[SE] lickety-split

JACK

"Yeah, it fuckin' felt committed," Jack says with a rough bark of laughter, gingerly straightening up and rolling his neck, all the more aware of every ache and pain and blossoming bruise now that the adrenaline spike is starting to wear down thin. Their footfalls fade from the dull echo of leather on wood to more muted cobblestones, the captain's less abused hand tucking into one of his pockets as they settle into something that goes just beyond a stroll. They have a destination, after all, and he wants to reach it before things really start to hurt.

"Yeah?" A sly smile curls at his lips at the very same task Vesper has pinpointed as being pretty easy, despite the literal interpretation. "Don't do anythin' I wouldn't. If you want dark, though, best bet's goin' into Rae's Fingers after sundown. Some tunnels, not even the stars'll be there to guide you." Dangerous stuff, especially without a lantern, but if you know the way and the pull of the tide, it's doable.

Their poking fun at a boxing ring led by Vi's goodie-two-shoes demigod isn't not an offer to show Vesper the ropes, though Jack responds by gesturing behind them, smiling crookedly to the boy. "You mean I wasn't teachin' you already?" he drawls. "I can show you how to fight. You can learn how to run laps at the ring, though." Unlike his ex, you'll never find Jack up at dawn to leave footprints in the sand along the shoreline.

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

Vesper chuckles low in his throat, the sound unhurried, drawn through his teeth like smoke through a sieve. "Mm. Got the knuckle marks t’prove it." He brushes a hand along his jaw, the ache settling deeper now that the fight’s adrenaline has ebbed into afterglow. Beneath his rings, his fingers throb in time with his pulse, stiff with drying blood and bruised pride. Unlike Jack he hasn't yet learned to leave his wounds alone.

As their steps shift from wood to cobble, the harbour behind them traded for the hush of narrower alleys, Vesper doesn’t hurry. There’s a practiced patience in the way he walks, one he's picked up from his dear old dad as it happens. "I ain’t squeamish about the dark," he murmurs, though of course he knows better at this stage to think himself invincible when it comes to things in said dark.

Then Jack gestures back toward the bar, that crooked grin in full force, and Vesper can’t help the subtle rise of one brow. "You mean that brawl was a lesson?" His smile is smaller, but it sticks. "Guess that makes your jaw the chalkboard." And his, for that matter.

They reach the fountain where light is reflecting off the stones like scattered fireflies. The steady burble of water greets them like an old song, its silver surface rippling under the oppressive LongHeat air. Vesper steps forward without ceremony, dropping to a crouch at the basin’s edge. His bruised hands sink beneath the surface, the cold biting in sharp relief against swollen knuckles and ring-bitten skin.

He exhales through his teeth—not in pain, exactly, but something close to relief—and brings a handful of water to his face, dragging it down his jaw. The sting of peppermint still lingers on his breath, mingling now with the clarity of the magical water. "Fuck," he murmurs, under his breath and more to the water than to Jack. "That’s better."

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

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

JACK

"Good. Should be a quick jaunt through the Fingers for you then, shouldn't it?" Jack says with a smile that's not as smug as it might have been before he'd been socked in the face by the shadowmancer strolling beside him. Will Vesper perhaps run into his dear old dad down in the tunnels when he decides to go prowling in there in the dark? Maybe. Time will tell.

At present, granted, the only thing it's telling Jack is that he'd quite like to not feel as though he'd been dragged into a brawl very recently, and as the fountain comes into view, his shoulders relax ever so slightly even as a laugh rumbles up in his chest. "More like a trainin' dummy than a chalkboard. I ain't much for theoretical practice," he says. It's a lie - Jack lives in the theoretical as a telepath, turning things over in his mind as many times as it takes before he commits to an action he knows will succeed, and Vesper will know as much by experience.

Still, it's what boxers say, right?

Trailing Vesper across to the fountain and perching on the lip of it, he lets his abused hands dip into the softly rippling surface, immediately feeling skin knit back together and tender muscles grow supple and freely moving once again. Letting out a soft sigh and cupping the water to splash his face, leaving his long hair softly bejewelled by the droplets, he hums his agreement.

