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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!
It doesn't take long for the Greatwood to come into view, and when it does, Nova is leaning precariously over the railing to get a look. "THERE IT IS! THERE IT IS!" The lookout spotted it ten minutes ago, but it doesn't diminish Nova's excitement at seeing the woods herself. It means they're one step closer to finishing their quest, and she's one step closer to seeing Vesper again.
Looking to Caly, Nova points again to the growing expanse of trees. "Look at all the colors! We can see so many from up here!" The greens and reds and oranges and browns and golds. They all blend and melt into each other like a watercolor canvas or a tie-dyed t-shirt, various trees standing out amongst the others in their stubborn protest to change with the seasons. She swears she can see paths closing and forming, the forest moving with surprising speed for something so large.
Blonde and blue hair flares around her smiling face as she looks to Jack and her sister. "I told Vespy we have to build a house out here, one with lots of windows! Do you see any good spots to put it?!"
suddenly i'm spinning like a ceiling fan, around and 'round we go
“Yuuup!” Caly drawls to the screeching of her sister, the excitement that if she didn’t know any better was decked out in sparks of fireworks and glitter shimmering down like rain. The trees are beautiful from up here, drawn particularly to the oranges and golds of the maple trees and others down below. They mesh in a perfect color pallet, she finds, screaming something along the lines of wholly her and she wonders if perhaps she should be modeling her makeup and outfits after this season more often.
Nodding with a warm laugh, she nudges her sister with her elbow. “The view is kinda incredible.” She praises, her golden grin vibrant against her face as she glances back toward Jack with her sister before her amber gaze lingers on her most vibrant sibling. “Hmmm. Somewhere high up, prolly?” She suggests, though a part of her internally withers with the reminder that her sister and brother are leaving. It had been her choice to stay, of course, but it still didn’t hurt the initial sting.
"There are a few cottages an' other houses in the woods," Jack is saying around a cigarette from his place at the wheel, having taken over so they can circle the Greatwood and get a proper view of the region before they start to descend in towards the skyport. "But most Fae live in the trees. Once we're a little lower you might be able to see some."
For now, though, against the dying light of day the woods really are set ablaze, a mix of sunset and Leafchange colour turning the forest into a blanket of red and ochre and green. Between it ribbons of blue shimmer and churn as the Stone Symphony wends itself between islands and spills out into the Saltkiss, but Jack is pointing towards one tree in particular. "There's the Mathair," he says absently.
It shouldn't be possible to pick one tree out of a forest of them, but it's equally impossible to miss the Leafchange deity in her leafier form.
when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends
Looking between Caly's comment of height and Jack's knowledge of the Fae's living arrangements, Nova brightens. "Like in a treehouse? Maea has a house like that!" It's not like the Greatwood is lacking in real estate for her to pick from. "That could be really fun! I'll bring it up to Vespy." She's not sure he'll like the idea, but Nova certainly likes it, picturing adding a little perch for her to land on when she gets home.
Home... She's not sure that's what the place will be, but it'll be someplace she can be with Vesper, someplace she'll know he can rest and be safe when she's not there to keep him company.
At the mention of the Mathair, Nova gasps. "Oh! I went there with Marcus! The tree is massive!" Her googly-eyed pineapple attire wiggles as she leans farther over the railing to spot the tree towering above the others. The branches stand tall and proud over the rest, like a guardian or protector gilded in a red cloak made of sunset.
Pointing out to where the trees begin to thin, she asks, "Is that where the woods end?" It doesn't look that big from up here, but she remembers it taking quite a bit of time to travel across the woods, whether that was flying with Maea or exploring with Marcus, she'd thought it was nearly endless while she walked through it. Maybe that's part of the forest's magic though.
suddenly i'm spinning like a ceiling fan, around and 'round we go
She takes in Jack’s information, cementing it down into the never ending folders of her mind of random but potentially useful information. She recalled the Fae weren’t huge fans of the rest of them – the abandoned, attuned, accepted, and the like, but they’d become more tolerant over the more recent history of Caido. As for the Mathair, though, she leans over the rail alongside her sister – peering at it from above as it sticks out over the rest of the forest like the god she was.
