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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!
Dressed down in such a way that seems to suggest work is in his future – it’s still relatively put together with a new orange silken shirt to replace the one he’d singed not that long ago, and a pair of dark grey tweed pants. The sleeves of his shirt are rolled up neatly, far enough up his elbow to reveal the edges of scarring from having utilized his bloodlust so many times in the past. He brings a cloth bag with him, hoisted over his shoulder along with another in the other hand – insisting to Danta that he can handle the two bags and that he simply only needs his company until they get there.
Because this is the final little piece before the shrine is completed and they no longer need to suffer going to the Black Lake to speak to their dark lady – and he’d be lying if the excitement wasn’t reverberating around within him, glittering in the dark honey depths of his gaze and the smile that seems permanently affixed to his face. “It is so close I can almost taste it.” He muses, tail sweeping excitedly behind him as he opens the door to the Temple and holds it open for the Maverick to enter.
Curious if Charlie is out and about or within the confines of the beautiful temple, the butcher drifts in toward the shrine and its chaotic beauty, setting the bags down and straightens up. “Charlie, might you be interested in helping with the final portion of the shrine?” He calls out into the Temple, unsure if he’ll even receive an answer. He hadn’t checked if she were there or not beforehand.
idealism sits in prison chivalry fell on his sword
"Listen, as long as I don't have to go traipsing out to the lake again this Deepfrost, you can taste it, smell it and fuck it for all I care." Grinning at Asta as he climbs the steps to the Temple after him, the Maverick lets out a soft sigh, feeling his shoulders automatically relax upon stepping inside. Once this had just been a building, but since Charlie's arrival, he's begun to see it as a temple in every sense of the word. More so, in some ways, than the Obsidian Cathedral back in The Climb.
Dressed down but in a much more ordinary way Asta, Danta wears a black tank top and a pair of pants in a shade of red as dark as old blood. "Please say you are interested," he adds, calling out to the pint-sized priestess. "Asta's so excited he might burst into song, and I need a buffer between me and that."
Danta arrives!
Dantalion
I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
In the blink of an eye, Charlie is perched atop the obsidian sculpture that she and Asta had carved into the focal point of the shrine. Having opted that day for a short sleeveless black dress (it was hot out, okay?), Charlie's blonde curls were even more full than usual owing to the humidity, not that she seemed to have made any effort at all in taming them. In fact she seemed to have simply embraced looking a touch wild given the length of her red-coated nails and the way the heels of her shoes looked sharp enough to cut a man's throat.
"Of course I want to help!" She trills, tail flicking animatedly behind her as she grins down at the butcher and Maverick, her fingertips tap-tap-tapping excitedly against the black stone. Glancing towards Danta the priestess gives him an adoring look before she tuts under her breath. "A buffer? Babe, I'm more likely to join in!"
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Hella golden retriever energy. Small unrefined horns made of ruby. Regular spade-shaped tail.
“Absolutely not.” Astaroth hums to the options that Danta lays out – but resulting in a soft chuckle anyway as he settles by the shrine, taking it in before calling out to Charlie, affectionately rolling his eyes to the additional comment that the Maverick tosses out. Luckily, though, a speck of movement on the sculpture of the shrine has the butcher’s dark gaze swinging up, sharp grin on display as she says she wants to help – and as she continues, the deep laughter from Astaroth is almost loud enough to echo through the chamber.
Immediately tilting his attention toward Danta with a knowing look, he clears his throat. “I told you she was my favorite.” He almost trills in a singsong tone, as if Danta’s worst fears were about to come true – but before he does burst into song, he’s stepping over toward the bags to reveal all the goodies he’d brought.
The first bag has tools – quite boring in comparison, but useful regardless – while the second bag harbored a multitude of dark rubies and other gemstones to be placed around the shrine. “Alright, I believe we should start with some decorating, don’t you?” He asks, lifting out a handful of rubies and diamonds and flashes both Priestess and Theocrat a knowing look.
idealism sits in prison chivalry fell on his sword
Following Asta's gaze up to the top of the statue, Danta offers Charlie a smile of the long-suffering, and he shrugs his shoulders as if to submit to his inevitable fate. "At least if this turns into a musical I'm with the right sort of people." You know, a murderous gentleman and a firecracker in the shape of a beautiful woman. But anyway - the butcher is headed to his supplies and Danta's eyes light up a bit to see the gems he produces.
"I can do that," he says confidently, collecting an even number of rubies and diamonds before departing to put his touches on the room. With the help of some of the tools provided, the Maverick works to set the gemstones in pairs throughout the shrine, so when the fire hits the walls, it looks as though they are being watched by dozens of sparkling eyes.
