I should have up a post soon, but I think I might of gotten a little too into it, especially since most of it is consisting of him interacting with a shopkeeper before helping him and his children gtfo of the building before Einar himself jumps into the fray.
Would it be OK if he popped out of one of the buildings opposite of Branna?
Confidants:: Ava (@addamas), Hakuro, Laurence, Raven (@FalloutJack)) Whereabouts:: The Metaverse? Day:: Friday Afternoon Alex did his best to suppress his grumbling, but the answer he received was more bickering between Hakuro and the Raven which prompted him to roll his eyes, before shifting them from side to side like a pendulum. He swore the mist was getting thicker and the miasma was threatening to smother him, but worst of all, those sounds were getting worse and caused a shiver to go down his spine.
Peering behind him, he glanced to Ava, trying to reassure her, but she was eerily quiet this whole time, causing him to uncomfortably divert his attention away from the girl. He felt his stomach knotting up as he bit his lip, feeling that he would go mad if he didn't interject between their babbling, as something else was bothering him.
"I'm having more and more second thoughts about following you right now," Alex muttered offhandedly, nearly veering into another route before grunting and forcing himself back onto the path the bird was leading them on. Of course, part of him was a little thankful about not deviating because the boy swore he heard what sounded to be like slurping and nasally breathing getting louder and louder.
What he heard next was what sounded to be the mashing and grinding of teeth with the lingering sounds of paper and cloth being torn, followed by an oozing splat, which sounded more like something being spat at a wall as opposed to falling on the ground. Thankfully before they could even get familiar with whatever might of been behind them, they reached the opposite end of the alleyway before sharply talking a left onto a sidewalk.
"Sooooo, uh, Ava," he muttered, keeping an eye on the bird for a second before bending his head back to look at the deathly silent girl and frowned and rolled it like a pendulum as they ran before facing forward again. "This is going to sound absolutely stupid, but are ya doin' alright?"
While he awaited a response from someone who wasn’t going to probably bicker with him, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye were what looked to be three shadowy humans walking towards the group from the other side of the road. While he did make out the shape, he bit his tongue and was more the happier for it as he witnessed some indescribable creatures that had the shape of a humanoid, but that’s where all the similarities ended. Alex shuddered at the way their ashen limbs contorted and twisted, like some sort of writhing burn victim, all of them had different shapes, with the only defining feature being how they were shambling and the creepy theater masks they had.
Alex thought they began changing their direction, eyes widening as they began shuffling towards them, only for the three of them to stare behind them and back at them, choosing to ignore them as both groups left each other behind. He didn’t know what to make of it.
Nor did he know what to make of the silhouette of another humanoid scrambling madly towards them, catching glimpse of the shape of its head, feet, arms, and so on. The only thing that stood out was the strange shape of one of its arms and the fact it was elongated to the point where Alex began imagining of some berserk shadow with a scythe for an arm chasing those other strange shadows down.
He couldn't muse on it for long as the assailant was closing in on them! There wasn't exactly much around to help him, much less to block the assault, so Alex did the next best thing by jumping out of the way... only looking like an idiot when he finally saw who it was through the sickly green mist - Laurence, but with a machete.
He wasn't going to question where he even managed to find a machete as this whole run came to a screeching halt as he sprinted by them all. "Laurence, hey, wait damnit," Alex shouted out, pivoting and reaching out to where the slightly taller boy was running.
"You know, something is telling me we should probably follow his example."
It's a good thing most everyone will start in the town, whether by circumstance or some other reason. Looks like there won't be any routing, time to gtfo!
Location:: Cabins Interacting With:: Taka (@Ammokkx) Aurel could merely wince and shiver for the briefest of seconds, switching his gaze between Taka and the wall before awkwardly averting his gaze from the boy, rubbing his clavicle. He wanted to apologize, but no words came out between his sealed lips as he shifted about, pondering on musing on differing aspects of the case, only really opening them when he yawned and stretched an arm.
Of course, he perked up just a smidgen at the fact that it ended up being Taka who apologized instead, letting out what sounded like a exasperated sigh, nothing really betraying the relief he felt. "Mmm... it's fine," he murmured, shuffling to face the boy a little more, though not so much as to make direct eye contact with Taka, even after he criticized Aurel for it.
"Nah, makes me uncomfortable," he silently uttered, crossing his arms and still seemingly unfettered by this whole situation as his eyes moved back to the corpse lying by Ayu and Hiroki. However, as soon as Taka spoke up, Aurel was lost in thought for a second, rubbing his lip and biting at his index finger, "really? Hmm."
