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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!
I feel it in the wind, my dear The sun is gonna reappear
One fine morning, the door and windows of the Treehouse were flung wide open. One by one, items were carried outside onto the surrounding porch; a shelf plucked from its wall, stacks of books, several chairs stacked atop one another beneath the awning, soon accompanied by a rolled up carpet, several lamps and anything else that could prove a tripping hazard. Stepping back inside, Maea considered the result with hands on her hips. The bit of wall next to her bedroom door looked barren, awkwardly stripped of the simple yet cozy trappings that had come with the house. Certainly enough space to fit another door - and another room.
She needed one, there was no doubt about it. The downstairs living room was growing cluttered with all the things she could no longer fit in the bedroom. Books on medicine, anatomy, herbology and alchemy were stacked on tables and chairs, piled up next to the couch next to stacks of notes and pouches of various herbs, roots, spices and other ingredients. An unfinished sculpture shaped from glass sat next to the tea kettle on the counter, and somehow the bits of fabric used to create her Ludo costume had scattered throughout the house. It was chaos, and she needed to wrangle it into its own space - before she tripped over a bookstack and broke her neck.
Content with the first step, she swished back outside and bounded down the steps to the shades area beneath the porch where supplies had been delivered the day before. While waiting for reinforcements to arrive, she went over the lumber, nails, fastenings and so forth, until she was assured nothing was missing. It was nerve-wracking, to be honest. This addition would be the first permanent mark she left on the house, and Maea was anxious to do a good job of it, worthy of all the love and care poured into the rest of the house.
Welcome to this renovation PQ+! Maea wishes to add a new room onto the upper level of the Guardian's Treehouse, that will function as a study/workshop.
Needs to hit 4 pages before September 4th to be successful.
Please post your characters arriving and what they're bringing.
When Niki had seen the request for help and had spotted Maea's name, he'd not at all been adverse to joining. Longheat had given way to some pleasant and breezy Leafchange weather, and he'd been getting increasingly used to stepping outside his comfort zone. And so at the appointed day and time, he arrives at the foot of the Guardian's Treehouse, which is about when he starts to have to damage control his expectations. He had not been expecting a treehouse, which could well necessitate climbing - something he's remarkably unsuited for.
Still, he does his best and flashes a polite smile to Maea as he approaches the bottom steps, leaning gently against his cane. "Hello," he greets. "You were looking for some help with renovations? I confess I am better suited to designing, but I will be more than happy to assist wherever I can."
Niki arrives and brings himself, along with a satchel containing a large notebook and some writing implements.
my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now I can feel the light shine on my face
At this point in their relationship, Liam rather felt that he knew Maea 's home almost as well as his own. So to see its contents scattered across the porch - even in part - elicited a strange feeling in the soldier as he made his way up the stairs. It was an exciting time, sure, but there was trepidation there, too. He certainly didn't want to be the one to mess up his partner's house.
But neither would he leave her to complete this task alone.
So here he was, arriving behind Nikandr and shooting an affectionate smile towards his partner. He'd brought precious little along with him, save for his usual weaponry (not that he thought he'd need it for this particular task, but one could never be too prepared) and a few carpentry tools that he'd begun collecting over recent months. Offering Maea a playful salute, he said, "Reporting for duty." Then he turned to Niki. "Nikandr, right? I think I've seen you around the village, but I don't think we've formally met. I'm Liam."
---
Liam arrives and brings everything on his profile plus some basic carpentry tools.
A sleepless night becomes bitter oblivion
Liam
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Liam.
I feel it in the wind, my dear The sun is gonna reappear
Straightening from her crouch with a smile, Maea came over to greet Niki. "Hey! Thank you for coming, I definitely need all the help I can get," she replied warmly. "Those design skills may come in handy; I suspect we'll have to improvise a bit to make this work."
Smiling back at Liam as he appeared behind the resident ghost, she returned his playful salute and waited for introductions to be squared away before getting right to business.
"Okay, so," she began, "I want to add a room to the house. There's room for one on the branches that hold up my bedroom, so what we need to do today is to make an opening in the wall where the door should be, extend the platform that holds the floor, and add walls and a roof. I've got all the materials we need over here - and the tools - and on that blueprint is the measurements and layout of where everything should be." Feeling the nerves, she nevertheless was excited to get started.
"Nikandr, do you feel up to starting on cutting planks for the platform, if Liam and I deal with opening up the wall? It should spare you the need to climb too much." And he'd have access to the blueprint too, in case any changes needed to be made.
Round one!
Get started on the platform and open up the outer wall where the door to the new workshop will be!
"Good to meet you too, Liam," Niki says with a gentle nod to the other man as he joins them, though his attention soon swivels back to Maea as she speaks. He listens carefully, taking in the details and the roles they have to play with quiet calculation in his eyes, and at the suggestion that he be the one to cut the planks, he nods. "I think I can manage that. My skill is in smaller projects and metalwork, normally, but I imagine it is much the same as it scales."
