Luca Narvaez's Questionnaire

Luca Narvaez lives in an empty family home on the outskirts of Amarillo, Texas, a short hop away from the Red River. His family had lived there for three generations, every member growing and raising families of their own— until they all disappeared one day, leaving only Luca behind. He stays both in remembrance of them, and because he has no place to go. This is the only home he’s ever known.

The house itself is old, a brick-and-stone thing of three stories (four, if you count the attic), with a great number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and beyond in place in order to support the eleven members of the Narvaez family. Out back are two small gardens— one for vegetables, one for flowers— that Luca does his best to maintain, although over half of each died before he got the hang of it.

Ever since he was young, Luca has had a gift. He was often fascinated with the clay loam soil that surrounded his family home, and often ventured to a nearby riverside to play with the muddy banks. He would tease shapes from the clay, making mounds just as often as buildings and animals, and his family began to remark on his immense talent, with his mother even going as far as to call him 'the next Picasso!', although his grandmother had some opinions on 'that man'. He was given rides to the river's banks as often as he liked-- which ended up being far too much for any sane being to keep up with, so a storage room was quickly cleared out and gifted to him along with one of his grandfather's work aprons-- far too large for the young boy, of course, but he wore it all the same. A shelving unit was installed, proudly featuring his earliest works, full of lumps and seams and character.

After his family's disappearance, Luca still crafts his works to put on display, but at a local flea market instead, making a moderate amount of coin for his wonderful sculpting.

But the real money comes when he lets flow the forging fire harbored within him, transmuting the clay to a solid grey stone and changing a simple statue into a vessel for a destructive flame, sold not to the common people but to the highest bidder. Truly, a dangerous weapon.

...

That the vessel is a miniature lizard with a mind of its own is irrelevant.

These 'lagartitos', as Luca calls them, provide him with enough money to pay and pay for the house and utilities, as well as food, water, and other supplies.

And if he spends the occasional nickel or dime on banana milk or pound cakes or deep-dish pizza or in-game purchases-- well, no-one's around to tell him 'no'.

One day, Luca snuck out of the house and went to town. He had collected some pocket change and wanted to go the the local craft's store for some new glaze. Of course, he had never bought any glaze before and as such, had no idea how expensive it was. The man at the register recognized him-- the cashier was good friends with Luca's uncle at this point-- and stopped him from going any farther into the store, asking why he was here and, upon understanding the circumstance, very kindly explaining that wasn't enough money for the glaze and offering to call his parents to come pick him up so he didn't have to walk all the way back.

And he did.

But no-one picked up the phone.

Rationalized away as the call being lost in the hectic activity of an eleven person household, the cashier instead had Luca wait behind the counter, entertained with some cheaply-purchased silly putty, until he got off shift. Then he brought the boy into his truck and drove on down to his house, where he found... nothing. No people, no pets, no dirty dishes or unclean surfaces. Everything was pristine and packed away, pots hanging on pegs and plates neatly stacked in cabinets. No signs of a struggle, and all the vehicles were in the driveway and accounted for.

A clean, pristine, ghost town.

Luca was instructed to wait in the car-- but slipped past the man and took off anyways, dashing through the various rooms and closets, calling desperately for his father, mother, aunts, cousins, uncles, grandparents, anyone-- but there was no response.

He still dreams of the day-- occasionally, there's a response in them, but its always the creaking of long dead bones, the squelching thrust of a knife, the mocking laugh of an absentee, the crinkle of a note containing naught but admonishment and disappointment.

Luca is fine. Really. His throat recovered after a week or so of lemon drops and vocal rest, and there was no permanent scarring from his scratching. The nightmares are bad, yes, but they're just that: nightmares. And they're not so bad as long as he chases them away with a little bit of hard work.

...but he would like his family back. He misses them. The house is so quiet without them. And even his harbored flame can't quite chase away the cold.

So even though he's completely fine and doing well and fine and well and--

...he would do anything to get his family back. If he has to die...

If he has to kill, to take away the family of another...

He... he doesn't know what he'd do, then.

But the answer is probably yes.

When Luca's family died-- or left, or was taken or whatever happened to them, what matters is they aren't there anymore-- he was crushed. He screamed himself hoarse looking for them, then screamed some more, and when that didn't work he looked for answers in his art and beneath his own skin. It took him more than a while to recover from that, to start making again rather than destroying.

But he's fine now. Totally. 100%. They didn't leave because of him, no matter what the nightmares say, and he's long since steeled his mind against the possibility of them being dead.

He's fine and well and fine. 100%.

...he does miss them, though.

Luca's life became rather empty of close connections after the event that disappeared his family, but there are exactly three people in his life that he could consider 'close':

The first is Ricky Barnes, the cashier at the local crafts shop. He became a quick family friend after Luca's and his uncle's repeated visits to the store, and was the one who stayed with Luca and drove him back to his house on the day of the incident, after which he became Luca's rather lackluster guardian. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and hailing from the backwoods of Montana, he frequently complains about the dry Texas heat despite having lived there for some time.

The second is Curie 'Q' Johnson. Quick-witted but never rude, Q is one of the only Black citizens of Amarillo and the well-respected proprietor of the Curie-Osities stand at the Amarillo Community Market. She mostly sells small art pieces-- clockwork owls, gemstone earrings, Luca's standard statues-- but occasionally a customer will seek something a little more exotic. She personally doesn't carry anything of the sort-- too much heat, potentially-- but nine times out of ten she can introduce them to someone who has exactly what they're looking for.

Through Q, Luca met the final member of his life: Sarsaparilla, an enigmatic little tyke of a child who looks even younger than Luca but never stops calling him twerp. Milky skin contests for space against brilliant freckles, all framed behind fiery hair and the smug look of a child who you know just broke something but can't figure out what for the life of you. She is absolutely insufferable, always teasing Luca about anything she feels is fair game, and the only reason he hasn't cut all ties is that she markets and sells his Lagartitos to a wider consumer base, although he has no idea how.