been a while since my head was this polluted

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

The sign on the Hanged Man’s door hangs crooked in the salt-heavy breeze, CLOSED scrawled across the board in uneven chalk that’s already smudging at the edges. Inside, the air is warm despite Deepfrost nipping at the heels of the season—humid, sticky, the kind that clings to skin no matter how thin the shirt. Vesper’s is linen, loose and short-sleeved, unbuttoned far enough to show the faint constellation scattered across his collarbone. The usual crowd’s din is absent, replaced by the slow drag of a ceiling fan stirring smoke and the hollow clink of glass on wood.

He’s behind the bar, elbows braced against it, a half-full tumbler of rum rolling between his fingers. The rings on his hands catch and scatter what little light slips through the shutters, the glass spinning over and over like a coin waiting to fall. He doesn’t drink so much as glare at it, jaw tight, shoulders slouched in a way that makes him look ready to spring rather than relax. The rum leaves wet circles on the bartop that he doesn’t bother wiping away.

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

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

there's so much time for me to speak up, but i keep quiet

Caly isn’t far — having had to run an errand for the Hanged Man when they opened later, such that when she returns she’s got her arms laden with a few fancier bottles of liquor that she shoulders into the Hanged Man and gets to work putting them in their rightful places — the space the become the main focus, the center point, the way to say yeah, we’ve got that. ‘Course we do, in as bougie of a way as possible.

But all those plans melt away with the look and way Vesper is holding himself, so she doesn’t get further than setting the bottles down, nudging her brother with her elbow and a raised brow. “What happened?” She asks instead of her normal barbs of who pissed in your cereal or why’re you so sour right now, because something about this particular interaction feels far more serious than it ought to be.

Which, unfortunately for Vesper, puts her on edge. Her mind a rippling golden field of wheat fluttering in varying ways of the wind currents, unsure which thought should be the flame that catches the whole thing on fire - but waiting in the middle for it to start, regardless.

Calypso

i'll complicate the mantra

Let's commit the perfect crime.

Nova isn't too far behind Caly, sweeping into the bar with her usual level of splendor. Glitter is smeared on her cheek and across the front of her yellow blouse from a recent project, a pleased hum on her lips at its ultimate result. She'd planned to show them the new and improved door sign, but the mood is practically stifling. 

Her sparkling sneakers slap to a halt on the wooden floor as she spots her siblings, acutely aware that neither have their trademark smirks on - and the frowns are doing nothing for their outfits. She moves towards the bar with less enthusiasm, setting aside the sign for later as she takes in more of their serious expressions. "Woah. What did I miss?" Looking between them, she props her arms on the bar top, squinting her eyes as if she might be able to read Vesper's mind for a change. "Did someone die? Do we need to make someone die?" There's a shimmer of guarded curiosity in her mind, poised to sharpen at a moment's notice, slightly annoyed that she doesn't already know what the problem is, but determined to fix whatever it is.

Nova

I'll steal your heart, and you steal mine.

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

Vesper’s eyes flick up, a lazy drag from Caly’s ripple of wheatfield unease to Nova’s glitter-bright impatience, catching both of them before the glass of rum hits the bar with a soft thud. He feathers his jaw, the motion slow and deliberate. For once, he doesn’t bother to hide how tightly his shoulders pull or how sharp his gaze cuts when it lands on them.

He glances between them again, letting the silence stretch—long enough for Caly’s uncertainty to whip like wind through grass, long enough for Nova’s sharp annoyance to glitter hot against his mind. He doesn’t shield himself from it; if anything, he lets it sting, keeps him sharp. Then he straightens, the line of his spine snapping taut, and sets both palms flat against the bar. "Jack left Torchline," he says, crisp as broken glass. A pause, a hard look traded between the two of them, constellation freckles flickering in the bar’s half-light. His mouth tightens, the rest almost spat through his teeth. "For good."

The words hang there like smoke, heavier than the rum, and Vesper doesn’t reach for the glass again.

