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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!
01-04-2026, 11:08 PM (This post was last modified: 01-20-2026, 08:39 PM by Kaisel.)
Kaisel
Don't need a sign, nothing divine's gonna save me
Turns out doing surprise things for Flora is a challenge because he's a terrible liar and they're together most of the time. He managed to slip away to here though, figuring the Grounds is an easy enough place to start, and he is eager to hash out a few details here first that might affect his timing of certain things.
Stepping through the doors, clocks the room for the familiar shape of the man that usually commands the room. It's not nighttime yet, but he's banking on this being a slow enough time for him to steal some from Astaroth without much consequence. He spots the scary ancient soon enough and sidles up to him with a wave. "Hey, Astaroth! Got a second?"
Kaisel's adorned in nothing terribly noteworthy, just Torchline's beach bum wear with slides, violet board shorts, and a pale yellow button up shirt decorated with small peryton patterns, undone over a black undershirt tank top. His backpack is dangling off one shoulder, as true a companion as any.
Quest: complete a training thread with an Ancient - unarmed combat only.
Here only the strong survive
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Work has been slow this evening – as such, the butcher is extremely bored. And without Danta around to keep him busy and with the way he’s trying to keep the carving of the bone handle of the knife he’s been working on a secret, he’s sequestered here – leaning against the bar, the cane dangling from it.
Surprise glitters across his face as a broad smile is offered over toward the soldier, tilting his head as he regards the crowd in the Dusklight. “I happen to have more than one of those.” He informs Kaisel with a smile that grows a touch sharper, allowing all of his focus (and that of the smiling shadow against the top of the bar greeting the soldier, too) wholly onto the Accepted.
Taking in his attire with a lack of interest, he focuses instead on the soldier’s face. “Would you prefer to talk here or somewhere more private?”
// hot blood, these veins, my pleasure is their pain //
01-07-2026, 11:18 PM (This post was last modified: 01-07-2026, 11:18 PM by Kaisel.)
Kaisel
Don't need a sign, nothing divine's gonna save me
Despite the overly friendly shadow that's keeping Astaroth company, one Kaisel glances towards with all the scrutiny owed to a creepy doll in a room, the open welcome from the ancient swarms Kaisel with relief. Not perhaps the usual dose of Astaroth's company for him, but he's on a bit of a tight schedule here. "Good," he huffs out, laughter curling through the breath at the literal take of the ask. "Because I think it'll take more than one in reality." He proffers a sheepish grin as he shifts his pack into a different slope of his shoulder.
Glancing around with newfound interest in the settings, Kaisel considers the offer with out loud thought, "hmmmm." The crowd is small, but who knows for how long, and that means sound and eyes carry easier. "Probably somewhere private, but we'll probably need enough room to move around for one of the things," he advises, one side of his face scrunching in consideration. "The other things are...secrets though, so hidden would be best."
It dawns on him then, just then, that he's sequestering himself away with a dangerous man, and no one else knows where he is, and perhaps this isn't his brightest idea after all. He maybe should have brought a placating offer of more tea, just to ensure Astaroth's smile stays a bit less...sharp.
Here only the strong survive
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
“I had an inkling.” Asta hums with a flick of his tail, the sharp smile blooming even brighter. The shadow at his shoulder warbles a touch with its movement, the grin equally as bright as he lets Kaisel decide whether or not he wished to talk privately. He’s surprisingly patient as the soldier considers it, verbally despite not particularly needing it.
Nodding as he pulls himself from leaning against the edge of the bar, the butcher draws himself back to his full height and picture perfect posture. The shadow slips from the edge of the bar, vanishing with a little wave before Asta’s guiding him. “Hidden and large. My, Kaisel darling, you ask for a lot.” His accent drips thickly from his lips and he huffs an amused laugh, guiding him toward the Backrooms. Specifically, his office, with a worn and faded sign that says do not enter, monsters inside that’s still nailed to the door. He opens it, draws the fireplace to life, and invites Kaisel in.
The interior has a large desk with a comfortable leather chair, back to the fireplace that brings it to life. It’s clean and comfortable, though, and large enough for a spar if that’s the vibe Kaisel’s going for. “Now, which would you prefer we do first?” The moving around thing or the secret thing.
// hot blood, these veins, my pleasure is their pain //
As you wander along a sun-warmed path, something catches the light at just the right angle, glinting brightly against the stone. Set slightly off the walkway, nestled among pale gravel and heat-baked earth, rests a smooth piece of sunstone.