“Wow.” She murmurs with surprise, having not seen her in person so far. Maybe she’ll make a trip out there while they’re here in the Greatwood. She glances over toward Nova with the question, though, a soft smile tugging on her lips. “Prolly feels longer walkin’ through it. Heard the trees move around ‘n make you travel weird sometimes.” The same path taken that could take fifteen minutes might take hours if the Greatwood had her say about it.
But she looks back at Jack in her own silent question to ask Jack if that is indeed the end of the woods or if something else lurked beyond it.
"Mm, somethin' like that," Jack says as they he turns them lazily to sail over the clusters of trees bathed in the last amber kiss of daylight. He doesn't know if treehouses truly do it justice, what the Fae have made, but he's sure Nova and Caly will see it for themselves soon enough. Taller folk likely do live in more typical examples of such abodes, but with wings and magic flowing through them, the Fae are better equipped for forest living.
Nodding absently to Caly and peering out to where Nova indicates, Jack exhales a ribbon of smoke between his lips and takes another drag on his cigarette. "They do move," he confirms. "S'even more batshit since the war, I heard, since the woods are clusters of islands."
So saying, he gestures out to where they seem to thin. "In that direction yeah," he says. "That'll bleed into the Spillwave Sea an' get you to the Suvahasi in Hak Etme if you sail far enough. Go south, though, an' you'll eventually run into the Hollowed Grounds."
when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends
Nova's head bobs up and down dramatically to agree with the assessment of the shifting paths, blonde and pink hair swishing with the movement between moments where the breeze catches it. Although subtle, she's felt the forest move, been on a path that twisted longer than expected or one that turned out to be straight and direct. She fully believes that, even if Nova's convinced she can strongarm her way through if she wants to.
Bouncing, she looks from one end to the other, gauging just how far it reaches and what lies beyond. "I wonder if it'll grow bigger." With as much magic as it possesses and its seemingly mischievous nature, it would only make sense that it wants to spread the love to the rest of the world. She imagines it wouldn't even be that hard. Just planting a few seeds when people aren't looking and BOOM, its territory will already have expanded before anyone notices.
Something about what Jack had said catches her attention, curiosity flaring as she leans back from the railing to look at him fully. "Did you fight in the war?" She's unapologetically blunt, but he doesn't seem the type.
suddenly i'm spinning like a ceiling fan, around and 'round we go
The nod offered to her is confirmation to her question, and as he explains further, she latches onto the comment to file it away with the rest of the information she’s been soaking up this whole trip. “No shit.” Caly says with a bit of surprise, her thin frame leaning over the edge of the rail again so she can see the way the river divides it up into smaller islands, unsure why she’d thought they were all connected. Probably the trees, she supposes.
A soft “huh,” leaves her as she peers at their directions, unable to answer her sister’s question over whether or not it would grow bigger – unsure whether or not it hasn’t over the centuries it’s been around. But instead, the question that leaves her sister’s lips that grants her attention is the one about the war, and while she seems to innocently peer at the rest of the Greatwood flying beneath, she’s captivated entirely on listening for Jack’s voice and the answer within it.
"Might do," Jack says of the Greatwood opting to branch (heh) itself out further, the Captain surveying the forest as he banks them around until the setting sun is at their backs, giving them a less blinding view of the region. "They say that maze in King's End is connected to the Labyrinth in the Grounds, so it ain't like there's no precedent." Granted, a hedge maze and an entire forest are different beasts, but the concept still fits.
Of all things he might have expected Nova to blurt out next - and believe him, the list is already pretty long - asking about the war and his part in it isn't one of them. Smirking around his cigarette and pretending not to notice Caly's Super Casual attention to the covnersation, Jack merely shrugs. "I did, believe it or not," he drawls, flicking ash from his cigarette before lifting it to his lips for a final drag.
"Not up at the Cordillera - left all that to the demigods. I fought in Torchline, though." He nods down at the coat he wears. "S'where this is from. The Kingmaker was makin' its way to Haulani."
when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends
Nobody seems to know if the forest will grow beyond the boundaries they see. All they can agree on is the unpredictability of the current paths, but Nova wonders if someone else might know the answer, and she leans forward again to find the large tree amongst the colorful display of leaves. "Maybe the Mathair can tell us!" Certainly the guardian deity of the forest would know it's hopes, dreams, and territorial ambitions.
