Lucas

[While his absence, no doubt, has gone largely unnoticed through the past week, it's possible that there have been a few who have been wondering where the plaintive cries of Love, Peace, and Trust had gone.  Luckily, others had taken up the slack where Lucas had been unable.

Rewind time to last Friday.  Or last Thursday, actually.

It is 11:45 at night and Lucas is staying up late trying to figure out if the P in PEMDAS stands for parentheses or petunias, both of which make equal sense to him since he can't remember what PEMDAS is used for it sounds vaguely like a geometrical flower arrangement.  It is 11:50 and he's now reading what must be Ancient Lebanese why were there triangles in the middle of his letters and what was this about rise over run who was running from what?  It is 11:53 and Lucas sighs and closes his textbook and reaches for his empty chocolate wrappers. 

...Hold on.  That was supposed to be chocolate bars.  ...But this wouldn't do at all.  He has more homework left and he can barely get it done with the chocolate how is he supposed to manage with just thinking?  ...Well.  The store is only 6 or 7 minutes away if he hurries on his table.  So it is 11:57 and Lucas is scrambling onto his walking table and riding as quickly as he can so he can be done with all of this by 1 in the morning, hopefully.

......

And then it is 12:25 and Lucas is on a stretcher on his way to the hospital because having your vehicle disappear out from under you when you're traveling at 30+ miles an hour is a very good way to get a concussion and a few broken ribs, all the more so when your healing powers disappear with it, too.  He wonders if the fairy godmother would have turned the coach back into a pumpkin if Cinderella had still been in it, and then he realizes he's never actually heard that story before and so he goes back to sleep for the next two days.  The three days after that are spent in a haze of asking to use the telephone and being told that he wasn't allowed to stress himself and to watch the television instead and then when he's finally released, he needs to spend a day in absolute horror recovering from the shock of picking up the receiver and listening to everyone talking about killing everyone else. 

It's Thursday by the time he makes his call.]

.....Hi. 

This is Lucas.  Um.  I'm sorry if I've worried anyone, but I've been in the hospital ... N-Not cause anyone tried to kill me.  I didn't even get a letter.  Because of something else.  I know... I'm sure everyone's asking about their friends, but.  I'm going to ask anyway.  Mr. Netherlands?  Kay?  Crowe?  Tavros?  Everyone.... Are you OK?  Can I do anything?  As soon as this is over, I'll heal everyone.  I promise.

And... everyone, just.  Please stop.  ... Please.

[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.))