Click here for a list of weather descriptions, seasonal festivals, and a real time:site time conversion.
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!
Jack doesn't know why he's agreed to do this (Flora), why he's put up with letting someone else sail up to The Climb (Flora) and on an industrial sized skyship no less, what the fuck he's meant to achieve by being up here (ask Flora) or why he has been forced to pack swim shorts (take a wild guess). To say that the captain is cantankerous on the way to the drop off point is putting it mildly, though the Doubletake can at least be glad that his grumpiness is largely directed towards the ship they are on and in every way the crew are failing to sail her.
By the time they're traversing The Climb to head towards Frey's Breath, the captain is barely realising that he's setting foot in the region for the first time, glaring over his shoulder back to where the ship left them and concentrating largely on keeping a crisp, cool breeze around them. Even so, he can feel sweat beading on the back of his neck as they duck into the caverns where the hotsprings coat he air with steam and heat, and Jack huffs out a long breath.
"We're lookin' for what again?" he wants to know, already dropping his bag so he can peel his shirt off. "Some flower?" Gods, it's too hot up here for this shit. "Who the fuck comes to a place like this to get warmer?"
"I bet they'd love for you to tell them exactly what it is you're thinking." Flora laughs from her place next to the captain. It doesn't take a telepath to be able to read between the heavy lines on his forehead and see the judgement lacing his each and every thought. Unsurprisingly the couple pair aren't bothered by anyone on the flight over, and while that no doubt has to do with the captain, Flora isn't bothered.
Having dressed for the heat—a blue bikini beneath a pale wrap dress made of linen, her hair in a high ponytail to keep it off of her shoulders—Flora can only grin at the captain's discomfort. She had told him it would be warm, suggesting shorts and a tank top, but nooo, he'd said. No self-respecting captain would wear shorts, he'd said. Still, Flora more than appreciates the cool air the captain is able to whirl around them.
"You know what we're here for." The queen says with an affectionate roll of her eyes. If they found a flower, it would enable Jack to say he'd Done His Part in helping out the region against Starfall such that he'd not need to go play hero if ever there came a time for all hands on deck. "Besides, the water is super relaxing. That's why everyone comes here."
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
"They almost did, with the way they took that last fuckin' bend," Jack informs her, and whilst she's no sailor and won't know the first thing about why he's pissed off at the ship long gone behind them, he's still liable to tell her all about it since there's no one else to appreciate their incompetence. Luckily he's distracted by knowing exactly why they're here, the captain soon stripped to the waist and grabbing up the bag again to head deeper into the hotsprings.
Once he's found a suitable place (read: a flat rock) to dump his belongings onto, it's with a long, deep breath that he runs both hands back through his hair. The movement leaves a fine layer of frost in its wake, courtesy of his water magic, for however short-lived the relief will be. At least it clears the captain's mind long enough to go about Doing His Part, though he can't see shit through the mist as he approaches the edge of one of the springs.
Crouching to unlace his boots, he raises a sharp eyebrow up at Flora and her endless amusement. "Do I look like the type of person in need of a spa day?" he drawls.
"Okay but, we made it here in one piece and you didn't have to risk the Ark." The queen points out, eyebrows raised. "If it gets under your skin so much, why not just have that be what you ask Safrin for?" Either he could make her hull able to sail through lava or have Safrin just let her sail through daytime skies. The sun was a star, right? So if the goddess needed a loophole, she was sure Jack could provide it.
Not minding at all watching the captain strip down, Flora tugs at the belt around her waist which has the dress billowing open. Shrugging out of it and folding it more or less neatly, she puts it into her own bag (they weren't so domestic as to be sharing yet, don't worry), Flora follows the captain deeper into the caves until he finds a place he apparently deems suitable. Given that Jack could probably thicken or move the mist at will, the queen wasn't entirely sure what his criteria for stopping was, before, oh. Just a flat rock.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" She asks, planting a hand on her hip and smirking down at him, unmoved by the sharpness of his stare. While Jack might have born witness to the worst of Flora, she'd seen his best, and it was hard to find the ice in his stare anything but adorable when she could still hear the roughness of his morning-voice ringing in her ears.
"Come on, you'll like it, I promise." She adds, offering him her hand.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
Opening his mouth to argue only to find that Flora has abruptly covered all bases, Jack scowls up at her out of principle before grumbling something to the affirmative and going back to his boots. Rising to his feet and setting said boots onto yes, a flat rock, and you can't have any, the good captain unbuckles his belt and strips down into the sort of swimwear Neron Launceleyn would once have given his stamp of approval - black, perfectly fitted, and unapologetic.