"Take some with you," he recommends, nodding to a small crate of empty jugs and containers left out for just that purpose. "You'll only realise you've missed somethin' when you're too far away to come back."

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

Vesper leans forward, elbows braced against the fountain’s lip as the cold sinks deeper into his bones. The bruises on his knuckles fade first, dark turning to gold, then pale again beneath the shimmer of clean skin. He doesn’t sigh—not outwardly—but there’s a visible slackening of tension across his shoulders, like something invisible’s uncoiling under the surface.

After a moment, he hitches up the hem of his shirt. The motion is economical, not showy, but it reveals a mottled bloom of colour across his ribs that speaks to deeper damage. The chill of the water makes him hiss softly through his teeth as he splashes it across the worst of it, the shock chasing pain with the promise of healing in its wake. He runs a hand back through his hair after, scattering droplets like stars through the air.

Jack’s voice draws his gaze, and he glances at the crate, then nods, already reaching for a pair of slim glass bottles. "Smart," he murmurs, his voice low and thoughtful, the vowel drawn out. He slips the bottles into the inner fold of his shirt with practiced ease, shadows twitching to hold them in place until he can properly stow them. "For Caly and Nova," he adds, by way of explanation. Then, straightening up, his eyes flick back toward the Court’s open sprawl. "Wouldn’t hurt if all the fountains on the island had this in ’em," he mutters, not that either he or Jack were in a position to make those kinds of recommendations to Torchline's politically inclined.

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

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

JACK

Like a shark drawn to a singular drop of blood in the water, the moment Vesper hitches up his shirt enough to show a yellowing bruise that doesn't appear as if it was very recently obtained, Jack's head cocks to the side. His expression remains quietly neutral, perhaps a little curious, but small, thin panes of ice have started to form on the surface of the fountain, and he raises his eyebrows towards the demigod. "Already takin' lessons from someone else?" he asks softly.

He doesn't ask what it's from, or if it's from a who rather than a what. Even without direct telepathy - even without Vesper necessarily wanting him to do anything about it - if it so happens that the injury has been caused by someone taking cheap shots, they'll find themselves unceremoniously afloat in the Arclight before long. Face down. Permanently.

"I've been known to have good ideas," he quips as he watches the bruising slowly begin to fade away, focusing on that rather than the clear, pure water that fills the bottles in Vesper's hand. "Speakin' of, that ain't a bad one either. Shame it'll never happen." Not before everywhere is protected from tHe FaMiLY, probably.

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

Vesper catches Jack’s glance just before the words land, and the faint, amused scoff that escapes him sends a ripple through the water between them. The surface smooths just as the faintest flicker of thought presses outward—intentional this time, just enough for Jack to catch it through the fog.

Friend doesn’t quite land right. Not when paired with the heat and wildness behind the tangle of memory that follows: the press of teeth, sunlight on bare skin, fingernails clawing against his back and bruises traded like favours. Thalassa, in all her thorn-crowned chaos pinned beneath him. Fuckbuddy wasn't even the right word for what Thal was, but it was probably closest. "I offered t’help her with a quest," Vesper says aloud, tone dry, the rest left to settle between them unspoken. "We took down a Lamplighter in the Feverlands. Or rather, it took me down first." He shrugs, noting the way his ribs no longer ached and sighed. "Tail caught me clean across the side. Spent the better part of a week feelin’ like someone’d tried to pickle my lungs."

He lets the water lap quietly again before glancing over, one brow lifted. "Shame it’ll never happen, huh?" His voice is easy, but something cools behind the question. "You know somethin’ I don’t?" Obviously the answer to that was yes, and the faint smile that pulls at the corner of the demigod's mouth hints as much. "But I mean specifically. About Torchline. About whether we’re lookin’ at a storm rollin’ in, or the kind that’s already broken but nobody’s figured it out yet." He twists one of his rings slowly, eyes on Jack now, steady and sharp. Vesper might be the demigod, but that didn't mean he knew anywhere near as much as Jack did.

