Twentieth PSI

[a_gentle_boy]

[action, multi-topic for everyone]
Lucas is a wreck.  By now, he has forsaken the hat and the mask, and his burn marks are very clearly visible to anyone who didn't guess before.  He doesn't particularly care.

1. He stumbles across town like a zombie, smashing into things wherever he goes, barely registering the pain.  He stops suddenly in random spots, staring at the floor or at a tree or at a shop window or at a drone.  This is where we had ice cream.  This is where I bought him the present.  This is the bench where he listened to my story . . . This is where . . . This is . . .

2. In school, he keeps his head down and buried and sits in a far corner.  His shoulders occasionally heave.

3. At home, he shuts himself in his room.  Family members or those who visit him will find drawing after drawing after drawing of a certain person strewn all across the floor, each one with slash marks through the face.  Is he already forgetting?  Is he losing the smile, the laugh, the voice?

[action, forward-dated, open to Taiwan, Saki, and Mindy]
A full day after his meeting with Taiwan, Lucas enters the house uninvited.  He doesn't care about not being selfish anymore.  He has remembered -- There is something very precious he needs to get back, the symbol and the memory that he absolutely needs.

He finds it in the basement.  True to his word, the Netherlands has framed the very first drawing that Lucas has ever made, of Miffy and Hello Kitty enjoying a picnic in a park.  Propped up beside it is the best piece of art that Lucas has ever produced: a drawing of the two of them, laughing and happy, so closely resembling each other in looks that they could've passed as a father and a son.

He is about to leave with his treasures when he catches a glimpse of something else out of the corner of his eye.  A shoebox.  For 'Lucas'.  His hands shake as he pops the lid; he stares at what's inside.

"Mr. Netherlands . . . . . . . I . . .  I . . . OK.  I'll keep going.  I'll keep fighting . . . "

((I have been informed that Lucas has been left notes of all the conversations the Netherlands has had with Jane Smith, the Westport notes, and Richard Grey's wallet.  Also, Nini, if you don't mind, I think I will forward-date that conversation they just had to after this.))

Comments

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

... Was? Did ya get in a fight or somethin'?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

No. He's just . . . gone.

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

Gone? Like... he went... home?

... It's Hozza, huh? I heard.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Ho . . . zza? Holland . . . ?

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Netherlands is too long to say.

... You were good friends with 'im, huh?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas can only manage to nod to that.]

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

... Are ya sure he's gone? 'cause... 'cause Oz got droned 'n stuff too but everyone told me he would be back. Hozza might be back.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . Everyone says . . . That when their things disappear, too . . .

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

... W-well... He'll be back. So stop actin' so sad. I mean, I painted his house for him for free and I won't allow him to just leave it.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Even if he comes back, it . . . it won't be him. And all that means is that he'll be stuck here again . . .

[The thought of a strange man who doesn't remember him in the place of the man he had grown to love is worse than anything else he can imagine.]

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

Then decide what you want. If ya want him to be gone or come back.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

I didn't want him to leave at all.

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

Well... Well, ya gotta accept it! I mean, if Oz left, I wouldn't be cryin' over it. [ Yes she would. ]

You got other friends, don't ya?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . . Not like him. He was . . . He was like my dad.

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

[ She can relate, so her expression is less harsh. ]

... Well... It's not like he was really your dad or anything...

'nd hey, he wouldn't want ya to be cryin', would he?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas turns away. His real dad had left him to raise himself for the last three years, spending every day wandering the mountains to look for his dead twin. He had felt guilty enough about having a 'replacement' without needing to be reminded of it.]

No. He wouldn't . . .

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

So... so stop it. When he comes back, he'll be real angry to know you're goin' around cryin' over him.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

. . .

[The effort is appreciated, Wy, but the nod that Lucas gives doesn't have much heart to it.]

Yeah. I'll . . . I'll try . . .

Thanks.

[wybrows.livejournal.com]

I wasn't doing it for you or anything...

And ya gotta cheer up and show me how to do that PSI stuff or whatever.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

O-Oh.

. . .

OK. Maybe . . . Maybe next week . . .