And so, leaving Maea and Liam to deal with the opening, he spends a bit of time absorbing the blueprints, and then sets about measuring out the first plank. This one he measures twice, in fact, before taking up the saw to begin; it will end up being the template for the rest, so he wants to make sure he gets it right.
Niki gets to work poring over the blueprints and measuring out the first plank which he will use as a template for the others!
my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now I can feel the light shine on my face
Liam listened carefully to Maea’s instructions, then nodded at his assigned role. Opening up the wall was no small task, but he would do his best to assist. Grabbing a large sledgehammer on his way inside, he held it easily as he waited for his partner to join him. ”You sure about this?” he murmured - not because he doubted her or her plans, but because he knew she had to be nervous about making such a big change.
Liam leaned the sledgehammer against the wall, then pulled out a measuring tape. It wouldn’t do to bust down the entire wall without a plan, after all. Only after he had marked out the doorway to Maea’s satisfaction and received her approval did Liam heft the sledgehammer in his grip, shifting it to one hand while he knocked on the wall with the other to find the studs. Once he’d located those, he began to smash through the wall in between, knocking out vertical rows of wall in between the markings.
—-
Liam measures out where to bust through the wall and then gets to work!
A sleepless night becomes bitter oblivion
Liam
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Liam.
I feel it in the wind, my dear The sun is gonna reappear
Ensuring that Niki was well situated and had everything he would need within easy reach, Maea eventually joined Liam indoors, armed with a handsaw and a threadbare conviction.
"Sure enough," she replied, and reached up on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. It was unclear whether the reassurance was more for him or herself, but at least she wasn't backing out of this. "Let's get to work."
Was there a flutter of panic the moment before Liam's sledgehammer struck the wall? Of course. After that first dent, though, there was only determination, and once daylight was filtering in through the new opening, Maea was there and helping out, sawing the edges clean and doing what she could to keep debris from raining down onto Niki's head. Despite her best efforts however, wattle and daub rained down to the ground below, along with lalrger chunks of wood sent flying by the sledgehammer.
The moment when she could step through onto the wide branches held a strange sort of elation; they were doing this, and so far not a single thing was going wrong! She hoped.
"You alright below?" she called to Nikandr, waiting for the reply before turning to Liam with a quick grin. "I knew I could count on you. Do you feel up to laying the base for the platform?" Heavy beams would need to be attached to the bedroom and laid out across the supporting branches of the tree, to form the base of the platform. It was potentially dangerous and a little bit fiddly, but she had faith in his ability to get the work done. And Maea would be right there to help as much as needed.
Round 2:
Uh oh! Some debris from the wall scattered to the ground, are you okay, Niki?
With the wall opened up, next step is to lay the foundation for the platform onto the tree branches. Hope you're good with heights, Liam!
The work is going easily enough for Niki, he thinks. The saw is sharp and its teeth bite firmly into the wood, creating smooth, straight cuts (anything less than perfect wouldn't meet his standards, of course). What he hasn't accounted for is where he's situated relative to the destruction going on up above, and at the first bits of wattle and daub begin to litter the ground around him, he's already got a bad feeling.
Surprisingly agile for someone with a crutch, perhaps it's foresight that already has him moving out of the way, because he's taking shade under a nearby tree by the time the larger chunks of wood come flying. He flinches as one bounces off the work table where he'd been standing only a few moments before.
"I am alright," he calls up to Maea when she leans out. "Are you finished knocking out the wall now?" Providing they are, he will have to spend some time cleaning up a bit before resuming with the planks.
Niki gets himself out of the way so he isn't hit by any debris. He will clean up his workstation before getting back to sawing!
my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now I can feel the light shine on my face
The work was going well. Using the sledgehammer, Liam was able to knock out most of the wall, and Maea came in behind to clean up the edges until they had a rough doorway in place. The soldier shot his partner a grin. He could already envision the space they were setting out to build, and he was sure that his excitement was only mirrored by the Ancient. Unfortunately, his debris rained down on Nikandr - perhaps, if Liam had realized sooner, he might have come up with an alternate plan. As it was, he simply called down an apology and hoped that the other man would forgive him.
With the doorway in place, it was time to lay the foundation. Liam began by hauling up some of the heavy beams. Placing them would be a bit fiddly, given that he’d be working around the thick branches as the base, but he thought he could manage. Using his measuring tape once more, he cut notches into the beams where they would it on the branches, hoping that doing so would keep things level. As he placed each beam, he drilled it into place, keeping in mind his spacing. There needed to be enough beams to be able to support the weight of the room, and they needed to be close enough together that the floorboards wouldn’t snap.
—-
Liam gets to work on laying the beams for the foundation!
A sleepless night becomes bitter oblivion
Liam
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Liam.
