Click here for a list of weather descriptions, seasonal festivals, and a real time:site time conversion.
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!
Got a head full of noise About a hundred different things I'm tryna avoid I got a mind in the gutter Got trouble on one hand, a beer in the other
The wood swings from her hand to the deck with a whump. The bundle isn't light by any means, even if Deimos makes it appear so. It doesn't trouble her, but the capacity to carry it does not reduce the impact of it on the world just the same. "Yeah..." she agrees, to the potential of many hands making light work, but there's a lingering thought that hums just beneath the sentiment as she turns and falls back in stride with him. Snow is crisp under her boot, breath curling more visibly. "I'm hoping making the jungle more hospitable will help encourage more people. It's just a few of us for now willing to try, and some of the locals I've won over. Anyone else will cost me." And labor, it is not cheap.
This probably does not surprise him, but maybe it's been a while since he's had a smaller group under his purview. Halo has stood the test of time long enough to grow into something formidable despite the treachery of its surrounding area, which is a guiding hope for her to potentially do the same. She does not need it to be vast, but she would like to stop learning a new tradeskill every week which is what it currently feels like. There'd be no time to ranch at this rate.
Agreement nods along with his notion that the gods could fireproof the town for her. "Yes, although perhaps it's an unnecessary defense." She has to consider personal desires over the good of the area now. It has always been so on the ranch too, but too a much lesser degree, and it just so happens many of them aligned. "Fire should not be so rampant in the desert." Not without human hands at least, which is a high possibility, and she'd be lying if she said the desire to eliminate what would decimate all her hard work in an instant again isn't a strong pull. Worse, there's less opportunity to stop a fire that breaks out in the desert, water a limited resource. Sand, perhaps, could be used to smother, but it would not be easy.
Clambering back to the sled and riding alongside Deimos as they continue into Halo on their wood delivery, she can imagine the terrain in her mind's eye, seen from the back of the pegasus and the foot travel she's done. "There are small watering holes in Suvahasi. I've been hunting fresh food at them," she explains, but again she continues with more to it than that. "There's something bigger there though, I'm sure of it. Somewhere in Suvahsi, there must be a decent amount of water in order for a jungle like that to thrive. It's why I'm going to combat the area for us to live in. A safer bet than trying to get water arranged elsewhere, I think." Both needs bend the region to her will, she understands, but one seems a more reasonable ask, just reducing potency rather than adding a foreign element to its landscape.
Got the wind in my hair I got nowhere to go so I'm already there Can't say I would and I can't say I wouldn't If I don't come back, don't come lookin'
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.
“I cannot remember a time I charged my assistance with something,” he murmured, snorting at the notion. They’d helped with every amount of necessity and requirement, and his hands hadn’t been out, expecting compensation. Some had been for the need of mankind, and others had been to undermine efforts from less-than-savory individuals, but they’d banded together to take down barriers, monsters, and ancient gods; he couldn’t quite fathom why house building and rendering seemed to be the more overbearing task. “Deals, certainly,” at which he wrinkled his nose in amusement, thinking of their recent transactions – but for something valuable like information, rather than snatching at whatever coin she had remaining. “I try to entice help by using food, personally,” and he shrugged his shoulders, not ashamed of utilizing the semblances of fresh baked goods and a healthy, hearty breakfast to get things maneuvered around. “The desert may not be appealing to some, but you can make it worth their while.”
Whether or not she considered the fire defenses indispensable would depend on the world she reigned, and Colt would have to learn which she found ideal at what time. Inevitability first had always been his key foundations – taking care of the unavoidable and the certain, before maneuvering into the wants.
Tugging at the vessel and listening to Belial chomp down on what was probably nothing more than bones now, he considered the other portions of the Suvahasi – small watering holes, and maybe something more. “Could there be something underground?” It couldn’t be all sand out there, under the tumultuous growth.
Got a head full of noise About a hundred different things I'm tryna avoid I got a mind in the gutter Got trouble on one hand, a beer in the other
Admittedly, she had not considered asking friends to help her. Most of them are in King's End, and though it's true, they have assisted each other often enough, trading the needs and the means back and forth, the desert is not so easy. So when he says that he doesn't charge, she's quiet for a moment as the meaning of that dawns inside her, bright and warm. He likely didn't intend for that to strike her so completely, but she turns to look up at him with an unashamed appreciation. The vulnerability in her smile is one she doesn't duck from for the first time in a while, because if anyone can appreciate the struggle and navigate it cleanly, it'd be him.
She's been so focused on pulling together the group willing to come with her, to forge contacts with the locals, and to maintain the workers that are overseeing supplies and plans, that she's nearly forgotten all the people that offered to help. She's painted herself a fine picture of ruin with all the bridges she's strained of late, but there's many more that she built. Though many have no intention of moving, she need not pretend their assistance is anything other than legitimate. She knows she can't do this alone, and yet accepting help has still never come easy enough to notice how quickly she passes it up.
