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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!
"No," Jack is saying with a roll of his eyes that Flora likely won't see, about to reiterate that he means behind the waterfall when the Doubletake catches up and suggests it by herself. Nodding over his shoulder, he continues to walk out towards the scarlet roar of water, carefully clambering over red-slicked rocks and raising a hand automatically as if to shield against the spray, even though his magic is taking care of it all. "Sure," he calls of her idea for their casual rendezvous with Safrin, though he's too far away from her thoughts or the sound of her voice to have much more of a conversation.
Waiting until he's in reach of the sheet of crimson as it plunges into the great pool below, Jack uses his magic to carefully part some of it like a curtain in an effort to see what, if anything, is behind it. He doubts anyone would come this way even if they were an Ancient, and if they did, he's sure they could manage to suitably hide the cache on the shelf of rock behind the bloody water.
Not willing to go any closer to the Roar with Jack's magic focused elsewhere, instead Flora sits with the towel wrapped around her, growing more and more pink as the minutes stretch on. "Anything?" She calls loudly, though the amplification of her voice only had it bouncing noisily off of the walls before being destroyed by the spray of the waterfall.
At first it occurs to Flora that if this particular cache required so much effort to reach, who would be able to use it? But then, given her guild was composed of two ancients, a man with water magic, and her brother who was just a name on her roster to make it seem mildly legitimate, what did it matter? If anything she'd be the only one hard-pressed to reach it.
Well out of range for his magic and with Flora's voice soon eaten up by the sound of the waterfall, Jack is left to his own perusal, and he soon disappears in through the space he's created in the pouring red. Letting the water drop back behind him, at least it will become evident to the Doubletake that no one will even know about the cache, with any luck, let alone want to go and access it. There is no sight nor sound of the captain until he appears at the opposite side of the falls, parting the water once again to hop out and circle back around towards the Doubletake.
"It shouldn't be too much trouble to fit a lockbox back there," he announces, the air around him still blessedly clear of the crimson spray. "Could wedge it between two rocks and cover it with another, and it'll be like it was never there. Might be a good way to leave messages that can't be intercepted, if nothin' else."
As Jack slowly returns within range of the Doubletake, he'll feel anxious concern in her thoughts mixed with childish attempts to keep herself distracted by singing rhymes her nonna had taught her as a child. It was one of these songs his voice interrupts, and whether she likes it or not, Flora's smile is instant and relieved to see him.
Well, for like a hot second.
"You look absolutely horrifying right now." She calls, wrinkling her nose. With blood pouring down around him, the captain's face only mildly speckled from before, gods if he didn't look like the sort of thing that might make a banshee seem tame in comparison.
"Okay sounds go—actually, here." Still covered with the towel, Flora riffles through his bag and pulls out some of the obsidian shards they'd collected earlier. "See if you can stand these up inside or something, that way when we come back with a box we can tell if anyone actually has been in there." So saying she makes her way toward him, nearly slipping on the bloody floor just that her arms pinwheel for a moment as she tries to find her balance again.
"How do you mean?" Jack wants to know, glancing around at himself as if oblivious to all of the blood buffeting away from his air magic, and though he has interrupted Flora's nursery rhymes, he already knows he's going to have the song she'd been singing stuck in his head for the rest of the day. Raising an eyebrow as the spark of her idea richochets against his magic, Jack is already holding out a hand for the obsidian shards even before she produces them, realising what she intends for him to do.
Of course, then she goes pinwheeling the fuck across the slick ground, and rather than the obsidian, Jack ends up catching hold of the Doubletake instead. "How about," he suggests, collecting the shards from her hands, "you just stay here, before you end up in there." Nodding at the pool and smirking, the captain withdraws once more to climb back across the rocks and behind the waterfall to do as Flora has asked.
He returns only a short few moments later, the task complete, wiping off his hands on his pants. "A'right, that's enough blood for me," he decides. "Let's go."
Assuming this was what ice skating felt like, Flora nearly drops the obsidian she's holding in order to reach for Jack, but given she's quite certain he isn't going to let her fall, she clutches them tightly as she reaches out to catch an arm around his waist. "How silly of me not to have packed blood-walking shoes." The queen huffs, eyeing the pool distrustfully as Jack goes to set the shards up and she backs the fuck away (taking tiny steps as she goes).
Putting the rum back into Jack's bag, Flora has it slung over her shoulder by the time he returns, the towel now bunched up around her shoulders. There was no point in trying to put it away anymore lest it ruin everything else, and it wasn't as though her dress could get any more ruined at this point. "Agreed. Think you can navigate us outta here?" Flora wonders, absolutely knowing he could. She could probably have them wandering around the caves and tunnels for days on end and the captain would still see them back to the surface, but then, that's why he was the navigator one and she just looked cute.
