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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!
We can love just like rain One drop too much and we'll drown Wishin' I would be enough, 'cause I don't wanna lose
She doesn't just stop before the familiar door in the House of Midnight, but she leans on it, her shoulder digging into the frame amid the slump of her gold hair. Her boots angle out, fighting to keep her upright but not bothering to do more than stay still in order to get there. Her head is dipped in a bit, teeth pulling at her lower lip.
She'd breezed right through the front doors of the House, ghosting through the usual bar area she'd settle into, avoiding all eye contact with anyone familiar, or almost worse, new faces she hasn't learned yet because she's been gone. She came swiftly to this very particular door, the one that belongs to Thorn's room. She lingers just outside, given pause when her selfish thoughts quickly arrested her, curling in with the worry that she'd be interrupting his work. Bad for him, bad for her too.
She waits now, because she's trying to reshape the downtrodden look of her into something that could pass as just travel weary and nothing worse. She is determined not to bring complaints and fury to her friend's doorstep, least of all for the first time that she's seen him in what feels like ages. It's only been a week or two, truthfully, but so much has happened, and that's longer than ever before.
Nothing makes sense when you're gone, I need you around I will love you like the stars love to shoot And shadows love the moon
Received a Gilded Market wig from Remi that resembles her usual hair and is enchanted to stay on better than most wigs | has a reverse centaur tattoo on her left hand with the legs going down her pointer and middle fingers that looks like this.
It’s the last thing he expects to find, really, when he hears the slump at his door. He’d just finished a shift, was in the process of changing post-shower, hair still wet and a touch limp around his face, his body and face flushed from the shower and still from his client just before.
The door opens, brows lifting to see her, a towel wrapped around his waist. “Colt!” He chimes, shooting her a bright smile that’s pleased to see her even if he’s confused as to why she’s here. Shouldn’t she be in the desert?
Either way, he beckons her in, leaving the door open for her as he steps further into his room. His bed is plush with down pillows and soft furs and silken sheets, ruffled because he hadn’t made it before he’d gotten a start on the day. The rest of his room is decked out in paintings on every wall of varying environments, everything from the Oerwoud’s vibrant plantlife to the sunset of Torchline and the sunrise of Halo throughout. Clothes are draped essentially everywhere, a mirror with jewelry set on the mahogany desk alongside sticks of eyeliner in varying shades.
His back to her, she’d get a good view of his tattoos that trail up his arm from his wrist, curling around his biceps and dragging down his back to his lower back in an especially floral tramp stamp. “Sorry ‘bout the mess.” He says, trying to pick up a few of the clothes he’d discarded in the process of hopping in the shower immediately.
We can love just like rain One drop too much and we'll drown Wishin' I would be enough, 'cause I don't wanna lose
Thankfully she's more on the frame than the door itself, so when it swings open she doesn't completely go with it. Still, she stumbles a touch, not having expected the door to open at all. Straightening with a clunk of boots and a slip of her hat deeper onto one side, she greets him in turn. "Thooooorn!" All attempts at brightening are immediately successful, her mood improved naturally just at the sight of him. Gods, she has missed him.
Were he wearing anything other than a glorified loincloth that can be easily stripped away from his body, she'd have wrapped him in a long hug. As it is, she slips into the room after him, heeling the door shut behind her. She reaches to grab onto his arm briefly, fingers curling against the trailing ink with a gentle pressure. "You are a sight for sore eyes," she croons, the relief almost tangible enough to chew on.
Releasing him to fall onto the seat at his desk, she crosses one leg over the other and leans into a spot between some eyeliners. "Oh hon, I'm pretty certain I owe you the apology for showing up unannounced," she tsks, gently shaking her head to wave away his apologies like the silly things they are. "Besides, I promise you this is an upgrade from hot, sandy tents." She might find beauty in the desert's harsher portions, but she also can't wait to finally have a real house again. Soon, she hopes.
"I'm not stealing your time, am I?" she wonders, brows rising as she glances down at his current state, less certain if it's the end of the night or the start, or perhaps a quick dip in-between sessions, depending on how messy things got before.