A gust of wind catches at her hair, pulling her gaze from measuring the edges of the forest to find Jack and his interesting answer. Having been the underground king of Torchline, it comes as no surprise to hear he'd protected his business, but the last part sends glittery curiosity through her thoughts. "Who's 'The Kingmaker?'" she asks, wondering what monarchs have anything to do with everything - or how it has anything to do with Jack's jacket. Raising her eyebrows, Nova leans farther back on the railing and cocks her head at him nearly to the point of being upside down. "Did you kill him for his jacket?" She can respect that - she'd murder over a cute pair of shoes.
suddenly i'm spinning like a ceiling fan, around and 'round we go
“Yeah, the one fer Queen’s Gambit.” She comments idly, she’d heard the stories of it – the myths about it. The Eye of Fire within that supposedly strengthened Abandoned magics should they jump over the flame. It seems like hogwash to her, but as an Attuned she has very little interest in the heart of the maze as is.
And honestly, she focuses far more on the topic her sister invites over whether or not Jack fought in the war. They’d heard the stories of the war, too, the fight in the mountains that were impossible for them to traverse at this point in time, but not forever. She pulls back from the rails to look back at Jack and glance toward her sister. “The King Maker used t’be in King’s End, right?” She asks, having learned bits and pieces of it, but she turns to stare blatantly at Jack’s jacket as if she can imagine the creature based off of the fashion made with pieces of it, letting him explain the rest if he wanted to.
"Maybe," Jack says of the Mathair with a shrug. "Can an' will are different things, though." And the Leafchange seasonal deity doesn't seem like the chatty type in his opinion, not that he's got much to go by. Flicking the last of the ash from his smoke and tossing the butt over the side of the ship, he nods towards Caly about the Kingmaker and snorts in response to Nova's question. "A monster," he says, "not a person. Made its way from King's End over towards Torchline when the war hit."
A lot of weird fuckery had started happening all over, if he remembers right, but understandably the Captain had been focused on what was closest to home. "Looked like... a mix of a bird, a bear an' an elephant? Ugly as fuck. When it died I took the hide away with me. Seemed the smart choice." And it has done a good job so far at keeping him from breaking anything important.
when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends
Nova's face scrunches, strange Frankenstein images of ugly animals flipping like a catalogue through her mind. "EW. Did it have feathers, fur, and leathery skin? That's gross." Did the grey leather skin just pop out feathers? Or fur? What kind of mouth did it have? Were there wings? She's picturing an abomination of a creature with six eyes, ten legs, and way too many yucky textures to be cute.
Inspecting Jack's coat a little closer, she shakes her head, relieved to find he doesn't have feathers sprouting from his armpits. "I'm glad your jacket doesn't look anything like that." She'd definitely have to put together an intervention if it did. No family member of hers would be caught dead looking like that.
With the enemy determined, Nova wonders more about what such a battle would look like, brightening to think of how impressive it must have been to see Jack facing down this hideous 'Kingmaker.' "Did you fight it by yourself? What magics did you use? Was the Ark damaged?" She'd only just met the woman component of the Ark, and Jack will find that's she's already very fond of the redhead, her thoughts shimmering around the image of her fighting by his side.
suddenly i'm spinning like a ceiling fan, around and 'round we go
Pleased that she’d at least read that information right, Caly settles in for Jack to explain it from his perspective. After all, it was better to get it from the man himself rather than try and pick up the pieces of what she’d read before. She tries to imagine it, though, not unlike a cockatrice in how the amalgamation had been put together with the various animals their father lists out.
Her nose does wrinkle, though, nodding. “S’a good idea.” She agrees, a soft chime of a laugh leaving her as she shrugs her shoulder lightly. It reminds her of the eggs she’d snagged from the mud monster she’d fought a few seasons before, but Caly doesn’t comment on it as her sister asks her variety of questions, a fondness blooming on her face as her gaze dances between them.
