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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!
Two and two does equal sex, Ever, and as the aviator glances around the hotsprings Isla almost reaches up to grasp his jaw as if to keep his attention squarely upon her - almost. Instead, given his decision to paddle them closer to the side of the springs, she focuses more on the heat of his lips and every place their bodies touch, moaning softly into his mouth and wondering how best to bring them even closer without arousing any sort of suspicion.
Settling for pushing down his swim shorts enough to free his cock beneath the water, it's with a juvenile sort of need that she huffs a laugh against the line of his jaw. "Gods, you're so hot when you're like this." If like this is almost feral with need and reckless with his desire for her, but Isla has never walked an entirely snow-white line when it comes to those she loves.
"Fuck me, Ever," she whispers, the words trickled against the shell of his ear such that they are barely words at all, but the way her legs tighten around him will hopefully be all the encouragement he needs.
Finally, his fingers find the ledge of the pool and with one hand he drags them against it, his back hitting the stone. It nearly passes his notice, however, as Isla shoves down his shorts and for a shaky moment, he imagines simply shoving her own bathing suit aside and thrusting her onto the rocks where all would be welcome to see him fucking her, with one hand cradling her head against his neck to keep her quiet despite the telltale slap of skin on skin.
Had Isla been looking at him rather than teasing along his jawline with her lips she might have seen the way the aviator's expression went from momentarily pleading to utterly brought to heel by his lust for the Remedy. Her whispered words scattered any meagre attempts at propriety he might have yet made, and if Isla hadn't believed him before about his ability to be reckless, perhaps the way his fingertips develop sharp claws that shred the lower portion of her bathing suit will have her convinced. Yes, he could have just slid it over, yes he could even have asked her to take it off, but no part of him is inclined to wait or be in anyway inconvenienced just now.
"I want you," Rather than the gentle declaration of need it normally is, these words are growled against the Remedy's collarbones as Everest fits his hands around the backs of her thighs and lifts her onto the ledge. "Gods I want you." The tip of his cock twitches above the waterline as he repeats the words, before his hands are repositioning her on the edge of the stone.
They say the odds are stacked against us, babe
We're a cactus waiting for our desert rain
It shouldn't come as a surprise that even a man as gentle and level-headed as Everest Hart has a breaking point, but Isla is still (pleasantly) startled when she discovers it. Inhaling sharply to feel the prick of claws against her skin just before the lower half of her bikini goes floating away into the springs - sorry not sorry, everyone - she braces against him just enough to allow him to sit her on the stone ledge. And listen, a lot of people probably have sex in a place named Frey's Breath, okay? This isn't even Isla's first time doing it.
But it's likely to be her most memorable.
"You have me," she whispers to the aviator, hooking a leg back around him to tug him closer, having no intention of wasting a second apart from him. "Just you." Greedy hands reach out to twine around him, smoothing across the strong, tanned shoulders and the scruff of his jaw. "And there is no one luckier than I am." Leaning in to meet his lips and encouraging him between her thighs, there are no words for the sudden possessive need she has for Ever, so her body will have to do the talking instead.
Much as Ever wants to tell the Remedy that he'll never love anyone else the way he loves her, that he'll never want anyone the way he wants her, these sweet nothings are almost immediately burned up by the touch of her fingers as they dance across his skin, the press of her mouth against his, or the way there's suddenly far too much between them as her legs part and twist around him.
Nearly stumbling into her such is the lack of coordination her presence inspires, as he does thrust himself forward his hands tighten around her hips. If in a few hours it turns out his touch has left bruises upon her skin he'll be on his knees asking for her forgiveness, but for now the need to be inside of her looms so large in his mind as to blot out his fine motor skills. "—fuck—" Gasping against her, the aviator picks his head up from where it had fallen to her shoulder. Bracing one arm directly behind her for leverage, the other roughly slides against her cheek as his hips roll back and thrust forward again.
"Look at you," he manages, his words hardly more than a growl as his fingers claw into the stone just behind her.
They say the odds are stacked against us, babe
We're a cactus waiting for our desert rain
Where Ever might be begging her forgiveness, Isla will be relishing every finger shaped mark declaring that she belongs to the aviator, though there's no way to tell him as much at present. Hiccuping in a sharp breath to feel him enter her, their bodies come together in the sort of seamless rhythm that even rough and unexpected sex can't change, her ankles locking around his hips leaving enough space for him to thrust as hard and fast as he likes.
