His project with Parker isn't something Jude often talked about, even when pieces of it had hung on the walls of both their bedrooms growing up, and eventually taken over his dorm in Pittsburgh. Most people back home didn't want to know, and school was--well, bringing up work usually just prompted comparisons to someone else's, and an excuse to bust out a portfolio.

It hadn't been as tedious as it maybe should have: Jude's favorite thing about school had been seeing other people's work. Teachers, upperclassman galleries, a classmate's sketchbook--there hadn't been access to anything like it at home. He'd been alone, even with Parker to paint scenes and make requests. It wasn't the same as seeing what Parker saw. It wasn't the same as getting that view into what a person could project onto the world with their hands.

He'd also gotten a lot fewer sideways glances at school, when the subject of his work came to light. "It was about the end of the world, I guess. Like, demons living over our shoulders, what they'd look like. Not like drawing trees."