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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!
Her toes curl as her feet twist against his calves; her body wanted nothing more than to thrust and grind, to tense every muscle and refuse to breathe until she came. Experience taught her that doing so would only cut short the rise of her climax, but gods if she didn't want to fight her way towards release just the same.
yes, look at me, Flora's mind sings out, and despite the ugly scars she now bears, the queen nevertheless stretches up from the waist, back arched and lips parted in a silent plea. "Don't just look-" Flora pants, her eyes hardly able to open but for the array of colours and sensations exploding in her mind. Reaching down she interrupts the movement of Jack's thumb against her clit, substituting her own fingers that his palm might wrap around the exposed skin of her throat that he'd revealed with the tug on her curls.
Leaning into the pressure, as Flora's fingers quicken their pace, so too does the roll of her hips become more relentless as she sacrifices the ability to lift herself almost all the way off his cock in lieu of quick and hard thrusts.
How are you like this, Jack almost wants to hiss at her, even as his hand abandons its ministrations and he reaches up to comply with her wishes, fingers encircling her throat with just enough pressure to be considered teasing towards cutting off the air. Constantly edging herself towards orgasm as if refusing to crest into bliss until he does, it makes for an itch the captain would flay himself to scratch, pushing pleasure into an ache that tries to be pain and sets his jaw to clenching hard.
Feeling the blaze of her climax - and his own - race up the backs of his thighs and higher still, Jack feels as if he's being throttled by it as much as the Doubletake, and the wild need that shivers in his veins has his hips bucking up hard into her, as if to make up for the movement she's sacrificed with his own. Ultimately, though, the time of day absolutely works against him, and however much of a master the captain might be over his magic, his body has it's own ideas.
With a bitten out curse that has him clutching Flora closer, Jack cums hard, thrusting deeply into her and feeling already that feral sensation of not enough.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
Choking out a moan that has Flora realizing that she had been holding her breath, as her climax properly balloons inside of her limbs, she allows herself to follow its expanse all the way to the top by lifting herself higher on Jack's cock, before slamming herself down one last time. Clenching her thighs on either side of him as if she might pin the sensation inside of herself, the Doubletake moans a series of curses which are ultimately punctuated by something that sounds a good deal like the captain's name as she rides out the ripples of her orgasm.
Her finger flinches a few last times over her clit, the oversensitive buzz of sensation sending waves of static up through her muscles before she reaches for the hand around her throat. Brushing her lips against Jack's palm, Flora lets her muscles softly release; bracing one hand next to Jack's head, she curls herself forward, tucking herself against his chest and pressing her cheek over his heart to better hear the thunder of its beat.
Downstairs the coffee she'd set to brew was surely done by now, but gods if it didn't feel as though it was an entire world away. "Hope that made staying over here worth it." She murmurs with a grin against him once her pulse no longer radiated through her entire body.
Flora's climax whipcracks into Jack on the heels of his own, sending him reeling into the sort of pleasure he's convinced singes the very edges of his magic, leaving him simultaneously numb but also in a freefall of sensation. Able to feel the press of her lips against his palm as something distant that's punctuated by the static fingers of ecstasy from the last flutters of her orgasm, the captain's heart is absolutely thundering against her ear, his chest rising and falling rapidly to try and catch his breath and regain his senses.
It takes a long few moments for the dots to connect between his mind and his limbs, an arm curling around her as if to seize her and hold her, close and covetous and away from the rest of the world. Whatever joke Flora makes falls on completely deaf ears; rolling to the side enough that he might reverse their positions, Jack gazes down at her with dazed blue eyes made darker by the way his pupils all but swallow the colour.
"Fuck you," he says in a tone that's close to reverent, the captain leaning in to steal a kiss from her lips that has his lungs screaming for air all over again, not that he pays it any mind.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
The way Jack touches her ignites something deeper than simple passion in Flora; a blazing warmth that isn’t content to stay skin-deep but radiates inward, scorching through her thoughts, her fears, and every fragile part of herself she’s ever tried to protect. The fire doesn’t burn her muscles the way arousal had, but instead scorches the very essence of her. Submitting utterly to his repositioning, her legs remain tangled around his waist, anchoring them together as one hand slides over his shoulder, the other brushing a tangle of dark hair away from his face.
Gazing up into Jack's storm-darkened eyes, predatory and consuming, Flora feels her heart stumble beneath the sheer weight of her affection for him. It’s terrifying in its enormity, pulling at her with the same ferocity her climax had, only this time she’s not flying apart in a freefall, instead she's grounded and drawn inexorably toward Jack.
I love you too, she thinks as his mouth finds hers, the words spilling through her mind like the golden glow of a sunrise over the sea. It’s raw and unfiltered, despite her intentions for the words to come out as a snarky response. Threading her fingers through her hair, Flora arches up against him in protest of there being any amount of space between them. "I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you," she whispers when their lips finally part.