Nothing makes sense when you're gone, I need you around I will love you like the stars love to shoot And shadows love the moon
Received a Gilded Market wig from Remi that resembles her usual hair and is enchanted to stay on better than most wigs | has a reverse centaur tattoo on her left hand with the legs going down her pointer and middle fingers that looks like this.
The way she brightens, the courtesan completely misses any lingering shadows that might be within his friend – content to invite her in and close the door behind them. Her hand touches his warm, tattooed arm, her words bringing a light laugh from him. “Gods, I feel that.” He whines almost dramatically, before she’s taking a seat and he’s continuing to pick up some clothes draped everywhere, dumping them into a laundry basket to deal with later. “Oh I can imagine. How’s that goin’ by the way?” He asks, propping his hands on his hips briefly as she looks him up and down.
His head tilts, still damp hair moving with the movement before he shakes his head and laughs. “Oh, no, I was just cleanin’ up after my last client. I got time.” He reassures her, before he’s dipping into the closet offshoot of his room, slipping away from sight as he gets into some clean clothes. The towel is thrown out toward the laundry basket, hanging off the side of it as it lands – not quite a slam dunk, but close enough at least.
He slips on some clothes, before he steps out and drapes the shirt over his arm – but at least he’s wearing pants now. “What brings ya here?” He asks the question lingering on his mind. Had something happened? Was she looking for a familiar break? “Didja miss me?” He touts playfully, shooting her a bright grin despite his still red body – a couple of hickeys starting to darken on his neck.
We can love just like rain One drop too much and we'll drown Wishin' I would be enough, 'cause I don't wanna lose
Although it's a natural question to ask given what she's doing and where she's been, he has no idea how loaded it is after what just happened today. Not quite able to tame the face she makes in time, something akin to a grimace eeks out before she tugs into something that could almost pass for charming. "Oh, you know, ups and downs," she hums, the vibration along her jaw reminding her to keep it unclenched.
Still trying to steer herself away from the abysmal pit of hell just raised, she immediately focuses on the much more appealing aspect of him. "Perfect!" she trills, an honest joy easily found at the prospect of keeping him all to herself for some time yet. "That's the exact answer I was hoping for," she says after his retreating shape, gaze following the arc of the towel as it shoots out and nearly coils itself neatly in the basket.
Her gaze finds him the moment he steps out, lifting from the idle observation of his makeup as if cataloguing what she might need to add to her own. His is surely work resistant enough to serve her just as well, and given that it always looks impeccable, he knows some secret she doesn't. "Like a duck misses water when it's flyin'," she laughs, leaning the shape of her smile into the curl of her hand where it's propped up on the desk. She dodges the first question, at first, rather on purpose, only a faint purse of her lips offered before her simpler remark streaks past with enough sunshine to suggest she's pocketed it from Hak Etme.
It dims marginally as she circles back though, shifting noticeably in the seat, one leg uncrossing to set the other one over. Her attention wanders off the casual sit on the darkening marks of past passions, trailing around his room instead as if she might find the right answer neatly folded away in some nook or cranny here, placed just for her. "Aside from comin' to see you, of course, I'm hoping I might be able to crash here tonight?" Her other hand threads through her wig hair, although the moment she touches it she's reminded of it, the soothe not quite the same, and her palm instead sinks to her leg. "I'd rent my own room to save you the bother, except I'm not entirely sure I'm welcome to any more." Sunjata hadn't exactly said come on back whenever you like, and while she'd like to think the Heartless wouldn't barr her quite so bluntly, some part of her is afraid to risk finding out fully. Better to ask forgiveness than permission in this case, she thinks.
Nothing makes sense when you're gone, I need you around I will love you like the stars love to shoot And shadows love the moon
Received a Gilded Market wig from Remi that resembles her usual hair and is enchanted to stay on better than most wigs | has a reverse centaur tattoo on her left hand with the legs going down her pointer and middle fingers that looks like this.
