[video] A few days late for 4/20, but...

[kyoumibukai]

[The young man on the video feed is lying back on the bed, legs splayed with the lackadaisical lope of someone who is not entirely sober.]

Heyyy, Numbers Club.

[He leans forward, giving a little salute.]

The name's Lucas Evans. I've been reading the network for a little bit. See, when I heard about the Numbers Club on the news, I was like, hey... Numbers??? I've had those for like... my whole life.

[He snickers.]

I almost fell in a pit when I was a kid and since then I've had these... numbers... in my head. Also, people say that's when I started to be really good at remembering things.

[He hauls the laptop onto his lap and looks down at it. He ticks his finger with each of his emphasized syllables in his next sentence.]

They call it an ei-de-tic memory... I had a lot of tests run on me as a kid before my mom got fed up and stopped them. Oh, right.

[He sighs.]

Yeah, in case anyone recognizes me, like, if you're big on politics. My dad's Congressman Evans. So. Yeah, but don't worry if you didn't vote for him. I didn't either...

[He covers his face and laughs at his own joke.]

Cause I'm- I'm a sophomore at LCA. So hey, go keymasters, right?

[He shifts the camera over his hips and thinks.]

What else. Oh, uh. I don't have any real idea what cool powers I might have. Nothing's really setting anything off as far as memories go. So. Let me know if anyone out there remembers me.

[He closes into the camera, winking, even though it quite obviously emphasizes the fact that his eyes are glassy and just a little red.]

Catch you later, Numbers club.

Comments

[Video]

[radiantchicken]

[So hey, it's a parrot with arms. He's giving a little wave, and he's probably not the sort of thing Phillip needs to see while high...even if Torin doesn't know how to tell.]

Eidetic memory? That sounds fascinating.

[video]

[kyoumibukai]

[Oh... my god... Lucas just... gapes. He would have difficulty comprehending this even completely sober.]

You...

[He shakes his head, laughing just a little bit.]

Okay, so members of the club can be... Birds with arms? Okay??? All right... That's... I can deal with that.

[He is still giggling as he tries to answer.]

Um, okay, yeah. Well, it's really easy to get good grades. I can remember everything. But it gets kind of frustrating sometimes.

[video]

[radiantchicken]

I did not start out with the arms! They just grew in one day! I was just a normal zoo parrot to begin with. My plumage changed, as well!

[He's still quite cheerful, and he's pretty used to people having a hard time dealing with talking parrots with limbs parrots usually don't possess.]

How might such a thing become frustrating?

[kyoumibukai]

[He's still amused by the arms.]

Okay, well, I hope the zoo guys weren't too pissed off.

[But the question startles him.]

Uh. Well, you can remember everything in perfect detail and clarity and all that. So even the bad stuff you don't want to remember too good... Get it?

[He gives a smile again, albeit a rueful one.]

text

[wonk]

oh dude u go 2 LCA?

me 2 i didnt relaize we had any1 there

*realize

[kyoumibukai]

[He's not as intimately familiar with the typing styles of all of his co-students as he is with the way they look. So he's not sure who this is at all.]

Hey, hey... Yeah, I feel like there's a couple of other kids who kind of act shifty when stuff about the big snake comes up. Maybe we can start a club?

[He laughs lightly.]

So what's your name? I bet we've met in passing.

[wonk]

im roxy

i probably dont have u in any of my classes tho i dont do math or science and the social studies stuff is all grade sorted

[kyoumibukai]

Oh, no, we don't have any classes together. I'm skipped ahead a few grades in some of those classes, anyway. Smart kid high five.

[He puts his hand up towards the camera]

But you're that transfer student, right? The one who's related to Hikari Kurosawa.

video

[not_good_not_wicked]

Oh hey Luke, you were at Lisa's party last Saturday, weren't you?

[kyoumibukai]

Mmmhmm. Sup Marisa.

[He smirks.]

Don't remember much of it, though! Therefore, it was probably fun. Ha ha.

[His face falls.]

Wait. You're... You're a part of the Numbers Club. Does that mean-

[He gapes, pointing at the camera.]

Does that mean all that magic you do is real?!

[not_good_not_wicked]

No sleight of hand was involved. I am the real deal. A proper magician.

[kyoumibukai]

That is... The COOLEST thing.

