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Character of the Season
Once known as the Butcher of Whitebrim, he's now The Butcher of Dygra, stepping forward as the first created demigod of the Ancients. There is no question that Astaroth casts an intimidating silhouette. Tall, domineering and dangerous, if looks could kill you'd be dead already, but to get up close and personal with the Grounds' resident cannibal tells a much different story. Dripping with charm and clad in only the finest attire, Asta is a gentleman monster, as polite as they come and committed to his role as security for the Dusklight and those who have earned his loyalty. Be careful of that smile, though - those teeth are sharp.
Congratulations, Asta!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
I'll Shout! From the rooftop singing, everybody gonna know my name
It'd been an eventful party, to say the least. Despite the unplanned 'entertainment' aspect, it went off rather well in his opinion. Enough so that he's got a late start this morning, although it seems he might be the only one; Flora already up and at a morning run. Sprawling over the empty bed for a moment, he yawns and blearily blinks around the room, collecting his awareness like it's a scattered puzzle. He manages to sit upright after a time, and from there dangles his feet over the bed for a moment, idly scratching his bare chest and ruffling his hair as he gathers the will to stand. After a few series of stretches, he shuffles out of the bedroom, wearing just his boxers, black with little colorful cupcakes all over them.
He heads downstairs to the main kitchen, bare feet slapping the tile with a graceless stride that speaks to too little sleep. They had partied well into the night, and all those strong drinks had been his downfall, but like any good twenty something he'll be well past the effects once he gets some grease and carbs in him. Clanking around with an equal amount of no fucks that his footsteps had, Kaisel starts to open every cupboard and pull out the supplies to make eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Uncommon for him, coffee is brewing, for once needing the jolt this morning, especially if Flora's gonna return any time soon with her-post run bounce.
Kaisel
So I gotta be loud! Don't turn it down, can't let outside noise drown you out
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Kaisel is being haunted this morning, and not by any of the house's spirits.
This particular ghost has been summoned downstairs by the smell of fresh coffee. Kai will hear him well before he sees him, judging by the soft and lingering groan that's only missing a few rattling chains to complete the picture, and as Niki appears in the doorway, he's more squinting youth than prim necromancer. The sun feels like a knife to his eyes, his hair is a desperate mess and he's only half cognizant of where he is. The sight of Kai, at least, helps to bring that last part into clarity.
"Morning," he mutters, cotton-mouthed and suffering. It's a statement, Kai might notice - not a greeting. Niki shuffles to sit at the table with none of his usual politeness or reticence, burying his face in his bare arms. He's wearing more than boxers, at least, though his dark t-shirt looks a size too big and his pajama pants are decidedly lacking in whimsy.
"Did Flora have a good birthday?" he asks from the cradle of his arms. At least, that's what he hears himself ask. It might sound more like a muffled Diflora habagoo birday?
stay your pretty eyes on course i guess i never really faced my fears before
I'll Shout! From the rooftop singing, everybody gonna know my name
The very picture of a long and stretched out cat that has heard something unfamiliar in a place that should be comfortable and known, Kaisel is straining on tiptoe. His neck is craned, trying to catch the earliest glimpse around the corner. His chest is still, breath held to better listen to the bizarre array of noise approaching. When what appears is a gangly mess of a man, backlit by the gloom of a darker room as he steps into one brightened by dawnlight, Kaisel is not put at any better peace. Not immediately, at least. For the briefest moment, he's certain there's a zombie outbreak happening, and it would be just the perfect setup to awake alone into such a hellscape. He wonders, vaguely, if he remembers seeing Flora's running shoes gone or if he just assumed without any verification that's where she is. He should have penned her.
