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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!
Is this where it mends or it breaks - between a rock and a hard place
She watches carefully as Jesse handles her new steed and the equipment. She absorbs things quickly, and doesn't complain, all things Colt takes a quick liking to in a person. Burger is trusted to be amenable. He's a stocky beast, and that thickness translates into his brain as well. Slow to spook, slow to move, much more content to doze and graze his days away than anything else.
"Only if I wanted to bury myself there," Colt answers with a thin grin, the bleak truth of that maybe still being the case folded into the corners. "No, I don't think I could manage it alone, and have no interest in trying." Alone has also never suited her, not really, not even when she pretends it does. Moments, maybe, where she needs nothing but her and the unspooling expanse of the world, but even then she's always got a horse or a dog, or both, at her side.
Jesse swings up with the tentative motions of someone new, trying to remember each step and offered scrap of advice. Better that than charging in like she knows what she's doing and clobbering herself or poor Burger. Horses aren't the sort to let someone's lies and confidence do everything. They'll create an honest person quick. As Jesse settles, Colt holds up her hand to show her some of the rein work, specifically how to quickly loosen or tighten them, and the importance of keeping them balanced.
At the sand castle remark, Colt's expression softens. She leaves the focus of ensuring Jesse is sat proper and ready, and instead lifts up to her face, holding her eyes form for a moment before a smile races forth. "I'm positive you could." Colt presses her legs in and Beans starts to move forward a bit. "Bet it would be even better if we built it together."
Colt
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.
Her hands adjusted slightly on the reins as Colt demonstrated, fingers fumbling once before finding a more even grip. She glanced down at them, then back up, checking the tension, trying to feel the difference instead of just copying it. Burger didn’t protest, didn’t even flick more than an ear, and that alone gave her a fragile thread of confidence to follow.
Wren shifted slightly in the saddle, testing her balance as Burger shifted his weight beneath her, slow and patient. The ested, steady horse walked slowly after Beans. “I think,” she started, then paused, her brow knitting as she searched for something honest enough to say, “I think I don’t want to do things alone either.”
The admission didn’t waver. Her eyes lifted back to Colt then, her body falling in easy motion with Burger's movementts as they rode. She didn't know a lot, but the way Colt's words settled on her meant something. She was willing to step through and take the invitation, her vulnerability seen and heard and cupped softly.
like the sea over sand still I follow heartlines on your hand
Is this where it mends or it breaks - between a rock and a hard place
Burger had been chosen specifically for the type of rider that Colt expected Jesse to be. Inexperienced, yes, but also patient and careful, the sort that needs a forgiving and slow horse that won't scare them, or in turn get easily scared by mistakes. There's certain things that can be trained, but other things that just are with the horse, each one as different as they are, half fed by genetics and the makeup of who they are, and the other half fed by experiences and the world around them. She could not teach a horse how to be forgiving, Burger had been born with that already.
Satisfied to see the woman settle in the saddle and get Burger working properly into stride with them, Colt has no qualms now focusing on the small ways Jesse is discovering the courage to say what's difficult. It's admirable to confess things that scrape, and though it feels like removing part of yourself and laying it bare for the taking, it allows others to place something more inside you, filling all the spaces you just carved away. "Come with me, then," Colt suggests after only a beat of quiet. It doesn't require much consideration on her end, only the thought as to whether or not this is really the best direction for Jesse. She's young, clearly shaken up, and the desert would not be so kind as King's End.
Yet, there's that same restless quality to the woman that Colt recognizes. The sort that isn't settled or sure just because the world around her might be (and truly, when is it ever?). "I leave in a couple days, so pack whatever you need and take Burger here and meet me at the Boondocks." Colt offers up the chance of adventure plain as she can. "Can't promise it'll be easy, but I'm happy to have you at my side, and maybe together we can build something that we can call home." She smiles easy, though it's a fragile thing, because now it's not just her chasing the wildness of something dangerous. "And, if you decide it ain't for you, no one would blame you for leaving."
Colt
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 offer settled over Wren like sunlight, warm enough to thaw something she had kept clenched tight inside herself. For a moment, she could only stare at Colt. Her fingers tightened unconsciously around the reins as Burger continued his slow, steady pace beneath her. Hak Etme. She bit the inside of her lip, anticipation and excitement flushing her cheeks. What was waiting for her here, after all? A borrowed bed in an inn that would eventually ask her to move on. Streets that still felt foreign beneath her feet. The hollow ache of trying to rebuild herself in the ruins of something she could not even fully remember loving. Stormbreak had been safety because it was all she had known, but now even that was gone, shattered open and scattered.
Wren looked ahead as Beans moved through the grasses, Colt easy and certain in the saddle. A laugh escaped her then, breathless and small at first, almost surprised to exist. “I think, uh,” she started, shaking her head once as though the thought still startled her while she spoke it aloud, “I think I want to go.” Wren glanced down at Burger’s neck, reaching forward carefully to stroke her hand against the gelding’s mane before lifting her gaze back toward Colt. “We can build the sandcastles, and if they fall apart…” Her shoulders lifted slightly, “yhen maybe we just build them again.”
FIN
like the sea over sand still I follow heartlines on your hand
