VESPER
Vesper hadn’t wanted to come. That much was obvious in the way he lingered at the perimeter at first, all long limbs and unreadable expression, constellation freckles dim beneath his sun-charmed skin. But his sisters were here, and where they went, he followed.
The moment his boots hit sand, his mind flexed outward instinctively, brushing along the edges of every thought it could reach. Until it didn’t.
The silence was sudden, surgical. Exactly sixty feet out from Pierce, everything cut out. Not dulled, not blurred—gone. The air in that radius had teeth, though no one else seemed to feel them. Vesper’s jaw worked slightly as he crossed the invisible boundary, then backed out again like a swimmer testing for riptides. Sure enough. A clean, deliberate snuffing of his reach. And it didn’t take a genius to guess who was at the centre of it.
He lifted his eyes across the crowd and found Jack, precisely the same distance out on the other side. A silent line tethered them both to the man in the crop top, and Vesper didn’t bother hiding the unimpressed raise of his brow as their gazes met.
"Well," he muttered to himself, voice dry as ever. "Ain’t that somethin'."
Rather than approach or make a scene, he bent down with deliberate laziness, grabbing one of the least offensive-looking floaties—black, oversized, possibly a squid?—and chucked it unceremoniously into the shallows. Then, with all the theatrical disinterest of a bored cat, he chucked off his boots and waded in after it.
The water lapped warm at his calves, then thighs, and finally chest as he draped himself onto the float, hands trailing lazily at either side. Beneath the surface, his shadows slithered out like paddles, propelling the inflatable creature in slow, meandering circles that never drifted closer to the Family’s brute than absolutely necessary. He steered like a man entirely unbothered, but his constellation-marked fingers tapped out an irregular rhythm on the float’s vinyl edge, and his gaze never quite left Pierce.
The moment his boots hit sand, his mind flexed outward instinctively, brushing along the edges of every thought it could reach. Until it didn’t.
The silence was sudden, surgical. Exactly sixty feet out from Pierce, everything cut out. Not dulled, not blurred—gone. The air in that radius had teeth, though no one else seemed to feel them. Vesper’s jaw worked slightly as he crossed the invisible boundary, then backed out again like a swimmer testing for riptides. Sure enough. A clean, deliberate snuffing of his reach. And it didn’t take a genius to guess who was at the centre of it.
He lifted his eyes across the crowd and found Jack, precisely the same distance out on the other side. A silent line tethered them both to the man in the crop top, and Vesper didn’t bother hiding the unimpressed raise of his brow as their gazes met.
"Well," he muttered to himself, voice dry as ever. "Ain’t that somethin'."
Rather than approach or make a scene, he bent down with deliberate laziness, grabbing one of the least offensive-looking floaties—black, oversized, possibly a squid?—and chucked it unceremoniously into the shallows. Then, with all the theatrical disinterest of a bored cat, he chucked off his boots and waded in after it.
The water lapped warm at his calves, then thighs, and finally chest as he draped himself onto the float, hands trailing lazily at either side. Beneath the surface, his shadows slithered out like paddles, propelling the inflatable creature in slow, meandering circles that never drifted closer to the Family’s brute than absolutely necessary. He steered like a man entirely unbothered, but his constellation-marked fingers tapped out an irregular rhythm on the float’s vinyl edge, and his gaze never quite left Pierce.
I said, I'll check in tomorrow if I don't wake up dead
This is the road to ruin and we're starting at the end
This is the road to ruin and we're starting at the end
☆ has a pale star tattoo beneath his left eye, and freckle-sized constellations move across his skin
☽ hair changes from bleached blonde to brown
☆ telepathic: Sunlit Shadows | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 60ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
☽ hair changes from bleached blonde to brown
☆ telepathic: Sunlit Shadows | The user can read the surface thoughts and emotions of those within a 60ft radius. Control is excellent. Note: "Thoughts and emotions" include anything written in a character's narration in a post.