Danta decorates!
Dantalion
I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Crossing one leg over the other and then placing her hands primly on her knee, Charlie lifts her shoulders in a coquettish gesture as she flutters her eyelashes adoringly down at Asta before letting her blue gaze lazily roll toward Danta. "I'm surprised you don't sing, actually." She hums, tail flicking animatedly behind her body before she's suddenly in front of the Maverick sizing him up. "You certainly have the look for it."
Spinning on her heel to look at what Asta intended them to use for decoration, if there's meant to be a significance behind the two choices of gemstones, the blonde is happy to make the connection. Shooting him an adoring look, Charlie gathers up an armful of diamonds and rubies. Sinking down onto her knees, the priestess uses her disintegration magic to carve out indents in the floor in order to inlay the gems. Based on the way she'd previously destroyed the tiles as a visual representation of entropy the nearer one was to the shrine, she similarly started out placing her gems in well-ordered patterns, before letting their placement grow entirely random the closer she got to the obsidian slab.
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Hella golden retriever energy. Small unrefined horns made of ruby. Regular spade-shaped tail.
“You are indeed.” Astaroth chimes as he rummages through the bags and offers out the materials and whatever else was required to get started on the decorating. And when he has a moment to consider Charlie’s comment, the butcher hums a laugh, a rich sound reverberating from his voice. “He does, doesn’t he? Alas, I have never heard him sing even when having the option to.” Sighing in full dramatics, it only lasts a second as the butcher starts to decorate the shrine itself, sticking rubies and diamonds into the crevices of the chaotic side of it before streamlining it into patterns on the pristine side.
The light so far adds a nice touch to the glittering diamonds, and Astaroth places a few rubies with their sharper edges pointed up for the blood offering along the top of the shrine while everyone else continues their work, such that when they reach a point to stop the butcher’s grin is a touch wider.
“Mm, now I think perhaps we should add more light to make them stand out.” Which he’d come prepared with, a multitude of candles in varying sizes also are produced from the bag he’s brought. With each one set in and around the shrine, it would harbor a similar vibe as the bonfire does with its gemstones (or so he hopes).
idealism sits in prison chivalry fell on his sword
"Excuse you," Danta drawls as he heads back from his decorations, jostling his shoulder playfully against Asta's as he reaches for the candles. "You have heard me sing, back at The Hanged Man in Torchline. I'll forgive you though, because we were both wasted at the time." And Flora had interrupted his song with an announcement that had ultimately changed both of their lives very much for the better, so Danta can forgive the other man for forgetting.
Anyway. Candles.
Grabbing a few of the larger pillar candles, Danta places a few of them around the edge of the obsidian slab, working the wax between the cracks and crevices of the more disorderly parts with the help of his fire magic to melt it a little. Once he's content that they aren't going anywhere, he lights the wicks and goes a step further, pricking his thumb against a sharp shard of ruby and letting the blood drip over the top of the candles, creating veins of crimson as they burn.
Danta does candles!
Dantalion
I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
"Ooooh, that sounds fun." Not knowing the specifics of what had happened that particular night in Torchline—only that the boys had gone away for a few days and had returned a good deal cozier than when they'd left—Charlie can only assume they'd had a great time. "Maybe we can host a talent show next LongNight or something." She offers as her mind jumps from "we should host a karaoke night at the Dusklight" to "what if not everyone can sing" to "talent show!!"
But yes, anyway, candles.
Watching Danta prick his finger and add his own crimson to the pillar candles, Charlie gasps approvingly. Using one of her long nails to open up a small wound on the top of her thigh, she presses her thumbs against it before transferring the blood onto the candles using only the pads of her thumbs, thus making a series of small hearts. "What do you think?" She asks, holding one up for Asta and Danta's approval.
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Hella golden retriever energy. Small unrefined horns made of ruby. Regular spade-shaped tail.
He pauses to think about it when Danta brings it up, realizing after a few long moments that it had likely been during the time that Flora had him at the bar, attempting to elaborate on his feelings. And he realizes he’d been too drunk to notice and too drunk to recall it, up until Flora interrupted him and told them to leave.
Luckily the mention of a talent show distracts him and he brightens with the thought. “Oh what a lovely idea.” He purrs contently as he, too, melts some of the candles to place them around the room, focusing on shelves around rather than on the shrine itself — drifting closer to see the veins Danta had created (obviously drawn in by the tinge of blood in the air like a shark). “Perhaps I will be more attentive to hear you sing for me this time.” His grin twists into a smirk and he raises a brow before he’s inspecting the hearts that Charlie has added, charmed by the added decoration. “Beautiful, darling.” He hums, lifting his thumb to his lips to utilize his sharp teeth to pierce his own thumb pad, adding his own little heart decoration on the candle as well.
