NAME: Henri Barraud, though please refer to him as Bridget
GENDER: Male
AGE: Physical age 21 going on 22 Actual age 19
RACE: Pennier (hummingbird)
HOMETOWN: Ravelle, Charte
Charte: Charte is a small city far south of Esprevere, closer to the coast line. It’s for the most part unremarkable, however Charte does enjoy boasting about a rather large theatre district they have. The city is for the most part well kept, at least in the areas around the theatre and the market place where the richer folk live. You can tell when you’ve entered the slummy area just by the wear on the buildings and the change often happens rather suddenly.
OCCUPATION: Acquirer of unwanted items and part time adventurer
APPEARANCE:Bridget is a short and skinny individual, though due to his particular species he’s shorter than some pennier of different lineage. He’s an impressive 5’1”, the tallest in his family. Bridget’s wings are, generally, a bright cheerful green, going a darker green in the wrong light, and sort of brown at the tips. His hair color was green and occasionally brighter neon green in the right light, but later in life he used magic to make it darker (a close friend did the dye job, but unfortunately she was a bit of a hack, so it’s a dark green now). Bridget’s skin is just slightly tanned thanks to healthy amounts of sun.
He also has a relatively long tongue which he is oddly amused and proud of. Touching your nose with your tongue is always a great ice breaker. His face can best be described as ‘cute’ in a cheek pinching sort of way, if you don’t pay attention to the manic snaky smile on his face. While you’re pinching his cheek, he’s probably pinching your pen/napkin/and possibly anything else ‘not of value’ on your person.
(REFERENCE) (REFERENCE)PERSONALITY:Bridget is a cheerful sort of person. He’s an easy sort to get along with, and he’s the sort to pretend to have known you all your life. Bridget is fun loving and loves to be where there’s a fair amount of things going on. This doesn’t mean that he’s a horrible chatter box, though. He usually knows when to be quiet.
Bridget is the sort who is constantly busy doing something, even if that something is industrial sized nothing. During battles though and when practicing, he does have the capability of calming down.
Spontaneity is something that one quickly associates with Bridget. Most of his life he’s done everything on a whim, from his random joining of whatever group seems best to his name.
Bridget is a compulsive thief, but he’ll insist otherwise. He doesn’t take things of ‘value’; rather he’ll walk into someone’s house, look around, maybe pocket a roll of paper left lying around, or make off with your cigar case and any cigars that happen to have been in there at the time. Bridget is also of the opinion that an unlocked door means that whatever’s inside surely isn’t that important (he makes a note never to pick locks; he’s got morals). His mind is a bit twisty and illogical, but he really believes himself to be a decent honest guy (in so far as a compulsive picker upper of things that are, at the end of the day, still not his can be honest). He’s a fairly simple minded person who commits small crimes. Being as simple minded as he is some people see him as a bit of an idiot but that’s other people’s business as far as he’s concerned, whether or not it’s true. And being as simple minded as he is; this leaves him open to believing lies of almost anyone with a convincing tone of voice and a good story to go along with it.
Almost everything pocketed over the years has found a home in his room, meaning it’s a bit of a hazard to live in if you’re not small and careful moving around. It’s organized chaos. His mother tried to raise him up right and being clean stuck a little. Everything is kept in their own boxes with labels, and he airs out his room often, and moves his boxes out and dusts them... then moves them back in his room again. It’s a lot of hassle, but he really hates throwing things away. But every now and then his living space will get in such a condition that he’ll reevaluate the need for five boxes of fountain pens and possibly get rid of some things. When he moves to a new place he often mails his boxes back to Charte with the misguided notion that his family will want to keep them, just in case they ever need a spool of thread or if his family runs out of silk handkerchiefs.
He’s also a bit gluttonous. His metabolism is monstrous and so he often has some small snack on his person. Rarely do you find Bridget without food. Despite his eternal proximity to it, he does not know how to make anything more complicated than a sandwich. So over the years he’s become rather good at wheedling food from people around him by being small and looking pathetic. Bridget, despite aforementioned belief that he’s an honest soul, is actually very good at lying.
