It had been a couple of weeks at this point since Jack first met Jesse. In that time, they were able to find Wren and Simon off on a foreign world, but upon returning, they were now trapped in Jesse's universe with no way home. It wasn't all that bad so far, it turned out that Jesse and Jennifer's family were out of town for an extended period of time, allowing them to be able to crash at their house while they tried to figure out their way home. It was interesting watching these groups of people collide and try to figure each other out.
Wren and Simon warmed up to Jesse, Jennifer, and Fletcher pretty quickly as the days went on and it became obvious that they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. Wren kept a close eye on Jennifer. She noticed early on how keen Jennifer was to get to know them, and her instincts told her something was off. Jennifer asked a lot of questions, always digging just a bit deeper than seemed casual, as if she were testing for weak spots, searching for cracks. Wren soon made it her mission to always be looking after her, to try and be a good role model for her.
Fletcher, on the other hand, was weary around them at first, but also soon came to get along with them fairly well. This left Jesse, who seemed to keep himself blocked off from all three of them. Eventually he seemed to let his guard down slightly with Wren and Simon, interacting with them just fine, (although he and Wren seemed to clash somewhat often) but he still refused to give Jack the time of day.
Now here he was, standing in front of a mirror, examining the man who stared back at him. He was sickly pale, like a walking corpse with a set of eye bags underneath as a pop of color, desperately holding onto a staff as it was the only thing keeping him standing. And, of course, the scars—the many scars across him. The man wasn't well; Jack knew this. He didn't have a clue as to what it meant to be well, it had been a fleeting concept for all 24 years of his life. How he was supposed to live for centuries like this, he didn't have a clue.
He so desperately wanted Jesse to like him, or even merely for him to tolerate him. If Jack and Jesse were supposed to be the same person, he would eventually have to come around, right? He held tightly onto this hope of his, and tried to be on his best behavior. But no matter what he did, he seemed to always be stepping out of time with Jesse, aggravating him more rather than actually getting to know him. He often found himself talking to Fletcher, trying to get a better sense for Jesse, but Fletcher often told him to give it time and he would eventually come around. Jack found that Fletcher was quite the optimist, but that wasn't helping with what he was seeing. All he ever saw was Jesse not coming around in the slightest, avoiding him, actually. He thought maybe he could strike up some type of conversation with interesting fun facts he knew, but he quickly figured out that Jesse wasn't exactly reciprocating them when he caught him trying to climb out the window to get away.
Eventually Jack resorted to using magic to get to know Jesse better. He figured that maybe if he could get some type of info on him, he could strike up a conversation with him and that would eventually evolve into some type of friendship. He used his Dreamer skills a couple of times in the rare occurrences Jesse was asleep to try and see what he dreamt about. Unfortunately for him, Jesse woke easily and Jack would immediately be told off. Once or twice, Jack had been tempted to use emotional manipulation magic to force a connection, but he always stopped himself. That wasn't the kind of bond he wanted.
He felt stuck in this mission of his, and he was very quickly starting to feel himself give up. Maybe he should have just felt content with the fact that Jesse hated him, it was something he was used to anyways. He had spent most of his life at this point under scrutiny from everyone around him, having to justify his existence. Jack was nothing more than a husk trying to convince the world that he was a person, something he had been doing ever since he was able to grasp the concept of an orphan. He so desperately wanted to prove to people that he mattered, that he could be worth something if people would just give him the chance. He had spent the first years of his life watching those around him be adopted, but he would never be the one to get to have a family to go home to. Soon after, he spent many years desperately pleading with those around him to believe that he wasn't out of his mind, that the stardust truly did exist and that he wasn't something to keep trapped in a room. Eventually he was set free and had Wren and Simon as his first friends ever, only to go behind their backs and betray them in an attempt to prove to the world that he existed. He soon regained Wren's trust after they found themselves stranded on a different planet, but it took a while for Simon to trust him again. He had spent years trying to make it up to everyone, trying to prove he could change, that he wasn't the same person from 12 years ago. Even now, he knew that Simon would watch him wearily if the situation called for it, and the thing was that Jack couldn't even blame him. Why should anyone trust or believe in him? No one had for most of his life, so why stop now?
He was grateful for Wren and Simon and the grace they had shown him. Even Fletcher and Jennifer seemed to like him just fine, and he was joyed to know that he had some new people to call friends. But something about Jesse, Jack was desperate to get him to like him. Maybe it was because he hated himself, hated his whole existence, and now with Jesse, it was pointed right back at him. It wasn't surprising in the slightest, but it did hurt.
He turned away from the mirror, with a sense of determination in him. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with Jesse. It was anybody's guess as to what it was going to take for Jesse to have a full conversation with him, but he was determined to make him like him. Because if he didn't, it was just further proof that Jack himself would never be okay with his own existence.