Once that’s done, he returns to the bag to reach inside. “Now, a nice touch of bones.” His grin turns more wicked and playful, because yes, the majority of the bones were human bones, aside from a few shards of antlers and deer bones into the mix.
idealism sits in prison chivalry fell on his sword
"You had better, or you won't hear me again," Danta informs Asta with a smirk, only to raise his eyebrows at Charlie's suggestion. "A talent show? I don't think I've ever seen one. What's your talent?" he asks the little priestess, though the fiendish twist to his smile suggests he can absolutely think of a few off the top of his head. In the meantime, admiring the scarlet hearts pressed to the candles, before Danta can consider kissing the blood from their fingers, there are bones afoot.
Immediately drawn to a deer skull adorned with large antlers, Danta grabs it up with the intention of mounting it over the doorway into the shrine. He completes the decoration by using a couple of leftover rubies and a small candle, setting the gemstones into the eye sockets of the skull and placing the candle within, allowing it to sparkle in its own sinister light. "There," he says proudly when he's finished, stepping back to admire it.
Danta chooses a deer skull to put above the doorway to the shrine!
Dantalion
I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
Beaming up at him as he nears, Charlie nearly vibrates with delight as Asta adds his own bloody hearts to the candle that she'd been working on. His were much larger of course, though they balanced hers out nicely. "Danta? Want to add yours?" Holding up the candle so he could see, just gives him a thumbs-up both in encouragement but also so he could see how the shapes were supposed to be made.
"Who, me?" Smiling innocently even as her tail flicks fiendishly behind her petite frame, Charlie pauses to consider. "Gosh I don't know. I'm not even sure I have any talents that anyone would want to watch." She laments before winking in Danta's direction.
Grabbing several human bones, the priestess gets to work. Creating an hourglass using a few vertebrae for the shape and teeth for the sand, Chralie then breaks a rather large pelvis carefully in half, placing each portion on either side of the other bones to make it look like wings. Only once she was happy with her design did she begin to use her disintegration magic to create recesses in the floor for the bones to sit. Filling these with hot wax first, the priestess sets each one carefully, before sitting back on her heels to appraise her design.
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Hella golden retriever energy. Small unrefined horns made of ruby. Regular spade-shaped tail.
Creativity was in abundance, it seems, and Astaroth flashes Charlie an amusing smile as she responds to Danta’s question. “I am sure you have many talents, darling.” He hums, though the fact Danta had never seen one immediately puts it at the forefront of his mind. It’s a thought that lingers while they all create, the deer antlers perfectly malevolent enough with the rubies and candle within to light it up, and with the beauty of Charlie’s additions of human bones inlaid into the floor.
Astaroth, for his own creations, produces a bit of wire and utilizes a precise amount of attention to craft them into a staircase kind of design of a wind chime, not unlike the ones that adorn his room. And he starts to hang them both from the shrine and the surrounding space so that any draft or breeze may cause them to move.
Once that’s finished and he steps back to admire all of their work, the butcher flashes them all a bright and content grin. “Absolutely stunning. Now, lastly I believe we should do a kind of.. mm, freestyle design?” It takes him a second to think of the words. “You can choose what you would like to decorate or finish the shrine with.” Comes the elaboration as Astaroth reaches for a bowl crafted smooth of obsidian, alongside strips of red silken fabric.
idealism sits in prison chivalry fell on his sword
"I can think of at least one," Danta agrees with Charlie, bobbing his eyebrows at her and stepping back from his antlers to cross the room and dutifully add his thumbprint heart to the priestess's candle. "And if we're at the Dusklight, your talent will be well suited there." Pricking the pad of his thumb and pressing it to the wax, by the time he steps back, Asta is playing with his ribbons and obsidian, and the Maverick glances around the shrine as if wondering what else he'd like to add.
Grabbing up a couple of pieces of firewood, the Maverick stops to admire Charlie's bone hourglass on his way to the opposite corners of the room, raising his eyebrows at her, obviously impressed. For his part, he works on burning the firewood to charcoal with such intensity that the smoke that rises from it creates a ghoulish and charred imprint on the wall at each side of the shrine, like a permanent shadow marring the stone.
Danta decorates!
Dantalion
I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door
Horns: Diamond - they look very similar to #2 in this image.
