There's a point where you have to turn into the slide, if you want any hope of straightening out, and Jude's been getting plenty of practice in the village. Eventually the weird shit that comes out of people's mouths has to be--funny, or utterly dismissed, and he tends to walk the line for politeness' sake.

Today, his mouth twitches at flying electrical multiplying wolves and shit, like it's a category with a lot of entries. It's the kind of outlandish thing Parker might make up, and then harass him into sketching.

But they'd be real, to Parker, in a way he really hopes those things never prove real to anyone else. "Doomed is kind of an extreme take. I just think we're stuck here until we aren't--until whatever put us here decides. Less doomed, more--there's nothing we can do about it for now. So why not build an island in your kitchen."