Lucas Notices The Trembling And How Calm Rae Is Trying To Make His Voice. It Must Be Really Bad.

Lucas takes a seat on the couch and sips his beer. He considers the question and how to respond.

"I guess there's hardly ever a simple way to do things here. For as small as the community is, there's a lot to consider."

He gestures to a chair across from him for her to sit. Sunset is still a few hours away, so there's no rush to get her home.

"How have you been? Everyone at the motel treating you alright?"

He's a bit protective over Jo since he was the one who saved her from getting killed by the creatures. A good deed someone had done for him that he now passed on and maybe will have to do again.

lucas seemed to move as if through water , possessing a fluidity she herself had never known . any stiffness that may , or may not , be holding his muscles captive was not obvious to the naked eye , and jo felt a pang of unease resonate in her chest as something resembling jealousy burned through her . if only it were that simple — merely existing in a space and not fearing how much of it you took up .

what she knew of men was very little , her two years in oblitus doing hardly anything to further educate her . what she did know was in PURGATORY , all were equal . he and her both , collectively , hung in the balance . at least that was one thing they had in common .

her lungs trembled , exhaling a quivering breath . " right , " josephine then offered as a response , half-attempting to work a smile on her face but her muscles seeming to have lost all knowledge of the expression . thick brows furrowed deeper at the beer he extended to her , lips rolling into a line , the leftward corner twitching as if she were about to scowl . then , tentatively , she reached out and accepted it — though she made no move to drink from the ambered glass .

" what do you mean by that ?? " her curiosity inquired , steering her tongue before she could stop it . " — always something to do but. . . never a way to do them . there's a way to do everything , is there not ?? "

Lucas walks Rae outside. The sun is starting to set so they don't have too long to get home.

He notices Rae keeps glancing at his own hands, he takes one of Rae's in his.

"It's okay," he says. He doesn't know what Rae is seeing, but he knows he can calm the images down, even just briefly.

They hurry to the residential area.

"I'll tell Jim that I'm going to help you tomorrow," Lucas says. He did it before Kina. He wasn't good by any means, but he could follow directions. "Hopefully, we can get everything done tomorrow."

rae's breath caught in his throat at lucas' gesture, a simple kiss to the top of his head, but it was enough to send a jolt of emotion through him. he nodded, his grip on the other loosening, and walked back to the examination room.

it didn't take long before his hands were submerged in water, desperately scrubbing to wash away the visible remnants of death. but despite his best efforts, the blood seemed to cling to his skin, refusing to wash away. he scrubbed harder, fingers digging in, and still it remained. he shook his head, his eyes wild and unfocused. "it won't come off," he muttered to himself.

ready? a voice cut through, and rae glanced up, his eyes focusing on lucas' reflection in the mirror. when he looked back down, the blood was…gone.

"…ready," he echoed, turning around as he dried his hands. he threw the towel towards the counter behind him, not caring where it landed. "let's go."

where: colony house when: Halloween night, early evening whom: open

Adrien dances in the middle of the designated dance floor, probably having the best night of his life. The music plays from records or CD that are constantly rotating. Not a lot of recent music, but it still is fun to dance to.

His "wings" force a small circle around him, which does bum him out a bit, but he takes it in stride, keeping his dancing small but still fun.

That doesn't stop him from accidentally bumping into someone, though. He whirls around to face them.

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry."

"That's awesome. Glad to hear my new boss is also a good person."

He snickers. Then his head snaps up.

"Really? I'm there too! We totally need to hang out or something after dark."

"yeah, i guess when everything is so scares and random, gotta make use of everything," charlie said with a shrug as she looked around the shop. she was still trying to take everything in around here, it was interesting how everyone did their part and it all seemed to work, at least for the most part. "that sounds like them," she said with a smile. "they kinda saved me on my first night here and let me crash in their house." that night was still a blur but she was glad it was el that let them in. "you can say that again, this place is fucking crazy. still trying to wrap my head around it all." she's not sure if she ever will. "i'm up at colony house, what about you?"