The stone radiates warmth even without being touched, its golden surface threaded with natural veins that seem to glow softly from within. The air around it feels heavier, saturated with heat, as though the sun itself has paused here for a moment longer than elsewhere.
It looks intentionally placed, not lost — a quiet offering waiting to be noticed by the right eyes.
You've found an offering for Tanau! Whoever is next to post in this thread will be the first one to see the offering, but if they wish to give it to someone else, they're more than welcome! No need to post in account updates, just keep track of this thread for the Longheat SWE!
His gaze lingers over the sign on the door as they pass through it. Monsters inside, or monstrous man inside? Yes.
As the door seals shut behind him with a certain finality that prickles the hairs on the back of his neck, Kaisel is inclined to linger a touch closer to its threshold. His attention drifts to the fireplace as flame blooms like a breath the room had been holding until now. Ancients like it hot, he knows, but gods, Longheat already had done enough work for the day he thought.
Pinching at the front of his shirt and fanning the fabric back and forth to work out the flush of his own body heat now before the room becomes too sweltering, Kaisel sweeps the room. It’s a nice office, far more eclectic and rich than his own. Older, in a way that doesn’t fully appeal to him though too. There is one curiously gleaming object though, and Kaisel nods towards it. "That's cool." The Tanau offering sits, awaiting Astaroth.
”Well,” he says as he reaches into his pocket and withdraws the orb he’d placed there. ”Let’s do one of the secrets first. This is for Flora,” he explains, holding the item up and towards Astaroth, the glass reflecting the fire brilliantly. ”It stores memories, and can replay them later. So, I’ve been going to her friends and family and asking them to think of their happiest memory with her, or of her. That way, she can always use this and be reminded of how much she’s loved.” He offers a small smile, intending to pass the item over completely. ”Just hold it, and think of it, and there you go. And for what it’s worth…I’d rather not know. This is between you and Flora.” Danta might have been right about one thing after all, better not to look.
Kaisel offers for Asta to take the offering!
Everkeep | a handheld glass globe that can hold memories to be replayed later and include sight and sound.
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Basic | Cost: (None)
Here only the strong survive
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
If the confines and heat of the office bother Kaisel, Asta finds he doesn’t particularly care to make them more manageable for the younger man – but he does lower the flames until it’s an easy rumble of heat. This part of the building avoids much of the heat of Longheat anyway, tucked away and shaded and as close to the bottom of the building as possible. It does begin to cool marginally as the flames die down and Kaisel’s busying himself looking around.
Both their eyes lock on the golden heat source at about the same time – something new he hasn’t expected on the shelf of his office but flashing Kaisel a bright grin of agreement. “Thank you.” He steps over to collect it, pocketing it to inspect it later and making sure that it appears like he’d anticipated it being on the shelf and he’d merely forgotten he’d left it there.
Listening as Kaisel explains the first task of the day, Asta’s grin sharpens a touch as he tilts his head, nodding. “Alright, let’s see, shall we?” He hums, taking the glass orb in his palms as he begins to think about his favorite memories with Flora. One in particular sticks out, the time his deepest secret had been told to Flora and she’d accepted him anyway, shifting to the time they’d spoken after she’d hunted with him just last Leafchange and they’d had a very deep and lovely conversation shortly after he’d sated his bloodlust. One that he thinks had helped her as much as it had helped himself.
Busying himself looking at anything other than Astaroth and the transfer of memories this time, much as there's a curious itch to know if there's yet another dick-shaped threat. He'd rather not scrape out truths not meant for him, because this is not supposed to be about him. It's for her, and he's merely the courier in the process, although he's starting to wonder if hiring an actual courier and shipping it around to everyone might be better. Certainly faster, given the list he's started to compile of who all he needs to see. Flora, ever the social butterfly, has a habit of fluttering into everyone's lives and leaving them better than before. He can't run the risk of something this valuable being trusted to a mailman though, and he'd rather like to get to know the people that matter to her.
