InsaneJournal

Jake suspected Jude always suggested that they meet up and run because running meant he talked a lot less. She was not shy about her opinion that he talked a lot.

And Jake did talk a lot, he knew this. Especially to fill the silences when she wouldn't talk. It was a thing.

But today, her plan of practically sprinting up a hill to keep him winded had backfired when he stopped running to catch his breath as they reached the top. He needed to be out doing this more than once or twice a week. He was losing his stamina and that was not the sort of thing he wanted to do in Dunwich.

Looking out over the town, he commented, "Fog's pretty," punctuating the sentiment with a couple gasps he couldn't hold back. Yeah, this was embarrassing. Though they had sprinted up that hill. Jude was diabolical in her own way, much like Wednesday. Apparently that was a theme with the Mistakes he guided.

Jude couldn’t afford to get out of shape. She might not be back in her world yet, but she would be one day, and she would not be able to get one over on Cardan if she was out of shape. Physically and mentally. So she ran, every day. Up hills, down them. Usually with the sword strapped to her back but sometimes without. And even then she had daggers on her.

She didn’t trust Dunwich. There was always a monster lurking somewhere.

She smirked at his panting before shaking her head as he still managed to speak. “Pretty usually equals deadly.”

Jake grinned at that, thinking of Faith. His girlfriend was gorgeous and absolutely deadly. Perfect example. He didn't voice that though. He wouldn't have to Jude, even if he wasn't still catching his breath.

Instead he waited another half a minute and then asked, "So how've you been doing?"

Jude glanced over at him as she fixed her ponytail. “I didn’t go to the party so I’ve been fine.” She understood why people had, but she’d been more than happy to stay in and not bother with dressing up and dancing.

It would have been nice to kill some things but considering how hurt people had gotten? Probably better she hadn’t bothered attending. “We still have more run.”

"More going on here than just the party," Jake pointed out, looking ahead to the path they were running on. Right. He could do this. "One more minute. So yeah, how are things going?"

Jude shrugged. “Same as they’ve always been.” So there was more fog. People were antsy about it but it either brought them all somewhere else or it didn’t. It either brought monsters or it wouldn’t. Not much she could do about either. “I met your friend Diana.”

"Oh yeah? Di's great, isn't she?" Jake asked. Why was he running out in the cold like this. Much harder to catch your breath in the cold.

He was curious about Diana and Jude meeting and if that entailed anything but he didn't want to push too hard. So he left that prompt open-ended.

Jude was giving him one more minute to catch his breath before she started running again. He’d get better with practice. “She’s fine, yeah. Likes to help people.”

At least that did seem genuine. So many people liked helping others here. It was odd.

"Yeah, she does. Took care of my eye after the damn church window messed it up. Speaking of the church…"

Jake wasn't sure how to tell Jude he was looking to get involved there. It was an incredibly stupid idea. But he was tired of not doing anything.

"Gonna try and get Father Andrew to invite me. So I can go."

Ugh. “Why?” Jude stared at him.

Looked like Jake wouldn’t go the way of Roy, pulled back through the fog and deposited somewhere. No, he was going to go like Rose. By being killed. Only not blindly walking into death but running headfirst. Double ugh.

"Because I'm tired of waiting day to day to see what this place has for us next. One month it's having to listen to songs on repeat. The next it's alternate endings of memories in some tunnel ride. One day my sister shows up, years older, the next she's gone. Or there's photos of me here as a teenager. None of this makes any damn sense and the one place I know to look is at the church."

The fact that he was able to string that many words together showed he was ready to run again, and in fact he took off, knowing running was one way to work out his frustration.

Jude didn’t move right away. She knew Jake came from somewhere with giant robots or something so he wasn’t like that Alexis person who was used to ‘normal’ but he obviously wasn’t used to the world being weird day to day and none of it making sense.

Jude was.

Nothing in Faerie made sense. Until it did. And even then it all made less sense the next day or the day after that. It was just how the world worked.

She jogged to catch up with him. “So you have no idea what you’re actually doing. Got it.”

"Oh yeah," Jake said, turning to Jude and grinning. "Not the slightest."

He kept running before he decided that wasn't enough of an answer for someone he was supposedly guiding. "I'm not really doing anything. Just going to go to the church and see what I can learn from that. And I'm going to try and get invited so it's not all that suspicious."

“And if you have to do something deplorable in order to get invited?” Jude asked. She couldn’t see any of them being welcomed in without a reason, one that would probably benefit the one in charge.

"They put one of us in charge… As their preacher… To start," Jake replied, realizing Jude didn't know that history. "So I'm hoping it won't be something deplorable. That was old Loki, by the way. New Loki is somehow running Pickman when old Loki let me use the church for support group and told me about one of member's cookies. Which admittedly were pretty good."

He thought for a moment. "Don't think it would be beneficial for them to require a deplorable act to go into an open service. But getting deeper involved? I can see that."

He refrained from mentioning the woman who'd been a member of the church who'd been found dead in weird circumstances. Maybe he should have paid more attention when that happened.

"Anyway yeah, we met there maybe once before MIST was close enough ready to not meet there again."

“Was it better back then? When that Loki was in charge?” Things seemed to change quickly here. Was that for Dunwich’s benefit? For whatever reason it had all them there in the first place? Or just the nature of life?

“Just make sure you keep your head on straight.” Infiltrating organizations was the easier part. She knew first hand. She’done so with the royal court in Elfhame. It was managing to keep yourself whole that was tricky. To actually get out of it unscathed when all was said and done.

"Don't worry. Natasha knows what I'm up to. If I get weird she'll probably lock me in the MIST basement or something until they can sort me out." Jake said. "I was just going to go to the church. She's the one who told me to get an invite first. Like I'm a vampire or something."

Oh.

It should be fine then if Natasha knew. Jude didn’t doubt she’d hold true to locking Jake up if needed. “I feel she knows what she’s talking about.”

"Yeah. She does," Jake agreed. In most things at least. "Don't worry, Jude. I'll be fine." Probably. "Else I expect a 'told you so.'"

“I have a feeling you’ll be getting plenty of those by the end of this.” Jude smirked at him before upping her speed. “Now hurry up. You’re slowing my time.”