Wincing a little to hear the ups and downs, Thorn puffs out a little sound. “Yeah, ‘m sure.” He wasn’t a part of things when Sunjata had been making King’s End livable, but he’d heard all the stories of how the region had come to be. And here? Nobody had to fight the environment as much as he imagines she’s had to fight the sun and the heat up there in Hak Etme. If anything, her golden skin from the sun was an indicator of how much she’d been working on it.
Her trill is appreciated as he changes, a soft laugh leaving him as he emerges from the closet to sketch her a little bow. “Happy t’help.” He chimes, brows bouncing playfully. His amused smile turns a bit softer when she says that she missed him, though, and as he drifts back into the room more fully, he plops down on his bed and relaxes back on his hands.
His head tilts as the question leaves her lips – having zero qualms with it, if he’s being honest, but it does bring up a bigger question. “Yeah, totally. ‘Cept I only got the one bed.” He frowns as he pats it, looking back up at Colt with a small shrug. He wouldn’t mind sharing if she didn’t mind it. It wasn’t like he was going to do anything, and he was a very sound sleeper. “Eh, Sunjata mentioned it at the big ol’ meetin’ we had. Didn’t sound like he had too many hard feelin’s, but I get it. You’re welcome t’stay with me whenever.” He reassures her in case she decides to change her mind.
We can love just like rain One drop too much and we'll drown Wishin' I would be enough, 'cause I don't wanna lose
His bow earns a quiet, honest laugh. Though it's short-lived, it's no less full for it, and it comes more easily than any have in some time. The sigh that naturally follows is rich with a warmth that trickles into all the space the laughter leaves behind, and she feels momentarily lighter for it, less dulled by the aches of all her recent risks and mistakes. It won't last, not entirely, but it's nice to feel it in the moment, to be reminded of how invigorating one good friend can be. If the world is dark and miserable often, Thorn is a nice little nighlight glowing merrily through the gloom.
It shines all the brighter when he agrees to let her stay, the relief noticeable in the way her features relax, everything having been a bit too tightly wound around layers of concerns and issues. Her choices have not been easy of late and her comforts few and far between, so to be afforded this reprieve is a welcome one indeed. "You're a lifesaver Thorn," she smiles, the motion fragile, though not for lack of strength in gratitude or honesty behind it, but because so much of her is currently shifting from on alert to something more relieved. "I very well just might have gone mad if I had to sleep on the ground for one more night." Which is to say, she has no intention of doing so tonight either, even if his room has flooring a far cry nicer than a swaying ship or a sand-riddled canvas.
In fact, she rises out of the chair to cross the room to the other side of the bed. The movement is unhurried, and she kicks her boots off as she goes, the leather and heel clattering haphazardly across the floor with the absent arrangement of someone too weary to be bothered with doing anything more than necessary, and nicely aligning footwear decidedly falls under unnecessary. "He mentioned what?" she says, a touch surprised as she clambers onto the spot beside him, frozen into a kneel. "He brought up our fight, to everyone?" she says tightly, disbelief rapidly replacing all the softness that'd begun to settle. Her fingers curl into the bedding like it could keep her steadier than the image of Sunjata so openly airing their argument. She'd thought him a better man than that, or at least anticipated he'd try talking to her again about it first rather than the whole town, evidently. Not too many hard feelings though, and she finds it incredibly hard to believe someone who'd just throw it all out there didn't feel any one way about it, and shoots Thorn a sharp look meant to imply he need not lie to her to try and soften the reality of the situation.
Nothing makes sense when you're gone, I need you around I will love you like the stars love to shoot And shadows love the moon
Received a Gilded Market wig from Remi that resembles her usual hair and is enchanted to stay on better than most wigs | has a reverse centaur tattoo on her left hand with the legs going down her pointer and middle fingers that looks like this.
“Well we can’t have that, y’know.” Thorn says as Colt begins to relax and offers all kinds of praise for his ego – lifesaver, as he’d always loved to hear. But the courtesan settles back in against his bed as she clamors up on it. He flops back, tucking his arm beneath his head against the pillow as he glances up at her as if trying to tell where the cracks of her going mad might start.