The ghastly image of a hungover Niki quickly becomes clearer the moment he speaks. Ah, so not the shuffle of the undead, not entirely. Just a gimp who's lost more motor control than usual. Easing out a breath in relief and sagging deeper into the counter with it, Kaisel chuckles out faintly, shaking his head at his own imagination, apparently still half-dreaming. "Morning! You look like—" shit he is about to say, just as merrily as the rest of his greeting. He clamps his mouth shut so fast though his teeth click, grazing the very tip of his tongue. The last thing Flora had asked him to do was rizz Niki up a bit, in so many words, so that'd be a terrible start. "Hot," Kaisel offers instead, barely missing a beat. "The just-woken-up vibe really suits you, especially your hair."
Wow, he really is down and out with the way he slumps into the table. Kaisel's brow wrinkles into a subtle worry as he pours the pancake batter into the pan. "You want eggs, bacon, pancakes, and coffee too?" he offers, and without really waiting for a response already starts to set a few more eggs and strips of bacon aside. "Oh, fucking fantastic!" he beams back, perhaps a touch too chipper given Niki's state. "She had so many people she loves here, it was exactly what I hoped!" Glancing back up at the slump of a man after spinning the spatula into his hand, Kaisel waves it towards Niki before digging under the first pancake. "You have a good time?"
Kaisel
So I gotta be loud! Don't turn it down, can't let outside noise drown you out
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Having dismissed his cane back into his ring so he can better hide from the world in his own arms, Niki is still able to hear Kaisel, but that's soon put to the test when he hears his greeting. A greeting that culminates with you look like hot, and despite the grammatical inaccuracies, Niki understands enough to peek up from the cradle of his arms to frown across at the other man. "Are you well?" he asks, his voice still rough as the road but properly audible now.
The idea of coffee is heavenly, the idea of anything else the complete opposite, and Niki turns even paler than his usual pallor. But Kaisel is already rustling about like Niki is a customer at a cafe he's just opened, and the necromancer groans again and buries his head back into the sweet embrace of death darkness, issuing a frail thumbs-up as a catch all response. Yes to breakfast, yes to caffeine, yes he'd enjoyed himself.
"I am glad," he mumbles about Flora enjoying herself. "I had a very enlightening experience with several Blue Torcher cocktails. I do not wish to repeat it."
stay your pretty eyes on course i guess i never really faced my fears before
I'll Shout! From the rooftop singing, everybody gonna know my name
As Niki's head lifts enough to suggest some return of life, Kaisel feels properly rewarded. It's working, he thinks eagerly, and shoots back a game-winning smile to the necromancer's query. In true extrovert fashion, Kaisel is already being improved just with Niki's company, all his wakefulness coming in quicker now that he's got a target friend. "I will be," he assures, "soon as I get some food in me. Which seems to be what you need too." Maybe some hair of the dog for Niki, but Kaisel and the spirits might draw the line at cleaning up puke, so he doesn't risk seeing a blue and green rainbow on the tile by even suggesting it.
Catching the thumbs up mid pancake flip, Kaisel lets the batter start to cook up on that side. A spirit has already procured a new mug on the counter, and Kaisel readily takes it in hand and pours the energized bean juice in. "How d'ya take your coffee?" he asks, poised with the cream and sugar to doctor it up just right. His own mug is a steaming cup of enough milky sweetness to make most toes curl, more like dessert than an energy source, but it works for him. Delivering the coffee in whatever fashion Niki needs to the table where he's fallen back into the graveyard of his arms, Kaisel gently pats his head in passing. A very, there there lad motion, before the pancakes summon him back to avoid any burning.
A small laugh responds to the new religion that Niki has found, and rebuffed, in the ass-kicking mix of a Blue Torcher. "C'mooon, I saw you having a good time. And look, you're still alive!" Maybe Niki isn't celebrating that part as much, but Kaisel's ecstatic that he isn't ghosted. "Guess my premonition didn't come true, or maybe it's for another day with a house and you and Sunjata." He shrugs, not overly bothered by the idea now. He did get around to saging the room at some point last night, although he doesn't remember, but the bundle is burnt. "You like your pancakes as sweet as you are, or do you go light on the syrup and butter to make up for what you already got?" Kaisel asks, proffering a wink as he slides the first done pancake off onto a plate.
