Wrath (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
garbagechild) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
victory_road2024-08-15 11:45 pm
garbagechild) wrote in victory_road2024-08-15 11:45 pm
[closed catchall for Homeward Bound Boy Wrath]
Who: Wrath, Lust, Envy, Scar, Henry
What:LASSIE WRATH COME HOME
Where: Shark House (ie, quiet suburban neighborhood in Goldenrod City)
Warnings: Later threads include graphic dialogue about subjects like child death/injury, suicide, etc.
Summary: Wrath can't avoid the inevitable any longer. After meandering in awkward emotional paralysis for a month, he finally arrives in Goldenrod City to find out if his family is still there or not.
The city streets haven't changed a single bit.
The same smells hang on the humid, seaside air. The same warm yellow lights blaze above the sidewalks. The same buzz and murmur of never-sleeping nightlife float along main roads and narrow alleys alike.
Wrath remembers all of them with startling clarity, and yet they don't feel familiar anymore. He shies away from all of it, slinking along like an awkward shadow and trying not to be noticed. Which is blessedly not difficult, at least in the heart of town where there's still enough bustle and activity that a short kid and his Cubone hardly stand out. But even with his memories intact... coming back to a bona fide city after the isolation he'd wrapped himself in back in Amestris is overwhelming in every way.
What he's looking for, however, isn't in the heart of town. No, his destination is down in the southern half of the city, in a much sleepier pocket of suburbia...
____
His feet remember the path there better than his brain does, and all too fast, their surroundings have shifted from broad bright streets to ones lined with houses, trees, and lamp-posts. Completely preoccupied with his own growing anxiety, Wrath barely even notices how fast they've arrived until he realizes that downtown's golden hum has been replaced with the soft, velvet drone of chirping insects and whirring fans. The clank of his automail foot on the pavement is painfully loud now that there's so much less background noise to drown it out.
He stops right there in the middle of the road like a statue as the realization hits him.
This is it. This is their street...
Down at his side, Son squeezes his hand. The Cubone had been keeping up with his trainer valiantly all night long, despite his stubby little legs. Keenly-attuned partner-Pokemon senses aside, it hadn't exactly been hard to notice that Wrath had been growing tenser and tenser the closer they got (even though escaping from the chaos of the inner city should have, would have been a relief for most people). Although Wrath doesn't look down, the squeeze tugs him back into reality enough to carry on.
It isn't long until he spots it.
There.
It's there.
It's still there.
The House... but that doesn't mean it has the same people in it.Or that they would feel the same way they did once, even if they'd remained. ... It's not too late. He could just keep walking. He could just head straight out of town and into Ilex Forest, never to be seen again. They would never know that he was here. ... And vice versa.
A shadow briefly passes in front of one of the windows, and Wrath stiffens, freezing again. He feels like throwing up.
But Son delivers a gentle headbutt to his automail leg. CLINK. Wrath grimaces, swallowing, and stumbles up the walk.
Approaching the house is ten times more difficult and painstaking than it had been with the cottage in Violet, but eventually, he finds himself standing on the doorstep, almost too tense to breathe. He lifts a hand several times, only to drop it again. Once, he manages to make contact with the door... but just scratches it timidly with his nails, too quiet to be heard.
"... I can't," he mumbles hoarsely after these failed attempts, more to himself than to his Pokemon... but Son responds anyway with a whispered but no-less-vehement "Bone!" Yes you can!
Wrath lets out a shaky, miserable sigh, but... he can't say no to his son.
Steeling himself and taking a deep breath, he raises his hand again... and knocks.
Thread Timeline because we're out of control:
1. Wrath arrives and is ushered in by Henry + Envy; Scar informs Lust about Wrath's return; Lust and Wrath reunite.
2. As Lust + Wrath Cry In The Living Room (tm), Henry re-enters with a failed hot cocoa attempt; Envy flees to the laundry room.
3. Heather receives distraught Envy phonecall.
4. Envy and Scar briefly discuss The Gluttony Thing in the hall.
5. Wrath and Envy catch up; Evil Brother Hug! at Kitchen Island.
6. Heather and Scar fail to communicate on the porch, but it's fine.
7. Hot Cocoa Attempt 2.0 by Henry; Evil Brothers + Henry quiet couch time.
8. Scar + Lust discuss personal growth and parenthood.
9. Heather gets home withpizza baked goods, gets caught up on the tea.
10. The following morning, Scar + Envy discretely get info from Wrath; also Don't Tell Mom About Gluttony.
What:
Where: Shark House (ie, quiet suburban neighborhood in Goldenrod City)
Warnings: Later threads include graphic dialogue about subjects like child death/injury, suicide, etc.
Summary: Wrath can't avoid the inevitable any longer. After meandering in awkward emotional paralysis for a month, he finally arrives in Goldenrod City to find out if his family is still there or not.
The city streets haven't changed a single bit.
The same smells hang on the humid, seaside air. The same warm yellow lights blaze above the sidewalks. The same buzz and murmur of never-sleeping nightlife float along main roads and narrow alleys alike.
