i'll raise you

i'm a lost cause, do it the way I want

Silently Vesper considers. His jaw feathers briefly, and against his mental shield Jack will feel the caress of starlight seeking out any cracks that it might slip through. Though he didn't think he'd find anything of interest, it might pull away the captain's attention as the demigod weighed his options.

While he would do anything—give anything for his sisters—he thought a man like Jack would see it as a weakness for Vesper to accept the first counteroffer given, setting a poor precedence for the future.

Breathing in through his nose, Vesper lifts his chin ever so slightly. "A favour or an item. You want both and you're gonna have to make 'em laugh while you're at it." Folding his arms casually across his chest, Vesper lifts a brow. "You accept and I'll tell you how it is I'm able to do this—" The stars against Jack's mental shields will suddenly burn with intensity as if the entire night sky was falling down directly against the captain's mind; burning and flaring with light, pulsing with power.

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

Vesper is lucky - given that this is the first time the captain has come across anything (or anyone) of the demigod's ilk, he is momentarily distracted by the brush of starlight against his mental shield, and it buys him all the time he needs to consider his next words. Tucking a hand into his pocket, he neither closes the distance further between them nor opens it up further, waiting for the next volley to come.

"A favour and an item, and I'll do you one better and take 'em on that tour you mentioned," he fires back; sans Vesper, of course. As the youth continues, Jack's blue eyes sharpen with the sudden barrage of cosmic light against his magic, and thunder rumbles across his own shield in response. "If you accept, I'll have the item now, and the favour at a time of my choosin', and I won't kill you where you stand."

He doesn't need to know how Vesper can do what he does. He's already getting a decent idea, besides; no one walks up to Jack fucking Barclay with a haha look at my mental barrage unless they already know what Jack can do. And there are only two people and a goddess who are aware of his telepathy in such intimate detail. And only the goddess sprinkles starlight wherever she goes.

i'm a lost cause, do it the way I want

With all the audacity of youth and having never felt the sting of failure yet, Vesper merely tilts his head at the counteroffer, his blue eyes lifting to consider the breeze rippling through one of the Ark's sails. "A tour that they'll enjoy, and your hospitality extends anytime they're in your line of sight." The demigod clarifies smoothly before arching a brow.

"Just one thing, though." Pulling his hands out of his pockets, Vesper tugs their lining out—palming the deck of cards—before lifting his chin. "I'm not a magician." Spraying the cards from one hand to the other, he glances up at Jack, his face still sliced in half by the Ark's shadow. "So when you accept, you can either walk with me to the lighthouse or meet me later for a drink, depending on the size of whatever it is you're about to ask for."

there exists a tipping point between gods and monsters

Now Jack is smiling, though whether it counts as a good smile or a bad one is something Vesper will likely need a few more meetings with the captain to properly figure out. Regardless, he inclines his head. "Done."

But of course the youth isn't a magician - we can't all be everything, can we?

"The Hanged Man - it's a short walk that way." He nods in the direction of Flora's ever-so-famous bar. "I'll be there at sundown. What I want is pretty small - just a ring, actually." He'd seen the way the pendant had flashed on that kid - Sah, was it? - when they'd been fighting the Void Sea Panther, and whether or not it had hit the creature, it seemed to do wonders for his magic.

"Look up mageglass, you'll get the gist of what I'm after."

He does step forward now, though where there might be a handshake or a nod of agreement, Jack merely claps the young man on the shoulder - fairly hard. "Pleasure doin' business with you."

~FIN