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

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

JACK

His brow furrows at the memory offered, sordid as it might be if they had anything like a regular familial relationship. He doesn't recognise Thal (ha), and so Vesper's fuckbuddy remains just that in his mind, Jack letting out a slow sigh and coaxing the ice back into water, wiping his hands on pants now stained with blood and dirt. "A lamplighter?" He raises his eyebrows. "Dunno that I've ever had the pleasure. Most of the shit that's pulverised me has been from the Oerwoud."

Straightening up from the fountain and tucking his hands back into his pockets, Jack lets the cooler night air billow across his shoulders, providing some relief from the sticky Longheat evening. Only as an afterthought does he kick up his own air magic, manipulating a soft breeze around them and huffing out a sharp sigh and a shrug of his shoulders in response to Vesper's question.

"If I did, no one'd give it a lick of attention," he mutters, the suggestion being that he might have a very specific no one in mind. "Just... stay behind that barrier, when it goes up. You an' your sisters. I don't give a fuck what you were made for. I just know that if I were in The Family's shoes, I'd have my sights right on Torchline for it's leader makin' a fool of me."

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

Vesper listens in silence, the ripple of Jack’s magic skimming through the fountain and the air both. The breeze is welcome—cool fingers tracing the line of his jaw, brushing the sweat from the nape of his neck—but it’s the quiet weight behind Jack’s last words that stills him completely.

His constellation freckles dim, shadows coiling close at his heels again like they’re bracing too.

"Yeah," he murmurs, fingers tightening slightly around the neck of one bottle still in his hand. "Barrier’s comin’. Dahlia’s blood’ll make sure of that. But I don’t think they care about the wall. I think they care about what’s inside it and how to go about gettin' it out again."

With another sigh, the demigod tips the bottle back and forth between his fingers for a moment. "I get what you're sayin', and there's plenty within Haulani to keep me and the girls occupied." Flicking his gaze toward Jack for a moment, Vesper exhales stiffly. "Though if it comes to it, I doubt you'll wanna be the one to explain to mommy dearest why I ain't out there doin' what she intended me to do." No hero was Vesper, but no slouch was Safrin and likely sooner rather than later he'd be called upon to go and do the sort of shit he was made for.

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

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

JACK

"Either way, it means a lot of purple fuckin' eyes are gonna be on Torchline where there weren't any before. An' I ain't lookin' forward to findin' out what The Family do when you actually touch a nerve on em." Jack exhales a long, slow breath and peers out at the glittering sea, made inky black by the falling night.

He knows that Vesper occupies a different sort of space in the world to Nova and Calypso, and though part of him feels a sudden surge of defiance at his words - perhaps he would be the one to explain to Safrin why the children she's just spilled into Caido aren't ready to go toe to toe with the likes of Dahlia - he's a realist at the end of it all, and in the end he offers little more than a quiet nod. "Good thing you'll have a place to run laps, then, when the barrier goes up," he says with a scoff.

"An' in the meantime, so long as you ain't usin' my face as the chalkboard again, I'll teach you how to lie, cheat an' steal in a fight." Bonding and shit, right?

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

Vesper grunts, the sound low in his throat, and nods once as he straightens up from the fountain’s edge. His fingers drift to the bottle tucked into his shirt, checking its weight like it might anchor him to something steadier than what’s coming. "You goin’ to that pool party?" he mutters, half a scoff curling around the words as he recalls Vox's voice in his fucking head. He doesn’t bother disguising the skepticism that laces his tone. "Can’t imagine that goin’ well. Feels like throwin’ dynamite in a bathhouse and callin’ it entertainment."

A breeze kicks up from the sea, and Vesper tilts his head into it, letting the air cool the sweat still clinging at the nape of his neck.

"If I’m worried about anyone when the barrier goes up," he adds, quieter now, s[ay]"it’s Nova. Caly’s got sense, even if she likes to stir the pot—but Nova?" A pause, dry and fond. "She’s got this need to be fuckin’ everywhere at once. Like if she’s not in the middle of the chaos, it might forget she exists."

He flicks a glance sideways, the corner of his mouth curling into something wolfish. "Suppose if I’m gonna learn how to throw a fight without losin’ it, might as well be from the best." His voice carries that familiar low hum, drawl-warm but edged with appreciation.

