Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King

"Lucas?" Autor says, guiding his carpet through the door with his good arm, the other held stiffly near his chest. Bonnie sits on the carpet, holding a rag against her cut head.

"Hi!" the boy says. "It's been a while." Then he glances to Bonnie. "Do you mind expending some of your psi for my friend? This is Bonnie."

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"Hey Autor," he greets, waving with one hand.

Lucas puts a potted poinsettia down on a table before coming over. "Hey, what's up? Somethin' going on?"

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"Autor hurt his arm." Bonnie says. "And I got a bit of a bump, tryin' ter rescue Santa."

Is this young boy a healer?

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Lucas rubs his chin with a soft hum, considering what to use.

"Prolly don't need to do much, but I'm gonna try both Healin' and Lifeup, just ta be sure. You ok with psychic powers an' stuff, Miss Bonnie?"

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"Oh, sure." Bonnie says. "Far as I know, not allergic or nothin'. Thanks Lucas."

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Autor nods, clutching his wrist gently. "Yes, thank you. I really appreciate your willingness to help, Lucas," he says. "Please be careful of the forest tonight--there are monsters in there."

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"Shoot, you think a monster'd get me, Autor?" he asks. "Th' Dark Dragon's bigger'n most anything that could be out there, reckon."

But enough jawing. Lucas cracks his knuckles and takes a moment to concentrate. Then he calls out, "Healingα!" directing his PSI to Bonnie to tend to any conditions that come about from hitting the head. He follows it up with, "Lifeupα!" leaving her in tip top shape.

"How's that?" he asks her before preparing to treat Autor the same way.

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Bonnie blinks.

"Awesome." she says, surprised. "Am I fixed? How did you do that?"

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Autor smiles. "All right, you've got a point there, Lucas," he says, playfully ruing his words.

Then he turns to Bonnie, gesturing once with his bad arm, regretting it, and finishing the gesture with his good arm. "It's called PSI--his special ability. It's neat, isn't it?"

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"It's kinda like magic," Lucas says with a shrug. "I've had it my whole life, only I didn't know 'til recent. I can do other stuff with it, too, like teleport an' talk to animals an' stuff."

He gives Autor the same treatment on his arm, not a bead of sweat to show for his effort. "Give that a try now, Autor."

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Autor flexes his fingers, and rotates his wrist. "It's perfect. Thank you so much, Lucas," the boy says, grinning. He's relieved that Bonnie's all right, too, more so than he is with his own arm being treated.

"We were lucky to run into you. Thank you," he says. "How are you feeling, Bonnie?"

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"Doin' good." Bonnie grins.

"Say, Lucas, I'm settin' up a youth group in the new year, some fun stuff fer teens who got a lot of responsibility back home. Are you roughly thirteen or older?"

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"Yeah, I'm old enough fer that," he says. "Only I don't really got a 'back home' anymore. This's my home."

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"Well that works just as well." Bonnie smiles. "You'd be welcome there if you want to come join us."

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Autor wraps an arm around his friend and holds him tight. "We're happy to have you here, Lucas. And you're working on it, yeah?" the boy says. "And having you in the youth group will be great! We'll make badges."

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Lucas pulls away on instinct at the word "badges" before going, "Sorry, no... no badge fer me, please."

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"Oh, you don't have to!" Bonnie says. "You can just join in if you prefer."

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"No badges, then," Autor says, nodding, concerned. "Is sledding all right or is that out, too?"

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"....I don't gotta do it in one of the big white boxes in the kitchen, do I?"

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"No no, we were gonna build 'em and race 'em." Bonnie says.

"But the others will be doin' badges sometimes so I don't know if that'll affect you or nothin'."

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"Yeah, both the sleds and the badges will be things we make on our own, so we can assign our own meanings to them," Autor says gently. "And the sleds are just meant for fun--no refrigerators involved."

Now that's a story he's not sure Lucas wants to tell.

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"I just don't like badges is all," Lucas says. "You guys can do whatever."

He shrugs when it comes to the refrigerator. "I guess I could try the sleddin' as long as it's not in one of those boxes. An' as long as it's not too high up. The last time wasn't too great."

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"You can do as much or as little as you like, but you'd be very welcome." Bonnie says.

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