[He actually collapses on the bed and rolls around a little bit]

What kind of cool stuff can you do with your magic?

text;

[occasus]

There is a look I like to see.
No bullshit
Just chill.

[kyoumibukai]

Sup, Kei. Been a while.

[He runs his fingers through his hair.]

This stuff isn't as good as what I get from you.

video; private

[occasus]

[ Screw it, he'll switch to video. ]

Didn't expect you to be a numbered. And I've been informed that trafficking is a no-go, or some purple haired guy will get pretty pissed at you.

[kyoumibukai]

Whaaaat? I thought heroes got to be above the law! We can't even get ahold of weed?

[He pouts a little.]

That's not cool. And yeah it turns out I was numbered all this time, but I stopped writing that number all over the place when I was a middle schooler. I guess this thing wasn't around then.

[Audio]

[dead_black_eyes]

[L can already tell that he's either going to find a use for you, or hate you.]

How many years does that make it, since your first echo? You said when you were a kid, but that's not terribly specific.

[kyoumibukai]

[He lifts his head, thinking.]

Uh, well, I was 8. We were on a field trip to the Sterling Hill Mining Museum.

[He smiles, looking at the camera.]

Why do you want to know?

[Audio]

[dead_black_eyes]

Because I was a child too, when I got my first echo. It was 13 years ago and it seems relatively rare compared to what most people experience.

[Voice]

[gobybessie]

Would you vote for him if you actually could?

[ There's no real point to that question, aside from steering the conversation to this congressman - could possibly come in handy. But he is pretty curious. ]

[kyoumibukai]

[He raises his eyebrows.]

Uhhh... I dunno. It's kind of hard to say you wanna vote for your dad to lose his job. I think I'm biased.

[He definitely won't admit it, when he does get the chance to vote, if he decides not to vote for his dad.]

[gobybessie]

It would be. Though if he's a good congressman, there's hopefully not much to worry about either way.

video;

[kirifuda]

[ Steven is shaking a little as he turns on the camera. He's had other Echoes lately - he's familiar with the concept - but what he's seeing as this high as a kite teenager rolls around on his bed like an idiot is different from all of that. ]

You.

[ It's not... accusatory, but somewhat breathless, and certainly confused. Sometimes people knew each other here, he knew that much, but this?

Still, the irritation he's feeling carries through. ]

If you're some kind of fancy politician's son, then shouldn't you know better than to show up on video like this, Lu-buddy?

[ He tries to say Lucas' name, but it feels strange when he tries to put it in his mouth, but the one coming to mind doesn't match the appearance of this kid. His question's definitely a little accusatory, not derisive enough to be mean but heavy enough to be judgmental. He reaches up to fiddle with his audio headset, smoothing his hair down under the headband of his headphones, and quirks a bit of a smile. ]

[kyoumibukai]

[At first, he's not even looking at the camera, and he just rolls his eyes at the ceiling.]

Me what? And please, if I hadn't already checked that you can't record shit off the network, I wouldn't even be using it sober.

[Never mind the fact that he had gotten high partially so that he felt okay with posting at all. He'd been wanting to post for a bit, but was too nervous about making a good impression. Right now that was the furthest thing from his mind... At least, until he looks at the video feed.]

[The guy talking to him, though he looks kind of irritated, he's really cute. Not Lucas' usual type, but handsome enough... Genuine-looking. There's something about him... But no. Lucas takes a deep breath and levels a charming smile at the camera.]

Anyway, if I were totally wasted, I wouldn't be able to have a coherent conversation at all, riiiight? I was gonna protest you patronizing me, but I don't think I'd mind being your buddy, buddy.

[He winks.]

[kirifuda]

[ He pulls a face as he's winked at. You stop that. ]

Don't... say that like that.

[ Is he blushing? Probably, shit - he clears his throat, twice, then three times, and looks more calm when he looks up again, eyes heavy on Lucas' face in the feed. ]

That doesn't mean there aren't cops on the Network. People who might think a politician's kid is valuable one way or another.

[ He frowns. Is he imagining that this seems kind of familiar? Does he just expect it to be? The emotions lingering from that long memory might just be it - Shotaro had seemed well used to Philip's idiosyncrasies. He breathes, shakily. ]

I know you.