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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!
"Why, what are you, some sort of boogie man?" Flora wonders lifting an eyebrow toward Danta. Having only seen Asta's fyrhund shift from far away before and when her mind was focused on other things, the queen takes a moment to appreciate the beast's fiery grace and savagery as he attacks the orb. "Nah, not really. I think gravity and air worked?" Flora comments with a shrug. "When my dad went over to Starfall he said that nothing he did seemed to work against Dahlia at all, so when they get their hands on this, they all sat around and attacked it to see." She explains.
Frowning a touch to see Asta stalk down the beach, she nevertheless is rather amused as the Maverick shrinks into a ball of sleek black feathers. Danta's talons and beak do about as much damage as Asta's claws had, though Flora doesn't look that upset about it. She hadn't expected much to come of it, though now she could safely tell Seren that they'd done what they could.
Assuming Danta would shift back so that Asta wasn't forced to wait down the beach for the rest of the afternoon, Flora stuffed the orb into her bag and slipped her shoes on before wandering down the sands toward the butcher (presumably with the Maverick in tow).
"Okay now for the real fun. I picked up some obsidian from the Climb recently and I was hoping to sprinkle some shards of it inside some of the nearby caches that I have a feeling are being used without my permission." Lifting her brows, the queen gives her head a stern shake. "Even if our maybe thieves are able to avoid cutting their fingers, the obsidian is so flaky I'll know if anyone has opened them when I next come around to check. Sound good?"
Now all they had to do was find the first one...
"It's on the beach, somewhere up here, beneath one of the trees, and the tree should have an upside-down star carved into it.."
Find the first cache!
I trace the evidence, make it make some sense why the wound is still bleedin'
// a beast in the business of selling forgiveness //
Unable to explain due to the shift he’s in, the fyrhund watches his attacks work just about as good as he’s expected now, before trotting down the beach. Sat there with his head hunched between his shoulders, he noses and paws at a crab that’s crawled through the sand, utilizing it as a distraction while he knows Danta’s in his avian form.
So he waits until he can hear Flora’s words as she approaches, and he rises back to his feet — still facing away just in case. He shifts back and smooths out his shirt and pants, ignoring the thin stripe of blood illuminated heavily by the sun from where it had dried. His arm still slightly stained lifts to block out some of the glaring sun overhead to peer over at Flora with eyes brightened by the light sand around, coloring them into a honey hue. “Sure, darling.” Astaroth hums, some small part of him quieter than before — is it due to the gore crow thoughts that invaded amongst the bloodbane usage previously, despite his attempts to keep them out? Who knows! (the answer is yes.)
Picking a section of the beach with a cluster of trees, the butcher starts heading that way — with or without company — and begins to search the trunks of the tree for an upside down star carved into the trunk.
Astaroth goes down the beach and picks a cluster of trees and starts to look for the upside down star on the trunks!
"I certainly am," Danta drawls as he rises back to his feet from the feathers that had been there previously. "I forgot to mention it to you earlier, sorry. Gravity and air, though? Noted - I think Kiada mentioned something similar." Deimos had told her, if he remembers correctly. Either way, apparently now there's fun to be had, and Danta adjusts his sunglasses and trails after Flora just in time to watch the crab try to flee away from the butcher as fyrhund becomes man once again.
"Oho," Danta announces, clearly in the mood for some fuckery (as is almost always the case). "Sounds more than good. Let's see what we can find." Rubbing his hands together, naturally the Maverick goes trotting after Asta, both to check he's not losing his fucking mind and also to try and cheer him up.
Clapping him warmly on the shoulder as he dashes past, Danta pauses to kick a little water from a rock pool at the other man, before delving into the thickets of trees.
Using a large orb of fire to navigate the shadier parts of the area, he's also on the hunt for a tree with an upside down star, burning away any weeds or webs that get in his way.
Danta joins Asta on the hunt for the tree! He uses his fire magic to see better in the treeline and to burn away any weeds or other foliage.
Fire Manipulation: Can create and control flames. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Dark | Rank: Mastered
'cause I'm selfish, I'm obscene
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Thanks." Meeting his gaze, Flora nearly reaches out to stop the butcher that she might try and pick out all the different strains off colours suddenly visible in his eyes. Alas, it's with a regrettable sigh that she lets him go. Maybe after their work was done she'd see if she could convince him to stand by the ocean to see if she could coax some blue or green into the golden fractures she saw.
Opting to leave the ancients to their own exploration—they'd cover more ground if they weren't all balled up together—Flora wandes a little bit away into the next grove of trees over.
