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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!
"Don't get me wrong, it was very clever," Jack drawls, as if belatedly remembering her praise in the same way that someone goes back for something after leaving the house. "The stakes are just considerably higher than just bein' pleased that I chose someone with both wit and beauty." If that was all that was at stake, the captain would have showered Flora with praise until she tired of hearing about her own accolades.
He doesn't like the smile on her face (or does he?) - doesn't like the wine dark tint of her thoughts either, or the way they circle her subonscious like sharks on the hunt for blood. It's only as the words - his words - drip from her lips that Jack realises why, too. She's thinking the same way he would, and gods if that isn't enough to have surprise shooting through his expression, he doesn't think anything ever will.
Reaching out to press his hands to the railings at either side of the Doubletake, Jack can only watch her for a long few moments, trying to unknot the words that sit on his tongue into something biting and clever and ultimately acquiescing. In the end, though, he leans in again to close the distance between them, and this time - perhaps for the first time - he's kissing her not out of obligation, but because he fucking wants to.
you wanted perfect, you got your perfect but now I'm too perfect for someone like you
Jack's kiss takes Flora just as much by surprise as it likely takes the captain. Whether she knew it or not, all(?) the times before had been proceeded by mental arrows that guided the captain's actions if and when he felt like listening to them. This time, though, with her mind focused on the veritable game of poker-chess that they were playing, the flash of surprise in her mind is an ultraviolet spark that sings through her veins as his lips press against hers and the Ark's dark sails disappear behind her eyelids.
As she sips a breath against his lips heat flares in her belly again, and though the moan that shivers out through her kiss is likely lost to the flapping of the sails or the rushing of the wind, her thoughts pulse with it as she loops her arms around his neck to drag him impatiently closer.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Already stepping closer even as Flora's arms slip around his neck, one of the captain's hands remains braced against the railing, but the other drifts greedily down across her hips and beneath the back of one thigh to hitch her leg up and against him. Ultraviolet fireworks detonate behind his eyelids, and it's only when they have nowhere else to go that Jack realises he's backed her right up against the rail of the ship.
Withdrawing just enough to catch aqua eyes wreathed in blood and starlight, the captain regards her, perhaps for the very first time, as something close to an equal. "For the record," he says, the words not needing to be much more than a whisper, "I'd never fucked anyone with their thoughts splashed out on the walls around me. You were my first."
you wanted perfect, you got your perfect but now I'm too perfect for someone like you
The solidness of the railing behind her, Jack's ringed fingertips against the back of her thigh, the press of his insistent hands, it all had streaks of burgandy pulsing brightly through Flora's thoughts. Twining her leg around him like some two-person version of Eagle's Pose, the queen's fingers plunge into his dark hair as her nails rake out patterns against his neck that she quite like to mirror over the rest of his body.
Meeting his eyes, Jack's awash in constellation light that would have made even Safrin's knees grow weak, Flora finds herself beaming at him as the reflected starlight she sees shivers and then explodes into prismatic balls of light in her mind. "I want you," She whispers in return, her voice husky with need. In the low light the flush on her cheeks seems nearly the same stain on her lips and it's that same burning crimson that her thoughts are suddenly drenched in. "Fuck I want you so much."
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
"Fuck you - you know what that does to me," Jack almost complains - almost - as maroon and scarlet blooms to life in Flora's thoughts and envelops the captain in turn, colouring his own intentions red and sending plumes of heat straight south between his hips. Taking another kiss from her, mouth hungry and his hand anchoring her further against him, Jack's attentions nearly seem annoyed, as if Flora is somehow at fault for causing this.
Either way, unless the Doubletake's thoughts insist on him turning her against the railing and fucking her for all to see, the captain draws back from her lips but not her body to ferry them away from the railing and towards his cabin. The crew, wisely, are able to carry out their duties at this height without much steer from Jack, and most of them are still distracted by the pod of starwhales overhead besides.
you wanted perfect, you got your perfect but now I'm too perfect for someone like you
The way the words seem to almost grate from Jack's lips have the maroon roses in Flora's mind beginning to sweat scarlet dew until the blooms are drowned in a blood-red sea I want you, the tides of her thoughts whisper, the words written in perfect penmanship against the captain's tongue. Something about the way he'd kissed her had turned the queen's intentions from attention-seeking to downright predatory; if Flora had been unaware of the line between wanting to be wanted and simply wanting, she was well aware of it now.
