i'm a lost cause, do it the way I want
Her sarcasm slaps against the air between them like a glove, but it doesn’t sting. Vesper watches the flames devour the grass at his feet with clinical disinterest, shadows rippling across the hem of his coat as though considering whether to stay or strike. They don’t move. He doesn’t either, not right away, anyway. Because beneath the bite of her words, beneath the false bravado and flickering blaze, he can still feel the mess of her; the grief curdled into anger, the pain trying so hard to harden into armour. And gods, he almost respects it. The effort. The raw refusal to shatter, but it’s wasted because no matter how much fire she conjures, it won’t burn away the truth. And whatever spark had remained between them—whatever it might have been before the void took root—it’s drowning in smoke and resentment now.
So he lifts his hand, and his shield forms again, catching the worst of the flames in a slow bloom of star-forged shimmer. It hisses against the heat, but doesn’t buckle. "Right," he says softly, not mockingly, not cruel, just done.
Without waiting for a reply, his shield drops, and as the fire rushes forward, it will find only smoke.
Vesper vanishes with a curl of mist and shadow, slipping between hedge lines like a thought discarded, like a promise broken before it ever left his mouth. He doesn’t stop after the first. Or the second. Each misty step takes him further—deeper into the ever-shifting heart of the Queen’s Gambit—until the garden no longer hums with firelight, and the taste of ash no longer clings to the back of his throat.
~FIN
So he lifts his hand, and his shield forms again, catching the worst of the flames in a slow bloom of star-forged shimmer. It hisses against the heat, but doesn’t buckle. "Right," he says softly, not mockingly, not cruel, just done.
Without waiting for a reply, his shield drops, and as the fire rushes forward, it will find only smoke.
Vesper vanishes with a curl of mist and shadow, slipping between hedge lines like a thought discarded, like a promise broken before it ever left his mouth. He doesn’t stop after the first. Or the second. Each misty step takes him further—deeper into the ever-shifting heart of the Queen’s Gambit—until the garden no longer hums with firelight, and the taste of ash no longer clings to the back of his throat.
~FIN
☆ 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.