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

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

there's so much time for me to speak up, but i keep quiet

Glancing over to see Nova’s arrival, she notes the sign but doesn’t comment on it — not while the aura of the bar is dreadful. Something that has Caly’s golden smile nowhere to be seen in the reflections of stained glass and crystal glasses. Her mind is still with the ripples of uncertainty, like a held breath just waiting to be released, but Vesper makes them wait. Her sister’s impatience is palpable but she doesn’t think more on it as she waits for the inevitable foot to fall.

And when it does? It’s everything she hadn’t expected. She hadn’t been thinking of Jack when it came to this sharp sensation in the air. So the surprise coats her mind with a rampage of wind, sending the wheat fields dancing and bending under the weight of the gusts that send everything running in different directions. “What? Why?” She says surprisingly soft for the torment of her mind — though it’s something Vesper’s likely used to. Caly wore her masks well, after all.

She feels tense, her hand flattening on the top of the bar, fingers dipping into the ring of water from condensation left behind on the bar that hadn’t been wiped up yet. But she’s patient as she waits to see what the reasoning is, before she decides how much she’s intending on exploding.

Calypso

i'll complicate the mantra

Let's commit the perfect crime.

For good. Nova doesn't like those words. She doesn't like the look on her brother's face and she doesn't like the way it makes her sister's mask fall into place. She especially doesn't like how it leaves no room for arguing, no possibility of changing the outcome, no chance for her to do anything but let it happen. 

It hits her mind like a falling rock on Oobleck, thudding with impact before slowly starting to sink in. Nova narrows her eyes against the dim lights, trying to piece together what this means. No one can force Jack to leave Torchline. He's the strongest magic-user she knows (besides herself of course), and no one could stand against his 'oh-so-serious' stubborn attitude. So why? And why didn't he tell them?

Her thoughts echo Caly's in their own tornado of glittering confusion, centering around a hidden streak of blue disappointment and the tiniest smudge of red hurt. It pinches at her features as her propped arms move to cover each other, keeping out the chill of dread. "And where did he go?" Would they even see him again?

Nova

I'll steal your heart, and you steal mine.

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

A muscle flickers in Vesper’s jaw as their thoughts run sharp and loud through him, too tangled with surprise and hurt to bother quieting down. Caly’s gusts battering through wheatfields, Nova’s glitter sinking under its own weight. He doesn’t look away from them when he answers, voice flat, low. "’Cause of her,"  he mutters, each word clipped just enough to bite. Flora. 

He lets the silence spool for a moment, long enough for Caly’s winds to whip higher, for Nova’s disappointment to twist deeper. Then his brow arches, gaze sliding to Caly. "An’ seems your puppy dog’s gone an’ set up house here in Torchline." He doesn’t elaborate, doubts that he needs to. The shape of it’s enough, and the rest is theirs to fill in. 

Turning to Nova, the sigh he gives carries a heaviness the rum couldn’t drown. "King’s End," he says simply, shoulders easing back into a lean against the bar where his ringed fingers toy idly with the rim of the glass again.

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

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

there's so much time for me to speak up, but i keep quiet

As always, three parts of similar mind, that the question that Caly asks is easily completed by her sister’s question – getting the why and the where out of the way quickly. Such that she stills as Vesper’s shields aren’t worn, as his low and flat voice betrays everything that tells Caly most of what she needs to know.

Flora.

The winds whip in her mind in sharp jagged pulls like a tornado touching down, catching fire from sun dried grass that the lightning strike of her name causes. And it doesn’t end there – not with the follow up of Kaisel. “WHAT?!” She’s glad she isn’t holding the expensive bottle of liquor when it hits her, the realization. The fact that he’s here. Permanently. And if Jack had left because of Flora, then did that mean…?

“That mother fucker.” She growls out, uncharacteristic for how her mask falls – only in the face of her family, those that wouldn’t judge her. Her rage tears at her, tightens her jaw, heat flaring her face in red embarrassment and anger. A snarl more feline than girl leaves her and with the brush of impulsivity, snags an empty crystal glass and throws it with all her strength through the stained glass window they’d put in when they’d taken ownership, uncaring whether or not it hits some poor bystander on the other side.

Calypso

i'll complicate the mantra

Let's commit the perfect crime.