Penchant for fuckery or no, it's Dantalion who will find the upside-down star, its tip pointing down directly toward the tree's roots.
Danta has found the tree with the star! What does he do?
I trace the evidence, make it make some sense why the wound is still bleedin'
// a beast in the business of selling forgiveness //
The touch to his shoulder almost has him flinching, but he keeps it together in the face of Danta’s antics. And he wonders whether he should be trying to play more of the game and remain alongside Flora in spite of the fact they hadn’t all just split up. But those thoughts vanish the second the droplets hit his clothes, darkening his already dark pants.
“Hey!” Huffing a playfully annoyed laugh, he follows after the Maverick and the orb of fire that guides the way. Coming up empty, the butcher continues his search until he decides to investigate what Danta’s currently occupied with — as such, the butcher shifts again into that fyrhund shift, trotting over to see the star Danta has found, and with a wag of his tail he starts to dig at the base of the tree to try and help reveal the cache.
Astaroth comes up empty and goes to investigate Danta’s spot! He shifts into his fyrhund shift to dig into the sand easier to try to find the cache!
"Oi, fuck off - it's mine!" It's entirely unclear whether Danta is being playful or serious as the butcher lopes over in his fyrhund shift and starts digging for the cache he's found fair and square, thank you very much. Still, noting the wagging tail and the eager to please digging, with a groan the Maverick lets his fire go out and steps back to allow Asta to do his job. "Good boy," he drawls, smirking and glancing over his shoulder towards the beach and the treeline.
"Flora!" he calls, in case his initial outburst hasn't caught the Doubletake's attention. "Come and check this out!" He's not stupid enough to yell hey come and see the secret tree where our thieves' guild cache is buried, but y'know. Let's not assume he's smart, either.
'cause I'm selfish, I'm obscene
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Lifting her head at the commotion—luckily for anyone watching it probably seemed as though Danta and his fiery pet dog were just fucking about—Flora jogs in their direction, grinning at Danta as she nears. Wot's all this then? "Careful you goof." The queen chuckles to Asta, one of her hands reaching forward to stop him before pausing and pulling back; he certainly seemed like he was made of molten rock and lava, so perhaps patting him wasn't the best idea.
"These boxes aren't that strong." She explains. "The ones more out in the open are, but these hidden ones aren't." Asta's claws might not have done shit against the orb, but he'd crush this box if he wasn't careful.
Twisting, Flora takes off her bag and sets it down before pulling out a few shards of obsidian. "I don't know how careful you can be in that shift..." She murmurs to Asta, before her eyes flick up to Danta. "But we need to shave these down into as thin of pieces as we can."
Lets make the pieces as thin as possible!
I trace the evidence, make it make some sense why the wound is still bleedin'
// a beast in the business of selling forgiveness //
Regardless of whether it’s playfully said or not, there’s a deep growl that escapes the fyrhund’s maw in response. His tail keeps wagging, though, so evidently it seems like everything is fine. Sand flies at his back feet as Flora arrives, the butcher pointedly ignoring the good boy comment, until Flora’s telling him to be careful. His digging slows and he grows far more careful, trying not to crush or maim the box.
When he’s referred to again, the butcher rises and with his ears perfectly pointed toward Flora, there’s a snort of smoke that escape his nose as he lifts his paw, large and wholly incapable of carving something down.
So, shifting back and kneeling beside the hole and by both Flora and Danta, he reaches for that knife again in his boot. “This may be easier.” He murmurs, flashing a smile toward the both of them, still tempered but a bit more open. Grasping one of the pieces of obsidian, he sets the knife on it at an angle, utilizing the sharp blade with precision to try and create those little chips and shavings she needs.
Asta’s more careful while digging before abandoning that to shift back and grab his knife to try and carve out some shavings from the obsidian!
Standing by with his hands in his pockets as Asta digs and Flora approaches, he offers the Doubletake a fanged grin in return before his attention turns to the cache and the obsidian. He has nothing to really assist, but as it happens the butcher is all ready and prepared. "So we're going to line the cache with the shards once we've got them the right size?" he assumes, stepping forward to kneel down opposite Asta.
Using the oversized linen of his shirt, he holds it out so the other man can deposit the slivers of obidian into his covered hands once he deems them thin enough - and with Flora's approval, of course. No need for any of them to get their hands cut to ribbons after all, right. "How many other caches are out here for us to check like this?" he asks curiously.
Danta offers to keep hold of the obsidian shards once they're cut thinly enough!
