Twenty-Ninth PSI

[a_gentle_boy]

[action]
[The days of January have passed relatively uneventfully for Lucas.  He's had a lot to think about, and a lot to consider.  For now, though, each time passes much like the rest, and he will take happiness in whatever peace he can get.  His routine is fairly straightforward.

1: Every morning, early morning, Lucas gets on his tea table and delivers his paper. He's still getting used to the hang of it, though. Maybe he'll accidentally smash it into your door, at which point, he'll hurriedly get off to check to see if he damaged anything. Most of the time, he hasn't.
2: After school, he practices piano alone in the music room. By this point, he can be eavesdropped upon without anyone wanting to forbid him from ever touching an instrument again. The songs he plays are strangely melancholy.
3: In his free time, he sits in the park or in his house and practices his sketching.  Most of the time, he's drawing his friends, so perhaps you'll run across him drawing you.]

[voice]
[A phone call is broadcast to everyone later that night.]

Hello?  A-Ah.  This is Lucas.

I've been thinking a lot lately, and there's something that's been on my mind.  I guess I want to ask . . . How long has this town been here?  How long have people come in and out?  Does anyone really know?  But what's more important is . . . does anyone really remember everyone who's been here? 

When people get droned, we think they've gone home, right?  It's the hope we have, and a lot of the times it's true, but can we really be sure that it's everyone? Sergei -- the Russian man.  He, um.  Didn't he say that they were in a lot of pain?  That some people who were droned . . . that they were still inside.  If that's so, then . . . then we can't just forget about them, right?  Even if one person is still here as a drone, we can't forget about them.  And either way, it's terrible to forget the people you've become friends with at all.  To forget about the people who've come to Mayfield and who've gone.

............. I know I've already started to.

Does anyone think we should maybe start keeping track?  Just . . . something so that the people who come here won't ever be forgotten.  Maybe even signatures.  So if you do start to forget, then you can look back and see everyone's name and remember.  Small things like . . . Miss Margot, and how she was always caring for her sister.  Fuuko and how much she loved starfish.  Mr. Zero, and how fun his gym classes were.

It might be a bad idea.  Or too much work.  But . . . Well.  I guess if you don't want to talk about that, maybe we can just share stories of people who've been here and how important they were to us.  I'd love to hear that kind of thing.

[Please specify 1, 2, 3, or voice.  Although the actions are really just default Lucas interactions if your character has no interest in this topic.]

Comments

Phone

[iinchoucat.livejournal.com]

...I went home once. I don't know how long I was gone, but I came back around Thanksgiving time.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

That's good. Well. It's not good that you came back, but . . . that you weren't stuck here, at least.

There's at least one person who's stuck, anyway . . .

Voice

[yamaxanadu]

That is a lovely sentiment, and I'm sure some kind of record would be appreciated.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

The people I met when I first came here -- A lot of them are gone now. I guess even if they've gone home, it's important to me to still remember.

Voice; Slow, cause I'm at work

[godisachild.livejournal.com]

[He really, really doesn't want to talk to you, Lucas. Especially since he remembers some of your conversation with little him. So that'll explain why his voice is actually cooler then usual. But this is the first he's heard of them still being in there when they're perma-droned. Not like he cares about the people who've been droned.

Alright. Maybe he does care about some of them. Just a little.]

Really?

He's sure they don't just get sent back home? Or are dead?

No problem

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

I can't say. But we know it's happened to at least one person, so . . . It can happen to us, too, can't it?

[Lucas isn't particularly keen on talking to you, either. His tone is cautiously civil.]

3

[snackaholictank.livejournal.com]

[Hey look it's Lucas and he's doing something. Time to investigate!]

What's that?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[What how did she pop up just now exactly what. The sketchbook flies into the air for a second or two before Lucas snatches it and discreetly flips to a different page.]

It's, um. A house, see?

[It is indeed a house.]

voice jfc I am a failure

[numanstan.livejournal.com]

The longest time I've heard was about two years... Almost a year for me, personally... Lots of people came and went in that time.

[And he feels like absolute shit for only being able to remember about three or four.]

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Next month, it'll be a year for me, too. I came just before the thing with the candy hearts last Valentine's Day.

I bet a lot of people have already been forgotten. Maybe some of the drones we see around town used to be them.

phone

[perfektsymmetry.livejournal.com]

That's why I started taking photos of everyone I can. I want to have a record of all the people here that I can. Not just for myself, for everyone. This way, the people who know each other from their homes here... if one of them is sent back, I'll still have a photo of them being themselves. I-If that makes any sense.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea. To be able to get people's images like that . . . That's a lot better than signatures.

How many do you have, do you think?

[crazyclownwoman.livejournal.com]

.....That sounds like a real sweet idea kid.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

T-Thanks. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's thought about it. Everyone has people they want to keep in their hearts.

2

[someday-a-queen.livejournal.com]

[Elizabeth walks into the room but stops to listen to the music.]

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas, after a lot of trouble with the left hand, has resorted to plinking outa melody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh6ImjbzpVc) of a song he's come to know well with his right.]

[phone]

[brotherseyes.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about this a lot myself, since I got here. I wish I had something more to tell you.

I don't think your signatures are a bad idea at all, though. Or too much work. I think it's a great idea, in fact. We should always try to remember the people we care about.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it since it wasn't very familiar to me, but someone's had a better idea about taking pictures. If enough people care, maybe we could work on this together and make a scrapbook. Or something along those lines.

