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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!
"We're in Halo," Jack fires back, as if she hasn't noticed the ice glittering on almost every gods-damned surface nearby. It can hardly count as Longheat when they've home up to Caido's frozen armpit of a region, surely.
Letting his arms loop around her waist as she drifts closer, the feel of her body is like fire against his own, even with the hotsprings all around them to heat their blood. He scoffs and glances predictably away as she conjures a highlight reel of the captain's acts of service, though of course Flora is more of a words of affirmation kind of gal.
Knowing there's no one around in earshot from his telepathy as well as the rest of his senses, Jack lifts her up in the water enough to lean in and steal a kiss. While not devoid of passion, there's something quietly affectionate in the press of his lips and tongue, and when he draws back, he speaks with fond defeat.
"I'll miss you, when you stay at home with your friend," he tells her. "Enough to sneak in your window at night. Expect me around midnight - I'll be pissed if you lock me out."
we write out the ends on our palms, then forget to read
"Oh I see." Flora says with a roll of her eyes. "So if I left one of those warm caterpillar things from the Climb in your bed, that'd be just as good as me, huh?"
Flora is an everything sort of gal, Jack, a polyglot when it comes to love languages if you will.
Unsurprised to feel the captain's hands and lips upon her before he opted to speak—he had fucked her out on the ice before saying thank you for the feather, after all—the queen nevertheless melts against him. Her tongue chases his, however slowly, as if she might be able to pin down the sudden warm flush of affection that she can feel from him. When they part, the warmth Flora feels has little to do with the hot springs, and had the first words out of Jack's mouth not been a surprising I'll miss you, she'd likely have forgone whatever he planned to say in order to feel his lips on hers again.
"My window?" Flora repeats, as if to suggest that he ought to just use the front door. They both knew of course that the idea of him slipping in through her upper-floor window was precisely the sort of thing the Doubletake liked. "I mean...the window will probably be open." She says innocently, though the way she shrugs softly against him is anything but. "Not all of us have magical ways to keep ourselves cool. Some of us have to resort to opening our windows and hoping for a cool breeze."
"I want it on the record that you just compared yourself to a fuzzy caterpillar, not me," Jack says dryly, more than practiced these days at dancing around Flora's I'm going to make everything you say into an insult game. Luckily it seems he's managed to distract her - to distract them both - with that aforementioned silver tongue and its acrobatics, his hands smoothing down her back and beneath the hot water to rest quite comfortably on her ass.
"Your window," he confirms; they absolutely both know that's the sort of thing she'd enjoy, and besides, there's no risk of running into Sohalia in the middle of the night if he's just sneaking directly into her bedroom. "I'll be your cool breeze, and you'll leave the window unlocked for me. Deal?"
we write out the ends on our palms, then forget to read
How Jack managed to turn just say you'll miss me into some sordid midnight rendezvous Flora had no idea, but nor did she mind. It was one of the things she loved about him, this way he had of rising above her youthful trickery in a way which dazzled rather than disappointed.
Humming with satisfaction as his hands trickled down her back, the queen lets her eyes close until she feels his hands come to rest around against her ass. Grinning as her eyes slyly open, she nods. "Deal. I did promise her peace and quiet, though." Flora warns, though if anything it's meant as a challenge to the captain to see how much pleasure he could pull out of her while keeping her as quiet as possible.
"Maybe by then my new couch will have arrived and you can help me put it together." She suggests, her mind instantly taken back to their afternoon at Molly's and the way it had felt to gorge herself on the captain's cock before quite literally bringing him to his knees. "Then again...I don't remember you being terribly quiet that time, either."
"You did? Sounds like a you problem, love," Jack purrs, grinning a kiss against her soft lips and giving her ass a generous squeeze beneath the water. At least until she reminds him not just about the couch, but of his own inability to remain silent. "Well, providin' you don't intend to keep her up all night with the sound of me puttin' together your furniture, maybe we'll both have to invest in a gag."
Or maybe they'll just have to gag themselves on each other - that might work too.
Drawing back from her mouth to press a parting kiss to her cheek, the captain steps back from her with reluctance - but already the parts of him that are out of the water are getting too cold for comfort, and so he sinks down deeper into the springs and tips his head back to look up at the snow-opaque sky overhead. "You were right. It prob'ly is pretty nice when it gets dark," he admits, closing his eyes.
we write out the ends on our palms, then forget to read
"I was trying to be a—" A fresh surge of heat ripples up through Flora's core at the simultaneous press of Jack's lips and the feel of his fingers against her skin. "—good friend." She huffs as a breathless laugh escapes her lips before what he says next has her swallowing hard against a new rush of memories. "I've never been gagged before." Flora says, before her smile turns crooked and she shrugs at what she's just realized is a lie. She has, she supposes if gagging herself on Jack's cock counted.