'cause I'm selfish, I'm obscene
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Glancing down at the dog as smoke curls from his nostrils, Flora looks down at the offered paw thinking for a moment that he meant to shake. "Oh, er, right." She chuckles once she grasped what it was he'd meant. Hissing in a little breath as the butcher shifted right there in the earth, unsheathing a blade from his boot and grinning at both she and the Maverick, Flora glanced over her shoulder towards Danta, eyes widening slightly. "Okay, but that was so hot." She hums under her breath before watching as the butcher begins to whittle their obsidian down into useful shards.
"Yep, more or less. I don't want too many, maybe just a few right on the lip so that it's super clear if it's been opened and messed with, you know?" Lifting her brows, she nods toward the box.
As for how many more? 20 posts more, bby. "There's a few more like this up the beach and then I figure we can end back at the bar and put some in the guild itself?" Flora was pretty sure that no one went in there who wasn't meant to be, but there was no reason not to check.
Danta to put the obsidian slivers into the cache!
I trace the evidence, make it make some sense why the wound is still bleedin'
// a beast in the business of selling forgiveness //
The sun catches on his horns, illuminating in a fiery rainbow of hues while he focuses on carving off little shards, flashing a grateful smile toward Danta for the offered place to shed the carvings into. He does hear Flora’s comment, snorting lightly, trying to let the awkward feeling that had bloomed from utilizing their shifts on the orb.
The butcher stops when enough shards are cut, settling back on his heels and lets his dark gaze flicker toward Flora, inclining his head toward her. “I certainly won’t say no to returning to the bar after this.” Something sweet and delicious to soothe away the awkward sensation. “Would you like for me to hold onto this for now, darling?” He asks, lifting the obsidian as the blade also glints in the light.
Astaroth finishes cutting off a few places and sits back so that Danta and Flora can place it in the box how they want, and asks Flora if he should hold onto the obsidian so he can create more shards!
Scoffing at Flora's remark - because she's not wrong, and the bounce of his eyebrows towards the butcher says as much - Danta continues to collect up the slivers of obsidian until there are enough to accomplish their task. Scrambling to the edge of the hole Asta has dug, he scoots into it enough to open the cache and deposite the shards around the very rim of it, placing just a few in subtle places intented to slice and stab rather than merely disturb it. That way even if it doesn't look disturbed, some bloodstains might prove otherwise.
"There." He clambers back out of the hole and dusts himself off. "If you want to fill that back in," he says, nodding between Asta and the fun his fyrhund shift had been having, "I can always fly ahead to try and find the next one? Sooner this is done, sooner we can get back to the bar, right?" He winks at Flora. And also has to use his gore crow shift one more time for levelling ok.
Danta sets up the obsidian shards and suggests flying ahead to find the next cache while Asta fills the hole back in!
'cause I'm selfish, I'm obscene
Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Please and thank you." Flora purrs in response, her smile lopsided as she watches the play of darkly hued colours from Asta's horns shift like liquid beneath the sunlight. Glancing at Danta, an eyebrow raised, the queen merely shrugs. If he wanted to fly ahead so be it, but of the two of them she knew which she'd prefer to stay with. "Holler if you find something." She murmurs, assuming he would in the same manner he had before.
At Asta's side, where canine or man, the queen adjusts her bag on her shoulder as she peers down at the butcher. "Hey, you okay?" She wonders gently, having noticed a slight dampening of his normally bright smile. Perhaps it had to do with Danta and his shift (no, no, just the former, Flora), but in case there was something else, Flora would rather hear about it sooner rather than later, and selfishly perhaps when it was just the two of them.
Danta to scout!
Asta to rebury the box!
I trace the evidence, make it make some sense why the wound is still bleedin'
// a beast in the business of selling forgiveness //
Not wanting to have to continue shifting back and forth, Asta’s smile is a smidge more muted while Danta makes his offer of scouting on wings. Pocketing the obsidian and knife for the moment, he leans over the hole once the Maverick retreats, hands starting to pull sand into it to cover it. He knows Danta knows him well enough to get out of sight before shifting, so he focuses silently on covering the box again to hide it when Flora’s question shakes him out of it again.
“I’m fine, darling.” He says softly, not wanting to worry her even as he straightens up and leans toward her, brushing her shoulder with his own and offering a soft muted smile. “Gore crows, specifically, set me on a bit of an edge. But I will be fine.” Reaching up once he’s wiped the sand off of his hands, he cups her jaw gently to give her a soft squeeze, before he withdraws to stand and offer his hand if she’d joined him in the sand.
