirdest I’ve ever heard. I mean, back on Earth, I have a friend named Lord Shaxx. Not kidding. At all. Also, a really smart lady named Ikora Rey. And the most stubborn blue man you’ve ever met, named Commander Zavala. Don’t really get along with him because I broke one of his stupid, pointless rules.” She put air quotes around that last word. 

“…And, also, an artificial intelligence named Rasputin. He’s kinda… I guess you could say we’re mother-and-son? I care about him, he cares about me, I taught him a lot of things, and he can be such a brat sometimes! Still love him though.” She added, laughing at the end for a moment. 

“Good to know I’m not alone. As for what this shit in the air does… I don’t know how it does it, but it screws with your head big time. It’s making me worry even more than normal for how Rasputin’s doing without me. He can be a bit…. temperamental at times, I’ll admit, but it’s only because he cares. For all I know, he’s on the verge of launching Warsats off in the general direction of my last known location to try to find me.” She admitted, before looking at Keras, confused. 

“Can’t say that I have heard of this… Renda-whatever-you-just-said. I’m guessing that’s where you’re from? What’s it like there? I assume you’re not the only person from there, so I also gotta ask… do the people there have powers? Do you have powers? What are they? Also, can we kinda… get outta here? I have a feeling that if we get far away from areas with lots of people, this airborne shit won’t be as concentrated, so it won’t affect us as much.” She asked in rapid succession.

Keras blinked rapidly. This woman talked... way too much. Way too much. And he’d thought that Corin had a problem with oversharing. Seriously, he’d have expected somebody kitted out in full armor to be less about talk and more about action. Served him right for making assumptions, he supposed. 

As to everything she actually said, only one bit stood out to him above the rest. An artificial intelligence? That was an interesting concept, to be sure. Could be less so than it sounded, but... a manufactured intelligent being. And whatever, exactly, a ‘warsat’ was supposed to be. Probably something to talk about later. For now, he’d focus on answering her questions, since that’d (hopefully) cut down on all the chatter a little. And on that note, getting out of here sounded like a good idea.

“You’re right; let’s get out of here.” Not that they were exactly surrounded by people, but there was quite a crowd over in the square a few dozen feet away. He led the way along the side street they were standing in - too wide and open to be an alley, but almost entirely abandoned, at least so far. Not that he had any idea what was on the other side...

“To answer a few of your questions: no, I’m not from Rendalir. That planet’s gone. I’m from... a different one. Both planets had people with... ‘powers’ is one way to say it, I guess. We call it magic. I’ve got my own. As to what I can do with it, that’s a bit of a long answer. Most of mine is pretty unique, but now’s not a very good time for a demonstration.”

Actually, Keras wasn’t entirely certain what he could do at the moment. Not cast spells - he knew that much - but his body still carried its own minor supply of mana. Without that, he’d be dead, plain and simple. Not enough to cast with, but come to think of it, maybe he could do at least a little bit with it. Not much, but enough to show off, perhaps. 

“Thank you…” she starts. “Haru appreciates that.”

“Haru has had a target on her back, ever since Haru was born. Haru can’t really explain…but Haru is special. Everyone is special. That’s why everyone should live.”

What a strange and fascinating young girl. Keras had to admit, he couldn’t quite figure out what to make of her. Certainly not a cheery or carefree child, not once you dug half an inch below that surface. Interesting... inexplicable, but interesting.

“They take away people’s weapons and replaces them with other items. Sticks, toy guns, bats, you name it. At the end, they always return your weapons to you. Little by little you also regain your powers. They strip a lot of that from you as well.” Looking at Keras then at the dogs, he says, “you’ll get your sword back and if you have any abilities without your sword, you’ll get those back as well.” He’s fallen silent as he focuses on those dogs. It’s been awhile since he’s seen them. He always came here to clear his mind. He loved animals even if they had some screen-thing as a head. 

“Would you say your sword was your family?”

Keras nodded at all of that. It confirmed what he’d heard up to this point, some of which was from more solid sources than others. Not that there were necessarily any guarantees - if he were running this place, somehow, he’d keep the Sae’kes as far away from anyone else as physically possible. The blade was simply too dangerous for a place like this. Which was exactly why he wanted it back. 

Keras hadn’t spent all that much time in the part of the city known as the Golden Ward, up until now. As it turned out, he rather liked the area, particularly compared to Fibonacci.

There was one building that caught his attention in particular, though - some kind of stadium, from the looks of it. People were swarming towards it, queuing up in surprisingly large lines to get through the doors. Normally Keras would have joined them to avoid any potential stirs, but at the moment he didn’t have any money, and he really wanted to see what was going on in the stadium. Hopefully some kind of fight... That turned out to be a disappointment, once he’d breezed past security. It appeared that this was actually some kind of concert hall. So much for that. Still, Keras settled in, figuring that he might as well stay since he’d made it this far. The music hadn’t started up yet, though it probably would soon. interestingly, there weren’t any people on stage yet, and only one instrument - probably the largest piano he’d ever seen.

