they connect!

he’s born with an invisible mutation— the ability to bring his imagination to life via drawings. he’d discover this at age eight, when the rainbow ship he drew came straight off the page in miniature, a toy he starts to play with. joyce is amazed when she figures it out. lonnie hates and fears it, and this is the final straw that makes him abandon the family.

there isn’t too much trouble with his powers until he returns from the upside down. the stress of the experience (and his burgeoning puberty/sexual repression) has awakened the full potential of his powers and they are now volatile and hard to control. this hurts him deeply because his favorite form of self expression is now dangerous.