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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!
11-12-2025, 09:03 PM (This post was last modified: 12-19-2025, 11:53 PM by Nova.)
Nova
"EWWWAH!"
The yell echoes down the partially paved road, sharp and indignant. Standing at its origin is Nova, staring at the hem of her dress like it's said the most offensive thing (if you guessed: 'Glitter is the worst,' you'd be right). Her hands fan out the bright yellow material marred with a splattering of gross, brown, sticky, memory mud. The furrow in her brow might as well be a valley for how far down her face it travels, nearly reaching the star speckles of her cheeks. "I just made this!"
Unsurprisingly, Caido is in short supply of vibrant yellow dresses decorated with stars and stitched with an abundance of gems to make it sparkle in the Flowerbirth sunlight. It's why Nova is all the more upset to see it ruined by the mud that's inhaled the road. She'd had the forethought to wear her red strawberry rain boots, but had thought her dress sat high enough around her calves to avoid the wrath of travelers past.
Apparently not, the playful substance reaching forward to stake its claim on her wardrobe. Her hand bats away another tendril, buffering it with more magic than physical contact to avoid adding more grossness for her to clean up. "Leave me alone." There's a pout on her face, one that might convince any sentient beings to obey, but having little affect on the mucky substance. Regardless, the dangerous glint in her eyes suggests that the mud might want to find a conscious thought and some semblance of self-preservation if it doesn't want to end up blasted to oblivion.
The moon she is lurking, the clock it stopped working At a quarter past three
Mud, murk, and mire stretch as far as the eye can see, but Callum strolls through it all with the air of someone entirely unbothered by the muck and grime. It's only the tightness around his eyes and the thin line of his mouth that betrays his disgust - and even that is invisible except to those who know him well. He's dressed for the weather in calf-high boots and dark pants that he doesn't mind getting dirty. Somehow, even his shirt has got splotches of mud on it, though he couldn't tell you how they got there.
He runs a hand through his windswept hair, resigned to the fact that he's going to have to get used to being dirty this season. Just as he's about to go on his merry way, a loud exclamation claims his attention, and he turns with a wary frown towards a blonde young woman with a scowl on her face. She's dressed in a bright yellow dress that seems to be utterly bedazzled and not at all right for the setting in which they've found themselves. At least she had the foresight to wear rain boots - for all the good it's done her. Callum can see the mud crawling up the hem of her dress from here.
Taking pity on the girl, the mercenary strolls forward, a pleasant - if mischievous - expression on his face. "You know," he says as he nears the young woman, "It'll play fetch with you if you ask it nicely. Bet you could coax it off your dress if you find the right bribe."
There's something dancing here in the shadows And I wish it were us
Blue eyes searched for the source of the voice, faintly recognizing a confident swagger making its way towards her. She wasn't sure bribing mud was going to work, but she refused to move on from her spot without solving her problem, and she didn't think asking could hurt anything.
Lowering her eyes, the pout of her lips deepened with more annoyance than disappointment, scrunching her features adorably at the mud. Her voice was sweet, a whine in her tone as she asked, "Please?" What Callum couldn't see was the threatening push of her magic against the spots, offering to light her dress on fire if it meant fixing the stains - as much of a bribe as it was going to get.
Luckily, for everyone involved (dress included). the globules picked that moment to find somewhere better to be. Hopping off the yellow fabric, Nova watched the mud sink into the section beneath her feet, disappearing back into the undistinguishable mass of muck. That didn't mean she let her guard down. Her eyes were glued to the ground, not even flickering up as she toed the substance with the toe of her boot. "What was your name again? Justin? Alec? Drake?" None of them seemed to fit the bulky man, and when the specks of mud didn't immediately reclaim their positions on her dress, Nova glanced up at him, head tilting and eyes narrowing like she's trying to read the name written on his forehead. "Brent?" They hadn't spent more than a few hours together, but she could have sworn he'd mentioned a name. It just hadn't been bedazzled and laminated in her brain.
The moon she is lurking, the clock it stopped working At a quarter past three
Fortunately, Callum's suggestion seems to work. The girl asks nicely, and the mud drops off, plopping unceremoniously into the puddle at her feet. A crooked grin stretches across Cal's face as he comes to a stop nearby, the picture of relaxation with his hands in his pockets. If there was a wall nearby, he'd be lounged nonchalantly against it, watching the show.
