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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!
"Yeah well, maybe you should have thought about that before you kept trying to make poison sushi in my ocean, huh?" Flora sasses in response to Tal's considered curiosity about why his presence was being demanded requested for beach cleanup duty, (especially with the Peregrine still needing her repairs). "Also, you're one of the only other Accepted around." She adds with a shrug.
"Ronin is going to meet us too. I'll explain the plan better once we're all together."
So saying, the queen began to walk the courier toward the site of the incident. They'd tugged the creature above the line of the hightide, but Flora was almost positive it was somehow closer to the water than when she'd last seen it. Dark purple rivers of goo drenched the sands around its body, and though a few tentacles had come loose from where Frey had knotted it together, it was at least more or less as she'd left it.
Flora voluntells Ronin and Tal what they'll be doing xD
there will be scrapes and sutures; viciousness and victory
Ronin, regrettably, is already very much there.
Wrinkling his nose as he stands on one of the dryer parts of the beach (he does not want to dip his toes in any purple goo, thank you, and he's not keen to know what happens if he tries), he glances up only at the faint sound of Flora's voice.
With arms folded across his chest and looking very much as if he'd have preferred to be left out of this particular clean up endeavour, he nonetheless knows it's what's best for Torchline. That, and Flora has asked him.
So, you know. Duh.
"Hey," he calls once he spots the Doubletake and the Messenger, dropping his arms to his sides and meandering a little closer to where they're walking. "So you're sure I can't just set it on fire and call it a day?"
"Hey, I didn't mean to! I was just tryin' to--" Tal managed to shut his mouth with a click before he admitted out loud that he hadn't been thinking, and in spite of his fancy Goggles he sure as hail hadn't been observing things very well from up above. He was along at the Queen's beck and call because he'd realized a little too late what a hash he was making of things and, well, that meant it was his mess to clean up, too.
But he was here now, and the look of relief on his terrible poker face as Ronin came into view was obvious as he grasped after a way to avoid the current scolding, even if he kind've maybe deserved it. Some of it, at least.
"Hey, Ronin!" It wasn't exactly a grinning kind of day, but Tal's hangdog scowl lightened considerably as he waved at the mentor of so many of Caido's enthusiastic-but-not-too-bright young bucks. "Yeah, what's wrong with just lightin' it up?" he asked, turning back to Flora with a furrow of confusion between his brows.
As Tal shut his mouth, Flora glanced at him with a cheerful grin of approval. "See? That's what I thought." She hummed, glad that she hadn't been forced to resort to threads of what would my Mother think?? in order to coerce get the courier onside.
"Hiya!" Waving, the queen struts over the sand before frowning hard enough to merit pulling down her sunglasses so that they could both see the disapproval in her aqua stare. "Look at that purple gunk and then tell me you want to breathe that in." Eyebrows raised, Flora tapped her foot for good measure as if willing to give them both all the time in the world to think about it. Violet ash just raining down on Torchline, settling on the sand, covering the trees?
Nice one.
"Nooooooo, what we're going to do is this. Tal, you and I are going to channel. Hopefully we get Rae, but if not, Frey will do. We're going to ask for it to be encased in stone so that none of this can leek out, and then Ronin is going to pick it up and fly it somewhere far away. The swamp, I guess, since that's where it came from."
there will be scrapes and sutures; viciousness and victory
Shrinking under Flora's non-sunglassed gaze and realising, not for the first time, that she really is Remi's daughter (and more importantly Hotaru's but he's pointedly not thinking about that), the Knight instead clears his throat and straightens back up, appropriately chastised. "A good point," he mumbles, pulling a face at the rivers of purple goo streaming across the beach, not to mention the tangle of tentacles and limbs from the corpse nearby.
"That sounds wise," he says of the channelling attempt, and his brow furrows as he judges the size of the creature with the dragon that lies sleeping against his bones. "I think I should be able to manage it, once it's stone," he decides. "I assume we'll need to do some extra cleanup around all of... this?" He gestures to the state of the beach.
Tal might have been grumbling internally, but he made the wise choice for once and kept it internal, making his mood known only in the slouching curve of his shoulders until they joined up with Ronin.
One look at the towering pile of bits and tentacles and goo and Flora's explanation of wind and ash and that whole breathing thing they were all so fond of had the courier deflating as quickly as Ronin did. "...Oh. Yeah," he admitted in a small voice.