"Shh..." She hushes him, still unsure who might be around to hear, but the deep flush to her cheeks suggests she really wouldn't mind if anyone did realise what they were up to. Biting back a moan of deep satisfaction to feel him start to fuck her in earnest, Isla leans into the touch against her cheek and surges forward to claim his lips once more, as if that will somehow help her to stay quiet.
Releasing her jaw in order to clutch at her lower back and force her body against his, much as the aviator would like to keep Isla's lips against his he'll quickly run out of air if he tries. "How?" He moans as a breath lodges in the back of his throat and he gasps against her. How was he meant to be quiet when the most beautiful woman he'd ever known, a woman he loved and who loved him back, had just asked him to fuck her and then bound her legs around his back?
Pressing his forehead against her shoulder once more, his teeth clenched in an effort to keep quiet, the aviator was torn between obeying the Remedy's instruction and fucking her hard and fast enough to have things over with quickly. Neither seemed ideal, not when he longed to hear her moan his name or to have her begging for release, but even a touch wild with want for her, Everest was still a fairly obedient man at his core; even if said core was currently churning with a heat he was sure he couldn't sustain for long.
"—tell me...if.." He starts to say, meaning to tell her if he's too rough (which, Everest bby, you don't know what you're up against), before a dark plume of heat roars up from his core with such an overwhelming intensity that the aviator's grasp against the Remedy's back is suddenly born out of necessity rather than simple need.
They say the odds are stacked against us, babe
We're a cactus waiting for our desert rain
Isla wishes she had a real answer for Ever - if she finds out how, exactly, she'll be sure to tell him, but for now all she's got are bitten back moans and the way her own hands are likely going to leave faint marks on his skin in her efforts to keep quiet. Arched deliciously against him in every way he clutches her close, the Remedy's fingers tangle into the back of his curls, and she almost can't resist glancing down between them, able to catch brief glimpses of the snap of his hips, of the play of mist and light and shadow against the muscles of his back.
Tightening her ankles around Ever's waist and forcing in a shuddering breath to keep from moaning her open-mouthed pleasure at his touch, if anything Isla wants to tell the aviator he can do better than this when it comes to too rough, but gods, she can't even trust herself to whisper. It's only as she forces a hand between them in order to pleasure herself that a soft gasp breaks past her lips, barely loud enough to draw attention, but certainly enough for the two of them to know she's failed to comply with their self-imposed rules.
Later on, perhaps, Everest will come to realize that this was the feeling Dantalion was trying to explain to him back in the Dusklight when he'd spoken of urgency and the excitement borne from not being caught. Whereas before the aviator had understood it as a needless set of obligations that only made him feel mildly pressured into performing, now the knowledge that their combined pleasure rested in a race of their own making had him coming entirely undone with a sort of accelerated arousal he'd never known before.
With his fingertips grasping against Isla's lower back and the heel of his other hand pressed against the stone, the aviator lost himself in the thrusting of his hips and the burn of his muscles as his mind blurred the edges of where he ended and Isla began. Even when he parted from her the warmth of the springs muddled his senses such that it felt as though she was still all around him, and with his eyes pressed shut the illusion felt real. Too real.
"Gods Isla, I'm so close—" Ever murmurs, his eyes snapping open before frantically searching over the Remedy's shoulder for something which might distract his mind. Tension roared up the backs of his legs and his thighs, the burn of which had his fingers trembling as he clawed at the stone to try and keep himself from the brink until they could go over together.
They say the odds are stacked against us, babe
We're a cactus waiting for our desert rain
Luckily for Everest, Isla was close before, and hearing him say as much only has her pressing further against him, encouraging the thrust of his hips into her even if it makes it more difficult for her to keep her hand between them. "Gods, you feel so good--" she whispers into his ear with a hint of desperation, already able to feel the mounting heat of her orgasm creeping up the backs of her thighs and through her core.
Isla has no idea how she manages not to serenade the hollow caverns of Frey's Breath with his name, but she at least has the foresight not to use her teeth Asta - instead, with her face buried against the side of Ever's neck, the sounds of her ecstasy are for his ears only, muffled and breathless as they might be. Taut as a bowstring around him with her back arched deliciously into his hands, it's a long few moments before she can even allow her muscles to relax, leaving her panting against the warm slope of his shoulders.
Gasping into the nape of her neck, the aviator mistakenly squeezes his eyes closed as Isla's orgasm finds her. The hushed half-cries of her pleasure envelope him completely as he sinks into the dark, her body both deliciously soft and hard against his own. As Isla's back arches, Ever's hand fits against her taut muscles and his mind reimagines the shape of it, setting it adrift over his body and then beneath it. Clutching her close he hisses something under his breath that might have been another declaration of love or a plea as to how he was possibly meant to keep quiet.