In terms of religion, he actually believes it which is why his mind comes up with an excuse or an explanation for just about everything he does. He makes sure to keep clean and all, but beyond that he tries not to concern himself with it too much, for fear that he might go crazy.
HISTORY:Henri was born the second child of six, to a poor family in one of the slummy areas in Charte; a small city in Ravelle. Despite poverty, the family was rather proud.
As long as you don’t beg in the streets, you can keep some pride. Work hard, keep your head down for the elite, but don’t ever let your chin touch your chest because then you’ve hit rock bottom. His parents made a point to beat this attitude into their children. Henri wasn’t so much into the hard work aspect, or at least not the work that his parents and siblings did. Henri was often absent and either playing in the streets or watching traveling performers if any were passing through.
His parents were strict practitioners of Aileism, and everything in the house was kept as clean as possible. Baths were like rituals in his household, and bed time stories were more often than not a recitation of stories and the laws that their parents had heard as children.
This brought about a dilemma for Henri at an early age. When he went out to play with his friends from the streets, he was often shown the spoils of his more interesting friends’ day. Cash purses, rings, cookies nicked (may the goddess stomp on me wings if I’m lying) straight out of the oven. Henri, of course, wanted nothing more than to boast about his own bounty and steal his own cookies out of burning hot ovens but his parents and Aileism taught him it was wrong to steal. Of coarse, being called a cowardly flower licker washed away some of the apprehension, and he reasoned that so long as it wasn’t important, who’d care? So, he sidled into a bakery kitchen, nicked a rag right off the sink counter, and sidled out full of glee and terror. The baker saw, of course, but didn’t pay it any mind which may have been a mistake. Beyond empowered by this, eight year old Henri made a habit of picking up small items, at first from people houses and then from peoples pockets and purses and the habit stuck. And while napkins and spools of thread weren’t terribly impressive, the fact that he could mooch around an unsuspecting persons shop and come out a used cigar richer, still lit, gained a little respect. For a year and a half he built up his own little pile of treasure. Of course, it’ll only take so long before ones parents find out about your bad habits.
When they did find out, they didn’t yell at him, but Henri got pretty well acquainted with their disappointed faces and they quietly pulled him aside to tell him that his soul would wander the earth with no wings if he continued to steal. Henri felt bad for about a week or so, and then went about his regular nicking, but now with a little niggle for every item taken.
Upon reaching the age of thirteen, Henri got an early case of wanderlust. His other siblings seemed to be fine with working hard in the lower class, but Henri wasn’t satisfied with this. And he couldn’t take much more of walking inside and being hit with guilt in his super religious home. So he decided the next troupe of travelers who came through town would be the troupe he’d run away with and ask for a job. As luck would have it, a troupe happened to be wandering through Charte not terribly long after he’d made his decision. After packing up a few small things and asking one of his more privileged neighbors who knew how to read and write to write down his address for him (in the eventuality that Henri would learn to read and write) so he could send things home, he set off towards where the troupe was performing.
Stowing away in the troupes costume crates was surprisingly easy. And by the time they’d discovered him they were a good way away from Charte. This was when Henri met Aurelien LeVan, a large rough looking crow pennier. He and the troupe decided to take Henri in partially as a companion for the only other teen, Therese, in the troupe and partially because they thought he was a street urchin and none of the group was a stranger to poverty. The troupe was made up mostly of crows and two kia parrots and all looked a little nasty in the wrong light but were for the most part rather nice.
So for the next year or so Henri traveled around with them, watching them work, and helping out when they happened to run into other travelers in the road. He never noticed that every time they left a town they’d always leave slightly richer than is natural for the amount of work preformed, or how they moved a little quicker after helping some weary traveler. During the year he and Therese became as thick as thieves, Therese often treating Henri as a bit of a little brother. The rest of the troupe treated him as if he was their own personal doll or stuffed bear, and that year Henri felt as though he hardly ever touched the floor unless they were working (since they couldn’t every well go on stage holding a very small teenager).
