adolescence

[talim]

[ after the incident in kanbalar, alvin is back with them, acting like nothing ever happened as usual. elize is angry, leia is sympathetic, rowen is calm and observant, and milla... well, milla is milla. regardless of the recent surge of events, everyone is settling in after a long day. everyone except jude, anyway, who is standing outside on a balcony in xian diu and staring up at the sky, lost in thought.

he's never been more confused in his life. not even when he happened to meet maxwell herself, walking on water right in front of him. jude has been through a lot on this journey already, a journey he knows is still nowhere near over, but this might be the most confusing thing of all.

to be honest, milla is the person he wants to talk to most right now, and she has a habit of seeking him out when he's missing. so jude just... waits, attempting to push down the anxiety constricting in his chest and failing. ]

Comments

[talim]

... You've really changed, you know that? You've definitely come a long way since trying to drown me.

[ jude really is happy she's here. he wouldn't consider his feelings a Problem, exactly, just... well, they're not something he thinks he can explain to milla of all people. ]

[poignantalist]

What was I supposed to do? You wouldn't go home.

[ she's flattered. you can take credit for a lot of her emotional perspective, jude. ]

[talim]

Is anyone going to just turn tail when they meet a woman walking on water and blowing up laboratories?

And then you wanted me to stay in Nia Khera. With Ivar.

[ that one stung a bit, milla. ]

[poignantalist]

[ okay, she even feels bad for that. ]

I didn't realize how annoying Ivar is until I left Nia Khera. Believe it or not, he was considerably more tolerable while I lived in my shrine.

[talim]

Maybe he'll learn some self-restraint someday. He has his heart in the right place, I guess?

[poignantalist]

I certainly hope so.

[ at least jude seems to have calmed down. for now. ]

[talim]

[ he has. ]

... Thanks again, Milla. I'll think about everything you said.

[ he doesn't think he's ready to go to bed yet - he'd like to look at the stars some more - but he's glad that she came to talk to him. now to think about what to do with alvin later on. Sigh. with the exception of his father, jude has always been terrible at being angry. ]