[Hickory]

   The plague had driven the pack apart, and honestly, it had been sad. Not only had the place that accepted him broken up, but he knew he couldn’t return to the marsh from before Borogrove. Now Hickory had to travel, find a new place to live. He feared so much, jumping at every shadow practically. Before Borogrove, he had rarely been looked at by others, out of fear, or out of disgust. Maybe more people had changed how they handled people who looked different, but he still felt such fear in his stomach, it almost made him sick. As well, he had grown to like the presence of a pack. The first night on his own, he had cried. Hickory had never known how much he craved interaction with others. He had taken for granted how nice it had all felt. And now, he was once again alone. The second day, he had decided that he didn’t want to remain alone. Even if nothing could compare to Borogrove, he knew he could find some place new. If they had accepted him, surely another place would as well. 

   So a few days later, he was still traveling about. He had ran across scents of others, but fear kept him away. Him mind constantly told him that the next pack, he would try to join them. And then the next, and then the next. Now he had accidentally gotten closer to the border of a pack then intended, and it was finally that ‘next pack’. There was no reason to turn away from it, so close that the scent was almost sweeping over him. As he came closer to the border, he felt himself shaking. Looking at the sky, he knew it was mid afternoon. Would anyone be around at this time of day? The sun did not help to hide him; he almost felt warm enough to glow. Before he made any sound to alert anyone of his presence, he would sniff the air with all noses, searching closely as he could without possibly stepping over the border line. If he did nothing wrong, they wouldn’t hurt him, surely, but there was the creeping fear in his stomach that liked to try and tell him otherwise. 

   Finally, Hickory gave a small, short howl. It started from one mouth, and he cut it off as soon as the other two echoed it. The last thing he wanted was someone else to think there was some sort of invasion or threatening group at the border. No, he preferred to only speak to one person, not multiple. He sounded too close to three, so he kept everything short, before all his faces spoke. As soon as he would hear someone getting close, he would back up some, tail tucking slightly, and trying to control his multiple faces. The middle one he tried to keep normal, eyes open, mouth ready to talk. The two on the sides, he tried to keep the eyes closed, as well as the mouths, and ears pushed back. “H-hello? I’m Hickory.” The temptation to add he was from Borogrove was there, but that technically wasn’t true anymore. Hopefully whoever stumbled upon him wouldn’t be too frightened.

[Excalibur]

OOC: I'm sorry Excalibur isn't nicer >.<

---

She wore her new rank like a medal on her chest. She was a Vanguard now. She was something again. Her stride was purposeful, her posture more confident, every inch of her had been groomed and primped because she was someone again and she revelled in it. Granted she was only on the bottom rung of the ladder, but that was hardest step to take, from here she could start to climb.

Hickory's howl drew her attention, it echoed seemed to echo a little strangely but she thought nothing of that. A border enquiry was just thing for any over zealous and ambitious wolf to respond to so she readily did. Quick steps covered the ground towards the stranger, a red speck in the grey landscape that grew larger and larger until she could see... Her reaction was not subtle, she froze, paw raised and staring.

Hellions were not an uncommon sight in Gemini, nor had they been unheard of in her old pack, but here there did seemed to be an uncommonly large population of them. When she first arrived she had briefly wondered if it was some sort of Hellion sanctuary, before realising that Gemini was just a magnet for all and any waifs and strays, herself included, though she conveniently forgot that fact where possible. The whole fangs, horns and crazy fur thing was a fairly pedestrain fact of life she had come to accept as much as she accepted her eyes were yellow and another's might be blue. This creature though pushed her credulity to it's limits, she was not frightened, rather repulsed, it was deformed, it was wrong.

“H-hello? I’m Hickory”

"Some sort of Hiccup alright." Excalibur said, slowly moving closer, getting his name wrong through not listening to the introduction properly because she was too busy trying not to recoil. "This is Gemini." Freak or not he was still a suitable guinea pig to flex her new found authority on. "Exactly what business do you have here?"

[Hickory]

    Honestly, he should have seen the reaction coming. Some part of his mind gave a sigh, a shrug like ‘this shit again’, but it was just a very soft thought, fear and anxiety being what mainly showed from him. Hickory knew that even for a hellhound, he was a bit extreme. As the stranger from the pack came up, he slightly ducked his heads down, trying to bring attention only to the middle face. He kept the other faces’ eyes closed, hoping that maybe it would stop the other from drawing their gaze across all three faces. But it probably wouldn’t work, he knew. Even if there were no eyes to catch their attention, there was still the sense of something wrong to draw in the attention. Hickory swallowed hard, made nervous by the other’s slight obvious reaction.

