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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!
07-11-2024, 04:08 AM (This post was last modified: 07-11-2024, 04:08 AM by Flora.)
flora
The Tavern is closed, the sign on the door reading Private Function, come back later. On one of the central tables nearest to the bar—located well within 30ft of the back rooms Flora knows, having measured it with Jack's assistance—a pair of candles have been set along with two of her finest glasses. The Doubletake hasn't gone so far as to assume what the Reaper would like to drink, but instead has simply ensured a full supply of every type of liquor the Hanged Man normally supplied.
Dressed simply, business casual it might be described in another world, Flora is the picture of put together and ready; so long as Dahlia doesn't have the same sort of telepathy that Jack does, no one but the captain will know just how nervous she is. And if Dahlia does? Well, then none of it probably matters anyway.
Taking a breath and rolling her shoulders away from her ears, Flora flounces out toward the patio, her eyes on the sea and Starfall to await the arrival of her guest of honour.
"Thank you for the invitation, dear. You would be shocked at how few I receive." Dahlia, of course, simply appears beside Flora when the time suits her, brushing some non-existent bit of dust from her outfit as she arrives. Clad in sleek, dark pants and a corset embroidered with threads of gold and violet so dark it's almost black, she offers a too-comfortable smile to the Doubletake and gestures for her to lead the way inside.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asks, spending a moment or two enjoying the salt on the breeze and the gentle heat in the air, letting her hands drift along the dark wood frame of the door, before finally stepping in and taking in The Hanged Man in all its (empty) glory. "You didn't have to close your business just for me. I would have quite enjoyed the crowd."
Trying not to flinch as Dahlia appears at her side, Flora glances over her shoulder as if having expected no other entrance for the Reaper to have made. Hoping the blush she'd intentionally placed on her cheeks that morning would hide the colour now blooming scarlet beneath, the Doubletaken turned to the other woman and flashed her a bright smile. "Sorry it didn't come sooner." Flora says with a breezy shrug. "But with LongNight prep and then LongNight itself things kind of got away from me."
Leading Dahlia inside, Flora chuckled under her breath. "Well seeing as we are the only two queens in this entire place, I thought it was time for us to have a little chat." She explains, before gesturing for the Reaper to take a seat.
As for the state of the tavern? Laughing brightly, her eyes widening in agreement, Flora slips behind the bar. "Oh I don't doubt that, but what I didn't need was a bunch of drunken idiots trying to hit on you while we talked." She explains, before gesturing over her shoulder at what the Hanged Man had to offer. "Pick your poison."
"Mm, it's quite a time from what I have heard." The longest night, when all the stars go dark and the gods stop answering the prayers of the masses. Dahlia had found it very enjoyable, in truth. "Still, better late than never." Companionable for all intents and purposes, the Reaper follows her fellow queen into the tavern and takes the offered seat, looking for all the world like just another visitor to the bar.
"I might have quite enjoyed that," she teases of the drunken idiots, glancing up at the brief sound of something nearby - a tinkle of glass, perhaps? - before her attention returns all too easily to the Doubletake. "I have been sampling wines as of late. I find it fascinating, that a grape can become so much more. Red if you wouldn't mind." Walking her fingers around the glass on the table, she watches Flora with lazy interest, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop.
From the corner of the room a massive wine-spider scurries. Running toward you, it tries its best to crawl up your leg, hovering against you for warmth. Clearly something has startled it. Poor thing.
This is not a RE nor a rare creature. It cannot be used for levelling.
Wine Spider: These friendly arachnids can grow up to the size of a small housecat. With fuzzy bodies and spindly legs, they are often found lurking around wine racks or kegs of beer. They are almost always drunk, hiccuping and stumbling about. It is said that finding a baby wine spider in your drink is a lucky omen!
"Torchline hosts a large party every year, lots of frivolity. Lots of drinking. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd heard us from the island." Flora says over her shoulder.
"There's still time. No doubt they'll be frothing at the door soon enough. Half of them can't even read." She jests, before reaching for a bottle of red whose waxy seal was encased in a thick layer of dust. It was at that moment a little wine spider snuck out from around the bottle, and, with a uneasy scream, the Doubletake flinched away clutching the bottle against her chest. "Fuckin—" Thinking WINE SPIDER loudly in her thoughts just in case Jack heard her and debated coming running (though really, as if he would), Flora forced herself to settle, laughing it off with a roll of her eyes.
Bringing the bottle over with a corkscrew in hand, Flora set it down on the table between them before gesturing at the bottle. "The longer they sit, the better they become if they're bottled correctly." She explains, just in case the Reaper thought the Doubletake trying to snub her by bringing over some old and forgotten vintage.
Lifting out the cork with a satisfying pop!, Flora poured them each a healthy glass of a red so dark as to look like a bruised plum. "Cheers!" Raising her glass, she holds it towards Dahlia. "To...queens."
"The island," Dahlia echoes, tilting her head ever so slightly before shrugging her shoulders. "I was tucked away in Stormbreak for the duration, so alas I couldn't say. We could certainly see the fires burning from up there, though." Like the sea had become the sky and Torchline its constellations.
The sound of Flora's scream, whilst pitched high and sudden, barely has Dahlia flinching, and she watches the wine spider scuttle away with the same quiet amusement as a cat observing a mouse they can't be bothered to chase. "A common occurrence here?" she wonders, raising her glass so Flora might fill it and watching the deep crimson with unbidden delight.
