a_gentle_boy | Entries tagged with virginia maxwell

[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.

[Well. It had been a day or two since being rescued from Westport, and Lucas finally felt well enough to return to his daily activities. After the first day of binging, the thought of eating more food had been slightly nauseating, actually. When he's finished with school, he will make a call about something that's been on his mind since returning.]

[voice, public]
Ah. Hi, everyone. This is Lucas. Um. First off, I'd like to say thanks to whoever it was that brought us all back. . . . I really don't want to think about what would have happened to us if you hadn't come. I think Vince said your name was Mr. Doctor...

The other thing is, I'd like to talk to the people who were in Westport last year. Did any of you take a look around for more clues . . . ? I guess no hazmats means no clues, and I don't really mind that, but. I know I didn't find anything important. . . . There were a few things, though - Some things that were odd. There wasn't a church or a library. And, Kay, do you remember the television in the house you hid in last year? I went back to the same house, and . . . there wasn't anything there. But I know it was the same. The place where the TV had plugged into, it was missing entirely.

. . . I'm not sure what any of this means, but it might be important to think about.

[action 1]
( Lucas attempts to remember how to fight. )

[action 2]
( Lucas attempts to murder half the town. )

Lucas drops his bat and runs to his front yard. If you're anywhere nearby, he'll be running up to you with an expression of severe panic.]

. . . Are you alright?! Are you feeling OK?! You . . . Please say you didn't see the light!
((Lucas's PK Flash has odd effects. It's a burst of psychokinetic energy infused light that alters the brainwaves of those who see it. To be brief, PK Flash causes spontaneous crying to the point where your character is blinded by their own tears, paralysis, which is self-explanatory, feeling strange, which can be interpreted as violent hallucinations and delirium, or instant death. Or nothing, of course. Please don't choose the death option, aha.))

[action, dated back a few days]
( Goodbye, Luke. )

1. Alone in the park, Lucas finds the most isolated bench he possibly can and eases into it, still holding the box to his chest. He has an inkling of what's inside. The same reason he had shown Luke where he kept his box . . . Now, though, he simply sits. And allows himself, after a few futile moments, to cry softly.

2. He has calmed down enough to go through the things that had been left to him. Just as with the Netherlands, just as he himself did, Luke had kept notes. Lucas dries his tears, looking through each piece of information carefully. It's hard for him to understand right now, but . . . He will go through everything again when he's in a less harried state of mind. The Westport notes.

3. It had been too late for Luke. But it didn't have to be that way for anyone else. Not if he hurried up with this. Lucas is too shy to take pictures of people, but late into the afternoon, he is in the park with an ancient, half-broken camera, practicing taking pictures of trees and squirrels and snowdrifts . . .

((A bit deliberately less accessible than the usual entry, so I'm going to ask that no more than 3-4 people respond to the first prompt. Thanks.))

( Internal Thoughts )

[He stands in front of City Hall, now, fists clenched and body trembling slightly with emotion as he stares at the corpse. He had passed by it earlier. Recognized it immediately. Recoiled in horror from the sight.

At his side is a bucket of fresh water and a small pile of rags. He will decide whether or not he dares to release the body from its noose later. For now, he simply applies his healing PSI to close the open wounds, gently wipes away the blood with his cloth, does for Sergei what he had not been able to do while the man was still alive.

Be at peace.]

[filtered and whatever]
[The voice that speaks into the phone is strangely calm. After having suffered a severe shock and half-believing he had been transported back to Westport, Lucas wisely decided to remain at home.]

Please listen, everyone. There are some things you should know about these people.

We called them the hazmat men when they first showed up in Westport. They started off pretty slow and they weren't much of a threat, but as the days passed, they became much faster, stronger, and smarter. I don't know how they'll behave now, but to be on the safe side, you should assume that they're at full power.

If you have to fight them, you should know that there's nothing underneath the suits. Blunt force won't do anything and they won't react to getting hit. What you need to do to break through -- stabbing or piercing or shooting works. When the suit is opened, they release a lot of poison gas that can kill you if you're too close. If you touch them or if you inhale any of it, the chemicals will burn you badly. Some people died from the gas alone.

They attack with axes and they carry gas sprays with them. Don't let them touch you. The best thing to do if they're chasing you is to run. They're not too fast.

[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.))

[filtered to Vince]
Mist -- . . . Vince? If you're free sometime soon . . . Sometime really soon, preferably. And, um. If you don't mind having to pull off a small miracle. And . . . If you promise not to yell at me or anything when you see me.

I really need a haircut.

[filtered to Luke, Wy, Shiraasan, Lyn, Ness, and Duster]
Are you all OK? Did you make it through the night?

[open call]
Did anyone find out anything interesting at the party? I think I might've gotten something . . . I don't know if it's important. It seems as if Billy is nice as long as you play along -- He likes fire a lot, and he likes it when you don't mind about him setting them. If you say anything about it, though, he gets upset really quickly.

It might be nothing. I don't know. If anyone runs into him, though . . . try and humor him. . . . Maybe things would have gone differently if I agreed.

[For anyone who runs into him, Lucas now dons a stylish hat pulled down low over his face, and a strip of cloth cut as a mask wrapped around the top of his head with a single eyehole for his right eye. If anyone asks, he is playing cops and robbers. He bumps into things a lot.]