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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!
He’s almost ready to drop the wall of flame, satisfied with the fact that the spiders would’ve likely been warded away, when distraction comes in the form of Flora’s screech, her hands (despite how she’s still in Jack’s arm), smack against the scarred tissue of his chest. It doesn’t register as the shadows encroach and the wall of flame dies out, and even as he does shut his eyes, it doesn’t stop the sound of the beating wings, the croaking and cawing, the guttural cries of meat! and eyes! that he knows too intimately.
Already panic rises into his throat, eyes only shut temporarily – because fuck you if you think he’s not going to know where they’re coming from, especially if they dive toward him. Dark eyes snap open, nausea growing in waves through him, a lancing memory of pain streaks down his chest and back of those beaks carving through his chest, ripping flesh away from his body over and over again. The salty iron tinge of his own sweat and blood as flashes of the Climb cross before his eyes is all he can taste. He’s paralyzed into watching the cascading corvids as they blot out the sky.
Each wingbeat sparks another lancing streak of pain across his chest and back. Each caw brings memories of a parched throat, of fighting against his restraints until his body completely gave out of exhaustion.
During his panic induced paralysis, he’s back there, wrists bound to spikes in the ground and incapable of movement, but he shifts instead the second he remembers he can move – vibrating and shaking and shivering as the fyrhund’s ears flatten and he cowers and flattens to the ground, a deep growl escaping his lips bathed in ashen smoke.
Asta has a CRISIS but shifts to his fyrhund shift and flattens to the ground to make himself as small as can be :c
Citizenship Ability:
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
Regional Score bonus: +1 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +1 should be included)
there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters
Finding Flora peeling away from him, her sudden concern prickling against his telepathy abruptly enough that he lets her go without a fight, Jack has barely enough time to register the murder of enormous crows before he's all but seized by the throat by Astaroth's panic. Not having shielded against either of their thoughts (because fear is fear, but he'd not been expecting this, fuck), the captain is fully swept away in the Ancient's horror and pain and nausea, such that they're all either rigid with terror or, in Flora's case, attempting to shield a suddenly cowering Fyrhund from harm.
Jack isn't capable of shifting into anything smaller, so his reaction is somewhat different, but it's no less dramatic intense. With an arm raised as if to shield his face, the ice that cracks overhead in a shield is thick enough to reduce the gore crows to little more than blurred, dark shadows, their cries muffled and incoherent within the sudden igloo.
It won't last long, not with a magma-oozing canine on the ground, but it's enough for now, he hopes.
"What the fuck." Throwing his arm down and visibly shuddering as he drags up a mental barrier to hide behind, he raises his eyebrows at Flora as if she might be able to provide an explanation. "I'm already tired of these fuckin' things. Get yourselves together, we're goin' after it once I drop this."
Jack panics and makes an igloo shield, giving everyone a chance to catch their breath.
Though Flora doesn't expect anyone to understand—maybe not even Jack with his telepathy— that she'd have happily stood by while Asta was beaten within an inch of his life by a tree, not a single part of her is content to watch him shrivel up beneath the weight of his panic and remembered torture.
"You're okay," The queen whispers shakily, and, having never actually been witness to one of Asta's crow-induced panic attacks and the potential lethality of being so close to him, thinks little of dropping to her knees at his side to try and cover his canine ears with her hands. She doubts if that will help at all given the places she can only assume his mind has gone, but gods she knows a bit about what it is to be haunted by memories of the past such that she couldn't imagine leaving him alone in this, raw as her feelings still were. "Just breathe through it." It was a stupid fucking thing to say, but her panic and concern had a firm grip around her thoughts such that she could think of little else.
Glancing over her shoulder toward Jack and the icy shield above them, Flora swallows thickly. "Just give him a minute." She hisses.
Flora tries to pet Asta D:
I'm stupid but I'm clever I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever
love, do you want love? do you want lust? say you don't know
Orange eyes glow, wide and wild as smoke continues to drift from his maw, darting around the ice that shields them from the shadows. A whine escapes him, sharp pitched and through bared teeth, eyes immediately locking onto Flora, ignoring whatever it is Jack says, too swept up in the panic and bile that burns through the fyrhund’s body.
