[h3]Henry[/h3]

As shocked as she seemed a moment ago, the new arrival recovered quickly.  Her ‘name’ tickled Henry’s funnybone.  [color=d8bfd8]”Ahah…really?  Like the treat?  What awful luck!  If only there was a curse to change names…”[/color]  While he didn’t recognize the place she mentioned -at least, he assumed it to be a place- he felt he got the gist of what she was trying to say.  Unfortunately, he expected her to continue talking, but she went quiet.  His extremely narrow-eyed gaze shifted to her instrument, which aroused his curiosity.  In only a few moments the dark mage then lost interest and settled for thinking of it as some strange form of lute.  [color=d8bfd8]”That’s two strikes for you lot,”[/color] he cheerily replied when she questioned the location of Plegia.  [color=d8bfd8]”Never heard of those places either.  The continent Plegia’s in doesn’t have a name.  Maybe once it’s united it’ll [i]land[/i] one…get it?”[/color]  Henry scanned the others’ faces for appreciation of his humor.

With an indifferent shrug the Plegian agreed to Denys’ plan to find a local.  He got the message quickly and strolled after the Kaiser, hands clasped in front of him and the tome tucked beneath an arm.  The next question didn’t faze him at all, and Henry replied with a straight face, [color=d8bfd8]”Days, months, years…doesn’t matter to me.  I’m just around to enjoy life!  Ooh, especially taking it.  I miss my ravens…”[/color]  A sudden change in topic as well as mood came over him, and he leaned on one of the tables as he passed.  Wistfully he stared at the ground, though to the others it could very well appear that he just lowered his head with his eyes closed in grief.  As if someone flipped a switch, however, he snapped back to life the next second.  [color=d8bfd8]”Anyway!  I’m totally down for talking up some of the locals.  If they don’t want to talk, even better!  Though maybe you’d be better off leading.”[/color]  His brows furrowed momentarily as he sauntered after Denys.  [color=d8bfd8]”So what’s your thing, Denys?  I betcha got more up your sleeve than passive heals.”[/color]


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[h3]Birdie[/h3]

Before Birdie could escape into the possible safety of the little city before him, one obstacle stood in his way.  He stood in front of the moat, staring at the upraised drawbridge, and came to the decision that the best option would be to pull it down with his chains.  Brashly he estimated this feet to be doable with his strength, but after whirling his chains and snagging those of the drawbridge, he discovered very quickly that the thing would not be budged.  Whether the problem was the drawbridge's weight or some sort of lock on its chains, Birdie honestly couldn't say, but he grimaced to think that he could spend all night tugging and still not move it an inch.  Another idea struck him a few seconds later, though one decidedly less good.  Taking a deep breath, the ex-Shadaloo tested his chains' grip before leaping off the precipice to dangle precariously in midair.  While the force might have pulled the arms off of a lesser man, Birdie's thick, muscular arms bore the stress, and with an upper body strength only describable as startling he hauled himself up foot by foot until he could clamber onto the ramparts.  There he sat, wheezing badly, for a few minutes.  Eventually, though, he descended back to ground level.

Once inside Castle Town, Birdie quickly became aware that he might have made a bad choice.  Sections of the place seemed, for lack of a better term, [i]wrong[/i].  An intact main street lured him into a false sense of security, but when he dodged into a sidestreet to evade a small troupe of stalchildren, he was shocked to find himself on the brink of what looked to be a warzone.  On the edge of normality there lay just about an inch of blurred fuzziness, and after that loomed a section of town completely destroyed.  When Birdie turned his eyes on the sky, he was baffled to see the night sky directly above but an ominous purple haze through the distorted zone.  Scared but curious, the huge man leaned over and grabbed a pot that stood on the cobblestones a few feet away before tossing it into the other world.  It crashed against the ruined ground noisily but ordinarily, with no trace of any kind of trap or malignant effect.  Furthermore, Birdie espied some sort of glinting green jewel in the wrecked shards of the pot.  Grinning widely at his good fortune, he gingerly crossed the line and bent down.  After snagging the gem, he quickly retreated back to the un-damaged zone to study his find.

As tall as his middle finger and about half as thick as it was tall, the precious stone gleamed beautifully.  Figuring that it must be emerald or something similar, Birdie almost salivated to imagine how rich it would make him.  With that kind of money, he fondly thought, he wouldn’t have to work for months!  The truth that he was already unemployed didn’t concern him too much.  Still, this bizarre divide and the somewhat nightmarish version of the town on the other side creeped him out, and Birdie left after only a few more moments.  Luckily the main street seemed clear of skeletons, though a couple shattered bones lay here and there, and the freeloader made his way deeper into town.  In doing this he unknowingly gained on Red and Bayonetta, courtesy of a naturally longer stride.

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