garbagechild | IC Contact

I don't take messages from traitors!

I should hang up on you.

_{[OH BOY! A PRESENT! Wrath loves presents!]

[His eyes grow huge, and he looks around at the flurry of small dark birds in awe.]}

I can have one? For me?

_{[He frequently gets handouts from those who know him (or just those who know it's a good way to temporarily get him out of their hair), but the handouts are not usually Pokemon.]}

_{[Henry leans away, his chin ducking against his neck, giving him several more chins. That is probably the most eloquent thing he's ever heard Wrath say and he isn't sure he likes it.]}

Oh. Ok.

Yeah? Well GO AHEAD! It won't hurt my feelings, not one bit!

_{[He's gonna wait and watch you do it.]}

Yes. You gave me a present and you're kind to your Pokemon.

[ It's not outright said but...he trusts Wrath to look after one of the Murkrow well. If he didn't, Darkness would be extremely unhappy with him giving him one. The Honchkrow would still be keeping an eye on him of course.

As he spoke, the little murder began to whisper to themselves, bobbing their heads curiously. ]

"Trainer?"
"Trainer!"

[ Four fluttered down around Wrath. One immediately started preening itself, to make sure they looked their best for a possible trainer. One was swaying, shaking it's tail feathers from side to side. One hopped closer, taking the direct route and tugging on Wrath's trouser leg for attention. And the last just watched him very intensely.

_{[For a second, Wrath just glares, visibly simmering.]

[Then he takes the bait and hangs up.]}

_{[Oh boy. HERE THEY COME.]

[But despite looking a little awed and apprehensive as the crows come fluttering down around him, Wrath's decision-making process isn't exactly complicated.]

[He immediately reaches down and picks up the one who was forward enough to yank on his pants.]}

I like this one.

"Then it's yours." The chosen Murkrow cawed victoriously.
"YES!! TRAINER!" It flapped it's wings so it could flutter on top of Wrath's head, swaying and flapping it's wings like it was doing a victory dance. Look at it's trainer!! "Trainer trainer traineeeer!"

Darkness laughed - as much as a Honchkrow could laugh - at his child's antics, before cawing to tell it to calm down. It still swayed from side to side however, clearly very happy with the outcome.
"Take good care of it. Darkness is a protective father." Walter warned. He really didn't want to deal with Darkness trying to attack Wrath because he felt his child was being mishandled.

Hey, Wrath, are you there? It's me, Mabel! Listen, I don't know where you are right now but I think we should meet up at some point!

I got something for you...!

Not quite used to holding onto birds (his team largely consists of mammals of various shapes and sizes), Wrath lets go in surprise. The little Murkrow will find Wrath's disastrous shock of hair a very nest-like place to roost.

Wrath looks delighted.

"Oh, I will! I take very good care of my beasts. I share everything I eat, and also the bed."

Darkness nodded his approval. Good! He approves of this and let's Walter know, tugging on his collar a little.

"Then it's sorted." Walter smiled, reaching up and petting Darkness. The Murkrows decided to linger around them however, comfortable with their current company. Several fluttered or hopped closer to Wrath, still curious about this trainer - they had seen him around the house but this was a very new circumstance to see him in. Others decided to try and perch with their father on Walter, who stretched out an arm to give them a place to land.

With the birds and just Wrath, Walter felt incredibly calm and relaxed. He did wonder however, if Wrath knew about...everything. If Envy had raised the alarm, so to speak.
"...Have they told you about me?" He asked quietly, focusing on the birds instead of looking at Wrath.

_{[OH! OH BOY! THOSE ARE HIS FAVORITE WORDS TO HEAR EVER!!]

[Wrath answers very quickly, popping onto the screen and looking very excited.]}

You do? You have something? For me?

_{[WRATH LOVES PRESENTS, pretty much no matter who they're coming from.]}

Still smiling, Wrath tilts his head-- possibly making his new bird readjust for balance.

"Who is 'they'?"

He HAD been warned about Walter-- in vague terms that never quite mentioned any true details about this mystery man who was after Envy's human. Because for all that worrying, Henry hadn't actually told anyone what the killer looked like, aside from occasionally "like France".

Having never met France, this meant nothing to Wrath.

He hadn't paid the adults' concerns any particular mind.

"Henry and his friends." Walter didn't look over. Darkness tightened his talon's grip on Walter's shoulders, watching Envy as Walter avoided seeing his reaction. One of them had to be alert, in case this meeting turned sour.

The bird on him readjusted by just leaning, holding onto his hair with his own little talons. The pair looked like a silly jenga tower.

"... Oh, you mean Envy's human. The tired man."

He says this matter-of-factly, reaching up to clumsily pat the bird on his head.

"No, they don't know about my team-mates. I keep Team Rocket things a secret, because that's the rules. They warned me about a killer who was after Envy's human, who did bad things to other humans. But I'm a monster and I've killed many humans myself. I think if a human killer attacked me, I would probably win. My teeth are very sharp."

The long and short of it?

Wrath received a warning, but has no idea his quiet and usually kind team-mate is the one they were warning about.

