DANGER, HIGH VOLTAGE!

Thankfully, Luca’s too engrossed in looking around to even notice the auctioneer had hesitated in assisting him. He’d heard rumors of this place through the grapevine, how this building served as a hub for the auctioning and purchase of unique goods, most often magical in nature.

While it might intrigue the inventor, he isn’t here for tomes or enchanted objects themselves. He’s rather curious, instead, about how much is truly available for purchase here. His gaze travels from a painting on the wall to Seth as he speaks, an eyebrow quirked. A hand gently pats the pouch full of money safely tucked away in his pants pocket.

“Sadly the garden of mine is only filled with flowers though I wish I could grow some of my own pumpkins! It seems as if the manors owner only wishes for me to care for flowers.”

Not that she cared too much given flowers were her bread and butter when it came to gardening. They were far more beautiful and interesting for her to care for no matter how many times she saw the same flower bloom. She clapped gloved hands in front of her before twirling right where she stood.

Well, now that they had a plan it seemed rather easy to know how they were going to execute it! It shouldn’t be too difficult to find some pumpkins along the manors outskirts.

“I have a wheelbarrow in the shed outside of the garden! I don’t use it very often, but it seems as if it will finally get it’s time to shine!” She was quick to turn and immediately head in the direction of the shed before she quickly came back to where Luca stood, eyes wide with excitement. “Let us meet back here in five minutes Mr. Balsa! The sooner we go hunting the better!”

And just like a gust of wind, she’s gone rushing off to her room to grab a thicker jacket than what she wore and then heading to grab the wheelbarrow that they would use for any pumpkins they found.

“That’s a bummer,” he responds. “Think we can’t draft some kind of proposal for a community garden? We could find a nice plot of land around the manor, till off sections, and grow our own food. Could be really fun to have homegrown meals, don’tcha think?”

He’s musing aloud more than anything, entertaining the idea. Of course, maintaining the garden isn’t a bad idea either. It’s difficult to find materials in this manor for his work, and who knows how long they’d be here? As focused as he was on his ultimate goal, thinking about it all the time while being unable to make any significant progress due to a lack of materials would cause anyone to go haywire. Maybe one of these days, he could ask Emma to teach him how to garden. Having a secondary hobby sounded nice.

“Five minutes. Gotcha. See ya soon, Miss Woods.”

He watched her run off before retreating to his own quarters. It takes a brief moment of him standing in the doorway trying to recall what he came here for again before his gaze lands on the coat on the rack, and he lets out a relieved sigh as he collects it and takes it back with him.

halloween/fall starters ! 🎃 || accepting

❝ let’s go pick pumpkins! ❞ - to emma! ( @capacitances​ )

“Pumpkin picking? I’ve never done that before! Oh, it could be most enjoyable Mr. Balsa. Is there somewhere we can go?”

In her own personal garden there were no pumpkins to be picked, but perhaps the Manor would allow them to go somewhere there would be some pumpkins they could have for themselves. It was close to Halloween after all and what was a good Halloween without some carved pumpkins?

Oh, the excitement she felt over getting some pumpkins is more than she can bare as she clapped together her gloved hands in front of her. Even if they couldn’t find somewhere to gather some pumpkins, the adventure was enough to sate her want for pumpkins. It wasn’t everyday that she went exploring with another after all, especially Luca.

“Let’s get going now then to go find some!”

“Oh, you weren’t already growing pumpkins?”

Perhaps he’d jumped to conclusions too easily. In his tour of the manor, he had seen a rather lovely garden with numerous plants growing there, and it seemed to reason that the Gardener herself would take charge over it. While growing their own pumpkins was a highly tempting thought, Emma seemed rather excited to venture outdoors, and he wouldn’t want to have her play the waiting game—not when satisfying his own curiosity, too, was far more appealing.

“Well, I might’ve been mistaken there,” he admits. “But we aren’t barred from going outdoors, are we? And there doesn’t seem to be civilization anywhere around from what I can see. These places gotta have crops growing somewhere - I figure if we follow the road, we could find some pumpkins in a patch to take back with us.”

The reasoning was sound to him, and how could he pass up the opportunity? Emma’s excitement was contagious, and he couldn’t help the smile that pulled at his own lips.

