[SE] maybe then you'll get a little heated too

JACK

Pursing his lips but opting not to logic at Vesper any further, Jack slowly straightens from the door and steps across the little space, pushing at the duffel bag just enough to be able to sit down on the bunk. (Not like there's anywhere else to sit). "Ain't one to call you stupid," he says slowly - on the contrary, Vesper has one of the sharpest minds Jack has ever encountered, and for good reason given his parents, "but I've met Colt, an' there was never any way she was gonna let you disappear."

It doesn't mean what happened wasn't for the best - but it does mean it probably stings a helluva lot more than Vesper planned.

Recognising the suspicion in the young demigod's posture, in the careful line between his brows, now Jack can't help but to smirk; quietly confident, a casual pillar of strength in the small space. "Course I do," he says. "It can wait. Scarcity increases demand, y'know."

Then he does draw his mental shield down enough to part the curtain of his thoughts and feelings. The complex web of his mind is smaller now than it had been at the height of his career in Torchline, still smouldering in some places, shiny and fresh in others, and the threads of it that link to Vesper right now all but thrum with something as close to real empathy as a man like Jack can get. An olive branch, a recognition that things might have been a lot different for him if the man he'd been a few seasons ago had this version of himself to rely on.

"Don't get used to it, yeah?" he mutters.

believer, believe it or not you'll know
when it ends and how it goes