Channeling was a pretty big ask, but he didn't any better ideas so he heaved a sigh and nodded. "Right. Guess it's askin' too much for Vi or Safrin t'like... purify it or somethin'? Save th'flyin' step?" He shrugged, giving Ronin a sheepish look. "I'd offer t'help transport it with th'Peregrine but, uh, she's still under repairs," he explained to the White Knight.
His gaze went back to Flora and he took his hands out of his pockets and wiped his palms on his trousers with a faint grimace, straightening up as he did so. "But hey, you're th'Queen. Pick your god an' I'll back you up."
Much as she didn't like to be argued with, that wasn't to say that Tal didn't have a good point. "Well, the thing is, if we don't get Vi and we get Safrin instead, she might actually just kill Ronin and call it collateral damage." The queen explains with a shrug as she slides her sunglasses back up her nose. "And Ludo probably wouldn't be much help, so...Rae or Frey gives us the best chance, I think."
As for cleaning up after? Flora grins crookedly as she looks to Ronin. "What, you and Dad don't want to have a beach clean up date?" Of course Flora knew that if she asked it of him—of both of them—that they'd absolutely pick up the entirety of Torchline's shores, but no. Giving her head a little shake, she explained: "While you're off, Tal and I will deal with whatever is left."
Taking a breath, Flora glanced up at the sky before realizing that of all the metaphorical places Rae was likely to be, it wasn't in the clouds, but the ground. So, sinking to her knees and stretching out her hand for Tal's so she could tug him down with her, the queen loudly cleared her throat. "Hey Rae? Flora again, but just a quick favour this time. We managed to kill this void thing, but we don't want its body to pollute our shores or ground. Could you encase it in stone so that it can't?"
"Kill Ronin?" Tal repeated, looking over to one of his heroes with wide-eyed shock. Sure, he knew that the demigod was Vi's White Knight now, but the courier wasn't privy to the internal family draaamaaa between Ronin and his former patron over the years. "Well... fuck, no, don't want that!" And yeah, Ludo was good for plenty of things, but beach cleanup duty didn't seem like it would be one of them.
While Flora went and voluntold him again, Tal just heaved a sigh and nodded in glum resignation. "Yup," he confirmed forlornly with the Queen's plan to handle the leftovers between them. Since they'd be out of channels for the season and were lacking in big fancy magics there was probably a lot of hauling-by-hand in his future, but it wouldn't be the first time. Or the last.
He let himself be tugged down beside her, kneeling in the sand and offering a prayer of his own. "I'm here, too," he chipped in. "And, uh, we could really use your help, Rae. This is way more'n we can handle on our own. So please turn the fucker to stone so it can't do any more damage?"
Tal attempts to channel Rae with Flora! Go Team Accepted!
Was Rae busy? Did Rae not care? Had Torchline already asked too much of the God? Did the team roll poorly?
Whatever the answer, it was Frey who arrived on Torchline's shoreline accompanied by a warm breeze and with a smile on their lips. "It's impressive for a creature to remain a threat even when it has been killed." They marvel, sounding impressed as they near—but do not touch—the tangle of limbs upon the beach. "It is the evolutionary trait of a species that refuses to be defeated, even in death. You'd be wise to take that into account."
With a wave of their hand, the creature slowly became encased in stone until it looked like a cumbersome statue that had been inartfully carved before Frey disappeared in a rush of wind.
there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters
Standing by while Flora and Tal channel, as well as discuss his potential demise depending on the herald who vists, Ronin lets out a breath he hasn't realised he's been holding as they decide on Rae or Frey over a chance at Safrin, and he offers a grateful nod to the Doubletake as they get to work.
Unsure if he's ever seen the nature aspect of Frey in person, the Knight all but has to shield his eyes against their golden presence, watching as they encase the creature quite spectacularly in stone, with enough (gross) crags and handholds for his draconic claws to grab at them.
"Thank you," he adds in a low voice as the god departs, before rolling his shoulders and stepping away from the group until he's sure his size won't accidentally cause them trouble. "Alright, let's get this thing gone."
Shifting and expanding, where once Ronin's draconic form had been black as night and sprayed with the cosmos, now he stands pale and white and veined with gold ignore the table, shaking out his wings and tromping over to get large claws entangled with the stone corpse.
Ronin shifts and prepares to lift away the stone void creature!