I feel it in the wind, my dear The sun is gonna reappear
Upon seeing that Liam got started without a hitch, Maea let him work in peace and went through the house and back down the stairs to check on Niki.
"Sorry about that! We're all done with the messy stuff, though it's probably a good idea to stay beneath the deck. Just to be safe." She helped him clean up the debris. "Do you need anything else? I can help with the sawing, or start carrying boards up to Liam, whichever you prefer." As long as he didn't feel abandoned to a thankless task and left alone.
Among the branches above, the rustle among the leaves and the vibration of the drill drew the attention of some inhabitants. Hanging snake's not yet settled into hibernation came winding along to inspect the soldier's handiwork, and seemed quite drawn to his body heat, if their invasion of his space and their curiously flickering tongues was any indication.
Round 3:
Maea offers to help Niki with cutting the planks or carrying the finished pieces upstairs, whichever he prefers.
Liam has attracted the attention of some hanging snakes, that keep getting in the way of his work. How does he choose to deal with them?
"A good idea, I will be sure to stay where it is safe," Niki agrees with a small smile to Maea as she comes down from the upper levels of the treehouse. Thanking her as she assists him in cleaning up, once his workstation is once again to his satisfaction, the boy nods readily and gestures to the planks he's been sawing up.
"If you do not mind taking them up to Liam, that would be very helpful," he says. "I am afraid I would likely do more harm than good in trying to ferry things up and down. Though I could try to create a pulley system if you do not already have one."
Whatever she decides, Niki will take his template plank and measure up the next pieces of wood to be turned into suitable timber, and begins sawing again.
Niki thanks Maea for the help and agrees for her to start carrying the planks while he continues to saw the wood. He also offers to create a pulley system to get larger objects up to the higher levels with more ease, if one isn't already in place.
my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now I can feel the light shine on my face
Liam’s work was going well, which was surprising in and of itself, if only because this was by far the biggest project he’d taken on since beginning his self-study of carpentry. It appeared that he’d done well with teaching himself, given how smoothly laying the beams was going. While he had to fiddle with a couple to get them level, in the end, he was quite pleased with the foundation for the floor.
He was just picking his way back across the branches and beams when a rustling movement drew his attention, and he looked up to see a few hanging snakes emerge. They crept closer and closer, seemingly drawn to his body heat, and the soldier paused to watch them with a bemused expression. Honestly, he was inclined to leave them be and work around them - at least until they began to wind their way around him, with one attempting to climb his leg.
Laughing softly to himself, he reached down to attempt to unhook the snake from around his leg. He didn’t sense any malice in the creatures - only a sense of curiosity. ”You can’t stay here,” he informed them. ”Time to go.”
—-
Liam tries to gently shoo the snakes away!
A sleepless night becomes bitter oblivion
Liam
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Liam.
I feel it in the wind, my dear The sun is gonna reappear
Supple bodies wound around Liam's wrist and arm, willingly detaching from his leg only to attach themselves more firmly elsewhere. Curiosity turned unblinking eyes bright; several forked tongues flicked at the fabric of his shirt and the exposed skin by his wrist, showing no sign at all of wishing to leave. Indeed, one of the snakes began to wind its way up his arm, fully intending to settle like a boa around the man's neck. And where one went, three more followed.
On the ground below, Maea brightened with interest as Nikandr mentioned the pulley system. "You can do that? That would be incredible, I didn't even think about that." Fully intending to carry all the lumber up through the house, or possibly haul it up by rope or pushing it - somehow - she looked a bit sheepish now that a much cleverer solution was offered. "Then, if you work on the pulley I can take over the sawing. Thank you for suggesting it – I can't believe I never thought of it."
Shaking her head at herself, the petite woman set about examining how Niki had been doing the measuring and cutting, and got to work.
Round 4:
Liam has no success in shooing off the snakes, they seem fully intent on hanging out with him, and are trying to wrap themselves around his shoulders. What will he do?
Maea accepts Niki's offer to make a pulley system to haul up the planks, and decides to take over his job of sawing planks in the meantime. Thank goodness for clever ideas. Hop to it!
"I believe it should be simple enough to do, though I may need to get some parts from the village. Either way, I can make a start on the design and see what we can make use of here," Niki says agreeably. "The Fae use them for establishments that are higher in the boughs, and to bring supplies up and down from the skyport." He carefully hands off the saw and explains his process for cutting the planks, and then takes himself away to work.
There is plenty of rope to create the system, he realises, but they will need a couple of suitable wheels to feed it through, and either a platform or something to hook onto any supplies Maea might want to bring up and down from the treehouse in future. "Which would you prefer?" Niki asks, approaching her to show her the design. "With a platform you can stack more items, of course, but you will need to be careful of how much to put on there."
Niki makes a list of supplies he needs and asks Maea what she'd prefer for the pulley.
my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now I can feel the light shine on my face
