I don't give a-

Broen was mad. Really mad. The kind of mad he got when it stirred up something in his own background, and Jude grimaced when he punched the beam, gesturing for him to keep walking.

"Lets just walk, alright? Walk and talk. I know you're upset. And I agree with you--there's no point in keeping it from her. She's going to find out eventually. But there's ways to do that, and just saying 'your brother tried to murder a nice lady' in the middle of the center isn't the way to do it. You are... you are not in a good place for this, emotionally."

"I know," Jude said, heading off to stay just beside Broen as they walked. "I know it doesn't help them. But she's young. Little kids don't get it. For all we know they did tell her, and she still doesn't get it. She's young and naive and she talks about her parents like they're still alive. She doesn't get it. And I know you're angry. And I know why you're angry. And honestly? I agree. Hiding the stuff about my mom didn't help me at all. It just gave me a whole complex about it. But yelling at me when I was five and telling me my mom didn't want me wouldn't have helped. You went too far the other way."

Jude let out a long sigh at that. It was... well, it was a mess.

"I'm aware," Jude said, his tone dark. "And I know. Especially me. We look too similar to not. But all we can do is establish that it was't like that. One bad apple doesn't ruin the bunch. I've got a reputation, and I can leverage it as much as possible to distance us all from him. But things aren't fucked. Things are fine. No one was killed. The bad guy got arrested. And..."

Jude let out an exhale.

"We're going to be fine. I know you're pissed. But we're going to be alright. Nothing is fucked. You still have everything you had before. Mostly."

There was a cringe there, right on the mostly, because things had changed ever so slightly.

"He did. And he's... he's a fucking dumbass for it," Jude said with another deep exhale. He glanced at his phone as several messages dinged in, tucking it into his pocket after a moment.

"All we can do is try and make sure she's okay. I'm going to drop my number and Gabe's off with their dorm parent, so they have it handy. So she has someone she can talk to. But right now she's probably upset. I'm going to talk to Gabe, and make sure things are okay there. And... I'm going to try and talk with Xavier. I left him a message. We'll see if he answers. I want to know what dumbass story he has to tell."

Even if he was doing his best to keep himself composed, the anger was obviously leaking through. In his language, in his body language, in the way his hand was balled into a fist.

Broen looked exhausted. He looked as exhausted as he sounded. Like he wanted to lie down and sleep for a million years or something like that.

And then he flickered out of existence.

It was only for a moment, a quarter second at the longest, but it was enough to slam Jude's brain into panic mode at maximum speed. He lunged, grabbing Broen's forearm, and it was only then that his brain caught up to his reaction.

He immediately released him, jerking back, face flushed with embarrassment.

"You - you vanished," Jude said with a cough. "Into your pocket dimension."

A long pause.

"Probably."