Anastasia wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but it didn’t take a Warlock’s genius to figure out that it was most definitely not good. There was something far more sinister afoot, and Ana didn’t like that she had no idea what said sinister thing was. At all. She could only conclude that it had to do with the airborne shit, and probably the free food and drink being offered. 

Ana was not stupid enough to eat or drink any of that-it sounded too good to be true, and nine times out of ten, things that were too good to be true were just that. She was already compromised enough from what was in the air-she did not want to think of what might be in the free shit being offered everywhere (or so it seemed-she hadn’t explored very far yet) as well. And combining all of that with her powers being restricted and her weapons being ripped away from her, as well as her connection with Rasputin being either blocked or severed (she wasn’t sure which, but both were bad), and Ana was on edge.

Ana could only hope that she could regain her powers and weapons somehow, and also develop an immunity to this grade-A bullshit. 

She had enough to worry about, being dislocated to another dimension that was cut off from everyone and everything she ever knew-worrying about how Rasputin was getting by without her around was only making it worse. And the damn airborne… whatever the hell it was… was not helping matters. Quite the opposite-it was making matters worse. She was beyond concerned about Rasputin-

She stared as the man ate an apple without even caring. Was he crazy?! What if the apple was poisoned?! Even Cayde wouldn’t have been that reckless!

…Was he immune to it, somehow? Or was the apple just not tainted to begin with?

Oh well, he seemed to be sane enough. Maybe a spot of casual conversation would help get her mind off of Rasputin for a moment.

“I mean, I suppose it could be worse… but it also could be better. It kinda boils down to a lot of ‘I have no idea what the hell is going on here’ at the core, and… well, looks like I’m not the only one who’s had their shit taken from them.” She answered, noticing as he briefly looked at Jinju, subconsciously crushing the remainder of the apple in his grip. She giggled a bit.

“You kinda crushed your apple there. It’s making a mess.” She pointed out, turning to face him proper, leaning against a wall.

“The name’s Anastasia. Anastasia Bray. But please, call me Ana. What’s your name?” She asked, introducing herself first. 

Keras squinted at the armored woman before him, and the floating whatever it was. He imagined it was powered by runes, though he couldn’t spot any from here. Corin probably would’ve gone nuts just from looking at the thing. Probably for the best that kid wasn’t here; he’d probably be in a comatose state by now. 

He glanced at what was left of the apple, which was now coating his hand. Huh. That was a bit... odd. He hadn’t meant to do that... He snagged a bit of cloth from the nearby apple stand (whose owner didn’t appear to notice) and wiped his hand clean, looking back tot he woman. 

Something about her... he squinted slightly. his magical sight wasn’t exactly up to par right now, but there was something not unlike mana around her. Something close to light mana... if it had been fused with spirit mana, perhaps. Plus a decent helping of enhancement. But that wasn’t quite right, either...

She reminded him of Dawnbringer. In fact, he had the feeling Dawn would’ve liked this Anastasia lady quite a bit.

“Keras Selyrian. That’s what most people call me. Keras works fine.” Now that he hand was clean, he set the cloth back on the stand and, like his new conversational partner,  leaned against a wall. Walls were pretty handy that way. 

As to any strange side effects... well, he felt fine so far.

She’d barely arrived here, and already, something was amiss. She was no stranger to the idea of holidays about romance, love, and that other sweet, sappy shit, but this… this was something else. And poor Jinju was struggling to keep Ana’s head clear. 

Even when she made her way to the rooftops (which was stupidly easy for her-many of her supernatural abilities had been sealed away, somehow, and her weapons had been stripped away, but she’d find a way to get them back-if nothing else, Hunters were a clever lot, and Ana was no exception), she could not completely escape the strange scent. And the scent was making her head swim. She couldn’t stop thinking about Rasputin, how worried he must be with her so far from Mars, unable to contact her, and was worrying over his status, now that there was no one to be able to translate his words to other Guardians. She had always cared about the Warmind, but there was something in the air that was amplifying her emotions. And right now, that set of emotions was all concerning her Warmind of a “son”. 

And there was something there-both her own “eyes” and Jijnu’s scans confirmed it. Some sort of invisible, airborne particulate that had to be the cause of the suffering Ana was enduring. Honestly, the only reason why it wasn’t any worse was thanks to Jinju working overtime to counter the… whatever the hell it was. 

It was still rather hard to focus, and as such, she’d stopped the ground level, sliding down to the sidewalk, panting heavily. She was sweating visibly, but, just a few feet off to one side, she saw… well, what at least looked like another human. However, both her “eyes” and Jinju’s scans told her there was more to this man-he was no Guardian, but he gave off… something. Not of either Light or Darkness, but… something.

She couldn’t very well let herself be seen in such a pathetic condition, now could she? Ana forced herself back on her feet, and shook her head in another vain attempt to finally shake off the… whatever the hell was in the air that was making her worry more than usual for Rasputin. 

