[SE] where nature unmakes the boundary

JACK

"Here they come to ruin our fuckin' day." Jack's tone is relatively breezy all things considered, the captain peering up through his sunglasses at a few voidbound hels in the near distance. They've just touched down in the water after a brief flight across the Arclight, Jack having taken it upon himself to get the hell out of the heat (both temperature-wise and for any bullshit that might still be churning out as a result of Pierce's pool party) for the afternoon.

It also means he can teach Vesper about the bare bones of skyship flight, should the boy be at all interested. Having lowered his mental shield just enough for him to glean what he's doing and why as he goes about the ship, at the very least Vesper might have more of an idea of how things work. And if he's been thoroughly uninterested, well, he can still enjoy not being on the ground for a bit.

Except now the hels on the approach look as if they intend to cause trouble, and Jack absolutely can't wait to return the favour. "Keep steady, I got it," he calls to the crew, heading to the railing to wait for the most audacious of the birds to get close enough.

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!

VESPER

Vesper doesn’t flinch at the sight of the hels—his posture remains unbothered, spine loose where he leans against the rail, the sea’s salt-stained breeze riffling through the collar of his open shirt. One hand toys absently with the silver rings on his fingers; the other shields his eyes as he squints into the sky. "Y’know," he drawls, "they really do have a knack for findin’ us whenever we’re just shy of relaxed. Like they’ve got a sixth sense for bein’ fuckin’ annoying."

He can feel Jack’s mind humming at the edge of his own; a quiet, calculating thrum beneath everything the captain does. He doesn’t dig, never has, but he lets it brush him. He’s been absorbing the flight lesson in his own way, committing the skeletal structure of it all to memory like constellations sketched in reverse.

Still, none of it stops his lip curling when the birds veer in. "Suppose this’s the part where I ask if you want a hand?" A flick of his fingers sends a shadow arcing toward the mast, just in case one of the hels gets bold and stupid.

Then, a glance sidelong at Jack—lazy but sharp beneath the tousled hair. "My shadows go farther now than they did before," he offers casually as a streak of black races forward, popping one of the voidbound hels in the side and sending it flailing toward the waves.

wake me when it's over like a bad dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"I'd say it was premeditated if I believed they had a single brain cell between 'em," Jack agrees, the words a near-bored drawl as he tracks the movements of the hels. "Bet if there's a single thought in their heads it's just bullshit," he adds, scoffing and leaning against the railing just as Vesper's shadows snake out of him, slithering maliciously through the air.

"You can help as you like," he says; the captain has no problem getting entertainment by popping void hels into nothing, and who is he to gatekeep Vesper from the same? The boy is way ahead of him, though, and Jack offers a crooked grin as he spots a shadow swat one of the ominous feather balls out of the sky.

Raising his eyebrows, impressed, he follows suit with a lick of lightning magic, love-tapping a hell to death and sending it whirling into the surf below. "Impressive. Gift from your mother?"

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!

VESPER

Vesper snorts under his breath, the sound thin and dry as a summer drought. His shadows coil tighter in the air like smoke made mean, one of them darting forward to clip another hel mid-flight and send it tumbling with a shriek into the shallows. "Yeah," he murmurs, chin tilting toward his shoulder like the truth ain’t much but still worth confirming. "Gift from dear ol’ mum."

But then, with the tide surging and the hels scattering under arc and shadow both, Vesper shifts gears. He doesn’t announce it, instead letting the edge fall off his voice as he leans back against the rail, one arm lazily draped while the other calls a lazy flick of magic through the air.

"Could do more with it, probably," he mutters. "Make it hurt more, or...turn it into somethin’ that covers my sisters. Shield ‘em, maybe." He rolls a silver ring along one finger, gaze tracking the last hel as it skims the surface. "Hard to say if the best defense’s a good offense, or if that’s just the shit people say when they’ve got nothin’ to lose."

Then, a glance toward Jack—cool as ever, but his shields drop just enough to let the sincerity bleed through. It’s not some roundabout way to show off. He wants to know. Wants his father’s take, even if he doesn’t put a name to that.

"What d’you reckon?"

wake me when it's over like a bad dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Come play!

In the wind you hear voices. It sounds like children playing some kind of game with laughter and mischief. Then one screams. There’s a call for ‘Mom!’ ‘Papa!’ and other adults as the laughter stops. Glancing towards the direction of the commotion, you’ll see fins cutting the water. A pack of echo sharks lurks, ready to leap up and grab any who fall for their trap.

---

You’ve encountered a pack of echo sharks. This counts as a common creature encounter for the purposes of levelling, but does not count as a Random Event for levelling or MP. There will be no further admin/re intervention. If you choose to follow this creature, you do so at your own risk, however, just having it in this thread is enough to satisfy your levelling requirements.