... And also Wrath never fully made the connection between 'being physically human right now' meaning 'whatever powers you had back home NOT MATTERING'. Survival instincts? PSH. Those are for humans.

Well. Time to make it clear. Walter slowly sat down, back against a tree trunk and lowered his arm. Some birds stayed settled, some fluttered back up to the lower branches. It seemed some misinformation was spreading about him, if they were warning Wrath that he would attack other humans. He thought he had made his intentions and motives clear. But at the end of the day, Henry was human. He would allow his anger and hate to blind him to the Truth, or even willingly tell others lies about him. It was disappointing coming from the Receiver of Wisdom but entirely unexpected.

"They were talking about me." He put his hands together, looking down at them. "Back where we came from, our world is extremely cruel and stained by human sin and evil. When I was young, I was bound to an angel and Blessed with certain powers of theirs. I hoped for a long, long time, that humans would be better than what I had been taught. But I was wrong. So I began a ritual; the 21 Sacraments; to bring the corrupt world to an end and open the gates of Paradise."

He was explaining very patiently, like a teacher talking to a student. "Twenty-one people must die for the ritual to be complete, to save millions of others and grant them eternity in Heaven. I was the eleventh to die. Henry is to the twenty-first, the last."

But of course! Who else would I be giving it to? It's definitely not for anyone else!

[She said with a giggle]

Just wait until you see it! Trust me, you're going to love it!

Well, Walter, telling people that you're a killer isn't... exactly... misinformation...

Wrath tilted his head again, this time the other way.

The religious screed was mostly lost on him-- Wrath did have some rudimentary knowledge of the universe's design beyond simple science. After all, he was a being that shouldn't exist, an unholy escapee from the closest thing his world had to a Hell.

But the only rituals he's familiar with are alchemy.

He doesn't appear perturbed by what Walter is saying... just not particularly moved by it, either. So Walter is the looming threat that they were all so worried about! It's true that Walter is a rather large human, and probably could kill other humans quite easily, now that Wrath thinks about it. But he can't be frightened of his team-mate. They're team-mates!

In fact, when Walter finishes, Wrath simply replies, good-naturedly, "Oh. Well, Henry can't die. He's Envy's human, and Envy wants him alive. We like Henry. So, we will protect him."

_{[OH BOY OH BOY HE WANTS TO KNOW WHAT IT IS]}

Where are you?

I can come get it!

_{[For the record? This is EXACTLY how Wrath once got kidnapped, and he clearly hasn't learned a thing.]}

"I don't intend to hurt him here. The ritual cannot be completed here. If he would to die here, the ritual would fail and it would all have been for nothing. It's in my interests to keep him alive here." Walter replied, calmly. Wrath's tone is...odd. He looks up at him, still wary, trying to find any clues in his expression or body language.

"And I don't intend to kill anyone else. I know I don't have the powers I had - the angel isn't here to guide my hand and I'm not dead. I can't 'redo' the ritual. So there's no point in killing anyone."

Wrath himself is odd.

He doesn't seem to be upset in the slightest-- his posture and expression are just as casual and relaxed as when he bounced over to receive his mystery gift to begin with.

"It's probably for the best. Lust says killing humans isn't a good thing to do anymore, even if we all did it once or twice in the past."

He speaks about it the same way someone might talk about jaywalking or downloading illegal mp3's.

Walter couldn't help tilting his head, genuinely confused.

"You're not...angry?" So far everyone had reacted with rage. Anyone connected to Henry had threatened him, warned him, avoided him at all costs. But Wrath wasn't. They were just calmly talking. Wrath had even confessed to killing people in the past too. Was that part of what connected everyone who was brought here? Did they all have some blood on their hands? But that didn't make sense, so he discarded the thought in an instant.

I'm in Goldenrod right now! Think you can come on over?

[That and he was one of the only kids around her age in this place. MIGHT AS WELL GO AND HANG OUT WITH HIM!]

Poor Walter. WELCOME TO THE CONUNDRUM THAT IS WRATH.

"Why would I be angry? You're on my team, and you're not going to hurt any of our humans."

He giggles a little bit, spinning idly on one heel with his arms out, seeing if his new Murkrow friend will hop onto one of them.

"I guess if we were in your world, we would have to be enemies. Because you would still be trying to kill Henry, and we would stop you since he's ours now. And if we were in mine, we would probably just use you like we did the scarred man, to complete Master's plan."

Twenty-one people probably wasn't anywhere near enough to make a Philosopher's Stone, but the ritual Walter speaks of sounds enough like something Dante would cook up to fool unsuspecting alchemists into doing her dirty work for her that Wrath figures Walter would be a prime candidate for manipulation, just as Scar had been.

"But we're not, we're here, without our Masters, and we wound up on the same team! So instead of fighting or killing, we can be friends!"

He finishes off that thoughtful musing with a big, guileless smile up at the ex-ghost.

_{[It's true! He's a little younger-- hovering in that sort of nebulous "could be 9???? 10 maybe??? or maybe just the filthiest hobo 11 year old in existence" range-- but still, close enough!]}

I'm in Goldenrod too!

My family has a house there!

There's sharks in the pool.

_{[... okay, Wrath, that was definitely a necessary detail to add.]}

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