Barely aware of anything save for the clothing she wanted to tear off of her body as well as Jack's, Flora's fingers would be halfway done removing his belt and unbuttoning the top of his pants before he managed to get his cabin door open. Unlike times previously when Flora might have filled the captain's thoughts with blue eyes peering up at him from bent knees or a mental strip tease meant to make him shaky with desire, now she thought only of the satisfaction she'd briefly feel the first time he entered her followed by the pleasure she planned to grind out of him.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Flooded with lust and predatory greed and unable to respond any other way but in kind (and Jack isn't even sure whether it's as a result of his magic or if the feelings are his own any more), the captain swats open his cabin door and drags Flora back in against his lips as they step through and into the (slightly more) private space. Vaguely aware that she's already halfway to taking off his pants, Jack nonetheless presses her back up against the door as it slams shut, his tongue as wicked as his fingers as they wander the length of her body.
Thoroughly high on Flora and her salacious thoughts, Jack only bothers to unbutton her jeans so he can shove them - and her underwear - down far enough before withdrawing to turn her against the door. This is usually where he'd whisper something clever or filthy into her ear, where he'd make promises or ask if she's getting what she wants, only this time he knows what she wants, and it's not to fucking chat about it.
Unbuttoning his own pants, the Doubletake will be very aware of the reaction she's having on him as he presses flush against her back, the hard length of his cock teasing between her legs for just long enough before he grabs her hips hard enough to bruise, entering her with a muffled grunt against the side of her neck.
you wanted perfect, you got your perfect but now I'm too perfect for someone like you
As Flora's back hits the door and the air is knocked from her lungs, the growing refrain of her thoughts fuck, I want you grows all the more frenzied as she gasps against Jack's mouth. Throwing his belt to the ground before yielding the diminishing space between them and instead looping her arms around his neck to further pin his mouth against hers.
Having expected Jack to drop to his knees and bury his face between her thighs—he was a mind reader, yeah, but one who averaged two orgasms a fuck rather than just one—Flora finds herself suddenly pressed against his cabin door with only Jack's cock pressed between her thighs by way of explanation. Crying out in surprise and pain as his fingers clasp around her hips, Jack will find that the garden of Flora's thoughts all twist and stretch in unison, like sunflowers straining to follow the warmth of the sun. I want you, gods, I—
As he enters her, the moan that leaves the Doubletake's lips is as satisfied as it is desperate, but given the volume, perhaps the crew can later weigh in on which they thought it was. "—fuck—" She whimpers shakily, her voice pitched higher than normal as a feeling not unlike a scream welled up in the back of her throat. "Fuck, Jack—" Bracing herself with one arm over her head, Flora arches her back away from the door and against the captain, her head lolling drunkenly against his shoulder.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
It's true that Jack's record averages at two, at least when it comes to Flora, and maybe the Doubletake can wonder afterwards why the captain hasn't been able to keep his hands - or his dick - off her for long enough to slip into usual routines. Maybe she'll draw conclusions from it, too, and maybe Jack won't stop her. For right now, though, the captain's mind is flooded with a crimson heat that pulses in time with the thrust of his hips into her, and as her voice drags through the air to add exquisitely into the mix, it's a wonder, honestly, that he's even able to stay on his feet.
One hand slips up to grasp at her throat as she arches back and against him, anchoring her body possessively in place even as he fucks his way to oblivion and takes her along for the ride. "You're so fuckin' tight," he hisses against her ear, his free hand plunging between her thighs to find her clit.
you wanted perfect, you got your perfect but now I'm too perfect for someone like you
"Gods I want to cum—" Flora is pleading, the words sparking rose stems covered in thorns to sprout throughout her thoughts, twisting and meaning to draw blood from anything they touched. "—fuck me, Jack." She continues to beg, as if he fucking wasn't already, but such are the things often said when linguistic cunning becomes secondary to the way certain words sounded in the heat of the moment.