Resisting the urge to petulantly smack Flora's hand away if for no other reason than he doesn't believe it'll make a fraction of difference to her good mood, Jack gazes out into the mist for a moment or so, the sort of sharp yet faraway look to his eyes that suggests there's shitfuckery magic afoot. Once he's apparently satisfied that they are alone, at least in the immediate sense, he graciously takes her hand so that she might lead the way.
Certainly not expecting a fitted pair of swimming shorts (maybe something with duckies on them, just to prove he wasn't always a grump), Flora's lips part quite without her permission as she gapes at Jack. Despite having seen the captain naked many times before, there was something about seeing him like this that had heat spreading across her cheeks. "Alright Captain." She purrs, somehow pronouncing the capital C to emphasize her approval. Rather selfishly she allows her eyes to rake over his body in the way he'd done to her dozens of times before, if only to help muddy the memory of the last time she'd been here.
As for slapping away her hand and sullying her mood? Oh, it wouldn't have Jack. It would've just made her laugh.
Waiting until his eyes seemed to refocus, his hand reluctantly placed into his, the queen tugs him toward the edge where the wall had been carved away to form rough stairs. Letting herself sink down into the spring without hesitation, the ground here leaving the water just barely above her belly button, the queen turns around half expecting to see hackles standing up on Jack's back.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
"You haven't earned duckies yet," Jack informs her, his voice a low rumble just about threaded with amusement, if for no other reason than the capital C in her words and the flush of wine red he can feel rippling through her thoughts. Tugged inexorably towards the edge of the hot spring - and there are no lilies, Flora, he'd like to inform you - the captain is more interested in watching the Doubletake descend into the water than following suit himself, though of course his feet are already naturally following the curve of the stairs.
It isn't hackles so much as a sort of blank lack of understanding as Jack stands in the springs. He understands relaxation, he isn't so detached from the human experience not to know how things are meant to be and to feel, but to call the captain something as simple as a workaholic is like calling the patrons to wait outside the Hanged Man for it to open up invested rather than alcoholics. He doesn't relax, doesn't do things just because, not without some other motive or need weaved into it.
But with nobody else around other than Flora - at least not for 30ft in every direction, anyway - and no lilies to be found, he's at a bit of a loss. (Another thing she can probably laugh at him for). "This is like standin' in a bath," he informs her, like she might not have noticed.
Choking a touch at that, Flora coughs slightly as the heat in her cheeks is replaced with a twinge of embarrassment. How one could forget about Jack's abilities might seem impossible, but gods, it could indeed be done. "Mmm, well. Not if Melita has anything to say about it." She quips in response, thinking of how the Honeybee had let loose dozens of ducks around Torchline of various shapes and sizes.
Waiting for the captain to melt into his surroundings, to loose an ahhhh of comfort, or to remark on how absolutely right she'd been about all of this (okay, that one was a stretch), Flora can only roll her eyes and slap at the water to splash the captain. "As if you take baths." She huffs, drifting closer to him, her hands reaching for his shoulders in order to pull herself to his side, and then behind him. Looping her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his back, Flora leans her chin against his shoulder, her mouth near his ear. "Okay, now you carry me deeper in, and don't argue. This is part of it."
Part of what Jack might wonder, but to that Flora has no real explanation. It was part of having fun. Part of how you were supposed to flirt in the water with someone else. While it was true Flora didn't see any lilies (and wouldn't, thanks RNG) that didn't mean she couldn't try and at least coax a little bit of levity out of the old man. Besides, if she enjoyed it, he would too.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
Bouncing his eyebrows at Flora's embarrassment only to huff out a groan of agreement as she namedrops Melita the Harbinger of Ducks, Jack nods and conjures another quick, cool breeze to whisk around them and part the mist somewhat. "I find 'em on top of cannons and in my crow's nest," he says flatly. The worst part is he's pretty sure that it's not Melita doing that; the crew just find her ducks around the beach and pick them up. And Jack has a healthy enough fear respect for Ludo not to touch them.
Automatically raising an arm to ward against the water Flora splashes at him, Jack uses his magic to send a spray right back at her. "What is the ocean if not the world's bath?" he drawls, just to be a shit. She's wrong, though - the captain happens to be quite partial to a bath on the nights he chooses to spend at the Halenani or some other not-Ark location.
Now, don't argue is exactly the sort of thing likely to make the captain dig his heels in on a normal day, but as the Doubletake shimmies up behind him and he gets a better taste of her thoughts, any objection finds itself withering on his tongue. Relaxation might be a foreign concept to Jack in broad strokes, but levity? He'd used to be quite good at that, on occasion, and it's with a pensive sort of frown that he ferries them deeper into the hot springs. Apparently, it takes the Queen of Torchline on your back to realise that you've lost or killed all the people you once called friends.
