Prudii is a misfit. The indelibly charming kind.
He’s the well-dressed but only clean-shaven when he’s too far gone past the stubble stage. Fact is, he has an aesthetic to maintain, and it’s the kind of aesthetic that just would not be improved by a beard---no matter how well shaped it is.
(And, anyway, that’s A’den’s realm this season. Far be it from him to encroach his brother’s kingdom.)
He can make a mess and get away with it (but not in the way Mereel does, with easy words and an easier smile. No, Prudii gets away with it, because it’s always deserved---even when it’s not. A man like Prudii leaves no room for error, and a man like Prudii is incalculably correct, always, as a matter of fact, and no one would ever, should ever, think to question him---if he does his job right).
That doesn’t stop some from trying, but alas.
Prudii’s the kind of man who, if looked in the eye, will catch anyone under the weight of his intensity. Not just because he’s intense---though all Nulls are, as a rule, and that should go without saying---but because he sees people as they are, the person, specifically, in who they are.
Them, in that moment, with all the layers of built-up facade peeled away.
As if he can see beneath the surface, as if he knows things he shouldn’t, just from a look---just from his focus, from his attention.
(Although it serves to note that all the Nulls do this, though they can turn it “off / on” at will. It just seems like Prudii, and Jaing, don’t ever seem want to turn it off. But who can blame them?)
There’s no sense lying to someone so sharp---he’ll know, anyway, somehow, and won’t say a thing. Just hold it in memory, keep it in mind, pore over it indefinitely, and anyone can bet their shebs he’ll come back to it in the future.
He’d make a smart person uneasy, if only he wasn’t so charming.