Gasping against her neck, Ever's mouth fluttered sloppy kisses that were closer to open-mouthed bites the way his teeth seemed to touch her skin more than his lips did as he tried to cut off his own moans against her throat. At the height of his orgasm, he tugged Isla from the ledge, his hands fitting against her hips and thighs to take just that little bit more of her as he climaxed. Shaking against her as his hips rolled jerkily forward of their own accord, the aviator's hands slid up Isla's body, wrapping adoringly, lovingly, possessively around her as he attempted to lift his forehead from where it had fallen against her shoulder and found it still too monumental a task.
Sinking them down into the water where it might simply look as though he was holding her close against him and hide the way he was still buried inside of her or how his arms and hands were still twitching with pleasure, Ever grins against the top of Isla's shoulder as he presses a soft kiss on her skin. "Isla that was..." Forcing his head up, the muscles of his stomach tensing with the effort, he gives his head a little shake. "Gods I love you."
They say the odds are stacked against us, babe
We're a cactus waiting for our desert rain
It's thanks to Ever and his explorations throughout the House of Midnight and the Dusklight that Isla wishes the cavern was walled with mirrors. As the aviator clutches her close enough to draw her off the rocky ledge entirely, leaving her braced against him and with his cock buried deep inside her, the Remedy's imagination is nowhere near good enough to replicate the tableau of their bodies just now.
Letting a (quiet) moan slip from her lips as they descend into the water, she's already trying to cover him in gentle kisses, from his hair, his temples, his cheeks and forehead as he move - anywhere she can get. "I love you too," she whispers with a grin that's running away with itself, finding it almost giddying to be able to respond to him and now it's real and true.
Clasping his jaw to tilt his head up into a kiss, Isla doesn't care if they pass out in the hotsprings from lack of oxygen. There's no part of her that isn't delighted to be wrapped around Ever right now, and she doesn't plan to change it any time soon.
"If those were the only words I ever heard again for the rest of my life, I'd be all too happy." Ever whispers before his lips are snatched away and all thought disappears. Running his hands up the channel of her spine before letting them plummet down to her waist, her hips, around the swell of her ass and then against her thighs, the aviator hums softly against her kiss as his tongue writes all the words he longs to scream for the rest of the hot springs to hear.
But for a small pang of guilt that stretched cold fingers down the aviator's spine, he'd have been happy to continue making out with Isla as if they were nothing more than horny teenagers. Parting, reluctantly, Ever laughs as softly as he's able into the space between them. "I'm...I'm sorry if any of that was too much." He whispers, his brows edging inward as a small wince had the dimples on his cheeks vanishing beneath his scruff. "I'd never want to hurt you." The words has his touch growing softer against her skin as his hands continue their gentle wandering beneath the water.
They say the odds are stacked against us, babe
We're a cactus waiting for our desert rain
Ever, Isla might have said playfully if her lips weren't tragically occupied. Not that she disagrees with him by any stretch of the imagination - if they could remain here forever, in fact, and not have to go back to their jobs and the plot the world, she might just do it, and to hell with everything else. At least for a few days, anyway.
Surprised to part from his lips before she's good and ready, with no indication of the aviator's guilt (no Attuned bond, anyway), Isla is trailing kisses against his jaw when he speaks. Humming her confusion, the Remedy glances up only to clasp his cheeks as she realises what he's saying, leaning in to press a chaste and smiling kiss to his lips. "It wasn't," she whispers. "Not even close to too much. I loved it."
And a lot more besides, Ever might find in the coming seasons, should he be able to stay away from a certain healing hotspring. "You can trust me to tell you at the time if I'm ever uncomfortable," she promises him. "And you've never made me feel like that."
Ever's eyes widen a fraction before his lashes flutter softly as if trying to blink away the mists settling down around them the further he lets them float into the hot springs. "You're sure?" The corner of his mouth wrinkles upwards as if he didn't quite dare to believe the Remedy, though of course he had utterly no reason at all to doubt her.
"At the House of Midnight I did try to be...well, rough." Heat and colour flare across the bridge of Ever's nose, and as he looks at Isla there's something unmistakably canine about it, as if she'd just caught him chewing on something he wasn't meant to. "But I never really got into it, or understood the whys of it." He explains softly. "But that...gods, it felt like I wasn't trying to be rough so much as I just wanted you so much." Disbelief has him chuckling a touch bashfully as he leans forward to brush his nose softly against hers.
"I thought maybe it would come across as selfish, or, well, too much." As he'd said before.
They say the odds are stacked against us, babe
We're a cactus waiting for our desert rain