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

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

JACK

Rolling his eyes hard even at the sound of a pool party, Jack shrugs his shoulders. "On the one hand it feels wise to keep an eye on shit if it's bein' offered up in public. On the other, you're right - I don't see it goin' well," he mutters, patting his pockets for his cigarettes and drawing them out, along with his matchbook. "Who knows, though - we might not even have a choice in it," he mumbles around a smoke. "Biggest pool in Caido is right there." Jack nods towards the ocean in the near distance.

Using his magic to hold the brisk sea breeze at bay to let him light his cigarette without worrying about the teardrop of flame snuffing out, Jack inhales deeply and flicks the match away. "Nova?" he repeats, raising his eyebrows and nodding a bit in consideration. "She's also likeable, if you're into bein' choked by rainbows, so maybe she's got that goin' for her." His expression remains serious, though, and he knows what he says next probably isn't going to land well. It doesn't make it any less true, though.

"Sometimes you gotta let 'em fail, kid," he says, exhaling a stream of smoke through his nose. "She ain't gonna realise the world's bigger'n more dangerous than her unless it shows her. Tellin' her ain't enough."

As for learning how to throw a fight and win, Jack can only give a smirk of acknowledgement at that, offering out his cigarette for the boy if he wants it.

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

Vesper nods slowly, eyes flicking toward the distant stretch of ocean where the horizon blurs in heat-haze and salt. "Ocean’s pretty big though," he says, voice level. "But considerin’ how close Starfall is to the coast—and how Stormbreak’s just floatin' up there—I’d wager this nonsense is gonna be hosted on our shores."

At the mention of Nova, he huffs a dry sound that might almost be a laugh. "Exactly," he mutters. "That’s the problem. She's charming in that sugar-sick way that makes people think she can’t get hurt." His mouth twitches as he accepts the offered cigarette, fingers brushing Jack’s with casual familiarity. He takes a slow drag, smoke curling from his lips as he exhales toward the sand.

"I ain’t sayin’ you’re wrong," he allows, voice shaded with thought. "But if I had to pick between tellin’ Safrin she’s off her mark or tryin’ to keep Nova behind a barrier when the whole wide world is on the other side?" He glances sidelong, one brow raised, smirk curling sharp. "I’d take on the goddess. Any day of the week."

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 doesn't disagree with Vesper - on the contrary, if he had to put money on it, he'd bet that Pierce's pOoL PaRTy will almost definitely spill into Torchline in some way, shape or form. But there's nothing they can do about that, however nice it might be to stick it to the purple man these days. One might argue that there's nothing they can do about Nova either, especially as the demigod remarks about choosing to face Safrin over the young hybrid, but the amusement creasing the corners of Jack's eyes tells otherwise.

"'Course you would," he says with a low chuckle. "That goddess is your dear ol' mother - she's gonna have a soft spot for you. Nova'll kick your ass all over Torchline even if she's your sister." The image in itself is enough to have a smirk curling across his lips, the captain sighing, shrugging his shoulders, and reaching out to snag the cigarette back from Vesper.

"I s'pose that just means you'll have to make the big wide world inside the barrier interestin' enough to hold her attention. Or, y'know. Chain her to the house."

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

Vesper huffs a quiet laugh, smoke curling from his lips as he watches Jack reclaim the cigarette. "Oh, no argument here," he says, raking a hand back through his hair until it’s a tousled halo of curls and sweat. "I’d take Safrin’s divine wrath over Nova’s glitter-fuelled chaos any day."

He exhales, casting his eyes toward the stars just starting to blink into view overhead. "Chains that could hold her?" He clicks his tongue. "Ain’t been forged yet. But maybe I can keep her distracted with sparkly shit and a sugar high." His smirk turns rueful as a moment of quiet slips between them, the surf murmuring low and steady in the distance, and the wind—Jack’s wind—still carrying the scent of salt and spent adrenaline.

Then Vesper shifts, letting the shadows pull in tighter around his boots. "Speakin’ of the chaos twins," he murmurs, glancing toward the path winding back toward Haulani. "I oughta head home before they start plasterin’ my face on milk cartons."

He doesn’t linger for a goodbye, not really his style (and not Jack's, either), but there’s a flicker of something like fondness in the glance he tosses over his shoulder. 

~FIN

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

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