Brotherhood of Jesters

[Khasar]

Khasar had only ever been in a few cities, but this one was by far the most active. Nearly all of the buildings had bricks painted white or were constructed from marble. That wasn't very convenient when it came to hiding the dirt or scum splattered across most of them, but it seemed to be a common style. The market place was full of exotic foods and clothes, and screaming vendors from all sorts of nations and places offered to sell them at low prices. There were seemingly thousands of performers lining the street, and by the time you left on minstrel behind, leaving his music as well, you came into ear shot of another.

Our hero was standing next to a man who was juggling fire, with a crowd around him. Now, most people told Khasar he was average when he complained about his height. But he always seemed to be shorter than every other man he met. Now, standing in the back of a large crowd, he had to slide his head from side to side to see between the gaps of people. He was trying to tell if the man was using- Yes that was it. He's using magic. He was sending his fireballs in a circle, and once it reached the other hand, he let it extinguish, but was already in the process of creating another. It was actually more impressive than some simple illusion.

Then a voice ripped through the air. "You! Young man! Yes you! Red hair, straight back, orange bandanna!" Khasar turned around. He pointed to himself quizzically. "That's right, get over here!" The jovial tone came from a young man with blue hair. He was on stilts that were at least seven feet tall, and Khasar slowly strolled over to him, followed by a few other people in the street.

[Brutus]

"Actually I have black hair, and a red headband, but thank you for noticing my straight back. You know it's difficult to maintain when-" He began speak, closing his eyes smugly with a grin before opening them and seeing... no one was paying attention. "Oh. You aren't talking to me. Well then." He sounded embarrassed as he straightened his headband, deciding to follow the small crowd of people anyways. He noticed the original red headed headbanded doppelganger, you know if doppelgangers looked completely different then you and were also shorter.

Brutus had pulled into the city a while ago, it was kind of crazy and chaotic and completely fun. It was so different from his home, in which he came from, no snow no mountains and best of all no dragons. It was all white and marbley, and that surprised him. Marble was a super rare, super expensive thing where he came from and no one could afford it. He's seen maybe marble a few times in little fancy sculptures in the bakery and the blacksmith's house, it was pretty but not exactly anything to go crazy about. It wasn't anything to go crazy about here either considering it looked like all the buildings here were scrubbed down with a reverse scrubbing cleaning thing. They were filthy with dirt and scum and mildew and water damage and well it just wasn't exactly a pretty place.

Tarasque was probably somewhere, doing something. He left him at the edge of town, they didn't usually like it when they let him in which was crazy because they had to be crazy to not see how cute he was. No, they're all like 'he'll scare the horses' or 'he ate my dog' come on, like there wasn't enough dogs out there as is. Not that he actually ever ate someone's dog, but everyone was afraid he would. Apparently most people didn't think wyverns were cool, most people seemed to be crazy in some way or another.

"Oh hey, red hair orange bandana. So you're the guy." He said with a laugh. "Nice posture." He commented with a grin before turning to the guy wobbling around on big ol' stilts. Stilts that were taller then he was, and the guy on them towering above everyone in the area. He seemed like a silly guy, what use could there be for stilts so big? It was madness.

[Khasar]

Cu prowled the outside of the city. He was sure Khasar would only be in the stay-pack a few nights before they saw each other. He would have time to hunt, and Khasar would have time to be with other men beast. Then, if one of them got lost, they would find the other. Cu knew his man beast's smell, and he knew Khasar was a good tracker among man beasts. For now he was perplexed by a large lizard with wings. He and Khasar had seen them before, and Khasar seemed to like them pretty well. They hadn't had to fight any yet, but Cu knew they would. Nearly every man Beast Khasar talked to asked them to fight something. This Wyvern however, seemed peaceful, but Cu ducked down in the tall grass to hide from it.

-----------

Khasar, "Looks like it's me. Thank you?" He wasn't sure if the comment about his posture were positive or negative. He was unclear how it could be a joke, it's how Khasar stood. The man on the stilts shouted down, "My associates are clearing the streets as we speak, and I'd ask if you, good sir would care to race for the chance to win a sack of gold coin? Khasar grinned and said, "Why not?" There was an opening in the street now, people dispersing, giving the two men a space to run. The man looked down and bellowed , "When the coins hit the ground, you may begin to run, the first one back to them, wins." With that, he dropped a large sack of coins.

