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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!
As far as Astaroth is concerned right now (and too drunk to read the room completely well), he steps away from Danta to figure out the karaoke machine, catching Flora’s slow smile and Danta’s slump back into the chair. Sighing a little to himself, it takes him a few long minutes of fumbling shit with too drunk hands.
There’s a victorious chime as he gets it figured out, and it’s an old song that starts to play. And it’s a deep rich voice that purrs out of the butcher as he starts to sing, following the melody as it rises as falls, letting it fill the bar as he sways a little in place, dark eyes focusing toward where Flora and Danta seem to be having a conversation amongst themselves.
Let's be real, Asta - you can't read a fucking room sober, otherwise you'd not have walked headlong into the mess you're in with Flora.
"Three's not really a party though, is it?" Danta mumbles, wincing at the tang of whiskey as it hits the back of his throat, almost mimicking the Doubletake's reaction to her own drink. "It's just a crowd," he finishes, the words much rougher as he tries to speak past the alcohol. Shivering a bit and letting out a hard enough sigh to puff out his cheeks, he wonders if perhaps this would have been easier if Flora hadn't dismissed everyone in the bar. People to bounce off, places to go and mingle, and so on.
Out of nowhere, though, Asta's voice cuts through to them, and the Maverick glances up sharply enough that his surprise is evident in his expression. "I had no idea he could sing," he mumbles, before glancing quickly back at Flora. "You know what - I'll take the snapdragon. Uppers, right?" His crooked smile is forced as shit, but he's faked worse in his time.
Dantalion
// with every step that I ran to you //
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Oh shut up." Flora hums affectionately, nudging the Maverick's shoulder with her own. "Listen, it doesn't have to be weird just because we're dating." She adds, assuming he was upset because he felt like he was the third wheel (and not because he was annoyed that she didn't even realize that she was). "Besides, it isn't like anything's going to happen." Much as she'd have been thrilled for Asta to tug her away into the backroom for a quick makeout, Flora knew him well enough by now to know that wouldn't happen. Especially not with Danta's mood the way it was.
Mmmm, but then he's singing and Flora finds herself lost in something that's distinctly Astaroth. No doubt were Koa in the butcher's place he'd be vying for audience participation, instantly starting a sing-along and waving his hands to get the crowd into it. Jack...probably wouldn't be caught dead, but if he was, he'd probably just force a bunch of his crew to go up for Don't Stop Believin' and then he'd duck out while everyone else was focused on hitting the high note. But this seemed adorably Asta; unpretentious, uncomplicated, and unbothered.
Also so fucking hot, because who doesn't love a man who can sing. (is he hot, or is he just in a band, amiright)
"Wow." She hums, breathless. Not quite able to pull her eyes off of the butcher, it takes a good several seconds before Danta's request repeats itself in her mind. "Right, it's uh, in the back. I'll be right back." Not wanting to disturb the butcher, Flora holds up a finger to indicate she'd back—and not that she was running off or anything—before slipping through one of the doors in the back of the bar.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
They continue their talk and he’s very much suddenly aware by the eyes on him — and so a flash of bright teeth is beamed down toward them as he continues, tail still waving behind him contently as the music falls from his lips.
Seeing Flora depart, an incline of his head is offered, before the song starts to fade and Flora’s still not back yet. Letting the music return back to the idle party music and not the old ones he was singing, he steps down the stairs of the stage a little awkwardly, before he lingers by the table Flora and Danta had their conversation.
“Are you okay, darling?” He asks, slightly out of breath as he settles into a seat beside Danta’s and snags the whiskey, taking a sip from it before he focuses more intensely on the Maverick, waiting to hear Flora’s return (and unsure why she’d left, but certainly had not gone far. It was her bar, after all.)
08-08-2024, 05:06 PM (This post was last modified: 08-08-2024, 05:06 PM by Dantalion.)
// you knew who I was //
In Flora's defence, Danta's annoyance lays squarely with the man too oblivious to realise he's become the centre of some web that the Maverick never realised he was helping to weave. And with the words you're not-- curled at the back of his tongue like a razor he can flash at any moment, it takes a long, deep inhale of breath to keep himself in check, by which time Flora has noticed the butcher and his musical talents, and gods, her reaction alone is enough to have him biting the inside of his cheek. Not enough to draw blood, thankfully.
Nodding jerkily as she leaves, Danta swallows hard and stares hard into his whiskey until a hand sneaks out to pluck it up from the table. "Hey--" He hisses, glancing up at the butcher before his eyes immediately flick away again, and he rises roughly to his feet. "The fact that you had to ask means I'm just dandy," he drawls. "I'll be back in a sec."