Echo Shark (common) - A dwarf species of shark known for hunting in packs, the Echo Shark can live in both freshwater and saltwater. They are able to mimic any sound they’ve heard and band together to increase their range of vocals. The sharks use the words and sounds they’ve learned to lure unsuspecting prey into the water, where the sharks will then leap up and drag them into the waves.

JACK

"She's a generous parent," Jack says with a sly smile, as if Safrin's generosity is only reserved for her children. (Which they both know isn't true, but it's a damned guarantee that Vesper has to do much less to gain her favour and attention than most others). Sending a few more warning sparks at the quickly departing void hels, Jack scoffs as a few others spiral down towards the churning waves as balls of singed, lifeless feathermeat, and he tilts his head as he spots a pack of echo sharks leaping up to chow down on the carcasses.

Blinking away from that delightful show, he follows suit and leans against the railing alongside Vesper, and though his gaze remains on the surf and the shoreline creeping steadily closer, the slivers of thought and feeling that the boy is privy to give away his attention. "I s'pose it depends on what you wanna make of yourself," he says slowly, brushing a thumb across the burnished metal of the rail.

"A best defence is a good defence in my opinion. Magic-wise, I've become very much the opposite." He might be a cautious businessman and patient and cunning in all the ways it matters, but in terms of his arcane power, he's a loaded gun. He doesn't know when it happened, but it has happened. "You got your sisters to worry 'bout though, so it might be good to keep your options broad."

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!

VESPER

Vesper’s lip curls faintly as the echo sharks breach, all muscle and mimicry and opportunistic hunger. He watches one snap up a smoking hel carcass midair, teeth flashing wet and vicious before it disappears beneath the surface with a satisfied thrumm. "Ugly fuckers," he murmurs, the words little more than breath as he flicks a glance toward the waves, fingers tightening against the Ark's railing.

He listens, though. To Jack. To the undercurrent of something steadier than sarcasm for once. And he doesn’t mock the answer—not even a smile at the phrase you got your sisters to worry 'bout. That truth’s sunk deep already. It’s part of what led him to ask in the first place. "Hobblin' 'em seems easier sometimes," he mutters eventually. The shadows that cling to his boots ripple faintly in agreement.

Then, a quieter pause—briefer than most silences he lets sit—and his voice tips dry again. "Nova wanted to stick around at the party, y’know. Me an’ Caly were already leanin’ toward fuckin’ off before it turned into a bloodbath." His tone stays casual, but the angle of his jaw says the memory sits heavier than he lets on. "She wanted to watch." Another echo in the back of his head—Nova giggling, ever curious, ever unafraid. "Also did drugs with that dragoon up in Stormbreak like it was nothin'." Which, for someone like Vesper, would have been nothin', but Nova...between pickin' fights with Melita and being dragged back from the desert by Hadama nearly catatonic, through the opening in Vesper's shields the captain will feel the way the young demigod is inclined just to bind her up rather than deal with the fear that comes from allowing her free will.

wake me when it's over like a bad dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

Jack doesn't comment on Vesper's opinion of the echo sharks. He quite likes them, truth be told, but then he's a fan of any cold-blooded predator that can slink through the dark depths of the ocean with ease. Most of the creatures of the sea have earned his respect, in fact, however reluctantly it might be, and he watches as they chum the waters and disappear again once the hels and their corpses have dispersed.

Glancing sidelong at the boy at his side, he scoffs out a dry laugh. "Hobble who? Your enemies or your sisters?" he wonders, though he's got a good idea who Vesper meant. Sighing and leaning further against the railing, he casts his eyes towards Torchline, the jumble of masts and sails of Kaiholo creeping ever closer.

"None of that surprises me much," he confesses as he speaks about Nova. "That one's a live wire. Take it from me, you ain't gonna keep her under the thumb." Flora is nowhere near the sort of chaotic that Nova is, but that brand of devil-may-care cheer, of chipper recklessness... it feels familiar in a way that already has tension building in the captain's jaw.

"Never mind you, in that case. You're better off makin' sure she can handle the fuck outta herself. You'll only drive yourself mad tryin' to keep up with her."

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!

VESPER

Vesper huffs a laugh, low and bone-dry, like wind over parched earth. "Thought ‘bout hobblin’ the girls, yeah," he drawls, eyes still tracking the last ripples where the echo sharks vanished beneath the waves. "Enemies don’t exactly come with name tags—though it’d be real convenient if they did." His shadows twitch like restless fingers near his boots, echoing his unease even as his tone stays level.

Jack will feel it before Vesper even realizes he’s doing it—that quiet pull in the back of the mind as the boy’s mental shields slip a little further. It’s not vulnerability exactly, but something adjacent: a moment where honesty feels more useful than pride. And maybe, in this rare pause between battle and banter, he lets the truth bleed through. "You're not wrong," he mutters, a muscle ticking in his jaw. "Nova...she doesn’t half-ass life. She jumps in sparkles-first and figures it out after. And tryin’ to rein her in..." He trails off, shakes his head once, hard. "Only way she’s gonna take danger serious is if she starts takin’ life serious. But that ain’t her. That glitter-coated, candy-flavoured recklessness? That’s her whole vibe."

