[color=gray][CENTER][img]https://i.imgur.com/mi2pSVZ.jpg[/img][/CENTER][indent][sub][COLOR=SILVER][B]Location:[/B][/COLOR] [I]Team 78 Campsite[/I] - [I]Southern Plateau, Dundas Island[/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=SILVER][b]The Homecoming Trials #1.76:[/b][/COLOR] [I]Made It Here[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][sub][color=SILVER][B]Interaction(s):[/B][/COLOR] [I]Team 78 [/I][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][COLOR=SILVER][b]Previously:[/b][/COLOR] [I]First Post[/I][/right][/SUP]
[INDENT]A breath of fresh air…

Breaths…

Lots of them. Finally. 

Finally felt like he could breathe. Just breathe…

Maybe the Trials would be a good thing, after all. To be fair, he’d only not wanted to do them coming right off the opening ceremony and the headache it gave him. Before that, he’d been looking forward to it. Or, well, the camping part, at least. Didn’t care about the rest cuz he didn’t know about the rest. But he’d asked Miss Friend if he could just… not… cuz he hadn’t cared about camping either after so many feet walked over the bones in his head. No roof to hold up didn’t mean the stadium wasn’t heavy. Its walls rustled with echoes upon echoes of delight and enthusiasm he didn’t want to feel. Just stood when everyone else did, stayed up a beat too long, and already knew the words they said every year. Didn’t hear the rest. 

One day between the tin-can pressure slipstream of an airplane’s inner turbulence and the ferry’s constant motion, swept by wind and water both—even on a calm day there’d been moments when the waves ran tremors through his bones—hadn’t been enough. Another day between the ferry’s free-floating rise and fall and the stadium’s team spirit hadn’t seen him quite recovered soon enough. But she’d only had time to find him a Tylenol and suggest a nap and they’d see how he felt later all hot and bothered busy before something else called her away. Probably plenty for her to do. 

They’d both helped though, the Tylenol and the nap. And when he found out they were walking, his grin meant she didn’t need to ask. Through the trees, warm sun, sea breeze… Yes, please. Lucas started strong. Never really faltered, but somewhere between the intake house and the campgrounds they were headed to, as Dr. Rivers explained things Lucas wasn’t sure had been explained before or not, it occurred to him that familiar and welcome as the easy hike was, he’d missed something so simple. How long had it been? Since he’d walked somewhere like this? With anyone? 

Even if he didn’t know the company he was keeping. Even if the grind of all their shoes into the dirt made his teeth feel dirty. The air was lighter out here. It was… nice.

He probably should have been trying harder to pay attention to what was being said since he [i]could[/i] hear it. Should have looked for familiar faces. Tried being friendly. But he didn’t have to talk now, and he didn’t [i]want[/i] to listen. He just wanted to walk and breathe and remember what it felt like. He looked remarkably content for someone who’d been pale and clearly miserable barely two hours before, but he certainly didn’t look any more attentive. But it was easy enough to follow along once they made it where they were going. 

A weird wailing wall with a view and he didn’t know how many bubbles of manufactured safe space filling the area. Definitely looked like a campground. Colourful, too. But the sky wasn’t as cheery anymore and he wasn’t so sure they shouldn’t just turn around and start hiking back. It already felt cooler here, the wind a little wilder, and he knew those signs. But no one else was leaving so he just picked up a folded tent to fiddle with until it remembered what started the unpacking process and then sat back and watched. 

[color=deb887]“Huh. It makes itself too easy. Okay.”[/color] Once it was all done and hopefully looking less sturdy than it was, Lucas tested an anchor point and then tossed his bag inside with a shrug. [color=deb887]“I’m snoring here.”[/color] Two beds… Probably why they were supposed to be in pairs. He’d skipped a step. [color=deb887]“Uhh… Someone want that side? You can pound the stakes.”[/color] Just in case they’d need that extra help to hold the tent down when the wind picked up; he figured it was a good idea, but someone else could do it. After making that offer in the general direction of the people who looked as unpaired as he was, Lucas glanced towards those who’d picked a tent for themselves to see if anyone couldn’t figure it out. If anyone needed to know, he was happy to tell them how, but they could pass it along after, cuz he’d just noticed Dr. Rivers taking out the food.

He was waiting on his pizza in the first batch, feeling by turns fevered and refreshed as he stood in the wind too close to the oven, when Miss Friend returned. [color=deb887]“It’s no good with that ham so I just ate the pineapple.”[/color] He was, in fact, still eating it, though he’d made sure to offer it around now and again so no one was missing out. He was also only still standing there because he didn’t think it was right not to when it was his dinner being cooked, but he’d underestimated both how much time and heat were needed to make a pizza and despite the external drop in temperature, his face was flushed as he finally gave in. He probably should have asked sooner. [color=deb887]“Can I go if I’m burning?”[/color][/INDENT][/INDENT]
[/COLOR]