The thief stayed silent for a second, not really responding. In fact, it straight up appeared as if he was ignoring his pint-sized comrade, but that really wasn't it, as after at least half a minute he responded, "Taka, do you, er, mind walking and talking with me, please? I want to cover more ground when investigating, plus I myyyyyyyaaaaaayyy-" he yawned quite loudly before rubbing his baggy eyes.
"Aaaahhhhh, mmm, sorry about that," he murmured, trying to stifle another yawn while he rubbed his semi-teary eyes.
"I may need an extra set of eyes since I don't think my eyes are completely up to snuff right now and I promise to answer your question on the way," he gestured to the boy, hoping he would be more than willing to go alongside him.
A cry of agitation erupted from one of the larger tables, overpowering the cacophony of laughter, jeers, and shouts that echoed from one of the larger tables with the men and women that were crowded about, exchanging their bets with one another as the sound of jingling filled the room. The loser of this game, a bristly man who looked to be in his mid-thirties with his arms as thick as trees and a gut that one could assume was carrying gallons upon gallons of mead glared at his opponent, clenching his fist tightly as it slowly began to turn an ivory color.
Across from him was a much younger lad, couldn't of been anything but in his early twenties with a much smoother looking face with an angular jaw, though it was blemished with a bit of muck and the occasional cut or two. There was nothing that stood out about his outfit, not the straps, the sheathes, or the leather padding he had, marking him as a mercenary; the only thing that was different was the short black cloak he bore, with the insignia of a birds eye an plumage.
The younger man casually receded into his chair stretching his arms outward, pretending to ignore the mans angry screeches, grinning as he stared at the results, tipping further back into the chair until he nearly nicked one of the tavern wenches that were hustling to deliver some saps food before he swiftly caused his chair to crash back down, averting getting his hair wet will ale.
Placing an elbow down and leaning onto the table, the man rested his cheek on the back of his hand as he conceitedly raised an eyebrow and extended his other arm outward an gestured to his opponent, only to retract it instantly back, narrowly avoiding a knife as his payment.
"Oy, what the hell d'ya think you're doing," he said, lacking any hints of anger, but rather sounded bored; his tone was mocking and his rolling gray-blue eyes only served to emphasize that. They also seemed to provoke his opponent as well.
"I'm givin' ya yer propah payment ya cheeky rat-ass bastid," the man growled, leveraging a thick, accusatory finger at the boy, shaking it constantly, "you defa'ly cheated meh, I jus' know it! There's naw way you could've wan' this much!" The mans rabid replies fell on deaf ears as the man huffed, twirling his own finger around before pointing to a couple of people, announcing the names "Helane, Levon, Ulfric, and a couple'a more I can't remember, you all've beaten me before."
A couple of nods occured from the people he directed his own slender finger at, cementing his own argument in place as he shrugged with a self-assured frown, feigning any sort of displeasure he might of held for the man. "Along with that, everyone was watchin' me play, and none of em' have claimed I'm a cheat, so, Faust, what I want is the money I won, so fork it over."
The man slowly began to rise, hands trembling as he clenched at the splintered edges of the table, appearing ready to spring over and wring out his neck like a mother wringing out a dish cloth. However, some of his friends whispered and chattered over the other people gathered around the table, murmuring amongst themselves. Finally, a decent sum of gold was tossed across the table and the younger man swooped in and swiftly snatched up all of the pieces he rightfully owned as of now.
"Ya limp-dicked bastid', betcha' had t'cheat and steal th'Ravencrests hard earned gold, yea,"
them Ravencrests kicked ya out because of ya havin' to pinch em' out of any gold they had ya lil' parasite," he guffawed, wheezing with a yellow smile, doing his best to take digs at the younger man who was just ignoring him right about now. This seemed to agitate the man who rose up, taunting the boy more and more as he marched on over, "Probleh kicked ya out because ya havin' t'pinch em' out of aneh gold they had ya lil' parasite! Betcha' that sword is nothin' but show too!"
Once the man had collected all of his coin, he packed it into a safe place, wincing as his nose wrinkled, lips frowning in the face of this adversity. "Well Faust, outside of that all being nothing but horseshit you're spouting, I will say that I left the Ravencrests for the same reason that you're causing me to leave this tavern," the man waved his hand, rolling his eyes as he turned his back on the man and began walking away.
