[Training] there's coke in the midas touch

if you try and chase the sun you're never gonna catch it

The bones groan beneath his boots. It's not sound, exactly, more sensation; like the island is listening.

Vesper stands at the edge of a curved, ribcage-like outcrop, all sun-bleached femurs and tangled red vines, the surf foaming against the corpse-white shore. His eyes narrow as another tendril lashes out from a cluster of crimson brambles ahead, barbed and fast. Too fast for most. But not him.

He vanishes.

A flare of shadow, a crackle of starlight—and then he’s gone, the vine slicing air where he’d stood. Fifteen feet west, he reappears in a crouch atop a sloped pelvis half-consumed by moss and teeth. His breath is steady, controlled, eyes scanning for the next strike. The island reacts. Another burst of movement—roots coiling like snakes beneath brittle ribs—and again he steps through space, mist curling at his heels.

He doesn’t run so much as flicker, shadows spiralling around him with each teleport. Always fifteen feet. Always a breath ahead of danger. The jungle—if you could call it that—howls around him in silence, petals snapping shut like jaws behind him. Vesper lands lightly atop a skull half-swallowed in red flowers, watching the earth twist in slow frustration below. Sweat beads on his brow. Not from exertion—from focus. Control. He’s not just evading. He’s trying to predict.

He grins, sharp and breathless. "Try harder," he murmurs to the island, and steps again.

And now it's turning out to be the worst of my bad habits

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

JACK

Overhead, not that Vesper likely notices or cares, a familiar ship glides down beneath the cloud cover, ruddy red sails full, her deck busy with tiny, animated figures to manage her descent. She pauses a few dozen feet above the island, a sharp whistle sounding from her bow before a rope tumbles and falls to whump against the bone-littered shoreline.

Having told the crew he won't be long, Jack's intention is to try his own luck against the stationary enemies littered along the island (as well as the more actively carnivorous ones). It's been a beat or two since he was last on Torchline's shores properly, and he wants to take every chance to enjoy it before things get claustrophobic. Not only that, but his tour of Caido has put a bit of a dampener on his focus on his magic, so it's about time he stopped fucking off about it.

Which is why he opts not to let himself be lowered with the rope, or to clamber down a ladder, but to try a quicker if not more unorthodox descent. With a gloved hand clutching the rope and a concentrated shell of ice covering it, Jack slides down from The Ark's railing, coat flaring out, picking up quite considerable speed.

Using his air magic to slow his fall (for lack of better word) and tapering off the ice some ten feet from the ground, he lands hard enough to send spurs of bone and sand up around his boots, but is otherwise unharmed.

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

if you try and chase the sun you're never gonna catch it

Vesper doesn’t notice the Ark right away—too focused on the rhythm of his misty steps, each teleport a crackle of pressure behind his ribs. The island hums beneath him with hunger, vines twitching, bone-petaled flowers quivering with some soundless anticipation. He appears fifteen feet ahead of a snapping stalk just before it can coil around his ankle, only to vanish again, trailing smoke and starlight as he reappears perched on a sun-bleached ribcage rising from the sand like a spine.

Then a sharp whistle cuts across the macabre calm; Vesper’s head lifts, eyes narrowing just as a rope hits the shore with a dull thump. He doesn't need to look to know whose ship it is. There’s only one that whistles like that—only one that moves through the sky like a rumour. He watches, arms loose at his sides, as Jack descends not with a ladder or grace, but with a mage's arrogance and a mercenary’s flair. Ice gleams briefly in the air before shattering away, and the captain lands hard, like a punctuation mark slammed into the end of a sentence.

"Bit dramatic, even for you," he calls across the bone field, voice dry, the edge of a grin in his tone. He drops down from his perch in a smooth crouch and straightens, dusting off his hands. "Looking for somethin' out here?" he wonders, before stepping out from the ring of carnivorous plants and toward the sea-spattered shape of his father.

