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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!
Curious to know what Safrin might have to say about it, Asta assumes that Flora would tell him if anything stuck out from the conversation. So he’s happy to let it slide as he sinks into the subject of her fathers and their terrible reaction to her becoming a demigod. He’s quietly glad that he doesn’t have any parents to have those conversations with, but admittedly a bit annoyed that his siblings weren’t around for him to brag and show off about just how far he’d come.
Even the centuries that have passed haven’t smoothed out the blatant idea of vengeance in the Butcher, despite knowing it was far too likely that his worst sister in particular’s bones were a part of the layers of permafrost in Halo.
Anyway, chuckling softly to hear that Flora’s confident she’d be fine, Asta inclines his head with a little toast of agreement. “ I am positive you will be brilliant, darling.” He flashes her a beaming smile – one that doesn’t last as long as he’d like because of the reminder that he now can be channeled.
The hand drops from his face slowly, his engagement ring glinting from the shaved diamond in the cool sunrise that starts to rise and filter through the windows, listening as Flora explains what it was like with a small pit of dread blooming in his gut. “So… There is no option to turn on your caller?” Pursing his lips briefly, he frowns after with an overly dramatic sigh and a roll of his eyes. “Mm that will be an issue.” He rumbles, running his tongue along the edge of his lip in thought. “Perhaps we must start threatening those that call us and do not gift us something good for the channeling?” Mischief floods in his gaze again as he looks back at Flora with all the dark ideas that flit into his mind.
Though it likely means if he went through with it, he’d be less likely to be channeled in the long run. Not that he thinks he’ll complain with that, given Flora’s less than appealing description. “I imagine I will also hate it just as much.”
Flora’s lips twitch at the question, and she shakes her head with a grim sort of amusement, because unfortunately the answer is exactly as irritating as he probably expects. "I’m pretty sure I’ve heard my dads say that if, like, someone channelled one of them to attack the other, they could avoid it," she says, brows lifting as if this is the absolute bare minimum of divine personal boundaries and even that has apparently needed clarifying at some point. "But more or less? You’re pretty point and shoot."
She takes another sip of her mimosa while his suggestion unfurls between them, and the laugh that follows is bright enough to warm the edge of the subject back into something bearable. "I could not agree more," Flora says immediately. "Honestly, maybe we could open up channelling-wishlists at all our favourite stores so people know what to get us." There was nothing worse than being sent an edible arrangement, after all.
Tilting her head, Flora lets the mischief settle into something more curious as she studies Asta over the rim of her glass. "Wellllllllllllll," she says, stretching the word out until it practically lounges across the bar between them. "If you want, I can channel you so you can see how it feels." The offer is bright, but not careless; beneath the tease there is the faintest flicker of understanding, because as much as Flora is absolutely the sort of person to test a new ability for the drama of it, she also knows there is a difference between surprise and ambush, especially when the subject is being yanked out of oneself by a thread someone else is holding. Her fingers tap lightly against the glass, and then her grin returns at an angle.
"Or, it isn’t really channelling anymore, but I have Rescue, which pulls you through just the same, although I can’t make you do anything."
I hope you're wetting your appetite, finding your way into someone's eyes I hope you're dreaming in black and white, and seeing in colour
It isn’t time for the dramatics to be over it seems as Flora offers him a very standard answer for what it was like to be channeled, with very little space for wiggle room. At least it makes it easier to know he could potentially avoid doing some damage to those he liked, but for the rest of it? He frowns and sighs. “I have never been a point and shoot kind of man.” But perhaps for the sake of being Dygra’s, he’s inclined to learn how to be more of a weapon (a Butcher) than a hunter.
All overdone dramatics start to filter away with the possibility of wishlists being laid out, because if there was one thing the Butcher adored it was shopping and creating. And he may be okay with it if people channeled him and gave him apt gifts in return for such a sacrifice. “Ooh, yes, that is a beautiful idea.” Already imagining the varying places he might set one up, he mulls on it as mischief enters Flora’s gaze and makes way for curiosity.
It’s enough of a shift that his attention is rapt upon her, a small smile tugging back at the corners of his lips. “Can you?” He asks, though it’s more rhetorical than anything. She already said she could, and what better than to practice it among friends rather than the heat of the moment where he’d be expected to perform and get pulled all over Caido’s face.
He mulls it over some more, the glass spinning in his hand before he lifts it and downs the rest of the drink – a hefty amount that he will be feeling shortly, before he’s standing and shooting her a playful and somewhat shit-eating grin. It’s vacation, after all. He sweeps a bow toward her and straightens up with a low rumble of “well, I suppose you should do your worst, darling.” Smirking, Asta rises back to his full height. “What do I have to do?” He doubts anything, but if she wanted him to step out the back door to the pools so she could call him without vacating the room, he would.
Flora can only raise her eyebrows at that, helplessly amused in a way that makes the corners of her mouth twitch despite her best attempt at solemnity. "Well," she says, looking him over with the sort of appraising glance. "unleash sort."
As for the experiment, Flora drains the rest of her mimosa in one bright, decisive swallow, setting the glass down with all the ceremony of someone preparing for a very important scientific breakthrough and not, in fact, an excuse to make one of her friends experience divine teleportation before breakfast. "You don’t have to do a thing," she says, flashing him a grin. "Just stand there and be handsome."
Flora heads out toward the pool, the oversized shirt of Kai’s slipping loose over one shoulder as she pads barefoot out of the bar and into the warmth of morning spilling through Wildering House. The air changes as she moves, barlight and polished wood giving way to the softer openness near the pools, the faint scent of water rising beneath the clean brightness of sunrise. She keeps going until she reaches the outdoor bar, far enough that Asta will not be able to see her, and only then does she glance back over her shoulder with a grin she cannot quite contain.
There is a bottle there that looks appropriate for the moment, something dark and warmly spiced that catches the light like amber held too close to fire. Flora pours a shot into a small glass, neat and generous, because if she's going to take Asta's divine teleportation virginity, he least she can do is make sure there is alcohol involved. Curling her fingers around the little glass, Flora closes her eyes and reaches inward, tugging on this new speck of magic while thinking of the Butcher.
When Asta appears before her, Flora is already holding out the shot. "Here," she says, as if he has merely walked into the room and not been dragged instantly to her. There won't be much time before he's sent back to where he'd been at the bar, her fledgling Rescue not unlike basic channelling in that regard, but long enough for him to feel the gist of it.
Magic: Rescue | Flora can bring a fellow Old God demigod to her side in a time of crisis for one post. One use per thread. Cannot be used when channelled.
Type: Light | Rank: Basic | Cost: Action
I hope you're wetting your appetite, finding your way into someone's eyes I hope you're dreaming in black and white, and seeing in colour