As Flora’s hand extends, Astaroth shrinks down slightly, leg trembling as he digs his claws into the earth of the labyrinth’s floor. And in a unique twist of his usual flightiness when reached for, her words don’t make him feel like he doesn’t have a way out. They’re soft, encouraging, judgment free. So he remains still as her hand extends to his ears, flinching at the touch before allowing it and forcing himself to stare at the ground — anywhere but the fucking crows.
He shifts back, after that minute Flora’s requested, a myriad of sorries uttered from his accented lips as he kneels, finding it within him to stand even as his hands tremble and his tail whips behind him.
Asta tries to calm down and shifts back into himself ;-;
there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters
"I'll just tell that to the boggarts, shall I?" Jack raises his eyebrows to Flora - much as he'd love to stick around and wait for the Ancient to get his shit together, he's not sure that their spooky new friends have got a minute to spare. Nevertheless, as Flora fusses and Astaroth does his best not to turn into a nervous wreck, the captain reinforces their icy shield, stepping away from the wall of one igloo just in time for something to smack against the side of it - hard.
And again, a second time. And a third.
"I ain't so sure they're interested in lurin' us away any more," he remarks. "I'm gonna let this thing down and we'll make a run for it, so be ready." So saying, Jack steps back and towards the other two thirds of this unlikely trio, takes a breath, and detonates the igloo outwards. Through a shower of icy shards - some of which strike at whatever it is beyond their temporary protection (and there's a keening shriek in response) - there's an opportunity to get going.
Massaging the muscles around the fyrhund's ears with her fingertips for just a moment, as he begins to shift Flora withdraws, but only just. Leaning back onto her heels she looks up at him, her expression one of soft understanding and concern. Had Jack's voice not tugged her attention away she'd likely have reached out to smooth Astaroth 's hair back into place or tidy his collar, unable to forget his penchant for always being neat and presentable. Alas, there's hardly time for her to do anything more than offer him a small smile.
"How about you go on and face your deepest fears, then?" Flora sasses over her shoulder toward Jack as she too stands.
Pulling out one of her daggers, Flora grits her teeth, silently telling Spice to fuck off to a safe distance as she readies herself for Jack's shield to disappear.
Or, shatter as the case might be.
"I thought you needed to kill one—" The queen yells, throwing her signet ring onto the ground in the hopes that if something decided to trail them, it'd go through the jaguar first.
Flora follows Jack, but throws down her signet ring behind them.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Signet Ring | A signet ring with the insignia of a Tide Jaguar When thrown, becomes a full-grown Tide Jaguar with the same HP as the user. The animal cannot do physical damage to others, and lasts 3 rounds or until it is killed. Can only be used once per thread.
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Basic
Lucky you | A ring that when worn grants +3 luck. Must be included in all PQ/PQ+/KQ/DROP posts to be counted.
Regional Score bonus: +9 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +9 should be included)
I'm stupid but I'm clever I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever
love, do you want love? do you want lust? say you don't know
It burns and burns and burns, but between Flora’s selfless kindness in the face of the fact they’d spent the beginning of this quietly seething, it messes with his panic addled mind as he shifts back into himself, standing and trying to take deep breaths, letting the two of them hash out the details while the gore crows are still hidden behind the foggy covering of ice. Jaw working, the butcher trails after them while they take off, not wanting to stick around longer for the ice shards to explode near him.
As such, flame returns to his hands, and as the last to trail after the duo, he blasts it white hot back toward the way the ice dome had exploded, trying to focus desperately on fighting rather than the crows. If he thinks too long about it without a distraction, his skin starts to crawl again, and so he remains silent after the bundle of apologies are said, clamping his jaw shut and putting his stress elsewhere for the moment.
Asta runs with them and blasts a stream of fire back toward where Jack had exploded the ice wall at it!
