02-20-2021, 08:32 PM
Don't drink and drive, and you'll stay alive. Something in the sentence tripped the final wire, and Jude looked fully alarmed. He was standing fully upright, but there was a drunken sheen of sweat on his face and a light in his eyes. See, this was the problem with being drunk: it was harder to maintain the boundary between himself and t̷͎̀h̷̬̃̉e̶̟̥͊m̸̘͆͠. It was harder to maintain any of his psychic boundaries; he felt like a cracked vessel. He was trying to paddle a leaky canoe across a lake. Abandon ship.
Now completely convinced that lying to Near was the best of all bets, Jude resolved to do so with impunity. "Okay. You're right. That's probably a bad idea." He also looked at the rifle, his eyes lingering. No. He didn't know how to shoot a gun either. "Well," he announced, "I'm going to go for a walk. With my bag."
Plan: go to the room he'd been sleeping in, get bag, go for a walk. In the woods. Away from the house. Indefinitely. He probably had a few hours until they got here -- teleportation was not in the wheelhouse of the Family, thank god, and neither Jude nor Juliet had ever tried. What is something got misplaced, going between here and there? A finger? A toe? A head?
Plan: go back up the stairs, to room, to get bag. Oh, the stairs. Fuck the stairs. He returned to the foot of them, and stared upwards forlornly. These stairs had been fun once, when he was younger. Always something magical about stairs. The unknown, just above you, or just below you. Possibility. Wonder. The opportunity to fall and break your neck.
Now completely convinced that lying to Near was the best of all bets, Jude resolved to do so with impunity. "Okay. You're right. That's probably a bad idea." He also looked at the rifle, his eyes lingering. No. He didn't know how to shoot a gun either. "Well," he announced, "I'm going to go for a walk. With my bag."
Plan: go to the room he'd been sleeping in, get bag, go for a walk. In the woods. Away from the house. Indefinitely. He probably had a few hours until they got here -- teleportation was not in the wheelhouse of the Family, thank god, and neither Jude nor Juliet had ever tried. What is something got misplaced, going between here and there? A finger? A toe? A head?
Plan: go back up the stairs, to room, to get bag. Oh, the stairs. Fuck the stairs. He returned to the foot of them, and stared upwards forlornly. These stairs had been fun once, when he was younger. Always something magical about stairs. The unknown, just above you, or just below you. Possibility. Wonder. The opportunity to fall and break your neck.