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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 hear they're already buildin' a skyport for this place," Jack is commenting as he hops down from the cart that had brought them rumbling from the Boondocks and into the newly minted town of New Haven. Having sailed The Ark out to King's End rather than flown her (the spray of the ocean is second to none when it comes to beating the heat, in the captain's opinion), they'd left the ship and the crew to enjoy themselves while they go to check out Sunjata's newest creation.
Holding an automatic hand out to help Flora down from the cart as well, Jack is already glancing beneath their feet with a raised eyebrow. "Are there flecks of gold in this?" he drawls, toeing his boot in the gravel to find that, yes, the road does shimmer and glitter with the precious metal. He doesn't want to be impressed by it, but the subtle tells in his expression prove it to be true nonetheless.
romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic and recommended
"You sound surprised." Reaching for Jack's hand and hopping down onto a street literally paved with gold, Flora bounces her eyebrows above her sunglasses as she glances around. Having utterly no right to take any credit for the work her soon-to-be stepfather had done, Flora's mind nevertheless pulses with pride to see King's End shimmering like a new penny.
Dressed in a crop top and shorts so short they easily showed the thigh-holster that held her daggers, the queen absolutely looked dressed for trouble even though she and Jack were really only in New Haven as a stopping point before the House of Midnight.
"Gods, the air," she complains, wrinkling her nose. Where Torchline's humidity made the heat akin to drowning, in King's End it was so dry that it merely felt like Flora was being suffocated; not in a fun way, either.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
"That'll be the surprise, yeah," Jack says dryly, kicking a little more gold-flecked gravel about before glancing to Flora and stepping aside to give her room to hop down from the cart. Slipping his hands into his pockets and glancing around the place over his sunglasses, the captain doesn't bother to hide his expression; New Haven has him whelmed, in short. Nice enough, and the gold is a good touch, but otherwise it might be any other bustling town in any other region. There's little in the captain's mind to make it stand out.
"If you're ever lookin' for a second home, looks like there's plenty of space here," he remarks. He doesn't respond to her complaint about the air, but if a combination of air and water magic create a light, refreshing mist to waft about the Doubletake as she walks? Well that'd be a really nice coincidence, wouldn't it?
romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic and recommended
"Gee, almost makes me wish I'd taken Sunjata up on that council position all those years ago. Could have had myself a big fancy house on the hill with a golden sidewalk and everything." Flora teases. Nothing short of a catastrophe would see the Doubletake leaving Torchline's shores—and even then she'd be hard-pressed to leave—but with her mother and soon-to-be step-father living here, it was easy enough to imagine.
"Thank youuuuuuuuuu." Flora purrs under her breath as she feels the mist on her face before shooting Jack a sugary-sweet smile that sparkles in the sun (owing to the copious amounts of lipgloss she's wearing, you understand).
"If you had to live somewhere else," the queen begins, the shimmer of her thoughts suggesting that she'd be very disappointed indeed if Jack didn't play along. "—where would it be?"
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
"Are you not able to get yourself a big fancy house on a hill as Queen of Torchline?" Jack wonders with a raise of an eyebrow over his shoulder at Flora. "Or a gold sidewalk, for that matter?" Knowing better even without telepathy that the Doubletake would never abandon their islands for anything other than absolute necessity, there's a whisper of amusement in his expression as well. "I reckon you'd get bored here, after a season or two."
It's all too perfectly put together, too maintained, too nice. Jack hardly believes Sunjata is the one to have made it, in fact; there's a rebellious streak in the Flood a mile wide and twice as long, so to say the captain had expected at least some kind of chaos and shady dealings is an understatement.
Strolling along the glittering streets with his portable humidifer, he tilts his head towards Flora, letting his brows furrow at the question. "Never been there, but I used to hear good things about the Greatwood," he says. "Especially now it's flooded enough for The Ark to make her way around." In the sky if not on the water, too. "You?"
romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic and recommended
Raising her eyebrows at him, Flora's smile goes from vaguely shocked to catlike in a matter of seconds before she's nudging the captain playfully with her hip. "I'm sorry, are you under the impression that the good and generous people of Torchline pay me the sort of salary to afford that?" The advantages of being Torchilne's queen weren't monetary, or at least, not in the obvious sense; no doubt she made more from the Hanged Man than she ever had (officially) wearing a crown.