She may not be updated on all the drama or the nitty gritty details, but Nova knows enough to read between the lines, her mouth dropping open in shock. There's only one woman that comes to mind, the only one who can have such a dramatic effect on things, and Nova had thought she'd liked her. But Flora has pushed Jack out of Torchline and apparently Kaisel has something to do with it... The glittering minefield of her mind explodes into sharpened ice, edges shimmering dangerously in crystal icicles that are impatiently looking for direction. She's more than happy to point them anywhere on Kaisel (particularly somewhere painful and bloody), but something still bothers her. 

And now glass is flying. 

Her own brain is still processing, annoyed and confused and growing more angry by the second. Caly's rage is palpable, and she can already feel her magic buzzing in response, fangs and claws pushing against her skin, ready to eviscerate whoever she needs in order to put a smile back on her siblings' faces, because no one does this to her family. 

Narrowing her eyes, she holds back her own impulsiveness only enough to satisfy the question eating at her. "But why did Jack have to leave?" And Vesper will hear all the ones she doesn't ask aloud, feel the disappointment and coiling magic. Why not kill Kaisel or make Flora leave? Why run? And why King's End? It's so far. Too far for her to pop in and annoy him with a million questions. And without a word...

Nova

I'll steal your heart, and you steal mine.

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

The flare of Caly’s fury hits him a breath before she moves, hot enough to make Vesper flinch despite himself. Around them, he doesn’t bother to hide it, never has. His gaze follows the glass as it sails, shattering the stained panel in a burst of colour and sound. On the other side, a startled hel erupts into the air in a puff of feathers, the flap of wings scattering down the alley. Vesper exhales through his nose, jaw tight, and doesn’t comment. The crash says enough, and he isn't inclined to disagree.

Nova’s storm is different, all sharp edges and restless ice, her thoughts tumbling too loud and too fast to ignore. He inhales, slow and deep, then lets it out in a long sigh, shoulders loosening as if the weight of their questions settles heavier on him than the rum in his glass. "Wasn’t Torchline anymore. Not for him," he mutters, lips twitching like the words taste bitter. He doesn’t mention the fire he’d glimpsed in their father’s mind; that inferno stays locked behind his teeth. "Couldn’t concentrate. Couldn’t walk down the street without it bein’ her shadow he saw instead’ve the sun." He shrugs, glancing around the bar with a flick of his hand at the bottles, the broken window, the water rings still staining the wood. "Nothin’ here that ain’t got her mark all over it. Not for him, anyway."

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

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

there's so much time for me to speak up, but i keep quiet

It’s only by her sheer force of will that prevents her from shifting her sunkissed human flesh for the fur of her tide jaguar. So she chooses an outlet in other ways – the crystal glass that sails through the air with a whisper of sound before it crashes into the stained glass. And she watches it go, glares at the faint call of the hel that she’s interrupted as if to say good. Like she might be able to pretend the poor avian is Kaisel and she could rip him apart with her teeth.

Her breaths feel too heavy, even with the calm of which Vesper speaks – though she knows she’s startled him. She’d seen the flinch even in her haze of anger and she hates that she of all people can rattle him, even however minimal it had been. So she takes that moment to breathe, to hear his answer, to stare around at the bar she’d tried so careful to keep pieces of Flora within that it burns her with just as much distaste and anger as she imagines Jack finds the reminders.

“Are we stayin’?” She asks, though she can’t help the snap in her voice. Her amber gaze blazes with her anger as she focuses between Nova and Vesper, as if to say yeah I can kind of fuckin’ relate to that. She doesn’t know if she can handle it. To see Flora and Kaisel out and about, happy, in love?

It takes everything in her to keep the snarl from escaping her, from snagging another crystal glass to throw against the wall and shatter if only so it might feel as sharp as she suddenly feels inside.

Calypso

i'll complicate the mantra

Let's commit the perfect crime.

There's the faint knowledge that she'll be fretting over the window later, but it seems like such a trivial thing when her unflappable brother is flinching and her always calm sister is raging and Jack is just gone. The world seems to have turned upside down and she's not really sure what to do with herself, the confusion cascading and swirling like a shattered illusion that she can't grasp, instead shifting it to protective anger and indignation. 