His parting kiss has a warm and affectionate glow brightening Flora's thoughts as she too sinks further down into the water. Remaining where she was if only so that she could spread out her arms and freely kick her legs to move around, the Doubletake glances back up toward the pastel sky. "I'd say we should stay and find out if I thought I could stand the cold." She murmurs. Even beneath the water the steam from the hot springs was barely enough to keep her face from feeling cold and tight, and she was fairly sure that if they lingered much longer her nose was going to start running. "At least we can both say we're free of the void." Gods knew they'd both encountered too-purple critters as of late.
"I'm sure," Jack says with a wicked smile. He has no doubt that Flora is a good friend, but equally he doesn't like her odds when it comes to keeping the promise she'd made to Sohalia. Not with him around, at least. Raising his eyebrows with playful skepticism at her 'confession' - and it's precisely because of the thoughts she has afterwards - the captain can nonetheless see where she's coming from. "Maybe we'll have to fix that, if you're still experimentin' with everything."
Her new couch suggests that she is, at least.
"Mm, I dunno how people in Halo do it," he agrees about the cold, tipping his head back further as if to invite the warm steam to caress his cheeks. "Maybe I'll discover fire magic one of these days." Not that it would help at first, but given how his magic has been developing lately, who knew how long it might take until he could keep them warm in the hotsprings all day.
For now, though, he's happy to slowly drift back towards the side of the springs, the water peeling itself away from him as he steps out. "Mm, that's always nice to know." He nods. "Beats bein' infected anyway."
we write out the ends on our palms, then forget to read
"I mean..." Butterflies take flight in Flora's stomach, and as if to keep them pinned in her throat before they can escape, she presses a rapidly expanding smile against Jack's neck against which she huffs a laugh. "..the last time went so well, and we hardly made use of most of what was in that room.." Either the pair had just gotten lucky in their experimentation that afternoon in Stormbreak, or, in the right hands (Jack's, specifically), the Doubletake was rather receptive to trying out new things.
"That'd be nice." Flora agrees, following lazily in Jack's wake. Though she'd never said so before, the queen was utterly entranced by the captain's casual power over water, watching with a hungry stare as he effortlessly pulled rivulets of water from his bronze skin to dry himself. Certainly not wanting to linger in the cold air but not necessarily wanting to cover herself with a towel immediately either, as Flora pulled herself out of the hot springs, she did so with all the poise and control of a swimsuit model trying to market the hell out of the red bikini she wore.
"Help a girl out, would you?" Striding toward the captain fully intending to wrap her arms around his neck and push her body against his, Jack could either do as she'd asked or risk being made wet again himself.
"There will always be other occasions," Jack reasons, smiling over his shoulder. Whether they find another sex dungeon in Stormbreak or Torchline or merely imagine one in the House of Midnight, he's sure they'll be able to keep up Flora's sexual education.
Having drawn all of the water away from his body, the Doubletake's attention does not go unnoticed, and one doesn't have to be a telepath to note the hunger in her eyes. "See somethin' you like?" he purrs, raising his eyebrows and turning towards her. She prowls forward and the water is already flowing away from her skin and back into the springs as if she's shrugging out of a liquid cloak, leaving both of them blessedly dry by the time she drapes herself around him.
"How's that?" he wonders, tilting his head as if to also admire that red bikini, before he turns to grab his clothes - and hers - so they might put a few more layers between themselves and the cold.
we write out the ends on our palms, then forget to read
"Promise?" It wasn't as if Flora had any doubts, but you know, words of affirmation and all that. Besides, it wasn't her fault that she had such a difficult time keeping her hands off of Jack such that her mind was nearly always at risk of wandering into the gutter and dragging his along with it.
"Mmmnnn." Shivering, the sensation not entirely unlike being gently tickled, as the water peels itself away from her skin Flora has to fight the urge to run her hands all over her body to chase the phantom sensations that linger. Wearing far too little for the temperature, nevertheless the Doubletake ignores the way her body wants to shake and tremble against the cold, taking the opportunity to press herself entirely suggestively against Jack. No doubt it was too cold for any shenanigans, but that didn't mean she could light a fire in his thoughts. What were girlfriends for, after all?