During this time Henri and Aurelien grew close as father and son. Aurelien never had a kid to pass anything onto, and he saw the opportunity in Henri. He taught the boy all the tricks he knew, from putting on proper make up to using one of Aurelien’s favorite weapons when he was starting out, the boomerang (as a lad as small as he was ought to know something about defending himself). When Henri wasn’t being manhandled by various troupe members, or off with Therese, he was stuck close to Aurelien’s side.
By the next year Therese was more than confident in her friendship with Henri that she felt like she could manhandle him without their friendship taking a strain. And she felt comfortable enough to preform with him. Therese decided to create a double act and wouldn't even consider him disagreeing,
but you’ll have to have a stage name! An alias. No one in our business can get by without one. So she pulled the boy to the camp fire and explained her need of their expert minds for her idea. And being people who are reasonably amused by things like this, they brainstormed stage names and finally came up with Bridget, as Henri was usually seen in the company of Therese and drug around like a small puppy. Therese, as a young girl, was once the proud keeper of a tiny orphaned pup, whom she named Bridget the Wonder who was her almost constant companion (the dog got into everything, went on everything, and frequently tore up costumes. It drove Aurelien a little crazy and so he gave the puppy away.
...the puppy was subsequently adopted by a sweet young lady who sold flowers and turned into a very fat and happy dog). The troupe all got a good chuckle out of it; of coarse Henri was a bit out of the loop but you never need a person to understand for certain things to be funny. It was something that kept them temporarily amused by the fireside for that night. However Henri thought they were being somewhat serious. And really, a boy named Bridget sounded much more interesting than Henri did in his opinion. So, the next morning he insisted being called by Bridget. The troupe insisted they were just kidding around and poking a bit of fun, but Henri now Bridget refused to acknowledge it and wouldn’t answer unless they called him by that name. After a while he found that he was comforted beyond reason when he was called Bridget. He only found out later when Aurelien called him Henri because he’d had enough of his silliness. Being called Henri just reminded him of too many niggles and things he’d rather not acknowledge about what he does, and the name Bridget had become something of a shield for him and another bend in his logic that kept him feeling guiltless and sane. The rest of the troupe saw how uncomfortable and sulky being called ‘Henri’ made him. From then, Aurelien was the only one who called him Henri and only when he was upset with him or trying to make a point.
The next few years were as normal as a wandering troupe could get. Bridget eventually got to perform along with the rest of the troupe, performing simple tricks. He traveled with the group for a total of four years. One his fourth year he started to suspect that, just maybe, they were thieves while pretending to be street performers. Bridget never found that out however, since at seventeen he announced that he was going. Aurelien never asked why, since even if he told him not to, Bridget would just sneak out in the middle of the night. So instead he gave him his boomerang, a map, and directions to one of his old friends of his who lived in the area. Bridget left the troupe, deciding to see Aurelien’s friend first.
Within a half an hour, Bridget decided himself to be lost. He wandered the mountain for five days before deciding he was probably going to die. But, as luck followed him through most of his life, luck found him a little old pennier, with gnarly everything, smoking a pipe. Bridget thought the old man to be one of those Mystic types, as he seemed to be seeing things that weren’t there. He watched man carefully for most of the day. The old man, after he’d stopped seeing the spiders, identified himself as Olivier. Bridget informed him of his problem and said he was lost. Olivier, still a little off, said that all were lost. Olivier had left his hometown a long time ago since he had believed at the time that society was on a downward spiral. But Bridget found this to be very mystic indeed and decided on a whim to stay as a pupil. So Olivier, deciding company for a little while was okay, allowed Bridget to stay and taught him what leaves to pick and how to grow them. But beyond that, Olivier left Bridget to his own devices. Bridget meditated, and smoked a lot, and saw a great many large spiders, smoldering wolves, and pink colored who knows what until he built up a tolerance for it, and often hunted for the old man with his boomerang. This went on for two years until he’d come up with a technique. Bridget, feeling rather confident in his technique thanked the man and went off in search of a town.