Fire Manipulation: Can create and control flames. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Dark | Rank: Mastered
Citizenship Ability
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
Regional Score bonus: +1 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +1 should be included)
there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters
"Yeah, I'm sure we'll get to that!" Jack snaps over his shoulder, already making a run for it down the nearest hedgerow. With Flora and Astaroth on his heels and a Tide Jaguar suddenly in the way, Boggart#1 is momentarily distracted in trying to find something the summoned creature is afraid of. It's enough that the blast of fire from the butcher is enough to catch at it, causing another wailing, keening shriek as it swipes its way past the jaguar (missing it entirely, as it happens) and back in pursuit of the trio.
"I do!" Jack is continuing, taking a sharp left and then a right. "They hunt in pairs--" Forced into a sudden and skidding halt, the captain may as well not have said anything at all. Ahead of them, blocking the path, another Jack Barclay stands in the way. Only this one seems younger, gaunt, drawn, and utterly manic as he sends a howling blast of ice towards them.
Being at the front, it's aimed right toward the captain, but luckily he's able to dodge around it.
As the boggart evades the jaguar, the beast keeps pace with the trio, lingering slightly behind in order to continue to try and draw the attention of anything that might try and follow them.
About to suggest that if they needed to kill something then they ought to stop running, Flora very nearly runs right into Jack as he skids to a sudden stop. Able to just see the ice heading at them, the queen also moves to the side, assuming that she didn't need to call out a warning to the butcher about the magic that Jack and his boggart counterpart possessed.
"That one isn't from me." Flora finds time to mutter, glancing skeptically at Jack (he would be afraid of an uglier version of himself), before she's aiming one of her daggers straight for its skull and letting it fly. No doubt Jack will feel the utter delight that sings through Flora as she does her best to skewer the boggart with the captain's face with one of her poisoned feathers.
Flora aims a dagger at boggart!Jack's head! Her jaguar is still behind them.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Plumage | Three iridescent feathers capable of being used as projectiles. Razor sharp.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Plumage | Three iridescent feathers capable of being used as projectiles. Razor sharp.
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Basic
Lucky you | A ring that when worn grants +3 luck. Must be included in all PQ/PQ+/KQ/DROP posts to be counted.
Regional Score bonus: +9 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +9 should be included)
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Signet Ring | A signet ring with the insignia of a Tide Jaguar When thrown, becomes a full-grown Tide Jaguar with the same HP as the user. The animal cannot do physical damage to others, and lasts 3 rounds or until it is killed. Can only be used once per thread.
I'm stupid but I'm clever I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever
love, do you want love? do you want lust? say you don't know
Hissing as he very nearly runs into Flora who very nearly runs into Jack, catching himself right at the time she moves and avoids the ice that comes their way and the butcher deftly moves over as well, nearly running into the side of the hedge wall with the force of which his panic induced state spurs him on. “What the fuck.” Comes the very Whitebrim tone, harsh and sharp in comparison to the velvet sweetness, no pleasantries but a warbling, gritty tone.
Instead of focusing on the weirder Jack, Astaroth’s attention turns to where they’d ran from, sending up a wall of flame to block from the first boggart they’d encountered in case it was still chasing the path they’d sprinted down. The last thing the butcher thinks he can handle is being pinned down, pinched between the two boggarts in a nightmare-ception.
Astaroth creates a wall of flame to block off the path of the first boggart so they can maybe focus on taking one out instead of getting pinched between the two!
Fire Manipulation: Can create and control flames. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Dark | Rank: Mastered
Citizenship Ability
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
Regional Score bonus: +1 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +1 should be included)
there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters
"I fuckin' gathered - it's from me," Jack manages to grit out as they're effectively pinched between a boggart and a fucking boggart a rock and a hard place. Straightening up and summoning a spray of ice to go after his younger, crazier and more boggarty self, to call it a duel would be giving what happens far too much credit. Because whilst Boggart#2 certainly looks like the captain, it isn't him, and it sidesteps the magical attack easily - only to respond with a hail of ice in return.
With nowhere to go this time, Jack ends up taking spears of ice directly to the chest and shoulders with force enough to have him skidding back and to one knee with a spluttered curse.