    ”Some sort of Hiccup alright." Hickory had been called Cerberus once before, and he could feel the mistake in his name this time as well. Although when he had been called Cerberus, it had seemed almost a way in awe and wonder, rather than confusion and repulsion. Maybe if he showed how he was useful and not a danger, then this girl would see that he was okay to be around. Borogrove had gotten use to his unique appearance, surely another pack could. ”This is Gemini.” He nodded his faces to accept that answer, taking the name into mind. He had known there was a pack here, but didn’t know the name. Either way, he had a pulling here versus other packs he had walked by.

    "Exactly what business do you have here?" Hickory slightly frowned, worried it wasn’t obvious he was there to try and join. He represented no pack anymore, but maybe the pack scent was still on him. “I’m here to try for acceptance.” He said sheepishly, the faces to his sides softly echoing his words towards the end. “I w-was apart of a pack named Borogrove. I was a healer, there. But then it disbanded.” There were some diseases that even the best healers couldn’t fight. The new land they had gained brought forth sickness, and the pack fell apart. “I was hoping for a n-new home, where I could continue to help with medicines and learning more.” He hoped he was giving a good pitch.

[Excalibur]

"I’m here to try for acceptance."

The other two faces came alive just enough to echo the end of the sentance, which was enough to make Excalibur actually recoil and blink in surprise. "Oh!" She had thought the other two faces were a weird sort of deformation, a unfortunate anomaly, like an extremely funny looking mole or something. Talking though? Now that was plain creepy... And kind of fascinating. She had never seen anything remotely like this.

“I w-was apart of a pack named Borogrove. I was a healer, there. But then it disbanded.”

Hickory was clearly uncomfortable and nervous but, while Excalibur noticed that, she took no heed of it and was still only barely listening to the words coming out of his main mouth. She was too busy craning her head and stepping left and right to take in the full breadth of weird before her. She was quite literally looking at him like he had two heads, except he had three. "Borogrove... A healer...Is that so?" She murmured, parroting what he had just said to play for time to think of something to say that wasn't WHAT ARE THOSE?!

“I was hoping for a n-new home, where I could continue to help with medicines and learning more.”

She managed to give his words enough attention to get the gist of them. A plethora a questions sprang to mind but none of them were related to his history or skill set. "We have medicines and things... I'm sorry-” She wasn't at all sorry. "Do they think?" She asked suddenly, giving up the pretence of being interested in his resumé. They could come back to all that; she was the one in charge here after all, she justified it to herself, it was her duty to ask questions which meant they could be whatever questions she liked. "Are there three of you in there?"

There's a long list of inappropriate and cliche things to ask someone with three heads and Excalibur was absolutely going to ask them all.

[Hickory]

    He knew that he was unique looking, but the more this girl looked at him, the more nervous he felt. She did not make any movements to try and hide how curious she was. While it was kind of nice for someone to not outright act as though he were normal, it was weird feeling for someone to get so focused on his faces. "Borogrove... A healer...Is that so?" She was barely paying attention to what he was saying, he felt. If Hickory did not want to risk his chance of getting into Gemini, he might have said something outrageous to see if she noticed. Instead, he held his tongues, slightly leaning back and looking away from the stranger. The girl was stepping around everywhere, trying to get a good view of everything. In nervousness, all his eyes opened in a squint, peering at her.

    "We have medicines and things... I'm sorry-” When he had been accepted into Borogrove, it had not gone down at all like how this was going down. "Do they think?" He almost cocked his faces to the side, somewhat confused. No one had really referred to his other faces as if they were a separate entity. Hickory dropped trying to gain full control over his faces, letting them all move the same way, but focus still mainly within the middle, normal face. “They?” It escaped him softly, still surprised by being called as if they were multiple people. "Are there three of you in there?" Hickory had been raised pretty alone in his life, but he was pretty sure these were not the type of questions you usually ask someone.

    “N-no. Just one of me. Hickory.” Although what Hickory didn’t know was that the person that played him named him after the little rhyme ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’ because of his three faces. As he spoke the face ones softly echoed, as they do. “I can kind of control the side faces, but without focusing on them they kind of just mimic whatever I’m trying to do - with my front face. It-it’s dominate.” The more he spoke, the more the side faces echoed. “My side faces are….passive.” Was that the best word to use for it? He had eyesight all around, and hearing all around, but it was almost as if he just had a lot of space in the corner of his eyes. Normal people would see one screen, while he got three screens for the film. He wasn’t sure how to truly put that into words, though.

