Brick spoke to Kianna without taking his eyes off the other bank. "If Aya's okay with you, I assume you're one of us. The name's Brick. Pity we didn't meet under better circumstances."
He kneeled down in the gravel and laid his sword on the ground, then sat on it to keep the water off of his pants. He hoped that disarming himself would perhaps calm the other figure making its way across the river somewhat.
Brick glanced back at Kianna to make sure she'd done as he asked, and noticed that she seemed to be looking at something across the river. Perhaps her eyes were sharper than his.
He looked where Kianna was looking, and saw movement as well. He shrugged and continued looking left and right across the river, watching the figure with his peripheral vision. Whoever it was, he didn't want to scare them off.
Brick looked back at Kianna, took his leather biker jacket off, and tossed it to her. She could keep warm with that - meanwhile, he had to stand watch. His Metallica shirt wasn't exactly warm, but he didn't really care in this kind of situation. It was a pretty big emergency no matter which way it went, and he wouldn't let someone get hypothermia on him as long as he could do something about it.
"Dry off, warm up, then put the cat in the jacket, eh?"
Brick saw the two trying to save a soaking wet, fairly small cat. The coat wasn't a domestic pattern, so he figured it was a shifter. Instinctively, he charged forth and stood between the three and the river, eyes scanning the other side of the riverbank. The healer was already working on saving the creature - the best he could do at that moment was make sure nobody took advantage of the situation.
Water splashed his boots, and he could tell that it was freezing cold. Potentially deadly for such a small body.
Brick nodded, and sped his pace to keep up with Aya. He could hear the water from where they were, but he couldn't quite get a good view of it. The trees were a little bit different here - not by much, though. He thought he saw a few different kinds from further away from the river. Some short time passed, and he thought he could hear something other than the water - some riverbank rocks shifting around, like somebody walking on them, maybe?
He hefted his sword up to his right shoulder and kept both hands on the grip as he continued forwards until he could see the river.
Brick saw the worried expression on Aya's face and patted her on the head once, assuming that she was mostly worried about him.
"Hey now, I'm not saying we're guaranteed to get into a fight. I just want to make sure you know that if something bad does happen, you getting back to camp safely is my #1 priority. In any case, I don't care if there are fifty Broms on the other side of the river. They're not a problem unless they start trying to kill us."
Brick held his sword at the ready and walked alongside Aya. Given how large the river was, he wouldn't have to worry too much about arrows, so long as he saw them coming first - he was more worried about what lay on the Rabin side of the river. A few moments passed, and the thought of an ambush crossed his mind.
"If we're attacked, run like hell back to the camp."
Brick recognized the names of the plants from what he referred to as a 'hippie pharmacy'. Not very effective, but better than nothing. At the mention of tea, though, he was reminded of a neighbor from an apartment next-door to his. The man grew some sort of herbs in jars of water using short cuttings - perhaps he'd be able to do it too. He made a mental note to also buy small glass jars whenever he went out to town.
"Pretty basic stuff. Pity there's not much stronger around here - but if it works, it works."
He collected a reasonable amount of each - what he reckoned would be a good one week supply - and very carefully placed the herbs in a pouch on his sack.
"Three down, one to go. Off to find some echinacea, then?"
Brick smiled and shook his head. "Can't make any promises there. Better me in the medicine tent than a friend in the grave, anyway."
He looked around at the plantlife. None of it seemed familiar to him at all, but then, he'd never been much into herbology in the first place. He gathered an enormous amount of dead, fallen leaves and twigs, and stuffed them into his sack - he'd have to dry them in the sun later for use as kindling. After filling the sack, he moved closer to Aya to examine everything she was collecting.
"Tell me what's what and I'll be sure to bring some back with me every so often. I don't know half of what these are."
Color me interested. I think I have just the character for this. I'll have to put together a fitting picture at some point, though, assuming it's mandatory.
Name: Sam Duval
Race: Human
Appearance: A slender man standing at 6'2" with mid length, slicked back black hair, and brilliant green eyes. His face is masked in face paint and makeup - with a red heart upside down beneath the left eye, a black spade upside down beneath the right, a black club above the left, and a red diamond above the right. He wears red lipstick on one side and black on the other, and very much appears to enjoy his magic tricks.
