Sum’s arms wrapped around him. Her tiny body put out a surprising amount of warmth. How could someone so small feel so big when she held you? Jude tucked his face into her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her little waist in return. “Yes, ma'am,” he replied, his voice muffled by the thin fabric of her t-shirt.
The reappearance of the joint was a delightful surprise. He watched Sum relight it, the half-burned joint balanced in her dainty fingers. The glowing embers left spots in his vision as she sucked in another puff of smoke. He had to focus on making slow, careful motions as he took the spliff from her, so as not to drop it. He breathed another hit, just enough to spread another wave of warm tingles, but not enough to make his head spin. As he held his breath, he croaked, “No worries, darling.” He released his breath in a slow stream of foggy air. The harsh tickle returned to his throat and he couldn’t hold back a little cough.
His thoughts buzzed busily around his head. Sum’s ideas bounced in and out of his mind while she continued to talk. They were good ideas, he thought. At least, a good place to start. Nobody else had bothered to question the motives of their hidden source of magic. Sum was the only person who had shown much interest in discussing it at all. Jude couldn’t express how much he appreciated hearing her babble about something he’d been stressing over for weeks.
His head tilted back as he looked up at the stars again. Was something up there watching them? What were they waiting for? He was tempted to tell the heavens that they might be waiting for a long time if they expected them to pass a test, but shouting at the sky didn’t feel right with Sum sitting so close. “You know what keeps popping into my head?” His gaze searched for the constellation of Taurus, the one Moonie had shown him, but his eyes couldn’t focus on the pinpoints of light up above. “What are these powers meant to be used for? If we were chosen, it had to be for some purpose. Is there some horrible thing we’re supposed to stop from happening? It sounds stupid, like we’re the power rangers or something, but I can’t think of anything that would be big enough to require giving people magic healing and weather control. What could we possibly need to powers for?”
“So, yeah, a test is sounding about right to me.” Jude tapped the ashes off the end of the spliff before he handed it back over to Sum. “In fantasy books, there are always rules to magic. You can’t just toss it around however you want. Whoever–no, whatever,” he corrected. “Whatever made all this happen, I bet they’ve got a set of rules on when and why and how. Maybe that’s where the astrology thing comes in. Maybe it’s the rules for who.” It wasn’t much to work with, but it was a start. Unfortunately, they already knew who got the magic powers. They needed to know the rules for why.
sum continued to lean on his shoulder as he smoked and she pondered what exactly he was saying. she was glad it wasn’t just her who asked why, that he did too. sometimes she thought it was just the fact she studied philosophy that made her question why rather than how all the time, rather than wondering how to control her powers all she wanted to know was why she had them, why those powers. she knew that to some people these questions seemed pointless and existential and she understood why, but she also thought that it made sense to know why. if the powers were there for a reason maybe getting rid of them or controlling them could do damage? they didn’t know.
there was so much that they didn’t know about this whole thing that it made her head hurt when she thought about it. there was just so much that they need to know. she sighed and nodded her head in agreement. “i know... and i know that not everybody agrees but i think there must be a reason or a purpose. you know, we’re not the x men but there must be something.” she said, before looking up at jude with a playful smile on her face. “though if we were the x men you could be the wolverine, i could be storm. we should do that for halloween.” she mused, briefly wandering oftopic on a random tangent before going back to it.
jude’s choice of wording, whatever rather than whoever, for some reason sent a chill through her. she’d never really liked the thought of omnipresent beings. she’d always preferred the notion of free will, or that if fate exists and their life stories are already written, that there isn’t someone writing the story. she didn’t want to think about the type of gods that existed if they did, if they had control over everything and still let all the worlds atrocities happen... she didn’t like that thought. however much she was a believer in many things, and she was open to religion...a conscious being ruling every part of their lives seemed like a malignant dictator with magical powers.
she shook off those thoughts though and smiled at him. “that makes a lot of sense... maybe we do just need to figure out the rules. maybe that’s why some people’s powers have been going wrong and some people’s are still pretty weak. like mine, i could go about my life pretty easily but imogens? maybe there are rules, you’re right. i just wish i knew the rules.” she laughed wryly and took the joint off him again to take another drag, inhaling the smoke and taking perhaps a harder hit than she meant to, though she was no expert. she spluttered it out in a half laugh and half chuckle as she handed it back to him, the burn in her lungs and the tingle in her body brightening her mood again already.