"Mm, my cooking very well could scare some people away," she grins, dropping the weight of her fondness back to the path ahead of them, though the remnants stay firmly in her cheeks. "Baking I could do," she asserts, nodding resolutely. "What's your favorite baked good?" No reason at all, certainly not to tempt him to town building in the future.
His considerations reveal the depth of his thought and how he approaches things in a tactical manner. She appreciates it. "Underneath layers of plants, I have no doubt," she concedes, imagining whatever mid-jungle oasis there is has been wreathed with growth. "As for actually underground, that remains to be seen. Not in the Boneyard at least, or not where we dug our skyport anyway."
Got the wind in my hair I got nowhere to go so I'm already there Can't say I would and I can't say I wouldn't If I don't come back, don't come lookin'
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 sudden dawning on her features caused a long and low snort to funnel through him, echoing eventually into a few bouts of laughter that bounded against some of the buildings they passed. Shaking his head, he granted and gave the space for her mind to work while he pulled the sled along. Deimos had understood the weight of many overbearing things in the past – had strived to find and grant help when and where he could, but also comprehended when it simply couldn’t be given. There were eternal circumstances wrapped around all of them; knotted and gnarled as they might’ve been, Caido also harbored a meticulous and charitable lot. He trusted he wasn’t the only who could lend support to Colt; and while unaware of some burnt edges, one didn’t always have to look at the fringes. Where were the stronger fibers? The bearings and reinforcements?
Listening though, he unfurled another long breath, amused. “I see – is it my turn to be bribed?” The Sword couldn’t say he’d never been manipulated – but that was a potent turn of phrase for something he’d already extended to be lent – after all, Colt had assisted in many overtures here in Halo. “I am not picky,” he mused instead, a truth of the matter – and then she could focus on those who might require a stronger pull.
He hadn’t expected the Boneyard to hold anything but factors of yesteryear – but he churned the notions over in his head as they came to the next stop. “The Sunshine Pools must get it from somewhere,” unless it was always fresh rainfall tarnished into toxicity. “There was a well we had to pour water into, years ago, during the war against the Voice and the Ascended, there.” Whether or not it remained still in existence, especially some seven or more turns later, would be something to ponder - uncertain if anything had become of it or the churning additions had been soaked right back into the dunes and sand.
Got a head full of noise About a hundred different things I'm tryna avoid I got a mind in the gutter Got trouble on one hand, a beer in the other
Humor creeps in readily when she is so plainly caught, not that she'd been sneaking it very well. "Not bribery," she says with a lazy drawl, comforted back to the molasses-style of speaking with the ease of his company and advice. "Just want to ensure any trips are worth the while in the ways I can manage." Which is to say that she means to provide something a little more appealing than dried fruits and nuts for whoever finds themselves helping her build a town. If it happened to be Deimos' favorite, which surely would go over just as well with others, well then what a happy accident.
She can't quite believe that he doesn't have a stake to claim in some realm of baked goods, although admittedly it is hard to go wrong there unless the recipe goes south with a failure to measure or heat it properly. "Alright then," she considers, a mild smirk still lingering at the non-picky Sword. "I'll just have to make a point to have variety." Maybe she could ask Evie.
Leadership requires much more than she might have ever imagined. Although, she's come to find she knows a lot more than she ever realized, or is at least capable of acquiring and using the knowledge. Ask her a season ago if she'd need to be considering half of what she is now and she'd have laughed. From building foundations to water tables, her world has rapidly expanded beyond cow feed and leather straps. Although there's skills buried beneath the surface levels of that which are helping carry her now, showing her that her life may not have been so simple as she always imagined, even if this newest version is more complex than she'd ever have dreamed.
"I'm not certain," she admits, his notion one to mull over. "I've seen the flash flooding there now, and water falls fast and hard, then gathers and moves just as readily. I could see that delivering the Sunshine Pools all they need. I could also see us learning how to benefit from that somehow." Collect and keep as much of that dump as they could.
Another bundle of wood in hand, she travels with him to the next delivery point, surprised to hear about the well. "I can't say I've seen a well of any kind," she murmurs, thoughtful. The wood is placed down for claim from the family, a gift of warmth for the season, or at least something to start off with. "Although I doubt I've seen every inch of the desert yet, and it's possible it was buried." Things to think about, or maybe emulate, if a well could be a choice.
Walking back to the sled, she is flagged down by Wyatt on horse, who tells her the ship is ready sooner than expected. She bids Deimos farewell, mind full of new possibilities, then joins behind Wyatt on the saddle. Much as she'd enjoy to remain in Halo, she has things beyond its border to do.
[FIN]
Got the wind in my hair I got nowhere to go so I'm already there Can't say I would and I can't say I wouldn't If I don't come back, don't come lookin'
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.