His hand is just trailing curiously over a bone-carving on the desk, humming to himself to help buffer away the audio, when his hand catches on a thread he didn't see. When he turns, checking in on Astaroth's process, the windchime clatterrs to the ground in a great show of sound and chaos. "Oh—shit—sorry!" He hastens to a crouch, grabbing up the unfinished piece and setting it back on the desk with a smile very akin to a dog that's nervous it's about to be reprimanded. "Done?" he wonders, grabbing for the backpack that'd fallen off his shoulder with the quick movement. He opens the top for Astaroth to place the orb inside. "It's a secret, so don't tell her..." which should be obvious, but he's not leaving anything to chance. "Speaking of secrets, do you have a plan for your proposal?" He glances over surreptitiously to Astaroth, voice kept low. "I've also got a ring getting made for Flora, and I don't wanna ruin your moment."
Here only the strong survive
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
The memory pours into the orb, even despite the shifting. And no, Kaisel, if you were to eavesdrop it wouldn’t harbor anything of that nature. It would, however, probably cause a crisis of another sort if he ever picked up on the butcher’s favorite meals. Alas, once the memories have slipped into the orb and it’s gone quiet again, he turns toward Kaisel at precisely the time he knocks down one of his windchimes and watches as it clatters to the ground – and Kaisel, not unlike a bull in a china shop, trying desperately to pick up what’s fallen.
“It is alright. And yes, I am finished.” He hands the orb back to Kaisel, instead inspecting the windchime and the placement of it in case Kaisel’s destroyed it the point that he might have to remake it. Finding it satisfactory for the moment, perhaps it’s due to the comment Kaisel makes toward him that has his dark gaze flitting toward the soldier with a tilt of his head and a flick of his tail.
Hearing that Kaisel has a plan to prepare, of course, is a surprise – one that he blinks away as his smile blooms more genuine. “I see she has told you. And no, I do not. Plans, despite however many times I think I can change my nature, never quite go as I intend them to.” All that to say 'no, Kaisel, my proposal will go entirely off of vibes'. “Congratulations, however. She will be most excited, I am sure.” He, too, has a ring currently being made and very little means of knowing when he’ll propose. “Are you intending on asking her soon?”
// hot blood, these veins, my pleasure is their pain //
He slips the orb into his backpack, leaving it on the ground near the desk as he rises from his crouch over it. Secrets aside, he won't need the sack until he leaves, and in fact would be hindered by it. As talk turns to rings instead of old history, he claps a hand to the back of his neck, anxiously ruffling his hair back there as he proffers Astaroth a sheepish grin. "Uh—y-yeah. I hope that's alright, I promise I'm not tellin' anyone else." Which is hopefully not what Flora told Astaroth or oops. "We're REALLY happy for you two by the way! I'm just sayin', if you need a best man, I can go baller hard with wedding duties." His grin stays wide and seated firm on his face, at least, until a laugh breaks it apart.
"So glad to hear it's not just me that happens to." He means plans doing their own thing no matter what time and care's been put into orchestrating them, though he's certain Astaroth has that problem far more. Kaisel is more than happy to bulldoze into the future with zero plan, but he does put some consideration into how to fulfill the things Flora deserves, and given she's a woman with nearly unlimited resources, it takes some careful thought and consideration to manage around her keen eye and capable hand. "Thanks man! Yeah she already kinda knows, she just doesn't know when, or how," which seems to be the same for Astaroth, except Astaroth is also Kaisel in this case. "Soooo, no idea when?" He badgers a touch, brows lifting like they alone could pull it from the man with enough height. As for his own plans, "well I don't wanna do it when it's her birthday, so either now, or in Deepfrost. First though, I gotta ask all her dads for approval." Which is a nerve-racking endeavor given every single one of them is a force to be reckoned with alone, much less together. Dinner and dating is one thing, marriage is another. "I was gonna have them over for dinner when Flora's out of town and ask them, just to make sure they support, us. Her family means a lot, so I don't want it to cause problems."
Here only the strong survive
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
Chuckling a low sound to see Kaisel’s sheepish grin and seemingly awkward promise that he won’t tell anyone else, Asta gestures it away. “Of course it is, darling. I trust Flora and if she told you, then why would I have an issue with it?” He pokes back, raising a dark brow with a grin that’s still just a touch too sharp.
He shakes his head, though, to perhaps agree that it isn’t just Kaisel that has plans fall apart – even if he, too, is fairly certain that Kaisel steps out of his front door on just vibes and hope they end up somewhere near the goal. Asta was the opposite. He liked his plans, he liked his choices in what exactly he was intending to do each day, and oftentimes found himself annoyed when it didn’t quite go to plan. Unless it was Danta’s doing, in which it was more than understandable.