Well, it wasn't Rae, but it got the job done. "Thanks! You're a peach!" Flora called after Frey as the deity encased the grotesque monster in stone and then disappeared.
"Are you sure you can move it on your own?" Glancing to Ronin, she took his nod as all the reassurance she needed before taking several steps back that the beating of his wings wouldn't shoot sand directly at it. Waiting for him to be gone, the queen exhaled and then glanced over at Tal.
"Okay, so........any ideas about this?" Where the creature had lain and died, its blood had seeped into the sand. "I'm worried if we start digging too much we'll hit the water table beneath and it'll just drain right into the sea." She explains, nibbling at the inside of her cheek. "But also it isn't like we can just...blow it away either, so..." Raising her eyebrows and twitching her lips, Flora waited patiently for Tal to magically come up with some sort of solution.
Ronin! Get flying! You're meant to take the stone to the Feverlands, but the jungle is closer if you get lazy.
Tal! What do you think the best way of collecting the toxic sand is?
Tal didn't exactly flinch when Frey showed up instead of Rae, but he might have shrank back a bit and sidled halfway behind Flora. He swallowed hard as the god mused over things that were going to be his problem eventually - his and everyone else's - but soon enough the monster was petrified and Ronin was changing shape into a gloriously vast and bright dragon. The courier's eyes went wide with awe and he barely remembered to duck his head and pull his Goggles into place to protect his eyes before those great wings began to beat and stir up the sand around them.
He held his breath but still coughed out a little sand as Flora turned back to him and explained her concerns about digging and dealing with the ichor that stained the no-longer pristine - and no-longer white - stretch of beach along the coast.
He nodded glumly and stared at the remaining mess, then jerked a little when he realized that the queen was staring it him and waiting for a solution. "Uhhh..." he said, starting out strong. "I mean..." He trailed off helplessly. He wasn't really an idea guy. He was just a messenger!
"I mean, diggin' might be th'only way t'get th'stuff that's sunk in deep," he said with a scowl for the nasty voidblood. "But mebbe we could... I dunno... try an' rake up th'stuff that's dried an' hardened up so far? Like cleaning clumps out've a really big cat box?" He shrugged. "Can always get th'stuff on top gathered up first. Maybe we'll get lucky an' it didn't sink down too far?" Frey had tied it up into a pretty neat bow and stopped most of the bleeding when the god had dropped the Horror on the beach. It didn't seem too impossible to hope for.
Tal suggests raking out the dried clumps of void blood from the top layers of sand to start.
Appropriately attired now thanks Odd, Ronin snorts at Flora as if to tell her that of course he can move this great corpse-turned boulder. Indeed, once he's got his claws appropriately around its misshapen form, he has time enough to shriek a warning that might be 'cover your eyes' just as much as it's 'see you soon', before his wings begin to beat in earnest and he heaves the great mass into the air.
Whether his departure will help or hinder the work that the Doubletake and Tal are trying to do on the beach is none of Ronin's concern - it's taking all of his concentration to get himself properly airborne, in truth. But he manages it eventually, soaring a loop around them to gain momentum before departing towards the Feverlands. The Oerwoud seems a bit too close for comfort for him, honestly.
Ronin chooses to take the stone corpse to the Feverlands!
The beach fades away to the Oerwoud, the jungle appearing more violet as of late, before blurring entirely into the putrid garnet of the swampland. Entirely taken over by the void, it would be smart of Ronin to simply drop the stone from the air and then leave so that he might not be exposed to anything below. Of course, then he wouldn't be quite sure what was below.
"Fuck sake—!" Covering her nose and mouth with her arm and clenching her eyes closed behind her sunglasses, Flora cursed Ronin loudly in her mind. She'd definitely throw something at him the next time she saw him.
Once the sand died down, the queen coughed theatrically before dusting herself off. "Ewwwww." Wrinkling her nose at the image of it being a giant cat box, that the idea was disgusting didn't mean it was wrong. "Okay, that sounds good to me. I brought some supplies but we'll snag anyone we see to come and help." Without waiting, the Doubletake lifted her fingers into her mouth and whistled. Loudly. Waving her hands above her head, she gestured at those whose attention she'd caught toward the wagon full of supplies nearer to the road.
It's going to take a not-inconsiderable amount of effort for Ronin to fly the rock into the Feverlands. Once he gets there, will he just drop the stone from the air or try and place it somewhere?