His footsteps take him to the door Flora has slipped through, and whilst he has no idea about the layout of the Hanged Man, he's hopeful that he doesn't end up squashed into a closet with the Doubletake. Either way, the words are spilling from his lips before he even checks where he is.
"How'd you do it?" he wants to know, swaying into a wall and leaning there to keep himself propped up. "How'd you just... do that? Show all the things goin' on with you like it's nothin'. Just all the things you feel flowin' outta you like... like..." Danta gestures like an idiot, as if the simile will just happen. "You make it look fuckin' easy."
Dantalion
// with every step that I ran to you //
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
The thing about it being a Thieves Guild? Shit was well hidden, and being drunk and in the dark wasn't helpful. In the morning Flora would no doubt scowl at the various things she'd nudged and knocked over in her search, but in the moment she thought she'd done quite a stealthy job of it. Hearing that the music had gone back to normal has the Doubletake sighing under her breath, but now that she knew Asta could sing, maybe she'd just ask him to serenade her on their next date?
Grinning a bit girlishly at the idea, as she goes to open the door she finds Danta silhouetted against the light and as he steps forward Flora finds herself stumbling uncertainly back. "Er—" Though she hears him out, the queen's expression is entirely bemused. "What are we talking about?" She wants to know, her smile lopsided but warm as she reaches out to try and steady him from where he's swaying against the wall.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
“Wha— Okay.” He’s got nothing to say or to stop the Maverick from leaving the table, vanishing into the back with Flora. Confusion flares, but he doesn’t pursue them, leaving them to continue their chat (that he evidently isn’t a part of).
It’s fine, though, as Astaroth plucks the whiskey bottle from the table and stands, moving back to start sliding tables off to the side to make a little dance floor as the music shifts to something easier to dance to with the moves he knows (old fashioned ballroom antics,) though this feels more like a one sided tango at this point, with the whisky bottle as his partner.
Unaware, the butcher clumsily moves to the music, keeping to himself as he hums a harmony to the tune, learning on the spot how this particular song goes.
Almost bumping into Flora by doing nothing at all, Danta nonetheless sways back a bit as if he's in any position to do anything about it. Blinking hard and trying to pick up the words that have fallen from his lips to rearrange them in a way that the Doubletake might understand, he's at least steadied by the hand on her arm. Taking a deep, fresh breath of air and gazing at the ceiling briefly for help, he tries again.
"You can... you're like an open book with him," he says, and tomorrow he'll send her a bouquet of tiny bottles of liquor in apology for trapping her in a supply closet to listen to his wasted ramblings. At least he doesn't think there should be any confusion about the him in question. "And I can't... I dunno how to do that. S'like saying all of it out loud will ruin everythin'."
Giving his head a swift shake as if already realising that he's said too much and made too little sense, Danta scrubs a hand across his face and scoffs a quiet laugh to Flora. "Sorry, I'm real drunk. You find that Snapdragon? Might need as much of it as I can get."
Dantalion
// with every step that I ran to you //
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"I mean," Flora chuckles, shrugging a touch bashfully. "Why shouldn't I be? I like him." The emphasis is added not in an attempt to communicate her feelings to the Maverick about the butcher, obvious as they were, but as a reason for being open about them. Her blue eyes scanned Danta's face for a moment as something in the pit of her stomach tightened. Thinking of Koa and just how long the pair had been in each other's orbit without saying anything and the pain it had caused them both has her giving Danta's arm a soft squeeze.
"I think it's usually the opposite. I mean maybe there are the people who panic when you tell them you have feelings for them—" See for example Jack and Flora, also see: Isla and Sunjata. "—but for the most part that isn't the way it goes." See for example: Everyone else. "There was someone I liked a lot at one time but I never said anything because I thought...well, I just thought we had time to kind of figure it out, you know? But then someone else came along, and..." Thinking of the Koa and Sohalia of it all had Flora biting at the inside of her cheek and giving her head a small shake.
But yes she had found the snapdragon. "Are you sure? We can go sit and talk if you want?" The queen offers, her gaze that sort of wide-eyed drunk that says she's game for just about anything, having momentarily forgotten all about Asta and his singing but for Danta's drunken ramblings.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
There Flora goes again, making it sound simple as fuck and leaving Danta reeling with it. Why shouldn't I be? Yeah, Danta, why shouldn't she be? Why shouldn't you? "Yeah, but... but I'm not..." Rolling his eyes at himself (the world spins for a second, and he's once again appreciative for the hand on his arm, not that the Doubletake is much steadier), he huffs out a frustrated breath. "I don't come from a place where you tell people that sort of shit," he says eventually.