Speaking of heat—
Budging Jack's hand from where it had begun to rub against her clit, Flora opts to take over this particular duty—not because the captain wasn't very well skilled—but because she wanted to feel more than just one of his hands tangled around her. Not unlike the way the roses coiled in her thoughts, pulsing a deep dark red with every thrust of the captain's hips. "Nnnn, Jack." Slurring his name against the side of his neck, Flora feels the ground beneath her begin to open up, bathing her in an ultraviolet light that has her back arching and her toes curling as the lurid wine dark landscape of her thoughts begins to sharpen and shake.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
More than happy to surrender Flora's pleasure to her own fingers so he might more fully concentrate on fucking her - it's what she'd asked, after all - it's with a rough moan of anticipation against the side of her neck that Jack's hand slips back to her hips. Able to pull her back roughly to meet his every thrust now, there's no doubt in anyone's mind - including the thoughts of the crew, he might add - that the captain is fucking the Doubletake for all he's worth, leaving a dark mark against the side of her neck as a parting gift.
Feeling the swell of her thoughts mount towards something bright and unsustainable, like a tide of water straining against a dam fit to burst, the captain does what he does best - that being exactly what Flora wants and needs to tip her over that edge. And gods, as she cums he's only seconds behind, burying himself deeply inside her and clutching her back against his chest as if the whole thing has taken him by surprise. (Because it has, not that he's remotely cognizant of the fact just yet).
you wanted perfect, you got your perfect but now I'm too perfect for someone like you
With her eyes pressed tightly shut and the feeling of the captain all around her, no part of Flora's mind needs to reach for supplemental scenes or filthy phrases to fully kindle her orgasm into being. Instead her thoughts grow entirely porous, soaking up the sound of Jack's ragged breath against her ear, the delicious ache in the backs of her thighs, and the way the clap of skin on skin reverberates through her as strongly as her own heartbeat.
As Flora cums it's with Jack's name helplessly torn from her lips, starting out as a curse before shifting to something much more aching and rough as she loses herself to the sensation completely. Weightless and feeling suddenly every bit as powerful and beautiful as the starwhales had been, Flora chokes out a small sound of relief and satisfaction against the captain's neck. Sliding out her hand from between her thighs, Flora tangles her fingers into Jack's dark hair before pulling and twisting in order to force his lips lazily against hers.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
Fighting for breath as the aftershocks of Flora's orgasm continue to ripple across his telepathy like phantom hands caressing his skin, Jack is nevertheless easily directed against the Doubletake's waiting lips. He releases her only enough that she might be able to twist and kiss him however she likes, though his grip on her is still as possessive as they come, and clearly he doesn't intend to step away from her quite as immediately as he usually might.
He does eventually need to breathe, however (hopefully Flora will forgive the slight), the captain left panting against the side of her neck as he enjoys the drift of her thoughts unfurling like blooms left adrift on a fast-flowing river. "That was better than any starwhale," he mutters at last, because whatever date he'd planned, this interval had not been expected, even if it was very much welcome.
you wanted perfect, you got your perfect but now I'm too perfect for someone like you
07-10-2024, 02:37 PM (This post was last modified: 07-10-2024, 02:45 PM by Flora.)
flora
With her bare ass pressed against his door and gods knew how many wet dreams and nightmares she'd caused the crew with the sounds of their antics, Flora can only grin against Jack's mouth before she too had to part to finally catch her breath. Letting her fingernails scratch up the back of his neck before plunging into his hair, the Doubletake hugs him shakily against her in a sly bid for stability. (Her legs are still shaking, okay).
"Eh, it was fine." Flora says dryly against Jack's temple, her grin as evident in the contour of her words as in the streak of yellow through her thoughts. "Certainly the fastest we've ever been, not that I'm complaining." Laughing breathlessly and only just able to feel her toes again, the Doubletake settles back against the door, peering up at the captain. No, she isn't planning on demanding that he sweep her off her feet and carry her into bed for a cuddle, instead, she slips one of the rings off of her finger. "For tomorrow." She whispers, sliding it onto Jack's pinky.
At least if Dahlia does manage to kill Flora, the Doubletake will be able to tell her twin that she'd had the best sex of her life the night before.
i scream for whatever it's worth "i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