Kaisel
So I gotta be loud! Don't turn it down, can't let outside noise drown you out
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
"I will take your word for it," Niki mumbles. When it comes to what he needs after a night of heavy drinking, anyone is likely to know better than he does given how infrequently it happens. He's just about peeking over his arms again as Kai asks about his coffee, the necromancer unaware that he's just become an extrovert's juicebox for the morning. "Black, no sugar please," he says, gratitude lacing his words. It's only a moment later when the holy grail of hangovers arrives, Niki too out of it to even realise he's been there there'd.
Instead, he forces himself to sit up and face the morning (and the chipper people in it), clasping the mug with both hands for as long as he can stand it without the ceramic burning his fingers. "I do not feel alive, and I did spend some time with Sunjata, so perhaps your premonition did come true in a sense. Dreams are funny like that, are they not?" Up for interpretation and whatnot.
Considering a sip of coffee and then immediately thinking better of it, Niki blows the steaming surface instead. "I have never had pancakes," he confesses, "so I do not know. I will have them as they come?"
stay your pretty eyes on course i guess i never really faced my fears before
I'll Shout! From the rooftop singing, everybody gonna know my name
Unable to avoid making a disgusted face in response to Niki's coffee order, Kaisel nonetheless acquiesces, and surely the stiff and bitter drink will perk up the lad's wilt right quick. Which, it does almost immediately, as if aroma and warmth alone are all the necromancer truly needed.
Two world-shattering things for Kaisel happen in very quick succession. First, Niki frames Kaisel's dreamonition in such an expert way again that he is completely frozen in a state of awed analysis. There's a nearly visible loading wheel above his head, and it could almost look like time has frozen if not for the subtle shift of his sides where breath comes and goes. "You. Are. SO RIGHT!!!" he launches his voice with the fierce raise of his head and the snap of his gaze across the kitchen.
He might have celebrated further if not for the next words out of Niki's mouth, which land with the second stunning effect of an invisible bitch slap from the world. He almost drops the pan after sliding the pancake off, and as it is the utensil clatters clumsily back onto the stove, Kaisel leaning aggressively into the counter with a smack of his hands. The plate rattles between his arms where his pinky has accidentally hit the edge with the force of his shock and outrage. "W.H.A.T.!!" He hastily reaches for all manner of pancake doctoring, fingers holstering them like they're weapons aimed to end this injustice thoroughly. "Niki," Kaisel starts, an almost deranged laugh shaking free alongside the slow back and forth of his head.
"Nikinikinikiniki, what the fuck have you been doing with your life?" It's shame. He's shaming the willowy man for his complete lack of proper carpe diem in regards to breakfast. "Well, prepare to have your life changed, riiiiiiiight, now." He sets the plate down with the appropriate timing, the mound of pillowy delight that is a pancake peering back at Niki beneath the gleam of half-melted butter and the dazzle of syrup gradually flowing over almost every edge. Powdered sugar dusts the top, starting to soak up the syrup and crystallize into nougats of flavor, and at the very center a mound of whipped cream says hello.
Kaisel
So I gotta be loud! Don't turn it down, can't let outside noise drown you out
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Niki is left wondering, for a second, whether he's accidentally broken Kaisel somehow with his explanation of dream analysis. Then, of course, his enthusiastic and affirming roar erupts across the room and almost has the necromancer jumping enough to spill his coffee, and his doubts are put firmly to rest. "I try to make a habit of it," he says with dry amusement, offering a smile and raising his mug in a toast to being right.
If only the morning could have continued along that vein, Niki might have stood a chance at getting over his hangover unscathed. Alas, it appears that he's hit a panic button in Kaisel's mind, his blue eyes growing wide and saucer-like, his frail body flinching back into his seat at the slam of hands against the countertop. "I... I am not sure if I am supposed to answer that?" he says, almost at the same time as Kaisel assures him that he's going to undergo some form of breakfast rhapsody in the next few minutes.
