07-07-2023, 04:49 PM
If Near has been digging for gold, all this time, to no avail, he finally hits on it, in his last, deflated question. Were you hoping Courtland would buy you a plane ticket?
At the mention of Near's father, Jude's expression shifts. Instead of looking human and confused and young, the meat of his face alive and malleable, it changes, solidifying into something solid and more handsome and aloof. Jude lowers his eyelids and his eyelashes seem to get a little longer, as he tilts his chin down and speaks to Near as if Near could not possibly understand the depths of his question.
"Courtland would have had a plan," he says, the choppy nervousness of his voice now smoothed to glass. "He had something in mind. I just don't know what. And apparently he didn't tell you." A little sadness flickers in Jude's eyes at this, but it's sadness for himself, not for Near. Jude really did like Courtland -- as much as one could be attached to a warm stranger from one's youth (which is a great deal, as such specters are glow within from idealism and uncorrupted potential.)
Jude has balanced the risk of potential solutions against their rewards, and risk is mitigated by trust. He trusted Courtland, enough that if Courtland had told him to go running into the fire, Jude could have been persuaded. He is what he is born to be -- a weapon, and weapons are not very good at thinking for themselves. Jude is the sword in the stone, and he does not like Near's attitude, and so he'd rather run and hide indefinitely than find himself wielded by so shaky a hand.
At the mention of Near's father, Jude's expression shifts. Instead of looking human and confused and young, the meat of his face alive and malleable, it changes, solidifying into something solid and more handsome and aloof. Jude lowers his eyelids and his eyelashes seem to get a little longer, as he tilts his chin down and speaks to Near as if Near could not possibly understand the depths of his question.
"Courtland would have had a plan," he says, the choppy nervousness of his voice now smoothed to glass. "He had something in mind. I just don't know what. And apparently he didn't tell you." A little sadness flickers in Jude's eyes at this, but it's sadness for himself, not for Near. Jude really did like Courtland -- as much as one could be attached to a warm stranger from one's youth (which is a great deal, as such specters are glow within from idealism and uncorrupted potential.)
Jude has balanced the risk of potential solutions against their rewards, and risk is mitigated by trust. He trusted Courtland, enough that if Courtland had told him to go running into the fire, Jude could have been persuaded. He is what he is born to be -- a weapon, and weapons are not very good at thinking for themselves. Jude is the sword in the stone, and he does not like Near's attitude, and so he'd rather run and hide indefinitely than find himself wielded by so shaky a hand.