Khasar watched as it fell, and took off at a full sprint the second he heard it hit. He pulled ahead of the stilted gentleman quickly, but the man was moving faster than the nomad had expected. As he reached the end of the street he turned. He was yards ahead of the man now, there was no chance he'd lose. Yet, as soon as that though appeared in his mind, the people who'd previously moved, now took two steps closer to each other. Khasar had no time to pause and question it, he turned his body and tried to side step through the people. One of the stilts passed his face, as the man's stilts could fit through where Khasar's shoulders could not. Suddenly a tall man with fiery mopish hair blocked his path. Khasar saw the man with the stilts reach the coins. Damn it.

The man in front of him handed Khasar a piece of cloth. He said, "At midnight, go to the south side of town, find a street called Ichtar. There will be a door next to a torch, that door will have the symbol with this mark on it. Find us." Khasar raised his right eyebrow, but the man walked away. A few other street performers around the street had disappeared, including the man on stilts. Odd. The man with fiery hair locked eyes with the black haired man from before. Then he too faded away.

[Brutus]

Tarasque perked his head about, his sharp wyvern hearing thought he had heard something. Whatever it was, it couldn't have been anything worth worrying about, so the wyvern bent his head back down. The creature's razor teeth tore through the dead deer's flesh with absolutely no problem as it gobbled down the meat. He was enjoying his hunt, and he should hunt again soon. His human had been gone for some time, so he had no time to hunt. Tarasque would have to hunt for his human, for he was the better hunter of the two, and it was his responsibility to provide for his human.

---

Aw man, it was a race! He wanted to race... He would have totally won too. They began running, and the little guy was like super fast. Running like a something that moves fast, a mouse or cat or something. The dude on the silly stilts moved much slower, but took huge steps that let him cover large amounts of ground at a time. It seemed the catguy would win, but obviously that wasn't how it was gonna go because there was no way they would just let some person win that much gold. There had to be a catch, and a catch there was when the people formed a human wall and junk. The stilts guy just walked over them, all hunky dory, but the catman was locked out.

Stilts guy won, catman was sad but kind of confused looking, and Brutus was incredibly unentertained. Some guy came up to him and opened his mouth to say something, but Brutus cut him off. "Can you believe that? How lame, they cheated and everything. I mean if that was me I would have just jumped on top of the people or pole vaulted, or call Tarasque. Then I'd just whoosh over them like pshoo. What about you?"

The man had absolutely no change in his expression, instead he just spoke with a somewhat creepy tone. "At midnight, go to the south side of town, find a street called Ichtar. There will be a door next to a torch, that door will have the symbol with this mark on it. Find us." Then he passed a note or something into Brute's hands, and before he could even look confused the guy was gone. Like gone gone. Like Brute was crazy and he was never there in the first place gone. He looked around a bit, and the other people were gone too. What? This was... what?

"Hey! Posture! That really happened, right? I'm not crazy am I?" He called to the only other person he could still see, the catman.

[Khasar]

Khasar had... absolutely no clues as to what was going on. He tried to see where any of the men had disappeared to, but he could not. The people who seemed to be regular folks had simply walked along, giving any direction as an option for the dispersion. His best bet on finding out what was going on, and why he should have been picked out of all those people, was to find this building they were talking about. As the people moved about, he saw the black haired guy holding a piece of cloth just like his. "Hey! Posture! That really happened, right? I'm not crazy am I?"

Khasar laughed as he walked over to him, "I don't know you well enough to pass a verdict on your sanity. My name's Khasar Gei, of the Wolf tribe. Humans, always forget there are Taguel wolves. What's your name?" As Khasar said his name he extended his hand to shake. He looked down at the cloth in the manse hand. "Say, you got one too? Do you think it's safe to go? People say I'm too trusting, but it's too intriguing not to take the chance, right?"

[Brutus]

"If you always forget, then why did you say it right after with absolutely no provocation? Sounds like you remember, you just have a hard time working it in to the introduction." Brute tilted his head as the man introduced himself, but smirking all the same and with a raised eyebrow no less! Still he took the hand without any hesitation and smiled. "I'm Brutus, and you have a good point. Even I don't know if I'm crazy or not sometimes, and I like to think I know myself pretty well." He chuckled as he shook his hand, what wit. It didn't take long for the man to notice the little leathery clothy thing in his other hand, and the way he reacted seemed to imply that this dude got one too which honestly made Brute feel a little less special. If it was going to be some kind of ancient ritual or brotherhood of thieves and assassins or a secret meeting where the person who comes is declared super king of all of everything, it was sad to know that any old dude with a headband would work. He felt so dirty, and used.