Conveniently, though, it also puts Boggart#2 right in range of Flora's feather, which punches a nice hole in the side of its neck and has it warbling and warping away a few feet. See, Jack's helping, Flora.
Meanwhile, although Astaroth's wall of flame does nothing to actively deter Boggart#1, it is prevented from attacking this round. That's not to say it won't try again next time, though, and it's with a loud cawing and beating of wings that it lets them very much know it's present.
What the fuck is absolutely right, and had they not been in the middle of a rock and a boggart-place, Flora might have smirked darkly at the butcher for the way the words trickled from his lips. Instead, the momentary satisfaction she gains from hitting 'Jack' in the neck is immediately snuffed out as the captain drops to his knees. Without any sort of reciprocal telepathy, it's impossible for the Doubletake to know just how close to dire straights the captain actually was, so rather than calling in the big guns as the situation might have called for, instead she flares a mental bolt in his direction before tossing her invisibility ring at him. "Don't get hit, and you—" Glancing at Astaroth, she nods over her shoulder. "Keep that thing out."
Despite not wanting to be a HeRo, Flora also wasn't keen on dragging another dead body back to Torchline with her, and certainly couldn't manage two of them. So, stepping forward to draw boggart!Jack's attention, she flips the creature off before flinging another poisoned feather at its neck.
Flora throws her invisibility ring to Jack and attacks the jack-boggart with another dagger.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Plumage | Three iridescent feathers capable of being used as projectiles. Razor sharp.
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Deadly Plumage | Three iridescent feathers capable of being used as projectiles. Razor sharp.
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Basic
Lucky you | A ring that when worn grants +3 luck. Must be included in all PQ/PQ+/KQ/DROP posts to be counted.
Regional Score bonus: +9 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +9 should be included)
Type: Grey | Style: Offensive | Level: Mastered
Signet Ring | A signet ring with the insignia of a Tide Jaguar When thrown, becomes a full-grown Tide Jaguar with the same HP as the user. The animal cannot do physical damage to others, and lasts 3 rounds or until it is killed. Can only be used once per thread.
I'm stupid but I'm clever I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever
love, do you want love? do you want lust? say you don't know
Focused behind the group as he is, he doesn’t see the ice shards as they narrow in and plunk deeply into Jack’s chest, but he does feel the wave of cold that radiates and has him hissing an immediate discomfort aloud, body still thrumming with too much anxiety, he can hear the dull caws and wingbeats from behind the wall of flame, looking back with wide, dark eyes to hear Flora’s instructions.
Gladly.
The further those fucking crows were from him the better, and right now in the face of being fucking trapped again with gore crows on the horizon, the butcher’s fear shifts as it had with Maea when she’d pinned him down, into fighting. The wall of flame starts to move, pushing back against the boggart behind it, trying to make it white hot and completely uncaring if he catches this whole wing of the labyrinth on fire in his attempts to keep it away.
Asta starts to push the wall of fire in on the boggart to keep it out and let Flora deal with the Jack!Boggart!
Fire Manipulation: Can create and control flames. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Dark | Rank: Mastered
Citizenship Ability
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
Regional Score bonus: +1 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +1 should be included)
there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters
It sure is a time and things sure do happen. It's just that the party isn't really responsible for any of them.
Grunting his thanks and jamming the ring onto his finger, as it happens, it won't be all that useful given the decent trail of blood Jack is leaving wherever he goes, but you know what? Every little helps.
Whilst the captain is at work doing that, Flora and Boggart#2 exchange a few glares and shrugs at one another. (AKA, Flora throws her dagger and the boggart throws Jack's ice, but both miss. Heyooooo).
Jack, too, once invisible, has a go at spraying the shitter version of himself with ice, and is equally as unsuccessful. Go team, or something.
Then we get to Astaroth. Whilst he's not exactly damaging the crow!boggart with his encroaching wall of fire, he's certainly not allowing it to get any closer. And call it the fact that the Labyrinth is a semi-sentient plant, but it does not approve of so much fire around the hedges either, such that with a rumble, it conveniently seals off Boggart#1 from view.
Who knows how long it will be gone for, but the group has certainly bought itself some time!