He sniffles. The inventor hardly considered himself susceptible to cold; all those nights spent on a cold, dirty cell floor surely should have granted him a kind of immunity to it. And yet, he can feel the season’s chill through his thin garb. Perhaps he should’ve listened to his instincts and dressed in something warmer, but he convinced himself earlier it couldn’t possibly be that cold outside, and stubbornness barred him from going back inside to change.

So when the prospector offered him his coat, he stared at it incredulously, as if the idea hadn’t occurred to him. His gaze redirects towards the taller man, eyebrow raised in a silent question.

“I’ll be fine,” he responds, a bit embarrassed over the kind gesture. “Cold weather has nothin’ on me. You should keep that for- for your- ah-”

A sneeze interrupts him, and he wipes his nose on his sleeve. It was apparent that he’d clearly contradicted himself. With flushed cheeks, whether due to the icy air or shame, he humbly accepts Norton’s coat and wraps it around his shoulders.

“Oh yeah?”

His lips curled upwards at the other’s confident declaration, the flames of his competitive spirit fanned. Luca thought it was near impossible for someone to be truly fearless. No matter how niche it was, every human being surely had something they would’ve rather kept locked to the dark corner of their mind, right?

Luca was about one second away from hopping off of his seat and running off to show everyone else in the manor Demi’s hard work, but unfortunately, he had to be patient. He sat still as best as he could while she fitted the rest of the costume, fighting the urge to squirm, but that didn’t stop him from bouncing his leg impatiently—the energy had to be released somewhere.

“No clue.” They answer his question with no hesitation. “I don’t remember anything before waking up in a hospital and being invited to this mansion—Only thing I know is that I must have had it for a long time since the scarring is so old.” They had no problem talking about their injuries or sharing personal information, most likely because they truly remembered very little in the first place.

“Do you know how your eye got like that?” It was phrased so he wouldn’t feel pressured to explain it if he didn’t want to. She was more curious if he remembered or not.

“That so?”

What were the chances of another survivor in this manor having memory loss and a bad eye like himself? From what he came to understand in his time here, they’d all had their struggles in life; he could understand, but he couldn’t quite relate. Just having common ground with someone else, no matter where the similarity might have ended, was a small relief.

“Well, I’m in the same boat as you. I can kinda remember what happened to me, but everything else’s just gone.” He offers a passive shrug. “Had an electrical accident that screwed me up a bunch, so among other things, this”—he briefly gestured to his left eye—“is totally useless now.”

It’s at least clear from the Acrobat’s garb and title that he’s flexible, but that doesn’t stop Luca’s surprise and underlying fascination as he spies him hanging from the chandelier. He also feels somewhat dizzy just looking at him and imagining the blood that must be rushing to his head at that moment.

“My story? I’d tell you if I knew,” the inventor replies. “All I can really tell you is that... I’m working on this invention, y’see. It’s important. That’s what I was doing before, too, but... I... I screwed up, and...”

Luca trails off. It’s difficult to recall the memory, but what he does recall brings about a sudden tightness in his chest and throat, and his lip twitches slightly in discomfort.

@capacitances​ liked for a starter!

“You know—I have a bad left eye too.” They couldn’t help but point out the coincidence as they lift their bangs to the side to show him the intense scarring over their left eye. 

“Huh. That so?”

He takes a brief glance at their eye, not wanting to come off as rude. Luca doesn’t quite enjoy it when people make a point to stare at his injuries himself; he figures it’s common sense that others don’t as well. It didn’t take long for his curiosity to poke through, however, the words catching themselves in his throat in a moment of hesitance before he forced them out.

character headcanons | accepting

Very toothy grin! It’s hard for him not to have a closed smile—except for when he’s trying to be more polite, but even then he can’t help it for too long.

character headcanons | accepting

When it comes to love languages, Luca’s generally an all-around type, but the two he displays the most are physical touch and quality time. Simply being near the one he cherishes is enough for him, and he loves the quiet moments spent where it’s just the two of them and nobody else.

It’s a common theme among inventors for them to keep to themselves, and Luca is no exception. As sociable as he is, he tries not to meddle in others’ affairs too much, preferring to be approached first instead. When he takes a shining to someone, he gets just a little nosy; the heart of invention is solving others’ problems after all, and if this someone has a problem, well, why wouldn’t he do his best to help ease their worries?

—— Though my body may be shackled, new ideas and creations are ever free.