"You do not have to..." Oh, but it's far too late, and the plate thoks down before him with Kaisel lurking over his shoulder like a well-meaning vulture. Blinking at the (very very very sweet-looking) pancake and slowly setting his mug down to take up a fork instead, Niki cuts a small wedge from his breakfast - ensuring he gets syrup, sugar, whipped cream and butter - and pops it into his mouth.
There is no fanfare. No angels weep or sing a heavenly chorus.
The syrup is a lot.
But Niki nevertheless gives his best you have changed my life, sir smile and nods slowly to Kaisel, despite how the movement makes his head pound. "Mmmm, that is... I am a different person now, I believe."
stay your pretty eyes on course i guess i never really faced my fears before
I'll Shout! From the rooftop singing, everybody gonna know my name
He absolutely does have to—and quite proudly, has. Eagerly, he hovers about until Niki takes his first bite, and like any drug addict watching someone's first hit, Kaisel nods with the knowing glee of what newfound nirvana awaits Niki. A high, alas, one can never get back, their first pancake bite. Men spend years chasing this moment all over again, they say. They maybe just being Kaisel.
Utterly satisfied by the fullness of Niki's mouth and the syrup-soaked smile he offers, the equivalent of a foodie thumbs up, Kaisel retreats with a clap of his hands and a spin on his heel. "A better person you mean," he proclaims confidently to the kitchen, setting about producing his own morning ambrosia. "No thanks needed, just pay it forward. Although I don't expect you'll ever get the chance. Very normal childhood experience for most, I would think." On the burner nearby, the eggs and bacon have also reached temperature, and in one fell swoop of cutlery and plates, Kaisel is soon laying out options on the table between Niki and he and taking his own place across from the necromancer.
Kaisel's steaming mug of sweetened, creamy coffee is so light it could pass for tea. "What do you normally eat for breakfast cutie?" he asks brightly, remembering his purpose here is more than exposing Niki to just pancakes. The success in one area encourages him towards the other goal as he reaches into a spot between the table's salt and pepper and pulls out a little paper dragon with the airs of this being utterly normal. He tugs on the Miniature Burner Dragon's tail, and a faint breath streams out cool air, swiftly making his beverage a proper drinking temperature in no time.
Kaisel
So I gotta be loud! Don't turn it down, can't let outside noise drown you out
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
"Mm, a better person," Niki confirms, having to pause to chew and swallow the large bite of pancake before he can speak any further. In that time Kai steals his opportunity to say thank you by assuring him that there's no need, and although Niki isn't certain he'll be able to pay it forward if he's in a breakfast-induced diabetic coma, he'll do his best to take the sentiment to heart. "I suppose it depends where you grew up," he says conversationally, reaching for his coffee and trying not to seem too desperate about it.
The bodied and bitter taste of his drink - even too hot - is grounding enough that by the time Kai brings over the rest of their breakfast items, Niki thinks he stands a chance at being able to get through the meal without falling victim to his hangover. He reaches for some bacon and eggs, lips parting to dutifully educate Kai on breakfast in the Greatwood before his mind catches on the... nickname? term of endearment? and he gazes slowly up from his plate. A bit of egg falls from his fork.
"Nothing nearly so exciting as this, sweetie," he replies with a dry raise of his eyebrow, not trying to hide the small smile creeping across his face as he turns his attention back to his breakfast. "Thank you, by the way. This was very kind of you."
And to Niki's credit he does manage to make a decent dent in his plate of pancakes and the rest of their breakfast, though he's soon abandoning his food to pepper Kai with questions about the Miniature Burner Dragon instead (that being far more interesting than tasting Heaven for the first time, apparently). The soldier won't need to suffer his analysis of the paper dragon for too long though; no amount of coffee can combat a full stomach and a rough night of sleep, and should Kai get up at any point, he'll turn to find the necromancer fast asleep with his head buried back in his arms.
~FIN
stay your pretty eyes on course i guess i never really faced my fears before