"To queens," she purrs, toasting the Doubletake in turn before taking a long and indulgent sip of the vintage. Humming her approval, it's with stained lips that Dahlia sets the glass back down. "And what does this queen wish to discuss, I wonder?"
"Ah, I should try that sometime." Flora muses, of seeing Torchline from the skies during LongNight.
"Far more common than I'd like." The Doubletake huffs as she takes her seat. Relying on Jack to let her know if the Reaper was harbouring any immediately threatening thoughts, Flora lifted her own glass to her lips and took a healthy sip, both to silently communicate that there was nothing wrong with the wine as much as to soothe her own nerves.
"Oh you know," Flora laughs. "If Stormbreak and Torchline are still the allies they once were, if we should expect war anytime soon, if Starfall has anything good to trade.." Chuckling to show she was only (partially) kidding before leaning forward and setting her glass down, Flora eyed the Reaper carefully. "I'm sure you know how much everyone has been speculating about what The Family is doing here, mostly thanks to Vox, but I thought it best to hear it right from the cat's mouth, so to speak."
Warmly, the queen smiled. She was nervous, yes, but just as brazen as she'd ever been.
If Dahlia is concerned about the wine she doesn't show it; indeed, a gourmet and a connoisseur of all things indulgent, if anything she might only comment on the way poison changed the taste of the vintage, if Flora were to add any. Lifting the glass to her lips a second time, Dahlia listens to Flora's oh-so-casual list of things they might discuss with amusement in her cerulean eyes.
"Torchline has given Stormbreak no reason to consider it anything other than an ally," she points out. "And the last thing anyone desires here is war, dear. If it comes, it will be a decision that others make." Which is just a clever way of saying if people get in the way there will be war, but not to worry about that.
"Starfall has some of the most glorious things upon it that Caido has ever seen," the Reaper continues, gazing appreciatively at the way the wine stains the glass. "I am afraid they are not available to trade, though. Not unless you happen to be a friend of the Family."
"And we don't intend to." Flora warmly interjects, before plucking up her glass and swirling her wine around. "We weren't sure if you'd see our little barriers as a slight. We really did try and live with the new flora and fauna that arrived when you did." She adds, with a one-sided shrug. "Ultimately we thought a barrier to keep things out was better than just going out and killing everything." They couldn't have kept up with it, and no doubt the Reaper would know it, but it was the thought that counted.
Hopefully.
"You know, I did think I was a Friend of the Family once. Then someone rudely asked for me to be healed." The queen says lightly. "I know Vox keeps mentioning it, but if he told us all what it actually entailed you might get some more takers."
Dahlia waves a gentle hand to Flora, as if the idea of their barriers causing a problem hadn't even entered her mind. (Because it hasn't, based on the ease with which she was still able to interrupt the meeting at the Hollowed Grounds). "We are, all of us, only trying to live," she says with an easy shrug of her shoulders and yet another sip of wine. "And there are predators and prey in all parts of nature."
As for the Doubletake's previous status as a Friend of the Family, the Reaper's eyebrows raise and she offers a warm smile at the knowledge. "Do let me know if you'd like to redeem yourself once more," she purrs. "And I know Vox can be an acquired taste, but I thought it quite obvious in the name." A friend. "You would not have need of those silly barriers if you were a Friend of the Family, put it that way. The creatures that have evolved with our coming here would see you as one of their own, and act accordingly."
"Can I ask...and I mean, I get why you might not just be able to tell me, but..' Leaning forward as if perhaps they were at a slumber party and Flora was going to ask how far Dahlia and the boy from third period had actually gone, she whispers: "Why here? I mean, in all of space?" She was genuinely curious, so sue her.
Tapping her fingertips on the table, Flora is not not tempted. Shut up Jack, I won't. She thinks, though no doubt the captain will here the yet that quickly follows. "Last time all I got was irritable and a wound that wouldn't quite heal." The queen points out. "Not the best look, you know? Certainly had everyone freaking out about it every time they saw me." Raising her eyebrows and sighing as if the whole thing had just been such a tiring ordeal, Flora took another sip of her wine. "Now, if it could be more like Everest, with no descernable clues...?" Well that might be something to consider.
Tilting her head, because gods how often does one get to converse with the cattle on a planet they're invading, Dahlia's smile is indulgent, and she holds out her glass for a refill as if that might pay for the answers Flora seeks. "Because, little love," she purrs, "you were next, that's all." And the Doubletake can take that however she likes; whether it's happenstance or whether it's a calculated next step in a long line of worlds turned purple, Flora will just have to imagine.
"Ah, I see - you were nipped by one of the first evolutions of our presence here," she murmurs, settling back in her seat. "If you were to make the same choice, it would be very simple. Enjoyable, even." And though she doesn't say it out loud, the glitter in her too-blue eyes as Everest's name passes Flora's lips might do it for her. He certainly found it that way, it seems to say.
Indulging Dahlia immediately, Flora refills the Reaper's glass before topping up her own as well. "There's more, so please." She says nodding toward the rapidly emptying bottle. Next in line? How horrifyingly vague. "Ah, well. That's that, then." Lifting the glass to her lips, Flora shrugged her appreciation just the same.
"Mmm, a fyrhund in the Climb." Flora confirms, swirling her wine in her glass. The ring on her finger hadn't pulsed with heat to indicate the Reaper was lying, but nor had Dahlia confirmed the information that the queen was fishing for, not that she was surprised.
"Is that so?" The Doubletake wonders, grinning. "So if I wake up tomorrow morning and decide I'd like to change...do I just say your name three times in my mirror?"
