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Character of the Season
Frail in body but dangerously quick of mind, Nikandr is the sort of character who proves that curiosity can be just as perilous as any weapon. A necromancer, inventor, and problem-solver with more ambition than self-preservation, Niki approaches the world like a puzzle box begging to be opened, even when what’s inside has teeth. Blunt, dry-witted, fiercely independent, and carrying a history best left partially buried, he has a knack for making even failure feel fascinating. Whether he’s raising the dead, moving across Caido to King's End, or experiencing a hangover for the first time, Nikandr brings a wonderfully strange spark to Caido, and we can’t wait to see what trouble his brilliant mind wanders into next.
Congratulations, Niki!
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!
08-19-2024, 01:15 PM (This post was last modified: 08-20-2024, 10:55 AM by Odd.)
Finding a unicorn herd hadn't been too hard when Talyson could fly overhead in the Peregrine and peer down at the landscape below, looking for wandering horse-shapes against the Flowerbirth-green of the new grass and the joyful pops of color from all the meadow flowers.
The first herd he'd seen had turned out to be actual horses and would Flora even know the difference? but he had a reputation for his services to maintain and he would know, and the second, smaller herd had the unsettling dark coats and purple eyes of the Void, but after a couple more hours of sailing Tal finally spotted a herd that had the requisite spiraling horns on their heads and a variety of colors beyond the gothic spectrum. There were even a couple of frolicking foals kicking their heels up as they raced around the calmly grazing adults as the herd drifted slowly across the meadows.
The scruffy, dark-haired courier brought his skyboat down in a slow curve a fair distance from the herd and behind a rolling hill to avoid spooking them. Boreal, a burly, blunt-muzzled, dog-sized dragon with scales the pale whites and pastels of a glacier, carried a bucket with a tight-fitting lid down while he slid down the rope ladder until his feet touched the ground. Then, shovel in tow, he began working his way along the herd's previous path, keeping an eye (and nose) out for landmines. His companion trotted along behind him, proudly carrying the bucket in her formidable jaws as they sought their rather unusual quarry.
You have power over your mind - not outside events.
She'd needed a break from Halo, from the exponentially worse chill, from the patients that she couldn't hear. Elizabeth just needed to get out. When she'd wandered into King's End, she'd been looking for peace and quiet, a place to pull her mind away from wallowing in self-pity. She'd known that getting cursed was a high likelihood. She shouldn't have been surprised when the spirits descended on her. Yet the truth still stung, raw with recent memories.
Pulling her jacket closer around her, Elizabeth willed the sun to chase the ice from her veins, but it couldn't reach the supernatural clutch the cold had on her. She gave a shivered sigh, the sound echoing strangely in her own ears as it encountered the perpetual ringing. As much as she wanted to take this time to enjoy a book on her grassy knoll, the sound distracted her from the words on the page, like an obnoxious soundtrack that didn't go with the storyline. So, instead, she sat staring at the unicorns as they grazed their way across the glade, making her smile at their majestic beauty.
Flora hadn't said how fresh it had to be, though if it was going to be fertilizer it seemed like 'dry, days-old poop' wouldn't be the best for the task. Then again, freshly steaming from the horse's rump wasn't all that appealing, either, as the one gathering the magical mulch.
Tal compromised by finding some horseunicorn apples that had cooled to air temperature but were probably less then an hour old. Putting the bucket to use, he gathered several shovel-fulls of the shit before securing the lid down tightly over the unpleasant contents. Once it was full, Boreal lost all interest in toting it around, however, forcing the courier to lift the hefty container with a huff at his not-so-helpful companion. "Gee, thanks," he grumbled fondly at her as she investigated a blue wildflower, studiously ignoring him. "... Well, guess I'm just lucky y'aren't tryin' t'roll in it." He shook his head ruefully and straightened to crack his back--
And saw someone sitting on a nearby hill. Someone who looked weirdly familiar as he squinted at her. Definitely her. And not someone he'd expected to run into in King's End! "C'mon, girl. Let's go see what she's doin' here," he encouraged his dragon, who snorted and lifted her head, miraculously cured of her previous deafness at the mention of someone new to meet. The pair headed across the meadow and up the hillside and Tal raised his hand in a cautious wave as they got close enough to speak. "Hey, Elizabeth," he called, uncertain how he felt about seeing the therapist again. "What brings ya t'King's End?"