She can't understand Jack's reasoning, but she doesn't need to. He's made his decision and it's screwing everything up. But Caly's question - sharp and pained - has her reeling, frustrated and refusing to let Flora and her stupid romances ruin what they have, what they've built here in Torchline. "Why would we leave? They're the problem." Gritting her teeth that are looking particularly sharp, Nova looks between them, an ice storm forming in her eyes as much as the tips of her fingers. "We should stay and make their lives a living hell." This isn't just an insult, this is a declaration of war that she intends to make them regret.

Nova

I'll steal your heart, and you steal mine.

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

Vesper doesn’t move to snuff Caly’s fire; she’s owed that blaze, and maybe more. Instead, he reaches beneath the bar, finds a shot glass, and tips dark rum into it. With a soft shrug, he slides it across the wood toward her, the gesture quiet but deliberate. No words; just permission to burn.

Nova’s storm presses sharper, edges biting at his temples, but he doesn’t crowd it. He lets her speak first, lets her ice cut the room colder, and only when the shards settle does he straighten. The glass he’s been rolling in his hand tips back in a long swallow, emptied in one easy pull. He sets it down with a clean, final thud before looking between them.

"Whatever you two wanna do," he says, voice level, "I’ll back your play." His throat clears, a flicker of hesitation rare enough to catch. "Before he left, Jack handed me a list—contacts, debts owed, favours stacked. All the shit we’d need t’make the most of it her without him." The implication’s heavy in the air: they could carve their names into Torchline deeper than they'd have been able to on their own. Vesper exhales, guard low enough for the crack to show. "It was nice, y’know. Bein’ all in the same place." He shrugs it off, but it lingers, heavier than the rum.

His gaze shifts, flicking between them again. "Goin’ after a queen prob’ly ain’t advisable." His brow ticks upward, gesturing at the bar itself, as if to highlite how Flora had just let them have it. "But somethin’ tells me Flora won’t fight back if we do. Bad optics and whatnot." It'd be easy enough to spin it that way, anyhow.

As for Caly’s storm, he turns back to her, palms opening in quiet deference. "However you wanna handle your puppy, I’ll be behind you." To shield. To help destroy. To read the truths between all the bullshit he'd clearly spouted when last he'd been with his sister. Vesper's mouth quirks into a sharp line, not quite a smile. "Ball’s in your court."

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

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

there's so much time for me to speak up, but i keep quiet

The first thought as to why they’d leave is because Flora rules the region. The second one is that without Jack around, there’s no fallback. And while she oculd go and run to their mother about it, she’d like to be able to handle something like this on her own. And right now it suddenly feels impossible. She deflates a touch when the shot is slid her way, with her sister’s declaration of war. And for it, Caly appreciates the sentiment as much as she does the hurt that’s found itself burrowing in her chest.

“Thanks.” She murmurs to her brother, taking the shot and downing it without even an ounce of a wince from the burn. Her amber gaze, still aflame, focuses on him as he explains what Jack’s parting gift had been and she nods slowly, mulling it over. “It’d be different if she was just some other girl out an’ about and easy to ignore.” She starts off slowly, flicking her gaze to the stone of her sister’s own. “But she runs it. Everythin’ is gonna have her hand in it. Meetings, choices, maybe even the occasional times she’d come here.” Which is probably far less than what Jack at left for, but she reaches for a bottle of something green and stronger that she pours into her shot glass. “I just don’t wanna see ‘em together.” Her problem isn’t really with Flora – not the whole of it, at least. It's the combination. That wherever she was, Kaisel might lurk. And where Kaisel might be, Flora might be near.

So, she downs the shot of absinthe with a small wince, exhaling a hot sigh. “I’m gonna fuckin' lose my shit on him is what I’m gonna do.” She frowns, her mind too full of all the possible ideas between yelling, clawing, attempted murder, pulling the guilt trip of crying, to even pick one until she’s had time to think about it.

Calypso

i'll complicate the mantra