He doesn’t get that far, though, when she misinterprets what he says and he huffs out a laugh that hopefully eases her worries. “Nah, not the fight. Relax.” He explains, patting the side of the bed for her to actually have a soft place to land for once. And only once she does, does the courtesan turn toward her – not unlike two kids at a sleepover about to talk secrets and gossip all night. “Said you were startin’ a new venture of yer own.” Which felt pretty middle of the road when it came to what he had heard happened. Granted, it was only from Colt’s side, which should make it seem a little easier for her to swallow without thinking the Archon had just gone and aired out all her business.
“So, not too bad soundin’, right?’ He prompts, brows lifting as his seafoam gaze focuses on her.
We can love just like rain One drop too much and we'll drown Wishin' I would be enough, 'cause I don't wanna lose
His assurance doesn't land, not entirely at first, as her skepticism remains plain on her face. It's a relief, truly, but she's wary of accepting it so readily, and the prickling heat of shame once she'd realized everyone knew about the disagreement is slow to leave her after rushing in so thoroughly. "Oh," she says quietly, smile tilting in faintly as her grip loosens in the fabric. She trusts him, harder as that's proving to be to claim with anyone, but he'd always proven to be there for her when she needed it, even when it got hard. It's that, more than anything, that reassures her now that he'd have no reason to lie when he never had before. It's easy to get along with most anyone when she's in a good mood, but it's her sour ones that turn most away, and that's always when she needs someone to stay the most, and they never do.
"Yeah, that's not surprising," she exhales, and some of the fresh tension goes with it. Enough so that her body bends again and she flops sideways into the open space on the bed, hair spilling all around her and bouncing up faintly before settling. She pulls it out from under her and gathers it up and away. "Was anyone sad?" she wonders, feigning a shrug as she settles, as if the answer is of no real significance to her despite her asking.
Though her gaze lifts from the rumple of sheets to his eyes, holding him there with her expectant stare as she shifts onto her side. One arm slides beneath the pillow and under her head, while the other smooths out the space between them, curling just under her chin. Not quite fetal position, her legs less tucked than that, she is nonetheless folded into the conversation with him, the comfort of a bed bowing around her nicely. "Did he say what he's doing, with my—" she catches herself, swallowing back and trying again. "With the land, that burned?"
Nothing makes sense when you're gone, I need you around I will love you like the stars love to shoot And shadows love the moon
Received a Gilded Market wig from Remi that resembles her usual hair and is enchanted to stay on better than most wigs | has a reverse centaur tattoo on her left hand with the legs going down her pointer and middle fingers that looks like this.
Finally she starts to lose the tension that had infiltrated so swiftly it almost made Thorn’s head spin to see it. But with her question, he shoots her a playfully lopsided smile, boyish and easy. “Y’mean aside from me?” His brows pinch, as if daring her to say otherwise, before he’s trying to think about everyone in attendance. “Lots of the townfolk were sad.” He offers – he can’t say much about everyone else, though. Jack never let his thoughts be visible and Thorn wasn’t about to try and pry it from him, a trait that his daughter also shared with the blankness of their attention.
He folds just about as much as she does, curled into one another to share those secrets and little juicy tidbits of gossip, when he sees the way she catches herself with the question. He shakes his head. “Nah, nothing so far. S’been cleaned up an’ flowers planted, though. Probably waitin’ for something to make sense to put there that you wouldn’t mind.” He doesn’t know that for sure, though. It isn’t like he talks with Sunjata about his regional plans, after all.
We can love just like rain One drop too much and we'll drown Wishin' I would be enough, 'cause I don't wanna lose
Her smile flares back to life quick and sudden at his jab, the expression swiftly swatting it away. She audibly gasps, the sound small but still present, especially in such close proximity. It precedes the quickfire breath of dismay and playful complaint she fires back, "you better have been top of the list, I thought that was a given!" The scowl she gives him is entirely heartless and soon enough breaks apart into the smoother shape of a subtle laugh, winding out into a sigh as she listens to the rest.
