The Taste of Coffee

He'd assumed that granting an ability was a natural regalia thing, but thinking about it... it wasn't actually a power they had, was it?

"I think part of it is the... secrecy, I guess? I mean, I hadn't heard of Regalia before, and most of the people I talked to hadn't either. So no one knows what Regalia can or can't do, just that people are supposedly making deals with them and getting access to powers and..."

Jude made a vague hand gesture. "Whatever grand prize is at the end."

So they'd been living among them for a while. He knew, generally speaking, why they were there. He knew who was there. He had a lot of details, but he also had a lot of questions remaining.

"I'm Jude, by the way," he said, offering his hand somewhat awkwardly considering the counter was between them. "If you know them, I'm partnered up with Summer and Annie. And, uh, before that, Wind's Respite and Mist."

Did it make him look flaky, to have changed Regalia's so much?

"I figured if I was going to be around someone for so long, I wanted to get along with them."

"I don't know how long you've been on the island, or if you'd know her, but Summer was originally paired up with Malara Tor. Malara is... uh, nice, but she's also very intense, and I think Summer was going to faint if she was around her too much longer. My guardian's partner was kind of dying of boredom, and was super excited to work with a real fashion designer, so it was a pretty nice setup to just... have everyone move around. The fact that the powers she offered were useful was a nice plus."

There was no denying that, for sure.

"I don't think I exactly blame people for going for certain powers--I kind of did with Annie, even if we do get along--but I do worry some people are totally ignoring what their partners actually want."

"I guess because they don't ask? Like, what they're doing. Annie's unemployed and just visiting. Summer's considering sticking around and joining some classes, but she has family at home and doesn't really want to stick around long term. So... kind of vacation."

Jude shrugged, and then stood by, waiting for the coffee to finish and her to return.

"The tournaments alright so far. Honestly it's a bit hard to find challenges at times. If I wasn't going to be busy with elections, I'd set up a message board or something for challenges, so people could find challenges a bit easier."

So they hadn't consulted a schedule or something before planning the tournament. That kind of... maybe hinted at something.

Or maybe Jude was reading too much into things.

"Did the tournament not have to happen now? Everyone's been pretty cryptic about why it's even happening. Is it like... it's obviously not yearly, but every hundred years or something?"