Upon reaching town, and wandering around, nicking a few things, he found a poster for the Asterion League and enquired about it at a tavern. Liking what he heard he decided, what the heck, as he had nothing better to do.
COMMON KNOWLEDGE:- He’s from Ravelle.
- Bridget probably isn’t his real name.
- He has a terrible love of food.
DIVISION: Offensive Magic / Ranged
CLASS PROGRESSION Conjurer > Illusionist > Summoner
During all stages of development, Bridget uses a pipe.
Job 1: Conjurer - During the first stage Bridget relies mostly on his pipe and his smoke. The plants are placed in the pipe and he takes a deep drag. The plant allows for a temporary increase in focus and then he attacks them with his boomerang. Though, as a novice, the effect wears off after a turn. He's a bit sloopy with his boomerang without aid of his smoke, but at least he doesn't get hit in the face with it when it returns anymore (well, not often, anyway). Magic is a mystery to him. He knows it's there but he's not terribly good at using it just yet.
lvl1 outfit top + gloves made of leather
Melee (0) Ranged (2) Magic (3)
Job 2: Illusionist- The second stage is an improvement on the first, only now his smoke is hallucinogenic. The smoke tricks the enemy into believing that there are more than one Bridget's on the field boosting either his evade or the evade of a team mate. He's grown mostly in his magical capabilities, however his aim with a boomerang has increased.
lvl2 outfit only.... cooler looking... subject to some serious change.
Melee (0), Ranged (4), Magic (6)
Job 3: Summoner- Bridget has finally made it to the point where his smoke can take form into something tangible. He's grown to a point where he's most comfortable using magic. It’s no longer his boomerang hitting his enemies behind the screen smoke; it’s now and a solid soot and ash wolf held together by magic. However, his boomerang skills aren't lacking. He's kept with it to the point where he's pretty decent with it when his magic fails.
lvl3 outfit again, subject. And probably a little more ratty.
Melee (0), Ranged (6), Magic (9)
SPECIAL SKILLS: Battle Skills:
Sharp Mind [Positive Stat Effect (self-only)]: Learns the skill at level one, and he smokes his pipe. Bridget gains three points towards range in the first level, and can hold onto his focus for one turn.
Haze [Positive Stat Effect (Evade) any]: Learns this skill at level two, and the smoke causes the enemy to fall prey to hallucination. This increases Bridget or a party members evade by four or six, once he reaches level three.
Summon Fire [Summon shield]: Bridget blows out smoke, and the ash particles form into a solid wolf. The summon adds +15 to hp and uses the magic ability fire, however once it’s hp goes to zero it disappears for the battle.
Narrative Skills:
Hover: This is a skill that comes naturally to Bridget because of his species. However, due to his fast metabolism it’s unlikely he can do this very long without a full stomach prior to hovering or without pushing himself.
Sleight of hand: This does not refer to any ability to pull cards out of people’s ears, but the ability to snick small seemingly unimportant items. It’s sort of like pick-pocketing, however it doesn’t require bumping into someone and you usually aren’t aiming for anything expensive.
Aerial Acrobat: Bridget can fly not only forward but backwards, sideways, up, and down thanks to the hummingbirds fully rotational wings. He can dart quickly and go from a stationary hover to motion almost immediately. However, again, he can’t keep up his fancy tricks for all that long unless he’s had a good meal or he has a good meal on his person during flight (and carrying a steak dinner along with you in the middle of a mission is next to impossible).
WEAPON: Boomerang
LEVEL: One
POINT ASSIGNMENT: Melee (0), Ranged (3), Magic (2)
HIT POINTS: 22
EVADE: 11
OTHER NOTES
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