Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes, and she's gone.

[with_diamonds]

There was a time, Lucy recalled, back in New Hampshire, when her class of small, uniformed children had been told to raise their hands if anyone they knew had been in a war - those ten-some years after World War II, there'd been a share of hands, mostly kids with uncles or more distant relations who'd gone to fight. Then, along with the standard

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[boom_king]

Bret wasn't haven an alright time on the island. Sure, he had a place to stay and Jemaine was there, but his guitar wasn't and this was definitely in no way like New York. It had taken long enough to get used to the differences between New Zealand and America, and now he was suddenly expected to learn this place too. It was all a bit much for him.

He wandered into the compound, pondering yet again how one would make a guitar on the island (he missed playing, too) when he noticed he wasn't alone. She looked like how he was feeling.

"Are you alright?" he asked, sounding just a little nervous. It was entirely possible she didn't want to be bothered.

[with_diamonds]

Lucy had hardly noticed anyone coming in, let alone approaching her, and so she sat up quickly at the sound of a voice, rubbing at her eyes like she'd been half-asleep. "Yeah," she exhaled after a pause, one hand just slightly out in front of her, and she managed a warm, small smile at the man in front of her. "Fine, I'm fine, just...thinking, I guess."

Leaning back again, she looked briefly over the man in front of her, one she hadn't yet seen around, and tilted her head to the side. "You?"

[boom_king]

He sat himself down on another couch nearby.

"Weirded out about this place, still," he admitted. That was an understatement, actually, because the fact he was in a weird place surrounded by a jungle still wasn't making any sense to him. "But not bad, I guess."

[with_diamonds]

"You new?" The question felt awkward to ask, with as new as she still felt, but it was refreshing, almost, to have something to talk about other than her past and her brother. Repositioning her legs beside her, she smiled - not a huge one, but friendly nonetheless. "I'm Lucy. Lucy Carrigan."

[boom_king]

"Yes, actually," he said, and he felt a little less awkward. "Just last week. I'm Bret. I used to live in New York with my bandmate. He's the one running the New Zealand Consulate here."

[with_diamonds]

"I've only been here a month," Lucy said, and she wondered briefly if she should tell him how lucky he'd been to show up after Halloween, but decided against it. "But I used to live in New York, too."

She'd heard about the New Zealand Consulate, and even found the guy's council speech vaguely amusing - but then, she wasn't of the mindset to mix politics with humor, so she hadn't paid him too much attention at the time. "Are you from New Zealand originally, then?" she asked, honestly curious, having not recognized the accent.

[boom_king]

"Born there," he confirmed. For some reason, being on the island made him miss New Zealand more than being in New York had. He attributed it to the fact he apparently couldn't hop on a plane here and fly back if he wanted to (and had the money). "Jemaine and I were popular there. We were the fourth most popular folk-rock parody band, actually."

[with_diamonds]

"Really?" Lucy asked as she leaned forward, a smile spreading across her face. "That's really neat." A little oddly specific, perhaps, but she'd heard weirder. "I knew someone back home who got to be a pretty big singer. Folk-rock parody sounds pretty cool, though." And Sadie had, from what she'd been told, sold out, so this definitely seemed better in that regard.