"Awhu, why iwsh daaat widdle boooyeee," he could hear the tone of mockery in his voice, visualizing the smiling kissy face Faust was making as his former opponent spoke obnoxiously. However, all he could do was smirk at Faust's languid attempts to rile him up.
"Because I need a breath of fresh air," he waved his hand, fanning his face as if he had caught his opponents stench. There was a roar behind him, followed by the sound of scrambling and the yelling of the barkeeper to cease this fighting or he would get some of the soldiers to handle it for him. Above that all, however, was the young mans confident smile as he held up an arm behind him and waved to the group of mercenaries, "I'll seeya fellas later tonight for another round!"
And just like that, he was out the door, passing by other people, citizens, mercenaries, and conscripts alike, taking in a deep breath of fresh air before wickedly laughing to himself as he shook his head and leaned on the side of the inn. "Suckers," he muttered as he began to survey the area, discerning and filing who was new, who was old, and who looked easy enough to cheat out of their coin, as well as musing on some rather important subjects.
"Maybe I should upgrade my armor, but then again I did see nice looking charms that peddler was selling the other day..."
_________________________ Status: Feelin' Lucky
Class Page
Inventory Iron Sword Vulnerary
Experience 0/0
Stats END: D STR: D MAG: C DEX: C SPD: D DEF: E RES: E LCK: E
I'm pretty sure that 90% of the pc's are going to class into something resembling a mage from the looks of it, with Branna being that exception to the rule. Fairly certain she's going to be the second tankiest out of all of our pcs when it comes to defense, despite functioning as a crit monster that does more damage the less health she has, which doesn't help out much with tanking :P
Oh hey, look we have a balanced gender ratio now. Well, almost a balanced gender ratio.
Also, gonna post something tomorrow, probably get started on it tonight though. Stealing Yankees format, I like it, looks good aesthetically for an rp like this.
"Sorry lass, but I'm livin' life on my own terms!"
Profile
Name: Einar Gender: Male Age: 22
Personality: You would be hard pressed to find someone more self-assured and even more prideful than the most rich nobles and skillful knights beyond the fringes of the empire than this wandering Mercenary. Einar wears his confidence on his sleeve and makes sure to display it in full force with his haughty, boastful nature that is less befitting of his position than anything else. Adding onto this, he's blunt when he wants to be and quite courteous when he find it to either be beneficial or if he wants to get into the skirt of a lady. All in all, he can just be a straight up asshole at times.
This doesn't mean his completely cruel or daft, as Einar is a man who life the way he wishes. He'll boast about what he can do the best, sure, but he isn't the type to try and one-up someone unless its a contest. If anything, he'll show more of a natural curiosity towards any sort of subject, whether it be the fine arts, magic, or politics just to name a few examples. Einar has a passion for learning about new things almost all the time, finding that to be a fulfilling life. To follow that curiosity is his tendency to mull over and analyze anything he learns or observes as well.
Most of all, due to his lifestyle, he is also extremely greedy and can have a bit of a habit of hoarding useless knickknacks at times that he states he'll try to sell for a pretty penny. To add insult to injury, for everything else he analyzes, he is poor in sense when it comes to managing his own gold. More often than not, he'll tend to spend too much gold at times, sometimes leaving him impoverished and unable to afford a room at the inn or even a bowl of gruel.
Backstory: Einar, strangely enough, is an amalgamation of the different nations embodying the continent, whether it be a constant desire to learn and collect information like those from Dinas Afaraon, a fighting style similar to those of the knights in Reynes, and even having the physical build of a Themysciran but the face of a Lothian. However, all these traits and features were unified under the reality that Einar himself doesn't have a home to return to. The closest thing he can call a home are the roads he traverses and the inns he sleeps in.
Even the circumstances revolving around his birth are a peculiar anomaly, as a band of mercenary's found the wee babe at their camp in the morning, swaddled in the midst of their campsite. As far as they knew, no sane traveler would of traveled along the forested path they had carved for themselves in secret through the Lothian Empire, much less follow them up the mountains. Furthermore, the closest town was days away and the few lookouts patrolling the encampment at night noted that they saw no one enter the site.
It was quite strange, bizarre even for these turns of events, even going so far as to baffle them all for days on end about this whole situation. However, the one thing they absolutely didn't consider was leaving the baby for dead; they were professionals, but they even had standards when it came to human life. However, very few considered keeping the child around, opting to find the next town and not only look for a job there, but to ensure this kid found a proper family. Ironically enough, this group of mercenaries, known as the Ravencrest Company, would come to be his family for the next fifteen years.
