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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!
Hurt flashed across Soh’s face, because she did think Colt had offered her a place because of her mapmaking ability and her previous leadership experience. But maybe that was silly, because, after all, Flora wasn’t wrong. Colt needed bodies for her venture, and maybe Soh was just one more gullible person to trick into accompanying her - even if that didn’t feel very fair to Colt.
She bit her lip as Flora flashed her an apologetic look, but the words still stung in the back of her mind, especially so soon after their disagreement. A vague sense of panic blossomed in Soh’s chest, fear of somehow growing apart, of losing her best friend like she’d lost everyone else who had mattered to her. She was suddenly adrift and unmoored, and she clung almost desperately to Flora’s hand without really thinking about the weight of her sudden squeeze.
”No, I know -“ she said, swallowing back a sudden urge to cry. ”I know, and that’s the point. You would do anything to help me, but you shouldn’t have to, because I should be able to stand on my own two feet instead of relying on you to figure things out for me.” She should be stronger, better, more self-sufficient - and instead she was living on Flora’s generosity, staying in her home, in her region, being offered an obligatory position on her council, being given her resources. None of it really belonged to Soh, and that was what made it harder to swallow.
Upset and overwhelmed, Soh shook her head, as though willing all these negative emotions to go back into the box where she liked to hide them in the back of her mind. ”I just need you to be here,” she whispered. ”Like you always have been.” To support her, certainly. Perhaps to question her judgment at times, to make sure she was doing what was actually right. And even to argue, if it came down to it, because Soh could love Flora and not agree with her.
Would you change it all for me?
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Sohalia.
Flora shakes her head again, slower this time, like she’s trying to make sense of something that just won’t quite settle. "So when someone else offers you a job or an opportunity, it’s on merit," she says, her voice still soft but edged now with quiet disbelief, "but when I do it, it’s automatically just a handout?" She blinks at Soh, her brows drawing together, confusion flickering into something more raw before she lets out a quiet, disbelieving breath that almost passes for a laugh but doesn’t quite make it. "Who else other than me knows more about what you’re capable of doing?" she asks, and this time there’s something behind it that lands heavier, something personal, something hurt.
Her gaze slips away for a second, unfocused, her jaw tightening as she swallows against something that rises too quickly, too sharply. "I do know what it’s like," she says, quieter now, the words coming slower, more deliberate, "to not want to be in someone else’s shadow, to feel like you have to prove you can stand on your own." Flora, after all, had spent years doing just that; trying to be something beyond just the daughter of demigods, something earned instead of inherited, something hers.
She looks back at Soh, and this time there’s no disguising it, no smoothing it over as her shoulders lift in a small, helpless shrug. "I guess I just..." she starts, her voice catching slightly before she pushes through it, softer but breaking at the edges, "I never thought that’s what I was to you." A shadow to try and escape. Her fingers tighten faintly where they’re still holding Soh’s, because the thought lands harder than anything else they’ve said—harder than the argument, harder than the disagreement—that somehow, in all of this, Soh sees her not as support, not as someone who knows her and is a soft place to land, but as something to step out from under.
Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it
If Soh hadn't realized she'd fucked up before, she realized it now, and she sucked in a sharp breath as Flora's disbelief landed. "No, I - that's not what I meant -" she said weakly, regret in every line of her face because even if it hadn't been what she'd meant, it was what she'd said, so used to Flora understanding every facet of her that she hadn't thought twice about how she was phrasing herself. She wondered why today was so different, why they seemed to be on such different pages - not just about Zavien and Kaisel, but about this, too.
Tears prickled behind her eyes, but Soh refused to let them fall. "It's not -" she insisted, desperation tinging her voice as she tried to figure out how to salvage things. "I - that's not what I - I just -" She swallows hard, frustrated that nothing she'd said had landed right. Huffing a harsh breath, Soh tried again. "It's not about you, Flora, this is a me problem. I don't feel like I'm - I just want to prove that I can do something for myself. I don't want you to have to take care of me. I don't want to be a burden -"
She cut herself off, looking away, because deep down, after everything, that's what she felt like. She'd failed at everything she'd tried to do with Stormbreak in the end, relying on other people to do what she couldn’t. She’d been strong and capable once - she just wanted to prove that she could be again. ”You shouldn’t have to keep doing things for me just because I can’t take care of myself.”
Would you change it all for me?
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Sohalia.
Flora hears it—the regret, the way it sits in Soh’s voice and spills across her face—but it doesn’t quite land the way it’s meant to, not fully, not cleanly. Because just because it came out wrong doesn’t mean it wasn’t something real underneath, does it? If it wasn’t what she meant, why did it sound like that? So she goes quiet instead, swallowing hard, her gaze dropping to where their hands are still linked as Soh stumbles through the explanation.