You have power over your mind - not outside events.
As she continued to observe the beautiful unicorns, Elizabeth noticed another figure in the grassy field. Surprisingly, he was shoveling feces? She couldn't think of any reason someone would do such a thing, but who was she to judge? Maybe it was for the dragon following at their heels? Deciding to dismiss the odd behavior, she curled her cloak tighter and rubbed her hands along her arms, trying to chase away the chill.
Distracted by the cold and incessant ringing, she almost didn't notice when the figure approached her little hill. Even Talyson's voice had difficulty reaching her ears. She only turned his way when his familiar face became recognizable. Elizabeth noticed his mouth moving, piecing together that he'd said her name and asked a question, but what, she couldn't tell. Her mouth came up in a polite smile, speaking loudly as she said, "HI TALYSON! HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Glancing at the dragon next to him, she also asked, "WHO IS THIS LOVELY CREATURE?!"
Tal winced back from the yelling, but she was smiling at him...? And her words were polite enough, just... loud. Boreal snorted in surprise but took the volume in better stride than her companion. After a moment's hesitation to observe the human and determine that there would be neither shoes nor newspapers forthcoming, she padded right up to Elizabeth and sat back on her haunches, front talons perfectly placed in front of her and scaly tail sweeping slowly through the grass and wildflowers behind her as she looked up at the woman with soulful eyes.
Tal just snorted as his dragon shamelessly cadged for attention, and looked back to Elizabeth uncertainly. He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment before setting his bucket down so they could talk more easily. Or... whatever was going on. "This is Boreal," he answered the most important question with fond exasperation, expression softening as he looked at his mischievous companion. "An', uh, I've been... okay," he said cautiously. "Y'don't have t'yell, y'know...?" He trailed off into a question of his own, brow furrowing in confusion.
You have power over your mind - not outside events.
Straining to listen to the words, her eyes squinted slightly. Elizabeth glanced at the dragon and grave her a smile. "HI BOREAL! NICE TO MEET YOU!" She held a safe level of caution in reaching out, not having the best track record with large creatures, however, her eyes sparkled with interest. Dragons weren't a common sight in her line of work.
At Talyson's barely registered comment, Elizabeth blushed slightly, lowering her voice a decibel. "Sorry! I've got a major ringing in my ears, so it's hard to hear!" She pulled her cloak tighter, as if that was even possible, and cocked her head to the side. They hadn't left on the best of terms last time, but she hoped that the man didn't hold it against her for their small disagreement. It wasn't that she disliked him. They just had different opinions on the Void.
Trying to push aside their history, she gave him a smile warmer than her current innards, her curiosity peeking through. "What were you gathering out here?!"
Boreal was used to being yelled at, though mostly by Tal and usually for something that she'd done to deliberately rile him up. She blinked and pulled back a bit in surprise as Elizabeth shouted at her, but the woman's voice, though loud, was kind, and her body language was friendly. After a moment while various machinations went through her lizard brain balancing the potential for having vegetable or slipper thrown at her vs. the chance for scritches she came to the decision that the human was probably in the latter category, and pushed her broad head under Elizabeth's hand with a happy rumble of hello, tilting her warm, scaly cranium to encourage the woman to find the itchy spots.
Tal wasn't worried about Liz hurting his dragon, but he looked openly relieved when she stopped yelling everything and explained. He even made an effort to raise his own voice, though he stopped short of shouting his words. "Oh yeah? Uh... d'you think it's somethin' that could be Healed?" he asked awkwardly, lifting his hand to wiggle his fingers so that the golden ring on one of them glittered in the sun. It had done the lion's share of fixing up his stab wound during the first meeting. He also remembered the tension in that meeting had ended, and truthfully he wasn't crazy about seeing her again... but having Alys in his life was incentive enough to make an effort at being less stubborn and more understanding.