Thinking along the same lines as Jack, but interpreting things slightly differently, the queen shrugs. "I bet I could find ways to keep myself entertained." She purrs salaciously as if to suggest that despite being head over heels for the captain that she'd fuck her way through King's End to stave the boredom off. "Besides, there's always the House of Midnight." Flora reminds him much more earnestly; of all the people she was inclined to fuck, the good captain still topped her list without even trying.
Though it certainly had nothing at all to do with her, the fact that Jack's hypothetical second home was the place she'd grown up had a smile spreading slowly across Flora's lips that wiped away any mischief she'd just been feeling. "I'm not sure you'd get the Ark on the Stonesongsymphony no matter how big she's grown, but...yeah, it's a pretty great place."
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Accepting the nudge despite seeing it coming a mile away (see, Flora, Jack can be accommodating), the captain scoffs right back at her. "Sorry, are you under the impression that half of Torchline wouldn't down tools to build you a house if you so much as fluttered your eyelashes at 'em?" No, the title of queen does not a rich woman make, but Flora has done enough for the region to be able to see it pay her back tenfold in a breath or less.
Interrupted by red-hued thoughts of imagined trysts throughout New Haven, they might have agreed (unofficially or otherwise) not to see other people with their whole being together shtick, but Jack has zero problem enjoying the places Flora's mind likes to go. "I bet you could," he drawls, an, although his hands never move from his pockets, the breeze caressing the Doubletake focuses itself on all of the most sensitive parts of her bare skin.
Pausing in some manufactered square in the centre of the town, Jack feels Flora's thoughts warm up like sand on a Longheat morning along the coast, and he huffs a laugh under his breath. "Didn't they have a skyport at some point?" he says. "She could always dock there. But I guess I'll have to take your word for it until the void fucks off outta there."
romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic and recommended
Laughing at that, despite how dramatic Flora tended to be about most things, her emotions included when it came to Torchline, she was surprisingly humble when it came to what she thought she was owed. So it was that despite the way Jack's words had her thoughts glistening like hoar-frost on a Halovian morning, "As if I'd ever." She chuckles with a shake of her head.
Having expected her words to have some sort of effect on the captain, nevertheless, Flora gasps, her surprise barely concealed as gusts of chilly air press against her lips, her bare stomach, between her thighs. Goosebumps spread across her skin like an allergic reaction from all the places his magic had touched, leaving the Doubletake a touch breathless as she pursed her lips to try and hide her grin.
Continuing a few steps passed the captain before spinning neatly on one foot to face him, Flora nods. "Mhmm. By the observatory." What remained of the Sidhe Village, if anything, Flora had no idea. The Fae were a tricksy group to be sure, but had they ever had to survive anything like the void before? Like the Family? Shrugging and slinking her way back to Jack's side, Flora tiptoes her fingertips up his chest before looping her arms around his neck. "If I tell you that you were right and that I'm bored, can we..." Rather than saying it, instead she rises onto her toes, her lips pressed feather-light against his as her reimagines the last time they'd been to the House of Midnight and the way it had both looked and felt to see her thoughts splashed out across the walls.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
10-17-2024, 11:26 AM (This post was last modified: 10-17-2024, 11:26 AM by Jack.)
JACK
"That's exactly why they'd do it for you, love," Jack chimes, his tone unexpectedly earnest for a man who makes it his purpose in life to craft lies and make good business off them. The sound of her gasp has him grinning without trying to hide it, and he glances at her as she strides ahead a few paces only to spin on heel and face him. "The observatory," he repeats, cementing the name of the place in his mind despite neither of them knowing whether it still exists in the Greatwood in its current state.
They aren't going to get any closer to knowing here in New Haven either way, and as Flora steps towards him, her thoughts warming towards something both intimately familiar and startlingly new, still, Jack accepts her affections with an indulgent smile. "You had me at you were right." Letting out a quiet, dark little laugh, one hand slips from his pockets to loop around the Doubletake, keeping her draped against him with a generous squeeze to her backside. "We can. We'd better. He purrs.
~FIN
romancing yourself is possible, narcissistic and recommended