[Excalibur]

OOC: Sorry this is late!

---

“N-no. Just one of me. Hickory”

Well that was kinda disappoint actually Excalibur thought, she had been morbidly hoping for some sort of conjoined triplets longing to run off in separate directions scenario; as it turned out he was only a mutant on the outside and entirely ordinary inside. "Oh. Hickory?" She heard his name properly this time. "I think Hiccup suits you better." She added instead of offering the apology one would usually expect.

"So have you got three of anything else?" She pried wanting to make sure she had the full details on just how strange Hickory was - And reader please remove your mind from gutter, she means belly buttons or toe nails. 

"I can kind of control the side faces, but without focusing on them they kind of just mimic whatever I’m trying to do - with my front face. It-it’s dominate. My side faces are….passive.”

Excalibur watched and listened the other faces echo in rapt fascination, mouth slightly open and lips pursed thoughtfully. "That's so weird." She concluded, closing her mouth and shaking her head slightly. "You can't have an argument with them then?" That was also a bit disappointing... But then if he was just one person arguing with himself then that would have meant he was crazy. So perhaps it was a good thing afterall?

"Anyway-" Her curiosity somewhat, if not entirely, sated she reluctantly concluded should probably get back to the actual reason they were here. There needed to be some sort of professionalism. "But you said you want to join us? Go back to that bit." She directed a little pointedly, as if Hickory had been the one to get them off topic. "What was it you did again? Medicines or something?" See, she had been listening. Kinda.

[Hickory]

    At least this girl wasn’t outright disgusted with him, or at least he felt. Hickory had grown up seeing his faces, so he had grown used to his appearance. What he never would be use to is how everyone reacted. It was something he felt like he shouldn’t get used to, anyways. "Oh. Hickory? I think Hiccup suits you better." If this were the office, he would be looking into the camera. But he just gave her a look of defeat, and acceptance. She seemed to be very strong on what she wanted, and he wasn’t going to argue his name with her. He knew it was, and if she didn’t call him that, it didn’t matter too much. Others would probably call him Hickory, not Hiccup. He also didn’t understand why the name Hiccup: he didn’t have hiccups.

    "So have you got three of anything else?" He tucked his tail in tight, shaking his heads no. Even if it was possible to have more than one of something - yes, what you are thinking, it has been mod approved before -, he did not have anything else thrice of. His answers seemed to be making her interest wane, and maybe it would get them off the topic of his looks. "That's so weird. You can't have an argument with them then?" He shook his head no again. “I-I could try? But I don’t think it would work.” He could barely talk with one face, though, so he doubted he could try to fake argue with his other faces. Maybe if it would please the girl if he tried, he would attempt, but he felt very confident it wouldn’t work.

    "Anyway-" He gave a soft sigh of relief, mainly being an outing of air from his noses. Hickory wanted the conversation to shift over. He hadn’t been a border guard, but he was sure there was something else they were supposed to be talking about. "But you said you want to join us? Go back to that bit." Yes, this was a topic he could speak about with confidence. Or as much confidence as he could muster. "What was it you did again? Medicines or something?" He nodded, a little more happy and a small smile growing on his faces, tail untucking. “Y-yes. I was apart of a pack called Borogrove. They taught me how to heal using herbs. We had a garden and everything.” There was a slight tone of reminisce in his voice. “I was pretty good. At least, they trusted me with healing others.” 

[Excalibur]

Hickory tucked his tail and shook his head in answer to her question of threes. She sighed slightly at pronouncedly timid gesture which put him firmly under the umbrella of 'pansy' in her mind; Excalibur's opinion of nearly everyone was that they were in some way deficient.

"I-I could try? But I don’t think it would work.”

Not suprising, but still kinda a shame. "You should work on that. Make a good party trick." She was like a really bad mother-in-law, full of unsolicited and impolite advice.

"Y-yes. I was apart of a pack called Borogrove. They taught me how to heal using herbs. We had a garden and everything. I was pretty good. At least, they trusted me with healing others.”

"If they were so good to you why did you leave them then?" She asked raising her eyebrow at him, a slight suggestion that she thought him disloyal, she had missed the bit earlier about them disbanding by being too busy ogling.