Wrath remembers all of them with startling clarity, and yet they don't feel familiar anymore. He shies away from all of it, slinking along like an awkward shadow and trying not to be noticed. Which is blessedly not difficult, at least in the heart of town where there's still enough bustle and activity that a short kid and his Cubone hardly stand out. But even with his memories intact... coming back to a bona fide city after the isolation he'd wrapped himself in back in Amestris is overwhelming in every way.
What he's looking for, however, isn't in the heart of town. No, his destination is down in the southern half of the city, in a much sleepier pocket of suburbia...
His feet remember the path there better than his brain does, and all too fast, their surroundings have shifted from broad bright streets to ones lined with houses, trees, and lamp-posts. Completely preoccupied with his own growing anxiety, Wrath barely even notices how fast they've arrived until he realizes that downtown's golden hum has been replaced with the soft, velvet drone of chirping insects and whirring fans. The clank of his automail foot on the pavement is painfully loud now that there's so much less background noise to drown it out.
He stops right there in the middle of the road like a statue as the realization hits him.
This is it. This is their street...
Down at his side, Son squeezes his hand. The Cubone had been keeping up with his trainer valiantly all night long, despite his stubby little legs. Keenly-attuned partner-Pokemon senses aside, it hadn't exactly been hard to notice that Wrath had been growing tenser and tenser the closer they got (even though escaping from the chaos of the inner city should have, would have been a relief for most people). Although Wrath doesn't look down, the squeeze tugs him back into reality enough to carry on.
It isn't long until he spots it.
There.
It's there.
It's still there.
The House... but that doesn't mean it has the same people in it.
A shadow briefly passes in front of one of the windows, and Wrath stiffens, freezing again. He feels like throwing up.
But Son delivers a gentle headbutt to his automail leg. CLINK. Wrath grimaces, swallowing, and stumbles up the walk.
Approaching the house is ten times more difficult and painstaking than it had been with the cottage in Violet, but eventually, he finds himself standing on the doorstep, almost too tense to breathe. He lifts a hand several times, only to drop it again. Once, he manages to make contact with the door... but just scratches it timidly with his nails, too quiet to be heard.
"... I can't," he mumbles hoarsely after these failed attempts, more to himself than to his Pokemon... but Son responds anyway with a whispered but no-less-vehement "Bone!" Yes you can!
Wrath lets out a shaky, miserable sigh, but... he can't say no to his son.
Steeling himself and taking a deep breath, he raises his hand again... and knocks.
Thread Timeline because we're out of control:
1. Wrath arrives and is ushered in by Henry + Envy; Scar informs Lust about Wrath's return; Lust and Wrath reunite.
2. As Lust + Wrath Cry In The Living Room (tm), Henry re-enters with a failed hot cocoa attempt; Envy flees to the laundry room.
3. Heather receives distraught Envy phonecall.
4. Envy and Scar briefly discuss The Gluttony Thing in the hall.
5. Wrath and Envy catch up; Evil Brother Hug! at Kitchen Island.
6. Heather and Scar fail to communicate on the porch, but it's fine.
7. Hot Cocoa Attempt 2.0 by Henry; Evil Brothers + Henry quiet couch time.
8. Scar + Lust discuss personal growth and parenthood.
9. Heather gets home with
10. The following morning, Scar + Envy discretely get info from Wrath; also Don't Tell Mom About Gluttony.
no subject
He has an automail arm and leg. He's older than I remember. Twelve, maybe. I suspect some time has passed, back home.
[His voice is still low and steady. Scar's gentle delivery of he knows he killed you. He may not be privy to the exact chronological details, but he knows that Lust followed him by only a matter of days. The boy has to know, now.]
no subject
[Again she fears saying any more. The last thing she wants is to go downstairs visibly overwhelmed with emotion. Even with so little said, she can tell the situation downstairs is delicate. But so many questions drift through her mind, questions she knows Scar has no answers to.
That doesn't entirely answer her first question, either. How many years had it been for him? How did time effect something like Wrath? Arguably, it shouldn't change him at all, but he - somewhat like her - had always been different.]
He's well fed? Healthy?
[Lust only wants to be aware of what she's heading downstairs to.]
no subject
He isn't well.
[He's still studying her, eyes probing for any insight that she clearly isn't going to give up without a fight.]
Henry is getting him a warm drink.
no subject
[Her hands unclench and she gently pulls away from Scar to stand.]
He'll need something more nourishing than a warm drink, I'm sure. A bed will need to be made up, I'm certain he hasn't been taking his vitamins since returning....
[And a dozen other little things. It's easier to focus on the practical, to help settle her mind with the logical steps that needed to be taken now. Especially if Wrath is, as Scar says, not well. How not well...
She'll find out shortly.
God but the house is getting terribly full...she finds she doesn't mind that, though.]
no subject
[His vitamins.]
[Scar's tentative grasp for the situation is taking a more intimate shape than he had initially prepared for, and he can sniff out Lust's autopilot better than perhaps anyone. He's still peering down at her as she pushes herself upright. He gives her upper arm a gentle squeeze.]
And you?
[It's an appeal for understanding, and for what she wants of him.]
no subject
[They don't have time right now to delve into her complex feelings about Wrath, and the relationship she'd forged with the young homunculus. After everything is settled and Wrath has been seen to, then they can speak on it.]
And right now I want to see him.
no subject
[She leads, he will follow. No more words are necessary.]