"Mm, good," she says, softening more as her gaze finds a section of sheet below his face. "Would hate to have spent my whole life here and find no one cared if I left." It's barely spoken, almost too small to survive the world outside her mind, but she releases it just the same in a rare moment of vulnerability. All her usual habits and routines have been so thoroughly shaken up that her armor is layered thicker over certain places and leaves her exposed on others. What she's chosen to do, it has not been simple or easy, and being back here makes the doubts thicken, especially after the shitshow of tonight.
Her hand rolls over the bumps in the bedspread between them, smoothing them out like she could do the same just as easily to all the wrinkles in her chest. "Oh, good," she murmurs, still focused on sheets and the soft texture beneath the tan of her hand. "That'll look nice, I bet." Her motions slow, then stop. Fingers curl faintly into the mattress, and the pressure echoes into the back of her throat. "Something I wouldn't mind?" she repeats softly, one corner of her lip tugging faintly into her cheek before it loses the shape. What a gift consideration can be. "I'm not sure that matters anymore," she concludes, finally glancing back up at him. "I'm sure he'll do whatever is best for the region."
Her hand flattens with a thwap into the sheet and she pulls it back against her, the motion seeming to discard all the sad things in an instant. "Well I fought an allogator since last I saw you. Had to channel Ronin to do it though, those fuckers are hard as hell. He wasn't very pleased, Ronin—you know they had twins? Calan and Carlo. Anyway finished my quest for Frey with that, and have been working on the skyship port in Hak Etme."
Nothing makes sense when you're gone, I need you around I will love you like the stars love to shoot And shadows love the moon
Received a Gilded Market wig from Remi that resembles her usual hair and is enchanted to stay on better than most wigs | has a reverse centaur tattoo on her left hand with the legs going down her pointer and middle fingers that looks like this.
“’Course I was!” Thorn defends his crown of Missing Colt The Mostest with a vibrant grin and a snicker he hides into his pillow, the smooth pillowcase blotting out the majority of his face for the moment to see her briefly there scowl.
As for the rest of the townsfolk missing her, it shouldn’t come as a surprise, but he’s glad to see that it alleviates something in her chest that might still be raw and empty, and he hopes dearly that he can try and help in whatever way he could. Even if it was a poor attempt at a slumber party in his room that was made for everything but those. But he doesn’t comment on it, the words were soft as is and he doesn’t want to detract from her feelings on the matter by throwing his own in.
All he knows is that she isn’t alone in it, even if it had been her decision. And he’d always miss her here in King’s End. So the flowers are something he hopes helps, despite having no hand in it. He’d heard Sunjata flew over the land with bundles of seeds he let drop from his claws, came back around on the ground to plant them and water them, and so far they’d managed to grow enough that Deepfrost wouldn’t kill them before they had a chance to bloom in Flowerbirth.
“Probably, yeah. But.. I mean, it’s not a mausoleum of a spot, despite the region.” He offers – because it could have been left as is, like a little graveyard of the times that excitement and happiness had reigned on King’s End with the rodeos and the like. It would fit the burrows and their graves just fine, but it seemed like Sunjata hadn’t wanted to leave it like that.
When she starts to explain her own adventures though, Thorn gasps to hear the allogator and the fact she had to channel Ronin – and while he doesn’t know much of the man beyond what he’s heard, Thorn shakes his head to hear that they had twins. “Sounds like you’ve got a pretty good game plan. An’ I’m glad ya didn’t get eaten by an allogator. That would’ve been real fuckin’ shitty, huh?” His nose wrinkles. “And twins..? I didn’t know they were expectin’ let alone that they had them.” He blinks a little at her in his confusion.