Perhaps that isn't giving The Climb of old enough credit - perhaps it less a them issue and more very much a Danta issue (bingo). Clearing his throat and seeming to brighten, if only artificially, at the assumption that Flora has found the snapdragon, he's already turning as if to leave when she speaks again, the Maverick's shoulders slumping.
"I'm not sure there's anythin' to talk about," he says, the image of a man backtracking from his own few moments of bravery. "He tried to tell me once I think, but I fucked it up, and now..." Gesturing vaguely to the Flora and Asta of it all, burying his feelings and the answers in drink and drugs seems preferable.
"C'mon. Sorry for killin' the mood, let's go party."
Dantalion
// with every step that I ran to you //
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Okay...but you aren't in that place anymore?" The queen points out, her tone suggesting that it's all much simpler than the Maverick was making it out to be, and honestly, in her drunken reverie, it was. Just tell people you loved them, gods, the consequences of doing it were far less than of not doing it, surely.
Unless you're about to tell a 21 year old powerhouse whose brain hasn't even fully formed that you're in love with the bf, but w/e
About to suggest doing a line of snapdragon off the bar before heading back, the movement of Danta's hands are blurry both in reality and in Flora's mind such that it takes a good few seconds for her to understand that they aren't just mimicking a butterfly's wings but were meant to communicate something.
"Wh—" Flora hums, her fingers tightening against Danta's arm. Tilting her head before leaning against the Maverick if only to keep his blue eyes from swimming out of her field of view, the queen licks her lips. "Who is the he, Danta." She wants to know before releasing his arm and placing her hands on his cheeks in an attempt to steady and anchor them both.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
"I mean, I know that..." Danta's laughter is likely unexpected to the both of them, the Maverick trying to gel together the two lines of thought, to persuade past to meet present and realise that there's really no reason for things to be the way they are. Which, as Flora is already noticing, seems super easy when you've drunk as much as they have.
Mentally he's already out at the bar and doing said line of snapdragon, so to feel the Doubletake's hand still on him - and not moving out of the back room, either - is a bit of a surprise. Assuming the mystery man's identity to have been painfully obvious, Danta sways only to be caught between Flora's hands on his cheeks, and gods her eyes are so fuckin' bright - how has he never noticed?
"Please, Flora. You can't be as dumb as Asta is - you're meant to be so smart. You're a queen," he complains, reaching out to clumsily pat the back of her hand. "He's not my friend, you know? He's just... mine. And I dunno what to do, an' hate it."
Dantalion
// with every step that I ran to you //
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
The words swim in front of her eyes and as much as she tries to reach for them, they blur and swap out until she's left with something that resembles those sentences you make out of random magnetic words on a refrigerator: your smart. he's mine.
And really, what else was there to it than that?
Thankfully because of the alcohol, Flora doesn't actually feel much at the start. Her mind is too slow to spark into anger or despair, leaving her instead peering up at the Maverick long after he's finished speaking. Reaching for the hand that covers hers, because that's just what you did when you were drunk and someone touches you, the queen nods and then nods again.
And then some more insert the cool cool cool cool gif here.
"Right. Right." She mumbles before something in her expression flinches as her eyes are staring back into his. "Why did you tell him to go on a date with me then...? after the tree? why...?" Well, because he was a fucking dumbass, presumably, but then, hadn't Flora sat in her own living room telling Sohalia that no no, she should be the one to date Koa?
Self-sabotage was a hard fuckin' thing to explain, but you're up, Danta.
Flexing like a goddamn acrobat Me and karma vibe like that
Scoffing - not at Flora, but at his own stupidity, Danta can only roll his shoulders in a helpless shrug. "Ain't like I was ever gonna do it," he slurs. Go on a date? Danta? Pull the other one. "An' like I said, I fucked it up. I jus'... I didn't expect it to fuck me up as much as it did." It's as close to an apology as the Maverick can give in general, let alone when he's wasted, and he clasps her hand before straightening up as best he can from the wall. "I jus' wanted to say good for you I guess. For bein' able to say that kind of shit, an' mean it."
Fumbling for the door so he might drag it open, Danta doesn't hold it open for Flora as much as it helps to hold him up in general, but it looks quite polite from an outsider's perspective. "I'll be a'right from here, I promise. Li'l bit of snapdragon and I'll show you what I'm really like at a party." Winking (with both eyes, because what is coordination), he gestures for her to lead them back out into the bar.
Dantalion
// with every step that I ran to you //
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