"And, since there's no point in trying to keep it from you..." Fishing the too-large ring from her thumb, Flora twists beneath the captain enough to hold it out between them. "Happy early birthday. "
What Flora views as predatory is more akin to a man in the throes of his favourite drug, though two things can and have been true at the same time, Jack supposes. Either way, he claims her mouth in a kiss that tastes just like the golden spill of sunshine that coats her thoughts, the captain responding to her mental voice with little more than a gruff moan against her lips. When he draws back from her it's to scatter further kisses against her jaw and throat while he catches his breath, his hands greedy for her curves and grasping possessively at the way her legs hook around his waist.
Only as Flora's fingers go fumbling towards the ring does Jack shift back enough to gaze down at her again, and it says something that, for a split second, he doesn't give a fuck about mageglass when it means her hands are no longer on him. That second does pass, though, the captain cocking a smirk at her and shifting to accept the ring, slouching to lay beside her and slip it onto one of his fingers. "You know I don't expect anythin' for my birthday, early or otherwise, right?" he says, voice still rough. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but still."
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
The inches Jack places between them might as well be a gulf for how cold Flora's body feels without his pressed against it. Humming a soft note of disapproval, she shifts closer, her body instinctively drawn to his like the tide chasing the moon. "You already know I know that," she replies, her voice teasing as she props herself up on one elbow, her chin resting in her palm. Tilting her head to the side, her curls cascade over her shoulder, catching the sunlight like golden thread. "And you know I like doing it."
Her aqua eyes glint with affection and a spark of mischief as she gazes at him, her fingers idly toying with the edge of the sheet. Flora has never been the kind to cling to material things, her upbringing ensuring she never had to. But that freedom had made her surprisingly generous; while it was true that her pockets no longer ran as deep with Remi's MP coin as they had when she and Enzo were younger, Flora had made enough of a name for herself that she could wield it as currency when needed. Case in point, Tal had opted for a no-questions-asked favour from the queen, rather than a gilded dragon scale and a manticore feather.
"So shut up about it, would you?" She wrinkles her nose affectionately, leaning forward until the tip of it brushes Jack’s. "Or I’m going to make you have another one of those heart-to-heart talks where we discuss your feelings and why you think you don’t deserve to be spoiled." Her words are light, teasing, but there’s a molten sincerity beneath them, her love glowing like embers ready to flare to life at the barest provocation.
Humming his non-commital agreement - yes, he knows she knows it already, and he knows she enjoys giving gifts in general - Jack has nonetheless never been all that good at receiving them. Items received as payment, bribery, or to hold up a deal or a bargain? Those things he has no issue accepting. But presents just because? She can't read his thoughts, but the quietly stormy look on his face is evidence enough of them, even as he flexes his hand to cause the new mageglass ring on his finger to twinkle.
Opting to actually shut up about it this time as he's told to, the captain slips an arm back around Flora to draw her back against his side, brushing his nose against hers and leaning in to punctuate the sentiment with a slow kiss. Only as he draws back does he feel even remotely ready to face the day, inhaling a slow, deep breath that smells of freshly brewed coffee.
"Gettin' coffee and makin' breakfast doesn't count as bein' spoiled," he decides, flashing her a crooked smile and getting his elbows beneath him to sit up, stretching enough to have his back crackling deliciously. His movements are slow and leisurely, at odds with their usual mornings on The Ark - there's nothing to check and no orders to give, and the only thing Jack is responsible for is finding a pair of pants to pull on.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
01-14-2025, 08:42 AM (This post was last modified: 01-14-2025, 08:42 AM by Flora.)
candlewax & polaroids on the hardwood floor
While it's true that Flora had placed a good amount of weight on hearing Jack say that he loved her, the Doubletake had never failed to read affection into his actions; that she needed the confirmation of it said more about her than it ever did about him. #ThanksRemiandRonin The way he held her close rather than pushing her away after sex, the way he luxuriated in her mind rather than recoiling from it, the way his kisses were more often deep and sweet rather than being the sort offered to shut her up (though there were no shortage of those either), all had Flora's thoughts brimming with gold. Feeling her breath catch as his nose brushed against hers, the queen pressed herself into him, her tongue sweeping against the roof of his mouth against his before humming a sigh as they part.
"You say that now," Flora chuckles as she lets him stretch, slipping out of the covers and taking her sweet time getting dressed as if to better let the morning sun warm her skin now that Jack's hands had given up on that particular task. Opting for a tanktop and sweatpants, the queen sweeps her hair off of her neck, fixing it into a high ponytail before bouncing her eyebrows at the captain. "But you wait until you see what I've got set up." He wouldn't have to wait, of course, not given the thoughts that bloomed in Flora's mind: flour, sugar, eggs, yeast, and butter had all been laid out on the counter, alongside cinnamon, different types of sugar, and vanilla. All the ingredients for cinnamon buns.
"Since we both know how great my baking skills are, I thought we could practice before that festival at the end of the season."