Straightening up a little to hear that Flora already kind of knows, imagining it must be a recent event rather than having been a little secret they’d kept for some time – after all, it hadn’t been that long since he’d spent time with Flora (last season, in fact), that he imagines she might have told him had she known about it beforehand.
The badgering, though, earns another low chuckle of a laugh. “Soon, hopefuly. Alas, I cannot grant you more than that. You know who my partner is.” And he’s not in the business of giving up the secret before he has the items for it and the moment he feels is just perfect enough. “I do not envy you for asking her fathers, though.” He’s very glad he doesn’t have to do any of that, admittedly. “It is wise to do that. Hopefully it goes well for you.” He murmurs a touch softer – having had the benefit of not meeting Flora’s fathers at all in their short stint of dating.
// hot blood, these veins, my pleasure is their pain //
From what Kaisel's seen so far, Astaroth is the much more dramatic and unpredictable one of the pair. He can always depend on Danta to be expertly dressed, and of the two, only one has turned into a terrifying demon. So as far as knowing his partner, Astaroth's intention doesn't quite land as properly as it should, but Kaisel sighs with some manner of understanding just the same. "Alright alright," he yields, holding up a palm and tilting his head. "Soon TM. And hey, if it happens close together, all the more reason we can all celebrate, yeah?" At least Astaroth has a sense of his timeline now, so perhaps something the butcher could consider.
More relieved than he expected to hear someone agree with his take on the matter, Kaisel's smile beams out in full force. "Thanks A-train, I can use all the well wishes. I'm nervous as hell, but I survived one dinner already, so surely I've grown on them and this'll go smoothly." At least, that's what he keeps telling himself so he doesn't completely chicken out. He's certainly gotten along just fine with all of them, including post-dinner, but he wouldn't say they're so close-knit that it already feels like he's been folded into the family, meaning there's still a chance he won't be.
"So the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is if you'd be down to help me with my Dygra quest?" His brows wag upward in question. "She asked I fight an ancient unarmed."
Here only the strong survive
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
“Precisely, darling.” Asta hums, content to not let Flora’s engagement shadow his own, just as he’s positive that Flora won’t allow theirs to shadow her own. And with the mostly carefree nature of the Ancients in question, it isn’t as though they will be racing to the altar. So for the time being, the butcher is content to leave it up to fate however it works – whether or not Kaisel likes it that way.
The A-Train nickname has his smile sharpening a touch more – still not quite understanding what the point of it is and still very much imagining a wedding dress train, but he doesn’t comment on it. Instead, he chooses to comment on the dinner plans. “I will keep my fingers crossed.” He assures the soldier – despite very much not intending to do so.
The other thing has him perking up, however. And his smile brightens and darkens simultaneously with eagerness. “Ah, anything for my Dark Lady.” He purrs, tail flicking contently as he straightens up from his desk that he’d leaned against. “I will happily help you with that endeavor.” Ensuring his sleeves are rolled up, he steps out to the larger expanse of space in his office in front of the desk - plenty of room for the spar to take place, and grants Kaisel the first strike.
// hot blood, these veins, my pleasure is their pain //
He figured it wouldn't require much to convince Astaroth into some combat, the butcher not only seems built for it, but has chosen it if his profession is any indicator. Given their history though, Kaisel felt it important to name-drop the goddess, just to be clear there's no residual hard feelings to the ask, although he's certain Astaroth wouldn't pass up on a chance to get in a few shots, whatever the reasoning.
Stepping back a touch as Astaroth accepts, also moving to the more open area of the office, Kaisel nods with a rough smile. "Perfect! I know I could count on you. I think you also have to do it unarmed." He tilts his head for a second with the thought as he slides into a fighting stance, left leg planting, right sweeping back, fists lifting near his face in defense and readiness. "She just said fight an ancient, unarmed combat only." Which, Kaisel is more than happy to have Astaroth keep his shadows tucked away.
Mindful not let this get out control, if he can help it, and ruin part of the butcher's office, he aims to stick close to the man. He'll have to anyway to avoid the long reach Astaroth naturally has with all his height. Reserving his power for now, Kaisel steps in, telegraphing his hits to try and make an opening for him to slip beneath later when Astaroth retaliates. He punches out first with his left hand in a jab towards Astaroth's chest, the arm snapping back to maintain a block by his head. As that one draws back in, he sends his right arm out in a cross to Astaroth's gut.
1/4 jab crosses at Asta's chest and gut
Here only the strong survive
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