[reluctantnanny.livejournal.com]

[A stern, deep voice replies over the phone line, somewhat hesitant.] Perhaps a guestbook for signing...

Or a yearbook, with photographs.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Someone else said that, too. I think the photographs would be more meaningful. That way, you'd always remembered what your friends looked like when they were cheerful.

[radiant-will.livejournal.com]

[Her voice over the phone sounds just a bit weary.]

It's a little depressing, but I know what you mean. I don't want to think that my old friends are stuck in the bodies of drones, but…

You've got a good idea. Anyone who gets stuck here and has to put up with this crap deserves to be remembered.

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

If there's any doubt at all that people aren't getting home, I think this is something small we can do for all of us.

3

[shhhhh-secret.livejournal.com]

(Be sure to capture that handsome "mustache".)

School assignment?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas is startled for a moment, having been absentmindedly doodling anyone he saw walking by. He hadn't expected anyone to actually notice.]

I-It's just something I like to do. I'm not very good yet, but . . .

[roadroller]

Cool idea! I haven't been here very long, but you can have my signature. ♪

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm glad a lot of people feel the same way I do.

1 because that option is being neglected

[has-a-name.livejournal.com]

*the door soon opens after the table crashes into it, and there's Nanashi in her Mayfield pajamas*

... good morning...

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

((O-Oops. It comes across that way, doesn't it? What I meant to convey was that he threw the newspaper and it smashed into the door.))

[Lucas had been checking the screen for damage when the door opened inwards and so he found himself separated from Nanashi only by a thin pane of glass.]

Ah! G-Good morning, Miss Nanashi. Um. Nice day, isn't it?

3

[motheringnation.livejournal.com]

[Looking over shoulder.]

What are you drawing Lucas?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[This time around, he hadn't been embarrassingly sketching anyone at all, but rather a squirrel. Its head is a little lumpy, but it is a fine looking squirrel nonetheless, until Lucas's pencil skids across it as he jumps in surprise.]

Oh! . . . Miss Ukraine. It's just --

[He turns back to the tree. The tree absent one squirrel, which had been startled away by the sounds of voices.]

A squirrel.

[Phone]

[heartstar-blues.livejournal.com]

"Na kid, that sounds like a good idea.

Might be better for you guys to do it, I'm not the best with memory.

Though I remember Dr. Crane..."

[Phone]

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Hi, Mr. Captain. . . . Lucas is not the type to hold grudges, of course, and the man hadn't seemed to even know what he'd done wrong, so he puts it aside for now. They'll still have to talk someday about animal cruelty.

It takes a few moments for him to recall.]

Dr. Crane! He was the one who helped me when I had the PSI fever, wasn't he? You brought me . . .

3

[thief-of-truth.livejournal.com]

[Hey, is that a drawing of Kay? She's totally leaning over his shoulder to have a look.]

"You got my good side!"

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Fffff Lucas jumps like fifteen feet in the air. Shiraasan and Ukraine catching him off-guard were bad enough without Kay openly seeing his lame attempts at capturing her . . . energetic beauty. But there wasn't any helping it if she'd already seen.]

B-but every side's your good side.

[Did Lucas just flirt. Probably not.]

1

[perfectvoice.livejournal.com]

[Miku hears that crash just as she's about to make leek juice.]

Who's there?!

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Yikes. Someone was awake so early in the morning already. Lucas can't hear too clearly what was being shouted, but he makes haste to try and scurry away before the occupant of the house noticed anything.

Nothing was broken, anyway.]

3

[politerudeness.livejournal.com]

[ Japan is in in the park, somewhere nearby, when he briefly glances over at Lucas- oh gosh is someone drawing him? Really?! Wow, wouldn't want to get in the way, then! So he suddenly stops moving completley and stands extremely still. ]

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Lucas hadn't actually been paying close attention to Japan, truth be told. He was just one blob in the larger drawing, but he had done his best to accurately represent everything he saw! . . . When next he glances up, though, the man has frozen in place lik a statue.]

Um.

[Perhaps he was tired of walking.]

. . .

[Well, it was a good chance to draw him in more detail, then.]

Phone

[weaponsparked.livejournal.com]

... He said who were in a lot of pain?

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

I don't think he meant physical pain. Just that they were still inside -- The drones, I mean.

action; 3

[leporariusnero.livejournal.com]

[ Vincent's been sitting on a bench, arm draped along the back, legs crossed and watching the slowly descending sun with a pensive expression. Truthfully, he noticed the boy some time ago, but he's posed for many a portrait — he won't move until the boy does. He'd hate to interrupt. ]

[a-gentle-boy.livejournal.com]

[Gosh. The man he was sketching was being awfully agreeable about staying in one place. The longer he spends, the more detail he manages. Lucas is becoming rather cheerful about this.]

voice, sorry for the late tag! 1/2

[naicha]

... Jessica said, we were gonna start a band together. Actually, I wasn't gonna be in it, but I was gonna be the president of their fan club! We talked about having auditions, what we were gonna do, what kind of memories we were gonna make.

_{[ giggles ]} But she's gone now, so... _{[ She grows quiet. ]}

[naicha]

No, she's not gone.

You're right. The bonds we make with people, they're not something we can forget so easily. In fact, we shouldn't forget them. This town just makes it difficult... But if we make a photo album or something, even if we forget all over again, the days we spent together will still be there!