IC Contact

[garbagechild]

"... So I just talk? I start talking? .... Now? ... What's the light mean? ... Oh! HI, I'M WRATH, THIS IS MY MAIL VOICE, PLEASE LEAVE A--" BEEP.


[OOC: Want to thread with me but don't have a current post to do it on? Wanna send Wrath a private message? Wanna prank-call him in the middle of the night and then instantly regret it as he dials you back over and over and yells "Hello? HELLO?" into the mic? Pop a thread on here with the IC date and time and let's get playing!]

Comments

[Backdated to the 21st]

[grapeeater]

[It's more or less the middle of the night in the Goldenrod base. It's not exactly a time where most people are awake, unless they're doing guard duty or they're insomniacs.]

[For Micchy, it's the latter, though not by choice. He's managed to find a more secluded corner of the base, far away from prying eyes or ears, and he's curled up with his Vulpix and Ponyta. He'd curl up with his Absol, but she doesn't really like this kind of situation or know what to deal with it.]

[It's easy enough to overlook him, with just the flickering light of his Ponyta's mane to illuminate the group, but he's sniffling - and in this part of the base it echoes more than he'd like. He's also glaring at what appears to be an empty space in the air.]

... Stop it.

[Pause.]

I said go away!

[Another pause.]

Stop haunting me, dammit!

[His sharp tone echoes in the silence, but he doesn't seem to notice. He's too intent on whatever he's looking at.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath doesn't exactly have any organized sleep structure. In fact, calling it a 'structure' at all is overly kind.]

[In any case, running around at night suits him just as easily as running around in the daytime, so he is in fact out and about, scuttling through the hallways to see what abandoned odds and ends he can find. That's when the sound of a sharp voice snapping at something catches his ear.]

[No one ever taught Wrath about curiosity and what it did to cats, so he doesn't hesitate at all before peeking around the corner at the huddled Micchy and his Pokemon, head tilted to the side inquisitively.]

[8(?????]</sub>

[grapeeater]

[He doesn't really notice the small homunculus, but his Pokemon do. Hotaru the Vulpix wiggles out of Micchy's lap and wanders over towards Wrath, flicking her tail towards Micchy. Help him? She can't speak human...]

Stop it stop it stop it stop it...

[Micchy's voice is almost pleading. He just wants him to go away. He knows. He knows what he's done.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath has seen one or two breakdowns in his time. He's also HAD a couple. But he's no closer to understanding them now than he was when he first clawed his way out of the Gate.]

[He also isn't the sort of person to whom it would even occur to pretend not to have seen anything and wander off, though, so by the time Hotaru's coming his way, he's already inched out from behind the corner and started to approach, swaying on his heels.]</sub>

Stop what?

[grapeeater]

[The voice causes his head to jerk to the side, attention pulled away from... well, what he was looking at previously. He tries to ignore the voice that he hears and focus on Wrath instead. Hotaru walks beside him, tails down a bit in fear.]

... It's... it's complicated to explain.

[He's not sure if he can explain it, especially not to someone who's so young. Even if he does show flashes of something very unchildlike, it's hard to think of Wrath as anything but a child.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath IS a child, when you get right down to it-- even taking his true nature into account, his existence has been brief and confusing. Even briefer than a normal boy of his physical maturity.]

[He draws up alongside the fellow Rocket, tipping his head the other way and looking around for what might have been bothering him.]</sub>

Is someone being mean to you?

I don't see anybody.

[grapeeater]

... I know you don't. It's... do you know what a hallucination is?

[Hotaru noses at Wrath's legs. ... He smells funny. But baths are scary.]

[Yuko the Ponyta nuzzles against Micchy a little more, trying to comfort him. She doesn't know what to do...]

[garbagechild]

No.

_{[The answer comes matter-of-factly, as he bends down a little to awkwardly pat Hotaru. He's gotten the hang of petting Pokemon a little more than when he started, but he's still a bit clumsy.]}

What is it?

[grapeeater]

[Pettings! She nuzzles into his hand. Pettings are always good as long as fur isn't being pulled.]

It's when you see or hear something that's not really there. There's a lot of reasons why people have them, but they're not usually... good reasons.

[He strokes Yuko's side a bit, trying to think.]

I keep seeing and hearing my brother. But he's dead. I know he's dead. I... I killed him.

[His voice breaks a bit on the last sentence, and he tilts his head down. It's not something he's exactly proud of.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[In all honesty, Wrath is probably one of the better people to tell things like this to when you're in the middle of an emotional breakdown. Because he doesn't look fazed at all.]

[His only question is an inquisitive chirp of--]</sub>

Why?

Was he bad?

