Replacing What Was Lost

Jude nodded along to the theory that Blade might like some normalcy to help get used to things. The issue with that was something he wasn't ever going to bring up to Erione--That Blade's history meant it was very likely that, in a stressful situation she'd fall back into her old ways.

Ways that involved people ending up dead.

"I mean," Jude said, chewing on his lip as he mulled over his answer. There were a lot of ways he could answer, and none of them felt really satisfactory. Like they were missing too many parts of the puzzle.

"I guess I wanted to help people. In my world, being a hero isn't vigilantism or anything, it's an accepted thing. An actual career. I wanted to help people, and as long as I kept a mask on, it was one of the ways I could do it without, uh, all the baggage. Like, imagine if I helped at a soup kitchen. Everyone would know I was working at a soup kitchen. It'd get back to my dad, and he'd squint and ask me why I was doing that. Everyone would wonder why Basilio Genovese is sending his son to do that. Someone said it was teenage rebellion once, and I guess it kind of is? Only part of it was... wanting to establish myself as someone separate from my dad. I tried not to think too much about the end goal or anything, but I guess in the end I wanted to establish myself as a good enough hero that when I finally got outed, people would be okay with me, even given who my dad was."

Jude was, all things considered, pretty nervous about his answer, and he tried to look casual as he watched for Erione's reaction out of the corner of his eye.

Jude nodded as Erione mentioned differentiating himself from Angelo. He'd thought about that. Really, he'd thought about that a lot.

"I kind of thought that was going to be a... big thing. Being Angelo. Because he's pretty prominent here? Only no, it's pretty normal. Alternate dimensions are almost par for the course here, so no one bats an eye when I say it, and since I go by Jude by the name thing isn't a thing."

Really, he'd been surprised by that. He'd expected a fight, a furious attempt to establish himself as himself and not just babygelo, but aside from a few comments, things were... mostly okay. Most of those comments were from Shay, for that matter. Everyone else? Just Jude. He'd insisted enough times, and people had dropped the name, so... Jude it was.

The compliment was enough to make Jude flush red, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. He wasn't used to those kinds of compliments, but did nod eventually.

"Well, I'll try anyway," Jude said. "A lot of my skillset is more... uh, me-based. It's not like making things for other or anything like that. So I'm kind of limited in what I can do."

Jude paused for a moment, glancing over to Erione and giving him a smile.

"Thanks. For all this."

Erione was... a good person. Good at peptalk, for one, in addition to all his other skills. He kind of reminded Jude of Rory... only way more chill. Maybe more Janelle?

"I had a good time to. It was nice... uh, talking about all this with someone. I don't normally want to... talk about it that much."

For obvious reasons that related to his world being literally eaten.

"I can move them up myself. Shouldn't be an issue, but I'll definitely..." Jude trailed off, realizing that no, he didn't need to get walked to the door. He could just teleport away through the glass. But Jude was going to see him off anyway, the gratitude for the glass all but pouring off him in waves as he sorted them out into little groups, thinking about how to pack them to give away.

"Thanks, Erione. It does mean a lot."

With his last thank yous, Jude saw him off, and then got ready to clean things up.