And now it's turning out to be the worst of my bad habits

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

JACK

Jack's head snaps up at the sound of a voice, and if his telepathy had a visual element, Vesper would undoubtedly see it glimmering around him like the glass web of some waiting spider. He relaxes, though, to see that it's at least a familiar shape whose mind he can't read, and he releases the rope and kicks a bit of bone away to step out from the small indentation he's made in the ground. "I'm workin' on my entrances," he drawls, brushing dust and sand from his pants and coat and drawing to a halt before the boy.

"Not lookin' in particular this time, no. I used to think this'd be a good place to hide shit before movin' it into Torchline proper, but the cargo had a tendency to get chewed up. Can't imagine why," he says, glancing around Vesper at the still writhing vines that seem quite upset to have lost their prey.

Tugging off the ice-rimed glove he'd been using to tuck it into his back pocket, he nods towards the large ribcage he'd used as a perch. "Playin' hide and seek with the plants?"

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

if you try and chase the sun you're never gonna catch it

Vesper chuckles, low and without much bite, his smirk sharp in profile as he takes another lazy step through the bone-strewn sand. "Seems like you've already got your exits down" The comment is tossed out like a bone of its own—casual on the surface, but polished enough to carry weight. He doesn’t look at Jack when he says it, just scans the horizon with that half-lidded calm he wears like armour. "Been real quiet on the coast lately."

He lets it sit, then flicks a glance back toward the ribcage, shrugging one shoulder. "Workin’ on dodgin'. Didn’t figure I’d get better at it by standin’ still." His eyes glitter with amusement. "This place’s got a real motivating learning curve."

A vine rustles nearby—too close—and Vesper flicks his fingers lazily. A spear of shadow drives it into the ground like a tent peg. "But since you’re here, and since you’re feelin' dramatic," he adds, finally turning to face Jack fully, "any of that ice still sittin’ pretty in your fingers?" The smirk returns, wicked and reckless. "If so, be a good dad would you, and try and stab me a few times."

And now it's turning out to be the worst of my bad habits

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

JACK

"Exits are more important," Jack agrees casually enough, following Vesper's gaze out to the familiar spill of the ocean, the cluster of islands in the distance that are as familiar to the captain as his own scars and freckles. "Good quiet or bad quiet?" he asks, the furrow to his brow something subtle that nevertheless begs to be among the buildings and the boardwalk, to leech every bit of missed news, every change and altercation built on bribery and violence.

Turning, eventually, back towards the large and upright ribcage, Jack scoffs out a laugh and inclines his head. "It's got your best interests at heart, one might say. If your intention is to learn to dodge, at least." And he's absolutely right about it's motivating learning curve.

As for his assistance and whether he can offer it by way of stabbing, the captain offers a roguish half-bow. "I'll do you one better. You came here to dodge, and I came here to hit. Been tryin' to weave magic together a little more, so it might not just be ice."

Without further preamble, in fact, Jack's eyes grow sharp with the sort of focus normally reserved for oh fuck situations. Around him the sand whirls with a manufactured air current, shimmering with flecks of ice and sparks of lightning, and with a quick feint to the side, he lets the magic whip out towards Vesper.

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

if you try and chase the sun you're never gonna catch it

Vesper doesn’t smile—not exactly—but there’s a glint in his eye as he watches Jack brush off bone dust like it’s an old habit. "Yeah?" he says, voice low and dry. "Reckon' you’ve had more practice leavin’ than most."

The sea breeze catches his coat as he turns to track Jack’s gaze, following it toward Torchline’s scattered silhouette on the distant horizon. "Too quiet," He shrugs one shoulder, glancing sidelong. "I can't believe this shit with Flora is gonna go down like honey, and with that group just comin' back from Starfall and Vox bein' all around with these poems.." Well, the fact that nothin' had washed up on their shores seemed a touch suspect.

"Oh, so now it’s a lesson, is it?" he mutters, eyes narrowing just as Jack’s magic ignites. The first snap of wind ripples the surface of the island. Ice gleams. Lightning flares. Vesper disappears.