Well, at least a little bit. Sometimes.
The scowl fell back into place all too easily as she asked her question, however, and he glanced down at his bucket with a long-suffering sigh. "Got a client in Torchline requestin' unicorn shi--uh, manure," he hastily corrected. "So I'm headed there after this." He gestured to her blanket and her book, scowl fading to faint confusion as he returned the question. "What about you? What brings ya t'King's End?"
You have power over your mind - not outside events.
Elizabeth smiled at the attention-seeking dragon, obliging with a polite rub of her hand across the hard scales. Her shimmering white scales didn't ease her thoughts about icy Halo, but she tried to push aside the reminder, focusing on the warmth exuding from the creature. Shaking her head, she sighed. "I don't think so, but I hope it'll fade soon!" The wound was still too fresh, and she didn't have the desire to share her shortcoming with the man, so she kept the answer vague.
Tal's own reasoning surprised her, especially as he seemed to reconsider a particular term. She wouldn't have cared if he'd screamed it in her face. It wouldn't offend her in the slightest. Although, she still wondered why someone would want such a thing. Raising an eyebrow, she simply said, "Interesting!" It said more about him as a professional that he was willing to procure such a substance for another. Her eyes contained nothing but respect for him.
Clutching her cloak tighter again, Elizabeth was reluctant to think about her own recent interaction that had brought her out this direction. "I was trying to escape the cold for a bit!" Not that it was working. The climate might be warmer, but she still shivered slightly with discomfort at the internal chill she couldn't escape. Anyone who looked at her would see that she was miserable. It was even hard for her to sleep with the incessant ringing and biting cold.
He was usually pretty tactless, but even Tal knew better than to try and push healing on someone who didn't want it. He just shrugged at her reassurance and dropped his hand back to his side. Normally he would have dropped it to his companion's head, but Boreal was busy making Elizabeth's acquaintance and taking shameless advantage of the young woman's willingness to scratch around her horns and the itchy spots behind her brow ridges.
There wasn't much else to say about his task; Flora had client confidentiality, and as much as Tal talked shit sometimes, he didn't enjoy talking about shit. Even supposedly magical unicorn shit. So he was clearly relieved when Elizabeth didn't linger on it and instead answered his question in return.
"Yeah? Guess it takes some gettin' used to," he allowed gruffly. She wasn't a native Halovian, after all, so could be forgiven for not being inured to the extreme cold yet, even outside of Deepfrost. "Still pretty nippy here in Flowerbirth, though. Just my opinion, but y'might try warmin' up in th'hot springs in th'Climb. Frey's Breath's supposed t'be good for all sortsa stuff, too. Might even help with your ears." And who knew, maybe she'd even find a Lily while she was there?
But for once Tal decided not to press his luck. The meeting had been neutrally pleasant enough, and any more conversation might inevitably lead back to feet ending up in mouths, so he bobbed his head at the therapist and picked his bucket back up, ready to head back to his boat. "So, uh, I gotta get goin', but I'll see y'round, I guess?"
You have power over your mind - not outside events.
Letting the dragon guide her hand to its desired place for scritches, Elizabeth considered Talyson's words. She didn't comment about the fact that the cold she was feeling wasn't regular, or that the escape from Halo hadn't really helped. Instead, she just nodded her head as if she just needed to get acclimated to her new home. However, the mention of the hot springs piqued her interest enough for her to give him a grateful smile. "I'll have to give that a try! Thank you!"
With the conversation seeming to be at its end, Elizabeth gave Boreal one final rub. "Okay! Good luck with your client! Until next time!" She gave him a polite wave before turning her gaze back to the unicorns. She wasn't quite ready to leave the presence of the majestic creatures. Even if they weren't interacting with her, she found their presence soothing, like a balm to her wounds. So Elizabeth stayed to watch the equine animals as Talyson and his dragon departed.