We can love just like rain One drop too much and we'll drown Wishin' I would be enough, 'cause I don't wanna lose
"No," she agrees swiftly. "Nor should it be." If he really wanted to do something she wouldn't mind, he'd fill it with the vitality the land so deserved. Her home had always been full of motion and noise, alive in a way that she trusts Sunjata understands well. The worst thing to do would be to honor it with stone and metal and memory. The flowers would suit it, and hearing it said, maybe she'd be brave enough to walk past it tomorrow when she leaves. "It's too fine a bit of land to waste on that. Close as it is to here, it would be better to build off the traffic here and expand business ventures and tourism potentials." Could be there's a preference to keeping the House tucked away in some sense of seclusion amid the hills, but (and she is quite biased about her favorite part of this region) it seems to her there'd be plenty of room to make something more without trampling the sense of privacy here, and this is a beautiful enough section to do it in.
Content to leave the dreaming and the doing of this area to its Archon, Colt offers up her list of adventures for Thorn's approval. "Based on the size of its teeth, definitely not a good way to go," she agrees, baring her own as if imagining the fangs just now. "Also had to deal with some preying orchids in Suvahasi, but they weren't so bad. Popped out unexpectedly when we were clearing space for a camp there. I think that's where we're gonna build the town. With a bit more work, anyway." It's a rush, retelling it all like this, near breathless in the need to lay it all out. It's a new problem to have, so much strangeness filling her days that every moment feels noteworthy, no monotony to be had. She had never minded routine and habit, and this is almost a beg for a sanity check.
"Yeah," she nods, "Remi told me when he made my enchanted saddle. They used the garden here, you know. Now they have identical twins." She does not reveal that Remi told her about the garden when making her wig for her. That is a secret she'd take to the grave with her, although if anyone would have hope of learning the truth, beyond Remi, it'd be Thorn (quite certain she snuck it past Sunjata that first night before she got a proper wig).
She exhales into a stretch, he toes pointing down and her body faintly straining into it briefly. When she comes out of it she lifts her hand up from beneath the pillow, wrist bending as her fingers brush idly at the hair against his forehead, still drying. "How've you been? Any news with the bartender?" Her lips hold the wavering line of amusement as she stokes the embers within him with that remark.
Nothing makes sense when you're gone, I need you around I will love you like the stars love to shoot And shadows love the moon
Received a Gilded Market wig from Remi that resembles her usual hair and is enchanted to stay on better than most wigs | has a reverse centaur tattoo on her left hand with the legs going down her pointer and middle fingers that looks like this.
On that they can agree – because with how much the region has grown livelier without such a focus on the potential buried amongst the gods vibe it had originally had, Thorn was quite happy to stay on this side of Ludo’s attention. And with it, he preferred everything to not have that damper of a feeling such as the loss of life. He wasn’t good with grief, and the less he had to deal with it the better, in his humble opinion. “Lot’s of options. Though I guess when I find out, I’ll letcha know. That is, if you wanna know.” To this, he squints at Colt like he might be able to read under the mask she’s wearing to see her real thoughts on it.
The look doesn’t linger as it falls away to hear the story of the allogator and the fact Remi and Ronin had twins now – confusion clear on his face. “How big are those? I heard they can get kinda big.” And let it be known now that Thorn is not a bug guy, let alone a flower-like-bug-guy. He preferred to let everyone else deal with them rather than be the first line of defense.
Unless it came to murdering them, probably, though he wouldn’t really know.
He’s happy it’s gone smoothly for her, though, and he starts to relax into the bed a bit more, legs shifting to flatten out a bit more, nearly to the edge of his bedframe with how he’s scrunched his body up, watching her as she mentions the garden like it’s something he should have remembered was here. “Oh. Shit, well, that’s cool then?” It’s a good reminder for him to stay far away from it – not wanting any surprise cabbage patch babies, given the fact he has zero idea how it works but he doesn’t have any inclination to find out.
So instead, Colt stretches and then toys with his still damp hair against his forehead that he shuffles away from like a kid not wanting to be fussed over, barking a laugh at the mention of the bartender as he squirms. “Ugh! ‘Side from him pissin’ me off constantly?” He asks, accusingly, before he stills so suddenly and squints at her. “He’s still kinda hot though.” He mutters under his breath before distracting her thoroughly with the only thing that comes to mind immediately, which is licking her wrist with how close it is to his face if only so it’d stop her fussing and maybe have her forget about the tidbit he’d just said out loud.