[grapeeater]

It's... it's hard to put it simply. But he was... standing in the way of what I thought was best to protect the people I thought were most important. I thought that his way was... was foolish. Was stupid. That he didn't think things through enough.

I wanted to be the one that people listened to. The one that saved people. I wanted... I wanted to be looked at as important not because of the family I was born in but because of what I did with that power.

[garbagechild]

_{[Whoa. That's a lot of words. Wrath's eyes... kind of glaze over after a moment, but he gets the general idea.]}

... Well, if you think you did the right thing, then what's wrong?

Stupid people get killed all the time.

[grapeeater]

... He wasn't stupid, though. Just in the way.

[He just has to ignore the voice in his ear. 'Are these the kinds of people you associate with now, Mitsuzane? I knew you hung around with street trash.' He glances to the side and huffs, turning his focus back on Wrath.]

He was smart and capable... but he was just wrong. But it's... I killed my own family. That's... wrong, isn't it?

[Is it? He can hear Redyue's voice, a memory rather than a hallucination, telling him about the first 'toys' she broke. ... But he's not her. He's human, not a monster twisted by the Forest.]

[... Isn't he?]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[... Micchy, honey... you are so barking up the wrong tree when it comes to asking the difference between right and wrong.]

[Which might occur to him when Wrath shrugs, almost nonchalantly.]</sub>

I tried to kill the lady who was supposed to be my mommy.

I wasn't wrong.

Even SHE said I wasn't wrong.

So...

[grapeeater]

[Yeah he's. He's realizing that. Hotaru pads over to Micchy, who scoops her up.]

'Supposed to be'?

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath doesn't normally like discussing Izumi. At all. But well, hey, if it makes Micchy stop being so sad!]

[Wrath plops down, pressing his bare feet together, and rocks back and forth a little as he talks.]</sub>

I died before I was born, and she tried to bring me back.

But she didn't like what she got, so she left me in the Gate.

When I escaped, I found her and she brought me back to the place where it happened and put her hands around my neck. She was weak, though, so she gave up.

I was about to kill her when we were interrupted by some idiots and I had to leave.

She's not my mommy. Not my REAL one.

A real mommy doesn't abandon their baby.

If I see her again, I'll kill her for real!

_{[No, he wouldn't. He couldn't. But he doesn't realize that. Not yet.]}

[grapeeater]

[... Okay so. Wrath is some kind of zombie. This 'Gate' is... some other world? He can understand the other world part but he can't really say what counts as 'normal' given his... situation.]

... Wrath...

[He carefully reaches out and puts a hand on the younger boy's shoulder. Maybe... maybe he can't take back what he's done or who he's killed. But... Kouta would want him to help Wrath, wouldn't he? ... Probably. Kouta always saw the good in everyone.]

[garbagechild]

_{[Wrath doesn't shy away from the touch (as long as they're not the hurting kind of touches, he likes touch!) but he does cock his head questioningly again.]}

Yeah?

[grapeeater]

... I'm sorry that happened to you.

[Hotaru turns around and noses at Wrath again. Friend? Friend.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[... That's probably the friendliest, most heartfelt thing that Micchy's said to Wrath since the kid got here. Not that Wrath has interpreted any of the older boy's behavior as particularly not-nice, but it's still, you know, different.]

[He blinks, reaching out clumsily to ruffle the Vulpix's fur with both hands again.]</sub>

Why're you sorry?

It wasn't your fault.

[grapeeater]

No, but... when something bad happens to someone and you wish it didn't, that's something you say. Like, 'I'm sorry, I feel badly that I couldn't be there to help you'.

[He smiles very slightly, and gives Wrath's shoulder a gentle squeeze.]

[He's not even sure which persona he's showing right now and... he can't really bring himself to mind.]

[garbagechild]

... Oh!

_{[He... did not know that. Chalk up one for 'Things Wrath learned today'!]}

Okay.

What do you say, um, when somebody is sorry and feels badly about something?

_{[What Micchy tells him may or may not determine how Wrath handles any and all future interactions in which someone tells him 'Sorry'.]}

[grapeeater]

Well... it... depends how you feel about it.

[He is not ready for the responsibility of dealing with children but here he is.]

[garbagechild]

I feel nice.

'Cuz there wasn't anybody else who wanted to be there and help me.

[grapeeater]

... I'll help you. If you want me to.

[He's not really sure how to handle Wrath, but... he can't help but feel a little bad for him.]

['Those who own power and privilege have a duty they must fulfill. That's what noblesse oblige means. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty in order to do that.' That's what Takatora, the real Takatora, had said. Not this phantom. His brother, the real flesh and blood person who had practically raised him. Even if this wasn't on as big of a scale, even if Wrath was more like the 'street trash' his brother had once discarded as being frivolous and useless... small changes added up, didn't they?]