Using the buoyancy of the water to help her to try and evade the captain's splash, Jack will feel the levity of her thoughts wash over him as if she really had managed to splash him. Gods, it had been too long since the queen had been in a position just to have fun, and while she doubted if Jack's name appeared at the top of any list of people who might be considered fun, she'd be damned if she wasn't going to make the most of it. So, with her eyes sparkling, the queen crinkles her nose up at him. "mmm, yours would be a bath that half of Torchline pisses in." She fires right back.
If nothing else Flora isn't calling Jack horsie or nudging him along with her heels, so he can be thankful about that. Instead, she presses a quick kiss against his temple, tasting the salt of the sea on his skin even so far underground, before straightening and using the grip of her thighs around him to hold herself up.
"You know I was thinking.." Cupping some of the water in her palms, Flora trickles it over the captain's shoulders before her hands begin to grasp softly at the muscles of his neck. Relaxation, Jack. "..apparently there's a whole cathedral down here that's just filled with gemstones." Though the mental image she conjures up isn't correct—it's like the Climb equivalent of Scrooge McDuck diving into his pile of gold, only it's gemstones and Scrooge is playing by Jack in his tight black swimmies—it's also not terribly far off.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
"You just think about that the next time you go for a dip, or you see someone swimmin' out there," Jack quips, because in Torchline, it's hardly like he's the only person going for a dunk in the sea at any one time. And it's true that horsie might have earned the Doubletake an unceremonious departure from his back, but the captain is smirking to himself, albeit wryly, as they head deeper into the springs.
"How dangerous," he drawls, of her thinking, his smile growing more catlike by the second even as he accepts her casual affections and touches as if they don't normally want to make him peel off his skin. Raising an eyebrow and turning to glance over his shoulder at her, he knows she's telling the truth about what she believes lurks up here in The Climb, even if the mental imagery could use a little work, but that doesn't necessarily make it The Truth in capital letters.
"You don't say? Might be worth a visit. Whereabouts is it meant to be?" he wonders, only to abruptly stop now that the water is lapping at his chest. Without warning, Jack's hands grasp around Flora's thighs as if to anchor her in place, before he promptly lets his legs drop from beneath him to dunk them both beneath the water. Relaxation, Flora.
karma's a relaxing thought, aren't you envious that for you it's not?
At that, she does nudge him, though the temperature of her thoughts remains blissfully cool and golden despite his sass, or perhaps because of it.
"Mmm, I think if we go back the way we came there's just a different path we take." The queen replies thoughtfully, her hands still working along the muscles of his neck. Not really thinking much of him stopping, no doubt he'd already hAd EnOuGH and wanted to go back, the sudden feel of his hands around her thighs has her inhaling sharply as she realizes far too late what's about to happen.
Laughing as her arms slip around him, Flora presses her nose and mouth against the side of his neck as dark blue fills her vision and heat envelopes her from head to toe. Quite how long the captain is going to resist succumbing to the wellspring of the queen's joy is entirely on him, but for her part, Flora is having a great time.
Releasing him as they surface, her outrage theatrical and entirely fake, Flora sends another wave of water his way with the flat of her hands before diving back under so as to avoid retribution.
For all of Flora's youth, she's had her fair share of life experience, such that she's likely not ignorant of the fact by now that Jack is starved of a great many things in his day to day. Telepathy, control over a black market empire and his lips against the ears of Torchline's most influential might be one thing, but things that should seem simple, like company? Amusement? Joy? The captain has never stopped to think about it, but all of those things belonged to the man he'd been before the war, when Torchline's shores were as far as his cares extended, and there had been people worth tethering himself to.
All of that is to say that Flora's buoyancy and light hit almost like a drug, and as they plunge deep into the springs and the captain releases her to (attempt to) swim away, he's carried off with it entirely. Surfacing quietly with the water rippling all around him, the Doubletake's retribution is something he doesn't bother to deflect with his magic, relying instead on good old fashioned swimming to make chase after her.
Reaching out as if to snag her around the waist, Jack will attempt to haul her up and over his shoulder. "Well if there are gemstones," he's saying, sounding theatrically bored, "I don't see any reason for stickin' around here, do you?"
With waterproof mascara liberally applied that morning to keep any frivolity while had in the springs from making it seem as if she'd been punched in the face, the queen stretches out her arms and legs, propelling herself away from Jack—maybe she'll have time to get out, then cannonball next to him in revenge—before she feels his hands looping around her waist.
Dragged from the water kicking and splashing, her blue-clad ass bared for all to see—not that there was anyone around—Flora reaches to grasp at the band of his swimming shorts. Ideally she'd have tugged them down, but given her position over his shoulder there was really only one direction that they could go, and so she yanked.
I want to be when you fall on me like night I wanna kill the lights
