Jude
Somebody ought to corrupt me on the dance floor
And take me home
Noe’s letter burns in his backpack as he summits the hill. He’d had to stop carrying it in his pocket because it had seemed to burn all the worse the closer he held it. You’re being stupid. “I know,” he agrees to empty air, sliding the bag off his shoulders, eyes riveted to the shrine. Maybe she’ll think this is stupid too. Maybe it is. Jude doesn’t trust anyone’s judgment but Safrin’s anymore - she’ll be the one to tell him. And take me home
The grass is autumn-dry and uncomfortable under his shins as he kneels and begins placing his offering - an iridescent blown glass sphere with flecks of silver and blue suspended within. The illusion of movement artfully frozen in time.
“I had so little time to try and keep my promise in Stormbreak.” His hands fall away from the gift to clench at the dead grass near his knees. The shreds stick to his pants and crunch uncomfortably against the webbing of his fingers. “And for so much of it I was distracted.” Jude’s face twists so tight his eyes close, the faces of Noe, Koa, and Sohalia twisting in amalgamation even in that darkness. His eyes open to stare at the shrine, its shadows deepening with every inch the sun slides past the horizon. “I can’t be the only one who’s failed you like this. Right?” Please. She doesn’t deserve the failures of more than just him, but Jude can’t bear to be unique in his shortcomings. Human hearts stray so often - but why do they have to stray away from her? His hand touches his father’s pendant at his chest and curses his family line once more.
“Can you stop it? Can you rip this out of me?” Jude falls forward, hands reaching past his knees and his offering to grasp the edge of the altar. “It hurts. You made me yours, you gave me my name, and I still can’t stop hoping to be someone else’s when they don’t want me anyway.” Koa’s venom stings in his ears and makes his fingers curl, bloodless and white, against the shrine’s foundations. It hurts just as much to fail her as to be unwanted, and hurts further to feel the shame of comparing the two in any way. “Can you make me only see you? Only love you?” No matter what it takes or how it will work. A touch of pain when his heart starts to stray. A vessel to pour his love for anyone else into. Anything to assure his devotion to her - the only one he can count on to always return it in kind.
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Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Basic
Star Rush | A pendant of morganite with flecks of starlight. Adds +3 luck
Jude is requesting a way to either remove existing romantic affection into a vessel of sorts to stand in for a Ludo mind wipe, or willingly curse himself to feel pain/be course-corrected if he starts to feel it for anyone but Safrin or Safrin-approved people.
Or have it be a two quest plan with whichever Safrin decides to happen first to be decreed here! (And dragon buddy please!)
If he doesn’t roll successfully please deduct MP for a quest!
Show me all my desires and dark sides
And pretend by night's end you won't leave me alone
And pretend by night's end you won't leave me alone