“Hey there… How are you today?” She asked, deciding to keep things simple… and pray to the Traveler that he could understand her.

Something was certainly up in this city. Something... well, not romantic, not entirely, but certainly emotional. Whatever exactly ‘it’ was, Keras would have rather stayed away from it, but he had the sinking feeling that wasn’t an option.

From what Keras had put together so far, whoever ran this place could gather people up from any world, then take away all of their weapons and whatever magic they had, only to give them back... under circumstance he had yet to figure out. There was no guarantee that that same person, or people, controlled whatever was currently affecting the city’s population... but based on everything he’d seen and heard so far, it seemed within their capabilities. 

The ‘why’ of it, on the other hand, was probably going to be beyond him forever.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t hurting people. Well, not directly, anyways. The source seemed to be concentrated in food, or drinks for that matter, based on an hour or so’s worth of observation; but he could tell it was in the air, too. He could feel it, whatever exactly ‘it’ was. Floating, wafting, infecting. There was, it seemed, no hope of escape; not even his room was safe.

 Keras had to admit, though - he was fairly curious. This stuff seemed to affect people emotionally, although the exact nature varied from person to person. Simply inhaling it wasn’t a very quick way to be infected, from what he could tell, so he would probably be safe for a little while longer. If he’d had the Sae’kes, none of this would have been a concern - he could’ve simply flooded his body with its mana, purging his body of any foreign effects. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

So he ate an apple.

Nothing ventured, nothing learned. The effects didn’t seem to be overly dangerous, and beyond that, he’d be fine. And he wanted to know what, exactly, would happen.

He’d gotten about halfway through it when something caught his eye - a woman, dressed in foreign but clearly heavy armor, with a weird little metal-ish thingie hanging around her head. He seemed to have caught her attention, too, at about the same time. She spoke first, in a strange but understandable accent. 

“Haru knows. And that’s okay!” She starts. “Not everyone wants to make friends with Haru. A lot of people want Haru dead…but that’s not going to happen. Haru was born to live.”

“But Haru tries anyway, because that’s what a good person does. You can’t give up on yourself just because everyone else has left you.”

Keras frowned quite a bit at that. Okay, so her weird third-person thing was fairly annoying, but who would want the poor girl to die? He couldn’t imagine a reason for a single person to want that, let alone ‘a lot’. 

Clearly there was a great deal that he was missing about her. Fascinating... and potentially deeply concerning.

“Well, I certainly see no reason to want to hurt you. You seem like a pretty good kid to me. I’d much rather be your friend.”

“I don’t believe so. I think my sword is a normal sword.” He never really thought about it, actually. He’s sure his sword has no powers attached to it. “Does your sword have any powers to it?” It would make sense why the other said it was disturbing. Maybe without its holder, the sword was dangerous. However, you have to remember that the people who brings others here has the ability to make a person weaker. They had the power to take away someone’s power. Even something very powerful. Like the sword  perhaps.

“You will get your sword back. I got mine back after being around for a while.”

He didn’t think his sword was magical? Personally, Keras would’ve check on that the moment he got the sword from... where, exactly? His father? It was a little unclear, but whatever. One way or another, magical powers would’ve been the first thing Keras had checked for. Well, after its general condition, anyway.

“It does, indeed. I’m sure that’s why they took it away from me. I do hope I get it back, though...” Keras settled down a few feet away, still close enough to be under the same tree, watching the strange little malformed dogs mucking about. Whatever exactly the strange devices that appeared to be implanted in them were, the dogs didn’t seem bothered, so Keras left them alone.

it’s a day late, but Keras has achieved the rank of dwarf. yaaay.

“Not at all. I haven’t even met the other people in my apartment yet! What about you? Do you know much about this place?”

The phrase ‘too’ should have given him his answer, but no. It did not. Then again, Red was just excited to have made a new friend.

The idea of other worlds though. That intrigued him. “You know, I wonder if whoever brought us all here will send us back to our own worlds at any point, or if we’ll wind up in the wrong places! That’d be interesting… Scary, but interesting.”

“Can’t say that I know anything more than you do. Maybe even a little less.” Keras moved across the room to take a seat on the living room couch. No need to keep standing around all day, particularly since it seemed like he was going to be here for a while. Not that he minded, but still.

Haru nods, almost furiously. “Haru agrees!” She says. “It’s hard to be happy sometimes, but Haru thinks the good things in life are always better to focus on. Haru wasn’t happy for a long time…but Haru learned that you have to forgive people, and yourself. Infinitely.”

Keras couldn’t help but tilt his head to the side at that. That was a little bit... excessive. ‘Infinitely’ was quite a lot, after all, especially given a normal lifespan. And given some of the people out there. That was something that could only result in trouble, sooner or later. Enough of it that she’d either change her mind, or bear out to be some kind of extraordinarily crazy person.

Ah, the folly of youth.