Lucas shuts the book so Cherry can't read his notes.

"Can anyone vouch for your whereabouts then? It would've been between 10:30–11."

Honestly, Lucas does have bigger fish to fry, but it's his job to help everyone feel safe. If someone is burglarizing other people, that will just make a bad situation worse.

He's not sure if Cherry is the actual culprit. She just has the most priors involving theft, and they did accuse her, so he has to be thorough.

CHERRY SIGHS AS SHE LEANS A HIP AGAINST THE DOORFRAME . her expression scrunches with it . " i mean, yeah, you prolly definitely got bigger fish to fry than me ." charlie would imagine so at least but what the hell does she know about being a cop ? all she's sure about is that someone will probably try to rope her into helping in some way today, and as reluctant as she usually was she knew she'd probably give in for at least a little bit . after all, they all got royally fucked by the storm . so when lucas shoots her an unimpressed look her expression only twists . " who the fuck said that ?" she moves as if to peer at his notebook . " i was workin' yesterday morning !"

Adrien is immediately interested in the little she'd said. He walks further into the room.

"You know, I was thinking we could probably make some decent windmills to generate power," he says, looking down at the book she was reading. "It's pretty windy here, and it'd be more reliable than solar power."

"It's cool," she said looking at the source from inside the notebook from where she was sitting on the floor. "I'm just trying to figure out new power source, but with limited- " she said before glancing up to see who was speaking to her before closing the book. "Do you need something?"

"Wow, ten years?" Adrien doesn't even look up from his work as he continues talking. "I thought not really leaving my hometown for that long was bad. But this place?"

He let's out a stream of air in sympathy. He strips off the covering so he can get to more of the wiring.

"I mean, I've got the important bits: monsters that eat people, can't leave town, stay indoors once the sun sets. It's all very Twilight Zone. I guess I'm curious what all you guys do in the meantime? Gardening, scavenging, cooking, healing, that's all good, but that's survival, not living."

she'd forgotten how newcomers could be; so eager to learn and ask questions. its one of the reasons why she never took up a leadership position with the council; erin didn't think that she could keep herself impartial if she got too close to every newcomer. a lot of people didn't make it, she didn't want to sign up for the pain fest it would be when they inevitably died. she hoped that he wouldn't though, that he would somehow break the cycle. she stalls for time, looking around the shop and tinkering with things in the office here and there. "ten years," she replies easily enough, but if you were to know her then you'd notice strain in her voice as she says it. clearing her throat, she continues. "what do you want to know?" better to figure out what he already knows and then go from there.

RAFAEL SILVA — via Instagram (2024)

Lucas pulls his hand back with an eyebrow still raised.

"Ana isn't the only one going through shit," he says matter-of-factly. "But she knows her limits."

He leaves the "Do you?" unsaid.

He gets caught up in his own personal dramas and emotions, too. He's in no real position to judge or make assertions, but he's also more stubborn than most of the people he works with or even is friends with. So, making these judgments and assertions usually leads to people recognizing when he's right.

"oh, i don't mean lie to her or keep shit from her, she'd kill both of us if you did that. i just mean, like, come to santi or me first, see if we can find a solution before making her deal with more shit." she was sure anastasia would probably hate it if she knew cameron was doing this, but after everything she said the other night, she wasn't sure how much more ana could take. "no, no it's fine, i can handle it, don't worry lucas," she said as she put a hand on top of the folders.

where: chop shop when: day time whom: @hcartcorruptcd El

Adrien is hunched over the engine of the truck, trying to gauge what all is salvageable and what could be modified to be salvageable.

They'd had a few cars brought in from the junk yard after the leaders and sheriff's department got everything useful for the community. Now they're stripping what they think can be useful.

"For a truck from the '80s," he calls out, "it's in pretty good condition. Almost a shame to tear it up."

He climbs out with some valves, carrying them over to the piles they'd started to keep things vaguely organized. Then he glances over to El.