"Normally you're so good at making me wet. It's strange having you do the opposite." Flora purrs against his ear, and as her eyes slip closed, the darkness is immediately filled with flashes of the captain's lips parted in a silent snarl, his fingers closing around her throat as she begs breathlessly for him to make her cum. Parting, one of her eyebrows mischievously raised, Flora accepts her clothes. Shimmying into her pants with far more enthusiasm than was strictly necessary, as she tugged on her shirt and sweater, she made sure to pull them taut around her chest before slipping into her shoes.
"I am a man of my word," Jack whispers back to Flora as she drapes herself so suggestively against him, and whilst he's in agreement that it is far too cold for him to risk his most sensitive appendage by fucking in an ice cave, he certainly appreciates her efforts. Glancing over his shoulder as she steps back to get dressed, the captain can only raise his eyebrows as he's bombarded by the mental equivalent of PlayBoy magazine.
Huffing out a dark laugh under his breath, if Jack dresses a little more quickly than the Doubletake, it's for the exact reason she might expect. Nevertheless, as Flora slips her shoes back on she'll feel the captain press up against her back, his coat open so he might tug her against the warmth of his chest. "If you want to be wet, I could always push you back into the springs," he suggests, his whisper delivered directly against the shell of her ear.
His hands don't seem to be interested in doing anything of the sort, granted; cupping one of her breasts over her sweater and slipping down between her legs, Flora isn't the only one good at lighting fires.
11-03-2024, 08:25 AM (This post was last modified: 11-03-2024, 02:46 PM by Flora.)
we write out the ends on our palms, then forget to read
"Are you though?" Flora was fairly certain that Jack hadn't yet broken any promises to her (then again the only ones she could recall him ever making were ones quickly completed with his tongue, hips, or hands), and while his crew might think him a man of his word, she wasn't so sure the rest of Torchline did. Not that she cared in the slightest.
Grinning fiendishly to feel the warm press of Jack's body against her, Flora lifts her chin in order to spy him out of the corner of one eye as she rests her head against his shoulder. "You do that, and I'm dragging you with me." She whispers in return, twining her arms around his neck once more. Had she been privy to his thoughts, Flora might have reminded the captain how quick he was to risk his most sensitive appendage out on the bay where it was arguably even older, but never mind.
Letting her eyes slip closed that the lines of crimson and garnet threading through her thoughts might better guide the captain's teasing fingers, Flora nevertheless found herself rising onto her toes and arching her back as if that might somehow make up for the frustrating amount of fabric that kept Jack's hands from where she really wanted them to be. As her mind begins to wander, flitting down the well-worn pathways leading to lurid memories that she'd had with the captain, no doubt Jack will magically hear the approach of several of his crew who are keen to try out the hot springs for themselves.
11-04-2024, 07:45 AM (This post was last modified: 11-04-2024, 01:04 PM by Jack.)
JACK
"Depends on who you ask." Chuckling darkly into the space just beneath Flora's ear, Jack doesn't sound remotely guilty about it. "Don't reckon you got anythin' to worry about, though." As the Doubletake has rightly imagined, the treatment received by the rest of Torchline is quite different to what she and the rest of his crew enjoy, but that's part and parcel of his reputation.
As for being dragged into the hotsprings alongside Flora, Jack gives her breast an encouraging squeeze where he still cups it through the tragically thick layer of her sweater. "Promise?" He grins, nipping at the shell of her ear and jolting forward a fraction, as if he's going to throw them both into the water fully clothed. He doesn't, of course, and as his crew strum the warning strings of his telepathy, he lets out a disappointed sigh and reluctantly withdraws from Flora.
Good things come to those who wait, so they say, and though Jack has learned to be a patient man, the raise of his eyebrow suggests that he has no intention of waiting longer than necessary to pick up where they've left off. "Back to the ship, then?"
we write out the ends on our palms, then forget to read
Stifling a soft moan as Jack's fingers tease her through her clothing, as the captain feints forward, Flora's arms tighten mercilessly around his neck, fully prepared to make good on her thread/promise of bringing him with her. "Not like you to be all talk, Jack." The queen teases, relaxing back against him once it becomes clear that he has no intention of actually throwing them in.
With hopes of feeling the captain's clever fingers finding their way beneath her pants and between her thighs, as he pulls away Flora's sigh is much more than just disappointed. As 40ft dwindles down to 30 and then 20, the queen is able to hear the beginnings of echoed conversations that herald the arrival of his crew (or perhaps just Halovians), and while it explains why he'd withdrawn, by no means did it excuse it. "Maybe I'll just take care of myself down one of the tunnels and you can enjoy a set of blue balls for your teasing." Flora huffs, her cheeks pink with arousal as much as with the cold.
