dusk moon

// I got this feeling, yeah, you know where I'm losing all control //

As it had since the moment of his conception, Vesper's mind absorbed the information it was given with a dark insatiability. "Guess I need to do a bit more listenin'." The youth decides; bribes, compliments, and threats could all be made quite successfully without the need to offer any information that could be verified. Straight up lies though, like the one he'd told, while perhaps more instantly effective could come back to bite him in the ass in the long run. Lifting his glass to Jack, Vesper takes another sip.

"Everyone knows Safrin can read minds. Reckon that's where I get it from." The demigod adds, the insinuation of course being that should anyone wonder how the boy came about his abilities, his mother was the most obvious source of his power.

Nodding along, the toothpick migrating from one corner of his mouth to the other, Vesper drums his fingertips on the table. "I get that." Both telepathy being bad for business, but good for sex appeal. Tilting his head to the side, he glancse around the bar for a moment before clearing his throat. "Me bein' a demigod might mean I don't have a choice about keepin' it a secret." He mutters before leaning back in his chair. "And if that's the case, havin' it out in the open might save me a headache later on."

Vesper

//Go ahead and throw your stones, 'cause there's magic in my bones //

JACK

"Never a bad idea," Jack agrees, given that he spends the vast majority of his time listening before deciding to make any solid decisions. Tilting his glass back at Vesper and settling in his seat, he gives himself a chance to do just that and listen, realising already from the effects of the ring sitting pretty on his finger that the range of his telepathy has extended yet again, and there's a faraway look in his eyes for a second or two before he seemingly returns to the conversation.

"Y'know, I reckon so as well," he agrees with a cat-like smile, clearly approving of the boy's cover story. If it even is one - he very well might have gotten the gift from Safrin; he's sure the goddess would have been able to pick and choose the traits bestowed upon her children, even if he had been their father.

Setting his glass back down and tapping a rhythmic finger against the wood grain, Jack raises an eyebrow at the further information offered; he'd thought as much, that Vesper was a demigod, given the spontaneous appearance change and general demeanour, but he's glad to have it confirmed regardless. "Mm, if that's the case, just don't be offended if people are off with you. No one likes someone diggin' around in their heads." With a smirk and a raise of his eyebrows, he lets a flicker of metaphorical lightning crackle across Vesper's mental shields, as if to make a point. If it were so accepted, they'd both have lowered their guard long ago.

you are a quiet god
and your hunger is cavernous

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// I got this feeling, yeah, you know where I'm losing all control //

"They don't need to know how it works." Vesper says with a shrug. If he'd learned anything from his time spent hunched over a cloud, watching Torchline from above, it was that telepathy was a rare gift indeed. He could likely get away with saying he only saw vague images or could only sense strong feelings for a good long while before the lie was discovered, and even then there'd probably be some way of getting out of it. He'd learned that from watching Jack.

Smirking at the stroke of lightning, Vesper raises a brow as if to say touche, before the corners of his lips are tilting down ever so slightly. Knowing better than to look, instead he lowers his gaze to the table where his fingers are still tap tap tapping as a mental presence far stronger than the whiskey-muted voices he'd been used to hearing suddenly entered.

The mind of the woman shoving open the front door of the tavern was strangely layered, with shimmery threads of gold up top and a fucking tempest down below. Had he not known better, Vesper would have thought her just some waitress, but of course, he recognized Torchline's queen just as clearly as he recognized the silhouette of Jack inside the maelstrom of her mind. Smirking slightly, the boy removes the toothpick from his mouth in order to drain his drink. "You wanna go?"

Vesper

//Go ahead and throw your stones, 'cause there's magic in my bones //

JACK

"The fewer details the better. I'll drink to that." And he does, Jack swirling the rest of his whiskey in his glass and gazing thoughtfully down into the amber liquid - just as the tempest of Flora's thoughts hits the new borders of his magic, and it's enough to put a hairline crack in that glass. For a second Vesper will be introduced to the barest whisper of his father's thoughts, of something deeply fractured and broken and a fading light pulsing within it; the death throes of an opportunity for something he's since forced into a box labelled weaknesses.

As the door to the Dusklight opens, however, he readjusts his mental shield, offering a lopsided smirk to the youth and shaking his head with a crinkle of his nose. "Nah, you go," he says, unintentionally echoing Vesper's words from earlier. "You'll understand it when you're older." Or, the flat look in his blue eyes seems to say, if you're very lucky, you won't ever understand it at all.

you are a quiet god
and your hunger is cavernous

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

// I got this feeling, yeah, you know where I'm losing all control //

Vesper sees it all—the crack, the tension, the pulse of something which might have been bright and magnificent fading to ash—and merely nods. Whether or not he will understand when he's older hardly matters; he's smart enough now to know that he won't get anywhere with Jack by pretending he understands more than he does or lingering where he might eavesdrop on half of what he assumes is about to happen.

Rising, Vesper glances at the captain for a long moment before tapping his fingertips against the table and then sliding them into his pockets. On his way out he offers the waitress he'd spoken to early a sad little wave before ducking out the door just as a rowdy bunch were entering.

~FIN

Vesper

//Go ahead and throw your stones, 'cause there's magic in my bones //