The Ravencrest Company is a traveling group of mercenary's who lack any sort of permanent establishment and in truth have much more in common with nomadic groups that traverse Alba as opposed to the much more secure and renown establishments. While they aren't a large group by any means, they do have a little bit of clout not only due to their charismatic leader but their efficient pragmatism when it comes to their jobs. Moreover, once they've completed their jobs, they vanish, making them feel more like a distant memory.
Despite their plans for the boy, Einar seemed to always be enroute to become a mercenary, whether it be from those who thought that they could train another capable blade to some who had the desire to raise a child yet did not want to stop working in their trade. They were two days away from a village before one of the older members of the group, Agnar, a former knight from Reynes, who was in his twilight years and acted as a capable mentor to the other members of the group and seldom performed on most missions, making him a perfect candidate to raise the child. Whether it was out of pity for the child, nostalgia or guilt due to his own family and past transgressions, the man was set on raising him and promptly gave the lad the name Einar.
Agnar started small, determining what would be best for the boy through observing what he liked, before giving up on that endeavor due to the interest he displayed. Instead, he opted to train Einar with a weapon that he was not only the best at, but held a significant meaning to him during his younger years - the sword. The training started out small, between playing and swinging the sword around, to learning maneuvers, to feeling the weight of the weapon. On paper, it appeared that he would make a fine fit among the rest of them, but there was a difference between training and the real deal.
On one of these days, most of the mercenaries had departed from the camp to resolve an issue involving some bandits; from what they learned about the job, these bandits had been plaguing this village for quite some time and offered a sizeable reward for taking them out. What the group didn't expect was that a raiding party had discovered the Ravencrest's camp the other night and retreated to explain the situation to their boss.
While initially caught off guard from the skirmish, the small group had managed to think on their feet and rebound, utilizing every little thing around them to their advantage ranging from a few traps they were preparing to catch for some game to smothering some of the assailants with a tent and flames. However, Einar could only do so much at the time, namely just throwing pots and pans at them as the closest thing he had to ranged weaponry. Sadly, it wasn't enough, as the one who had picked him as a target found him to be easy pickings.
Einar was swift, but the bandit was swifter and most of the others had been busy fighting swathes of others, so the boy was off on his own. When he had been disarmed through a simple swatting of his blade away from him, he panicked for a second as he tried to escape, the enemies weapon poised to split his head in two. What neither had expected was that during this panic, the boy blindly held his hands out and cringed, hoping nothing would happen.
This wouldn't exactly deter the bandit, but during this time when he was shaking, he had managed to blast the man back with a powerful gust of wind, knocking them off balance. While he would remain confused as to what happened, he utilized this respite to retrieve his weapon, only to end up running into another bandit who saw him as easy prey. While he wondered about what he did back there, he attempted emulating that action when pointing his arm at the ground, much to the bandits glee when he thought the kid had no idea what he was doing.
Of course, what he was planning was to shoot up some dust into their eyes, blinding them. It worked, giving Einar and opening as the man tried to hack violently at the boy, completely missing the mark. Exploiting the opening, he sliced open the mans neck, ending his life. He had no time to feel frightened, proud, or any sort of emotion about killing the man, as the same one who had assaulted him earlier had began their offensive once more.
Hoping to emulate what he did once more, both were surprised to see a sphere of fire erupt from his finger tips, singing the soles of the bandits foot and burning a bit of the camp. While the flame was left alight, this gave the boy an idea as he used that distraction and made a bit of distance back to the cooking materials and such.
Grabbing a canister of oil, he pivoted to see that same bandit and a few more coming onto him once again and threw it in their general direction. Whether it be out of reaction or annoyance, one of them swiped and broke the canister, causing them to be splashed in oil. Testing his new abilities, he held out his hand once again, only for a bolt of lightning to shoot out, electrocuting at least two of them, while the other two were caught by surprise when their companions were lit aflame, with one of the two running into one of them and getting caught up in it as well.
The battle continued for a bit until the enemy had realized this was futile; numerous amounts of them had been lost and these had been no casualties from the Ravencrest's side, aside from a couple of them sustaining some injuries. They began to retreat, heading back to their base as the mercenaries chased them off, their own camp being a flaming, bloody mess.
While they were busy cleaning up and figuring out how to allocate some of their remaining resources, Agnar approached the boy and commended the boy on his first outing, despite how dazed he appeared. Outside of the few praises he was given, he was somewhat deaf to them right now as he breathed heavily, trying to make sense of everything that happened, before Agnar caught his attention by mentioning the magic he used in battle, stating that he didn't expect the boy to have any sort of proficiency with it.