He blinks fifteen feet to the side in a pulse of silver and shadow, boots landing light on sun-bleached femurs. The wind shrieks past where he stood a breath before, and a streak of lightning tears a shallow gouge in the skeletal ground. "That’s new," he calls, flicking his gaze to the glitter of residual magic. "Didn’t know you were tryin’ to braid elements now." He waits—one breath, two—and then flickers again, teleporting closer this time, circling Jack at a lazy prowl.

And now it's turning out to be the worst of my bad habits

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

JACK

"You got somethin' you wanna say?" Jack asks with a raise of his eyebrows, as if to remind the boy that, unlike with the rest of the general populace, they can't in fact read each other's thoughts.

The breeze ruffles the sun-bleached tips of his hair - hair that has gotten far too long for his liking, but something (shut up) has stopped him from taking a knife to it so far - and he frowns briefly back over his shoulder to the islands. "Huh," he mutters. "S'pose we should start preppin' for some shitfuckery in the near future, then. Wonder if The Family are lettin' everyone get their hopes up and their guards down before they respond."

He hopes not, and yet - it's exactly what he'd do.

Scoffing at Vesper's quip, Jack shrugs. "Only a lesson if I manage to hit you," he says; and then they begin, all crackling magic and whispering shadow, the boy moving too quick to track with his eyes (and not at all with his mind, which is infuriating to say the least).

"Well," he says in the wake of the gouge in the sand and the stench of ozone, "I figured I got all the elements here to make a maelstrom. Why not try?" Lancing out with the braid of magic again, electrically charged air whips and ice sprays in an arch this time towards Vesper's feet, as if to catch his balance.

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

if you try and chase the sun you're never gonna catch it

Vesper reappears with a ripple of silver, crouched low atop a slanted rib like it’s the prow of a ship. His balance is effortless, the wind tugging at the hem of his coat, shadows still clinging like smoke to his calves. He tips his head, brows lifting with unhurried sarcasm. "Only that your leavin' has given the grapevine a real good shake thanks to Flora." Which was just to say that because the queen hadn't shut up about it, it had been in damn near everyone's minds that Vesper had come across for the past few weeks.

He vanishes just before the arching spray of ice and electricity cracks through the space he was occupying. The rib fractures beneath it with a crystalline snap, shards of bone and frost spiralling outward. Another shimmer of mist, and Vesper appears just shy of 15rft from the captain.

"And you’re wrong," he adds, vanishing one more time as the bloodroots lash toward him. His voice trails in from the left now, just out of view. "It’s still a lesson even when I dodge." And, if Vesper had his way, he'd learn from his successes far more than from his own failures. He had the minds of everyone else to teach him how not to fuck up.

And now it's turning out to be the worst of my bad habits

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

JACK

Scoffing out a laugh in response to Vesper's explanation - which is easily given, Jack is glad to note - the captain rolls his shoulders in a shrug. His expression is as neutral as his thoughts are stormy, and if the combination of magics at his disposal grows more intense, so be it. "Surprised the whole place ain't screamin' about what I can do at this point," he admits, stepping forward across suddenly icy ground as if to subconsciously track and follow Vesper's movements.

"Should've seen it comin' to be honest." When it comes to privacy, the captain and the Doubletake are a study in opposites, and he ought to have known that any misstep or outburst on his part would become public property by day's end.

Whipping around as if trying to anticipate where Vesper is going to appear - something that would be laughably easy were he able to rummage in his mind - Jack narrows his eyes as he catches the boy in his periphery. Lightning surges primarily this time in a line that blasts through bone and sand towards him, echoed by a howl of icy wind intending to further disturb the debris, to blind and distract.

"Well in that case," he drawls, "you're very welcome."