"Medicines are useful." Excalibur conceded, everyone got poorly sooner or later and wanted to feel better fast. "What else can you do?" She looked him up and down, this time focusing and analysing  the slender body and legs instead of the heads. "You're probably a bit top heavy for running all that fast..." She mused aloud, unable to picture how he would run down hill with out face planting, which must be even less dignified when it happened to all three of your faces at once. "Fighting...?" Her incessantly creeping brows suggested she thought that was unlikely as well.

The only limited defence that could be offered for Excalibur was that her appointed role was that of a Vanguard, all they had said was protect, no one had said anything about being nice - that said she genuinely would have said she was being nice.

[Hickory]

    Hickory didn’t know a lot of things. Even having lived in Borogrove, he wasn’t sure what a ‘witch’ was. He had grown up so isolated that he hadn’t properly learned about words in life. "You should work on that. Make a good party trick." He didn’t know what a party really was, but he just kind of accepted her words. He had been doing that their entire meeting, it felt like. Gemini would be teaching him more about life, he decided, without meaning to. There was too little he knew. But at least he knew about herbs, which gave him a good standing for being in a group. Others liked it when someone could fix them up.

    "If they were so good to you why did you leave them then?" Hickory slightly gulped, realizing that he hadn’t made it clear. He had not left Borogrove by choice - he loved the pack - but it had fallen. Was it wise to talk of the sickness that no one could cure? “Borogrove is no more. It fell apart.” His eyes went to the side, and an obvious sadness came about him. Anyone could tell that he wished his words weren’t true, but that they were. "Medicines are useful. What else can you do?" He took a moment to think, while Excalibur went on speaking. "You're probably a bit top heavy for running all that fast..." He had learned how to run short distances, enough to get away from danger. Did hiding count? He had hidden in mud before when he lived in the swamp. If he didn’t use mud, his red fur would be a dead giveaway.

    ”Fighting…?” He wasn’t thinking about fighting, but a small grin came onto his faces. “I’m kinda scary looking.” He looked up at her with all his eyes. “I’ve scared others off before without having to fight.” Start yelling gibberish with three faces and a lot of people shit themselves and high tail it out of there. “I also think of myself as a decent advisor.” A more serious answer, but the idea of scaring people off with his appearance was also a serious answer. The person who had taken him into Borogrove had been a child, and had trusted him into her circle. It wasn’t officially an advising job, but he kind of felt like it was.

[Excalibur]

“Borogrove is no more. It fell apart.”
 
"I see." Excalibur said, noting the sorrow that crept over him. Not quite so disloyal after all then. "Well, I can relate on that one." She said, thinking back to Albion; as far as she knew it still existed, it just was not her Albion anymore, not without Arthur, without him it might as well be gone. Her thoughts spiralled from that point threatening to lead her off down dark paths, down thoughts of what was, of what would be and what she had failed to do and every single thought was bitter enough to make her want to spit. Now was not the time to dwell on those things. She clenched her jaw and breathed deeply through her nose, fixing her eyes on Hickory instead. 
 
“I’m kinda scary looking. I’ve scared others off before without having to fight.”
 
She took an involuntary shrank back when he flicked all his eyes to her and she balked a moment, mouth working indignantly, torn between anger at having been made to look jumpy and being somewhat impressed. That was a pretty neat party trick! "Effective but unusual, like the rest of you." She settled for in the end. It was maybe a compliment?
 
“I also think of myself as a decent advisor.”
 
She smiled at that one and shook her head slightly thinking he was making an obvious joke at his own expense - She had already harshly judged him as weird and timid so would instantly discount any advice he could have given her, which was a shame, but then again it would take a lot of advice to fix her attitude. "You're going to need a sense of humour for Gemini." Or you'll go mad. Ghost, ghouls, monsters and macabre decorations had been her welcome and she had only just scratched the surface of this place.
 
She stared at him openly then, eyes flicking between the heads, lips pursed. Decision time. She still had a number of head related questions she wanted to ask really but… Did they make any difference to his acceptance? The herb knowledge certainly was useful; granted they had a number of healers already, but another one from somewhere else might know new things? He could add to their knowledge. It was shame he wasn’t brawnier, but then again not everyone could win the genetic lottery… Though they rarely lost it quite this badly either. He was certainly strange but that was more a recommendation than a negative here despite what she might think about it.
 
"You may join us." She said with a stiff nod. Decision made.  "You may tell everyone you have been accepted by Excalibur." She said it like she was bestowing the highest honour in the land. If Hickory did tell anyone he had been accepted by Excalibur their most likely response would be 'who?.
 
Excalibur probably was making a name for herself, but it wouldn't be for her great work ethic and good deeds.