Once the other mercenaries returned, stating their job had be plenty easy due to the bandits routing as soon as they showed back up at their camp, Agnar approached their second-in-command, a mage who was more known for utilizing tactics as opposed to slinging spells. This prompted a full on examination when they had the free time to do so, before it was discovered that he had a very high aptitude for magic, to the point where they considered him a born natural. Despite it all, Einar had no discipline over the magic at the time nor did his father have any knowledge of how to wield the arcane, request that he help him in training his adoptive son.
The mage, while agreeing, never really had the time to assist Agnar in training Einar; while he was gifted at magic, he lacked focus and control at the time, something he would later learn on his own during his time with the Ravencrest's, as well as his own journey across Alba. He continued to train with the blade and bonded with his father, but as they both grew older, Agnar began noticing a few things about Einar.
It started after after his first battle; after consoling the boy, he watched as he began practicing and swing his sword at some of their dead bodies, the blade not even coming into contact. While Agnar did want to stop, he discerned based on the look in his eyes and the way that he was handling the bodies wasn't due to desecration, but rather a strange, yet morbid curiosity in him. Learning himself where to try and strike, imagining a similar foe and cutting them down, but this of course extended beyond battles.
At times, he would have at least five, maybe eight books piled up in his tent, either borrowed from someone in camp or a library at one of the towns or kingdoms. The information ranged between the type of political situation of Lothian to a fictional book about how someone was racing to cure his loved one through procuring ambrosia from the sun. This extended beyond mere books as he toyed around and practiced with his magic, though using it for more mundane matters like drying off clothes or being the camps embodiment of flint and steel when it came to cooking. It even extended to other miscellaneous skills like fixing up his own clothes, learning how to set up traps, or even some sleight of hand.
This curiosity about the world continued as he went on, eventually working alongside the others on actual missions, that he would sometimes come back a little roughed up or injured from. This really didn't deter him from his more personal pursuits, especially once he learned the origins of his own background - being that of an enigma - from listening to one of the mercenaries reminisce on the past.
This prompted many things, ranging from a barrage of questions levied at his old man; while he did care for Agnar, it finally came to light for him when he realized that the man wasn't his real father. Einar had mixed feelings at the time, from bits of betrayal to feeling that he loved the man regardless of not being connected by blood. What did began to fester and bloom though, was his own desire to learn about his past.
There had to be a reason for his original parents to abandon him like that, right?
That curiosity began to grow over the years as Einar left the encampments they set up for longer periods of time, venturing out to every village he could to look or find some form of information about himself. Eventually, it had reached its full conclusion with his announcement that he was leaving the Ravencrest Company at the age of fifteen. After discussing the details of his departure and debating against some of their concerns, he packed up his bags, gave his father and many of his friends a tearful goodbye, before departing on his own journey.
This lead him on many different adventures over the years as he continued to seek his past, ranging from escorting a caravan of traders from Reynes to Zion to assisting in some research in Dinas Afaraon (acting mostly as a guinea pig) to lacking any sort of gold and being stuck on the isles of Themyscira for an extended period of time performing either menial labor or handling some pirates; at least the women were beautiful, so that made it somewhat worth it.
Of course, he also did have some encounters with the Ravencrest Company, meeting up with friends and his father to have a chat over the jobs they had accepted over the years over a round of beer. However, during his last encounter when in Lothian territory, he announced what his next venture would be - that he would be looking to join Alnard small crusade.
Whether it be out of some curiosity, a desire to seek his past, or just because he felt like it, only Einar knew as he departed the next day to the once bustling city of Garleton.
Combat Statistics
Current Class: Page Usable Spells/Weapons: Sword, Axe, Lance, Bow, Gauntlet
[center]Got nothing to say here, sooooo yeah.
I'm a bookworm, gamer, and obviously roleplayer since I'm on this site :P
Anyways, those are a few things that I'll say about myself... for now. Maybe I'll update this a little more in the future.
Ciao![/center]
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center">Got nothing to say here, sooooo yeah.<br><br>I'm a bookworm, gamer, and obviously roleplayer since I'm on this site :P<br><br>Anyways, those are a few things that I'll say about myself... for now. Maybe I'll update this a little more in the future.<br><br>Ciao!</div></div>
Xaltwind,
Suicharte,
Crusader Lord,
RPM,
Rune_Alchemist,
PlatinumSkink,
Yankee,
BabyKaiju,
TokyoPewPew,
shylarah