His outfit is particularly frilly. A wide, snow-white ruff encircles his neck, and a deep purple brocade doublet is worn atop a snowy white tunic with baggy sleeves. Thick white tights are tucked into purple leather boots, complete with long and curling toes.
Personality: His capacity for cruelty is only surpassed by his apathy. Those he deems unworthy of death, he casually insults or ignores. Everyone else, he either takes advantage of or makes an enemy of. The thrill of a power struggle is the greatest and most exciting entertainment he can imagine, whether he's on top or on the bottom.
He will do absolutely anything to get ahead - and luckily for the world, he sees 'dealing with' the new menace at the Old Country as a perfect way to secure a position atop the world. The real question is what he would do with that position were he somehow to succeed.
He loves trickery and sleight-of-hand 'magic'.
Background: Sam grew up in an orphanage in eastern Ruritania. All of his needs were provided for, and he had many good friends there. The elderly couple who ran the place always felt that he was somehow a special child. One day, a western circus was in town - a circus of acrobats and clowns - and he was mystified by their death defying feats and their silly acts. He wanted to become like them, and he started practicing card tricks, card games, cheating dice rolls, acting, and puppeteering.
At 13, he left the orphanage to join the circus, where he stayed as a clown for nine years, perfecting a number of silent comedy acts with his partners - including famous shows like 'Bobo the Rat', 'The Marvelous Machine', and 'A Place to Call Home'. The King of Armitas, a moderately sized province in Ruritania, offered him a job as a private jester - which he gladly took. The King was a rather nice man, if a bit hard-hearted towards the plight of individual commoners, and Sam looked up to him.
The King's power made him tremble with delight, and he served both as comedian and advisor gleefully. The King's health was in gradual decline, though, and soon, he was appointed with handling the affairs of the peasantry in the King's place - a job that he was well suited for. Every person who came in to petition the King was met with Sam instead, and he took great joy in deciding whether to save or ruin people. It was his perfect dream job. He gradually became more and more demented as time went on, moving up from causing minor ailments to unsuspecting people to starving them, and from starving them to outright executing them for crimes they never committed.
The people called for his head. His position was cemented when, finally, a father of four entered his hall and demanded that he resign immediately. Words were had, and the father insulted Sam in front of a small crowd. Sam flew into a rage and lept from the throne, slashing the man's throat with a Jack of Clubs.
When the King heard about the murder, he called Sam into his office and asked him to explain what happened, as he didn't want to have to imprison his friend. Sam explained in gruesome detail every single moment and feeling, and the King felt true despair for the first time in his life. The King called for his guards to take Sam away, and Sam responded by putting a Joker through the man's throat, followed by leaping out a window. He wasn't seen in Armitas ever again.
The news spread, and quickly twisted into fairy tales about a murderous clown that would eat bad children in the night. He particularly loved these stories, and would often ask to hear them any time he stopped at an inn - though he didn't wear his signature outfit for a while.
When a more frightening story than his own finally came up regarding a great evil in the Old Country, he put on his old Jester's outfit and makeup once more and set out eastwards.
Abilities: Deadeye Dealer: A true marksman with a playing card - a swift flick and a card goes flying with the force and accuracy of an arrow, albeit a somewhat shorter range.
Clown Agility: Sam's experiences in the circus have given him near superhuman kinesthetic sense and an in-depth knowledge of what his body is capable of. Acrobatic feats and clever use of leverage are no trouble for him at all, having for years been involved in tightrope and trapeze comedy acts. One such act even involved blocking a mace blow with a spoon, all for the sake of a good show.
Puppeteering: Steel wire is his second favorite way to kill his foes. While he can't control his enemies like he can control a puppet, he does enjoy garroting their various extremities.
Equipment: A 78-card tarot deck and a 60-card playing card deck. A length of piano wire. A pack of toothpicks coated in monkshood poison. A salad fork.
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