07-31-2026, 08:35 PM
No one is more determined to have a bad time than Near, so Jude does not understand the point of this remark. He would also be willing to explain that luck can, in fact, be manipulated, but that is in terms of physics, the way Jude can connect two points and reverse entropy. As it stands, he cannot manipulate time itself, thereby generating outcomes through repeated cycles of events. Instead, if Near flipped a coin, Jude could weight one side of it. Or, he could change the order of cards in a deck, by changing the cards themselves. He has never attempted to do such sleights of hand, which, while they might lead to financial gain, would be annoying to do, and anyways he was never in the business of monitoring his own finances. One more thing he has learned to do with difficulty. He sticks with his donation-based income.
"Are you asking me where I'm staying?" Where are you going? brings with it a feeling of abstraction. Going? Like, where is this all going?
If Jude was to name a preference, he would put, at the top of the list, when people are more polite to him, and Near's persistent lack of cordiality has always rubbed him wrong. He prefers pad see ew to pad thai; limes to lemons; a sandal to a flip flop. But what do those really matter? He would prefer to better understand the shell game of Near's mind, but a preference only matters when it is honored. Otherwise it's just a mental footnote. I wish, coulda, shoulda, woulda.
"Are you asking me where I'm staying?" Where are you going? brings with it a feeling of abstraction. Going? Like, where is this all going?
If Jude was to name a preference, he would put, at the top of the list, when people are more polite to him, and Near's persistent lack of cordiality has always rubbed him wrong. He prefers pad see ew to pad thai; limes to lemons; a sandal to a flip flop. But what do those really matter? He would prefer to better understand the shell game of Near's mind, but a preference only matters when it is honored. Otherwise it's just a mental footnote. I wish, coulda, shoulda, woulda.