you're goin' off the deep end again

JACK

Jack gazes past Vesper as well, as if considering something quiet and unpleasant, and by the time the young demigod gestures for him to follow in a way that doesn't look one bit as though it leads to water, he's too lost in his own thoughts to object to it (yet). Instead his feet move to take him to Vesper's side, Jack's hands shoving deep into his pockets. "That so?" he mutters of how to navigate the Greatwood, the Captain scoffing under his breath. "You're really gettin' to grips with this place huh."

It's another beat or two before he speaks again, and when he does the tone is flat, like he's discussing the weather. "Ran into Flora up at the Cordillera," he says, pushing out a brick from his mental walls so Vesper can peek through and see. The lighthouse, the fire, the way he'd blocked her thoughts entirely, her tears, her rambling apology. "Can't wait to see what backlash comes from it this time."

Letting his eyes skim the forest floor, his eyes catch on something glinting - a sunstone, intentionally placed and all but begging to be plucked up. "Your woods left you a gift," he says to Vesper, nodding towards it.

---

Jack offers for Vesper to have the sunstone!

we've gone way too fast for way too long
and we were never supposed to make it half this far

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!