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

if you try and chase the sun you're never gonna catch it

"Ain't heard nothin' about that yet. Good number of folks are on your side about the whole thing, though." Vesper doubts if Jack will care just where his actions land in Torchline's estimations, and so it's said more as a warning than anything else, of the sorts of shit the captain is likely to hear about himself when he heads back into the city.

Reappearing mid-crouch on a shard of ribcage Jack hadn’t yet reduced to powder, the blackened edge of it singed by lightning, Vesper grins as steam curls beneath his boots. "Oh, I am," he replies, deadpan but with a glimmer of amusement beneath the drag of his voice. "Feelin' downright educated." He doesn’t linger. The wind shifts and the sand hisses with it, and Vesper vanishes again in a twist of silver-edged shadow just before the blast of lightning tears through his perch, blowing bone fragments past where his face had been.

This time he materializes behind Jack and slightly above him, perched on a sloped tangle of root that looks none too stable. One hand balances on his knee, the other dangling loosely, fingers trailing smoke. "I said stab, not evicerate." Misty-stepping twice in order to put himself 30 feet or so away now, Vesper ruffles a hand through his hair. "Kill me and you'll have to deal with Nova tryin' to plan my funeral and all that entails."

And now it's turning out to be the worst of my bad habits

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

JACK

"Well won't that make a pleasant change?" Jack drawls, raising his eyebrows in mild surprise. How bad do things have to be for people to be agreeing with him, he wonders? "Thanks for the heads up, either way. It'll be a headspin just landin' again, so the sooner I get on top of the latest info, the better." Because that's the real key to handling Torchline, as Vesper will well know at this point, given how long he's been on the islands and how their skillets align.

Scoffing and turning to continue the boy's education, he doesn't need that particular skillset to realise he's managed to nip at Vesper a bit, and if he does turn down the temper on his magic a bit as a result, Jack will never tell. "You also said you'd never get better at dodgin' by standin' still," he points out.

Nevertheless, uncoiling the air and lightning from the power at his fingertips, he at least gives Vesper what he's asked for this time. From the ground and the sky, lances of ice shove their way forth like a pair of jagged jaws trying to bite down on any part of the demigod they can reach, the captain striding forward to keep up the range.

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

if you try and chase the sun you're never gonna catch it

Vesper reappears with a shimmer of silver just as the twin lances of ice bite out from the ground and sky—and this time, he's a fraction too slow. One of the upward spikes clips him hard across the ribs, not enough to impale but enough to knock the breath from his lungs and send him twisting off course. He crashes onto a lower jut of bone, one arm braced beneath him as shards clatter around his boots and knees.

For a second, he stays down—more from surprise than injury—before a hiss of air cuts between his teeth and he pushes upright again, one hand pressed to his side where the ice sliced through the hem of his shirt and left a narrow line of blood.

"Fuck," he mutters, half to himself, half in begrudging approval. His shadows pulse in response, twitchy and erratic before settling back into place. Vesper lifts his gaze toward Jack, teeth flashing in a grin that’s equal parts exhilarated and pained. "Alright," he drawls, breath still catching a bit. "Lesson received. Y'need me to cry uncle?"

And now it's turning out to be the worst of my bad habits

Code 100% taken from the queeeeeeen herself, Sky <3

JACK

Jack will never say it, and it will never show on his face, but as Vesper's last attempt to dodge seems to go entirely awry, the boy might notice (if he's not too busy trying not to be buried by bones or slashed to ribbons) that both sets of icicles completely pause in their trajectory. Like an open, frozen maw, the captain holds them at bay to give him room to catch his breath and to stand. And once he's established that Vesper is only slightly stabbed, he lets the ice melt away completely into water that sinks greedily into the dust and the sand.

"It's enough to know you learned somethin'," he assures him, baring his teeth in a grin and shrugging his shoulders, before gesturing towards The Ark still hovering at his back - and yes, if Vesper looks, he'll be able to see no small number of the crew peeping over to surreptitiously (not) watch. "Want a ride back to Haulani?"

no more than I was or than I want to be
when you fall on me like night, I wanna kill the lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!