"I’ve never had to take care of you," Flora says finally, her voice smaller than before, softer in a way that feels like something folding in on itself. Her fingers shift slightly in Soh’s, not pulling away, just...adjusting, like she doesn’t quite know what to do with them anymore. She shakes her head faintly, eyes still lowered. "Everything I’ve ever done, you’ve been right there to help me," she adds, the words coming slow, careful, like she’s trying to lay them out properly even as they start to blur together. "So everything I have to give, it’s all already yours." Flora wouldn't have had the Hanged Man without Soh's support, probably wouldn't have become queen. Wouldn't have been strong enough to leave Jack, to choose Kaisel, to become who she was now without the Luminary at her side.
Her throat tightens, and she lets out a breath that doesn’t quite steady her, her gaze flicking up for a second before dropping again. "You helped me build Wildering House..." she says, trailing off, because the more she tries to explain it, the worse it feels, like she’s somehow cheapening it by having to justify it at all, like saying it out loud turns it into something transactional when it never was.
The silence stretches for a second before she exhales again, her shoulders lifting faintly before falling. "You’ve never not been able to take care of yourself," she says quietly, the words landing with a kind of tired certainty, like she doesn’t understand how Soh can see it any other way, like she doesn’t understand how any of this got twisted into something else at all and some dark and perhaps unfair part of her wonders about the timing of Sohalia second guessing her entire life just as Zavien had entered into it.
Flora sighs then, the sound soft but heavy, like something settling whether she wants it to or not, her grip on Soh’s hand tightening just slightly before easing again. "But yeah...I mean.." Her voice falters for a second, then steadies just enough. "Obviously I’ll be here for you. Whatever you decide to do."
Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it
Everything felt wrong, like somehow everything that they were had gotten shuffled up, the pieces no longer fitting into place. Swallowing back the tears that threatened, prickling at the back of her eyes, Soh looked down at their intertwined hands. The motion was right, but the feeling behind it couldn't have been further from it. She'd never felt so detached from her best friend before, like they were on opposite sides of a great divide with no bridge to bring them back together again.
What was it about today that was exposing their differences in a way that had never been done before? How had they made it this far into their friendship without ever having realized how different they were? Had something changed? Had she changed? She didn't feel any different - happier, maybe, but she couldn't see that as a bad thing - but there had to be some explanation for this distance cropping up between them, didn't there?
Flora's words only served to make Soh feel worse. She could feel the Doubletake's pain behind them, and she didn't know how to explain that none of this was a commentary on Flora, but rather on herself: on her feelings, on what she felt capable of, on what she wanted from life. How could she make Flora understand that there was nothing here except a desire for something that she had built, without having to drag down the people she cared about to get there?
Swallowing hard, Soh pressed her lips together, fighting the urge to argue more when it seemed they were at such an impasse. She'd never been able to take care of herself, and she wasn't sure how Flora couldn't see it. From being attacked in Stormbreak, to being kidnapped by the Family, to being unable to protect Flora from death or infection, to not being able to keep Tarak alive, to not being able to lead Stormbreak again when it really mattered. There were so many reasons she could point to and say, but what about when...?
She leaned her head against Flora's shoulder, settling against her best friend with tears in her eyes, unable to explain her feelings in a way that would make them make sense. "I love you, Flora," she whispered into the brittle space between them. "I'm sorry for everything." It was the only thing she could think to offer that felt real, that felt easy to explain.
Would you change it all for me?
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Sohalia.
As Soh leans in, Flora shifts instinctively to meet her, her head tipping gently against Sohalia’s, a soft, weighted sigh slipping from her chest as she lets herself settle there. The closeness is familiar, soothing in a way the conversation hasn’t been, and she holds onto it without thinking too hard about why.
Where Soh feels the fracture, Flora doesn’t quite see it the same way; not that nothing’s wrong, not that it didn’t sting, because it did, but...people disagreed. That was just part of things, wasn’t it? Not every difference meant something was breaking, not if both of them were still here, still reaching for each other instead of pulling away. Soh wasn’t leaving, not really, not in the ways that mattered, and if she needed something more—something that didn’t come from Flora or Torchline or anything she could offer—then that didn’t mean Flora had to step back, just..shift. Somehow. She'd figure it out.
She squeezes Soh’s hand, her thumb brushing lightly across her knuckles, the motion steady even if something in her chest still feels tender. "I love you too, babe," she murmurs, her voice soft against Soh’s hair, the words coming easily despite everything else. She shakes her head faintly where it rests, a small, reassuring motion. "It’ll all be okay, I promise."
~FIN
Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price
You know that I bought it
