— ˚ jude jeong has never felt pain . well, once . or twice . maybe when he scraped up his knees the first time he tried to ride a scooter, but the pain dissipated when someone from the infirmary put spiderman band-aids on him . or when judah fell from climbing a tree, but the janitor that always looked after him shared half of their sandwich, and the throbbing feeling dissolved . he sometimes feels an ache when he thinks of his parents, but he doesn't really remember them, and that guilt goes away too . the privilege of being protected is evident for jude ; when his world is falling apart, someone saves him .
he's holding dollop close, under the safety of a table that had yet to collapse with the chaos ensuing around him . he hears blood curdling screams and squeezes his eyes shut, pressing dollop closer to his chest . " hey, hey . it's going to be okay . " the little creature finds comfort in his warmth but fear shakes through its quills, and with his abilities, jude feels it by the tenfold . and he can feel it all around him, too . fear and hope playing a dicey game within the hearts of the demigods . he tries to do something, but his powers are unpredictable at best ( he doesn't practice honing them, he's never had to worry about it as a member of the standard role ) but he has to do something . so he tries, first by trying to manipulate the hopes of others in order to increase them . he can't tell if it's working ( if anything is ) because the screams are too loud and it's shattering the small bits of concentration he has in him . he's never felt more pathetic in his life . the demigod's palm sweat, but he holds dollop close . maybe he'll get out of this alive . maybe someone will save him this time, too . or maybe this time jude jeong needs to save himself .
he hears people falling, and he won't bring himself to question whether or not they were alive . he can't . he can't picture it being the face of a friend, being someone he thinks he could protect if only he could do something with his stupid powers . if only he knew how to save other people instead of scrambling to hope someone will do it for him . jude sighs, shakily . he's hiding under the table further from the center of the room, and he thinks he can survive this if he just stays put for a little longer . the heroes were trained for this . . right ? they could do it . jude knows it, believes it even . a loud thud falls on top of the table, causing the boy to jolt and release dollop from his hands . " dollop ! " jude screams, watching his pet scuttle away from under the table and into the world around them . one he's been trying to avoid . the boy practically rips the cloth off the table, desperate eyes looking for his dollop . and then he spots her, small but bravely trying to deter from the center of the ballroom . a smile can't help but form on his face, " dollop ! i'm coming ! " he asserts . but his smile is snatched away at his face, horror pooling on jude's features as he sees the wing creature swoop and crush dollop .
jude jeong has never felt pain, until now . he sees his entire world collapse and this time, no one can save him . the strife around them continues, with demigods both fleeing and fighting from the monster . jude stares in shock at the spot dollop once was, with a smear of fresh blood left in her place . a flood of memories come back to him, one he doesn't remember . it's those same kinds of screams, but it's from two people instead . all he remembers is those screams, ones that could trigger earthquakes as each octave spilled . jude thinks its his parents . he's never remembered them, only pictures in passing during their time at nemean lion . he's filled with emotions that he swore died off years ago - rage and grief . tears well up in his bambi eyes, spilling profusely as he calls out her name . scratch that, jude's never felt more pathetic in his life than now . his heart shakes and rattles, and a part of him wants to rip it out . this time jude is the one to let out a blood curdling scream, one filled with years and years and years of things he's never talked about once .
he realizes then he's lost too much in his brief years of existence . too much that he's never been able to fathom until now . in the same breath, he realizes he has still too much to lose . too much life and potential love and friendships that he cherishes all the same . dollop's life ending did not indicate jude's had to either . this one would be for dollop . so, with the last amount of courage he has, his abilities solidify the hope that there can be something done . something must be done . when he tugged the cloth earlier, a scatter of things fell around him . jude naturally finds the closest thing he can to a weapon - a plastic knife . he's not trained for this, nowhere near prepared for this . aside from a few basic things, jude jeong is not qualified to do something . but he has to . for dollop . his once wobbly knees find some grounding as he rises, tall and steady now, and quickly helps to usher fleeing demigods towards the exit he's closest to . he stands on guard, plastic knife pointed, and keeps a path clear for demigods to get out safely .
jude jeong likes to think it's what dollop would have wanted him to do . and his parents, too .
