a_gentle_boy: (Release)
Lucas ([personal profile] a_gentle_boy) wrote2010-10-18 12:40 am

Twentieth PSI

[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 presentThis 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.))

2

[identity profile] thelittlecanary.livejournal.com 2010-10-18 11:38 am (UTC)(link)
[Garnet approaches Lucas with caution, because she sees the way his tiny frame is trembling. A little voice is telling her to let him be, but he reminds her too much of a certain Black Mage, who filled her heart with sunny memories and then Stopped from one day to the next like an old pocket watch, to let him go unnoticed.

So she'll gently set a hand on a heaving shoulder and lean in, but not too close.]
Lucas?...
Edited 2010-10-18 11:39 (UTC)

[identity profile] a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com 2010-10-18 01:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[Garnet has caught him at a moment where he hasn't been able to keep the tears at bay. Why had he even come to school today? Stupid. There is a vague attempt at speaking from the head buried in the crossed arms.]

Sorry . . .

[identity profile] thelittlecanary.livejournal.com 2010-10-19 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Garnet lowers herself into a crouch beside Lucas at the sound of his voice, drawn by how anguished he sounds. The temptation to pull him into a hug is at an all-time high, but she won't just yet, he's much too distraught for something so sudden. The hand she set on his shoulder stays in place, her touch steadfast but gentle. She tries to drive the worry from her voice in order to sound warm and be some measure of comfort to him.]

You don't have to be sorry, Lucas. You've done nothing to apologize for.

[identity profile] a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com 2010-10-19 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Lucas flinches a little at the touch, but doesn't protest or pull away, allowing her hand to stay. If he talks now, he will start to blubber but she is wrong she is very wrong.]

No . . . I shouldn't . . . Can't . . . I promised . . . so . . . so much

[He settles for being completely unintelligible instead.]