His fingers toy with one of the rings on his hand, twisting it once, twice. "If she ever did start actin’ like the world could break her..." A pause. A long exhale. "...think it’d mean it already had." He flicks a look toward Jack—cool, composed again, but with a subtle undertow of worry still tugging behind his gaze.

wake me when it's over like a bad dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"They don't for most people," Jack says, his voice pitched purposefully lower, quieter. "But they do for us, more or less. Maybe you should make 'em a little book of people not to fuck with, at least for Torchline." He might already have one, in fact, though it's most likely all in his head.

Glancing instead at the shadows that curl towards Vesper's feet as he feels that quiet parting of a mental curtain, Jack's expression remains practiced, neutral, closed. Overhead, a few ordinary hels squawk and freewheel around The Ark's sails. Murphy calls out orders to prepare to dock.

He listens, turning to lean back against the railing, the fingers of one hand tapping against the varnished wood. "Well, then," he says slowly, "it's a good thing she's got you. An' it's a good thing you've got a goddess for a mother." Jack pauses, just for a beat, as if deciding whether to let the next words pass his lips.

When they do, they're accompanied by a slip of something like warm steel through his shields; a psychic hand offered out for shaking.

"And me. You've got me."

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!

VESPER

Vesper smirks, head tilting just enough to acknowledge the idea. "I'll write Nova's in glitter pen so that she'll read it." The dry humour’s familiar, but there’s something softer in the cadence than before—a thread of genuine consideration. It’s a simple suggestion, but one he hadn’t thought of, not with all his time wrapped in magic and shadows and playing the long game with gods. Jack’s lived it. Survived it. There’s utility in that kind of grit Vesper can’t fake, and it lands deeper than the captain likely realizes.

He’s turning to nod when it happens—that psychic shift, a slip through mental static. Jack reaches out, not physically but with that steel-threaded sense that brushes against Vesper’s mind like something offered without demand. The boy stills. Just a hair. His spine straightens, too subtle to call attention to but too deliberate to be missed. Especially not by Jack. He doesn’t make a thing of it. Won’t. But the silence that follows isn’t empty.

"Thanks," Vesper mutters, low and careful, like he’s afraid to say it any louder in case it unravels. But in his mind, the shields falter again—less erosion, more invitation—and what slips out isn’t words so much as weight: the ache of responsibility worn like second skin, the loneliness of knowing every enemy before they strike but still not being fast enough to stop them all. And then, beneath it, something quieter. Relief. Not loud, not showy, but unmistakably there.

For the first time in a long while, it doesn’t feel like he’s standing alone at the edge of the map, watching stars die on his own. Jack’s in the picture now, scowling maybe, but steady. And gods, does that count for something.

wake me when it's over like a bad dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

JACK

"Run 'em by me before you give 'em out an' I'll see if I can add any others," Jack suggests, fishing around in his pockets for his cigarettes and offering one out to Vesper. "I'll even add any additions to Nova's in glitter pen, just so she doesn't ignore it. I did teach her to throw a punch the other day, so who knows, maybe she'd consider the advice worth listenin' to." Who knows though, really.

Having lit his cigarette by the time Vesper's response warbles through the tentative telepathic bond they've opened between themselves, Jack is careful not to look across at the boy, merely offering the matchbook so he can light his smoke. "It sucks, when you start out," he agrees after a long few seconds. "Knowin' what you know without havin' the weight to throw behind it. Won't always be that way, though."

He gestures around at The Ark as if as evidence, drawing long and deep on his cigarette before straightening up again to glance towards Kaiholo to see it almost upon them. "C'mon. Best get off the main deck unless you want someone to give you work."

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!

VESPER

Vesper takes the cigarette without a word, the silver of his rings glinting as he reaches for it. He inhales slow, lets the smoke curl past his lips like shadows slipping back beneath the skin. Jack’s words linger in the space between them, quiet and sure, and though Vesper doesn’t answer right away, the subtle nod he gives carries the weight of understanding. Of agreement. Of something quietly grateful. "Yeah," he mutters finally, eyes on the horizon where Kaiholo creeps closer, the wind threading through his hair. "I’ll think on what you said about offense and defense before goin' to see Safrin."

He exhales smoke like a sigh, and then smirks, that familiar crooked edge returning as he steps away from the rail. "Off I fuck, then. Last thing I need’s a mop in my hand an’ Murphy yellin’ in my ear."

And with that, the demigod vanishes below deck in a swirl of cigarette smoke and trailing shadow, the quiet bond still flickering faint and warm in the back of Jack’s mind as The Ark sails on.

~FIN

wake me when it's over like a bad dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!