"This thing?" He held up the cloth with the crazy little symbol on it, pointing with a wide grin. "You can bet I'm going, I mean they go and pique my curiosity and everything. I don't care if it's trusting or not or anything, but it sounds like fun. An adventure too, and goodness knows how I feel about those." He said, crossing his arms. "Still, if I'm not the only one going it would probably be better if we went together. Less of a chance for one of us to be gruesomely murdered or eaten by crows or vanish into the ether." He stopped for a moment and laughed. "Also... I don't really know my way around town. I don't think I could find Ichtar street alone." His shoulders slumped, his face looking uncharacteristically embarrassed for a man who knows no shame. Scratching the back of his head with an uneasy grin, he didn't stop there. "So... Will you help this poor man out?"

[Khasar]

Khasar smiled and nodded, "I guess you're right, I've never really been afraid of any of that sort of thing, and it's good you'd think of it. I probably should, everyone back home said that I should be more cautious but it always seems too much to worry about. If something's gonna happen, and other people do it, me worrying about it won't do anything you know?" He turned to look behind him to the sun. It would set in maybe an hour or two. That means south was... Right behind him.

He looked back at the other man, and scratched his nose right across his scar. His scar always irritated him, and any irritation brought back the memory of how he'd gotten it. A memory he didn't particularly like to think about. He drew his Nodachi closer to his shoulder, and spoke, "Well, we know south is that way, you want to go ahead and see if we find it? We may get there early, but we can always go and look at something else while we wait. C'mon." Khasar motioned for the older man to follow with a swing of his head, then he turned, assuming the man would follow. red]"You know, I feel like they picked us for a reason. For some reason I keep getting pulled into messes like this. As if the sword just means I'm looking for trouble. Which I guess I am, looking for other peoples troubles to solve. Though occasionally I wouldn't mind taking a break, but not right now. Just a few days to sleep and rest for a while you know? Every few adventures."

[Brutus]

"Yeah, I get you. I mean even if I thought I would get mugged, or blown up, I'd probably go anyways. Worrying too much will probably just get you gray hair, and wrinkles, and make you bald, I'm too young for any of those things. I just think that as long as we're both going, might as well make sure we both come back." He said with a shrug. It was rare for anyone to say HE was worrying too much, in fact most of the time they criticized him for rushing into things for no reason. It was... hrm. Somewhere between annoying and flattering, probably both at the same time. It flew against everything he knew about himself, but to be seen as responsible and mature for once seemed kind of nice. Maybe he would have to try and do it again. The headbanded friend was scratching the scar on his face, subconsciously it made Brutus reach up and scratch his own. Okay, maybe not subconscious because he realized he was doing it, but he still did it without telling his self to. It made him think, and that in turn made him wince. He was quick to put it out of mind though, nothing healthier then repressing your problems after all.

"South is that way?" He asked, confused. He let out a nervous laugh and pointed in another direction. "I thought south was that way." Which was strange, because he had a really good sense of direction... You need it to fly in the sky. Though he might be wrong, which is completely possible since he usually just followed his gut and never really thought about north, south, weast, whatever. He didn't know how to read a map anyways, so that little squiggly pointy thing in the corners of them didn't mean much to him, and as such the actual cardinal directions as well. Still the guy knew what he was doing, so he decided to follow. Khasar proooobably knew better then he did, since he probably couldn't find this street without a lot of trial and error.

"Personally I love getting dragged into things like this, it's so exciting. I mean they could be a cult, or maybe an underground fighting arena, or maybe it'll lead into some dungeons, or a conspiracy plot, or any number of things." He grinned, sounding particularly happy as he followed the complaining man. "Resting it over rated, that time you spend doing nothing is time you can spend doing something like training or getting better or helping people or exploring." Brutus couldn't say he's ever had to overly sacrifice his sleeping time. Like skimp on it sometimes, sure, but never not sleep for days on end because one thing after another that couldn't wait piled up. He had a feeling that this person was exaggerating for the sake of making his point. Or maybe he was telling the truth, but still sounded fun and a perfect opportunity to get stronger.

[Khasar]

Khasar grinned at the other young man as they walked, "Don't get me wrong, I like being an adventurer. There's a certain freedom you don't get if you're tied down. I've passed through a lot of towns, and though the people seem happy enough, it just looks dull. Sure this city's pretty hectic, and I like that, but isn't there something great knowing that at any given time, you can just change everything? Anything in the world could happen to you? So, while I like sleep, I'd rather see every cave and cliff in the world before I lay down for that whole eternal sleep thing." He plucked at the rope tied to his sheath so that the sword would be pressed tightly against his back, then the rope would go completely relaxed. It was one of his many ways to keep his hands busy.

"So where ya' from then Brutus?"

Ooc: If you want you can time skip after your answer.