Opting for dark sweatpants that sit low on his hips and no tanktop at all, Jack is barefoot as he pads out of Flora's bedroom and down to the kitchen where the siren song of coffee is calling him. "I sense shitfuckery," he drawls, and no sooner as hhe gleaned the mischief from her thoughts when the set-up on the counter becomes visible, the captain scoffing under his breath. "By practice," he says slowly, grinning over his shoulder and reaching up to tie his own hair out of his face in a messy, half-up top knot, "do you mean you're gonna persuade me to do it?"
Captain of The Ark, notorious smuggler, baker extraordinnaire - that's him. No part of him suggests he won't indulge her, of course - as Jack has told Flora previously, he's got a lot of information knocking around in his mind stolen from various places and people - he nevertheless goes right for the coffee pot to pour them both a mug of it. All the better to concentrate and all that. "Did you look up a recipe, or are we goin' by feel?"
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
Looking wildly domestic but still wild in a way that had Flora wanting to tug the sweatpants off Jack's body and pin him against her counter, instead the queen just takes a moment to appreciate the new lines of muscle that the captain had built over the past few seasons and the way they curved into a mouthwatering V beneath the brutal line of scar tissue running across his stomach.
"I don't think I'll have to persuade you of anything," Flora counters brightly. "Because if you don't help, that means they're turn out horribly, and..." The queen's thoughts turn sharp and detailed as she imagines scooping a finger inside a bowl of perfectly mixed icing and letting her tongue lick it clean; of kisses made all the sweeter by powdered sugar, of handprints against golden skin outlined in flour. It's the sort of youthful montage one would expect Flora to come up with, even if it was wholly impractical and wildly unhygienic. "..I think you'll be fairly dissatisfied if they don't taste good in the end."
Humming her appreciation as Jack pours her a cup of coffee, Flora offers him a scrap of parchment in exchange for her mug. "It's one of Vai's recipes." She explains softly; the writing on the parchment was as witchy as one might expect, but also neat and well-organized.
"Flora..." Jack's warning is soft and edged with something like affection, the captain smirking at her over the rim of his coffee mug as if to remind her that he can also hear every sugar-sweetened thought and see every imagined floury handprint. Receiving the paper in return for the coffee, his eyes drop to unfamiliar handwriting made strangely comforting by the layer of nostalgia dusted across it by Flora's influence.
"I would be dissatisfied," he agrees; ever the control freak, it's the entire reason he'd interjected in the Doubletake's previous attempts at baking. (That, and he'd been all but concussed by a muffin). "Besides, far be it for me to invoke the wrath of a witch, even if it's from beyond the grave."
With another sip of coffee, Jack sets his mug down and straightens up, purposely brushing close by Flora that he might reach for the dry ingredients to combine them as per the recipe he sets down on the counter. "Do you want to be involved, or shall I just act as if I've got an audience?" He grins.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
"Yes Jack?" The picture of innocence despite the filthy nature of her thoughts, Flora merely raises her eyebrows as she pulls her mug of coffee to her lips, blowing suggestively over the lip and fluttering her lashes up at the captain.
"Vai being dead wouldn't stop her." Flora agrees with a grin. "Actually, you'll meet her soon." At Hotaru and Sunjata's wedding; the Doubletake doesn't say that, though, as she tries to drown the sickly swell of upset that rises in her belly with a sip of coffee.
But anyway, back to delicious cinnamon buns.
Sipping in a breath that catches in her throat, Flora stiffens against the counter as if pinned by Jack's proximity. The smell of him—and no, not in some overly intense weird fae way, but instead the familiar smell of the sea—has her inhaling and biting at her lower lip. "Jack.." Mimicking his earlier tone, the queen affectionately rolls her eyes as she considers. "Oh, you like having an audience now too?" She bounces her eyebrows. "I thought that was just me." Grinning, Flora just noses toward the parchment before taking another sip of coffee.
"How about you start, and you can just tell me where and how you want me if you need help."
"I'll ensure I'm warded from her presence appropriately," Jack drawls, still remembering the tarot readings and other fortune telling nonsense that had filled Torchline's marketplaces during Leafchange. He doesn't pry any further, knowing from Flora's thoughts where he's likely to come across the witch, even if the guests of honour for said occasion are still a bit of a touchy subject.
Smirking as she seems to melt against his presence like ice cream near a flame, he raises an eyebrow over his shoulder and reaches for the dry ingredients. "Yes, Flora?" he echoes right back at her, and though Jack has never once looked like the picture of innocence, he can make an attempt to seem oblivious to what he's doing.
"Where and how I want you doesn't have much to do with this," he continues with a sly smile, nonetheless combining the ingredients. "But how about you make the stuff that goes inside these?" The cinnamon sugar, he means, requiring butter, brown sugar and, of course, cinnamon.
fight so dirty but you love so sweet talk so pretty but your heart got teeth