She asks his name, and the mercenary snorts with derision. "Callum," he says, shaking his head with amusement. At least he's difficult to offend. After all, they'd only spent a few hours together, and it had been a while. He can't blame her for forgetting. "And you're..." He pauses, if only to tease her, to needle her a little in response to forgetting his name. "... Nova, right?"
The mud takes this moment to nudge its way onto the toe of Nova's boot, and Cal nods at it sagely. "Looks like you've made a friend," he drawls. "But here - this should help." And he holds out a nondescript bottlecap, showing it to Nova before tossing it along the path. The mud, intrigued by the motion, retreats from Nova's boot to chase (slowly) after the item.
There's something dancing here in the shadows And I wish it were us
Blinking, recognition passed over her, the name clicking into place. She wasn't sure it fit the languid way he stood or the mischievous curve of his smirk, but she pretended that it did, that she would have gotten there eventually. "Mmm. Callum. That's right."
Nova brightened, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she leaned forward, completely unbothered by the momentarily lapse in intelligence. Not everyone could be as smart as she was, so sometimes she had to help them along the way. "Yup! Like a supernova!" She threw a wink his way, accenting it with a shimmering of sparkles that flew from the deep blue of her eyes.
Then the memory mud was tapping back at her boot, insistent and determined to bond with the red rubber. Nova was ready to fling it off, freeze it in place, or scorch the thing, but apparently Callum had a better idea. The bottlecap went flying along the path, plopping lightly in the mud.
At first, she thought it wouldn't do anything, that Callem might just be playing with her, but then the mud shifted, rippling and wriggling like an excited pet as it made its way to fetch the bottlecap. It engulfed the piece of metal, tugging it down into the murky surface.
Delighted by the reaction, Nova clapped her hands, looking to Callum. "Ooh! Let me try!" Her hand moved in a motion similar to snapping, an identical bottlecap appearing between her fingers, formed by magic for her to throw on a different section of the path.
The mud reacted the same way, chasing after the trinket in a wave of murky liquid. It absorbed the bottlecap with a quiet sucking motion, and Nova crouched a little closer, giggling at the new discovery. "I guess it is kind of cute."
The moon she is lurking, the clock it stopped working At a quarter past three
Nova is, shall we say, a big personality, but Callum doesn't mind. There's something charming in the innocent exuberance of her wink, something intriguing about the way sparks literally fly from her at the motion. The mercenary smiles easily in response, standing casually nearby with his hands in his pockets - until, that is, he tosses a bottlecap and sends the mud scurrying on its way.
The muck and mire wriggles and jiggles as it chases after the item, drawing a clap of delight from Nova and an affectionate chuckle from Callum. He watches as the girl snaps - ish? - and draws a bottlecap of her own from thin air, tossing it towards the mud. Sure enough, the semi-sentient creature-thing chases after the trinket, sucking it into wherever it stores things before seeming to vibrate, waiting, almost like a dog wagging its tail.
Cute is, perhaps, a stretch, but Cal takes it in stride. "It's not terrible if you know how to deal with it," he admits. "And now you do."
There's something dancing here in the shadows And I wish it were us
12-03-2025, 09:31 PM (This post was last modified: 12-19-2025, 11:55 PM by Nova.)
Nova
His comment draws her eyes back up, the blue glittering brighter as she bounces to a standing position. "Yep! Bottlecaps!" She throws her hands out, a few brightly colored caps falling from existence around her like confetti. Some plop straight into the mud while others hit the surface, drawing the attention of the sentient liquid, causing it to scatter in multiple directions as she giggles and spins to admire her work.
The motion flares the bright yellow of her dress, Nova's eyes catching on the dark patches of brown clinging to the back.
Snatching the fabric from the air, she inspects it closely, a scrunch of a pouty frown pulling at her lips again. A small groan pulls from her chest, refueling her dislike of the mud. "Ugh. I shouldn't have walked. Now my dress is all gross." Her magic is already surging to the surface, ready to clear away the discrepancies while she wonders aloud, "Maybe I'll just fly the rest of the way..."
Remembering that the man - Callum, right? - is still there, Nova blinks up, shrugging her shoulders. "Well, I'll see you around!" Then, in a flurry of rainbow and white feathers, she shifts and takes off to the sky, humming to herself as she goes.
